Hey guys! I'm so so very happy that we're still going! Without more delay, let's dive in.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything…

Hey There… Ch. 6

The journey back to the guild was fairly silent; Natsu lost in thought and Lucy totaling her losses. Happy tried a time or two to make light of the situation, but Natsu just shook his head at his furry friend and they continued on in contemplative silence. As they reached the front doors of the guild hall, Happy set Lucy down on the sidewalk and Natsu jumped down from the adjacent rooftop to give another comforting shoulder squeeze to Lucy.

"Well at least you had already packed for a few weeks right?" Natsu said and then pushed the doors open. There were considerably less people in the guild hall now than there were just a few hours ago. Lucy thought that seeing the guild hall like this was mildly depressing, even if she didn't know why. Natsu steered Lucy towards Mira at the bar and plopped her down on a stool before sitting next to her.

"Mira? Lucy needs a room. I think she's about done with the night…"

"Ok," Mira said as she picked up on Lucy's downtrodden mood. "I'll take her to one of our spare rooms. Lucy, if you will follow me…?" Lucy nodded and watched as the white haired beauty went into the back room behind the bar and returned with a small set of keys and let herself out from behind the bar. Lucy stood and quietly followed Mira up some flights of stairs, leaving Natsu and Happy behind in the hall.

"I didn't think she'd take losing her home that hard…" Happy mumbled and watched the two women ascend the stairway.

"Do you mind if I asked what happened?" Mira quietly asked.

"Not at all!" Lucy replied with a weak smile. "While I was finishing my packing, some more Phantom members attacked us in my apartment. Natsu was holding them off just fine, but one of the guys had a flamethrower… when we left, the entire building was almost consumed by flames. There was nothing we could do…" Lucy trailed off. Mira nodded and sighed sympathetically.

"After you had just settled down too. I'm really sorry that it turned out like that. I was planning on coming to visit next week too, seeing as you told me that you were finally finished with decorating it how you wanted." The pair of women had walked up the last flight of stairs and turned to the right.

"This is this floor's lounge," Mira said and gestured around to the spacious room. "Members of the guild tend to hang out on the floor's lounges. The floors are separated by gender, so only girls' apartments are on this floor. The floors also alternate genders; whereas this floor is all females, the one below it is all males and so on and so forth. This pattern trends for about six floors, and then below that are the couples and families apartments. Those are larger and vary in the number of bedrooms. These continue down about four floors and then you get to the three floors of hotel rooms that we place clients or any visitors that aren't staying with us for very long. Below that is the second floor, which serves as a VIP floor of sorts and has the guild master's office and personal quarters on it. The ground floor is the main guild hall, as you already know, and finally there are three underground floors for storage and shelters, should the need arise. After I show you your room, I'll answer any questions you may have and let you go to sleep. How does that sound?"

Lucy nodded as she tried to process all of the information; this building was 18 stories tall if you included the basement floors! Mira then stopped in front of a door, unlocked it, and then stepped inside with Lucy behind her. The small apartment was unfurnished and had only one bedroom and one bathroom. The living room and kitchen had wooden floors and were smaller than the one on Strawberry Street, but not to where it was uncomfortably so.

Lucy walked into the bedroom and sighed when she saw that this carpeted room was unfurnished as well, meaning she had to sleep on the floor. The bathroom lifted her spirits a little though; it was larger and nicer than her old en suite. As she finished surveying the apartment, she turned around to Mira who had an apologetic look on her face.

"Sorry we couldn't do more for you Lucy. I'm sure that the master will give you an allowance for furniture, seeing as it was our guild's fault that your apartment burned. Tomorrow, we'll get you set up nice and proper! I hope you sleep well." At this comment, Lucy gave Mira a true smile.

"Thank you so much Mira. Have a good night." Mira then said good night and as she turned to walk out of the apartment, a tuft of sky blue hair appeared in the doorway.

"Um, I heard that Lucy's place burned down and she's going to have to stay with us for a little while. Oh! Lucy! Do you want to stay in my apartment tonight? I've got a couch that you could crash on," Levy offered. Lucy tiredly and happily accepted her offer, and followed the petite bluenette across the hall to her room while bidding Mirajane a final good night.

"Thank you so much!" Lucy sighed happily as she set Plue down and plopped down on the couch. Levy's apartment was filled to the brim with books and whatever books didn't get crammed onto the overstuffed shelves lining the walls were stacked in semi neat piles all around the room.

"I haven't cleaned up very much. Sorry about the mess!" Levy apologized sheepishly as she looked around her living room in mild discomfort.

"Don't worry about it!" Lucy laughed and immediately Levy broke into a smile. "I'm just glad I don't have to sleep on the floor!"

"You can take a shower too if you want," Levy said and Lucy nearly cried tears of joy at the thought of a nice, hot shower.

"Thank you so much!" Lucy quickly chirped, dug around for a change of clothes in her magically enhanced bag, and ran to the bathroom for a quick shower. As she was about to strip, the blonde realized that she still hadn't fed her dog and rushed out to feed him. The wobbly ball of fluff happily nibbled on her peace offering and Lucy raced back into the bathroom to take a much needed shower. When she finished getting ready for bed, Lucy returned to the living room to find Levy playing quietly with her dog.

"Your dog is so sweet!" Levy exclaimed softly as she scratched behind one small ear.

"Thank you! I found him abandoned in an alleyway on my way home from work about two weeks ago and he's been around ever since. He hardly ever barks, is toilet trained and even knows some basic commands. I haven't the slightest clue why his previous owner ditched him, but he's a real sweetheart and I love him."

"Sorry to change subjects on you so quickly, but I heard that you know Mira. How?"

"Well, I work for the 'Weekly' magazine as an editor and I got my first break on interviewing Mira on a modeling job," Lucy smiled in fond memory. "We started talking more after the article was published and started hanging out periodically after that. She was my first friend made when I moved to this city."

Levy giggled and propped her head on her hand. "That's so funny! Mira works for 'Sorcerer Weekly,' but would get called in to the more widely known 'Weekly' magazine because she was so popular! Now that I think about it, I believe she said something about being interviewed by a cute girl that she wouldn't have minded having a photoshoot with."

"Oh my Mavis! She told me that she wanted to do a photoshoot with me after our first interview!" Lucy exclaimed and the two women giggled together.

They continued chatting about various other topics until four in the morning. Stretching and yawning, Lucy checked her phone and yelped in surprise when she saw the time on her screen.

"Levy, it's four in the morning! I'm not going to be able to wake up before noon at this rate…"

"It's ok! Fairy Tail really does take everything at their own pace so it won't be too unusual if you show up in the guild hall at noon or even later. Don't worry about it! We were getting to know each other and that's something that I'm definitely sorry for!" Levy chimed in and made Lucy smile.

"I'm glad to hear it! Oh! I forgot to ask; who told you that I needed a place to stay for the night?"

"Natsu. As he was going up to his apartment, he saw me as I was going down for a midnight snack and he told me that you were probably wanting some company tonight." At this, Lucy flushed slightly. She hadn't had someone worry about her for a long time now. Levy saw the pink creeping up Lucy's cheeks and fixed the blond with a knowing smirk.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you had a crush on Natsu!"

"Me? No way!" Lucy protested almost a little too quickly. "It's just that no one has cared enough about me to send someone to check up on me for a long time now." At that comment, Levy's expression changed from an amused smirk to a miffed frown.

"Believe it or not Lucy, you're not alone any more. You might not be a mage, but Fairy Tail takes care of their own. I don't know where you came from before you landed here in Magnolia, but know that you have found people that care about you whether you like it or not!" Levy said fiercely.

The small bluenette's outburst took Lucy aback in shock. The blonde stared at the woman across from her for a few seconds before she felt moisture glide down her cheek.

"Oh honey come here," Levy murmured as her facial expression melted into one of heartfelt concern and embraced the now crying blonde. Levy held Lucy for a few minutes while letting the overwhelmed woman quietly sob into her chest.

"T-thank y-you so much L-Levy," Lucy gasped as she took in a shaky breath. "I needed that. It's been a while since I've had a good cry."

"It's not a crime to show your feelings Lucy," Levy said as she smoothed some of Lucy's hair down. "Please feel free to come to me if you want to cry or let off some steam. Even though we just met yesterday, I feel like we'll be really good friends."

"Mmm!" Lucy agreed as she gave her friend a watery smile. Returning Lucy's smile, Levy stretched and got up off the couch.

"I think it's time I went to bed. 'Night Lucy! Pleasant dreams and I'll see you in a few hours."

The blonde returned sentiments and watched the petite bluenette retreat to her room and shut the door softly. Snuggling into the couch, Lucy pulled up a blanket Levy had brought her up to her chin. She smiled into the couch cushions and as sleep took her to the land of dreams, she decided that she had stumbled upon a really neat group of people.

Yay for LeLu BrOTP! And yay for a concerned Natsu! I wanted him to show his compassionate side (Mavis knows he has one from how many times he's made someone or the entire guild cry over one of his heartfelt speeches) to give some more depth to his character. Yay character development!

I want to give a personal shout out to Alyss Hatter, NaLu and InuKag, AnonymousStalkerFriend and Life Death rabidlovingfangirl for your awesome reviews! Thank you so SO much for your time and to MarSofTheGalaxies for the PM too!

Thank you so much for reading yet another chappie! Farewell until the next time! :D