Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail…


Celestial Ties

Chapter 11: Back to the Spirit World


"Lucy!Wake up!" A loud voice woke Lucy up from her dreams. She opened up her eyes in annoyance to find Natsu excitedly standing by her bed.

"We got another job to do!" He smiled as he waved the job sheet in front of her face.

"Jewel Thief," she read aloud with interest.

"I thought you'd like the reward," Natsu confessed, causing Lucy to look down to that part with curiosity.

"Free jewelry?" She shrieked with stars in her eyes, "Let's go!"

Lucy grabbed Natsu's hand and ran off towards where their job was.


After accepting the job from a rather happy looking fat man, who wore so much jewelry that Lucy wondered how he could even move, they decided that they would wait for night and stake out at the place, since the thief probably wouldn't come until night.

In the meantime, they decided to get a bite to eat.

"Where's Loki?" Natsu asked, absent mindedly, while taking another bite of his cheeseburger.

"I don't know," Lucy frowned, not wanting to talk about how she'd woken up to find Loki gone, "It's not like I'm his keeper. He's probably in the spirit world on a date or something."

'That two-timing idiot,' she thought with anger, 'I bet he is in the spirit world on a date. What a jerk!'

Natsu shrugged, unaware of Lucy's mental battle, and they went back to their previous topic of how they would catch the thief.


"Where is he?" Lucy put her hands over her face in frustration.

Natsu had dropped her back at her room an hour ago and gone off somewhere claiming he had something else to do before they had their stake out that night.

Lucy had been waiting patiently for Loki to jump out and explain why he had left her, but he hadn't and now she was getting angry.

"He probably is on a date!" She convinced herself and decided to pull him out of it and give him an ear full.

"Leo, Spirit of the Lion," she called as she turned the golden key like she was unlocking a door, "Hear my call and come out!"

The bright light started to form into a body and Lucy got ready to give him an earful, but then something weird happened, instead of Loki, a note appeared instead.

Lucy frowned as she read the note aloud.

"Sorry for the inconvenience, but the key of spirit Leo the lion is temporarily out of service," Lucy's brows shot together in confusion, "A new Leo will be chosen in two days time. Please recall Leo at that time and renew your contract."

The bottom had been signed by the spirit king and Lucy crumbled up the note in rage.

'What did he do to Loki?' Her anger at Loki from before was now turned toward her father. She decided that she would need to get some answers and the only spirit she felt she could trust was none other than the gentle Ram spirit Aries.

"Aries, Spirit of the Ram. Hear my call and come."

The bright light came back and this time it formed a body and then turned into Aries.

"Oh no," she frowned as she backed up from Lucy, "Why did you have to call me?"

"Aries? What's wrong?" Lucy was confused why Aries was so afraid of being called, did she have bad news?

"Where's Loki?" Lucy asked, getting right to the point, in case the Ram decided to do a forced closure.

"The spirit king locked him up," Aries whimpered as she pulled her dress down more, always self conscience of the clothing she had to wear.

Lucy was surprised, "Why did he lock Loki up?"

"I don't know," Aries confessed in embarrassment, "But, we spirits were also given the order to bring you back to the spirit world if you called on us."

"I guess I have no choice," Lucy thought out loud as Aries looked at her in confusion.

"Yes you do," Aries fought, "I'll just say that you did a forced closure before I could grab hold of you!"

"No," Lucy smiled sadly, "I won't let you get in trouble for my sake. Just wait a second."

Lucy went over to her desk and scribbled down a note for Natsu, explaining that she had gone to the spirit world and wouldn't be coming back.

She left the note on her desk, hoping Natsu would notice it.

"Alright, let's go," Lucy grabbed a hold of Aries. Aries obeyed her master's wishes and jumped back through the gate.


"Aries, your house is so cute!" Lucy, momentarily forgetting her reason for returning to the spirit world, shrieked as she stared at all the cute fluffy furnishings with starry eyes.

Aries nodded shyly and then led Lucy to the door.

"We're supposed to take you to the king ourselves," she explained, obviously not wanting to.

"That's ok Aries," Lucy knew the ram spirit didn't want to be the one responsible for turning in their master, "I can get there by myself."

"Good luck," Aries blushed as Lucy smiled and then disappeared.

Lucy reappeared at the doors to her father's study.

She barged right in, no need for announcing herself or knocking politely.

"Lucy?" the king's eyes lit up with joy and ran around his desk to envelope her in a hug.

Lucy was so surprised that her fighting spirit was momentarily tamed, but then she remembered what she had come to say.

"I'm back," she started as she forced her way out of his arms, "to fulfill the promise I made to you. I will take over the throne as your heir, but there is one condition now."

"Anything you want," the king pleaded as he sat down at his desk again.

"I want you to release Loki," she declared with triumph, it had turned out to be easier than she thought to get what she wanted.

"Anything but that," the king corrected, causing Lucy to get madder than she was before.

"Fine, then I'll be going back to the human world now."

"No!" the king cut her off.

"Why not?" she demanded, "Why can't you just let Loki go? I promised to stay here if you did didn't I?"

"It's because I can't trust him," the king confessed sadly, "He came in here demanding that I let you stay in the human world."

"Loki did that for me?" she said with a smile.

"Yes," the king frowned, "He even knew what would happen if you did."

"I'd die if I stayed there too long," Lucy recited automatically, "I know, I know."

"That's not all," the king continued with a curious look from Lucy, "If you go to the human world of your own free will and plan on staying there for a couple years, it's considered a sin to the spirit world. Due to forces that I do not command, you would be locked out and unable to come back before you died."

"How do you know this?" Lucy demanded, "Have you seen it before?"

"yes," the king's eyes saddened, "I know because it's what happened to your mother."

Lucy let her shock sink in before continuing their debate, which had already been won.

"Fine," she said with contempt, "I will continue to live here. I will leave my life on earth and inherit your throne here. It's a promise."

"I will let Loki go then," the king smiled, this time with more joy, "After all, I wouldn't want to ruin my chance at having grand children!"

Lucy's face flared with embarrassment as she held the hand with her engagement ring on it.

"Are you going to give him his place back as being Leo the lion spirit?" Lucy asked, remembering what that note had said.

"No," the king explained, "If he's going to marry you, he's going to need to take the same training as you to learn how to be a good ruler. He'll need more time for that, so Leon will take his place as Leo the Lion."

"Well his name does sound more appropriate than Loki's," Lucy smiled, just happy that Loki would be released.

"We'll let Loki go and take him to his new room," the king explained, "Now go back to your room and get some sleep."

Lucy waved good bye and walked out of the study and to her room.

She went into the bathroom to do her nightly routine and then, after changing into a night gown from her wardrobe, got into the big comfy bed.

'I guess I'll never see Natsu, Happy, Gray, Ezra, or any of my friends again,' she thought sadly, as tears started rolling down her cheeks.

Lucy cried herself to sleep that night, thinking all the while about the things on earth that she would miss.


AN: Sorry this chapter was a bit boring, as well as short :O But don't worry because there's going to be another update tomorrow.

Coming up: Will Lucy really spend the rest of her life burdened by the weight of royalty? What will Natsu do about the note she left behind? Will Loki really allow Lucy to stay away from the people she cares about?

Tune in next time for chapter 12. Don't forget to review, but don't be too mean because I kind of lost my writing touch. A 4 day weekend kind of drained me of my creativity, but don't worry it'll come back by tomorrow. ;)