AN: WOW this community is much more active than the ulquihime community! I'm glad this story already got so many views! And some amazing reviews! :) Please leave more reviews and make my day :D
Chapter 2
Lucy woke up the next morning with a pounding headache, something that always happened whenever she cried herself to sleep. Washing her face, she looked in the mirror to find that her eyes were puffy from her continuous sobs. The girl didn't mind, however. It's not like she was a pin-up model anymore anyways. Quickly getting ready for work, the mage gave herself one last look-over in the mirror. She wore a tight, pastel-blue tank top with a short black skirt. Her long hair was tied in a high ponytail, swishing side to side as she walked towards the door, which suddenly pounded loudly as someone knocked.
Throwing open the door, Lucy shouted, "JASON IF YOU BANG ON MY DOOR ONE MORE TIME-"
The girl was shocked to see that it wasn't her eccentric boss. Instead, standing in front of her was none other than another celestial mage: Yukino. The two girls had gotten closer since she had moved to Crocus. The white-haired mage even offered Lucy to join Sabertooth, which Lucy politely declined. She was done with guilds.
"Yukino? What are you doing here?" Lucy asked as she hugged the girl.
"Hello, Lucy. I came to inform you that Natsu and Happy were here in Crocus yesterday," Yukino answered with an eager smile on her face.
Lucy awkwardly chuckled as she rubbed the back of her head. "Oh, yeah. I've heard. Thanks for trying to let me know, Yukino!"
"You aren't going to meet with them?"
"Nope!" Lucy answered with a bright smile on her face. She walked out of her apartment, locking the door behind her, and urged her friend to walk with her. "I am content with life here in Crocus. I love my job and my apartment! Everything is just fine the way it is!"
"But aren't you lonely?"
"Not at all!" Lucy lied. "I have my celestial spirits to keep me company!"
"About that…" Yukino started, unaware of how to proceed with the touchy subject she was about to bring up. "How are you, Lucy? I know about what happened with Aquarius and I know she was very dear to you-"
"I'm fine, Yukino," Lucy interrupted. The two girls finally neared Lucy's workplace. "Thanks for walking with me and keeping me company!" The golden-haired mage was about to enter the building when a firm hand grabbed her wrist.
"Can you come by the guild later tonight?" Yukino asked, not releasing her hold on Lucy until she answered.
"I don't know…" the girl replied. She had made it her rule not to get too close to people since Natsu and Happy had abandoned her.
"Come by later and I will never bug you about Natsu-san again."
Lucy sighed and reluctantly nodded her head. With that, she met up with Jason and went to work on a new article they had been writing about some new mage in one of the lesser important guilds.
"I guess I'm going to Sabertooth after work," she thought, mentally preparing herself for what she assumed to be a lecture.
"Oi, fly faster, Happy!" Natsu demanded as they neared their destination.
The only bit of information the two were able to get from Lucy's old landlord about the other members of Fairy Tail was in regards to Wendy. Apparently she was invited by that one pink-haired mage, whose name Natsu couldn't remember, to join Lamia Scale.
"I can't believe Wendy joined another guild!" Happy said as they landed outside of the building. "I wonder if Lucy joined another guild too!"
"Lucy would never do that! She loves Fairy Tail too much!" With that, the two were barging into the familiar guild. "OI, WENDY, WHERE ARE YOU?"
"N-Natsu-san? Happy?"
Natsu turned to face the small, blue-haired child. Her hair was tied into pigtails- her signature hairstyle.
"Wow, Wendy! You've grown quite a bit!" Natsu exclaimed as he patted the girl's head excitedly.
"Not really," the child murmured, though there was a small smile glued to her face. "Your hair has gotten really long, Natsu-san! Wait, what are you guys doing here?"
"We are here to get you!" Happy exclaimed as he plopped onto Wendy's head. "We're going to bring Fairy Tail back together!"
"Bring Fairty Tail back together? Do you know where everyone is?"
"Nope!" Natsu answered. "But we know how to destroy enough stuff to get people to notice! You comin', Wendy?"
The small child looked around nervously as she twirled one of her pigtails with her finger. "I don't know… These guys were so nice to take care of me and Charle, I would feel bad to just leave them…"
"Hush, child," a familiar voice said as a small white cat approached them. "They were aware this would happen eventually. Let's just get out of here already, Lyon keeps freezing my tail."
"Charle!" Happy cried out as he flew towards the other exceed. The only response he received from the female exceed was a wag of her tail.
With that, Wendy was saying her goodbyes and the group were on their way. None of them knew where they were going but were excited at the thought of seeing all of their friends again. It had been so long, their stomachs were bubbling with anticipation.
"What are we going to do first?" Wendy asked as she carried Charle in her arms.
"Hmm…" Natsu started as he rubbed his chin while he thought. "I got it! Let's visit other guilds and see if anyone else joined another guild!"
"Which should we start with?" Happy asked.
"Sabertooth is the closest," Charle informed everyone. "I have an idea of my own, actually. We should have the other guilds shoot off fireworks in the shape of Fairy Tail's logo to let everyone know that we are getting back together."
"Charle, you are as smart as you are beautiful! Want a fish?"
"No I don't want a fish! Hurry up!"
With that, the four were on their way to Sabertooth, Natsu complaining the entire way that they had just come from there.
Lucy's back ached as she began to walk towards Sabertooth, making her wish she could do more work from home. At least her head stopped hurting a while ago after she took some medicine. There was no medicine, however, to help her hurting heart. The mage had a good idea of what was going to happen when she got to Sabertooth. They were probably going to give her an intervention and lecture her to see her friends.
"Either way, they aren't going to be able to convince me," Lucy thought as she finally reached the guild.
"Lucy! You're here!" Yukino cried out once she saw the blonde mage enter. "Come here!"
Lucy did as she was told and walked towards the group of people waiting for her, a nervous smile plastered on her face. She should've known Sting and Rogue, along with their respective exceeds, were going to be there to nag at her too.
"Hey, guys," the girl said as she took a seat by Yukino. "Why exactly am I here again?"
"Because Natsu-san was here, duh!" Sting answered, an annoyed look on his face. "Why didn't you go to see him!? You guys are partners!"
"Were partners. Fairy Tail is gone. There's no reason for me to talk to them," Lucy coldly replied. Maybe she was being a bit too harsh. "Look, no hard feelings towards them or anything, I promise. It's just that they went their way and I went mine. We are all living our own lives now."
"But Lucy, I know that you miss them," Yukino stated. "And you know Natsu-san wouldn't just sit by quietly after finding out Fairy Tail was disbanded. He's going to get the guild back together, and you should be there with him when he does."
"Why should I?" Lucy asked, keeping her gaze, which was starting to blur, locked onto the floor. "He wasn't there with me after Aquarius… left." The girl still couldn't bring herself to come to terms with what happened to her dearest celestial spirit. "Instead he just left me. He could've brought me with him, you know? I would've went with them in a heartbeat. I just need time…"
"Our dragons died, Lucy," Rogue bluntly added, finally joining the conversation. "He needed some time as well."
"He still could have said goodbye! There are no excuses for that! I lost someone too, you know!"
Rogue put his hands up in surrender. Yukino stared at the other celestial mage with sympathy.
"What if he finds you?" Sting asked curiously.
"He won't. He's not smart enough to check here and he has no way of finding where I live. Can you guys please promise that if he does come here you won't tell him I live in Crocus? Please? I'm not ready…"
Sting was about to argue but was interrupted by Yukino, who had quickly covered his mouth with her hand.
"We promise," the white-haired girl declared. "Take your time, Lucy."
"You may not have as much time as you think," Rogue stated, surprising the two girls. "I can smell him. He's on his way here and he's not too far. Another person is with him as well. The short child from the Grand Magic Games."
"Wendy!?" Lucy exclaimed. She had missed the small mage so much. "W-Wait, I can't let them see me! Help me out, you guys!"
"You don't have time to leave without being caught," Sting plainly announced, not caring either way.
"Here, Lucy! Come with me!" Yukino said as she dragged her friend into a small room in the guild hall. "Sorry about this!" She then poured a bunch of different drinks on Lucy, finishing it off by pouring oil on her. Why the hell was there oil in there?
"H-Hey, Yukino!" Lucy cried out, shivering from the liquid contents covering her. "What was that for!?"
"It's so that they don't smell you. Forgive me! I'll tell you when you can come out!"
With that, the other celestial mage was gone, leaving Lucy in what she assumed was a storage closet, drenched in alcohol and oil. She would definitely have to shower when she got home.
Natsu and the others finally landed outside of the Sabertooth guild and gave Happy and Charle a few minutes to rest. It was a long flight after all. It had been over a year since any of them had seen the members of Sabertooth. They just hoped some of their friends were there as well so they can bring them back to Fairy Tail. Natsu had his hopes set on a certain golden-haired celestial mage.
"OI, STING! LET'S FIGHT!" Natsu yelled at the top of his lungs as he entered the building. Instead of being thrown into a fight, however, he found himself being tackled into a hug by the other drangonslayer.
"Natsu-san, it's been so long!" Sting exclaimed, weeping happy tears.
"Yeah, yeah. We're just here to see if any of our Fairy Tail mages are here!"
Sweat rolled down Sting's face as he gave an awkward chuckle. He never was a good liar. "S-Sorry, Natsu-san! N-Nobody's here, nope! Nobody! Not even a celest-"
Rogue came and punched Sting in the gut to get him to shut up. "Idiot," he muttered under his breath.
Wendy glanced around the room for familiar faces until her eyes locked onto a door on the opposite wall from them. A mix of strange smells were in that room and she could sense someone was in there. Someone was hiding, to be exact. She had better senses than the other dragonslayers because she could sense things in the air after all. Who could be hiding from them? The tiny girl bravely walked towards the door- Natsu too focused on his conversation with Sting to notice- and was about to open it before she was stopped by a gentle hold on her wrist. She turned her face to see Yukino, the kind celestial mage that helped Fairy Tail countless of times.
"H-Hello, Wendy," the white-haired mage greeted. "Where are you going?"
"I-I was going to see if someone was in that room," Wendy answered, embarrassed to be caught snooping around in someone else's guild. "I can feel someone hiding in there."
"What? You must be sick or something! That is just a storage closet, nobody ever goes in there! Why don't we go on back to Natsu-san?"
Wendy eyed the girl suspiciously. She was just as bad at lying as Sting was. Taking a deep breath and eating it, her eyes widened at the taste and she could barely make out who was in the closet- though she wanted to gag at the faint taste in the air of oil and alcohol.
"Lucy-"
Yukino pressed her hand against Wendy's mouth, just as she did earlier with Sting. Looking down at the tiny mage, she shook her head and wore a sad look on her face.
"I'm sorry, Wendy," she whispered, keeping her hand on the other girl's mouth, "Lucy isn't ready to see everyone yet. Please be understanding and give her some time. Don't tell anyone about this, OK?"
Wendy slowly nodded as she sadly walked away from the closet and back towards Natsu. A rush of guilt ran through her body whenever she looked at him, knowing that he wanted to find Lucy more than anyone. But she wasn't about to betray Lucy. If she wasn't ready, she would give her time. Thus, she pushed back the gnawing guilt she felt.
"I don't think anyone is here, Natsu-san," Wendy announced, taking Charle into her hands. "Why don't we go to Blue Pegasus and check there?"
Natsu ran his hand through his pink locks and sighed. "I was really hoping to find someone here. Oh well, maybe we'll have better luck with Blue Pegasus. Oh, Sting, make sure to shoot off the fireworks when I give the signal tomorrow night! See you later, guys!"
With that, the four quickly left towards their next destination, ignoring the fact that it was getting dark.
"Lucy, you can come out now," Yukino said as she opened the door. "It seems Wendy knows you are here but she's willing to keep your secret."
"I'm glad," Lucy replied. "I need to go take a shower now, so I'm going to go now! Bye!"
Lucy then ran out of the Sabertooth guild hall and onto the streets of Crocus, ignoring the strange looks she received from everyone else. Oil, alcohol, and now tears were mixing together on her skin and she wanted nothing more than to bathe it all away. Hearing Natsu's voice caused her heart to beat faster than it probably should have and sent a rush of crippling emotions throughout her body. He really was planning on bringing the guild back together. Too bad she refused to go back.
AN: Sorry, but there'll be a few more chapters until Lucy and Natsu see each other! Please review anyways :D
Craycraynalufan: Love the name haha! And thank you very much!
Switchlolly007: Thank you so much! And yesss! I hate how Lucy just forgives Natsu so easily when he just left without saying goodbye! And I didn't wanna write anything making Lisanna the bad guy like a lot of other nalu fics (no shade meant by that!)
Dark Shining Light: Thank you for the kind words! Definitely inspires me to write more!
: I definitely will keep going thank you for the review!