Title: Even so, I love you
Prompt: Dear Dad
Characters: Lucy Heartfilia
Setting: After Tenrou arc, set after chapter 257 ("A father's 7 years").
Rating: T
Word count: 791
Warning: Spoiler-ish for chapters 256, 257.
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Lucy was physically spent by the time she got home from the mission. It was a successful one in that Natsu was mindful not cause so much damage. They all needed the reward money badly after all.
She began her nightly rituals and cleaned up. In less than an hour there was nothing more to do.
Sleep won't come to her though. In other days, she would stay up and work on her novel, or maybe write to her mom. Lucy wasn't in the mood for the novel either, so she went for her stationery pad and ink pen. She will write to her mom.
It may be exhaustion, or her subconscious, that instead of her usual 'Dear Mom,' her writing took a different direction.
Dear Dad,
She blinked at the words she wrote, tore the sheet off and crumpled it. She took another sheet and began to write again—
—and somehow wrote the same words.
Lucy bit her lip and sighed. As a writer, she's had those moments when she planned to write one thing, and ended up writing something else. Most times she imagined it to be her characters springing to life. This wasn't one of those days, though. Lucy knew she just had to write this one.
It was going to happen and it was cowardice to avoid it. So she continued, and the words flowed smoothly, more from her heart than from her mind.
Dear Dad,
Thank you.
Thank you for taking care of my seven years' worth of rent, for remembering my birthday and sending me gifts and letters every year despite not knowing if I will ever get them. Thank you for believing in all those years without news that I will still return. That we will meet again.
Thank you for loving me, in your own way.
We had a lot of differences and I spent most of my time under your wing thinking that I hate you. Maybe I really did. You were always buried in your work and didn't have time for me. You didn't try to find me when I ran away, not until you needed me for your business agreement. You had my guild—my new friends and family—attacked. You disowned me when I rebelled against your plans.
Even so, I loved you.
So I am glad that we met again after that. That we had that chance, that brief chance to meet again, for I know it changed our perspective on each other.
I cannot imagine what the past seven years must be like for you, other than what you let me know from your letters. I wish I had the chance to meet the person that you've become in my absence. I am forever thankful for the letters you wrote me, because they gave me a glimpse of what I missed, what I will treasure from now on.
Seven years is such a long time. It seems I missed on a lot of things. But in order to move on, I will keep what I gained and learned closer to my heart. That I always have, and always will, love you; and that you loved me back.
And that is what matters.
Always,
Your daughter.
Out of habit she reread the letter after writing it. Releasing the breath she didn't realize she was holding, Lucy held a hand to her cheeks, expecting tears. She found none.
She did not feel heavy-hearted as she expected she would. Instead, she felt the comfort and pride of having finished something she held off for a long time.
Lucy took time to look through the gifts she got just that day, and took the letters and cards from the pile. She had read those earlier, before Natsu and Happy dropped with the job request.
She then returned to her writing desk to fold the letter neatly, put it in an envelope and sealed it in the usual fashion she does for her letters to her mother. Writing 'For Dad' on the envelope took no emotional effort, and oddly assured her that she will be okay. It was a good feeling.
Lucy walked to the cabinet that held her letters to her mother, and closed her eyes as she randomly slipped the letter she wrote, as well as the letters from her father, among the stacks of letters for her mother.
She had written and sealed her letter, and believes that it's delivered. The same goes for her father's letters to her; she got the message and has tucked it to her heart. There won't be a need to find the letters again.
But there is comfort in knowing that it is somewhere there, a feeling that it is somewhere it belonged.
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fin
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Thank you for reading~
This was an anon request, hope this anon may find this here.