Hey, it's Salem, a few things I didn't add in the last chapter: I intend to have Lyon and Lucy be friends and likely date for a while, but they are not end game. This won't happen for at least a few chapters though.

Monday January 8, X785

The past week Lucy had been too upset to be in the guild, so she devoted it to her training. She trained with her spirits in the morning, afternoon, and evening, and every night she'd crash from exhaustion. Her muscles had slowly become less sore, although she was doing far more training and exercise than she was used to. She ran miles with Loke, and she sparred with Loke, Capricorn, and Virgo. Sometimes Bisca joined her in her training sessions too. After the week of training and grieving, she decided that she should go back to the guild. Besides, the award money from the mission she had taken with Bisca had helped her pay this month's rent, but she would need to pay next month's too.

"Hey everyone!" Lucy said as she entered the guild." She got smiles and a few greetings back, but the guild was significantly quieter than usual. She went to Kinana to get a smoothie and some food. "Hey Kinana, can I get a chicken sandwich and a strawberry smoothie please?" Lucy asked the barmaid.

"Of course Lucy! Just give me a few minutes." Lucy nodded and sat at the bar, waiting for her food when Bisca came up.

"Hey Lucy, how are ya?" Bisca asked, sitting next to her.

"I'm okay. How are you?"

"I'm good." They sat in silence for a second before Bisca broke it again. "It's sad that the guild is getting smaller."

"Yeah, why is that?" Lucy responded, looking towards her friend.

"After Team Tenrou was announced dead, people started leaving for other guilds. I think they're worried that because the strongest members of the guild are gone, that jobs will start to be sent elsewhere and we'll start to struggle. Besides, I think that it is easier that way for some to cope with the loss." Bisca said, looking down. Lucy frowned, but nodded. Then she looked at Bisca with a small smile.

"I guess we'll just have to keep the guild running for when they return." Bisca smiled too.

"I guess we will." Kinana then returned with Lucy's order, and later with Bisca's mint milkshake she had ordered when serving Lucy. After finishing her food, Lucy excused herself and went to the mission board. She searched for an easy one she could do alone and return quickly from. Lucy had had 50000 jewels before Team Tenrou left, and with the 30000 jewels from her last mission, she had 10000 jewels left after her rent was due. She had to get enough for this month's rent and groceries, so she wanted to take as many missions as she could in the next few weeks. Finally, she spotted one. 'Help transcribe old texts. Estimated time 2-3 days. Reward 20000 Jewels.' "This is perfect! I can do this really quickly, and then I can come back and take on a bigger mission to get the rest of my rent!" Lucy took it from the board and put in a request to Kinana to allow her to take it. After being approved, Lucy went home and packed. She wanted to leave that night so that she could be back by Friday.

Time Skip, 8 am the next day.

Lucy arrived at the historical center at which she was supposed to help transcribe the old texts. She looked around to find the front desk where she could ask for the client. Veering slightly to her left she walked up to the young woman stationed there filling out paperwork. "Hello there! My name is Lucy and I'm the Fairy Tail Wizard that Dr. Forest requested." Lucy said to the lady. The brunette raised her head from her work to look up at her. Lucy saw her blink from behind her large rimmed blue glasses before seeing realization dawn on her face.

"Of course!" She replied with a smile. "Please go through the door next to my desk and follow the hallway around the corner. Dr. Forest will be in the last room on the left. Lucy thanked the woman and continued on her way. She made it to the door that the lady had mentioned, which said Staff only, and knocked before hearing a 'come in' from the other side of the door. Lucy entered the large room noticing it was stacked ceiling to floor with historical texts and artifacts. Lucy spotted a woman moving texts around about 30 feet away. She was so busy that she hadn't spared her a glance yet. Clearing her throat, Lucy introduced herself.

"Hello, my name is Lucy and I'm the Fairy Tail Wizard that was requested for the transcription job. I assume that you are Dr. Forest?" The older woman stopped what she was doing and raised her head.

"Yes, I am Dr. Forest, and it is a pleasure to meet you." Dr. Forest moved to shake hands with Lucy.

"The pleasure is all mine ma'am." Lucy stated as they shook hands in greeting. "What can you tell me about the transcriptions I'll be working on?" Dr. Forest nodded and led Lucy to one of the desks she had been working around a few minutes ago.

"A week ago we received an enormous addition to our historical text collection. Normally I transcribe everything myself, but the collection is far too large for me to complete alone before the deadline. We're a bit understaffed and the donors want this collection to be included in our new display opening next week. I need everything ready to be displayed three days before opening, and I knew I wouldn't be able to finish it all alone. I basically just need you to help me transcribe everything. I've started, but with your help I think we could be finished tomorrow night or early the next day. I have the newest Gale-Force reading glasses for you to borrow. I thought we could split up the work between us. You would essentially read everything and then use the transliteration guide to transcribe the texts on the journals I give you. Each book gets its own journal, and there are two bins for the journals. One for finished journals and the other for new journals. Each journal will need to be titled with the text it refers to. For example, the original title and then a semicolon and the transcribed title. My assistant and I will put them in the archives at the end of each day, so you don't need to worry about that. Also, we close at 6pm, so feel free to pack up for the day at about a quarter til 6. Also, we will provide a free lunch for you each day you are here at a quarter after 12. I know that was a lot, so feel free to ask me any questions you may have. I'll be working at the desk next to you." Lucy nodded to show that she had heard everything.

"I will make sure to do that! So, I can set up at this desk?" Lucy asked. Dr. Forest nodded.

"Yes. Also, have you checked into a hotel yet?" Dr. Forest replied.

"Yes, I booked a room this morning before arriving here." Lucy replied. Dr. Forest nodded.

"Excellent. Well, in that case, let's get to work." She sat at the desk next to Lucy and put her Gale-Force reading glasses on and continued where she had left off. Lucy did the same and picked up her first text and started transcribing it in the first empty journal she picked up, making sure to write quickly but legibly.

Time Skip 12:15

Lucy stretched and yawned. Her hand had started to cramp early on in the transcribing, but other than that the work was almost soothing. There were no monsters attacking her, no teammates destroying the city, no kidnapping or threats of death, just her, the Dr. and the sound of writing and turning of pages. I should do jobs like this more often. She thought with a smile. Dr. Forest's assistant, Kira, had just dropped off their lunch from where it had arrived at the front desk. Lucy walked over to the clear table that Kira had left it on. Her stomach rumbled at the sweet smell of the food. There was caesar salad, chicken sandwiches and water for both her and the Dr. They both sat down to eat the food and to take a well deserved break. The silence didn't last long though, as it was interrupted by the Dr.

"I'm very pleased with your work ethic." The Dr. stated. "With all due respect, your guild is rumored to be as destructive as it is efficient at helping others." Lucy sweatdropped.

"Yes, many of my guildmates have notoriety for getting carried away in fights." She agreed. The Dr. nodded, before having a slightly sullen face.

"I want to also express my sincerest condolences for the loss of so many guild members. I can't imagine what that must have felt like for you." Lucy froze slightly, the painful memory overwhelming her with grief. She shook it off and put on a small smile.

"Thank you. I lost my teammates, and though it is painful I have faith that they are not truly gone yet." Dr. Forest smiled.

"That's a lovely sentiment." They both went back to eating their food in a comfortable, albeit slightly sad silence.

Time skip to 5:45 pm.

Lucy stretched her back and hands. She was sore from sitting in one place for so long. She went to help Dr. Forest put all the finished transcriptions and their texts back into the archives. Dr. Forest thanked her and told her that she could leave for the day and to be back at 9 the next morning. Lucy thanked her and headed out, waving to Kira as she passed her at the front desk. She summoned Plue to walk with her on the way to her hotel. Fortunately, it was only a 5 minute walk. She got her room key for the room she had reserved and went upstairs. Exhausted, she drew herself a nice warm bath, ordered room service, and relaxed the rest of the night. By 10pm she had already climbed into bed, where she immediately fell asleep due to the mental exhaustion she had worked up.

Time Skip to the Next day at 6:30 AM

Lucy yawned as her eyes blinked open. She could see a faint light from the window where the sunshine peaked in. Getting up she decided to get a little bit of exercise in before breakfast so she worked out in her room until 7 when she started to get ready. By 7:45 she was showered and dressed and she ran downstairs to get some of the complimentary breakfast. She got herself three strawberry pancakes and a warm coffee with cream and sugar. She sat there enjoying breakfast until 8:30 when she went back upstairs and finished getting ready. She put on some pink lipgloss to go with her light pink jeans. Seeing that it was chilly, she grabbed a fluffy white coat to put on top of her white sweater. Adding some earrings, she saw that she was ready and grabbed her work bag and hotel key before heading out. She arrived at the historical center at 8:50 and entered, giving a greeting to Kira on her way to the back. When Lucy entered the room she was transcribing in, she saw the Dr. setting her things up. Putting her own things down by the desk she was assigned, she turned to Dr. Forest. "Good morning!" Lucy stated. Dr. Forest turned to her.

"Good morning Lucy." The Dr. greeted. "Nice work yesterday! You completed half of your work already. I think we can be completely done by tonight!" Lucy smiled.

"Thank you. Is there anything you need help with right now?"

"No, thank you." Dr. Forest said. "Feel free to start transcribing though. I just need to finish a few other things first." Lucy nodded and got to work. She fell right back into that steady working rhythm that she had yesterday, and the time seemed to fly by. Before she knew it, she was already taking a break for lunch. She and the Dr. spent the time talking about historical texts they had found interesting. When they were done, they went back to the comfortable working silence they had, letting the smell of books and sound of writing draw them into a productive trance.

Time skip 5:30 pm.

Lucy stretched. She had just finished transcribing her last text, and when she looked over to the Dr. it appeared that she was almost done with her last one too. A minute later, Dr. Forest got up as well. "Thank you Lucy for all your hard work! There is no way I would have been able to finish all of this in time."

"Anytime Dr. Forest." Lucy replied with a smile. After helping the Dr. put everything in the archive room for her and Kira to archive, before leaving, Dr. Forest gave her the reward money for her job. Placing it in her bag for safekeeping, Lucy thanked the Dr. and Kira and took her leave of the historical center.

Time skip to 8pm

Lucy had just gotten in the hot bath she had drawn. She relaxed into the water. After a while, her forehead began to crinkle. Aside from her reward money, Lucy had 7000 left of her original 10000. Her train ticket was 1500, and the two nights of room service were 1500. That would leave a 1500 ticket for the way back, 3500 for the hotel room and the rest for any groceries that she'd need. Thankfully, she can eat 10 free meals per week at the guild. She really needed to save up money because she was tight on money each month. Now that her teammates weren't able to damage things and cut their allotted reward money, she should be able to build up her savings. Yes. Lucy Thought. I'll just use this time to build up my money so that when they're back I don't have to worry as much about paying my rent. Putting aside her stress and concerns, she relaxed back into the hot water. Now is not the time to worry about everything, now is the time to relax after a long day of work.

Time Skip 9 am the next day

Lucy re-entered her hotel room. She had just finished her complimentary breakfast and went back to pack everything up. By 9:30 she was completely packed and went down to check out. Her train left at 10, and it was fortunately less than 10 minutes away. After arriving she bought her ticket back to Magnolia and went to find her train. Luckily she was just one town over so it was both cheap and a fast trip, because she was looking forward to being home.

Time Skip to 3pm at the Fairy Tail Guild Hall

"Hi Kinana! Can I please have a strawberry milkshake?" Lucy asked

"Of course, Lucy! How was your mission?" Kinana replied, busying herself with making the smoothie.

"It was great! I'm actually thinking I'll leave tomorrow morning to go on another job. I just haven't decided on which one yet." Kinana nodded.

"That sounds like a good idea! Do you want to take a mission together?" Lucy turned around to find Bisca behind her.

"Sure! Do you have one in mind?" Lucy asked her. Bisca lifted up a mission flier and gave it to Lucy. "Defeat the monster guarding the Magical Artifact and return the artifact to the client. 60000 Jewels." Lucy read out loud. "One monster? That doesn't sound too bad. I'm in!"

"Great!" Bisca said. "Let's plan to meet at the train station at 8 am tomorrow. Okay?" Lucy nodded and Bisca left after getting the mission signed by Kinana. After finishing her drink and talking to a few of her guildmates, Lucy left to pack again.

Time skip the next day at noon

"I'm so glad we're finally here!" Lucy exclaimed as she hopped off the train. Bisca nodded with a smile. "Should we drop our stuff off at the hotel and then go to the client's house?" Lucy asked, stopping as she turned around to Bisca.

"Yes, I know a hotel 7 minutes from here. Follow me!" After arriving at the hotel and getting a room with two beds, they headed over to the client's house.

DING DONG! The loud doorbell rang as the two fairies waited outside. It was a beautiful old manor that looked to have been in the same family for generations. An older gentleman answered the door. "Ah, you must be the wizards I hired! Please, come in." Lucy and Bisca nodded and entered the manor. "Let us sit in the study. I'll send my maid for some tea." He showed them to the study and asked them to sit. "Thank you for making the trip here. I trust that it was a decent one?"

"Yes, it was a very scenic trip." Lucy answered. The man nodded.

"Fabulous." The man said. He picked up his tea that his maid had brought in and took a sip. "Well, I'm sure that you are both here to learn more about the job I hired you for." They both nodded. "A year ago a group of thieves robbed me of some of my more valuable possessions. One thing I lost was a circlet. It has been in my mother's side of the family for generations. I use it to make my dream of seeing my mother again feel real. I lost her several years ago, so seeing her face- even if it is an illusion- is very important to me. However, it can also be used to force others to see their worst nightmares. The thieves used it to torture people. A couple months ago they were all arrested, but they hid the circlet in a cave a couple miles out of town. I tried to retrieve it myself, but a terrifying monster is guarding it. Not even local law enforcement could retrieve it, so I was hoping that wizards could. Please, bring my mother's circlet back! It is all I have left of her." Both girls felt sympathy for the man, knowing what it was like to lose their own mothers.

"Of course we will, sir." Bisca responded. Lucy nodded her head as well. "Where can we find this cave so we can retrieve your mother's circlet?" The man stood and walked to his desk behind him, picking up two papers.

"Here. This is a map that shows where the cave is. And this is a picture of my mother wearing the circlet. The magic shouldn't affect you unless you wear it. Thank you for doing this." Bisca took both papers and bowed slightly.

"Don't worry sir! You have Fairy Tail wizards on the job!" With that, he showed both of the fairies out, and they headed back to the hotel to create a plan.

"So, it is almost 1pm now, and the cave looks like it is an hour's walk away. That means depending on how long it takes to defeat the monster and retrieve the circlet, we could easily be done in a matter of hours." Bisca nodded.

"Yes. It looks like there is only one entrance though. We will probably run into the monster there. I think the two of us could handle it though." Lucy agreed, her eyes scanning the map and trying to commit it to memory. "We should probably have a few different scenarios though. For example, if it is nocturnal or otherwise sleeping we should just sneak right by it. If it is not, maybe one of us draws it out of the cave and the other enters the cave and retrieves the circlet."

"That sounds like a good plan! Either way we should probably stake the cave out first." Bisca nodded, and both girls changed into active wear clothing and grabbed snacks and water bottles before heading on their way.

Time Skip a little over an hour later

"There's the cave." Lucy pointed out. Neither of them could see any movement, so they decided that they should get closer so they could see what they were dealing with. Moving to the outside of the entrance, Lucy peaked her head around the corner. At first, all she could see was darkness, but as her eyes adjusted to the cave lighting, she could see the path split into two. So far, she could not make out a monster though. Making eye contact with Bisca who had also been checking out the cave, they mutually decided to proceed cautiously. Tip toeing, they entered the cave. When they got to the fork in the tunnel, each of them pressed against the sides and peered into their respective paths. Seeing nothing, Bisca motioned for them to split up. Lucy nodded. Proceeding quietly, Lucy slowly made her way to her chosen path. At some point, it got too dark to see so she summoned Loke to light her way. After quietly announcing his love for her, he lit up his fists and lit up the path. The two had just finished checking out a dead end in another fork in the road when they heard a noise from behind them.

Bisca's POV

I had just chosen to take a left in a second fork in my path when the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Turning around, I saw a huge monster behind me. It was 8 feet tall and covered with fur. It had huge claws and teeth. Without a second thought, I took out my gun and started shooting at it. Unfortunately, I realized too late that my magic bullets didn't have an effect on it, as the next thing I knew I was thrown into the cave wall. I knew I needed to buy myself time, so I started running down the path. I took a right at the next fork, hearing the monster hot on my path. As I rounded another corner I saw a bright light that stunned me for a second. As I blinked, I realized that it was Lucy and Loke. "Perfect timing y'all! I found the monster and I'm pretty sure it's mad." Sure enough, the monster rounded the corner too. The light seemed to stun it, unsurprising as it's a monster that lives in the dark. Loke went to punch it, but had no effect and was thrown back by the monster's powerful swat. "Lucy! The monster seems immune to magical attacks! We need to knock it out somehow!" Lucy nodded.

"I have an idea! If you and Loke can keep it occupied, I think I can put it to sleep!" Loke and I nodded, and started to circle the monster to keep it busy. We exchanged blows with it and dodged its swatting attacks. From the corner of my eye, I could see Lucy summoning another spirit, but I didn't see who. All of a sudden, I could hear beautiful music playing, and the monster started to calm down. Before I knew it, the monster was sleeping soundly. Lucy thanked her harp shaped spirit and sent her home. Quietly, the three of us moved away from the sleeping monster and further down the tunnel. When we were out of earshot I thanked her for the idea, relieved that we weren't still duking it out with that monster. She smiled and we continued on our way.

30 minutes later (back in 3rd person)

The tunnel opened into a large chamber. There was plenty of loot inside, but the main focus was the circlet in the center of the room. It was posed on a podium. Looking around for any traps and not finding any, Lucy reached for the circlet and took it off the podium. When nothing happened, the group decided to leave the cave and return to town. Before they could, they realized that there was another tunnel with wind blowing in. "Where there is wind, there must be an exit." Bisca stated. Since none of them knew the exact way out of the tunnel, they decided to risk it. The further they walked the stronger the wind got, until they made it to the exit. Although the exit was not on the map, they were able to use the land's geography to help them on their way back. Loke excused himself now that he was no longer needed. After over an hour's walk, the two exhausted fairies returned to the manor where they gave the grateful client the circlet and received the reward money. By the time they made it back to the hotel it was half past 6.

"It's nice to be back." Lucy stated. Bisca agreed. "You can shower first." Lucy told her friend. The gun mage thanked her and entered the bathroom. The rest of the night was pretty uneventful aside from the two mages meditating in order to build up their magic (a practice Lucy had started to do at least once a day). Thankfully, the rest of the trip went according to plan, and by the next night the two fairies were home in Magnolia.

Time skip to Thursday the 1st of February X785 (for reference, they would have returned from the previous mission on January 13th)

Ugh. Lucy thought to herself as she kicked off her shoes and shut and locked her door. The past couple of weeks have been exhausting. Rather than go on large missions requiring fighting, Lucy had done smaller missions to get her rent money. She had done a waitressing job for one week and acted in a play the next week. Factoring in that the money from the historical center had been used to pay for travel and food expenses, she counted out what she had made last month. 30000 from the retrieval mission with Bisca, 30000 for waitressing at 8-Island for five days and 30000 for acting in a play for another 5 days. That means that after paying her rent today she had 20000 leftover- twice what she had from last month. That's a relief honestly. Not to mention that on top of her daily training with her spirits that she had increased the intensity of the past week, that she had also finished doing small odd jobs around town. I need to save up as much money as possible. Not to mention that with half the guild missing or leaving, costs of staying in Fairy Tail and keeping the Tenrou team's housing was going to increase. What a headache. She thought. But it doesn't matter now. Right now she just had to relax and later she could focus on her and the guild's financial problems.

Time Skip to February 13th 9pm

Lucy had been running around with her head cut off all day. The past few weeks she had been taking on a larger role in the guild. When she had stopped by Macao's office one day and saw how overwhelmed he was with the guild's current state, she had offered to help him. While she still took missions, Macao also paid her for her help in assisting him, and unofficially she had been named the guild's new financial officer and event planner- two roles that had once belonged to Mira. That is how she found herself struggling to set up a Valentine's Day event to help the guild earn back some of the money it had lost from the sharp drop in guild members. "Bisca, can you and Alzack put the table cloths on the tables?" Lucy asked her friend.

"Sure thing, Lucy!" The green-haired gun magic mage responded.

"Perfect. Romeo, please put the table toppers on top of the tables when Alzack and Bisca are done." Romeo nodded, always happy to help out Lucy, who had been taking over the role of mentor for him lately. "Jet, can you run to collect all the food I ordered from the local pastry shops?"

"I'll be back in a flash!" He disappeared from sight, leaving a strong wind from his speed. Lucy turned to Droy.

"Droy, please make a beautiful vine of flowers spread around the guild. Laki, I would love it if you could use your wood-make magic to create romantic statues." Both agreed and within the hour (and plenty more instructions given by Lucy) the guild was ready for tomorrow's festivities.

Hey y'all! It's Salem. I'm sorry for the gap between updates. I know it takes me forever, and that this chapter is also relatively boring, but I hope to update more often. The next chapter will be dedicated to Valentine's Day, so it should be a cute little side story! Take care of yourself!