No celebration Lucy had ever been at could compare to this one. In enthusiasm or peculiarity. Mira had taken up her old position behind the bar with Kinana assisting her. The cook was cranking out as much food as he could put together, and the party, while informal and messy, was thriving.

Frankly, Kinana's human appearance was the first surprise that Lucy had gotten. Though it probably shouldn't have been. The winged snake had dived out of the sky onto their ships deck, effortlessly transforming into her human form and landing lightly. Her lips parted in a bright grin, fangs peeking out as she laughed. But the surprise had only kept coming from there. And yet, it couldn't have been anyone but her. Without even waiting for an introduction, people were hailing Kinana. Complimenting her on her reclaimed human form.

The Snake woman hadn't stayed long. Only just long enough to greet everyone, and do a headcount.

"She told us years ago you would be back. And we believed her. But it is still wonderful to see you all in the flesh."

She had flown back to shore to announce their arrival and start party preparations.

When they docked, the world seemed slightly off kilter.

People had grown, and grown up in some cases. Romeo was now almost a teenager. Macao and Wakaba had considerable amounts of grey in their hair. Bisca and Alzack were married with a young daughter!

Lucy had met Asuka on the ship and had fallen in love as surely as they all had. The girl had been perched eagerly on her father's lap, looking up at Erza with shining eyes of pure admiration.

But Asuka's presence as the 'baby' didn't make the fact that their other young members had grown up in their absence any easier. Especially when the little girl greeted them all by name, recognizing their faces and antics from the stories that 'Aunty Fae' had told her about their family.

Wendy was no longer a child. Not that this seemed to stop Carla from fussing and mothering and being glued firmly to her side. Her old pigtails were gone, her dark blue hair was cut to shoulder length and pulled back with a few woven threads of brown, red and yellow. She had arrived via the upper story, leaping through the air as though gravity was a mere suggestion, the hem of a white coat fluttering gently as she fell. She had landed on Erza, the closest convenient target, with a triumphant crow of laughter and was quickly dogpiled in exuberant greeting by Natsu, Happy and Carla. Fae and Kagura were not shy about adding themselves to that tangle either. She was a fully fledged doctor now. The youngest doctor in Fiore in almost three centuries. She was wholly and entirely at ease in the air now. Older, more confident, her brown eyes were now clear and focused. Firmly settled into her place here with Fairy Tail.

And Fae.

That reality of the passage of time had hit Lucy like a punch to the gut when Fae had to bend slightly to hug her once the airborne tangle around her had loosened enough to let her through. In the last seven years, she had gone from a frankly tiny child, to standing several inches taller than she was. Her face had smoothed out into that of a woman's with only a trace of baby fat remaining. From a little girl to a young woman, currently ethereal with happiness. She could only imagine how it was for those who had first taken Fae into the guild as a child almost ten years ago. Freed still didn't look entirely convinced that this was reality.

The only person who took this whole thing seemingly in stride was Natsu. He had come back arm in arm with the Rune Mage, grinning fiercely and radiating contentment. Even now, he was retelling their battle against Cain of Grimoire Heart standing on a table and entertaining everyone with his unique contortions and mimicry of their voices.

Fae's face was glowing with joy, her orange wings, larger and more ornate than she remembered, were still present. Either she had forgotten they were active, or they were refusing to go away. Lucy had honestly lost track of everyone that had come in to say hello to Fae. A nudge at her side drew Lucy's eyes away.

"Loke." The Golden Zodiac spirit was in his human form, rather than the formally attired true form that he used when she summoned him. Though he had allowed his hair to become a little longer and more mane like and no longer wore his tinted glasses. Then she felt a surge of guilt.

"Oh my- I completely-"

Loke would have been one of the first people who would be most invested in seeing their friends after their return. This place had been his life for years before Lucy was old enough to strike out on her own.

"I'm sorry, Loke. I should have called you sooner-" She was reaching for her key ring to take over, holding his gate open to allow him to be here.

He waved her off with a smile.

"It's ok Lucy. I got plenty of power for this."

He didn't look ok though. In fact, the only time Lucy had seen her friend look worse was when he was literally on the verge of dying. Her hand drifted to her key ring, reaching for their bond of summoner and spirit...

Loke, you're not ok. What's wrong?

He looked at her bleakly, smile turning brittle, eyes too bright before looking back at Fae who was zipping over to crash enthusiastically into Laxus, who actually got knocked back by the impact. His mental voice was flat with pain.

She grew up.

The Celestial Spirit Mage gave an answering, wan smile.

Yeah. Bit of a shock. But that's what kids do.

Loke shook his head slightly, eyes pressed shut.

It's what humans do. It's what you all do.

She couldn't actually feel his emotions clearly, but she knew grief when she saw it. Laxus was giving Fae a noogie, scolding her for...something that made the others in ear shot cheer.

Your lives are already so short. We can have the same summoner for their whole lives. Maybe a hundred years, if we're lucky...And it's still barely anything for us.

Fae squirmed out of Laxus's grip by pinching him someplace apparently very painful. Lucy didn't think she had ever heard the Lighting Slayer make that kind of sound.

It wasn't years for me. It's as if I zoned out for a few minutes and she-She's so grown up now, Luce. His knuckles were white on the table as his emotion threatened to overflow.

I thought I'd get more time with her.

Lucy remembered the talks with her mother before she had gotten ill about how Celestial Spirits viewed time. As they were concepts as much as they were beings, their sense of time depended on their attachment to their summoners. Or rather, their attachment to the human populace that they continually made contracts and established relationships with. And before she had ever taken up Leo's key, he had been part of this guild's life. Part of Fae's life.

He already knows he'll have to say goodbye to every person he knows here. But Fae was the first one who really knew him. Who connected Loke the Mage and Leo the Lion.

Like a hound on the scent, the Story Mage turned towards them, her aura beaming all the brighter. She didn't look like she had been crying, her body's natural magic swiftly dispelling the redness around her eyes.

"Loke!"

She flashed across the distance, effortlessly gliding over the table, spinning around to bleed off her momentum to land almost gently in his arms. But the Lion Zodiac still caught her as though he had the breath knocked out of him. Lucy tried to surreptitiously wipe her eyes as she ached for how he must be feeling. There was no grief that hurt quite as much as lost time. She tried to shake off the glumness though. This was a joyful moment, even if some parts of it were bittersweet. She made out Fae's words even over the noise.

"No more sadness ok? I cried enough for you all over the last couple of years. Grieve tomorrow for what we missed. Just for today...let it be all good."

Loke's eyes vanished into Fae's shoulder as she patted his head gently, soothing him as much as she was being soothed.

"As you wish, princess."

As always Lucy couldn't help but smile at the sight of a Celestial Spirit being wholly accepted as their own being. The same way she knew to see them. She let her fingers linger on her keys only for a moment longer.

We can't turn back the clock, Loke. Let's not miss more than we have to.

Fae's eyes were on Lucy as she settled between her and the Zodiac, who was holding onto the Rune Wizard as if his life and sanity depended on it.

"Lucy, I know you just got back. And there's a lot going on. But did Wendy get the chance to talk to you about your dad?"

Instantly, Lucy felt her stomach drop as her mind leapt to the worst possible-

"Woah, girl." Fae unwound one hand from holding her Celestial Spirit friend and waved her hand around Lucy, seemingly dispelling a strange rushing emptiness that had suddenly enveloped them. "There's too much magic around here again, every emotion is getting projected even if they aren't mine. Lucy, he's fine. I promise. He's alive."

She had been so focused on getting back to Fairy Tail that her plans to establish contact with her dad had fallen to the wayside. She was going to start writing to him once they got back from Tenrou...

"How did...he take it?"

She was almost afraid to ask, but Fae's smile was kind.

"It was rough going. I feel terrible, but we didn't even reach out to him about it at first. I was too...well, I wasn't in a good place. He came here looking for you. I told him what happened. He grieved, but he believed. He knew you were coming back someday."

A crushing weight fell from her shoulders as Lucy let out a shaky breath. The looming chasm that was their relationship still separated them, but she still...

But there's still time.

"Thanks Fae."

She gave a simple nod and clasped Lucy's hand tightly. And even without Fae's ability to read people like a book, Lucy felt as if she had said everything.

The door opened as a small group of new people entered. Lucy craned in her seat to see who had come in-

"Is that Lamia Scale?"

"Yep!"

Fae's cheerful chirp of assent hit a very nostalgic place in Lucy's heart.

"Lamia Scale and Blue Pegasus believed us too that you weren't gone for good. Helped us right up until that last foray where Team Osprey managed to find you."

You, Fae. You're not saying it, but they believed you.

Gray went to greet his fellow pupil in Ice Make Magic, grinning as they reconnected as if no time had passed.

"Brothers." Fae snickered. "You can't hear it, but they are insulting each other."

"Of course."

"Lyon really missed him."

-vVv-

There was no way to describe how awkward this was.

Gray had gone up to the Lamia Scale party expecting greetings, some friendly banter and old guild rivalry being rekindled. His usual shadow had followed, Juvia staring at him with her usual rapture. She had gotten distracted by Mira, bless that girl, to let Ice Make wizard greet Ur's other pupil without her hovering. But then she had been spotted by the very person Gray had been conversing with.

And now Gray was standing with Sherry and Toby, who had come with Lyon to say hello, as Lyon gazed at Juvia with the same wide eyes of adoration that Juvia usually directed at him. And she looked dumbfounded.

"He didn't get dosed by anything on the way over, did he?"

Love potions were highly controlled substances, but they did exist. They cost more than most mansions and carried a heavy prison sentence and fines, but they were out there.

Sherry merely beamed, the Doll Mage looking utterly enchanted at the meet cute unfolding before her eyes.

"That's the power of love and the mystery of it! You never know when it will strike!"

Since the last Gray had seen, Sherry was rather infatuated by Lyon herself, something had clearly changed over the years. A lot of things. And they had only been back for about two hours.

The flickers of colors, shapes and images that Gray associated with their resident Story Mage were much stronger now than they had been when Fae was a child. And there appeared to be a fairly complex image building over Juvia...

Tiny avatars of various people in the guilds with arrows. He could guess what the arrows meant when he saw Gajeel and Levy in a mutual loop with hearts on their arrows pointing at each other. He saw his representation, and the number of the arrows pointed at him. In fact he had the highest number and the one heart marked arrow pointing away from him-

Was pointing at Lyon.

He could infer what that stood for and he was not ok with it.

Oh hell no!

"What a healthy imagination." Lucy commented, approaching the group.

"That thing is anything but healthy." He needed someone to snap him out of this. Some sense of what was the same about life and what was different.

The blond wizard giggled, assessing the image again that warped as several new avatars were added to it. Eric and Kinana were in a mutual loop. As were Erza and Jellal. His and Juvia's loop were not mutual but-

Gray grinned and nudged his friend gently.

"Looks like the only person who hadn't noticed yet is the flaming idiot."

He regretted that his stripping habit included removing his shoes when Lucy's boot heel landed painful on the arch of his foot. Her cheeks were a near perfect match to the pink Fairy Tail guild mark on her hand.

"Shut up, Gray. Least I'm not the final prize in 'the love maze'."

Shaking off the deserved pain, the Ice Make wizard gave the still strong illusionary mess a side eye.

"It does look like that- it's moving."

It was shifting now. Images of the other now grown wizards appearing in it. Wendy, Kagura and Fae.

This is extremely uncomfortable.

There were no hearts in relation to their images. Just tiny spinning circles. Like Fae got when she was a kid when she was still thinking about something. In processing, but nothing concrete yet.

Makes me feel better but only a little.

"And Juvia doesn't look completely comfortable." Lucy said this is a quieter undertone, a subtle alertness coming into her eyes. Lyon had read the Water Woman's hesitance as well, and while he was toning it down, he was not very good at hiding his intense interest.

"Yeah, this probably turned the tables on her a bit."

If he didn't know that it would give her the entirely wrong idea, Gray would go and get Lyon to give Juvia some space.

"I got it. I gotta head to the hospital soon anyway."

That made alarm bells go off and the Ice Make wizard focused on Lucy intently.

"You ok?" She gave a watery smile and nodded.

"Yeah. Turns out Fairy Tail and my dad have been taking care of each other while we were gone. He's one of Wendy's patients and he's their biggest contractor."

There was something incredibly soft and vulnerable in her eyes. Gray was caught in the indecision of offering to go with her, or making sure someone went with her. This was going to be some pretty heavy stuff, facing her dad after all this time.

"You want someone to come with you?"

The blond mage shook her head, brown eyes gaining back a bit of determination and confidence.

"I'll be ok. We're overdue for private talk as is."

That he couldn't deny. Frankly, he and Lyon could probably have a ton to talk about with the discovery that Ur's daughter was alive. She had not spoken of her much while she had been teaching them. But in hindsight, the grief had been ever present in the love and care she showed them as their master.

"Good luck, Lucy."

"Thanks..."

Gray made for the spot at the table that the Celestial Spirit mage had vacated. Fae was there, chatting animatedly with Loke and holding, as usual, a book. She bounced to her feet to give him a hug, another one after the initial one on the roof. She was taller now. But that just meant when she leaned into affection, he could really feel it now.

"I take it Lyon was glad to see you?"

"I don't even think he knows I'm still here, to be honest." Lucy had expertly extracted Juvia from her predicament and the unlikely friends were chatting quietly. Juvia's awkward discomfort fading as she too likely picked up on Lucy's emotional burden. They stepped outside the guild hall door.

To be a fly on the wall in that conversation.

"Why wouldn't he? I know he missed you. He only kept coming around because of you."

Gray made a vague gesture towards the unfolding disaster.

"Turns out he has a type. And Juvia is it."

And for a change...Fae's eyes didn't glow as she made the connection he was alluding to. She just looked puzzled and somewhat lost. Which was not normal.

"So he wants to be friends with Juvia? Wait..." Her head tilted and her eyes narrowed. Relentlessly pursuing a thought. That expression of hers had never changed...But then she huffed out a short, irritated breath.

"Nope. Gone. Slippery little bastard..."

"Lyon?"

"No. The thought! I had a conclusion about what you were trying to infer without actually saying it. But when I tried to actually look at it and notice it, something kicked it away."

This made Loke sit up, eyes a little red, but otherwise unaffected by the reunion. Except for the arm he had around Fae. It looked bizarre to Gray that they could sit like that and not have Fae be dwarfed by them.

"You haven't gotten hit with a mind affecting curse, have you?"

"No. And even if I couldn't tell, Simon or Mest could because of their specialty overlap."

Simon was another shock. The man hadn't grown in height, or filled out any because he had already been fairly massive. But he had gained an extra gravitas to his presence, like he was letting himself stand at his full height where he had always partially hidden before. His eye patch to help him adjust to his prosthetic eye had been replaced by enchanted lenses. His hair had grown long, much like his sisters and he now tied it back in a similar fashion in a single long tail. A simple striped collar shirt and slacks gave him a sharp professional look, like a professor or civil dignitary. Who happened to be about seven feet tall with a matching bulk, and managed a combat wizards guild.

"Where is Mest anyway?"

"Working." Fae's eyes shifted deliberately and tellingly. "I'll explain later. It's complicated."

"Can we go back to something messing with your head? You of all people?"

Gray, for the second time, saw Fae's face go completely blank.

"What were we talking about?"

"Something keeping you from catching onto the obvious fact that Lyon just got an instant crush on Juvia."

Expression came back, she looked nonplussed and confused.

"That's what that was?"

Gray and Loke exchanged looks.

On the one hand, part of Gray was beyond thrilled that Fae was still innocent of things like crushes. On the other hand...it was very strange that she would struggle so much with the concept given what she had been cognizant and capable of as a child...

"Fae, you gotta find out what's going on in your head. You grew up while we were gone. And it makes no sense that you were more aware of this kind of thing as a kid than you are now."

He was probably going to regret this as soon as her first crush happened, but at least this way it happened while everyone was here. And could do something about it. Fae seemed to be contemplating the dilemma with the same gravity that she had always given thought problems. Only the expression made Gray's blood pressure rise now. It looked very different on a pretty girl's face than on a child. Before it was curious and cute. Now it hit differently. It made her look dreamy, unreal and beautiful.

Who the hell let Fae grow up? She's supposed to be cute, not pretty!

When he actually realized what had run through his mind, Gray very calmly and deliberately went to the bar where Kinana was serving a carefully mixed, brightly colored wizard's cocktail. The Snake Woman gave him a searching look, then looked at the bench he had vacated...Eric, seated at the bar, was smothering laughter.

"Give him the works, babe. He's gonna need it."

Grey glanced over at the Poison mage.

You know.

The Poison Dragon Slayer grinned like the dangerous predator he was. There was an edge to the expression, a readiness to use the bared fangs to bite.

"Course I do. I can hear everything that people think about her."

Fae had turned from a super smart child to a well known scholar who also happened to be attractive. Gray could only imagine some of the imaginings of people...Though this line of thought made him want to take Ice Make Impact and start cracking heads.

"She doesn't know?"

"Nope. Damned if I know how. She never misses anything else."

Gray slammed back the drink that Kinana had placed before him. The alcohol was made for a wizard's natural resistance, but he could barely feel anything...

"I'm gonna need at least three more of those."

She gave him a sympathetic smile.

"Should I tell you what Simon did to one guy that wouldn't take a hint two years ago?"

His grip tightened on the glass, frost spreading from his fingertips in sharp points.

"Did he suffer?"

Kinana's reply was a well enunciated, wholly satisfied purr.

"Humiliations galore."

This would serve as a distraction and inspiration for the inevitable: for when guys would be coming around for the closest thing he had to a little sister.

A very pretty little sister.

Nope. Nope. Not ok.

Gray picked up his next drink.

"I'm listening."

-vVv-

Laxus would have felt more comfortable if he weren't waiting for the other shoe to drop.

He had gone to Tenrou at Simon's behest to assist in throwing Grimoire Heart off the guild's territory. But he was still technically excommunicated, something his grandfather had reminded himself of when he laid into him for daring to show up on their island. But that gap didn't feel very present right now as everyone was celebrating their return and simply being alive. Surviving a Dark Guild, a dragon and the Black Wizard within the same four days was definitely something worth celebrating. But he couldn't really unwind and enjoy it.

He was too busy dreading when the armistice would end and he'd have to leave again.

Someone was there. Laxus's gaze snapped to the side and he actually had to look up.

Simon Mikazushi. The Darkness Mage that had been elected to guild master in their absence.

Somehow, seeing someone else occupying the place he had once thrown his guild into civil war for sat wrong with him. But he had tried, though he acknowledge that it had been a dumbass move to go about it the way he had, and he had lost. So he offered him a slight nod before turning his attention back to the party below on the first floor.

"Thought you might need these." The sheaf of papers meant little to him. He had too many memories of his grandfather referring to the bureaucracy of running a guild as kindling to really regard it as anything important.

"You're not my grandfather, Mikazushi. Find someone else to foist your work onto."

"I intend to. Provided Master Makarov wants the title back. He looked way too happy to hear someone else was in charge."

And that happiness had taken the form of actual tears of joy. Though that may have been because Simon had been chastising Kagura for a job with an excessive amount of property damage.

"Now you suffer as I have suffered for years!"

"Then what's this for?"

"No guild master can go back on a decision they make when it comes to guild membership. Someone who is banished, they can't take back in under our charter." His head tilted slightly, dark eyes glinting with a bit of subtle mischief. "However, as I've gotten very good at loopholes, it says nothing about banished individuals rejoining as entry level members under a new guild master."

So he was saying...

Laxus actually gave the paperwork another look.

It was the set of forms for probationary guild member status. He would be a probie. He would have to work supervised by a full guild member for any work distributed by Fairy Tail. But after that, Simon would be able to induct him in as a new member. He let out a short chuckle, a flutter of what could only be hope and homesickness trying to rise inside of him.

"You really are good at this sort of thing."

His grandfather wouldn't have known to look for this kind of work around. But Simon had practically had this ready and waiting for him.

"I need to be, in order to keep up."

Simon's tone was dry as a desert.

"You're really confident that I want to come back."

Laxus didn't look over but he could feel the weight of the Darkness Mage's gaze.

"I'm anticipating, given your past actions, that you would want it."

"I put your wizards into death matches against each other. I held half a dozen women hostage to force a coup. I threatened the lives of multiple people, hell, the whole town."

Simon nodded.

"All true. As was what I said to you back then. Doesn't make what you did after that any less true either."

Yeah, that had been the first time he had given Simon a second thought to be honest. He was some stray friend of Erza 's that she had dragged into the guild. He'd either pass muster or be cut out with the rest of the riff raff. Then he spoke up. And Laxus had been forced to take a second look at him.

"I trespassed on forbidden ground after being banished."

"You came back for the winter holidays." Simon said mildly. "You charged headfirst into a fight that was guaranteed to involve not only one of the most notorious Dark Guilds in the country, but the Black Wizard himself. You did that knowing that it wouldn't get you a place back in the guild roster. There was nothing in for you. And you did it anyway."

No. It was everything.

Laxus said nothing aloud. He didn't look at the man beside him, and tried not to look at the sheaf of papers that he had been handed.

"You don't do something like that for no benefit. Unless you are a saint and we've established that you're not."

The quip landed but didn't sting. It was said so mildly and matter of factly that Laxus couldn't take offense at it.

"But that is what you do for family." Simon tapped the forms. And Laxus looked closer to see his probationary period...was listed as being 24 hours.

One signature. One day. And he was back in his guild again.

It was such a tiny, simple thing but he felt like Atlas, finally able to shake off the weight of the whole sky from his back. The noise and joy of his friends reuniting with their older comrades wasn't moving around him anymore. It was wrapping around him. Holding him.

Welcoming him home.

It probably should have taken him longer to decide. Laxus looked down to the guildhall and the party and raised his voice.

"Hey! Kid!" Some people looked up, including the one he was calling. He motioned at Fae. "Pen!"

Her grin seemed to transport him back years, seeing a sassy young child balance precariously on the same railing he leaned against now. Her wings were still out and she zipped up to him, plucking a pen out of her hair, he could see that it was twisted up in a simple knot and held in place by another two writing implements. She pressed it into his hand, but didn't let him sign the forms. Instead she hugged him, brief and barely there before she was drifting back with a wide, exultant smile.

"Welcome home, Laxus."

He ignored a peculiar itching in his eyes as he scrawled his signature on the probationary member status application. He pushed them over to the guild master quickly.

"This isn't gonna fix what I did."

Simon tucked the forms under his arm.

"It will not. But to put it mildly. Things have changed since you've been gone. Beyond the obvious."

Laxus grunted, not trusting his voice to get the question out. Luckily Simon didn't call him on it and continued his explanation.

"People will say in public that Fairy Tail matured as a guild. Causes less trouble, became a place for the intellectual. Truth is, the trouble just moved behind closed doors and into hidden conversations. And to other countries."

Laxus turned slowly towards him, unblinking... Then he looked back down at the bright, laughing young woman that he remembered last seeing as a little girl what felt like only a few weeks ago. Of those most likely to aim high, the Lightning Slayer would bet money he knew who was spreading trouble internationally of those who had been left behind. A low chuckle made it's way out of his chest.

"Internationally."

"Strong business connections in four, courting another two, and has been working on social reform to make Iceberg officially wizard and magic friendly."

He shook his head, lacing his fingers together as he looked down at the sprout, older and taller but still with a pixie like mischief glimmering in her eyes. As if she hadn't upended years of hostile history.

"Damn girl's been busy."

Laxus had felt practically from almost the first meeting that Fae was going to fall right into the guild and never leave. That she would grow and change, and they had better get on board or get out of the way.

"They all have been." The man straightened adjusted his glasses with a sigh, dark hair shifting as he regarded the festivities below with a hint of a mischievous smile. "Today we're celebrating that everyone came home alive. But there is going to be a learning curve for everything that changed while you were gone. And it will be hilarious."

Laxus felt an actual chill of foreboding at that look on the young guildmaster's face. He had seen similar expressions on his grandfather's face when he was enjoying the chaos that Fairy Tail exuded. But this felt decidedly more worrying.

Because he's right. Everything that I think might happen is at least seven years out of date.

The thought came and Laxus quickly looked around for Freed.

The biggest impact for them was that the young kids had grown up. And of the three former brats, Freed and Laxus were both most invested in the young Rune Mage.

She didn't just grow up. She grew up pretty.

The most fun was going to be had watching her.

-vVv-

Laxus has joined Simon in waiting.

For what?

The explosion.

Morgana simultaneously made more and less sense as I got older.

The party turned wild quickly as Fairy Tail festivities were wont to do. The doors were propped open in spite of the early spring chill coming in from outside. And there were enough bodies packed into the hall, enough food, laughter and good cheer that no one noticed the cold. But they would eventually.

So I slipped out of the tangle to the door, calling my pen into my hand to adjust the settings on the door wards to regulate the heat so that it stayed at a relatively stable, and overall pleasant temperature.

It was nice to take a step back and focus on something simple and mundane. I was still so overjoyed that the flight spell was simply refusing to dispel, the wings on my back were bright and happy, trailing a few subtle afterimages as I moved. The noise and sheer amount of life in the guild hall right now was more than a little overwhelming.

And even with my back turned to the crowd, I could feel everyone who was back. Bright spots in an intricate web that spanned my life. Ugly empty gaps that were whole again. I felt so full, I could almost-

Or not 'almost'

I caught myself starting to lift off the ground and forced myself to settle again. But even with that, the thread of magic I was spinning into characters and lines stayed consistent and even.

Once the interior reaches an ambient temperature of 75 degrees, take the excess heat, convert to energy and feed it into the cooling relays, fridge and ice maker.

I reviewed my work with a critical eye. Shifting away from individual runes to longer connected chains generally let the things I wrote last longer, but they were far less forgiving of mistakes. It was a minor edit of the already existing wards so they should last for a few days without my needing to do much more.

Now with the scenario in place in case things get too hot, to put something in in case it gets too cold. People are moving through the boundary pretty regularly...

I gave it a moment's thought before writing the new instructions. I didn't have much time to plot, but there was enough to gather my focus and continue without losing the work completely.

If the temperature reaches 70 degrees ambient, restore building insulation runes to full potency. Cycle until manual termination.

The runes locked together with a gentle thrum of energy, the amber light they exuded fading to an unobtrusive peach on the stone wall.

"You've gotten much better."

Freed's voice made me start slightly, but I turned the tiny jerk of my hand into a stabilizing flourish on the line of runes instead of letting it unravel.

"I've had plenty of practice."

I gave him a smile once I finished my adjustment, straightening to face him.

It was messing with my head to go from looking far up at Freed as a child, to looking him in the eye. And by the vaguely misty look on his face, he felt it too.

Better talk about something before the silence gets awkward.

Too late for that.

"I- found your gifts." I gestured awkwardly with the pen I had taken from Freed's room years ago as I was cleaning it. "Sorry I didn't wait for you, but they were too useful to pass up."

He shook his head, gaze dropping to the elegant magical tool in my hand.

"Better they be used for what I intended than to be collecting dust in my closet. How did you find them?"

I shifted to let him take a closer look at the wards, both the permanent ones I had written two years ago and the temporary additions for our impromptu party.

"When I had down time, I'd go around and check on everyone's house. Just to make sure it was all still in good shape for when you came home. Morgana told me you'd had something for me." I hesitated before continuing. "And that Jellal was talking to you about teaching me. The rest I extrapolated from there."

Freed looked up, curiosity warring with more powerful emotion.

"And where do you stand in that right now?"

I smiled and waved a hand.

My spellbook, which I had left in its secured compartment under my table, flew through the crowd, jostling a few people on the way, to land in my hand with a firm slap.

It was a big, heavy thing. A little over a foot tall, an inch and a half wide, bound in leather that a younger, less well funded me would have balked at buying. I had left the cover largely unadorned except for marble sized lacrima at the corners and some gentle embossing in the leather forming Celtic knots and a chain of subtle infinity symbols which were, micro etched with the runic script that lent the binding its power.

"Careful about looking at it straight on on the magical spectrum." I cautioned, knowing that would be his next action. Freed's vision based talents were unique and powerful, letting him look at magical circles and formulas and interpret them much faster than a normal person could. He could also identify the type, strength and complexity of magical runes and enchantments. Unique signatures he could even identify at a glance.

I had put a lot of work into this thing. Enough so that I was pretty sure I could use it to blind the unwary Mage Sight user.

Blocky purple characters hovered next to Freed's eyes as he altered his vision accordingly before looking at it... his face slackened with surprise and awe. For a long moment, I stood there awkwardly as he stared at my primary magical tool.

"Beautiful..."

Freed was looking at more than just the surface protective enchantments that I had placed on the binding. He was looking deeper at the veritable ocean full of stories drifting about within it. I couldn't count off hand how many stories I had transcribed, in detail or in summary, to power the various totems I stored within it.

He wants a closer look.

And I thought nothing about handing it over to Freed. Perhaps the single most important item that I owned, certainly the one I depended on the most, and I just...gave it to him.

I felt no trepidation, just a nervous excitement. Like I was handing in an assignment.

Freed turned it over with a professional fascination I had only ever seen him exhibit for some ancient texts. Or Laxus attempting to be philosophic. He eyed the plain embossing on the edges. He smiled seeing a pair of Erza's dagger shaped earrings resting in the spine of the book alongside two more tiny lacrima. Then he paused over the sight of the pages.

The book was still closed, but there was a fore-edge painting on the pages. But it didn't stay consistent. To someone else, it would look as though every time they looked away, and then looked back, the image would change. You could stare at it, and it wouldn't change, but the moment you took your eyes off of it: the new scene would appear.

To his eyes, I knew it was actively shifting through scenes from every story that I had contained within its binding. Just short glimpses of people, monsters, animals, landscapes, plants, water, fire from every story that I could remember and had been touched by. And this was where he seemed to stop and stare, entranced. Because amid the stories that I had told, that I knew were either fictional or so far distant they may as well be...there were various familiar faces as well. Our friends.

"You've outdone yourself." The older(?) Rune Mage handed it back to me reverently. "It's lighter than I expected given how much you have contained in there."

This was something I was particularly proud of.

"Yeah, I tapped into a new story for that."

And the tension seemed to vanish as I cheerfully recounted a simple synopsis of So you Want to Be A Wizard. The setting where magic manifested books or similar devices to catch the eye of potential wizards. These books were how they learned. And no matter how much you could read, there would always be more contained within, in spite of the actual size of the book.

Freed wasn't as invested in the story, but he did have some questions as to how I had used that concept to create what I had here.

And this was where a bit of nerves came back to me.

"I wanted to be able to have something that could carry more than its physical appearance would allow and the concept was perfect for that. I...didn't manage to make it for a while even after I found the cover."

"Your efforts paid off eventually." I chuckled a little.

"Yeah, after learning basic leather working, book binding and painting." The multiple levels which I had needed to embed myself into this thing was staggering in hindsight but so worth the effort. "I figured it out eventually. I've got two more books like this, one for back up in case something happens to this one and one for...emergencies."

And Freed knew exactly the kind of emergency I was talking about. Though if he knew some of the things I kept in that 'Hell in a Handtooled cover' book, I probably wouldn't be able to look him in the eye anymore.

"I saw there was a common Rune that acted as the glue to hold your work together."

"More like the welds."

A quiet moment of mutual commiseration. Runes were useful, but the bigger the works the stronger the ties had to be to keep it from shaking apart when you used it.

Freed traced the script he had seen in the air in his usual magic.

"Your work has advanced enough that I can't tell what you were trying to describe right away."

I reached out and took the book, and fanned through the pages like a flip book. Revealing another fore-edge artwork.

But now the images were moving. People fought, danced and lived on the scenes depicted. All people that we both knew.

Erza in her casual wear instructing a small, green haired girl how to properly hold a sword sized for her.

Makarov and the girl in matching funny hats, clearly in the process of giving her a lecture.

Jellal walked a ritual circle with the same girl, a little older.

A cloaked, masked figure examined a gnarled staff with the child close by.

Natsu held a fishing pole with her, her head still bandaged and head still sheared.

And a boy with long green hair sat next to the girl, both bent over pages in a curiously harmonious sight. Their mutual excitement and eagerness was obvious. The sight shifted to the girl bouncing around a younger Freed as he held something out of her reach, reaching down to teasingly tap her nose.

I could feel my throat was getting tight as Freed lingered on that last clip...

"The Books in the story were basically the new wizard's first teachers in how their magic worked. They learned the Speech from it, and all the writing they would use. Pretty much everything that they needed to know to face their early challenges. The spell needed something to link back to that concept to function on any level, so...this means..."

I pointed to the script, still hovering in the air but couldn't finish. I had to bite my tongue to keep from sobbing, feeling like a hypocrite after my words to Loke earlier when a good cry would be very nice right about now.

We had only just made up , it seemed, when Freed had gone to the S-class trials. There was still a rift, though it was healing.

But even that distance and all that time couldn't change the core fact of who this man was to me and what he had done for me.

He was ignoring the book and the script now. Looking shell shocked.

"Even now? After everything...?"

Morgana quietly filled in what Freed couldn't quite manage to say.

'Everything I've done, every way that I failed you. All the time apart. This is still who I am to you?'

I smiled at him, reaching out to gently grasp his hand.

"Always, Freed-sensei."

I let Freed hug me, and let him compose himself with his back to the rest of the room and guild as tiny shudders through him. Somehow, even the fact that I had grown taller still didn't banish the feeling of being totally safe with him. I saw some people looking our way. The townsfolk looked curious, but guild members who knew beamed. Laxus was giving a small, satisfied smirk.

Morgana murmured something quietly.

Natsu has been absent from the party for more than ten minutes.

That made me survey the room. As Morgana had stated, the Fire Dragon slayer was conspicuously absent. As was his feline partner in crime.

What's the ETA of their impending shenanigan?

Morgana just laughed. A quiet, warm sound.

Natsu was given a promise. He intends to collect.

No one else seemed to have noticed Natsu's absence. But I did see one figure that I didn't recognize.

It looked like a young teen, maybe thirteen or fourteen, with long wavy blond hair and teal eyes. She stood in a light robe-like dress, white with large blue diamonds ringing her waist, trimmed in pink. And she had no shoes. Her gaze flashed over to me and she grinned, throwing a wink at me. Her finger lifted to her lips and she signaled me to keep quiet. The mischievous anticipation in that gesture spoke to me and I raised my brows, flicking a look upstairs in silent question.

She smothered giggles in her hands and nodded.

Who is that? I don't recognize her.

There came a loud thud and suddenly Natsu was standing on the second story, somewhat ashy and a little frazzled, but grinning triumphantly.

"Hey! Where's Fae!? I got a promise to keep!"

And in his hand rested the guild stamp. Happy let out a taxi cab whistle, wings flaring as he somehow managed to make his voice heard over the quieting hubbub.

"C'mon Fae! Let's get your guild mark already!"

The cheer at this pronouncement shook the rafters. The momentary lull brought by Happy calling everyone's attention was now a memory as everyone lost their collective mind.

Elfman was actually shaking the rafters with his bellows and the next loudest after him was actually Wendy. The Sky Dragon Slayer was whooping and making the air quiver with her excitement. And Makarov? Makarov was already red faced from the liquor and starting to cry on a remarkably tolerant Laxus. Gildarts and Cana were slamming their mugs on the tables to start up an encouraging rhythm. Lucy, Loke and Gray were clapping along with them.

"I see that Simon had you put wards on the office as well."

"Yeah, protective barriers are kinda hit or miss for Dragon Slayer resistances." I answered Freed fondly. But I did agree with Natsu.

This was long overdue.

"Hold my book for me?"

The distance up to where Nstsu was waiting was short. I could have crossed it in a few seconds. But I walked, letting myself exist and be in the moment. The blond girl I had seen fell into step beside me, smiling up at me.

"How does it feel?"

"Like it's about time."

She had spoken softly over the noise of the onlookers. And I matched her volume.

She gave another giggle and when her eyes opened again, I knew: she was as much of a child as I had been all those years ago. With knowledge and insight that I shouldn't have the life span to know, but was there anyway.

"Who are you, by the way?"

The distant eeriness faded to a look that I could only describe as motherly and warm.

"I'm the one who looked after your friends for you for the last six years."

Morgana plucked a memory for me then.

Standing on a beach I had prayed...

Be safe with Master Mavis watching over you.

It seemed she had done so. Quite literally.

This impacted me a lot less than I thought it would. Though I may have been dissociating.

"Aren't you supposed to be dead?"

Mavis skipped a little to keep pace with me, her Astral form gliding through the leg of the bookstore owner, whose usual neat hairstyle was a mussed mess and he seemed like he couldn't be happier for it. He didn't seem to notice her at all.

"Only mostly. Besides, it worked out well for us all that I could wake up enough to see you all properly."

I had reached the base of the stairs, the people on it had cleared a path for me to reach my friend and the promise he held.

Mavis hopped a few steps up the stairs so she was about eye level with me. She reached out and cupped my cheeks. And I felt her touch, the magic she was exerting to be here was reacting with mine and letting her touch and interact with me.

"Celeste D Faerun." Mavis Vermillion, the first guild master and primary founder of the guild that had given me a home and life, leaned up and pressed a kiss to my brow. "It's good to have you with us."

Then she was gone, her form disappeared but her presence was still near. Still watching. Melding with the quiet feeling of family that had first surrounded me when I was brought into the guild hall ten years ago.

You've been here this whole time...

But I couldn't process that right now. Natsu was getting impatient. He was moving to the stairs to meet me halfway. But unlike me, people weren't moving out of the way for him.

He tripped.

The boy freaking tripped and then I had about two seconds to react as Natsu came tumbling down, stamp first. That reaction was to throw up my arms instinctively. We both ended up at the bottom of the stairs surrounded by worried shouts and laughter. In the chaotic tangle of voices, a few new bruises and several reprimands as Freed hauled Natsu off of me, I felt the stamp touch my hand.

"Are you hurt anywhere?"

"Oh I have had so much worse." I said, chuckling and dusting myself off.

"My bad Fae. You want to try it again? Didn't know if you wanted it on your hand." The Dragon Slayer had hit his head on the way down the stairs and looked none the worse for wear. The other people he had sent flying were not so lucky. Wendy was already sorting through them.

"No." I looked at where the stamp had fallen. It rested on the palm of my right hand in a dark golden amber, outlined in white to make it pop. Rather like Levi's guild stamp with the colors inverted.

"I like it where it is."

It was on my right hand, my dominant hand. The one I used for most of my magic, though I had learned to write with my left as well. Every spell, every memory, all easily visible. No part of my magic was not touched by the people in this guild. It felt right.

I murmured 'sonorous', holding my palm up for everyone to see.

"Hey Fairy Tail! I'm home!"