Lucy didn't have any other ideas up her sleeve, the only choice she had was to hope this worked. Nasha hadn't passed out like she did earlier because less magic power was used this time, but she was still too exhausted to try opening any more gates today. Lucy knew two experiments was the max for a day, but even then, she would feel bad making the little girl overexert herself for multiple days in a row. The blonde mage already felt bad about it, but she had to help the kids get home somehow. Nasha, lacking the energy to stand, took it upon herself to sit on the grass instead. Lucy closed Capricorn's gate, she had no idea if it was necessary for the next experiment, but it made sense to her. The older woman walked over to Nasha and sat down with her for a moment, partially to have a little breather and to also tell Nasha what she was thinking.
"So far it's a bust." Lucy didn't want to sound negative, she was going to continue talking, but she paused just long enough for Nasha to speak up.
"Are me and Greige stuck here?" There was sadness in the girl's voice that broke Lucy's heart.
"No sweetheart, I'm gonna get you home okay?" The blonde scooted closer, putting her arm over Nasha's shoulder and pulled her closer. The pink haired girl welcomed the comfort and sank into Lucy's side.
"Promise?" It seemed hard to believe, but Nasha's mother never lied to her before, so why would she in this universe.
"I promise." Lucy let the both of them sit in the moment for a bit longer, enjoying the comfort the same as Nasha was. Lucy let her mind wander a bit, the sad mood enhancing her melancholy thoughts, she hadn't realised how much she was going to miss the little girl until this moment. Wrapped up in each other's arms, sitting in the cool grass on a perfectly warm evening. The sun began setting from the clear blue sky, turning it into a beautiful medley of pinks and purples. Lucy was so caught up in the moment that she didn't hear the approaching footsteps of a fellow guild member until they were right beside them, beginning to sit down. Feeling the mood, he decided it was best not to speak, for fear of ruining it. Rather than speak, he sat down beside the two girls, leaving Nasha comfortably in the middle. The chill of the evening that was slowly creeping up on Nasha was immediately put to rest by the heat Natsu was giving off, it wasn't too hot but rather the perfect temperature. Even though these two mages weren't her real parents, the moment was so hypnotising and comfortable that the little pink haired girl almost wished that it would last forever. Call it selfish if you want, but the happy little perfect family that sat atop the grass watching the sunset, basking in the comforting presence of each other, wanted nothing else other than for this moment to last forever. But they knew that was selfish, and they knew that it was wrong. Something had to change. Lucy looked over at Natsu, the fire mage looking back, they both knew the moment had to end sooner or later. And so, Natsu gave Lucy a small smile, one that held a bit of noticeable tenderness, this was her signal to carry on with her idea from earlier. It took more willpower than she would be willing to admit, but she broke the silence, ruining the mood and ending the moment they were all sharing.
"Okay." Lucy kept her voice a little lower than usual, not wanting to startle the little girl. Truth be told, it was also from the hesitation of moving on, the blonde mage was now afraid that her idea would work. She knew that getting the children back to their real parents and real homes was the right thing to do, but now she didn't want to say goodbye, because she knew it might be forever. "I have an idea that I want to try tonight." Lucy looked down at the little girl, seeing the hope in her eyes, this made reality come crashing down, it was wrong to have felt this way and to be this selfish, Lucy had to think about Nasha. Confidence began to fill the celestial spirit mage as she spoke again. "I don't know for sure if my idea will work, but I hope it does." The blonde mage stood up, the other two following in her footsteps. Lucy pulled out her key once more, and Nasha did the same. "Nasha, I'm going to need your key for this, can I borrow it?" The little girl was eager to finally find a way home, she gave up her key to Lucy without a second thought.
"What's the plan?" Natsu couldn't figure out what Lucy intended to do with both keys in her hands.
"If I'm right, the plan is to finally get the kids home." He was looking more so for details or a step by step, but based on the stance Lucy was getting into, he was about to see the plan in action.
"Really?" Nasha gave a smile so wide at the thought of finding a way home. Lucy didn't respond to the girl with words, instead she gave a smile and a nod, focusing on building her magic up. Natsu believed in Lucy and whatever plan she had come up with, and he wanted to reassure Nasha so that she had just as much confidence in his partner. The fire mage put his hand on the little girl's pink hair, causing her to look up at him, he gave her a big confident smile and a thumbs up, he didn't need words, his actions eased any anxious thoughts before Nasha could even form them. The two pink haired mages watched Lucy in awe as she began focusing her magic into the two golden keys, the glow of her magic becoming increasingly more bright as she built it up. She truly looked like a goddess when the golden glow lit up her face, her eyes reflecting the shimmering light, creating small but infinitely deep galaxies that held countless stars in each one of her eyes.
"Open gate of the goat, Capricorn!" Lucy put all of her hope into this single summoning, she needed this to work. Standing before Lucy was...n't Capricorn? The goat spirit wasn't standing before Lucy like he was meant to, but this was a good sign for the blonde spirit mage. Rather than her contracted spirit standing in front of her, there was a circular whirling of golden light a few feet away, right in the spot Capricorn would normally stand.
"Is that it? Is that the way back?" Natsu didn't want to get Nasha's hopes up, but he was almost entirely sure that this was the way back to Edolas. The fire dragon wizard couldn't think of anything else the very portal like light could be, but maybe it was normal, he wasn't the celestial spirit mage so he wasn't an expert.
"It should be, but there's only one way to find out." Lucy didn't want to send Nasha though before she confirmed it was the way back, so she was going to step through it. The blonde mage began walking forward, ready to see what was on the other side, she put her hand up to touch it but Natsu grabbed her forearm, stopping her.
"Wait Lucy. If this is the way to Edolas how would you come back?" It was more of a rhetorical question, he just wanted her to think first before making any rash decisions.
"Well I could just open it again, I have both the keys with me." Lucy didn't make the connection right away, she was too eager to think about it.
"Remember when we were in Edolas? We can't use magic there." Natsu was a little shocked that Lucy didn't think of it before he did, and she was too.
"Oh, yeah. I don't want to send Nasha in before I know for sure though." Lucy wasn't catching onto what Natsu was suggesting.
"That's why I'm going in first, and you can reopen it to bring me back." The celestial spirit mage was weary about sending Natsu somewhere that could be dangerous, but she knew he always found a way out of tough situations, and he never took no for an answer. Lucy had no choice but to say yes to him, and she was going to, if he cared to stay still for more than a minute. Before she even had the chance to say yes or go over the plan again, he ran right into the swirling gate of gold and yellow, the light disappearing behind him.
"Where did he go?" Nasha was hoping for an answer right away, but figured Lucy might not have one.
"Let's find out." Lucy guessed he was gone long enough and decided to reopen the Edolas gate. She took both keys and said the words to summon Capricorn, knowing he wouldn't show up, but that's what she wanted. The golden light was back and after a few seconds Natsu came back though, loosing his footing and falling to the ground as he did so.
"You were right!" Natsu picked himself back up from the ground as the gate closed once more. "Now we can send Nasha and Greige back home." This would be a moment that Lucy celebrated, but she didn't have the energy to right now, opening the gate took a lot out of her, she basically opened four spirit gates in the span of two minutes and now she was exhausted.
"I don't think we can send them home right now. I'm sorry Nasha." She really felt bad, finally finding the way to get Nasha and her friend back home but having to put it off because she was too tired.
"That's okay, we can wait." Nasha was visible sad at the news, but she tried hiding it, not wanting to make Lucy feel bad.
"Maybe we can invite Greige over for a slumber party while Lucy relaxes, huh?" Natsu was doing his best to keep everyone in high spirits, and it was working perfectly. Nasha immediately lit up at the mention of a sleepover with her best friend.
"Can we really? Can we? Can we?" Nasha wanted to hear Lucy say it was okay before she ran to tell Greige the great news.
"Yes sweetheart, we can buy snacks and play games, maybe even get a pizza. Go tell Greige and we can all pick out the snacks together, okay?" Lucy was putting in extra work to please Nasha, she was trying to make up for disappointing the girl. Nasha didn't think this way, but Lucy couldn't help feeling like that's how it was. Nasha was quick to run and tell Greige the good news about having a sleepover.
"So tomorrow they'll both be gone?" Natsu was almost glad that the kids were going to stay another night, he wouldn't tell anyone, but he wasn't ready to let his little girl go.
"Yeah..." Lucy was reminiscing on the time she had spent with Nasha the last few days, she knew the goodbye was going to hurt.
"Maybe we can visit." Natsu was trying to keep Lucy in high spirits, he could tell the blonde mage was feeling a little down.
"huh?" The celestial spirit mage was a little confused about what Natsu meant.
"You know, we have the keys, we could visit them right?" Natsu was right, this idea made Lucy happy for a second, until she realised that it wouldn't work.
"No. We have the keys now, but the other one is Nasha's, and I don't want to take it from her." Truth be told, Lucy was also a little uneasy with the idea of carrying two of the same key, there isn't meant to be a second one in Earthland after all.
"Well maybe she will come back again if you give her the key, she did it the first time." With Lucy giving the key back, Natsu was right, the little girl might do it again and show up out of nowhere. This made Lucy laugh a bit, she was thinking of how similar Nasha was to her Natsu, it sounded like something both of them would do.
"Yeah probably, she kind of reminds me of somebody else I know." The blonde looked over at the fire dragon slayer, he was giving her his signature goofy smile. Lucy couldn't help but be thankful this whole situation had happened.
"Let's go! I got him!" Nasha came back with Greige in hand, and the boy looked like he was having a hard time keeping up, Nasha was practically dragging him.
"Okay okay, no need to rush. Greige looks like he's gonna fall over." Lucy couldn't help but laugh, she knows what it's like to be Greige in this situation, there has been many times where Natsu had dragged her around by the hand.
They all walked toward town, making their way straight to a candy store first. Thankfully for Lucy's wallet, Greige was a little more reserved than Nasha when it came to picking out his junk food, the little girl was pretty much grabbing everything she laid her eyes on. And thankfully for Lucy's arms, Natsu was there to carry all the bags around. It took them two hours of shopping before they were ready to go home, Lucy ended up buying them each a toy they had wanted, they never should have walked by the toy store, Lucy was completely broke now and she was going to have to hustle to make her rent again this month. Natsu's arms felt like they were going to fall off, he was carrying four heavy bags of candy and other junk foods the whole time, and Lucy made him also carry the pizza's they bought on the way back home. Lucy told him it was only fair that he had to carry it since he was the one who wanted three entire pizza's to himself. The rest of the night played out perfectly, the kids were having a blast; eating junk food, drinking sugary drinks, playing games and having pizza. By the end of the night, the two kids had passed out leaning against each other on the couch, Lucy didn't want to disturb them, so she just grabbed an extra blanket and covered them up. After cleaning everything up Lucy wanted to take a hot bath and finally go to bed, and so she did that but there was an issue with the going to sleep part. Natsu and Happy were asleep in her bed, Happy had come over when he heard they bought a bunch of food and were playing game, he didn't want to be left out so he brought some extras fishes for everyone; which he ended up eating, and he played with them. Happy and Natsu teamed up for the game of charades they played, and very quickly lost, neither of them were any good at that game. The couch was already taken by the two kids so Lucy had no choice but to try and squeeze her way into the bed, as she was doing so she was also trying not to disturb Natsu, but that plan didn't work too well, he seemed to have noticed right away. Lucy was just about to get away with it, but in his sleep seemingly out of instinct, the fire dragon slayer had reached his arm out, pulling Lucy into him, she wanted to protest but his body heat just felt so nice that she couldn't resist, she fell asleep within minutes.