AN: Here's my contribution to MidLu Week, created by the incredible GemNika and Little Princess Nana! Info on the prompts can be found on their profiles. (I'm a day late, but life gets in the way of our best laid plans sometimes.) This shall be part of an AU where Fairy Tail was not disbanded after the events of Tartaros and Crime Sorciere was pardoned and recognized as a legal guild. It will build to MidLu, but for this prompt at least, they're still just friends. Here's Day 1: Birthday.

Disclaimer: As always, Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima.

Lucy sighed softly as she left the guild. She loved her friends, and it found it very sweet that they threw a party for her, but the chaos from mixing Fairy Tail, Sabertooth, Blue Pegasus, Quatro Cerberus, and Crime Sorciere was a little too much, even for the blonde's high tolerance. She had stayed at the guild for five hours before she had to call it quits. Being hit by no less than seven chairs and two tables from the even larger than usual celebratory brawl made her want to unleash Scary Lucy, except that doing so would completely ruin her mood. Not like she was in such a stellar mood to begin with (no pun intended).

Lucy was very grateful to her friends for distracting her for a while, even getting her to smile a few times and laugh once, but she needed some time away from them today. This would be her first birthday without Aquarius, and the loss of her oldest friend stung more than usual.

With a loving glance back to her rambunctious guild, she made her way home, balancing along the edge of the canal and waving greetings to the fishermen. Once she arrived at her apartment, she unlocked the door, walked in, kicked off her favorite heeled boots with a groan, and slammed the door behind her.

"Well someone's grumpy today," a voice remarked from the dark room. Lucy glared blindly as she located the light switch and flipped it on, bathing her living room with light and revealing her intruder.

"What do you want, Midnight? I'm really not in the mood for company right now." The blonde rubbed her eyes tiredly and shuffled towards her bedroom. Her progress was halted by the red-eyed man as he grabbed her arm and turned her towards him. He scrutinized her for what seemed like forever to the Celestial mage before letting go and pushing her back into motion.

"Go. Put on some pjs and then come back here. I'll make the hot chocolate and popcorn." She blinked in surprise before smiling at him affectionately. Somehow, ever since they first struck up their unlikely friendship, Midnight had always been able to read Lucy's emotions and come up with the best activities to complement, or remedy, them. Movie nights with the two cuddled on her couch was the standard solution to the days when she struggled to get out of bed, the despair of loss weighing her down.

As she followed his instructions to change, Lucy thought back over the entirety of their friendship. They had begun by bonding over makeup and the difficulties of having idiot Dragon Slayers as partners (both Cobra and Natsu took offense over that, but quickly proved Midnight and Lucy right by starting a brawl... right next to Erza's strawberry cake). Also, Midnight claimed the blonde was the only semi-quiet one in all of Fairy Tail, therefore the only one worth spending time with, when Crime Sorciere came to visit (which it did often as Jellal and Erza awkwardly flirted with each other, Cobra and Kinana became best friends once more, and Hoteye, Angel, and Meredy joined Mira in matchmaking). After a few months, the two started meeting up outside of the guild, mostly at Lucy's apartment, and their friendship solidified into what it was now.

Lucy exited her room and her eyes lit up at the sight of her coffee table spread with the requisite snacks and the previews already starting on her lacrima television. Midnight patted the spot next to him in invitation and she made her way over without hesitation. Snuggling into his side and pulling the throw blanket over them, she turned her eyes onto the screen and busied her mouth with her cup of chocolate, delighting in its sweet warmth. This was exactly what she needed, a night relaxing with one of her best friends, no pressure to be the bubbly blonde she usually was. She felt Midnight's arm settle around her and give a gently squeeze.

"Happy birthday Lucy."