Hello dear person reading this! Yet again, I try my hand at fanfiction. Unfortunately my previous attempts were shortlived as I lost access to my laptop, and well, all hype for writing just… died. I don't know if I'll be continuing the previous stories I wrote, or well, began writing, we'll see. But for now, enjoy this my dears! Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima ofc.

It was a warm summer's day, birds singing and the sun rays shining their warmth upon the people of Magnolia. Perfect for spending the day outside, which many of the citizens of the town did; childrens' laughter could be heard all around. Though a particular member of Fiore's strongest guild, Fairy Tail, was not enjoying the summer's day. Her blonde hair was not basking in the sunlight as she'd usually have it do, oh no. This young woman was spending the day locked away in her apartment, basking in the peace away from her fire-breathing partner and his surprisingly blue cat, who'd both gone fishing on the latter's request. For it would be the perfect chance to catch up on adding to her novel, especially with all the recent events of the Grand Magic Games filling her to the brim with inspiration!

Or so she'd thought.

Yet another crumpled piece of paper flew to her already overfilled trash can. Try as she may, the words wouldn't flow the way she wanted them to, mostly because they were being overbeared with other thoughts, though she was too stubborn to admit defeat all that time. With a final groan of frustration and a tug at her hair, the celestial spirit mage pushed her body away from the table after many hours. Looking outside she could see the sun was already beginning to set, although that didn't catch her attention in the slightest. What troubled our dear was the recent events, no matter how much effort she put into stopping it, it wouldn't go. It stayed, plaguing her mind, driving her mood into the lowest of lows. If her fights in the games, if they could even be called that, didn't drive the feeling already deep, the sight of herself dying hammered it home. She felt weak. Helpless. She'd discussed this feeling with a handful of friends, Leo being the main source of comfort, though no matter what they said, the feelings tore at her heart still. She understood that she was quite possible the strongest spirit mage alive, maybe even of all times, but that meant nothing if she couldn't protect her family. Instead everyone else kept on saving her countless of times. How long would this continue? If it hadn't been for her future self, Natsu would've died to protect her from the shot of future Rogue. The nightmares of it had plagued her for the past month, leading to many sleepless nights, but she did a good job of hiding it. No-one had seemed to notice, which was good. She didn't want to worry her nakama any more than she'd done already, after all they'd done so much for her, and what did she do in repayment… nothin-

"Stop that. You are a damn Heartfilia, don't let the nightmares get the best of you" she told herself, tearing her out of her depressing thoughts. Of course she'd done many things to help! How could she forget the many adventures she'd been a part of? Hell if she was going to do so now. "I can't let it happen. I won't let it happen."

With a newfound feeling of determination, Lucy began to plan her course of action. One that would involve a lot of protests from her beloved team, most of all her slightly dense partner.

The sound of her window opening pulled her out of her thoughts. Speaking of the devil. As she looked around, she'd noticed that while she was deep in her mind, the sun had already set leaving her appartment in darkness. "Yo Lucy!" Was heard coming from her bedroom. "I'll be there in a minute!" she replied. As quickly as she could, Lucy bunched the papers of her novel, and stacked them neatly on the corner of her large writing desk. The novel and poor Levy awaiting an update would have to wait for another while. "You won't belieeeve the size of the fish I got, Lucy!" Words came spewing out of the little exceed's mouth as he flew into her living room. "It was soooo strong too!"
"Pft it was no match for the great Natsu!" The dragon slayer quickly joined them.
"It even pulled Natsu into the lake!"
"Oi! Don't tell her that!" As Natsu went on to chase Happy, Lucy couldn't help but let out a giggle at her partner's antics, as all her previous thoughts quickly left her mind. No matter what happened, Natsu always seemed to have a way to make her feel better, even if he didn't realise it.
"Welcome back!" She said with a smile, catching the attention of the topics of her thoughts. "Come on and settle down, I'll cook us a meal, I was so caught up writing I forgot to eat!" That was proved as no lie as her stomach grumbled right after. Lucy could feel her cheeks burning up, but ignored them on her way to the kitchen. "Yosh! Lucy's gonna cook food!"
"I hope she cooks some fish!" Although Lucy couldn't see the little exceed's face, she could just imagine him drooling as he said that. Which he had indeed done.

Yes, everything could wait until later. For now she had human food bin and his companion to feed.

"I'll grow stronger to protect you guys, I promise. A celestial spirit mage never breaks their promises" she thought to herself. With that thought in mind she spent the rest of her night with her jolly partner and his exceed as she'd done many nighta before, basking in his infectious happiness. How could she ever want them to leave?

Well, I apologise for how short this is, though I couldn't add much more to it. Hopefully you'll enjoy! I'll try to update asap c:
-Kimi