CHAPTER 5

During the entire week, everyday at Brunch and Lunch, students were lining up to the chalk board, scratching in their body count under Fairy Tail's survellince.

Lucy crossed off a name on the school roster every time a line was carved in. She sat right on the teacher's desk with the names in one hand and a pencil in the other. "What's your name?" She smiled quite kindly to the boy who had been the most recent tally to her list.

"Eve Tearm." He returned the sweet gesture, "Good luck to you."

Lucy checked off his name and then saluted him, "Thanks."

There were about 400 collected tallies and names. Which meant there were 853 tallies left and about 35% of those had every intention of not carving theirs in. Outside of the classroom, many gang members stood watching and listening in. Waiting for the target to give up a weakness.

But over the last week, all she'd done was stay in that classroom, counting names and tallies.

"This shit is boring." Gajeel leaned back into Levy's desk, "How long are we supposed to stay and watch?"
"What else would we do?" Erza picked at her chipping nail polish. "You wanna skip school to go get high? You can do that anytime you want. Just do it here."

"No." The metal-faced man hissed at her, "This is her initiation, not ours. I just dunno why we are the ones fucking suffering."

"Feel free to leave." Levy brushed his arm off of her table, "We need witnesses to know the shady bitch isn't just carving them in herself."

"Harsh. I don't really peg Lucy as shady." Mira pointed out, "Just secretive."

"That, Mira, is the literal definition of shady." Levy pointed her pen at the white-haired girl, "We created the game so we've got to referee."

"Laaaame." Gajeel moaned.

Lucy, suddenly, slammed her hand into the chalkboard, causing all their eyes to snap up violently. The golden-haired girl was leaned up against a particular student in line. Midnight. She tilted her head with a deadly stare, quite close to his face. "And what do you think you're doing?"

Midnight stared at her without care, "Carving my tally."

The blonde lifted a brow, "Not you." She leaned off the board, returning to the desk, "Like I said Midnight, you're on my list." Lucy rested her chin into her palm with a hum, "Oh but I need you to initiate it, huh? Oh well, I guess I'll come up with something special for you."

Midnight stared at her aggressively unfriendly smile and then to Fairy Tail who had no intention to stop her. He sighed and scratched the back of his head, "I-"

"You can leave." Her tone dropped several keys. "Goodbye."

Midnight felt chills run up his spine and he didn't need another word to immediately obey.

"Oh wait." Lucy halted him, tapping her pencil to her lips, "Tell Cobra too. Kay?"

Midnight nodded and couldn't have been faster getting out of there. Lucy lifted her brows at the frozen line, "Continue." She pointed her pencil at them, "Now."

The carving ritual returned in milliseconds.

"I can't tell if that whole sweet act thing yesterday was set up. Maybe she wanted the maid to do that, maybe she wanted us to believe she's still got that Lucy purity in her." Gray twirled his pencil studying every detail in Lucy's glare. It was perfect. Natural. None of that awkwardness she let slip out yesterday. "She was in 12th for a hell of a long time. She probably got good at acting out her lies."

"I dunno, Gray." Erza leaned forward, resting her elbow onto Gray's shoulder. "She doesn't seem as… vicious today. She's at least smiling sometimes." The red-head pointed at Lucy kindly petting the head of another freshman girl who had just carved in a tally. "I think she legit was trying to intimidate us but the jig is up."

"Did you not see her just now with Midnight?" Gray turned to Erza, bting the eraser to his pencil, "This chick isn't a Fairy or else why would she have to do all this? Because none of you believe her either." Gray looked past Erza to Natsu's empty seat, "And where the Hell is the leading man?"

All of them looked back to the empty seat, except Levy.

"He's in 12th." Levy said making all of their heads whip around, including some eavesdropping students beside them.

"You're shitting us." Laxus hissed.

Levy looked up to him, annoyed that he was prying her from her head count. "No, I'm not shitting you? When do I ever shit you guys?" She looked back down, shaking her head and checking off names, "I gave him her transfer file yesterday. She's got a lot of shit but even more is classified and only accessible by her old school. It's weird and I think illegal. So," She looked up to see who was next in line and then down to cross their name off, "Natsu's handling it."

"12th district is like a fucking pit full of hundreds of Natsus." Gray rubbed his forehead, "What kind of… dumbass…"

"Dumbass, I think is the wrong word." Jellal spoke, doing a second tally of head counts, just in case. "Reckless, of course. But also necessary if we intend to allow her to actually join us if she succeeds in this ridiculous quest. You're right Gray, none of us trust her. But that doesn't exactly mean we don't want to." He continued making marks with his pencil, "The first step is getting answers."

Gray let out a long sigh in which Juvia quickly came to his side and rubbed his tense shoulder. "It's Natsu." She smiled at the irritated boyfriend, "The Prince. The leader of the Fairies, Gray. He's tough shit."

"Tough shit walking into the place that was able to make the most fragile piece of china into unbreakable steel." Gajeel mumbled into his palm as they all slowly looked up to Lucy.

. . .

The 12th district was certainly different from the 10th. Both were piles of shit but 12th was a pile of shit with every other district's piles of shit stacked on top.

A big pile of shit.

In 10th, crime was rampant, sure. But there were rules.

As far as everyone in every district knew, 12th didn't have any. Normally, gangs had property, towns, little cities that were protected. Some could even live a proper and normal life they existed within the more "justified" gang borders. Districts were like states. And that state had a governor, the King. And these states had cities but most people just called it territory. And these cities had mayors, the gang leaders. And thus, the mayors had its justice system. And that was their boys and sub-groups.

12th district didn't know such a thing.

There was no registered turf.

There was no territory.

They only had the King.

Everyone else just participated in lawless anarchy.

Not that any of the districts followed any federal laws. But it wasn't like the districts were even apart of a federal nation. They were alone and ignored.

So every place was crawling with gang fights and robbery. Even a doctor had to have an AK-47 by their side at all times.

And Natsu, well, he had a dagger.

And a good ass glare.

The streets were wretchedly filthy. No territory meant nobody circulated it, nobody forced people to clean it, at least a little bit. It was just horribly ripe with dead bodies and trash and dirt and shit and piss.

And every corner there was some sort of casualty.

It was quite lively.

But of course, 12th district did have to follow the universal law.

The schools weren't touched by non-students or non-teachers.

The schools were a safe zone almost.

If kids only weren't twice as vicious.

Natsu approached the gates, meeting the sight of two "guards." They eyed the spiky pink-haired outsider who was dressed in a 10th district uniform. And immediately, their faces grew smug, almost excited at such an easy prey coming to their feet.

"And what in hell does a 10th kiddie want?" One spat his toothpick into Natsu's face.

Natsu pulled the slobbery stick from his face and flicked it back to the boy, "Lucy Heartfilia." He tilted his head with a dull glare. "Heard of her?"

"Heart-y-who?" The other one growled, stuffing his hands into his pockets and approaching the dark-eyed trespasser. "I don't like yer glare. Kid."

"Yeah." The tooth-pick boy approached as well, drawing a mark onto Natsu's face with the stick. "Why don'cha get out of here and return to saintsville?"

Natsu looked past them, seeing a couple of students standing up from their social groups and coming in closer to the threat. The threat being him. "How about Lucy?" Natsu looked back to them, unfazed. "Ring a bell?"

"Yeah, no shit it does." Toothpick guard hissed as if Natsu was patronizing, "But I don't know no Heart-pedophilia."

"Hey!" A voice shouted from behind them. "Back it up."

The two looked back and almost immediately they glares shifted and all surrounding and closing-in foes backed off. Natsu saw a girl with light-blue hair, bobbed, walk toward him. Her presence alone made the two boys back off.

"A 10th district." The girl chewed loudly on a piece of gum, "How'd you find your way here? This ain't the right school, y'know."

"I know." Natsu spoke simply and uninterested. "Lucy Heartfilia. Got anything for me?"

The girl lifted her brows, a bit surprised and then immediately lowered them as realization glowed behind her eyes. "Ohhhh." She nodded with a big smile, "Oh I know who you are." She immediately, closed the gate between them, "Sorry, you're not gonna find what you want here."

"I believe I will." Natsu pulled out Lucy's folded file and dangled it with a single hand, "You guys left out some shit."

"Why seek paper when you've got the real thing?" She snickered, "I'm Yukino." She tapped the gate's rails sensually, "And you are?"

"I thought you knew." Natsu tilted his head with anything but a friendly expression.

"I do. I just thought it'd sound hotter coming from that husky voice." She purred, "You are one fine piece of art Mr. Natsu." She hummed with a giggle, "You almost make me want to give up everything to be with you too."

"You know her." Natsu stuffed the file back into his jacket pocket.

"Oh I do." Yukino tilted her head side to side, "She doesn't go by Heartfilia 'round here though. We've got first names and nicknames. Family names are… well useless." She rubbed the pole up and down far more erotic than a natural motion would ensue. "Oh but, I'm afraid I owe nothing to you. And quite frankily we owe nothing to that traitor either." She leaned her forehead against the metal with a pout, "Awww, but don't worry. When I want to know something, I doing a little thing called asking the source."

"And when the source doesn't answer?" Natsu gripped onto the pole, making Yukino's eyebrows raise. "What then?"

"Then you come back better prepared." Yukino pushed herself off of the gate with a smile, "Give me back the rogue princess and I'll give you all her information. Otherwise, I'm afraid I want nothing to do with this alternate reality of hers."

Natsu reached in and gripped onto her shirt, making the students around jump up. Yukino halted them with a single hand, "You don't want to give me a reason to come back here." He let go of her, "I promise."

"Keep that promise." She walked forward, "We've been aching for a good fight."

Natsu backed up, putting up his hood, giving a final glance to the guards. He turned around and threw up a set of stolen keys of which he caught and stuffed into his pocket. "Us too."

. . .

It was about sundown when the line had finally declined to only a few people.

Natsu, also, had finally shown up around this time.

Lucy looked at him but he coldly did not share the exchange. She pouted and then looked back to her easy tallies.

Natsu threw the keys onto Levy's desk, causing quite a bit of noise. "Got these from what I'm guessing is the president."

"President?" Levy swirtched folders and went through the 12th district school's records, or at least what had taken the care to be written down. "They don't have any council or anything."

"I think he means Yukino." Lucy said, making them all snap up. "I was eavesdropping but not really, you guys talk extraordinarily loud."

"Who is that?" Levy slapped the keys.

"I guess you could say she's the president." Lucy shrugged, "She's the Celestial's leader. She's like you, Natsu."

Natsu stared her down and walked closer, making the few in line back up many feet. "What documents are missing?" Natsu threw the file onto her lap, making Levy immediately slam her head into her desk. "Either you tell me or I get it by force."

Lucy matched his challenging stare and pushed the papers off of her lap, letting them fly across the floor. "There's nothing to get. My file at that school doesn't exist anymore. Burned to ashes. Call it my resignation to the 12th lifestyle."

"You burned it for a reason." Natsu slammed his palm onto the desk, right beside her thigh. He closed the distance between them. "What's the reason?"

"I didn't burn it. Yukino did." Lucy pet Natsu's cheek a bit affectionately, "It was a bad break-up."

Natsu shrugged her hand off and backed away.

"So…" Lucy hopped off of the desk, the rest of the line already having dispersed, "Even if you guys don't accept me, I don't have anywhere left to go." She sat on Gray's front desk, "You guys can burn that file too but, I came here to stay. And had always been in the 12th district, waiting to leave."

"Stop lying then." Levy ran her fingers through her hair, "Stop fucking lying."

"I don't believe I've lied. Just failed to tell the truth." Lucy sighed, "Some things are better left unknown."

"No." Natsu said, sitting in his chair, feet kicked up. "You will find a way to tell us. Everything. Or get out of this district." He held unforgiving eyes, "You pass the initiation and you tell us who you are. Only then are you welcomed back. And that's it."

Lucy swallowed, breaking her unbreakable confidence. "You won't like it."

"I don't like this." Natsu said, pulling out a cigarette from his pocket. "You have a promise to keep. I kept mine. Keep yours." He lit it between his lips, "Like I said, you have the last 9 years to make up for. Turn it into a summary and give it by the end of the initiation."

Lucy slid off of the desk, "And then you'll tell me?"

The rest of the gang were confused by that question but then turned to Natsu who seemed to know exactly what she was asking.

He turned away, exhaling a large cloud, "Like I said, I can't remember what it was."

Lucy pressed into the middle of her nose and exhaled loud, "Okay." She pressed into harder, making all of them stare at her with even more bewilderment. "Okayokayokayokayokay. Yes." She nodded immediately. "I'll do it. Summary and ass-kicking. Yep, done. Got it."

Levy cracked a snicker which then ensued the rest of them to join.

Lucy furrowed her brows at the outburst and then her cheeks melted into a red color. "What?" She stepped back. She looked to Natsu who was wearing a grin too. "What?"

"You're so weird." Levy rested her cheek on her palm, "Are you cute and awkward or are you a hard ass bitch? You make me want to kill you but also… you do shit like this and it's wildly confusing."

"Well." Lucy scratched the back of her blonde head, "I guess I'm both. Sometimes."

"Start answering our questions," Laxus said, rolling a ball on his desk, "And we'll answer yours. If you want to be apart of the family again, Luce, trust is necessary."

"Okay." Lucy nodded hard, "What do you wanna know?"

"Everything." Natsu leaned forward.

Lucy tilted her head side to side and licked her lips a bit, "That… is not possible." She looked back to him, "If I do that, then not only I and you will be in trouble, but so will my mom."

"Your mom?" Levy furrowed her brows, "Why your mom?"

"Well, she won't get the shit end of the stick. But, I made a promise. And promises can't be broken." She looked to Natsu, "That's the one thing the 12th taught me that I think you all would approve of."

Natsu tilted his chin back up, demeanor far more defensive, "Like I said, everything or get the hell out."

Lucy lifted her brows and then searched the room as if a solution would be written on the walls. "Well," She hummed, "As long as I don't tell you, we should be okay. Probably." Lucy shooed away the thought, "Having a bunch of 12th kids would only cause chaos."

"So let's go there." Gajeel spoke up, "To the 12th district."

"Oh now that is not an option." Lucy laughed as though he was suggesting something obviously preposterous. "Oh well, give it time." Lucy shrugged it off, "They're bound to come looking for me eventually."

Everyone then exchanged glances. "Who the hell is looking for you?" Levy shook her head.

"The Celestials." Lucy blinked as though it were as clear as day. "Didn't you know? I was one of them." She let out a long sigh, "They do not handle their exes well."

An air as thick as glue wafted around all of Fairy Tail. It seemed a moment ago they felt so close to their long-lost blonde but now, they were miles away. "You were one of them?" Natsu's unfriendly glare was even more so. "You left us for them."

"No." She pointed at Natsu, "I left for another thing of which has little relevance to them. They just happened to be on my path to getting back to you."

"Are they the creation of whatever thing is in front of us right now?" Laxus scowled, "An ex-Celestial?"

"Partly." She now pointed at scar-face. "But a bigger part was you guys." Lucy shrunk a bit in her chair, muffling her voice into her enormous tits, "… I made… a promise… y'know."

Natsu bit onto his bottom lip's dead skin and looked back out the window, "I don't know." He said, looking down onto the floor, "I don't know you."

Lucy looked down immediately at such a shattering statement. She rubbed her eyebrow and came to a stand, "Okay." She said quite softly, "I'm keeping the promises I've made regardless." She turned around with a sad posture, "So… remember yours."

Natsu said nothing and did not look back as she walked out.

The demeanor was extremely weighing. It was like their energies were being pulled towards Natsu black abyss of despair.

Slowly, the gang started standing up as the intensity of the negativity heightened and one by one exited.

Levy was the last one.

And she stayed a while.

"It's a lot." Levy broke the silence but the pink-haired leader did not look away from the glass. "I wanted to protect her too. She was important to me too. Natsu, on God I know I was just as fucking wrecked as you were when we realized Lucy was coming back." She looked down to his wooden desk, graffiti everywhere. "And now she's back. And she's not the Lucy we wanted to protect. She's not the same. At all. But you can't tell me you don't know her."

Natsu only breathed.

Levy let out a long exhale, "I loved her too. I still love her. Maybe not the same feeling you've been pointlessly holding onto since 3rd grade but… it's a similar devotion." She ran light circles on his desk, "But, I know I still don't want to lose her. Not again. And as cautious as I am with her new… everything… I'm more cautious about letting her back in and having her leave again."

"She left." Natsu said simply, "I accepted that a hell of a while ago." He stood up rather aggressively, "So, I'm not accepting this."

Levy silently watch him leave and then she looked down to Lucy's incomplete file. And then she stood up, collecting her things.

And left.

. . .

Lucy came home with a dark cloud hovering over her head.

"Miss?" The maid scooted toward the depressed girl as she silently sat at the end of an empty table. "Did something happen… with your friends?"

"We keep going back and forth." Lucy rested her bummed-out cheek on her palm and played with a nicely folded napkin. "I thought they'd be happy to see me back and I thought… that they'd be happy to see how tough I am too."

"Well," The maid placed a plate of sweets in front of the child and the blonde's eyes lit up immensely. "Perhaps… they just are satisfied with who you already were."

"I'm as in control of this situation as they are." Lucy stuffed a huge cake whole into her mouth and swallowed it without a single chew. "I feel like I just took a whole step back. And it sucks. Cause I thought… I dunno… that we were going forward."

"Have you attempted at behaving like you used to?" The maid spoke softly, placing a glass of water beside the plate. "I'm sure it is the 'tough' attitude that they are having a difficult time accepting."

"But shit!" Lucy hit the table, "See? Shit. I said shit. Last time they saw me I was 8. I never would've said shit. Just like how I wouldn't have been able to stop those kids from cutting off my hair." The blonde glared triumphant daggers into the maid's rather calm expression, "But there's no way I'm going back to that."

"Perhaps… honesty?" The maid folded her arms over her stomach.

"Another situation I can't control." Lucy slammed her forehead into the table, defeated. "I know I went a little overboard the first day but… I thought I looked so cool. I thought they'd be like 'ooohhh wow look how cool she is now.' Or like at least be a bit impressed with how wickedly badass I am."

The maid took away Lucy's empty plate, "I do believe there are an endless amount of 'wickedly badass' people here. So it may not be entirely impressive."

Lucy let out a long, long groan before responding.

"I know." She propped her chin onto her hands, "Maybe I shouldn't have come back. It's not like I can tell them anything. It's like I'm still gone… they don't know who I am."

The maid was silent for more than a few moments as she wiped off the crumbs on the table. "It has been a week, Miss. I do believe you must give yourself and them time."

"All we've had is time." Lucy stood up from the chair and stretched out her arms, "Okay." She nodded firm, "Old Lucy is gone. But new Lucy is here." She cracked her knuckles, "We've gotta get to know each other again." She immediately pulled out her phone, "And find away around Mom and the old man's contract."

The maid nodded and said nothing more, just took the dishes into the kitchen with a small smile.

. . .

Bright and early in the morning, the line for the tallies was enormous.

Levy was the only one who bothered to show up to watch Lucy and take names. Everyone else, well it seemed their attention spans had reached its peak with class.

The blonde was kind to each and every person that gave up their spots.

Levy, however, was irritated and bored.

Not once throughout the week was there a single willing opponent for her. Not that she necessarily wanted to be responsible for the aftermath but, just because Minerva ate shit doesn't mean the same purpose would serve for everyone else. When did the 10th district become a pit of pussies.

Just cause of a 12th district.

That was another worrisome thing.

The 12th district.

Whether they acknowledged it or not, the time for picking gangs was coming with senior year just a couple months away. Did Natsu intend to take them all and start a new one?

It was widely rumored that the King had been interested in Natsu.

But what about them?

If they all became the King's army, then they would have turf wars with the 12th. With the 11th as well. And if the entire school of 10th was terrified of a single 12th, what chance did their district have for the future?

The 10th was a Robin Hood of sorts.

It was allies with the 1-9th districts. It protected them even. The 10th is the reason the first district was pretty much their version of paradise. It was farther away from this chaos. And the 12th was full of the rejects, the outlaws, those that couldn't make a gang in any district, or those that broke rules. Or needed to escape.

The 10th was the barrier between law and anarchy.

Or at least what little law the districts had.

It was the tie that held everyone together. Except for the 11th and 12th.

Both were the biggest districts.

And the nastiest.

And to expect them to be able to hold up against that was… unrealistic.

"Hey there." A voice broke Levy's deep thought. "You've missed quite a few names." Lucy spoke, checking off the empty spots.

"Damn." The bluenette hissed, swiping her pen from Lucy's fingers and wrote furiously.

Lucy sat on the tiny girl's desk and watched her busy fingers go to work. "What's wrong?"

"Wrong?" Levy growled low, "What would be wrong?"

"Why would I ask if I knew?" Lucy snickered a bit cutely, "You just… you used to twitch your pinky finger whenever you were upset. When we were younger, I mean. And I guess you still do."

Levy widened her eyes at such a memorized detail. And then looked down to see that, indeed, her pinkie was involuntarily twitching. She scratched her cheek, "You remember that?"

"I remember everything." She smiled nicely, making Levy's finger stop its fidgeting.

The blue-haired girl rubbed her face and then glared through the holes of her fingers to the empty line. "Where's the rest?"

"There's nobody." Lucy shrugged, looking to the empty doorway, "Guess the physical trials will be starting soon."

"Hey." Levy said, snapping the blonde thug's attention back to her. "What's the 12th district like in comparison to here?"

Lucy lifted her eyebrows at such a question and slowly slid off the desk and into the seat beside Levy. "Um, well a lot dirtier." She rested her cheek onto her shoulder as she slouched. "There's no actual 'classes.' Students just sort of hang out all day. We all go though, cause well, that's the only real safe zone. Kinda." She said, "The people are… scarier. But that's just cause there's no rules. So if somebody is just having a bad day they could stab you without any reprocussions. Unless you've got connections, of course. But nobody wasted their time with vengeance."

"And the Celestials?" She lifted her brows.

Lucy licked her lips and sat up a bit, "They were similar to you guys." She smiled a bit, "Not in middle school though, they were all heartless. But by Sophomore year, they were… good. They created rules for the students. Before, the school wasn't even a safe zone. The 12th didn't apply any of our rules to their society." The blonde leaned onto her elbows, "But the Celestials ensured the next generation would be protected."

Levy pulled at some dead skin on her bottom lip for awhile as she analyzed the information in her head. "What changed them?"

"The 12th's King." Lucy tapped the table with a bit of a slimier grin.

"And what changed him?" Levy twirled her pencil impatiently.

"A deal." Lucy tilted her head. And Levy leaned back, biting her bottom lip now.

"A promise?" Levy referenced her remarks from yesterday.

"That's a synonym for it." Lucy chuckled a bit, coming to a stand. "I am loyal to you guys. But I also am loyal to my promises. I will tell you whatever I can and give you whatever you need. But," Lucy twisted her long blonde strands, "I can't hurt everything in the process. My intention has never been and will never be to hurt you guys or anybody that's protected me." She shrugged a bit awkwardly, "But there's no way to live in these districts without blood on your hands. Or else its your blood on their hands."

Levy swallowed and licked the inside of her mouth, studying the girl in front of her. Brown eyes. Golden hair. Beautiful face. And the purest emotions. Lucy Heartfilia. The girl, the friend who she thought she'd never see again.

Levy took in a huge breath and looked away to stop her building emotions. "You're still as stupid with your plans as you were back then." She scoffed a laugh, "If you'd been like this from the get go… this would have gone a lot smoother."

"Yeah." Lucy scratched her face with an awkward laugh, "To be honest though, it was necessary. I'm different. And I have the brawn to back up anger. Just like you guys." She moved her hair behind her ear, "I don't need you guys seeing me as something to be protected anymore. Cause I'm… real cool now."

"Cool." Levy sarcastically repeated, "I get it. None of us are the same either, we just had the opportunity to grow up together." She tapped her pencil on her desk, looking up to her, "I'm still livid that you didn't even have the audacity to tell us you were leaving. Maybe then we could've expected this. But instead you come back with nothing but a glare and a fist to beat Minerva into a bloody mess."

"I was 8 you know. I didn't even know I was leaving." Lucy looked to the door where a freshman timidly walked in. And then looked back to Levy, "Come over today. I can't tell you everything but what I can, I will."

Levy let out a very long and defeated exhale, "Fine. But just me. You're not using me to get on everyone's good side."

"You're all too independent for that." Lucy snickered, walking toward the girl and handing her a knife for her tally. "Besides, once I win this initiation, you've got no choice but to deal with me. I guess we both had shitty plans."

Levy widened her eyes despite Lucy's sweet smile, "Wait!"

The freshman girl flipped the dagger and swiped it toward Lucy. The blonde caught her wrist without even looking over her shoulder and cracked the bone within her grip. "Like I said," She turned the freshman girl who was blocking a wail with several grunts. "I don't need protection."

HEY DUDES I'VE UPDATED TWO STORIES IN A SHORT SPAN BETWEEN EACH OTHER HA HA HA HA NEW KEYBOARDS ROCK.

Anyway, here ya is.

I had a hard time deciding how I was going to plan their relationship. But I realized there's a lot of emotion right now. The girl Natsu has loved since he was 8 is back but not the same princess he wanted to save from the tower. Like she's the fucking dragon now and he's goddamn dragon slayer. So Natsu has some rocky roads. Levy is constantly carrying the weight of the gang and the students despite not being Fairy Tail's leader so she's always dealing with difficult and sudden situations. So I think she's the perfect person for Lucy to sort of seek refuge in.

It's rocky.

And their relationships will be rocky for a bit.

Like this ain't the Lucy they remember. But at the same time she is. She just isn't weak anymore, and that was always what separated her from them, was that she never fought. She was peaceful and caring and kind. But they'll learn she's the same. Just has a bite now. And a serious bark.

Okay, that's all.

Farewell.

~ Lovex1