Lucy Heartfilia was not in the best of moods lately. In fact, she was downright frustrated, depressed even. It simply felt like everything had been going wrong, and she couldn't stop herself from feeling as if it were her own fault for doing it too. She had always thought she could have looked to Natsu for some kind of answer, some sort of positive spin that could take away this overwhelming feeling of despair and hopelessness that seemed to prevail in her life. His dimwitted yet infectious optimism was something that had helped Lucy get through numerous tough situations in her life, from times where she'd nearly died to even losing people who were important to her, like her father. Yet now Natsu was gone. Not only him, but the rest of Fairy Tail too. After all of the adventures they'd been through, the bonds they'd built and shared, the promises they'd made, in the end, everyone had gone their separate ways. Lucy had been powerless to stop it. Then again, she had always been the most powerless one of them all before, so she supposed it wasn't the biggest of shocks that she was unable to change things this time either. Now, she lived in this city full of people of all different cultures and creeds, yet she never felt more alone.

She didn't do it often, but sometimes, when she felt like she was lingering at her lowest point, she would take to drink. On those nights, where she spent hours at a time at the local bars, she would get so drunk that it actually started to concern people. She'd mastered the art of drinking enough to outdo some men, possibly even match Cana's expertise, but she couldn't quite hold her liquor or handle the alcoholic after-effects quite as well. She tended to get drunk quickly, sometimes after only her second drink. She became progressively more drunk with every subsequent drink she had. Fortunately, she usually made sure to bring a 'drinking buddy' with her to make sure she didn't end up hurting herself or be led into dangerous situations by a stranger. It was usually another woman, but not one of her friends like Erza or Cana or Evergreen or any of the others. She barely ever talked to any of them anymore. They were all off doing other things. Instead, she usually tried to hang out with the girls who were already at the bar, some of them tending to be more plastered than others. They only ever discussed things on the level of acquaintances, though. She couldn't build friendship with these women like she had with her friends in the guild. She didn't know if she had it in her to do so. Lucy had lost a ton of confidence in the wake of Fairy Tail's disbandment, because, as she soon realized, that confidence had come FROM the guild itself. She didn't even like showing off her guild mark anymore; she wore finger-less gloves when she went out so as to conceal it from both others and herself.

Then, Flare Corona appeared at the front door of her apartment one day.

"Flare? What are you doing here?" Lucy wasn't upset about seeing the redheaded hair-mage again, but she was certainly confused. They hadn't seen each other in a long time, but the last she recalled was that she, along with Natsu and the others, had helped reunite Flare with the Giant family that had adopted her. Lucy had assumed that Flare remained with them because she was no longer a member of Raven Tail guild. Lucy had not anticipated any future meetings to ever occur again.

The other woman smiled weakly. She was rather lacking when it came to proper social skills, so she did her best to explain by holding up some kind of magazine. A fashion magazine as it so happened, but the mag itself was turned open to an ad featuring an image of Lucy herself, posing in a bikini. It was an advertisement meant to sell some kind of new 'magically-infused' perfume with Lucy as the cover girl for this particular image. Lucy's eyes widened. She had done several gravure shoots and modeling sessions for the sake of some extra cash, but they had only told her it would be used for commercial purposes. She hadn't thought it'd be used for perfume. She didn't even wear perfume anymore herself.

"Oh, so you saw that...?" Lucy asked, trying to make sense of Flare's reasoning on showing the picture.

Flare nodded fiercely. She lowered the magazine again. Looking at her now, Lucy was quite sure that Flare's hair was looking shorter. She must have finally come around to cutting it, even though her magic was based around utilizing her hair. If she'd really done that, then that meant she had no intention of using her magic for any particular reason anymore.

"I...I saw the picture, and I was reminded of you. I thought I could...um, see you again. If that's alright with you." Flare asked, stuttering a little throughout.

Lucy blinked a few times, but then she found herself starting to grin herself. "Is that so...?"

"It's been a long time, Lucy. I wanted to be able to do more to pay you back for everything you and your guild did to help me." Flare spoke more clearly this time as she finally managed to gather her words.

Lucy paused. She wanted to tell Flare that she didn't have to 'repay' her for anything. She wanted to tell her that the Fairy Tail guild was no longer in existence. She wanted to tell her that Natsu, Gray, Erza and everyone else had all left, and they'd left her behind, as if they no longer wanted nothing to do with her. Lucy waited a moment longer, and then, she heaved out a long, heavy sigh. She didn't want to start getting emotional again. She was sick and tired of being sad like this. She shook her head, reached out, and rested a friendly hand upon Flare's shoulder.

"Why don't you and I go out somewhere? We can talk more then!"

"You don't mind...?"

"It's totally fine! It's been a while, so we got to catch up on!" Lucy laughed. "Besides, I don't have anything good to offer here anyway! I still have to do my grocery shopping tomorrow."

Lucy took Flare to her favorite bar in town, which also happened to be the closest bar around her apartment complex too. It wasn't simply because of the convenience of having someplace close she could go to while still being able to safely walk home afterward, but it also really did serve better drinks than the other bars she used to go to with her drinking buddies. Flare had only ever drunk alcohol once before, but she hadn't been very fond of it. She didn't argue against Lucy's offering to take her out drinking though; she would have never turned it down, no matter what happened. In fact, Flare was thrilled to go, but she was also so anxious because of it that she couldn't bring herself to properly express that feeling outwardly. Instead, she remained perfectly quiet as she listened to Lucy talk on and on the whole way they walked to the bar. Flare's mind was racing, so much that she didn't take in many of Lucy's words. She couldn't pay attention when she was trying so hard to sort out her own feelings at the same exact moment. Flare liked Lucy. She liked Lucy a lot. Actually, if she was going to be truly honest with herself, she was probably deeply in love with her.

When did this love start? Maybe it had happened at some point when they'd last seen each other. The extent of kindness and forgiveness that Lucy had been willing to show her had destroyed Flare's nihilistic world view, and it had been for the better. Flare remembered, when she had been a member of Raven Tail, that she had essentially tortured Lucy in the middle of their battle in that magic tournament, even threatening to harm an innocent child in effort to make the blonde surrender the math. Flare was disgusted with herself to this day for doing such heinous things, but she had been confused back then. She had been stupid. Lucy had ultimately helped show her the way, but it was amazing to Flare that Lucy had been the one to do it at all. Flare hadn't thought she deserved any second chances, but Lucy, the one person she had hurt the most with her powers, had been willing to take her hand lead her to a happy ending. The redhead assumed that she'd become truly smitten for the buxom blonde after that. Flare never thought she was gay before she started dreaming about Lucy in the middle of the night...but here she was, head over heels for this girl. Flare had shown the magazine ad to Lucy, but she hadn't told the other mage about the few times she'd touched herself looking at it.

Flare Corona was probably in love with Lucy Heartfilia. Maybe it was some sort of childish lust or a bisexual curiosity, but Flare truly did want it to be love. She was not afraid of being someone who loved others of the same gender. That did not mean that she couldn't love. It didn't 'scare' her or 'confuse' her. The only thing she truly was fearful about was knowing whether or not Lucy could possibly ever return these feelings of hers. Flare had done her research into the subject, and unfortunately, it seemed highly unlikely. People like herself weren't as common as she'd liked to think. The chances of Lucy reciprocating her crush...was close to nil.

"So what do you usually like to drink?" Lucy asked all of the sudden.

"Um, I don't usually drink very much at all."

"Oh? Is that so? Well, it wouldn't be fun being the only one drinking, right? How about I order something for you? Would that be okay? I'll make sure it isn't too heavy for you."

Flare's snow-white cheeks transformed with a glorious shade of red. "T-That would be very nice, thank you, L-Lucy."

"You okay? You look so red already, you sure you haven't been drinking this whole time?" Lucy giggled, nudging her in the side.

"N-No! I haven't...!" Flare waved her hands.

"Ha...ha ha ha..." Lucy laughed, but she started to slow down and start shaking her head. "Man, I keep talking about alcohol so much, I sound like Cana...or an alcoholic. Eh, I might be becoming the latter with how much I go to bars, huh?"

"I don't think that's necessarily true." Flare said. She really didn't want to let Lucy get too down on herself. She was far too wonderful and beautiful and absolutely amazing to ever feel so terrible about herself.

"Well, anyway, I'm actually...actually kind of glad that you're here, Flare. Someone that I know from back then. Back when I was..." Lucy paused. She looked sad again, and Flare so badly wanted to kiss that sadness away, and she started to blush and get flustered over thinking about actually kissing Lucy, and soon Flare had forgotten about the other girl's problems overall and began panicking about her own.

"Anyway!" Lucy snapped again. She forced out the biggest grin she could possibly make. "Let's forget about that and get something to drink already, right?"

Lucy and Flare took to the bar and they got themselves their seats at the very front counter. They ordered drinks but they also ordered food; the bartender insisted, especially because they'd just gotten in a fresh batch of fish for the day. Flare had rarely eaten fish, so drinking out and eating out this way were both rather new experiences for her. Lucy, however, was all for it, and she encouraged Flare to keep trying new things. The redhead did her best to keep her blushing down to a minimum, but it was hard, especially those few times where her hand accidentally grazed against Lucy's, or vice-versa. Lucy herself didn't seem to notice these brief, flustered expressions, or maybe she was simply good at ignoring them on purpose so as not to draw attention to them. Either way, the two of them enjoyed each other's company thoroughly. As the night progressed, as the drinks were refilled over and over, Lucy became progressively more drunk. Flare avoided drinking anymore after her first two shots, and now that she was done eating she was basically sitting there and watching Lucy sink deeper and deeper into her alcohol-influenced stupor. It didn't take long before Lucy began to rant.

"You know, I...I'm glad, honestly! Really, I am! I'm so glad that I'm not in that dumb guild anymore!"

"Huh?" Flare was taken aback.

"The Fairy Tail guild!"

"Huh? But, Lucy, you quit the guild? Really?" Flare was even more taken aback by this claim; she actually had no idea that Lucy was no longer a member of the Fairy Tail guild.

"We ran into some problems. Big problems. Financial problems. We spent too much money drinking and playing and eating, and...well, we couldn't keep the guild afloat or afford the taxes even if we wanted to. We had to close down."

"Oh my God...I'm...I'm so sorry..." Flare brought a hand up to her mouth. She wanted to hug Lucy right then and there, but she was afraid to touch her, to imply too much out of what she wanted to make a friendly gesture instead. Flare was so confused. She was afraid to express herself to this woman that she cared for so deeply because she, and possibly only she, could ever potentially infer that her actions might have implied more than friendship. It was completely ridiculous, but Flare couldn't get it out of her head. She didn't even know this was the reason why she held back, outside of not wanting to show romantic affection.

"It's fine! It's fine!" Lucy exclaimed. "It's totally...it's really..." Lucy paused. She stared off, blankly, at the wall of various wines and liquors standing on the other side of the counter. She looked down at her hand, the one clutching her glass. She saw the emblem of the Fairy Tail guild still emblazoned on it. Her eyes started to well up with tears as her bottom lip began trembling as well. "...I just...I don't know what to do without them anymore...I...I miss them..."

Flare couldn't hold herself back anymore. Her heart was breaking simply from watching Lucy sink into her sadness like this; she couldn't even begin to imagine how it must have felt for the blonde herself. She flung herself at Lucy, embracing her in a tight, comforting hug. Lucy gasped. Flare's breasts pushed hard into the side of Lucy's arm, until Lucy's whole elbow was swallowed up inside of the soft, warm embrace of it. Flare pressed her chin into Lucy's shoulder. The blonde did not try to fight her off or even ask her what she thought she was doing. Instead, she continued to sit there, trying her best not to start crying. Flare knew what she was doing might have been wrong, but she held onto Lucy for as long as potentially possible. She didn't want to let Lucy shed even a single tear again without her knowing that Flare would be there to comfort her, no matter the stakes involved.

"Lucy, maybe we should go back to your place? You might have drunk too much."

Lucy sniffled. She nodded, but she still didn't say anything, even as she pulled out her wallet to pay for the drinks and their meals. She allowed Flare to continue holding onto her until she stood up from her stool. She let Flare lead her over to the door. Lucy tried so hard not to stare down at her own hand, but when she did, Flare reached out and grabbed hold of that hand and squeezed it tight. Lucy looked up and stared into Flare's eyes. Flare stared back. There was no reluctance, no hesitation, no fear. Flare had lost all inhibitions; she was doing this out of the goodness of her heart and for her care, and her love, for the woman named Lucy Heartfilia. Lucy started to smile back at her, the corners of her lips twitching as she struggled not to cry again. Flare held onto her.

Upon returning to Lucy's apartment, the two women were left unsure of what to do next. Lucy was still drunk, but now she couldn't stop herself from thinking about Flare rather than the collapse of her guild. She held onto Flare's hands because they were just so warm. She started to smile again, but this time, her smile was much more genuine, even though her eyes were still puffy and red from her crying. Flare started to lean in. She didn't want to be presumptuous and assume that this was what Lucy wanted too, but the blonde wasn't putting up any kind of fight either. Flare took a deep breath...and then Lucy suddenly lunged forward and kissed her full on the mouth.

Things started to become quite passionate from there. Whether it was the alcohol spurring her on or she actually returned Flare's feelings, the redhead did not know for sure, but she did not stop herself from accepting Lucy's kiss and beyond. Lucy continued to kiss her, their lips smacking passionately with each connection, the wetness beginning to form a string of sticky saliva that acted like a string connecting their mouths together. As they started to move over for someplace to sit down, Flare and Lucy could not keep their hands off of each other. Lucy was far braver in her actions, taking one hand to grab at Flare's breast and gently massage it by rotating the palm of her hand over Flare's nipple underneath her dress. Flare moaned into Lucy's mouth. This was going so fast, but she liked it so much, she honestly didn't care at all. She had had dreams of Lucy doing this to her before, so taking it to the level of reality was not something she could have ever protested against. Flare held onto Lucy's arms so tightly that her fingernails dug into them. As they lowered themselves onto the couch, Lucy continued to play with Flare's breasts while kissing her at the same time. Lucy moaned. Her voice was so deep and ragged, her breath barely able to catch itself. It got Flare so hot. She started to use her hair magic now; as her hair came to life, she mentally commanded her follicles to reach down and begin removing both her clothes and Lucy's own. The two of them were soon enshrouded in a blanket of Flare's own hair as they were stripped down into a state of nudity. Lucy and Flare were both panting so hard they could barely speak. They were soaking in their own sweat.

"F...Flare...I...I'm sorry...I...I can't...I can't..." Lucy tried to speak, but Flare tapped her on the lips with one of her red locks, silencing her.

"It's okay, Lucy..." Flare wheezed out. "I've...I've...I've wanted to do this for so long..."

"Flare..."

"I love you, Lucy...I love you...I've been in love...with you...ever since you..."

"Please, Flare," Lucy leaned up and kissed her on the mouth yet again. "Don't talk...for now..."

Flare and Lucy pressed their bodies together in warm, hot, and wet intimacy. Now completely nude, they were free to touch and feel every single inch of each other's beautiful forms. Flare took one of Lucy's breasts into her mouth and began to suck. She locked her lips around the thick nipple and suckled like a newborn being fed its mother's milk for the first time. Lucy's breathing hitched in her throat. Her fingers scratched at Flare's back as she held onto the young woman. Flare continued to lap and lick and nibble on Lucy's nipple until she could feel, from the way the other woman heaved, that she was close to coming. When she was, Flare removed her mouth from the breast and brought herself back up to Lucy's mouth so she could kiss her deeply. Their tongues danced within their mouths. As she continued to make out with her and rub her own body against her, Flare continued to take the further initiative. She slipped one hand, and some of her own hair, down toward Lucy's nether-regions. She could feel that Lucy was already soaking wet, but she had yet to fully hit orgasm. Flare wanted to help her do that. The redhead smiled into Lucy's mouth as they kissed again. Then, she thrust two fingers, wrapped in her own hair, through the soaking folds of Lucy's pussy. The blonde let out a cry that sounded very similar to Flare's own name. The redhead dug her fingers and her hair deep inside Lucy, and once she'd felt she'd gone far enough, she began to gently, subtly rub her fingers against the vaginal inner-walls. It was so light, yet the effects of her actions were quite pronounced. Lucy screamed again in her unbridled ecstasy. Flare began stroking harder, and it seemed to drive Lucy to the very depths of insanity, but in a good way. She started kissing Flare all over again while playing with her hair and squeezing her breasts. Flare could feel the wet fluids gushing down the length of her hand and then some. Lucy had hit orgasm quite hard. She had never been touched like this before, not by Natsu or anyone else in the guild either for that matter. When Flare removed her hand, it was certainly much stickier and far wetter than before she'd put it inside of her new lover. Lucy giggled.

"Let me...help you a little too, Flare..." Lucy whispered. "There's something I've wanted to try...for a while..."

It took some maneuvering between the two women, but soon, Lucy was on top of Flare, but this time, they were facing opposite directions. Lucy had never done this before, but she had heard about it and read on it, and she'd always wanted to try it and see what it was like. It was a very unique kind of positioning, she felt, but with someone like Flare, it was bound to be a ton of fun. Lucy could not stop grinning as she stared down at Flare's spread legs and exposed genitals, a cute little tuft of red hair topping it off. Behind her, Flare was staring deep into the sopping wet hole that she had had her hand inside of only moments prior. Flare could not wait to see what it tasted like. She was drooling at the thought of it already.

Lucy lowered herself down so she could smother her face with Flare's pussy, as Flare did with Lucy's. the two of them began to eat each other out, like starving carnivores and they didn't care what anyone else might have thought. Faster and faster their tongues lapped. Flare reached up and grabbed hold of both of Lucy's butt-cheeks to hold her in place. Lucy moaned into Flare's crotch. Flare also squeezed her plump thighs around the blonde's head, adding further excitement to the already-thrilling experience. The discharge of Lucy's pussy were already covering Flare's face and had become matted in her hair as well. Lucy drank from Flare's pussy as if she had never had a single drop of water in the past week. The two women continued to feel each other up over and over. Fingers grazed against soft and supple skin, plucking, squeezing, embracing. There was nothing that was left untouched or even untasted between them; they could have licked the sweat off of each other's bodies and even been satisfied with that. These actions between the two of them resumed for a long period of time. They had no reason to stop. They wanted nothing more than each other. This night could have gone on forever for all they cared. Lucy had never felt this good before, and she had never been this happy in ages. When their love-making ended, the two women cuddled together in perfect silence. They eventually fell asleep in each other's arms. Flare hoped that if this was a dream that it would be a dream that she'd never wake up from. Lucy felt very similar.

Lucy woke up. She yawned as she rose up from her bed, or rather, her and Flare's bed. She thought back to the dream she had just experienced, what little of it she could still remember. It felt like so long ago now since that had happened. Flare had comforted her in her time of weakness, and in the end, they had found themselves falling in love with each other. They had sex, multiple times in fact, before they'd ever gotten to speak the words 'I love you' to each other yet. Lucy had always considered herself bisexual, especially after she'd first met people like Erza and Cana. It wasn't impossible for her to find attraction or sexual pleasure within the arms of another woman. She just never thought it'd end up being with Flare of all people. However, now that they were living together at her little cottage home, she was truly grateful that it was the redhead and no one else. Lucy glanced over at the woman still slumbering peacefully beside her. Some locks of red hair were draped over her beautiful face, a film of sweat still present on her cheeks after last night's intense love-making. Lucy smiled. She leaned over, kissed Flare on the forehead, watched her for a few more seconds, and then proceeded to quietly remove herself from the bed so that she could begin preparing herself and her girlfriend a lovely weekend breakfast. Lucy did not bother to put on any clothes, instead walking out into the kitchen completely nude.

She no longer worried about things such as a need for decency, especially not when she and Flare were living along. Far away from the majority of humanity and their judgmental ways, Lucy was able to be free in so many ways, not just in terms of how much she typically wore. She didn't care about it anymore, because she and Flare had seen each other naked so often, covering up when they weren't out and about seemed unnecessary and a hassle. Lucy was truly more relaxed than she could have ever possibly been in all of her prior years. In fact, it was a rather frequent habit to go around in the nude. She knew that Flare really liked it too.

Lucy had only started to remove plates from the cabinet near the sink when she noticed something outside one of the windows. A small creature, a cat with wings, was staring back at her and weeping profusely. Lucy almost cried out in surprise, but she held herself back, just in time to avoid waking up Flare. A young man with a scarf and bright-pink hair quickly lunged up and grabbed the cat, pulling him away from the window. It left behind the cat-shaped smear of its tears on the glass. Lucy sighed and shook her head. She crossed one arm over her breasts as she started walking toward the door. Then, as she reached out to grab the doorknob, she decided better of it, and she moved her arm away to leave herself exposed.

"Natsu?" Lucy opened the door and stepped outside.

Natsu and Happy were sitting on the front steps of the house. They both turned and they looked up at Lucy. They did not start smiling or laughing or even trying to embrace her. They only looked at her with a forlorn sadness, a longing for her to come back. Lucy was not swayed by their mere expressions alone.

"What are you doing here? It's been a while."

"Lucy, it's...it's been such a long time..." Natsu wiped the back of his arm across his face. "I went to your apartment, but you weren't there...so I had to keep asking around to find out what happened to you...and then I found out...you were here..."

"Well, you did find me." Lucy replied. The level of calmness she managed to achieve even when being reunited with Natsu was surprising even to herself.

"What are you doing here?" Natsu asked her.

"You're naked, Lucy. Did you know that?" Happy also inquired.

Lucy smiled down at the little winged cat. "I do know that, Happy. Thank you for noticing."

Natsu stood up. "You're really different, Lucy, and not just because you seem alright being naked in front of us now."

"Yes, but you've seen me naked hundreds of times when I didn't want you to, right? I decided I might as well embrace it!" Lucy softly chuckled.

"That's not the only reason, is it...?"

Lucy paused. She shook her head. "It's not. I've changed in a lot of ways, Natsu. I couldn't stay that naive young woman you knew from the Fairy Tail guild long ago, and I didn't want to be her anymore either. I think I'm better than I've ever been. I'm happy."

Natsu broke out into a full grin, one that stretched far from ear to ear. He was genuinely happy for Lucy. "I'm glad to hear it, Lucy!"

"You want me to come back with you, though, right?"

Natsu started to get more animated as he began explaining his plans, proclaiming, "Of course! I mean, it's why I came all this way to find you. Happy and I miss you, Lucy. I know we can make things work again. We can work together to create a whole new guild! It doesn't have to be Fairy Tail! We can go and find Erza, Gray, Mirajane, Juvia, Gajeel and everyone else! We can make a new guild! It'll be the greatest guild that ever lived! Don't you want to see that, Lucy?"

"That really does sound wonderful, Natsu, but..." Lucy sighed.

"Huh?"

"I want to stay here."

"what? But...but Lucy...!" Natsu started.

Lucy held up a hand to stop him. "I'm sorry, Natsu. I missed you for so long, but...but now that time has passed. I don't want to give up what I have here."

Natsu couldn't believe what he was hearing. Happy couldn't, either. Lucy Heartfilia, one of their closest and dearest friends of their former guild, no longer wished to adventure with them.

Slowly, Natsu began to understand. "...I see..."

About six minutes later, Flare entered the kitchen. She had awoken to find that she was alone in bed. Assuming that Lucy was already awake and busy, the redhead decided to see where she had gone. However, upon entering the kitchen, she found Lucy standing at the sink. Flare shivered a little because she hadn't bothered to put on any clothes, so she wrapped her hair around her arms and legs to provide herself some comfort as she approached the blonde from behind.

"Lucy?"

"...Flare..." Lucy's voice was shaky, and immediately Flare realized something was wrong. She instantly flung herself onto the other woman and hugged her from behind, her hefty breasts squishing against the curve of Lucy's back.

"What happened, Lucy? Are you okay?" Flare whispered.

"It...It was Natsu. And Happy. They came to see me. They had been trying to find me all this time. They wanted me to come back with them, to be their friend again and help them start a whole new guild. I wanted to do it, Flare. I really did, but I didn't say that. I...I told them, without even thinking about it, that I couldn't do it. I didn't want to leave this place. I didn't want to leave you. I had to send Natsu away, Flare. I could have gone with him and started a new guild. I...I would have done it too...if it had been back when I was living alone and drinking my liver to death at my apartment...but you...you're the one...you're the one who means the most to me now...Flare...I..."

Flare turned Lucy around. Lucy was crying, her face covered in streams of tears. Flare began to kiss Lucy to try and calm her down. At first she only kissed at her cheeks and her nose, trying to kiss away the tears, but soon they were kissing each other on the mouth again. Flare's hair wrapped around them both like a blanket, and Lucy placed her hands on Flare's shoulders and held onto her as if she might slip away at any moment. Their mouths pressed and released over and over again with a loud smacking noise every time. Lucy's nipples rubbed against Flare's nipples. A moment of heartbreak over the loss of her former friendship was now becoming something on the verge of love-making. That was the kind of power Flare had. That was how much Lucy truly did come around to loving this woman. Flare reached down and grabbed Lucy's ass-cheek, giving it a light squeeze. Lucy started giggling into Flare's mouth.

"We really can't keep our hands off of each other, can we...?" Lucy asked, sniffling.

Flare smiled. "It doesn't seem like we can."

"Flare, I...I love you. I don't want to leave you. Not even for Natsu or the guild."

Flare was the one who wanted to cry now. "Thank you, Lucy. Thank you so much. I love you. I love you. I love you."

She continued to murmur 'I love you' over and over as they resumed kissing in the kitchen, Flare's magic hair bounding them tighter together than ever. This was a life that neither of them could have ever thought they'd lead, but it was a life they were both so overjoyed to have.