Author Note: For those of you that read my first one-shot, this is the story I intended to write all along but got distracted, haha. :) The first chapter is exactly the same as that one up until the Lucy and Leo convo, obviously, and it deviates from there, so feel free to skip and just read the last few paragraphs of this chapter and then move on to the next. To those of you who are new, hi and welcome! Hope you enjoy!

The morning light streamed through the window of Lucy's apartment, pulling her out of her peaceful sleep. Stretching her arms above her head, she gazed out at the city streets of Crocus, still empty due to the early hour, but she knew it would only be a matter of time before the streets flooded with people, both those bustling about to get to the Grand Magic Games, and those going about their normal daily business. Bleary-eyed, she wandered from her bed to the bathroom where she methodically brushed her teeth, showered, dressed, humming nonsense tunes to herself all the while. She chose an outfit of a simple blue skirt and a blue and white striped tank top, and slung her bag over her shoulder. Lucy looked in the mirror and smiled, telling herself she would work her hardest today, just like every other day.

Leaving her apartment, Lucy realized she took too much time getting dressed and ready, as the streets were now crowded. Hurrying along, she rushed to the colosseum where this year's Grand Magic Games were being held. As she heard the announcements from the same announcer as last year and Mr. Yajima's non-committal commentary, she couldn't help but think back to when she had been a participant in the games, how much she had thought she wasn't good enough, that she'd only been chosen because of….No. She clamped down hard on that thought to stop it from materializing in her brain. She didn't want to think about who she used to think was her best friend. His pointy, mischievous grin, his rosy, disheveled hair, his easy manner, how he would clasp his hands behind his head while they walked….Nope, nope. Have to stop that. The dismissive tone of the note he left in her old apartment had made it clear that he didn't think of her as a friend the same way she thought of him. How she had cried that day, as she ran and ran through Magnolia, not sure of where she was going or where she thought she was going to find him.

Things were different now. She was a reporter with Sorcerer Weekly. She had a new apartment, job, and a new life. No new friends to speak of, other than her boss, Jason, but she'd been keeping herself so busy with her job and training with her spirits that she hadn't really tried to make new friends. And secretly, she hoped someday she'd get her true friends back. Lucy pushed through the crowds and ascended up to the reporter's box where Jason was already waiting, pen and paper in hand, his excitement evident on his jubilant face. He turned around as she entered,

"Senpai! Sorry to be late, the crowd was crazy!" She smoothly lied

"Lucy! You're looking cool today, as usual!" He exclaimed, giving her a double thumbs up.

"Did the match already start?"

"Soon, soon! But you know Chrisaac's gonna wipe the floor with the other guy! He's just that powerful!"

Jason's energy was typically infectious, and Lucy felt herself smile and get excited,

"Alright! Let's get us a scoop!"

Her attention focused in on the match as she heard Jason's chorus of "SO COOL!" She scrawled notes about the match into her notebook, reflecting on how happy she was to be a reporter now as opposed to her….previous job. When Jason originally approached her about a job, it wasn't as a writer, but as an underwear model. It was funny, Lucy could remember a time when all she wanted was to be a centerfold in Sorcerer Weekly like Mirajane, but when it actually happened, it had felt so...empty. She had been embarrassed. When the modeling would have been to represent Fairy Tail, it would have made her proud to be a beautiful mage of the Fairy Tail guild, but just as plain old Lucy Heartfilia….it didn't feel right. Also, when she wasn't part of her guild, using her power to help others and to be a part of a community, she didn't really feel beautiful anymore, and so when Jason asked her back for more photoshoots, she had begged him for a chance at a writing job instead. To her amazement, he agreed, and although he worked her like a dog, she was learning a lot and she was much happier writing than modeling.

Once the match was over, and Chrisaac was declared the winner, Lucy and Jason walked out of the Colosseum together.

"I'll handle the writing and the layout, so just give me your notes to combine with mine and I'll take care of it!" Lucy said as Jason strode out a bit in front of her.

"Thanks Lucy, you're the greatest!" Jason replied, "Hmmm...But ya know," His face gaining a more somber expression and closing his eyes "This year's Grand Magic Games just doesn't have the same...boom to it. Saber Tooth, Lamia Scale, Mermaid Heel, none of them came. Blue Pegasus, Quattro Cerberus…"

He opened one eye and gave Lucy a very knowing look,

"...And Fairy Tail too."

Lucy laughed awkwardly. He had never actually addressed that fact with her up until this point. It was no secret to the world that Fairy Tail had disbanded after the Tartaros incident, but most had the good grace to not bring it up with her. She wondered why Jason was broaching the subject now.

"Well, that's because it doesn't exist anymore…" She said weakly.

Jason frowned.

"But that mark on your hand is still there." He said, all the usual energy gone from his voice.

Lucy squeaked in surprise and clasped her hands together self-consciously. It wasn't like Jason to be so serious. She looked down at her clasped hands, her face growing red. Jason seemed to sense that it wasn't something she would or could talk about so he turned around and walked away, waving his hand dismissively,

"I guess it really is all over huh….such a shame though."

Such a shame indeed. She thought bitterly, as she walked back to her apartment. It seemed that no matter how hard she tried to avoid it, today was going to be a day she thought about Fairy Tail. That's a lie, she thought as she opened the door and plopped down at her desk to get to work. After many hours writing at her desk, she got up, stretched, and went to the bath. Sitting naked among the suds, she confronted her thoughts. The truth was, she thought about Fairy Tail every damn day. Despite that, she hadn't kept in touch with anyone from the guild for the past year. She told herself it was because she was so busy, but that was a lie too. Really, it was because she was afraid to meet them now that they'd all gone their separate ways. Afraid to confront the fact that not a single one of them had asked her to come with them. That thought stung as ever, and she sunk deeper below the bubbles in shame. Gray and Juvia had gone off together, Erza had set off alone. Gajeel and Levy, Jet and Droy, Mira, Elfman, and Lisanna, had all gone together in their groups. Lucy had thought for sure at least Wendy and Carla would have asked her along, but no. She wanted so desperately to see all of them.

"AGH!," She cried, kicking some of the bathwater up and clenching her fists, "I MISS FAIRY TAIL!"

A banging on her apartment wall startled her out of her thoughts as a low male voice shouted,

"KEEP IT QUIET IN THERE!"

She mumbled an apology as she climbed out of the bath, drying her hair and wrapping a towel around herself. She also called Plue out of his spirit gate to help her, and just to keep her company. She mused on the fact that one of the main reasons she wanted to become a reporter was so she could have access to any information about her former guild-mates' whereabouts. She walked over to her wall where she kept the map, adorned with pins and drawn lines connecting locations and towns, along with all the information she had gathered thus far. Newspaper clippings, handwritten bits of gossip, the occasional photograph. Below the map hanging on the wall were stacks of books on tracking, journalism and problem solving. Plue was attempting to organize it, carrying a comically sized stack of books and dropping them as he walked. She put another mark on the tally of days where she hadn't heard a single word about...those two. This marked 365. Exactly a year. This wall in her room looked like the workings of a crazy conspiracy theorist, but Lucy didn't care. She would do anything for the hope that one day they'd all come back together. She dropped her pen and leaned her head against the wall with a thump. Not feeling satisfied, she curled her hand into a fist and slammed it next to her head. Turning around and sliding down until she was sitting on the floor, back against the wall, she lamented.

But what then? There's no Fairy Tail to come back to.

Plue shivered next to her, stroking one of his hands (paws?) on her arm to comfort her as the tears started to fall. Even though it was across the room on her nightstand, she felt the key to Leo's gate pulsating in a silent offer of him coming through the gate to comfort her himself. She closed Plue's gate and she stood up. Wiping her tears away, she walked to the bed, let the towel fall to the floor, not bothering to put it away, and crawled under the covers. She reached out for her keys and clutched them to her chest, feeling automatically comforted as they warmed to her touch. Before she knew it, she felt a pull on her magic energy as Leo materialized next to her on the bed, laying on his side above the covers, propped up on one elbow, cradling his head. A familiar pang of annoyance twitched in her temple.

"You know," She said brusquely, pulling the covers up to her neck and staring at the ceiling, "I don't recall actually asking to open the gate of the lion"

"Well, princess, I know when I'm needed, and you don't even have to ask for me to join you in bed."

Lucy didn't have to look to feel his wide grin and was sure even in the dark he could feel her blush. This wasn't the first time he'd come to lie down with her. Purely innocently, of course. For her, his presence was especially comforting because he had been a member of the guild, and it made her feel so much less alone.

"...Can I see it?" Lucy said quietly.

"Of course, princess"

Lucy turned to face Leo and propped herself up on her own elbow, pulling the sheets around herself as Leo sat up and turned away from her, shirking his black coat and tie. Deliberately, he unbuttoned his white shirt and pulled it down his shoulders and back, revealing the bright green Fairy Tail mark right between his shoulder blades. She remembered the first time she had asked to see it. It was a month after Fairy Tail's disbandment. She had been a complete mess, sobbing herself to sleep, having no idea what she was going to do or who she was without her Fairy Tail friends. During that particularly bad night, she started to question if Fairy Tail had ever existed, or if she had made it up in her mind. How she had scratched at the mark at her hand, drawing blood as she tried to determine whether or not it was real. Leo had emerged from the gate of his own accord then, grabbing her hands as she fought against him, tears streaming down her face. In the end, the only way to convince her she wasn't insane was to show her the Fairy Tail mark he bore on his own back, the power of which was so strong it hadn't faded even when he returned to the celestial spirit realm.

Previously, she had only looked at the mark, feeling comforted by its familiar shape, but tonight, she was overwhelmed by the urge to reach out and touch it. She did so and heard Leo gasp softly at the contact as she covered his mark with her own. She half expected him to make some kind of pervy remark about her touching him, but he didn't. When she first met a Celestial Spirit, she had wondered if they would be like ghosts, that if you tried to touch them, your hand would go straight through them. But the first time Aquarius had grabbed her by the arm to yell at her for calling her during her bath, she realized they were as flesh and blood as any human. Leo's skin felt warm beneath hers.

"I think I owe you an apology," Lucy said, not yet removing her hand from Leo's skin.

Without moving his body, Leo turned his head to look at her, a questioning look on his face.

"I know I've been so sad...to lose all my friends." Lucy started, her voice heavy, "You and the other spirits must have felt like I had forgotten that you all were my friends too. All we did was train and practice, spar and fight. But I want you and the others to know that you are all my dearest friends, and I know I still have all of you, even without the others…"

In a quick movement, Leo pulled his shirt back on and turned around, and before Lucy knew what had happen, her hand had gone from being on his back to being clutched in his hands. On his knees next to her now, his hazel eyes were intense as they bored into her own.

"Lucy," He said, abandoning calling her "princess" for once, "you don't have anything to apologize for. We're your spirits. We know your mind and your heart. The ache we feel from you for Fairy Tail's absence hasn't diminished the glow of love we feel from you at all times. That light fuels us and makes life as a spirit worth living. Just look at your keys, they're all glowing and vibrating from everyone agreeing with me."

"But how can you all trust me anymore?" Lucy fretted, "After what I did to…to her."

She stopped short of saying Aquarius' name out loud. The loss of Fairy Tail almost paled in comparison to the loss of Aquarius. She knew if she really went out and looked, she could find her Fairy Tail friends again. But Aquarius...she'd never see her ever again. No human would. She hated herself for being the kind of wizard that would do such a thing to her beloved spirits. That's why she had begged Capricorn and Leo to train her harder than she'd ever been trained, so she would never again be so weak that she had to sacrifice so much to win a battle. They had felt her resolve and obliged, and she'd leave their training sessions beaten and bloodied, with a few broken bones, but she never gave up. The next time she was faced with an opponent like Jackal, she would win with her bare hands before she let her spirits suffer.

"Stop it, Lucy." Leo warned, "No one blames you for that. Aquarius knew what she was doing. Any one of us would have done the same thing if we could. Don't let yourself fall into the darkness of those thoughts. That, and the other thought I know you don't want to say out loud."

He knew her too well, as always. There was another reason she had been training so hard. Maybe if she finally said it out loud, she would feel like it sounded silly and she could let it go,

"But if I wasn't so weak...if I was strong and powerful….He would have….they all would have….someone would have wanted me to come with them"

It didn't sound silly at all. It sounded exactly right.

"You are strong and powerful," Leo insisted, " You summoned all your celestial spirits at once to save my life. You can now summon two celestial spirits at once without breaking a sweat and add a third if need be. You mastered the Urano Metria spell and don't even need Gemini to cast it anymore. You summoned the Celestial Spirit King, something no other Celestial Wizard in history has ever done, and now you've mastered Star Dress through your second origin. You're the greatest Celestial Wizard alive."

Lucy snorted,

"Even if that was true, I'll never be good enough for...nevermind."

She looked at Leo and saw how hard he was trying to help. Her features softened and she smiled at him,

"I'm sorry, Leo. Here you are trying to make me feel better and I'm still all doom and gloom. You can go back to the spirit realm now, I'm going to get some sleep."

"Okay, princess, sleep well," He squeezed her hand supportively as he dematerialized into starlight to pass back through his gate.

She settled back down onto her pillow and closed her eyes, letting the exhaustion of emotion start to lull her to sleep. She grasped her keys once again and whispered softly,

"I love all of you, always."

The warm hum of the keys comforted her as she drifted off to sleep.