Findings and Leavings

Epilogue

A year later, Lucy had made good on her plans to write the stories of their adventures. Her first novel, The Adventures of Iris, went on to win the Kemzaleon Award for Best New Writer. While it didn't contain the steamy scenes Natsu had been so eager to help "research," it did relate many of Fairy Tail's more exciting escapades.

Which was why Lucy had invited all of her friends to the swanky awards ceremony held at a luxury hotel in Crocus. As she rose to receive her trophy at the podium, floor-length burgundy gown making her feel elegant and beautiful, Lucy prayed her rambunctious friends wouldn't be too outrageous in their celebrations. Most of the audience were prim and proper literary types, not wild and rowdy mages. Hopefully, her friends wouldn't do anything too embarrassing tonight. She just wanted to mingle and have a few drinks and a good time.

She really should have known better.

Looking out over the crowd, she saw Natsu nonchalantly sitting cross-legged on top of a table! He grasped a large chicken leg in one fist and an enormous ham sandwich in the other. Next to him, Happy gorged on a huge pile of tuna as Carla chided the Exceed, frowning disapprovingly. As Lucy began her acceptance speech, giving thanks to everyone who had helped her along the way, she caught a glimpse of an already inebriated Juvia, who had somehow lost the top half of her dress. Gray, notorious for losing his clothing at a moment's notice, was following after her, trying to get the water mage to pull the sleeves of her gown up over her strapless bra. His chastisement would've been more effective if he hadn't already stripped down to his boxers himself! Cana, Macao, and Erza had gotten into the wine (and the strawberry cake!) and were already three sheets to the wind—or in Erza's case, possibly just high on sugar.

Inwardly, Lucy cringed.

As she finished her speech and fellow authors and publishers applauded and came up to greet her, she thought she heard murmurs about her character, Iris, being based on Lucy's own adventures as a wizard of Fairy Tail. A man laughed, exclaiming, "She's a wizard? That explains her guests! So rowdy!"

Lucy could only smile in agreement and shrug. What could she do? Her friends were having fun, and she wouldn't dream of ruining the evening by scolding them. Instead, she reached for an apple martini off of a passing waiter's tray and downed it in three gulps. The sooner she got tipsy, the less she'd care about her friends' antics, she reasoned.

Natsu, having finished stuffing himself at the buffet table, watched the pink flush of intoxication spread across his girlfriend's cheeks. He figured she'd probably drink more than was good for her tonight, but he'd make sure she'd get a couple of glasses of water in there, too. It made the morning-after hangover so much more bearable, he'd found. Also, she'd be less prone to passing out on the way back to their hotel room.

After all, he had plans for later that evening.

Earlier, as they were dressing for the ceremony, she'd leaned into him, wrapping her arms around his neck and breathing into his ear, "Natsu... Tonight...if I drink too much..." she pressed her breasts against him teasingly, "...I want you to bring me back here and fuck me senseless."

He'd chuckled, running a hand up the high slit in the left side of her gown. It reached almost to her hip and revealed a long expanse of creamy thigh. Where she'd found a dress that sexy, he had no idea. He'd been hard-pressed at that moment not to strip her out of it and take her right then and there, but unfortunately there wasn't time. She'd kill him if they were late for the ceremony. Instead, he'd bent his face to her throat and kissed it as he pulled her close. She'd already warned him not to muss her makeup. Yet.

"Mm..." he murmured against her skin. "Just don't overdo it, okay? You get kind of wild when you drink too much. Remember that time you asked me to pet you and make you purr? Like you were some kind of cat." He snorted. "Weirdo."

She laughed and said she was sure he could handle it as he dropped his face to nuzzle the tops of her breasts. Her strapless gown had a heart-shaped cut out right over her boobs that made him want to just bury his face there. He'd really been looking forward to doing exactly that—and more—later tonight.

Watching her now, he saw her eyes widen as she glanced at Levy. The tiny mage had whispered something to Gajeel. Wendy, who was standing nearby, also appeared shocked as she blushed fiercely. Natsu thought he saw Lucy's lips mouth the word, "baby," in surprise, but he couldn't be sure, since she was kind of gaping, too.

Wonder what that's all about?

He shrugged and made a mental note to ask her about it later. As the strains of a violin waltz began to play and couples paired up for dancing, he sauntered over to his girlfriend. Lucy'd been teaching him to dance, and he wanted to show her how well he'd learned. He came up to her and held out his hand.

"May I have this dance?" he tried for gallantry.

She looked at him and smiled. "You may," she replied, placing her slender fingers in his palm. She quickly downed the glass of wine she'd been sipping and set it on a passing server's tray. As they moved to the dance floor, she stumbled against him slightly. He wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her close to his body as he began to spin them around the room in time with the music.

"Jeez, Luce, you're such a lightweight when it comes to booze. You've only had two drinks!" he chuckled.

She made a face. "Well, it's 'cause I haven't really had anything to eat! I was too nervous about giving my speech. I didn't wanna forget to thank anyone," she explained.

"You did great! Everyone's real proud of you!" he told her.

She smiled and leaned into him, swaying. She was really starting to feel the buzz of alcohol in her system. Booze always made her feel horny, and she knew she looked good tonight.

"Natsu..." she murmured into his ear, "I'm wearing those shoes. Did you notice?"

She felt him stiffen as the hand at her waist pulled her to him more tightly. Her stilettos tonight were silver, and lacked the slingback strap of her favorite ebony pair, but he knew exactly what she meant. His voice rumbled low in his chest. "Yeah, I noticed." He glanced around. "You wanna go back to the room? Seems kinda early for the star of the evening to leave an' all."

She was just about to answer him when her publisher came over and tapped her on the shoulder. He was an older gentleman with a kindly face.

"Miss Lucy, can I cut in for a moment, please? I'd like to talk a bit about your plans for your next novel." He looked at Natsu and smiled, "Sorry for interrupting. I hope you don't mind."

The fire mage looked at Lucy and quirked a grin. "Nah, it's fine. I'll go get you a glass of water," he told her. "Be back in a few."

As he turned to leave, he paused to watch his girlfriend smile animatedly as she talked about her plans and dreams for the future. He loved seeing her so happy. He'd do almost anything to keep that smile on her face, he decided. After they went on the quest he and Happy wanted to tackle, and they helped Lucy find Aquarius's key, he'd already promised himself he was gonna ask her to marry him. But for now, he'd do his best to keep her smiling and laughing every day.

It was truly one of the things he looked forward to doing most in life.

XXX

Later that evening, as he lugged a drunk and stumbling celestial mage toward the stairs that led up to their room, Natsu laughed inwardly. Cana had gotten to Lucy before he'd returned with the water—he'd been sidetracked by Gray reading him the riot act for not wearing a suit to the occasion. This annoyed the Dragon Slayer, as he'd sarcastically observed to a stripped-down Gray that at least he was wearing clothing! The minor brawl that resulted, ended when Erza punched them both senseless, yelling about decorum. Which he found ironically amusing, seeing as she wasn't exactly the Queen of etiquette herself, despite her purple haltered evening gown and heels.

But the delay had meant his girlfriend had downed another glass of wine before he'd made it back to her. Three alcoholic drinks was probably two too many, where Lucy was concerned. He'd pressed the glass of water into her hand and held her upright while she drank it, leaning into him heavily all the while. Cana had laughed uproariously and winked at him as he'd given her the evil eye. Despite her slender appearance, the card mage had the constitution of an ox and could really hold her liquor. Unlike the blonde bombshell in his arms.

When she'd finished the water and whispered into his ear, giggling, that she needed to "use the little girls' room," he'd walked her over to it and gotten Wendy to check on her while she was inside. Once finished, she'd opened the bathroom door and flung herself into his arms, eyes dilated with desire and face flushed pink. At that point, he'd made the command decision to call it a night. He asked Wendy to let everyone know in case they came looking for the intoxicated author. She'd barely been able to walk in a straight line as they made their way to the staircase at the back of the ballroom. Only his grip on her waist kept her from weaving clumsily into people while she laughed and giggled.

As Lucy attempted to mount the first step while grabbing onto his bicep, her ankle rolled awkwardly on her stiletto heel. Sighing resignedly, he bent and caught her up in his arms, careful to catch the long swath of her gown under her knees so it wouldn't trip him up on the stairs. She giggled, looping her arms around his neck.

"Take off those damn shoes before you break your neck and ruin all my plans," he growled in her ear.

"But they're my 'fuck me' heels," she whined breathily, nosing his throat and nibbling on his earlobe. "Don' you wanna fuck me?"

He groaned. One thing they'd discovered over the last year was that a drunk Lucy was a very horny and verbal Lucy. Which he honestly kind of enjoyed, but not while he was trying to get her up a steep flight of stairs without killing them both.

"Yeah, I do, but you don't need to be wearing shoes for that," he told her, bounding up the steps two at a time. The sooner he got her back to the room, the better.

Their room was at the end of the long hallway, and he sighed in relief when they finally reached it. Gracelessly, he set her down, bracing her body against the door with his own while fumbling the key from his pocket. At least she'd removed her shoes so she could stand more easily. They dangled from the fingers of one hand as she leaned forward into him, inhaling his scent.

"You smell good," she breathed, tickling his ear as he opened the door behind her. Her other hand tangled in the hair at the nape of his neck. Nosing his scarf out of the way, she licked the side of his throat, then bit him lightly. He groaned, dropping the key back into his pocket. He rested his hands firmly on her hips.

"Let's get you inside," he murmured, walking her slowly backwards into the room. Once inside, he shut the door behind them, making sure to flip the privacy lock into place.

He didn't want to be disturbed until morning.

She wasted no time in tossing her shoes to the floor. Her fingers, while a tad clumsier than usual, hurried through the unfastening of his jacket and belt, discarding those as well. He unwound his scarf and used it as a soft rope, looping it behind her back low on her hips as he nudged her backwards, past the bathroom, and toward the large king-sized bed. He'd learned that while Lucy was highly entertaining when she was drunk, she was also very uncoordinated. Best to get her lying down as soon as possible before one or both of them got hurt accidentally. As much as he liked being able to kiss and touch her boobs while she rode him, her wildness and lack of coordination in this state made that position a bit too risky for his liking.

No, when she was like this, he usually preferred either missionary, or taking her from behind. He knew which one he'd been thinking about all day. He could hardly wait to touch her!

When the backs of her calves hit the side of the bed, he stopped and kissed her deeply, tossing his scarf aside. She tasted good, like blackberry wine, and he took his time exploring her mouth. She was running her hands up and down his back, lightly grazing him with her short nails as she panted against him. After a few intense kisses, he broke away and trailed his lips down her throat, sucking gently along her pulse point. She moaned and threaded her fingers through his hair, urging his head lower. He grazed her collarbone with teeth and tongue before dropping his face down to do what he'd been wanting to do since the moment she'd put on her sexy dress.

She was warm and soft and he could feel her heartbeat accelerate as he mouthed her cleavage. She moaned and lifted her left leg up to his hip, aided by the dress's high side slit. He caught and stroked her thigh with his palm as she leaned into him. She smelled so good. He couldn't get enough of her scent and he rubbed his face between her breasts seductively while reaching his other hand behind her to unzip the back of her gown.

"Ah...Luce..." he breathed, "I just can't get enough... I'm addicted to ya, I swear..."

She clutched his shoulders and he reached his hand up past her thigh, under her ass, stroking her core lightly through the thong underwear she wore. Seriously, he had no idea why women even bothered wearing underwear like this. It was really just a few strings and a small triangle of fabric strategically held in place by her curves. She'd claimed it had something to do with not showing panty lines under the gown or whatever, but he just didn't get it. Made for easy access though, so he wouldn't complain.

As she raised her leg higher, he took advantage, slipping his finger inside the cloth to test her opening. She cried out and thrust against his hand, wordlessly begging for more. He played with her for a bit, stroking and teasing, until she writhed against him insistently. Having had enough of his delightful torment, she tugged at his wrist and pulled his face up from her boobs to kiss him passionately. As his fingers retreated, she dropped her leg and shimmied her hips, causing the gown to puddle on the floor at her feet.

"Fuck me, Natsu," she demanded, lust in her chocolate eyes.

He took a few moments to lick and suckle her bared breasts while she undid his pants and roughly pushed at them until they fell past his hips. Drunk, she wasn't very graceful, and his boxers resisted her efforts initially. She huffed impatiently and he chuckled against her skin before taking pity on her and removing them the rest of the way. He rose and grasped the hair at her nape in his hand, tilting her head and stilling her for a passionate kiss.

The time for playing was almost over.

She seemed to sense it and melted against him. He felt her heartbeat accelerate as she moaned into his mouth. He pulled back and looked at her with heavy-lidded onyx eyes.

"I'm gonna fuck you now, Luce. Get on your knees."

He pushed her shoulder lightly until she turned, and, smiling, dropped down onto the bed, knees bent and splayed. She dragged a pillow over and folded it, stuffing it under her upper body for support, then fell down onto her elbows.

"Good girl," he sighed, stroking his hands down her back to her plump buttocks. He loved how smooth and soft she was; her skin reminded him of porcelain, like the fancy tea set at that cafe where she'd taken him once. He kneaded her curves, rubbing her lightly with his shaft.

"I love how you're always ready for me when I take you like this." His fingers hooked the white thong and dragged it over her hips and down her thighs, until she shifted her legs, helping him remove it.

He leaned over her, kissing a path down her spine, letting his hard length brush against her wetness. When he got to her derriere, he bit her left cheek lightly, and she jumped, making a noise low in her throat. He smiled and laved the mark he'd left with his tongue. Pressing down on the small of her back, he coaxed her spine to arch, baring more of her dripping core to his gaze. The sight of her pink slit made his cock throb with desire.

"You're so wet, Luce. I wanna taste ya. Wouldja like that?" he asked throatily. She hummed in agreement and he dropped to his knees, kissing and nibbling his way over the curve of her ass, reaching his left hand around her thigh until he could part her with his fingers. As his tongue reached out to stroke over her clit and opening, she moaned, trying to press backwards against his face. He slid over her sensitive flesh until she was panting and writhing with desire.

"Ah...Natsu...please..." she cried, gripping the sheets of the turned down bed in her fists.

He loved when she begged for it. So he always made sure he gave her what she wanted. This time was no different, as he slipped two fingers into her core. Moaning, she bucked against his hand eagerly, and he took a moment to figure out both how to control her spastic movements and work his tongue back into the mix. The angle was challenging with his fingers in the way, but he managed to swirl his tongue against her nub well enough that soon she was keening and whimpering, desperately trying to press herself hard against his hand and face.

It felt sooo good, but it just wasn't enough. She almost sobbed in frustration as she balanced on the knife's edge of pleasure. "Natsu...gimme your cock!" she whined, tone just shy of pleading.

He pulled away, wiping his face with a forearm, and rose to his feet. He grabbed her hips roughly with both hands, dragging his member against her nether lips.

"Touch yourself, Luce," he ordered, giving her ass a light smack. "Make yourself come while I fuck you."

She inhaled sharply at his words, then groaned as he entered her, sheathing himself to the hilt. He wasn't particularly gentle as he set up a rhythm, slamming into her steadily, over and over again. He knew she liked it a little rough when she was really turned on. He could tell by the way she actively thrust back against him as he pounded into her. She'd told him it felt amazing because he could hit that glorious, sensitive spot really deep inside of her. She loved taking all of him, as hard and as fast as he could give it to her.

Watching her reach down between her legs with her right hand was a turn-on for him, too. He hoped she came quickly; he'd been thinking about bending her over all day and he wasn't sure how long he'd be able to last. She felt incredible, inner walls squeezing and stroking his shaft as he slid in and out of her body. Her breathy pants were encouraging; he knew the closer she got, the harsher—and louder—her whimpers became. The fingers of her left hand began to tighten in the bedsheets above her head and he could tell she was on the edge. His own heart was thumping loudly in his ears as she clamped down on him, a low moan rising in her throat.

With the moan, came her strangled cry.

"Harder, Natsu! Fuck me harder!"

He complied, jackhammering into her as she thrust against him wildly. He gripped her hips as her moans suddenly cascaded in volume to a loud, lingering wail. He thought he heard his name in it, but she wasn't very coherent as she orgasmed fiercely, inner muscles spasming around him. He pounded into her, feeling the potent rush of his own ending overtake him as he pulsed repeatedly, emptying himself into her with a loud groan. Gradually, he slowed the pace of his thrusts to an easy, unhurried glide as he tried to recover his wind.

"Ah...gods, Luce... That was amazing!" he panted as his heart rate returned to normal. He slapped her ass playfully, making her squeal, then leaned back, easing himself out of her. Languidly, she tugged the pillow out from under her breasts and collapsed face down on the bed, lying sideways. She was utterly spent.

He chuckled, and headed toward the bathroom to grab a washcloth to clean up.

"Don't fall asleep," he cautioned her. "You should get up and use the bathroom—and drink another glass of water probably."

She idly flipped a hand in his direction, mumbling, "Yeah, yeah," into the sheets. "Jus' gimme a minute. I don't wanna move yet."

He chuckled low in his throat. A sated Lucy was a happy Lucy and just so adorable! He couldn't wait to snuggle with her under the covers. The sex was always fantastic, and he loved how well they fit together, but he also treasured the intimacy they shared after making love. Being with her in a way he knew no one else ever would be, sharing goals and dreams of the future...that was something he loved possibly even more than the mind-blowing sex.

And he loved that quite a lot.

By the time she stumbled back from the bathroom, having used the facilities, brushed her teeth, and drank another glass of water, Natsu was waiting for her in the bed. He held open the covers as she slid in beside him, warm and soft and naked against his skin. He kissed her temple as he tucked her into his side.

"Better?" he asked.

She smiled, giving him an "mm hm" in reply and throwing her right leg over his thigh as she lay her head on his chest. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze.

"Good. So...Miss Winner-of-the-Kemzaleon-Best-New-Writer-Award...what's next on the agenda? Besides sleep, and having sex with your awesome boyfriend again in the morning," he teased.

She chuckled and kissed his pec. "Sounds like a great idea. Let's definitely do that. As for what else I wanna do...?" She turned her eyes up to meet his mossy green gaze. "Well, you know I really want to look for Aquarius's key, so..."

"That's great, Luce!" he exclaimed. He had the perfect plan! "You can look for it with me and Happy and the rest of Team Natsu when we go on our next big mission."

"You've mentioned that before, but you haven't told me where we're going, or what this mission even involves." She smoothed a hand over his heart. "Something tells me Aquarius's key is probably not even on this continent, so..." She didn't finish the thought. She really wanted to find her friend's key, but she also didn't want to be separated from Natsu for who-knows-how-long while she looked for it.

"That's awesome! Makes it even better!" he exclaimed. "Our new quest is on the continent north of us: Guiltina! Maybe you'll find Aquarius's key there! So...will you come?" He watched her eagerly, excitement clear in his expression. She gazed at him and smiled. When he looked at her like that, how could she say no?

"Sure, Natsu. That sounds perfect! I've never been to Guiltina before. Let's do it!" A thought occurred to her. "You said all of Team Natsu is going, right? So, what's the mission? Can Erza even get away for that long, now that she's the Master?"

Natsu snorted and flipped a hand negligently. "'Course she's going! We're definitely gonna need her. Mirajane and Laxus can hold down the fort well enough while we're away. Mira's better than Erza at all the paperwork stuff anyway."

Lucy smiled. That was certainly true. Their redheaded friend wasn't very gifted with the written word. All the paperwork to vendors, the new Magic Council, and the King were the things she hated most about her new job title. Erza tried her best, to be sure, but Lucy wouldn't be surprised if she weren't thrilled to be getting away from her desk duties to go off on a mission.

"All right, then. I guess that's true. So what is this mission you wanna do so badly?"

He grinned enthusiastically. "The Hundred Years' Quest, of course! I'm all fired up!"

She sat up and stared at him in disbelief.

The Hundred Years' Quest?! But that's...

"Natsu..." her voice was low and guarded, "isn't that the S-level quest that even Gildarts couldn't complete? The one that cost him his left arm and leg?! The one where he almost died?!" Her voice rose in pitch with each query.

"Yeah, yeah," Natsu waved dismissively, "But that was because he tried to tackle it all alone! I'm not like that. I'm gonna take it on with my friends! And we'll win the reward for sure!" he told her confidently.

She gaped at him, torn between wanting to smack some sense of caution into his head and desperately wishing she had his overwhelming confidence. Finally, she settled for tweaking his nipple roughly, then leaning in for a kiss as he twitched in protest.

"Hey!"

"All right, Natsu. I'll go with you. Someone needs to keep you from getting into too much trouble," she reasoned as she settled back into the pillows. "But you better not be too reckless. There's no reward that's worth your life," she said as she snuggled into his side once more.

He laughed. "Of course, Luce! You know me!"

She gave him the side eye. "I do know you. That's why I'm nervous."

He laughed and kissed her forehead as she yawned. The long day was finally catching up with her. He noticed.

"Love ya, Luce. Go to sleep an' we'll talk about all this tomorrow."

"Love you," she replied sleepily, rolling to her other side so he could spoon his legs behind her knees and drape his arm protectively over her waist.

One thing was certain: since she'd found Natsu that long ago day in Hargeon, her life had never been the same. It would certainly never be dull with the chaotically exuberant fire mage around! A smile on her face, she drifted off into a serene and peaceful sleep.

The Dragon Slayer holding her felt similarly blessed, although for slightly different reasons. He wanted everything for and with the woman in his arms. Adventure, marriage, children. The works!

His dad, Igneel, had told him to speak about the future, after all. So that's just what he would do.

Nuzzling his lips against her shoulder, Natsu cradled Lucy and smiled, already dreaming of tomorrow.

Fin

Hello, all. Thank you for reading and following and favoriting this story! I wanted to say a few words about Hiro Mashima's awesome characters and how they inspired me to spend a few months of my life writing about them. (I started this fic in February of 2019 and completed it in mid-October-mostly because I was waiting for the anime to finish.) I've always been a sucker for themes of love, friendship, and family, and Fairy Tail has these in spades!

I'm really just a sappy romantic at heart, I know. Forgive me.

When I decided to write this, it was mostly because there were a few missed opportunities I felt the series let pass by, and I wanted to explore them. Also, NaLu is super adorable, and I really wanted to write deliciously pervy scenes for them, lol. Because how could they not kiss at the end of the show?! Grrr... So I made them kiss at the beginning in this story, aha!

But mostly, I wanted to write about love. All kinds of love, not just romantic love. Although I adore writing about that, to be sure!

I wanted to write about the love of a parent for a child (Igneel, Irene), the love of a grandparent (Makarov, August), the love of brothers (Gray and Natsu, as contrasted with Zeref and Natsu), and of course, the love that friends have for each other. Especially friends that have become as close as any family, like the members of Fairy Tail.

I felt that Irene's death in the manga/anime missed a golden opportunity for Irene to express her love for Erza, because clearly, at one point, she had love when she made the decision to give up her baby after protecting her for so long. Her suicide seemed like a let-down to me, and I wanted to fix that in my story-to give her suffering more meaning, by letting her sacrifice herself so Erza and Wendy could get away. (Not gonna lie, I cried so hard writing this scene and a few others in the story, like Zeref and Mavis's ending scene.)

Similarly, I felt the story missed with August's death. (Sorry, Mashima, I love you but the whole thing with him being Zeref and Mavis's child was a huge ass-pull and I never bought into it.) His relationship with Brandish was important, I felt, and I wanted her to have someone she loved in her life. Plus, throwing all of Alakitasia into chaos when most of their leadership dies probably wouldn't be good for global stability. August is wise and reasonable, if unaware of his own feelings, so I thought he'd make a good ruler. Especially once he comes to his senses.

Another parental moment I knew I wanted to explore was Natsu's meeting with Igneel in his mind. I found it really moving in the original, tbh. But I wanted to add Lucy in there for two reasons. One, she represented humanity to Natsu, over the dragon seed and the demon seed, and two... I think Natsu, deep-down, would have wanted for Lucy and Igneel to meet in real life had Igneel survived. He'd want to take his loved one home to meet his parent. I wanted to see it happen anyway, even if it was only in Natsu's mind, so I made sure to put it in there.

Another big issue I had with the original story was Gray's attack on Natsu after finding out Natsu is E.N.D. It showed no character development on Gray's part, and I felt that was a huge missed opportunity. I wanted them to fight, of course, but not because Gray wanted to kill Natsu for some stupid kind of revenge. He should've learned better than that from the whole Deliora mess with Ur, imho. I wanted to show them more as real brothers, who fight and bicker, but always come through for each other and trust each other and have each other's backs in the end. The original does this, too, but I felt it could've been done better in this particular instance, so I fixed it.

Also, I didn't like that Mashima chose to resurrect Makarov. His sacrifice was a powerful moment in the story, and I felt it was lessened greatly by his miraculous magical revival when Zeref died. Death is a part of life, and in a show where most of the characters are coming of age into adulthood, it's important for them to experience the loss of loved ones and understand that life goes on, but the memories remain. So I fixed it. (And I cried a lot while writing the funeral scene, if that makes anyone feel better.)

A couple of lesser issues I wanted to explore were Mest's betrayal of Fairy Tail's values. He redeemed himself by his actions in the end, but I felt like Brandish deserved a sincere apology, so I wrote it. Also, in the original story, I felt Anna was way underused. I mean, let's face it, she traveled to the future, studied a rift, then failed to do anything useful once her plan failed. I found that super lame, and I wanted to make her cooler and more helpful. So I gave her a platinum key and made her powerful enough to summon 3 of Lucy's spirits, plus shift and open a collapsing time rift. Probably Mashima just ran out of time in the manga to do anything with her, so I fixed it. ;-P

I ended up cutting a bunch of the story, mostly because I didn't feel like writing about some of the Spriggan Twelve. (I'm looking at you, Larcade, with your creepy power!) I debated back and forth a few days whether or not to inject him into the Zeref v. Natsu battle, but in the end, I decided against it. I would've had to probably add another 3000 words to explain all of Larcade's background/emotions/motivations, and I just didn't feel like it, since he was going to die in a second anyway. (Btw, did anyone notice Cana wasn't affected by his first spell that targeted only people who had experienced "pleasure?" I found that interesting, because that was clearly Mashima's way of telling the audience she's a virgin, although usually in most fanfics I've read, she's portrayed as the slutty guild member. Poor Cana. lol)

I also ended up skipping most of Gajevy, largely because they were so far away from everyone else in terms of their physical location and subplot. I wanted to focus on Natsu and Lucy, and they didn't really interact with Gajeel or Levy much until the very end. I was sad to leave them out, but there it is. I couldn't think of a good way to shoehorn them in without completely changing the entire flow of Mashima's story arc, and I didn't want to do that. (Too much work for something I wrote for fun. lol)

Anyway, if you read all my babbling until the end, I truly appreciate it, and I sincerely hope you enjoyed the story. Like my fixes? Hate them? I'd love to hear from you either way. I always enjoy a spirited, respectful discussion. I don't know if I'll write another long Fairy Tail fanfic-depends on if the 100 Years' Quest makes me mad and I feel like I have to fix things again, ahahaha...! I've got a couple of NaLu oneshots I'll be posting soon (one inspired by that scene in vol. 1-y'all know the one I mean, the one with the scarf, wink wink) and I may write more if the mood strikes.

Now that I've got this long fic done, I want to go back and post an old Kakashi-centric Naruto fic I wrote way back in 2010. It'll take me a few weeks to polish it up, but please check it out if you're interested. It was my very first fanfic and I think it came out rather well, considering it was a plot of my own devising. Overall, it's got a darker vibe than this story, but still has romance (Kakashi x OC), some angst, a bit of humor, and a happy ending. So please look forward to it! :-)

Ciao!

Tchu-chan