Trust

Reconcile | 和解する

It didn't take very long for Team Natsu to find them after Lucy finished her conversation with Beleth. With all of their memories now back, she knew that it was only going to be a matter of time before they found her again, knowing that they wouldn't just leave her on the island.

At least, she hoped they wouldn't, but with what she knows of them, they wouldn't (though her thoughts on them have been heavily skewed by when they were under fake Lisanna's spell), not again at least. And for once, she was right. Lucy could hear them before she could begin to see them, overhearing Natsu and Gray's childish fighting and Wendy trying to placate them as Erza continued to lead them through the trees before all of them went silent and then quickly started running in her direction when Natsu screamed he could smell her again.

Waiting for them to come up to her, Lucy sat beside Mavis, clenching her fists to stop herself from running further away.

"It'll be fine," the First Master said, noticing Lucy's apprehension. "They're back to their old selves now."

"Right," Lucy gave her a tense smile but didn't have time to say anything else before Natsu came tumbling out of the jungle.

"Luce! There you are, we've been looking everywhere for you."

Lucy's breath hitched. That was something she hasn't been called in a long time.

"Hold on Natsu," Erza grabbed Natsu by the scruff of his vest as he tried to (affectionately) maul her, "we all have something to say to her first, right?"

"Right." Natsu said somewhat quietly. Erza nodded in agreement and set him back down onto the ground where he then turned his full attention back to Lucy and apologized. Profusely and repeatedly.

"You don't need to apologize so many times! Just once is enough." Lucy tried to stop him, not sure how to react to his sincerity.

"But Luce, we were horrible to you," he frowned, "words aren't enough for us to tell you how sorry we are."

"Natsu is—regrettably—right," Gray chimed in. "Our actions were inexcusable, even if we were under a spell we never should have treated our friend like that."

"We are sorry and will do whatever we can to make it up to you now." Erza finished for them, bowing her head.

And Lucy? Well, she felt like she was going to cry. Many times has she envisioned this exact thing happening when she was still in the Guild. Many times did she hope she would wake up one day to all of them apologizing to her and having everything go back to how it used to be. But now that it was happening and now that she knew why they even acted like that, Lucy isn't sure what she feels.

Yes, she wants to cry; she wants to cry out of happiness, out of bitterness, and even out of sadness, as when she finally got the apology she used to constantly wish for, she had finally moved on. They would always be so very important to her but the time when their apology was the only thing she wanted, as they were her everything has passed and now, she has other people that are important to her.

"Thank you guys, truly." And she means every word of it. She really is so happy about this and the part of her that was completely and utterly destroyed by their complete switch in personality has begun to settle.

In response, Natsu gave her his signature grin and helped pull her up from the rock she was sitting on.

Lucy, bewildered by this, let herself be limply pulled along with him, a smile slowly making its way onto her face.

"Bye First Master!" He yelled and waved at her with one hand, the other holding Lucy's hand and running back to the other side of the island with her. The rest of the team followed suit, the five of them quickly arriving at the port on the island.

The port that didn't actually have any ships in it.

This time, Wendy was the first to speak up, albeit a bit hesitant, "so, how are we supposed to get off of the island?"

No one responded, no one having thought that far ahead.

Lucy looked at them all deep in thought and slightly raised her hand. "I can ask Loke to tell Master where we are?" She volunteered when she saw no one was able to think of another way.

Their response to her was instantaneous, with all four of their heads snapping in her direction and cheering. "Yes!" All of them said simultaneously.

"Lucy, you're an absolute lifesaver." Wendy said while sighing. "I doubt we would ever get off of this island if not for you."

Lucy simply smiled at her, this interaction bringing back all of her fond memories of them and reminding her just how much she's missed all of them.

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A/N: The 31st of August is still before the end of August so I didn't lie (for once). I low key kind of hate this chapter but I kept rewriting it and kept disliking it so this is about the best that it's going to be unless I decide to come back and try rewriting it later. Anyways, hope you enjoyed reading this :).