Trust

Magnolia | マグノリア

Everything is eerily... normal.

Just as it was before Edolas, Lucy finds herself fitting seamlessly back in with everyone, as if she never left and as if the past few months had never even happened.

When they all arrived back at the guild and she took her first step through the guild doors, the usually loud guild quieted down, with nearly every member looking at her with varying degrees of shock. Which. Should be expected. After she had so openly left the guild, she was now back without any warning. This would obviously be a shock to anyone, especially now that the spell was broken.

Unsure of what to do, Lucy walked through the guild hall, fingers playing with the hem of her skirt and sat down in her usual seat. Wordlessly, Erza sat in front of her and quickly following her lead, the rest of Team Natsu took up the remaining seats around her, effectively blocking her away from the rest of the guild, something she is thankful for.

Still feeling overly self aware, Lucy looked at the oak table in front of her, tracing the lines with her eyes and counting every knot she could find to pass the time and after what felt like hours of her doing this—though was most likely just a few minutes—Mira came up to the table with a tray of drinks, giving one to each of them (and Wendy a cup of hot chocolate) with a smile.

That small act, though innocuous, helped to ease some of the tension she was feeling and relax her a little.

"Thanks Mira," Lucy said, her tense shoulders relaxing ever so slightly.

"Anytime." Was all Mira said, giving them a little wave before returning to her spot behind the bar.

The rest of the guild seemed to relax a bit too, no longer as shocked as they were when they first saw her enter but still not wanting to approach her.

This didn't last long though, as after Lucy's first sip of her drink—which was much stronger than she remembers it being—Gajeel walked up to her, a noticeable frown on his face.

"Lucy," he said, the entire guild watching him. Similarly, Lucy stared at him, waiting for him to continue. "I'm sorry." He bowed to her, something completely out of character for him. "I was a real asshole to you, regardless of the fact that I was under a spell, and you didn't deserve that."

Gajeel was completely serious, something Lucy was not used to seeing and hesitated to respond. The iron dragon slayer, sensing this, continued. "Now if it were Salamander I was treating that way, I wouldn't even bother with this apology, but it's not, and that was completely unwarranted." He patted her on the head, a small smirk now on his face due to being able to insult Natsu but eyes still downturned.

"It's alright," Lucy replied, shocked that she actually meant it. "The spell was based on the amount of affection you held for me, so I know that you must have cared for me dearly for you to have acted that way. I'm not going to hold that against you."

Gajeel's smirk vanished, replaced with a frown even deeper than his earlier one, shoving his hands into his pockets. "You forgive people too easily," he murmured, the tips of his ears a delightful shade of pink as he ran away.

Soon after Gajeel apologized to her, Laxus came up to her next, then Freed, then Juvia, then eventually, she had talked with every member currently in the guild and all the tension was completely gone from her.

Lucy felt more at ease than she has felt in a long time in the guild, and she's enjoying it.

From when they arrived there to when the sun went down, Lucy surprised herself with how easy it was for her to smile at a joke someone would make or resign herself to watching Gray and Natsu bicker every few minutes.

And then the guild hall began to empty, people deciding to go home for the night to not have to leave after it gets too dark. Seeing this happen made Lucy acutely aware of the fact that though she decided to stay for a few days until Beleth could gather enough magic to send her back, she's going to need to find somewhere to spend the night.

Considering it's been over seven years and she has technically left the guild, she's almost certain no one has paid her rent and with how stingy her landlady is, Lucy wouldn't be surprised if her stuff was sitting in a dumpster somewhere, someone new inhabiting her room.

But still, with no other option than inconveniencing someone else by letting her stay with them, Lucy decided to try her luck anyways, hoping that by some miracle, her room would be the same as how she left it.

Watching as the sun changed its color, Lucy walked down a familiar path, her muscle memory kicking in and leaving her to not even need to think about where she is going to go, trusting that her legs would carry her there.

(About halfway there, two men on a boat, looking much older than she last remembered, yelped in shock.

"Is that Lucy?!"

"No way, it is her!"

"Welcome back!" They both exclaimed, waving excitedly towards her, making her heart squeeze in her chest.

She knew even those not affected by the spell would remember her, but she really wasn't expecting to be missed this much.)

When she arrived at her apartment, she stood outside the entrance for a moment, committing every detail of it to her memory.

"Lucy?" A voice called from behind her, one she clearly remembers as her landlady. "You probably need this." She says as soon as she confirms her identity (something not hard to do, considering she looks exactly the same). "I doubt you kept your key with you after all this time." She fished around her pockets, pulling out a key identical to her old one.

"But," Lucy asked in shock, "I haven't paid my rent in seven years—shouldn't you have taken my stuff out and rented this room out to someone else?"

Her landlady hummed, "I was going to but someone started paying for your rent every month, paying more than enough for you to basically own this apartment by now—"

Who would do something like that?

"—I think his name was Jude Heartfilia or something of the sort. Someone you know, I'm sure."

Lucy's heart stopped hearing that but she didn't want to worry her landlady so she hid it as best she could.

"Yeah, he's my father." She said with a sad smile, her landlady giving her the key before leaving, giving her a quick "oh, and welcome back," before going back to whatever she was doing before.

Even more hesitant now that she knows her father has been paying her rent for the last seven years, Lucy steeled herself, gently opening the door and looking around, noticing nothing out of place until she entered her room, where she saw a stack of gifts, each with a different letter attached to it.

She fell to her knees in shock as she read the first one, and then her legs felt too weak to support her after reading the second one, and then as she read every single one after that she resigned herself to staying on the floor, unable to help the tears pooling in her eyes, moistening the paper crumpling slightly in her hands

"Dad..." she mumbled to herself, knowing that she was alone in her apartment that suddenly seemed much larger than it ever did before.

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A/N: Look at me keeping my promise. Let's see if I can keep this up by posting another chapter before the end of the first week of March. ANyways, I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter :)