Trash: A Collection of Stories

Chapter 21

"That was horrible," I slammed my head onto one of the booth tables when we got back to the guild.

"It wasn't that bad," Sting and Rouge had followed us.

"You weren't in my position," I glared at him.

"But I am the one you kissed, and I feel offended that you would say I was horrible," Sting pretended to be sassy and put a hand on his hip.

"Well, one good thing did come out of this," my hand ran over my pouch of keys.

"Lucy..." Master walked over. "Gray, come join me please."

"Ugh," I sighed. "You told him already?" I whispered to Gray as we walked side by side.

"Well, yeah. You know what we know so he should know too. He can help you."

"Are you sure about that?"

"I can hear you guys you know," Master was a little annoyed.

"Sorry," we said in unison. He led us back to the library and to the same table I have been at on more than one occasion.

Master sighed and looked me in the eye. "You found the last gate key."

"How did you know?"

"I can feel your power, it has definitely increased since the last time we met. Show me."

I slowly pulled out all the gate keys and laid them out in order from first to thirteenth. They all had a glow around them. "I haven't made a contract with Ophiuchus yet, after the whole love potion thing..."

"That's what happened?" Gray hadn't known what went down.

"Yeah.... Everyone wanted me to kiss them... It was traumatic."

"So out of all of us you kissed Sting?"

"More like he kissed me."

"That's not the reason we are here, you can talk about that later. For now I do not want you using all the keys at the guild," Master stared holes into me.

"I would never think about it," I put my hands up in surrender.

"Good. Now about why you joined the guild.."

"I told you I've looked up to this guild. It just so happens the person who ruined my life was apart of the guild, and he's not in trouble. With Jellal in the picture, I could never imagine that Natsu would just kill my mom."

"You see, that's the thing. I don't think he was just sent there to kill your mom, you were supposed to die too." I stopped. I had never thought about that.

"Why would anyone want to kill me?"

"That I do not know. I'm hoping you get some sort a vision soon that could explain more. But you must tell me the moment you have it, no more secrets."

"Will do. What do you know about Jellal?"

"He was controlled by a girl named Ultear, so anything he did was her doing. Erza knew him really well, if you want to know more about him talk to her."

"Thank you. May we be dismissed?"

"Yes." Gray and I both left master to himself.

"I'm so close to the truth," I whispered, clenching my fists to my chest.

"Mhmm. So no killing Natsu until we find out what's behind all of this."

"Wouldn't dream of it, he's actually a pretty good person."

"Oooooh?" He wiggled his eyebrows at me.

"Shut up, "Gwa"."

"Ok, "Wucy"."

"It took you long enough," I felt arms around my waist. I looked back and saw it was Sting.

"Uhmmm, the spell wore off right? Why are you touching me?"

"Because you're beautiful, a hot one."

"I will punch you if you don't-" 'A hot one,' rung in my head. I put my palm to my forehead which broke out in a huge wave of pain.

"What's wrong?" Sting tightened his grip around me.

"It's going to be a hot one.." I mumbled, my father appearing in front of me.

'It's going to be a hot one isn't it?' Dad leaned down to me. This was the day we left for the island.

"Yeah, perfect weather for swimming!" I said out loud at the same time younger me said it.

"Swimming?" Sting asked. Gray was still standing near and shushed him.

'I bet it will feel like you are burning,' father continued.

"Not if I stay in the water."

'You won't be in the water the whole time, the island it very pretty and you should see all the flowers!'

"I can't wait! Mom and I will gather as many flowers as our arms can hold."

'Lucy, we have to get going,' moms voice came into the background.

'Have fun, and don't get too burnt!' Dad gave me a hug almost as tight as the one Sting was giving me now.

"I'll put on a lot of sunscreen," younger me ran out of the office and I felt limp.

"Whoa," Sting was now the only thing keeping me up.

"Did it end?" Gray asked.

"Yeah," leaned my head against Sting's chest. "I heard mom for the first time in years.." I was close to tears. "I want Frosch."

Frosch jumped into my arms at her name and I hugged her, crying into the top of her costume as Sting held us both.

"What a weird combination," Cana commented. I didn't care though, I miss mom too much.

"Do you want me to take you to the infirmary?" Sting looked down at me.

"No, I just want to stay here for a while."

**Hope you enjoyed.**