Epilogue

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~Lucy's POV~

Today was the day I'd been looking forward to for weeks. Today was the first day of school. I really felt secure in my environment now that I was a Senior, now that I'd made friends that I knew would be there for me forever.

I strolled out of my dorm, skipping along the path that led to the school. I whistled to prevent myself from speaking while I walked casually into the building, finding my friends quickly and running over to them. I stood right beside Natsu, allowing his arm to swing around me as I snuggled into his side.

I'd spent nearly the entire summer in his presence. I loved him so much and just couldn't get enough of him. It wasn't like either of us had anything else to be doing anyways, no family and most of our friends were on vacation with their families. We did hang out with Levy and Juvia quite a lot. They didn't have anyone else to go home to, and my few moments without Natsu were spent with them.

The summer was pretty good. It was mostly filled with relaxing, because there weren't many fun adventures you could go on without money. Natsu and Levy had both gotten jobs over the summer—Juvia claimed her only job was watching her "Gray-sama"—and though I'd attempted to do the same, I was deemed unemployable. Since then, while Natsu and Levy were at work, I'd spent the days practicing what Julie instructed me to do. I hoped I could get a job by next summer, but I wasn't sure.

I kept up my weekly meetings with Julie, and things had gotten considerably better. I was able to control my speech, though like Julie said, it was only to a certain extent. Natsu supported me the whole time and rode with me to every session. It was hard at the start, but progress was now beginning to unfold quickly. I still had uncontrollable speaking, but was able to somewhat control the level at which I spoke. Throughout the group's conversation, I'd been speaking about my summer experience, but they were able to ignore me and continue their conversation, unlike my previous unignorably loud interruptions. Like Julie said, though, things were going slowly. It was hard to try to learn to control something that had been a part of your life for so long.

Natsu pulled me away from the group and outside into the slowly cooling air. It was just before sunrise, now that the solstice had passed, and he led me behind the building. I didn't question it too much, knowing that he would never do anything to hurt me.

As soon as we were out of sight, he didn't waste any time before pressing his lips on mine. I was a bit taken aback, Natsu had never done something like this so desperately, but soon realized I was craving it just as much as him. I dug my one hand into his soft hair while my other roamed across his highly toned arms. He parted from me only to attack the rest of my face, planting kisses along my cheekbones, my forehead, my jawline, my nose, I would be surprised if there was a place on my face his lips hadn't made contact with. I giggled as he did it, but had to admit I was getting impatient.

I pulled my hand from his hair and tugged his scarf so that his lips fell onto mine once again. He didn't protest and soon, we were back at it with a fiery passion. When we parted, we were both breathing heavily, and Natsu muttered, "Can we make that a tradition?" I cocked my head at him, asking what he meant. "If I knew coming to school meant I could do that every morning, I would be a lot more excited about waking up," he said softly, running one hand through my hair while his other rested just above the curve of my hip.

I nodded enthusiastically. "Heck yeah!" He laughed at me loudly and he pulled me in the direction of my first period. I saw Gray sitting at a table and waved before Natsu kissed me one more time and said, "See ya at lunch!" before running off to his class.

I walked over to Gray and he wiggled his eyebrows. "Where'd you two run off to?"

"Oh, shut it, Gray," I said with a heavy eye roll. "Ya know you're the only thing Juvia talked about all summer," I said mischievously, raising a single eyebrow suggestively. "It actually gets pretty annoying," I said under my breath, catching the heavy blush that he couldn't suppress.

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I walked to lunch happily, glaring fiercely at anyone who I heard snicker at my words. They shut up pretty fast. I strolled into the room, walking up to the lunch line and grabbing my cheap school pizza before walking to our usual table. I was the first one there and saw a group of Freshmen sitting at our table. I smiled at their excited faces and decided to settle on a different table. The group walked in slowly and I had to gesture towards them for them to see our newly claimed table.

My mouth gaped when I saw Levy and Gajeel holding hands. I saw Natsu looking at them too and I voiced my confusion, "Since when are you guys..." I trailed off, gesturing to their hands.

Levy answered me proudly. "While you and Natsu ran off to who knows where, Gajeel and I announced it. But I guess I'll say it again since you weren't there." Throughout her answer she winked at me twice. She sat down and held Gajeel and her hands up proudly while she said, "Gajeel and I have been together for two weeks." Gajeel looked away shyly and tried to hide his blushing face.

Natsu's face was full of confusion and he said, "Wait. Gajeel was away with his dad, right?" I looked up at him and nodded in agreement.

"Yeah," I said, "when did you guys even have time to get together."

"Gajeel came back a couple weeks ago, but said he didn't want to hang out with you guys," Levy rolled her eyes. "I told him it was rude, but he didn't even want to tell you guys he was back."

I shook my head and grinned. "Well, congratulations! I'm sorry I wasn't there to hear about it earlier." I elbowed Natsu lightly and he feigned extreme pain

I snuggled into Natsu's warmth again while I ate my pizza in a silence that I had to focus hard to maintain.

My focus failed me, however, when I saw Gray and Juvia. They were bickering quietly and Juvia was trying to hand feed Gray while I watched in amusement as he reluctantly let her. I glanced at Mira and Levy, seeing familiar looks on their faces as they watched the pair. They had the same looks on their face as they did when they looked at Natsu and I before we got together, and I knew they were silently planning something.

Band was still my favorite class by far, and it passed far too quickly for my liking. Soon, I was assigned a new demonic locker for P.E. While we all struggled to open our lockers in the locker room, Mira gathered all the female members of our squad—minus Juvia—and proposed the idea to us. We all agreed without a hitch and made a plan to tell the boys. After the boring and uneventful class, we gathered the boys—minus Gray—and told them the plan. They agreed just as readily as us girls.

We watched Gray and Juvia the rest of the day, literally taking notes on what made them embarrassed and what we knew they loved. We were dead serious about this plan, and we were going to work to make it happen until it became a reality.

We met at the park after school to discuss our plan in more detail. We hadn't had much time to discuss in class without Gray or Juvia overhearing us.

"We all know that we can't tell Gray or Juvia about this, right?" Mira asked. We all nodded, but just to make sure she added, "No matter what. It doesn't matter if they ask or if they get in a fight. We did it for Natsu and Lucy and look how that turned out," she gestured to our linked hands. "Now we're going to make it happen for Gray and Juvia."

Mira and Lisanna were the head of the group and they both shouted the name of our new mission.

"MISSION GRUVIA OTP is a go!"

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