Written as a request from GemNika! Sorry it took me so long to get to! This will be a three-shot. For reasons.

I would suggest listening to Skyler Grey's song, "Words," while reading this. I love this version best: /watch?v=LOsOynOl8cE

Prompt: "Things you said when you told me goodbye."

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

Erik had a ghost.

She was blonde, much older than him, pretty enough (he guessed), and annoying as fuck (which he realized was a word he shouldn't know at seven – and to be honest he wasn't entirely certain what it meant. He just knew it was bad, which was enough for him).

Her name was Lucy, and Erik wasn't entirely positive about when it was she had begun to haunt him. It felt like she'd always been there, to be honest.

Once upon a time, before Lucy had entered his life (he could still vaguely recall that there had been that time – though pinpointing it was a challenge), Erik had thought that ghosts were terrifying beings. Transparent, floating monsters that despised the living (according to late night shows he wasn't supposed to be watching). Desiring nothing more than to drag those still alive into the netherworld with them.

Lucy, on the other hand, was everything Erik had been told ghosts were not. For one, she was completely solid. Not just in appearance, either. The older woman could affect and manipulate the things around her, and when she held his hand she was warm to the touch. Also, no ghost had ever been shown to be quite as bubbly and energetic as Lucy was. Rather than forcing him to join her in the realm of the dead, Lucy seemed far more interested in making sure Erik ate his vegetables and went to bed at a decent hour.

Right now she was bothering him while he tried to watch the television with the other children in the foster home in which he lived.

"Erik, did you do your homework for school? I know you hate math, but this is important," she scolded, standing in front of the screen.

The boy resisted groaning out loud. He couldn't watch the show with her there, blocking his view. Sadly, the only thing about specters that held true in regards to Lucy was the fact that no one but Erik could see or hear her. If he started talking back to her, he'd look crazy. The therapist the social worker had taken him to see once certainly had when he'd brought Lucy up. Erik was beginning to think it was true, himself, to be honest. Though he wasn't entirely certain he was capable of imagining someone like Lucy. If he was going to invent an imaginary friend, he would have gone for something much cooler than a nagging blonde. A flying purple snake sounded much more awesome.

Lucy tapped her foot impatiently. "Young man, I know you haven't done it. Go up to your room and finish it."

Knowing from past experience that she wouldn't give him any peace until he did so, Erik gave up. With a barely restrained snarl, he stomped to the room he shared with two other children. Both of them were firmly situated in front of the television, though, so at least he would be free to argue with Lucy to his heart's content.

As he shut the door behind him, he turned to face the blonde ghost. "What was that for, Lucy?!" he demanded. "Homework could have waited until the show was over!"

She shook her head. "If I had, then you would be say, 'Just one more show,' until it was suppertime. And then it would be bathtime, and then bedtime. At which point, you'd be stuck doing your homework way too late at night, not getting any sleep, and you'd be super grumpy tomorrow morning! The sooner you get your homework done, the sooner you can go back to playing."

Erik threw his hands in the air. "What is so important about doing my homework anyway?! It's not as if math is important!"

To his great surprise, Lucy laughed at that. "Actually, people use math a lot in their everyday lives. But it's fine if it's not your cup of tea."

"I hate tea," he muttered.

"Fine then, it's not your favorite subject. You still need to know it."

"It's not just math!" he complained, sitting down at the small desk crammed between two bunk beds. His backpack he extracted from beneath his bunk. "I just don't see the point of school at all!"

Lucy frowned, sitting on the edge of Erik's bed. She propped her elbows on her knees and rested her chin in her palms. Watching him pull out his assigned work, she contemplated his statement. "You know," Lucy suddenly spoke up, startling the boy just a smidge, "school is much like hunting for buried treasure."

Turning in his seat, Erik stared at the obviously insane ghost. "What are you talking about?"

"Well… think of it like this," she explained. "Somewhere in your schoolwork, you're going to someday find what makes you happiest doing. Or at least, that's the goal. You just have to keep working through all the subjects until you find it. Just like when you're looking for buried treasure, you have to dig a lot of holes."

Erik snorted. "Except this 'treasure,' has no map and I have no idea what the hell it even looks like."

"Language," she reminded him softly. "You're right – but…" Her gaze turned wistful. "When you find it? And suddenly everything makes sense to you?" A small smile touched her lips. "There's nothing like that feeling in all the world. Trust me."

Watching Lucy's expression, Erik began to wonder for the first time just what it was that had meant that much to Lucy. Was that why she pushed him to find it? Because she could no longer reach her own buried treasure?

He wasn't sure he liked thinking about that.

"Fine," Erik grumbled, deciding to leave it be for now. "I'll do the stupid math. But you had better help!"

Lucy smiled at him. "Sure."

"So, Erik," Lucy said some weeks later, sitting beside the boy on the bunk bed. "I hear that bunk over there is finally getting a new occupant."

He raised an eyebrow at her, a tic he'd actually picked up from the ghost herself. "Yeah, a new kid is coming. Supposed to be a girl."

The ghost nodded sagely. "I heard your foster parents discussing it last night. I think her name is Kinana."

"Why are you so interested?" Erik wanted to know.

She raised an eyebrow right back at him. "Why don't you sound enthused?"

"Because it's a girl."

"I'm a girl," Lucy pointed out.

"Yeah. I know. That's what I'm basing this on."

Rolling her eyes at him, she gave his shoulder a shove and he fell, laughing, face first into his pillow. "Goofball," she said fondly, reaching down and tickling him without mercy.

"Aaaah!" he shrieked. "Stop it!"

"Treat her nicely, Erik. I mean it."

Erik convulsed with laughter, tears streaking from his eyes. "I will!"

Lucy released him, and giggled as he gasped for air. "Now promise me. Pinky-promise!" Lucy held out the digit to him.

"I'm almost eight!" the maroon-haired boy protested. "I'm too old for pinky-promises!"

"You're never too old for pinky-promises," Lucy replied with grave seriousness. She held up her other hand, wiggling her fingers threateningly. "Now pinky-swear. Or else!"

Squawking in protest, he hurriedly hooked the smallest finger on his hand with hers. "There! I pinky-swear!"

"Good job, squirt."

Kinana turned out to be more than just merely tolerable for Erik. Her timidity was a far cry from Lucy's outright bossiness, yet she held within her the same kindness. Erik found himself playing with her quite a lot. She was easy to be around.

All of which Lucy noticed, of course.

"So, Kinana's been here a few months now," she whispered to him one night, after everyone else was asleep. "What do you think of her?"

"Why are you whispering?" he asked. "No one else can hear you."

"Answer my question, brat."

He blinked in the dark, flipping over to see her outlined in the dim room. Lucy glowed a little to his sight. "You've been calling me names a lot more lately."

She seemed amused by his observation. "Still avoiding my question."

Shrugging, Erik confessed, "I like her. She's… pretty cool. There, you happy, now?"

Lucy nodded, a grin full of pearly-whites lighting up her visage further. "I'm very happy you've made a good friend, Erik. Now go to sleep."

"That's what you were keeping me up for?" he grumbled, but obediently turned again on his side.

A few moments of silence passed, then Lucy spoke up again. "I overheard your foster parents discussing your grades."

Erik stiffened. "Yeah? What about them?"

"You're doing great," she stated, her voice low and full of warmth. "I'm proud of you, kiddo. Best in your class, apparently."

Relaxing, Erik smiled into the darkness. "Cool." Some moments later, he asked, "Lucy?"

"Yeah?"

"Could… could you…?"

"…Sure thing." He felt the bed depress behind him, and the weight of an arm drape itself over his midsection. "That better?"

With a twist, Erik faced Lucy and buried his face into her chest.

"Watch it, kid," Lucy chuckled.

"…Thanks, Lucy," he mumbled.

She placed a gentle kiss on his head, and stroked his hair. "You're welcome."

Erik felt sleep pulling at his senses, dragging him down into dreams that he knew would be pleasant for once. "Lucy?"

"Yeah?"

"…I wish you were my mom, sometimes," he said.

Lucy sharply inhaled. When she could speak again, it sounded as if there was something lodged in her throat. Like there were so many things that she wanted to say, that they'd gotten stuck trying to escape. "…I would've liked that," she told him. "Being your mother. I would've been a horrible one, though. I wasn't such a great person when I was… alive."

Sleepily, Erik shook his head. "You would've done fine. You kind of… already are my mother, though."

Dampness settled into his hair, and as he drifted off to the land of dreams at last, Erik thought how cruelly unfair it was that ghosts could cry.

Erik sighed heavily as Lucy rearranged the books in his bag. A curious Kinana looked on, having been entrusted with the great secret of her best friend's ghost some time before. The shy girl had taken an immediate liking to Lucy, and vice versa. They could only communicate when Erik translated Lucy's words for her, but that didn't seem to undermine their budding affection for each other.

"There," Lucy said, once the contents were to her liking. "That should be easier to carry. Now hand me Kinana's."

With a groan, Erik gestured to his purple-haired friend to fork over the bag. "She wants to fix yours, too." He turned to Lucy, exasperated. "Come on, Lucy! It's not as if we haven't been to school before!"

Lucy shook her head. "But this will be the first time you'll be going without me!" she said. "I just worry, okay?!"

"I'm eight! And Kinana's nine! We should've been going on our own long before now!"

The ghost hung her head, blonde strands falling into her face. "I know, I know," she told him. "Soon you won't be needing me anymore."

Erik did not like the finality in that statement, nor the defeat in her tone.

Lucy hugged Erik as tightly as she could. "I'm so happy that you made so many new friends!"

The boy tried to shove the affectionate ghost off of him. "Let go, would you?! And I'm not sure they count when they're your foster siblings."

Shaking her head, Lucy held Erik at arm's length, but did not completely release him. "What about Kinana, then?"

"She's different."

A laugh escaped Lucy's mouth, her brown eyes sparkling. "How exactly is she different?"

Erik didn't actually have an answer. "She just is!" He protested when Lucy began to laugh at him in earnest, "Hey!"

Lucy pulled him in for a much gentler hug than before. "Sometimes, the family you choose can become more important than the one you're born into. Wouldn't you say?"

Clutching her in return, Erik couldn't help but agree.

When the day finally came, he wasn't ready for it.

How could he be?

"You're… you're…" Erik gulped, his mouth full of cotton and his eyes burning. "You're leaving me?"

Lucy swallowed thickly as well. Her eyes brimmed over with tears of her own she was fighting desperately to keep at bay. "I don't want to," she confessed in a choked whisper.

"But you're still going to."

"Yes."

He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. No matter how hard he tried to say something, he couldn't. The words were trapped inside of him. So many things he wanted to say.

"I have to," Lucy continued, as if able to read his mind. "I… I stayed as long as I could. But I have to go now. If I don't…" she choked, the warm, salty tears flowing down her face uninhibited now. "If I don't rejoin the cycle now… I won't ever be able to."

She reached out her hand, but Erik flinched away. Lucy's arm fell, dropping to hand limply at her side. "I waited until I thought you would be okay without me. You have Kinana – she'll be your best friend for life, I can tell. Now there's Sorano, and Macbeth. Richard, and Sawyer. You'll never lack for friendship."

"But you won't be here," he whispered. Now he could no longer hold back his tears. "Why can't you stay?"

Lucy bit her lip, her heart breaking at the sight of the child before her. Ghosts shouldn't be able to have their heart broken. It wasn't fair. None of it was. "I-"

Erik shook his head, and furiously wiped his eyes. "I know," he said. "I'm not stupid. If you have to, then you have to. I can't force you… or anyone else… to stay. And if you stay, you'll be bound to me, right? You deserve to move one, you've taken care of me longer than most anyone else."

Silence filled the space between them, heavy in its emptiness.

"Be good to your foster parents," Lucy told him softly. "They love you, too. And they've been there for you even longer than I. And…" She took a deep breath, exhaling through her nose. "I'll come find you again, I swear. We'll be together again. And then, you'll be older than me and scold and nag me to do my homework, eat my vegetables, and go to bed on time."

He held out his hand, the smallest finger extended in a crook for her to take. "Pinky-swear!" he demanded. "Promise me!"

Wrapping her own digit around his, Lucy nodded. "I pinky-promise you – I'll see you again, someday."

Erik rushed forward, his arms encircling her middle. "I love you, Mom!" he wailed. "I don't want you to go!"

Lucy knelt down, and her own arms returned the nine-year-old's embrace. "I love you, too!" she sobbed.

Love poured through the simple gesture, Lucy's form the warmest thing Cobra had ever experienced. It wasn't fair. Ghosts weren't supposed to be as warm as Lucy.

Soft lips pressed against his forehead. "Goodbye Erik. For now."

"Goodbye, Mom," he whispered.

Then his arms were empty, and cold.

And so he screamed, Kinana running in from another room to hold him while he cried.