So ….. how's it going, everyone. I'd like to say that I spent a year working on this last chapter. I didn't. To be honest, I've been completely caught up with school stuff - considering I was starting at a new school. That's not really a good excuse though, I really should have found the time to write something. That said, although it's much too late, here's the very final chapter/epilogue thing of my first ever fanfic. I hope you enjoy!

—

"Long Running Manga Fairy Tail Finally Comes to its Conclusion!" screamed the headlines,

"Final Issue of Fairy Tail Released!"

"Not bad, eh Natsu!" I chuckled, "We made headlines!"

"Told you we would Luce," he replied, smiling confidently, "There was no way we wouldn't!"

A lot had changed since we had set out with Fairy Tail. At first, it had been an art project, then my only hope to survive in adult life, and finally a pleasant journey - following the characters and story to its conclusion. Everyone had stuck with me the whole way, Erza, Levy, Gray, Gajeel and of course, Natsu. There had even been some new faces along the way - Erza's blue-haired boyfriend, Jellal, and many others. Week in, week out we received more and more letters and messages from fans as our following grew. We went on tours around Japan, Q and As, conventions and meet-ups. And throughout it all, we consistently received praise from the teachers back at school. It had really been an amazing journey, full of ups and downs, but in the end, it had all worked out.

"So Lucy," Natsu said, "Erza's messaging me about meeting up soon - for a celebratory lunch or something. We should probably get going - don't wanna' make her mad,"

"Sure," I replied, "Where is it?"

"What? Where? Oh I'm sure it's just a nice restaurant and totally not a big surprise party or anything like that - that'd be crazy?" he spat out, talking so quickly I could barely make out what he was trying to say.

"Natsu, are you sweating?" I asked him, holding back a smile.

"What? Me? Sweating? No?" he said frantically, wiping his forehead off, "Let's just go!"

And with that, he took off for the car.

"Honestly," I thought to myself, "He really hasn't changed since we started this journey has he?"

"Come on Luce!" he called from outside, snapping back to reality, "We gotta' go!"

—

"So, here we are!" Natsu said, pointing at the back of a familiar-looking building, "This is most definitely a fancy restaurant which we are totally going to have lunch in!"

"Sure.." I said, "But don't you think we should go in through the front door?"

"We could do that, but this seems better right? Don't you think? Right? Yeah, I thought so let's go this way," Natsu babbled, pointing me towards the back door.

"This is one odd restaurant," I thought to myself, "But I still feel like I've been here before,"

I walked towards the back door of the building and pulled on the doorknob. The door swung open and I entered what seemed like a big sports hall. The stands were all covered in a black cloth. I walked into the centre of the hall, looking to spot anyone who could explain what kind of restaurant this was. I turned around and began the ask Natsu about this place, but he was gone.

"Wait a moment," I muttered, "I've definitely been here before,"

Just as the realisation dawned on me, that this was the sports hall of my old school.

"SURPRISE!" yelled a crowd of dressed up students, leaping up from underneath the cloth covering the stands. As they shouted, the powerful lights were switched on, and people jumped out from all sorts of hiding places throughout the room.

Their shouts echoed around the room before my all my friends and managers from Kodansha ran in towards me.

"Lucy!" they shouted, wrapping me in a monster of a hug.

"Guys! You really didn't have to - thank you so much!" I exclaimed, tearing up and hugging them back.

"As soon as we saw the newspapers this morning, we knew we had to prepare a surprise for you. After all, we wouldn't be at these points in our lives without you. Without your courage and hard work on the initial project, none of this would have ever have happened. So thank you!" said Erza.

"It wasn't just me though! You guys were equally important - we did it as a team!"

"Well, then," said Erza, "Let's enjoy this celebration together!"

We spent the rest of the day milling around, talking to fans, each other and even our old teachers. I made sure to thank Ms Strauss specially - after all, if it hadn't been for her, we'd never have been able to get this far. When everyone had been thanked, and we had talked to all of our fans in the new students, we headed back to Erza's place. We stayed up for a while, watching movies, playing games and talking. After a while, everyone had fallen asleep, apart from Natsu and I.

"So, what now?" asked Natsu, drowsily.

"I guess we should probably get to bed," I replied.

'Not that, I meant - now that Fairy Tail is, over."

"You know what? I have no clue. Fairy Tail has been such a big part of my life since we started it. Now that it's gone, I'm not sure what I'm gonna' do with myself," I replied, "But as long as I've got you guys by my side? I'm sure it'll work out,"

—

Thank you all for reading this final chapter, and putting up with my terrible upload schedule. i really hope you all enjoyed my first fanfic, and please do leave a review telling me what you thought could have been done better. However, I do have another fanfic which I have started to write, also for FT, and the first chapter is already out. I've also written a lot of it already, so that I can attempt to have a fairly steady upload scheme with that. Thanks again for all your reviews, follows and favourites and I hope to seen you all in my next fanfic!