Fainthearted

After the Phantom Lord attack, it took a while before Fairy Tail could settle back into its regular working state, what with the interrogation by the Magic Council and the huge matter of their destroyed Guild. Since the Guild Hall was totally wrecked, there was no way to take any job requests, so Master called a temporary suspension of jobs, making their first priority getting the building fixed. With that, every mage pitched in to build their new Guild bigger and better than ever!

In the midst of this hopeful atmosphere, Team Shadow Gear recuperated quickly with the sympathy and attention of their Guildmates. Sure, sometimes people lowered their voices around them as if talking loudly would re-open their injuries, and even Elfman held himself back, squeezing his voice low into an overly-dramatic stage whisper, patting Jet and Droy gingerly on the backs instead of the open-palmed, overenthusiastic backslaps and roars he usually gave them upon greeting. Shadow Gear's boys were, of course, completely and totally offended at being handled with kid gloves, and eagerly took the opportunity to put the smackdown on their Guildmates, taking advantage of their pulled punches during the requisite (unstoppable) squabbles that broke out even as the new Guild took shape around them.

It didn't take too long for Fairy Tail to withdraw the privilege they'd given the boys and soon things were back to their rollicking ways as Alzack beaned Jet a good one right on the nose with a long plank of wood, Jet giving just as good as he got, yelling and laying about with his wooden crutch, knocking Nab unconscious with an ill-timed swipe. Lucy and Laki Olietta gave the brawling dogpile of boys a hugely disapproving glower as they demolished the fragile wooden scaffold that was the start of the new bar. Laki rolled her eyes and murmured a Wood-Make spell to recreate the scaffold while Lucy stomped over to the boys and started scolding them. She was unceremoniously swept into the roiling ball of limbs and fists and soon her furious screams joined Wakaba and Macao's raucous laughter. Things were slowly returning to a Fairy-Tail state of normal.

Except for Levy.

In the wake of the Guild's sympathy, she drifted, aimless. For the most part, she managed to keep up her good cheer as she recovered, clamoring to help out with the massive repairs that the Guild was undergoing. Mirajane gently overrode Levy's protests that she was fine now and she could work, really! and firmly insisted that she wait a bit longer and recuperate before taking on such heavy work. Levy acquiesced, pouting, but during the downtime, she sat and picked at her food, mouthing it down absentmindedly, lost in her own thoughts. Past her irrepressible cheer, there was a darkness that hadn't been there before, for all that it didn't show on her sweet face when she smiled.

Most days, she stayed close to Lucy when Jet and Droy weren't around, keeping up a cheerful banter with her best friend, the talk and laughter bringing her back to normalcy. Sometimes Jet and Droy would limp past and she'd smile and joke with them until Mirajane caught up with them and gave them a right scolding for moving around like that, didn't they see they were still injured! Levy would giggle behind her hand at their crestfallen expressions as they tried their best to creep away, but Mira wasn't having any of it, and shepherded them firmly back to a spot where she could keep an eye on them, only for them to escape at the first distraction.

Things felt normal, but at the most unexpected times, something would always pop up to remind her that no, she still had a long way to go before she could forget what had happened. One afternoon, Levy caught Lucy giving her a sneaky hand signal as she stood with Jet and Droy, chuckling as they watched Juvia stalking Gray. She made excuses to her teammates and crept over to where Lucy was hiding behind a large pile of wooden beams.

"What is it, Lu-chan?" She whispered conspiratorially as she crouched behind the pile next to her friend. Lucy looked left and right suspiciously before opening the thick messenger bag at her side and producing a heavy sheaf of papers.

"It's the 3 most recent chapters of my book!" Lucy crowed, holding the stack at Levy, her eyes sparkling with pride. "I was hoping you could take a look at it for me like you did that other time, it really helped! "

Levy gave a wordless squeal of excitement and threw her arms around Lucy in an enthusiastic hug. To her surprise and confusion, Lucy gasped and jolted away from her, nearly dropping her precious chapters.

"Lu-chan?" Levy asked, a bit hurt, and Lucy fluttered her hands, overflowing with apologies.

"No! I'm sorry, Levy-chan, it's just I'm still a bit sore, that's all," she exclaimed, rubbing her side gingerly.

"What? Why? What happ-" Levy's voice trailed off as Lucy lifted her shirt with a grimace to reveal an awful, spreading bruise on her side, colored all the sickly rainbow hues of healing.

"I – that –" Levy seemed to have lost her voice. "Is that…from…" She went silent, but Lucy nodded grimly.

"Yeah. He did that. If it wasn't for Natsu…" Lucy trailed off and shook her head, smiling ruefully. "It's okay though! I'm okay, and it's healing and I'll be perfectly fine in a couple of days, so don't worry about it, Levy!"

Lucy hugged her friend tight around the shoulders and smiled. Levy swallowed, her face taut with a million conflicting emotions. Admiration for her friend. Rage that she had had to suffer. An awful sense of disappointment at her own weakness. As she opened her mouth to say something, anything, express the wonder and pride she felt at her best friend's amazing bravery, Natsu suddenly poked his head into their hiding place and gave a shout that startled them both into hitting their heads on the beams above them. As they groaned and clutched at the newly-inflicted bumps, Natsu squatted down beside them, almost hopping with excitement.

"Lucy! I finally found you! What are you doing hiding here? We needed you to help us and we couldn't find you anywhere! Why were you hiding?"

He grabbed Lucy by the arm and proceeded to snatch her away despite her vocal protests. Lucy rolled her eyes at Levy and made shooing motions at the stack of papers still on the ground, and Levy grinned and waved her understanding.

As she gathered the sheaves of paper, arranging them into neat stacks, Levy couldn't help but look down at her own fingers. She paused and set the papers on the ground so that she could spread her hands out before her, wiggling her fingers, rolling her bandage-free wrists. Unbidden, a horrible chill ran through her, and she clutched her bare shoulders and shivered, closing her eyes. The worst of her injuries had healed by now, but just because there was no physical evidence anymore didn't mean that the encounter that had caused them wasn't branded in her mind. She shook her head fiercely and told herself to snap out of it, collecting the papers into a neat bundle under her arm and standing to find a place to sit and read.

During a pause between paragraphs, Levy smiled fondly as Lucy began screaming at Natsu and Gray for whatever transgression they'd committed, chasing them in circles around the table. She studied her friend closely, trying to find the source of Lucy's indomitable spirit. In all her indulgent self-pity, she had managed to forget that Lu-chan had faced off with…with him as well, hadn't she? And yet…she seemed unchanged by the experience. Levy's eyes drifted over to where Jet and Droy were (not) helping Max and Macao with the repairs on the bar as Macao sneakily dealt a hand of cards at the same time. The boys snickered and muttered jibes under their breath, liberally elbowing each other in the ribs despite their casts and bandages, trying to get a glance at each others' cards, and Levy couldn't help but smile at the easy familiarity of the scene.

Everyone else seemed to be doing just fine. Why was she the only one who felt so lost? Was it because she had a weaker heart than Jet or Droy or Lu-chan? Watching the Guild go about its reconstruction, watching her friends go about with their daily lives as if nothing had happened only made the experience even more surreal, as if she was living a monochrome existence in a world of color. She closed her eyes and to her horror, felt the stuffy sensation of tears prickling hotly at the corners of her eyes. Tossing a quick excuse to Jet and Droy as she passed them, she made her escape to the womens' restroom, where she sat and cried quietly into her hands, unable to understand why she couldn't seem to move on. When her tears had spent themselves, she got up and took a deep breath, splashing water on her face before returning to her friends, a smile on her face.

She could move past this awful hurt. She would not allow herself to be overwhelmed.

When evening fell, Levy walked herself back to Fairy Hills, waving at Jet and Droy until they faded out of sight. Most nights she tried to get some reading done before falling asleep, but today every mention of sword or steel in her novels triggered violent, unwelcome flashbacks to fire reflecting off of black steel and red eyes, and in the end she quietly closed her beloved books and set them down, tears streaming silently down her face as she bowed her head and wished desperately that Iron Gajeel had never happened to her. That night she jolted awake in the warm darkness of her room bathed in a cold sweat and clawing at invisible enemies, fire and dark shadows swirling behind her terror-wide eyes, the smell of smoke and seared metal still acrid in her nose.

From that night on she began to use a night-light, something she hadn't done since she was a little girl of six years old and terrified of the dark unknown that haunted the corners of her room. She was plunged in darkness now, only this wasn't the sort of darkness that her charmed, color-changing lacryma nightlight could chase away and she could see no way out of the endless shadow it cast over her. She began to fear the night like she had when she was a child, shying at the darkness of the hallway leading to her room, making sure to leave the Guild before night fell and she was left alone to walk back in the dark, but for all her caution, she was always alone in her room as nighttime fell, with only her nightmares to keep her company.

One night she woke gasping from in the dark, and all was quiet. Her room was still and silent and she was quietly dropping back into sleep, but then – a creak. Under her covers, she went rigid with fear, instantly wide awake as terror chilled her blood. She grasped her bedsheets tight in a white-knuckled grip, too terrified to look or move, keeping her huge eyes fixed rigidly on the edge of her pillowcase.

'It's okay, Levy, It's okay,' she said to herself, as if that would make everything all right. 'They're just floorboards, they can creak sometimes.' It hadn't worked when she was six, and it wasn't working now.

Creak.

Another creak, this time closer. She closed her eyes as terror overwhelmed her, her breaths coming in shallow, desperate gasps. She could practically smell the metallic tang of blood and steel, and she KNEW, knew without opening her eyes that he was right there at her bedside, leaning over her with those terrible red eyes and that awful smile, jagged silver claws casting a shadow across her neck as he reached out and – She screamed and flung her blankets sideways and lunged to her feet and ran, ran out of her room as if hell itself was about to swallow her. She tripped over one of the endless stacks of books in her room and pushed herself up, sobbing, not even noticing her scraped shins in her desperation to escape. She scrabbled at the wall until she found the doorknob, threw the door open and slammed it wildly shut behind her.

It was only then, when she was in the middle of the dimly-lit hallway, that she sank down onto the ground and began to cry in earnest, both hands over her mouth to muffle her sobs as relief and terror warred with each other, overwhelming her with an intensity of emotion that left her exhausted in their wake.

"Levy! Are you all right? I was in the kitchen when I heard the door slam!"

It was Erza, exquipped in her lacy pajamas, hurrying towards her with a mug in hand. She knelt next to Levy and her eyes grew soft as she laid a hand on the younger girl's shoulder. Levy flinched at the gentle touch. "Levy, what's wrong? What happened?"

Levy pointed at the closed door to her bedroom, her fingers shaking.

"It's…it's – him. Gajeel. He's inside." Her voice faltered. She knew she sounded plaintive and childish and Erza would probably scoff at the ridiculous notion, but she couldn't shake the terrible fear or the palpable menace that came with those creaking footsteps. Erza's hand tightened upon her shoulder, and with a flash of magic, Erza suddenly exquipped into her Heart Kruz armor. She hefted her sword in hand, eyes hard with anger as she stood and reached for the doorknob.

"Wait here, Levy," she said, in a grim, terrible voice as she strode into the dark.

Levy waited outside obediently, shaking, her knees drawn up to her chest and face buried in her arms. She could hear Erza moving slowly about the room, heard the click of flint and tinder as Erza found the candle on her reading desk. There was a long moment of silence where Levy thought she would scream. What if Erza got hurt too? It would be her fault! The image of Gajeel, hanging in wait upon one of her bookshelves to pounce on an unsuspecting Erza flashed in her mind, and she unfolded her legs and got up, flinging the door open violently – only to see Erza exquipping quietly back into her pajamas.

"W-what?" Levy asked, looking around in bewilderment. The candle that Erza was holding lit up her room, the flickering orange light revealing…nothing. Absolutely nothing. Her room was empty of intruders, save for her books.

"But," Levy said, her voice shaking as her eyes darted from shadow to shadow, as if Iron Gajeel could leap out at any moment. "But I heard…" Her voice broke, and Erza put a reassuring arm around her. Levy leaned against Erza, knees shaking with a combination of disbelief and gratitude.

"There's nothing here," Erza said soothingly. "No one is here, especially not him. See, your window is closed too, and it locks from the inside, so no one could have possibly come in. Everything is all right. It was just a nightmare."

Levy buried her face into Erza's shoulder and Erza hugged her gently as she began to cry.

"No, but it was so real," Levy whispered, her face a mask of misery.

Erza nodded. "They always are," she whispered back. "But you're safe. We won't let him hurt you again."

Erza guided Levy back to her bed and sat both of them upon it, keeping her arm around the smaller girl as Levy cried against her. She rested her head against Levy's in a comforting gesture and murmured quiet reassurances until Levy's tears played themselves out and she began to slouch under Erza's arm, eyelids fluttering as she struggled to stay awake. Erza smiled and carefully angled Levy towards the pillows, but as she withdrew her arm from around Levy's shoulders and made to leave, Levy suddenly sat up sharply, clutching at her clothes, eyes wide with stark fear.

"Don't go!" she cried, and the plaintive note of fear and hope in her voice made Erza pause and sit back down. Levy looked down abruptly and fiddled with her blankets, flushing with embarrassment at her outburst. "Sorry about that, Erza. I didn't really mean it," she mumbled. "You don't really have to stay, I'll be fine." There was an aching note in Levy's voice that spoke volumes despite her brave words and Erza smiled at her.

"Don't worry, Levy. I'll stay here just until you fall asleep, is that all right?" Levy nodded, looking sheepish, but she settled herself back into her bed as Erza took up a seat at Levy's overburdened reading desk.

"Sorry for the mess," Levy said, looking acutely embarrassed at the haphazard piles of books stacked all around them. Erza waved her concerns off and plucked a novel with a saucy-sounding title from the stack nearest her, arranging herself comfortably in the large reading chair as Levy sighed and pulled her blankets up around her. They fell into a comfortable silence, broken by the quiet flipping of pages as Erza began to read.

"Thanks, Erza," Levy finally murmured, already half-asleep.

Erza paused and smiled as she saw Levy's eyes slip shut. "You're welcome, Levy," she whispered.

She stayed until she heard Levy's breathing deepen and even out into the steady rhythm of sleep before blowing out the candle and tiptoeing to the door, novel in hand. As she opened the door leading to the hallway, she looked back at the slight lump that was her friend underneath the blankets and smiled sadly. It was nostalgic, really. Hilda-baa had once done the same thing for her when she was younger and terrible nightmares of an endless tower into the sky still plagued her dreams. Now, even though they were all grown, Erza still felt a measure of protectiveness for the younger girls of Fairy Tail. As children, Levy and Cana had looked up to her with a mixture of adoration and awe, even as they looked up to her now with respect and love. It was a strange feeling, being both mother and friend.

With a whispered good-night, Erza closed the door and retreated quietly to her own room for the remainder of the night.

As the last of Levy's injuries finally healed, she began to wheedle Erza and Master to let her help with the repairs. Though they were both reluctant, she stared them down until they finally let her, and she threw herself into the work with good cheer and vigorous abandon, supporting Laki and Elfman and all the other Guild members with her Solid Script as they labored to raise their new Guild Hall.

Secretly, Levy was also half-hoping that the physical and magical exertion would keep her from thinking about the awful darkness that was her room at night, but it quickly became clear that despite the added workload of the Guild Hall repairs, she continued to toss and mumble uneasily through the night, waking up just as tired as when she fell into bed. She'd always been scared of the dark, but that vague fear had never taken on a tangible presence before as it did now. Every night her room coiled with nightmares and they all took the same shape – shadows with red eyes and a demon's smile. Her fitful sleep was slashed through by predators with fanged grins and sword-edged scales no matter what kind of night-light she left burning before she went to sleep and it had become a dogged routine for her to wake up panting in the middle of the night, throat sore as if she'd been shouting, eyes darting wildly around her room for any sign of her nightmares come to life.

Shadows began to smudge under her eyes as her nightmares refused to go away and Jet and Droy grew increasingly worried, exchanging concerned glances behind her back but unsure of what to do or how to help. When they asked if she was all right (which was quite often), she would always brush off their concern with a lighthearted flip of her hand, but, both Jet and Droy could see some awful, unnamable emotion eating her away from the inside out, and they couldn't figure out how to bring her back. Thus, they did the only thing they knew how to do.

"Levy! Let's go on a job!"

Levy turned at Jet's eager voice as he zipped to her side, a job request in his good hand, Droy puffing along behind him.

"Look, Levy! It's just a simple mission, to go and pick up some books in Naruben and bring them back to Magnolia, and you can probably finish reading the books by the time we get back! Doesn't this sound great?" He shook the paper at her enthusiastically until she reached out and took it from him, scanning it over.

"It's great," she finally said, smiling, and Jet and Droy beamed at each other. "But you guys…are you sure you're ready to go on a mission? Your arm, Jet…and your leg, Droy." The boys exchanged glances and puffed out their chests.

"Nah, Levy! You know that we'll be just fine! Look, most of this is travel by train and it's only a few stations away so we won't be walking much, and Naruben is really close to Magnolia anyways. We'll just pick up the books and head back, and you can spend all day reading them before you deliver them to the client! Plus, I don't need my arm as long as I've got my legs, see?" Jet zipped to the front of the Guild and back in a blur of motion, grinning proudly.

He continued to dart back and forth until Levy finally laughed and nodded, handing him the request form which he snatched from her with a huge grin. As Jet started to make his way over to Mirajane to report their mission, a sudden snapping retort of lightning sounded from above him and the paper was incinerated in his hand, leaving him gasping, flinging the burning shreds of the request form away. Levy and Droy turned, white-faced, as a loud snort sounded from behind them.

"Pathetic. Pathetic, all of you. Don't go taking jobs when all that'll happen is that you'll embarrass us even more than you already have."

Levy felt her shame mix with embarrassment as she saw who was speaking, because this was Laxus, who she'd always admired and he was actually here in the Guild, and why was he saying such horrible things? He continued, a sneer playing across his face as he took in the rest of the Guild gaping at him.

"Honestly, to be looked down upon by a guild like Phantom Lord? Goddamn embarrassing. I couldn't even look anyone in the face afterwards for the shame."

"Laxus, you bastard," Erza said, a scorching fury in her voice, but Laxus didn't even take notice of her. Instead, he swiveled and pinned Levy with the full-fledged malice and scorn of his glare, and she was suddenly frozen with shock at the absolute, crippling contempt in his eyes.

"I'm talking about YOU, you," he said then, pointing accusingly, unequivocally at her, and her heart stuttered with horror and awful, awful shame in her chest.

"I heard that you guys were beaten up by Iron Dragon Gajeel? Tch! You're a fucking disgrace to Fairy Tail!" He laughed shamelessly at Shadow Gear's humiliation and Levy bit her lip, squeezing her eyes shut as heat rose slowly behind her eyelids. This was public crucifixion of a different sort, but it felt just as awful…even worse because this man was supposed to be one of their own, and he was ripping them apart with dark glee right in front of their own nakama.

"Speaking of which, what are your names? Who are you guys?" Laxus snorted through his laughter, and Levy felt any of the small thread of affection for Laxus from her childhood days shrivel into ash in her heart as tears threatened to spill from her eyes. Laxus' words overlapped another voice in her head, the same casual malice and dripping scorn. Useless. Pathetic. You're so goddamn weak. She closed her eyes and her lip wobbled helplessly. It hurt.

Jet and Droy stood like trees next to her, paralyzed with shame but unable to mount any sort of defense, and she knew that they were terrified of drawing the full heat of Laxus' scorn upon them instead, but she couldn't help but wish that they had said something, anything, despite knowing that there was nothing to say. Laxus was right. They had been defeated. But did he really have to be so needlessly cruel?

When Laxus finally turned his attention away from them, she couldn't help the single sob that escaped her. She turned away from everyone to hide it, putting her hands over her face as she tried not to fall apart in front of the entire Guild, in front of Laxus himself. It would only serve to make his accusations correct. Still, silent tears slid slowly down her face and her shoulders hitched with her stifled sobs. She only tensed with fear when she heard Laxus' voice rising above all others, a gleeful fury in his voice.

"If I succeed, I'll erase all the weak shits from the Guild, every single one who opposes me! I'll build history's strongest Guild, a Guild that no one will ever look down upon! Be prepared, you weaklings!" His laughter chased her on his way out and she bit her lip as tears leaked out from her closed eyes, because she couldn't help but feel that it was meant for her.

That night, she's facing off against Gajeel again in her nightmares, but to her horror, he's suddenly speaking with a terrible overlay of both his and Laxus' voice and its their words that shred her into pieces instead, rooting themselves far deeper into her than any physical blow could. she wakes up sobbing, the echoes of their scornful words and mocking laughter chasing her even into wakefulness.

She was…she was not fine, she concluded miserably one night, tears sliding hot down her face to wet her pillow as she struggled not to fall asleep. She didn't know how Jet and Droy could return to their regular lives as if nothing had happened, as if Gajeel Redfox had just been a speed bump in the road that they'd gone over and were done with. He was more like a mountain blocking her path and she would never be able to pass his endless shadow. When she tried to move on with her life and forget what had happened, it felt like she was taking two steps backwards for every step she took forward, as if she was caught in the grip of a high wind or riptide that despite all her struggles, she would never be able to break free from.

The next day at the Guild as Levy sat at the bar picking halfheartedly at her food and drowsy and lightheaded from lack of sleep, she was only vaguely aware that there was a slow, gathering press of people around her who hadn't been around her a minute ago. It was only when a gentle hand landed on her shoulder that she started and sat up with a jolt to see her friends gathered around her with the same half-sad, half-hopeful smile on their faces.

"Guys, what?" she started, but Mirajane gave her shoulder a light squeeze.

"Levy…" she said gently.

"Levy, we're all worried about you," Droy continued for her as Jet gave her a beseeching look.

"Everyone, please, I'm fine!" Levy said, pulling a smile onto her face that didn't quite reach her tired eyes. She fluttered her hands at the crowd of her friends. "Don't be silly! Go back to work! Why are you guys all hanging around here?"

Everyone exchanged looks.

"Levy…you're…you're not fine," Droy finally said, reaching out to rest one hand on her shoulder. Levy twitched away from him, shrugging off both his hand and Mirajane's, but Lucy elbowed through the crowd to stand in front of her best friend and settled both hands against Levy's shoulders.

"Phantom's Gajeel," she said without flinching, and Levy closed her eyes as a tremor ran through her. Her mouth turned down at the corners, but she took a deep breath and rallied.

"Not you too, Lu-chan!" she exclaimed. "You should know-"

"I do," Lucy said firmly. "That's why I can tell you haven't been sleeping well either, but…but at least I'm going out on missions. At least I'm still moving, still learning. But Levy...you've come to a stop, and we can all see why."

"Please, don't be ridiculous!" Levy said again, but her voice shook and she looked down, refusing to meet anyone's eyes. Lucy smiled at her best friend, squeezing Levy's shoulders gently.

"You've been trying to deal with this all on your own for a long time now, but you don't have to anymore. We're all here for you, remember? Your friends? These people you share the Guild with? We're here for you."

"You don't have to face this all alone."

The same words came murmured encouragingly from every one of the people gathered around her, her friends, and Levy closed her eyes as that strange and undefinable emotion she'd come to associate with Iron Gajeel rose and choked her. She took a deep breath, but midway through it turned into a sob, and with a sudden intensity that shocked her, she was suddenly crying and crying hard, a month's worth of pent-up emotion finally bursting, all the tears she had held back during the fight, after the fight, during the rebuilding of their broken Guild, during her awful lonely nights pouring out from her as if a dam had burst.

Lucy, Mirajane, then Elfman and Droy and Jet and Max and Nav and Natsu and Gray and Erza and everyone else surged forward to wrap their arms around her in a fierce hug, and she smiled past her tears and hugged them all back, gratitude and love burning like a bright, cleansing flame in her heart, chasing the darkness away.

She was so lucky to have friends like them.

Gajeel's black shadow in her path grew a little less long. It was still there, but with the bright light of her friends around her and their trust and love surrounding her, she could finally raise her head and look past that all-encompassing darkness to see the light of her new life on the other side. She hugged Lucy tight, laughing and crying at the same time as a sudden resolve that she thought she'd lost blazed back to life, unquenchable.

She would take a step into that deep shadow and emerge unscathed because she wasn't going alone. She would pass over Iron Gajeel's black influence and continue on with her life. She wouldn't let fear hold her back anymore.

With that decision made, she finally drew back, wiping at her eyes and offering apologies and teary smiles to all her gathered friends. They smiled back and cheered as she finally brushed the last of her tears away and beamed at them, the first trademark Levy smile they'd seen from her since the attack. Droy and Jet both offered her their hands, and laughing, she grabbed them and they hauled her up with huge grins, hiking her onto their shoulders an dangling her like a kid between them. She giggled helplessly as they tottered their way over to the job request board like that as Jet and Droy whooped and cheered for everyone to hear that Shadow Gear was unstoppable now that their Levy was back!

"What are you talking about, you silly guys?" Levy asked fondly during a break between their raucous yelling. "I never left."

Jet and Droy exchanged identical grins and hugged their leader a little tighter between them before finally letting her down in front of the request board. As Levy looked over the assorted job flyers with a critical eye and the Guild returned to its normal hustle and bustle around them, the day seemed brighter and more cheerful than before.

Lucy turned from her conversation with Erza and smiled as she watched Jet and Droy bickering with each other over a flyer as Levy rolled her eyes good-naturedly at them, ushering them over to Mirajane to take the mission. Surreptitiously, Lucy lifted the hem of her shirt, looking down and running her hand over the smooth, perfectly healed skin of her side with a wistful sigh. When Natsu and Happy suddenly burst in on her with their own job flyer in hand and yelling something about competition with Shadow Gear, Lucy couldn't help but laugh, despite Natsu's ridiculous, overenthusiastic zeal.

It seemed like things really were finally returning to normal.

A/N - This CHAPTER. This – this – jdhfajsdlf this CHAPTER gave me SO much trouble. I rewrote it, literally 3 times over, from scratch each time because it was just so BAD the first few times over. Just…OOC central, timeline not matching up, did I mention OOC central? I'm still a bit unhappy with this version as well, but compared to its previous awful incarnations, this is gold. Urgh. I am sincerely sorry for how late this one has been in coming, but I'm so excited for the Fighting Festival arc, I really hope I do it justice!