A/N: hey everybody, how are you all doing? i'm REALLY, really sorry that i haven't got to updating this story in two years already... i have lost interest in fairy tail to be entirely honest T_T i've also been paying attention more to school and not writing as much. guess what, i'm going to college next year. and i started this fic in middle school. wow.

after this chapter, this story is finished though, which is why i want to just complete it hahaha. it's been SIX YEARS since I started this story... I am so bad with finding time for writing. it's been hard to find motivation to finish as well, and i forgot my password... so... oops. i was re-reading this story earlier, and JESUS my writing style...

i am honestly not sure if i can say the same about my other stories though, regarding if they are going to be finished, and i'm really sorry about that in advance. i will try my best to finish them off, however, with no loose ends (hopefully?).

anyway, without much further ado... here is chapter 24! thank you to everyone who have stuck around this long. it's crazy to think that i really spent a majority of my childhood with writing.

enjoy! xxx

note: let us assume that these kids are currently in their second year of high school, as it was mentioned by Levy in the first couple of chapters somewhere

Chapter Twenty-Four

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It's almost midnight.

Lucy shifted nervously in her seat.

It was silent except for the clock ticking on the opposite wall, above Magnolia's police chief and Romeo's father—Macao Conbolt's—head. Natsu, Gajeel, and Gray are uncharacteristically quiet; though, of the three, Natsu was staring intently at Macao, a fiery glint in his eyes.

Of course, they had to go to the police station in order to explain to them on what happened. Everyone was startled when they found out someone with a clean record (ahem, Minerva) just started wrecking havoc out of nowhere. Lucy understood that it was hard to believe something like this, but Minerva only had a clean record because she made other people do the tasks for her without her receiving the blame at all.

Speaking of Minerva, she was currently undergoing an intense interrogation process. She didn't know how that was going, except that a man named Freed Justine was conducting it.

So far, Lucy's exhausted and covered in bruises—well, to be fair, they all are—and she's really starting to want to leave the police station even though she knows that it's not going to be happening anytime soon.

"So... you're telling me that Minerva Orland has had people doing shady stuff that she organized in order for her record to stay clean." Macao pursed his lips, folding his hands on top of his desk.

Macao Conbolt seemed like an overall nice guy; according to what people told her, he cared a lot about his comrades. He had went to Fairy Academy years and years ago before graduating and enrolling into a police academy. However, Lucy knew that Macao was strict when it came down to it. He was incredibly serious whenever he went through cases and performed background checks on people to make sure that they were reliable. Erza, Gray, and Natsu knew Macao through Gramps, since Macao had been friends with Makarov for a long time.

"Yes, Macao." Erza said, beginning to look irritated. Lucy couldn't blame her; Erza's had to repeat the story dozens of times already. "We have the evidence. I gave it to you already."

Macao's eyebrows furrowed.

"Erza, I'm not saying I don't believe you. Really. It's just surprising to me how all of this kind of came rushing in at once. There was no sign of Minerva being involved in anything shady before, and then out of nowhere she wants to destroy Fairy Academy? This whole story—everything—it's... mind-boggling, I'll give you that."

Gajeel coughed. "Mind-boggling?"

Lucy bowed her head to hide a smile.

"Her own schoolmates, Sting, Rogue, and also Yukino have also provided you with several and personal accounts of her manipulating them—not to mention that she also had the nerve to kidnap Sting and Rogue's pets!" Erza said fiercely. "Isn't that enough evidence for you guys to put her in juvie?"

Macao sighed; with a sudden observation, Lucy realized how exhausted the police chief was. He must've been busy enough, already, and to think that something like this just happened out of nowhere...

A newfound wave of respect towards Macao washed over Lucy, and she felt kind of guilty, for some reason. But then again, this was all because of Minerva's doing. The Saber High student must've wanted everyone, not just Fairy Academy, to feel involved in this so it would be as confusing as possible, not to mention unbelievable.

"I would like to hear this from Minerva's point of view." He said after a while, and although Erza and Natsu looked ready to argue, he held up a hand and stopped her. "What was her motive? Did she have a reason why she wanted Fairy Academy to be destroyed? And also, who is going to be the one responsible for taking the school down? She did mention a school, yes? If that's true, then that also means that they too will need to come in for questioning."

He stopped talking to look expectantly at Erza, who nodded slowly.

"There are still questions that need to be answered. But yes, Erza, to answer your question, it is enough to put her in a juvenile detention center, and we will, to ensure that she'll never do something like this again."

Erza didn't look too happy that Minerva wasn't going to go there right away, but she straightened up in her seat and gave him a wary smile.

"Thank you, Macao."

"I believe that I should be the one to thank you." Macao said, looking much happier and less tired now, and Erza looked pleasantly surprised. "Thank you, all of you, for protecting our school."

When Lucy looked around the office, the rest of her friends looked in between a mixture of pride and mild embarrassment (except for Natsu, Gray, and Gajeel, who were now grinning widely).

Just as the Fairy Academy students were about to exit the office, a man with long green hair covering one eye opened the door.

"Oh, Freed." Macao said, straightening up at once. "How's the interrogation going?"

"Good news." Freed said, smiling. "Just five questions in, and she admitted to doing everything. At first, she was giving me a hard time—lashed out at me as soon as I walked inside the room. But, I guess the pressure was too much for even her to handle. She even gave us the names of the people she has been working with..." Freed held up a notepad with some writing hastily scribbled on it,"...and I already sent out officers to arrest the masterminds behind those operations too."

"Now that is what I call a miracle." Gray commented, while everyone else (besides Erza, who was standing there with her eyes wide open) cheered.

Macao's eyes widened. "Oh, that's fantastic! Thank you, Freed."

"No problem."

"She confessed?" Erza looked incredibly taken aback by this news, while everyone else was sending each other grins and high-fives. She looked confused—very confused. "She didn't... deny anything?"

Freed looked surprised by her question, but he responded nonetheless.

"That is correct."

Erza blinked.

After a while, she muttered, "That's great news. It's just... strange. That is so unlike her."

"Anyway, I just got a message from one of the officers who accompanied Sting and Rogue." Macao said. "They found their pets in Minerva's basement, unscathed, luckily. It was probably just an empty threat; the pets weren't even put in poor condition. They are now on their way to the hospital to visit Levy, and that means that you guys should be heading over there soon too. I'll send some officers to drive you guys over there."

Lucy's eyes widened. That's right—Levy. Immediately, her heart started pounding with anticipation. She didn't want to get her hopes up, but... she was really hoping that she was awake from her coma.

"Thanks again for everything, man!" Natsu grinned, slapping his hand on the police chief's back quite violently, causing the older man to choke on his coffee. Laxus smiled back at him, and Natsu gave him a thumbs-up before going up to Lucy and giving her a gentle, yet discreet pat on her cheek. He grinned at her slightly before exiting, the rest of the students filing out after him.

As Lucy turned to leave, she heard Macao call, "Hey, er... you there? Lucy?"

Lucy looked back, eyes widened in questioning. The fact that Laxus still remembered her name surprised her; she didn't think that he would still have recalled it after she had introduced herself to him when she came in, which seemed hours and hours ago...

Macao studied her for a bit, his hands folded on his desk. After a while, he hummed thoughtfully. "You're dating Natsu."

It wasn't a question. It was a statement, and a bold one at that. Mavis, maybe this is why Macao was Magnolia's police chief—he paid attention to the tiniest details. He must've noticed the subtle yet comforting glances Natsu and Lucy were giving each other across the room throughout the whole thing. Now that she thought about it, maybe they weren't that subtle.

Lucy shifted on her feet awkwardly, wondering why he had called her back in the first place.

"Yes, we have been for a while now."

"Ohhh, I see. Well, I'm surprised I'm right, actually... I only guessed." Macao said, amused. When he sees Lucy's cautious expression, he waved her off. "I'm sorry if that sounded strange. I don't mean to pry. I'm just amazed on how on Earth are you able to put up with him. I've known Natsu for a while, since Romeo's always looked up to him. Natsu's a good kid, but he's quite impulsive."

"I agree with you on that." Lucy laughed, relaxing a little bit. "He is quite a character."

"Hey, Luce—" Natsu popped his head back inside the room at the moment, a grin on his face. Though, his smile wipes off almost as immediately when he noticed that it was just Lucy and Macao in the room. He frowned a little bit before saying, "—they're ready to take us to the hospital now."

Macao smiled. "Well, you best be going. Try to stay out of trouble, you two."

"Can't promise you anything, Macao." Natsu grinned (though the smile didn't quite reach his eyes), while tugging on Lucy's wrist impatiently. As they walked out of the room, the blonde waved a goodbye to police chief with her free hand. "See you later!"

The ride to the hospital was... uncomfortable, to be honest. She was sat—no, a better word would be squeezed—in between a quiet Erza on her left and an unusually silent Natsu on her right.

She understood Erza's silence—the redhead dealt with a lot in the past 24 hours. She thought that she saw tears form out of the corner of Erza's eyes when she got into the vehicle, but the redhead's expression was as steely as ever as she stared outside the window. Lucy wanted to ask her what was wrong, but she also didn't want to reopen closed wounds.

She also wanted to give her friend a reassuring hug, but she wasn't sure if Erza would appreciate that. Erza didn't really like showing any signs of weakness to other people, and Lucy wasn't sure how Erza was going to react if she tried to comfort her. She hoped that Erza was all right, though.

Lucy, however, did not understand Natsu's silence—she was planning on talking to him throughout the whole ride to get her mind off of some things, but apparently that was out of the question now. He was looking out of the other window, and Lucy couldn't see the expression on his face. He wasn't bickering with Gray or Gajeel, who were seated in the row in front of them (with Wendy in the middle). In fact, the three of them were chatting animatedly about something (although, they might have been arguing); the small girl was giggling, which made the blonde smile.

But, the blonde couldn't take this silence any longer.

"Hey." Lucy said gently, reaching for Natsu's hand. "What's wrong?"

Natsu looked at her, his eyebrows furrowed. He looked a little angry, which made Lucy concerned. She's never seen Natsu make this expression towards her before, which hurt her a little on the inside. She was thinking about the things that happened recently and wondered if he was upset about something that happened when they were against Flare... However, what he said next threw her off completely.

"What did Macao ask you?"

Lucy blinked, thinking that she misheard him.

"What?"

"What did Macao ask you?" Natsu repeated, his frown deepening.

Lucy looked at him in confusion until she realized that Natsu was actually worried about her, despite her and Macao's small exchange. She laughed.

"Oh, it was nothing, really. He just asked if we were dating, that's all."

Upon realizing this, Natsu looked pretty relieved now; his cheeks matching the color of his hair (which was seriously cute, seriously). Natsu rarely got flustered, but when he did, Lucy enjoyed it, maybe a little too much. She smirked at him afterwards, and he started to stammer:

"Oh, okay. I was just worried. Even though Macao's a nice guy, I heard he could be a bit of a creep sometimes, you know..."

His eyes narrowed, and Lucy squeezed his hand gently.

"Thank you for worrying about me."

The pink-haired teen looked at her, an expression on his face that obviously read "duh".

"It's my duty to worry about you."

Lucy grinned, patting his cheek affectionately.

Freed stopped the car in front of the hospital fifteen minutes later, and all the Fairy Academy students tumbled out of the vehicle as fast as they could (after thanking him, of course). It was strange; the moment they stepped out of the van it felt like a new surge of power and adrenaline completely took over them as they all sprinted towards the hospital—likely earning strange looks from bystanders, but who cared at this point, right?

For one, Lucy's heart was beating so incredibly fast that she could literally hear the loud and rhythmical ba-dumps as the sliding doors opened to give way to the students. Lucy heard surprised yelps coming from several patients/guests inside the hospital, but they didn't stop running as they passed the receptionist desk and down the hall.

She heard a "Hey!" coming from one of the nurses and a loud apology from Wendy, but it didn't stop her from reaching the room where Levy was staying in.

Gajeel was the first one to arrive at the door, and he didn't hesitate a second as he pushed the door open. Lucy was close behind him, her heart pounding—unsure of what to expect.

As soon as she stepped inside the room, she nearly broke down into tears.

Levy was sitting up, eyes widened in surprise at the sight of the sudden appearance of her friends. Mirajane was seated next to her, and she was smiling—happy tears forming at the corners of her eyes. Juvia was also there, and she had the biggest smile on her face. Lucy had never seen her smile that big before. Also in the room were Sting, Rogue, and Yukino. They all had big grins on their faces as well, and Lucy felt warm inside at the sight of them.

Levy was finally awake.

"LEVY!" Everyone yelled/cried/sobbed at the sight of the blue haired girl. Excited chatter filled the room as everyone crowded around Levy's hospital bed (overwhelming her a little). A disgruntled nurse came in a little afterwards at the sound of the noise, shooing people away from the girl's bed, saying that she needed space.

"Mavis." Lucy gasped, as soon as the nurse left, and she couldn't hold the tears back anymore. She ran over to her best friend's side and hugged her incredibly tightly, not wanting to let go in the slightest. "Levy, I missed you so damn much..."

"I missed you too... Lu." Levy laughed as she returned her embrace. Her voice was hoarse, but Lucy couldn't describe the happiness that she felt into words. She was so glad to hear that sound again. Her best friend was back. It was a miracle.

She would've stayed like that forever if it wasn't for Gajeel, who jokingly shoved her aside. "Stop hogging her, Bunny Girl. She's my girlfriend, you know."

Now, that was enough to stop Lucy from bursting into tears again.

"What—girlfriend?!" Lucy's eyes widened, and she glanced repeatedly from Gajeel to Levy in surprise. "Wait... you guys are dating?!"

Levy giggled and smiled apologetically at Lucy.

Gajeel snickered, looking very amused by the blonde's reaction. "See, I told you that we should've told her."

"WHAT!" Lucy's mouth fell open in utter shock. She looked around the room in outrage, but everyone else had similar expressions of surprise (some were unsurprised, such as Mira). "Why didn't I know about this sooner?! LEVY! You told me that you would tell me anything!"

"Calm yourself, Lucy." Gray snorted, crossing his arms. For once, he was still wearing his clothes. Lucy was thankful for this, because they probably would've been kicked out if he had stripped. "We all knew that this was going to happen anyway—"

"DON'T TELL MY GIRLFRIEND TO CALM DOWN, YOU BASTARD, LET HER DO WHAT SHE WANTS." Natsu interrupted him, a hand on the other teen's collar.

"WHAT THE HELL MAN, IT WAS JUST A JOKE—!"

"WELL THAT JOKE WASN'T FUNNY. DO YOU SEE ME LAUGHING? BECAUSE I'M NOT—"

"ENOUGH." Erza cut in at that point, and both teens froze at the sound of her voice. "It's well past midnight. Do you both want to get kicked out of here for disturbing the other patients? We didn't come hear to listen to another one of your petty arguments, we came here to see Levy. Do that outside if you must, but you two really need to stop."

Immediately, Natsu let go of Gray's collar, but the two continued to evil-eye each other.

However, Lucy couldn't help but smile a little at the sight. It was strange, but it was a little comforting to listen to them argue, with Erza stopping them. It was just like how it used to be, without all the issues that had been going on lately. And Lucy looked forward to moving on with the new friendships she's formed—all without Minerva, of course.

"Great job, you guys." Sting then said, grinning. His eyes were twinkling, and Lucy was a little taken aback on how genuine his smile looked. It was way better than the sneers and smirks that he used to show, that's for sure. "You did it. You took Minerva down. I couldn't ask for anything better to happen."

"You mean, we did it." Natsu grinned back, slapping Sting on the back a little harder than he should've; the blonde choked a little, but grinned.

"Aww, come on." The other blonde smiled, shaking his head. He straightened up and nodded at Erza. "If anything, it's Erza who's the true hero. She was the one who put Minerva back in her place, and its truly thanks to her that we can finally see years of peace in our future. No more Minerva... I feel like a heavy weight's been lifted off my shoulders. I finally feel free."

Erza smiled a little at Sting's praise, but Lucy saw the lingering sadness behind her gaze. "Thank you, Sting. Actually... thank all of you for being willing to participate in this mission. We succeeded for sure in avenging Levy, and I don't think Minerva'll be messing with us—or anyone—anytime soon."

Everyone grinned happily at each other, and Lucy felt an unexplainable warmth grow in her body. She was honestly really glad to have been able to befriend all of these people—despite all the troubles that they've had with each other before. She knew that she never would've thought that she would end up befriending Sting, Rogue, and Yukino, especially since what happened, but Lucy was extremely glad that they were all friends now. It really was better this way.

The room was then filled with light chatter, and out of the corner of her eye Lucy saw Erza pull the door open and leave. As soon as Erza left, Levy's nurse came back in and started demanding for people to go outside in the waiting room.

"This place is not a common room, you know!" The nurse said irritably, as she started shooing people away. "One person at a time!"

As the rest of her friends laughed nervously, Lucy caught Natsu's eye, and she saw that he looked slightly concerned. Apparently, he had noticed Erza leave as well. Lucy nodded at him, and he nodded back, giving her a discreet thumbs-up.

Lucy drew in a breath, exhaling as she left the room.

She found Erza outside under a lamp post, sitting on a wooden bench which was close to the hospital entrance.

Erza was kicking a rock around in a lazy circle when Lucy came up to her.

"Hi." Lucy smiled, waving a little in greeting.

Erza looked up at the blonde, eyes widened a little in surprise. "Oh, Lucy."

"Can I sit?"

The redhead nodded slowly, looking away, and Lucy took a seat next to her. It was silent between them for a while, but it wasn't awkward. Lucy enjoyed the warm breeze, even at the middle of the night. She figured that she would let Erza talk first, and so she waited.

"I don't understand," was the first thing that Erza said after a while.

"Understand what?"

"I don't get what I'm feeling." Erza sighed. She started kicking the rock around again. "I don't like it."

"How do you feel?"

"Conflicted. Really conflicted."

Lucy straightened up in realization. "This is about Minerva, isn't it."

Erza didn't say anything, but Lucy knew that she was right. She glanced at Erza, who sighed once more. The other teen brushed a strand of red hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear, a deep frown on her face. "It is."

"I see..."

"I'm glad that I got rid of her. I really am. Getting revenge on her felt really good, and I wanted her to get the message not to mess with us—me—again." Erza continued, her frown growing deeper and deeper. "Minerva is a bitch. A straight-up bitch who is involved in shady stuff and hides behind others to save her reputation. That is a fact. But why is it that she revealed who she was working with so quickly? I don't understand... it's not like her. I really didn't expect that to happen, not after everything she was telling me during our fight."

"It seems like that she's all talk." Lucy noted, and Erza laughed without humor.

"Yeah, she most definitely is. The thing is... I feel like she realized something during the interrogation. I feel like she... changed, in a way."

Lucy frowned. "What do you mean?"

"The Minerva I know is stubborn. Really, really stubborn. She won't admit to anything, no matter the circumstances. The fact that she immediately gave out the names of the organizations that she's been working with to the police baffles me. I don't know why she did that. I mean, I'm glad she did that because it makes it easier on the police to find the people responsible, but it's just not... not really like her to do that."

She glanced at Lucy, who had a confused expression on her face.

"Do you get what I mean? Mavis, I think I'm rambling now."

"Maybe she did that because she didn't want to get punished further? Freed even said that it's likely she gave into the pressure of being interrogated."

"Hmm... maybe." Erza hummed thoughtfully. "But it's strange..."

Lucy muttered a noise of agreement. Another silence fell between them before Erza spoke up again.

"This may sound ridiculous, but I think—I think that she deserves a second chance."

Lucy's eyes narrowed. She remembered all the things that have happened in just the past week. Everything bad that happened was because of Minerva, and now Erza was saying that they could start over...? After everything evil Minerva had done? She wasn't sure if she was ready for whatever Erza was suggesting. She knew that a lot of people wouldn't approve of it either, especially Natsu and Sting.

"Erza..." Lucy said gently. "That's... that's very bold."

Erza pursed her lips.

"I know. Maybe it's stupid."

"It's not," Lucy reassured her, but Erza still looked doubtful.

They sat there for a while, and Lucy tried to take all of this information in. She was mostly in awe of how Erza was still willing to give Minerva a chance, despite everything that just happened. Personally, if she were in Erza's shoes, she wouldn't have even gave it a second thought. She would have dismissed the idea of giving Minerva a chance to redeem herself. The fact that this was coming from Erza of all people was surprising enough...

"That's it, basically. I'm sorry. I'm not used to talking about my feelings." Erza then said. She was smiling a little now, and that made Lucy smile as well.

"No, no, don't apologize. We're friends, Erza... you can tell me anything."

She was about to stand up and go back inside the building when Erza surprised her with a hug. She felt the redhead shaking a little, and she heard small, sniffling noises coming from her. It was really something to hear the strongest person she knew (inside and out) cry in front of her. Feeling incredibly touched, Lucy returned the embrace, smiling softly. She felt tears forming out of the corner of her eyes at the thought of it.

"Thank you, Lucy."

This is crazy. Erza kept telling herself. Crazy.

It's been three weeks since Minerva was put in juvenile detention, and one week since she's told everyone about her idea of giving Minerva a second chance. Of course, the reactions were not positive. Natsu and Sting were stunned into silence. Natsu, for one, kept asking her what she was thinking (and if she was even thinking). And honestly, Erza was asking herself that question too.

But all of that indecision was out of the way now. Now, she was certain that she knew what she was going to do.

She reached the Magnolia Juvenile Detention Center, determined, and requested to speak to Minerva Orland.

She was definitely unsure of what to expect.

Ten, fifteen minutes passed by and Erza looked up at the sound of movement. On the other side of the glass, Minerva was being escorted into the room by two police officers. She looked... terrible, to put things nicely. Her hair was frizzy and she had a scowl on her face. There were eye bags under her eyes; indicating that she was not sleeping well. Nevertheless, she sat in the chair and picked up the phone on the table, her eyebrows furrowed.

"What do you want?" Minerva asked. She didn't sound aggressive, just tired. "Here to poke fun at me and prove that you were right all along? If that's what you're here for, don't even waste your time."

"I'm not here to do that."

Minerva scoffed. "Really."

"Really." Erza said, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, spit it out, then."

"A little birdie told me that you gave up the names of the organizations that you worked with. In just five minutes of the interrogation, in fact." Erza said calmly.

Silence. "So what?"

"So... I'm here to ask you why you did that."

For a split second, a mixture of fear and guilt overcame Minerva's features, but it was gone as fast as it came. "And why should I tell you, of all people?"

"I won't say anything to anyone. I promise."

Her laugh and tone is bitter. "You used to say that a lot."

"Some things don't change." Erza said quietly.

Minerva was quiet for a long time. Erza waited. After a while, the black haired teen finally spoke.

"I was fighting a battle that I was already going to lose. I already knew that as soon as you came to fight me, actually. I was too stubborn to admit it, and when you beat me, that's when everything just... fell apart, I guess. I didn't see the point in keeping anything to myself anymore, they were going to wheedle the information out of me and find out anyway. And honestly, I even asked myself, why did I just do that? So many people will be after me when they find out I ratted them out. But I don't really care anymore. All of this is my fault anyway, so I'm going to own up to it."

Erza gripped the phone tighter.

"I've thought about this a lot. I've done a lot of reflecting. Pathetic, huh? Just look at me now." Minerva sighed. "I realized how stupid I was—how power hungry I was. And that was really wrong of me to do that. And... I'm sorry. I'm sorry to have caused all of this stupid trouble just because I was jealous of you."

"You still have a chance to fix everything." Erza murmured. "You can have a second chance."

Minerva shook her head.

"You may be willing to give me a second chance, but we both know that I'm not going to be forgiven that easily by everyone. Especially not after everything I've done. I can't face anyone from Fairy Academy or Saber High. It's just going to create more chaos."

"You don't know these people, Minerva. You don't know how understanding they are—"

"—I appreciate it, Erza. Really. It's just not the time for it right now."

Erza pursed her lips, unsure of what to say.

"Time's up," one of the police officers said.

"Goodbye, Erza." Minerva said, her voice quavering a little. There's a hint of a timid smile on her face before she continues. "You're right... some things don't change. You're still as forgiving as ever."

She put down the phone and left, not looking back once.

Erza sat there for a while, stunned. She fumbled with the phone cord for a while before finally standing up. Afterwards, she sighed, shaking her head; a small smile on her face.

She felt strangely at peace, all of a sudden.

A couple of months later, it was nearing the end of the school year.

After that whole fiasco that happened with Minerva and Fairy Academy, classes still resumed, despite the protests of some of those who were involved (and those who were not involved). Someone had complained, "How can we even work in these conditions?! This is torture!" but had shut their mouth as soon as Erza had showed up, a dangerous glint in her eyes.

One day, when Erza was not in earshot, Natsu had grumbled, "We still have to take finals even though we literally just saved the school from being completely destroyed?"

"Well, it wouldn't be fair for us to be the only ones not having to take exams," Gray responded, but he also looked glum.

Honestly, though... the school wasn't completely in rubbles, so the teachers didn't find any excuses for the students not to work. None of the classrooms were damaged since most of the action took place in the corridors. Everyone was just finding something—anything—to complain about; the lack of motivation was also prevalent since the year was now ending.

Speaking of which, Gramps had nearly fainted at the sight of the damaged school the day after the incident happened; he especially scolded Natsu, Gajeel, Erza, and Gray. However, he decided that this would be a perfect time for the school to be renovated, so it wasn't too bad after all. The renovations would begin in the summer after the term ended.

Despite the exams she had to take to conclude the year, Lucy was much happier now that there was nothing else to worry about. Normally, she would have been ten times more worried about taking tests, but far worse things have happened to her this year, so she was unfazed at the thought. Her and Natsu went out a lot on the weekends for dates—it was incredibly corny, but Lucy felt herself falling for Natsu all over again each time they went out. His goofy smile was one of the things that always kept her going. Their group of friends met up a few times the past couple of weeks to try and study (emphasis on try) but they eventually gave up and spent the rest of the day chatting.

All Lucy remembered was studying hard with Levy, who had returned to school a week after she was discharged from the hospital. Even though Levy had missed a lot of classwork and homework, she worked her butt off in order to catch up to everyone else. She spent hours in the library, and Gajeel felt a little bothered that his girlfriend wouldn't really spend a lot of time with him because of it. Although Lucy found it amusing, she also admired Levy for this—she was a hard worker. She knew that the bluenette would be able to pass her exams with flying colors.

Sure enough, the week of finals came and went; Lucy was surprised on how fast they had happened. She didn't think she did too badly, as she had made it a point to study a lot as well.

Pretty soon, it was the last day of the school year. Next year would be even more challenging, but that was not a problem at the moment.

Now, her and the rest of her friends were just hanging out in a coffee shop after school had officially ended. She had thanked her teachers for all of the things she had been taught this year, and she had bid goodbye to a lot of her classmates. They wouldn't be leaving just yet, since there was still one more year of high school, but Lucy still felt strangely sad as the year came to a close.

"We're finally done," Lucy said out loud, sighing as she took a sip of her lemonade.

"WOOO!" Natsu grinned. "I'm all fired up!"

"...And what for, exactly?" Gray rolled his eyes. He was stirring the ice around in his drink, looking bored.

"Summer vacation, obviously!" Natsu replied, slamming a fist on the table. Nobody jumped; they were all used to this kind of behavior. "Now that we don't have to worry about school, we can do whatever crap we want to do, right, Luce?"

"Right," Lucy nodded. "Like going to the beach."

"The beach sounds fun." Wendy agreed, her eyes shining.

At that moment, the door to the small shop opens, a small chime signifying that people were entering. When Lucy looked up, she saw a couple of more familiar faces walk in—Yukino, Sting, Rogue. The Fairy Academy students waved at them while they joined them at their area.

"Hey guys," Sting said cheerfully, an arm wrapped around a smiling Yukino. They had become an item shortly after the scuffle with Minerva, and they were going as strong as ever. Sting had told her that he had finally got the guts to confess, and sure enough, Yukino felt the same way towards him. Lucy observed that Sting certainly looked much happier these days; he was no longer that kid who sneered at others and bullied people for a living. His goofy smiles mirrored Natsu's. "How were your finals?"

"Not bad," Erza said, looking at her nails.

"Horrible," was Gray's response.

"Could have been worse," Levy shrugged.

"We had finals?"

Everyone turned to look at Gajeel, a blank stare on all of their faces.

"HAHAHA, look at all of your guys' expressions." Gajeel chortled, and Levy frowned at him. He blinked. "I'm joking."

"Anyways, this is making me feel kind of nostalgic." Sting said, smiling as he glanced around at the other students sitting in front of him. There was a faraway look on his face. "We haven't really been able to meet up a lot because of how busy our schedules have been, but I still can't forget when we all combined forces to stop Minerva."

As soon as he finished, Rogue snorted. "You sound like an old man."

"When you say 'combined forces', it makes it appear as if we're superheroes, or some shit," Gray snickered.

"In a weird way, I guess we are superheroes," Lucy laughed.

"It certainly appeared that way after it was all over the news," Yukino said, amused. She took a chocolate chip cookie from the platter, which was on the table for all of them to share. "Remember the headline? 'Group of teenagers stop local high school from being destroyed'."

"Yeah... the yearbook kids would not stop interviewing us about that."

"Either way," Erza then cut in quietly. Everyone turned to look at the redhead, who had a small smile gracing her features. "I'm glad things turned out the way they did."

From what Lucy knew, Minerva was still in juvie. Unbeknownst to the rest of their friend group, Erza would visit Minerva sometimes. She only told Lucy about this, which made the blonde feel touched, knowing that she was someone that Erza deeply trusted regarding this. Not that Erza didn't trust the rest of their friends, but it was something that was still a sensitive topic, especially for Levy and the Saber High students. It would still be a while until Erza could tell them that Minerva was starting to change for the better, judging by some of the conversations that they were having.

Erza definitely looked happier these days, though, which made Lucy relieved. She had resumed her duties as school president after the whole thing with Minerva happened, and she did everything in her power to get everything up and running again. Plus, Lucy suspected that her happiness was also due to Erza and Jellal getting even closer these days; he was usually with her, helping her out with anything, even though Erza had to stay after school often. Even though nobody in their friend group said anything about it, everyone (except Natsu, maybe) knew that it would be a matter of time until either of them confessed.

Erza did deserve happiness, after all.

"Well, I'm glad too." Gray said, bringing Lucy out of her thoughts. However, he immediately yelled in outrage when Natsu accidentally spilled the other's drink once he moved to sit back down. The drink spilled all over Gray's uniform, and the dark haired teen's mouth fell open in shock.

"Oops," Natsu apologized, not looking or sounding apologetic in the slightest. "Sorry about that."

"YOU BASTARD, APOLOGIZE THIS INSTANT." Gray shouted, removing his shirt at the speed of light. Everybody else in the cafe looked over at him, horrified. A woman covered her mouth with her left hand and put her other hand over her child's eyes.

"Gray, your shirt—!" Wendy squealed, hands over her eyes.

"ARE YOU DEAF? I JUST DID." Natsu yelled back, a fiery glow in his eyes. Oh, boy, here we go.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS."

"THAT'S YOUR DRINK, YOU PAID FOR IT ALREADY."

"CUT IT OUT, YOU TWO! THERE IS A TIME AND PLACE FOR EVERYTHING." Erza jumped in and joined the chaos before it resulted in anything breaking, her expression as scary as ever. She grabbed Natsu and Gray's arms (eliciting a surprised yelp from the two boys) before storming outside, her eyes bright with fury.

Amused, Lucy watched as she saw Erza scolding the two outside—there is a sheepish grin on Natsu's face, and Gray was standing there (shirtless) with his arms crossed, a pointed glare at the ground. They were earning a lot of confused looks by passersby.

The coffee shop owner blinked before scratching the back of his head, amazed.

"Well... that took care of itself. I was going to kick them out as soon as that young man stripped."

Even though they had all almost got kicked out once more (it sure wouldn't have been the first, nor the last time), Lucy couldn't help but smile at the sight of the three teenagers outside. These fights were just one of those funny little reminders that things were back to normal again—there was no more threat which was looming in the distance, and she could finally live out her summer as a high school student should. Natsu was right in mentioning that they could do whatever 'crap' they wanted, after all.

"Say," Lucy said, leaning forward to face her friends as she finished the rest of her lemonade. "How does a beach trip sound?"

Sure enough, they made plans for the trip and went on it a week later.

Lucy sighed, digging her toes in the sand. It's been such a long time since she went to the beach, but she was happy that she was back now with her friends. She watched as Sting splashed water on a disgruntled looking Rogue, while Yukino was laughing at the two Saber High students in the background. Not too far away, Wendy was making a sand castle, sand tools scattered around her area. Romeo was helping Wendy, and he was placing seashells all over the other girl's creation. Erza watched them, a fond smile on her face. Jellal was looking at something moving in the sand—probably a crab.

Juvia was trying to get an embarrassed-looking Gray to go swimming with her, and Levy looked at the two in amusement. On the other hand, Gajeel was attempting to help Wendy build her sand castle, but he visibly flinched when he accidentally knocked down one of her towers. He was unlucky, however, since Erza and Romeo noticed him doing so. Both of them glared at him as he nervously tried to make another tower before Wendy noticed.

Lucy felt at peace. The weather was perfect; it wasn't too hot, and the sea breeze was comforting.

Natsu sat down next to her, holding a soda in each of his hand. He was grinning brightly at her.

"Here ya go."

"You're the best," Lucy smiled, and he smiled even wider at that.

The two sat in silence for a bit. It was a little unusual, since they usually made lots of conversation—they never ran out of things to talk about. However, in this instance, they both had things on their mind.

"Look," Both of them said at the same time.

"Oh." Natsu blinked, looking slightly confused. He laughed. He really looked handsome today, Lucy thought. Well, he looked handsome everyday, but he just looked even better when she looked at him now. "You first."

"It's not like you to be so contemplative," Lucy joked, opening her can of soda.

Natsu laughed, shoving her lightly—however, this caused Lucy spill a bit of her drink, and she wrinkled her nose. Immediately, Natsu smiled sheepishly.

"Er... oops."

"It's fine." Lucy smiled gently, taking a sip before beginning. "Anyway... I was just thinking about everything that happened this past year. It's just a lot to take in, I guess. I remember at the beginning, when I didn't even have the slightest idea on who you were—just some popular kid who had a weird friend that stripped. I had no idea that I would eventually call you my boyfriend. Not to mention all of the other stuff that happened, which started with Saber High. Remember when Sting would walk around like he owned the place? It wasn't even his school. Sheesh."

Natsu snorted. "Yep, it was stupid."

"It was stupid." The blonde agreed and rolled her eyes, but she was smiling still. "Who knew that we would end up befriending him in the end, though? Except, you were hella jealous at first, after that day when he walked me home that one time."

"I had every right to be." Natsu murmured, looking embarrassed. "You're mine, after all."

"You're such a cornball."

Natsu huffed, looking like a kid with that pout.

"And who knew that we would all eventually become a big group of friends, despite coming from schools known to have a rivalry, since forever?" Lucy continued.

"That's a lot of things that you've been thinking about, Luce."

"Hahaha, well." The blonde shrugged. "A lot of things have happened, you know. But, a big thing that I've learned this year is that people change. Some people we considered to be bullies turned out to be one of our closest friends. That's why I think I'm beginning to understand Erza's willingness to give Minerva a second chance. People do change, and despite the horrible things she did I feel like she could change too. Sting changed, even though he literally stabbed you. You ended up forgiving him, although you punched the him before you did so."

It was admittedly something that she had been thinking about the last couple of weeks.

"He deserved it at that time." Natsu shrugged. "You did smack his shit out of him with that textbook too."

"I'm still proud of myself for doing that."

"I'm proud of you too." Her boyfriend agreed, his gaze soft as he looked back at her. He tilted his head, face scrunched up cutely. "From that, I guess I can see where you're coming from. It's just weird, though, since what she did is a thousand times worse than what Sting did. Even if she does get a second chance, it won't be easy for her to get back into the swing of things."

Lucy looked at him funnily.

"What?"

"It's nothing." The blonde said, pulling him close to kiss his cheek. "It's just... I've noticed that you've changed, too. Somehow, you sound a lot more mature."

"Thanks?"

"Well, what were you going to say?"

Natsu scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "It sounds totally lame compared to yours."

"Nah, you're fine."

"I was... uh... just going to say that I really like spending time with you. I enjoy it a lot, even after everything we've gone through this year. It just made me realize that I just wanted to tackle every problem with you by my side." Natsu mumbled, looking more embarrassed by the second. "And I really think... I can see a future together. With you. Because I like you a lot and... yeah. I just hope we can still see each other after we graduate... um."

Lucy's eyes widened.

"Wow." She then said after a beat of silence. She really had to get used to Natsu's serious side; it was something that she's rarely seen. Natsu was usually all action and no talk, but now, he was surprising her. Because of this, she found herself smiling. "Well, of course we can still see each other after we graduate, Natsu. It shouldn't even be a question. We still have a year to figure things out."

He frowned a little, unsure of what else to say, but Lucy understood—Natsu wasn't really one to talk about his feelings, so it was a bit hard for him to express how he felt in words. Instead, he turned to her and cupped her face in his hands. There was a mixture of determination and fondness in his eyes; it was an expression that Lucy came to be familiar with and adored.

Man, he really was something.

He leaned forward to give her a gentle kiss, and Lucy felt her heart swell with happiness.

"I love you, Luce." Natsu said, grinning.

"I love you too, dummy." Lucy smiled.

"Natsu-nii, Lucy-nee!" Romeo then called, interrupting their moment. He was waving his hands in the air frantically. When the two looked at him, he sighed dejectedly. "Can you guys help us build our sand castle? Gajeel keeps destroying everything!"

"Not my problem," Gajeel rolled his eyes, although he looked a bit guilty. There were several towers that have been knocked down, which were all scattered around Gajeel's feet. "You guys just have really shitty foundation."

"...We are literally building castles out of sand, what else are we supposed to use."

Laughing at their exchange, Lucy looked over at Natsu, who gave Romeo a two thumbs-up.

"We should go help them out with that." Natsu stood up first, before offering his hand to his girlfriend. He was still smiling. "Plus, I kind of want to build super cool sandcastles with you."

Lucy rolled her eyes, but she was also smiling as she took his hand.

"You're such a kid."

As they went over to help Romeo out, holding hands, Lucy couldn't help but think that there was really no other place in the world where she would rather be. She had never had a group of friends that were so closely knit with one another, and it was honestly incredibly refreshing. To think that she would end the year like this was truly a dream; in fact, she was somebody who had just transferred at the beginning of the year. Who knew that her second year of high school at Fairy Academy would become fond memories that she could always look back on? Even though her friends were all so different from another, it was what made everything even more amazing—every casual hang out was an adventure.

As she watched Natsu start another fight with Gray for accidentally knocking down another of Wendy's towers in his attempt to escape from Juvia, she couldn't help but smile. Yes, she could live with this. And a future with Natsu was definitely something that she could see happening down the line, even though the future seemed far, far away at this point. There was still the lingering problem about figuring out which university she wanted to go to, and what if they went down different paths regarding career choices?

But even so, it was okay. There were a lot of things to think about, but things change and it would be important for them to be able to adapt. Well... Lucy shook her head. It was much too soon to think about it now.

Whatever their situation was, she knew that her and Natsu would be able to take it on together.

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The End.

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A/N: AND WE ARE DONE. WE ARE COMPLETE, after six years, finally :,0 thank you for anyone who has been sticking with this story until the very end. thank you for all the reviews, the follows, the faves... everything! I really appreciate it so much. I remember still being surprised when I get emails saying that people were still leaving reviews, in 2019, when I updated so long ago.

side note — I know that there's not a lot of the other ships that I included in this story, but it was entirely NaLu focused, with some GaLe, subtle Jellal x Erza and Romeo x Wendy, and even subtler Gray x Juvia if you squint HAHAHA. either way, I hope that this ending was satisfactory, and that it was worth the wait. this entire chapter is like 9,000+ words LOL

side side note — after the gang graduates, even though they go their separate ways, they still find days to hang out with each other. in the faraway future, Lucy and Natsu get married. also, Jellal is the one who gets the guts to confess to Erza, and they are now a thing! also, Minerva gets released on good behavior and although everyone is cautious around her at first, she eventually becomes someone who has changed for the better. yay for new beginnings!

again, thank you guys for being so loyal to me. I do not deserve all this love :,( I am really happy to complete this story, and I never realized how much attention it would have received when I first published it. at the time, I was just a middle school kid who just wanted to write out whatever. my writing style definitely has changed since then, but for the better (I hope...)

anyway, I know I (finally) completed this story, but it's hard to say if the rest of them will be finished as well. I hope that eventually I will finish everything, one step at a time. jeez, this author's note is long, but somehow I feel saddened that this story is ending, I loved writing it, even with all the breaks in between.

again, thank you for everything. Fairy Tail was definitely a huge part of my childhood, so I felt super nostalgic when writing out this chapter :,)

if you read this all, please leave a review telling me what your favorite cookie is HAHAHA.

-choco xx