Chapter One: The Letter

Lucy carefully placed her quill back into its holder. Exhausted, she yawned and stretched like a cat in her armchair, feeling the exhaustion finally seep into her bones, and she knew that her body was telling her it was time for rest. Her thoughts had been consuming her lately, and she had felt like she had to find some way to express it or explode from the pressure of it all.

Her emotions had been toying with her lately. After her overwhelming loss of him… she didn't know what to think anymore. She had told herself countless times, that if she couldn't bear the hurt that came behind seeing his face, or the dull ache that came to her heart every time she saw something that reminded her of him, she would simply have to get over him.

No more excuses. She would have to stop being weak. Stop letting him back into her life. She knew he didn't understand her, and it wasn't his fault. She had fallen too deeply in love with him, and he hadn't done anything to encourage nor discourage her. She blamed herself for being too soft with everything, her emotions, her feelings, her instincts, everything. She had known it wasn't a good idea, falling into this pit with him. They had been, and always will be, incompatible, from the beginning to the end. It had never been a good idea to start the relationship, everyone had warned her, and the result had been proof enough.

She always knew love would hurt, but this relationship had brought her expectations down to a new low. He had unknowingly broken her heart into shards and tossed it into a hole. She no longer expected anything from men anymore. Whether she liked it or not, her heart had its own fortress now. She didn't have to hurt anymore. She had no interest in starting a new relationship whatsoever, unlike her previous self who would've gladly pursued a new man in the prospects of a new life. This relationship had changed her, for better or for worse.

All she wanted now was a balanced life, physically and mentally. She hadn't had that in awhile.

Remembering she had to deliver the precious words that she had spent the entire night drafting on to paper, she waved one of her keys and summoned Virgo to deliver the letter.

"Open, Gate of the Maiden, Virgo."

The maiden appeared.

"At your service, mistress. What does princess require of me tonight?"

"Deliver this to the address written on the front of the envelope. It's not too far, only a few towns away. And don't alert the receiver. I don't want to disturb him."

It was only right that she didn't. After all, they had no relation anymore; she had no excuse to make any difference to his life, for worse or for better. She might only complicate things, and things had no reason to be complicated anymore. Not between them.

"Yes, mistress."

Virgo disappeared in a flash, bringing the letter with her to its supposed destination.

As she slipped her feet beneath her sheets, Lucy felt a newfound peace in her heart that had never been there.

She could no longer miss him anymore, and the piercing ache in her heart was gone, perhaps for good this time. She could only see what time had in store for her.

Sting hummed quietly to himself as he strolled outside to fetch the daily paper and whatever mail that came for him. It was early in the morning, and he had just woken up. His blonde hair was mussed and he was dressed in nothing but his black sweatpants and slippers on his feet. Rogue was out buying fish with the two tiny exceeds.

He shivered a little from the morning frost in the air. He had not expected it to be this cold, or he would've pulled a sweater over his head in the morning daze. Come to think of it, the sweater his previous girlfriend had gotten him would've fitted perfectly…

Emphasis on the word previous jolted his mind. Were they really no longer an item?

He had such a complicated past with her. They had fought countless of times, and lots of drama had happened, a lot of things had been broken in the fights as well. As to whether his heart was one of those things, he had been affected slightly, but he wasn't sure whether she had broken it. Honestly, he felt fine. As always. He would always be fine. Girls were never the main point of his life, and never would be.

But this girl had been unexpectedly proven him wrong.

He remembered the first time laying eyes on her at the Grand Magic Games, half a year ago. She had been the most beautiful girl he had ever laid eyes on. Her light blonde hair, long soft and silken, had so effortlessly framed her porcelain features, making her one of the most desired girls at the Games.

He remembered the faces of many men as she walked by, enraptured by her seemingly immortal beauty.

He remembered how shy she had been after the Games, even though her guild had won most magnificently. She had kept insisting she hadn't played much of a part in the grand win, even though she had appeared many times and fought most valiantly for her guild.

He remembered everyone remarking on her incredible strength and ability as a celestial spirit mage. Everyone had found her special, including him.

He had wondered, the moment he saw her, why was she so capturing to the mind? There was just something about her, the way she treated everyone, the way she smiled, like there was something hidden underneath. And most of all, he remembered desperately wanting to find out what she hid under her pretty little smiles.

He had debated for a long time for this particular moment to go up and congratulate her on her win, just like all the other guilds. He didn't know what was holding him back. Admittedly, he was scared. And he was shy. He had never talked to a girl before, and certainly not such a girl like Lucy Heartfilia. In the end, he had waited so long that most of the bar celebrations had diminished. Nearly everyone was going home, and he should have too.

In the end, he finally got the guts to walk up to her. He remembered her sitting in a quiet corner by the bar, silently reading her book and sipping her lemonade. The glass was half full. He had wondered whether she had had any dinner, for he noticed no trace of any food scraps on the bar or a plate. Perhaps he could take her out to dinner? But it was late, and surely no restaurant was open at this time…

Suddenly she looked up at him, her large brown eyes penetrating his gaze. He stumbled a little and gulped. Sting, what on earth were you thinking, he chided himself for daring to come here in the first place.

"Do you want to say something? You've been standing there for quite a while now… Well even if you don't want to say something, you can always sit down." He remembered her teasing remark, and he recalled rather embarrassingly that that was the most he had ever blushed in one night.

He had eventually laughed at her comment and seated himself in one of the high chairs next to her. She smiled at him, obviously bemused at his antics, and his first words to her happened to be:

"Are you going to stay here all night?"

It had come out sounding almost rude, ill-intentioned even.

She had simply stared at him, slightly interested in why he was asking her such a question.

Quietly shifting her gaze from the novel to his piercing blue eyes, she replied him:

"So what if I am?"

"Because I've been sitting around all night, waiting for you to stop reading the book so I can congratulate you on your guild's win, but if you're going to sit here all night I thought maybe I should just wait for tomorrow."

She simply laughed, amused by his harried tone of speech. He obviously wanted to speak to her.

"And pray may I ask why did you wait all night sitting there if you just wanted to say a simple word of congratulations? wouldn't it have made more sense to just wait till the next day?"

Sting bit his tongue in response, he couldn't have said anything better himself.

"I, well, I… it's not safe for a girl to stay alone at a bar, do you have any idea what could happen to you?" he retorted, feeling annoyed that this seemingly harmless girl could have such a sharp tongue.

"Well it's certainly none of your business, Mr Sting Eucliffe. Why don't you hurry along back to your guild? They need you more than I do." She had replied, obviously annoyed now. Her words had cut his wit to the bone.

"I won't do that."

"Why not?"

"It's not safe."

"I have ten spirit keys with me if I need to defend myself."

"What if they take your keys?"

"I have a whip."

"What if they take your whip too?"

"Then I guess I'm defenceless." She had added, with a tone of incredulous sarcasm.

Sting had chuckled at that comment, causing the stilted tension between them to break.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I admit, I wanted to come and talk to you, but I didn't have the nerve. And then, I come here, and you somehow like arguing with me so I guess that happened." Sting explained, and he had felt a nervous grin creep onto his face despite the situation.

"The great White Dragon Slayer, Sting Eucliffe, wanting to talk to Lucy Heartfilia? Do you want people to see us getting along?" Lucy joked. She knew Sabertooth wasn't on very good terms with Fairy Tail, and of all the reasons she knew why.

"Well, let's pretend that we're just Sting and Lucy for tonight. No GMG and no rivalries. Just two people, stuck at a bar. How about that?" Sting had offered as a counter to her question. She had smiled at that, and they had eventually engaged in conversation.

They had talked, and talked, and talked.

Deep into the night, neither had realized what time it was. Until maybe 3am in the morning, when Sting had glanced at the clock on the wall.

"Shit, Rogue is going to kill me."

He had ran straight home, leaving her with nothing but a bemused smile on her face.

"Lucy Heartfilia, talking to you?" Rogue had suspiciously questioned his actions earlier as Sting explained why he was so late.

"Yeah, but she's really nice, and… have you ever noticed how brown her eyes are? They're like pools of melting chocolate…" Sting stared off dreamily into the distance.

Rogue had merely let out a chuckle at his best friend's weird act. Never had he seen Sting this way. What had the Heartfilia girl done to him?

'Just don't let master hear about it. Or Minerva."

And it had stayed that way… and also caused many fights to come. They'd sneaked around like mad people on the run. It was fun for awhile, but then it just became tiring and they both had stopped making effort to see each other, which was partly why it hadn't worked out.

Sting snapped out of his reminiscing. He almost looked around, half-hoping to see Lucy. She's not here anymore, he reminded himself. And for all the reasons he knew why…

He had chased Lucy out of his life. He remembered fighting, and he remembered Lucy tossing the anklet he'd given her at his face. "Don't you ever speak to me again, Sting Eucliffe!" she had fumed, before storming out of his house, and eventually his life. They had never officially broken up; Lucy had ceased contact with him completely, and he could never bring up the painful past enough to bother writing to her.

It never would've worked out anyway, he constantly reminded himself. They were as incompatible as they were inseparable last time. They constantly fought over the most stupid things.

Alright, enough wallowing in the past. She hasn't bothered trying to talk to you, so you should take a sign that she's probably never going to want to have anything to do with you, Sting thought to himself glumly.

He grabbed the mail and skittered inside the house quickly as it was chilly, and he was by all means shirtless.

He tossed the newspaper on the dining table; no doubt Rogue would want to read it later when he got back from the fish market with Frosch.

He seated himself comfortably on his couch, feet perched atop his delicately carved sandalwood coffee table. He had gotten it as a gift from one of his missions, and he didn't want to admit it but he loved that table to bits. The table was bare, except for a plain red rug covering it. That rug had been an intended gift for Lucy, but then they had broken up… and got back together… and broken up again. So he had eventually satisfied himself by giving it to himself instead.

He sorted through the mail.

Fan mail… check.

A thank you note from some villagers… check.

Fan mail for Rogue… he smirked to himself. Rogue was so intimidating; usually people were too scared to send him fan mail. This was fairly new.

His eyes lingered on a white envelope. He recognized the writing immediately and his eyes widened.

142, General Street,

Valley of Gerona,

42629 Crocus,

Fiore.

That was his address, no doubt. Only one person knew his address.

Lucy.

But why...?

Alright! The first chapter is up!

What has Lucy written in her letter? What happens when Sting reads the letter? Why is Sting so irresistible? (chuckles and pulls his cheeks)

Sting: Ow! Its not my fault i'm irresistable. *pouts*

Jelisse: hehehehe. *pinches Sting some more*

Sting: kyaaaaaa~ *runs away*

Jelisse: *pouts* damn.

Anyways.

Answers coming up soon, in the next chapter. ;)

Leave your thoughts in the review column below. :) your thoughts are very much appreciated.

Jelisse