Scars

A Change Of Heart

Lucy closed her eyes, sliding down the door and letting herself puddle by the skirting board. She let out a shaky breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding and put her head in her hands.

Now she'd done it for sure - she'd exploded at them, she'd shoved them all out of her apartment, and now she was ignoring their yelling from the other side of the door. . . there was no way they hadn't had enough of her yet. She was just waiting for the imminent yelling, the forthcoming hatred, the looming kick out of Fairy Tail.

"LUCY!" Natsu shouted from behind the door, and a barrage of angry knocks accented his speech. "LUCE! OPEN THE DOOR!

"LUCY!" Erza hollered. "I'LL GIVE YOU SOME OF MY STRAWBERRY CAKE!" At Lucy's lack of reaction she made a growling sound and upped the ante. "HALF OF IT!" Silence. "ALL OF IT!"

"Woah, Erza," Gray said, sounding impressed despite the situation. "You would give her all of your strawberry cake?"

"If that's what it takes to get this door open and Lucy listening," Erza replied without hesitation, "then yes."

Whistles of awe.

"Go away!" The celestial mage shouted into the brief moment of silence. "And Erza, keep your strawberry cake! I'm not opening the door!"

"Lucy, you could have strawberry cake!" Gray whined. "Erza's strawberry cake! From Erza!"

"No! I don't want strawberry cake!"

"Luce!" Natsu hollered at her desperately, studiously ignoring his few teammates. "Give us at least one chance!"

"NO!"

"Just. . ." Natsu flailed around for the right thing to say. "Just hear me out?"

"I don't want to listen to anything you have to say!" Lucy hissed.

"Then I won't speak." Natsu said. "Just let me show you."

"How the heck are you gonna show her that we don't care about her past?" Gray whispered. "That's pretty much a verbal-only thing, Natsu."

"I am also confused." Erza stated loudly. She was immediately shushed by the other two mages.

"I dunno." Lucy heard a rustle of fabric and guesstimated that the dragonslayer had shrugged. "I'll think of something."

Sighs.

"Lucy. . ."

"Oh, what now?" She demanded. "What could you possibly want?"

"I want you to let us in." Natsu growled, either missing the sarcasm or ignoring it. "Open the door or else."

Lucy rolled her eyes, deciding that, despite what her heart said to do (move to the Waas Forest in the north, relocate to a large basement in Clover Town, leave Fiore and attempt to live in the ocean), she had to face up to them eventually. It was far more logical to get the bad things over and done with quicker, right?

Plus, by the sounds of it, Natsu was getting ready to kick the door in, and she really didn't need repairs added to this month's rent.

She smiled tightly and nodded to herself grimly. Now was the time.

Standing up swiftly, she quietly moved all of her furniture away from the door and silently unlocked it. She waited until anther flurry of frustrated fists beat against the door before -

Lucy swung the vertical plank of wood open, and three dishevelled mages spilled into her apartment, blinking. She folded her arms and Glared at them.