Gaining Courage: The Search for the Lost Keys (a Fairytail Galu story)

Chapter One: The Decision

If one were to enter the lively building situated at the crest of the town of Magnolia they could be mistaken to think that once more war had broken out. Tables, chairs, and even people were being haphazardly thrown through the air with no thought to life or limb. It had taken four months of grieving before the first fight had come about. Surprisingly it was words of wisdom from the new guild master in training Laxus Dreyar that allowed the once rambunctious guild mates to see that their lost friends wouldn't want them to change but to live their lives to the fullest and if there was something that FairyTail could do it was enjoy life.

While the absence of the fallen was still felt they knew that life had to move forward; which brings us to one member in particular the 'light of the fairys' celestial wizard Lucy Heartfilia. The guilds own blonde bombshell was sitting in her customary spot at the rebuilt bar. Dressed today in a surprisingly sober grey shirt and black pants Lucy seemed to be lost in thought ignoring her noisy guild-mates behind her. At that present moment it would have surprised most of her close friends to know that their dear Lucy was stuck pondering a predicament.

Lucy POV:
What am I going to do? It's not like I can just tell them. Everyone is just getting their head on straight after losing... I can't just abandon them, not now they've only just stopped flinching when someone makes a joke or laughs. The guilt of surviving is finally starting to wear off for everyone.

Looking round I gazed at each of my nakama seeing the changes and the stress this last epic battle had taken. We may have won, sealing Zeref's evil away and saving Natsu's life but at such a high cost. Finally my eyes rested on my once best friend Natsu Dragneel. Like always in the middle of trying to defeat his long-time rival/best friend Gray Fullbuster. Wherever Natsu was there was bound to be chaos, I should be used to it by now.

I felt my eyes soften as memories rose up, memories of before, before life split us apart and forced Natsu to face his greatest fear: harming me. Sorrow shadowed my eyes as I once more relived the moment Natsu 'woke up' and saw what he had done. I could sometimes still feel the pressure of having an arm rip though my body, though Wendy assured me it was simply phantom pain. Natsu hasn't been able to be near me since, every time we came close he would get such a heart wrenching look on his face that I couldn't put him through it and so made my excuses to leave.

Twisting in the wrong direction caused the scar on my lower back to pull tight; I had to slam my jaw shut to keep in the hiss of pain that was the result. I slowly reached back and massaged the muscle to relax it hoping I wouldn't need to go see Wendy anytime soon. It was bad enough I had to swear Wendy and Porlyusica to secrecy about the damage that had resulted from the blow. I couldn't have anyone knowing just how much of my future i had lost that day, not even my spirits knew the full extent of the injures though Loke had been looking at me from time to time as if he knew something else was up, past the grieving for those that had died.

Shaking my head to get rid of the depressing thoughts I firmed my resolve, people had lost their lives so what if I'd lost the ability to have...

"Hey Lucy, can I get you anything?"

Looking up at Kinana as she wiped down the bar top and removed my empty glass, i quickly rearranged my thoughts as I smiled at her.

"Hey Kinana, how you holding up? Eric giving you any trouble lately? Do I need to have a word?"

Laughing at the offhand way I'd put it she kept busy tiding up as she answered.

"He's doing better. I think he finally feels safe enough leaving me at the guild by myself. He dragged Macbeth away from Freed for a quick mission. He was getting too worked up about the noise so I told him to go. This place after a while can become too much even for me."

I watched as she slid her hands across the barely visible bump of her stomach and smiled softly to herself. Moving forward and living was harder for some than others. I knew Eric and Macbeth missed Racer but they had to put it behind them and look to the future for the sake of the children yet to come. Moving forward, getting on with the business of living. Something I'd been procrastinating about for months now. Sighing I had think for a second. I'd been putting off an important conversation for a while now hoping that I wouldn't have to make such a hard choice. Knowing the longer I waited the more chance of failure, i took a deep breath and shot Kinana a self-deprecating smile.

"Kinana, can you give me a shot of something strong? I suddenly feel like I'll need the added courage."

With a look of bemusement at the usually sober mage, Kinana quickly poured me the first thing to hand. Not caring what it was I quickly grabbed it and down it like the pro Cana taught me to be. Feeling the burn and the aftertaste I waited for the fire to hit my stomach. Once it did I rose and made my way through the chaos of the guild brawl heading for the now retired master. Spying him sitting on the railing of the second floor well away from the possible calamity that was FairyTail letting off a little steam, I made my way towards the third/sixth/eighth and still considered master of FairyTail even though he had been forced into retirement by a majority vote due to his health the one and only Makarov Dreyar.