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Months had passed since Lucy left the Guild, and she was doing well. Starting to work at the Uzumaki Café and being friends with Atsushi helped her to move on. She even started being friends with other members of the Detective Agency! However, dealing well with her loss didn’t mean that she no longer felt it.
Even though she was often treated as a pawn during her times as a Guild member, Lucy still could remember occasions where she had been treated well. Sometimes, Lucy could still hear Margaret’s polite, yet cold, “good morning”; or Mark’s playful tone as he made a bad joke or pun. She even caught himself thinking about Nathaniel’s religious lectures once or twice!
However, the person she thought about the most wasn’t between those previously mentioned. The person that claimed Lucy’s mind as her home was Louisa May Alcott, the Guild’s strategist. She was shy and quiet, but no one in the organization had treated Lucy nearly as kind as she did. When Louisa asked how she was or if she needed anything, it was clear, in her eyes, that she meant it; they weren’t distant, like Margaret’s.
Besides, Louisa was by far the most interesting of them all. Countless times, Lucy wondered how the strategist became a Guild member, the limits of her ability, how was her life before she met Fitzgerald, or the reason why she thought so little of herself that she refused to use her ability for her own sake.
Lucy had her theories about some of those, of course: Louisa seemed very devoted to Fitzgerald, more than the others; it seemed more like a friendship than a relationship between an employee and her boss. This made Lucy theorize that she had been through something extremely bad and that the Guild leader was the one who saved her.
But, of course, Lucy never asked. They weren’t close enough to share personal questions, so Montgomery was content with only making coffee for her from time to time, as a way to show her gratitude.
At some point, Lucy finally stopped believing she would get to see another Guild member — except Poe, since she had already found him again. Louisa was still in her mind, yes, but at least it didn’t feel like she was stuck in the past. She had the Agency now, other people who cared about her, other people who would lecture her, and other people who would make her listen to bad jokes.
And the fact that Lucy had already given up on the thought of seeing any of them again made the presence of the person standing inside the Uzumaki Café at that moment even more surprising.
“Louisa?! What are you doing here?”
Luckily, the café opened only a couple of minutes ago, or else Lucy would probably have scared a client or dropped an order.
“I… I heard that you were working here and… um. I wanted to know if you were okay!” Lucy noticed that she still had the habit of squeezing her clothes when she was nervous. “With fall of the Guild, we… we’ve been trying to locate old members… and… um… even though Francis didn’t… um… ask me to look for you, I… I was worried! And God, I… I hope you don’t mind that I did that! It… it may look kind of creepy, and…”
“Louisa. It’s okay.” Lucy couldn’t help but smile; Alcott looked even cuter than she remembered. “Take a seat, I’m going to make you a coffee, and we can catch up. Is a latte with two sugar cubes still your favorite?”
“Yes… yes, that’s right.”
Louisa’s expression suddenly got softer and Lucy felt proud that she was able to calm her down. And that she still knew Louisa, even if only a tiny, little bit, like the way she enjoyed her coffee. At the moment, that seemed enough.