Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was a bright, sunny day in Magnolia. People everywhere were either politely minding their business or making small talk with a close friend, there was not a frown to be seen. The atmosphere of the town was bright and delightful, everyone seemed to be at peace…

“I’M GONNA KICK YOUR BUTT, ICE FOR BRAINS!”

…everyone except the Fairy Tail guild, that is.

“WELL MAYBE IF YOU LEARNED TO MIND YOUR BUSINESS, I WOULDN’T HAVE SMACKED YOU FLAME FACE!”

“FLAME FACE?! THAT DOESN’T EVEN MAKE SENSE!”

“IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BECAUSE MY FISTS SPEAK FOR ME ANYWAY!”

“OH, BRING IT ON YOU FROZEN MEATHEAD!”

“I’M GONNA ENJOY KICKING YOUR ASS YOU SALMON-HEADED DITZ!”

Lucy fondly sighed from her seat at the bar, watching her teammates go at it not even five minutes after entering the guild. They were insufferable idiots, but they were her family and she wouldn’t change them for all the money in the world.

Even if they broke into her house almost every day.

“Natsu and Gray are really going at it this time, what caused it this time?” Mirajane saddled up to Lucy from behind the bar, watching Natsu and Gray shout and occasionally punch and kick at each other. Lucy rolled her eyes as she remembered what most likely caused the fight between the two frenemies.

“Gray was just eating and staring into space, as if he was thinking really hard, and Natsu decided that pushing Gray’s face into his food was a good way to snap him out of it. It did work, but…well you see where we are now.” Lucy motions her two teammates going blow for blow in the middle of the guild hall. Mirajane smiles mysteriously and giggles.

“Well I hope they know that Erza’s supposed to be coming in any time now, so they better stop soon!” Mirajane walks away to give Cana her third barrel of beer, leaving Lucy to sigh in exasperation and lean her head on the bar. She knew they weren’t going to stop anytime soon, which can only mean Erza will kill them.

“NATSU AND GRAY, WHAT HAVE I SAID ABOUT FIGHTING IN THE GUILDHALL?!”

Lucy shook her head. They were dead.

She was soon bored watching Natsu and Gray get chewed out for the millionth time, so she looked around and spotted a flash of blue hiding behind a wooden pillar, staring at Gray with reverence and adoration. Lucy held back a giggle, automatically knowing it was Juvia.

Juvia’s really infatuated with Gray, it’s really cute actually. Gray’s harder to read, but I think he’s really starting to develop feelings for her. Too bad he’s so emotionally constipated he wouldn’t know what love is if it hit him with a 2 by 4. Repeatedly.

After watching Juvia watch Gray for a little bit, Lucy looked to the side to see Gajeel watching the chaos, a smirk on his face and a pile of nuts and bolts on the table in front of him. He grabbed a fistful of his pile of metal and shoved it in his face, causing the short and spunky bluenette next to him to look up from her book and smack his arm, spouting off something about “table manners.” This made Gajeel throw his head back and laugh, ruffling the girl’s hair which only served to piss her off.

I’m glad Gajeel’s changed for the better, and that Levy has accepted him after everything’s that’s happened. Gajeel really needed a good family after everything transpired.

Lucy shivered as memories from the guild war flashed before her eyes. She’s fully forgiven Juvia and Gajeel for everything that happened back then, they’re part of her family now, but the whole situation still haunts her nightmares every now and then. The guilt of the whole war still stung every now and then, only when the memories come around.

“Lucy, you ok?”

Lucy jumped, startled out of her thoughts by Natsu who was staring intently at her. She smoothed her shirt down and glanced over to see Gray and Erza also staring at her in concern.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just got lost in some unpleasant memories for a little bit, that’s all.” Lucy smiled at Natsu, in hopes that he’d drop the subject. She didn’t want to dredge up the past, especially since she was over everything that had happened almost every other day of the year.

“…alright, if you say you’re okay then I’m gonna believe you. Now come on, it’s time for Fairy Tail’s strongest team to go and complete another job! Wendy’s taking some time to relax, so it’ll be the four of us, like old times!” Natsu smiled and took hold of Lucy’s hand, leading her over to the rest of their team. Gray and Erza were smiling at the duo, and when the foursome were together, they walked outside to prepare for their newest adventure.

After watching Gray walk out of the guild with his original team, Juvia slid to the ground and held her hands where her heart was, a dopey smile on her face.

Oh, Gray-sama is so handsome and caring to all his guildmates, my heart is bursting with love! I cannot wait for the day when Gray-sama loves me even more passionately than that!

Juvia was so lost in her thoughts she didn’t even notice the huge figure looming over her for a solid three minutes before the figure sighed and snapped their fingers in front of her face, snapping out of her fantasy.

“Rain Woman. Snap out of it. It’s getting late and I promised we’d go on a job together when I got back from my solo job, alright?” Juvia looked up to see Gajeel, who had his hand out to her and the tiniest of genuine smiles on his face. Juvia nodded and grabbed Gajeel’s hand so he could help her up, and the two friends walked up to the job board.

“Oh, Juvia is so excited to go on a job with you Gajeel-kun! It’s been so long since we’ve done anything together, Juvia was starting to miss you!” Juvia clasped her hands together as she looked at all the jobs posted, not seeing Gajeel roll his eyes with a slight smirk on his face.

“I kinda missed you too, but if you tell anyone I said that I’ll deny it and make you regret blabbing, you got that?” Gajeel turned to look at Juvia who nodded and picked up a job that seemed dangerous enough for Gajeel’s taste and payed a pretty sum of Jewel.

“How does this one look, Gajeel-kun?” Gajeel snatched the job out of her hand, looked over it, and nodded. Juvia smiled and skipped over to where her stuff was, packing it up so she could prepare for her new job.

“You finally going on that job with Juvia you’ve been excited about?” Gajeel stiffens and turns around to see Levy standing there, a knowing smile on her face. Gajeel scowls and crosses his arms, which causes Levy’s smile to grow wider.

“I don’t remember asking you to read my emotions, especially since you’re wrong shrimp!” Gajeel smirked and ruffled Levy’s hair, causing her to frown and glare up at the much taller dragon slayer.

“I’m not that short, you big-headed Neanderthal!” Gajeel smiled seeing that he got the solid script-mage to react so easily

“Ghi hi hi hi! Neanderthal, that’s a new one! Keep coming up with those big words, they make me laugh!” Levy crossed her arms and jutted her hip out, clearly unimpressed with Gajeel’s main form of entertainment.

“I just came by to pick up a job for myself and I get bullied by the punk ass emo-looking anti-hero. My life is a tragedy.” Levy sighed in exasperation as she looks over the board, leaving Gajeel to sputter next to her.

“Punk ass? Emo-looking?! Excuse you but I look badass and I am nothing like that douche Gray!” Soon after he said that, Gajeel felt himself lurch forward after being slapped with incredible force by something wet and cold.

“Take that back Gajeel-kun! Gray-sama is kind and handsome and not a douche!” Gajeel turned and started bickering with Juvia, causing Levy to laugh as she too picked a job from the board.

“You two are funny. I know you’re both strong, but be careful on your job, alright?” Gajeel and Juvia both turned to Levy who was smiling at them. Juvia smiled back while Gajeel huffed out a laugh.

“You too shrimp. I’d hate to see your face with a scratch on it.” Gajeel ruffled Levy’s hair one last time before walking out of the guild with Juvia, leaving Levy to blush heavily.

A man sitting on what appears to be a throne looked into a mirror on the wall, the mirror showing an image of Gajeel walking and Juvia skipping through Magnolia, both packed up and ready for their job, with Pantherlily sitting on Gajeel’s shoulder, sleeping.

The mystery figure evilly smiled, an evil glint in his stare as he gazed at the image in the mirror. A group of figures standing in the shadows behind the throne said nothing, no emotions giving away what they were feeling while staring at the mirror’s image.

The sitting figure spoke, and any sane person would’ve tensed at the lighthearted yet malicious tone of his voice.

“We're almost ready, my comrades. Soon, we'll destroy them and everything they hold dear, all while defeating Fairy Tail once and for all."

Chapter Text

Alright, before we move on with the story, I feel like I should tell you guys this so no one gets confused.

I have a fanfiction.com account, now with the exact same name as this one (the new name, EspressoDepresso348), and I'm planning of posting this story on that website as well.

No one's stolen my story idea, no one's stolen the first chapter word-for-word, that is also me. Just on a different platform. The summary will be different because fanfiction.com has a different format for summaries than archive, but it is the same story. By the same person, aka me.

I know that stealing story ideas from someone and posting them as "original content" on a completely different platform happens quite often, but I promise this is not one of those cases. I even made sure the usernames matched before I went along with it just to avoid confusion. This note is to inform you future readers and to save future me.

Getting attacked for "stealing" a story from myself sounds unappealing.

Okay the next chapter will be an actual chapter with actual story content. This just needed to be said in order to avoid a catastrophe.

Thanks for tuning in, see y'all in the next (real I promise) chapter!