Lucy's Gone Home

Previously...

"Fairy Tail is victorious!" Makarov declared, "But I had very little to do with it. This victory is yours, my children!"

As the rest of Fairy Tail whooped their victory, Ramza chuckled.

"We couldn't have done it without you, master." He smiled.

Currently...

Team Natsu was doing their hardest to finish up the rebuilding of the guild, but it seems that it would take longer than estimated. At least, nearly everybody. Lucy was still not showing up, and it began to worry Ramza. Natsu and the others suggested that it was probably because she was still recovering from her injuries, but he was still wary.

He pulled on his wind rope, which was connected to a few long bars of wood. Ramza dragged it over to master Makarov, who had grown to giant size and was hammering the wooden poles in place with his fists. Erza was doing the same, except that she carried a bunch of them on her shoulders. She was also wearing an appropriate worker attire, much to Ramza's bewilderment.

"Hey boss!" Erza waved over to the master, "Where do I place these?"

Makarov pointed. "Over there."

"She just called him boss," Ramza sweatdropped,"I don't know what to think about this..."

"Well," Gray said, "I think that the guild is looks a bit bigger than before."

Ramza frowned. "You think?"

"Yeah." Natsu put in, "Did we make a mistake or something?"

"Oh, it's fine!" Mirajane's pleasant voice said, "We just decided to expand the place. Look, I've got the plans right here!"

Natsu, Gray, and Ramza all gathered around her. Mirajane proudly took out a piece of paper and held it in front of them. It looked like a diagram of some kind, but something looked really bad about it.

Natsu squinted at the paper. "Uhh, so which way is up?"

Ramza cringed. "What the- It's like a kid drew this or something!"

"Man, these plans suck." Gray crossed his arms. "What idiot made these?"

Mirajane smiled her biggest, but then she suddenly burst into tears. Gray and Ramza realized who had illustrated the plans for the new guild hall.

"Uh, sorry about that-" Ramza said, flustered.

"We didn't know it was you, Mira..." Gray tried to explain.

"You made her cry." Natsu deadpanned.

"That's them for ya." Happy commented.

Ramza swiveled to the cat. "What's that supposed to mean?"

In the far corner of the being rebuilt guild hall was Juvia, hiding. Ramza's water magic mentor was giggling to herself, seemingly like a maniac.

"My dearest Gray is so cold to other women, but yet so warm to me!" Juvia fangirled.

"Hey. Your weirdness is leaking." Ramza muttered to her, but it it seems that nobody heard.

"Oh, it's you guys." A familiar orange haired mage appeared.

"'Sup, Loke?" Natsu waved.

"Can you guys do me a favour?" Loke asked as he brought out a small pouch that had a ring of keys, "I found Lucy's gate keys. Can you give it back to her?"

"We were wondering where you went." Gray said.

Natsu frowned. "Were you looking for her keys this whole time?"

Ramza eyed him up and down. "And are you doing okay? You have bags under your eyes, you know."

"Oh, I do?" Loke rubbed his eyes and adjusted his glasses. "I guess I'm just a little beat. Being a gentleman is pretty tiring."

"If you say so." Ramza said worriedly. "And we haven't seen Lucy lately. You haven't seen her too?"

"She might be still too sore to help out..." Happy said.

"For a whole week?" Natsu raised an eyebrow, "We should check on her, just to be safe."

"Good idea." Ramza looked at Loke. "You should come with us."

"I'll pass. I'm not really that good around celestial wizards." Loke shrugged his shoulders.

"Aw, come on." Natsu scowled, "This is Lucy we're talking about."

"Natsu. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Just leave him alone." Erza said sagely.

"If you say so." Natsu responded.

"So, are we going to Lucy's place or...?" Ramza prompted.

"We will." Erza answered. "We're done here, anyway."

The four of them then proceeded towards Lucy's house. Before Ramza could even open the front door, Happy carried Natsu up to the window, basically sneaking him in. Gray took a more unorthodox route and went through the chimney. What went through their minds as they decided how to enter Lucy's house, he didn't know.

"Lucy, you in here?" Natsu yelled.

"Geez, don't come through the window." Gray sighed.

"Dude, your choice of the chimney isn't that good either." Ramza deadpanned. Gray ignored him.

"Hasn't anyone taught you boys how to use a door?" Erza said, with a cup of tea in her hands.

"When were you miss manners?" Gray and Natsu snorted.

"And where'd you get that tea?" Ramza raised his eyebrows.

"This? Lucy always has a pot of tea around." Erza said absentmindedly.

"Speaking of Lucy," Ramza said, "Where is she?"

"Yeah. Normally she'd be like..." Gray tried to gesture with his hands, "'Get out of here!' or something."

Erza put a hand to her chin. "I wonder where she could be."

"Maybe the bath?" Gray suggested, then sighed. "I know I'm asking for it, but it's got to be done."

Ramza swiveled to him. "You can't just-"

"Watch me." The ice mage then boldly opened the door to the bathroom, and pushed the curtain aside. "Sorry about this, Lucy."

"Not here." Natsu said, who was in the water filled bathtub.

Ramza peeked inside. "How'd you get in here?"

"It seems as though she's not home." Erza commented, who had requipped into a bathrobe.

"Way to state the obvious, genius." Gray deadpanned.

They all returned to the living room, inspecting her things for clues. "It's just not the same without Lucy." Erza said.

"Nobody can yell like she does..." Happy said sadly.

"She's gone and that's the first thing you remember?" Ramza sweatdropped, "C'mon, she isn't that bad."

"Maybe she's in here?" Happy opened a drawer, and immediately stepped back.

"She in there?" Natsu asked as he looked into the drawer. He too recoiled.

"Like she would fit in a drawer." Gray snorted, then looked. His face turned a bright shade of pink.

Ramza and Erza were also curious, and looked into the drawer. What they saw made their hearts race just by a little bit.

"Where do you buy underwear like this?" Happy asked, traumatized.

"T-that's underwear?" Gray stuttered.

"I've never seen anything like it!" Erza said, blushing.

"Dang." Ramza's eyes glazed over the contents of the cabinet. "She's got some taste."

Erza looked at him like he was a madman. "You can have taste for this? Where would you even wear this?"

Natsu frowned. "Family gathering?"

Ramza shot him down. "No, I don't think so dude. Just close it."

"Is there anything that Lucy could have left? Like a note or something?" Gray suggested

"Hang on, there seems to be a lot of letters here." Ramza pointed to a small stack of folded pieces of paper. He picked one up and began to read. "Dear mom, today was a very special day because I joined the Fairy Tail guild."

"Hey, I think these are personal letters-" Gray started, but Natsu had picked up another letter.

"Today I met the most beautiful wizard named Erza who's actually really nice and cool. She's always yelling at Natsu and Gray, but she seems fine around me and another friend who joined when I did." At this the redhead blushed at the compliment, while Ramza smiled as he was mentioned, at least in a way.

Gray eyeballed the letters, who had the one same person addressed to. "Are all these letters to her mom?"

"But she hasn't sent them yet." Ramza noticed.

"I've found a note. Evidently, Lucy left it for us." Erza said seriously, "It says that, she's going home."

"What!?" The rest of them shouted. "No way!"

Erza's hand shook as she set down the note. "We need to bring her back."

"Yeah, what the heck's she thinking?" Natsu yelled.

"I dunno, but," Ramza put a hand to his chin, "I think it's more of a personal thing. Whatever it is, we have to be there for her."

"Right." Gray nodded. "She is our friend, after all."

"Let's set out." Erza commanded.

"Uhh, by the way, does anyone know where Lucy's place is?" Ramza asked.

At this, they all sweatdropped. Nobody knew where Lucy's home was.

"Okayyy..." Ramza said exasperatedly, "I do know that there are a number of wealthy families near Oshibana. We could start there."

"Yes." Erza said. "We'll take the train, then we'll proceed on foot."

"Not the train again..." Natsu groaned.

"Oh, grow up!" Happy chastised, "You'll live."

..................................

Boarding the train at the station, they all booked tickets to Oshibana. Natsu, as expected, was attempting to throw himself out of the window due to him being nauseous from his motion sickness. Happy tried his best to bring him back inside, while Gray chuckled at the spectacle in front of him. Erza had bought a slice of Strawberry cake and was eating it with such vigor that it concerned Ramza. He, on the other hand, had purchased a tall bottle of chilled coffee and was sighing in content as he was sipping it.

"So," Ramza started, "Not a lot of people at the Magnolia station really knew anything about Lucy."

Erza took a bite from her cake. "That's unexpected. I thought that they would know about one of the wealthiest families in Magnolia."

Ramza put a hand on his chin. "They knew about the Heartfillias, but they had no clue that Lucy was the daughter of that family. Supposedly, she didn't spread out her last name that much. She only put it in official documents or used it in where it was really needed, and when she did, the persons who saw it didn't think she looked like a Heartfillia. Perhaps it was because she didn't dress up too fancily?"

Erza set down her cake. "That could be the case. Did they give any useful information?"

Ramza shook his head. "Not much. They said that the Heartfillias owned a lot of land, but they didn't exactly know where. They suggested that it could be at Oshibana, where we're going to now. They said the same thing I did: a lot of rich people live there."

"So why did Lucy leave anyway?" Gray pondered aloud. "After all the trouble we went to protect her..."

"Well, maybe it's much deeper than we think it is." Ramza said. "You saw how much she cried when we said that she was family. You saw the letters that were addressed to her mom, but were never sent. I think this is really bothering her, and the way that she can only resolve it is only by confronting her family."

"Wow..." Happy mouthed, "You got all that by just watching her?"

"Well, yeah." Ramza answered, "Sometimes you just need a closer look and you'll understand things better."

"Stalker." Happy deadpanned.

"No, it's not like that!" Ramza shook his hands exasperatedly, "It's just being a friend, y'know? You have to look after each other."

Gray smiled at him. "I guess that's true."

"Hey, we're here!" Natsu whooped, free from his motion sickness. "Lucy, here we come!"

Ramza took a final swig of his coffee, and departed the train at Oshibana station with his friends. They then quickly got to work on asking the locals where the Heartfillia place could be. They all scattered around, trying to get as much information as possible. It actually proved to be quite the challenge. The people there were either not home, or not willing to answer.

"This is really unlucky..." Ramza muttered as they left the sixth empty house.

"Let's keep looking." Erza said, unfazed.

They went through a few more houses which seemed empty, the chance of anyone giving them any information going lower by the minute. The sun was setting, and they still haven't found Lucy. However, that chance seemed to grow large when Gray spotted a maid near some metal fences.

"Excuse me," Gray asked, "But would you know where the Heartfillia residence is?"

"Huh?" The maid looked confused for a second, "I don't know exactly what you mean, but if you're looking for the estate, it's up ahead."

This was good news, as everyone was ecstatic to hear this.

"Oh, and uh," Ramza stammered, "Do you know a Lucy? Y'know, blonde, carries a set of keys..."

"Oh, miss Lucy!" The maid exclaimed, "Yes, I know her!"

"Great!" Ramza grinned, "Do you know where she is?"

"She was at the cemetery, last time I checked." The group faltered for a bit, but the maid continued. "It's much nearer than the estate, and it's just down there."

She pointed downhill, where a square of small stone walls encircled lots of stone statues and monuments. At this distance, Ramza could just barely see the flash of familiar blonde hair. They all thanked the maid, and made a mad dash toward Lucy.

"LUCY!" They all shouted.

The blonde turned around, only to be tackled by a flying cat, also known as Happy.

"You're here!?" Lucy said, shocked.

"Yes, we got your note." Erza said, "What made you go off like that?"

"Yeah." Gray added, "You didn't tell us, you just left a note."

"Well, about that..." Lucy then explained to them why she'd returned to her family. She wanted to finally say goodbye to her old home, her old memories. She was just getting to the deep parts when she accidentally mentioned that she wrote in one of her letters that Gray was a perverted stripper and she didn't want to go near him. Gray got bummed out, and Natsu and Erza were laughing their heads off at that. The laughter was infectious, since it didn't take long for Ramza and Lucy to start chuckling and smiling.

Her explanation complete, Lucy waved goodbye at her old home and all the people she had made many memories with, and left. Ramza could have sworn that she had tears in her eyes, but Lucy quickly closed them and grinned widely.

"I'm sorry, you guys." Lucy apologized, "I didn't mean to freak you out."

"No need." Erza waved her off.

"It's alright. We're friends, after all." Ramza said.

"We thought you were leaving, for good." Gray put in.

"Yeah." Natsu narrowed his eyes at the cat. "And Happy here was crying his eyes out."

"If I remember correctly, I'm pretty sure you cried a lot too." Ramza said, wind on his lips.

"Yeah, right." Natsu snorted, but a faint pink appeared on his cheeks.

"Aww. Is somebody embarrassed all of a sudden?" Lucy teased.

"I gotta say, I'm really digging your home town." Gray commented.

"Yeah, me too." Erza said. "It's such a peaceful place."

"Though there aren't a lot of people here." Ramza said, frowning.

"Oh, this isn't a town. This is just our gardens." Lucy said nonchalantly, "And nobody's really here in the gardens, even though there are a lot of decorative sheds. The Heartfillia estate goes all up to that mountain over there."

At this, the group became eerily silent.

"Huh? What's wrong, you guys?" Lucy asked.

"Holy crap, she's rich!" Gray saluted.

"And acts like it's nothin'!" Natsu added.

"Two of our soldiers are down!" Happy declared, "Captain Erza, what are your orders?"

"Wow..." She sounded so far away, "The sky is so beautiful..."

"Oh dear." Ramza sweatdropped, and looked at Lucy. "Dude, I know what it's like to have a mansion and be rich, but I never could have imagined that this is the testament of what it means to be wealthy!"

Happy flew in between them. "We need a medic. You all have a few screws loose!"

Lucy sweatdropped, but then chuckled to herself. She opened her mouth into a big smile, then followed her friends back to Fairy Tail, her new home.

........................

Yes, hello! Sorry for the really late chapter, but I hoped you enjoyed!

Pardon the tardiness, but I was stuck doing school stuff, as well as playing some really cool games that really got my attention. Genshin Impact, League of Legends, and Valorant to name a few.

As the story progresses, so does the power of a character, right? So I've whipped up some spells for Ramza to use. Here, and tell me what skills you want Ramza to have!

- Tailwind (Boosts speed)

- Windshear (A personalized version of a dragon roar)

- Gale Palm (A personalized version of dragon iron fist)

-Winds' Embrace (Wind-based Armor)

-Slitting Wind (A wind version of water cutter)

-Skyward Sonnet (Wind that knocks up enemies)

-Raincutter (Summons small water swords)

-Rainscreen(A water slash that obscures enemy vision)

Here are some skills I plan to add on future characters. Feel free to speculate!

-Magical Phantasmagoria (Hyper realistic Illusion)

-Iron Wind (Defensive spell)

-Tempest Whisper (Timed wind explosion)

-Frostgnaw (Freezes, then drains magic)

-Skyfall (Summons falling stars)

-Heaven Blade (Summons swords to rain down from the sky)

-Tantalizing Call (Controls a living entity)

-Rising Phoenix (Summons a fiery bird to attack enemies)

-Storm Aether (Summons a storm)

-Anemosity (Hate gives way to power)

As always, thank you for reading! See you in the next chapter! I appreciate your support!