Hi, guys! NOW PLEASE DON'T KILL ME BECAUSE I WENT ON HIATUS!! Although I doubt it since no one seems brave enough to comment. Naw, I'm kidding. I'm seriously thankful to everyone who reads this. 3.9K readers guys! Wow! Like, I'm seriously impressed. I never thought my story would get this much attention. So thank you. Anyway, without further ado, here is chapter 37!

            Lucy didn't know how it was possible for her to fall asleep while flying, but somehow she had. She was in a wedding dress, marrying the pinkette love of her life. All of her friends were there as well as the Ryus, and Happy was bobbing happily above them, holding out the rings. She beamed at Natsu as he grinned his beautiful fanged grin at her, sliding the ring on her finger, but all of a sudden, darkness invaded the corners of the dream as Natsu mouthed her name. And she was falling, falling, falling. When she finally touched ground, she was her seven-year-old self again, walking along the dark corridors of the palace.

            The scene was painfully familiar. She was clutching her favorite doll to her chest as she crept along in the direction of her parents' room. She had had a nightmare and wanted to be comforted. Just as the door to their bedroom came into sight, an ear-splitting scream echoed in the halls. Lucy froze and then started running, throwing open the door of the room. Spread eagle on the floor was her mother, a gaping hole the size of a basketball where her heart should be. Warm, crimson liquid reached Lucy's feet and she screamed, crawling back to the wall.

            She looked at her mother's body, her naïve child self believing that Layla Heartfilia could still be alive. She stole herself and ran through the sticky blood, kneeling at her mother's side and crying, "Mama!" as her lifeless brown eyes stared up at her, the blood seeping into her clothes.

            "MAMA!"

            "Lucy!" a voice yelled, and her eyes snapped open to see Natsu shaking her shoulders, his eyes wide with fear.

            "Natsu..." she muttered.

            "It's ok, Luce. You're ok," he said, scanning her eyes. "It was just a bad dream."

            Tears clouded her vision as she nodded, latching onto him and burying her face in his scarf. He rubbed his hand in comforting circles on her back, muttering soothing words in her ear.

            She took a couple deep breaths, steadying herself. Once she was sure that she wouldn't burst out sobbing, she lifted her head, checking their surroundings. They were in a clearing deep in the forest, on a cliff that looked over a large city. She looked to see Gajeel, Levy, Wendy, and Romeo standing a little ways away by a blazing fire, worry obvious on their faces.

            "I'm fine," she managed to get out, plastering a smile on her face. "Just a bad dream.

            She disentangled herself reluctantly from Natsu's warm hold to stand up and walk over to the fire.

            "So, where are we?" she asked, wrapping her arms around herself to mask her shaking.

             "We're on the edge of Magnolia," Levy was the first to respond, eyeing her knowingly.

            Lucy avoided her gaze by settling herself down on the grass and staring at the fire. She felt Natsu sit down next to her, and was aware of his worried gaze but did not turn to look at him. She didn't want to break down in front of all these people.

            "Wow, we've flown pretty far, huh?" she remarked, remembering from her geography lessons that Magnolia was at least six hours away from Crocus by train.

            "Yes, but it took us the whole day," Wendy piped up. "You fell asleep about halfway through the flight. We just landed."

            Lucy nodded.

            "So what's the plan now?" she asked, voicing everybody's thoughts.

            "I don't know about you guys, but I'm going back home," Gajeel said. "I'm not leaving the two squirts to fend for themselves, and I'm sure Lily is back there."

            "That was always the plan, Metal Head," Natsu responded. "I'm sure neither I nor Wendy were planning on leaving Sting and Rogue to fend for themselves.

            Wendy nodded her agreement, her eyes blazing in silent determination.

            There was a silence before Gajeel said, "I propose we leave the girls and Romeo here in Magnolia.

            "What?!" Levy, Romeo, and Lucy yelled in protest.

            "Absolutely not!" Lucy said, standing up.

            "I'm not letting you go fight that monster alone!" Romeo said, looking at Wendy with blazing eyes.

            "You don't get it," Natsu spoke up, standing as well.

            "Natsu?" Lucy asked incredulously, not believing that he was seriously agreeing with this.

            "Listen, Lucy. You guys haven't faced Acnologia. You have no idea how strong he is. You guys are only humans. You can't fight a full fledged dragon if even we haven't been able to beat him," Natsu said, his eyes boring into hers, and she realized that he had been planning this from the start.

            Before she could say anything, however, Levy spoke up.

            "We are fucking coming with you," she said in a dangerous voice, her hair covering her eyes. "End of discussion."

            She then stalked over to Lucy, grabbing her by the hand, and saying, "We're going to go get some food."

             Gajeel opened his mouth to protest, but Levy shot him a sharp glare, making him fall silent. Lucy had never seen her so angry before.

            Levy kept a firm grip on her hand as they walked around the cliff's edge down towards the city of Magnolia. The sun was just starting to set, and it cast a golden blanket over the city, giving it a homely aura. Just as they had reached the ground level of the buildings, Levy stopped.

            Lucy looked at her, but her eyes were cast downward. She squeezed Levy's hand, and she looked up, tears glistening in her eyes, shocking Lucy.

            "After everything, they just want to leave us here?" Levy asked, and her expression of betrayal broke Lucy's heart.

            "I feel the same way you do, but try to think of it from their perspective, from Gajeel's perspective. He thinks he's protecting you from some dragon that five Ryus haven't been able to defeat, but they don't know how smart we are," she smirked, tapping her forehead with her forefinger. "Humans have their own power."

            Levy looked shocked for a moment before smiling at her.

            "Yeah, we'll just have to show them what we're made of, Lu-chan," Levy smirked back, rubbing her tears away.

            They grinned at each other for moment before Levy remarked, "We should probably hurry to get back. We kind of left Romeo on his own..."

            "My poor boy," Lucy gasped. "Let's hurry."

            She started to walk towards the street, but Levy held her back.

            "Wait."

             She slung her backpack off her shoulder and rummaged around before pulling out two grey cloaks and handing one to Lucy.

            "We don't want you being spotted when we've barely left," she said.

            "Right. What would I do without you?"

            "You would have been caught immediately and probably thrown in the dungeon by the almighty king," Levy said, her voice dripping with sarcasm as she spoke the title.

            Lucy snorted, and threw the cloak over herself, making sure that it covered her wheat-colored locks.

            "Okay, let's go," she said, turning to a similarly cloaked Levy.

           They walked out into the bustling city, and headed towards the main street. Lucy had to admit that Magnolia was a beautiful city with buildings of varying color and architecture. All along it ran a canal where boats floated idly along. As they headed to a main square, Lucy could no longer hold in her excitement, and jumped up onto the edge of the canal, holding her arms out parallel to the ground to keep her balance.

            "Lu-chan, what are you? A kid?" Levy giggled.

            "Yup! I'm mentally a seven-year-old, since I haven't been allowed to go out into the city since that age.

            Levy smiled at her sadly.

            "Then take full advantage of this chance! Just be careful."

            "Don't worry! I'm a grown woman!" Lucy huffed in mock anger.

            "Hey, little miss! Be careful, or you'll fall in!" a fisherman called from his boat.

            "Thanks! I will!" Lucy yelled back.

            He waved at her, and continued on. Lucy was so happy in this moment that she was sure she would be glowing if she could. She decided then and there that she loved Magnolia. She wouldn't mind living here in the future. She could almost picture her and Natsu living happily here, maybe with a pink-haired child running around... WAIT, WHAT WAS SHE THINKING??? LIVING TOGETHER? KIDS? THEY HAD BARELY EVEN STARTED ANYTHING ROMANTIC!!

            "Lu-chan, are you okay? Your face is all red, and I'm pretty sure there's smoke coming out of your ears," Levy remarked, looking at her concernedly.

            "I-I'M FINE!" Lucy hastened to respond. "TOTALLY FINE! YEAH! HAHAHAHAH!"

             "Okay..." Levy said, eyeing her as if she'd lost her mind.

            There was a beat of silence before Levy turned her gaze to the ground and said, "Hey... earlier, you were dreaming about that night, weren't you?"

            This sobered Lucy up immediately, and she stopped walking, staring at Levy. She knew that she had figured it out, but she didn't think she would bring it up so soon.

            She should have known better.

             "Yeah..." she said, knowing that there was no point in lying. "I don't know why, though. It's been so long since I've had that dream."

            "That must have been awful," Levy said, grabbing Lucy's hand.

            "Mm," was all Lucy could respond as the scenes filtered through her brain.

            "What do you think it means?" Levy asked.

            "I don't know, Levy. I honestly don't know."

            Lucy had largely enjoyed their little shopping trip even after their dark conversation. She had simply pushed the dream to the darkest corners of her mind, and focused on the exciting mundane activity of shopping. She had been utterly entranced by the large square where the market was set up. Colorful stands could be seen anywhere you looked, and products of all kinds decorated the stands, from fortune telling to jewelry to, Levy said, even weapons in the darkest corners.

             They had just finished buying all the food they would need when they passed by a clothing store. Levy grabbed her arm to stop her as she looked through the glass.

            "We should buy you some clothes," she said, turning to her.

            "What? Why?" Lucy asked.

            Levy raised a brow and looked her up and down.

            "I don't think you're going to be able to continue in such a heavy gown. Not to mention, the royal jewels you're wearing."

            Lucy looked down at her tattered gown, and reached a hand up to her neck where a dazzling diamond choker sat, thinking also to the diamond bracelets glittering on her wrists Somehow, they hadn't fallen off in all the commotion if escaping from the palace.

            "I see your point."

            "Do you still have your sword?" Levy asked.

            Lucy lifted her skirt slightly, and looked to see her trusty rapier still in its hidden pocket in her dress.

            "Impossibly, yes."

            "Okay, so that means we'll also have to buy you a weapons belt," Levy said, putting a hand to her chin. "Romeo also lost his gear, so we'll need to buy him a weapon of some kind... The ryus don't need any. I have my daggers, but since we're going to be fighting a dragon, maybe I should buy something else..."

            Yeah, Lucy would have been seriously lost without Levy.

            "Okay, we should have enough money," Levy said finally, peering in her backpack.

            "How much did you bring?" Lucy asked incredulously. Weapons were going to be ridiculously expensive since it was illegal for anyone but the army and royals to carry them.

             "All my savings," Levy said calmly.

            "Whaaat?!" Lucy gaped at her.

            "Keep your voice down will you?" Levy reprimanded quickly, looking around.

            "Sorry, but what?" Lucy whispered.

            "After Gajeel finally told me everything that happened, I figured that we'd have to leave at some point, so I pooled together all the money I'd saved, read anything available on dragon folklore, and bought a bunch of iron for Gajeel," Levy explained nonchalantly.

            Lucy suddenly felt very small in comparison to Levy, and shame settled heavily on her heart. Sure, she had known intuitively that they would leave at some point, but she hadn't thought about it at all, preferring instead to just mindlessly enjoy her moments with Natsu. She hadn't prepared anything at all; in fact, deep down, she had selfishly wanted Natsu to stay in that clearing with her forever. He had a life before her, and she had chosen to not think about it too much instead of trying to see how she could fit in his life.

            "Lu-chan?" Levy said concernedly.

            "Ah, sorry. I was just thinking how ready you are for everything, Levy-chan,"she said, plastering a smile on her face.

            "Okay, well let's go in then," Levy said, pushing the door to the shop open.

             As she walked in after her, Lucy thought that all her life, she hadn't really liked herself for the same exact reason of that she never did anything. She always waited for people to do things for her. She had only just managed to break that habit by standing up for her father, but she still had a long way to go. She was going to prove that she was worthy of staying by Natsu's side. She would change herself for the better, to be a better companion, a better comrade.

             With that thought in mind, Lucy held her head high, a new fire lit in her eyes. She was no longer a princess. She was going to live on her own power, and protect those she cared about. She would make herself worthy of staying by Natsu's side. 

Sorry if this is short. Next chapter is longer, I promise. By the way, I can't promise regular updates because my schedule is a bit hectic at the moment, but I can promise that I will try my best. So please bear with me.

Quick Fairy Tail trivia. What is Lucy's doll's name? The one Lucy gave her? Comment your answer.

Also, if anyone is confused about anything please feel free to ask me in the comments or DM me. 

And finally, whenever the next WATTYS is, should I enter this story? 

Alright, I'm in class so see you guys next chapter! Hope you enjoyed, and don't forget to vote, comment, and share! Ja ne!