A Celestial Promise: For The Lucy Heartfilia Zine
I Can Finally Post the Piece I Wrote For @lucyheartfiliazine . Leftover Sales Released January 22nd - so pop on over if you'd like to snag one for yourself! This One-Shot Was Written as a Partner Piece to @phoenix-before-the-flame art submission for the Very Same Zine. I'll link to it here once I know it's been posted, so be on the look out for that! [Partner Piece]
The tick of the clock was louder than the sounds on the streets of Crocus. Lucy Heartfilia moved with the time, fingers tapping to a frustrated, staccato beat against the grain of her desk. The thud of her heel striking the floor soon joined in for an orchestra of thinly veiled desperation. The paper before her was a stark contrast from the dark wood, its white pages littered in red corrections. All things that were meant to clarify her errors, but only mocked Lucy as she struggled to understand her blunders. Jason, as goofy as most would think him to be while interviewing the many Guilds in Fiore, was a strict teacher.
Too Vague. He said on one line. Too descriptive on another. Too opinionated, not subjective? Without the guild to call her home, Lucy thought she could finally, finally, make one in Sorcerer Weekly, writing their articles and bettering her craft. But this made the fifth rejected article since she began her apprenticeship under Jason and a strange, empty hopelessness began to seep into her limbs.
“What am I doing wrong?” Downcast eyes tore themselves away from the offending parchment to meet the worried, small pupils of her current companion: Plue, her little Nikola. He sat on the edge of her desk, a half-eaten sucker dripped from his mouth as he tilted his large, bulbous head to blink curiously at her. “You wouldn’t happen to know, would you?”
Lacking an answer beyond the little dog Spirit’s general babble of ‘puhn, puhn!’, Lucy turned her gaze towards the large wall by her bedside. In time, it will be covered in papers and documents listing all the locations and going ons of all her friends, but now, it was half what it would be, with a few papers pinned against it. Not all of her previous family, her friends, her Guild, have been located, but the few that were held empty smiles along the vast amount of saved photographs.
None of them gave an answer either. What else was I expecting?
“Pu-puhn!” Plue, ever the optimist on a bad day, regained Lucy’s attention. His gentle, tiny paws patted her arm and directed her back to the papers before her. The sucker, left behind to stick to the wood grain, was a minor concern Lucy would clean later.
Plue was still directing her. Patting his soft head, Lucy thanked him and retrieved a fresh, clean sheet of parchment.
“You’re right. I can do this. Thanks Plue.”
Nothing was ever gained by wallowing, was it?
Rejected. Again. And Again. How many times now? The scrunched papers of her previous work littered the floor and Lucy sighed, biting back bitter, frustrated tears. How many days, weeks even, would she have to go through? “Am I just not cut out for this?”
Listless. Directionless. The night Plue had directed her was a moment of respite, but days later, Lucy found the thought of summoning the spirit a worthless pursuit. He would want to help, of course he would. The cuddles of a little dog spirit were nice, but she didn’t have the time to cuddle. How many more rejections until Jason gave up on her? Until she was pushed back to modeling in a line of work that didn’t interest her?
Was she… not good enough?
“Can I really do this?” She whispered, not for the last time, her gaze tilted to the wall again, eyeing the ever constant growing images of all her friends. They were moving on. They were making more of themselves than the life they previously had. A recent news clipping of Levy being accepted into the counsel burned into Lucy’s retinas. She remembered seeing Gajeel’s own acceptance in those clippings, and the hints of her previous family joining other guilds. They were moving forward.
The one blank space saved for her previous team stabbed Lucy’s heart and she struggled to breathe. There was no Wendy, no Gray, no Erza to calm her down; to chase her horrid thoughts away. And no Natsu to cheer her on and tell her she was over thinking.
“I was a low-grade wizard in a world full of superstars, and I’m silly enough to think I can write?” The laugh that escaped was a hollow, empty thing and Lucy wondered when her light had faded to a dull shine. Rather than a pen clinging to her hand, urging her to continue her pointless endeavor, Lucy looked to the keys on her hip, fingers gently brushing along the sleek metal. Her grip tightened on the jagged, broken reminder beside them.
Aquarius would have scolded me, Lucy reminisced, barely recognizing her own tears. She would have scolded and insulted me for sitting here, until I was so mad I’d finish an entire chapter out of spite, but she’s-
The water spirit wasn’t there. She wouldn’t be there. Never again. In the moments of her drowning emotions, Lucy buried her face into her arms, a sob wracking her shoulders against the desk.
Lucy truly was alone.
The clock ticking echoed with a steady, loud rhythm that slowed Lucy’s cries, lulling her to sleep. Her blonde hair cascaded down her shoulders and off the table like a curtain. Lucy’s revised article for Jason would have to wait as Lucy succumbed to a sleep that muffled the sorrow chaining her.
The keys on her belt began to hum as a gentle glow surrounded them and one, silver key illuminated in light as a tiny little dog spirit opened his gate and joined the world. His gentle paws were unseen and unfelt, but the light of the keys grew stronger as Plue nuzzled his face into the depths of Lucy’s hair.
Lucy was floating in a blank space. Barely conscious of a soft weight against her head, but aware of the weightless air surrounding her. Her feet struck what felt like polished marble and a great staircase unfolded before her: ascending up and up into the clouds. She couldn’t see how far it rose, but with wide eyes, she began her ascent with soft, bare footsteps that echoed through the void.
She didn’t know how she arrived or where she was going, but with each step Lucy became aware of something new. Her clothes no longer constricted her body, but flowed into an inky blue. Her hair flowed gently behind like water and somewhere above, beyond the steps Lucy couldn’t see, a set of voices called her name.
“I’m,” She struggled to make a sound, mouth feeling like cotton as she croaked to the constant calling, “I’m coming!”
It takes a few moments, a few seconds of eternity, for Lucy to become rushed as recognition glints in her eyes. She knows these voices. She recognized the booming echoes that reverberated through the starry sky. These are her friends. Her dearest ones: Her spirits. The whisper of their voices become louder, beckoning her with the belief she can make it despite the climb. They coax her forward until the blistering pain in her lungs is forgotten. Lucy feels a burst of energy, gathering the dress in her hands to finish bounding up the last flight.
One voice, louder than the rest, represented a key that lay broken beside the others, called out, “Can you be any slower? Tch, hurry up already!”
Lucy knew her voice like it were a recording she listened to daily: Aquarius.
“I’m here!” She gasped, stumbling to the highest platform where she crumpled into a heap as she dragged air into her lungs with every gasp.
She made it; Floating just beyond her reach was the giant hand of the Celestial Spirit King hovering before her. His giant grin and mustache melded with the very sky as he watched from high above. His hand was huge, holding aloft the many faces of those she called friends. Those who had called for her.
“You made it.” Loke, her dearest friend and Guild Mate, called out from the tip of the King’s fingers, his own arm outstretched as he looked upon her with fond, endearing eyes. Beside him, the ever stoic Capricorn, nodded his head with pride. Virgo waved while Scorpio clung to the Celestial King’s Pinkie, dangling excitedly as Aries sat upon his rigid tail. They called to her, the twins of Gemini bouncing along in their excitement. And among the cacophony of their voices, Lucy met the eyes of the one she had missed the most in the passing months.
Aquarius lay against the King’s palm, propped by her own arm as she looked upon Lucy with a stern, warm gaze. It was familiar and cementing. Lucy knew it for what it was. She was there for a reason and ready to scold her if it were necessary. Lucy stopped breathing as she reached towards them all as if they could breach the distance with their arms alone.
“You made it up all those stairs? Excellent!” Scorpio exclaimed.
“S-sorry for the trouble.” Aries called, timidly.
“Piri Piri!”
“Miss Lucy, have you forgotten?” Capricorn interrupted, his gaze meeting Aquarius' for a moment as a silent understanding passed between them.
Lucy’s head tilted, blinking back the touched tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks. “Forgot what?”
They looked upon each other in silence, eyebrows raised and shook their heads. “That we’re right here, of course.”
It was Aquarius who spoke next, voice the sharpest among them, “That we’re always here, dummy.”
“Yes,” Loke cut in, his concern obvious as he looked upon Lucy through the tops of his sunglasses, “You’re not alone, Lucy. We’re right beside you: just call us.”
There was no stopping the tears. They flowed down like rain as Lucy’s shoulders shook, only now registering Plue taking his place beside her with a paw against her legs. His small shudders grounded her. When she glanced back, her friends' faces were solemn, serious, but brimming with a hope that left her lungs feeling too full, set to burst with emotion.
Loke leaned forward as the King’s hand shifted just enough to bring them closer, “You don’t have to cry alone. Every one of us is here for you.”
With heart wrenching sobs, Lucy nodded, smiling through the tears, despite the teardrops that landed on her hands, her dress. Each second she cried, the pain and loneliness that sought to drown her in her waking hours, slipped off her shoulders like melted ice. The burden weighing so heavily grew lighter and lighter. With a small apology, her hands met Loke's, grasping them tight enough to feel the gap between her and her dear spirits disappear.
“Thank you!” She sobbed, “All of you.”
When Lucy woke, she was startled to see the view of her apartment and not the stars above. Dizzy and thrown off, but safe and warm in the bed she doesn’t recall laying down in, but Plue’s paw grasped her hand hanging off the bed. He squeaked lightly when their eyes met and slowly faded back to his own realm. Lucy doesn’t know what his puhn’s often mean, but she can feel the relief they both shared and watched as he set her keys against the bedside table before his visage completely disappeared.
Perhaps… It was more than just a dream. And far more important at that. It took Lucy no time at all to dive towards her desk, fingers already grasping her quill to start writing her article once again.
“They’re right.” She said, eyes blazing, determined. “I’m not alone. I’m never alone. And I CAN do this.”
As the quick jots run across the parchment, Lucy thinks she heard Aquarius one last time, snorting derisively. ‘About time you realized that.’
For the first time in months, Lucy smiled.
