We were winning the battle against Avatar so far. We had stopped them from killing civilians and we had taken out all their minor members, and even all the major members: Abel, Briar, D-6, Goumon, Jerome and Mary. The last person to defeat was their leader, Arlock.

Slowly, we all closed in on him but then he pulled out a weapon. It was a freaking rocket launcher, missile gun, or something that looked like that. It was big and scary and it was pointing right at me.

"Don't move or I'll blow your brains out," Arlock threatened me, a crazy look in his eyes.

"Let's talk this out calmly like sensible human beings," I said, putting my hands up in a surrendering gesture. "You can either resist and be taken to jail or an asylum 'cause you are hella crazy psychopath, or you can surrender and go to jail for a shorter amount of time."

"I'll never surrender. I'll kill you all and there's nothing you can do to stop me. This world will be a better place when I purify it and destroy the horrible government and president."

Behind Arlock, I saw Natsu sneak up on him and I caught his eye. He was giving me a funny face, widening his eyes, wiggling his eyebrows, and nudging his head to Arlock. Then I realised that he wanted me to distract Arlock, keep him talking his evil, crazy monologue.

"Why would you want to destroy the government?" I asked, pretending to be interested.

"Because," Arlock continued his long, boring villain speech. "They are ruining this once perfect world. They are trying to corrupt us. It's their evil plan to have everyone follow their wrong rules and the wrong god. But I can right their wrong. It came to me in a dream, in a vision – I am the only one who can make this world a better place. I was given the power and I was given the task to purify this world-"

Arlock collapsed to the floor unconscious. Standing behind him, was Natsu, grinning happily and rubbing his fists after the punch he must have done to Arlock.

"Nice job, Natsu," I grinning back at him as we both fist-bumped each other.

The police came and dragged Arlock away. They thanked us for our help and left with all the arrested Avatar members. My friends and I gathered around in a circle once the police were gone. It was nice to finally see Natsu and Lucy and the others again. We were finally the best friendship squad again.

Then I punched Natsu's head, causing a bump the size of a tennis ball to form in that spot.

"Baka Natsu," I said, shaking out my hand.

Sigh. That felt good; it has been a long time since I've punched him and boy, did it bring back a lot of good memories.

"Ow," Natsu whined as he rubbed the bump. "What was that for?"

"That's for randomly leaving for a whole year and not telling anyone where you were going. So, tell us where you were," I demanded.

"Well, I spent last year backpacking around the world but then I decided to come back and see you guys again. I somehow bumped into Lucy and she also wanted to reunite all of us – that's why she's been stalking all of you. So we went to get Juvia, who was all by herself in a small country town that wouldn't stop raining and she couldn't stop crying. Then we went to get Gray who was with a cult-gang-terrorist group, but we learnt that he wasn't really with them, he was only pretending to be with them. He told us everything so we decided to tag along because it would mean we'd all meet up together," Natsu explained.

Wow, that was a lot. But I'm glad Lucy wanted to bring us all together again; I think it's a great idea and I did really want to everyone again.

"I even heard about how you guys are at university together," Natsu nodded at me and Jellal. "And Gray told me Gajeel and Levy were working with the police. That made me laugh – what a great joke. I mean, seriously, I can't even imagine Gajeel as a policeman."

It was awkward but funny at the same time as Gajeel stepped forward and Natsu noticed his police uniform.

"What the hell? Gajeel has a twin brother?" Natsu said.

"I am Gajeel, dumbass," Gajeel growled.

"No way. I don't believe it!"

"Well, believe it!"

"Okay, guys, get over it. Gajeel worked with the police; just accept it, Natsu, and let's move on," I interrupted before they could argue anymore.

Then I turned to Lucy. "Hey, Lucy, aren't you meant to be at uni? How can you be travelling around with Natsu when you should be in class?"

"Actually, this year, I enrolled at Fairy Tail University and I got it. They saw my work at my previous uni and they liked it so I'm now doing the second year course for journalism at Fairy Tail Uni. They also let me join late because I told them of the important business I had to do," Lucy said.

"That's great!" I exclaimed. "We'll be at the same school together! We can even stay in a dorm together!"

"Also, Gajeel and I were thinking of applying there too. We've learnt all we wanted to while working with the police and it's not really our type of thing. Besides, we want to be with you guys," Levy added.

"Me too," Gray said.

Juvia looked at him with heart eyes as she said, "I want to be with Gray-sama! I will go there too!"

"Uni?" Natsu asked. "Eh, I guess I should do some education too."

I smiled happily. Not only are we back together but we were now all going to the same university. Studying with them again, having fun with them again, just being with them again and being able to make new memories with them made me happy.

"But are you sure they will let you all get in? The semester's already started. I don't know if they'll take a lot of late people," Jellal said, immediately bringing the energy down.

"I'm sure we can figure something out... hopefully," said Levy.

~ ~ ~

My friends and I were all squashed in the small office at Fairy Tail University. We had hurried there as quickly as we could and had the required paperwork filled out. My friends all explained how they wanted to apply but they were hesitant to accept five people this late in the year.

"Please," Levy pleaded. "I know it wasn't very professional and organised of us to enrol so late but we will be a great addition to your school and you won't regret accepting us."

The principal's gaze softened when he saw Levy. He almost looked like he would agree.

"I want to talk with just the people applying, please. Then I will see if you are worthy of joining this university," the principal said.

We all nodded and thanked him, my friends being happy to be given a chance. Then Jellal, Lucy and I left his office. The three of us stood next to the door, our ears pressed against it as we tried to hear what was going on. I really hoped they would get in but they weren't exactly the reliable type. The only things I could hear was soft talking but I couldn't understand what they were saying. Suddenly there was shouting, which must've been Natsu, no doubt.

After a few minutes, the door opened and we weren't expecting it so we all fell down – Jellal at the bottom, then me, then Lucy lying on top. Lucy quickly scrambled off and fixed her clothes and I followed soon after with Jellal.

"Damn. I liked having you on top of me. We should do that more often," Jellal mumbled half to himself and half to me.

I stifled a laugh and hit his shoulder, trying to be serious in this serious situation even though he just makes me so happy.

The principal looked slightly annoyed, which couldn't be a good thing. He pushed us all out of his office and we were left standing in the corridor.

I turned to the people not yet enrolled. "So? Did you guys get in?"

They all looked at each other before looking at the three of us already at university.

"Yep, we got in!" Juvia exclaimed happily as she clutched onto Gray's arm.

"How did you convince him?" Lucy asked.

"Well, Natsu threatened to burn the whole school down if he didn't get in. Gajeel said Natsu would burn the whole school if they both didn't get in. Juvia added on to that. And Levy and I got in on pure talent. He was impressed with how smart Levy was," Gray said.

"What? Natsu, baka. You shouldn't threaten the principal," I punched Natsu on the head.

"Ow! Stop hitting me, Erza!" Natsu complained, massaging the new bump.

"Anyway," Levy said. "We also sorted out dorms. The four girls have one dorm together and the four boys are sharing a room together. So, let's get settled in."

The next few days were long days filled with packing, moving in and organising everything ready for school. As we decorated our new place, we talked and did some catching up. Lucy had already started her classes and she told us that she liked it better than the other journalism course she did last year. She was also doing creative writing for an elective and she was loving it.

Levy was doing a Bachelor of Arts with two majors: classics and creative writing. She was also doing computer sciences as an elective but she said that her computer stuff was more of a hobby on the side while she focused on writing. Juvia was doing a Bachelor of Science, majoring in chemistry and she was doing an elective of climate and weather – weird.

The boys, on the other hand, didn't seem as keen to get back into studying. Natsu was also doing chemistry for a Bachelor of Science but not for the same reason as Juvia – she was only doing it because Gray was doing it and Natsu was probably doing it because he wanted to learn how to blow stuff up. Lastly, Gajeel was doing an engineering degree and out of all the boys, he seems the most interested in studying.

"Finally! All my stuff is unpacked and now I can relax!" Lucy exclaimed before collapsing onto her bed.

"Same. That was exhausting," Levy commented.

Juvia nodded in agreement as she sat on her bed. I finished unpacking a while ago and was sitting on my bed eating a strawberry shortcake. Our dorm was a big room with four beds, four chests of drawers and four desks with chairs. We had stuffed our drawers with our clothes and our desks were already decked with books, pictures and various things.

Then there was a knock on the door – well, a lot of knocks actually and some shouting that was very familiar. Levy opened the door and unsurprisingly, Jellal, Natsu, Gray and Gajeel sauntered in. They took to sitting on their significant other's bed as they looked around. We had decorated the place neatly and nicely. It was cosy and already felt like home – there were posters on the wall, a rug on the floor and extra pillows on the beds.

"Wow. Your place is so clean and tidy," Gray said.

Natsu scoffed. "Ours is much nicer."

"Really?" Lucy asked, crossing her arms. "Let's go see."

"Fine."

"Fine."

Knowing the boys, their room was probably a pigsty. We ended up following the boys to their dorm which was down the corridor. Once inside, I was sad to say that I thought right - it was an absolute mess. The blankets were half on the floor, clothes were strewn all around the room and miscellaneous objects were thrown around the place.

There was only one neat place which was on the far left side. The bed in that area was made and tidy, there were no clothes on the floor and the desk was arranged in an organised manner. That was probably Jellal's space since he's the cleanest out of them all.

"Wow. Of course your room would be a mess. I don't think I've seen a place this messy. How is this nicer?" Lucy said to Natsu.

"Because you don't have to dig through drawers to find clothes. I can easily find my scarf – oh no, where'd it go?" Natsu started rifling through the clothes on the floor, chucking them behind him in the air and thus making a bigger mess.

We all laughed as Natsu finally found his scarf under his bed. Jellal was standing next to his bed, almost as if he was guarding it from people destroying it.

"I see Jellal is keeping his part of the room tidy. I bet you did that so you can mess up your bed when you make out with Erza," Juvia said cheekily. "And Gray-sama and I can mess up Gray's bed even more."

Juvia had her hands clutched together over her heart while her eyes had a faraway look – most likely daydreaming about making out with Gray.

"Let's go outside. I think your brain's not getting enough oxygen," Natsu said as he stretched his arms.

"What? What are you implying?" Gray demanded as he knocked his head against Natsu's threateningly.

Oh boy, here we go again. I started to space out but just as I did, I realised I was staring right into Jellal's eyes. He mouthed to me 'I love you'. Damn that cheeky flirt. I mouthed back 'I love you more'. Then with a wink, he mouthed 'I love you most' and I would be lying if I said I didn't feel butterflies in my tummy. I looked down to hide the blush that was appearing on my cheeks.

"Erza, shouldn't you stop them?" Lucy nudged me and gestured to Natsu and Gray.

Their heads were pressing against each other as they angrily stared at one another. They were great people and I loved them, but sometimes, they were a pain in my ass.

"Don't insult my girlfriend!" Gray shouted.

"I didn't insult your girlfriend! She's the one who needs to keep it more PG. Or is it your fault, huh? Keep it in your pants! Actually, you should put on some pants!" Natsu retorted, glaring at our black-haired friend who was only wearing boxer shorts. 

I marched up to them, grabbed their heads, pulled them apart and then smashed them together again – but not hard enough for any real damage of course.

"OW!" Gray and Natsu cried simultaneously as they rubbed their heads.

"Stop fighting," I ordered. "Now, let's go and explore the campus. Knowing you, you'd probably get lost and be late to class."

I walked out with Lucy and Jellal before the others followed. We spent the next half an hour getting familiar with the university grounds before we headed off to dinner. 

Tomorrow was Monday, which meant back to school for me, but for most of my friends, it was their first day at Fairy Tail University. They were nervous but mainly excited.

I was just happy to be with all of them again. After a whole year, we were finally back together and going to school together. We used to talk about going to the same university and here we are – doing exactly that. 

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It was fun researching university courses, but terrifying because I'll be going there in 2020!

Anyway, I'm going to Japan on Christmas morning and I won't be back until 6th of January so there won't be updates for a while! I am very sorry!! So I'll say this now: MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!