"Gray! I'm out for a walk! Care to join me?", Natsu asked as he was getting ready to depart. "Nah. I'm gonna take a shower. See ya later!", Gray answered him.
Natsu went outside and suddenly he smelled all those forest scents that were so familiar to him. He used to come here all the time with Happy. Now Happy barely ever came home again. Not because of him. Or because he and Gray had a relation. But because Carla had finally said yes to one of his confessions. He missed the exceed. That was sure. But he was happy that now he had Gray, Happy wasn't left behind alone.
Natsu arrived at the spot where he and Happy always used to fish. It was a nice place and he had took Gray on their first date here.
He wanted to sit down but he suddenly heard a baby crying. Weird. There were no other houses in the environment and normally people didn't walk here because it got dangerous when the Vulcans came out. He went towards the sound. Maybe a forest Vulcan had stolen a baby. He had heard stories about that more often.
He came closer towards the sound but couldn't smell the slightest scent of Vulcan. He looked throughout the bushes and saw a little basket on the ground in the middle of an open spot in the forest.
He went towards the basket and saw a little baby. It was crying so Natsu took it out of the basket and rocked it a bit to calm it down. He had always secretly dreamed of raising kids with Gray but they couldn't possibly get kids in a natural way and Gray didn't really like the idea of adoption. Maybe they could raise this little... Girl.
There was a little note in the basket. 'Mae' it said
"Is that your name? Mae?", Natsu questioned the little girl who only smiled. "I can't leave you here. That's for sure. You're coming home with me.", Natsu told her and started to walk home. Taking the basket with him.
When he arrived home Gray was still in the shower. He went to the bathroom and opened the door. "Hey Natsu. You back already?", Gray asked.
"Yeah. Hey Gray. I found something in the forest.", Natsu carefully said. The shower stopped running and Gray opened the curtain only to see Natsu standing in the bathroom with a little baby in his arms. "Natsu... What is that?", Gray asked his boyfriend. "It's a baby dummy. Her name is Mae and I found her in the forest. Can we keep her?", Natsu asked and gave Gray his puppy eyes.
"We can't just keep her. You have no clue who her parents are. No note or something?", Gray asked. "There was a note. But it contained only a name, Mae.", Natsu told Gray. Just then Mae sneezed. "Anyhow...", Natsu said while wrapping his scarf around the little girl "We need to get her to the guild for a check-up. I have no idea how long she has been outside already and I don't want her to get sick.", Natsu said as he picked up his jacket again and prepared himself to go outside again. It was already pretty cold, despite it only being September. Gray quickly caught up to Natsu and they walked together to the guild.
When they walked into the guild Natsu walked over to Wendy. "Can you please look at her. I found her in the forest.", he asked. Wendy nodded and went upstairs to the infirmary to examine Mae.
Makarov walked up to the two boys while they were eating "I thought you guys weren't going to adopt children.", he said. Natsu looked down and Gray answered "We found her in the forest. It's not like we're gonna adopt her.", he said while sternly looking at Natsu. "From the looks of it, it seems Natsu has other thoughts on that.", Makarov concluded and this time it was Natsu to speak "I've always wanted kids. But we can't get them naturally and Gray doesn't want to adopt. I-I would give everything to just have a kid.", Natsu told Makarov with tears coming out of his eyes "Damn it!", he yelled while wiping away his tears and running away towards the bathrooms.
Makarov tilted his head to Gray "Just give him that one thing he wants.", he said and Gray looks down "I'm just afraid that if we were to have kids, thing will never be the same again."
"They won't. Having kids changes your life drastically. But it's worth it. Trust me. Now. Go after your boyfriend.", he told Gray who got up.
He went into the bathrooms where he walked in on Natsu doing his business. He stood next to him and did it too. "Look Natsu. I'm sorry. I'm just afraid that everything will change and we'll never have the same relationship with each other again. But the least I can do is give it a try, right?". Natsu kept quiet. Just before they walked into the main guild Hall together, Natsu hugged Gray and sobbed. Sobs from happiness.
When they sat down again with the team, Wendy returned with Mae. "She's healthy as can be. But I found something.", she told him. "She was born without a magical container. So she'll never be able to use magic.". Natsu's eyes widened as he heard this "C-can't we do something about it.", Natsu asked. "There us one solution.", Wendy said and gave him a folder. "You should read this. It contains all of the needed information.", Wendy explained. Natsu nodded and quickly looked through the folder. 'magic transplantation.' it said. He took Mae from Wendy and looked at her. How she was happy. He felt responsible for giving her all the happiness she could get. It felt as if he really had a daughter of his own.