Family
Happy was resting atop Natsu's pink locks, too full from all the fish he had eaten to even move.
"Wow, Natsu," he mumbled sleepily. "We really caught a lot of fish today."
"We sure did, little buddy," Natsu agreed, laughing slightly. "Fish must have really been biting today, huh?"
"Or maybe it's because we didn't have Lucy with us."
"What would that have to do with anything?"
"Her voice is really shrill sometimes. Maybe she usually scares away the fish."
"Huh." Natsu had never thought of that and was taking the cat seriously. That's where they were headed currently, to see Lucy. They had actually let her sleep that morning as they had just gotten home from a mission the day before and thought that she would want to sleep. Plus, as Happy had put it, if she went, then they'd have to share whatever fish they caught with her. "Is her voice really that shrill to you?"
No. Happy actually thought that Lucy had a nice voice.
"Have you not noticed?" the cat asked with a shake of his head.
Natsu was about to respond, but then he stopped suddenly, just freezing in the middle of the sidewalk. Happy frowned at this.
"What's wrong, Natsu?"
He just stood there though, his eye twitching slightly before he took off into a full sprint. Happy almost fell off and had to grasp for some of the pink strands he was nestled in to stay on.
"Natsu!" Happy was worried. "What's wrong? Did you hear something? Smell something?"
He didn't answer. They were about a block from Lucy's apartment then and it wasn't until they were right in front of it that he spoke.
"Fly me up there, Happy."
"Is Lucy-"
"Now."
He really didn't feel like flying so soon after eating, but if Lucy was in trouble, he had no problem with putting his overly stuffed stomach to the side.
When they got up to her window, Natsu easily hauled it up before climbing inside. Lucy was in there, of course she was, hunched over at her desk, crying softly with her face laid down on it.
"Lucy." Natsu rushed to her side as she lifted her head, shocked to find them there. Happy just took to standing there, watching her. Usually whenever Lucy cried, he would just wait for her to stop. It always made him feel, well, mostly awkward, but also kind of bad. Even though he teased her a lot, he thought of her as a close friend and seeing her upset was never something he enjoyed.
"Wh-What are you guys doing here?" She wiped at her eyes before standing up. "I thought-"
"Why are you crying?" Natsu took to looking around, as if he thought someone might be there. There wasn't. "What happened?"
"How-"
"I heard you," he told her as he took a step closer.
"H-Heard me?"
He ignored her though, just leaning forwards to take a good whiff of her. Lucy's tears had mostly stopped then as she took a step back, confused.
"Natsu-"
"I'm smelling for him."
"H-Him?"
Another sniff.
"Or her."
"What are you-"
"Plue's here too!" Happy called out then. Natsu looked over and saw that the little white spirit had been huddled up under the desk. "Is he the one that made you cry, Lucy? Huh? Did you Plue?"
"What? No, Happy," she told him with a frown. "You guys-"
"Then what is it, Luce?" Natsu took another sniff of her. "'cause I can't smell an enemy on you. Or anyone on you."
"Natsu, it's nothing. Now-"
He bent down then, smelling her stomach. Lucy froze at that.
"What-"
"I want to sniff you thoroughly."
"Enough." She shoved his head away then. "I'm not upset about anything anyone did to me. Alright?"
"Then what is it, Luce?"
She only sighed, looking off, before bending down to pick up Plue. He always made her feel better. The celestial being just snuggled up against Lucy, also staring up at her with concern.
"It's just…" She sighed, before shaking her head. "It's stupid. Never mind."
"No. Tell me." He flexed then. "If someone hurt you, then tell me. I-"
"No one hurt me, Natsu," she told him with a shake of his head. "I was just…writing a letter to my mom about what we did this past mission and I just…got…sad. It's really nothing. Honestly, I don't know how you heard me."
"Dragon ears," he told her, cocking his head to the side. "So you're not in any danger?"
"No, Natsu. And honestly, if I wanted the two of you, I would have gone to find the two of you. I wanted to be alone."
"But you're crying," Natsu pointed out. "And you're not alone. Plue's here."
"Because I wanted Plue here, Natsu." She looked off then. "Please, just go."
"But-"
"Natsu," Happy said softly then. "If Lucy wants to be alone, maybe-"
"Not if you're crying," he told her with a shake of his head. "Then you don't need to be alone. You need us here to make you feel better."
"Really, Natsu, I-"
"And I am not done with my thorough sniffing," he told her before dropping to his knees. Happy's eyes widened while Lucy only froze.
"What are you-" she started.
"Smelling you." He took to smelling her feet then. "Gah! Luce, do you ever wash those things?"
"N-Natsu!"
"Natsu," Happy mumbled. "What are you doing?"
His friend gave him a grin though over the shoulder and Happy understood. He was just trying to make her feel better.
"What would smelling my feet do anyways? Stop it!"
"Your pants don't smell like no one either. Hmmm."
"Natsu, stop it."
He looked up at her then. "I have to check you, Luce. Now turn around."
That finally got her to hit his head again. "Get up, idiot. Now."
"Luce-"
"If you're trying to make me laugh, it's not going to work." She sniffled slightly before turning and heading back over to her desk. Setting Plue on the ground, she took a seat once more. The white spirit just took to rubbing one of Lucy's legs in an attempt to make her feel comforted. Natsu was out of ideas then as to how to make her feel better.
"We should go," Happy said then to Natsu. "Lucy's really not-"
"C'mon, Luce." Natsu came to stare down at her. "You always write to your mom. What made this time so-"
"Today is that, you know, anniversary or whatever." She wouldn't look at him then. "Of the day she died. And I was just-"
"You don't gotta tell us," Happy told her then, looking off and kicking at the ground. "If you don't wanna."
"I just got sad is all. It's really not that big off a deal," she told them both then before faking a smile for them. "Really, I wouldn't even have mentioned it if you guys hadn't shown up. And honestly, Natsu, I'm more concerned with the fact that you can hear me from so far away when all I was really doing was tearing up a little."
"Of course I heard you, Luce." He dropped down to his knees then and she was worried he was going to take to sniffing her again. Instead, he just moved to rest his head in her lap, his face towards her stomach. "You're my best friend."
"N-Natsu," she said slowly as he just laid there, not moving in the slightest. Slowly, she moved to rest her hand against his head. He grinned when she stroked his pink hair.
"I love you," he told her then, softly. It had never been said before, not in all the time that they had spent together, traveling the world (and other worlds) while fighting evil. There had not been a need to say it. Before. Now though, he just wanted her to know. Above all else, he loved her. "And I don't want you to feel bad. So stop crying, huh?"
That time when she grinned, it was real. It was lachrymose, but it was real. "I'm sorry."
'You don't have to be sorry," he said while shutting his eyes. "Just know that Happy and me, we didn't have parents either, you know? I had Igneel, but that's all. And Happy was all alone. He just had me. So we get it. Alright?"
She sniffled again. "You don't have to be here for this, Natsu. I know that we're-"
"Of course we do, Luce. Huh, Happy?"
And just like that, the cat was flying through the air over to them. That time though, it was Lucy's head that he landed on. Curling up in her blonde locks, he said, "We don't want you to be sad, Lucy. And, had we known that you were feeling so bad, we would have invited you to go fishing today."
She blinked then and Natsu grimaced. Leave it to Happy to say the worst things at the worst time.
"You two went fishing?"
"Is that really what you wanna talk about right now?" He peeked an eye open. "Really?"
In the end, they wound up in Lucy's bed, her laying on her back as Plue rested in her arms, listening to her talk. Happy was curled against her side, originally having been listening too, but slowly falling into a deep slumber, his gorging from earlier catching up with him. Natsu just laid on his side on the other side of Happy, staring at her as she spoke while keeping silent. It was rare that he could be so serious, but for her, he could be anything.
It had started with her talking about her mother, just the most general of things, but slowly it was just the two of them talking to one another about anything and everything while Happy snoozed and Plue huddled against her for warmth (or at least that's the only reason Natsu could ever figure that he shivered so much, that he was just cold). He got her to laugh a few times, but he could tell that she still wasn't up to their normal standards. Eventually, even she looked a little tired.
Then it was just him laying there, listening to them all snore (except maybe Plue, he couldn't really tell about him) while he laid awake, thinking. When he really thought about it, saying that he had never had a family wasn't true. It wasn't true for any of them. They all had had families. And he had probably had the most out of everyone.
He had Igneel first. Just the two of them. And then, slowly, he got his family at Fairy Tail, which he still more or less had to that day. Of course he had Lisanna and the egg that time, which later turned into him, her, and Happy. And for awhile there, it was just Happy.
Then though, at that moment in time, he had probably his favorite one. Sure, Fairy Tail was still a family. And fine, Team Natsu was like a little family too. Gray and Erza were as a part of things as anyone.
But laying there with Happy and Lucy, even Plue, he found that that was probably his favorite family. Just the three, err, four of them. Because no matter what changed or what happened, he and Lucy had always been there for one another. And so had Happy. And freaking Plue was…okay, so maybe he wasn't really that important to the whole dynamic, but he was a pretty great little guy in general. Lucy loved him, at least, so Natsu liked him too.
"Hey, Natsu?" Lucy mumbled eventually, peeking an eye open. She still had Plue under one arm while her other hand was reaching down, stroking Happy behind the ears who was purring in his sleep.
"Hmmm?"
"You're, like, the best friend that I've ever had."
"I know, Luce," he said with a slight smile.
"And…I love you too. Okay?"
"Of course." He gave her a toothy grin. "I-"
"But if you ever come through my freaking window again when I'm having a personal moment, I will kick you out. Believe me."
He didn't. But still he only nodded. After all, what was family for if not barging in on private times and making false threats? 'cause they might not have been a conventional one, but there was no doubt in his mind that they most definitely were a family. And he hoped that they were his final one.