dedication: To my parents & their marriage — 25 years & still goin' strong.
notes: You can all blame CalaveraCandiedSkull. Let's see you choke on fluff and vomit sunshine.
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cookie cutter dreams
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Lucy sighed, slapping her forehead and letting her hand run down her exhausted face. There were three—no, four blobs of gold and pink currently hopping and jumping on the beds, shrieking madly about touching the 'lava'—which really was, simply, the floor.
"Natsu, is this your idea of putting the kids to sleep?" She inquired her husband, hands firmly placed on her hips as she watched him bounce off the mattress and land right before her with an elated grin.
"Aw, c'mon, Luce—lighten up! It's only eleven!" He leaned in to kiss her cheek, and she slapped him lightly on the arm.
"Only eleven? Children their age need at least ten hours of sleep, and without sufficient rest, how could they possibly—"
"Aw, Mom, please don't be such a party pooper!" Luna whined, settling down on her bed to flail and kick her feet.
"Yeah, Mommy's a party pooper!" Igneel mimicked his older sister, bounding up to his father to shake and jump wildly. Lucy eyed him with thought, delicate eyebrow raising. Crossing her arms over her chest, she slowly turned towards Natsu and gave him a pointed look.
"You let them eat the cookies, didn't you."
His hands flew up in defense, and he offered her a shaky smile. "They're surprisingly very persuasive, but I only let them have one each—I swear."
Lucy threw her arms up and groaned, "You imbecile! Now they'll never go to sleep!"
"Mommy, what's an imba—imbasill...?"
"Oh, I know! Isn't it, um, isn't that Uncle Gray?"
"NO, why would Uncle Gray be an imbasill?"
"'Cause that's what Daddy always calls him!"
"Well, I, for one, agree with Mother. We need to sleep now," Layla, the eldest, swiftly climbed into bed, folding her hands neatly on her lap.
"Layla's no fun."
"Layla's a party pooper."
"Am not!"
"Are to!"
"AM NOT!"
"ARE TO!"
"Okay, that is it!" Lucy carefully raised her voice, in the 'shut up now or you'll regret it' way, effectively silencing the entire room. "Bed. Now."
Without uttering a single word—or even a grumble—the younger two scrambled to their appropriate beds as fast as their little feet could take them, and settled in, situating themselves much like their older sister. The pair stared at their children, who stared back, bright eyes wide open.
"Natsu," her voice was much sweeter than it should have been. He gave her a nervous look. "Won't you be a darling and tell the kids a bedtime story?"
With his lips pursed in a tight line, and despite shaking his head, he answered, "But of course, dear."
"Wonderful!" Her face erupted into a genuine smile, and she quickly kissed his cheek before disappearing out the door.
"Alright, kids," Natsu announced, lacking much enthusiasm, and grabbed a chair from the corner, spinning it to sit on it backwards. "Story time."
Cheers and squeals filled the room, and he was bombarded with requests—he swore he even heard someone say 'Pokemon' and 'Rockstar Barbie, and seriously, what kind of weird ass story would that be? Thinking to himself, he nodded—actually, he could probably make it work.
"How 'bout I tell you guys the story of the time I first met your mom?" He suggested. The two girls giggled and clapped, clearly excited to hear a little romance from their parent's history. Igneel, however, was less than pleased.
Huffing and crossing his arms over his chest, he grumbled, "What about Pokemon?"
"I'll do that one next time," Natsu tried reasoning.
"Is this story gonna have kissing and other mushy stuffs?" Igneel pouted further when his sister's squeals got louder.
"No. We didn't do that when we first met!"
"And Uncle Gray? Is Uncle Gray in it?"
"Nope, I don't think so."
"What about Happy?"
"Happy's there."
"Oh, and—"
"No more questions!"
"But, please...?" And there they were—the dreaded puppy eyes. He sighed in defeat.
"Okay, one more."
"Will there be dragons?"
Natsu smiled. "Definitely."
He pushed through the crowd of fawning women and ignored the waves of residual nausea, hoping to catch a glimpse of this so-called 'Salamander.' It could be Igneel—no, it had to be him.
("Hey, he has the same name as me!"
"Shh!"
"Quiet!")
Disappointment was a dull, crushing sort of feeling. Who was this man calling himself 'Salamander?' He had never seen the likes of him before. Sharing a mutual look with Happy, he sighed and quickly turned to leave. The next moments were a blur to him, really. How had he ended up buried under a stampede of angry girls? The whole situation was incredibly confusing, to say in the least.
That was when he saw her. And no one he knew really compared, from her long, long legs and her impressive figure, to her bright and warm smile and her sunshine hair. Certainly, no one he knew showed as much skin as she did—well, minus Cana.
("Ooh, OOH, is that Mommy?"
"Of course it is!"
"Who else would it be?")
"Truly disgusting, isn't he?" She shook her head, huffing angrily. Damn right he's disgusting. How dare he pretend to be the great Igneel? More importantly, this girl was weird.
And suspicious.
The three of them sat in a restaurant, mountains of steaming hot food piled up before them. He had been skeptical about whether or not he should risk touching any of it or resist, in case it was some sort of well-planned trap. This lasted for a good twenty seconds before he and Happy decided to dig in.
Seriously, who just goes and buys random people lunch, especially when they just met literally five minutes ago?
("But you went with her anyway, Daddy...")
"Natsu and Happy, right?" Her grin didn't falter despite the rain of food splashing on her face. That was even more questionable. She was being way too nice and understanding. He'd have to watch her carefully. "I'm Luigi!"
Now what kind of grotesque name was that? And on a girl, no less.
"Stellar Spirit blah, blah, magic, blah, blah, blah, using charm, blah, blah, guilds, blah, I'm sorry, you must not be getting a word I'm saying!" She raved on and on, giggling. Damn right he didn't get a word she was saying.
("Is that reeeally what she said...?")
"You talk a lot, don't you?" Happy commented in between chewing his fish. She only laughed and presented the money to pay for their meal. And that's when he realized that she's actually a really good person.
He and Happy bowed deeply as she left, flustered and embarrassed at their bold actions. Truly, he was grateful to come across such a kind person who would willingly pay for his food.
Later that day, he caught news that the fake Igneel was throwing a party on his ship, and he had invited all the women in town. Like he cared for that, Natsu just wanted to bludgeon him with his Fire Dragon's Fist for trying to be someone he's not. There was no way he was about to let this jerk get away with such a crime.
And soon, he flew through the air and busted a hole right into the roof of the boat, going so fast he left streaks of red, hot flames in his wake. Lucy was there, all dolled up in a nice evening gown, looking like she had just witnessed an actual dragon before her eyes.
("Whoa, cool!")
The force of his landing created a sonic boom so powerful, they—and the entire ship—were sent riding a huge wave back to the port, where he proceeded to take off his overcoat like a badass, revealing his Fairy Tail insignia for all the wannabes to see.
"Fairy Tail—you?" His voice boomed out like a dragon's roar. "I'm Fairy Tail's Natsu, and I ain't ever seen you before."
"Wait, pink hair and a scarf that looks like scales? I know this guy; he's the real—"
"Salamander!" He heard Lucy exclaim from the side. Yeah, now she could see him steamroll these ruffians and regain Igneel's honor, marred by this loser's lies. What was his name—Michael? Close enough.
Fire balls and and explosions of flames were exchanged, and it was a fierce battle. But not one that Natsu couldn't handle. No one stood a chance against him, as he called on his Super Fire Dragon skills, allowing him to transform and take on the powers of a real dragon. He breathed fire across the land, knocking down buildings and boats. And after a completely one-sided victory, he claimed his prize—the beautiful princess-who-was-so-kind-and-generous-as-to-buy-him-food.
He grabbed her hand. "You wanted to join Fairy Tail, right?"
She could only stare at him in shock and admiration.
"Then come with me!"
A smile crept onto her lips, and she nodded, "Okay!"
Then, the two of them ran into the sunset, and lived happily ever after.
"That is so not how it actually went."
Natsu swiveled his head to the doorway, where Lucy stood, looking half-amused and half-bewildered. He stretched and silently walked over to catch her in a tight embrace. The two glanced at the softly snoring forms of their children and smiled.
He muffled a snicker with his hand. "We should totally draw on their faces."
"What kind of messed up dad are you?" She shook her head but laughed, secretly wanting to do it as well.
"They didn't even stay awake 'til the end! And that's the best part," his bottom lip jutted out just slightly.
"It's fine, isn't it? Since we were trying to get them to sleep anyway." She giggled and patted him gently on the back.
"How much of the story did you hear?" He buried his face in her honey tresses, breathing in.
"Too much," her arms wound around his torso. "We did not run into the sunset and live happily ever after."
"We did."
"Did not."
"Pretty sure we did."
"Our first meeting wasn't some fairy tale, Natsu!"
"But it was my fairy tale."
Lucy laughed and smiled against his chest, pulling him closer.
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notes: How did I choose the name for their third kid, you ask? Well, I just switched NaLu around to make LuNa. Yup, simple as that. Now imagine if they had thirty children. And all of them were either Igneel/Layla, Jr. That'd be awesome. Review? /nudge