A/N: It's been so long since I've written anything. Aah! This feels good! I wasn't inspired by the nalu week prompts, so I wrote this instead. I hope you like this piece; I've had a similar kind of thing happen to me as I've raised my own three boys.
Special thanks to DancesWithSeatbelts for suggesing some slight improvements.
Disclaimer: Hiro Mashima is the genius who owns Fairy Tail. Not me.
Lucy woke to darkness.
She lay there, confused, wondering what exactly had woken her up. Was there an intruder in her home? For some time, she remained in bed, listening for the telltale noises an uninvited guest would make. However, there were no creaking floorboards, no sounds of belongings being shifted about.
Had Natsu perhaps let out an especially loud snore? Shifting on the bed to look at and listen to her husband, she appraised him. Her vision having adjusted to the dark, she could make out that Natsu was lying on his side facing her, his mouth open slightly, breathing deeply and occasionally mumbling something.
She wished she could see better. She always had liked watching him sleep—he looked absolutely adorable. Lucy reached out her hand to cup his face and smiled at the feel of the stubble on his cheeks. Tracing his lips with a fingertip, she grimaced slightly when it came into contact with a thin line of drool that was undoubtedly pooling onto his pillow.
"Lushi..." Natsu quietly mumbled while Lucy wiped her finger on the comforter.
"Yeah, Natsu, what is it?" Lucy whispered back.
Natsu, however, said nothing that Lucy could make out, just more mumbling mixed in with light snoring sounds. Surveying him some more, she became convinced that it wasn't him that had woken her. Having been able to sleep next to him when he's snoring at top volume, there was no way that his current noise could have done it.
Lucy's eyes then fell on the alarm clock on the nightstand, its lacrima lit screen proclaiming the time to be 4:37.
She rolled over and closed her eyes, ready to attempt to go back to sleep.
A moment later, her eyes shot open as she finally realized why she had woken up.
Iggy! Her mind screamed.
She now knew that she was awake because her infant son didn't wake her up for his regular 2:00 feeding. Trying to relax, she told herself everything was fine. He was almost three months old. From what she had read in her baby care books and what she had been told by the other mothers at the guild, she knew that it was possible for him to start sleeping through the night by now. However, with his voracious appetite—her son taking after after his dad in that—she had thought it unlikely that she would be that lucky.
No matter how hard she tried, that other dreaded reason for Iggy being silent kept intruding on her thoughts.
SIDS.
Lucy had been fortunate so far. She wasn't familiar with that particular heartbreak. She was even lucky that everyone she knew well, never had to deal with that sudden and incomprehensible death of their child.
She had however, heard stories. Imagining some of those young mothers, doing everything right in their childcare and yet still having that happening to their child broke her heart every time.
Eventually, Lucy gave up. Pulling back the blankets, she quietly got out of bed. Natsu remained asleep, undisturbed by her absence. Shaking her head at herself, she was sure that if Natsu was the one who had woken up, he would've gone back to sleep just fine, confident in their son's continued life-force. Heck, if she had Natsu's senses, she could just listen for breathing or a heartbeat without having to get out of bed.
Slowly and quietly she made her way upstairs where the nursery was located.
He's okay. Lucy told herself. He's sleeping and he's fine. Once she stepped into the room, Lucy saw something unexpected.
There, in the crib with baby Igneel, was Happy.
Only surprised for a moment, Lucy quickly found her voice. "Happy, what are you doing in there?" She questioned, whispering at the blue exceed.
Startled, Happy turned to her, clutching his chest. "Lucy, you scared me!" Happy hissed back.
"Sorry Happy." She replied, stepping closer to the crib. "Is he alright?"
Happy laid a paw on the back of the small, blonde-haired infant and nodded. "He's fine. Just sleeping."
Lucy let out a sigh of relief. "I couldn't sleep. I kept imagining horrible things. You too?"
Happy nodded. "I'm so used to him crying and waking me up that I got scared when he didn't tonight." Happy admitted.
Lucy smiled fondly at her feline friend. She already knew that Happy cared about little Igneel almost as much as his parents did; it was just nice to see evidence of it in action. "C'mere cat, I'll make you a tuna fish sandwich for being such a good uncle to Iggy."
Happy enthusiastically barreled into her. "Yay! Can you make it with pickles too?"
"Wouldn't you rather I put celery in there?" Lucy joked, giggling at Happy's disgusted reaction.
"Yuck, you know I hate celery."
Lucy scratched the top of Happy's head, earning herself a sound of contentment from her partner. "Yep, I know cat. One tuna fish sandwich with pickles coming up."
Around a half-hour later Lucy found herself in the kitchen, sipping a cup of calming tea while Happy blissfully chowed down on his fourth sandwich.
They had spent the time quietly, sometimes talking about an old mission or about something that they were looking forward to in the future, but most of the time was spent in silent contemplation, comfortable enough in their friendship with one another.
When Lucy had finished her tea and was about to go back to bed—hopefully Iggy would give her another hour or two, Natsu suddenly came running out of the bedroom.
He had cleared the kitchen and was partway up the stairs before he stopped, walking back down the stairs and back into the kitchen.
"What are you two doing up?" He asked, a frown of confusion on his face.
Slightly embarrassed, Lucy answered. "Iggy slept through the night. I had to make sure he was okay."
Natsu crossed his arms and shook his head, a small smile on his lips. "And you, Happy?"
"The same." The blue exceed admitted to his dragon-slayer friend.
This made Natsu laugh. "You're getting to be just as weird as Lucy, Happy."
"You-you take that back!" Happy exclaimed.
"Yeah, I'm with Happy on this." Lucy harrumphed from her chair. "You were checking on Iggy too, so if we're weird, you're weird too."
"Me? I was going to change him. Can't you smell it?"
"No, Natsu, of course I can't." Lucy replied. "But then, why were you running?"
"Because if I'm fast enough, Iggy sleeps through it and we all get to sleep some more." Natsu stated in a tone that suggested he was saying, "well, duh".
As if on cue, baby Igneel let out a piercing scream. Natsu cocked his head, listening intently. "Aaand, now he's hungry too. I hope you weren't wanting to go back to sleep. He's gonna be up for a while."
Lucy sighed and stood up, intending to walk to the chair she used for nursing. Natsu stopped her as she was about to pass him, pulling her into a hug and placing a kiss on the top of her head. "Iggy's pretty lucky to have a mom like you."
Lucy blushed and smiled happily into her husband's warm chest. "Natsu..."
Natsu pulled away from her, giving Lucy a view of his face. It was lit up with a tender smile, making her feel warm and protected, and most of all, loved.
Not wanting to get too mushy and risked getting teased by Happy later, Natsu shifted his attention to the blue exceed staring at them, holding in his giggles. "Hey Hap, how 'bout you help me out."
"Okay, but I want some fish out of this deal." Happy said as he flew to his lifelong partner.
Both males headed up the stairs, bickering lightly, Natsu claiming that Happy should do it for free since he loved Igneel anyways while Happy calmly explained to Natsu that anything dealing with poop was never free.
Lucy shook her head, marveling that Happy was still hungry after all the sandwiches she had made for him. "I've got a great bunch of boys here." Lucy said to herself, affection heavy in her voice.
Life, she reflected, was good.