A/N: Hey yall decided to make this a short 3 part-er, I'm no good with sad endings lol

Coming Together

For two weeks, Natsu and Happy continued living their life although it felt like something was missing.

Everyday they went along with their business; hunting, smithing, fighting, and eating but everything about it was half-hearted.

"You know," Gray stated after watching his friends suffering so much. "If ya liked her so much, why did you let her go? Should have just tied her down and keep her in the hut."

"No way!" Natsu growled, "Lucy said in order for her to be happy she should have the freedom to go home whenever she wants and she's right," He said firmly, but his actions were different from what Natsu was saying. He and Happy were gloomily picking at their food instead of attacking it like they usually do.

Even though he said those words, he sorely missed seeing Lucy. Every morning he woke up hoping that today might be the day she'd come visit him.

"So you're just going to let go of all the prey you catch for now on? This is survival of the fittest dude, you can't just believe everything anyone says."

Natsu glared angrily at Gray and threw him a punch to the face, causing food to splatter everywhere. "Lucy isn't just prey! She's human like us and she has a right to do as she pleases."

Gray rubbed the side of his face that got hit, but didn't instigate a fight. Natsu got physical with him all the time so he knew when something was really bothering him. Are women really that powerful to be able to control his best friend?

"Well that's all fine and dandy but do you have to mope around all the time?"

Natsu's reaction to that surprised Gray into almost thinking he was seeing things. Natsu had started to get teary eyed! "But I want to see her againnn…"

Somewhere in the background Gray could hear Elfman yelling how crying isn't man-like, but he didn't care. He was shocked into silence how a person could affect Natsu like so.

Lucy was having the time of her life. She had been home for two weeks and it has been heaven. Being with her family again was a dream come true. She even became the talk of the town after her sudden return.

She told them all about her kidnapping and how while Natsu and Happy weren't bad people, they should still be wary if they meet any people from the other village again.

But after awhile of staying home she started to think a lot about Natsu and Happy's sad faces. They seemed like they really did want her to stay with them for some reason… Perhaps a visit wouldn't be so bad?

But when she voiced these opinions to Levy and Erza, the two vehemently disagreed with the thought of Lucy going back. They just couldn't believe they'd allow Lucy to come and go into the village like that without ulterior motives.

But the thought couldn't leave her mind. She started thinking about how nice it would be if the two clans could come together. If there were more people living together, there could be more people helping out with hunting and gathering and protecting each other from the larger animals out there. And if Natsu was able to understand how respect was important, maybe the rest of the village could be just as understanding. But she knew the idea wouldn't work unless the girls would be interested in it as well.

She tried again to talk to her friends, but when they decided against it still, she told them she'll go by herself then. That got their attention quickly and once they realized that there was no stopping Lucy, they hesitantly agreed on sending a few members of their tribe to try for diplomacy.

"Are you sure about this Lucy?" Erza asked one more time. They were getting close to the male village; accompanying them were Levy, Juvia, and Wendy.

"I'm not… But I can't let go of the possibilities that we could work together to become a stronger village. Why should we be separate in the first place?"

"But Lu-chan… What if they're er.. sausages become a problem?" Levy worried. After all, they had lost earlier because of that.

"Natsu won't hurt us... I'm sure he and the other members of the village just needs to know us better." But even Lucy wasn't sure herself that this was going to work.

The five of them stopped at the entrance of the male village, concerned how eerily quiet it was even though it was mid day.

Wendy grasped Lucy's hand, but Lucy gave her a reassuring smile, and they trudged into the village together.

"H-hello?" Lucy shouted, starting to really wonder what was going on.

"Lucy?" A voice asked quietly.

A ragged looking Natsu and Happy appeared staring at Lucy as if they couldn't believe she was here right in front of them.

"LUUCCYYYYY!" Any look of exhaustion disappeared immediately, and they ran towards the gang of girls only to be stopped by Erza's giant spear.

"You are not allowed to touch Lucy." She said sternly.

"But she's ours— I mean, but we missed her.." Natsu corrected himself. He had to prove to Lucy that he's gotten better.

"That's very sweet Natsu, but we've had a pretty rocky start so let's take this slower." Lucy said. "I brought my friends along to introduce you and the village to them. We have something we'd like to discuss and we brought some presents." Pointing to the large fatty animal behind Levy and Juvia, Lucy also offered the boys a kind smile.

"PRESENTS?!" The whole village yelled. Guys appeared out of nowhere, curious about what the women were offering now that they know the meat was for them.

The loud yell had startled the ladies and they drew back into a circle, covering their backs and ready to attack.

"Girls, girls, it's okay. They're just… Just very loud." Lucy explained.

"Lucy, you must be more wary around these… Men." Erza said with a slight look of disgust.

"Erza, let's try to be civil, please. Natsu, where is the Elder? We'd like to discuss the possibilities of creating a sort of partnership."

"Does that mean you want to stay here Lucy?" Happy asked excitedly.

"Not exactly Happy… But it'd definitely mean i'd visit more often."

"Ayee!" And with that, Happy went to go get the Elder as the rest of the village curiously gazed at the female tribe.

Natsu happily went up to Lucy, wanting to be apart of her affections again. His loud chatter created enough comfort for the rest of the guild to cautiously approach them as well:

"Did you really carry this all by yourself?" Gajeel asked, pointing to the dead animal.

"Well I did manage to take you down on my own didn't I?" Levy boasted. "I'm a lot stronger than I look I'll have you know."
"That's… Kinda amazing."

"Hey, you're the girl who wasted all our water sources!" Gray yelled. He was the one that had to go back and fix their water tank thanks to that.
"Juvia is very sorry. But Juvia does not regret doing anything she can to save her friend."
"I guess… I would do the same…"

After a while, Happy appeared again along with the Elder. The casual chatter ceased as Erza stepped up front as leader of the women's tribe.

"Good afternoon. I understand you are the Elder of this village. We seem to have had a… misunderstanding a few weeks ago when our Lucy was taken. However it seems since Lucy had not been harmed we would like to send our apologies for the mess we've created and hopefully a ceasefire between our two villages. If that is acceptable…"

Erza went on with her speech discussing very thorough details about the friendly alliance, but nobody really paid much attention to all the details.

Clearing his throat, Makarov politely interrupted, "While I thank you for your offering, I will have to decline your proposal. I have lived quite a long time now and through my experience I've found out that men and women can never exist peacefully."

He looked sternly as if remembering things from the past. "We've released your friend due to Natsu's judgement and his alone. But I think it's best to leave it at that. The two villages should just stay their own path."

"WHAT!" Natsu yelled, shocked that the Elder was acting this way.

"Why can't we get along? We haven't even tried it out and you've shut down the suggestion. The women are offering to try so why can't we?" He countered back. He knew this was his only chance to getting Lucy back in his presence.

"I just told you before Natsu, that it's never worked in the past—"

"That was the past, this is now! Why keep fighting around if we're all just trying to live peacefully and have a good time?"

Gray also took a step forward to comment. "I also agree we should try and work something out Elder. After all, we could always use more hands to help out around the area, and with the women's permission, we'd also be able to gain a greater distance in territory." He said, making really great points in his argument.

"Also I really can't stand seeing Natsu pout for so long."

Many men around the village also nodded their head agreeing how much of an eye sour it is seeing Natsu acting like this.

Makarov sighed. "Okay my boys, there's actually a secret I have been keeping from you for a very long time. The truth is…"

Somewhere near by a bee buzzes and a bird flies by. A group of storks soar high up in the air. Makarov continues his speech as everyone's eyes grow bigger and bigger hearing him talk until everyone's faces get so red and they become unable to look anybody in the eye.

"...and that's how a baby is born. Now a baby is a huge responsibility that I don't think anyone in this village is ready for and—-"

"E-e-elder!" Everyone yelled.

"We get it!"

"Talking is not manly!"

"Put more clothes on, Gray!"

"No one said anything about wanting babies!"

"S-should I have not said anything?"

A/N: I mean did anyone else think about how they were all born LOL