Chapter Two

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or any of its characters, only Haru and the trouble he causes.

"So, Natsu. Have you thought about where Haru's going to be staying?" Lucy asked, absently twirling the ice in her empty glass. Next to her, Natsu hungrily devoured his fire food, a tab bit messily, but Lucy had long ago gotten use to his less-than-stellar table manners.

He scoffed at her in between mouthfuls. "With me, duh."

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "I know that, idiot. What I meant was, are you going to buy him a cradle or something? He can't just sleep with you in the hammock you call a bed."

He froze in the middle of bringing food to his mouth and looked up at Lucy in sudden alarm. "He can't?"

She raised her eyebrow at him and looked over at the sleeping infant, swaddled snuggly in a basket and blanket that Mira had found in the back of the storage room. "Of course not! You might smother him. Or he might fall out."

Natsu put his fork down, suddenly somber as he thought his options over. He sent Lucy a small frown. "But I don't really have that much money saved up. I'll barely have enough to buy him clothes and food."

She bit her lip and thought their options over. Sighing, she turned to lock her gaze with his, a small smile pulling at her lips. "How about this? I give you some money to buy a cheap crib and you and Haru stay at my apartment until your house is more suitable for a baby?"

Natsu frowned and shook his head. "No. I can't take your money. You always complain about how you never have enough for rent. I can't take your rent money." He sighed and his shoulders seemed to be a tad bit more burdened. "I'll figure something out. Maybe one of the guild members has their old crib I can use or something."

"Natsu." At her tone, he turned to look at her and was surprised by the seriousness of her eyes. Reaching forward she placed her hands on his shoulders, her eyes never leaving his. "You're not in this alone, okay? I want to help you. And with all the missions we've been taking lately, I have a bit of money saved up and my rent is paid off for at least six more months. I'm not giving you the money for you. I'm doing it for Haru."

He searched her eyes, looking for any indication that she was simply saying that to assuage his pride, but only found sincerity. His face brightened considerably and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, bringing her against his side for a small hug.

"Thanks, Luce. It means a lot that you would do that."

She nodded and tried to ignore how warm and right he felt against her. Blushing slightly, she pulled away from him and turned her attention back to the melting ice in her glass as he returned to devouring his food.

Just then, Haru began to fuss, whimpers beginning to escape his lips. Natsu's head snapped up and he turned expectantly to Lucy. When she saw him looking at her, she raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

He swallowed his mouthful and grinned sheepishly at her. "Can you check him for me?"

She sighed, but go up to so as he requested. "You know, he's going to cry one day and I won't be there to help you. You might as well figure out how to calm him down now while you can."

He laughed at her, his attention back on his food. "That's ridiculous. You'll always be there for me, Lucy."

At his words, she froze in her steps and turned back to him, a smile on her lips.

Well, that was…the sweetest thing a boy's ever said to me…kind of.

Chuckling at herself, she approached the basket where the fussing Haru lay and bent down to look down at him. He was a very intelligent child, they had figured out in the few hours of being in his company. He hardly ever cried and remained awake and alert most of the time, despite him being only a few days old. He was even starting to recognize Lucy and Natsu, his eyes lighting up when he spotted one of them coming towards him.

When Lucy had asked Natsu about why he seemed to recognize them, he had only shrugged and said, "Us Dragon Slayers rely on our sense of smell more than regular humans do. He probably remembers our scent."

"Hey, sweetie," Lucy cooed and she bent over him. When he saw her, big fat tears began to roll down his cheeks and his crying escalated, his flailing fists reaching toward her. "Oh, you want some attention, huh?"

But instead of quieting when she picked him up, his cries only grew louder, quickly turning into wails. Confused, Lucy bounced him in her arms gently, hoping to sooth him, but he continued to cry in earnest. She had never held a baby before Haru, let alone taken care of one, but she did have the basic knowledge of the reasons why he would cry.

He can't be hungry, because we fed him an hour ago before his nap. Maybe he's wet.

Shifting him to bring him against her shoulder, she tried to pat his bottom to see if it was wet, but that proved fruitless. Sending an irritated look at Natsu, who had since finished his food and was simply watching her with a smile, she snapped, "I could use some help here, All Mighty Dragon Slayer. He's your adopted son, not mine."

He grinned and got to his feet to take Haru from her arms. She had hoped when he saw Natsu, he would calm down, since he seemed to favor Natsu above anyone else, but he continued to scream. At his volume, Natsu winced and placed him a little away from his body.

"Why won't he stop crying?" he asked, a tad bit frantically. Other guild members present were already beginning to send the fumbling couple a mixture of irritated and amused looks.

"Check and see if he's wet," she suggested, wincing as his screams notched it up another level.

Natsu frowned at her. "How do I do that?" he asked irritably. She looked around for something to use as a cushion and decided on his blanket, laying it out on the table.

"Lay him on the table and check his diaper," she instructed, standing a little ways away.

Settling the fussing baby on the table, he looked hopelessly at the squirming boy. When he sent Lucy a desperate look, she rolled her eyes and instructed him.

"Take off his onesie. There should be a little button between his legs." When Natsu found the button and lifted the flap, revealing the diaper, she continued. "Now pull the tags on the side off and see if he's wet."

Nodding, he did as he was told and reared back when the smell hit him, making him stumble and fall backwards. As he fell, his head stuck the corner of a nearby table and knocked him out. Lucy stared at him, her mouth open in surprise and panic before setting her eyes on the still screaming infant.

Poking her foot into her partner's side, she gently prodded him. "Natsu! Wake up! This isn't funny." But he didn't grin at her, only stayed blissfully unconscious. She sighed and cautiously approached the flailing baby. When she got close enough, she rushed to cover her nose with her hand at the smell of it.

It reeked of a combination of dog shit and vomit. Gagging around her hand and blinking back tears, she looked around to Mira, who had watched the whole exchange with a mixture of alarm and amusement.

"Mira, do you have any wipes and diapers?" she asked around her hand. Mira muffled a laugh and nodded towards the basket. Looking inside, Lucy found the items and grimly turned towards Haru, who had quieted to a pitiful whimper.

As she leaned forward to begin to clean him, Mira interjected, "Oh and Lucy. Whenever you change him you want to cover him a little bit because boys have a tendency to—"

She was interrupted by Lucy's gasp, then following scream.

"Natsu!"

"It's not funny, Natsu!" Lucy snapped several minutes later at her partner. With a now content and quiet Haru in his arms, he couldn't quite contain his big grin, his eyes sparkling down at her with mirth.

"Oh come on, Lucy. It's a little funny." He had to swallow a chuckle as she pouted and crossed her arms over her chest, which was covered by a Fairy Tail t-shirt as her other blouse had been ruined. "And he had perfect aim at your chest. At least he didn't pee in your mouth."

She grumbled and hated that her lips twitched against her will. She couldn't seem to stay mad at the adorable little baby, damn it. And besides, it wasn't as if Mira hadn't tried to warn her, even if it was a little bit too late for it to make a difference.

Turning back to the new father, who was grinning down at Haru, she didn't bother to smother her smile at the sight they made. Natsu had lifted Haru so he dangled from his big hands in front of his face, a big grin on his face as Haru blinked at him innocently.

"You're lucky your cute, buddy," Natsu said to the child, who kicked his legs and gurgled. "Otherwise, that would have earned you a kick to the head. I would know more than anyone."

She rolled her eyes and laughed. "You do know he doesn't understand you, right?"

Settling the child against his chest, he only smiled at her. And even though she had lost one of her favorite blouses to the little baby and his incompetent adoptive father, she couldn't deny that they made an adorable pair.

Seeing her smile, Haru grinned back at her toothlessly and Lucy felt her chest grow uncomfortably tight and had to look away when she felt the burn of tears in her eyes.

The damn kid really was too damn cute.

She sighed and got to her feet, turning to her partner. "Come on, then. Let's go get the little guy a crib and get it set up at my apartment. It's getting late. Plus, I think he should be getting hungry soon so we might as well get the food and diapers for a few weeks."

Natsu nodded and got to his feet. As he began to follow his partner, the baby in his arms squealed a little bit, making Lucy turn back to see what he was so excited about and saw that his red irises were on her. Wordlessly, he flailed his arms toward her and grinned.

Natsu grinned sheepishly at her and handed her the fussing baby. "I think he likes you, Luce."

She sighed and settled him against her chest so he could see his surroundings. Once he was in her arms, he settled down with a grin, his eyes already moving to take in the scenery. Looking down at his cute face and intelligent, happy red eyes, she felt her chest squeeze again. She had only known the baby for a little more than six hours and already she was growing attached to him.

"You're going to be the death of me, kid," she muttered, running a finger over the fine baby hairs on his head. Briefly, he grinned up at her before turning his attention back to his surroundings.

Feeling a warm arm wrap around her shoulders, she turned to look up at her partner, whose eyes were on the child in her arms. When he felt her gaze, he turned his bright grin on her.

"It's almost like we're a family, huh?"

She felt a blush color her cheeks a light red, but bumped her shoulder against his chest with a smile. "Yeah, I guess we kind of are."

(AN: So as an apology for bailing on my story Bitterness, I've decided to post the second installment a little earlier than I had planned. As far as I know, I'm just winging this chapter by chapter. And I do not have any experience with babies, so I'm just going off what I've seen in movies, Life As We Know It in particular, so if I repeat some lines from that movie, you know what I was thinking of. As far as I can tell, I think this will be made up of moments in the guild now that Haru is there and moments between Natsu and Lucy with Haru, maybe sometimes without ;). Anyway, I hope you enjoy this next part of Year of the Sun! Thank you to all of you that reviewed, it's the reason I am so excited about this story!)

Jane