Author's note: Geez some people got a little ahead of themselves in the reviews!

Response to guest review: I think I recall stating in chapter 2 that I don't do anything without a reason. Also how long do you think I'm going to have Natsu gone for!? I thought out the plot for this story a while ago. This is only the beginning, please fasten your seat belt, and hold on for dear life. :D


"You didn't have to make it so dramatic you know. We'll come back to see them again soon." Gildarts was walking casually with his arms behind his head.

It was light now, they had been walking all night. The road ahead was long and winding and it would be at least a few weeks to get to their destination. Natsu didn't say a word lost deep in his thoughts. The silence was stifling. It was like talking to a brick wall. Natsu was never like this. Leaving his family really took a huge toll on his sanity, it challenged everything that he believed in up until now.

"C'mon lighten up! Makarov gave me the OK to take you on an important S ranked mission. You should be more excited about it."

Natsu's mind was playing through that night over and over again. His heart ached, this was the worst feeling he has experienced EVER. Ami and Lucy were his whole world. This whole situation absolutely sucked.

"What kind of bastard leaves his little girl." He sounded so spiteful.

Natsu was feeling more than a bit conflicted inside. How could he just leave them like that?

Gildarts let out a discontented sigh and shook his head,"Don't be like that. You didn't leave them. You're just going on a...really long mission."

Natsu took in a deep breath clearing his head and took in what Gildarts was saying.

"Just a mission...?" Natsu spoke under his breath and stopped in his tracks.

This was just a mission. Something that Natsu knew a lot about, he had been doing missions for most of his life up until now. This situation wasn't any different from a really long mission! He realized now how stupid he was being, his heartache was misplaced. A mission and then he could go home!

Gildarts turned his head, curious as to what might have stopped the pink haired slayer, "What is it?"

He was shocked...Natsu formed a giant grin on his face and his eyes were filled with determination.

"I'm going to master this power. I will and when I'm done...I'm gonna marry Lucy. And then I'm gonna teach Ami everything I know about dragon slayer magic."

Gildarts smiled, that's the Natsu he remembered, "Yeah...lets get this over with and get you back home."


It was a long night. It took forever for Lucy to finally drift off into a deep slumber. Natsu had been acting really strange recently, even small things set him off lately. She knew deep inside that this "trip" he was taking had something to do with it. Whatever was going on had to be important enough for him to leave so suddenly...she knew that but...it was still tearing her apart. What possibly could be happening that he wouldn't tell her about it? These thoughts circulated through her head all night until she finally slept. Her dreams were plagued with nightmarish images, things she hadn't experienced since Ami was born. She was sucked into this awful nightmarish reality haunted by the face of...Mari.

It felt so real she could hear Natsu's voice calling out to her, pounding his fists against a ice casing that surrounded her. She could hear her name over and over again it only got louder as time went on until the dream finally shattered. She was shaken awake by a familiar blue feline.

"Lucy!...Ami's crying!" Happy hovered over her face with a worried look in his eyes.

"Huh?" Lucy held her head and focused her eyes to the crib across the room.

Soon as Happy mentioned it the crying finally started to hit against her eardrums. She got up hurriedly to Ami's side, she was about to pick her up when something stopped her. For a moment she forgot everything else only lost starting at Natsu's scarf draped over their child. It hurt to look at, even causing her to go breathless for that one moment before attending to Ami's needs. She didn't cry, it made her happy in a twisted way. Her eyes wandered to her left hand and a sense of warmth washed over her. He loved them both so much and she would be strong and wait for him to come back...no matter what.

With Natsu gone Ami seemed to be even more distressed than normal, her needs were of course taken care of and Lucy tried her best to give as much love and affection as possible. But it was hard to fill the void, Natsu gave Ami his undivided attention whenever possible. It was one of those quirks Lucy found attractive in him. Now she needed to do it all on her own and it was extremely exhausting. Even with Happy's occasional help.

A few days passed by and the Guild was starting to get restless. Rumors were always spreading around like wildfire since the Mari incident, it made a lot of things go out of whack. A lot of the young women in the guild were quite jealous of Lucy's predicament. Stuck together with the guy she loved and forced to make a baby. Like a secret fantasy that no one wanted to admit to. It set off a domino effect, seeing how happy Lucy and Natsu were together and how cute Ami is made all of them want to get married and have kids. Closer more intimate relationships were starting to bloom, to the guys it was a bit scary.

Most of them didn't complain about it though, the girls were just more...open about wanting to start a family. Levy wasn't as forward as say Juvia, who is now an unstoppable baby wanting force, but she spent all of her free time with Gajeel. He was a lot more accepting of their new found closeness than other guys, especially after their escapades about the mountains months before. It just felt like a natural progression to them. Levy was sitting at the bar reading a romance novel when Mira walked over.

"Well someone looks happy." Mira rang happily.

Levy blushed and closed the book, she couldn't stop the smile now creeping up on her lips. "Oh you know why."

Mira's frowned and propped her head up on her elbow getting in close to the blue haired mage, "...actually there's something I want you to do for me."

"What is it Mira?" This was sudden and Levy was curious.

"It's Lucy, don't tell anyone but according to my sources Natsu has taken on a dangerous mission with Gildarts. Lucy hasn't been here since so I'm worried about her." Mira whispered being careful that no one else heard, the 'dangerous mission' was a huge secret only a few people in the guild knew about.

"Oh my gosh! I will go right away!" Levy was so worried now about her poor friend.

"Thanks you're the best!" Mira went back to cleaning glasses behind the bar.

Levy got up in a rush barely grabbing the book. Gajeel watched as she ran out the guild hall doors, she sure was in a hurry to get somewhere. Levy ran off to the direction of Natsu's and Lucy's house, catching her breath once she reached the door. She looked into the window and knocked on the door. Lucy was home she could see her standing in front of Ami's high chair. Lucy came over and opened the door carefully, Levy barged in and shut the door behind her.

"Levy!? Is everything OK?" Lucy was surprised.

"I heard a rumor from Mira at the guild and I had to come see you." Levy looked up and examined her face, "You look awful!"

"Hey calm down, everything's OK. I'm just a bit tired."

Lucy had bags under her eyes from almost sleepless nights watching over Ami. She was also covered in what looked like baby food. Levy looked past her to the culprit who was covered in goop. Lucy looked back trying to see what Levy found so interesting...and noticed that Ami had somehow found herself covered in her dinner. Lucy went from surprised to disappointed.

She covered her face with her hand and sighed trying to deal with the stress, "Come in and sit down. We'll talk after I get Ami cleaned up."

Levy sat waiting, admiring the roomy decor they had going on. This place seemed a lot less stuffy then the day they moved all the furniture in. Lucy came back and sat down, Ami was in her lap chewing on Natsu's scarf.

Levy let out a soft laugh, "I don't know how sanitary that is...but where is Natsu? I can't imagine him just leaving his scarf around."

"He's not here." Lucy was quick to answer, she tried hard not to sound upset about it.

"So it's true then..." Levy seemed deep in thought while she spoke.

"What's true?" Lucy was curious now. What was this rumor?

"Mira told me that Natsu went on a dangerous mission..." Levy sounded a little sad, but her eyes just seemed more determined than anything.

A mission? Well that was new. "Er...He didn't mention anything about any missions. But he did say he didn't know when he was coming back."

"So you've just been here taking care of Ami all by yourself? Why didn't you tell me!?"

The words 'by yourself' seemed to hit a cord in the young blonde. A tear fell from her right eye and down her cheek. But she could only smile, she wasn't really alone, Levy was here. Natsu wasn't really gone either, he would come back. Her heartache was misplaced, she reminded herself that she needed to be strong.

"It's fine, really. I'm a little worried about it but seriously, it's no big deal." Lucy reassured her.

It was tense for a little while until Levy spoke up again, "You're my best friend Lulu, if you need anything at all I'll come running OK?"

Lucy gave her a genuine smile "Thanks Levy. You're the best."

They spoke for hours, talking about all kinds of books and even about the developing relationships at Fairy tail. Lucy was even bold enough to talk about Gajeel and her getting along. After a while Ami had to go to bed and Levy took that as a sign it was time to go home. They exchanged their goodbyes and Levy walked outside, it was so warm even though the sky was now dark. That is when she spotted a dark haired slayer, with his arms crossed, pretending not to notice she was standing there.

"Gajeel? Did you...follow me?" Levy wasn't really sure how to feel about his intrusion.

"No! I was just passing by." Gajeel said, stubborn as usual.

She just smiled and a light blush formed on her cheeks. He was worried about her, she thought that was so cute.

Levy walked up to him and smiled, "Let's go home?"

Gajeel nodded in response, starting off their awkward trip home.

"Would you ever want children Gajeel?" Levy said it kind of out of no where. It's been on her mind recently even if she didn't talk about it, but now she was curious.

"What!? Why would I want to watch over a slobbering brat!?" Gajeel only seemed annoyed.

Levy frowned only feeling a bit disheartened by his harsh response, "Sorry Gajeel, you're right. I guess I shouldn't have asked."

They continued the silent walk back home when Gajeel wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She's so bite sized and cute. The stayed like this for a while blushes spread across their faces, until Gajeel apologetically broke the ice.

"Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I found someone I really..."

He froze up and couldn't finish his sentence. Levy's face was bright red and both of their hearts were pounding HARD.

"Uh...you know what never mind! Just forget I said anything!"

He pulled his arm from her quick trying to recover the cool he lost moments ago. Levy just smiled, turned around so she was walking backwards and looked up at him.

"Me too...I want to have children with the person I love too." Levy's face was still pink from his previous actions.

She turned around and Gajeel stopped. All he could think was oh boy...what the hell did I just do?

"Come on Gajeel! Let's go!" Levy called to him pulling him back to reality.

Awkward conversations aside, it was probably the best walk home they ever had.


Natsu stood in front of an unlit campfire eagerly awaiting orders. It would still take another two weeks to reach the mission's location so in the downtime Natsu was training.

"I'm going to have you do some mental exercises today. While I stand alllll the way back here." Gildarts called out from behind a tree, nervous smile planted on his face. He became more serious when he continued, "I need you to think of Ami, imagine her...being hurt."

Natsu just had a look of disgust when he closed his eyes. Instantly his body flared up and the ground was sparking, the campfire which was in front of him set on fire and blew up without him even touching it. Gildarts grabbed a stick and approached very carefully trying not to break Natsu's concentration. He held it out and inched closer until the tip of the stick caught fire, then he slammed it to the ground breaking the burning part off and marking the ground. He did that for the entire diameter around Natsu's body.

"Alright you can relax now." Gildarts dropped the stick and observed the lines he drew into the dirt.

Natsu was breathing heavily, this used up a lot of his magic power to do, "So?"

"Same tonight. Looks like the magic number is about 5 feet." Gildarts said as he walked along the circular line.

Like a barrier...it forms around him setting anything that enters ablaze. What would happen if he could master this power?

"So I have a proposal now that were sure..." Gildarts looked up to the sky in thought for only a moment.

Natsu waited curiously for his response.

"You should constantly think about them being hurt. It could be a way of numbing the thought, and eventually after having it up all the time you could gain control of the area around you. It is just a theory though, I can't guarantee it'll work."

Natsu smirked and took the challenge head on, "Alright, let's do this!"

Natsu flared up again without another thought, he was tired but to him this was nothing compared to the pain of leaving them behind. He would stop these outbursts so he could return home to them again...


At the council headquarters Lahar and Doranbolt were on the way to the briefing room. Apparently it was urgent, they had to go meet with the head council members right away.

"So have you heard? A dragon slayer had a child." Lahar was smiling, it was nice to get good news.

"Wait...WHAT?" Doranbolt looked horrified, "Is it Wendy's?"

"Wha? No. It's Natsu Dragneel's child." Lahar gave him a dumbfounded look.

Doranbolt sighed with relief, "So you think that's why they called us?"

"Most likely." Lahar spoke as he opened the door in front of them.

They walked in and it was rather dark and quiet. But they could see from the light shining in through the door that there were a few figures sitting across the room on an elevated podium. The door shut behind the two and only a very dim light lit everything up. Curious, it seems they went through a lot to make sure this meeting was secret.

"Lahar...Doranbolt..." A man spoke with a loud and intimidating voice "We have a mission for you. We need you to do this...for the greater good."