Chapter 35

Lucy

We reach Mermaid's Heel in good time, and the fact that it was the middle of the night was a good thing, instead of bad.

Kagura unlocked the guild with her own key, ushering them up towards a empty room right next to her own office -which she barely ever used- and looking around. Wendy, after they made sure the eggs were far enough away, blew through the dust in the room.

After a hour of searching through supply closets, they finally found a heater and enough scrape metal for Gajeel to make a nest out of (because he's extra). While he worked on that, they hooked up the heater and placed it in the corner, leaning the fire egg next to it. Sting cleaned the single window in the room, before situating the light egg directly in the moonlight. Wendy had just gone looking for something soft, laying it down before tucking the Sky egg into it.

Gajeel had a metal nest.

We had finished around a hour before dawn, and Kagura locked the door, talking about getting someone to move the door over so that the only way in was through her office. Levy was able to help with that.

We said our farewells to Kagura and Storm, and Natsu seemed a lot happier as we made our way to the train station.

Ash's mood got considerably worst from the time we left Storm to the time we got to the station. Rogue, Sting, and Yukino had a different train to catch, and that meant Ash had to say goodbye to Artemis as well.

Needless to say, she was grumpy the entire train ride back, even if she was sick during it. I finally got her to sleep halfway through the ride.

Natsu was still upset with himself, staring at the new bandages around my arms.

"Don't feel guilty." I chided softly. "There's nothing to feel guilty about."

The saddness that entered his eyes surprised me. "How can I not be? You know what I did."

"You used your magic." I said. "And a magical egg pulled it towards itself. I jumped in front of it like a crazy person… how is this your fault?"

"None of that would've needed to happen if I didn't lose my temper and do what I wasn't supposed to do." Natsu glanced at Ash, who slept head on my lap. His eyes were cloudy with tiredness. "I hurt you, the one person I'm supposed to protect with my life."

He didn't say it, but I understood what he meant. I smiled, pulling him closer, causing him to kneel in front of me. "You've saved me twenty times more than you've hurt me." I patted the seat next to me. "Come on, go to sleep. I can tell Wendy's spell is wearing off."

Natsu took the seat next to me, hesitating, before placing his head on my shoulder to relax.

"You have bony shoulders."

I swatted his hair, snorting lightly, before placing a kiss on his forehead. "You look pretty comfy, bony shoulders or not."

I heard his light chuckle, and I felt his head tilt up to look at me. "Hey, Luce?"

I turned to look back at him. "Yes?"

And he was right there, right in front of my face. He might've leaned in, or it could've been me, but it was way to short. I wasn't expecting the soft lips, but I was ready to welcome them anyway. He pulled away though, almost immediately after, a small sleepy smile on his face as he went back to relax, slowly drifting off. "Thank you."

I just sat there, watching the sun rise as my daughter slept on my lap and whatever-he-was-to-me napped on my shoulder.

The entire guild was almost completely empty by the time we arrived, Mirajane said it was because of an increase of high profit jobs.

"They started showing up right after you left." She had said.

Just my luck. My rent is due too.

The master was there, though, and it took only two seconds for Ash to run up to him. "I saw a dragon!"

There's so much Natsu in her that I can barely even see myself in there.

Our returning was much more subdued then our leaving, since people came back in pairs or groups or solo, so we met up with everyone at different times. We told everyone we destroyed the dragon eggs, and I hated having to lie, but it was for the best. We told Master, though.

A few weeks later, and everything was normal. I was sitting at the bar with Ash and Wendy, when Ash said. "People get married in this world, right?"

I hummed, enjoying my drink. "They do."

"Are you and Natsu going to get married one day?"

I promptly spit out my drink. Wendy giggled at my pain. I couldn't even question her logic, it was obvious how she came to that conclusion. So, instead, I said, "Talk to your father about that."

Ash pursed her lips. "I did- he just said that you guys already basically were."

I dropped my drink this time as Wendy laughed harder. That dragon was just asking for it now. I stood up. "Where is he?"

And that night ended with him having several knew knots on his head.

Don't worry, I kissed it better afterwards.