As much as Cobra wanted to go home, he knew Lucy was at the guildhall so that's where he went. He found her sitting at a table with Natsu and Happy, talking to the pair about the fish Happy was happily showing off. Sitting down backwards on the bench next to her, Cobra put his arm around her waist and kissed the side of her neck in greeting, but he didn't get the reaction he expected.

Lucy turned to give him a harsh glare as she demanded, "Where have you been?"

The question shocked him into silence for a second before he asked, "What the hell are you going on about? You knew I'd been gone for a week."

"It's been eight days!" Her irrational outburst had her teammates falling silent as they joined Cobra in staring at her with dumbfounded expressions. The salty scent of her tears filled the air just before the droplets fell from her eyes.

Confused as hell, Cobra asked, "Did something happen?"

She leaned against him with her face in his chest as she sobbed, "I just really wanted you to come home."

"What the fuck?" He muttered mostly to himself, but Natsu shrugged with his hands turned palms up as if to say 'don't ask me'. Cobra patted her back hesitantly as he focused his magic to listen to her more closely. There was something different, something he hadn't heard before, so he concentrated on that sound. What he heard had him jumping to his feet, nearly knocking Lucy to the floor in his haste to get away from her.

"What's wrong with you?" She asked as she swiped at her eyes, suddenly angry again. He only stared at her with a look of wide-eyed shock as all the color drained from his face. When he didn't respond or even look away from her, Lucy started to get worried. Her voice was less sure as she asked, "What is it?"

Turning to look around the guildhall, Cobra spotted the person he was looking for and then shouted, "Little dragon, get your ass over here."

While Wendy walked toward their table, Natsu leaned across it to sniff at Lucy. As he inhaled loudly, she shoved at his face while saying, "Get away from me." Instead of moving, Natsu grabbed the arm she had extended toward him and then sniffed at the inside of her wrist. Then he started laughing. Annoyed by his strangeness, she demanded, "What are you laughing about?"

Since Natsu wasn't giving her any answers, she looked back at Cobra to see he had inched backward until there was now a noticeable gap between them. He also ignored her demands for an explanation.

Once Wendy was near the table, she said to Cobra, "Are you ever going to stop calling me little dragon? I haven't been little for a long time."

As if she hadn't even spoken, he pointed at Lucy like she was the host of a deadly virus as he insisted, "Check her."

"For what?" Wendy asked in concern, but she was already activating her magic to begin a body scan on the blonde.

"Will someone tell me what's going on?" Lucy shouted as her earlier anger returned in full force. She noticed the glow of Wendy's magic receding just as a huge smile spread across the girl's face and Cobra's expression looked like he might be sick.

"Lucy! Congratulations!" Wendy exclaimed happily, throwing her arms around her surrogate sister.

Over the increased volume of Natsu's laughter, Lucy asked in confusion, "For what?"

"You're pregnant! I didn't know you two were trying!" Wendy was not expecting both Lucy and Cobra to shout, "We weren't!"

Their response had Wendy releasing the hug to sit upright to look at Lucy and then Cobra, suddenly feeling extremely uncomfortable. The creative string of curse words coming from the new father's mouth had Wendy suddenly feeling like the little dragon he always accused her of being. He'd definitely need to clean up his mouth before the baby arrived. Unsure of what to do now, Wendy stood up as she said, "I think I'll, uh, give you two a chance to talk."

Lucy looked at Cobra as she said in a detached tone, "I'm not ready to have a baby."

"Shit. Me neither." He muttered as he ran a hand through his hair in a nervous gesture. "I was thinking more along the lines of never."

Natsu was still laughing, but now he had lost the ability to hold himself up, so he was slumped across the table while slapping the top of it as he cackled. "You two are so screwed!" Finally regaining some control of his body, he sat up again and realized Lucy looked like she was imploding. Cobra didn't look so great, either, but Natsu didn't care so much about that jerk. Standing up from his seat, Natsu went around the table to put an arm around Lucy's shoulders as he said, "You'll be a great mom, Luce."

She leaned her head against his shoulder as she wiped at her eyes. Happy walked across the table to sit directly in front of her as he said, "Yeah, Lushi, and we'll help you. We'll bring you lots of fish for the baby."

Doing her best not to look grossed out by the idea, Lucy said, "Thanks, guys."

"Wait a second – Don't pregnant women get super fat? You're gonna look so gross." Natsu's comment had the desired reaction. Lucy's body language went from sagging under the weight of her melancholy to rigid with fury.

"Excuse me?!" She shot to her feet and then Lucy Kicked him through the table, snapping it in half. As Natsu laid in the remains of the table, he felt accomplished.

Finally snapping back to reality, Cobra put a hand against Lucy's lower back as he said, "Let's go home."

Later that night, they both laid awake staring at the ceiling overhead. Sleep was nowhere to be found as they both were lost in their own imaginings of what the future would be like. Eventually, Cobra said, "Maybe it won't be so bad. I can hear shit before it goes wrong and you're good at taking care of people."

Lucy put her hand into his, squeezing it once before saying, "Yeah. We'll be good parents. We can do this." Another thought finally occurred to Lucy, making her look to the side at him as she said, "If we don't get married soon, I won't be able to fit in my dress."

He rolled over to face her and pulled her against him as he said, "Let's do it tomorrow, then."