Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail and its characters.

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

"Spells"

Announcements/Large Beings Talking

Natsu and Happy nearly tumbled into the cottage at around 11 p.m. After hanging out with Asuka until dinner time, and one last dance battle with the little girl, Natsu and Happy were told that they had to eat dinner with some of their fellow guild members. Namely Romeo, Macao, Wakaba, and Max. The two hung out with anyone that came to their table, and ended up losing track of time. Especially with Natsu trying his best to not get goaded into a fight. The last thing he needed was his guild mates worrying about him. He already had a feeling a few that knew him the best were starting to get suspicious about what he's been up to and why he hasn't really started or joined in a guild brawl in a while. Especially with the looks he was constantly being given by his team and the Strauss sisters.

Natsu was surprised when he saw Wendy walk in the back door looking upset, but even more so when he saw Gajeel pull Wendy back outside. He wondered what they were talking about, but then was quickly distracted when someone asked him what this "project" the whole guild was talking about was. So Natsu got stuck trying to deflect those kinds of questions without his go to of jumping into a brawl, which was exhausting.

"We got a lot of work to do tomorrow, Happy, so let's get to sleep." Natsu yawned as he made his way to his hammock.

"Aye sir." Happy said sleepily. "Maybe we should get some help for this."

"We'll think about it in the morning." Natsu said before passing out.

(With Wendy and Gajeel)

"Hold on, kid." Gajeel grunted as he put a hand on her shoulder. "Let's go talk outside."

"Huh? Oh… okay." Wendy replied after a second.

The two headed outside and stood by the pool. Wendy looked at Gajeel, wondering just what he wanted to talk about.

"Listen, Wendy, about what you heard from Salamander… try to forget it." Gajeel said after a few minutes.

"Wh-what?" Wendy asked.

"Salamander's workin' through his feelins now. If someone brought it up, he'd probably just laugh it off. Just be there for him, but don't let him know what ya know." Gajeel said as he crossed his arms.

"But-but he's so sad!" Wendy protested.

"You know how stubborn dragons are." Gajeel replied. "He'll lock himself down and avoid you so he doesn't have to talk about it."

"So what do I do?" Wendy asked tearfully.

"Just hang out with him. Go on a job or somethin'." Gajeel said before they smelled Levy coming outside.

"Gajeel~." Levy called. "We have the antenatal class!"

"Comin, Shrimp." Gajeel replied before turning back to Wendy. "Go on jobs with Natsu. I would, but the baby's due in the next few months so time's not somethin I have much of."

"Okay. Thanks Gajeel." Wendy said with a small smile. Gajeel grunted in reply and walked away with Levy.

Wendy watched them walk away and smiled brightly when she saw Levy grab Gajeel's arm as they walked. It clearly embarrassed the iron Dragon Slayer, but he put up with it because it made Levy so happy.

It was obvious the two were in love, and Wendy was confused as to why they hadn't made an announcement or something. Sure, the majority of the guild understood the two were together, but by not making it official in any way (besides having this baby), some were still a bit uncertain as to the seriousness of their relationship. Wendy just hoped they did something soon. She could tell that the longer they waited, the more unhappy and uncomfortable Levy became.

(With Natsu)

Natsu woke up the next morning and immediately began planning out how the two could get their house done in the little bit of time left. He knew they'd have to go into town today and order all of the furniture and the kitchen cabinets and counters. He reasoned that he should wake Happy up earlier to get that done as soon as possible.

There was also a lot of moving stuff from his memory area in the cottage to his new memory room. And finally unpacking one of his backpacks that had some other knick knacks he wanted to add but couldn't find the space. Like the king's crown, which he hoped everyone had forgotten about him taking. He was going to have to get a few stands or small tables or something for the things he wanted to catch people's eye. Like pieces of Happy's egg, some scales from Igneel that had yet to change color, Acnologia's cloak, and pieces of rubble from Nirvana. He also had to get a small table for his journal that detailed what each piece of his memory board or room was and where it came from.

After sitting there thinking about just how much he had to get, he decided to wake Happy.

"Yo. Yo, Happy." Natsu said as he lightly pushed the small Exceed on his side.

"Mmm. Huh? Wazzat?" Happy said as he sleepily lifted his head. "Natsu? Do we have a mission?"

"Yeah, bud. We gotta go into town and order our furniture so it'll be ready when we are. As it is we'll have to put a rush order on it." Natsu said as he moved away. Happy jumped up and flew over to the kitchen to get his breakfast. Natsu was right, they did have a lot to do today. They had to finish sheetrocking the one bedroom, sheetrock the other, and put sheetrock in the bathrooms. Then they had to tape everything so they could paint in the next few days.

Natsu looked outside and guesstimated that it was 7 a.m. by the position of the sun. Perfect timing for all that they had to get done today.

"I think we gotta get up this early every day until we finish with the house work." Natsu said as he got dressed for the day. A plain t-shirt and some cargo shorts with his sandals and signature scarf. "When we're just doing furniture and stuff we can sleep in a bit."

"Aye sir." Happy said, disheartened. He liked his sleep and with all the work they were going to be doing he wouldn't have any time for his cat naps. That's almost unheard of!

"Cheer up, bud. We should be done in two days if everything goes right." Natsu said cheerfully. "Then it's just vanities and plumbing and we should be done with everything that ain't furniture… and the back deck."

"If you say so." Happy said as the two left their house and headed towards the biggest furniture store in Magnolia. Hopefully being the biggest meant they'd have a lot of stuff in stock.

"Welcome!" An employee who's name tag read Itsuki greeted them.

"Mornin'." Happy and Natsu replied together.

"How can I help you today?" Itsuki asked.

"We need to order furniture for a whole house." Natsu said nonchalantly. The man gaped at the two in response.

"A whole house?" Itsuki asked.

"Yeup." Natsu said as he popped the 'p'.

"Like a couch and some tables?" Itsuki asked.

"Yeah. And kitchen cabinets, counter tops, a big dining room table, and four bedroom sets." Natsu replied as he looked around the store. By now a few other employees had walked by, or tried to. No one had ordered so much stuff in one sitting before. All of the employees were, understandably, shocked.

"I… I don't… I think you lost me somewhere." Itsuki stammered.

"We're just finishing up building our new house and we wanna buy furniture for it." Happy said as he saw they had fish shaped pillows. He was definitely getting some of those.

"Well you've come to the right place! We have all you could possibly want in the way of furniture." Itsuki said as he finally understood they weren't just pulling a prank.

"Awesome!" the two cheered.

"Let's step into a private office and we'll make a list of stuff that you'll be needing." Itsuki said as he held his arm out for the two to begin walking towards the offices.

"Alright!" Natsu said enthusiastically.

The trio made their way into a very nice looking office. Seats and a desk made from, as far as Natsu could tell, some very expensive wood. A fan that kept the room somewhat cool, and a catalog of the store's inventory were both on the desk. The fan oscillated to make sure each person in the room got some of its attention.

"So let's get an idea of what you'll need." Itsuki said as he pulled out a notebook.

"So we'll be needing four bedroom sets, vanities for 3 different bathrooms, a big couch for the living room, a four?... Yeah, four person kitchen table and a ten person dining room table. Some small end tables or display tables, cabinets and countertops for the kitchen, two soaker tubs, aaaand I think that's it, right Happy?" Natsu listed off before turning to Happy.

"We need the coffee table for in front of the couch, a bench for the entrance way and some chairs and stuff for the porch and deck." Happy added.

Natsu popped his right fist into his left hand. "I forgot all about the outside."

"Tha...that's a lot that you'll be needing." Itsuki said. "Are you sure you don't want to spread those purchases out?"

"Yeah. We need it all for the day after the Blossom-Viewing Festival." Natsu said. "Hopefully some will come before that so we can set it up and unpack and stuff."

Itsuki could only gape at the pair. They wanted all of that by the end of the week? That was crazy!

"And we'll pay whatever for the rush job. We should've ordered the stuff earlier, but we were so caught up in the construction we forgot about this part." Natsu said sheepishly.

"I… I see. In that case it might be possible to get most of it by then." Itsuki said as he slowly recovered.

"Really?! Awesome!" Natsu and Happy cheered.

"Let's see if there's anything in the store you like first. Then we'll see what we still have to order." Itsuki said.

"Aye sir!" The two said at the same time.

The trio took a walk around the store to see just what the duo wanted. They found a majority of what they needed. A few things needed to be ordered. Like Happy's fish styled twin bed (he refused the crib or toddler's bed).

They also had to order the countertops. Natsu wouldn't budge on the color of the kitchen cabinets. He was used to Lucy's white cabinets and dark countertop and he thought that looked really good. Plus it would help cover any messes he made in front of company once they started having people over.

The tables were in the store, besides the ten person one. That had to be special ordered. For the couches and other furniture they chose some that were in stock. They also had to order a couple of bedroom sets since they wanted queen size beds in all the spare rooms. And Natsu's.

Natsu and Happy agreed that they'd come back to get some of the furniture the next day if they'd give them a cart so Natsu could pull it. The store workers said they'd deliver it before they could leave, and Natsu agreed. He still wasn't sure if he was completely cured of whatever pain he was afflicted with and definitely didn't want it coming back.

The duo then left and headed back home. They were there for over an hour so they had to do a lot of catch up work.

"Alright, Happy! Let's do this!" Natsu cheered as they hustled back to the new house. "We gotta make some good time today before we go back to the guild for dinner."

"Aye!" Happy said. Excited that their house was really going to be done soon.

The two made good time back and brought all of their tools upstairs to the second floor. They got right to work.

Natsu grabbed some sheetrock and made his way into the half finished bedroom. Happy was there waiting and they immediately set about finishing it. Took them an hour to get the rest of the sheetrock up in the room.

"Wanna do the last bedroom, the hallway, or the rest of the bathrooms?" Natsu asked Happy.

"Hmmm." Happy said as he floated in thought. "The bedroom."

"Alright. I'll meet you in there." Natsu said as he walked away to get another board. It took them another two hours to get that room done. They stood back to look at the closed in room with pride.

"This looks great." Happy said.

"Yeah it does." Natsu said happily before looking out the window. "Oh. Must be lunch time."

In response, both of their stomachs growled. . The difference of realizing what time of day it is could baffle anyone's mind.

Not being those that second guess their gut feelings, the two made their way back to the house to have something to eat. Soon they'd be done with the sheetrock and could focus on taping the entire house. They had gallons of compound at the ready to do the whole house, multiple sheets of sandpaper for the sanding of the compound after it dried, and they got the brushes and rollers for painting. But first they'd have to decide on colors for all of the rooms.

"We're gonna have to take a couple jobs next week, Happy. We're starting to get low on jewel." Natsu said as he polished off his lunch.

"Aye! The new safe is already mostly empty! Especially with how much we just shelled out for furniture." Happy said with a fish half in his mouth. Natsu, of course, had no problem understanding Happy's food language. It was one he spoke fluently by now. Who knew Natsu of all people would be bilingual.

"Yeah. Who knew buying all of that would be that expensive?" Natsu yawned. Maybe they wouldn't stay at the guild until midnight anymore since they were getting up so early. He didn't think a twenty-year-old should feel so tired at only noon. Even if he'd been working almost all morning.

"Alright! Let's go finish up!" Happy cheered as he finished his fish and threw it across the cottage. Only for it to land perfectly into the garbage bag tied to a cabinet.

"I'm all fired up!" Natsu said as he raced out of the cottage, leaving his mess on the table.

Happy shook his head at his best friend's exuberance. And the plate left on the table. They were really getting better at picking up after themselves, but sometimes they forgot. Not that Happy was going to clean up after the Dragon Slayer. He wanted to get back to work too.

Natsu got to the house and waited for Happy in the hallway on the second floor. He let his mind wander as he waited. 'I really wanna call someone on this new thingy.' Natsu thought as he palmed the new communication lacrima. He had no idea how it worked, nor if he could only call the person who had the other one or if he could call others. He'd have to sit down with Warren one of these days and have him explain how it worked.

Natsu suddenly felt an urge to call Rebecca, but he knew that calling her so soon after seeing her would just give her a somewhat false sense of hope. While he wouldn't be opposed to seeing where their relationship went, Natsu was sure her father would be. Very strongly. Natsu had already caught the older man talking about how Natsu wouldn't have been allowed to set foot in his house if he were still an active fighter. The family seemed to have a good relationship with one another, and he didn't want to see it become strained because of him.

Shaking his head to rid himself of distractions, he and Happy, who'd just arrived, began putting the remainder of the sheetrock up in the bathrooms. They figured they'd save the hallway for last since that would be the least amount of traveling for the sheetrock to do. The two finished the sheetrock by dinner time, and made their way to the guild.

(With Gajeel)

Gajeel had been smelling the air frequently the last hour or so. He needed to remind that pink haired pyro about his promise. The fire Dragon Slayer had seemed very distracted of late, so Gajeel was worried the man might have forgotten. Not to mention Gajeel still believed something was up. The pink and blue duo were hiding something, but he had other things on his mind that took priority. Like how his child was due in a few months. His son. Gajeel would never tell Levy, and not just because she doesn't want to know the gender until the baby's born, but he was extremely happy their first kid was a boy.

Gajeel was brought out of his musings by a familiar scent that was approaching the guild. The man let a small grin take shape on his face.

'Salamander may be getting here later than usual, but I knew he'd be here. Too bad he'll have to deal with some of the others that think he's blown them off tonight.' Gajeel thought as he laughed to himself. Romeo had asked Natsu yesterday to share some of the stories from his one year training trip, and a few others also had seemed interested in what he was up to then. They had only heard from Lucy that it involved a lot of the destruction of nature that made its way into Sorcerer's Weekly. And that Gildarts was somehow involved.

A few of their guild mates, particularly Cana, were more interested in how Natsu and Happy managed to find the elusive S-class mage. Her cards could only get his location when he was a few days out from Magnolia. Other than that, her magic (for some unknown reason) refused to give his location.

"Salamander." Gajeel said as soon as Natsu walked through the doors. Surprisingly, he didn't kick them in this time. Gajeel guessed that now that Laxus was learning to be the guild master had something to do with it. And that the last time he did it he was shaken by the old man again before getting zapped by the grumpy blonde.

Natsu looked around, trying to find where Gajeel was. He spotted him at a table on the other side of the hall and nodded.

"Sup?" Natsu said since he was sure Gajeel would hear him.

"Don't forget about your promise for this weekend." Gajeel said before grinning at the massive groan Natsu released. Gajeel was so enjoying this self pity party Natsu would start whenever he remembered just what he agreed to.

"Are you sure I gotta do that? You don't need me, really." Natsu said.

Everyone in the guild began looking at him as if he was crazy. Then they followed his line of sight, saw him staring at Gajeel, and collectively understood the Dragon Slayers were talking about something. It was still weird to them that the Dragon Slayers could have a conversation across a room with no problem.

"Didn't think you were one to go back on a promise." Gajeel said with a smirk. He knew he had him.

Natsu just groaned loudly and made his way to the bar. Hopefully some food would take his mind off of the stupid promise he made Gajeel.

Yo Champs in the making!

How's everybody doing? Got another chapter for you all with a bit of a cliffhanger. Not a huge one. Just enough of a tease. I wanna thank any and all reviewers. Even the negative ones (as long as it's constructive). I wanna keep getting better as we travel this journey, and hope to keep y'all interested. And if you think something is off, mention it to me. I do write after work so there are days where I'm not at 100% focus and I misuse words and such.

See yah next chapter!

Francesco Capogna- I'm trying, I'm trying! There's just a lot going on now :(.

Amanny- She definitely wants to. Let's hope she can.

Alexeliatrope- Me too. I haven't really stopped working on it, but it's hard with how busy everything is.

Ultimatrix bearer- Asuka is never afraid of anything.

SilverLightning26- Thanks for pointing that out. I didn't mean for this to be a Gray bashing. I'll rectify that in the next chapter. I'm glad you like the relationships. They're what I imagined their relationships would be like if we saw what happened in their day to day.

BB-Salamander- Thanks! I hope to keep it enjoyable.

k9defend- Thanks! I'm trying to update more. I hope to be releasing more often.

Guest/GuiltyofmyCrimes- I do think that's how it was in the beginning of the story, but not how it was as time went on. I do like Nalu, but I do enjoy other ships for Natsu like Mira, Cana, Lisanna, Ezra, Juvia, etc.

Zolf Edward Elric- I think he'll make a great dad one day. He's energetic and protective. And he knows how to scale himself down to play with kids. At least from the little we've seen. Thanks! I'm glad everyone's been so understanding so far. I have been working on this little by little but just some days I don't wanna, ya know?

chrislgerlach- Yeup no spoilers! But thanks for the review! I feel like most of the guys in Fairy Tail try very hard to maintain a tough guy appearance so any form of weakness would be the last thing they'd want to show. I do agree with the Nalu getting a little old, but that's why I read FanFiction of other pairings with Natsu! I will be putting up a vote for the ship later on. Or at least to get an idea of what people want to see but I am surprised at the lack of Natsu x Cana on the site.

natsuheartfilia32- I'm glad you enjoy it! I have no plans on abandoning this story.

Guest/nalu1iscanon- there will eventually be some form of relationship, but it won't be the focus of the story. Even though most of the females seem to be focusing on it.

Ope2- I'm glad my story's good enough for you to review! I don't plan on making romance the central focus, even if/when I do add it. Thanks for your confidence!