Walking in to find Lucy standing in front of the stove wearing an apron and nothing else instantly improved Cobra's mood. She still hadn't noticed him, so he leaned against the wall to watch as she swayed her hips and hummed along with the song playing on a mini lacrima speaker while she cooked something smelling strongly of onions. More than halfway through her pregnancy, her body hardly looked different from behind. Her hips were a little fuller and softer looking, but her small waist had only slightly filled out. The large bump of their child growing in her womb only showed from the side.
Turning around to grab the salt from where she'd left it on the counter behind her, Lucy finally realized she wasn't alone. She wasn't proud of the loud squeal that came from her throat or the way she brandished the spatula like a deadly weapon. When she realized the intruder was her husband instead of a serial killer, a sound caught between a laugh and a gasp shot from her before she smiled and said, "I had no idea you were here! How long have you been standing there?"
His answer was just a shrug, which clued Lucy in to his state of mind. He normally wouldn't pass up such a perfect opportunity to tease her. She turned off the fire beneath the pan and then walked towards him as she asked, "What's wrong?" Worry settled in her gut when he still didn't say anything and only stared into her eyes with an expression she couldn't decipher. She slid her arms around his waist as she asked, "Did something happen?"
"Nothing like the shit you're imagining." He answered, finally breaking his silence.
Lucy waited for more but it didn't come, so she took his hand and pulled him toward their bedroom. "You look tired."
He followed while pointing out, "Yeah but you're hungry."
"I can eat later." She looked over her shoulder to smile in the happy way he loved as she continued dragging him along. The expression and light sound of her soul eased some of the anxiety tightening in his chest.
When she laid on the bed, he didn't bother trying to resist the temptation to lay his head above her soft breasts. It was the best place to be when the world was too much to bear. He closed his eyes to simply inhale her scent as he listened to her beating heart while her soul played its peaceful melody. In the quiet of their bedroom, he could easily hear their unborn child's heartbeat, a steady reminder that she was growing and strong.
Lucy waited, knowing he would start talking when he was ready. He had been gone for more than a week, which was pretty unusual lately, but she had expected it since he had gone out with Jellal to help on a job. Clearly, something had gone very wrong.
"The job went fine. It was after that." He stopped talking again as he thought of the words to explain, but he was distracted. "This apron smells like you work on a fucking onion farm."
Laughing lightly, Lucy moved enough to pull the loop over her neck so she could toss the apron to the floor. Once he was settled against her again, she asked, "Better?"
Cobra only grunted, which she assumed meant not really. He laid still for a moment before finally speaking. "I heard these two kids in trouble so we went to help. Their house was on fire and they were home alone. It wasn't hard for us to find the place because the fire was fucking huge."
The room was silent as he worked out how to say the rest. Lucy ran a hand up and down his back as she waited for him to go on. His voice was quiet and strained when he said, "One of them wasn't far into the house, so Jellal used a spell to speed in there and get him out but the other one - " His breath hitched before he whispered, "I listened to her die. The fire was her fault and she died thinking she killed her little brother."
Tears were flowing from Lucy's eyes by the time he finished his story. Part of him wished he could so easily cry, because he needed an outlet for the building grief he felt over witnessing the girl's death. It was so unfair, like so many other things in the world, and he could hardly stand it. Since he couldn't cry, he listened to her doing it for him while he thought of the young life lost too soon.
When he rested a hand against her belly, Lucy realized it was the first time he had done it since coming home. Feeling the baby kick was usually one of the first things he did. "It wasn't your fault." Saying it out loud wasn't necessary, but she felt like he needed to hear it spoken. When he still didn't move or react in any way, she added in a whisper, "That won't happen to our little girl."
The hand on her belly slid to her back to hug her against him as he shifted to lay with his head against the pillows. Holding her tightly with their child between them, he vowed, "Yeah. Nothing will happen to her."