Finding the tools, they needed and with Nashi sitting out of the way, team Natsu got to work on building the track. "Natsu, can you use your fire to meld this?" Erza asked him.
"No sweat Erza" he said taking a big breath and melding Erza's piece together under the nail. "There, now it will stay ha,ha" boasted Natsu proudly. Gray and Lucy chuckled continuing to work.
"Hey guys! Water" yelled Happy flying around with some glasses of water. "Thanks buddy" Wiping the sweat off her face, Lucy took one of the glasses.
"Thanks, Happy, Iggy, make sure you get some water too baby girl" Yes mommy" she replied. Once he was done handing out the glasses, he went and flew next to Nashi handing her the last glass where she took it and sucked it down. "You know I still don't understand why they needed us for this job. Not that I'm questioning the money, we need it and it's good for our guild. I'm just curious" Gray pondered while putting pieces of metal track down in alignment.
"Fear Gray, the headman is scared of that bandit threat and most likely thought nobody else but wizards would take the job" Erza answered. "Bandits, monsters, whatever, we got this and we all know it. Nobody messes with FairyTail when we get involved" "Not to mention, we got the strongest couple" Gray complimented making Lucy smile.
"Strongest team and strongest couple, Natsu's right. Those bandits won't know what hit them." "Let's just try and finish this track within a reasonable time then we can worry about them" They all recognized the boss tone in her voice and what she was telling them to do.
After a few hours, they finished up for the night and found a hotel to rest up in. "Ahhhh. Showers always feel great! After a long day" Lucy elated joyfully as she came out dressed. "Yeah along with taking the hot water" Natsu teased. "Which is why she was last" he whispered into Nashi's ear making her laugh.
"I heard that and excuse me if I like to relax and take me my time" she said sharply and giving a mean look at him. Responding he stuck his tongue out at her. Nashi laughed and copied him. "Oh great, now your teaching her that" Lucy muttered to herself flatly.
"Take a load off Lucy. We did good today" Gray said lazily convincing her as she smiled and took a seat next to her Dragneel family. Relaxing for the evening, they hung out and talked for a while before Nashi started rubbing her eyes signaling to the rest of them it was time to go to bed.
"Goodnight guys" Erza whispered to Natsu and Lucy as they tip toed into their room with Nashi asleep in Natsu's arms. Happy jumped up onto the bed and curled up into a ball going to sleep instantly. Removing his shirt, Lucy's cheeks turned red. "Damn. Sometimes I forget how lucky I am to have such a great looking husband" she thought as he enticed her.
"Hey baby, my face is up here" he said with deep chuckle surprising her. Setting Nashi between them, Natsu and Lucy smiled lovingly at their daughter. F
aintly , Lucy ran her fingers through her hair and shook her head slowly. "What's up Luce?" "Nothing" she answered in a hushed tone. "Just proud of the little girl she's becoming. She's already been so much already and that hasn't dimmed her adventurous spirit. Not one bit. She's going to be a hell of a dragon slayer..just like her daddy" Her face had a beatific expression making him blush. "Shucks Lucy" he hushed back. Placing a hand on her cheek, he rubbed it with his thumb.
"I love you Lucy" "I love you too Natsu" she answered reaching over and giving him a passionate kiss on the lips. "I'll never get enough of that" he said as she gave him a flirty look before they closed their eyes and let sleep take them.
The next morning as it took them a few minutes to get a 8 year old deep sleeper up and moving, once they got her dressed and fed, they were on their way back to the train track to finish it up. "So what took you guys?" joked Gray until he saw Natsu's and Lucy's dead pan faces and Happy shaking his head behind them warning Gray.
"Hey, forget I asked" he recovered quickly. Relieved, Happy let out a small sigh. "Let's get this done, the sooner we get this done, the sooner you can take Nashi back to Magnolia and come back Lucy." "Understood, alright Iggy, go sit down"
"Okay mommy" she answered skipping over to a corner. Happy flew over to keep her company and keep an eye on her. Lucy and Natsu nodded at him thankful. "Hey Lucy, can you help me over here?"
"Yup. I'm coming Gray" she said walking away from Natsu as she ran over to help. "Natsu" Her tone made his hairs stand on end as he turned and saw a sinister smile on her face. "Come over and help me" "Yes ma'am" he walked over and immediately got to work. "Least this should keep you out of trouble" she hoped reequipping into a construction outfit.
"Sometimes I wonder how many outfits Erza really does have" she said in a hushed voice to Gray. "Ha, I can't answer that if I tried Lucy. Even when we were kids, I couldn't tell you" "Is there something interesting you two?!" "Nope" they answered putting their heads down and getting to work. Finally, at mid-day, they finished as Natsu laid down the last track.
" Woooh! YES!" Natsu yelled raising his arms into the air. " Job complete!" The headman walked over and analyzing the track left the others in suspense. "Come on, just tell us if we did a good job so we can leave, and Lucy can take Nashi home" Gray thought annoyingly as he twitched his fingers sitting there.
Noticing his twitches out of the corner of her eye, Erza stepped up and politely said "headmen, sir. If your request is complete, we will take our leave" "Oh yes , yes. Sorry. FairyTail, you did a wonderful job, Thank you very much. If you follow me, I will hand you your reward." Not bothering to check if they were behind him, the headman walked into the building. "Thank you Erza" said Lucy.
"Your welcome, now come on, let's get that reward and get your little girl home" Encouraged and wanting to move onto their next job, they all moved quickly towards the headman.
After a few minutes of shuffling money around, they walked back to the carriage and got ready to open the door when they saw Nashi looked less then enthused to go.
"My turn" "Iggy, we can't have you come with us sweetheart" Natsu got down to the ground and put a hand on her knee showing her he wasn't lying with the deep look in his eyes.
"It's not that we don't want you to come and you should know that." "I do daddy" she muttered under her breath. "Then look up Iggy and show me that you do" "Come on sweetie" Lucy urged holding Nashi's hand as she slowly lifted her head up with an etched expression of confirmation.
"Thatta girl" he said as the corners of his mouth formed into a appealing smile giving her a head rub. Letting her shoulders relax, she turned and hopped into the carriage as Lucy went in behind her.
"Hey Happy, why don't you go with them buddy. That way Lucy isn't alone on the way back" "Aye, will do" he agreed flying into the carriage and taking a seat next to Lucy. As they got ready to leave, Lucy stuck her head out the window.
"You guys won't go to the village without me will you?" "No. we'll hold up here until you guys get back. No point in the three of us going when we don't know how much of threat is there and we might need the use of yours and Natsu's unison raid. Just get back as soon as you can" Erza informed her with a sense of urgency that Lucy subtly picked up.
"You got it Erza" "Be good for Mira okay?" Natsu asked gently. "Yes daddy" she replied as he gave Lucy and Nashi a kiss then waved for them to go. "Love you!" they yelled. "Love you too!" He waved until they were out of sight. Standing in silence, it was a couple minutes before Natsu piped up turning on his heels and said "So back to the hotel we go then?"
"Might as well, got nothing else to do and there's not much in this town, the biggest thing here is that train station and we should rest up since we don't know how many we are going to be facing. Come on Erza" Gray said waving her along ,dragging his feet as they walked back.
"It's still odd that this village knew about this, but an official request wasn't sent to FairyTail" "Yeahhh, that is weird. But can we really take it if there hasn't been a request?" Natsu asked turning his head.
"Because I seem to remember a wizard who didn't want us taking jobs without an official request. Heehee" "That was a long time ago Natsu and damn you for bringing that up." He laughed as Erza's face darkened.
Stomping up to Natsu, she went to swing for him when he leaned back avoiding her punch. Jumping up onto the street back to the hotel, using his dragon speed, he ran off leaving a dust line behind him. "NATSU!" Erza screamed going after him.
Remaining behind them, Gray shook his head amused. "Lucy is going to kill you when she gets back" the thought kept him laughing as he slinked back to the hotel.
Arriving in Magnolia, their faces lit up once they saw their guild emblem at the end of the street.
"Home sweet home" Lucy said in sing song voice. As their carriage rode by, the sun shined down on their heads when driving by Lucy saw a strange symbol making her do a double take. "What is it Lucy?" Happy asked. "I'm not sure, I could have sworn the cape I just saw had a symbol of a dragon on it."
"A dragon?" he looked to see the figure that Lucy did but they were gone. "Forget it Happy, I'm sure it was nothing" Shrugging it off, they all dipped their heads back in and anxiously waited as the carriage stopped.
Throwing the door open, Nashi leapt out of it and ran to it where Mira Jane happily waved and picked Nashi up. "Hey sweetheart" she greeted squeezing her tight. "Hi Mira!" she replied squeezing Mira back.
"Hey Lucy, Happy. Aren't you guys getting out?" "We can't stay, we actually just came back to drop Nashi off. We have to get back to check out this information given to us at Oshibana station" "Oh, well that's interesting" Mira said as she was about to say something else when Makarov came up behind her.
"Oh, hey master" Lucy greeted nicely moving her head out of the way so Happy could say hi. "Hey Happy. Lucy, tell me what information did you get from the station?" " Yeah..I think you might actually have an answer for this but the headman told us the reason there weren't any workers was because a village near Magnolia and others have been robbed by this group of bandits and that they were scared to work until the threat was gone. We asked him if there was a request, but he said no"
"It's curious that you should say that, and intriguing because we just got a request from a village asking for a team of wizards to come help them" Sharing the same knowing face, Lucy said " gramps, do you want us to keep going and check it out?"
Pondering the thought, Lucy and Happy waited for his answer while Mira set Nashi down to go play with Asca. "Yeah, you guys can go ahead, you're the strongest team we have. If it becomes a problem for even all of you then that's another issue. Just be careful you hear" "Yes sir" replied Happy and Lucy.
"I have to go baby girl. Be good!" she yelled into the guild getting Nashi's attention. Raising her hand, she waved and yelled "Love you mommy!" "Love you too!" "Hey Lucy, should we tell Natsu about that cape you said you saw?" Happy asked once they were away from the guild. "No Happy. I'm sure it's nothing. Let's just get back" she told him moving her hand to the driver to go faster.