Okay, so… I'm going to apologize up front if this chapter isn't your cup of tea so to speak. I wanted to have a fluffy chapter that wasn't really of any consequence to the story. Really I needed something simple and lighthearted to kinda cheer me up and this was the result. Anyway here you go.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Fairy Tail. I do not own these characters. I do not own the story idea, at least not entirely. Then again, someone else may have had the same ideas I did. Eh, how about I don't own anything in this story. Is that a good enough disclaimer?

Chapter 4.

Shopping and Home Setup

The next morning Natsu and Cana started their soon to be normal routine. Both of them had woken up and gotten a shower before Koharu was up. When the little girl woke up, crying because she was hungry, Natsu was the one to carry her downstairs to the kitchen and make a bottle. Since he was feeding Koharu, Cana was the one that made breakfast. They ate, got dressed for the day, packed a diaper bag for Koharu, and were out the door. The entire process had only take an hour and a half.

"So baby store first? Then we start looking for the other furniture we need?"

"Yeah. Also I want to keep an eye out for anything that might help baby proof the house. She's not that far off from learning to crawl around, and time will fly by so she'll be walking before we know it."

Cana answered as they looked about for a store that would carry what they wanted. They ended up having to walk from the norther side of town all the way to the southern plaza before they found a store that sold baby furniture.

"Welcome, how can I help you?"

The clerk at the counter called out as they entered the door.

"We'll need a lot of help. You see we recently adopted a little one. We've got some supplies, but not enough. Not to mention the furniture we'll need."

The clerk frowned slightly since it was a rather tall order for a couple to have after having a child rather than before. But she brushed it off, thinking they might have expected to adopt someone older or something.

"Alright. Where do you want to start?"

The clerk asked as she left the counter to lead them to whatever section of the store they needed.

"Let's start with the furniture. For now I think we just need a baby swing, changing table, crib. and a highchair right?"

Natsu answered as he tried to remember the list they had come up with.

"Yeah. We'll need to find her a dresser or wardrobe as well, but we'll do that when we go shopping for the rest of the furniture we need for our new home."

Cana answered as she looked around. There was actually a pretty wide selection. Part of her wanted to look towards the more girly section, hoping that Koharu would be more like she had been when she was younger, but with Natsu as her father, Cana doubted the little one wouldn't be anything but rambunctious.

After a bit of back and forth they decided on a simple crib that had been painted in a soft white. Since the room they intended to make Koharu's nursery had been painted lilac by the previous owner, they thought the white would go nicely in the room. Since it was going to the same room, they found a white changing table that matched with the crib.

Not really caring if it matched the furniture or not, they settled on the first baby swing they found. They had intended to do the same for the highchair, but right next to the first one they looked at was a wooden high chair that would match the table and chairs in their dinning room almost perfectly.

"Let's do the clothes next."

Cana suggested, causing the clerk to lead them into that part of the store.

"I have a few ideas for outfits, and I know fashion isn't your thing Natsu. If you want to grab some the rest of the stuff on our list you can do that while I handle this."

The Cards mage told her companion when he started to look around in confusion.

"I think I'll start with the toys. Teething rings, a rattle, a stuffed animal or two, and other simple stuff like that right?"

"Yeah."

After Cana confirmed his ideas Natsu turned to the clerk and had her point out where to go, saying it would probably be better for her to stay with Cana and help pick out clothes than to assist him with the toys. It didn't take long for Cana and the store clerk to come up with a dozen outfits.

Just because the store had them, Cana had grabbed a few more stylish onesie's for Koharu. Unlike the three she already had however, these weren't plain. The first one was black with the Fairy Tail logo in red on the front, while the second was purple and had a pink heart with the words 'Mommy and Daddy Love Me' written in a cursive script in black. There was a navy blue onesie that was covered in stars that she thought was adorable that had also been added to the cart.

Then there was a simple yellow dress, a red dress with white polka-dots, and one light blue dress that had a layered skirt. With the dresses Cana also found a few shirts. One was white and it had bright yellow sunflowers all over. Another was red with white stripes on the sleeves. Then there was a purple shirt that said 'Snuggle Me' in a bold black font. She had also grabbed a green shirt with a yellow star on it and the words 'Dream Big'.The last shirt Cana had added to the cart was pink and it had the words 'I'm Daddies Little Princess' in a white font with black border to make it stand out.

Two pairs of black pants, one pair of white pants, two pairs of blue jeans, a pair of pink sweatpants, and a pair of khaki colored overalls made up what was grabbed for pants. Since it was the end of summer and the temperature was starting to drop, Cana decided against picking up shorts for the girl, thinking they would just be shopping again in the spring.

Then because she couldn't resist it, she bought two identical white zip up sweater jackets that would go well with just about everything else she had bought for the little one. There was also a gray sweatshirt that had a cartoonish picture of the rising sun with the words 'I bring sunshine" that fit the little girl so well it was instantly added to the cart. Then because she had almost forgotten about them she rushed over to the bibs area.

She didn't really think they needed that many bibs so she only picked up three. One was a simple white color. Another was also white but it had the words 'Messy Baby' embroidered in black. Then there was a pink one with Koharu written on it in a bold font in gold.

(A/N: Yes some of these outfits were borrowed from the story "The Unexpected Family" by TheRayvenwolves (had to remove the dot between the e and R because the document manager here kept blanking out), I thought they had some really good ideas for baby outfits)

By the time they were finished, Natsu had grabbed a stack of five story books, a teddy bear, a stuffed dragon, two pacifiers, a rattle, and three different teething toys. He even grabbed a second baby carrier that would allow them to have both hands free. That was on top of grabbing a few more bottles so they could always have clean bottles for feeding Koharu, another two containers of formula for her milk, along with a few other kinds of baby food, and two packages of diapers and supplies.

"Is there anything else I can help you with?"

The store clerk asked when she started scanning the price tags.

"If possible we'd like to have everything delivered by this evening. Normally I'd use my Cards magic to store everything, but I'm running low on space and we still have to go furniture shopping after this."

"Same day delivery guaranteed ma'am."

Was the response, before the clerk told her their total. Once they left the shop Natsu lead her to another shopping plaza, a little closer to their new home.

"The store I bought my couch from is over here. I figured it would be a good place to start."

The pink haired man stated when the Cards mage asked where they were going. It was a fairly large store, and after seeing the quality of their goods Cana agreed with Natsu that it was a good place to start.

Nearly five hours later, they had to amend it from being a good starting point, to just a good place to shop. Everything that was on their list to buy was found in the store. Not only that, but there was a sale going on so they had a really great deal on several items.

To go with his brown leather couch, they found a leather chair and love-seat combo of the same style. Cana found a really nice hutch that was perfect for displaying some of their nick-knacks. Just the spruce the room up a bit she grabbed a few throw pillows, and a really nice fleece blanket since they would add a splash of color to the room. For the guest room they bought a simple full sized bed and bed-frame, a night stand, and a four drawer dresser.

In terms of finishing up the nursery and their own bedroom, they found two dressers. The one for Koharu's room was a light pink color and it had little swirls of white and purple as design accents and four drawers for storage. The one they decided on for their room had six drawers and like the rest of the furniture in their room was made of a dark and rich walnut wood. Then because Cana preferred the lacrima lamps over regular ones (they were adjustable and at the highest setting quite a bit brighter), they grabbed two tall ones.

By the end of the day the bill from shopping was quite expensive. If they combined the cost of the house in with all the shopping they'd done since adopting Koharu, it would mean that they'd spent 4,610,800 jewels.

(A/N: Divide this by ten to get a number that would make more sense in USD. I figured about$730 for the baby furniture and supplies, 5,350for the rest of the furniture they bought, and then $455,000 for the house.)

- XXxxXxXxxXX-

Luckily for the new couple and their child the delivery process was quick. Some of the workers offered to help with putting together the wooden furniture and the actual placement of everything, but Natsu was more than capable of handling it. So they paid the men for delivering everything and started searching.

It was about mid afternoon, and there was quite a bit of work to be done, but they were confident it could be finished before the night was over. Because there was only one thing that needed taken up to their room, Natsu started with the dresser that would be in the master bedroom. They hadn't really put things exactly where they wanted the night before, just put them in the rooms they were supposed to be in.

The master bedroom was large enough that Natsu didn't need to worry about removing things from the room while he moving things around to fit how Cana wanted them to. Though when he was finished, Natsu had to admit that the room was stylish. Because of how the two windows of the room were placed, they had the bed in the corner between them, but it wasn't flush up against either wall, instead jutting out into the center of the room. From the doorway, the corner to the right had Cana's wardrobe, and between the door and the wardrobe was where the dresser had gone. One of their bookshelves was in the room set just far enough down the wall that you wouldn't walk into it the moment you entered the room. On the other side of the bookshelf was the closet.

"It looks nice."

Natsu commented as he stood beside Cana looking into the room.

"I know. I've been told I've got an eye for decorating. Now, lets get the rest of the rooms situated."

It didn't take them long to get everything into place in the nursery, and the guest bedroom was quite simple to do. But by the time they were ready to start on the living room it was getting close to dinner time. Since Natsu was the one assembling the furniture, it was by an unspoken agreement that Cana would start on dinner.

"Will you be fine with her in the swing while you work or should I take Koharu into the kitchen with me."

"What are you thinking about making?"

"I was thinking about dicing up some peppers, onions and a bi of the steak you had in the freezer and doing a stir-fry."

Cana responded, knowing that it was something Natsu would like.

"Then leave Koharu in the baby swing with me. Stir-fry is easy to burn if you aren't paying attention."

Natsu answered as he finished screwing the last leg onto the love-seat.

"Alright. I'll call you when it's ready."

Cana replied walking towards the kitchen at the same time as he stood up.

With hardly any effort Natsu lifted the seat enough to carry it to the spot he and Cana had agreed for the love-seat to sit. After a moment of looking at it, he tilted the seat slighting so that it was angled just slightly towards the fireplace instead of directly at the coffee table. Unlike the love-seat the leather chair came already assembled, so he just had to put it in place on the opposite side of the coffee table from the love-seat.

"All that's left is the hutch."

He muttered to himself, glad that he was almost finished with the task. Luckily for him he didn't have assemble it completely like he did with all the furniture upstairs. It came in premade sections that just needed to be screwed together.

The pink haired man had only just gotten the last screw tightened down when he heard Koharu begin shifted around in her swing. He bit back a chuckle as he turned to face the swing which was sitting beside the doorway.

"Trust you to be just like me. Sleep all day and wake up with it's time for food."

He teased as he gently lifted her out of the swing. Koharu, being a baby and not able to understand him just babbled back. Figuring that Cana should almost be done, and that Koharu probably just as hungry as he was, Natsu carried her to the kitchen.

"Alright Koharu what are you feeling. You want a bottle? Or do you want some yummy peas?"

He questioned the infant jokingly, knowing Cana would answer with the better choice.

"You gave her mashed carrots earlier, so the milk is probably the better choice now. It should settle on her stomach easier than the mashed peas would."

"Alright, milk it is!"

Natsu cheered after hearing Cana's answer. Koharu squealed with happiness as if she were trying to mimic him, which caused both of the fairy tail mages to smile. Though he could do so one handed, Natsu set Koharu in her highchair so he could make her a bottle.

As he took his seat beside her chair, Natsu was surprised to see Koharu reaching for the bottle and flexing her fingers.

"Uh, Cana? Is Koharu old enough to try holding the bottle on her own?"

The brunette had to turn to see what Natsu was talking about. For a moment she was just as surprised as Natsu. But then she remembered that Romeo was only about seven months old when he started to hold the bottle for himself during feeding times.

"I know there is an age range for when babies start doing a lot of things, but I'm not sure what that range is for holding a bottle. Maybe try letting her put her hands around the bottle, but hold it yourself just in case?"

"Okay."

He responded before plucking Koharu back out of the highchair. Natsu wasn't sure why, but his instincts were telling him it was better to hold the baby himself rather than just simply help hold the bottle. It wasn't until he actually had the teat of the bottle in her mouth that he understood it was so he could prevent her from choking if the milk came out too quickly. Not to mention he wasn't sure that she could hold a full bottle on her own just yet.

Koharu had gotten about half way through the bottle when Cana put their food on the table. Considering how hard he had been working she motioned for him to hand Koharu over.

"I'll finish feeding her so you can eat. You've done a lot today so I wouldn't be shocked if you had worked up an apatite."

"If you're sure..."

Natsu said and waited to see if she'd change her mind. Whens he didn't he nodded as he gently put the little girl into Cana's arms. He had just taken the first bite and only just avoided being clipped in the head by Happy's tail as the blue cat joined them at the table having smelled the food.

"Happy where the heck have you been?"

He asked between bites.

"I was waiting for Wendy and Carla to come back to the guild so I could share a fish with Carla."

The cat answered even as he munched on a tuna.

It was such a simple answer, and one he should have expected so Natsu just rolled his eyes.

"Alright buddy. While you were at the guild did you see the metal-head?"

"Nope. He went out on a solo job the day before you two got back. Apparently Wendy and Carla left on a job themselves an hour or so before I got back myself."

'That answers why I didn't get any visitors last night. Gramps couldn't send them my way if they weren't here.' Natsu thought to himself.

"Ah. Well you don't need to watch for them tomorrow. Cana and I will be spending some time at the guild at least."

He told the cat before returning his attention to his food.

"We probably won't spend all day at the guild though. Honestly we might not even spend half an hour there. It depends on how Koharu handles it."

Cana commented, causing Natsu to shrug.

"Fair. But we could always ask someone else to send them to see us if they get back after we've left the guild. It doesn't have to be happy that talks to them."

He responded as he finished up what was left on his plate. He carried his clean plate to sink before turning around and gently taking Koharu back from Cana so the Cards mage could eat.

Koharu's bottle was empty and she was starting to close her eyes, so he assumed she was done. Recalling that babies need burped after a bottle, he changed the way he held Koharu so that her head was on his shoulder. Very softly he patted her back, only stopping when Cana motioned for him to stop.

"She's already out of it. Why don't you take her up to her crib. Then we can pull out all of our trinkets and baubles so that the house starts feeling like it's ours."

Natsu didn't respond, instead he simply turned on his heel to do just as she suggested. By the time he was beside the crib in the nursery he could hear the soft rhythmic breathing that meant Koharu had fallen asleep in his arms.

Gently he kissed her forehead before swaddling the baby in a blanket burrito that would prevent her from squirming enough to hurt herself while asleep. Without looking he flipped off the light in the nursery as he walked out. Though he would be able to hear if she woke up, Natsu left the door open anyway.

A minute later and he was in the basement grabbing the boxes of ornaments from his old home. Unsure of where Cana wanted to start with the decorating he just set them in the living room before returning to the basement for the boxes that had come from Cana's dorm room in Fairy Hills.

He had just set down the last of the boxed when Cana and Happy joined him. Together they went through everything, one item at a time and talked about where the best place to put it was, whether it should be in the living room, on one of the shelves in the hallways, on the bookshelf in their room, or if it should be mounted on the wall.

But in the end they only put out a small fraction of their trinkets. The framed flyers of the first job that each of them had completed for the guild were propped up on the mantle. Cana had a small bust of her head that a sculptor had given her as part of the payment for a job, and it was placed on the top shelf of the hutch in the living room with the tribal necklace Natsu had been given by the natives of Galuna island hanging around it's neck.

In the center space, which was the largest space in the hutch, they placed the stone carving that Natsu had made of Igneel years ago. In the space to the right Cana had put a crystal ball she'd been given that had a really cool green and blue spiral pattern in the center.

To avoid cluttering the hutch up too much with stones and glass, they put the large black and purple geode that Natsu had from a job on the bookshelf, but used a small metal stand to prop it up so others could see it without having to take it off the shelf. The wireless radio that Cana used for music was put on the shelf below the geode. Then they put some of the books from Cana's dorm room on the lower shelves, making sure to keep her favorite books for the bookshelf in their room.

Natsu had a very cool looking decorative folding fan that he put in the hutch, on the shelf right next to the bust with the tribal necklace. As they were going through his stuff, Cana felt a spark of inspiration when she saw the deer antlers.

"Hey Natsu, what do you say we mount these antlers in the entryway and use them as coat hangers?"

"I'd never thought about doing anything like that. But I like it."

Natsu answered after a moment.

"We could probably use them to hang our bags as well. Though we'd have to make sure they aren't too heavy first."

Happy chimed in as he took the painting that Reedus had given Natsu of the day he hatched. The blue cat used his wings to float in the air just to the left of the hutch before hanging it carefully. Out of all the things they'd had hanging up in their old house, it was Happy's favorite.

"Right well, I need a wooden plaque to mount them on first so I don't damage the wall."

Natsu commented as he put the two antlers back into the box.

"Oh hey, my old lantern. Let me take that out into the garden shed with me."

Happy commented when he turned around and saw Natsu pulling out the old and beat up looking lantern. Natsu just laughed as he set it aside for Happy to take when him when the cat decided to go to bed for the night.

The next thing they set out on display was a really cool pink and purple seashell that Cana had found when she'd taken a job at the beach. But rather than put it in the hutch or on the bookshelf she had Natsu hang it in front of the window so that it would sparkle when the sunlight hit it.

"Aside from a center piece for the coffee table I think that does it for things to display in here. Unless you'd rather the old photos be hung up in here than in the hallway."

Cana spoke up once Natsu had finished the task of hanging the seashell.

"How about the pictures from when we first got our guild marks? We can put those up, and then see if there's a more recent picture with both of us. But other than that I think the majority of the pictures in here should be of us and Koharu or just Koharu."

Natsu told her as he pulled out the picture from the day he got his guild mark. Since it was a reasonable suggestion Cana agreed, and dug through her stuff to find her own picture. The two were placed side by side on the wall opposite the bookshelf.

At the bottom of the next box they went through the brunette found a rolled up wall hanging with the Fairy Tail symbol in gold.

"This should be in the entryway."

She said with a smirk. The Fire Dragon Slayer turned to see what she was talking about, and instantly nodded.

"Of course. That way everyone that comes in knows this is the house of two Fairy Tail wizards."

Aside from the antlers as a coat rack and the wall hanging, Cana decided that they would eventually get a few indoor flowers to help liven up the entryway. Standing up to move out into the hallway to hang the pictures, Cana shifted the baby swing a bit further into the room.

"It's a good thing this swing is portable. I have a feeling it'll come in handy."

She muttered to herself, though Natsu chuckled when he heard it. With the three of them working to hang the pictures and Reedus' paintings, it didn't take too much longer. But they were worn out by the time they were finished.

As Cana and Natsu moved upstairs towards their room the Cards mage couldn't help but sigh.

"Everything has gone so well. I can't help but feel like tomorrow is going to be trouble."

"I know. It probably will be rough. But we'll get through it."

Natsu softly murmured as he placed a hand on her shoulder. They had stopped right in front of the open doorway to Koharu's nursery after all. Turning in place to face him Cana reached up and removed his hand. But rather than let go after taking it off her shoulder, she interlaced their fingers together and squeezed it.

"Together then."

She whispered with a smile. Natsu smiled back as he leaned in pressing their foreheads together.

"No matter what, we'll do it together."

He softly commented before pulling back and kissing her forehead.