Chapter 18

The next morning, Lucy wakes up on her back to a strange sight in her bedroom. She slowly sits up, taking in her surroundings. Floating against the ceiling is a multitude of balloons in her two favorite colors of pink and blue.

She blinks, making sure her eyes are not deceiving them. Then she rubs her eyes with both hands, just to make sure she is truly seeing what she thinks she is seeing. "What… ?"

Lucy glances around her bedroom, noticing a trail of colorful confetti along the floor that is leading out under the door to the hallway. She warily gets out of bed and grabs her fuzzy pink robe to wear over her tank top and shorts. Fastening the belt around her waist, she makes her way over to the door.

When she opens the door, she is met with a delicious waft of air. It smells like breakfast. Eager to see what is in store for her, Lucy follows the trail of confetti into the kitchen. She stops when she sees her boyfriend facing the stove. With arms crossed under her chest, she leans up against the frame to take in the scene.

With his back to her, Natsu is whistling while tending to flipping pancakes and scrambling eggs. He is even moving his hips and wiggling his butt which may or may not look great in the jeans he is wearing. There are three plates and one bowl lined up next to the counter near him. The bowl is empty while the plates have different versions of pancakes.

"Good morning," Lucy says.

Natsu jumps a little in surprise and whirls around to look at her. "Well, good morning to you, too!"

"What are you doing?"

"Making breakfast! And your timing works out since I was just finishing up!" Natsu turns off the stove and moves the pancakes from the pan onto a certain plate. Then he takes the scrambled eggs and dumps them into the bowl.

"And what do we have, Chef Natsu?" Lucy asks, making her way over to him.

He gestures with a hand at the food he has prepared for them. "I've seen you eat scrambled eggs before, so I went with that. When it came to pancakes, I wasn't sure what kind you liked best so I made different batches." Then Natsu switches into an announcer-like voice. "If you like plain, there's some plain! If you want to be even sweeter, there's some chocolate chip! And if you like fruit, well by golly there's some blueberry!"

Lucy cracks up. "By golly?"

"By golly"-he boops her nose-"gosh darnit!"

She smiles up at him. "Thank you."

"Oh, don't thank me yet. We still hafta eat. And then there's more planned for you!"

She arches an eyebrow at him. "Even more than waking up to balloons and confetti? Even more than my wonderful boyfriend cooking me breakfast and giving me options?"

He pecks her forehead. "Even more, Luce."

The duo wastes no time setting the table and sitting down next to each other. Of course, Natsu has more food stacked on his plate than Lucy.

"So what exactly do you have planned?" she inquires before taking a bite.

He merely shakes his head. "Nope."

"Nope?"

"Nope!" Natsu grins at her. "Did I stutter?"

She gives him her best puppy dog eyes. "Not even a hint?"

"Not even a little one."

Lucy puffs her cheeks out in annoyance. "Fine then." she looks down at her plate and continues eating.

He nudges her lightly with his elbow. "Are you gonna ignore me?"

She shows no sign that she heard her.

He gasps. "You are ignoring me."

She simply grabs her glass of orange juice and drinks some.

Natsu thinks he has a way to snap her out of it. "Hey, who's Gonzales?"

Totally caught off-guard he asked such a thing, Lucy stiffens a little. "How do you know that name?"

"You said it last night."

"What? No, I didn't."

He tilts his head to one side. "You don't remember that part?"

"What part?"

"About what you told me?"

Now Lucy is utterly confused. "You're not making any sense."

Natsu studies her for a moment. "Cake."

"Huh?"

"A cake made of rocks and plants."

She is beyond shocked now. "How do you know that… ?" she whispers.

"Luce, you told me that. Last night. On the couch. Right before I carried you to bed." His eyes search her face, taking in her lost expression. "You don't remember…"

She shakes her head. "I don't remember any of that. Oh, my goodness! How much did I tell you?"

"You told me some things, but I think you summarized why your birthdays don't mean anything to you."

"So you know about my parents?"

He nods.

"And you know what I did?"

He simply nods again.

Lucy takes a deep breath, feeling as though a weight has been lifted off of her shoulders. "For a birthday of mine, my parents gave me a doll. I named her Gonzales."

In a mere second, Natsu is cracking up. "Gonzales? You need a doll Gonzales?!"

"Hey, I liked it back then!" she says defensively.

He has to take the time to wipe away tears. "Th-this is great!"

"Says the guy who has a cat named Happy!" Lucy counters.

He looks taken back by her words. "Hey, Happy's a great name!"

"And you're saying Gonzales isn't?"

"I'm saying I wouldn't name a kid of mine Gonzales!" Natsu grins at her. "Which reminds me, no naming kids for you."

Lucy feels as though she is going to pop a vein. "I-I can name my children whatever I want! I'm able to name my characters after all!"

He dramatically rolls his eyes. "Surrre."

She takes her fork and aims it at him. "You listen to me, Natsu Dragneel. One of these days, I will be a mother. When that moment comes, I will prove to you that I can indeed choose great names for my children."

He takes a moment to think over her words. "As long as I'm the one helping you name 'em."

Surprised by his words, she slightly lowers her fork. "Why would you do that?"

He does not break eye contact with her as a gentle smile forms on his lips. "Because I'll be the reason you're a mom in the first place."

Once his words process through Lucy's mind, the fork in her hand slips from her fingers and clatters onto the floor. Her whole face heats up and she feels as though her ears are going to melt off. "N-Natsu!"

He looks as innocent as ever. "Yeah?"

"You c-can't just say something like th-that!"

He tilts his head to one side. "Why not?"

"B-because I said so!" She finally averts her gaze from him and stares down at her unfinished food to focus on something else other than his sweet face.

"Whatever you say, Luce." Natsu smooches her cheek before standing up from his seat. He grabs her fork and walks over to the sink with it. He then goes over to the drawer full of utensils and grabs a new fork for her.

"Thank you," she says, taking it from him.

"Anything for you, Luce."

x-X-x

After breakfast, Lucy is dressed for the day even though she has no clue what to expect since Natsu has his lips sealed about what plans he has for them. She is wearing a powder blue, halter top that flares out to her hips. There is a bow cinched to her waist and pretty black lace that helps cover most of her cleavage. Her pants are tight and black while her cute booties match in color.

Lucy finishes tying her hair in a simple half-up style and applying some makeup before she leaves her bedroom. By the time she makes it into the kitchen, Natsu has finished cleaning up from breakfast and put the leftovers in the fridge.

"All ready?" he asks having heard her walk into the room. He turns to look at her and smiles, looking her up and down. "Damn, I'm lucky."

"Lucky, huh? Why's that?"

"My girlfriend's incredible." He makes his way over to her. "She's hot. She can kick ass. She's clever and creative." He stops in front of her. "Want me to go on?"

Feeling confident, Lucy slips her arms around his neck. "I'm sure I could use the confident booster."

"Oh, trust me"-Natsu winds his arms around her waist-"I can go on and on 'bout you." Then he rubs his nose against her. "And on and on."

She giggles at his display of affection. "Is that so?"

"Quite so actually," he whispers as he leans in for a kiss.

Lucy's eyes flutter closed as their lips press against one another. She loves the softness and warmth from his mouth and can never get enough of them. She steps closer towards her boyfriend and molds the front of her body against his, wanting some more of him.

Breaking the kiss, Natsu pulls back with a grin. "As muuuch as I'd love kissing you alllll day, I got stuff planned! C'mon, Luce!"


A/N: Thank you all for bearing with me! Writing and work have been a thing :P As well as life. I still live at home, but the fiancé just moved! I can literally walk to his place from my work! So I've been busy helping him settle and haven't been writing as much. Anywayssss, since it has been awhile since I updated CAF last, y'all get a longer chapter than normal in Chapter 19! Woo~


Army4life: AYE, SIR! THAT'S THE GOAL!

Destructive_diva: Just make sure your heart holds out until the very end! And thank you! I'm hopeful for Elvina as well :D And I totally need that luck!

NOZOELI TRASH: LOLZ, THAT HE TOTALLY IS!

Guest: Yay, I'm happy you loved it :D

Craycraynalufan: Well, Lucy had to leave to officially break off her betrothment to the duke. He's back in Fiore. Plus, it'll provide more for me to work with! I have things planned… hehe

Nekokittygirl: There's noooo way I coulda killed off Laxus :P Well, it's not the official ending. There's more to come! There are still things left unsolved, like who wants Lucy dead :P

NozoEli trash: WOO, THAT'S A GOOD REACTION! FLUFF IS ALWAYS GREAT :3

Jessyka Lyn: Yay, I'm happy you like it :D To be honest, I have no clue what's in store for most of this fic XD I'm just rolling with whatever comes to mind haha :P

Anonymous Guest: Hey, thank you so much! I'm glad you like this fic so far :D Ah, I know those fluff induced smiles XD Never good when someone is around to notice you!

Guest: (Chapter 15) Yeah, that was totally cliché on my part :P But I think Gildarts being protective over Natsu was originally at least!

Thatoneotaku42: (Chapter 7) Aye, sir! I think it's fun doing lil' things like that. I know in other fanfics I've read, people have had Lucy be the author of Rave. But I think it's fun doing what I did XD