Everything hurt.
Lucy sank under the hot water in the gigantic bathtub Natsu made for her per his promise. The still-unfinished house had come along nicely, but they'd run out of money right around the time it was time to go on another job anyway.
Between the two of them, they had enough cash to pay her rent and put about as much toward the house. Tonight, there wasn't going to be any work, because she'd fallen off a roof during their job and everything hurt.
She shifted so she was leaning over the edge of the tub, trying to find a position that didn't hurt her back.
Adventures were fun, and she truthfully enjoyed the rush of fighting. The bad part was what came afterward: bruises and strained muscles, best case scenario.
She heard a splash and said, "No funny business, Mister."
"Where does it hurt?"
"Mostly my back."
Natsu put his hands on her bare back, and she felt them start to get hot. He brought them to just shy of burning her and started to rub slowly. His fingertips felt along her muscles for tightness as he kneaded her tender body tenderly.
"Does it hurt when you breathe deep?"
She nodded. "Yeah."
"You'll be okay. Leave this to me."
"You're really a sweet guy, Natsu."
He kissed her shoulder and continued his work of treating her sore back, shoulders, arms, and legs by massaging pure heat into her body. It was something akin to a hot rock massage, except a thousand levels higher.
By the time she leaned back on him, she felt like her body was made out of happy goo and not pure suffering.
He helped her up, and then helped her dry off and get to bed in his new 'big boy bed,' a big fluffy bed in his room that had been their last major investment. This was still her first time to stay over for the whole night, and while she did miss the atmosphere of her apartment, the house in the woods was coming along.
Maybe it didn't have real floors installed yet except the lava rock, but there were no longer wires or pipes all over the place and none of the walls were open. The kitchen had its own sink, which was some sort of milestone for them. All of it was progress. Slow but important.
When she woke up the next morning, it was to the smell of food.
A little rest and the most incredible massage ever left her feeling a lot better, and when Natsu breakfast in bed in the form of scrambled eggs, she smiled at him.
"Eggs are the best food ever if your muscles are hurt," he said.
After she finished eating, she managed to get up and stretch. "I feel a lot better today. Thanks, Dr. Natsu. You're the best."
"You want to see something really cool?"
Lucy, who had slept in the buff, realized she didn't have any clothes at his house except the dirty ones she'd been wearing when they got home from the job, and Natsu had a perfect solution. There was one outfit at his place that would fit her: the maid outfit.
Since they were just hanging out around the house, she figured there would be no harm in it. Besides, he seemed weirdly preoccupied with it and she felt like he'd earned a little reward.
He gave her a rather intense stare as she dressed, and then once fully dressed, smirked a little.
"You look so naughty, Luigi."
"You love it, Natsu."
Natsu stopped at the refrigerator and cut up some fish in there into little filets. "A couple of years ago, Happy and me found a nest of baby eagles on the cliff. Every year we help the mom feed her babies."
Lucy followed him outside to the cliff edge, where he scaled down a little to land on a little ledge.
There was a huge nest filled with four very big, very ugly fuzzy baby birds, who yelled at the sight of Natsu.
Lucy winced as she climbed down to the little spot where he was.
Natsu held up one of the filets. "You just hold it over the mouth and they gobble it right up. Like this."
Lucy took one of the slices and held it up for one of the other babies to eat. "Okay, this is pretty awesome."
"Every year it's fun checking every day to see if the eggs have hatched. They're so ugly, right? But they'll be big and awesome in a few months."
A big eagle landed on the nest and screamed at Lucy until she offered the mama eagle the big piece of fish. The bird seemed intelligent as it ate and eyed Natsu as if to ask why he had brought another human by babies.
"It's okay. Lucy is so cool, Mom."
She shrieked at him.
"Okay, okay, we're leaving, sheesh," he said as he grabbed Lucy and jumped back up. "She's a tough mom. But this place is her home too, so we look out for her."
Happy had by then roused from sleep and groggily floated around the yard. "Too early…"
"It's ten in the morning, Happy," Lucy said.
Natsu tilted his head as he sniffed the air. "You mean too early or too early for our house to have a monster in it?"
"That one," Happy answered.
"Gildarts again?"
Natsu nodded. "Laxus is somewhere close too. Master too."
They went inside, and Gildarts was standing in the living room looking around. He looked at Lucy's outfit, and besides a visible effort not to laugh, didn't say anything about it.
"Oy Natsu, it's coming along. Looks good. Thank goodness for a woman's touch. You been hard at work or hardly working? Construction work is a man's great work," he said.
Natsu answered, "Then Lucy is a great man. She's really good at it."
Their front door opened again and this time, it was Laxus, who was holding Makarov like a sack of flour at one side.
"That's enough, you ungrateful brat, put me down now!" the guildmaster said.
Laxus dropped Makarov on the couch. "I wasn't going to push the wheelchair up that hill. Ain't nobody got time for that shit. What happened to the house that used to be here?"
"The giant from that big battle stomped it," Happy said.
"The hot one?" Laxus asked.
Natsu was also confused by the sudden visit, because basically no one ever came to his house except Gildarts. It was the first time that master had been there in years, and he didn't think Laxus had ever been there even though he seemed to know about the old house.
Makarov said, "I was hoping for a chance to speak to all of you away from the guild. We have a special job. It's important and I will need the four of you to work together."
Natsu sat on the floor and said, "Are you sure you're not here because you're nosy?"
"You've barely been at the guild," the old man complained.
He pointed to a stack of wood planks that were waiting to be turned into a floor. "I have too much wood for that. Before that, I had to lay some pipes. Lucy's been helping me."
Laxus snorted. "I bet she did."
Lucy decided to ignore this exchange and wondered what kind of apocalypse level event warranted both secrecy and the decision to involve Gildarts, Laxus, and Natsu on the same job. More importantly, she had no idea why Makarov somehow put her into this group.
"Uhhh…Master? I'm not exactly a charter member of the he-monster club," she mentioned.
Makarov said, "I'm not trying to summon the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Someone has to be the charming one. The Magic Council only allowed this job to come to our guild because of you."
She pointed at herself. "Me?"
"Your father traded extensively with a country called Aegis on the other side of the world, did he not? There are very few people who speak that language in Fiore, none of them wizards. They use different letters, their language is difficult. Their culture is different. There are diplomats in Fiore that can assist, but…do you trust a stranger to explain Natsu to the world?" Makarov asked.
Lucy looked from one wizard to the other. "Let me get this straight. You want me to go with these three and try to help Aegis understand them. What then? Cross my fingers and hope they don't do anything to start a war while they're overseas in a country that is currently openly hostile to Fiore?"
"I wasn't going to put it that way, but yes," Makarov said.
She spoke again, this time speaking more slowly. "You want the dragon boys and the guy who can't be trusted to walk through his hometown without wrecking it to not cause an international incident. Because Gildarts will definitely turn some important building into a pile of immaculate cubes, Natsu will definitely burn down a town, a forest, and possibly, things not generally thought of as being flammable. I think Laxus has some minimal amount of control over his powers, but he is a cultural misunderstanding waiting to happen. Is he able to visit a place without blowing up a church? No one knows!"
Natsu excitedly exclaimed, "Lucy, doesn't going on a job with Gildarts and Laxus sound like fun?"
"Does starting a war sound like something that's going to be fun for us? The one was enough for me," Lucy asked.
Laxus sat on the sofa next to his grandfather and crossed his legs. He eyed Lucy for a moment and then said, "Are we just not going to talk about what she's wearing?"
Gildarts asked, "What's there to talk about? Can't you just be happy for Natsu?"
"Blondie is so hot that if he wasn't a fire demon, she would melt him. I don't even understand how Natsu hit so far out of his league.," Laxus complained.
Gildarts answered, "Because Natsu isn't an asshole with a bad personality."
Makarov nodded. "Try being nice and you'll get your own sexy maid."
Natsu smiled. "Having a girl is great! She goes on adventures with me, and helps me in my house, and we go on jobs together, and some other stuff. It's the best!"
Laxus glared at him and sarcastically answered, "Newsflash, guy having tons of sex with hot girl who dresses up for him feels kinda great lately. Says he has 'tons of wood.'"
Lucy put up her hands. "Okay, I quit. I can handle Natsu all day. Natsu and Gildarts? Okay. Natsu and Laxus? Whatever. All three of them together? Law of least common denominator occurs, and you know what? These guys can go lower than I ever thought possible. They're like cockroaches with superpowers."
Makarov said, "Also, the pay would be ten million jewel per person."
Natsu said, "We'd have more than enough to finish the house, right? You could pay our rent and we could buy some more stuff. How bad could it be? Plus, we'd get to go on an adventure with Gildarts and Laxus! C'mon…you know it'll be great, right?"
Lucy sighed. "Fine. We could use the money. I would like to use the winter to train, and if we're not running all over the place on jobs, it would be nice. But I'm going on the record that if a world war breaks out, it's not my fault."
Once Makarov got passed that, he started explaining what the job was. It was actually very serious, even though the wizards involved were having good fun antagonizing each other. The danger was sky-high, which is why Fairy Tail was sending that much strength to put down the threat, a nest of unknown but ancient monsters that somehow been sealed up underground in the nation of Aegis until a major earthquake nearly ripped the country in half a few weeks before.
Aegis, which had grown into an adversarial nation over the past few years, hadn't been able to deal with the problem, sot they reached out to Fiore, because they needed monsters. The fear was that the creatures could fly long distances, and that they'd reproduce and move to other countries.
Gildarts believed they were likely Blood Wyvern, which had become extinct during the period of dragons because dragons killed them. Since there weren't really dragons left like that anymore, it would be a problem if they started repopulating the earth.
So yes, the future of the world was at stake.
Makarov said, "You'll need to be careful. Maybe discreet."
"That means code names, right?" Natsu answered, his face brightening, "I have the perfect one for Gildarts. He can be Gingerbread!"
Gildarts asked, "Lucy can be Key Girl."
Laxus said, "That makes Natsu what, Fire Boy?"
"That means it's Lucy's turn to pick a nickname and only Laxus is left," Natsu exclaimed.
Lucy said, "How about we just not…do any of this?"
"C'mon, Lucy! You know lots of words!" Natsu answered.
She thought for a minute and shrugged. "Fine. Laxus can be Shock Tart."
Makarov named Lucy the team leader and gave her the advance funds for traveling, a sign he knew there was some concerns with having that specific group travel together. She felt a little irritated that the men were expected to be the heavy lifters and she was just there to keep them out of trouble, but she wasn't as strong as any of them were.
Her back was starting to ache a little again after they finished talking about the job and the nosy, opinionated visitors finally left, but she still had to get ready.
She went home, did her laundry, packed for the massive job and tried calm her nerves.
Natsu had his own stuff to take care of, and genuinely tried not to suffocate her. It was a balancing act, wanting to be together all the time, yet knowing that was probably annoying. Plus, he didn't want to spend so much time with her that he didn't have time with Happy anymore.
Besides, missing her a little made it sweet when they made their way over to each other.
But really, who was he kidding?
By late afternoon, he and Happy were stalking her like it was a completely normal and acceptable thing to do.
"I know you're there," she called.
He ran to catch up to her. "Fancy meeting you here, Luigi."
"A total coincidence?"
"You know how it is. Living in a small down and all."
Lucy said, "You mean you missed me."
"Nah."
"Okay, sure, Fire Boy."
Happy said, "Are you excited for our job?"
"We all know that I am not."
"Is the end of the world not going to exciting enough for you?" the exceed asked.
Lucy said, "You know, I always thought the end of the world would involve a meteor. Instead it's going to be powerful men with poor emotional development. Life is full of surprises."
Natsu laughed. "C'mon. It won't be that bad. It's also going to be fun to go there, right?"
"I've heard it's really beautiful, actually. I mean, maybe less because of creatures, but probably still fun," she answered.
"Where are we going, anyway?"
"Aegis? It's in the other hemisphere. Really far away."
"No, I mean right now. I've been following you for a while and I have no idea what you're doing," he said.
Lucy said, "I'm going to Toy World to get a few things for Amara. I want to go visit the Levy and the baby before we leave. You can come if you want, but no rough play with Gajeel. Trust me, Levy is not in the mood. She hasn't been getting a lot of sleep and she will kill you."
"I don't think I could win against Momforce Levy."
Happy said, "I missed that, was she scary?"
The blonde asked, "How did Happy miss the baby being born when he was there?"
"I was taking a nap and I'm not sorry!" the cat answered.
Lucy shrugged. "Sounds like you were a real help."
"I helped exactly as much as I would have wanted to, and I have no regrets."
They came to the toy store, and Lucy ventured over to the baby section to be overtaken by the cuteness of tiny shoes and little dresses. Natsu stayed close to her for maybe fifteen seconds, and then fifteen seconds after that had already found a display of play swords that he and Happy were swinging at each other.
It seemed somehow normal that Natsu would enjoy playing with toys made for kids since he was very lighthearted and imaginative. Plus, Lucy knew he probably hadn't been able to play much when he was a little boy, and this made him enjoy playing a lot more.
Besides, she was good at pretending she didn't know him.
Five minutes in, every kid in the store had gravitated to Natsu's Ultimate Toy World Championship, in which he allowed them to beat up on him and he pretended they were really injuring him. They were clinging to his arms and legs and back and he was seemingly overcome by their strength.
"Happy, I can't hold 'em back, they're too strong!"
"Keep fighting Natsu, I believe in you!" Happy added, playing right along.
Natsu fell back into a mountain of stuffed toys and said, "I am…defeated…"
Lucy looked up at him periodically while she picked out a few outfits and some baby toys for Amara Redfox. It was heartwarming, but then again Natsu was one of the kindest and most wholesome people in the world. Sometimes he got on her nerves, but other times he was really awesome.
She heard one of the workers at the store say, "Talk about an ovary explosion…that guy, am I right?"
Her coworker giggled and they had a nice talk about how hot Natsu was and how powerful his cuteness with children was.
Lucy made a few final, haphazard selections and called, "Natsu, are you ready?"
"Sure, I just thought you were doing that thing where you pretend that we've never met," he yelled from the other side of the store.
He ran back to her quickly, and after she paid for her gifts, they went outside and Natsu asked, "So you didn't like those women talking about me."
Lucy sighed. "You and your hearing."
"So…what's an ovary?"
His girlfriend shook her head in resignation. "It's a body part women have."
"On the inside or outside?"
"Natsu, you've seen every inch of my body, do you think I have unknown organ hanging out outside my body? That's just weird. It's just men who do that. Everything just…out. And hanging. Do you ever think about how weird that is?"
Natsu answered, "Do you ever think it's weird to us that yours are all inside? Girls have some sort of fleshy tunnel and other human beings come into the world by coming out of it."
"If it's so weird to you, maybe you can just stay away from it from now on."
"If your body is weird it just matches the rest of you and I like you."
Lucy said, "Insulting, and yet somehow kind of sweet."
Natsu put his arm around her as Happy caught up to them and flew alongside Natsu to the Redfox house where a near zombie-like Levy opened the door.
"Lucy!"
"Levy!"
As Lucy said, she looked tired as she showed them into the living room in her robe.
Gajeel was sound asleep on the couch, snoring loudly with the newborn on his chest.
Levy called his name a few times and he didn't move at all, and then his nose twitched, and he suddenly opened his eyes.
"Salamander!"
The mother of his child and fiancé emitted a somewhat evil-sounding laugh. "You can't hear me calling you, but you can wake up to pick a fight with Natsu?"
Gajeel withered into a position of retreat as she stood and held the baby on his shoulder. "It's not like that. My sense of smell is just different. Right Natsu?"
"That's a stupid thing to say, and it doesn't make sense," Natsu answered.
Levy took the baby from him and said, "You two can go outside and be idiots there. Or anywhere else, really. I'm tired…"
Natsu flexed his muscles. "Let us help you."
"Do you know anything about babies? The way you flexed your muscles kind of makes it seem like you're just talking out of your huge firey asshole," Gajeel asked.
"Nope! Lucy does. She's a girl and stuff."
Lucy narrowed her eyes. "Wrong again, Natsu. Started the night off with stalking, redeemed yourself by being cute, and now you're just burning all your good points to ash."
They sat together in the living room, and Gajeel and Natsu made quite a show of not ever making eye contact, which Levy and Lucy ignored because it was normal. At least, normal according to Gajeel and Natsu.
Levy said, "Natsu, I didn't get a chance to really thank you for everything you did. It meant a lot and Amara is glad too. So is Gajeel, but he'll probably not ever admit it."
"Tch!"
"I'm glad everyone is okay. But let's not ever do that again," he said.
"Agreed!"
Natsu almost regretted coming along, because trying not to look at Gajeel for five minutes was easy, but an hour was another then, and then two. He didn't even understand how the two women really had that much to talk about since they saw each other every day, but Natsu didn't express his impatience because Gajeel didn't and he wouldn't be beaten by Gajeel.
After two cups of tea and half a box of cookies, and the baby making the rounds as they all took turns holding her, Levy said, "Gajeel. It's time to talk about that."
Gajeel just stiffened but, but he finally looked over at Natsu, who erupted from his seat and exclaimed, "You blinked! I win!"
Lucy's dark scowl was enough to scare him right back onto the sofa.
Levy said, "Sometimes, life doesn't go the way we want it to. Things happen. Things that are sad. We're wizards, so our work is dangerous. Gajeel and I have done a lot of talking, and we would like you two to be Amara's godparents. I think you're definitely in it to win it, and I think you're the right people. Gajeel wanted someone who could teach her about what real dragons were like, and I wanted someone who could help her fall in love with books."
Natsu asked, "Godparents? What does that even mean?"
Gajeel said, "If something bad happens and Levy and I aren't around, you'd take Amara so she doesn't end up out there alone. Also, screw you, salamander. If there was anyone else in the world…"
Lucy was about to tell them that they'd have to seriously think about it since it was such a huge commitment, but before she could Natsu said, "Okay, but just so you know, if you kick it, I'm going to teach her fire magic."
"That's not even how it works!" he argued.
"I'll make it work. I still have lightning, so we can definitely share powers. I'll just give her my fire. So you better not ever die unless you want Amara to be a fire kid."
Their heads slammed together, fists in the air. "You wouldn't dare!"
"If you don't want it to happen, don't die."
Levy gave them a halfhearted smile and said to Lucy, "They have such a weird way of expressing themselves."
Lucy nodded. "Tell me about it. Somehow not the worst conversation of the day. Gildarts, Laxus, Natsu, and Master were all over at Natsu's house earlier. I've never seen anything that idiotic in my life. I don't really get why strong men can't just talk to other strong men like normal people."
"It's interesting since Gajeel is so sensitive when we're by ourselves."
Gajeel paused from his headbutting session and said, "Don't tell them about that!"
Lucy smiled. "It's okay. Natsu is the same way. It's really sweet when we're alone and then we get around other people and he's just…the same old Natsu. I bet if they could just sit down and talk about your feelings, things would be better."
Natsu incredulously answered, "That's a stupid idea. I want to punch him out, not listen to him cry."
"Yeah, we want to fight!" Gajeel echoed.
"Well, men are kind of stupid," Levy said with a yawn, "and they need to get over themselves. All men. Everywhere. And immediately. Women have been dealing with this stuff since the dawn of time and you've had enough time to grow up. I'm so sleepy…"
Lucy considered this their queue to leave, and after saying their farewells, she decided to sleepover at Natsu's place again.
Morning seemed like it came too soon, and when she got up, Natsu was teaching Romeo about feeding the eaglets, having appointed the boy to this duty for the duration of their job.
They ventured with Happy to the train station as Lucy tried to come to grips that this job was real, it was actually happening, and Makarov had some earnest expectation that she'd be able to keep three genuinely insane and incredibly powerful wizards in line.
Since they had some of the money in advance, Lucy booked a large compartment for them on the train, knowing they were going to have two huge problems: the length of the trip to the harbor and the fact there were two dragonslayers in the group.
Gildarts and Laxus were already seated, and Natsu and Lucy sat across from them with Happy in Lucy's lap.
The train started to move, and Natsu held his stomach and burped, and Laxus swallowed a little vomit.
Gildarts said, "Are you serious?"
"We can't help it," Natsu weakly answered.
Lucy unzipped her smallest back and took out a bag just in time for Natsu to throw up in it. Then the sight of him throwing up caused Laxus to also vomit, so both dragonslayers were spewing into Lucy's bag while she looked away.
"This trip is going to be so much fun," Lucy complained under her breath.
Gildarts glared in shocked disgust and made a chopping motion, hitting Laxus at the base of his spine and rendering him unconscious instantly. "Take a nap, Shock Tart."
Natsu stepped over Laxus as he limply fell on the floor. "Me next, me next!"
The old wizard repeated this motion, sending Natsu out of consciousness. He threw the puke bag out the window, then put Natsu and Laxus together on the same bench, posing their bodies out of boredom—arms wrapped around each other, with Natsu's head tucked under Laxus'.
This left Lucy sitting next to him with Happy, staring at snuggling, unconscious dragonslayers.
Gildarts nearly immediately left to go get liquor from the dining car and Lucy was left to look after the sleeping wizards.
Was it funny? Yes.
Was it also going to be an issue when they woke up? Yes.
Was Gildarts just going to stand around and laugh while Lucy was left hoping they didn't blow the train off the tracks? Yes.
This was more or less how she'd expected the trip to start, so as she sat there and pondered how weird this job was going to be, she reminded herself of all the money they would have once it was over and all felt okay again.
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Special thanks to Wolf957, valerioux, Ember Reverie, Jazinee18, Anna5949, and Random-Gaurdian for taking a moment to review. I really appreciate it and you guys are awesome.