Chapter 6

It had been a few weeks since her encounter with the Natsu and Spring had officially begun. The cherry blossom trees had bloomed, leaving Lucy in awe of their beauty another year in a row. Thanks to Natsu, she had finished her novel, which was now with the editors. Today, she could relax and enjoy the cherry blossoms with Levy.

"Thanks for coming with me." Lucy smiled brightly.

"No problem! This wedding planning has been driving me insane lately." Levy smiled back. "Gajeel has been working full time lately too so it's pretty rough."

"That's alright though right?" They found a bench and sat down.

"Yup. It means we'll have enough money for the honeymoon." Levy stared down towards the pond a couple yards away from them.

"That will be a lot of fun."

They sat in silence for a while watching three ducks in the pond. They sat on the water until a little girl ran past them, holding a bag containing a few pieces of bread. Her hair was a light blonde, yet a natural red tint gave her hair a carnation pink glow in the bright sunlight. Her blue jacket was zipped up and the sleeves hinted that the jacket was a bit big for her. She wore skinny jeans and cute pink tennis shoes.

Lucy watched the little girl pull some pieces of bread out of her bag. She smiled as she watched her struggle a bit to pull out a piece and tear it up to feed the ducks. "So… have you told him?"

"No. I have something planned for the wedding about that." Levy turned towards Lucy. "You have yet to tell me about your encounter." She winked at Lucy.

"Oh how'd you know?"

"You were able to finish your novel. No one gives you ideas like he does."

"Damn," Lucy cursed under her breath. Her best friend knew her a little too well at times, and this was one.

"Come on. Tell me."

"Well, it wasn't like it had any meaning." Lucy looked away from Levy's gaze. "We just got coffee and I left."

"Mmmhmmmm, okay." Levy turned back towards the pond. "You still have feelings for him."

"I-I...do..." Lucy felt her face heat up, knowing the sudden shock that appeared on Levy's face.

After a long pause, Levy finally broke the silence. "I can't believe you just admitted something you've been denying for almost ten years."

"There's no point in not denying it. They'll be there whether I want them to be or not."

Levy nodded in response. "Man, we really have matured huh?"

"Mhm."

With her bag empty, the little girl ran back past the two the way she had come, yelling "Daddy!" Lucy smile softly.

"Well, shall we get lunch?" Levy asked.

"The usual place?"

"Sounds good."

As they stood up to leave, Lucy noticed the little girl running back towards the pond with a person in tow. The pink hair caused her to straighten a bit with surprise. She turned towards Levy, with a look that said "Do you know anything about this?"

Levy sighed slightly, looking back and forth between Lucy and Natsu with the little girl. "That's Natsu's daughter."

Lucy's eyes widened in shock as Natsu turned towards the two. His eyes grew wide with excitement. His smile radiated towards her as she turned towards Levy rapidly. "Why didn't you tell me?!"

"You wouldn't have taken it very well. I couldn't bring myself to tell you when you were so happy with Loke. I didn't want to ruin that."

Lucy turned back towards Natsu and the little girl, who looked at her with curious eyes. Her face quickly melted into a smile very similar to Natsu's. Lucy returned the little girl's smile.

"Lucy!" Natsu made his way towards the two best friends. "I want you to meet someone. I think she's already met Levy."

The little girl nodded in response.

Lucy smiled softly at the girl. She couldn't let her feelings show with the little girl around. "I'm Lucy. What's your name?"

Natsu lifted her off his shoulders and set her on her feet. She looked up at Lucy with her big blue eyes. "My name's Kairi." She blushed slightly.

Lucy knelt down to be on Kairi's level. "How old are you?"

She thought for a moment, looking up at Natsu before holding up three fingers.

"Three?" Lucy looked up at Natsu, who stood nodding in approval. As Lucy stood up, she said, "She's adorable."

Natsu smiled. "Thanks!"

"She looks just like you except for her hair and eyes."

He nodded in response. His eyes followed Kairi for a moment as she wandered back towards the pond, before turning back to Lucy. "Luce," he began.

"No. I'm with Loke. I'm happy with him. You're engaged to Lisanna and have a daughter."

"That's not what I wanted to ask you," he said giving her the look of annoyance. "I just wanted to ask how you've been."

"Oh," Lucy didn't know what to say as she had already jumped to her conclusion. "I'm fine. Loke and I are fine. We're content."

"Content…"

"Yeah. We're both focusing on our careers right now." It wasn't completely false. They had been putting their careers in front of their relationship for a while now as Lucy had been struggling with an ending and Loke had that major conference.

"As long as you're happy."

A/N: Sorry this took so long. I had three weddings in a week span and was in one of them so I had a lot of stuff for that and then my bf and I broke up so... It's all good now. I've already got the next chapter written so all I have to do is revise and I should be back on schedule! Thanks for hanging in with me and I'm really sorry that this chapter took so long! 3