Summary: Lucy struggles when Nashi decided to move out but fortunately Natsu has a plan….
Pairings: Parental Natsu/Nashi, Parental Lucy/Nashi, Natsu/Lucy, Parental Juvia/Ur, Parental Juvia/Tulia, Gray/Juvia, and brotherly Ur/Tulia.
Author's Note: Thank you so much for giving me over FORTY SEVEN HUNDRED reviews!
It was dinner time when Nashi made her announcement. Her father was eating with great speed as always while her mother had been in the middle of talking about her day when Nashi decided to just blurt it out before she lost her nerve. "Mum, Dad," she said loudly, "I've decided that I need to be more independent and therefore I'm moving out."
"WHAT?!"
Her father choked on his fork while her mother screeched. Nashi winced slightly but kept firm. "Nothing you can say will stop me," she said stubbornly.
"Nashi," her mother said slowly, "you're twelve."
"So was Dad when he lived on his own."
"….Crap baskets."
"Ha!" Nashi's father crowed triumphantly as he pointed at her mother. "You swore, you have to put money in the-"
"Now is not the time, Natsu!"
"Yes dear."
Satisfied that Nashi's ridiculously stupid and smug father was appropriately subdued, Nashi's mother turned back to Nashi. "But sweetie," she said gently, "he didn't have a choice."
"Well, actually both Macao and Gildarts had offered me to-"
"He. Didn't." her mother said slowly through gritted teeth. "Have. A. Choice!"
"I'm not a baby anymore!" Nashi protested. "I can do this. I already found a place on Strawberry Street."
"Wait….what?!"
"Yeah," Nashi smiled sheepishly, it had been ridiculously easy to find a place, and to her slight disappointment, all it took was to speak to her mother's old land lady to get hold of it. She had hoped of a more challenging opportunity so she could then impress everyone with her independence, strength, and resourcefulness…..so much for that. "The land lady thought I was you. Really creepy."
"Nashi Dragneel," her mother growled, "I forbid y-"
"Luce," Nashi's father interrupted hastily. "Can we talk for a second?"
"Now, Natsu?!"
"Yes," her father said firmly, "now."
With an irritated huff, her mother got up and stormed out of the kitchen. Nashi's father swallowed and looked a bit grim, Nashi couldn't really blame him, her mother was terrifying when she was in a bad mood, but he steeled himself and followed after, and after a couple moments, Nashi quickly ran to the door and pressed her ear against it.
"…You can't be serious?!" her mother hissed. "Natsu, she's twelve, a baby, our baby, she should be home with us."
"But we're not always home, are we Luce?"
"We don't abandon her! We leave her with Gray and Juvia or Erza and Jellal, or-"
"Yeah, I know, I know, but the point is she is twelve," her father stressed, "she wants to be independent and strong, and we got to let her."
"No," her mother growled, "We don't-"
"If you go out there and tell her she is forbidden to move out. She would run away."
Nashi nodded in agreement. Her father was surprisingly perceptive for an idiot. Her mother seemed to agree with Nashi as she growled again. "This is your fault!" she snapped. "You had to give her your stubbornness!"
"Me?!" her father squeaked. "You're the one that ran away when we were younger not me. This one is totally on you."
"Why you-"
"Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucy," he drawled in a very weird voice that made Nashi gag. Was her Dad trying to be romantic? Ew! "Let Nashi have this chance to prove to us how capable she is and I promise you, she'll come home to us within a week."
Nashi snorted. Yeah right, she wouldn't come back ever. She would be too busy being independent like her parents had been when they were her age. She would take her own jobs and clean her own home, and cook whatever she wants, and stay up as late she wants, and –
"Do you promise?"
Yes! Her mother was weakening. The battle was half won!
"I promise," her father continued in that really, weird, and creepy, voice, "and while Nashi is gone we'll have the place to ourselves-"
Oh Ew! Ew! Ew! Ew! Nashi quickly backed away from the door before she heard anything unsavoury between her parents, unfortunately for her, she wasn't looking back, and she tripped over the kitchen chair and both of them fell with a loud thump.
Her parents rushed back in and Nashi tried her level best to ignore the pink flush on her mother cheeks, and the rumpled clothing, and the definitely been kissed look both parents were sporting.
"Okay, Nashi," her mother said once they tidied up the kitchen, "if you really want to move out then I suppose…." He mother trailed off and looked as if she was sucking a lemon. Nashi had to bite her lip to stop giggling. Oh, if only Happy was here, he would laugh first and be the one to get her mother's ire instead of Nashi. "….You can move out," her mother finished eventually as she scrubbed a plate furiously.
"Yes!" Nashi flung her arms round her mother's neck. "Thank you, Mum! You're the best! I'm going to start packing right now!" she kissed her mother's cheek hastily and grinned. "Love you!" she said hurriedly before running off.
"Damnit Natsu," she heard her mother mutter, "why do you have to be right?!"
FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT
Within a week Nashi had moved into Strawberry Street. It had been incredibly alarming how expensive everything actually was (kitchen stuff, furniture, security deposits….) but fortunately everyone in the guild helped by dumping a huge pile of second hand, unwanted, things for her to choose from…..but only after they questioned Nashi's parents.
Poor Uncle Freed, he just happened to ask the wrong time (he had been the twenty seventh person to ask the exact same question) whether it was actually good parenting to let Nashi move out like this, and now he has to spend the next two weeks in a cast until Wendy-nee comes home.
Much to Nashi's irritation, her parents helped her move everything. It was really putting a downer on her independent thing especially since her mother was flitting around the room, nervously putting everything away, and constantly rambling. "Now sweetie, remember, you can come to us if you need help with anything," Nashi's mother said for the thousandth time this last hour. Nashi rolled her eyes. Again. "Anything at all. Laundry, cooking, just someone to talk to, anything at-"
"Anything at all," Nashi interrupted with another eye roll, "I know, I know."
Her mother looked as if she wanted to scold her but instead she shut her mouth, sighed, and looked around the apartment looking a little lost. "Well, this is it," her mother mumbled, "I suppose."
"Yep," Nashi said happily, "bye Mum." Her mother's eyes widened and looked suspiciously wet, rather alarmed Nashi immediately whipped round to face her father in hopes he could fix it. "Bye Dad," she hugged him.
"Good luck Kiddo," her father replied ruffling her hair. "I'll get Uncle Gajeel over later to put bars on your window. Boys can break in very easily, trust me, I know."
Nashi never wanted to hear another reference of her father breaking into her mother's bedroom ever again. She was already traumatised by all the other stuff she heard and seen, she didn't need to know more about her parents love life.
That, and she might be only twelve and not interest in boys now, but she has read enough to know that she would quite like to have a really good looking boy break into her bedroom when she's a lot older, and she's not having her Dad ruin that for her.
"….Goodbye Dad," she repeated in a loud, firm voice.
Her father didn't get to reply as her mother had completely lost the plot and grabbed Nashi by the shoulders, forcing her to turn, and then crushing her in a bone breaking embrace.
"Bye baby," her mother sniffled, "Remember we love and you can come to us for anything at all, and to floss your teeth, and not to use too much celestial magic, and to eat five fruit or veg, and…and…and…"
"Mum," Nashi gasped, "I can't breathe."
"Come on Luce," her father leaped to the rescue. "Let the kid go," he tried to pull Nashi's mother away but her mum was clever. She dug her nails in tightly into Nashi's shoulders making it a bit of a battle. Nashi had to bite back a scream as her father gave up, picked her mother up, and dragged her away causing her nails to drag down Nashi's arms leaving scratch marks. "Bye Nashi," her father said quickly as he carried his kicking, squirming, wife away. "Take care. Don't worry about us."
"NATSU!" her mother screamed. "I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU DON'T LET ME DOWN I WILL MURDER YOU!"
Nashi slammed the door quickly and slumped against the door in embarrassment. God, her father was carrying her screaming mother down the street, and they wondered why she wanted to move out?!
Parents.
They were ridiculous.
FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT
Nashi was lonely.
It had been exactly ten hours since her parents had left, she had jumped on the bed, successfully cooked a meal without burning the house down (which is so much more than what her father could do), read a book, and sat there thinking.
She was so boooooooooooooooooooooooooored.
There was nothing to do and no one to talk to. She half wished she didn't tell people not to visit her today because now she was stuck tapping her fingers against the wall, and desperately wishing she had some sort of company and distraction from the ticking noise of her clock.
With little else to do Nashi decided to have a shower….only to find that the water wasn't working. Great. Wonderful. Just what she wanted.
It was too late to make a complaint or to find someone to fix it so she would have to wait till morning, and that meant not shower or bath.
Fantastic.
With now absolutely nothing left to do, Nashi threw her pyjamas on and got ready for bed.
THUMP!
Nashi froze as she heard something on her roof. Nothing happened, with a shrug she moved to climb into bed, and thought maybe she should –
THUMP!
"Just a bird," she muttered to herself, "nothing but a bird."
THUMP!
"God," she said disgustedly, "you're a Fairy Tail mage. You deal with bandits and monsters and all sorts all the time, you can handle a strange noise on your r-"
THUMP!
BANG!
"-ooeek!" Nashi squealed as both the lights and the heating switched off the same time. "I was wrong!" she squeaked into her pillow as she pulled the duvet over her head. "I can't do this! I'm not brave! I'm too young to die!"
THUMP!
Strangely enough, Nashi was no longer bored, but she wasn't safe either, and spent the rest of the night curled under her blankets wishing desperately she was home.
FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT
Lucy had to admit there was some positives about Nashi moving out.
For starters she was no longer tripping over Nashi's shoes, nor was there anyone stealing her perfume and make up, and Natsu no longer had someone to spar and help destroy the house. But the very best bit, she was very ashamed to admit, was that Natsu and Lucy were able to be as romantic as they wanted to be with one another without anyone moaning.
And as physical as they want without fear of anyone walking in.
In the last twenty four hours, they had a very rough and passionate round in the living room (successfully destroying it), a clean-up in the shower, a candle-lit dinner that…..well turned into a rather frisky time on the kitchen floor, and then quite a late night up as well.
Lucy was quite glad to get a bit of a reprieve from it all thanks to the promise of bacon for breakfast. Otherwise the soreness she felt between her legs would be a bloody great pain taking away her ability to walk.
(Though if Nashi stayed away for any longer Lucy may never walk again. Natsu seemed to be unstoppable now there was no innocent child about to walk in any second.)
"How is it?" Lucy asked as she cleared up the plates. "Crispy enough?"
"Delicious Lushy!" Natsu mumbled between chewing. "Best ever!"
"Don't talk with your mouth full," Lucy chided, "it's really off-putting."
Natsu swallowed, and then smirked. His fangs popping out in a very sexy manner. "Off-putting for what, Lucy?" he asked in a husky voice.
Lucy was about to answer, in a very flirtatious manner which might have led to a round on the kitchen table, something they hadn't done since Nashi's sleepover at Gilly-Chan's four months ago, when she was interrupted by loud, repetitive, banging on the front door.
"Huh," Lucy moved to answer the door, "I wonder who that is."
"I bet I know," Natsu smirk grew even more, "in fact I know I know."
Lucy ignored him in favour of opening the door. She was instantly bowled over by a great force and a familiar, very much stolen, perfume. "I don't like living on my own!" Nashi wailed as she clung tightly to Lucy. "It's cold, boring, lonely, and really scary."
"Oh sweetie," Lucy murmured as she rubbed Nashi's back, "I did try to warn you."
For a moment she thought she pushed too much as Nashi suddenly pulled back but instead of glaring indignantly, Nashi was staring hopefully with wide eyes. "Mum, Dad, can I come home?" she asked. "To stay. Forever. And to never leave again."
"Of course you can baby!" Lucy exclaimed as she pulled Nashi back into a crushing embrace. Her baby was home. Forever. And she was never going to leave again. Lucy felt like dancing. "Why don't you have a nice hot shower and I'll put on some extra bacon."
"Hot showers and bacon sounds nice," Nashi mumbled. It was then when Lucy noticed, with great alarm, that Nashi had icicles forming in her hair. "I got the shower working this morning but I couldn't get the water to heat up no matter how many fireballs I threw at it. I think I lost the security deposit."
"Never mind, sweetie," Lucy sweat-dropped, "call it a lesson in being cautious with money. Now shower. It's nice and hot," as soon as Nashi was grimly ushered into the bathroom, and the shower was definitely on and therefore would drown Lucy's words out, she twirled and flung her arms round her husband. "Natsu, you genius!" she gushed. "How did you know?!"
"Well," Natsu shrugged as he wrapped his arms round Lucy's waist, "she's had someone to look after her for her whole life, she was never going to cope living alone. And I had some additional help. I must admit I'm very disappointed she only lasted one night."
Lucy scowled into his shoulder. "You're only saying that because you can't have sex on the table again any time soon…..wait," she pulled back and frowned at him, "what do you mean you had additional help?"
"Do you think I can have some more bacon, Luce?" Natsu instantly and suspiciously changed the subject. "I'm still hungry."
"Natsu!"
"Look I just did what I could to make sure our little girl, who I think should be locked in her room for all eternity in order to be kept safe from perverted boys, stays home where it's safe. Do you really want to question the means or do you want to enjoy the fact our child is home?"
"Fine!" Lucy snapped, she knew that Natsu was completely right on this one, and it infuriated her, "But you're not having any extra bacon."
"But Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucy!"
FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT
Ur Fullbuster was tired worn out, and very hungry but he was also incredibly satisfied. He had, after all, just completed the best job ever.
"I'm tired Nii-sama!" Tulia whined as she yawned. "Carry me!"
"No!" Ur barked irritably, "You're seven years old, you can walk. Besides. I'm tired too." He yawned then and found himself desperately missing his bed. "Urgh," he groaned, "Trust that stupid bimbo to take all night being scared off. Oh well the reward was worth it."
"Lots and lots of sweets," Tulia agreed with a sleepy happiness.
"Yep," Ur grinned, he couldn't believe it when Uncle Natsu had paid him to scare Nashi. It was literally a dream come true and it was so much fun playing with her mind. Not to mention to make the shower freeze on her. "That's right. How about after a nap, you and I have a picnic with these – EEK!"
Both Ur and Tulia screamed as the clung to one another. They had only just entered their home with the plan of collapsing into bed but were met at the front door by the most terrifying sight.
Their mother had the darkest, most terrifying, gloomiest facial expression her face.
It looked like something out of a ghost story.
"Ur-kun, Tulia-san, where have you been?!" their mother screeched into her faces. "Mummy has been so worried about you. All she could think was that her beautiful babies made with Daddy-sama were murdered or worse!"
"Mum!" Ur yelped. "Chill out! We were just on a job that we couldn't refuse. Uncle – I mean," he hastily corrected himself, part of the deal had been not to tell anyone that Uncle Natsu hired them to scare Nashi. No one was to know, especially Nashi, Uncle Natsu had stressed, and Ur was going to obey that. If only because Uncle Natsu sort of terrified him. "The guy needed us up all night. It doesn't matter though, the reward was-"
"OH MY GOD!" his mother screamed. She suddenly rushed to the side and picked up one of the many dolls that decorated the house, before shoving it into Ur's face. "SHOW ON DADDY-SAMA'S DOLL WHERE THE BAD MAN TOUCHED YOU!"
You know what? Ur was wrong, no reward was worth this torture. Not even the sweet reward of tormenting Nashi.