Summary: Lucy was going to ensure that Nashi would never have a tea party like she did.
Pairings: Parental Lucy/Nashi, Lucy/Spirits friendship, Nashi/Spirits friendship, and Natsu/Lucy
YouTube Prompt: Fairy Tail couple tribute to 'Love is a Battlefield' by Pat Benatar
Lucy's hand froze mid-air, pen at the ready to jot down the words that refused to come out, as she bit her lip thoughtfully.
For years Lucy always craved silence to write down an epic novel, and now when she got a morning to herself, nothing would come out.
Bloody typical.
"Mummy?"
"KYAH!"
Taken by surprise, Lucy accidentally flung her pen into the wall and almost fell out of her chair. She fortunately caught herself on the edge of her desk and pulled herself back. Nashi tried to hide her giggles. "Daddy is right," she grinned behind her hand, "you are weird."
"Daddy is not right!" Lucy sniffed indignantly. "He never is. Only Mummy is right." Nashi giggled outright at this and Lucy smiled indulgently as she took in the sight of her only child. She still couldn't believe she was a Mum. "What was it that you wanted, sweetie?" she asked.
"I'm going to have a tea party!" Nashi said proudly. "And you are invited. Will you come?"
Lucy hesitated as a memory forced its way to the forefront of her mind. It happened less and less as she reconciled with her father's memory but ever since she had become a parent herself she was reminded more and more of her own childhood, and once again it was a bitter memory.
"Daddy?"
Lucy was five years old and extremely lonely. Her mother had been unwell again and the servants would not let her go and see her, the servants themselves were too busy, and Aquarius had made it very clear that Lucy was not to summon her on any other day but Wednesday.
This led her to approach her father for something fun.
She had crept into his study in which he was signing some papers and stood on her tip-toes, arms resting against the large, dark, wooden, desk and she tried to catch her father's eyes.
Her father didn't even look up from his paperwork.
"Daddy?" she tried again.
"Not now Lucy," her father mumbled, "why don't you go play outside?"
"I am! I thought I should have a tea party outside," Lucy twiddled her thumbs together and smiled up at her father nervously, "and you're invited! Will you come?"
Her father didn't answer her.
"Daddy?"
There was no response.
"Daddy? I am having a tea party," she repeated much louder, "will you co-"
"I SAID NOT NOW LUCY!"
"Mummy?" Nashi tugged at Lucy's sleeve. "Mummy, are you coming?"
Lucy shook her head and forced herself back into reality. She looked into her daughter's big, dark, eyes that were almost exactly like hers apart from the slanted shape and fiery spark that was pure Natsu.
She would not let history repeat itself.
She would not let her daughter sit by herself with no one to play with.
"Of course sweetie," she ran a hand through Nashi's hair, "I would be delighted to come to your tea party." Nashi beamed radiantly at that. "Have you invited anyone else?"
"Well," Nashi's smile became slightly sheepishly, "I was kinda hoping we can invite some of the spirits, can we? Pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase Mummy?!"
"Of course we can!" Lucy exclaimed. She pulled out her keys and held them out before Nashi. "Which ones would you like to invite?"
"Definitely Sagittarius!" Nashi said firmly. "And Virgo, and Loke, and Aries, and….and….Oh I can't choose!" she mumbled. "It would be so unfair if we didn't invite them all."
"Well then," Lucy said firmly, "we will invite all of them…apart from Aquarius," Lucy tried to suppress a shudder, "Aquarius hates tea parties," especially if you summoned her in a cup of tea. Lucy at the age of six learnt that the hard way.
And with that, Lucy summoned all of her spirits in one go. The idea of a tea party got them all excited and the little table with the empty plastic cups and teapot (a Christmas present from Mirajane) turned into a proper table with a silver teapot and matching cups with stars engraved that Virgo brought from the celestial world.
Virgo then went out of her way to dress Nashi and Lucy into matching Alice in Wonderland-esque outfits and Lyra insisted on playing music, and then some of the other spirits brought out cake.
"Hime and little Hime," Virgo said, "which cake would you like me to serve you? We have Victoria Sponge, eclairs, and scones, and fairy cakes, and-"
"No, no, no!" Nashi shook her head. "You're our guest, Virgo! You're supposed to sit down and let me serve you the cake!"
"I understand," Virgo perched on the edge of her chair, "am I to be punished?"
"NO!" both Nashi and Lucy screeched, Lucy then coughed to clear her throat, and smiled awkwardly down at her daughter. "Nashi, why don't you serve the tea?"
"Of course Mummy" Nashi smiled as she carefully picked up the teapot and with the caution she never showed in anything else in her life (and believe Lucy, she tried to make her daughter cautious but it never worked), she poured out tea in all of the cups, "how would you like yours, Loke?" she asked. "I have sugar and milk and lemon and honey."
"Two sugars and a bit of milk, please Nashi-Chan!" Loke said grandly. "And may I say this is the best tea party I have ever been to."
Nashi giggled and flushed. "Thank you!" she passed Loke his cup.
Loke took a great big sip. "Best tea in the whole wide world!" he declared. "Nashi-Chan, grow up to be a beautiful housewife and then marry me!"
Nashi giggled some more while Lucy shot Loke the most murderous look ever. "Hands off my child!" she hissed.
Loke froze slightly and began to edge away from Nashi ever so slowly before Lucy picked up the cake knife and threw it at him.
The afternoon wore on and the more time her spirits spent in this world, the more tired Lucy began to feel. Her power had improved leaps and bounds since Tartarus but that hadn't changed the fact it was so draining to summon more than one spirit at a time. And she summoned all of them!
Well, not all of them, Aquarius wasn't here and Lucy couldn't bring herself to summon Scorpio and leave her oldest friend alone completely. Grandpa Crux had only stayed for one cup of tea and Horologium and Pyxis were not keen on tea and cakes, and so they turned down the invitations but all the others were and Lucy was starting to find it difficult to keep her eyes open as Nashi served the last scone and drop of tea to Lyra, who had worn her voice out entertaining everyone.
"Hime," Virgo wrapped a hand on Lucy's wrist, her thumb ever so subtly checking Lucy's pulse, "perhaps you ought to send us back," she murmured, "you are exhausting yourself."
"Plue, Plue!" Plue piped up in agreement.
"No," Lucy shook her head, "I can't. She's having such a wonderful time."
"My turn! My turn!" Nashi leaped up and down. "I am the host and it is my duty to entertain you all." Everyone applauded and cheered Nashi on and she took a bow and revelled in the attention. "Sagittarius, the targets!"
"Moshi, Moshi!" Sagittarius boomed as he made three targets all with Ur Fullbuster's face painted on appeared. Lucy instantly face-palmed and desperately wished that people stopped encouraging Nashi's rivalry with Gray's son, it's bad enough that Natsu does it, Nashi didn't need more bad influences. "Your wish is my command Nashi-dono!"
"God," Lucy groaned, "I wish you lot would stop teaching her especially behind my back." The amount of times she caught Loke cross-legged on Nashi's bed as he gave her 'secret lessons' were enough to drive her insane. "She's too young!"
"Nashi-Chan is never too young," Gemini said, looking unnervingly like Lucy, "we know you worry over her well-being because she is a target for your enemies. Therefore we teach her so she can defend herself. This has only been done behind your back because you have not asked us and yet we wish to unburden you from your worries. You should be proud. Already she is proficient in archery, can cause a minor sandstorm, create a celestial light, and make small clouds of wool. Virgo plans to start on the digging magic soon enough and Taurus has been thinking of giving her an axe for her next birthday."
"Over my dead body!"
Taurus flinched under Lucy's deadly glare while Cancer patted her shoulder. "You can't keep her a child forever, ebi," he said solemnly.
"I can when she's just four!" Lucy snapped.
"Mummy!" Nashi stomped her foot. "You're not paying attention! I'm about to do an awesome trick!
"Sorry sweetie," Lucy tried to smother a yawn, "I'm paying attention. Show me."
Nashi grinned and turned her attention back to the targets, she summoned her bow, one normal arrow, a flaming arrow, and one made of pure celestial light before she released all three and they all flew into their individual targets.
It was incredibly impressive.
And undoubtedly got a loud applause for it.
"Amazing!" Lucy choke out over a yawn. "I'm incredibly proud of you," she said as Nashi beamed and ran into her arms, "you're brilliant," she reassured her child.
Another yawn fought its way out and this time Lucy couldn't hide it. Nashi pulled back and examined her worriedly. "Are you okay, Mummy?" she asked.
"Your Mum will be fine, Nashi," Aries said comfortingly, "it is our fault, sorry, for we have taken too much of her enemy. I am so sorry!" she squeaked. "We shall go now, not because the tea party wasn't funny, I'm sorry, but because we are taxing Lucy-san too much, I'm sorry!"
"Mummy!" Nashi cried out. "You didn't say!"
"I wanted you to have the best tea party ever," Lucy explained, "it was fun, no?"
"Best tea party ever," Loke reassured her, "thank you for inviting us Nashi-Chan but it is time that we went home."
"Of course," Nashi nodded, "goodbye! Thank you all for coming!"
Lucy settled under the biggest tree by their house as she watched her spirits bid their farewells to Nashi before disappearing back into the spirit world. Each time one of them disappeared, a little pressure on Lucy's body and soul vanished. Soon enough it was just Lucy and Nashi and Lucy gave into exhaustion completely, her eyes heavy, her body unable to move, and a strange warmth overcame her as she started to fall asleep.
She felt a pair of arms round her waist and a slight pressure of her daughter's head resting against her chest. "Thank you Mummy," Nashi whispered, "Loke is right, that was the best tea party ever."
And with that Lucy happily allowed herself to be dragged into the darkness of much needed rest. She didn't know how long she slept but she did know she couldn't open her eyes when she was suddenly scooped up either mere minutes or man hours later, all she did was sigh, and roll into that delicious mix of heat and muscle that made Natsu's chest as he carried her back into the house.
"Loke told me," he growled into her ear, "what were you thinking summoning all of those spirits like that?"
"I was thinking," Lucy mumbled, her mouth felt strange, and the words came out all slurred, "that Nashi should never have a tea party like I did."
"You weirdo," Natsu scolded her as he laid her on the bed, "you could have done that by yourself. There was no need to summon virtually all of them."
"Wanted her to have the best."
"She already does," Natsu pulled the duvet over Lucy and then pressed a loving kiss on her forehead that made her tingle, "she has you, now get some rest you weirdo."