Lucy pushes open the bathroom door while I wash my hair.

"Juvia has another gift for us." She calls in.

I peek out around the shower curtain "I was kidding at first but now I kind of mean it…" I wipe the water off my face "what is it now?"

"She wants us to have a kind of honey moon thing at The Ball… she and Grey insist on paying." She offers a stiff smile. She hates accepting too much from people but this is a special occasion and The Ball is where we had our first date.

"When?" I shut the water off.

"Tonight." Her smiles relax and she hands me the towel.

"Alright but tell her this is the last one." I secure my towel and follow her out of the bathroom.

"she's doing too much."

"She's Juvia." Lucy laughs "She always does too much."

"Yeah yeah." I throw out the first t-shirt I find and jeans from my drawers. Lucy perches on the side of the bed and leans back on her arms.

"It's one of the reasons I love her so much." She beams up at me.

"I know." I groan exaggeratedly flopping onto the bed beside her.

"you know." She mimics me as she lays beside me "then why are you complaining?"

"Well I have to have something to complain about, my life is perfect." I wink at her. she giggles,

"You are extra flirty these last few days, you know that?" she titls her head back so she can look at me.

"It's like we're in the honey moon phase all over again." I tell her "we can be extra gushy and lovey dovey… again!" I laugh.

"We're always lovey dovey and gushy." She reminds me.

"Yes." I agree "but now it's social acceptable without making anyone feel inferior to our perfect love."

"No one feels inferior to our—"

"Ask Grey." I smile triumphantly at her. She makes a face at me and points to the closet.

"Dress me." she says.

"Not sure that's a good idea…" I laugh nervously.

"I'm sure you'll do fine," she smiles at me confidently "besides I'm going to dress you tonight."

"So, I'm going to look great and you're going to be in your sparkly romper." I tell her.

"Why the sparkly romper?" she asks.

"It's what you wore last time to the club, so I know it's something you'd wear." I smile at her.

"hmm… not sure about that answer." She squints her eyes at me. "good memory but is it cheating?"

"What?" I prop myself up on my arms "no way, it's me being attentive as your then boyfriend and now husband." She puckers her lips and narrows her eyes at me.

"Okay." Her features soften and she hops up off the bed. "I suppose I'll give this one to you." she surprises me when she goes to her closet.

"what are you…"

"You didn't have a suit ready for you for the last-minute wedding so… here." She unzipped the bag and presented a jet-black suit, crisp white button up with a white pocket square sticking out of the pocket.

"It's not new, I found it at the thrift store for a few dollars and your grandma helped me clean and patch it up. This is covering a stain." She pinches the edge of the pocket square "but we thought it looked nice anyway.

"Now you have you wear your wedding dress." I smile at her as she reaches into the bottom of the bag and pulls out a pair of shiny black shoes.

"She helped me spiff these up a bit too." Lucy beams at me.

Ninety-two hours and forty-nine minutes.

"Who's ready to celebrate the newly weds!" Juvia throws the door open with Grey just behind her. he dressed up tonight. Juvia's all sparkly in a similar kind of outfit to Lucy's except Juvia's has bigger sparkles. They're here early, they're always early for going out night but they are especially early, I'm not even ready.

"Oh… Natsu…" Juvia gasps at my outfit "Lucy!" she calls "did you let him dress himself again?"

"haha, Juvia." I give her a flat look "I'm not ready yet, we're not supposed to leave until ten, it's only nine."

"We're going earlier." Juvia declares. I glance at Grey.

"Hey, I just do what I'm told." He holds his hands up. "If she says, Grey we're eating at Chipotle, is say cool babe, what do you want me to wear?"

Lucy bounces out of the room with her romper on but with her makeup brush and compact thing in her hand.

"Of course not, although I did let him dress me." Lucy spins and smiles at me "he did a pretty[GM1] good job."

"That's cheating." Juvia accuses "he saw you wear that last time we went."

"It's not cheating." Lucy and I say in unison.

"Ew." Juvia frowns "I thought we were over the gushy, we do everything, look how perfectly[GM2] compatible we are phase."

"We're newly-weds now." I wrap my arm around Lucy's shoulders "we have social permission to be as gushy as we want again." I dip her back and kiss her for emphasis

Juvia is narrowing her eyes at Grey when I step back from Lucy. Grey is glaring at me. I lean into her "told you our love made other feel inferior."

"Juvia, I love and appreciate you and will marry you right now if it will make you stop trying to kill me with your eyes." Grey didn't dare to touch her.

"Nice try but the court house is closed." Juvia flips her hair "we'd have to wait until tomorrow and just because Lucy is okay with the tiniest wedding in the history of weddings doesn't mean I am."

"Then what will make you stop glaring at me?" he pleads with her.

"I'll let you know when I'm ready." Juvia yanks Lucy away from me and into a hug. "I'm so happy for you." she squeals and shoves me back "you go get dressed so we can leave."

"Yeah yeah, I'm going, Miss Bossy." I rub the spot she palmed me. Juvia is a solid female. Where Lucy is gentle and delicate in everything she does, Juvia can be rough, I'm sometimes afraid she might accidently break Lucy.

"Soon to be Mrs." She glares after me and I laugh.

"Don't break him Juvia." Lucy jokes with Juvia.

"Just because you guys have the same last name now doesn't mean my rights as your best friend are void, you know." Juvia huffs

"Of course not." Lucysoothes her. "You know you always come first."

"Hey!" I call out.

"Remember this!" Juvia calls back.

"I love you, Natsu!" She giggles and I hear our fridge open.

"Grey!" Juvia snaps at him "you can't just take their food, Natsu never remembers to go shopping!"

"That's not true." Lucy defends me even though it's one hundred percent true. I tune them out and pull on the suit Lucy picked out.

For the first time I can remember, I don't feel like a kid forced to wear a suit. I feel pretty cool as I look in Lucy's floor length mirror, the suit hits in just the right places, Lucy comes up behind me in her wedding dress with the flower crown trailing down her back, her hair in big loose curls and wraps her arms around my waist.

"I love you, Natsu." She whispers the words, as if she's afraid of breaking the moment.

"I love you too, Lucy." Clasp her hand in mine.

One hundred hours and twenty-seven minutes.


Dear Natsu

I think Juvia is happier about our marriage than we are. I've written so much in this thing lately. I'm happy I think. I actually want to remember this. Forever and I do want kids. I love kids so much but I'm so afraid that I won't have any. I'm so afraid that this can't possibly last. I want it to. I want it to so badly but Natsu, it can't.

My head hurts, Natsu, but I want to go out tonight. I want to have fun with you and Juvia and Grey. I can stick it out.

Lucy


Author's Note:

Thank you so much for reading, I appreciate your time and kind words.