Pancake Syrup:
Farrah Lee-Dreyar: 6
Nashi Dragneel: 3
Storm Fullbuster: 3
Cato Dreyar: 3
Roman Fernandez: 2
Persephone Redfox: 2
Koree Redfox: 2
Bianca Fullbuster: 9 months
"Seems like we spend more time at the guild hall waiting on babies to be born then to actually pick out jobs these days," Natsu said as he finished cutting up Nashi's pancakes and drizzled syrup onto it.
"I know, right?" Lucy smiled as she set a glass of orange juice in front of her husband, and sat across from him, sipping on her coffee. Natsu didn't drink had enough energy as was without the extra caffeine.
"Owange Juiwce!" Nashi cheered as she pointed at Natsu's glass.
"You told me you wanted milk," Natsu said, pointing to her sippy cup.
"Owange Juiwce!" she pointed again.
"Nashi, drink your milk," Lucy sighed as she began piling fluffy pancakes onto her plate. Though they had gotten the news that Evergreen had gone into labor, but they weren't in a hurry. This was her first child so it would be a while before the newest Strauss made his or her first appearance. So the Dragneels decided to take their time and enjoy their family breakfast before heading over.
Nashi reached out with her hand, grabbing onto the sticky pancaked bits and shoved them into her mouth.
"Nashi, use your fork," Lucy said.
Nashi picked the fork up with one hand, but instead of stabbing it into the food, she slammed the butt of it into the table like she were planting a flag into the ground, and kept grabbing her food and shoving it into her mouth with her free hand. Lucy facepalmed as Natsu laughed.
"Well, she's using her fork," he chuckled.
"Nashi, like this," Lucy demonstrated with her own fork and food. Nashi watched intently before copying her mother, stabbing the fork into a bite of pancake, bringing it to her mouth...and taking it off with her fingers to put in her mouth. Natsu rolled his head back and laughed again.
"You're not helping!" Lucy chastised.
"Sorry," he chortled.
"No you're not."
"No I'm not, this is hilarious!"
Nashi, not sure what was going on, but recognizing that Daddy was laughing at something funny, also began to giggle.
"See, she thinks so too!"
"I'm sure she does," Lucy sighed as she began wiping their daughter's hands off. "See, Nashi? You get your hands sticky when you don't use your fork."
"But I am u'ing ma fork."
Natsu covered his mouth to try an hold back his laughter. Lucy shot him a glare, sticking her tongue out at him as a few giggles escaped from him.
"Let's try again…" Lucy set her hand over Nashi's and guided the pancake pieces to her daughter's mouth. It was painstakingly slow, and Lucy's pancakes were cold by the time Nashi had finally gotten the hang of it enough to eat onher own. So much for relaxing and enjoying her breakfast, now she had to shove it down so she could go get ready. As Lucy began eating Natsu lifted Nashi out of her booster seat and set her on his hip.
"I'll get her dressed," he said as he leaned down and gave Lucy a small kiss on the cheek. "You relax for a minute."
It was a short minute, but Lucy welcomed it none the less, smiling as she listened to her husband and daughter giggle and cheer back and forth at one another upstairs. She finished her breakfast quickly, swallowing down the last of her coffee and headed upstairs to her's and Natsu's bedroom. She picked out an outfit and slipped into the bathroom. Before she got dressed she pulled a pregnancy test out of the bathroom counter draw. She sighed sadly as she looked at it.
A year. That's how long she and Natsu had been trying for another baby, and so far nothing. It was weird, because they hadn't been trying AT ALL with Nashi. They'd only been married a few months and SURPRISE! Now that they were actually trying...nothing. Still her period was late this month (though it was every other month, she'd been irregular since she'd first started her cycle when she was twelve.) Still, she told herself to keep her chin up and take it. She set it on the bathroom counter as she finished and then began getting ready for the day. She'd just finished putting on her make up and was brushing her hair when she heard Natsu shouting from downstairs.
"Oh, Nashi, no! Don't do that! Oh my gosh, Lucy's gonna kill me!"
She frowned in worry as she bounded down the steps and into the kitchen. Natsu whirled around upon hearing her, eyes wide as he waved his arms frantically.
"I turned my back for thirty seconds, I swear! That's all and she just! Just! Eh?"
He held up an empty syrup bottle. Lucy frowned in confusion before turned to see their daughter standing in a chair, smacking her lips which were covered in syrup. Lucy's eyes widened in realization.
"She drank it?"
"Yeah…" Natsu cringed.
"Natsu that was a new bottle!"
"I know!"
"And she drank all of it!?"
"Yeah…"
Lucy's eyes widened all the more as she turned to the very happy three-year-old who was licking syrup off her fingers. "Yummy!"
"Oh, no!" Lucy held her hands to her face. "What do we do?"
"Can we do anything at this point?" Natsu asked.
"I don't know," Lucy squeaked.
Nashi hiccuped and grinned up at her parents.
"Oh, this is going to end badly, isn't it?" Lucy groaned.
"Probably," Natsu agreed, cringing as he nodded.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
"About time you got here," Gray shouted as Natsu and Lucy entered the guild hall, a bouncing and jabbering Nashi propped on Natsu's hip. They both let out small "ehs" in greeting as they sat down at the table with Gray, who was holding Bianca in his arms, propped against his shoulder so she could look around at everything around her.
"And, Mommy! I make it go boom! And den ma dwagon went 'swoosh!' And then-" Nashi jabbered on and on about one of her make believe adventures as she bounced and squirmed in her father's grip.
"And den-OH! Storm and Cato! Can I go pway! Pwease, Pwease, PWEEEAAASSSEEEE!"
"Absolutely, go," Natsu grumbled, letting her go. She burst off at top speed, still jabbering at the top of her lungs.
Gray arched an eyebrow as he kept patting Bianca's back. "She's lively today, isn't she?"
"Ugh!" Both parents groaned.
"Uh-oh, what happened?"
"She drank syrup," Lucy answered.
Gray blinked. "She what?"
"She drank a whole bottle of pancake syrup," Lucy repeated, punctuating each word with angry desperation.
"Oh…." Gray's eyes widened. "That's not good."
"Abada-Bah!" Bianca babbled as she squirmed against Gray's shoulder.
"Nope. It's not good," Gray turned to his daughter, who looked up at him and smiled. Gray smiled all the wider as he bounced her. "Nope. Not good at all, Bianca."
"Anama-Bla. Pfft!"
"Uh-huh, tell me about it," Gray encouraged, smiling like an idiot. "Tell me about it."
"Arwawa-Goo!"
Lucy smiled as she watched on. Oh, how she missed those days. Nashi was getting so big! Yeah, it was about time to have another baby.
"Nashi, dat's a no-no!" Cato's voice rang out. Lucy and Natsu turned to find Nashi on top of the bar, running up and down it like it was her own personal race track.
"Nashi, no!" Natsu scolded as he jumped to his feet and darted across the room towards her. Lucy groaned and face-palmed.
"Daddy!" Storm cried as he raced to his father's side, tugging at his sleeve (Gray was actually wearing a shirt today!)
"What, buddy?"
"Look!" Storm pointed to Nashi who was now laughing as Natsu chased her down upon the bar.
"C'mere!" the exasperated father shouted as he reached for the hyper-active toddler.
"Look!" Storm said again, pointing.
"Yeah, I see it," Gray nodded.
"Why she doing dat?" Storm asked.
"Because she's a Dragneel and they're all insane," Gray answered.
"Watch it pal," Lucy warned, pointing a finger at Gray.
"Am I wrong?" Gray arched an eyebrow just as Bianca began babbling again.
Storm smiled at his baby sister as he skipped around to Gray's other side to face her. "Bianca!" he called covering his face with his tiny hands before pulling them back and saying "Boo!"
Bianca giggled and kicked her tiny legs in fun. Gray smiled as he watched on.
"Boo!" Storm called again, causing Bianca to squeal with laughter.
"Is big brother being silly?" Gray asked, patting her back.
"Boo!"
Gray turned and poked his son in the stomach, causing Storm to scoot back.
"You being silly?"
"No!"
"No? You fibbing?"
"No!"
"I think you are," Gray said as he poked him in the stomach again.
Lucy smiled softly at the scene, before being ripped away by Natsu's voice.
"Holy cra-LUCY!"
She groaned and turned around.
"What?"
"Nashi's climbing up the walls!"
"Yeah, I've noticed, that's what happens when you let a three ear old have too muhc sugar."
"No, I mean literally climbing up the walls!"
"WHAT!?"
Lucy jumped to her feet and raced to where Natsu was standing on the bar, one hand pointed upward, the other tugging at his hair. She followed where he was pointing to to indeed, find their toddler scaling up the stone wall of the guild hall.
"Oh, my gosh, Nashi!" she shrieked as she jumped up onto the bar next to Natsu. "Don't worry, sweetie we'll get you down!"
"Wee!" Nashi giggled as she swung her tiny legs back and forth.
"No! No! Don't do that!" Natsu began tearing at his hair with both hands. "You're gonna fall!"
"Wee!"
"Oh, what are we going to do?"
"I don't know!" Lucy shrieked, fumbling through her keys to see if any of her spirits could help.
"Nashi, hang on sweetie, we'll get you somehow!"
A small, exasperated sigh came from behind them, and they turned just in time to see a blue streak fly past them.
"Never send two humans to do a cat's job," Happy grumbled as he flew up to Nashi and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Okay, kiddo, playtime's over."
"Fwy! Fwy! Fwy!" Nashi cheered as she clapped her hands.
"Aye, I can fly," Happy smiled as he flew towards the very frightened parents.
"That's right! Come to Daddy!" Natsu cried as he held his arms out. Happy set the little girl right into them and Natsu clutched her to his chest. "Oh, you scared me to death."
"Daddy, I fwew!"
"No, no, no, no more flying for you!" Natsu scolded. "What do you think you were doing up there? You could have gotten hurt!"
"But I fwew!"
"No, no more flying!"
He set her down and leaned to her level, Lucy following suit, pointing a finger at her daughter.
"You are in so much trouble, Missy! Do you have any-Don't run away when I'm scolding you!"
But Nashi was already gone, giggling and jabbering all the way.
"Geez, what did you feed her this morning?" Happy asked.
"DON'T ASK!" Both parents shouted before taking off after her.
"Yeesh!" Happy exclaimed. "You're all out of whack! You need to consider an all fish diet! Fish doesn't make you crazy like that!"
Natsu and Lucy ignored him as they chased after their daughter, whom they soon lost in the crowd.
"Now where did she go?" Lucy asked, arms crossed.
"She better not be climbing up another wall!" Natsu shouted. "I don't think my heart can take that again!"
"You do realize she gets that from you, right?"
"Hey!"
"Ergh, where'd she go? Nashi!"
"Nashi!"
"Nashi!"
"Nashi! Sweetie! Where'd you go? I've got candy for you!"
"WE ARE NOT GIVING HER ANY MORE SUGAR!" Lucy thundered.
"I'm bluffing!" Natsu exclaimed.
"So you're lying to our three year old daughter?"
"I'm just trying to find her as soon as possible!"
"Well, when she throws a temper tantrum because there's no candy you're dealing with it buster!"
"Um…" both parents turned to find Mirajane standing behind them, a dripping wet Nashi in her arms. "I believe this is yours."
"Why is she wet!?" they both shouted.
"I go sp'ash!" Nashi cheered.
"She may have ttied to take a swim in the laungry bucket," Mirajane explained as she passed the dripping wet child to Lucy.
"Sp'ash!"
"Well, at least she won't need a bath tonight," Natsu said.
"Just go get her change of clothes out of the bag," Lucy grumbled.
"Alright, be right back."
Lucy set Nashi down and began peeling the wet shirt and shorts off her. "Honestly, Nashi, why'd you have to get wet."
"Cuz I go sp'ash!"
"But you're not supposed to go splash unless you have a bathing suit on or are taking a bath."
"Okay," Nashi said as she squirmed out of the last of the wet clothes. "I go bath now!"
"No you won't, young lady!" Lucy reached for her daughter, but it was too late, she was out of sight.
"How is someone with such short legs so fast!?" Lucy wodered outloud.
"You lost her again!?" Natsu shouted when he returned.
"I did not lose her, she's going to swim in the laundry bucket again!"
"Oh, my!" Mirajane cried just as a loud SPLASH! Sounded from the laundry room of the guild hall. Natsu and Lucy raced inside to find Mirajane and the floor soaked as Nashi had apparently canon-balled into the wash tub.
"We're so sorry, Mira," Lucy apologized as Natsu ran to fish their daughter out of the wash bucket.
"Oh, it's fine," Mirajane assured them, grabbing a towel to dry herself off with.
"You are going to be in so much trouble when we get you home," Natsu scolded through clenched teeth as he wrestled Nashi out of the tub.
"No, I wanna sp'ash!"
"Oh, there's not going to be any splashing for a long time, now!" he stated as he set her on the ground, sure to keep one hand clamped around her arm as he began dressing her in dry clothes. Lucy walked to their side and began helping Natsu. Nashi kept squirming and fighting against them.
"I wanna pway!"
"No, you are in time-out!" Natsu said as he picked her up and carried her out to the main room again.
"No!" Nashi protested.
"Yup," Natsu nodded. "You don't run off when Mommy and Daddy are talking to you, and you don't climb walls or jump in laundry buckets, so you're in time out."
"No!"
"Don't argue with your father, Nashi," Lucy scolded.
"But I wanna pway!"
"You can play after you've learned your lesson," Lucy said plainly as Natsu sat her at a table and looked her sternly in the eyes.
"You're going to sit here for three minutes and think about what you've done, got it?"
"But pway!"
"No buts."
"Daddy, pwease!"
"Nope. Time out,"
He stood and turned to Lucy, making a face of exasperation at her. Lucy made an equally exasperated face back, and then noticed that Nashi had slipped of again.
"If she jumps in that bucket again, I swear!" Lucy growled as she checked under the table, spotting Nashi hiding under a table three down, crawling along, hoping no one would spot her.
"Nashi!" Lucy shouted, making the little girl jump and scamper to her feet. Lucy stood up a little too fast, backing her head on the table.
"Ow!" she cried, rubbing the sore spot on her head. "Oh, ho, ho, ho, I'm gonna kill that girl!"
"Nashi, get back here!" Natsu yelled, jumping over the table to chase after her.
Lucy stood up, still wincing at the pain throbbing through her head.
"One of those days?" Erza's voice came from behind her.
"Don't even get me started," Lucy glowered at the scarlet-haired woman carrying her purple-headed son on her hip. Erza arched an eyebrow and nodded.
"I see. Fully understand," She turned and walked off. "Carry on."
Roman peaked over his mother's shoulder as she retreated and waved, smiling brightly.
Why does she get the angel child? Totally not fair! Lucy grumbled to herself as she heard Nashi screaming behind her. She groaned as she turned around. Nashi was having a full blown temper tantrum as Natsu carried her under one arm. He sat down at the table, set Nashi in his lap and crossed his arms over her.
"Lemmee go! Lemmee go!"
"No," Natsu answered. "Not until you calm down."
"Lemmee go! I wanna pway!"
"No."
"Lemmee go!"
"No."
"You mean, Daddy!"
"Deal with it, kid."
Lucy sat down next to them, Nashi's piercing shrieks hurting her ears.
"We are never having pancakes ever again," she declared.
"Fine by me," Natsu answered.
Nashi's screams increased in volume.
"Yell all you want, you ain't getting down," Natsu said.
"But I wanna!"
"Tough break."
"No, I no wanna a tow-b'eak, I wanna pway!"
Natsu stared straight ahead, blank-faced, drawing his lips into a tight line as he shook his hea. Lucy could see hints of laughter in his eyes that he was desperately trying to keep buried inside. She too felt giggles rising in her, but forced herself to keep them down.
Can't laugh! She's in trouble! You're suppose to be mean Mommy right now.
Porlyusica walked into the main hall and everything was quiet save for Nashi's shouting. She whispered over to Makarov, and left.
"We have a new Fairy Tail family member. Please join me in giving a warm welcome to Lorelle Evergreen Strauss."
Everyone clapped except for Natsu who was using both arms to hold his daughter down.
"Yay, baby girl, let's go," Lucy said as she began gathering their bags.
"Yup," Natsu agreed, setting the still screaming Nashi under his arm and following his wife out.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Lucy groaned as she collapsed onto the bed. Nashi was still wired! And it was night time! She and Natsu were currently taking turns holding her bedroom door closed so that she wouldn't come out, hoping that she'd eventually cry and scream herself to sleep. So far, though, no luck.
"Never. Having. Pancakes. Again." She groaned to herself as she rubbed her trobbing head.
Suddenly everything went quiet. She sat straight up. Did it happen? Did it finally happen?
She heard heavy, tired footsteps coming down the hall towards their room. Natsu stepped inside, looking absolutely ragged.
"Finally. Asleep!" he gasped before they both collapsed against the bed, utterly exhausted.
"I thought we'd never get her to go down!" Lucy exclaimed.
"I am declaring war against anything and everything that has sugar," Natsu groaned.
"Ditto."
They both sighed in relief as they lied there, too tired to speak for a few minutes.
"We still need to take showers," Lucy finally grumbled.
"I honestly want to take a bath and relax after today," Natsu said.
"Same. But I'm too tired to wait up for one of us to take a bath, wait for hot water to come back, and then the other one take one," she mumbled.
"Take one together?"
"Fine by me, but no way am I going to have energy for any sex, so don't get any ideas."
"No worries," Natsu assured her as he stood up and plodded into the bathroom to start the bath. Lucy groaned again as she rubbed her still pounding head. She hoped the crash from the sugar high would make Nashi sleep in. They all needed a few extra hours after today.
Natsu let out a loud laugh from the bathroom, causing Lucy's brow to furrow in confusion as she sat up. Natsu came back into the bedroom, holding a white stick in his hand.
"You've gotta come up with a better way to tell me these things, Luce!" he chuckled as he held up the pregnancy test she'd taken that morning.
She clasped both hands to her face. "I forgot I took that! Nashi drank the syrup before I could check it!"
Natsu chuckled again, as he looked at it and back at her, a wide grin on his face. "Well, it's positive!"
Lucy hands dropped into her lap as he jaw fell open. "No it's not."
"Yeah it is!"
"Natsu Dragneel, are you pulling my leg?"
"Nope, see for yourself."
He passed her the test and she stared at it. Sure enough, there was a pink plus sign. Her jaw dropped open again as Natsu laughed again.
"Two for two, Luce. If we ever have a third one and I find out through a pregnancy test left on the bathroom sink again, I might just lose my mind."
"I'm pregnant!?" Lucy exclaimed.
"Uh-huh," Natsu set his hand under her chin, turning her face towards his and giving her a kiss. "Congratulations, Mommy!"
She beamed as she threw her arms around his neck, kissing him back. "Congratulations, Daddy!"
He smiled and they leaned in yet again, smiling and laughing through kiss. Natsu pulled away and leaned down, kissing her stomach.
"Please don't be as crazy as your big sister," he said, earning a playful smack from Lucy. He smiled up at her before scooping her into his arms and carrying her into the bathroom before their bath ran over.