I do not own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does!
I want to apologize for this chapter being so late; I ended up going on vacation so I could see my family that I haven't seen for 8 months. Been a little hectic so I haven't had time to write, but I made sure to get in a few minutes here and there. Hope you all enjoy.
Chapter 11: Moving Forward
Life could not have been going better for Mirajane. After her blissful week with Natsu in the wilderness she didn't think she could have felt closer to the Dragon Slayer. Mirajane knew without a doubt that now, more than ever, that Natsu was hers and hers alone. He had given her a piece of himself, laying out his heart for her to do with as she pleased.
Mirajane dipped her feet into the steamy water of her bathtub with a content sigh, the rest of her body following shortly after. The mess with Lisanna was long gone and though she wished to spend every moment with Natsu, she knew he was still had a large role in the guild. He had his duties to his teammates and needed to make it up to them for being gone so long.
Mirajane also felt bad for neglecting the guild so much. It had been her job to take care of just about everything for the members. A large majority of the guild would not have run without her. She purchased the food, ensured repairs were completed in a timely basis, and made sure that the mission board was fully stocked with the newest jobs. It brought her happiness to have watched everyone grow stronger and transform into what they were today. But she couldn't just sit back and watch any longer. Pregnant or not, she was determined to be more active in the guild, not just as the barmaid but as the S-class mage she was.
Mirajane shook her head to clear her mind, now wasn't the time to be mulling over what to do. She had already made up her mind; all she needed to do now was to act on those decisions. Slipping out of the bath, Mirajane wrapped a towel around herself and entered her adjoined room. After applying a generous amount of lotion to her silky skin and pulling her usual dress on, Mirajane left the house, looking back at it momentarily.
Natsu's little house was barely large enough for the two of them and Happy, let alone throwing an infant into the mix. It had actually been Lisanna's idea to offer up the Straus' house to the expecting parents as a way to make up for trying to break Mirajane and Natsu up. Sure the younger sibling still resided in the building, but after an extensive talk between Natsu and the two sisters, Lisanna had profusely apologized, claiming that she would never try anything again. Natsu had apologized as well, saying that it wasn't fair to have written off the younger woman simply because he had started a relationship with Mirajane. He swore to her that he would be a better friend.
Elfman had been another story, having all but moved out already. Mirajane couldn't believe she hadn't seen it, couldn't believe that she hadn't seen the change since she had gotten together with Natsu. According to Elfman, she had opened up his eyes to what he had been denying all this time and had made a move on Evergreen after all. After the incident with Lisanna, Elfman had started staying over with Evergreen, living with her so as to make sure she knew that he was serious about furthering their relationship. Mirajane was more than happy that her brother had finally found love, but also felt the sting of regret that she had been so absorbed in own her life that she hadn't seen it happen.
Mirajane's thoughts came to an abrupt halt as she pushed the doors to the guild open, a wide smile gracing her lips at what she saw. As usual, the guild was in chaos. Someone had started another fight and though it meant she would have to place another round of orders for furniture, it warmed her heart that this was one place that would never change over the years. No matter who joined, or who left, the guild moved along.
Casting her gaze over the damage, Mirajane spotted Kinana, the woman that had taken over the bar in her absence while they had been trapped on Tenrou. Rubbing her hands together, Mirajane walked over next to her, bumping her with her hip to get her attention. "How are things going Kinana?" She asked flashing a smile, dipping her hands into the warm water that filled the sink to help with the growing amount of dishes that were piling up. The two continued with idle talk, passing information back and forth about work before turning the subject to men and if the purple headed barmaid had eyes on any of the fairy tail mates. Kinana blushed and shook her head, claiming she was still looking for whoever kept talking to her through her mind.
"Over here." Natsu whispered. Casting a glance over his shoulder at his teammates he gestured silently for them to stay low. Returning his gaze to the road ahead Natsu crept forward, slipping his rucksack from his back to free up his movements. It was a cue for the others to shed of their baggage. Natsu released a slow breath and gazed around the wide base of a tree.
It had taken him nearly three days to track down this particular band of bandits. Every muscle strained to be released, ready to end the threat in front of him so they could head home. Erza grabbed his wrist tightly, giving him a wordless command to wait, the metal digging into his skin only showing him how hard it was for her to hold back.
Natsu nodded curtly, unhappy that she was still wanted to stick with the plan. On the dusty road ahead of them, Erza had convinced a traveling merchant to lure out the bandits, ensuring the man's protection as well as insuring his goods were anything to happen to them in the process. Said merchant had his cart stopped in the middle of the road, a lone figure standing just a few feet in front of the merchant's horses.
"We have to do something!" Lucy whispered urgently. A blade appeared in the figure's hand as if out of nowhere. The gesture was enough to bring a cry from the tree line surrounding the merchant's cart, other hooded figures stepping out to reveal themselves.
"Hey boss, looks like we have a few onlookers." The head figure called out, his blade leaving his hand with frightening speed towards the grouping of mages hiding in the trees. Erza reacted as fast as her reputation demanded, purple light surrounding her as she pulled a blade from her endless storage to appear in her hand just in time to deflect the blade.
Having been discovered, Team Natsu jumped from their hiding place. "Lucy, protect the merchant." Erza commanded, flourishing her blade. "We will take care of the rest."
"Don't take us so lightly, Miss Titania." A voice giggled, drawing the group's attention.
"If you know who we are, then you know why we are here. Make this easy on yourselves and turn yourselves in. No one has to get hurt here today." Natsu called out, fire rolling around his fists unconsciously.
"Oh, even the fabled Salamander is here to stop us? I didn't know we were that important." The woman teased, sauntering up slowly towards the group, the men creeping closer towards the cart.
"It doesn't matter how important you are or who you are. You have been terrorizing this town for long enough. We will stop you." He retorted with a scowl.
"Would you really hurt a woman? How could you hurt a poor defenseless lady like me? I didn't realize you Fairy Tail mages were so barbaric." She teased.
Natsu chocked out a laugh. "I hope you remember we gave you the choice to surrender after we end you. No one gets away with bad mouthing Fairy Tail." Clenching his fist, Natsu felt his knuckles strain against his taunt skin. Erza reached out to grab him, but he pulled away and launched himself forward. That was all it took for everyone to attack at once.
"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Natsu lashed out at the nearest mage, taking him by surprise. Natsu roared as he attacked, flowing his attacks together in a relentless onslaught.
"Ice Make: Lance!" Gray slapped his fist into his palm before creating his ice lance, thrusting it over Natsu's shoulder to attack a bandit that was trying to sneak up on the Dragon Slayer.
"Watch what you're doing Ice Princess! You could have hit me!" Natsu threw another bandit off to the side. The two glared at one another. "I bet I can take out more than you can!"
"Yeah, I'm sure that an idiot like you could do anything more than destroy the forest." Gray retorted sarcastically. The two spun on one another and slammed their foreheads together. "I could kick your butt anytime."
Erza jumped over and grabbed the two by the collars of their shirts and forced them apart. "We don't have time for this, get back in there and stop the bandits already." She reprimanded. Two shouts of confirmations came from the two mages and she let them go. They charged over to Lucy to help her protect the merchant the best that they could.
In a matter of minutes the four mages had dispatched all of the underlings, but a cry from the merchant led the four to spin around. The leader had an arm wrapped around his neck, her other hand holding a blade against his neck. "Now that I have your attention… Why don't you four leave me and my friend here alone so we can have a little chat? Wouldn't want to cause an accident, now would we?" She teased, pressing the dagger into the merchant's skin.
Erza raised a hand to prevent Natsu from charging ahead, glaring across to the bandit leader. "No one else has to get hurt here, but you know we can't just let you go like that. You can turn yourself in and still leave yourself a chance to change, but if you force my hand, I won't have a choice but to take you down here and now."
"I don't think I like the sound of that. If you try anything I will have to slit this man's throat. Just leave and I'll let him go." The bandit claimed with a sly smile. "After I'm done, I'll stop by to give you my thanks for letting me go, especially you." She said winking at Natsu. "You and your fairy whore."
Natsu sat motionless for a moment before he smiled over at the woman, his expression dark, devoid of all humor. "If she heard you call her that, you wouldn't be here to say anything worse. Sorry Erza, but we can't let her off easily this time, I'll stop her. I'll show her what it means to insult not only Fairy Tail, but my wife." Despite Erza's glare Natsu pushed his way past her and slowly made his way closer to the bandit and her hostage.
"Not a step further, Dragon Slayer. I will slit his throat, I promise you that." The leader threatened, digging the dagger deeper into the merchant's skin.
Natsu stopped, but his grin remained. He took up a wide stance, dropping low into a ready fighting stance. "With four of us and one of you, I think I'll take my chances."
"You swore my safety! You'll just let her kill me?" The merchant demanded with a high pitched voice, trying to draw away from his captor. "Silence, you pompous idiot. If you don't shut up soon, I will do it on principle." She swore back at him.
Natsu drew in a deep breath, his chest puffing. "Roar of the-"
"Natsu! Don't!" Lucy screamed, lashing out with her Fleuve d'étoiles in a desperate attempt to disarm the bandit.
"-Fire Dragon!" Natsu expelled the breath he had sucked in, fire erupting from his lungs through his fists. The bandit leader flinched back; her dagger coming away from the merchant's throat just enough that Lucy's whip snapped on her wrist and caused her to drop the weapon. The fire streaked just a hair over the two's shoulders, singing the skin ever so slightly on their cheeks.
Before the attack even dissipated, Natsu had crossed the distance and slammed his fist into the woman's face, brushing the singed skin of the merchant only briefly. The woman shot back from the force of the attack, her arm coming out from around the merchant, whom Natsu grabbed and threw back to his awaiting teammates.
Without waiting for another moment, Natsu launched forward in a flurry of attacks, but the bandit attempted to deflect his attacks. Both of her arms turned to stone as she deflected once more of her attacks, using his momentum to slip past him and press herself into an offensive attack. Natsu smiled wider and lost himself in the rhythm of the battle he found himself in, dodging around attacks and blocking them when he couldn't. He was losing ground, but made her sweat for every inch she gained.
"How do you expect to defeat me with such a weak defense?" She questioned slamming her fist into his shoulder to send him flying back into a tree. The tree fell, sending a shudder through the ground.
Natsu chuckled and rolled the fallen log off of his back effortlessly, straightening while rolling his neck. "That actually hurt, I have to commend you for that. Now, attack me like you mean it." Natsu waited until the last moment and deflected her attack past him before slamming his forearm into her throat, upending her where she stood. The bandit slammed onto her back, Natsu's sandaled foot slamming down on her stomach to hold her there. "Too slow, yet again."
Erza stepped up and smacked Natsu over the back of the head with her gauntleted fist. "What were you thinking Natsu? She could have hurt the merchant!"
Natsu rubbed the back of his head and sighed. "A lot of things could have happened, but they didn't. No one is hurt and the bandits were caught."
"That's not the point Natsu! We are a team; we have to work as one not just on our own. What would you have done if I hadn't hit her with my whip?" Lucy asked him angrily. Natsu simply smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "I trusted you to do it, you never let me down before." He responded happily. "Besides, you three were only a step behind me. I don't have anything to worry about with you three behind me."
"You put too much faith in us Natsu. It was only luck that you didn't get the merchant hurt. If she hadn't flinched at your attack, she would have slit his throat all the same." Lucy sighed and shook her head.
"You just said that we had to work as a team! If I trust you to do something and you are able to do it, then what's the problem?" Natsu snapped.
"I pray that Mira can reign you in at least a little before you get yourself, or worse yet her or your child hurt."
It had only been four days. Four days that Mirajane had been away from Natsu, or rather he had left her to go on a mission with his team. 'That isn't fair.' She told herself mentally. 'He had to go, we need the money and until I can get the guild settled I can't just up and disappear with him and his team because I want to be around him.'
No matter how many times she told herself that same story, she knew if he came back and simply offered her the chance to come along with him, she would have jumped at the idea and would have dropped everything to be by his side.
The main guild doors opened suddenly and Mirajane jerked her eyes over to them, but sighed dejectedly. It still wasn't him and everyone had started to notice that she was watching the doors very closely. Letting out a small sigh, Mirajane went back to her work and walked back into the kitchen to cook up some of the orders that had been placed. After years of practice, she could practically cook everything on the menu without even thinking about it, much less pay attention.
Piling plates on the tray, Mirajane quickly passed out the food. As fast as she passed them out, she wasn't paying attention to the doors until smoke filled her nostrils. She spun to the doors and found them closed; only raising her worries. If it wasn't Natsu coming in, it had to be a fire. Quickly scanning the guild hall, she spotted a small fire and quickly ran over to it, stepping on the embers with the soles of her heels. A quick look around didn't show who or what had started the fire, but the smell of smoke didn't go away.
Finally, the doors opened to reveal Team Natsu. Excitement rippled through Mirajane, but Natsu wasn't with them. Mirajane's excitement fell instantaneously, her shoulders sagging slightly. Erza walked up to her and handed her a small slip of paper. "Natsu said to give you this."
Mirajane accepted the paper and opened it, reading it eagerly. 'Let's play a little game. Follow the fire to your next clue.' Mirajane smiled and thanked the redhead with a quick hug before running over to the counter. She explained quickly to Kinana that she was going to take her break and that she would be back in a little while.
Excitement ran through the take-over mage. Doing exactly as the note said, Mirajane scanned the guild for any similar fires to the previous one. Finally, a small flicker of orange light caught her eye outside of the still open door of the guild. On further investigation, the fire was in fact shaped like an arrow to help guide her along the trail he had placed for her. Almost as soon as she saw it, the fire disappeared. She quickly rushed forward, her feet barely touching the ground in her excitement and anticipation.
The fires started to die out faster and faster, disappearing just a heartbeat after she caught sight of them until she failed to see exactly where it had pointed. In a panic, Mirajane scanned the ground around the passing crowd. In a desperate attempt to catch the fires again, Mirajane grabbed the edge of one of the overhanging's of a building and flipped herself to the top to get a better view.
She barely landed in time to see another fire die out again. Rushing forward, Mirajane failed to catch the direction it had pointed, but happened to catch sight of a flying blue cat. She quickly rushed over to him, but saw that he was waiting for her. "Mira, over here!" Happy called. "I thought you would have been here a while ago, but that doesn't matter. Natsu gave me your next task. He said to go get me a fish!"
Mirajane folded her arms over her chest. "I really doubt he told you to have me get you that. I'm not in the mood to play your little games; I want to see my husband."
Happy folded his arms over his chest and shook his head defiantly. "I won't tell you until you get me my fish!" Mirajane growled and grabbed him by his collar to pull him over to a stall selling cooked fish and handed over a handful of jewels, sweetly thanking the vendor before returning her glare to the Exceed.
"Here, take your fish. Now, what did Natsu tell you to tell me?" She demanded.
Happy plucked the fish from her grasp and happily smiled over at her now adoptive mother. "Come with me, I'm to take you to your next destination." Turning his back, Happy floated away happily, peaking back over his shoulder to make sure she was following. He lead the down along the tightly packed streets, seemingly with no destination in mind for how many times he circled the same streets.
"Do you even know where you're going? That's the fifth time we passed the clock tower." She demanded with a rough sigh.
"Nope. Natsu didn't tell me where we were supposed to go. Just said to keep you entertained until the big hand touches the small hand." He said pointing up at the clock.
"Then what were you supposed to do after that?" She questioned.
"Dunno, Natsu isn't the best at giving directions. What he said was, 'Keep Mirajane occupied until the big hand touches the small hand then show her the place we stopped before going home. What is that supposed to mean? We haven't gone home yet, so how can I show you where we stopped before going home?" Happy asked shrugging his shoulders.
Mirajane slapped her palm to her forehead and groaned loudly. "Did you go anywhere before he left you here? Anywhere that you usually don't go?" She stopped him and forced him to stay still, looking into his eyes questioningly.
"He took me to some clearing in the woods, but it was really boring. There weren't any fish or any games or anything we could do to have fun!" Happy complained sadly.
"Show. Me." Mirajane growled, glaring into the Exceed's eyes. Happy shied back in fear, pointing over towards the town wall. "Take me there. If you are quick about it…" Mirajane suddenly changed, a sweet smile spreading across her features. "If you are quick about it, I'll help you get Carla to accept a fish from you."
Happy's eyes watered and suddenly he cried flying into Mirajane's arms. "Thank you Mira! Don't let anyone tell you that you're as much of a demon as you used to be! You are so much nicer now that you're pregnant!"
Mirajane squeezed Happy's back gently. "Now show me where Natsu wanted you to take me." She said overly sweetly. Happy nodded and charged off in the direction he had indicated just a moment ago.
The two ran along silently, the only sound coming from the gentle slapping of their feet on the concrete. Concrete turned to dirt and grass before Happy stopped at the edge of a clearing, pointing towards a large singular tree in the center. "Natsu said to meet you there. I'm going home; I'll see you when you get back. Enjoooooooooy." Happy said over his shoulder flying away.
Mirajane watched the Exceed leave, wondering exactly what the two had actually planned. Shaking it off, she slowly made her way into the clearing towards the tree until she caught sight of her Dragon Slayer. Natsu was sitting with his back to the tree, his head leaning down on his chest while he snored softly. She couldn't help but smile and sit down next to him, leaning against his side with her head on his shoulder to let him sleep while still being close to him.
His heat filled her body, filling her heart with joy at just being close to him. She didn't know how she could feel so happy just being around him, but it was more than she could have hoped for. Kissing his cheek, she surrendered herself to him, his hand moving up her leg unconsciously, still asleep. He woke up quietly, raising his hand to her cheek to lean his forehead down to hers. "I knew waiting on Happy was too much to ask for. You nearly missed it."
Mirajane smiled and closed her eyes, placing her hand over his. She leaned into him and nodded while he continued. "I have a gift for you." Natsu pushed her hair from her neck and brought a necklace out of his pocket and wrapped it around her neck. "It will regulate your magic while mine builds within our child so it won't work against you. It'll keep you from transforming without meaning to. It's not really meant for that… It's meant to inhibit your powers, but it should work the same. Porlyusica gave it to me when I got back in town. Apparently Master and Porlyusica have been talking a lot about your pregnancy."
Mirajane shook her head and touched the black orb around her neck. "I'm sure it will be fine Natsu. It's only been a couple of weeks; I don't think anything will happen quite so soon. I'm worried about what will happen, but whatever comes, I know we can get through it together."
Natsu frowned and wrapped his arms around her. "This is the first time I've heard of a Dragon Slayer reproducing in the past several hundred years. I'm afraid of what we don't know."
"I'm not worried about the unknown. Every time you have been placed in an impossible position, we always figure out a way. This is no different Natsu. Except this time, we will both be side by side the entire time." Mirajane offered happily. "Together, we can get through this."
"I'm not just worried about that. One of the mages we fought against today knew about your pregnancy and said they were going to come after you. I'm worried I can't protect you." Natsu admitted.
As always, R & R please!
I promise to update again soon. I'm forcing myself to have a little more time to write. Oh! And I talked to a few of you about ending this series and you aren't too keen on it ending, so with some of your help, I have found a new direction to take this. Expect more chapters to come!