"Lucy…"

The blonde gasped, looking up towards the source of the noise. Erza was there (not aged a day with the exception of her locks being less bright, Lucy noted) her same old armor clinging to her like usual. Gray was there. Does he realize he's shirtless? Juvia does… Juvia was, of course, bright-faced at Gray's sudden clothing choice, but was wearing a white knee-length skirt along with blue ballet flats that matched her eyes, along with a blue shirt the same color with a white sweater to accompany it. Her hair was styled to be longer; she even lost the hate she was always seen wearing! Then there he was. HE was standing there, his own eyes wide and his pupils smaller than they were on an average day. His scarf blew with the wind that was carrying the only sound made besides the cheering children, happy to have found their Mommy again.

They stayed like that for a while…

The looks on their faces… how was she supposed to take this? How was she supposed to react? Lucy's eyes traced her (ex) fellow Fairy Tail members- the people she used to go on missions with every day like it was nothing….

It was strange to see their faces all grown up- just as she knew hers was. Maturity was the biggest, not the only, but the biggest, thing she could see in those eyes. It was a maturity mixed in with experienced contentment, reservation, sorrow, and discomfort… agony… pain.

Erza was the one to make the first move.

"LUCY!" The blonde, if only five seconds later, found herself being crushed by Titania's bear hug/glomp. "OHHH we missed you so MUCH!" Lucy could feel the weight being lifted off of her as Erza pulled away to grab her shoulders. "Are you alright? Did they hurt you? What have they done? What happened to you? Did they do anything to the babies?"

Jett and Odette turned to one another, shrugging their shoulders in confusion. Buzzle scratched his head against Jett's neck to show his own brand of misperception. Lucy laughed nervously. "E… Erza, just look at them! They're fine!" Every finger except the thumb was closed into a fist as it gestured towards the little eight-year-olds who were still bemused. Erza looked at Lucy then back at the look-alikes, then yet again towards Lucy. Juvia took a step forward, exclaiming that it was very nice to see her again. Huh, she and Gray must have tied the knot or SOMETHING if she's not viewing me as her romantic rival anymore. Lucy supposed, looking over at Gray who was approaching behind his girlfriend.

"Lucy… where have you been? Who kidnapped you?" There was pure unadulterated joy in his voice, but behind the curtains Lucy could catch resentment and apprehension. He was truly glad she was back, but he wanted the head of whoever it was that hijacked her in the first place. Juvia nodded (trust that Gray's concern was that of friendship and nothing more, Lucy noted once more).

"We've been searching high and low for you for eight years! We never found…anything…" Erza exclaimed, slowly coming to some sort of epiphany. Lucy, as well as the twins, seemed to notice that everybody was coming to the same conclusion.

A few seconds flat her once caring, overjoyed friends had a sword pointed at her throat, seemingly ready to end her line of life.

"MOMMY!" She could hear the babies crying out for their mother as she was pressed up against the ground, her back landing painfully on a couple of twigs.

Erza's glare was just as deadly as she remembered it, and Gray's made her feel extremely uncomfortable to say the least. Juvia held that blank "no mercy" look that she used to have so often…

And Natsu seemed just as lost as Lucy.

"WAIT! What are you guys doing? That's LUCY- our Luce!"

"Open your eyes Natsu! Why NOW after eight years of searches does she just suddenly APPEAR before us? Why didn't she come out sooner?"

"Because of my kids!"

The foursome looked down at their trapped partner as she looked up at them with this sick strength in her eyes. It was that look- the one that belonged to their Lucy and their Lucy alone. "My kids went out into the forest by themselves for the first time today… and accidently got lost. That is why I am here. That is why you better pull the sword away from my throat before you do something and accidently kill somebody who is undeserving of it."

Odette and Jett rushed to their mother's side, relived at her courage's lack of absence. They glared up at the red-head, who was already withdrawing, her sword at Lucy's prompt defiance. "So it is you…"

"Damn right it's me! What the HELL are you DOING pointing a sword at somebody when there are KIDS present?"

"They may have been illusions." Gray shrugged, smirking that same arrogant grin he always used to.

"Illusions my ass. That's still just wrong!" Lucy whined, crossing her arms. "My children may be forever scarred thanks to that." Jett and Odette looked at their mom, then each other before both deciding to roll their eyes and continue on with the conversation. "You know these people, Mommy?"

Lucy nodded, leisurely getting up and standing on her own two feet. "That's Gray." She motioned to the said ice mage who waved in response. "That's Juvia." She nodded in the water mage's direction, who smiled and waved as an echo of what her lover had greeted them with. She was not yet ready to guess out loud at what their (Gray's and Juvia's) relationship had come to since she had left. She knew that if she said one wrong thing Juvia would either faint or drown them all in tears. "That's Erza." The red-head gave a pleasant gentle nod before being preoccupied by something moving to the left of her. Lucy knew exactly what- or who- it was that had caught Erza's attention, deciding that it would be best if she saved the whole "he's your dad" thing for later.

"And this is Natsu." She wanted to say.

It was rather difficult to get any words out as a pair of lips came crashing onto her own, strong fiery hot arms wrapping around her as she subconsciously wrapped her legs around her attacker's waist. His tongue was certainly spicy from all of (what she was guessing was) the peppery ramen he was probably indulging in before she had made her appearance. She could feel him press up against her tighter, holding her close and savoring every moment that Lucy knew she too, was guilty of trying so hard to remember. Natsu's kiss was long, passionate, with a far overdue yearning and thirst hidden behind it. (But there was something else there. What was it? Lucy felt she could ignore the swaggering stares coming from her friends and the shaken or alarmed looks coming from her offspring just a little while longer…) She hated it, this overwhelming need to continue hanging onto him, this want to continue this kiss and even more. Eight years had passed since they had first held one another like this, and the thoughts came back to her mind, clear and vivid.

Natsu licked her bottom lip, wanting to get a better taste of this girl-no- woman that he had wanted for so long, just knowing that, by the way she was responding, wanted him equally as much. He pulled her even closer, twirling her around as she reached both hands up to run through his extended hair, running over all of her curves that had seasoned even since then. He could feel her legs tighten around his waist as the two somehow simultaneously decided to pull apart for air. Onyx eyes met dark chocolate ones, both blinking and gazing into the others. The celestial mage heaved as her arms tightened around his neck. He pressed his forehead against hers as that smile he had once had, that smile that hadn't appeared for some time made its way to his features, presenting itself to the one person that could claim that smile as the one he always had for her. His eyes had that same sparkle that they used to (and damn, was his hair brighter, now?).

For the first time in a long time, Natsu Dragneel was happy.

He wasn't giddy.

He wasn't joyful.

He was happy.

He was happy, and Erza was happy, and Gray was happy, and Juvia was happy, and Lucy could share this old flame of contentment and the utmost pleasure that they felt- that he felt.

The twins, however, were not pleased.

"M-M-M-MOOOM!"

"WHAT THE HEEELLLLL?"

Lucy gasped, realizing that in her outrageous twinkling of amorousness, she had forgotten all about her children- who had never seen her interact with any man in such a way. This INCLUDED who they considered to be their "Daddy", Korvich. From where she was… "sitting"… she could see the distraught expressions that her babies held. Odette looked as though she was about to whine. Jett looked like he was disgusted and confused at the same time. She laughed nervously, forcing Natsu to let her feet press against something other than his lower back.

"Momma?" Odette slowly spoke. The edginess she was feeling was no great mystery. Why had her mother, who was always so rough with any man besides her Daddy, kissed this man? Lucy took a deep breath, looking down at the two of them.

Well, looks like the "he's your dad" thing came a wittle sooner than anticipated.

"Jett, Odette…"

"THOSE are their NAMES?" Natsu exclaimed in the background. "I thought you said you wanted to name the kids something different?" Lucy let out a huff, glaring at the pink-haired man before turning around to face the youngsters again. Because Korvich had mercy on her and allowed her to keep her children so long as they stayed in the guild, she had decided to let him name the children. Odette because her beauty was that of the heroine in Swan Lake and Jett because… well, it rhymed.

She mentally made a note to slap Korvich again for being so immature.

"Listen… you may have been smart enough to figure this out already, especially since you look nothing like him, but Korvich is…" she took a deep breath.

"Korvich is not your real father."

Jett's jaw dropped so hard you could almost hear it "clank" like a cartoon against the ground. Odette, however, shrugged. "Auntie Haruka already told me that." The blonde woman twitched. "She did, did she?"

Lucy mentally made a note to (interrogate) ask Haruka why she had revealed such scarring information to her daughter.

"In fact, your actual father is this man, here…." Lucy gestured over to Natsu, who looked surprised that Lucy had just dropped it out like that. He then offered his best heart-warming smile and bent down to their level, reaching out his hand.

"My name is Natsu. Natsu Dragneel. I'm… I'm your Dad, I guess."

Odette wasted no time running up and hugging the man around the neck, snuggling in naturally to his radiating heat. Natsu, while surprised by the impact, still caught the girl in his arms, holding her close before looking over at the still frozen Jett, reaching his other hand out. Jett stood there, eyes filled with concern and insecurity before he looked up at his mother, whose reassuring smile told him just what he wanted to hear.

Slowly but surely, the boy approached the man with an arm still open, still unsure of this interaction. Then he got a look from Natsu that Korvich had given him many times before. Never before, though, had it shaken him to this core in his chest in such a way. Deciding he had spent long enough playing games, he jumped into the man's open arm.

In some way, he and Odette had always known, somewhere in the back of their mind, that Korvich wasn't their real father, and that their real Daddy was somebody out there that they would meet one day. There was always something telling them that there was something off with Korvich, something they couldn't quite explain.

Somehow, being in this man's arms felt right.

It felt like they had a protection they had half-lacked before. It felt like they had finally found the final ingredient to their concoction. (If they knew a little more about their magic, they would have known it was their slayer instincts were still in gear, even subconsciously.)

And it was all because this man, the one holding them and crying, in a manly way, was their father.

Jett's cry was muffled against his scarf, but Natsu could hear it clearly.

"Papa!"

Erza's smile was a little brighter as she stared down at the three, her eyes shining as bright as the sun on one of her swords. Would this be a good time to bring up that I want kids, Gray-sama? Juvia questioned herself. She slowly reached out, wrapping both of her arms around her boyfriend's right arm. He looked back at her, confusion written all over his face. Juvia looked up at him with anxious eyes and gulped. The ice mage frowned at her, whispering that they needed to talk later.

"Lucy…"

The blonde queen looked down at the father of her children. He was looking up at her with a big, watery, cocky smirk. "You're the Mom; get your ass down here, too!" Just as radiant as it always had been, Lucy's smile shined through her teeth and pale red lips (she needed to reapply soon). She got down on all fours before grabbing up her kids and leaning into Natsu's big, warm hug as well. The dragon slayer leaned down and placed a kiss on his lover's head, holding his family just a wee bit closer.

Lucy knew the issue of Lisanna and Natsu still remained, as she was convinced that maybe just maybe Natsu had once again acted on his emotion rather than on his brains (even though it wasn't like him to break a promise), but there were other issues, too- BIGGER ones. For example, it didn't seem as though Natsu was giving his new family up any time soon. Who would have an issue with that?

Korvich.