They sat on a bridge over the river, hanging their feet over the water and watching as the sun slowly set. At first it had been a little awkward between them, neither quite knowing what to say and both trying not to stare for too long. Natsu was amazed by how much she looked like Lucy. The shape of her face, her eyes, her nose, her body type; those all resembled her mother. But the color of her hair and the shape of her eyes, those belonged to him. He wanted to know everything about her.
She had explained to him about the book in the guild library. He nodded, having had a similar experience* with a different book.
"Well, I guess we can go to the library now and see if the book's there. It probably has some way to get you back to your own time." He said, crossing his arms over his body.
"Go Back?" Nashi said surprise. "But Dad, I don't want to go back!" Natsu smiled a little when she called him that, but looked at her quizzically.
"Why not? Your mother and I are probably worried in the future."
Nashi sighed, looking away from him and muttered in a small voice "I doubt she even notices I'm gone." Natsu frowned unhappily. He didn't like the thought of Lucy and Nashi fighting, but didn't press the issue.
"What about me? I'm sure I'm going crazy with worry…." He stopped when he saw the look on her face. "Nashi?" He asked, automatically reaching a hand out to comfort her. A hundred worst case scenarios ran quickly through his mind and he wanted to punch future him for whatever he did to make his daughter have that look on her face.
"You died." She told him, her eyes fixed on the river below. "Before I was even born….. There was a big battle, all the official guilds in Fiorre banded together to take out this one really powerful Dark Guild named 'Dark Horizons'. I don't know a lot about what happened, because no one likes to talk about it. I just know a lot of people got hurt or killed. Uncle Gray lost his hand, Happy lost his eye and Wendy was in a coma for over a year. Mom was pregnant with me so she stayed behind. My friend Lyon was just two days old, and Aunt Juvia left him with Mom so she could go fight with Uncle Gray. When they got back, they named him after a friend of theirs who also died in the battle. "
Natsu's hands clenched at his sides as he mentally saw what she described. His friends hurt and dying before him. The knowledge of his own death didn't bother him so much, as the thought of what came after. There was a deep sorrow in his heart thinking about leaving Lucy to raise Nashi all alone. He had grown up half his childhood without his father, and hated that Nashi had never had one to begin with.
"But….. I'm going to stop it!" Nashi interrupted his dark thoughts. She had a look of frightening and stubborn determination on her face. "I'm not going to let it happen, no matter what, you're not going to die this time!" He smiled, feeling proud at her resolve.
"Well Dark Horizons is a relatively new guild right now. They popped out of nowhere about a month ago. Lucy, Happy and I were on an easy mission near Harogon and we accidently ran into them." He growled slightly at the memory from earlier that day "I still can't believe that guy followed us and had the nerve to attack us in our own town! He defiantly doesn't know who he's decided to make enemies of." He looked over at his daughter. "and now, instead of one Dragneel he's gonna have to deal with two."
Nashi beamed happily and two shared and excited high five.
"So I can stay?" She asked. The prospect of getting more time to get to know her father had her feeling almost giddy. He grinned back at her, feeling the same way.
"Of course! But I don't think it's such a great idea to tell the rest of the guild who you are." Nashi nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, it would probably freak them out. What should we tell them?"
He thought about it, running his hands through his pink hair.
"I guess we'll just say you're another dragon slayer like me. We'll tell them you were just passing through when we met, and decided to stay. It's mostly true after all."
"But what about this?" She asked pointing to the Guild mark right above her heart. Natsu took off his scarf and wrapped it around her neck, positioning it so that it hid her tattoo.
"There. No one will ever notice." He said and they grinned twin smiles at each other.
Across the river, a white haired woman exited a shop with a bag of groceries in her hands. She was lost in thought, thinking about the things she had to get done that day when the two figures on the bridge caught her eye. She recognized the pink haired boy and expected to see a blond head sitting next to him, but had to do a double take when she realized the person next to him also had pink hair. Looking closer, her jaw dropped open as she took in the two's close proximity and realized that the second person was a girl.
"Oh my." Mira whispered. Then she shook her head, scolding herself for automatically thinking those thoughts. It was Natsu after all.
Then her eyes nearly bulged out of her head as she watched him take off his scarf, his most prized possession, and drape it around the girls neck. She watched them for a good ten more minutes until the couple got up and left. When they were gone, Mira turned and nearly ran to the guild, forgetting the rest of her shopping completely.
Lucy's arm had been bandaged and she now sat alone in the infirmary after Loki left. She had expected Natsu to come and check on her, but she figured something must have held him up. It was just a broken arm after all, she had been through worse. But as the time ticked by and Natsu still didn't show, she couldn't help but feel a little hurt.
She was also curious about the strange way he'd been looking at the pink haired girl. Lucy hadn't seen when and where she arrived from, but the second she appeared Natsu had gotten distracted and almost gotten himself shot. She rolled her eyes, irritated at his carelessness. Didn't he know that if something happened to him, she'd be totally lost?
Finally giving up on the idea of people coming to check on her, she went downstairs to join the rest of the guild. Mira was talking excitedly to a group near the bar, who regarded her with a mix of disbelief and skepticism.
"And then he put his scarf around her!" Mira squealed. Lucy joined them, interested after hearing the word scarf. She only knew one person who always wore a scarf.
"Mira, maybe she was just cold, and Natsu was being kind." Wendy said. Mira shot her a look of annoyance that had Wendy cowering.
"What are we talking about?" Lucy asked while taking a drink. Then again, she was unsure if she wanted to know. There was usually only one thing Mira got this serious about.
"Natsu's in loooovvvvveee!" Mira gushed, hearts replacing her eyes. Lucy spluttered and spit out her drink. Happy was cackling madly, thoroughly enjoying the conversation.
"What!?" Lucy said, going red in the face. "With who?" Mira looked sad at the question.
"I wish I knew. I saw them together at the bridge by the magic shop. She was very pretty though. Oh, I really hope he brings her here to meet everyone!"
"He won't if he has any sense." Luxus muttered "One look at this lot and she'll be running for the hills."
"Maybe what you saw, wasn't what you thought." Lisanna said to her sister, a little sad. Lucy felt bad for the girl, knowing she had a crush on Natsu.
Just then the guild doors opened and Natsu walked in. Several people had to do a double take when they saw that he was holding hands with a very pretty pink haired girl, who was also wearing his scarf around her neck.
"Hey everyone, there's someone I'd like you to meet." He pulled the girl forward, like he was showing her off to the group. "This is Nashi."
There was a shocked silence before most people snapped out of their traces and greeted Nashi warmly. Mira practically fainted.
The girl smiled and looked around the room, moving from face to face with an awed expression. Her eyes stopped on Lucy and studied her features, which made Lucy blush. Natsu followed Nashi's gaze and nudged the girl in the ribs so that she looked away. He went and took a seat at the bar by Lucy and Nashi sat on his other side.
"So Nashi, can I get you anything to eat or drink?" Mira asked.
"Some fire please Mira, I'm starving!" Mira stared at the girl.
"Um, Nashi is a fire-dragon slayer, like me!" Natsu explained, coming to her rescue. "We met today on the street and decided to hang out and trade techniques!"
"Y-yeah!" Nashi agreed whole-heartedly "And I knew your name because….because….Because you're the great Mirajane! I've seen you in sorcerer weekly! Actually, that's where I know a lot of you from" Mira nodded acceptingly and went to go get Nashi a stick of fire, while the girl mentally congratulated herself on the quick thinking.
"Why is she wearing your scarf?" Cana asked bluntly. He eyes were slightly out of focus and she was clearly drunk.
"I was, um…..cold." Nashi said weakly. Several people exchanged looks that meant they didn't buy this lie for a second, but if the two fire wizards wanted to keep their relationship a secret, it was their business.
"Hey Flame Brain!" Yelled a familiar voice. Both Natsu and Nashi turned at the same time, the same expression on their faces.
"Err, I meant him." Gray said awkwardly. Nashi was surprise by how much young Gray looked and sounded like his future son. They were identical except for the hair color.
"We never settled our earlier argument." Gray accused, poking his figure in Natsu's chest.
"Yes we did, I was right." Was the fire mages cocky reply. Gray growled in frustration.
"You moron, I bet you don't even remember what we were fighting about."
"Doesn't matter, I was still right."
"Why you…."
Next thing Nashi knew the two were going at it in an all-out brawl. Natsu was putting in special effort to show off for his daughter and she was eating it up.
"GO Natsu! Beat his ass!" She cheered.
Mira watched the whole scene and said with a dreamy sigh to Lucy. "Oh how cute, he's showing off. Aren't they just perfect for each other?"
"Yeah, perfect." Lucy muttered, feeling strangely hollow. When she had first arrived at the guild, Natsu hadn't even gotten her name right, let alone shown her attention like this. It's because he's never met another fire-dragon slayer. She thought to herself, That's the only reason he thinks she so special.
By this point, the fight had grown to include 90% of the guild all throwing punches at whoever was closest. Out of the corner of her eye, Lucy saw a chair thrown by Evergreen (intending to hit Elfman in the back of the head) fly toward the pink haired girl who wasn't looking.
"Get down!" She yelled, lunging for Nashi and grabbing her wrist. She yanked her out of the way just in time. The girl bumped into Lucy's new cast, causing her to wince in pain.
"Opps!" Nashi exclaimed "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you!" The girl braced herself like she expected Lucy to shout at her, but Lucy smiled genuinely. "Don't worry about it" She said, deciding on the spot that she liked the pinkettes character."
Nastsu came rushing over and inspected Nashi for damage. "Are you hurt?" He asked her worriedly, and she shook her head and rolled her eyes embarrassed. Natsu obviously decided the guild hall was now far too dangerous a place to bring his new friend because he grabbed her arm and led her outside. He didn't even stop to say goodbye to Lucy or Happy as he went. Lucy stared after him for a minute, thinking about following before deciding they probably needed time to do 'dragon-slayer stuff'.
"Bye Natsu." She whispered to her drink, knowing he couldn't hear her.