NATSU:

"Papa… I missed you." Her voice was Lucy's. Her scent was Lucy's. It was all too much. I felt cold tears slide down my cheeks, the walls I'd built crumbling in her presence.

"Papa, what's… wrong? Why… are you crying?" She was struggling to get the words out. It hurt me to see my daughter too injured to talk. She drew in a panicked breath and tried to sit up. "Mama! We have… to go… save… mama!" Swinging back the covers, she pushed herself off the bed. Her legs refused to support her and she fell on me, my hands barely avoiding her injuries as I tried to keep us from falling to the floor.

"Nashi, no. You need to rest." I tried to sound reasonable. Kind of hard to do, since in her place I would've done the same thing.

"No! Mama's hurt!" Her big brown eyes looked at me with sheer desperation. It was really hard to resist. I was raring to go myself, but she wouldn't help anyone if she couldn't even get up without help.

"Nashi. You can't help Lucy if you can't even get up without falling." My voice hardened without my noticing. I needed to hurt someone for hurting Lucy. For hurting our kid.

"You don't get it! You don't understand!" Nashi was almost screaming, clutching her stomach as she began to wheeze. Something inside me snapped.

"I do." It came out softer than expected. Nashi froze, her anger evaporating. "I was in your position more than once. Too many times I was unable to save her. Don't tell me that I don't understand, because I understand better than you do." I stood, the chair toppling over. Leaving the infirmary, I felt her gaze hard on my back. "Give yourself an hour." I was strong, Lucy was strong, so the kid would be strong. An hour combined with Wendy's magic would be more than enough to heal her, at least enough to move out. Coming out to the main hall, I was greeted with a curious wall of silence.

"Oi, Gray! Let's fight!" I called, making my way to the ice mage. Immediately a tick appeared on his forehead.

"You flamebrain! You wanna go so badly, eh!?" He moved away from Juvia, who pulled their kids away from our upcoming showdown. I chuckled inwardly. I could always count on Gray to help me blow off some steam.

"Yeah, droopy eyes! I hear you've gotten soft lately!" Our foreheads collided.

"Bring it on, squinty eyes!"

"Ice princess!"

"Hot head!"

"Stripper!"

"Fire freak!" His fist moved at the edge of my vision and collided with my ear. I quickly retaliated, making sure to not use magic. I wasn't sure if I could fully control myself right then. Within moments we were having a full-out brawl. Elfman and Gajeel quickly joined, despite Lisanna's and Levy's protests. As our violent snowball rolled around the hall we kept picking up more people until the fight had spread to all four corners. Even Erza joined after someone, I think Jet, squished her strawberry cake slice. She and her kid were single-mindedly chasing the Shadowgear duo, screaming something about heads and punishment. Jellal sat calmly and suspiciously at the bar and with one eye watched his wife and daughter rip people to shreds, a small smile forming on his face. Cana took the opportunity to pull him into the battle, and sure enough he started landing hits like there was no tomorrow. At some point Laxus came back from his job to see a runaway table fly towards his pregnant wife and in a fit of rage waded into the battle while Mira shook her head in exasperation. I laughed and smashed my elbow into Gray's face, earning a chuckle from him as he came after me without his pants.

"I missed this, Natsu." His knee came dangerously close to my stomach. I rounded out to dodge it and spun around, following through with my foot. He caught it and flipped me over, finishing with a precise fist to my side. I jumped up and tackled him.

"Me too." It had been ages since we'd started a fight, which was mostly my fault.

"Gray, your clothes." Cana spoke up from her wrestling match with a member I didn't know. Gray swore and tried to go find his pants, but Elfman dragged him back with a follow-up speech on manliness.

"Hey!" Nashi's voice echoed around the hall, the fight shutting down as recognition set in. I looked up from turning Droy into a pulp to see her standing next to Wendy on the second floor, an excited light in her eyes. "Can I join?"

People gaped openly, clearly dumbstruck. "Um, Nashi, I don't think—" Wendy tried to hold back the girl who ignored her and cleared the railing, her fists raised above her head as she pounced on the nearest unfortunate soul that happened to be Gray. She flattened him completely and turned to me.

"Hi papa! Let's kick some ass!" She sounded so happy, so carefree. Looks like she took after me. I grinned and we resumed the fight in a whirlwind of fists and pink hair, only stopping when almost everyone was beat and Erza bashed our heads in. We promptly apologized, got her two new cake slices and bailed.

NASHI:

Papa and I hid behind a wooden support to avoid the scarlet-haired monster lady's gaze. She and her kid were really scary. The fight was so much fun, and fighting with papa for the first time made it the best fight of my life. Sure, the person who had taken mama had made me fight other people who were strong, but it wasn't fun. Not as fun as this fight had been. Now, don't get me wrong: I don't like fighting because I like hurting people. I like the adrenalin that a fight gives you, the danger of it. I like seeing who's stronger. Mama always told me I was like papa in that way.

Speaking of which, papa seems really weird. One minute he's all quiet and serious and the next he's at the heart of a brawl, fighting with some stripper. Tch. That damn ice freak nearly froze my ass at the end there. Glad I nailed him twice in a row.

"Ne, papa, can we go eat and then save mama?" I asked him, my stomach growling. He snorted and we snuck around the monster lady's territory towards the bar where he introduced me to a beautiful white-haired pregnant lady. He said her name was Mirajane, I think. The soup she gave us was the best food I'd ever tasted, but considering that I'd been eating what mama called 'jail food' for most of my life I didn't really have anything to compare it to. Papa watched me inhale the soup and he almost laughed when I asked for my fifth refill.

"She really takes after you, Natsu." Mirajane told him quietly. He nodded, his eyes distant like he was thinking about something else.

"Oi, Salamander! Finish the fight you started, dammit!" A scowling man with lots of piercings and no eyebrows popped up behind papa, his small black cat flying around his head. Papa glanced at him, annoyed.

"Shove off, jerk. We're gonna go save Luce." The guild seemed to tune in to their conversation after those words, especially the ice freak and monster lady.

"Oh? You're going after Lucy? In that case, we'll come too." The monster lady changed her outfit to a white and blue sleeveless shirt and skirt. She looked nicer without her armor on. Papa seemed to shiver a bit when she pulled out a humongous cart of luggage. The stripper ice dude nodded silently, standing carefully by the edge of the luggage cart. Metalface brooded by papa's chair, but was without doubt of the same opinion. Wendy and Charla came down from the second floor, also wanting to join us. I looked around at them, soup dripping from my chin as I scanned their eager faces. Mama had been right about them: they were amazing friends, all willing to drop what they were doing to go and save her.

"Yosh! Let's go then – you ready, Nashi?" Papa stood up and all eyes landed on me. I nodded and quickly wiped my chin, getting a small chuckle out of the monster lady.

"Aye!" Papa's cat, Happy, called out cheerfully as we ran through the guild doors, the huge luggage cart rattling along behind us. Family members yelled good byes and good lucks to our retreating backs. I stuck close to papa, feeling safe. I'd known him for barely more than two hours, but already I could feel our similarities, our relationship as father and daughter. I felt like I could trust him with my life, and I guess I was already trusting him with mama's.