Title: Absolute Zero

Author: CreateElements

Rating: T-rated for suggestive themes.

Summary: Where assumptions are made and an ice mage disappears.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

Concern

"Maturity begins to grow when you can sense your concern for others outweighing your concern for yourself." - John MacNaughton

Lucy Heartfilia sat at her desk in her apartment looking at a pile of papers. The celestial mage tapped her pen against the mahogany desk.

Since they had returned from their latest successful mission, Lucy had gone home with intent to work on her chapter.

Sighing in defeat, the celestial mage dropped the pen and placed her head against the desk. Maybe I should go find Gray.

The blond had a serious case of writers block. The poor celestial mage couldn't think of anything for the next chapter in her book. Now that her characters were together in every way what was next?

Over her bed, Lucy watched as a man with pink hair opened the window and stepped inside her room. The celestial mage didn't even bother to greet or scold the Dragon Slayer. Instead, she just sat there looking off into space.

The Fire Dragon Slayer noticed her sulking against her desk. "Lucy, what the heck are you doing?"

Natsu asked as he watched her with worried eyes. He knew she was a weird one, but really? What was she doing just sitting there? She didn't even yell at him like she normally did when he came in. He looked around the room and noticed that it was empty. He scratched his head looking back at her, "Where's ice freak?"

Lucy sighed as she sat up. She put her elbow on the table holding up one finger, "One, I have no clue. I think he went to the guild a few hours ago." The celestial mage held up a second finger, "And answering your first question I have writers block."

The Dragon Slayer looked at her scratching his head in confusion, "What's writer's block?"

Lucy looked at her friend with a blank expression before rolling her eyes. "It's when a writer's creativity just stops and they don't know how to continue writing. It's a block of creativity," Lucy explained.

Natsu walked over to her desk looking over her shoulder down at the pieces of paper. She had a little written on it; but not much. He made a grab for the papers, but Lucy slapped his hand away and cradled the papers against her chest.

"Forget it, Natsu!" She snapped glaring at the Dragon Slayer.

He pouted looking down at the celestial mage, "But Lucy!"

Lucy shook her head as she got up guarding her papers. "Forget it Natsu. This is one of the most important things in my life. I refuse to let you destroy anymore pages!"

Natsu huffed as he crossed his arms. He really hadn't meant to burn the pages last time. It was Gray's fault really. If the ice freak would wear his clothing they wouldn't have gotten into a fight. And Lucy wouldn't have lost a few pages of her precious book. But Natsu was smart enough not to mention this to the celestial mage. "I don't see how a book is so important."

Lucy placed the pages in a box marked 'Stay Out!' She looked over her shoulder at the pink haired mage who watched her movements. "I don't expect you to understand Natsu."

"Try me."

Lucy nodded her head, "These pages are my baby. They are precious and need to be taken care of. Like how you are with Lisanna. Your careful and wouldn't let anything happen to her right?"

Natsu slowly nodded, still a little confused.

Lucy seemed satisfied with the Dragon Slayer's answer. "Speaking of which, where is Lisanna?"

Natsu sat down on her bed, spiraling out over the covers. "She's with Mira and Happy. Mira took them shopping. I should head over to see her," the Dragon Slayer sat up and opened the window. He looked over at Lucy, "Don't worry Luce. You'll get past your wall."

The celestial mage sighed, "Thanks Natsu."

The next morning the celestial mage walked into the guild with large dark half circles under her eyes. She had been trying to work on her chapter all night. Natsu's little interruption hadn't helped any either. After he left Lucy had tried tea, milk and many other things to get the creative juices flowing. Only nothing came.

Before she knew it, the sun had come up and the new day had started.

The celestial mage slumped down at the bar. Yawning she smiled, "Good morning Mira-chan."

"Tiring night, Lucy?" Mirajane inquired.

"Yeah," Lucy rubbed her sore neck. "Didn't help that Natsu came over; that guy can really keep a girl up."

Mira looked at Lucy wide eyed. Were Natsu and Lucy cheating on Lisanna and Gray with each other?

All around them the guild seemed to go quite at the celestial mages confession. None of the mages in everyone's mind except Lucy were in the guild at this time. No doubt rumors would start to circulate. Of course Mira had faith in her sister's beau. There had to be more to the story.

Lucy stood up from the bar, "I'm going to go to Gray's and wake him up. I will see you later Mira."

The celestial mage waved over her shoulder as she walked out of the guild.

The moment she left the guild, everyone started gossiping. Some even started betting on if they were cheating and if they weren't. Naturally Mira stayed out of it. She liked to think the best of the members of Team Natsu.

Erza refused to participate in the guilds commotion. The scarlet haired mage turned her back to most of the guild focusing her attention on a delicious piece of strawberry cake.

Just then the doors opened up with two of the mages in question. Natsu and Lisanna walked in together hand in hand.

Instantly, Natsu was surrounded by male members of the guild. "Natsu how could you?!"

"You're not being very manly Natsu!"

"Natsu how could you?!"

The Dragon Slayer stopped in confusion looking around at everyone. "Did I miss something?"

Makarov walked up to Natsu and looked at him with a glare, "Natsu. I thought you knew better than to cheat."

Lisanna looked at her boyfriend with in shock, "Natsu?"

The Dragon Slayer shook his head and waved his arms frantically, "I'm not cheating! I would never cheat on Lisanna!"

The guild members looked at him in confusion, "Weren't you with Lucy last night? She said you kept her up late last night."

Gajeel walked up to Natsu and looked at him skeptically, "Lucy came in this morning looking tired."

Natsu thought back and smiled.

"Oh yeah," He said. "That was because of her baby."

The guild got deadly quiet.

Mirajane looked at Natsu and took a deep breath, "So you weren't cheating on Lisanna with Lucy?"

Natsu scratched his head, "No. I was looking for Gray. I had a question to ask him and he wasn't there. And then she started to talk about her baby... " Natsu trailed off looking at the shocked faces in front of him.

At that exact moment Gray Fullbuster walked into the guild. He stopped in his tracks when he saw a large group of people surrounding the Dragon Slayer and take-over mage.

All eyes shifted to the ice mage. He looked at each of them with a worried expression, "What?"

Natsu frowned at the ice mage and the rest of the guild. "Didn't she tell you guys about her baby?"

The ice-make mage froze upon hearing his words, "Her… b-b-b…"

"Baby?" Levy squeaked.

"Yeah," Natsu nodded, not registering how everyone's jaws hit the floor. This morning had been very interesting for the members of Fairy Tail. At first everyone thought the members of Team Natsu were cheating on each other with each other. Then they weren't.

Instead, Lucy was pregnant. Many looked at the suspected father of the celestial mages baby.

The ice mage looked like he was about to faint. He took a step backwards. "I… I think I need to sit down."

The ice mage took the spot closest to him looking down staring at the ground. He tried to think back to a moment when he hadn't been careful. The couple had been sexually active for a few months now but he couldn't think of a time when he wasn't careful. He felt dizzy, sick and confused all at once. He blamed himself. Lucy's going to hate me.

Mira walked over to the ice mage and knelt in front of him. The eldest take-over mage put a hand on his knee, "Are you going to be okay?"

The ice mage glanced up at her, "I… I need to think." He stood up without another word and left the guild. Erza, Lisanna and Mira looked after the mage with worried expressions.

A few hours later, after Gray had left, Lucy strolled back into the guild, with a smile on her face.

Despite not being able to find Gray and her writers block Lucy had been having a good day. The town's people were really nice to her today. One woman even told her she could come into her store anytime for when she got a little bigger. Whatever that meant.

"Hey, everyone!" The blond mage looked over to find a large portion of the guild huddled together staring at her, "What are you guys doing?"

Each of them blushed and quickly made an excuse to leave.

Levy flew across the room to hug her. "Lucy! Congratulations! Aren't you nervous?"

"Thank you?" Lucy looked at her blue haired friend in confusion, "What do you mean?"

Just then Fairy Tail's reequip mage came up to the duo. "Don't hog her, Levy. We want to congratulate her as well." Erza scolded the solid-script mage. The blue haired mage blushed and pulled away allowing the other women to hug the celestial mage.

The celestial mage looked over her group of friends, "What's…um, what's all this about?"

"Natsu told us," Makarov said seriously. "About your baby, I mean."

All this fuss over my book? "Oh," the celestial mage smiled and waved her hand dismissively, "He told you?"

"So it's true!" Bisca exclaimed.

Lucy shrugged her shoulder, "Well it wasn't really a secret. It's the only way I could stop him from fussing over it."

A few of the women in the guild swooned. They found it cute, imagining Natsu with a little tyke running around. He would be a wonderful uncle. That is if the father would allow him around.

"You can do it, Lucy!" Cana cheered.

Jet nodded his head, "Don't worry were here for you!"

Many of the guild members nodded and cheered in agreement.

Lucy stared at them all. Tears of happiness threatened to fall. She never knew they were so supportive of her dream to be an author. "Thank you."

Levy hugged her once again. "Don't cry Lu-chan."

Lucy looked over at Mira and smiled. "Have you seen Gray? I went by his house and he wasn't there."

Mirajane gave her a smile. "I'm sure he's around here somewhere."

When the celestial mage announced she was going to go home to get some rest no one stopped her. Mirajane however was worried. Where in the world was the ice mage? Shouldn't he have gone straight to Lucy and talked to her about their child? Mirajane felt like something was off.

A few days later a fuming celestial mage sat at the bar. "Okay! Mira-chan, life is so weird right now! What's going on?"

Mira feigned innocence and looked at Lucy with a confused look, "Why is that?"

Lucy threw a pile of letters on the table. She shook her head pointing to them. Carefully Mirajane inspected one of the letters. "I don't get it Mira. I've received a 'Congratulations' card from Sabertooth. I have a card from Lamia Scale stating that Lyon will be bringing my presents up when he and Juvia return. And Blue Pegasus sent me a bunch of designer baby clothing from the Trimens! Why the hell would I need any of this? And where the hell is Gray?!"

Mirajane looked down at each of the letters. Maybe now wasn't the best time to mention the article in Sorcerer Magazine.

Mirajane had a funny feeling Fairy Tail had once again jumped to the wrong conclusions. The take-over mage set the letter back down. "Lucy, are you pregnant?"

The celestial mage looked up at Mirajane in horror. "What!? Mira! No! Wh-why would you eve-" Lucy stopped mid-sentence. "No."

It finally clicked for the celestial mage. Lucy looked up to Mira with wide eyes; shaking her head back and forth. "You mean… You thought I was… and… O."

Lucy sat down at the bar. They thought she was pregnant. The celestial mage looked back up at Mira, "You think…"

The take-over mage just nodded, "Natsu told us about your baby and we assumed…"

Lucy shook her head and then groaned. "This is why I haven't seen Gray. I thought I did something wrong," she looked up at the white haired mage, "When I said baby I meant my book."

In that moment Mirajane knew she had a lot of work ahead of her in the next few days; she would have everything fully cleared up with the guild and the rest of Fiore. The take-over mage reached over the bar taking the worried celestial mage's hand. "Let me take care of everything. Right now you need to go home. If I see Gray will explain everything."

Lucy felt numb. She looked up at Mira and nodded.

The celestial mage groaned as she opened up the door to her apartment. After realizing what everyone had thought Lucy felt exhausted.

This was all a very big misunderstanding and looking back on it she felt dumb. How had she not pieced it together sooner? Levy, Erza and Lisanna over the last three days had been fussing over her belly. They had even spoken to it.

Now that she looked back on it, they had been dropping baby hints all week. Lucy pinched her nose as she closed the door.

She made her way to the bathroom, but she stopped herself when she realized that there was another person in her apartment.

"Gah," she screamed as she turned to find none other than Fairy Tail's very own ice mage sitting on her couch.

"Gray!?" The stellar spirit mage asked in surprise.

Gray hadn't noticed her come in and jumped when he heard his voice. Standing up he looked over at Lucy. He swallowed the lump in his throat and looked at her. "Lucy…I've been thinking. About everything that has happened the past few days and-"

"Gray-" Lucy tried to interpret him but he put his hand up in the air.

"Lucy please. I need to say this," he took a few steps forward until he was standing in front of her.

"I'm sorry I disappeared but I had to think. I took a short mission because I needed some quick cash. Lucy I want to be with you. We have been dating for a few years now. I want you to know that I love you; and not just because of the baby." He cupped her cheek in his hand as he ran his thumb over her cheek, "I love you Lucy. And I want to be with you forever."

A tear slipped down her cheek. "Gray I need to tell you something."

The ice mage smiled as he held her, "Anything."

"I'm not pregnant."

The ice mage stilled looking down at her. She sighed as she shook her head, "I don't know what happened. But when Natsu mentioned my baby I thought he meant my book. That night I was working on my book. He showed up and wanted to read the pages. I told him no because I didn't want him to burn them like last time. I told him they were like my baby. Everyone jumped to conclusions and I'm sorry I didn't notice sooner."

The raven haired mage stood there absorbing the information he had just heard come from Lucy. She not pregnant.

For some strange reason the twenty-seven year old felt a little disappointed. Over the last few days he had wrapped his head around the idea of being a father. He found he actually liked the idea. Especially if Lucy was the mother.

"I understand if you're mad. I just don't how I didn't notice before now."

Gray shook his head, "I'm not mad. But I did mean what I said before."

Lucy looked up at him in confusion. He broke away from her and got down on one knee and pull out a box from his pants pocket. He then opened it up to reveal a beautiful ring. Tears started flowing from the celestial mages eyes.

"Baby or no baby. I still want you in my life. So, Lucy Heartfilia; will you marry me?"

"Y-yes! A thousand times yes!"

He stood up and carefully placed the ring on her left hand. The celestial mage pulled him into a tight embrace. The happy couple pulled away from each other grinning like fools. Without hesitation their lips met. Despite everything Lucy had found out that day, she decided the day wasn't so bad.

Later that night Lucy got up from her bed sitting down at her desk. Silently, the celestial mage made sure her now fiancé was sleeping soundly before she wrote down the events of the day.

As she wrote the celestial mage realized she had the next chapter to her character's story. And somehow Lucy knew this chapter would be the best yet.

A/N: Originally, Gray was going to be dying from a poison arrow and Lucy was going to be concerned for his well-being. However, I really like this one better. As some of the other chapters are heavier in theme I figured we could use a lighter one.

Until tomorrow!

-CE