Fatherly Love

Three days after Porlyusica left…

Lucy tucked stray strands of Ryū's hair out of his face, smiling gently as she waited for the oven to beep. She glanced in the direction of Nashi's room with a sigh. It had been a week since Porlyusica diagnosed Nashi, and four days since Natsu came home. His face when she told him Nashi was sick was terrible. He'd barely left her room since then. She flinched when Nashi's coughing echoed through the hall, and again when the oven beeped, signaling dinner's near-completion. She gave Ryū a kiss on the forehead, earning a happy gurgle as he played with his beanie baby. She smiled at him before approaching the oven and pulling out the meatloaf – a new recipe she'd been working on; she thought she'd try something new.

Lucy began slicing it into almost identical pieces, moving on to make the potatoes. She'd just started stirring them when another terrible cough sounded from her daughter's room. She turned to Ryū when he made a sound. He was looking toward Nashi's room, his grey eyes glazed with worry. As if sensing his mother's gaze, he looked at her. Lucy knew that look well. Natsu had that look in his eyes when he was concerned.

Within a matter of seconds, dinner was completed and ready to be eaten. Lucy huffed and approached Ryū, lifting him out of his highchair and into her arms. She kneeled down to retrieve the beanie baby he dropped and made her way to Nashi's room. She knocked on the door before turning the knob and peeking inside. Nashi was sitting up in the bed, the thick blankets pooling around her waist. Natsu was sitting on the edge beside her, comfortingly rubbing her back as she coughed almost silently.

"Dinner's ready, Natsu," she said, shifting Ryū's weight in her arms. Natsu glanced up at her and smiled.

"Alright," he said softly, turning his attention back to Nashi as she continued to stifle her coughs. Lucy stepped further into the room, sitting down at the foot of the bed.

"Just cough, sweetheart," she ordered gently.

"It… hurts to c-c-cough, Mama…" Nashi muttered, her voice raspy and muffled from the hand she had covering it. Settling Ryū down on her lap, Lucy reached out and touched Nashi's free hand.

"I know, sweetie. But coughing is going to help you get better. I promise." Nashi's dark brown eyes moved up to meet her mother's for a moment, just long enough to see her smile, before screwing her eyes shut and leaning over herself, coughing hard. Ryū jumped with surprise, clutching onto the dragon plushy. Lucy and Natsu winced; it sounded like it was tearing her throat apart. Once it dwindled down to mere wheezes, Ryū reached out to her, wanting to get to her. Lucy looked down at him, before throwing Natsu a hesitant glance. He looked uneasy as well, but nodded wordlessly. The blonde sighed a little reluctantly as she lifted her son out of her lap and set him on the mattress in front of his sister. Wendy had mentioned to Lucy that pneumonia can be very contagious depending on how severe it is, but she and Natsu tried to avoid having Ryū so close to her.

The last thing they needed was a sick six-year-old child and a sick seven-month-old baby.

Nashi straightened her back, but kept her head hanging, strained tears squeezing past her eyelids. She shivered violently, but remained seated with no blankets. She found an overwhelming comfort in the feeling of her father's hand on her back, but even more so when she felt a hand that didn't belong to either parent touch hers. She opened her chocolate eyes and saw her baby brother seated in front of her, looking up at her with big obsidian eyes. He reached forward and dropped his dragon into her lap. Nashi stared at it for a moment, before lifting her head to look back at Ryū. His small hands sat in his lap, his eyes seeming hopeful, like he was waiting for her approval.

Nashi smiled and reached for him, gently pulling him into a hug. Ryū hummed happily into her chest. Lucy felt her heart swell, looking up at Natsu, who had a goofy grin on his face. She knew she had one too.

"Alright," Lucy said suddenly, reaching for Ryū and lifting him up, heading for the door. "It's dinner time. Nashi, your father will bring you some more of that tea after dinner. Make sure to drink all of it, alright?"

"Yes, Mama," she answered distantly, holding Ryū's dragon to her chest. Natsu kissed his daughter's forehead before standing up and following Lucy out the door.

"I've been trying to get her to stop doing that all day," Natsu said as they walked into the kitchen. "I told her holding it in wasn't going to help, but she wouldn't listen to me." He tsked. "She's so stubborn sometimes."

Lucy laughed, turning to her husband to give him their son. "I wonder where she gets it, ne?" she asked sarcastically. Natsu glared playfully at her, taking Ryū into his arms. Lucy turned to the dinner on the table and began setting the plates. "He's worried, Natsu. Every time he hears her coughing, he gets this sad, pitiful look in his eyes. I really hope she gets better soon. I don't like seeing that look." The dragon slayer craned his neck to look at his son.

"Does Nashi being sick scare you, little buddy?" he asked gently, lifting his hand to brush Ryū's hair away from his forehead. Ryū whined and leaned his head against his shoulder. Natsu kissed his head. "Yeah, me too." Bouncing, he scanned his eyes over the food on the table, and realized that there was no fish. "Hey, Luce?"

"Hm?"

"Where's Happy? I haven't seen him all day."

"Oh, he's staying with Wendy and Charle today," she answered easily. "Did you know he and Charle are together now?"

"Yeah. Yeah, he told me."

"Well, apparently, she's pregnant with three." She glanced at him as she set down one of the filled plates, a wide smile on her face. "Isn't that great?" Natsu's eyes were wide as he continued to bounce. He was silent for a moment, before a blinding grin spread across his face.

"Seriously?" he said cheerfully. "That's incredible!"

Lucy laughed. "I know. He's really excited about it."

"Do he and Charle have any ideas one what they're going to name them?"

"Um… I don't know, I didn't ask him."

Natsu ran a hand through his hair. "Wow, that's crazy."

"It's crazy that Happy and Charle are going to be parents?"

"Well… yeah, but it's not just that. I mean, all of it is crazy. Me and you are married and have two kids, Gray and Juvia are married and have two kids, Happy and Charle are having kids, Erza and Jellal are getting married next month, Romeo and Wendy have been dating for almost a year now… All we have to wait for now is Gajeel to get his head out of his ass and ask Levy out on a date." Lucy glared at him.

"Watch your language around our son, please," she chastised.

"Sorry."

"And he has."

"Who has what?"

"Gajeel asked Levy out," Lucy clarified, grabbing one of the plates; he assumed it was Nashi's. "The other day. Levy told me. I'll be right back." She left to give Nashi's food to her, walking back into the kitchen within a minute. She took Ryū and sat down at the table, lifting her shirt to breastfeed him. She looked up at her husband. "What're you just standing there for? Eat."

"I don't want to."

"I know you don't want to, but you have to. It's gonna help you get better."

"It's gross."

"I know, I know. But you still have to drink it." Nashi turned her head away, and Natsu sighed in disdain. Suddenly, an idea popped in his head. "Hey, tell you what. You drink this without any objection from now on, I'll start teaching you how to use magic as soon as you're healthy again. Deal?" Tempted, Nashi looked at him. He smiled goofily. "Whaddya say?"

"As soon as I get better?" she asked softly.

"The very moment."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

After a brief coughing fit, Nashi finally sat up and turned to him, taking the small cup into her hands. She looked down into the liquid, watching the leaves float around. She grimaced and took a deep breath, preparing herself to drink it. But before she could touch the mug to her lips, she felt a warm hand on her shoulder. "Wanna know a good thing to do?" Natsu asked. She nodded, and he leaned in as if what he was going to tell her was a secret. "Chug it. Don't think about the taste. Just focus on getting it done and over with." He finished with a wink. Nashi stared at him for a moment, before nodding and doing as suggested.

She lifted the glass to her lips and began gulping it down, her eyebrows knitting together in disgust. Once all of it was gone, she hastily handed the cup back to her father, shuddering as she wiped her mouth with her sleeve. "See? Done before you knew it." He set another glass on her nightstand. "I brought you some water to wash it down with." The petite little girl quickly reached over and took a big gulp of the ice water, sighing in relief as the majority of the bad after-taste vanished from her mouth. Natsu grinned and placed a hand on her head, planting a kiss to her forehead. "Get some rest," he said softly. "Your mother and I will check on you before we go to bed, okay?"

Nashi nodded as she set the glass back down. "Okay," she said sleepily, lying on her side and pulling the blankets up to her chin. She shivered harshly beneath the covers, causing her to curl her knees up to her chest to try and conserve heat.

"Night, Nashi," he said as he made his way for the door.

"Goodnight, Daddy. I love you."

"I love you, too."

Author's Note: First of all, I'm so sorry about the slow update. I haven't been able to concentrate lately, and that's probably why the quality of this chapter was… meh. I've been trying for so long to get this one finished and up here, but every time I brought it up on my computer, I'd get distracted. So, again, I apologize.

Anyway, to wolf191000, who said it was scary how Lucy reacted to Nashi being sick; that's how my mother used to be when I was sick. Especially when I got pneumonia when I was seven. And to Miho; yes, there was a timeskip, but only a small one. Only a couple of months. And Tawny, I was so happy to hear that I'm "seriously epic." I've never been called epic before. x3

Please leave a review, guys! I love getting feedback from you! We're almost at 400!

Oh, and please stop telling me what "koibito" means. I now know it means "lover" so I'm trying to come up with a new nickname for Nashi. Thank you for running it by me, but please. I get it already.