I am back with another wonderful chapter! Please R&R and I shall see you at the bottom of the page.

POV: Natsu

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or the idea of this story. I'm just the writer.

A story for a friend, by a friend

"Dragneel!" I hear someone yell causing me to snap up in my seat and frantically search around the empty bus with hands searching for a nearby weapon, "Get your lazy butt up, we're at your stop!"

Rubbing my eyes, pick up my things with shaking hands feeling an ominous feeling creep up my spine in an ugly familiar way. I shake my head throughout the small walk down the aisle to the front of the bus where I pass the bus driver while throwing a soft, "Thanks Al," over my shoulder before jumping out of the hovering bus. I receive a curt grunt and the sound of the closing doors behind me along with the soft hiss the bus makes before lifting off of the ground and heading on towards its next destination.

Shaking away the last of the jitteriness I got earlier, I stretch my hands up over my head feeling my bones pop satisfyingly before I let my arms fall and swing to my sides. I take in a deep breath of the somewhat murky air while holding back the usual cough as I scan the small park noticing a few people walking about.

It's not that much of a surprise to see so many people walking around outside now a days. With the air pollution dropping down to about sixty percent it's been possible to walk around outside without having to wear a gas or filtration mask every time you went outside. The pollution then had been so bad that there was a point where more than three fourths of the population had signs of smoker's lungs even when tobacco had been completely wiped out over a half a century ago.

Because of the heavy pollution disease had also gone rampant throughout the world along with a lot of acidic rain that nearly destroyed all of our resources. The 'theory' of global warming also became an actual event with sea levels rising and wiping out many homes near the coasts. Thankfully all that stuff happened years ago and now things have slowly started getting better with the last of humanity doing everything in their power to keep our population going strong.

Remembering it now, that time of period had been named equally to the Dark Ages since just about the same things happened now as they did then. The only difference that in the second Dark Ages large movements were created to send a portion of humanity our into space to see if they would be able to find new habitable planets to move to in case Earth finally became unlivable. The space movement was successful and within a few decades and soon enough people who had the money to afford it moved on to the several planets found to build a new life for themselves and their families.

Lucy and I could have moved along with the masses, but Earth had always been the only place we knew and understood. Sure, we were more than excited when the discovery of going into space was a possibility and fully supported the first space movement, but not once have any of us ever stepped a foot on a rocket. Erza and Jellal are the only ones from our group to ever brave the unknown, but then again the Fernandez couple has never been one to shy away from a challenge.

No, Earth is the planet I first woke up to and it would be the last planet I finally fall asleep to when the time comes for me, if it ever comes at all. Besides, this is the planet where I found Lucy and grew with her over all these millennia. I discovered things and named things and even helped populate this vast, yet small, planet. If I were to ever leave Earth it would only be for a small trip of maybe ten years, but ultimately I would always find my way home one way or another.

"Catch me if you can!" comes a small squealing voice of a child that drags me out of my deep thoughts.

A few feet away from me I catch the sight of two small children, seeming to be around six to eight years old, running around the barren park. He young girl with olive green hair laughs gleefully as the older boy with cropped midnight black hair chases after her. Although there are a lot of people walking around the park, these two children are the only ones that I've seen running around outside in some time. Their laughter fills the stale air with sweetness with their joy filling me up with an indescribable warmth.

Fixing the straps to both my guitar case and book bag, I walk around the edge of the park towards my small music shop that's tucked cozily between an antique shop, yes we still have those surprisingly, and a cyber-book café. The cyber-book café is basically a café that has several electronic books that you can read from a screen at your table. Lucy enjoys going there from time to time, but she repeatedly admits that she prefers paperback books than the digital copies that they have at the café. Even though I don't read much I'd have to agree with her.

One time I tried reading a book written about Dragon folklore that I had already read a few years prior and every few seconds the screen would glitch and skip a few pages ahead or behind. Sadly paperback books stopped being produced well at the end of the twenty-second century. It mostly had to do with the fact that there were hardly any trees left to cut down to make paper and pollution collecting in the soil made impossible to plant new trees or any type of plant in general. Upon the news of no more paperback books both Lucy and Levy cried for days saying how unfair the world had really become.

Sighing heavily, I pull out the key to my shop as I cross the street while already feeling like going home. Maybe if the day is slow I'll just close up early and take Lucy out to eat somewhere. It's been a long while since we've eaten out of the house, even though the food in restaurants is equally artificial as the food we have back home.

As I make my way down the sidewalk passing the small antique shop I stop dead in my tracks when I hear the faintest sound of a small gurgle. I turn and find to my left a small white stroller sitting in front of the antique shop with the owner sneaking a peak through the clear crystal windows only a foot away. The small stroller is oval shaped and a pristine white on the lower half where the wheels stick out and an acrylic sheet covering that encases the top of the stroller. The 'stroller' almost looks like one of those pods from the Superman movies back in the 1980s. Strollers were invented in this way so that they could be air locked with self-filtration systems to keep the babies from breathing in the toxic chemicals still lingering in the air.

Looking through the clear acrylic I find a small baby boy kicking his tiny feet and balled up hands. His large brown eyes look around his small confinement with wonder as his hand snatches his foot unconsciously. He looks to be around a few months old with dark fine hair that hardly covers his scalp, pudgy pink cheeks, and pouting lips that continue to make gurgling sounds.

Tapping lightly on the glass I feel an unexplainable warmth surge through me when the small child smile wide showing me pink gums and two front teeth beginning to protrude through the soft pink.

I wonder how Lucy would feel about having another kid.

I run my hand through my hair repeatedly practically pulling out the thin pink strands as I walk back and forth in front of the opening of the small cave we all sleep in. A small trail of dirt is all that's left of the grass that had once covered the ground before I stomped it all away with my insistent walking. I've tried several times to sit down but ultimately gave up and started walking back and forth again.

Gray watches me from where he's sitting on a rock a few feet away. His dark eyes following my every movement as he chews on some berries he found earlier from a nearby bush. Occasionally he's thrown me a berry to try to catch my attention, but I've succeeded in ignoring him so far. The last thing I need at the moment is to pick a fight with him when I'm so… anxious.

A wailing scream erupts through the silent air ringing in loud echoes from the cave making me stop in my insistent walking as my eyes snap up towards the entrance to the cave. Gray's face looks equally pained from the loud sound and my chest constricts as if a large rock were sitting on top of it. A cold feeling runs down my back in an uncomfortable sensation and I have to fight the urge to run inside the cave, but if I did that I wouldn't know what to do.

Lucy's screams continue to fill the usually peaceful air and listening to the screams continue feels like something is tearing my insides apart. I feel so strange, so desperate, and no matter what I can't think of a way to make this feeling go away. It's almost as if a wild animal were tearing away at me without me even noticing.

Suddenly everything goes quiet. The silence leaves a bad taste in my mouth as both Gray and I stare at the entrance to the cave. Beyond the heavy silence I can hear a soft noise coming from the cave but I can't completely recognize what it is. It almost sounds like a strange animal but without seeing it I can't really tell what it is. Also other than that noise I can't hear Lucy anymore and this worries me further.

From the darkness of the cave I notice something blue emerge. It doesn't take long for me to recognize Juvia walking out with a small smile displayed across her face. Her blue eyes shine with a strange glow that confuses me. How could she look so happy when Lucy was in pain not just a moment ago? Also, why would she leave Lucy alone and why is it that Lucy isn't with her?!

Juvia slowly makes her way towards Gray who whispers something in her ear that I can't hear. She shakes her head, her smile still in full bloom, before she turns to look at me. I stare at her as she tilts her head indicating that I should go inside the cave and towards Lucy, but I can't seem to move my feet. It isn't until Gray pushes me from behind and dodges a punch from me that I finally make my way towards where Lucy should be.

Inside the cave is dark with the occasional sound of dripping water from the top of the cave. A bit deeper into the cave, however, there is a small ball of light that only grows when you get near it. It's a small sun that we call fire. I discovered it some time ago when I hit two rocks together that jumped into several little dots of light that caught onto a piece of a tree and lit up before going out again. The fire now has become as a source of light when the sun goes down and a source of warmth making the nights just a tad bit more bearable.

Walking closer towards the fire I spot Lucy just past the small glowing light looking down at her arms with an odd smile on her face. The thing in her arms wriggle around with strange little noises emanating from the foreign thing. It only makes Lucy smile wider with tired eyes shining brighter than the sun with an odd look that I've never seen before.

Lucy looks up at me when I'm only a few steps away from her and her face only brightens even further at the sight of me, "Natsu, come!" she says eagerly while sitting up without letting go of whatever it is that is resting in her arms, "Look!" I cautiously move towards her with hunter movements that are slow and weary. My ears are perked and listen for every little sound that can reach them, but mostly I hear a strange thrumming and the strange noises I had been hearing earlier.

I look over Lucy's shoulder and stare down at a ball of flesh that looks somewhat like a smaller much useless version of us. The small thing is the same color as Lucy's skin with wide eyes that are as black as mine. Its head is covered in blue-like fuzz that might be hair which looks softer than my own. When the small creature opens its mouth I am greeted with pure pink instead of white teeth that Lucy and I have.

What on this land is this strange thing?

"Baby," Lucy whispers as she rubs her nose along the cheek of the small creature, "It's a baby."

From what she is telling me I can tell that the small creature in her hands is called a baby. What bothers me is that that 'baby' hadn't been here moments ago. Only Lucy and Juvia had been in the cave together and there seems to be no other way to get into or out of the cave other than the way I came in.

"Where did it come from," I ask as I slowly kneel next to Lucy who slowly swings her arms making it look like the wind blowing against the leaves of a tree.

Lucy pats her tummy and I notice that her abdomen, which used to be round and big, is now somewhat flat and normal again, "Here," she simply says with a smile. Looking at her abdomen I remember a few moons back when she had woken up in the middle of the night and forced my hand over the bulbous thing. I had felt movement that scared me and her both, but I think I was more startled than she was, "It's a man, just like you and Gray," Lucy then whispers while slightly holding up the baby so that I can see it clearly. I scoff at the mention of Gray as I watch her lift the baby higher indicating for me to take it from her hands.

Staring down at the now peaceful creature I don't know what to do. Something in me wants to take the small thing from her arms and carry it, but at the same time I'm scared. I'm not really sure what I'm scared about, but surely it's something important to make my hands shake. I don't get to stare for long before Lucy takes my arm with her free hand and curves it in front of me before slowly placing the baby in the small hole between my arm and my chest while my arm cradles the baby's head. She then fixes my other arm to curve under the baby so that I can lift him easily.

The baby in my arm seems really light and watching him he seems so… delicate. He's so small that his head starts at my elbow and his feet barely even make it near my fingers. His large tired eyes watch me with that glint of curiosity that Lucy always shows me. I remove my hand from under him supporting him with my left arm as I poke at his squishy face while also inspecting his arms. I poke his hand and without warning it grabs my finger wrapping all five digits around my one finger. The strength in his tiny hand on my one finger is impressive.

At that moment, the pressure that had been weighing down on my chest suddenly lifts up and disappears. The strange harsh beating in my chest loosens and it's a feeling that can't compare to any that I've had before. It feels nothing like the time when I first met Lucy after waking up for the first time. It doesn't feel like the fear after the mountain exploded or the moment Lucy and I first discovered those feelings not too long ago. It feels like… love, and not a love that I feel towards Lucy, but its close enough.

"Happy," Lucy states proudly while running a few fingers down the baby's small face, "His name is Happy."

I look at the sun-colored-hair girl and watch her soft smile shine almost as bright as the nearby fire. I can't help but feel a smile of my own stretch across my face as I shift my eyes back down onto the baby liking how the name Happy suits him. Mostly because I, like Lucy, feel a sense of happiness when staring into the small creature's eyes.

"Welcome Happy," I say in a hushed tone as the baby throws me a toothless smile of his own that fills me up with an indescribable warmth that has nothing to do with the burning fire nearby.

{Before you cross the street

Take my hand

Life is what happens to you

While you're busy making other plans

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

Beautiful boy}

- Beautiful Boy – John Lenon

So yes, I made Happy Lucy's and Natsu's son. When I was thinking up of this chapter a while back I was wondering if I should make up a character or just make one of Fairy Tail's original characters as their first child. It mostly has to do with the fact on how motherly Lucy can sometimes be with happy and also, in a way, Natsu is like his dad in the show. I don't know that's just my opinion.

Also as Lucy's and Natsu's first child Happy will be playing more roles as the story progresses along with a few other characters.

Shout Outs

Great thanks to my Fantastic Favorite...

- chloelove-blog

To my Fabulous Follower...

- ShadyPop

And to my Fantabulous Reviewers...

- 104688 = Thanks again for fixing my little mishap. I hope you enjoyed the 'right' chapter this time.

- Splendora Lopez = You are right. Both parts of each chapter lead down to the climax of this story which is still a plenty chapters away, and also more of their history will be revealed with each chapter to help understand their way of living.

Well that's all the shout outs for today.

If you are enjoying my story so far please Follow, Favorite, and Review - remember, reviews are a writer's candy - and if you have any questions or ideas you'd like to see put into this story you can also PM me and I'll gladly add it in.

Until next time my lovelies.