Another one for you guys, hopefully you enjoy.

Chapter 5

I can't believe she's mine

Lucy hated this time of the month. Especially when it meant giving most of her hard-earned money away. 4 weeks' worth to be precise.

She had once again left her daughter in Mira's care, while she stood in line waiting to be served at the counter at the small registry office on her estate. In her hands she clutched a thick envelope with her savings.

"Next!" the woman behind the counter bellowed. The line moved forward.

Most people who were stood in the queue or sat on the small chairs around the extended waiting area all looked miserable, but Lucy could see why. Here was where you would pay your bills, your rent and any other expenses- where all your money would be given away and in exchange you have 4 walls and a roof over your head. And as a mother, it was Lucy's job to make sure that her and Nashi had just that.

Even if it meant her working all the time.

The local newspaper agency had taken her on for just 3 days a week, which was all signed over by a contract. But the more popularity her columns received, the more her boss wanted her to write. After all, Lucy was a well-known Fairytail wizard and an award-winning novelist from her 'The adventures of Iris' book which was based on true events of her time with Fairytail and her friends. So as soon as people realised that the columnist was the one and only Lucy Heartfilia, the newspaper sales rocketed and Lucy was offered a permanent job as journalist.

But that also meant more hours and less time with her daughter.

It really was like a double-edged sword. Work to afford a house to live in and food on the table but miss spending time with Nashi, or be homeless. There was only really one option Lucy could pick.

She felt bad for Nashi, always being left at the Guild. However since Natsu had returned, he had been keeping her occupied, much to Lucy's displeasure. For the past week since he came back, he had made effort to see the little girl everyday, regardless of whether Lucy wanted that or not. He had made it clear that he wanted to be in her life and tried to show that in his actions. He would make a good father.

She frowned by her thoughts, clicking her tongue by the idea of him being apart of their little family. It's not like that wasn't what she wanted. Of course, she wanted to be a family, but she knew that Natsu didn't see her that way and neither did she. And there was no way she was forcing that option and trapping him in some deluded fantasy where they would live happily ever after.

After all those are all fairytales…

That wasn't how families worked. Plus, how confused would Nashi be to it all? In some way, Lucy wanted to protect her from that. She wasn't oblivious to the fact that all the other guild children had two loving parents who both expressed their love for one another, yet alone lived together under one roof and shared the same last name.

Nashi didn't have that. When Lucy gave birth, she registered the girl's name as Heartfilia just so that they we're bridged under one name together, how strange would it be if she added Dragneel to the mix?

"Next!"

She tried to push the thought from her head.

"Next!"

She wasn't ready for Nashi to be a Dragneel yet, she wasn't ready for Natsu to take her as his. Which is why she was holding back for so long.

"Miss…are you coming or what?" Lucy's eyes bolted from her feet to the old lady behind the counter whose beaded eyes glared at her. "…I said NEXT!" Lucy eeped by the woman's grouchy tone, springing forward to the counter with a flushed look. She placed the envelope on the counter and nervously cracked a smile in hopes to lighten the interaction. It did no such thing.

"Name?"

"Lucy Heartfilia" she mumbled her name quietly. The lady began to type quickly on her computer, her eyes burning into the screen.

"Address?"

"12 Berrywood Road" Lucy admitted sweetly. Again the woman began to type frantically into her keyboard before turning her head back to the blonde, her face now puzzled.

"Says here you've already paid this month's package" the woman stated briskly. Her eyes dropped to the envelope in front of her, her hand reaching out to push it back towards Lucy.

"Already paid? Are you sure?" Lucy slowly clamped her hand back around the envelope, shaking her head with disbelief. "I think there's been a mistake…"

"No mistake here Miss. Your package was paid 3 days ago…says it right here" the woman explained as her grouchy tone slowly faded. Lucy shook her head once more in denial.

"That can't be right!" she pushed herself over the counter, trying to get the view of the screen. Just to see for herself that it was true. "I swear I haven't paid…" the woman used her feet to lightly press her chair back, avoiding Lucy from smacking herself into her.

"Miss…please" she waved her hand lightly for Lucy to remove herself from her view, before typing once again. Her eyes squinted as she recalled out the information to put Lucy's mind at ease. "It says 3 days ago…it wasn't you that paid" the woman croaked slightly looking back up at Lucy's frown. "It was paid by a Mr Natsu…Dragneel" the woman's lips opened softly as she looked across to Lucy once more. "As in the Natsu Dragneel?"

Hearing his name out loud made Lucy's blood bubble.

"What?" she questioned, asking the woman to repeat herself.

"It says here the payment of 32,700 jewel was paid by a Mr Natsu Dragneel, 3 days ago. Miss, your payment has already been settled this month. You have nothing to pay right now" the woman explained.

Lucy stepped back, clutching the envelope from the counter, she pulled it back into her chest before turning around briskly on her heel. Was this what seeing red was like? The anger boiling inside of her was ready to erupt.

How…dare…he…

When she told him she wanted nothing from him, he still managed to mess with her life. Of course, she knew she should be grateful for what he did. But to her that wasn't the point. She had already told him no. And he went behind her back and did it anyway.

What part of not wanting anything from him did he got understand? Dragon slayers were meant to have excellent hearing so she was sure he heard her. Rage coursed through her as she stormed out of the registry office, hands clenched into fists and eyes glowing red.

…

"There you go!" Natsu cheered as he watched the little pink haired child complete the jigsaw on the table. "Didn't I say you'll get it done" he winked at her, grasping another box of pieces that were stacked up beside them.

Since Lucy had left this morning to run some errands, Nashi remained at the Guild hall with the barmaid Mira-Jane. However this resulted in a playdate with the fire dragon slayer the moment he walked in for his breakfast and saw her sat on her own on the table.

To occupy the little girl, they decided to get the box of jigsaws out from the guild's library. So far Nashi had managed to complete 2 jigsaws in that timeframe, with only a little bit of help from Natsu.

"Shall we get the next one out?" he asked, lifting up the next box in the pile. "This one has…30 pieces!" he exclaimed proudly. Nashi's face turned slightly by the box in his head.

"30? That's a lot" she mumbled, her eyes now casting over to the other two boxes she'd completed. They were only 15 pieces, while the one that Natsu was holding was double that. "I think that will be…too hard" she admitted sadly.

"Nah, you're really smart! You can do it!" he smiled encouragingly at the child, while placing the box in front of her. "Besides…I'm here to help"

Nashi accepted the challenge weakly. Her little hands opened the box and spilled the tiny pieces across the table before flicking them over to see the picture. Straight away she located the ones with the straight and corner edges and began to place them together while Natsu watched.

She certainly was clever for her age. That was for sure. He admired that her intelligence and ways of thinking had definitely come from Lucy, there was no doubt about it. She was inquisitive, constantly asking questions about things to improve her knowledge and proud when she learnt something new. And he only picked this up from just spending a week with her!

With her brows knitted together and her tongue sticking out, she placed the pieces around the edge together, creating a frame before picking out the pieces for the middle.

"Nashi, did you want another milkshake?" Mira asked as she trotted over to their table. The girl nodded her head, fixated on her project.

"Nashi…manners" Natsu frowned, nudging her shoulder lightly with his arm. The girl looked up innocently from his touch, her head snapping to Mira with a polite smile.

"Please, thank you Mira" she cooed sweetly. The she-demon nodded back at her, her eyes looking across to Natsu.

"Did you want anything Natsu?" she wondered. "A beer perhaps? Cider?" he shook his head to her muttering a soft thanks as she walked away to fetch the requested milkshake. "Oh hi Lucy…you're ba-" Mira's voice trailed off as the doors opened forcefully revealing a angry blonde.

"STAR DRESS- SCORPIO!" she yelled, suddenly transforming her attire in an instant, she lunged with speed across the room aiming directly at the dragon slayer.

Natsu only got in a quick whiff of her scent before he was pummelled to the side of the guild hall's wall.

"Lucy!" Mira shouted across to her, completely alarmed as much as the rest of the guild members who were sat quietly minding their own business. Nashi's eyes pulled from her jigsaw, amazed that Natsu was beside her a second ago and with a gush of speed, across the room with her mother the next.

"YOU IDIOT!" Lucy roared. She didn't give Natsu a moment to think before sand blasting him into a tornado. He was ascended up to the ceiling, collecting mouthfuls of sand as he attempted to fire dragon roar his way out of it. "I TOLD YOU TO BUTT OUT!" Lucy seethed, her hands now pulling her magic away. The tornado faded quickly, causing him to fall below a table where 3 guild members were sitting. They dodged out of the way quickly as he landed into the centre of the wooden table, halving it as it broke his fall.

"WHAT THE HELL LUCY!" he sat up, spitting the grains of bitter salty sand from his mouth and rubbing his back from being bashed into the wall and now said table. "What's wrong with you?!"

"Wrong with me?! What's wrong with you?!" she shouted at him, still anger glowing around her.

Without even calling out her next phrase, her outfit quickly glimmered gold and changed into her archer's form. The large golden bow now appearing in her hands with the arrow fixed on…him. Natsu grumbled as he pulled himself up, brushing the splinters of wood from his clothes. He stared at her, knowing too well that the look in her eyes meant he was in for it.

But he didn't mind that, he was always up for the challenge and never backed down from a fight before. However, this would be an interesting one…he never had to fight Lucy before. Not like this. He could see the rage in her eyes- she wanted this, she wanted to get her anger out on him.

Who was he to not let her have it?

He smirked his feisty grin, hands bursting into flames.

"Bring it on Luce!" he charged forward, as Lucy fired her shot directly at him to distract him, before skidding under his fiery attack and tripping him up. He stumbled, not quite taking in that she had already passed under him and clocked his ankle. Now behind him her new arrow had formed, pointing directly at the back of his head. He stilled, feeling the sharp point press his skin lightly.

She really was peeved. And her magic was getting better. He could sense it.

But he wasn't going to let her win that easily either. With a short breath, he span round, his hand already grasping the pointing arrow that was now dusting his forehead. He pulled it from her bow and chucked it to one side, before bursting his body into hot flames once more. Lucy growled, lifting to her tiptoes to butt his forehead with hers. They continued to growl and grunt at each other until someone finally decided to wriggle themselves between them, pushing them away from each other with their wind magic and creating an air barrier.

"Will you both cut it out?" Wendy instructed as she held her gust of wind to block them from getting near each other. "What's wrong with you both? Jeez…"

"She started it!" Natsu whined, pointing his finger across to her. Lucy huffed at him, her appearance changing back into her normal attire. Her arms folded across her chest as she looked away bitterly.

"He starts fights all the time and no one batters an eyelid…how come he can get away with it" she grumbled, still avoiding his stare. "Besides, it's not my fault he's an idiot"

Natsu frowned by her insult.

"I'm not an idiot!" he yelped out, offended by her words. Wendy sighed, releasing her magic barrier down. Her head tilted to Lucy.

"Besides the obvious…why are you so angry with Natsu?" she wondered, glancing quickly to Nashi, who was watching the whole thing. The blonde made sure she didn't give an explanation, especially when there were unwanted ears abouts. Instead she cussed under her breathe, looking at him with frustration.

"Idiot!" Lucy snarled back, waving her hand away from him. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her envelope of money and scrunched it in her hands. She threw it at him, with force.

"Wha?" he caught it, opening it up to look inside. Realising what was in there, he quickly lowered his head and held it back out to her. "I don't want this"

"Well it's yours" Lucy huffed at him. "You do what you want with it, but I'm not taking it back" she seemed adamant with that statement. Natsu sighed heavily, rolling his eyes at her and her stubbornness.

"I was trying to help Luce" he admitted sadly. "You want to spend more time with Nash don't you?" he tried to look at her, but she faced away. "So let me help you, that's all that was"

She groaned once more at him, still avoiding his gaze. She was done with the conversation by now. But in his eyes, it was still ongoing. He wanted her to at least just acknowledge that he was trying to help, regardless of what he was to Nashi. But she was refusing him at every turn. What more could he do?

…

"Mommy…are you ok?" Nashi asked sweetly as she sipped her strawberry milkshake. Lucy's eyes focused to her daughter, disturbing her mindless thoughts as she sat there with her head in her hand. They had decided to stay for dinner at the Guild, more because Lucy didn't want to cook, and Nashi was finishing up on her many jigsaws that had been amusing her all day.

With a plate of chips, eggs and beans in front of them both, Lucy carelessly stabbed at it, but not one bit entered her mouth. Nashi watched her endlessly questioning her till finally the mother sighed deeply and gave in.

"I'm fine…sweetie"

"You don't look fine" the girl nudged back, pointing at her tired face. "You look sad. Is it because of Natsu?" the girl asked innocently.

Lucy grumbled at his name. Natsu.

The dragon slayer had left the guild to head home, after Wendy's arrival it meant that a certain blue feline had also returned back from their mission. She knew he would be keen to see him.

Before he left however, he slapped the envelope of jewels back onto the table beside Lucy and darted off, not giving her a second to argue it. When she looked up, he was already gone and out of sight.

She wondered how Happy would react when he saw his pink haired friend again. The blue hairball would have probably blubbered out a river by now, all while clutching his paws around him and begging him not to leave again.

And that's exactly how it went!

When Natsu reached their home, Happy had already flown into his arms and wailed, weeping crocodile tears as he begged his friend not to go anywhere without him again.

Natsu felt ashamed when Happy had told him what had happened over the last 4 and a half years, about how things were changing and how Lucy felt when he left. He hadn't imagined that him leaving so abruptly would impact their lives so much, but clearly that had happened before years ago when the guild disbanded. At least this time, Lucy wasn't alone. She had the guild and Happy to keep her company while he was gone. And that he was thankful for.

"Have you met Nashi yet?" Happy wondered. He clutched his fishing rod and launched the string over into the river. Natsu sat beside him on the grass verge, watching as the bait on the end startled the water, sending ripples through the flow of the river. He smiled.

"I have"

"She looks like you doesn't she?" Happy chuckled.

"Oh yeah she does"

"But she's also like Lushy" Happy added with a low purr. "She's sweet and kind, and she's only tiny!" he sighed, waiting for any delicious fish to capture his bait and get caught. His stomach rumbled for food.

"She is cute, yeah" Natsu leant back on his arms, smirking as he recalled the little girl's flashing smile. "I can't believe she's mine"

"Yeah…Lushy announced it a couple of months after you left" the cat murmured sadly. "I think it took a long time for her to process it too…she was sad"

"Why was she sad?" Natsu wondered, frowning as he looked up at the sky.

"Because you left, dummy!" he shook his head disappointedly at his friend. "You know, Lushy, she chased you all the way to the train station when she found out you left, and then we cried for days" he sniffled, wiping his nose with his paw as he held tightly to his rod with the other.

"She did?" that surprised him. He didn't realise he would have had such an impact on the celestial wizard for leaving the way he did. "You know, Luce seems to hate my guts now" he paused watching Happy's small brows lower in regret.

"Yeah, she hoped you would have come back before Nashi was born" he responded quietly. "But it took you ages…I think she just gave up"

"But I'm here now, and I'm still her friend" the dragon slayer announced. "Lucy will always be my friend" he admitted.

This made Happy frown harder at him, confused by his choice of words.

"But Natsu~" he bit his lip. "You and Lucy…mated right?" his eyes lingered on him for a moment, his paw now lowering his rod from the water. Natsu stared back at him. "You must have done to have Nashi…" the cat explained softly. "And it was you that told me that a dragon slayer mates with one…"

Happy waited for his friend to reply, or at least make some sort of noise to show that he had connected the dots. But instead there was silence. It was so quiet that he could hear the crickets now screeching through the blades of grass and the whistling breeze of the wind as it slapped their faces.

"Natsu…"

The dragon slayer hummed, his chest tightening and his heart excelling. It was like he was thinking hard about his next words to come out of his mouth, but the more he thought about it, the less he wanted to say. He was stuck.

He was filling with more guilt as the time went on. Not only had he left Lucy in such an awkward position for the last couple of years, but he'd done something without her consent. Was she even aware of the dragon slayer's mating companionship?

"Shit…" he cursed, running his hand through his hair and grasping it tightly to hold onto some sort of reality. Nerves were building as he soon began to realise what had been done. Was this why he was so torn with her moving on? Was his feeling latching onto her?

It explained why he wanted to be a part of hers and Nashi's life so much, why he was so keen to support them as how a mate and father should be. He groaned, his throat clogging up as he tried to get the words out he wanted to say. But nothing came out. Like he was fighting a battle with his thoughts and body.

Happy watched him, his mouth gaped open till finally Natsu croaked.

"Lucy's my mate!" It took a while to for it come out. And the more he repeated it out loud, the more he began to freak out. He'd never had a mate before, he never thought it would ever reach that part in his life- even before he met Lucy. He assumed he would be mate-less, forever.

"She's…my mate Happy" he repeated, eyes suddenly glassy. "Shit, what have I done?"

"I thought you knew that anyway?" the cat questioned, his ears twitching by the sad groans from his friend. "I mean, I was always telling you that you loooove her" he smirked as Natsu's face twisted with displeasure.

"You did…" he memorized the times when his little furball friend would call out his little tease at them. "You did say it a lot…"

"Aye, cause I knew" the cat confirmed brightly. "When it came to Lushy, you was always smitten" he shrugged his little shoulders, yanking his rod back as it pulled down in the river. "Maybe that's why you did what you did when you was drunk?" the cat chimed, lifting himself up he began to pull hard on the rod, grinning at the fish on the other end. "When you're drunk you just don't think…"

"You're very wise…" Natsu said slowly.

"Huh, maybe Lushy's rubbing off on me" the cat thought, as he pulled his fishy out of the water and into his paws. "YUM!"

Natsu smirked at the cat's success as he launched it into the air with a triumph.

"Great job little buddy!"

So what will happen now? Will Natsu give into his want for Lucy or will he accept that she doesn't want anything to do with him?
All will be revealed... hopefully!