"Haaahh!? No fair Papa! I wanna go with you, Mom and Happy on a job! Lemme join too!" Nashi whined as she climbed and circled her dad.

"No way, Firecracker," Natsu replied while shaking his head. "This job is too much for you this time."

It had been officially two months since Lucy found herself in the future. In the time since visiting Yukino in Sabertooth; she had gone to Blue Pegasus to reconnect with Hibiki, visited her parents' graves, did an interview with Jason for Sorcerer Weekly, hang out with Nashi and the kids, and had gone on more jobs with either all of Team Natsu or just Natsu and Happy. if you were to ask her honestly, it was the most amount of fun she had in a long time.

She was supposed to watch over Nashi, Storm and Umeko for the day while Natsu and Happy and Gray and Juvia went on jobs, but then Natsu randomly went up to her saying that Erza and Jellal will watch over the kids instead. Apparently, the blue exceed had talked him into asking her to join because he was worried that the fire dragon slayer would cause unnecessary ruckus otherwise. They needed money for fish after all.

Of course, that made the peach haired child feel left out and now she would not let them leave without bringing her along. And of course, everyone found her whining endearing since they all knew she just wanted to spend time with her family. But a job doing some pest control on some wild monster beasts in a forest is not something she should be near. It reminded them just how much she was her parents' daughter, quite hard headed and stubborn.

"Now Nashi, you know that you can't join us on this job." Lucy said, crouching down to meet the child's eye level while she tugged on Natsu's pant leg.

"But Mom..."

"Now now Firecracker, you heard what Luce said," Natsu said, following suit and also meeting her eye level. "Even if we wanted to take you, this job is too much for your to join us."

"Don't worry Nashi! We'll bring home some good fish for you as a souvenir!" Happy reassured.

Natsu took a look at Happy and his pouting daughter and then to Lucy. With a mischievous grin, he glides behind the celestial mage who immediately took notice of the grin she knew he wore so well. He glanced at her before gesturing towards Happy and Nashi. It took Lucy quite a bit to understand what it was he was getting at, but once she did, her expression immediately copied his.

"Actually Happy... why don't you stay here and play with Nashi until Natsu and I come back instead?" Lucy asked.

"Aye sir! Wait... HUH!?"

"Great! Thanks little buddy, gotta go! You know the rules!" Natsu said quickly, grabbing Lucy by the wrist and dragging her out the guild hall. "Make sure she doesn't eat too much sweets before nap time and don't forget to give her something good for dinner before we get back.

"WHA- No fair Natsu, that's playing dirty!"

As they ran out the guild hall and through Magnolia, Lucy could not help but laugh maniacally along with the fire dragon slayer. Their sprint caused them dodge many people and things in their path; jumping over little kids playing together and barrels along the street, dodging delivery boys and girls so that they did not drop their cargo, and Natsu taking one or two fruits from nearby stalls for the road.

Eventually, they got far enough from the guild hall that they ended up where the rainbow sakura stood and stopped to catch their breath at Natsu and Future Lucy's sakura tree. The duo sat down on the ground, their energy spent for the moment, and Natsu handed Lucy an apple he had taken while she handed him the water bottle she had packed for the trip.

"Man, that was a good run," Natsu said after he was done drinking water.

"I kinda feel bad for Nashi and Happy though," Lucy replied, tossing the apple core away. "Nashi really wanted to come and Happy definitely didn't sign up for babysitting duty today."

"Yeah, well, I wouldn't have been able to hang out with you without anyone else otherwise."

Lucy turned her head to face Natsu in confusion. What did he mean by that? The fire dragon slayer got up and stretched for a minute or two before letting his hand out to her so that she could get up with ease. She followed suit, but instead of letting go of her hand, Natsu held it tightly and began to make their way towards the other side of town rather than the train station. Which made no sense since they should be heading to their client.

"Uh... Natsu? Aren't we supposed to be doing a job right now?"

"Your job today is to hang out with me, Luce," Natsu said nonchalantly.

"Huh?"

"Just humour me today, please?" he continued on, weaving his way through people down a path that he had clearly gone down many times before. "For our old times sake."

Despite her brain telling her that this was suspicious behaviour coming from Natsu, Lucy just let him drag her to wherever he wanted to bring her. Somehow she felt like it would be worth her while. Not to mention the way Natsu said it was for 'their' old times sake, even she had to admit it made her heart flutter a bit. Very much in a 'she could blush, cringe, and throw up at the same time' kind of way. It was the first time they were actually left alone after all.

They walked down the path for quite a bit, in a comfortable silence Lucy did not know she would like considering how time with Natsu usually meant a chaotic time. This was a side of Natsu she had always known was there, but it had only shown itself at rare times - usually whenever it was a lazy day outside of the guild. Then again, the blonde woman had to admit: this Natsu was more mature than she could ever believe. Guess settling down does that.

Eventually Natsu stopped in front of a store with the most satisfied grin on his face. The look in his eye was telling enough - nostalgia written all over it. "Well, we're here!"

"And where would 'here' be?" Lucy asked.

The pink haired man chuckled and gently gestured her to go inside. "Go in and find out, why don't ya?"

Lucy sighed. She knew better than trying to gauge Natsu into telling her before she went in. But when she went through the door, she was ready to cry "Oh my Mavis!"

Screaming her name on all sides were rows oand rows, shelves on shelves, of books with a variety of genres begging for Lucy to grab and go into a corner she could read. In between each set of shelves and in between what Lucy could assume were reading areas, there were little nooks built into the walls. With pillows, small tables and lights for people to also read them. It was cozy and warm and anything Lucy could ever want and more.

What truly made everything even better was the smell of sweet and savoury foods alike that she could smell. Following the scent, Lucy was faced with a small mini mart kind of area - where people were buying hot and cold drinks, buying sandwiches, and even make their own instant bowl of ramen. Before she could even point the fact to Natsu, he had already begun bringing her along toward the line to buy some snacks.

"Man... this place always smells like heaven," he said while his jaw hanged open. "The last time we were here, the owner had to kick us both out for staying past closing time."

"We?"

"Me and Luce." Natsu replied bluntly. "We would always come here at least once a week."

"Really?"

The dragon slayer nodded. "Yeah, it was our go-to date stop."

"Ehhhh?!"

Lucy's outburst caused a quite a bit of people to turn around and stare, but they all immediately sighed nonchalantly once they recognized who it came from. The blonde woman blushed intensely - how many times had Natsu made her outburst like that for them to think it was normal? Said dragon slayer was not helping the situation either. He was chuckling mischievously while pointing at her. Oh, she will get back at him for that later.

"Aww man, sure missed that." Natsu said once his laughter had died down. "You never changed Luce."

"I haven't?" she asked.

"Well, maybe the you of this time has now, but before you went missing? Man, it was just like when you first joined the guild."

"Really..."

Once the duo ordered and received their food, Natsu led them to a corner nook that stood in the middle back of the shop. Natsu placed the food on the little snack table there and fluffed up what would be Lucy's beanbag chair and relaxed on what would be his. The celestial mage giggled at this and followed suit, relaxing in her beanbag chair and getting comfy while looking at the books that surrounded them.

The two of them ate their food first. Enjoying the ambiance of the store and each other's company. Natsu was the first to finish their food - as always. But for how fast he ate, there was surprisingly not a lot of mess. Lucy could only assume that he made the effort to not make a mess in this one place. Once she was done eating, the both of them went to grab a book to read. And Lucy could swear, seeing Natsu pick a book was a different kind of shock.

She was worried when he originally suggested to go choose books, he did have a habit of burning things after all - timeskip or no timeskip. But, in the end, she found herself being more immersed in the books he chose than the one she picked out. He showed her all the kid-friendly dragon and princess books he would read to Nashi before bed. Books that were perfectly easy for both Dragneels to understand and interesting for her.

He would read them quietly, well as quiet as he was able, with such passion and gusto. He must have had a lot of practice reading these books to the peach haired girl after her future self disappeared. It made her feel just a tiny bit sad for herself - having to miss this Natsu become the man he was. It made her also made her miss her Natsu and the rest of her Fairy Tail family. As Natsu continued to read, her mind wandered to her nakama.

"Thinking about home?" Natsu asked, bringing her out of her thoughts.

"Huh?"

"You made that face often," he continued. "Back when me and Happy first found you after the guild disbanded."

"I did?"

"Yeah. But we didn't realize why right away. We were too shocked to hear the guild had disbanded and thought no one fought for it."

"What?"

"Luce got really mad when she heard us go off, but like the quiet kind of mad."

"Was it like when I first got here?" she asked, moving their books aside to move all her focus to Natsu.

He ruffled his hair, thinking momentarily. "Nah, your reaction was way worse." he said bluntly, causing Lucy to become a bit bashful. "My Luce already had a year to make peace with her anger."

"She did?"

He nodded. "Sure, she was sour about it every so often, but once we got the gang back together, she got better within the day!"

"Sounds like you dealt with a lot before then."

"Ah, it wasn't a big deal. At the end of the day, Lucy is still Lucy and if bringing everyone back together brought back her smile, I was ready to give it to her."

"Wow." Lucy said. "You... you really... love me, don't you?"

Once the words left her mouth, both Natsu and Lucy were left with dusts of red on their cheeks - neither knowing how to respond to that. It had been the first time Lucy ever truly acknowledged that she was in a reality where Natsu loved her, and her future self loved him in return. The mere thought of it brought steam to her ears and made her want to throw up. But this time, she was more or less calm - not really wanting to throw up but still flustered.

Natsu, on the other hand, he felt more bashful about the statement than anything else. After all, it has been long time since he heard those words come out of her mouth. Of course, it was her younger self talking but as he said: Lucy was still Lucy. Who was he to deny his love for his wife? He was way past that point and if he could tell his Lucy he loves her again, that would be the day he truly becomes whole once more.

"Well, yeah." he replied, breaking the silence after regaining composure. "I wouldn't have married you otherwise."

Instead of the avoidant eye contact he was used to when his wife was younger, Natsu was surprised when all Lucy did in response was smile while her cheeks were still dusted red. He could see his wife as he remembered her before she disappeared. How her eyes crinkled when she smiled. Her yells whenever she nagged him. Even the way she felt in his arms. He wanted nothing more to reach out and pull her into a long warm hug.

"Natsu?" He had not even noticed that he instinctively reached his hand out to her. Whether it was because he wanted to hold her or because he wanted to put his hand where their mark would be.

"Oh, sorry." he said retracting his hand while she raised an eyebrow. "I... probably miss you more than I thought."

Before he had a chance to move on from the subject, Lucy's body moved without thinking and brought the dragon slayer into a much needed hug. She could feel Natsu's body stiffen, but she did not pay it too much mind. She had not realized it before, but she missed his warmth. His hugs always brought her comfort in the best ways possible. Those cold nights alone back in her time were even harder to bear without him or Happy to curl up beside her.

The dragon slayer eventually eased himself into the hug, returning it in earnest while they both patted each other's back. It was an odd comforting feeling - hugging a person they knew but from different points in time. But it was also reassuring. They were in the same boat - longing for someone they could not find but wanted to so desperately see again. They both knew they would get their wish eventually, so this moment was enough.

When the hug eventually broke, Lucy's face was as bright as a tomato. "Uh... sorry?" she said while looking away. "I don't know what came over me. Silly right?"

Natsu shook his head with a chuckle. "Nah, it's cool. I actually needed that."

"Really? Hehe, same here."

"Man, this reminds me of the time we-"

Natsu's pause caused Lucy to look at him warily. He was not the type of person to just suddenly stop his sentence after all. "Something wrong?"

When she received no reply, she was about to snap him out of his trance when suddenly, a tear made its way down his cheek. "Luce..." he said softly.

"Yes?"

"No... my Luce, er, my you, I mean!" he stammered grabbing her by the shoulders to ground himself. "My wife, the you of this time! I can sense her! Her presence - it's back in Ishgar!"