Lucy tossed and turned in her bed, struggling to get comfortable. For some reason, it was just so hot, and it felt like there was someone laying beside her. Actually, it kind of sounded like there was someone snoring beside her, too.
...Wait a second.
She jolted up in a panic, confirming that there is someone in her bed. Just as she identified that tan skin and pink hair, her stomach felt queasy, and she already knew what was coming.
After stumbling out of bed, Lucy rushed to the bathroom and hurled. It was so common at this point, there was already a container of wipes and other toiletries on the sink counter for her to clean up.
"Damn, is my bedhead that bad?" Natsu grumbled as he walked in behind her, watching her go back and forth between wiping her face and throwing up in the commode.
She didn't relent at all, so he decided to stop joking around and bent down to rub her back. After a few more barfs, Lucy turned and glared at him, barely rasping out, "You did this to me!"
"W-what?" That was the first time he'd ever seen her look so utterly pissed like that, but the moment quickly passed when she turned over to release the last bit of last night's food.
As soon as she flushed and got up to rinse her mouth out in the sink, it became clear that Lucy was in the worst of moods. Natsu didn't want to intrude, but he felt bad, so he attempted to give her a few comforting pats on the head, but that was not the right move.
She snatched his hand off of her and glared at him. "Why were you in my bed?" She sneered, her voice filled with pure rage.
"Uh…" He didn't like the way she was looking at him, but he wouldn't dwell on it, "We just kinda doze off together, yeah? And your bed is really comfy-"
"What if Cana saw you!?"
"She did, it's cool."
"Um?"
"What?"
"Nothing," Lucy rolled her eyes and stormed out of the bathroom, "But you should go. Last night was fun, I guess."
"...Do you have work today?"
"Not until later, but-"
"Well neither do I. We can still hang out some more…"
"Ugh." Lucy rubbed at her temples, and it was clear that she didn’t want to be bothered.
“Okay, nevermind. We’re supposed to see Gildarts today, but it’s fine. I’ll just go and let you know what happens.”
As she thought it over, Lucy's expression softened. She shook her head and suddenly, her lip began to quiver. "I… I'm just tired."
"...Oh? You can go back to sleep, then."
"No, I'm-" Her breathing grew ragged and she started to sob into her hands, "I'm just so tired of throwing up!"
"O-oh…"
"I just wanna eat and not have to worry about feeling sick for the rest of the day! I'm so tired!"
She didn't stop crying, and Natsu went to follow his first instinct- he pulled her into a tight hug.
He'd never seen someone so abruptly reduced to tears like this, and it was honestly pretty scary. "I'm… I don't know how to help you, uh…"
"You can't help me!"
"Um… I'm sorry…"
Lucy said no more, opting to just cry into his chest. It was weird, apparently they spent the night together, and now she's here having a breakdown right in his arms. Why do we have to be so abnormal!?
"What the hell is going on here?" Cana swung open her door and came out of her room, looking like she just woke up. "Why are you crying in front of the bathroom?" She grumbled, squeezing into the narrow hallway beside them. Once Lucy looked up at her, it all became obvious. "Oh… morning sickness?"
"Is this normal?"
Natsu's oblivious question had both girls sending him glares. "Obviously! Do you have any idea what it's like to have a fetus growing inside of you-"
"No, I meant is this normal," Cana followed his eyes as he gestured towards Lucy, and then towards her hands. She had her arms wrapped around his waist, and her hands traveled under his shirt, keeping him tight against herself. So much so, that he was actually starting to struggle to breathe.
Not wanting to embarrass her friend, Cana only shrugged. "Anyway, come lay down, Lucy. I'll get you some water."
"But I don't wanna lay down…"
"You'll feel better if you do."
"Make me." Lucy subtly snuggled tighter into Natsu's embrace, though it was most likely unintentional.
"Girl," Cana wasn't sure if her roommate must think she's scared to pry her away from Natsu and drag her to bed, but she wouldn't let her get it twisted, "You can't cry about feeling nauseous and then be stubborn when I'm trying to help you."
"Fine," Lucy finally released Natsu, and shivered when she immediately began to miss his warmth, "Could you get the bags in case I feel the urge to throw up again?"
"Oh now you want my help," Cana muttered, "Okay, just give me a sec', your baby-daddy and I need to have a little chat."
Natsu wasn't sure if he liked the sound of that, and he definitely didn't feel good about the way Cana dragged him to the living room and shoved him on the couch.
"Why was she crying?" She whispered, though she actually didn't seem angry.
"She… she said she was tired of throwin' up."
"Oh… Poor thing, I wish this could be easier on her," Cana sighed, "Anywho, Lucy is either super touchy and affectionate when she's upset, or she'll be very reserved and irritable- there's no in-between. You lucked out, she actually decided to hug you."
"Well, she kinda got pissed at me at first, but I guess she deserves to be." Natsu shrugged, he couldn't be bothered by Lucy's outbursts. If she wanted to take her anger out on him, he wouldn't blame her. "It's alright, though. Since I'm up I figured I'd just go to Gildarts' alone."
"No need, I'll tell him to come here since Lucy's not feeling well. I think he wants to talk to her."
"Oh, alright, cool."
"Mhm, and stop flirting with my friend, loser."
"What? I ain't flirting with her."
"Not even a little?"
"Nope, not even a little."
"Well then why aren't you flirting with her? Are you scared or something?"
Natsu rolled his eyes at her switch up. "Nope, and you know that."
"Well, Lucy's super shy, so don't be too brash with her." Cana said as she quickly took a cup from the kitchen cupboard and a water bottle from the fridge. She brought them to Lucy's room, not bothering to knock on the door before she let herself in.
The blonde was draped over the side of her bed with her head buried in an old grocery bag, probably preparing to hurl. "Here, chin up," Cana tried to get her to lay in a better position, but only received a groan in return.
"Did you get the barf bags?"
"I wanted to give you this water first-"
"Go get the bags. And the waste bin from out of the closet."
"Alright, alright." She quickly complied before Lucy could get any more irritated. The hallway closet is just across from her room, so it didn't take longer than a second to retrieve everything.
When she came back, Lucy was sitting up and drinking from the water bottle. With her head up, Cana could now see how exhausted she looked, and she freed her hands so she could cup her friend's face.
"Hey...You should go back to sleep."
"...I don't want to. I have stuff I wanna get done."
"...Could you at least call off work? You're supposed to work the closing shift, right?"
"...Yeah, I'll call off in a second."
"Good. I'll get you some more water bottles. My dad's coming over, but you don't have to get up if you don't want to."
"Why is he coming..?" Lucy sounded a little scared, "Is it for you? Or for me?"
"For you and Natsu. He wants to give you guys some stuff, I think."
"Oh… So Natsu's still here, then?"
"Yeah. He used to come around a lot, so you might wanna get used to seeing him around. It was just easier for me and him hang out when everyone else was busy, we've been used to being together."
"...You guys are pretty close, huh?"
"Mhm, we grew up together."
"Right… So tell me, is it normal for him to go around petting people?"
"...What?" Cana wasn't sure if she just misheard her or something, "Petting? Like what you do to dogs?"
"Yes. He keeps patting me on the head, and he told me it was a habit." Lucy hugged her knees, seemingly embarrassed about this for some reason. "Does he do it often?"
"No? What the hell…" What was going on here was very obvious, "Natsu made that up… probably because he was embarrassed."
"Oh?" Lucy's eyes went into a daze, and when she didn't say anything for a while, Cana sighed,
"He really is an airhead, I tell you." 'Not even a little bit'- that liar...
-
"And this is my little baby-bear's 1st birthday! That's the onsie I had sent to her from when I was deployed. Cornelia had the whole party themed after it." Gildarts pointed to one of the many photos in the large book in his lap, the picture of baby Cana in her mother's lap with cake all over her face nearly made his eyes water. "She's always been so adorable…"
"You know I've seen these photos, like, 100 times…" Natsu went along with it at first, but in the hour since he got here, Gildarts hadn't talked about anything but the photo album he brought. He also had a large suitcase, so Natsu was pretty curious. "Is this all you came here for?"
"I was giving you context," Gildarts shook his head, "I want to give you Cana's old baby clothes."
"Oh! That'll actually be a big help, thanks!"
"Yeah, yeah," As he started opening the suitcase, the sound of footsteps caught his attention."Oh, look who it is!"
Lucy had only gotten up to get more water, she honestly didn't think Gildarts would still be here. Not wanting to seem rude, she joined them in the living room. "Hey... it's good to see you."
"Likewise. I heard you're not feelin' too well-"
"Are you still nauseous?" Natsu pulled her down to sit beside him on the couch, "What are you doing out of bed?"
"Just… getting some water…" Lucy hugged herself, and was honestly annoyed with the fact that she knew she was blushing right now. "I'm feeling a little bit better."
"Good. Well, Gildarts brought some good loot."
"...Loot?"
"Baby stuff, from Cana," Gildarts smiled as he pulled out the same bear onesie that was in his daughter's first birthday picture. "I kept it all because I was waiting to hand them down to someone someday. There's stuff from newborn to 3 years old, I got you guys covered."
"Oh, wow…" Preparing for the baby still felt funny to Lucy, but she couldn't deny how cute the tiny little onesies and booties and beanies were. "Aw… I can't imagine Cana being this itty bitty!"
"Haven't I shown you the baby pictures?"
"No, I don't think so."
A huge, smug grin crossed Gildarts' face as he set the photo album on the coffee table. "Well, you're in luck, then."
While they were distracted, Natsu went through the rest of the clothes in the suitcase, and slowly piled everything up on the couch.
"Look, this is when she smiled for the first time!"
"Aw! Wait… Cana's hair used to be red?"
"Oh yeah, she was born blonde, and then her hair turned sandy-brown until it darkened to the colour it is now. And speaking of hair…" He flipped a few pages to Cana's toddler years, "Here is when she cut a huge bald spot into her head at pre-school. She had to wear beanies for a whole year, heh."
"Woah... Was she always a little trouble maker?"
"I wouldn't say 'trouble maker', she was just super sassy, and the biggest diva. I don't even know where she got that from."
"You losers talking about me?" Cana came into the kitchen, having heard a good amount of what was said, "I was not a diva. Ever."
"Yes you were, and you honestly still are."
"Um… nope, not really." She poured herself a glass of water and joined everyone in the living room, and squinted at the clothes Natsu was piling up, "...Is that mine?"
"Yeah," Natsu chuckled at a bumble bee onesie he picked up, "These corny clothes couldn't be anyone else's"
Gildarts snatched the onesie out of his hands and defended his and his late wife's fashion choices, "They aren't corny! They're cute!"
"This one says 'classy and sassy'."
"And?"
"And that's corny as hell."
Gildarts rolled his eyes, "You have no taste."
As there was a lull in the conversation, a small sniffle was heard, and all eyes turned to Lucy. She was absolutely bawling, fat tears trailing down her face as she struggled to keep quiet.
"Um!?" Cana shook the blonde by the shoulder, "You okay, girl!?"
"Why… why are you crying?" Gildarts was just completely confused, "Why is she crying!?"
"What's wrong?" Natsu dropped what he was doing to pat the top of Lucy's head, and she looked up at him.
"This," Her finger came up to point at a picture of young Cana in a bubble bath with a huge beard shaped from suds, "This is the cutest thing I've ever-"
"Wait, what the fu-" Cana snatched the photo out of the album, "Dad!?"
"Oh! Yes, that's one of my favorites!"
"What did I tell you about showing people this stuff?"
"I don't remember having such a conversation…"
As the father-and-daughter duo bickered, Natsu whispered, "Hold up, just that picture alone... brought you to tears?"
Lucy shrugged and wiped her eyes, "I guess, yeah. Cana was an adorable baby."
"...You're so-"
"Don't call me weird."
"I was gonna say cute."
"Oh?" It took a second for his words to set in, and Lucy's eyes widened when they did, "O-oh!"
Before either of them could say anything more, Gildarts' phone began to ring, silencing everyone. There was an odd sense of tension that washed over the room as soon as he checked who was calling, and Natsu stiffened when Gildarts answered with, "Oh, hey, Zeref."
Their eyes met, and he continued. "Yeah, he's with me."
It was obvious that whatever this phone call is, it must have something to do with Natsu, and soon enough Gildarts handed him the phone. "Your brother wants to talk to you."
Lucy's brows furrowed in confusion at the way everyone seemed on edge, and she pulled Cana closer once Natsu left to take the call. "What's up?"
"Well his brother is, like, very standoff-ish. He calls every once in a blue moon, and we always assume something seriously bad must've happened whenever he does."
"Oh that's…" She shook her impending thoughts away, "Well... I hope everything is okay…"
"Zeref?" Natsu stepped out onto the balcony for complete privacy, he never knew what to expect with his brother.
"Hello, how are you?"
"I'm good… but why're you calling?"
Zeref didn't give an answer just yet,"You didn't answer your own phone, where are you?"
"I'm at Cana's apartment, I turned my phone off because I was… busy last night."
"Mother and father said you had something important to tell me. I would like to know what it is now."
"...Oh."