"...Oh."
"Oh?"
"Um... Did mom and dad tell you to call me, then?"
"No, I'm in town for a bit now. They're letting me and my family stay at the house. I asked how you were doing, and they said you'd have something to tell me. Wendy said it wasn't bad. Was she lying?"
"Um... Not really... Okay, are you alone right now?"
"So it's bad?"
"No... I just don't know how you'll react."
"...Little brother."
"What?"
"Did you go and get some girl pregnant?"
"I-" How the hell did he..? "I, um, I did, actually."
"...Oh."
"Yeah... How'd you know?"
"The way everyone was acting... It was very similar to when Mavis got pregnant. Also, I hear Gildarts wants to stay in town and finally settle down in one spot, which is very unlike him. I figured something important must've happened."
"Oh, I see."
"Mhm... Who is the girl?"
"You don't know her. We went to highschool together, and college too... But I actually just dropped out."
"I've heard... So what's your plan?"
"I guess I'll just do what you did- work my ass off until I can afford school again. I'd probably wait until my kid's a little older, though."
"Okay... Is this girl your girlfriend?"
"Not yet."
"Hm... Well I'd like to meet her sometime."
"Okay... I guess we could arrange somethin'..."
"August misses you, and Mavis would love to see you again. We'll all meet up before we go back home."
"Yeah... sounds like a plan."
"Okay, then. I'll see soon."
"Yep..." Natsu was the first to hang up, and he let out the long breath he'd been holding in. Things didn't get crazy, but he could easily tell from the tone of his brother's voice... he was mad. Really, he was very mad, or most likely disappointed.
He didn't show his stress on his face as he went back inside to join everyone again, and mustered a smile at the way Lucy was sobbing at yet another one of Cana's baby pictures.
"Your little cheeks... they were so chubby..." She sniffled, "You were so precious."
"What do you mean 'were'?" Cana pretended to be offended, "Actually, I'm not the only baby in this photo album..." She turned a couple pages before finding what she was searching for, "There! This was when I met Natsu. Now those are some chubby cheeks!"
"Oh. My. Goodness!" Cana was right, he really was chubby, and Lucy couldn't take it anymore. "Look at his fat little fingers!"
"Okay now," Natsu startled her when he snatched the book out of her hands, "Enough of that."
"Oh, you're back! How did it go?" Gildarts could already tell by the look in his eyes, "Oh... he was mad at you?"
"Yeah... but that's nothing new. Also, he wants to meet you, Luce."
Luce..? "Oh, great, yay..." Lucy sighed, "I feel like I'm gonna throw up again."
"Don't sweat it, Zeref's mean but quiet. He won't say much." Natsu tried to lessen her worry, but he couldn't fault her at all. Too much has been happening at once lately. "Hey... Let's just look at more baby pictures."
"Yeah, sure..."
-
"You!" As he opened the door to his house, Natsu was surprised to immediately be greeted by Gray's grumpy face. "Where have you been!?"
"...With Lucy." He could already tell his roommate would say something stupid, so he grumbled, "First you're pissy when I stay home and be bored, and now you're pissy 'cause I went out?"
"You were out for, like, 2 days! I don't want to be the only one looking after your fucking smelly ass cat!"
"Happy smells way better than you."
"Yeah, whatever, but he's your responsibility."
"He'd be fine for a couple days. I'm surprised you weren't too busy with your head up Juvia's ass to notice him."
"Shut up, she'll hear you."
"Oh, Juvia's here?" Natsu sighed, and his demeanor pissed Gray off for a whole new reason now.
"Yeah, she's here. Got a problem with that?"
They had a silent staring contest for 30 whole seconds before Natsu turned and started up the stairs. "Juvia!" He called on his way up, sending Gray into pure confusion.
"W-what?" Just as he thought, she was laying in Gray's bedroom, looking startled, "Natsu? What's wrong?"
"I need you to-"
"What are you doing?" Gray held Natsu by the shoulder, unsure if he was going to do something stupid. "Leave her alone-"
He shrugged him off and ignored him, "Juvia, I need you to hang out with Lucy."
"Uh... what?"
"Lucy... She's really sad and stressed out. I keep hearing that all her friends are too busy with their relationships to hang out with her. I need you to see her and make her feel better."
"Oh..." Juvia looked down as she thought about what he said. It really has been a while since all of their friend group actually spent time together, and he had a point. "Okay, yeah, Juvia will plan an intervention."
"Thanks. And tell the other's, Lucy could use the company."
"She's gotten sick of you already?" Gray teased, but Natsu turned to him with the most serious expression on his face,
"I don't know, but she's stressing herself out over being friends with me, plus she feels sick, and now Zeref wants to meet her. That on top of work and school has gotta suck, she needs a break."
The couple shuddered at the thought of Lucy having to meet Natsu's older brother, and Juvia nodded, "Yes... Stress is not good for the baby, too. We will all go and enjoy a relaxing activity together, but it'll be hard to arrange something where everyone is free..."
"I'm sure just telling her you wanna hang out would make her feel better. Anyways, that's all I wanted." Natsu left to his own room, Gray and Juvia sharing confused glances.
At his girlfriend's signal, Gray followed after his roommate and held the bedroom door open before he could shut it. "Hey... You been feelin' alright there, bro?"
Natsu wanted to roll his eyes, Gray was just yelling at him a moment ago. "I'm cool."
"You seem real worried."
"Well duh!" He ran his hand over his face, trying to keep from shouting, "You think I'm just gonna be calm? I'm gonna have a kid with a girl who's always turning red when she sees me, and not in a good way."
"Oh... Don't worry about it too much, you're good at getting girls to warm up to you."
"I guess, but I actually care about what this girl thinks of me. I can't have a baby-mama that doesn't like me..." Natsu laid down on his bed and looked up at the ceiling. He's never thought this hard about anything in his life, and it's honestly getting exhausting.
"Geez, I never thought I'd hear you stressing over a girl like this, 'baby-mama' or not. Do you want her?" Gray sat in one of the chairs in his roommate's room and lifted his eyebrows suggestively, "Like, you know..."
"Yeah, obviously. I wouldn't have fucked her that night if I didn't."
"Eh... It's not like you haven't done it before."
"Well yes, I want her. She's really cute."
"Cute?" Gray chuckled, it was obvious Natsu was holding out on him. "You want her just 'cause she's cute?"
"And she's got a nice body."
"Yeah, that sounds about right."
With a sigh, Natsu collected his thoughts. When he remembered the night before, he sent his friend a smirk, "Oh, and we slept together last night."
"For real? She let you hit again?"
"No, like, we literally slept. She was reading something, it was super boring... but she looked so excited when I asked her to read it to me. It was cute." He smiled at the memory. Though he couldn't even remember the title of the book- let alone what she was saying as she read it- he'd never be able to get the image of Lucy's face out of his head. "We were laying on her bed, I'm surprised she let me do that after all that teasing I did. But yeah, I pretended to sleep first just to see what she'd say, but then she laid down too, so I ended up actually dozing off. I didn't get to take it any further 'cause Cana came and ruined it."
"Well yeah, you should know better. Cana isn't gonna let you even look at Lucy in that type of way."
"But I don't see what the issue is. She's already pregnant, and it's not like I'm gonna do anything she doesn't want me to."
"You know how girls are. They can't trust you with your reputation."
"I guess... Lucy doesn't seem to care, though."
"She probably doesn't even know, honestly."
"Then I guess I'll just tell her. Or... Maybe I'll show her-"
"Stop talking about my friend like some horny douchebags," Juvia interrupted them when she barged into the room, glaring into Natsu's eyes, "If all you want is sex, then you've got the wrong girl. Lucy's not that type of person."
"We weren't saying anything bad," Gray explained, but his girlfriend definitely wasn't buying it.
"No, Juvia knows how he is. Dragneel, whatever fantasies you've got in your head... leave Lucy out of it. If Juvia hears you've done something, you'll be hearing from all of us-"
"Okay, okay. You don't gotta get the whole cavalry on my ass, I'm not gonna hurt the mother of my kid." Natsu rolled his eyes at her lack of trust, "I know I can be bad, but sheesh."
Juvia shook her and left without saying any more, not in the mood to elaborate. And really, she didn't need to.
"Hey, she's got a point," Gray shrugged, "I get the feeling Lucy's more innocent than anyone you've been with before. I mean, you guys hooked up at the first party she's ever been to, and that was the first time she'd ever gotten drunk, plus she was a virgin before you. You really should take it easy with her."
"I'm know what I'm doin', I ain't dumb."
"Eh... Are you sure about that?" Gray chuckled at the aggravated groan Natsu let out, "Really though, didn't you say that you're worried she doesn't like you?"
"Yeah, but I got her to blush a few times. And I caught her checking me out. Like I said, I know what I'm doing." Natsu casually propped his arms under his head and clicked his tongue. He was radiating confidence now, and it almost made Gray gag.
"Have fun losing any progress you got with her once she meets Zeref, though."
Now, Natsu's bravado was crushed, and he ran his hand over his face. "Yeah, I know. I'll try and tell him not to cock-block, but..."
"Aw, you know he's just protective of his 'wittle' baby brother."
"Shut up."
"But hey, you never know. Zeref might like her."
"No, he hates everyone. I'll just have to make things up to her after they meet. He's gonna say some offensive bullshit and either scare her or piss her off, I already know."
"Well, good luck with that," Gray shrugged, he was just glad that he didn't have a freaky older brother scaring away anyone close to him.
"Thanks, now get out of my room," Natsu stood up and motioned towards the door, "I'm gonna call Lucy, so you can't be in here."
"Huh? But I wanna hear-"
"Nope, you'll ruin the charm. Now get out."
"Whatever, I don't wanna hear your sorry attempts at flirting anyway."
Ignoring the sly comment, Natsu shoved Gray out of the room and shut the door. After taking a second to breathe, he whipped out his phone and went to his newly saved contacts to find and dial Lucy's number.
It rang for an uncomfortably long amount of time before she finally answered, sounding out of breath, "H-hello?"
"Yo, Luce! Are ya feelin' better?" He played it cool, stacking up the charm and laying it on thick. "I just wanted to check up on ya 'cause I miss ya."
"...You literally just left my apartment."
"Yeah... But I can't help but worry about you, y'know?"
"Oh... Well I'm feeling better. Juvia just told me she wants to hang out, so that makes me a bit hopeful. I feel like I'd just ruin it with my nausea, though."
"Hey, you're only making it worse by thinkin' about it. Just try to enjoy your time with your friends. And if you're up for it... Maybe you and I could hang out afterwards."
"You and I..? U-um, yeah, we'll see."
"Yeah, maybe we could chill at my place."
"M-maybe."
"Reading with you was fun, you could bring your books next time so we could do it again."
"Really? No one ever likes to read with me, except Levy..."
"I think it's nice... But it's more relaxing when you read aloud to me, you have a really soothing voice."
"Oh? Thank you..."
"Mhm, and I'll cook for you again."
"Wait... When am I supposed to meet your brother?"
Dammit! Natsu really didn't want to talk about that right now, he wanted to focus more on building things up between them instead of topics that were sure to stress her out. "I don't know yet... We'll arrange it when we all have freetime. Him and his family are staying with my parents right now, so we could just go up there when you feel ready."
"Okay... Is your brother mean? Cana made it sound like he was mean."
"Honestly? Yeah, he's pretty mean. But he doesn't talk much anyway, so it should be fine." He took a deep breath, trying to hold in his sigh. "It'll be okay, I won't let him do nothin' to ya."
"...Okay."
"Yeah... so, see you later, then?"
"Yeah, see you later."
As soon as Lucy hung up, Natsu groaned into his hand, and glared at the door. "Shut up."
Before he even entered, it was clear that Gray was laughing. "Dude-"
"Shut. Up." Natsu growled, glaring even harder at his roommate's cheeky grin. "It's not funny."
"You usually just say whatever's on your mind... I've never heard you be this nervous before, it's kinda freaky..."
"I told her I'd be cool with being a single parent, but I just want her... It's usually not this hard, dammit..."
"Damn... This is so out of character-"
"Just shut up and get out of my room!"
-
Lucy curled up on the couch, squeezing one of the throw pillows tightly. Natsu's phone call had her so red, Cana thought he was hallucinating when she looked at her.
"Um, girl? You good?" She felt the blonde's forehead just to make sure she wasn't about to explode. "Wait... You were on the phone with Natsu-"
"I-I think he likes me!"
"...What?"
"I think he-"
"No, I heard you," Cana wanted to groan, but it came out as a strangled sigh, "You... You think he likes you?"
"Well yeah... I'm pretty sure he's flirting with me..." Her stomach felt completely knotted up, and she was sure it wasn't morning sickness this time.
"Girl... no. No, no, no. Natsu's just naturally flirty. I mean, obviously he finds you attractive if he slept with you, but don't read too much into what he says."
"Um..? Why are you so against the idea of him flirting with me?"
"Because... He's just not the type for you to be catching feelings for-"
"Huh? No, I never said I had feelings... It's just kinda odd to imagine a guy liking me..." Lucy almost giggled as she thought about it, "It's cool, but I know no guy will want me once I'm a single mom..."
Cana sighed in relief, "Oh... Well, you're super pretty and nice, Lucy. I'm sure plenty of people have found you attractive."
"I guess... I dunno, but do you think Natsu and I could ever-"
"No."
"No?"
"Yeah, no."
"Um... I was gonna say, do you think we could ever get past this awkward stage and actually become friends..."
"Oh... Well in that case, yeah. That's the goal."
"What did you think I was gonna say?"
Cana stared at Lucy in a long, uncomfortable silence. Just as it was starting to seem like she zoned out, the brunette shrugged, "I thought you'd ask if you guys would be compatible or something."
"But... I thought you wanted me to, like, flirt with him and stuff..?"
"Nah, I'm just teasing you when I act like that, 'cause I know it's not something you'd do. Really, just focus on being friends for now..."
"...Okay? Well anyways, we should clear our schedules so we can hang out like Juvia suggested."
"Yeah... I'm gonna go do that."
Lucy waited for Cana to leave the room before she pulled out her phone and started typing away. Her roommate's behavior was strange, she'd usually joke about her and Natsu doing something scandalous by now. This was a side of her she'd ever seen.
"What did you do to Cana?" She texted the one other person she knew to be close with the brunette; Mirajane.
"What's wrong? Does she not want to hang out with us?"
"No, it's not that. She just suddenly went all space-y when I told her I think Natsu likes me. I mean, he does flirt with me a lot..."
Mira began to type for a long time, and Lucy had to fight the urge not to barf. She couldn't understand why she was anxious right now, but her stomach definitely couldn't take it.
When she didn't get a response for 2 minutes, Lucy decided to add, "Wait... Do Natsu and Cana have history?"
Finally, Mira sent, "They do. But I guess it's because Natsu doesn't seem like your type. Really, it's hard to imagine him in a relationship at all. Did you want to invite him to hang out with us? It doesn't have to be just us girls... Maybe he really does like you ;)"
Skimming over everything else she said, Lucy did a double-take at her first sentence. "So they do have history? Like what?"
"Well... It's not my business to tell. You should ask Cana, I'm sure she'd share. Or... Maybe even Natsu if you guys get closer ;)"
Those two have history... Does this mean they used to be an 'item'? Lucy thought about it, unsure how to feel. "Alright. We should just talk about what days we're all free right now."
Changing the subject didn't make her overthinking stop, and now Lucy really wanted answers. It didn't seem like Cana would be willing to spill right now, so she might just have to take a chance and ask her pink-haired baby-daddy.