Lucy sat on the exam table, her shirt rolled up over her belly and her leg bobbing up and down. Natsu sat as close to the table as he could, unable to resist the urge to caress her stomach with his fingers.
"You feelin' okay?" With his head nearly nuzzled against her bump, it was easy to notice the anxiety in her demeanor.
"Just a little nervous," Lucy laughed it off, "There's always a chance they'll find some complications with the baby…"
"Oh… Well, don't get worked up before you even know there's something wrong."
"Yeah…" With a deep breath, Lucy decided to be optimistic. She never liked to worry, but something about being halfway through this pregnancy has made things feel even more real than they had before- something she didn't think was possible. Her mind was susceptible to every what-if and worry that there was.
With a brief knock, the sonographer entered the room with a welcoming smile on her face. "Mrs. Heartfilia?"
"Ah, it's just 'Miss'."
"Oh, yes, sorry. You two are here a little early, I'm assuming you're excited to take a look at your little one?"
The couple locked eyes for a moment before turning to her with big smiles on their faces. "Yes!"
"Well then I guess I shouldn't keep you waiting," Returning their smiles, she sat on a stool to Lucy's right and began fiddling with the tech in front of her.
This wasn't Lucy's first ultrasound, so she had a pretty good idea of what to expect here. There was a cloth tucked into the hem of her sweatpants to protect them from the cool gel that the sonographer spread around the blonde's lower abdomen. Then, a tool was placed over her pelvis, being guided by the sonographer to reveal an x-ray-like image of her uterus projected on several screens in the room.
Lucy's previous ultrasound was far more lackluster than this one, considering she was only able to see a fetus the size of a peanut. But this time, she couldn't hold back her gasp when the silhouette of a baby's head came into view.
"There's your little one," The sonographer used the pointer of her mouse to trace along the baby's silhouette, "They're giving us a pretty good view of their profile, and it looks like that's a hand just below the chin…"
"Oh wow…" Natsu hadn't realized he'd spoken aloud, he was just completely captivated by the image in front of them. He hadn't really expected to be able to recognize the outline of his baby like this- their little nose, tiny lips and a blob of little fingers touching where the chin would be.
The sonographer's voice was mostly tuned out, she mentioned something about the measurements, the number of fingers on each hand, the spine.
All Natsu could think about was that he was looking at his baby right now, it was almost like he could picture himself holding them and how their head would fit in his hand and how their hand would curl around one of his fingers-
"Natsu…"
He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Lucy whisper his name, his eyes shooting down to lock on hers. It was clear that she was on the verge of crying, but before his mind could drift into panic, she smiled,
"This is so… cool…" She sniffled, her giddiness present in her voice.
"Y-yeah," Natsu breathed out in response, "I don't know what I expected, but…"
As they were shown more and more of their baby's body, it became less and less distinguishable, but the sentiment was still there. Lucy was relieved to hear that everything seemed normal so far, and at some point she started to notice how Natsu was too dazed to really listen to what the sonographer was telling them.
"...And would the two of you like to know the sex now?"
Natsu's focus came back again when he heard Lucy confirm that they'd like to know, and his mouth went dry as he watched the ultrasound scan over what seemed to be the same areas a few times.
He meant it when he said it wouldn't make him feel any differently depending on what the sex was, but knowing would make him feel closer to them in a way. It'd help him picture the future with their kid just that much better.
After a bit more scanning around, the woman to their right nodded her head and smiled, "Looks to me like you'll be having a girl."
"Ah geez," Lucy giggled a bit louder this time, "My mom is never gonna shut up about this."
Natsu returned her laughter, "But does this mean there's a higher chance of us naming the baby Lucy Jr. now?"
"Hush, you."
"Alright, I'll let you think about it."
"We are not naming our child 'Lucy Jr.'"
"Why not? It's cute!"
"It's lame."
"I know plenty of Juniors that would take offense to that, Luce."
"Ugh…"
Smiling fondly at the couple, the sonographer quietly printed off a decent amount of the screenshots she'd taken throughout the scanning, equipped with little captions on the most important parts to make for great keepsakes.
-
The car stayed in park for a bit while the couple waited for the heat to settle inside, Lucy taking this time to look through the ultrasound pictures they had. Her head swam with ideas of hanging them up somewhere in their nursery, and maybe later keeping most of them on her desk when the baby's a little older.
Natsu watched her skim through them in a content silence, occupied by his own thoughts of getting one copied to a smaller size so he could carry it in his wallet. As his girlfriend settled on a scan that looked like their baby's foot, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and leaned closer to her.
"I hope she looks like you."
He whispered it in her ear, getting her to shudder before she processed what he said. Lucy shook her head fondly, noting how he mentioned hoping their daughter would look like her if they ended up having one. "I'd say you should be more open minded, but considering the resemblance I have with my mom…"
"Oh, that's right, Layla is gonna freak out…"
"Definitely, she's gonna be all 'I told you so,' or something. Oh well."
"At least we don't have to return the onsies Gildarts gave us that say 'Daddy's Girl,' 'cause he sure had a lot of those…"
"True, and on a serious note, this should help dwindle down the names we've thought of," Lucy rolled her eyes when she saw a smirk make its way across his face, "Excluding 'Lucy Jr,' We really should come up with something we both like soon."
Natsu leaned back in his seat, humming it over. Never in a million years did he think he'd have to figure out what he'd be naming his kid, so naturally it took a while for him to even think of something, let alone something that they both agreed on.
"This might be silly, but I've had a middle name in mind," He turned to look out the window to conceal his blush, "I liked how it sounds, but I don't like it as a first name, I dunno…"
Lucy's gaze softened, seeing him get bashful over this was just too sweet. "Don't worry, I'm all ears."
"Well, you and your mom's names kinda, like, match… kinda… and I just thought, maybe… I dunno, Lily sounds kinda cute…"
"Lily…" Lucy sounded the name out for a second, thinking it over, "How about Lillian?"
"That's cute… but like I said, I wasn't sure if I liked it as a first name yet."
"There's nothing wrong with having a middle name planned… Her first name will just have to sound good when paired with 'Lillian' if we choose to use that," Now, Lucy was sporting her own blush and she ran her hand down her boyfriend's forearm, "And it's funny you mentioned how I was named in my mom's likeness, because I thought I'd like to kind of honor that tradition too… but by naming the baby after you."
"Oh?" Natsu's eyes widened, like he hadn't even considered that.
"Yeah, your name is so unique, there's a lot of possibilities… There's a lot of 'N' names that I really like, too."
"...What if we, like, named her after both of us?"
They stared at each other in a mindblown silence, somehow in the 20 week before this point they hadn't been this close to a breakthrough on a name. Eventually, Natsu's eyes drifted to the time displayed on the dashboard, and he finally took the car out of park, "Well, we're gonna have to think about it some more, but if we're late getting to my parents' house, my mom is gonna be blowing up my phone."
"Oh right, I almost forgot," Lucy snickered as she thought about how accurate that sounded, "I just hope Grandine isn't gonna feed me a feast worth of food this time."
-
The smell of something- seemingly bacon- cooking immediately hit Lucy's nose as they walked up to the side door of the Dragneel house, and she was a little embarrassed to be so eager to see what was for lunch considering they just had breakfast at Gildarts'.
Natsu was about to knock, but it seemed like something donned on him when he instead went to turn the doorknob, a groan escaping him when it opened with ease. "I already told you guys to start locking this door!" He called out into the house as he walked inside, Lucy trailing close behind him.
"Natsu?" Wendy ran into the entrance room, and beamed, "Finally!"
"Hey, kiddo," She scooped him into a hug, and ruffled her long blue hair, "What do you mean 'finally'?"
"I've been waiting alllllll day!" She looked behind him at Lucy, and all but squealed, "Look at your belly!"
"W-what-" Lucy was taken aback for a second, but then Wendy ran but to her to wrap her arms around her belly and rested her ear on the surface.
"Woah… I think I can hear something… Does the baby kick yet?"
It was pretty endearing to see her so excited about this, Lucy couldn't help the fond smile that crossed her face, "Not really, as far as I know. But hey, you know today we got some ultrasounds~"
Wendy's eyes lit up as she watched Lucy pull out a few pictures, and the young girl took it upon herself to pretend to recognize what she was looking at. "This is your baby?"
"Yes, you know there's only about 4 or 5 more months until she's here."
"She?" Wendy gasped, and spun on her heel to face her brother, "I'm gonna have a niece?"
A soft laugh left Natsu's lips as he took in how excited she got, her eyes practically shining. "Yep! And you're the first to know."
"She's the first to know what?" Grandine walked in with an amused smirk on her lips, and her eyes fell to the scans in Lucy's hands, "Wait… Did you two get an ultrasound?"
"Uh, yeah, why'd you think we said we were coming here?"
Her eyes narrowed at her son's sarcasm, "I don't know, maybe because you wanted to see your beloved mother again?"
Natsu pretended to grimace, "Ew, no way!"
"You little…" As much as she'd love to tear into her son for his antics, Grandine brushed it off in order to put on a welcoming smile to their guest, "Anyways, it is always great to see you. Was everything well with the scan, Lucy?"
"Oh, yes. I was relieved to hear the baby's on the right track with development and whatnot… but I'm still kinda worried about how big I'm getting…"
"You're not that big, hun," Grandine gave her a comforting shoulder pat, "You're just short."
"Uh..?"
"You must be hungry. I prepared some BLT sandwiches, are you okay with pork bacon?"
"Oh, yes, that'd be great, but I probably won't eat too much since we had breakfast with Gildarts."
"That's okay, have as much as you like," Grandine guided the blonde into the dining room where Igneel was already stuffing his face, Lucy just barely making out the greeting he sent her over the food in his mouth.
"Hey, kid-"
"Swallow your food, Igneel."
He grumbled and narrowed his eyes at his wife before continuing, "Like I was saying… how'd it go?"
"It went well," Lucy subconsciously smoothed her hand over her belly, "We found out we're having a girl."
"Aw," Grandine gasped, grasping at her heart, "My first granddaughter! Congrats."
"And I was the first to know~" Wendy hummed as she skipped into the room with Natsu trailing behind her, "I got some really cute names picked out, too!"
Igneel let out a hardy laugh, "I'm sure these two are already overwhelmed with name ideas, pumpkin."
"Actually, we're kinda lost," Natsu admitted with a shrug, "We got an idea of what we want the name to be like, but… It's still a lot to think about. But Lucy and I are leaning towards 'Lucy Jr' a bit."
"No we definitely are not," Lucy huffed at the teasing glint in his eyes, "We're still brainstorming, so any ideas are welcomed."
"Okay, I made a list in my journal, I'm gonna go get it!" Wendy sprinted out of the room and up the stairs in record speed, prompting fond laughter to fill the room.
"I'm sure you can see by now just how exciting this all has been. I was taken aback at first, but I think this will all turn out well," Grandine handed Lucy a plate with way too many sandwiches on it, not noticing the grimace on the blonde's face, "And I presume the two of you have gotten… closer?"
While Lucy was busy trying to figure out how to nicely put some of her sandwiches away, Natsu gave her a pat on the head as he was filled with pride, "Yep, after she asked me, like, a million times, I agreed to make our relationship official. We're dating now."
Lucy was listening enough to catch on to what he said, "You mean after you asked me…"
He turned his mischievous grin to his girlfriend, "I dunno why it took so long, really. I mean, Lucy was pining for me every day until I finally thought I'd give her a chance…"
"Your ego gets bigger and bigger each day…"
Grandine beamed. "You two are very good together, I'm happy to hear that you've made it official."
"Yeah, wait'll Zeref finds out," Igneel reclined in his seat, "He was willing to bet on the two of you dating before the baby's born."
"Zeref thinks he knows everything," Natsu mused as he took a sandwich from Lucy's plate and nearly finished it in one bite, "But you just reminded me, I should probably call him and tell him the news before he finds out through someone else."
"Good luck with that."
"Thanks."
"There's a few things you should fill him in on. Like, have you discussed a time frame for the baby shower? From what I can remember, they're usually done about a month before the due date."
Grandine wasn't even surprised when she watched the couple freeze and the colour leave their skin. A very easy-to-read reaction.
"Oh… You completely forgot about throwing a baby shower, didn't you?"
"Ugh…" Lucy ran a hand down her face, "I don't even have the mental energy to think about planning one of those, and I doubt I will when I'm 8 months pregnant…"
"You don't have to have one, dear. But it is a good opportunity to receive gifts and support. And you wouldn't have to plan it yourselves, I'm sure your family would love to get involved. You've got time, don't stress about it."
"As long as it doesn't cost us a fortune to have one, I'm down," Natsu popped another one of Lucy's sandwiches into his mouth, "I bet if you asked them, your parents would pay for the whole thing, Luce."
She didn't comment on that, partly because they both knew it was 100% true.
"Here!" Wendy rushed back into the dining room, nearly tripping and falling on her face in her haste, "I found my journal. You can keep it," She handed it to Lucy, and leaned up to whisper in her ear, "I already ripped out all of the secret pages."
"Thank you, Wendy," Lucy accepted the little booklet with a giggle, "You're more prepared than we are already. You got this aunt thing figured out, hm?"
"I try…" She looked down, a bashful smile on her lips, "I wish I got to see my nephew, August, more… and I was hoping I could be close with my future niece…"
"Of course, there's more than enough room at our condo, you can come over whenever you like."
The excited squeal that Wendy let out was just too cute for Lucy to handle, this kid was just too precious.
"Lucy, dear, you've hardly eaten," Grandine's comment snapped the blonde's attention back to the plate in her hand, though it looked like Natsu already ate pretty much every sandwich that used to be atop it. "I'll get some sandwich bags, take a few home for later, okay?"
She didn't wait for a response before leaving to get the bags, prompting Lucy to pale and lean into Natsu to whisper, "I see why you have such a big appetite…"
He only shrugged, "Making sure we're full is just my mom's way of telling us she cares. But she could just be trying to impress you or something."
"You are eating for two," Igneel grinned, paying no mind to how the couple startled upon realizing he heard them, "It's important you have a good diet so my granddaughter will be big and healthy."
"I don't know if BLT's are part of a good diet," Natsu laughed, though he was already craving another sandwich. "Also, I don't think Luce would want the baby to get any bigger than she needs to be."
Lucy shuddered as she thought about having to deliver a larger-than-average baby, and Grandine came back to put her worry into words.
"Oh yeah, you're a lot braver than me, I'll say," After handing her son at least ten bagged sandwiches, she sighed, "That's one of the biggest reasons why we chose to adopt."
"Heh, yeah, and according to Natsu's birth certificate, he was over 10 pounds when he was born, and Zeref was just a little smaller. So, hopefully this isn't a gene you passed down, son…"
"Oh! I think August was 10 pounds, too," Wendy added with a giggle, as if that would be good news.
Lucy looked about ready to faint, and the expression on her face was enough to remind them that this wouldn't be the best thing to bring up with a pregnant woman.
"As long as you have a nice birth plan and a good doula, I'm sure the scariest parts won't be so bad. I actually used to be a doula, if you need help finding one that you're comfortable with, just let me know."
Grandine's attempt to lighten her stress was appreciated, but Lucy was still feeling queasy. Natsu took pity on her, and set a comforting hand on the small of her back. "Maybe we should get going? Your parents are probably waiting for us."
She shook the pained expression off her face and spared him a weak smile, "Oh, you're right…"
"Well if you must leave so soon," Grandine pulled them both into a tight hug, "Be safe, the roads are getting more and more icy. And call me, there's a lot that I could help you with when it comes to this baby."
"Will do, Ma."
"Thank you, Mrs. Dragneel."
-
"Are you gonna be okay?" Natsu was starting to worry, the car ride to the Heartfilia estate was completely silent, and Lucy still had that nervous look in her eyes.
He knew the comments about the likelihood of her having to push out a jumbo-sized baby made her nervous, but he couldn't know what was going on in her head, so the fact that she hadn't snapped out of it yet made him think the worst.
"You wanna stay in the car for a bit before we go inside?"
Lucy stared at her parents' mansion in a thoughtful silence for a good minute before she turned to her boyfriend. He was expecting her to say something, but instead she grabbed on to his neck and pulled him into a kiss.
Natsu returned it in kind, but struggled to keep up with her as she pulled him closer and kissed him deeper.
When she finally broke away from his lips with an audible pop, his eyes focused on the small smile on her face.
"I'm fine, don't worry. I just have this funny feeling…"
"Uh…" Still recovering from the passion in that kiss, Natsu had to take a second to gather his thoughts, "A bad feeling?"
"I dunno, maybe? It feels like everytime we talk to someone about the baby, I realize just how unprepared I am… But then again, I might just be overthinking."
"Babe," Natsu pushed her bangs out of her face and kept his hand on the top of her head, "You probably want me to say some motivational shit, but honestly, I'm kinda nervous about it all, too. But I like talking to people about it, especially people who've done this before. I dunno, it helps me feel like we'll be able to get through the hardest parts."
"That is a nice way to think about it…" Lucy looked down at the curve of her belly and snickered, "I've been such a moody pessimist since I got pregnant, huh?"
"Uh, well, it's reasonable…"
"When you get to know me once I'm not pregnant, you'll see how cool I can be."
Natsu grinned, and gave her a peck on her forehead, "If you say so. I doubt you were that cool, but-"
"Shut up," She hopped out of the car, the smile on her lips proving she knew he was just teasing, "C'mon before a maid or something sees your car parked here and calls the police or something."
Natsu wasn't sure how likely that would be, and he wasn't planning on finding out, so he got out and headed towards the front entrance along with her.
As Lucy rang the fancy doorbell, they had just 30 short seconds to prepare themselves for how this would go. Where the Dragneels can be chaotic, the Heartfilias were… intense. Natsu shuddered at the memory of how distraught Lucy ended up being after the last time they visited here.
The door swung open, and just as Lucy was ready to greet the whatever maid she expected to see, her words caught in her throat.
The woman that answered looked permanently annoyed, and her eyes silently raked over the blonde's body, flitting over to look at Natsu for no longer than a second.
It was awkward, no one had said anything for nearly a full minute, and Natsu cleared his throat. He wasn't sure why Lucy looked stunned, or why the woman at the door was staring her down.
After what felt like forever, Lucy covered her mouth with her hand and let a few tears shed from her eyes before she muttered,
"...Aquarius?"