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During some lapse in the 100 Years Quest, Team Natsu found themselves back in their beloved guild hall for a few days.
“Mmm… I think I’ve missed these milkshakes just as much as I’ve missed my bathtub!” Lucy sipped on her strawberry shake, melting in its sweetness.
“Be careful, Lushee, too many of those and you’ll look like Reedus!” Happy giggled in between munches of salmon, watching as Reedus set up his easel.
“Reedus is that size by choice, you know,” Mira piped in from behind the bar, “Every few weeks Makarov gives him a touch up.”
“I don’t blame him, anything to be the strongest wizard you can be!” Natsu said as he appeared from nowhere, mussing up Lucy’s hair in greeting before sitting down next to her. She smiled back, offering him a sip of her frosty treat by gesturing to her straw which he gladly took her up on. A year ago, she may have flushed at the indirect intimacy of it all, but she had been getting all too familiar with those kinds of feelings. Hell, even amidst battle, Natsu found ways to make her emotions go haywire.
“I’m surprised you don’t look like him from all that junk you shove down your gullet.”
Mira giggled. “It sure is nice listening to you two again.”
Happy rolled his eyes. “I’m glad you like it, it’s exhausting listening to them dance around each other, even when it’s literally staring them in the fa—YEEOWCH!” The exceed was cut off by a pinch to his tail. “Lushee… that was mean.” The blonde blew an amused breath out of her nose.
Mira’s eyes shone with interest. “What do you mean? See something interesting during your travels?”
“We got to go back to Edolas!” Lucy groaned and threw her head back, anticipating where this was going. The mention of Edolas brought Natsu out of his milkshake stupor.
“Oh yeah! We got to see our counterparts again!”
“And a few others…” Happy chuckled from behind his paws.
“I thought you had a fish to eat…” Lucy whined.
“I finished it!”
A few minutes of painful explanation later, they had attracted a few stragglers to their conversation.
“My darling Gray! How could you have kept such a secret from Juvia!” Juvia giggled from Gray’s arm, tracing her fingers along his muscles. “Greige has always been my secret baby name for our future son!”
Gray, ever the quiet lover, flushed and rubbed his neck. “Because I knew it would send you into a spiral.”
“How I wish I had been blessed enough to see such beauty! I bet he was absolutely adorable.”
“Nasha was cuter.” Natsu mused from his seat, twirling the straw around in the empty milkshake jar.
“You tryin’ to pick another fight?” Gray grabbed Natsu by his scarf. “Wipe that little smirk off your face you ass!”
“Whatever droopy eyes, it’s a shame Greige didn’t inherit Juvia’s eyes like Nasha did Lucy’s.” Lucy felt her face burn a deep scarlet. So much for getting used to Natsu’s words. It was like he didn’t even hear himself. Not that he would’ve had any time to process his own words Gray got approximately one punch in after pulling Natsu down to rumble before Erza appeared to deliver swift smacks to their heads.
“I feel you, Juvia. Maybe I’ll get Reedus to draw me their portraits. He’s taking commissions for the first time in forever,” Mira said, handing Juvia a pack of wound-dressing cream from under the counter as she began to dote on Gray.
“Co-huh?” Natsu asked, rising up from the floor.
“Commissions. Like a request. If you pay him, he’ll paint you a picture of anything you like,” Lucy explained.
“So like, if I wanted him to paint me a picture of me holding Gray’s head on a spike…”
“Theoretically, yes.” Deep within her mind, Lucy would’ve rather seen that picture than be teased by one with Nasha’s wild pink hair and sweet eyes.
Lucy would be lying if she said the young girl hadn’t left an impression on her. She thought of her all the time, seeing her in small things like a pair of children’s boots in a store’s window, the little hands on her Michelle doll, and even her own reflection. Nighttime was especially easy to fall into a Nasha-induced spiral, as she laid in bed (oftentimes next to her father’s counterpart,) when the quiet of the night allowed her mind to wander. And to dream. Imagine something that she wasn’t sure would ever exist.
“Shut the hell up, you ass! My head is already pounding and your rambling ain’t helpin’!”
“Stop squirming, my love!”
As the guild descended into its normal ruckus, a seed had taken root.
—-
The next day, Lucy walked into the guild, a book under her arm that she’d been dying to discuss with Levy. She walked past Reedus, who seemed hard at work. She smiled his way, deciding to say a quick hello.
“Hey Reedus! I bet you’ve got lots to work on now that you’re taking requests. Whatcha working on tod-”
Her book clattered to the ground.
There on the parchment, stared the eyes of the little girl who sent her mind topsy turvy. He hadn’t added a few details or even color yet, but it was unmistakably Nasha.
“Damn Mirajane,” Lucy bent down with shaking hands to retrieve her book. “I didn’t think she was serious.”
“Looks good, oui?”
“Y-Yes. Very nice,” she rushed out, shuffling quickly towards her and Levy’s regular table. It wasn’t fair that just a picture of the girl could affect Lucy so. Especially when it didn’t seem like meeting her had affected Natsu at all. Sure, he had mentioned her once or twice after the fact, but he brought her up as casually as he would bring up what they were eating for dinner.
Levy hadn’t arrived yet, so Lucy made herself comfortable. She tried to read a few pages, but she was so distracted it could’ve been in a different language. Their table was positioned diagonal of Reedus’ canvas, and Lucy couldn’t help but watch as he worked. He was just starting on the hair. He had gotten everything pretty accurate so far, which was impressive considering Mira had limited information on Nasha’s appearance and probably hadn’t given him much to work with.
He sketched with a light hand, so Lucy stood up and wandered a bit closer to see. Her breath hitched after a few strokes. Reedus quietly twisted around.
“All good, oui?” The question was charged. Did it look like her?
She nodded wordlessly. Although she had one critique.
“The hair… make it a bit…” She bit her lip and looked towards the ground. “Spikier.”
The word came out of her quietly, its implication making her heart squeeze. He smiled, turning back around and resuming his work with her suggestion in mind.
“Sorry I’m late, Lu! It takes me forever to do anything these days.” Her gaze shot to the guild’s doors at the sound of her very pregnant best friend.
“Levy! Don’t rush!” Lucy ran towards her, legs feeling like jello. She had almost forgotten she was in the guild.
“I heard from a little birdie something very interesting you saw while on your quest…”
“That little birdie is gonna get his wings clipped the next time I see him.”
–
Later that night, while she wrote a letter to her mother, Natsu jumped in through her open window. She’d started leaving it open for him, he was going to come in regardless and she couldn’t afford to replace the locks he constantly melted apart.
“Yo! I brought a movie for us to watch!” He bounced off her bed and threw his pouch to the floor.
“No Happy tonight?”
“Nah, he said he was gonna do his own thing tonight,” he said while striding towards the couch.
“Nu-uh! The other night you got leaves and other trash all over my couch! Go shower and change!”
“But Luuuuucy!”
“No buts! Go! I’ll get the movie queued up and it’ll be ready when you come back.”
“Kay!” he threw over his shoulder before disappearing into her bathroom.
“There’s no telling what kind of movie he picked out…” Lucy grumbled to herself as she dug through his bag. She furrowed her brows when her fingers brushed against a long cylinder. Pulling it out, she popped the top off of the container because sue her, she was curious.
It was some kind of rolled up poster. A job request, maybe? But wouldn’t it be smaller-
Lucy unraveled the poster and sank to her knees.
“I forgot to grab a spare set of clothes,” Natsu said, quickly running out of the bathroom towards the dresser when he saw her on the floor. “Watcha doin’ down there, you weirdo?” He looked past her frame to what was in her hands, and froze.
Beneath Lucy’s fingertips was the now finished painting of Nasha. She looked out at the viewer with her brown Heartfilia eyes and toothy grin with a peek of sharp canines, her hair definitely spikey and a sweet sakura color.
“Is this what you asked Reedus to paint you?” Lucy asked, breathlessly, turning around to her best friend.
“Yes,” he answered simply, squatting down to admire the painting some more (even though he had spent an hour staring at it after he picked it up from Reedus that afternoon.) “He did a good job, don’t you think?” he asked, quietly.
Feeling lighter than she had in weeks, Lucy placed the painting down gently and grabbed Natsu around the neck for a hug.
“It’s perfect.” Natsu, taken aback but definitely not one to deny a cuddle with Lucy, wrapped his arms around her in return and squeezed, one hand flat against her back and the other gripping her waist, pulling her into his lap.
“You’re not mad?”
“Why would I be mad?” She leaned back, sniffling a bit but still smiling.
“It’s just…” Natsu took his time. Words weren’t his strong suit. “Whenever we talk about her, you get all freaked out,” he managed out, gently swiping his thumb against her back unconsciously. “I didn’t know if I’d ever get to see her again… So I wanted a picture.”
Lucy brushed a hand through his hair, looking up at him tenderly. It wasn’t often she got to speak with him while he was in a vulnerable mood. “I do get a bit weird. But not because I don’t like her.” She stood up and walked to her desk on shaking legs, grabbing a journal she kept stuffed in the back of one of its drawers. Now or never.
“I did a few, um, calculations…” Lucy began as she flipped to the back of the journal with shaking fingers, sitting back down with Natsu. “Edolas is seven years ahead of us… and N-Nasha looked like she couldn’t be older than four.” Reaching her desired page, she pointed at a few hastily drawn numbers. “If my math is right, and assuming everyone in Edolas has an Earthland counterpart no matter their age gap,” Lucy squirmed a bit, taking a pause. “We’ll see our Nasha in about…”
“Three to four years,” Natsu finished for her, smiling down at the blonde. “That sounds so soon.”
“I know,” Lucy said, bashfully tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. “I think about her all the time. About what she’s doing, what she may be like… And if you wonder the same things. If you want her, too,” Lucy looked down, twiddling with her thumbs as she trailed off a bit at that last part.
“I want her.”
Lucy looked up at him, flushing red. Natsu’s eyes were fraught with conviction, a small smile appearing on his lips. Sitting up straight, she brought her arms back up around him.
“I think… I think you’ll get to see her again,” she promised, sliding a few of her fingers up into his hair at the base of his neck. Natsu reached behind her, grabbing Nasha’s painting and bringing it up to the two of them.
“She’s pretty cute, ain’t she?”
“Definitely cuter than Greige,” she chuckled.
“She looks just like her mama,” he added with a grin.
“Natsu!” Lucy cried, burying her reddening face into her palms at his words.
“What! It’s true!”
“I’m not used to hearing you say things like that!”
“Hey, look at me,” he said, removing her hands from her eyes. “I’m not good with this sort of stuff.” He brought their hands between them, brushing his thumb over her knuckles. “But I know that with you, a future with her seems right.”
“You know how we’d get her… right?” Natsu had definitely been confused about all things reproduction in the past. “What we would have to do?” With each word Lucy felt her entire body flush.
He smiled shyly. “Yes. Someone told Gildarts I needed a lesson and we had a chat. Hell, we could get on making Nasha now if we wanted to.”
“Easy tiger!” Lucy screeched, pushing her hands into Natsu’s mouth to quiet him, although it didn’t really work as he laughed behind them.
“It was probably Gray who told; that pervy popsicle…” Lucy tapped his cheek, grabbing his attention.
“Natsu?”
“Hm?” She brought her hands to his jaw, steadying herself for what she was about to do.
“Be quiet for just a sec,” she asked, bringing their lips together for the very first time.
Nasha’s portrait got hung in Natsu’s cabin amongst the rest of his mementos, eventually joined by other keepsakes: more published books from Lucy, thousands of knick knacks from jobs, a little velvet box, and, one day, Earthland Nasha’s photo, squishy and pink and perfect, nuzzled between both her parents.