A/N: This fic is a little bit angsty. Not too much though. I tried to keep Natsu and Gray as in-character as I could, which resulted in this.

Sequel to my previous one-shot: A Dragon's Reproductive System.

It was a cold rainy Wednesday in Fiore, and Gray was pleased.

Or at least, he would have been, had a certain flame-brain not been trying to ruin his day.

"There is absolutely no way I'm not going on this mission" Gray said stubbornly, his arms crossed and iciest glare directed at Natsu.

"You know why you can't!" Natsu whispered angrily.

Lucy, Happy and Erza looked between Natsu and Gray curiously, wondering what was going on.

As there were currently no other dragon slayers in the guild - Wendy, Gajeel, Levi and Charle all being on a mission together, and Laxus with Freed and Evergreen – Gray and Natsu had decided not to break the news of Gray's pregnancy yet.

Or rather, Gray had knocked Natsu out when he'd almost told the whole guild yesterday, and then dragged him away for a nice chat.

There was no way that he was letting it get out he was, of all things, pregnant!

He'd yet to work out the specifics, but Natsu had said it would only be a month long pregnancy anyway. His plan had been to go on this mission located in a town 4 days travel away, and then take his time coming back. When he eventually returned with a kid – well, then he'd decide what to do. Maybe he could tell them he'd found the kid and decided to raise it. Of course, that wouldn't work if those damn dragon slayer noses were strong enough to sniff out the familial connection.

Gray had told Natsu the running away and hiding part of his plan – but not that he was considering claiming the child wasn't his. He knew Natsu would never agree to it.

He didn't really like the thought of it either. But – come on! He was a man! It was bad enough he was pregnant – he didn't want everyone thinking he was some kind of freak as well.

And now, to make things worse, Natsu was making him feel like a woman. Telling him that the mission he'd chosen, that would take him furthest away from the guild, was too dangerous.

"Don't tell me what I can and can't do." Gray said icily, before turning on his heel and leaving.

It was only when he got outside he realized he was missing his pants. Again.

"GOD DAMNIT!"

It was only a couple of minutes later that Gray heard the sound of approaching footsteps, and he sighed and turned to face Natsu.

He raised an eyebrow in slight amusement and irritation when Natsu held out the pants he'd left behind as a sort of peace offering, a sheepish expression on his face.

Natsu had been refusing to treat him normally since yesterday. He didn't rise to the bait when Gray tried to antagonize him, he had so far not raised his voice once no matter what Gray did, and he absolutely refused to fight like normal. It was getting on Gray's nerves.

Regardless, he reached out a hand for his pants, and accepted the peace offering for what it was. For now.

After quickly re-dressing himself, Gray looked at Natsu to indicate he was meant to follow, and began to make his way back home.

It was as he began opening his front door, that Natsu finally spoke.

"Please don't go."

Gray looked at Natsu incredulously. He sounded so quiet and.. well.. teary. If Natsu looked like that much longer, Gray would end up giving in just because he couldn't stand to see him like that. He kind of liked that Natsu was so worried about him.

"You won't be able to protect our baby properly."

Or not. Gray's crumbling resolve quickly hardened again. The glare he directed at Natsu was positively murderous.

"How dare you! How dare you insinuate I can't protect myself! I am not a weak little girl. I'm still Gray! Just because there's a damn parasite in my body, doesn't mean I'm suddenly powerless!"

Natsu looked devastated, and Gray knew it wasn't from being yelled at. He regretted calling their baby a parasite as soon as the words left his mouth, but it was too late now. And besides, how dare Natsu only worry about the baby. He'd told Gray only yesterday that he loved him, and yet it was baby this, baby that. Angrily, he entered his home and slammed the door – making it clear that Natsu was not welcome.

He heard Natsu yelling what sounded like "at least let me come with you!" as he stormed away, but didn't bother to reply.

That night, Gray packed all the stuff he thought he would need for his upcoming journey, and secretly left Magnolia on the last train of the night.

He knew that Natsu would be around again the next morning, and he couldn't be bothered dealing with him again. He was sick of being treated as simply a container for the baby, and he needed to leave before he took it out on Natsu too much.

How could things have ended up this way? They'd just admitted they both loved each other. They should have been happy. And screwing every other hour. They were two young boys for crying out loud. They weren't ready for a baby. And apparently, neither was their relationship.

He spent the whole train ride with his head in his hands.

5 days after getting on the train, Gray was starting to regret his decision. Like, really regret it.

He'd managed to reach the far-away city of Trila and complete his mission in a mere 4 days – the mayor had only wanted him to retrieve the city key from a resident ice-monster, which was ridiculously easy – but on the 5th day he'd woken up to a surprise.

He hadn't expected to get so big.

He'd been secretly hoping that a magical dragon pregnancy that only lasted for a month would also, magically, not show.

No such luck. Exactly 1 week after falling pregnant, he suddenly woke up to a beer belly. Or at least, that's what it looked like. Admittedly, a small beer belly, but something of that size should not have popped up overnight!

Worringly, he also felt a little colder that morning. As an ice mage, the fact that he was noticing the cold at all was bad news, and meant he was definitely weaker than normal.

Shaking off his fears, Gray stood up from his little camp, packed up, and began walking again. Weaker or not, he knew he was still a formidable enemy. No ordinary bandit or forest creature would be able to get the best of him in a hurry.

Just to be safe though, he corrected his path a little so that he was heading in a more easterly direction.

After handing the mayor back the city key, Gray had asked for a map, and directions to the nearest place he could stay without any interruptions for the next month. Slightly bewildered, the mayor had pointed to the woods just outside the city, and said no-one ever entered them, because of the rumours that a huge group of bandits and escaped criminals lived in the Western part of the forest.

That night, still confident that he could protect himself and his baby from anything these woods might throw at him, Gray fell deeply asleep.

On the 8th day of his pregnancy, Gray woke up to 3 realizations.

1. His belly had doubled in size overnight, and his 'beer belly' was now quite sizable.

2. The amount of magic he had left had been halved, and he would no longer be able to adequately protect himself from an attack of any strength.

3. He was surrounded.

When Gray tried to sit up suddenly, he was stopped both by his suddenly huge belly, and the ropes that had him trussed up like a deer.

Looking around, he saw that there were 10 reasonably strong looking men surrounding him, and the biggest one, the one Gray surmised to be the leader of the group, was grinning like that cat that caught the canary.

"Well now, who've thunk wed've caught ourselves a fairy on this fine morning" he said gleefully, waving at Gray's guild mark.

Gray evaluated the group. The leader was a tall and built middle-aged man, but his beer belly and the pieces of food still stuck in his long black beard made Gray think he could probably take him. It was the other men that would be a problem. Though not so tall and built – they were obviously young and fit. And looking at him with menace.

Normally, they'd be icicles in seconds. Normally, he'd have no problem.

But now, pregnant, and with his magic more than halved? He had no chance. And it was at that point, that Gray finally let go of his pride.

He knew that Natsu was tracking him. Even though Gray had taken the express train to try and make the distance between them bigger, Natsu had been slowly catching up. That's why he kept moving every night, as opposed to sticking to one place.

But now, he needed the bastard. And his ears were almost as good as his nose. And so, with that in mind, he opened his mouth and tossed the last of his manly pride to the wind.

"NATSU! HELP ME!"

He ignored the bandits as they began to laugh and tell him that there was no one to save him, and listened.

He smiled, as he heard Natsu begin to yell. He smiled even broader, as the bandits began to look around for the source of the voice worriedly.

And he practically burst out laughing when Natsu shocked them all and arrived from the sky, clothed in fire and screaming his wrath.

8 of the bandits were blown away in that initial blast, with only the leader and one other left standing. They were both rooted to the spot, mouths opened in shock, until Natsu stared at them and growled. At which point they both turned tail and ran, leaving their comrades behind.

At this point, Natsu turned and faced Gray, who immediately stopped laughing.

Natsu was in Dragon Force mode. His fury, agony and worry were all painfully obvious in his eyes, and Gray immediately regretted ever leaving him behind like that.

"Natsu," he said quietly, calmly, "it's ok. I'm ok. I'm sorry."

Natsu simply looked at him for a few seconds, before finally leaving Dragon Force mode, and walking over to Gray with an impassive expression. Gray however, didn't even have time to worry, before he'd been swept into a bone-crushing hug – that somehow still managed to exert absolutely no pressure on his belly.

Gray POV

"What would I have done if I'd lost you?" Natsu sobbed, tears dropping onto my shoulder as I stood there in shock.

Natsu was crying.

And he was crying for me.

Suddenly I felt like the worst person ever.

"I'm sorry Natsu," I cried with him "I'm so so sorry!" as I hugged backed the man I loved, and the father of my child, as tightly as I could.

After both boys had managed to calm themselves, Gray watched as Natsu got an adorably confused expression on his face, and looked down at Gray's belly. Sniffing Gray a couple of times, Natsu placed his hands on Gray's belly – and immediately snatched them away again.

"What was that about?" he frowned grumpily at Natsu. "Yes, I'm pregnant, you damn dragon, and I'm sorry if my damn belly offends you, but I've got it for another 3 weeks and you can't just –"

"Gray" Natsu interrupted the ranting boy breathlessly, "you won't have to wait another 3 weeks."

"What, you mean you [i]lied[/i] to me?! Well how long am I going to have to wait then? 5 weeks? 2months? I knew 1 month was too good to be true you –

"1 week."

".. Pardon?" Gray asked shocked.

"Well, uh see, the thing is," Natsu stuttered, and now that Natsu was stuttering the same way he did when he initially revealed the pregnancy, Gray couldn't help but be a little worried, "it takes 1month if there's 1 baby.." Natsu finished.

"Huh?" Gray asked confused. "So, what, am I having half a baby?"

Natsu gave a bit of a strangled laugh, and Gray's stress levels rose even higher.

"Hah, no, not half. See, it's, uh, 1month for 1 baby."

"Yes, you've said that." Gray said impatiently.

"Shut up ice-block," Natsu said half-heartedly, before continuing his explanation, "and it's, uh, 3 weeks for twins…. And 2 weeks for triplets."

There was a moment of silence before Gray understood what Natsu was saying.

"WHAT?!"

The loud scream and following mass migration of all birds within the area scared off the bandits that had come to look for where their leader had gone.

On the 14th day of Gray's pregnancy, he was glaring at Natsu non-stop. He had woken with a colossal belly, far too large to even stand up without help, and no magic at all. This was, of course, all Natsu's fault, and as a result, he deserved every glare he got.

Or at least, that's what Gray was telling himself.

It was only around mid-day that Gray thought of something that should have occurred to him from the very moment he found out he was pregnant.

"Natsu," Gray asked in horror, "how are the babies coming out?"

Natsu looked away from the fish he'd been cooking and cocked his eyebrow at Gray. "What, I haven't told you already?"

"No you god-damned – " Gray started angrily, before sucking in his breath and glaring at a snickering Natsu, "just tell me before I chop off your balls and feel them to the fish."

Natsu grimaced at the threat. It seemed it was not only women that were susceptible to mood swings and death threats when pregnant.

"Basically, at some point on the planned day of birth, you ask me to remove them for you. And then I use my special dragon magic," and here Natsu waggled his fingers like some kind of street magician ,"and BAM! There out."

Gray was quiet for a second, before he calmly said, "So basically, you could have taken them out at any time today."

"Yep", Natsu said cheerily, returning to his fish.

"And you decided to tell me now, half-way through the day."

"Uhh.. yes?" Natsu said meekly, with a hopeful smile on his face, finally recognizing the dangerous tone in Gray's voice.

Gray smiled sweetly, before pouncing on Natsu and throttling him "I'm going to kill you, you stupid flame-headed retard!"

5minutes of strangling later, when Gray felt slightly better, he demanded the now breathless Natsu get to it.

"I don't want to be pregnant for one second longer!"

Gray POV

I watched in wonder as Natsu sat beside me, and placed his glowing golden hands over my huge belly.

I felt a strange movement within my body, and gasped when a golden bubble appeared to be coming out of his stomach. Upon closer inspection, I saw that the half-opaque, half-transparent bubble contained our baby, and tears pricked my eyes.

Natsu quickly grabbed the baby in a bubble, which turned into gold liquid coating his hands, before handing our first son to me. I saw Natsu smile as he saw the tears in my eyes, and promptly told him to fuck-off.

As I stared at our gorgeous son, with his pink hair just like Natsu's, he opened his eyes for the first time, and I gasped. Natsu's hair, and my blue-gray eyes. There was no way I could pretend these kids weren't ours.

Not that I would've anyway. Even after only the first week, I had known I would never have been able to do that.

Natsu watched as Gray slept, surrounded by their three children.

Though the birth had been achieved entirely through magic, Gray's body was still exhausted from the effort of 'giving birth to their three children', and so they all slept.

Natsu couldn't help but be proud of Gray for their three beautiful children. The first, with his pink hair and blue eyes, was the only boy. Then there were two girls. The second with Gray's raven hair, and Natsu's black-gray eyes, and the youngest girl was Natsu's favourite.

She looked exactly like Gray. Raven hair that was already past her ears, and blue-gray eyes. Plus that nose that Natsu would never tell Gray he adored.

Yes, Natsu was very proud indeed.

5 days later, Gray and Natsu walked into the guild with three children in their arms, and everyone in the guild stared at them.

Wendy, having sniffed out who they were, promptly fainted in shock, and Gajeel promptly choked on his beer in shock. Everyone except Charle and Levy continued to stare and Natsu and Gray, who had begun to smile.

"Well now," Natsu said with a huge grin, "Let me introduce you all to:

Igneel Draco Fullbuster-Dragneel

Lisy Mira Fullbuster-Buster

Ur Erza Dragneel-Fullbuster

Gray and I's children."

At this, everyone in the guild fainted immediately. Except Mira, who held on for one second longer than the others, to say,

"Natsu.. those are terrible names."

Before fainting dead away.

"Are they really?" Natsu looked at Gray confused

"Yes, yes they are. Don't worry, I never took your suggestions seriously. We'll rename them with everyone else's help now. I mean really, Ur Erza?" Gray said calmly.

"Oh, okay. Wait, what?! Are you insulting my naming skills! What's wrong with Ur Erza?!" Natsu yelled angrily, being careful not to gesticulate like he normally would, so as not to disturb his two children.

And Gray just laughed and laughed.

Please review ^_^ I haven't been on FF for almost a year because of issues with logging in, and now this is probably the longest fic I've written XD If you have any advice for making the continuations less jumpy/more smooth, please, let me know :)