notes: so i'd actually been planning on doing this for a while, but i watched seed last night and i have been re-inspired. okay so i'm positive something like this has been done before even though i've never read it, and it's so incredibly cliche, but whatever.
dedication: to summer dresses and surprisingly okay tv shows.

summary: Things were basically the same in Natsu Dragneel's life, and then a girl showed up at his door claiming to be his daughter. Everything got kind of complicated, after that. Especially when he starts to fall back in love with the kid's mother. This is a story of second chances, and falling in love all over again.
pairings: nastu/lucy (main), gray/juvia, levy/gajeel, jellal/erza, possible others

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{but the story needs some mending and a better happy ending}

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Gray Fullbuster was awakened from his deep slumber by an obnoxious banging noise at the front door. He groaned and rolled off the couch—where he had apparently crashed the previous night—and attempted to drag his aching body across the large front room to investigate the sound. There was a rather queasy feeling in his stomach, and his head was currently in the process of trying to murder him. The incessant knocking at the door wasn't doing him any favors, either.

He ran a hand through his messy dark hair and squinted at the bright light filtering through the windows. Somebody had forgotten to close the curtains, damn.

"What the…who the hell would be knocking on our door at eight in the damn morning?" he somehow managed to successfully stumble to the door, and flung it open. "Who the fu—hello small child I have never seen before in my life."

Standing in the doorway was a little girl with apricot-colored hair pulled back into two low ponytails. She looked up at him with sparkling big chocolate eyes, hidden partially behind long lashes. She was dressed in a white and what he suspected to be an Adventure Time t-shirt—okay, so yes maybe he and his idiot of a roommate watched children's cartoons sometimes and maybe he did indeed know that the figure on her shirt was Marceline the Vampire Queen, whatever—with a knee-length, pleated gray skirt. Under that she wore striped red and white tights, and equally red high top sneakers. As it was an usually chilly September, she was also clad in a knit gray cardigan with a little red heart sewed on to the right side, and a colorful polka-dot backpack was slung over her shoulder.

In short, she was as cute as little girls come and not what should have been at his front door at eight in the morning.

She beamed up at him, though it was a little nervously, like she was unsure of herself. "Hi."

He blinked. "Hi."

It was silent for a few uncomfortable moments.

"You selling Girl Scout cookies?" Gray asked, trying to figure out what exactly she could be doing on his doorstep during a school day.

She twiddled her fingers—and he noticed her nails were painted a pale turquoise—nervously. "Um, a-actually I—,"

"Great," he cut in, "I'll take a box of thin mints and—HEY YOU LAZY MORON, WHAT KINDA COOKIES DO YOU WANT?"

The girl standing in the doorway winced as he turned and yelled back into the apartment. Several groans and a string of muffled curses followed his sudden outburst, and then he was only met with silence.

Gray rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath. "Okay well, just give me like, some Tagalongs or something. I don't want to put up with his pathetic whining when he realizes I didn't get him anything," he reached down to pull his wallet out of his pants on to discover that he was clad only in his boxers.

The two stared at each other for two or three minutes before the girl opened her mouth.

"Um, what I was trying to say was, I'm not actually selling cookies," he blinked. "I'm…I'm looking for Natsu Dragneel?"

Gray's brows shot to his hairline as he regarded the obviously uneasy girl standing before him. "Listen kid, I don't know why you're looking for him or what you want with him, but I'm going to advise you to turn around and go back to wherever you came from because you don't want anything to do with that mess."

She blew some of her bangs out of her eyes and tugged at the strap of her backpack. "Well, y-you see…I can't. Because he's my dad."

Gray didn't exactly know what he was expecting when he opened the door that Wednesday morning, but it certainly hadn't been that.

He dragged a pale hand down his face, suddenly completely awake and aware of his surroundings. His headache hadn't disappeared though, and he had a feeling it was about to get a whole lot worse. He moved aside and held out an arm. "Do you uh, want to come in? You should probably come in er…"

"Nashi," she supplied, taking a few tentative steps inside.

He closed the door and nodded. "Right, Nashi. You just…stay here and I'll be back in a minute."

She stood in the combined living and kitchen area as Gray turned and headed straight for his roommate's bedroom, eyes narrowed and a snarl threatening to break out across his face. He pounded on the door repeatedly, but quickly just made his way inside instead.

Natsu fell out of bed when the door made harsh contact with the wall, clutching the half of his sheets that had come down with him to his chest. He looked up at Gray in terror, only for the look to soon be replaced with a scowl.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, ice prick?!"

The dark-haired male cast a wary glance back out the door and to the girl waiting patiently in the front room. Then, he shut said door and turned back to the idiot he had the displeasure of living with. He placed his hands on his bare hips and glared down at the moron on the floor.

"Oh, I don't know Natsu. Why didn't you tell me that you have a fucking daughter?"

The cretin on the floor blinked up at him in confusion. "Maybe because I don't?"

Gray scoffed and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Well then why don't you tell that to the girl that's currently out there. In our apartment. Which I seriously regret sharing with you. Every single day. Now tell me, you sorry excuse for a human being, who the hell did you impregnate probably nine years ago?"

Natsu looked both offended and shocked, but Gray was having none of it. Not this morning. It was too early for this shit.

He reached down and grabbed the salmon-haired man's arm and harshly pulled him up. "Put some damn clothes on. You're about to meet your daughter, asshole. She doesn't need to see you practically naked the first time she lays eyes on you."

Gray then proceeded to stomp out of the room and grab his missing shirt and pants off the hallway floor. Quickly pulling them on before he faced the girl claiming to be his admittedly best friend's daughter, he took a couple of deep breaths before stepping back into the room.

The girl was exactly where he'd left her. She looked up at him and smiled awkwardly. He ran a hand through his hair once more and heaved a sigh. "You uh…want anything to drink, kid? I think we have some orange juice or something in the fridge."

Nashi blinked a few times, unintentionally batting her lashes, and he was suddenly struck with a strange sense of déjà vu. "Y-yes please."

Natsu's mind was whirling as he pulled his shirt over his head and took a cautious step out of his room. He couldn't ever remember, well, having a child with a girl. He hadn't even been in a serious relationship in seven or eight years. There was no possible way this kid was his. There must've been a mistake, surely.

He peeked around the corner and saw a now fully clothed Gray sitting across a girl. She had her back to him, but his roommate saw him and did the beckoning finger thing which strangely reminded him of Erza. Terrifying glare included.

He walked into the room, and the girl turned to look at him. Her face immediately lit up—wide dazzling mile, sparkling brown eyes, a delighted gasp—and before he could really comprehend what was happening, she was out of her chair and rushing towards him. She threw her arms around his torso and pressed her face into his stomach.

"Dad!"

Natsu looked to Gray in horror, but he only received a deadpan stare in return.

Hesitantly, he patted the girl on the back. "Uh…do I know you?"

She pulled back and gazed up at him. "No, not really. I mean, yeah I'm your daughter, but technically I just moved here a couple days ago. So no, you wouldn't really know me. See, I used to live in Clover with my mom, but we moved to Magnolia because she got a job offer. Well, I guess I should say moved back to Magnolia, because mom lived here before but I guess I didn't really so—,"

Natsu waved his hands in a 'calm down' motion. "Whoa, whoa. Slow down there, kid."

She blinked, and laughed suddenly—a bright, cheery and tinkling sound. "Oh right! I guess I should introduce myself first. Sorry, I'm just so excited," she thrust a hand out to him. "I'm Nashi."

Slowly, he shook her hand, brow raised. "Okay Nashi. How exactly do you know that I'm your father?"

She led him over to the couch and motioned for him to sit next to Gray. Then, she plopped down in the seat across from them. "Well, I've kind of always wondered about my dad, because my mom never talks about him. Like, at all, really. I asked her what he was like once and she kind of described him, but that didn't really give me a lot to go on, y'know?"

The two listened as she rambled on.

"So one day I was looking for my jacket but I couldn't find it, so I checked mom's closet. I was looking on the top shelf but my chair tipped, and I ended up falling. Anyway, I guess I'd grabbed onto this box before I fell, because it came down with me. It was a bunch of old photo albums, and when I started looking through them, I realized that there was this one titled 'Natsu and I' and I got really curious so I opened it and…well," she paused, "there you were. And there was also this old blue book in the box and I like to read, so when I started reading it, I figured out it was my mom's old journal and you absolutely cannot tell her that I read it because I could get in so much trouble."

Nashi took a deep breath. "And on about…page one hundred and forty, I think, she mentioned that she was going to have a baby and you were the father and she was really excited and she was going to tell you the next day. But that's where it ended."

Silence reigned in the apartment.

Gray blinked at the sudden influx of information. "Well," he began as he looked her over, "she does kind of look like you. But less ugly; she's actually pretty cute so I'm kind of skeptical."

Natsu chose to ignore the added insult and tugged at the scarf around his neck. His head was spinning and he had so many questions, but there was one that was the most important. "So who's your mom?"

Something flashed across her face, and Nashi looked at them uneasily. "I-I can't tell you that."

Natsu frowned. "What? Why not? I think that it'd be fair considering the fact that you suddenly—," he glanced at the clock and his eyes widened. "Da—I mean, Gray! I'm late!"

He stood and grabbed Nashi's hand. "Come on, kid. I can't just leave you here. You're coming with me," he glanced at Gray, "and you too, frozen jerk."

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"How old are you, Nashi?" Gray asked as they got out of his car and stepped onto the sidewalk.

She looked up at him. "Nine," her chipper voice answered, and he narrowed his eyes as they walked.

Natsu pushed a glass door open and guided the girl inside, Gray following along behind him. Fairy Tail was strangely quiet this morning, with only a few patrons scattered here and there about the diner. Natsu tapped a bar stool and Nashi climbed up onto it as he ducked under the counter.

He grabbed a full plate of food and slid it over to her. "Here, eat something kid."

She picked up a fork and stared down at the small mountain of eggs, bacon, and sausage in slight awe. Then, she looked back up at him. "I only like spicy sausage, and this isn't spicy sausage. I don't like it, and I want pancakes. Also, this is too much; I can't eat all of this."

She slid the plate over to Gray, who had taken a seat beside her, and stared at Natsu expectantly. He groaned and ran a hand through his hair before turning back to the kitchen. "Elfman, I'm going to need a plate of pancakes—,"

"With chocolate chips! And strawberries on the side," Nashi interjected.

Natsu sighed and continued. "—make that an order of chocolate chip pancakes with strawberries on the side."

There was a distinct shout of 'man!' and he turned back to the girl in front of him. Nashi smiled at him sweetly, and Gray watched the two in amusement as he ate his impromptu breakfast. "Okay look, why don't you just tell me who your mom is so I can take you home? You've already missed like two hours of school."

"On my first day," she put in, and he groaned again. "And I already told you, I can't tell you."

"Great, Nashi. How are you supposed to make friends if you skip out on school to search for your long-lost father instead? Friends are important, and you need to find good ones, okay?"

She nodded, and was about to say something when an angry voice made the three turn toward the other edge of the bar counter. Lisanna Strauss had her hands on her hips, looking decidedly intimidating for a somewhat short young woman wearing a blouse with penguins on it and light blue short shorts.

"Natsu Dragneel," she growled, "you're an hour late again—oh, hi Gray—and I appreciate you wanting to help out here but if you really do, then won't you please try to show up on time for once? Honestly, how many times do I—oh that's a cute girl you have there," she paused. "Wait. Did you kidnap her? Am I going to be an accessory to a kidnapping? Because I don't think—,"

Natsu waved his hands around wildly. "What? No! No Lis that's not how it is."

The white-haired girl looked visibly relieved. "Oh, okay. So…does that mean you adopted her? Are you two finally together? You know that we'll always support your decisions, right? We're here for you."

Both Natsu and Gray seemed a mix of appalled and horrified. "What? No—no way. You've got it all wrong. We're not together, gross."

Natsu's brows furrowed. "Wait, what do you mean 'finally'?!"

Lisanna waved her notepad around and smiled innocently. "Oh, nothing, nothing! But who is she then?"

"Natsu's daughter," Gray informed her, and watched as she almost dropped the tray she'd picked up in shock.

Said young man's face made swift contact with the marble counter top as Elfman hit the bell, indicating Nashi's order was ready to be delivered and eaten. The girl smiled over at Lisanna.

"Hi, I'm Nashi. I like your shirt. It's cute, and penguins are one of my favorite animals. Right behind dragons and cats," she leaned a little closer and held a hand up to her mouth, "People say that dragons aren't actually real, but I don't believe them."

Lisanna took a moment to take in the girl's full appearance—pretty hair, laughing eyes, cute button nose, disarming smile, the dimples that formed in her cheeks when she did smile—and decided that yes, this girl could quite possibly be Natsu's and that she also reminded her of someone else.

"You're so cute!" she cried, throwing herself forward and gathering the bundle of brightly-dressed joy in her arms. "Can I be the godmother? Please? Okay, maybe second godmother because you know when Mira gets back that she'll want that position."

Natsu raised his head and held up a hand as he set Nashi's food in front of her. The girl flashed him a bright grin that reminded him of his own, before immediately digging in.

"Who's her mom, Natsu?" his childhood friend asked him, taking a seat on the other side of his probably-daughter.

He narrowed his eyes at the girl. "Yeah well, that's the thing. She won't tell."

Lisanna looked at him skeptically. "You're telling me you don't know?"

Gray swallowed his bite of eggs. "He's clueless, apparently. It was just as a surprise to him as it was to me when I found her at the door this morning."

"Gee, that's…wow," she brushed her bangs out of her eyes.

Natsu stiffened suddenly, seeing something written in black on Nashi's backpack. It stood out among the white background and multi-color spots, and he reached over the counter and pulled her closer. She squeaked, almost dropping her forkful of pancake.

He smirked. "Well, I guess that's okay after all, seeing as how your name and address is written on your backpack."

Nashi made of muffled sound of horror as he leaned farther over to get a better look.

Nashi McKenzie Heartfilia-Dragneel

118 Strawberry Street, Magnolia

And then his heart promptly stopped.

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end notes: gray knows what's up. but dammit, let little girls actually answer you before you jump to conclusions. idk how you're supposed to write addresses for stories like this. like, a postal code? pfft. and i don't know about middle names and hyphenating. nope. lemme just make this clear right now: lisanna and natsu are not in a relationship. it's purely platonic. they are friends. and i will not take and lisanna bashing, okay, because it's so uncool. anyway yeah, i'd love to hear what you have to say!