Author's Note:

Hey all! Yay! I'm on time! XD

First of all, as always, HUGE thanks to everyone who reviewed this chapter! Big hugs and kisses to my repeat reviewers: sakshishetty3003, illleashya, TheJSmooth, valerioux, Donthedarkdragon26, Firefly9917, quidditchChick6, Lucinda, Leomae2.0, FranFranWriter, and agirl0ntheinternet. Thank you! And thank you to EVERYONE who reviewed this story from beginning to end. It's been a true pleasure to hear your input.

Now, as you all know, this is the last chapter, so I have a few important notes. First of all, the result of the poll on which story would come next is…unsurprisingly, Natsu going into heat. ;D However, The Princess and the Arsonist was almost a tie, so I may write them sort of at the same time, we shall see. Either way, it will definitely be coming out second if not at the same time. Also, in terms of writing time, I've already started on the first story. I write out the rough draft fully (or try to anyways, sometimes on my longer stories I don't always get the last few chapters done before I go back up to the top to start editing.) So, that's going to take at least a couple weeks, just depending on how nice my muse is. So expect a slight delay before the next story is out. I'm going to try to get it out asap for you guys. ;D

Along those lines, I also have a sequel to this story planned out. I actually wasn't intending to make one, but I got so many requests for a look into Natsu and Lucy having kids that I plotted one out. It'll be short probably, just a series of one-shots looking into their future life rather than a sequential story. If you have any requests about particular scenes you'd like to see, let me know and I'll think about incorporating them. ;D I'm not sure when that one will be out, maybe a chapter here and there in between other stories, or something.

Also, speaking of requests, I'm starting on some fanart for this story. So let me know if you guys have any specific scenes you'd like me to draw. ;D I'll post links on my profile and also in future stories.

Okay...well, I guess that's about it. I really hope you all enjoy this last chapter. :D Goodbye for now, but not forever!

(also, I'll do my best to keep on top of my PMs and such even while I'm not posting, so if you have any questions or anything outside of this story, just hit me up. I'm always happy to chat, although I sometimes have trouble remembering to check my inbox, so it may take a little while for me to reply.) :3

Almost a week later found Natsu sitting at Lucy's bedside, which is where he'd been located since the defeat of Acnologia.

Usually after such a triumph, the Fairy Tail guildhall would be obnoxiously loud and violently busy with all the celebrations. However, things were a bit dulled by the fact that so many of their guild had been seriously injured and hospitalized. So, using true Fairy Tail logic, the party had come to the invalids in the hospital, and the entire guild had been coming and going throughout the entire week. Of course, everything was a bit tamed down thanks to the setting…. They might be a wild and crazy guild, but even the wildest of them knew better than to cut completely loose in a hospital full of sick people. Mostly.

Much to everyone's surprise, Laxus had actually been largely responsible for cracking down on any guildmembers who got too rowdy and disturbed their neighbors during this time. Cana's room in particular had been scolded multiple times by now, thanks to the drunken parties she insisted on holding there. How and where she was procuring said alcoholic beverages was still yet to be discovered.

Despite not fighting, she had still been injured by the massive earthquakes caused by Plutogrim at the conclusion of the battle, and both legs were fully in casts. Still, considering some of the alternatives, she'd gotten off fairly light. Most combatants sported broken bones of some sort, or very nasty sprains at the very least, and quite a few had sustained much worse injuries. Master Makarov himself had been in serious shape, and he'd been in the ICU for the better half of the week dealing with blunt force trauma to the head and neck which had resulted in a concussion. Plus, his skin had been so badly abraded by sand that he was practically raw on most of his body. Laxus also possessed raw patches and third degree burns where his lightning had melted the sand to his skin. Technically he should really be in bed as well, but being Laxus, he simply refused to be admitted and tended to his injuries by himself. It was a good thing that dragon slayers also inherited speedy recoveries from their dragon magic, otherwise he would have been up a creek.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Thunder Legion spent most of their time in Evergreen's room, since - out of all of them - she had been injured the worst. Her petrification magic had seriously pissed off some random demon, and she'd paid the consequence. She was currently blind, with bandages wrapped around the upper half of her head, and everyone was waiting with bated breath to see if she would come out of this with any vision at all.

Porlyusica had been grudgingly helping out where she was most needed – much to the hospital's irritation, but there really wasn't anything they could do to stop her. In some situations though, even the doctors had conceded that there was nothing more they could do and welcomed her aid… like in Evergreen's case.

Elfman had also been spending a lot of time in that room, and everyone was pretty sure that he and the green-haired woman had finally confessed their feelings to each other, which was at least one happy consequence to a horrible situation. The other half of his time was spent in Lisanna's room alongside Mira. Both siblings doted on their younger sister and constantly spoiled her with flowers, stuffed animals, and way too many sweets. She was bedridden with her leg amputated below the knee and a long line of stitches along her side where the doctors had performed emergency surgery to patch up some internal injuries. Everything was healing very well thankfully, and despite her loss she maintained a cheery attitude and told everyone she would practice with her transformation magic until she could make a new leg for herself.

Elfman and Mira had sustained much less serious injuries, but they were still bandaged up and had stiches in places just like everyone else.

Even metallic Gajeel was in that boat and actually possessed some stitches… a whole line of them down the right side of his face where the poison demon had really sliced him open. He also had a broken arm and bandages on various other parts of his body, but like Laxus he refused to be bedridden. He'd been admitted – simply because he hadn't had a choice in the matter. There was way too much poison in his bloodstream, and he had to be hooked up to a heavy duty IV that pumped him full of antitoxins. But he still refused to stay in his room and just lugged his IV machine along with him as he relocated himself. There had been a temporary freak out when he'd been discovered missing, but he was soon found in Levy's room and refused to be budged. After a great deal of hassle, the doctors and nurses eventually just gave up on it and treated him there.

As for Levy, she was another bedridden patient who'd gotten the bad end of the stick. Gajeel only needed an IV to deal with the poison, and Juvia didn't even need that because her water body could filter out the poison on its own if she drank enough fluid, but Levy didn't have any such thing. In fact, she'd gotten dangerously close to dying and had suffered through a series of bad seizures within the first few days. The later part of the week had been better, but she was still in and out of consciousness…mostly out. Whenever she did wake up, it was usually just to violently throw up blood at first, but thankfully it was now just regular bile.

The only reason she had actually survived was the fact that Wendy had spent the entire first two days working on her to remove as much poison from her system as possible.

The sky dragon slayer was banged up a bit, but mostly she was just exhausted and suffering from losing too much magic. She had already used up a lot of magic on the field of battle doing emergency medical work, so treating Levy had used up everything she had left… and then some. In the end, the sky dragon slayer had passed out as soon as Levy had gotten out of the danger zone and then had to be treated for magic depletion sickness for a couple of days.

…

Meanwhile, Natsu had visited the others a little, but most of his information was gathered from overhearing things in other rooms. He knew that Erza was badly cut up because her room was right next to Lucy's, and he had overheard his redheaded comrade talking to Jellal about the others. Of course Jellal wasn't a patient and had to tend to his own wounds, since his identity needed to remain a secret. From what Natsu could tell from their conversations, he was apparently keeping himself invisible while staying with Erza in her room.

Gray and Juvia visited them often and also payed Natsu and Lucy visits almost every day. Thankfully those two had managed to escape with relatively minor injuries, although Gray sported a cast and sling on his right arm which he'd apparently badly broken in several places. They were also a source of information on how the others were doing and updated them on their visits.

On the other side, Natsu could hear what was going on in Yukino's room. Sting and Rogue were keeping vigil just like Natsu was doing with Lucy, despite their extensive injuries. Rogue in particular was bad off. He'd had a hole punched through his shoulder that shattered the joint and made it nearly impossible to move that arm when in human form. Thanks to the reduction in size, injuries that they got while in their dragon forms were often much larger after shifting back.

Aside from the hole, Rogue also possessed a nice new set of scars across his body from both Acnologia and Plutogrim, but with the speedy recovery of a dragon even his shoulder was almost totally healed up by now. What wasn't healing so fast were his eyes, which had been seriously damaged by the light attacks that Acnologia had blasted him with. As a shadow dragon, he was particularly sensitive to light, and though his skin was healing quickly, his eyes weren't. He was still basically blind as a bat, and likely would be for a good long while. His vision would probably come back eventually, little by little, but it might take years.

Sting was also beat up good, though the worst of his injuries were actually the second to third degree burns that he'd gotten from trying to ride Natsu. He looked kinda like a mummy thanks to all the bandages, and the fire dragon could hear him screaming and cussing every time they had to be changed. It was a good thing he was a dragon slayer, because after a week his burns were already starting to close up. Natsu didn't know how much longer he could have heard the pain his friend went through, especially since it was kinda his fault.

As for Natsu, he'd also sustained pretty nasty injuries, though he didn't really pay them much attention. After a week, he now possessed a new set of shiny pink scars – claw marks across his chest and belly, a bite on his left arm, some talon marks on his right thigh, and some small nicks on his neck which were almost invisible.

But all three of them were much more worried about the celestial mages in their parties. Both Lucy and Yukino had been put into what looked like a coma from that spell they'd done together to take down Plutogrim, and so far they hadn't shown any sign of waking up.

Nothing Natsu had done had made Lucy so much as twitch an eyelash…and he'd tried plenty of things. Happy had also helped out, as had Amy, Kurama, and even Bart. Happy had slapped her with a fish – gently of course – but even the clammy smelly situation hadn't gotten a flinch. Amy hid licked her feet, which were her most ticklish spot, but nothing. Natsu had filled her to the brim with fire more than once, but despite her skin turning pink and sweaty and the machines hooked up to her beeping in alarm, she still didn't wake up.

At least, aside from being in a coma, she was completely healthy. Both her hands had been surgically fixed and put in casts, and then Natsu had significantly sped up the healing process with his flames. By the end of the week, she was fully healed and her casts were no more than ashes. So as soon as she woke up she could go home… but she had to wake up first of course.

And so he waited, not too patiently, at her side.

He wasn't exactly worried. Something told him that she would wake up, that she wasn't permanently gone or anything like that. He could still sense her there, so he knew she would come back to him sooner or later…he just wished it was sooner. Seeing her like this, all limp and pale, was very difficult for him even though he knew she was okay. It took a great deal of willpower to force himself to sit and wait and not pace around like a caged animal. If he let himself do that, he'd likely get more and more wound up and then stuff would start getting set on fire…. And he really didn't want that to be the first conversation they had when Luce woke up.

…

As for Lucy, she drifted in an out of semi-awareness. From time to time she could hear voices speaking close to her, and almost always one of those voices was Natsu's. Happy and Amy were other constants in the background noise of her dreamscape, which helped her to be unafraid while drifted in a sea of not very much. Sometimes she dreamed, but mostly she just existed in a strange place of semidarkness, which she suspected was the space behind her eyelids since the light was generally somewhat pink. Her other senses came and went… occasionally she felt the weight of her body pressing down into something soft, other times she felt warmth or cold, and sporadically she could smell something sharp and pungent.

A deep exhaustion kept her immobile, barely lucid, but ever so slowly that lull began to lift. Each time she surfaced, things were a little clearer, a little crisper. She had no concept of time really aside from vague memories of surfacing before and everything being a bit fuzzier.

This time, she clearly heard Natsu's voice, much more so than any other time she remembered since being in this strange state of affairs. Her mind was clearer too, so much so that she started to wonder just what sort of place she was in, why it was so dark, and what had happened. After an indefinite period, she began to strain her memory to recall the cause of her current situation. Vague images of dragons and monsters and all sorts of scenes from a fantasy began to drift through her mind's eye… none of them making much sense at first.

Then, suddenly, like a switch had been flipped, it all rushed back to her. Acnologia, Tartarus, the floating castle, the invasion, and finally Plutogrim. She remembered performing an ancient magic spell with Yukino, and then nothing…as if her synapsis had been fried by the power of that spell. Or maybe the pain had simply shut her brain down.

Whatever the case, she finally remembered what happened. Now, the next order of business was to figure out where she was currently, though that didn't take a genius to deduce. Undoubtedly she was in the hospital – a theory not solely based on her memories, but also on the sound of consistent blips and beeps and the smell of rubbing alcohol and various other disinfectants.

She'd never been a humungous fan of being in the hospital, so the realization of where she was caused a slight huff of disgruntledness to escape from her throat. The sound was barely audible, even to her own ears, and should have gone utterly unnoticed by everyone around her. However, the tiny vocalization did get someone's attention, and the bed instantly bounced as two hands landed on either side of her.

"Luce! Are ya finally coming around?" Natsu asked eagerly, sounding extremely relieved.

At the sound of his voice, she willed herself even more awake and attempted to peel her eyes open, but found that task exceptionally difficult to accomplish.

"Is she?!" a new and equally familiar voice sounded from right next to her head as small paws landed on her shoulder. She could feel what she knew were cat whiskers tickling her cheek as Happy leaned in close. "It looks like her eyes are twitching…maybe she's trying to open them!"

"Here, let me have a go."

That was Amy, and her comment became clearer when the sensation of a warm wet tongue swiped over her eyelids several times. It was both sweet and a little gross. However, sanitary or not, Lucy had to admit that her eyes did feel less sticky and crusty afterwards.

"Look! Her eyebrows are scrunching up, she must be awake!" Happy exclaimed excitedly as he watched the proceedings.

Natsu laughed, and she made a mental note to sick Amy on him sometime and see how he liked it.

As soon as wolf breath no longer puffed right in her face and the tongue-bath abated, she decided to give it another go. This time, she managed to crack her eyes open just a hair, though the sliver of light immediately made her wince. She must have had her eyes closed a long time for it to be this unpleasant. Her face scrunched up in discontentment and she rasped a groan, still very low in volume, but significantly louder than the last sound of displeasure she'd made.

"Come on Luce, it can't be that bad." Natsu cheered from the sidelines.

A splash of pink appeared in her sliver of blurry golden vision as she peered through her eyelashes. She could tell he was practically nose to nose with her, based off the soft tickling of hair on her forehead and the shade that suddenly soothed her eyes. But his face was still blurry for a long moment. It took some more blinking and squinting before his features came into fuzzy focus.

"Hi…" she croaked, but it didn't really sound like a word so much as another guttural rasp.

"It's good to see you Luce." Natsu said back with a grin that turned tender while still being excited.

She smiled back, then yawned and grimaced as her throat croaked again. With some grunts, she started sitting up and rubbed at her eyes, clearing her vision. Natsu sat back to give her space to do so but stayed sitting on the side of her bed, and Happy relocated to her lap. Amy parked her furry behind practically on Lucy's feet, which forced her to move them slightly to the side.

"How long was I out?"

"About two weeks now." Amy said solemnly, and Lucy's jaw dropped in shock.

"Seriously? That long?"

"Yep, I nearly went stir crazy waiting. Took ya long enough."

A flash of glowing orange ooze later and Kurama joined the party, throwing himself in the chair Natsu had just vacated.

"Yeah he's not kidding. It's a miracle he didn't set anything on fire." the demon chuckled.

"Hey Kurama." Lucy greeted with a smile, and then changed her expression to apologetic and eyeballed everyone in the room. "I'm sorry for worrying you all."

"Nah, I wasn't worried." Natsu said with a dismissive hand flap, and she blinked at him in surprise. Really, she might have even been a little hurt by the comment if he hadn't followed it up with, "I knew you'd come back to me. I could sense it."

"To us you mean." Amy said with a somewhat haughty sniff as she corrected the dragon.

"Well I don't care what he says! I was worried about you Lucy."

She glanced down at Happy and cuddled him closer as he nuzzled into her belly.

After a moment, she asked, "So how's everyone else?"

"They're doing good. Most have recovered enough to be let outta the hospital, but they're still popping by to cheer on everyone still stuck here. The worst off were Levy, Lisanna, and Master Makarov, but they're doing great now."

"That's good to hear." she said with a sigh, happy to hear that.

"Yeah, but your celestial mage friend is in the same boat as you were." Kurama pointed out from his seat.

"Speaking of, Sting and Rogue are in the room next door with her, and they're listening in on our conversation. They're wondering if it'd be okay to pop by and ask some questions about it." Natsu interjected, his eyes glancing at the wall.

"Oh, yeah, sure. Of course."

Almost instantly, there was a tap on the door, and then Sting poked his head in. He looked a little sheepish. "Yeah, so uh…sorry about this. I didn't mean to interrupt or anything."

That was definitely a bit out of character for the normally boisterous and impulsive dragon slayer, but she appreciated the thoughtfulness. "No, it's totally fine. I'd be happy to help if possible."

He nodded and came fully into the room then. Some of his confidence returned and he got right to the point. "I was just wondering if you could tell me what it was like. I wanna know what Yukino's going through and if there's anything we can do to help her."

"Well…it was very strange. I kind of drifted in and out of dreams, and then there were long gaps of just…nothing. But a lot of times I could hear everyone around me talking, and I recognized their voices even when I was really out of it. It helped me to not be scared. And from time to time I could feel things. So I'd say just talk to her, maybe hold her hand, stuff like that. If she's experiencing anything like I was, she'll be surfacing more and more frequently."

Sting's expression smoothed out some, and she hadn't even realized how tense he had been until then. "So she's not in any pain or anything?"

"Based off my experience, no."

He breathed out a sigh of relief and then shot her a thankful grin. "Awesome. Thanks Lucy, we really owe you one."

And with that, he was scooting out of the room at top speed, obviously eager to return to Yukino and test out her suggestions.

"I hope she comes around soon." Lucy murmured as she watched the door close, worry making her chew her lip a little. She grimaced when the dry skin twinged.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much. You two cast the same spell after all, so she should be waking up soon. It might just take her a little longer since she isn't as advanced as you." Amy pointed out.

"Yeah, you worry too much Luce." Natsu stated as he leaned forwards and reached for her tubes and various other things attached to her.

Predicting what his next move would be, she gently swatted his hand away as he went to grab, obviously aiming to free her from all the entangling wires and tubage. "Stop that Natsu! We can't just yank all that stuff off me."

"Why not? You're awake now, and you're all healed up! Let's get outta here!"

"Not until the doctors have seen me and cleared me to leave." she said firmly.

He scowled and pouted, obviously displeased about the hold up, but thankfully stopped trying to untangle her. For a moment, she ignored his sulking while she looked for the button to call a nurse, but once she'd located and pressed it, she turned back to him.

"Cheer up Natsu, this won't take long. We'll be done before you can say you're fired up."

His expression predictably switched to cheerful once again and he shot her an eager grin. "Yeah!"

Only a few minutes later, the nurse showed up. He did a brief checkup, asked Lucy how she was feeling, took a bunch of notes, and then hustled off to find the doctor. It had all been very quick and professional, and Lucy got the sense that he was trying to be done with her as quickly as possible.

As soon as he left, she asked the others, "Um…quick question? Is it just me, or did he seem like he was in a real hurry to process me?"

"Yep. The hospital staff are kinda fed up with us Fairy Tail wizards. Apparently the others have been holding some pretty wild parties in their rooms." Natsu answered with a laugh in his tone that said he was utterly unrepentant about their guild's antics.

"I should've known."

With that new information, she wasn't at all surprised when the doctor acted the same way…very brusque, professional, and quick. After a speedy evaluation and examination, she said, "Miss Heartfilia, you seem to be in good health. We'll hold you for observation for an hour or two to make sure you remain stable, and then you can go home."

"Oh thank you so much!"

The doctor nodded and then left, to a round of excited cheers and talking amongst themselves. The noise attracted their neighbors of course, and soon Juvia and Gray stopped by to see how she was doing. Of course, when they saw she was awake they were ecstatic, and soon the news spread to the rest of the guild.

So, for those last couple of hours in the hospital, her room became a celebration zone. Cana, who was now in a wheelchair, brought the booze of course. Lisanna hobbled in on a crutch, assisted by Mira and Elfman. Erza looked like the relative of a mummy when she made an appearance, but she still seemed in high spirits, and Jellal popped by but stayed invisible most of the time. Laxus and Master Makarov even showed up, though the later was in a serious looking neck and upper back brace. Gajeel wheeled Levy in at some point to join in the festivities, though she didn't consume any of the party foods and drink that had magically appeared. She also looked pretty frail, and couldn't stay very long, which Lucy understood after hearing everything she'd been through. Frankly, she was just happy that Levy seemed to be doing so good.

While she was horrified to see how badly everyone had been hurt, she was also happy to see that those injuries were healing so well after two weeks. And everyone seemed in such high spirits that she felt invigorated and got swept away in the celebrations.

Things grew a little rowdy of course, especially after booze was mixed with people still on pain medication, and soon hilarity ensued. Erza determined that she was a queen and began trying to remove all her bandages – along with her clothes. It took Jellal to convince her that she was an ancient mummy queen, and that the bandages were part of her accoutrement. Of course then she sought out more bandages, which was fairly hilarious considering she summoned a nurse and ordered more bandages in a highly regal manner.

Lisanna ended up a giggling limp mess, and soon Elfman had scooped her up bridal style and took her back to her room. Mira began to flirt heavily with Laxus, which magically summoned Freed, and soon the two were bickering over the dragon slayer like a pair of old grannies over a game of bridge. That resulted in a series of contests attempting to woo him, while he mostly just ignored their antics. However, when Freed cast an enchantment on Mira to make her mute, she grew enraged and entered Satan Soul mode, which prompted Freed to go into Dark Ecriture mode. At that point, Laxus intervened and grabbed them both by the back of the neck and smacked their heads together – with a little flash that suggested he'd tased them as well. Both mages went a little silly and limp, and the lightning slayer dragged them both out of the room by their scruffs.

A similar situation probably would have occurred with Natsu and Gray…if Erza hadn't already latched onto them and was currently forcing them to carry her around on their backs like a pair of horses. Drunk Erza was scary. Then a very intoxicated Juvia ran over to Erza and hung off her while sobbing hysterically and begging, 'her majesty,' to give back darling gray. The redhead seemed to take pity on her and - in a very queenly manner - granted Juvia the pleasure of riding Gray, while she continued to ride Natsu.

Juvia ended up riding him like a koala though as he immediately stood and staggered out of the room post haste to escape the insanity. Poor Natsu though was still on all fours under the reequip mage and looked just about ready to start something nasty. Lucy took pity on him – despite finding the sight absolutely hysterical – and sent Amy to get Jellal. He'd left when the room got too crowded for an invisible person, but it was time for him to come back and take care of Erza. He was the only person who could talk some sense into her while she was drunk… or at the very least he could carry her off and distract her until she'd sobered up.

Thankfully, with the wolf's sensitive nose, she was able to track him down and drag him back with little trouble. And not a moment too soon… by the time the masked man became visible in the room, Natsu was exuding copious amounts of heat and then abruptly lost his temper. Both wings popped out and knocked Erza clean off his back, which naturally infuriated her, and she reequipped into her purgatory armor. Luckily, Jellal immediately spied the disaster about to happen and quickly slid up behind her. He ducked his head close to hers and whispered something into her ear… and suddenly the armor melted off her as she completely lost interest in Natsu. They both shortly disappeared, and Lucy couldn't help but wonder what the hell he'd said to bring about such an abrupt change in her demeanor.

The festivities continued on from there…up until Sting burst into the room looking pissed off. "All of you shut it! Yukino's starting to wake up, and she said the noise is giving her a headache!"

That immediately made everyone quiet down, but they all very softly cheered and promised to come and visit her as well once she was more awake and feeling better. Lucy in particular felt a wave of happiness and relief wash over her at the good news, and she asked Sting to tell Yukino she'd be by to say hello as soon as she could.

After that, the festivities fizzled down and most left the room, though undoubtedly the party would restart in Yukino's room as soon as she was up to it. That was probably a good thing, because it wasn't long before the doctor returned, looking a bit miffed as she took in the chaotic state of the room. She then rather sourly proceeded to tell Lucy that she was free to go… though it felt more like an eviction notice with the stern way she delivered the good news.

Soon Lucy found herself dressed and packed up, and then hopscotched over to Yukino's room.

"Hey! How're you feeling?" she asked as she stopped by the other mage's bedside.

"Crusty and tired."

"Yeah, that's about how I felt a couple hours ago. Still feel pretty tired actually."

Yukino grinned up at her and reached out for her hand. Lucy quickly laced their fingers together and smiled back down at her. "It's good to see you up. I mean, I haven't been awake long, so I haven't been waiting or anything, but when I heard you were still out I was really worried."

"Yeah, well, who could sleep through a Fairy Tail party right next door?" Yukino said with a tired laugh.

"True. It's enough to wake the dead."

Rogue entered the conversation then and said, "We should really thank you Lucy. If you hadn't woken up and everyone hadn't congregated in your room to celebrate, who knows how much longer Yukino would have been unconscious?"

"Yeah…even if it gave her a headache." Sting groused, but did so with a smile.

The whitehaired mage still looked a little shell-shocked, so they didn't stay too long. After some more well wishes and promises to come and visit if she didn't get out today, Natsu proceeded to drag Lucy out of the hospital entirely. Normally she would have protested and said she wanted to visit everyone else still in the hospital, but under the circumstance she was just too tired and also wanted to get home asap.

Still though, she had one objection. "Natsu! Slow down!" she panted, having trouble keeping up.

He immediately halted and actually looked contrite for once. "Oops, sorry Luce. I got a little carried away there."

And then of course he scooped her up and proceeded to carry her the rest of the way home despite her grumbles and protests about how embarrassing it was. In the end though, she just settled in and decided she might as well enjoy it… even if they did receive a bunch of stares and Happy teased them from above.

Soon, they finally arrived at her room in Fairy Hills, though she supposed she'd have to move back into her old apartment soon, since the requirements for her to be here were no longer applicable. But not today. Today, she fully intended to rest and recover her flagging energy.

As such, she didn't complain too much when she was unceremoniously deposited on her bed by Natsu and the few protests she did have all quit when he plopped down on the bed next to her. Happy followed soon after, landing on her chest and cuddling up between them like a little blue ball. Even Amy hopped up on the foot of the bed and joined the big pile in process.

With a sigh, they all snuggled down, and Happy was the first to pass out. Frankly, it seemed like he was asleep almost as soon as his head hit her chest, and she eyeballed him with a little concern.

"Wow…he was out fast." she whispered.

Natsu nodded. "Yeah, he hasn't really slept much the past two weeks."

"Oh…" she gently started to pet his head and a sleepy purr started up in his chest, though he was still obviously out cold.

Then, after a brief moment, Natsu rumbled softly, "He wasn't the only one."

Before Lucy could comment, he gently tilted her head up and his lips landed on hers in a soft kiss. Some fire snuck between them, an extra heated flicker that hinted at what would probably happen later, once she was fully recovered and they were alone. But for now, it remained sweet and tender, a simple expression of all their love and happiness that they were both safe.

It was a fairly quick kiss, despite the depth of emotions it conveyed, and then Natsu tucked her head under his chin and wrapped his tail around her, coiling around her like the cuddly reptile he was. The deep thrumming sound he made when he was completely content started up in his chest as they dozed.

For a long moment, they were all quiet – aside from Natsu and Happy purring – and the atmosphere was simply peaceful and homey. In fact, it was so homey and familial, that it prompted Lucy to imagine what their family would look like in the future, now that they no longer had to worry about Tartarus or Acnologia breathing down their necks.

Fantasies of a home with little blond and pink-haired troublemakers running around her knees flitted through her head and she smiled. Someday she fully intended on making that dream a reality, and she let herself relish the joyful images that appeared in her mind's eye.

Interestingly enough, she and Natsu had ended up talking about kids fairly early on in their relationship. A few days after they'd first consummated their physical relationship, Natsu had caught her taking a birth control potion. If she remembered correctly, his exact wording had been, "What the hell is that stuff?! Smells like feet and cough syrup!"

She'd told him what it was, and he'd promptly responded by laughing his butt off. Then he told her, "You don't have to take that! You won't get pregnant unless I want ya to, and I figured you'd probably wanna wait." The he had sweat-dropped and huffed a relieved sigh. "Phew! Glad I haven't been pumping you full of seed. If I'd been doing that, those dinky potions wouldn't have done anything anyways. Dragon sperm is potent shit, you'd be knocked up after one mating session."

The memory made her smile and chuckle softly. Natsu always did have a way with words… it was one of the things she loved about him. He never failed to make her laugh with his bluntness.

After that, he'd confessed that he would love to have kids someday, and she had also told him that she had always wanted a family of her own. Which was true… it was one of her biggest dreams to have the family she never had as a child.

Of course the topic had come up again after they'd 'mated,' but Lucy had told him she wanted to wait until they got married the human way too. At the time, she just hadn't quite been ready for that yet. Now though, things were different, and she wanted to start thinking about the future. She even felt like she might be ready to start planning out a wedding, and the burst of happy butterflies at the thought confirmed it.

"Hey Natsu?" she quietly asked after a while, and got a grunt of recognition in response. "How many kids do you want?"

That got his eyes open and he gave her a slightly surprised look as she tilted her head up to eyeball him. Unlike a normal person who would ask where the heck that question came from, he just smiled and said, "As many as we can! Or as many as you want I guess."

"I was thinking no more than three. You know any kids of ours are going to be a handful."

From the foot of the bed, Amy commented, "Of course, you'll have tons of babysitters."

"Oh, but I wouldn't want to impose on all of you."

The wolf snorted in amusement. "Hardly. We'll probably all be fighting over the privilege. Aside from Aquarius of course…she hates kids."

At the last comment, Lucy had to laugh a little, but the first part was so touching she found herself a little flustered. After a slightly awkward pause, she finally said, "It sounds like our babies will have lots of aunts and uncles then."

"Aunt Amy. Sounds good on ya." Natsu chimed in, giving the wolf a fond grin.

"Yes…I think so too." she said, giving a wolfish grin with her tongue hanging out.

After that, there was a little more silence, and then a new thought occurred to Lucy. It was one she'd mulled around before, but she had always been a little scared to bring it up. However, now seemed the appropriate time to broach the subject.

"Um…Natsu? Speaking of the future and stuff…how exactly will it work out between us? I mean, you're a celestial spirit, and I'm a human. You're immortal….and I'm not."

"We can do whatever you want, Luce. You can come live with me in the celestial realm. After a while you'd basically become a celestial spirit if the king allowed it, which I'm sure he would. Or, I could come and live with you here and choose to age alongside you."

"What? But I thought you didn't age?"

He snorted. "Nah. Dragons get old. I don't age in the celestial realm, but I'd age here. And if I stayed human, I'd age like a human."

Lucy was quite honestly overwhelmed by the unexpected information and had absolutely no idea what to do with it. So, after a long moment of just staring at him with a gaping mouth, she simply sighed and decided not to worry about that right now. Whatever happened, at least now she knew that Natsu would be by her side. And with him, she knew that whatever life she chose, it would be full of joy, love, happiness, craziness, chaos, exciting missions, stupid mistakes, and plenty of fun.

After all, they were both members of Fairy Tail… how could their future be anything less than a crazy adventure?

~ End