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Lucy almost jumped when the large bag of jewel dropped with a loud thump on the coffee table next to her. She caught her breath and then rubbed the back of the toddler still sleeping soundly on her stomach, thankful that the child hadn't startled as well. Almost immediately, her two oldest attacked Natsu like enthusiastic puppies, taking her husband down with hugs, kisses, and shouts of "dad!"
"Oi, oi! Let me up you nutsos. Let me look at ya." Natsu grinned as he sat up and squeezed both boys tightly.
Iggy pushed away and crossed his arms. "Dad you were gone too long this time!"
"Is that so?" Natsu asked, tousling the boys pink hair. Iggy scowled and batted away his father's hand.
Jude nodded and shook a finger at his father. "Yea, momma was really mad at you, she kept saying you were a jerk for leaving her with three monsters."
Lucy rolled her eyes and sighed. Leave it to Natsu's mini me to tell on her. Natsu just smirked her direction. "Yea, your mom's a pretty silly lady."
Jude shrugged, "I don't know what she so worried about, if there were monsters I would totally of got 'em. Look!" He puffed a tiny flame in Natsu's face.
Natsu's eyes went wide and then he cackled excitedly. He lifted the boy and spun him round in his arms. "That was awesome!" He hugged the tiny blond close and looked to his wife. "Lucy, how long has he been doing that?"
Lucy gave him a tired smile. "Three months now. He's been practicing every day since you left. Let's just say that Erza has a new hairdo."
Jude frowned, "Miss Erza is really scary."
Natsu nodded with an exaggeratedly serious expression on his face. "Don't I know it buddy."
Iggy climbed up on the coffee table and jumped to the floor. "Are ya staying for a while now dad? Mom is no fun, she never plays with us." He climbed back on the table again.
Jude clambered up with him, bumping into his brother and almost falling. "Yea, momma's all like stop you'll break your neck, stop you'll burn your bed, stop you're embarassin' me." He sighed dramatically, "She's so exasperilla*."
Natsu grinned in Lucy's direction, "Yea, she is pretty exasperilla."
"You guys are making me sound like a crazy person!" Lucy exclaimed, shaking a fist at the three boys laughing at her in her living room.
Natsu came over to kneel next to Lucy and gave her a sweet kiss. She hummed into his lips and murmured, "I missed you."
He smiled down at her and ran his fingers along the side of her face. Then he teased, "What? You're not gonna tackle me too? What kind of greeting is this?"
Lucy snorted, "Well I would, but Kaida was up all night because she's finally getting those molars. So as much as I would love to attack you right now, she needs her rest."
Natsu leaned forward to nuzzled into her throat. "What if I want to show you how much I missed you?" he purred into her ear.
Lucy chuckled and ran her fingers through his hair. "Then you will have to wait until all the monsters are in their cages for the night."
Natsu's head popped up aghast. "Aww Lucy! That's not fair!" Natsu protested. He stood and crossed his arms. "So you're tellin' me if I had gone to the guild first and came after these guys were in bed, I could have gotten a proper greeting?"
Lucy furrowed her brow. "Nooooo, if you had gone to the guild first, you would have been getting no greeting and you would have been finding somewhere else to sleep for the night."
The boys leapt up on either side of Natsu, grabbing ahold of his arms. "Are you going to the guild dad? I want to go!" exclaimed Iggy.
Jude pulled himself up to scramble onto Natsu's back. "Yea! Yaje is trying to be big! We need to get 'em."
Natsu looked at Lucy with a mischievous grin, Lucy rolled her eyes. "Do you see now what you left me with?" she asked.
"Yea, but the real question is who wins?" Natsu asked excitedly. "Can you take Yaje Iggy?" Natsu ignored Lucy's groan.
Jude furrowed his tiny brow. "Sort of, I mean I'm pretty tough, but Yaje is really old."
"Really old?" Natsu asked.
Iggy's eyes went wide as he said excitedly, "Yeeeeeaaaa, he's like ten!"
Natsu nodded, "That is really old."
Jude dropped to the floor and punched at the air. "We can take him together though. He not so tough!"
Little Kaida blinked sleepily, then sat up rubbing her tiny eyes. She looked over at Natsu and wrinkled her tiny brow with a confused little pout. The her eyes widened, "Dada?"
"Wow Lucy, she's like a completely different kid!" Natsu said in wonder.
"It has been over nine months now, she basically is a different kid," Lucy said softly, pushing Kaida's wispy locks of dark hair out of her eyes.
Kaida started to bounce excitedly, ignoring Lucy's pained "oofs". "Dada up! Dada up! Dada up, up!" She waved her arms frantically in the air, trying to get Natsu's attention.
He lifted her easily, cradling her tiny body in his muscular arms. "Aww sweet girl, look how big you are!" He tickled her belly, smiling at her enthusiastic giggle. He pulled her up to his chest and hugged her close. "Man, I missed you guys so much!"
He must have squeezed Kaida too hard, because she frowned and said, "No dada, down." Natsu gave her wounded expression, but smiled when he set her down. She toddled over to where her brothers were currently wrestling on the floor and started yelling, "No brudders! Bad brudders*!"
Lucy laughed. Then she stretched and pulled herself slowly off the couch. "It's a madhouse here."
Natsu grabbed her arm and pulled her close, wrapping his arms tightly around her and nuzzling into her neck. Lucy sighed and slipped her hands around his middle, then glided them up to run her palms over the muscles in his back. She soaked in his warmth, his smell, the solidity of his body, all the things she had missed so bad and couldn't have while he was away.
"I really missed you, this one took too long," she whispered into his chest.
He kissed her hair and hugged her tighter. "I know Luce, I'm sorry. This mission gave me a little bit more trouble than I expected."
"It was starting to feel like that year when we were younger." Her breath caught and a tear slipped free. "I started to worry you wouldn't come back."
He pulled away slightly and lifted her chin so he could look her in the eye. "I'll always come back Lucy."
She smiled, "I know, I love you."
"I love you too." Natsu's lips met hers and what started as soft kisses quickly grew hungrier. Natsu's hands drifted around the back and took large handfuls of Lucy's rear. She made a sound of surprise and he chuckled against her lips. Then he used his hold to pull her even closer, his kisses turning so scorching that Lucy felt like she would melt in a puddle on the floor.
They almost forgot they had an audience until their moment was interrupted by Iggy's loud protest of,"Eeeew, you guys are gross!"
Natsu snapped his head to where all three of his offspring stared at him in disgust. "Hey! I let you guys slobber all over me! Don't ruin my moment!" he yelled. Then he lifted his hands over his head and began to prowl in their direction. "The fire monster is angry! The fire monster requires children for his dinner!"
All three children squealed and ran away from a lumbering Natsu. Lucy flopped back down on the couch and watched them play. She relaxed down into her seat as the anxiety she hadn't realized she had been carrying drained out of her body. Then with a relieved sigh, she smiled the first real smile she had been able to make in months. Her Natsu was finally home, her family was whole again.