Of Fire and Ice

C.8

The next day, I got up to get Emma her breakfast, only to find Grey cooking eggs this time.

"Morning, Grey." I smiled and put Emma in her little chair. "Oh hey, Henley." He looked up at me with a smile and a faint blush. "Natsu and Lucy still asleep?" I asked and he nodded.

I got up and started to cut and mash up an apple to make Emma's breakfast. The kitchen was almost completely silent, aside from the frying pan, my knife, and Emma's coos.

"Hey, Henley, about yesterday-" I cut Grey off. "Grey, it's fine." I assured him. He just nodded and went back to frying.

I was done with the apples, so I went over and started to feed them to Emma. Natsu, Lucy, Ari, and Happy walked in, and Natsu immediately froze. "Whoa, the tension is quite thick in here, wouldn't you say?" He grinned, and we both rolled our eyes and scoffed.

We all ate our eggs, me swallowing two whole and continuing to feed Emma. "You seem good at the mom thing." Lucy said. "Well, I've had practice." I shrugged, looking over at Ari. "You didn't raise me! We literally have the same birthday! We were born at the same time!" Ari shouted. "I still have to take care of you as if you were a human baby!" I snapped.

"You two were born at the same time, on the same day?" Natsu asked in astonishment. We nodded. "Henley is special. Quite a lot of screaming in the cabin that day." Ari chuckled and I snickered. Lucy looked uncomfortable.

"That's also why I think Henley is stronger than Natsu. Her whole life has been around dragons. If I remember anything I forgot to teach her, I'm always around to teach." Ari said and I looked at her with wide eyes. "What?" She asked and I just slowly shook my head. "Bad idea." I hissed.

"She can't be stronger than me! She's a girl!" Natsu said, and I looked over at him in a glare. "I can't be stronger than you because I'm a girl? Shall I remind you of Erza?" I hissed. "So you're saying you are stronger than me?" Natsu said. "I personally don't care about who's stronger. I just thought it was amusing you say I can't be stronger than you because of my sex, while Erza is the strongest wizard we all know, and she is a female. Proving you wrong that sex doesn't matter." I shrugged, making the other two wizards snicker.

"I could so kick your butt in a fight!" Natsu said and I sighed. "I'm not saying you couldn't. You actually could since I prefer not to fight." I shrugged. "So if we got in a fight right now, what would happen?" Natsu asked.

"Well, I guess you'd try to shoot flames at me or something, I would just stand there and ramble on about how much of a stupid jackass you are." I shrugged. "Cos if Henley did want to fight, she could kick your ass!" Ari bragged for me.

"You just can't shut your little lizard mouth, can you?" I hummed over to the dragon. "What?" Ari asked. I just shook my head and sighed.

"Okay, I think the plan was that we're going to go to the market for food?" I hummed and we all stood to go get ready.

I dressed quickly in a plaid button up and really short shorts and my beloved combat boots. I got Emma dressed in a cute frilly dress and Ari rode on my shoulder as we meet the others in the foyer.

"Yay! A market!" Natsu and Happy cheered. We walked out, me staying by Lucy and Grey. "Yeah, you really look like a mom." Lucy giggled. "Ari, you seem a little heavier." I groaned and heard get groan as well. "Are you sure it's not the kid?" "No, it's definitely you. Maybe now you're finally getting bigger!" I said excitedly.

"I have mixed emotions about that." Ari said unhappily. "Why's that? Don't you want to grow up and be a huge, majestic, vicious dragon?" Grey smirked. "Well, if I get bigger, then I can't ride Henley. And as I get bigger, then she'll resort to riding me!" Ari complained.

"Payback bitch." I smirked over at her. "Don't swear. There are children present." Ari said. "Don't fucking tell me what do, Ariadne." I laughed.

Soon we made it to the market and Natsu was running around while Happy was flying everywhere. "Can someone calm them down while Lucy and I go get food?" I sighed. "You mean me?" Grey sighed and walked off to get Natsu.

Lucy stuck by my side to get food while I carried both Emma and Ari. "Your shoulders are dropping." Ari pointed out. "Because you're so heavy." I sighed and Ari crawled to my arm to lay besides Emma. "Okay, that's a bit better." I sighed happily.

"Mother of dragons!" Lucy laughed loudly. People turned to stare, then backed away because holy fuck there was a dragon.

Natsu and Grey walked up, Happy flying overhead. "Gotta attract attention everywhere we go, huh?" Natsu grinned over at me, and I hit him over the head with carrot, making Emma giggle.

"That was funny, huh? Mean little boy getting hit over the head with a vegetable." I grinned down at her. "I hope you never become a mother." Grey sighed, standing next to me.

"Oh you and I both." I sighed.