To Protect and To Serve

Chapter 2

Seven years later...

Natsu Dragneel smiled as he watched his seven year old daughter Nashi run to him from the school yard. He picked her up into his arms and hugged her tightly.

"What are you doing here Daddy?" She asked.

"Well I heard that you passed your spelling test and it's Friday so I thought that I would pick you up from school early and give you a little reward."

"But I only got a B."

"So?"

"So Mommy says that a B is not good enough."

"Well your mother is a bit of an over achiever. Now how does an ice cream sundae sound?"

"Ice cream!"

He took her to the ice cream parlor.

"Now what do you want on your sundae?" He asked her as they waited in line. "Hot fudge? Peanuts? Whip cream? Cherries? Or all of the above?"

"All of the above!"

"Why am I not surprised?"

With a smile he went up to order the sundae and later he watched her devour it with glee. There was no one in the whole world who Natsu loved more than his daughter Nashi. Seven years earlier, Natsu had gotten really drunk at a party and slept with with a waitress called Touka. When his long time girlfriend Lucy found out she dumped him for good and later he found out that he had gotten Touka pregnant. She had pressured him into marrying her and he wasn't sure if he had made the right decision but all doubt completely vanished the minute he laid eyes on his daughter for the first time. The day she was born had been the happiest day of his life. She was everything to him. His number one priority, there never was a father who loved his daughter more than Natsu loved Nashi.

"Did you like it?" He asked her.

"I loved it." She had chocolate and cream smeared all over her face.

"I better clean you up before we go home. You know how upset your mother gets when you come home dirty."

After wiping her face clean with some napkins he took her home where they were greeted by his wife. She gave him her best smile and went to hug them. At first glance Touka Dragneel was the perfect wife and mother. Always attentive, sweet, charming, a good cook, polite, just perfect.

"Hello Natsu." Touka kissed her husband's cheek.

"Hi Touka."

"Did you have a good day at work?"

"Yeah."

"Hi Mommy." Nashi said to her mother.

"Hi Nashi. How was school?" She asked.

"It was pretty boring but Daddy took me out for ice cream."

"Did he now?" She gave Nashi a kiss on the cheek. "Nashi could you go to your room for a moment?"

"Why?"

"I need to talk to your father."

"Okay."

She went upstairs to her bedroom leaving her parents alone.

"You took her out for ice cream?" She asked her husband.

"Well I...I just thought she deserved a little treat for passing her spelling test." Natsu said. "She worked real hard."

"Not hard enough. She got a B."

"So? A, B is pretty good."

"She could do better."

"She's only seven. She has trouble with big words, I was the same way when I was her age."

"I don't appreciate you rewarding her for her failures."

"Failures? She didn't fail. Don't you think you're being a little too hard on her?"

"I just want her to amount to something great but apparently you want her to be a slacker like you."

"That's not true and I'm not a slacker. I work very hard at the construction sight."

"Why do you work there? They don't pay you enough."

"They pay me just fine and I like working there."

"Whatever." She pulled a bottle of wine out and poured herself a glass. "So listen they've opened up this new fancy restaurant downtown and I was wondering if you would like to go there for dinner tomorrow."

"Let's do it Sunday, I gotta go with Gray to the pub tomorrow night."

"Why?"

"Well his son's eighth birthday is coming up and you know how he gets around his birthday. He needs a sober friend to drive him home."

"You mean they still haven't gotten over that already? It's been seven years."

"Touka it's their baby. He was taken from them and the police barely did anything to help them."

"Isn't Juvia pregnant again?"

"Yes but just because they're having another baby doesn't mean they're going to act like their first one never existed. What if someone had taken Nashi from us? Could you just get over her or have another baby and act like we never had her to begin with?"

"Of course not but how long can people grieve? And why do you always have to be there for him?"

"Because he's my best friend and he's always been there for me. Whenever I was sad and wanted to drink away my sorrows he was always there, him and his wife and...And a part of me feels like if I hadn't of begged him to come pick me up when Lucy dumped me then maybe his kid wouldn't have been taken in the first place."

"So you're still thinking about Lucy?" She accused angrily.

"What? No! What I just said has nothing to do with her."

"You mentioned her name."

"So? I haven't seen her since we broke up seven years ago. This isn't about Lucy, this about me comforting my best friend. You know how much my friends mean to me."

"Yeah and apparently they're more important to you than I am."

"That's not true."

"Then how come you never want to do what I want?"

"I said that we could go out Sunday. You're overreacting."

"I'm not overreacting!"

She then punched Natsu across the face.

"Oh my God Natsu I'm so sorry." she said looking utterly horrified by what she had done.

" Geez honey why did you have to go and do that?" Natsu said clutching his jaw.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to I just...I just get so angry sometimes. I...I'm sorry. Do you need some ice?"

"No. No I'm good. Wow you really nailed me there."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

"You know I didn't mean it right?"

"I know. Listen can't we just go out Sunday?"

"Sure. You're right, Gray needs you. Give him and Juvia my regards."

"I will."

Natsu was surprised. In all the years he had known Touka, she had never hit him before. Never. What had gotten into her? She had always been high strung and she had a temper but he never thought that she could be violent. After awhile he convinced himself that this was just a one time mistake and that it would never happen again but he was wrong. Very wrong.