Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters of Fairy tail, the rights to the characters...maybe except for Nashi in this story...belongs to Hiro Mashima AND NOT ME!

A dragons lullaby.

It was a dark and dreary evening in Magnolia.

Natsu Dragneel snored loudly as he slept, snoozing the night away as he subconsciously furled a strong yet protective arm around the beautiful blonde woman whom slept next to him in the large bed they shared. Lucy Heartfilia, a Celestial wizard and the dragon slayer's wife, slept just as soundly as the pinkette next to her and nuzzled sweetly into her lover's embrace as they snuggled deeper into the nice warm blankets.

The two couldn't have felt more at peace right now as they slept soundly.

It had been a nice and somewhat blissful weekend for the couple as Happy had decided to spend a weekend with the love of his life, Carla, and that meant that both Fairy tail wizards had been left with their young three-month-old child. The only problem was that said child, Nashi, had been subjected to horrendous sleepless nights as she would awaken in the middle of the night, wailing her little lungs out until either Natsu or Lucy would come to comfort her.

However it would seem that it was destined to be another one of those nights as a sudden sound cut through the silence like a hot knife cutting through butter.

It was a noise that warranted a sudden rude awakening for both Natsu and Lucy as they both felt nothing but agitation.

Natsu moaned as he forcefully shoved his face right up against the pillow, trying in vain to block out the loud cries that carried all the way into his sensitive ears. He didn't want to be awake right now and all he wanted was the wails to cease so he could go straight back to sleep and bury himself in the comforting darkness. The pink-haired man sadly wasn't going to get his wish, not this evening.

Lucy raised her hand sluggishly and gave his arm a light slap to try and wake him up, she clumsily flopped on to her side and her tired face twisted into a sleepy scowl as she aimed her evil glare at Natsu. She was exhausted so her voice came out with a slurred undertone that sounded somewhat raspy from sleep-deprivation and fatigue.

"Natsu, it's your turn to take care of her. I did it last time..."

Natsu sighed, realising that Lucy was right; since she had to stay home a lot of the time to take care of their daughter, Lucy had all the right to get all the rest she could possibly get...and it was her shift last time. The dragon slayer's vision swayed from side-to-side from fatigue as he sluggishly sat up, trying his best not to clumsily topple forwards and collapse from tiredness. He knew that he had to do this because his daughter needed him to bear through this and take care of her -he just couldn't let his baby down when she needed him.

He tried to break through his exhaustion as he pushed himself off the edge of the bed, launching himself into a standing position. His eyelids felt heavy as they dropped halfway so he could hardly keep both eyes open and he fought back the surge to yawn. He raised a strong arm and rubbed away at his own eyes, wiping away some lingering crust of sleep that had formed in the corners of his eyeballs. When he had properly awoken himself, the pink-haired dragon slayer started to make his way out of the bedroom proceeded to lumber out into the hallway.

It was while he was sluggishly stepping across the corridor that his ears caught the fact that the cries grew louder and louder as he drew nearer to his daughter's nursery.

It was really dark, obviously because it was in the middle of the night, and Natsu could hardly see much as he reached sideways, placing the palm of his hand against the wall as a guide; it didn't take too long until he reached the nursery door and he didn't hesitate in reaching forwards, swinging it open and he quickly focused his gaze on the silhouetted form squirming in the crib that was in the middle of the room.

Natsu quickly sped-walked over to the crib and peered in to have a closer look and found that the little girl occupying it was in obvious distress as she wept and hollered and cried so loud that it actually hurt his sensitive ears —and in spite of the mild frustration he felt of having been awoken, he somehow kicked all negativity out of his system and replaced it all with gentle sympathy.

The dragon slayer leaned in and took the crying infant into his arms before he lifted her out of the crib and he started to croon with a quiet croon of a tone of voice as he raised her into the air and started rocking her gently in his strong and muscular arms.

"C'mon, little one, up we go~" He said.

Natsu slowly backed away from the crib and plopped himself down on the seat of the small mahogany rocking chair that was nestled in the corner of the nursery whilst holding the small crying baby close to his chest. The baby girl squalled hysterically and squirmed uncomfortably as she yowled as loud as her little lungs could possibly allow.

The dragon slayer stared down at his daughter, at a loss at what to do. He didn't know what was wrong with his little girl and to see her so unhappy filled his heart with confusion and guilt. How could he possibly get her to be quiet so they could both could get some more sleep? He peered down and looked into the tiny chubby face of his daughter, seeing it was pinched and scrunched up as she cried. As he held his girl close to him he looked down at her and saw her tears continuing to stream down her face, his saddened facial features deepened just a hint.

He used his weight to slide the rocking chair back and fourth in a steady rhythm, using the heels of his feet to tip it forwards and then using his toes to gently launch it backwards.

It didn't take too long for the volume of Nashi's cries to start dwindling.

Natsu started to have a good idea as to what was making his baby so unhappy and the slightest hint of a grin started to make itself known on his lips.

"You're all lonely, huh? Is that's what's upsetting you?"

The baby's response to that question was a very teary-eyed look and Natsu understood everything when he looked inside those new deep, expressive, brown eyes —those eyes that looked eerily much like Lucy's— and he couldn't help but smile oh-so softly as he situated his daughter in his strong arms to better cradle her and then nestled her in the crook of his arm as he allowed his abnormally warm body heat seep in through the blanket that she was bundled up in.

"Heh. Well, don't ya worry. I'm here now."

Nashi sobbed and sniffled softly as she started to calm down after hearing her father's voice and he leaned his head down a bit, readjusting his daughter in his arms a bit so he could spare one of his hands, and he started to wipe some tears away with one of his thumbs.

"Shhhh, shh, shh...don't worry. I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere. I promise."

Natsu was going to do everything he possibly could to keep that promise. He wasn't going to up and leave like Igneel had done all those years ago and although he understood that Igneel had his own important reasons for essentially abandoning him, he couldn't bear the thought of putting his own daughter through something like that. She may have been a mere infant now whom would probably forget about him soon enough should he have any reason to go away, but there was a strong likelihood that their bond would suffer should he ever leave.

He felt the fire in his heart burn bright and compassionately when he felt his baby snuggle up to him, rubbing her teeny chubby cheeks against his bare chest to search for that soothing warmth.

His eyes widened and he quietly gasped as he reclined in his seat. The fire wizard had no idea why or what could have triggered it but a sudden flashback of when he, himself, was really young and how his own father had treated him had come flooding back to him.

Natsu curled up on the floor with his eyes closed and his mind caught in a realm of dreams when a horrible sound crashed through the air, promptly followed by a sudden flash of light. He didn't like that because it always hurt his sensitive ears and it was always frightening whenever it would come and, being too young to know much about it, he would fear it quite easily. Although his eyes were shut tight, tears swelled and squeezed passed his eyelids.

He curled into a tighter ball as he started to whimper in fear.

Natsu had never been fond of thunderstorms, each time a bolt would strike and create the horrific crash of thunder it would sound even louder then normal thanks to his heightened sense of hearing. He clenched his fangs and fidgeted as he subconsciously raised his hands to cover his ears in an attempt to block out the dreadful roar of the storm tearing up the world outside.

It frightened him.

But then he suddenly felt a long and slender thing slide itself beneath his body, he could feel the familiar yet abnormal warmth coming from the long scaly appendage which he assumed was his father's finger; he could feel the warmth of his scales beneath his small skinny body. The little body couldn't help but curl up into a teeny ball in response to the comforting heat he felt engulf him.

He heard a strong, husky, growly but surprisingly tender voice shush him.

"Shhhh, it's alright son..." Said the voice.

When he heard the voice, little Natsu's fears started to diminish dramatically. He felt his breathing slow down and the tears quickly dried up as he snuggled up against the scaly finger that cradled him. It didn't take long until he felt himself gently slide off the supposed finger and land on something much more cushiony but it was just as scaly and just as warm but he could definitely hear the sounds of breathing grow much louder.

The little pink boy had supposed that his father must have placed him on his snout and when he opened his eyes to look, his supposition was quickly proved to have been correct. He beamed brightly, albeit drowsily, at the giant dragon as he stared directly into the large pair of comforting emerald green pools complimented by yellowish whites.

"Dad-ddy..." He crooned in a tiny voice, his speech not very well developed due to being so young.

Igneel smiled back at his tiny adopted son and proceeded to slow his breathing, his breaths sliding from his large nostrils. Even though Natsu had started speaking not too long ago, he had been making progress and he couldn't wait to start teaching him how to write and much more. The huge winged reptile felt nothing but love for the small boy he found and took in, he didn't like seeing him become frightened of thunder but he did like seeing his little one sleep.

These would be the moments he cherished most.

A huge toothy smile graced the dragons muzzle as he reassured the tiny boy, his eyelids drooping.

"It's alright, Natsu...I won't allow the thunder to hurt you..."

Natsu popped his thumb in his mouth in reply and sleepily started to whimper and whine fussily, still half asleep but also a bit hesitant about falling back to sleep.

Igneel couldn't help but roll his eyes slightly at seeing the tiny human behave like this and he instantly knew what he could do to get Natsu back to sleep as he chuckled, the sound both causing his throat to rumble softly and the teeny child to bounce very slightly as he lay on top of his snout. The fire dragon king's heart grew warm as he watched his son curl up to get comfortable on top of there as he tried not to close his already-half-closed eyes.

"Do you want me to sing you a lullaby?" He suggested.

Natsu nodded his head softly with his thumb still in his thumb, the dragon's voice starting to lull him to sleep already as he shut his eyes softly. Igneel closed his eyes too and started to sway his head in a gentle rocking motion to better cradle the little one trying to fall asleep on his snout and a gentle purr started to churn from his throat as he opened his mouth and started to sing.

Natsu, fuelled by the memory that stirred from deep within his mind, looked down at his daughter and he let his instincts guide him as he started to sing to her the same song that Igneel would sing to him when he was small.

"Just believe in myself,

I'm always right there,

where there's a dream that won't end

you chase it! Speed up, speed up,

I promise you that you'll always be a part of me

so now, I'll just believe in myself~"

Natsu's singing voice was soft but it had a slight swing as he sang, he wasn't an experienced singer but he was very good at it.

He looked down and smiled when he saw his daughter had stopped crying and seemed to grow sleepy.

The pink-haired fire wizard craned his head and gently pressed his nose up against Nashi's teeny face, rubbing the tip of it against her chubby plump cheeks and getting some giggly coos from her. Hearing those sounds made Natsu's heart become warm like the eternal fire burning inside of him. The baby girl in his arms snuggled closer against him as she quickly fell asleep, lulled by the fire wizard's comforting embrace and protective presence.

"Great job, Natsu..."

Natsu's eyes widened when he heard that familiar voice and he quickly turned around to look at the doorway where he found Lucy, leaning against the doorframe with a sleepy smile on her face. The Celestial mage looked exhausted with her long blonde hair all frizzy and with the huge dark bags sagging under her doe brown eyes —she looked quite bedraggled as she meandered over to where her husband was sat.

She looked down at the baby girl cradled in his arms.

"Just when we think that girl of ours is never gonna sleep, she's out like a light..." Lucy sighed sleepily as she lovingly snuggled against the fiery dragon slayer, "...she reminds me of you."

Natsu looked back down at the sleeping pink-haired girl resting in his arms and couldn't keep a tender smile which revealed his fangs off of his face as, for a brief instant, he saw himself in his sweet little Nashi. He chuckled softly as he nodded to agree with Lucy.

"Ya know what, Luce? She kinda does..."

Lucy closed her eyes and kissed Natsu's cheek.

"I love you, Natsu."

"Love you too..."

A/N: Here's a short story about Natsu and his daughter, with a bit of Natsu and Igneel...basically it's overflowing with fatherly fluff! Consider it a late Father's Day fic!

The lullaby is basically "Believe in myself" from my fave FT opening, but with some of the lyrics changed slightly.

Hope you guys like it.

-Chloemcg