The Demon's Concubine

Chapter 40

25 July, 13:00

Lucy sighed as she took the last spoonful of her ice-cream, her craving still not satisfied. She'd been nearly craving-free during majority of this final trimester, but she'd been unable to resist ice-cream or spicy foods lately. It didn't help that Natsu and Happy had already eaten half the carton, and now she'll have to go get more...

"Get up..."

Natsu mumbled something from where he laid half asleep and curled around her stomach. They'd been watching a movie, but Natsu doze off less than a quarter into it after cuddling with the baby bump.

"Natsu..." Lucy whined, shoving him softly. "I wanna get more ice-cream..."

"I can get you more ice-cream!" Happy perked up from where he laid curled up on Lucy's leg, opposite to Natsu.

She narrowed her eyes at the cat and used her spoon to point at him accusingly. "So you can eat most of it before you give it to me? No thanks, I'll just get it myself."

Natsu sat up, blinking the fog out of his eyes. "You should stay in bed. Haven't your feet been hurting real bad?"

"And your back!" Happy chirped

"Yeah, and you've been having those Brax-something contractions.

"Braxton Hicks contractions."

"Yeah, those. So just stay in bed and we'll get it, and we promise not to eat any." Natsu ran his finger over her belly as he awaited her response.

"Hmm... well, I've been trying to walk around more often. I hear it'll make the delivery easier." She pouted when he snickered at her. "It's just one flight of stairs to the kitchen, babe."

"Yeah, and I wanna do it." Natsu shrugged as he rolled off of her completely. "If you say so." He helped her off the bed and smiled as she waddled out of the room.

Lucy stretched as she walked down the stairs, taking a little break when she felt a contraction coming. She was 41 weeks, over 2 weeks past her due date, and she was starting to get restless. They're excited to finally meet the baby, but Lucy was definitely ready to have her old, pregnant-free body again.

"Hey there!" Igneel was in the dining hall, eating what looked like an entire turkey. Lucy smiled at him, he visited 2 weeks ago and decided to stay well after he'd plan to in hopes to be there for the birth, and Lucy found it endearing. Igneel was always so sweet, a little rough around the edges, but still sweet.

"Hey. I'm just getting some ice-cream."

"Ice-cream? I'll get it." The dragon went into the kitchen and started rustling through the freezer. "You shouldn't be doing any heavy lifting."

Lucy was confused for a minute until she saw he was going to pull out an entire tub of ice-cream. "Wait, I'm only going to get the smaller, personal cartons. They're about 4 quarts and a single serving..."

"...Really? And you think that's enough?"

"Well, yeah..." She chuckled as she thought about it. "It's definitely a lot, especially during one sitting."

"I don't know how you can eat so little and still be satisfied." He handed her the smaller carton as he went back to his meal. "Don't let Natsu get any. He'll end up eating all of it."

"Don't I know it." Lucy shook her head, Natsu's infamous diet definitely being well-known.

"You really shouldn't be eating so much unhealthy food." Aquarius was in the hallway, leaning against the wall and watching Lucy as she passed by. "And what are you wearing?"