Bonds of Iron and Fire

A Little Fun and a Little Training

It's been two days since they returned to Magnolia and things were going very smooth. Although Erza was a little worried at the moment. Erza for the first time left Natsu alone with Hisako, so she could get some groceries and different scenarios were running through her head. She knew her worries were unnecessary. She knew Natsu had experience from watching Romeo. Hell she even helped the first couple of times. But still she worried.

Flashback

"Hey Natsu." Macao called, as he walked up to the twelve year old. "You wanna do me a favor?"

"Not really." Natsu grumbled, slightly irritated that he was called out of his thoughts.

"Come on. I'll pay you."

"What is it?"

"I need you to watch Romeo for me."

"Pass." Natsu turned and looked away.

"Come on please." Macao pleaded.

"No." Natsu refused.

"Why not? I'll watch him with you if you want?" Erza sat beside him, causing him to blush slightly.

"Fine. I'll do it." Natsu gave in, only because Erza would be there. "For how long?"

"Just until tomorrow." Macao handed the one year old Romeo to Erza. "Thanks for this. Here are the keys to my place. His bottles are in the fridge and there are diapers in the closet." and with that said Macao rushed out of the guild.

"Diapers?" they both blinked at each other.
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"Hurry up and open the door." Erza ordered. She was holding Romeo trying her best to get him to stop crying. It had been a few hours since they began watching him and Erza decided it was best to take him back to his home. And sure enough on the way there Romeo began to cry.

"Ok. Now what?" Natsu asked, after he opened the door.

"Now you go warm up a bottle." Natsu went into the kitchen and took out a bottle. Then he used his magic to warm up the bottle.

"Really?" Erza raised her eyebrow when she saw the milk in the bottle was boiling.

"What? You said heat it." Natsu defended.

"I didn't mean to make it searing hot. Here hold him." Erza handed over Romeo, who started crying even more when Natsu held him, then headed to the kitchen. She returned a minute later with a new bottle of milk. She then took Romeo and fed him.

Natsu stared at Erza in awe. He seen a lot of sides of Erza, more then anyone else has, but this one he's never seen before. She was so gentle and caring with baby Romeo. It was far from the Erza he saw everyday, but he really liked this side of her.

"Is he asleep?" Erza asked as she turned away from him. She just got done burping Romeo and was now showing Natsu his face. Natsu looked at his eyes and saw them drift shut.

"Yup." Natsu whispered back.

"Good." Erza went to put Romeo in his crib, then walked back into the living room.

"I don't know why Macao asked me to do this? I have no idea what I'm doing." Natsu stated.

"You're not that bad."

"Are you kidding? He cries when I hold him, I would've burned his mouth with his milk, and I'm sure I'll screw up with his diaper. I suck."

"Don't be so hard on yourself. It's your first time taking care of someone, you'll get better." Erza assured him. She knew Natsu never liked it when he failed at something and normally he didn't have confidence issues, but he was in the early stage of puberty. Which actually surprised everyone by how early it happened, it also pissed Gray off. Puberty caused him to be gloomy and easily put down. Which caused Erza to change how she encouraged him. Normally she would be tough and tell him to stop whining and pick himself back up, but all that did was make him act a lot like Edo Natsu. So now she goes with the gentle motherly approach.