Long Day

For a good part of her life, Navi was an only child. The closest other thing that Natsu had to a kid was Happy and the closest thing that Lucy had were Happy and Natsu, so Navi was pretty much the only kid.

Not in the guild though. The then Master, Laxus, had a daughter and Levy and Gajeel had a son, Locke, before anyone else even thought having babies were even remotely interesting. And of course there was Asuka and Romeo and the such, but really, Locke and Haven (Laxus' daughter) were the first of the new generation of Fairy Tail and Navi was just kinda on the back burner.

A lot of things were going on, actually, around the time of her birth. Master Makarov was of ill health, Laxus had gone missing earlier that year, and the usual peril that followed Fairy Tail were all swirling around. All in all, not only was she the firstborn to her parents,she was also rather unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

And would be for a few years. Fairy Tail had grown once more, expanded to the brim, and though the Salamander and his team still were considered one of the top of the guild, their personal life just wasn't interesting to anyone any longer. Lucy and Natsu had long gotten together and, in some ways, calmed the hell down, so them having a kid wasn't ground breaking in the slightest.

It also wasn't something Lucy wanted to do again. Both being mages, her and Natsu hardly made enough to care for themselves (and Happy). Navi had been, honestly, a (blessed, of course) accident that needed no repeating as she was the type to learn from her mistakes.

And Natsu was more than enthralled with Navi. He wasn't big on change, but she'd been amazing, from conception to birth. He loved her. A lot. She clearly favored him over Lucy (which helped because his little buddy Happy had turned on him a bit as of late in favor of the woman; she was the one that fed him, after all) and, when she was old enough, was up for any sort of adventure he wanted to take her on. He never even thought of having another kid. Why would he?

Navi didn't mind being alone either. Mainly because she never rightly felt like she was. Natsu and Happy were more than enough to fill any void of not having siblings because, even though they'd matured a bit, they still loved to annoy the hell out of Lucy and, well, the best way to do that was to let what little immaturity they still had to fly as free as it wanted. Factor in that with the previously mentioned Locke and Haven and, well, Navi had no room to deal with siblings. Haven had a younger sister and, from the looks of it, it didn't serve her very well.

There were a few other people, of course, who were also staples in Navi's early life. The biggest one was Wendy, who was practically grown by the time Navi was born, and enjoyed babysitting for her friends as much as she could. Happy usually would stay behind in those times and bug the heck out of poor Carla, but what could be done?

After her was, obviously, Erza who frequently found herself as the back up babysitter. Which she took with much pride because, for the longest time for her as well, Navi was the only child that she really spent any time with. Nearly ten years would pass before she found herself as the (technical) guardian of two young boys and, well, she rather loved the time she did get to spend with the little girl. Navi, as she grew older (and perhaps due to picking up on her parents similar responses to the swordswoman) was rather reserved around her which Erza, in her twisted modesty took as a sign of respect and would frequently brag up Navi's behavior to others as being a well balanced, if not perfect, child.

Which got Navi subject to some amount of resentment from the boys, Ravan and Kai, that Erza took in, but it came with the territory.

The last person, and perhaps the most distant of her parents friends, was Gray. For obvious reasons, Navi's birth affected him (when he was actually in league with her parents and not having a falling out with Natsu, which was just as frequent as it was not) and he assumed some sort of role in her life. Kinda like an awkward bachelor uncle and kinda just like a weird friend of the family that sometimes was really cool and other times was just there. Due to his frequent bouts of arguing with Natsu and nearly directly related nudity that could rear it's head at any time, he was very rarely the young girls keeper and mostly just someone that bought her back trinkets from quests sometimes and would pat her on the head when she learned a new spell.

Shockingly enough, however, it was him, Gray, that found his life changing the most as her status of an only child was revoked in turn for gaining two twin brothers. Now Gray was never big on babies and, honestly, kinda avoided being around Navi those first few months (if not years) for fear of dropping/freezing/scaring/or horribly maiming her. As more of his friends had kids, it sorta became a phobia of his. It wasn't like he had the best childhood, after all, and had no desire to muck anyone else's up.

But there was something different about Natsu and Lucy's new babies. Not just that the pair had had them when they were a bit older, more stable, and (if only a teensy amount) wiser, but rather that there was quite obviously two of them. Which led to a lot of things, a big one being they had to move out of their apartment which was a nice expense in itself. Then came on the duty of buying baby stuff once more (they'd long sold off Navi's or given it away), twice as much then when they realized there were two babies, and somehow managing taking new jobs to cover all of it.

That fell squarely on Natsu's shoulders who was more than stoked by the idea. Navi had, in small ways, already begun to help him out on jobs and that just meant that, with Lucy dealing with her pregnancy, the girl had to go somewhere which just so happened to be with her father and favorite Exceed. It was awesome.

For awhile.

But the babies never stopped costing jewels and it was very clear not soon after their birth that Lucy was going to have to start pulling in some jobs as well, if not some separate from her husband. The life of a mage wasn't easy, after all. And though there were tons of people willing to babysit back when they had Navi, the thought of taking care of two babies at once was not enjoyable for anyone (other than Mirajane, but they asked her so much and she always accepted that eventually, even Natsu and Happy started to feel bad).

This was quickly remedied by dividing the twins up. Jude was the least fussy of the twins for the most part and Wendy usually took care of him for them when she wasn't out on a job. Then, when Mirajane was busy (or they felt she was being over used), Lisanna was pretty good at watching over Iggy. She had a son who was a couple of years older and had recently gone through all the things they were (sliced in half anyways). She still had all of her son Ajax's baby things which also helped a lot.

Things were kinda comfortable in that way for awhile. Wendy (or sometimes Erza) would take care of Jude, who was frequently called Lucky early on as, though it had been Natsu to decide that they would name both the boys after their fathers, to be fair, Lucy never rightly liked the idea. As not to give him any less importance than his twin though, she went along with it, though a nickname was quickly devised and that one stuck out of all the others. His brother, Iggy, was taken care of mostly by the Strauss sisters when Natsu or Lucy needed them, which also worked well in the fact that Navi was friends with, of course, Haven who was not only Laxus' daughter, but also Mirajane's.

And it wasn't like Natsu and Lucy were gone all the time. Honest, it wasn't like that at all. They spent much time with both their boys (and Navi and Happy), as much as one could. And they were always quite generous towards Wendy, Erza, and the Strausses or anyone else who helped them out with babysitting. They knew it was a lot to ask and were happy for any help they got. Levy was also a frequent sitter as well as many of their other guild friends.

It was probably around the twin's first birthday when it happened though.

Lucky was sick.

Which wasn't that big of a deal. Lucy just needed a sitter for Iggy so she could run Lucky up to the doctor to get checked out. The problem was, however, that Natsu was gone off with Happy on a job, Lisanna was gone off on one of her own with Elfman, and Mira was stuck watching not only her nephew Ajax who's father Bickslow was out as well with the Thunder Legion, but also her daughter Haven, younger daughter Marin, and Locke because Levy and Gajeel were both out of town and, though the boy frequently complained that he was more than capable of watching himself (his father griped about the same thing), he still got shipped off with the Dreyars. To add to that, Mirajane just couldn't say no and, when Erza mentioned to her the day before that Jellal, who literally was never in town and she hadn't seen in quite some time, was passing through a close town and had written to her that he wished to meet up, it was only overkill for Mira to accept Ravan and Kai, the two little boys she'd taken in, as well. Because why not?

No, seriously, her husband, Laxus, wanted to know why not? As in why not say hell no?

But that was another story that Lucy just didn't have time to get into that morning. She was home alone with Navi and the boys and just needed someone to watch Iggy for her for a few hours. So, with the instruction of who to avoid at the hall (mostly just Mirajane as all the other unavailable ones wouldn't be there), Lucy sent Navi off to bring someone back to the apartment to help.

Only when Navi arrived at the hall and saw that all her friends were there and apparently spending the next few nights at the very pissed off Master Laxus' house, she didn't have time to poll all her mother's friends and find a suitable sitter. If she'd even taken the time to go downstairs and find Wendy, who would have happily abandoned playing billiards with Romeo and Carla to help out, she wouldn't have screwed up Gray's day.

"Hi, Gray," she greeted him as she approached the table at which he was seated alone, drinking, though her eyes were enviously staring over at where Locke had Ravan in a headlock and Haven taunted Marin and Kai with something as Ajax mostly just sat around and whined. She wanted to have fun too! She had to get finished with what her mother wanted and fast.

"Hey," was the only response she got as Gray himself had just gotten home from a rather grueling solo job and was not in the mood for whatever trick stupid Natsu had put the poor girl up to.

Finally glancing at him, she said, "My dad and Happy went out on a job and my mom's all alone at the house and she needs help with the babies. She said to get someone super quick. It's real important. Can you-"

"What's wrong?" Gray was asking, though he was already stumbling to his feet, nearly tripping over his pants, which he had to pick up anyhow to get his wallet. He'd had more than a few beers and his processing skills weren't great at the moment. That factored in with the way Navi was phrasing things, all quick and to the point, wasn't helping anything. So, without waiting for an answer, he only quickly tossed some jewels on the table for Mirajane (who would later see Ravan steal them and that would, yet again, be a whole other story) before grabbing the little girl's hand and rushing with her out of the hall and to his (occasional) mortal enemies apartment.

When they arrived, it was with him quickly throwing open the front door, scarring poor Lucy, who was walking around the living room on the other side, trying to calm the inconsolable Lucky. Realizing who it was, she was even more shocked.

"Gray?" she asked slowly before glancing down at her daughter. "Navi, was there no one else there to-"

"Nope," she lied. She was rare to do so, but hey; there was basically a party with all her friends going on back down at the hall and she was missing out. Desperate times call for desperate measures and all. "There wasn't."

"What's going on?" Gray asked as he headed over to Lucy, staring down at the whining child. "Is he okay? What-"

"What is it that Navi told you?" Lucy asked with a frown. "Lucky just has a doctor's appointment and I needed someone to watch Iggy. I-"

"What?" Then Gray was glaring over at the girl. "Navi-"

"You said to get someone," she pointed out. "And not to get Mrs. Mirajane and the first person I saw was Gray."

"So you're not, like, in trouble or anything?" the ice mage asked slowly. "Or the twins? They're not dying?"

"No," Lucy said, rolling her brown eyes. "They're not. And Gray, I'm super sorry, but… I really do need to get going. Do you think you could-"

"Lucy, you know that babies and me aren't, er, well…" He scratched at the back of his head then. "Compatible, I guess? I mean-"

"Gray, please?" And she was staring so hard at him then. "I'll pay you."

"Luce-"

"No, honestly, I will. How much?"

"I'm not going to take your money," he told her. "I just can't-"

"Navi will be here," Lucy told him then. "And she knows how to change diapers, if that's what you're worried about. And she can help you make a bottle if Iggy needs one. And she can-"

"You're really desperate, aren't you?"

She nodded down at the baby in her arms. "I've tried Lyra, reading to him, singing to him myself, nothing works. His throat is killing him, I think, and I'm afraid he'll get his brother sick or Navi and-"

"Go," the man groaned then, dropping his arms. "Just no unnecessary stops on the way back, huh?"

"Of course not. And thanks so much, Gray. Really."

It took her a bit to get out the door, but once she was, Gray only glanced down the hall leading to the bedrooms, where the baby was no doubt in he and his brother's, snoozing in his crib, before back at Navi.

"Now what?" he asked her softly, hoping that, maybe, if he played it just right, the kid would either do all the work for him or her baby brother would just stay asleep the whole time. "Navi?"

"You can just sit down," she said, moving to grab his hand and drag him over to the couch. "Until Iggy wakes up."

"Alright." Gray was rather at ease with that part. Though he and Natsu could be quite quarrel some, he was rather close to Lucy for the most part and had been over to their new apartment many times. Not to mention he'd helped them move in there. That portion of things, sitting around, was nothing new. "I can do this. I can watch a baby. Well, me and you can watch a baby, I mean."

And there it was. Navi's chance.

"Well, actually," she said slowly, staring up at him with her big eyes and her pink pigtails that was just so very cute. She knew her game and played it well. Too cute for him to say no to. Bet. "Gray, when we were up at the hall, I saw all of my friends, honestly, all of them, there and they're going to spend the night at Master Laxus' house and-"

"Navi," he warned. "You can't-"

"I don't wanna spend the night," she was quick to say. Yet. She would. When Haven forced her to. "I just wanna go up to the guild and play with them for a bit."

"You said htat you'd help me here. You said-"

"I didn't say," she reminded. "Mom said that."

"Navi-"

"Please, Gray?" She even batted them then, her eyes, at him. "I really wanna go. I don't wanna miss out-"

Growling then, he rubbed at his own eyes, just to stop from having to look at her.

"Fine," he grumbled. "You brat. You can go. For one hour. But you better come back here and- Navi, I'm not even done talking!"

Well, she was done listening. And, with care not to head the same way that she figured her mother would for the doctor's office, she sett back out for the bar as fast as she could, not wishing to miss out on anymore than she already had.

Then there was one. Err, well, two, Gray was quickly reminded as he glanced once more at the hall. Still, there was a slight hope that the boy would just stay calm and quiet the whole time. He didn't have to necessarily sleep forever, but if he would just refrain from crying (or pooping, peeing, need to be fed, or needing any attention at all) then things would be fine.

That, of course, wasn't the case. Not ten minutes after his (un)faithful helper took off, Gray was faced with the horrible task of not only dealing with the then crying Iggy, but also changing the little bugger's diaper.

The act alone made him gag. Him. The guy who could face the gnarliest of foes. It was that bad.

Why did people keep having kids? They seemed horrible. And yeah, the world would eventually cease without them, but that was so far off, that Gray figured they could probably chill on the baby factories for a bit. Everyone.

Apparently, though the overwhelming smell of the poop had been what tipped Gray off in what first upset the whining baby, that wasn't his only problem. Even with a new one all snug on his bum, Iggy refused to quit his wailing.

Which, okay, Gray could deal with that. Honest, he could. You just had to rock a baby back to sleep, right? He'd pick him back up and rock him. Yeah. Yeah. He could do that.

Only it didn't help. At all. Iggy kept whining regardless of the attention the man showered on him. Finally, Gray figured that there was something that he must want.

"Lucy said something about Navi making bottles," he told the boy as he carried him out of the room and to the kitchen. "But I have no idea how to make one of those. I know from a fact though from Wendy that you boys can eat some solids now. She said something about how you guys eat fruit or something."

Heading over to the fridge, Gray shifted the baby to one arm before opening it. He saw grapes sitting there, but figured that was out, and there was fish, which he thought maybe he'd heard about giving a baby, but wasn't sure and wasn't risking it. Then he spotted a little container of some sort of mushed up stuff that, upon closer inspection, looked like carrots or something.

"Ah-ha. Not the best thing in the world, but then again, I don't have to eat it."

Iggy sure did. And, looking around the kitchen, Gray had a choice between two highchairs to dump the baby in and, without knowing which belonged to who, he just dumped him in the blue colored one and went on with his day.

"Wonder if I should heat it up?" Gray mumbled before glancing at Iggy who was not comforted in the slightest by his highchair. "Err...you're whinin' so much and I don't think that it matters much. Here. Do I have to feed it to you or… Well, you don't seem to be very helpful, kid."

He searched the drawers for a spoon and, luckily, found a rubber one that he figured was for the babies anyways. No wonder Lucy and fire breath were always in need of jobs; babies even needed their own spoons? Man. He was never more glad that he didn't have one of those brats running around. And not to mention all the junk he saw Navi always running around, asking for. Even though she took her own jobs, he knew still that Natsu and Lucy definitely bought her some stuff.

Still, Gray was at a loss for the point of having children.

Anyhow, he must have chosen the right remedy for Iggy, as just the sight of the spoonful of carrots being waved in his face calmed the baby down enough to open his mouth and eat some of it. Gray was very vigilant with watching the boy chew and making sure he didn't, like, choke or something. That was another one of his huge fears. Basically anything that might result in the kid being injured or killed was petrifying to Gray. Babies just looked so fragile to him. How did Natsu manage not to kill one of them yet? That guy was a walking disaster.

After finishing the carrots, Iggy seemed a bit better, but not tired. He kept babbling at Gray and reaching to be picked up.

"Here," Gray said, holding him out, above his head. He was trying to calculate how long Lucy had been gone and estimating how much time she'd probably waste at the doctor. The twins were so small and it was only one of them. Should be a snap to examine him.

Right?

He sure hoped so. Who took babies to doctor's anyhow? Kids sure had it easy those days.

Heading out of the kitchen once more, Gray took the kid with him to the living room to sit on the couch some. The boy seemed to like to be held then and, using that to his advantage, he sat him in his lap.

"I guess you're not so bad," Gray mused, as the eleven month old reached out with curious hands, grabbing at the silver chain he wore. "I mean, for Natsu's spawn, you're pretty alright."

And he was. When he wasn't in need of a diaper change or was throwing a tantrum. Oh and feeding him hadn't been horrible, but Gray definitely wasn't lining up to do that again. At the moment though, just sitting there, he was kinda...cool. He didn't feel as fragile as Gray feared and even looked kinda sturdy.

With Natsu as a father, it was probably pretty necessary.

"Hey, kid, I heard Erza or whatever talkin' the other day about how you can, well, talk," Gray said, waving a finger in the baby's face. "Or is that your brother? Huh? Can you speak yet?"

Sorta. But he didn't feel up for it then. He much rather wanted to suck on Gray's necklace some which the ice mage was not down for, but at the moment, it was keeping him calm, so he let it go.

He'd just have to wash it off he figured, when the kid finally passed out again.

The only problem was though that Iggy didn't seem to want to go to sleep. He was having a much better time bothering Gray. The man was a bit cold when he cuddled up against him, both figuratively and literally, but it was alright. He'd due. Mainly because, at the moment, Iggy wasn't thinking of his mother. If he realized at any point that she wasn't around and neither was his twin or father, they might have a full-blown tantrum on their hands. Until that point though, he was content with that necklace. Very content.

As the time wore on though, Gray found that he actually sorta liked holding the kid and that talking to him wasn't so bad. Iggy just babbled right back and it was kinda cool, the thought that maybe,if he tried, even he could teach him a new word before his mother showed back up. That was a pipe dream, of course, bu one that came to Gray then, if only for a moment.

It was just going so well. All of it. Until, well, Iggy went and threw up on him.

Which, for the record, was honestly just spit up. Such a small amount that any other person would just wipe it off their shirt and go on with their day. Only, at some point that he couldn't recall, Gray had totally ditched his shirt, possibly even before he got to Lucy's place, and got all that disgusting baby vomit on his chest.

Yeah. It wasn't the best day.

"Ah man, kid," Gray grumbled, quickly getitng up, the child in his outstretched hands. "The hell's wrong with you? You aren't sick too, are you?"

No. Not at all. Just normal spit up. Not that Gray had any idea though. He was already freaking out that it might have been those carrots he fed the baby. What if they were spoiled or something? Then what?

Hn. He should have just left Lucy to figure out her own babysitter situation. Now he had a toxic kid on his hands. Just great.

After dropping the by then whining baby off in his crib, Gray rushed to the bathroom to wash off some before going to do the same for the baby. He felt much better in a new onesie for some reason, which was just as well because it took Gray forever to figure out.

"Are you better now?" he asked Iggy after tossing the dirty onesie in the hamper. "Huh?"

Mostly.

"Better be," Gray grumbled as he lifted Iggy into his arms once more. "I can't deal with more puke. And hey! You leave my necklace alone. Now that you got vomit breath it's off limits."

And that was final.

Still, it took forever for Lucy to show back up and, with very little to do, Gray finally just set the boy in front of some toys in the living room and let him have at it. He only stretched out on the couch, idly watching the boy bang blocks together and make noises. Babysitting was tiring and boring all wrapped into one.

Eventually even Iggy seemed to grow bored and began to yawn. Still worn out from his horrible week long job that had only ended hours before, Gray only let him come lay up on the couch with him and rest.

"It'd kill the flame-tard if he saw me in his house, just hanging out, with his son," Gray snickered as Iggy only yawned tiredly. "Almost wish he'd show up. Wait. No. Never mind. Called my own bluff on that one."

And it wasn't even about one upping Natsu anyhow. He'd done it because he and Lucy were friends. And, honestly, as he sat around for hours, if what he'd just put up with was all there was to it, maybe he could handle babysitting from time to time.

Maybe.

For a few hours.

At most.

And only one kid.

Those were the rules.

That he'd just made up.

For no reason. Other than sheer boredom.

Sigh.

When Lucy arrived back at the apartment, Gray had someone managed to find his shirt (how did it wind up under the sink) and got Iggy to rest in his crib. The other one Lucy was bringing in, Lucky, was sleeping too for once and he followed her into the boys' bedroom, to watch her put him down.

"So everything was fine?" she asked Gray, glancing at him. "With Iggy?"

"Yeah. I mean, he totally vomited, but not much."

"Mmmm." Lucy glanced over at his crib, where he was still resting. "Well, Lucky has a sore throat, so he's going to probably be horrible for the rest of the night. And the doctor said- Hey, where's Navi?"

"Huh?"

"Is she already in bed?" Lucy asked in shocked. It was only six in the evening. "Or-"

"Yeah, she took off after-" Gray started before looking off and finishing, "After I, uh, told her that I had everything under control. I think the other kids are staging a mutiny or something at the hall against Laxus and-"

"I told her to leave Mirajane and Laxus alone. Not-"

"I'm sure one more kid won't kill them." Gray said with a slight grin at his friend. But Lucy was already looking back down at Lucky, watching him settle into his crib. It would be a long night for her, no doubt, with one of the twins sick, so Navi being gone was probably actually a comfort. Not for Master Laxus, but if even his own wife didn't care about that, why should they?

"Hey, did you wanna stay for dinner?" Lucy asked then, as the guy only shook his head.

"I'mma head down to the hall. Drink away the fact that I was puked on."

"Wait, he threw up on you?"

"Not exactly something I wanna keep reliving, but yeah."

She was giggling too, softly, as they left the room, headed then for the front door. "Thanks thoguh for, you know, helping out. I know that you don't like babies, but-"

"It wasn't that bad," he was quick to assure her before, with a slight shrug, saying, "and if you honestly need my help with something, you can always ask. We are friends, after all."

And that was the closest Gray was going to come to it, to admitting that watching the baby had been a new experience that, while it had it's major downs (again, he got puke on him), it wasn't wholly bad. And...he kinda liked it. Recently it felt like he just went on jobs and then came home to the same place he'd had in the male dormitory since he was a kid while everyone else was out with their families. Hell, even Erza sorta had a family (a real loose term for two little boys that had arrived in Magnolia to kill her, but it was more going on than he had).

Sometimes he just felt like his life was rather stationary. Not losing any ground, but the gain was so minimal that it really didn't count, even when compiled together. He could kinda see how, at the very least, having someone to take care of gave the others something to do. A way to feel important.

Eh. Maybe he'd just get a dog. The Exceeds seemed to work so well for the others, after all.

All that dog poop though. And taking it for walks.

On second though, flying solo was good enough. And Lucy and Natsu were always in such need that he could just give up some time with their kids if he was feeling down. No pressure. He'd babysat for many hours and there was no occurrence of dropping/freezing/scaring/or horribly maiming took place. Basically he'd aced the babysitting stuff.

And if Natsu could do it, then he could do it twice as great. That was a just a given.

"Yeah," Lucy was saying, grinning back at him. "We are, huh? Oh and Gray?"

He was almost out the front door then and stopped then to glance back at her. Frowning, he asked, "Need something?"

"No,"s eh said slowly, "but I'm pretty sure you want your shirt, right?"

He blinked. Then frowned glancing down. "I swear I just had it."

Lucy only rolled her eyes, turning to go help him find it. "I'm sure."

I warned you guys that I was in the mood for the Remember Me series, didn't I? Gray's usually a background character in this story (and every one for me), but I figured he could use some sort of role at some point. I got some Gajeel stuff planned for the next one-shot in case anyone was feeling like he'd been ignored for a bit.