Crawling and Creeping

In all the months that he'd officially had a baby sister, Pike had never been more excited than he was the morning that she just up and started crawling across the floor.

It wasn't pretty. Wasn't clean. Was a purely amateur attempt at it. But heck, it was her moving right across the floor and, well, that was exhilarating. There he was, just happily making his action figures attack one another as she laid around and mostly did nothing and then, bam! She was doing something.

She was crawling.

"Mommy, look!" Pike called over to the couch where his mother was trying hard not to fall asleep (she was home along with the kids, after all), but was failing miserably. Mirajane didn't even open her eyes.

"That's great, baby," she sighed. "You're so good at...whatever you're-"

"No, look! Ivy's crawlin'!"

"What?" That got her up with a groggy yawn. Working back to back full days at the hall and then dealing with children was hard. She never thought such a thing would be so hard. "Oh. Oh! Ivory, look at you!"

But she was done then, just sitting there, on the other side of the living room, looking around. Pike rushed over to pat her on the head and she stared up at him with interest, but had no idea what his big grin and loud voice was for.

Pike was so emotional.

Mirajane was moving then, to walk over to them, but stopped half way and began calling her name. "Ivory. Come here, baby. Can you crawl to me?"

Nope. She was done for the day. Exerted. Pushed beyond her limits.

"What are you yelling about?"

And then Nate was coming into the room too, Ivory's biggest brother, and she only stared at him at the sound of his voice before whining. She really liked Nate! She wanted him to come pick her up.

Instead she got Mommy, which was just as good.

"Ivory," she sang, rejuvenated just a bit, "just learned to crawl, Nate. Isn't that exciting?"

"I saw it first!" Pike yelled loudly, before his mother or brother tried to claim the fact. He'd been the one that saw her do it. Not them. Him. "Huh, Ivy?"

She, much to Pike's dismay, only snuggled up to their mother and gave no sign of suddenly learning to talk so she'd be able to explain her clear favoritism of him.

Err, was, it was clear to Pike, at least.

"You're getting so big, Ivory." Mirajane snuggled her daughter to her as her sons only stared up at the baby. "You know that?"

Nope. All she knew was that she wanted back to down. It was getting close to lunch too. Oh, and she wanted Nate to carry her around a bit, until she got sleepy. You know, for nap time.

Ivory, for some reason, refused to crawl again after that for a bit. Not when Gramps tried to coax her into it or when the big, bad, slobbery dog was bothering her and she just wanted to get away. And definitely not when either of her brothers begged her to do so, enticing her with toys and cookies.

She would just sit or lay there, watching with her usual amount of disinterest.

That is, until Daddy came back home.

He'd been gone on a super long job that he and Mommy had fought over before he'd left. Before that, they'd fought over the money that they didn't have. And before that, they'd fought over the job he'd took before. It was a never-ending cycle. Either Laxus was gone too much or not taking jobs enough.

Really, honestly, Mommy was probably just tired. Ivory was rather cranky and whiny and then the boys, while not monsters by any account, were still boys who needed attention and parenting and then there was the hall and Master Makarov who was living with them and oh, the dog. The dang dog had to be walked. Can't forget that.

It was just a lot to balance.

Anyway, that day, when Daddy came home, it was with dinner, which Nathan and Mace, who was spending the night, both took off his hands. Err, rather, they snatched the sacks of food from his hands and rushed off to the kitchen with them, where Mira was cleaning up.

"Hi, Daddy!" And Pike was in the living room still, with Gramps and Ivory, and came over immediately to hug his father. Laxus only patted him on the head and asked him the standard questions that one would do when they've been gone for a week.

Still, the standard questions just took far too long for Ivory, who set off from her blanket and tried to get across the living room to her father.

Only he didn't let her. Rather, the second he saw her crawling, he completely ditched out on poor Pike, who was explaining how well he'd behaved, and went to go snatch her up.

"Look at you!" And he held her above his head as Makarov, who'd actually been napping in the living room recliner, was startled awake by his loud voice. "You're crawling!"

"She does that now!" Pike rushed over too. "I saw her do it first!"

"Lax, are you okay?" Mira called from the kitchen at the sound of his raised voice.

"Of course I'm okay." He lowered Ivory down so that he could gently nuzzle his head against hers. "My baby learned to crawl."

Nate and Mace, both with pieces of fried the fried chicken Laxus had brought home in hand, came back to stare. The elder of the two, Nathan, only nodded.

"I pretty much taught her," he said. "I-"

"No!" Pike wasn't having any of that. Not that day, not any day. "She did it when I was there! I saw! Not you! I-"

"But I taught her." Nate paused to take a bite of chicken. Then, mouth full, added, "Stupid."

"I'm not stupid!"

"Knock it off," Laxus growled at them as Mace, feeling a fight brewing, headed right back into the kitchen. His cousins were teetering towards being sent to their room without dinner (until, of course, Mirajane snuck them dinner and Gramps, not realizing this, tried to sneak them some as well) and he was gonna fill up on food before that happened (waiting for Aunt Mira and Gramps could take forever). "Both of you. Don't you see that I'm trying to enjoy my baby here? What's the matter what you guys? Huh? Just be happy that your sister's getting older and smarter and wiser and stop fighting so damn much."

"Laxus!" And then Mirajane was coming in there. "Don't you curse at-"

"Don't yell at me." He only walked off, taking Ivory with him. First though, he stopped to drop his duffel bag on the ground. "I'm gonna go shower. And Ivory's gonna go sit in her crib and wait on me. So go eat dinner, boys. Before Mace eats it all."

Pike and Nate blinked, staring at one another before looking around. He was right; Mace wasn't there.

That little sneaker.

As they went to rush off and Gramps went to supervise, Laxus headed off with Ivory and Mirajane, after picking up his duffel bag, went to go wash whatever it was in there that smelled like death.

When they saw one another again, Laxus was just coming out of his shower and going to snatch Ivory up form her crib while Mirajane only walked into the room with a frown.

"Your clothes all stunk."

"I sweat a lot." He was only wearing jeans then and went to fall into bed, Ivory snuggled right up on his chest. She patted at his scarred eye with interest. "Is that a crime?"

"Laxus-"

"Why don't you go eat?" He wasn't even looking at her. Just staring at Ivory who was mostly busy with his tattoo then. "Mirajane? Aren't you hungry? I was trying to be helpful, you know, bringing dinner."

"And you were." She came to stand at the side of the bed. "But now I need her."

"What? No. We're bonding."

"No," she sang as she moved to take the child from him. "You're keeping her from her dinner."

"Mira-"

"She needs to eat and then get ready for bed." She gave him a look. "She can't diverge from her schedule."

He only growled, turning into his pillow. "I'm going to sleep then. Tell the boys if they wake me up, they'll be in for a world of hurt."

"Oh, yeah, okay." Mira even made a face at him. "I'm sure they'll be fearful."

He didn't say any and she left the room and that was that.

Until about twenty minutes later when he was awakened to the loud talking of Pike, who, for some reason, was sitting in bed with him and reading loudly.

"Pike," he groaned against his pillow, not rolling over. "What are you doin', little buddy?"

"I'm reading to Ivy."

Rolling onto his side, Laxus found that Mirajane had been kind enough (or was she attempting to be vindictive) to set Ivory in bed with him for a bit. Pike, ever faithful to his own habits, had come to read her one of his standard bedtime stories.

"Why did Mommy put Ivory in here, buddy?"

Pike huffed, just a bit, annoyed that his story was being interrupted. "Because she said that you wanted her. And me. Don't you?"

"Of course, buddy." Laxus yawned a bit. "Of course."

Pike went through the entire story as Ivory just laid there, in the middle of the bed, seeming to listen, maybe, but at the same time, maybe not. That was probably the best thing about their little sister to both Nathan and Pike; they had no idea what she was thinking and, therefore, they could just interject whatever they wanted her to onto her.

It was perfect, actually.

When Pike finished up, he only gave Ivory a kiss on the head and told her that he loved her before rushing off to go do whatever else it is that he did before bed. Laxus only laid there, watching Ivory, who was happily grasping at her feet, and started to drift off himself.

Then it happened.

"Hey now," he complained to the baby as she just rolled over and tried to crawl right off the bed. "That's not allowed, Ivory."

Uh, yeah it was. Now that she'd gotten the hang of this crawling thing (only partly; she could probably only get a little bit away from something; she still hadn't grasped that it wasn't just dragging her little legs across the ground and that they could actually help her), she could do whatever she wanted! He couldn't stop her!

Until he did. By reaching over and grabbing her.

Daddy was such a sneaker.

"You come here," he yawned as he snuggled her up to him. He knew he'd have to put her in her crib soon; it wasn't safe to sleep in bed with her, after all. "Ivory."

She whined a bit, annoyed that he was ruining her good time, but eventually gave in and gave out. When she fell asleep, he only went to go gently set her in her crib in the corner of the room and pass out himself for a while.

A short while, as it turned out, as Mirajane came to bed two hours later and somehow managed to awaken him between tending to the then fussy Ivory and going into the adjoining bathroom to get ready for bed herself.

When she laid down next to him, he only opened his eyes slowly to stare across the bed at her.

"Hey."

Mira had her back to him and didn't glance over. "Hey."

"I missed you."

"Mmmm."

"You miss me?"

"Mmmhmm."

"That's good. That we both miss each other."

"Mmmm."

"And-"

"Laxus, go to sleep," she whispered tiredly. "So that I can. Please."

"I just wanna talk to you. I haven't seen you in-"

"We can talk in the morning." She groaned too, shifting in bed to bury her head in her pillow. "I'm tired, Laxus."

"Me too."

"Then-"

"But we fought, before we left and we haven't had a chance to...to..."

"Make up?"

"Well, yeah."

She took a deep breath before slowly rolling onto her other side to stare at him. "Laxus, we're not kids. We don't have to make up. Things have just been...really tense recently. That's fine. We're married. That's-"

"I don't wanna be married like that though," he told her simply. "And up until this point, we haven't been. So just let me apologize-"

"For what?"

"I don't know! Taking a job."

"You can't apologize for that."

"It's what upset you."

"It is not."

"Mira-"

"We're not fighting, Laxus." She shut her eyes then. "So why are you picking at this?"

"I just..."

"Did you do something? Out on your job?"

"What? No. Mira-"

"I didn't do anything when you were gone."

"Of course you didn't. I know that."

"Then what-"

He only let out a long breath before saying, "It's just been different, recently. I know you're still pissed about the gym stuff I bought for the basement and that we're not doing so good, you know, financially or whatever and… I just want to take bigger jobs, the biggest ones there are, so that we have more money, but you're at home and you've been, you know, feeling bad recently about...whatever and I can't fix everything, Mira. I want to, but-"

"Hush."

"No, I-"

"Laxus." And her eyes were open once more, staring at him in the darkness. "Hush. You're going to wake Ivory."

For a moment, they both laid there then, together, in the silence.

Eventually, Laxus spoke.

"I just wish that I could, you know, provide adequately. Without worrying every other month."

Mira sighed before saying, "I wanted another baby, Laxus. And a house. And the second baby. And it was me that wanted Makarov to move in and it was me that brought the dog into the relationship. That wanted you to keep the first baby and start a life with us. All you ever wanted and got was some damn workout equipment. I think that, when it's laid out the way I just did, you're not the reason we have jewel problems. I am."

Laxus laid there, considered this, before saying, "Everything you wanted, Mira, was for our family. You wanted our family. So no, it's your fault. I would live in a fucking shack with you, the boys, Gramps, and Ivory if I had to. Just to have all of you. I-"

"And the dog?"

He knew then, that he'd said something right, that she'd say something like that, and only sighed before saying, "I'd buy him a doghouse to go next to the shack."

She didn't snuggle up to him or giggle, but did settle back into her pillow before saying, "We'll get everything situated soon enough, Lax. Things will settle down again and we'll find a new normal."

"Yeah," Laxus fell onto his back then, staring up at the ceiling. Letting out a slow breath, he whispered, "I know." Then, with a grin, he added, "And are we not going to mention that Ivory can-"

"The shock wore off for me the first time she did it." Still though, Mirajane added, just for him, "But I think that we just practice. You know, so she'd be able to perfect it by the time you came home."

"Yeah, she pretty much thinks I'm the best thing ever, you know." He rubbed his knuckles against his chest. "All my kids do."

Mira only hummed.

"Two of my kids do."

More humming.

Then growling.

"Pike thinks I'm plenty great, Mira."

"Sure. But better than me? Or Makarov? I don't think so."

It was his turn to give her his back. Staring over at the wall, he only said, "Go to sleep, Mira. I'm sure you have work in the morning."

He was right, of course, and with a sigh, she whispered, "I'll see you in the morning, dragon."

"Yeah." He suppressed a yawn. "The morning."

I know there's been a lot of one-shots revolving around this series and no story, but believe me, it's leading up to one really soon. This is all just some filler to set the stage for it, is all. Plus I want to finish, hopefully, either Closure or Accidents and Incidents before I start a new one.

Wo is de kse-girl drew this picture too. It was originally supposed to be Mace, but he has brown hair, and I kinda liked it anyways, for Pike. She also just posted a new story called The untold stories of the fairies, and it's about Ivan, so you should check it out if you wanna.