To take care of a little child is far more challenging than he ever thought. Especially in the first few months Rogue and himself were facing a hard time. Everytime they left as team on a mission and returned to the guild it looked like some mage had rampaged within the guild hall. Some of the walls showed thin cracks in the solid concrete walls the backside of the hall was made of and even in the ceiling were small cracks to see. When he first asked Rufus who's responsible for this mess at all he couldn't believe the Memory Make Mage's answer. But one day he had witnessed it for himself when their little angel was crying the whole night because she felt feverish.

Small jets of shadow-infused light were coming off her small fists and right there he decided to seek out the scientist his mate had stayed with during his pregnancy with Shirayuki. Even Rogue agreed. Through the Shadow Dragon Slayer was more worried than him about her health. „There is too much magic residing in this little body. I need to drain some off it in order to keep her fever down" was Dr. Kanagawa telling them after he had thoroughly examined the litle girl and he looked quite concerned. „No, there has to be another way" came now from his mate as protective as he was about their little angel and while he looked at the scientist he laid a hand on the Shadow Dragons shoulder.

„If I leave her the way she's now her own magic could kill her" was he now hearing the answer he don't wanted to hear at all and right there he bit strongly on his lips. Once again the words of the old man in front of them came back in his mind. „She'll have some issues due to the magic she inherits of two so skilled mages with still so much unused potential resting inside of them". Yes, had warned them this day would come for them to face but neither of them wanted it to be true. „Rogue" was he now saying, looking right at the Shadow Dragon next to him and with a short nod his mate finally agreed. „Only if I'm allowed to stay at her side during this procedure" was the Shadow Dragon Slayer now ordering the scientist and with a wink of his hand he followed the old man into his room.

*********

Every month they had to go through this procedure and the old man was right. It really helped Shirayuki to adapt to her own magic and stored it in a lacrima he had created from the blood samples of the Twin Dragon Slayers of Sabertooth. The scientist drained only so much magic out of her little body so that she wouldn't be able to harm herself at all. But this had another positiv effect on her. When Shirayuki turned five months old she was so fast after finding out how to crawl and their Exceeds were at the end of the day exhausted while watching her when he had to do all the paperwork stacked up in his Office.

Three months later the little girl figured out on her own how to walk and now she was the challenge to everyone in the whole guild who's turn it was to watch her. He had watched proudly how she made her first steps at all and a radiating smile rested on his lips when two small arms were raised only to be picked up by him. While one of them was off to work for the guild the other one stayed with their little angel and even through he had to do his paperwork, he took his breaks to see how she's doing. Honestly it also filled him with warmth to watch his comrades volunteerly take care of Shirayuki. Thanks to her even more new recruts showed up to be signed up at Sabertooth.

Yukino and Minerva adored her a lot. Everytime the two of them went shopping for the entire guild they took the little girl plus the two Exceeds with them. Even the Lightning God Slayer showed his hidden soft side when he was in charge of babysitting Shirayuki. Yes, this guild had finally transformed into a place to be called home at last. Years ago it would have been impossible to be in a relationship with Rogue. He don't wanted to imagine what would have happened if Jienma had found about their little angel and them being mates. Maybe he would have crushed them and kept the little girl only to raise into a tool of hatred. Still, even as they had finally admitted their relationship towards their comrades Shirayukis heritage was only truly known by them. It was not that they had any trust issues, for both of them it would have been complicated to explain at all how the Shadow Dragon Slayer had ended up becoming pregnant at all.

„O-too-san" was her first word she spoke shortly before reaching her first birthday when he sat in the hall next to Rufus discussing some financial reports the Memory Make Mage willingly looked over. His whole face was beaming as she was running right to him calling out to him and at this moment he wished Rogue had been there to achieve this next step. The Shadow Dragon Slayer was currently on a high difficult mission with their Lady so it would take a while for him to return to his family. But there was something he'd noticed about Shirayuki since she was so small. If only one of them stayed with her she was restless. She even refused to fall asleep until she was able to sense both of their presence surrounding her. In a way it made him proud to think of them five being a real family. An odd one for sure but still a family.