Beach Retreat
Chapter 1
"You're a baby, Pike. That's how come you have to sit in Mommy's lap."
"Nate," Mira sighed. "Leave your brother alone."
It was true enough. Pike, at all of three years old, was being a baby. Nate was sure even he would have to admit that. The thing was though that Pike just didn't like change. Or being new places. And, as it was, he was going to a very new place.
They were riding a train which, usually wasn't that big of deal. They'd just go to another town to have lunch or shopping or something and be back home before nightfall. That wasn't the case that day as they'd taken not only luggage with them, but also all his aunts and uncles. Ever and Elfman and Lisanna and Bickslow. Even Freed was somewhere on the train.
Not sitting with them though. They were off in other parts of the train. He could see Elfman and Evergreen, only a few rows over, but Bickslow and Lisanna were nowhere to be found. He saw them and Freed board though.
Oh. And his cousin Mace was with them. He was sitting with them. Across from him, in fact, with his brother Nate. Pike was sitting in his mother's lap, snuggled up to her. Another huge cause of his anxiety was probably his father, who was next to him, white knuckled and looking queasy. He was never good at riding on the train, but the one they were on that day seemed to be rather long and watching the man was not putting Pike at ease.
At all.
Then, of course, there was the fact that he didn't know where his poor doggy was. They'd taken him with them, but when they got there, they had to put him in a cage which, for the record, the dog had not liked. Pike and Nate hadn't liked it much either. Or Mace. It wasn't fair. Their doggy was just as much a part as the family as any of them. How could they shove him in a crate and just forget about him?
Huh?
Pretty easily for Nate.
Err, rather, Laxus had explained to the boy that there was nothing they could do, it was protocol, and yes, fine, Natsu's stupid cat got to ride on the train, but what could Laxus do? Their dog didn't talk. He was just an animal.
Which Pike didn't like. Though Nate seemed to find a difference between Carla, Happy, and Lily from their doggy, he did not see one at all. So what? They had wings and possessed human characteristics. What difference did it make? Their doggy was their best friend! How could they ditch him?
"It's true," Nathan argued with Mira. "He's being a baby. And it's not-"
"Nathan," Laxus growled though he didn't open his eyes or move from his slouched position. "Leave your brother alone. And don't argue with your- Oh jeez."
Nathan and Mace both snickered as the slayer shifted, moaning loudly. Mirajane though just reached over with the hand that wasn't snuggling Pike to rub the man's arm.
"You okay, dragon?"
Grunt.
"I know you wanted to use your Lightning Body, but it was just too long a distance. I didn't want you to get stuck somewhere or use up all your magic or-"
"Demon," he groaned. "Just shut up."
"You're not nice," Nathan complained from his seat across from them. "Don't be mean."
"Nate, just let him be," Mira hummed as Pike nuzzled his head against her chest. "We'll only be on this train for a bit longer. Then you boys will get to see just how great this vacation will be."
Pike wasn't so sure. They'd never gone on such a big trip before with everyone. And though Mira kept insisting it was a vacation, he was concerned that they'd packed so much. Not to mention the last straggler that had come along.
"You don't look too well, boy," Makarov remarked as he happened to pass the aisle then, coming from the bathroom no doubt. "Don't tell me you need me to sit here and hold your hand?"
"Screw off, Gramps," Laxus growled though Nate, Mace, and Pike all wanted the man to come sit with them. He could probably fit between the older two boys, on their side of things, but with a snicker and a look from Mirajane, the elderly man went on.
He was just lucky that he was allowed to come with them on the vacation, really. Laxus had been stark against it at first, but somehow, he'd weaseled his way in. It wasn't every day that the old man got a free trip down to a beach house to spend some great time with his great-grandsons.
Not to mention all those bikini-clad women…
Hehehe.
After the man walked off, Pike whine some more before closing his eyes and praying for sleep. That's all he wanted then. To go to sleep. And he did.
The next time he awoke it was to Mirajane setting him down.
"Can you walk?" he heard her ask as his eyes, still heavy with sleep, struggled to open. "Mommy's gotta carry something else."
When he forced his eyelids opened finally he found that they were no longer on the train. Instead, they were at the station everyone gathered around then. He could hear Bickslow snickering loudly and teasing Aunt Ever as she hissed in return though most of her words were directed at Elfman as she complained about having to carry one of her bags.
There was a far more important noise though that took the three-year-old's attention.
"Hi!" He was animated then as he ran the short distance from Mirajane (she had her arms full of luggage and wasn't able to grab him) and over to where his father was, their prized dog with him. On a leash though which he knew the doggy hated, but what could be done? "Hi!"
"Pike," Laxus grumbled. "You don't run from your mother."
Nate was there with him too, petting the dog. He had his little backpack of some of his stuff on his back. Mace did as well. At the sight of his brother, Nate moved to hand off a much smaller backpack that was on the ground next to him.
"Here, Pike," he said. "You gotta carry your own stuff. Else you get a spankin'."
"What?" Mira was over there then and glared at Laxus. "Did you tell them that?"
"I… Demon, shush. We gotta go. Is everyone- Damn it, Bickslow. Leave Ever alone and get your shit. We're leaving."
"Watch your mouth, dragon," Mira said, giving him a look before looking down at the boys. To Pike, she said, "Mommy has to help carry stuff. Can you carry your little bag, baby? And hold onto Master's hand?"
Huh! Gramps! How had he forgot about the man? When he took to looking around he found him standing with Lisanna and rushed over to him to do just that. Daddy seemed like he was taking care of the doggy, after all.
"Hello, boy," Makarov greeted as the little boy slipped a hand into his. "You have a good rest?"
Meh. He'd had better. Not to mention, though he'd gotten a boost from seeing his doggy, he was starting wind back down. He was sleepy.
After explaining this to Gramps in his broken English, the old man let him ride up on his shoulders to save him from walking so much. Laxus scolded him when he saw it, said that Gramps was too old to carry him around, but Makarov only waved the younger man off.
Pike really liked his grandfather. He was very funny. And it made Nate so jealous to see him on the man's shoulders. It was great.
"Wow," Bickslow remarked when, after walking for what felt like ever, they arrived at the place. "This is great. How do you know this guy again, Ever?"
"Yes," Freed remarked as they all came to a stop in front of the beach home. "What sort of person just offers up such a place like this for free?"
"Someone who owed me a favor," she remarked as she sat what was in her arms down before bounding up the stairs, digging her key out of her pocket to let them in. "That's all."
"Favor, huh?" Lisanna, who was standing with her boyfriend, elbowed him. "What sorta favor would spark something like this? Hmm?"
"That is what I'm wondering."
Elfman frowned at them. "What are you implying?"
"Not that this isn't fun," Laxus grumbled, "but I gotta take a leak."
That was the only thing that the little boys understood and it made them all giggle. Mirajane only frowned at her husband though.
"Behave," she said as, after dropping what she was carrying, she moved to go take Pike off his grandfather's shoulders. "All of you. We have another week and a half together. Don't start fighting now."
Pike was most interested in all the sand that was everywhere. He'd played in sandboxes before, but this was his first time at a beach. On the walk there he'd seen the ocean and, man, it looked so big. And scary. Nerve-wracking.
Not for Nate though. He and Mace were far more concerned with the house as, just from the front of it, it was impressive. It had a huge front deck and looked bigger than either of the boys'. Considering Nate lived in a tiny apartment with his parents, brother, and dog while Mace lived in a tiny home with his father and mother (an old one at that which was previously owned by Mirajane, that had been practically ancient even then), the house was a mansion as far as they were concerned. It even had a second floor!
"Come on then," Ever sighed as she got the door open. "Let's- Hey! Don't you all run me over!"
Laxus was though, gonna run over all of them if he had to. He needed to get to a bathroom and fast.
"He's silly, huh?" Mirajane giggled to Pike who just watched in shock.
In his rush Laxus had dropped the dog's leash and, overjoyed by this, the doggy took to running in right behind all the others.
"Wow!" When he got in there, Nathan ran right through the front room to an open, connecting one. The entire back wall was glass, giving them the perfect view of the ocean beyond. "Look! Mommy!"
"I see," she giggled as he left his face pressed against the glass, Mace rushing to do the same. Ever had to grin too as Elfman got left lugging all the baggage the others had dropped outside into the house.
"So," Bickslow asked as he took to looking around, his wooden babies following Lisanna as she went to look around the place. "What's the room situation?"
"Elf and I get the biggest one," Ever said. "We already talked about that. You all remember that."
Her saying that stemmed mainly from the fact that they all knew if Laxus claimed pre-eminence, they would all give it to him and Mirajane. No matter how old they got, he'd always be the top in the Thunder Legion's hearts.
"Yeah," they heard a grumble from the slayer down the hall where he no doubt was coming out of the bathroom. Mirajane was the one that was forcing him to go along with that. "We know."
"Then you guys get to fight over the other bedrooms," she said. "Remember? Just make sure you leave one for Master."
"What?" Makarov glanced over at her with a frown. "You think that I can't fight for my own place?"
"There's a bedroom next to that bathroom I just got outta, Gramps," Laxus said as he came back into the room, looking much more relieved. Then again, he kind was. "You can have that bedroom. You said there were four bedrooms right, Ever? Then a den with a pullout couch Bickslow and Lisanna can share-"
"I do not understand," Bickslow growled, "how come me and Lissy automatically get-"
"Because you two are low on to the totem pole," Laxus grumbled. "You think you'd be used to it."
"Yeah, but Freed's only by himself," he argued. "So how come he don't-"
"Because I am me," Freed told him simply with a glare. "And you are you. Surely you have grasped that by now."
"And the boys can sleep in the living room. We bought them sleeping bags," Mirajane finished with a sigh. "Or in bed with their parents."
"I wanna sleep with Bickslow!" Mace was running back to them then, holding his arms above his head as he jumped at the seith.
"Me? You choose me? Huh?" Bickslow caught the five year old easily, lifting the giggling boy into his arms. Lisanna was finished inspecting the downstairs then and came back with the man's dolls who took to circling around him in excitement.
"Can we go to the beach now?" Nate was still in the other room, face muffled as he pressed it against the glass. "Mommy?"
"Not yet, Nate," Laxus answered. "We gotta get settled. Then I'll take you down to the water, huh?"
"And we have to go to the store," Ever said as, when Elfman finally got all the stuff in the house, she just pointed upwards, as if gesturing to the second floor.
"What?" the muscular man asked.
"What do you mean what? Take everyone's stuff upstairs," she said. "Other than Master's. He's down here."
Growling, Elfman said, "I ain't no lackey, woman! I-"
"We can help," his son, Mace, offered as Bickslow dropped him gently on the ground. Helping sounded great. To Nathan too, though that was more because he thought if they hurried things along, he could get to doing what he wanted.
"Store?" Bickslow complained with a frown. "Why do we gotta go to a store?"
"To get groceries, Bicks," Lisanna sighed. "And hey, the den's this way, so let's take our stuff in there, huh?"
"Maybe I don't wanna."
"Bickslow."
"Make me go to the store," he grumbled. "What do I look like? Huh?"
As they headed off down a hall, Mira only looked to Laxus. "Help Elf."
"Help him what?" He'd taken to glaring at the dog who was sniffing around the room, as if daring him to lift a leg. If he did, he'd be kicked right out and have to fend for himself out on the beach.
"Take the bags to the rooms, Lax. I mean it. Go."
"What are you going to do then?"
"Mmmm." She was still holding Pike and only snuggled the boy a bit. "Go pick out a bed for us."
It took a bit to get things all settled. It was decided that the women and Freed would head out to the store with the children to get snacks and food for the next few days. Nate didn't wanna go, but when he heard that Mira and his cousin were, well, it wasn't like he was going to get stuck with stinky Laxus.
Pike wasn't nearly as happy about it. He wanted to take a nap! A real one. And he was so whiny that Mirajane ended up just leaving him behind with the guys so he could get one.
"When we get back," she sighed as she laid him down in the room she and Laxus had picked out, "we're gonna go to the beach though. So rest up, huh?"
After that frightful journey on the train, the dog needed a nap too and easily snuggled up with him in the bed, which, with the other boy gone off with his mother, left Laxus with a free few hours there.
"Too bad," he grumbled to Bickslow as they settled out in the living room, Elfman milling around and the Master locked away in his room, "we don't have any beer yet."
"You can have a smoke if you want," the seith offered as he pulled his pack from his back pocket.
"Don't smoke that in here, nimrod," Laxus grumbled.
"Why not?"
"This ain't our place, yeah? Ever's friend is being nice enough to let us stay here. Don't-"
"You sure have turned into an adult, boss."
"It's called being matured."
"Whatever you want to call being no fun is up to you." Bickslow still lit up. "Besides, look at the coffee table. Cigarette tray right there. Shocked you can't smell it, boss, with your super nose."
"It is dragon senses, you moron."
"Same," he remarked, "thing.
"Is," came the remark, "not."
Blowing his smoke up, Bickslow only asked, "You want one?"
Snort. "I don't smoke girly little cigarettes, dipshit. I smoke like a man."
"You on about those disgusting cigars again?"
"I ain't on about nothin'."
"You sure sound like-"
"Hey!" And Elfman was in there. "Men smoke cigars. Laxus is right!"
"Hell yeah I am," the slayer grumbled. "Not that I needed your help in winnin'."
"Winning?" Bickslow laughed. "We wasn't arguing, boss. See? You turn everything into something. Something that you can go on about."
"I don't go on about things!"
The couch had an L-shape to it and, with Bickslow and Laxus sitting on the horizontal side of it, Elfman sat the other, knowing that they wouldn't want him too near them.
"Anyone checked on Master?" he asked Laxus who only shook his head.
"Says that he has to use the lacrima to get in touch with the guild," Laxus said with a shrug. "He left Erza in charge, you know."
"Yeah," Bickslow mumble. "Was a big driving force behind me wanting to go ahead and come with you guys."
"Then I'm sure he'll lay down for a bit," the man's grandson said with a shrug. "Gramps won't admit it, but he's probably too old to have come all this way. I didn't wanna bring him, but with both me and Mira gone to begin with, well… He just needs to be close to us."
"I," they heard someone say then from another room, "do not. And I resent the accusation."
"Great," Laxus grumbled as he heard his grandfather come into the room. "Today he chooses to put his hearing aid in. Just dandy."
"Dandy?" Bickslow mulled it over. "That's my new go to word."
"It don't sound too manly," Elfman grumbled.
"Sure it does. It's dandy!"
"Stop," Laxus groaned as Makarov, upon entering the living room, just went to take a seat in one of the recliners. "Seriously, don't even start."
"Dandy."
"Bickslow-"
"Dandy," his babies cried as they took to flying around the world. "Dandy."
Ugh. And Laxus thought he'd gotten rid of his annoyances.
They returned, of course, all of them. His sisters-in-law, wife, nephew, and, of course, Nathan.
"Where's Pike?"
"He's nappin'," Laxus said as the boy came to him the second he got back to the house, climbing right up onto the couch to stare at his father. "So you let him sleep until it's time to go down to the beach."
"I wanna go now," Nathan insisted, staring at him. "Please?"
"Soon." He only patted him on the head. "Go help your mother and aunts put stuff away, huh? And have them bring me a beer. Mira! You hear that? Did you buy beer? Have someone bring me one!"
Lisanna, never one for putting groceries away (or laundry for that matter; her and Bickslow's place was just a mess), came into the living room before he'd even finished his sentence, one in hand.
She only went to plop down in Bickslow's lap, handing it off to him. Laxus looked on enviously.
He and Mira had never gotten that. That precious time without brats. Clearly, Bickslow and Lisanna were benefiting from it.
"You don't have to yell, Lax," Mira called back. "Freed's bringing you one."
He'd need more than one, but…it was a start.
"Mommy!" Nate still ran back into the kitchen, nearly running into Freed on the way. "If I wake up Pike, can we go to the beach now?"
"Let us put this stuff up, Nate," she sighed, not even glancing at him. "Then we can. I promise, by the time we go back home, you'll be sick of the beach."
"Not me," he insisted as Mace, who was trying diligently to help put stuff away though he was getting more in the way than anything, giggled. "I wanna stay forever."
Yeah, well, Pike, who'd woken up in the bedroom upstairs to find only the dog and unfamiliar surroundings, sure didn't. His cries were heard easily.
"I got him, demon," Laxus grumbled at the sound. Then he added, "Come on, boys. You guys come and I can get you into your trunks, huh?"
"Okay," Mace giggled, rushing to head up the stairs. Nate though wasn't having it.
"I'm not a baby! I can do it myself!"
"Just come on," Laxus grumbled as he bounded after them.
Sheesh. The first day was only halfway over and already he was counting down the ones until he could go home.
That's what he got for going on that stupid family vacation with the others though. If by vacation they meant hell and family they meant people he couldn't stand other than the demon and his boys (sometimes), then yes. It was turning out to be a splendid one.
"Don't be grumpy, dragon," Mira called after him. "Just because you got motion sick and all embarrassed over it."
"I was not either of those things!"
"Sure."
"I wasn't."
He wasn't. So there.
Oh, and the demon was officially off the list. Just him and his boys.
"Were too," Nate snickered as they met at the top of the stairs.
Pike. Laxus liked Pike. The others were just all detriments anyways.
I'm calling it. This time, when I tell you guys it'll only be five chapters, it seriously will. No way to stretch it. It was originally going to be a one-shot, but with all of them being involved, it would have been turned into a big mess. Better to split it up, I figure.
Also, I've finally actually started writing on Mohawks and Manliness again. I didn't want to start this story until I finished that, but I figure with Dragon's Love being over anyways, it wouldn't hurt.