"Gray-Sama," Juvia was trying to sound as determined as she felt, "Juvia won't lose this time. She can feel it"
She was staring at him head on, waiting for him to reply.
"There's no way, Juvia. I'm going two for three with this one. I'm feeling lucky again." Gray knew he shouldn't taunt his wife like this; but hey, he really was feeling lucky.
They stood in the guild face-to-face, testing each other with their eyes. Neither wanted to speak until everyone had arrived. One of the rare times the guild was dead silent.
At that moment, the guild doors flew open, attracting the attention of everyone in the room.
"I knew I did the math correctly! Juvia is exactly 37 weeks along and I am getting my money this time! You guys didn't start the betting without us, did you?" The sound of the celestial mage's voice brought everyone's excitement to an all time high.
An eruption of different greetings were pouring from the guild members towards the couple that just walked in. Now that the final members arrived, they could begin.
"Would you clowns hurry up? We've been waiting for you all morning. Some of us have lives outside of this ridiculous Fullbuster rivalry. Let's get on with the betting," Cana decided that it was time to end this before people got too antsy.
Then just like that, the guild erupted in noise again. Everyone except for the Fullbusters were flooding the bar with their money in hand, telling Cana what side of the Fullbuster bet they were on. Gray and Juvia were always the last to put their money on the table, even though they voted on the same side every time.
Juvia was the first of the two to approach Cana with her bag of jewel. "This beautiful baby girl will have blue hair, Gray-Sama. Juvia will reclaim her role as the victor."
"You can think that all you wan- OUCH!" Gray was so focused on his snide comments that he failed to notice the fist flying towards his face. Erza didn't seem too pleased about his interruption.
"Keep quiet and let her place her bet! Once she's done that you can talk all the crap you want."
With an exaggerated sigh, he motioned at Juvia to continue what she was saying.
Juvia never broke eye contact with her husband. She made sure her face expressed how much she meant business. "Thank you Erza; you're always so helpful. Anyway, Juvia will make her bet at 500 thousand jewel. She will advise you to match; however, it is up to Gray-sama whether he wants to raise or not. Juvia suggests you play it safe."
Gray was indeed surprised. That was a lot of money. Her confidence made this all the more exciting, he could no longer hide his grin. "Wow, that's pretty steep. I'll match; makes no sense to force you to lose any more money. My daughter will join forces with me and my youngest son." Then, he pulled out his money and smacked it down onto the bar in front of Cana. "Put me down for 500 thousand… Black hair."
With their first child, Silver, the betting was just the aftermath of a simple debate. Gray was certain that his first born would take after him and have jet black hair; however, Juvia felt otherwise.
"Juvia knows this baby already, Gray-sama. She is certain that he will have blue, curly hair. She can feel it."
After that, the entire guild got involved. Not one person left the guild that day before putting money down to make their claim known. The guild was in awe when Storm was born with a full head of curly hair as blue as the ocean. This led to the entire guild betting on Juvia's side when it was time for their second child to come into the world. They decided to keep the sex of the baby a mystery, which just resulted in an entirely new betting pool. Everyone except for Gray and Gajeel bet on them having an adorable bluenette girl.
"You can all vote against me if you want. I'm feeling lucky this time around. We're having a baby boy with hair as black as mine!"
Every single guild member was up in arms when they all lost twice as much money to the two men. Ur was born a healthy boy with an unmistakable patch of raven hair at the top of his hair.
The bet always became a dormant topic until around the time Juvia was due to give birth.
About three weeks later, sitting in the guild with all of her friends and family, Juvia had that all-too familiar feeling run through her body.
"Gray-sama, she'll be here tomorrow. My little bluenette is almost ready." She had said these same words two times before, and she was always wildly accurate with her timing.
"Gihee, sorry Juvia. Black hair is the dominant trait. You just got lucky with your first brat. I'm sticking with the stripper."
"Tch, Gajeel-kun is just biased because all of his children have black hair."
"I had switch sides. No way that snowflake is taking my money again. I'd rather lose my money to you, Juvia." Natsu never wanted to have to hand his money to Gray again. "I don't care how many more kids you have; I'm gonna have to vote black on them all!"
Natsu's comment seemed to make everyone think about how far this betting would really go. Gray wasn't sure they could handle more than three kids. "I'm pretty sure we're done after this. We're gonna need to keep the family ratio in favor of us black heads."
"The world doesn't need anymore black heads! You and metalhead made more than enough," Natsu scoffed.
All the girls at the table sweat dropped at their idiocy. Levy decided to be the one to speak up. "You do realize that blackheads are like pimples? Please don't refer to our children as acne."
"Don't be mad because the black heads are taking over."
"Gray-sama, Juvia is getting tired. How about you take her home now? We have a long day ahead of us, and Juvia thinks you need some rest. You are acting dumber than usual."
Everyone around the table laughed at their timeless banter. Deciding that it was about time to call in a night, they gathered up their children to head home.
"Everybody on their best behavior! Gray and Juvia will be bringing their baby here any minute now and I will have NO ONE putting that baby in danger." Erza stood on top of the bar to make sure she could get a good view of the family over everyone's head.
The whole guild was stalking around the door waiting for the first look at the baby that could potentially cost them handfuls of money. It went the same way every time they were expecting a new baby to enter the guild for the first time; but only the Fullbusters could make everyone so much quieter than usual.
The table closest to the doors was occupied by the Dragneels. It was an unspoken rule that the infant's godparents got that table. Lucy was keeping a close eye on Natsu, making sure he didn't start shooting fire at anyone before they arrived.
"Natsu, are you sure you're okay? You're unusually quiet. You're not itching to fight, are you?" She was speaking lower than usually; it was weird to hear her own voice in there without having to scream at the top of her lungs.
"I don't know, Luce. When Gray talked to us in the hospital the other day, he seemed distant and was pale as hell. I think I'm losing my money again."
When the doors finally opened, everyone's eyes shot up in anticipation. First to come through were their two sons with the biggest grins on their faces. Next was Gray with the most dumbfounded look on his faces, followed by a grinning Juvia.
In Juvia's hands was a baby girl with hair as pale as ice.
Nobody said a word. Nobody moved an inch.
The only people unaffected were the guild kids. Silver and Ur walked towards all of their friends with those grins even wider. A young pink-haired girl looked around at everyone with a confused look on her face, "I think your sister broke the guild." They both just laughed.
"Mom and Dad have been like this since they came home. We've been able to get away with everything. Mika has made our lives easier already," Silver replied.
Lucy was the first adult to speak up having heard Silver and Nashi. "Mika? That's a pretty name. Which one of you chose that?"
Juvia looked a Lucy with the warmest smile, "It is the name of Gray-sama's mother."
Lucy didn't know whether to bring up the fact that the baby's hair did not match either of the mages standing in front of her. But before she could get the chance, Cana spoke up.
"Uhh so how did that happen? You guys grab the wrong kid or something?"
"My mom." It was the first time Gray made any kind of noise since he stepped into the guild. "Her hair looked just like ice."
A relieved breath escaped Gajeel's mouth. "Oh damn, I thought she got with the other ice bastard or something."
And just like that Gray pulled the entire guild into an all-out brawl. Until Erza booming voice stilled everyone.
"WELL WHO GETS THE MONEY?!"
"If you look into the light, her hair looks kind of blue…"
"No way, everyone gets their money back!"
"The color came from Gray. Mine as well appoint him the winner."
Mira waited a little while before she spoke. "Actually, we have a real winner." Even Gray snapped out of his daze to look at Mira.
"WHAT?! Who?"
"Well Wendy actually put in a last-minute bet last week. All she wrote down was ice. What a lucky guess, you won't have to work for almost a year!"
Everyone was so hung up on their lost money that they didn't even see the smug look on Carla's face as she walked with Wendy to claim their prize.
"If you keep making that face everyone will know we cheated, Carla."
"Yeah okay, as if anyone in this guild knows how to follow rules."