Chapter 1: Homecomings
A/N: Originally this was just a happy little oneshot where Natsu gets back and their little family is together and it was all happy fluff. Then it turned into something with a plot…
Gray Fullbuster was sitting at the bar of the guildhall looking grumpier than he actually was.
Natsu had left to deal with some monster in the north, leaving Gray in charge of the guild. In order to keep Fairy Tail wizards from bugging him, he had affected a scowl.
Neither he or Natsu were often away from Fairy Tail these days, sitting around like the old geezers they'd become. Sipping his drink and thinking somewhat jealous thoughts about Natsu being out on an adventure, Gray wondered if it would be worth tackling a longer quest one of these days. There were a few that had been sitting around the last couple years which he could probably polish off in a few months.
Okay, months might be a little too long. He'd probably get back only to have a desperate Salamander tie him to the bed for a week. Not that that sounded unpleasant, but an impatient Natsu tended to leave burns in sensitive places.
Gray made a rumbling sound in his throat: the past six days were feeling too long for him. Maybe when Natsu got back, he'd give the Dragon Slayer a cold-burn for leaving.
"Gray-san," someone called, "they're back."
Gray looked up, letting his scowl slip. Romeo Conbolt stood by the door, arms crossed across his chest and a mischievous look quirking his features.
"Who is?" Gray asked, though he was already walking over.
"Erza and Ikka."
Not who Gray was expecting, but still eagerly awaited.
"They, uh, brought something back," Romeo went on. "It's…big."
He followed Romeo outside and saw immediately what that something was.
"Ikka-chan, there's no way that will fit on your trophy wall," Gray shouted down the street.
The severed head was almost too wide to pass down the street. It rested on a wheeled, stone contraption which bore a decidedly organic look and seemed to be moving of its own accord: one of Ikka's machines.
Ikka herself walked triumphantly beside it. Her jet-black hair was loose and wild like usual. She had taken to wearing all black recently, aside from the scaly white scarf around her neck, and she looked like a manic thundercloud barging up the road. Erza marched in her wake, clad in her usual light armor, trying and failing to hide her merriment at the young girl's glee.
Ikka started running when she saw Gray coming out to meet them.
"So did you succeed in your quest?" Gray asked, feigning perplexity as he caught her in his arms. "It's okay if you failed. We don't have to tell Natsu."
With a huff, Ikka tucked her face into his shoulder. "Nice to see you too, Touchan."
He squeezed her and grinned.
"You got it done in less than a week," Gray said, impressed. "When Natsu went on his first S-class quest, he took quite a bit longer. Don't forget to taunt him about that when he gets back."
"I did have Erza-san's help." Ikka's words were muffled since her face was still pressed into his shoulder. Ikka liked hugs, and despised ending them. The scarf around her neck smelled like Natsu—always smelled like Natsu—and for a minute it felt like their whole family was there.
"Your father had Erza's help too. On quite a few of his quests, actually." Over her head, Gray noticed smears of dark blue trailing down the thoroughfare behind them. "Ikka-chan, you forgot to drain the blood out of your prize."
"Oh…oops." His daughter looked up at him sheepishly. In that moment, she looked exactly like the Salamander.
"This is your fault, Erza," Gray said, tucking Ikka against his side and turning to the older woman. "The mayor will be pissed. Again."
"Since when do you care what people think?" the mage shot back.
"Since that Dragon Slayer saddled me with responsibility. Though still, a fair point."
Erza chuckled. "Speaking of, I see you're wearing pants. Your reptile must still be out on his job."
"Thankfully—I mean, sadly." Gray couldn't help grinning.
Erza laughed and Ikka hit his chest in mock outrage.
He squeezed her. "Ikka-chan, you can keep the head around for Natsu to see it, but what were you planning to do with it after?"
"The horns." Her eyes glowed as she pulled away from him to point up. "They're too dangerous to leave out for scavengers. Plus, I need them."
The branching array of four horns curved into cruel black spikes around the giant beast's face. Their dark color soaked in the sunlight as if they held the night inside them.
"They're not normal," Ikka said, running a hand over one. "They're actually a kind of mineral, not an organic material. It's one I've never encountered before. I couldn't manipulate them while the thing was alive, but I was hoping I could play around with it…see if I could build something."
Gray nodded in astonished pride. That Ikka used a form of Molding Magic gave him great satisfaction (and Natsu great poutiness, though in truth he was effervescently proud of their daughter). But Ikka used her Mineral Make powers in a very different way from Gray.
She was all about building things: contraptions, engines, machines – all created in the blink of an eye.
Many ran on her magic power, but others were static forms which stayed together after she created them. Those required an application of force to get them working, but could do an amazing variety of tasks, from making tea, to putting exploded objects back together with a simple input of magic power.
She'd invented quite a number of hassle-saving devices which they used daily around the guild (particularly the Put-Back-Together-er—it wasn't Fairy Tail if something wasn't exploding). She was always collecting rocks and other things to see what she could affect. Ikka was a black hole of curiosity, eating knowledge the way her dragon father ate fire.
Gray walked over to run a hand along one of the horns. They were as big around as a hundred-year cherry tree and totally smooth, and also…had an absence of heat?
"Is it cold?" he asked, unsure if his cold-immune palm was pinning down the sensation correctly.
Ikka nodded. "It doesn't absorb any heat whatsoever!"
"Same with its hide," Erza said. "That made it hard to do any damage until we started using the cold against it. We redirected a river," she added, at Gray's curious expression.
"Wish I'd gotten to see that," he laughed, running a hand through his hair. He looked up at the beast head again. The monster had clearly been the size of a house and he wondered for a moment why he'd never seen this species before. "Ikka, I sense long days holed up in your workshop in the future. Just don't forget to eat."
To his surprise, she shook her head with vehemence.
"Erza-san says she'll take me on another S-class quest. I want to leave as soon as Touchan gets back."
Gray glanced at Erza, who tried not to look smug.
"She wants to get in as much experience as she can," the requip wizard said with a shrug.
Ikka had been begging to go on harder quests for—well, her whole life. Now that she was actually old enough and strong enough to do so, Natsu had said she needed to accompany older mages on at least six S-class quests before he'd even consider including her in the yearly trials.
Ikka thought he was being unnecessarily hard. Gray knew Natsu was trying to protect her, both from scorn for being the Master's daughter and from physical danger. Natsu was the kind of parent who daily fretted his child would be eaten by a monster.
Gray, on the other hand, trusted Ikka. She lost her first family in the same way he lost his—though gods be damned she was even younger. Three-year-olds shouldn't wake screaming every night from those kinds of nightmares.
Consequently, he understood that he couldn't, ultimately, protect her. If he could have, Gray would've gotten to that demon before it took everything away from her and left her plagued with flashbacks of blood and fire. No, all Gray could do was give her what she needed to be strong. Just as he and Natsu had done for each other.
"I have to be honest," Erza spoke up, "I have nothing else to do right now. There haven't been any urgent quests or Council problems or world-ending dark magic… I'm a little bored. Life is exponentially more interesting when you're watching young minds try to figure out how to be destructive."
Gray barked a laugh. "I thought you got enough of that growing up with us."
Still, Natsu will be proud Ikka's taking this seriously. The thought made him miss the Salamander. Just a little bit.
They got Ikka's severed head 'put away'—a.k.a. set down in the large workshop behind the guild—and then the girl ran off to find her best friend Siva, a young wind mage.
Along with Erza, Gray went back to lurking at the bar, though he wasn't sulking now as he listened to the blow-by-blow of his daughter's battle.
"Redirecting the river was all your Ikka," Erza told him. "She took a stance and all of a sudden there were dams in place and a flood headed toward us. She didn't even have to scout the area. None of the surrounding towns were hurt: she had it flowing right back to its riverbed and nothing more than a little stretch of forest was affected."
"I wish I'd been there," he admitted. "It sounds spectacular."
Erza's look turned contemplative.
"It's good you weren't, Gray. Your magic could've taken that thing down without any help. For that matter, I have snow armor that probably would've done enough. But it forced Ikka into a corner and she shone. She doesn't lose her creativity in a fight: she increases it. Your daughter is impressive. I mean that."
Erza praising someone like that was significant. Beaming warmly, Gray decided that tonight they would have Ikka's favorite food for dinner.
As afternoon wore on toward evening, the two were joined by Mirajane, their conversation turning to other things. Gray began to feel antsy as the sun slanted lower and lower through the windows.
"Gray," Erza said, "you keep looking at the clock. Are you expecting him back today?"
"Mm. We have a bet about how long it will take him."
"What does the winner get?" Mirajane asked, a mischievous look in her eye.
"Not telling." Grinning, he took gulp of his drink and said casually, "Erza, I don't know if anyone mentioned this, but this thing Natsu's taking care of…he's out with Lucy. She's the one who brought it to our attention."
Erza stiffened.
"I did not know that."
"They'll be coming back any hour now. I believe she plans to stay in town a few days and catch up with people."
Erza nodded, fiddling with a lock of her hair, which was just starting to fade at the temples from red to blondish-white. With the sad expression on her face, she suddenly looked old and worn.
"Erza, why don't you just talk to her?" Mirajane asked, trying to be gentle, though Gray didn't know why she was bothering at all. Erza wouldn't answer that question.
Erza opened her mouth.
"I just—"
"He's back!"
Ikka's shriek overtook the whole guild as she ran through the hall. Every head turned toward the door: everyone knew who she meant.
Gray rose, not even making it one step before his husband strode in.
Gray felt his chest squeeze just looking at him. Natsu's pink hair was ever the unruly mess, his face flushed with usual exuberance, and his gait full of confidence even though he was clearly tired. The Master of Fairy Tail is back.
Round and blonde with a gaze that just grew fiercer with each passing year, Lucy entered beside the Dragon Slayer, her left arm and shoulder encased in armor. She wore a small frown, but it lightened quickly as Ikka pounced.
"Touchan!" Ikka shouted, flying at Natsu.
The Salamander lit up with a beaming grin. Ikka slammed into him with full force, her black hair wrapping around them like a cloud. Even though she was close to his height now, Natsu swung her around easily and crushed her in a giant hug.
"I'm back," he said. "Miss me?"
Any response she had was lost in the embrace.
She might be fourteen now and more grown up than some her age, but with her fathers, she was always a child. She hated seeing them go; Gray knew she feared every time it would be the last she ever saw of them. When they came back alive and hale, it was like a miracle had dawned on her world.
"I have so much to show you!" she said, looking up at Natsu with glowing eyes.
"I can't wait." He grinned in eagerness, his own childish delight emerging. Still holding her, Natsu yelled to the guild at large, "Alright, I'm home, brats! Gray-sama is off duty. You can go back to misbehaving."
Giggles and cheers echoed from the younger mages.
"It's in the workshop," Ikka told him. "I've been waiting and waiting to show you."
"Take me there! Although first," he said, turning to Gray, "I should probably hug this one."