Glitter

"Absolutely not." Erik stared down the five year old with the same ferocity as he stared down Natsu. As much as he tried to limit it, the man had been a bad influence on his daughter, and her stubbornness was as legendary as her mother's. The combination of "Uncle Natsu" and Lucy's personality was proving to be a handful.

"But don't you want Mommy's card to be perfect?" his daughter asked, the picture of innocence. She hadn't picked up on the fact that his magic allowed him to discern the notably less charitable motives behind her begging, and he was thankful for that. He needed all the advantages that he could get against her.

"Your mother banned that stuff from the house after the last incident, saying that it was the last time. I thought she got rid of it all too." Cobra distinctly remembered his wife collecting all of the offending items after the girls were asleep and making him go throw them in the guild dumpster, saying that she didn't want them to have any opportunity to get some when she wasn't paying attention.

"She did," the girl supplied with a shrug. "But when I told Uncle Natsu that Mommy would love it on her card, he helped me get some that she would like."

With a sigh, Erik resolved to murder the fire dragon slayer at the earliest possible moment. Or maybe I'll just do the same thing when he and Lisanna finally have children. See how he likes it then. Coming back to his daughter, he shook his head firmly. "Give it here. It took a month to get the stuff out of Bella's hair after the last incident."

"No!" she protested, and he prepared himself for a tantrum. She had mostly grown out of them, but every so often…Erik stopped his thought process as he heard the most alarming sound possible from his eldest. Much like her mother when angry, his daughter was prone to quick flashes of temper. However, he hadn't expected to hear her soul go quiet, much like Lucy's did seconds before some unsuspecting victim got kicked through a wall.

Hours later, Lucy slipped into the kitchen from the backdoor, figuring that her husband would be there, trying to work on dinner with their two daughters underfoot. When she saw the way the kitchen sparkled, she was surprised. Maybe we're eating out tonight?

Then she took a closer look at the way the room sparkled. Lucy sighed as she realized what had happened, and moved into the living room, where she could hear the vacuum running.

As she guessed, Erik was there, furiously vacuuming their faded carpet, worn from years of feet trampling it down, coupled with the destructive tendencies of their friends. What she didn't expect was to find him covered from head to toe in a mixture of pink and gold glitter.

Stifling a laugh, she took in the sight. Most of the room had already been cleaned, but the carpet and the man cleaning it seemed to be worst off. He heard her, and turned off the vacuum cleaner, turning to face her as he did.

"So, which one was it this time?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Ari," he grunted, running his hand through his hair. Glitter slowly fluttered down, and he groaned. "She was making you a card while Bella was napping, and your partner gave her glitter. Which reminds me, I'm either going to kill him or make sure he suffers when he decides to procreate. But anyway, she gave me the look."

It was impossible to hide her smile. Lucy knew that he could hear the chuckles she was suppressing, but it just wasn't possible to keep a straight face. Erik Heartfilia, formerly Cobra of the Oracion Seis, was the biggest softy when it came to his two daughters. She could only imagine Ari's beseeching face and how her husband caved. "So how did it get all over the living room?"

"Bella woke up and I needed to go up and check on her. By the time I got back down here, Ari was in the middle of mixing her own custom blend just for Mommy. The cap on the bottle was loose and…well, there you have it. We moved into the kitchen for the rest of the time, but the damage was already done in here. It's going to be months before the room recovers."

"I think I'm more concerned about you." Lucy teased, brushing her lips carefully across his cheek. "You're going to spend so much time thrashing Natsu once he gets a look at you tonight. Where are the girls?"

"Up in their rooms. Ari's reflecting on what she did, and Bella's playing with her toys. I was hoping that I'd be able to get dinner started before you got here." Erik sighed. "I guess even with older kids, you still run out of time."

Lucy chuckled. "Why don't you get upstairs and showered? I'll start dinner, and then we'll both tackle the living room together. After all, we're going to have to go back to the uncoordinated schedule of the newborn before we know it."

Nodding, Erik turned towards the stairs, but stopped dead in his tracks. "Wait, Lucy, did you say…"

She smiled. Even with his ability to hear her soul, she was still able to surprise him. "Wendy confirmed it for me this afternoon. It's a bit too early to announce, but we'll be a family of five in just under a year. Maybe this time it will be a boy, to help even the odds."

Paying no attention to the glitter that covered his body, Erik gathered his wife in his arms. Years into their marriage, and he still fell in love with her each and every day. "Even if it's another girl," he whispered into her ear as he held her. "I won't mind. Not if she's as beautiful as you are."

***Okay first things first. I struggled to name their children, and ended up picking semi-significant names. (Aqu)Ari(us) and Bella(donna).

Secondly, this one was definitely inspired by work. When I was ~5... glitter = happiness. Now that I'm a bit older, and I work at a craft store, glitter = demonspawn. It gets EVERYWHERE. So I wrote about what would happen if Lucy and Cobra had to deal with their kids and glitter. Also, the thought of Natsu unknowingly providing the glitter was just too amusing to pass up.

And thirdly...I need to finish Family. Also, I need to figure out what I'm doing for Journey...I'm a bit behind.***