"No better time than the present, so they say."
Levy came back from her memories with a jolt, a faint blush crossing her face as that night faded from the front of her mind. The saying "Practice makes perfect" fit the situation as well. They certainly made an effort to practice. They'd "practiced" for weeks after Levy went to see Porlyusica.
June 9
The old woman performed a full exam on Levy, telling her that there was nothing wrong with her body, she should be able to conceive and there was no reason that she hadn't. "Mebbe it's somethin' with me then, Shrimp…" Gajeel started, clenching his hands at his side. Levy could tell he was already starting to beat himself up and gently placed a hand on his, moving her head so she was looking into his eyes. "Don't. Don't you dare. I'm sure there's a reason, and neither of us is at fault. Now that we're both wanting this, we can be more aware of things. Maybe it was just because I was stressing so much about wanting to be pregnant in the first place."
The tension in his shoulders released a little as a small smile crept across his face. "Yer right, Shrimp. We'll just have to try harder." He scooped her into his arms, kissing her deeply. "You idiots do realize you're still in my house, yes?" Porlyusica growled at the couple, tapping her foot and reaching for a nearby broom. Levy squeaked, hiding her face in her hands as Gajeel laughed, running out the door and down the lane towards their home.
October 12
It's been… four months? Levy chuckled, resting a hand on her belly. She was barely even showing yet, in fact no one else had even noticed yet. The only ones who knew were Gajeel and Lily. Gajeel had smiled so hugely when she told him, she'd thought his face was going to split.
July 26
Gajeel yelled as he picked Levy up and spun them in a circle, making her squeal. Lily came bursting into the room at their exclamations, staring blankly at the couple for a moment before realization broke through as to what was going on. Loosing a shout of his own, Lily flew into his best friends, hugging them tightly.
"Careful of the baby, ya idiot!" Gajeel growled at the exceed, trying to pull Levy away as she started laughing. "Husband, the baby isn't going to be hurt by Lily hugging me! I'm only about five weeks along so far!" Gajeel of course had wanted to run out and tell everyone, she guessed so he could rub it in to the other Dragon Slayers. She made him wait though. She'd done a lot of reading and research since they started trying in earnest to conceive a child, and there was a great chance she could lose the baby still, especially since they'd had a challenge getting pregnant in the first place. She had considered keeping the news from Gajeel as well, for about a second before she snorted to herself and shook her head. There was no way she could keep her excitement contained from her husband.
October 15
"Are ya sure yer ready, Lev?" Gajeel paced anxiously outside the guildhall doors, Levy biting her lip to keep from giggling. "My love, you have been hinting at and pestering me to spill the beans to everyone for three months. Would you like to wait a little longer?" Her dragon slid to a stop, whirling to face her. "NO! N-no. I'm ready to tell everyone the great news. Jus' wanted to make sure I'm not rushin' ya into somethin' ya ain't ready for. Mavis knows ya got enough stress on ya without-" Levy finally let out the giggle she had been holding in, stepping forward to wrap her arms around him.
"I swear to you it will be less stressful to tell everyone and stop having to figure out how to keep it from them. Besides, I will be showing soon, and won't be able to pretend I'm just tired anymore." Taking a deep breath, Gajeel nodded and leaned down to kiss the blue hair nestled against his chest. "Righ', Shrimp. How ya wanna do this?" Sighing, she looked up at him. "I have thought about just walking in and telling them, but that's a little boring, don't you think?" She paused for a moment to give him a chance to speak, but he just nodded again. "So, I'm thinking I'll just casually mention it to Mira and Lu-chan and let them announce it for me."
Gajeel threw his head back in a laugh, his tiny wife smiling up at him. "You like that option then?" Letting go of the Iron Dragon Slayer, Levy stepped away and turned towards the guild. "You might want to stay across the hall from us… you know how Mira's voice can get when she's excited." He was still chuckling, wiping at his eyes. "Yeah, Shrimp. And Bunny girl can hit some seriously high notes when she's yelling." The bluenette scrunched her nose at him, sticking out her tongue as she walked towards the door. "Oh, real mature, babe. Yer sure ready to be a ma." Levy let out a sharp laugh as she pushed the door open, slipping inside and looking for her closest friend.
She didn't have to look far, the blonde woman was standing just inside, her jaw slack and her eyes wide. "YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE A BABY?!" Silence followed her shriek for the space of a breath. Then, in true Fairy Tail fashion, there was an explosion of yells and noises as chaos broke free. "A BABY! GAJEEL AND LEVY! BABY!" There was a jumble of voices, and grimaces on the faces of the Dragon Slayers, their enhanced hearing more of a handicap now than it had ever been before.
Within moments, Levy was whisked away by the guild's women, there were plans to be made. Gajeel had a mug of ale pressed into his hand, hearty slaps to his back and lewd comments being thrown at him. He tolerated it a few minutes, a smug look on his face before he got fed up with the attention and physical contact. "Three, Two, One…" Levy counted out to her friends as they watched Gajeel throw back his drink before swinging the empty mug into Natsu's face. "And they're off." The women laughed and gathered the notes they'd already started taking, slipping off to the guild's library.
February 16
"Gajeel, hand me that biscuit?" The Dragon Slayer picked up the food in question and passed it to his wife without even looking up from his book. Much to the shock of everyone in the guild, he'd taken to reading with her sometimes as they ate their meals in the hall. Natsu had been the only one dumb enough to comment on it so far, although Laxus had almost broken and said something when he saw that it was a baby book. He'd gone so far as to open his mouth when he felt more than heard someone behind him. He'd glanced over his shoulder to find Mirajane, her face in shadow and her hair starting to stand on end. "H-hey there, Mira…" She growled softly, speaking low so only the blonde man could hear her. "If you say something that makes him stop reading those books to support his wife I swear by all that is holy I will murder you in your sleep." He gulped and snapped his mouth shut, turning back to his own meal. He could always give Gajeel grief about it AFTER the baby was born.
"Gajeel, can you hand me another biscuit please?" Again, the raven haired man complied with his tiny woman's request without breaking stride in his reading. Several people had stopped what they were doing to watch the couple. Levy had eaten almost a dozen biscuits already, on top of her breakfast of eggs and bacon. "Uhm… honey… could you make me some metal?" That one got him. Gajeel was halfway through absently making a piece of iron in the shape of a biscuit when he stopped and looked at Levy and then back at his hand.
"Shrimp, did ya seriously jus' ask me for metal?" She blushed, looking up from her own book and nodding. "I just think it sounds appetizing." He studied her face for a minute and then considered the iron he was making. "Iron is a bit tough to test if ya can eat metal, Shrimp. Lemme try somethin' else." He stuck the metal into his pocket and stood up, leaving the hall for a few minutes. He came back with an assortment of metal scraps and laid them out on the table in front of her. "Well, whatdya think? Any of this smell like somethin' ya wanna eat?" Levy set her book aside and studied the pieces, somehow oblivious to the audience they had gained. She picked up a piece of silver, and then a bit of copper, and a few of the others, turning them over in her delicate fingers, holding each up to her nose. Gajeel chuckled when she licked the copper, making a face before setting it down. "Shut up, you. This is your fault." Her growl was so cute he had to bite his lip to keep from laughing harder.
Levy glared at him before picking up a bite-sized piece of silver again and sticking it in her mouth. She sucked on it for a moment like a hard candy before her eyes lit up and she giggled. "Yum! Can I have some more?" Tentatively biting the metal, Levy swallowed the little chunk that came off. It was then that she noticed the lack of noise in the guild and all of the eyes looking at her. "Wha-what are you all staring at?! I'm just so hungry all the time, and the baby wants weird things, and I can't help it!" She looked down at her hands, tears starting to pool in her eyes.
Her mate growled, scowling around at everyone as he sat next to her, wrapping an arm around Levy's shoulders. He ducked his head to meet her eyes, pausing for a moment to listen to his child's heartbeat. He frowned a little as the thought crossed his mind, not for the first time, that the baby's heartbeat was a little faster than it should be. Or irregular… or something. But the hag had never said anything was wrong when she completed her check ups. "Hey, Shrimp. It's alrigh'. The books all say yer gonna wanna eat more. An' that yer gonna wanna eat weird things. I'm sure it's 'cause the dragon thing. The books ain't gonna know how t'explain that."
"Well, you might be right there, Metal Man." The Redfoxes looked up at a clanging thunk on their table, Gajeel growling at the Seith mage who had just seated himself across from them. Bickslow had dropped a bag on the table, and was sitting with his hands clasped behind his head. Levy perked up, sniffing at the bag and reaching tentatively for it. Bickslow nodded to her as he continued. "But, you might be wrong." He had a very smug look on what they could see of his face, most of his head covered by his mask and hood. There was a faint green glow coming through the slats of his mask. "What're ya on about, freak?" Levy jabbed her elbow into Gajeel's ribs, muttering at him to stop being rude. "He brought me more silver, Gajeel. Be nice."
"Me? Oh I'm on about nothing. Just that… well…" He leaned forward with a laugh, his tongue lolling out of his mouth as the light from his eyes grew brighter for a moment. "It could be that she's so hungry because there's two of them in there."
April 1
"Gajeel. GAJEEL! WAKE UP!" Gajeel came awake with a grunt, rolling to look at his tiny wife. His sleep addled brain couldn't wrap itself around the sounds coming out of her mouth, small whimpers and gasps. "Shrimp? Why're ya hunched over like that?" He glanced at the lacrima next to their bed that displayed the time. "It's one in th' mornin', woman. Go to sleep." He laid his head back down on his pillow and closed his eyes just as she groaned. Crimson eyes shot open, the Dragon Slayer shooting up off the bed.
"NOW?!" The Script Mage nodded, unable to form words as she rubbed at her sides, her stomach hard as a rock as all of her muscles contracted and relaxed. He snatched her communication notebook, hoping someone would be awake as he flipped to the page Levy had set up for Porlyusica, Lucy, and Juvia. "BABIES! NOW! HERE!" That was the best he could manage to write before he threw the book to the side table, running to pull on some clothes. "C'mon Lev. Think we can make it to the guild?" She simply grunted, rocking a little on her perch on the edge of the bed.
Gajeel snatched the bag that Levy had prepared weeks ago with extra clothes and things for the babies, slinging it over his shoulder. He'd just reached Levy again when Lily came in, having heard the commotion. He was in his battle form and looked between the two parents. He almost went to pick up Levy, but thought better of it. Even stressed out, or perhaps especially stressed out, Gajeel wasn't going to want anyone else to carry his laboring wife. Instead, he stepped forward to take the bag from his friend, turning to grab the notebook since it had started glowing.
"Juvia has written an exuberant amount of hearts and exclamation points and told us she'll see you at the guild later in the morning. Mizu and Kawa had a rough night. Lucy will be at the guild by the time we get there. Porlyusica says she hates you for making her use this stupid contraption, she's been sleeping at the guild for a week anyway, and asks why you have to be so damn troublesome." With that, the exceed chuckled, closing the book and tucking it into the bag he carried before shrinking to his regular size again. It was going to be a long night, and he didn't think he should waste any more energy than was strictly necessary.
Gajeel walked past him out of the room holding Levy, groans and occasional soft cries escaping from the tiny woman. Lily flew silently behind them until he had closed up the house, and then took off at max speed to prepare the guildhall for their arrival. He could barely contain his excitement at the prospect of nieces or nephews coming. April first. What a fitting day for Trouble to join us.