It was often said if you love something and let it go and it comes back to you that it's yours forever. They loved one another, and had separated for years. The pain had been great since the beginning, and the separation left a lingering ache. Yet in one day they had been ripped from where fate had scattered them and brought together.

Lucy opened her eyes and looked down at the little girl sleeping in her arms. She was a bloodhound like her father, and possibly only on scent, had an understanding that they were the ones to whom she was biologically connected. Even in her sleep, Gracie nuzzled at her skin, at her scent. She had a magic connection to her father, but to Lucy, it was physical, basic, and primal. Separation was nothing to the unbreakable bond she formed while carrying Gracie in her womb.

Gracie was cuddled up close, sleeping with her head on Lucy's arm, her back to Laxus, whose muscular arm stretched out above her her so Lucy could rest on it. His free hand was on Lucy's hip, effectively holding both in his embrace as he slept.

The blonde snuggled closer to her daughter and to the man she loved and slipped into the most peaceful sleep of her life.

The girl stirred a couple of hours later and found it hard to sit up with her father's heavy arm across her and her mother's arm around her.

Gracie grabbed his arm and tried to move it, and then growled.

He rumbled back, and her eyes widened at the idea that there was someone else in the whole world that would share this somewhat strange display of frustration with her.

One of his eyes cracked open. "You're not going anywhere," he said.

"Potty..." she rumbled.

Laxus lifted his arm and felt her climb over his body like it was a mountain. When she jumped from his hip to the floor, he knew there was no way the Harpers hadn't known she wasn't a normal kid. "Do you need help?"

"No thanks, I'm three,"she answered, holding up three fingers.

The little blonde went in the bathroom and a couple of minutes later, he heard her flush the toilet and then a clunk when she climbed on top of the counter to wash her hands. She returned to the bed climbed back over him to nestle back between them, wiggling in close.

When morning came, she did what all children do and awoke several hours before her parents truly appreciated, wriggling free from their embrace as she awoke fully charged. Like most children, she took events she did not comprehend—which included everything she'd seen the night before—and simply chose not to think about them. She didn't understand the danger she had been in, the loss she had incurred, or most of what she had seen. She just knew she was okay, and it was morning, and she was happy to be with the one whose scent she carried.

Both of them sat up up, and Grace stood in the bed and hugged her mom first and kissed her, then threw her arms around Laxus' neck and did the same. "Good morning."

Lucy pulled him by the shirt so he leaned over their daughter and kissed his lips. "Good morning."

"Good? This is the most amazing morning of my life and I've only been awake for forty-five seconds."

Laxus cooked breakfast while Lucy bathed the baby girl and dressed her in a tiny little outfit Virgo had provided and fixed her hair. He noticed Lucy wouldn't put her down and carried her literally everywhere, even from one side of the room to the other. Gracie didn't complain even a little and Laxus wondered if they were comfortable like that because Lucy had carried her inside of her body.

"Baby, are you ready to eat?" he asked.

Gracie defiantly put her hands on her hips and pointed up at him. "I'm no baby."

"You are."

"No you are!"

Lucy giggled a little at their child calling her father a baby. "Well if you're not a baby, then what are you?"

Gracie abruptly jumped and crawled on top of the kitchen counter, and then stood on it so she could be closer to his face. "I'm a princess!" she matter-of-factly explained.

He grabbed her and held her against his chest, and she wrapped herself around him like a monkey. "Princess? Huh. It fits. Princess, do you want strawberries with your pancakes?"

The little girl crinkled her nose. "Krawberries are gross."

"I suppose you probably had a few too many in the womb," he mumbled in reply.

Her mother wondered what her adoptive parents must have thought. So far, they'd had her for twelve hours and Lucy had seen Gracie jump, climb, growl, and sniff. Yet they had loved her completely and made sure she was happy. She didn't know how to explain to Gracie that they weren't going to be in her life anymore or if a three-year-old had any kind of grasp on death.

Like Laxus, she felt a weird kind of sadness because she was so happy the baby was there with them, but so sad it came at such a high cost. They were good people, and good parents, and she believed they loved the little girl as much as she and Laxus did. It made her sad that Gracie might not remember them as she grew older.

Lucy could understand the nature and beauty of tragedy more now that she'd gotten a little older. It seemed like for every stab of pain that seemed unbearable, her soul had been turned on the path of life. She believed in the future and she had hope, so she held on, and suddenly the memory of pain was so eclipsed by the joy. But even this had been the work of tragedy.

When she went to go wash her hands and face, Laxus looked over at Lucy.

"You busy today?"

"No," she said.

He smirked. "Let's elope."

The blonde tensed, but smiled. "So what? We get married, and we live happily ever after?"

"Exactly."

"H-How?"

Laxus reached across the table for her hand. She turned her hand to hold his. "I won't let you go. So don't let me go either."

"Truth be told, in my wild, crazy dreams, that's my greatest desire—to not have any part of my heart missing."

"Happily ever after it is then."

XXX

Eight months, and Four Days Later...

Lucy and Laxus were picking wrapping paper from all over the house from their daughter's birthday party. There were still probably a hundred balloons in the house, some helium at the ceiling, and some Laxus had blown up on the floor.

Lucy and Gracie had laughed all morning at the sight of him trying to blow up balloons with his balloon-busting dragon lungs. Every time he popped one, the little girl would jump a little and squeal.

Fairy Tail had showered their daughter in gifts to the point there was still a small mountain awaiting the attention of the princess, who was had passed out in her fluffy yellow dress, crown atop her head and teeth blue from her birthday cake. They'd put her to bed an hour before and she was still in a deep sleep.

The guild had been shocked, but kind when they found out about the little girl. Laxus and Lucy told the good parts, and left out all the rest because it no longer had value or meaning.

Nothing about their love story was pretty, but their love was beautiful. They had been tried by fire, and lived to speak of it. Lucy would have argued to anyone who dared to speak about their love to death; their love was powerful because of everything they'd gone through.

Lucy fell for how passionate Laxus was under all the layers of him. She fell for how he looked after her, how he would make love to her half the night and then confide in her and tell her all the things no soul in the world was allowed to know. She fell for the fact he was ticklish and liked to roll around and play in the bed, usually all three of them together engaged in a tickle and Eskimo kiss fight.

She looked at him and found her husband looking at her too. There was more than a little heat in his eyes, and she gave him a mischievous smile. "What?"

"You already know, Lucy."

In the beginning, he was always a little shy about asking for sex, and Lucy suspected it was because of all that had happened. She had to pay close attention, and she usually initiated, but as time wore on and they grew together, he was becoming more expressive. Sometimes, she wanted him to be more aggressive and handle her a little rough, but they had to work toward that.

His wife approached him with a confident twist to her hips. "Tell me what you want."

Laxus put his hands on her hips and pulled her close. "To spend the rest of my life with a beautiful wizard and a princess."

Their lips met in a sweet kiss; they could never take one another or their little girl for granted.

They didn't reflect on the past; they had the future.

He carried her to bed and made love to her until neither of them could move anymore, and then he held her knowing that when he awoke, it would probably be to a flurry of kisses from their adorable little bed intruder.

So as he held her in the dark, he kissed her neck and whispered. "And they all lived happily ever after."

The End!

AN: Thanks to everyone for reading and supporting this story. There are a lot of stories where Laxus is forceful/whatever-the-fuck and I wanted to do it a little different, I think. It's heavy. I'm satisfied with it, and I hope all of you are also.