Hello Everyone. I realize that it has been awhile since I have updated (even after I promised to update sooner, I know, bad me) but between life and the lack of inspiration, this was a hard chapter. It is the longest chapter so far, I'm sorry, I couldn't find a good place to split it in half, but I hope that everyone bears with me! Thank you for the 30+ follows! It may not seem like many, but for my first story it is a ton to me. Thanks!
As always, I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters, but I appreciate Mashima letting me use them for my own creative purposes *bows*
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Alzack was having a very peaceful sleep until he heard a pounding noise in his head; he groaned and tried to block it out.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
His nerves were getting more rattled with every bang until he couldn't take it any longer, he opened his eyes and forgot for a second where he was. Feeling someone move beside him he looked down and saw his wife sleeping peacefully, remembering they were in a hotel.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Whoever was banging at his door was getting louder with every knock. Alzack carefully slipped out of bed so he didn't wake up Bisca and shuffled to the front door with heavy feet, unlocking and then opening it a crack to peer out into the hallway. A heavyset man was standing there and he vaguely remembered him as one of the men he met yesterday on the village counsel.
"Hello?" The man greeted him a little nervously and Alzack could only imagine the dark look on his face right now from being disturbed.
"Hello," he tried to get his voice friendly sounding but it seemed to be nearly impossible so early in the morning.
"Ah, ugh, sorry to disturb you, Sir," the man fidgeted and shifted his eyes away from Alzack's face, still uncomfortable. "But we have a problem and we thought it would best to let you know right away."
A sliver of dread started to form in Alzack's stomach, replacing his annoyance almost instantly. "Problem? What kind of problem?"
"We found another nest of Stonescales on the mountain, not too far away from the one we took care of yesterday. We are going to make sure this morning but it looks like the job is not over yet."
Alzack groaned and closed his eyes. The job they had taken for the guild had been to help clear out a nest of Stonescale flying lizards from a cave in the stone mountains. The community that lived in the mountain valley consisted of mainly sheep farmers who produced wool for the entire country of Fiore and the recent increase in Stonescale attacks on their herds threatened their livelihood. Just like their name suggested, the adult bodies were covered in thick stone like scales and since they could fly they were almost impossible to kill. The best way to control the population was to find a nest before the eggs hatched and destroy them, which was also no easy task since Stonescales lived in flocks like birds and laid their eggs in cracks and crevices in the rocky mountainside. A nest could have more than a hundred eggs and they had to be taken out quickly before the adults could have a chance to figure out what was going on. The villagers had made a risky plan that involved creating a small avalanche using explosion lacrima to smash all the eggs at once since luckily they all had seemed to be located in one larger cave near the top of the mountain. Alzack and Bisca's task as gun mages had been to take out the eggs that survived using Bisca's Snipe Shot with Alzack covering her from being attacked by the adults. They had been successful with the mission the day before and had destroyed the nest with no major problems or injuries.
"Another nest? But Stonescale flocks don't usually live that close together," Alzack leaned against the doorframe while he spoke.
"It is unusual but it does explain why so many sheep have been disappearing, if there were two flocks living near each other they would have been competing for food. As you can imagine with this new development we will have to renegotiate the terms of our agreement."
Alzack grunted a vague response but he knew that they couldn't leave the job unfinished.
"I will let my wife know, what time do you want us to meet you?"
"We are having an emergency meeting at dawn, I appreciate your understanding and I will see you in a few hours." The man quickly scurried down the hall and Alzack was impressed that a man that large could be so quick. He shut the door and quietly set the locks, hoping to let Bisca sleep at least a little while longer but when he turned around his wife was sitting up and watching him intently. He opened his mouth to start relaying the information he had just learned but she held up her hand in the "stop" motion.
"It's ok, I heard everything." He climbed back into the bed and they cuddled close together. "We are going to have to send a message to Mira and let her know that we will probably be gone an extra day," Bisca continued, to anyone else it wouldn't have sounded unhappy but Alzack could hear the slight melancholy tone to his wife's voice.
"Don't worry," He pulled his wife closer to him until her head could rest on his shoulder in a side hug. "Asuka is probably having the time of her life right now."
"I know you're right but I can't help worrying just a little, even though she is in the safest hands that she could be in."
Alzack stifled a slight grimace before his wife could see. "I wouldn't go that far, but they will look after her just fine. And worrying about our daughter is what makes you a great Mom," he added, kissing the top of her head.
Bisca smiled and turned her head to look up at her husband. "That reminds me of something."
Alzack frowned in response, trying to think of what she was talking about. "Oh? What?" Bisca's smile grew wider as she slowly climbed onto his lap, straddling him gently and winding her arms around his neck. "You fell asleep on me, remember?" She started kissing his neck and Alzack finally understood what the heck she was talking about. "Oh, right… You should let me make it up to you then." He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her deeply, it was still a couple hours til dawn but he didn't think they would be going back to sleep now.
The next morning Mira left home early in order to make it to the guildhall before people started coming in for breakfast. Elfman and Lisanna were still in bed, probably tired from the late night and grouchy about the ice buckets, but Asuka was up and ready to go and Mira let her walk almost the whole way to guild hall by herself. It was just after 9 in the morning when other Fairy Tail mages started to arrive to eat and read the new job postings on the request board. Only three had been delivered in the drop box this morning and they were all minor requests with a low pay out but Fairy Tail rarely got any large ones anymore anyway. It was no surprise that Gray and Natsu were the first to loiter in front of the board and argue over who got to choose first.
"I was here before you flame brain, so I'm taking this job!"
"No way, we saw it first, didn't we Happy? You're just going to have to take something else, icicle freak!"
Mira sighed and looked around for Erza, normally these fights between Gray and Natsu fell under her responsibilities but the red head was nowhere to be seen. Mira decided that it was possible that she was also sleeping in from the late night and she started coming out from behind the bar before a full on Fairy Tail rumble was initiated. Before she could make it however, two sandals went flying through the air and smacked each boy right in the face.
"Will you two just can it!" Lucy arrived seemingly from nowhere, but her usual neat appearance was replaced by crumpled clothes and messy hair that was falling out of her signature side ponytail. She stomped barefoot over the boys, who were silent and staring at her in shock but Mira couldn't tell if it was from being hit by shoes or from the way she looked, and snatched the sandals off the floor. She gave them each another good whack before she slipped them back on and delivered a death glare.
"You know that when Erza gets here we will all end up going out on that job together anyway, so quit acting like idiots so early in the morning." She turned away from them and huffed her way up to Mira at the bar, Gray and Natsu wasted no time scrambling to get away before Lucy's threat to involve Erza came true. Mira studied the young blonde quietly, her face looked tired with dark bags under her eyes and heavy lids still half closed in sleep over an unfocused gaze.
"Lucy…" Mira started, a little taken back. "What happened to you?" Lucy climbed on a stool and flopped face down on the bar counter with her head on her arms.
"I am so tired," Mira could barely hear her mumble. "It was awful, I could barely get any sleep."
Mira remembered that Lucy was supposed to be spending the night with Levy while she recovered from her accident and felt a stab of panic.
"Oh my gosh, is there something wrong with Levy? Did she get worse during the night?"
"No, she's fine. She wanted to come down here herself for breakfast but we wouldn't let her. She told me to make sure that Gajeel was ok too or else was going to come herself whether we liked it or not. Erza is the one who kept me up all night, me and the other girls."
Mira frowned, "Erza? But she was at the meeting."
"It was after the meeting. She came back to Fairy Hills and decided that we were going to have an old fashioned girls' slumber party to cheer up Levy and Wendy, with the snacks and the games and everything. She made us play truth or dare and have a pillow fight, and then we all had to sleep together in Levy's room on the floor and Erza wanted to cuddle… I'm so tired," Lucy whimpered, still flattened out on the bar.
"Awe, there there," Mira patted the blonde girl's head soothingly. "I will make you some breakfast to take back to Fairy Hills but we haven't heard anything about Gajeel yet this morning. I am sure he is ok though, or Lily would have come to get Wendy by now." Mira went back into the kitchen get the food together, leaving Asuka on sitting on the bar watching Lucy intently. Lucy lifted her head slightly and peeked over her arms at the little girl, still wary about what had happened the previous day. Asuka gave her a big innocent smile and Lucy narrowed her eyes in suspicion, wondering what the toddler was up to. Asuka turned away from Lucy with a frown, she wasn't going to be any fun today at all. Who she really wanted to see was the black teddy-cat but he hadn't come into the guild hall yet. Mira came back with Lucy's food and Levy's take out box just as the bluenette herself sat down on the bar stool next to the surprised blonde.
"Levy!" Lucy exclaimed in surprise. "What are you doing here? I thought that you were still sleeping and I left Erza to watch you, how did you get passed her?"
Levy looked almost as tired as Lucy and had a few bandages here and there on her arms and legs, but for the most part she seemed ok. "Erza fell asleep almost right after you left," Levy replied. "She was up all night after all; most of us at least got a few hours of sleep before she got home."
Mira shook her head and giggled, "When Erza wants to do something there isn't much that can be done to stop her. Here is your food Levy," she passed the take out box over the bar. "Lucy was going to take you some breakfast."
"Thanks, has Gajeel been in yet?" Levy asked, trying to sound casual but the other girls could hear the concern in her voice.
"We haven't seen him or Lily today yet," Mira repeated. "But I made them up some food to go too, if someone wants to take it to them."
"I'll do it!" Mira had barely finished her sentence when Levy volunteered. When Mira went back into the kitchen to get the containers, Lucy raised her eyebrow at Levy questioningly.
"What?" Levy was still trying to be casual but her cheeks started to blush. "I still need to thank him for saving me yesterday; I never got a chance after we were healed."
"Of course," Lucy replied with a smile and then dug into her omelette before Levy could say anything else
"Hello everyone!" Both girls turned to see Lisanna standing behind them with her usual cheery expression.
"Hey Lisanna," Levy greeted warmly, Lucy with her mouth full of egg and cheese could only wiggle her fingers in hello.
"Hello little sister," Mira had returned again and placed two more take out containers on the bar. Lisanna turned to her sister and her smile fell a few shades under it's usually brightness, "Good morning Mira-nee."
"You came just in time, I need to ask you a favor…"
"What is it?" Lisanna replied cautiously, not knowing how much she should trust her right now.
"I need you to watch-"
"Sorry Mira, I think I hear Elfman calling me for something," Lisanna scurried away before Mira could give her Asuka again; she liked kids, but not this early in the morning.
Mira frowned and turned back to the bar to ask Lucy and Levy the same question. Only two empty bar seats and a dirty plate remained and the girls were currently moving between the tables for a fast exit.
"Humph…" Mira looked around the room for someone else she could ask to watch Asuka until the breakfast rush was over.
"Mira," Kinana called as she came out of the backroom where she had been taking inventory. "I'm all finished, I think we have enough beer to get us through at least the next week as long as we don't have too many rowdy parties." The two barmaids looked at each and then out at the half filled room already starting to get lively.
"I will go order some more beer then," Kinana turned to head towards the back door before Mira stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
"Wait, I can do that this afternoon," Mira put on one of her sweetest smiles and got ready to do some sweet-talking. "Can you do me a favor and feed Asuka? And then watch her for a little bit, just until I finish with the breakfast rush." Mira practically batted her eyelashes at the small woman but it was unnecessary.
"Of course I will," Kinana replied. "I did after all promise you I would help out with the babysitting." Just then a man came into the guild and looked around, when he realized that everyone was staring at him his eyes widened like a deer caught in headlights.
"I… uh… I'm looking for Fairy Tail?" He got out nervously and waited for a response but was met only with silence. "Is this the right place?" He tried again after a long minute.
"This is Fairy Tail," Cana answered from her seat ontop of her drinking table.
The man paled a bit before continuing, "Ah, o-ok, then… I am looking for Miss Mirajane Strauss?"
Everyone turned from the stranger to Mira as she lifted her hand and called out. "I'm Mirajane! How can I help you?" He man sighed with relief that she actually looked pleasantly normal and started making his way up to the bar. He wasn't quite halfway there before his path was blocked by a large man with muscles seeming to come out of everywhere.
"What do you want with my sister?" Elfman growled at the poor visitor. "I demand to know as a man!"
The man cowered under Elfman's fierce gaze and covered his head with his arms. "P-Please d-don't hurt m-me!" He shuddered. "I just have a message for her, that's all! I work at the train station, I swear."
Mira appeared beside her brother and placed a calming hand on his elbow. "It's ok, I'm sure he means no harm. What message do you have for me?" She asked the scared stranger. He pulled an envelope out of his jacket pocket with a shaking hand and as soon as he delivered it into her palm he turned and high tailed it out of the room before anyone could say anything. The room was still eerily silent as Mira tore open the letter and read it.
"It's from Bisca," she said finally to the expectant room full of mages. "They ran into problems while on the mission and she and Alzack will have to stay an extra day."
"They aren't in trouble are they?" Kinana asked with concern, she was carrying Asuka and looking over Mira's shoulder at the message.
"I don't think so," Mira replied slowly. "By the sounds of it the job is just larger than they thought it was going to be, she said they will be back late tomorrow for sure." Mira looked at the toddler in Kinana's arms, wondering what kind of mischief she was going to get up to today.
There was a comment after the last chapter expressing disappointment that there was no naughty Mommy and Daddy time between Alzack and Bisca in the last chapter. It was always my intention to put it in this one so that it would be less expected muahahahaaaa. Sorry no lemons, I am not good at writing them and since this story is about a little girl I am going to keep it pretty PG. Stay tuned for day two of the great Fairy Tail babysitting marathon!