A/N: Remember that whole thing Freed says about Laxus and children in ch 11? I couldn't help myself.

Epilogue - Another New Day

Gray was deep in conversation with Cana, Evergreen, and Mira one Tuesday, when Natsu suddenly sat up beside him and started sniffing. Gajeel, who'd also been silent until now, made a grumble of surprise.

Interesting.

"Gajeel, would you hand me that?" Mira asked, pointing at something behind the bar, not aware anything was off.

"…Sure," he said after a moment. "Wait, what else did you put in that?"

Gajeel and Mira were experimenting with their own versions of cocktails. Next week was the second anniversary of the Drinking Club, and Gajeel had insisted they needed to make something special. Cana was their taste-tester for the nonalcoholic bits.

"I want Cana to guess." Grinning, Mira handed over a shot glass full of something purple.

Cana drank, looked consideringly at the far wall, and opened her mouth, but Gray missed her answer when Natsu twisted around bodily and almost knocked him over.

"What's wrong?" the ice mage asked.

"Just…nothing."

"If just-nothing is going to make you fall into my lap, I guess I don't mind."

Natsu laughed and stuck his tongue out.

"Okay, and here it is with the fun stuff," Gajeel said, putting drinks in front of Gray and Evergreen.

Evergreen picked hers up, but Gray pushed the glass away laughing. "You're going to get me drunk with any more of those. It's the middle of the goddamn afternoon."

"So? You're not going on any jobs, are you?"

No, but Gray would lose what little control he had over his stripping habit, and there were hickies in places he didn't want the whole world to see.

He was saved when Levy walked up to the bar and Mira proffered the cup to her instead.

"Try our new cocktail, Levy?"

Natsu, who was sniffing again, stopped.

"Um, no, thank you," Levy said. "Just water."

She hopped up on one of the stools while Mira blinked in surprise. Levy, despite her size, was the two-or-three-a-day kind of person.

"Like Cana?" Evergreen asked Levy suspiciously.

"No. Like me." Levy rubbed her nose, eyes on the back wall, on the counter, on a spot above Ever's head.

"Wait," Ever said. "Wait, oh my god, you—"

"Don't say it," Gajeel and Natsu said at the same time.

Gray's brain clicked.

"You're pregnant?" he asked, turning to Levy in surprise.

"Goddess, Gray!" Natsu exclaimed. "That's so insensitive."

"But true," Levy said, flushed and beaming.

"Holy shit! Since when?" Cana asked.

"I found out for sure a week ago. We're…" Levy looked down shyly, "really excited. It didn't take the first time. But the second time we gave special attention to everything."

Natsu coughed and Gray couldn't help smirking. He'd overheard a snippet of Natsu and Lucy's conversation—something about someone climaxing an impossible number of times—and had a feeling he knew was 'special attention' meant.

"Congratulations!" Mira exclaimed, everyone else chorusing after her.

"Yeah, congrats," Ever said in a warm voice, and spread her arms to offer Levy a hug—a show of affection Evergreen never doled out in public.

After the rest of them had gotten in on hugs, Gajeel and Cana began asking questions about baby plans—not too probing, and always prefaced with, "if you don't mind me asking," but still. Those two could never resist. It was Tuesday after all. Levy let the grilling go on for almost half an hour before admitting she had somewhere to be.

As Mira was serving her girlfriend another shot glass of something that looked like punch, she looked up and blinked.

"Speaking of children," she said, nodding toward the doors.

Gray turned around.

Laxus walked in looking more hulking than normal: a small child was sitting on his shoulders.

"Oh, this is going to be good," Evergreen said.

"Oi," Cana called. "Whatcha got?"

Turning their way, Laxus ducked to avoid a lamp fixture, and Gray heard a high-pitched sound of childish glee from his minion. It was impossible to miss the smile running amok on Laxus's face.

The kid on Laxus's shoulders wore muddy clothes and had long, vividly-colored hair lying loose about their face. They looked like a handful—an excited and curious handful who was looking all over the hall with wide eyes.

"This is Fumie," Laxus said. "Found her on our latest job."

Laxus tilted his head to look up at the child.

"Want to show them what you—?"

Without waiting for him to finish, Fumie waved her hands and something purple flashed in the air. Gray thought he saw a handprint among the foreign shapes. Mud splattered Laxus—and Cana, who sat nearest. Natsu and Gajeel burst out laughing, while Mira said, "Laxus!"

The girl was giggling.

"Sorry," Laxus told Cana (who grinned as if getting sprayed with dirt was the coolest thing ever). "That seems to be her favorite."

"Was that…dark écriture?" Evergreen asked in awe.

"Very similar," Laxus said proudly, wiping mud off his face. "The fingerpaint version."

"This is amazing!" Mira stared up at Fumie. "Did you learn that all by yourself?"

Fumie nodded. Her smile was eclipsed by a wide-eyed survey of this new person.

"It's very pretty," Gray said, smiling up at her. "And amusing."

Fumie ducked down to hide behind Laxus's head, Laxus grabbing her knees so she wouldn't fall off. A few seconds later, large eyes peered out around his blonde hair, Fumie taking in each of them in turn.

"She's a little shy," Laxus explained, and Gray nodded: she did have six strange adults staring at her.

"Letter magic, already," Mira said reverently. "That's amazing. How old is she: seven?"

"Best we figured," Laxus said. "She wouldn't or couldn't tell us."

"I assume there's a story why you have her?" Cana asked.

When Laxus grimaced, Cana waved her hands.

"No need to answer."

"It's fine," he sighed. He still held Fumie's knees as she leaned forward to droop over his head. Laxus managed to keep his balance. "She had no parents in the village: no one was quite sure where she came from, but she's been there awhile. She ran around terrorizing the local farm animals and eating what people felt like giving her. Nobody was taking damn responsibility," his voice slid into a growl, "so we decided to bring her to the guild. It's where she belongs."

Fumie swiped a hand through the air again, and a ripple preceded the sudden appearance of a chicken in midair. With an irate squawk, it landed on Natsu's head, at which much swearing ensued, ending in the chicken strutting angrily away while Natsu picked feathers out of his hair.

"Fuck," he said, impressed. "That's like something I would pull."

He looked up at Fumie.

"I'm proud of you. Keep up the good work."

"Natsu!" Mira protested.

But Fumie, who hadn't hidden this time, beamed at him.

"Really, though," Evergreen said, sounding awed. "That's…incredible."

"Did she just create a living creature?" Gajeel asked.

"Freed says she's teleporting them in from somewhere," Laxus said. "But we haven't figured out where she's getting them from."

As Gray watched the bird strut between surprised wizards and out the front doors, Natsu murmured to him, "Now we know why the chicken crossed the road."

Gray chortled.

"Where's Freed?" Cana asked: the question on everyone's mind. Beside the facts that she used Letter magic, and Freed's boyfriend was very clearly growing attached to her…Fumie's hair was a bright, exuberant green.

"Store," Fumie replied, then ducked behind Laxus's head again. She added in a squeak, "For books."

"He's grabbing a few things to help us figure out what's going on," Laxus said.

"And cope," Ever added, and Laxus snorted a laugh.

"Yeah."

Pulling out a stool, he sat down: he looked tired, and also inordinately happy.

"Want to come down?" he asked Fumie.

"Okay." She let Laxus lower her, but halfway to the ground she grabbed his shirt. He sat back and let her curl in his lap instead.

"So you have a kid now…" Mira began.

Master walked out of his office and called out, "Did a bird fly into the guild again?"

"No," Gajeel began. "It's—"

Makarov looked over, zeroed in on Laxus, and his expression made Gajeel fall silent.

"Who do we have here?" the guildmaster asked, walking over. His face was a mix of smiling and hopeful and hooded.

"Fumie, this is Jiisan," Laxus told the girl, succeeding in getting her to look around.

As soon as she saw Makarov, her whole expression changed to one of wonder.

"Hi," she said, waving. (Gray and Cana both ducked, just in case.)

"Hello." He beamed up at her.

Gray suspected small children liked the guildmaster because he was their size. Fumie actually reached out to pat the top of his head before curling up fearfully against Laxus again.

"She seems awfully comfortable cuddling you," Makarov said, smiling at Laxus. "So why is she here?"

"She's a mage."

Makarov blinked in surprise. "You're a mage, Fumie?"

She nodded.

"What sort of magic do you like to do?"

"Summon," she said shyly.

"Yeah? How do you summon things?"

"Like this," she said, waving a hand (Gray ducked again). "Sometimes I change colors, too."

"And the tickling," Laxus reminded her.

"And I tickle," Fumie agreed sagely. "With magic."

"Wow." Makarov looked surprised. "Can I see?"

"I'm…" She jutted her lip out. "I'm tired, and it's hard, and—"

"Hey, it's okay," Laxus said, wrapping an arm around her tightly. "We all get tired. You don't have to show him right now. Or ever," he added, winking at his grandfather and making Fumie laugh. "You don't have to ever show him if you don't want to. He'll deal."

Makarov hmphed, but his eyes were smiling, tracing back and forth between Fumie and Laxus. Fumie put her head on Laxus's chest, who leaned back so she could lay on him more comfortably.

"Is this going to be a permanent new member, Laxus?" Makarov asked, a unique tenderness in his voice.

"Yes. I hope so. She doesn't have anywhere else to go."

"Someone has to take care of her." Despite his words, the lines around his eyes had softened.

"Already arranged," Laxus said. "I'm not letting just anyone take her home."

"You're going to take care of her?"

"Duh. Who else? Like I said, I don't trust anyone." Laxus frowned down at Fumie, protective. Suddenly he murmured, "Guess it's been a long day."

Gray realized Fumie's eyes were closed. She was asleep.

"This is good. She needs this," Laxus rumbled more quietly. "There were a lot of tears shed earlier; the job—she wandered in and got caught in the crossfire. Anyway. She used a lot of magic on the way to Magnolia. She can do far more than just teleportation and basic transformations on objects. Freed noticed her using certain runes when she was having a tantrum at one point, some highly nuanced stuff intended to manipulate emotions. She doesn't do it consciously: I think she just picks it up. She was learning new spells as we were walking back."

"Freed loves having a pupil," Evergreen said with a knowing smile.

"He wasn't teaching her. She just…made stuff up. Not even deliberately; she just does it. At one point when she felt overwhelmed, she made the air fill with static charge, out of nowhere. And then—gods—then her eyes lit up exactly like Freed's and she burst into a ball of electricity for a second. Not kidding. Almost lit us all on fire, and totally freaked herself out."

Laxus looked over at Makarov.

"Jiisan, it was dangerous for her to stay in the village. She's too powerful to go unnoticed. Even though the runes she uses are half-formed, she was definitely imitating Freed's and my magics, and she had only seen them once. I didn't know this was possible at her age."

"Damn," Gajeel said.

"There are exceptions," Gray said, thinking of Ultear. "But yeah, she's unique."

Makarov rubbed his chin and frowned seriously.

"When she gets a bit older and starts using full languages, she'll be better than Freed," Cana teased.

"Probably," Laxus said.

Mira startled. "Really?"

"Freed already said so himself. I'm serious: what she does sounds impossible until you see it with your own eyes."

"With spells that varied, she's going to be handful growing up," Makarov said. His smile turned sly. "Sounds familiar."

Laxus rolled his eyes. "At least I only used a couple kinds of magic."

Freed strolled into the hall and made a beeline for them.

"Yo, Captain," Ever said, "where are your books?"

Freed frowned at her. "I dropped them off at home with everything else. Why would I have them with me?"

He turned back to Laxus as Ever mouthed at Cana, Everything else?

"Did she 'summon' any other animals?" Freed asked.

"Just a chicken," Gray put in. "It started a fight with Natsu. And won."

"Oi!" Natsu protested, but Freed laughed.

When Fumie made a small noise, the rune mage cut off, but she was awake now, blinking and reaching for him.

Gray watched emotions flash over Freed's face in quick succession: uncertainty, anxiousness, yearning, warmth.

"C'mere, you." Freed picked her up and she immediately began playing with his hair.

Suddenly he went blonde; then pink-haired, blue, and once again green. Fumie giggled.

"Silly," Freed chided, "green is the best color. I want my hair to look the same as yours."

When he looked around again, he realized he'd become the focal point of attention and blushed profusely.

"What?"

"I think you found yourself a protégé," Gajeel chuckled.

"Freed, don't get offended," Cana said, "but she looks like she could be your daughter."

Fumie, who had started twisting some of Freed's hair around her finger, froze.

"I know," he said, smiling at the child in his arms.

"That's a good thing, Fumie, to be like Freed," Cana told her. "He's smart and kind and good-looking."

As Fumie shook her head and hid against his jacket, Freed chuckled.

"You're already big and strong," Freed said. "And wow, it makes you heavy."

Laxus held out his arms, asking, "Fumie, want to come back and sit with me again?"

"No." She gripped Freed.

"Okay," Freed said, and didn't look unhappy—quite the opposite. Still holding her, he wandered off to find another chair.

"Remind me again why he didn't want children?" Makarov asked. "Because he's really good at this."

"I know, right?" Laxus couldn't seem to tear his eyes away. "He held her while we finished the fight, just like that: carried her in one arm so he could shield her. Wrote his runes left-handed. It's amazing what he can do with only one hand."

Laxus didn't seem to notice Cana and Evergreen silently snickering.

Head on Gray's shoulder, Natsu exhaled.

"You gotta make an honest man out of him, Laxus," Natsu whispered in a quiet undertone meant for his Dragon Slayer ears.

Gajeel and Gray burst out laughing while Laxus whipped around and glared.

"What did he say?" Cana demanded.

"Don't dare say that aloud, Salamander," Laxus growled.

Natsu, head still perched on Gray's shoulder, looked at Cana and shrugged.

"Sorry. Guess my lips are sealed. At least until Laxus proposes—"

"Oi!" Gray shouted as Laxus swiped out to punch Natsu, who ducked behind Gray. "Not cool, guys!"

Laxus managed not to hit Gray, snarling at Natsu and marching away to help Freed drag a chair over. The drinking club watched the pair as Fumie made Freed put her down so she could also drag a chair over, following him like a very serious duckling.

"Don't push them," Makarov told Natsu, quiet enough Freed wouldn't hear. He grinned wide. "If we're going to get them married, we have to be more subtle."

Laxus straightened and glared at his grandfather, but got distracted when Fumie 'accidentally' materialized a flock of startled pigeons in the middle of the guild.

The most beautiful moment was when an exhausted Freed swooped her up in his arms and kissed her forehead like it was the most natural thing in the world. Or maybe it was when Fumie nodded at whatever Freed told her and dejectedly but obediently de-teleported the birds.

Or maybe it was Laxus, watching the pair of them with the biggest smile on his face the world had ever seen.

A/N: For the rest of this story (Freed and Laxus as parents), see the ficlet, "Child of My Heart."