Levy and Lucy waddled towards the bar, each leaning on each other. Levy huffed and placed a hand on her belly, "I swear it's like there's more than one in there."
Lucy glanced down at her friend, "Well that maybe true, I mean you're huge!"
Levy glared, "I'm not that big. Besides if I remember correctly, and I do, you were almost this big when you were carrying Igneel." Levy waved at Alice to get the young girl's attention.
"Well he was fucking ten pounds." Lucy shuddered at the memory, "I swear it was the most painful thing I have ever experienced. And I'm counting all the missions I've done with Natsu, Gray and Erza." The blonde looked over towards her husband and smiled. He was snoring quite loudly at one of the tables.
Levy cringed in sympathy and looked over at her son. Max was laughing with Layla and Jey, all three of them talking with the two little birthday girls, "They're worth it. All the waiting and pain, it's so worth it." Levy said, tearing up a little bit.
Lucy followed her blue haired friends gaze, her own eyes had tears as she watched her baby girl smile, "Absolutely worth it. Now, let's get those cookies."
The tears were instantly gone at the mention of cookies.
"Oh, Alice~!" Levy sang, trying to get to the bar quicker, "Do you think you could do us a favor?"
"Oh, sure Aunt Levy." Alice said immediately.
"I knew we could count on you! We need some cookies. Gooey, chocolate, peanut butter filled cookies. Can you make them for us?" Levy begged, her mouth practically drooling at the thought of the thing she was craving.
"Another craving?" Siren asked, sounding like she understood.
"Yeah, I didn't have it till shortie over here mentioned it." Lucy grumbled, it would take forever to get back into shape after eating nothing but junk food for so long. After this kid Natsu was getting fixed.
As if sensing her thoughts Natsu whimpered in his sleep.
"Well why don't I help Alice make some? Would that be all right?" Siren asked Alice.
"That would be lovely!"
"Good, Ms. Levy you like me to give you a checkup after we put the cookies in the oven? I promise I'll be gentle." Siren smiled softly.
"Checkup? Are you a doctor or something?" Levy asked, confused by the randomness of the question.
"Or something. I'm an empath." Siren explained and then headed back to the kitchen with Alice.
"Empath? I thought they didn't exist…" Levy breathed, turning to Lucy, "Did you know there were still some around?"
"Levy, if you didn't know it then the chances of me knowing it are slim to none." Lucy rolled her eyes.
…
Alice studied the girl currently mixing the batter for the cookies Aunt Lucy and Aunt Levy wanted. She seemed to know what her aunts were going through.
Siren hummed and said, "You can ask me, I don't mind."
"How did you know…how come you…"Alice, for once in her life, was having trouble with words.
"How come I seem know what they're going through?" Siren asked as she began to roll little cookie dough balls.
"Yeah, and what is exactly an empath?" Alice asked.
Siren rolled a couple more dough balls before speaking, "Because I went through the same thing."
"Same thing, you mean have a baby?" Alice asked astonished and disbelieving. The girl looked no more than sixteen and Siren had one of those bodies that looked perfect! "You're not wearing a wedding ring." She pointed out.
"True, but that because I've never been married. Now, on to your second question. An empath is someone who can link to another being by magic. We can take away pain and give strength. The only problem is when something is serious." Siren frowned at that. Her hands kept busy rolling the rest of the cookie dough.
"What kind of problems?" Alice asked, she really wanted to ask about the marriage and the child, but she didn't want to pry. She'd let her Aunt Mira do that.
Siren had gone back to humming, "Another question for another day. Now let's put these cookies in the oven, we don't want those two out there to go hungry now do we?" Siren gave Alice a bright smile and efficiently placed the two sheets of rolled dough balls on the racks of the oven and shut the door. She took off the oven mitts she had put on and headed back into the bar.
"No, I guess we don't." Alice agreed. Siren was a mysterious girl. But Alice was determined to get answers, even if that meant enlisting her cousins' help.
…
The cookies were soon done and Siren raced to grab them before they burned. While the girl was away and distracted Alice took the chance to spill what she knew to the others, "Siren is a mother."
Nicholas nearly spit out the sip of water he had taken, "No way, how the hell you find that out?" He kept glancing back at the long brown haired girl.
"She said she'd been through what Aunt Levy and Aunt Lucy were going through and I pointed out she wasn't wearing a ring she said she was never married." Alice looked over worriedly to her aunts, "I just wonder where her baby is…I meant it can't be that old yet. She doesn't look over sixteen!"
"Alice, go do something, clean, serve the guild members, just do something. Lucy and I will handle it." Levy assured her. Alice nodded hesitantly and then went off.
"Holy shit, Levy what do you think about that?" Lucy asked her friend.
"I make no judgments until I know all the facts." Levy sniffed.
"But…" Lucy prompted.
"But I think there are secrets she has," Levy began watching the girl in question skillfully place the finished cookies on a tray, "And they'll come out soon enough."
"Will they?" Nicholas asked, "Some secrets stay that way, secret." With a glint in his eye, he strode over to Siren.
Lucy giggled, "He's looking for trouble."
"Honey, he is trouble." Levy stated.
…
Max silently broke away from the festivies to look for his father. Max spotted him over in the corner and made his way over, "Hey."
Gajeel crunched on a iron bar, "Hn."
"Dad, did you notice something about Jey?" Max asked, not really having enough courage to say he had claimed her out right.
Gajeel studied the girl a moment before turning to his son, "She's wearing a necklace." Then he narrowed his red eyes, "You put it there." It wasn't a question, but a statement.
"Yes I did and you'll have to accept it." Max swallowed, feeling that if his father didn't approve it would hurt, but he wouldn't back down.
Gajeel kept his eyes narrowed on him and turned back to Jey. Max wasn't able to see the smile that bloomed across the Metal Dragon Slayer's lips, "She has blue hair."
"So?"
"Your mother has blue hair." Gajeel turned to wrap an arm companionly around his son's shoulders, "it seems we're more alike than I first thought." Max nearly sighed in relief, his father approved! "Now, while I have no problem with you claiming so early it's your mother that you have to worry about." Gajeel glanced at the boy from the corner of his eye, "I don't think she'll like the thought of her baby boy growing up so soon after he returned."
Max hadn't thought about that. He quickly thought of options and the best one was to quickly tell her. Kind of like ripping off a bandage. "I guess I have to tell her don't I?"
"No, I'll do it for you, but…" Gajeel trailed off, letting the poor boy freak, "you owe me one." Gajeel patted Max's back, rather hard, and headed over to where Levy was stuffing her face with cookies. At least he was doing this when she was eating chocolate.
…
Adrian and Igneel stumbled in, obviously they were drunk. Igneel pushed his dark haired friend, "You couldn't beat me even if you were sober!" Igneel laughed to himself.
"Oh yeah, I bet I could beat you…with both my hands behind my back!" Adrian declared loud enough to attract some attention to them. Jey and Layla noticed them, their sluggish movements and the slurred words gave the two girls a clue what they had been doing for the past couple hours.
Nicholas, who had somehow managed to lose sight of Siren, sulked over, "You guys are smashed." He looked over at Adrian, and smirked at the bruise forming there, "Igneel did your face good Fullbuster, you look at least ten times better."
Adrian narrowed his eyes at the green haired boy, "Watch it Justine, I may be drunk but I can still knock you on your ass." He raised a fist slightly.
"I bet you can't." Nicholas mocked, feeling ready for a fight.
"I bet none of you are going to fight." Layla growled behind him.
Nicholas turned to face her, "I said I bet, I never said anything about actually doing it." He shrugged and the other two pouted at the loss of a fight. Nicholas didn't need a crazy chick after him, "I'm about to bail, see you losers later." He took a couple steps and then just to screw with Fullbuster and Dragneel, he gave Layla and Jey a nice friendly kiss each. "Night." He called as he walked away.
Layla and Jey didn't really worry about it because Lucia had explained to them the art of kissing. They merely called out a good-bye and returned to Charlie and Noah. Igneel and Adrian on the other hand just stood there.
"What just-" Igneel started.
"Happened?" Adrian finished.
Then they looked at each other, "Team up, one time only."
…
Lucia strutted over to Alice, who was serving drinks again. Aunt Mirajane and Uncle Freed had come back and were manning the bar. Lucia tapped her cousin's shoulder, "I am not going to the spa tomorrow. And no, you cannot make me." Lucia crossed her arms and tossed her head stubbornly.
"I can make you, unless you those pictures from last news years to 'accidently' to be posted on the mission request board." Alice said mildly, not evening looking at Lucia.
"I thought I destroyed the film." Lucia gaped.
"What you thought was the New Year's party was actually just pictures from Fantasia."
"Damn you." Lucia sneered, "Damn you and your conniving ways!"
"Sweetie they're not really conniving, just smart." Alice said with a careless shrug.
"Lies."
"If you say so."
Lucia pouted, "I still don't want to go."
"Well, I don't care. You are going whether you want to or not." Alice sighed, "Am I really that insufferable that you don't want to spend a single day with me?"
"Yes, yes you are."
"Really?"
Now this time Lucia sighed, "Alice, it's not that I find you intolerable, because I do in a family sort of way. I don't want to go because I hate, and I will stress the word hate, spas."
Alice perked back up, "Well, I think you'll change your mind. The spa I'm thinking about go to is absolutely fabulous!"
"I sincerely doubt that."
"Just you wait, just you wait." Alice said in a cryptic manner.
"Stop it, you are creeping me out." Lucia said. She leaned back against the table and slipped. Lucia failed her arms out and cringed when her hip smashed painfully on the wood. Her head cracked against the hard floor.
"Lucia!" Alice exclaimed, quickly placing the tray she was holding down on a nearby table. She kneeled down to her cousin and checked for a bump and- there it was, a big nasty one right on the back of her head.
Lucia opened her eyes dizzily.
"Oh my goodness, Lucia are you all right? I know you have a hard head, but are you okay?"
"Alice?" Lucia mumbled.
"Yes?"
"Why do you have three heads?"
…
A/N:
Ttfn~ Ta ta for now~!
Xoxo
Marina Rose