Lacey giggled and almost immediately curled into her mother's arms, who picked her up with a tired smile. Laxus, who was sitting on the other end of their bed, reached over to kiss his wife's cheek and wave at their daughter. All things considered, he was relieved they could have a quiet evening for once. The last few days alone had been awful, and, if nothing else, he had been worried about his wife and he wanted nothing more than for her, the baby, and their daughter to not have to worry about anything. The night before had been hard on them both; between Lacey being upset after having missed her nap and Hisui feeling sick all day, it hadn't been easy. If anything, he was glad they were able to have a happier, calmer evening just to themselves and their baby girl.

"You know," He said, affectionately tousling his little girl's hair. "You're going to be almost three when your baby brother is born, aren't you, Lacey?"

"Laxus -" Hisui started, trying not to laugh when he suddenly wrapped an arm tightly around her.

"Hey, hey," He teased, his fingers gently grazing her cheek. "I told you I'm going to be right about this, and he's going to be just as sweet as she is."

Hisui rolled her eyes. "Laxus," She said, squeezing his hand. "You're this close to making me hope we have another girl just to prove you wrong."

Laxus smirked. "See, 'Sui," He murmured, leaning over to lightly kiss her small baby bump. "As much as I'm hoping to win this bet, I love them already and you know it. You're not going to be able to stay mad at me, are you?"

Lacey giggled and climbed onto her mother, wrapping her tiny arms tightly around her the best she could before she started to try and play with her mother's necklaces. "Sparkly!" She declared with a grin. "I want sparkles too, mommy!"

Hisui smiled, pressing a light kiss to her daughter's forehead. "When we get to the summer ball after the Grand Magic Games, then I'll let you, okay, Lacey?"

Lacey perked up immediately, looking rather giddy at the thought. "Tiara!"

"As long as she doesn't do what the Salamander did, I don't care," Laxus whispered, eliciting a surprised laugh from his wife. "I mean that. I'd rather not watch your father chase our daughter around in a pumpkin head."

Hisui raised an eyebrow. "It's bold of you to assume he's not going to let her wear one."

Laxus grimaced at the thought. "The last thing I want is our two year old daughter running around the Domus Flau in a pumpkin head. Toma would probably be amused by it, but I would not be."

"Pumpkins?" Lacey innocently pressed.

"Not for you," Laxus said, tapping her nose. "Your grandfather is just strange. Speaking of which, you know nothing about that."

"Laxus, she's two!" Hisui shook her head, smiling faintly. "She can barely feed herself half the time, you really expect her to be able to keep a secret?"

He considered that and then shrugged. "I'm sure she'll be good at it," He grinned when Lacey tried to climb up him and play with his hair. "We're going to have to keep a closer eye on you than we did last year, aren't we? You're a lot more adventurous, huh?"

"I wanna play!" Lacey declared, her tiny hands trying to muss his hair. "And see pumpkin-man!"

"I think you see pumpkin-man every day," Laxus joked. "I bet if you ask your grandfather about him, he'll be more than happy to tell you all about him."

"Trying to deflect blame, are you?" Hisui teased. "You'd feel better if she found out from him, wouldn't you?"

"Depends," Laxus winked. "Care to tell her about the time your father made you wear the pumpkin head as a punishment?"

Hisui stared at him for a few seconds, stunned and blushing. "Laxus! You can't be serious!"

"Mommy-pumpkin?" Lacey looked to her mother with wide eyes. "You dressed like the pumpkin-man?"

"Not because she wanted to," Laxus told her, pausing for a moment to squeeze his wife's hand. "Don't worry, 'Sui. I happen to think this particular story is rather cute….now….how to explain?"

"What are we doing?"

Cana set her flask to her hip and stared at her husband, who motioned her into an alleyway. She eyed him strangely and pulled a second hood out of her bag, throwing it at him with a pointed look. Mest blinked, a bit surprised, but then sighed off the look his wife gave him. Rather quickly, he switched cloaks and Cana, ever resourceful, stuffed his other in her (decidedly behemoth) bag. Then, after glancing out to check their surroundings, she grabbed his hand and let him back out into the streets. Around them, there was not much activity but, then again, it was four in the morning in Crocus, and it would, perhaps, be even more suspect if people were out. Still, Mest wasn't quite sure what exactly his wife was trying to accomplish other than running the risk of them getting into trouble, which, given his position as a member of the Magic Council, was something he expressly wanted to avoid.

Truly, all things considered, he imagined it was very much something she wanted to avoid too. The last time he could recall her getting arrested had been less than three months prior and, no less, it had been with her father. So far as Mest could tell, Gildarts being in town meant his wife found an extra excuse to get raving drunk, and the decisions she often made with her father did not make either of them look good. The most recent example he could think of, as it happened, involved them both stealing a taxi each and drag racing in the streets of Era. To put it quite mildly, it hadn't exactly looked good for them and, involuntarily, he could still hear Jade Fernandes trying not to laugh too hard when she had heard about it, let alone how Sieg had all but begged him to stop Cana and Gildarts from "getting into anything more destructive than firecrackers" again.

As it had turned out, Mest recalled with a smirk, Cana would end up being far less destructive and excitable by firecrackers than Jade, who had nearly set her hand on fire lighting several at once with her magic.

"Cana…." Mest kept his voice low as they kept walking. "You could at least clue me in on what's happening. Who are we following? And what was so wrong with my -"

"Mest," Cana stopped him and playfully tousled his hair. "You can't dress like you stole some of Siegrain's clothes when trailing someone. Try and dress more like a thief. And, well, we're following a creep who might know far more about Ivan Dreyar's escape from prison than they let on."

Mest let out a heavy sigh. "Don't make us sound like we're Bonnie and Clyde."

Cana chuckled. "Hey, we're in this in sickness, health, and cahoots."

Mest raised an eyebrow. "Care to at least tell me who this person is?"

Cana took another few glances around and then nodded. "Their name is Cordelia, though Makarov couldn't tell me much more than that. All I know for sure is that she's been a contact of Ivan's for ages. If anyone knows what he's up to, it's her."

"And you didn't mention this to the Council?" Mest stared at her, confounded. "This could -"

"It's complicated, and a bit of a shot in the dark," Cana quietly reminded him as they turned another corner after the woman. "Now hush, please, I'd rather we not get caught."

"Alright," Mest lowered his voice, his eyes narrowing when he saw the woman slip into the side-entrance of a building. "Is that a psychic shop? Cana, please don't tell me we're trailing someone who ripped you off or -"

"They haven't ripped me off," Cana paused and then smirked. "At least, they haven't tried to yet."

Mest snapped his head towards her in shock. "You're kidding. No. Don't tell me you want to try and extract information out of her by pretending to be -"

"A client?" Cana nodded. "Exactly right! That's part of why I wanted you to look…less conspicuous."

Mest sighed. "I'd rather you not go in there alone."

"I figured," She replied, reaching into her bag again and pulling out a short, blonde wig. "Put this on, and try and cover your scar with this," She handed him an oversized eye patch, and he frowned. "Do you want to get caught or not? If she really is still working with or associated with Ivan, then -"

"Fine," Mest swore under his breath as he adjusted the wig and then the eye patch. "I hope you know just how many laws we're breaking here. This could get us both in serious trouble."

Cana shrugged and pulled on a wig for herself, as well as a long overdress to obscure her almost entirely and, more importantly, hide her guild mark. "Some things are worth trouble," She replied, squaring her shoulders and taking in a deep breath as they started towards the front of the shop the woman had discreetly entered. "Now...let's see if we can find out anything worthwhile."