Laxus let out a sigh of relief when he stepped into his and Hisui's suite to see his wife and their daughter. Lacey was happily giggling and babbling, every so often crawling up next to her mother, who was sitting in bed and watching her, and snuggling her. Laxus couldn't help but smile. He could see the sheer exhaustion in Hisui's eyes and he quickly came over to her, sitting down on their bed next to her, and lightly kissing her cheek and pressing a hand gently against her baby bump. Hisui laughed a little when he began to play with her hair, his light touches electrified just enough to cause it to stick up on end. Lacey stared excitedly and pouted when her father quickly stopped. He tried not to use his magic much with Hisui these days, afraid of both hurting her and the baby, but he knew also that she liked it and so he drew the careful line.

"Mommy let me wear tiara!" Lacey exclaimed, crawling over to her father and climbing on him to mess with his hair. "Because ball next week!"

Laxus smirked. "I take it someone's pretty happy about that."

Lacey grinned. "Yes!"

"I don't think I've ever seen her this excited," Hisui told him, curling into his warm embrace. "Jade and Sieg will be back tomorrow, too, so hopefully they'll be able to come next week too. Mira said that Natsu and Lucy will be….and apparently Freed is terrified by that prospect."

Laxus chuckled. "I would be more concerned about Ever and Bix than the Salamander," He said with a shrug. "They're more frequently…..terrifying."

Hisui raised an eyebrow. "I think you've forgotten the amount of things Natsu has destroyed over the years. Honestly, if it weren't for his wife, I'd think he would have been in and out of prison at least six or seven different times by now."

"As much as that thought amuses me," Laxus said, lightly prying his daughter's tiny hands from his hair and summoning small, colourful orbs of lightning for her to play with. "Seeing him and Bickslow run drunk would be more fun. Personally, I want to know if Bix can outrun him."

"That would be a disaster!" Hisui exclaimed. "And don't tell Evergreen that. She'll ensure it happens if she gets the idea."

"Hey, hey," Laxus said, giving her an affectionate squeeze. "I'm not the one you need to worry about. Your brother, on the other hand…..well, let's just say that Freed has encouraged some of Ever's….worst impulses before and I know he'd do it again."

"Of course he would," Hisui agreed, laughing a little. "He's been doing things like that for years. When we were kids, he would convince me it was a good idea to do increasingly dangerous things to the point where my father felt the need to explicitly order Arcadios to not let me anywhere near the roof."

Laxus raised an eyebrow. "I may need to have a word with Freed about endangering my wife."

Hisui rolled her eyes. "I was never quite that reckless, Laxus," She told him, still laughing. "But my father certainly thought I was. More than likely, he probably thought Freed was going to convince me to do something that was both stupid and somewhat dangerous."

Laxus cupped her cheek. "Well," He said, stealing a kiss. "I'm glad I have you and that you never -"

"Uncle Fwee!" Lacey jumped up, nearly falling when she tried to run towards her uncle, who was standing in the doorway with Bickslow who, unusually, didn't have his eyes covered. "Bixy!"

"I'm not a pixie!" Bickslow exclaimed.

"She's two," Laxus reminded him.

"And it's late," Hisui blinked in surprise when he and Freed stepped in. "What is wrong with your hair?"

Bickslow sent Freed a dark look. "Mira gave me a bad hair cut to try and cover where I was balding and Freed is mad that I stole some of her and Lissy's hair. I'll point out," He smacked Freed in the back. "Lisanna is my wife and was more than happy to help me glue hair to my head."

Hisui and Laxus exchanged a look and they both grimaced.

"You look ridiculous," Laxus told him.

"Utterly ridiculous," Hisui added.

Bickslow spluttered. "I stuck their hair to my head with glue and I now look like I'm twenty two! How is that -"

"You're proving us right," Freed warned him. "I wouldn't finish that statement if I were you."

"Hair!" Lacey stared at Bickslow's head, her eyes wide.

"Let my toddler 'play' with your hair," Hisui suggested, half jokingly. "I dare you."

The first thing Levy thought when she saw her sister in law was that she looked sick.

The second was that she seemed completely drained, and even more pale than she usually was. Gajeel seemed to notice the same thing and gave his adoptive sister a worried look that, by all accounts, she didn't seem to notice. Siegrain hesitantly brought her in close, holding her almost as if he were afraid of hurting her. Upstairs, they could hear Lana Marie excitedly talking to her grandmother. Jade kept glancing towards the stairwell, eventually pulling off her glasses and setting them on the small coffee table beside her. Her green eyes were dull, and some grey in her dark roots were showing among her otherwise deep, amethyst hair. Gajeel bit back the immediate thought that came to mind whilst he and Levy sat down across from his sister and brother in law, but he couldn't quite hold it all the way back either.

"I know you said you'd been drinking, but I didn't think you meant like that," Gajeel said, ignoring the dark look Siegrain cast towards him. "You okay, Jade? And ya better not lie just 'cause you don't wanna talk about it."

Jade glanced towards him, sighing and tiredly waving her hand at his blurry form.

"I haven't been drinking, not today, and not for a few days," She told him, resting her forehead against the palm of her hand. "I….I ran into Ivan the other day."

Gajeel and Levy stared at her in disbelief. Siegrain lightly brushed a hand against her leg, hoping to soothe her.

"What?" Levy could barely find her voice. "What do you -"

"I mean I was out of the kingdom for a few days to meet with a client," Jade cut in, her usually high, clear voice sounding soft and exhausted. "Sieg and Lanie were with me, but they….."

"I don't blame you for chasing him down, m'dear," Siegrain said, taking her hand. "I promise. I'm just relieved he didn't do anything to you."

"But, wait," Levy nervously pressed. "What happened."

Jade was silent for a few seconds. "We…..talked," She said. "To put it mildly."

Ivan had turned quickly on his heel, the sand kicking up around him. Had he moved just a few moments later, he would have been smacked by a celestial spirit, one that only just disappeared back into its gate when Ivan saw the woman holding the gate key. He narrowed his eyes, and then snorted.

"Jade," He had said coldly. "I always assumed it, but you do look so much like your mother. In many ways, you could be her."

She had scowled. "I have to ask," She spoke darkly. "How long have you been hiding here?"

Ivan had scoffed. "As if I would tell you that. You and I both know you will turn around and tell your husband exactly what happened if I dared to do anything to you. Don't think I am naive enough to fall for any stunt that would give Siegrain probable cause to arrest me here."

Jade had taken a small step back, her entire body shaking. "Why?" She finally said. "Why are you such an asshole and, frankly, why the fuck do you want to hurt Laxus and Hisui's baby girl?"

"Your brother," Ivan had sneered. "Would be ill and bedridden if it weren't for me. I don't have any doubt that Hisui would still love him, but he owes me everything. Reminding him of that is my only goal."

Jade had flinched. "So then why attack me and Mira?"

"That was a…..crime of opportunity," Ivan had laughed a bit. "It worked, didn't it?"

"You have no idea how cruel that was!" Jade had shaken, unable to force herself to look at him while tears pricked at her eyes. "I -"

"You were weak and always have -"

"I was pregnant!" Jade had snapped, her entire body quivering. "I was about to tell Sieg, too, but I lost the baby because of you! How is that not cruel? Do you feel absolutely nothing?"

Ivan had rolled his eyes. "If you want someone to care, Jade," He said. "You won't find that in me."

Levy almost immediately came over to her sister in law and tightly embraced her, letting her go only when Jade finally broke down and began to sob into Siegrain, who was in as much pain as she was.

"I'm going to kill Ivan," Gajeel vowed, clenching his fists. "If he thought he had more than earned it before, then he ain't seen nothing yet."

"Nice to get some time alone," Chelia said, pouring herself and her wife some rather full mugs of coffee. "I mean, it's four in the morning, but I'll take whatever we can get."

Wendy gulped down nearly half of her coffee at once, not caring for a second how hot it was. Chelia laughed and sat down next to her wife, wrapping an arm over her shoulders.

"Hey, we deserve to get some alone time too," Wendy said, snuggling into Chelia. "Besides, it's not like we have a whole lot to do today."

"That," Chelia said, shuddering at the thought. "Could change in the blink of an eye."

"It always can," Wendy replied with a light shrug, taking another sip of her coffee. "Maybe the fates will be nice to us for once. I mean, come on. Ultear -"

"No," Chelia cut in. "Don't speak her name. In just the last two days alone, she's utterly terrified me. How can someone yell that much and not lose their voice?"

Wendy grimaced. "Just be glad she isn't trying to train us faster by using her arc of time still," She said, quickly finishing her coffee and setting it down in front of them. "I barely remember it beyond thinking it was pure torture, but I don't want to. How can she act like that thing is a toy?"

"How could your dad describe it as 'not that bad' when we asked him about it?" Chelia countered, sticking out her tongue for a few seconds in disgust. "At least Siegrain and Jade had some sense about it when we saw them the other day."

"Ultear got way too much enjoyment out of suggesting Jade try it," Wendy laughed a little, remembering how her uncle had begun to protest when Ultear had suggested his and Jade's six year old use it too. "I still can't believe she cut in and said -"

"Shut up, Sieg, and pour me more wine," Chelia quipped, almost perfectly imitating Jade's high and somewhat squeaky voice. "I'm not going to be able to handle this without it."

Wendy snickered. "I'm just glad someone in my family has common sense. My own mother has used that damn thing before and said it was fine, so I don't even know what she's on about."

"I don't trust Erza to accurately describe anything," Chelia shook her head, laughing too. "I love your mom, honestly Dee-Dee, but everything she says isn't painful is and everything she says isn't disgusting has made me want to vomit just seeing."

Wendy nodded. "Agreed," She said. "I don't think my parents…..are normal."

"Well that's an understatement," Chelia said, finally sipping on her own cup of coffee. "What was your first clue? Was it the tub incident?"

Wendy turned to her in surprise. "You remember that?"

Chelia giggled. "Alright, Dee-Dee," She said, reaching over to tap her nose. "You do remember that was a few days after our wedding, don't you?"

"Of course I do!" Wendy exclaimed through laughter. "But it was still -"

"Crazy?" Chelia suggested.

"Absolutely!" Wendy said, wheezing. "Why did they carry it around upside down and hold it over their heads? It's not as if they were keeping anything in it!"

"Maybe," Chelia joked. "They had it just because they wanted to see if Natsu and Lucy would find a way to use it illegally with Gray and Juvia.'

Wendy considered that. "Sounds about right to me."

"Damn…" Chelia groaned. "It would have been way better if Gray and Juvia had done that! They would have gotten a second one just to chicken fight Natsu and Lucy in too! It would have been fucking perfect!"

"It would have!" Wendy laughed with her. "And seeing Natsu and Gray play chicken is already funny enough! Lucy and Juvia just make it better!"

"Well," Chelia said, winking. "They are their wives and you and I both know how damn persuasive a married woman can be with their spouse."

Wendy glanced around briefly to ensure they were alone and then leaned in to kiss her, letting the moment linger.

"You're right," She said, resting a hand against Chelia's knee. "And that's what gives us so much strength."