Dragneel; Igneel & Layla 11, Sarapina 9, Nash 8, Michelle & Nayla & Jude 2

Redfox; Ren 11, Axel 10, Connor & Wyatt 8 , Myka 2

Haroworth; Nolan & Lucca & Kellen & Rainer & Aura 8

Drayer; Lexie 12

Justine; Marcus 10, Isabella 3

Alberona; Chance 10

Fullbuster; Storm 11, Ur &Ulter 2

Damian 11, Ivy 1

Fernandez; Maia 7

Fiore; Drake 8, Alya 2

Ecluiff; Reese 11, Verity 8, Kato 6, Kassie 4, Korin 2

The Trouble with Spirits and Children

*** Ten years after Celestial Mage wanted****

The annual gathering of the celestial mages of Fiore had begun. The three women gathered once a year to discuss issues that pertained to the balance of the world due to the balance that need to be kept with the spirits. The meeting had been going well until it was interrupted by a loud shout.

"Mama!" The brash scream filled the air as Lucy turned to look over her shoulder.

"Yes?" The blonde asked turning to find her nine year old daughter gripping the railing on the second floor the wood groaning under the iron like hold her hands had on it.

"Igneel stole my hair brush!" Saraphina cried as hot tears of anger fell down her face.

"What did I tell you about getting the gold one?" Lucy asked not moving from her spot on the couch.

"But I wanted the gold one!" Saraphina shouted as Lucy rolled her eyes of all the dragon traits her non slayer daughter could receive it had to be possessiveness.

"Well what do you want me to do about it?" Lucy asked rolling her eyes already knowing her daughter's answer.

"I need a new hair brush!" The blonde child insisted as a loud boom rattled the house, the cups of tea on the coffee table rattled against the saucers.

"Nash Dragneel are you doing another experiment in my house?" Lucy shouted as the shy voice of her eight year old son cried out.

"No!" He said unconvincingly from his room.

"Can't you just use mine for right now?" Lucy asked turning her attention back to her daughter.

"No I need mine!" She shouted.

"Fine Zeref," Lucy called out as her brother in law came from the library.

"Yes?" The spirit asked as looked over the group of women the two guest chuckling at the fight.

"Could you please take Saraphina to the market so she can buy a new hair brush?" Lucy asked walking over to her bag and pulling out her wallet. Zeref nodded his head as Saraphina walked down the stairs.

"Do not buy another gold one! I will not buy you another," Lucy ordered as she handed the jewels to her daughter.

"Wait I want to come too!" Nash called out as the pink haired boy slid down the banister stopping next to his mother and sister.

His wild pink hair was filled with tangles, as like his father's stuck up every which way. Rumpled shirt and shorts that were covered in various black stains the Lucy had given up on identifying and had ordered her son that these clothes were the only one he could do his experiments in. little patches of what the celestial wizard was hoping was merely charcoal dotted his face in a manner that seemed like he had attempted to wipe clean but had failed to do so in a mirror.

"The florist has the death lily petals I need," Nash said proudly as he threw his messenger bag over his shoulder.

"How much is that going to cost me?" Lucy asked as she began wiping the smudges of coal off her son's face.

"It would have cost you nothing if you had let me go with Dad to Alvarez," Nast complained as he stuck a pen behind his ear.

"Your father is on a ss-class mission, besides what's the rule?" Lucy asked giving up on the chance her son would be clean until just before bed.

"Nothing over j class until were teens," the two children recited the rule as Lucy nodded her head handing her son some money as well.

The new classification system the guild used for jobs kept older more experienced mages from doing job meant for younger mages but also so that none of the children would take a job that was in over their head. After all no one wanted to repeat the time Igneel had tried to take on a whole band of dark mages by himself. While the then nine year old was just barely okay the same could not be said about the unfortunate forest the group had been hiding in.

"Good now don't blow up the market," Lucy warned as she opened the door and watched her children race out the door their uncle not far behind.

"Don't blow up the market, though you would only have to tell your dragon children that!" Hisui laughed as Lucy sighed in annoyance.

"I would, expect Nash is so smart if he didn't look so much like Natsu I'd swear he was Zeref's kid," she huffed sitting back down looking at the photo of her son.

Checking the baby monitor she made sure all the toddlers were still down for their nap. Thankfully the house shaking hadn't woken them up, after all the young princesses was notoriously hard to put to sleep since the shadows seemed to just invigorate her.

"Didn't he destroy the produce stall a few months ago?" Yukino asked as she poured herself another cup of tea.

"Yes, but thankfully I buy so much from that vendor he brushed it off," Lucy grunted as she looked back at her friends.

"Well I must say that is one benefit of being Royalty, I never have to cook for my dragons," Hisui chuckled.

"Lucky you and didn't I hear Natsu saying it was time for another baby?" Yukino asked as Lucy looked up at the family portrait.

Both the blonde and her husband were in the middle Saraphina and Nash in front of them with a now twelve year old Igneel and Layla flanking both sides while the parents juggled the triples who were two in the picture. Michelle, Nayla, and Jude.

"Yes Natsu wants another dragon," Lucy huffed shaking her head.

"He's just mad that we have three," Yukino sighed remembering the fight Natsu and Sting got into when they found out that their youngest was a dragon slayer.

"Yes and when the triplets were born I told him that I would only carry one more set of multiples and that was it," Lucy growled remembering the havoc that her house became while she was on bed rest with the triplets.

"So to return to our previous topic. Lucy you said something about keys?" The green haired mate began taking a sip of her tea hearing her daughter fuss upstairs, and opting to leave her be for right now.

"Yes, in recent years I have been noticing a trend of people who buy keys simply to have them. While most are just fakes the ones that are real can cause some problems," Lucy began as she pulled out several reports she had written up of the phenomenon that was occurring.

"How so?" Yukino asked as she looked out the window noting that her children were a little too quiet.

"If kept near a human but not used, the keys can have adverse effects on said humans like the two girls that died of magic depletion disease. The keys will drain the magic from them but because there is no contract it will drain faster and longer," Lucy explained as she remembered the case.

She had been called in due to the keys involved, high ranking silvers were hard to come by. The great bear was now in her daughter's hands while the Eagle waited for one of the two younger celestial mages to come of age. But the two girl's deaths took a while to figure out. In fact she only got confirmation on the cause that morning.

"So what do you propose?" Hisui questioned looking over the paperwork, noting the high number of gate keys that were in the possession of people who had no use for them.

"That we make the sales of celestial keys illegal. And the possession of keys while not being a celestial mage prohibited," Lucy stated firmly.

"I second that, Sting and I raided a dark guild a few months ago and found them experimenting on how to unlock the gates without a celestial mage. When I called the spirits to check on them they were in so much pain," Yukino sighed as she brushed her hands over two of the keys she had been able to save.

"Yes and Loke has told me that in the last few years several keys have been destroyed due to such treatment," Lucy added.

"Alright I'll draw up the law when I get back. What should we do with the keys at the shops?" The princess spoke as she tucked the papers away, so she could show her father, husband, and son later.

"We already know the value of most every key, tell them that the Haroworths will pay them cost for each key they have. We can keep them safe until our children are old enough for other spirits," Lucy smiled as she thought back to the vault at the Hartfilia mansion.

With the help of several other guilds she had been able to collect quite a few keys most she decided to set aside for the next generation. There were three and possibly four children that would be able to carry those keys. But with Saraphina reaching her teen years Lucy had been contemplating taking her daughter to the great well.

"And private collections? I know of three nobles who collect keys," Hisui asked as she looked over at the blonde.

"We can reimburse them for the value of the key not the cost," Lucy said quickly.

"But what about other countries we can't ask them to give us those keys," Yukino said as she heard a loud shout followed by familiar arguing standing up she walked to the window and opened it looking out on her four children.

"Reese you put your baby sister down right now!" Yukino demand as her eldest looked at her sheepishly.

"But mom I was showing her how Kato and I do a unison raid," the boy whined the little white haired three year old gripping on to her bothers similar hair.

"I said no unison raid without your father present or if you're in danger. And Verity where is Bobo?" The mother asked as she turned to her second eldest.

"I got tired so he went back," Verity spoke as she ran her hand over her single silver key that hung on a chain around her neck.

"Behave, or we won't go see aunt Sorano," she ordered once more looking at her three dragon slayers the two older pouting.

Turning back Yukino returned to the meeting just as four cries came from the nursery.

"Nap times over," Lucy sighed as the three women walked up stairs to gather the toddlers.

The two blonde and on pink haired children were all bouncing ready to be release as Lucy and Yukino both bent over and picked them up. Hisui walked over the play pen and pulled up her own daughter. The young princesses rubbing the sleep out of her blue eyes as her mother smoothed out her black hair.

"Well Alya doesn't look to happy about being awake," Yukino laughed as she followed Lucy out of the nursery and back down the stairs.

"She's always grumpy after her nap," Hisui said the woman made it back down stairs.

Placing the kids on the waiting blanket filled with toys. The triplets each crawled in all different directions towards their favorites while Alya looked up at her mother before going after her own bag near her mother's leg.

"So what were we discussing?" Lucy asked.

"Keys from other countries," Yukino informed.

"What if we just send a memo out to the guilds that if anyone finds a key, they purchase it and we'll reimburse the cost," Lucy suggested it was what she had done with Fairy Tail.

On his last trip home Freed had brought back six keys from Seven, and thanks to the fact that the Alvarez republic still sees the Dragneel family as their Royalty they had sent over twelve keys in the last few years alone.

"I like that idea," Hisui said as Kato walked in the door.

"I'm hungry," the six year old said, his blonde hair hanging in his eyes.

"Alright I think we're going to have to stop for today," Lucy said as she looked at the time know she would need to make lunch soon.

"Yes I'll talk to the scribes and get started on the laws, Lucy can you handle the interviews Jason is going to want about these once they are in acted?" Hisui asked as she put her daughter's toys in her bag and picked up the child.

"Yeah, just send me full copies before so I am prepared," the blonde laughed as Yukino walked out of the door.

"Come on you three, time to go!" she shouted as her children raced up the paved walkway their mother not far behind.

"OF course we should have it configured by the end of the week and we will enact it by this time next week," the princess spoke as she disappeared with her daughter into the shadows.

"Alright Plue," Lucy called out her dog spirit, the little snowman standing in the middle of the three children. "Can you watch them while I get lunch started?" Lucy asked as the spirited nodded his head.

"Pun pun!" Plue shouted as he began to do his little dance the three toddlers each laughing and clapping at him.

Looking up at the family portrait Lucy sighed as she said to herself, "Maybe it is time for another baby,"