Something unsettled Lucy, it wasn't a terrible feeling but it was a feeling of vague familiarity that the children held. Natsu still stood stark still, his nose had stopped twitching, but his face shown something between curiosity and disturbance.
"What's going on here?" Makarov ambled his way through the crowd that was formed around the children. Though small, the master emanated an authoritative presence that Lucy welcomed. Perhaps he would be able to make some sense of the situation.
"Master!" The pink haired little girl cheered before her brother hushed her aggressively. Lucy had made out that, so far, the twins were obviously related, and the blonde haired boy and the pink haired girl were brother and sister. The red headed boy and the girl with blue hair seemed to not have any siblings with them, if they had any.
"Master?" Makarov rubbed his chin in thought. "So, you lot need a bit of help I've heard. I suppose we could try to offer assistance, but let me warn you, we can't promise anything."
"We know that!" The twin girl said in a rush. "W-we just didn't have anyone else to go to... We knew that Fairy Tail would be the best option."
"And how do you know us?" Makarov placed an inquisitive stare on the two eldest children who shifted their feet uncomfortably. The boy then cleared his throat and met Makarov's gaze.
"We're not at liberty to say." He replied sounding strained and Makarov raised a brow. "I- I know how that sounds! But as we explained before, we can't say who we are, but if you figure it out-"
"You're Yaje and Shutora." Levy suddenly spoke up, her eyes wide and a hand resting gently on her belly. Gajeel nearly choked standing next to her, his eyes stretched as wide as they could.
"What?" Gajeel gasped and everyone looked at Levy in confusion.
"Who are Yaje and Shutora?" Erza questioned and Levy broke into a huge smile, tears brimming in her eyes.
"Th-they're..." Gajeel began but trailed off, shaking his head. "Impossible. I knew they smelled familiar but..."
"They're the twins." A collective gasp resonated throughout the guild and Lucy heard herself take a sharp breath, whipping to turn to her friend.
"H-how can you be sure?!" Lucy asked frantically, her eyes shifting between the twins, who had now gone wide eyed and were blushing, and Gajeel and Levy. Gajeel looked like he was going to pass out, but Levy was grinning like a mad woman.
"Just look at them!" Levy stepped towards the twins tentatively and they both swallowed hard. "You're beautiful, oh... I'm right, aren't I?" Without responding audibly, they nodded in unison, and Levy promptly burst into tears.
"W-we thought we wouldn't be able to see you again." Yaje stammered, "We need your help to get back to you."
"Lev... Are you..." Gajeel came to stand next to Levy, cradling her with his arm around her shoulders. He bent his head down and took a long, albeit uncomfortable, sniff of the two children and stood up sharply. "I can't believe it."
"Dad..." Shutora nearly whimpered and Gajeel's lip quivered. Lucy had never seen him so emotional and Lucy felt like she needed to avert her eyes from the special moment between the family members.
"This must mean, the rest..." Mira piped up, her hand on her cheek in thought.
"E-explain... What happened?" Gray asked, focusing his attention on the other children, desperately seeking answers. The blonde haired boy was the one to speak as the twins were being tightly embraced by their shell shocked parents.
"This wasn't supposed to happen, obviously..." His voice was young, but raspy and familiar, and it struck a cord in Lucy. "We were looking at old photo albums, and Shutora tried to cast a simple enchantment on the album. It was just supposed to allow us to see into the past, you know, like a projection."
"B-but something happened..." The little girl with blue hair spoke softly, her eyes cast to the ground, her hands still clasped behind her back.
"It was my fault," Shutora spoke up, wiping tears from her eyes. "I must of cast it too strong, Freed showed me how to do it, but I think I did it wrong..."
"It was the group of us who wanted to see the past through the albums. The old guild, er, well your time's guild looked so cool!" The blonde haired boy spoke up excitedly.
"It cast us back in time, to your time." Yaje finished, hanging his head shamefully.
"There's no need to be so hard on yourself," Juvia stepped forward and smiled comfortingly at the group. The younger girl with blue hair snapped her gaze up, a blush forming on her pale cheeks as she spotted Juvia. "You're only children. If you don't make mistakes, how will you ever learn?"
"There's just one major problem, we need to get back to our own time before we're born." Shutora explained and then blushed. "Er, that sounds really weird to say..."
"We think that it will create a paradox if we're here when we arrive." Yaje continued and Lucy nodded, it made sense to her. What worried her was Levy was ready to have them any day now and the shock of the situation might even accelerate her labor.
"Since the rest of us don't technically exist yet, it shouldn't be a problem for us..." The blonde haired boy's gaze flicked to Lucy's and then his eyes shifted to Natsu. Lucy felt an odd chill go through her, like she was missing something. "But either way we all wanna get back, I'm sure our parents, er... Are worried."
"You all are so cute!" Mira giggled causing the kids to startle; leave it to Mira to burst out the compliments. "Hm, I wonder, are there more of you that weren't pulled through?"
"There are more kids at the guild, yes." Shutora answered cautiously. "We were just the ones with the album. We were in the library."
"You all look so familiar..." Makarov rubbed his beard in thought. "Obviously you two are Gajeel and Levy's brats, but the rest of you... I can't put my finger on it."
"Well, I thought it was rather obvious," Lisanna perked up, her eyes sparkling. "The reason why they wanted certain people here is because they're certain people's kids."
"Exactly right! This is so adorable." Mira sighed, drawing her clasped hands to her chest.
"Th-this is a lot to take in..." Gray looked even more pale than he usually did and Juvia rubbed his back in comfort. Lucy's stomach twisted and her eyes widened. She hadn't thought about them being other's kids. Gray and Juvia were together, and Erza said she and Jellal were living together now, but they had clearly been together for a while. Gajeel and Levy were on the brink of being a four person family, but the group of children was a decent size of six. Yaje and Shutora belong to Gajeel and Levy, and if Lucy squinted she felt like she was on the edge of matching who to who.
"What are your names?" Natsu croaked out after an abnormal amount of time of being quiet. Lucy stole a glance his way and watched him almost shakily run a hand through his pink locks, mussing them up even more than they usually were.
"I guess since they figured out this much... I-it couldn't hurt, right?" Shutora asked her brother and he shrugged.
"They already know our names." Yaje sighed and then turned to the younger kids, nodding in encouragement.
"Are you sure something else bad isn't gonna happen..?" The red headed boy muttered, his one visible eye cast down.
"I don't think so. It didn't take long for them to figure out who we are..." Shutora shifted her eyes around the group.
"How could I not know my own child? Even though we haven't officially met yet." Levy giggled and patted Shutora's head. "I bet Gajeel and I are worried sick right now."
"I bet you are." Shutora smiled up at Levy, and it struck Lucy how much she suddenly looked so much like Levy, just with darker hair.
"Come here," Erza stepped forward and beckoned the sad looking red headed boy. She smiled encouragingly at him, his eye wide as if he couldn't believe Erza had singled him out. He shuffled towards her and she gently brushed his hair away from his eyes. She then, surprising Lucy and the boy, shifted the patch off of his right eye, revealing a blue birthmark. "You look so much like him." Erza grinned as the boy stared at her in shock, his lips quivering. Erza squatted down and embraced him where he sobbed into her shoulder.
"I bet your name is Kei, isn't it?" He vigorously wiped at his eyes and Lucy caught sight of the birthmark again; it looked just like Jellal's. "I always loved that name. My blessed boy." Erza brushed tears off his cheeks and Lucy felt herself tearing up; Erza became motherly so quick, there was no doubt she would be a great mom.
"I-I'm Kei..." He confirmed and Erza smiled, her own eyes a bit misty. "Will I be able to see dad, um, Jellal?" Erza cocked her head to the side in thought and then nodded.
"I'll contact him to come back early from his mission. He should be a part of this too." Kei, for the first time since they had gotten there, smiled. He was grinning madly, fresh tears spilling down his cheeks.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Yaje asked apprehensively and Kei snapped his head back towards the older boy.
"Yes!" He hissed and Yaje actually shrank back.
"I just don't want-"
"I'm going to see him." Kei growled out angrily and Natsu shivered next to Lucy.
"Geez, no doubt he's Erza's kid, look at that glare." Natsu gulped and Erza threw an eerily similar glower in his direction. Lucy couldn't help but let out a little giggle; the whole situation was making her head spin.
"You okay, Luce?" Natsu murmured and Lucy just shook her head in disbelief.
"This is unreal." Lucy replied in a whisper, and Natsu caught her eye. He looked fearful but almost excited. Lucy knew he had a soft spot for kids, but this was a totally different world. This was talking about their friends' children, kids that were from the future Fairy Tail.
"This is Briny." The blonde haired boy stepped forward, his arm gently around the blue haired girl's shoulders. She looked like she was going to burst into a flame of embarrassment, but quite the opposite happened. At the boy's touch and all eyes on her, she began to go transparent- no, she was turning to liquid.
"Oh!" Juvia squeaked, her eyes sparkling. "Your name... It's like the sea. And your magic..." Briny's big blue eyes shone up at Juvia, and when Lucy saw them standing in front of each other, she looked like a miniature version of Juvia, she just had eyes that were more similar to-
"Gray! Look at her..." Juvia cooed and the girl blushed furiously. Gray stood nearby, his face the definition of shock. He blindly moved forward, his shirt was long gone and Lucy thought it was a bit inappropriate with all of the children, but she could bet they were used to it in the future.
"She looks like you." Gray mumbled as he crouched in front of the girl. "You use water magic?"
"She does so much more than that!" The blonde haired boy spoke up excitedly and Gray's gaze shifted to him and he flushed. Briny went bright red at his enthusiasm and the boy continued. "Er, yeah. She can use snow magic. Snow make magic is what it's called."
"S-snow make?" Gray stammered, his eyes welling. "I-I, we have..."
"Hi Daddy... Mommy..." Briny spoke barely above a whisper and Lucy's heart clenched as she watched Gray's tears fall silently as he gently stroked Briny's face, and Juvia grinning ear to ear.
"We have... a daughter!" Gray exclaimed, and laughed an almost hysterical laugh.
"We do." Juvia's smile broadened and she took Gray's hand in hers. "And she must use the most beautiful magic."
"I don't buy it, no way could Gray have kid that cute." Natsu loudly whispered to Lucy and she jabbed him in the side for ruining the moment. Gray scowled at him, looking ready to throw a fist at Natsu. Lucy hurriedly stepped between the pair, sighing.
"Alright, enough. A lot is going on right now and emotions are high, but fighting is not the answer at the moment!" Lucy had each palm facing one of the boys. "Don't you think you two could just-!"
"Heh, this looks familiar, doesn't Stel?" The blonde haired boy nudged his sister who nodded excitedly.
"Yup! Mommy is always yelling at Gray and Daddy because they're fighting." She agreed, an angelic smile on her little face.
"W-wait a minute, did you just-?" Lucy stammered, her arms dropping to her sides. She risked a glance at Natsu and he looked like he was actually going to spontaneously combust, and not on purpose. His cheeks were flushed and all fight vanished from his eyes.
"Wait," Gray snickered and eyed Lucy and Natsu. "You're telling me, those two are actually your parents?" Gray looked like he was about to burst into a fit of laughter, but Juvia put a hard glare on him.
"B-but we're not even dating! M-me a-and..." Lucy's face burned and she couldn't even bring herself to look at Natsu. She didn't need to to feel the abnormal amount of heat coming off of him; this must be him at peak embarrassment.
"Holy shit!" Gajeel broke the silence with loud guffaws and Levy needed to smack him to make him stop. Lucy swallowed hard and stole another look at Natsu, who had been silent. His eyes were wide with wonder and he seemed to be frozen in place. He only had eyes for the two kids in front of him, a half smile on his lips and Lucy instantly felt her heart melt.
"Luce..." He only broke his gaze from the kids for a moment to give her a soft look. "Look what we did." His voice was softer than Lucy had ever heard it, and she realized why the boy, their supposed son, sounded so familiar. He sounded so much like Natsu, they had that same, crackling fire voice, smoky and sweet.
"Um..." The boy perked up again seeming embarrassed. "Uh, I-I don't know much about, er, all the details of your, uh, relationship? Ugh, this is gross." He huffed and Shutora giggled.
"What he's trying to say is that, yes, Lucy, Natsu, these are your kids." Shutora smiled brightly and Natsu hissed in a small gasp. "Ryuu and Stella."