"I don't think this is a good idea, K-" Yaje started, sounding genuinely concerned this time around.
"Shut up, Yaje!" Kei's eyes burned with the same fire that only Erza could muster. Lucy shivered; it was uncanny how much he looked like Jellal, but acted like Erza. "Just shut up…" Kei sobbed and clung to a wide eyed Jellal. Shutora gave her brother a patronizing look and Yaje shuffled his feet.
"All I was saying-"
"Just let him have this, Yaje." Shutora murmured quietly. Lucy had an uneasy feeling about the whole situation. Why was Kei so upset and desperate about seeing Jellal? Why did Shutora look so sad?
"Erza," Jellal began quietly and paused to swallow hard once more. "Can you please tell me what's happening?" Erza wrung her hands together, looking uncommonly nervous. Lucy, once again, averted her eyes from the family to let them have their moment, and focused on Stella in her arms. While the little girl showed Lucy all about her own fire magic, Erza explained to Jellal the situation. Lucy stole glances at them and witnessed Jellal's usual stoic face go through a range of emotions. He finally seemed to have soaked the information in and sat quietly; Kei standing in front of him expectantly, and Erza looking, uncharacteristically, like a nervous wreck.
The pause seemed to last for an eternity, everyone seemed to be holding their breath. After a few more moments of silence, Kei looking like he was near bursting into tears again, Jellal blew out a soft breath and smiled at Kei.
"Come here," He beckoned Kei over and the little red head once again flung himself into his father's arms. "Why don't you tell Erza and I about yourself." Kei sniffled and nodded his head.
"I haven't seen you- I-I mean it feels like I haven't seen you in forever." Kei whispered, wiping his cheeks with the back of his hand. "Y-you know, with all of this going on." He half- heartedly gestured to the large group of, possibly in shock, people.
"Wendy! Kitties!" Stella suddenly yelled, pointing over Lucy's shoulder.
"What's going on in here?" Carla looked around, startled. "We came back because Happy was supposed to go on a job with us, but never made it."
"Yes, we were getting quite worried." Pantherlily's brow was creased in concern, his arms crossed over his chest.
"Something… Smells different…" Wendy trailed off a bit as her arms roamed around the guild hall. "Hey, what's going on?" She took a few tentative steps closer, her nose twitching just as Natsu's and Gajeel's had. Lucy pondered the thought of it being unfair that the dragon slayers could differentiate everyone's smells. She wanted to know what her children smelled like, it wasn't fair. She momentarily buried her nose into Stella's soft pink locks and inhaled experimentally. She was surprised when she found the little girl smelled familiar, but different. Like a mix of her favorite shampoo and Natsu's earthy, almost smoky scent. She smiled to herself and then caught Natsu's eye where he stood with Ryuu on his shoulders. His eyes were warm and a soft smile played on his lips. Lucy felt her stomach flutter; she was still wrapping her mind around the fact that these were real, tangible children that she and Natsu created. Her mind was whirling; how had she and Natsu gotten together? Wasn't Natsu just her friend? How was she supposed to be together with Natsu and have Ryuu in less than ten years' time? The thoughts made Lucy's head spin.
She was snapped from her thoughts by the sound of her guild mates explaining to Wendy, Carla, and Pantherlily what was going on. She hoped this was the last time they would have to explain the situation because the kids needed to get back to their own time and so far, they had not gotten far.
"It's so weird, Wendy isn't much older than we are in this time." Shutora mused as they looked interestedly at the blue haired dragon slayer.
"Yeah, she doesn't look much different either, except her hair is short." Yaje agreed and Wendy's ears picked up on their conversation causing her to flush.
"You mean I don't look different than I do now?!" Wendy gasped in slight disappointment, "Do I at least get a bit taller?" Yaje and Shutora shrugged noncommittedly and Wendy covered her face with her hands, her ears turning red.
"I think there are more important things at hand, child!" Carla scolded and Wendy sighed.
"You're right, we'll help you in any way that we can."
"What's the E.T.A of the Thunder Legion getting here?" Gray asked Mira who worriedly glanced at the guild's front door.
"Any minute now, I've told them what's going on, so they're making their way back as fast as they can."
"How are you?" Natsu was suddenly back standing next to Lucy. All of the children were standing near their respective parents. Yaje and Shutora looked a bit nervous, glancing from time to time at their mother's belly.
"I'm not sure, this is a bit of a shock." Lucy admitted and Natsu nodded his head in agreement. "It's not necessarily bad, but it kind of feels like we're in a dream."
"Yeah," Natsu agreed as he swept his gaze across the guild hall. "But… You're not disappointed… Are you?" Natsu asked quietly and Lucy snapped her attention to him.
"What do you mean?" Natsu let a small breath of air hiss between his teeth and crossed his arms, and then uncrossed them. He was fidgety and Lucy was sure a blush dusted his cheeks. It certainly was the most she'd ever seen him blush probably since she had known him.
"I mean…" Natsu groaned and swiped a hand down his face, and then shyly met Lucy's gaze. Yes, Natsu Dragneel looked positively bashful in front of her. "I mean that Ryuu and Stella… That you… That, that they're ours." He said the sentence so quietly that Lucy had to nearly strain her ears to hear him. He looked so nervous and his face was almost as red as Kei and Erza's hair. The question threw Lucy off a bit, as well as Natsu's demeanor, so much so, that Lucy actually found herself inappropriately giggling. Natsu looked startled and hurt and Lucy slapped a hand over her mouth so not to draw attention from the others. Her giggles fizzled out to tears and she stood quietly crying in front of Natsu, her hand over her mouth still.
"Luce… What the hell?" Natsu looked so confused and had his hands out helplessly in front of him causing Lucy to burst into another fit of giggles due to his expression. "What is happening?"
"Natsu, oh my god, I'm so sorry." Lucy whispered, wiping her eyes with her fingers. "I-I think my emotions are finally catching up to me. I've been in such a shock…" Natsu visibly relaxed and drew an arm around her, pulling her to his chest comfortingly.
"I know."
"B-but this is not a reaction to what you asked," Lucy whispered so that only he would hear. "I think we have a lot to talk about after all of this is over, but no, god, I could never be disappointed." Lucy shifted so that she was looking Natsu in the face. His eyes shone with adoration and he wiped at Lucy's cheek to get any stray tears left. "You are my best friend. You've helped me become the person I am today, Natsu. You're an amazing person and clearly future me agrees with this too. If I get to spend the rest of my life with my best friend, and share something as beautiful as these two with you, how could I be disappointed?" Natsu swallowed hard, his cheeks were red and his eyes were glittering.
"I am pretty awesome," Natsu whispered causing them both to giggle. Lucy's heart was full, and though she was a bit lost when it came to their shifting relationship, she felt good about it. Natsu leaned his forehead on hers and sighed. "I've never really thought much about stuff like this, and I'm not that good about… Feelings and stuff. But if I ever did think about having a family… You were always a part of it." He pulled back, his eyes searching her face. Lucy felt her eyes well up, once again, with tears, but she blinked them away and swallowed hard.
"I'm really happy to hear that." She smiled up at him and her owned happiness was reflected on his face, and Lucy couldn't help but embrace him tightly,
"I want a hug too, Mommy!" Stella came bounding back over to the pair, her arms thrown over her head, expectantly waiting to be picked up. "I want to be squished in the middle like you and Daddy usually do!"
"They don't know what you're talking about, Stella." Ryuu sighed and Lucy smiled down at her.
"Well, I think we can arrange that, can't we, Natsu?" Lucy smiled at him and he scooped Stella up, causing her to squeal in delight. They both hugged her tightly and nuzzled her until she fell into a fit of giggles. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ryuu shuffling his feat, his face tinged pink. She shifted so Natsu held Stella fully and then swung Ryuu up, squeezing him tightly in an embrace.
"H-hey!" Ryuu protested, but his eyes shone with joy as Lucy hugged him closely.
"No forgetting the best celestial fire wizard there ever was!" Lucy smiled causing Ryuu to grin wide looking strikingly like Natsu. Lucy met Natsu's gaze and grinned and, in that moment, she realized that she would whole-heartedly miss the children when they left.
The moment between the family was broken as the Thunder Legion burst through the guild's doors. Freed immediately joined the group, conversing with Levy and the twins. Lucy put Ryuu down, leaving the kids to Natsu, and joined the group.
"Hmm… Time travel is capricious. This will be tricky." Freed had his hand under his chin in thought and Levy looked worried. "You don't happen to have the book with you, do you?" Freed questioned Shutora and she sullenly shook her head.
"No, unfortunately. It only transported the six of us… But I figured if you were the one who taught me the enchantment, maybe you'd be able to break it down to reverse it?"
"Why don't you tell me how it goes and we'll see if we can reverse it." Freed instructed and Shutora explained how future Freed instructed her to cast it and how she actually cast it. Levy swiftly wrote everything down and compared it to possible ways Shutora could have mixed something up within the enchantment. Lucy racked her brain trying to remember if she had come across any texts about this kind of spell. She could feel sweat prickling her skin; anxiety was coursing through her. She was ridiculously worried that Levy was going to go into labor literally any minute- Porlyusica had said she was due any day now. Gajeel was pacing back and forth, a worried scowl had now taken up permanent residence on his face.
"So, Freed didn't create the spell, rather he showed you how to preform it, Shutora?" Lucy asked, her mind racing.
"Yeah, he had found the book in the library and was going to give it to Mom because he thought she might find it interesting. He saw us down there looking at the old photo album and had come across the spell when looking through the book. He showed me it and how to cast it," Shutora paused, worrying her lip. "It really is my fault. I've done lots of small enchantment and spells in the past… You see, my magic is a lot like Mom's but it's a bit different than solid script magic. I use script, but I can enchant what I want to use onto myself. Say I wanted to be like Dad and use iron-" Shutora gestured to Gajeel and he paused for a moment to smirk at his daughter, "I can use script to actually turn my body into iron." Lucy nodded as for her to continue.
"You're amazing!" Levy exclaimed and Lucy smiled at her friend. Shutora was amazing.
"Thanks, Mom," Shutora smiled briefly, but her face fell as she continued. "But I don't think I was amazing in this instance. I was trying to enchant the projection spell through me, since that's how my magic works. It was a spell for solid script mages, but I'm thinking that my magic took the spell and warped it. I… I think that my magic literally turned me into a portal. Instead of simply projecting the photo album, it transported us here. And I think the others were dragged along with me because they were close by." Shutora shuffled her feet looking defeated.
"That's not your fault," Levy consoled, "You were only doing what you know best."
"Yes, if anything, future me is to blame for being so irresponsible. I should have studied the spell carefully and compared it to your magic power to see if it was compatible. Since you are not fully a solid script mage and you seem to have other underlying abilities that a script mage doesn't have, of course your magic would interpret it differently." Freed explained, a friendly smile on his face. Shutora seemed to relax at their words and sighed.
"I suppose you're right." She shrugged and then smiled at Freed. "But don't beat your, uh, future self up too much. I think you rushed out of the library after showing us because Laxus came back from a mission." She giggled and Freed's face burned.
"Uh, right, let's get on with this." Freed cleared his throat and turned his attention to the spell. It seemed like ages passed and Lucy could actually feel her brain growing tired from thinking.
"Is it imperative that we have the book?" Lucy asked and Freed sighed.
"I'm thinking that we may. With how this spell is, it was probably written on enchanted paper. It's not a particularly strong spell on its own, so saying the words or preforming them with your own magic power probably would have no effect. It was written on the paper to give it an extra boost for the wizard who would perform it." Freed explained and Lucy's heart sank.
"How are we… Shutora, do you know what the book looked like?" Lucy asked and Shutora looked lost.
"I… Um…"
"It was red. I know that at least." Yaje answered for his sister and Lucy nodded. "It was red and it had gold foil text on the front and spine. I'm not one hundred percent sure what the title was, we were all pretty excited about it working." Yaje finished apologetically.
"You seem to remember a lot of details, thank you, Yaje!" Levy beamed at her son and her blushed.
"Yaje is a real bookworm." Shutora giggled at her brother's expense, but he just shrugged and smiled softly.
"Well, you are my mom." He laughed, looking at Levy who looked like she was about to burst at her seems with pride.
"That's great, Yaje, thank you! I'm going to go down to the library to see if I can find it. Chances are the book is down there, the library is practically ancient." Lucy informed them, rushing to the library stairs.
"Yo, Luce! We're comin' with you!" Natsu called with Stella perched on his shoulders and Ryuu at his heels.
"Aye sir!" Happy cheered and sped off to catch up with the group of them. "It'll be our first family mission!"