Lucy felt like it was the end of life as a wizard, but then she realized that was really a ridiculous thing to think. After all, Makarov became master of Fairy Tail when he was about Laxus' age and rose to power as a saint wizard after he'd stopped going on regular jobs. When she asked him about that, he told her his growth during leadership had come from studying hard, training hard, and helping others learn.
In other words, she hadn't given up her path forward, only changed the direction it would take.
Makarov's final vision for Fairy Tail and his parting wishes as guildmaster were for her and Laxus to look after the guild - after his 'children.' So while he finally had a chance to enjoy the finer things in life, such as keeping his nap schedule synchronized with that of his great grandchildren, Lucy and Laxus embarked on this brave new world.
A guild was like a family, and up to that point in their lives, they'd been able to enjoy being children of the guild. They went on jobs and relied on the support, guidance, and protection of their guildmaster. But now they as guild children had grown up, and it was their turn to look after the younger ones.
It was a new era in their family, in their relationship, in their careers...everything.
When they were going on jobs, never one time did Laxus and Lucy go on a job together. Everyone knew it was a bad idea that would likely end with Laxus losing his temper and carrying her off on his shoulder like a dragon caveman. But in their new roles, she was perfect at his side.
Laxus had a second desk brought into the office and they tackled the paperwork, the organization, the accounting...as it turned out, Makarov had been behind for a long time and didn't have the best system to start with. It was a mess and getting the finances in order was necessary before they could really do anything else.
Lucy used Wind Reader glasses to learn literally everything there was to know about the legalities of running a guild, guild accounting, tax code, and so forth and they sat in the office for hours upon hours and revamped their entire bookkeeping system. She learned the simple but amazing Ledger magic, a strange magical cousin to Archive, and went to work.
He discovered he didn't even have a clue just how amazingly intelligent she'd been all along.
One afternoon, he was settling up a series of fines the guild had received from the Magic Council when Lucy pulled up all the records for their previous fees and fines. "Don't pay that," she said.
"Why?"
"We've paid over twenty million jewel in fees and fines over the past fifteen years. Natsu was asleep for seven of those, so you know that's ridiculous."
"Lucy, this guild is synonymous with destruction."
Lucy answered, "It's absurd. Let me handle this."
He watched her type furiously for the better part of four hours on a roll of paper that coiled up on the floor.
When she finished, she handed him the coiled up scroll, which was an invoice with over seven hundred items.
"What...is...this…"
Lucy said, "This is an itemized list of every single thing Fairy Tail has had to do because of the Council. Lullaby, Jellal, that whole Balam Alliance thing should have been their job and we're probably entitled to a fee for handling it. Ignoring that, they owe us reimbursement for property damage, refunded fines, and all the bounties."
The invoice included billing rates by the hour and interest, clinic visits with Porlyusica, bandages, and food costs.
At the bottom of the list, Lucy took the petty little fines and subtracted them from the total. She mailed the 882,213,998 jewel invoice to the Magic Council, the Tax Assessor's Office, and the Royal Treasury.
"I better not get arrested over this."
"Relax, I'm a legal expert as of last Tuesday."
He decided to let her flex her little mental muscles and that same day, he reclined in his chair and said, "If you weren't a wizard, I think you would have been a great attorney or wonderfully scheming politician. Maybe a con artist. I think you would have been a spectacular crook."
Lucy smiled at him. "You're kind of a sucker for blondes, so I know I'd get all your money."
"You're so cute I wouldn't even mind."
These hours they spent together each day were wonderful for them. Even if they had a lot of work, it had been years since they were just by themselves often and for longer periods of time. They loved their little family, but little kids despised nothing more than their parents enjoying a nice afternoon without them.
They flirted constantly, and Laxus made a thousand and one naughty secretary jokes.
There were moments where she would look at him and realize she loved that blond-headed rascal of a man to death. He always respect and delighted in her intellect, and he gave her freedom to be her. Laxus never would have asked Lucy to stop going on jobs, but now that she saw the task before them, she knew it was for the better.
Laxus sometimes just watched her little mind go, and realized their son's hilariously scatterbrained but sharp brain came straight from his mother.
"...why do we even have an electricity bill, Laxus?" she randomly asked an hour or so later.
"What do you mean?" he asked in confusion.
Lucy said, "Let me not state the obvious here, Captain Sparky. I just assume that the brilliant mind behind the Thunder Palace should be able to think his way around the utility bills. That goes for our house too. Our power bill is absurd."
"It wouldn't be that bad if our kid would stop eating out of the electrical sockets."
They thought of their adorable toddler and his crazy, bizarre, and weirdly expensive habit. Lucy sighed and said, "I think we're the only parents anywhere in the world who have that problem."
"We made some interesting kids."
"But anyway, about the bill…"
Laxus gave her an unamused glare. "I'll figure something out if you come sit in my lap."
Always one for results and a little workday romance, Lucy stood from her desk and walked around to his, where she plopped down on his lap and straddled him. He leaned back in his chair as it creaked, blindly reaching onto the desk for a ruler, which he used to swat her backside.
Lucy bit his bottom lip and he dropped the ruler and leaned a little further back, which caused the chair to tip and sent both of them crashing to the floor.
This was just fine, and he pulled her into a kiss while she tried to put herself back in order.
"Laxus, stop it. We have too much work."
"It's a scientific fact that when I have an erection blood leaves my brain. So if you want me to think, you know what you have to do," he teased.
"It's a scientific fact that if I pour ice water in your lap, it will shrink up like this," she made a gesture with a curling finger. "Wah," she whined, offering a sound effect for this.
Laxus glared at her and stood. "I will fire you."
"I'll quit."
He grabbed her hips, she reached between his legs and squeezed just a little and they were at it. Stacks of papers and pens went flying, as he pinned her on the desk and hiked her skirt up, planting fevered, frantic kisses down her neck.
Work was the perfect place to have sex, and when they were done, Lucy took her little pack of baby wipes to the office's private bathroom, freshened up, fixed her hair, and returned to her desk. "Mr. Dreyar, can I have my panties, please?"
"Mrs. Dreyar, no. You don't need them. You can come bend over in front of me and pick up these papers."
"Ugh, I'm not doing this again," she groaned.
Laxus shrugged and rested his head on his hand. "You say that every day."
The two worked diligently, day after day after day, dividing their time between the administration and the socialization of guild leadership. Laxus found her to be a true partner in all things, and now that she was around the guild more often, she helped him look after the guild's large population of teenagers.
They made a perfect team and he was very happy she was a part of his future as guildmaster.
One of her favorite parts of the day was walking home with him, usually hand-in-hand.
Lucy had to admit that it was nice that the whole family was together at night more or less every day. Their family life up to that point had been a rotation of parents taking turns working and staying at home with scattered days they were together in between.
One afternoon, they got about a block away from the house and froze dead in their tracks.
"What the…" Lucy mumbled.
Makarov, had used Titan magic on their son. And, if anyone would have asked, a twenty foot three-year-old was a terrifying sight to behold.
Laxus gave this a sour expression. "Well, I have something new to have nightmares about."
"Tell me about it."
Yuri was just standing there in the yard, enjoying being an enormous, creepy toddler.
Lucy was a little horrified and Laxus was quite a little less than amused as they entered the gate and found themselves looking up at Yuri. Makarov was sitting under a tree laughing at Laxus with Layla who was thankfully normal-sized at the moment.
"I'm BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG!" Yuri said in a creepy voice that was altered by larger vocal chords.
Laxus said, "Gramps, cut this shit out."
Yuri leaned down and said, "That's a bad word, Daddy!"
His hands descended toward his father, and Laxus looked up and said, "Son, whatever you're thinking about doing, you better not."
Lucy took a step back and realized the Dreyar family was just really, really weird. They were a lovable but unquestionably bizarre collection of people.
Laxus and Makarov had an argument about whether or not it was acceptable for the family patriarch to use his Titan magic to make their children huge, and Makarov pointed out that they simply enjoyed it and they had been 'playing giants' every time their parents went to work.
"Tell me this, Gramps. What happens if he figures out how to do that on his own?" Laxus asked.
Makarov laughed again and with a wave of his hand, Yuri went poof and returned to toddler size. "I'd love to see the day. Besides, it's an old man's pleasure to teach his great grandchildren."
Lucy's eyebrow twitched. "Okay, Gramps, I was just going to let you guys handle this, but if you want to teach the kids something, there's numbers, letters, animal sounds, new words, fine motor skills, colors - for Layla, you know, things every kid needs to learn. How to turn into a giant using magic is not something Yuri needs to know now, and maybe ever."
"Don't be such boring parents. What kid doesn't like to pretend they're huge?"
"Pretend. Actually making them huge is very creepy, Gramps," Lucy chided as she swept her toddler off the ground.
Yuri said, "I like playing giants!"
They would figure out later that Makarov and Yuri 'playing giants' was responsible for part of their fence being mysteriously crushed, a large tree branch that inexplicably snapped off in the yard, and the destruction of the lawn in place where it looked like a demon had trampled in the grass. They'd been doing it for weeks when Chelia was at class and the parents were gone and keeping it a secret.
This was suspicious behavior for someone who was supposedly too sick to take care of himself. Laxus pondered at times if Makarov had accepted retirement because he just wanted to retire and not because of his health. Or, maybe he let go of the guildmaster mantle so easily because he didn't want to catch up on that disaster of scribbled-on napkins he called 'accounting.'
They had a nice family dinner together, and discussed topics ranging from 'why babies shouldn't be giants' to 'why babies shouldn't be giants.' Makarov had evidently also used the magic on Layla, but she didn't have the motor skills to handle a larger body and preferred to remain her own size.
After they finished eating, they family ended up in the living room, where Lucy sulked a little at the idea that rather than snuggle with her mother, her daughter wanted to run everywhere and play tag with her brother and the tiger.
"Aren't you Mama's baby?" she asked.
Layla looked up, smiled, and answered, "No! Imma tiger! Rawrrrr!"
Lucy leaned against her husband as they sat on the couch. "I'm really happy they're growing up so well, but I kind of miss them being younger. We're almost done with diapers."
"Good riddance," he answered.
Makarov went to bed, having spent his limited energy playing with the kids all day, and the couple relaxed and enjoyed watching their little ones play.
Laxus poured a little tumbler of whiskey after a little while and offered one to Lucy as well. "Cheers, to life without diapers or waking up in the middle of the night to crying babies.
Their glasses clinked, and Lucy crinkled her nose at the sting. She'd never been a big drinker, but once in a blue moon, she'd indulge with her husband. One of her fondest memories was getting a little tipsy off champagne on their first date and dancing for hours on a night that ended in their first kiss and set their lives in motion.
Layla eventually did climb back on the couch when she got tired. She was the type that would run until the last bit of energy was gone, and then become lethargic to the point she usually had to be carried to bath and bed.
"Mama, look," she tiredly sighed, cupping her hands together.
They saw light peek out from between her fingers, and she unfolded her hands to reveal a little ball of magic light. Layla blew on the little ball of light and it floated up and faded away.
This was the first time they'd ever seen her demonstrate any kind of magical tendency.
Lucy watched in awe, "Baby, did Gams teach you?"
"Mhmm! Is pretty, Mama!"
And, in that moment, they wondered why they hadn't considered this the inevitable result of having Makarov in the house. While they were at work, he was at home teaching them how to use magic. Laxus and Lucy were neither excited nor equipped to deal with their children being any more magical than they already were.
Yuri's magic had been evident from birth, but judging from what they'd just witnessed, both their kids had inherited a strong proclivity toward the use and understanding of magic.
After they got the kids bathed and in bed, they headed to their bedroom to discuss, Makarov, babies, and the business of magic.
Laxus said, "Lucy, do you have any idea what just happened?"
"Your grandfather taught our kid to use a magic spell?"
He shook his head. "So, among elementalists, every person has an element they're inclined towards. Every powerful elementalist is powerful because they're using their element. Some elements are more common than others. That's why you see tons of fire and ice wizards. The light element is so rare that Gramps is believed to be the only one of his kind."
"So she inherited the ability to use light magic?"
"More or less. It's extremely powerful magic and is probably as natural to her as lightning is to Yuri. She just needed to see it and feel it to know. Gramps' magic is crazy powerful, I'd rank it's base potential above mine any day of the week. Layla has the potential to be an extremely powerful wizard, especially if she starts learning when she's young," he said, throwing his shirt off
Laxus paused, "Do we even want them to learn magic?"
"How did we not have this conversation yet?"
"Because our children are toddlers, and we know Yuri is going to have to learn. And the other one we assumed would just be a normal for a little while at least," he answered as she followed him to the bathroom and started to strip.
They took a decidedly unsexy shower together, more focused on their conversation than the business of getting clean. They discussed the pros and cons, the main issues being that their children learning magic would inevitably make them destructive and more difficult.
"I grew up with magic. As you can see, Gramps doesn't regard age in any kind of way. Not his age, and not their ages. Yuri has to learn how to control his magic or we're going to have problems. And I think it would good for Layla to learn too. I think it would help her not be so shy," he said as they were drying off.
Lucy listened, but she knew Laxus had a laundry list of ulterior motives that bordered on paranoia where their daughter was concerned. "Is this your tactic to get her to lose interest in dolls? Why this time?"
"Dolls are literally fake babies. I'm sure if some study was done, there would a correlation between dolls and having babies," he said.
His wife shook her head. "Laxus, I just looked in my crystal ball and saw that because you bought a daughter a doll she wanted, she's going to run off with a bandit from a dark guild and get pregnant when she's fifteen."
"See?"
"You hate dolls because you feel like they marginalize the role of girls in society, which is honestly kind of a deep thought for someone like you, but really, lighten up, will you?" she asked.
"Someone like me."
"Yes."
Laxus pulled his boxers on and climbed into bed. "Are you calling me stupid?"
Lucy grinned, "Of course not, baby. I just feel like it's a strange opinion for a man who enjoys the sight of a woman barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. You would keep me pregnant if I let you."
"You're talking about the difference between relationships. Wife and daughter? That's not comparable."
"Why?"
"They're different."
Lucy rolled her eyes. "You're so weird."
"Speaking of pregnant, can we-"
"NO."
She gave him a kiss on the cheek when she got into bed with him. "Anyway, let's let Gramps teach them. Except Titan magic. Yuri needs to stay Yuri-sized. The world is not ready for him to be any bigger than he is. But honestly, I want to teach my magic to one of our kids. Can you and your stupid Dreyar genes stop hogging all the babies?"
He started to speak, and she quickly cut him off. "We are not having a conversation about how amazing your semen is. Thank you. And I need you to take the morning tomorrow off and take your son to get new shoes. He's growing out of his sneakers and I need to close out last year's expense account so the tax office doesn't audit Fairy Tail."
"Already? I feel like I am forever buying him shoes. He must get his enormous, gross feet from his mother."
Lucy looked down to where his monstrous feet were sticking up under the covers. "From me? Really? Your feet are so big stores never have your size. And, they're hairy, and your toenails are thick like little claws. I actually think you could grow them into talons."
"That's a great idea. I'll stop wearing shoes and just be barefooted with talons. We'll stop buying food at the market and I'll swoop over the East Forest every day and pick up large prey with my talons and bring my victim home for you to butcher and cook," he said.
Lucy hit him with a pillow, and he returned the aggression in kind, then escalated it to a tickling match she lost miserably. She was curled up, giggling, and out of breath when she felt his lips brush against hers so gently. She deepened the kiss, and he postured himself above her, propping himself up on one arm while his free hand reached for her panties.
The door creaked open, and they rolled onto their backs as if nothing happened and found not one, but both of their children standing in the doorway.
For a minute or so, the parents stared at their children, and their children stared back.
"Do you guys want something?" Lucy asked.
Yuri said, "Were you having fun without me?"
His mother burst out laughing because now that Yuri slept in the room right next to theirs, he'd heard their little tickle fight and seemed genuinely bothered that his parents dared to have fun without him. "Dad and me can have fun by ourselves if we want to," she said.
"But…"
Layla climbed onto the bed and nestled in between them, and Yuri climbed onto the bed and stood upright, walking around until he flopped down on his father's lap, which was no comfortable for Laxus at all.
Layla snuggled Lucy. "Mama, I wanna story."
Lucy knew she had to act before her husband waffled and let them stay because they'd gotten really good at falling asleep cute so they could stay in the bed. Sleeping with toddlers was peculiar experience. Hands in weird places, elbows in the back, and feet in the neck...sometimes Yuri woke up facing the opposite direction, upside down, cocooned in all the blankets.
"Well," Laxus started.
"Nope! Bedtime! Right now!"
After a small battle, she returned to the bedroom, locked the door, and found him sound asleep.
The next morning, per Lucy's instruction, Laxus took his son to a children's department store to buy what felt like his ten thousandth pair of shoes. Yuri had been hard on shoes since the day he took his first step and it wasn't getting better. He wore them out, scratched them up, and flat outgrew them in amazing time. The sight of him with a scab on at least one knee and worn out shoes was fairly standard.
Laxus held him up so he could see, because he'd reached the point in his life where he wanted to have and express opinions about everything. They tried on one pair, but they didn't have the right size, and another pair he just didn't like, one pair was uncomfortable, and Laxus was starting to get a bit cranky with the process when he felt his son grab his legs and duck behind them, peeking around.
There was only one thing Yuri was afraid of and Laxus knew if he was hiding it was because there was a little girl in proximity to them.
Laxus looked down at him. "Honestly, Son…it's just a girl."
"She's weird."
"Do you know her?"
"No."
"Then how do you know she's weird."
"Cause she's a girl."
"Your mom is a girl. Layla is a girl."
"That's diff'rent."
Laxus accepted this, because his son was acknowledging the difference between a mom or a sister and everyone else and he himself had just tried to use that same logic on Lucy, using the same words, eerily enough.
"You're just like me, you know."
"Cause I'm your son, right?"
"Right. Now let's find some shoes, okay?" he asked.
And as they left the store with three pairs of new shoes after creeping around a raven-haired girl, Yuri insisted on carrying the bag and dragged it along beside him as he held his father's hand.
"Daddy."
"What is it?"
"I'm glad you're my dad."
Laxus smiled at him. "I'm glad you're my son."
They passed a hot dog stand and he said, "I'm glad hot dogs are real too."
"Are you hungry?"
"Yeah!"
"So...you want a hot dog?"
"I dunno."
They got hot dogs and sat on a bench in the park together with a stack of napkins and a couple of glass bottles of soda pop. His son asked a thousand questions as they ate, and then Laxus took him home, and left a note for his grandfather who was taking a nap.
-Don't bother the nanny
-Don't turn the babies into giants
-Don't get drunk
Just another day in the life, right?
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