Makarov considered this his best year.

Yuri was in the school, and the babies were little, so he spent his days with his precious great-granddaughter. She learned about magic, and they talked about the world. Layla was a wildly curious girl, caught somewhere between what she thought she was supposed to be and what she actually wanted to be.

The more she learned about magic, the more she wanted to know and the less she reached for the dolls and the things she clung to for comfort. She was shy around strangers and apprehensive about unfamiliar things, but magic had a way of helping people find ways to deal with such things.

Layla had an enormous amount of magic in her body, and in all likelihood, it would have either made her physically ill or killed her if she hadn't inherited big magic from both sides of the family. All of his grandson's kids had extreme potential as wizards, and he shuddered to imagine what kind of monsters they'd grow into.

Then again, the world could use more powerful women. Magic was still mostly a man's game, with just a handful of women in the upper echelon, but even this one single family had the ability to change that.

This led to this morning:

Lucy had taken Yuri to school, and Laxus was getting the twins situated for their day. At four months, they could now sit up, which meant they could stick them in baby chairs and let Layla and Makarov tend to their growing need for entertainment.

Once they were settled in with Makarov in the living room, Laxus went to the kitchen for his second cup of coffee and heard the pitter patter of little feet in dress-up high heels.

He wasn't really sure what to think about this phase, but if Layla wanted to dress like a doctor or princess or warrior or whatever, he wasn't going to intervene. Lucy changed clothes six times before she chose an outfit on a day where she had no plans to go anywhere, so he didn't really know if it was even a phase.

At present, she was wearing a blue princess dress, sparkly blue heels, and a little tiara.

"Good morning, Princess."

"Good morning, Daddy. You want to see what Gams taught me?"

"Magic?"

She nodded.

"Let's see it."

Layla held her hands out, and two little balls of light formed in each of her palms. She started to bring them together, and Laxus realized exactly what she was about to do.

"Hey, dont-!"

Ka-boom!

Apparently the best light spells for an almost-three-year-old to learn were the ones that caused temporary blindness and ringing ears.

Laxus covered his eyes and hissed. "Dammit, GRAMPS!"

"What's wrong, Daddy?"

Makarov saw his grandson holding his eyes and groaning and saw the cracks in the walls and knew there was going to be a little hell to pay. "Well…"

His vision cleared after a few minutes and the ringing ears quieted and he looked around at the room. Dishes drying next to the sink were cracked, the walls were cracked, the vase of flowers on the table was cracked and leaking water.

Layla asked with teary eyes, "Are you mad, Daddy?"

If this had been Yuri, Laxus would have made him go bzzzzzt in a heartbeat. Honestly, he always assumed Yuri would be the first one to do something extremely destructive in the house so it was a surprise that the sweet little princess would beat him to the punch with the equivalent of a magic grenade.

He knelt, still blinking a little too often with stinging eyes. "No Princess. Just don't use that spell in the house, okay? Just if you're in trouble. Or with Gramps. Use it on him whenever."

The door opened and Lucy came in and looked around. "You know what? I'm not even going to say anything. I come in and my kitchen is half wrecked and I've got two Dreyar men standing around looking like they didn't do anything."

Makarov looked over at Layla, who tearfully said, "I'm sorry, Mama. I didn't mean to!"

Lucy wasn't sure what was more unbelievable: that her son hadn't been the one to damage the house or that her tiny little daughter was somehow capable of that level of destruction. She knelt and said, "Magic is for outside, or for if you're in trouble, okay?"

Laxus sipped his coffee as she ran off to cry, having somewhat wrecked their kitchen while trying to show her new magic to her daddy. He sighed and followed her when he realized his coffee cup was cracked too, and Makarov started to stalk out of the kitchen when Lucy grabbed him by the collar and lifted him to eye level.

The mama bear glared at him, but he was unafraid, because he had the best defense of all.

"She can use it to defend herself. Even now. If someone snatches her right now they're in for a nasty little struggle trying to run with a kid who can blind and deafen them."

For a mother who worried about her babies, a few cracks in the walls and broken well...everything in the kitchen was cracked...it was acceptable. Broken dishes were better than bruised babies any day.

"Fine. But you're the one that gets to fix all this crap. I doubt very seriously you were able to teach her a spell that she did understand but she missed the part where she's not supposed to do that in the house. My daughter is not an idiot, so I assume that means you forgot to mention it," she said.

"I am over ninety."

"No excuses!" the blonde exclaimed, wagging her finger at Makarov, "I understand Layla has a gift and we have agreed as parents to allow you to raise her in your magic, but the last thing I want is a houseful of unruly, crazy wizards."

Makarov snorted. "Says the woman who married a unruly, crazy wizard and had a shit ton of kids."

His little body flew through the air easily as he received a Lucy!Kick to the stomach, and she turned. "This better be cleaned up by the time Yuri gets back from school or I promise you'll be sorry, Gramps!"

In the living room, the twins were sitting in their little baby chairs awaiting their normal entertainment but all they could hear was their mother yelling in the next room until Chelia came downstairs with two dragon puppets which she used to reenact recent scenes from Dreyar life.

Anna went to giggling immediately, but Mavis was a tough customer. The nanny knew she'd struck gold when the Cranky One started laughing and flailing around.

Lucy was more than a little pissed when she blitzed through the living room, but stopped at the sight of happy babies who were even happier when they saw their Mama. "Are my sweet little baby girls happy today?"

The sight of giggling twins was enough to derail anyone's plan to be angry, especially their mother's, and she forgot her busy day for a while and sat on the floor with Chelia, holding one on each side of her lap while Chelia went on with her puppets.

If she could, Lucy would have lived her whole life with a soundtrack of those two precious little babies giggling on a constant loop. It was such a happy, beautiful sound, the kind that makes a person happy. Getting Mama snuggles only increased the level of glee the babies had, and she nuzzled and kissed on them while they squealed from sheer joy.

Meanwhile, Laxus was upstairs, laying on his daughter's fluffy pink bed while she laid next to him, sulking with her head down in the pillow. If he'd learned anything about living with girls, he knew she'd be fine if he just let her calm down a bit. Trying to convince a girl to not be upset about something was, to him, about as useful as trying to convince a cat to jump in a bathtub filled with ice water.

When her 'upset clock' ran out of time, she took a deep breath and sat up. "Daddy."

"Princess."

She kissed him on the cheek. "I love you lots and lots."

"I love you too," he dragged his fingers through her baby soft curls.

"Don't mess up my hair," she snapped.

"Just like your Mama: cute but kind of a brat. Just don't blind me again and we'll be okay."

"Daddy, if I'm a princess, can I kiss a frog?"

"Only if you want me to wash your lips with soap. The kind that kills germs."

"That kind tastes bad."

He looked down at her in question and wondered why he kept finding teeth marks in bars of soap around the house. Since it wasn't a mouth with fangs, it wasn't a difficult mystery, but as a parent, he'd learned to accept that kids just did a lot of weird things that made no sense. She didn't bathe by herself, so he decided she probably did this in secret during the day.

Layla was also an eater of glue and play-doh, but wouldn't eat carrots because they looked like little orange fingers to her or a lot of other foods for equally nonsensical reasons (fish smelled like fish, therefore she wouldn't not eat them).

"I have to go to the guild for a while, okay, Princess?"

"Okay, Daddy."

She kissed him on the cheek.

"Just for the record, I'm not a frog. I'll see you later."

He went to the guild and as soon as he got there, he intercepted a very-pregnant Mirajane Justine as she carried a tray of beer across the room.

"I don't even know why you're here when you have paid maternity leave approved. But I do know I told you no heavy lifting. You can do the office-type stuff. That's it. And not for more than a few hours a day," he said.

Mirajane tried to take the tray back, and he held it up higher. "Don't tell me what to do, Master!"

Freed was off on a job, trying to save up a little money before the baby came, so Laxus was trying to keep an extra eye out for her. Of course, she had Elfman and Lisanna, but nobody in that family told Mirajane what to do, especially when she was cranky and pregnant. Laxus had no such fear as he was well-experienced at telling pregnant women to sit down and be good.

Mirajane was like Lucy though, and she didn't like to sit still at home. She wasn't going to sit around and knit or whatever ordinary mothers did while they awaited their arrival of their babies. The guild was her family, and she was used to tending to them.

Laxus whistled to a nineteen-year-old Romeo Conbolt who came over somewhat reluctantly. "You're slinging booze today. Have fun."

He went on to his office after making the rounds and checking up on the younger members, annoying the older ones, and making fun of the people in the middle-range who were neither young nor powerful.

And there he found Gray Fullbuster laying on his couch like he was checking in for therapy. In the recent years, he was often consulted as an 'authority' on relationships because he and Lucy had a good relationship and had successfully, dated, married, and were raising a family. Most of the other wizards in their early to mid twenties were somewhere along that path, or wanted to be on it, or were deliberately avoiding it, like Gray Fullbuster.

Gray was an amazingly steady man who had changed very little. He still avoided Juvia, he wasn't desperate to have kids, and he was slowly climbing the magic ladder with his eyes set on a high place.

Laxus sat at his desk and drummed his fingers on it as he looked at the man laying completely naked on his leather couch. "You're apparently having a shitty day, but could you at least put your boxers on?"

The ice wizard seemed surprised by the fact he was buck naked and pulled his boxers on as he stared despondently at the floor. "So. My life is empty and pointless. Everyone I know is getting married and having kids, and while they're talking about their great lives, I'm like 'I have a cat.' But I don't have a cat because having a pet is a serious commitment. I lie about having a pet because I don't want anyone to realize how vacuous my life really is."

"If this is about any woman anywhere, let me just save you the trouble and let you know if you can't commit to feeding and watering an animal, you're not ready. Women take a lot more than a water bowl and some kibble. Some do like leashes and collars," Laxus answered.

Gray said, "Juvia and I...happened."

Laxus blinked in surprise, because this had been going on for eight years, during which they'd gone through different phases. Once, they were almost on, and then off, and then Lyon was around now and then trying to make his play and Gray couldn't stand that, and then Juvia became reluctant, having long outgrown her fascination for him. Once she started ignoring him, then he started to have a problem even though he vehemently denied it. Her lack of attention created a grating, slow burn in Gray which he'd evidently succumbed to at some point after considering his life.

"About time. I started dating, got engaged, got married, and had four kids in the time you've been doing the Dance of the Dipshit."

The ice wizard looked up at the ceiling. "It was amazing. Like woah. I cried like a baby afterward."

"Was it because it was good or because you realized your life is pointless? Or perhaps because you realized you've been missing out great sex for eight years?"

"All of the above. What am I doing with my life?"

Laxus shrugged and looked back down at the mail. "If you don't know, don't expect me to. Look, you two have been at this for too long. You can't play with Juvia forever. You'll end up losing her to that creepy bug-eyed albino."

Gray folded his hands on his chest as he considered all this and his guildmaster went about his work. Being the master meant he had to not only manage the money, the jobs, the youngsters, the interactions with authorities, etc., but he also had to deal with the things that were important to the members. It was sort of like being a counselor, but when it came to relationships, he had to tread carefully. He'd ended up in the middle of Levy and Gajeel and ended up climbing out through the window because woah, Levy's temper made Lucy's seem tame by comparison.

Laxus said, "I have a pony in the race. I don't want Juvia running off with Lyon, because that ends two ways: first I lose one of my S-Class wizards to Lamia Scale, or second, said creepy bug-eyed albino ends up joining this guild and I have to deal with you stewing in your regret for the rest of your life because no matter what, you will never find a woman who loves you like Juvia."

"So...how about eloping?"

Laxus sighed. "That seems pretty stupid, but that's what makes it an excellent fit for your personality and situation."

Gray wasn't unaware of the insults being slung continuously across the desk. It was the Laxus Tax; he gave excellent advice, but reluctantly and it always came packaged rudely.

The ice wizard jumped up. "Thanks, man. You're actually a pretty awesome master."

When the door to his office slammed shut, it opened a few minutes later and Mira came in and sat on the couch. She rubbed her belly slowly, and Laxus watched it distend outward for a second.

"Lively little demon."

"Yes he is."

"He?"

Mirajane smiled. "Thanks to you, the guild has plenty of baby girls."

"You want to take a nap? I bought that so Lucy could take catnaps when she was pregnant. There are pillows in the closet."

The woman said, "I was about to go see if I can find some falafel and onions. You love to eat off food carts so do you know where I can find falafel?"

"Craving?" he asked in amusement.

"Freed usually jumps up when I ask. I can't wait for him to come back."

Laxus stood from his desk. "I'm good at this kind of thing. My wife has been pregnant three times. I can find a fried sour plum at four in the morning if I have to. Falafel and onions is cake."

"Oh, cake...I want some of that too. Coconut. Goes with the onions."

The guildmaster, having accepted the fact that he wasn't going to get any work done that day, set out on his journey and quickly located Mira's snack, returning to find her sitting at his desk with a letter opener and a stack of sorted, processed, and stacked mail.

"You really are helpless when it comes to paper. The water bill is due today also. Sign this check and I'll drop it in the mail on my way home," she chided.

He scribbled his name. "Lucy was supposed to come help me today, but she got distracted."

Laxus traded her food for paperwork, knowing he got the raw side of the deal, and after eating she fell asleep on the couch and he thought briefly back to when they were young. It was interesting to grow up with someone and remember their different struggles and phases in life. He was glad everyone was still around together and finding happiness in their own ways.

For the next few hours, he did make an effort to work until the demon stirred again.

"I can't wait for when all the kids grow up to be teens. All these little boys and all your little girls...it's going to be fun."

Laxus had already seen this as a serious problem in the future. "Fun for who?"

Mira giggled, "Probably everyone except you."

"I can assure you that if I'm not having fun, nobody will. We're all going to be miserable together."

When it was time to get his son from school, Laxus decided to call this unproductive day more or less over and headed to the preschool, where his son was positively despondent. He'd received a gold star for behaving and doing all his work, a blue star for being so helpful and nice, and a green star for treating others kindly.

Yet, he looked like he was drowning in a sea of disappointment.

Laxus suspected it probably had something to do with his little crush. His daily school life was a mixture of typical preschool activities and this relentless pursuit of a little girl's friendship. They had established some cycle wherein he'd almost convince her to be his friend, and then he'd have an awkward 'dragon moment' and she'd be pissed off at him again. Then he'd have to keep being nice to her and just when she was almost okay with him, he'd have another moment.

Yuri walked quietly next to him for a couple of minutes so Laxus asked, "What happened? You seem pretty down."

"Lilia decided we can be friends today. She told me to swing with her on the swingset."

Laxus could practically feel the story take a theme of disaster. "And you explained you can't get on the swings because it makes you sick?"

"No, I did it. And then...I was dizzy and I tripped and fell on her. Then I threw up."

"Oh her?"

"Yeah. She was mad."

His father cringed visibly as he tried to imagine how all this played out and it wasn't pretty. In the weeks he'd been in school, he'd tasted her hair, given her a little lovebite, and thrown up on her. It was safe to say that like all dragon males, he was extremely socially awkward with the female of choice. Yuri had probably uttered the phrase, 'she was mad' in reference to this unfortunate girl at least thirty times.

His father put his hand on his head. "Son, when it comes to girls, it's important to know when to quit."

"You told me never to give up."

"That's about other stuff. Quitting girls is okay, especially after you do something that terrible. There are other girls in your class you haven't puked on and they all seem to like you," he said.

Yuri was quite disappointed by this, and sighed in resignation.

When they made it home, he sat on the floor of the living room in silence with his alphabet flashcards. He was four, his favorite girl wouldn't be his friend, he was colorblind, and his breath tasted and smelled like vomit.

His father watched him mope, throwing the cards on the floor after calling the letter on them.

Laxus learned his wife and oldest daughter decided to have an impromptu mama/daughter day out on the town and this was the reason he'd been stuck with all the paperwork. The twins were sound asleep, and Chelia was studying in her room.

The kitchen looked like nothing had ever happened, which was a testament to how much Makarov actually feared Lucy's wrath. He was also asleep, which meant the house was almost eerily quiet.

He began cooking dinner, and was draining spaghetti noodles when the doorbell rang.

Lucy had the ability to just buy one box of cookies from the Forest Scouts, but Laxus? If a little girl asked him to do something, he pretty much just did whatever it was.

Yuri praised his decision to buy thirty boxes of cookies and the two males sat in the kitchen and ate cookies and drank milk while Laxus attempted to impart something like wisdom into his son when it came to dealing with little girls.

When Lucy came home, she found her 'boys' sitting in the kitchen surrounded by boxes of cookies. Whatever they were talking about, they became silent immediately when she entered the room, which was suspicious as hell.

Layla knew the cookie boxes well, because the Forest Scouts got Laxus every year. "Cookies!"

"After dinner. I'm sure your father made our son eat dinner first, right?"

Laxus and Yuri glanced at each other and she shook her head. "Men…"

It wasn't really that much of a surprise. If she was out of town or not at home for whatever reason, the two of them would sit around, eat junk food, and wrestle. Lucy felt like they'd recently started keeping 'man secrets' from her because she kept walking in on them and they'd get quiet.

Yuri knew he was in trouble for eating cookies for dinner and slid down from his chair and ran to his mama, stretching his arms up.

She lifted her growing son with a groan. "You're getting a bit heavy, you know."

"Cause Daddy lets me eat cookies a lot. I missed you today. Do you miss me when I go too?" he sweetly asked.

Lucy kissed him. "You're such a sweet boy."

Laxus watched his son demonstrate that he knew damn well what was going on between his parents and he felt a little like his son was abandoning him to his mother's wrath over the cookies. He'd come to terms with the fact that he wasn't really anywhere near as cute as Yuri. Yet part of what made Yuri adorable to women was the fact he was a miniature version of his father, so Laxus felt like he should automatically get points for making him cute in the first place.

Once the kids were in bed, babies were fed and asleep, and parents finally got themselves showered and in bed, Lucy was reflecting on the day. It felt unnaturally long and complicated, but balancing training, work, and four kids was never going to be easy. Their kids were starting to be a little more 'special,' so more challenges lay ahead.

She was grateful to have a husband with whom she shared all of this. By that point, there was very little they didn't share, and she liked it like that.

The blonde was reflecting on how much she liked her awkward and at times annoying but otherwise wonderful husband when she rolled onto her belly and immediately felt warm hands on her back.

She smiled. "You know what I'm going to miss?"

"What."

"The sound of baby giggles. Just watching Yuri grow up causes me to remember that we're going to wake up and the twins are going to be in school and running all over the place."

She moaned when the palms of his hands rolled over her tense shoulders, and he said, "They're going to be a lively bunch when they grow up. We have the white knight, the drama queen, the sweetheart, and the troublemaker."

He remembered his day and said, "Oh, and Gray and Juvia are eloping."

"WHAT?!" she rolled off the bed onto the floor. "What what what what what what?! How can you say that so casually?! Tell me everything!"

Laxus sighed, pulled her back onto the bed, and resumed his back rub. "Gray realized how pointless his life is and decided to grow up. I bet he knocks her up if for no other reason than the fact that Natsu has one kid and he has zero."

"God, I hope not. Gray can't even keep a cactus alive. And let's not mention the cat."

"There was actually a cat?"

His wife nodded. "He got drunk and told the cat he was sorry for being a bad owner and set it free in South Gate Park. Erza's been taking care of it for years. Strangely enough, he used to dress the cat. I went over to his place once and he was naked and the cat was fully clothed and it was all just so weird and backwards."

"The thought of a naked man putting clothes on a cat is hilariously disturbing."

"Right?"

They spent a while talking and once the light was turned out, Lucy snuggled up to him and said, "I love you, you know."

He kissed her hair. "Love you too, Babe."

Laxus turned the light on and said, "So, you know our five year wedding anniversary is coming up, right?"

"Right."

"Do you want to do anything special?"

"I'm cool. We can just celebrate here."

Her husband shook his head. "How about we go away just the two of us? We'll relax, have a little romance, sleep like people who don't have kids…"

"Sold! To the guy tempting me with the idea of sleeping eight consecutive hours in a row. Is it bad I'm more excited about sleeping all day than having sex?"

"No one is judging you. I want to fuck you until your forget your name and then use your tits as a pillow for ten hours straight," he answered.

Lucy said, "You're charming in a very weird and kind of disgusting way."

"Runs in the family. Pity your son."

"Why?"

"No reason. Goodnight."

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