It was an unhappy 'first.'

At the age of fifteen, after twelve years of legal battles, contentious fights, and venomous parental relations, a judge gave Lilia Eucliffe the choice about which parent she wanted to live with. She chose her father, and it was the hardest thing for her because that meant leaving her first love, a little blond-headed dragon boy.

All her life, she'd grown up with the Dreyars, watching the girls with their daddy, yet her own was always out of reach. Almost grown, she believed it was her only chance to get to know her father as a father.

So she broke up with Yuri and moved halfway across the country to live with her dad.

The breakup was sad, painful, and difficult for both kids, because no one had done anything wrong and Yuri understood it was what she'd always wanted.

All he knew was ever since he was a little boy, he'd wanted to have her in his world.

At the wonderfully naive age of fifteen, he often thought about the future, and in that future, she was always there. He had plans. Dreams. Expectations. Lilia Eucliffe was supposed to be part of his future, but suddenly she was ripped out and even though he tried to tell himself maybe somehow in the end they'd cross paths, he knew it was probably over for good.

The boy dragon and the girl dragon were supposed to be together, right?

He had so many pictures of her and of them growing up, and his father advised him to collect all of them and put them somewhere he wouldn't see them. He couldn't do it, and sadly enough, in those weird emotionally raw and hormonally confusing moments, he still had one he put to less than honorable use.

He had a support system second to none, though, and a big family who was determined to love him to death. His sisters were absolutely spoiling him, which was strange because he was usually the one that looked after them.

On this Saturday night, Layla baked him a cake and they were sitting on the floor in his room eating pizza and cake and drinking soda while they played a board game. Unfortunately, no matter how hard they tried, Yuri kept rolling the worst possible numbers and was losing miserably.

Lucy saw the light was still on in their son's room at two in the morning and heard the occasional laughter and giggles came from the room, and she smiled.

"They're still up? I didn't know Layla could stay conscious for more than eighteen hours in a row," Laxus said.

His wife said, "They're acting like little mother hens to their big brother."

Laxus sighed. "Poor kid. Cried like a baby about it earlier."

"We tend to think all these little crushes and relationships are ridiculous or maybe no real in a way, but their feelings are real. Yuri is really hurt, Laxus."

"I know. She's been around for a long time, you know. And of course he's young and a nice kid. They probably sat around and made plans because that's what young naive people do," he said.

Lucy smiled at him. "We were only together for four months the first time we started talking about plans. You remember? We were sitting in my old apartment. I was only four years older than he is now."

No parent wanted to see their child get hurt, but the Dreyars were used to the physical hurts. Raising a family of rowdy wizards meant they'd witnessed a countless number of bumps, bruises, ouchies, stitches, and all kinds of other ouch-related events.

When Makarov died it was hard on everyone, but that was always an inevitable pain that was going to come eventually.

Laxus went on to bed and she cracked open the door and found the kids still high on sugar as they sat on the floor surrounded by plates and soda bottles.

"It's getting late, kids," she said.

Anna said, "We'll go to bed after we finish our game, Mama."

Lucy knew they probably wouldn't, but she didn't mind since it was summer and they didn't have school. They all knew if it had been a school night she would have broken out the whip to get them in bed, if necessary. She really hoped she didn't have to resort to that again, as it made her feel like one of those crazy unhinged parents.

Laxus comforted her by telling her that it was probably impossible to raise teenagers without feeling that way at times.

She sat on the edge of the bed and asked, "What are you guys playing?"

Mavis answered, "We're playing Life."

"Life?"

"Yes, the game of Life. Yuri's losing," she said.

Lucy replied, "Don't you think that's kind of heartless? I feel like the only thing you could do to cheer him up more is to play some really sad songs. And tomorrow you can watch that lacrima film where the dog dies at the end."

Yuri sipped his root beer and despondently shrugged. "It seems fitting somehow. Lose the game of life then literally lose the game of life."

His mother said. "Yuri, there are billions of girls in the world and you're a cute kid. There will be another girlfriend."

"I don't want another girlfriend…"

Mavis punched him in the arm. "Stop whining. We're trying to love you through your heartbreak. Let us love you."

Anna hugged on his other arm said, "Is hitting him part of the love?"

"Why wouldn't it be?" Mavis asked.

Layla asked, "I still don't know how you two are twins. Yuri, you want some more cake?"

"Of course I do."

Lucy couldn't help but laugh at how each of them chose to comfort their brother. Mavis punched him, Anna hugged him, and Layla fed him. This was the wonderful world of Yuri Dreyar at its best, and she knew even if his little heart was broken, he was probably really happy to still be surrounded by people who cared that much about him.

There were a lot of people who initially pitied Yuri for having to live in a houseful of hormonal girls, but anyone who really knew them knew he really didn't have it bad at all. His sisters did everything from picking out outfits for their poor colorblind brother to making sure he didn't get through his first heartbreak without a punch, a cake, and a hug as needed.

For a parent, there was nothing more wonderful or heartwarming than watching the kids love each other, so Lucy sat there for a while watching over them as they laughed and teased and ate cake.

Anna suggested, "Now we just need to find you a new girlfriend. How about Hannah?"

"Who is that?" Yuri asked.

Mavis said, "The girl who smells like fish sticks."

"I'll pass."

Layla came next, "How about that red-headed girl from the class above you? I forget her name."

Yuri narrowed his eyes. "Oh, so I just need to stop being colorblind, figure out what red is, and then I'll know."

Mavis said, "How about Mariellen? She dates all the guys."

Lucy reached down and pinched her pointed little ear. "That's NOT the kind of girl you want your brother with!"

"Ow! You don't have to be so mean, Mama. I'm just trying to help," the youngest said.

Her mother asked, "Is there any end to your mischief, Mavis?"

Mavis flashed her thin-lipped, fanged troll-smirk at her and she sighed and added, "You're just like your father."

Yuri gave them a tired smile. "Thanks, but I'll be okay. Some things a man has to do himself. You girls can help me with everything else."

By the conclusion of the game, Yuri was bankrupt and childless, to which he could only laugh. Layla fell asleep in the middle of the floor, so the twins cleaned up and after Yuri and his mother dragged a nearly comatose Layla to her bed, Lucy wrapped her arms around her son and gave him a good squeeze. She held on tight until they were all the way back to his room and she turned out the lights and tucked him in like he was a little boy again.

In the dark (which only really affected her sight), she bent down and kissed his forehead. "It won't hurt forever. Time does wonders for a broken heart, I promise."

"Has anyone ever broken up with you, Mom?" he weakly asked.

"Well...no. Your dad was my first boyfriend."

Yuri said, "Dad said he never loved a girl before you. You never loved anyone before Dad. The girls obviously haven't. Do you know what that means, Mom?"

"What?"

"I'm the only one in this entire family who has ever been dumped."

Lucy answered, "Just be strong, son. Your dad and I love you, and you have all your sisters too."

Yuri rolled over away from her and felt her rub his back like he was a little boy. She waited until he finally went to sleep, and then quietly slipped out of bed and found her husband had already fallen asleep.

Days rolled by and Yuri remained in somewhat of a slump for a while.

After a week, he let Layla take all his pictures and hide them in an unknown location, and after two, he managed to convince himself to think about it a little less. By the time a month had gone by, the acute sting was gone and he was able to think about better things: about how Lilia was finally able to know her dad, about how she finally had freedom to be a dragon, about how her mom wouldn't be able to yell at her anymore.

Yuri realized his little wounds were really just collateral damage. A self-sacrificing young person like himself didn't mind bleeding a little so someone he cared about could be happy.

Life went on and so did he, albeit as a much more mature person than he was before. Once it was all over and he felt alright again, he felt more grownup. He could look back and think about the way he thought and felt as being naive and childish, but he couldn't forget how good it felt to sit next to her under a tree and make some grand life plan together.

During his recovery, he got a lot of time and attention from his parents and sisters too. That part was nice, and he was grateful to have a big crazy family.

As part of his parents' campaign to show him extra love, his father took him with him on a business trip to Crocus where he'd been summoned by the Council to explain some excessive destruction caused by Fairy Tail during a dark guild battle the Council had requested they engage.

This was all very pointless to Laxus, but once the meeting was over, they were exploring the city and eating everything they came across when they happened to pass the zoo.

"You want to go?"

Yuri nodded.

Five minutes later, they were sitting on the railing at the alligator's exhibit.

"Have you been here before?" Yuri asked.

Laxus smiled a bit. "Your mom and I had our second date here. You know how she is...she didn't really have a very high opinion of being too close to the dangerous animals."

"They're just alligators," he said.

"Your mom likes animals, but she's suspicious as hell of the ones that eat people. You should have seen the first time she saw Raijin. I don't think I've ever heard her scream that loud. Good God, that woman was pissed," he answered.

They moved on from there and armed with an ice cream cone, Yuri asked, "How did you and mom get together anyway? Did you always like her?"

His father thought for a minute before he replied with, "I always thought she was attractive, but I had this period of my life where I was the world's biggest asshole for about nine years. She was not impressed with me, but when I got it together, she didn't mind me. The king had this ball honoring Fairy Tail, and I didn't want to go by myself, and we just happened to run into each other while I was thinking about it.

"So we went to this ball together, and we had such a great time. The next morning we came here, and then after that, it was us against the world."

Yuri enjoyed hearing the story, and as they went from one exhibit to another, Laxus told his son a kid-appropriate version of his wonderful romance with Lucy Heartfilia. He thought at first maybe it would make him sad since he didn't have a girlfriend anymore, but he seemed to perk up a little at the idea a socially awkward Dreyar could win at the game of love after all.

They walked along the same path and Laxus had little flashbacks to his date with Lucy, when they were just starting to discover how great they were together.

Yuri was leaning over the rail to the lion exhibit when his father said, "Life is good, son. The last time I was here, I was with this cute little blonde who kept blushing every time she smiled at me. Now I'm standing in the same place with our fifteen-year-old son."

With a somewhat sad half-twitch of a smile, the boy looked out at the exhibit. "I know everything is okay. It sucks, but I'm sure I'm not the only person this has ever happened to. The weird thing is I can't shake this feeling, like I wasn't good enough somehow. I keep thinking about it like maybe if I was a better person, things would have happened differently even though I know that doesn't make sense."

Rejection and abandonment were ugly and terrible things to feel, and it was difficult to talk a person out of them. Laxus knew this well.

"Did Gams ever tell you anything about my father?" Laxus asked.

Yuri shook his head.

This wasn't surprising as Makarov didn't speak of Ivan at all after his death from cancer. The idea that Ivan lived a terrible, pointless life and died horribly was hard on Makarov, but he never discussed it. Laxus never talked about Ivan either.

"I always just kind of assume he must have died when you were little or something."

His father leaned against the rail and crossed his arms. "My father died when you were three. You met him a couple of times. You were still little, so I doubt you remember."

"You had a dad all along?!"

Laxus sighed. "He wasn't really a dad. My mother is still alive."

"And a mom?!"

To say this was a delicate situation was like saying the ocean seemed a little wet. Laxus didn't really like to talk about his feelings, but he'd go through any kind of discomfort for his kids.

"My parents decided when I was born that they didn't like each other, and they didn't like me either. Gams raised me because my parents didn't want me. I was a pathetic little brat, tiny and sick all the time, didn't know why everyone else had a mom and dad but me. My dad started coming around and it was worse because he didn't like who I was," he said.

Yuri almost couldn't believe his ears as he listened intently. He had no idea his father had such a rough childhood and it was easy to tell from how the story was being told that it still hurt him.

Laxus added, "It was worse when he did start coming around. He had me crazy and fucked up in my head thinking if I was a better kid my dad would stop leaving me or that he'd like me. It made me think a lot of bad things about myself, and about other people."

"Why did he do that?"

"He was just selfish. Nothing more, nothing less. It didn't have anything to do with me. In your case, that girl left because she needed to. It wasn't about you. And it was the right thing to do. So don't blame yourself too much, and don't sit around and wonder if there's something wrong with you."

Yuri was quiet for a long time, maybe two or three minutes. "Do you think your dad loved you?"

"I know he didn't. I used to hope he did, but then when I met you I realized that bastard never gave a damn about me."

Yuri seemed to shake off whatever funk he'd been in for the moment. "I've never had to feel that way. I have great parents."

They talked for a long while as they moved through the rest of the exhibits, and Laxus was glad his son was able to take his smidgen of emotional vulnerability and somehow become stronger. He considered this to be an advanced parenting technique, and one that developed from necessity.

Newborns took a lot of time, but their needs were simple. When Yuri was a baby, if he had a clean diaper and a full belly he was happy. But as kids grew up and became more complicated, so did their needs and at his age, sometimes the hardest thing about being a parent was figuring out what he needed.

At this point, making Yuri happy meant sticking with him and helping him work through the very real problem of his major disappointment in life.

Once they finished their tour of the zoo, they went back into the downtown area and Laxus bought his son what felt like his sixth meal of the day from a food cart.

"When you eat, where does the food go?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

His father said, "Your mother and I are confused because we don't know where the food you eat actually goes. Do you have a portal to Edolas in your stomach we don't know about?"

Yuri finished chewing the first bite of a hot dog. "Every extra meal I eat gets me closer to being taller than you."

"Well, you just made a really good case for me to never feed you again."

XXX

They had a nice break from the girls, and upon returning home, Laxus found the Dreyar girls were babysitting Crash Groh. Mavis had a leash hooked to the toddler's belt and Laxus surveyed this with great concern. The idea that Mavis would put a leash on a small child wasn't all that disturbing as that just seemed like something she would do. What bothered him was the fact Anna and Layla seemed to be okay with it.

Laxus unhooked the leash. "Honestly…"

Crash ran full-speed and face-first into the nearest wall, smacked his face and fell down. Then he backed up and started again, only to be caught by Laxus. "Kid, what on earth is your problem?!"

"He's trying to run through walls like Gildarts," Layla explained.

"Imma Crash like Gramps!" the boy exclaimed.

Laxus narrowed his eyes and used his 'Dad' voice. "You will not get near the wall again, do you understand me?"

The red-headed boy fearfully nodded and was put down on the floor. As promised, he went back to his blocks, looking up every few seconds at the one who just invoked the voice of authority against his toddler mischief.

Anna said, "You're so good at that. I don't have a Dad voice."

"It would be weird if you did," Mavis replied.

Laxus rolled his eyes and went upstairs and found his wife napping. Clearly, she either didn't know Gildarts had left his grandson with the girls or she didn't know how they were making the little menace behave himself. He assumed with Yuri the four of them would probably be okay, so he took off his shoes, got under the covers and decided to join his wife for a nap.

Lucy yawned when she felt his warmth and reached for him. "How's our baby?"

"Strong and hungry."

"You're a good man, you know. I think I might like you after all," she teased as she gave him a quick kiss.

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