Layla Dreyar prepared for battle.
Hair pulled back, she steeled her nerves, took a deep breath, and prepared herself to face the enemy. She prayed she wouldn't be noticed, but she knew she couldn't rely on luck. Her opponent was vigilant, alert, and his gaze was inescapable.
She made no noise as she crept down the steps toward the exit, nearly holding her breath.
Laxus looked up at his daughter over the newspaper and narrowed her eyes at her cropped top. Several inches of her bare stomach were visible, which was a violation of at least a dozen clothing rules. While war had not been on his schedule on this otherwise peaceful summer morning, he was ready for action at any moment.
The thirteen-year-old cringed; luck had not found favor with her.
He peered at her over his newspaper and nonchalantly said, "Good morning, she-child. I think you somehow got confused and only put on half of a shirt this morning."
The little blonde put her hands on her hips as she stood there in a skirt and a cropped top. She had strappy sandals and a stubborn attitude. "Dad, can we talk about this?"
He sipped his coffee and calmly stared at her. "Of course not. When you live in your own house, and pay all of your own bills, you can do whatever you want. And even on that day, I'm still not going to listen to you."
Layla covered her belly button. "Dad, it's just a top. It's a valid method of self-expression."
Laxus sipped his coffee and folded his newspaper. "What are you expressing exactly?"
"Well…"
Laxus remained nonplussed as she failed to provide him with a legitimate thought that could only be expressed through her outfit. "What is wrong with you lately?" he asked.
"I am growing up, Dad."
"Wearing half of an outfit doesn't make you a grownup. Toddlers hate wearing clothes too."
Layla fisted her hands at her sides. "You don't understand anything! I'm not changing my shirt."
Laxus calmly replied, "That's fine. You are forbidden to leave the house dressed like that."
"This is who I am, Dad!"
"You're a whorish little half-shirt? That's surprising. I thought you were a kid all this time."
This was what she hated the most about going to war with her dad; after the first couple of blow-up arguments, he learned how to remain calm and sarcastic. She could yell, slam doors, cry, and execute every other trick in the book and when it was over, he'd still be sitting there sipping his coffee like everything was fine.
Laxus wasn't a strict disciplinarian and he and Lucy let their kids learn by mistakes in most areas. One area where he was seemingly overbearing was over the girls and their clothes. Layla was the only one who really challenged him in this, but she did so often.
She turned to leave the house anyway in defiance, slung open the front door, and said, "You can't stop me from being who I am!"
And then she ran face-first into a wall of activated runes, busting her nose so hard she hard to check to see if it was bleeding.
Well-educated in the world of magic, she could read the language of the runes:
No child shall leave these runes if forbidden by a parent.
Layla stomped back into the kitchen, and found her father had gone back to his newspaper and toast. "You put runes around our house?!"
Laxus furrowed his brows. "Go upstairs, put on a shirt, and I'll consider letting you go outside before you turn forty."
Defeated.
"UGH!" she half-shrieked.
Laxus took another sip of his coffee and stared down at the paper. "Unstuff your bra while you're at it."
He heard a door slam and sighed.
When Layla was a toddler, she often threw extreme temper tantrums that involved holding her breath, throwing herself down on the floor, yelling, beating on the floor, crying, and the like. They'd learned to treat these as non-events, and now that she was half-grown, she'd seemingly reverted in part to those tactics so he dealt with them the same way.
She was a good kid but she was in awkward stage of growing up. Laxus felt like there was something going on with her, but she hadn't told him anything.
When Yuri came downstairs and poured a cup of black coffee, his father asked, "Do you have any grief to cause me today?"
"I think I'm good."
Lucy came down the stairs quickly, in a hurry to get to the guild and was a little annoyed to find her husband basking in what appeared to be a state of calm. "Laxus, you need to be at work and you're sitting here like everything is fine and calm and you don't have anywhere to be."
Laxus let out a long, slow sigh. "Calm isn't really the word I'd use. I'm ready to go."
The door flew open and the twins came in with a huge egg. Mavis was hefting it and it was comically huge compared to her. It was only eight in the morning, so Laxus really didn't know why they'd somehow gotten up very early and already been been into mischief.
Anna asked, "Can we keep it?"
Lucy's first response was, "What do you mean 'Can we keep it?' What on earth would hatch out of an egg that huge that you think would make a good housepet?"
"We don't know, but can we keep it?" Anna asked.
"Hell no! You guys are not hatching a monster in the house. We said no to a puppy, so it amazes me that you think that I'd let you have a monster, a demon, whatever is in that thing."
Mavis said, "How about in the backyard?"
Her mother's eyebrow twitched. "Not there either," she growled.
Laxus watched them stack the deck against their mother and get ready to deal. They had a method to their madness, and they knew how to get what they wanted.
Yuri was the negotiator, and if they could achieve their goals through compromise, he was the one that faced the parental figures. He was primarily effective against Lucy, who was always so proud of her son for being such a respectable and reasonable boy she was inclined to give in.
Then there was Layla, the debater, who would argue logic and twist facts until upside down seemed right-side up. This was effective against Laxus, who was actually easily persuaded about things he didn't care very much about. It got her nowhere with her mother.
Anna was the ace, the trump card, the go-to for the things both parents would say no to. She rarely asked for anything, and when she did, it was without grief or argument. She was such a sweet kid that both parents felt like giving her what she wanted just because she never caused problems.
And of course, Mavis was their sly, tricky one, who was a bender of the rules. She could sell dirty socks to a man with no feet, and be adorably rude while doing it.
Hatching a creature of indeterminate origin was not a task that could be accomplished by anyone except Anna.
"Please, Mama?" she sweetly asked with her big, bright smile.
Lucy cut her eyes over to Laxus, who gave her a look that said, 'you know damn well you're passing the buck.'
"It's an Exceed egg. Happy hatched out of one just like that," he said.
This only made the kids more excited, and now Yuri's interest was piqued too. He invoked his negotiating skills in an instant. "Dad, you said we can't have any pets that poop in the house or tear stuff up. Happy's not like that. It would be a good pet for us, and an Exceed would be useful for us in battle when we go on jobs."
Laxus punted the ball back at Lucy. "If your mother says it's okay, that's fine."
"Laxus!" Lucy exclaimed, knowing whoever said 'yes' got the 'I told you so's' later on. "Since you're the one who loves animals so much, I'll let you make the final call."
He smirked and answered, "Your mother doesn't mind, so fine. Wait, where did you find that exactly?"
Mavis smiled and both of the girls started to run up the stairs. "We forget."
Lucy shook her head. "There is nothing more suspicious than when twins use the word 'we,' especially those two."
Yuri moved to run up the stairs and Laxus caught him by the collar, "Change of plans."
"Eh?"
Laxus said, "Your mother and I are going out of town for the weekend. We need a kid-cation."
"Wait, we are?" Lucy asked.
"Yes," he quickly answered, "Yuri is going to be in charge."
The boy pointed at himself. "Me?"
"Yes, you."
Yuri sighed. "Why me?"
Laxus answered, "Because you came out of the womb first. Don't let your sister go outside half-naked, and no boys, wild animals, or magic in the house. Understood?"
"Okay...but-"
Laxus grabbed Lucy and pulled her upstairs. He might have said 'weekend,' but it was only Wednesday on his random summer morning. She did want some alone time with her husband and as cute as their kids were, they had their moments too.
She made arguments about leaving the kids alone without warning while he packed his bag and hers. Then she realized that even though her kids were ten kinds of mischievous, they weren't really bad kids. They rarely did things that were immoral, but they often did things that were just irritating and irksome to their parents.
An hour later, they were on the train and as was their tradition, Laxus curled up with his head in her lap, willing to accept a little nausea from a break from their lovable but demanding children.
She ran her hands through his hair. "You're a good dad."
"I like the little rascals, but I've been needing some time with my wife."
"I can't believe you wanted to pin the cat on me," she complained.
Laxus said, "I did. The first time it scratches up the couch, get ready to hear about 'that cat you let the kids have.' Most Exceeds are really annoying. Happy is like a five-year-old girl stuck in the body of a male cat with wings."
Lucy suddenly panicked, "Uh-oh, do the kids have groceries?!"
"Well, if they get hungry enough, there's always scrambled eggs," Laxus offered.
"Laxus, I'm serious!"
"Relax, Babe, our son has been doing wizard jobs and not paying any bills. He has a small fortune stuffed in a sock in his third drawer."
He fell asleep in the middle of their conversation, and she growled some insult he only replied to with a snore.
Once they arrived in Hargeon, he awoke and they checked into a favorite hotel before wandering the streets together. During their meanderings, they came to the cafe where they dined the night they made love for the first time and riding a wave of nostalgia, sat at the same table on the patio.
Lucy grinned like an idiot at him as she remembered the night, and looked around and found the beach still looked the same. She ordered the same meal and sat with the same man, albeit almost seventeen years later after a long, happy marriage and four wonderful children.
It was easy to feel in love when it came to her dragon.
He was a good man and he'd always taken such good care of her and their family.
"You're smiling at me like I did something considerate or sweet and I haven't lately," he said.
She waved off his concern. "Don't worry, Baby."
"Baby, huh? The way you use the word 'Baby' is like how our daughters use the word 'Daddy.' And then I wonder where they got that."
Lucy said, "So our kids figured out how to play us. Worse things have happened."
"Your right. You didn't see what She-Child 1 was trying to wear this morning."
His wife said, "I think you should relax about the girls and their clothes. I was a scantily clad teen and nothing bad happened. And there are all sorts of reasons a girl might want to wear a miniskirt or whatever. I agree she's too young for a lot, but you can't be the clothes police."
One of his brows rose. "You dressed like that because you wanted attention. And you got it, if my memory serves me correctly. I'm not having it. You were what, seventeen? And you had those little miniskirts every damn day. The first time I saw you I wanted to bend you over a table, spank you for being so bad, and then have that."
"That's disgusting, Laxus. Do you think all boys are as depraved and deranged as you are?"
"That is how the mind of a pubescent male functions. So no. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever."
Lucy learned to choose her battles when it came to parenting. They were the type of couple that really spent time with and on their kids, so even when they were away from them, it was normal for them to think and talk about them. There were matters they disagreed upon, and this was one of them. Lucy didn't think there was a problem with a girl wearing a two-piece swimsuit, or many of the other things he objected to.
Laxus was willing to fight to the death over it, so she decided their daughters would just have to deal with their cranky dragon daddy.
They walked the shops, and he bought her a necklace and held her hand and she responded by walking a little closer.
She loved him so much, and she knew he loved her more than anything in the world.
They went back to their hotel room, and after sex and sleep, there was more sex and sleep. This was followed by food and the main event, sex and sleep.
He still had a voracious sexual appetite.
His wife was fine with this because she also had an appetite, one that had probably been shaped by only being with her sex-loving husband.
With a big yawn, she snuggled up to him. "I read in a magazine that people that have been married for over ten years have sex an average of six times a month. So based on that, you've used up all your sex for the whole month."
His response was an incredulous glare and, "You're talking like you want me to put something in your mouth."
"Eww, gross!"
"How come dick sucking is thought of as being so crude but eating pussy is somehow awesome and romantic?"
The blonde sighed. "Laxus, were you reading my magazines again?"
"I was bored when you were in the shower."
"Those are written for women. Please just don't."
"I think men need their own magazine. Some literature where we can talk about how women always feel objectified by men yet they keep wearing the damn miniskirts," he argued.
Lucy said, "You guys already have your own literature. It's called pornography. And miniskirts and men have nothing in common!"
"Really? Why wear one? It's not functional. It won't keep you warm or covered. You can't bend over without giving the world a slice of life," he said.
"I'm not having this conversation with you again. We've literally had this same dialogue a hundred times and you still can't stop assuming girls are just trying to make guys horny and second that all guys are horny and desperate like you were at that age. I'm going to take a nap, be ridiculous if you want," she replied.
He was ready to sleep anyway, and was rolling over to 'snuggle her,' a practice she once described to Levy as 'laying on her like a big, hot hairy beached whale.' Laxus could practically feel the perturbed expression on her face and bit down on her ear.
"The fact that our babies give you more crap than me is an example of karma at work," she said.
"But-!"
"If you want another ridiculous person to argue with, leave me alone and locate the nearest mirror. Thanks and goodnight."
XXX
Back in Magnolia, Anna Dreyar and Iggy Dragneel were revisiting a historical site. Or, it was important to the Dragneels at least. It was a little hut in the East Forest that Lisanna built when she and Natsu were small children so they could play house with their egg.
Lisanna, who found her son's new relationship all too cute, showed them the way down a familiar path. "This is a house for taking care of Exceeds. Iggy, me and your dad looked after Happy's egg here."
Natsu was really proud of his son, not only because he had a girlfriend, but because he was such a good kid even Laxus couldn't tell him no. If that wasn't a shining recommendation, he didn't know what was. Besides, Iggy was really excited, and as he'd been given permission to hold hands, every time Natsu saw his son he had that girl's hand.
Seeing he and Anna heft the big egg around made him grin like an idiot because it reminded him of when he and his wife were kids. It was really cool to him that his best friend's baby and his baby liked each other, and he knew Lucy felt the same way.
Lisanna packed them a picnic and they sat in the hut together and took turns hugging the egg to keep it warm after the parents left them. Sometimes, they hugged it together.
"An Exceed is like a real baby, you know. I'll be the mom," Anna said.
Iggy asked, "Didn't Mavis find it too?"
"Mavis can't be the mom. She would break the baby! I'm the Mom type, you know," she replied.
Iggy half-disappeared under his scarf. "I guess so…"
They had a lot of moments that made him squirm uncomfortably, and he didn't quite know why. "Maybe you're the Dad type too."
The boy nervously sputtered, "How would I know that?!"
"You're helping to take care of our baby, aren't you?"
It was too much, and he was too awkward as he blushed and jumped to his feet, "It's not mine! That's someone else's baby!"
Anna giggled at him, showing her slight Dreyar troll-streak. "You're so cute, Iggy. I would never have someone else's baby, you know!"
He knew she was making him nervous on purpose, yet he had no idea what to do to stop her. She was her father's daughter, her mother's little celestial spirit summoner, and she thought he was so cute when he blushed.
"Why are we talking about babies anyhow?!" he asked.
Anna snuggled the egg. "Because we're going to have a baby, Iggy."
Now she was walking the line of being sweet and teasing him and he didn't know which side she was on. He finally gave up and sat down again next to the egg.
The blonde was really happy to be around her friend and felt like he was the cutest boy there ever was. "What will we name our baby?"
"That's not my baby!" he nervously argued.
She peeked around the egg at him, blue eyes met green and she said, "We might have a real baby someday."
"WHAT?! What makes you say that?!"
Iggy clawed at his scarf nervously and wondered what kind of weird trouble his friend really was for him. He knew where babies came from, so to his young mind this was simply too much.
Anna smiled. "I have it all planned out."
"You planned what out?"
The blonde moved a little closer to him, sitting in front of him with her hands on the egg. "Our lives!"
"B-But!"
Anna said, "You can be my boyfriend until we grow up. We'll go on jobs together. We'll get strong together. You'll hopefully have a growth spurt and become taller than me."
Even though she was eleven and he was thirteen, she was a bit taller than he was. Girls did grow taller than most boys, but he was scrawny for a boy and she was taller than her older sister. A boy at school said she was 'leggy.' He didn't know what that meant, but she was mostly legs, he could confirm that.
"I'm trying. I drink tons of milk, you know. People laugh at a boy when his girlfriend is taller than him."
She waved him off. "It's okay. My dad says someday you're going to be stronger than Sam."
"Master said that? About me?"
The subject of magic power and strength was captivating to him. But she went back to the more bewildering subject instead.
Anna said, "When I turn seventeen, we can get engaged. Then, when I'm eighteen, we can get married. You'll be twenty. I want to have a big fluffy dress, and for my dad to walk me down the aisle. Then, after we get married, we'll live together in a little house at the edge of town. We'll be a team together, on jobs and at home. And then by the time I'm twenty-one I think we should have our first baby."
Iggy had no idea what to say to any of this, and considered running for a minute. Girls were mysterious creatures to him, and as much as he liked his friend, he didn't know what to make of the fact that they'd been 'official' for a month and she already planned out their entire lives.
He really just wanted to hold hands and have fun and not think about about the vast ambiguity of their futures.
"How does that sound?" she asked.
"Ummmm...well…"
She giggled at him and leaned forward into his personal space.
"What are you doing?!" he asked.
"Close your eyes, Iggy."
He clenched them shut, as if she was about to hit him.
She put her hands on his cheeks and leaned in, and he felt her lips on his lips for a second.
The first thing that occurred to him was that her father had specifically forbidden him from this. The second thing (which made him forget about the first) was that it was really the most amazing thing that he'd ever felt in his life. He awkwardly raised his hands, but had no idea what to do with them, so they hovered in the air.
His lips twitched in response and they made an awkward smooch as the kiss ended and Anna let go of him and sat back on her heels, leaning over to give the egg a little snuggle. She giggled, and said, "You're so red, Iggy!"
He licked his lips and found they tasted like her cherry lip balm, so he licked them again.
They fell asleep on each side of the egg, and woke up when it was well after dark.
"Uh-oh! I'm supposed to be home by nighttime. Let's go!" she said in panic.
They scrambled, and Iggy carried the egg down the path through the forest, only they went down the wrong path and ventured toward the interior of the East Forest. It was nearly black due to the new moon, and even though Iggy could see fairly well in the dark, their surroundings made him antsy.
Along the way, they abruptly stumbled upon a fugitive: Erigor.
He was trying to sleep in the woods when the kids walked up on him, and he might have let them go if Anna didn't have the Fairy Tail emblem on the back of her hand.
"Fairy Tail…"
Anna went flying into a tree with a gust of wind, and Iggy's eyes widened in shock and then narrowed in rage. He dropped the egg, leapt blindly, fists ablaze, and she reached for her keys.
It reminded Erigor of something that happened a long time ago, but they were just children.
"Open, Gate of the Lion!"
Loke appeared and leapt into action. "He's a powerful mage. I'll hold him off. You two run. Go back down this path until you get to the edge of the city."
They were suddenly surrounded by a wall of wind, preventing their escape.
Loke pushed his glasses up on his nose. "Dammit. Erigor, you know there's hell to pay if you handle these kids roughly. There won't be a hole deep enough for you to crawl into where you'll be safe."
This meant little to someone who spent the majority of his life in an assassin's guild.
Iggy was almost laughably weak compared to Erigor, and Erigor was stronger than Loke, Anna's only golden key.
Erigor beat up on them senselessly, swinging his scythe at them while they tried to dodge it.
And then he swung and, half an inch from Anna's throat, and hit Loke who jumped to protect her. He vanished into a cloud of gold dust, and the two kids were left with a crazed, vengeful, and bloodthirsty monster.
Without Loke, she was the weakest of the Dreyars.
And he, he was the least of the dragons.
Erigor grazed Anna's side with the scythe, and there was a lot of blood.
Iggy heard her scream, and smelled the blood, and something in him snapped. He didn't care if he was the little weak dragon. He was still a dragon, and he was mad as hell that someone would hurt his friend.
His flames seemed to get hotter, bigger, and more powerful at the sight of his injured friend, but he was still nowhere near the level where he could pose a threat to Erigor. Just to humiliate Iggy, he dropped the wind barrier.
"Silly little boy. Your flames will never beat my wind. Maybe I need to hurt your friend a little more and you'll be more fun?"
He clenched his eyes shut, fisted his hands at his sides, and he was going to yell something but the only thing that came out was a devastating fire dragon's roar that put even Yuri's roar to shame. It sent the unsuspecting Erigor flying and even though it surprised Iggy that such a thing came from him, magic was pounding through his body in a way he'd never experienced and he chased Erigor to where he'd thrown him through several trees.
When Erigor recovered and started taking him seriously, Iggy had already turned the immediate area into an ashen wonderland. He might have been weak enough to mock at the beginning of the fight, but he was nobody to laugh at by that point. Even though Erigor still had the upper-hand, he started to suspect something about this kid and decided it would be best for him to leave immediately. The boy was using fire dragonslayer magic, and the only person who used that was someone Erigor never wanted to tangle with again.
He was running when he nearly ran directly into the Daddy Dragon, saint wizard Natsu Dragneel, arguably the most destructive magical force alive anywhere in the world. If it wasn't Natsu, it was Laxus, and now that he thought about it, he'd read somewhere Laxus had a bunch of little girls that probably looked a lot like that one...
Natsu looked past Erigor to his son, who had blood seeping from one eye, his nose, his lips, and his little fists. Anna's blood was thicker on the air, so he asked, "Son, where's Anna? I smell blood…"
"She's hurt, Dad!"
"Go take care of her," Natsu instructed.
Iggy ran to his friend and found she'd stood to her feet. "How can you stand?"
"Look who's talking," she gently said, still holding a hand to her side. "You're so strong, you know."
Another dragon ran up on them then as Yuri arrived out of breath in response to looking for his sister post-curfew and catching the scent of her blood in the air. He saw a tower of fire rise not far ahead and looked back down at his sister as she held her side.
"Anna, let me see," Yuri said.
Anna pulled her shirt up and revealed a deep wound on one side, but even though it was bleeding, it wasn't deep in the muscle tissue and didn't pose a threat to her life. They'd all been taught about combat injuries, so they were able to at least stay calm and not panic.
Yuri said, "Let's get out of here. Natsu can let loose if we're not here, and you're both beaten up pretty bad."
Anna took a step forward and Yuri swooped her up off the ground. "You're such a good brother."
"Whatever. I can't believe you missed curfew and got in all this trouble while Mom and Dad are gone."
"Iggy and I fell asleep," she said.
Yuri glared at Iggy who was limping next to him. "Iggy, I'll beat your tail into the ground if you ever keep my sister out after dark again."
He didn't know what he'd tell his parents, but he felt like Erigor probably need to count himself fortunate. Natsu wasn't really a killer, but Yuri knew his dad well enough to know his father had spilled a little blood in his life.
They all ended up at the Dreyar house, where Chelia stitched and Wendy healed after arriving in response to Mavis banging on their door during dinner.
Natsu came about an hour later, carrying the big egg, which was unharmed despite the fight. He'd always known his son was packing some serious heat, but Iggy was just such a nice kid he couldn't unload on Sam or Yuri because they were friends. In that respect, he was his father's son, down to the tiniest details.
Raising wizards, fights were inevitable, and so were injuries, and both parents and kids were prepared for that. Anna was amazingly brave, and still sweet as ever. Mavis wanted to find Erigor and suggested Yuri hold him down while they kicked him to death.
Layla was mostly quiet, but Natsu knew she had her moments. She was a moody kid, prone to outbursts like her mother who used to kick the crap out of him for sneaking into her apartment. In terms of magic, she was a holy terror and the only reason Yuri was known as the powerful sibling was because Layla hadn't flexed her muscles in a public setting yet.
Since the Dreyars were without parents when this happened, Natsu decided he and Iggy would stay overnight just in case. He didn't really think anyone in the world was that stupid, and Erigor wasn't going to be able to move for a while, but the kids were serious business.
Mavis made the big bed in Makarov's old room and Layla cooked for all of them. Yuri paced back and forth, checking the windows periodically.
When they had eaten and got ready to go to retire, Iggy and Natsu settled into the bed and after the light was out, Iggy said, "Dad, today was a good day."
Natsu turned the light back on. "You have eleven stitches and probably twenty scabs and a dozen bruises."
"We kissed."
He felt like his son had been taking it pretty well, and with this revelation, Natsu realized his son didn't give two shits about being beaten up because the girl he liked kissed him and the rest of it didn't matter.
Natsu turned out the light again. "Ah, so you're still on top of the world, just with some extra stitches and a little less blood."
"I didn't know what to do with my hands. But Dad, she already planned our whole lives out for us."
His father smiled in the dark at the magic of the little hut where his son evidently had the same awkward moments he had. "Don't worry, your mom did the same thing to me."
"That makes me worry more."
"Girls are good at that kind of thing. It's best to just let them be how they are. You're going to grow up and appreciate that kind of thing."
Iggy said, "But also...Master told me I couldn't kiss her, and I did anyway. And I liked it."
Natsu was amused by this, and while he would never tell his son it was acceptable to disobey Laxus, it was still funny as hell. Iggy was the one people tended to look over, but suddenly, with the encouragement of a certain celestial wizard, he was becoming ferocious and a little defiant.
"Son you better be careful. Pretty sure Master will peel your lips off if he catches you."
By the time the kids woke up the next morning, their parents had already returned home after receiving an emergency message from Magnolia the night before.
Anna awoke to the feeling of her parents coming to sit on either side of the bed. "Hi Mom, Hi Dad. You didn't have to come home for me."
Lucy leaned down and kissed her. "You're our baby, so of course we came. Natsu said you got a nasty gash."
Anna pulled up her pajama top to reveal a line of stitches remedied mostly by healing magic. "It's not bad."
Laxus scowled and realized if the wound, despite not being life-threatening, would have been deadly if it was just three inches over. He was infuriated, and he wanted to hunt down Erigor. Natsu claimed to have beaten him within an inch of his life, and Laxus really felt like taking that inch.
It raised a lot of questions.
Why would a dark wizard come anywhere near Magnolia?
It made all the adults uneasy, because there were signs that the dark side of magic was starting to sputter back to life after over a decade and a half of silence.
Lucy babied her daughter, and for once, Anna was fine with someone else nurturing her. She fed her and helped her get dressed, although she stayed in bed anyway.
Downstairs, Iggy was keeping the egg warm, because he knew it's what she wanted. Mavis offered to help, but her attention span wasn't conducive to just being still. He in no way thought of the egg as his baby, but if it made Anna happy, he'd take good care of it.
He was sitting on the couch in the Dreyar house when Laxus came downstairs and stared at him. Suffering from a guilty conscience, he was scared Anna had told him they kissed and his life was about to be terrible.
Instead, Laxus looked down at him for a long time, and then reached out for one of his bruised, busted knuckles. It wasn't hard to figure out he'd reached a whole new level trying to protect Anna, and that made him happy as a father.
"You're a good kid," he finally said ruffling the boy's hair in a way that was recognizably affectionate.
Once Natsu and Iggy had gone home, Lucy and Laxus were in the kitchen when she said, "I think it's time to move another key to Anna. It might save her in a pinch."
He nodded in understanding. "Which?"
"Maybe Taurus."
Laxus was immediately against the idea. "I want to see them together."
This thought lingered in the air until Anna hobbled down the stairs in the late afternoon.
Laxus sat in his chair with a tumbler of whiskey, and Anna sat on the sofa while Lucy summoned Taurus.
Lucy smiled and said, "Taurus, you know my daughter."
Taurus practically had stars in his eyes. "Young body, BOOOOOOOOOtiful body! Miss Anna, how about a SMOOOOOOOCH!"
There was a lightning bolt, and the spirit disappeared. "Next," Laxus said.
Lucy waved her key at him. "Don't electrocute my spirits. They have feelings!"
"Dad, that's like kicking a puppy," Anna echoed.
"And on that note, let me just voice my dissent with Plue," he said.
Anna asked, "Daddy, why not Plue?"
Lucy said, "Laxus that was one time seventeen years ago. Talk about hold a grudge! Let it go already!"
"Maybe in another seventeen years," he mumbled under his breath.
Please Review!
AN: I started another Lalu called Into the Stars. It's kind of a darker fic.
Special thanks to Firefox94, kurakieiritr JIO, princezuko98, olympe, theoginger, krissy, yumeyumi1986, arouraleona, flamey owl, pandorababe, 17, boyceashlee, katiekat2001, thornado, lovelylovelylove, lunastarlady, jhdavis, megumiyoung, fairytailbookworm, sexyvampires4all, and helenezahl for reviewing!