Watching a baby grow into an adult was the most wondrous thing to Laxus and Lucy, together now for many years and parents to four growing kids who were developing into...well…

Lucy stared daggers across the counter at her son when he wasn't looking. He'd just come in from a job, and she was having a hard time fitting together a timeline of events for his travels. He supposedly stayed overnight because he was tired, but he didn't really look like he'd been sleeping.

Yuri was exhausted as hell and twice as hungry.

Lucy knew what made a man tired and ravenously hungry, and then realized that his job would have allowed him to stop in Shirotsume Town and see his girlfriend on the way back. So, mystery solved: he finished his job, spent the night with a girl, and came home ravenously hungry and exhausted.

He looked up and smiled at her as she put a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon before him. "You're the best, Mom."

She forced herself to smile. "Thanks, son. Eat up. You look so tired. I don't want you working so hard, but I'm guessing you don't mind the work."

Yuri had the fork in his mouth when he picked up his mother's sarcasm. "Did I do something?"

"I know where you've been."

The thing that was perhaps most bothersome was how he didn't flinch, didn't blush, and just kept eating his eggs. Lucy had petty, momentary regrets about being mature parents who taught their children sexuality was normal and nothing to be ashamed of because really - how dare he crawl out of some girls bed and then ask her to feed him?

Her brow twitched.

Yuri said, "I miss your cooking whenever I go, Mom. Sam and I ate at a really nice restaurant but food is better if Mom makes it."

Lucy really couldn't stay mad at her baby boy. He was sweet as ever, even growing into a man, and being raised with three baby sisters who had been pulling on him longer than he could remember, he was gentle in some ways and a clumsy brute in others. He knew how to deflect a woman's rage instinctively, and did so with more finesse than one would expect.

He was halfway through his meal when he looked up and said, "Is there anything you want? I want to do something nice for you."

How could anyone be angry at that cute face, his mother wondered.

"I have everything I want."

He suddenly brightened. "I remember! You wanted to eat at that new restaurant by the river."

"Fiona's! That's right. Your dad doesn't like that style of food, and then Levy and I were talking about going."

Yuri kept smiling while he asked, "You want to go with me, Mom?"

He was so cute she was momentarily inclined to overlook the fact he was grinning in part because he loved his mother and in part because he'd recently had sex.

"On a date? With my baby boy?"

Yuri said, "Of course. You're my favorite girl, right?"

This was the Son of Laxus; ridiculous, handsome, and in these little moments he was having more often, so genuinely, sweetly, and wonderfully charming. He'd learned well from watching his parents; Laxus was the master of doing things to get on her nerves and charming his way right back out of them.

Lucy walked around the counter to hug his neck a little tighter than was comfortable. "You're such a cutie, Yuri. Anyone would be lucky to go out on a date with my handsome baby boy! I'll let you take a nap first."

She suddenly realized how mothers became enablers for sons. If Yuri had said, 'Hey, Mom, I just buried some people in the basement,' she felt like she would have asked him if that made him more hungry.

"Do you want more bacon?"

"Of course!"

Once Yuri was full, he promptly went to sleep on the couch and snored, causing Lucy to grumble something about how much he was like his father and roll her eyes before she went upstairs to decide what she would wear for her date.

Laxus came home at two in the afternoon to find his son dead asleep in the living room while Mavis and Rai drew all over his face and giggled. He was grinning in his sleep, and sleeping like a rock while two forces of mischief had their way with him.

"Kid, leave your brother alone, he's tired from his job."

Mavis rolled her eyes. "You want to try?"

Laxus knelt and said, "When I was a little boy, I was in the East Forest and I found a huge plant seed. I brought it home, and planted it. It grew up to be a carnivorous demon plant and tried to eat me."

"What are you trying to say?"

"You're a seed of mine too. You're going to grow up and I'm a little terrified of what you're going to turn into."

Mavis smiled. "Don't worry. You're safe. If I turn into a carnivorous plant demon, I'd probably want my meals to be young and juicy, and let's face it: your young and juicy days are long gone, Dad. "

She offered him the marker, and he took it and glared at her.

Laxus drew some eyelashes on his son and found it was fun. He already had hearts and lipstick and a beard and mustache emblazoned in black marker on him, and Mavis had even been kind enough to accentuate a pimple with detailed contouring with red and pink markers.

And, no sooner had he drawn on Yuri's face than the girl phased through the floor with a loud clap of thunder and disappeared into the basement. Yuri was startled to consciousness and found his father there with a marker.

"Dad?"

"Ah, dammit. I've been had. It was Mavis!"

His son wiped his face and looked at his hand, which was smeared in black. "Dad! Did you write on me?!"

Rai the Exceed was silent and reverted back to pretending to be a helpless baby when Laxus attempted to explain that he'd partaken in defacing his son because his eleven-year-old daughter told him to.

Yuri suspected mischief, and went to the bathroom where Anna helped scrub his face with paper towels and soap. From there, he went on to his room to get ready to take his mom out for a late lunch at the new restaurant.

His father meanwhile went upstairs and found Lucy looking a bit cute and getting ready to go.

"Getting cute for your husband?"

"Ha, you wish," she teased.

For a moment, he was bewildered and disappointed. "Why then?"

"I have a date."

"I wish you would try to go out on a date."

"I am!"

Laxus knew she was messing with him as it was far beyond reality to think she'd actually do anything with another man, but he still didn't like it. "So who are you going on with, may I ask?"

The blonde stood on her tiptoes, pulled him down for a quick kiss. "The younger, more handsome version of you asked me out to lunch. Sorry. I know if you're home at this time, it's for a little afternoon delight, but how about we reschedule and you can use this time slot for a little sad wanky time?"

"Sad wanky time…God, masturbation is humiliating and pathetic enough without that label," he answered, "So my choices are to go back to work and finish the budget or masturbate alone. Fuck my life."

Lucy kissed him again. "Go back to work. I'll take care of you later, okay? Unless I eat too much, in which case I'm going to take a long bath and go to bed early, leaving you with the budget, the kids, and sad wanky time. How does that sound?"

"I'm glad you love me, because I shudder to imagine how you'd treat me if you didn't," he answered.

Laxus was careful not to interfere too much, since he knew it was probably really good for his wife and their son to spend some time together. Lucy was having a harder time than she wanted to admit with the fact that Yuri was starting to act like more and more like an adult.

Besides, that gave him time to spend with his daughters.

He wondered if Layla knew how to make a budget, but when he went to find her, she was in an ill mood over Sam Redfox's recent interest in 'the girl that dates all the guys.' He attempted to comfort her and she informed him she had both burning rage and PMS and preferred to be alone. He gave her an offering of chocolate from his emergency cache and apologies and went on.

When he went in Anna's room, he found it was already quite full. There was Iggy, Rai, Loke, and her Nicola spirit, a non-perverted little pink version of Plue. She was rarely ever alone, and it was hardest to score one-on-one time with her than any of his kids.

This left Mavis, who was in her room on her bed with a physics book, some paper, and a pencil.

"Busy with homework?"

Mavis nodded. "Of course."

"Physics? Since when do kids your age learn that?"

"I'm gifted."

Laxus sat down on the edge of the bed and looked down. "You're writing in your brother's handwriting. That's impressive in some ways and disheartening in others. My daughter is smart enough to do work for much older children and can clone someone else handwriting. It's a testament to her mental abilities, which she uses for cheating and forgery."

Mavis said, "Yuri has a project to get electricity from a potato or something. Besides, Dad, it's a proud tradition in this family for the males to be completely reliant on the much more intelligent females to complete things like paperwork and homework. Poor Yuri must have gotten his brains from you."

"There's nothing wrong with your brother. He's very smart."

Mavis said, "If I had to rank us by intelligence, it would be Mama, Layla, Me, Anna, and Yuri."

"Where am I on this list?"

"You didn't make the list. Sorry. Maybe next year. Speaking of next year, I read an article in Sorcerer's Weekly about the 1st Annual Junior Grand Magic Games."

Laxus nodded. "What about it?"

"We're going to compete!"

"We are? I thought the guildmaster decided that. Too bad the guildmaster of Fairy Tail is such a dunce or he might have mailed the entry form in on time," he teased.

Mavis said, "I want to beat up people in the name of my guild."

"Rather than doing it for no reason like always?"

He felt a lump under his back and reached behind him to find a potato with metal nails sticking out of it. There was another one on the nightstand and while Mavis ranted in excitement about the Junior GMGs, he quietly collected the supplies strewn about the bed and moved the nails, attached wire and clips and then twisted the wires together and touched Mavis with it, giving her a tiny shock.

"What?! How did you-?!" the girl asked in surprise that her father had somehow connected it all perfectly and with no directions as if he understood exactly what needed to happen and how to do it.

"Can I be on the list now? Anyway, the games are going to be teams of three."

"Do I get to go?"

Laxus said, "Fairytail Team A: Yuri, Anna, and Sam. Fairytail Team B: Layla, Mavis, and Iggy. It's for charity, so your mom and I decided to set you free and let the world see the terrible things we made."

Mavis scowled. "I want to be on Yuri's team!"

"Not a chance in hell."

"Why?"

Laxus said, "Sabertooth is going to be the primary rival and I happen to know you and Yuri have a very similar conflict of interest."

The girl bristled at the suggestion. "What do you mean by that?"

"Let me spell it out: half of my offspring have become attached to members of Sabertooth. Since Sabertooth will likely be our stiffest competition, I refuse to have you and Yuri together."

"I don't know what you're talking about. Maybe it's time for us to put you in an old folks' home. Clearly, you have me confused for someone else!"

Laxus looked up at her blushing, angry face. "Awww, the hellbeast is turning pink. How cute. You liiiiiiike him."

"I do not! Get out of my room already!"

Her father yawned. "I'm not ready for you to have a boyfriend, but it's okay for you to like somebody. It doesn't mean you're one less badass than you've always been, you know."

Mavis sulked and looked away. "I don't like like him! But...did his mom really die?"

Laxus nodded. "He was pretty small. She was killed right in front of him. His dad is glad he finally has a crush on a girl."

The little blonde's face twisted in anger. "You talked to his HIS DAD ABOUT ME?!"

Laxus said, "I thought the kid was actually bothering you and wanted to resolve it peaceably. His father informed me you two are both little stalkers and that you'd purposefully visited him. I was livid and almost came home and grounded you, but then your mother convinced me you were just too cute and awkward to admit you wanted to see him."

"I didn't! And I don't!"

"Baby Orga likes his vicious princess."

Mavis growled. "He can drop dead!"

Laxus decided this was wonderfully amusing and proceeded to taunt her further. "Mavis and Orga, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g." He paused when he realized what he was saying, and then added, "Then I cut his lips off."

The next thing he knew, he was being smothered by a pillow, listening to his sweet baby. "It was nice knowing you, Dad, but I'm afraid this is the end."

He flipped her on her back and tickled her half to death, then got up and said, "You're cute sometimes."

"You can cut his lips off anytime you want, Dad," she sweetly replied.

"I think he might need them someday for the vicious princess, right?"

Mavis smacked him with the pillow. "You can go now."

Laxus was reasonably sure by the end of the conversation that if she came across Baby Orga in the games, she might actually be harder on him than anyone else, which was actually fairly comforting as he had to deal with the fact Yuri would never fight Lilia. Laxus wasn't even sure if his son had it in him to fight a woman at all.

That was problematic as Minerva's daughter could probably only be defeated by Yuri or Layla.

Sabertooth didn't have enough youngsters to make two teams, but they had four formidable wizards that descended from Sting, Rogue, Minerva, and Orga. Two girls, two boys. Jura Nekkis and Lyon both had offspring in the age group as well, and Laxus realized they were starting to form a whole generation of wizards just like their parents had, with bonds and relationships and rivalries.

Once Mavis was infuriated, and he knew Layla's rage bordered on nuclear, he decided to check on his last child. He was on his way to see if Anna was available when Iggy ran out of the room and left the house abruptly, leaving a crying girl in his wake.

He sighed and went into her room. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing!"

"Right, well, you want to help me make dinner? You know if you don't it'll taste like dog food."

This was true. His cooking, while not quite as offensive as it once was, never quite made it to a point of being satisfactory.

Anna followed him down to the kitchen and continued to insist nothing was wrong while crying and stirring, crying and cutting, crying and setting the table.

"What did Iggy do? I'll kill him if you want."

Anna sniffed. "He's insensitive."

That didn't sound like Iggy at all, and while Laxus was reluctant to take the boy's side, the idea that he was inconsiderate was a little unbelievable. "How so?"

"I didn't feel well, and he just kept trying to make me laugh. I didn't feel like it. I just wanted him to be quiet."

Layla and Anna operated on the same 'schedule,' so if Layla was about to breathe fire due to hormones, Anna would be too.

Laxus asked, "Did you tell him you didn't feel well?"

"Dad, how can I tell my boyfriend I'm about to be on my period and he's bothering the crap out of me?" she asked.

Her father said, "Ah, I see. Iggy is insensitive because he can't read your mind."

"Whose side are you on?"

"Anna, men are not telepathic. We're idiots. We're bad at taking hints. We don't know anything about how girls think or feel. We need clear instructions, preferably with bullet points and examples. Sometimes women think we're being terrible when we really have no idea what's going on," he replied.

Anna considered this for a while and stopped crying, seemingly relieved that Iggy probably didn't make her feel bad on purpose. Laxus explained, she listened, and when dinner was almost ready, Iggy reappeared after a long conversation with his father.

Natsu had explained that whenever women get mad for no cognizable reason, to apologize anyway.

So Iggy said he was sorry although he had no idea what he was apologizing for (his sins were never explained to him), Anna gave him a hug, and they were back to holding hands by the time dinner was ready.

Meanwhile, Lucy and her precious baby were out on the town. Plans for dinner became movie, then dinner. Lucy was gleefully happy that he came home from his job and took his mom out with his money, proof he was still a good little mama's boy and that wasn't going to change even if he was in a more serious relationship.

She hugged on his arm as they walked from the movie theatre to the restaurant. "You're such a good son. Still have time for your old mama even if you are...you know."

"Uhhh...that doesn't really that much time from my schedule."

"But still," she put her hands flat on her belly, "I can remember when you were inside of me. The first time I felt you kick I was in the old house, and your dad was in the kitchen with me. He was bothering me to death, and I felt this fluttering movement inside. I told your dad he was even pissing the baby off."

Lucy smiled at him and noted he was starting to get a more pronounced jawline and cheeks, like his father. She could see a little bit of herself in his face, mostly around his nose. "You're growing up to be so handsome."

Yuri when they got to the restaurant and were seated, he asked, "Why does it bother you, Mom? I don't want you to be upset or uncomfortable or anything. I like my girlfriend, that's all. I hated it when we were all broken up. I was sad."

His mother wasn't entirely sure how to answer that question. It was difficult to articulate why him being in a relationship made her uncomfortable or why Laxus was perpetually irritated over their daughters and their assorted crushes.

"Well, when you're a kid, I'm the woman who feeds you, takes care of you, makes sure you're happy, listens to all your secrets, puts you to bed at night...you know. The important stuff. The older you get, the less you need me to do those things and now, there are some things that don't happen anymore. I feel like there are probably a lot of things you told Lilia that I don't know. And if something bothers you, you don't necessarily even give me a hint. It makes me sad to think you're not going to need me at all eventually," she admitted.

Yuri looked down at her. "I'll always need my mom."

Lucy wasn't convinced, but added, "Besides, you came out of my vagina and it's mildly unnerving to know you're visiting another one after all these years."

Yuri had a mouthful of water that he choked on. "Mama!"

She laughed. "Calm down, geeze. If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen, by 'the kitchen' I mean-"

"Mom!"

Her son was turning red as a beet as his mother giggled a little at his discomfort.

They ordered their meals and while waiting, Lucy asked, "So, my wonderful, charming, handsome, amazing son, do you and Lilia have any kind of plans? You live in separate cities and are members of separate guilds. That's probably not going to work long-term, if there is a long-term."

Yuri sipped his water, glad his mother had moved on from discussing sex with him. It was weird enough to talk to his father about it, which was necessary as he was sure he was doing some of it wrong.

(He was.)

"Well, for right now, it's going to be like that. She wants to be with her dad, but also, I think he really needs to be with her."

"Does Sting know you guys are having sex?"

Yuri nodded. "He talked to me about it."

"He talked to you?"

"For a long time. He wasn't as angry as I expected him to be, but he hit me harder than I expected him to. I couldn't breathe for a minute and I think he enjoyed watching me gasp for air because as soon as I was okay he did it again. It went on for a while like that," her son answered.

Lucy and Laxus had decided as a united parental unit not to feel sorry for their son if he got into trouble with Sting over the incident. Lucy was sure Laxus would probably do a lot worse to a boy if he snuck into their house and did what Yuri had done at Sting's home.

Sting really liked Yuri though, and had since the kids were younger because Yuri made Lilia happy. Because of him, she'd spent much of her childhood around other kids with dragon blood and around a loving family. Without him, Lilia would have been lonely and raised by a mother who made her feel ashamed of her dragon side. Sting was grateful for the boy for the role he played in making sure her childhood was as okay as it was. They had generally peaceful but awkward relations.

Lucy poked at the issue of the future again. "And in a few years?"

Yuri asked, "In a few years what?"

Lucy kicked him under the table. "I carried you in my body for ten months. You can tell me your plans. That will probably take much less than ten months."

He grinned at her frustration. "Well...ummmm..."

Her stare was intense, and unflinching.

"I think our food is here," he said.

"It's not."

Yuri fidgeted.

And fidgeted some more.

Finally, he said, "When we get older, we want to get married."

Lucy wasn't sure why this answer was so shocking, or why he felt so uncomfortable admitting it. Discussing the future was probably something every young and mostly naive couple did after sex, so Lucy suspected some plans existed in some form or another. They were teenagers, so they were obviously looking forward to having wonderful, exciting lives.

"Married. Like, how much older?"

"Five years. You were twenty when you got married, right?"

"But…"

Yuri said, "We might move in together a year before that or something. She'll join Fairy Tail. The other option was for me to move there and join Sabertooth, and that's really out of the question for me. I told her that if we want to be together, she has to come back eventually."

"Damn right it is. You've had a Fairy Tail mark since you were eighteen months old. Your father and I would probably kill you before we let you walk around with another guild's mark on you. I guess that sucks for Sting though," she replied.

Parents aside, Lucy knew the kids had to find their own way in life, together or separately. The future suddenly seemed too close, with her precious baby boy looking forward to being a man in his own right and in his own household.

"Are you going to have a little family of your own someday?"

Yuri seemed a little more embarrassed by this question than the others. "Eventually I guess. Like, a long, long time from now. Like ten years."

"That's not as long as you think it is, Yuri."

Yuri, as it turned out, was full of plans: to finish school, to become s-class, to have adventures, to go on lots of interesting jobs, and to be with his girlfriend someday. Lucy could see him achieving all of those goals eventually, and they were good goals to have. She was both proud of him for having such pure and wholesome dreams and alarmed that suddenly she realized she might only have him at home for four or five more years.

It was a little eye-opening to the son too, because he knew his mother had spent so much of herself raising him and he'd eventually move out and take care of himself. She looked like she was about to break down crying over the idea.

"Don't worry, Mom. We'll do stuff. We could go to lunch once a week from now on. My treat."

They had a delicious meal, and chattered about life, about relationships, about the games, about whether or not he could beat up a girl if he had to (even Yuri seemed unsure of whether or not he'd do it), about their family, and so forth.

Lucy felt like they'd made monumental progress in their relationship, now at a point where she regarded him less as her kid and more as a young adult.

After dinner, he took her to a carnival that was blowing through town and they played games together. Shooting games, throwing games, darts, and Lucy beat her son at all of the above and won herself a big teddy bear which she gave to her son as a token of thanks.

When they got home, she gave him a big hug and then pinched his cheek. "I'm so proud of my little man!"

"Ugh, Mom."

"That's my baby boy!"

Laxus was finishing up dinner dishes when he looked up and said, "Oh look, mother and son have returned. Have you discussed weaning yet?"

"You're childish."

"You're childish!"

Yuri escaped when his parents started playfully bickering and went upstairs to get ready for bed, leaving his parents downstairs.

Lucy sat on the counter and gave Laxus a play by play breakdown of her date with her son.

Laxus was very glad she'd become more comfortable with the fact that he was growing up and was looking at him in a more mature light.

"So, I wanted to ask you a question when I came home earlier," he said.

"Oh? You didn't just want sex?"

"That too, but, I was wondering if you are still thinking about wanting a baby," he said.

This subject had come up a dozen times over the past month, starting with the evening Lucy had become drunk. They'd discussed the pros and cons, and all the scenarios that went along with having another kid.

Lucy shrugged. "I don't know. I don't really want to be pregnant. Another kid would be nice. Are you thinking about it?"

Laxus retrieved an envelope from his coat hanging by the door and gave it to Lucy as he sat up on the counter with her. It contained a letter and a photograph of a little baby.

"Aww, look at that chubby little face. Whose kid is this?"

"That's a newborn currently in the custody of the Magic Council. They found him in the freezing cold left to die, and have no idea where he came from. He has a fuck ton of latent magic power, so they're not going to just put him in the system because he'd end up in the wrong hands, one way or another. They don't really know what to do with him."

Lucy looked down at the picture. "Poor little guy. They contacted us?"

Laxus said, "Saint Wizard Natsu apparently knew you wanted a kid and suggested they send a request to the guildmaster of Fairy Tail to see if we might be able to take the kid."

"Are you still upset he is a wizard saint and you are not? It's been like ten years!"

"I still don't understand how that happened."

His wife rolled her eyes. "The last thing anything exciting happened in the magic world, he killed Dark Lord Zeref. You beat up a robot. Wall-E or whatever."

"Wall Ehto."

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Same difference."

Her husband narrowed his eyes. "I'm going to ignore that slight because I'm a nice guy, but that's very insulting. Also - Natsu killing Zeref wasn't an act of heroism, it was a family dispute. And second, he's literally a demon. The Demon Saint. Who knows we've been talking about having another kid, because my wife has boundary issues."

"Natsu is my best friend."

"And I'm what?"

"I dunno, some guy I married when I was young and didn't know very much. But look, my son has plans to get married and have his own babies and be a normal adult, and I can't cope with an empty nest. I must fill it again by any means necessary besides actually getting pregnant and giving birth," she replied.

Laxus' brows rose. "You don't want to get pregnant?"

"My heart says yes but my belly and vagina say no. But look at this little guy! He's adorable! You'd be okay with it?"

Her husband nodded once. "I wouldn't have mentioned it to you if I wasn't. The Magic Council doesn't really want to raise him in a facility, which is sort of the alternative. They believe we would be fairly uniquely qualified to look after him."

Lucy's eyes were glued to the picture. "He's pretty cute. It makes me sad that someone would just leave him, or that he's somewhere right now and he doesn't have a mom to hold him or a dad either. He needs parents and we're parents, right? He'd have a brother and some crazy sisters too. Geeze, it would be weird being baby brother to all those girls. He's a ready-made baby and we're a ready-made family."

It didn't seem hard or confusing anymore, the 'should we or shouldn't we' they'd been going back and forth seemingly ended. There were no more lingering questions about pregnancy after Lucy's complicated pregnancy with the twins or how to undo Laxus' vasectomy. The truth was that they didn't want to go through all that again anyway, so this felt like the best, most perfectly-timed opportunity. There was just a little baby with no parents, and they were parents with no baby.

"We can go visit him?" she asked.

He nodded. "So, we're having another baby?"

Lucy all but squealed and dragged him upstairs by the hand. "Maybe! I promised I'd take care of you earlier, right?"

"Women are such nonsensical creatures."

"Hush, or it'll be sad wanky time for you!"

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Special thanks to yumeyumi1986, xxShyxx, Guest, ArouraLeona, LucyXHeartfiliaXFan, LilithRisen, Twiztidprincess, Toreh, boyceashlee, guest, saskiarosee, mewhee89, pandorababe, justloverly, 17, lunastarlady, yed01, katiekat2001, thornado, amarantha, olympe, FairyTailBookworm, bwolloves, thealicehuntt, flameyowl, and megumiyoung for reviewing!