There were two sounds that Lucy loved the most:
She liked the growly, rugged gasps her husband emitted in the throes of passion. She loved the things he whispered in her ear as he took her with as much fervor as when she was only nineteen, if not more. When it came to sex, he was always perfect or close to it, and she was glad to have never known another man.
Her second favorite sound was the sound of giggling baby.
She woke up this morning to find her two youngest in the kitchen together. Since Lex had reached the age where he could sit up on his own in his little baby chair, he was often an audience of one to the performance artistry of four older siblings that were more than happy to provide entertainment.
Lex was sitting on his chair on top of the kitchen table, squealing and giggling with his legs and arms flailing about madly while Mavis tickled him lightly with her fingertips.
Lucy joined in, showering him in kisses and tickles herself, reveling in his immeasurable, excited glee.
Two months after the incident with Bluenote Stinger, life had continued.
Sam was rarely seen, but that was in part due to the fact the lacrima was making him progressively sicker and in part because he was ashamed of the hurt he'd caused.
The irony was that in his mind before Bluenote Stinger, he'd wanted to become stronger so he could be a better man and so he'd be someone who deserved to be with a girl like Layla. When the dust settled, he realized she'd never asked him to be anything but loyal to her. And the object that was supposed to make him stronger? It was whittling down the strength in his body, bit by bit.
Acnologia was a user of dark, ancient primordial magic, and Layla used light, so she could sense it constantly. Once, she walked past the Redfox house and she could feel it, pulsing through his body.
He could sense her too, like a single star on an otherwise black night that never seemed to end.
She was quite busy telling herself she was all right to bother with Sam, but there were times she woke up to the memory of Bluenote breaking her against the rocks and she still felt mad at him.
But she started to feel something else—it wasn't pity, or kindness, or anything else she knew how to describe. She just knew that he was fighting it, even though it was weakening him.
The twins turned twelve.
And then a couple of weeks later, Yuri turned sixteen.
Everyone was so excited about the Junior Grand Magic Games, although Laxus had announced Sam probably wouldn't compete due to his 'illness.' Laxus didn't want to take Sam around a bunch of other wizards because anyone experienced, powerful, or with gifted perception would realize something terrifying was inside of him.
More importantly, he didn't want to make the Magic Council look in Fairy Tail's direction. Bluenote Stinger's death was a major upset in the world of magic, because he was really powerful and no one had any clue as to who had been involved. At least, that's what he thought right until Jura Nekkis entered the guild with a dozen investigators and guards.
Laxus was up on the balcony, glowering down at them.
He and Jura made uneasy eye contact. They didn't want to be at odds, but Laxus needed to lie and Jura needed to uncover the truth.
Lucy tensed, because he'd brought high-level enchanters.
She gestured led Jura to the office, giving guildmembers an uneasy glance.
The investigators fanned out in Yuri's direction, and Fairy Tail closed ranks so fast neither the guildmaster or his faithful partner ever had to say anything. Each of them found themselves talking to an adult who knew exactly how to run the game at hand: Mirajane charmed them with beer they had to stiffly deny, Lisanna started telling stories about completely unrelated crimes she thought they might find interesting, and Bacchus Groh—a Fairy Tail transplant after the birth of his son Crash—played the part of disruptive drunk.
Yuri slipped out the back, assuming that was the right course of action, and went to find his sister.
In the office, Jura sat down knowing well he'd picked a fight by being there.
"Is there a reason you have soldiers in our guild home?" Lucy crossly asked.
Jura answered, "We all know why I'm here. A source we have inside of a dark guild says Bluenote Stinger was after someone in your guild. We found out about that about a week before we found him rotting on the side of a mountain. He was electrocuted. There's a short list of suspects."
Laxus leaned back in his chair, which emitted a loud screeching squeal. "Oh? You're going to give me shit for beating down one of the most wanted dark wizards in Fiore?"
"We don't think it was you. But we're certain it was someone in your guild. We heard Bluenote wanted something that is exclusively available in Fairy Tail."
Lucy answered, "He doesn't want anything now."
Jura said, "Guild gets into a scrape with a dark guild and somebody dies…not necessarily noteworthy. Bluenote Stinger is noteworthy, because he was in possession of something the Council has been looking for."
When it became clear he was there for Acnologia's lacrima, the Dreyars knew they were in for trouble. It was big enough magic it would be easily detected.
"We heard it's inside of one of your youngsters. The use of lightning…the only others in your guild are your youngest and oldest. Some other kind of magic was used on that mountain, something strange that we weren't able to identify," he answered.
Jura knew he'd become an enemy to them, coming to the guild and bringing their son into an investigation. Fairy Tail was always full of secrets, but in this era, the guild had mostly been quiet. The world of dark magic was only starting to rumble again, and it came as no surprise that when it did, Fairy Tail rumbled right back at it.
He placed a stamped court form on the desk. "I want to see Yuri Dreyar, Mavis Dreyar, Iggy Dragneel, and Sam Redfox."
The Magic Council already suspected one of their young dragons was hosting the lacrima, and Laxus felt his stomach start to turn to knots. He didn't know how to keep Sam from being detected, and he couldn't hide him from the Magic Council. He was sick and if they tried, the Council would have no qualms about initiating a manhunt.
Then they would find him, accuse him of colluding with Bluenote Stinger for the lacrima…There was no way they'd let it stay in his body, and when their removal seriously injured or killed him, they'd claim it was necessary.
Lucy wished Warren was in town so he could connect them all telepathically.
The Chairman of the Magic Council never attended interrogations, but Fairy Tail was sure to give them hell and they had not disappointed. He took a deep breath and said, "We know someone on that mountain lost an eye. Do you think it'll take long for us to find out who? Don't make this difficult."
"We both know you're going to get shit cooperation out of Fairy Tail, top to bottom. Have fun trying to get a bunch of teenagers to tell the truth. We don't have anything to hide, and we don't have anything to say," the guildmaster answered.
Lucy added a more serious threat. "Chairman, remember that the Magic Council has been reliant on our guild's assistance in policing the magic world for an entire generation. We fought dark wizards while the Council investigated and struggled against us. Bluenote Stinger was a mess your organization hasn't been able to clean up. We honestly have better things to do than start that cycle again."
Jura said, "I can't walk away from this until we have the lacrima secured."
And at that moment, they realized at the same time that he wasn't there to procure the lacrima to keep it out of the wrong hands. He was there to take it and put in some other wrong hands somewhere; it was going to be used. Weaponized.
They both knew Jura wasn't the type to pull that kind of nonsense, so that meant he was doing it for someone else.
"That's how it is," Lucy whispered.
Jura said, "Things are changing. Evil is rising."
"Yeah, like that's never happened before?" she answered in a tone that didn't leave any hint about the level of her indignation.
"My hands are tied," he answered.
Laxus was quiet for a minute and said, "Don't do this. You look under enough rocks and you're going to find a scorpion."
Jura didn't know what that meant, but he had orders, and there were reasons behind those orders. Under the guise of an investigation, the Council had moved in to poach the lacrima from Fairy Tail.
The Council investigators found all the kids had scattered once they dealt with distracting parents.
The found Iggy and Layla first and turned up nothing.
Jura felt the little Dreyar might have been involved in some way simply due to the lightning, but when he sat Mavis down at a table on the second floor of the guild, she sat in front of him and glared at him fearlessly.
"Do you want something?" she abruptly asked.
"I think you know what I want."
Mavis innocently replied, "Some hair, less wrinkles?"
"Were you there when Bluenote Stinger was killed?"
The blonde shook her head. "Never heard of him. Is there going to be a funeral or something?"
"Has your brother been in any major fights recently?" he asked.
After pretending to think really hard about it, she gave him this answer:
"Now that you mention it, he did."
Jura leaned in closer. "Tell me about it."
"Well, I don't know if you know this—maybe it's in your file—but Yuri is honestly kind of an idiot. He's really nice, but he's also pretty much just clueless. He forgot his anniversary with his girlfriend, and she got so mad at him. She didn't speak to him for a long time. I mean, how could anyone forget the anniversary of their first kiss? Or the anniversary of their first date? Or the anniversary of when they met? Or her birthday. I mean, Yuri just needs a lot of help.
"He also takes his shoes off when he first gets home and throws them everywhere. He's so uncouth! And his feet stink."
The chairman tapped his fingers on the table. "Are you mocking me?"
Mavis answered, "I'm twelve. If I am, you should probably just realize where you are in life right now and end it all."
"You can go," he said, waving her off.
Yuri was still looking for Layla as she went for a walk, spiked headphones blaring in her ears. She'd never admit it, but her dad's old playlists were actually pretty damn awesome. Like his scar. There were times she almost wondered if he might be cool.
She was suddenly snatched from an alley, and she felt familiar magic envelope her and relaxed.
It was Natsu, who looked out around the corner to make sure no one had seen.
Layla took her headphones off. "What was that for?"
He knelt and asked, "Are you really ready to be a grownup?"
"Wh-What?"
"Yes or no."
The Saint Wizard was essentially her father's lieutenant, a secondary source of authority within the guild. At any given time, either Laxus, Natsu, or Gildarts was within the city limits of Magnolia. Natsu's word carried almost as much weight as the guildmaster's did, but he rarely invoked it.
There were no secrets between Laxus and Lucy and Natsu when it came to the guild, not even the debacle that happened among the kids and Bluenote.
Layla was puzzled by this question. "Y-Yes? I think."
Natsu said, "The Magic Council is looking for someone missing and eye and someone with a dragon lacrima. They don't have eyes on you yet, they haven't gotten to Sam yet. Take Happy, and Sam, and hide."
"That guy? Yeah, right!" she said, although she felt a wave of fear that was almost sickening.
"They're going to try and take that lacrima out of him, and that might kill him, or hurt him way worse than you've ever been. And you? They're going to find out one of your eyes if fake and that makes you the only person they can put on the mountain with Bluenote Stinger. You want to be dragged off, held for questioning? Maybe arrested? If they find the lacrima, it's going to hit the fan—we come from a different generation, and I don't think you want your parents to have to chose with going to war with the government or watching the government hurt you and Sam.
"There are lots and lots of consequences for Fairy Tail if this goes wrong, so I need you to stop thinking about how pissed off you are, and get Sam, and hide."
It had been two months, and she felt like life should have moved on already. The scar on her face had healed, leaving a nice mark, she was gradually getting used to having no depth perception, and she was looking forward to the future.
But it really wasn't over. Since she didn't see Sam often, she didn't have to acknowledge it, but she knew as long as the lacrima was in him, nothing was over.
"Okay. Whatever. Porlyuscia's old house is on next to the chasm that seeps magic in the East Forest. It'll be harder for them to find us there if they're using magic detection, right?"
"You're such a smart girl. Don't make any dumb moves because you're mad. What you do can affect everything that happens to everyone in the guild going forward."
Layla nodded in understanding, and then Natsu pulled her further into the shadows as Magic Council soldiers marched down the street.
"They're probably headed for Sam. Go."
Happy grabbed her by the shirt and rocketed straight upward, successfully avoiding detection from the passing soldiers. He flew straight to the Redfox house and then descended as quickly, dropping her right on the second floor window, which was cracked open to give some fresh air to the sick, feverish boy inside.
Layla pulled the window open and he jumped, and then he seemed afraid.
"Layla? What are you…?"
"We have to go, Sam. The authorities are looking for us."
There was commotion downstairs, the sound of Gajeel and Levy yelling.
Sam started to get out of bed, but he was so weak he could barely stand and he couldn't really use the arm that was now nearly completely covered in black scales.
There was a creak in the hallway, and Happy grabbed them both and snatched them out through the window, high into the air just a second before the soldiers flooded into the room in search of him.
Carrying two people was typically a bit much for Happy, but Layla was small and Sam had lost a lot of weight, so he was able to safely sneak them to the dusty little hut that served as an emergency safehouse for the guild. They'd never had to use it, but it was a relief to find there was already food, water, a few bunks, sheets, blankets, lacrima lights, and everything they needed to hide.
Happy left as soon as they were safe and returned fifteen minutes later with Yuri. From there, he returned to Natsu.
Meanwhile, Jura continued a witch hunt he didn't even want to be on.
He honestly felt relieved when the guild did exactly what one would expect.
"Yuri. Layla. Sam. All missing. I need you to produce them for questioning," he said when he returned to Laxus' office to find two cross parents watching his every move.
Laxus shrugged. "My son is turning sixteen. They've known each other since birth. There was some talk about going to Shirotsume Town to celebrate. He's legally old enough to drink now, so it's not the kind of birthday you celebrate with your parents."
Since the Council was watching them, he really had no idea what was going on outside, but the fact they'd all vanished into thin air meant they'd avoided the Council's initial sweep and might be somewhere safe.
It started raining, washing scents and magical signatures from the landscape, giving them further cover.
In the little hut, Sam sat on the edge of one of the bunks while Layla and Yuri checked to make sure they had all the supplies necessary while they talked about the danger they were in.
"You guys won't be in trouble if you tell them where I am," Sam said.
Yuri shook his head. "We're not going to do that. There's no reason for it."
Layla narrowed her eyes and said, "We're not sellouts. Do you know what they'll do to you? Stop being such an idiot, that's how we got into this mess."
Yuri, always the voice of reason, said, "So how are we going to get out? We can't hide forever. The Magic Council is the government. We can't lie forever, and hiding isn't going to last long. Even if we could run, Sam is sick. Wendy's been helping keep it from spreading faster, but how are we going to get her here if everyone else is being watched?"
Sam stood and said, "I can't do this. I started this with a mistake. I know you may not think it was an accident, or honestly, I don't know how you feel. But I never intended for anyone to get hurt." He looked up at Layla and added, "Especially not you. You've always been my best friend. I never wanted any of this. I can stop everything right now by telling the truth."
Yuri watched the interactions carefully; he'd always kept peace among the younger wizards. This debacle had been bigger than a typical squabble and everyone had been hurt as a result. He was slow to anger and quick to get over it, and he was a little cooler, like his father.
Layla had a wild temper like their mother, but she held onto stuff longer.
They were all really just still kids, and situations like this reminded them that they hadn't quite arrived, no matter how much they told themselves they had.
They had to figure out what they would do and their choice had the potential to impact the entire guild.
And their parents just had to trust them.
As a result of the Magic Council's inquest, nearly all the strongest members were detained and separated. Since the truth was only known by those who would never tell it, this was a fruitless process, but the authorities were convinced if all the adults were immobilized the kids would eventually mess up or try to move.
This meant Wendy was sitting in the guild when it was time for her to strengthen Sam's body as she'd been doing every day for two months.
Night wore on, and the teenagers spent most of the day staring at each other while rain poured outside. The roof had a small leak and the only sound through most of the silence was a steady, draining drip into a pot in the corner.
Sam started to get sicker fairly quickly without Wendy's usual intervention, and his fever climbed.
Yuri did his best, but he really didn't know what to do. He stripped Sam and put him in a bathtub full of water, and kept draining the water when it warmed up since he didn't have any ice.
Layla could feel the dark magic start to spread quickly.
She ignored Sam for the most part, even when Yuri was doing anything and everything to help him.
The sad, twisted thing for Yuri is that the storage cabinets were full of dried medicinal herbs. He just didn't know which ones to use, or how to prepare them, so he flipped through books and wiped off dusty bottles.
Layla, who was so smart and probably could have easily helped him make some kind of herbal remedy, just sat on the floor with her head leaning against the wall, headphones blaring.
He finally put a bottle of herbs down and approached her, pulling the headphones off.
"What?"
"Are you really this heartless? You're my sister, but you're being mean and terrible. Do you want Sam to die? Would that make you feel better? Would it grow your eye back or make you forget what happened?" he asked.
Layla stood and glared at him. "I've already done a good deed for him."
"He's guild family. Do you want him to die in this little hut with us? Or get caught by the authorities who might kill him anyway?" he asked.
Yuri and Layla bickered occasionally.
They didn't fight. Not ever, until right at that moment when indignation ignited on both sides. To Yuri, guild family was as important as blood family, and Layla wasn't ready to see it that way even though he needed her to help him—or at least try to help him.
Yuri had always been overly nice and mild with his sisters, so Layla was stunned to see him yell, to see him be angry, to see him demand she get over herself and at least make some kind of effort for the sake of the guild. Some part of him knew if they couldn't get over this hurdle, they weren't going to be okay. He felt like he wasn't getting anywhere, and hurtful things were being yelled, about each other, about Sam, about everything that had taken place.
He didn't understand his sister's complicated feelings. Sometimes, he didn't even really understand his own, and his mother told him that was okay and that it would get better as they finished growing up.
He didn't even remember what it was exactly that he said, but suddenly, it was like he pulled the right string and she unraveled. Layla started crying hysterically and said she was scared and hurt and angry, and then she cried some more but somewhere through those mostly unintelligible sobs that what she really wanted was for things to be like they used to be.
"We have to help him or we don't have a way back, Layla," he whispered as he squeezed her.
She wiped her face and nodded. "Okay. What do we do?"
"I don't know."
"Me neither…"
She went to the tiny bathroom where Sam was unconscious in the bathtub, head resting on the back of the porcelain tub.
Layla reached out to touch the scales on his arm, and then pulled her arm back. The black magic had spread all the way from his hand to his shoulder. She could sense how it had grown, shooting root-like extensions from the lacrima up through his arm and into his shoulder.
"He can't move this hand at all, can he?" she asked.
He shook his head.
"So, if the magic spreads and paralyzes his muscles…the heart is a muscle too. Yuri…"
Yuri worriedly nodded. "We have to do something, Layla. We can't let this happen. We'll probably get caught if we try to contact the guild or our parents."
The blonde looked down and admitted, "I want Mom and Dad."
"Me too."
Her head suddenly snapped up and she said, "Get him out of the water. I have an idea."
Layla went into the main room of the hut and made a ridiculous amount of noise as Yuri pulled Sam out of the tub and halfway dried him off before wrestling his boxers back on. He was essentially dead weight, and seemed completely limp and unconscious except for a murmur that escaped his lips.
Yuri put him back on the bed and found Layla had a book open and a pot on the stove. The smell of herbs became thick in the air.
"What are we going to do? If we cut his arm off…"
Layla said, "The roots are already into his chest. If we cut the whole arm off, I don't know how we'd stop the bleeding. I mean, I don't even know how we'd do it. I think it would take a lot to get it off. I only found a little scalpel. If I use light magic, I think I can cut out where it's spread…maybe get it out without removing the arm."
Yuri looked over at the book and saw she was preparing a basic numbing paste.
"I can sense where it is…so I'm going to cut and blast it out, and you're going to burn it closed as we work."
He nodded. "I can't believe any of this is happening."
They cleaned his arm and chest and neck, and put towels under him and nearby.
Yuri held Sam on his side when she made the first cut right under his armpit. Bloode oozed instantly as the knife carved a sure path, deep until something black started to flow from the wound instead.
Sam's eyes opened wide, and Yuri held him still when he gasped at the pain. Numbing paste or no, he felt the knife's cut. "Wh-What…"
"Just be still. We have to. It'll be okay."
Layla's hand pressed against the wound, and he felt the painful, terrible sear of her light magic into the wound. Where it burned the dark away, the pain was like nothing he could even begin to imagine. She was digging, cutting, but he could feel the magic was just a little weaker.
Yuri's mouth gaped open when she pulled the tips of a root-like growth from the wound. "A root…"
She hit a vein and blood spurted from the wound. "Burn it."
Sam growled through clenched teeth when Yuri seared it closed.
"I'm sorry…" he cried.
"Sam, you don't have to apologize anymore. It's over. At least, it'll be over when this thing is out of you."
She'd spent two months wishing disaster would befall him for the trouble he'd caused her, but now she was the one holding the scalpel and she was the one cutting him. There was no satisfaction in it; it was sad and she realized she didn't really want anyone to suffer.
Bluenote hadn't done Sam any favors. For all practical purposes, he'd wrecked Sam's life as much as hers, if not more so.
And when she was physically in the room with him, forced to confront him and hear how ready he was to fall on the sword to protect them, she couldn't reconcile her anger with the boy she'd known all her life.
Cutting Sam up slowly was probably more physically painful than anything she'd experienced, and the longer it went on, the more the idea that he didn't deserve what happened to him echoed in her mind.
XXX
At the guild, the Magic Council had disrupted life to an extreme that tempers were on edge.
Nobody wanted Fairy Tail to fight the Magic Council. Jura had no doubts that the guild would best them, probably easily. All the titans were home, and they were all infuriated that the Council was trying to turn Magnolia upside down looking for three teenagers.
They didn't let any of them talk to each other, and of the Dreyars, Anna and Mavis were the only ones who wasn't under suspicion or observation, so they were at home with the baby and had enough sense to know to stay put.
By the time the teens had been gone for forty-eight hours, none of their parents really knew where they were. Natsu and Happy were the only ones who knew where they'd gone, and Jura hadn't let him speak to the Dreyars or the Redfoxes.
Jura was given a folder by one of the investigators, and he looked through it in a chair across the desk. Lucy was sitting in her husband's chair, and he was pacing the floor.
"Three days before we found Bluenote Stinger's body, two of your guildmembers were hospitalized in Shirotsume Town. One of them missing an eye…but I don't suppose I have to tell you that," he said.
There was another knock on the door immediately thereafter, and after a whisper, Jura excused himself from them.
Laxus' delicate ears picked up on the whisper. "They have Yuri."
"Oh no…" Lucy whispered.
Jura went down to the guild basement where they'd taken Yuri after he showed up, apparently on his own. The boy looked tired, like he hadn't slept in a lifetime, and he looked pissed. According to all the reports and everything written in his file, Yuri was a nice and perfectly-mannered boy. Gentle. Sweet. Loyal.
He assumed the people who wrote those things would revise them immediately if they could see him in his current state of agitation.
There was a little wooden table, and Yuri sat down and crossed his arms. He had something closed in his fist.
"We've been looking for you in connection with the Death of Bluenote Stinger. You and your sister. Sam Redfox is missing as well."
Yuri looked up and answered, "Can you please just shut up? When adults involve kids in their problems, we stop being kids. We've had to make all these decisions and go through all this stuff. Not just from our enemies but now from the authorities too."
In a fairly short span of time, he'd been kidnapped, he'd watched a man nearly beat his sister to death and cut her eye out, he'd killed that man, then come home to all the fallout where he had to get over himself and keep it a secret. Then the authorities had come after them and the only way to protect the guild was to risk everything to save Sam who put them all at risk from the start. This ended with him and Layla cutting, burning, and purifying him as he laid in the bed and cried because it was just that ridiculously painful.
He'd had to make too many hard choices to still feel at all like a kid.
He was an adult, and he was angry.
"Have I made an enemy?" Jura asked.
"More than one."
Jura leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "You can't resist the Magic Council, Yuri. I've heard you're a good kid. I need to know about Bluenote Stinger. You and your sister were badly injured at the time he died. Your sister lost an eye, did she not?"
"I don't really know anything about him. Layla and I were going on a job. He kidnapped us, hurt us, made us fight him. There was an explosion. I found a lacrima on the ground and I picked it up."
"Our sources say Sam Redfox divulged sensitive information about your guild and was given the lacrima as payment."
Yuri continued his unyielding glare. "I'm assuming the person who told you that was an ally of theirs? Bad guys lie. They cheat. They steal. I don't understand why the Magic Council has this presence at Fairy Tail and no presence where it matters."
"People have to choose their battles."
"And you chose to fight a bunch of kids? This is bullshit. All of this," he said, raising his voice a little.
Jura said, "So Sam wasn't involved."
"No."
"Where's the lacrima? If you hand it over, all of this ends. I'm sure you want this to end, right? The Magic Council can't leave an artifact like that in play," he said.
Yuri said, "So you're here to take the lacrima and make sure no one misuses it, and not because you want to use it for something else?"
That had been Layla's suggestion. Magic power was hard to come by and lacrima were one of the few ways to gain an unmerited power-up. She believed they didn't really care at all about the details of what happened, only the source of power that nearly killed Sam.
"Right. Its for the good of Fiore."
Yuri opened his fist, and pushed a small magic pouch across the table. "For Fiore then."
There was a creak at the top of the stairs, and Jura looked up at Laxus and Lucy. "You can come down, I suppose. Don't interfere."
Laxus could smell Acnologia, so he knew what was in the pouch.
Jura said, "Tell me what happened again."
Yuri crossed his arms. "I wanted to see my girlfriend. I took a job, grabbed Layla, and Bluenote Stinger kidnapped us. He was mad about something my great-grandfather did. I don't know…revenge from some old thing. Maybe he had a grudge. We fought, he beat the shit out of us, and we won. There was an explosion during the fight, and when it ended, I found the lacrima. I've had it. I haven't used it. I didn't know what it was. I didn't even know it was important until you guys came looking for it."
"Did you know where this lacrima came from?" Jura asked.
"No," the boy's answer was flat and cold with determination.
"The story about Sam Redfox?"
"He wasn't involved at all and doesn't know anything about it."
It was surreal for Laxus and Lucy as they sat on the stairs and watched their son lie through his teeth with that wickedly angry expression on his face. They were worried about Sam, and had no idea how they'd gotten the lacrima out.
They were also worried about what was going to happen when the lacrima was handed over, but for now, the immediate problem was solved, and that was good enough.
Jura asked, "Where are Sam Redfox and your sister?"
"Ask anybody. They've been hot for each other since they were two. Sometimes they sneak off and lie to the parents. We're teenagers, remember? I do the same kind of thing."
Jura didn't see any value in continuing further, since when he did find them, they'd probably just keep lying. Whatever happened would remain a mystery to him, and if they had the lacrima, those who had ordered him to engage Fairy Tail had no other interest in Bluenote or Fairy Tail.
He squeezed the pouch, and realized there was no big, round marble-feeling although he was sure the dark magic was present.
Jura pulled the pouch open and, afraid to touch the lacrima directly, poured the pouch out on the table. Dozens of broken shards of the lacrima fell on the table, and he looked up at the boy.
"You broke it…"
Now broken, the pieces would lose all their power in mere days. Lacrima were fragile, and this particular one had probably been handled with great care. Still, it probably took a decent amount of magic to cause it to shatter.
"Courtesy of my one-eyed sister. We broke it as soon as we found it. We could tell it was evil, and we don't want it to fall into the wrong hands," Yuri answered.
Since Jura hadn't wanted to go on this insane misadventure to shake up the guild and take the lacrima in first place, he was incredibly pleased and immeasurably impressed that it ended like this. He was so relieved, and grateful for how slippery, conniving, and cohesive Fairy Tail really was. Even across generations, there was no penetrating the solidarity or love they felt for one another.
The general who was really behind this had no reason to press the guild, and he wasn't getting the lacrima.
Jura smirked a little and let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "You were ambushed by an old enemy of the guild, who died in the fight that ensued. The first turned up an evil artifact, which you destroyed. Nothing illegal or even particularly noteworthy about that. The lacrima has been destroyed. The investigation can be closed."
And just like that, it was over.
He dismissed all the guards so he was alone in the basement with the Dreyars. "I'm certain everything I was told tonight is a lie. The object of this investigation was the lacrima. The person who wanted it is General Pilar. He's the highest-ranking member of the military and the Queen's closest advisor on such matters. Be careful. He's got the most dangerous kind of influence a person can have."
When he went upstairs and left, Lucy asked, "Yuri, where are Sam and Layla?! Is everyone okay? How'd you get the lacrima out of Sam?"
"Layla was able to save him with her magic, Mom."
"And she did?!"
Yuri nodded. "They're okay. I think we're all just so tired of getting hurt. Layla and I decided that we really just wanted our parents. It's hard without you."
Both of his parents hugged him at once.
"I'm okay now, really!"
Lucy put her hand on his face. "My sweet Thunder Baby…you've grown up to be so big and strong. Happy Birthday, I swear I'll bake you a cake when we get you and Layla home."
"Mom, you guys look so tired. I'm tired."
In the hut, Sam awoke from an eight-week fever and felt like himself for the first time since his ill-fated meeting with Bluenote Stinger. His arm hurt, and when he looked at it, he had a system of deep cuts, burns, and amateur stitch-work in the shape of a root system that started at his hand. He could move his arm again, even if it hurt.
And then he realized that in that tiny little bunk, Layla was sound asleep on the other side of him, loosely holding a photo she'd been carrying since the day she carved up her own face. It was a picture of them taking a nap together when they were toddlers.
He missed her scent, and her face, and her everything.
Gently, he settled down next to her, not wanting to disturb her.
She opened her eyes and whispered, "Hi."
"Hi. Thank you. You saved me. After everything. The person I hurt was the only one who had the right magic to save me."
Layla smiled. "Sam, I don't want to talk about what happened anymore. You don't have to say you're sorry anymore. I had to lose my eye. I don't have to lose my friend. I want to drink sodas with you after school when fall comes. I want you to go swimming at the lake and go on jobs and live my life with everyone in it who should be in it."
"Me too. I don't have brothers or sisters. You're really my best friend. It sucked without you. A lot."
"My life sucked too. I've been confiding in Lex, and that little rascal never listens to me."
Since she was on his good side, she moved his un-maimed arm and rested her head on his shoulder. He was still only in his boxers and there were towels covered in blood and black ooze off in a corner, but life was somehow better than he could remember it being when she snuggled up and smiled at him.
During his downtime, he'd had countless opportunities to look back on their time together and reflect on the things his father said and the things her father said. He'd stopped caring whether or not he was ever the strongest wizard. If he could protect his guildmates and his precious little blonde friend, that was enough.
They both felt like a huge weight had been lifted from them, guilt from one and anger from the other.
"I'm going to have a cool scar," he said.
"Scars are pretty cool, if you think about."
Sam tilted his head to smell her hair. "They're a record of something we survived."
Layla looked up at him. "Stop sniffing me. Dragons are so weird and gross."
"You smell good. I missed it. I'm glad you feel better now that you've stabbed me and cut me up. You couldn't have just said it if that's all you wanted."
She rolled her eyes. "Ugh, you are ruining our special moment. Don't piss me off."
"I won't, you might get the knife again!"
It was something her mother said to her:
Lucy told her that once she allowed herself to be around Sam, their bond would help drive away the lingering doubts she had about him. As long as they were separated, it was easy to be angry and hateful, but now in close quarters, she could see Sam as Sam—maybe an idiot sometimes, but after several consecutive rounds of emotional trauma and targeting from enemies outside the guild, she knew Sam's heart was mostly innocent. Just like she was mostly innocent.
Up close, she remembered how handsome he was to her, with his thick mane of crazy black hair and his big brown eyes. He was bigger than Iggy, and he looked a little more like a man.
"You've gotten skinny. I can bake you a cake if you want."
"I definitely want."
She sat up. "I'll even put little nuts and bolts on it."
Sam said, "I'm so happy and so tired and so glad it's all finally over. Any chance you want to be my girlfriend someday?"
"I think we're just supposed to be friends, Sam. Like my mom and Natsu. I feel like I want to love somebody else, and I don't know who. But I need my best friend, and that's you."
The blow didn't really hurt when he thought about it. He was happy just to be there near her, and to know he had his friend back. "I guess it would be good not to make it complicated."
"Right."
That said, her words and her actions didn't seem to match, and he didn't know what that meant.
There was a knock on the door and Gajeel and Levy Redfox came in. "Hey kids."
When Gajeel saw the Dreyar girl snuggled up to his half naked son, he was glad he and not Laxus had come to collect them from the safe house. It was the kind of thing Laxus misinterpreted easily. Two teenagers in a bed? What was suspicious about that?
They were so happy to see their son was all right as the past two months of their lives had been a string of worry, disappointment, and anxiety. His arm was a mess, but his eyes were clear and bright and happy.
"C'mon. It's safe to go home."
"It's safe?" Sam asked.
"You look like you're perfectly comfortable right there, but nobody has slept in two days," Levy said, a bit irritated her son apparently preferred where he was to going home.
Once all the Dreyar kids were home, bathed, fed, and asleep, their parents finally retired.
Laxus heard his wife crying in the shower as he stripped his own clothes off. "Babe, it's going to be okay. I don't like them being in danger any more than you do."
"I hate it, Honey. I just want them to be here with me and be safe," she sniffed.
He climbed into the shower with her. "They're wizards. They didn't pick the safe, easy way to live, but neither did we. We had terrible things that made us strong. Look at them now. I'm glad the other kids were insulated from the trouble, but look at where Yuri and Layla and Sam are now. They're growing. They're working together. We taught them well. They know what to do and they'll do it."
She nodded and then turned and embraced him under the water. "They're good kids. I think. I don't know if they're kids anymore."
"Yuri will be a kid to me when he's thirty."
"He's over halfway there, you know."
Lucy just stood there under the water and hugged him, head on his chest as he washed her hair. This considered this one of the highest forms of affection and she pitied any woman who wasn't so lucky. She could when he'd do it for her when they're older kids were babies and she hadn't had much sleep, or just to make her feel special.
When they were drying off, they had a calmer conversation.
Lex started crying right after Lucy pulled on her nightgown, so the two parents went to check up on him. He'd been asleep when they got home, and they definitely wanted to get a little time in with him. According to the twins, he'd become aware of the absence of his parents spend much of his day screaming like 'an unhappy, rabid banshee' as Mavis described it.
Anna appeared in the door. "We'll take care of him. You guys are really tired."
Laxus gave her a hug and kissed her. "You and Mavis are good girls. Sometimes I'm amazed none of you turned out bad. We owe you and Mavis big time. You guys want anything?"
"We're just glad everyone is okay. But I have something I need to tell you, Dad. Mom. About me and Iggy."
Her parents looked at each other and then at her.
"I know Iggy and I weren't supposed to kiss. We've been doing it anyway. I can't lie anymore!"
Technically, she hadn't lied at all because Laxus had never asked her if she was kissing him.
Lucy knew about it but hadn't told Laxus since he was so overprotective.
Laxus started laughing and took the baby from Lucy. He kissed Lex's hair and said, "Kid, Iggy has traces of glimmer lip gloss smeared around his mouth at least twice a week. I've known you've been sneaking around and kissing that rascal every chance you get. I let Iggy live because he's all right. It's okay. Go to bed. Lex can come with us."
XXX
It was two days before they pulled a birthday party together for Yuri together in the backyard of the Dreyar house. The sun was out, it was hot, and the area around their pool filled up with kids. Guild kids, school friends, kids from the neighborhood, along with guild members.
One of Lucy's gifts to her son was to arrange for Lilia to be there, which made him happy, especially when she came out to the pool in a teeny, tiny bikini. It was a little hard for her as a mother to realize that being with another woman made him happiest, and even weirder to watch him as he related to her in a more adult way.
It was fun to watch her hit him in the face with a beach ball and yell at him for whatever it was he whispered in her ear.
With a little help from Wendy, Sam's homemade hack job was well enough that he was able to join in the fun, and parents looked on as Layla dunked him under the water with an excited squeal and he repaid the favor.
There was food and cake and everyone was laughing.
Yuri took Lex in the water and let him flail around in the water and giggle, which won him favor back with his girlfriend. The baby spent the rest of his pre-nap time covered in sunblock in a hat and sunglasses in his baby chair, watching the older kids play.
Gray made a really tall diving board from ice and the more daring kids took a turn climbing it and jumping to cheers. Mavis was the first to go, and only because she could turn into lightning and teleport around.
After the tense times they'd endured, it was such a relief to everyone to have everyone together and happy for the first time in so long. People were thrown into the pool, there were dunkings, there was horseplay, there were games, there was food and a constant chorus of excited laughter and glee that was much-needed.
Iggy had a 'teenage boy moment' and gave Anna a nice shove into the pool, and then stood on the edge laughing until he realized she was holding a golden key in her hand.
"Wait wait wait, no, I'm sorry! Let's talk about this! Have mercy on me!" the white-haired boy pled.
"You don't deserve mercy, Iggy Dragneel!" she answered.
The key went down and when Aquarius appeared, she threw everyone out of the pool and left.
They all went immediately back into the water and the chaos continued until the sun was going down.
Kids and parents and guildmates alike went home after over-sunning, over-eating, laughing too hard, and on a sugar-rush crash that promised a good night's sleep.
Yuri grabbed a set of sheets from the cabinet and was about to go make the bed in the guest bedroom for Lilia when he ran into his mother in the hallway. "Lilia can sleep in the guest bedroom, right?"
Lucy shrugged. "You sleep in her bed when you're over there, right?"
"Yeah."
"Look, you're just making more laundry for me. If she just stays with you, I have half as many sheets to pour profuse amounts of bleach on in the morning," his mother answered.
"Mom, ew."
"Meet me and your dad downstairs tonight, okay? After Lilia is asleep."
This seemed a little mysterious, but after he showered and laid in the bed next to his girlfriend and talked about nothing and everything, she fell asleep and he cracked open the door to his room and found the house quiet and dark.
The only light was from the living room downstairs, where a couple of lamps were lit.
They were waiting for him, talking quietly.
He sat down with them and his father rose from the couch and went in the kitchen, returning with three ice-cold bottles of beer.
Lucy said, "Becoming legally old enough to drink is a big deal. We meant to talk to you about it, but a lot of stuff happened. So, how about sharing your first drink with your parents?"
Three bottle caps popped and they clinked their bottles together. "To growing up," she said.
Yuri took a sip and looked from one parent to another. "My parents are pretty cool."
"You're a good kid, but I told your mom there's no way this is your first drink. You've probably been shitfaced drunk at least once and we just don't know about it," his father said.
Lucy growled, "Not my son."
Yuri took a few more gulps and said, "Oh, I thought you guys were trying to teach me something. I am here to settle a bet."
His mother said, "Please tell your father I didn't raise an uncouth party animal who engaged in underage drinking."
This was typical of his parents as their playful bicker was practically the soundtrack of his childhood. His mother idealized him, and his father had a rougher, more flawed vision of his son. He was actually somewhere in the middle most of the time.
"I've been drunk. It was an accident."
His mother asked, "How do you accidentally get drunk?"
Yuri said, "I was in Shirotsume Town. Sting was out of town. I got really thirsty and went downstairs and there was this pitcher of fruity stuff on the refrigerator. We drank a lot of it before we realized it was alcoholic."
Lucy sighed. "I feel like I should win since he didn't do it knowingly."
"Like hell you should. I win."
"What did you guys bet anyway?" Yuri asked.
"Don't ask, and we won't tell you, and everyone will be happier," his mother replied.
Drinking beer with his mom and dad actually was one of the coolest things he could imagine.
They talked to him for a long time, about growing up, about drinking, about dating, about how proud they were of him, about the guild, about everything they'd been through lately. It was nice to have them both together and he needed the reinforcement after being bent out of shape by the Magic Council.
Both parents and their sixteen-year-old son felt a sense of serenity and contentment as they headed to bed that night, but morning brought another cause for concern.
Awakened early by their youngest son, they came downstairs and started working on breakfast. Coffee was put on, Laxus went outside and got the newspaper, and then were gathering ingredients for breakfast from the cabinets when Lucy caught a glimpse of the cover story through the corner of her eye.
She turned and picked up the paper.
"Jura said 'Pilar,' right?"
"Right."
Lucy turned the newspaper around. "He married Queen Hisui. His first act in office was to remove Jura Nekkis as Chairman of the Magic Council."
Her husband worriedly mumbled, "Damn…"
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