The Dreyars on a train:

Terrible!

The trip to the Junior Grand Magic Games was almost indescribably unpleasant to those who didn't have dragon blood because those who did were simply too difficult to tolerate. This went from the youngest to the oldest.

Lucy did find it cute that Mavis just laid in her lap and groaned most of the way there since she didn't get snuggles in often with her youngest little girl. As tough as she was, the nausea of riding on a train was enough to make her curl up with her head in her mother's lap and groan for Mama.

Laxus meanwhile leaned his head back, one eye cracked open as he watched Iggy lay with his head on Anna's shoulder, looking like he'd puke at any minute. And then he did, and although Anna was very forgiving, she also didn't speak to or look at Iggy for the rest of the trip.

Sam and Layla were in the compartment immediately next to theirs and were noisy as always. Every few minutes they'd her a thud and a retaliatory complaint like, "Get off me, you big metal ogre!" Or, "I'll leave dents in you if you puke on me!"

Yuri was sleeping off his nausea, as always.

This all ended with Anna and Layla by themselves in the dining car delighting in their lack of dragon genes. There were times they reveled in their immunity to motion sickness, like when they rode bicycles, sometimes around their dragon siblings, and told them how fun it was.

Lucy watched everything unfold and smiled.

She wanted to enjoy this little peace and this burst of excitement while it lasted, because the road forward was going to be difficult for her.

Lucy wanted her husband to comfort her, but he didn't know she needed it because she hadn't told him.

It could wait.

For now, she was going to enjoy her baby son's near-constant giggling and her older kids' determination and courage to face the future and show the world what they were made of. They were growing up strong, and she wanted them to be at their very best.

They arrived in Crocus, settled into the hotel.

Each team had its own suite, and all the teams were in the same hotel, along with chaperones in separate rooms nearby, because everyone knew that many teenagers in one place was a terrible idea. Laxus and Lucy were Fairy Tail's chaperones, and the kids had all been lectured thoroughly not to go into the city without permission. They got an extra layer of threats from their guildmaster because he wanted to keep them all close in the wake of what happened with the new king and the Magic Council.

They might not have understood the world fully, but the older generation knew there would be some kind of consequence for their defiance.

Once they settled in, the kids didn't attempt to wander too much. With all of them in one place, all the trouble they might normally be getting in was so close.

Yuri brought Lilia up to his team's room, Sam and Layla were seen bickering in the hotel's garden, and Anna and Iggy went down to the pool where Mavis was seen attempting to drown a certain green-haired boy in the pool.

Business as usual, at least, as far as Laxus was concerned.

He wagged Lex around on one hip all afternoon as he made the rounds. Fights were picked, contestants were reminded they couldn't fight (there was, strangely, no rule against drowning a willing victim, as Mavis pointed out), and he left Lucy alone.

They'd been together for long enough that there was no way she could pretend everything was okay. Over the years that he'd loved her, he'd learned to pay close attention to the small things, because Lucy was the grin-and-bear-it type. If he didn't make an effort, she'd go through hell and never tell anyone—like she was now.

But it was marriage, and sometimes things happened as they lived their lives. Getting older, raising kids, working hard, trying to support a guild…sometimes they went through little things or even big things. He didn't know the nature of her struggle, but he was aware that it was there and that she didn't want to deal with it until they got home.

He respected her in that and did his best to keep their baby from wearing her down too much. Being raised in a house with three older sisters, Lex was a bit of a baby brat.

He happened to be in watcher mode when Petri Nekkis and Layla met for the first time when she came by the pool.

He was tall, the same height as Laxus, and at seventeen, looked more or less grown. He had a full head of dark brown hair and honey-colored eyes that accentuated his tanned skin and exotic features. And when he met Layla, they stared at one another in a dumbstruck daze for what felt like an eternity.

Petri's reputation was far from spotless. He was known for being wild, reckless, and down for a little more fun and danger than he should have been. Charismatic, he flashed a big bright grin at her and leaned over her.

She felt nervous for a minute and looked down, and then found herself a little hypnotized by the line of hair that started below his belly button and disappeared into his trunks.

He did the same, looking over her little curves in the white two-piece bathing suit her father hated.

"Oh my God, you're so pretty," he finally said.

And then he jerked and exclaimed, "Ow…something just shocked me!"

The blonde's state of mind shifted in an instant and she turned and gave her father the worst glare she had in her inventory of dirty looks.

"Petri Nekkis."

"Layla Dreyar."

She stuck her hand out, and another jolt of electricity shocked him.

Then she turned. "Daddy, stop it!"

Laxus feigned innocence, as if he didn't know why his daughter was angry. His expression suggested he was only an innocent bystander, and that some other person was delivering carefully controlled electrical shocks to the seventeen-year-old boy currently chatting up his teenage daughter.

Petri laughed. "You want to get a snack across the street? Or maybe somewhere your dad can't electrocute me."

"Yes!" she squealed, "let me just tell him where I'm going. You know, dad…guildmaster…"

Laxus was sitting in a chair next to the pool, with Lex on his lap.

"Daddy!"

"She-Child."

"We're going to go grab something across the street."

Laxus looked at Petri and then at her. "Layla, that's not a boy. That is a grown-ass man. He's bigger than I am, hairy as hell, and has so much testosterone I feel like I'm going to go through puberty again just from smelling him."

"He's only seventeen, Dad. Grow up."

"You know what's between sixteen and forty-two? Seventeen. I was his age once."

His daughter rolled her eyes. "…and all you cared about was fighting and sex. Yeah, you were a real Neanderthal. Doesn't mean everyone else is. Besides, I like at least one of those things."

"Don't test me, little girl, chaining you in the basement is not an idle threat. I actually have a chain, and in my mind, I have it all planned out," he threatened.

Layla gave him a dismissive shrug. "Do you want me to die a virgin, Dad?"

"That's a trick question. I don't want you to die or have sex—is that really too much to ask?"

"Okay, Dad. Petri and I are going to go eat fries and drink soda across the street. I'll make sure he keeps his testosterone to himself, and will return with my hymen before curfew."

Laxus assumed they'd go upstairs and change, but instead he saw his daughter put on the boy's t-shirt, which more than covered her, and he remained shirtless.

And then he had the most ingenious idea.

"Wait."

He approached them and said, "Why don't you guys take Lex with you? Your mom is taking a nap, and I have some business to take care of."

Petri didn't mind anyway, and when the baby went from Laxus to his dismayed and infuriated daughter, he pointed and said, "Hey, little dude!" He drew his finger in and poked Lex on the tummy, which caused him to giggle. "Oh, he's laughing. Cool!"

Laxus said, "He likes it when people make stupid faces at him. He doesn't know that's just how you look. Try not to be offended."

"Daddy!"

Laxus gave Petri the diaper bag and a little cash. "Snacks on me."

Layla was so mad her cheeks were red, but her father knew she wasn't about to show her explosive volcano of a temper in front of the boy. Petri seemed to think it was all good and fun, Lex was pleased to be with his sister, and Laxus was fairly sure carrying a five-month-old baby around would really just ensure they didn't have too much fun.

Situations like this made him appreciate Iggy, because Iggy just didn't rock the boat. He was a nice kid, and even though he'd broken the no-kissing rule, he conducted a strictly calm and drama-free relationship with Anna. They didn't fight, and when she confused or annoyed him, he mostly just tolerated it.

He wasn't even going to spend time thinking about Baby Orga, who either liked the abuse from his youngest or was willing to tolerate it in order to win her affections. Either way, when he crawled out of the pool, gapsing for air, Mavis did the same and stood over him.

"Do you like me yet?" he panted.

Then she pushed him back into the water with her foot and started to walk away.

Laxus looked down at his baby son and whispered, "If you were a girl, you'd be in an orphanage right now."

Mavis turned on her foot and gave her a look akin to the one Layla had just been giving him, and he added, "Your sister has really good hearing. Be careful."

When Orga emerged from the water again, he sat on the edge next to where Laxus was sitting and panted in exhaustion. He looked around at his surroundings, and realized he was right next to the father of the object of his affections.

"Hey, how come she doesn't like me yet?" he abruptly asked.

Laxus' brow rose in question. "Oh? Hello, nice to meet you, well, and you? And hell will freeze over before I help you."

The thirteen-year-old groaned and stood, then flopped down in the chair next to him. "How come? I'm a great guy!" he exclaimed as he pointed to himself.

"One, I'm the dad. We're natural enemies. And two, I think you're an idiot. The only reason I haven't zapped you yet is because Mavis does it for me," he answered.

Orga was exasperated and looked around for some other topic to discuss with the older wizard. "You had a baby earlier right?"

"It got noisy so I sold it."

"You have a lot of kids, huh?"

"You really are kind of annoying."

Laxus really had no idea why Orga was lingering there, fidgety as hell and very bothered by his lack of success.

Orga asked, "I'd be really nice. I'm a gentleman. I make good grades in school. I've never liked any other girls. I'd take really good care of her."

Laxus wished he could find whoever decided to keep all the kids in the same hotel and ask them why they thought that was a good idea. As it was, he was at the epicenter of the irritation because of the thirty competitors, only five were girls and three were his daughters. The ratio of teenage boys to his daughters was terrible and he was already sulking about it.

"Look, I think you're not a bad kid. You're annoying and weird. Mavis isn't ready for a boyfriend."

"How do you know?" the boy asked.

He answered, "She beats up on you and tells you to drop dead every time you run into her."

"Oh. But someday she'll like me, right?"

Laxus shrugged. "Who knows?"

"You want to hang?"

"Are you serious?"

Laxus spent the next four hours with Baby Orga, who was nursing some abandonment issues. His father had been on a job for almost two months, and he'd never had a mom, so he was just kind of floating. He wanted to give the kid a lot of shit over Mavis, but he realized he was lonely and in need of a companion. The other wizards his age at Sabertooth and his teammates were Lilia (overly attached to Yuri), Max Cheney (a loner), and the as-yet unseen, unsociable offspring of Minerva and Rufus.

Sting eventually gathered up all his wizards for dinner and bed, and as Laxus did the same, he realized that his son was missing.

Layla came in, with Lex, pissed off and not even willing to consider speaking to him, and once all the others were accounted for, he ventured out to follow his son's scent.

Yuri was usually a reasonably obedient son and guildmember, so it was unlike him to break a simple rule like 'Don't leave the hotel without permissions.' But he had, and he'd gone alone.

Laxus followed him one block down the street, and found him staring listlessly at pregnancy tests at a drugstore. Yuri seemed absolutely blank, perhaps terrified, and confused.

The sixteen-year-old looked up at his father and nervously stammered, "S-Sorry for not telling you where I was going."

As a father, he didn't even know what to think or feel about the idea his son even needed a pregnancy test. He'd experienced a scare as a teenager, and 'scare' was really a massive understatement for how it actually felt to be young and in that particular position.

There was a more emotional and upset response, wherein he wanted to ask his son how he could be so careless, so irresponsible, and so foolish to even be in that position, but that wouldn't help anyone. Besides, he knew in his heart that his son wasn't intentionally reckless with such things as he knew exactly how much time, effort, and exhaustion went into raising a baby. Yuri had plans, and this wasn't part of any plan.

Laxus approached and stood next to him. "You okay?"

"Not really."

"What happened?"

Yuri nervously answered, "It broke. And now all this time later…"

Laxus took 'it' to refer to a broken condom, which was certainly a great misfortune. If it happened on the wrong night at the wrong time of the month, it was improbable but still possible.

He reached out and picked out one of the boxes for his son, and handed it to him.

Yuri looked down at the box. "I don't think I can do this, Dad."

"You'll be okay."

He gave Yuri a pat on the back and gently pushed him toward the checkout, then purchased the test and walked with his son along the street away from the hotel. They walked in silence for a long time, and then came to a park where there was a bench.

Laxus gestured, and the sat together. Both crossed their arms, looking like younger and older versions of one another.

"You want to talk about it?" he asked.

Yuri crossed his arms. "You're not going to tell Mom, are you?"

"Your mother has something on her mind. If Lilia's pregnant, there's no getting around it. We'll need to tell her father, and she'll have to drop out of the competition. You don't want your pregnant girlfriend fighting in a game…she could get hurt, lose the baby. If the test is negative, I'll let you tell Mom when you're ready. If we tell her now, that vein on her eye that twitches when she gets agitated is going to pop."

"Ugh, her dad is going to kill me if..."

Laxus could sympathize easily as he had daughters too, and one of his greatest fears was one of them becoming pregnant at too early an age. Of course Sting was worried about Yuri doing the same. No father wanted to see their daughter have what was left of 'growing up' taken away all at once.

"Sting will be okay. Mom will be okay. I'll be okay. You and Lilia are the ones in trouble here, and it's not with us."

Yuri seemed absolutely despondent as he thought about his future. "What if she is? What happens then? What if we just decide not to have it? If we, you know."

Laxus was immediately uncomfortable at the idea and answered, "Son, if you can't say the word 'abortion' you don't have the kind of self-determination it takes to go down that road. Her either."

"What if we have it then? She lives in a different place. We have a year of school left. I want for both of us to finish, but I don't see how we can. Maybe we could get a place, and I could quit and go on jobs all the time. She could finish. Maybe we can get married…because of how things happened with her, she doesn't want to have a baby until she's married, but all this is just a mess, Dad. I don't even know what do think or do," his son answered.

His father took a deep breath and put his arm around his son. "It'll be okay."

"How?! How is this okay, Dad?!" he indignantly asked.

"First, let me remind you that you did this to yourselves. All involved parents made it clear we thought you were a little young to be having a sexual relationship, but you decided to do it anyway, so we just accepted it and hoped nothing like this happened. And second, it's not as bad as you think. It feels that way. I'm sure having a baby at your age is going to be difficult, but it's not the end of the world," he said.

Yuri asked, "Not as bad as I think? We're sixteen. We're not ready to be parents."

Chiding his son at this point served no purpose. As a parent, he was upset they'd been irresponsible, devastated they were in the position they were in, and scared of the consequences that were going to come if his son had gotten his girlfriend pregnant.

Discussing those things with Yuri was pointless; he was at an age where he barely needed his dad. At this moment, he needed his dad to be strong and a source of wisdom and stability. Yuri needed his Dad to help him navigate this unexpected storm, and in all things, he tried to be a good parent to his son.

Laxus gave his response a lot of thought and said, "Maybe you feel like a kid now, but you're not really. You've grown up a lot over these past few months with everything that happened. You went through hell too, but you were able to just bear it and be okay. I noticed that. You were strong in the face of adversity that would make some adults piss themselves."

"I love her, you know."

"I know."

"I mean it, Dad."

Laxus smiled a little. "C'mon. Go take care of that before you develop an ulcer. No reason to panic until you know."

He walked his son back to the hotel and to the door of Sabertooth's room, where he caught a glimpse of their otherwise silent team being irritated by the hyperactive and bored Orga. It wasn't the best environment for taking a pregnancy test or two scared teens.

Laxus said, "Let me get take your mom down for a bite to eat, and you guys can go to our room, okay?"

"Thanks."

He gave his son a big, long hug and departed for his room, stopping to harvest Lex from Layla who was still fuming.

When he came in, he gave his wife a big kiss on the cheek.

Lucy kissed him then the baby. "My Laxus and my Lexi! Did you boys have a fun time today?"

"Yes, working hard to keep these kids out of trouble. Goddamned hormones."

"And Lex is useful?"

Laxus smirked, "You have no idea. Let's go down and get something to eat. You've been sleeping for a while."

Lucy knew he knew something was wrong, but he didn't let on. The fact he could read her and respect her unspoken wishes not to talk about it made her so grateful to have him as a husband.

Lex fell asleep in his high chair.

"Did he get a nap today?"

"Maybe? He was with Layla and some idiot all day."

"Sam?"

"Different idiot."

Lucy ordered a salad and some water as she studied her husband. Something wasn't quite right about the story, and she knew him well enough to know he was full of mischief. "Honey, who was she with?"

"That Nekkis boy. Hairy mongrel."

"Is he taller than you?"

"Not helping, Babe."

"Did you use my son to ruin your daughter's date?"

"Maybe."

"You are so childish."

They were halfway through eating when Yuri ran through the dining room, whispered the word 'negative' in his father's ear, and just kept running.

Laxus felt so relieved he didn't even know how to express it, but when Lucy asked, he just shrugged and said Yuri would talk to her about it. They were careful to maintain honestly but to also respect how their children trusted and interacted with them. The girls typically went to their mother first, and Yuri to his father, and they didn't want to do anything to break that trust.

They went back upstairs, bathed their exhausted baby and themselves, and snuggled up.

XXX

Opening Games:

They commenced with all the competitors bowing before the King Pilar and Queen Hisui.

Except the kids from Fairy Tail, because they wanted to let everyone know exactly where they all stood. Their guildmaster had not been notified in advance, and all the older wizards sighed in frustration at their open and public defiance.

Fairy Tail Team 1: Yuri, Anna, Sam
Fairy Tail Team 2: Layla, Mavis, Iggy

Natsu and Lisanna were managing Team 2 while Laxus and Lucy stayed with Team 1, careful not to let any of their defiant children out of their sight since they'd already drawn the king's ire before the competition began fully.

There were only ten teams, so there was no qualifying event. The entire contest was scheduled to take place over a four day period. One team event, one set of duels for three days, then a team battle at the end.

Sam and Iggy were in the first event with Petri Nekkis and Laxus knew they were going to make trouble when Sam whispered to Iggy.

Guild was guild, and if Sam said some guy from another guild was flirting with Layla, Iggy was certainly in favor of intervening. First, because he believed in Sam and Layla, and second, because he'd been babies with the m too and he didn't believe in interlopers. Natsu treated people from outside the guild a certain kind of way and his son held some of the same beliefs.

Popping Baby Orga was on their schedule too.

The contest was a race to climb a small mountain that appeared, but as soon as the buzzer sounded, fighting erupted at the bottom between the participants. It wasn't just Fairy Tail making trouble, either. Within a few seconds, it was a free for all and no one was at all concerned with actually climbing the mountain.

Then again, it was a batch of teenage boys, so everyone in attendance just had to groan and roll their eyes at the boyish scrap.

Lucy pinched the bridge of her nose. "Boys…"

Anna called from the sidelines, "Iggy!"

He looked up and got punched right in the side of his skull. Then he got cranky and sent Rogue's son flying with one angry little fire roar.

"Climb!"

Lucy hugged her from behind. "Honey, if you keep yelling at him, they're going to keep punching him in the head. And trust me, acting like that, those boys need all their brain cells intact."

When the event's timer had nearly run down, all of them suddenly jumped and started climbing, but continued their bickering, trash-talking, and fighting.

Petri Nekkis was about to reach for the flag at the top and come in first place when Sam jumped and deftly knocked him onto the floor and snatched it, pulling Iggy up with him. "That's mine, sorry!"

Petri just laughed, because it was fun. Fight or no, they'd all had fun and they didn't have a reason to hate each other. He still felt a little insult to his male pride and knowing just enough to get a little even, he dusted himself off after coming in last place, ran, and jumped to hang off the rail where Layla was.

He kissed her right on the cheek and then grinned. "How come you didn't cheer for me?"

"Because I wanted you to lose. I'm not going to fraternize with the enemy in front of everyone," she answered.

Natsu growled, "Beat it Romeo, or your next stop is the burn ward."

"Yikes, your guild is fierce!" he said before dropping back to the floor of the arena and exiting.

Mavis was the first duel called, and her opponent was Hailey Lates, the beautiful, curvy daughter of Hibiki and Jenny Lates.

When she came out to fight in a bikini, Lucy sighed and said, "This isn't going to go well."

"Nope," her husband said with a nod.

Hailey posed, tossing her long blonde hair. "How about we settle this like civilized women. Let our bodies determine the match!"

Mavis glared, feeling a little bitter that this was her match. "Are you serious?"

"Of course! I mean, you may not be the curviest. I've got you beat on bust, after all."

Mavis looked down at her much flatter chest and said, "Geeze, I feel almost bad doing this."

"Do your worst!"

Three seconds later, she was laid out on the ground, fingertips twitching. "N-No fair."

"What? My fist is a part of my body, right?"

The next Fairy Tail duel was between Anna and Sergei Bastia. He looked as much like his father as she did her mother.

She was a vision of Lucy in her black uniform, hair in a side ponytail. Keys jiggled at her side, along with a whip.

Her opponent was a couple of years older, bigger, and focused.

Sergei was tall, like his father, with shorter white hair and buggy blue eyes. "Hello, Miss."

"Hello."

"I'm not thrilled to have a lady as an opponent."

Anna said, "Don't go easy on me. I don't want anyone to get any ideas."

"I'm here for Lamia Scale. My idiot teammate Petri came in last place during the group competition. I can't dishonor my guild," he answered.

She lifted her blue eyes and came up with a plan.

"Loke, my friend."

Her spirit appeared at her side in a suit. "You wish is my command, my lovely."

Loke looked up at Lucy and smiled a bit, and she returned it. It was rare for him to have a new master when his old was not only still alive but also so near. Lucy selected him to be her daughter's first gold key and the first one she cultivated a relationship with, and he considered that a high honor. Keys tended to be more likely to be passed on with death, which meant when the new user started to learn, the prior user was deceased. That meant most celestial wizards mostly had to learn as they went.

Lucy's training was very well planned and executed gracefully as her daughter grew. Celestial Spirit summoners were late bloomers, and she wasn't going to hit a peak for years still, but Anna was well on her way.

In no time flat, there was an enormous tiger made completely from ice running amok in the pit of the arena. It was huge, fast, and spoke to the wizard's surprising amount of magic power.

Loke and Anna were quickly running from it when she said, "Hey, you're supposed to fight!"

"So are you!"

"You're running from a cat. And you're a cat! Cowardly lion!"

Lucy brought a palm to her face as she watched. "Loke, get it together!"

Anna spun in a second, reached for the whip, and with one precise crack, wrapped it around the ice tiger's foot and pulled hard enough to send it crashing to the ground, where it shattered.

The strength of a spirit was determined in part by the strength of the summoner and the power of their bond, so as a new spirit to a young summoner, Loke found himself largely limited. He used a burst of Regulus magic to blind Sergei for a few seconds, only to be treated to another ice-make monster.

The next ice construct was an enormous ape, and besides taking an enormous amount of magic, it was also balanced so Anna couldn't topple it easily.

Anna reached for her keys, and selected a gold key, poised to call two Zodiac spirits at once, which was an unheard of impossibility for someone her age. The ape swooped in to grab her, and she stabbed a key right into its chest.

Ice was water.

Was there going to be a penalty for summoning the cranky mermaid from the body of an ice monster? Yes. Consequences for everyone: for Anna, for Sergei, and even for all the poor unsuspecting people in the front rows.

The ape exploded into shards of ice and a shower of freezing rain as Aquarius appeared.

Sergei was thrown up against the containing wall by a slushy mix of water and ice and quickly stood to his feet.

There were three opponents and he found they started to move in a certain formation, carefully coordinated. He was outnumbered, and they started to close in.

He couldn't attack them all at once except with his ice-make falcons, but when he created them, a wall of water swept over them and he saw a flash of light.

The sting of the whip around his feet made him wince, and he was hit with a one-two, first from Loke's Regulus magic, then from Aquarius. The whip was yanked, and he fell flat on his face with his feet completely immobilized, effectively ending the match.

After close of the first day, there were celebrations and kids being kids at the pool and elsewhere.

Sam Redfox stewed quietly by himself in the garden while Layla ran amok with the new guy, and the twins drank slushies and guildmasters and chaperones tried to keep the wild bunch in line. Since this generation had few serious involvements with one another that were negative, there was much trouble outside of some trash talking. Hormones and horseplay were the real issues that demanded constant attention, especially around the pool and all through the lobby and garden.

Lucy was sure the hotel owner looked upon the chaos and said to himself "never again."

She also wasn't sure if she'd ever had to yell 'be careful' so many times as she sat next to the pool and performed her duties as chaperone.

That said, she was glad she felt better and the excitement kept Lex entertained as he sat on her lap.

Watching the older kids was never-ending amusement and he seemed excited for the day he'd be able to play with the big kids.

Yuri came and pulled up a chair next to her. "Hey Mom."

"Hi, son. You excited for tomorrow?" she asked.

"Yeah. I actually wanted to tell you about something that happened."

Lucy braced herself, because conversations that started out like this never went anywhere good. "Okay. What's on your mind?"

Yuri bashfully answered, "So uhhh…Lilia…we uhhh…it was negative, but we had to take a test yesterday."

It really only took her about three seconds to connect the dots, but she still asked, "Test for what?"

"You know, in case she was, you know…"

His mother didn't know what to make of this. She was glad his son hadn't made himself a father yet still a little disappointed and stressed that he'd been in that position in the first place. Since Yuri had taken enormous strides toward being an adult, she almost felt like she no longer had the right to lecture him like a child.

Almost.

"Yuri Dreyar, you better not make any babies for the next few years, do you hear me? I am too young to be a grandmother! How can you be so reckless, do you have any idea what it's like raising a baby? They yell, they hate it when you sleep or have fun, and they do things like go out and have sex when they are too young and then they put you in this position where you want to respect their maturity but they're not being mature, they're still having irresponsible, underrage sex!"

She spat it out all in one breath while Yuri took it.

He knew it was coming; Mama was still Mama.

He was starting to understand that in her eyes, he would always be her little Thunder baby. Normally, it annoyed him, but he couldn't shake the memory of when he and Layla and Sam were in trouble and he and his sister came to the startling realization that they just wanted Mom and Dad.

Once she had her rant off her chest, she took a deep breath. "You're okay?"

"We're fine."

"I didn't ask about her."

"It's not her fault, Mom."

Lucy rolled her eyes. "You didn't get anyone almost pregnant before she came along."

"I was four when she came along. It was my fault. I'm not going to say more than that. I don't think you want to know anything more specific," he answered.

"Damn right I don't."

Lucy hugged her baby son and watched her full-grown son for signs of distress, but he seemed okay. He was obviously relieved, but not in any kind of post-crisis panic. "If she was pregnant, what were you guys going to do? Did you talk about it?"

Yuri nodded. "Yeah, we did. We agreed if there was a baby we'd get married. I'd quit school and work, we could move into an apartment. It would have been okay, I think."

"Yuri, look, I'm your mom. It's my job to freak out about stuff like this. I'm not ready for you to grow up, I don't want you to be a dad yet, but you have to remember you have a support system. We would have helped you. Let's be real here: when you do have a kid someday, that kid is going to be spoiled beyond reason. Your potential kids have a full deck: two great parents, grandparents on both sides and three aunties."

Two of the young male wizards ran by and Lucy turned, "Hey, that's too rough! No running by the pool!"

The didn't hear her, so Yuri zapped them and said, "Hey, cut that shit out!" in his much louder, deeper voice.

"Son, you want me to wash that mouth out with soap?"

"No, Mama. Sorry."

And then, Lucy started giggling. "Geeze, you're just like your dad."

"How?"

"I can't even begin to list all the ways, but your dad has certain words that make him really uncomfortable. He won't ever utter them, and he hates hearing them. They make him nervous. Your dad is scared of the word 'vagina,' and I think I've only heard him say it once or twice. 'Pregnant' is one of your words. It should be—you need to be scared of that right now. I'll let you know when I'm ready for you to have babies."

Yuri knew she was right. He had a long list of words that made him uncomfortable, and most of them were related to women or female anatomy. His sisters were the opposite; all of them were bold and none of them had a problem saying exactly what they thought or felt.

His mother became quiet, and he stayed next to her while she continued overseeing the rowdy boys (whose nonsense had driven every female in range up to their rooms). Then, once she recovered from the fact her son had been forced to address the idea of fatherhood, she started talking about everything else that was on her mind: how proud she was of them, how happy she was Anna won her fight, how hard she giggled at Mavis' response to the modeling competition, Sam and Iggy knocking the big, bag Petri Nekkis into last place, and then from there went on to her undying belief that Layla and Sam belonged together.

Yuri found this subject peculiar because it seemed like everyone had an opinion on it. The adults in the guild watched the dramatic relationship between Sam and Layla play out in real time with all their opinions on it.

Lex reached his arms out and started screeching while she was talking, demanding attention from his big brother.

"I see how it is. You boys think you need to stick together."

Yuri took him and bounced him on one of his legs, and threw him high and caught him.

"Don't throw that baby!"

"He likes it, Mom. We always do this. He also likes to go swoosh," he said, standing to swing his baby brother by the arms in a circle. Then he threw him up high again and caught him again. He swung him by his feet, lifted him up high and down so his toes grazed the floor gently. Lex squealed, screamed, and giggled for more.

His sisters nurtured and spoiled Lex, but Yuri was just such a boy with his little brother. Lucy knew he'd never hurt the baby, but she couldn't help but roll her eyes in her baby son's unending delight in having little wild moments. Contrasted against the wild teenage boys running amok, Lucy knew boys just loved being boys.

"Be careful. He's delicate, you know!"

Then, Yuri pulled up a chair in between them and let Lex sit in it by himself with his teething ring. "Sometimes, he likes to chill without being hugged all the time."

"Says who?"

"Look, women carry him around all day, squeeze him constantly, and he just feels a little smothered," Yuri explained.

Lucy argued, "Lex is an attention-hungry spoiled baby boy. I have two like that. The older one is a little obnoxious sometimes. He thinks being loved by his mother is an unpleasant, suffocating experience now that he's achieved puberty."

Lex was mindlessly chewing on the teething ring when Lucy reached out.

"You want Mama? My precious baby boy! You're so sweet and handsome! Mama has kisses!"

The baby looked up at Yuri, and then continued his chewing, seemingly unresponsive to her offer of affection.

Lucy said, "He's trying to be like you. You're being a bad influence! I can't believe my baby would rather be thrown around like a football than get snuggles from his mother."

When Sting came down to take over as the chaperone for the pool area, Lucy stood to take her son upstairs and get ready for bed and immediately felt light-headed. Strong hands steadier her, and she grinned a bit.

"Are you okay, Mom?"

"I probably need to drink more water. Just dizzy. You know sometimes you're a real gentleman. And other times you're just a huge brat. I hope someday you have five just like you. Just not today or anytime in the near future, got that?"

"Got it."

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