It was four in the morning, and everyone in the house was awake.
Lucy woke up, took a shower, and tried to ignore the alarming amount of hair left on the drain. She'd been told it would happen, and her brush seemed full, but it was terrifying to look at.
She stood in front of the mirror, and looked at herself with breasts for the last time. The thinning hair, the loss of her breasts, her pale skin and the dark circles under her eyes…she was going to look really sick soon. It worried her husband and frightened their children and she hated it with every fiber of her being yet couldn't change it.
As a young single woman, she'd been so proud of her breasts, but she'd come to think of them differently once she fell in love with a man who couldn't keep his hands off of them. To Laxus, they were a feature of infinite erotic value.
Then came babies, and her breasts were the wholesome source of their sustenance. Breastfeeding made her proud of them in a very different way, and she had a couple of little scars from fanged babies.
Now, she hated them. They carried in them something terrible. Laxus seemed to have soured on them and refused to look at or touch them.
Lucy could see the signs of illness were setting in fast, although that was less the cancer that might kill her and more the medicine that only seemed worse than death. She'd only been taking it for a few days and she was already tired of it. She wanted some way to escape from her fate, but she knew it was impossible. She had to go through everything, and she had to keep her chin up because she had way too much to live for.
She didn't even notice her husband until he threw a towel around her.
"Good morning," she said.
"Morning, Babe. You feeling okay?"
His wife nodded. "Just a little anxious, that's all."
She had permission not to take the puke-inducing medicine on this day, since she had to have surgery, and she considered it a little something to be thankful for.
The kids were awake, dressed, and anxious for the hospital.
Laxus had scheduled a magic vehicle, and the trip was short and tense.
Paperwork was filled out, and Lucy was taken back by herself first. During the initial exam, she felt numb, and once she was taken to a room, her husband joined her to go over paperwork one last time.
They were left alone for a little while until she could be taken to surgery, and while the seconds slowly ticked by, Lucy suddenly stirred.
"My purse."
He gave her the purse and she dug for her remaining celestial keys.
"I plan on being all right, but you know, sometimes things happen. If something goes wrong or whatever, give Anna all the silver keys. Then a gold key every six months. Okay?"
Laxus nodded. "You'll be fine, but I'll hold these just to make sure they're safe while you're out."
Lucy took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "Should I tell the kids goodbye? Just in case."
"If you want to scare the shit out of them. Honestly, Lucy, you're just anxious. Just be still. Everything is going to be okay. Don't panic. Don't be scared. Don't worry about our kids. They're very resilient."
"Like their dad?"
"I was going to say cockroaches, but whatever."
She smiled at him and thought about all the memories they'd shared. Life before Laxus was mostly terrible for her, up to the point she came to Fairy Tail. Of course she was fond of the days of adventure, and that period of time where excitement and danger were at fever pitch. Back then, the world nearly ended every three months.
Everything she was going to do to fight cancer wasn't really just about surviving. Life was important, but it was all the stuff she did with her life that she really cared about. She wondered sometimes if her thoughts and attitudes toward cancer would be different if she'd stayed single and never had a family.
Lucy wanted to have more memories with the goofy, aging guy who refused to leave her side, even when he got a little suffocating. Knowing him, he probably made her feel like that on purpose just in case she ever felt alone for a second of her life.
Laxus wasn't fond of people doing 'medical things' (as he called them) to his wife, so he was tense when the nurse came in and started poking here and there and connecting her to medical paraphernalia.
They'd made a decision not to let the kids come in the room before surgery to keep them all in good sorts. In the waiting room, they were tense, but no one was crying or willing to admit the level of terror. The last thing anyone wanted was Mavis breaking down into hysterics in fear something might go wrong.
When they came to take her, he gave her one last kiss. "Love you, Babe. See you later."
She reached up to touch his face. "Love you too, Honey. I'll be waiting."
He went to the waiting room to be with kids, who were anxious and tense. Lex was spending the time with Chelia and Wendy, and his father knew he was at that very moment probably testing his demanding behavior against Chelia's unbreakable will.
Natsu came by and sat next to him, offering him a paper cup with coffee from the tray of coffees and cocoas he and Iggy brought the Dreyars.
Iggy went over to sit with Anna, and the fathers sighed nearly in unison.
"Everything good at the guild?"
"Nope."
"What happened?"
Natsu said, "Sam's starting a lot of fights. He's getting frustrated with not being able to go on jobs. He is not happy Petri joined. I don't know what to do with him."
"Nobody does."
"Let him go on jobs again. He's been on probation for a while. I'll take him out on my next job, let him blow off some steam," Natsu offered.
Laxus nodded. "That's fine. As long as he's with someone who can look out for him. I'm just worried someone from the outside will try to get to him again. Bluenote Stinger found out he was a weak link because of information the Magic Council had, so we know that information is in their hands and out in the dark magic world. I think he's fine, but I don't want anyone to test him right now."
This was something that resembled their routine; drink coffee, talk guild, insult each other, maybe go out behind the guild and punch each other around, and then on with their day. Lucy said they were turning into cranky old men together, one day at a time.
An hour ticked by, and Natsu slouched down at the sight of his son holding Anna's hand tightly. "Those two…does it ever bother you? Lisanna's having a girl so I'm probably going to kill somebody for trying to do that."
"How far along is she?"
"Five months. Still puking her eyes out. Couldn't get out of bed and didn't want to look at my face this morning. What the hell kind of sense does it make that she wants a baby and then she's pissed off at me about the morning sickness? It's your fault, you know. My kids are going to be fifteen years apart."
"Really sure your wife getting pregnant didn't involve me. I think I'd remember something like that."
Natsu sulked lower in the chair. "Our kids were growing up just fine and you had to bring Lex around. Babies are contagious. Lisanna started wanting one. I can't say no to her. I mean, kids are cool. You brought that baby around and put the idea in her head, but you're not going to come change diapers at three in the morning, are you?"
"You're so excited you can't stand it. Lex needs a playmate anyhow, and Iggy needs to be a big brother. Besides, if you have older kids, you can just make them watch the baby. Free babysitting, and every time the baby does something gross, Iggy will tell himself he better not have a baby anytime soon. Everyone wins," he answered.
Another hour ticked by, tension grew.
Outside of the immediate family, very few people knew Lucy was sick and almost nobody knew about the surgery. Lucy had told her closest friends, knowing if the guild had known, the waiting room would be filled with chaos rather than being peaceful for the family.
Natsu and Iggy left briefly to get breakfast pastries to feed the Dreyar brood.
Laxus talked to each of his kids, dispensed hugs and encouragement when necessary, and then noted when the time passed when he'd been told she'd be out of surgery.
They ate donuts, sipped coffee.
Waited.
Another hour ticked by, and they were joined by Petri Nekkis. His lip was stitched almost down to his chin and the guildmaster knew it was probably from brawling with Sam, but he couldn't deal with anything else right at the moment. He just wanted Lucy to be okay.
Half an hour later, Lilia appeared with Baby Orga. Yuri wrote to her, and somehow or another, Orga had invited himself to Magnolia.
Laxus looked over the room and realized his clan in its current state was actually pretty huge. He didn't mind the appearance of anybody since he knew teenagers sometimes liked to have someone to tell their secrets to, or hold hands with. The assorted crushes were learning too how important it was to be around when things were hard, so he didn't bother any of them.
So far, only Yuri had done anything in the dating world he didn't approve of, but Yuri was at the age where he couldn't really be told what to do anymore. He was a good kid and he would listen, but he had a mind of his own and he made his own decisions.
A doctor finally came out, and Laxus stood quickly and followed him away from the group to the room where Lucy was completely unconscious on the bed. She was pale, and her chest was flat, besides a lot of swelling and the outline of bandages under her hospital gown.
Laxus crossed his arms and braced himself, because this doctor knew what was going on in her body. He could give bad news or good news or news that would just leave him worried.
He felt like he could barely breathe.
Then the doctor told him the surgery was a success, and it didn't appear the cancer had spread anywhere else because they'd caught it early enough. There were some tests that hadn't been completed, and Lucy still had to complete a difficult treatment plan that wasn't guaranteed to work, but the doctor was optimistic.
This was his first time to meet her doctor, so while Lucy remained asleep, he talked, listened, asked questions, and came to some semblance of peace and focus. Cancer was terrifying, mysterious, and it was also going to be a presence in their lives for a while. Lucy was sick, and she was probably going to feel sicker going forward, but she would be okay and that was all he cared about.
He went out to talk to the kids, who sat up in their chairs and prepared themselves to hear the news. Since skimming through books about cancer, they'd scared themselves half to death with information about what was going to happen if the doctors cut into their mother and found the tumor had spread.
"Hey guys. The doctor said everything went really well. There are still a couple of tests, but it looks like Mom caught it early enough she'll be just fine. She's still got a long ways to go, but she's going to be okay," he said.
Yuri asked, "Is Mom awake?"
He shook his head. "She's still out. When she wakes up, she might be a little woozy for a bit. I'll bring you guys in when she's ready for you."
"We can't wait for her to wake up?" Layla asked.
"No. I'll come and get you."
They wanted to wait in the room with her, but he knew if she woke up and the kids were there, she'd have to be Mom Lucy. Mom Lucy would try to keep from crying or talking about what was really on her mind, so he decided it would be best if he was the only one with her when she woke up. He didn't know how she was going to feel physically or mentally, so it was his way of protecting her from having to be stronger than she needed to be.
He hugged on his babies, who seemed just as relieved as he had been, and then hugged them again.
He returned to her side to wait for her to wake up, and they started to revert back to being normal kids and not kids that were scared to death their mother would die.
Mavis returned to her seat next to Baby Orga after grabbing a donut and eating in in three bites.
"You eat like a boy, yet somehow it's kind of cute," he said.
"You didn't have to come, you know," she muttered.
The boy asked, "Are you mad at me?"
"You're wearing a shirt this time, so it's okay, I guess. You're usually half-naked and following me around when I don't know about it. That's kind of weird."
Baby Orga leaned in closer. "You're my girlfriend, so it's my job to be here for you."
"I'm not your girlfriend."
"You kind of are. So if you're going through something bad, I'll always come visit. And sometimes, if something bad happens to me, you can come see me too," he said.
Mavis stared at the floor, then the wall, then admitted, "I was scared. I love my mom. I don't know if you know this or not, but I'm not a normal girl."
"You tried to drown me the first time we met."
"What's that got to do with anything?" she crossly asked.
"Uh…nothing."
Mavis continued on. "I need my mom. It scares me to think something could happen to her."
Orga offered her his hand. "Your mom will be just fine. You dad said so, right?"
The girl glared at his hand and all the invitation represented. Was she the kind of girl that would hold hands with a boy? This boy? She wanted to, but she wondered how it made her look and how it would feel.
Orga smiled at her. "It's okay, I don't bite."
Mavis glared up at him and then crossed her arms. "I do."
"I don't mind if you want to nibble me a little. I just thought about it and I think I'd like that," he argued.
With that she rolled her eyes and looked away. "Get lost."
"Never! C'mon, hold my hand. We can work on the biting thing later on."
Mavis cringed. "Ugh, you're disgusting," she said as she unfolded her hand and offered it to him.
Across the room, their interactions were being watched closely by a certain overprotective big brother, who had his arm wrapped around Lilia.
"Baby Orga is harmless. He talks about her constantly. He would never hurt your sister," Lilia said.
Yuri looked down at her. "It's my job to look out for everyone, especially with Dad taking care of Mom. I might knock him around a little, just so he understands."
"Boys are all the same."
Her boyfriend shrugged. "Can't help it. Anyway, my dad talked to me about what we were talking about. He thinks it's a really bad idea."
Lilia nodded. "You don't even want to know what my dad said about it."
Yuri tried to imagine how that conversation went, when Sting's precious oldest daughter—with whom he'd been able to spend very little time—told him she planned on moving in with her fairy boyfriend in about a year, making both of them seventeen. He sighed at the thought Sting's rage probably boiled on even at that moment, and knew he'd probably take it out on him at their next meeting.
When it came to being a boy and pissing off his girlfriend's father, his parents never interceded on his behalf. It was their unspoken way of saying he probably deserved it because as in love as he felt, sneaking into her room and taking her virginity ranked near the top of the list of things that might piss a girl's father off. Only cheating on her or getting her pregnant ranked higher, and Yuri had already come close to the second one.
Lilia said, "I love you, but I think we should listen to our parents."
"Yeah…"
The lilac-haired sixteen-year-old gave him an uneasy smile. "Your family needs you now anyway. My dad says it might be better if I came here and lived in the dorm next year instead. He says he knows I'm growing up and that we want to be together, but that it wouldn't be good for us to just move in together like that."
Yuri found it a little odd to imagine Sting having rational conversations about him with his daughter, but one thing he'd learned was that as much as parents had discouraged them from moving as fast as they did, they were understanding and did their best to dispense good advice. And, maybe most importantly, their parents never tried to force them to do anything, one way or another.
He was relieved they could agree on this because he really did intend on focusing on his family first. It might be a long time before his mom was all the way back to health again and during that time, he had to be more of a big brother than ever.
His eyes shifted to Layla, who was talking quietly with Petri. Yuri and Petri were friendly—the term the latter used was 'bros'—but he was a little wild. He didn't understand why Yuri was so interested in settling down and being a 'real grown up' even though he was a year older.
Anna and Iggy had what Yuri assumed was a very normal relationship. They enjoyed holding hands and doing homework together, and had a somewhat peaceful friendship that was punctuated by normal disagreements caused by being young and opposite gender.
He was big brother to a bunch of girls who were old enough to like boys and he didn't want any of his sisters to get hurt. So while his father looked after their mother, he kept an eye on his sisters.
XXX
Elsewhere later that day, Sam Redfox was on his first job in almost seven months. He'd asked a thousand times, and his guildmaster finally let him go on a job. Natsu relayed the news, and he'd felt relieved. The rules were simple; he couldn't go alone and Natsu had to approve his job and his companions.
It was annoying and humiliating, but his first job back was to perform a magic show, and his companion was none other than Henry Freed Justine, that eleven-year-old offspring of Mirajane and Freed. It was an easy job, one without complication or problem. It was only two towns over, and they had to be back by dark.
Sam initially felt like staying in the guild had been an act of grace, but things had been rough. He had a terrible scar from where Yuri and Layla cut the lacrima and its errant growths out of his arm. That, combined with the fact he didn't go on jobs for seven months and the Magic Council tried to hunt him down spelled out clearly that he'd been in trouble.
One of the other major consequences of the fiasco with Bluenote Stinger was that his circle of friends and habits changed completely. All the time he was growing up, he was around the Dreyars. He and Iggy practically spent half their lives in the house.
Iggy still enjoyed his privileges in the Dreyar house. Sam had never been formally uninvited, but Layla and Yuri watched him intensely at all times.
Some of the oldest yet less powerful members in the guild seemed to accept this as inevitability; he was the bad seed of a bad father. When he considered that a few people still looked down on his father for Phantom Lord, he wondered if he'd ever outrun his sins.
The completed their job quickly and prepared for the trip home, only to run into a complication. They were supposed to catch the train back to Magnolia from Clover, but when they got to the train station, they were informed the bridge over Clover Canyon had a problem and they'd be stranded in Clover at least for the night.
Natsu had made it extremely clear he had to check in with him by ten that night, and that wasn't going to happen. There was no way around the canyon, no reasonable alternatives for travel, and no way he was going to make it home on time.
Henry said, "We should get a room before they're booked. There's only one place here, right? I have enough money."
"Fine. I have to find the messenger service and send a message home."
"Meet me there, okay?"
Henry didn't really understand why he was that upset; it was normal to get delayed on jobs or to get stranded while traveling. He'd been specifically told not to separate from Sam, but he didn't really know or understand why and it didn't seem like a big deal.
Sam wandered around Clover asking questions, and finally made it to the messenger, only to find it was closed for the day.
He was so frustrated.
So, so frustrated.
He sat down on a bench across from the messenger service, growled under his breath, and crossed his arms, trying to figure out what his next move was.
An old man sat down next to him, and said, "Something on your mind?"
"No."
The old man said, "Do you know who I am?"
"No."
"I raised your father. That practically makes you my grandson."
Sam stood up and said, "My dad was raised by Jose Porla. If you're that person, then I can't talk to you."
"Why?"
"I don't want to go back to my master and tell him the first time he let me go on a job I was friendly with an enemy of our guild. You're going to get me in trouble. Got lost, Geezer."
The boy wanted to hurry away, but his path was suddenly blocked by one of the guild's well-known deserters, Romeo Conbolt. He'd left the guild after his father died out of bitter frustration he couldn't pass the S-Class exam and didn't have the ability to be one of the top wizards.
Sam asked, "What is this? Whatever this is, you guys can just get away from me."
Jose Porla said, "Why don't you relax? I'm not a monster. Surely your father told you I never hurt him. He was well cared for. When I found him, he was wandering around, hungry and crying and lost. I took care of him like a father. I never forced him to do anything he didn't want to do, and I'm not going to force you to do anything you don't want to do."
"Then what the hell is this? I don't have time for washed up losers."
Sam started to walk away and Romeo said, "You realized that means you too, right? Once you're bad, you'll always be bad. Unless your last name is Dreyar. Then everyone just forgets you were an asshole. But you…you're a Redfox. You can't help yourself. It's in your blood. Of course you're going to hurt one of those pretty little blondes."
The boy stopped and turned. "What do you want?"
Jose answered, "I consider you family. You're in a difficult position in life. Frustrating, isn't it? But, the truth is, no one really forgets anything. They'll watch and wait for you to make a simple mistake, then use it as proof you were bad all along. They tell you about 'right' and 'wrong,' and then you realize they're the ones who decide which is which."
This struck a nerve, and the Redfox boy replied, "I never meant for anyone to get hurt."
"I can give you a new chance. Start over. No one will know what you did. I won't tell you when or where to go. No rules. No suspicion. No guilt."
Sam's heart beat in his ears. "I won't betray my guild."
Romeo smirked. "My dad died a nothing in Fairy Tail, and all I knew is I wasn't going to follow suit…spend my life drinking beer and watching everyone else live big—no thanks."
Jose added, "I'm not asking you to betray your old guild. I'm asking you to do what's best for you. You've found yourself in a tricky place in life. You can go back to Fairy Tail and continue to be ostracized, punished, and the object of everyone's doubt, or you can have a fresh start."
"My guild has always treated me fairly."
"They haven't. You know that. The purpose of a guild is for a wizard to find work and make friends. We all participate in magic at our own expense. The real reason that girl was hurt was because of Makarov. He put her in danger, not you. You never meant for that girl to get hurt."
"Of course I didn't. It was all an accident."
Jose asked, "Then why live your life being judged for it? Fairies are perpetually hung up on the idea of right and wrong, but they're the ones who decide. I had your guild destroyed, it's true. Mine was destroyed too. Makarov and I had a rivalry. No one was 'evil.' But he'd make you think it was like that. Well, I suppose he can't make you think much of anything now that he's dead. Tell me, did your father ever tell you I taught him to be evil or that I forced him to do things he didn't want or that I didn't take care of him?"
"N-No."
"Don't you want to start over? No judgment. No sin. No pretty little girl with a mutilated face running around with some other boy like you never existed to start with?"
Of course Sam wanted that. He couldn't even count the number of times he imagined he could just start over.
"You're old enough to decide for yourself."
Sam was moved more than he wanted to admit at the offer. It was true he knew about Jose Porla, and his father told him that he'd been well-cared for, but not taught the difference between right and wrong. It was also true that his father was the top dog at Phantom Lord, and after joining Fairy Tail, he'd never been the top anything.
"You know, your guildmaster is trying to start a war with the Magic Council, maybe even the king. That miserable Nekkis boy bought his way into Fairy Tail by committing a serious crime. He stole files from the Magic Council and gave them to Master Laxus."
"I don't believe that."
"They're in his house. The Magic Council is certain, but they don't have any proof. They can't go in the house without Fairy Tail finding out, and that would be an act of war. If you were to get those files and return them, you'd see the truth about your master and your guild. I'm not recruiting for a guild, you see. I've been charged by King Pilar with recruiting a group of elite wizards to be trained for the royal office's use. You'd work for him only. Answer only to him. That's a big opportunity for someone your age, and one highly honored."
Sam fisted his hands at his sides. "I won't. I trust my master."
"That's a mistake. See for yourself. You find the files, you'll know your master is trying to make trouble with the government for no reason. If that happens, Fairy Tail will be disbanded. Lots of people could be hurt or killed. Whose side do you want to be on? The king of your country or a rogue guild that breaks all the rules? The losers will be the ones who are punished—ask me how I know."
The train bell started ringing and Jose said, "Maybe there was a mistake. Looks like your train is leaving after all. I guess the problem was easy to fix after all."
XXX
At the hospital, Lucy slowly blinked as she took in her surroundings and tried to remember where she was. At first, the hazy feeling made her assume her husband talked her into drinking too much wine, but then she decided she was more likely to do that all by herself. Then she remembered.
She was at the hospital.
She'd come for a mastectomy.
She felt afraid as she looked down and could see down her body easily, all the way down to her feet.
Her eyes clenched shut as she fought back tears, and then she felt someone squeeze her hand.
"Hey Babe."
Lucy sniffed and whispered, "I don't have breasts…"
He brought her hand up to his lips and kissed it. "The doctor says you're going to be okay once this is over. That's all that's important."
He reiterated the message, but Lucy seemed to still be half out of it and the other half was very distressed over how her body looked.
A nurse came to change her dressings and change drainage, and Lucy felt her ease her robe over her shoulders and start to unwrap the dressing carefully.
Lucy hung her head, suddenly feeling ashamed to be naked in front of her own husband. He would talk to her more about it, but not in this moment and certainly not in front of the nurse. He stood up and said something about going to talk to the kids, but he really just went out into the hallway.
Once the bandages were off, Lucy looked down at the stitched wounds on her flat chest. There was a lot of inflammation, a lot of swelling, and they were so ugly she knew the scars were going to be very visible for the rest of her life. Even if they faded, her body looked drastically different.
She tried to refocus herself, but when she casually took a deep breath and ran her hand though her hair, a fistful of it came out.
"Laxus?"
The way she whimpered his name practically broke him, because she rarely called him by his name. she sounded weak and distressed, like she was helpless and not the most kickass woman he'd ever known.
He came back in and sat next to her on the bed and this time, she didn't try to hide it. The wounds were large, the scars were going to be ugly. And her body had changed. A lot. It was still changing.
He'd already noticed the hair everywhere, and that she was definitely losing weight. The pale skin and dark circles under her eyes hadn't escaped him either.
Laxus watched the nurse change the dressing and helped her settle back down once the nurse left.
"Babe?"
"What is it?"
"I'd hit that."
Lucy blinked in absolute disbelief and then grinned. "You're such an idiot."
"Too bad. Looks like you've got to put up with me for a lot longer than you might have thought there for a minute," he teased.
Lucy heard the rustle of newspaper and was about to go nuclear over the idea he'd dare read the newspaper at such a time when she demanded his full attention.
"What's a five-letter word that means to 'jostle?' Ends with an 'e.'"
"Shake."
Laxus Dreyar was doing a crossword puzzle. It was the most bizarre, strange thing she'd witnessed in her life. But he really wasn't doing it. He read the clues, determined whether or not he knew the word, then just answer her for the answers.
The blonde looked up at her husband. "I think I just had a vision of what you're going to be like when you're eighty. Nope. It's still there. Put down the crossword puzzle and return to your actual age."
"Winter climate event, nine letters."
"Snowstorm. Honey, please. Not only are you acting like a much older man right now, but I wouldn't think crossword puzzles would be much fun for you. I mean, your vocabulary isn't what I would consider particularly varied," she replied.
Laxus might have lost interest if it didn't annoy her, or if he couldn't get the answers from her.
"Starts with 'g,' component in jams and jellies."
"Gelatin. Honey!"
He smirked and penciled in the answers. "Are you ready to do this for the rest of your life? If so, tell me what word has an 'l' and a 'g' and means 'indulgence.'"
"Delight. Did I actually die during surgery and now I'm in hell or is my husband suddenly a crossword puzzle guy? Oh, I know. Maybe, I haven't awoken from the meds yet and I'm high. Please let me be high," she answered.
Lucy loved her husband, even in his current state. Maybe most like that, even. From the start, he'd challenged her, annoyed her, loved on her, and spoiled her. Whatever she needed, he seemed to know and he always provided it. Right now, she needed something to help her start thinking like a normal person again. And he apparently needed the answers to his crossword puzzle.
They didn't talk about cancer, or hair falling out, or breasts, or being sick.
The meandered from one subject to another. Guild. Family. Kids dating. Baby. He made perverted comments and teased her, she fussed at him.
When she was in as good of a mood as she could be given the circumstances, she sighed. "Okay, I'm ready. Bring in the babies."
Laxus nodded and went out into the waiting room, which was mostly decorated with teenagers waiting anxiously.
"Your mom is ready for you guys. Remember she's sore. No hugs. Or else."
The Dreyar kids ran to the door, then filed in slowly to find their mother sitting up in bed, smiling. "Hey guys. Can I have hugs?"
Yuri asked, "Wait, is that a trick question?"
"What? Get over here, Thunder Baby."
They took turns giving her the gentlest of hugs, and then brought in chairs and camped out in the room with their mom.
Someone came by and said something about visiting hours and maybe Laxus gave them the kind of look that made a person shit themselves, maybe not. No one was bothered about it afterward, which was all that mattered.
When it got to be late enough, Laxus fell asleep and Lucy convinced her children to go home and get a few things for her including socks, lotion, her favorite book, an accounting ledger, and some dark chocolate from under her pillow.
Layla volunteered to go, since she knew where all of these things were and wanted a good walk anyway.
The walk was quiet, and she didn't hear or see anything particularly noteworthy. Halfway there, she put on her spiked earpods and melted into the music her father liked when he was her age. The earpods had a record of the songs he'd played the most, and she found learning about what he listened to help him understand and see a part of him that was otherwise hidden to her.
When she got to the house, the door was locked, and she didn't have her keys, so she went around to the back and looked for a key they kept hidden under a rock for special emergencies. It was gone and the door was unlocked.
Layla took her earpods off and entered slowly.
It was quiet in the house, but she could sense someone was there. Sometimes she wished she could smell people like her siblings and father, but she had sharp enough magic senses to know whoever was upstairs was someone she was around often. It was familiar, but she couldn't distinguish between certain familiar auras yet.
She crept up the stairs silently, breathing lightly through her mouth. Living with dragons had taught her how to navigate around people with sharp senses.
At the door to her father's study, she heard papers rustling.
Layla opened the door just a crack at first, and then when she saw Sam Redfox sifting through the Magic Council files, she slowly opened it completely.
Sam didn't know what to do when he saw her. The family wasn't supposed to be home; his mom told him her friend was sick and to be good to the family during the time of stress. She also mentioned the Dreyars would all be at the hospital, probably until very late if not for the whole night.
He'd already looked through the files, and determined everything the old wizard said was true. He had erased his guild mark and decided he'd take the files and run to his new start in life because something wrong was happening at Fairy Tail.
He wondered if she knew what the files were and why she was there at all.
Layla seemed tired, and preoccupied, and he realized how gutless and terrible it was to sneak into their house while their mom was at the hospital. Sam felt guilt for that, because Lucy had always been so good to him.
The blonde stared at him for a minute. "What are you doing?"
He tucked the files into his bag. "I was looking for the address for Sabertooth. I think my client had a job with them and I just wanted to write to Sting and ask him a question. No one was home, and I didn't want to bother anyone."
Layla pointed to the address book, watched Sam scribble the address down. He walked toward the door and for a minute, they just stared at each other.
Layla felt like he looked a little bit crazy. His black hair was shaggier than normal and his eyes seemed surprised or bothered. She wasn't really sure.
Sam looked her over from the top of her head to her feet, where his eyes fixed. She looked really pretty, and for some reason, he hated her for it. Her sandals had a little heel and they were nice, and her toenails were painted hot pink. Her lips were shiny and pink. Her dress was cute. That was mostly because she wanted to impress some other guy.
That was okay, because Petri wasn't going to be around if Sam turned in the files. He was a law-breaker, and Sam felt if he had to accept the consequences of his actions, why was Petri any different? Besides, Sam didn't feel he'd ever broken any laws.
Layla asked, "You have the key to the back door?"
He dug it out of his pocket and gave it to her, and when he left, he heard her headed upstairs.
Down the street he went, clutching his bag nervously. Everything felt wrong. Jose Porla was right; his guildmaster did have the stolen files and tensions between Fairy Tail and the Magic Council had been very high. Laxus didn't like or trust the king; Sam had overheard him tell someone they couldn't take a job in Crocus because the king was there.
He walked past a magazine rack with the newest issue of Sorcerer Weekly, and was surprised to see the wizard on the cover was none other than Layla Dreyar, looking gorgeous as always. He snatched a magazine without paying for it, tore up the cover, and threw it on the ground.
Sam went home, and he wrote a note for his parents saying he was leaving the guild and moving away, but that he'd write to them. He gave the briefest of explanations, naming the files in passing and purposefully omitting where he was going. His heart was pounding so hard, but he just kept thinking about what it would be like to start over. He asked if they could send the rest of his things once he sent them an address, and left the note on the kitchen table.
And then, he cut through an empty lot to get back to the train station quickly since the wind hinted at a storm.
Then suddenly, it was like time skipped forward for him, and he was on the ground. His body hurt terribly, his ears were ringing, his nose and lips were bleeding, and when he opened his eyes, he saw Layla's pink sneakers. She'd changed her shoes, followed him, and attacked him.
Sam sat up and felt dizzy, and knew Layla had hit him, very hard and without any warning at all. She'd successfully stalked him by staying downwind and then hurling a mercilessly strong attack at him from behind, throwing him so hard into an old tree that the trunk was cracked. Were his bones not iron, he was sure at least his nose would have broken.
He was still a little disoriented when she grabbed his arm and pushed the sleeve up.
"Where is your guild mark, Sam?!"
He jerked his arm back. "I quit! Your dad is trying to start a war with the Magic Council and the king, and Petri is helping him. The only reason he's in the guild—"
"Because he stole the files from the Magic Council? I already know. Petri told me himself, and I told him don't tell secrets to a person just because you like them. You never know when someone is going to turn on you," she answered.
"That was an accident!"
Layla picked up his bag and took out the files. "Are you going to say this is an accident too? That you decided to leave the guild, then snuck into my house and stole these? Sam, who told you about these?"
"None of your business. Give me the files, Layla."
"Never. If you want to fight, then let's fight. We both know I'll win," she said.
Sam argued, "They were stolen. We should turn them in. That's what's right. Or do the rules only apply when Master says so? Who gets to decide when right is right and wrong is wrong?"
He knew he'd struck a nerve by insulting her father, and she answered, "Sam, no one at Fairy Tail cares about rules or laws. What we care about is each other, and I don't think you ever got that."
"Yeah, you're so much better. You're stuck-up and crazy, and the only reason anyone bothers with you is because you were born pretty and strong. It's not like you earned either of those things. They just happened to you and you think it makes you better than everyone," he answered.
The blonde looked down at him in the most disparaging way possible."I don't betray my friends or my guild, so I am better than you."
"Give me the files, Layla."
"Get away from me, Sam."
Sam's skin coated in metal scales and he extended his hand. "Give me the files."
She rolled her eyes. "Was that supposed to scare me? I don't scare easily. One of the benefits of what you did to me. I have stared death in the face and guess what? It doesn't look like you."
When he tried to snatch them, she kicked him and turned around to head back.
Sam lunged forward, grabbed her by the hair, and hurled her straight into the tree she'd used to hurt him. "I've had enough of you looking down on me. You don't look that pretty with a bloody nose, do you?"
They leapt at each other and what ensued was the violent clashing of opposing wills. They hit, kicked, even slapped each other, and to Layla's surprise, he was a lot closer to her in strength when he was that angry than she ever expected. In between blows, they yelled things guildmates or friends would never say.
Rain started to fall, washing the scents of their blood downward into the ground. Normally, the smell of blood from the younger guild members never failed to bring one of the resident dragons, but in this case, the rain hid what was going on from anyone who wasn't reasonably close and they continued their battle.
He kept going on about what was fair or what was right, until she knocked him unconscious for a moment. Layla grabbed the bag and started to walk away, until a tiny metal spike went into her right calf muscle, causing her to fall.
Layla dropped and looked up at him. "You asshole, what is wrong with you?!" she shrieked.
She tried to get up, but her muscle was convulsing around the spike and it wouldn't obey her. So she grabbed it and pulled as he took the bag and made a run for it. She chased after him, and tackled him.
They tumbled down a rocky hill and at the bottom, she was on top of him. She still had that spike in her hand and she held it to his left eyelid.
"L-Layla, don't!"
She said, "He was on me just like this. And he grabbed this rock and I thought he was just going to club me in the face with it, but then it came down, and it made this sound…a squishy sound. It hurt so much, I'll never forget. My vision on that side just vanished, and all this liquid ran down my face. Then when he pulled the rock out, part of my eye came out, and the other part of my eye just sort of dangled out of the socket by the nerves. It was disgusting, and it hurt. It took Yuri hours to carry me to a hospital. I was throwing up blood and my eye was hanging out of my skull. Do you know what it was like for us?
"Then we got back and Dad said you get to stay in the guild. All he wanted was for you to be safe and to be okay. Yuri and I had to hide from the Magic Council and break a lot of rules to save your life when the Council came for your lacrima, and look what you're doing now. Now you want to follow the rules. You didn't want to follow the rules when we were worried the Council was going to kill you. Get out of here, Sam. You don't belong with us."
She stood up, climbed back up to the top of the hill, grabbed the bag, and started to limp away.
Of course she'd beaten him fair and square, and could have done anything she wanted to him. But those files were Sam's ticket to a fresh start and a better life, so once he caught his breath, he followed her, and he knocked her down.
She hit her head on a rock, and when she rolled onto her back, he pinned her down.
"I didn't mean for it to be this way."
He grabbed her by the chin and stole a kiss, then grabbed the bag and ran as fast as he could and jumped on top of the train that was just pulling out of the station. He didn't know where it went, but he had to get out of Magnolia and he had to vanish because he knew how much trouble he'd be in if he got caught.
He dropped down into one of the boxcars and opened his bag and realized he'd been tricked.
The files weren't in the bag.
Layla stood to her feet once he was gone, grabbed the files from where she'd hidden them when he wasn't looking, walked numbly through the rain, clutching them close to keep them from getting ruined. She didn't want anyone else to see what she and Sam had been fighting over, so she went all the way home and hid the files in their basement, then went back upstairs and took stock of her injuries.
She looked like someone had beaten the crap out of her, and her calf had a tiny but deep puncture wound that was developing a dark bruise. There was some blood in her hair from a scalp wound , but she was a powerful wizard, and people with a lot of magic would naturally take more pain, deflect more damage, and heal faster.
Sam had worse injuries and she doubted he was getting any help. She was fairly certain he wasn't going to come back, but she took out a light pen and added a rule to the runes that protected the house, forbidding the entry of Sam Redfox.
Layla took a couple of pain pills, jumped in the shower, and cleaned up. She stood under the water for a long time; in fact, she stood under the water so long the Redfoxes came back from dinner to find their runaway son's letter, tried to search for him, and found the signs of a fight in the wooded patch.
Then Levy showed up at the hospital, citing an urgent need to see the guildmaster, and Laxus came out.
"What's wrong?"
"Sam ran away," she cried.
"What?!"
Levy said, "Gajeel tried to chase him and he found a spot off Pine Street where it looks like Sam was attacked. Layla's blood was there too. I think they were attacked."
"I was asleep but the kids said Layla just went to get some things for Lucy. She had no reason to be over there."
Laxus kicked himself for not going with her, but when he and Levy went to the house, they got there at the same time as Gajeel who had followed the traces of her scent since Sam's disappeared at the train.
She was just coming out of the shower, wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Her hair was wet but it was obvious she'd been in a nasty fight. She came downstairs with a backpack containing all the things her mother had requested and froze when she saw her father and the Redfoxes in the living room.
"What happened? Were you and Sam attacked?" her father asked when he saw the bruises and cuts all over her face and arms.
Layla shook her head. "Sam and I were fighting each other."
She was sure that her mother would have given her the same stunned, distressed expression if she'd been there with the other parents. Their parents could remember how close they were as babies, toddlers would could play together all day. Layla used to demand play dates with Sam, and he was always with her. They used to laugh about how Layla started planning their wedding at the ripe old age of three and was convinced he was her prince.
Now, they'd fought like enemies. Real enemies, who loathed each other, and they could tell from the detachment in her voice and the way she said his name that she'd stopped thinking of him as that little boy and started thinking of him as her foe.
"Why? Did you guys get into it over that new kid?" Gajeel asked.
The blonde shook her head.
"He didn't attack you, did he? His note said something about some files," Levy asked, afraid her troubled son had hurt her again.
Layla said, "I caught him stealing them from my father's study. I decided not to fight him here. I followed him, I attacked him, and I took them from him. He ran off. I don't know where he is."
Parents can't determine how their children turn out, and while Gajeel and Levy wondered what on earth had gone wrong with Sam, Laxus wondered how Layla had become so unyielding she almost seemed merciless as she spoke of Sam like a random enemy and not someone she'd spent her life growing up with.
"You beat up your own guildmate?" Levy asked in disbelief.
"Sam quit the guild, erased his mark, and then tried to steal damaging information about people in our guild that he would only know about if he spoke to an enemy. He has a problem with conflicted loyalties, not me. I'm going to see Mom."
She left and slammed the door behind her, putting her earpods back on.
Laxus spent the next fifteen minutes trying to convince Gajeel and Levy everything was going to be okay when he really didn't really believe it himself. Sam had willfully left Fairy Tail and was honestly too old to have his behavior explained away by youthful indiscretion. Maybe the first time with Bluenote Stinger was an accident, but there was no way any of the events of the night had been spawned by anything outside of an act of betrayal.
And it was dangerous; Petri committed a serious crime by stealing the files and Laxus had committed an equally serious one by receiving them. He doubted very seriously that whoever sent Sam to take the files was trying to take down a teenager, and if Layla hadn't intercepted Sam there could have been catastrophic consequences for Petri, him, and for Fairy Tail since the authorities were enemies again.
Gajeel and Levy pelted him with questions about what their son had taken, and Laxus didn't answer completely. This caused tensions to run high, and they only got higher when Laxus decided he wasn't going to chase after Sam.
Levy was an emotional wreck over her son's choices. "So, if we find him, and we talk to him, can we just bring him back?"
"Not this time. I don't think you guys did anything wrong raising him. He's just…," Laxus said, "look, when he calms down a little, realizes what's important, he can come back. Sam is dangerous, Levy, especially to his peers."
They left to look for their son, who was probably wounded and well out of town already, and he chased after Layla, catching up to her a block from the hospital. She pulled off the ear pods but didn't seem particularly receptive to anything he had to say.
"You're limping."
"Sam stabbed me in the leg."
"A doctor should probably-"
"It's fine."
He started to reason with her about her own state of mind, but he got the kind of feeling someone gets when they know the other person either isn't listening or doesn't give a damn about what they're saying. "Layla."
"Dad, Sam is crazy or evil, or maybe both. I don't care which it is anymore."
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