Sam Redfox was gone.
Multi-generation guild dynamics were complex. There were so many different angles; self-loathing, blame, finger-pointing, tempers, regret, hindsight…it was a complicated turn of events for the guild.
Everyone hoped his absence would be quick and maybe Sam would come right back home to Magnolia, but wherever he was, they didn't find him and he didn't contact them. Leaving the guild was a lot more understandable than disappearing and not even contacting his parents.
Laxus came to a point where he couldn't do anything except ask for help from the only living person who had ever been his guildmaster.
"How's your wife? I heard she was sick," Master Bob asked as he poured strong drink over cold ice at the bar in the empty guild hall of Blue Pegasus.
"She has breast cancer. She had to have some drastic surgery about a month ago, but she's still got months of treatments," he answered.
The old guildmaster was the last living member of Team Makarov, and was one of the longest-serving guildmasters in Fiore. "I hope she gets better soon. God knows you need that woman. Me, personally, I never could find the right girl."
"I can't imagine why," the younger dryly answered.
"So what are you really here for?"
"Sam Redfox left the guild a month ago. Ran away from home. No trace of him."
Bob frowned. "Was he in any kind of trouble?"
Laxus gave him a brief retelling of the last year of Sam's life, and the old man listened intently as he wiped down the bar and cleaned up, refilling Laxus' drink now and then.
Then he said, "You know what your problem is, Laxus?"
"What?"
"When a child grows up in a guild, of course when they're young you give them opportunities to stretch their wings and learn and grow. Yet you have to acknowledge that the life of a wizard causes a person to grow up fast. Tragedy or no, these kids go on jobs that require getting on trains, traveling, addressing danger and high-stress situations, sometimes getting the crap kicked out of them, facing death, maybe watching other people die or suffer, and then they come home and their parents still see them as the other kids they see walking down the street," Bob explained.
Everyone who was raising a kid in the guild was familiar with this frustration.
Bob added, "You keep calling Sam and kid or a boy, but that's not right. Your head is in the wrong place because you're a dad and you think of him as being a child. Sam is a young adult, and one of the most important responsibilities a guildmaster has is holding a young adult responsible for their actions. When you coddle someone making grownup mistakes like they are a child, you're failing to acknowledge there's a real problem present. When you don't address a problem, it always reoccurs. You tried to protect Sam from the consequences of his mistakes, so he didn't learn from them like he should."
"You think I should have been harder on him about Bluenote Stinger?"
"I would have expelled him. Not as a punitive measure, but to stop his momentum. Sometimes kids lose control of themselves and they don't know how to get it back. They end up making terrible choices just because they don't know how to get themselves straight and before you know it, they've spun so out of control you can't reach them," he answered.
Laxus scowled at his drink. "So it was my fault."
Bob shook his head. "Look, kids develop problems that don't come from their parents or how they were raised. Those are the kinds of things we can't fix. Take you, for example. Maky didn't do a terrible job raising you. Maybe he drank too much, and Ivan was what he was, but you didn't have any excuse for being like you were. Your grandfather tried everything to help you, but you just got worse and worse and he was so frustrated you had him in tears at times. All he wanted was for you to do right and be okay, but you just couldn't get your shit together and you got worse and worse until he finally kicked you out."
Since he knew his own young mind well, Laxus knew there was truth to this. There was something in him that had simply been wrong in his heart and it didn't really come from anyone. It just was, and it drove him like a madman to his own expulsion. Laxus hadn't ever thought about it, but that single act had instantly stopped his uncontrollable progression toward darkness.
"You got away from everything and you took a breath and you had an opportunity to think about life and see things in a different way. Sam is teetering between light and dark and you and his parents can't push him either way. He has to become strong enough make that decision for himself, and then he has to make it and live out the consequences. You can't do that for him."
"It's dangerous out there. We don't know who he's with, but we know it's an enemy."
Bob refilled his glass and said, "He knows how to walk away, doesn't he? And he knows where his home is and where the people who love him are. Besides, at his age, if his moral compass isn't tuned properly, you're not going to be able to do a damned thing about it."
"What makes you say that?"
"I adopted a couple of little homeless kids. Karen and Rusty. Raised them in the guild, and they were good kids, but they hit this age and they just started to go wrong. Karen Lilica died because her celestial spirits rebelled against her for being so cruel. Rusty Rose joined Grimoire Heart and has spent his entire life in the world of dark magic. Hibiki on the other hand was born into a dark guild and ran away because he wanted to live a different life. What I'm trying to say is that once a person reaches adolescence, they have to decide for themselves which side of the line they want to walk on."
Laxus finished his drink and thought for a while. It made sense, but it was hard to accept that it was right to just let Sam go. He was young. He had parents.
Bob refilled his drink and noted the younger guildmaster was noticeably inebriated. "This is your last one. Your grandfather would have lived a lot longer if he'd done less drinking, you know."
"You know, I lost another member last year. Romeo Conbolt."
"Who is that?"
"…That was the problem. He grew up in our guild. His father Macau was a wizard. You might remember he was the guildmaster during our seven-year nap on Tenrou Island. There's not a lot of room at the top in Fairy Tail. We have so many powerful wizards. I mean, there are hundreds of legal guilds and thousands of wizards. Not everyone is going to grow up to be Natsu Dragneel or Erza Scarlet. Most wizards are just somewhere in the middle. As a guildmaster, I know that's just the way things are, but when I was a kid, the idea of being mediocre made me crazy too."
Bob said, "You can't take that personally. The most fragile part of any wizard's body is his ego. Some wizards are probably better suited to smaller guilds. They want to be famous and they want to be the strongest, well…Fairy Tail's not the right place for insecurities and delicate egos. Wizards come and go for a lot of different reasons until they find where they belong. Of Team Makarov, Maky was the only one who stayed at Fairy Tail. Yajima went to the magic Council, Goldmine and I started our own guilds, Rob went off on his own, and Porlyusica turned into a heartless old maid. We were all friends until the end, but we went our own ways in life and if some of your members part ways with you, it doesn't mean you failed."
Laxus didn't feel convinced, but he finished his drink, jumped on the train, and headed home to his family. There was a part of him that knew he had to leave Sam alone; his parents would obviously probably never give up on him.
Yet with every fiber of his being, he wanted Sam to learn a lesson and come home quick. At the very least, he wanted to find out where Sam was, and he wanted to know he was safe. His worst fear was that Sam had somehow ended up with Jose Porla or Pilar – if those were even separate people.
When he got home, he found Lucy sitting at the kitchen table in a shirt that laid flat on her chest and a weak-looking smile. There were bald spots forming at her temples, and on the back of her head. She'd gotten so pale, so thin.
The kids had cookbooks and food and messes all over the place from their mostly failed attempts to feed their mother a diet safe and healthy for a person with cancer.
Just as he sat down, they served her a plate of assorted stewed vegetables.
"They're superfoods, Mom," Yuri said, his voice filled with hope.
Lucy stabbed the mushy mess with her fork. "Can we just get some superpizza?"
Anna said, "A high-fat diet with too much dairy is no good for you. You need a diet rich in whole, natural foods and antioxidants."
"Wine has a lot of those."
"Mom, we read lots of books about beating cancer and getting drunk wasn't listed as a valid strategy anywhere," Layla replied.
Lucy sighed. "Why did I let you guys learn how to read again?"
She crinkled her nose, but it wasn't that bad. She appreciated her kids, who did everything in their power to help her along. If she didn't feel like taking her medicine, she had them asking her if she'd remembered, and what she really remembered wasn't the task, but the reason for all of it.
Laxus was surprised when she started to work on guild stuff at home, although she was reasonably functional in between doses of her medicine. He wished she'd use that time to rest or have some leisure time, but Lucy was set in her ways. If she had strength, she was trying to do whatever she would normally do.
She made occasional visits to the guild, but it was hard to take everyone constantly asking if she was okay. Sometimes, she just wanted everyone to treat her like always.
The kids spent a lot of time together with their mother when they got home from school, and it made Lucy happy. She hated to admit it, but they'd reached the age were starting to do more and more on their own and suddenly they were very focused on their family. It meant the world to think her family loved and supported her that much.
Laxus was doing a lot of extra work with the guild, and after Sam's exit, felt guilty he'd neglected some of his duties. Without Lucy at full-power, he really felt the burden of looking after so many people for the first time.
After dinner, she prepared for a new ritual she and Laxus shared. She needed just a little exercise, so every night after dinner, they went for a walk. Sometimes it was a long walk in the sunset, sometimes it was short. Sometimes he had to give her a piggyback ride home.
They held hands and walked along familiar streets.
"I have somewhere I want to go," she said.
"Anywhere."
Lucy smiled and squeezed his hand. "It's a shop downtown."
"What shop?"
"You'll see."
He pulled her over and kissed her hair. "I love you. You had a good day today?"
"Threw up, worked on taxes, took a nap with Lex. It was productive. You know what he did today?" she said.
"What?"
"Held onto a chair and stood up. I told him he wasn't allowed to grow and that his job in the family was to be a cute little fat baby, but he didn't listen to me."
He smiled. "They never do. It's amazing how much kids want to grow up, and then you grow up and realize it was fun being a kid. No bills. No responsibilities."
"Pimples, rules, sexual frustration, homework…It's going to be weird when Yuri finishes school this year. I mean, I'm glad it's his last year, but a kid who runs out of school years isn't really a kid," his wife replied.
Her husband nodded. "Master Bob impressed into me that I have to start treating the kids as 'young adults.' It's weird. If I look at Yuri long enough I can still see his little baby face."
"I saw him in public the other day from behind and didn't even recognize him. I thought 'that man over there' and then I realized it was my little Thunder Baby."
It was strange sometimes, being parents to older kids. Babies were easy, but their half-grown kids were going through the oftentimes painful and confusing transition to adulthood. They had things to experience, explore, and do, and sometimes being their parent just meant giving them good advice and hoping for the best.
He stopped at an ice cream shop that had been a favorite place during her pregnancy cravings and bought her a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone.
"Don't worry, I won't tell the kids," he teased.
She took it from him and licked at it with a mischievous grin. "Our kids are annoying me to death trying to take care of me. It's sweet."
"That's probably how they feel when we still try to do too much for them."
"Agitated and suffocated?"
They sat on a bench together and watched the sun starting to set. "You're a little bit drunk, aren't you?"
"Had a few over at Blue Pegasus."
"Rub it in my face. As soon as I have a clean bill of health, you and are going to the beach, we're going to get drunk, and we're going to do it in the sand. You better be careful about sand this time. You get sand in my vagina and I'm going to put some in you," she said.
"That was like…seven years ago?"
"Ten years ago."
"I'm glad you never bring up the distant past."
Lucy leaned on him, and he periodically kissed her hair while she worked on her ice cream. When she finished as much as she wanted, he chomped the rest of it down in a couple of bites and they went on to the shop Lucy wanted to visit.
It was a wig store.
He didn't want to go inside.
She dragged him in by the hand. "Don't be scared. I'm not. I've got some bald spots already. I figure I'll just shave the rest of it off and go with a wig for a while. It's going to happen soon anyway, and my hair already looks really thin and not right. I'll feel better."
When she said she'd feel better, he knew this was one of the many ways she was tackling her problems head on. He didn't understand, but he knew he had to support her in whatever she felt like she needed to do.
Lucy looked around the store, at face-less heads stacked to the ceiling with all different hairstyles and colors.
"This is kind of creepy," she admitted.
"Yes. I think I had a nightmare like this once," he answered.
Every challenge with cancer came with several different sides. Trying to have ordinary feelings and a good relationship despite all the sources of stress was one of the most serious challenges. Sometimes, one of her biggest struggles was making sure her family wasn't trying to overdo it for her.
Lucy even caught their daughters in a plot to give their mother their hair, and stopped it before they had the chance. She didn't really want them 'sacrificing' anything for her. If they did that, she had to acknowledge how important hair was, and she wasn't going to do that—not as the mother of three girls. Raising daughters, they'd invested so much into teaching them looks weren't everything. She wondered then if maybe she should just sport a bald head, then dismissed it because it was okay for a strong woman to want to be beautiful.
These were the kinds of things she hadn't ever thought about before.
The worker helped her into a wig cap and Lucy was looking through different styles when her husband plopped a wig onto her head. The hair was long, and streaked with various shades of pink.
Lucy pulled it into place before she saw ribbons of pink hair between her fingers. "Are you serious?"
"You. Me. That wig, and your tallest pair of stilettos at the beach when we get drunk."
She looked in the mirror, and then up at him. "Does this really turn you on?"
She twirled the hair between her fingers, and he gave her that devilish smirk she knew so well. Sex was on hold for now between them, but they still had their moments and they had a lot of plans for when they were back to themselves.
"There's a big plot hole in your plan. How am I going to walk around on the beach in stilettos?"
"You're not. I'm going to throw you over my shoulder and drag you around like a caveman while you kick your pretty little feet in the air and yell about what a brute I am," he answered.
Lucy threw the hot pink wig off. "What if our kids find it?"
"What if they find the vibrator in the bottom of your panty drawer?"
She punched him in the arm. "Do you want them to overhear us?!"
"Who? The saleslady who sells hooker wigs?"
Lucy growled under her breath and resorted to her normal method of defense: pretending she didn't know him. She looked from shelf to shelf, contemplating her options as she peeked at him occasionally. Her husband was apparently fascinated by the so-called hooker wigs, and as long as he was occupied with imagining her in all sorts of strange dress-up, she was free to conduct her own search.
Her hair had always been longer, but she'd worn it a little shorter after they had kids. She preferred it, but she felt like the longer the hair was, the more it looked fake. Plus, she was so used to her own hair nothing else looked right.
She found one she felt was probably one of her best options, but while she was standing in front of the mirror, she heard a distinct utterance from her husband.
"No."
Lucy turned. "Why?"
"It's made from horse hair."
"How do you know?"
He tapped on his nose.
His wife asked, "Does it make me smell like a horse?"
He nodded. "Not gonna lie. It's pretty weird and confusing for my nose. Horse wife is not a thing for me."
Lucy realized at that moment it wasn't a good idea to bring a drunk Laxus Dreyar into a wig store. So far he'd tried to get her to buy a trashy wig just to dress up and screw him in and was now smelling the wigs she tried to look at to make sure they didn't smell like an animal. He didn't like human hair wigs either because they smelled like strangers.
She finally settled for a shoulder length synthetic wig in golden blonde. It wasn't really what she wanted, and the synthetic didn't feel right, but he didn't want her smelling like an animal or an unknown person. He wasn't otherwise difficult with her and she knew sense of smell was a very powerful and strange thing for a dragon, so she put up with him.
When they got home, they spent some time with the kids, read a story to the baby, and went to the bedroom to get ready for bed.
Lucy sat at her little vanity in the bathroom in front of the mirror with a pair of scissors, a razor, and some shaving cream.
"I was thinking maybe I could get rid of mine too, as a show of solidarity or something," he said, unsure of how to best support his wife.
She turned and said, "I really only love you for your hair. Without it, I'd have no reason to stay. Besides, I like to play with it. My hair is falling out, and that sucks. It's not the end of the world. I don't want anyone to change how they look because of that."
Laxus took the scissors and asked, "You're sure you're ready?"
"Let's do it."
He snipped the hair first and let it fall to the floor until it was short and close to the scalp. Cut short, he could see the bald spots that were spreading more clearly. After he blew the stray clippings away and methodically lathered up her head with shaving cream.
He shaved what was left of it off until her scalp was smooth.
There were moments Lucy felt mostly okay about what she was going through, but this was not one of them. She was bald, she had no breasts, she was getting skinnier by the day, and she knew it was going to get worse before it got better.
"You want to get in the shower with me? I'll give you a backrub under the hot water," he asked.
Lucy tried to crack a joke as she stared in the mirror. "What? You're not going to offer to wash my hair like always?"
Her husband would have said anything in the world to get her to look away from her reflection so he was relieved when she took him up on his offer. He washed her, head to toe, and she leaned against his chest under the hot water. Their bodies melded differently without her breasts in the way, allowing them to get closer. She hated not having breasts, but she didn't mind leaning on him like this because their bodies just sort of fit a different sort of way.
Her emotions swung back towards positivity after she spent some time with him there, and when she got out, they dried off, brushed their teeth together, and got dressed for bed. She took her medicine and got in between the sheets, hoping to fall asleep before it made her feel sick.
He cleaned up the hair and crawled into bed with her.
"I love you. You're a great husband. Except when you're drunk in a wig store. We're not doing that again."
"Love you too. Can't wait for the beach."
Lucy snuggled up close and laid her head on his chest. "You've been a really good husband, you know. I know it's really up and down for me. One minute I feel okay, the next I'm puking. Then I'm happy and then sad and them optimistic and then depressed."
"I know it's hard, Lucy. It'll be all right though. You're too tough for this shit."
She drifted off, and awoke an hour later to vomit.
The next day was not a good day that was in any way, shape, or form productive for Lucy. She was sick to her stomach and didn't even want to move. When she felt terrible, it was easier to get discouraged so even when she felt all right for an hour or two, she got under the covers and stayed there.
It made her feel like a wretch, but she also knew her feelings were probably normal.
The kids were at school, and Laxus had to work, so he sent Lisanna to look after her and Lex.
Lucy finally came down and nibbled at crackers while she sat on the floor with Lex, who was entering the stage of babyhood where things were starting to really happen for him. He crawled to and fro, but always made his way to his mother, preferring to crawl all over her than anywhere else.
Lex found her wig very strange and stared at it constantly at first, but then lost interest after she let him pull it off and examine it more thoroughly.
The two women had a long talk about guild matters, mainly about Sam and the others. Natsu felt enormously guilty for Sam's departure since he was the one who let Sam go on his job. Lisanna confided in Lucy that Natsu felt Laxus was being too hard on Sam, but what happened proved Laxus had been right all along about whether or not it was safe for Sam to leave Magnolia to work. Lucy already knew this to be true and that the whole issue of Sam had driven up tensions throughout the guild leading up to his departure and amplified them afterward.
Lucy said, "Laxus feels guilty for not doing enough or not doing the right things. Natsu regrets letting him go. Levy feels like they must have made a mistake raising him. Gajeel assumes it means he couldn't help his own son find the way…but really…Sam made his own choice. I feel really bad about what happened, but sometimes we can't decide what our kids do. I'm sure I'd be devastated beyond comprehension if it was one of mine though."
Lisanna agreed with this, but knowing what was logical didn't help anyone feel any better about what happened.
In the afternoon, she let Lisanna leave and took an afternoon nap with Lex.
She awoke in the early evening after the older kids came home from school. When she sat up, she yawned and saw Lex still stretched out in the middle of the bed snoring with his mouth open.
Laxus was sitting on the other side of the bed with his shoes off, his reading glasses on, a pen in hand, and his new guilty pleasure, a crossword puzzle. He seemed to be waiting patiently for her to wake up so that he could irritate her, which was both sweet and annoying all at once.
Such was life with Laxus.
Lucy sighed deeply, and he grinned at her a bit when he saw she was awake.
"What's a seven letter word for 'reason for existence?' Fourth letter is a 'p,'" he asked.
Lucy groaned, "Purpose," and pulled the covers over her head, "You're really insufferable, you know."
"Type of nut, five letters, fourth letter is an 'o.'"
"Almond."
Lucy asked, "How many answers do you have filled in?"
"Two. Only thirty to go," he answered.
"God."
"I think that might be the answer to 27 Across."
She groaned.
Her husband asked, "Four letters. Beautiful, brilliant, love of my life."
"Beer?"
Lucy peeked at him from under the covers, and even though he couldn't see her mouth, he knew she was smiling from her eyes. "Five letters. Handsome, wonderful and delightfully irritating man."
He bent down to kiss her and was intercepted by Lex suddenly jerking up and headbutting his father. In order to prevent any affection, he hugged onto his mom.
"Cockblocker, three letters."
"Little boys and big boys, just alike."
Lucy got out of bed and put her hair back on, looking out the window into the backyard. The fact that her husband seemed content indicated he wasn't aware that his beloved hammock was currently occupied by Petri and Layla.
She stared at them long enough he said, "I know they're in my hammock."
"They're pretty close down there. Kind of tangled up."
Even though her husband sighed, he didn't get up to go annoy them and he didn't seem particularly worried. If he knew they were down there all along, his presence in the bedroom where he couldn't even see them from the bed was quite telling.
"Is that look on your face approval or resignation?" she asked.
Laxus looked up at her over his reading glasses. "A little bit of both. Layla's been betrayed, kidnapped, almost beaten to death, mutilated…Sam stole that all-important, life-changing first kiss she's been dreaming about since she was three. Nothing magical about that shit—they beat each other bloody. That wasn't right."
Lucy felt her heart ache for Layla and for her husband. "That's enough to calm your overprotective fatherly instincts?"
He glanced down at his crossword. "Dairy by-product, four letters, ends in 'y.'"
"Whey."
He penciled in the answer and said, "I heard her crying last night. What makes a girl that strong cry? I asked and she said she just wants to know what it's like to be kissed by a boy who likes her, the right way."
"And you're okay with that?"
"I'm a dad, so of course I hate it naturally. But growing up shouldn't just be about the bad stuff. Petri makes her feel like a normal teenage girl, and I think she needs that. If laying in my hammock and kissing that boy makes her happy, then I'm not going to bother her. Besides, if we've learned anything, it's that she doesn't let anyone get the best of her."
Lucy went over to his side of the bed and gave him a big kiss, igniting their baby son's jealousy as he didn't understand why no one was kissing him. "You're a good daddy. I always worried you'd be to overprotective, but I think you're just right. You're letting them live and explore, but every boy that comes around here knows he better watch himself."
"Hey, I can kiss my wife if I want to," Laxus said as Lex tried to wiggle in between them.
"No!"
Lex said it so clearly as he wedged his way and grabbed onto Lucy.
Lucy and Laxus both stared in shock, and then Lucy asked, "Is that what you're going with for a first word?"
"Well, at least it wasn't 'mama," her husband complained.
His wife hugged the baby close. "You're such a good boy. You helped Mama win a bet."
The bet was that none of their children would say 'dada' first, and had been going on since Yuri was born and they realized he would at some point begin speaking. Five babies, four 'mama's' and a 'no!' left her satisfied.
Laxus sulked at them as Lucy showered him in praise for speaking a word. "Is it bizarre that the first thing I think is that we should go find another baby so I still have a chance?"
"Not bizarre, just kind of stupid. I'm done with babies. I need a kid to squeeze, but I'm sure by the time Lex gets to an uncute age, we'll have grandchildren. I mean, you leave those kids in the hammock long enough…"
"Lucy, I'm trying to be a mature father here."
"Did you not just suggest we adopt a whole person to settle a bet?"
Laxus looked back at his crossword puzzle. "Maybe we could just trade him in for a newer model. Three letters. Starts with 'n.' Means constantly annoying."
"Nag."
Lucy noticed he didn't write it down and said, "That's not on your crossword, is it?"
"Nope."
She sighed deeply and decided to spend some of her limited strength on pummeling him with the pillow, which was a satisfying sight for both her and the baby. After just a minute, she laid on her side of the bed, panting, and he kissed her forehead.
She grinned at him. "You make everything better. It's not so bad. I'm surrounded by people who love me. I'm going to recover. I'm still happy. Nothing can take that from me."
Down in the hammock, Petri and Layla were laying side-by-side, fairly close together. They wiggled and shifted around every minute or so, and at some point, she moved her head and found his arm under it.
It was nice.
He was warm, big, and handsome.
"You smell good."
"I took a shower this morning. I even remembered to use soap this time, since I planned on seeing the girl I like," he teased.
Layla laid there for a while and then impatiently asked, "Is there a problem? I keep thinking if I drop enough hints, you'll get it. You've been around for a long time to have not kissed me already."
"I'm nervous, okay? You're really pretty and you can beat me up."
The blonde scowled at her dark-haired crush. "Can you get over yourself already?"
He sat up and leaned over. "It's you I can't get over."
She reached up, put a hand on his cheek and he leaned down. Hearts pounding, eyes closed tightly, his lips brushed against hers and lingered there.
The kiss felt better than she'd imagined it would, and after his lips left hers, they fell again after he took a deep breath. It was magical, and wonderful, and amazing, and all the other words she could think of. And once they got past the wall of anxiety, it was even better.
As long as he was kissing her, she didn't have to think or worry about anything else in the whole world.
The door swung open, and someone yelled something about dinner.
Layla smiled at him and used her hand to wipe her lip gloss off his lips, only to have him lean down and kiss her again as soon as the person who interrupted them went back inside.
"You're so beautiful, but I feel like while I'm here on top of you my chances of being randomly struck by lightning are near inevitable," he joked as he sat up. "Plus, I'm hungry. And Anna and Mavis are really good cooks."
"I'm a good cook."
He gave her a thin, flat smile. "Right."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing. You're the best cook ever."
He saw her eyebrows draw together angrily.
"If you showed up starving to death and I have all the food in the whole world, I wouldn't make you a piece of toast," she hissed.
Petri smirked. "I'd probably rather die anyway."
"Aren't you charming?"
"Terribly!"
"More like just plain terrible. Get away from me, boy."
He grabbed her from behind and her feet were dangling as she giggled and he kissed her cheek.
The back door opened and Laxus glared at them, but they did not see him. She was clearly gleefully happy, and he could accept this because he could remember how hard she cried in the hospital after Bluenote Stinger's attack when the doctor took off the bandage and she saw how her face looked.
He was still going to make an appearance at the dorm and scare Petri shitless nonetheless—this was his right and obligation as her father.
"You guys want to come eat?" he asked.
Layla and Petri straightened themselves out instantly. "Of course, Daddy."
And then, when she walked ahead of him, he gave in to his most natural urges as a father and zapped the hell out of Petri as he walked by. He became so rigid he almost fell over, and Laxus put an arm around him to steady him.
Layla turned. "Dad, stop."
"I didn't do anything, right?"
Petri shook his head. "Everything is cool, Beautiful."
And then, Laxus shocked him again for not referring to her with her proper name and he realized maybe he wasn't as ready as he thought for Layla to have a boyfriend. He trusted Petri far less than Baby Orga or Iggy, primarily because he was older, he wasn't as familiar, and he seemed to enjoy risky behavior.
At dinner, Lucy struggled over her meal, but her children were putting a lot of effort into cooking little meals just for her. It was love, but it was also gross. Raising kids, she'd gotten fairly accustomed to eating food palatable to a houseful of weird kids. She and Laxus sometimes at junk food in bed late at night and she missed that.
After dinner, kids got settled in for bed and Iggy came by to bring Anna's homework, as they'd kept her out of school citing an illness. Since the king wanted her, her parents didn't really feel safe letting her go, but they couldn't really keep her in the house forever either.
By the time he showed up, Lucy had fallen asleep on the sofa snuggled up to her husband, who had nodded off not long after.
Anna quietly took the books and assignments, and then, passing through the living room, stopped to put a blanket over her parents gently. She was always happy to see how in love her parents were, and how her father was so devoted to her mother. Rain or shine, they were always together. They didn't really fight, and they tackled all their problems together.
She gave them a smile and whispered to Iggy, "Do you think we'll be like them someday?"
Iggy looked at them, and thought of the first thing that came to mind. "…old?"
Wise, gentle, and kind, even Anna had her limits and Iggy watched as her face soured. Anna kicked him in the shin. Not hard, but hard enough to know he'd apparently ruined some sort of moment. Girls were confusing to him, but her expression said 'WRONG ANSWER,' very clearly.
"You're such a boy," she grumbled.
Iggy whispered, "Why are you saying that like it's an insult?"
"It is. Goodnight."
Once Iggy left and Anna went upstairs, Lucy's mouth formed a little grin. "I love our kids."
"They're all right," Laxus answered, cracking his eyes open.
Lucy sat up. "We can't keep her in the house forever."
"So what do we do?"
His wife had also pondered this quandary over the past few weeks. "I don't know. You know what I worry about most?"
"What?"
"Anna is too noble. She'll never do something she knows is wrong or dangerous."
Laxus said, "So even if he gets his hands on her, he won't be able to open the book."
"Wrong. Anna has a contract with Aquarius that can only be forcibly broken by her own will or by her death. If the king got his hands on her and she wouldn't open the book, he could kill her and give the key to another summoner. There are only a few people celestial wizards strong enough to contract with Aquarius. I won't do it. Anna won't do it. Yukino won't do it. You know who that leaves?"
Laxus hadn't considered this scenario at all, and it was grim. "Hisui."
"We don't know where she fits into this. Maybe she's been deceived. Maybe she's under some kind of spell. I wrote her a letter, and she didn't write back. Maybe if I visit…"
"We both know I'm not going to let you put yourself in danger."
"Or we could ask Anna to break her contract and I could take Aquarius back for a while, but that would be painful for Anna and Aquarius, and I don't want to have to go to those lengths unless we don't have any other choices."
Her husband shook his head. "That's even more dangerous. I don't want that bastard targeting my young daughter or my ill wife."
He saw her tense, like she wanted to fight him about it. Since she could barely get out of bed sometimes, spent parts of her day throwing up and then recovering from it, and had nearly no energy, he believed she might not have the strength to summon any of her spirits. He didn't dare say that to her face, because he knew it would hurt her.
They still had no answers.
XXX
Sam knew he'd messed up.
Yet he knew if he went home, Master Laxus wouldn't take him back in the guild. He didn't have a future in Fairy Tail, although at night in his room in the barracks in Crocus, he thought about the guild constantly.
He missed his parents.
It came as a surprise to him, but one of the people he missed the most was Iggy, who was a fairly constant presence in his life. He'd never thought of it before, but Iggy had never treated him differently after everything that happened. In fact, away from the noise of his own self-doubt, he wondered if most of it had always been in his head. Had anyone ever looked down on him or did he only look down on himself?
What he did to Layla was real.
His betrayal was real.
His regret, pain, and sadness were real.
His new life was different than guild work; he didn't have a choice about what he would do or not do. He didn't go to school, and he knew his mother would have been really upset about that. He received orders without any details or explanations, and had to complete them.
Jose took Sam with him nearly everywhere, talked to him, and treated him kindly. Even though Sam hadn't been able to get the files, he still took care of him and gave him the position promised. They had breakfast together every day and everything he did was supervised by Jose.
Dragonslayers were unimaginably powerful creatures, and while there were some wizards that could beat them using high magics, they were still titans. All of them. Sam was young, and had all the potential of two powerhouse parents in his body, but a strangely troubled mind that made him vulnerable.
Jose knew the reason the Fairies lost Sam Redfox was because they tried to protect his vulnerability rather than exploiting it, and in his amoral world of gray, this was simply senseless. Away from his home and his family, Jose knew Sam would be pliable and easily bent.
Sam was also lonely, and Jose brought his great granddaughter to Crocus to keep Sam company. Sam was attracted to pretty young powerful girls, and she fit the bill well enough. He seemed grateful to have the attention of a female, and she helped him not hate his new life so much. The old wizard believed if he couldn't sway Sam's loyalties the traditional way, he could probably anchor him down by letting him become overly attached to the girl.
One day, Sam met Jose for breakfast and found the old wizard sipping orange juice.
He met the king for the first time that day, and knew something was terribly wrong. So he started thinking. And thinking. And thinking.
For a week, he ran errands, completed tasks, all close to Jose.
His conscience ate at him, and he wondered how confused and how twisted a person could get and still be able to function.
Late one night, there was a conflict. Rebels against the king caused upset in the city, and Jose gave he and Romeo the book and told them to take it to a special room in the castle to protect it.
The capital filled with violence quickly, but they were supposed to make as small of a scene as possible and slip through the angry crowds to the castle.
"Romeo, you know this book is the reason a lot of bad stuff has happened," he said.
Romeo glared over. "Bad stuff happens because of competition. Because of rivalry. Books don't make people do anything."
Sam scrambled after him, staring at the book nervously. "That book put Anna Dreyar in danger. It's something bad. You know it's bad. People don't seal away stuff that's good. We can stop all this."
"Look, if you want to get somewhere in life, just do what you're told. Become strong. You're never going to find your own place in this world if you keep thinking about other people. Especially people that have cut you off. You're a traitor. It's what you're good at. You'll never be anything but that."
Sam wanted to argue, but some part of him believed it would be pointless. Romeo had a prominent place in the kingdom under the new king and he had no desire to be an unnoticeable in a guild filled with strong wizards.
Without warning, Sam did what Romeo claimed he was so good at and slammed his skull into the nearest wall so hard Romeo crumpled to the ground with blood running out of the back of his head. The teenager was confident that he'd be okay, but he dragged him into an alley and bound his hands and feet and mouth in iron just to make sure he had enough time to get away.
He wasn't foolish enough to think he'd get away with this, and as soon as Jose realized what he'd done, he'd have nowhere to hide. He regretted he didn't have a plan, but then again, he felt like his whole life had been unplanned and taking the book was the clearest and easiest decision he'd made in a long time.
Sam took in a deep breath, hoping there was someone in cityq he knew.
There was smell from smoke, riots, and his senses couldn't pick anything out.
While he thought frantically and tried to run across the city, Jose Porla appeared with the murky cloud from his shades. He was furious, maybe murderous.
Sam held onto the book tightly.
"Clinging to a family that will never love you? I almost feel sorry for you."
"I don't need your pity. I don't need your help. You caused everything. What happened to me and Layla. And Anna and Iggy. You sent the Council after us," he said.
Jose answered, "That's nonsense."
Sam said, "How did you know files were stolen from the Magic Council? How do you know about everyone? I looked at the files, I know whoever owned this book owned Erigor too. Erigor died from the lacrima," he held his hand up and showed him the scar. "It was all you!"
Jose took a step closer. "Your father wasn't much of a thinker. I think that helped him."
The teenager found himself on this rooftop, separated from his friends and family by more than distance. The only people he knew in Crocus were monsters, puppets of Jose Porla, or victims of his manipulations.
Sam took another step back. "I know the king isn't a person. It's something you made. It smells like you. You caused everything bad that happened to us."
"Bluenote Stinger was my enemy."
"Erigor had a file on Layla. On how to hurt her. With my name on it. Why did he have that?! That's how Bluenote Stinger knew about me. He only did what Erigor was going to do for you. Use me to hurt my friend!" Sam screeched.
Jose suspected Sam wouldn't be persuaded to hear he intended to take his vengeance on all the Dreyar blood, starting with the girl who had Makarov's magic. Sending Sam after the files had proven to be a foolish gambit, as that was supposed to give him legal leverage against Fairy Tail. Instead, the files were not recovered and Sam read through them well enough to figure out some of what had happened.
He tried to soothe the chaos inside of Sam, attempting to bank on all the goodwill he'd built up over the past weeks. "Sam, look at me. Everything is all right. Come here," he said, embracing Sam gently. "Just calm down. Give me the book. Don't be afraid. You can't do anything for them. This is your future."
"No!"
Jose gasped, and then gurgled when a metal spike the size of a small tree went through his chest.
It was gruesome, and Porla slid off onto the roof and let out choking gurgles while he died.
The truth was that Sam wasn't afraid of anything anymore, except never figuring out where he belonged in the world. Truth be told, he hadn't felt right anywhere yet, and he wondered if he ever would. What he did know was that the people who really loved him were the ones he'd hurt most, and if he could, he would do anything for them.
That corpse on the roof meant the government was no longer being controlled by an enemy hell bent on destroying Fairy Tail. It meant Anna was safe. It meant the Magic Council wasn't going to harass or attempt to disband Fairy Tail. It meant Layla was safe from Jose trying to take his vengeance against Makarov out on her. It meant life—at least for the rest of the guild—could be okay again.
Jose was so set on revenge Sam believed that maybe the whole reason that file named Sam was to get even with his father for leaving him to join Fairy Tail. Gajeel had been the crown jewel of Phantom Lord, so it was obviously extremely insulting that he'd joined Fairy Tail and had a family in that guild. Why wouldn't a vengeful, crazy psychopath want to destroy that family?
Still, he didn't feel like he could go home and he didn't want to be caught up in any trouble, so he took the book, erased the evidence of the iron spike, and vanished again.
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