The night before the wedding, Anna's parents tucked her in.

She was excited to be getting married and they were trying to come to terms with the fact that their precious baby wasn't going to be there in her room anymore.

It was already empty; almost all of her stuff disappeared as soon as they had a place.

At fourteen weeks pregnant with twins, she had a very easily recognizable bump. This bump had presented the only real problem with the wedding; they didn't know she was having twins when they sent the dress off for alterations, and that morning they'd come to the alarming realization it was physically impossible to zip.

(But Lucy tried pretty damn hard, telling her it was okay to squish the babies because babies were pretty mushy anyway.)

She'd had a little bridal shower, and their house was coming together nicely.

But this was the last night she would be a Dreyar, the last night she'd sleep in the bedroom where she grew up, the last time they could tuck her in or watch her sleeping.

Lucy cried because she'd had a few glasses of wine at the bridal shower, Anna cried because she was so hormonal she didn't know what to do besides sob, and Laxus sat on the edge of the bed and wished secretly he could rewind and she'd be a tiny little girl again.

It got late, and they knew she needed to go to sleep.

Laxus leaned down, put a hand on her little tummy, and kissed her forehead. "Goodnight. See you in the morning."

Lucy followed suit. "Get some rest. I know you're exhausted. You've been busy with wedding prep and moving. I know you must be tired."

He left first, and as Lucy was about to turn out the lights and follow, Anna asked, "Mom, you and Dad have always been really happy. What's your secret?"

Lucy answered, "Lots of love. Lots of sex too. Other than that, I'm not sure what to say. You're already a patient person, and I think you'll grow together well with him. Discovering your husband is going to be a wonderful lifelong adventure. Some days will be a little hard, but you forget about them. When you have those babies, don't forget your husband and don't forget yourself. You'll always have your own thoughts, feelings, and dreams. Don't betray them for anyone, and hold onto them as you go through life. Now, get some rest. Tomorrow is going to be one of the biggest days of your life, and I want you to be well-rested and wide-awake."

She turned out the lights and shut the door, but as soon as she did, she felt tears roll down her cheeks.

It was hard for her too, and she didn't want any of her other children to leave her. It was nice, having them all together, and she knew this meant the end of everyone gathered around the breakfast table every morning.

When she got to the bedroom, her husband was sitting on the edge of the bed. His clothes were all over the floor, but she'd learned to just ignore his more annoying habits because they were less enjoyable for him if they didn't piss her off.

Lucy sat beside him and snuggled up close, and then saw the piece of paper he was holding in between his fingers.

It was the tear-off from his calendar she'd given him for Christmas many years before that read 'Dreyar twins due.'

That was how she'd told him she was pregnant with Anna and Mavis.

"You still have that? That's strangely sentimental of you. Where on earth have you been keeping it? Tell me where your secret stash is!"

Laxus shrugged. "Nowhere."

This wasn't the first time she'd accused him of such a thing. Now and then, he'd randomly have in his possession old pictures or trinkets—one of Yuri's toy dinosaurs enjoyed a brief stay on his desk the year before, and once he'd found one of Mavis' fang-marked pacifiers in his pocket doing the laundry when she was in middle school. The clearest example of this was when she'd found Lex's baby blanket that she'd thrown in the trash in their closet.

Yuri, Mavis, and Lex were all similarly compelled to hoard certain items, especially anything that carried a scent. Mavis was never far from something that smelled like her sister, and Lex who she was closest to would sometimes steal her blankets. Yuri was considerably more secretive about this behavior like his father.

Lucy strongly suspected that somewhere on the earth, there was a super-secret place where her husband kept sentimental objects and things that made him happy. She'd never seen it, so it wasn't in any place she had access to. There were still little things about him that she was discovering, even after so many years, and those things just made her love him more.

"I love you, Honey, you're so weird."

He looked down at her and smirked a little. "Have I ever told you how great it's been with you?"

"Maybe, but it's always good to hear again," she teased, taking the piece of paper and gently placing it on the nightstand. "Then again, you could always show me, big boy."

Laxus all but purred and leaned back as she started to undress.

He adored her; her personality, her scent, her warmth, her soft skin, and everything else. They were growing old together, and he found it satisfying to watch how time slowly softened their faces, leaving little wrinkles here and there. His hair was silver, and hers probably would have had a few grays if she didn't dye it so religiously.

Maybe Lucy had no problem parting with her breasts, but she'd never give up being a blonde.

He nibbled at one of her ears, and she giggled.

The sound was still pure bliss to him, no matter how many times he heard it.

After a surprisingly vigorous romp, Laxus was trying to sleep when he noticed it was getting a little frigid. Very frigid, actually. He turned on the light and looked down to find his wife fanning herself, like it was a hot summer day in the middle of their freezing bedroom. It was the blanket she was wrapped in that was freezing him half to death, and upon closer inspection, he realized it was a magic cold pack used to keep food chilled while traveling.

"Babe, are you okay?"

Lucy glared at him. "Do I look okay?"

"Are you sick?"

He reached out to see if she had a fever, but she did not.

"No, I'm forty-three years old, and I'm having a hot flash," she hissed at him.

Once, a couple of months before, Wakaba asked Mirajane for a beer with an attitude she didn't appreciate and she turned into a demon and beat everyone in the guild into the dirt, including (actually starting with) her husband.

A 'hot flash' was later blamed for this incident.

Laxus didn't ask any questions then, and he actually had no idea about anything. "You're not…you're not sick, right?" he worriedly asked.

Lucy laughed. "Geeze. It's perfectly normal."

"It's normal to go to sleep wrapped in a freezer pad."

"I haven't had a period in three months, so I'm pretty sure…"

This terrified Laxus, because he still didn't know what she was talking about and she thought he was right on the same page as her. There had been times that he'd entertained fears that using healing magic on his body might inadvertently reverse his vasectomy. For this reason, when he'd involved himself in a battle against a dark guild and nearly had his femoral artery slashed, he allowed it to heal on its own rather than make use of Wendy's magic.

He sat up. "You can't be pregnant. I'm forty-eight. I'd be seventy by the time the kid was Yuri's age. Whatever you have going on there…ugh….Lucy, Lucy…"

Lucy covered her mouth and then erupted into uncontrollable laughter that was so intense he saw her little feet kick. "Honey, I've start going through menopause. You know, my periods stop, my body changes again. Sort of like reverse puberty. Doesn't involve a baby."

"Oh, thank goodness."

"Do you want me to get a book so you can decide not to read it?"

"Yeah."

They laid there together talking, until the hot flash was over, at which point she snuggled her freezing cold naked body against him.

He asked, "Isn't menopause something that happens to older women?"

Lucy kissed him. "Yeah. Women with grown kids. Grandmothers. The kind that are married to old guys."

"When did we get old?" he dryly asked.

"Go to sleep, Honey. I love you, old man."

The next morning came a little too soon and the world was in an instant state of chaos. They were trying to eat breakfast, do hair, get dressed, Lucy was scrambling with last minute preparations with Lex as her trusty assistant, and once they made it to South Gate Park, the hysteria only increased.

Anna got sick to her stomach, and whether due to nerves or pregnancy or both.

Layla was the maid of honor, so she expected to walk in with Yuri, believing there was no one else Iggy would have as his best man. Somehow or another—and they'd both feign innocence—Lucy and Lisanna forgot to tell her that Sam was the best man since the two guys had stayed pretty close.

Layla did her sister's hair and makeup, then quickly dressed and was still hopping on one foot and trying to put on her shoes when it was almost time for the ceremony to start. A little strings group was playing, she had a mouthful of bobby pins, and as soon as she took a deep breath, her mother grabbed her and dragged her from behind a big tree.

Lucy gave her a little push. "Now walk down the aisle with Sam."

She tripped when her heel sank into the grass and dirt and ran went face-first into Sam's very hard and very big chest.

Had her loving mother just thrown her at Sam and told her to walk down the aisle with him?

Yes, yes she had.

"Very subtle, Mom!" she huffed.

Layla straightened herself out and looked up to find a very different person than she remembered.

Sam was tall, muscular, broad-shouldered. His big brown eyes were very warm and his black hair was styled a certain kind of way that made her swoon a little.

Most of the people closest to Sam had visited and stayed in contact, but he and Layla hadn't been in the same place or had any contact since the night he left Magnolia.

She was absolutely the most gorgeous thing in the world to him, but he'd been terrified of meeting her again. He didn't know how she would feel, or what she would do, but at the moment, the only thing Layla cared about was her mother being petty and her shoes.

And then standing there trying to fix her shoe, she said, "Mavis, get over here! You lost a hair pin."

Once that was taken care of, she looked up at him.

"Hi, Sam."

"Hello there," he answered, giving her a little smile.

Lucy brought her a bouquet and shoved them together again. "Get closer. Take his arm."

Sam couldn't help but melt a little because he could tell she wasn't angry at him. From her face, she even seemed happy to see him again. Plus, she looked so far beyond amazing in her little pink dress, all made up with her hair pinned up neatly. The thing that he enjoyed most was seeing her be her—angry at her heels, chasing Mavis with a bobby pin, fussing at her mom for meddling…she was like none other.

Layla reached up and took his arm, and found under the suit, he was a big hunk of muscle.

Of course, that shouldn't have surprised her. He wasn't just Sam Redfox anymore; he was High Captain Sam Redfox, the leader of the Queen's most elite knights. He'd grown up to be as famous as any of them were, and he was in the news constantly for doing heroic and wonderful things.

Lucy smooshed them together one last time when it was time for them to walk down the aisle, and Sam noticed his mother watching them with dreamy eyes and sighed.

Then he looked down at Layla, and decided everything in the world was quite all right.

Mavis and Orga followed, then Yuri and Lilia, and then a couple of school friends.

Laxus was waiting with Anna behind everyone, and he couldn't help but feel another crushing moment of undeniable pride. She was gorgeous, but she almost never wore makeup so the eyeliner and mascara made her really look like a woman, but not as much as her baby bump. With rosy little cheeks, she was literally a blushing bride.

Having attractive kids was a source of pride for any parent, but he was really most proud of how she was living her life. Getting pregnant at eighteen maybe wasn't the best thing, but everyone made mistakes. What made him proud was the way she was carrying herself—and her two little babies—to a better future with the person she cared about.

She gave him a long hug, and he expressed in precious few words the unfathomably complex and wonderful yet terrible way he felt. He was so proud of her and excited for her future yet there was a part of him that did not want to give her to Iggy, not even in ceremony.

Giving the bride away was symbolic in a way that pained him even as someone who didn't usually care about ritual. He walked her slowly, and handed her off.

Iggy's body suddenly became stiff and jerked visibly.

Laxus heard his wife's displeased gasp and could identify it from the chorus of shocked utterances. YES, he did zap Iggy, but he felt he was entitled to it and no one was going to kill him during the wedding.

Anna's face transformed in an instant, and he learned in that moment if looks could kill, she'd be a murderer just like her mother.

The wedding was short, and sweet, and at the end, Iggy just kissed her on the forehead, a gesture that made them seem so shy and chaste. Iggy and Anna were both a little shy and in all the years they'd been together, no one had ever seen them kiss or do anything more than hold hands, which was part of the reason the pregnancy was such a surprise.

Once the ceremony ended, the guests went in different directions. Some went to the guild to party, some went to a restaurant, some went home, and a handful ended up at the Dreyar house. For a lot of reasons, they'd decided to skip the reception as it was more money they could invest in the newlyweds and no one they knew needed any help to party.

The newlyweds slipped away to make the train and go on a two-week honeymoon provided that Yuri gave them as his wedding gift.

When everyone started to scatter, Sam approached Layla cautiously, hands in his pockets.

Layla gave him a bit of a smile. "It's been good to see you Sam."

"Likewise."

"You want to grab lunch? You're one of the few people I haven't seen," he said.

Their conversation was interrupted by two soldiers who quickly approached and whispered in his ear. He nodded, and then when they left, said, "I have to head back to Crocus tomorrow night. I was hoping to stay for a couple of days, but military life isn't always great."

"You want to spend some time with your parents then?"

"They come visit. Lunch is still on the table, if you're interested," he offered.

Layla nodded. "All right, Captain Redfox. There's a nice little place not far from here. A vegan restaurant."

"Ok, no. I'm a dragon, I need meat."

"Just kidding!" she said with a giggle. "It's a nice place. I'll have a big salad and you can eat a cow."

"Is that really too much to ask?"

Layla looked around to see what everyone else was doing and found Mavis, Lex, and Orga had already vanished, Yuri was sitting with Lilia talking, and their mother was so distracted their father looked good wearing a suit she didn't seem to care what her children were doing.

As an adult, Layla had more appreciation for the people who had known her when she was a child. As a famous wizard, there were always people around, wanting to know her. Then she'd had a string of flirtations and boyfriends who all wanted to know her. She and Sam had been friends since before the time she could remember, and much of her childhood was spent fantasizing about a bright future with him.

Things had just gone really, really wrong there in the middle.

While they were walking, Sam said, "I never got to apologize for everything that happened."

Layla said, "It's all right. Everything turned out well for everyone, so there's no reason to keep thinking about it."

At the restaurant, he ordered a bottle of nice wine, and when it arrived, he teasingly asked, "Are you going to turn into your mom if I give this to you?"

"Of course not. I'm a mean drunk," she matter-of-factly answered.

They talked about wizarding, military life, and about all the adventures they'd had over the years they were separate. There was a strange light in Sam's eyes that hadn't been there before, and she felt comfortable and happy to have him there.

Neither had known what to expect about meeting up again, but they were both relieved it went well. No one was angry or resentful.

It was fun, and peaceful, like a happy epilogue after a few rough chapters of life.

When the food was delivered, she saw him reach for his fork with his right hand, and instead of skin, she saw metal.

"Armor at the table? I'm sure you know better," she teased.

Sam gave her an uneasy smile. "It's not armor."

She reached out and felt the little metal fingers. "You lost your hand?"

"My whole arm is gone, Layla. Not very many people know."

Sam held both of his palms out on the table. His right arm was gone and his left arm still had deep scars from where Layla carved Acnologia's lacrima out of him. "I guess to anybody else I could say it's impossible to know what it's like to lose part of yourself. You're probably one of the only one who knows how it feels to not be a whole person anymore. But then again, karma's a real bitch."

It was the worst feeling in the world, and something that always came back to Layla when she had to look at herself. Her magic eye looked fine and well, but before sleeping, she had to take it out, and that meant seeing the wet-looking red flesh in her eye socket, or how her eyelid just sort of drooped over it.

She had never showed this to any of her boyfriends. For someone who had been permanently injured, there was a certain degree of shame that came along with showing the injury. There was also an ever-present fear the natural vulnerability to produced would be used to cause further harm.

Layla put her hands over Sam's. "You'll get used to it."

"If you ever felt for a second like I do, I'm so sorry," he said.

"How did it happen?"

"When Brago invaded, they sent a bunch of wizards, and the queen asked me to go help. I was hit in the shoulder with heavy artillery. If I didn't have an extremely strong body and iron scales, I feel like my whole top half would have been blown to bits. Wars are gruesome. Ugly, but these are the things that happen to a boy who leaves home to join the military," he explained.

She squeezed his hands. "You should quit and come home."

Sam looked around. "I've really missed Magnolia. My enlistment period ends next year, and I can take retirement since I lost a limb. I think sometimes I should come home and be a wizard, but I don't really know."

When he saw her big, sad eyes, he sheepishly said, "It's okay. Don't feel bad for me. I'm alive, right?"

"Sam…"

They were adults now, and had moved past their difficulties with one another separately. It was important to have peace with the past, but a big question still hung over the future. It would have been easy enough just to be friends, but neither of them could deny there was something deeply meaningful about being there with the other.

A young Layla had their perfect lives all planned out by age three, and there was some tiny part of her that could never quite kill those little musings about Sam. Sure, there were times she'd absolutely hated him, but hate and love weren't mutually exclusive. The hate was gone and that just left a little sliver of love.

Sam really never thought about being with anybody else while Layla tried desperately to fall in love with another man. He'd stayed focused on his career and his duties and dating hadn't really been a priority for him.

They ate and after the meal, he offered to walk her home. She didn't ask about them, and he felt a frantic sense of fear that if they met and they didn't talk about them, it would never happen. In their world, he'd always left her vulnerable and exposed, always hurt her. He decided if someone had to stick their neck out, it was only fair for him to do it.

It was now or never.

Sam said, "You know, you're like a song I can't get out of my head."

They stopped and faced each other on the sidewalk.

It was the moment that had been coming all along, and they were both equally afraid of it. He went out on a limb, and he felt like he couldn't breathe while he waited for her to answer. Whether they would or wouldn't was purely her choice, as it should have been.

Layla searched his face for any hint of the insecure, dangerous boy she'd both feared and hated, but he'd grown up to be a good man. It was the moment of truth that determined if their story ended or if it still had chapters left to be written.

She looked up at him and answered, "I tried to not be like this. I did. I've kissed every frog in Magnolia and none of them turned into my prince. Then I realized I didn't need a prince. I don't need a man at all. I need my dragon, and I'm afraid if I don't say that right now that you're going to leave and we'll the rest of our lives wondering about what might have been."

And suddenly, her feet were dangling six inches of the ground and his lips were on hers.

The kiss was soulful and desperately passionate far beyond anything she'd ever had a mind to imagine. That kiss was different than the kiss she'd shared with all her frogs, most of which were great guys. They weren't Sam, so they were wrong by default.

When he let her feet make contact with the ground, Layla was so weak-kneed she could barely stand.

"Wow," she whispered, before yanking him down for another kiss and only let him go when it started to rain. "Ugh, my hair…"

The rain started to pour quite hard, which was not in any weather forecast for the day.

"Can't you just make an umbrella out of iron or something?" she huffed.

Sam answered, "Yeah, if I want to increase my astronomically high chances of getting struck by lightning. My hotel is close. Let's head over there."

"This is how people in romance novels end up having sex," she answered, crossing her arms over her thin, light-pink dress. Her makeup ran down, making her look like a sad raccoon.

He laughed. "All girls ever think about is sex."

Layla followed him. "I'm so serious. Then we get back and you offer to help me get out of my clothes so they can dry. Then, when I'm half-naked, we're overtaken by passion."

"Don't worry, I'm pretty sure this isn't a love story."

"You're right. It's a historical drama that someone is going to write in fifty years. We make sweet love as young adults, and then you get swept off to war and die. Then I raise your bastard child with whoever is my romantic interest for the rest of the story. It'll probably be one of your war buddies, just so they can say you would have wanted me to be loved," she answered as she took her heels off and made her way through the rain barefoot.

Sam listened to this rambling and answered, "Layla, I think it would be a good idea if you don't ever read another book. Ever. And if I do die somehow, I explicitly forbid you from dating anyone that I know."

As it turned out, the hotel was close, and they entered his room just a couple of minutes later.

"Why are you even staying here?"

Sam got her a towel and answered, "My parents are remodeling my room so they can foster child wizards in the guild. It's close to the train."

He dug through his bag for a pair of sweats and she went in the bathroom.

She unpinned her hair because her updo was now just a big wet mess, and combed her fingers through it. She stripped off her soaked clothes and put her heels down on the counter. After she dried off, she found his sweatpants were laughably enormous and his sweatshirt was almost as long as her dress had been.

It did seem like the kind of situation that should have involved sex to her. Her instinct was to resist sex, a reflex that came from a few years of frog-kissing. How many of her boys tried to talk her into it? But Sam was different.

Her cheeks burned when she thought about the idea of being tangled up with Sam in the bed. If his kiss had been any indicator, the more of her that he touched, the better. Consummating their long, tragic relationship would have officially start a new chapter in their lives.

Sam was known for being so saintly she'd never heard a rumor about him being with a woman.

"Sam?" she called through the door.

"Hm?"

"Have you ever?"

"Ever what?"

"You know."

Sam stared nervously at the door. "Ummm….no."

Layla felt relieved. "Me neither."

She opened the door wearing nothing but his sweatshirt.

He was shirtless and sitting on the bed in a pair of sweatpants like the ones she'd left in the bathroom.

His body was a mess for someone so young; one hand and arm was scarred terribly from Acnologia's lacrima and the other arm was gone completely. Where he'd been injured in his shoulder, the scarring was terrible even to look at, so she knew he must have suffered.

"Sam…"

Layla pulled her fake eye out and put it on the nightstand, baring the ugly, wet-looking fleshy mess where her eye once was.

He stood and embraced her tightly, planting a kiss on her sagging eyelid when her hands gently ghosted over his scars. "You want to spend the night?"

She nodded.

"Can you stay put for about ten minutes while I go find some protection?" he asked.

Layla sweetly answered, "I don't need to be protected from you, Sam."

"I don't need to get you pregnant right now. Sometimes, lightning strikes twice, you know," he said.

"I'm a Dreyar, expressions involving lightning got really old for me a long time ago," she answered, reaching for her purse. "Besides, I have protection. Someone put three condoms in all of my fifty purses a few weeks ago. I wonder where my parents got that many condoms, but that's the kind of thing you don't ask about no matter what. I mean, one of your kids gets knocked up so you hide hundreds of condoms for your other kids? I don't even want to know which one of my parents is that crazy."

"Your mom. Your dad isn't resourceful enough to buy a hundred condoms without ending up in Sorcerer's Weekly."

"Good point. Anyway, uhhhh, let's do this."

Sam's heart was pounding so hard he could barely think, but it felt so natural and good and wonderful to be with her. Her little sighs were beyond blissful to him, and when it was over, he took off his prosthetic arm to sleep and she rested her head on his chest.

Layla kissed him. "I feel like I've been waiting for that to happen for my whole life."

"That was amazing. You're amazing. I don't really want to leave, but I have to."

Layla asked, "When is your enlistment over?"

"Nine months."

"That's too long," she pouted.

XXX

Layla found herself trying to sneak quietly back into her house, praying her family was still asleep. She had to talk to them, but she was hoping to at least get her clothes changed so it wasn't so painfully obvious she'd stayed out all night having sex.

But when she opened the front door nearly silently she found the whole family was in the kitchen, staring at her trying to creep in wearing the same clothes she wore the day before.

Her father stopped badgering her mother for answers to his crossword.

Their daughter was twenty, and one of the most powerful wizards in Fiore. If she stayed out all night with Sam, it wasn't something for them to fuss about. The trick to having grown children was learning to respect that they had every right to make adult decisions. It helped them keep them under one roof as they moved into adulthood. If they gave their grown kids a hard time about rules, they could just move out.

Layla said, "Mom, Dad, can we talk to you?"

"Who is this 'we' you speak of?" Laxus said.

She reached out and dragged Sam in through the door. "Us."

Lucy was nearly giddy with delight to see them together, although she would have preferred they take the slow and sweet route. It seemed a bit extreme to go from not seeing one another for years to sleeping together, but again, she had to respect Layla was old enough to make her own decisions and her own mistakes.

Everyone else vanished nearly instantly, preferring to go outside or upstairs.

Laxus and Lucy joined them in the living room.

Layla gripped Sam's hand and said, "Mom, Dad, please don't freak out."

Lucy sighed. "Layla, there is nothing more unsettling in the whole world than when your child utters that phrase."

"As long as you're not pregnant, which, I don't think is possible," Laxus added.

Layla held up her hand and flashed a gold band. "We got married. I'm going with Sam back to Crocus. It's just for a few months, then we'll move back here."

Lucy, in all of her scheming, had forgotten exactly how crazy Sam and Layla were when they were around one another. She was absolutely speechless, as was her husband.

Laxus stared with a gaping jaw for a while. "You guys know this is absolutely insane, right? And it's going to be really hard. Marriage requires you get to know someone, make plans, talk about things. I'm fairly sure you didn't do much talking last night and the last time you two met, you beat the hell out of each other."

"That's the past, Daddy. This is the future."

"I'm very against this," he answered.

Lucy was very irked that her daughter had skipped all the important steps and deprived them of a proper wedding, which was even more ridiculous when one considered how Layla had been planning her enormous dream wedding since she was a toddler.

Laxus considered chewing them out just like his wife did, but it seemed like a pointless waste of time and breath. Layla and Sam weren't going to change their minds no matter how ill-prepared they were to be married.

It was such a foolish decision to them, and to anyone else.

They were especially upset that their daughter was going to run off with him and go live in a different city for several months, because that had never been part of any plan.

They had a train to catch, and Layla had to pack, so after they'd talked for a while, she went upstairs and Lucy followed her.

"Layla, have you lost your mind?"

Her daughter threw several bags on the bed. "Maybe. We'll be okay, Mom."

"You just eloped with a man you haven't seen in six years! There is nothing about this that is okay!" Lucy exclaimed.

"We'll be just fine, Mom. We're adults. We decided we want to get married. We'll figure it out on our own. We've got to make our own way, and that's not something anyone can help us with," she answered as she started to pack.

There was no talking sense into her, and Lucy really didn't want her to leave on a sour note, so she eventually gave up on trying to talk sense into her and reminded her she was loved and she could always come back home if she and Sam had any more crazy left in them.

Downstairs, Laxus glared at Sam without saying a word for a long time.

Then, he said, "I can forgive you for all the dumb shit you've done. I can't forgive you for this. If this goes wrong and you hurt her again, I'm going to make sure you never so much as breath on her for the rest of your lives."

"I'll take good care of her, I promise."

"Sam, you better not get her pregnant for at least a year. Your kind of crazy is not ready for a baby, trust me."

After Layla packed a couple of bags, she kissed her mother and father and dashed out the door after him, on their way to stop at the Redfox house and let them know, then on to Crocus.

When she was gone, Lucy sat down with her husband and rested her head on his lap.

"You're right, we should have chained her in the basement," she said.

"Is it too late?"

"Probably."

Please Review!

Special thanks to kuraheieritr JIO, guest, reremaui, saskiarosee, pandorababe, adabs18, jenheartai, chipthemunkey, thealicehuntt, 17, queenofws, screeney, stavroula99, shka, light heartfilia, katiekat2001, twiztidprincess, b2utifulshawol, lunastarlady, tiernank, guest, hmmm12, neried, katelyn, kai-kagamine-miraimine, paname, myfictionalfantasy, sassykitten1701, and arouraleona for reviewing!

Next chapter has lots of Lex and Mavis. :D