Laxus had forgotten how much of a brat his oldest daughter really was during her absence, but she quickly reminded him through a series of events that culminated in her casually filing her well-manicured nails while he sulked, attempting to stare holes through her in order to communicate his unending dismay.
"It's not a big deal, Daddy. I don't know why you're throwing a crybaby fit. It's not like anybody died."
Fearing the public humiliation and speculation of divorce-related articles in Sorcerer's Weekly, Layla decided to just reach out and make a trade of sorts. Gossip sold magazines, especially when it was about the Dreyars.
She gave them something that would sell more issues than gossip:
A sixteen-page, full-color spread where she posed for assorted shots completely nude except for light magic that was draped around her body to obscure the naughty bits.
She didn't tell him about it, so on his way home, he'd been strolling down the street and happened to catch a glimpse of his semi-nude daughter at the newsstand.
"You are naked."
Layla asked, "…and?"
He said the word again, drawing it out long and hard like she'd understand his problem if he just said it slower. "Naaaaaaaaaaaaked."
"When you say it like that, you sound like some creep who peeks in girls' windows," she said as she went back to her fingernails. "It's not like anyone can really see anything. No forbidden zones. Sorcerer's Weekly is a family publication. Besides, they promised to give a portion of the proceeds to charity or something. It was for a good cause."
"What charity?"
"I don't know. Something about dogs or babies or trees. Schools? Saving or stopping something, like 'Stop the Schools?' I wasn't really paying attention, but it seemed nice."
Her father only deepened his glare. "Why are you like this?"
His daughter answered, "Why is it a problem?"
"Every teenage boy in Fiore picks up Sorcerer's Weekly for pretty much one reason."
"Obviously, because your daughter posed for some tasteful, artistic photographs in a weekly publication there's going to be a massive epidemic of hairy palms in teenage boys," she sarcastically answered.
Laxus sighed. "And…how did I not know you have a dragon tattoo?"
Layla said, "Did you really want me to look forward to excitedly telling you I got a tramp stamp?"
"No."
"I got it after Sam and I married. It was supposed to be an iron dragon, but he pissed me off so I had lightning added to it. Now I can just pretend it's an homage to my heritage as a Dreyar."
Laxus said, "Your father, who shared that heritage with you, is not pleased."
"You don't understand me or my sense of art. You're old-fashioned and you don't have any taste."
"I don't even want to understand. I always assume most girls who pose want attention and have daddy issues."
"I love my daddy, and I have more attention than I know what to do with. This leave the obvious answer: I did it because it served my purposes and I wanted to do it. Is daddy not happy?"
"Daddy would like for you to not take your clothes off in front of cameras, if that's possible," he said, referring to himself in third person.
"I'll keep it in mind."
"Thank you."
Layla added, "I'm going to go look at apartments around town tomorrow, and then Mavis and I are going out on a job. We'll try not to get naked. No promises."
"Apartment? We don't mind you staying here."
His daughter said, "Dad, I'm twenty-two years old. It's time for me to be independent and on my own. I'll still hang around here a lot, but I need to stretch out my wings."
"You can't do that here? We don't really have rules. I mean, not even for Lex. He just does whatever and we hope he turns out okay."
Layla asked, "What if I get a boyfriend someday?"
"You can do that and live here."
"…what if I want him to make me pancakes in the morning after he sleeps over?"
Her father asked, "Why would he need to sleep over? Is he homeless?"
Layla narrowed her eyes. "I thought we were having a serious conversation here."
"Hmph. You ran off, eloped, got a tattoo, came home, started to get a divorce, and then posed nude in Sorcerer's Weekly. I can't take you seriously, it would depress me. I should have chained you up in the basement when I had the chance."
To the untrained eye, it probably would have seemed a little harsh, but this was just how this father and daughter dealt with their tension. Layla expected it, even wanted it, because it meant things were okay. Her father hardly knew how to respond to some of the things she did, but knew she was old enough where he didn't really need to unless she needed help.
Their family was not normal, and it had never been normal. The day before, Lucy had invited Layla to go to the farmer's market with her. She'd bottled all their extra spirits and while all the other mothers and grandmothers were selling jams and jellies, Lucy was selling alcohol and making an absolute killing doing it. They already had a following and people made a trip there just to have an opportunity to get their hands on it.
And when Lucy was armed with handfuls of cash, she spent half of it to buy more fruit to drag down to the basement and took her daughter to blow the other half at a clothing boutique where she explained that she never would have started dating her father if he hadn't stopped wearing animal print.
Layla got ready to go up to bed and stopped to give her father a huge hug, and while he held her, she felt him sigh.
"You're going to be okay, you know that, right?"
Layla nodded. "I guess I am."
"You don't have to try that hard to make it work. I feel like you're putting a lot of effort into what should come naturally to you. Haven't you ever heard 'less is more?'"
She grinned against his chest. "Yeah, that's what the photographer from Sorcerer's Weekly said."
His arms dropped. "My grandfather used to tell me when I was being a little shit that someday, he hoped I had one just like me. I think you're actually worse."
"Thanks for the good talk. I love you."
She spun and practically skipped up the stairs, apparently energized by having ruined his evening. He was baffled for the thousandth time by the fact the most powerful wizard of the new generation could possibly be such a walking disaster.
Mavis came in and made her way to the kitchen for leftover dinner.
She looked at the magazine, and asked, "So you finally found out?"
"Other people knew?"
"Only…everyone?"
"Not feeling the love tonight. My kids are terrible."
Mavis shrugged. "You don't have to be in such a bad mood. You still have me, and I haven't done anything yet to frustrate or publicly humiliate you guys."
"I only heard the word 'yet.'"
Laxus waited for her to get her food, and then asked, "Is everything all right in your universe? I can't keep one of my kids from exposing herself publicly, and the other won't even talk to me about anything that matters."
"Would you feel better if I posed naked too?"
"I would not."
Mavis shrugged. "Things are…the same. Work. Family. Work. Family."
"You've had a boyfriend for a long time."
"Is that what he is?"
Her father said, "I actually don't even know how long he's been your boyfriend and how long he was just that kid you almost drowned a hundred times."
Mavis answered, "I still rough him up sometimes."
"You guys are all right?"
"I guess."
This was about as much from Mavis as he expected to get. She was secretive about Baby Orga, and about anything private or personal in general. Mavis didn't have moods or phases and embraced a philosophy on life that Anna had dubbed 'uniform terribleness.'
Mavis said, "There's something I wanted to ask you. I know my name is on the list of S-Class exam candidates. Lex stole it from your office for me."
"You're setting a stellar example for your brother, but please continue."
"Well, you would have been suspicious if I did it."
Laxus said, "I'm suspicious of you all the time, no matter what you're doing. Sometimes when you're asleep I think you're only pretending."
"That's true. I sometimes do that. I mean, how weird would it be if you do that creepy parent thing where you sneak into my room to watch me sleep, and you find me staring back at you?"
"That would be…disturbing."
Mavis added, "Anyway, can you take my name off and post a new list?"
"Why? You've earned it."
"It would make Anna feel bad. She'd probably be on the list if she hadn't gotten pregnant. She's my twin. How am I going to leave her behind? We've always grown together, since literally the beginning of our existence."
"But being S-Class means better pay, more challenging jobs, more prestige."
Mavis said, "I don't pay rent or bills, I crash Yuri's S-Class jobs when I feel like it, and I'm the meanest member of the most famous family of wizards in the entire country. Becoming S-Class is not worth dragging my sister. And I don't want her to know. She would hate to think her terrible sister missed an opportunity for her sake. I don't want her to cry and I don't want hugs or appreciation. Like I just imagine her weeping out of what she feels is a display of my love for her, and it makes me feel a little sick. So we can just skip that."
"You're a good sister."
"Whatever. It's not a big deal."
It was a big deal; most wizards didn't have the potential to become S-Class. Maybe his kids were born with abilities few had, but they'd worked like hell to develop them from a young age.
Mavis was postponing her own advancement to protect her twin's feelings.
She sat with him for a while, in silence.
Mavis was a mysterious character, even to her parents. She'd always been exactly the way she was: playful, aggressive, and private about her feelings. Layla was unpredictable, and she wore her heart and all her neuroses on her sleeve. Anna had a well-rounded personality and socialized well with the world while her sisters were busy being themselves.
He stayed up and waited for his wife to come home from her job. He was anxious to see her, and also looking forward to glaring at her and telling her he knew she went out of town before the magazine hit newsstands, so she wouldn't have to deal with him.
That was fine; he just saved all his scowls for when she came home, sneaking in as if trying to avoid him.
"Welcome home. You don't need to be sneaky. I can hear and smell you. You smell like someone who abandoned their husband at a time of trauma."
"Oh, get over it."
"Never. Our daughter posed nude in a national publication."
Lucy rolled her eyes. "Whatever. It's not like they were showing anything. It's honestly not that big of a deal. It was artistic."
"You're a traitor, you don't love me, and you've lost your mind."
"I love you, I just need you to know our kids are grown. Except Lex. We keep forgetting he isn't."
"He'll be fine. He makes his own rules, sets his own bedtime, does his schoolwork without being reminded. He also doesn't get naked and let strangers photograph him. So he's going to stay my favorite for a while."
Lucy said, "Layla is an adult. It's her body. She can do whatever she wants with it."
"You're not ever going to sell me on that argument."
"…And, have I mentioned that you're being sexist?"
Laxus looked up from a stack of potential jobs that were under review and said, "If Yuri posed nude for Sorcerer's Weekly, I'd be equally disturbed. Yuri gets embarrassed about taking his shirt off to go swimming. It's not something I have to worry about. Anna wouldn't do this. She'd be too embarrassed and Iggy would definitely stop her. Mavis would beat the crap out of someone for even asking."
"Iggy would never tell Anna what to do. We didn't raise daughters who ask permission from their partners. I mean, Layla knowingly traded a life of comfortable housewifery in a glamourous city for the right to camp in the woods and get into bloody fights. And Mavis…can you even imagine if Baby Orga tried to tell her to sit down and behave?"
Her husband said, "Can we just go back to the fact our child took her clothes off in front of strangers and let them take pictures so they could publish them?"
"Do you want me to leave you again? I'll go and come back in three days and we'll see if you're over it then," Lucy warned, "We raised four very independent and competent adult children and while I don't always agree with everything they do, they are free to make their own choices. You might as well stop sulking about it."
Laxus glared and glared and glared some more, and then just to make sure she knew how he felt, kept glaring.
"You're so sexist. It's gross and I don't want to look at you right now. I'm going to take a hot bath. You could join me, or you can sit here at the table with that dumb, constipated look on your face. Speaking of which, did you ever go? I've been telling you that you need to eat more vegetables."
Her husband's scowl deepened to the point she thought it might fall off her face. "Is you going away for three days still an option?"
"You can die from not pooping, Honey."
"My bowel movements have returned to regularity. Can you go upstairs and let me wallow in misery in peace?"
Lucy wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. "C'mon. I can come up with something to distract you. I'm sure of it."
"It's not happening."
Lucy went upstairs to have her bath and was up to her nose in bubbles as she considered her husband and his strange funk. Getting old together was fun, but there were some bumps just like there were bumps when they were young and all through the middle. Laxus was slowly starting to show signs of turning into a grumpy old man, and whenever she pointed it out, he told her it was his right to do so.
Raising children was definitely some kind of scheme the entire human race was in on because they'd been under the impression that they only had to donate about two decades per child. The reality was that adult children were worse than little ones, and if she could freeze Lex and keep him from ever growing up, she certainly might.
Lucy had relaxed and closed her eyes when suddenly, and with an unceremonious plop, bathwater spilled over the edge had her sulking husband appeared in what she would have deemed as a rather rude attempt to occupy the entire bathtub with his hulking frame.
She came over to straddle his lap anyway, and kissed his nose. "Are you ready to be in a good mood?"
"Maybe. It's not just the pictures, you know. Layla's gonna do Layla. It's everything. Running off and getting married, not telling us how unhappy she was, coming home to get divorced, not wanting to live at home so she can do whatever, and the pictures on top of that. That's a lot of stuff for a parent to process. At some point, I have to acknowledge the fact she does not give a shit about what we think."
Lucy pressed her forehead against his. "Because she's the first Dreyar to have a rebellious phase, make a string a major mistakes, and show patent disregard for the ones who raised her? Oh wait, that was you. Just, give her space. Let her breathe. And respect the fact that she's your kid. She's not going to regret anything crazy she does if it makes her a stronger person. We taught her not to be afraid or let regret or guilt hold her back."
Laxus grumbled, but knew trying to control an adult child was just a tremendous waste of time and energy. They had to rely on the idea that all the important lessons they'd taught would help them find their way.
"Have faith in our babies. They're all right."
He knew she was right, but actually being at peace with it was difficult. He knew she didn't like these things either; they both absolutely hated that Anna had gotten pregnant at such an early age. Once it happened, there wasn't even a point in talking about it or dwelling on it. It just was what it was. They all had to get over it and now that their grandsons were born, everyone was fine and happy.
That didn't save him from still having lingering grievances about all the things Anna might have to sacrifice, but she was a happy and that was what mattered most.
Lucy said, "I think Layla's taking control of her life. Not in the way you or I might prefer, but she's controlling what people say about her and she has a plan. She's not an idiot. There's something very calculated and nearly diabolical about a petty woman posing nearly nude after a breakup to remind the world she's successful, attractive, and available."
"Is she that petty?"
"Of course she is. She's a loyal, loving, deeply passionate and intensely compassionate person when it comes to family and guild, but she's a brat. Yuri will never have a sense of humor, Layla will always be a brat, Anna will always be the kindest person any of us know, Mavis will always be a troll, and Lex might always be our gullible and unintentionally charming baby boy."
"Just so we're clear…you know no boy wants his mother to refer to him as a baby, right?"
"I don't care what he wants. He's our most adorable child, and I get to call him my baby boy if I want."
Laxus pulled back. "What do you mean, 'most adorable?' That's like saying our best-looking kid is the one we didn't make."
"Well…have you ever really thought about it? I'm not the only one who feels this way. Lex literally has a fan club at school. Girls fight over him."
"He hates girls."
"Because they're so greedy for his attention. He's got that thick incredible hair, that devilish grin. I mean, even a little girl knows what's cute. Sorry if I've bruised your ego."
He said, "Did you find Cobra attractive?"
"Of course? Who in the world didn't?"
Laxus pushed her off his lap. "So I know you were attracted to Jellal. And Cobra. Does criminal insanity make you wet or something?"
"I'm wet because I'm sitting in a bathtub filled with water. Anyway, if criminal insanity did do it for me, that might explain how I ended up married to you."
He grabbed her and kissed her deeply, because now he felt like he needed to work that idea out of her brain in the most sexually explicit and filthy way possible. Besides, he felt like she'd wanted this all along, and suspected somewhere in the back of his mind that she'd purposefully provoked him into focusing on fucking her brains out over sulking all night.
Water splashed all over the floor, and suddenly, she pushed his head under the water, where he stayed for a couple of minutes, coming up to pant for air.
"Are you trying to drown me?"
"The only thing you need to do your job is your tongue and lips. Not oxygen. That's a reward you earn for being good."
Dragonslayers could hold their breath for an inhuman period, so she felt like this was fair. And, once she was convinced he was putting his best effort into their little bathtub romp, she dragged him up and jumped in his lap and then jumped right back out when the door opened.
Yuri stared in horror. "I heard a bunch of banging and water splashing and the door was open. I thought someone was in trouble. I'm just gonna…go."
Their bewildered son just wandered backwards and pulled the door closed.
Lucy lightly punched his arm. "You didn't even shut the door?"
"I don't really remember?"
"Ugh, you're the worst. Get out of my bath."
He stepped out. "Gladly. I only came for one thing and it's obviously not happening."
"Yeah, right. You came here to sulk. I finally got you out of your bad mood and you didn't shut the door, so our son tried to save me from an attacker who I assume Yuri believed was trying to drown me. He's such a good boy."
"Who was drowning who?"
She got up and reached for a towel. "And there's water all over the floor. But…we could finish. In bed. Lock the door. We've been parents so long our kid is a parent. You know better!"
So, they dried off, had a romp in bed that lasted longer than either had expected, and when Lucy came down for a snack, she found their son sitting at the table alone, drinking coffee.
"Yuri, are you all right?"
Yuri shook his head. "I don't think so. I don't feel okay."
"What happened?"
"Nothing, as far as I know. I've just felt this weird, terrible sense of dread since this afternoon, and I don't understand why. Nothing here is wrong. No one seems to be in any danger. Our job was tough. Then we found this abandoned dark guild in the middle of the forest."
Lucy said, "You're not going to get to sleep drinking coffee. Why don't you quit that and head up to bed? Take a nice hot shower…you do kind of smell like…bad. You smell bad."
"Thanks, Mom."
She hugged his neck. "Mommy loves her Thunder Baby."
"Mom…"
"You're so cute and big and strong now."
"Mom…"
"But I remember when you were in my tummy."
"Mom! Stop it!"
Lucy let him go. "Don't be ungrateful. I gave birth to you. I changed your diapers. I fed you, gave you baths. And you were the dirtiest, grossest little boy ever. I can kiss you whenever I want."
"Are you drunk?"
"Nope."
"I would have felt a little better if you were. Goodnight, Mom. Love you."
She pulled him down to kiss him on the cheek once he stood up. "Love you too, my sweet Thunder Baby."
Yuri finally went up to his room, mostly to escape from his mother.
Lucy collected snacks and went back up to the bedroom to continue her late-night fun. When they first got married, late-night fun was lots of sex and a few snacks, but with each year that went by, the ratio of snacks to sex increased. They were fine with this.
They were still awake at five in the morning when someone knocked on their door.
Laxus pulled his pajama pants on, and then a shirt, and plodded downstairs barefoot.
When he opened the door, Rogue Cheney was standing on his front step with a very serious look on his face.
"What happened?"
Rogue gestured for him to come out. "It might be best if no one can overhear what I need to tell you."
He walked down the street barefoot until they were far enough away to be out of range of all dragon ears on both sides of the street.
"What's going on?"
Rogue quietly said, "Lilia Eucliffe is gone."
"Gone? As in went somewhere or…"
"Dead. Someone murdered her yesterday."
The news was softly spoken and yet deafeningly loud, because this was the first casualty among the kids that had grown up in the post-Alvarez era. There had been a few incidents, but for the most part, the magic world was quiet and safe.
"Tell me this is some kind of mistake."
Rogue shook his head. "It's not. We recovered the body earlier. Sting asked me to come since it wouldn't be fair for Yuri to find out in the newspaper.""
She'd been a fixture in their house literally the entire time they'd been raising their son, so it wasn't like she was just a random person one of their kids dated. Lilia had always been like part of their family, and even during her on and offs with Yuri, she stayed close to Lucy and their daughters.
The idea that someone had killed her was nearly incomprehensible, and Laxus knew it was going to wreck Yuri.
"What happened? Lilia didn't even live in the world of wizards. She didn't go on jobs, had no rivals, no enemies."
Rogue said, "She was killed in a ritual to take the magic out of her body. It's the same thing that happened to that dragonslayer, Cobra. I kind of assume they're targeting dragon powers. If you had to pick someone with dragon magic who might be vulnerable to attack, Lilia wasn't near either of our guilds and she wasn't the best fighter."
As a parent, Laxus felt instant, blistering rage that someone would even have the gall to do something like that. After Alvarez, most of the larger guilds went through a baby boom of sorts so all the guilds looked after all the kids from other guilds. It was just an unspoken and well-known practice everyone respected. His kids sought protection from Blue Pegasus on more than one occasion, Lamia Scale's teenagers asked them for help now and then. They were older wizards raising a generation of younger wizards well enough that they wouldn't have to know the kinds of twisted, disgusting things they'd grown up with.
In this generation, there had been no Balam Alliance, no Tower of Heaven, no major wars, nothing…
Rogue said, "We kind of assume a dark guild orchestrated this. We expect there's going to be a war of some sort when we find out who is responsible."
"Our guild will join. Fairy Tail is stronger than Sabretooth is. No offense."
"None taken. I don't have a mind for pride now. I have children too."
Rogue said, "I'm worried about your son. I'll be back once arrangements are made. Master Sting is in bad sorts right now."
They talked, quietly, and then Laxus went inside, feeling a heaviness he didn't even know was possible.
His wife was waiting downstairs, having looked out the window to see her husband and Rogue having a very serious conversation outside.
"What's going on?"
He leaned in and whispered.
Lucy gasped and covered her mouth. "That can't be right. Why…Oh God…Yuri is…"
Lucy broke out into tears instantly. Lilia had spent enough time in their house growing up it often smelled like she lived there. She'd done school projects, played in the backyard, eaten at their table, and become so close to their kids sometimes it was like she was just one of them.
More importantly, she was the undisputed love of their son's life. Knowing they had plans to marry and raise a family and spend their lives together made it devastating for her to even have the knowledge that none of those things were going to happen.
It was inevitable that this was going to be the day Yuri suffered what might be the most intense emotional trauma of his entire life.
And they couldn't do anything to help him. Not telling him wouldn't stop him from finding out, and as soon as he did, he was going to be catastrophically hurt.
Lucy regained her composure. "We have to go tell him. We can talk to the others when they wake up, but I don't want him to just overhear it. How do we even…."
"Is there any way except just to come out and say it?"
"I guess not. I hate this so much. I hate it. Why would someone do something like this?"
Once she'd calmed her nerves enough, they prepared to head upstairs. Typically, she got annoyed with how unexpressive her husband could be at times, but she was grateful for it. He was stone faced at the moment, although she was sure he wouldn't stay that way because he actually was quite an emotional father.
They knocked on their son's door, and then Lucy opened it to find him half-asleep.
He opened his eyes when the door creaked and looked at the clock on his nightstand first.
"Mom? Dad? What's going on?"
They sat next to each other on the edge of his bed, and he instantly knew something bad must have happened. The last time his parents looked like this was when they told him that Makarov had died in his sleep, a memory that was so vividly burned into his mind he remembered exactly how his parents acted and looked.
"What happened?"
Lucy held onto his hand tightly. "Son…we have some really bad news. Something terrible happened."
When she tried to say it, she couldn't.
So her husband did. "Lilia died, Yuri. Someone killed her."
Their son's eyes widened in sheer, incalculable terror and shock at this utterance, but the rest of his face seemed kind of blank for a minute or so.
"What…what are you talking about? That's not possible."
Yuri looked down at where his mom was holding his hand and realized her hands were literally wet with sweat. Of course, his parents wouldn't lie to him, wouldn't tell him something they didn't know to be true. If they were telling him that his fiancée had somehow died, then he knew even in that moment it was probably true.
He wasn't a complete idiot. The violent, terrifying fight-to-the-death he and Layla had as teenagers with Bluenote Stinger left him with the distinct understanding that the world of magic was dark, deadly, and unspeakably violent. And that sometimes people become victims when they didn't deserve it, like Layla whose only sin at that point had been inheriting magic from Makarov Dreyar.
Then he wasn't sure why he was thinking about these things at all, except for the fact they distracted him from the glaring, harsh, and enormous reality that confronted him.
The only girl he'd ever truly loved was gone, and she wasn't coming back. Someone had taken her from him, from her family, from the whole world, and there was no undoing it. Death was the terrifying, final, and most inescapable fact of life.
He grabbed his mom and squeezed her hand. "Mom…please tell me this isn't real!" he forced through gnashed teeth.
And then he cried, like a baby.
Lucy cried, mostly at the intensity of their son's grief, and Laxus rubbed her back while she held their son, eventually resorting to a little rocking motion as he approached silence.
Yuri had been grown for so long and he had been tough longer than that. Even when he was a little boy, he rarely cried. If he fell and scraped his knees, he'd just get up and go on to his next adventure. His primary emotional periods had been when Makarov died, when he and Lilia went through their ups and downs, and in the aftermath of the Bluenote Stinger fight.
On any other day of his life, he was a very kind, stable, and good person. He was thoughtful, considerate, protective and attentive to the people he cared about. It was like nothing else existed in his universe besides magic, Lilia, and their family.
So for Lilia to be gone meant part of Yuri was gone too.
As Laxus watched his wife rock their grown son, he wondered what the consequences were going to be to his son's life. Yuri could get quite furious when someone close to him was hurt or in trouble, so what was going to happen now that the person he'd been closest to had been killed? Some amount of rage, grief, confusion weren't avoidable but there was probably some part of that he was going to carry around with him for a while—possibly forever.
After a huge enough loss, people tended to rearrange themselves in order to move on in life, and there was no telling what demons Yuri would have to face.
Lucy stayed with Yuri and curled up with him to hold him like he was a little boy and not their grown son.
Laxus went down to their living room and sat in silence.
His hands wouldn't stop trembling.
As a father, he was shaken to the core that his son had been so severely wounded. If they thought Layla's divorce drama was intense, this paled in comparison and made all that stress seem comparatively irrelevant.
He looked around and sifted through his memories for different moments when that girl had been around, playing dolls with Layla or playing with their pet tiger, or crying because she wished her own family was like theirs.
As a guildmaster, he felt a compelling sense of righteous indignation that whatever happened, they had to find whatever group was responsible and send a very violent and serious message that anybody who bothered their kids was going to face inescapable wrath.
It didn't matter if they weren't 'kids' anymore.
Someone had picked off a dragon they knew was weak with full knowledge she was deeply involved with Fairy Tail on top of being the Sabretooth guildmaster's daughter. That was a pretty clear sign they didn't care about who they pissed off, which indicated they were either extremely stupid or extremely powerful.
Laxus couldn't think of any dark entity that had the fortitude or strength to take a full assault from Fairy Tail. One of the groanings in the world of dark magic was that the legal guilds took an express interest in making sure they stomped out any dark guilds in their region. There was no room for ignoring them if they weren't causing problems; everyone in Laxus' generation knew dark guilds would inevitably start fights if they were left alone.
Then he thought about all the other people that were going to be impacted by the news. He couldn't even imagine what that morning was like for Sting.
To a parent, there was no fear greater than losing a child.
The news made Laxus feel terrified for his own babies, who put themselves in danger all the time.
What if it had been one of them?
At the moment, his instinct both as a father and as a guildmaster was to get all their vulnerable members home, especially the ones that had dragon blood, and keep them there until they had a better understanding of what was going on.
By the time the sun came up, he was still sitting there, seething, upset, shaken, worried about his son, scared for his kids, and otherwise simply a mess.
Layla came down first, because she thought she had a full day of looking at apartments and then going on a job with Mavis.
Neither of those things were going to happen.
When he told her, she was numb at first, and then she cried. Then she was angry, ready to fight, and then sad again.
Mavis came down next, and predictably responded mostly with anger.
Lucy went over to talk to Anna and Iggy, but knew their most sensitive kid had no way to respond except to be broken-hearted for their friend and for her brother.
Yuri didn't make an appearance until almost noon, and when he did, it was to pancakes and coffee being offered by his three sisters, who were quite determined to help him.
He stared at the plate blankly, as if he had no idea about what he was supposed to do about it.
His eyes were puffy and heavy-looking, and he had a grim expression chiseled on his face.
After he stared at the food for a while, he looked at the coffee and decided that was fine and good.
He didn't speak at all, because he didn't know what to say. As far as he knew in that moment, his entire life had been destroyed for no apparent reason by some person whose identity he didn't know. He alternated between numbness, anger, shock, almost as often as he blinked.
He had dealt with Makarov's passing, but that was a different affair entirely. The death of a loved one was an intense and dark experience, but Makarov was old and had lived a very long and full life. More importantly, he was very much at peace with the idea he'd reached the end of his life and was happy to have lived long enough to meet and love his great grandchildren.
Lilia was basically a kid, having barely lived much of her life at all. She had dreams, things she wanted to accomplish, and she'd worked hard to find out how to be happy. Not pursuing a life of magic was a hard choice for someone to make if they came from a 'magic family.' She opted to do what made her happy and that ultimately probably contributed enormously to her being unprotected and unable to defend herself.
He poked at the food with his fork, and then put it down. Then he finally said something, and it only made everything worse.
"She was pregnant. She was actually really embarrassed about it. We hadn't really figured out how to deal with it, so we hadn't told anyone," he abruptly said, "It must have died inside of her."
Outside of this grim admission, he say anything else.
Laxus was convinced by the time Yuri finished his coffee that even if he did know who was responsible, he wouldn't tell his son. Yuri seemed to be edging closer and closer to homicidal rage that had no known target. He was sure if anyone dropped a name, he'd run off and go do what his nature as a damaged, angry person would demand.
Yuri had the potential to be an extremely violent character.
At the same time, he was a grown man, and there was no way Laxus could just tell him not to be involved or to stay out of it. If someone had killed Lucy, he'd probably already be running mindlessly around trying to find the responsible party.
Lucy said, "Yuri, I think you should stay here at home today. Rest. Have some privacy. Be with us."
Asking him not to leave wasn't something his father could have demanded, but Yuri listened to his mother. Between father and son, Laxus tended to connect with him as a grown man, but Lucy never lost the ability to speak to the little boy in him. Men do what they want, but boys rely on their mothers—for advice, for love, for comfort.
"Okay, Mom."
At the same time, he felt embarrassed that instead of becoming a parent, he was acting like a child.
Yuri couldn't make sense of anything at that point, so going to sleep seemed like the best idea in the world.
Natsu stopped by to talk quietly with Laxus outside, where he shared what little extra information he'd gained access to as a Saint Wizard. The Magic Council was quite convinced it wasn't a someone but rather a group of people and that they'd been responsible for a few other gruesome acts that had taken place across the country.
The Magic Council knew to take the matter very seriously because there wasn't going to be anything, pretty, neat, or lawful about the two most powerful guilds in Fiore waging a bloody, vengeful war on a dark guild that was presumably powerful enough to not be terrified by this idea.
They obviously would have preferred to handle the matter, but everyone who knew anything knew Fairy Tail had no problem disregarding the Magic Council and would face their enemies head on. Natsu told them as much.
After he left, the day seemed to go by in slow motion.
Laxus managed to get all his kids under one roof, and they stayed close. Nobody wanted to talk about what was going because it was horrific, yet they stuck together and stayed in the house.
Anna brought the twins over, and they provided some relief because they both required and demanded attention. Every minute spent bouncing Hadyn or feeding Taryn or changing diapers or trying to make them happy was another minute that wasn't spent thinking about the fact someone murdered Lilia.
At dinner time, Laxus went up to see if their son had the stomach to maybe eat a little and found him face down on a pillow, shaking. Outside of trying to comfort him, he didn't know what else to do. It wasn't like he was just a kid losing his puppy love girlfriend. He and Lilia had straight up lived their entire lives either being together or thinking about being together. They had plans. They were going to be parents.
He was a man who lost the love of his life and their unborn child because some monster somewhere took her life.
Yuri was not complicated. All he wanted was to be a good wizard and to share his life with her. That was it.
Laxus rubbed his son's back and said, "I know it doesn't feel this way now, but somehow, you're going to be okay. Time is going to go by and you're going to heal a little. And you're going to find a new path and you're going to keep living your life."
"I want to be alone right now," was the only reply he got when Yuri rolled onto his back.
"I'm not going anywhere."
He plopped down on the bed next to him and found they didn't necessarily fit so well as two grown men. Yuri was just slightly taller than him but had broader shoulders and just frankly occupied way too much space. His dream as a tiny boy had been to be bigger than his father someday, and Laxus was convinced he'd willed that into existence, as it wasn't natural for someone to be that huge.
Laxus said, "When your mom had cancer, we had some serious fucking conversations. Conversations that scared me, or just made me feel sick, or made me feel disgusted or angry or confused. I had to think about what I would do if she wasn't around anymore. It was terrible. Sometimes I'd get so upset I'd throw up.
"We had all you kids. You guys were teenagers, Lex was just a baby. I knew if she died, I'd still have to take care of you. And some part of me kind of didn't want to sometimes.
"When you love someone, you get so intertwined it's hard to imagine what you'd be like without that person. I had to realize being in a relationship doesn't mean you stop existing. Most of you is you, and even if that person isn't there, you still have to live. Without your mom, I'd still have had five kids to raise, a guild to look after, and things I needed to do.
"I think you're probably going to be really unsure about that. You still have your life. You still have your future. I understand you're really hurt and that you're going to be hurt for a while, but you can't let yourself turn into one of those people that allows one terrible thing to ruin the rest of their lives. In my generation, there were tons of people like that, because lost of bad things happened."
His son listened, and then said, "I hear what you're saying, but it doesn't make sense to me right now. Someone murdered my girl. Our kid. There's only one thing I want to do right now and I know I shouldn't be thinking that way."
"I probably shouldn't tell you this as your father, but I think it's probably normal. I want to keep you out of trouble. The thing that scares me most right now is that you're going to run off, get into a fight without thinking, and end up dead. That's the kind of dumb thing people do sometimes. I want you to respect you're not the only one that wants blood. You've got two whole guilds behind you and I'm sure I could rattle up a few more if needed. This isn't something you should try to settle on your own."
While he was talking, he noticed Yuri's bed smelled like Lilia; her scent was in the pillows, in the mattress, and had that kind of lived-in smell. Laxus realized that was probably why Yuri seemed to want to just stay there. Eventually, that scent was going to fade. That was a second, private trauma waiting for Yuri further along this road he was now on.
His son said, "We used to always watch you and mom and talk about what we'd be like when we got older. I thought we were going to live this big, happy life together, just like you guys. I could see her in my mind so clearly, a little older, in ten years, and we have a house and a couple of kids and I'm going on jobs and she's teaching and everything is perfect. But that's never going to happen, because someone took her life. I keep thinking about the most morbid things. Will I have to look at her body at the funeral?"
"No."
"No?"
"I'm sure it's going to be a closed-casket service."
"That just scares me even more. I want to think she died peacefully."
Laxus sat up and said, "I'm not going to lie to you, because there's a good chance this information is going to be freely available to people you encounter. It was violent."
"Do you think she was in pain?"
He nodded.
"I bet she was so scared. The idea that her last moments were terrifying and painful makes me so angry I feel like I'm going to explode. She's supposed to be at home right now, probably reading a book and growing a baby. I don't even know if it was a boy or a girl. All I know is that it was alive, and it's not. It'll just be an 'it' forever. A nothing. Something that never had a chance to be anything to anyone. Before all this, I kind of felt like it was a girl for some reason."
"You could give her a name."
"A guy doesn't get to just pick the name. That's something the mom is supposed to help with."
Laxus said, "I think Lilia would be okay with that. You wanted to name the twins 'Burp' and 'Glurp,' but I assume you have better taste now. We have books. Somewhere. With names. I'm not sure why, since we just recycled family names for all of you."
He wasn't sure whether or not this actually helped his son, but it was something to try. He'd read and mostly ignored books on parenting and none of them really had any useful information about their current circumstances.
It made his heart physically hurt to hand over a book with baby names and watch his son start flipping through it trying to find a suitable name for his dead unborn child. This also made his wife cry herself to sleep once he told her later that night.
Somehow, they'd gotten through one day, and they knew the next day was going to be hard too, and maybe a lot of days after that. But they were determined to help their son get through his tragedy and find some way to be happy again someday.
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Special thanks to animegirl549, guest, chipthemunkey, lucyheartfilialover360, mili, 17, GummySpectrums, JustAnotherBaggins, dlshieldss, Stavroula, RavenDLG, screeney, rperk1988, LunaStarLady, b2utifulshawol, MissLivingInDenial, Tiernank, Beingshortrocks, Light Heartfilia, thornado, Katiekat2001, MWolfe13, Arouraleona, BukkakeGirl, Purplephilosophervoid, and twizt312 for reviewing!
AN: This story is about to get kind of serious.