Yuri returned to Magnolia on the afternoon of Christmas Eve.
He stopped at the cemetery on the way home and put a Christmas lily on each of the two graves.
It was snowing, and bitterly cold, and he stood there, motionless.
This was supposed to be his first Christmas as a married man, and he was supposed to be in a little home somewhere getting a nursery ready for the imminent arrival of a baby.
There was no baby, no wife, no nursery, no home.
Yuri was a simple guy; he wanted to be powerful and successful, but he didn't want to be the most powerful or the most successful. He liked women but had only loved one. He liked to party and have fun, but nothing mattered to him more than family. He tried to be loyal, and kind, and to take care of everyone around him.
Unlike his sisters, he wasn't difficult or creative, and he didn't have any outlandish dreams about anything. All he'd wanted was to live a nice life as a wizard, have little home and a little family.
A twig snapped and he wiped his cheek with the back of his hand. "Dad?"
"I thought I caught your scent. It's good to see you," he said, pulling his son into a hug.
When Yuri released him, he stuck his hands in the pockets of his coat. "It's good to be back. I missed everyone. I feel like I missed a lot."
"Quite a bit. Everyone has missed you."
Yuri looked down at the headstones. "Dad, do you believe in the afterlife? In heaven, or whatever?"
"I do. I don't have a logical reason for it. There's a part of me that knows it's probably nonsense, and a much bigger part that desperately needs to believe in it. There's people I'd like to be reunited with too. I want to believe there's some distant future where I'll get to see your Gams again. And I want to believe that once all this is over, we'll all still be together somehow."
Yuri wiped his cheek again. "I feel that way too."
Laxus felt the familiar helpless sting at knowing his son was still suffering but that there was little he could do about it. No one could save Yuri; time and his own will would have to be enough.
His son turned and took a deep breath.
His father said, "Let's head back. Your mom has been counting down the hours before she unleashes boundless wrath at you for not making it home by Christmas, so she's going to be relieved.
Yuri had been travelling with an absurd amount of stuff that left Laxus wondering if his son was possibly actually a lot stronger than he was—at least physically.
Laxus took some of the stuff and walked alongside his son towards the house.
Yuri asked, "So what did I miss?"
Laxus said, "Mavis is going to have a baby."
"Are you serious?"
He nodded.
"Whoa."
His father replied, "I know that may be a tense subject for you. I didn't want you to find out in an awkward way. Mavis is having a bad time with it. She's been sick, crying all the time, and frustrated. She's concerned you'll feel upset about it, and Mavis upset combined with her situation is not good. It's a big thing to ask."
Yuri frowned and said, "I'm not going to be a mopey dick about my sister having a baby. It's a reason to celebrate, right? And to take good care of Mavi. I'll be fine, Dad. You don't have to worry about me."
With all that had happened, Laxus had almost forgot one of the most standout character traits his son possessed: he was always about everyone else.
He filled Yuri in on all the other relevant current events before they made it back to the house, and he was greeted by his mother at the door, who all but jumped into his arms.
"My Thunder Baby! You're back."
Yuri hugged her. "I knew better than to miss Christmas."
Lucy tightened her grip to the point of pain. "Damn right you did."
Yuri answered his mom's questions about his adventure while unpacking nearly all of his bags, which were just filled with carefully-wrapped gifts he'd accumulated during his travels.
There was something very heartbreaking about this process because it proved even when he was away trying to deal with his own problems he was thinking about the people he cared about. Why such a sweet person had been served such an unfair fate was a mystery Lucy assumed they'd never know they answer to.
And somewhere under that sweet interior was the Yuri Dreyar that could get angry enough to kill without even the slightest hint of remorse.
Lucy made him a nice lunch, showered him in hugs and lived for every detail of his strange adventure which ended with Sting and Yuri learning the real job poster had been none other than Emperor Ajeel, who mistook Yuri for his father and attempted to spar with him, which left Yuri coughing up dust for the entire trip home.
Yuri befriended his children, and a couple of their guild's former enemies.
He'd gotten to climb one of the tallest mountains of the world and—while apparently drunk—jumped off a very tall waterfall and proved his skull was harder than actual rock. He flashed a moon-shaped, blobby scar on his forehead somewhat proudly until he noticed his mother's glare.
"What?"
"You could have cracked your head open like a melon."
"It's fine, see?"
Yuri added, "I met Brandish. She said I cute and would make a good pet, and then shrank me down to the size of a toy soldier and put me in a terrarium with her pet tarantula. It was terrifying. It almost ate me and then she took me out and told me I was boring her. It was the weirdest thing ever."
"Sounds like she hasn't changed at all."
While they were talking, Layla entered the house with her new boyfriend, who she didn't refer to as a boyfriend. Lucy and her husband decided to just stay away from whatever was going on with them completely.
Yuri was happy to see his friend again but responded with more relief than to the sight of his closest sister.
"My bro!" Petri exclaimed.
"Yuri!" Layla ran and hugged her brother tightly. "You're back. You're really back."
Yuri said, "And I get to meet a saint wizard as soon as I get home too."
"How was your adventure?"
"Adventurous. How is sainthood?"
"It's mediocre. Dealing with some team dynamics issues with one of the other saints."
Yuri poked at her ponytail. "Is this a wig?"
"Sort of."
Yuri looked from Layla to Petri. "I heard you two are a thing again. Gross. I guess it must be kind of serious if you brought him here for Christmas."
Layla said, "Of course not. He has no family in town and I was just being nice. It's like feeding a stray cat."
Lucy answered, "I invited him. Like every year, which he spends here. He was your brother's friend before your boyfriend. So chill and don't be rude to my guest."
Petri stuck his tongue out at her.
Yuri shook his head in disapproval.
Petri said, "Don't worry. I believe in bros before hoes."
"What did you just call my sister?" Yuri asked.
"I mean, it's a figure of speech," Petri defensively said.
Layla said, "It's a figure of speech that is going to make me peel your face off if I ever hear it again."
Laxus and Lucy watched Petri and Layla bicker for Yuri's attention while Yuri just seemed so put off by the idea that they were together.
The door opened again, and Anna and Iggy came in with twins, who—as soon as being put on the floor—began running all over the place.
Yuri bent down. "Oh wow. They're walking. Look at that."
Anna gave her brother a long, gentle hug, leaving him feeling like he was the absolute center of the universe at least for that moment.
Even though he felt a bit awkward, being showered in love and kindness from his family was the last thing Yuri would ever complain about, because he'd missed everyone a lot. Taking a step back had been necessary, because he was so accustomed to always relying on them. It was necessary for him to face the reality of his life on his own for a while.
He grabbed his nephews off the floor and threw them into the air like he had when Lex was little, and they were just as delighted. Anna was less amused and had all the ire Lucy had when she said, "Stop throwing my babies, Yuri!"
Hadyn was squealing from glee and was quite disappointed, and immediately started crying once he knew it was over.
"You made the little guy sad," Yuri said.
Anna answered, "He can be sad. With all of his bones unbroken. You do not throw babies!"
"He's not a baby. He's toddling. He's a toddler. Toddlers like to fly."
Yuri picked them up again and held them up over his head, one in each hand. They screamed in excitement, Anna glowered, and Iggy sighed because he knew Yuri would never drop one of their babies. This fact didn't negate Anna's maternal instincts that babies were not meant to be thrown.
Anna said, "If you hurt one of them, you're the one who is going to go flying."
Laxus did stuff like this with them all the time, but only when no mother was anywhere near as he knew maternal instinct was contrary to rough play.
Yuri didn't show any signs this was painful for him, but Laxus didn't know how it possible could not have been. Their growing family was inevitably a constant reminder of everything Yuri lost. Of the older children, he was the only one who didn't have someone in his life.
Lex bounded in next after a snowball fight with some of the local kids, and gleefully told his big brother all about everything, including the fact he'd finally trained his dog to stop using their father's shoes as a dog toilet (even though Bumbles only did it because Laxus didn't like him).
The last one to make it over was Mavis, who already sported a baby bump under her sweater. Mavis had a tiny, flat, wiry body so the little bulge was obvious nearly as soon as she realized she was pregnant. She also looked quite tired and a bit sick, and as soon as she came in, greeted her brother, ran to the bathroom to throw up, and then plopped down on the sofa with a mostly flat expression once she was finished.
Yuri got her a blanket from the closet. "You need anything? I can get you ginger tea."
"What do you know about ginger tea?"
"I've heard it helps, right? I have a book somewhere about this stuff. I was reading it a while back."
Laxus said, "We already have some in the kitchen. Mavis likes to come here and vomit."
Mavis replied. "Well, Dad, I'm pregnant. You don't know what that feels like, so you don't get to complain. Mom carried me in her tummy. What did you do? Don't answer. I know, okay? Baby Orga contributed about one ounce of liquid effort to this endeavor and I don't want to hear anything from anyone who has a penis right now. Except Yuri, because he's not being a jerk."
Laxus usually went tit-for-tat with his children, but after that, he just decided to just let Mavis win.
Yuri fixed her some tea and brought her some crackers from the pantry, and everyone gathered in the living room.
It was the first time in over four months that they'd all been in the same room at the same time. And before that, when they'd all been together, it had been right after Lilia's death. They hadn't been together and happy in what felt like a lifetime.
During the past year, they'd welcomed the twins, supported Layla through a divorce, planned a wedding that was replaced by a funeral, mourned, added wizard prestige into the family, wrecked a dark guild in the relentless pursuit of truth, and were preparing for another child. It had been a long and difficult period of growth and change for everyone, but at the end, they'd all come back together.
Even if Mavis didn't feel well, even she was happy for everyone to be together.
Anna helped Lucy with Christmas Eve dinner while Laxus chased babies, Mavis stayed still under her blanket, Layla and Petri finished decorating the tree, and Lex joined his pup and the twins in playing throughout the downstairs.
Yuri stayed close to Mavis, who really didn't want to complain at all to him about how she felt. To her, there was something incredibly wrong with Yuri losing a baby he wanted to have while she had a baby she really wasn't at all ready for on the way.
She wasn't her sister; it didn't just come naturally to her. Mavis didn't like being pregnant, didn't really feel much like a mother, and found the changes to her body to be both unwelcome and uncomfortable.
Mavis wondered if she was even going to be acceptable as a mother-figure, but her own mother just told her to be patient and have faith in herself.
Yuri could tell she was so uncomfortable even just sitting there with him.
"You don't have to feel sorry for me. Please don't. I'm not that pitiful, right?" he asked.
Mavis said, "It doesn't seem fair."
"Life isn't fair, Mavis. I think there are some things we get to decide, but some big things that happen to us aren't up to us. Good or bad, they just happen, and the only thing we have control of then is what we do after that."
"I think I'm not going to be a good mom. You'd be a good dad."
Yuri cracked a bit of a smile. "That's silly. You're going to be great at it. There are all different kinds of moms, right? I kind of assume you're going to be like a mama bear. They're great mothers. They teach their babies everything they need to know and keep them safe, but they don't stop being bears. They're still mean and they still eat people. In fact, mama bears are meaner even than non-mama bears. So you just might become even more you-ish."
This was quite comforting to Mavis, who was able to accept the image of her as a mother bear more easily than the imaginary idea of motherhood she felt she probably wasn't going to live up to. It spoke to the value of family, as only someone with her blood would know that telling her she might get more vicious was going to make her feel better.
"Where's Baby Orga, anyway?"
Mavis frowned. "Working. He's supposed to be back any time now."
"Are you okay?"
She shrugged. "I guess. I feel like a burden."
"You're not. Baby Orga is kind of a happy idiot about you, so I'm guessing he's probably really excited. He takes good care of you, so I bet he's working extra hard to keep you happy now."
"I don't like all the fuss. I just want to do what I want to do and go on jobs and poke people with my new sword but instead I'm pregnant and it's so weird," she whimpered.
Yuri reached out and gave her tummy a pat. "The hormones have you real messed up, huh?"
"Get your hands off my belly or I'll bite them off. It's nothing personal. Nobody touches Baby."
Yuri withdrew his hand and Mavis replaced it with her own.
"I don't even let Baby Orga touch it."
"He's the dad, right?"
Mavis sighed. "I am left with no other alternatives, so I guess."
Yuri smiled at her. "You don't let the father of your child touch your belly?"
"It's my belly. How would you feel if people just wanted to rub your tummy all the time?"
Yuri said, "You can rub my tummy whenever you want. Dunno why you'd want to, but feel free."
Mavis reached out and pinched his abdomen.
"Ow! Does this mean I can touch your tummy again?"
"Of course not. I only let Mom touch. I let Dad touch it once. You should feel lucky. I don't want everyone to touch me. I don't really want anyone to touch my baby at all. It's not for touching. What if something bad happens?"
Yuri was confused by this comment, and asked, "Are you really worried that someone touching your belly is going to hurt your baby? That's cute. You're so overprotective of your little baby. What's more adorable than mean little Mavi protecting her little baby."
"Shut up!"
Mavis' hand suddenly snapped up and she caught an ornament that had been thrown by Layla at Petri. He dodged it, and it went flying on and would have hit Mavis had she not snatched it out of the air.
The blonde squeezed, and it shattered in her hand, and she said, "Petri, do you want to swallow broken glass?"
"No ma'am, I do not."
"Then don't fuck with me, I'm not in the mood for it. Just let Layla hurt you. We both know you probably like that kind of stuff because you're a weirdo whore boy."
"I'll be good. We're very sorry," Petri promised and apologized, even though his only crime was dodging a projectile that had been thrown at him. He knew not to piss off Mavis in her current state or in general. "What can I do to make it up to you?"
In the Dreyar house, it was an unspoken rule that the unrelated person was almost always at fault. If Layla had hit him with the ornament, it would have been his fault for making her feel like she wanted to. But she'd missed, and it was his fault for dodging it.
Mavis was going to continue in her rage, and the abruptly asked, "I need egg rolls. You can find me some or I'll make you eat every ornament on that tree."
"Whoa…" Petri mumbled. "Okay. Egg rolls it is."
Laxus came into the living room in the middle of this exchange with juice for the twins and did absolutely nothing to intervene. It was amusing, and probably good for everyone. Mavis had developed a craving and chosen a seemingly random person who was given the choice to either assist her in satisfying her craving or to die from ingesting a few pounds of broken glass.
If anything, pregnancy only made Mavis more Mavis.
Layla did not save Petri, did not want to go out in the snow, and sided with her sister in this cavalcade of nonsense.
Yuri decided to go with him, because he wanted to get a Christmas gift for her baby anyway. Plus, they had business to settle; as of when he'd left, he'd planned on moving in with Petri. Knowing his sister, he wondered if that was still on Petri's schedule.
Once they stepped out into the snow, they talked about work a bit, and Alvarez, and since Yuri already knew about Petri's insane preoccupation with feet, Petri confessed that he'd achieved his life's dream of being allowed to touch his sister's feet.
"That's not something I want to know. Basically, whatever you do, don't tell me. And if we move in together, I'd be appreciative if you could be considerate. I have sharp senses."
Petri said, "Of course we're moving in. It's destiny that we be bros. Your sister's place is pretty bomb; we've mostly been hanging out there. I figure you didn't want the smells at our place."
"Thanks. I'm still so grossed out. Really, both of you. Ugh."
"But your sister is so hot!"
"Shut up already."
"Enough about your hot sister. Are you all right?"
Yuri shrugged. "Again, that is gross to me. But I guess I'm as okay as I'm supposed to be. I missed my family but being around them is kind of tiring. I was thinking I'd hang out at home until after the holiday and then move in."
They stopped at the only general store open in downtown and Yuri picked up a couple of baby toys and a gift box.
The restaurants around the train station were always open as long as the train was running, so it was always a reliable place to find different kinds of food at all hours. They secured four different flavors of egg rolls from several vendors, a few different kinds of sauce, some other extras they decided Mavis might like, and headed back to the house, only to find she'd fallen asleep while they were out.
The two men tiptoed past the sofa, but one nostril twitched, and without ever opening her eyes, Mavis said, "Egg rolls. Bring them to me."
Mavis was delighted by the offering they brought her and decided not to punish Petri after all. "Okay, you can live I guess. If you get me some strawberries and ketchup from the kitchen."
"As you wish. You want them sliced?"
"Hmmm…I think I do."
Layla rejoined him to help him slice the berries, feeling a little warm towards the fact he was being nice to her sister. Family was everything to them, so if you loved one Dreyar, you had to love them all.
Mavis satisfied her craving, and then spent the next hour in the bathroom throwing up while her mother tended to her.
Yuri heard her crying and looked up to see a weathered, worried look on his father's face.
When Mavis finally came back out, she grabbed her blanket and plopped down on her father's lap, where she curled up like a little girl.
Laxus tucked the blanket around her and held her close, rubbing her back. "You're all right, you spoiled baby."
Baby Orga made it home in time for their big dinner, which included both Dreyar parents, five kids, three partners, and two toddlers in high chairs. Considering that neither Laxus nor Lucy had much family growing up, it seemed miraculous to have such a huge family gathering. The table was abuzz with Anna fussing at her father and brothers about giving her babies food that wasn't on her carefully planned list of meals, playful bickering between and among couples, inseparable siblings, and proud parents relaxing in the glow of a big, loving family.
Mavis mostly picked at her food, but she'd mostly just come for the atmosphere anyway. If her pregnancy was more difficult that any of her mother's had been or her sister's, being with everyone reminded her that family was worth some sacrifices.
After dinner, Anna and Iggy left with the twins, Baby Orga took Mavis home, and Lex shook every gift under the tree whether it had his name on it or not, and made some surprisingly accurate predictions about what was inside each one.
Laxus went out late because they'd run out of milk and it was necessary for Christmas Day feasting and cooking. He was minding his own business when he walked into the general store a few minutes before closing, picked up a gallon of milk, and then stopped dead in his tracks as he was getting ready to pay.
The grocer was carefully laying out the newest issue of Sorcerer's Weekly, which had Layla on the front.
Wearing nothing but Orga's hair, which was parted to cover only the most essential areas.
Laxus glared at the magazines, wondering why Layla had done this again or how he'd been unaware.
The grocer said, "I ordered four times more copies than usual. Nothing sells like the Golden Goddess of Fairy Tail."
A small bolt of lightning appeared and turned the entire display to ash, to which Laxus said, "You can add that to my bill. Thanks. And please don't call her that. She already has a bigger ego than Ishgar. If it gets any bigger, it's going to block out the sun and kill us all."
He was halfway back home when he passed his daughter walking home alone.
He pointed. "You."
"What?"
"Why are you alone?"
Layla rolled her eyes. "My brother and the mouthbreather are getting drunk with Mom and it is past my bedtime. They offered to walk me home, but I don't need a man to do that. I am an independent woman and I like to go to bed early."
"Rude, but whatever works for you. Okay, can we talk about Sorcerer's Weekly?"
The blonde shrugged. "The new one?"
"I've just gotten over the last one."
Layla stared at him blankly. "Oh, you're mad about the no clothes thing."
"Yes. The thing you promised you wouldn't do again."
"Oh, I forgot about that. Sorry, Dad. I'll keep it in mind for next time."
Laxus said, "Why are we even having this conversation again?"
His daughter replied, "Well, did you even buy a copy?"
"Of course not. I just turned a bunch of them to ash."
"If you hadn't rushed to judgment, you'd know that Rufus told Sorcerer's Weekly that the saints talked about my divorce when deciding whether or not I should become one of them. I was furious. He could have just let the whole thing die, which is what a mature person would do. But he was petty and his male pride was insulted that a little girl humiliated him and he needed his vengeance. What was I going to do? Nothing? Please."
Her father all but growled under his breath. "You taking your clothes off gets at Rufus how?"
"Do you think that Rufus is not going to be absolutely insulted, humiliated, and furious that I used his hair to make myself decent?"
Laxus was absolutely exasperated by this entire affair and, with few options, reached down, made a snowball, and hurled it directly into Layla's face.
His daughter stood there motionless, shocked, eyes wide with surprise. "Did you just do that?"
It felt good, so he did it again.
This time, she reached down and returned the volley, and in no time at all, they were hurling huge snowballs at each other while he told her he wanted her to stop annoying him and she told him she was a grown woman and could do whatever she wanted with her body, to which he could only say she really didn't have that right, because he made her.
"Fifty-percent of you is me, and I forbid you."
Layla said, "Okay, that's not how genetics work. As far as I can tell, the only thing I get from you is my eye color and my super thick, feminine eyelashes. I mean, thanks for those. They look weird on you but I think I make them work. All the good parts everyone wants to see in Sorcerer's Weekly are from Mom."
"You are a terrible child," he complained before hurling another snowball at her, "And I'm only using snowballs because your mom will yell at me if I use rocks. Fairly sure what you do is a stoning offense in some cultures."
At this, she hurled another snowball at him. "Dad, you do not understand at all. For women—especially young women—people always try to make us feel ashamed. Of our bodies, of our mistakes, of the things we need or want. I got divorced, I want a boyfriend, I'm pretty…that's not who I am anymore than you're just someone who wears boots every day. If I let Rufus win and humiliate me, then what's even the point of anything? No one gets to have that power over me, especially not some gross old guy. If you think about it, almost all the saint wizards seats have turned over and including me, there are only two women."
Laxus didn't really understand how what she was doing was some sort of feminist act of protest. He wasn't sure that he even wanted to understand, or that it was possible for him to do so. What he did know is that Layla was absolutely fervent about grinding Rufus' face into the ground until he accepted defeat at the hands of a young woman he tried to drag through the mud.
There was no talking her down from righteous rage, so he picked up his bag with his milk, and asked, "Do you want me to walk you home?"
"I can take care of myself. What are you even doing out here?"
"We needed milk. Someone drank the last of ours."
"That was me. Sorry."
Layla approached him and gave him a big hug, and he just sighed in exhaustion. "You're the best dad ever, have I ever told you that?"
"Yes, usually after you piss me off."
"Goodnight, Dad. I'll see you tomorrow. I'll be in for breakfast and presents. I got you the coolest gift ever."
Laxus kissed her hair and watched her start to head back to her own home. She had only made it a few steps when he called her name again.
When she turned, he asked, "Are you happy?"
She nodded. "You know what? I really am. It's not about the boy or becoming a saint or anything like that. Life is just good right now. I'm learning how to follow my heart without doing anything stupid."
"Good."
"Are you bothered that both of your sisters are going to have kids before you?"
Layla put her hands on her hips. "I don't mean to be vulgar dad, but in a few months, I'm going to be the only one without stretch marks and an unruined-"
He threw a snowball directly into her mouth and while she was spitting it out said, "I was worried about your feelings. I understand the rest of you will be fine."
"Well, I can have a baby anytime I want, right? I have all the required equipment. Just add a little magic I'm sure anyone would happily contribute, and boom. Baby. But then I'd never sleep again, and I'm not ready for that. I need my ten hours. My life goals right now include seeing the Ten Wonders of Ishgar and finding a way to make Rufus Lore digest more gravel. I've already scratched one of those things off my list and now I just have to go see the Ten Wonders."
Laxus gave her a pat on the head. "You're wonderful and awful and your mother and I are so proud of you. You know that, right?"
"I had really good parents, you know. Everyone always talks about how powerful we are and about what we do, but we learned everything from you and Mom."
She held her hands in his and added, "I realized too we're a lot alike, and I don't just mean that we have bad personalities. You practiced a decent amount of self-sabotage too, right?"
"Ah, yes. I did. Learning how to not be my own worst enemy was difficult. There was one thing I wanted more than anything, and I just screwed it all up. When I learned how to enjoy life and appreciate the things that matter, I gained that and so much more."
Layla said, "I think you're trying to teach me a lesson, like, if I chill, I'll get my fairy tale ending. But look, I'm okay with how things are right now. Besides, Petri isn't exactly Prince Charming."
"Does it ever occur to you that you are not the most wonderful person who has ever walked the earth?" he teased.
"Why would I waste my time thinking about something pointless like that?" she shot back with a sly grin.
Her father said, "Merry Christmas, princess. It's about to start snowing again. Hurry on home, okay?"
"Merry Christmas, Daddy."
His daughter bounced down the street and he quickly returned to his own home, where he found his wife shuffling cards at the table, where their son and his friend were gazing worriedly at her.
Lucy flashed the cards. "Lex is in bed. Everyone has gone home except these two. They want me to show 'em how it's done."
Laxus put the milk away and sat down with them. "Deal me in, Babe."
Petri started to put on a pair of sunglasses and Lucy said, "What kind of weirdo wears sunglasses in the house?"
He pulled them off. "It's just a poker thing. Anyway, you were like Layla for a second there. With the uhhh…mean fashion advice."
"You know I'm the original, right? She's like me. No sunglasses in my house."
Petri said, "No fair. Yuri doesn't have facial expressions."
Yuri took a sip of his beer. "Why are you whining? You are the sneakiest person who is allowed to hang out in guild or visit our house. I know you cheat at poker you can get away with it and you're complaining about me."
"Mavis is a bigger sneak than I am."
Lucy said, "Well, she's not sneaking anywhere except to the nearest puke bucket for a while."
"I think if I had a sister, I'd never let a guy bother her," Petri said.
Yuri rolled his eyes slightly. "You're a guy bothering my sister. If you want me to kick your ass, I can."
"That's on you man. I would have kicked my ass a long time ago. You don't even know what kind of creep I am."
Yuri tiredly sighed. "Everyone knows what kind of creep you are."
Laxus scowled. "We're talking about the feet thing? That's disgusting. I wish I didn't know."
After a few hands and a couple of rounds, Laxus concluded that his wife was good at literally everything she attempted. Lucy wiped the floor with them and she actually looked great while she was doing it, even after a few drinks.
While the parents played, they both studied their son as he was at ease in the current situation.
Yuri looked tired, worn, yet grateful for the time with family and friends.
Once they'd finished up, Lucy went to bed, Yuri managed to drag himself upstairs with a yawn and a now drunk and sleepy Petri opened the door to go home, found it was snowing and mumbled something about crashing before closing the door and taking over the sofa.
Laxus stayed up washing the mountain of dishes that had been left behind by the day's festivities and headed up to snuggle in close with his wife who was happy and smiling even in her sleep.
The next morning, those who hadn't stayed up late drinking and playing poker was ready for celebratory Christmas breakfast, gift opening, and all the other fanfare.
The door swung open at seven in the morning and their youngest son jumped on the bed. "Mom, Dad, time to wake up! It's Christmas!"
The dog jumped on the bed after him and started licking Laxus all over the face, causing him to pull the covers over his head and curse.
Lucy sat up, rolled her eyes at her husband, who—despite being unable to see her—knew her well enough to have practically heard her thought.
"Don't roll your eyes at me. Get the dog out of my bed."
Lex said, "Anna came over and said everyone has a hangover, so we're making breakfast together. She says she's the grownup now."
Lucy asked, "What are the chances we could convince you to go back to bed for an hour?"
"I want to eat bacon and open presents. I might go to bed in a few days."
She sighed. "I figured."
He did take a moment to flop down in between them and snuggle in next to his dog. "Merry Christmas, Mom and Dad."
"Merry Christmas, Son."
When he bounded back downstairs, they showered and dressed quickly.
Anna and Iggy offered them coffee, and everyone gathered around the table for breakfast. Holidays were, after all, mainly about eating with the family. They had a houseful by the time breakfast was over and moved on to the mountain of gifts under the tree.
Lucy and her husband of two and a half decades sat back and watched the kids exchanging and opening gifts, some just fun, and others deeply meaningful. Yuri was possibly a little spoiled more than ever and for good reason. The girls gave Yuri a scrapbook with every picture they could find of Lilia, and he got new boots from Layla who knew how hard he was on shoes. Anna got him some new things for when he moved out, and Mavis gave him an old magic book about lightning.
It went on and on like this, with gifts for everyone from everyone.
In response to hearing her father used her mother's tweezers to pluck his ear hairs, Mavis gifted her father with an ear-hair trimmer, which was coincidentally also one of Layla's gifts to him leading Laxus to believe Lucy had been complaining to them about this particular habit and they were trying to help him with his absurdly long ear hair.
This only hardened his resolve to change nothing and continue irritating his wife.
"I can hear you thinking, you know," she warned.
"Well, what am I thinking now?"
Lucy said, "It's been twenty-one years."
"It doesn't feel like it was that long ago you told me on Christmas you were pregnant again with the twins. Look at 'em. Babies with babies, hm?"
Anna was on the floor with her husband surrounded in an ocean of wrapping paper with two toddlers crawling all over her and Mavis was curled up in a chair with ginger tea.
Lucy nearly squealed. "I love it."
"Yes, unplanned pregnancy is delightful?"
She shrugged. "Look, you know what? That's not our problem. My job is to hug babies."
Somewhere under the tree, Baby Orga found a card with a slip of paper promising to let him touch Mavis' belly exactly three times and a sports jersey that said 'Dad' on the front, a strangely heartwarming and conciliatory gesture from Mavis, who had not necessarily been particularly nice to Baby Orga since she'd learned of the pregnancy.
He put the jersey on over his clothes and made his way to the chair where Mavis was so he could squeeze in next to her.
"I can really touch it?"
Lucy and Laxus pretended not to overhear this exchange, as Mavis hated to be seen doing anything cute, but it was a little adorable. At least, it was adorable if they didn't consider how rude and off-putting Mavis had been in banning the father of her baby from ever touching her belly, which she'd become extremely overprotective about.
Baby Orga said, "I can really touch it?"
"Go wash your hands."
He obediently left to wash her hands and Lucy turned briefly and whispered, "You only have to make people wash their hands before they touch your baby after it comes out, you know. It's safe in there."
"I just feel this way about my belly, and no one is going to change my mind."
Baby Orga returned and cautiously rested the palm of his hand on the slight swell while he grinned at Mavis, who looked the other way.
"Hopefully, my baby likes you," she said.
"It's our baby, Mavi."
"I want my baby to be a Dreyar."
"Okay no. It's a Nanagear baby."
Mavis gave him a nasty look. "Nope. If I'm going to have a baby out of wedlock, I'm going to give it my last name."
"Are you saying you want to get married? I'm good with that. You could be my wife."
"I'm never getting married. Ever."
Her parents went back to pretending they couldn't hear Mavis complain about having a baby and not being married and refusing to get married ever at the same time. Baby Orga didn't seem to mind this basic contradiction, and attempted to maneuver around it.
He said, "We could name the baby Orga. If it's a boy. I mean, if it's a girl too. A girl named Orga would be pretty cool."
Mavis removed his hand from her. "Okay, no. First of all there are other boy names in the world besides 'Orga' and second, the fact you and your dad have the same name is why everyone calls you Baby Orga even though you're a two hundred pound hairy monster. That would make three people living in the same house with the same name. What would we even call him? Baby Baby Orga?"
"Orgie! It's cute. A little boy named Orgie, you know it's adorable."
Lucy choked on her coffee and interrupted. "Look, I'm not part of this, but can I just say no? People are going to mispronounce that and call my grandchild Orgy Dreyar."
Laxus sighed. "The baby should be a Nanagear. But not an Orgy."
Layla craned her neck from where she was sitting next to the Christmas tree and said, "Daddy, Mavis does not care about your patriarchy crap. Also, 'Orgy' is a terrible name."
Lex asked his brother, "What's an orgy?"
Yuri said, "I don't know. Dad probably does. He knows everything, right?"
"Should I ask Mom instead? She knows more than Dad."
"As long as you're not asking me, that's fine. You want to go outside and make a snowman? I have a feeling it's about to get weird in here."
Petri tried to get up to follow them out, but Layla grabbed him and made him sit right back down.
"But—"
Layla said, "This is my first time I've had a boyfriend over for Christmas. Don't ruin this for me. And don't sit there and sulk like I'm your mom and I'm not letting you go outside and be a gross boy."
Anna froze Iggy in place with a single glance, a sign of strong marital communication.
Outside with Yuri was snow, and probably sparring, wrestling, and a guaranteed snowball fight. Inside was…inside. Iggy and Petri both sighed in resignation and stayed around the tree.
Mavis was still in her argument with Baby Orga and said, "Not a Nanagear, not an Orgy."
"Orgie," Baby Orga argued.
She pushed Baby Orga off the chair and headed toward the bathroom. "I have to go vomit the idea of that name out of my brain."
The rest of the afternoon consisted of eating, presents, and family, but while Yuri was outside playing with his brother, Lucy happened to see him through the window, staring off into the distance with the saddest look on his face for a minute. Then just like that, he turned right back to making a snowman with Lex, who worriedly watched him now that his senses were developing enough that he could catch vibes off people if they were strong.
Lex really didn't know how to cheer up his big brother, or if it was even possible for him to help him at all. Being significantly younger than the other kids in the house often left him feeling like there were a lot of things he just couldn't do because he wasn't big enough yet.
Yuri messed up his hair up and said, "You helped me, right?"
Lex nodded. "I tried."
"You did something nobody else could right?"
"I guess. I'm not big enough to fight, but someday if someone does something bad, I'll be able to fight like everyone else."
Yuri felt a little sad that he'd become old enough to know that as soon as Lex did start fighting, he'd miss his younger days when things weren't so hard. For now, they'd build a snowman, and that would be enough.
They kept working, and then Yuri stopped and said, "Do you know what Lilia said before…"
Lex nodded.
"Did you tell anyone?"
"No. I felt like it was a secret. Someone else's secret. Not a secret I should tell."
Yuri had demanded her killers tell him her last words, but he was somewhat horrified and upset that his little brother knew Lilia begging for him to come save her. It was even sadder that Lex had known not to tell anyone about it. And, he understood why their mother had been so incredibly furious at Mavis for dragging Lex into all that happened. He'd learned some very dark things and had to think about things that were for grownups.
Lex suddenly blurted out, "But you didn't know she was in trouble, Yuri…You would have helped her and everything would have been okay. It's not your fault."
"It's all over and done with now, no reason to worry about it. Don't let it bother you, Lex. People die. It's just part of life. Worrying about someone who already died is pointless. It's not going to change anything."
"But I don't want you to be sad."
"I'll be fine. I have so many people to live for. Mom and Dad and all our crazy sisters and I've got a really cool little brother. I have friends and the guild, and lots of adventures to go on. I'll be fine. What you did helped me a lot. I'd be even more sad if the person who hurt Lilia never got in trouble for it."
Lex was not ignorant to the fact that all three of the people who saw Lilia die were also dead, and that his big brother had purposefully killed two of them. He couldn't really imagine Yuri doing anything as extreme as that since he'd never even really seen Yuri get mad before.
Yuri decided to change the subject. "We're going to be uncles again, huh?"
"If dogs have puppies, and tigers have cubs, what does a Mavis have? Probably something scary. Probably she'll lay an egg and a monster will hatch from it," Lex suggested.
"Mavis is human, you know."
Lex said, "How do you know?"
"I have the same blood as Mavis, so if she's not human…"
"Are you a monster?"
"Nope."
"Did you hatch from an egg?"
"According to Mom, no."
Lex said, "Mavis is growing a monster in her belly and I won't believe it's really a baby until it's born and I can see it doesn't have claws, teeth, or scales."
"Mavis had scales when she was born."
"Like a monster?"
"Well…"
Lex pressed, "Do you have any proof Mavis isn't going to have a monster?"
"No. I guess not."
"My science teacher says good to ask important questions. That's how we learn."
Yuri's brow rose in a way that reminded Lex of their father. "Is whether or not Mavis has a baby monster an important question?"
"Obviously, it is."
At this, he just laughed. "Being a big brother is nice. You always make me feel better, you know."
"I told Mom and Dad I was sad I'm not a big brother and they told me I'd just have to be sad for the rest of my life. I asked Dad why once and he locked me in the backyard and took a nap. When he finally let me in, he said, 'that's why.'"
Yuri said, "Mom and Dad are never, ever going to make you a big brother, but there are going to be plenty of kids in the family. Being an uncle is probably like being a brother, right?"
"I guess. We'll be uncles to a monster! Monster uncles! Muncles! We should make a secret Muncle handshake."
Lucy kept watching them through the window for a while, happy her son's moment of despair had faded into whatever it was that they were talking about. Yuri seemed amused and quite happy and seeing him looking out for his younger siblings was obviously very comforting to him since it was a return to what was normal for him.
She felt her husband's arms wrap around her from behind, and leaned into him.
"How's he doing?"
Lucy said, "Yuri is going to be okay. I think he still has a long road ahead of him. We raised some courageous kids."
He kissed her neck. "One of them is angry at us."
"Mavis?"
"Nope. She taking a nap."
"Layla?"
"Surprisingly, no."
"Anna! Who pissed off Anna?"
"We did. She's not fond of us giving the twins a baby drum set."
Lucy broke out into laughter. "Vengeance is a dish best served cold. All these years, I've remembered that horrible xylophone and the non-stop sounds of them banging on it for hours on end for months and months. I've been waiting for this day for twenty years and I will not be denied."
"I too have been waiting. There is so much fulfillment in giving our grandchildren toys that are going to annoy their parents. I can understand why Gramps did that to us now. Next year, we can give them harmonicas, and after that, recorders," he answered.
"We care about developing their creative abilities. That makes us good grandparents, right?"
"Right. And we're definitely not petty."
Lucy playfully giggled. "I want to go look at Anna's face."
Lucy went to the living room to find her most pleasant and easygoing daughter staring at the accursed toys with a rather unnerved, irritated expression.
"Mom? Did Dad do this?"
Lucy said, "We did it together. Music is a good way to develop a baby's creative side."
Hadyn and Taryn were clutching their new toys with wide-eyed enthusiasm in between slapping it and screaming in joy at the hollow sound.
Anna said, "You know my sons, right?"
"I have met them a few times," Lucy replied.
"Do you think they need help making noise?"
Taryn slapped on the drum hard, and then unleashed a long, ear-splitting scream which his brother answered with another ear-splitting scream, which broke down into them punching and slapping at their new toys and yelling as loudly as they could simultaneously.
Lucy beamed at them. "Look how happy they are! They're such adorable little babies."
Anna bent down to take the toys away. "Boys, this is going to be a special toy you only play with when you're a Gams and Grams' house, okay?"
Immediately upon removing the toys from her sons, they started wailing.
Laxus said, "You can't give a baby a toy and then take it away. They don't understand. It's kind of mean. There's no reason for you to be mean to your children, Anna."
Iggy sighed. "Anna, it's okay, we'll get used to it, right? They're having a lot of fun, and like your mom says, maybe it'll help them or something."
"Iggy, my parents are being awful."
Iggy said, "Your parents are always like this."
They still had to spend the dinner at the Dragneel house with Lisanna and Natsu, and when Iggy and Anna got the twins all bundled up to make the trip, they discovered the only way to keep the peace was to also carry along their new favorite and inescapably noisy toys.
Once the door was closed, Lucy sighed. "That was satisfying. I feel like I can finally make peace with my haunting memories of that stupid xylophone."
Mavis stuck her head up and said, "That was the pettiest thing I've ever seen in my life. I grew up with Layla."
Lucy replied, "Just wait until you pop that kid out. You'll understand."
Layla heard her name, but she was also trying on a pair of shoes she'd gotten as a gift from her foot-obsessed boyfriend. "Was it noisy a few minutes ago? I wasn't really paying attention. Because shoes."
Baby Orga said, "So…are you going to do that to us?"
"Yes," Lucy replied with a nod, "Mavis was actually the most difficult baby we had, so she has a lot of karma points in the bank."
Mavis replied, "Whatever. I don't care about karma. I care about egg rolls."
Baby Orga said, "My dad said he'd make 'em homemade whenever you wanted. You want pork and chicken with celery and strawberry sauce like last time?"
She nodded. "With some pepper relish too."
Baby Orga left to tell his dad his pregnant girlfriend had a craving, knowing well that Orga adored Mavis and would do anything to make her happy.
Layla looked up from her shoes. "Mavis, next time you say I'm spoiled, just remember this."
"A dried up old maid is judging me."
Layla said, "Congratulations on getting knocked up. At least you skated across the finish line late enough you technically weren't a pregnant teenager. Technically. You missed it by like nine days."
The sisters started to bicker in a manner that was playful to them but rude to everyone else who just sat there and watched.
Lucy rolled her eyes and groaned. "I'd rather listen to the twins bang on stuff and scream."
The back door open and Yuri and Lex bounded in with the dog, tracking snow into the house so they could announce they'd created a snow monster. It had sticks for wings and claws, leaves for scales, and rocks for teeth.
Lucy went to go see it because Lex was quite proud of it. Yuri seemed to vanish into the ether in the middle of everything, but everyone else eventually went outside to admire the weird and disgusting thing the Dreyar boys had created.
"I mean, it's nice, but it looks a little angry and scary," Lucy said.
Lex proudly said, "It's what we think Mavis' baby is going to be like. See? Teeth, scales, wings, very long claws."
Mavis made it as far as the door, where she stood with her arms crossed. "Lex, are you implying my baby is a monster?"
Lex innocently nodded.
Everyone braced for her wrath, but instead, she just accepted it. "If it does have wings and claws, that would be pretty cool. I kind of like it. It needs more teeth."
Lucy found this incredibly bizarre and yet get fitting with everything else that went on. She decided to leave them alone and let Lex and Mavis delight equally in the idea that her baby might actually be a monster. That said, she was sure Lex was the only person in the whole world who could have made this suggestion to Mavis and been permitted to go unbruised. She did have a tremendous soft spot for him and allowed him to escape her anger every time.
They finished admiring the snow monster, and Laxus and Lucy went to the guild for a Christmas dinner with all those who didn't have other plans. It was a tradition, and usually the second to last part of their annual Christmas celebration marathon.
The last part was staying up late cleaning their house up, washing dishes, and eating leftovers all night.
After all these items were complete and they were settling in for the night, she crawled on top of him and sighed happily. "I can't say this enough times, but I love you."
"Love you too. You looked pretty hot in your outfit today. That ass…"
"You're never going to change, are you?"
"At this point, would you even know what to do if I did?"
"Probably not."
Lucy said, "Anyway, enough about you. Yuri's doing good. He's so strong. I was watching him today, and he just seemed so brave. I'm so glad my baby boy is back and he's doing all right."
Her husband nodded. "You know, I know we didn't do everything right, but our kids have faced their problems head on and they're walking on strong paths in life. They're determined, and they're not afraid of anything. It makes me feel proud. I want to take credit for how great they are."
"Me too."
"But just that. All the weird stuff is not our fault."
"Definitely not."
They kissed, and drifted to sleep completely tangled up, only to hear the alarm go off early the next morning. It was the day of the week new jobs were posted, so that meant waking up and going to work at the guild so all the new listings were up when wizards came by to select jobs.
While they were dressing, Lucy heard her husband laugh.
"What is it?"
"I faintly hear drums. How strange. I wonder who would want to drum at six in the morning?"
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