In Mavis' fifth month of pregnancy, Yuri made his way to a doctor's office he'd never been to once in his life with an envelope filled with jewel notes and the best of intentions. He really hadn't had a lot of time to research pregnancy before Lilia died and hadn't bothered afterward for obvious reasons, but he did know the doctor in this building was responsible for his sister's never-ending worry.
He was supposed to meet Layla for coffee earlier, but she hadn't made it and he'd moved on to his next item of business.
He went in and approached the counter carefully.
"Excuse me, hi. My sister is a patient here. I came to pay all her bills, is that fine?"
The receptionist said, "Sure. Name?"
"Dreyar. Mavis."
He leaned on the counter and while brandishing half a year's worth of income, he discovered Mavis had run up quite a bill. They would never have asked for help, not in ten thousand years, but Yuri knew they were stressed. Having a complicated pregnancy was stressful for the obvious reasons that they were worried about Mavis and baby as well as the fact going to the doctor two or three times a week was expensive.
It was a serious situation and Yuri felt helpless, but he did have money saved up that was supposed to be for starting his own family. As that wasn't going to happen, he felt like this was a much better use for his hard-earned funds than letting them sit in his sock drawer.
Right when he walked out, he saw Layla at the coffee shop across the street, sipping a latte like she wasn't an hour late. He ordered another coffee, and while they were waiting for it, she stared at him in question.
After the waitress brought his coffee she asked, "Why were you coming out of that doctor's office?"
"I just…had a checkup."
"You had a checkup at New Life Birth Center?"
"Yes. Just an annual physical."
Layla said, "Are we sticking with that?"
His frown deepened. "Look, I went and paid Mavi's bill. I think she's stressing."
He seemed absent for a minute. "I was supposed to go with Lilia to the doctor the next time she went. It would have been a place like that, right?"
"Yeah…Sorry."
"Bella's due date was yesterday. Maybe she already would have been born, or would about to be right now. I wonder what Lilia would have looked like all enormous like that. Probably pretty cute. And if Bella would look more like her side of the family or ours. In my head I imagine she would have been a fat baby with Lilia's hair and my eyes. Then I remember someone killed her when she was the size of a goldfish."
For the most part, Yuri seemed okay, but he had these unguarded moments when incredibly dark, morbid things came out of his mouth. Layla believed her brother was half invested in reality and half invested in thinking out what his life would be like if Lilia hadn't died. This week had been exceptionally rough and this certainly explained the reason for it.
Layla really had no idea how to help Yuri except to do as much as she could with him.
"Maybe you shouldn't think about those things anymore, Yuri. You're my brother and no one in the world will probably ever mean as much to me as you, but maybe you should just let them rest. In your mind too. We're still young. Someday, someone else should get to love you too."
Yuri broke eye contact. "Couldn't I say the same thing to you?"
"What do you mean?"
Her brother hesitated, and then said, "I feel like you abuse Petri. Not in the playful, funny sort of way. In the real, terrible kind of manner that's actually really upsetting. He really loves you and you treat him like he's just the fuck boy of the day. You didn't punish Sam for what Sam did to you, so why would you punish Petri for what Sam did?"
Layla was flummoxed; Yuri barely ever said critical things to anyone, and almost never to her. If anything in the world could convince her that she was doing something wrong in life, it was the idea that Yuri was somehow on the other side of something as she was.
"Is that what you really think?"
"I'm not an involved person, so I don't know what my opinion is worth."
When he saw she looked like she was about to cry at the open rebuke, he added, "Then again, I guess he likes it or he wouldn't hang around. Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about."
There was a division between Yuri and Layla and the twins, although no one was sure whether it was fate or something completely accidental. Anna and Mavis had comparatively easier lives, where most of their challenges were common to people in general. Yuri and Layla's lives had been turned upside down on more than one occasion, starting with their fateful encounter with Bluenote Stinger.
Layla wore her scar on her eye; her brother's was on his heart.
They bought supplies, met Petri, and then headed back to the Dreyar house to get Lex. They were bound for the Ruins at Margolis, a once-manicured ancient garden that had crumbled and fallen into disarray with time. There was nothing dangerous about the trip outside of a steep hike up mountains, but Lex was agile and strong and if necessary, light enough to carry. It was on the list of the continent's wonders that Layla wanted to see, and since it seemed like an interesting place to visit.
Yuri was happy to bring Lex along because it made them a group of people instead of a couple and an extra guy. He typically did things with Layla or with Petri, and that applied to jobs, going out to restaurants, going places to see things, and so forth. The fact they didn't do much together gave him the option of one or the other. Now that they were doing more things together, he was left feeling awkward and 'extra.'
It would have been a fun trip to take with everyone, but Anna was training and juggling babies at home and Mavis was obviously unable to make the journey. This blocked out the schedules for Iggy and Baby Orga, and then their parents were busy at the guild.
Once they got home, they found their mother was happily weighing Lex down with every possible emergency supply he might need. A thick sleeping bag for if it got colder, and a thinner one for if it was too warm, a poncho, two different extra coats, an extensive medical first aid kit, extra flashlights, cans of food and snacks, exactly three times more socks than needed, soap he really had no intention of using anyway, enough clean underwear to cover all contingencies, sweaters, an extra pair of boots, and some vitamins.
Even with his little dragon muscles, he nearly lurched over at the bulk of it.
Yuri sighed. "Mom…"
Lex really only needed two changes of clothes, two socks, one sleeping bag, and maybe some snacks, at least to Yuri, but to Lucy he was still her baby.
The boy stood there with his happy little smile, and said, "Mom, I'm okay. Maybe this is too much?"
Laxus came downstairs and was about to tell them goodbye and head to work, but he saw his youngest son's plight and rolled his eyes at his wife. "Babe, he's going on a camping trip. We're not sending him away to live with wolves for a few months."
"If you did, he'd probably still need less stuff," Layla replied.
Laxus stopped and began unburdening Lex, disposing of an extra sleeping bag, discarding an extra pack, and piling supplies up on the floor.
"What if he gets too hot?"
"It's winter," her husband replied.
Laxus unzipped the bag and took out an emergency bee sting kit and assorted other items that were intended to help if he was stung by something poisonous, bitten, or ingested anything he shouldn't. This was silly, because Lex was completely immune to venom and poisons and absolutely nothing made him sick.
Then, there were bandages, antiseptic, stitches, and all the usual supplies.
"You guys are equipped?" he asked his son.
"Of course," Yuri replied.
Laxus dumped the flashlights out. "Lex, you can still see in the dark, right?"
"Yes, Dad. I can do that since always."
Once Laxus finished reducing Lex's burden to merely one light backpack with a sleeping bag buckled to it, he gave his son a pat on the head. "I'm leaving the soap and some extra underwear. If you come back gross I'm going to wash you off outside with the hose before I let you come back in."
"Layla doesn't let me be dirty. She says if I'm not cute, there's no reason for me to be here," he cheerfully answered.
Lucy snapped her fingers. "I forgot sunscreen. You need sunscreen."
"Mom, I'm brown. People with light hair and skin need sunscreen. And vampires," Lex replied.
Lucy gave him a big squeeze and then took a moment to put her hands in his incredibly thick, dark maroon hair. It was wild, and stuck up all over the place with no potential to be combed down, but she absolutely adored it. "My baby boy…"
Laxus wasn't really worried at all about the trip. Petri and Yuri were talented survivalists and were could forage, hunt, eat large bugs, fish, make emergency shelters, and the like. They packed light and enjoyed living with nature. Layla wasn't really about any of that and while she would nibble on berries or occasionally fish, she mainly ate meal bars and required a fluffy sleeping bag and a proper tent in order to accept outdoor accommodations.
Layla wasn't, for instance, going to get up in the morning and eat a frying pan of beetles no matter how delicious they were.
Once Lucy finished hugging him and playing with his hair, she kissed his forehead. "Be good, okay?"
Lex nodded.
Laxus gave him a hug. "Make sure the so-called adults know if you're not back in time for school on Monday, they're the ones who are going to get a lesson."
They said their farewells, and once the group headed off toward the train station to start their grand adventure, the parents sighed in relief.
"I love them, but it's kind of nice when they all leave," Lucy said.
No sooner had she said this than the door opened again and Anna came in hefting one son in her arms and pulling the other one by the hand.
The boys had entered a stage in their dragon toddlerhood that Yuri, Iggy, and Sam had all gone through: testing their boundaries and challenging authority to see where the lines really were. Lucy theorized that maybe dragons had more difference between the sexes than humans did, and this made young males considerably more high-strung and difficult than the females.
They used their magic intentionally when it wasn't appropriate even though they were getting some understanding that it wasn't okay, they climbed curtains and furniture, caused destruction, staged rebellions, threw tantrums, and demanded constant attention, guidance, and whatever discipline one could teach to someone who only knew a handful of words.
It was amusing to watch as grandparents, but Lucy believed Hadyn and Taryn basically required the time and caused the exhaustion six normal toddlers might.
This was a surprise visit, but grandparents were happy as always to see their baby girl even if she only lived a stone's throw away, and her babies.
Anna said, "I hope you don't mind. I just wanted to drop in for a second. They asked."
"They asked?"
Taryn reached up for Lucy. "Gwwwwaaaaaaawwm!"
It was a pitiful attempt at 'Grams,' but an adorable one and the result of many months of wanting to communicate. Apparently on this morning, Anna's babies decided it was a good day to wake up and loudly demand a visit to their grandmother.
His brother joined in and Lucy picked them both up to squeeze them. "My sweet itty bitties!"
And then, to her husband, "Ha! They said my name first, you owe me."
Laxus frowned. "I'm insulted and I owe your money? Talk about a raw deal."
"You guys are kind of childish. This is a heartfelt moment," Anna commented.
Lucy said, "It's not as heartfelt as you think it is."
"It's not?"
"Did they start about an hour ago?"
"Yes…"
Lucy said, "I was cooking bacon for breakfast and baking cookies for a birthday at the guild. An hour ago, bacon and cookie smells were coming from my house. These guys have sharp noses."
Anna sighed. "Boys? That's kind of terrible. I thought you were being cute. You really just wanted treats?"
They'd heard the words 'cookie' and 'bacon' and had no interest in any other conversation, so this was ignored.
Lucy gave in and brought them to the kitchen for leftover breakfast and cookies.
"Cookies at breakfast," Anna mumbled.
Laxus replied, "Not acceptable. This is second breakfast for them, so I think it's okay. They now know a total of what, three words?"
"They've learned the word 'no.'"
Her parents laughed at the same time.
Anna sighed. "Why are you laughing? Do you have any idea what it's like for me right now?"
"That's basically what makes it funny," her father explained.
Their daughter shook her head in disapproval. "I have mean parents."
Laxus said, "Hey, you want me to watch the twins today?"
Anna replied, "Mom said during the first week of the month you always offer to watch the babies because you want to avoid closing the books at work. Lisanna is watching them while I'm training this morning, and you're going to go do your paperwork, Master. It would be a shame for you to shirk your responsibilities."
She took her sons and left, and with few other options, Laxus was left to face a day of doing paperwork. Since that meant he'd be in the office with his wife all day, he didn't mind too much, but if it weren't for her, it would have been hell.
On the way to the guild, Lucy grabbed his hand and squeezed it. "You know what I realized?"
"Hmm?"
"We're getting to be one of those cute older couples that holds hands and walks arm-in-arm around town."
"Are we that old that it's cute again?"
Lucy replied by grabbing his bicep and rubbing on it. "To me, you never stopped being cute."
"I've got a good wife. She keeps me young. I'm aging faster than she is, and I think people are starting to suspect I'm a dirty old man," he teased.
"You are. It's okay. I like it."
Laxus said, "I've noticed Anna has been toughening up lately. Those boys are to blame for that, I guess."
"She really has. I was thinking the other day if something happened and the kids suddenly didn't have us anymore that they'd really be fine. They'd take care of each other. Love each other. Fight for each other. Live for each other. I'm excited to see how things are as they keep growing up."
"I plan on us living longer than Warrod did."
"That might be too long."
He answered, "However long, I don't feel like it's going to seem like enough time with you."
He heard her breath catch in her throat, and he stopped. "What's wrong?"
Lucy answered, "Nothing. We can talk about it later."
Laxus grabbed her, pulled her close, and smelled the skin on her neck. It was faint, but if he looked for it, he could smell medicine. "Are you sick?"
"It came back."
'It' didn't even need to be named.
"Since when?"
His wife said, "I just found out three days ago. I don't really want to deal with this at this point. The treatments and statistics are worse the second time around. Anyway, there's nothing we can do about it now. Let's just go to work and think about it later."
"What do you mean 'think about it later?!'"
Lucy sighed. "I wasn't ready to tell you yet. I just want to have a good day today. Can you give me that?"
Laxus nearly melted where he stood at the idea his wife might be ill again because he'd never really gotten over how terrifying and traumatic the experience had been the first time. Yet he knew if he lost it and freaked out, the person who would try and calm him down was his ill wife.
Her request was clear; have one normal day.
"Let's compromise. I'll let you hang around the guild this morning, but you're not doing any work, and you need to go home at two and rest."
"But what about the bookkeeping?"
"I can manage on my own."
Lucy wasn't at all fond of his immediate knee-jerk reaction to stop her from doing guild work, but she didn't feel like arguing either because she knew he wouldn't let her win. Despite being very easygoing, if he felt like something was healthy for her, he couldn't be talked out of it no matter what.
She said, "I'm taking Mavis to her appointment at three."
"I can do that. You can go home and take a nap. That medicine makes you tired, right? If you keep up your regular schedule, it's going to make you feel worse."
"You're getting on my nerves now," she complained.
"I don't care. I'm going to take better care of you this time. Last time, we had a house full of half-grown kids and a baby. This time, we have Lex and he's not high maintenance. I can handle the guild, and you can handle yourself. If you think too much about everyone else and waste your energy, you'll be tired and I'll be pissed."
Despite having a generally relaxed personality, Laxus was immediately on edge and unable to hide the fact that he was scared. Their last experience with this evil had been indescribably difficult for Lucy and frustrating for him. He never felt like he could do enough to help her, and spent much of her illness feeling helpless and scared that he would lose his wife and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
With the recent events that had taken place, they'd recently been reminded that death was a very real and inescapable part of life. Watching their son cope with the loss of his fiancée had already stirred up all Laxus' feelings and fears because he knew he'd come close to having to suffer the same devastation.
His mind was filled with questions, the most pressing one being where the cancer had come back and what could be done about it. Previously, Lucy had her breasts surgically removed and this achieved the goal of removing the unwanted growths. It wasn't like any person had a lot of body parts that could just be removed if they went bad.
Lucy could tell from how hard he was breathing that he was upset, so she hugged onto his arm. "Calm down. I love you, okay? Don't worry about me. I hate that."
"You really are the most difficult woman in the world. I love you, but you're a pain in the ass. I can worry about whatever the hell I want. You're my wife. I'm allowed to be afraid if you're not well."
When they got to the guild, Lucy added her plate of cookies to a birthday party for one of the guild's kids, and now banned from the paperwork, spent her morning making the rounds and doing her best to have fun. She did try to check on her husband and found him up to his nose in bookkeeping he was actually working diligently on.
He looked up at her from behind reading glasses. "I told you that you can't work, right?"
"I just came to see what you're up to. I'm allowed to come visit my husband while he works, or no? Cause I can throw a temper tantrum that'll make Layla seem reasonable if you're going to be a jerk about this."
He took off his glasses and tapped his fingers on the desk. "What did the doctor say? A little unhappy you did all that without even telling me, but you did it like that last time too."
"I don't know. It doesn't matter right? I'll be fine."
"Where is it?"
Lucy said, "In my spine, and my lungs a little."
If he was only a hopeful idiot, he might have been inclined to be a little optimistic, but he wasn't. He'd read books and knew very well back then that when Lucy had her surgery the doctors said if the cancer had already spread, there was little chance. If it came back, it would be worse and treatments wouldn't work as well.
If Lucy had gotten anything like a favorable prognosis, she would have just come right out and said it. The fact she didn't say the doctor told her she had a good chance of being fine was proof she'd been told something else.
He felt like he hated everything in the world for a minute, but quickly calmed himself down.
In the end, he didn't make her repeat whatever the grim news was. If it was a slim chance of survival or none at all, it didn't really matter. She was sick, and he was going to save her.
"This isn't like last time. I'm not going to sit back and watch you fight. You don't get to leave me. You don't get to scare me. You have to stay here with me. You promised. It's about time for you to go home and rest, isn't it?"
Lucy wanted to escape from the intensity of this discussion so she actually jumped at the chance to leave. Plus, she felt a lump in her throat and she didn't want to cry in front of him. If she did, she was worried he would, and she didn't want to unravel him at the guild.
Once she was gone, he poured himself into the paperwork for the sake of distraction until it was time for him to take Mavis to her appointment.
When he showed up at her door, she seemed slightly disappointed and annoyed he wasn't Lucy.
"Where's Mom?"
"Taking a day off. You have to deal with me. Apologies for the inconvenience."
Mavis came down the steps, ignored his suggestions to put on a jacket, and started making her way down the street.
Laxus sighed and walked alongside her. "It always puzzles me exactly how much you prefer your mother to me. Did I do something to grievously terrible to you?"
"Of course not. You're a good dad. Mom is just special. I don't know why but for a few months I've felt really clingy to Mom. Even before I got knocked up," she answered.
He had noticed this behavior and had been wondering for months what the cause of it was, but the last time she'd had separation problems with Lucy was when Lucy was sick. It was obvious Mavis had no active knowledge her mother had become ill, but there was no underestimating her senses. He assumed some part of her was aware something was wrong and her active mind just hadn't grasped it yet.
"Are you doing better?"
Mavis put her hands on her belly and replied, "I haven't been throwing up as much. I'm really tired. I've been bleeding still. It scares me when it happens."
"You've been looking healthier on most days."
When they got to the office, Laxus was surprised that it smelled like Yuri had been there, which was puzzling since he wasn't a woman, didn't have a woman, and places like this were generally considered toxic to single men.
He sat in the waiting room while she was with the doctor, thinking back to when he was young. When Porlyusica was still around, they'd had fewer contacts with traditional doctors. As far as healers were concerned, she was somewhat unique and there was no replacing her. The twins had involved quite a few visits like this to a doctor's office, and he found the experience still seemed to be the same. There were a couple of expectant women with their partners chattering excitedly about the future.
When Mavis came out, she seemed stunned and listlessly made her way to the counter, which was followed by a return to reality and a few expletives directed at her brother.
Laxus wondered how many different ways his kids could possibly cause trouble and stood up just as Mavis was ready to storm out.
"What's going on?"
"Yuri is nosy and he's dumb and I didn't need his help."
"What did he do?"
Mavis shoved an itemized receipt in her pocket. "Damn him!"
"It's weird you're mad at your brother about something involving a gynecologist, can I just say that?"
She hissed at him and stomped out the door.
Laxus sighed. "You hissed like a snake?"
He followed her out into the cold and was treated to a furious rant about how her brother had done a very good deed that insulted her pride and made her feel like he must have found her pitiful.
"Don't be ridiculous, Mavis. Who in our family is more pitiful than Yuri? He's just doing what he does. Relax and enjoy the fact you're in a family that loves and takes care of you. Don't be terrible to people who are nice to you."
When she shivered because she'd been too stubborn to put on a jacket, he threw his coat over her shoulders and she became instantly silent, pulling it around her. "Warmth…my Dad's warmth…"
She sat down on a bench they were passing and re-entered her trance-like state.
"Are you all right? Did you get some kind of news? Good, bad?"
Mavis put both hands on her tummy. "The baby is a girl, Dad. I just assumed I would have a boy. I think I could be an okay mom to a boy. But a girl? I'm not good at being a girl. I don't do girly things. I don't know about being a girl. I don't braid hair or whatever. I never played with dolls or went through a boy crazy stage. I didn't go through a lot of things normal girls do."
"I don't really want to spoil the game too much, but there's literally no chance whatever you have in there is normal."
She took his hand and put it right on top of her bump. "You've done this a lot of times, right? Felt lots of magic babies before they were born?"
"Sure."
"Do you sense any magic that isn't mine?"
As soon as he tried to find it, he knew it was missing. Her crazed, overprotective, territorial attitude towards people touching her belly had been both animal instinct and a deliberate attempt to keep people from finding out her baby was without—one of the ten percent of the population who didn't have a magic container and could not use magic of any kind.
A baby with a magic container in a mother that didn't have one was magically dormant in the womb, but if both mother and baby had a magic container, the baby would metabolize the ethernano from the mother's body, creating a detectable source of magic.
"Your baby has no magic."
"I started to suspect a while ago. Mom and Anna both said their magic was constantly being depleted. I've never sensed mine trickling out of me."
Laxus gave her belly a rub. "How do you feel about that?"
His daughter said, "I just imagined at first I'd have a lightning-breathing boy. How can I possibly be a good parent to a little girl who doesn't even use magic? I don't even know what ordinary people think about or what their lives are really like. I was born into the world of magic and it's all I know. I have a great mother. How can I measure up to that when I might not even understand what my baby is like?"
"You'll be just fine, Mavi. Parenting is mostly instinct. As a mother, you'll understand what your baby needs, and you're a very loving person so you'll do your best to look after your little girl."
"But doesn't it seem a little messed up? Like Anna's wires are crossed with mine and we got sent the wrong babies. I think she'd be the perfect person to look after a little magic-less girl. I think I could handle her demon boys. But somehow it was switched."
This actually did seem a little opposite even to Laxus, but he assumed it was probably the universe's way of having a nice laugh at everyone's expense. Besides, the boys toughed Anna up and made her considerably more fortuitous. Raising a fragile baby girl would probably soften Mavis and humble her to make her a stronger person.
Laxus answered, "Not being able to use magic may be more of a blessing than a curse. When you're powerful, you try to use that power to change the world. Ordinary people don't get into that much trouble. Your daughter will be able to focus on her studies, maybe go to university, join a profession. Maybe be a doctor or a baker or a journalist. She probably has more options than you ever did."
"You think?"
"The strife the world of magic brings to all of you hurts my heart as a parent. I don't want you to run off and fight. I don't want you to be in danger. But there's no running from the magic world. You can try to run from it like Lilia did, but those of us that are packing heat have to fight for our dreams or someone else will come along and crush them and us."
Mavis said, "What if she's scrawny like me, but not able to defend herself. She could get bullied at school. Or feel weak. Or have people be cruel and she won't be able to fight back."
"Two things: first, ordinary people can learn to defend themselves just fine against other ordinary people. And second, she's going to grow up with some rowdy, strong cousins, right? They'll be at school together, and one thing that's true about our clan is that as crazy as it is, we stick together."
As soon as he explained, Mavis knew her father was probably right. Like her siblings, she'd joined the world of magic because it was her nature. It was a difficult lifestyle; she had a scar on her shoulder and couldn't raise one of her arms completely from the injury in Oaktown. Getting stabbed through the arm with a dragon sword wasn't something a normal person would ever experience.
Plus, it was her baby. It was her instinct to believe and hope in all the best things.
She leaned on her dad as he sat there next to her. "I don't think I say it enough, or at all, really, but you're a really cool dad."
"The relationship between fathers and daughters is important. I think your little one is going to have a great father. He's excited to become a parent. I think you did well in choosing him."
"He's all right I guess."
After a minute or so, she said, "Maybe she should be a Nanagear. But then she'd have a different last name than me. In a family, shouldn't we all be the same?"
"You don't want to marry, right?"
Mavis replied, "Do you think that's wrong?"
"No. I wasn't always like this. I didn't really see myself ever getting married or raising a family. If you don't really want to be married, then you shouldn't do it."
Mavis said, "I think we're kind of stuck. When I'm older than you, I'll probably live in the same house with Baby Orga. When I think my life would be like that forever, that seems fine. But a baby changes things. We're not just two dumb people who like to fuck and moved in just because that makes it easier."
Laxus' brows rose and he made no comment whatsoever to this utterance.
"When I think now that my baby is a girl, I want her to have the kind of family that I have. The truth is that family means everything to me. We're the Dreyars. I remember being little and when I was afraid, I'd crawl into your bed at night. The fact you were married mattered to me. It created security for me. Your marriage to mom is like the foundation of our entire family. I want my family to be like ours. Except without a lot of kids. I kind of plan on this being the only time this happens."
He listened to her, and didn't see a flaw in her logic. Just living together didn't bother her sense of morality at all as the idea of something being wrong just because someone said it was happened to be contrary to how his daughter's mind worked. Marriage as a legal matter had no interest for her, and the idea she should get married just because she got pregnant wasn't Mavis-thinking.
Under all that, when she considered the fundamental meaning of it, things were different.
Laxus said, "You have to always follow your heart, but we grow and change throughout our lives. The truth is you don't have to get married just because you have a baby. You don't have to be stubborn about not getting married just because you've always said you'll never do it."
"But a husband is different than a boyfriend. A wife is different than a girlfriend. A husband and wife with a baby is different for a baby than a boyfriend and girlfriend that had a kid."
"I agree with that. Layla would say it's backwards patriarchal thinking that only a troglodyte would believe. I guess that makes me a troglodyte."
Mavis said, "But am I really supposed to give serious consideration to thoughts on marriage from the person who married Sam Redfox? I don't think so. If Sam did half of what he did to her to me, I would have ended him ten years ago and left his body in a ditch to be devoured by vultures."
Laxus kissed her hair. "Be nice. Anyway, I heard you've been nesting. Your mom would clean and decorate, scrub the house down, reorganize everything ten times. It was cute."
"I built an actual nest."
His head tilted so he could look directly at her. "Are you serious?"
"I found this huge basket, and before I knew it, I covered all the hard parts in fabric and fuzz and then put blankets and pillows in it. It's really comfy looking. I think the baby will like it."
To this, he just laughed, because it was such a weird and Mavis thing to do.
Unplanned and ill-timed, the pregnancy had definitely disrupted his daughter's life, but in some ways, he could tell she was getting a lot more comfortable and confident with herself as a woman. Previously, the fact she was girl seemed to mostly be an inconvenient thing she had to deal with for one week out of the month. Her outrageous temper was somewhat calmed, and she opened up and really talked to her parents really for the first time in her life.
He warned, "If you decide to do it, you can't just go do it. Your mom was actually really hurt that Layla didn't have a proper wedding. We don't expect you to subject yourself to a massive ceremony, but a little something would be nice. Include us, we made you."
He walked her home, and was unable to do anything else until he saw her nest just because he was extremely curious. It was actually huge and occupied most of the center of the baby's room. It looked quite soft, and the kind of place a baby or toddler would quite enjoy. The nest was also big enough Mavis could curl up in there with her baby, which was probably intentional.
"I just realized what my baby's name is supposed to be."
He looked up from his examination of the nest. "Oh?"
"Lucy. Lucy Nanagear."
His expression warmed. "That's a perfect name. I'm sure your mother would agree. If you were having a boy, would you name him 'Laxus?'"
"Of course not. Why would I do that?" she teased, crinkling her nose up with her most obnoxious grin.
After he left her, he returned to the guild to finish his work, which he ended up working on well into the night. Levy had mercy on him when she saw he was still at work when she was getting ready to go home and they stayed at the guild until eleven doing what usually took Lucy just five or six hours per month.
When he got home, Lucy was waiting up for him and he wished she had just gone to bed.
She warmed up dinner for him, and when he sat down to eat, discovered the noise of the kids was somewhat missed in these tense, quiet moments.
He ate in silence while she sat there watching him.
When he finished, he scraped his plate and washed it in the sink. "Are you up to talk?"
"I'm not really ready to talk about it."
"Please…I need to know."
Lucy said, "There's not much to know. At least according to my doctor, there's not a real chance for it to just go away. The choices we have are to take treatments and live longer with a small chance, or to not take treatments had have it better for a shorter amount of time. He said six to twelve months like he wasn't telling me I was going to die."
She didn't cry when she said it, or even really seem scared.
The fear had always been there that they'd end up right where they were and, in some ways, they'd thought those fears through enough times it almost felt like it was always going to happen.
"You're going to be fine," he quickly said.
His wife replied, "We may not get a chance this time. I just don't want to disrupt everything and everybody. This should be a better time for us. With everything Yuri just went through I feel like this is just going to make everyone feel sad again. So I don't want the kids to know right now. If we play our cards right, I think we can keep it to ourselves for a while."
"You started taking the medicine?"
"Fighting for a little chance is better than just giving up. I'm not sure if I'm still going to feel that way if all I end up doing is ruining the time I have left. I don't want this to happen. I don't want to die. I want to watch our family grow. I want to stay here with you. I don't understand why this happened again," her voice cracked, and he grabbed her and pulled her close when she started crying.
Laxus said, "I'm not going to let you go."
She absolutely fell to pieces just like that, and he didn't let her go until she was all cried out.
"You're strong. You're going to stay here with me, you hear me?"
Lucy assumed he was just trying to make her feel better, because their previous battle had taught them that all problems couldn't be fixed with magic. Sometimes, people got sick and they died and there was nothing anyone could do to stop that from happening.
To cheer her up, he said, "Have you talked to Mavis since this afternoon?"
"No, we're having breakfast tomorrow."
"She's having a girl. She's going to name the baby Lucy. I figure that's a good name for a baby. My favorite person in the whole is a Lucy, you know."
"Really? Who is this Lucy?"
"The best thing that could have ever happened to an idiot like me."
Lucy sniffed and said, "First grandbaby named after one of us is me, you owe me ten thousand jewels."
XXX
After returning from their trip to the ruins later that weekend, Lex spent the better part of three hours recounting their adventure in surprising detail. They'd seen a sprawling temple in ruins, and gardens that had become overgrown and reclaimed the once prestigious area.
He told them all about the different animals they saw hiking through the wilderness, climbing a tree to escape a bear, learning how to dress scratches in the field, and a sunset so beautiful even a little boy was awestruck by it.
The older kids dropped in to check in and talk, and a while after they left, Laxus put on his coat and headed out to find his son.
Yuri was home alone in the rowhouse he shared with Petri, who was out with Layla.
The house was surprisingly neat and clean for a place where two men lived together. It seemed a little plain, but Laxus had overheard Layla mention it needed a woman's touch and then being immediately banned from putting anything on the walls or attempting to decorate.
Yuri offered his dad a beer and sat with him on a big leather sofa in the living room.
Laxus popped the cap off and sipped it. "You're all right?"
"I'm fine. You don't look okay though, Dad. I didn't want to say anything in front of Lex, but you look awful. Tired."
Laxus nodded. "I've had something on my mind."
"Is there something I can help with?"
His father dryly answered, "What did you do with that lacrima?"
Yuri looked like he'd just been kicked in the stomach. "You mean…"
Laxus nodded. "Did you destroy it or hide it or get rid of it?"
"No. I have it. I couldn't bring myself to do anything with it. You're talking like you want it for something."
He hesitated and then said, "Your mother's cancer has returned. This time it's worse. There's not a real chance she's not going to be okay this time. I didn't plan on dropping the news on you like this. I know you're emotionally tired and you've been through a lot."
Yuri held his hand out and the tiny lacrima suddenly bubbled out of the palm of his hand. "I've been holding it inside. For some reason, I didn't want it to get cold. I understand its not a person. It's just a weird feeling I have. Do you think this can help Mom somehow?"
"I'm sure it can. Your mom is a human who has the ability to use magic. You're a magical creature born because some of your genetic material came from a dragonslayer hybrid. Dragon-blooded wizards are superior in part to the fact their physical body is different. When Natsu eats something that's not supposed to be in his body, his body ejects it. Same thing with you. When you ate Baby Orga's lightning, you were able to burn off the lightning element and puked up whatever about that spell that makes the lightning black.
"I'm fused with a dragon lacrima. When it was put in my body, it wasn't really unlike cancer. It started to spread out and change by body. My asthmatic lungs and weak muscles weren't like that anymore. By the same thought, I'm sure if we put this inside of your mother, it's going to try and do the same thing to her body and in the process, stop the other process. If cancer is trying to destroy her spine and lungs, the dragon magic will destroy it and make them stronger."
His son listened, both reeling from shock that his mother might be dying, and the idea that he might be holding her cure in his hand.
Yuri worriedly said, "What if she experiences rejection? I don't want to kill Mom. She could die."
Laxus replied, "She won't. I believe her body developed some kind of tolerance toward dragon blood from carrying two of you. If her body didn't agree with it, you wouldn't have survived in the womb. Your magic was definitely crossing over and mixing with hers because she would occasionally go through periods her body generated static electricity. With the twins, she grew a patch of scales on her side from Mavis. If you think about it, this magic was passed down from you, and you came from your mother, so this magic has already been inside of her. She grew it, nurtured it."
Yuri held out the lacrima and tipped his palm so it rolled into his father's hand. "You're talking about turning Mom into one of us."
"Let's consider the alternative. It is dangerous. I don't want her to get sick again, Yuri. I can't just stand around while she goes through that again, especially without believing she's going to be okay."
"Do you really think Mom would let you put that thing in her? She knows where it came from."
His father answered, "I plan on doing it without her consent or telling her about it. That medication is going to make her sick and the lacrima is small enough I don't think it's going to manifest any outward powers. She'll assume she doesn't feel well because she wouldn't feel right anyway. It's possible she won't notice."
"What happens if Mom wakes up spitting lightning?"
"She'll be pissed off but probably in excellent health. I love your mother. I'm not going to watch her die. There are things I can deal with, and I like to think I'm a strong person, but that's one thing I can't survive. If she's mad at me for days or weeks or months or even for the rest of our lives, I can accept that."
Yuri and everyone else in the world knew Laxus and Lucy were very much in love with each other. Even after all the years, the kids, the guild, and all that happened, he felt like his dad had never really outgrown having a certain sense of puppy love towards his mother. If she went on a job, he brooded until she came back. He needed her attention, her company, to be close to her at all times possible even if it was only to annoy her.
When his father said he couldn't survive without his wife, Yuri really believed him.
He and Lilia hadn't even married yet and the sting of her loss was so lifechanging he felt like he was disoriented and disjointed on the inside and nearly incapable of getting right again. It was impossible to try and imagine how much more intense his father would suffer if his mother got sick and died.
It wasn't just him either. They had a huge family, and everyone—including Yuri himself—needed Lucy.
Yuri knew his father wouldn't have shown up and made the request if there was any other way, so he didn't argue.
The young wizard also believed there was no chance at all Lucy wasn't going to figure out what he did, probably as soon as he did it. Even if she didn't notice it on her own, the other lightning-users would sense it in her, and in their little neighborhood alone, that included not only him and his father but both Nanagears next door, Mavis, and Taryn.
Someone was going to tell her.
But his father was fine with dealing with the consequences of what he was about to do and Yuri decided he was probably making the best choice for everyone.
Laxus took the lacrima home and let out a sigh of relief once it was safely locked up in his upstairs study. He'd been afraid his son destroyed it, which would have left them with little to no options. He also considered trying to track down another lacrima, but putting a strange lacrima into an already sick body probably would have resulted in death.
From their last time dealing with the illness, Laxus knew there were very few options outside of what doctors could do.
Laxus really didn't care how angry she got with him, or how long she stayed that way. As her husband, he was incapable of watching her be sick like that again, especially to the end that she would ultimately die. He didn't even understand why Lucy of all people had to go through this struggle—again—when she was one of the most wonderful, selfless people he'd ever known.
They had too much to do together still.
When he went back downstairs, Lex was playing with the dog and Lucy was watching him from the kitchen while she sipped a cup of tea. She had a sad look on her face, and he knew she was thinking about how she probably wasn't going to get to see him grow into an adult.
He joined her and wrapped an arm around her. "Enough with that face."
"Just thinking…"
"I'm not going to let anything happen to you. Just trust me this once."
Lucy attributed this to her husband being stubborn and trying to put on a brave face, but she accepted his optimism anyway. It made her feel happy, and it reminded her that she'd spent most of her life with a wonderful man who always supported and loved her.
If this was as far as she got, it was okay.
Lucy wanted to stay and accomplish so much more with her life, but if she didn't have a choice but to go, she didn't have any regrets about the life she'd lived. She'd seen so many places, taken part in some incredible battles, overcome nearly every obstacle in her life, found a wonderful partner to share her adult life with, and raised four incredible children to adulthood.
That left Lex, but she knew she might have to trust her husband to take him the rest of the way.
"Hey, I told you to stop thinking like that. It's pissing me off," he complained.
"You never change. I'm glad."
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I'll explain the Magic Council/Saints thing better in the next chapter. Sorry if it's confusing. I imagine things and then don't flesh them out completely when I'm writing chapters so I know how it works in my head.