This will not have angst. This will not have angst. This will not have angst.
Fluff. Fluff. Fluff. Fluff. Fluff.
I can't tell if my new mantra is working.
Day 4: Protect(ion)
Laxus had a nightly ritual.
Every night when he and his girlfriend went to sleep, he would stay awake.
Only long enough for him to move into the most comfortable position in the world (to him anyway) without any protests from the petite woman he was head-over-heels for.
Once he was certain she was asleep, he would gently remove her clinging limbs from his body and turn her so that she was laying on her back. After accomplishing that much without waking her, he would slide down the bed, wrap his arms around her tiny waist, and use her stomach as a pillow.
Which is exactly where he found himself one fall night. One that he would probably remember for the rest of his life.
The Lightning Dragon Slayer didn't understand why or how he found it so comfortable. Her stomach wasn't all that soft, instead it was rather toned and firm from years of training her body with only a little bit of 'squish' as she called it.
Maybe it was because he loved being so close to her.
Maybe it was the way her hands always found their way to sift through his hair, even in sleep.
Maybe it was how he found the tiny gurgling noises her stomach occasionally made adorable.
Or maybe it was because of how easy it was to reach the part of her body that would wake her with pleasure.
Whatever it was, he loved it, and could hardly fall asleep without it.
With a content sigh, Laxus nuzzled into her soft flesh and closed his eyes.
…only for then to snap open in shock a few seconds later.
"What the hell…" He murmured quietly, pressing his ear firmly against her lower abdomen.
With his magic, Laxus was accustomed to having enhanced senses. Nothing usually got by him, period.
So imagine his shock and confusion when he discovered that his girlfriend of a little over a year had more than one heartbeat in her body.
He sat there dumbfounded for the longest time, trying to find the answer to this strange phenomenon.
She had never had an extra heartbeat previously, at least as long as he'd known her.
How the hell did she have one now?
The new heartbeat was incredibly faint, so faint that if he wasn't right up against her stomach he probably wouldn't have heard it at all.
He debated waking her up to ask her about it, but immediately scrapped the idea. A Lucy woken up before she was ready was basically a death sentence, and despite being one of the strongest in the guild, Scary Lucy terrified him.
As he laid there, thinking up any and every possible answer, it finally hit him.
…Hard. Like a sack filled with bricks swung by an enraged Mira. (He would know, her teenage years where traumatizing to anyone who crossed her path. Which he did. More so than anyone else.)
The large blonde actually blanched, his head flying off of her stomach.
He stared at the creamy expanse of exposed skin in utter disbelief.
"No fucking way…" He whispered, eyes widening more by the second as the realization registered in his mind.
His girlfriend, was pregnant.
Cautiously, he lowered his ear back down. Sure enough, the light strumming of a tiny heart diligently pumping blood remained, steady and strong.
Laxus Dreyar was going to be a dad.
The idea alone was enough to leave him flabbergasted, completely and utterly astonished.
But he couldn't help but wonder how this came to be, no pun intended.
They always wore protection, even though she took a birth control potion every three months. With them both being members of Fairy Tail, they wanted to be as careful as possible. He knew for a fact that Lucy wanted to become a mother someday, but way in the future. Preferably after becoming S-class.
Not when she was barely twenty years old and unmarried.
He knew she never forgot to take the potion, as she'd smell faintly of Queen Anne's Lace for up to a week following the dosage.
A niggling in the back of his mind caught his attention and he focused on it as hard as he could.
Oh.
Oh.
Well, shit.
There was one night that they didn't use a condom, and it was a little over a month ago. However, she had just taken her potion the week prior so she shouldn't have gotten knocked up.
He was not good at dealing with strong emotions, and he did not handle change well unless he was in control of it. It took him a long time to sort through how he was feeling and deal with it accordingly. But with this kind of situation, he knew he didn't have much time to figure everything out. As much as he wanted to wait for the small blonde beneath him to figure it out on her own, their occupation as mages meant he had to let her know soon.
It wasn't that he hated the idea of having brats of his own. He just never really wanted them. Being a mage was something he devoted his life to, and having a baby would put a wrench in everything.
Laxus knew he wouldn't be getting any sleep that night, yet for some reason he couldn't move his head away from the newly discovered sound to get up and do something to bide the time.
Sighing heavily, he willed sleep to take him, knowing that overthinking the situation wouldn't help anything.
Mavis, he needed a strong drink.
}{}{}{
The following evening, Laxus found himself sitting with his team at a pub a few blocks away from the guild.
Well, most of the team.
Evergreen was off gallivanting with Elfman (read, screwing like rabbits) so that left him with Bickslow and Freed.
One glance at Freed told him, and everyone that looked his way that he'd much rather be somewhere else. Like back at the guild so he could spend time with Mira. It was funny really. The entire guild thought that Mira and himself would end up together. However, no one knew of the feelings the green-haired mage harbored for the barmaid. Laxus merely thought of her as the nagging younger sister he never really asked for. Not to say that he didn't love her dearly, she just constantly pestered him to settle down with a girl. Then once he announced his relationship with Lucy, the demon matchmaker started hounding him for babies.
Oh…right. That's why he was trying to drink himself stupid.
"Care to explain why we are here? We never drink anywhere but the guild when we are home." Freed huffed, taking a small sip of his white wine. Psh. Pansy.
That though in mind, Laxus slammed back the rest of his bourbon in one go.
"Needed time away to work something out." He grunted, signaling the burly bartender for another round.
"'Bout what, boss-man?" Bickslow asked, his totems swirling above the hulking blonde's head and repeating 'what's the matter'.
"Is there something bothering you?" Freed asked, turning to place all of his undivided attention on him.
Laxus sighed. "It's about Lucy."
Bicks snorted. "What, did you piss her off again?" The totems began to shiver exaggeratedly. 'Scary Lucy! Scary Lucy!'
Letting all of his pent up and conflicting emotions bubble over, Laxus almost shattered his now empty glass against the gritty bar top. "Why the hell does everyone assume I piss her off so much!?" He roared.
Bickslow and Freed tried to get him to open up about his problem, but he refused to answer them. In all honestly, he felt like acting childish for a moment, so he did.
By giving them the silent treatment.
After a while, his team mates gave up on getting him to talk. Fifteen minutes later, Laxus sighed wearily, scrubbing a hand down his face.
"Lucy's pregnant." He said quietly. It was so odd to say the words out loud.
"She's what?!" The two of them, along with Bickslow's totems cried. He usually called them babies, but Laxus was feeling a bit bitter towards the word at the moment.
"You heard me. She's got a bun in the oven. Makes no sense, either. She takes those potions that prevent pregnancy and I always use a condom." He hunched over, burring his face in his hands on the bar.
"One time." He muttered, the sound muffled through his hands. "One time I don't wear one and she gets knocked up."
"What does Miss Lucy say about all of this?" Freed asked.
"She doesn't. I heard the heartbeat for the first time last night and put the pieces together."
Bickslow let out a long whistle. "Wow, how the hell do you break it to your girl that she's pregnant? Ha. You should become a midwife. With those ears you'd make big money." The totems wiggled above the Seith mage's head. 'Big money! Big money!'
Laxus straightened in his seat, his glare stating how close the Seith mage was to being electrocuted. "Don't you think I realize I'll have to do that? How the hell should I know?" He snapped.
Lightning danced dangerously around his fingertips, not even close to being in the mood to deal with the man's obnoxious teasing.
"You need to shut the hell up if you're not going to say anything helpful." He said scathingly.
The helmeted mage held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Hey now! There's no need to go all dragon-rage on me. It's not my fault you rode bareback in her cock-pocket." The totems did a little spin over the bar. 'Cock-pocket! Cock-pocket!'
The bartender broke into a fit of cackling laughter, and Laxus just stared blankly at his best friend.
Finally, the numb haze that usually only appeared when the perverted man made a particularly outlandish statement cleared.
Without a word, Laxus stood from his barstool, swung his jacket over his shoulder, and walked out the door shaking his head.
He ignored the calls from his team telling him to come back, and teleported back to the house he shared with his girlfriend.
On the bright side, the house he owned had several bedrooms and plenty of open space for the kid to run around. He'd bought it nearly eight years ago, well fifteen including the time skip, with money saved from S-class missions. His team lived with him for a while, before they all realized it was a horrible idea. Being with each other constantly almost ruined their relationships and split the team apart. Everyone moved out pretty quickly after that, and after having some space their dynamic thankfully went back to normal.
Upon entering his front door, he shed his fur-lined jacket and hung it on the coat rack. He unlaced his boots, placed them by the significantly smaller pairs Lucy had lined up by the door, and wandered through the house in search of his girlfriend.
He knew she was home, catching how fresh her scent was immediately, along with the smell of meat sizzling in hot oil and freshly baked bread.
Instead of entering the kitchen and announcing his presence, Laxus leaned against the doorway, watching the woman cooking dinner in fond amusement.
Lucy was humming a cheerful tune, wiggling her shapely hips as she stirred a pot of what smelled like mushrooms and rice. When she was finished stirring, she'd shuffle her feet to the beat of the tune, dancing over to flip the chicken she was pan-frying.
Her head bobbed as she moved, sending her long golden locks swaying back and forth behind her.
Mavis, she was beautiful.
A ray of sunshine. And oh, how he loved everything about her.
Suddenly the scene changed in front of him. Instead of the impeccably fit woman dancing in front of him, he saw the same scene, except for the fact that her belly was profoundly larger and rounder than it was now. She didn't look very far along, but it was glaringly obvious that she was pregnant, not just a little chubby.
It changed once more, and now he watched his girlfriend while she danced and cooked, a tiny blonde baby giggling and bouncing on her hip as she moved.
Something warm bloomed in his chest, and he found himself studying the child intently. Golden blonde curls pulled into little pigtails and tied with pink ribbon. Impossibly tiny, pudgy fingers clutched tightly to her mother's blouse. Stormy blue eyes, exactly like his own, open wide with glee. Her giggling mouth open to reveal mostly toothless gums.
She was perfect, he decided.
"Laxus? When did you get home?" His girlfriend's voice shattered the illusion, and he almost felt like crying when his daughter's image vanished with it.
Shaking his head, he forced himself to smile at the petite blonde woman watching him with curious and concerned eyes.
"Just now."
Concern never leaving her chocolate gaze, she continued studying his face. "Are you feeling okay? I called your name a few times, but it took you a while to respond."
His forced smile became genuine at how much she always cared about him. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired."
Lucy shrugged and resumed cooking, and he took a seat on one of the high-back barstools tucked under the marble island.
"And uh… how are you feeling today?" He asked hesitantly.
She looked at him over her shoulder with a raised brow. "I'm fine. A little more tired than usual, but fine otherwise. I'm actually going to go to bed early after we eat. Team Natsu has a mission in the morning and I feel like I need some extra sleep."
That stopped him short, and he half considered telling her right then. But he just wasn't ready. "What kind of a mission is it?" He asked, hoping he sounded casual in asking.
Luckily she didn't find the question suspicious, humming in thought as she pulled down several plates and some silverware from the cupboard. "Oh, nothing too crazy. We just have to find the mayor's daughter a few towns over. He thinks she got lost in the woods. It's too easy for the whole team to go, but the reward is huge! Plus, with Natsu's nose we'll find her in no time."
Relief flooded him and he smiled at her in thanks when she slid a plate to him, piled high with delicious smelling food.
With a mission as simple as this, he didn't have to worry about her getting hurt in her condition. It gave him just a little more time to figure out a way to tell her.
}{}{}{
The next morning Laxus was sitting at his usual table, watching as Lucy gushed to Lisanna and Levy about the new book she was reading. Her team was just waiting on Natsu to arrive, and then they'd be taking the first train to Woodsworth Town. It was only three hours away by train, and was well-known for its production in lumber and large-scale tree farming.
The night before, he had been comfortable with the job she was taking. But now, with her departure coming within the next hour or so, paranoia and a fear he'd never experienced before flooded his entire being.
The idea that she was going to be so far away from him, unknowingly pregnant with his child terrified him.
As far as missions went, anything could happen or go wrong. Team Natsu, Lucy in particular, attracted trouble like a magnet.
She wouldn't know to be cautious of her condition. Her team wouldn't know not to roughhouse her too much.
And he wouldn't be there to protect her or her precious cargo in the instance that something happened.
But how would he tell her now? She was in the middle of the guild, about to leave. He couldn't just spring this on her right before a job. It wasn't fair to her.
Finally, Natsu showed up. Lucy blew the frustrated blonde a kiss from where she stood and then skipped out the doors with her team.
"You're seriously going to let her go off with the most destructive team in all of Fiore without telling her?"
Laxus started, broken out of his inner turmoil by an uncharacteristically serious Bickslow taking the chair next to him.
His totems were silent, as they usually were on the rare occasion the Seith mage had a serious conversation, and his usual tongued grin was nowhere to be seen, a frown in its place. This was such a rare occurrence, Laxus actually had to rub his eyes to make sure he was really seeing what sat beside him.
"What?" He managed to ask after getting over the mild shock to his system.
Bickslow shook his head and crossed his arms. "Let me lay this out as bluntly as I can for you, Laxus. As a Seith mage, I come across many different kinds of souls. It doesn't matter what kind of Seith mage they are, every single one of us recognizes the most important kind of soul there is. That would be the soul of an unborn baby. Their souls are a pure, they are pure, and innocent. Completely untainted by anything." He moved the grate of his helmet and looked at him with hard eyes. "And right now, because you are too caught up in your own feelings, you are putting one of those souls at potential risk. When it comes down to it, ask yourself this: what is more important, the fact that you aren't ready to face this or your own baby's life and wellbeing?"
With that, the Seith mage stood up and stalked away, his totems trailing silently behind him.
Laxus sat there for all of a minute, the weight of his best friend's words growing heavier and heavier as time stretched on.
Without even a word of warning, the hulking blonde gathered his magic and teleported out of the guild, leaving a clap of thunder and shouting guild mates in his wake.
}{}{}{
In a matter of minutes, he was at the train station.
Ignoring the yelps of anger and surprise around him, he took off after the familiar scent of strawberries and cream.
Just as the blonde he was searching for was about to board the train with her team, Laxus snatched her by the wrist and tugged her back.
"Laxus!? What the hell are you doing here?" The startled Celestial mage shouted in surprise.
"I need to talk to you." He said, his tone conveying how serious he was.
She settled a little, but looked up to him in confusion. "Can't this wait? I'm going to miss the train."
"Oi, Laxus! Stall as much as you can. We can always walk there, right guys?" Natsu looked to his team with hopeful and desperate eyes.
Gray scoffed at his attempt and Erza placed a firm hand on the pinkette's shoulder before addressing Lucy. "We will be waiting for you on the train. It departs in ten minutes, so I suggest you make this quick."
Not giving anyone a chance to argue, mainly Natsu who was now pouting childishly, she dragged the Dragon Slayer across the platform and into the train with Gray at her heels.
When her team was gone, she turned to Laxus with an expression that read she expected answers and fast.
Taking a deep steadying breath, Laxus gently guided the petite blonde to sit with him on a nearby bench.
"Is there something wrong?" She asked, starting to get worried by his odd behavior.
A voice shouted through his mind, sounding too much like Elfman for his liking, to be a real man and get it over with.
"I wouldn't say that it's wrong. Just important that you know." He said, squaring his shoulders and meeting her eyes.
"Okay…"
Taking in a large breath and letting it all go in a rush, he dove in head first. "Have you noticed anything off about yourself lately? Health-wise?"
Lucy blinked for a moment, and he thanked whoever had blessed him with this woman. Instead of asking why or what he meant right away, she took the time to really ponder the question.
"Now that you mention it… I have been tiring easier during the day. And I'm hungry like all of the time. And it's weird, because I missed my…oh. Oh." Her eyes snapped back to his in sudden understanding. "I'm…"
Laxus nodded, reaching over to tuck a loose strand of blonde hair behind her ear.
"But how… how would you know this before even I did?" She asked, confusion evident in her features.
The Dragon Slayer rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I heard it, the heartbeat, two nights ago while you were sleeping. I just couldn't figure out how to tell you."
Lucy wasn't really listening anymore, though. Her chocolate eyes watered, and a hand rose from her lap to gently press against her lower abdomen. "You heard…"
A moment later, her watery gaze met his and even though he would never admit it to anyone, his eyes pricked with tears as well.
"We're going to be parents?" She asked, a serene smile playing at her pretty pink lips.
The train whistle blew and departed, but neither of them paid it any mind.
"Yeah, Blondie. I guess so." He said, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and pulling her into his chest.
They sat there for a minute, until she asked a question he'd been wondering himself. "I don't get it, though. We always use protection. Even that one night should have been fine because of my birth control potion. It has an almost 100% effectiveness rate."
Laxus shrugged, his hand slipping down to join hers over where his, no their, baby was growing.
"I have no idea."
}{}{}{
It was four months later that Lucy got the call via lacrima. The little potions shop where she used to purchase her birth control had accidentally shipped her an expired dose. They offered her compensation for any problems that they could have caused, but she'd declined. Maybe in a different point in her life, she would have been angry with their mistake.
But later that night, as she was lying in bed snuggled up to her Dragon slayer while he traced gentle shapes against her baby bump, she couldn't bring herself to care.
Their false sense of protection with that potion had given her something that meant more to her than anything in this world.
A little family to call her own.
Thank you to everyone who fav/followed/reviewed!
I love you all!
See y'all tomorrow for Summer!