"Hello, guys!" Mira called out from behind the Fairy Tail bar. Natsu and Lucy said hello, and tried to get Nashi and Stella to say something as well, but there was no such luck. The girls were busy looking for their friends.
Mira smiled knowingly; her son had done the same thing when he was small. After he turned ten, however, he decided that it was too childish for him.
The girls spotted their friends and ran off to greet them, but Natsu and Lucy went up to the bar to talk to Mira.
"What's that smile for, Mira?" Lucy asked.
"Oh, just... thinking about Ryu. He used to do the same thing you girls do; look around and run off without saying anything. He's so grown-up now!" She said.
"Aye." Natsu agreed. "Yesterday, I almost mistook him for Laxus!"
Mira sighed. "Yes, he definitely takes after his father. I wish there was some of me in there too, but I guess that's too much to ask for."
It was true. Mira's son, Ryu, had grown to look more and more like his father, Laxus, as the years went by. Everyone assured Mira that he had her eyes, but she knew better. Even his personality came from his father.
"How old is he now?" Lucy asked, then looked around. "And I don't see him anywhere. What's he up to now?"
Mira's face brightened. "He's eleven next month. And currently, he's out of town with Laxus. They're doing a father/son training camp... or something like that. They'll be back the day after tomorrow." You could practically see the glowing pride that radiated from Mira. She loved her son, and it was clear to see why. Not only could the boy use his father's lightning magic, but he was starting to learn Mira's takeover magic as well, and he was excelling in that. All before he was even a teenager. "Anyway," Mira said, "I have to take these drinks over to The Group. Why don't we head over there now?" She asked.
"The Group" was what all the parents in Fairy tail had been dubbed. They usually all sat in the lounge-like part of the guild hall, the parents seated and the children on the floor, playing. Stella and Nashi had already made their way over to the flock of children and were playing some sort of Princess game with Yuki. Yuki was Erza's youngest child. She had her father's electric blue hair and half of his marking under her eye. Her twin brother, older than her by a few minutes, was named Simon. He had Erza's red hair, and the upper half of Jellal's marking. Nobody understood how the twins each got half of their father's unique facial symbol, but everybody loved it, especially Erza. It was adorable!
Among the three girls, there were two boys. One of them was Simon, Erza's oldest child. The other was Storm Fullbuster, who was Juvia and Gray's son. He had a head full of raven-black hair, but he had his mother's eyes to make up for it. Much like Natsu, Juvia had mellowed out in the last few years. She no longer called Gray by any ridiculous nicknames, and she didn't obsess over him to an unhealthy extent either.
Of course, the parents present were not the only parents in Fairy Tail. Bisca and Alzack had their daughter, Asuka, but they were off on a family vacation to celebrate the news of their second child, which they found out about just four weeks ago. And of course, there were the parents-to-be, Gajeel and Levy. They didn't normally show up until around 11 these days, mostly because Levy had been sleeping in lately, and also because Gajeel was just not a morning person.
"Hey guys!" Lucy chirped. She was glad to be surrounded by her friends again. She looked around, happy to see everyone. She smiled when she saw the way Gray was holding Juvia. It still caught her off guard sometimes. Seeing the pure love that radiated off of him made it hard to believe that they were once not together. Luc was also pleased to see Jellal. He normally went off on a mission or stayed home to clean. The days that he stayed in the guild were few and far between, but he was always home from missions before a week passed, so Lucy knew that his children weren't growing up fatherless. Besides, Lucy thought, it's not like Erza would let him leave for an extended amount of time.
Before long, cries of "Momma! Momma, look!" tore Lucy from her thoughts. Storm was holding up a picture he had drawn, showing it to his mother.
"That's wonderful, baby!" Juvia cooed. Lucy laughed at the habit all the Fairy Tail parents had adopted; it didn't matter to them how old their kids were, they would always be referred to as "baby" by their parents.
Juvia, hearing Lucy's laughter, looked across the small circle of parents to look at . "Good morning, Lucy," Juvia said. At his mother's words, Storm turned around and ran to Lucy.
"Auntie Lucy! Look at my picture!" He said, showing Lucy a picture of what she guessed was supposed to be a bird made of ice... but it also might've been a pond with some fish in it. You can never be too sure with the art of a six-year-old.
"That's really good, Storm!" Lucy said. Then, as politely as one can ask, she added, "What is it?"
Storm didn't even look mildly offended by her question. "It's a big gray wolf fighting a demon made of fire! And over here..." Storm talked for the better part of two minutes about what was in his drawing. Not once did he mention an ice-bird or a pond. "See it, Uncle Natsu?" Storm finished.
"Well, of course I do, buddy. I knew exactly what it was the moment I saw it!" Natsu responded, lifting a hand to ruffle the little boy's hair. Storm's eyes lit up, and he went back to the drawing table to create another masterpiece.
Erza giggled, saying, "He sure does like you, Natsu. It's so different from Gray at that age. Hard to believe they're related!" Erza's remark had everyone laughing, reflecting on the history of Gray and Natsu, who could never get along.
"Forget 'at that age', Erza!" Juvia said between gasps of laughter. "They were fighting until after they hit their twenties!"
"What'd I miss?" Levy's voice piped up from the entrance of the building.
Lucy scooted over to make room for her friend, patting the empty space next to her on the couch, and then launched into a detailed description of the last few minutes.
Gajeel lowered himself next to Natsu, partly because there was almost no room next to Levy, and partly because he knew he would be engaged in girly talk if he sat next to her.
"Hey, man. What's up?" Natsu asked.
Gajeel sighed. "The cravings have started to hit." He said to the ceiling. Natsu just laughed. He knew exactly what the man meant, having gone through it twice with Lucy. Levy was a little more than three months pregnant now, so it made sense for her to be craving things.
"Natsu waited for Gajeel to elaborate, and he did. "She woke me up at 5:30 this morning and went to the kitchen. I went to check on her, and she said she wanted blueberry pancakes and chocolate milk, bad. So I was up before the sun this morning, making breakfast." Gajeel concluded with a sigh.
"At least Levy's cravings are normal!" Natsu scoffed. "Lucy always wanted stuff like peanut butter and pickle sandwiches! Do you know how bad that smells? It is awful!" Natsu complained.
For a while, the quiet buzzing of conversation filled the guild hall, and then the phone started ringing. Mira answered, talked for a bit, and called out to Natsu.
"Natsu! You have a job to be at, don't you?" She questioned.
"Crap! I forgot!" He called out. Lucy laughed. This was exactly something Natsu would do. "Nashi, can you get your jacket on, sweetheart? We have to go on our mission now."
Nashi's eyes lit up. She'd been waiting for a whole week to go out with her dad, and the day was finally here! She scrambled to buckle her shoes and tug on her sweater, so Natsu came to help her. "So excited you can't even put your shoes on, huh?" He chuckled.
Natsu's carefree attitude did nothing to ease the knot of dread building in Lucy's stomach. "Natsu... why don't you take Gajeel with you?" She suggested.
Gajeel growled. "I was up at the buttcrack of dawn this morning. If you think I'm doing anything other than napping, you've got another thing coming."
Levy looked at her hands in embarrassment. "I'm sorry that I woke you up, I just-"
"Don't worry about it, Shrimp. I understand. I just need a nap." Gajeel cut her off and reached behind Lucy to take Levy's hand. He was out cold within a few seconds.
"Why don't you take me, then?" Lucy offered.
"Lucy..." Natsu started. "You've got to stay here with Stella. Besides, It's an easy quest. We'll be back before you go to sleep Lucy. We'll be fine." He said, then kissed her goodbye. Nashi gave her mom a hug and followed Natsu out the door.
A/N: Alright! Two down! In the same day! WOO! I think this chapter was longer than the first one, but that was because of the new characters that I had to add in.
Thank you for reading! Hopefully you'll write a review as well!
Stay tuned for chapter three, which will be coming out tomorrow (hopefully!) :) Thank you again for reading! Bye!
-K