The Family of Eight

The Love Story Part 1

WARNING: This chapter has not been beta read; I only proofread this.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Fairy tail, Hiro Mashima does


Just like any other day, Meiko and Reina were bickering, Jude was training behind their house, Layla was painting her nails, Kaiya was taking her nap and Gerald was in his room, studying about magic. Due to the incident a few days ago that made their mother burst, she was now away on a week vacation, leaving the children in the care of her beloved husband.

Thus, the reason why Jellal was in the living room, groaning as the skirmish in front of him continued.

"You are a hyena!"

"I am not the one who peed on the bed last night!"

"That was not pee!"

"Yes, it was!"

"No, it's not!"

"It smelled like pee!"

"Your senses are always mixed up! Your ears are for seeing and your eyes are for hearing!"

Reina flushed bright red and she gritted her teeth, opening her mouth wide to scream. Jellal blinked and immediately took action, rushing forward to clamp his hand over her lips. He groaned. "Can't you guys stop fighting for just one day?"

Meiko crossed his arms over his chest. "No."

Their father sighed and fell back on the couch, nibbling on his bottom lip. After a few minutes of debating, he grinned and stretched his arms. "How about I tell you guys a story?"

That got their attention.

"What story?" Reina asked, seating herself on the floor next to her twin who was surprisingly not picking on her.

Jellal's grin widened. "I'm going to tell you how your mother and I fell in love."

"Sweet Mavis, did I hear right?"

"You did, Layla. Now dry your nails and let's go to the living room."

"I'm awake too, aniki and nee-chan!"

"This should be interesting."

Meiko and Reina stared at each other and then laughed at the sight of their siblings, Kaiya, Jude, Layla and Gerald, walking in the room to also sit on the floor. The eldest of the six chose to speak up.

"So… are you going to tell us everything?" He started, raising a brow, "or how you just met?"

"He'll tell everything of course, not if I can help it," Layla declared.

Jellal chuckled and leaned back, smiling. "I'll tell you everything."

"YES!"

He cleared his throat. "It all started one day, I asked Erza to meet up with me and…"

"Can I bring Lucy with me?"

Jellal blinked, staring at the lacrima in his hand with furrowed brows. "No offense, but why would you bring her with you?"

"So that I won't seem too suspicious," Erza said, shrugging her shoulders.

"You sound suspicious already," Jellal joked and laughed, the affection evident in her eyes. "In two days' time, alright?"

"I'll be there."

"Hold on just a minute," Kaiya interrupted, earning the stares of the others. She crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. "How come you're talking about Aunt Erza? Are you cheating on mom?"

"I'm not!" Jellal protested, raising his arms in defense.

Jude raised a brow, interested. "But if you were in love with Aunt Erza before, how did you fall for mother?"

"I second that," Layla and Kaiya said, both eagerly scooting forward as they gathered around their father. The twins continued sitting on the floor along with Gerald who shrugged nonchalantly.

Jellal laughed. "That's the thing," he replied, his eyes glinting with unconcealed happiness. "I fell for her while I was still with Erza."

They blinked. "How?"

"Let's just say things happened when she brought Lucy with her."

It was a little past twelve when Erza arrived at their meeting place with Lucy in tow. This wasn't the first time he'd seen her, but she really did shine bright under the sun, especially with her blonde hair. That was how he thought of her and maybe it was a bit weird, but no one had to know about what he thought of her anyway. And besides, Erza was there.

Lucy was laughing when they walked closer and Jellal had to squint his eyes to see them better. Erza was smiling at a comment the blonde made and now that they were even closer, he realized how brown Lucy's eyes were.

He frowned. He was thinking too much of his girlfriend's best friend.

"Oh, Lucy, this is Jellal."

He snapped out of his thoughts to be met with Lucy's smiling face. He could see the unease in her eyes but was impressed as she shook his hand confidently. "Hi Jellal! I've been hearing a lot about you lately."

Erza flushed. "You didn't have to mention that."

"Oh please, it's worth mentioning."

The three of them ate lunch together and he was surprised at himself for enjoying the blonde's company. She was bubbly and that was different compared to Erza. She was also hilarious at times, and he found himself slightly disappointed that she was going to go somewhere else afterwards.

"I hope you guys have fun," she chirped, a smile splitting her lips.

Jellal intertwined his hand with Erza's. "Likewise, Lucy. Are you going somewhere?"

She shrugged then, an action she rarely did. "I'll probably go to a park and read a book or something. We'll see," was what she said. He found it so strange that she wouldn't go spying on them, or go playing someplace else. He was very shocked that she wasn't even going to go home yet.

"You can go home now, if you want to," Erza suggested, worry evident in her voice.

"No, it's okay," Lucy assured, laughing as she turned to leave, her hand lifted up in a wave. "Bye!"

As she started walking, they remained there, watching her figure go smaller and smaller. After a while, Jellal spoke up. "Why are you worried for her?"

"You see… she caught Natsu with Lisanna yesterday and she's still down about it," Erza said, her frown deepening. "I already beat him up for that but I never thought he would be capable of cheating. I kind of feel bad for making her accompany me on this trip."

His eyes widened. "What?"

"Hold up! Hold up! Hold up!"

Jellal paused, looking at Layla who was scowling. "Mother used to date Uncle Natsu? When the hell did that happen?"

"Language, lady—that happened a long time ago so we should all forget about it."

She huffed. "Fine, but I'm going to have a talk with uncle."

"There's no stopping her," Jude said skeptically. "Cause I'm coming with."

Jellal sighed. "Do whatever you want. Now then…"

"How can she smile like that?"

Erza smiled sadly, looking ahead of them. "I don't know, Jellal. She's really good at hiding her pain. I bet you didn't notice that she was faking it all."

He shook his head. She breathed in deeply. "Well, we have no choice but to let her deal with the pain. For now, let's go and enjoy this day."

He knew he wasn't going to enjoy the day. He was baffled with the blonde. How could she smile so wide when her heart was probably shattered into smithereens? She was amazing, that Lucy. He hadn't thought of anyone so high before Erza, and now that he had, he didn't mind at all. He was in such a foul mood that he didn't hear much of what his girlfriend said, but he appeared as if he was paying attention to her.

He closed his eyes solemnly. He had a girlfriend. He shouldn't even be thinking of someone else while they were out on a date—

"I feel bad for cutting you off but basically you're saying that you were already interested in mother the moment you saw her but you were with Erza so you focused more on loving her, right?" Reina surmised, arching a brow.

Jellal winced and nodded.

Meiko whistled. "You are sick, dad, but that's cool."

The father twitched. "Well then, let's skip to the part where I saw Lucy again, and this was a few days later after my date with Erza."

Sometime later, he saw her while he was out on a job at Oshibana. She was in the market with brown paper bags filled with grocery items in her arms. He was wearing a cloak as she passed by him, and he supposed she didn't realize they passed by each other until he called her attention.

"Do you need help with that?"

She swiftly turned around and saw his blue hair underneath the hood of his cloak. She laughed and handed him a paper bag. "Sure, Jellal. Thank you."

There it was again—her smile. It was so flawless, as if she wasn't in pain at all. It made him think she was over Natsu, but one look into her eyes and—

"Father sure likes to stare into mother's eyes a lot," Kaiya whispered to Gerard.

"Shh, Kaiya."

he knew she was still hurting. He thought about her after his date, and he found her really intriguing. As he pondered over the blonde, he remembered her even more. When he was still in the Magic Council as Siegrain, he remembered seeing her with Natsu. She would always be there wherever Natsu caused destruction, and it kind of made sense why they ended up together.

But why did he cheat on her?

He never pegged Natsu to be a two-timer. He didn't even think he was mature enough to like anyone. He knew the dragon slayer was as dense as a rock, maybe even denser. There was this nagging thought that the girl had something to do with the whole thing and not Natsu.

Jellal sighed. He didn't care anyway what else happened to the two. It was their problem to deal with.

Glancing at Lucy from the corner of his eye, there he saw it, her true face. Her lips, which were smiling so widely before, were pressed tightly. And her eyes—her eyes were dull. He suddenly saw himself inside her eyes when he was so miserable, screaming in pain inside jail and—

He looked away. This wasn't the time to be reminiscing over the past.

"Well, this is where I'm staying for now," Lucy announced, breaking the silence as they stopped in front of an inn. She stared at him, beaming. "Thank you for your help, Jellal."

He continued staring at her. She put up her façade so quickly that he wondered whether what he saw earlier was only his imagination. Wordlessly, he nodded and handed her the bag he was holding. He watched her enter the inn and when the door shut in front of him, he vanished.

"I didn't see her again after that, because things between Erza and I got complicated as we were almost caught. I almost wished I'd bump into her, because I had some questions for her," Jellal said, staring at the ceiling as he recalled all of his encounters with Lucy. "I wanted to know whether she was staying at an inn to get away from Natsu, but I never had the time to ask."

"I didn't think you two were so complicated before," Jude mused, his lips curled in an amused smile. "But then again, you two still are."

Layla laughed and grinned. "Very well said, aniki."

Jellal rolled his eyes. "Say whatever you want." He huffed. "Anyway, the next time I saw her was during Fantasia, precisely five months after our encounter at Oshibana."

"Fantasia?! That's so cool! Was mom in the parade?" Meiko asked excitedly.

Their father chuckled softly. "Indeed she was. And I still remember how awestruck I was when I saw her…"

Erza told him to attend the Fantasia parade. He was reluctant at first, and he didn't want to go. He was aware that there would be a large amount of people, and that the risks of him being seen were high. But it was his girlfriend who asked him to go, so he couldn't really resist.

As of the moment, he was in an alley, the view of the still-growing-crowd in front of him. He leaned his shoulder against the wall and carefully placed his mask up to his nose, swinging the hood over his head. He was being cautious, as he didn't want to be seen or caught by the council. The parade was about to start, and he didn't know what made him feel so jittery: seeing Lucy again or Erza.

Somehow he had a feeling he should pick the latter, but he was sure he was leaning towards the former which was bad.

Soon enough the music started playing, and bubbles were everywhere. His lips twitched into a smile as he moved to the roofs, getting a better view of the parade. He sat down and enjoyed the show.

Everyone at Fairy Tail were present. He spotted the two gun users, and the script mage, and some of their other mages. Gray was with Juvia, the water woman, and were making it snow. They also made a garden out of ice on their float, all the while smiling at the cheering mass of people.

Jellal was looking forward to something else though.

The next performance was done by the three dragon slayers: Natsu, Gajeel and Wendy. Natsu was making figures and faces with his flames, while Gajeel made steel pieces. Wendy used some air to float the metal around until they formed words: FANTASIA. The crowd cheered loudly once again as the three bowed.

Where was she?

The exceeds were flying around while carrying some other Fairy Tail members. When they were high up in the air, the exceeds dropped them and they landed on Elfman Strauss who was now in beast form. There were catcalls and whistles as Mirajane transformed into Satan Soul, flying around Elfman's body while holding a long banner with their guild name: FAIRY TAIL.

Lisanna had her own float, where she jumped from bamboo to bamboo in her tigress form. When she reached the top, she jumped and transformed her arms into wings, zooming across each float to reach the first one, waving wildly.

He continued to search for her.

Float after float, he recognized their faces. The Thunder God Tribe. Jet and Droy. Macao Conbolt and his son, Romeo. Cana Alberona. But he still didn't see them yet.

Then he heard people screaming for someone.

Erza.

"How did you react, father?"

"I'm getting to that."

She was beautiful, indeed she was. She was wearing a wedding dress for some reason, a bouquet in her hands as she waved at the crowd. She seemed to be looking for him as her eyes darted around and around, but still she didn't see him. After a while she changed into her Nakagami armor in front of everyone, which may have caused massive nosebleeds. She was summoning different kinds of weapons around her and he didn't know why—

Until he saw the next float.

"Oh, look at the time," Jellal said, clicking his tongue as he stared at the wall clock. "It's time to cook dinner."

Their reactions were hilarious.

"What?! No way you're stopping now!" Meiko and Reina both wined, for once getting along.

Layla groaned and dragged a hand down her face. "You can't be serious."

"Apparently he is," Jude muttered under his breath.

Kaiya pouted, leaning against Gerard who was twitching. "You can't do this daddy," she said and clasped her fingers together. "Please, please, please tell us what happens next!"

"We all know it's mother who's going to appear next," her brother grunted beside her. "But I want to know how he reacted."

Jellal laughed and stood up, heading into the kitchen. "Enjoy the suspense, guys. For now, though, let's eat."

They all groaned simultaneously. "This is so unfair!"

"Deal with it."

Another groan.

"I promise I'll tell you what happens next after dinner."

"Fine," they consented and slowly piled around the dining table, pouting.

Jellal smiled. "Good."


A/N: Okay so I know this is all suspense for you as well, and I'm sorry about that hahaha. I know it seems weird that Jellal was already into Lucy the moment they met, but he still loved Erza, he was just curious. And it's normal to feel attracted to pretty people anyway :D Anyway, if you liked Part 1, then please leave a revew and tune in for part 2! If you found any mistakes, forgive me :)

"We are the children of the stars."

Byee! -Anne :D


- Please support/read my other stories: Celebrity Issues, The Devil and the Assassin, Fragile, Life's Challenges, Forgotten Memories, Queen of Stars, A Love That Lasts Forever and Going Against The Current.