A/N: Thank you all for your lovely reviews! Here comes chapter 2! I hope you all like it!
This chapters has references from the 'lolicon situation' from my fic 'Roleplay for Beginners'.
"Ah, there you are!" Mira chirped when she saw the four girls entering the guild. "You've arrived just in time! I have an announcement to make. Who's missing?" she asked no one in particular.
"Wendy is busy with Porlyusica," Levy informed Mira, who nodded.
"Oh, that's okay. She and Porlyusica already know."
"No sign of Salamander's stink nearby either," Gajeel commented off-handedly, gnawing on a twisted piece of metal as Levy moved to sit by his side.
"I thought he said he was leaving to look for Lucy," Gray stated, turning to the girl in question. "Didn't you see him?"
She shook her head. "Not all afternoon," she replied. "He probably got distracted with something."
"Crime Sorcière is still on a job too," someone said.
"What about Erza?" Gray asked. "She's not here either."
The recently-arrived group of girls exchanged nervous looks. "Yeah… She's… indisposed. I don't think she'll be able to make it here for the announcement," Lucy said.
The white-haired woman smiled. "Oh, don't worry about it. Erza already knows too," she said with a smile.
"Erza knows, Wendy knows… Mavis, who else knows?" Cana asked, prompting Elfman, Lisanna, Laxus, the Master and the entire Raijinshuu to raise their hands. "What the hell kind of announcement is this when half the goddamn gild already knows about it?!"
"A truly wonderful one!" Mira stated, immune to the accusation. "Well, I don't think I can wait all day for the people still missing. They'll just have to hear it later. Laxus, do you mind if I do the honors?"
The blond Dragon Slayer gave his wife a look. "You mean there was a possibility I might do them?"
"Thank you," she said, ignoring the question. "As you all know, Laxus and I have been married for several months and like many married couples, we have been trying to conceive…"
"Wo-hoo! Mira-chan is having a baby!" Wakaba shouted from his seat.
"Maybe it'll be a girl who is as pretty as she is!" Macao declared.
Mira blushed. "Oh, you guys…" she said, a little embarrassed. "But, yes, it's true. I'm having a baby!"
At a table, Elfman wept openly despite having already known about Mira's pregnancy for nearly a day. "Big sis with a baby of her own," he wept. "It's just so wonderful."
Evergreen's eye twitched by his side. "Ladies and Gentleman, meet a real man," she said sarcastically.
"Says the girl who's dating him," Bickslow pointed out.
"Shut up! Where did you get that ridiculous idea?!"
"Real men don't hide their tears!"
Evergreen rolled her eyes, looking away.
But Elfman wasn't the only one feeling emotional. Behind a pillar, Juvia was standing wide-eyed, fuming hot-water vapor because 'everyone' was pregnant but her. Why?! She looked at her Gray-sama, sitting in his underwear at one of the tables, and stared, hoping his nakedness alone would somehow fix that fault.
"Is she alright?" Mira asked Lucy, noticing Juvia's demeanor.
Lucy took a breath. "She's just having one of those days," she said. "But congratulations, Mira. How far along are you?"
"Oh, something like a month," Mira said, sounding so, so happy. "I've been so excited since we started trying, taking tests every couple of weeks or so! Then one came positive and Porlyusica confirmed it for me. I know I should wait for the second trimester to tell in case something happens but I really want everybody to know! We're always there for each other through the good and the bad, right?"
"Of course! So, you've been really… trying?" the blonde asked, a little embarrassed. "It was nothing related to… say, a problem with your birth control or anything?"
"I haven't used birth control in months," the white-haired barmaid told her. "But why do you ask?"
"No reason!"
Across the bar, Cana banged her empty tankard on the table. Unacceptable! "Alright, guys! This calls for a free round!"
"Are you offering to pay?" Gray asked, amused.
"No – I'm offering to drink!"
"Alright, alright," the Master said. "Next round is on me! It's not every day one's great-grandchild's impending birth is announced. And that will be orange juice for you, Mira-chan," he said to his granddaughter-in-law, who smiled happily as she started gathering glasses.
"Great! Bring out the good stuff!" Cana demanded.
The Master waved his arms in alarm. "No, not the good stuff! I'm not that rich!"
Cana seemed crestfallen. "Alright, then bring me my share and Gildarts's – I'm sure my old man would want me to celebrate for him in his absence."
From his seat, Laxus chuckled. "Smooth, boozie," he commented.
"Shut up! Go build a crib or something, Daddy!"
The drinks were handed around by Kinana and Mira herself and, by the time everyone had a tankard in their hands (two, in Cana's case), Makarov stood up at the stage floor and raised his.
"Alright, brats, here's to the new generation of fairies, whose beginning we unfortunately weren't around to witness," the Master started, raising his glass to Asuka, who clapped happily. "And here's to the unborn future new member of Fairy Tail. May he or she be as strong and brave as his or her parents, inherit his or her mother's looks (especially if it's a her) and be as rowdy as the rest of us… maybe in a less destructive way, though."
"Bottoms up!" Cana shouted, pouring her own drinks into her mouth like she was drinking down from a fountain as the guild around her cheered and Elfman lifted his elder sister onto his shoulder.
Suddenly, as voices were still loud, none other than Natsu burst through the door with Happy on a tow.
"You bastards!" he shouted. "How come you didn't wait for me to start celebrating Erza having a kid?!"
"Aye!" Happy added. "She's our team mate!"
Everyone looked confused for a moment. The girls that had just returned from Porlyusica's, however, paled considerably instead. Could he… know?
"Natsu, you moron!" Gray shouted. "Mira is the one having a baby, not Erza!"
"Mira's having a baby?" Natsu asked, surprised.
"Yes!" the barmaid declared happily from her seat on Elfman's shoulder. "Laxus and I have been trying for a while."
"It's Laxus's too?" he asked, as if that wasn't at all predictable, given that they were married. "Cool! When can I fight it?"
"Never," Laxus replied, narrowing his eyes at him.
"Aw… killjoy. Maybe Erza will let me fight hers."
"Natsu," the Master said. "Where on Earthland did you get the idea that Erza is having a child?"
"From hearing Porlyusica telling her while I was looking for Lucy."
With those words, what seemed to be a typical Natsu mix-up, suddenly shifted into something believable. The whole guild went quiet… except for Mira, who let out a girlish scream as she fell from Elfman's shoulder right onto her angry husband's arms, her and Elfman having in their shock failed to hold onto one another.
A second passed and somebody exploded. Lucy. "You were spying on me?!" she demanded in disbelief.
"No, you weirdo – I was looking for you. And then I found you but you seemed to be having a pretty serious conversation, so I decided just to wait," he said.
"And listen," Lisanna accused her childhood friend. "That is so rude, Natsu!"
"It's not my fault I've got good hearing," he argued before snickering. "Hey, Metal Brain! Did you know Levy nearly lost it at the thought of your spawn's massive head ripping her apart down there? Ouch!"
"What?" the Iron Dragon Slayer asked in disbelief before turning to his girlfriend. "Shrimp, you're knocked up?"
"No!" she shouted before turning to glare at Natsu with a fervor that seemed out of place on her. She got up and stalked over to the Fire Dragon Slayer. "Natsu! You idiot!" And then, she clocked him across the face with her bag, which caught him enough by surprise to make him topple over.
"Gray-sama," Juvia said, clinging to the ice-mage's arm. "Juvia did not get pregnant like Erza-san did… But if Gray-sama wants, we can start trying right now."
"What? No way! I'm not ready for kids!" Gray shouted. "And why did you sound so disappointed just now?"
Bickslow laughed nearby. "I'd start investing on rubbers right now if I were you," he said.
"Rubbers! Rubbers!" his babies repeated.
"Wait, so Erza really has one in the oven?" Cana asked, confused.
The girls looked at each other, between a rock and a hard place. They could neither confirm nor deny. Natsu, however…
"Yeah. Apparently, Wendy did it," Natsu said as he got up from the floor, much to everyone's disbelief. "Which sounds a bit weird to me because the way Gildarts explained it, it sounded like it was guys who got girls pregnant. Oh, well, it might just be a Dragon Slayer thing…"
"It's not a Dragon Slayer thing, you idiot!" Lucy shouted. "Wendy made a mistake with our birth control and as a result, Erza got pregnant. Wendy is really upset about it, so don't mention it around her!"
"Oh," Natsu said. "That makes more sense."
There were about twenty seconds of silence.
"Erza with a kid," Laxus mumbled. "Weird."
"Not any weirder than you with one, brat," the Master pointed out. "With Mira, of all people. It's like the cross between an angel and a demon. With you being the demon rather than her."
"Quiet down, Geezer."
"I think she'll make a great mother," Bisca stated. "She's a bit strange but at the end of the day, there's no one with a bigger heart in this guild than her."
"Having kids is manly!"
Evergreen whacked him with her fan. "Stop saying that!"
"Oh, how wonderful!" Mira said, clasping her hands together by her heart with a big smile. "Erza and I are both having babies at the same time. They'll grow up together as friends!"
Macao snickered in his seat. "I foresee rivalry in the future."
"Between the moms or the kids?" Wakaba asked.
"Too early to tell."
"Who do you think it will resemble the most? Erza or Jellal?" somebody asked.
"Oh, I get it," Natsu suddenly said. "So Jellal is the daddy. That makes sense 'cause he and Erza are totally doing it. And it is how babies are supposed to be made!" He snickered like a kid, turning to Laxus. "You're totally doing Mira."
The Thunder Dragon Slayer seemed unimpressed. "Congratulations, Moron. You've managed to conclude that a married couple tends to bang on a regular basis. Feel free to collect your lollipop reward from the empty space where the remainder of your brain should have been."
"Hey! You calling me stupid?!" he asked, ready to fight.
"Natsu!" came a warning shout from near Laxus. The Master stood on the bar, glaring at the Dragon Slayer. "Do not even try to start a fight right now! And what were you thinking rushing in here announcing to everybody who can hear that Erza is expecting? What if Jellal had been here? He should hear it from her, Natsu, not you."
"But Jellal is out on a job."
"He's due back any time now," Mira pointed out.
As if on cue, Fairy Tail's own Team Crime Sorcière chose that exact moment to arrive from their latest mission, their voices coming from outside.
"… I'm just saying Erik, you need to be careful with these things. Meredy could have gotten really hurt," they heard Jellal saying outside.
"It was a water bottle!"
"Full of bleach, which Meredy almost drank by mistake!"
"I'm a Poison Dragon Slayer! You should know by now not to touch the stuff I drink because it will probably be the last thing you do!"
"It was my bad, Jellal. I mixed up our bags."
"Still. He needs to start labeling things or at least not to put poisonous stuff inside supposedly harmless containers like water bottles or salt shakers, which is where he keeps his Arsenic powder!"
"It's for seasoning!"
"It's deadly!"
"Goddamnit! Fine, next time I'll make a point of drawing a big ass skull on the side of the container," Cobra replied, his tone full of sarcasm as they stepped through the door. "Would that do, boss?"
"Actually, it would," Jellal informed him before turning to face the guild. He was a little taken aback when he saw everyone apparently staring at him. "Sorry, were we being too loud?" he asked.
Mirajane smiled, shaking her head. "Not at all," she told him.
And still, everyone kept staring.
"Holy Shit," Cobra said, everyone's thoughts reaching into his mind at once. He turned around and stared at the completely unknowing Jellal for a moment before snickering sadistically and walking away, towards the bar, where Kinana awaited. The blue-haired idiot wouldn't even know what had hit him…
"Is there something on my face?" Jellal asked, suddenly self-conscious due to all the staring.
"You mean aside from the usual?" Laxus replied, gesturing to the general side of his face containing his tattoo.
"Right," he mumbled. "So, is Erza around?"
The staring people around him either shook their heads or said the word 'no'. Then, again, they kept on staring. What on Earthland?
Makarov cleared his throat. "Alright, everybody, I know it's been a long mission…" not even the longest they'd ever taken "… and that we've missed our comrades but let's all just welcome them back and mind our own business."
That seemed to snap most people out of their staring mood and prompted them to mumble echoed 'welcome backs' to them.
"So, how did your mission go?" Mira asked, pleasant as always.
"Really well!" Meredy said brightly. "We ended up taking down two dark guilds rather than just one! Apparently they were colluding with each other and the Rune Knights were actually useful in apprehending them this time. Doranbolt was really happy about it. He's got to make a good impression now – a bunch of parenting networks are still going grizzly on him even though he was acquitted of that whole Lolicon misunderstanding."
Makarov sighed. "Well, it was quite the misunderstanding. But good job, all of you."
While Meredy went to take a seat at the counter and was quickly joined there by a mournful Juvia, Jellal couldn't help still feeling like he was still being stared at. He was right. Not twenty feet away, Natsu was looking at him with narrowed eyes as he scratched his chin.
"Are you alright, Natsu?" he asked the Dragon Slayer.
"Yeah… I was just thinking."
"What about?"
"Hair."
Jellal raised his eyebrows. "Hair?"
"Yeah. Say, if you and Erza were to have a…"
"Gajeel, get him!" he heard none other than Levy demanding of her boyfriend.
The Iron Dragon Slayer was quite happy to comply. His fist extended into a massive metal pole in a matter of a second, which hit Natsu right in the face, sending him flying for several feet against a wall.
"You Iron Bastard!" Natsu shouted, unfazed. "Fire Dragon's…"
Jellal took a few steps back. The guild was a tad too odd for him that day (not that, deep down, that didn't delight him – he was just a little tired). "I think I'm heading home," he announced to no one in particular, motioning to turn around.
"Alright! See you later!" Mira happily waved him off.
"Take good care of our Erza when you see her," Cana told him.
"And congratulations!" That one was Bickslow, whose helmet was quickly hit by Evergreen's fan, a clang echoing through the guild.
"He means congratulations for a mission accomplished," Freed provided. "It's no easy job, taking down dark guilds."
"Right," Jellal mumbled. "Thanks."
And so, he was out of there, walking out into the darkening streets, now mostly illuminated by the public lights.
Could his day possibly get any stranger? The answer came not five minutes later when he walked into Wendy on the way home. When he warmly greeted her, as he always did, the young Dragon Slayer started apologizing for Mavis-knew-what before running away in tears, followed by a scolding Carla. He was starting to think that he might have been hit by some sort of weird spell that made people randomly act in a strange way towards him.
He reached home in a matter of minutes and found the house silent as he opened the door. When he turned on the lights, however, he nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw Erza inside, sitting down on the couch, her arms wrapped around her legs as she stared, wide-eyed, into nothing.
"Erza? What on Earthland were you doing sitting in the dark?" he asked, dumping his duffle bag on the floor and making his way to her.
She didn't respond, causing him to frown as he sat by her side.
"Erza?" he called again. "Are you alright?"
One more time, she didn't respond. He waved a hand in front of her eyes and she didn't react at all. What the hell was going on?
"Erza, you're starting to scare me," he told her.
More silence. Alarmed, he touched her forehead, wondering if she was sick. She felt fine. Still, he wasn't completely sure she wasn't sick.
"Listen, Erza, I think I'm going to get Porlyusica to take a look at you," he told her.
That finally got a reaction out of her. She thrust out her hand and held onto his sleeve. "No."
He frowned. "Erza, you're acting really strange. I think you might be sick."
"I'm not," she replied.
Jellal frowned, not believing her. She'd had the same reaction a few months before when she was down with the flu. She'd denied any sickness for hours despite nearly hacking up a lung as she did so. As such, he was prepared to ignore her denial… that was, up until she said the next part.
"I'm pregnant."
He was silent, staring at her. It was, without exaggeration, a full minute before he spoke again. "You're what?"
"Pregnant," she repeated.
"As in…"
"With child," she confirmed.
He turned away from her and sunk against the back of the couch, doing the same thing she'd been doing up until his arrival: staring blankly into nothingness. No word was said in that house for the next half hour as the news sunk in.
Erza was pregnant. They were having a baby. He was going to be a father.
…
Dear Mavis.
To be continued...