Hey Guys,
Sorry for such a late update! It's been two really crazy weeks! With that being said, I hope to get another chapter out very shortly. So enjoy this one and don't hate me for the cliff hanger!
- Signed
Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail.
Three Years Previous
Erza snuck into the back door and sighed. She hadn't been seen again and no one was any wiser. This was becoming stressful, but honestly she didn't know what else to do. It wasn't like he was a criminal anymore, but he insisted that he still had enemies and if people knew that they were together they'd target her. At least that was his fear, not hers. Hers was that her enemies would come for him and that people wouldn't ever fully accept him. Still, all this secrecy, especially from her friends was taxing.
"You look stressed Erza," his silky voice called from their shared room. Their house wasn't large, but it couldn't be. If they were hiding their marriage, no one could notice it.
"I hate all this sneaking around," she said as she requipped out of her armor and into her nightgown. Of course it was see through and it got the reaction she had been looking for. He stood and came over to kiss her passionately. Erza linked her hands with his and played with his invisible wedding ring while he played with hers. He had insisted on a secret ceremony with only Makarov as the sole witness. The master had promised to take their secret to the grave, or until they had children. And the way they carried on, it was most likely to be sooner rather than later. Erza did wear a charm and he wore a backup one, but these things could fail and it was said that it failed for those couples who were constant in their attentions and passionate in their pleasures.
Erza sighed in contentment, while Jellal panted next to her. She had been able to carve out another night by telling the guild that her job would take two days, not one like it really had. No one would miss her and no one knew where Jellal lived to begin with so no one would notice if he were missing. She'd have to come up with some clever excuse as to why she was going to move out of Fairy Hills. Then again she had so much armor, perhaps keeping up the charade for now was best. There was no place to store it here.
"Jellal," Erza said when his breathing calmed. "I wish we could tell people."
"I know Erza, I do too. But you know why we can't."
"I know, but it's not like your enemies aren't anything I can't handle." He laughed at that. She always loved his laugh.
"That I believe, but could you handle the slander? The lies people would tell of you and Fairy Tail if they knew?"
"But you joined Fairy Tail and no one tried to hurt the guild's reputation."
"Yes, but the guild already had a reputation of taking in the troubled sort. But, the idea that the queen of the fairies would marry scum like me would tarnish everything."
"I still think you're being ridiculous Jellal."
He sighed and sat up. "Listen, just give me time to bring honor back to my name. Once I've done that, we'll tell the guild. Or better yet, I'll propose all over again and we can have an actual wedding. Then you can plan the reception you've always wanted and get the biggest cake Magnolia has ever seen."
Erza sat up in excitement and smiled. "You mean it?" She grabbed the hair on the back of his neck and kissed him. "You did always know how to sweet talk me." He kissed her back and they dove into another round. They were still newlyweds after all.
A Month After Laxus Disappeared
Erza stared at her fifth pregnancy test again and just sat. All of them, every single one, read positive. How was this possible? They had been faithful on the charms, and because of their habits they'd bought new charms every two months to keep the potency alive. It had been three years and in that time they'd never even had a scare. Now she was expecting and none of it made sense.
However, she was pleased to realize that she wasn't upset. In fact, it was quite the opposite. She was so thrilled she could burst! Jellal had no more excuses. He'd made the papers again just three weeks ago for saving an entire village from an evil wizard and two days ago he'd saved some puppies from drowning. No one could possibly accuse him of being a bad guy now.
"Erza," Jellal called after he'd entered. The sweet smell of icing came wafting in and Erza smiled to realize that he'd gotten her a treat. She had messaged him telling him that she had a surprise. He came walking in and dumped the cake on the table and handed her a fork. She smiled and dug in while he poured them each a glass of milk.
"So tell me Erza, what is this surprise." Unable to contain her excitement, Erza stood and proclaimed in her best stage voice.
"Jellal, soon we shall be a family of three for I am expecting." Jellal instantly choked and Erza had to go from proud mamma to nurse as she pounded on his back.
"Tell me you're joking," he finally choked out and Erza stood, hurt and shocked.
"What?" Jellal sensing that he'd said something wrong, looked up and saw pain in her eyes. He'd sworn to himself that he'd never hurt her again. It would seem he'd broken another promise.
"You're not happy for our child?" Jellal sat back and sighed. Honestly, he wasn't sure. He was too shocked to feel anything.
"I'm more concerned than anything. How are we going to hide this?"
"Hide this! Jellal, I want to shout to the heavens that I am finally having a real family. I'd thought you'd be happy to be a father." Her pain was turning to anger and he paused to think of his next move. An angry Erza was a dangerous Erza.
"But Erza, no one even knows we're married."
"And whose fault is that! Jellal, I love you but you are hurting us by being a coward!" Erza stormed out and headed for the guild. She allowed some tears to fall from her eyes and tried to find peace with her friends. About an hour later, the doors almost blew off their hidges and in walked a very agitated Jellal.
"Erza Scarlett! I want to talk with you. Now!"
"I want nothing to do with you right now, Jellal." She turned her back on him, but she felt him storming closer.
"No, you will hear me out."
"You made yourself very plain, Jellal. There is little more you can say now." She went to turn away from him, when he grabbed her hand and slipped on an engagement ring. It was actually the same one he'd used years ago that she kept in her jewelry box. Erza stared at him and gapped. He was doing this now? But she'd had it all scripted!
"Erza, will you marry me?" The guild was silent and Erza simply nodded, as she had all those years ago, too overcome with emotions to actually speak. Jellal stood and hugged her and Erza hugged him back, but it was the sheer silence that confused her. She pulled back and saw that while the guild watched, none of them were cheering or even looked surprised.
"Why aren't you cheering for our pending nuptuals?"
"Cut the crap Erza," Cana yelled from the bar. "We all know that you two have been married for years." Erza and Jellal stiffened and stared.
"What?"
"Yeah," Gray answered. "The master came back a day after you two got married and got drunk out of his mind. When we asked him why, he said he was celebrating your marriage but that we weren't allowed to tell you that we knew. So we celebrated with him and we kept our mouths shut." Erza fumed and Jellal blushed in embarrassement. There bad mood only last for a few moments however, because after the others realized that they'd put on this charade because of Erza's pregnancy, they ended up having the reception they'd always wanted.
A Month Later
"It's just so weird," Lucy commented to Natsu as he nodded. It literally seemed like every woman in the guild was now pregnant. At least all the women who were married or in a relationship. Evergreen was mortified because their wedding was in three months and by then she'd be showing and there was no way she'd fit into the dress. Kinana had gotten pregnant pretty much as soon as she and Eric had gotten married. The guild had grown by leaps and bounds over the years, and as Lucy wrote out all the names of the women who'd found themselves pregnant in the last two months it was literally almost four fifths of the women in their guild. The biggest surprise was Erza in the sense that she'd out lasted every bet placed against them. Everyone had been sure that she'd have had a kid by now or never.
"Yeah, I guess we started a trend," Natsu said smiling at her.
"Natsu, technically Levy and Gajeel started it."
"What? No way! It was totally us!"
"But they got pregnant first."
"So, we got pregnant next and then everyone just had to copy us." Lucy sighed and decided to let Natsu have his little fantasies.
"Still," Lucy said, looking back on her list. "This kind of weirds me out Natsu. I mean, I'm due in the next two weeks, so that's not too bad, but everyone else will be having babies within the same two months. Do you realize how this is going to hurt our job taking abilities?"
"Yeah, I hadn't thought of that."
"Well, at least our children won't be in want of playmates."
"That's for sure."
"Natsu," Gray called from the job board, "come here for a second." Natsu stood and went to his friend. Lucy went back to her list, when Wendy came over and leaned down.
"I need your help, Lucy."
"With what Wendy?"
Wendy looked concerned and about ready to cry. "I can't really say here. Just come with me." Lucy, to the best of her ability stood and waddled after the healer. She led Lucy into one of the back rooms, where Levy, Juvia, Erza, and Mira already stood.
"What's going on?" Lucy asked as the door closed.
Everyone looked at Mira, who sighed and cringed a little, before she began. "Lucy, I have something very important to tell you all, but I need all of you to keep the details a secret. Because, soon everyone is going to know at least part of it."
"Mira?" Lucy took a good look at her friend and saw that she was definitely not well. She was paler than normal and her bright eyes had dulled.
"It seems that I too am pregnant." Lucy, Levy, and Juvia gasped, as Erza nodded. "Wendy smelled the change in my scent about a month ago. I tried to deny it, but I can't any longer."
"Because you're going to be showing soon?" Juvia asked.
"That, and it would seem the child is killing me."
"What? Why?"
"We don't know," Wendy said. "All I know is that the baby's magic is not compatible with Mira's."
"Is that even possible?" Erza asked.
"It shouldn't be. Mira's body should be able to channel any magic the baby has, but for some reason not this. It's almost like the baby is both producing too much magic for Mira's body to handle and sucking all of Mira's magic away."
"How long?" Levy asked.
"If my calculations are correct," Wendy answered, "five more months. At seven months, Mira's body will give out."
"We'll help and save you Mira!" Lucy said. "We must!"
All of them agreed whole heartily and Mira just smiled. "Thank you. Wendy is going to continue to search for answers, but just in case I do die, I need to ask a favor of all of you."
"Anything Mira," Erza said.
"Raise my child with love. He or she will be born early, I know. But Wendy has assured me that the child can be saved, even as I die. And although not a fair request, I'll need Levy and Lucy to feed the child."
"But why us?"
"Because, a dragon slayer's child will need dragon slayer's milk." The room grew silent as everyone digested this information.
"Laxus," Lucy finally said.
"Yes. He is the father, although he disappeared right after we, well. Anyway, he deserves to know I guess, but I don't want someone who can just walk out to raise our child. If he isn't interested, then I'll need you, my family, to do the raising."
Not a word was said, until Levy chimed it. "I think you'll have to be the nurse maid Lucy. Natsu has some lightning magic now, so you'll probably be most compatible."
Lucy nodded and the women started making plans should the worst happen. When they finally left the room, all of them felt heart broken and more than angry at their master.
"Hey Luce! Where've you been?"
"Just with the girls, Natsu," Lucy said, trying not to allow her tears to spill down her face. "Can we go home? I'm tired."
Natsu, seeing that something was wrong, nodded and helped her out. When they reached the hill to climb it, Natsu picked her up bridal style and he knew something was definitely wrong when she didn't even protest.
"Okay, spill it Lucy, what's wrong."
"Nothing."
"Lucy?"
Lucy sighed and snuggled in closer. "I honestly can't tell you Natsu. I've been sworn to secrecy, but I'll just need you there with me. I need your strength."
"You'll always have it," he whispered as he opened the door into their house. He found himself doing a lot of holding that night. She cried during their bath and as she tried to go to sleep. Finally, not being able to stand the tears any longer, he sighed.
"This doesn't have anything to do with Mira being pregnant with Laxus's child does it?" Lucy sat up in shock and if Lucy wasn't so upset, Natsu would have found it cute.
"You knew? Well, I guess you would have smelled it about the same time as Wendy did, but how did you know that it was Laxus's child?"
Natsu smirked and tucked her back under his chin. "First, I smelled the change in Mira the day after Laxus disappeared, and the other guys knew about a week after that. So I have a feeling that Wendy was the last one to know. We are super sensitive to the smell of pregnancy so we can either stay away or become overly protective. Second, when a mate carries the child of a dragon slayer, her new smell also encompasses the smell of her mate, just a little during her pregnancy so that other dragon slayers know who to watch out for. Mira smells like lightning now." Lucy sighed.
"Why didn't you say anything?"
"Come on Lucy, I maybe dense, but I'm not an idiot. Mira is still only partially bound, and it was done in the wrong order anyway. It rubs us all the wrong way somehow and Mira obviously didn't want to talk about it. Also, with Laxus just disappearing, yeah something was wrong. I think we were all just waiting until she told everyone."
"I just wish Laxus would return. Then he and Mira could talk this whole thing through. They need to."
"Yeah. He needs to stop being selfish and claim his mate and child. It's his duty and his privilege. I mean, do you know how many guys have told me that they'd kill to have some type of magical radar that told them who their perfect girl was?"
Lucy smiled up at Natsu and kissed his cheek. "I love you."
He smiled back. "I know." They finally settled down and fell into a deep sleep.
Hours later, Lucy shot up, a sharp pain in her stomach and water racing down her leg.
"Uh, Lucy did you wet the bed?"
"Not in the way you mean! Natsu," Lucy said, doubling up in pain, "my water just broke." Natsu shot up and looked at her with shock, which quickly turned to a smile of pure joy.
"Yeah! By this time tomorrow, I'm a father! I'll go get Mira!"
"No Natsu, Wendy! She's supposed to be the one to come help me with my home birth."
"Right Erza! Coming right up!" With that, he flew out the door in nothing but his underwear and scarf. Lucy just sighed and laid back. Even on the most important day of their life, he couldn't get something right.