Waiting was all they could do, it felt as if time had stopped for a minute. Complete silence, the anticipation of finding out who would appear at the guild doors had reached it's peak, no one dared do anything. Every pair of eyes in the guild was fixated on that empty spot, just waiting for something to happen, anything. The tension was palpable, everybody stiff in preparation for what was to come next. In that moment Lucy, who was seemingly the only person who had noticed the magic power wasn't coming from a single person, finally made the connection, one of them at least. Although unable to tell for certain how many people it was taking for this much magic power, she could feel the familiarity the others had spoken about earlier, or so she thought that it must have been what they were referring to. It was the same feeling as when she was in the presence of a celestial spirit, and based on how powerful it felt there was little to no doubt in the blonde wizard's mind that it had to be one of the 12 zodiacs. Lucy was very sure this had to be the case, she had never met another celestial spirit mage before, so now she was starting to get excited. The Star Maiden's excitement was short lived, quickly having yet another realisation as the magic presence only got stronger, this wasn't just a similar feel to her currently held gold keys, it was an exact match to one of them. Capricorn; her newest key that she had just received back on Tenroujima, of course being her newest key she had yet to become fully acquainted with him, thus not entirely used to the way his magic feels. This conclusion only raised more questions rather than clearing up any confusion she may have had, Lucy reached her hand down toward her belt to touch her key ring, quickly finding the key in question. The golden key was still there in it's proper place, but just as the celestial wizard glanced down, it began to glow as if the gate was opening all on it's own. In this moment Lucy's belt wasn't the only place a golden glow had appeared. She had looked up to mention this to her group who were sat at the table with her, but before she could get a single word out her eyes widened in surprise, noticing the same golden glow shining in the guild doorway.
"Here it comes." Gray wasn't quite sure what 'it' was, but he was pretty sure everyone was about to find out. There was a collective gulp from everyone in the guild, this was the moment of truth, who was it going to be? It had to be someone ridiculously strong given how much magic power was in the air. Hearts racing, anxiety spiked, just because they were sure it wasn't an enemy doesn't mean they weren't nervous, after all, this magic power was equivalent to Gildarts. Who could it possibly be? They don't know anyone that could even hold a candle to that S-Class wizard, let alone be on the same level. What if it was an enemy after all, sure Erza and Mira were here but they still weren't fully recovered, being in a frozen state on that island for 7 years had it's side affects, one of them being it slowed down everyone's recovery when they got back, the health they were left in before time had stopped really did a number. They were about to find out that there was no need for all of this worry, because just as fast as the glowing light had appear at the doors, it vanished. Blinding everyone for a moment, they shielded there eyes, and when they opened them back up they were left speechless.
"Huh?" That was all Natsu could manage to utter, and it was also the only word going through everyone else's heads, what else could they say? This was the last thing anyone expected. All that magic power and the only thing that came out of it was two small children, the kids didn't even look like there age had double digits. How could these two small children possibly give off the same amount of magic energy that rivalled even their guild's strongest wizard? Well, they didn't. As soon as they had appeared the magic power that was overflowing in anticipation for there arrival disappeared along with the glow.
"What happened?" Wendy didn't think anyone had an answer for her, but she couldn't help but ask anyway. Upon further inspection, now that the mysterious children were finally here, the 3 dragon slayers of Fairy Tail could get a proper read on the scent they were smelling earlier. They smelled so familiar, the answer just on the tips of their tongues. That's it! These two smelt just like-
"Mama? Papa? What happened?" The small girl spoke up, breaking the silence. Her gaze was directed at the table that sat the core members of the guild. "Where are we? this doesn't look like the guild." She was looking around, everyone looking at the pair who had literally just appeared out of thin air, shock still wearing off from that, they almost didn't register that fact that this little girl just said her parents were sitting at that table. Although slow to react, everyone started making the connection on who this girl was talking to. It was so obvious, she looked just like them.
Light pink hair just like his, the girl even had tufts of it sticking up on the right side of her head, just like the way he styled the front of his hair. Although her hair was longer, reaching just to her shoulders, it was undeniable that if it was any shorter it would be identical. The girl also sported a white scarf with flames on the very ends of it, a tan in colour short sleeved shirt with red spikes lining the bottom, and a small pair of blue denim shorts. Her boots were dark brown and came to an end right above her ankles, they were a slightly darker brown than her eyes. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that she look strikingly similar to Natsu. There was also another wizard this little girl looked quite similar to, but it was more subtle. When you think about who she was facing when she called to her parents, the similarities became more obvious, as there was only a few options for who she was calling her mother. This little girl had nothing in common appearance wise to almost nobody at that table, not Erza for sure, not Juvia either, and definitely not Wendy. That only left one more person, Lucy, this was a sound conclusion to everybody. The girl had the same eyes as Lucy, her style minus the scarf was also similar, and their skin tones were almost the same, when you stopped to compare their face shapes they also matched up in a shockingly similar way. Those two had to be this girl's parents. But they were frozen in time on an island for 7 years, how could they possibly have a child together? Completely taken aback by the statement the little girl had made, everyone almost failed to realise the little boy around the same age that had tucked himself behind the pink haired child, hidden away from the stares of everyone. The little boy also look very similar to guild mates of theirs.
Dark hair almost navy in colour, there was only so many guild members who had blue or black hair, but if the hair wasn't making it obvious enough his eyes sure did. Noticeable bottom eye lashes outlined his unique eye shape that held his stunningly dark blue eyes. The young boy wore a dark jacket with a fur collar, keeping him warm even though it wasn't winter, and black full length pants. Brown shoes similar in shape to a pair of loafers. The boy may not have said anything but it seemed obvious that he was also a child of two guild members, and the two that were his parents just made sense. He looked like a small version of Gray with the facial features of Juvia, that had to be it. Finally after a good minute of silence all the information had sunk in, snapped out of their shock everyone in the guild finally spoke up, but there was only one word that came to mind.
"HUH?" Everyone in the guild collectively let out a huge yell. Nobody quite as shocked as Lucy who had also made the same realisations. The guild got quiet again when the little girl approached the table to ask another question.
"You are my mama aren't you?" The young girl seemed confused, the blonde spirit mage was the spitting image of her mother, but there was a few differences she began to notice when she got a closer look.
"Uh, I'm sorry. I don't have any kids, I'm still just a teenager." Although technically true, the 7 years that passed on the island made Lucy around 24 years old. The blonde was turning red in the face at the thought of having a child, not to mention having a child with Natsu.
"So does that mean you aren't my papa?" The little girl had turned her head to ask Natsu, she had to make sure, after all, these people looked exactly like her parents.
"Hmm... I don't think so." Natsu was rubbing his chin as if he had to think about whether or not he had a secret child he forgot about.
"Does that mean you aren't my parents either?" The little boy behind her spoke up, although you could barely hear it, he was looking in the direction of Gray and Juvia, which had almost cause the water mage to faint.
"No, no, no. Not a chance buddy, sorry." Gray was quick to shut the idea down before Juvia could say anything, but you could see a little blush that had formed on the ice mages face. The little boy seemed to get a little disappointed at the answer he was given.
"You look just like my mama and papa, are you sure?" The little pink haired girl wasn't giving up, she sent a questioning look towards Natsu and Lucy, squinting her eyes a little. How could these two not be her parents, they are the spitting image. Maybe her parents both had a secret twin they never told her about? But if that was the case, how come Greige's parents also have a twin?
"I'm pretty sure. I think I would remember having a kid. I don't even know your name sweetheart." Lucy was trying to be as gentle as she could but it was getting harder to fight against the red creeping up her face.
"My name is Nasha, and this is my best friend Greige." No matter how many times she called him her best friend Greige always grows a little red at the comment. Not to mention they've been holding hands this whole time, he took this moment to slip his hand away and scratch the back of his head with it nervously.
"So where are we?" The little dark haired boy spoke up again, still barely above a whisper. He always gets nervous around new people, these people looked like the ones he knew but they weren't.
"Huh? You're in the Fairy Tail guild, you don't know about us? We're the strongest guild in all of Fiore!" Natsu never passes up an opportunity to brag about his guild, even if after 7 years the guild's reputation wasn't the same as it was, that wouldn't change his mind.
"No, this isn't Fairy Tail. I would know, I'm a member." Nasha refused to believe the man's answer, this place looked nothing like the guild she grew up in, even if the people here looked very similar to the people she knew.
"Yeah it is! I would know because I'M a member of this guild!" Natsu argued back to the girl, showing off his guild mark proudly. The girl couldn't argue back, he did have a mark in the shape of the guild symbol, she looked around and noticed the other people had one too. Nasha just puffed her cheeks and crossed her arms, she was stubborn but she couldn't win this argument.
"So you say these people look like your parents? Maybe if you tell us the names of your parents we can help you find them." Erza finally spoke up, these children were obviously lost, their parents must be worries sick about them.
"My mama's name is Lucy and my papa's name is Natsu. Do you know them?" The same names, the same looks, the same guild. This wasn't looking good for Natsu and Lucy. Everyone was pretty much convinced they had a secret child they didn't tell anyone about. At the mention of both names, Lucy had gone beet red, there was no way she could keep calm. Her heart was racing and she was burning up, she can't take it anymore, she was going to pass out any second.
"Hmm... And what of your friend beside you?" Erza motioned to the little boy. Although Erza also had to fight back a blush at the thought of her two friends having a child together.
"Um... Juvia and Gray." That was the final straw, there was steam coming out of Erza's ears. She tried to act calm and cool but the thought of her friends having children together was too much for her to handle. She tried to keep it together and get more information out of the kids, after all there was no way these were really her friends' kids right? So Erza cleared her throat and asked another question.
"So how old are you two?" This would clear their names, after all those 4 were frozen in time for the last 7 years, so there's no way they could have kids this young.
"Me and Greige are both 7, but I'm older." Nasha loves to bring up that she's older even if it's only by a few weeks.
"That's what I thought. There's no way these people could be your parents because we were frozen for the last-" In that moment Erza had a realisation. If these kids were 7 years old, and they were frozen for 7 years then the math makes sense, these 2 could be secret their secret children. Erza was so caught up in the idea that she completely forgot that it isn't possible, Lucy and Juvia haven't even been in the guild long enough for that to have happened. If Gray hadn't spoken up she might not have realised her mistake.
"So there's no way we could be your parents, Juvia hasn't even been a member of the guild for a year, neither has Lucy. Well, I guess they've been members for 7 years now, but we were all frozen for that time." Gray sounded like he was convincing himself but he knew there was no way he had a kid with Juvia, after all he's pretty sure he would remember. A blushed crept it's way back onto his face at the thought of it.
Erza realised how silly she was for believing it, how could she forget that. She had calmed down after, there was a little red left on her face, but that was from the embarrassment of making such a mistake. Not to mention she would have noticed if Juvia or Lucy were pregnant for a couple months.
"Maybe they're from the future." Gajeel smirked and let out a quiet 'gihi'. He couldn't help but tease the group, he didn't actually believe they were time travelling children. He didn't think anyone would take him seriously either, he was wrong. With the possibility of the pair actually turning out to be the legitimate children of the 4 guild members, and having an explanation, the group went red again.
"There's no way." Gray was probably the only one calm enough to keep denying it. Well, Natsu was pretty calm but he hasn't said anything for a while. He had just been staring at Nasha for the last few minutes, almost studying her, and then he finally spoke up.
"So I have a kid with Lucy?" Natsu sounded so unfazed at the thought. The fact that he was so nonchalant about it made Lucy even more embarrassed, how could he just be okay with this? "She's pretty cute. So does that mean you can shoot fire out of your mouth?" He seemed excited at the idea. He picked Nasha up at the question, holding her by the arms like a doll.
"Why would I be able to do that? I'm not a monster!" The thought of someone shooting fire out of their mouth was so absurd to the little girl, it's unheard of, where she comes from at least. What kind of crazy person would even ask a question like that, obviously the answer was no.
"Well if I was your dad wouldn't that mean you could?" He was so confused as to why she would think that's such a crazy thing to do, after all breathing fire isn't the craziest magic out there.
"What does that have to do with anything? You can't breathe fire!" She was convinced he couldn't breathe fire, after all how could he? He's just a normal person, maybe he could if he was wizard, but magic doesn't exist.
"Why can't I? I do it all the time, see?" Natsu was so confused on why the little girl was so convinced he couldn't. So he let out a breath of fire towards the ceiling, not too big to cause damage, but not tiny. Nasha was mesmerised, she had never seen anything like it before, a human man was breathing fire, real fire, and he did it like it was no big deal. What was going on?
"How did you do that? How did you breathe fire? It came out of nowhere like magic!" She couldn't believe her eyes, how could this be happening.
"It is magic silly, what else would it be?" Natsu put the girl down, so confused with how she reacted. The girl was acting like magic was unheard of, like it didn't exist.
"You can use magic? I thought magic disappeared?" Nasha was ecstatic at this news. Does this mean magic came back? How did this happen? Her parents had told her about the time when magic used to exist, she always wanted to be able to use magic. This time Lucy spoke up, slowly figuring out what was going on.
"Magic disappeared? Not here it hasn't." The blonde woman thinking she figured out what happened, she asked the little girl a question, one that would let her know if she was right. "Are you two by any chance from Edolas?" This would explain almost everything, but this still would leave the question of how they got here unanswered.
"Isn't that where we are?" The little pink haired girl was so confused, if they weren't in Edolas then where were they?
"No, This isn't Edolas, this is Earth Land." Lucy's hunch was right, these two kids weren't from this world, but how were they supposed to get these kids back home now that they knew where they came from. After all, Edolas isn't just a train stop away, it's an entirely different world. How did these kids even get here in the first place? And just as Lucy was wondering about how they appeared she had noticed something in Nasha's hand. Something familiar. "What's that you're holding on to Nasha?" The little girl not knowing what the older woman was talking about, held up her hand which was holding the golden key. Tilting her head, unsure if this was what the mage was referring to.
"Isn't that...?" Natsu had started to say something but Lucy cut him off, grabbing a key off of her key ring.
"That's Capricorn's key... But, I have his key right here." Lucy was confused, she knew there could be multiple keys for the same kind of spirits, but not for the zodiacs. There's only supposed to be 1 of each golden key, and she already had Capricorn, so how did this little girl have another? She didn't know what to think of this, it was unheard of to have 2 of the same golden key, so she did the only thing she could think of. She summoned a spirit to see if he had answers. "Gate of the Southern Cross I open Thee, Crux!" And with a poof of smoke he appeared. A big silver cross shaped... Man? Was he a man or was it a cross? Nasha had never seen anything like this, she couldn't quite make sense of what she was seeing. "Crux have you ever seen anything like this?" Lucy motioned to the golden goat shaped key and it's duplicate.
"Oh my! I don't think anything like this has ever happened. 2 golden zodiac keys? This shouldn't be possible!" Crux was just as shocked as Lucy was, this wasn't supposed to be able to happen.
"I know. But do you think you can try and find some answers for me?" Lucy was hopeful, if anyone could find some answers it would be crux. He got right to searching at her request.
"Um... I think he's sleeping." Nasha couldn't help but point out that it seems he started snoring immediately instead of helping look for answers.
"Oh no, don't worry. He may look like he's sleeping but he's actually looking for answers." Lucy seems to explain this to everyone when she summons Crux for anything.
"Oh. So he'll tell us what happened when he wakes up?" The little girl still not quite sure what was going on.
"Hopefully." The celestial mage wasn't certain he could give any answers, but it was to only lead they had. All they could do was wait.
"So what now?" Gajeel let his curiosity get the better of him and spoke up. If they don't know if the old cross man will find answers shouldn't they start looking too? He didn't want to bring up the possibility of not being able to get the kids back home, but it seemed like a very real possibility. This time the person to speak up was the 'former' guild master, Makarov.
"Hmm... This does seem like a bit of an issue." The small old man stroked his chin in thought. "But if they managed to get here, I'm sure we can manage to send them back. So don't worry too much you two." He comforted the small children, not wanting them to get worried about the chance that they may be stuck in the wrong world. He sounded confident with his words, it was hard not to believe him, but those words were just as much for him as for everyone else. "For now we should worry about another problem." He said these words with a bit more of a lighthearted tone, because what he was referring to wasn't really much of a problem. Noticing nobody really understood what he was talking about, he motioned his hand towards the little pink haired girl standing between Natsu and Lucy. "She seems exhausted, it must have been from using that key in her hand." And he was right, she did seem exhausted. Nasha was basically ready to fall over any second, swaying where she stood, the lack of energy finally catching up to her.
"Are you okay Nasha?" Greige asked his friend, worried for her.
"She will be okay after a little bit of rest, don't worry." Makarov reassured the boy. "She just used too much magic power." That being said, how did she manage to use any magic power if she came from Edolas, that shouldn't be possible. Both of these children have magic power, Makarov can feel it, but how?
Almost falling over, Nasha could barely keep her eyes open any longer. In that moment, in an attempt to keep herself up, she grabbed onto Lucy's skirt. Lucy couldn't help but smile at this interaction, Natsu was right, the girl is really cute. Without a second thought, like an instinct, Lucy picked the little girl up and put Nasha on her hip. Within seconds Nasha was asleep, head resting against Lucy's shoulder.
"So where are they supposed to stay in the meantime?" Gray was curious, but he was secretly hoping Greige would stay with him. He couldn't deny how cute he was, he almost wished the boy could stay with him permanently. But Gray knows he can't think like that, the little boy already has parents and they're probably worried sick about him. Lucy spoke up next helping resolve the issue faster.
"Nasha can stay at my apartment, I have the space. But I don't think I have enough room for the both of them, after all I still need a place to sleep." Lucy felt a little bad at the idea of separating the two when they are in a new land on their own, she can't imagine how scary it must be for them.
"Can I stay with you?" Greige didn't seem too worried about being split up from Nasha, after all, these people were so similar to his guild back home that he couldn't help but feel safe. Especially if the man he stays with is a carbon copy of his dad, except with a couple less layers. Gray was having a hard time keeping his excitement in, but he didn't want everyone to know that he felt that way.
"Jeez, how could I say no? You need to stay somewhere after all." Trying his hardest to be cool about it, you would almost fall for it if you didn't notice the red colour tinting his cheeks. Unfortunately for the ice mage, everyone noticed, but nobody was going to say anything.
With temporary living arrangements settled Lucy decided to say her goodbye's and head home so Nasha could get some real sleep. Gray took the opportunity to also take Greige and leave, saying he would go show the boy around so he could get comfortable with his surroundings. Of course Juvia wouldn't pass up her opportunity either, she followed after the 2 dark haired boys, claiming that Greige might be even more comfortable with 'both parents' around. The smaller boy agreed, leaving no room for Gray to object to the proposal. Natsu had stayed back at the guild, much to the surprise of everyone, because earlier he seemed so fascinated with the small child.
"Natsu, are you not going to go with Lucy?" Erza couldn't suppress her curiosity, if it was her in his position she would take the chance to get closer with Jellal, of course she would never admit this to anybody, let alone say this out loud. Just the thought of it made her start getting a bit red. She shook her head a little to reset her train of thought.
"Maybe later. I never got to finish eatin'." True to his word, he started walking towards the bar to order more food.
The fire dragon slayer ended up staying at the guild to eat and search the request board for a job before walking away empty handed. He didn't stay too long, maybe an hour at the most. After he said his goodbye's he left the guild for the night, heading towards his own house.
"Natsu, you aren't going to stop by Lucy's?" Happy assumed the man was going to go there after he finished up with his business at the guild. Maybe he was wrong?
"Hmm... You're right, maybe Lucy restocked her secret stash of snacks!" The man shot his exceed partner a devious grin and let out a small snicker, why did it seem like food was the only thing ever on this man's mind.