Disclaimer I do not own Fairy Tail. Why would I be writing fanfiction if I owned something like that?

Beta Reader: volfwildman

Cover Art by KegiSpringfield

I hummed as I flipped through the newspaper. It had been two weeks since the One Day What they were calling it. Interest had died down a bit from the conflict but there still were a few articles about the events. Stuff like 'New shocking evidence about Jose' or 'Elfman did what during the war!'.

Most of it was bullshit.

I took a sip from my drink as I put down the paper and looked around the guild. It was still under construction and as a result, there was a good bit of background noise to deal with. Makarov had planned to have the guild itself work on it, but the Magic Council had been kind enough to pay for the repairs themselves. The Guild Master had still planned to tell them no, but the rest of the guild vetoed that decision. Manual labor was not something mages enjoyed doing.

In the corner of my eye, I notice a flash of blue in the window and turn to look over there. At the window trying but failing to hide was Juiva as she stared into the building with a longing look at Elfman who was reading a book by the bar and occasionally talking to Mira. That had been a surprise when I learned of that change but didn't think too much of it. I had given myself a headache the day after the war thinking about all the changes and how I fit into them.

In the end, I just decided to roll with the punches. Maybe Jose was different because of me or maybe I'm not in the Fairy Tail world I know. Giving myself a migraine overthinking it was not going to help me.

Speaking of changes, it was another surprise to learn that Mira could fully use her magic again. Well maybe that was a bit too generous, she could use her demon forms again but still had some trouble performing the transformation and controlling it. That said she was getting better. She still worked at the bar though as apparently, she just liked doing it so decided to stay there for extra money. I had a feeling that 'convincing' people to pay their tabs was a factor in that. On a side note, I couldn't remember when she got her magic fully back. It was one of the details that slipped from my mind, but it was around this time so maybe it was originally during the war?

She also found the situation between her little brother and Juvia to be rather funny as well. Thought that it was funny how Elfman didn't even know that the blue-haired woman was even there when every other person in the guild had noticed the second she had started stalking him. The guild had gone from on guard, to creeped out, to annoyed, and to accepting in a total of two days. Mira was however finding it less amusing and more annoying with each passing day. I don't think it will be too long before she 'introduces' her brother to the Water mage.

"Hey, Bishop! You look low on juice there man, let me get you another cup on me!" Before I could even protest the guildmate whose name I didn't even know snatched my cup up and walked over to the bar.

That was also a new thing. Apparently, the combination of putting a Vanish on everyone and fooling the Jupiter Cannon had made everyone decide to try and be my best friend. Before then they had treated me with distant respect but now, they seem insistent on making conversation with me, helping with something, or anything excuse to try and be friendly with me. It got annoying real fast and the fact that they didn't let up after a week like I thought they would do did nothing to calm me down.

I wasn't angry at them though. It still felt weird to be able to get truly mad. Not like I felt it much after my fight with Aria. I was swiftly discovering I was a quick to annoy but slow to anger type of person. I suppose that was good since anger was what led to me being in bed for another day and being yelled at by my family. Mom had been worried sick after she learned about the fighting and most of the family coming home injured did not help.

"There you go dude! When you see Natsu next tell him that I got that poster he was looking for." Before I could even ask who he was or what he was talking about with a poster he was gone. I let out an annoyed sigh before reaching over and taking a sip from my apple juice. I also ignored the amused look Mira was sending my way.

As I was contemplating whether I should head home or stay for a bit more, Romeo came into the guild and made a beeline to me. "Hey Uncle Bish," He started, "Dad's got this party he's throwing tonight, and he asked me to find and invite you."

I honestly didn't want to go. Social events were annoying to go to, but I made exceptions for family and friends. With a sigh, I told Romeo yes and he gave me a little smile before running off to invite a few other people to the party.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. I could find a nice place in Macao's house and read or make small talk with him or Wakaba. I doubt much would give me a headache from going to a party of all things.

Turns out I was wrong as I felt a headache starting up the second Macao announced that his wife was pregnant with their second child.

It didn't help that he named me the God Uncle.

I stretched my back as I got up from the seat, I had been sitting for half an hour before getting off the train. The familiar sight of Magnolia filled my eyes as I exited the train station. I had just got back from a caravan job.

Over time most mages found a type of job that was their specialty. Apparently, mine was guarding caravans. Not the most dramatic type of job to be great at but considering that most caravan jobs consisted of my putting a Vanish on the carriage or carriages and then sitting down and reading for the next few hours it was a rather nice easy to pass time. It didn't take much nowadays for me to keep concentration on the spell, it was my most used spell for a reason and I knew it inside and out as a result.

Really the only times I had to do anything else was when the bandits decided to wait on the road. But that usually consisted of the caravan stopping and me using King's Domain to force them to the ground with illusionary pressure and letting the non-mage caravan guards deal with them while they're down. If I was feeling particularly creative or annoyed at the time, I would use A Nightmare Cometh, it was amazing how scared a person could get from seeing what I assumed a shoggoth looked like.

It was easy money really. Though it wasn't too much as most of the jobs were C-class, even if the caravans were more willing to pay more when they personally sought me out. Most of the money went into my garden and poison making equipment. That said I was saving up for a new enchanted ring.

I tried my best to ignore the looks and greetings I got from the regular people that lived in the city. After the One Day War, the people of Magnolia were more outgoing and interactive with Fairy Tail mages. Usually, they used the excuse of thanking the mage to start the conversation and go off from there. I don't know how many people thanked me for saving the city before asking me something like showing them a cool illusion or trying to get me to hang out with them. I had a particularly annoying encounter where a mom tried to convince me to go to her little angel's birthday party and put on a show.

It got so bad at times that I resorted to using Vanish to be able to peacefully make my way through town. After getting a few too many looks and greeting I finally decided to go with that solution and was now making my way through town completely invisible to the world.

I think it was for that reason that the world decided to show me an interesting sight.

Sitting at an outside table beside a cafe was Gray and Lucy. I paused as I observed them. They were talking but I couldn't hear what they were saying from this distance and after a few seconds of considering what to do next, I decided to move closer.

"-So, then the cook had to make a new chocolate cake. He was so mad but after giving him some puppy dog eyes, he agreed to not tell Dad. And that's how I ended up with a sweet tooth for chocolate cake." Lucy finished saying with a grin before putting a piece of chocolate cake into her mouth from her plate.

Gray let out a laugh before taking a piece of his own dessert, which happened to be a brownie with some vanilla ice cream. "I'm sure the cook didn't mind too much, probably just was annoyed with you not asking permission for the cake first. Reminds me of the time that Bishop bought home some strawberry cheesecake for the entire family and Erza ended up eating the entire thing."

Oh, right I remember that. I had just finished my first A-rank job and had been in a good mood as a result. I bought that cheesecake for everyone with the expectation that Erza would eat most of it. Instead, she ate all of it. Really Mom was more annoyed than me since I wasn't planning on eating any of it.

The two continued eating and talking as I stood off to the side. After a while, I decided to just leave as I assumed that the two were just hanging out and waiting for Natsu or something. But just as I took a few steps Lucy spoke up.

"So, when are we going to finally tell your family that we're dating?" And just like that, I was back to being beside them. Gray was dating Lucy. That was a departure from canon. Not one I cared much for when it came to future events but still something.

Gray let out a sigh as he rubbed his head a little. "It's not like they'd reject you or something. In fact, it's the opposite. Mom has been on me and Natsu about finding 'someone'. She's not saying it but I'm pretty sure she wants some grandkids. She's also getting onto Erza and Cana too but to a lesser extent. Really the only one that she's not saying anything to is Bishop. I think she doesn't have much hope for him finding someone."

I shrugged at his statement. I think Mom had simply come to the realization that her best chances of getting some grandkids were her other children rather than the one that has no real interest in romance. I felt more relaxed then insulted about it.

Anyway, it seems that my little brother was dating. And keeping it a secret from the rest of the family.

It had been a while since my far too wide smile that I inherited from Mom made its way onto my face but that had rapidly changed just a second ago. If there was one thing I took enjoyment in besides illusion and gardening it was embarrassing my little siblings. Usually, it was with dry remarks at something they said but this time it was going to be a little different.

Both Gray and Lucy jumped in their seats as I pulled out a chair from a nearby table and put it next to theirs before sitting down. Just as they were about to say something, I dropped the Vanish. I wiped the far too wide smile off my face and settled for a small one as I placed my hands under my chin while looking right at Gray.

"Hello Gray," I began, "How's your day been?" Gray's face rapidly became paler and paler as he stared at me. I heard Lucy off to the side sputtering as she tried to say something. After a few seconds, the Celestial mage finally found her words.

"Were...were you spying on us?" At her words, I pivoted around to face her before speaking. "No, I just happened to be under my Vanish so I could make my way through the city peacefully when I happened upon you two. I was just leaving when I heard you two talking about something rather interesting. Speaking of that…"

I once more pivoted but this time to face Gray who had composed himself somewhat. "So, is there a more particular reason you didn't tell our family you were dating someone besides Mom's little obsession with having grandchildren?"

Gray let out a sigh before speaking, "Well it was just before the whole war with Phantom Lord that we started dating so we haven't been dating that long. And... I really don't know how to tell you guys. I guess I kinda kept putting it off."

I let out a little hum at his words. It was understandable that he would probably feel awkward about this, Gray was always unsure when it came to romance. Speaking of, "And how did you two end up together?"

Both blushed at the saying before Lucy answered. "After he protected me from the Esinwald guild I took him out to eat as a thank you. After that, we kept talking and going out to eat more because we enjoyed each other's company and after a while, we just decided to make it official that we were dating. I've been showing him a bit about how I write while he's been teaching me a little about painting."

I let out another hum as I stared at Gray, the sweat he was creating was more fun to watch then I'd like to admit. "Now Gray, how do you think Mom will react when she learns you've been dating without telling her?"

"...She'll be happy that I have a girlfriend?" He stammered out hopefully.

I chuckled a little before speaking. "Ohhhh yes she'll be happy. And, rather disappointed with you for not telling her. I can already imagine the look she'd give you."

Somehow Gray got paler as he probably imagined the look. Mom might not be a Mage, but she was terrified when one of her kids disappointed her. The fact that two of her kids were S-class mages made no difference. I had learned years ago what to do to stay out of her ire for the most part, but my little siblings would sadly find themselves under it when they did something stupid and it was always entertaining to watch.

"Please don't tell her!" Gray all but shouted. Even Lucy was looking a little pale as she had also seen once or twice how scary the Vern matriarch could be.

I let out yet another hum as I pretended to look like I was considering his words. "Well see Gray, I know that you're dating now. If Mom finds out without me or you telling her then I'm sure that I'll somehow be dragged into this."

Gray didn't say anything but gave me a pleading look which made my little smile sided a bit. It was always fun to mess with my little siblings. I hadn't done so in a while and it felt nice to do it again. It let me ignore what was coming for us in the future.

"You have until tonight. If you don't tell Mom, then I'm telling her first thing in the morning." Let it not be said I wasn't generous. With done I stood before placing a Vanish once more on me and walked off to the guild. A satisfied smile made its way onto my face when I heard Gray groan.

Later Gray brought Lucy to family dinner and they told Mom that they were dating. Mom's reaction had been to literally pick Gray up into a bearhug and started smothering him with praise much to the Ice mage's embarrassment. While Mom and a bit later Natsu were congratulating him, I noticed Lucy was brought to the corner of the room by Erza and Cana. I listened in on to them a little their conversation and it could be summed up into two sentences.

'Welcome to the family' and 'Break his heart we break you'

Really it was a normal day in the Vern household.

I let out a pained groan as I sat back on the tree, I was using it to support my back. For the last hour or two, I had been next to the local forest beside Magnolia training. It was about a five-minute walk from the mansion and was often the place I came to when I wanted to train alone. A good place to think too.

My head was all but yelling at me to stop right now. After a bit of physical training, I had started working on illusions and wasn't having that great of success. Currently, I was trying to create a Greater Illusion version of A Nightmare Cometh. It was an annoying endeavor for the simple fact that despite being certain I had the magic and the concentration to pull something like that off but for whatever reason, I just couldn't do it.

The best reason I got was there was simply a certain part of my mind that didn't want to corporate with me on this. Like the part I needed most for this sort of illusion just didn't want to work with me. I had an... idea on what exactly that was but I didn't particularly want to think about it. In the end, I suppose that I just had to work on something else.

While I laid back and let my mind rest, I idly messed with the new ring that was placed on my pinky finger on my right hand. A couple of days ago I had finally gotten the new enchanted ring I had custom made from Crocus, the capital of Fiore. It cost a lot, but it was worth it.

The ring itself was simply known as the Ring of Defense. Like how my Ring of Haste made me passively faster, the new ring made my rather frail body, at least by mage standards, a bit tougher. Passively it didn't make that big of a difference but when I used my Ring magic on it made a decently large difference. It did have the setback that like with my Ring of Haste I had to constantly flow magic into it to keep it to that level and it drained damn near twice as much as the haste ring. But really, I just needed to use it before an attack and then turn it off after which should minimize the drain.

Eventually, I stopped playing with the ring and stood up. After a moment of thought, I decided to start practicing my swordplay. While not the most important part of my fighting style it didn't hurt to be a bit better at using my saber if I ever ended up in a sword duel with an enemy. As I went through sword forms and other such stuff my mind drifted to the training that my little siblings were doing.

Erza seemed to be the most motivated right now. If I had to guess her loss to Aria stung her more than she liked to admit. The fact that she was actively going out of her way to find an armor set that was enchanted to resist Wind magic kinda proved it. Other than her search for armor she was trying to learn new Sword magic spells, with the focus being on a large area of effect damage.

Gray was also putting in a good bit of effort to broaden his arsenal. He was learning a completely new type of magic. Pure Ice magic. Ok so maybe it wasn't that new compared to his Ice-Make magic, but it was still something. Ice-Make magic focused on making things out of ice which seemed to give the magic more power with the cost of versatility. Plain old Ice magic had less power but could do more. Currently, he was focused on trying to make a localized blizzard around him.

Cana was doing the opposite of Gray. Instead of learning new magic, she was focused on learning more about her old magic. While her use of Card magic had made her an S-rank mage it had limited her a bit. She had put pretty much all her focus on the combat side of the magic and as a result, had neglected the more support centered spells the magic had. Like fortune-telling or using the cards as a radio/phone. It seems like she wanted to make sure she could support people better if put into a leadership role like during the war.

Natsu was the only one of my siblings that didn't really seem to be trying something new. He was just sticking to his old and reliable Fire Dragon Slayer. Mainly he was just trying to get his attacks more powerful while creating a new spell here or there. I did advise him to try and learn secondary magic, but he didn't really seem all too interested. To be fair his magic never failed him in the show so maybe he didn't really need the extra options.

Lucy had also taken to training with us and the direction she had taken her training had been a surprise for me. While she was working on lowering the summoning cost for her keys, she had like Gray started to learn a new type of magic. It was the magic I had suggested to her before, Whip magic. It was just like Sword magic but from a whip basically. I think she wanted to be able to do more while her spirits battled. Probably didn't help that Sol stole her keys, and showed her that she was useless without them. That said she was having a hard time of it but had recently pulled off her first spell with the magic was working on her second.

It filled me with a strange sense of pride to see my family working so hard to improve. Most of it wasn't even stuff I suggested but rather things they wanted to try out on their own. I guess that just gave me more proof that this wasn't the world I thought I knew because it was because of my influence or not.

With a sigh, I grabbed a bottle of water from my hammerspace and took a large gulp of it before putting it back. After a second of thought, I decided it was time to head back. While I had to be ready for the next disaster that would hit Fairy Tail overworking myself would do more harm than good. Not to mention it was getting close to dinner time and I knew that Mira and Elfman would be coming over for dinner.

I just need to trust myself to be ready for what's to come.

AN: So just a nice little cool down chapter before we get to the next arc, there's going to be one more then the Tower of Heaven arc begins. Mainly this chapter just showed the differences there is now from canon. From the new magics to Macao having a second kid. As for why I paired Lucy with Gray? TO be honest, romance has never interested me but I feel like it helps make a story deeper so I'm trying my best to have it on the side. But if I'm going to do it then I'm going to have fun with the pairings, make it a guessing game on who gets with who. Pretty much no one is going to get with their canon other.

Thanks once again to volfwildman for being a Beta. This weekly shout out goes ellorae for his review. It's just nice seeing people enjoying my story. Not to say that criticism is sad to look at but pure praise just makes my day.

I'm going to be recommending a fanfiction this chapter, more specify I'm recommending 'A Girl's Mind is a Dangerous Place'. It's crossover fanfic between Fairy Tail and Naruto where Natsu's mind ends up getting transferred to Sakura's body during the bell test. It's a good story with quality righting and I enjoy the direction and tone the story goes for.

Have a great day.

P a treon . com (slash) BETAsatchel