Prologue: X798

"Wow, Lax, slow day as far as mail goes."

The man hardly glanced up as Mirajane came over to the table he was seated at in the guildhall, though when she was close enough his eyes did linger on her stomach for a moment or so. The way she was just slightly showing signs of her pregnancy was really endearing to him for some reason. With the hall so empty, he figured he'd let her stay over at the table with him for a bit. Shoot the breeze. It made her happy when he showed her some interest.

It was still rather early and, other than Erza, who was scouring for an S-Class job, and Kinana, who was still working on opening the guild up, they were basically alone. He was pretty sure that a few people were milling around in the back, but wasn't completely certain. Some liked to get in early, before the hall filled up, to use the bathhouse or for an early morning swim. He mostly just like the tranquility and tried to use it as a chance to take care of any Master duties that needed to be done that day.

"If it ain't a letter from the council making me the supreme ruler of the kingdom," he grumbled as she first sat a mug of ale down in front of him (drink early, stay happy all day, he'd long decided) before getting to the mail, "then I don't want it."

"Dragon," his wife giggled before rifling through the letters. There were quite a few. Then again, given the guildhall that he was running, that wasn't too shocking. Given the high amount of members that seemed to just be unable to wait to tear into a town (and it's building and surrounding areas), letters of anger and request of repatriations for damages were daily. Looking over one in particular, Mira began. "Okay, so the rent for the hall is due."

"Pay it. We had a good month this time." He reached out to pick up his mug, wishing the woman would just set the letters down and let him go over them alone. He liked her company, a lot, but talking about the hall was so boring. Rent? Bleh. he wished she'd jsut sit down in his lap and take a load off. Leave Kinana to finish opening up. His demon deserved it. "Lots of new members. Though Erza's been no help in that department-"

"I heard that," she complained from across the mostly empty hall, over by the request board. She was debating between two jobs, but had no trouble in tossing a quarrel with the slayer in, for old times sake. "And I have explained many times that it was just a misunderstanding."

"You made the poor girl flee the dormitory in tears," the slayer argued.

"Misunderstanding. Plain and simple."

"Anyways," Mirajane went on as she shuffled the letters, straining to read the next one. "You also got a handwritten letter from… Ooh, I can't read this. Uh, I think it might be from that town Natsu and Lucy went to the other-"

Sighing loudly, Laxus said, "Take care of it for me, huh? Write 'em a note, take the jewels from the Salamander to cover any damages and have Lucy work the rest off as a barmaid. Next."

"Okay." Shuffling them again, she frowned as she came to yet another stupefying one. "Oh. Huh. I wonder who would have sent this."

"What is it?" That got Laxus to look up, trying to see what she was holding. "Demon?"

"It's something for Master," she said with a frown.

"I am the Master."

"You know what I mean," she said, handing off the rest of the mail to him to sort through it. "Makarov. He hasn't been the Master in years though."

Laxus only went on to look through the rest on his own. Mostly just more junk. And bills. Ugh.

"Yeah, well, give it to him when you get off tonight," he told her simply. "Or don't you take him lunch in the afternoon? Give it to him then."

The man stayed with them, Makarov did, and had for the past year. It had been quite the battle, first for Mirajane to get Laxus to agree to it and then for Makarov to do the same. And even once that was all settled, the pair fought constantly, but lovingly.

Or so she assumed. They'd always had a love/hate relationship, after all.

She almost turned away, leaving him to the rest of the mail, but stopped suddenly as she read the return address.

"Dragon, look at this." Turning back to him, she moved to hand off the letter. "Isn't this the same address that those letters for your father came from?"

Dropping the ones in his hand, he moved to take that one from her and glance at it. The thing looked official enough. Just like the ones that had been addressed to Ivan had. They'd come only a week or so ago and Laxus just tossed them. Anyone trying to reach that man at Fairy Tail clearly was either an old creditor or an idiot.

"Looks like it." He snorted then. "Toss it with the others then."

"Dragon."

"What? Huh? Ivan ain't been affiliated with Fairy Tail since-"

"But if now they're going after Master-"

"I'm the Master."

"Laxus."

"Here," he grumbled, moving to rip it open. "I'll open it then, huh?"

"Laxus, that's illegal," she hissed, moving to grab it from him. He wasn't making it easy on her though. "Give that back to-"

"Bug off, woman," he said, batting at her gently, rather conscious of her ever-growing belly. "You wanted me to get to the bottom of it; I'm getting to the bottom of it."

With a huff, she allowed him to pull a paper from the envelope. Glancing over his shoulder, she said, "That looks serious."

It was. The paper was actually a couple of them, all official documents it seemed. And, as Laxus just sat there, reading over it, he could hardly breathe.

"What is it, dragon?" Mira asked as he hunched over the document, not allowing her to read it. "Lax?"

He wasn't sure. Err, rather, he was, but he just couldn't…

"It's my…my…"

"What?" Resting a hand on his shoulder, she squeezed it slightly as she leaned down to at least get somewhat of a gist of the document. "It says… Who is Iris Dreyar?"

He couldn't breath right. "That's my… She was my…mother."

There was a moment where Mira just froze and Laxus only reached up to rub at his head.

"Dragon." Just as quickly, Mira was moving to try and wrap her arms around him. "Oh, are you okay? I didn't even know that she was alive."

"Neither did I," he whispered. "And now…now she's…"

"I have chosen a job."

That came from Erza, of course, as she headed over from the request board, flier in hand.

"I wish to depart immediately," she said to Mirajane. Kinana had disappeared, no doubt off to clean up in another portion of the guild, leaving Mira as the only one to process the request. "If you would- What is it? You both look stricken."

They were. Laxus more than Mirajane, really. Confusion was also extremely present.

"It's my…" He wasn't sure what to say, really, other than just shaking his head and getting to his feet. Shrugging Mira off (she was moving to pick up the papers anyways to look over them herself). "It's my mother. They were trying to contact Ivan and, when that didn't work, Gramps."

"Hmmm." Erza took a step back at that, bowing her head. "I am sorry for asking."

Laxus was a rather dry person usually, but he couldn't help it in that situation. His mind was racing and his heart felt much the same. There was a pounding in the back of his head and Mira was crying for some reason as she read the papers, which was stupid. She didn't know his mother anymore than he did, but such things as they were about to deal with always made her sad.

Always.

But Titania was still just standing in front of him, armor just as shiny as ever, seemingly shocked by Mira's sobs and unsure what to do. For a woman that thrived on drama filled novels, she was rather a novice when it came to situations in real life. In part though she didn't know, of course, what was in those papers. She just thought that his mother, who she'd no doubt never given any thought to, had written him a letter or something. No. It was worse than that. Much more.

"They want me to…" He didn't know why he felt the need to explain any more to Erza. What should she care? And why should it be any of her business? It was his and his alone.

And…Makarov. And Ivan. And that was the only family that he knew his mother had, but any of the others too.

But just not Erza.

That was all.

Still, the words tumbled out suddenly and without merit as he continued.

"They want," he began as he swallowed and Mira wiped at her eyes, "me to come down. Err, they wanted Gramps. Or Ivan, I guess. To…to…" He couldn't say it. After all those years of believing her to be dead didn't help him any in what he was experiencing at the moment. "They want someone to come to claim the body. Because she's dead. My…my mother is dead."

This is gonna be a kinda weird story for those of you who are used to my usual style. It's going to be told in a back and forth kinda way, with every other chapter taking place in the past, back when Laxus was born (and possibly onward). Not sure how long it's gonna be, but either the standard five or ten.