Chapter One:
"Ooh, look at all the pretty flowers!" 5-year-old Layla Dragneel cheered as she pressed her face against the glass of the train window, blond pig-tails bouncing as she danced with excitement.
"They always have flowers, why are you surprised?" 4-year-Igneel asked, looking a little more, well, "icky" than usual. He wasn't quite old enough for the full effects of Dragon Slayer Motion sickness to overtake him, but he had been reporting feeling dizzy several times during the train ride from Magnolia to Crocus.
"Because they're pretty!" Layla insisted.
"So?" Igneel countered.
"It's a girl thing," 9-year-old Nashi sighed before turning to her mother. "Are we there yet?"
"Almost," Lucy answered, just as Natsu let out another groan of discomfort from where he had his head rested in his wife's lap. Lucy smiled in sympathy at him, running her fingers gingerly through his hair. Despite her smile, her brow was furrowed in worry as she gazed at the numerous bandages and stitches that still covered Natsu's body. About a week or so ago he had been brutally attacked while on a job. He'd apparently been attacked from behind by some wizard that was able to transform his entire body to crystal that was not only immune to any and all of Natsu's attacks, but also was capable of draining the magic energy from any wizard he touched. Porlyusica had discovered that little tidbit of information as she was examining him when he was first carried back to Fairy Tail, unconcious, bleeding out, body contorted into all kinds of unnatural angles.
"If he wasn't so darn powerful to begin with he would have been kncoked out entirely within a second," Porlyusica had said when she sensed remenants of the crystal's power still on him. "His little 'friend' probably helped him out too."
Natsu would later debunk this, stating that for whatever reason E.N.D. had not made an appearance. For once, Lucy wished he would have, then maybe Natsu wouldn't be in this state. Porlyusica had done wonders for him but had suggested that they go see another healer in Crocus.
"Your back wasn't broken, by some miracle," she'd said. "But it was knocked completely out of line. Not to mention both of your legs have been shattered. You'll need extensive therapy to make a full recovery."
Hence, here they were, on their way to Crocus.
The train came presently came to a stop.
"Ladies and Gentlmen, we have no reached the Crocus Train Station."
"We're here!" Layla cheered.
"Finally," Nashi grumbled as she stood to her feet.
"Ooh! It's Uncle Sting and Uncle Rogue!" Igneel shouted as he pointed out the window.
"And Auntie Yukino and Auntie Minerva!" Layla added.
As the three children bounded out of their seats to leave the train car, Lucy turned to Natsu. He had his arms crossed, staring straight ahead, a defeated look on his face.
Lucy urged him to sit up, which he did, but the look on his face didn't change. Lucy sighed as she knealt in front of him and took one of his hands in hers.
"You're going to be okay," she promised.
"Hm," was the only reply she got back as Natsu kept his eyes lowered towards the floor.
She cupped his face in her hand. "This is only temporary. You'll be back on your feet before you know it. No pun intended."
That finally got a hint of a smile out of him, but it quickly faded.
Lucy stroked his cheek with her thumb. "We're going to find the guy who did this to you," she swore. "But first we've got to get you healed."
"If I ever get healed," he said.
"It's only been a week. No one is expecting you to just bounce back from this," Lucy said. "You were tossed out of an eight storied window for crying out loud! It's going to take you a while for you to heal. But you'll be as good as new soon."
"How soon?" Natsu asked.
"Before this one gets here I'll bet," Lucy said as she patted her still flat stomach where Dragneel Baby #4 was currently growing. Natsu finally lifted his gaze to look at his wife's abdomen. A small smile crept onto his face.
"Can I listen to 'em?" he asked softly.
Lucy stood up and guided her husband's face towards her stomach. Natsu wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed his ear against her belly. A light tha-thump, tha-thump, tha-thump greeted him. He closed his eyes and nuzzled into Lucy's belly, sighing in contentment as he listened to his baby's heartbeat.
"C'mon," Lucy said after a few moments. "Let's get out of here before the train starts moving again."
Natsu sighed. "Yeah. Okay," he leaned back, grumbling to himself as Lucy unfolded the wheelchair that had become his prison for the past week.
Lucy helped him shuffle into it, frowning in sympathy as she heard him groaning in discomfort. Having motion sickness and being stuck in a wheelchair had to be torturous! They slowly made their way out of the train to where the twin dragons and their wives were waiting.
"Show us that roar of yours big fella," Sting said as he ruffled Igneel's hair.
Igneel beamed as he took his position and brought his hands to his mouth. "Celestial Dragon Roar!"
A burst of sparkling golden magic that resembled a cyclone of stardust shot from the boy's mouth.
"Whoa!" Sting jumped back, eyes wide in over exagerated shock. "Look out Rogue, he's gonna blow us away!" Sting shouted as he wrapped an arm around Rogue and pretended to duck behind him.
"Please stop," Rogue mumbled.
"You're no fun," Sting hissed in a low whisper so that the children couldn't hear.
Igneel just giggled. "I'm the best Celestial Dragon Slayer that ever was!"
"You're the only Celestial Dragon Slayer that ever was," Nashi replied.
"And you're the only Titan Fire Wizard that ever was," Igneel snapped back.
"Touche," Nashi shrugged.
"Touche?" Minerva asked, an eyebrow arched. "Glad to see you kids got your mom's intellect."
"Hey!" Natsu called.
"Oh, look who it is," Minerva smirked. "Our favorite idiot."
"Watch it!" Natsu warned.
Minerva opened her mouth to say something, but Yukino stepped up to Natsu, a concerned look on her face and a small child on her hip.
"Are you alright?" Yukino asked.
"Eh, I've been better," Natsu shrugged before turning to the child in Yukino's arms with a smile. "Is that who I think it is?"
"Yes," Yukino smiled. "This is our Kari."
"Say 'hi' to your Uncle Natsu, Kari," Sting encouraged as he walked to his wife and daughter's side.
"H-hi," Kari said shyly before hiding her face against her mother's shoulder.
"She's gotten so big since we last saw her!" Lucy exclaimed, thinking back to the Grand Magic Games two years ago, when Kari had just been a baby. She'd been sick during the year after that's games, so she and Yukino had not attended. She looked just like her mother, only with her father's messy, blond hair.
"They've gotten big?" Sting asked as he gestured to the three Dragneel children. "Look at your three! Also, what's this I hear about a fourth baby on the way?"
Lucy smiled as she patted her abdomen. "I'm due in 6 and a half months!"
"Yeesh, all you two do is make babies," Minerva rolled her eyes.
"Oh, like you've got room to talk," Natsu scoffed, eyeing the large, navy, knee-legnth cape that Minerva had been wearing around her shoulders. "Don't act like we don't know what you're hiding under there.
Minerva smiled as she opened the cloak to reveal a nicely sized baby-bump. "Alright, you've got me."
Natsu just grinned as the turned to Rogue. "Was starting to wonder if you had it in you shadow-boy."
"Shut up," Rogue blushed as the adults laughed.
"What does Uncle Rogue have in him?" Layla asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Yeah, what?" Igneel echoed.
"Uh…" Lucy shifted her eyes about. "We'll tell you kids when you're older."
Nashi arched her eyebrow. "Is it that thing where-"
"HEY! Why don't we go do something fun since we're here?" Lucy loudly suggested to cut her daughter off.
"Oh, there's a fair in town, Minerva and I could take you and the children there while the men unpack everything at the hotel," Yukino suggested.
"Yeah!" all of the children cheered.
"Wait, why do we have to do the unpacking?" Sting said.
"Because the pregnant lady said so," Minerva stated.
"No you didn't, Yukin-"
"I did now."
"Oh, you…"
"Sting, you won't win this one," Rogue said, glancing at his wife. "Trust me. I know."
The wizards began to head off to the hotel. Natsu grumbled as he held a hand to his mouth.
"Is the wheelchair making you sick, Daddy?" Layla asked, concern in her voice.
"Eh, I'm fine," Natsu lied.
"Will Cybele help?"
"You don't have to-"
But it was too late. Layla pulled out her keys and shouted: "Open, gate of the charriot: Cybele!"
A bright light shone, and a charriot pulled by two pink lion cubs appeared. Both of the cubs mewed as they pranced up to Natsu. He sighed. This was embarassing. He was supposed to be the one taking care of Layla not the other way around. Still, she'd already called Cybele out. He didn't want to make her feel bad, and his stomach really was ready to kill him. He shuffled out of the wheel chair and sat in the charriot behind Cybele.
"I wanna ride too!" Igneel shouted as he jumped in next to his father.
"Igneel, be careful!" Lucy scolded.
Natsu felt a small pang through his chest. He didn't want his son to feel like he had to tiptoe around him. He enjoyed and missed wrestling and rough-housing with his boy. Still, he smiled and pulled Igneel into his lap as Cybele began pulling them. Natsu wasn't sure why Cybele's chariot didn't bother him like other transportation. Maybe it had something to do with it being a spirit chariot. At the moment, he didn't care, though. He was just glad his stomach had stopped doing backflips.
They soon made their way to the hotel The twin dragons immediately went to unpacking, but the children all begged their mothers to bring them to the fair as they'd promised.
Lucy turned and looked at Natsu, who had by then pulled himself up onto the bed. He sighed and smiled at her.
"Go on, Luce. No need for you to stay cooped up here."
Lucy returned the smile as she walked to his side, leaned down, and kissed him.
"I'll be back soon," she promised.
"Sure thing."
After the children and women had left Sting asked:
"So, how you doing Natsu."
"Ugh!"
"That bad, huh?" Rouge stated.
"Ugh!" Natsu repeated, pulling a pillow ontop of his face. "I feel like I'm going to explode if I stay like this much longer.
"Well, hopefully that therapy you signed up for will get you back to your old self," Rogue said.
"It better," Natsu said, staring down at his legs, bound and wrapped in layers of bandages. His back began to ache and he shifted to lie down on his stomach to take pressure off of it.
"Hey, I've been meaning to ask you something," Sting said.
"Hm?"
"So this guy that attacked you. You said he turned himself to crystal?"
"Yup."
"And those crystals drained your magic energy?"
"Yup."
"So...how come they didn't drain his magic energy too?"
"Huh?" Natsu arched an eyebrow.
"If the nature of these crystals is to eliminate magic," Rogue began explaining, "Then how is it possible a wizard to use magic upon it?"
"Huh, never though about it," Natsu said as he began to think about it. He quickly stopped worrying about it. "Eh, whatever. I don't care. Screw that guy!"
Sting and Rogue chuckled a bit.
"I suppose your sentiment is understandable," Rogue said.
"'Your sentiment is understandable?'" Sting mocked. "Sheesh, the guy's depressed enough. Do you have to talk like you're at a funeral?"
Rogue threw a throw pillow from the hotel couch at Sting, hitting him square in the face.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
"I wanna ride the ferris wheel!" Layla begged as she jumped up and down excitedly and pointed to the said ride.
"Aw, but those make me dizzy!" Igneel whined.
"You don't have to go," Layla suggested.
"So, what? I'm just supposed to stand here and be bored!"
Nashi looked about the fair as her two younger siblings argued, searching for something else to do.
"C'mon, Igneel," she offered. "We can go play that shooting game while Layla and Mommy ride the ferris wheel."
"Okay!" Igneel cheered, taking his sister by the hand and heading towards the shooting game.
"Hey, you two wait up," Lucy said as she ran after them. Yukino began to follow, but Kari looked up at her.
"Can I go on the ferris wheel, too, Mama?"
"Oh, well-"
"Go on," Minerva said as she took Kari and Layla's hands. "I'll take these two on their ride."
"Thank you," Yukino smiled as she followed after Lucy, Nashi, and Igneel.
Nashi and Igneel quickly took their spots in line.
"Imma shoot all the duckies!" Igneel declared. "And then I'm gonna win that snake with the funny hat!"
"Sure, okay," Nashi said, sounding as if she didn't believe him.
"What?" Igneel asked, picking up on her tone.
"You can't even get your pee in the toilet half the time and you expect to shoot all the ducks in this game?"
"Wha-uh! That's not true!" Igneel protested.
"We share a bathroom," Nashi rolled her eyes.
"So," Igneel crossed his arms, pouting. "It's dark at night!"
"You're gross," Nashi shuddered.
"No, you're gross!"
Lucy shook her head as she found a bench to watch her two children from. Yukino sat down next to her.
"So, how have you been?" Yukino asked.
"Okay," Lucy answered.
"Really?" Yukino didn't look convinced.
Lucy sighed. "I'm fine. But Natsu...well...he's taken this hard. He's always taken pride in being able to take care of his family. Now that he can't do that right now it's...well...he doesn't like it."
"I see," Yukino nodded. "And it's stressful on you because you're not sure how to help."
"Exactly," Lucy nodded, setting a hand on her stomach. "The fact that we've got another one on the way isn't really helping. He just feels more pressure to get on his feet so he can get back to being a husband and dad, which is what we all want, but I don't want him to push himself too hard and get hurt again."
Yukino nodded, setting a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder. "I understand that this is hard for you, but it will all be alright in the end, you'll see."
Lucy sighed. "Yeah."
"Excuse me, Ladies?"
Yukino and Lucy turned to see a woman with rainbow hair walking twards them, a tray of plastic cups in her hands.
"Would you mind to have a free sample of our Gushing Green Juice today?"
"Sure," Lucy said taking a cup off the tray.
"Thank you," Yukino said as she also took a cup. The woman smiled, nodded, and walked off.
"Aw, man!" Lucy turned to find Nashi and Igneel had made their way to the front of the line. Igneel, as per usual, had just gone in guns blazing (no pun intended) and had hit maybe three of the ten ducks.
"Sorry, lil'guy! Better luck next time!" the man running the game said.
"Can't I try again?" Igneel asked.
"You already had a turn, let me play," Nashi said, shoving her brother aside and picking up the gun.
Pop!
Pop!
Pop!
The first three shots and three of the ducks were already down. Lucy smiled as she brought the cup to her lips. Before she could take a sip, though, Yukino asked.
"My, she's got good aim, doesn't she?"
"Yeah," Lucy said as Nashi shot down three other ducks. "She recently started practicing with Roman whenever they go over to the Fernandezes house."
"How have they been doing?" Yukino asked, taking a sip of her drink.
"Fine," Lucy said. "Roman got his first set or armor recently."
"Really?"
"Mm-hm."
"And what about the triplets."
"Well, Minette's been learning more and more Heavenly Body spells."
"She really is like Jellal, isn't she?"
Lucy chuckled. "I don't know that Jellal was ever that mischivous…"
"Sting and I heard that Natsu was going to start giving Von Fire Dragon Slayer lessons, is that true?" Yukino took aother sip of her drink.
"Yeah...well...that's been put on the back burner for n-"
"Cough! Cough!"
"Yukino, are you okay?" Lucy asked.
"Fine," Yukino said as she took the last sip of her drink. "Just got choked on someth-cough!"
"Well, here, have mine," Lucy passed her still untouched cup to Yukino.
"Thank you," Yukino said, taking a large gulp.
"YOU WIN!"
Lucy turned back to find that Nashi had shot down all ten ducks.
"You've gotta be kidding me," Igneel grumbled.
"Pick a prize, little lady, any prize!"
Nashi examined the stacks of stuffed animals as Igneel pouted next to her. She grinned at her little brother before pointing to a stuffed snake in a sombrero and saying:
"Gimmee that one!"
Igneel gasped as the toy he'd pointed out was passed to his sister, and then passed to him.
"Here you go," Nashi said as she dropped the snake into his arms.
"You're the best big sister ever!" Igneel declared as he hugged his newly won toy to his chest. "Don't tell Layla I said that!"
Lucy chuckled and smiled at her children, hand still resting on her abdomen, wondering who this new little one would turn out to be.
Yukino began coughing next to her once again.
"Yukino, are you sure you're alri-"
Yukino fell onto her knees, covering her mouth as she coughed some more.
"Yukino?" Lucy asked, shocked as she knealt next to her friend. Her blood ran cold as she noticed blood seeping between Yukino's fingers.
"Yukino!?"
Yukino fell over onto her face and began shaking and convulsing.
"Help!" Lucy shouted. "Someone help!"