Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and its characters belong to Hiro Mashima.

This story is a continuation of Laugh. I didn't want to add these chapters to Laugh since the tone changes a little, and I wanted to keep Laugh light-hearted and happy.

I don't mean to scare anyone! There's DEFINITELY a happy ending and nothing really bad happens. I just raised the drama meter a little. Or a lot? But yeah, there'll be a fourth story after this with Peanut so don't worry about that!

This story will be a compilation of two stories. Both of them are clear plots with a beginning, middle and end, so they are not snippets like Laugh was. They're more like Purr, in that sense.

Either way, I hope you enjoy!

"Hey, ya ready?" Gajeel called up the stairs, two large sacks hanging on his back. Women took so long to get ready... especially little ones like the Peanut who suddenly 'remembered something extremely important that I really have to get!'

"I'm almost ready, daddy!" the baby called down, making noises that caused Gajeel to wince; she was knocking things over and when they got home, SOMEONE would have to clean that...

"If ya don't come down here now, yer gonna miss the train and mum won't be able to see you!"

That seemed to work. The baby screamed and came barreling down the stairs with a note pad and some drawing things. Didn't she already put something like that in her bag?

"I need these ones!" reading his mind, she held them up for him to see, "Here, daddy!"

"No! Ya wanted to bring'em, yer gonna hold'em yerself!" he was already holding her massive bags. When Gajeel went out, he brought a little bag with him of just the essentials. His idea of essentials and that of his women were severely different.

The baby ran up the stairs again, waddling down the hall.

"THE HE-... ahh... what're ya getting' NOW!?"

She ignored him this time, shuffling in her room and materializing moments later with a backpack on her little arm, "I got this, daddy!" now she could hold things too! Even though the only contents of the pack were pencils and a pad of paper...

"Gihihi!" he giggled, reaching down to take the Peanut's hand, "Are ya excited, Peanut?"

"Yes, daddy!" she wrapped her whole hand around his pointer finger, since his hands were much too large for her to get a hold on. She had to run beside him while he walked, taking several strides for every one of his. It kept her in good shape and... gihi, made her look so cute!

Gajeel, himself, was various amounts of excited. He was excited that he was going to get to see his wife, he was excited that Peanut's 5th birthday was in just a few days and they were going to be able to celebrate somewhere more exotic. He was excited that he got to be with Peanut on her first 'mission,' as he told her. He was not, however, excited about one part of the journey...

"Gihi, daddy!" Peanut giggled, plucking a green pencil from her bag and starting to draw on the pad of paper, "You're turning lots of pretty colors!"

"H-... URK!" his cheeks puffed out, eyes rolling back and body sagging heavily, almost onto the floor.

Peanut had never seen Daddy look like that but it sure was funny! He looked like a sack of flour all rolling around the train! Her legs dangled, unable to reach the floor, sitting across from her father and trying to keep up with all of the color changes in his face. Red, purple, green, yellow, red again. Her drawing was a mess of color, like a rainbow in a blender. She couldn't wait to tell Mommy all about the silly things that Daddy did on the train; especially when he grabbed the train attendant and almost threw up on her!

"Do that again, Daddy!" Lilia bounced beside him, punching her fists into the air.

"N-No!" he frowned, taking one of her hands and leading her towards the path. She spent two hours watching her poor father get sick and now she wanted to see it again!? "We ain't goin' back on the train. We're gonna walk the rest of the way there."

"But I LIKE the train!"

"The train doesn't go where yer mum is. We get to go in there," he pointed just ahead of them at a range of tall, dark trees that stretched farther than Lilia had ever seen. The trees in Magnolia weren't that large!

"Daddy, what IS that place!?"

"Gihi! That's a whole big forest. We're gonna get to sleep in it and then when we get out, we're gonna be where yer mum is." Levy was just on the other side with Jet and Droy on a mission. None of them actually knew that Gajeel and the baby were coming, so it was a surprise for the whole family! Levy's mission this time wasn't dangerous, and it WAS almost the Peanut's birthday... so the family could celebrate somewhere else for a change!

The look on the Peanut's face was indescribably adorable, and Gajeel had to turn his face away so he wouldn't start crying in front of all of those people. The 'mission' had begun, though, so he took the Peanut's hand and walked on with her towards the opening of the forest.

"What's that, daddy!?"

"That's one of those squir-"

"What's that!?"

"That's just a different kind of tre-"

"WHAT IS THAT!?"

Gah! It was just like the zoo! Peanut wouldn't stop asking him questions and as the Daddy it was his job to educate her – more than he himself was educated – but she wouldn't learn a thing if she kept going on like that!

"One question at a time, Peanut," he turned to make sure she was following, watching her weave in and out of the trees like a child in a... in a forest? Right, that's what it was, anyways. "There's lots of animals in here that you ain't seen before, and lots of different kinds of trees."

"There are different kinds of trees!?"

"Well, yeah!" he grinned, "All the leaves are different shapes and colors. See?" he pointed at the ground at all the leaves that had already fallen; they had all sorts of shapes that the baby had never even SEEN before!

Perhaps by a stroke of luck, the baby turned her attention away from her attacking questions and towards the leaves. For the remainder of the day she focused only on collecting every different kind of leaf possible; the small ones, the large ones, the ones with little pricklies and the ones that smelled like Daddy's feet. By the time the two of them stopped for camp, she had a whole backpack full of leaves!

"Daddy?" the baby grabbed his finger again, looking up at him as he tried to scope out a good place to rest for the night. "Daddy, are we really going to sleep here?"

"Gihi, that's right!" Gajeel nodded with a wild grin. She was going to get to see how Mommy and Daddy spent their missions!"

"Is it scary?" her voice dropped down to a whisper, suddenly wondering if anyone was going to hear her and come after her!

"Not scarier than me!"

"... Oh!" she squeaked, kissing him on the wrist, "Then that's not scary at all!"

Author's Note:

How was this for a first chapter? :3

It's definitely going somewhere. Hold onto your pants.