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Gajeel wasn't entirely sure how he ended up squished between Natsu and Droy in his kitchen at 7 am, staring at his coffee machine. Given enough time, he could probably find a way to blame this on someone else, but at the end of the day, he was the one that had opened his home up to these freeloaders. He really had no one to blame but himself. Except maybe Makarov. And that goddamned reporter. And probably Gray, somehow.

Also Jet for putting them in this predicament.

"How did we run out of coffee?" Natsu asked, the sleep being driven from his voice by his mounting panic. "We only have two days left, how could we run out now!?"

"Well excuse me for not shopping for 5 people," the Iron Dragon Slayer snapped, rolling his eyes at the younger mage's melodramatics. "Call me crazy, I think we'll survive."

"Er, actually…"

Gajeel inhaled deeply, turning to look at a sheepish Droy. "Do you have a caffeine dependency or somethin'?" he asked, trying to keep the irritation out of his voice. He was suffering from a bad case of cabin fever, but had to resist the temptation to take it out on the guys living with him for the time being. It wouldn't do any good to start any more fights (except with Gray, but Gajeel had a special place in his heart for his hatred of Gray).

Besides, blood was a bitch to clean, and Juvia was supposed to be over soon. He wouldn't have time to get rid of the evidence.

"Jet, actually," Droy said, rubbing the back of his neck and wincing when there was a low groan from the guest room. "It's a Speed Mage thing; he needs that extra jolt to get up or he basically walks around in a coma for the day."

"That explains why he drinks the stuff like water," Gajeel muttered, rubbing his cheek. He winced at the stubble there, and prayed that Juvia would be merciful and make a run to the store for them. She'd been unbelievably patient with all of them in the past two weeks, but even she had to have her limits. That and Gray was out of town, so she wouldn't be trying to show off what a wonderful wife she would be. Gag.

"Remember when he started chewing on coffee beans?" Natsu asked, and Droy grinned.

"I mostly remember Will holding him down until Levy and I threw them all out."

"You're all the worst," Jet groaned as he trudged towards the couch. He collapsed face-first into the leather cushions, making a low moaning sound. "So we're out of coffee?"

"Yup," Droy chimed in, walking over and falling back onto the couch by Jet's head, ruffling his teammate's hair even further.

"Kill me."

"Not feeling that merciful today." Jet reached out and punched Droy's leg weakly.

"Asshole," he groaned. Gajeel snorted from the kitchen, rolling his eyes. One good thing that had come out of this whole ordeal was that Jet and Droy no longer hated his guts. It was amazing what several days of being forced to share the same space could do. Jet's tongue turned out to be as quick as his feet (when he was caffeinated, at least) so he and Gajeel were able to banter freely at each other, and they had taken turns teaching the other guys various card games from around the world and sharing their tips and secrets when the rest wandered off, sick of losing to the two.

When Droy had joined the group, he and Gajeel had found their common ground in the kitchen. Gajeel - having had to feed himself for the vast majority of his life - knew his way around a kitchen pretty well, and apparently Jet and Levy were both hopeless cooks, so Droy had picked up some skills to ensure that the members of Shadowgear didn't starve. Any tension that had been between them eventually melted away over time as they learned how to maneuver around each other in the kitchen.

Though he was slowly getting used to his fellow guildmates, Gajeel was beyond grateful that they weren't all stuck in the same house for two weeks with no break. "Familiarity breeds contempt", as they say, and Gajeel wasn't about to test how true that fact was. Gray was out the door as soon as Mirajane (who had been bribed with the promises of owing her a favor, a concept that terrified Gajeel to no end) deemed it safe, and barely came back except to shower and always with Juvia as a shield. Jet and Droy stuck around more, if only because Levy couldn't leave the guild without alerting the rest of the guild to their location, and they didn't feel like going out without her. Something about screwing up their rhythm if they didn't have their third member.

And Natsu only left on short, one-day jobs. He was always sure to come back before dinner, always with some ridiculous story and some extra cash to throw at Gajeel before raiding his fridge. Gajeel couldn't tell if he liked the new routine or not, but he secretly admitted it was nice to not eat alone most nights anymore. Though he could do without the teasing about how he snored.

"So, we're what? Just gonna wait around until Juvia shows up?" Jet muttered into the couch, and Natsu took a moment to sniff at the air.

"Well at least it's not a long wait," he said, smiling brightly.

"Huh-?"

There was a quick knock on the door, and Juvia popped it open with her hip a few moments later. "Juvia's here!" she sang happily, shifting the grocery bag in her arms to get a better grip. "And she brought company!"

Before Gajeel could ask, three heads popped into the doorway. He nearly had to do a double take, seeing as two of them looked exactly the same, but the loud reaction from the couch stole his attention.

Droy let out a panicked noise of distress and Jet's lethargy was quickly forgotten as they both scrambled to hide behind the couch. "What are you guys doing here!?" Jet asked, looking at the three strangers with wide eyes. Juvia sighed in relief, sneaking past the three and heading towards the kitchen.

"Oh thank goodness, Juvia wasn't sure if they were telling the truth about knowing you or not," the Water Mage admitted, and Gajeel frowned.

"And you still let them in my house-?"

"Why, Jet," one of the twins said in mock-offense, pressing her hand to her heart. "It's almost like you aren't happy to see us!"

"Which is odd," the other twin said, holding up four cups of something that smelled gloriously like sugar and coffee beans, "seeing as we brought you all coffee."

Natsu was in front of the three in a heartbeat, his smile wide and unrestrained. "Ivy, Mary, you girls know you're my favorites, right?" he breathed, reaching for one of the cups.

"We know," they said together, and with bright smirks, handed out coffee to the rest of the guys in the living room. It wasn't until they were both standing next to Jet that Gajeel saw the family resemblance; both Ivy and Mary had the same red hair as the Speed Mage, though Mary's was a riot of short curls and Ivy kept her's long and straight, and their noses were the same. Where Jet's eyes were black, however, their eyes were a deep blue that rivaled Juvia's.

Gajeel quickly looked away, something low in his stomach souring when he realized that a large part of Shadowgear's family had just stepped into his living room, and they probably weren't as forgiving as Levy, Jet, or Droy.

"So," he started with an awkward cough, "you're the dreaded sisters." Gajeel accepted his cup from Ivy and took a long sip. Just how he liked it - sugary enough to rot his teeth out - but it settled in his gut oddly.

"Wow, way to make a good first impression for us, little bro," Mary said with a scoff, rolling her eyes.

"You guys were planning on how to drag him out of hiding for a solid 3 hours the other night," the third sister said from where she had climbed onto Droy's back, spooking Gajeel. He had completely forgotten she was there.

The youngest girl was maybe Romeo's age, and had her sisters' blue eyes but black hair cut in a short pixie style. She looked… well, bored was the best way to describe it. Like she had already seen it all, and nothing on this earth could possibly impress her.

Considering the guild her brother was in, Gajeel didn't doubt it.

"But we didn't, did we?" Ivy cut in.

"Only because the magazine had already come out."

"The magazine is out?" the four guys said together, looking at the girls with wide eyes. Juvia popped her head out of the kitchen, holding up something with the Fairy Tail mark on the cover.

"Special editions come out on Friday instead of Sunday," she informed them. She held out one hand as they all tried to scramble towards her, anxious to see the damage, and frowned at them. "If you all rush at Juvia, she will throw it out the window and you can all go get a copy yourself."

That quickly stopped them all in their tracks.

"Good," Juvia chirped, the smile back on her face. "Now Jet, Natsu, if you would be so kind as to go and start packing while Droy and I start breakfast? I'm sure Gajeel will be wanting his house back as soon as possible."

As soon as his name passed her lips, all the Allen girls tensed, their eyes locking on him with laser-like intensity. Gajeel shrunk into himself, suddenly feeling very naked in nothing but a pair of sweatpants and an old, ratty tank top.

"I'll take care of breakfast," he muttered, quickly scooting between Natsu and Juvia to escape into the kitchen. Juvia had opened all the windows, letting in the morning light, and the Iron Dragon Slayer breathed in as deeply as he could. Just what he needed, the sisters of the people he beat to shit and pinned to a tree, all standing in his home.

Crap, would he have to move? He'd heard horror stories from both Jet and Droy over the past two weeks, and Gajeel was not anxious to see if the twins really did know a guy in Seven who could kill him with a toothpick.

"You okay?"

Gajeel turned and was surprised to see Jet standing behind him, one hand in the pocket of his pajama shorts and the other holding a still-steaming cup of coffee. His expression held no animosity, only concern, and Gajeel relaxed the tiniest bit. He never imagined the sight of the red-haired mage would be able to relax him at all. This guild was screwing with his head.

"Uh, yeah," he muttered, quickly moving towards the sink and washing his hands after pulling his hair out of his face. "Just didn't expect so many people in my house at once."

"If they're making you uncomfortable, I can tell them to leave," Jet offered. Gajeel looked at him in shock, both pierced eyebrows racing towards his hairline.

"You'd… why?" he asked slowly.

"Well, it's your house," Jet shrugged. "No one should feel anxious in their own home. They'll go if I ask."

Gajeel stared at him for a few beats.

"Okay," the Speed Mage relented, "they'll go if I tell them Levy will be mad at them for making you feel bad."

"It's okay, really," Gajeel muttered, beginning to pull the groceries out of the bag Juvia had brought (He found a pack of his favorite razors and felt the sudden urge to go press a loud and overenthusiastic kiss to her cheek. His best friend was a goddess). "It's not like they don't have a good reason for not liking me."

"My sisters are pretty good at holding grudges," Jet admitted slowly, leaning back against the counter and watching as Gajeel started the oven preheating and began to arrange thick slices of bacon on a pan.

"A lot of people in the guild are," the Iron Dragon Slayer said quietly. He stopped and let out a long sigh. He had braced himself against the counter, a few stray strands of hair falling into his field of vision.

They were both silent for a moment, their shared past hanging over them heavily. Gajeel nearly choked on the tension in the room.

"Here," Jet said after a moment, walking to Gajeel's side and starting to look through the cupboards. "You got any maple syrup?"

"Yeah?" Gajeel watched as the mage looked through the kitchen with a single-minded determination the Iron Dragon Slayer was only used to seeing in battle, Jet's earlier fog banished by the coffee his sisters had brought. "Bottom shelf of the cabinet next to the fridge," the older mage directed.

Jet let out a victorious little cheer as he held out the bottle filled with the sweet syrup, the light reflecting through the golden liquid and into Gajeel's eyes. "Whenever my sisters are mad at me," he started to explain, moving over to where the bacon had been left, "Droy helps me make them breakfast. My family is full of eaters, so if there's any way to get them past a grudge, it's with food. And they just happen to love maple syrup bacon."

"Maple syrup bacon," Gajeel replied flatly, one eyebrow quirked high. Was that really all it took to sooth the ire of, as he had been told, several of the scariest women in Magnolia?

"Look, I talk a lot of shit, but that's because they're my sisters. It's my job," Jet said with a shrug, like that should explain everything. Gajeel thought of the odd friendship he had with Natsu and thought that he was starting to understand. "They're actually great. Tricksters through and through, but fiercely loyal and wicked smart. Where did you think Levy got it?"

"I was under the impression that most of her bad habits either came from Natsu or Cana."

Jet snorted loudly. "Well yeah, that too. Just trust me, okay? This will keep them from hating you too much." He held the bottle out towards Gajeel with a lopsided grin, and after a few moments, Gajeel took the maple syrup from him.

"So it was the food that got ya to stop giving me the evil eye every time I walked in the room," he said with a small grin. "And here I thought it was my dazzling personality."

"Gajeel if you had to depend on your charm to get you through life, I think it would be a pretty safe bet that you'd be dead."

"Wow, see if I give ya any bacon now, ass."

By the time Juvia popped her head in to check on the progress of breakfast, Gajeel and Jet were squabbling in the way that had become typical of them in the past two weeks. "Is breakfast actually being made or does Juvia have to intervene?" the Water Mage asked as she stepped into the room, hands resting on her hips. Gajeel held up his pan filled with half-cooked scrambled eggs and Jet showed her the knife he was using to butter an ungodly amount of toast, and she gave a satisfied hum.

"So, Juvia, how has your week been?" Jet asked politely. She shrugged, hopping onto the counter.

"Pretty quiet," she admitted, sounding unsure if she liked the change or not. "Erza and Lucy took a few missions and invited Juvia, but Erza still makes Juvia a little… nervous?"

"She does have that effect on people," Jet said with a nod, grinning.

"No one's botherin' ya, right?" Gajeel asked, frowning in concern. It was no secret that most of the people in the guild prefered Juvia to the other ex-Phantom Lord mage, but there was always the possibility that without him or the majority of Natsu's crew around, someone still hungry for revenge would go after her.

But Juvia shook her head, grinning. "Nope! Juvia's actually been hanging out with Cana, she's a lot of fun. She even read Juvia's future for her!"

Something about that statement made Jet snort loudly into his palm, and both Juvia and Gajeel shot him odd looks. "Nothing," he said with a wave. "I just wouldn't hold too much stock in her fortunes. She likes to give fake readings just to amuse herself."

Juvia pouted. "Cana is Juvia's friend, she wouldn't lie to her."

"She's my friend too, but she did it to me all the time. I still have yet to need my left pinky toe amputated."

Gajeel coughed loudly, covering up his laugh. Juvia simply frowned at them both, sliding gracefully off the counter and straightening the skirt of her sundress. "When will breakfast be done?" she asked coolly, and Gajeel almost sighed. She was going to be prickly until they apologized for snubbing Cana, even if in a light hearted way.

"Should be done soon," Jet said, shooting Gajeel a "What did I do?" look. Gajeel just shook his head, mouthing "I'll fix it".

"So what did Cana predict?" he asked, looking at Juvia with the most honestly curious expression he could manage. After staring at him for a moment with narrowed eyes, Juvia seemed to accept that Gajeel actually did want to know, and her face lit up in a brilliant smile.

"Cana said that Juvia will live a long, happy life filled with love!" she gushed, clasping her hands together in front of her chest and staring into the distance with a blissfully happy expression.

"That's a new one," Jet said, no mocking tone in his voice. "Normally it's something smaller than that. What were her exact words?"

Juvia hummed thoughtfully. "She said 'Love's in your future, just not always in the places you think it's going to come from. Keep a weather eye on the horizon and your mind open'." Gajeel thought it sounded like something out of a fortune cookie, but he wasn't the Tarot Mage so he would trust Cana's expertise on this one.

"Jet, Ivy and Mary said that if you guys don't finish breakfast soon they're gonna send those pictures from Levy's 13th birthday party to that Jason guy."

Gajeel jumped nearly a foot in the air, scrambling away from where Gwen had snuck in behind him. The six-year-old watched him with one eyebrow quirked high, and Jet nearly choked as he tried to muffle his laughter.

"Are you really that nervous around a girl that's a third your size?"

"You've met Levy; this is not a new thing."

"Fair."

"Breakfast," Gwen repeated insistently, and her older brother waved his hand.

"Yeah yeah, we're done anyways," he said, reaching over to ruffle her hair. Gwen cracked the first smile Gajeel had seen before disappearing back into the main room, and they followed at a slower pace. Juvia was carrying the plates and utensils, Jet was proudly carrying all the toast he had made, and Gajeel was following after them with the bacon and the eggs. The Iron Dragon Slayer quirked an eyebrow when he noticed Natsu pouting on the couch, arms crossed over his chest.

Before he could ask the other Dragon Slayer what was wrong, however, Ivy was standing in front of him, her eyes narrowed and eyebrows pulled down low. Gajeel came to an immediate halt, tensing up as she stared him down.

The entire room seemed to hold its breath as Ivy inspected him. Gajeel was about to shove the food at Droy and escape back to the kitchen and possibly out the window when she looked down at the plate of bacon.

"Is that maple syrup bacon?" she asked, one eyebrow climbing into her hairline. Gajeel simply nodded. Ivy's eyebrows furrowed together further before she looked over at Jet. The younger Allen simply shrugged, giving her a crooked grin. Her entire body relaxed, and this time when she looked at Gajeel, it was with curiosity.

"Hm," she hummed, snatching a piece of bacon and sticking it in her mouth, revealing a fang like her brother's before turning on her heel. "You should know better than revealing family secrets," she told Jet with a smirk. The Speed Mage simply shrugged.

"He's a Fairy Tail mage, ain't he?"

"SAP!" Mary accused from the couch, and Gajeel had to smother a grin. Ivy grabbed his elbow and dragged him over to where the rest of the large group was gathered around the coffee table. Droy burst into laughter at the sight of him, and Gajeel warily stepped closer.

"That's worrying," he said slowly.

"He's laughing about the magazine spread," Gwen chimed in helpfully from where she sat next to her sister, and Gajeel could practically feel his stomach fall through the foundation.

"Fu-" Gajeel glanced at Gwen "- crud."

"Nice save," Juvia teased.

"Shut it, Lockser. What spread?"

"You're gonna want to set that food down first, both of you," Mary said, her own grin curling across her lips. Once the food had been served and everyone was happily eating, Juvia passed Jet and Gajeel the magazine. Gajeel quickly passed it to Jet with a mutter of "You open it", earning himself a glare.

Jet slowly flipped through the magazine, careful to keep it tilted up so Gajeel couldn't peek. His eyebrows went higher with every page turned, and soon his jaw dropped. "Holy shit," he muttered, yelping loudly when Mary threw half a piece of toast at his head.

"Little dippers have big ears," she reminded him with a glare, tugging Gwen closer to her side. While Jet and his sisters started to bicker, Gajeel reached for the magazine himself, nervously chewing on his fork.

The magazine was opened to a large photo of a running track. Gajeel didn't notice how this could have caused Jet to react the way he did, but then he noticed the figure awkwardly frozen halfway around the track, caught mid-stride with a determined expression on her face.

Erza, clad in not her typical armor, but in what Gajeel easily recognized as Jet's normal outfit - hat included - was racing around the track. Gajeel felt his own jaw follow Jet's to the floor.

"Holy shit."

"Oi!"

Gajeel ignored the piece of bacon that bounced off his temple as he started to flip faster through the magazine, looking at all the different photos. Mirajane in a gym, wearing Elfman's shirt and holding a 200 pound weight over her head with a serene smile. Cana lounging at her table with a large pair of headphones on her head and Laxus's ridiculous coat around her shoulders. Laki lounging peacefully in a garden while wearing Droy's shirt and pants. Gajeel had to stop for a moment to laugh at the picture of Wendy sitting crosslegged on the counter of the bar, Makarov's jacket draped around her shoulders and an unlit pipe between her lips.

"Oh! Juvia's up next!" Juvia said excitedly, throwing herself against Gajeel's back so she could look over his shoulder. Sure enough, when he turned the page Juvia was sitting on the counter of an ice cream shop that Gajeel recognized from Wendy dragging him there several times. Gajeel sent up a silent prayer of thanks that Juvia was, in fact, clothed; wearing Gray's jacket over a red tanktop and her own jeans. She held an ice cream cone in one hand that dripped over her fingers, and looked surprisingly calm seeing as she was wearing her Beloved Gray's clothes.

"Who managed to calm you down enough to take that picture without melting?" Gajeel asked, and Juvia's answering smile made him shiver clear down to his toes.

"Turn the page," she replied, tapping his hand with one finger.

With a wary frown, Gajeel did as she asked, and promptly swallowed the fork he had been gnawing on.

It was a scrap yard, large pieces of metal and rebar strewn about carelessly. A young woman laid casually amongst the mess, and the confident tilt of her head and the smirk on her lips made him believe she could have been sitting on a throne instead. A long screw was caught between her teeth, and Gajeel felt his throat go dry faster than he thought physically possible.

Levy continued to smirk up at him as he looked at her outfit. She was wearing a pair of combat boots that almost looked too heavy for her to walk in, seeing as they were covered in metal. Loose cargo pants hung low on her hips, and-

"Is that my shirt?" he asked, and Juvia snorted.

"That's kind of the point."

"No, that's my actual shirt! I've been looking for it all week!"

"That's what you're taking from that whole spread?" Mary said, one eyebrow quirked high. Gajeel didn't think it'd put him any higher in the Allen's esteem if he admitted that the majority of his current thoughts were no where near appropriate for a six-year-old to hear, so he ignored the question.

"But how did she… Juvia." The Water Mage smiled at him innocently.

"You did mention to Juvia that you needed new clothes," she told him sweetly. "Juvia thought you wouldn't mind."

"That was my favorite shirt!" Gajeel growled.

"Whoops~"

"I want to know if she got to keep that jacket," Ivy piped up, "because if so I'm stealing it."

Gajeel looked back at the spread, taking in the leather jacket with metal accents that hung over his old favorite "Oak Town" t-shirt draped over Levy's form, and silently decided that if Ivy followed through, he'd steal it back.

"It was Erza's idea," Juvia explained, "dressing up as the guys and doing a photoshoot like that. We're hoping it's going to bring a lot of attention to female mages not just in the guild, but in the country. There's a lot of really great articles in there, including one Lucy wrote!"

Natsu just grumbled. "Like I care about that scarf stealer," he huffed, and Gajeel rolled his eyes so hard they nearly popped out of his head. 'Like I care'- blah blah blah, the kid unrooted a tree for her. He was willing to bet every jewel he had that annoyance was not Natsu's first reaction to seeing Lucy in his scarf.

"Sooooo, little brother," Ivy cooed, smirking as Jet watched her warily. "Want to tell us why Ms. Erza was dressed as you?"

Jet turned a bright red as Droy fell onto the floor laughing. "H-Heck if I know!" he stammered, glaring as his sisters began to snicker at him. "Mirajane was dressed as her brother! It doesn't have to be romantic!"

"Juvia knows the answer to that one, actually. Erza was the only one who wanted to wear the hat," she admitted, and then Mary was on the floor next to Droy, shrieking with laughter.

"Told you that hat was an eyesore," Gwen piped up, still chewing on her bacon.

"SCREW YOU MY HAT IS AWESOME!"

Gajeel scrambled out of the way as Ivy went to smother her brother with one of the pillows from the couch, landing on the floor. He was still in too much shock to properly get mad at them for starting a fight in his house. It felt impossible to look away from the photo, and Gajeel had to snap the magazine closed in order to focus long enough to separate the two siblings.

Natsu left only a few minutes later, determined to get his scarf back and reunite with Happy, and it wasn't long after that that the rest of his visitors slowly disappeared. Juvia was the last to go, leaving with the threat of coming back to drag him out of his home if he didn't go to the guild in the next two hours. He just grunted at her, closing and locking the door after her. He sank into his couch, trying to get used to the silence again. It felt wrong now after getting used to the presence of several other people in his home with him, and Gajeel groaned loudly. He probably would end up at the guild sooner than later, if only to prove that he hadn't died in the past two weeks.

His eyes landed on the magazine and he felt heat crawling up his neck.

How was he supposed to face Levy now?

OC overload! For those of you that don't follow the sister fic, 'To the Waters and the Wilds', the Allen family is introduced there. I've put a lot of time and thought into this family, and they're all really dear to me. I hope you'll love them just as much as my other oc's!

So for those you don't follow me on tumblr and probably haven't heard me mention it, today is the one year anniversary of 'Make Your Nest and Lay In It'! I can't believe it's been a year already! So much has changed from when I started this fic to now, and I wouldn't have been able to get this far without all of your support. Thanks to all my friends and fellow authors for letting me rant at them and supporting me when I started to lose faith in my writing and myself. Thank you to all my readers who have stuck with me through this whole crazy ride, and hopefully this year will be another one full of fun and nest dweebs!

A special thanks to both Lionus and Writingwithiron, both of whom have been such great friends and have listened to my whining about not only this fic, but life in general. Lionus actually came up with Cana's prediction in this chapter!

Thank you all so, so much. I love you all.

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