When we're all alone, it might be to frightening to bear... but we're all right beside each other. We've got our friends close by! Now, there's nothing to fear! Because we're not alone!!!” - Gildarts Clive
Weisz Steiner manga coloring for Weisslogia is used with permission from @23kukulcan
The Fairy Tail Dads AU is a modern, non-magical world created by @mdelpin and @oryu404. It follows the lives of several boys - across multiple generations - as they attempt to navigate their individual paths towards adulthood.
Follow along as they overcome the many challenges thrown their way, with the help of their friends and loved ones.
In Chronological Order:
This list will be kept up to date! Here is a link to our AO3 Series if you prefer reading in there.
Hang in There - November 12, 1973 - Master Bob & Weisslogia - Rating T - Complete
First Love - November 9, 1986 - Silver x Gildarts - Rating T - Complete
You're My Fantasy - May 14, 1988 - Silver x Gildarts - Rating M - Complete
We Are Unbreakable - May 29, 1988 - Silver x Gildarts, Gildarts & Ur, Silver & Ur - Rating T - Complete
End of the Road - Sept 6, 1989 - Silver x Gildarts, Mika & Silver, Porlyusica x Makarov - Rating E - WIP
Serendipity - July 18, 1993 - Human (Weisslogia x Fem!Skiadrum) - Rating G - Complete
Wildflowers - July 14, 2001 - Igneel & Natsu, Natsu & Erza, Eileen x Igneel - Rating G - Complete
Birthday Wish - July 7, 2003 - Natsu & Erza, Natsu & Gildarts, - Rating G - Complete
Smile Again - November 7, 2003 - Cana & Gildarts, Silver x Gildarts - Rating G - Complete
I'm Gonna Stand By You - June 1, 2006 - Silver & Gray, Gray & Rogue - Rating T - Complete
The Loudest Silence - April 25, 2008 - Yukino x Sting (unrequited), Weisslogia & Sting, Master Bob & Weisslogia - Rating T - Complete
Heartstrings - September 29, 2012 - Sting x Rogue - Rating G - Complete
Spellbound - October 3, 2012 - Sting x Rogue - Rating G - WIP
Kiss Me - October 27, 2012 - Sting x Rogue, Sting & Orga - Rating T - Complete
Traces of You - November 14, 2013 - Sting x Rogue - Rating G - Complete
Let It Rain - November 27, 2013 - Rogue Centric, Gajeel & Rogue - Rating M - Complete
Finding My Way Back to You - December 22, 2013 - Erza x Mirajane, Natsu x Lisanna - Rating G - Complete
All I Want For Christmas... - December 23, 2013 - Sting x Rogue - Rating T - WIP
Once Upon A Nightmare - June 6, 2014 - Sting x Rogue, Orga x Rufus - Rating M - WIP
Nighttime Adventures - November 27, 2014 - Gajeel & Rogue, Sting x Rogue - Rating T - Complete
Out of Focus - October 19, 2015 - Sting x Rogue - Rating G - Complete
The Rake - November 9, 2019 - Sting x Rogue - Rating T - Complete
The Passing of the Torch (Prologue) - April 21, 2020 - Makarov x Porlyusica - Rating G - Complete
The Last Time - April 23, 2020 - Siegrain x Gray, Gray & Lyon, Gray & Aki - Rating T - Complete
Chance Encounter - May 11, 2020 - Sting x Rogue - Rating T - Complete
Family Law - May 12, 2020 - Lyon & Gray, Lyon & Chelia, Wendy & Chelia - Rating T - WIP
Lean On Me - May 13, 2020 - Lyon & Gray, Rating T - Complete
Blood, Tears and Cookies - June 18, 2020 - Sting x Rogue, Natsu & Sting - Rating G - Complete
She Was My Home - August 2, 2020 - Lyon & Gray, Sting & Natsu, Gray x Natsu - Rating G - Complete
Revelations - August 3, 2020 - Loke & Lyon - Rating G - Complete
Shelter from the Storm - August 4, 2020 - -Natsu & Romeo, Natsu & Jellal, Romeo & Jellal - Rating T - Complete
Behind the Wall - August 26, 2020 - Loke & Lyon - Rating T - Complete
Part of the Family - September 9, 2020 - Sting & Gray, Gray & Rogue, Sting x Rogue - Rating T - Complete
Taken By Storm - October 7, 2020 - Gray x Natsu, Lyon & Gray, Rating G - Complete
The Sweetest Birthday - December 27, 2020 - Gray x Natsu, Sting x Rogue - Rating T - Complete
Castles in the Snow - January 6, 2021 - Gray x Natsu - Rating T - Complete
Caught Up In You - January 22, 2021 - Gray x Natsu, Lyon & Gray - Rating T - Complete
All I See Is You - February 7, 2021 - Gray x Natsu, Erza & Natsu - Rating T - Complete
Learning to be Brave - March 12, 2021 - Erik x Meredy, Erik & Natsu - Rating T - Complete
I Like You Too, Dumbass - April 19, 2021 - Gray x Natsu - Rating T - Complete
Love is an Open Door - May 11, 2021 - Gray x Natsu, Hana & Natsu, Hana & Mirajane, Hana & Gray - Rating G - Complete
The Princess and the Knight - May 16, 2021 - Gray x Natsu, Erza x Mirajane - Rating G - Complete
Into the Lion's Den - June 12, 2021 - Gray x Natsu, Loke x Lyon, Sting x Rogue, Lyon & Gray, Gildarts & Loke, Natsu & Sting, Rogue & Gray - Rating M - Complete
Dancing to the Beat of your Heart - June 27, 2021 - Gray x Natsu - Rating T - Complete
Turn the Tide - July 7, 2021 - Gray x Natsu - Rating T- Complete
Come Undone - July 24, 2021 - Gray x Natsu - Rating M - Complete
Break Free - August 14, 2021 - Gray x Natsu, Siegrain x Gray - Rating T - Complete
Cat-alyst - August 17,2021 - Gray x Natsu - Rating T - Complete
Come Into Bloom - September 25, 2021 - Erza x Mirajane, Erza & Sherry, Erza & Sting, Mirajane & Natsu - Rating G - Complete
Flowers for Lisana - December 24, 2021 - Natsu x Lisanna, Natsu x Gray - Rating G - Complete
Attitude Adjustment - June 4, 2022 - Minerva x Sorano - Rating G - Complete
Lazy Afternoon - June 11, 2022 - Erza x Mirajane - Rating G - Complete
Drabbles
A Summer Night’s Dream - Gray x Natsu - Rating G
Master Gray - Gray x Natsu - Rating T
First Impressions - Gray x Natsu - Rating G
Home - Gray x Natsu - Rating G
You Read My Mind - Sting x Rogue - Rating T
White Lies - Silver x Gildarts - Rating T
Double Trouble - Freed & Laxus - Rating T
The Perfect Ring - Laxus & Evergreen - Rating T
The Dreams We Build - Laxus & Freed - Rating T
When One Door Closes - Freed & Laxus & Evergreen - Rating T
The ‘Babies’ - Laxus & Bickslow - Rating T
Daughter of the Sky - Lyon & Ren, Lyon & Chelia - Rating G
Congratulations @mdelpin & @oryu404!! Your fanfiction “Birthday Wish“ has been nominated by one of your fans for The Guild Awards, Second Term of 2022!
The Guild Awards was created by five Fairy Tail enthusiasts who want to spread the love of fandom creators all across the net, and we are very excited to give you this message!
Your work has been nominated into the following category:
Best Angst Fanfiction
Voting will take place after the nomination period closes, and the link to do so will be found on theguildawards tumblr page.
If you would like to pull your work from consideration for an award, please let us know via tumblr or reach out to one of the moderators.
Once again, congratulations for your beautiful contribution to this wonderful fandom, and thank you for all that you do!
Nominations are open until the end of the day July 4th, PST! Submit your Fanfiction/Artwork nominations through our page!
Hello! I have a question regarding the title picture of your "Fairy Tail Dads AU" here on tumblr. Why is there Weisz Steiner on the picture and who's the black haired girl beside him? Have a nice day/evening and stay save!
What a great question!
That is the Eucliffe Family. Weisz is standing in for Weisslogia who doesn't have a human form, and the lovely lady next to him is !fem Skiadrum. They are Sting's parents.
Since Rogue is Gray's brother in this AU, we gave him a close relationship with Skiadrum, but as his mother-in-law. Because of Mashima's tendency to draw similar looking characters we've tapped some characters from Rave Master as well to stand in for relatives of other Fairy Tail characters!
Thank you for the ask and we hope you stay safe too!
Nali Week 2021
Prompt: Domestic
Pairing: Natsu x Lisanna
AO3
May 26, 2019
Lisanna opened the door to her bedroom, smiling as the sound of Natsu’s snores welcomed her. She entered the room, closing the door softly behind her to keep out the noise of Hana watching television while she ate her morning snack.
She’d only meant to get her cell phone from the bedside charger, but now that she was there she couldn’t help but watch her husband sleep for a few minutes, her heart skipping a beat at the sight of him resting in their bed.
It was already past ten in the morning, much later than he would usually let himself sleep on a Sunday. When it had been just the two of them, they’d spent half the day in bed, talking and reconnecting. Now that they had kids, Natsu was determined to squeeze as much family time into his one day off as he could.
But he worked so hard, and so much that Lisanna couldn’t see her way to waking him up just yet. Instead, she grabbed her phone and walked over to his side of the bed, leaning down to give him the softest of kisses.
“Lisss-”
She felt the blood rush to her face on hearing Natsu call out her name. He turned on his side, arm reaching out to her side of the bed, searching for her in his sleep. He found her pillow and hugged it to his chest, looking even more boyish than he usually did.
Oh, Natsu…
Lisanna snapped a quick picture and sent it to Erza and Mira, leaving the room before she ended up waking him with her giggles.
As the world for the FT Dad’s AU got bigger we realised that the existing maps for Fairy Tail weren’t detailed enough for what we were doing, and that the story we were building needed some adjustments to where places are. So, today we’re delighted to show our reinterpretation of the world through the two main maps of the world that FT Dad’s AU occupies, with plans for some more localized maps including Fiore, Edolas and Caelum.
*please don’t repost*
150 Followers Drabble #1 - January
Pairing: Zeref x Mavis
AO3
“It’s got a bathroom!” Mavis squealed from whatever room she had disappeared to.
“I was kind of hoping,” Zeref said, and even though he was teasing, he was aware of the big stupid grin on his face at the excitement in her voice.
“In the master bedroom.”
Oh. That was nice. They’d never had that, unless you counted their first apartment at uni, which had been one large room.
Since Larcade’s birth, it had become painfully obvious that their apartment was too small for their growing family. Zeref’s mother, Zelda, had suggested it was time to go house hunting, and that’s what they’d done for the past few days. However, none of the houses they’d viewed had called to them so far. Most of the ones within their budget were what real estate agents like to call “quaint,” or “full of character.” From what he could tell, that translated to needing a lot of repairs he wasn’t qualified to make, or could afford.
This one didn’t look so bad. Yet.
It was in a quiet rural area, on the bank of a minor river. Mountain peaks arose from behind the trees surrounding the property. A welcome change to the concrete jungle that was the view of their current residence. The air was crisper, and it felt a lot cooler than the sweltering summer heat of the city.
Zeref shared an amused look with his mother at the sound of Mavis scampering from room to room, exalting all the things she liked about the house, sounding much like their three-year-old daughter, Zera. But with so many plus points, the thought that there had to be a catch started gnawing on him.
“Alright, level with me,” he said, turning to the real estate agent, “what’s wrong with it?”
“Zeref, don’t be rude!” Zelda was quick to apologize, “He means nothing by it, we’ve just looked at a lot of houses.”
“I understand. To be honest, I haven’t been here before. It’s just come on the market.”
“Zeref, come here!”
He followed the sound of Mavis’ voice, finding her in a bedroom, standing by the window. It faced the large water wheel, which had intrigued him from the moment they’d arrived.
“Listen to that, isn’t it wonderful?” Mavis said, her eyes starry, “Can’t you just imagine Zera lulling herself to sleep with it?”
“I’m pretty sure it’d just make her wet the bed. Might work better for Larcade, he’d already be wearing a diaper.”
Mavis swatted his arm, “You can feel it too, can’t you? I think this is the one.” She grabbed onto his hand, pulling him from room to room while weaving an illusion of what their life there would be like until he could see it clearly.
“Oh and look, here’s another bedroom. In case we want to have another baby.”
“Another one? Mavis honey, we just had Larcade three months ago!”
“So?” she asked, grinning in that carefree way of hers that he was powerless to resist.
Zeref snorted, you wouldn’t ever hear him complaining about that. He drew his lower lip between his teeth as he mulled it over. They’d dreamed of having a house like this for years. Even before they’d had a family. A place with a little nature so Mavis could feel at home, but close enough to the University so he could still work on his research.
“I think I saw a garden, let’s go check it out!”
Mavis nudged him, already talking about searching the library she worked at for books on growing vegetable gardens. The backyard wasn’t very large, but the flowers were sweet-smelling and their colors gave it a cheerful air. There was even a stone bench that faced west. Zeref could almost picture them sitting there, watching the sun disappear behind the mountains as Zera and Larcade played among the flowers.
“Do you hear that?”
He immediately understood what Mavis was getting at. The only sounds were of bird calls and the gurgling of the river. So unlike the noise they’d become used to in the city.
“We could make some fairy houses,” Zeref suggested, letting the house cast its spell over him as well.
“Oh, that’s a great idea,” Mavis clapped her hands in delight, “Zera would love that!”
They walked back to the house’s entrance, stopping to stare at the water. Mavis leaned over the railing to study the mechanism that held the water wheel in place, giving Zeref a minor panic attack and horrifying visions of Zera falling into the river.
“I’m a little worried about the kids and the river,” Zeref said, realizing the existing fencing would need replacing to ensure little bodies couldn’t fall in.
“I know we can make it work. Can we get it?” Mavis grabbed hold of his hand and squeezed it. “I really like it here, Zeref.”
He did too. It would cost a little more than what they’d agreed on, but he still had the money he’d inherited from his father. He could use it to give their kids the childhood he and Mavis never had.
With his mind made up to put in an offer, he kissed Mavis’ head before resting his chin on her shoulder and hugging her close.
“You think we could use that water wheel to generate electricity?”
Mavis laughed, “Knowing you? We’ll probably be off the grid in six months.”
She turned around then, wrapping her arms loosely around his neck and peering up into his eyes in silent query. His lips soon met hers and for a while, they became lost in the joy of being together. The sound of someone clearing their throat behind them brought them back to the present.
“Have you decided?”
“We’ll take it, ” they chorused.
A/N: This is the first of twelve drabbles we have planned from the edits we made for reaching our 150 followers' goal on Tumblr! We hope to post one every month of 2021.
Ever since Sting had accepted his impulsive invitation to study for the upcoming midterms at his house, Rogue had felt like time had slowed to a crawl. Not even his gig in Clover the previous evening had done anything to curb that feeling. And now that the time had finally come, all his excitement seemed to have turned into an insecurity he wasn’t familiar with.
He knew that most of their time together would be spent studying for exams, but he couldn’t help the hope that something more might develop in the moments in between. It certainly didn’t hurt to make an effort.
But what if his neatness drove Sting crazy? Or he managed to insult him somehow? Or Gods, what if he’d been reading the signals all wrong, and he ended up throwing himself at the guy only to find he wasn’t interested? He’d had plenty of chances to kiss him and had taken exactly zero of them.
He’d worked himself up the whole drive down to the University.
By the time Sting got into the car, Rogue was a tangle of nerves. They spent the ride home discussing which midterms they would be studying for and agreeing to relax for the remainder of the day before they got started. While the thought of starting off their week together with a lazy Sunday was precisely the type of thing he’d been hoping for, it also put pressure on him to have everything go right.
“Thanks again for letting me stay,” Sting huffed as he carried his duffel bag and oversized, filled to the brim backpack into the house, refusing Rogue’s offer to help.
“Yeah, no problem,” Rogue tossed his keys on the kitchen counter. Feeling suddenly shy and not wanting to show it, he led Sting to Gray’s old room so he could drop off his stuff.
Sting followed him, dumping his bags unceremoniously on the bed and looking around with curious eyes.
“That’s your brother, right?” Sting asked, pointing at a family picture that was hanging on the wall. “I feel like I’ve seen him before.”
“You probably have. He’s been working as a model for a few years now.”
“He looks a lot like your dad,” Sting remarked before shifting his scrutiny to the collection of medals and trophies Gray had accumulated since he’d first started playing hockey.
“How about you? Do you have any siblings?” Rogue asked, scrambling for any conversation topic that might ease him out of his timidity.
“Nah, it’s just me. So, do you play too?” Sting eyed him with interest.
“For fun, but you won’t find any trophies in my room. That was Gray’s thing.” Rogue chuckled, “I just like to skate.”
When he was younger, he’d considered giving competitive figure skating a go. His dad had even supported the idea, spending hours building a rink in the backyard together with him and Gray so he wouldn’t have to drive them to the local one as often. It had been grueling work to get the hang of the moves, and while Rogue had been good at it, he’d eventually discovered things he loved more.
“I do have a nice keepsake from my hockey days, though,” he grinned, rubbing his finger over the scar that crossed the bridge of his nose.
“Oh, wow! That must have hurt,” Sting moved closer to examine his nose, wrapping him in the smell of that enticing cologne of which Rogue still hadn’t discovered the name.
“Yeah...” Rogue answered absently, paying more attention to the way Sting’s lips moved when he spoke than he did to the words that came out. They were temptingly close. All he had to do was lean over and kiss them, but just when he’d been about to close the remaining gap between them, Sting had already moved away.
“Hey, you got anything to eat around here?” Sting asked, leaving Rogue to stare at him in confusion.
“Oh, right,” he blinked himself back to reality, “I put off grocery shopping until you got here, wasn’t sure what you’d like.”
“Oh, that’s great! I’ve only been to the convenience store near the dorm. I can’t wait to see what a big Magnolian grocery store has to offer!”
“Well, at least one of us is excited,” Rogue muttered, amused at fielding question after question on a place he usually tried to avoid. It gave him an idea, though. That adage about the way to a man’s heart being through his stomach could work to his advantage here.
True, he couldn’t cook worth a damn, but surely there must be something he could pull off to impress Sting.
0-0
The trip to the grocery store was certainly memorable. Sting had walked through every single aisle, oohing and aahing over items he’d never tried and piling them into their cart. Rogue had finally given up and gotten his own cart, not finding it in his heart to dampen Sting’s enthusiasm.
They’d also gotten plenty of looks from other shoppers, which Rogue had done his best to ignore. He hadn’t come up with any great ideas for dinner. Everything he’d considered seemed so involved. That was until he walked past the lobster tank and remembered how disappointed Sting had been when he hadn’t gotten to eat ”Sheldon” at that seafood restaurant.
He was pretty sure you just chucked the things into a pot of boiling water. Sounded easy enough to him. Feeling pleased with his choice, he studied the tank’s contents, searching for the two largest lobsters he could find, knowing both of them ate a lot.
Once he’d identified the ones he wanted, he went off in search of an employee.
0-0
Rogue had managed to keep the contents of the cooler a secret. It wasn’t all that difficult considering the amount of bags in the trunk. He was more concerned about where they were going to store all the food they’d bought. At least it was cold enough that they could leave the drinks out on the porch.
Not that he should have worried, Sting kept picking items out of the bags and shoving them in his mouth, making pleased noises that were driving Rogue crazy.
“Mhmmmmmm, these are amazing! Want some?” Sting waved a bag of onion-flavored rings under his nose.
Rogue grabbed a couple, realizing he hadn’t had them for years. “Oh man, I used to love these. I didn’t know they still made them.”
Sting finally noticed the cooler when it moved slightly from its perch on the counter. “What’s in there?”
“Oh, that?” Rogue replied evenly, feigning indifference, “Just something I picked up. I thought I might try cooking dinner tonight.”
Sting arched an eyebrow and promptly removed the lid, peering in at the contents. “You got lobsters?”
“Yeah, it seemed like you liked them,” Rogue shrugged, finding spots for the rest of the groceries.
“I do! My mom makes really good Lobster Thermidor.”
Well, fuck. What the hell was lobster...whatever Sting said? It sounded a lot fancier than Rogue’s idea of boiling the shits like a pack of instant-ramen, not to mention the fact that he’d set himself up to compete against Sting’s mother’s cooking. He didn’t know a thing about the woman, but he’d bet his life that she was a better cook than he was.
“Those are big fellas. Oh, wait,” Sting had picked up one of the lobsters to examine it, “I think this one might be a Sheila.”
“How can you tell?”
“Oh, uhm,” Sting chuckled, sounding embarrassed, “when I was younger, I wanted to be a marine biologist. My parents would take me to the aquarium whenever they could, and I learned a lot. Pretty lame, huh?”
“Not at all. I mean, if you want to talk lame, I wanted to be a figure skater at one point,” he confessed, encouraged by Sting sharing that with him. “So which one's Sheldon and which one's Sheila?”
Rogue listened with interest as Sting pointed at the tails’ subtle differences and revealed what they meant. Once the explanation was over, Sting glanced at the pot that sat on the stove.
“You’re going to need a larger pot to boil these.”
“Right.” Challenge number one, where the heck did his mom keep the big pots? Rogue opened the cabinets, searching for anything bigger than the one he used to boil pasta.
“I’ll be right back,” he went to the basement, remembering his mother sometimes sent him there to find appliances she didn’t use all the time, and heaving a sigh of relief when he saw a pot big enough to bathe in. Okay, maybe not quite that big, but it should be enough for two lobsters.
And while he was down there, he took the opportunity to do a quick google search on how to cook lobster thermostat. Thermidor. Whatever. It turned out that it would involve cooking as well as broiling, which was even worse than he’d imagined, and the long list of ingredients wasn’t exactly reassuring either. But it was that list that turned out to be his saving grace, as he was sure he didn’t have everything on it.
Oh no, such a shame, he smirked to himself as he continued to look for a less intimidating lobster recipe.
“Everything okay down there?”
Crap!
“Yeah, found one,” Rogue called out, putting his phone away and lugging his discovery up the stairs.
He’d washed the pot, filling it with water and as much salt as he dared, and then setting it on the stove to boil. They’d talked about watching a movie after dinner, and Sting had left him in the kitchen while he’d gone to Gray’s room, determined to set up his work area, as he called it, for the next day.
And now, Rogue found himself facing his next challenge. Once the water had come to a rolling boil, he’d grabbed one of the lobsters, ready to plunge it into the pot, when he’d made one fatal mistake. He’d looked into its eyes.
No matter how much he told himself that the thing wasn’t intelligent, he just couldn’t find it in himself to kill it. And as he stared into the eyes of the crustacean he’d condemned to death, Rogue couldn’t help but think of how much simpler his life had been before he’d decided he wanted something more from his relationships.
“What are you doing?”
There was no mistaking the amusement in Sting’s voice, and it both irritated and humiliated him. It had been his bright idea to do this, and he couldn’t even go through with it.
‘“It was staring at me,” he murmured.
Sting chuckled but took pity on him, “Here, I’ll do it.”
He grabbed the lobster and asked for some scissors. He snipped the bands off its claws and lowered it into the pot carefully, repeating the procedure with the second one before placing the lid on the pot. There was an awful noise that followed, making it sound like the lobsters were screaming.
Rogue shuddered.
“Relax, it’s not what it sounds like,” Sting assured him, “Lobsters don’t have lungs or even vocal cords. It’s just air escaping through their shells.”
“Whatever. The damn things better taste good,” Rogue pouted, still displeased by the way his plan was failing so far. But hey, the lobsters were boiling away now, and he’d found a cooking time table online, so there wasn’t much that could go wrong from here.
“I guess that depends on the sauce or seasoning.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
His face must have mirrored his frustration because once again, he heard the sound of Sting’s laughter. “It doesn’t have to be anything complicated. Oh, actually! We got mac and cheese, right?”
“Mac and cheese? With lobster?”
“Yeah! My mom used to make that for me when I was little. Well, she made it from scratch,” Sting admitted, “but this will be good too!”
By this point, Rogue just wanted to be done with the whole thing, so the idea of at least being able to make something he knew he couldn’t fuck up cheered him immensely. He walked over to the pantry and moved stuff around until he’d found the family size box of mac and cheese they’d bought and set about preparing it.
The timer went off, and he watched as Sting used tongs to take out the lobsters, which had turned a promising shade of bright red. He lay them on a cutting board and let them sit while he searched for a knife.
Rogue turned away as the sounds of Sting removing the meat from the shell revolted him. He busied himself with his task, trying not to think about what was happening.
“Do I have to do anything differently?”
“Nope, just let me know when it’s ready.”
Sting walked to the porch, grabbed two beers, opened them, and handed one over to Rogue, that amused smirk never far from his face.
Once the mac and cheese was done, all they had to do was add the lobster meat, top it off with some breadcrumbs, and put it in the oven for a few minutes. In the meantime, Rogue began the process of cleaning the kitchen, pulling a face as he dumped the hollowed out shells in the trash bin and wiped the lobster juices off the counter.
Although it wasn’t all that fancy, the dish that came out looked better than any of Rogue’s previous attempts to cook his own food. Not that he felt he had much to be proud of, as he’d mostly just boiled water and made instant mac and cheese, but cooking was definitely a lot less frustrating when he didn’t have to do it alone. Maybe they could cook together again sometime this week, preferably with food that couldn’t scream, move or stare at him.
They settled on the couch, and while Rogue was browsing through Netflix, looking for a movie they could watch, he could tell by the moaning sounds that Sting had already dug into his food.
“It’s good!” he said with his mouth still half full, “but you know what the best part is?”
“Hm?” Rogue took a hesitant first bite, and he had to agree it did taste a lot better than he’d expected.
“It’s that from now on, every time I eat lobster, I’ll remember your look of horror.” Sting dissolved into giggles, “I should have taken a picture!”
Rogue tried to glare, but now that it was over, he found himself laughing along. “Alright, but I hope you got a good look cause I am never doing that again. Next time we do this, it’ll be at a restaurant.”
“Deal, as long as we stop at the tank first,” Sting laughed at his pout, and it was arguably the best sound Rogue had ever heard.
He sat back, having found a movie they were both interested in, and feeling more relaxed than he had all day. The realization that Sting hadn’t been against the idea of a next time boosted his confidence enough to let him enjoy the rest of the night and to set him thinking of what he might try next.
A/N: 2020 was a really busy year for us. We participated in a lot of events and as fun as that was we've decided to mostly step away from that for this year. Unfortunately trying to match event prompts kept us from moving forward on stories we'd been planning on for months and we'd like to try setting our own schedule for now.
We've started the year out with a Works in Progress month, in the hopes that we can finish or move along some of our open multis, or one-shots we started but never finished. It will also allow us to work on some of the individual projects we've been ignoring for too long.
We've decided to expand on this story a bit more than we'd originally planned so there will be a few more chapters than we'd anticipated. We hope you enjoy this one!
Gratsu Winter Solstice 2020
Prompt: Fun in the Snow
Pairing: Gray x Natsu
AO3 | FF.Net
January 6th, 2021
“Have you figured out the answer yet?” Gray asked, trying to remain patient even though it was clear to him that Natsu wasn’t paying the slightest bit of attention to the math problem he was supposed to be working on.
“What?” Natsu finally stopped staring out the window long enough to glance at Gray with a guilty expression that he couldn’t help but find incredibly cute.
Hana, Atlas, and Aki were glued to the window as well, oohing and aahing as the backyard accumulated more and more snow.
“What’s the matter with you guys? You’re all acting like you’ve never seen snow before.”
“Well, I mean, they sort of haven’t. It didn’t really snow that much in Edolas, a few inches at the most,” Natsu reminded him, “This is the first big snowfall they’ve ever seen, and they’ve been looking forward to it for weeks.”
The longing in Natsu’s eyes made it clear that the kids weren’t the only ones who had been looking forward to it. To his credit, he did try to shift his focus back to studying, staring at the problem he was supposed to solve for about five minutes before his eyes strayed back to the window again.
“Fine, fine, you win,” Gray sighed, realizing any further attempts would be pointless and that Aki would probably love to go out with Atlas and Hana in the snow. “Let’s go play.”
He snorted when his words were immediately met with cheers and dazzling smiles.
“Are you sure?” Natsu asked, “I know I can get this if I keep at it.”
“There’s no point. Your mind’s clearly out there,” Gray shrugged. “We can take a break for one day. It won’t mess up anything. Besides, how can you expect me to say no to those faces?” He nodded towards the kids, who were staring at them with big, pleading eyes, bouncing on their feet in anticipation.
“I guess you’re right,” Natsu chuckled and closed his math book as he got up. He stretched his arms above his head, causing his shirt to ride up and expose part of his abdomen, and now it was Gray’s turn to be distracted.
Hana dashed to the coat closet to grab her winter gear and put it on, all the while telling them all the things she wanted to do once they got outside.
“Do you have stuff for Aki?” Natsu asked, his lips twitching at Hana’s running commentary. “I think Erza got two sets for Atlas. He’s welcome to borrow one.”
“Nah, I’ve got his stuff in the car. I’ll be right back.”
Gray put on his jacket and went outside, stopping briefly to collect some of the snow that had accumulated on the steps into his gloved hand and examining it, grinning when he saw how well it stuck together. Perfect snow for playing, fluffy and wet.
He felt his own excitement build. Winter had always been his favorite season, and some of his fondest memories were of playing in the snow with his parents and Rogue once he was a bit older. They’d had snowball fights, built snowmen, collapsed on the snow to make angels, and careened down ever higher hills on sleds for hours, returning home to hot cocoa and cookies as their mom complained that their lips were a worrying shade of blue.
Gray still treasured those memories and looked forward to doing some of those things with Aki now that he was old enough. He rushed back inside, beginning the long process of bundling his son up into his winter gear.
Thankfully Atlas was there to distract him, chattering excitedly as Natsu got him ready. It was only when both boys were dressed that Gray shifted his attention.
“Are you sure you don’t want to put anything else on?” Gray mocked, amused by the ridiculous amount of clothing Natsu was wearing. Snow pants tucked over his snow boots, a padded jacket, the checkered scarf he often wore, a balaclava under a woolen hat, and thick gloves.
“It’s cold,” Natsu shrugged, then looking him over, he urged, “Shouldn’t you get ready? The kids are getting impatient.”
“I am ready, Sunshine.”
Natsu gaped at him, or so Gray imagined since the only part of his face that he could really make out was his eyes.
“You can’t be serious. You’re going to freeze!”
“And you call me a princess? I hate to break it to you, but it’s not even that cold. I’ve got gloves and my jacket. I’m good.” He opened the door that led to the backyard and walked out with Aki and Atlas following close behind. Hana dashed past him in a purple blur.
Snow continued to fall, although the heaviest part of the storm seemed to be over, and Gray stuck his tongue out, trying to catch snowflakes as he’d done when he was little and smiling at the familiar tingle.
Gray thought he saw Natsu staring at him, but it was too brief for him to be sure. He shrugged it off, switching his attention to the boys and chuckling at their antics. Atlas had lain down on the snow and was rolling himself around, turning into a human snowball as more and more snow stuck to him while Natsu somehow managed to take pictures on his phone.
Aki was busy alternating between admiring the snow that stuck to his mittens with an awed expression and giggling at the crunching noise his boots made when he moved, causing Gray’s heart to swell. He quickly took a few pictures to show his parents and walked over to encourage him to play with the others.
He stopped short when he saw the misshapen blob that Hana and Natsu were cobbling together.
“What is that supposed to be?”
“What do you mean? It’s a snowball, obviously.” Natsu held up his creation with a lot more pride than it deserved.
“That thing has no business calling itself a snowball,” Gray scoffed, “It’s going to fall apart in the air long before it hits anything.”
“Will not.”
“Oh yeah? Go ahead, throw it at me.”
Natsu hurled the snowball, but Gray didn’t even bother moving, and just as he expected, it never hit.
"Told you," he said smugly and squatted down to grab some snow off the ground, skillfully shaping it into an almost perfect ball. "My turn," he flashed a wicked grin and threw the snowball, watching with childish glee as it soared through the air and hit Natsu square in the face.
“Hey, no fair, you’re not supposed to throw them in people’s faces,” Natsu protested, wiping the snow off his face with his glove.
“I figured you wouldn’t even feel it through all that padding,” he teased, making no effort to apologize. “That’s what a real snowball feels like.”
“How’d you get it to pack like that?”
“Here, let me show you, and then we can have ourselves a real fight,” Gray offered before Natsu could get it into his head to retaliate. “You too, Hana.”
He cupped some snow between his hands, rotating them slowly to help fuse the snow together. “You just gotta make sure to press down firmly when you rotate your hands. That packs the snow in real good and keeps it from falling apart midair.”
Hana and Natsu watched eagerly as he explained, imitating his actions. Their first efforts were pretty pitiful.
“Just keep at it. Those already look better,” he encouraged, “ You’ll know you’re doing it right when you can stack them up.”
He noticed Aki gazing at the trees with interest and picked him up, walking over towards the nearest one so his son could touch one of its branches, delighting at his laugh when the snow came down. Gray kissed Aki’s chubby cheek and whispered, “I love you, kiddo.”
“I did it!”
Hana’s exalted cry was cut short as the stack of snowballs she’d worked so hard on toppled over when Atlas attempted to grab one.
“Hey!” she started to protest, but whatever expression Atlas had on his face changed her mind, causing her to dissolve into giggles instead.
The sound of Hana’s laughter drew Aki’s attention, and he wiggled in Gray’s arms, wanting to be put down to go investigate what his friends were up to.
Gray obliged, watching as Hana and Natsu created stacks of snowballs for Atlas to topple, and when Aki joined in, he began to make some as well, amused by how easily the two boys were entertained. After a bit, Natsu changed up the game, showing them how to stack the snowballs instead.
He had to admit that his friend was pretty good with kids, which was probably not a huge surprise, considering he seemed to be a big kid himself. It made Gray wonder what parenting might have been like if he’d been married to someone like that.
He analyzed Natsu’s backyard, trying to distract himself from any thoughts of his ex. He was soon struck with an idea.
“Hey Natsu, you got any snow shovels?”
“Yeah, hang on.”
Natsu waddled over to the small shed that sat on their driveway, returning with two adult shovels and two child-sized ones. “What do you have in mind?”
“How do you feel about putting a small sledding hill in for the kids?”
“I think it’s a great idea, just surprised you came up with it, “ Natsu’s eyes crinkled, and Gray could easily visualize the accompanying grin underneath the balaclava. “I bet I can shovel more snow than you, though.”
“In your dreams, Squinty Eyes.”
They decided on an area and began shoveling snow into a large pile and packing it down while Hana kept the boys entertained.
“Getting tired yet?” Natsu huffed.
“This is nothing. I could go all day,” he smirked, noticing Natsu’s discomfort, “You seem pretty done, though.”
“In your dreams, Droopy Eyes.” Natsu unzipped his jacket to reveal a fleece liner underneath, “I’m just getting started.”
“Droopy?! And here I’ve been told they’re one of my best features,” Gray retorted, as he climbed to the top of the makeshift hill, ensuring the snow was packed in well enough. “I think we can stop now. This is probably tall enough for them. You’ll have to impress me with your stamina another time.”
Natsu’s eyes widened in disbelief before he exploded into a fit of raucous laughter.
“Is it ready?” Hana asked, rushing over to them with Atlas and Aki chasing after her.
“Yep, go get your sled from the shed, and can you bring that little inflatable one?”
“Yeah,” Hana ran off, returning with a pink saucer sled and a folded up piece of vinyl, which she handed over to her father to inflate.
“I got it. Wouldn’t want you to have to take off anything,” Gray grabbed the sled out of Natsu’s hands, finding the plastic tube and blowing into it until it had filled up.
Hana climbed the steps he’d carved into the snow with the kid shovels and sat down on her sled, squealing loudly when he gave her a firm push. She slid down the hill, her sled continuing to travel for several feet, leaving a trail in the snow. She was up as soon as her sled stopped, running back to them with a massive smile on her face.
“That was awesome!”
Gray couldn’t help but grin in response, pleased that he’d been able to make her so happy with such a simple act. He wondered how Aki would respond, and knowing his timid nature, he asked Natsu to have Atlas go first.
The sled had a little seat belt built into it, which was nice because the last thing on Atlas’ mind was holding on. He cackled all the way down and then chatted excitedly to Natsu as they returned.
Aki pulled on his leg, eager to take his turn, and Gray helped him into the sled. He let him have a moment to get used to it before nodding to Natsu to give him a push. Although his response to the experience was more muted than the two Dragneel kids, it was no less joyful, and Gray hid his face, fighting back unexpected tears at watching Aki lead a life more in line with what he’d always wanted for him.
Rather than tease him for getting overly emotional, Natsu offered him a half hug and went back to helping the kids sled down the hill until he was ready to rejoin them. It was gestures like that that made him wish that Natsu would see him as someone he could love, rather than just a good friend.
“Dada!”
Aki’s excited cries called him back, and they stayed out until the kids’ teeth began chattering from the cold.
0-0
After they’d helped the kids get out of their layers and put all the winter gear away, Natsu moved to the kitchen. He filled a large glass measuring cup with water, placed it in the microwave, and then started searching through the cabinets.
“Do you want some hot cocoa?” he asked Gray once he’d found what he was looking for: a box full of packets of instant hot cocoa powder.
“Sorry, what?” Gray stared at him in a mixture of horror and pure disbelief. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that.”
“Huh?” Natsu puzzled, completely lost as to what he meant.
“Whatever you think that is-” Gray pointed an accusing finger at the box, “I'm not drinking it. Move over.”
He did a quick check through the fridge and the cupboards to make sure Natsu had everything he needed to make real hot cocoa and got to work. Meanwhile, Natsu piled a mountain of cookies onto a plate to go along with it, laughing when Atlas and Aki came begging one off him before he’d even finished.
Natsu’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and he quickly wiped the cookie crumbs off his hands before checking it. Gray watched his brows knit together as he focused on the message, but his expression soon turned into one of joy and relief.
“Well, looks like I get tonight off. Jellal told me not to bother coming in. It’s been quiet all day because of the snow,” he reported happily as he put his phone away again. “You should stay for dinner. The roads are crap anyway.”
“You sure? We wouldn’t want to put you out.”
“Sure, we’ve got plenty of frozen pizzas,” Natsu opened the freezer, pointing to an alarming amount of pizza boxes.
“Is that all you eat?” Gray asked in horror.
“Hah, well,” Natsu threaded his fingers through his hair in an embarrassed gesture, “Erza’s the one who usually cooks. She gets those for us for when she’s not around. Oh! I should let her know she doesn’t have to hurry back.”
He pulled out his phone and began texting his sister as Gray mulled the invitation over. He hadn’t really been looking forward to going home yet. Lyon would still be at work, and he knew the apartment would feel empty after having spent the afternoon surrounded by Natsu’s warmth.
That decided him.
“Fine, I’ll stay, but we’re not having frozen pizza.” He rolled his sleeves up and headed to the sink to wash his hands, thinking about the limited number of things he knew how to make.
He opened their pantry and breathed a sigh of relief when he found two boxes of pasta and a few jars of sauce. “Make yourself useful, fill a big pot with water and put it on the stove,” he demanded, moving stuff around to see what ingredients he could use to add to the sauce.
“I dunno, Erza uh- doesn’t really like it when I use the stove,” Natsu murmured, avoiding Gray’s gaze.
“Why? What did you do, set the kitchen on fire?” Gray blurted, laughing at how absurd that was.
When his joke was received with silence instead of the angry denials he’d been expecting, he glanced up to find Natsu quietly pouring the hot cocoa into mugs and placing them on the table in the breakfast nook along with the cookies. He called the kids over and walked back into the kitchen, still avoiding direct eye contact.
“Oh my God, you did! Didn’t you?!”
“It was an accident!” Natsu protested, “I was making dinner when Atlas’ diaper overfilled, and I had to deal with it. By the time I was done with that, I had forgotten the stove was on.”
Gray wanted to give him a hard time about it, but he could absolutely see that happening. He was well aware of how unreliable Natsu’s attention span was at the best of times. It was the one thing they struggled with the most during their study sessions.
“Well, I’ll be the one cooking, so it shouldn’t be a problem,” Gray assured him, pointing him towards the sink once again.
“What about knives? Are you allowed near those, Pyro?” he taunted as he tossed him an onion to chop.
“It was an accident!” Natsu complained, and when that did nothing to stop the teasing, he pouted, “You’re not funny.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Gray smirked, quite pleased that he might have finally found a nickname to counter the dreaded Princess.
“Jerk,” Natsu muttered, grabbing a knife and attempting to chop the onion.
They worked in somewhat comfortable silence. As usual, Natsu couldn’t stay mad for long, and soon he was telling Gray funny stories about people he’d met at work, while Gray told him about some of the places he’d traveled to for shoots.
“I’ve always wanted to travel,” Natsu commented, pulling out plates from the cupboards and walking off to set the table.
“You’re not exactly dead yet, you know,” Gray called out, pouring the pasta into a colander and checking on the sauce one last time before turning off the stove.
“Yeah, but come on, when am I ever going to be able to afford it or have the time?”
Gray had no answer to that, so he changed the subject instead, “Food’s ready.”
“Hey, you wanna watch a movie after? There’s this one about dragons and vikings we’ve wanted to watch.”
“How to Train your Dragon?”
“You’ve seen it?”
“I went to the premiere,” Gray explained, but when he saw how disappointed Natsu looked by his admission, he hastily added, “But who really watches the movie at those things, it’s all photo ops and gossip. I’d love to watch it.”
It wasn’t entirely a lie, either. Siegrain had felt slighted by some industry bigwig and had spent most of the movie complaining about it. But honestly, even if he’d seen it a hundred times, he’d gladly watch it again if it meant he could experience the beaming smile Natsu flashed his way.
The sun had long ago set by the time they finished eating their dinner, and it wasn’t hard to see that all three kids were going to conk out as soon as they were still for any amount of time. Natsu didn’t seem to notice, though, and Gray didn’t have the heart to dampen his enthusiasm. Not when he was practically bouncing as he went around making popcorn for everyone. Gray volunteered to load the dishwasher, claiming, much to Natsu’s chagrin, that he didn’t want to be responsible for his being banned from yet another kitchen appliance.
Natsu lit the fireplace, placing the screen securely in front while Gray settled the boys on the sofa. After a frantic search for the remote, they were finally ready. They sat down next to each other as the opening credits played. Aki climbed onto Gray’s lap, and Atlas did the same with Natsu, while Hana snuggled up next to her father.
As Gray had predicted, all three kids were out ten minutes later, and then it was just the two of them again, talking and laughing along with the movie. Gray ached to stretch his arm and pull Natsu closer to him, even as Aki snored quietly against him.
He stopped paying attention to the movie, frustrated by how his infatuation with Natsu kept growing outside of his control. Today had only made it worse, enticing him with all the things he’d always wanted in a relationship but had given up on somewhere along the way.
The sound of loud snores startled him out of his thoughts, and he turned his head to discover Natsu had also fallen asleep, his neck tilted at an awkward angle.
Gray stretched his arm, wrapping it around Natsu’s shoulders and slowly pulling him into his chest so he could rest more comfortably. Natsu muttered something in his sleep, snuggling into him with a faint smile that he found adorable.
He sat quietly, content to let everyone sleep while he watched over them, and let himself imagine that maybe, someday, this pocket of happiness could belong to the two of them.
We wanted to take a moment to let you know how very grateful we are to all of you for the support you've shown us! It's now been a little over a year since we started working on this AU and we are very proud of the friends we've made along the way and how far we've come.
We also wanted to do something special to show our appreciation so we created these snapshot edits of some of the characters wearing yukatas. Each one celebrating a friendship, relationship or family in the Dads AU universe.
We hope to post a fic or drabble for each individual image in the coming months. There is still lots to look forward to in this world which grows ever bigger...
Have safe and happy holidays, we hope to see you all next year!
Lots of love from the FTDadsAU crew!
❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
FTDadsAU is a collaboration that includes works by @aki-natsuko , @divinion1990 , @gaymirajane , @mdelpin and @oryu404
Edits by @mdelpin and @oryu404, click on photo for better resolution (cause Tumblr)
Weisz Steiner manga coloring for Weisslogia is used with permission from @23kukulcan
The Fairy Tail Dads AU is a modern, non-magical world created by @mdelpin and @oryu404. It follows the lives of several boys - across multiple generations - as they attempt to navigate their individual paths towards adulthood.
Follow along as they overcome the many challenges thrown their way, with the help of their friends and loved ones.
In Chronological Order:
This list will be kept up to date! Here is a link to our AO3 Series if you prefer reading in there.
Also works by @divinion1990 , @gaymirajane and @aki-natsuko have been added since the last time we reblogged this post!
We look forward to writing more stories in the coming months! Thank you to everyone who has offered us support since we began on this journey almost a year ago!
Lyon stood outside the front door of Sherry’s house, fist raised in mid-air as he worked up the nerve to announce his presence.
It all still felt so surreal, this idea that he had a child, a family he’d known nothing about for fifteen years, might have never known anything about if it hadn’t been for the fierce determination of his own daughter to find him. A determination that Lyon couldn’t help but smile at, readily recognizing it as one of his own traits. While Chelia’s unshakable belief in love reminded him so much of her mother.
Lyon had missed so much of Chelia's life already, and it saddened him even as he also knew that he couldn’t exactly blame Sherry for her decision to keep her pregnancy a secret from him all those years ago. They’d been good friends during high school, but he’d been too caught up in the pursuit of the life he’d wanted for himself to have anything but the vaguest ideas of the feelings she’d held for him at the time.
He still wasn’t sure what had possessed him to sleep with Sherry that one night. And although he didn’t regret what had happened between them, he couldn’t help but feel that his actions had changed her life forever while he’d gone on with his, blissfully unaware of the consequences of their one night together.
And he couldn’t entirely escape the guilt he felt at realizing that he could have been a part of his child’s life if only he’d stayed in touch with his friends. If he hadn’t been so hell-bent on getting away from his own family. Lyon could have seen her grow up and maybe done better for her than his own parents ever had for him.
Instead, he found himself increasingly lost and uncertain as to what was expected of him. He couldn’t help but feel grateful to Ren, who had stepped up in his place and built a family with Sherry. Ren, who had never seen Chelia as anything other than his own kid and whose life Lyon had somewhat turned upside down with his presence and Chelia’s wish for him to be something to her.
“Something wrong?”
Lyon turned to find Ren standing behind him, holding several paper bags from the grocery store and glancing at him curiously.
“No, uhm, let me help you with those,” Lyon grabbed one of the bags and moved out of the way, never sure of how to act around the other man whose expression always seemed slightly disapproving.
“The girls have been waiting for you,” Ren remarked, his eyes lingering on Lyon’s face for a moment before settling on the ground.
“I, uhm, have they?” Lyon replied, wincing at how awkward he sounded, but he had no idea what to say to the other man.
He knew they needed to have a talk at some point. He’d seen this situation play out time and again in his work, usually ending badly. It had to be incredibly stressful to feel like another man was trying to lay claim to your kid, even though that wasn’t Lyon’s intention at all.
Ren fiddled with his pocket, fetching his house key and moving past Lyon, “We should get inside.”
“Wait,” Lyon blurted out before he could stop himself, not even sure of what he wanted to say but feeling like he needed to say something. “I-”
It was almost amusing to find himself suddenly tongue-tied, considering his words were often his fiercest weapon, second only to his knowledge of family law. Still, here he was all the same- head empty and feeling increasingly foolish.
“I -,” Lyon tried again, but what could he really say? That he had no intention of trying to replace him in Chelia’s life? That he was sorry that Ren had had to step up to clean up his mess? That he had no idea what he was doing but wanted to make up for his absence?
He could feel the weight of Ren’s gaze, and it only made him freeze up even more.
“She’s got a big heart,” Ren shrugged, “plenty of room for both of us in it.”
He patted Lyon on the back before opening the door and motioning for him to follow. Lyon placed the bag he’d carried inside on the kitchen counter, still flabbergasted when Sherry came up to greet them.
“Is he here?” Chelia called out from the family room, rushing in and stopping just short of him with a shy smile.
“Hey,” Lyon greeted, his voice wavering a bit, still unsure about whether it was okay for him to have this.
Chelia didn’t seem to notice his uncertainty, immediately grabbing him by the arm and pulling him into the family room, excitedly telling him about the TV show she’d been watching. Lyon looked back towards the kitchen in a slight panic, surprised to find both Sherry and Ren flashing him encouraging smiles. And as the sound of his daughter’s voice filled his ears, Lyon finally relaxed and allowed himself to enjoy the precious gift he’d been given.
Summary: When Romeo shows up at Crime Sorciere asking to talk, Natsu has no idea what to expect. He doesn't know him all that well and has no idea how he could possibly be of help, but once he hears what Romeo has to say he is determined to take him under his wing.
August 4, 2020
It was the afternoon lull, the part of his workday when the lunch crowd had returned to their offices, and only a few customers remained, talking over upcoming cases or nursing a loss in court. Natsu usually spent this period cleaning up, restocking the bar, and prepping garnishes for the evening shift. Meredy would often go to the kitchen to help Ultear, their cook, prepare for the evening meals while Jellal slunk into his office, exhausted by the effort of being social.
During this time, the bar was quiet, and that suited Natsu just fine. He still hadn’t fully settled from the botched intervention Gildarts, and Erza had tried to stage for him two days earlier, and Loke’s outburst the previous evening hadn’t helped matters either.
All Natsu wanted was to be left alone, but everyone was determined to make him grieve for his wife their way, refusing to understand that he was trying his best to move forward. How quickly he did that was up to him, not them. Still, he knew there was a point buried within their well-meaning meddling.
“Hey, Natsu?” Jellal called out from his office, “Can you take out the trash? The bags in both the kitchen and the bar look pretty full.”
“Yeah, on it.”
Crap!
He should have done that already. Looking out the window to see that it was raining, he muttered a curse and went off in search of his umbrella. Ten minutes later, he was carrying two large, overly full bags of trash. Meredy opened the door that led out to the alley for him, and he strode outside, holding on to his umbrella as best he could against the pelting rain.
Once again, he muttered a curse, realizing that he’d have to put down the umbrella to get the dumpster open. He felt someone grab the umbrella from his hand and hold it above his head and was astonished to find Romeo Conbolt standing there.
“Romeo? What are you doing here?”
Romeo offered him a small smile, but it wasn’t hard to see something was wrong.
“Can I talk to you?”
This is perfect! Macao just bailed on us, something about Romeo, wasn’t really paying attention...
Natsu recalled the words Gildarts had mentioned in passing on Sunday and had an immediate suspicion that the two things were related. He didn’t know Romeo all that well, had only really talked to him at the Dads Club meetings, but Atlas had taken an immediate liking to him, and they had chatted a few times.
He opened the dumpster and deposited the bags inside, the lid making a loud clank when he urged it shut. Natsu wanted to say he was in the middle of a work shift and suggest they talk later, but he couldn’t get the words out of his mouth. Romeo was soaked, making him realize that whatever the teen wanted to speak to him about was serious enough for him to stand in that smelly alley in the rain, just on the off chance that he would come out. He couldn’t just send him away.
Natsu sighed to himself, hoping Jellal was in a good mood.
“Come on, you’re going to catch your death out here,” he recovered his umbrella and led Romeo inside the building.
Natsu liked working at Crime Sorciere, but he’d never thought the place was all that impressive, so it amused him to see Romeo gawk at it. He led him to one of the booths furthest away from the bar.
“Sit here,” he ordered, “ I’ll be right back.”
“Meredy?” Natsu called out as he entered the storeroom in search of some towels.
“Yeah, what?”
“Can you make a couple of mugs of hot cocoa?”
“You got it!” Meredy replied, and he heard her asking Ultear for help.
Natsu hurried back to Romeo, handing him the towels and fighting off the instinct to help him as he would his own son. He was tempted to turn on the fireplace, but he knew Jellal would have a fit if he did, so the hot cocoa would have to do.
He sat across from the boy, hiding a smile at his awkward attempt to dry himself off. “So, uhm, what brings you here?”
“I don’t know what to do.”
Natsu waited for him to say something more, but Romeo only stared at him with wide, pleading eyes.
“Uhm, should I call your dad for you?”
“NO!” he yelled, and then in a quieter voice, “Please don’t do that.”
“Alright, I won’t call him,” Natsu winced, looking around to see that the remaining customers were openly staring at them. He offered them a confident smile and turned back to Romeo, “But you need to tell me what’s going on, okay?”
Romeo nodded, leaning in towards Natsu, and in a voice so quiet that Natsu had to strain to hear it, he said, “I kinda got a girl pregnant.”
“YOU WHAT?!” It was Natsu’s turn to yell, and once again, everyone’s attention was fixed on them.
“What is going on out here?”
Jellal came out of his office, looking annoyed, and heading straight for Natsu.
“Dragneel,” Jellal stopped in his tracks when he saw who his bartender was sitting with. “Why is there a minor in my bar?”
“Relax, Jellal. He’s not in the bar area. It shouldn’t be a problem.”
Jellal walked to the booth and peered at Romeo. “Hey, aren’t you one of my little sister’s friends?”
Jellal nudged Natsu to move over and sat down across from Romeo, “How’s she doing? I haven’t seen her in a few weeks.”
“She’s f-fine.”
“She should be at that meeting tonight that I told you about,” Natsu reminded him, “She babysits the kids there. Romeo does too.”
For a moment, Natsu panicked, worrying that the girl he was referring to could possibly be Wendy. Why else would Romeo come to talk to him? Or flip out at Jellal’s presence, for that matter?
“It’s not Wendy,” Romeo blurted out.
“Oh, thank god!” Natsu exclaimed, his relief palpable. The idea of having to mediate between Makarov, Laxus, Gildarts, and all the other members of his rather insane adoptive family over someone they all felt so protective of had terrified the shit out of him. Not to mention Jellal, who was also incredibly protective of his sister.
“What’s not Wendy?” Jellal asked, his curiosity aroused but quickly diverted by Meredy’s arrival. She bore a tray with 3 mugs of hot cocoa and handed one to each of them.
“I put extra whipped cream on yours,” she winked at Jellal before walking away, checking on the remaining customers taking her place behind the bar.
“Uhm…" Natsu peered at Romeo, not wanting to reveal his secret, hoping the boy would do so himself. He could use some backup.
"My girlfriend is pregnant," Romeo explained quietly, eyes glued to the cup of cocoa on the table in front of him.
“You’re like 15! Are you even old enough to get laid?!” Jellal blurted out, and Natsu elbowed him under the table.
"14…“ Romeo squeaked, looking like he could slide under the table at any moment, "I'm 14. My birthday isn’t for another few weeks."
“Christ! Didn’t anyone teach you about protection?!” Jellal scolded.
“We were careful!” Romeo insisted, trying to defend himself against Jellal’s disapproval, but then he lowered his head, and added in a much smaller voice, “most of the time.”
“Most of the time?” Jellal echoed in disbelief.
“Will you stop?” Natsu snapped at Jellal, remembering how terrified he’d been when he’d found out Lisanna was pregnant with Hana, and he’d been several years older. “That seriously isn’t helping.”
Jellal grunted but didn’t say anything else, letting Natsu take the lead.
“So, you wanted to talk to me because I had kids when I was pretty young?” Natsu guessed.
Romeo nodded. "My girlfriend and I both agreed that we want to keep it, but I have no idea what to expect. I tried talking to my dad, but it didn't go too well."
“You probably just caught him by surprise.” Natsu assured him, “I'm sure he'll come around. I mean, he runs a support club for dads, doesn’t he?”
“I dunno about that,” Romeo mumbled, “He was pretty mad…”
“They cry a lot,” Jellal rejoined the conversation, and when both Natsu and Romeo peered at him in confusion, he added with a half shrug, “He wanted to know what to expect.”
“That’s the one thing I remember about Wendy as a baby,” Jellal revealed, “I could never seem to figure out what she wanted, and I remember thinking maybe she was just crying over our parents’ death.”
Natsu stared at his boss for a moment, absorbing what he’d said and shaking his head. “I worry about you.”
Jellal seemed uncomfortable, so Natsu let it go and turned his attention back to Romeo.
“It’s true, infants do cry a lot, but they do a lot of other stuff too,” Natsu agreed, recalling Hana’s first days, even though those types of thoughts brought him more pain than joy these days. “My situation was a little different, though.”
Natsu had been eighteen when Lisanna had gotten pregnant, and they’d already been living together in a small apartment in Edolas. And while he had indeed been absolutely terrified when he’d found out, he’d also had no qualms about asking her to marry him or about working two jobs so that she could stay home with Hana and then Atlas. They’d been unbelievably happy until she’d…
He immediately shut that thought down, the pain too much for him to bear. He felt Jellal squeeze his arm tightly and took a deep breath in an effort to control his tears before they could surface.
“I uh- was a few years older,” he added by way of explanation, hoping Romeo didn’t notice the tremor in his voice. “But probably even more terrified.”
“I don’t think that ever changes,” Jellal commented, “I remember my dad being a nervous wreck while my mom was pregnant with Wendy, and it certainly wasn’t their first go around.”
Natsu was surprised to hear Jellal talk about his parents. It was a topic that he rarely brought up, even though it had been years since they’d died, leaving him to care for his baby sister.
“So it’s okay to be scared?”
Both Natsu and Jellal laughed at that, although it was Natsu who responded. “I’d probably be more worried if you weren’t.”
“I’ll be honest with you- “ Natsu gently placed a hand on Romeo’s arm, “You’re already more prepared than I was. I had zero idea what I was doing until Hana was born, and even then, it took me a few weeks to get the hang of it. That class you took for the club already taught you most of what you need to know, and I’ve seen you with the kids. You’re a natural.”
“But I’m not going to sugarcoat it for you, either,” he warned, “Your life is going to change. Babies aren’t cheap. There are diapers and wipes to buy, and food, not to mention clothes. You’re going to need to get a job to afford these things. Even though I know a lot of us will be more than happy to help out however we can.”
“And be prepared for a lot of sleepless nights,” Jellal added. “You’ll be up feeding, changing, soothing, and worrying.”
“That’s right,” Natsu conceded, “But in all honesty, the best advice I can give you is this. If you can possibly manage it, don’t drop out of school like I did. That’s my one regret. Because of that one choice I made at seventeen, I sabotaged not only my future but my kids' as well.”
Romeo nodded weakly, eyes tearing up. “I knew it was going to be a lot, but-.”
Before he could get anything more out, he began to shake, and this time Natsu was pretty sure it had nothing to do with the state of his clothes, and he tried to backtrack, realizing much too late that they had overwhelmed the poor kid.”
“Listen, you might still be young-”
“Very,” Jellal emphasized, earning him another elbow from Natsu.
“You might still be young,” Natsu tried again, “but I think it’s incredibly brave of you to step up and take this responsibility. I know it sounds like a lot right now, but you have months to prepare before the baby is born. You can do this!”
“Natsu’s right, and you shouldn’t worry too much about making mistakes either. We all do,” Jellal assured Romeo. “Oh, and never shy away from asking for help when you need it, even if it means letting someone else take care of the baby until you can do it yourself like I did.”
“You’re still doing it,” Natsu reminded him with a shove, “Gramps is the one who takes care of Wendy, not your overgrown ass.”
“She’s happy there!” Jellal protested, “And I give him money every week to help.”
“Which he doesn’t accept,” Natsu reminded him, rolling his eyes at how stubborn both men were. “You might as well-”
“No!” Romeo interrupted their banter, “I can do it.”
His tone was forceful, but there was something about it that felt off to Natsu. It made him think that Romeo hadn’t told them everything, and he got the distinct impression that Romeo wouldn’t want to discuss whatever it was. Not yet, anyway.
“Of course you can!” Natsu was quick to reassure him. He grabbed the notepad he used to jot down long drink orders out of the pocket of his half apron and wrote his phone number on it in neat numbers. Ripping the page, he handed it over to Romeo.
“You can always come to me for help.” Natsu gave him what he hoped was an encouraging smile, “Teen dads have to stick together, right?”
Romeo took the piece of paper and stared at the numbers for a full minute. He then looked at Natsu with eyes full of gratitude and admiration.
“I knew you were the right person to talk to!”
“That’s our Natsu,” Jellal teased, grabbing Natsu in a headlock and ruffling his hair, “an inspiration to one and all.”
He knew Jellal’s words were meant in jest, but after months of wallowing in self-pity and being on the receiving end of everyone else’s best intentions, he had to admit it felt good to help someone out. To know that he could pay all his friends’ efforts forward.
It also made him realize something else. He and the kids weren’t the only ones who had lost Lisanna. Mira, Elfman, and even Erza had too. Maybe it was time he stopped shutting them out so they could grieve together and become a family again.
Bickslow’s apartment was not the explosion of chaotic colours and patterns that Laxus had been expecting after seeing the man at work or his favoured attire. Although Laxus had harboured the suspicion that he only dressed like that to make sure that he was the centre of attention, although Bickslow’s grin and humour were usually enough to do that anyway. By comparison, the apartment seemed muted, with tasteful splashes of colour and decorations that had all been carefully chosen to complement one another, it should have felt impersonal almost like a hotel room, but it didn’t. There were little signs that it was a lived-in home, a hoodie slung over the back of the armchair, a book and mug abandoned on the coffee table, shoes stacked haphazardly just next to the door, and plants and random nick-nacks scattered amongst the deliberate décor.
Brandish had been the one to ask them to come round and sharing a look over the top of where Freed was huddled with his head pressed against his knees, Evergreen and Laxus knew she’d been right too. Not that any of them had expected Freed to take his sister moving away for college well, as they were closer. Closer than he was with his own twin most of the time, especially on days like today when Felipe had stormed out of the room when it had become clear they were more interested in comforting Freed than hanging with both of them. Although not without a parting shot about needing to count the silver after Laxus left. Freed had shown a spark of life at that, launching a pillow at his brother’s head with unerring aim and snapping at him to get out before falling silent once more.
Laxus had waved aside the apology that had followed. He didn’t like the comments, and it wasn’t the first time he’d heard them, and he knew that it wouldn’t be the last, especially from the Justines. Freed never had and would never say it though, and that was all that mattered and anyway if he thought about it too much the urge to punch Felipe who had also been informing Freed that he was overacting when they’d arrived would become overwhelming. His presence was barely tolerated at the best of times, punching Felipe would give Ferdinand the reason he was looking for to forbid him coming here or spending time with Freed, and Laxus wouldn’t give him that.
“I can punch him for you?” Evergreen offered with a hint of a smirk, and Laxus jolted before realising that his thoughts must’ve been written across his face. He feigned a thoughtful expression – not wanting to admit how tempting the idea was because he knew Evergreen could be lethal when she chose, and she wasn’t fond of Felipe at the best of times.
“No,” he said after a moment, sighing with regret. “One day I’ll get to do it…”
Summary: On the first anniversary of his assault, Rogue gets a surprise visitor in the middle of the night, who has an even more surprising way of showing encouragement.
November 27, 2014
When his phone started to buzz on his nightstand in the middle of the night, Rogue was more than annoyed. He'd been lying awake for a while already, and with a dreadful day ahead, the last thing he needed was a distraction from his attempts to sleep. Besides, who would be rude enough to text him at almost 1 AM?
Gajeel, apparently, Rogue found out when he unlocked his phone and saw his name pop up on the screen.
You awake?
For a moment, Rogue debated whether he should answer or just ignore the message and pretend he was asleep, but curiosity got the best of him.
Yeah, what's up?
He waited for a response, getting both nervous and confused when 5 minutes passed without a single message popping up on his screen. After another 5 minutes, he gave up. He put his phone away and snuggled up to Sting again, determined to give sleep another try. Whatever Gajeel’s deal was, he'd find out in the morning.
Sting groaned in his sleep, pulling him closer. His warm and secure embrace made Rogue feel more at ease, so he closed his eyes and tried to relax as best as he could. Just when he thought he might be able to fall asleep this time, his phone buzzed again.
Look outside your window.
Rogue carefully untangled himself from Sting's limbs and got out of bed, not knowing what to expect. It sure as hell wasn't Gajeel standing by his car, which was parked on the driveway, behind Rogue's.
"What are you doing?" Sting puzzled, gazing at Rogue sleepily.
"I have no idea, but it seems like Gajeel is here."
Sting jerked his head in confusion before turning over to check the time on his phone. "Now? In the middle of the night?"
Rogue's phone went off again.
Get dressed and meet me outside.
"He's asking me to come out," Rogue said as he went into the closet to grab a pair of socks, sweats, and a hoodie, "no idea what he wants."
Sting sat up and watched him get dressed, still in disbelief at the situation. "Do you want me to come with you?"
"Nah, I'll be fine, just go back to sleep. I'll be right back," Rogue walked over to the bed to kiss him and then left the bedroom, quickly putting on his boots and jacket before he went out the front door.
"What are you doing here at this hour?" he asked his friend once he was close enough to mind the neighbors and keep his voice down.
"I came to pick you up. Now, get in the car," Gajeel answered as if that was a perfectly reasonable and normal thing to say when showing up at someone's house at night, unannounced. He held the car door open, impatiently waiting for Rogue to get in.
"To do…what, exactly?"
"You'll see when we get there."
Rogue stared at him, wordlessly pleading for any clue about what he was up to. Much to his frustration, Gajeel wouldn't budge, so he sighed and just did as he was asked.
I'll be out for a bit, love you, he messaged Sting to let him know he wasn't coming back to bed as quickly as he'd thought. In the meantime, Gajeel had gotten in the car as well and started driving off.
Despite knowing his way around Magnolia, Rogue didn’t recognize the part of town they were passing through after about 15 minutes. He knew it was around the outskirts, an industrial area he never needed to visit before, and that only raised more questions for him.
"Relax, I'm not kidnapping you," Gajeel snorted as he took a turn that brought them to a junkyard. He stopped to park somewhere on the side, in a dark spot a ways away from the entrance.
"Considering what day it is, I thought you needed to blow off some steam."
Rogue was surprised that he'd remembered today marked the first anniversary of his assault by Totomaru, the whole reason why he'd been restless and on edge all night. Gajeel was right in thinking that he could use a distraction, but he still didn't know exactly what he meant.
"So how do you blow off steam in a junkyard in the dead of night?" he questioned as they got out of the car.
Gajeel walked around to the trunk, opening it and pulling out two baseball bats and two pairs of safety glasses. He handed over one of each to Rogue, putting the other pair of glasses on as he led them to a spot where the wire fence was cut open. As easy as that, they'd made it into the junk-filled terrain.
He twirled his bat once, and without warning, he slammed into the first car on his path- an 80's Ford Fiesta that had seen better days - with full force. The sound of the headlight shattering was almost deafening in the night's silence.
"Like that-" Gajeel turned around and grinned. "Your turn."
Rogue walked through the maze of decaying cars and piles of scrap, for the first time in his life impressed by the sight of garbage. There were cars of countless makes and models, most but not all of them predating his birth. Some were more battered up than others, either by prolonged exposure to the elements or as the result of a brutal accident, but that's what made them all the more interesting. Each one had its own story to tell.
Maybe his imagination was running a bit wild when he tried to imagine how some of these cars had ended up there or what secrets could lay buried between all the junk. He must've been daydreaming about it, because the next thing he knew, Gajeel was nudging him.
Rogue swung the bat at a nearby Corolla without much force, still managing to knock off the side-view mirror.
“Is that all ya got?” Gajeel asked, unimpressed. “Where’s all that anger you’ve got cooped up inside ya?”
Now that Rogue thought about it, he’d gone through a slew of emotions in the past year, from fear and anxiety to guilt and self-loathing, but anger wasn’t something he’d dealt with a lot. It had bubbled to the surface when he’d lashed out in frustration, but he'd always repressed it or buried underneath the rest of his feelings. Too worried about its extent, he'd never fully unleashed it, but he realized that was precisely what Gajeel was trying to make him do now.
“Aren’t you fucking pissed?”
Like he'd done so many times before, Rogue dug up the memories, and knowing that the only receiver of his rage would be the already broken down Corolla, he gave it free rein.
He swung the bat again, slamming it hard into the windshield of the car. Tiny fragments of glass sprang from the spiderweb-shaped crack, glistening in the light of the construction lamps like powdery snow. He struck again, delivering blow after blow.
For all the nightmares and sleepless nights...
For the marks he’d worn on his body for days...
For the relationships that had suffered, the tears he’d spilled, and all the pieces he was still trying to pick up.
He hadn’t even realized he'd started screaming until he was out of breath. By the time he finally stopped himself, he had knocked out almost the entire windshield and all 4 side windows too.
"There's my anger," he panted as he found a spot clear of any debris where he could sit on the ground, leaned against the side of a minivan.
"I figured," Gajeel nodded with a mixture of approval and surprise. He joined Rogue on the ground, searching his pockets for his cigarettes, pulling two out of the packet. Once he lit his own, he passed the other and his lighter to Rogue.
They sat and smoked in silence for a while, listening to the crickets that were chirping in the bushes right behind the fence and gazing at the mauled carcass of the car. Now that the fury and adrenaline were starting to ebb away, Rogue felt an unexpected relief wash over him, like the restlessness had left his body.
"Thanks," he finally said. "I think I needed that."
"Yeah, no kidding," Gajeel commented as he put out his cigarette in the dirt. "Look, I know it won't fix anything, but I'm not good at that whole talking and comforting shit, so…"
"No, you're not," Rogue agreed with a snort. "Not at talking, at least. But you did show up with pizza, threatening to break down my door if I didn't answer, and you took me out for trespassing and property destruction in the dead of night, and I gotta say both were pretty comforting."
Gajeel responded with a wry chuckle, tapping the end of his bat in the sand and staring at the imprints it made.
"No, I'm dead serious," Rogue insisted. "Nothing anyone can do or say will 'fix anything,' but you showed up without being asked, and you're one of only a few people who refused to be pushed away. That's enough for me."
Their moment was interrupted by a voice in the distance, shouting “Who’s there?!” and they looked at each other, knowing they were about to be in trouble.
“Shit, looks like we’ve got company, time to get out,” Gajeel hissed as he grabbed Rogue by the arm and pulled him up.
They quickly hid behind the minivan and tried to peek around it to see where the voice had come from, but Rogue couldn’t bear the stress of sticking around too long and risking getting caught.
He managed to locate the spot where the fence was cut open, which thankfully wasn’t too far away, and decided to take a different risk. Pressing his finger against his lips, he motioned for Gajeel to stay silent. Then, finding a large screw, he picked it up and threw it in the opposite direction, as far as he could. It produced a loud clang as it hit something, just as he’d hoped it would.
“I know you’re out there, punks!” the voice snarled. Footsteps were quickening but moving away from them, and that was enough to spur Rogue into action.
He beckoned Gajeel to follow him before sneaking out from behind the van. Slowly and carefully, trying not to make any noises that would give them away, they crouched across the terrain, sticking to the shadows for extra cover. As soon as they made it through the fence, the tension got the best of them. They made a run for the car and got in as fast as they could, not even fixing their seatbelts or turning the headlights on when Gajeel slammed his foot on the gas pedal.
Rogue’s heart was pounding in his throat, his hands trembling as he finally reached for the seatbelt. “Okay,” he said with a shaky voice, “slow down, put on your seatbelt, and turn your lights on before we get pulled over and have to explain why we’re wearing safety glasses and have baseball bats with us.”
Gajeel followed his instructions, calmly driving them back the rest of the way to Rogue’s house. When he finally pulled into the driveway and turned off the engine, they hesitantly looked at each other, and all their pent up tension suddenly burst out in a shared fit of laughter.
“Never again,” Rogue swore, taking off the glasses and throwing them on the back seat, along with the baseball bat.
“Yeah, gotta agree with you on that one-” Gajeel did the same and then lit them both another cigarette. “Not gonna lie, I could already see us spending the night at the precinct. That escape shit you pulled was fucking insane,” he grinned widely.
“Can’t believe that worked,” Rogue breathed out in relief. “Ugh, I need a shower,” he winced, noticing his hands and clothes were stained with dirt and who knows what kind of grime. “And you know what? Fuck it, I’m throwing pizzas in the oven as well. I’m starving.”
“Are you coming or what? You can stay over if you want.” He got out of the car, holding the door open while he waited for Gajeel’s response.
"Not gonna say no to free pizza. But just so you know, I'll make you finish your plate this time, and then I'm kicking you back to bed." Gajeel nodded at the house, where lights could be seen shining from behind the curtains, which didn't surprise Rogue in the slightest, "I'll get loverboy to back me up too, if necessary."
Rogue smiled, thinking it wouldn't be. He no longer dreaded the day that lay ahead as much anymore. Sting would be there, and so would Gajeel, and knowing that was enough to convince him he'd have no trouble sleeping this time.
