Chapter 38

Lucy's POV

Everyone that was already in Fairy Tail had stoves going and were hauling out keg after keg of alcohol along with barrel after barrel of teas, juices and the like for all the pregnant ladies. We had already laid our eggs but the magic kept us very connected to our young still. When I finally saw my mate enter with what looked like an enemy general close behind, I couldn't help jumping into his arms. Effectively ignoring the other man all together. 

"Luce!" he was able to call out before my lips found his silencing him. If I would have looked around I would have noticed many of the others doing exactly the same thing having gone months without their mates. 

I couldn't help lingering on his lips as my arms wrapped themselves around his neck. "I've missed you." I mumble to him as I pulled him in for another kiss. He could only moan in response since I wouldn't let him pull away. 

When he was finally able to pull away he made sure to hold me close as he purred in my ear. "I love you Luce." I couldn't help snuggling into his arms the warm feeling of just belonging to tempting to stay away from. "So where is our beautiful new baby?" He called out as if the egg would respond to him. 

I couldn't help laughing as I pulled him behind me to our table near the bar where the egg lay nestled in a small wooden crib. The egg's shell shone like starlight in the night sky. He blew a little flame and celestial dragon roar at it before cooing at it. "Wait how long have I been gone? When will she be hatching?" He kissed the hard shell before looking back at me hopefully. 

I laughed a little before answering, "No not yet maybe in another day or two." before I curl up against him purring. 

"I am so confused, right now." The general that had come in with Natsu stated looking very uncomfortable with the whole scene. 

"My mate and I are expecting a baby girl. What is there to be confused about?" Natsu asked even more confused. He looked at me again before asking, "Did you come up with any good names while I was gone?"

I laughed knowing all too well why the general was confused. "We dragon slayers lay eggs, unlike other people who give live birth. Our children need more than just nutrition to grow but also their elements. I think it's safe to say this one will be a celestial dragon slayer. The shell looks like starlight. Whereas both Nashi and Igneel's shells looked like solid flames." I turned to Natsu before adding, "Not really but I was kind of thinking maybe Layla?" I blushed a little before looking away as I did. Layla was the name of my mother who had died when I was still a young child. 

"Not quite I still say Luke's and Luna's shells looked like the sun not stars!" Natsu interrupted. He pulled my chin towards him so I would face him again before adding, "Layla is perfect." His purrs resonating throughout the room before my own joined his.  

"Get a room!" We heard Gray yell from across the bar, making everyone who heard it laugh, even the general.

"The sun is a star though. It's just our closest star." We have argued about this over and over again. "Besides can you really say this one looks like anything but starlight?"

"Well no not really," he pouted before kissing our egg again. 

Just then all of our kids join us bringing drinks both for themselves and us as well as our guest general. Melody is the first to speak up, "So what is your name? Surely you can't expect us to call you general the whole time you're here." She looked at the man as she handed him a beer before handing me a large glass of tea. 

"Sorry my name is Troy. I was a general for Pietra." Troy answered her. 

"Was?" Nashi and Luke asked in unison. Honestly they need some time away from each other because they are doing the creepy twin thing. They have taken several classes away from each other but the end goal was to be more like the other so I don't think it counts.  

"Well Pietra was defeated and your King proclaimed that Pietra was now a part of Fairy Tail so..." Troy left off. 

"Daddy!" Luna and Igneel yelled jumping onto Natsu and hanging off of him. They looked like teenagers so really they could have knocked him over. 

"There you two are! Where were you two hiding?" Natsu yelled out as he tickled them. 

"Dad!" Melody, Nashi and Luke scolded him. I couldn't help laughing at them all as I watched sitting protectively nearby our egg. 

"Luce! Your turning our kids against me." he pouted as Nashi and Luke gave in and jumped on him too he was starting to sway at this point. Not because they were heavy but because they kept swinging around and trying to tickle him as they did. 

"It's not my fault your such an idiot," I sighed as I watched them. I could tell Melody really wanted to join in on the fun so I gave her a little push leaving Natsu now on the floor with all of our kids on top of him. Wait where is Happy? "Happy! Your missing out on a tickle fight with your daddy!" I yelled. The next thing I saw was a flash of blue as Happy came flying, tackling Natsu in the face. 

"Thanks Luce!" I could hear Natsu's muffled chuckles as our now 6 kids squealed in delight on top of him. I sat back watching, purring to the newest egg thinking about how soon, she would be able to join in as well. 

"So the flying cat is one of your kids too?" Troy asked even more confused. He finally took off his helmet to reveal that he was actually a she with long curly green hair and bright purple eyes. 

"Yeah, Natsu adopted him when he was still a kid. Hatched him from his egg and took care of him. I guess I'm more like his step mom since Lisanna is the one who helped Natsu hatch his egg." I sigh out a little sad, I couldn't help feeling a little left out at the thought of missing out on Happy's first years.  

"Mommy!" The next thing I know Happy and all the older kids are now tackling me to the ground. "Your my mom!" Happy yelled stretching my cheeks with his paws before he joined in with the others tickling me. 

"I can breathe again!" Natsu gasped panting on the ground only slightly exaggerating. He stood up and dusted himself off before sitting back down and taking a swig of his beer. "Luce, your going to make Happy cry if you keep talking like that." he warned me. 

"So wait how many kids are yours then?" Troy asked very confused and a little overwhelmed. 

"Happy, Melody, Nashi, Luke, Luna, Igneel and of course our new egg Layla." Natsu answered as I continued to tickle Melody. "So I guess that brings us up to seven."

"But the cat..." Troy trailed off as Natsu and I glared at her. 

"A child is a child regardless of if they are blood or not. That is the way of the dragons. Happy and Melody are adopted that does not make them any less our children." I respond before she can say something stupid. 

Gray must have decided that now was a great time to interrupt. "Fight me Flamebrain!" He screeched before throwing a chair at Natsu who broke it with his fist lit on fire. 

"Your on Popsicle!" Natsu yelled before throwing a punch effectively leaving me with all the kids and Troy. 

"Good grief," I sigh smiling as I watched as Gajeel and Laxus get roped into the fight as well. I watched as Laxus got thrown and landed against Erza making her face land in her strawberry cake. Same old fight that would eventually end with Natsu coming back to nurse his wounds after Erza finished with them all. Eventually anyway. 

I looked back at Troy who seemed bewildered by the whole scene as it played out in front of her. "You get used to it eventually." I tell her motioning to the men as they fight. 

"But I thought he was the King? Why would he fight his subjects so willingly? As if it were nothing?" Troy asked still very confused. 

"Before Fairy Tail was a country it was a guild just like any other. We simply put family first. The original Fairy Tail members from when it was a guild were mostly orphans or people who needed a real family like myself. The dragon slayers had it worse because they were raised by dragons just to have them disappear one day without so much as a goodbye. We weren't all dragon slayers back then." I looked at Troy and saw her confusion. "I was the heiress of the Heartfilia estate I was supposed to be a duchess but I didn't want that. When my mother died when I was a little girl my father became a stranger to me. We worked things out eventually but there were a lot of hardships before we did. He even started a guild war." I sighed again as I thought back to so many years ago. "Then after my father and I could finally start a real relationship, I got stuck in a 7 year time status with some of our most powerful members. My father died before we came out again. Most of the members of Fairy Tail then had a worse background than I did. I mean I was pretty much just a spoiled rich girl running away from an overbearing father." I frowned as I thought back. My children save the egg having heard the tale before decided to go off and play after giving me hugs goodbye. Even as teenagers they played, mostly it was matches against each other or other similarly aged slayers but still. "The guild was and still is our family. So we still treat them just like that."

"Natsu and I had just mated when we first came to Pietra so many years ago. We were in Sapphire City to destroy some old buildings when the mayor at the time asked if we would participate in the festival. We had agreed having heard there was a statue of a dragon there and we had wanted to see it." I lay my hand gently on my unhatched baby as I spoke. "Neither of us expected the statue to be the real dragon, Celeste. We spoke to her for a little while and before we left she blessed us. That was many years ago for us but I suppose it has only been a few years for you." I looked up at Troy to see her nodding. 

"She adopted me making me a full fledged dragon slayer." I smiled at that thought. "It's nice to have family around to support you or help you make decisions. Celeste has been like a true mother to me." I sighed as I took a sip of my tea. I know I lost track of what she was actually wanting to know but I'm sure that with this she will understand that Fairy Tail is not just a country but a family.

"Oh dear one, you are an amazing daughter and even better mother to your own children!" Celeste called out peeping in through the window next to us which caused Troy to jump and scream while all the Dragneel kids cheered running outside to see their grandmother. 

"Thank you Celeste, I mean it." I respond not giving Troy a second glance for her reaction, her reaction is after all normal for a regular human.

"You're the Star Dragon!" Troy whisper yelled. Which made Celeste laugh. 

"Yes, but my name is Celeste. The Star Dragon was just a title from an age long ago." Her laughs continued as I saw my children climbing on her. 

I looked at Troy to see her amazement and joy as she looked at her from the window. "Would you like to go outside and talk to her properly?" I asked and saw her eyes go wide and her smile stretch as she bobbed her head up and down. I called Natsu to take care of our egg which effectively ended his part in the fighting as he came over cooing at the egg as I walked outside with Troy. To find not only Igneel and Luna climbing all over but Melody and the twins as well. Happy would carry one up with him and they would slide down her back together. 

"Troy this is Celeste, my adoptive mother, the celestial dragon. Celeste this is Troy she was one of the generals of the Pietra army." They greeted each other and after letting them talk for some time Natsu came out holding our egg in his arms. 

"Does this mean that all the dragons could be freed and be able to move again?" Troy asked turning excitedly back around to us. 

"What other dragons?" Celeste, Natsu and I asked at the same time. 

"Oh, I thought that was why you declared war on Pietra to enslave the dragons as the former king put it." She scoffed at the thought even as she said it. 

"We didn't declare war on Pietra. Pietra has spent the last few years that they knew about Natsu and I being King and Queen planning a war they couldn't even begin to understand." I tell her. "Time moves differently here than back on Earthland. One day on Earthland is about three months here."

"That's silly then you guys would have had several Kings and Queens since we first found out. It would have been a few hundred years for you." again Troy was scoffing at the idea. 

"That's right! It's been what now? Over 400 years now?" Natsu asked looking at me while cradling our egg.

"498 Natsu you should really know how long you have been a King for," I sigh before looking back at Troy. "After 21 Earthland years our people stop aging here." The shock on her face was so funny I couldn't help laughing. "That's why Celeste can't leave Fairy Tail she will die if she does because we un-petrified her. If we would have done that in Pietra she would have died right away." 

"So we need to find a way to bring the other dragons here then? How did you move Celeste?" Troy looked very seriously at me. 

"What other dragons?" I asked again, I'm starting to get angry at this point. 

"There are dragon statues all over that have tales much like Celeste did but are far newer. The Red Dragon for one is a large dragon that had most of its body ripped apart; a few years ago it just appeared near the capitol."

"Where? Take me there now!" Natsu and I demanded at the same time. We looked at each other and smiled. It couldn't be. Could it?

"Gajeel, Wendy, Sting, Rogue we are looking for our dragons!" Natsu yelled getting not only their attention but many others. With Levy and Romeo by our side we were about to take off when our egg started rocking. 

"Luce!" Natsu yelled completely mesmerized as I started screaming in pain. He laid the egg down on my stomach as he cradled my head to his chest as we lay on the ground at Celeste's feet. The grass is soft to the touch, I gripped the egg in my arms as cracks started showing up on it. It wasn't long before I realized I wasn't the only one screaming. I was just the first, several babies were hatching right now. 

When I was completely coated in sweat the egg finally cracked open and we could see our little babies fist through the opening. "Layla," I whisper trying to pull the egg closer to me. Aquarius and the rest of the zodiac now by my side as my baby hatched before their eyes They must have heard my screams through their keys. The Celestial King among them as we watched a blond baby with large brown eyes force the cracked egg to open the rest of the way. She seemed quite happy with herself until she started to fall out of her shell. 

Natsu caught her safely bringing her to my arms before she started crying large crocodile tears having many of the surrounding people awe at her. Even Troy couldn't stop herself from cooing at our beautiful baby girl. 

"Layla is the perfect name for her, she looks just like you two and Anna." Natsu purred into my ear. We cuddled there on the ground for quite some time before I started to fall asleep, Layla firmly attached to my breast as she ate. "Come on Luce let's get you to bed." He looked up and at our friends he had called over just a little while ago. 

"Gajeel, Wendy, Sting and Rogue there is a chance, a very small chance, that our dragons are alive. Go with Troy, take your mates and take the silver bell with you as well as the pen. When you find them just write 10 inches tall and they will shrink they will still be extremely heavy but bring them into the palace garden just like we did with Celeste. Erase the writing and they will go back to normal." I looked at them before adding, "We just might be able to bring them back so hurry. Remember it takes a lot of time and magic to un-petrify them so be careful. We are only bringing them here for now." They nodded before going with Troy as Natsu carried me back to the palace and to our waiting bedroom.