#graylu week 2016

Special thanks to @cocobite , @fairymangacaps , @strawberrymilkdash

A-E | AlaViola , @animangafanfics , @becausewhenyoupracticeyouimprove , @canamusicalchairchangeitstone , @clerfait , @cocobite , DevilTito

F-J | IcyKeys-Love , @impracticaldemon , inizhay

K-O | @klarogasms , Kleia , @la-camoche , LALALALOVEmee , Lenhart-F , @lockandk3yfiction , Lonelyfire [pre: bloodflood] , @lucydreyar13 [ffn: MWolfe13] , lucyglitter11 , @magerain , Nekomimi-warrior , @nonochuu , @ohmayabird , @oujo-heartfilia

P-T | Sachiko Saki , @sakkaku198 , @siempreenamorada [ffn: Anoriel Thiliedis] , ShadowWeaver29 , @soulhorse , @storywriter369 , SuicidalSmile , @tbehartoo , @thestarsinthesky13

That was until she'd taken a digital art class in college.

She was a business major, but some part of her still held hope that she would get to be an artist. She didn't want to take over the family business. It had ruined her parents' marriage long before her mother had died, and Lucy refused to let it happen to her. She'd minored in art, and taking that class had been the best decision she'd ever made.

The class had shown her that not every artist needed to make beautiful portraits, or abstract paintings. It had shown Lucy that she could take her pretty, but small doodles and create something more. She'd found her purpose in life during that class.

Now, five years later, Lucy had a small business that she was perfectly content with.

She made invitations.

Some people, her father especially, would say making personalized invitations was not a career. They would look at her background, and call what she was doing a hobby. They could be right. Lucy had a trust fund, and that gave her the freedom to do what she wanted. It could be true, but Lucy knew it wasn't.

It wasn't just a hobby, or a rebellious phase.

Even her father, with all his complaints about her chosen profession, used her exclusively for all his parties and events. It was a testament to her talent in Lucy's mind, because her father demanded the best. He wouldn't use her services if he didn't think she was the best.

Being Jude Heartfilia's daughter meant that the wealthy came to her as well. It started off as just wanting to be able to tell him his daughter worked for them, but they always ended up leaving satisfied and coming back for more. It was always a personal victory for Lucy, and she wouldn't give it up for anything.

Looking at her clock, Lucy realized her next appointment was due any second. It was a couple getting married, and Lucy was having so much fun designing their invitations. The woman wanted vintage, something Lucy hadn't done yet, and was willing to pay the extra cost for the special paper. She also wanted Lucy to do everything by hand.

At first, Lucy had been apprehensive, imagining at least 300 invitations. She'd been ready to tell her no, but Juvia had gone off into dreamland about how beautiful everything was going to be. The sight was so cute that Lucy couldn't have refused her, even if it meant doing 1000 invitations.

It turned out it was actually only 100, something Lucy was more than happy to work with. Today was the day that Juvia would approve the final design they had been working on. She had never done something like this, but it was really exciting.

If only the fiancé was content to let them handle everything.

He'd introduced himself as Gray, and actually never had an opinion of what they discussed in terms of design. Juvia didn't really care either, but it bothered Lucy.

Maybe it was because all he did was stare at her.

From their first meeting, he'd done nothing but stare. It unnerved her, and if Juvia noticed, she didn't say anything. It struck Lucy as wrong, but there was no way to get him to leave without being rude. She didn't want to lose this client, because she couldn't handle some asshole's staring. He'd never made any moves on her, but Lucy was always thinking about the heat in his eyes when he looked at her. It was wrong, so wrong, but Lucy sort of wished he wasn't engaged.

Putting the thought out of her mind, she focused on being professional once they showed up. She had lines, moral values, and being a home wrecker was one of them. He continued to stare at her, but she ignored him, focusing on her awesome bride. Really, Juvia deserved someone whose eyes wouldn't roam, but Lucy wasn't being asked to judge. Maybe he just liked looking at women. He'd be an idiot to cheat on someone as friendly and cute as Juvia.

Halfway through their appointment, Juvia got a text that had her jumping out of her seat. "Oh! I'm so sorry Lucy, but I forgot I had another appointment and I'm going to be late if I don't leave now. It's for my dress."

She smiled, "It's no problem. We're pretty much locked on the design anyways."

Juvia was beaming. "You are so great. I'm so glad I came to you. This has really been the easiest part of planning my wedding." She turned to Gray. "Can you finalize the price and everything with Lucy? I really need to leave."

Her and Gray alone? Lucy was having none of that. She opened her mouth to tell Juvia they could meet at her convenience, but Gray answered. "That's fine. Go do your dress thing. We'll be alright."

Once again beaming her thanks, Juvia raced out the door, leaving Lucy with Gray.

Things were quiet as Lucy busied herself with typing up the final quote. She could feel his eyes on her, not even bothering to do covertly. It made her uncomfortable, because he was engaged and she wished he wasn't.

Knowing she couldn't draw out getting their quote ready any longer, Lucy turned to face him.

He was closer than she'd realized. He was looking over her shoulder at the screen, reading what she'd typed. Startled, she let out a little scream.

He just seemed amused. "Sorry, I didn't know you were skittish."

Who wouldn't be when her moral problem was practically hugging her from behind? "Could you move back please?"

He studied her face, looking for something, but did as she asked. "Why don't you like me?"

"Like you?" She asked, confused. "What makes you think I don't like you?"

He said, "I've been coming here for weeks, yet we've hardly conversed. You definitely don't want to be alone with me, and you practically jumped to get away from me just now. Is it just me? Or is it just men in general?"

He was coming closer to her again, forcing Lucy to back up against her desk. "Look, we have a professional relationship, and this is hardly appropriate."

His arms caged her between him and the desk. There was no escaping unless he let her. "And if I don't want to keep it professional?"

For a second, Lucy felt like giving in. He wanted to kiss her, there was no doubt. His eyes were on her, and his gaze was heated again.

But then she remembered the bubbly bride that she had come to think of as a friend.

Furious, she pushed him. He was startled by her outburst, allowing her to move away from her desk. "How dare you! Juvia is a lovely woman, and does not deserve this! I can't believe you thought it would be okay to do this!"

Confused, he asked, "What does my sister have to do with this?"

All the furious air left her, shock taking its place. "Your sister?"

"Of course, who did you think she was…." Gray trailed off, coming to the conclusion she had weeks ago. Then he started laughing. "Oh man, you thought I was Juvia's fiancé?"

Lucy flushed as embarrassment came over her. "You came to every meeting."

His laughter simmered down, but he was clearly teasing her when he said, "Did you even read the words on the invitation? Maybe we shouldn't hire you."

Looking down at the notepad she had unknowingly grabbed to hit him with, she read, "We invite you to celebrate with us as Juvia Lockser and Lyon Vastia take the next step in their lives as husband and wife…" She looked up at him. "You are not Lyon."

He grinned, "Nope, just plain old Gray. Lyon is still deployed, and won't be back for another month. As the loving older brother I got drafted to take his place in wedding preparations. His words: She wants, she gets. I'm looking forward to the heart attack when he sees how much her dream vintage wedding is costing him."

Embarrassed to her core, Lucy looked down. "Oh god, I'm so sorry. I just assumed, and then I got really mad…"

"Well, you know what they say about assuming," He chuckled. "But it's no worries. I'm actually glad we had this little misunderstanding. Sticking up for my sister that way… It shows what kind of person you are."

She sighed, wondering if there was a hole that was willing to swallow her. "I'm never going to live this down, am I?"

She grabbed her hand, causing her to look at him. "I'm willing to think about keeping this between us, but you have to come out with me." He smiled at her.

She smiled back.

With typical cheerfulness, Lucy kissed him again, stretched briefly and then sank gratefully into one corner of their big couch, tucking up her feet and still talking.

"I do understand, Ice Prince, I really do – hey! That looks great!" She smiled excitedly at the half-complete frost decorations.

"Thank you, dear, but you know how I feel about that nickname… seriously…"

Ignoring him, Lucy smiled brightly and settled back further, putting her feet into his lap when he sat down next to her.

"Yes, you do seriously amazing decorations." Lucy giggled and then sighed as Gray gave up the battle over the hated nickname and rubbed her feet. "Oh that is nice… You know, I can't believe we almost didn't get together last year. This is so much better."

She did get tired a lot more easily these days, Gray thought, noticing that her eyes were closing. He hoped that was normal. He was discovering that he was less and less worried about how they were going to cope with a baby and school and money, and more worried about how Lucy would do with the pregnancy. He told himself that this was perfectly normal – his fretting – but he knew that he was more worried than most guys because of the strange conditions under which this baby was conceived. If the kid had been conceived last fall, which was still a little hard to believe.

Once Lucy was asleep, Gray idly finished his design on the windows – from the couch – and then carried his sleeping girlfriend to bed for a nap. He'd wake her up later in time for dinner.

He wavered a moment once he had her tucked in. It would be so easy to climb into bed with her. But he had papers to mark. They had both taken on extra work – like marking first year assignments – in order to supplement their income as much as possible. Lucy hadn't yet noticed that he had started doing some of her grading for her, so that she could get more rest.

An hour later, Lucy padded up behind him and dropped a kiss on his head. When he tried to get up, she just shook her head at him, holding him down in his seat at the table with a light hand on his shoulder.

"Either you decided to goof off and started on your stack of papers late – or you did half of mine again first. I'm betting on the second one…"

He smiled up at her a little sheepishly, running a hand through his already disheveled hair.

"I thought you hadn't noticed."

"Hah. I know. Which is why tonight I'll cook, finish up the chores and then do whatever marking we've got left, okay? One thing I found out this afternoon… why didn't you tell me that you've stopped going out with the other guys?"

"Just tired – a little – that's all. And you know me – when I'm tired, Natsu totally gets on my nerves and then we break things."

"Uh-huh. Well, you're going out tonight, so try not to break anything. It's a Christmas party for the senior teams, which includes Team Natsu. Which you didn't tell me about."

Gray scowled.

"Not my thing, Luce."

"Liar. You may not be as… outgoing… as Natsu can be—"

"For which you should be grateful—"

"—but you've been working too hard and not seeing your friends. And what about me?"

"I knew you'd be feeling too tired tonight anyway, Lucy, and I really don't feel like going if you're not there."

"You don't like leaving me on my own."

"That too."

"Well, you're going."

Gray got what Lucy called his "NatLax look", which was her shorthand for saying that he looked as stubborn as Natsu planning to fight Laxus, again – even with the near certainty of losing, again. Not surprisingly, the Ice Make mage hated "NatLax" more than "Ice Prince".

Two hours later, Gray had bathed, eaten, been kissed by his devoted mate… and was heading into the Christmas party at the Senior Teams Practice Club. He'd put up a good fight until Lucy had threatened to have Erza come and get him. But he'd made Lucy promise to send one of her spirits – other than Loke, he'd specified – if she ran into any difficulty. As if she wouldn't anyway.

[III]

A couple of the older graduate students had helped Gray back to his place sometime long after midnight. Ironically, after all the fretting – worrying – he'd done that afternoon, Gray had let Cana slip something into one of his drinks. Or something. All he knew was that he'd had a surprisingly good time, despite missing Lucy. He'd chatted and played pool with some guys he hadn't really seen in a while, and had eventually had way too much to drink. He'd have to find his clothes tomorrow.

With slurred thanks to his benefactors, he used the key on his necklace to unlock the front door (a brilliant notion of Lucy's, that one), and then made his way carefully up the two flights of stairs. He was surprised to see Happy – Natsu's blue, winged, talking cat – in front of the door to the apartment.

"Wass'up, Happy?" He focussed a moment longer on the valiant – and sometimes irritatingly sarcastic – creature. "An'why'r'you… white?"

"Typical. Males of any species are idiots. Especially that blue male cat you call 'Happy'."

"Huh?" Gray leaned against the wall beside his door, puzzled.

Just then, the door opened and Lucy peered out. She was wearing a long nightgown, in deference to the cool weather, but it still managed to look sexy to Gray, whose eyes were drawn at once to the soft, white skin below her collar bones.

Lucy smothered a yawn, and then stared at the white cat, which was standing upright with its arms – forelegs? – crossed.

"Um, Gray? I thought I heard your voice. I'd just gotten up to go to the bathroom… Um – excuse me, but who are you?"

Gray became even more confused.

"You know who I am, Luce! You jus' called me 'Gray', right?"

"Not you, imbecile. Why you males choose to destroy what few brain cells you have with alcohol is beyond me."

Given that Cana spent half her time either drunk or near-drunk these days, Gray felt that this was unfair, but he couldn't seem to get the words out.

"Won't you please come in," Lucy said politely – to the cat. She eyed Gray with some amusement. "You too, Ice Prince."

"Awwww, Luce…"

Gray refused to go to bed while there was a strange… cat… in the apartment, so Lucy tucked him into the big overstuffed chair that he preferred when they weren't cuddling. She also gave him a large glass of water to sip. The white cat – who probably wasn't Happy – took the other end of the couch from Lucy.

"I see that you have not had your kittens yet, Ms. Heartfilia,"the white cat said conversationally.

"N-no. Would you please introduce yourself?"

"Oh, yes – of course. You just look like somebody I know very well… I am Charla. I'm here to deliver a package to your kittens."

"Well, um, that's very kind of you but… from whom? And what is it?"

The white cat looked dubiously at Gray, but then sighed and reached into a messenger bag that Lucy hadn't noticed it was carrying. The cat was dressed in an attractive dark pink outfit with a matching pink bow on its tail, and the bag was similarly adorned.

It rose and came over to Lucy.

"These are for the children born of two times, Ms. Heartfilia. In thanks for what you and your mate did for us without even knowing the danger or the cost."

The white cat bowed stiffly, but not mockingly. In Lucy's hands were now two largish eggs that looked nothing like chicken eggs – or anything like other regular eggs.

"Keep them secret, keep them safe. Remember – these are for the kittens, not you!"

"T-thank you… Charla. But what are they?"

The white cat suddenly grinned. "You'll find out. But we wanted the children of Lucy-sama to be able to fly."

Gray was feeling slighted. Fortunately, all that came out was a wordless growl.

"I must be off now," the strange white cat said firmly. "Remember, keep the eggs warm, safe and near you if possible!"

"Um… alright. But I still have lots of more questions."

"Don't worry, there will be two when it matters. I don't really understand time theory myself though. Look after them for both of you – that is, look after the kittens and the eggs for the sake of both the Lucy-samas. All clear now?"

"No."

Gray's reply was mostly inarticulate and definitely louder. It incorporated bad language.

The white cat ignored both of them. Then it unfolded white wings and wafted itself up toward the ceiling.

"Goodbye! Thank you for your help with the Fairy Heart!"

Then it just faded from view, leaving just a grin. A moment later, the grin was gone.

"I feel either more sober or more drunk. Did that really happen?"

"Of course it did," Lucy sighed. "This is us. I'll let everyone know tomorrow that we're expecting twins."

"But we're not!"

"Not yet. But in May, we're expecting twins."

Gray just buried his head in his hands. "… I was just feeling more relaxed, too…"

"Come to bed, Gray. I'll just put these somewhere safe – and secret – and then we'll see if you're too drunk to try for another kid."

"Lucy?"

"Yes?" Lucy turned in the doorway, face controlled but eyes dancing merrily.

"That's not how it works!"

Lucy shrugged.

"Who knows? Anyway, I'm very curious about these eggs. We'll keep a close eye on them, okay?"

Gray gave up. He got himself out of the chair and over to his mate.

Eventually they – that is, Lucy – got the eggs stowed away. Sometime later, they determined that Gray wasn't too drunk after all.

[IV]

Gray's slight surprise was nothing to that of the doctor, who arrived in the room ready to deliver one baby and ended up with two. The second baby, a boy, was just as healthy as his older sister, whose cap of golden blond hair and huge blue eyes had already enchanted the young attendant doctor who had cleaned her up. The boy had midnight blue hair and big greyish-blue eyes that the younger doctor said would probably end up hazel or even brown.

"But…" The older doctor, who had attended Lucy throughout, was still bewildered, "we checked at every visit. I'll swear that there was only one. Even the MRI showed only one!"

"Oh well," Lucy said quietly, nuzzling her son's fuzzy head. She was very tired, but very content. For some reason, the strangeness didn't bother her the way it frustrated Gray.

"… You know…" Gray was holding his daughter in rapt delight. "This isn't so bad at all. And did you notice?"

Lucy grinned. "Of course."

The babies both had perfect, tiny Fairy Tail marks on their right forearms, just above the wrist.

[V]

On a beautiful summer's day at the end of a particularly golden summer, the eggs finally hatched. The eggs had grown considerably since the twins were born. Lucy had made a point of taking the babies and the eggs out every day that she and Gray could manage. The eggs bathed in the hot summer sun and the little ones were kept comfortable by the magic of their doting father.

To nobody's surprise but his own, Gray seemed to be a natural as a parent. He was fiercely protective of Lucy and the children, but he also smiled more these days. Of course, the parents benefited a great deal from the assistance of Lucy's celestial spirit, Virgo, not to mention from the help of several close friends. Watching Erza with the tiny babies was especially amusing and touching. Gray didn't let Natsu hold them at all, until Lucy ordered him to lighten up.

Despite being only two and a half months old, Auria and Argent were both drawn to "their" eggs, and their parents had quickly learned to keep the babies and the eggs in visual proximity when possible. It saved a lot of tears and frustration.

The day the eggs hatched, there were only the four of them, sitting or lying out on a blanket out in a sunny field redolent with the smell of sweet summer grasses baking under the clear skies. The babies had been staring at the eggs for several minutes before the first cracks appeared, something that their parents hadn't noticed. A sharp cracking sound made both Gray and Lucy look up in a hurry, though.

Over the next several minutes, the two large eggs – now each about thirty centimeters long – rocked and cracked and did all the fascinating thing that hatching eggs do. When the first egg split, Auria cooed and held out welcoming, pudgy little hands. A very small bright blue kitten staggered over to the girl and snuggled up to her. A moment later, a snow-white kitten tumbled out of the second egg and rolled into a furry heap beside Argent, who gurgled enthusiastically.

"They look just like Happy and… do you suppose they fly, too?" Gray glanced hopefully at Lucy.

"Of course," Lucy replied as calmly as she could with a giant grin on her face.

[VI]

The Heartfilia-Fullbuster twins were special for many reasons. In fact, their parents had to protect them from over-enthusiastic medical and magical investigators. However, they became best known on high-quality video-lacrima across the globe for the images of them soaring across the skies carried by their adorable winged cats, Ice and Snow.

A/Note: And now I'm really done! It bothered me that I never covered the bonus prompt "Fly". And I really wanted to complete my overarching story.

If you haven't already, please see the two stand-alone GrayLu stories: Clothing Optional (for "T-shirt") and All Shook Up (for "Vintage").

You may also decide to give Hakuouki (the anime or PS3 game) a chance after reading the first few chapters of my Hakuouki story Teachings of Demons. :)

Thank you for reading! Please come back sometime and check for other stories! All Favourites, Follows, likes, reblogs and reviews very much appreciated.