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Lion's Pride	By : Rhov Category: +. to F > Fairy Tail Views: 10067 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima. I make no money writing this. I do it for my own pleasure. Any lyrics are my own or I received permission from the artist.

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
- 3
"Father! to God himself we cannot give a holier name." - William Wordsworth

Chapter 2

Lion's Child

For once, Fairy Tail's guild hall was quiet. Only movement from chairs and tankards, occasional whispers, and uncomfortable sniffs broke the silence, each like little glasses shattering.
"It's been a while since this has happened," Macao muttered to Wakaba.
The pipe-smoker nodded thoughtfully. "It's why there aren't many older women in this guild. When one gets pregnant, nine out of ten times they retire to raise the kids."
Reedus stopped sketching the scene at the bar that had everyone so quiet. "But if Lucy retires, she has to give up her Celestial Spirit Keys, oui? She'd never give them up!"
"If she gave them up," Macao realized, dropping his voice, "she'd lose...him."
The him was the man in Reedus' sketch, a pathetic sight and rare in that guild, so the artist wanted to capture it to show a different side to their normally fun-loving group. Loke sat at the bar between Gildarts and Lisanna, both watching over him with worried expressions, while Mirajane urged him to drink something relaxing. Loke's arms were folded on the counter with his chin resting on top, staring ahead blankly. From time to time, he shook his head as he tried to piece it all together.
"We...we were being careful. Every time. Every goddamn time!" he said in anguish.
Lisanna stroked his back like someone might pet a cat about to see the vet. "The items Humans use to prevent pregnancy don't work for Celestial Spirits because...well, latex doesn't hold back the magic element. I was just asking Mira-nee about magic contraceptives. It's the only sure way."
"I didn't know," Loke whispered hollowly. "I didn't...nobody could have known. This isn't supposed to be possible. Yet...last time as well..."
Before he could say more, the guild's doors splintered apart like a dropped ice cube. A glittering white lance sliced the air, barely missing other guild members and stabbing Cana's beer barrel while she was in the middle of drinking. It pierced Loke's chest with a burst of ice and golden shimmering spirit energy. Lisanna gasped and moved away.
Gildarts leaped around. "Gray, not here, not now," he warned, looking absolutely serious.
Gray's blue eyes were like living flames, half-mad with jealousy, yet they held a gleam of terror as well, fear for a friend. Instead of backing down, he turned his hand ever so slightly. Loke cried out as the icy lance twisted with a squishing sound.
"Gray, don't," Mirajane pleaded.
"You...fucking...bastard," Gray seethed venomously.
Macao lit his purple flame and melted the ice. His face stayed placid, sympathizing with the teen. "Enough," was all he said. Meanwhile, Wendy rushed over to heal Loke.
Gray marched in. For once, he was fully dressed, proving he was not in his normal state of mind. He strode up to Loke, crushed his shoulder, and yanked him around. Loke was already pale from the hole in his chest, but Wendy's magic was helping quickly.
"You listen to me, you fucking wildcat," Gray threatened softly. "For every pain she suffers, I will inflict it back on you ten-fold. For every tear she sheds as she goes through a hell of agony all because you couldn't keep your pants on, I will take three drops of your blood. And if—Heaven forbid—the worst happens, if she dies in childbirth, if she dies because your demonspawn is too powerful for her fragile body, if she dies because some goddamn rule was broken—a rule you knew about—then so help me," he hissed, leaning so close that his nose almost touched Loke's, "I will hunt you down to whatever realm you slither away into, and I will torture you every day for the rest of my life. Seventy or eighty years might be a drop in the bucket to an immortal Celestial Spirit like you, but I'll make every minute of it a nightmare you'll never forget, no matter how many eons you live."
"You needn't bother," Loke sighed miserably. "If the worst possible thing occurred to Lucy, I'd be responsible for her death. That comes with a death sentence of banishment. I'd last only three years in this world. If you want to torture me during those three years, you're free to do so. I deserve it." He dropped his head, and his shaggy mane fell into his face. "I deserve it," he repeated fatalistically.
Gray backed off, trying to decide if he could truly hate a man like this when Loke already looked tormented by the situation.
"Where is she?" Natsu boomed, stepping over the defrosting shattered door. "You!"
"Not him also," Mirajane sighed.
"These two..." Gildarts pouted, shaking his head.
Natsu kept pointing as he walked up to Loke. "You!" he repeated when he got to the bar.
His fist drew back and caught ablaze, lighting the otherwise gloomy atmosphere of the hall. Wendy backed away with a shout of protest that she had just healed Loke. Lisanna opened her mouth to warn him, but Natsu froze in that position. Loke did not even flinch. His sunglasses had been knocked off when Gray struck him, and the whole guild saw the pink lining his eyelids from tears he had shed in fear for Lucy's safety. He looked ready to accept the fiery blow, as if it could purge his sin.
"Do you love her?" bellowed Natsu.
Loke blinked in confusion. "More than anything in this world or the next world."
Natsu's fierce face did not let up. "Will you stay by her side?"
Loke allowed himself to smile, but his answer was no less serious. "I'm not leaving her just because this happened, Natsu. I will never leave her or our child. Anyone who says I can't stay by her will have to fight me and kill me."
The flame extinguished and Natsu's fist dropped. "That's all I want to hear. Lucy is my nakama. If you can make her happy, that's all I want. So then," he grinned widely, "where is she? I wanna see the baby."
"Idiot!" Gray grumbled, angry that Natsu had actually taken this news more maturely...pink bastard! "The baby won't be here for nine months."
"Whaaa-? That's too long to be pregnant."
"Seriously, what species are you?" glared Gray.
"It won't be nine months," Porlyusica announced, striding out from the infirmary area. "Stinking humans," the ancient pink-haired woman grumbled. "You! You smell slightly less," she said to Loke. "Are you the father?"
"I...fath-...y-yes." Loke had a goofy grin as he finally got called that. Father!
Porlyusica looked him up and down in inspection. "Celestial Spirit. Leo, right? A lion." Her constant scowl pulled even lower. "Now it makes sense. This is troubling."
"What's wrong? Is Lucy all right?" Loke asked in worry.
Porlyusica glared at him. "Miss Heartfilia requested an abortion."
"What?" Loke gasped, feeling his heart drop.
"No way!" Gray also protested. A minute ago, he would not have minded, but after seeing the happiness in Loke's face at the prospect of starting a family, he almost—just almost—wanted to support him.
"She feared you'd get into trouble with the Spirit World, so it was what she wanted. Upon examining her, I had to inform her that she was too far along."
"Too...far?" Loke asked in confusion. "But that's impossible. Even if it happened on our first time..."
"I estimate she became pregnant one month ago."
Loke just blinked. Natsu puckered his face, not understanding any of this. Gray stayed neutrally hesitant.
"But," Mirajane said softly, "one month isn't too far along for an abortion."
Elfman stared hard at her. "How do you know that, nee-chan?" She did not answer.
"For a human, no. One month and the fetus is barely more than a bundle of cells. Even if she was a normal human carrying a normal human fetus at this stage of development, a doctor could still perform the procedure. However, this isn't a normal pregnancy, or else I wouldn't bother being here. For her...or I should say, for him..." A knobby finger pointing at Loke. "This pregnancy is too challenging. I can't terminate it at this point. Tell me, Leo: do you happen to know any lion facts?"
A blush came to his cheeks. "A few." Of course, he knew all the perverted facts.
"Did you know the gestation period of a lion is only one hundred and ten days?"
The women in the guild dropped their mouths. Most of the men looked clueless.
"Lucy takes one hundred and ten days for digestion?" Natsu asked in confusion. "No wonder she gets constipated."
"Gestation, not digestion, stupid," Gray snapped.
"Since you smelly humans are so simpleminded, let me restate this," Porlyusica grumbled. "Human gestation—the period from the parents doing the naughty to popping out a squirmy, crying baby—is two hundred and eighty days, give or take a few. Lucy Heartfilia is carrying the son of the Lion, growing within her at the rate of a lion, one hundred and ten days, over twice as fast as a normal human fetus develops. This is neither natural nor safe. Do you have a mage trained in healing?"
Wendy perked up. "Oh, me! I know a little."
"Don't be modest," Charle scolded. "She is the..."
"Sky dragon, perfect," Porlyusica interrupted, much to Charle's annoyance. "I'm assigning you to her. She'll need daily help, especially as the fetus begins its growth spurt. Her hormones will rage at twice the intensity as a normal woman. Her morning sickness appears to be doubly bad, too. You, Leo, will have to deal with this. Now, everyone in this guild has heard about Miss Heartfilia's condition, but it'd be unwise for rumors to spread. There are legends about the children of Celestial Spirits. People will likely be after her. Since she won't be making money from jobs and must remain under guild protection, Makarov has declared that she'll move into the girls' dormitory. Which one of you stinkbags is Gray?"
"Me," the ice mage answered in a deep voice.
"You smell worse with your clothes off, boy." He had not realized when he removed them. "Miss Heartfilia asked that you move her things into the girls' dorm and give her landlord her last rent payment."
"I'll help," Natsu offered.
"Aye!" Happy chimed in.
Porlyusica peered him over. "Fire dragon. Natsu?" He nodded enthusiastically. "She asked that you not move her things. She wants them intact."
"Hey!"
"Ha!" Gray laughed.
"She can take a few visitors, but she's weak. She'll be weak through this whole ordeal. I suggest the Lion and the Sky Dragon go first." With that, Porlyusica turned to go.
"Hey, wait," Loke yelled. He grabbed her shoulder to stop her hasty departure. She glared at him, and he felt something like acid scald him. "When the baby is born, will it grow at an accelerated rate, too? And...well, lions have up to four cubs in a litter." He left it at that, not sure if he should feel happy at the possibility of many babies or even more terrified what something like that might mean to Lucy.
"If she was a lion, you might have a real problem. Luckily for her, she's a healthy human woman of childbearing age, ovulating a single egg per month. She's carrying one child, male, humanoid as far as I can tell. As for how it will develop, I have no idea. I wasn't around when the last hybrid Human-Spirit was born. You were around back then, Leo. Do you remember what happened?"
Loke looked aside with a disturbed face.
"Someone could research this. I don't care. I'm only doing this because I owe Makarov, but don't push your luck, Lion. And don't call me again until she goes into labor." Then the ancient hermit stormed out.
Wendy came up to Loke and tugged his sleeve. "We should go see Lucy."
Loke took a step, stumbled into a table, and collapsed into the nearest chair. His eyes stared out huge and blank. Shaking with emotion, his hand reached up to his chest and clutched right over his heart.
"Loke!" Wendy cried in worry. "Is it your injury? Waaah, I'm sorry, I'm not really trained to heal Celestial Spirits."
"It's...it's okay," he told her, patting her head a little too hard. She pulled back with a cute pout and rubbed out where he bonked her. "It's...gonna be...okay," he said to himself. "It'll be...Lucy...she..." He felt his world spinning out of control. "Okay...she has to be..."
"Of course she will be!"
Loke looked up with harrowed dread, but Natsu's massive, carefree grin was contagious. Others around the guild also began smiling like that at Loke.
"Lucy has you and me, and even the ice bastard."
"Flame-brain," Gray snapped back.
"Plus she has the whole guild," Natsu went on.
"That's right!" Levy shouted, and others agreed.
Natsu smiled around at all of them. "See! An entire building of nakama. So no worries! Lucy's gonna have a baby at twice the speed, but she's twice as strong as a normal lady so it won't be a problem for a fighter like her. Then she'll spend a little time raising it, and before you know it, she'll be back doing jobs with us. That baby will grow up strong and join the guild one day. I'll teach him how to melt ice."
Gray glared at him. "You're supposed to teach children not to play with fire."
"He'd get sick hanging around a cold-blooded pervert like you."
As they began another fight, Wendy tugged on Loke again. This time he stood, tall and refined, suddenly feeling all the support of those around him, friends who would always be there for Lucy...even if he had to suffer for his crime of loving her.
He went with the little girl and her white cat to the infirmary. Lucy sat on a bed with a sheet pulled over her legs, laughing as Makarov told her some story of the past. Wendy hurried forward to check on her, but Loke stayed in the doorway, watching her with a whole new expression.
I want her with me forever. I want to be by her side until she's old and gray, and then I want to watch over her through each reincarnation, from now until the end of time.
Lucy assured Wendy she was in no discomfort, but she agreed to let her be a midwife, even if the little girl had never seen a baby delivered. Then her eyes caught a familiar shade of orange, and she grinned at Loke. He walked in slowly, placing each foot purposely closer to her, walking away from those fears he felt in the guild hall and closer to where his heart felt most at ease.
"So," Lucy shrugged bashfully. "A boy. I hope that's okay with you."
With gentle eyes, Loke lightly touched her cheek. "You're saying silly things again, Leonita. A son? How could that not fill me with pride!" He embraced Lucy and hid his face in her shoulder so she could not see him weep for joy.
Makarov wisely pulled Wendy aside and told her to follow him to the library where she could research everything she needed to know about pregnancy. He gave one last glance at the couple, pouted, and shook his head. Such an adorable pair! It was a shame this had to happen to them. Makarov was putting his heart and soul on the line for their happiness. He had promised Lucy he would protect her, even if the Celestial Spirits themselves came to punish her and Loke. What use was a guild if they could not protect one of their own when she was weakest?
Still...such a shame.
End of Chapter 2

Rhov's Corner:

I bow deeply before all my reviewers! I only planned for this to be a one-shot, but I was so excited by the first chapter's reception that I immediately began plotting a full story. 110 days, and Lucy is already 30 days along, so...80 days! Also, isn't it weird seeing Natsu reacting more maturely than Gray? But one's jealous while the other just wants whatever will make his friend happy.
=^..^= "AYE! But I'm already your friend, Rhov."
"Not you, Happy. And yes, you're my friend."
"Aye, sir!"
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Lion's Pride