VERiTY (Fairy Tail Fanfic)

41. Familial Connections.

AN: We're finally in the fated year! *hits the button to begin canon divergences* anyways, our baby dragons come next chapter. For now, enjoy some more domestic fluff. 

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Eir woke up to a quiet, but absolutely crowded house.

He only has one bed (it's a small apartment, after all,) but somehow, he's got two and a half bodies sprawled over him. Cana's on one side, Sherry's on the other-- and these legs coming uncomfortably close to his face are Gray's.

Over on the couch and carpet, Laxus and Bickslow are coexisting, with Erza finding a comfortable spot somewhere between them where she wouldn't be crushed by large limbs.

Eir groaned.

"Yeah... we need a bigger house."

-

Emerging from the bathroom with a towel around his neck and a toothbrush in his mouth, Eir was treated to quite the sight of a rather nostalgic childhood panic.

Levy and Sherry are half-dressed, hurriedly stripping from their sleepwear to fit on their many-parted school uniform. Sherry's hair got caught up in the buttons, and Levy's pre-tied tie came undone, but they scampered around the house, casually stepping right over Laxus, kicking Bickslow aside to reach their things, and overall flustered.

Erza yawned, lifting her head from Laxus' blissfully undisturbed stomach to see the chaos going on.

"Ah right, you're going back to school today..."

Then thunk right back to sleep.

Cana was also half-asleep, but she was upright, holding out a hairbrush for the moment Levy plops right onto the space in front of her. Robotically, Cana started fixing the girl's bedhead while Levy frantically tried to figure out her shirt buttons.

Sherry, on the other hand, ran to a sleeping Laxus for help with her cuff buttons, hopping in her spot frantically as an attempt to get her socks on. Laxus didn't even get up, he just reached over from his spot to do it upside down.

Bickslow was still snoring, so he didn't even notice when Sherry stepped on his face to get her own hairbrush. His dolls were active, though, carrying their bags and books to and fro everywhere they scurried.

Ah, what a mess.

"What time is Mest picking you guys up?"

"In two minutes?!" Levy shrieks, desperately, forcing her socks on while Bickslow's totems ferry some shoes toward them.

Laxus got up enough to not disturb Erza, but now he was deciphering the mess that was Sherry's hair and trying to figure out if twintails were worth it right now. He only managed to make one huge ponytail, but he didn't have time to try again.

Meanwhile, Eir finally finished brushing his teeth, setting down two cups of warmed milk on the table before moving toward the toaster where the bread was already loaded.

Reaching for a hanging earring with a rather familiar signature imprinted in the sapphire dewdrop gem, Eir finds a mirror by the hall to fasten it on his left.

There were two knocks on the door, and then Mest Gryder, fresh graduate of the Magic Council school and one of the newest members of Fairy Tail, stepped in.