Gratsu Week 2018

That's What Family Is For

Disclaimer: All Fairy Tail Characters Belong To Hiro Mashima

Day 4 Prompt: Reunion

That's What Family Is For

Gray groaned as he heard the phone ring loudly from his nightstand. He could have sworn he'd put the damn thing on vibrate before he'd gone to bed. Still half-asleep Gray briefly considered ignoring it, but a quick peek out his window showed it was still dark out. He sighed in defeat and stretched his arm to grab the offending device, stopping briefly to see who the caller was. He groaned, it was his brother Lyon. This better be important.

"Hello?" he mumbled into the phone.

"Gray? Oh, thank God you're home. You are home, right?" the slightly panicked voice of his older brother assaulted Gray's ear, and he quickly woke up, a twinge of worry creeping up his spine.

"Yeah, I just got home from a job a few hours ago." he replied and quickly asked, "Is everything ok?"

"Yes, everything's fine. I just need a huge favor." Lyon answered. "Meredy missed her flight and had to catch a later one. She won't be able to make it home in time to take the girls to school, and I have to meet a client in an hour. Can you please take them? I'll drop them off to you on my way to work. Please? You know I wouldn't ask if I had any other option."

Gray screamed internally, a quick glimpse at his watch informed him that he'd only gotten two hours of sleep after arriving home from the flight from hell. He was tired, cranky and honestly a tad hungover. The last thing he wanted to do was deal with two little girls, but Lyon was right he never asked him for help. It was an emergency, and that was what family was for.

"Yeah, fine," Gray replied as he made his way to the kitchen to determine whether he had any food in the house to offer his nieces. He'd been gone for a week and had planned on going grocery shopping after he woke. "How much time do I have before you get here?"

"I'll be there in 30 minutes," Lyon said excitedly. "Thank you so much, I totally owe you one. Don't worry about food I'll give them some Pop Tarts or something."

Lyon hung up, and Gray wondered at the excitement in his brother's voice for a minute before promptly forgetting it as he made his way to his bathroom. He would need a cold shower to try to wake himself up, and coffee, lots of coffee.

He stared at himself in the mirror debating whether to shave or not, ultimately deciding it was too much effort. He dried off and grabbed some clean clothes, not bothering to see if they matched. He was only driving the girls to school after all. He ran his fingers through his hair, which was already spiking in all directions as it usually did. He deemed himself presentable and headed to his kitchen to start the coffeemaker.

Mug in hand he looked for the remote and found some cartoons for the girls. A few minutes later there was a knock on the door, and when he opened the door, he was hug tackled by two little girls.

"Uncle Gray!" they yelled at the same time, Lyon arriving behind them. He put an object in his pocket and smiled fondly at the sight of his brother with his daughters. The girls were fraternal twins aged 7, each with blue eyes and hair the color of one of their parents.

"Hey, monsters!" Gray looked down at them and grinned happily as they continued to hold on to him. "I turned the TV on for you, why don't you go in the living room while I get my orders from your dad?"

The girls quickly let go of him at the mention of the TV and ran towards his couch, ecstatic to be allowed to do something which was usually forbidden in the morning.

"Do you want to come in?" Gray asked his brother politely.

"I can't, I have to go to work. Here are the girls' bags, their lunches are already there." Lyon handed him the girls' school bags and looked at him with a strange expression on his face that Gray was not able to interpret. Lyon looked him over and wrinkled his nose. "Please tell me you're going to change out of those clothes before you walk them to school. You look like a bum."