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“Are you sure you can handle this?” Erza asked shifting from one foot to the other. It was a nervous tick. One that years of staring down enemy after enemy should have gotten rid of. But Erza did not stand before him as guild master of Fairy Tail. No, Erza stood before him as a nervous parent hesitating at the thought of separating from her children despite them both knowing she needed the break. The tell-tale signs of pure exhaustion were written all over Erza’s face weighing down her body. It wasn’t too obvious of course, this was Erza, she still keep that level of grace in her movements and a blank stare to ward off any prying questions. But he knew Erza and so did Gray.
Natsu looks over to his husband to find him staring worriedly at Erza. Gray’s teeth sunk into his lower lip in a way that made Natsu’s eye linger before traveling up to the eyebrow scrunched high on his face. He too could see what Natsu saw and knew they needed to do this.
With practiced ease, Natsu called a wide cocky grin onto his face. “Oh, come on Erza, we’ve babysitter for you a bunch of times remember?”
But as Gray and Natsu could see though Erza’s facade, she could see through theirs. She narrowed her eyes at them. “Rhea. You babysat Rhea alone. I’m warning you now that this is not the same. Rhea has always been self-sufficient even when she was younger. Andre can be…difficult sometimes. Toddlers are a lot of work.”
Gray interrupted this time moving closer to the mother. “Stop trying to scare us off Erza, you know that only gets us fired up.” Natsu’s grin turns into a smirk as he redirects his attention to Gray. “Stealing my lines now Snowflake.” Gray gives him a challenging stare back but says nothing. The two just smirk at each other like idiots in the Scarlet-Strauss yard speaking a thousand words without a sound. Erza always held strong for their guild, for Gray and Natsu, no matter the cost to her. That type of behavior had led to her self-destruction more than once, and each time the boys were there catch her before she fit the ground.
There was no way they were going to leave without the kids.
At that moment, the door opened again, and Rhea walked out. Heading their instructions, she brought along with her a bathing suit and towel carried on her cake-shaped backpack. The eleven-year old looks between her two rowdy uncles and her tired mom. Secretly, she had noticed that both her mothers had looked more down the last few weeks. Between issues at the guild and Andre tearing through whatever he could get his hands and/or teeth on, her mother's were always fixing problem after problem. Rhea tried to make up for it by being extra good. She cleaned up after herself and did her chores without her mother’s asking. She even tried to talk to Andre about being good too, but he just stared and giggled at her as if she were telling a joke. Rhea wasn’t anymore immune to that cute giggly face than her parents and ended up on the floor reading him stories.
Still. She was going to keep being good for her uncles as well. Especially since they seemed blissfully unaware how much of a little terror her brother has been for the past few weeks.
Mirajane smiled at Gray and Natsu and so did the little person slobbering on her dress. Andre giggled as Gray made silly faces and went willingly into his arms. Her turned to shoot a I-told-you-we-could-handle-it look at Erza only to be stopped by the same look of hesitance that flashed over Mirajane’s face.
At this rate, they’d never leave. Gray and Natsu exchanged looks again and subtly nodded to each other. It’s game time.
Gray started down the pathway with Andre in his arms and Rhea following right behind them. Natsu waited for them to move further down the road before stepping forward to grasp both women’s shoulders. “Listen, you two deserve this break. We all know how hard you’ve been working both at the guild and at home. Me and Gray handle the kids for a few days, just trust us alright?” Without waiting for an answer, he kissed both women on the cheeks and grabbed the baby bag Mirajane had brought along with her. With another reassuring grin, he headed to meet his lover.
“Natsu wait-” He turned to see Mirajane and Erza’s hands intertwined. A look of sincerity on their faces as they whispered, “thank you.”
This time, the smile that came onto his lips was genuine.
~
He and Gray had spent hours arguing over where the best place to spend a week with little kids was. They had come to a stand still glaring from opposite sides of their kitchen table when Happy’s fish went sailing through the room and ended up dropping between them. When Natsu turned to yell what the hell was that for! Gray’s eyes had lit up in the mesmerizing way.
Now here they were in a 5-way race across the beach. Happy won of course, the cheater, but Natsu gladly headbutted Gray out of the way allowing for Rhea to race past him. In retaliation, Gray picked Natsu up off the ground and swung him around under the eyes of a giggling Andre. Andre had given up on trying to race on his short unsteady legs pretty early and instead seemed content to run his fingers through the sand and watch his uncles wrestle. Rhea was celebrating her victory with Happy by trying to bob for fish underwater. At the sound of a scuffle, she raises her head and turns to the fighting men fight men on the beach. She jolts up out of the water when recognizes her uncles. “Are they okay?!” She askes Happy worried. The blue cat just rolled his eyes. “Yeah they’re fine. That’s just their version of fun. Come on, the fish aren’t going to catch themselves!” Rhea hesitates, but as she looks back she could see the little details she missed before. The light tone in their voices as they called insults back and forth, the smiles they exchanged when one managed to pin the other, the way the hands lingered and caressed the other in between moves. In that moment, they reminded Rhea so much of her own mothers when they bickered back and forth just to have an excuse to get closer to each other. With a smile she decided that Happy was right and they continued their dives.
The rest of the day passed by in a splash.
Natsu tried to teach Rhea how to swim while Gray wadded around the shallow end with Andre on his hip. Then they broke for lunch and devoured the triangle sandwiches Mirajane had packed. Shortly after eating, Andre fell asleep on Natsu’s chest while the rest of the gang built sandcastles. They spent some more time in the water until the sun started to set and both kids movements began to slow. They were in the process of packing up their stuff when Gray placed his hand gently over Natsu’s, “so, kids hun?”
Natsu squeezed his hand back. He didn’t need to respond to the question verbally. The look exchanged between the two lovers spoke a thousand words.