Dawn of Adventure {Book One of The Paths We've Traveled}

Chapter Sixty Five: Life, Laughter, and Love

Natsu paced the floor of the guildhall, his empty seat at the bar warmed every few minutes when his exhaustion pushed him to sit before his anxiety forced him to his feet once more. Lisanna had given up on telling him to sit still a long time ago, her repetitive words wearing down everyone's resolve except for the subject of her attention. And the slumbering infant in her arms certainly appreciated the lack of interruptions to her sleep.

As he started his hundredth lap, his eyes darted up toward the rooms lining the second floor. Gajeel winced in sympathy, his fingers drumming a senseless tune against the scarred wood before him. Laxus wasn't much better, his murmured conversation with the Thunder Legion punctuated by his own glances upward.

Everyone was on edge, even if the three Dragon Slayers were the only ones privy to what was actually occurring upstairs. Well, them and the several women locked up in the infirmary.

As Natsu passed by her table, Erza grabbed him by the waist and yanked him onto the bench beside her. He glared at the table, knowing better than to direct his fraying nerves at the Requip mage. "Sit down," she said conversationally and not like Natsu's brain was about to turn to mush. "Walking your feet off is not going to help her. And it certainly doesn't do any of us any good either."

Natsu grumbled, leg bouncing despite his best efforts. Happy fluttered down onto his head, offering his best friend support even as his own little heart raced. "She'll okay, won't she?"

From across the table, Juvia snorted quietly. Sylvia snoozed on her lap, small hands wrapped tightly around the neckline of her mother's dress. She shot a quick glance to the corner of the guildhall, her toddler son playing happily with Gale as they both tried to postpone their inevitable afternoon nap. "Don't worry, Happy. She's had no problems these last nine months, and both Wendy and Porlyusica are with her now. She couldn't be in better hands."

Erza nodded once, her firm grip locked around Natsu's elbow. "Pretty much all of these women have been there at least once over the past four years, and every single one of them is fine."

"It's different this time," the Dragon Slayer mumbled, digging his fingers into the flesh of his thigh as his gaze trained on the room above where his wife, his Lucy, cried and groaned and fought. She would never cease to amaze him.

Anyone who said women were weak obviously didn't understand how painful and endless labor was.

Cana squeezed onto the bench next to Natsu, draping her arm over his shoulders in an attempt to distract her friend. It worked, at least until Lucy's next cry caught his attention more. The brunette held her bottle up to the Dragon Slayer's mouth, but he bumped it away with a careless hand.

Cana scoffed. "Natsu, man, you have to loosen up a bit. She's gonna be fine, even if it sounds like shit right now."

"I've given birth twice. Well, technically three times," Juvia offered up, glancing down at the blue-haired baby curled in Gray's lap. No matter how hard he tried to slip right into the role of father forced onto him the moment he returned, there was still some difficulty in his mind, gaps that could not be filled, events he had missed and would never be present for. And then two months ago on March 20, Kaltain Fullbuster joined the world. The Ice-Make wizard still hadn't quite figured out how to handle the infant girl, but his family had clicked into place the minute he'd first held her. He may have messed up with the twins, and he would forever love and cherish them. But here was his chance for the first step and the first word, the first and last of so many things he had missed with Sylvia and Storm.

Gray threw his wife a small smile before returning his attention to Kaltain, the infant sleeping peacefully for the first time all day. Juvia smiled back, leaving a small kiss on the corner of his mouth. Then she kept talking to Natsu, hoping to reassure the anxious father-to-be. "It hurts, yes, and every minute in labor you wish for it to be over. But then, when it actually is over, and your baby is in your arms for the first time..." Juvia sighed, brushing her daughter's hair away from her face. "It's all worth it. It always is."