The Dragon Father

The Plot

"Awww, this sucks," Sting moaned as he scrubbed a window, "I almost prefer Cousin's Serena choral lessons to this."

Erik, who was across the guildhall scrubbing the guild's dishes, snapped his head up and glared at Sting, "Don't say it. Do not tempt him. That was a month of pure unrefined torture. I am never letting Laxus and Gajeel sing again!"

"You have something to say, snake boy, you best say it to my face!" Gajeel yelled from the rafters where he was repairing the roof after a brawl had sent a member through the roof.

"Please guys, this is our last week of groundation, don't fight!" Wendy pleaded, wiping off a table.

The dragon-slayers had successfully completed five months and three weeks of groundation. They had gone on multiple minor, embarrassing, and pointless jobs to earn money - they still wanted their house after all. All this time of embarrassment, house cleaning, and multiple painful visits to Serena's house to suffer more humiliation, the dragon slayers had all vowed to never again disobey Acnologia or put their lives in danger... they were destined to break one of those before the year was up but Acnologia accepted what he could.

The wounds the Grand Magic Games had dealt left scars but the scars left memories, the dragon slayers all felt it; they had changed. It was a good change, they knew that. They smiled and laughed with one another as they always had, when the fought together everything was clear and crisp, and when one of them wasn't feeling well, it sent up a warning signal that every dragon slayer caught on to. It was a wonderful feeling, one of closeness and family, a bond deeper than most humans had ever experienced. They had heard Acnologia use the term, but after the Grand Magic Games, the term made sense; nest.

On the topic of Acnologia, the dragon slayers had been patiently waiting for a full explanation from Acnologia... they had questions involving his past, Tyregenium, the other dragon slayers, and each other, but the Dragon King never gave it to them. Any question was dispelled, any mention was ignored, the dragon slayers waited, but they all wanted to know of this Tyregenium. Many times Acnologia had come close to it, but then he would see one of them smiling, one of them laughing or grinning with their sharp canines and a sense of guilt would descend on him. He was drowning in it.

It was his fault Tyregenium lived in this world. In this life he had spared his master... he hadn't in the previous one... this was all his fault. He looked to them, he saw his kids acting reckless and careless, getting drunk (save Wendy), fighting, laughing, joking, jumping on each other's shoulders and yelling 'piggyback ride!' and he would lose heart. If they knew of Tyregenium, he would have to end this carelessness, he would steal their smiles and lightheartedness, he would plant a seed of fear and end these happy times. For some reason, that bothered him.

And then there was fear. Acnologia was afraid of telling them with every fiber of his being. To tell them would also be to share his past life... those memories he had tried to purge and kill would return and they would no longer look at him and smile. There would be no love in their eyes and he knew that. He could almost see their horrified expressions from when he almost killed them in the bonds of time, they would hate him... and who wouldn't. Acnologia smiled and messed around with the dragon slayers as he always had, but his heart was weighed down by guilt and his mind was clouded with fear. The dragon slayers knew it, but they didn't understand it.

That night. Acnologia looked over his sleeping dragon slayers sprawled out on the floor and felt the emotions bubble up. He gritted his teeth and cursed himself. He had unknowingly ruined their lives... he had nearly killed them in his past life... and now a demon from his past was coming for them... he had hurt them too many times, and that destroyed him inside. Perhaps he was as much as a monster in this life as he was in the other... perhaps he was just a different type of monster.