Fairy Tail: Metal and Threads

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.

October 10, x789.

After leaving Irene's house, Alfonzo rushed home. By the time he arrived, Shizuka was just about to leave with Maria driving her to the hospital. And he naturally joined them.

After that, it did not take long to arrive at the hospital. Nor did it take long for Shizuka to be admitted. However, once she was in the delivery room, things started taking their time. And it took a little more than sixteen hours before the sound of a baby's cries echoed.

The new born, a brown-skinned boy with blond hair and hazel eyes, was given the name, Calvin Edward Marcus. And although the labor was quite long, he came out as healthy as could be.

And after getting the chance to see the child for a while, the rest of Alfonzo's wives and girlfriends made him go home and get some sleep, as he had been awake the entire time Shizuka was in labor. And he listened. Because despite the fact that he wanted to spend more time with Shizuka and Calvin, they had both fallen asleep shortly after the delivery.

The next day, after getting a good night's sleep, Alfonzo spent the whole day with Shizuka. But the following day, he went to the guild hall to fulfill some point requests and to try and find the fifth member of Team Steel Threads.

"Finally, I'm done… for now." Alfonzo said as he came out of the guild hall's kitchen with a bacon cheeseburger and an order of jalapeño poppers. "This was a lot more fun when I was a kid."

"It's probably because everyone is more used to you after so many years." Laxus said from his seat at the bar.

"You're probably right." Alfonzo replied with a shrug as he set the order in his hands down in front of Laxus. "They still act like the same pack of animals if I go too long without cooking for them, though."

"Well, can you blame them?" Laxus asked as he picked up one of the poppers. "You are the best cook in Ishgar, maybe even the world."

"That's a bit too much." Alfonzo said with while shaking his head.

"Maybe." Laxus replied while chewing his food. "By the way, did you find your last team mate yet? I'm really looking forward to facing you guys in the tournament."

"Looking forward to getting your ass kicked again?" Alfonzo asked with an eyebrow raised. "Did Saya and Chico turn you into some kind of masochist? No, that's not it. You've been like that since I was six or seven. Could never get enough ass kickings, could you?"

"Shut the hell up." Laxus replied, the word masochist making him shiver while remembering Darkness.

Alfonzo could not help laughing at Laxus reaction. Meanwhile, he glanced in the direction where Elicia and Marin were sitting with Brandish, undoubtedly trying to convince her to join Team Steel Threads.

Sun would have joined them, as well. However, she was at the hospital with her mother visiting Shizuka and the baby.

"So, I noticed you have a theme going on with your kids names." Laxus said after swallowing a bite of his burger.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Alfonzo asked, Laxus statement bringing his attention back.

"Well, it's kind of obvious." Laxus replied. "Amar'e, Bianca, Calvin… A, B, C. Is the next one gonna start with D?"

As if he had not noticed, Alfonzo opened his eyes wide in surprise. Then, after processing everything, he shrugged his shoulders.

"Who knows." Alfonzo said. "If it happens it happens. But if it does, then I'll follow the theme for the rest of them. As long as their mothers are okay with it."

"I see.' Laxus replied with a nod. "By the way, Saya and Chico are finally ready to have the wedding. They wanna do it on the first of the year."

"You all sure took your time." Alfonzo said.

"That's because no one knew when you were going to take another long term job." Laxus replied snappily. "And since you accepted to be my best man, we had to make sure first."

"And what made you think this would be a good time?" Alfonzo asked in a curious tone.

"Because you're participating in the tournament." Laxus replied. "And I'm certain you think you're going to win. So, you'll be training for the GMG after that. At least, that's what you should have planned."

Laxus then grinned challengingly.

"Too bad those plans will be going up in smoke, though." Laxus said confidently. "But at least you'll be around for a while. It should take a while to set up any big jobs after you find yourself with all that free time, after all."

"You really have gotten confident." Alfonzo replied, a challenging smile of his own spreading across his face. "No, that's not it. You're just angry, angry that you lost to Mermaid Heel, aren't you?"

*Zap!*

*Bang!*

"Damn right I am!" Laxus growled as his lightning clad fist slammed into the bar top. "I'm gonna get back at them and show them that Fairy Tail is and always will be the strongest."

"Good ambition." Alfonzo replied with a nod. "But let the real professionals handle that, alright? Team Steel Threads will bring the title back home. Just sit back and enjoy the show."

Hearing that, Laxus' eyebrow shot up while his expression turned deadpan.

"You wanna say that again?" Laxus asked in a calm, yet threatening tone.

"We'll let our matches in the tournament do all the talking next week." Alfonzo said while waving his right hand dismissively.

"I guess we will." Laxus replied before taking another bite of his burger. "Anyway, have any idea what happened to that chick from the Village Hidden in the Mist? What was her name again….? Whatever… Anyway, wasn't she supposed to come here to form an alliance with us?"

"Mei Terumi." Alfonzo replied blankly. "She's the new Mizukage, the leader of the Village Hidden in the Mist. How the hell did you forget her name?"

"Because I don't make it a habit to pay attention to wizards from other nations unless I have a quest to work with them." Laxus replied with a shrug. "Plus, all my thoughts are on Saya and Chico. So, I don't' have the time to think about other women."

"Good answer." X 2

Hearing those voices from behind him, Laxus quickly turned in his seat. When he did, he saw Saya smiling at him with her arms crossed under her breasts while Chico was standing next to her with her hands resting on her hips. And when he saw his two fiancées, cold sweat started to form on his back.

After Alfonzo reminded him of Mei's name, he remembered what she looked like. And he was about to say something about how good looking she was. But if he had, he knew he would have been in a world of hurt later if Saya and Chico had heard him.

"Hey, Saya, Chico, what's up?" Alfonzo asked, smiling at Laxus' almost unfortunate predicament. "You two just got back from a quest, right? Well, I'm working in the kitchen today. So, I got you if you want anything? Provided you have the points, that is."

Hearing that, both Saya's and Chico's eyes lit up.

"I'll have an open-faced roast beef sandwich with au jus dip, please." Chico said excitedly with drool starting to drip from the corner of her lips.

"And I'll have Steak and Shrimp Hibachi with fried rice and steamed vegetables." Saya added.

"Okay, I'll have that out in a few minutes." Alfonzo replied while wiping a bead of sweat off his forehead.

Though cooking the meals was no issue. Saya had a knack for ordering things that were rather exotic. For example, there was one time she caught Alfonzo cooking in the guild, and she ordered roast venison with a boysenberry sauce.

While that was not a terribly troublesome dish to cook, Fairy Tail's guild hall did not often stock venison… Or boysenberries, for that matter. So, he had to ask Maria to take a trip to the market to see if there was any venison and boysenberries on sale. If there wasn't, there would have been nothing Alfonzo could do about it. But there was. So, Alfonzo had to go through the process of tenderizing the meat before cooking it.

In the end, it was the longest he had ever taken to prepare a dish at the guild hall. So, he always had a little dread whenever he took Saya's order.

Even so, Alfonzo accepted the two ladies' orders and returned to the kitchen.

Meanwhile, as Alfonzo surmised while talking to Laxus, Elicia and Marin were sitting at a table with Brandish, who was sitting with her arms crossed and staring at them impassively.

"So, what you're telling me is, I was only your second choice?" Brandish asked in a tone that did not display her discontentment.

However, it was easy for people like Elicia and Marin to see through the façade Brandish had put on. Even so, neither of them were deterred.

"That's right." Elicia replied with a smile. "I know it sounds bad, but it's not because we think any less of you."

That sounded like an excuse to Brandish, though. There was only one person in the guild she thought was a better choice than her to join Team Steel Threads. But knowing Irene as well as she did, and as well as the members of Team Steel Threads should, she thought there was no way they would have asked her. So, Brandish was a little upset to think that they came to her second.

"Well, we actually expected our first candidate to say no." Marin added. "But Fonzie told us the worst that could happen was Irene telling us no. Still, that was no reason not to try."

That caused Brandish to open her eyes a little wider.

'So, I was second after Irene., huh?' Brandish thought to herself. 'Well, I guess I can't really be all that mad about that. But still, to think Alfonzo would ask her even though he knew what she would say. I guess he was just trying his luck. There's always a chance that she might have been in a good mood. And then, from what I've heard from Lucy, there's a chance that she might have said yes after they had some of the mind-blowing sex she always talks about, too.'

With those thoughts running through her head, Brandish could not help blushing slightly after thinking about all the rather vivid descriptions of Alfonzo's and Lucy's sex life that Lucy always told her about during their girl talks.

Meanwhile, Elicia and Marin both saw the color float to the surface of Brandish's cheeks and they turned to look at each other. However, neither of them knew what the younger girl could have been thinking. They had no idea that Lucy often bragged about her sex life to the child of her mother's best friend, after all.

"*Cough* Anyway, I can understand why I was the second one you asked to join your team, now." Brandish said, coughing to draw Elicia's and Marin's attention away from her blushing cheeks. "If it were me, I would have tried to get Irene on my team first, too."

"Then, does that mean you'll join our team?" Marin asked with a bright smile.

"On one condition." Brandish replied. "I want to fight Alfonzo. If he can defeat me, I'll join. If not, then you all have to join my team. Sure, the result will be all of us on the same team. But I'll be the leader instead of Alfonzo."

"Hmm… I see." Elicia said with a nod. "I guess that makes sense. No one wants to take orders from someone weaker than them, after all."

"Exactly." Brandish replied. "In fact, I can't understand why no one has petitioned for Irene to take over as guild master yet. You know, since she's the strongest member of the guild."

Just at that moment, Ur stepped out of the elevators and happened to overhear Brandish. And her eyes lit up as she started considering how to convince Irene to become the fifth guild master of the guild while she headed to the bar to place an order with Alfonzo.

"Well, Gildarts wasn't the guild master either." Marin pointed out.

"That's because that would have been a terrible idea." Elicia countered. "Gildarts just can't stay in one place long enough for that to work."

'I can still remember when Macao named Gildarts the fifth guild master in the anime.' Elicia thought to herself while trying not to giggle aloud. 'It couldn't have been more than a few days before Gildarts disappeared, only leaving behind a letter naming Gramps the sixth guild master.'

"Well, when Alfonzo is done in the kitchen, we can ask him if he's willing to go along with your proposal." Marin said with a smile. "But you know he's the publicly recognized second strongest member of the guild after Irene, right?"

"Even so, I want to see his strength with my own eyes." Brandish replied. "And if he is weaker than reported, I'll take control of this team and rename it to something I like."

"Then, we'll just have to wait and see." Elicia said as she turned to look at the door leading to the guild hall's kitchen.