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Chapter Text

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Taking care of five kids was no small feat, Anna held a sleeping Ryos close to her chest as she kicked the bedroom door shut behind her. Though she had to be grateful that Ryos slept like the dead, so he wouldn’t wake to anything less than a bomb. She uses that to her advantage as she screams down the hallway to where the oldest children sleep. “Gajeel, Natsu, wake up please, I could use some help making breakfast this morning.”
She stood there long enough to pick up the sound of movement in each of their bedrooms before she nodded turning towards the room right next to her own. She uses her free hand to open the door as the other continues to support Ryos against her. She peeks her head inside to see that Wendy and Sting are still fast asleep. 

Anna walks over to Wendy’s bed laying her hand on the young girl's shoulder, gently shaking her awake. The bluenette sits up sleepy aggressively rubbing her eyes in an attempt to wake herself up. Anna smiles at the small murmur of “Morning Mama” she hears before making her way over to Sting’s bed repeating the same process as before. Sadly he tends to sleep similarly to his brother, like a rock, so she has to shake him a bit more aggressively before he begins to wake.

After making sure that both of the children were truly awake she leaves the room to give them a chance to get ready. She glides her way into the kitchen gently bouncing Ryos as she checks on the beginning of breakfast. Her oldest two were silently passing between each other, making a graceful dance as they traded between prepping and cooking the food. It seems they had opted for something simple, just some eggs with toast.

Anna pulls one of her keys off of her belt with her free hand, easily finding the specific one she needs. She holds it in front of her, not in any hurry, just needing a bit of assistance “Gate of the Twins, I open thee. Gemini!” In front of her appear two small blue-bodied creatures that speak a quiet little “piri-piri.”

She smiles at them in greeting, “Good morning Gemi, Mini, by any chance can y’all hold Ryos for a little bit? I need to help the boys with breakfast.” The two quickly swirl together in a puff of smoke as they transform into Anna, with a slight difference being the mark of Gemini on the cheek to differentiate the two of them. When they hold out their hands Anna smiles, laying Ryos in their arms, they begin the gently bounce him as she turns to help with the food.

Anna can hear the young ones come clambering out of their room, settling themselves at the dining table. She speaks about the plans for the day as she plates the food that the boys have finished cooking. “So today Natsu, Gajeel you two have training. Igneel and Metalicana will be waiting for you in the field to the left of the house after breakfast.” She takes the finished bringing them to the table, setting them in front of the kids.

Sting has a pout on his face as he scoops some eggs into his mouth, he then speaks up, eggs flying out with each word. “How come Jeel and Su get to learn cool magic, it’s unfair.” She laughs a bit as this isn’t the first time they’ve had this conversation. “Because they’re older than you, once you are of age you will get to learn as well, as for now, don’t speak with your mouth open, and we will be working on your writing today, ok?”

Even as he continues to pout Sting gives a reluctant nod, slowly eating away at his eggs and toast. Anna smiles turning back to the counter to put together the last plates of food and setting them at their designated spots at the table. Gajeel and Natsu sit in their seats while she sits at the head of the table. Gemini takes the spot where Ryos would normally sit since the young boy is still asleep.

The table is silent as they all eat their respective breakfasts, none of them wanting to interrupt the peace. The quiet is broken by a small yawn that comes from the other end of the table as Ryos begins to wake in Gemini’s arms. His eyes flutter open as he curls even closer to the warm body of the spirit. 

Once Ryos notices the plate that is sitting in front of his spot on the table he slowly begins to pick at the food with his hands. Anna had made sure that she cut the bread up into bite-sized pieces before putting them onto his plate. The youngest boy took fists full of eggs, stuffing them into his mouth as Gemini held him still in their lap.

Anna smiles as she looks over the loving family that she has built up in the last eight years, starting from Natsu to little Ryos (who was gonna need a bath after breakfast). Natsu and Gajeel finish up their meals first, both of them standing to clean off their plates. Anna gives them each a quick kiss on the cheek as they go to leave even as Gajeel tries to wave the affection off. She smiles more as she finishes up her own food she stands setting her plate in the sink to clean in a bit.

She then turns back to the table, noticing that both Wendy and Sting are done with their plates, and Ryos seems to be done with the small amount he ate. She huffed a laugh as she went to take Ryos from Gemini, sending the spirit away with thanks. “Sting, Wendy, set your plates next to the sink please, I’ll clean them later, and we’ll start your lessons after I give Ryos a bath, ok?”

She smiles heading towards the bath after a quick acknowledgment from the both of them. She loves her family so much.

Chapter Text

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The House was alive with motion as Anna stepped out of her room, the kids seemed to already be awake which could be a good or bad thing depending on the day. She walks out to the kitchen to find a plate of food waiting on the table, and a stack of clean dishes drying next to the sink. She turns toward the living area to find that all the kids are piled around the carpet.

Natsu is laying on the ground with Wendy’s head resting on his chest, and Stings head on his stomach. Gajeel was sitting beside them with his legs crossed, Ryos was sitting in his lap poking at the others neck where his scales had just recently began grow in. Wendy was also holding onto Natsu hand as she inspected the fully grown scales with Sting.

Anna sits at the table to eat her food, listening in to the conversation that the kids are having on the carpet. She knows that at least the oldest two knew she was there, so it wasn’t as if she was intruding. She eats quietly with a small smile on her face as she listens.

Wendy runs her thumb over the coarse scales turning her head a bit to look at Natsu, “When am I gonna get my scales?” The older boy glances down at his sister before staring back at the ceiling, “Your only on the second year of your training, I didn’t get mine until year four, and Gajeel didn’t get his till this year, so it depends on you.” He uses his other hand to boop her on the nose, a smile gracing his face at the giggle which escapes her.

Sting rolls onto his stomach so that his chin is digging into Natsu’s stomach and he can look towards the other. “We have to wait that long, I want mine now.” His voice was accented with a petulant whine as he pouted up at his oldest brother. The fire dragon slayer laughs his stomach shaking causing Stings head to bounce where it rests. “That’s just how it’s gonna be, the stronger you get the more traits you’ll get.”

To show his point Natsu lifts the hand that Wendy had been holding to show off the talons that were begging to grow where his nails had been. Sting continues to pout even as he rolls onto his back once more, “Fine, but where are we even gonna get our scales, you and Gajeel don’t have them in the same place.”

This time the response comes from Gajeel as he huffs, he doesn’t even move Ryos’s questioning hands as he speaks, “It’s gonna depend squirt, as you just said it’s different for me and flame brain, so it’s going to be different for you as well.” After he’s done with his explanation he looks down at the tiny kid in his lap running his fingers through Ryos’s hair as the other pokes at the fresh scales.

Sting lets out a quiet whine of indignation before sitting up and crossing his arms to pout. Though when he turns his head to the side he notices Anna sitting at the table so he quickly leaps to his feet sprinting over to her. “Ma! You’re Awake! Does that mean we can go outside now? Pleeeeaaaasssseeeee! You said Ryos could start training with us today and I wanna gooooooooo!”

She laughs pulling Sting into her arms so she can give him a quick kiss on the forehead before setting him back down on the ground. “In a second hun, let me finish my breakfast and do a few more things, then we can go outside, just ten minutes, ok?” The light slayer pouts but lets out a quiet “fine” before making his way back to the carpet where he curled up onto one of the pillows to wait.

As they waited for Anna to finish her breakfast Natsu and Gajeel traded their respective kids, Ryos now sat in Natsu’s lap playing with his hands as Wendy sat in front of Gajeel getting her hair braided. Anna smiled as she watches her kids, Gajeel and Natsu cared for them with their entire hearts and she could never be more proud of the boys she had raised.

Once she finished her breakfast she instructed to the children to get themselves ready so they could go outside. She chuckled to herself as Sting nearly ran into wall as he ran to his room so he could get his shoes. As she waited for the kids to be ready she washed up her dish and puts the others away.

Anna took the time to get her own boots on so that she wouldn’t be trudging through the fresh mud with her bare feet. Once she is done she looks up to see four of the five children, the only one missing being Natsu. Sting was bouncing on his toes eager to go, Wendy was playing with the end of her braid, and Gajeel was holding Ryos on his hip. Natsu came out of his room a few seconds later as he was attempting to put his hair up.

Anna lets out a huff of amusement as she looks over the scene in front of her, “Ok, we can go now.” Sting lets out a woop turning to look back at Natsu “race ya!” Before Anna could even get the door fully open both Sting and Natsu were dashing across the field to where the dragons circle was.

Anna smiles as she follows after her other three children after they exit the cabin. She looked at Gajeel quickly before her eyes fell onto Ryos, the youngest child looked both excited and nervous. He wasn’t the most vocal kid but he generally showed his emotions on his face, even if he didn’t voice his feelings she knew what they were.

She swiftly moved around Gajeel so she could lift Ryos from his arms, the iron dragon slayer looked at her curiously before understanding washed over his face and he walked ahead with Wendy. She smiled as she watched them walk away before looking down at the child in her arms who was also watching as his siblings walked away.

Anna smiles at Ryos once his sight falls on her, “Hi Sweetie, are you nervous?” The tiny child nodded, his hands fisted into Anna’s top as he looks back towards the circle where they could now see the dragons waiting.

She follows his line of site to watch the other kids as they ran to their respective dragons. “It’s ok to be nervous, but you know how nice they are, and that isn’t gonna change just because they’re training you, and you know how much of a softy Skiadrum is, you’ll have him wrapped around your little finger in no time.” She boops him on the nose, a small giggle leaves the childs body when she does. She grins seeing that her explanation and joking seemed to have lightened Ryos’s mood making it so he wasn’t as nervous.

The advantage that the younger children got with all this is they got to grow up with the dragons and get used to them, Gajeel and Natsu were kind of just thrust into their training with no preamble. She was able to explain to the young one’s ever since they could understand her what they were going to learn, the power’s they were meant to take on. Though the only one who truly knew *why* they were learning this was Natsu, that was not a burden she wanted to put on any of the children until it was truly time.

Anna shook herself out of her thoughts as she entered the circle where the dragons were waiting for them. In the short amount of time it had taken her to get there Natsu and Gajeel had already began wrestling with each other, though luckily neither of them had pulled out any magic, she wasn’t in the mood to deal with that.

She cleared her throat in order to get the boys attention, the two of them quickly separated, acting as if nothing had happened. She sighed as she sets Ryos onto his feet in front of her. This was an important day, the day that Ryos got claimed by his dragon, it didn’t matter that at this point there wasn’t much choice in the matter it was a monumental part of the ritual of the dragon slayers.

She smiles as the Slayers who were already claimed made their way to sit in front of their respective dragons. She lays her hands on Ryos’s shoulders “Today Ryos gets to be claimed as the final dragon slayer, so if you may.” She looks up towards Skiadrum as he steps closer, she takes a few steps back so she could watch the ritual as well.

Skiadrum slowly lies down, pressing his forehead to Ryos’s, his magic slowly begins to seep from his mouth flowing around the child in a circle of black wisps. The shadows envelop the young boy so that he is unable to be seen by the others around. The magic continued to swirl around for a few minutes before it seems to begin to seep into Ryos’s being.

As soon as all of the magic has dissipated Skiadrum sits back up offering something akin to a smile to Ryos. His voice has a deep rumble to it, reverberating around them as if it was bouncing around even before he spoke, “You child, are now mine.” Ryos smiled the widest smile Anna had ever seen him give before running up, hugging Skiadrums leg with the most might a skinny four year old could muster.

Anna looked up at Skiadrum who seemed a bit confused at the affection but took it in stride, lifting one of his paws to lightly rest it on Ryos’s head. Now that everything was taken care of Anna felt like it was safe for her to head back to the cabin for that day. She cleared her throat in order to get everyone’s attention for a quick second, “I am heading back to the cabin, if anyone needs me, I shall be there, I will see you all tonight, take care of Ryos.”

She then turns back, heading to the cabin a smile gracing her face, she was so proud of her children.

Chapter Text

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Sting always loved when they got to do training in the woods, generally they would just be confined to training in the meadow, or the tree’s surronding that area. They rarely ever got true free range of the woods that surrounded the cabin unless they were hunting in pairs. Today was different they were getting to run deep in the woods to hide, Ryos, Wendy, Natsu, and himself were hiding from Gajeel so they could train. 

Gajeel was sitting in the middle of the meadow with the dragon’s he had his eyes close and his back turned to Sting and their siblings. As soon as Gajeel yelled go the four of them took off running into the woods. Sting stayed next to Ryos for a bit both Wendy and Natsu quickly splitting away from them. The blonde only decided to split with his brother once he was sure the other would be fine.

Sting swerved around, ducking through bushes, and weaving between trees as he attempted to spread his scent to throw off his older brother. They only were gonna get five minutes to hide, so he needed to be quick and strategic. He continued his weaving until he felt that it was close to time. He found the biggest tree that he could see and began to scale it, it was something he had learned on in order to escape his big brothers and it was a useful skill.

Sting grabbed at small branches, and dug his feet into the bark as he swung himself around, readjusting his body to better balance. He jumps up to the next branch, gripping onto it tightly as he pulls himself up. He did his best not to look down at the ground as he continued to climb, even if he wasn’t necessarily scared of height to an extreme, it still made him queasy. 

Once he felt he was high enough he perched himself onto a thick branch, he had gotten to a point where he had a good view of the ground, so he could see and hear if Gajeel was coming. He took off his scarf tying it around the branch and his legs so that he was a bit more secure, meaning he hopefully won’t fall.

As he sat there and let time pass he was listening out for any steps that may be coming through the woods, but he also watched the birds as they flew to and from their nests. He always loved to watch how the mama birds cared for their chicks, they reminded him of his own Ma, how she cared for all of them without a complaint, always doing what she felt was best for them.

Suddenly he was pulled out of his thoughts by a presence near by, he feels the ominous presence before he even hears the footsteps. He knows that it can’t be any of his siblings, the aura that radiates from below him has the stench of death. He tenses up, the hair on his arms raising, a sense of dread settles deep in his chest. He looks down and he sees a young man in black robes, a white sash across his shoulder, gently strolling through the woods.

Horrified, Sting watches as the birds he had just been admiring suddenly go still, plummeting to the ground. All animals and foliage around the man just dies, shriveling up into a sad impression of what it once was. Suddenly, as Sting watches the man and terror the mysterious figure pauses, turning to look up, making direct eye contact with Sting, who is stock still in the tree. The man shows the petrified boy a bone chilling grin before he turns back around and continues walking, soon leaving the dragons slayers sight entirely.

Sting stays frozen in the tree as tears begin to well up in his eyes before they begin to silently roll down his cheeks. He doesn’t move from the tree until he hears footsteps once more, but this time he smells the distinct scent of Iron, as well as burnt wood following closely behind. The traumatized boy doesn’t even worry about stealth anymore, he quickly rips off the scarf and messily scales his way down the tree.

When he was about six feet off the ground he throws himself off ignoring the harsh way his knees scrape against the grown. He quickly runs to Natsu, not letting the other gain his bearings before he begins sobbing. Both Gajeel and Natsu are stunned staring at each other before the fire dragon slayer picks up his little brother. As soon as Sting is in the oldest’s arms he buries his head deep into his collar bone.

Natsu rubs Sting’s back talking to him as they begin to make their way back to the cabin, “Hey buddy, what happened?” The young boy vigorously shakes his head jabbing his forehead even farther into the others collar bone. The older slayers made eye contact before agreeing to pick up the pace, running back towards the cabin, fearing their brother may be hurt. 

When they make it back to cabin Gajeel enters first, both Ryos and Wendy were already back, sitting at the table with Anna. All three look up when the older boys rush in, Natsu cradling his sobbing younger brother to his chest. Anna quickly rushes over, as soon as she is near Sting releases Natsu and grabs tightly onto Anna who then cradles him to her own chest.

She looks desperately at Gajeel and Natsu but both of them just shrug, looking at their little brother with deep looks of anguish. Anna rubs Sting’s back gently whispering comforting words, rocking him just as if he was still a baby. She didn’t hear it when he spoke in a hushed voice, she lowered her head attempting to hear what he was saying. “Can you please repeat that baby.” The boys grip grew tighter as he spoke, “He killed it all Mama.”

Her eyes widen as she looks up at Natsu and Gajeel gesturing for them to take Ryos and Wendy outside. As soon as the other children were outside she moved to a chair, sitting down for this conversation. “Who killed what honey?” The boy let out a whimper as he rubbed his face into her shirt before answering. “The animals, the plants, they all died around him Mama, He killed them all without doing a thing.” As sickening feeling rolled through Anna as understanding washed over her, Zeref is back.

Chapter Text

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Anna had been collecting scales from each of the dragons ever since she first went under their care. She knew inevitably the day where the kids would have to split from the dragons would come to pass and she wanted to make something that would be of comfort to them. That is why she collected the scales, she planned to make scarves for the children.

When she told the kids about the plan Wendy & Sting insisted they got to help, while the other three were just excited to see the end products. Glad not to have to do all the work herself she first taught the kids how to sew, she didn’t want this to be the first project they ever made. Wendy was a quick learner but she had to teach Sting a bit slower, even if he was upset that Wendy got to start making her scarves first he soon caught up.

Anna glances over from her spot in front of the pedal powered sewing machine to see Wendy sitting in Natsu’s lap with a large bag of Igneel’s scales sitting in front of her. Sting had a concentrated look on his face as he was trying to find the correct spot to pierce through one of Skiadrum’s scales to add it to the scarf. Both of the kids had already finished making a scarf out of the scales that belonged to their respective dragons and now were working on one’s for their brothers.

Rogue was sitting in Gajeels lap as he watched the other work hard to pierce through Metalicana’s scales. Anna was slowly putting the metal plated scales together into a scarf but it was a much slower process than the others. She had tried to poke holes in them with needles & hole punchers but they were no match for scales from the Iron Dragon. So, she had to recruit the help of the Iron Dragon Slayer to make the holes she needed to be able to sew them together.

She was quietly humming as she threaded her needle to begin working on the next row of scales on Gajeel’s scarf. She was sewing it to another piece of fabric, because unlike the other dragons who all had relatively soft scales, Metalicana’s scales were not the most comfortable against your skin. She began weaving the needle between scale and fabric, tieing each scale down before moving to the next.

This was one of the times they ever spent together without absolute chaos happening around the house. She wouldn’t trade her little family in for anything in the world, but having kids anywhere from the age of 22 to 8 running around sometimes made things rough. She smiled to herself at her thought, suddenly there was a loud rumbling noise. She looked up at a very sheepish Natsu who apoligized quietly, she laughed lightly slowly standing up, setting her project to the side.

Anna glances out the window, seeing that it is getting towards dinner time anyway it would be a good time for her to take a break from the scarf. “Ok, i’ll get started on dinner.”

Anna ties the last scale taught on the scarf, she was finally done with the scarf for Gajeel made out of Metalicana’s scales. It was quite the hefty thing but her son was more than strong enough to wear it around. She smiles looking it over once more before she stands up to bring out to where the kids where training. Wendy and Sting had finished up the scarves they were working on the week before, so Gajeel was the last to get his scarf.

She wraps it up in a cloth before she heads outside, she knows that it’s not exactly a surprise since he knew she was working on it, but she still wanted to do this. She stands at the edge of the meadow watching as her children train, the oldest two were flying at each other throwing punches and dodging while the younger one’s were working on their magic. She waits for the boys to be done with their fight before she walks over to Gajeel.

She places the package into his hands for him to open, when he pulls the scarf out from the cloth she see’s a small grin grow on his face. He unravels the scarf and offers it to her, she looks at it a bit confused. She then looks up to him to see a small blush on his face as he looks away. “Can you put it on me Ma.” It was very quite but the term of endearment had her grinning as it wasn’t something he called her often.

Anna took the scarf from him as her smile softened, “Of course I will honey.” She wraps the scarf around his neck, tucking it snuggly and then pulling his hair out the back. He nuzzles into the scarf to hide the blush that still flared on his cheeks. Suddenly she heard a gasp next to her from one of the younger kids, she looked over to see Sting jumping up. “Wait there Ma, we have something for you.” He quickly yells before running back towards the cabin, leaving her confused.

After a few minutes Sting comes sprinting back out of the house with a crudely wrapped package in his hands. He ran up to her slightly panting, holding the package close to his chest. The others got up gathering closer around him with small smiles on their faces looking at her. Once Sting caught his breath he grinned and held the package out to her, once again she looks at it confused. Rogue speaks up from her right side, “It’s for you Mom.” The shy boy hides behind his bangs after saying it, a deep blush spreading across his cheeks.

She takes the package from Stings hands and slowly opens it revealing a scarf of many colors, she quickly spots scales from each of the dragons mixed together in a random pattern. Tears began to fill her eyes as a wide grin spreads across her face, she unravels the scarf so that she can take in all the details. Her smile softens as she looks up at her children, each of them sporting their own scarves, smiles gracing each of their faces.

She wraps her scarf around her own neck, pulling her ponytail out from inside it. Her voice is soft as she speaks, “I love this so much, and I love all of you so much, my baby’s.” She wrapped her arms around all of them pulling them into a tight hug, a content smile gracing her face.