Unexpected News

"So are you the new Guild Master?" Drake asked Erza as he sat at a large table with his old friends once the newer members of Fairytail were done bombarding him with questions, "I wouldn't be surprised since everyone still respects you."

"It's Natsu." Erza explained as she took a sip of her drink and Drake was genuinely surprised by that, "After you were sealed away with Acnologia Natsu was the only other one who earned the role and, after a lot of convincing from Lucy, he finally accepted the role."

"I'm tired of all of the paper and want to go back on missions so I'm giving that position back to you." Natsu told him with a smile and Drake chuckled, not expecting anything less from him, "What do you say? Wanna be the ninth Guild Master?"

"Sure." Drake said as he leaned back in his chair with a grin before he saw Maya and Nashi, one of Natsu and Lucy's daughters, walking up to them, "What's up?"

"Is it true that you're the strongest Dragon Slayer?" Nashi asked with an excited look on her face and Drake just gave her a shrug, "Dad can you two go fight and we can see which of you is stronger?"

"I want to see what it's like when you go all out." Maya told Drake with just as much excitement as Nashi and both of the older Dragon Slayers looked at their wives before making a decision.

"I don't see a problem with it." Lucy said with a smile, knowing that both of them were wanting to fight since they sat down and when Mira gave Drake a nod both Dragon Slayers got inches from each other's faces, "Not till tomorrow though. We've got a party to throw."

"Yeah!" The entire guild yelled in unison and Drake began to walk with Mira and Maya so they could spend the rest if the night with each other until Cana suddenly shoved a bottle in his mouth and dragged him back to the others despite his protests.

"Everyone really missed him to huh?" Maya asked as they watched Drake start an argument with Natsu over who was going to win before Erza hit them over the head and nearly knocking them to the ground, "Did Dad really mean that much to them?"

"Everyone in Fairytail is like family and none of us believed that more than him." Mira explained with a smile as Drake's face went from happy to worried in an instant when Cana challenged him to a drinking competition but he accepted it none the less. After drinking more than anyone should have been able to Drake fell to the floor but not without, to everyone's surprise, managing to get Cana drunk and Natsu helped get Drake to the Strauss residence before leaving to pass out himself. Drake woke up hours later to the sun shining in his eyes and was about to get out of bed until he noticed that Mira was resting her head on his chest. He realized that after spending so many years in the void he and Acnologia were sealed in that he had forgotten what being comfortable even felt like, much less being back in his own bed with Mira and didn't want to ruin it by waking her up.

"You don't sleep very well." Mira suddenly told him in a slightly worried voice and when Drake looked down to see that she had turned her head to face him, "The slightest sounds were causing your entire body to tense up as if it was expecting a fight."

"When me and Acnologia got sealed away we were sent to a sort of void and spent I don't know how many years fighting. Whenever I managed to have a chance to get any rest he would try to attack me and even after finally killing him guess my body was too accustomed to not being able to rest." Drake explained in a serious tone and Mira realized that the time he spent with Acnologia had been rougher on him than he let on, "It's probably going to take a while for me to sleep well again."

"Well you're back home and never have to worry about that again." Mira told him as she sat up but she knew that nothing she said would help him go back to living a normal life any quicker, "We still have that house in the mountains and I think it'll help you readjust."

"Maybe but today I have to fight Natsu and we need to hurry or he'll kick our door down." Drake said with a small laugh as they climbed out of bed and the two quickly got dressed before going downstairs, "When does Maya normally get up?"

"She's normally not awake at this time. I should get her so she can get ready." Mira told him as she looked at the grandfather clock in their living room but when Drake didn't say anything she turned to see him staring at the picture of them and Reckless with a small red flower sitting in front of it, "Natsu took Maya and his two girls on their first mission and they got split up when the town that requested help ended up being a trap set by a dark guild. I'm not entirely sure on the details but she told me that Reckless saved them. You'll have to ask Natsu about it later."

"Get Maya up. I'll meet you guys at Fairytail." Drake said as he walked towards the front door and Mira could tell from the look in his eyes that he was hurting more than he was willing to show her. Drake got lost in his thoughts as he slowly made his way across Magnolia until he found what was left of the small house he and Reckless lived in before moving in with Mira. He wasn't sure how long he had been sitting in front of the run down building but when Natsu suddenly put his hand on Drake's shoulder he knew that it had been a while.

"I figured you'd be here after Mira told me about what you two talked about this morning." Natsu explained as he sat down and Drake looked at him out the corner of his eye, "Do you want to know what happened?"

"Yeah." Drake said as he turned his attention to the clouds slowly going by and Natsu paused as he thought about where to begin before deciding just to start from the beginning.