Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.
June 2, x788.
"We're back!" Alfonzo shouted as soon as he entered the Fairy Tail guild hall.
Immediately, the brawl that was going on came to a stop. At the same time, Elicia, who was not participating in the brawl flung herself towards Alfonzo before wrapping her arms and legs around his neck and torso with a smile on her face.
"Welcome back!" Elicia exclaimed excitedly before rubbing her cheeks against her husband's.
Shortly afterwards, Alfonzo's other ladies, led by Ultear, Mirajane, Marin, Lucy, and Shizuka, the ones who would be marrying Alfonzo in a week, hurried over as well. Then, with a combined effort, they pulled Elicia off of Alfonzo and proceeded to hug him themselves.
"I thought you were gonna be late." Mirajane said with a pout as she pressed herself tightly onto Alfonzo.
"Of course not." Alfonzo said with a smile as he started combing his fingers through Mirajane's hair. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."
"Good, you know your place." Ultear said in a haughty tone. "Otherwise, your punishment would have been severe."
"*Sigh* It looks like Tear is thirsty again." Cana said while shaking her head forlornly.
After hearing the same retort so many times, Ultear did not even react. Instead, she just smiled at Alfonzo, who pulled her into a hug.
"I really missed you all." Alfonzo said with a smile as he looked at all his ladies. "Oh, and I need to tell you, Saeko is one of you now, too."
Having expected as much, Elicia, Cana, Ultear, Erza, Mirajane, Marin, Sun, Lucy, and Shizuka all nodded at Saeko in acknowledgement. A moment later, however, Cana sighed while touching her forehead with the fingers of her left hand.
"*Sigh* It's never gonna end, is it?" Cana asked while shaking her head. "The harem just keeps on expanding."
"Just like the universe." Elicia added with a smile. "Fonzie's really gonna be the harem king… No, the harem emperor when everything is said and done."
Alfonzo could only smile wryly at Cana and Elicia's comments. Meanwhile, the other ladies laughed, though they did not really mind. However, when they thought back to how against a harem Alfonzo was at the beginning, they found it even funnier that he now had ten women.
Meanwhile, from a short distance away, Rika was looking at Saeko as if she had been betrayed.
"I would have definitely been the next one if he didn't insist on bringing Laki with him this time." Rika muttered to herself. "But he said it would help Laki get stronger, so, I agreed. Damn it."
"By the way, how is Lisanna?" Alfonzo asked in curiosity. "she should be about six months along, right?"
"That's right." Lisanna, approaching the group while holding Natsu's hand, said with a bright smile on her face. "Soon, Mar'e will have a little playmate."
"And if we're lucky, he'll have a little brother or sister next year, too." Mirajane said while looking at Alfonzo with hungry eyes.
Seeing the glint in Mirajane's eyes, the song "Hungry Eyes" by Eric Cameron started playing in Alfonzo's head. However, he quickly shook his head to drive it out of his thoughts.
"We'll see." Alfonzo said in reply to Mirajane's statement. "We can only hope that luck is on our side."
Satisfied with Alfonzo's response, Mirajane nodded her head. At the same time, Lisanna and Natsu approached even closer. And Alfonzo found it really surprising that Natsu had not leapt at him asking for a fight yet.
"Hey, Alfonzo." Natsu said with a smile. "Welcome back. So, can we have a fight? I wanna show you how much I've grown."
With that, Alfonzo's expression turned into a sight to see. The surprise on his face was so exaggerated that everyone present could not help but laugh.
"Who the fuck are you?" Alfonzo asked while taking a step back and pointing at Natsu's nose. "And what the fuck did you do with Natsu?"
That reaction only caused the laughter to turn uproarious. Meanwhile, Natsu looked away bashfully while scratching the back of his head.
"I'm the real Natsu." Natsu said quietly. "but I'm gonna be a father soon. And I don't wanna be a bad example for my kid."
That response dumbfounded Alfonzo even more. Meanwhile, all the other members of Fairy Tail who were present for Natsu's growth in character could only look at Alfonzo, who had not seen Natsu since his change started, sympathetically. They, too, were in disbelief when Natsu started to change his character, after all.
"Anyway, Alfonzo, can I ask you a favor? Actually, make that two." Lisanna said once Alfonzo started coming back to his senses.
"Sure, go ahead." Alfonzo replied with a nod. "I won't promise that I'll accept doing it, though."
Nodding in response, Lisanna smiled as she asked her first favor.
"Natsu and I are gonna get married before the baby is born in September." Lisanna said, her smile widening as she spoke about the baby. "So, can we use your house for the ceremony? It's the nicest place in Magnolia, after all."
"Sure." Alfonzo replied with a nod. "And if you do it on a weekend, I'll even be able to attend."
"That was the plan." Lisanna said with a nod. Then, she put on a more apprehensive expression. Still, she asked her second question. "And… Um… Would you… Um… Cook… for our reception?"
Even though not many people were part of the group talking near the guild hall's entrance, the entire guild hall fell into silence, as the brawlers had even stopped fighting to hear the answer to Lisanna's question.
'Man, I haven't seen the guild hall like this in a while.' Alfonzo said as he let his eyes sweep across the guild hall's first floor. 'Not since Gramps implemented the points system to get my cooking. Speaking of which, I haven't seen him in a while. I wonder how the old man is doing.'
"Alfonzo?" Mirajane said, pulling Alfonzo out of his random thoughts.
"Oh, sorry." Alfonzo said while shaking his head. "For some reason, I started thinking about the past. But to answer your question, you know my rates. But since we're gonna be in-laws after next week, I'll give you a fifty percent discount. I won't charge you for using my house as the venue, though."
Hearing that, Lisanna sighed in relief. Honestly, even if Alfonzo had not given her the discount, she would have sighed in relief. Alfonzo's rates were not that expensive, after all. But the other members of the guild began cheering as if they had all won the lottery.
It had been a while since Alfonzo spent any significant amount of time in Magnolia. So, even though they had earned points from their quests, they had no way of spending them. But if Alfonzo would be cooking for Natsu and Lisanna's reception, that means they would be able to eat as much as they wanted and save the points they earned for whenever Alfonzo was done working at the Village Hidden in the Leaves, as well. Basically, they would be able to kill two birds with one stone.
At that moment, while the guild was bursting with jubilation, the elevator doors opened. And through them Gildarts, Ur, Irene, and Brandish entered the first floor. However, since they had been in Ur's office, they were unaware of why the guild was in such an uproar. But they were sure that it had something to do with Alfonzo's return.
"Elicia!" Ur shouted after looking around for a while. "You were supposed to bring Alfonzo up to see me as soon as he returned. Instead, I find you down here having fun with the rest of the guild's ruffians!"
With Ur's shout, the guild hall immediately fell into pin-drop silence. Meanwhile, Elicia, who had been entrusted with the task of bringing Alfonzo up to see Ur, smiled sheepishly. Then, she knocked her knuckles on the side of her head and smiled in the cutest manner she could muster as she replied.
"Oops." Elicia said with a nervous giggle. "I kinda forgot. I was just so happy to see Fonzie. Then, Lisanna asked Fonzie if she and Natsu could get married at our house. And then Fonzie agreed to cook at the reception… So much happened that I was overwhelmed."
Hearing that Alfonzo would be cooking for Lisanna's wedding, Gildarts, Ur, Irene, and Brandish also found themselves getting excited. However, they quickly returned to normal. Well… Ur, Irene, and Brandish did. Gildarts, on the other hand, was drooling. It had been a while since he had any of Alfonzo's cooking. Since he was completely incapable of completing a quest without destroying everything he came in contact with, after all.
"*Cough* Although I'll admit that is very good news for Natsu and Lisanna, you know what we needed to talk to him about was very important, right?" Ur asked in a stern tone to hide her excitement from the good news.
"Hmm? What happened?" Alfonzo asked as he turned his gaze towards Elicia.
"You'll find out once we're in my office." Ur replied before Elicia could. "Now, let's go."
With that, Ur turned around and headed back to the elevator. She was closely followed by Gildarts, Irene, and Brandish. Meanwhile, Alfonzo looked at Elicia with confusion, thinking she coud have told him this over the phone, right? Still, after Elicia held his hand, the two of them followed Ur and the others into the elevator.
"What was that about?" Cana asked after taking a swig from a mug of ale. "Tear, do you know anything?"
"No, nothing at all." Ultear replied while shaking her head. "Mom hasn't told me about anything that sounded so important."
"I'm surprised Lici didn't tell us about it already." Mirajane said.
"Are you really?" Lucy asked with a wry smile. "Unless it has something to do with Alfonzo, Amar'e, or making clothes, she can be really absent-minded, you know?"
No one present could argue with that statement in good conscience. So, they decided to leave it alone.
"Well, if we're supposed to know about it, I'm sure the guild master and the others will let us know." Erza said in a solemn tone.
"Oh, that's right." Marin said as if she had just remembered. "Your mom didn't say anything about it, either, Erza?"
"No." Erza said, still looking slightly uncomfortable with having Irene referred to as her mother. "But if it's really that important, I'm sure we'll find out sooner rather than later."
"I hope everything is okay." Sun said in a concerned tone.
"Everything will be fine." Shizuka said with a smile as she pulled Sun into a hug while burying the mermaid's face between her breasts and gently stroking her hair. "They're telling Fonzie about it. And there are no problems he can't take care of, right?"
A few moments later, after not receiving an answer from Sun, Shizuka put on an expression filled with confusion. She then looked down, and when she saw Sun flailing her arms, with the strength in her arms weakening by the second, her confusion grew exponentially.
"Sun, is something wrong?" Shizuka asked, not aware of what she was doing to Sun.
"Um… I think you're suffocating her, Shizuka." Rika pointed out while smiling wryly.
"Huh? Really?" Shizuka exclaimed in panic as she pulled Sun away from her bosom. "Sun, are you okay?"
"My life just flashed past my eyes as I travelled down a dark tunnel with a beautiful light at the end, ya see?" Sun said in a loopy tone.
"*Sigh* Those things really are weapons of mass destruction." Cana said in an amazed tone. "But at the same time, I can't help but want to touch, squeeze, and grope them."
Not only Alfonzo's other women, but every man and most of the women on the guild hall's first floor nodded in agreement with Cana's statement. Shizuka, on the other hand, only tilted her head cutely while looking at Cana.
"Wait till I get married to Fonzie." Shizuka said. "then, I won't have an issue if you try touching them."
Hearing that, the same group of people a gulped down a mouthful of saliva. However, there was one person who acted completely different.
As soon as Shizuka's words fell, Rika, who has known Shizuka for as long as either of them could remember, snuck up behind her best friend, reached under her arms, and grasped Shizuka's breasts.
"Too bad most of you will never get to do this, though." Rika said with a smile. "You'll just have to burn in jealousy, won't you?"
That taunt caused most of the guild to burn with rage and envy. They burned with so much envy, in fact, that the brawl that ended because Alfonzo agreed to cook for Natsu and Lisanna's reception was restarted. Though, Rika was the main target of everyone's renewed aggression.