Hello! This story will be different from the previous one, containing a whole new set of villains compared to the last one and dire situations for our beloved characters. This chapter is a moment of levity, since our two main characters are caught up in a situation that is amusing for one and irritating to the other. I hope you all enjoy it!

Chapter 1: Peace

It was almost surprising that, after all these years, a war or two hadn't broken out since the great battle against an evil Dragon. Fairy Tail was still the strongest guild in Fiore, also the most destructive, and in the recent years the guild was starting to pay for it. The most amusing part is that the new Magic Council, appointed not long after the massacre of the old one, thought that they could keep Fairy Tail in check. However, there was a new law passed that if the destruction was bad enough, the people responsible would be imprisoned for a short period of time and then a trial would be set. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened to Natsu and me. Due to the fact that we are both strong S-Class Wizards and Dragon Slayers, we both tended to cause a lot of damage.

My name is Timara Dragneel, formerly Timara Wyvernia, and I am a Shadow Dragon Slayer for Fairy Tail. Natsu and I got married seven years ago and had an angel of a daughter named Saphira. They'd both healed up my emotional and mental scars from losing my memory as a young girl after I was nearly beaten to death just for using magic. Another great help was my brother, Rogue, who belonged with Sabertooth.

"Timara," I heard a voice whisper in front of me and I looked up from the stone floor at my mate and husband. Natsu looked overly pleased with himself since he had a smug smile on his face. I didn't think it was possible for someone to look so thrilled while behind bars and in Magic-sealing cuffs so neither one of us could use our Dragon Slayer Magic.

"You could look just a little less happy about being in this situation, you know," I grumbled, reaching up to push my long blue black hair back over my shoulder. Thankfully, they didn't cuff our hands behind our backs, mostly because it would be pointless to do so. "I realize that you love demolishing things, but this means we'll be here for a while."

He just grinned evilly at me before saying, "We finished the job at least. I can't help it if my Fire Dragon Slayer Magic mixed with your Shadow Dragon Slayer Magic and annihilated that huge statue."

"Don't forget about the courthouse behind it," I reminded him in a flat tone of voice. "There was also one of the Magic Council member's vacation houses taken out in the blast wave."

"You just won't let that go, will you?" he sighed, the grin still in place as he watched my expressions shift.

I let my thoughts drift back to the incident in question, my gaze shifting down to the floor as I remembered what happened. Hours beforehand, it was decided that we would be taking another job since our Guild Master Makarov told us that it was about time we left Magnolia on a time sensitive request he had received recently. The job was to help out the local knights in a port-like town called Cedar since they had an infestation of Dark Wizards that had banded together. Makarov figured that since the two of us made a great team, even more so after being married for seven years now, that we could take out the Dark Wizards in Cedar. So Natsu and I said goodbye to our daughter Saphira, giving her a hug before letting Wendy and Romeo watch out for her. Those two were her friends and also like her babysitters as well. Wendy would make sure no harm came to her while Romeo would keep her entertained with his Rainbow Fire Magic, since it was similar to Natsu's Fire Dragon Slayer Magic, and Saphira would be entranced by it. It hurt to be parted with her, even for such a short time, but we soon left with our partners flying us to our destination. My partner, an Exceed by the name of Tyger, purred a little in an attempt to comfort me and I smiled a little back at her.

After we made it to Cedar, it didn't take long before we saw the problem we were sent to solve. Outside a tavern was an enormous group of Dark Wizards, seeming to have been waiting for us the entire time while a group of knights appeared on the scene as well. The knights knew of our reputations and stepped back before the fight started. Wanting to get this whole thing over with, Natsu used his Fire Dragon's Roar while I used my Shadow Dragon's Roar. We were too close together when our Magic was used so it merged in midair, blasting through our opponents and taking out everything in its path. That led to us being arrested on the spot, so Ty hid in my shadow as she dragged Happy with her so that they wouldn't be captured with us. When no one was looking, I made them escape later on and they followed us until we were locked up in our cell, where we had been in now for hours.

"There's no need to mope about this," Natsu said, pulling me from my thoughts and I glared up at him. "It's not like we're going to be leaving any time soon. We should just make the best of the situation at hand."

"And how in the hell do you suggest we do that?" I asked, looking through the bars and down the hallway, hoping that Ty and Happy stayed out of sight.

"First, we should come up with a plan," he said and I looked back at him. When we both stayed silent for a few minutes, he seemed sheepish as he whispered, "This is the part where you come up with one."

I couldn't help but chuckle at his words, making him huff and turn his gaze from me. As always, I was the one who came up with a contingency plan while he just barreled his way through by brute force alone. He definitely preferred to be the powerhouse while I was extremely speedy to assess the situation and defeat my enemies with my swiftness. I sat up straight on the bench, stretching out my stiff muscles from having sat there for so long.

"Well, the plan is we wait for our trial, then you stay silent while I talk our way out of it," I told him simply. "Oh, how I despise this new law…"

"You and me both," Natsu grumbled. "Do you know how many things I've destroyed?"

"Let's see, the total now runs to about 3,512 objects, give or take a few," I told him nonchalantly, watching him look up at me in surprise.

"You've counted?"

"Actually, there was a bet running back at the guild."

His eyes narrowed as he stared at me harshly and I looked away, feeling a bit awkward. "What was the bet?"

"How many things you could destroy before the Magic Council took action against you," I told him guiltily. "Whoever guesses the closest number wins. If it makes you feel any better, I had the closest number and will be getting everything in the betting pool."

He sighed. "What was your number?"

"It was 3,515. I picked a set of random numbers with Saphira."

He burst out laughing, leaning back against the wall behind the bench in his amusement. "I should be angry about this, but the fact that you brought our daughter into it makes it funnier!"

Before either of us could say anything more, footsteps could be heard echoing throughout the hallways before a group of knights appeared to finally take us to our trial. Two of their number had a long pole with a hook, one of them opening the door to our cell and then both of them hooked a loop in our cuffs to drag us along behind them. I shrugged as I let them lead us to wherever the trial would be held. Due to the fact that the last set of Magic Council members died while out in the field, I knew that the new members would be using Thought Projection and would be wearing hooded robes to keep their identities a secret. Just as I had predicted, nine hooded figures that seemed to flicker around the edges sat behind a large desk as we were pulled in front of them. The knights pulled the hooks free from our cuffs before walking over to the edges of the room.

"Timara Dragneel. Natsu Dragneel," the tallest man in the middle of the desk said and I knew he had to be the Chairman. "Do you know why you are here today?"

"I believe it's because we are being wrongfully punished when all we came to this town to do was to help out the knights stationed here," I told him, a few of their number gasping at my audacity.

"You are here since you both destroyed a large piece of the town," the man said.

"No, we defeated a large group of Dark Wizards and just so happened to blow up a gold statue, large courthouse, and a tacky looking vacation home. Judging by the sour look on your face that I can see through the shadows under your hood, I'd bet a large quantity of Jewels that it belonged to you."

"Timara, what the hell are you doing?" Natsu hissed at me under his breath but I ignored him as I stared up at the Chairman, who I could see glaring angrily back.

"You impudent little—" the Chairman began to say and I knew his last word was something nasty but thankfully the woman next to him cut him off.

"Chairman, these two are heroes," the woman said softly but Natsu and I could listen to her perfectly with our exceptional hearing. "One stopped the Dragon Acnologia while the other absorbed Etherion when the self-destruction protocol was put into place. We don't want them as enemies."

I gave the Chairman a falsely sweet smile, allowing my normally golden eyes to flicker red for a split second when he glanced back at us. I saw his shock before he could properly conceal it, remembering that I could see through the shadows left by the hood of his coat, and he glared fiercely at me while assessing the woman's words. He knew that one wrong move would cause us to make the Magic Council's, more specifically his, lives miserable as payback and he finally nodded.

"Since you are both… 'heroes,'" the Chairman said, spitting out that last word like it was poison before continuing on, "I won't sentence you with more jail time for your crimes." I grinned, turning to high five Natsu the best I could while being cuffed when the Chairman cleared his throat to get our attention back. "However, you will be sentenced to fix the damage that was caused and I will be supervising this endeavor."

"Easy peasy, I can have it done in ten minutes," I said, walking over to one of the guards and holding up my cuffs for them. "I need these off though."

One of them pulled out a key and slid it into the keyhole on the cuffs, unlocking them both and I took a step back as Natsu had the same done for him. I rubbed my wrists to get the feeling back in them when I saw that all of the Magic Council had disappeared except for one. I could see from her slight form that it was the woman who stood up for us, her black robe immaculately unwrinkled as she waited for me to approach the desk with Natsu. I smiled at her, making her look a bit uncomfortable as she shifted her weight from left leg to her right.

"Hello, Olly," I said to her, watching her flinch slightly. "I know you told me that you were a member of the Magic Council, but I wasn't expecting for you to be holding the 2nd Seat. That's kind of impressive."

"I told you last time, stop calling me Olly!" she huffed at me. "My name is Olivia Xanderson, so you can call me Liv or Olivia, but definitely not Olly!"

"Timara, how do you know a Magic Council member?" I heard Natsu ask, seeing out of the corner of my eye that he seemed very confused.

"Remember when we went to Mt. Hakobe a few months ago to find Romeo after he got lost trying to finish a job?" I asked him and then continued on when he gave me a nod. "Well, when we split up to search for him, I went up near the peak of the mountain and heard screams, so I ran and finally saw a woman trying to fight off at least five Blizzardverns. Obviously it was too much for one person to take on alone, so I helped her out by blasting them with my Roar and then picked off the rest with my shadows. Afterwards, we introduced ourselves and became fast friends, also I discovered that the reason she was even on the mountain was because she had a house here. She told me that she was a member of the Magic Council and that from now on she would try to advocate our value to the rest of them."

"I'd managed to get three others to agree that Fairy Tail is an asset to Fiore until this incident occurred," Olivia told me. "You do realize that you just squandered all of my hard work, right? We're never going to repeal the destruction law now."

"I bet you about 50,000 Jewels that I can have more progress and get the law repealed in ten minutes compared to your six months of working at it," I told her with a grin, extending my hand for her to shake. "So what do you say about that, Olly? Are you up to the challenge?"

"Oh, you're on," Olivia said as she clasped my hand. I was slightly surprised that was possible with a Thought Projection, but didn't think anything more of it as we all wandered outside the building with a small group of knights behind us.

As we walked down a few streets, I saw a blue cat walking alongside another cat with the markings of a tiger, her red eyes blazing as she caught sight of me. "Mara!" she shrieked ecstatically, leaping at me and I hugged her tightly. "I'm so glad that you're ok!"

"Of course I'm ok," I laughed, holding Tyger, or Ty for short, in my arms. "You had doubts that I wouldn't be?"

"No, but I was still worried about you!"

I kept hold of her as we walked to the town square, once there I told Ty to stand back a few feet with Natsu and Happy. I saw the Chairman standing at the outside of the square with the rest of the Magic Council, Olivia also standing beside him and I looked at the destruction before me. The sun was beginning to set now and the shadows lengthened, which was a good thing for me and my Shadow Dragon Slayer Magic. I let out a wave of Magic and the shadows rippled before wrapping around each piece of the rubble. As I pictured what each building and statue looked like, the shadows obeyed and moved around to move each piece into place until they were completely fixed, even the tacky looking vacation home. Honestly, the Chairman should have thanked me for destroying it in the first place because it was an eyesore.

"I'm surprised that you're actually able to create things as well with that devastating magic of yours that decimated the area around here," the Chairman said snidely. "Maybe you should keep that in mind the next time you take a job."

That was it. That was the last straw that broke the camel's back. I had felt slightly bad about breaking all of those things, but the moment he acted like a jerk I was done. I whipped around, my eyes flashing red and I almost ran for the man when Natsu took a few steps forward to grab my arm firmly. I let out a growl, baring my fangs at him and I could see that he looked shocked by my behavior. It was a well-known fact that Dragon Slayers were more Dragon like than human, but he seemed to have never been close enough to one of us to be able to figure that out.

"Now, you listen here, you sniveling excuse for a Chairman," I snarled, fighting Natsu's grip on me only to have him hold on tighter. "I didn't want to do this, but you left me with no choice. Since you seem to hold that vacation home in high regard, even more so than anything else you must own or you wouldn't be acting this way, you should know that every piece of that building is being held up with my Shadow Dragon Slayer Magic. I have the power to just snap my fingers and let the whole thing fall apart, no matter how far away I am from it. Now, because you have just angered me beyond belief, I demand that you fulfill one of my requests right this moment or I will make it collapse."

"You wouldn't dare," the Chairman said, glaring sternly at me. "I will arrest you right on the spot!"

"Actually, she would," Natsu informed him calmly. "It's been a bad day and we're both rather irritated. Do as she asks because she will make good on her threat and I can guarantee that we won't be arrested for a second time today."

The man watched us warily now that he knew how dire his situation was, then finally nodded in acknowledgement. "What is your request?"

"Remember that lovely law you passed that caused us to be arrested? Get rid of it. I want it repealed right at this very moment," I told him, then immediately cut him off when he began to splutter out that it was impossible. "I don't really care, nor do I want to hear your excuses! If you want to keep your vacation home intact, I suggest you hold a vote to have the law repealed now!"

Jumping a little when I began to yell, he immediately turned to the other Magic Council members and it was voted to repeal the law. With a smug smirk, I watched them slowly disappear one by one until only Olivia and the Chairman were left. The man looked absolutely livid as he scowled and I could hear that he was grinding his teeth together in his rage.

"How dare you force my hand like that," he said.

"By the way, you better not try to find a way to pass a law that is in any way similar to the one you just got rid of and no loopholes to bring it back either or I will blast the house to shreds," I told him with a smile. "I'll be paying attention to what you're all doing just in case." I watched him grumble angrily before he winked out of existence entirely.

Olivia pulled down her hood once he left and I could see an amused smirk on her face. She had wavy lavender hair that stopped at her shoulders and midnight blue eyes, seeming to glitter gleefully as she watched me. Her hair was now longer than I had remembered as well since it was short and spiky the last time I had seen her on Mt. Hakobe.

"That was awesome, Timara!" Olivia said delightedly.

"However, you seem to have forgotten our bet," I reminded her. "Where's my 50,000 Jewels, Olly?"

Her gaze turned stony as she looked at me. "Stop calling me Olly. As for your winnings, I obviously can't give them to you right now since I'm using a Thought Projection. I will send you the spoils of our bet in exactly two days' time. You know I'm good for it."

"Not only that, but I know where to find you so I'll get my reward one way or another," I told her with a laugh before she disappeared as well. I looked up at the darkening sky, then to Natsu as I began to work things out in my head. "It's up to you. Do you want to stay here for the night before heading back to Magnolia or do you just want to fly back now?"

"I can see it in your eyes which option you want me to choose," Natsu said with a smirk. "You want to get home as fast as we can so we get to see our daughter before she goes to bed."

I hugged him tightly, wrapping my arms around his neck as he chuckled, embracing me just as tight. He kissed me quickly on the lips before moving away a bit so our partners could grab us and fly us back to Magnolia. A couple hours later and it was now dark, I was the one with the very best eyesight at this moment and we rushed down to a mansion on the outskirts of Magnolia, one that was right on a hill beside a lake. I could see that the lights were on in the living room before we landed and we walked hand in hand to the door, pulling out my key with my free hand and unlocking the door so we could walk inside where the light from the chandelier in the main hall shone down on us.

Once we all walked into the living room, there were two figures sitting in the chairs beside the fire who immediately jumped up when they caught sight of us. The one on the right was one of my dearest friends, Zeref. His black hair was spiky and unruly, just like his dark clothing was wrinkly and skewed. He had a huge white toga like scarf wrapped around his shoulder and waist as his coat flapped open. The other person was Mavis Vermilion, who was still in her Ethereal body and loved chatting with Zeref. I looked over at the couch and saw that Saphira was curled up there, fast asleep and seeming as if she had tried to stay up for as long as she could before she passed out. I took a closer look and saw that she had used her new Magic to change her hair color. The top half was my blue black hair color while the other half was dark pink, making it look like there were streaks of pink mixed into the black.

I gazed up at the two of them, shooting a glare in their direction and they both looked very confused. "Is there a particular reason why my daughter was allowed to change her hair like that?" I asked them sternly, Mavis looking puzzled as Zeref's shifty stare avoided me entirely.

"Well, she's your daughter, Timara," Zeref said quietly. "She's just as stubborn as you and she said that she wanted to be more like that both of you. She sees you both as her role models."

"She even decided to cut her hair," Mavis told me. "I watched her do it."

I groaned in frustration and slid my fingers through my bangs to push them back, shaking my head as I looked at her. "You really shouldn't say something like that to me while I'm trying to reprimand the both of you. It really doesn't help your cases any."

I heard an airy sigh as Saphira rolled over onto her side towards me and Natsu walked to my side as she blearily opened her eyes. Her tawny golden eyes looked hazy as she rubbed the sleep from them, seeming so exhausted that I just wanted to stay silent so she could fall back asleep. I didn't like waking her like this. Then she turned her head, almost as if she meant to speak to Zeref or Mavis when she finally caught sight of the both of us. Her eyes widened and it looked as if she was trying to figure out if this was a dream or reality.

"Mommy? Daddy?" she asked as she sat up, so I crouched down in front of her to put me at eye level with her.

"We're back, baby," I told her with a smile. "I'm so sorry that it took this long to get here. We had a bit of a mishap that made us late."

"It's ok, mommy!" she told me, beaming brightly and showing me her tiny fangs as she did so. "I'm just happy that you and daddy are back!"

With that, she immediately launched herself at me and threw her arms around my neck. I embraced her tightly and held her for a few seconds before she let go to do the same thing to Natsu. He chuckled picked her up entirely, making her squeal in joy as he set her back down on his shoulders. She giggled as he carried her to the stairs and up to her room, which was the one right next to ours. I watched Ty and Happy follow after them since they both occasionally slept beside Saphira to protect her during the night in case someone ever tried to get in. They would give us enough time to burst into the room, but Ty could shift into an enormous tiger form so I wasn't worried.

I looked back at Zeref and Mavis, who were both now looking down at their feet in an attempt to not look guilty. "Alright, you two," I said, making them look up at me, "you're supposed to be her babysitters, not her enablers. If she wants to do something drastic like this again, tell her to wait until she can ask Natsu or me. Also, did Wendy and Romeo drop her off here when Fairy Tail closed up for the night or did you go get her from the guild hall?"

"They brought her back here," Zeref informed me. "They said that they weren't sure what to do since you weren't supposed to be away for so long, so instead they figured that she might as well be with us until you came back."

"Good decision on their part," I said to myself, bidding them both good night with a wave of my hand as I walked to the stairs.

As I walked along the hallway, I could hear the faint sounds of humming coming from Saphira's room. I stepped softly on the carpet now to stay as silent as possible, making my way to her door and opening it slowly. I looked in the door to see Saphira falling asleep as Natsu hummed a lullaby to her. I recognized it as the one that Natsu's foster mother Diamantina, a deceased Crystal Dragon that had been Igneel's mate, used to hum to him whenever he had a nightmare or was feeling sick as a child. He hummed it to me once a long time ago, back before the war with a Dark Guild named Black Eclipse that had allied with Acnologia. Once Saphira had fallen asleep with our two partners at her sides, Natsu stood up and turned around, catching sight of me watching him in the doorway. He took careful steps over to me, staying as quiet as possible as he walked out of the door to me and then shut it behind him to keep Saphira from waking.

"How long were you standing there?" he asked me curiously.

"Only for a minute or so," I told him with a shrug. "How long have you done this?"

"Ever since she was born," he said with a smile. "If I heard her crying in the middle of the night, I would go over to her and hum the lullaby to her. I just hated how exhausted you looked back then, so I thought I would do something to help you."

"That's awfully sweet of you," I said with a smile, moving closer to him and wrapping my arms around him as he did the same to me. "Thank you for being so thoughtful."

"It's not a big deal, I enjoy the moment of peace I have with her."

He then let go just long enough before he grabbed my hand to lead me to our room. It had been a long day of strife and all we really wanted to do was go to sleep. I was still livid about today's turn of events, especially since it was supposed to be an easy job. At least I could say that I coerced the Magic Council into getting rid of that awful law that put almost all of Fairy Tail into jail for a short period of time. Makarov would definitely breathe easier knowing that his children wouldn't be penalized for mistakes that could occur while on the job.

Natsu opened the door and we walked into our room. I gazed at the bookshelf in front of the wall opposite of us and looked at all of the trophies that Natsu had collected over the years from the jobs he had taken. There were a few crystals, tickets, scales, even a few pictures of the two of us either alone together or with a few members of Fairy Tail. There was a recent picture of our little family that was recent, Saphira around the same age in the photo as she is now. I smiled as I looked up at it, seeing another picture beside it that was of me with my brother Rogue. Natsu kept trying to hide the picture since he and my brother never seemed to get along, a fight always starting when the two of them came together during a visit. It reminded me that it was Rogue's turn to visit us here since we had all packed up to go to the town nearby Sabertooth last time, so it would most likely be soon when he appeared. With a tug, Natsu pulled me over to the bed and we curled up together under the covers, practically passing out within seconds after our heads touched the pillows.