Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. I do own Alexei. He is my character.

Summary: Laxus wakes up to see Mest and a Rune Knight at his door. His father has been permanently captured and put in jail for life. He finds out that he's an older brother to a boy named Alexei. The mother wants nothing to do with him, so the responsibility falls on him and Makarov to take of him. If they don't want him, he will be sent to an orphanage where someone will eventually adopt him or he will be sent into foster care. Laxus agrees to take care of him because he won't abandon his little brother like his father did to his family. However, Laxus doesn't know the first thing about taking care of a baby. Luckily, the whole guild is here to help; some with excellent results, others with disastrous results. He specifically gets a lot of help from a certain celestial mage.

AN: I forgot that Lahar is dead. * smacks forehead *. It had been so long since I saw or read the manga, so it completely slipped my mind. Because of that, I had to change things. I was going to post this earlier, but I couldn't figure out a title for this story, so in the end I settled for this. If there are any particular things you want to see Laxus, try or struggle with let me know in the comments. I'm pretty sure peeing and pooping are going to be big ones, so maybe something else. I apologize for any spelling or grammar mistakes. Enjoy!

Laxus thought he was dreaming when he woke up that morning to see Mest and some random Rune Knight at his door. He found this strange because he was pretty sure he did nothing that warranted a personal visit from the Rune Knights themselves. What was even more bizarre was the sleeping baby strapped in a baby carrier on Mest's front.

The baby was wearing a striped long-sleeve with a denim overall jumpsuit that had a teddy bear printed in the front. On his head sat a knitted hat with the bear's ears.

Cute, thought Laxus as he stared at the baby. He didn't know that Mest settled down and had a kid, or maybe the kid was born out of wedlock. Or maybe the baby was his partner's, and it was to bring your child to work day. It was none of his business, but he wanted to know the purpose of this visit. Anything guild-related would be said to his grandfather, so it probably wasn't guild business.

"Cute kid," said Laxus, trying to make small-talk. He wasn't actually close with either of them, so the faster they talked, the faster they could leave him alone. "What's its name?"

Mest raised a brow at the word it. "His name is Alexei. He is actually the reason we are here."

"Sorry dude, but Fairy Tail isn't a daycare. Although if you want a babysitter, you can send in a request and one of our mages will answer the request for you." Laxus was about to close the door on them when Mest's next words stopped him in his tracks.

"He's your little brother," stated Mest, waiting for Laxus to compose himself. Seeing that he was listening, he continued. "As you know, prior to the attack by Tartarus, there was a prison break and a lot of prisoners escaped, your father included. During that time frame, he somehow fostered a child, which was how we found him. Eyewitnesses told he was trying to take the baby away and caught at the border."

"And you're positive he's his," asked Laxus, still trying to process all this information. He just found out his father had another son with another woman, and he is an older brother. How was he supposed to react?

Mest nodded. "We did a paternity test. It's a match." He placed a comforting hand on Laxus's shoulder. "I know this is hard to take in."

"You think," replied Laxus sarcastically, rolling his eyes at the obvious.

"But there was no one else who would take him," continued Mest, ignoring Laxus's snarky comment. "The mother is a prostitute and a drug addict. The council deemed her unfit to take care of him, not that she wanted to," he muttered the last part to himself, but Laxus could still hear it. "And his maternal family is unwilling to take him in, so we brought him here to see if you're willing to be his guardian." The random dude took out a bunch of papers out of his suitcase and handed it to Mest.

"Why bring him to me and not my grandfather?" This part made little sense to Laxus. Wouldn't his grandfather have higher favorability with cases like this, since he was Ivan's father? Then again, he had little knowledge about legal matters regarding kinship and custody.

"Did you forget? There's a week long guild meeting in Clover Town. The guild masters agreed to help those who are still affected by the Alvarez attack," explained Mest. "And according to the circumstances, they deemed you a better fit to take care of him than your grandfather."

"Wait what," Laxus was surprised to hear this. He thought that since he tried to take over the guild and got expelled, they would deem him unfit to take care of the child.

"Yes. You have a big enough home to raise a child compared to your grandfather's tiny apartment." Mest gestured to Laxus's house and its entirety. "You're one of the least destructive members of your guild when it comes to completing missions. You also make good money from those S-Class missions, according to your bank statements, providing financial stability for the child. Then there's the matter of your grandfather being a guild master. It won't be easy running a guild and taking care of a child as young as Alexei at the same time."

They did all their research prior to coming here. They're serious, thought Laxus in awe and anger at them for looking at his private information without permission. Laxus realized he forgot to ask the obvious. "When's it, I mean his birthday?" Laxus corrected himself when they directed a glare towards him.

"Two months from now. On October 31."

"That means he's ten months old." Laxus did the math in his head.

"As much as we would love to talk about the baby, we have other matters to get to, so let's wrap this up," the random dude said with a sour expression. He really did not want to be in a Fairy Tail mage's home any longer. Plus, there was the tight deadline given to them by the state.

"Now. Now Troy. This is a delicate matter." Mest tried to calm Troy down. "It's not wise to rush into things like this."

"But we need an answer from him today, if he wants to keep him," exclaimed Troy impatiently. "The government's the one who gave us the short time frame."

This confused Laxus. "Wait, what do you mean if I want to keep him. Isn't that a given?" Laxus thought he was already Alexei's guardian, and they brought him here to hand the child to Laxus.

"Actually, you're not Alexei's official guardian yet," laughed Mest nervously when he saw Laxus give him a glare. "The process isn't as simply as you think since Alexei's parents are still alive. You're currently only a temporary guardian and that is only because you passed the physical, mental, social, and financial conditions. In order to become his permanent guardian, we had to ask his parents to give up their parental rights," he explained.

"And did they?" Laxus wanted to know this now, before any other surprises came in the future. Last thing he needed was my father walking up to his doorstep and trying to take Alexei away.

"The mom did rather quickly. Your father on the other hand was a different story. It took us two months to get him to give it up." Mest and Troy cowered in fear when Laxus's glare intensified and sparks covered his body.

"You're telling me Alexei was in your custody for TWO MONTHS and no one thought to say hey your pops knocked up a gal and the way human nature intended, boom comes the baby." Laxus was exasperated at this point. He couldn't believe how incompetent they were. That was two months of precious bonding time. Getting to know his family and future nakama. It also would have been the perfect time to prepare his house for a baby. Now he had to start from scratch.

"Hey, he wasn't in my custody. I'm just the messenger and delivery-man," grumbled Troy.

"Anyway…" Mest tried to change the subject. "He is here now. We have all the paperwork ready for signing to transfer guardianship unless you don't want to become his guardian."

"What would happen if I don't?" Not that Laxus would not sign. Alexei was family, and he would be damned if he let his little brother be raised by strangers. Laxus wanted to know every single possibility and alternatives.

"They would send him to live in an orphanage with other children who have nowhere to go as a ward of the state. There's that possibility he may or may not be adopted." Mest didn't even bother to sugarcoat things. Laxus needed to know the truth of how his decision could affect the little boy strapped to his chest.

"Where do I sign?" Laxus wasn't hesitating for even a second. His mind was already made up. The faster he signed the papers, the faster he and Alexei could spend time together.

"Maybe we should do this inside. On a flat, hard surface," suggested Mest. "Plus, my back is hurting." He gestured to Alexei.

Laxus stepped aside and showed them inside into his living room. Before Mest sat down, he took Alexei out of the baby carrier. To Laxus's relief, despite all the shifting around, Alexei was still sleeping in Mest's lap. He still needed time to prepare and introduce himself.

Laxus sat on the couch with a pen in his hand. Troy placed the papers on the table and showed him where to sign. "Sign here. Initials here. Check here. Sign here as well. And again. Initials here. And we're done."

"Congratulations Laxus. You are officially the guardian of Alexei Dreyar," praised Mest. He gestured to Troy to hand him more papers. "This is all the information on Alexei. His birth records, medical history, family history, stuff like that."

Laxus glanced at the birth and medical records and frowned. "It says, here he had surgery for Hirschsprung's disease the week he was born." He read more of the doctor's notes. "Part of his colon was removed?"

Mest nodded. "Yes. The ganglion cells did not develop properly, so he had a hard time pooping. Luckily, they detected it early. The procedure was quick, and he's fine now." He added, "So if you see a scar on his abdomen it's from that."

Laxus let out a sigh of relief. He read the rest of the reports. Everything looked fine to him so far. He had some vaccinations done. The rest he would get when he turned 1.

"Now that everything's done we shall take our leave." Mest abruptly hands Alexei over to a startled Laxus who was unprepared by that move. They were pressed for time and spent longer than expected here.

"Are you just going to leave him like this with me? Didn't you bring anything?" Laxus wasn't equipped to take care of a baby. The news was just sprung on him. He didn't have any supplies or clothes or furniture. He might have to call for some backup just until he can get Alexei settled in.

"Oh, we brought something," Mest remembered, which caused Laxus to relax. So they didn't leave him in the dark. However, that feeling quickly turned to disappointment when he saw Mest throw a pile of books on his coffee table that appeared out of nowhere. "Here you go, they should help."

"The fuck is this." Laxus started at the pile, appalled. Did they seriously bring him books on parenting? He could easily look that up online on his phone. None of this was useful in his opinion. Where was the milk, the diapers, the crib? Everything a baby needed. What was he going to do when Alexei woke up?

"Books," stated Troy, answering seriously. "You know the things you use for reading."

"No shit," retorted Laxus, having a tremendous urge to punch Troy. He was really getting on his nerves.

"Language Laxus," reminded Mest. "Now that there's a baby here, you will have to cut back on swearing." Mest turned to Troy. "Let's go back and report everything went well."

"You guys seriously brought books," yelled Laxus. He felt Alexei shift in his arms, so he lowered his voice and adjusted his position so Alexei was more comfortable. His head laying on his chest and used his arms to support his head and back. At least he knew this much from movies. "I can look this stuff online," he whispered.

"Hey those books weren't cheap," said Troy defensively, walking towards the door. "The lady at the store said these were the best of the bunch."

A bunch of bullshit, he thought as he read the title of one book, How to help your baby poop. That shit wasn't complicated! It just comes out!

Laxus gawked at Troy and Mest as they left his house, slamming the door behind them. He was going to have to call his team for help. He needed baby supplies, asap.

Laxus felt something moving in his arms and looked down to see Alexei squirming. He felt the world stop when Alexei opened his blue eyes and stared at him. It was as if he was staring at the essence of his soul and was about to cast judgement on him, making him slightly uncomfortable. The next second was when all hell broke loose.

Alexei sleepily rubbed his eyes. In the process of moving his hands all over his face, one of his hands smacked the pacifier out of his mouth.

Uh oh, thought Laxus when he saw Alexei's lips quiver and his eyes water. He braced himself for what was coming.

"Wahhhhhhhhhhhhh," cried Alexei, tears streaming down his face. The high pitched shrieking caused Laxus to wince as the sound ruptured his sensitive ears.

Laxus didn't sign up for this.… Well, he did sign for it.