"Now then" Lucy said as she paced in the front of her classroom "Can anyone tell me what me what a theme is?" Surveying the room, she waited for any hands to rise up. When she noticed a girl in the back looking like she was contemplating raising her's she called on her. "Jasmine, do you know the answer?"

The girl glanced around a few times to see if she was really calling on her before quietly answering "The subject or lesson an author conveys in their writing."

"Correct" Lucy said with a nod before asking again "So can anyone tell me what the theme is for the novel were currently reading, The Grapes of Wrath?" Once again there were no hands raised so she called on the only kid who had seemed to be even reading the book instead of getting all the answer for homework online. "James, what is the theme?"

"Oh, um the theme is family?" he answered, his voice wavering slightly.

"Yes but add a bit more to it, that's a little too broad" Lucy said as she stopped her pacing and stood in front of the row of desks he was in.

"Um, family is a means of survival?"

"Good job, without each other, the Joads would have had no way of coping with the loss of their land or their move to California" Lucy said before continuing her pacing, glancing at the clock she saw she had only three more minutes until the bell rang "So they and many of the other workers, learned that they are stronger and safer when they reach out to other families, and when they create a sense of community. This was just one of the main themes that comes up in the book"

Heading over to her desk she picked up a stack of papers that had on it their homework for tonight. Walking down the aisle of desk she passed it out as she said "Now then, for homework tonight you are to read the final chapter in the Grapes of Wrath and fill out this organizer that will help you write your essay on one of the many themes in the story besides family." Just as she finished saying the last word the bell rang and the sounds of scraping chairs filled the classroom.

Sighing, Lucy went and sat down at her desk, she had a five minute break until she had to start teaching again and the next class was an overly rowdy bunch of seniors who were getting a little too excited about it being only two months until their graduation. Picking up her phone, she unlocked it to see she had two unread messages and a missed phone call.

Tapping on her messages, she saw one of the missed texts was from Natsu and the other one from the twins' babysitter and if she had sent her a message then that probably meant the missed call was from her. Lucy couldn't help but feel a feeling of dread come over her at this thought, she had really hoped they could keep the same babysitter for a record of four months but it was looking like that might not happen. Opting to skip over her message, she opened Natsu's instead.

"Hey just thought I'd let you know that Emily says that she's quitting for real this time. I'm guessing Kasai did something…again"

Well it turned out her gut feeling was right, they were down another babysitter and it was probably going to end up being their daughters fault, not on purpose but it's definitely going to end up being connected.

Her fingers hovered over the keyboard as she tried to think of something to text back to him but the bell signaling the start of class rang. Placing her phone back down she decided they could talk on the way home; this was the final period of the day. So she did her best to try and teach her class what to expect on their next big test to only have about four actually listen. The other fifteen, well they seemed to bust discussing what they planned to do over the summer.

Once the final bell finally rang and they all ran out of the class, she flopped herself back down in her chair with a small sigh. It was only Tuesday and they were acting like it was Friday. With a grumble she pulled out her lesson plan and scratched in what they hadn't finished in class and how she'd fit it into the next class as well as adding notes such as what papers she'd need to print out the next morning.

She was just considering starting to grade the stack of papers she had when she heard a knock. Looking up she saw Natsu leaning in the doorway with a tired smile on his face, as well as some small stubble on his chin.

"You forgot to shave this morning" Lucy noted as she picked up her stack of papers before sliding them into her bag.

"Well it's kinda hard when it's your turn in the morning to deal with two crazed kids" Natsu said as he absentmindedly ran his hand over it.

"What do you mean by that?" Lucy said with a small chuckle as she slung her bag over her shoulder and stood up "It's more like they don't have any energy at all."

"Well yeah" Natsu said with a shrug "But it's still hard trying to wake them up before we leave so they don't sleep in 'til noon."

"Maybe they'd be better behaved if we did" Lucy said as the two of them headed out to the parking lot.

"Yeah, you're probably right" Natsu said before his eyes widened "Which reminds me, apparently Kasai decided that not only could Happy fly, but he could teach her how to fly as well."

"So is that the reason we no longer have a babysitter?" Lucy asked with a sigh, hoping that neither of them actually made it into the air.

"Yes and no" Natsu said with a small shake of his head.

"So there's more?" Lucy asked, beginning to wonder if she should give the poor girl a little extra for her troubles.

"Apparently Nash hid from her for about two hours and she was about ready to call the police when she found him sitting outside on the middle of the sidewalk just reading" Natsu said "And then when she was telling him why he couldn't just do that Kasai claimed they had been playing hide and seek."

"For two hours?" Lucy asked with a raised eyebrow.

"She claims she forgot they were playing" Natsu said as they reached the car "Why am I always the one that ends up getting these phone calls and not you?"

Opening the car door and getting in Lucy replied "Because I just ignore them since you always pick them up."

"And what would happen if all of a sudden I didn't pick up?" Natsu asked as he closed the car door and started the car.

"Why wouldn't you?" Lucy asked.

"Touché" Natsu said "So do you have any idea what babysitter or nanny we haven't driven away yet?"

"No" Lucy said "I'm pretty sure she was the only one left that does all day during the week. We might have to add the extra forty minute travel time and just take them to the closest day care."

"Forty less minutes of sleep" Natsu said sadly "It would be such a terrible sacrifice."

"Yeah but that's our last option" Lucy said as she shook her head. She loved the two of them to death but they could be such a handful. She could still remember the day they brought them home as if it was yesterday. But how was she ever going to forget the day when she was handed not one but two crying babies. She and Natsu loved them to death but those first few sleepless weeks had been hard to get through with their sanity intact.

When it had come time for Lucy to go back to work they had looked into putting the twins into a nearby daycare only to find the nearest one the next town over. While it was only about twenty minutes away, it wasn't exactly convenient to their already twenty minute drive to the school and it didn't help they would have to go in the opposite direction of the school to drop the kids off. They had labeled it off as too far out of their way at the time, but now it was looking like they would be giving up those precious extra minutes of sleep.

"So" Natsu said "How early are we talking about setting the alarm clock now?"

"Probably almost an entire hour" Lucy said with a sigh as she leaned her head back against the head-rest of the seat.

"Goodbye seven hours of sleep, hello six" Natsu said mournfully and a tad too dramatically.

"Just go to sleep earlier" Lucy chided as she rolled her eyes.

"Well do you plan to go to sleep earlier?" Natsu asked "Last I checked half the time I'm up so late is to make sure you don't fall asleep while grading papers Miss I Need To Grade All My Papers At Once."

"Shouldn't that be a Mrs?" Lucy asked.

"No because last I checked I won't be found trying to grade a stack of papers at all hours of the night" Natsu said as they pulled up to their house. They had been planning to just stay in the old apartment for the first few months after the baby had been born. But once finding out it was going to be babies they figured it might be better to just move into a house.

Getting out of the car, Lucy grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulders as Natsu headed off to go face the babysitter first. Opening the front door, he headed inside and could hear a theme song for one of the numerous kids shows coming from the TV. He could see the twins sitting on the couch and one very angry or stressed, babysitter heading his way.

"Hey Emily" Natsu said "So um-"

"I'm quitting for good this time" she said as she breezed by him "Goodbye."

Natsu cringed as he heard the door slam and then open a few seconds later. "So I take it that didn't go too well?" Lucy asked as she closed the door behind her.

"She didn't even bother to get her money. She just stormed out" Natsu said, a little taken back.

"I'll go find the number for the daycare, you go talk to the twins" Lucy said as she shrugged her bag off onto the ground.

"Uh-huh" Natsu said as he glanced over at the twins who were now looking over the couch at their parents. He still couldn't get over it sometimes how alike they looked, other than one big detail. Kasai's pink hair stood out in stark comparison to Nash's blond locks. "Do you two know what you did today?" Natsu asked as he crossed his arms and tried to make the best stern face he could think to make.

"I tried to learn how to fly" Kasai said as she flapped her arms up and down.

"Yeah, me and your Mom heard about it from Emily" Natsu said doing his best to keep his expression in place.

"She told you" Kasai said her eyes lighting up "Did she tell you that Happy can fly?"

"She told us that you said he can" Natsu said realizing quickly that this kind of treatment wasn't going to work on Kasai.

"Yeah Happy told me he could fly!" she cried as she pointed over at Happy who was currently tucked up into a ball and fast asleep.

"Kasai, Happy is a cat. He can't talk and he can't fly either. Just like how people can't fly, which means you can't either" Natsu said glancing over to see if was having any sort of effect on Nash, best to know whether or not he would need to change strategies. Nash seemed a lot more affected by Natsu's stare then Kasai who was the one with it currently on her.

"I could fly" Kasai said as she crossed her arms and a pout settled across her face "I just need to flap my arms really hard" and as if to prove this point she began to flap her arms around again.

"Uh-huh?" Natsu said as his eyebrow went up, this was beginning to look more and more like a Lucy conversation to him. So he turned his attention to the other perpetrator, Nash.

"I almost forgot what you did mister" Natsu said as he turned his gaze to his son. Kasai stopped flapping her arms for a second and looked over at her brother.

Nash pointed at himself, a guilty look spreading across his face.

"Yes you" Natsu said as he stood firm, his arms still crossed "Emily looked for you for two hours only to find you outside reading. Care to tell me why you were outside?"

"Me and Kasai were playing hide and seek" Nash said as he looked down at the sofa, avoiding his dad's eyes.

"Uh-huh, and what else?" Natsu asked.

"And Kasai was taking a long time looking for me so I went back inside and got a book to read while I hid" Nash said as he continued to avoid his dad's gaze.

"Do you know why what happened wasn't right?" Natsu asked hoping he'd get through to one of the twins.

Nash nodded his head and answered "I shouldn't have hid outside where no one could see me and is should have gone back inside if Kasai hadn't found me after a long time."

"Okay then, I hope you've learned your lesson" Natsu said as he watched Nash nod his head. Now all that was left to do was get through to Kasai, which was harder than it would seem.

"What about you Kasai" Natsu said turning back to Kasai "Do you know what you did wrong?"

"I can fly" Kasai said, determination in her voice.

"Yeah I don't think so dear" Lucy said sneaking up from behind Natsu.

"Mommy" Kasai said as she held her arms up.

"Hello Kasai" Lucy said as she picked her daughter up. Resting her on her hip she looked at her with a stern gaze and asked "You do know you can't fly Kasai, you're a human and we can't fly."

"But why not?" Kasai said as she crossed her arms across her chest as another pout formed on her face.

"Because we don't have wings" Lucy said "Birds can fly because they have wings. You and Happy don't have wings which means you can't fly."

Kasai was quiet for a few minutes as she seemed to soak in this information before saying "So I can't fly?"

"Sorry dear, you can't" Lucy said as she pressed a kiss to her temple "Now then I think we have something else to talk about." Setting Kasai back down on the couch she looked at the two of them as she said "Emily is not going to be watching you two for us anymore."

"Why?" Nash asked, his brow furrowed.

"She..." Lucy said as she looked over at Natsu for help.

"She has to move to another town so she can't watch you two anymore" Natsu said as Lucy gave him a nod as a silent thank you.

"Oh" the two of them said in unison.

"So now the two of you are going to stay at a daycare while Dad and I are at work" Lucy said as she clapped her hands together. "You'll get to meet other kids that are your age, doesn't that sound like fun?"

"Yeah" Kasai as she began to bounce up and down. Nash on the other hand looked a bit, well, frightened.

"It's going to be fine" Natsu said as he rustled Nash's hair.

"Well at least that's all settled" Lucy said with a sigh as the twins quickly went back to watching the show they had been watching.

"I'll begin to mourn for the sleep I'll lose" Natsu said sadly as Lucy hit him in the shoulder.

"Oh calm the act drama queen" Lucy said "You'll just be going to sleep earlier."

"And will you?" Natsu asked.

"I'll try" Lucy said with a small smile "I do have some papers I need to grade."

"Then grade them now" Natsu said before pressing his lips onto her forehead "I'll make dinner, you just grade your papers."

"Oh what a charmer you are" Lucy said, placing her hand over her forehead.

"Isn't that why you married me?" Natsu said with a chuckle.

"Yes is suppose" Lucy said as she leaned over and pressed a chaste kiss on his lips "So then what are we having for dinner?"

"It's going to be a surprise" Natsu said wiggling his eyebrow.

"I hope the surprise won't be you setting the oven on fire" Lucy said jokingly.

"Hardy har, har" Natsu said sarcastically "A guy sets the oven on fire one time!"

"Oh I'm sure you've gotten better at not catching things on fire after all these years of practice" Lucy said, patting his cheek before going over and taking all the papers out of her bag. Natsu had already headed into the kitchen once she had taken out all of her papers. Getting up she went over and sat on the couch by the twins.

Taking a deep breath she took out the first paper and her pen. Looking over it she felt a feeling of happiness just wash over her. Here she was sitting next to her two (semi-crazy) kids and a loving husband who sometimes seemed like a third kid. She couldn't help but feel lucky that she had been given this life. Sure she had worked for it but fate was always involved in some way.

She had only moved to Magnolia by random, she hadn't planned to apply to Fairy High but she did when she just happened to notice a position in the newspaper She could've gone an entirely different path but here she was feeling perfectly content with her life, something she had thought she'd never have after her mother's death.

Smiling to herself, a chuckle almost escaped from her lips. She couldn't help but feel this happy, and she hoped Natsu would be the same when she told him they may be adding a new addition soon.