117 The Potential Horrors of Puppy Dog Eyes

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.

June 3, x784.

With Alfonzo at the wheel of the Escalade, he, Elicia, Natsu, Happy, and Lucy traveled straight to Magnolia after the cleanup in Hargeon was taken care of. Although Hargeon was not that far from Magnolia, they still arrived during the breakfast rush at the guild hall due to the time it took to get everything settled after Natsu's fight with Bora.

Although Elicia, Happy, and Lucy were able to get a few hours of sleep in the car, Alfonzo and Natsu had been awake all night. While Alfonzo stayed up because he was driving, Natsu was a bit different. His motion sickness kept him from falling asleep. Surprisingly, however, he managed to not vomit in the space behind the back seat during the trip.

Then, as soon as the Escalade pulled up outside of the guild hall, Alfonzo, Elicia and Lucy immediately opened their car doors and, along with Happy, stepped out of the vehicle.

While Lucy marveled at Fairy Tail's guild hall, Elicia smiled while watching her reaction. Alfonzo, on the other hand, opened the back of the Escalade. As soon as he did, Natsu burst out, fell on his hands and knees, and started kissing the ground.

"Oh, solid ground! I've missed you so much!" Natsu cried.

"Natsu, you're such a drama queen." Happy said as he flew around Natsu with a smirk on his face.

"Shut up, Happy!" Natsu shouted back. "You could never understand what I went through.

Meanwhile, Lucy finally found the words to say regarding the construction in front of her. Meanwhile, Alfonzo had joined her and Elicia in front of the guild's doors.

"Wow… It's so much bigger than I thought it would be." Lucy said absent-mindedly.

"That's what she said." Alfonzo replied instinctively.

Alfonzo's statement caused Lucy to turn her head and look at him blankly.

"Sorry, I can't help it." Alfonzo replied with a shrug. "If I don't say it, it harms me physically."

Lucy's blank gaze turned into a skeptical one with Alfonzo's follow up.

"I know it sounds like nonsense, Lucy." Elicia said while patting Lucy on the shoulder. "But it's actually true. If he doesn't get it out of his system, his stomach cramps up severely."

Elicia's explanation caused Lucy's head to snap in the opposite direction, looking at Elicia with disbelief in her eyes.

"It's true, I swear." Elicia said with a wry smile. "One time we even tested it. We made him not say it. Then, we took him to Miss Porlyusica… Oh, that's Fairy Tail's healer. Anyway, when she checked his condition, she made it clear that he was not faking it."

With the further explanation, Lucy continuously shifted her gaze between Alfonzo and Elicia to see if either of them would give away that they were lying. However, to her surprise, she could not detect any falsehood from either of them.

In fact, everything Elicia said was true. She and Cana, who thought Alfonzo was just a fan of perverted jokes like that, which he was, wanted to catch him in a lie. Especially Elicia, she knew Alfonzo did not have a condition like that in their past life, so she thought he was just pulling Cana's leg. But Porlyusica's checkup cleared any doubts she might have had.

"Anyway, let's go inside." Alfonzo said, taking a step toward the guild hall's doors. "I'm sure you want to join right away and meet your new family, right?"

That question pushed all Lucy's thoughts about Alfonzo's… condition to the back of her mind. Instead, she smiled cheerfully and followed behind Alfonzo.

A few minutes before the Escalade pulled up in front of the guild hall, Alfonzo and Elicia's group of friends were sitting at their usual table. By now, they were all mostly grown up.

Cana now stood at 5'11". (1.8 m) Laki and Bisca both stood at 5'7". (1.7 m) Alzack was 5'9". (1.75 m) Levy, Marin, and Sun were tied for the second shortest members of the group, if you exclude Happy, at 5'3". (1.6 m) Jet and Droy were 5'8" (1.73 m) and 5'9", respectively. Grey was 5'11" and Ultear stood at 5'6" (1.68 m). Lastly, Mirajane, Elfman, and Lisanna stood at 5'6", 6'8" (2.03 m), and 5'2", (1.58 m) respectively. Meanwhile, Erza, who was away on a quest was 5'9".

Currently, they were all having breakfast and chatting like they do most mornings.

"Getting points from missions is so hard." Gray complained as he picked at his breakfast with a fork. "I don't know how Alfonzo and Elicia make it look so easy."

"I know what you mean." Alzack added. "When shooting at a moving target, there's no way for my accuracy to be one hundred percent. And the stray shots hit whatever is around."

"That just means you need to practice harder, Alzack." Bisca said. "I never miss."

Hearing that, Alzack turned his head in Bisca's direction, resulting in the two making eye contact. Then, after holding the eye contact for a moment, they both blushed and looked away simultaneously.

"Wow, Mira, they're almost as bad as you." Ultear said in a teasing tone while nudging Mirajane with her elbow.

"Don't worry, I'll tell him soon." Mirajane replied calmly.

After her punishment for bringing Elfman and Lisanna on an S-Class quests almost two and a half years ago, Mirajane mellowed out quite a bit. She had finally realized how dangerous her old mindset was. So, she curbed more of her hot-headed tendencies.

"You've been saying that for more than two years, Mira." Ultear said. "Why don't you put your money where your mouth is?"

"I will when the time is right." Mirajane replied with a pleasant smile on her face.

Meanwhile, the conversation about gaining points for Alfonzo's cooking continued.

"They probably found a way to cheat the system." Jet said, sounding sure of his deduction.

"But why would they have to do that?" Droy asked. "I mean, Alfonzo cooks his own meals. And I'm sure he wouldn't say no to Elicia either."

"Then why can they do it and we can't?" Jet asked frustratedly after realizing the truth behind Droy's words.

"It's probably because they are better at controlling their magic than the rest of us. "It works for me, after all."

That's right, Levy is the third member of the group to not unintentionally damage everything around her when she takes a quest. And the reason is simple. Unlike the others, she focuses on control before fire power. And only raises her fire power when her control is satisfactory.

"I mean, whenever I fight on quests, now, I feel so stifled." Gray continued to complain.

"Yeah! I'm a real man!" Elfman interjected. "And real men don't hold back when they fight!"

"Elfman, do you have to be so loud this early in the morning?" Marin asked, barely awake at the table. "Ugh… Why can't we train later in the day?"

"If we did that, we would mess up the schedule to feed our stomachs." Laki replied.

"Is that really that important?" Marin whined.

"Discipline is a big factor in getting stronger." Sun replied in a serious tone. A moment later, however, she switched to her usual cheerful tone as she continued. "At least, that's what Masa always told me."

"Come on, Marin, you should be used to it by now." Cana said before chugging a mimosa. "*Burp* You've been doing this for, like, three years already."

"I'm just not a morning person." Marin replied. "It's not my fault."

"By the way, isn't it weird that Alfonzo and Lici aren't back yet?" Lisanna asked curiously. "They said they were going to drop off toys for the orphans at the orphanage where they used to live, right? It never takes them this long."

"Now that you mention it…" Cana replied.

However, before Cana could ponder the question for long, the doors to the guild hall were pushed open. Standing against the backlight were four silhouettes, three familiar ones and a new one.

The first, and the tallest of the four was Alfonzo, who at nineteen years old now stood at 6'5" (1.96 m). Next in order of height was Elicia, also nineteen years old, standing at 5'8". Third was Natsu, eighteen years old, with Happy, six years old, standing on his shoulder, at 5'7". And last was the unfamiliar figure of a curvaceous girl, Lucy, standing at 5'5", the same height as she as when Elicia met her two years ago, when she was fifteen. Which made her seventeen now.

"Fairy Tail, we're back!" Alfonzo shouted as he and the others walked through the door.

Immediately, Ultear stood up from her seat at Alfonzo's declaration. Then, she walked toward him with a smile.

"Welcome back, Alfonzo." Ultear said as she arrived in front of Alfonzo.

Then, without waiting for a response, Ultear reached up, wrapped her arms around Alfonzo's neck, pulled him down while simultaneously standing on the tips of her toes, and planted a kiss on his lips.

"Whoo~~~~~~~~!" The members of the guild teased.

Hearing the crowd, Ultear's face turned beet red as she broke the kiss. Meanwhile, Alfonzo licked his lips to taste the lingering sensation of Ultear's lips.

"If that's the kind of welcome I'll get when I come back, maybe I should leave more often." Alfonzo said with a smile.

Alfonzo's words caused Ultear to somehow blush even harder than she already was. Seeing Ultear's state, he decided not to push too hard. Otherwise, Ultear may pass out from the spike in blood pressure.

"Hey, Elicia." Lucy said with a blush of her own.

"Since you're gonna joint the guild, you can call me Lici if you want." Elicia said with a smile. "It's a guild member privilege."

"Oh, okay." Lucy replied. "I'll keep that in mind. Anyway, I remember you telling me that Alfonzo had three girls other than you. I guess she's one of them?"

"Actually, she's the fifth." Elicia replied. "Fonzie accepted her after the last time we met."

"Oh, I see." Lucy replied absent-mindedly.

"Alfonzo, Elicia, Natsu, Happy, welcome back." Makarov said, raising his mug of ale in their direction. "Some of you are back later than I expected and some of you are earlier. Then, there's a new face with you. Care to fill me in on what happened."

With that, the newly arrived group of five approached the bar while Ultear went back to the table to finish her breakfast.

Then, when they arrived at the bar, Alfonzo and Elicia told Makarov what they did yesterday. Then, Natsu and Happy followed up.

"And who might you be, young lady?" Makarov asked with a grandfatherly smile.

"Hello, Sir, My name is Lucy." Lucy said while bowing her head politely.

"Yeah, we ran into her yesterday." Elicia said. "She said she wanted to join the guild. So, we brought her back with us."

"I see." Makarov replied. "and can you use magic?"

"Yes." Lucy replied with a nod. "I'm a Celestial Wizard."

"Oh… Those are quite rare." Makarov said while stroking his mustache. "Very well, I accept you into the guild. Welcome to the family."

Hearing that, Lucy beamed in happiness.

"Listen up you brats!" Makarov shouted as he stood up on top of the bar. Then, he gestured at Lucy and continued. "This here is Lucy! She's the newest member of our family. And you all know what we do to welcome new members to the family!"

"WE party!" The guild members shouted in return.

"That's right!" Makarov shouted. "And if you ask real nice, Alfonzo might even be willing to cook for this party!"

"Damn you, Old Man." Alfonzo muttered just loud enough for the rest of his group and Makarov to hear.

"Alfonzo, would you please cook for the party?" Every member of the guild, even the members of the Thunder god Tribe asked in unison.

Though it is certain that if Laxus were not away on a quest, they would have scoffed at the idea of asking Alfonzo nicely.

By now, only Laxus still ha dan issue with the other members of the younger generation, namely Alfonzo's faction, as he calls it. And Bickslow, Fried, and Evergreen only show hostility when Laxus is around. Even Bickslow, who really could not stand Alfonzo, finally stopped antagonizing him when he came to realize that he really did not have a chance with Elicia.

"I'm really not feeling this right now." Alfonzo said in an irritated tone. "I drove all night to get back here and I'm fucking exhausted."

Once again , Lucy looked at Alfonzo with disbelief. In her household, speaking with such profanity was a taboo, a sign of being uncultured. Yet, it was clear that Alfonzo was not like that. But he still used such crass language.

"Don't mind the way he talks." Elicia whispered, patting Lucy on the shoulder once again. "It's a habit he picked up from his mother, who was once an S-Class wizard of the guild. I'm sure by now, he could stop whenever he wants. But it's one of the things that makes him feel connected to her… I think. Or, he could just have a potty mouth."

Meanwhile, the rest of the guild was not ready to give up just because Alfonzo was tired. So, as if they had planned it, everyone from Makarov, the guild master, to the most inexperienced D-Class wizard in the guild looked at Alfonzo with upturned eyes and spoke in the most childish voice they could muster.

"Pwease, Alfonzo." Everyone except Elicia and Lucy, said in unison. "Pwease cook for our party."

Immediately, after looking around the room and seeing some of the older men, like Makarov, Macao, Wakaba, and Reedus, trying to give him the puppy dog eyes, Alfonzo recoiled in disgust.

"Fine! Fuck!" Alfonzo cursed loudly. "I'll fucking do it! But on one condition."

Immediately after hearing that Alfonzo would cook, the entire guild broke into an uproar. However, when they heard that there was a condition, they quickly quieted down again.

Then Alfonzo started pointing out the people with the most disgusting puppy dog eyes, which consisted of Makarov, Wakaba, Reedus, Bickslow, Fried, Jet, and Gozaburo.

"If any of you seven ever look at me like that again, I'll never cook another fucking dish for this guild." Alfonzo threatened. "Oh, and when Gildarts and Macao gets back, whenever that may be, relay the message to them, too."

With that, Alfonzo stormed off before disappearing into the kitchen.

"Looks like you're in for a treat, Lucy." Elicia said happily. "I guarantee you've never had food like Fonzie's."

"Wait!" Lucy exclaimed. "So, let me get this right. On top of being a genius magic item craftsman and a powerful S-Class wizard, now you're telling me he can cook?"

"Uh huh!" Happy said with a nod. "He makes really yummy fishies, too."

"is there anything that he can't do?" Lucy asked. "Now I understand why so many girls are willing to share him. He's, like perfect husband material."

"I told you; you would understand if you spent some time around him." Elicia said. "Anyway, let's go and introduce you to everyone. Oh, and we need to go see Mira. She's in charge of applying the guild stamp. By the way, what's your favorite food?"

"Uh… I don't know… Pizza? I guess…" Lucy said as she followed Elicia to the table where her friends sat.

"Hey Fonzie!" Elicia shouted over all the ruckus in the guild hall. "Lucy said she like's pizza."

"Okay, got it." Alfonzo replied from the kitchen. "Looks like today's party will be a pizza party."

"Yeah~~~~~~~~~!" The guild cheered in excitement.