Okay, okay. So the last time I did the "pining for the love of your life as you watch them marry someone else" shebang, it was Mirajane getting married and Erza doing the pining. This is me being consistent or parallelistic. Or uncreative.

This was supposed to be something suuuuuuuuuuper angsty but it just turned out kinda fluffy. Like this was gonna be a rebound au with angsty hotel room sex. I decided to just save that for my OTHER miraxus at a wedding AU, its gonna be a multichap and angsty. With the angst sex. So yeah have this tepid fluff in the mean time.

booze surly

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There was something to be said about wedding receptions. Awful thing, if one so happened to be miserably single or an ex-lover of either newly-weds. Mirajane happened to be both.

She and Erza had dated the whole seven years Jellal had been working in Greenland and long story short, Jellal came back and Erza was torn between true love and current love. Mirajane did the merciful thing and suggested a breakup that was so friendly and loving that it still sent a tiny spark of regret in her heart every time she thought about how she let such a wonderful woman go just like that, how she acted the fucking martyr and graciously stepped aside so some guy who couldn't stay decided to come back and take what was already taken.

But then again, there was no point in being bitter now. Mirajane and Erza remained the best of friends and it was hard not to be so happy for the redhead when she glowed with so much joy.

Well, not right now anyway. The wedding reception was truly the most miserable part of any wedding itinerary attended by aforementioned miserably single/ex-lover. All those floozy romance movies got it so wrong: it wasn't at the church where longing and anguish surfaced. Mirajane felt no stirrings of regret or angst or heartache as she watched her ex-girlfriend walk down the aisle towards another man. No, Mirajane had been weeping quite happily along with the other bridesmaids and cheered gleefully when man and wife were pronounced by the priest.

But now at the reception, remorse and bitterness and all that angsty jazz was so easily accessible with the free flow of drinks. Mirajane was not a very well-mannered drunk in the sense that it made her quite a sulker. And sulk she did, sitting by herself at the bar while the reception celebrated the new union over food and festive activities. No, Mirajane was too wretched at that point to care enough about appearances and allowed herself to mope at the bar stationed at the back of the room with no one but the overworked bartender as company.

Until Laxus came.

The best man looked all too happy to plop down on the bar stool beside Mira and give her the sunniest grin upon seeing her withering glare. "Wow, Strauss, you're one bitter drunk. Was it super hard watching Erza marry a straight guy?"

Mirajane scowled. "Fuck off, Laxus. I really don't have the patience for you right now."

Laxus relaxed further into his seat and signalled the bartender for one of the beers cooling on a bucket. "Come on, babe, you gotta stop frowning. You look pathetic and everyone is thinking that."

Mirajane only watched dourly as the bartender gave Laxus his drink. "I don't care about what everyone thinks."

"Because you're drunk right now." Laxus nodded righteously and took a healthy swig of beer. "But when you sober up, you'll practically give yourself a panic attack when your sweet sister recounts how much of a troll you were at the reception."

Mirajane's sigh of exasperation was great. "What do you want me to do? Go sit between the newlyweds and tell them I'm so glad Jellal had to come back and Erza was using me up like some sort of plug for her vagina until he did?" She shook the contents of her glass, just melting ice in a finger of brandy.

Laxus bit the inside of his cheek and decided not to say anything about how Mirajane sure knew how to lose the sweet girl act with some alcohol in her. It was pretty funny, anyway. It reminded him of how she was so spunky when they were younger. "My idea was you dancing with me. You know, let everyone think you're not just the bitter lesbian castoff? Are you even like, full gay? I know you dated that Gray dude once."

"God, shut up." She would not even dignify that with an answer. "'Bitter lesbian castoff', Jesus Christ. Where do you get that stuff?" But she tossed her drink back and stood on shaky legs. "You're kinda right anyway. I don't want people talking about me. Now come dance with me and I'll pretend to enjoy it. God knows I'm too pretty to be the pity case of any social event."

God, just the thought of people muttering poor Mira-chan as they saw her. It gave her the creeps.

Laxus abandoned his beer and slipped his arm around her waist. "That's the spirit. Hey, we can even grind real dirty on the dancefloor or something. You know, prove the whole 'Ive moved on and I'm okay' shtick better?"

"In your dreams." Her words might have been tart but there was a smile creeping on the corners of her lips. Laxus was too funny sometimes and she had to admit, his company was not entirely insufferable when he was trying to make her feel better about herself.

In the end, she quite enjoyed the blond's company, on and off the dancefloor. Laxus might have been an even bigger sulk than her on his default setting but he did know how to turn on the charm and make a girl smile. It wasn't any wonder they used to be such good friends back in the day. He had a humor to match hers and a personality to balance hers out.

Maybe she gave him her new phone number and agreed to having breakfast with him tomorrow.

You know, just so they could suffer over their hangovers together.