"Hey, Laxus?"

"Hm?"

"When do you sleep?"

No time soon was the answer to the question posed by Mirajane Strauss as she stood there, in the doorway of his apartment kitchen. There was no light on, but Laxus seemed to not need it as he sat there at the table, cigar dangling from his lips, providing just enough illumination for him to see the map sprawled before him. Either that or slayers had some sort of enhanced sight that Mira knew nothing about.

Both were just as likely, she figured.

He sighed some, Laxus did, as he glanced over his way. As something like an apology, he questioned in a sympathetic tone, "Did I wake you?"

It was an adjustment for him, their relationship. A big one. Especially recently.

Back when things started, it was weird, yeah, as the guild had always kind of been his safe space away from his occasional dates and the typical drama that entailed with the opposite sex. Though he was frequently to make a joke at the expense of a woman at the hall, he never really wanted the headache that came alone with actually sleeping with someone involved with his guild.

And yet…

Mia was working late one night and he was a bit drunk, honestly, but Makarov hadn't been doing well as of late and he needed to speak with her on some things regarding that, which he didn't want to do until everyone had mostly cleared out. And yeah, somewhere between asking about how the old man, who'd been hunkering down in his house with a terrible bout of the flu, was holding up, he kind of spit some game, maybe, sort of, but Mira wasn't drunk and was still reciprocating, kind of. Well, she was being nice, at least, like she always was, and he was really into it, for some reason, that night, and he might have asked her if she wanted to go out to dinner, the next night, and wow, he was pretty dang embarrassed by the realization the next morning that, yes, he had acted that way towards the barmaid.

The embarrassment vacated, however, upon arriving at the bar the next day when Mira took him up on his offer. He was confused as to her reason for doing this...until when she got off, she actually made him come with her over to Makarov's house for dinner, to actually see his grandfather and check up on the man like he should have been doing all along

He felt duped. Tricked. Bamboozled. Or at least annoyed.

"You think you can just trick people into caring about others?" he grumbled to Mirajane as they cleaned up the kitchen afterwards. "Huh? Mira?"

"You can make someone feel something that they don't, Laxus," she sighed as she scrubbed at some dishes, hardly glancing over at where he was wiping down the counter. "At most, I just made you confront what you feel."

He grunted some before saying, "And here I thought you actually wanted to go out on a date with me."

"Believe it or not, Laxus, you weren't even the first drunk man I had to pretend to be interested in that night."

"Don't compare me to the rest of them."

"Why? Because you're some sort of catch compared to the others?"

"Have you seen me, woman?" He was honestly concerned for her eyesight them. "There is no one at that stupid hall that even comes close to me. I'm stronger, more intelligent, fitter, brighter, and-"

"And way more humble," she hummed. "Than everyone else. Especially drunk. Right?"

"Shuddup."

"If it makes you feel better, Laxus, yeah, you're probably closer to someone I would date than half the guys there."

"Doesn't make me feel anything."

"Has to stroke your ego just a bit."

"I don't have an ego."

"You are an ego."

Finished, he tossed the rag in his hand down on the now cleaned up counter. Staring over at Mira, he watched her diligently washing dishes for a good thirty seconds before remarking, "You don't have to do all this alone, you know."

"The dishes?"

"Taking care of my grandfather," he clarified. "I know you and your sister having been looking after him while I've been out on my jobs and-"

"The guild takes care of him, Laxus." She didn't look at him then. "All of us."

"Yeah, well, I could pay someone to actually come and look after him. At least until he gets better and can get down to the guild again. I know you work a lot up at the hall, especially with him being gone, and I just-"

"Things are fine how they are." She sounded final, too, in what she said. "And Master wouldn't want you to do that anyways. He's nearly all healed up. And I wouldn't want someone else taking care of him."

"You get onto me," he griped, "and you don't sound too humble yourself. What? No one else can take care of you like him, huh?"

"No one else owes him as much as I do."

He doubted that himself, but knew through her eyes, this was the complete truth.

"Feels like a crap date, anyways," he grumbled to Mira as they left, her off to finish the night shift and let Kinana off while he was mostly aimless, as he usually was his first few days back in town. "Tricky woman and all. Maybe I wasn't the Dreyar you wanted to date after all."

"Oh, yes, Laxus. I'm very into your grandfather. That's why I turn him down at every offer. It's a long con."

"Playing hard to get," he agreed and she smiled, for some reason, up at him and it was late, the sun was going down, but her eyes really shone in light like that. Twilight. He looked away quickly and kicked at the ground. "It's a waste of your talents, anyways."

"Dating Master?"

"Taking care of him. But yeah, to both."

Rather than rehashing the caretaker bit, Mira instead asked, "What talent would be wasted by me dating him?"

"You sure are into that idea. Wow. Gonna have to go let Gramps know to keep beating that dead horse."

"Well, I wouldn't want to waste my talents. Apparently."

"Why are you so offended? Would you rather I say that you look bad enough that you belong with a demented ninety year old?"

"It could be very lucrative, at least, I guess. If I played my cards right."

"Fat chance, woman," he snorted. "Gramps' will is ironclad. It all goes to his only living relative."

"Depending on how well my cards play, that could be his wife."

"Keep joking," he grumbled, "and I'll key the Master into this. See how much you actually like being married to the old man."

Not much, both figured.

"I did trick you though, I guess," Mira sighed as, the closer they got to the hall, the more it became apparent that he was headed back there as well. "Into going to see your grandfather."

He grunted because it was true, but also because he didn't want to admit that it was what he needed to do all along.

"Would you actually wanna go out? On a date with me?"

The slayer frowned, glanced down at her, and then away quickly, trying to think of something smart and dickish to reply. Abandoning that though, he instead questioned back, "Are you asking me out?"

"If it makes you feel better about it, I guess so, Laxus."

When he looked at her this time, her eyes were waiting for his and she smiled while he only grumbled out that, maybe, if nothing better came up, they could hang out the next ngiht.

"Considering you only have three friends and they're all out on a job-"

"You sure are vying hard to date me," he complained. "It's okay, I understand."

"Understand what?"

He shrugged some. "If I was a woman, there'd be no one I wanted to date more than me."

"But if you were a woman, then you wouldn't exist, so-"

"I'll be around, anyways," he kept talking right over her. "Tomorrow night."

"But only if you're free, right?'

Mira smiled at him again and they were at the hall, but he didn't go in. No, that would me more possible interactions with the woman and, honestly, at that point, he wasn't sure who was calling who's bluff, but he needed a break from it all until it could be resolved in his mind.

There was a bigger part of him, even, that was pretty sure Mira wasn't calling his bluff at all and there was no game to be had. She really had just wanted him to go visit his grandfather. The date stuff was just her making up for that or, possibly, even actually wanting to go on one with him.

All possibilities were terrifying when you laid awake for the majority of the night, contemplating them. That went with most situations though.

"Really?" Mira asked when he arrived the next night up at the hall after avoiding it all day. "No plans? At all?'

"Shuddup," he grumbled. "You don't have anything going on either, from what I can see."

"If we weren't going out, I would probably just work."

"So you're taking a night off for me? Sounds like you're way more into this than me, actually."

"Is it a competition?" she asked, cocking her head to the side. She was behind the bar, just finishing up, smiling softly. "Who wants to go out more? That's kind of childish, isn't it, Lax?"

For all that late night thinking, he'd apparently accomplished little. The wrong conclusion, clearly, had been reached. Mira was not trying to call his bluff.

It was a bit of a spectacle of sorts, them leaving the hall together. Together. Clearly, if the feeling of all the eyes on him and the giggles of Lisanna and Lucy told him anything, Mira had more than spread the news of this development.

Luckily, he was very good at pretending to not notice the others. They were, after all, rather beneath him. Or at least he thought so.

The date wasn't terribly remarkable one way or another. He took Mira out to dinner, he made some smart remarks, she made some veiled ones back, hidden behind the tone of sincerity that she'd long perfected, and that was that. When it was near it's end though, Mira did make a suggestion.

"I wanted to get a drink tonight, since I'm off," she began and, wow, Laxus had never considered it, but yeah, Mira literally was one of the only people to never drink up at the hall. It probably had more than a bit to do with the fact that the bar, essentially, was her true place of work. And they needed at least one sober person to keep things on track up there (even if that one sober person was a complete moron for the most part; but all acted sincerity, he was sure). "Did you wanna go with me? Or have you suddenly come up with plans?"

He only frowned at her before replying, "I'll go, Mira, but only 'cause if I show back up at that hall without you, they'll all think I offed you."

Laxus was more than a bit surprised when, instead of leading him to the center of town to get a quick drink at one of the more popular bars in Magnolia, Mira instead led him down to the less than desirable area of the sprawling town, already having a destination in mind.

"Come here often?" he asked with a bit of a suspicious look.

"You don't have to use a pick up line, Lax, if we're already on a date."

"I wanted a serious answer, Mirajane."

There were only three other patrons, all much older than the pair and each off in their own worlds, seated at different areas and different stages of where they'd inevitably all three end up. One was already slumped over, from his seat in the booth in the back and the other two, all men in the latter years of their life, one up at the bar and another at a table, would no doubt be joining him soon enough.

"You like it here?" Laxus asked, annoyed with the way the floors felt sticky against his nice boots. "Mirajane?"

"No one we know comes here. This is the only place in Magnolia I can say that for certain." As they sat up at the bar beside one another, the bartender hardly glancing over. "Of course I like it."

"Anything to get away from the others," the slayer grumbled in some sort of agreement. "I guess."

"It's just different," she said simply, "when you work there, instead of just hang out there. You see people every single day. The whole day. It's nice to come to a..."

"Seedy bar?"

"Somewhere different. That's all."

The dead energy was, to say the least, very different from her usual surroundings, at least.

Cold beer was cold beer though and he actually had quite a few of them when Mirajane remarked that, since he'd paid for dinner, she'd pay for their drinks.

"On your meager barmaid paycheck?"

"It might be meager, but the tips all you men give when you've had a few and think that, maybe, just maybe, this time I'm smiling at you because I actually want to go home with you, aren't meager."

"What should I make of you right now, eh?" Laxus had been frowning down into his mug, but glanced up then, at her. "And that look your giving?"

He'd never done it before that point. All the ribbing he and Mira had both given each other over the years, from the time they were teens butting heads up to now, to grown adults having an alright date, he'd never actually shaken her. Gotten to her. His jokes and quips were always responded to or ignored, but he'd never, not once, gotten her to blush and look uncomfortable.

He did that night though.

He wondered if he should just attribute it to the alcohol…

It was more than that though. Of course it was. Because to end up where they were currently, it had to be. And he mentioned to Mira that he usually didn't take women home and she slurred right back that she still lived with her siblings, so he either did or they didn't.

He banked on them.

A good investment in the end, honestly.

That evening he rationalized that it didn't matter much, if Mirajane knew where he lived (he was nearly certain she did anyways) and she left not soon after...after, tipsy and claiming she needed to get home and sleep some; she had work in a few hours.

Laxus wasn't sure what to think, that next evening when he had nothing in his fridge and he had to go to the hall for a meal. Would things be awkward now? He stressed it all day, but again, he'd came to the wrong conclusion.

It wasn't awkward at all.

Well, some of her stupid cohorts made it so, or seemed intent on it being, at least. Elfman kept glaring over at him and Lisanna snickered, when she delivered his beer. Happy and Lucy were muttering to themselves while gesturing to him as well.

But short of things that he'd longed perfected ignoring, it was just a normal night. Other than greeting one another, he and Mira hardly spoke.

Which was great. In fact, it was her not making things awkward or weird that, a month later, led to him, upon returning from a job, asking if she wanted to go get a drink or something again.

"Or something?"

"Mostly something."

It fell into being a habit, really, that they were constant dates, when he was actually around. Given that he wasn't that often, it was difficult to truly label one another as anything more than that. For a time, at least. Eventually, this grew to be an issue between the two of them.

"And issue to you," Mira replied simply when he tried to broach the subject. "I don't care what you do when you're not around."

"And I don't care what you do when I'm not around," he agreed. "But for me to come back and you have the audacity-"

"I already asked him to take me, Laxus. It was a party I wanted to go to and I had no idea you would be back. So really, that's on you."

Probably.

But he didn't like feeling like a chump. And when he had Mira over a few nights later, he told her this. That he didn't want her going around with other guys anymore.

"Maybe I don't care what you want, Laxus." She ran her hand through his hair though, pushing it back as they stared at one another, there, in his bed. "Did you ever think of that?"

"I'm not telling you," he pointed out. "Or order or whatever. I'm asking. Why are you being rude if I'm just asking?"

She smiled at him though, if not a bit sarcastically, when she asked, "I guess you won't be seeing other women, then?"

"No."

"No, you will? Or no, you won't?"

"Whichever you want."

"Whatever, Laxus."

"I'm serious."

"You're not though." She sounded rather insistent on that too. She even shifted away from him and it seemed like their night was coming to an end. She did, as always, have to be up at the bar in the morning. "And you know that you're not. You don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Be...serious. About women. And I'm not serious about men." She always looked some much mature when her hair was down, like it was now, and he felt far more comfortable with her, there, in his apartment, than he did when she was putting up that coy facade up at the hall. "I'm not like that. And neither are you. You're just jealous. And I think it's cute, Lax, sort of."

"I'm not jealous."

"Then what are you?"

"Trying to grow as a person."

"Shut up, Laxus."

"You shuddup." He fell onto his back and only stared up at the ceiling. "I'm not going to talk you into it, anyways, being with me. Have you seen me?"

"Too much of you."

"I could be serious with anyone I wanted to be."

He figured she didn't want to discuss his extremely high self-worth that day (they did occasionally and it always ended with Mira contemplating just how deluded he'd become over the years) as, instead, she said, "But you don't wanna be."

"You don't know what I want."

"We're having fun, Laxus." And she shoved his shoulder lightly. "Don't ruin it."

It confused him, honestly, the way she was acting. If anyone seemed super into being committed and all in love and junk, it was Mirajane. He grunted at her though, as she left, and headed out on a job not soon after that. On his time away, he figured he'd come back to town and just not ask her out again, any of the days he was free. Weeks, even, if job or adventured tickled his fancy. Stick around town and just not see Mira at all.

That would show her.

When he came back to Magnolia though, it was to less than favorable news.

"He'll pull through, Laxus," Freed assured him as the pair stood over Makarov's bedside. "He's a tough old man. And he always has before."

"Yeah," he agreed, nodding at his friend. "He has."

It was a gloomy set of days at the hall, but Laxus honestly spent very few there. Or even with his grandfather, after that first day. He kind of just...shut down a bit. He saw Freed, because he was insistent on checking up on him, but even Ever and Bickslow seemed to know to give him space.

Mira did as well.

For a bit.

He almost didn't answer when she knocked at his apartment door, but when she called out to him, beckoning him to, he only sighed and went to do so.

"I don't feel much up for talkin'," he told her simply. "Or fuckin'. So-"

Mira made a face as she cut him off, managing to get out, "Neither do I, right now, either."

"And I don't feel like being told to go see my grandfather."

"I don't feel like saying it."

"Or being tricked."

"I'm too tired for tricks."

He sighed at that and nodded his head before backing up some, from the door, and allowing her entrance.

They sat on the couch together, in silence. Well, not true silence. Laxus had a radio on some rock station and Mira didn't make any complaints. She didn't speak at all. Neither did he. This went on for at least twenty minutes. Laxus thought it would be awkward, even thinking back on it, it seemed awkward, but it wasn't.

"You didn't come to tell me he's dead, did you?" Laxus asked, finally, softly, not looking at her.

She made a bit of a face before remarking, "No. I just… When Lisanna… I wanted to be left alone too."

"Then-"

"Or at least that's what I said," she kept on. "But it wasn't true. What I really wanted was...well, my sister back, mostly, but… Sometimes you just don't mean what you say. You know? Laxus? You push everyone away one too many times and they finally stay away, but it was never what you wanted. You know?"

"Yeah." He sniffled, maybe, but there were no tears. "I know."

"And… Laxus, if Master dies… I..."

"He won't."

"But if he does-"

"Mira-

"I don't want to hurt you, but he told me… He wants Erza to take over. After you." Even she coudln't stare at him any longer. "I'm sorry. I'll have to say something, you know, if he hasn't written it anywhere. He-"

"I don't care about that anymore."

"But-"

"I don't wanna be a master. Of anything." He let out a slow breath. "Gramps knew that. He wouldn't have made that decision without knowing that."

"I'm sorry, Laxus. About all of this. I know that you and Master haven't always been… But he talked- Talks. He talks about you, so much. And I just… I don't think I've ever been so out of words."

"Save 'em," he told her with a nod of his head. "If he… Then you'll need 'em."

Mira's head fell then, to his shoulder, they just sat there again, in silence once more. Other than the radio. It continued to play.

"You're coming with me," Mira told Laxus with a sigh eventually. "When I leave here. To see your grandfather."

He took in a deep breath, Laxus did, before exhaling it slowly. "I don't… I don't wanna lose… If I just don't then… You don't get it, Mira. You have siblings. You have a family. Without Gramps, I'm just-"

"You're Laxus," she told him simply. "Laxus Dreyar. One of the top mages in Fairy Tail, one of the top guilds in all of Fiore. You've defeated dragons and saved Earthland countless times. Your family doesn't define you, Laxus; your actions do."

Again, he took a deep breath. "I wish I hadn't come back. To town."

"You did it because it's the right thing and you know it. Just like you're going to go with me to see your grandfather."

"Why? Mira? Huh? If he wakes up, great, I'll see him then. If he doesn't then-"

"You're not going for him, Laxus. You're going for you. Regardless of what happens." She lifted her head from his shoulder. "And I know that you, of all people, is always willing to do something for their own benefit."

He was confused, just for a moment, before glancing down at her. Mira was smiling at him, tentative, but certainly there and he hated it, but something of a chuckle left his throat.

"It'll be okay, Lax." She reached over to take the hand he had in his lap, folding both of hers over it. "It always is."

Makarov eventually did awaken from his illness and, once he was well enough to go back home, he requested first the presence of Laxus, who he spoke at length with, before the one of Erza, who he spoke much longer with.

The slayer had already left town when the new Master was announced, but he had the Thunder Legion send his regards.

"There's no hard feelings," he assured them. "Who wants to hang around the lame hall all day anyways?"

Someone that was becoming very important to him did and she was more than overjoyed at the idea of the guildhall changing hands. Fine, it might look as if she were beaten, Mirajane was, by Erza finally, totally, completely, now. The other woman was Master (Mistress?) while the she-devil was still relegated to barmaid, but oh ho-ho, was that wrong.

"If I could trick Master- Makarov," Mirajane corrected herself to Laxus one night as they shared drinks once more at their place. That seedy gross bar that he'd long given up on the floors ever being clean at. "Imagine the amount of things I get passed Erza."

"You're smarter than Erza now."

"Of course I am, Laxus." She even made a face at him. "I pretend to be dimwitted. Erza is honestly sincere in her naivety."

He blinked some. Then he considered.

Finally, he only replied, "Well, I ain't calling her Master."

"Mistress."

"Mira-"

"It could be worse," she offered with an easy grin. "Natsu could've been Master's choice."

Laxus went ahead and ordered another beer from the thought.

Things leveled out some again and this time, when the feelings and needs for perhaps a more stringent label placed upon them, he didn't deal with it the same way. No. He'd sat up and thought about it. A lot. Many nights instead of just one. He'd noticed that he himself had taken less of an interest in dating around and, when he really thought about it, he hadn't seen a woman outside of Mira in nearly three months. It felt weird to admit, but whether she was committed to him or not, he felt pretty secure in being so towards her.

Approaching it differently this time, as she cooked him dinner one night at his apartment, he remarked simply, "Ah, demon? Something's been botherin' me a lot."

"Your shoulder again? You should really let someone else check it out. I know I play doctor up at the guild, but-"

"It's us," he explained. "Or you, I guess."

She frowned over her shoulder at where he sat, at his kitchen table, cigar dangling from his lips. From over at the stove, she asked, "What about me?"

"I just… I want to be with you. And only you. And I want you to do the same for me. And-"

"Laxus-"

"No, Mira, it's about more than just having fun. You know? Being serious and committed is-"

"Laxus-"

"No, Mira, I'm-"

"I want it too." She fully turned to face him then, spatula in one hand. As he only stared, she nodded. "I'm serious. About you. And...if you wanna really be… I think most people think we are, anyways. So-"

"Shouldn't the woman be the one sweating this shit?" Annoyed now to find out that he'd spent all that time in deep contemplation for nothing, Laxus only huffed. "You see all I go through for you? Mira?"

Still, the toothy grin was undeniable as, finally, he'd read her correctly. All that late night pondering had done him a world of good.

But the official side of things was a step he'd, gladly, avoided his entire life. To now call Mira his girlfriend and not get defensive if someone else implied it was, well, it was an adjustment.

So much of what they were doing currently was.

Like figuring out how much noise was too much noise when his girlfriend was trying to sleep as, of course, she had to be up at the hall bright and early the next morning. The master might have changed, but Mirajane's commitment to the job was forevermore.

"No," she assuaged his fear of having awoken her. "I just noticed you weren't in bed and-"

"Going to bed and getting up and all that? Ain't the life of a mage./ You've been away for too long, Mira. If you're not out on a job, the crack of dawn is when you drunkenly decide to call it a night."

Still, she only slowly came over to join him at the table, shivering a bit in the cool air. "Some of us were productive members of society, Laxus, even when we were working mages."

"You were a productive member of society?"

"I said some of us," she yawned as she rested her head against the table. "I didn't say me. What's the map for?"

"Prepping for a long job."

"The S-Class one?"

"It's just been sitting there, taunting me. But I've been worried about the trek, is all. It feels like it'd been too long."

"Since when do you worry about something like that? Normally you just go. Get home whenever."

He took a puff of his cigar before remarking, "Maybe I have something I wanna be home for more often."

She grinned in the darkness while the slayer refused to. The smoke made it difficult, anyways.

"Your grandfather?" she questioned, knowing the truth but giving him an out and, grateful for it, the slayer only grunted.

"Old man can croak at any time."

"All of us can, Laxus."

"All of you mortals, fine, but me-"

"I don't wanna have that conversation tonight."

"Okay," he agreed and he got to his feet, holding his hand out to her, as if asking her to join him. "Demon."

"You're not taking that to bed," was all she yawned as she accepted, getting to her own feet. "It's gross."

"You work in a bar."

"So?"

"You literally say the only place away from said bar you have any fun is an even grosser, seedier bar."

"I don't sleep in those places though."

"You're lucky I like you," was all he muttered and she'd not lost her smile just yet.

"We both are," she said and, with a nod, he had to agree.