It was late and the moonlight offered the only light in the room. From it, Mirajane made out the time on the analog clock that hung on Laxus' wall, watching the hands slowly tick away time for a bit. She only laid there, silently, as not to disturb the man. This would be a bit difficult, however, as he seemed rather content and probably wouldn't be woken for anything short of an apocalypse. Even then…

She did sigh though, eventually, as well as shift a bit, further away from the man. This wasn't out of discontentment or anything. More boredom than anything else. Laxus had gotten in around five that day and, after trading shifts with her sister, Mirajane left the guildhall with him. They spent some time together, her making him dinner and such, but mostly Laxus just wanted to go to bed. It had been a long, hard job he'd been away on and, in the morning, he was going to go meetup with the Thunder Legion, so he needed his rest. That meant that Mira had to go to bed with him as well, it seemed, but now it was three in the morning and she'd more than filled her typical five hours of sleep a night schedule and her body was just not designed to absorb anymore rest.

Eventually, she did find a way to gently climb out of the bed without waking the man and then immediately set out on navigating the man's messy room without tripping over anything and therefore ruining the feat. It was only once she was out of there though that Mira realized she really had no destination in mind. She stopped off in the kitchen for a glass of water and even contemplated maybe taking an early shower, but ultimately just flicked on the living room lamp and took a seat on her boyfriend's couch with a bit of a sigh.

His living room was just as disastrous as his bedroom, but this at least gave Mirajane something to do. At first it was flick through a random magazine he had lying on the coffee table, but eventually it turned into tiding up the place a bit. She wasn't too sure how Laxus would take this and worried it could come off as an invasion of privacy, but at the same time just couldn't stand the state of things. She'd officially stayed the night at his place a total of ten times which, in her mind, more than gave her the right to dictate a few things.

Or at least make the place livable.

Most of the things that he had lying around was trash. The man, apparently, had an affliction for tossing beer cans all about like some sort of slob. Mirajane wondered if this was due to exhaustion or laziness. She had to attribute the latter.

He also had a lot of magazines and books that sort of just laid about regardless of the fact that he had a very nice, expensive look bookcase in the corner of the living room. AT first she didn't place to sit there and organize the books as she shelved them, but he seemed to have them organized by author name and she literally had nothing to do until sunrise when she could head down to the bar (if she came in super early and Master found out, he'd scold her about being young and far too committed to the place).

This took up a good hour. At least. Once she had it all organized though, she found that the magazines didn't really have a place on it. Like mentioned previously though, the shelf was very nice and the bottom was converted into some sort of cabinet thing. Deciding to peak inside of it, she hoped that she would have a place to set the magazines. What she found, however, was more than she bargained for.

Inside was cluttered and it was clear Laxus had a problem with organization. As Mira cleared a spot to set the nice stack of magazines, though, she knocked into something which tumbled out and onto the ground.

"Oh," Mira tsked at first though this was quickly changed to a more concerned, "Oh!"

It was a tiny ring that had tumbled out of there, all on it's own. Just tossed in there among the other junk. At first, Mirajane almost just put it back in there and gave it little thought. Then she realized that it wasn't a thick, manly band, but rather a slim, dainty female right with a modest diamond bejeweling it.

She made a face down at the clear engagement ring as many different things tumbled around in her brain.

For one, Mirajane was flattered. She got proposed to a lot back in her modeling days, but that was by men she didn't know who wrote letters to the house that just the sight of made Elfman insanely mad. She'd never had a real, serious proposal though. And from Laxus? It was all too much.

No, seriously, the other side of her reminded, it was too much.

In theory, she and Laxus had been dating for a year and a half. But this wasn't true outside of times perpetual motion as he was off on long jobs between most of their interactions and, honestly, she felt like they hardly knew everything about each other that they should. She was still nervous about cleaning his damn apartment.

How could they ever be married?

They couldn't.

It was inconceivable.

But oh, the wedding! Imagine, the other side insisted. Think of the gorgeous dress and the cathedral and all their friends and family. And Laxus was loaded. Sort of. He had the means to be loaded. And she had a feeling he was very good with his savings. She could give him the wedding of her dreams! And the reception at the guildhall would be the party of the century, probably, maybe, hopefully, and it would be talked about forever.

But...then she had to be married. To a man who, sure, she liked well enough and maybe even loved, but she wasn't completely sold yet on the concept and Mira wasn't so sure what her stance was on marriage, anyways. IN that rural village with her parents, it felt very much so like a partnership and commitment to one another, but in the big city where both she and Laxus would be away from one another frequently and wouldn't necessarily need one another, the commitment wouldn't be as strong and Mirajane was kind of a proponent of free love anyways and wow, had she considered children?

Because she and Laxus would have some beautiful children. After their amazing wedding. And...then their disastrous marriage.

She had to tell him no.

But think of the kids! Get together for the kids!

"What are you doing?"

Or think about how you were totally caught and there was no explaining things.

"L-Laxus," she stammered as she turned to glance behind him. Gone was the great bachelorette party Mirajane was going to have and the deep decision over who would be her bridesmaid (Lucy and Lisanna and Erza death match was likely). Now all she could see over her shoulder was the sight of her confused boyfriend, rubbing at his eyes as he came closer. "I-"

"Did you clean?" he interrupted. "Shit, demon, you didn't have to do that."

"I wanted to do it."

"Then- What do you have?"

"Noth-"

"Mirajane-"

"Laxus, I don't think that we can-"

"That's not what you think." And he made a face as he came closer to snatch the ring from her. "At all."

"You don't know what I think."

"You think it's for you." Once the ring was in his palm, he clenched it tightly. "And it's not."

That...actually solved a lot of issues. After she was done worrying though, Mirajane

"Then who's is it?"

It did bring up another problem though.

Laxus made a face though, at her accusatory tone before grumbling, "Do I look like the kind of guy that would ever propose to a woman? Even if I did, with this pathetic looking ring?"

"Then-"

"It's my mothers." He unclenched his fist then to show it off to her properly. "Or it was, I guess. Her and Ivan were married, you know."

Now her brain was twirling with a bunch of new thoughts as the concept of her own wedding faded away and was replaced by imagines of Ivan, of all people, proposing to a woman. What sorta woman would it be? The idea didn't mesh with the vision that Mirajane had always had of what Laxus' mother looked like and that was a bit concerning. Then there was the concept that she'd just, you know, brought up a lot of baggage for the man. Baggage he did not need to be dealing with. At all. Like the fact that, you know, the woman was dead and Ivan was gone and wow, it wasn't often that Mirajane was able to pinpoint the exact moment a relationship went sour, but she had a bad feeling that hers and Laxus was headed that way.

Still, the most prevailing thought that floated through her mind and out of her mouth was this.

"You keep your mother's ring with a bunch of junk under a bookshelf?"

Laxus' eyes turned to stone as, with a glare, he said, "What do you want me to do? Put it on display?"

"Well-"

"It's just a ring, anyways." Shaking his head some, Laxus looked back down at it. "Kind of pathetic, anyways. Ask a woman to marry you with this shit? I'd say no on her behalf."

"Hey, it's a lot better than what my parents had."

"Which was?"

"Nothing," she told him with a bit of a smile. "My mother would have been mad at Papa if he brought home something this expensive."

"Would she have?"

"Yeah."

And that hung between them for a moment and Mirajane realized that her relationship not only wasn't in jeopardy, but in that moment, was probably in the best place it had been in a while. Laxus wasn't smiling because he didn't do things like that, but his gaze was easy and hers was bright and it was just the nicest moment they'd had in a while.

"Where do you think I should put it, Mira?" he asked as it passed. "Huh?"

"Put it on the shelf. With the books. Not underneath." Taking it from him, she sat it on the ledge of the top one. "So your mother can watch over you."

"My mother's no more in a damn ring than yours is."

"Even so," the woman insisted as she positioned it just right.

And, even though he wasn't too fond of it, Laxus nodded. "Even so. Now will you come back to bed with me? Sheesh, what kind of freak are you? Sleep over at guy's places just to clean up?"

"Just one guy," she corrected with a frown. Because most clean up before I come over."

"Do they?"

"They did, at least."

"Uh-huh."

"They don't take me for granted."

"Is that right?"

"That's completely right."

"Hey, Mirajane?"

"What?" she asked as, back in the bedroom, he immediately fell into the bed. "Dragon?"

"You didn't really think I was gonna propose to you? Did you?"

"I hoped not," she said and, for some reason, they were both able to laugh easily at this sentiment. "I was already trying to figure out how I could get a wedding out of it though, without actually having to go through with it. Our expensive tastes combined, it'd be a real event."

"Sounds like you just wanna be with me for status, Mirajane."

"I mean, have I ever been coy about it?"

"Hmmm," he hummed as, slowly, she joined him once more in his bed. "Don't make much sense then, do it?"

"What?"

"The ring," he insisted. "You're over here talking about grand tastes and all, but that ring was-"

"It was beautiful."

"It was cheap."

"It means something."

"Yeah, it means that my mother is dead after having a terrible relationship with my father."

"That resulted in the greatest mage to ever walk this planet-"

"Like the sound of that."

"-to get to date a young man she cares about lots."

"Never mind."

"And besides," Mirajane went on she she shifted closer to him. "Diamonds can be adjusted. Replaced. With bigger ones."

"Can they?"

"They can."

"But should they be?"

"Not any time soon, I don't think," she told him with a bit of a sigh. "Do you?"

"Definitely not."

They shared a gaze for a few moments before Laxus rolled onto his side and Mira pressed her face into the pillow.

And, even though she'd filled her five hours for the night, somehow Mirajane was able to drift right back off.

Just something short as I continue to try and get back into the swing of things. It'd been a bit since a solo Mirajane and Laxus fic, so it's been long overdue.