"You look awfully sad today," Mirajane remarked as she wiped down the bar. "Master."

The man only grunted still staring down into his mug of ale, his own reflection giving him a void stare right back. Most everyone was gone by that point, save a few stragglers, but still their voices agitated him. They sounded like distant murmuring over the sound of his music. He could turn it up louder, but then Mirajane's random talking would be drowned out and he didn't want that.

No.

He didn't want that.

"Surely life isn't all bad," the barmaid went on with a bit of a grin. She was waving then, passed him, and at some of the guild members that were leaving. "I mean, Master, the guild's in good shape recently. Since we finished clearing all the damages out from that big brawl too weeks ago. Have the council been getting you down? Or the complaints from villages over their damage? I can't think of anything abnormal recently. Or are you just feeling a bit down right now?"

He didn't answer her, instead only taking a sip from his ale before grunting after downing most of it. She giggled in response, as she always did. Mira considered his antics to be hilarious in most situations.

"It's not for me, anyways," she went on. "Bad. My life is on the up and up, you know. I went on a date last night. I'm glad you gave me time off. Master. It's pretty kind of you. I went out of town, had a drink. Could barely come in this morning, really, it felt like. But I did. Opened a few minutes late, but only Freed was here, that early, to get some paperwork done for you, Master. You really should make him a set of keys to the place. Have you thought about it?"

She hardly paused that time, for an answer, as she began polishing mugs.

"Well, you should. He needs it, if he's going to be your second in command. Lisanna has a set, Kinana, and me. And you, of course, Master. Freed is probably more trustworthy than all of us, with the keys, I bet, at least. Oh, and I guess Master- The old Master, Master Makarov, he probably still has some keys. Freed could have those. If you can get the man to give them up. Or if you can even find them… I always had to make more copies for him. He'd lose them everywhere." Mira paused, just for a moment there, as she thought. "I suppose that there's a chance that, well, everyone has a key. Considering I've made so many copies. I think we might need to actually look into changing the locks, now that I think about it..."

Someone was coming up to close out their tab then and the Master only closed his eyes, wishing he could block them out. All of them. Close couldn't come fast enough. He also wanted to go hide out in his office, but something made him hold off. Just sit there. Deal with it. His headache was worth the payoff.

Or it would be.

If he'd just hang on.

It wasn't that he hated his guild. Or its members. He'd grown a lot since his youth. He actually thought that he had one of the best guilds around. Most everyone did. It was just...sometimes...when he stayed out late the night before, it made mornings difficult…plus the day and night. He wanted to get he bar closed with already so h could get back home.

Mirajane left, after a bit, off to the kitchen area to finish cleaning up in there. It was while she was there though that the last person in the hall left and it was only the two of them then. Him and Mira.

"Oh," she sighed some when she returned to find this. "Just us then? Master?"

He didn't answer as he only finished off his beer. Mira had other things to worry about, anyways, as she collected the money from the register and went off to put it away, in the safe in his office. He waited for a moment, allowing her to do this in peace, before rising to his feet and following.

"Mmmm, Master, you left these files out on your desk," she griped, just a bit, as he came in, coat dangling from his shoulders. "You know, Freed goes through a lot to organize this stuff and then you mess it all up. Every time. He won't complain to you, but he does to me and- M-Master."

He didn't want to hear about Freed. Or the guild. Especially not about files. He hardly wanted to talk or listen or do anything, really, other than what he was doing in that moment. After approaching the barmaid, he only shoved her a bit from behind, up against his desk, wrapping an arm around her middle as he sort of just slumped against her. Tired.

It had been a long day.

"You went on a date last night," he whispered softly against her neck, nuzzling his stubbly face there. "Eh? Mirajane?"

"Yeah, I did, but you know-"

"Did you have fun?"

"The most fun. But Master-"

"I'm not your master."

"You are, Laxus." And she patted at the arm around her waist. "At the guild. Where we are, you know, right now."

"I had a pretty good time last night too, I guess," the slayer went on. "Not enough to go blabbing about it to everyone."

"But enough to be in a bad mood all day?"

"Drank too much," he grumbled softly before he kissed then where he'd nuzzled before. "You're lucky I even came in."

"We can't do this here, Laxus."

"Do what? I'm just holdin' ya, is all."

"If someone saw-"

"We're alone. You know that."

"Laxus..."

"Man can't even appreciate his woman in the privacy of his own office now? What are farce."

Relaxing some into his tough, she whispered, "I just don't want anyone or anything to ever ruin this."

"It won't. They won't." He'd been smelling it all day, the slight scent of her. To be so close now, to be able to smell it so fully, relaxed him instantly. Headache vanquished. "It's only me and you, demon."

"Yeah, dragon," she agreed softly her hand toying with his fingers. "Only you and me."

They had to leave, eventually, and it was for the better anyways. Mirajane was practically falling asleep on him and he wasn't much up for carrying her home. Or spending the night in the guildhall. No. He wanted to get home. To his own place. His own bed. With his own demon.

"I have to," she whispered to him softly as she fell into the couch the second they were in his apartment, "get up early. To open. In the morning. So you can't, you know, keep me up too late."

She'd worn his jacket on their late night walk home, taking the darkened alleyways and steering clear of most, and still had it wrapped around her, now more tightly, watching as the man went around his apartment, looking for something.

"Here it is," he sighed as he came back over to the couch. "I know we didn't look at it the night before, but I really have been reading over it. Before bed. Like you told me to."

"Don't do it because I tell you to, Laxus," she yawned around her closed eyes. "You should do it because-"

"I want to. Right. It's what I meant."

"Mmmm."

"I just struggle with it, sometimes, is all," he explained, cracking open the well-worn tome the woman had gifted him months back now. "Reading it. It's kind of hard to understand. My family… Gramps, Ivan, my...my mother, they weren't into this kinda stuff."

"Yeah," she whispered, "I've noticed."

He smiled at her in reproach, but only shook his head. "I just, uh, you know, struggle with understanding. I'm a smart guy, sure, but symbols and metaphors and stuff just shoot over my head."

"It's okay." She stretched her feet out then, to rest them in his lap. "Everyone has to start somewhere. Also long as you feel good reading it and learning about it, that's all that matters."

He nodded some, the man did, settling into his spot on the couch as well. "Do you want me to just start anywhere? Or is there a verse you want or-"

"Just anything. I like hearing you read. Your voice is very soothing."

He sneered some, to himself. He'd grown tired of it, honestly, his own voice. It brought him more annoyance than it did anything else. Talking. You were constantly doing it as a master. Quickly he'd learned the value in silence.

Mirajane fell asleep out there, on the couch, and Laxus only continued his readings until he felt satisfied in thoroughly mystifying himself. Then he closed the tome, dropped it on the coffeetable, and gently removed her feet from his lap. Getting to his own, he shook her awake as gently as he could, muttering something about needing to get to bed, a true bed, and she followed eventually though it was through yawns and heavy eyelids.

She shed his jacket somewhere along the way as well as her dress and he only stripped down by his bedside before diving under the covers, sliding in just close enough to brush her skin against his.

"Goodnight," he breathed as he stared over at her in the darkness of his bedroom. More than likely, she'd return to her own home the following night, as he wouldn't be at the hall (he had other business to attend to) and therefore not there to convince her. So he enjoyed her warmth there beside him as best he could. "Demon."

"Mmmm," she hummed, eyes shut and already, truly, drifted off. "Goodnight, Master."

Just something soft because it's been a bit.