Cana shivers, ducking her head further into her collar. She blows out her breath in a frosty cloud. "Mavis, it's cold."

Laxus smirks, looking up at the clear night sky. "No snow, though."

"Ugh, I know. At least, if it snowed, I could bury myself in the snow for warmth." Cana shudders. "How are you so warm? You're like a furnace."

"It must be my natural hotness." Laxus glances down at himself. He's wearing his normal attire— button down black shirt, black pants, boots, fur-lined coat. He gives Cana a once over, taking in her short black dress, black tights, brown boots, and brown bomber jacket. He admits that she looks incredibly hot— albeit shivering and chilled. He takes pity on her, reaching out and tugging her in to snuggle into his coat. "Or, maybe it's the fact that I dressed for winter."

"It's only December," she snarks weakly, smacking at him with a loose fist. "December is early winter."

He laughs, dipping his head to press a kiss to her pink nose. She crinkles it at him, and he tugs her close, wrapping his arms around her. "December is pretty solidly winter." She pushes her nose into his collarbone and he flinches at the icy touch. "Fuck, Cana, your nose feels like an icicle!"

"Payback, Mr. Natural Hotness," she murmurs, cuddling further into him.

He grins, savoring the feel of her in his arms. "Look at you, all snuggly. I feel like your knight in shining armor."

Without removing her face from his chest, she smacks him in the arm. "I don't need a knight in shining armor."

He laughs. "I thought all women wanted a knight to rescue them."

She looks up at this, narrowing her violet eyes dangerously at him. " One, I'm not 'all women,' thank you. Two, no, not all women want a knight to rescue them. A few of them might like it, most wouldn't, and I certainly don't."

He backs down, holding his hands out nonthreateningly in front of him. He doesn't like it when she scowls at him like that. He prefers how she was cuddled into him before. "Hey! Hey, sorry, I didn't mean it like that." Shit, now she's mad. Nice fuck up, Dreyar.

Cana crosses her arms in front of her, still pissed. "So many men have that mindset— ugh, it makes me so mad! 'I'll save you,' 'I got it,' 'Don't hurt yourself.' No, I got it! I am a capable mage! So many fucking men assume that because I've got a pair of tits, that somehow turns me into a delicate doily."

Shit, shit, shit. "Babe, I wasn't saying you're—" How do I put it? "—delicate."

She glares at him.

"I wasn't!"

"Sure." She blows her bangs out of her eyes and scowls. "Whatever."

She's still mad. He reaches out to stroke her cheek. "Cana, I love you! I'd never say something like that."

Her head whips up and her eyes flash furiously at him. "God, Laxus, it's not all about you!"

I— what? He blinks, hurt. "Babe—"

"I hear this shit all the time, Laxus. From the men in the guild. From Master. From Bacchus and his friends. And I'm so sick and tired of it." She throws her hands up and stalks away, striding over to rest her elbows on the guardrails of the bridge. She exhales heavily and lets her head drop down between her shoulders, fisting a hand and slamming it down on the metal rail. "And all these men— they're my friends, I trust them, I love them, but when they say these things— well-meaning things!—like they don't think they're problematic; it just really, really sucks."

He watches her helplessly. "I'm sorry, Cana. I didn't mean it."

She glares. "Do you even understand why I'm mad?" At his guilty pause, she rolls her eyes. "Oh, hell, Laxus. Seriously?"

"I'm sorry!" he protests, stormy gray eyes wide and irritated. "It just seems like— you're making a big deal over some stupid thing I said! Something I said I was sorry for!"

"I'm making a big deal over it because it's said to me all the fucking time!" she shouts back, and for the first time, he becomes aware of the fact that they're actually having a full-blown fight. She gazes at him with shimmering, angry violet eyes. "Men say so much fucking shit to me, to other women— hell, to anyone who's not a man! They don't fucking get it. They say, 'Oh, Cana, you did such a good job for a woman,' or refer to women as the 'ball and chain' in a relationship. Gajeel makes that joke about Lucy and Natsu all the time. It's sexist and offensive, and no one— certainly not the men— sees that!"

Laxus stares at her, mouth open. He can't believe she's grouping him into this. "Cana— I— I'm not sexist! I love and respect women."

She flattens her hands against the rail, pressing down as if she can release her anger into the metal. "Look. Laxus. Loving and respecting women has nothing to do with whether or not your actions are sexist, and you certainly don't have to hate women to be a sexist." She turns to look at him, and he feels something rip in his chest when he sees her beautiful eyes brimming with tears. He opens his mouth to comfort her, to say something, when she walks over and places her fingers over his lips. "Just— listen to me for a moment, okay?"

He hesitates, then nods, reaching up, curling a finger under her hand and tugging it gently away from his lips. He slowly presses his mouth to her palm in a kiss, drawing her slowly back into his arms. She smiles faintly, but her eyes stay glossy. "The simple fact that you are a participant in a culture that privileges men— especially white, cisgender, straight men— over all others means that, at the least, you benefit from sexism, and, at the worst, you actively participate in it." He opens his mouth to ask a question— he doesn't know what— but she quickly reaches up to shush him again. "So, no, you don't have to hate women to be sexist. In fact, many times, your unconscious thoughts, actions, and words are still sexist because sexism is often caught up in the subtle things you do without even realizing you do them."

He's about to defend himself again, but his words choke in his throat when he realizes how he's still not listening to her, even after swearing he would. He wonders if he's been subconsciously doing that this entire time. He whispers, "Do all men do this?" Do I do this?

She ducks her head, pressing her cheek back into his collarbone. "Laxus— this conversation is much bigger than whether or not men, or you in particular, are unconsciously sexist. It is about how our society creates sexist situations that reinforce really bad shit like gender roles, the gender binary, transphobia, and cissexism. It's—" he feels her body shake with a small chuckle— "pretty fucked up that we all perpetuate them without even knowing it."

"How?" he murmurs into her sweet-smelling hair. He can't believe it, that everything he does, everything he feels, has been affected by some fucked up societal brainwashing. How could he have missed this?

"You remember what I was saying earlier?" she questions, and he remembers with a guilty flash how he was so focused on saving his own ego that he'd almost entirely ignored what she was saying. "The little things, like joking about how a woman's place is in the kitchen, or, you know, the white knight thing. Those are the less-conscious little things men do everyday that harm women. They're a result of internalized biases, presumptions, and stereotypes about women. They consist of the things you might even know not to be true, but that have been so thoroughly reinforced by our culture that they occasionally—and unintentionally— leak out into our everyday lives through our actions and words."

"Yeah." He's running through lacrima shows he's seen, music he's heard, jokes he's been told, that could be influencing his— sexism. Mavis, that sounds fucked up. "But— are they really that bad? What if you realize what you said and apologize?"

Cana shrugs, pressing a kiss to his chest. "Even if you have good intentions and don't mean something 'in that way,' it's still really harmful. Even in their subtlety, all those 'unintentionally' sexist comments and actions gradually build upon each other — and they sting." She shakes her hair back and leans back, looking up at him. "For example, do you think Lucy's feeling really okay when she's expected to be the sexy bunny distraction rather than a serious mage— and then gets paid less on a job than Natsu? Or when some guy comments on the size of your breasts rather than the quality of your magic after a job, and, when you tell him how uncomfortable it makes you feel, just tells you that you 'should take a compliment better?'"

He stares down at her, appalled. "That happens?"

She laughs a little bit. "Yeah. The workplace doesn't really feel that safe after being treated like that. It's hard to feel like you're accepted there. Of course, I'm actually really privileged— I'm still cisgender, straight, white—; women who aren't cis or straight or white often have to deal with a lot more shit from men. It's really important to remember that too when we're thinking about this. It's all pretty shitty."

I'm sorry, love. He wants to fold her into him so that nothing else happens to put that raw sadness into her voice ever again, but he's scared to touch her, scared to be close to her. If she's been hurt by all these men's shit, how can he trust himself to not hurt her? He closes his eyes. All he can say is, "I love you so much," choked and small. The guilt sears his chest.

"I love you too," she murmurs back, pressing a sweet kiss to his lips, "and that's why it's so important that I tell you this— and that instead of beating yourself up about it, because that's what I know you're doing, you start looking at your own behavior and the society that encourages it. Okay?"

"Okay," he whispers. She's read him well. "I'm going to try. It's so hard, but—" He exhales slowly, then laughs suddenly, sharply. "I'm sorry. I'm making this about me still, aren't I?"

She laughs brightly, an unexpected burst of amusement, pulling him down to kiss him soundly. She lets him go, grinning up at him. "Yep."

"Okay, first step— stop making it about my insecure, egotistical self," he tells her, savoring the radiance that's returned to her eyes. "Second step— keep listening to you, you incredible woman."

She kisses him again, lips warm and slightly chapped against his, letting go an "Eep!" of surprise when he hauls her closer and proceeds to kiss her deeply and thoroughly. When he lets her go, she's pink-cheeked and grinning. "Wanna go get some hot chocolate at the guild?"

He brushes her nose with his. "I'd love to."

On the way there, his gloved hand clasped with hers, a question hits him. "Hey— is there a word for a person who's working to stop this— you know— systemic marginalization of women?"

She grins at him. "Hell yes, there is. You're an ally."

"An ally?" He rolls the word over his tongue. "Ally to what?"

She tugs him off towards the guild, blowing him a kiss over her shoulder. "Feminism, of course!"

Cana throws her mittens on the bar with an exclamation of joy. "Sweet fucking Mavis, I love having feeling in my extremities again."

Laxus smirks at his pink-cheeked girlfriend, hands wrapped around a mug of hot chocolate. "You and winter are not friends."

"Nope." She cuddles into him, standing between his legs as he sits on the stool. "I want summer back."

"You complained about summer every day," he chuckles, nuzzling her head affectionately. "'It's too hot!' 'I want to go swimming!' 'I want snow!'"

"Obviously, I didn't know how great I had it," she sniffs, stealing a sip of his drink. "I'm cold and crunchy from snow now."

"I like you cold and crunchy." He kisses her.

She nips his lips, laughing. "I like me warm!"

"Yeah, Laxus!" A crude yell breaks through their little bubble. Laxus twists around, seeing a pair of young mages waving at him. "Get it, man! Woo! Tap that!"

Cana scowls. "The hell— are those little fuckers talking about me?"

Laxus' eyes narrow. "They'd better the fuck not be." Lightning starts to build in his palms. No one talks that way about my girl. "I'm going to—"

Cana stops him dead with a glare.

"—support you as you go over and kick their sorry asses out of this guild, because you in no way, shape, or form need me to do something you could flawlessly and comfortably do yourself," he quickly amends mid-sentence. Shit. Guess sexism really is ingrained. Gotta work on that.

She grins wickedly. "Thank you."

He settles back in his chair, still seething but now ready for the show he knows is coming. If I were them, I'd sincerely wish I'd never chosen to join this guild right… about… now.

"I'm not an object to be fucking gotten, you pieces of shit!" Cana screams from the bar. "Ugh. You men! It's not enough that we're fucking pawed at and commented on all— fucking— day— long—, you have to go and fucking ruin my moment with my boyfriend with your stupid patriarchal bullshit!"

The noise in the guild quickly drops into uncomfortable silence. Lucy covers her mouth, brown eyes wide. Levy's mouth is hanging open. Mira's grinning with sheer delight.

The two teenagers stare at Cana in shock, then snicker to each other, one pointing at her and muttering something under his breath before turning back to his table.

"Excuse me for a moment, I have some trash to take out," Cana murmurs sweetly to Laxus before slipping away from the bar. She grabs a shot out of Gajeel's hands, downs it in one movement, and stalks towards the table.

"Shit, what flew up her ass?" Gajeel mutters to Laxus, slouching up to the bar to slump next to him. Mira slides him a new drink and he waves a hand in thanks.

Laxus takes a sip of his drink. Let's see if I learned anything earlier. "Oh, nothing much, just a patriarchal culture that privileges men and perpetuates oppressive and limiting gender roles, the gender binary, transphobia and cissexism, and the political and economic inequality of women."

Gajeel stares at him like he grew a second head. "What the fucking shit are you talking about, Laxus?"

Laxus scowls back. "What we should be talking about. I'm still so new to all of this shit, but you know how much crap the women here have to go through— some of the shit from us, their friends and coworkers and boyfriends? And because we don't have to experience any of it— because we're men—, we don't listen to them at all when they try to say something about it."

A massive explosion rocks the guild. The two rabble-rousing mages careen through the back wall and sprawl in a pile of shattered wood, smoke gently rising from their still figures.

Gajeel's eyes are wide. "What do you mean? Is this happening to Levy?"

Laxus shrugs. "You should ask her. But—" he stops Gajeel as the iron dragonslayer makes to find his mate, "if she wants to talk about it, listen to her. Don't get distracted by your own ego." He smiles wryly. "I've been making that mistake for too long. She, and the pain she might be experiencing, trumps any discomfort you feel from the conversation and confronting anything you've been complicit in, you hear me?"

"Y-yeah," Gajeel snarls. "I hear you." He hurries away just as Cana storms back up, smoke rising from her fists.

She settles herself back between Laxus' legs, resting her back against his right thigh. She scowls and blows dust off of one of her hands. "Assholes."

"Did you get them?" he murmurs.

"Into the wall, yeah," she mutters. "I tried to talk to them first, explain why I was mad. They called me a 'crazy bitch' and told me I probably just needed to get laid more."

His fists tighten by his sides. He moves them surreptitiously back into his coat. "So you blew them the fuck up?"

She grins. "So I blew them the fuck up."

"That's my girl." He pauses. "Is it okay to refer to you as 'my girl?'"

She thinks for a moment. "That might be a thing specific to every woman, but I don't mind. I think it's cute. Thanks for checking. If you're not sure, ask." She kisses the top of his ear before peering into her mug. "Shit, my hot chocolate is cold."

Macao comes storming up. "Cana, what the fuck? Those were new members! We've been having trouble recruiting anyway— why would you throw them through a wall?"

Cana contemplates her drink sadly. "Iced chocolate? Is that a thing?"

Laxus tastes it. "Not bad."

"Cana!" Macao's fuming. He jabs a hand at the gaping hole in the guild wall. "Explain yourself!"

"Why would you assume it was my fault, Macao?" Cana fires back without removing her gaze from her cup. "Ask those fuckers what they did first."

Laxus curses. I didn't even notice how he was assuming she was to blame… Another thing I've been unaware of because of my privilege. Something to do better on in the future.

"You are an adult, and will act accordingly!" Macao's yelling, red in the face. "You are a representative of the guild!"

"So am I, and I've blown up so much more than that," Laxus chimes in lightly, noticing Cana's clenched fists. He knows she doesn't want to have this confrontation right now, so he steps in to take some of the fire. "Why aren't you yelling at me too?"

Macao splutters. "I— excuse me?"

"You seem to be overly concerned with Cana's presentation," Laxus reiterates, "when I've done much worse and gotten away scot-free. Why the double standard?"

"You're the master's grandson—"

"Save it." Laxus glances at Cana. She smiles and motions for him to go on. "It's about power, isn't it? You feel like you have power over Cana that you don't have over me."

"What—"

"Here's the deal, though, asshole. You have the same amount of power over Cana as you do me: fucking none. Don't pretend that you do, because she'll kick your ass out of here just like she did those two bastards. And I won't do a fucking thing to stop her."

"Like you could," Cana coughs into her fist, smirking.

Laxus grins. "Like I could."

"You're both unstable." Macao glares at Laxus and flees the scene.

Cana kicks at the air after him. "Go away, Macao."

"Men are idiots."

"I've been telling you this for a while now."

"It's true. Am I an idiot?"

She kisses him happily on the corner of his mouth. "Only a little. But you're my idiot."

He kisses her back, a little more enthusiastically. "Well, that's okay then."

She ruffles his hair, curling into him. "I'm glad we can laugh about it."

"Me too," he breathes, nuzzling her neck. "Thank you for taking the time to talk to me and educate me. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Probably blow things up with lightning and perpetuate the patriarchy," Cana replies smoothly. She takes a sip of her hot chocolate and comes up with a cocoa mustache. "You know. The norm."

He kisses her mustache. "Good thing you're here with me then."

She giggles into her cup. "Honey, you're stuck with me now."

"I wouldn't want it any other way."