Training Day

"Lana, Lana, Lana. You amateur. You honestly think that this is an example of a good sundae?" Laxus shook his head disapprovingly before gesturing to his bowl of ice cream, topped with whipped cream, peanuts, and sprinkles. "All you did was cover it in chocolate syrup and sprinkles."

Uh, yeah, so? Peanuts were nasty and the canister of whip cream scared her. It was just so loud.

"This," the man went on, nodding at his own creation, "is a sundae, little tiny baby dragon."

"I like mine," the four year old told him simply. "Daddy."

"Yeah and that's what's important." He patted her white hair with a grin. "But mine's still better."

Meh.

"Well, come on then." Laxus moved to the baggie of cookies the he'd crushed up and sprinkled the remnants across both their mounds of ice cream before topping each with a whole bunch of cherries from a jar. Mirajane used them for pies and stuff, but Laxus found them far more useful in such situations as they were in then. "Let's eat these in the living room, huh? Don't drop it."

No way. Couldn't do that. After all, her and her father had used every last bit of ice cream in the house for their master pieces; if she dropped it, he'd have to hold her back to keep her from eating it off the floor.

It helped that, at the moment, her mother had taken her two rambunctious brothers out to the vet. And by brothers, she most certainly meant, as her father called them, Mirajane's two mutts. Raijin and Tenjin. Lana loved them a whole bunch.

Except when they stole her food. They tried to do that all the time. Lana was just so short that she was the perfect height for them to pick on when she had something tasty in her hands. Other than that, they were pretty much the best big brothers ever.

"We gotta hurry, baby," Laxus informed his daughter as they settled into the couch with their bowls. "Mommy'll be back soon and if she catches us eatin' all this ice cream, I'mma be in trouble. Do you want Daddy to get in trouble?"

Of course not. But at the moment, her mouth was full of sugary goodness, so she kept quiet.

"Me neither," Laxus said, knowing the answer to his question without receiving one. They just knew one another that well. "So hurryy and eat. But not too fast, else you might get a brain freeze or somethin'."

Or something.

Nuzzling up to her father as she ate, Lana hummed out some sort of song while Laxus only grinned down at her. When Mirajane came home, she'd no doubt want some time with Lana and completely ruin the rest of his day. Oh well. At least he'd get some training out of it, probably.

Lana was more than a bit sticky when they finished with their ice cream. Or, well, he finished. She got so full halfway through that if she stuffed anymore down, she'd have vomited. So Laxus stuck her in the bath and got her all clean again as well as down for a nap before Mirajane showed back up, two very exhausted dogs with her.

"They," she said as the she came into the house to find her husband on the couch, reading a book, "still do not like the vet."

"I'd imagine," Laxus said as the dogs took off running the second that Mirajane released them from their leashes.

"They take after their daddy, after all."

"Come again?"

"You don't like doctor's," she said. "And they don't like-"

"Okay, for one, I'm not a father to anyone other than Lana."

"They hate it when you deny-"

"And for two," he kept up with a frown as she only shrugged out of her coat before going to hang it up. "I don't hate the doctor. I just don't need one. Ever. At all. So stop trying to get me to go to one."

"i just wanted you to get a physical, Lax. That's all."

"I don't need one. So shut up."

Rolling her eyes, Mirajane left her coat on the rack before going over to join him on the couch. She could hear her dogs in the kitchen, frantically lapping at their water dish and knew she'd need to go refill it soon, but figured she'd give them a minute to calm down first. Coming home from the vet always had them on edge.

"Where's the baby?"

"Napping," Laxus said, going back to his book. "She has been for about a half hour. I figured after that-"

"You don't need to do anything with her after her nap, Lax," Mira began, much like he figured she would. Resting a hand on his arm, she grinned as she said,, "I'll watch her for a bit, huh? Me and her can go work out in my garden."

Ugh. Mira's garden. Just taking up more space in his backyard. Along with her dogs' damn holes, it was just wasted space. He'd wanted to put in a pool when they first moved in, but Mirajane vetoed that because the house was bought in preparation for Lana's birth. And, even as she got older, his wife claimed, who knew when they'd have more children?

He did. Never. Lana was perfection. But why not let the demon live in some sort of fantasy world where Laxus wasn't completely opposed to more children? What did it hurt?

Not him. Empty house or no empty house, Laxus was not the kind to split his time with Lana with anything. Another baby would just completely ruin their time together. Completely.

Or make it whole, which is what Mira would try, eventually. It had been four years since she had Lana and, honestly, she would have thought that she'd been more into the idea of having another baby by then, but honestly, if Laxus called her bluff, she wasn't sure what she'd do.

Surprising as it was, two dogs and a daughter was actually enough for Mirajane. Fulfilling. No need for more. None at all.

"That's great," was all Laxus said to Mira's remark about the stupid garden, even sparing her a glance. "She really likes, uh, digging or whatever it is that you guys do."

"What are you gonna do?" she asked. "Dragon?"

"I was thinking a bit about training," he said, finally closing the book as it was clear that the demon didn't want him reading it for whatever reason. She''d much rather him spend any and all time speaking with her. "For the next half hour though, I'm free. If you're interested in wasting some time with me, that is."

"Doing what?"

He held down a chuckle while shifting to face her, more than one idea in mind. "I dunno, demon. How about you decide?"

And he had his tone down pat, all suggestive and shit. Only, Mirajane just wasn't perceptive. When she didn't want to be at least.

"Um," she hummed, looking up at the ceiling and she looked so childlike then, in a way only she could pull of, that Laxus knew immediately he would not be getting what he wanted. "What if I train with you?"

He'd already deflated, just from looking at her face, but at those words sat back up. "Eh?"

"We used to train together," she said before grinning widely at him and there went any childish features as the demonic in her took over. If there was anything that set Laxus' woman apart from all others, it was the effectiveness in which she could switch gears. "All the time. What? You think that I'm too weak now? Huh? To train with the great Thunder God?"

"No," he said slowly. "I just didn't know that you were interested in training. That's all."

"I still train. You know that I still take jobs too."

"Once in a blue moon, sure. To both of those."

Mira shook her head. "When you're away and I'm stuck at home with Lana all day, I have to do something."

"So you train," Laxus reiterated. "While I'm gone."

"Uh-huh."

"Since when?"

"Since always."

"Yeah, Mira, I know that you train, but train?" He shook his head. "You don't seriously train anymore, do you?"

"I go into your weight room and lift all the time."

"What? Why did I not know about this?" Nothing, after all, got the man hotter than watching Mirajane work out. Nothing. "Huh?"

"Oh, you know, dragon, I'm a very private lifter." Mirajane absently flexed then, as if in jest. "Audiences make me mess up my reps. Not to mention I don't want you to be around when I yell out how I'm the best freaking mage to ever live!"

Laxus blinked. Then he narrowed his eyes at her. "Fucking mage to ever live."

"That's a naughty word."

Ugh.

"Are you really using my weights while I'm gone?"

"Yes," Mira complained. "Have you not noticed how toned I've gotten?"

"I'm being serious, Mirajane."

"So am I."

"Fine. Then let's go lift. Let's-"

"Ah-ah, Laxus."

"Excuse me?" He grabbed her finger as she moved to wag it in his face. "Demon?"

"It's," she said, slipping that finger right back out of his hand, "leg day."

He blinked. Then he frowned. Then he sighed.

"Leg day?"

"That's what I said."

"Oh brother."

The demon was giggling then and gah! She was just so beautiful. She was always beautiful. Especially when she was smiling.

And Laxus couldn't let her sit there with that beautiful face and laugh at him any longer. Not without him jumping her bones (and her body) right then and there.

Or try, at least, as with a slight giggle, Mira escaped his nearly non-existent hold and ran off. Ugh. Laxus was not a fan of the chase. At all.

"Demon." He was slow to get up. And also kept his voice low. The little one was sleeping, after all, and Laxus wanted to keep her that way. "You get back here."

"No way."

Growling, he chased after her, but Mirajane was having far too much fun in running away and didn't head to any of the downstairs bedrooms, or even up the stairs for fear of awakening Lana. It was rather rare that she and Laxus got to be alone anymore and rarer still that they enjoyed that time with anything other than their usual lead ins to sex, so she was more or less soaking it up. So much so that she sorta forgot the sex thing and kinda headed right out the kitchen door where, of course, he caught her.

Only, out there on the porch, Mirajane wasn't so eager to give up and, when she pushed against his hold, she kinda, well, forced the overly playful Laxus to the ground as she'd assumed, apparently, that he was as into it as she was.

But he wasn't. If anything, after all that ice cream, Laxus was a tad bloated. He wasn't twenty-five anymore. He kinda was feeling a nap, to be honest. Not after he lost his balance though and fell on his butt with a hard smack.

"Oh, demon," he hissed as Mira, facing him then, only tossed her hands over her mouth, failing miserably at hiding a giggle that threatened regardless to break through. "You shouldn't have done that."

"Lax- Laxus, no!" And then she was running for real that time, but it didn't matter. The second she was on grass, where it was less likely to hurt, Laxus tackled her to the ground. Hard.

Fair, after all, was fair. In love and war as well as marriage. And definitely when it was a mixture of all three.

Especially when it meant that Laxus got to pin Mirajane to the ground. Then it was all in play.

"You know that you probably ruined my dress."

He only applied more pressure then, to her wrists, staring down into her eyes with no expression at all. "Good."

Mirajane shifted some, as much as he would allow, mumbling something about how horribly uncomfortable she was and that if any of the neighbors saw them in such a position, they'd have a high amount of explaining to do.

"And I know," she kept up, "that that's the last thing you like to do. Explain. Or talk to people at all, really."

He pressed harder against her wrists. "Silence, prisoner."

"Laxus-"

"You," he told her in a dark tone, "told me that you've been working out. Right?"

"You're being-"

"Right?"

"Yes! I have. So what?"

More pressure.

"Push me off."

"Get you off?"

He'd lost the jovial attitude and, that time, actually elicited a slight wince from the woman when he pressed down.

"Push," he repeated, "me off."

"My, my, Mr, Dreyar. I thought we'd outgrown this."

It had, after all, been his favorite game when they were dating. Mira used to think it was a tad rapist-y, but eventually took it more as a kink than anything else.

"Push me off, Mira." That time it was an order. "I mean it."

"And to think I let such a freak around my daughter," she tsked.

Laxus' gaze changed, finally, but it grew dark.

"You haven't been working out," he accused. "You liar. You-"

And then she did it. He wasn't focusing any more and, when she bucked up, he lost some of his grip. Just enough so that she could fully push him off.

"You jerk," was what she said as he laid there on the grass, blinking, while she only sat up dusted off. "I don't get it, Laxus."

"Get what?"

"Why that gets you all hot and bothered."

"It doesn't."

Mira looked him in the eyes, but he almost knew that she was indicating somehow to him that she was wishing to stare else where. "Is that so?"

"Frisk me if you want. Not even a haflie."

"Halfie? Are you twelve?"

He only got to his feet slowly. "Takes more to get me off these days, demon. And besides, you shouldn't have pushed me down."

"You were chasing me."

"And you enjoyed it."

"Did not."

"I just don't get it, Mira," he said, walking on then, not even bending down to help her up. "Why me chasing you gets you all hot and both- Hey!"

She'd reached out then, having to stretch to grab one of his ankles and, that time, force him to fall flat on his face. It didn't look pleasant and, Mirajane, who was meaning it to be funny, cringed a bit.

"Laxus, I am so sorry. I- No, Laxus, I apologized, so-"

"So?" he growled as, after shoving up, he moved to go force her to get to her feet too. Quite roughly, in fact, considering he was dealing with his beloved wife. When she tried to speak, he wouldn't let her. "So nothing. You wanna train with me, Mirajane? Huh?"

"I don't-"

"Great."

And then he took a swing at her. Mira was quite shocked for a moment, as it had been some time since the two honestly had it out with one another. Before Lana was born, probably. After that time Laxus seemed to deem Mira as some sort of precious, fragile wife that he couldn't risk harming.

Before that though, back when they first started dating, they worked out together and trained together constantly. He always loved watching her lift, but got a pretty big kick out of lifting weights in front of her. And oh, when she landed a hit on him when they were sparring, well hell, he just about took her right then and there.

Man, it had been a long time. And it hit Mirajane then too as Laxus sure didn't, considering she easily dodged his attempted blow. Okay. So he was pissed off. Or horny. Or whatever he was. Probably a mixture. She could handle that.

Especially because all his punches seemed to be extremely wild.

"Relax, Lax." She took a swing of her own, just for good measure. "I won't go too hard on you."

She didn't get a chance, honestly, as not very far into their evenly (Laxus was honestly going so soft on her regardless of his rough exterior that it wasn't even worth duking it out) matched sparring, Laxus' face lost it's tension and he just froze, head cocked.

"Lana's up," he told her, his hearing apparently having an impeccable range. "And she's- Damn it, Mira! That was a clear time out moment!"

Mirajane, who had just landed a kick to his side, said, "Not until you call one it's not."

He only growled, turning his back to her once more. Only that time, he was rushing off. Mira knew that she'd lost him then and only dropped her hands with a sigh. It was just as well though; any longer and the two of them might actually begin to get serious. After all, they both had lost some of their edge over the years, but it was still definitely there, bubbling under the surface.

And her dress wasn't fit for such things anyhow. No need to ruin it over nothing.

As he headed in, her husband let their dogs out (those days, they occasionally understood the doggy door and it's many uses and other times just sat at the backdoor and whined), leading them to rush over to their mother in joy. They seemed to sense her down mood and, as always, wanted to cheer her right back up.

In the recent years, it felt as if Laxus hid a lot of his listlessness in their relationship by spending most of his free time with her daughter as she did the same with her dogs. It wasn't so much that they didn't love one another, as they both certain knew that they still had strong and deep feelings for the other, but at the same time, the complacency they both felt had changed to stagnancy behind their back. They both knew that the less time they spent addressing this, the more likely it would take them to an irreversible place, but sometimes, it was just easier to ignore a problem than acknowledge it.

Besides, it wasn't as if Mirajane could just come out and tell Laxus that he worked too much when it was her that insisted they buy the nice house and agreed to him doing such a thing to pay for it. And hold it against a man for loving his daughter? As if that wouldn't make her seem like an overly controlling wife. So they didn't go out anymore and mostly everything in their life was plotted out very carefully. Who cared that the most exciting thing of the year so far had been that very day, where he basically held her down against her will and then she attacked him for little to no reason? What difference did that make?

"What are you doing?" Mira called out to Laxus as, while she was bent over letting her dogs lick at her face in return for her pets, he came right back out of the house, a still yawning Lana in his arms. He only sat her on the porch though before calling out for her dogs. Even though he treated them horribly, they seemed to respect him as the head of the house. Or something like that. They feared him at least, and that was enough to get the dogs rushing to his side, yapping the whole way.

"Now sit here," he growled at them as Lana only giggled, the mutts rushing to sit at her side. "With Lana and watch. You worthless brats. Not you though, baby. You just watch and be cute, okay? And cheer for Daddy."

Maybe.

"I asked what you're doing, Laxus," Mira repeated, frowning over at him. Lana honestly still looked sleepy and Mira was starting to wonder if he'd heard her wake up at all or, rather, gone to get her for fear of her being left alone in the house. He wouldn't even do yard work if she was napping on the couch. It was just one of his personal rules; if she was in the house, so was he. And vice versa.

He was actually a pretty overbearing parent which sometimes struck Mirajane (and others; hell, even himself) as odd, but he couldn't help it. Somewhere buried in being abandoned by his own parents had brought it about instead of just causing him to repeat the cycle for some reason. Mirajane thought it was Makarov that caused the divergence, but who really knew?

"What's it look like I'm doing?" He was grumbling again as he addressed her before coming over. "We're finishing training."

"W-What?"

"Don't just stand there dumbly looking at me, woman. What? You think that I was going to let you get away with that sucker punch?" He snorted. "Think again. Watch this, Lana, and remember; the dragon always beats the demon. Always."

"I like tigers," she told him simply. Nearing the age of five, tigers were pretty much the coolest thing ever to her. "A lot."

"Yeah, well, you love dragons though, so be quiet." He was focused in on the demon then. No time for Lana's senseless babble. What did she know? She'd only been alive for four years. That couldn't possibly be enough time to absorb the greatness that were dragons. Not nearly. "Daddy's busy."

Mira stared into his eyes then as he advanced over to where she'd stayed put the entire time, still a tad shocked that the man still wished to continue what they'd been doing before. Still,, if that was what he wanted…

"Wow, Mommy," Lana cheered as purple tiles appeared before Mirajane changed out of her dress and into something more suited for working out. "You good!"

Laxus hummed in anger. "She transformed, Lana. So what? She could do that in her sleep!"

Yeah. Because she was good. Lana had sorta already covered that.

Overly into it then, as he'd gotten them an audience, Mirajane only winked at him before moving to get into a stance. "Watch Mommy teach Daddy why girls always win, okay, baby?"

Beat him? Laxus? Daddy? Daddy Dragon? Mmmm… Lana liked her mother, but…

Maybe.

"Don't listen to her," Laxus complained, glancing over at the girl. "I'll have her calling mercy before-"

"All talk and no bite are you now, Dreyar?" Mira was growing impatient. "Or did I change into this for nothing?"

No freaking way. Not after dragging his daughter out there to watch them. Now, normally, Laxus wouldn't want her to see him beating up on a woman, but hey; he wasn't going up against no woman. He was going up against a demon. And it was very important to instill in her at a young age that he was better than any and all monsters or demons that could ever bother her.

And he just kinda wanted to spend time with both his girls at the same time. Sue him.

They spent so long out there, sparring, that Lana grew disinterested and, still more than a bit sleepy (ice cream would do that to ya), took to laying out on the porch and taking a nap, her doggies joining her due to their own boredom.

Mirajane and Laxus weren't bored though and went at it for nearly an hour. Not continually as, at one point, Mira had to catch her breath as Laxus tried his hardest to pretend to be in better shape than her by standing over her and breathing as normally as he could.

"You're gonna surrender first," he threatened. "You hear me?"

Mirajane only panted before shaking her head. "You're really serious about this, aren't you?"

He was very serious about her and, at the moment, the two seemed to be one in the same so he only nodded. Because fine, so they'd gotten complacent and perhaps a bit stagnant. So? Hanging around the guild didn't bring him nearly the same thrill anymore, but he still did it every day. Never considered doing anything different. Because it was his home. And Mirajane was his wife.

What would he do without either of those?

And so what if he gave in at the end and let her win? Because he wanted Lana to see that women could be strong and powerful too? And so what if she didn't think that happened at all and, rather, he was just using that excuse to save face? He'd still made her happy, just by spending some time with her doing something that, really, he needed to get done anyhow. Honestly, he'd rather liked it.

"I'm gonna be sore in the morning," Mirajane complained to him as they passed one another in the bathroom, her getting out of the shower (victors always go first) to relieve him of Lana duty while he took his own. "All that sparring."

"You should be fine. You said you've been lifting, right?" Laxus was done playing for the day and only took to stripping down before going to head into the shower.

"Oh, dummy, I don't really lift."

"'What?"

Humming as she headed out of their bathroom and into the bedroom, where Lana was reading from one of her children's books to the dogs, Mira called over her shoulder, "That's right. I beat you without it."

He only narrowed his eyes, saying nothing.

Sometimes the demon really got under his skin.

But…

No. There was no nice way to put it. Just straight under his skin.

The feeling was returned, of course. Extremely.

It was just covered so well in love on both ends that sometimes it was a tad hard to see.

"Hey, Lana," Mira sighed as she came to join the girl in bed. Glancing up from her book, she grinned at her mother.

"You beat Daddy," she told the woman once more. It was her new favorite thing to say, like, ever. "And you were a demon!"

"I'm always a demon, baby." She snuggled Lana up close to her as the dogs moved closer as well, wanting some attention too. Pressing a kiss to her daughter's head, she added, "I just hide it well."

"Mommy beat Daddy."

"Always." Then she yawned. "In fact, I was thinking of celebrating with some ice-"

"There was a terrible accident!" she heard yelled from the bathroom, the shower cutting off so that he could be heard. Laxus hearing was really still great, apparently. "And all the ice cream is gone. Don't question it, just like I won't question this so called victor!"

And then the shower came back on and Mirajane only blinked. Glancing down at her then sheepish daughter, Mira only snuggled her some more and gave in.

Besides, she'd be holding that victory over his head for years to come. No need to rub salt in the wound by digging into whatever it was that had happened to the ice cream. It wouldn't be a comfort to her, after all, to learn just how close she got to ending up covered in ice cream vomit after a blow to many to the slayer's belly.

No comfort at all.

New chapter of Closure is coming, I promise. Just been in a one-shot mood recently. And who can resist Laxus and Lana, right? Right?