Of Cake and Interruptions

"What are you doing?"

"What am I doin'," Laxus mocked with a frown. "I'm bakin' a cake."

"You are?"

"Yeah, Haven," he complained to his oldest daughter, the blonde staring in shock at him before coming over to peek in the bowl. "I am."

"But…why?"

The slayer only continued to look into the bowl, watching the ingredients swirl together. "For your mother."

"What about her?" The blonde child was rare to see her father even make them breakfast. Dinner sometimes, if he could just shove things in a pot and call it soup, but not much else. "Did she ask you for a cake?"

"No, Haven, she didn't ask me for one."

"Then why-"

"You stink," was his only reply. And she did. She'd come into the kitchen through the backdoor, returning from a training session with her Uncle Elf (it was rare for her to do so, but sometimes you just had to spend time with the big oaf). She needed a shower. Desperately. "Go wash off."

"You stink," was her clever response, as well as a glare. But after working out with Elfman, she was honestly too tired for much else. Sometimes her and Laxus' arguments could go on for hours. No need for that at the moment. None at all.

"That's great. Now get."

Ugh. With a glare and some sort of snide remark under her breath, she was gone. Laxus didn't even glance after her. Just went back to his batter.

It was when he was searching for a cake pan that the front door opened and closed that time.

"Laxus? Are you home? It's Lisanna. I brought Ajax for-"

"In the kitchen," he grumbled, his sister-in-law quickly entering with her young son. "What is it?"

"Mirajane said that you were off today," the woman told him. "And Bickslow is out on a job and I haven't had a chance to train since- What are you looking for?"

"Cake pan."

"They're under the stove."

"Under the stove?"

"The bottom part pulls out. You know, like a drawer?"

No, he didn't know, but whatever.

"Thanks," was his stiff reply as Ajax, who was always enamored with his uncle, rushed over to the man, babbling something as he wobbled on his feet. Laxus only glanced at him before at Lisanna.

"Was there something else you wanted?" he asked as, after setting the toddler's diaper bag down, she just stood there, staring at him. "Lisanna?"

"No, I just… What are you doing?"

"What's it look like?" he complained. "I'm baking a cake."

"For?"

"Why's it gotta be for anything? Huh? Maybe I just want a damn cake. Is that so unbelievable?"

"No," the woman replied slowly. "It's just that, uh, well, I've never seen you bake a cake before. I mean… You have, right? Or-"

"Of course I have," he grumbled, Ajax giggling at the sound of the man's voice. And he had. For Haven's third birthday, he baked her a cake. It turned out horrible and had to be thrown out only to be replaced by one of Mira's (or a store bought one; he couldn't recall, that time was rather difficult for him). It was a cake though, damn it, and most certainly counted.

"Well, did you want help or-"

"I have to do this alone," he said simply, retrieving the cake pan from beneath the stove (he seriously would have never found it) before glancing at the woman once more. "I'll watch Ajax or whatever, but scram, huh?"

"Okay," Lisanna sang before going to kiss and snuggle her son and get out of there. "Just try not to burn down the place while my baby's here, huh?"

"Get gone before you lose your babysitter."

"Of course, big brother Lax-"

"Get out of here!"

With a giggle and a wave to her baby, Lisanna did just that. Then it was him, the boy, and the pan.

Hmmm. He knew he needed to grease it or something, so that it didn't stick, but with what?

Lucky him, Ajax got extremely sleepy around then and, after some whines and Laxus trying to figure out what he wanted, he got that the boy wanted to go to sleep. Everything was turning out just fine. Quickly going to deposit the little boy in he and Mirajane's bed, he went back to work on that pesky cake.

He was still figuring that out when there was a sharp knock at the front door and, with a growl, he yelled out, "It's open!"

"It's Locke, Master," he heard Black Steel's son call out timidly as he opened the front door.

"And Navi," came the voice of Natsu's daughter, just as fearful. They knew Laxus well, Locke and Navi did. If he wasn't in a good mood, he was not one to be messed with. Honestly, had they not know that running away after knocking wouldn't annoy him further, they would have done just that.

"Yeah," Locke was continuing as they no doubt entered the house. "We came to see if Haven-"

"What are you doing here?" Laxus heard his daughter complain as she came out from...wherever she was. Whatever. He didn't care. He was far more concerned with greasing that dang pan. His daughter and her stupid friends weren't of his concern.

Err, well, they were, sort of, as he was their Master and he loved Haven, of course, but- Gah! He'd just use flour.

"We came to get you," Navi giggled. "Remember? We were supposed to meet here so that we could..."

And she trailed off, meaning that whatever they were doing was supposed to be a secret from her parents. Great. Laxus didn't have time to deal with that. None at all.

"Navi," Locke hissed softly. Laxus' dragon senses though let him hear it all. "Be quiet."

Laxus was certain, of course, that they weren't doing anything too bad. After getting kidnapped by Ivan that time, Haven was rather lax about getting too far out of her city boundaries. They were probably going to sneak a job through Kinana that they knew their parents (other than Gajeel and Natsu, who would send them off to their deaths, probably) wouldn't like.

"Whatever you're doing," was what the slayer growled to the children, all three holding their breaths at the sound, "do it somewhere else. I'm busy today. And Haven?"

He knew they were all glancing at one another, as if fearful. Was he tricking them?

"What?"

"Stay the night with one of your friends," he said. "Don't come back home."

And there it was. Locke's snicker that sounded far too much like Gajeel's because he knew what that meant and it was sick and nasty and gross and damn, Laxus didn't realize baking cakes were so hard.

"Shut up, Locke," Haven growled as she hit him. Laxus hurt that. The punch. It didn't effect the boy though and Laxus could tell too when he took to patting Haven on the head that it only got him hit again.

They were almost too predictable.

"I'll be checking in on you in the morning though," Laxus assured her Haven as he heard the front door open, them no doubt getting ready to leave. "So you better be with Navi or Locke. I swear, Haven, if you're not-"

"Whatever, Laxus."

And then the door was slamming shut and he was alone.

Great.

Other than Locke being weird, that had gone relatively well. Now Haven was out of the house for the night. Perfect.

It was after he'd poured the cake batter into the pan and was trying to figure out what temperature to set the oven on that, once more, there was a knock on the door.

Growling that time, Laxus yelled out, "What the hell do you want?"

And that time, there was no hesitance as the door opened. It was like whoever had knocked just owned the place. And there were only two people Laxus knew that were the uncouth.

"I was supposed to meet Haven."

"And I have to go to the bathroom and Ravan said not to do it in your bushes, so… And is Marin here?"

Ravan and Kai. Great. Of all the people that his daughters had to befriend, he probably disliked the two of them the most.

Laxus only glared at them as they came into his kitchen, the youngest one, Kai, covered from head to toe in dirt for some reason. He was trying to become some sort of a mage that used dirt or plants or… Laxus couldn't remember what. He didn't care what. All he knew was that if Mirajane came home to a dirt covered house, he'd be in big trouble.

"What," Laxus growled, "are you two idiots doing here?"

"I just said," Ravan, the elder one and far more vocal (and disrespectful), complained, "that I came here to find Haven and the others. We were supposed to meet-"

"You missed 'em."

"What?" Ravan glared down at his brotehr then. "I told you that you made me late!"

"I'm sorry," Kai sniffled. Looking at the ground then, his brown hair fell over his eyes as he said, "I got lost again, Master."

Laxus only stared down at him. "And you got lost in a mud pile or-"

"Oh, no, this was from my garden." He held up his filth covered hands then, as if they were a badge of honor or something.

Or something.

"Anyhow," Laxus grumbled, "Haven ain't here. Marin either. And if you're going to catch Haven, Ravan, you better get to it."

"Where's Marin?" Kai asked with a slight frown. Tilting his head back to look up at Laxus, his eyes were visible once more. He needed a haircut, but Erza, who took care of him and his brother, had been unable to convince him of such a thing. "Master?"

"At the guildhall watching her mother work," he grumbled. "And- Hey. Great. I have an idea."

Ravan didn't care to hear it and was already turning to head out of the kitchen, meaning if he didn't want to get lost, Kai was going to have to rush and catch him.

"What?" the little boy asked, glancing after his brother before back at the slayer.

"You have Ravan take you down to the hall and then find Marin," Laxus told him. "And ask her to spend the night with you."

"Wow. That's a great idea." Kai giggled. Then he frowned when he heard the front door close. "Ravan, wait for me!"

"Go catch him," Laxus ordered. "And remember; make Marin spend the night over at Erza's with you."

"But what if Erza says no?"

Quite honestly, Laxus was still trying to figure out when exactly she did so to the boys. They were wild as hell. She had to be the worst temporary guardian ever. Hell, she let Ravan try to kill her once.

"Tell her Master said to. Alright?"

Nodding, Kai turned to head after his brother. Then he remembered something.

"I really gotta pee" he told the man. "And if I take the time out to go to the bathroom-"

"Use the damn bushes, Kai. But if they die or something because of it-"

"My pee's very clean."

"Oh, I'm sure."

With that, the little boy took off in a sprint and damn, Laxus really hoped none of the neighbors saw him out there peeing. They already thought his family was weird enough.

Finally, Laxus just decided on a temperature and put the cake in there to bake for a bit. Then he got to work picking up around the house (and scrubbing at the dirt that stupid Kai had left everywhere). Oh, the things that he did for his demon.

The next time the front door opened and closed, Laxus was down on his knees, wiping up that damn mud, and was not in the mood. At all.

"Go the fuck away whoever it is," he growled. "Freed, Ever, Elfman, whoever. I'm busy. Unless it's you, Marin, and then Daddy's sorry, but-"

"Considering this is just as much my house as yours, Lax," he heard Mirajane's voice as she came, not only into the house, but just as quickly into the kitchen doorway, "I think I'll decided whether or not I can come in or- W-What are you-"

"Demon." He was still down on his knees too, as he stared up at her. It was not a usual position for them to be in. Not at all. "I, uh, well-"

"Are you...cleaning?"

"Well, yeah," he said, clearing his throat before, slowly getting to his feet. "Kai was by and the little bugger got the whole place dirty. And he was only here for two minutes, at the most. He-"

"Yeah, he and Ravan stopped by the hall. Or, well, Ravan dropped him off. And he said something about Marin spending the night-"

Laxus nodded at her. "I thought it would be for the best."

"Why's that?"

He paused then, scratching at the back of his neck before saying slowly, "We had a pretty bad fight last night, demon. I figured we'd talk it out today."

"Is that all?" she asked, giving him a hard stare. "Hmmm?"

"Well." Coughing, Laxus changed the subject. ":Anyhow, I figured we'd order in tonight and I cleaned up and I bought some of those chocolates you liked and baked a-"

"Laxus, why are you-"

"Because, Mira," he sighed, dropping the rag on the ground as he stared at her. "The past few weeks haven't been fun. We've been at one another's throats over nothing-"

"You stayed out all night drinking the other night," she told him. "That was not nothing."

"I was with Freed and Bickslow. I mean, come on, Mira. One of them is our brother-in-law. And your sister wasn't mad at him, so-"

"They're relationship is not our relationship," she told him harshly. "Is it?"

Not at all. Thankfully. Laxus didn't know if he could manage to talk with his tongue hanging out of his mouth and risk biting it, just to impress Mirajane.

"No," he sighed. "And look, I don't want to get into that again. I want-"

"Oh? You don't? How about how you flat out told me no when I asked you the other day to-"

"Mira, we're not doing this," he told her harshly. "Look, we've both been impossible to deal with and-"

"Then admit that you were-"

"Fine, Mira! Damn. I shouldn't come in drunk or late or whatever else you're about to complain about. Hell, I thought that I was making it pretty clear here, huh? I was wrong. And I'm trying to make it up to you, but you won't-"

"That is not," she said dryly, "what you're doing. You just want to have sex."

"I want peace," he corrected her. Then he paused. "And, well, yeah, I assumed it would be a part of the package, but-"

"Laxus-"

"I'm sorry, Mira," he told her then and there was no play in his tone. None at all. "Honestly. I know that I've been impossible recently and that all we've been doing is fighting. I know that my drinking hasn't helped things. I'm just… I'm stressed and then we fight and then I… But it's no excuse, of course. I know that. And I'm not trying to make it into one. Promise. I just want you to get it, alright? This month's been hard, but I want to make the next one better. Don't you?"

Watching him for a moment, she looked off before saying, "You didn't have to do all this. You could have just said that."

"I know," he said, grinning slightly then as he came closer. "I just wanted to make things nice for you. You do so much for me and I hardly ever-"

"You do plenty for me," she assured him. Laxus though only shrugged slightly.

"I could do more though," he said. "Work just has us both so tired out and then Haven-"

"Haven is not the cause of everything, you know."

Yeah, but it was just easy for him to pretend like she was.

Close enough then, Laxus bowed his head to rest it against his wife's, her taking to this far better than she had any other time he'd tried recently. Staring up into his eyes with her deep blues, Mira couldn't help, but to grin. None of what he'd done had absolved their past fights, but it was nice anyhow to at least him take some of the blame, if not all of it. Saying sorry was not Laxus Dreyar's strong suit, but she was always glad when he went out of his comfort zone to make her feel better.

And believe her; cleaning wasn't even close to his comfort zone. An entire different planet, honestly.

"You're all sweaty," she remarked with a slight grin.

"I have been cleaning."

"Tire you out, old man Dreyar?"

Growling slightly, he got out, "Not at all. Work didn't freeze up your back then, did it, old maid?"

She gave him a dark stare right back. "Not at all."

"Still," he went on, taking a step back before just as quickly heading out of the room. "A quick bath couldn't hurt. Sooth your muscles and all."

"My muscles?" she asked, just as quick to follow. "Or yours?"

"Careful, woman," he warned, glancing back at her. "I now know that there's a space under the stove that is just big enough to hide some body parts."

Whatever that meant…

It was while they were in the middle of their bath, Laxus' senses all thrown off by these bath salts Mirajane had add to the water, that a certain scent hit her own nose.

"Dragon?" she asked slowly as she relaxed back against him in the water. He'd poured them both a glass of wine and, taking a sip from his own, hummed slightly.

"Yeah, demon?"

"You aren't...cooking something...are y-"

"Oh, shit!" He was so quick getting out of that tub then that he did, actually, almost throw his back out. "My cake!"

Mirajane only giggled, settling back into the warm water then on her own. Her dragon definitely needed her. It was about then, however, that Ajax, who was not woken up from his nap and had slept far too long and would probably never go down that night when his mother tried, heard the yelling and sat up in bed with a cry. It scared the heck out of Mirajane, who didn't know he was there, and Laxus, who'd honestly forgotten about him.

Poor baby. His Uncle Dragon just had so much going on. That was all.

It ruined things a bit, as Mira had to go find Lisanna and bring Ajax back to her as Laxus only sat there with his burnt cake, mentally kicking himself. Maybe if he frosted it… Maybe. When Mira returned, she was still all giggles over the whole thing, but he was feeling rather down.

"It's alright, dragon," she said, coming to rub his shoulders. "In fact, I think there's a certain bed that's in more need of us than this silly cake. Don't you?"

Well…if she was so insistent.

Much later, when Mira got up to find them something to eat (overly sated then, Laxus clearly had no plans of going out to get that takeout), she only sighed as she decided on the cake. It wouldn't kill them...hopefully.

"You don't have to eat that," Laxus sighed.

"No, really, dragon. With the frosting it's...edible."

Heh.

"What really matters though," she told him as she grinned across the kitchen table at him, his own plate of burnt cake (that honestly wouldn't have turned out right, probably, even if he hadn't left it in the oven far too long) going untouched, "is that you thought of me and made it for me."

"Damn right I did," he grumbled. "I love you, demon."

Giggling slightly, she said, "Yeah. I love you too."

More than a tad late, but better late than never. Will try to get the last bonus prompt out today, but no promises.