Apple Bottom Jeans

When it was announced that the winter in Magnolia that year was going to be harsher than usual, Laxus actually got pleased. It has been a hot autumn and he hated to feel all sticky with sweat, though he had never given up wearing his big trademark coat. With the change in the weather, he could finally walk freely along the streets without sensing his body was slowly melting to death.

The day was cold and windy when he returned from a job, just the way he was expecting it to be. Since the train station was not that far from Fairy Tail, Laxus chose to head there instead of his own apartment and have a few drinks before calling it a day. The cloudy sky indicated that there would be a storm coming up as he walked towards the guild, but that didn't compel him to turn around and go home. Although his coat could take hours to get dry, he didn't mind getting a bit wet. In fact, he hoped it would snow, as he found the fall of snowflakes a pleasant sight.

Lisanna was the first one to notice him when he stepped through the large entrance.

"Hey, Laxus! Please close the doors after you come in, it's too chilly outside," she greeted him with a big smile while she cleaned the nearest table. "How about a hot chocolate to warm you up?"

"A beer is fine," he replied and the girl nodded back, heading towards the bar.

The lightning mage scanned the hall in search of the Raijinshuu, finding them gathered in a table in the corner, with Freed waving a hand covered in a leather glove at him.

"… and then I punched the other one in the face— 'sup, boss," Bickslow took his feet out of the chair next to him as Laxus approached, so he could have a place to sit near the group. He accommodated himself between the seith mage and a big ball of clothing that could only be Evergreen.

"How was the job?" asked Freed from behind his steaming cup of coffee.

"Too easy."

"Who wants to work in this cold?" Evergreen's voice came out muffled due to the large scarf that covered half of her face. "I didn't even want to get out of my bed today."

"Anyway," Bickslow continued, rolling his eyes. "as I was saying, I punched the other one, but the first managed to escape…"

Since Bickslow never said anything that was worth listening to, Laxus stopped paying attention to the conversation to look around. The guild was surprisingly crowded, considering the bad weather and the chances of snowing later. As Evergreen mentioned before, the people of Magnolia would rather stay at home on winter days.

His eyes were roaming the place absentmindedly when something — no, someone — caught his attention. In the opposite side of the hall, Mirajane was walking through the tables, collecting empty glasses and piling them on a tray skillfully balanced in only one hand, with a cheerful smile on her lips. There was nothing unusual at the sight of her doing her regular job…

But she was wearing pants.

Blue denim jeans to be specific.

His brows furrowed at her choice of clothes. He couldn't remember a day on his life in which he saw her wearing something other than long dresses in the guild, not even in during winters. It was like the girl never felt her legs chilly or something. Maybe the uncommon cold weather of Magnolia compelled her to an also uncommon temporary change of style.

Something was odd, though. He had already seen her countless times wearing almost nothing. Her Satan Soul couldn't exactly be considered prude and her modelling career meant bikinis, mini-skirts and more bikinis, all of that in provocative poses. It was not like Mirajane's body was unknown to him — or to be honest, anyone else.

Then why on earth he couldn't unglue his eyes from her butt?

Laxus followed her (butt) with his gaze while she headed to the bar, utterly confused. Her rear was fully covered. There was no hidden message there, no hint of skin to instigate one's curiosity, nothing. Just pants. Because it was too cold outside. And yet, it was too damn attractive.

He had never noticed how her waist was thinner than her hips, and how the whole set was built as smooth curves along her body line, just like the base of an hourglass. The denim fabric clung so well to her thighs it looked just like a second skin. Those blue jeans suited her like a glove and every time she walked, her buttocks would follow the movement and—

"Laxus," Freed called, which made the lightning mage turn his head almost mechanically at his friend, like his neck got rusty for staying in the same position for too long. "Is something wrong? I mean, are you feeling unwell or something? You look… weird."

"Don't worry about that, Freed," Bickslow's usual grin widened and Laxus had the feeling something bad was about to come out of that bastard's mouth. Nothing ever came when he was sticking his tongue out like a crazy maniac, as he was doing now. "He's fine. Boss was just checking out Mira's ass."

The Dragon Slayer clenched his teeth together, only to realize his mouth had been half open up to that moment, but remained silent. The seith mage wasn't exactly wrong, he had been staring… in quite a fixated manner.

"Oh," Freed turned his head to look at said white-haired waitress with curiosity. "Indeed, she looks good in her new outfit."

"Good?" replied Evergreen with sarcasm, adjusting her glasses with an index finger. They hit on the edge of her winter hat and fell again. "She's totally rocking those jeans."

"Mira's hot whatever the clothes, dude," Bickslow slid a few inches on his chair, that stupid grin still plastered on his face. The lightning mage pictured himself punching that mouth and ruining that perfect line of teeth for good, but he was pretty sure that wouldn't stop him. Maybe he would have to cut out his tongue too. "I would definitely nai—"

"Shut up," Laxus grunted, suddenly finding himself in a bad mood… or at least in a worse mood than usual.

"What, now? So far you were the one staring like a wolf."

"I wasn't staring that much," the Dragon Slayer grumpily replied, not wanting to admit he was right.

"You didn't even try to hide it, boss," Bickslow shrugged with indifference. Laxus chewed the interior of her cheek, feeling vexed, and turned to Freed and Evergreen, which were exchanging a knowing look. He knew that look. It was the 'quick, think of something smart to say that won't get us in trouble' look. Fuck.

"Was I too obvious?" he asked, even with the chance of getting an answer he didn't want to hear, and both shrank in their seats.

"Hm…"

"I don't know?"

"Freed?"

"Well… a bit, yes."

"But hey," Evergreen intervened with false excitement, trying to cut the tension. She always made a weird chuckling sound when she was nervous and he thought it resembled a chicken choking, but decided to keep that information to himself. "So is everyone, look." She pointed with her head towards the other tables and Laxus' face contorted in a frown.

Apparently, he wasn't the only one that has been staring quite intently at Mirajane. A lot of heads were turned towards her direction — more specifically, to her backside — and moved like a fish shoal to wherever she went, which bothered him immensely. He wondered how the hell she didn't seem bothered by those nasty vultures. Or perhaps she was just pretending not to notice or care, when in fact she wanted to run away and cry. Or maybe she wanted to kill every living being on that room, leaving no witnesses behind — it was what he would do in her situation, anyway.

The last straw was when he saw Macao drooling. Drooling. A big, fat, creepy drop of saliva running from the corner of his mouth to the middle of his jaw and dripping on the wooden floor. Ew.

Shit, was him like that a few moments ago? Staring like a shameless old pervert like stupid Macao? He wanted so much to punch himself for watching her like that his blood started to run cold on his veins. He couldn't believe how rude and disgusting he had been to Mirajane, a person he both admired and respected, which was something really rare for him to do. The white-haired mage had never mistreated him, not even on his darkest, rebellious phase, and even had forgiven him for all the crap he had made her go through when he clearly didn't deserve. Hell, he didn't even deserve to be on the same place as her, and there he was, staring at her like she was a trophy to be taken.

The idea of him drooling like Macao or whistling like Wakaba made him sick.

"Did she notice?" Laxus suddenly asked, his jaw closed so tightly the Raijinshuu could hear his teeth gritting. He didn't want Mirajane to think he was like those old creeps. If she indeed noticed, then he would never have the courage to look at her face again. "Mira, I mean. Did she notice I was staring?"

But none of the Raijinshuu had any idea if she did or not, so guess he would have to live with the doubt from now on, along with the excruciating guilt to know he was a pervert — not the normal kind of pervert who would keep his "pervy" thoughts to himself, like glancing quickly when no one was looking and be done with it or reading sexy magazines only in the comfort of his home, but the sick kind of pervert who leaves a pool of drool on the floor.

His Adam's apple was bobbing so furiously up and down his crimson-flushed throat it could blow up at any minute.

"Don't wait for me," Laxus announced before bluntly standing up and headed to the stairs that would take him to the second floor, where he could isolate himself and sulk about being a social degenerate and a shame to society.

.

.

After a long time of thinking — and also trying not to bang his head against the wall for being such an idiot —, Laxus decided he couldn't leave things like that. He owed that to Mirajane and he would behave like a proper adult, apologizing to her and making everything in his power to compensate for his mistake. Then, he would assure her that, if he did something like that to her ever again, he would personally pluck his eyes out of his face with a spoon. Being blind wouldn't be as bad as she thinking he was untrustworthy.

With that in mind, Laxus finally went downstairs with the intention to make amends, but when he got to the main floor, no one else was around. His incessant worry about the fact he was a dirty bastard and an almost-butt-drooler must have distracted him from the noise of the hall, so he didn't notice when the main floor started to empty.

He was just about to facepalm when Elfman showed up, carrying a big wooden crate. "Hey," the Take Over mage called, leaving the crate near the bar's balcony. "What are you still doing here? There's a snowstorm coming up."

"What are you still doing here?" Laxus approached him, looking at the box stamped with a "fragile" sign. An idea formed on his mind.

"I'm helping big sis organize the food stuff in the storeroom before closing up for the day," Elfman explained, while he opened the crate and took several jars from inside, placing them on the balcony.

"I'll do it. You can go home," the lightning mage spoke in a tone that didn't allow questioning, which Elfman clearly didn't get.

"B—"

"Go," Laxus repeated, this time in a more threatening way that involved sparks flying from his skin, and Elfman had no choice but to do as he was told, though the Take Over mage didn't leave before shooting a suspicious look at him.

"Fine… I guess," as the Strauss man exited the hall with a grimace, Laxus took his coat off and tossed it on the nearest chair, beginning the arduous task to empty all crates and organize the food products in what seemed to be their proper places inside the storeroom. It was basically manual work, but after repeating the same thing for dozens of times, it became boring. His headphones were lying on the kitchen table of his apartment, where he forgot to grab them before leaving for a job that morning, and he terribly missed them.

He was just about to drop the last packages of napkins on the highest shelf when Mirajane came from the back door, carrying a broom. This time, he made the courtesy to look at her face, not her backside.

"Oh, Laxus," she blinked with surprise. "I didn't know there was still someone in here. You should go, there's a blizzard coming up," then, looking around as if she was searching for something, the white-haired mage asked. "Where's Elfman?"

"He's already gone," he hushed to change the subject, so she wouldn't ask for the reason, the reason being that he bullied her brother out so he could compensate her for being an asshole. "I'm finished with the storeroom. What else needs to be done?"

Staring at him with the same uncertainty his brother did minutes before, she held the broom closer to her body before replying. "Well, there are still some dishes to be washed, but—"

"I'll do it," he promptly said, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt. When she opened her mouth to object, though, he was already heading to the kitchen. The sink was full with dirty plates and cutlery, while empty mugs were piling up on the nearest table. It would take some time to wash and dry all of them, but luckily there didn't seem to be anything that could mean trouble, like a frying pan covered in oil.

Separating forks, spoons and knives, he started washing the dishes, being pretty sure Mirajane was spying on him while she swept abandoned fries and cigar ashes from the hall's floor. It was better to concentrate on the task ahead of him than feeling her suspicious gaze piercing holes through his shirt, so he kept lathering plates and washing mugs until his hands were stone cold and his skin was all wrinkly. When he began to dry the clean dishes, Mirajane started to sing absentmindedly as she piled up the chairs on a corner of the hall and he suddenly didn't miss his headphones anymore.

A few more minutes passed while he dried the mugs with a clean cloth and stored them in one of the cupboards, when the eldest Strauss sibling reappeared on the kitchen's door, smiling softly. "Do you need help?"

"No, I'm done here," Laxus replied, closing the nearby drawer, now full with forks.

"So let's go home before the blizzard gets us," she headed out while he was fixing the sleeves of his shirt, coming back with his coat on hands some seconds later. She was already wearing hers. "Here," she handed him the coat, which he accepted with a thankful nod, throwing it over his shoulders.

They walked past the tables in silence and didn't take long to reach the large entrance door. The Dragon Slayer pushed it open and waited for Mirajane to get out first before shutting the door behind himself. A chilly breeze hit his face as an announcement that the snowstorm was close and he watched as the Take Over mage took a big iron key to lock the guild for the day. After throwing the key inside her purse, she turned to look at him with her usual kind smile illuminating her facial features, holding her coat tighter around herself to protect her body from the cold. He then wondered how the hell he could have spent so much time staring at her ass when her face, particularly her smile, was just as nice, if not nicer. Shame on him — and the devious piece of clothing she had decided to wear that day.

"Thanks for helping me out today," she said, making it sound like a question. "though I don't know what suddenly made you eager to wash some dirty dishes."

"I was just trying to make it up for you, that's all," was his coward answer. Her sweetness was making him feel even crappier than before and he started having second thoughts about telling her the truth, the truth being that he was a nasty piece of shit that eats butts with his eyes unabashedly. Despite really deserving a bitch slap right on his face, perhaps it was better if he kept his sins to himself and focused on not screwing up again instead of risking losing her trust.

But Mirajane was still looking at him with innocent expectation, which reminded him that he had decided to take it like a man. So he let out a heavy sigh and shoved his hands on his pockets before continuing.

"Mira, I'm sorry," Laxus looked away with embarrassment, swallowing hard. "You know, earlier today, for… staring."

Silence fell above them and he hesitated to look towards her direction again — so much for taking it like a man, what a wuss. Laxus kept biting his lower lip with anxiety until curiosity won over guilt and he finally tilted his head down to look at Mirajane, only to find an amused expression on her face.

"It's fine, really," she waved a hand dismissively at him, which prompted him to furrow his brows with confusion. "But I'm only forgiving you with one condition: leave that big coat of yours home sometimes, would you? So I can look at yours too," and, with a playful wink, she turned on her heels and started to walk, not before adding. "It's only fair."

Laxus didn't know for how long he just stood there at the guild's door with wide eyes and jaw cracked open, all he knew is that he closed his dumbfounded mouth right when drool was about to drip from it.

Winter was still his favorite season, now even more than ever, but he suddenly found himself looking forward to spring.

A/N: For the record, I'm not a T-Pain fan (though I like this particular song, I'm cheap).