New Names and Fresh Games

She had to have walked into that bar over a million times. Maybe over a billion. But no time had ever felt as different as the one did that day.

The sun hadn't breached the horizon yet, but the darkness was turning to light already, the black becoming navy in the heavens. It wasn't warming up any however, but that was fine, because Mira had her coat.

"Brrr," she whispered to no one anyhow as she walked into the dark guildhall. She was always the first to arrive and the last to leave. Except for the past week that is.

Sighing as she took a look around, she was quick to move to get the lights all turned on. It was warm in the hall and she slipped her coat off almost immediately, rushing to go behind the bar and lay it down. Then she went to take off her mittens as well.

She took to giggling the second her fingers were free as she just stared down at her ring finger, where an engagement ring had sat for at least a year, though now it was joined by a wedding band. Just seeing it made her grin and hold her hand up to the light to make it twinkle.

"Mira. It's good to see you back."

Giggling some more, she turned as the guildhall doors opened. "It's good to see you too, Master. Though you're here quite early-"

"Can a man not come to his guildhall as he pleases?"

"Of course, Master," she said, nodding her head slightly as the slight man. Makarov only headed over to the bar, which he quickly climbed atop.

"And your…honeymoon was good then, I take it?"

More giggles. "Yes. Laxus was… Yes, it was."

He nodded. No need for details. She was for all intents and purposes officially his granddaughter at that point.

Makarov let Mirajane get to work then. And man was she busy. She'd left for one week and apparently, in that week, neither Lisanna nor Kinana thought anything about organizing the book room. Or dusting the ceiling fans. And the bathrooms were…well they were clean, fine, but certainly not to her standard.

So she was knee deep in inspecting the entire guildhall (if they had neglected those things, there was no telling what else had gone wrong) when her sister showed up, overly bouncy and excited to see her eldest sibling.

"Mirajane!" Lisanna literally jumped on her the second she saw the other woman. Mira had been down on the ground previously, looking under tables for gum (some of the guys thought she didn't know they stuck it under there, but she did, and was not appreciative), but luckily stood when she heard her sister enter. Lisanna's attack her about brought her right back down though.

"Hey, Lisanna," she giggled as her sister wrapped her arms tightly around her. "Aren't you excited today?"

"To see you? Of course!" She wouldn't let her go, though she did move back some so she could stare her in the eyes, their irises practically mirrored in the others. "I missed you so much."

"I missed you too," Mirajane giggled, grinning back at her sister. "Although, Lisanna, I am a tad disappointed in your lack of care about the bar. Do you know that I found three pieces of gum stuck under the tables? And I've only just begun."

Lisanna blinked. Then she just went back to hugging Mira. "Gosh, I missed you. Did you have fun?"

"Of course," Mira said, sighing slightly. It did feel nice, having Lisanna love her so much. Maybe she'd cut her some slack about he gum. And the dust. Maybe. "Laxus-"

"Where is he?"

"Probably at home," she said. "We got home so late last night from the train station."

"Oh, Mira, you could have stayed home if you wanted to, today. Or come in late. You knew that Kinana and I would have-"

"I missed the bar too, Lisanna," she said as her sister finally released her. "Besides, Laxus has been asleep since we got in. He probably won't be up until late this afternoon. You know how traveling by train makes him."

She nodded sympathetically before saying, "You could have probably used some rest too. And I'm sure Master wouldn't have minded if you took one more day-"

"Not at all, Mira," Makarov said from his spot on the bar. He seemed to be meditating before, but opened his eyes to speak to them. "You know that."

She only shrugged. "I'd rather be here. Trust me, I got enough rest this past week."

"Did you?" Lisanna asked, her eyes twinkling. Mira only gave her a look back.

"Behave."

"You know that only works on Laxus," Lisanna retorted as Mira got back to work scrapping gum off the tables. "So what did you guys do while you were there? Did you spend all day at the beach? Or gambling? Or-"

"He liked to go down to the casino, but it irritated him too easily, so we mostly just stayed in the room all day."

"Oh, did you?"

"I meant what I said about behaving."

Makarov, over at the bar, wished he had those nifty headphones that his grandson always wore. Anything to block out the conversation he was sure to follow from the two sisters.

It didn't get anymore detailed than that though, at least on Mira's end, as she quickly shifted away from her week with Laxus and into what Lisanna had done while she was gone. Of course that got the other woman to giggle and begin to explain all the different things she and Bickslow had done together since Mira was gone.

"Wow," Mira was saying at one point as she wiped down the bar and Lisanna started talking about Bickslow taking her out after work to go get something to eat. "What is that? The tenth time?"

"I don't know, Mira. I don't keep count."

"But if you did-"

"It would be thirteen."

More giggles. Then, through them, Mira asked, "So what? Is he your boyfriend now?"

"Mira," Lisanna complained, blushing though other than Master, they were the only ones in the bar. "It doesn't work like that."

"It doesn't?"

Lisanna only rolled her eyes. "Thirteen dates doesn't make a boyfriend."

"How would you know? He's your first one."

"Oh? And Laxus was your boyfriend after thirteen dates?"

She shrugged, grinning slightly at the sight of her sister turning red. "Laxus and I are different."

"And why's that?"

"Because, Lisanna, we're both very open minded people."

"Meaning?"

"Laxus wasn't my boyfriend until I made it plainly obvious to him that he was. He wouldn't admit that he was more than just a guy I took home sometimes until, once, when he tried to make a date, I told him I already had one. So he followed me around the whole night, suspicious."

"Did you have one?" Lisanna asked, more to be kind. Mira loved that story and told it all the time. Sometimes though, it was better to just pretend to have never heard her tales before. It always excited her, being able to share them.

"No. I just met up with Elfman and Ever. But he was super crazy then, trailing us. But I knew he was there, of course. And he followed me all the way home, even with Elfman walking me there after we walked Ever home.

"Then, as I was about to my house, he tried to turn off, go down a different street. But I just called out to him over my shoulder that it was creepy to stalk me and that if he wanted to be a good boyfriend, he'd have just told me that he was jealous and we could have talked about it. He got so upset that we didn't talk for a week. But when that week was up, he would admit I was his girlfriend and it was all fixed."

"You fuckin' love that story, don't you, demon?"

Mirajane only giggled as she watched Laxus approach the bar. He'd come in about halfway through the story, but she hadn't stopped. What was the worse he could do to her? They were married. And she wasn't letting him go for anything.

"What are you doing here, Laxus?" she asked as Makarov opened his eyes, shocked to see his grandson up so early. If he wasn't out on a job, Laxus usually slept till noon. At least. "So early?"

"I came to get you," he grumbled as, after patting Lisanna on the head in a way that made her frown, he went around the bar to be close to Mira. He only threw his arms around her in a very uncharacteristic way making Lisanna frown more. "I missed you."

"Are you drunk? Already? Or still from the night before? Or something?"

Mira only ignored her sister as she giggled and turned in his arms to lean up and kiss him. And Laxus only grinned back at her and Lisanna about barfed.

"Seriously, guys, are you on drugs or something?"

"I missed you too, Laxus," Mira said, speaking right over her sister as she reached up to run her thumb gently over his scarred eye. Laxus only hugged her closer.

"Missed you more."

"Mmmmm."

"Is this how all married people act?" Lisanna asked with a frown, staring in shock at her new brother-in-law. "Because Ever and Elfman just got engaged and if this is how it's going to be, I'm staying far away from them when they get married."

"In the beginning," Makarov told her with a sigh. "Believe me, it'll wear off. Probably rather quickly for these two."

"Why don't you shut it, old man?" Laxus growled, glaring over at his grandfather then and actually sounding somewhat like himself. Then Mira only pressed a gentle hand against his chest, bringing his attention back onto her.

"Behave, Laxus."

Then he was grinning like an idiot. "Okay, Mrs. Dreyar."

Through giggles, Mira gasped out, "Mr. Dreyar."

Even though his name hadn't changed at all, it was the idea that hers had, that she was now his, that made Laxus love hearing himself referred to in that way.

"Mrs. Dreyar."

"Mr. Dr-"

"Seriously, guys, I'm sick," Lisanna told them, sticking her tongue out of her mouth in the fashion that her (not yet) boyfriend would have been appreciative of. "Literally. Knock it off."

Laxus only leaned down to nuzzle his forehead against Mira's. When she turned from watching her sister to her husband, he said, "Come back home with me."

"I can't," she told him simply, moving to slip out of his arms then. "The guildhall opens in, oh, twenty minutes. And-"

"Lisanna can handle it. Can't you, kid?"

"Not sick I can't," she told them.

"Let's go be sick together, Mira," he told her, following as she headed off to go wipe down some of the glasses. "Mirajane-"

"Laxus, you knew that I would be going back to work this morning."

"But I got so cold in bed without you in bed."

Lisanna made a face as Makarov only shook his head and shut his eyes.

"Poor Laxus." Mira glanced at him. "What if you stay up here at the guild with me? Would that be nice?"

"Not as nice as taking you back home. To our bed."

Vomit. Total vomit. Pushing away from the bar then, Lisanna headed off to find something else to do. Mira called out to her to make sure that the downstairs basement was clean and Lisanna was happy for the distraction. Anything to get away from the newlyweds.

It was so safe down there in the basement too, as no one that spent any time down there would get there so early (mostly it was just the guys that liked to play billiards and stuff and they usually were at the guild late in the afternoon or at night), she considered it a safe place to hide out from her sister and new big brother, as well as anyone else that might annoy her.

"Lissy?"

Except from one person.

"You down here, kid? Me and the babies been lookin' for you. And your sister too. You're missing work."

She only stood over the pool table, not looking up as Bickslow came into the room, dressed in his usual getup.

"I'm working," she assured him as she sunk a ball in the corner pocket.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"At what?"

"Keeping my breakfast down."

"What-"

"It's stupid Laxus and Mirajane," she told him as he came closer, some of his babies coming to land on her head. They'd all taken to her rather quickly as a new playmate and enjoyed any time they got with her.

"What about them?"

"They keep doing… Bickslow, promise we won't ever be like them?"

"I won't be mean and you won't be ditzy? Sure, sounds great."

"Bickslow-"

"You jealous or something? That your sister got married?" he asked, leaning against the billiards table then. "Lissy?"

"Of course not. I'm happy for them. Super happy. I just wish that they'd stop showing just how happy they are in front of me."

"What-"

"They're all freaking over one another," she told him, glancing up finally as she sat the pool stick down. "It's nasty. For the two of them. I mean, I expect it from, like, Juvia. But Laxus?"

"Hmmm."

"So just say we won't ever be like that."

"No problem, kid," he said, reaching out to ruffle her hair then as she only stared at him.

"No problem, kid," the dolls mimicked though the two that had been knocked off her head by him only complained. "Kid."

"I just think it's stupid, you know? To…be like that. He keeps calling her by her new last name and she keeps giggling and-"

"Tell you what." He came closer then before lifting her up. This shocked her for a moment, though he just as quickly sat her down on the edge of the pool table. Standing in front of her then, he said, "Let's make a game of it."

"A game, huh?"

"Mmmhmm." He pushed up his visor so they could stare one another in the eyes. Lisanna always liked that for some reason. And he had to admit, her eyes weren't half bad either. "Every time Laxus does something like that, something mushy or whatever, I owe you a soda. Or dinner. Something."

"Really? What do you get out of it?"

He only stared. "Uh, Lissy, dinner totally implies sex. Or at least it does in my book."

She pushed his chest, but he only grinned.

"Every time Mira does it, you gotta buy me dinner," he told her as he moved to nuzzle her head. "Deal?"

"That sounds like fun."

"Yeah. And pretty soon, you'll be begging them to act in love."

"And when Ever and Elfman get this way too, when they get married, can we play again?"

"Sure, if you want," he said as he moved to pick her up and set her back on the ground. 'But something tells me marriage ain't gonna change them at all. They're gonna fight till the bitter end, I'm sure."

"Probably."

"Now you gotta get back to work, huh?" He winked before letting his visor drop. "And we gotta be up there to hear all the mushy stuff. Bet we'll be buying each other dinner's for the next month."

"Okay, but know that my wallet isn't as big as yours."

He only wrapped an arm around her as some sort of hug before laughing, his babies joining in as they headed up stairs.

"Just playing the game's good enough for me, kid," he said as she only smiled. "Trust me."

My last few one-shots have been so centered in on Bickslow and Lisanna that I wanted to do one on Laxus and Mira, but somehow they still found their way in here. Oh well.