Disclaimer: Fairy Tail (c) Hiro Mashima

Competition and Smiles

Of all the people in the world – of all the beautiful girls in the guild – Mirajane had never expected that the one person she would have to compete with to gain Freed's attention was none other than…

"Laxus!"

Mirajane blinked her large, blue eyes in surprise as she stared at the suddenly empty table in front of her which had been occupied by her green-haired companion just seconds before. She glanced up and immediately spotted the small bundle of four standing by the guild doors, which the man she had been talking to was now a part of. She smiled softly at the sight of the Rajinshu crowding around the blonde dragon slayer who had finally returned after an exceptionally long mission. How cute, she thought, as she watched Freed, seemingly so different from his usual self, as he gushed over Laxus.

...

"Ah, Laxus. How was your mission?"

Freed turned in his stool to look at Laxus as the dragon slayer joined him at the bar. Mirajane smiled, quickly snapping her gaping mouth shut. Ignoring the fact that she had just been cut off midsentence, she set about to fulfill the blonde man's order as he and her green-haired crush began to converse. If she happened to slam Laxus's drink in front of him with a little more vigor than usual, she simply passed it off as coincidence. This, however, did not slip past the dragon slayer's notice, and he smirked at her knowingly. Mirajane's eyebrow twitched in annoyance.

...

"Laxus!"

Mirajane's grip on the glass she had been polishing suddenly tightened until it cracked under the pressure of her hand.

"What was that?" Freed questioned upon hearing the noise, pulling his gaze away from the blonde mage who had just walked through the guild doors to look back at the white-haired beauty behind the bar.

"What was what?" Mirajane asked innocently as she forced a smile on her pretty little lips, smoothly placing the broken cup underneath the bar.

Freed stared skeptically at his girlfriend whose blue, blue eyes dared him to say something more. "Ahem," he coughed nonchalantly into his fist. "I guess I was just hearing things." Mirajane picked up another glass with a pleased smile. "Uh… what had we been talking about?" Freed asked, eyebrows knitting together as he tried to remember the conversation they were having just before Laxus had distracted him.

Crack.

...

"Tch. If it had been Laxus there-"

Freed let out a strangled yelp as Mirajane practically pounced on him. "Mi-Mirajane!" the blushing man cried out helplessly as his fiance began kissing him mercilessly. She'd fill his mind with nothing but thoughts of her if it was the last thing she did.

That night, they made love on her living room couch to the background noises of a gory horror movie. Indeed, for some days, it seemed as if the handsome rune mage's brain had been Freed beyond repair much to Mirajane's satisfaction and amusement. It took all her strength as an S-class mage to keep herself from smirking at the blonde dragon slayer in victory.

...

Mirajane sighs as she watches her soon-to-be husband's eyes shine brightly with a look that could only be described as that of a fan-boy talking to his idol. Honestly, she had been just about ready to kill Freed (as well as Laxus) when the first words out of Freed's mouth when they had begun to plan the wedding were if she thought Laxus would agree to be his best man. As much as she wanted right then and there to outright ban that damned dragon slayer from being anywhere even near her wedding, upon seeing those radiant, excited blue eyes of Freed's, she found she just couldn't help but smile at him.

She watches now as the two men, both dressed in elegant black tuxes, converse quietly by the altar. Mirajane hates that Laxus is the only one who can bring out such a childish, uncharacteristic smile from out of the usually calm man. Normally, Mirajane would have thought such a smile was cute and endearing if it weren't for the fact it absolutely drove her up a wall whenever she saw it. She hates that it is a smile that is reserved solely for that man Freed most respects, and she hates herself even more for wanting to monopolize so much of this caring man she has come to love.

With a soft push against her back, Mirajane felt herself tumble forward from behind the large double doors she had been peeking through and into the long, wide aisle. Quickly righting herself before she manages to trip over her white wedding dress, Mirajane glances to her sister behind her who only grins at her ushering her to continue walking. With a slight blush, Mirajane proceeds marching forward in tune with the melodic piano music courtesy of Lucy. Her blush only deepens when her eyes lock with Freed's, and the smile and look he sends her is not the one of an overexcited boy. She feels all her worries and anxieties melt, because he is staring at her, and only her, with the one tender look she does monopolize, the one that glows with love. And that loving smile he sends her is more important than any other look, any other smile. When she's finally at the altar, by his side, her answer is "I do," a million times over and again.

"Mirajane," he breathes her name affectionately after they pull apart from their kiss. She smiles at him with so much love, it dazzles him.

...

"Thank you, Laxus."

Later, during the wedding party, when they newlywed couple is receiving congratulatory pats and hugs and slaps on the back, Mirajane's smile doesn't even falter a bit when Laxus comes up to them and Freed is smiling like a boy once again, because she is a grown, married woman now, and she knows she was silly to envy the older man for something that was clearly not his fault.

But then Laxus smirks at her.

Knowingly.

And Mirajane is suddenly brandishing off a bottle wine.

As Fairy Tail custom would dictate, this being a Fairy Tail party after all, a brawl absolutely had to ensue. And not being one to go against customs, Mirajane decided to help things along by accidentally aiming the wine bottle's pressurized cork straight at a certain spiky blonde head.

With wine bottle still attached to said cork.

...

Suddenly, Freed broke out into that all-too familiar large, excited grin as the perfect name crossed his mind. "La-"

"Freed, if you dare say 'Laxus,' I swear only two of us will be coming out of this room alive," Mirajane threatened her blue eyes narrowing at the green-haired man as she held a sleeping, white-haired baby in her arms.

Slight panic flickered across Freed's expression, but it was gone just as quickly as it had appeared, replaced instead with a small, practiced smile. "The thought never even crossed my mind," he lied. Mirajane's icy glare did not waver and Freed, being the smart man that he was, continued to lie. "What I was going to say before you interrupted me, dear, was 'Lavender.'"

Mirajane blinked, her anger disappearing like a wisp of smoke, because although she knew that the rune mage was clearly lying, she couldn't help but think, "That's a beautiful name."

And she knows it's a name she will love hearing from his lips.

So, one day, while reading SmurfLuvsCookies's oneshot, "Perfect Sense," I came upon this quote describing Mirajane and Freed's relationship as "nothing less than a courtship." When I read that sentence my first thought was that it was by far the most perfect way to describe their relationship. But immediately after that thought came another, odd thought: who's doing the courting? And that just made me want to explore this couple's quirks.

Also, I chose the name Lavender because that just happened to be the first name that came to my mind when trying to find an excuse for Freed's little slip of the tongue.