item three: Alexandria
The biggest chunk of home Mirajane took with her. She remembered when home was still with Lisanna and Elfman and she'd brought the dog to the new one she would share with Laxus. She remembered a few weeks back she'd asked Lisanna to retrieve her sweet companion from the last home they thought they'd leave. The morning Mirajane got Alexandria back, he was as miserable as he was when he'd been left with Laxus. It seemed the dog was not impressed when his parents were apart (Mira thought: you're not the only one). He barely ate and he whined plenty. Mirajane who still reeled from heartbreak could take none of the dog's upset and many times those first few days back in the Strauss home she contemplated going back to Laxus if not for her sake then her baby's.
She didn't. Alexandria learned to live with it as she did. This was what Mirajane thought.
Out of habit, Mirajane took the small dog for some fresh air. Leashes have long been forgone with the well-trained pet so it was a shock when she opened the front door to let him out and Alexandria bolted off the Strauss property as if he was demented. In shock, Mirajane forgot to scream or move at all. With wide eyes she watched the fluff of white bolt through the quiet streets and Mira knew, she just knew where the dog would go.
So she followed. First her feet could only manage wooden steps from the dirt path leading to the main road, then before she knew it, her legs picked up speed and she was sprinting towards the little house flanked by apple trees. Mira froze when she saw Alexandria's tiny body sitting right on the cheery Welcome mat, barking at the door as if demanding the man left behind to open it. Mirajane held her breath until it felt like water clogging her chest but no one answered. She remembered Elfman's whispers to Lisanna two mornings ago: Laxus went to a dangerous job all alone in Hakobe. I hope he dies there.
Mira sucked air back into her lungs and stepped forward to retrieve her dog. Alexandria continued to bark even as his owner picked him up, even as her gentle hands combed through the fine white fur under his chin. She looked so distressed as she took in the house. Was it true that she left just two months ago? How could her sunny little house look so desolate and haunted now? Why did it feel so cold, why did it make her feel so empty?
It was almost unconscious how her feet took her around the cottage, past the trunks of flowering apple trees and to the garden she couldn't bring with her. No dejected gasp left her lips because the spit dried on her tongue when she laid eyes on the ruin of her paradise. What used to be a kaleidoscope of flora was now just brown, dead things curling over the ground. If she thought Laxus couldn't hurt her more, she was proved wrong. He could care for nothing. He said he loved her, but he had no forethought of her happiness and well-being. Her garden— her love: dead. She wondered if that mattered to him. Did he see the mess of this all and feel a twinge of regret for not trying a bit more or at all?
She touched nothing. Without another word, Mirajane left the old house with Alexandria in her arms, just barely swallowing her sobs and holding back tears. She didn't see their old neighbor watch her sadly from his porch and she didn't know that old Mr Abbott would tell Laxus when he came home that pretty Mira came by and she looked so sad because you didn't water her flowers. Didn't know that after that, Laxus proceeded to uproot every single dead plant and burn them in the garbage like he promised himself but he did buy a small pot of Daisies and even asked Mr Abbott's wife how to plant the fucking flowers that kind of looked like her hair.
Mirajane made it home feeling dense with grief.
The next morning when she took Alexandria on a walk, she used a leash.
note: AHHH I MISS THIS SERIES. I didnt want to start on this chapter because I had one half made on my broken laptop but I still dont have the funds to get that fixed so like. I'm probably saying goodbye to all the shit I have there.
AND OK I was gonna make this series like, totally about Mirajane. I didn't mean to put in that Laxus planting part but it just got away from me. I think I like it and I hope it didnt mess up the tone of this. And can u tell just how much I love mirajane's dog, giving him an appearance on both series? pls i'd kill a man just for alexandria to have some screen time.
I feel like this isn't really a good chapter because I'm terribly sick but I did need to let out some ~*negative*~ emotion procured from getting nothing but disappointing news from the doctors i'm seeing. Send me good vibes my dudes I need it right now. Love you guys. Be kind to everyone and urself especially!