Laxus grunted as he woke up, his eyes suddenly flooded with shiny gold hair. The room was dimly lit by the morning sun that landed in strips on the floor as it poured through his blinds. He smiled to himself as Lucy sighed in her sleep, burrowing deeper into his chest. In his strong arms she felt so crushable, like he could squeeze her to dust if he wasn't careful, so he was very careful. There was nothing more precious, and he would hate himself if he ever hurt a single hair on her head.

He inhaled deeply, taking in her scent which was covered in his own. He purred lightly at the animalistic satisfaction of having her marked with his scent. The little lightning bolt he'd put on her wrist on day one was already fading, and his draconic possessiveness liked to keep his mark on her. Likewise, he reveled in being drenched in her scent as well. Of course, he didn't own her by any means; if anything she owned him. Still, he wouldn't hesitate to fry any man that tried to touch her.

The whole room was filled with their mingling scents and the lingering smell of sex and…Natsu?

Suddenly he heard a light tapping on his front door, nothing that could wake Lucy up but enough to get the dragon slayer's attention. Laxus growled at the intrusion before untangling himself from his dozing mate and pulling on some pants and a shirt. He walked to the front door where the smell of campfire and cinnamon was stronger. When he opened the door, the pink-haired dragon slayer was scratching his head and looking everywhere but at Laxus.

The lightning slayer glared at Natsu. He could smell the ice mage on him and was pretty sure it was because of him that he was here at all. At least, Natsu didn't look like he was particularly thrilled to be standing there. Laxus grunted at him and he turned his eyes upward.

"Uh, hi Laxus," he said. "I was hoping we could talk for a bit."

"Lucy's asleep," Laxus said, and he could see Natsu wince slightly at her name.

"It won't take too long, I promise."

Laxus growled lowly before stepping out of the apartment. They wandered down to a little courtyard where Laxus sat down and then stared at the fire slayer before he also took seat on a small stone bench. Neither said anything as Laxus glared and Natsu avoided all eye contact.

"Well?" the lightening mage asked impatiently. He was going to be very unhappy if Natsu pulled him away from snuggle time just to stare at the ground. (Not that he would ever admit to enjoying snuggle time.)

"Right. Well, Gray- I'm going to assume you already know about me and Gray, you are a dragon slayer after all, even if it's just with the lacrima—"

Laxus growled dangerously and Natsu changed topic.

"Sorry, anyway, Gray thought I should come talk to you. I told him it was a stupid idea, but he's pretty stubborn about these kinds of things. You probably already know that Lucy and I got into a bit of a…argument yesterday. About you," Natsu said, his words tumbling nervously out of his mouth.

While he was typically one to face problems head-on, he was never so good with the nuances of words and arguments, and facing those the same way he faced an enemy often got him in deeper trouble than he was in before.

"Yes, I believe you called me a man whore and told her to stay away from me," Laxus said darkly, increasingly irritated that the fire mage had pulled him out here and away from his mate.

"Yeah… I just… Lucy's my best friend, and I don't want her to get hurt by falling for you if you're just going to run through her like all those other women you come into the guild smelling like. I care too much about her to watch you break her heart," Natsu said more determinedly, finally meeting Laxus' steely gaze.

Laxus said nothing, feeling a little guilty that his…experienced past had made Lucy get into such a fight with her friend. Sure, the fire dragon slayer was an idiot, but at least he cared for her. If he weren't so annoyed, Laxus would have been glad to see she had such devoted friends.

"Maybe you don't know, because you never had a dragon to teach you," Natsu continued, "But mating is a big deal to dragons and dragon slayers. We have one mate that we are paired with, and once we find them nothing else matters. Even if you are serious about Lucy now, what if your mate comes along later when you're married and you have kids, and you suddenly leave her? Because that's the kind of thing you would do for a mate: leave everything behind without a thought. Once you find them, they are the only thing that matters—"

"Natsu—" Laxus began, but the fire mage ignored him.

"Lucy's a wonderful person, and she deserves so much love in her life. She's had enough hurt without you carelessly throwing her into the crossfires. I can tell she loves you, I mean, Mavis, she broke into my house just to tell me—"

"Natsu—"

"And I know it'll hurt to her to break up now, but it'll be so much better than having it happen down the road when she's really cemented her feelings for you. Most slayers don't even bother dating or sleeping with anyone before they find their mate, but I guess there's no way you could have known—"

"NATSU," Laxus shouted at the mage who was pretty much talking to himself at this point.

"Y-yeah?" Natsu stuttered nervously, jerking out of his soliloquy.

"She's it. Lucy is my mate."

Natsu just stared at him, clearly trying to decipher what his guild mate had just said.

"Huh?" the fire slayer eloquently pontificated. Laxus took a deep breath, trying not to scream at his nakama.

"Lucy. Is. My. Mate."

Natsu squinted his eyes at him suspiciously, as if that possibility was completely unbelievable.

"How would you know? You didn't even know what a mate was before I got here."

Don't hit him. Don't hit him.

"Yes, Natsu, I did. I've known Lucy was my mate for months now," Laxus said, using all of his willpower to remain calm.

"For months… But what about all those other women you slept with?" Natsu asked indelicately, but Laxus couldn't blame him. He had a point.

"You were right, I didn't know what a mate was until I realized there was something special about Lucy. I couldn't stop thinking about her despite the fact I'd never really talked to her, so I tried to distract myself. It worked for a bit, but as the bond got stronger I couldn't even look at other women. Finally I looked it up and found out about the whole dragon mating thing."

Natsu continued to give the blonde a wary look.

"Then why are you just now talking to Lucy," Natsu asked. He'd made a move as soon as he realized Gray was his mate. Then again, it had taken the ice mage a long time to get used to the idea of being Natsu's mate, even though they quickly found out the sex was fantastic.

"Well the book I read kept talking about how there's only one mate and if you screw it up, that's it. That was your one chance. We'd never talked before and I assumed she was still upset about the…incident. I mean, Evergreen turned her to stone. That's a hard thing to get over…

"Anyway, so I had this idea that maybe if we, y'know, hooked up then she'd feel more comfortable talking to me about all the other stuff. I mean, if I'd just up and asked her out she'd have laughed in my face. Or screamed in it. But she wouldn't have said 'yes'."

"Lucy's not that kind of girl. She gives everyone a second chance," Natsu said defensively of his friend.

"I know that now. But I couldn't help feeling like she wouldn't want to get near me. I'm the brute that tried to tear her guild apart. I needed to break the ice…no, completely shatter the ice. I needed a reason to talk to her, a reason for her to look twice at me, so I found Libra's key and offered her a deal. She'd do whatever I wanted for a week, and in that week I'd have the chance to get her to know me. I haven't told her about being my mate yet, though. I don't want her to feel pressured."

Natsu almost had to sit on his hands to resist the urge to facepalm.

"Laxus…you realize that being mates is a two way street, right? She's drawn to you the same way you are drawn to her. That way you don't have to worry about your mate not loving you back. They kind of have to, the same way you kind of have to love them in the first place. I mean, do you really think Gray and I would have looked twice at each other if there weren't some deep magic involved?"

.

.

.

Laxus wanted to electrocute himself for being so stupid. How had he not realized that sooner? Hell, Natsu and that stripper managed to figure this out before me.

He was completely mortified. He could tell his face was turning bright pink at the thought of his first encounter with Lucy, and he could no longer remember how that had ever seemed like a good idea.

"So, you're saying she can't reject me?"

"Not exactly. How you act with each other makes a difference, but you're naturally drawn to each other. You want the other person to love you. But if something were bad enough she would be able to sever the bond. Like if you hurt her or betrayed her or something like that. But don't worry—if you hurt her I'll kill you before she has the chance to break the bond," Natsu said with a cheery smile.

"I'd rather die than harm her," Laxus said instantly, and he knew it was true.

Natsu looked at Laxus like he was seeing him for the first time, and finally he saw that the older mage was completely sincere. Suddenly Natsu felt like a total dick, just like Gray had said he was being. He was also amazed that Laxus hadn't tried to rip his limbs off already. If someone had tried to come between him and Gray, Natsu didn't trust himself to be so patient. He just never imagined that Lucy might really be Laxus' mate. He would have guessed Freed was the lightning layer's mate before suggesting the sweet celestial mage was.

"Oh," Natsu said stupidly as Laxus stood up.

"Are we done now? I don't want Lucy to wake up alone," Laxus said and Natsu smiled lightly.

"Yeah, I'm done…Laxus?"

"Hm?" the lightning slayer grunted as he headed back to his apartment.

"I'm watching you," the pinkette said, as if he had to. Laxus chuckled.

"I'd be disappointed if you weren't," he smirked and headed back to his room.


Lucy woke up as a chill ran over her skin. She cracked her eyes open and quickly noticed her favorite dragon slayer was missing. She frowned and sat up, looking around the room as if he might be hiding in the corner, but he wasn't. She got up and wandered over to his wardrobe, taking out one of his large t-shirts and throwing it on. She looked around for her panties for a few minutes before remembering she hadn't worn any on her date last night.

Such a ho.

She smirked as she recalled their "electrifying" night together. Guess that's one way to use his power. She also remembered how she'd said she loved him and blushed slightly. She wasn't sure what had possessed her to say that, but she couldn't bring herself to regret saying it. As far as she could tell she really did love him. At least, she'd never felt this way for anyone else before.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the front door shutting quietly. She heard somebody walking through the apartment until finally the door creaked open lightly. Laxus smiled and walked over to her, kissing her deeply, morning breath and all.

"I'd hoped you'd still be asleep," he said so sweetly, Lucy knew no one would believe her if she told them.

"Where did you go?"

"Natsu stopped by."

Lucy froze and instantly felt her anger firing back up.

"Why that little…He just doesn't know when to drop a fight, does he! I'm so sorry, I'll—"

"Lucy, it's fine. We talked and I think he's cool with us," Laxus said, rubbing her arms to calm her down.

Lucy just cocked her head to the side, completely confused. He'd been completely bull-headed about this yesterday, propelling them into their first real fight, and after a little chat with Laxus it's all just fine? Lucy could feel her anger returning.

"So what? He doesn't trust my judgment on the matter but he trusts yours? I'm his best fucking friend! That asshole!"

"Calm down, blondie, it's not like that," he said, reviving his old nickname for her. "I just managed to convince him that I wasn't gonna run out on ya."

"Well that's good to know," Lucy smiled, feeling her rage die down.

She reached up and pulled Laxus down into a sweet kiss, her arms wrapping around his neck. He walked her back until she was flush against the wall and deepened the kiss, letting his hands rub at the backs of her thighs. He smiled against her mouth before pulling back.

"At least not for two more days. You're still my little slave for now. Now go make me breakfast, I'm starving," he teased, nipping lightly at her ear.

Lucy gasped in mock outrage, slapping him lightly on the chest before she skipped off to his kitchen. He was close on her tail and went to make some coffee while she rifled through his fridge.

"All you have in here is meat and eggs," Lucy admonished as she bent down, rummaging through his food.

Laxus let his eyes rest on her scantily clad backside while he scooped out the coffee.

"That's all I need," he said.

"What about fruits? Vegetables! There's a whole world of food out there, Mr. Dreyar, and I intend to introduce you to it."

"Please tell me that doesn't involved more oatmeal," he said, remembering breakfast at her place.

"Oatmeal is a wonderful food! Pack full of nutrients, it's a great start to a healthy day," she lectured.

"Yeah, but it tastes like someone already tried to eat it."

"Not if you add stuff to it. Milk, bananas, raisins—"

"If I see one goddamn raisin in this house I'm kicking you out."

"Raisins are good!" Lucy said, outraged by his slander as she pulled out some bacon and eggs.

"Grapes are good. Wine is good. Grape jelly is good. Raisins are a waste of grapes and a disgrace to the name of fruit."

"I can't believe I'm hearing such hatred spew from your mouth. I thought you were a changed man," she mocked.

"A lot of things can change, Ms. Heartfilia, but raisins will always be disgusting."

Lucy sent him the best scowl she could manage, which promptly fell apart into a smile when he winked at her.

"Now hurry up with that breakfast before I eat you instead."

"Mmm, please do," she smirked.

Laxus growled lowly at her before handing her a cup of coffee. He couldn't believe how perfect everything felt. Here he was standing in his kitchen drinking coffee while his mate, clad only in one of his old t-shirts, made a mess of his breakfast. And she loved him. And he loved her. And her best friend was giving them a chance. And the sky was blue and the world felt good.

He wished he'd known he could feel like this years ago. Then perhaps he wouldn't have been so angry, so lost. It was like Laxus was the earth and Lucy was the sun that brought him to life. That's what her name meant, wasn't it? Light.

He wished there was a way for him to tell her how much she meant to him, to put that into words. 'I love you' didn't seem strong enough. How do you tell someone that life would be meaningless without them? That they are the sun and the moon and the stars? Did normal people feel this way, or was this a dragon thing too? Suddenly he really wished he'd had a dragon to teach him some of these things instead of being a lab experiment.

"Lucy," he said, slightly more huskily than he'd intended.

"Hm?" she asked, glancing at him over her shoulder with her big brown eyes, her hair thrown up lazily, her mascara smudged, and a little bit of drool still stuck to her mouth. She was a hot mess. A beautiful, perfect, hot mess.

"I'm not going to run out on you. Ever."

Lucy stopped what she was doing and turned around. She walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, pulling herself into his chest.

"I never thought you would," she said softly. Somehow she always knew instinctively that Laxus wasn't the kind of guy that would tell a woman he loved her if he didn't. Laxus placed a hand on her head, petting her lightly. "And I don't plan on going anywhere either."

"Let's tell the guild. Today."

Lucy looked up at Laxus and saw he was serious. A warm, bubbly feeling spread through her chest.

"Yeah, I think that's good."

She stood up on her tippy-toes and pressed her lips against his, tasting the coffee and affection on his tongue.

"You're burning the bacon." Laxus he whispered against her lips.

"Oh shit!"

Laxus smiled into his coffee. Who knew happiness could be so simple?


As always, thanks so much for all the reviews. Hope you're having a lovely beginning of autumn! XOXO