Reconvene: X764
Laxus did not like his little raincoat and rain boots that made him look so cute because they matched and his mother just loved when she picked them out for him.
They squeaked when he walked and there was this stupid rubber hat that went along with them and arg! Laxus hated them. He liked the rain. He wanted to just play in it and the puddles and just be an all around bad boy until he caught a cold and then had to be a crybaby.
What didn't Mommy get about that?
"Oh, Laxus," she complained as she tried to hold an umbrella in one hand and his wiggly one in her other. He wanted to run off, strip down, and then play in the puddles! Why was she being so mean to him? "Please just behave."
How about no?
"I know that you don't like thunder storms," Iris sighed as they went along, "but this is very important to me. Can't you just calm down?"
He hadn't been calm since he watched his only best friend in the whole wide world go up in smokes. Honest, he hadn't. He cried every night at bedtime because his 'rilla wasn't there, snack time wasn't as much fun when he wasn't smashing half the food in his best bud's face, and just forget about getting him down for a nap.
Needless to say, it had not been a good two weeks.
The only thing that had been remotely helpful had been Ivan's apparent absence. Laxus had taken note of it and whined for him a bit, but he mostly just cried over his gorilla. Iris, who had no idea where her husband was, actually felt rather grateful.
It gave her a chance, anyways, to get things all figured out without having to have him looming overhead. She knew he'd be back eventually (he always was; she'd never be as lucky as for him not to be), but the longer he stayed away the better.
Such as it was that then, one of her few off days, during which she got some train tickets for her and Laxus (that excited him, just a bit; "Mama, big choo-choo"), and was headed, as she told her son, to see someone very important.
Unless it was a gorilla, however, Laxus was not going to be pleased. Now, the train had been a great surprise and he thoroughly enjoyed it, but that was about it.
Ugh, and then the rain gear. Don't even get him started on that again.
"We're almost there, honey," Iris told Laxus as he took to stomping his feet and whining about how he hated his rain boots because they were squeaky and why did he even have to wear shoes? Huh? Why?
Eventually they made it to some hotel, just as the storm was getting to it's fevered pitch, and Iris only ushered Laxus inside and up to one of the rooms.
"Please tell me that he's not going to do this the entire time."
"It's good to see you too, Melody," Iris remarked as the woman let them into her room. "You know, there's nothing better than seeing someone after, what's it been? Five years? And them being a jerk to you-"
"I'm glad to see you, Iris," the woman sighed, as if exasperated. "You just know how I feel about children."
"Well, his father's still gone and his grandfather was busy today so- Laxus, hold on."
"No!" he yelled back at her. It was, after all, his favorite word. He was tugging at that stupid hat, trying to pull it off his head, but she had that damn strap underneath buckled and it just wasn't fair! She didn't have to wear squeaky shoes! "No!"
"He's certainly not in a good mood," Melody remarked as Iris only moved to hurriedly get Laxus out of his wet rain gear. "Or well behaved."
"He just hasn't been feeling well recently, is all," the boy's mother excused as the boy, free of his restrictions, still continued to stomp his feet. He wasn't sure what he wanted then, but whatever it was, he wasn't getting it and that was not okay.
"Right," the other woman said as she watched it all unfold. Laxus was all snotty then and Iris dropped his diaper bag onto the floor as well to dig out a tissue. "I would just spank him."
"Melody-"
"I would."
"Well, I'll be sure to take your opinion when you have a child."
That, apparently, wasn't the right thing to say, as Melody quickly reminded, "You're here for me, Iris. I'm not here for you or your help. And I definitely didn't plan on-"
"He's your nephew." Iris gently kissed Laxus' head as, tried of crying, he just stood there, all pouty and annoyed. "You could at least-"
"We're not here about him. We're here about you."
"We're here about both of us," Iris corrected. The room was rather small, but did have two beds and a couch, the latter of which when she stood, she went to go set Laxus' diaper bag on. Still digging through it, she found him one of his stuffed animals and went to bring it to the boy. "And I really am grateful for you meeting me here- Laxus-"
"No!" He'd taken the stuffed animal and, as he had begun to do with most his toys, threw it across the room. "'rilla!"
"Laxus-"
"'rilla!"
"Now what's wrong with him?" Melody asked with a frown. "Iris? I don't-"
Iris went to fetch the thrown stuffed animal and bring it back to Laxus. As she bent down on his level, hoping this would help him accept the animal (it didn't), she said to her sister, "He wants his stuffed gorilla. He always wants it."
"Then give it to him. Do you have it?"
"I...I don't..."
"Iris?"
"Ivan...set it on fire." And she whispered that too as, slowly, she shifted from hunching over and just moved to sit back on her butt, there, on the floor. Laxus still stomped around in front of her, having his little tantrum of the day (he actually was in need of a nap, more than likely), but slowly Melody came over to them.
"What do you mean, Iris? He set it on fire?" Bending over, the woman stared heavily at her half sister, Iris unable to meet her eyes. "Do you-"
"He set the toy on fire," she insisted, sniffling, just a bit, from the thought. "He… Melody, that's why I need you. I can't be around Ivan anymore. I just can't. And neither can Laxus. We-"
"Calm down. Take a breath.' Melody had always been rather level-headed, even when they were children. "Get up. And get him to shut up. Please."
Laxus didn't wanna shut up though. He wanted his gorilla. Badly.
Still, Iris only got to her feet slowly before lifting her son up.
"Come here, Laxus," she whispered as he fought against her. "Let's… Melody, can he use one of these beds?"
The woman only shrugged. "I arrived about an hour before you. Pick whichever you want."
Even with his raincoat on, Laxus' shirt had gotten a bit damp and his socks were soaked for some reason, so Iris just stripped him down to his pants before going to lay him down in one of the beds, tugging the covers up around him. And even though he complained, because he did not want a nap, at all, when she went to get his sippy cup from the bag and snuggled all the stuffed animals she packed up there with him, well, they weren't his gorilla, not even close, but he slowly stopped whining and just took to pouting.
It was what he was best at.
"Is he always this bad?"
"Well, no. Not always."
"Iris-"
"He's just… It's been really hard, Melody. Really hard."
Still rather emotionless, the older woman went to take a seat on the couch before gesturing for her sister to do the same. Laxus, sucking away at his juice, watched his mother carefully, more than a bit fearful she was going to leave him with the other woman. She hardly ever left him with people other than his grandfather, but Laxus was always on the lookout for tricks.
He did not like babysitters. At all.
He liked his Mama. And his Daddy. And Gramps. And he loved his gorilla.
That was about it on his social scale.
And he liked it that way.
"So," Melody began after a moment or two of the two sisters just sitting there with one another. "What do you want me to do for you, Iris?"
"I just told you. I-"
"How can I help with that is what I mean," Melody corrected, staring hard at her younger sister. "I mean, what do you want from me? I can't help you divorce your husband, you know."
"That's not..."
"Surely, Iris, you didn't write me, get me to come all the way out here, without even the intention of divorcing him."
"I don't… I just need help right now," the younger woman said, staring at her sister. "I don't...hate Ivan. But he's not good for Laxus. And I just need a place to stay for awhile. Or somewhere to go, I mean, while I figure things out."
Melody had been expecting this (or at least something along those lines), but still shook her head a bit.
"Iris, I live alone, in a tiny apartment that is not at all ready for a child-"
"I can't leave Laxus," Iris agreed softly. "And I know that you don't have room for us, but I do have some money saved up. And if I could just save up some more, maybe-"
"And you can save that money up at your home because-"
"Because I'm...I'm scared of Ivan." And she'd never rightfully admitted such a thing. Not even to herself.
"He doesn't...hit you, does he?" That caught Melody's typically unattainable attention, if only momentarily. "Or the baby? Because if that's the case-"
"No, of course not. Ivan's just very...unpredictable."
"You said he burnt the baby's toys?"
"Just a toy."
"Iris-"
"It was. Just one toy. And he's been having a really hard time. His father-"
"Made him burn a toy?"
"Mel-"
"How did you even end up with this man? I mean, honest, Iris, you-"
"I got...pregnant. And he wasn't so bad. He's still not that bad. He just-"
Melody let out a loud sigh then, cutting off Iris and making Laxus, who was about to drift off, sit up and glance around.
"Surely," the woman went on, "you have some friends, Iris, that you could stay with."
"I don't."
"Iris-"
"I'm not lying to you, Mel. I go to work and then I come home. The only people I see are Ivan and his father anymore. I don't… I don't know what else to do. Please-"
"You know exactly what to do," Melody told her. "You just don't know how to get it done. And it sounds like to me you really, honestly, don't want to do it. I know how this goes; you're going to waiver back and forth between whether or not you should leave him. I'm not going to sit around and deal with that. You're either doing it and I'm helping you or you're not and I'm not. There's no-"
"You're the only person I have, Melody." And she looked off as she said that. "You think that I would contact you if you weren't? I know that you don't...like me and that we don't get along, but please… If there was anyone else… But Father and my mother are both dead and you know- I mean, fine, you don't know, but she was rather estranged from her family. Then you know that Father-"
"Iris, I don't-"
"You're all I have left. And other than me, you're all Laxus has left too, from our side of the family. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"
Melody glanced, if only for a moment, over at poor Laxus, who was not getting any sleep any longer as they kept saying his name and it was bothering him. He hated when people said his name but didn't give him any attention to go along with it.
It was just crazy.
"He's a horrible child."
Iris frowned. "Melody-"
"He is. He's a brat. I can already tell."
"He's just having a rough day."
"It's that mages blood you got running through his veins." Shaking her head, Melody looked back on her younger sister with heavy eyes. "You should have known better than to ever get mixed up with a mage anyways. They're all so-"
"You don't get it," Iris told her softly. "I wasn't with Ivan because he was a mage. He...listened to me. And he had all these dreams and he was going to be an S-Class wizard-"
"You just said-"
"I didn't like it because he was a mage, Mel. I liked that because it meant that he was going somewhere. And I wasn't. I'm not now either. And neither is he." Then she shifted on the couch, facing forwards before moving to press her head into her hands. Letting out a long breath, Iris said, "You're right. I don't want to leave Ivan. But I have to. He doesn't care about me or Laxus and he's going to just end up doing more bad than good for either of us. It's just what has to be done and that's all there is to it."
Melody watched her younger sister for a moment or two, silently, before letting out a long breath and saying, "Are you going back home today, Iris?"
Sniffling a bit, she left her head in her hands as she said, "I have to. I-"
"You said Ivan's gone MIA," her sister pointed out. "Do you have work in the morning?"
"No. I had to take off. Makarov can't watch Laxus and-"
"Then stay here. In this room."
"W-What? Mel-"
"I have it for the night anyways. And I'm staying." Then she shrugged. "We can go out to dinner together. I mean, your son can do that, yes? Without causing a complete scene?"
That got Iris to lift her head. "He just doesn't like his rain boots. That's all."
"Hmmm."
Iris got to her feet then, heading over to where an open door led to a bathroom. Over her shoulder, she said, "Can you manage to be around Laxus for that long?"
"I didn't say that I hate children, Iris. I'd just rather...not be around them."
Getting to her feet herself, Melody went to stand over Laxus, who only blinked back up at her with concern. She had that stern look in her eyes. The one that Mama only got sometimes, when he was super bad, like that time he kept biting her every time she tried to pick him up (though he still found that to be her fault as, clearly, she should have known he didn't want to be picked up). Melody, to him, was beyond scary.
It was weird too, because he was so sleepy then and his eyelids were so heavy that, in someways, she kinda looked like Mama. She had blonde hair like her and, while their looks weren't identical in any regards, they were quite similar (they both resembled their father). Melody was no substitute, of course, but when she reached out slowly to gently pat him on the head, Laxus only let out a cute little yawn before shutting his eyes.
"See? He's not so bad," came the soft whisper of Iris as, after gathering herself, she came into the room once more.
"He's sleeping," Melody pointed out softly as she continued to gently stroke the boy's soft blond locks. "If he was bad while he was sleeping then I'd kick you both out right now."
"Mel-"
"You have to admit," the woman said as, with one last pat on the head, she left the boy alone, "that he's a little brat. At the very least."
"Well, he's just very...rambunctious."
"Oh, sure."
"He is," Iris defended. "I don't get out a lot and neither does Ivan. We both are very busy with our jobs, so he doesn't really have any friends. Other than...than his gorilla."
"What is up with this gorilla anyways, huh?" With a frown, Melody headed back over to the couch, gesturing for her sister to take a seat as well. "I mean-"
"It was just a big stuffed toy," Iris told her. "And I think he thought that it was real. Then Ivan burned it up in front of him, I think, and-"
"I'm sure I just missed it, but what were the redeeming qualities of this man again?"
Giving her a look, Iris said, "I told you; he listens to me. Or he did, I guess, before-"
"So none then?"
"He's very...cold towards others, but he honestly does care about me, somewhere, deep down, and-"
"Iris-"
"What about you then, Mel?" the younger of the two finally asked. "What about that man? Are the two of you still-"
"What ma- Oh." Then she gave her sister a slight smile. "I thought that the two of us had talked since he and I… But no, I suppose we haven't."
"Then you're not still-"
"Oh, no, certainly not." Grinning more then, Melody said, "We wanted very different things. He wanted to get married and I… Well, it just wasn't going to work out. Sometimes, Iris, that's what you do when you know something's not going to work; you just don't do it."
That got Iris to give her a sour look once more. "I told you that I was pregnant."
"Yes, well, I'm sure somewhere in your mind that changes things, but-"
"It does. And his father was very pushy about it as well. He wanted Ivan to do the right thing."
"Wanted him to do the right thing? Or wanted to push him off on you so that he didn't have to deal with him any longer?"
"Makarov isn't like that that," Iris complained. "He's helped me. A lot. He-"
"Yes, well, I suppose I will just have to take your word on that."
"Ivan's not his problem anyways," Iris pointed out. "He's grown. Makarov doesn't have to help us out as much as he does. But he chooses to because...because of Laxus, I guess, but-"
"What are you going to do then? Huh? When you leave Ivan? And come stay with me?"
"What do you mean? I'll get a job and-"
"About Ivan and his father, I mean." Shrugging a bit, Melody glanced over at Laxus who didn't seem to be sleeping any longer. It was extremely hard to, after all, with them continually saying his name. He kept glancing over at them, but neither cared to pay any real attention to him, it seemed. Which was annoying. If you were going to say his name, at least shower him with attention. "Surely you don't think you can just disappear into the night with Laxus and neither of them will say anything."
"I haven't thought about that."
"Then you better get to thinking about it. And soon. Because I'm not going to be the mediator between the two of you either. I-"
"Melody, we haven't been around one another in years. Can't we please just spend part of the time not talking about Ivan?"
"I thought that's all you came here to do?"
"It was," she agreed. "Before you said that we'd spend the day and night together. I can't talk about Ivan forever."
Err, well, she could. But neither would enjoy it much.
"Fine." Melody took a deep breath before glancing up at the ceiling. Then, slowly, she said, "Where do you work?"
Which wasn't exactly what either wanted to talk about, but given their rather tangled history and the distance that had formed between the two of them in the recent years, other than the obvious problems Iris was going through, there wasn't really a better place to start.
Laxus was able to conk back out about then, as they drifted away from topics that included him, and slept for a good two hours. When he awoke from his nap, it was to the sounds of his mother and aunt still talking as well as a very ravenous feeling.
He need to be fed immediately. Which could only be accomplished in one manner.
"Mama!" He bounced out of bed so quickly and unexpectedly that he shocked both Iris and Melody. The latter was fearful that he'd hurt himself, jumping off the bed, but just as quickly he was rushing around the room at full speed, yelling. "Hungry! Mama! Hungry!"
"Laxus," Iris complained, getting to her feet as the toddler only continued to rush around. "Knock it off. You- Laxus, come here."
"No!" He clambered up on the bed again, or at least tried, before falling back onto his butt. Giggling, he bounced right back up and took off running some more. "Hungry!"
Huffing, if only a bit, Iris went to look in his diaper bag. "Here. I think you have some crackers-"
"No! No! Hungry!" He didn't want crackers. No way. He wanted...hotdogs. Or a hotdog. Or half a hotdog. With no bun. And ketchup. To get messy in. And a chip or two too.
But no crackers!
"Laxus, would you just- Oh, Melody!"
When he ran passed her, his aunt only reached out and rather roughly grabbed his arm. Laxus didn't like this and whined, if only for a second, but it was less from pain and more from surprise.
Tsking, the woman stared down at her nephew before saying, "You're a very bad boy, Laxus."
Well duh. He was Laxus Dreyar! He was the baddest boy in existence.
His daddy and Gramps said it all the time. Funny thing was, they had almost the exact same tone as his aunt. And it never seemed to be much of a good thing...to them…
"I think," Melody went on as she slowly let go of his arm, though the boy didn't move in the slightest. Just stared at her, as if in slight awe. There was something so...forceful about his aunt. The thing that his mother was lacking. "Iris, that maybe he needs to get out of the room for a bit."
"W-Well, he probably does feel cooped up today. And the storm looks like it's passed-"
"Then it's settled." When Melody got to her feet, Laxus took a few steps back, as if fearful, but she only continued to stare over at his mother. "I'll take him out to get something to eat and you can stay here and rest."
"What? No, Mel, really, I-"
"Iris, you look like shit."
"Melody!"
"You do."
"You don't even like Laxus," Iris pointed out with a frown. "So how are the two of you-"
"If you're going to come stay with me," Melody said with a shake of her head, "then I have to at least somewhat get used to the brat."
"Y-You mean it then? I can come stay with-"
"Not to mention," Melody went on as if her sister wasn't even talking, "if he breaks something in this hotel room and I have to pay for it, I am not going to be very happy."
Was she ever happy? Laxus had to wonder.
"So get him dressed or whatever." Melody shook her head a bit. "Maybe we can even stop at a park-"
"Mel, don't say-"
"Park!" Laxus knew that word. Bouncing immediately, he took to running around again. "Park! Go park? Mama? Park!"
Rushing right over to the bed, he went to go tell his best buddy that, you know, they were going to the park. Until he got over there and remembered that his best buddy wasn't there and that wasn't cool.
Not at all.
"'rilla?" He looked back at his mother, but she only came to try and pick him up. "'rilla? Mama!"
"No, Laxus. He's not… Look. Your aunt's going to take you to the park if you get dressed."
He sniffled, rather loudly, before giggling at that. "Park."
Laxus really loved parks.
Still, Iris was rather hesitant to send him off with her sister. For good reason. She'd never known Melody to be a caring person and, well, Laxus needed a lot of care. Even in short bursts of time. He went through many emotions very quickly constantly.
But Melody insisted that Iris stay and take a nap.
"If you can't even trust your own sister to watch your son, Iris," the older woman chided, "then who can you trust?"
Makarov. And only Makarov. But perhaps that was part of Iris' problem in the first place.
Laxus was more than a tad apprehensive when he realized that it was going to be his aunt that took him out of the room while his mother stayed behind. But she just kissed him on the head and gave him one of his stuffed animals to cart around before sending him off.
He whined, just a bit, as Melody refused to carry him out in the hallway. If she hadn't given in and let him hold her hand, he might have had a full on meltdown.
The first place they stopped when they got out of the hotel was this vendor down the road who was selling ice cream cones. Taking his toy from him, as not to get it dirty, Melody bought Laxus far too big a cone that, of course, not two blocks later fell to the ground and got him more than a bit messy.
Huffing rather loudly as Laxus whined about his ice cream cone (that, if he was being honest, he'd kinda already had his fill of; but that wasn't the point), Melody glanced in the diaper bag Iris had thrust at her before leaving for a tissue or something.
"You," she grumbled to Laxus as she wiped at the still complaining boy's face, "are more trouble than you're worth. You know that?"
Was it his fault that his ice cream cone fell? Huh? No. It was more trouble than it was worth, if anything!
"Now come on." Melody took his hand once more and went back to walking. "I don't rather like you, kid, but you seem to be killing your mother over this damn...what is it? Gorilla?"
"'rilla?" Laxus was more or less being dragged along, as Melody didn't seem to realize that toddlers walked at, to them, what was a fast pace, but to adults, was a rather tedious and slow one. "'rilla?"
"I'm assuming," Melody went on, "that Iris can't afford to just buy you a new one. Or can't find one that looks like it. Either way, it can't hurt to stop at a toy story and see if I can't trick you into thinking a new one is your old one."
Oh, yeah, she could definitely trick him into that. Laxus was rather gullible. In most situations.
The toy store was huge and, for a bit, Laxus kinda forgot all about his best gorilla friend as Melody led him through the many aisle in search of him. He saw all sorts of other cool toys and stuffed animals and wow! Couldn't he just live there? Instead of at home with Mama and Daddy? Was that an option?
And then it happened. One turn down an aisle and there he was. Or they were, rather, as they were all gathered together in a big tub together.
"'rilla!"
"Is this it?" Melody frowned as, from the bin, she pulled a stuffed gorilla that, honestly, wasn't that big at all?
What had her sister been talking about?
But Laxus was amazed. Hugging the lift out of the stuffed toy when she gave it to him, he had to wonder just how his best buddy got so tiny? He used to be almost as big as Mama when he was stood on his feet, but the one his aunt handed him was only as tall as him.
Did it happen when Daddy set him on fire?
"'rilla!" Laxus nuzzled into him. "Hi!"
Glancing at the price, Melody shrugged before grabbing another. Just in case something happened to the new one as well.
Two 'rillas? Laxus almost died. And if Melody had allowed him to clamber up into that tub like he wanted, he just might have!
There was something about it too, watching the look on his face, that made Melody feel...something. Something she didn't really like, at all, but at the same time must have enjoyed on some level because she also bought him another stuffed animal, any one of his choosing (within the price she was willing to pay; honestly, Iris made that damn gorilla out to be so much, she thought she was going to have to throw down some major jewels on it) before they left.
Laxus didn't know the name of his other friend that went home with his two 'rillas. It was smaller that the gorillas and him. It fit under his arm. The fur was yellow though and it had some fuzz around it's face that was orange.
Laxus loved it, whatever it was. He figured it and 'rilla (both of 'em) would be friends too.
Aunt Melody bought him some more food from a vendor, but that time it was on a stick because, for some reason, she thought he couldn't drop that.
She was wrong. He could. But he'd eaten most of the weenie off it already, so he didn't care.
Then came the park! She let him run around a bit, with one of his gorillas and that yellow thing that he was gonna call...um… He'd think of a name later.
Melody just sat at the bench with his other gorilla and stuffed animal, which she spent most of the time trying to shove into the diaper bag. She also tried to keep a good eye on the brat though because she just knew if he got, like, abducted or something, Iris would somehow manage to blame her.
Then there would go another ten years. At least.
Somehow they lucked out and Laxus didn't have an accident the entire time they were gone! He was pretty proud of himself. He was more or less potty trained, but when they'd have a bit day out on the town, he'd always pick the worst moments to tell Iris that he had to go potty and there wouldn't be one around and, well…
But Laxus managed not to do that for once. Probably because Melody forgot to give him anything to drink, but whatever.
"Melody, why did you buy him more toys? I mean, you saw all of the ones I had in the diaper bag. He didn't need-"
"I bought him the damn gorilla, Iris. Two of them. I-"
"That's not the gorilla that Ivan burnt. It was big and-"
"'rillas!" Laxus had one in his arms and went to go show it off to the stuffed animals he'd left in the bed. "'rillas!"
"Well," Melody remarked as she tossed the other gorilla and diaper bag down on the couch, "he sure things it is."
Iris made a face, over at Laxus, before rubbing at the back of her neck. "I've spent forever looking for a new gorilla that looked just like his other one. This entire time I could have just… Oh, Laxus."
He glanced over at his name before grinning at his mother. "Mama! 'rilla!"
"I see." And she giggled, just a bit, coming from where she'd been standing with Melody to go press a kiss to his golden head. "I see."
They spent the night there, in that hotel room, which Laxus usually would throw a fit about, but he was so pumped about his gorillas and, as his mother explained, lion that he didn't mind much. He had her put all his small stuffed animals back in the diaper bag so that he and the gorillas and his lion could sleep in the big bed.
Oh, and she slept there too. Mama did. But she came to bed much later than he did. Her and his aunt stayed up and talked a long time. He heard his name a bunch, as well as his fathers. And Gramps! They talked so long that he fell asleep before either stopped.
The next morning, they all three went out to breakfast together, but parted after. Iris made Laxus tell his aunt thank you for his toys, which he totally meant to do, he just...didn't know...that was a thing… He forgot, a lot, at least. He didn't like that word as much.
It was much harder to say than no, after all. Thanks. He didn't like making the "th" noise.
Things only got better from there. They got to ride the train again and when they got home, there was Daddy! In the apartment! If Laxus knew how to read people, he'd have known he was angry, but he didn't. At all. So he only rushed right over with one of the gorillas.
"Daddy! 'rilla!" Ivan was seated on the couch, so Laxus clambered right up, shoving the toy in Ivan's lap. "No big."
But Ivan wasn't looking at him. He was staring rather heavily at Iris who, upon seeing him, suddenly only stared at the ground.
"Where were you?" Ivan asked. "Iris? You-"
Swallowing heavily, she remembered what her sister had told her to do in such a situation and said only, "I don't have to tell you anything that I don't-"
"I got here to see you and you weren't here." His tone wasn't heavy. At all. And, when he got to his feet (after shoving poor 'rilla back at equally as poor (though he felt rather rich, having two gorillas and all) Laxus), he only crossed the room over to Iris. "Are you alright?"
"W-Well, of course, I just-"
"I thought that you… Makarov said that he hadn't seen you all day and-"
"i just had somewhere to go, Ivan. And we really need to talk about-"
"Here." He took Laxus' diaper bag as well as the other gorilla (which he would admit, he was mildly curious about) before setting them on the ground. "And come here. I have something to show you."
"No, Ivan, I really don't-"
"Daddy!" Laxus jumped off the couch, rushing after them as Ivan led his mother into the kitchen. What didn't the man get about there being, not one, but two gorillas?
Did he not understand the implications in this?
"See?" Ivan took her over to the table where, upon it, sat a request he'd snagged from the Fairy Tail building. "Look at that reward, Iris. If I can pull off this job-"
"Ivan, I don't care about-"
"Look at it." He tapped a finger on the number of jewels he'd be bringing in. "If I can pull this off, we'll have enough for, at least, rent for the entire year. If not a new place all together. We-"
"Ivan, I...I want to leave. You. I can't do this. I-"
"What?" He'd clearly been excited (if not a tad timid) about showing her the flier. Her words, however, stumped him completely. Turning then to glare at her, he growled, "Iris, what are you-"
"I was..."
"Where the hell were you?" Suddenly, that became the problem of the day. "Iris? Where-"
"I was with my sister. And I think that I'm going to go stay with her and-"
"Oh, is that what you think?"
Swallowing, she got out, "That's what I know. Ivan, this isn't healthy. This...relationship. And I have Laxus to think about and-"
"You can't just leave me. Stupid woman. And what the hell does your sister know? Huh? I thought you said you hadn't talked to her in-"
"I haven't, but you've been crazy and completely-"
"I've been crazy, Iris, because we don't have enough jewels! And that damn old man won't let me become S Class so I can earn us more! But then a job like this comes around, with enough jewels to suffice that isn't S Class and you're going to be a bitch-"
"I am not!" And Iris felt rather self-righteous about this part. "Ivan, you're crazy. And you're driving me crazy. And Melody thinks that-"
"Fuck you, Iris. I come in here with good news-"
"You haven't even been home in days! Where have you been? You-"
"I left, woman." He snatched up the flier and walked off. "You get upset when I'm here and say that I'm a horrible person-"
"You're not horrible, Ivan, but you-"
"-so I leave to cool off-"
"For days?"
"And you still bitch me out about it." He stomped off to the bedroom. "This is why I can't stand you, Iris. You don't know what you want. And now you think you do? That it's to leave me? You're such an idiot. Like you can just leave me? Is that what you think, Iris?"
"Ivan-"
"You're not going fucking anywhere and you know it. Your damn sister doesn't love you. She doesn't care about you. You think that she's going to help you? Fuck her. What does she know about you? Or me?"
"And what do you?" Iris challenged as she headed in there as well.
Laxus had long given up on either of them and was just heading to drag his gorillas off to his bedroom, to reintroduce them to it. Not much had changed since 'rilla had been split, in his mind, into two gorillas, but still.
"What are you talking about, Iris? I know everything about you! I-"
"Did you know that you make me scared? Hell, Ivan, I haven't talked to Melody since before my father died, but I did, just to get away from you. I-"
"You're not," he growled as he stood over in the closet, pulling certain things out, "getting away from me. You dumb bitch. What do you think this is?"
"Ivan-"
"I'm going on this damn job, Iris." And his eyes were dark then, finally, when he glared over at her. "And when I get back, you had better be here. You and my son had better be here. You hear me? You married me. You don't get to just walk out on that."
"Oh, but you do?" Iris wasn't sure why he was fighting him. That job looked long. Melody told her to give her a few weeks, if not a month, before she got everything ready for her and Laxus to come stay with her; there was a good chance Ivan would still be out on that job by the time everything was ready. "Ivan-"
"You had just better," was all he growled as, with his duffel bag all packed, he hiked it over his shoulder before stalking out of the room, "be here, Iris. When I get back. And I fucking mean it."