Laxus was midway between consciousness and oblivion with the faint taste of whisky on his tongue when Jellal's office door opened. The pen that had been scratching over paper from Jellal's desk stopped and Jellal's voice drew Laxus more completely into the world.

"Wendy. How nice to see you."

"The feeling isn't mutual." Her bold words didn't match her tenor, her voice was shaking.

"Did you scare her, Gajeel?" Jellal asked.

"Never laid a hand on her," Gajeel said roughly.

"You made a cage and the locked me in it while you destroyed our place on Danver," Wendy said sharply.

"Is that true?"

"She kept trying to give me the slip."

"Really? And after Zeref said we could borrow you," Jellal drawled.

"This isn't what he had in mind," Wendy said. "As soon as he knows what you've done—"

"Then what?" Jellal put on his best dangerous voice.

Eileen's magic had long since left him but Laxus didn't need it to listen to Wendy's breathing elevate. "He'll retaliate."

"It'll be good to see some spark in him," Jellal addressed Gajeel. "You're bleeding, what happened?"

"Sting shot me," Gajeel grunted.

Jellal affirmed, "It was a good choice sending you." Gajeel who, like Laxus, used to be one of Zeref's goons, who could harden his body with steel at a thought. Despite being Zeref's a lifetime ago, Laxus never wondered about Gajeel's loyalty and he didn't suspect Jellal did, either. Gajeel was simple. He wanted to do his job and then he wanted to be left alone to watch his shows with his girl, things like Dragnet and M Squad and other trash. Why he watched cop shows, Laxus never cared to ask, he just knew it, like he knew that Jellal every morning before doing inventory got ready to the sounds of Elmer Fudd singing,

Gold is where you find it and when I find that stuff, I'll dig and dig and dig and dig. I'll never get enough. I tramp the prairies and the plains. I trudge each weary mile. I'll tramp and trudge and trudge and tramp Until I make my pile!

This man who schemed and picked apart Wendy's and Gajeel's words was not the same man he was before his day began. As soon as the last knot in his tie was made, Jellal turned off the TV and became someone new. Someone cold. "That's all, Gajeel. Thank you."

"If they come looking for her?"

"They will. Definitely. Take some men and cut them off before they get here, blood and bullets are bad for business."

"I thought you wanted to be allies with Zeref?" Gajeel asked.

"I do. Zeref doesn't have many men, nor does he have as much firepower as we do. I very much doubt he'll want to entertain a shootout in the street. He'll back off and when he does, I want you to invite him back here for a visit. Tomorrow morning, say, when he's had time to cool down."

The rigmarole was time consuming and tedious and all about power.

"Clear?"

"Yeah." Gajeel addressed Wendy. "Like I said, be good and you stay alive. Got it?"

Wendy wore the look of someone betrayed. She trusted Gajeel, that look said, until very recently.

Gajeel grabbed her arm. "Got it?"

Wendy pulled her arm out of his grip and scrambled back and directly into Jellal, the worse evil. She corrected and hit the desk, then looked around the room pleadingly. "Please. I want to go home."

Jellal loosened his tie and Laxus imagined that he was putting salve on the monster, easing it back into its proverbial home. He looked kinder when he addressed Wendy again. "Before we do anything, Laxus needs your help, Wendy."

Wendy's eyes fluttered Laxus' way and she curled her fingers curled in the hem of her light blue dress. "Please, Mister Fernandez."

"I don't like terrorizing little girls," Jellal said plainly. "I'd rather we do this civilly, but Wendy, I don't think I'm too good for much of anything. Do what I ask, please."

"Zeref said not to do anything if you started bullying—"

"Zeref isn't here."

A tremor took Wendy by force and tears filled her eyes. "I didn't do anything. I want to go home. I want—"

"Fix him up now and I can't give you what you want, but I promise you, your stay here will be pleasant. I'll even take you to see Carla tomorrow." Wendy didn't strike Laxus as the kind of girl to spend all of her time in a graveyard mourning the loss of her friend, the first headless victim to show up in Magnolia, but grief changed people. "You haven't missed a day yet, have you?"

Wendy shivered again. "Please, Mister Fernandez…"

He took her by the shoulders and brought her to the couch. "There isn't any safer place in Magnolia than Halo. Fix Laxus up, I'll get you a room, get one of the girls to bring you something sweet—milkshake? You like them, don't you?"

Wendy's hazel eyes were as wide as saucers; that was fear, not longing.

"Then tomorrow morning, we'll talk about your future, Wendy, alright?" He sounded so kind and reasonable. Laxus looked for the lurking monster. It was there. Hidden so expertly. But it was there.

Wendy took the opportunity to go to Laxus. He'd never been the preferred Evil before and it was a strange role for him to take, but Laxus accepted it if it meant that his face would stop radiating pain.

Wendy stood between his legs and touched either side of his face. He felt her magic almost immediately, cool, soft, healing. You could pay Eileen Belserion for a lot of different kinds of magic—always temporary, of course—but you couldn't pay her for healing. Wendy was a gem and Laxus was honestly surprised that Jellal let her be Zeref's for so long. Having a healer was power.

That being said, it was also like painting a nice, large target on your back inviting people in to try to steal her away. He wondered what Zeref was thinking just then. How had he gone so long without this happening? What was he going to do now? What would he give up to have her back? Or was he washing his hands of it all, thinking that he had enough insurance in Precht's backing?

Laxus' cheekbone and nose popped back into place and the pain that came made his vision blurry and his thoughts clear. It was gone again in another moment and he could breathe easy. Wendy came into focus. Her hair was starting to lose its luster blue hue. She looked unkempt. A sad girl after the death of her friend. Laxus, very distantly, felt bad for her.

Jellal peered over her shoulder and inspected her handiwork. "Looks fantastic. Thank you." He checked the huge wrought iron clock on the wall. It was pushing three. It had been a long, long night. "Will you get her a room, Laxus? I'll send someone over to make sure she's safe." Which translated into making sure that she didn't go anywhere. Wendy looked sour about it, too.

"Yeah," Laxus grunted and got to his feet. All the aches and pains he'd suffered were gone. He felt better than he had in months, no longer perpetually tired, his knuckles healed; even the scar on his face felt less tight. "You're a regular fucking miracle, Wendy."

She looked downright horrified by his compliment. Laxus put his palm in the center of her back and led her out of the exit. The door closed and they were alone in the hallway. Her feet were less sure than his. "Keep up," Laxus told her. "You don't want to give Jellal any reason to think you've outlived your usefulness."

She walked in sniffling silence after that, faster, though. Laxus handed her a handkerchief from his pocket. There was only one small spot of blood on its corner. She took it grudgingly and dried her eyes and her nose, too distraught to watch the corridors go by so she could plan her escape. Yeah. Wendy was too genuine.

"What can you do for dying people?"

"Dying?"

"Cancer," Laxus asked. He hadn't meant to blurt the question but now that he was there, he couldn't rightly go back, could he? "Can you cure it?"

Wendy shook her head. "Cancer is the body fighting the body. I can't do anything." Laxus felt stupid for asking. Then she said, "Maybe make it less painful."

Even if that didn't sound too invaluable to Jellal, it sounded plenty fine to Laxus. "I want you to look at my grandfather tomorrow."

"I'm not doing anything while I'm kept here against my will."

"Did you practice delivering that line? I almost believed you. You'll like him, I think. Gramps. He's a little bit surly but he likes company."

"I'm serious. I'm not doing anything," Wendy reiterated.

Laxus said, "You're a tool, Wendy, and by the looks of it, you've always been." The more he thought on it, the more it made sense. Jellal wouldn't have left such a valuable asset just lying around. He would have found a way to buy Wendy out from Zeref if he didn't think she'd be good collateral in the future. "If you do something, you might die, you might not, but if you do nothing, you definitely will."

Laxus let her think it over. He stopped in front of door number three and got his keys from his pocket. Before opening the room, he imparted another bit of wisdom on the struck-silent girl. "Sometimes, your life gets picked up, kid, and dropped on its head. Only thing to do is hold on for the ride."

Wendy ducked by him. Laxus closed and locked her door just as two men came down the hall, both in suits and guns. They took up residence by Wendy's door. Laxus almost told them to lose their guns but Wendy was a dragon slayer, albeit a small and timid one. If she ever worked up the guts, she could do some damage before she was caught.

Laxus' own room was three doors down and on the left. He was already stripping off his suit jacket and shirt before he got the door open. Both went into a heap on the floor. Someone would pick it up in the morning and throw it out, it was too stained to do much else with. He took himself to the shower and washed. It was when he was drying that his phone rang from his bedside. Laxus entertained just leaving it—whoever it was would get bored of hearing it ring and ring in their ear and they'd hang up. But then a small voice spoke up in his head and he had visions of his grandfather keeling out of bed, dying without anyone genuine by his side. He huffed and answered.

"Yeah?"

The voice on the other end of the line belonged to Minerva. "You have a guest waiting for you. She insists that you promised her the pool. Should I have one of the guys bring her down?"

Laxus' mouth tugged up. "Do that, Minerva."

She hung up on him; she didn't much like being told what to do. Laxus found a pair of shorts and jeans and a black T-shirt, suddenly not at all tired. He checked on Wendy's guards on the way to the pool. They were still in place and Wendy's door was still closed. "All good?" he asked anyway. They nodded.

Laxus passed by the poker room, too, and saw Erza come out. Her jacket had been opened and her gun was on display but there were no bruises on her knuckles from having to put anyone in line and no one that filtered out seemed to be suffering any injuries. If she'd been razzed, she'd gotten a lid on it. "Good night, Scarlet?"

"Good enough, Dreyar," she replied. "You're looking better."

"Told ya, no hospitals."

She rolled her eyes. "Is Jellal still in his office?"

"Waiting for a dame I hear," Laxus said just to get a reaction out of her. He was disappointed; she didn't blush or stammer. What fun was that? "Stoic, Scarlet. Practice that face in the mirror before your shift started?" He didn't know why he loved to bother her so much, he just did. One day, she was going to punch him in the face.

"I just don't have much energy for your bullshit."

"As sweet-tongued as ever."

Stoic turned to exasperated. Her finger came up and her other hand waved. Laxus watched her wander down the hallway to Jellal's room. The rest of his journey went without hiccup, though he did spy Anna sneaking out onto the balcony with her husband in tow. Tonight Acnologia had cast aside the looming Mafioso façade and donned the doting husband one. His hand was on her hip and there was a rose in her hand and when Laxus looked at them, he thought he knew what two people honestly in love looked like, though there was something crooked about it, wasn't there? Anna's eyes a little guarded, Acnologia's hand on her waist just a little too tight?

Acnologia caught him staring and Laxus looked away. The less their paths could cross, the better he thought.

Laxus came down the dark hallway leading to the pool and peeked through the small glass window before entering. Mira was already in there, platinum hair lit up by the overhead starlight, the magic-made galaxy Jellal always had on the ceiling up and running for ambiance. That shit was lost on Laxus, he wasn't much of a romantic, but he thought Mira looked good beneath it.

She put her hands behind her back and started to take off the red dress she'd gotten herself into. Laxus opened the door before she could get very far, mostly so she wasn't surprised by his presence. Her fingers hardly slowed, but her eyes came to him.

"You made it."

"I did," she said with a minute smile. "Not without some hassle."

"Oh?"

"If I'm not in bed by five, you may have a monster on your hands."

"Is there a monster hiding under that dress?" Laxus asked.

"Oh, yes." Mira pulled the dress down beneath her collarbones. The tops of her breasts were creamy white against the black strapless bra she wore beneath. "But that wasn't the monster I was talking about."

"The scary brother," Laxus offered absently.

"You got it." Mira's dress eased past the bottoms of her breasts and the bottom of her bra, too, which hugged way down to her last rib. The dress caught on her hips. She did a small dance to get out of it and he saw that her underwear matched her bra, silk trimmed with black lace.

"I see no monster, just a fox."

She stepped out of her dress. Her high heels clicked on the tile floor as she removed them, leaving them neatly side-by-side. "You're not looking hard enough."

Laxus thought he knew an invitation when he heard one but when he stepped toward her, she stepped away from him and into the water, getting deep enough that the ends of her hair got wet and clung to the tops of her breasts. Mira moved to the opposite side of the pool and faced him. Laxus said, "Those are some choice panties you're wrecking there, doll."

Her hands went behind her back and with a flick of her fingers, the dark material came away. Blood rushed to reallocate itself when her panties went the same way, up on the pool deck behind her. Mira laughed; Laxus fixed the stunned look on his face. "If I knew we were getting bare, I'd have invited you back to my room."

"If I went back to your room with you, Mister Dreyar, I'm afraid you'd get strange ideas," she teased.

"Mirajane, darling, you're in your birthday suit," he reminded her.

"Mmhm."

"There's only one idea to draw from that. Now, I'd love to get in there with you but I don't have rubbers here."

"No one said anything about needing rubbers."

"Then what's all this about?"

"I'm not just going to drop into your bed, Mister Dreyar. You haven't earned that yet. I'd like for you to, though." She cupped her breasts as she spoke and Laxus decided what Mirajane already had: there were lots of things he could do without condoms. And if it got further than that, he'd be more persuasive.

He parted with absolutely everything he wore. Mira's bottom lip was sucked into her mouth and her eyes ate him up as he got into the pool. Up to his waist in cool water, he got within inches of her before she put her hand on his chest, cool and wet; water dropped over his skin and tried to make him shiver.

Once he'd stopped his progression, Mira put her elbows back on the lip of the pool and lifted herself up just enough that Laxus could see the half-moon pink of her nipples above the waterline. "You know how this works, right?"

"You think I'm new?"

"I think to me you are."

"I know the ropes."

"Then show me what you can do."

He started with a kiss; Mira seemed like the kind of girl that wanted the whole shakedown, top to bottom without a step missed in between.


Jellal stopped arranging himself and his belongings only when he heard a tap on his door. He knew it was Erza before he said, "Enter," he could feel it.

He deigned to turn from one of Meredy's scarlet paintings only when he heard the door close; it was all about appearances and he was very aware of his. Ruffled hair, shirt's top two buttons undone, stuffy jacket discarded over his desk's chair. Feet in socks and not the shoes that scrunched his toes. He was also painfully aware of Erza's appearance. She'd removed her hat; her hair was slightly out of place, a little sweaty, and her jacket was open so the black metal of her gun shone. The purple shirt she wore brought out her freckles and the violent colour of her hair. He'd never been more enamoured with red's chromatics.

To Jellal's surprise, Erza took herself to the loveseat she'd occupied the night before and dropped casually onto its square cushion. Her elbow propped up on the armrest and she put her chin on her fist.

"How did it go?"

"Your poker players are a rowdy bunch," Erza replied.

"They can be."

"I threatened Mister Dreyar twice before he stopped trying to touch my bottom."

"The old man made it out tonight, huh?" Jellal asked.

"He didn't stay for very long, a hand or two. Enough to wheedle your father out of a stack of cash."

Jellal snorted. "I bet Padre was very happy about that."

"That wasn't the only thing he was very happy about," Erza said in a baiting way.

"What, Erza?"

"He doesn't like that I'm watching the poker room."

"Did he say something?"

"No, but he was glaring at me for the whole two hours he was there."

"I'll talk to him."

She shook her head. "Don't. If he has a problem, I'd rather deal with it on my own. No one here is going to respect me if you're fighting all my battles for me."

She was right, of course. "Very well." Jellal got himself a drink and Erza, too, then came to her side and dropped himself to the floor beside her, close enough that he could share the armrest with her and his legs brushed hers. One tucked up to his chest, the other he put beneath himself. Erza's muscles got taut at his closeness and then she relaxed and took her drink from his hand.

"What is it?"

"Gin." Jellal watched Erza sip tentatively and shiver slightly when it went down. "Do you like it?"

"Yes."

Yes. He liked hearing her say that. He let his fingers brush hers. Erza's eyes flicked up and locked on his. She didn't twitch her fingers to adjust his grip or invite him to explore further. She didn't push him away either, though. He found her wrist and made a circle with the pad of his finger. "I'm sorry about earlier."

"Which part?"

"All of it, really, though I was speaking directly about threatening to fire you."

"Would you have?"

"Yes," he said. Erza eyed him with equal parts disdain and respect that petered off into something else when he let his fingers inch up her sleeve to her forearm. "Are you hot?"

She wetted her lips before taking off her jacket. Gathering fortification if Jellal wasn't mistaken. When she was free and only in the purple shirt that came to her bicep, she put her hand back in his. Jellal traced his fingers up her arm. Her skin was so, so smooth. He took his time, liking the way goosebumps came to her.

Erza asked, "Why were the police here?"

"They're investigating the disappearance of one of my employees," Jellal said. "Mister Sawyer hasn't been into work."

"Do they think he was murdered?"

"Possibly."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Me, too. I don't like people thinking I'm a target," Jellal said.

With that little bit of information, Erza seemed to draw up her courage. "What happened to Laxus?"

"I used him as bait to lure an old acquaintance out of the shadows."

"Really?"

"No."

Her brow furrowed in confusion. "Then what?"

"He was jumped in the streets."

"Who would do that?"

"I can't think of a single person."

"You're lying again, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"Then what's the truth?"

Jellal smiled. "Laxus had a bad night. The why doesn't matter."

She squinted. "One of your men are missing and could be dead, another one showed up with the snot beaten out of him. Why are you being so elusive?"

"Because you're fishing for information."

"You won't even give me a bite?"

"No, but I might teach you to fish better."

She looked frustrated but determined. "And how do we begin to do that?"

"Firstly, you offer up something the other person wants very, very much." Her shoulder was thin when he closed his hand on it, but there was muscle there, too. He pulled her down and rose up. She was soft against him. Her chest rose and fell, rose and fell, hitting into his.

"Mmhm?"

Jellal could feel her pulse quicken in her veins, her heart beating like a hammer. Was she nervous or excited? Why not both? "Most people are easy. Money. Power. Notoriety."

"What do you want, Mister Fernandez?"

"That's the snag. I'm the exception. Everything I want I have." He slid his cheek across hers. He needed to shave again.

Erza moved her head just slightly; her lips brushed the corner of his. "Everything?"

When she applied herself, she was good. He'd give her that. "Are you trying to coerce me, Miss Scarlet?"

"Could you be?"

"Into being truthful? Not likely." Some days, he told so many lies, he didn't know what was true anymore. "Into kissing you, though…"

Her breath hitched; her fingers squeezed his arm again.

"Is that okay?"

Erza paused, absorbing his words, and then she did it all for him, adjusting her angle just slightly. Suddenly, Jellal was tasting her lipstick. Her tongue. Her mouth was gone again just as easily as it came. She leaned back and searched his eyes. Jellal waited for her to stand and leave. She kissed him again, though, and more compellingly, putting her palm to his cheek and holding him in place. Jellal's head emptied of almost everything. He sat up more fully and leaned into Erza and kissed her with a force that surprised even himself. He liked her. He liked her a lot. He liked it when she fished for information badly and he liked it when she tried the oldest trick in the book to get it out of him.

He especially liked that she seemed to like it, arching her spine and inching his hand up her ribs when he didn't do it on his own.

Even better than all that? He liked pulling back and looking at her, falsely contrite. "Apologies, Erza."

"I kissed you." She had a hold on his tie, not letting him get very far; he had to pull it from her hand to get any space between them.

Jellal smiled. "We're about to be interrupted."

The door was knocked upon. Erza looked surprised, Jellal was pleased to see.

"I don't want to cut this short but I have business." He stood and took up her coat and then grabbed her hand, pulling her to her feet. "If you don't mind."

"You're kicking me out?"

"Until tomorrow." Jellal ushered her toward the door. On the other side was a bloody Gajeel, full of nicks and cuts where his armour hadn't been quite good enough.

Erza opened her mouth to ask a question; Jellal practically pushed her into the hallway and shoved her coat in her arms. "Good work tonight." He pulled Gajeel in and closed the door again. "Sit."

Gajeel took up the same seat Laxus had. Jellal doled out more scotch that his renegade dragon slayer knocked back without tasting. His glass was filled and the cycle repeated. Moments passed in silence. Then Gajeel nodded. "She just left."

"Erza's tenacious." He thought she would have tried to eavesdrop for longer but maybe that fired thing still resonated with her. "And?"

"Zeref showed like you said he would," Gajeel said. "I caught him a kilometer from Brigade."

Jellal eyed the runners of blood slipping down Gajeel's arms and chest and one cheek that was quickly swelling and turning purple. "Seems like they were a little more willing to open fire than what I gave them credit for."

"Natsu."

"I see."

"He downed a couple of our guys before Zeref got control of him. He apologized and told me he wanted to see you, I told him to wait. He was pissed but apologized for the blood."

"Really?" Jellal smoothed his smile. "Zeref must like Wendy better than I gave him credit for."

"The Den is family," Gajeel said easily.

Jellal couldn't say why that bothered him so much but it did. "You told him to come by tomorrow morning?"

"Yeah. He knows if he brings guns, Wendy dies."

"Good."

"And then I called Clive to clean up the mess and sent the tab Zeref's way."

"Good," Jellal said again. "Wendy's set up in room three, maybe see if she'll do something about that." All those welts were starting to look painful, swelling so much now that they couldn't even bleed. "I'll make sure you get a little extra this week for your hard work."

"Thanks, boss." Gajeel stood and left the way he came, slowly.

Ten minutes went by before Jellal got to his feet. He took his gin and wandered Halo's halls, thoughts not on Zeref and the coming altercation as they should have been, but on Erza, and his penchant for curiosity. How long would he let her dig for? He remembered her putting her mouth on his and thought a little longer yet.

Along his way, he glanced in the pool and caught sight of something he wasn't meant to. He didn't linger on the details, pausing only long enough to identify the girl sitting completely naked on the edge of the pool with her head tipped back and her legs wrapped around Laxus' shoulders. Mirajane Strauss. He catalogued that away. Information was power.

He moved on and found that the deck upstairs was in use, as well. Like with the pool, he didn't spend much time lingering, just long enough to identify who was trapped in an illicit embrace. It wasn't totally surprising to see that Miss Belserion was back, this time with his father, Acnologia would have liked the unusual hue of her hair, as he liked Anna's. What was shocking, though, was to see that Anna was there, too.

Jellal didn't know his father to be a careless man when it came to his adulterous ways, nor did he know his mother to be sly enough to spy. He had to assume that it was a consensual thing. He left them to their devices so he could scheme over what they were scheming.