AN: Wow, guys. I'm so sorry to have kept you guys waiting for a few days. It's still finals week at my university, and I've had to spend extra time studying to finish up my semester. But I'm finally up to posting! I'm so so so glad and thankful for the outpouring of all the support for this story and all the compliments you guys have shot my way. You've all been so incredibly kind and encouraging, and I can truly say that I have about the best readers out there and I'm so happy to have had the opportunity to read all the lovely things you've said. It's been a great ride, and you've only made it better.

This is it, I'm afraid. The final installment of Hear Me. It may not be what many of you expected, but I thought this was a fitting and realistic end to the story. I really hope you enjoy it.

Epilogue: To You, a Year Later

"You might want to slow down on those pancakes, Nat," a shirtless Gray warned from his seat beside the dragon slayer as he watched her decimate the stack of breakfast confections. Luckily, she hadn't managed to get syrup everywhere. Yet.

"You might want to shut the hell up," the girl in question growled, her mouth so full that the threat came out sounding more like 'oo 'ight wa'a shut th'ell up.'

"Be nice, Natsumi," Lucy scolded her friend from the opposite side, "He has some news you might want to hear."

The dragon slayer swallowed her huge mouthful and brandished her fork at Lucy. "What could the Stripper have to say to me?"

"The 'Stripper' is right here, you know," Gray rolled his eyes, ignoring how Natsumi whirled around and held the pointy end of her fork in his face. "And if you don't want to hear any news about the Thunder Legion, then by all means, keep stuffing your face."

Gray barely registered how he was no longer sitting upright on a bar stool, but flat against the ground with a crazy-eyed dragon slayer holding him down, pressing her forehead into his.

"What's Natsumi doing, Lucy?" Happy asked the celestial mage, tugging on her collar. She shrugged. She didn't pretend to know her roommate's motivations any more than the next person, especially recently.

"What do you know?" Natsumi asked Gray, her voice full of uncharacteristic intensity.

He blinked up at her, eyes going wide.

"I said tell me, Droopy Eyes!" she yelled and gave him a good shake when he didn't say anything.

"Okay! Just get off me! Jesus, you're so weird," he pushed her off, but she didn't let go, only continued to stare him down.

"When Juvia was coming back fro her mission yesterday, she told me she ran into Evergreen and Bickslow near the train station. They told her that they were finishing up and were all planning on heading back today." He told her, still trying to get out from underneath the overzealous dragon slayer.

Natsumi hit him in the head. "Why didn't you just say that before, stupid?!"

"I was going to before you decided that pancakes were more important!"

Lucy didn't want this to come to blows again. They'd always fought, but Natsumi had grown increasingly volatile over the past few weeks, and she didn't trust the girl to pull her punches. "Guys, come on," she tried to get their attention. Like she expected, they completely ignored her.

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"It means you're a pig!"

"At least I'm not a dirty exhibitionist! Where are your pants, huh?!"

"That's a big word coming from you!"

Once more, they managed to throw themselves into a grapple. Lucy watched in horror as Gray put Natsumi in a headlock, but was immediately thrown back when the dragon slayer slammed the back of her head into his nose. He cried out and Lucy winced. That had to hurt. To his credit, the ice mage didn't let up, wrapping his arms around the smaller girl and rolling, slamming her into the hardwood floor.

"They're lucky Erza's not here," Happy tittered.

"I wish she were," Lucy groused. "I'm so tired of this,"

Lucy sighed again as she watched Gray slip out of submission hold Natsumi had on his arm, throwing out an elbow and caught his opponent under the chin and sent her flying backwards. She landed gracefully on all fours and sprang back, however, tackling Gray once again.

She'd just managed to get him into a choke hold when the guild doors opened.

The brawlers froze. Natsumi watched in shock and growing hope as the newcomers strolled in, a smile sliding onto her face.

Bickslow took the lead, sauntering in with all of his usual bravado, followed by Evergreen and Freed.

The girl frowned when she looked past them and failed to see the person she'd desperately missed for the past five weeks.

"Where is he?" she called to the Thunder Legion from her position on the floor.

"Who's this 'he' you're talking about? You're going to have to be a little more specific, Nat," Bickslow grinned. "And you might want to let go of Fullbuster. He's turning blue."

Looking down, she saw that Gray had indeed stopped struggling and gone a little purple in the face. She dropped him on the ground without preamble and stood up to face the tall man before her.

"Don't make me ask you again. Where. Is. Laxus?" she growled, advancing on the group, who'd stopped to witness the spectacle that was her fight with Gray.

Bickslow made a big show of looking around the guild, his mouth dropping open in mock confusion.

"I guess I don't know. Did we lose him, Freed? It's so hard keepin' track of that bastard."

Natsumi seized the knight by the front of his jerkin. "Tell me where the fuck he is or I will shove my foot up your ass!"

"Don't do it. He might actually enjoy it," a laughing voice drifted in from the doors as the person in question sauntered in.

She let go of Bickslow in favor of moving to watch him as he walked toward her. Her memories never did him justice. He always looked so strong, and when bathed in the morning sunlight, he really was at his best. With his coat billowing behind him and a giant, genuine smile on his face as he looked at her, he made her breath hitch.

That still didn't mean she wasn't pissed off at him, though.

"What took you so long?!" she yelled at him, putting her hands on her hips to glare more forcefully his approaching figure.

The smile melted off his face, instantly replaced by a look of resigned annoyance.

"Hello to you, too."

"Don't 'hello' me! You took forever!"

"Cross-country train rides take a long fucking time, okay? And why the hell are you complaining? I was only gone a few weeks, and we even took the night train to get here early!" he argued back with a glare of his own.

"That's no excuse!" she defended, pointing an accusatory finger at him.

Evergreen rolled her eyes. "Cut him some slack, Natsumi. If it makes you feel any better, he's been complaining nonstop for the last two weeks. He missed you, too." She then motioned for Freed and Bickslow to follow her to their table, ignoring Laxus's orders for her to shut her mouth.

Natsumi dragged her eyes back to Laxus, relaxing her aggressive posture.

"Is that true?" she asked him, raising an eyebrow.

He glared and looked away, but nodded.

She wasted no more time, launching herself into his arms. He caught her easily and pressed his lips against hers. Natsumi smiled into the kiss as he brought a hand into her hair to bring her closer. She'd missed kissing him, being close to him, just him in general. Breathing in his dark, heavy scent, she felt the shard of tension that had burrowed inside the pit of her stomach with each day of his absence melt away. He was home.

He licked at her lips, and she yielded to him, allowing his tongue to familiarize itself once again with the inside of her mouth. Despite five weeks of separation, with him across the country and her on several smaller jobs of her own, his touch was as familiar as it always was, just as she'd remembered it when she laid alone at night, missing him beside her.

He hummed against her, nuzzling closer as he smiled as well.

"Get a room, freight train!" Cana yelled from the corner of the guild, causing snickers from those around her.

Laxus flipped her off, not bothering to look over at her, and the laughter grew.

"I should kill Lucy for getting me saddled with that goddamn nickname," he grumbled to her. She scoffed, leaning in to give him another chaste kiss.

"Even if it's kind of a compliment? Everyone thinks you're some kind of sex god."

He smirked at her. "That's because I am," he punctuated the claim with the wiggling of a scarred eyebrow.

She laughed, but didn't disagree. Natsumi was many things, but she wasn't a liar, and denying Laxus's sexual abilities would definitely qualify as a lie.

"Anyway," the lightning mage said, sneaking in another kiss before he set Natsumi on her feet, "are you ready to go?"

"You don't want to stay? You just got back."

"I didn't spend all night on a train so I could sit around with the same idiots that I just spent weeks with."

She smiled up at him, nodding. Sending a quick goodbye to Happy and Lucy along with a promise that she'd see them tomorrow, she let Laxus drape and arm over her shoulder and lead her out of the guild.

They walked sedately down the cobblestone streets of Magnolia, admiring the view as people began to start their days. No one paid them any attention as they passed, having long since grown desensitized to the sight of the Salamander and the Master's grandson walking silently together.

Natsumi breathed in the familiar smell of the city. She'd missed this. Before she realized her feelings for Laxus, she never imagined herself as someone who could enjoy relaxing. While she still preferred action to idleness, she could admit that she wouldn't trade the quiet moments spent with the man beside her for anything. She'd take them just as greedily as she took the thrill of fighting together or the amused anger of their arguments. He made her feel everything, from irritation to frustration to love, and she was grateful for it all.

He held her tighter as they came upon the apartment building nestled against the edge of the forest.

"Do you want to do the honors or should I?" he asked as they stopped in front of the door.

She shrugged. "I left my key at Lucy's."

Shaking his head, he moved his hand from her shoulders to fish out his own keys from his pocket. "I told you to stop doing that."

"The window feels better!" she defended as he unlocked the door.

When she heard the catch of the tumbler, she pushed open the door and walked into the apartment, passing through the kitchen to the living room, where she threw herself over the back of a large leather sofa.

"It's good to be back," she sighed, sinking lower into the softness of the cushions. "Staying with Happy and Lucy isn't the same."

He shrugged off his bag and coat, tossing them onto the kitchen table to follow her into the living room, towing off his shoes along the way. The blonde rested his elbows on the back of the couch, leaning over the dragon slayer with an affectionate smile on his face.

"You do know that you're allowed to stay here when I'm gone, right? It's your place, too."

She frowned, her eyes still closed. "Yeah, but I'm not used to being alone. It feels even lonelier to sleep here when you're not around. The bed feels too big. Plus, Happy would die if someone didn't rescue him from Lucy sometimes."

He laughed and walked around to the front of the couch so he could drape himself on top of her.

"Then I guess it's a welcome home for both of us," he said as he slid an arm around her waist and leaned down to claim her mouth.

"Who said you get a welcome home?" she mumbled against his mouth. "I'm still mad at you for being so late. You've never stayed gone that long."

Laxus pulled back from her mouth so she could talk, but went to work peppering kisses over the rest of her face and down her neck.

"I'm sorry, Nat," he said against her skin, not stopping his ministrations. "We got held up. We had to track a bunch of stragglers from a dark guild through the caves out west and it ate up a shitload of time."

He looked up at her, and saw that her frown hadn't relaxed. Moving back up, he pressed his forehead against hers, brushing their noses together.

"I won't stay away so long again. Not unless you're with me," he promised, looking into the dark pools of her eyes.

"I missed you," she whispered, and he smiled at her.

"And I missed you, too. So fucking much. Ever wasn't lying when she said I was a pain in the ass about it. By the end, I was just ready to say to hell with it and come back to you," he buried his face into her hair, not able to get close enough for his liking.

She sighed into him, bringing her hands up his arms to rest on his shoulders.

"Promise you won't take so long again?"

"Promise," he kissed her then, but she pulled back, not letting him in for more than the barest brush against her lips.

Hair splayed against the couch cushion, she looked up at him through her eyelashes. Laxus had never seen anything more beautiful. A gentle smile slid on her face, then.

"Then show me how much you missed me," she told him. He grinned, not about to deny her.

He wrapped his arms around her and stood up, taking her with him as he walked across their living room and shouldering open the door to that led to the bedroom. As soon as they crossed the threshold, he claimed her mouth, drawing her close as their tongues fought for dominance.

Laxus walked over to the bed, lying her down on it before straddling her. He wasted no time before he was tugging on her vest, helping her arms through the holes before moving on to the sash tied around her hips. Her fingers pushed his bangs out of his face as he planted kisses over her belly, and he smiled at her small yelp when he gave her hipbone a cheeky nip.

Natsumi's breathing hitched when he pulled away to throw her discarded clothes across the room and whip his own shirt over his head. She leaned up as more bare skin came into her view, licking at the exposed flesh. Pressing up against him, she felt him grow hard as she licked a wet trail from the space between his hipbones and stomach muscles up to his tattoo. He didn't let her continue her exploration, however. The blonde's arms pushed gently on her shoulders, sending her back to the mattress to kiss her again, harder than before.

She bucked against him, trying to make room so she could undo her chest wrappings. Without breaking the kiss, he slid his arms around her, guiding her back into an arch off the bed to allow him to loosen them. As soon as her dusky pink nipples were in view, he took one in his mouth, bringing a hand around to the one he neglected to massage it with gentle strokes.

Natsumi moaned at the treatment, rocking her hips into him and brushing her thigh against his still-covered erection. He let out a strangled noise and bucked his hips. His long shot out to flick against her hardened peak in retaliation.

Her hands traveled to his waistband, and she managed to get the button popped and zipper down despite her shaking hands. Laxus sucked in a breath as she stroked the base of his cock through his underwear with gentle fingers, and he leaned up once again to get his pants the rest of the way off.

As he did so, Natsumi sat up to watch him, heart slamming against her ribcage as the long, swollen shaft was revealed to her. Not taking her eyes away from the man before her, she quickly disposed of the loose wrappings that hung uselessly around her waist. She rubbed her legs together in anticipation, wanting him to hurry up. The wetness between her legs was already becoming uncomfortable, marking the insides of her thighs as she wiggled.

Noticing her actions, Laxus reached out and stilled her hips.

"I've got you," he whispered. He leaned over her and pulled at her scarf with his teeth, and she helped him pull it off and set it carefully aside.

She held her breath as he traced twin lines from her breasts to her hips and kissed her softly, ridding of her last article of clothing.

Natsumi didn't let him create any space between them, pulling him flush to her, feeling every line of him. They both sucked in a gasp as his erection nestled between her legs and rubbed against the wetness there.

He cupped the back of her neck, capturing her lips in a searing kiss as he rocked against her.

"God, I missed you so much," he whispered against her as she moaned.

The girl under him could only nod, the feel of his panting breaths making her dizzy. Her hips moved without her consent, trying to get him inside her as quickly as possible.

"Fuck," Laxus ground out, steadying her once more. "Let me go slow, okay?" he kissed down her neck, nuzzling into her hair. "Let me show you how much I love you."

The way his deep voice made his chest vibrate against her made Natsumi incapable of any thought. She could only nod and let him do what he wanted.

Finally, he lined their hips up, sliding into her slowly until he was fully seated within her, causing them both to moan loudly. Laxus set a slow, steady rhythm, rolling his hips into her lazily, planting wet kiss down the column of her neck.

"You feel so good," he whispered between kisses.

Natsumi whined, throwing her head back and clutching his shoulders. She could hear the erotic sound of him sliding in and out of her, and the thought made her hips stutter and her fingers press into the muscles of his back.

Laxus shifted slightly, sinking even deeper into her.

"I missed you every day," he panted as he guided her hips in time with his thrusts. "I miss the way you snore and the way you yell at me and I missed the way you smell." To drive the point home, he bit at the exposed skin at her throat and moaned when she clenched around him.

"I missed the way you smile at me and make me feel like the luckiest motherfucker on the planet."

"I missed the way you still can't brush your damn hair by yourself." He gave the tangled strands a gentle tug.

"It was hell trying to sleep alone," he licked the red mark he'd sucked into her skin, and she let loose a strangled moan. She wriggled underneath him as his words became too much for her. Natsumi wanted him to give her what she wanted, wanted him to fuck her hard and deep, but he only glided in and out of her languidly, rolling his hips at the height of his thrust so his pubic bone brushed against her clit.

He was so hot and hard inside of her, and god, he just kept talking to her while he moved, taking her apart with his worshipful attentions. Her whole body was throbbing in time with the stroke of his hips, the rhythm of his kisses, and he only ever continued to take her slow. In. Out. In.

"And almost every night I'd jack off to the memory of the sounds you make when I'm inside you," he panted, "and it'd make me wish you were there with me."

Out.

"I thought about how you look at up at me with those eyes and tell me you love me,"

In.

"And I'd lose it every time."

Natsumi couldn't take any more. She reach up and yanked on his hair, pulling him up and smashing their mouths together in a bruising kiss. Darting her tongue out, she tasted blood, not sure if it was hers or Laxus's. The dragon slayer bucked her hips against his hold, wanting more. She whined when he pulled away, nearly completely out of her. However, when he slammed back into her with enough force to scoot them several inches up the bed, she wailed, falling apart under him, sobbing out her orgasm as he pounded into her.

At the feeling of her fluttering around him, clamping down in a vice-like grip, he followed her over the edge, emptying himself in her in sharp, stuttering rocks of his hips. He groaned, feeling the familiar tingling at the base of his spine that said he'd been completely spent. Knowing his arms were going to fail him at any point, he flipped them over so she lay splayed out on his chest with his softening erection still inside her.

The lightning mage smiled through his exhaustion, brushing back her hair from her face. She didn't move, content to lay on him in all her naked, boneless glory.

"Hey, Laxus?" she whispered, not looking up at him.

"Hmm?"

"I love you. I'm glad you're home," she yawned, nuzzling him

He smiled wider. Rubbing her back in long, sweeping strokes, he'd never been so glad to be back, never felt like he belonged anywhere more than here with her.

"I love you, too." He whispered back, even though she was already asleep.

That was fine, he thought, beginning to drift off himself. He'd have countless other days to remind her.

FIN

Note: I'm not crying, you're crying. This has been such a wild ride, I swear. This was my first foray into writing fanfic, and honestly it's been so incredibly rewarding. I can't really promise that I'll have another story out, much less in a reasonable amount of time, but who knows? I can only say thank you again, and one last time, I'll ask you to drop a review if you feel so inclined. Not just for this installment, but I'd love to hear about what you thought about the story overall.

Much love to all of you,

Reindeerface