Love and Lightning

Chapter Twenty-Four

Her child was already sound asleep in his bed as Neirah trudged through the living room tidying the assortment of new toys her son had received the week prior. A dark cloud may have still lingered over Magnolia's city, but to an active four-year-old, no amount of sadness could keep him away from his toys forever.

She sighed and looked out her front window to where the rain beat steadily against the glass pane. Her attention had soon refocused on the reflection of candlelight in the mirrored surface and how it illuminated her husband sitting on the couch behind her. She quickly lowered her gaze to her armful of toys with a soft sigh.

With weary eyes, Laxus watched his wife start to scurry out of the room with toys in tote. He had taken notice of her mousy demeanour in the past week, but with the weight of loss heavy in his heart, he hadn't had much energy to push the matter. That didn't stop it from hurting every time she avoided him.

But it was the way her eyes had met his in the dark window's reflection, the way they apologised even though she had nothing to be sorry for. It burned him up. So, before she could escape his presence, he was lurching to life and leaning over the couch arm to capture her by the waist. With minimal effort on his part, she was crashing backwards over the arm of the chair and into his lap to the sound of all Alex's toys hitting the plush carpeted floor beneath her bare toes.

"Laxus." Her breathing hitched as she adjusted her aggressive tone. "Look what you've done," she whined. "I had just cleaned all of this up." Neirah shifted towards the purpose of standing for a moment before she was being thrust back into the soft cushions beneath her adjusting husband.

Laxus looked down at her with a rather lifeless expression, the same one he'd been wearing since the day he'd said goodbye to his grandfather. "Kinda thought I was past all this about people takin' off as soon as I enter a room… Have I really been so off-putting this last week?"

Neirah's heartbeat fluttered for her guilt as she sat up beneath him. "Of course not. Why would you ask me something like that?"

Neirah winced as her husband flopped over on the couch against his side, watching the rain pour from where his head was laid in her lap. "Because everyone's avoiding me like I'm contagious. Not to mention my own wife's been dancin' around in the dark like she's afraid to step on broken glass."

Neirah groaned and heaved an exhausted sigh as she tried to adjust her thighs more comfortably under his weight. "You have a heavy head," she chided.

"Deal with it," he quipped back firmly. "My fat head's not goin' anywhere until I get some damn attention."

Neirah smiled and gently swept her fingers through his hair. "Nobody is avoiding you, Laxus," she assured him kindly. "Especially not me."

He didn't turn to look at her as he captured her shifting hand and returned it to his head. "Pet me, woman."

Neirah stifled a chortle of amusement and obeyed. She'd know that the sensation had comforted him, it had for years. "We're not avoiding you," she repeated. "But you brood. You might not even realise you're doing it, but you have a thinking face." Her expression faltered sadly when he started to trace lazy circles over her thigh in front of his face. "A lot goes on in your head when you're quiet and nobody wants to interrupt you if you're grieving."

Laxus stared quietly into the droplets of rain glistening on their front window as he captured his wife's thigh like he was preparing to fluff a pillow. "There's nothin' to grieve…"

"Don't try to feed me that kind of indifference," she scolded. She grinned solemnly and gripped his roots for a gentle tug of warning. "Your wife is immune to your tough guy act."

"It's not an act," he assured her calmly. "The old man left no regrets behind him, he told me himself, and he lived a damn long life. It's not like he suffered…" He sighed and closed his eyes, backing his head up in her lap until he felt the warmth of her abdomen on his nape. "It's unavoidable… this shit happens…"

Neirah gently brushed the backs of her fingers over his exposed cheek and smiled. "That is a very mature thing to say…"

"It still hurts though," he admitted humbly. "He may've left nothin' behind, but when I think of how many years I wasted butting heads with him…" Laxus sighed and snuggled into her flannel pyjamas before gently kissing the material beneath him. "It just sucks…"

"I know," she whispered tenderly. "Your grandfather was an amazing man. He's well deserving of the monument the council built in his name."

Laxus slowly opened his eyes and stared back out the window with a dim expression. "You know, it always bugged me, how hard he was on you…"

"Laxus-"

"Not done," he interrupted sternly. "I thought I had let it go when I saw him walk you down the aisle to me… It stayed. But that idiot brother of yours said somethin' to me the other day that stung."

"Oh? I didn't know you two shared a moment at the funeral."

"He was there to thank the old man for taking you in, both of you. He believes that he saved you two from beg, borrow and stealin' your way through the rest of your lives."

"Well, current accommodations considered, this is much more comfortable than a mildew dampened sheet on a soggy dirt floor," she teased. She was about to giggle when she felt her husband tense dismally in her lap so she withheld her playful merriment.

"But I kicked back," he murmured bleakly. "The old man was cold towards you since the day he learned you'd be stickin' around. I had no idea it was 'cause he knew all along that you weren't human."

"I wish he'd told me," Neirah teased. "That'd be a nice thing to know about yourself."

Laxus smiled softly as he reached out and captured her free hand for a kiss. "But he let you stay…"

"He did," she agreed softly. "So why did what my brother said bug you so much?"

"Because I was startin' to think the old man didn't have a heart, the way he shut you out. Just an innocent little kid who was always sick, who had nowhere to go, just like half of the other brats he took in. But I never caught him saying a damn kind thing to you."

"But he let me stay," she repeated her understanding.

"Yea… Even though he tried to protect me, protect the rest of the guild from what he knew was coming… even though he knew what you were the whole time, he couldn't turn that sick kid away."

Neirah's brow creased, her heart aching as she felt her husband's strong grip flex in the material of her sleep pants.

"He was just as afraid to lose you as the rest of us…" He snuggled gently into her thigh and sniffed back his emotion. "You know, he asked me once if I went after you just because I was told not to, and the truth I never told him was that maybe I did… I couldn't understand why he was so afraid of you, why it was so bad if I wanted to spend my time with a cult kid. I'd never seen him act like that. I was so. curious. to know what made you tick. It's like… in a way and despite his crazy theories, he was the one that pushed me right into you…"

Neirah's stomach churned with emotion as she held him and stroked his hair. "You think your grandfather is the reason we fell in love?"

Laxus smiled humbly. "To be honest, I was surrounded by lookers back then. If it weren't for the little bit of mystery that drew me to you, I might never have found myself warming up to such a snarky little brat."

Neirah groaned and rolled her eyes at his back. "My husband, the shallow jerk."

Laxus finally rolled over onto his back and looked up at his pretty little wife. "You say it like you're surprised," he teased. "You knew exactly what you were gettin' yourself into, princess. I didn't let up just because I felt sorry for you."

"No, you didn't let up at all," she teased. "You were pretty cold to me yourself, once."

"Yea well, I'm not the saint my grandpa was."

Neirah's smile grew less wicked and more genuine as she beamed down at her stirring husband. "I don't know," she mused. "You're alright by me, Sparky."

Laxus just smiled quietly and adjusted in her lap. "I missed this," he whispered hoarsely. "Don't get me wrong, I'm all for you dishin' out a little tough love every now and then, but this is what really gets me."

Neirah cocked her head to one side in silent observance. "Oh?"

Laxus lowered his voice to a dull rasp. "You're the only one who took the time to give a damn…"

Neirah's lips quirked to one side as she attempted to stifle her wry smile. "Just because you're durable doesn't mean that the hands to hold you have to be coarse…"

"Can you sing?"

Neirah's cheeks lit up like sirens with surprise as he posed his humble question to her. "I- what?"

"Well, I know you can, I used to hear you sing all the time when-" Laxus cleared his throat awkwardly and diverted his gaze. "Or, well I…"

"It was you," Neirah gasped softly. "I thought I'd kept catching your scent hovering around my house after you turned me down in Southgate Park." She narrowed her impatient glare at him like she was preparing to hold a grudge.

His response was to shift in an attempt to hide his own blushing. "Yea… it was me," he admitted guiltlessly. "When the weather was decent around dusk, you'd always be singing and dancin' through your place."

"Why you creepy little – and I'M the stalker."

"Don't act so surprised," he defended heatedly. "You knew I was crazy about you even after I let you off the hook in the park. And it wasn't like I went and sat outside your window pitchin' rocks. I just happened to come back into town that way every now and then."

"Laxus, we live on the edge of town surrounded by water," she growled. "Like I've said before, I never could have been more out of your way."

"Doesn't matter. I walk where I wanna walk."

"To hear me sing?"

"Well, more specifically because you smelled like heaven."

"Oooo that's eerie, dragon slayer."

Laxus smiled, his heart thumping strongly against the walls of his chest. "Everything about you calmed me down. Even if we couldn't be civil to each other face-to-face, it didn't change the fact that I was drunk on you."

"You charmer, you…"

Laxus closed his eyes again and sighed contentment even despite the sarcasm dripping from her words. "I don't get why you don't sing at the guild. You clearly didn't inherit the ear-bleed from your brother. I bet you and Mira would sound great together."

Neirah reached down and gently poked his nose. "Don't think that I'm missing all these subtle 'you and Mira are great together' hints there, Sparky," she teased.

"I'm just sayin'-"

"Yes, and a few weeks ago you 'just said' that if you ever caught us conspiring against you again you'd tie us together and ship us across the sea."

"I- may have been drunk when I said that."

"There is no may; you were."

"Jeez, I just think you two would probably sound good together."

"Screaming?"

"Singing! Fuck you're screwed up. Did I do that?"

"I'm kidding," Neirah teased wryly. "It's just nice to see you feeling a bit more like yourself."

Laxus looked back up at her peacefully. "So, will you?"

Neirah turned her flushed cheeks away and closed her eyes, trying to imagine that she didn't have an audience.

"You get stage fright?" Laxus pried. "Seems weird when you consider that you dance in front of people all the time."

"It's nothing personal," she defended sternly. "I just… growing up, I only sang when I was sad. I don't want my music to depress people."

"You sing depressing apocalypse songs to our son all the time."

"Is that why you're late so many nights? Because you're standing outside listening to me sing our son to sleep?"

"Maybe…"

"You're the worst," she chided gleefully.

"Would you like a spotlight, sweetheart?"

"Just… don't speak," she growled. She took another deep breath to steady her nerves before she started her humble song. She didn't know very many, and the ones she did know were passed on to her by her mother. They all tended to highlight Ryverika's legacy in verse, a rather meek verse. One, in particular, was favoured by her and sung to their child every night he was sad. But the true tragedy was that Alex would never know the mighty beast was his grandfather.

"When darkness blankets happy times, no hand will dry the tears we cry, still we must look to the light, and follow words of He who guides." After the shaky first part of her hymn emitted, she turned her attention back to her peaceful husband who may as well have been her sleeping son in her lap.

A small smile found her face as she continued and stroked his hair from his face. "Seek the path for those who believe, although it might be hard to see, trust in He who shines infinitely, and let him be the light you see. Raining hope from He who shines, holding fast when all else dies; so may the shadows rise, may the shadows rise, so that He might know how bright He shines."

"I wish... I had've met him."

Neirah's breath caught as she looked down to where Laxus was working on sitting up beside her.

"That old lizard of yours."

"R-really?"

Laxus rolled a kink from his neck beneath his palm. "Yea. Y'know to… thank him for lookin' out for me all those years…" He smiled and slowly turned to face his wife. "And for keepin' me around so I could fall for a shadow…"

Neirah's smile grew sentimental as a result of his comment. "So you finally admit that I was Ryverika's Shadow?"

"Never said you weren't." Laxus shook his head in denial as he neared her and brought their brows together. "But you're my light. An angel… with broken wings…"

Neirah nuzzled into his warmth with a meek grin. "Am I not perfect in your eyes?" she whispered. "Why broken?"

"Because that's the only reason I can justify why you've stayed with a deadbeat like me rather than flyin' back up there with your old man…" Laxus opened his eyes and watched sapphire orbs glisten as he raised his hands to either side of her face. "And if the god-dragon entrusted me to look out for his daughter, that's what I'm gonna do."

"Ryverika wasn't a god," she corrected gently.

"Then I think you're adopted."

Neirah closed her eyes and returned his kiss through her smile. "I'm glad you're feeling better."

"I never felt bad," he rumbled coolly. "Here I thought this was all part of your schemes to break me."

"Why, was it working?"

"Hell yes."

Neirah smiled and raised her hands to his. "Well, would you look at that. Angel to demon in three seconds flat."

"I can't hate an angel from time to time?"

Neirah rattled her head from side to side. "Don't think that's what you're supposed to do," she mused impishly.

All of a sudden, the rain hammering on their roof got stronger until the ruckus was encouraging Neirah to raise her gaze from her snuggly husband's. "Wow, the rain's really coming down. I can't remember the last time it rained this much…"

"Springtime'll do that." Laxus tried to remain casual, but he could see the tension brewing in his wife as she stirred from the couch. "Besides, I thought you liked the rain."

"I do," she argued. "But rain this hard also brings something I don't-" Neirah covered her ears with a startled shriek as lightning split the skies wide open with a devastating flash, the snap of booming percussion shaking their humble home. "That!" She whined frantically. "It also brings that!"

Neirah's breath caught as she was embraced by the man who'd stood up with her in anticipation of her discomfort. She sighed as relaxation gripped her the moment protective arms wrapped silently around her trembling figure, his gentle words against her ear.

"You still don't do storms, huh?"

"I just don't understand why it has to come out of nowhere like that," she whined. "It makes my heart beat so fast that it hurts…"

Laxus slipped away from her for a moment and listened to the rumbling echo out of comprehension, and to his surprise, no hysteric wails of alarm were sounding off in his son's room where he'd slept. "Alex seems to sleep right through 'em."

"Good for Alex," she rattled out sceptically. She was throwing herself into her husband's arms again with another alarmed whimper as the storm rocked the earth once more. "God, make it stop, would you?" she mewled frantically.

"You know it doesn't work like that," he groaned. He draped one palm on the top of her head as he tried to keep her from cutting off circulation at his waist. "I can't believe I've never asked this before. Do you have bad associations with storms or somethin'?"

"Just you," she chided.

Laxus paled, his gaze mellowing grimly. "Gee, thanks." He looked down at his quivering wife before shifting his gaze out their window to where the rain hammered down against the window pane. "But no repressed cult trauma?"

"I don't think so," she mewled with her sensitive ears covered. "It has nothing to do with fear or bad memories. I just don't like them! Like how you don't like ninety percent of vegetables. They can't hurt you and they're certainly not scary. People just-" Neirah raised her voice over the next crack. "Have different tastes!"

"Hey," he instigated gruffly. "Are you still feelin' sorry for me?"

Neirah noticeably flinched. "What? Why would you ask me that?"

"'Cause I wanna do somethin'…"

Neirah cocked a brow suspiciously, her expression dimming with scepticism. "Like what?"

Laxus captured her by her wrist and carted her swiftly through their home towards the back of it. She remained relatively complacent with his lead until he'd reached the back door to their home and threw it open to the sight of lightning splitting the sky.

Neirah jerked her arm free and covered her ears with a shrill cry. "Laxus, what are you thinking?!"

"I'm thinking you need some positive associations with us storms."

Neirah shrieked as she was captured by her waist and thrown over his broad shoulder. Her eyes widened as she watched him step towards the door, but before she could panic enough to free herself, he was slamming it behind them.

"Laxus this is NOT funny!" she demanded passionately. "If I have to use magic to get out of this I am going to be most cross!"

"Relax, princess," he sassed. "You're already wet."

Neirah blinked the steady rain flow from her eyes as she glared back at him. The dramatic clap on her soaked backside beneath the flat of his palm wasn't helping her temper. "Why am I wet?" she demanded in outrage. She wriggled in his arms until he had no choice but to set her down before she'd tipped herself onto her own head. Once she was free, she turned swiftly to face him and drove a finger into his bare chest. "What made you think that I wanted to be any closer to this stupid-"

Neirah's eyes grew fiercely wild as she was interrupted by the fierce crash of his lips against hers, the heat of both large palms smothered against her wet cheeks. She stared back at him for a long moment, her heart racing uncertainly as she watched the rain soak them both in the middle of their large, secluded yard. While staring, she'd caught the sight of another crack in the sky, and by the time she closed her eyes, the ground was shaking beneath her feet to the sound of thunder.

She'd parted her lips to scream alarm, but he had anticipated such a reaction. He was prepared for the jerk of her head and instead, captured her with a heavy palm and kept her whines against his kiss. He used her fright to deepen their intimate embrace, the heavy roll of waterfall mingling with their affection.

Gathering strength, Neirah drew her arms to his chest and gave him a cautionary shove. "Laxus, knock it off. I know what you're trying to do, but it won't work. I'm not afraid of storms. They're just loud and obnoxious. I'm not afraid of you, but if you snuck up behind me and yelled really loud, it'd do the same thing!"

She moved to stomp away, but Laxus caught her by the elastic waistband of her sleep pants. He let the give in the band startle her with embarrassment before she was falling back into him. "Stay," he ordered avidly. "Just because it makes your heart beat harder doesn't mean it's a bad thing…" He lowered his lips against her neck for a moment to rumble his continuation. "I wanna do this..."

Neirah was moments from igniting a short fuse to his indifference when she whirled around and got a look at the man soaking in front of her. Her lips were parted with every intention of letting him have it, but she couldn't do much more than gawp when she'd met the sight.

She didn't understand why it was any different than when they'd showered together, except he wouldn't have been wearing pants. Something about his wet hair clinging to his determined expression made her fingers itch to tug it. Something about the rain washing over his bare torso had her heart aching with jealousy. 'Is romance in the rain so taboo that it's making me hot just thinking about it?' Her throat worked as his chest filled with a deep breath, his lusting gaze studying the way her clothes clung to her body. Then, she'd considered that it was something a little more primordial stirring in her belly. Her gaze narrowed in on him wrathfully. 'The bastard knows it too…'

She yelped to the sound of thunder shaking the heavens once more, but she didn't flee. She simply winced and wrapped her arms around her own sodden body for comfort. "Ok, now what wise guy?" she hollered over the storm.

He eyed her calmly until the next flash of lightning revealed the mischievous twist in his grin. "Take off your pants."

Neirah's gaze widened in outrage. "Excuse me?!"

"You got about thirty seconds before the next flash and if it's not done by then, I'm gonna be doin' it."

"Laxus, what if someone sees?!"

He rolled his eyes and stepped to her, pressing her back against the rough surface of their home's exterior. "Then all they're gonna see is my head and whatever cute little face you make when you're turned on."

She winced to the next crack of thunder. "You can't be serious!"

He pressed his chest firmly against her own and covered her lips, his cool palm snaking beneath her waistband until frigid fingertips could knead a palmful of her naked backside. "I warned you, thirty seconds."

Neirah pressed her back more passionately against the side of their house when he slipped a finger between her thighs, his thumb caressing her clitoris as he entered her. Her passionate cries were muffled by the storm around them as the steady pump of his strokes started to convince her to submit to his suggestion.

Before she could fight it, her trembling fingertips had found the band of her sleep pants and started to drop them over her thighs, aided by the weight of water absorption. Growing impatient with her hesitancy, once they were mid-thigh, her anxious husband was forcing the sopping mess of material down the rest of the way. Her shirt was long enough that it concealed where his fingers had worked inside her, but he was right. If anyone had caught an unlikely glimpse of them, all they would see is the obvious way her face contorted with pleasure. It made heat flush her cool cheeks beneath the rain. "This is so bad," she whispered sheepishly.

Laxus lowered his lips to her neck and a hard kiss turned into a slow lick. He hissed a heavy breath as he pressed his body tight against hers, delighting in her fretful whimpers. "I can't believe I've never done this before," he rumbled quietly. His ears perked when he'd heard the sweet and breathless laughter of his drenched lover.

"Oh yes," she moaned. "How dare you not be so obviously cliché."

"Shut up," he barked. Laxus flinched, admitting to himself later that it might have looked strange that a lightning wizard actually did so to the white ignition of the sky at his back. He couldn't help but start to tremble as his gentle lay's screams of mixed emotion continued to elevate.

Neirah's grimace morphed until she was beaming ecstasy. "You like it too, don't you?" she tormented. "I can tell… by how tight you are… and how loud you breathe."

Laxus pressed his lips to her ear with a bitter snarl. "You got a problem with how I breathe?"

Neirah shook her head frantically before throwing it back with a delighted grin. "No sir, quite the opposite." She panted elation for a moment before moaning to the next clap of thunder. "I love it when you blur the lines between beast and man."

Laxus' gaze widened over her shoulder, her body so hot around his fingers that he wished it could spread through his entirety. It might have been something more in her tone than in the words themselves, but whatever it was; it had triggered something erotic within him. He blinked rainwater from his eyes as he slowly retracted his fingers and connected their passionate gazes. He let soft clouds of condensation distort the lips that were a breath away from his for a long moment before he'd spoke again. "Maybe this beast has a bit of an appetite," he instigated.

Neirah's expression grew sardonic with her amusement. "So long as this beast keeps his cock to himself, I'd say he's free to indulge a little."

He groaned his exasperation as he lowered his gaze to watch her dirty little toes trace her calf anxiously. He'd needed her, so badly that he was almost willing to surrender his taste just to keep from over-indulging. The past week without her touch had been torture; he was depressed, not dead.

He gave her a strong, deep kiss, swallowing every startled squeal that came with the sky breaking around them. Her fear and pleasure were becoming hard to distinguish, but his enthrallment with her rapture wasn't.

Neirah's panting breaths misted in front of her face avidly as her husband hit his knees. She couldn't help but check the yard. With her luck, that would have been the night someone got foolish enough to try and rob them or something. She moaned bliss when she felt the tip of his wet nose part her damp slit and her cheeks ignited with passionate fever. Her fingers raked through his wet hair, wringing the water out with their fiercely tight embrace; and every time the sky lit up behind her sealed eyelids, her alarmed pressure forced him to groan between her thighs.

He'd spent more time with his face between his wife's legs than he'd ever care to admit. He knew her taste, her scent, like nothing else in the world. But even still, something was different that night. It was in the way the downpour carried her passion over her body, starting from where she'd panted his name to where her arousal was being drawn by the slow grind of his fingers. It all washed over her body and ended against the tip of his tongue. He'd never been so absorbed in her passion before. It wasn't that the rain had made her more potent because if anything it diluted the taste he loved more than air. But the way her essence drained over the lines of his face had him captivated. It was just wife-scented rain, it wasn't like every drop from the heavens originated from the tight entrance he'd prodded with his tongue, but maybe a darker part of him had convinced himself that it was.

He was indifferent to the noise, the percussive crash shaking the rain free of the clouds. In fact, he was more inclined than ever to be enjoying it. Neirah had never liked the thunder, and in the day, she'd used to compare him to it. Loud, obnoxious, spontaneously irritating, but then, she'd always been hard on him. But something about watching her writhe, every beautiful curve covered in a sopping oversized shirt as she begged him for more had him rearranging her association. She wasn't hiding from the storm anymore.

She wasn't hiding from him.

He closed his eyes to protect them from the steady deluge as he backed away from her thighs and worked on catching his breath. The steady pump of his fingers remained inside her hot core, but they did so instinctually. His thoughts were far from focused on their rhythm. He slowly opened his weighted gaze and watched her squirm against the side of their home, the light of the window a few feet from their side the only thing casting shadows on her face.

His thoughts were dangerous.

The two shared immunity to electricity, even if her resistance was weaker. A little spark wasn't going to hurt her. He shifted his narrow gaze into the light of the next bolt to split the gloomy heavens, his thoughts corrupt with enticement. He couldn't believe he was tame enough to hesitate and he started to realise that the very notion of hesitancy being on his conscious mind was what kept him from being figuratively 'ready' by his sick little wife's standards.

Did he have to ask permission for everything?

As tentative as he was though, he couldn't help himself. There were far too many distractions, too many inspirations around him to keep him in check, and the moment his fingertips ignited in golden sparks, he knew he'd have no regrets.

Neirah's eyes flew open to the feeling of a strange sensation between her thighs, her skin quivering in reaction. It took her a moment to catch her breath before she checked to where her husband was encouraging one of her thighs to drape over his shoulder. She was thankful for the support because whatever had stricken her moments before had her crippling with pleasure.

She steadied her heart rate and leaned her head back against the wall, closing her eyes as she tipped her face to the rain. She panted ecstasy as he raked his teeth over the inner leg he'd raised. The pleasure she'd felt didn't feel like an orgasm, or certainly not one she'd ever experienced. She was just about to write the sensation off as all-in-her-head when it happened again, and upon the second offence, stronger.

Neirah snapped her teeth together with a piercing howl of euphoria as her body started to convulse with the pleasure of his fingers and tongue working devotedly towards her completion, but like she'd experienced moments before, there was something more working to get her off. "Laxus," she moaned shrilly. "Just what is it you're-"

Neirah's travelling gaze widened in startled bemusement as she tipped her dripping gaze to where her husband looked back at her guiltily, golden strands of electricity weaving between his long fingers like startled serpents. It took everything she had to keep from booting her adventurous husband in the face. "You are not," she breathed heatedly.

"Why don't you just go back to moanin' with the wind and let me do what I do," he scolded sheepishly.

"Oh wow, this just got awkward…"

"Why?"

Neirah's heartbeat faltered as she looked back his way and met the determination in his gaze head-on.

"You go out and get new toys to torment me all the time. I'm workin' with what I got."

"But that's-" She winced as another rumble of thunder echoed in the midnight sky. "That's so…"

"Do you like it?"

Her face ignited crimson as she diverted her gaze and panted utter bliss. "I… it's just that-" She'd certainly never observe lightning magic like she used to. There was no turning back.

"If you like it just shut up and let me do what I'm doing," he commanded. "If you weren't so nosey, you wouldn't've even known what I was up to."

"I would so!" she defended. "I- it kind of hurts! I probably would have noticed either way!"

"Probably…?" he rumbled sardonically. So, in other words, she loved it. "I could make it hurt a whole hell of a lot more…"

Neirah's throat worked dryly despite the droplets of rain cascading over her cheeks. "Laxus," she cautioned.

"See? Us storms aren't so bad," he rasped passionately. "You get used to us…"

Neirah tossed her flushed face back to keep from watching the way his fingers teased her with magic on their tips. She was actually surprised that his pride had allowed him to act in such a manner, but even more so that she didn't think of it sooner. A part of her even wondered if he hadn't been aching to do something similar for a long time, and with the weight of his past starting to lift, he started to feel he had enough control over his volatile emotions and magic to play with them. She figured that thought was the one that caused her the most excitement of the erotic new sensations.

Neirah yelped and clutched his head. She had certainly forgotten that there was ever a storm raging outside their home. She was growing far more concerned about the one between her legs. She was conflicted about how to feel. On the face, the pleasure was unbearable. She had never felt so compelled to release the moans welling in her chest. Another part of her just felt wrong. She was so used to being the one to sexually torment him that she didn't know how she wanted to feel being on the receiving end of bedroom/backyard games. Regardless, she was thankful for his support because the pleasure had liquified her joints to the point where she was afraid it would paralyse her and leave her at his mercy.

She cried out fiercely just by teasing herself with the thought. Lazy lover or not, she was starting to see a more enthusiastic side of her husband that both concerned and excited her. When she considered that it wouldn't be long before he couldn't be told 'no' anymore, she started to worry she wasn't going to be ready for the monster that she'd made herself; a part of her hoped.

He'd never gotten her off so fast in their entire relationship and the thought excited him as her toes dug into his shoulder thanks to the involuntary spasm of her strong thigh muscles. The storm was starting to die down around them, the thunder fading into the night as the rain flow weakened. But the storm inside him was just starting to awaken.

He indulged in one last slow lick of her sopping slit before he'd adjusted her thigh and sat back on his haunches. "Alright, let's try this in reverse," he encouraged. "Now you got thirty seconds to put your pants back on before I get brave and fuck you against the side of our house."

It figured she was keener on biting that incentive.

Neirah staggered on rubber legs to where she scooped up her pants and clutched them to her chest. "You animal," she growled ardently. "I can't believe you did that!"

"So you're sayin' you imagined how amazing it was? Because you know I can feel you come undone down there, right?" Laxus grunted as he was stricken with the weight of her soaking wet pyjama pants. He captured the material and lowered it from his head just in time to see his snarky wife display her tongue from her rosy face before she stormed into the house with a naked rump.

"Now every time I hear thunder I'm going to get- UCK! You despicable cretin!"

Laxus winced as she slammed the door and then sighed, but after another moment in the rain, he let a sly grin curl his lips. He'd narrowly managed to survive another all-too-brief encounter. "Kinda the point of association…" He made his way to the door and reached for the handle before he'd noticed she'd fogged up the window with a message. It read 'Bad Dog!'. He didn't even have to jiggle the door handle to suspect it was locked. He sighed and slammed his brow against the door with a low growl. "Guess that's what I get for bein' awesome…"