Converging Sparks

Chapter Twenty-Five

Neirah sighed and sank into her bubble bath. She was soaked and frigid to the bone from her outdoor orgasm, not to mention ready to do just about anything to warm up. She'd slipped into the water until her lips were low enough to blow bubbles in the soothing soak. 'Way too close,' she thought humbly. 'It's never been hard for me to tell him no…' She opened one eye to the sound of the bedroom door clicking shut behind her husband and it wasn't long before he was standing in the doorway glaring down at her.

"That. was a dick move."

Neirah drew her face out of the water with an innocent smile, watching as icy droplets slipped off the tip of his nose. "Oh my, husband, you're soaked."

Laxus growled and knelt by the side of the tub so that she could absorb the full intensity of his gaze. "Wanna tell me why me bein' in charge was such a bad thing? I behaved; clearly, if you were still able to walk up here on your own." He flinched and closed his eyes as she splashed him with warm, sudsy water.

"Jerk."

"Yea, still don't know why though," he sneered.

"It was just weird, that's all," she purred playfully. She took up a handful of bubbles from the large bath as he knelt by the tub side. "Mind over matter, I suppose. It wasn't unpleasant."

"I gathered that much," he instigated upon folding his arms over the edge of her bath. "I'm gonna have to brush my teeth for an hour to get your taste outta my mouth."

Neirah whirled and tossed the white foam of her bubble bath into his face. "Don't be gross!"

He smeared the offence from his face with the back of his forearm. "You are a nightmare."

"My brother warned you," she sang. She flashed him a wicked smile before reaching out to playfully tweak one of his perky nipples. "Cold, daddy?"

"Well, it wasn't exactly warm jumping the fence and walking around the house praying that the front door was still unlocked. Even less fun while trying to do it hidin' the hard-on you left me with."

"Awe," she teased sardonically. "At least you had company."

"You're sick," he growled.

"But you love me," she crooned. She patted the warm water to invite him into the bath with her. "Here, come and let me warm you up."

"Forget warming me up, how about gettin' me off?"

"Well somebody's feeling bold tonight," she crooned.

"It's late, filter's off," he announced while stepping out of his sopping pants. "It's getting harder and harder not to just bend you over. It might help if I had a half-decent sleep schedule to back me up, but I don't."

Neirah purred her approval as she watched her husband step into the bath with her. "Mn," she cooed passionately. "Harder and harder, you don't say?"

Laxus leant forward in the bath and captured her chin, glaring down at her bleakly. "When did you become such a little nympho?"

"Somewhere between the collar and cock ring."

Laxus visibly shivered before letting his seedy gaze wander. "What can I bend you over in a bath?"

"Down boy," she directed sternly. "There will be none of that here."

"Down, you say? I always wondered how long I could hold my breath."

"Don't you dare!"

He cocked a brow, observing her wryly as she covered her bare chest, crossed her legs and flushed humility. "Alright, start talkin'." He closed his eyes to undermine her bewildered expression and leant back against the tub wall. He rested his arms on either edge of the ceramics and tried not to radiate his frustrations. "Why is it cool that I'm forced to be your guinea pig but I get adventurous just once-"

"It's not like that…"

Laxus opened one eye with a dim grunt of acknowledgement. He didn't like the tone of her voice, desperate, shy, hesitant – ultimately irresistible. "Then what's it like?" he pried. "Cause from where I'm sittin' I thought I had a pretty good idea."

Neirah pouted softly and hunched over until she was mostly concealed by warm water. "Well then maybe you're sitting on the wrong side of the bath."

"Is that an invitation?"

Neirah sat back against her own tub side with a curt snort. "If you have to ask then no."

Laxus closed both eyes again with a low grumble of exasperation. "Leave the cold outside, why don't you."

Taking advantage of his distraction, Neirah scooted forwards subtly until she could lean to one side and use his raised knee as a perch for her folded arms. She buried her face in her arms and placed a tender kiss on the joint before laying her cheek against him and sighing. She observed him for a long, quiet moment before stretching one arm until the very tips of her fingers could sweep across the dark ink on his chest. "Do they mean anything?" She twisted her fingers along the lines scrawled over her bulky husband's broad chest. "Your tattoos… I don't think I've ever asked you before."

"You haven't."

Neirah smirked as she was brushed off, his monotonous demeanour unhindered. "So?" she encouraged. "Are you going to tell me or make me guess?"

He opened a single eye once more to silently observe her curious gaze as it roamed. "I'll answer yours when you answer mine." He grunted with the impact of her slap cracking against his bare chest, not that he'd expected anything less.

"Man you make me grumpy sometimes," she chided. "Fine, if you want the truth that bad. I don't like being upstaged."

"Care to elaborate?"

"Frankly, no," she quipped back feistily. "I just can't believe I didn't think about bringing magic into the bedroom before you…"

"Try again."

Neirah made ripples in the water when she flinched at the return of his humble meditation. "Try what?"

"I've been married to you for half a decade," he reminded her bluntly. "I know when you're lying, and I'd bet the truth has somethin' to do with why you're looking at me like I'm a dragon's last meal."

Neirah puffed her humiliated cheeks out in frustration. "Keep up the attitude, Sparky, and you will be! Now stop being a jerk and tell me what the lines mean!"

"Nothing." He let her simmer on a pretentious high for a moment before slowly opening his eyes and looking back at her. "I got them because I thought they looked cool to a seventeen-year-old me – that and the old man told me not to."

Neirah's expression humbled sadly as Makarov found his way back into their conversation. "That really was why you bothered to look my way, wasn't it?"

"Yea, I already said that," he rumbled. "But it's not why I'm still here."

Neirah smiled sadly and rubbed an imaginary chill from her arms. He knew that she wasn't really cold because he could still see the steam rising in their bath. He knew exactly what had gotten into her.

"I know," she reassured. "Now I guess… fair is fair." She raised her gaze back to his, her heart racing faster than it probably should have in such a vanilla moment. She turned and looked his way just in time to catch the smug grin he was trying his hardest to conceal. The tips of her ears boiled with fury. "You conceited brute! You already know!"

Laxus casually shrugged. "Yup. But remember when we first hooked up? It sounds better coming from you."

Neirah growled bitterly as her cocky husband slipped back into relaxation-mode. It gave her a great opportunity to realise that two could play that game.

Laxus was a little surprised when his wife had slipped between his legs just a little too close for him to ignore. He opened his eyes and looked back at her with a slightly more vulnerable expression on his face. His lethargic gaze grew sedated as she tucked her heavy breasts tight to his chest, letting them bulge to form around his chiselled frame. Her soft rump was glistening in the dim bath lighting as she hollowed her back and arched it on display.

"I thought this was what you always wanted?"

Her sweet and seductive drawl forced him to choke back an itchy swallow and slink away from her lusting gaze. Her instant shift in demeanour intimidated him until he was checking his peripherals for new tortuous toys.

"Attention, my heart." Her gentle groan was lusting as she circled his naked thigh underwater with a single fingertip. "You wanted to be everything that turned me on, right?"

He dropped his gaze from the intensity of hers with a trembling sigh. "Yea…"

Neirah slowly reached to one side and encouraged him to drop his knee with the gentle touch of her fingers. Once he'd obeyed, she straddled his lap and dropped her arms around his neck. "I don't know why I didn't see it before… why what I see now makes me feel this way…" He wanted to look away when her passionate gaze met his through the steam of their bath but be it by fear or possession, he couldn't. "I can't ignore it anymore. No, I said that wrong. Before, I didn't think there was anything to ignore. But now, I can't even make you a cup of coffee without imagining what it would be like to have you put me on the counter next to the coffeemaker." She sat back in his lap and gently smoothed her wet fingers over his exposed chest. "You chained yourself to our bed the other night just to avoid breaking our agreement. Well, I locked you out of the house…"

Laxus' expression softened in relief as her intensity subsided, and growing brave, he reached out and slipped his fingers through hair that was only damp halfway down. "I knew you'd like it…"

"I truly am miffed," she ascertained. "I never thought to include electricity in our games, well, aside from when you misbehave."

"That's just as good," he announced quietly. His breathing hitched uncertainly and he ground his teeth, his cautionary gaze dropping to where she'd stared at her own glittering fingertips. "Neirah…"

Her expression softened as she raised her attention from the sparks between her fingers to where her worried husband had begun to tense. She smiled. "Don't worry, it's not an infinite casting," she purred. "Just the boring old regular kind."

Laxus was too busy being uncertain to be insulted that she'd referred to his own element as boring. "Ok," he stammered out weakly. "And what do you intend on doing with it?"

She continued to smile as she reached out and touched her bright fingers to his chest, her beam flashing teeth as his skin quivered hesitantly beneath her touch. "Touch you, of course…" He seemed to settle as she lingered and it allowed her to move her attention to his fixated gaze. "Hmhm, nervous, prince?"

Laxus' gaze cut fiercely to hers. "Don't laugh like that," he warned her sternly. "Mira laughs like that."

"Well Mira is my friend and we spend a lot of time together," she defended. "What's wrong with me adopting her laugh?"

"Because it sounds innocent and it ain't," he scolded. "I don't need to be anticipating you're scheming while the apocalypse has me pinned by my own element."

Neirah snorted softly for her amusement. "I'm not scheming…" She watched her fingers trace lazy circles against his right pectoral. "To anyone else, this might tickle," she started curiously. She watched the dim light of their bath reflect the rise of his skin, but it was no different than the reaction he might have to her simple touch. "But you have a tolerance."

"It'd take a lotta volts to get me to feel something like that," he assured her. A small grin found his lips as he raised his sopping fingers from the water and traced the side of her shoulder with his own golden fingertips. He cut his gaze back to where she moaned, her focus wavering as her body started to tremble. "You, on the other hand, have a much weaker tolerance to elemental magic than those of us who only got one." He cocked his head to one side in silent observance as the backs of his fingers dusted her naked shoulder. "It's the only way I can keep that pretty little ass in line when you get feisty."

"Fair enough," she panted softly. "Then what about this?" Neirah could see the immediate flinch in the lines of his face. Even if he hadn't look down to where gold sparks became violet and dark against his chest, she knew he was feeling the difference. "Ah… so you can feel the subtly in this one…"

"I'm not immune to all of it," he warned her coarsely. "'Specially not the kind that's mixed up with your shadow magic."

Neirah smiled softly as his fingers against her skin fumbled. "Don't worry, I'll be gentle," she cooed sardonically. "This isn't about revenge." She could understand why it had made him nervous. She'd only ever used her combination magic to punish him. "So? What does it feel like?"

"Kind of question's that?"

"The curious kind," she sang.

He took a deep breath and tilted his head to let her fingers rise to the side of his neck. "Probably like what my lightning feels like to the rest of you…"

"Probably?" she sassed. "Does it hurt?"

He shuddered for a moment as her glittering finger slipped behind his ear before sliding back towards his nape, then he shook his head. "No…" he muttered roughly. "It just feels… different…"

Neirah's heart rate accelerated to think that she'd stumbled upon a sensation that he'd never experienced before. As a lightning wizard, he'd probably never succumbed to the feeling. He was only used to emitting it; never on the receiving end. She sucked on her bottom lip as the glow at her fingertips brightened, stray sparks leaping from her fingers to dance against his bare, semi-conductive skin of their own venture. "What about this?" she whispered tenderly.

His gaze narrowed as his breathing became consciously laboured with uncertainty and intrigue. "Fuck, Neirah…"

She ignored the warning tone in his voice as she drew her second hand to his body and let it spark with the same intensity. "Does it hurt?" she repeated.

It was strange, her fingers were hot against his skin hotter than usual, but he was catching chills from the sensation. Not below her touch, but in every muscle from tip to curling toe. He adjusted warily in the water, unsure of how to process the mix of anxiety and arousal spiking in his core. But despite his distress, he'd found himself compulsively exposing more skin to her wandering embrace. He met her gaze but barely observed its reflection beneath weighted eyelids as he looked back. "No..."

The bath filled with a mingling of soft gold and violet glows competing with the dim flicker of the candle on the tub ledge as Laxus pushed forwards and stole a kiss. He slipped his ignited finger back into her hair, swallowing her guttural moans as her scalp started to tingle. His arousal saw the snaking strands crawl so far as his elbows, but she was no more in control. She splayed her lustrous palms flat against his strong chest, radiant indigo surges sputtering to life as she snuck her touch back around his nape.

From there, Neirah's breathless face flushed hotly as she moved her gleaming touch to where she could cup his chin. "I find it hard to believe… how close time has brought us…" She diverted her gaze from where her vulnerable husband was trying to process the feeling of gentle static for the first time. Despite his articulation, she could tell it had riled his senses with the pressure of his stirring cock against her belly. "I would never have thought in a million years I would have the mighty Laxus Dreyar wrapped right around my finger."

He didn't take his gaze off hers as he slowly turned into her palm and kissed her wedding band, letting their multicoloured neon threads mingle. "Has it really been a million years already?"

Neirah smiled over the chomp she laid on her lower lip. "Wanna do something corny?" she whispered playfully.

His expression didn't become any less lusting as he leant into her approach. "I am the king of corny."

Neirah narrowly withheld the need she had to announce that maybe he was running second to her brother for that particular title. Instead, she reached down and linked her sparking fingers with his, drawing them out of the water. "Wanna make sparks with me?"

Laxus' chest ached for the exhilaration her innocence had brought as she beamed back at him with a bashful grin. "The saying is about makin' sparks fly," he corrected hoarsely. His fingers ignited in gentle golden static as he laced them with hers, holding both her tiny hands in his as the ripples glowed beneath the embrace like a bath time rave.

"I see I'm just about as good with lightning analogies as I am with apple ones," she purred whimsically. She traced his lower lip with her thumb as she melted into his embrace. "Whatever would I do without you to educate me on how to be so cliché?"

His grin grew crooked as he looked down at her, observing every trembling twinge as he slipped the charged backs of his fingers slowly up her spine from her tailbone to her shoulders. "Say what you want, sweetheart. I've never done this kinda thing before."

Neirah arched into his chest and drew her lips to his in the fluorescent violet glow of her touch. "Do you enjoy it?"

Laxus reciprocated by leaning into her pending kiss and tracing her soft jawline with the current. "I don't wanna stop."

Neirah's thick lashes batted her intoxication as she waited for him to advance on her and claim his kiss, but to her dismay, he didn't. "Then touch me where it matters," she challenged. She closed her eyes and captured one of his palms, moaning gently to the feeling of his touch skirting her naked bust.

She closed her eyes and just relished in the rapture she felt in his arms. "It's getting harder for me to keep from breaking," she whispered breathlessly. "All our games… I don't know if I can go back to the way things were. Everything I was trying to accomplish… It's right here… in my… arms…"

"You thought I was the only one who would need to resist it, huh?"

She nodded meekly before gazing back up at him desperately. "I was so wrong…"

"I should record that for your brother. Restore his faith in a woman's ability to admit it."

She smiled shrewdly. "Not something you say to a woman with the power to cripple you with pleasure and pain…" Neirah's eyes fluttered shut in bliss when he connected their lips, both of their nerves tingling with their unique touches as they indulged in the taste of each other's kiss.

When he finally slipped away from her, he was fighting to restrain himself from pushing any further into the moment. "I hope we get there together," he murmured quietly. "When one of us finally snaps, I hope the other's right on their tail…"

"Oh please, Laxus, don't talk as though you aren't going to be the first to break."

Laxus' gaze narrowed as he nuzzled into his wife's mischievous expression. "That so?"

"You know it's true."

"That sounds like a challenge." His expression lit up as his wife outwardly groaned. "What? Afraid I might be right?"

"I don't want to wait anymore," she begged. "I shouldn't… I shouldn't have teased myself with it."

"Mn, I knew I'd get you hooked," he groaned passionately. "Tell me you can't resist me."

"Don't get cocky," she pouted crossly. "I don't think either of us could have expected this the first time we slept together."

Laxus' smile humbled tenderly. "I don't think either of us anticipated what's sleeping in the room down the hall either…"

Neirah's face ignited with bashful heat as she melted into the touch that stroked her face. "No regrets," she whispered blissfully.

"Me neither…" He took his wife's small face between his hands and drew her fleeting attention back to his lips. "Now just… kiss me for a minute…"

Neirah's expression weakened to the moment that felt far too surreal for her liking. In an instant, she was filled with dread and before his lips could meet hers, she'd drawn a lean finger to his lips and halted his advance. For a moment, she just stared back into the tender perplexity in his expression. It was the way he looked at her, the way his body tightened against hers with restrained emotions. He was a bottled hurricane and watching the passionate storm flash in his gaze wounded her. She thought that holding back would tempt him to release the brewing pressure, but she worried that maybe all she was doing was training him against such relief.

"Is this going to work?"

Laxus wanted to lash out and throw his bright fist into the tiles at his back, but blinking sufficed. "My brain's been in overdrive for a month so you'd better do better than that."

Her gaze darkened as clouds of concern rolled in. "Are you ever going to love me like I know you need?"

"When you say love, you really mean fuck, right?"

"Come on to me."

Laxus flinched as she took his jaw between her fingers and kept him still against her words. "What-?"

"You heard me, dragon slayer," she challenged. "I'm giving you a little rein. If you want to kiss me, kiss me."

He eyed her suspiciously before he took in the sight of how her wet skin glistened in the dim light. Before he knew it, he was giving her a thorough once over capable of making his chest eagerly ache. "But what…"

"Oh god," she announced desperately. "See, this is exactly what I was worried about." Neirah caught her breath as he snatched her flailing wrist and drew her back down into his lap with a conspicuous disbursement of water around them. She looked up into his intimidatingly stern gaze as she tried not to hold her breath.

"What if I can't stop…?" He watched his startled wife ponder his implications nervously. "We're so hot on each other right now that if we start somethin'… how do we know-"

Neirah melted into his arms and merged with the water of their bath so he couldn't restrain her. She ignored his bitter curses and swept through the bathroom before reaching into their bedroom doorway and snagging his collar from the top of their dresser. She returned to his side with a timid smile, offering him the rough leather strap. "Do you think this will help to remind you to bring it back when your master calls?"

Laxus observed her thumb work over the article carefully before offering it in front of her.

"I just… want to make sure…" She caught her breath gently as he interrupted her by taking the collar and wrapping it around his neck.

He closed his eyes and listened to the buckle clatter until his airway had grown slightly restricted beneath its pressure. "There. If nothing else, if I get outta hand all you gotta do is put about a thousand volts of that freaky hybrid lightning through this loop and that should get me to back off a bit."

Neirah cocked a brow with a playful grin as he batted at the conductive loop against his throat. "A bit?"

He shrugged playfully. "I'm durable. You're not what you used to be."

Neirah sighed contentment and swept through the water, hooking her index finger in the loop of his collar to draw him alertly into her presence. "Hmn, a darker side of me feels compelled to test that theory." She whispered her delight as she pressed her lips to his neck, nibbling on his jaw with her breasts smothered beneath his mass. "My, you still put off a lot of heat for a lightning wizard." Laxus winced in check as she brushed soft fingertips over his chest and slipped her tongue over a dark nipple. "I was worried when my poor puppy was left in the rain."

He glared down his nose at her as her tongue flirted with his pulse. "You were the one that left him there."

"Nonsense, that would be animal cruelty." She drew away and looked back at him confidently from beneath dark lashes. "And I love my pet so very much…"

"Careful 'cause he's just about ready to bite."

"Dog says what?"

Laxus snapped his teeth together and nearly growled his quiet return. "Woof…" His blood boiled as he watched his tiny wife raise her hand to her ear like the dragoness couldn't hear his first attempt.

"I'm sorry, dog says-"

Neirah shrilly cried her alarm as she was pounced, the swift action of the behemoth before her throwing her back into the tub enough to send warm water sloshing over the ledges. She winced when she'd heard the crack of his palm being crushed to save her the blow of her skull against the ceramics, but he didn't once break stride. Instead, before she could articulate her concern, his lips were hovering over her ear and placing his breathy whisper tightly against it. "Woof…" he repeated in a soft rasp.

In the following instant, he was covering her lips in a passionate, domineering kiss. She'd tried to catch her breath first, breaking his possessive kiss for a single moment to inhale with a whimper, but he'd managed to use the desperate gesture against her. He swept his thick tongue along the inside of her mouth, tasting every surface from her teeth to her cheek. It made the woman's toes curl against his thigh. She took a quiet moment to enjoy his passion before she decided that she would return it with full, guilty force.

Laxus could instantly feel the ignition of violet sparks against his back, the burning tingle traversing his shoulders towards his neck. His core tightened in blissful agony when she finally jerked on the hair standing on end at his nape, the usually alluring sensation becoming more passionately explicit than he'd ever thought the simple gesture could. He was just as surprised as she was when he'd had to back away from where he was devouring her timid little mouth, his gaze wide and out of focus as he watched the delicate ripples in the water reflecting the glittering violet serpents creeping over his shoulders.

His gaze narrowed as he ground his molars to the feeling of her impatient lick coating his chin with her taste. He couldn't contain the hungry growl catching in the back of his throat as he returned his dipped attention to his writhing water nymph. After a moment of returned fervour, he decided that if she wasn't going to hold back, he wouldn't exhaust the effort either.

The tension bled out of his strong back the moment she'd moaned into their kiss. The heavy palm to inspire her enthusiasm sank strong fingers into her soft caramel breasts, her eagerly erect nipple clamped between charged fingertips. It had been a while since they'd just spent their energy in a lengthy and exhausting kiss; so long that he'd forgotten how much he missed it.

Neirah soon broke the rapture to toss her head back into the static weaving through damp auburn tresses in order to pant his name. Instead of responding, he lowered his attention to the perky mound he'd kneaded and decided that he'd taste the flesh he'd stirred with his touch. He was not disappointed with her lusting reaction, and neither were his hindquarters as they suffered beneath the charged dig of her petite nails.

It had felt good to have her beneath him again, better than he'd remembered it. It had been a long time since he'd just held her possessively in his arms while he drank in her exotic presence. Maybe it was nice to have a taste of the way a powerful woman rocked his world, but there was something intoxicating about the way his whined his name in hushed tones that were incapable of disturbing their son.

He felt his grip on her tighten. Usually, he'd bear the tension in the rest of his body, but between the relaxing bath and the way she encouraged submission to his unhindered passion, he was starting to accept her theory. She was a dragon; a dragon capable of collaring him and drawing a bark from his lips on command. It wasn't about fear or protective instinct anymore. It was about trust. Of course, he didn't want to be the hand to hurt her, but he had to believe in her like the day he'd let her chase after the kingdom's deadliest calamity. He had to trust her like the day he'd given her his heart.

Neirah's eyes flew open when he stopped kissing her breast. He lingered for the briefest of moments with hesitancy before parting his jaws and clamping down on the meat of the luscious mound. Her fingers started to tremble like the electricity dancing between the nails sinking into his skin to bear the welcome pain. She wanted to scream, cry. She couldn't believe that he was holding her without tension in the chiselled lines of his body. He was guiltlessly indulging, and she wanted to let him know that she liked it.

She drew one hand to the back of his head, gripped a fistful of hair and jerked his ear towards her lips all the while trying not to moan intoxication as his pleasured groan seeped into her senses. "Don't stop," she whimpered helplessly. A jumble of thoughts bounced around in her head, every one of them fighting to escape. In the end, her words were in disarray as they entwined together to form her staggering reply. "You're everything I need…"

He wasn't sure how he was supposed to take her comment, literally, figuratively. But he was far from interpreting. He'd simply acted in response and raked his sparking embrace beneath the water's surface, tense fingers clawing their way down her spine so fervently that she could feel the itch of his trimmed nails scratching her soft skin. His palm flattened at her tailbone, his fingers tight in the flesh of her haunches as he pulled her towards his body to feel their heat connect. It was the first time he'd ever held her without the fear of her diminutive figure breaking. If just for a moment, greed overcame him and nothing else mattered but how good she felt against his body.

He encouraged her dainty dancer's feet to wrap around his hips, intertwining their presences from tongue to toe. He could feel the pain of her charge increase with the dig of her nails but he didn't let up. Maybe it was dangerous to let his mind empty, maybe he would have to be knocked out by her officious force for losing his head, but the way she breathed venom into his blood with breathless words and a tongue smoothing the toxin between every channel of his ear, he couldn't bring himself to comprehend surrender. She wanted it just as bad as he did.

She was trapped beneath him, her thighs wide as his throbbing member rocked smoothly against their joint. All it would take was a modest adjustment to see her ploughed beneath his passion and his ragged breathing was incomprehensible to his own senses. She had stolen them all. Her sakura scented locks in his face as he clamped his teeth onto her earlobe and tugged masked the scent of sweat in the dark bath. The taste of her skin, her soft mouth as he explored it, banished the salty tang of the same perspiration. The sound of her quiet moans filling his senses as she breathed his name against his temple was setting fire to his blood as it mingled with the noxious encouragement she'd preached. Just when he thought anymore rapture would see him feral with lust, he'd heard the gentlest command whispered against his ear; and no matter how sweet and captivating that musical voice sounded breathing it against his skin, he obeyed in the instant it seeped into his senses.

"Stop."

It had frightened him, how mechanical and precise his obedience came. All of a sudden, the tension returned in his body until the pressure made him feel like every muscle was bound to burst for the derailment of his ambitions. He stared vacantly into her shoulder, watching the golden wings of her guild mark heave on her chest with the racing of her heart beneath. It was then that he'd realised he'd panted his mouth parched and he set his tongue to the task of wetting it behind his teeth. He slowly loosened his grip on her, setting back on his haunches to the hollow jingling of the ring on his collar. And just like that, his mind was racing with a wash of emotions and sensations that had abandoned him moments before.

Neirah was exhausted, but she was quick to approach her wary husband and take his face firmly in her hands. As soon as she had attracted his attention, she smiled back at him proudly. "Baby steps," she sang in delight. Her tender gaze beamed radiantly and she stroked his face and placed a tender kiss on his lips. "You let go..."

He raised his hesitant gaze to hers, watching glassy sapphires tremble before his tired eyes. "I… did…"

She squealed softly and threw her arms around him, clutching him tightly to her naked body. She snuggled into his neck as he slowly raised his trembling palm to encase her lower back. "How did it feel?"

Laxus' brow creased as he held his grip still against her spine, his expression dimming suspiciously. Normally, his first instinct would be to ask her if he'd gone too far; if she was hurt. But trust saw him uncover the truth before she could announce it. "You're burning up," he muttered grimly. He pulled out of her embrace, his expression dropping with his concern as wide eyes carefully watched her startled response. "No… no way…" His expression darkened with tender vexation. "You're dry…"

Neirah watched him with sad eyes over her timid smile. "H-how... how did you know…?" she whispered feebly. "My eyes don't show it anymore."

He slowly shook his head and raised his fingers out of the water to touch her face between them. "You're wrong," he whispered tenderly.

She smiled and buried her face into one of his large palms. "It's ok. I'm not completely out. I'll sleep it off…"

"See… This is the kinda crap I was talkin' about…"

"Laxus, please… don't worry about it. I've never been really great at combining the elements." She giggled and removed his doting touch from her face. "I don't even need my magic anymore. It won us peace. And besides, I've got my big strong husband to protect me."

Laxus sighed and rewrapped his arms around his shuddering bride. "You shouldn't treat it like a utility," he cautioned. "We might not always have it so easy… You know you're still prone to getting sick in this- well… like this…" He drew her close to him like he could protect her from her own over-exertion. "It wouldn't hurt to keep in shape a little while Alex and I are at the guild."

Neirah smiled and quietly stuck her tongue out at him. "I'm the master. I give the orders."

"You're the master of our bed. I'm the master of your guild."

Neirah purred and hugged his arms around her trim figure like he was a scarf. "Mn, yes you are."

His expression grew tender with concern as he bowed to place his whisper soft kiss on her shoulder blade. "I'm just worried that's all-"

"Dog says what?"

"I'm serious, Neirah-"

"Dog. says. what?"

Laxus couldn't help but grin as he smothered his face in the crook of her neck and nipped at her skin with playful fervour. "Woof…" He raised his anxious love bites to her ear and feathered kisses over her sensitive skin. "Woof, damn it."

Neirah squirmed with delight in the centre of the tub. She didn't even have the opportunity to command a repeat. "Who's my good boy?!" she swooned.

"I am," he groaned energetically.

Neirah slipped around her bulky husband and draped her arms around his shoulders, letting him hold them as she dotted his nape with tender kisses. "Mn, you make a momma dragon proud, daddy."

Laxus' expression warmed genuinely as he watched his fingers spin her wedding band around her tiny paw. "Like I said, I'm a lucky man," he murmured softly.

"I told you you'd come back to me," she whispered sweetly against his shoulder. "Everybody makes mistakes… you learned from yours…"

He drew her fingertips to his lips for a gentle kiss. He could still feel the excitement festering beneath his skin. He didn't think he would ever miss something so simplistic; a single unrestrained passionate embrace. It was so thoroughly pleasurable that he was second-guessing the need to bend her over the tub ledge with sexual frustration. That one deep kiss had sated him more than a whole night of love-making and he couldn't help but imagine what a whole night would be like free of all physical and mental binds.

He closed his eyes and tipped his head to one side with a smug grin as his darling wife started to nibble on his collar, gently working her tongue between the coarse pinch of the hide and his skin.

"Can I say I told you so yet?" she purred playfully.

He slowly shook his head. "Not yet… soon though…"

She smiled at his silent promise and finished her teasing with a gentle kiss on the top of his spine. "Well, how about this. While I'm back here, I'll wash your back." She giggled mischievously. "You know because trying to do it yourself with all those muscles in the way must be torture."

"I can swim just fine I'll have you know," he chided bleakly.

"Suuure you can, Sparky."

He swung around and captured the yipping shrew in his thick arms. "Listen here, woman," he scolded. "How many times am I gonna tell you to quit callin' me that? It's annoying."

"Eek," she articulated mockingly. "Somebody please halp! The evil monster's got me again!" She feigned a damsel and flopped backwards until her crown touched the water's surface, leaving her draped over his strong forearm with the back of her hand to her own brow as she played dead.

Laxus' smile was humble as he hunched over her lean figure and nuzzled into her joyful expression. "Knock it off, you're gonna wake up our son…"

Neirah's expression grew just as maternal as she combed her fingers through his damp hair. "I will, won't I?"

Laxus surrendered to his urge to kiss her smile and did so with a tender thirst. Afterwards, his weak words were gentle against her swollen pout. "Soon," he promised once more.

"Soon," she gently concurred.