"I never knew what lovestruck meant until I met you."

"The 'Love Slider'? You've gotta be kidding me."

An enormous building towered above us, with twisting marble columns and colossal stone arches. Circuitous stairs curled about the edifice, wrapping around the structure and up to the top, where a small line was gathered. Heart-shaped gates were spaced at uneven intervals, each dressed in a repulsive set of pink draperies. Plump cherubim stared down at us from the top, plaster smiles etched onto their faces in a way that almost made the statues seem eerie. Written above in swirling flamingo script were the words 'Love Slider', each letter curling into the next so that the words sort of ran together in a way that was equal parts ridiculous and appalling.

Laxus folded his arms. "It's the closest ride."

"But it's called the Love Slider." I repeated.

"Oh, excuse me, would you rather hop on a kiddie ride instead?" He retorted. "Let me go get your floaties."

"Oh shut up. I'll ride damn thing."

He chuckled, and I charged up the stairs, Laxus in my wake. We reached the top, stepped through several mold, mildew, and rose scented curtains, and arrived at the ride. I peered down a twisting slide, just wide enough for two individuals to ride – if they sat on top of one another.

"No way."

Laxus was grinning.

I repeated myself, "No way in hell."

"What, you scared?

"I am not scared," I retorted.

"Prove it."

A growl rumbled from my throat, and, with a bitter glare, I took a step forward.

"Alright; I will. We take it one at a time though."

"Fine with me," Laxus said, and paused. "Unless, of course, you'd like to ride in my lap. Personally I wouldn't have a problem with—"

"Oh shut up already."

I adjusted my bathing suit, but before I could get any closer to the slide, I heard Juvia's fruity voice and stopped.

"My Darling, let's ride the Love Slider together!"

She tugged greedily at the object of her affection as she, Gray, and another mage appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

"No, Juvia, ride with me," The silver haired man from Lamia Scale interjected. Levi? Leo? Lion? Something like that.

The small group walked past us, cutting in front to reach the slide. Juvia was oblivious to our presence, as was Liam, or whoever he was. The only one who noticed us was Gray, who paused to give Laxus and I a funny look before turning back around to face his companions.

Laxus must've stepped forward a bit, because now he stood at my side. We were dangerously close to the three other mages, watching it all play out.

"Gray, Darling, come on, try with me!" Juvia was begging, her tone almost a whimper as she tugged at Gray's arm, and I was about to laugh, until I heard a bellowing shout to my left.

"MOOOVE!"

I barely had time to turn my head before Natsu, the human missile, collided with Gray and Lorenzo (what was his name?), who proceeded to crash into me. I screamed as I felt my body fly, and my arms flailed, latching onto the closest object in an attempt to stop myself. Laxus shouted in surprise as we went careening onto the LoveLoveSlider. Together.

Laxus managed to land in my lap. Somehow, someway, he managed to crash straight down on top of me, her rear crushing my thighs as we flew down the slide. I struggled in gasps, writhing under him.

"You fatass!" I exclaimed.

"What do you mean fatass?!"

"You're crushing me!"

"Well then move and I'll get off!"

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to move?! It's like I've got an elephant sitting on top of me!"

"Oh seriously, Alexandria, will you just—"

He froze midway through his sentence, his complexion draining of color and a stray hand flying to his mouth. I blanched.

"No," I blurted. "Oh no. Laxus I swear if you puke I'll kill you!" My hands landed on his hips, and I tried in vain to force the man away from me. His face turned green as we continued to speed around the slide.

He gritted his teeth. "I… didn't think… I'd get sick… on a ride…" His arms fell away from me and found his mouth. He almost fell off the ride. I had to tighten my grip around him so he wouldn't crash to the ground.

"Keep your mouth shut!"

"I…"

I was seriously debating throwing him off the edge and sparing myself a face full of vomit when we came to an abrupt stop, and froze. Literally. Every drop of liquid around us splashed upward, and encased is in a large chunk of ice.

Laxus looked as surprised as I, but neither of us could've prepared for the shock that came as we watched Natsu soar through the air above our ice dome, his fists alight and flailing. I tried to move my mouth, or to conjure up even a small amount of magic to stop him, but I was too late. Nothing could stop Natsu.

He hit the ice and the world exploded. Blues and reds and blacks and whites everywhere. My body flew through the air, and I watched the world spin around me, as if I was on some kind of carousel. At one point the thought crossed my mind that I should scream, but I didn't. I watched the world. Everything seemed slow. Slow fly. Slow fall. Slow crash. And suddenly – colors everywhere. At another point it registered that someone was holding me – no, constricting me. A python wrapped round my body, squeezing tight. Someone was shouting.

I hit the ground, but I didn't hit hard like I'd expected. Something cushioned my fall. It turned out to be a someone, and he lay groaning in pain beneath me. My back was flush against his chest, and for a moment I lay there, my eyes open wide and darting around, and the air missing from my lungs. I rolled off, landing beside Laxus. He peeled open his eyes, released another groan, and turned his head. His eyes found me. His body seemed to relax, and he almost sank into the ground, closing his eyes again with a sigh.

After what seemed like hours, but could've only been a couple of seconds, Laxus rose. I grabbed onto the hand he extended, and he pulled me up. I was tempted to tell him that I could manage on my own, but swallowed my pride and offered a mumbled 'thanks'. He seemed to hear, because he nodded his head.

Laxus trotted off, brushing as much dust as he could off of his body, and I trailed behind him. After clambering over several boulders and overturned rides, Laxus turned.

"You're bleeding."

I pressed a hand to my temple, acknowledging the damage before even realizing that it was there. He reached down beside me, producing a rust colored towel covered in a fine layer of dust. Laxus smacked it against his leg. Once. Twice. My hair was brushed aside as he pressed the cloth to the side of my head.

I offered a gracious smile, "Thank you."

He nodded, and I cradled the towel to my temple as we continued our trek through the rubble.

It took him approximately one minute to find Natsu and Gray. In approximately two they hung by their shirt collars in Laxus' arms. Within three, Makarov had been informed of Fairy Tail's accountability for the destruction of the water park, and he and Mavis hung their heads in despair.

Luckily, no one was harmed in the chaos, save for a few scrapes and bruises, which were easily treated. I sat on an overturned boulder and watched as everyone filed out. Some workers stayed behind to clean up the rubble, but I knew they'd be going home soon too. Loud muttering echoed from their direction, and I could hear half-whispered curses streaming from their mouths whenever they passed me by. Laxus was cleaning too, as were Gray and Natsu, who'd he'd forced to stay behind and help.

Eventually I got up as well, and I attempted to shift some of the rubble out of the way. An employee handed me a broom, and I swept and swept and swept. I was sweeping a particularly stubborn bit of rock when Mavis materialized beside me. I almost jumped when I saw her.

"Mavis!"

"Hey, Alexandria!"

I paused, my lips lifting in a half smile as she beamed at me. Then I spoke, "Why're you here?"

"Well, I saw you sweeping, and you looked—I don't know—I suppose you just looked lonely, and so I had to come over here to see you."

"Huh," I said and returned to my sweeping. She folded her arms just as I started working on the rocks around our feet. I could practically hear her pouting.

"So I've been meaning to ask you…"

I glanced up, "What?"

"Well I've been meaning to ask you a lot of things, actually."

And so she launched into speech, firing more questions than my brain could process at once. What is your favorite song? Do you believe in luck? If you could go anywhere where would you go? Have you ever been arrested? Who was the last person you held hands with? Why are-

I set down the broom and placed my hands on Mavis' shoulders. Her mouth snapped shut, and I smiled softly.

"Woah there, tiger, one question at a time," I said, laughing. "You can't possibly expect me to answer all of those things at once."

She spoke again, "Are you in love with Laxus?"

I blinked, and I must've been silent for a while because she repeated her question. "Are you in love with Laxus Dreyar?"

It took me a moment, but finally my brain cleared, and the moment it did I burst into laughter. Obviously, this confused Mavis, but I couldn't compose myself, and I didn't know what else to do with her question. So I laughed, hard, though I still don't know if I found her question funny.

I wiped my eyes and spoke again, "Mavis, Laxus is a part of my family, so of course I love him."

"That's not what I meant and you know it, Xandria."

"Well that's my answer, Mavis," I retorted. "Laxus is my family. You're part of my family. I love him. I love you. End of story."

She pursued her lips and narrowed her eyes a bit. I moved to pick up my broom, then I heard her voice.

"You're afraid, Alexandria."

"What?"

"I said you're afraid."

"Mavis, why would you say something like that?"

"Because you've got that look," She said, so innocently that I felt a piece of my heart melt. "You want to say something else, but you can't. You're angry and sad and scared of rejection. I've seen that look before," Mavis stated. "I've had that look before."

"Mavis—"

I didn't have time to ask her what she meant or tell her that I, Alexandria Douglais, was not afraid of being rejected by Laxus Dreyar, before the two of us were interrupted. Laxus himself appeared, covered in dirt and gleaming with sweat, his coat in hand. His gaze flickered back and forth between me and Mavis, before he settled on just nodding in my direction.

"Ready to go?" He asked, and I quirked a brow.

"We're leaving together?"

"Would you rather walk back to the inn alone?"

Regardless of the pointed look Mavis gave me, I knew that Laxus had a good point, and so I gave a half-hearted goodbye to the girl before I began to walk away with him. I barely heard her voice as I was exiting, but the words still managed to reach me.

"Alexandria, you deserve to be happy."

And I knew I did, and I was. I had my friends and Fairy Tail. Mavis was wrong about me being scared, but she was right about me running away from my feelings. I'd loved someone else once, but Azuma was lifetimes ago, and he was dead because of me. They were all gone. If they hadn't died, they were probably worlds away, and I would never see them again.

Laxus and I didn't love each other, not the way she wanted us to. We couldn't. I was erratic and eccentric and effervescent—a slave to my freedom, ever intoxicated by the idea of independence. I ran away from every problem and avoided that which I could not face. I'd never admit it, but I had commitment issues, and the idea of a relationship spooked me a little bit.

Laxus was gruff and cold and distant. He was a soldier who smelled of fear and blood, dust and fire—a battlefield littered with heartache. He thought everything he saw was his to conquer. Laxus was a supernova—amorphous, ethereal, and incandescent.

Maybe Mavis was right. I was scared he would blind me. Or burn me. I knew he would, but still I could not turn away.

"You're shivering."

Laxus' voice pulled me from my thoughts, and I blinked as he came into focus. Laxus was right. I was shivering, but my cheeks felt warm.

"Oh, weird."

He draped his coat over my shoulders, and I could feel his eyes burning holes into me as we turned down a side street. "What were you thinking about?"

I swallowed. "Just… stuff. Mavis was being really pushy with the questions."

"Funny, she did the same exact thing with me."

We were both silent for a solid minute after his words, until I laughed and broke the awkward tension between us.

"I think she wants us to get together," I blurted. "You know, she even asked me if I loved you. Can you believe it?"

"That's weird." He paused, as if he couldn't believe it, and then said: "So what'd you say?"

Obviously he was joking, so I laughed and said no, but when I stole a glance at his face he almost looked hurt. I was shocked, and my feet came to a halt in the street.

"What?"

"Nothing," He grunted, continuing his pace. I rooted myself to my spot on the cobbles, and after a moment he had no choice but the stop, or to leave me behind. Laxus chose to stop.

"You didn't obviously expect me to tell her yes, did you? You know what she meant by it."

"No, but I-"

My breath caught in my throat, realization dawning across my features. "Wait… You didn't say you—"

His words were rushed when they came out. "What? No. Of course not." He walked to me, standing mere inches away from me.

"Good."

"Good," He echoed.

"Gods, we're such idiots, aren't we?" I said, and suddenly I laughed. Really laughed. Unadultered, Uncontrollable, real, wild laughter. Tears formed in my eyes, and suddenly he was laughing too. His laugh was warm, and I could almost imagine it leaping right out of his chest and into the warm velvet air. I didn't know for sure what we were laughing at, but I knew for a fact that it was funny, and I knew for a fact that he was laughing too, and that was all that really mattered then.

I was still chuckling when I leaned my head against his bare chest, and I could only imagine how ridiculous we looked, which only made me laugh even harder. We stayed like that, him in his lightning bolt swim trunks and I in my navy blue bikini, my shoulders draped in a fur-lined coat – both of us laughing. It was late, already past midnight.

"We're ridiculous, aren't we?"

He nodded and placed an arm over my shoulders.

"We are."

And we walked back to the lodge like that, drunk on the night.