Chapter 34

Gajeel's room was still a mess, his clothes strewn about now, ruining what Pantherlily had done to straighten up while he was away for so long. He stared at himself in the full length mirror, cracked at the bottom. Biting his lip, Gajeel took in all there was-he was still rather frail, at least in his eyes. Though he did lose a concerning amount of weight and muscle, he'd slowly gain it back as he'd gain the strength to eat as he did, and eventually return to eating iron the way he normally would. His magic was back, not fully at all, but somewhat. Gajeel placed fingers on his cheek, thankful that he wasn't so pale anymore, but he frowned. He was noticeably weak.

He wanted to keep hiding, but he knew he couldn't stay home anymore. Gajeel made a promise he'd return to the guild today, after all, and he was certain he had others there expecting him. He sighed, covering the mirror back up with a sheet and throwing on clothes.

Baggy clothes. Thankfully it was much cooler out.

Opening the bedroom door, Gajeel bumped into his boyfriend. He jumped, somewhat started but Laxus only smiled.

"That's…my sweatshirt."

"The hell are you-" Gajeel stopped, frozen where he stood as he stared up at him in horror. Was he stupid? Was he seriously going to waltz into the guild with Laxus' shirt on? Of course he wasn't thinking about hiding their relationship, after everything that had happened he'd completely forgotten. Quickly, Gajeel moved to remove the sweater, but found his arms held down by the other's hands.

"Laxus?"

"It's fine."

"N-no?" Gajeel stutters, pulling back, "Hell no it's no-"

"Yes." Laxus steps forward, following him into the room and places his hands on his face. They rest on his cheeks, and the lightning mage gives him a rather serious expression, "Yes it is. It's okay."

Gajeel furrowed his brows, his hands reaching up for Laxus', "...He's gonna pick up on your scent," he speaks quietly, "I don't wear your clothes at the guild for that reason-"

"If Natsu were smart, he would've picked it up a while ago, Gajeel." Laxus tilted his head, "We've had sex before and we had sex yesterday. You wearing my sweater…I haven't worn in months? Doesn't matter, not if you're worried about the other slayers pickin' up on my scent. And if anyone at the guild has anything to say about what you're wearing…?"

Gajeel's eyes widened, his body tense as he hid the shiver in his spine. Laxus muttering in his ear was intense but very sweet. But to be left with butterflies in his stomach like this? He felt like a teenager with a dumb high school crush. Gajeel clicked his tongue, turning away from Laxus before being pulled by the smirking man out of his bedroom.

The walk felt way too short, when it would have otherwise been quite long as he never did enjoy taking the bus. Laxus and Pantherlily seemed to have a lovely chat, he noticed, while he stayed silent, often looking away from the other. There was guilt, as there had always been, for ignoring Laxus. He wanted to wrap himself around Laxus' stupid giant arms. Why the hell are they so big? Why's he so big? What god gave him those genes, huh?

He's staring at him. He couldn't help it. The light from the sun shined on his face and his body perfectly. Laxus' stupid face was chiseled, smooth and perfect. Gajeel had his time with Laxus yesterday, but he wanted him again now. He wanted to stop him and kiss him in the middle of the square in front of everyone.

What a sight that would be.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Gajeel whipped his head away again. Laxus pushed him forward.

"Talk to me, dumbass."

"I said nothin', asshole!"

The guild was before them, more imposing than ever. It was as though the breeze had ceased, and the sun beamed on Gajeel burning him alive in Laxus' stupid sweater, but he wouldn't dare take it off, nervous as he was. He couldn't believe he was nervous to return to his guild, see his friends again. Quietly, Gajeel exhaled, but stopped as he saw through the open doors a colorful welcome banner.

Fairy Tail…was as loud as ever.

"WELCOME BACK, GAJEEL!" They cheered, they hollered, and good god did they scream. Gajeel stood in bewilderment before turning to Laxus, who was also frozen in shock.

"What the hell…is this?" the iron dragon stammered to his partner.

"...Mira." Laxus lowered his head, eyeing the barmaid. She smiled, waiving at the two as she quickly made her way towards them with drinks.

"Gajeel!" She greeted him, "Good to see you well again!"

She'd be soon followed by her siblings, as well as Juvia and Cana…and the rest of the guild. The three of them were pulled in, and Gajeel tried to greet Levy as normal as possible as he found himself being separated from Laxus again. He glanced back at him, seeing that he was pulled away by Freed.

"Gajeel-kun!" Juvia perched at Team Shadowgear's table, Cana close behind, "Juvia missed you! Oh she was so worried!"

"I-yeah-"

"Glad you didn't come back tomorrow," Cana sat beside her with multiple glasses-and a whole bottle of-champagne, "You'd have messed up our anniversary date."

"A-anniversary…date…?" Gajeel stutters under his breath as he processed what Cana had just said. Aloud. In front of Levy and her goons, no doubt the other guild mates sitting nearby heard them, he thought to himself. He did remember, of course, Cana speaking about her and Juvia's upcoming anniversary. They'd been dating quietly for a long time, and now it would be a year since they became official.

Juvia told Gajeel immediately. Something he felt bad about when he would find himself with Laxus, and find himself unable to tell her about his own secret relationship. He was thankful that Juvia seemed unoffended when she did find out, but Gajeel knew he probably should have at least come clean to her properly. He hadn't even told his exceed, how ashamed he was.

And now they're out, to everyone, comfortably. It went…smoothly? Did Gildarts find out? Gajeel frowned, knowing he'd missed all of this. To announce to everyone he was dating someone not just of the same sex but Laxus fucking Dreyar wasn't something he could imagine, still, without a headache. But the liberation in Cana's voice as she and Juvia freely talked about themselves, Levy even chiming in commenting about how they seemed well matched, Droy just having to say he "knew something was up" when Juvia swapped clothes with her from time to time, even wearing new outfits unlike her, it all made Gajeel…dizzy.

He's supposed to be happy. Hell, they were all celebrating him. They dragged him from Shadowgear's table to the bar and pushed drinks his way until Mirajane called them off, insisting he mustn't have too much to drink.

"I'm fine," Gajeel asserted, taking the beer before him from Max and drinking it. They cheered, and Mira gave her usual slight smile, before eyeing the other dragon slayer, sitting quietly across the guild with the Raijinshuu and Team Natsu. Laxus sighs.

"So you guys went to the town Vincent's from?" Natsu asked, sitting on the center of the table they all sat around, eyes on Laxus.

"No…it's a town made by the remaining people of the city he destroyed two decades ago." Laxus answered coolly, arms crossed and looking down as Natsu's face got closer to his.

"And so he's-"

"Would you back off!?" Freed stood, pulling the fire dragon slayer away from the man he sought to protect. Bickslow chuckled as he did.

"He just got back and you wanna be annoying?" Gray complained.

"I'm not being annoying-YOU'RE JUST AS CURIOUS!" Natsu yelled at the other, turning back as soon as Freed released the back of his top, "So Vincent's dead, right? Gone now for good?"

Laxus opened his eyes, exhaling and grimaced.

"...Right?" Lucy asked, the question let out inadvertently.

"Cadaver isn't in Gajeel's head. He has no control over him anymore and he doesn't have a body of his own…Cadaver is a really powerful spirit. He's already dead. I don't wanna speak too loud but I can't guarantee that he's completely gone."

They were silent, as the possibility of Cadaver still being out there befell them. Laxus shut his eyes again, relaxing his shoulders and looking down at Gajeel. He was drinking another beer, scarfing down food the guild was bringing out for him. That wouldn't be too good, him drinking too much. Laxus worried if he thought the same about Cadaver, but he himself could not keep the bastard out of his thoughts, not after everything he'd done.

He looked back to the lot of them.

"I'm not telling him. I can't. He needs to rest," he said, "...don't say a word of this."

"Got it." Erza sat up.

Gray nodded.

"Of course." Lucy said.

"You know we won't." Evergreen spoke. Bickslow smacked his back and Freed huffed.

"Aye!" The blue exceed chimed in, a fish in his mouth.

"Hey asshole," Gray looked up at the smaller dragon slayer on the table, "That means you too."

"Oh-!" Natsu made a zipping motion in front of his mouth with his hand, and an OK sign with his other. Erza shot him a rather serious glare, one that even made Bickslow lose the straw in his drink, "'m serious!" He zips his mouth again.

Laxus sits back in his chair. He cannot help but eye the other dragon slayer again. He's sat with Levy, trying to enjoy his meal as she makes conversation with him and Mirajane. He's thankful that Mira's there to guard, as he knows how much he has a difficult time talking to her despite how much she wants to speak with him. He did worry, however, that she may like the dragon slayer.

He had no idea of Levy's intentions. Her relationship with Gajeel had always been quite weird, especially after their…rocky start. His relationship with Gajeel was weird considering their own rocky start. She often begged him to go on missions with Shadowgear, sometimes, she begged him to go with her alone, and Gajeel would almost always oblige. He could see her little crush, Gajeel couldn't have been totally blind to it.

"I just...I don't want people to figure out we're a thing. At all." Gajeel admits to Laxus one day, as they sit alone in the guild's broom closet, "I really don't like her like that, she's nice I guess, but…I dunno. Shit, if it makes people think I'm not gay I'm gonna keep going on missions with her."

"So what the hell are you gonna do if she does come on to you?" Laxus rolls his eyes, "I mean…it seems like she likes you."

"It doesn't-what the hell do you know?"

"Look, Gajeel. I don't like that you're…what, 'scared t' go on consecutive jobs' with me or whatever," he waved his arms up, mockingly, making Gajeel quite annoyed, "But it's clear you don't-"

"NOTHING is clear, asshole." Gajeel stomps his foot, then immediately shuts up and listens out. The guild activity still drowned them out fairly well. "I don't want to be seen. I don't enjoy being seen…fucking normally let alone in a relationship with…"

"With a man?" Laxus chuckles, "I'll let you do your thing, Gajeel…but whenever you're done hiding from me, I'll be waiting."

He feels bad for teasing Gajeel about it then. As time passed though it would seem to him, and it would seem to a lot of the guild, that Levy and Gajeel were quite close. These rumors would slightly come apart now that some members actually knew of their relationship, Laxus having broken his promise multiple times to Gajeel and revealing their relatively well kept secret to some of those he was now sitting around. It hurt his chest, still, as he thought about it, but it seemed as though rumors did not spread further. He frowned. So many of them knew now, didn't they?

…Natsu didn't. He remembered where they were, even members of Sabertooth were there in Cadaver's void where Laxus had come clean but Natsu, who Gajeel wanted to tell the least, was not. And he sat here, now on the table not even paying attention to him or Gajeel. He wasn't like he was entirely stupid, incapable of figuring the two of them out, but the fire dragon slayer seemed to no longer had interest in the two whatsoever. It was like a miracle, he thought stifling a laugh as they all talked amongst themselves. The person who'd orchestrated a mission to spy on them to begin with never found out about their relationship.

"Freed, I really need something t' drink," Laxus said.

The mages slowly trickled out of the guild, and those remaining helped clean up the decorations and all the mess. Gajeel was the least bit sober, held up by Pantherlily in his much larger form and Laxus looked on at him from afar, still, unsurprised by the man's state.

"I'm-*hic*-fine!" Gajeel pulled himself up and away from Pantherlilly, only to nearly fall on the stone path beneath them. Lily was quick to catch him, sighing as this behavior was not unfamiliar.

"We have to get you home now, Gajeel," Pantherlily said, trying to calm the other.

"I want to talk to…" he slurred, "...where the hell's Laxus? That fuckin' bastard-"

"'m here."

Laxus had walked up beside him, Bickslow not far behind. He spoke quietly as there were other mages walking by, still. "What do you want…?"

"Fucking…where were you?" He complained, "Leave me alone t' deal with everyone, shit!"

"You're way too loud," he shoos Bickslow away, who only grinned and smacked his back a second time before shoving off for the evening. "And you don't like when I'm with you around the guild."

"Yeah! SOMETIMES!" He shouts, loud enough to make Pantherlily cover the man's mouth as he swings his limbs around. Laxus sighs. Sometimes? More like all the time.

"Shut up nuts-fer-brains," he mutters, "Could've just walked up to me, yknow."

"Y-yeah? So? Maybe you could walk up to ME huh!"

"'ts not too ballsy for ya', now?"

Gajeel shuts his mouth, his arms fall to his side. He hiccups. Laxus chuckles.

"I can take him," he whispers at the exceed.

"You sure?" Pantherlily furrowed his brows, "I mean when he's drunk he-well, I guess you know…"

Laxus nods, lightly. Gajeel's exceed releases him, and he falls ungracefully into Laxus' arms.

"Fuck you."

"I'm taking you to my place. Be nice."

It suddenly gets darker around them as the guild door closes, the only thing having lit them being the light from the inside. Laxus turns to see Mirajane peeking out at them. She's begun locking up with her siblings for the night. She smiled, and Laxus rolled his eyes as she shut the door fully.

"C'mon, Gajeel," Laxus practically drags the other back to his house.

It was chilly already, Laxus noticed, that evening. Though summer wasn't quite over it was a sure sign that autumn was near. He felt bad, having lost time dealing with this thing. He imagined what their time could have been like, as though he were a child on his first summer vacation with his first partner.

A vacation, he thought, cringing. Laxus looked down at the other, now relaxed into him as they were very close to his place. To go on vacation after all of this sounded…splendid. Horrible, frightening, even, but splendid. He wanted desperately to relax, to truly be alone with Gajeel and not have to worry about hiding from anyone-or worry about anyone spying on them, god forbid-and he absolutely wanted Cadaver out of his thoughts.

To not have to sneak around on vacation sounded nice. Of course, there was the matter of presenting the idea to Gajeel.

As he entered he inhaled, thankful that nothing was out of the ordinary in his home as he'd realized he hadn't been home in a few days. Laxus didn't plan on bringing Gajeel with him, in fact, he anticipated the opposite. They'd walk to the bridge and go their separate ways. Perhaps, he figured, staying separated from Gajeel had become more difficult. Sleepily, Gajeel made his way to the bedroom and undressed without a word. Laxus smiled, softly. He practically lived here, Laxus thought.

He followed Gajeel soon after, slipping into bed with him. "Y' smell like whiskey." He comments.

"...don't care," Gajeel replies, groggily.

Gajeel came closer to him, his head against Laxus' chest. He could feel the smaller man's blinks, his lashes tickling skin. He was somewhat well awake.

"...Gajeel?"

"...mm…"

"I think I'm uh. I'm gonna sound a bit crazy for makin' the suggestion…but I think we should go out. Somewhere."

"...Like on…on a date?"

"No-ah. well. Yes-no." Laxus stutters, and he breaths as he wraps his arm around the other under the blanket, "Like…go somewhere. Travel."

"You wanna go on another vacation?"

Gajeel's statement sounded as tired as he was. Laxus pressed his face further into the pillow, feeling shame for suggesting such a thing. Though Gajeel did not appear stressed, show any fear or concern on his face to Laxus' surprise.

"...Mmm," Gajeel closed his eyes, adjusting his position on Laxus, "...Just us…?"

"Somewhere quiet, obviously," Laxus clarifies, "'place that has a spa and a nice big room that ain't cramped like the last one. And a jacuzzi."

"A jacuzzi?" Gajeel perks up. Laxus chuckles.

"Yes? I know a place in the mountains. A resort I've been to a couple times, real nice."

"Why the hell haven't you bought me yet?" Gajeel sits up suddenly.

Laxus' eyes widened, "I went after jobs? W-With Freed and the others!" he laughs, slightly, grabbing Gajeel's arms as he swipes at him, "It was years ago!"

"You had a whole place ready for us to go to at aaaaany point-*hic*" Gajeel yells before falling back onto the bed, "And you ain't bring it up until now?"

"Do you wanna go or not?"

"Of course I wanna go! Ugh…"

He rolls over. Gajeel is still not sober, and Laxus was sure he wouldn't be until the morning. He stifles another laugh.

"What's all this for?" He asks very quietly.

"Hmm?" Laxus turns to his partner again, who still faced away staring out at the window, shocked by the change in tone.

"Are you still just being nice t' me? 'Cause of…everything?"

There's a slur in the way Gajeel speaks, but Laxus knew there was also an ache. "Gajeel, you know what you were just put through was horrific, stop speaking like that-"

"You were all hurt too."

"That doesn't mean-"

"Sayin' all that like it wasn't my own damn fault-"

"Gajeel it wasn't."

He didn't intend to raise his voice, or sit up over him, didn't intend for any of this to come up. He should have expected it sooner or later, this talk again. Laxus still can't seem to get through to him, and it sent a pain in his chest when Gajeel spoke so lowly about himself. It wasn't like him. How the hell does he get through to him?

"So then what is this for?"

Laxus laid back down, resting an arm over Gajeel's tense body. His voice was shaky, the dragon slayer could hear, and his heart felt as though it would tear through his chest.

Just stop thinking about it. Just stop thinking about all of this. Forget about all of this. That's all I want.

"Our anniversary."

A pause. A moment of silence broken only by the late night summer outside. And then, 'our anniversary.' Gajeel looked up at him, still visibly upset but now confused by Laxus' statement. Laxus kept his mouth shut for whatever Gajeel had to say to him, even if it was bad. He probably deserved it. But he stared at him for a minute, turning his body back around slowly, Laxus still keeping his arm around him.

"...What the hell're you talking about?"

Laxus smiled, "You actually don't remember? It's not that far off."

Gajeel still stared as though the man had a new set of eyes.

"I mean, we won't have our first date for a while, but…we kinda…I told you I loved you in September, Gajeel."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "We have…an anniversary? A real one?"

"Yes. A real one." Laxus chuckles.

He almost questioned Gajeel's confusion through his own response, but smiled softly at him regardless. Gajeel realized how tightly he was gripping the blankets, and awkwardly released them, resting his arms in front of him and between the two of them. He bit his lower lip. Could this be about what Cana said, he considered, about her and Juvia's anniversary? It's not like they were…no. They were very much boyfriends. They called themselves this. Laxus even gave him nicknames to call him when they were alone every now and again, the occasional "babe" and even "sweetheart" still throwing him off as it seemed quite unrealistic in Gajeel's ears, but it certainly made him shiver and freeze up every time. Gajeel threw himself onto Laxus every opportunity he had, especially when they were in bed and often before sex. They cuddled, for god's sake. Gajeel doesn't cuddle.

He doesn't kiss, either. Doesn't let himself be carried, caressed or cared for. He doesn't go on dates. He doesn't hold hands or let anyone kiss his hand. He doesn't commit to anyone or anything. Not like this. He doesn't fall in love, he's not supposed to. He never would have thought, at least.

How did they get here?

How did Gajeel end up still lying in bed with someone he loved for this long? Would this last? Would he fuck this up? He's still in love. He never wanted this to end.

"I mean," Laxus mutters, "It's not like we're married, I know this sounds real cheesy, but-"

"When is it?"

"Hmm?"

"Our anniversary."

"...If you're really willing to wait, to go until right then, I mean…22nd of September." Laxus said as Gajeel moved in closer.

"Mmm. I can wait," Gajeel responded sleepily, "Nice way t'...start th' fall…"