"This feels intentional."

"Hm," Mira hummed slightly as she glanced over her work. "I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean, dragon."

"What I mean," the slayer grumbled as he too looked over the very segregated piles of clothes and household items that, at the moment, littered the Strauss family household yard, "is that you've quite clearly put all of my shit in the donation pile."

This felt rather true as, among the horde before them, an untrained eye could very clearly see that a bulk of the things that Mirajane had placed upon the porch, their designated keep space, were, primarily, hers.

Whether or not she had done so intentionally as the slayer had claimed wasn't something that could easily be proven, but the fact remained that hardly any of the things the man had brought over were getting saved; they were getting an obvious boot.

"Oh, Laxus, no." And Mira looked at him with the deepest of blue eyes, slightly watering at the assertion she'd ever do such a thing. "All of your stuff isn't in the donation pile."

"It's not?" He was getting somewhat huffy. "Because there's two piles; keep and give away. Yet, for some reason, hardly any of my shit has made it onto that porch of yours, demon, and I'm starting to think-"

"There's three."

"What?"

"Three," Mira insisted to him with a nod. "piles."

"Really?" He glanced between the things spread across the yard and the ones stacked up on the porch. Clearly suspicious of the woman's claims, he questioned, "What's the third one then, huh?"

"Well," she sighed, turning to gesture to the patio. "This is the keep."

"Uh-huh."

"And that," she said, pointing off distantly to where a very small pile Laxus hadn't even noticed before, consisting mainly of clothes, sat near the driveway, "is the donate."

"That's the donate?"

"That is the donate."

"Then what," he griped before gesturing wildly around at all his things, spread across the line, "is this pile? Huh?"

"Oh, dragon, this is pure trash," she told him rather calmly, which he found crazy, because she'd driven him, in a very short time, completely mad. "I wouldn't subject others to any of this. Just because you're needy doesn't mean you don't have standards."

And her eyes were wide, curious, almost, because Laxus knew what her ploy was. Deep down, he was very aware that the woman was playing with him. Testing him. Teasing him. In a way that no other would ever even consider. Most avoided the man, knowing he was prone to outbursts of the violent variety, but Mirajane had the dragon cornered, she had for a number of years at this point, and it was all she could do not to twist his arm every once and awhile.

Mirajane liked him at his wits end. She liked when he'd stand there, mouth agape, exasperated by the illogical leaps the woman could bound across with ease. When the man would just sigh and shake his head, turning from her as he questioned every decision that brought them together, Mira was at her happiest.

They were there then, the man peering at her with near contempt in his gaze while Mira only smiled right back, seemingly ignorant to this. It was a moment for the dragon and demon, one that they worked at, so of course, it was destined to be interrupted.

"Oi, boss, is this the dumpin' grounds?"

"Is this the dumpin' grounds?" echoed five haunting voices as they floated about the couple coming up the street.

It was Bickslow, of course, with his babies, accompanied by none other than Lisanna. She had a drink her hand, some sort of foamy coffee, and sipped at it while allowing her blue eyes to roam the front lawn of the Strauss house.

"What," Laxus complained with a glare over at them, "are the two of you doing here?"

"I live here," Lisanna retorted before, with a shrug, admitting, "Well, kind of."

But not really.

The past five months had been a whirlwind of jobs with Bickslow, living with Bickslow, only talking and thinking about Bickslow. For the man himself, those months were much the same, only in the inverse. Jobs with Lissy, living with Lissy, talking and thinking about Lissy.

They were inseparable.

And insufferable.

"Mrs. Boss told me I should come by with some shit of my own, yeah?" Bickslow was to the yard then and, with little ceremony, turned the cardboard box in his hands upside down, dumping the contents atop those of Laxus' that Mirajane had deemed unfit. "Just doin' as I was asked."

"Hey!" Laxus broke away from Mirajane then to go knock Bickslow back some. "You just dumped all your shit on my- Bickslow, what the fuck is this?"

Lisanna, at that point, walked off from the pair of men and over to her sister. As the two began talking to one another, giggling and snickering over what was taking black, Bickslow only eyed them for a moment before leaning closer to Laxus.

"Oi, boss," he remarked with a shrug of his shoulders. "My woman ain't the one saying I gotta get rid of shit. Yours is. And she had my woman to make sure I brought a box of shit, thinkin' it would make you more likely to give up your shit, so you know what I did? I boxed shit up and came to dump it here, for the benefit of you."

"You didn't do this for me."

"Mrs. Boss then."

"You are not."

"Fine!" Bickslow tossed the now empty cardboard box to the ground. "I'm doing this for me, okay? Lissy told me to, so I'm doing it so I can get my dick sucked. Is that what you wanna hear, boss? Huh?"

"It's not," Laxus told him flatly. "At all."

"You know," Bickslow sighed then, bringing a hand up to scratch beneath the face covering he wore, "we're the same in that way, ain't we?"

"Not," the other man kept up, "at all."

"Ah." Bickslow clicked his tongue with a shake of his head and a glance over at where the sisters stood, still giggling away at the situation. "Mrs. Boss cut you off, eh?"

"What?"

Shaking his head still, the seith insisted, "I always knew she seemed too good to be true. I'm sorry, man. Happens to the best of us."

"Listen, you little idiot," he finally griped causing Bickslow to stand to attention, "you don't fucking talk about Mirajane like that. Understand?"

"Understood." Nodding his head, Bickslow agreed, "I retract my previous statement. She puts out so often, why, some might even call her a- Boss, that hurt!"

Bickslow found himself shoved to the ground, among the pure trash he'd just dumped on the front lawn, staring with hurt in his eyes up at the dragon slayer. Laxus, already stressed with Mira, could really see himself taking out some of his frustrations on the other guy.

Luckily for him, two things happened.

"Hey, Laxus, leave him alone!" Lisanna, the first thing, complained as she rushed over then to shove at the man. "Bickslow didn't do anything!"

"Yeah, that's right, Lissy," he agreed, climbing to his feet once more. His babies, who'd been over with the woman, returned then, to potentially defend their father. "I didn't do anything."

"Is that right?" Laxus complained right back. "Want me to tell her, then? Bickslow? What you said?"

"Uh, boss, you can't." The seith raised his sallet just so he could wink at the man. "Bro code."

"We're not," Laxus told him dryly, "bros."

"Sure we are!" Bickslow snickered, his babies soon doing the same. "We're the best of bros. We're the bro-iest of bros. We're-"

"Oh, no." Laxus turned away from Bickslow then as he could hear, beyond the man's incessant babble, he could hear something far worse. "Is that-"

"Hey look, Elf and Ever are coming too," Lisanna remarked, pointing down the street where, sure enough, the muscular man was balancing three boxes of something as his girlfriend walked along side, empty handed.

"Mira," Laxus complained with a glare over towards her. 'You didn't say anything about all this. You said if I brought all my stuff here, we would go through it together. Not that we'd have all of them show up and-"

"Dragon," the barmaid reminded simply. "It's so rare that I get a day off. Let alone this whole weekend I have planned for helping move you in."

"Which is why," he agreed, "it was so weird that you wanted to spend it doing this in the first place. But to have them all over here too?"

"We never get to all be together anymore, Laxus," Mira said. "What better way to spend an off day, huh? Than with our family."

"Our family," he snorted, heavily, as Elfman and Evergreen were close enough now to make out some of their bickering. It was just their standard, run of the mill arguing that they seemed to do every second they were together and miss every second they were apart. Just as he was thinking about interfering with the two of them (watching Ever be miserable with Elfman delighted Laxus, for some reason), another thought came to his head. Softly, he questioned Mira, "Does that mean…."

He answered his own question though as, from down the street, he could see the final missing piece. Freed was walking up the road, a single box in his arms that seemed rather hefty, given the slight sweat the man was breaking out in. As the rune mage approached, it was with a nod to all gathered about, but Mirajane that he spoke.

"Late am I, Mira?" Freed questioned as he came to a step before the Strauss home. "It seems you all have...divvied up quite a bit of stuff already-"

"I see big sis told you to bring stuff too," Elfman remarked as he dropped Evergreen's three boxes with a thud and the sound of breaking glass from within. As this got him shoved by his girlfriend, Freed only found himself nodding.

"Yes," he agreed. "Mirajane requested that I-"

"Since when," Laxus griped, loudly, as he glanced between his three most loyal followers, "do you idiots take orders from her?"

"I don't take orders from anyone," Evergreen retorted.

"I told you since when, earlier," Bickslow reminded, wagging his eyebrows.

"No orders," Freed remarked with a smile over at the woman, which she easily returned. "Just a friend making a request and the other friend fulfilling it."

"I don't like it." Laxus glanced between the two of them with a frown. "The two of you being...friends."

"You're always so jealous, Laxus," Mira remarked as, with a blush then, Freed was sure to shake his head.

"I-I assure you, Laxus, I would never," he tried, but Bickslow began laughing at the scene, not even stopping when Lisanna elbowed him.

"Something tells me the two of them ain't that compatible," Bickslow remarked with a whistle.

"Right." Evergreen snorted. "Compatible."

Mira, humming, only remarked, "I would date Freed."

Blushing rather deeply now, the rune mage remarked, "While I appreciate the offer, it would never be my- Well, I mean, I do not wish-"

"I ain't even talking about that," Laxus intervened because, shit, they'd be there all day if he let Freed try to let the oblivious Mirajane down easy for a relationship neither were truly considering in that moment. "I don't like you going through her instead of me. Any of you. And I'm especially disappointed in you, Evergreen."

With a snort, she replied, "You try living with Elfman for a year. You'll have way more than just three boxes of shit you want gone."

"Hey!" The man in questioned huffed. "I agonized over what to put in these boxes because Mira said it would help you, Laxus. And all you've done since we got here-"

"Help me?" The man looked to his girlfriend once more. "Help me what?"

"Glancing over all that's amassed," Freed whispered softly to the man as he came to stand at his side, "I would assume throw your things away."

"Me?" Laxus shook his head. "It's you, woman, that needs to throw shit out!"

"Me?" Mirajane frowned at him and, finally, her facade was broken a bit. "And don't curse at me, Laxus. I'm doing this for you."

"In what way? Huh? 'cause I'm not just tossing all my things out while you keep every single thing of yours."

"Why are we doing this, anyways?" Lisanna finally spoke up. "Mira? Why did you make Laxus lug all this stuff over here just to be mean and throw it out?"

Laxus, finally sensing someone on his side, nodded over at Lisanna. It was rare for the two of them to be united on something, but if ever there was something that could win Mirajane's little sister over onto someone else's side, it was watching the woman throw their things away.

She too had oft been the subject of Mira's big cleaning days. And while she did enjoy watching Laxus suffer some, she still knew when to cut the slayer some slack.

"I'm not doing anything to be mean," Mirajane defended, but an uneasy glance around the group was enough to know that yes, she probably was, just a little bit. Still, continuing on, she explained, "Laxus and I are planning on moving in together soon. Since you've moved out, Elf, and Lisanna mostly has, we just think… I want Laxus here, with me. But there's too much stuff to combine between the two of us for my little house. So we were going to pile what we thought we should keep from my house and his apartment. This is what has to happen."

"Laxus losing all his stuff is what has to happen?" Bickslow whistled, lowly, before remarking, "You're down bad, boss. And she doesn't even put out?"

"Bickslow, what?" Lisanna looked to him then with a glare and, well, Laxus only took a step towards Mira.

"I know why we're doing this," he agreed with the woman. "And I get it. Yes, not all of my stuff can come to your house. But some of these things you're making me get rid of aren't trash, demon."

"Laxus, ninety percent of it is stuff you don't even use."

"Name one thing," he started, but she was pointing, already, at an uncharged electrical lacrima that, when all powered up, projected the time of day. Frowning at the old clock lacrima, he remarked, "That's not trash."

"It doesn't work," Mira told him. "And I've seen it sit, untouched, on your dining room table back at your apartment, for two years, dragon."

"I can charge it," he told her. "Easily. I'm the fucking Thunder God, Mira; I can easily power it back up if I want."

"Then why haven't you?"

He waved a hand, "I don't want to."

"Then you don't want the object, Laxus."

"It's not the simple, Mira."

"It really is."

"No, it's-"

"Perhaps," Freed remarked then, glancing between the two of them. "There is some truth in both statements."

"No, that's impossible," Elfman said, "Someone has to be wrong and someone has to be right. That's how fights work."

"No one," Evergreen ordered the others, "tell him otherwise."

"Maybe," Freed kept up with a frown over at Evergreen, "Laxus is correct. Mira. Maybe you have overly judged his objects."

"Yeah." Laxus went to snatch the clock lacrima, cradling it, but putting no effort in actually powering it back up (something he knew he could do, quite easily, but ugh, he just didn't feel like it). "Freed's right."

"But," he kept up as Mira only frowned at him, "that doesn't mean you haven't also made good points. Mira. Not all of his stuff with mesh with yours. Not to mention the lack of space."

"Oi, I know." Bickslow, done being chewed out by Lisanna, returned to the group conversation with his tongue hanging out, flashing his guild marking as he spoke. "What about the basement?"

"What basement?" Freed questioned.

"They got a basement," he said with a nod of his head. "What if we drag boss's stuff down there, eh? Problem solved."

"And Elfman's three boxes!" Evergreen was not going to see those things come back into their apartment. She just wasn't. "His little statues and sports cards are all either going to the dump with Laxus' stuff or this basement; one or the other."

"Basement," Elfman voted.

"Elf, you can't do that, and you know it," Mirajane spoke up with a frown. "You know what's in the basement."

"I don't," Freed said with a frown. "What-"

"Ghosts." Lisanna shook her head after taking a sip of her coffee. "There's ghosts in the basement."

"We are not," Laxus griped at her with a pointed finger, "doing that again. There's no such things as ghosts."

"I retract my vote," Elfman said then. "I do not want my stuff in the haunted basement."

"Can I ask a question?" Freed looked to Mirajane who nodded easily. "If the basement is haunted-"

"Is haunted, yes," Bickslow corrected as Lisanna snickered.

"-what stops the ghosts from coming up the basement steps," Freed continued, "and just haunting the entire house?"

Mira stood there for a moment, considering this, before remarking, "You have a good point."

"No," Laxus complained with a frown, "he doesn't."

"The entire place being haunted would make sense," Elfman remarked to Evergreen. "My sister was possessed. Only way she'd end up with a man like Laxus anyways."

"What was that, Elfboy? Huh?" Laxus turned to him. "Wanna repeat it?"

"No fighting," Lisanna reminded the two of them. "This isn't about you."

"Yeah," Bicklslow agreed. "It's about how the entire house is infested with ghosts."

"No," Laxus turned to growl at them then, "It's not!"

There was a bit of a break down then, in which Laxus finally was ready to take out all his frustrations on Bickslow and was stalking towards him to do so, while Lisanna jumped between them, pleading with Laxus to reconsider. Mirajane, for her part, was try to rationalize to Freed just why the ghosts were conditioned to stay in the basement, which made no sense the man argued, which was a bit of a crazy thing to use considering none of her claims ever made sense, really, and Elfman was defending her while Evergreen dryly commentated.

Perhaps, with only Lisanna taking note of the brewing fight between her and her sister's boyfriends, they could have seen a good brawl. The seith was usually one to cower to the boss, but he wasn't going to be shown up in front of Lisanna either, and it would be good for them, maybe all of them, to finally hash it out.

What was a family without a bit of fighting?

But as Laxus allowed electricity to flow through his right arm, he was reminded that he was still cradling the old alarm clock. With a new charge, it soared to life, bleating a loud, annoying rock station as the radio function kicked in and Laxus, involuntarily, dropped it to the ground in shock.

As they all stared, the clock lacrima shattered in half and the group were left, finally, in true silence.

Laxus stared down at it for a moment, frowning before turning on his heel, towards the house.

"Fuck it," he growled over his shoulder. "Toss it all out. All of it, Mira. I don't care anymore."

"Laxus." She rushed after him. "Wait!"

As they disappeared into the house though, this left the other half of the group to their own awkward devices. Bickslow, for his part, went to kick at the shattered lacrima as his babies floated around it as well, examining it.

"Well, you heard him." Picking up a large piece of the lacrima, Bickslow said, "Time to start taking this shit to the dump."

Lisanna batted at the seith before, to the others, saying, "We have to do something."

"Why?" Evergreen folded her arms over her chest as she remarked, "We were already doing something. Mirajane told us that bringing our stuff here would help Laxus give his up; it didn't. Now, we let her deal with the fallout."

"While that is true," Freed remarked, hands clasped behind his back, "I do not believe Mira meant any malice when she originally set this all up. Perhaps indulged in it a bit, but the other all intent was for us to all come together and help them divvy up what should be kept and what should be tossed."

"I'm all for tossing Laxus' junk." Elfman nodded over at his three boxed. "But those cards and old action figures don't deserve a trip to the dump! I always thought I'd give them to my son, if I ever had one."

"Think," Evergreen assured him with a frown, "again."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Elfman complained. "Huh?"

"Twofold," she replied simply. "For one, I'd never have a baby with you."

"Who asked?" he griped.

"And for two," she kept up, "even if I ever was that unfortunate enough to birth a Strauss-"

"Hey," Lisanna griped as Bickslow only snickered.

"-it surely wouldn't play with the shit you put in those boxes," Evergreen finished.

"That was my original idea too," the seith offered up then. "To just put straight up shit in the box. Lissy talked me down to just putting trash in there though."

"What is wrong with all of you?" Freed huffed a bit. "We're here to help Laxus. And...Mira, I supposed, for the two of you."

"I'm team Laxus on this one." Lisanna went back to her coffee. "Well, the alarm clock thing was dumb, but-"

"The point," the rune mage continued, "is that we want the two of them to be happy, yes? They are apparently seeking the next step in their relationship and we should all assist them in this. We are their friends. Their family. And yet we stand here, cracking jokes-"

"What do you want us to do?" Evergreen never enjoyed when Freed got on his soapbox. "I didn't know this was going to be a whole big thing. I wouldn't have come."

Bickslow nodded. "This has been a vibe killer so far. And today started off so well."

"We spent the morning finding trash to put in the box," Lisanna reminded him.

"But," Bickslow insisted, "we had so much fun doing it."

"And besides," Evergreen kept up, "Laxus does have a lot of shit. As much as it pains me to say it, and ugh, I hate that you're making me, but Mira is right. His shit has to go."

"You're right." Elfman eyed his girlfriend with a frown. "Hearing you agree with my sister is weird."

"Laxus lived a different life than us," Freed said and he looked then towards the amassed items, eyes scanning over each one. "He didn't flee a home when he was young. His parents weren't murdered or sick. He grew up in a home, with prized things, objected tied to memories, good and bad. So he's always been more attached to things than the rest of us. Is that so bad? Were I still in possession of my father's home library or my mother's trinkets… I would treasure them as greatly. Were your mother alive, Ever, would you not-"

"Don't," she warned simply and he bowed his head in respect.

"I'd lug my parents shit around, place to place, I guess, if I could," Bickslow agreed. "But, uh, look around; this ain't all Ivan's shit. Laxus is just a packrat."

"Or perhaps we are too quick to throw away," Freed defended. "Who's to say?"

"Usually? Your lady," Elfman remarked. "But a real man knows when to fight for what's important."

"Then you're cards aren't important, Elf?" Lisanna snickered and the man faulted a bit, stammering some.

"Maybe I should go inside," Freed said then. "Explain some of this to Mirajane. And Laxus, for that matter. Then-"

"Why don't we just sort?" Lisanna suggested then, finally deciding to be helpful. Maybe. Coming to lay a hand on Freed's shoulder, she said, "The two of them will work out what they need to work out. For now, we can go through some of this and get a pile ready for what's actually trash, huh? They'll come out when they're ready."

Inside the house, there actually wasn't much conversation going on. Laxus sat in the center of the couch, elbows on his knees and his head in his palms while Mirajane sat beside him, silent and not glancing at the man, hands clasped together in her lap as they could hear, through the paper thin walls, the entire conversation going on just beyond their front porch.

"They're all," Laxus finally remarked when they seemed to quiet down and begin work, "idiots."

"Well," Mira started, but she didn't know how to finish, so they just sat there in her unfinished, uncomfortable sentence for far too long.

Laxus wasn't really sure what to think, about what he'd just heard from the others. It was weird, to say the least, to hear your closest allies views on not only you, but your mental well-being in regards to your childhood in contrast to their own. While he felt quite misjudged, he also wasn't sure that it was fully an incorrect read on the situation. A lot of the shit he'd lugged over to Mira's house in hopes of it being deemed acceptable was, very much so, shit that he'd carried with him from apartment and to apartment as he grew, finding it difficult to part with objects from his childhood.

"That was the clock I had in my bedroom, when I was a kid." He was uncomfortable, Laxus was, and he directed his words straight ahead, rather than directly to the woman beside him. "When my mom was still alive and Ivan wasn't so… And yeah, I have a new one. Have had new ones, I guess, but that one was just-"

"It's okay, dragon."

"It was special because-"

"I mean it." Mirajane reached over then, finally, to run a hand over his thigh. "I was just trying to rile you up before, you know?"

"Yeah." He grit his teeth. "I know."

"But," she continued, "I didn't mean to… I thought it would be easier for you, if the others gave up some of their stuff too. But then only the guys were the ones with things to throw out."

"Yeah, I noticed that too," Laxus replied dryly and Mira could only smile.

"I guess sometimes you guys give up a lot for us, huh?" Mirajane turned to nuzzle her head against his arm until, slowly, the man shifted so he could wrap it around her. Softly, she remarked, "Maybe I can give up some more of my stuff, dragon."

"It's not even about that." Turning his head, he pressed a kiss to her forehead before muttering, "This is my first time, you know? Living with someone again. With a woman. I… I want everything to go smoothly and we're already off to a bad start and-"

"Our relationship is give and take, dragon." She pushed to stand then, holding a hand out to the slayer as she remarked, "So come on; I'll figure something out for your things. We won't toss anything you care about out. Promise."

"But you were right, before." He took her hand without a single though, the woman's pale flesh warm in his grasp. "This place is too small, you know? I can't keep all I want to."

"Well," she sighed, gripping his hand tightly, "I do have a couple of ideas."

When they joined the others outside, it was to find them working diligently (well, around their natural bickering and flirting) at getting Laxus things sorted properly. He, of course, would have a few alterations to make to the piles, but over all, they seemed to be working as efficiently as he could ask.

"Look what I found!" Elfman was quick to rush over to his sister's boyfriend, holding a worn, old binder. Flipping it open, he remarked to Laxus, "You were a card collector too, eh?"

"As kid, maybe, yeah." Snatching it from the other man, Laxus frowned as he said, "But not an adult."

"The community has really taken off in the past decade or so though," Elfman insisted. "You should see some of the stuff I got in my box over there! I-"

"You know," Mirajane remarked with a cocked head. "I don't think that you ever took all your cards out of your bedroom here, Elf."

"Well," he said a bit morosely, "the ones I did bring I'm being forced to throw out-"

"And Lisanna," she kept up, "you never did move any of your stuff into Bickslow's place. Like at all."

"Well," she defended with a frown. "There's no space. So-"

"So?" Laxus snorted before grinning down at his demon. "I think I'm starting to see what you're thinkin', demon."

"Yeah?" she asked.

With a nod, he said, "Your freeloading siblings need to take their boxes and pack them full of their shit and get it out of our house."

"Behave," Mira corrected with a frown, but the overall sentiment of the statement wasn't corrected and, after a panicked look towards Bickslow, Lisanna rushed forward.

"You can't do this, sis," she pleaded. "Getting rid of my stuff isn't fair."

"I didn't say you had to get rid of anything," Mirajane remarked. "Just-"

"Get the hell outta here," Laxus finished and he didn't care about the dirty look Mira gave him; it felt damn good to be back in charge. "You hear that? You too Elfboy; get inside and pack your shit. There's a new man in this house."

"Perhaps," Evergreen remarked, "even one for the first time."

"Not sure why you're cracking jokes, Ever," Freed remarked with a shake of his head as he informed her, "where do you think Elfman's things will be going?"

Choking a bit, the woman said, "Well, not to our apartment. No way. Elfman-"

"Suddenly," the muscular man remarked as he kicked at one of the boxes of Laxus' stuff on the lawn, "getting rid of stuff isn't so easy."

"It's okay, guys," Mirajane giggled with a smile at them. "I have an idea, but… It's gonna take us all, but I think there's a solution out there."

Oh, there was.

Just...not one that Laxus could have ever envisioned himself doing.

"This is stupid," he found himself remarking to Freed that night as they walked around the basement with a flashlight and a burning bundle of sage in the rune mage's hands.

"Yes," he agreed, wafting the white smoke towards the basement wall as he added, "but this basement is the best bet if you hope to keep most of your things. And Elfman's. And Lisanna. Honestly, it's insane how spacious this basement is. For Mira to be so adverse to using it-"

"She's a fucking demon," he kept up. "What can a ghost do to a demon? Huh? Why would a demon ever be afraid of one?"

"I suppose it's not the ghost themselves that people fear," Freed remarked. "Consider, in fiction, when one is meant to come upon one, it's not the dangers the ghost itself possesses, but rather what viewing one means. It can alter your world view, for better or worst. Not to mention, those from the past appearing again, in places you may not expect, can cause thoughts otherwise avoided to creep in. Of course, that is not to give credence to-"

"What are you evening talking about?" Laxus, who was manning the flashlight, could only seethe. "Do you get that shit you're burning from Bickslow?"

Sighing, the other man explained simply, "Sometimes a fear of ghosts isn't about the ghosts at all, Laxus."

"Yeah, well, for the demon, it seems to be," he grumbled as they moved on then, across the mostly empty basement, to the next corner, "just the ghosts."

"What about for you?" Freed asked. "How do you feel?"

"What do you mean? I feel like this is stupid, but…"

"But?"

"But," he continued as they stopped for the moment, so Freed could waft more of the smoke around, "it's for Mira. So we can be happy here, together."

"You like her a lot."

"I love her," Laxus corrected before coughing and looking off. "And I want a life with her. I've, uh, been thinking a lot. About a lot of things. And I know we've been moving kinda slow, but-"

"Slow and steady has prove good for the two of you, so far," Freed assured him. "We can't all be Bickslow and Lisanna."

The slayer made a face at the idea. "No. We can't."

"Besides," Freed kept up, "I imagine, one day, the two of you will have children."

"Please don't imagine my life, man."

"And," the rune mage kept up as, finished with that corner, he began to walk the length of the basement to the next, "who wants their children growing up with a haunted basement?"

Laxus frowned at him, for a moment, before giving in and, with a sigh, remarking, "Yeah. My children will have the best childhood; ghost's not included."

Mirajane had been right about one thing though; it was a multi-step process, getting Laxus settled into the Strauss home. There was a lot of rearranging, a few disagreements, but eventually, by the end of the weekend, most of Laxus' things had found a home in the basement, with all of Elfman's collections of cards and the random assortment of things Lisanna couldn't quite part with, but also didn't envision surviving over at her and Bickslow's apartment (it was a mad house).

"I just don't understand," Lisanna griped as it was her carrying a box now, Elfman as well, as they left the house that night, "how come because Laxus decides to move in with Mira, that means our stuff has to go."

"It's tyranny," Bickslow remarked.

"A man should watch his own keep, I supposed," Elfman remarked as he was mostly pleased both Laxus and Mirajane had agreed that he should be able to keep his cards in their basement; for now had been the attainment of the former, but the latter winked and him and all but assured this would always be the case.

"What part of bringing your shit to my apartment is you watching your own keep?" Evergreen raved as, after ditching those three boxes full of collectors items, she found her home being inundated with more of Elfman's shit. It was enough to make a woman drink! In fact, once she got home that night….

"Now, now," Freed remarked, hands clasped behind his back, not a single care in the world. "This weekend had been immensely helpful for us all."

"How do you figure?" Bickslow questioned. He felt the most unchanged by the events and was even grinning as he asked.

"Mira no longer fears ghosts in her basement, for one," he remarked. "Which is a good thing."

"You think I care if that airhead is too afraid to go into her own basement?" Ever huffed. "Try again."

"Both Elfman and Lisanna have taken valuable steps in their adulthood," Freed kept up. "They have been holding onto something, an out, maybe, in keeping their things at their childhood home. But it is time for them to stand on their own and be confident in their own relationships."

"Not all our stuff," Elfman reminded.

"And have you seen who Lissy dates?" Bickslow tsked his tongue. "Bad decision, on her part, betting it all on that scoundrel."

"Shut up," Lisanna told her boyfriend who only beamed as her tone wasn't nearly as dark as she'd hoped and, already, he was drawing a smile out of her. "This isn't funny."

"I'm not laughing," Ever continued to insist. "So what else is there, Freed? Huh? What good did any of this do for me?"

"You love Laxus," he remarked then. "We all do. And it's a very big step for him, moving in with Mirajane. Not only were we allowed to assist in that, but we are certain that our friend and mentor is in a better place, mentally, than he was before. Is that not help enough? Knowing we furthered the life of our good friends?"

Ever snorted, but didn't rebuke him, and when all the paths diverged, Elfman called out a goodbye to his baby sister, Freed reminded his two best friends of their training session the next morning, and then the seith and youngest Strauss were alone.

"I'm glad the boss and your sister are so happy together," Bickslow offered her. "And that we managed to save some of his stuff. Guess it's a good thing you talked me out of the shit in a box thing; it might have ruined the whole thing."

"Yeah, I guess," she sighed, shifting her box some in her arms before questioning, "Bickslow?"

"Eh?"

"I wasn't keeping my stuff there as a...escape plan or whatever." She even shook her head. "I just… That was always our house. With Mira. And now-"

"Nah, I get it, Lissy," he assured the woman.

"You do?"

"Of course." Snickering, he added, "It's not like you couldn't always go back to your sisters anyways. You're lucky in that way, you know? The three of you. You'll always look out for one another."

Smiling, she nodded before assuring the man, "And the Thunder Legion's just he same." When he tried to wave her off though, she insisted, "It's true. Freed would do anything for you guys. And Ever...would do whatever she could, or wanted to, I guess. And Laxus! Laxus would take you in too, you know? If anything ever happened?"

"Hey, that actually gives me an idea," the seith remarked with a snap of his fingers. "We stage this huge fight, right? Like massive blow out fight in the guildhall. And then we each guilt Mirajane and Laxus into feeling sorry for us and inviting us to stay in their house, but we keep pretending to fight, right and we get them all worked up and-"

"Let's let them settle a bit, Bickslow," Lisanna giggled with a grin over the man and her mischievous eyes did much to give her away as she insisted, "But eventually? Yeah, definitely."

As the pair plotted with giggles and snickers into the night, Mirajane and Laxus spent their first one together, in her home, officially as a couple living together.

Considering they'd spent the past year or so back and forth from his apartment to this very house, it didn't feel very momentous or special.

Everyone had stayed over, the previous night, as they worked at moving Laxus' things in, so it felt empty that night, as the others trudged back home, leaving the demon and the dragon to their own devices.

"We're going to switch my sofa from the apartment out though, eh, demon? With this old one." He grumbled this as he sank into the very much so broken in old couch in the living room. "Right?"

She merely hummed though, falling into it with him, and there was a stillness in the house that wasn't usually there. Or if it wasn't, it usually wasn't clocked. Following the Thunder Legion and Strauss siblings rifling through it the entire weekend though, the calm was noted.

Not hated nor necessarily loved, but merely acknowledged.

"I think that clock looks nice there," Mirajane remarked, with a nod towards an old cuckoo that, though it no longer struck at the hour, ran okay otherwise and served to remind them both of the late hour. "I like the look."

Laxus eyed the birdhouse shaped clock for a moment before admitting softly to the woman, "My mother had a thing for them. Clocks. It's, uh, why I have so many, I guess. Hard to let go."

"Why let go when you don't have to?" she challenged with a giggle. "Building a life together means parts of both our lives. My house, your stuff… We compliment one another perfectly."

He laughed a bit, Laxus did, glancing down at her as he said, "This from the woman who was ready to throw all of my stuff away?"

"Dragon, there were ghosts down there," Mira told him quite plainly. "If I let you put your stuff down there, before they were eradicated, do you know what would have happened?"

"No."

"Me neither," she agreed. "So it's a good thing it didn't happen, huh?"

Laxus made a face, but only before shaking his head and leaning over to fall into the demon. Over her giggling, he only insisted, "I think I love you too much, demon. That's the only explanation for how I end up in these situations."

Mira fell back easily, and the man nestled into her chest while she merely glanced around the living room, noting any new decor that had found a home on a bookshelf or the wall. Toying with his hair, she whispered simply, "Maybe you love me just enough. Dragon. Ever think of that?"

Moaning deeply, he caused the woman to laugh while he only insisted, "I just want everything to work out. You know. Between us. For the long haul."

"Something tells me," she muttered into his golden locks as the man's eyes slipped shut, "that it will. We belong together, dragon. Don't you think so?"

"Aye, demon." His breathing stilled and, after a weekend up of ups and downs, it was nice to just be content for awhile. "I do."