It felt like one of the days that would be ruined, somehow.
They always were, after all.
No matter their care to detail, their amount of planning, something always seemed to ruin these sorts of nights for Laxus and Mirajane.
One of her siblings would rush into the house or his apartment, maybe her sister, sobbing over something with the Salamander or the like. Elfman, even, might barge in, yelling about Evergreen or whatever other troubles were keeping him that day. Sometimes, maybe, the pair of them would just come in and disturb things for no honest reason. Not even because they disliked their sister with Laxus. No. Just for no reason at all.
The Thunder Legion could be much the same.
Bickslow was a whirlwind of emotions that he seemed to require the attention of Mirajane and Laxus to sort through which made no damn sense, to the latter, as he'd never required such thing, but it was different now. Boss. Bickslow would insist. Now, the Laxus Dreyar wasn't some untouchable entity, but rather the loving and adoring boyfriend of Mirajane Strauss and who better to go to life advice for, than such a powerful, influential couple?
His exaggerated claims were perhaps the sole reason Laxus tolerated this.
But it wasn't like the other two weren't known to ruin things as well. Freed had a penchant for worrying perhaps a bit too much, were Laxus and Mirajane to be gone too long, while Evergreen saw it as only natural that she would drop by, frequently, because Elfman was dropping by frequently, and she was not going to allow him to poison them on her, oh no, not before she could poison them on him!
It was just hard.
To be alone.
Just the dragon and demon.
Outside of even her guild duties and his natural inclination for distanced jobs, they were just constantly being pulled in opposite directions and sometimes it felt like...like…
Maybe they didn't belong together.
That they were too different, that their life paths, their desires, didn't align enough, and they were never going to get everything just right.
But that couldn't be so, both Mirajane and Laxus knew, that night as his smile looked its most natural and her blue eyes shimmered, alight from the candles in the center of the table.
"I keep thinking," Mirajane remarked with a soft smile of her own, watching the slayer fill the wine glass before her at the table, "that someone's going to rush in. And ruin this."
"Not tonight, demon," Laxus insisted as, after filling his own glass, he moved to take claim the seat across from the woman. "It's just me and you. The whole night."
She still found that unlikely, but was always one to play into flights of fancy and if it was all going to end sooner or later, she hoped to spend as long as possible in the fantasy. The wine was sweet on her tongue and the dinner she'd cooked for them, seared meat and steamed vegetables, smelled delightful. It wasn't often that she got a day off and, when she was gifted one, it would hardly be her first choice to spend the majority of it in the kitchen, but to be sitting there then, for an early dinner on such an important night with her dragon, well, Mirajane was surely enjoying herself.
"It's our anniversary," Laxus continued after taking a swig from his own glass. A hard glint in his eye, he assured the woman, "I wouldn't let them ruin it."
"This," Mirajane added, "time."
Because it was hardly their first anniversary. It had now officially been five years of steady dating for the two. There'd been many important dates, nearly all ruined, but that was especially true of all their anniversaries. Whether marred by her well-meaning siblings, his knucklehead followers, or even just one of the other dimwits their guild association kept them in steady contact with, if it was important to the pair, then surely, someone would find a way to ruin it.
It had a certain charm to it. Maybe. Routine. Wash and rinse. They could hardly ever be alone, between his long sabbaticals and her jobs, but when they were, some hilarious situation would present itself and they'd have to sigh, knowing that this was merely the comedic timing was surely a blessing. Surely.
What was the alternative?
That her siblings, his friends, their associates were all attempting to break them up? Over the course of so much time? No way. That felt impossible. They'd become something of a staple, in recent times, and most everyone knew they were more than just the occasional date.
The universe then?
Perhaps cosmic justice?
For the two of them to be together, to belong together, in certain ways felt far too backwards and impossible, doomed from the start. Working mages weren't known for stable relationships. It was a hard life for the normal man, but for one of the recognition and stature of Laxus, well…
Mirajane wasn't nearly as foolish as she pretended. She worked in a guild that had seen the failure of many relationships. She'd bared witness to exactly where, if she and Laxus weren't careful, they'd end up.
And yet…
If it was all some sort of cosmic warning, an attempt at allowing them to avoid something far worse, then she rejected it. And she was certain her boyfriend did as well. If they were destined for flames, then the best they could due was suit up for the occasion. Leaving one another now felt far too messy, far too painful, and not at all what either of them desired.
Laxus frequently promised her, after all, that between the two of them, they would eventually get every single thing either's heart desired. He swore it. Two of the most powerful mages in the world? What the fuck couldn't they have?
A night alone, usually, but as dinner wore on and Mira found Laxus' eyes the only hers could find, it almost felt too picturesque. Like it was waiting to be ripped away from them at any time. As she lost herself more into her drink (and her dragon), she found herself allowing the night to truly sweep them up and it all felt like it was ending too soon.
"Dishes tomorrow," Laxus insisted up one of the most cardinal of sins and he could see the hesitance in the woman's eye, but he only tugged at her arm, as they rose from the table. "C'mon."
They spent a good hour, time that neither usually had, just sitting around in the slayer's living room, him smoking a cigar while she shifted through his extensive music collection, looking for the perfect thing for the lacrima. Then they shared the rest of the bottle, the woman full of giggles now and his grin was far easy to come by, and it was a nice night.
The best night, even, maybe, Mira thought, as it ended predictably, but also exactly when it needed to, as her eyes felt heavy and the morning was soon upon them, maybe, yet they were still alone.
They were still alone.
Just the two of them.
Mirajane thought she had too much to drink, especially knowing how much work she'd have to do the next morning after being off and entire day, but when she and Laxus found themselves settling, truly, into bed, she was also aware that it would give her the best dreams.
But it was difficult to drift off.
She and Laxus lay facing one another, not completely unusual for them, but while she huddled under the blankets, he only reached out to rest one hand on her cheek, gently stroking her soft, pale skin,.
"Tonight was perfect," he stated. Not questioned, no wondering, just informing her. Conferring. To make sure they were on the same page. "Happy anniversary."
"Are you gonna tell me how you did it?" she questioned. "Got the others to leave us completely alone?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"Your sister naturally is out on a job, your brother's been training most days so wouldn't be around the bar, which means neither would notice you taking the night off," he explained. "And I just told the Thunder Legion I had plans. Nothing else. Just wanted to be alone."
"Okay, but-"
"I didn't freak out," he went on, "about our anniversary. About getting the perfect gift or planning the perfect date. They seem to almost have forgotten about it, since I haven't brought it up. Which means your siblings, my friends, no one in the guild really knows it's our anniversary. Which means they won't bother us."
"I don't follow," she said with a gentle shake of her head.
"It's weird," he agreed, "But I think they all just subconsciously bother us when they know that we're busy. They can't help themselves. But if we don't let on to it-"
"You're evil," she teased, but he only grinned.
"I wanted you tonight," he explained, as if there was even a chance that she didn't understand that, didn't feel that exact same thing. "Only you."
Mira smiled sleepily at him and Laxus, after looking to pleased for the majority of the evening, suddenly had a cross look fall over his face. Recognizing it, Mira was just about to yawn through questioning what it was that was bothering him when the man shifted his forehead closer to rest on hers.
"I didn't want to do this today," he began and she almost pulled away, confused by the fact his tone seemed so intense when it hadn't been that way, at all, recently, "but-"
"Laxus-"
"Mira, I..."
And they both held their breath for a moment, Laxus knowing where he next words were intended to take him while the woman was completely in the dark. Or at least it felt that way. But as he nuzzled his forehead against her own, she felt foolish for feeling that way, especially as his next words fell from his mouth.
"I love you," he told her simply then, hardly any sort of shocking statement, given their lengthy relationship, but something about the way he spoke made her heart flutter, blinking into his dark eyes. His stilled against her cheek as he added, "More than I ever have anything. In my entire life. And… I want it to always be like this. With me and you. But I also know it can't be. That it has to be the way it usually is. With your brother and sister or our friends and it'll only get worse, probably, all the stress and hi-jinks, the further into this we go, I know it will, but fuck, Mirajane, recently I just… I always told myself that I was waiting for the right moment. For it all to come together perfectly. But every time I tried to put something together, either with your siblings help or without, or with the Thunder Legions assistance or without, it always falls apart and the moment has been right. I've had this damn ring on my person on five separate occassions across three years and each time-"
"Laxus." Her hand came up to grip the wrist of the woman he held her cheek with. "Are you-"
"Mirajane." He pulled back some, so they could both stare into one another's eyes perfectly. "Will you marry me?"
She laughed, once, but it sounded a bit strangled, forcing herself to sit up as she nodded her head, eyes welling with tears, happy ones, the slayer hoped, and he laughed, shoving up as well.
"Oh, the ring!" Mirajane jumped out of bed then, rushing over to a specific drawer in Laxus' half of the dresser, to retrieve it. "Where-"
"Uh, demon." And Laxus lost some of his joy, just sitting there now, incredulous as she easily pulled the sleek, little black box from where he'd hidden it under old underwear. "What are you doing?"
"What? Getting my ring, Laxus. What else-"
"How long," he questioned then as he rose as well, frowning, "have you know about it? And where it was? Mira-"
"Oh, Laxus, come on. I put your laundry away, silly." Then, cheeks flush, she tossed a hand and added, "Plus I'm just a snoop."
"Mirajane-"
"I've known every single time you were going to propose."
"Bullshit."
"The first time was right after you bought the ring," she took over then as she just held the box, closed, while addressing her dragon. "And you were going to have a big party and propose in front of all our friends, but then Lisanna and Evergreen were fighting about something and it caused a big blow up fight at the party and you chickened out. And then the next time, you took me on that surprise trip, up to that cabin, I guess to propose all alone, but Freed and Bickslow and Ever coudln't let that happen, much less Elfman and Lisanna when they found out about it, so they all teamed up to make sure they were at least there for it, even if they were visible, but they were visible everything became so hectic and-"
"Mira." Laxus reached out to take the box from her then, clutching it tightly as he asked, "If you knew that I was going to propose, but never had, for multiple years…. Then why did you stay with me?"
"Why wouldn't I?"
"If I thought someone was going to take something to the next step with me," he remarked with a heavy frown, "but they didn't go through with it every single time they were going to, I'd give up. Or at least I'd think a woman would. But you-"
"Staying in a relationship for five years, with no signs of a proposal, wouldda been a lotta work too," she pointed out. "And you thought I did that."
"Fine." He stood with a heavy look before her. "Then why did you do either?"
"Because I love you," she told him simply though, just as quickly, she was tapping a finger against her lip as she thought. "And I think, at least a little bit, that I wanted it too. That perfect proposal. That I could tell everyone about and shove in all the others faces."
"Uh-"
"But…" She sighed some, shaking her head. "I think I like this better. Just me and you. And only me and you. Sometimes, these past few years, it's felt like maybe...we weren't going to figure it out."
"Demon, I-"
"It's not your fault," she assured the man. "You're a mage. It's what you are. And a good one. I like that. I would never want to take that away."
"I don't want to take anything from you either," he was quick to say. "The bar is your life. I get that. And you do so much better than I do, making time for me."
"Dragon-"
"You do. You're the only person in my life that has ever gotten it. Truly gotten it. All of it." He took a step forwards then before kneeling, on one knee, and Mirajane bounced some, excitedly, as he flipped the top of the box open, present to her a ring that she'd more than tried on and examined in the time it had been in the man's possession. "Mirajane, will you marry me?"
"Yes, dragon, of course." And she snatched it from him then, the box, but Laxus was bounding up to take it back, a look on his face while she only giggled. Snagging the ring from where it sat, he moved to slip it on the appropriate slender finger, and Mirajane had never seen it before. In this light. With this meaning. This certainty. Softly, she assured him, "This is all I've ever wanted."
It wasn't quite. And he knew that. Mirajane liked big and elaborate. Special. Nothing was special about getting engaged in your bedroom at ten at night. It felt cheap and Laxus worried that, maybe, she might even resent that he hadn't gone through with the engagement, all those other times he had the chance, all those other big moments when he'd been able to give her the exact kind of story she'd always wanted, but as the woman's eyes came up from the engagement ring's diamond, they were alight, catching his own.
"Happy anniversary, Lax," she whispered as she reached out to wrap an arm around his neck, pulling him down some.
Allowing this, the slayer pressed a kiss first to her cheek before to her lips. And, when he pulled away, he was sure to add, "Happy anniversary, Mirajane."
I wasn't sure what I wanted to do for Miraxus Day and kinda just went with this. Hope you liked it.