Laxus heard from Wendy a couple of weeks later that there was a secret board with an extensive list of information about Gajeel's death, and he told his grandfather, and this led to an early-afternoon trip into the woods to an old house that had seen some recent improvements.
A sign in front had been edited crudely:
'Natsu and Happy,' had two edits burned in the wood under it, '+Lucy, +Layla.'
"That's cute," Makarov said as they approached.
"They should just get a new sign."
His grandfather answered, "Why are you such a boring person?"
Laxus felt his backpack wiggle, and when Caela climbed out of it onto his shoulder, he didn't stop her since they were far enough away from the city.
They knocked, and the door was opened by a tiny pink-haired girl.
"Hi."
"Are your mom and dad home?"
"Mommy is cooking. Daddy is busy." She lowered her voice and added, "He's pooping."
Lucy squawked and ran to the door, reminding her daughter both not to answer the door and that it wasn't nice to 'talk about pooping.' The fact the three-year-old said that part more quietly seemed to suggest Layla knew not to do it and did it anyway, out of either rebellion or pure anarchy.
Lucy said, "She's going through an unfiltered phase right now."
Laxus had a huge ball of fur on one shoulder, and she was going to ask, when Natsu came zipped by, grabbed his kid and wife and jumped back.
"There's a dragon!"
Laxus pointed to his shoulder.
Natsu tried to recover from the intense fear that suddenly sensing a dragon right outside his house where his wife and kid were caused him, and asked, "That…is a dragon?"
"She is six weeks old today. Her name is Caela," Makarov said.
"Is she dangerous?"
"Not even slightly," the old man answered.
The fire dragonslayer was surprised to learn that Laxus brought a dragon home and had been keeping it in his house since he returned. Even more surprising, no one told him about it although this seemed to be accidental.
"Can she talk?"
Laxus said, "She's learned some words."
Layla pointed. "It's a kitty, Daddy. A cloud kitty!"
Makarov impatiently said, "Let the babies play already! I need this cuteness in my life!"
Natsu frowned but very slowly lowered his daughter back to the floor as Laxus put the little dragon at his feet.
It was Caela's first time to meet a human child and Layla's first time to meet a dragon, so they approached cautiously until Layla threw her arms around the dragon and squeezed her quite tight.
"My name is Layla, and you're my friend now."
The little dragon said, "Caela."
It was the first time Laxus had heard her speak her own name before, and despite saying it correctly, it was possibly willfully mispronounced when the toddler repeated it..
"KYAAAAAla! Let's go!" she called, literally screaming the first syllable.
Unclear was where they were going or why, but being not that far from one another developmentally, Caela was more than okay with chasing the little human through the Dragneel house and then outside. It took about sixty seconds for the Dreyars to realize Layla Dragneel was a high-speed, high-noise agent of chaos with an unnatural amount of energy in her.
Lucy said, "You didn't come here for a play date, right? Wendy said she wanted to tell you about our board, and I said it was okay."
Makarov nodded. "I'd like to see what you've put together. There is a great deal that doesn't make sense."
She nodded and led them down the hall, assigning her husband to the duty of watching the 'the babies,' as Makarov called them.
The door to their basement was locked, and after she unlocked it and flipped on the lights, she led them down to a huge bulletin board with strings, pins, and notes all over it.
The blonde said, "For Levy's sake…maybe for everyone, we made this here. We don't want reminders to be everywhere. We want to remember Gajeel's life, and not just his death. But justice is important, and even if we try not to think about it, there's someone out there who killed one of us."
Lucy pointed to the board. "What happened at Sabretooth is linked to what happened to Gajeel. It's just ridiculous to think the events randomly happened on the same day. Yukino's body was found early in the morning on December 22, two years ago. That was only a few hours after winter solstice, which affects a lot of different types of magic, but that part could be a coincidence."
Makarov asked, "You have her spirits now, do they have any information?"
"Yukino didn't have her keys with her. Her spirits, two of which are strong enough to open their own gates like Loke, couldn't. Her keys were in some sort of state where they weren't able to pass through and aren't aware of what happened. Even if my spirits aren't in this world, they always know what's going on with me. There's a strong telepathic link, and according to Libra, something happened to cut that link.
"Yukino died, in an alley five blocks from Sabretooth. It's not like she was out in the wild like Gajeel. There were no signs of a fight, nothing. She was walking to a grocery store.
"Earlier that day, Rogue got into some fight outside the city. His blood was everywhere…and a lot of it, but only his and other scents had dissipated by the time Sting found either because it rained all day.
"What doesn't make sense about Yukino being gone is that before she died, her summoning magic was blocked by some unknown means, but there's no sign she really responded to it. If I suddenly felt my keys disconnect from me, or dropped them, I'd freak out immediately. And then, whoever killed her, did it one blow, right across the throat, with some sort of weapon that the authorities didn't recognize. It wasn't a knife."
Laxus thought for a minute and said, "How did you get her keys? I don't really know shit about your magic, but I know those gold keys are worth a fortune. Someone would just have to either not care at all about money to leave them behind."
Makarov shook his head. "Or they didn't want to get caught with them. Whoever turned up with her keys would be in a world of trouble."
Lucy said, "So late afternoon that same day, Gajeel has just finished a job in Clover. We don't think it's relevant or related—all he had to do was some metalwork to repair a city building Natsu burned down a while back. Axel was a newborn and it was his first job. He left Lily at home with Levy. It was a simple enough job. There and back. On the train ride home, while the train was on the bridge over Clover Canyon, the bridge collapsed. Not clear on how, we just know some blunt force broke the supports holding it up.
"The train falls, Gajeel manages to jump out a window and uses iron rods to suspend it from the side of the canyon instead of letting it crash to the bottom of the canyon, which definitely would have killed everyone. There were forty people on the train, so, he saved their lives. He makes an iron ladder they use to get down, and then wanders away from the group. His body was a mile from there."
Makarov asked, "How did he die?"
Lucy hesitated for a second then, and said, "There was some kind of wound to his spine. He was probably paralyzed by it. There are no signs he got into a fight or used any defensive magic. But he definitely lived for a little while between when he was paralyzed and when he actually died. His body was missing its heart."
Laxus said, "Shit. That's creepy. I don't know the other wizard, but that's not something Gajeel would allow an enemy to do. The idea of him getting stabbed is insane from the beginning. His skin wasn't like even mine or Natsu's even without the metal scales. Besides, he wasn't an idiot. He wouldn't turn his back on an enemy. This whole thing is bullshit."
The blonde nodded. "If you think about it like that, knowing Gajeel, it doesn't make sense. Here's what really doesn't work…if you were going to kill a dragonslayer, you'd have to know enough about them to get it done. Whoever killed Gajeel must have known every dragonslayers greatest weakness. So, why not attack him on the train?"
Makarov nodded. "You think Gajeel was killed by another dragonslayer."
"And that Yukino was killed by someone she knows. Someone walked up to her and slit her throat while standing in front of her," Lucy answered.
She took a step back from the board. "That's basically what we know."
Laxus said, "What's the working theory here?"
Natsu came down the stairs and said, "Rogue did all the killing. Sting doesn't want to hear it. I have no idea where he is now. No one has seen him in all this time, but there was never a body. Gajeel and Yukino wouldn't be on their guard around him. Yukino's keys might have been in his shadow right before she died."
Evil future Rogue was certainly proof Rogue was not without the ability to go all the way wrong if the situation was right. Killing Yukino seemed pointless, but pointless killing was reportedly a hallmark trait of the Rogue that almost was.
It was a very neat theory that tied everything together. That didn't make the theory correct, but it seemed more plausible than the idea Gajeel let a stranger stab him in the back.
Lucy said, "We didn't tell a lot of people about this. We were afraid it would cause fighting between the allied guilds. Sabretooth has mourned Rogue and Yukino. Sting basically lost it and had a really serious fight with Natsu over the idea. Gildarts and Wendy know. Natsu and I made a secret agreement with Jura to share information about Rogue. There hasn't been any. We also told Erza and Jellal, since they have a dragonslayer in their guild."
They stayed in the basement and went over some of the individual clues in greater detail for a while.
For Makarov, there was no understating the impact of Gajeel's death on Natsu. Growing up, Natsu's anger was like his fire—extremely hot and temporary. This was something else. Natsu had evidently been angry for a long time and kept this burden of justice close to him. Their lives all went on without Gajeel, but this they kept, locked up and secret from everyone else.
When they'd exhausted their questions, they headed back upstairs and locked the basement door again. It seemed odd to Laxus that something so dark existed under their house where their little child was, but he couldn't think of a place the board really belonged. It was basically a map of infinite confusion that struggled to explain why people were brutally murdered for no reason.
"It is really quiet up here…kind of suspiciously so," Lucy said.
Natsu called for his daughter, who came down the hall ahead of Caela, who was streaked in bright, colorful marker ink and covered in glitter. Layla had also drawn all over herself in marker and doused herself in craft glitter.
Laxus sight. "What in the…"
Caela was walking in a silly and proud sort of way, like she was genuinely happy to be a rainbow-streaked, sparkly mess.
Lucy stared daggers into her husband. "Natsu…what did I say?"
"I took the markers away. They're locked in the hall closet!"
Layla spun around and sang, "We're sparkly! Sparkly! Sparkly! The sparkle best friends!"
For good measure, and to emphasize her love of glitter, she reached into her pockets and threw two fistfuls of it into the air, but mostly at her parents.
Laxus was annoyed because he was envisioning having to give the little dragon a bath with her dislike of water, and Makarov was annoyed because he knew glitter was a curse—once it entered a house it could never be fully removed.
Lucy lowered her voice. "Layla, how did you get Mama's craft supplies?"
"KYAAALA! She went woosh! Cause she's a magical rainbow cloud! She gots it all from the closet."
Laxus wasn't sure whether to be horrified or deeply impressed that in the time they were downstairs, his baby dragon made friends with the human girl, established some form of communication with her, and then used her phase shift to obtain items Layla wanted so they could make this huge mess. It was an admirable accomplishment with terrifying results.
Lucy glared at them, and even Makarov flinched.
Natsu, who was covered in glitter asked, "Is the playdate over? It feels over to me."
When Laxus reached down to pick up the dragon, she backed away.
"It's time for us to go," he said.
Layla threw her body down on the ground. "KYAAAALA! Don't go!"
"Layla!" the dragon yelled back.
"You can't take her from me, she's my friend!" Layla screamed.
Laxus took the dragon even though she obviously wanted to keep playing with the human girl. It was the first time he was aware she was genuinely angry at him, and the Dragneel girl threw a full-on tantrum.
Makarov said, "Maybe a play date would make them happy."
"Next one is at your house," Lucy answered.
To Layla's credit, she'd tired the dragon out sufficiently so that as soon as they were gone, Caela just fell asleep in his bag. She spent the rest of the afternoon taking a nap in the living room, which gave Laxus time to pack for the job he was going on with the Thunder Legion.
It was his first job back, and he was anxious to get out and do wizarding work again.
A part of him was a little worried about how Caela was going to do without him, but he assumed she'd probably be fine. Besides, it was clear his grandfather intended to remedy her time with playdates so she could run wild with the Dragneel girl, who was arguably a bad influence.
He was happy she made a friend. As easy as it was to think of something that didn't look human as an animal or pet of some sort, dragons were more intelligent and powerful than humans were. It took humans a year to speak their first words, but she was quickly adding them to her vocabulary. She had hopes, dreams, feelings, and all sorts of things that went on with her, like her desire to stand up for herself against the neighborhood cat, or the dog that kept barking at her, or the ducks.
There was a growing fear he had that she'd think of him as her father. Take care of a little dragon? That was a lot. Being a dad? That seemed like a different issue. At the same time, he was starting to feel like life was going to force him into a position where he had to acknowledge her as his child who he cared about or severely damage her psyche, the same way his own father had done.
They were hurtling toward this point, and he wasn't sure how he could possibly not end up having to make that choice outside of distancing himself, which would have been just as hurtful. She was a baby, and a parent to a baby was whoever took care of them.
Around the time he finished packing, he heard the door downstairs and knew it was probably Wendy, there for her daily visit with the dragon.
He headed down and heard her burst out laughing.
"Caela, what happened to you? You're so colorful and sparkly!"
Makarov said, "She made friends with Layla. They made a bit of a mess."
"Layla!" Caela exclaimed, hearing her new favorite word.
Laxus said, "Do you and Layla need to scream each other's names? It seems just really unnecessary."
When he turned the corner, he froze mid-step for a second.
Wendy was all dressed up, her long pink hair curled, smoky eyes, pink lips, and gold high heeled sandals with little crystals around her ankles. Even though she was wearing a coat, it was short, and he couldn't see anything else, meaning whatever was under the coat was probably a very short dress.
She looked so damn pretty he almost didn't know what to do.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"Out."
"What do you mean, 'out?'"
Makarov cringed. "Why are you this awful at talking? Tell her she's beautiful and leave her alone. She can go where she wants because she's young, attractive, and single."
Laxus really didn't want to make an ass out of himself, which he seemed to be really good at doing. He seriously believed that if Wendy wasn't such a kind and patient person, she'd hate him. Some part of him wanted to know what she had on under the coat, and where she was going, and what she was going to do when she got there, and if she was going with someone else.
As his grandfather pointed out, he wasn't really allowed to be nosy about her business.
Caela laid there and tiredly ate bites of dried pineapple from Wendy's hand, transferring glitter to her coat and legs.
Makarov usually found an excuse to leave them alone, but this time he did not, a sign he knew Laxus was thinking of misbehaving.
"Sorry about the glitter," Laxus said.
Makarov nodded. "I'll be dead before we find it all."
Wendy smiled. "I kind of like it. It's almost magical, the way something so common can reflect so much color and light. In a world that's so ordinary, it always shines. Besides, sometimes a girl likes to sparkle. Caela knows it too."
Laxus decided to change the subject because really, not looking at those bare legs with her heels was a chore when the glitter was pulling his gaze downward.
When she left, he sulked a little and then saw a single gold sequin left behind on the sofa where she'd been sitting. This meant that under that coat, Wendy was wearing something covered in sequins and probably far glitterier than the little dragon.
He stared at it for a while, pondered his options, and then went upstairs, where he found some dress pants and a nice shirt, even a tie. He wiped a smudge off his designated funeral shoes, stuffed a wad of cash in his pocket, and put a little product in his hair.
Just as he headed down, his grandfather was getting a pouring some whiskey in the living room.
"You should stay home and drink with me."
"Why?"
"Because stalking is an unattractive quality. I'm not even sure how you're still on her good side. At this point, you're floating on her immeasurable natural grace and kindness. If you like her, do something about it," he said.
Laxus waved off his concerns and left, following her scent through the city.
It led to an event hall downtown, on the bottom floor of Magnolia's only nice hotel. There was a banner out front saying it was a benefit for Fiore's orphans, so he didn't feel too bad when they asked for ten thousand jewel to buy a ticket in.
Laxus recognized a number of the people there as some of the wealthiest residents in the area of maybe five or six cities. There were also tons of wizards from all over the place.
The person who took to the mic was Ichiya, the leader of this charitable organization that had evidently come into being during the time he was out of the country.
It was a competition between local guilds, except instead of having them fight, they did ballroom dance.
The idea was incredibly stupid to Laxus, but people who weren't wizards were incredibly preoccupied with the world of magic. This event brought out people with tons of money who would gladly give it to see this trainwreck of an idea playing out. This seemed like something very Ichiya in nature—silly-sounding yet incredibly effective.
Laxus ordered a drink and took a seat at a small table upstairs where he could look down at the chaos as it unfolded. At this, an apparent-region level stage of the seasonal charity competition, people from local guilds had been woefully mismatched with people from other guilds based on scores. This meant watching Hibiki and Minerva attempt to dance when it was clear Minerva wanted to drag him through every ditch in Fiore.
He picked up a familiar scent and turned to find a certain scarlet-haired wizard approaching him.
"Long time no see," Erza said.
"I was surprised to hear you jumped ship," he said.
She sat at his table and said, "I was surprised to hear you came back. You're well?"
"Fine. The old geezer too. You should drop by and visit him. You got kids or whatever? I feel like everyone has been doing that lately," he said.
"Not yet. I think there are some merits to just not doing that immediately because it's possible."
His drink arrived, and he took a sip of the martini. "A source told me something bad is going to happen in this country in the spring."
"Who?"
"The ghost of an old dragon. I don't know much other than that, but Jellal runs in different circles. You guys hear anything?" Laxus asked.
She shook her head. "It's been calm. I'm sure you've already heard about the only real disturbance in the magic world."
"Gajeel. It doesn't make any fucking sense."
Erza said, "Jellal and I are aware of Fairy Tail's suspicions that Rogue killed him."
"Do you agree?"
"No. Rogue fought with someone that day, and it seems like everything that came after that was a result of whatever that was. Sting has a big problem with Natsu for even thinking that. I think he would have been more adversarial to Fairy Tail if he didn't have a certain calm voice to talk him out of all that anger," she replied.
Laxus' face crinkled in distaste. "I'm still going to bust his ass for that Wendy business."
"Why?"
"Have we been apart so long that you think I need a good reason to crater somebody who gets on my nerves?" he asked.
She reached over and at the olive from his drink, then stabbed the metal pick into the table between his fingers. "Laxus."
"What?"
"Set a better example. The guild is counting on you," she answered.
He smirked. "That a threat?"
"I've grown quite strong. All this time you've been gone, we've all been getting stronger," she answered.
"I've been training with the old man. I'd destroy you," he taunted.
Erza said, "I'm a proper adult, so your childishness doesn't bother me. It's honestly just sad at this point."
Laxus' smirk widened to the point she could see his fangs. "I heard Gray put you down during the Grand Magic Games. It might be time for you to take a step back and enjoy that plateau you've hit. I mean, let's be honest, you took the 'my magic is changing clothes' thing about as far as you could."
"Silence, Laxus. Stop taunting me or I'm going to give you what you seem to be asking for."
He laughed. "I thought my childishness wasn't going to bother you."
She glared, and he laughed a little more until she shook her head. "You've grown up a lot. I can see it in your eyes even if the same tired garbage is still coming out when you open your mouth."
Laxus looked down at the dancefloor. "Do you and Jellal Number 3 take part in this nonsense?"
"What do you mean, Jellal Number 3?"
"There are so many, I have to give them numbers."
Erza's scowl deepened. "We do. We've already been eliminated. Considering this operation is basically the brain child of Blue Pegasus and the Thunder Legion, I'd think you'd be on board with it."
"My team did this? How unnerving."
"Mostly Evergreen. It's one of the most successful charities in the country, you know. This money builds orphanages."
Laxus said, "I mean, of course my team did it. I'm a little surprised I wasn't invited or…even told about this. I see all of them all the time. It just seems odd that I was left out."
"Maybe they didn't trust you to behave. Natsu was officially disinvited from these things, you know."
It wasn't hard to imagine that happening at all. Literally anyone who had ever known Natsu could guess why that might be a problem.
He mainly assumed the omission had come via Wendy, as he talked to her more than the others and she had become the de facto leader of the Thunder Legion in his absence.
"Is Wendy competing in this thing?"
"Wendy is was part of the team that won the whole competition last year."
"Wendy? Wendy Marvell, the one from Fairy Tail. Is a champion wizard ballroom dancer or whatever."
Erza said, "People learn to do things besides drink and fight."
When Hibiki and Minerva finished with Hibiki dropping Minerva on her face, Erza said, "I'm deeply concerned for his safety."
"No chance she doesn't punch him out," Laxus answered.
"He has it coming. How clumsy."
"Let's be fair. Minerva is probably one of those women who looks light but actually weighs a ton. That's just a lot more woman than you'd think Hibiki knows what to do with."
Erza nodded. "From my battle with her, I think that's true. She's…dense. I'd bet she weighs more than Natsu. Definitely more than Hibiki. But why are we having this awful conversation?"
"I don't know. You wanted to talk about how fat Minerva is, right? How catty of you."
Erza gave him a very hard pat on one shoulder. "It's been nice catching up. I'll see you around."
Laxus said, "You can always come back if things don't work out with Jellal Number 3. Probably plenty more where he came from."
All in all, the event was actually incredibly entertaining mayhem.
The night dragged on, with speeches about building orphanages and good work for good causes, bad jokes, and baskets filled with money floating around the room.
He was minding his own business when another person approached his table, and sat down without asking.
"Wild…eh?"
It was Bacchus Groh, one of the few wizards Laxus genuinely despised. Early on in his wizarding career, they'd almost been rivals. There was a long list of grievances between them, and while Laxus had long surpassed him in strength, he had not outgrown his contempt.
Laxus, now on his fourth martini, said, "Do you want something?"
"Surprised to see your face. Didn't think we'd meet again."
"Likewise. Did you miss your appointment with cirrhosis to annoy me?"
Bacchus, who was wearing a tux, smirked. "Why the bad attitude?"
"The last thing I remember about you is when you told Elfman if he beat you in the Grand Magic Games, you wanted to fuck both his sisters."
"Lighten up. It was obviously a joke. That demon girl would have peeled my skin off and made a man-suit out of it, yes?"
Laxus said, "Best case scenario. Why are you even talking to me?"
Bacchus answered, "I noticed something about my partner when we were practicing. She's so defensive of you. I guess she's got a little crush on you or something. I was telling her about the good old days and she made me promise not to say anything bad about you. How sweet is that?"
There was a cracking sound and when Laxus put his glass down, Bacchus could see Laxus had actually taken a bite right out of it and spat the bite-shaped chunk of glass back into his drink.
"Wendy?"
"We won the whole thing last year. You know, for the kids. It's just all I can do for those poor helpless babies. Looks like we're on track to win again. I feel lucky. She's real good at moving that body. Gives a man a lot to think about."
At this point, Laxus assumed not inviting him had actually been a deliberate effort probably spearheaded by Freed, who knew his exact thoughts on Bacchus.
Bacchus handed him a clipboard and said, "You should join our sponsor list. For the kids. You basically pledge what you'll give if we win tonight. I wrote your name down already. Should I just write a zero down because you're probably a broke joke? Wendy will see that you hate kids."
"Wendy already knows I hate kids, so it wouldn't surprise her."
He pointed to his own name. "But look at all the hard-earned money I'm giving."
Laxus snatched the pen and scribbled a number down that was more than he planned on spending for the next month. "I'm going to kick your ass so hard, you know that, right?"
"I'd love to stay and chat, but I have to go. Can't be late."
When he first saw Wendy, he felt a little dizzy at the sight of her in the strapless, tight gold sequin dress with its little tasseled bottom that was hardly much of a skirt at all. Of course she knew he was there; their connection meant she'd known he'd been there all along. She hadn't come to talk to him, which was probably a sign she wasn't happy.
She was really good at dancing.
Like really good.
Bacchus was too, which Laxus was never, ever going to acknowledge to anyone. He handled her like he was familiar doing so, and it made his blood boil, and at one point he dipped her low and she wrapped one of her legs around him. Bacchus made sure to look up at him, just to piss of the lightning wizard a little more. Both Laxus and Bacchus knew Bacchus was going to pay for what he was doing in blood, but it was still so much fun he wasn't willing to stop.
It was just incredibly uncomfortable for Laxus to watch even though everyone else enjoyed it. Wendy and Bacchus were better than everyone else was and if the numbers on the clipboard were any indicator, they were good at raising money.
Watching Bacchus throw Wendy's body around like he owned it was irritating to him on a fairly deep level, no matter how irrational it was.
Once they were done, and had received their winning score, Wendy headed up to where he was. Their dance was the last event of the night, so the event started to wind down and people started to file out as she joined him.
"Were you all just not going to tell me?" he asked.
Wendy sat down in the chair previously occupied by both Bacchus and Erza and looked down at his glass. "It seemed like the right thing to do for everyone. How did you find out?"
"I followed you."
She gave him a rather bewildered stare. "I don't mean any offense when I say this, but I just need you to understand that you're acting like a child who doesn't want to play with a toy but can't stand the idea of anyone else having touching it. I'm not a toy. I'm your friend."
Laxus asked, "Sorry. I just have a lot of feelings that don't make sense to me. You left a sequin at my house and I decided I wanted to see what you were wearing. I don't know why you're so fucking cute or how you got that way. You have all these assholes in orbit around you, and I just…I don't like it. I know it's irrational, but it's how I feel."
He considered it great fortune that she was the kindest, most patient, and most understanding person that he knew. That also probably explained why she got so much attention as others tried to make that their own fortune.
They were interrupted by Ichiya, who approached their table. "Miss Wendy, when you have a moment, Hibiki requires the attention of a skilled healer."
Wendy nodded. "I'm coming."
She walked off and he wasn't sure if she was going to come back. The event was over, she was obviously unhappy with him, and she probably had other things to do.
He wondered if she was frustrated because he felt like he was treating her like a toy, or if it was because she wanted him to play with her rather than just being mad about others wanting to do so.
Probably the former.
Definitely the former.
He filled out a bank charge authorization with the charity workers so they could hit his bank account for the money he'd promised and started to walk home, hands in his pockets.
Wendy's entire life had essentially been one long series of disappointments: losing her human parents, getting dumped alone in the future, wandering with Jellal 1, aka Mystogan, who eventually left her at a village of people she thought of as her friends but turned out to be imaginary. From there, she found out her dragon mother had been inside of her all along, but was also dead. Her best human friend more or less loss the ability to use magic to save her, her Exceed died, and arriving successfully somehow at adulthood, she was entrapped by a magical accident that made it impossible to love anyone except one single person even though lots of men could see how incredible she was.
Assholes, bastards, and unworthy, the lot of them. At least, to Laxus.
He heard a strange rhythm and felt her approach, running in her heels.
When she was just a few feet from him, she tripped on the uneven cobblestone path and went flying forward.
Laxus caught her and set her up right. "Who catches you when you trip when I'm not around?"
"The ground. I'm better than I used to be."
"You forget your coat?"
Wendy looked down and nodded. "I was in a hurry to catch you."
"I'm going to need an explanation about how Thunder Legion and Ichiya figured out how to rob rich people with such a weird and stupid idea," he answered.
Wendy walked alongside him and said, "It started with Evergreen. She wanted to learn how to dance, so she signed her and Elfman up for lessons, but she fired him as her partner."
"Why?"
"Because he is Elfman. So, I thought it would be fun and we went together. It was our girls night out and we had so much fun, but we tended to get a lot of attention, and Bixlow said people would probably pay to watch wizards trying to dance. Then Freed said it might be a good way to raise money for the less fortunate. Then we brought in Ichiya because he's just so good at making things happen. We've raised a lot of money. There are kids who have a safe place to sleep tonight because we're willing to maybe look a little silly sometimes."
The idea of Elfman trying to do anything requiring a high degree of physical grace and precision was ridiculous. Evergreen firing him and partying with another girl was purely an Evergreen thing, and Laxus could only imagine that would get some attention.
On second thought, the insanity was pure Thunder Legion—weird and fun and incredibly elite in its own way.
Wendy said, "It's actually really hard work and it takes a lot of practice."
"Whose idea was it not to tell me?"
"Your grandfather's. I knew you had bad blood with Bacchus, but Master thought you'd probably misbehave and ruin everything," she answered.
"He knew?"
"He's one of my sponsors."
Laxus said, "So I need to learn to dance?"
"You seem like you might have the same problem as Elfman. It's okay if you don't."
He smirked. "That may be the rudest thing any human being has ever said to me. You basically just looked me in my face and told me you think I'm a clumsy dumbass."
He grabbed her by the hand and twirled her like he'd seen the dancers do. "See? I'm a fast learner."
"I'm fast too," she said, smiling at him.
For a second, he wasn't sure what she was talking about, but it only took that first second for him to notice the affects of what she'd done. When he spun her, she slipped the charm off his finger.
"What are you doing?"
Wendy threw it in the river they'd been walking along and said, "Something about winning makes me feel really confident and brave. I feel invincible. Don't you ever feel brave?"
Laxus looked her over and felt his heart start to beat a little faster. "Is that what you want? For me to want you?"
"I can feel how you feel. It pulls at me. We're adults. Can't we just be honest about where we are? I actually really like you as a person, but you're really frustrating me. I want to feel a certain kind of way, and you're the only person who can ever give me that. And you just…won't. And I don't understand because I think you want to."
He put a hand on her face, leaned down, and kissed her.
It seemed like the right thing to do and wasn't nearly as awkward as he expected it to be.
Her lips were soft, and a little sticky from lip gloss. Her breath smelled a bit like she'd had a drink too, and she seemed to melt when their lips touched.
What he was not expecting was that this single act was akin to opening pandora's box, because what he'd had trapped in there was apparently the side of him that wanted to cut off Sting's hands and burn Bacchus to ash. It was primal, powerful, and left him feeling like electricity was flowing through his body in some other way than it normally did.
Wendy sort of collapsed at the knees, so he had to hold her up.
It scared him, because feelings, but it emboldened her, because feelings.
Yet it felt so good he couldn't bring himself to fight it.
His fingers slid through her silky hair as she embraced him after the kiss.
"Wow," she whispered. "Can we talk?"
He nodded. "Let's head back to our place. The old geezer and the Caela are probably asleep."
Wendy hugged on his arm while they walked, seemingly gleefully happy. He really felt the same way but had no idea how to express it. In some ways, his spirit felt lighter, and in other ways, he felt a heavy urge to do all sorts of things. He knew she felt the same way, because he was picking up a weirdly tingly heat from her that he hadn't felt before.
Once they got home, he asked, "You want coffee?"
"It's after midnight."
Laxus said, "Whiskey?"
"I'm a girl."
They sat together in the living room, in silence at first.
Laxus said, "Going slow seems like a good idea."
"Is that really what you want?"
"I mean, right now I'm so horny I can barely think, but that's your fault. Trying to be a mature adult."
Wendy crossed her legs and sulked a little, and he could tell she wasn't happy.
"Are you mad? You're the one who took the stupid ring off."
"Why is this the only time you want to be a mature adult? Would it really be bad if we just got a little swept away?" she asked.
Laxus swallowed nervously. "This seems reckless. I'm a reckless person, and this seems like the danger zone."
"You're actually overly-careful when it comes to your feelings and relationships. Just reckless with the stuff that doesn't matter. I'm the opposite. I've shared my feelings with so many people that I'll never see again because they're gone. But I'm not sorry I loved any of them. I won't be sorry I loved you, unless you decide you can't love me back."
Wendy felt like if they could just clear this hurdle, things would work out. She and Laxus already had a sense of intimacy most humans didn't even have an understanding of, so it wasn't like they had secret feelings. She had so much faith in Laxus both as a friend and as a man, and knew he was acting out because he couldn't express himself toward her correctly.
While she didn't know from personal experience, sexual intimacy was obviously a powerful driving force in human relationships. It was probably the only way to break through the endless walls Laxus build around himself and get to his actual heart.
Besides, she really did feel some intense urges toward him. The kiss had been enough to leave her wanting more…wanting everything. All at once. If the situation were any different, she might resist, but since she and Laxus were trapped and there was never going to be someone else she should have saved herself for, it was easier to justify not hitting the brakes.
Laxus pondered on whether or not it was a good idea to go along with Wendy and decided that while he felt a little uneasy, he did want to. He could tell she wanted to have some passionate experience with him and he didn't want to deny her after he wasted so much of her emotional bandwidth and patience. It was something he wanted too. Desperately wanted it, even.
Laxus nodded and leaned down to kiss her again and was somehow astounded that his body seemed to be pre-programmed with instructions about what to do. He'd always assumed that the actual touching would be awkward and would require a great deal of planning and concentration, but now that it was actually happening, he was on autopilot and only had to enjoy to burn as their hands and lips worked.
When he stood up, she jumped and put her legs around him, and they bounced off the walls on the way to the stairs.
It was an accident, but he tore her dress while trying to force it to show him more of her, and then once it was ruined he just decided to ruin it all the way and ripped it with his hands, sending the sequins all over the kitchen.
He carried her upstairs and was relieved to find no dragon in his room, a sign she was probably crashing with his grandfather.
Clothes and shoes went flying everywhere, and they moved together as their dragon magics seemed to flow together. It was similar to what they'd experienced while mixing blood but amplified greatly by the fact that they were physically entangled at the same time.
Once it was over, he fell asleep almost instantly, leaving Wendy to stare down at him in shock.
She sighed and pulled the sheet up to cover him.
Laxus seemed to be sleeping so peacefully, and there was a certain innocent boyish charm about him like this.
He was sleeping with his hand on her bare hip, a strange sight for someone who knew him to be generally averse to any kind of physical contact. Once he'd had it, it was like he couldn't get enough and she would have sworn with all the touching she'd felt that he was somehow an octopus and had grown tons of extra hands just to put them all over her.
Then he started snoring and the cuteness of his sleep diminished quickly.
It was dragonslayer snoring too, quite loud and gross, and accentuated by a distinct growl.
"Well, that got old fast…"
He was dead to her in a deep sleep, and she wanted to stay up all night and talk, or maybe make love again.
Even calling his name didn't work.
When she tried to get out of the bed, his grip on her tightened and he pulled her against him.
Wendy sighed and pushed him off, and he opened his eyes.
"Why are you beating me up? Was I bad or something?" he grumbled in a half-asleep daze.
"No, you were fine. It was good. It was really good. I mean, I don't have anything to compare it to, but I liked it a lot. You rolled off of me and lost consciousness immediately."
He sat up and looked around. "I don't remember that."
"I thought we would talk afterward."
"We didn't? It seems rude that I'd just go to sleep. Are you sure we didn't?"
Wendy rolled onto her side facing him and said, "We did not talk. You climaxed and fell asleep."
Laxus reached out for her and pulled her close. "So what did you want to talk about?"
"Us?"
His hand moved from her hip to her derriere. "Actions speak louder than words."
They had another round, this one slower and sweeter, and while she appreciated Laxus in a mood that was more sweet than desperately hungry…
One minute after, he was snoring again.
For a while, she sat there and wondered if this was an actual health problem, although she hadn't read about any kind of sex-induced sleep disorder all her years of studying medicine as a healer. More likely than not, this was just a Laxus problem.
Wendy still felt wired and incredibly energized, happy about this new development in her life but unable to discuss it with Laxus because he seemed to be physically incapable of remaining conscious after sex and could only wake up to have more sex, and then fall asleep again.
Since she was too excited to sleep, her mind ran in circles continuously while Laxus snored like some sort of monster. Her imagination ran wild with all the potential their relationship now had, and after thinking out a thousand different things, she managed to settle down and fall asleep.
XXX
Makarov came downstairs the next morning holding a groggy looking baby dragon in his arms, and found his grandson making breakfast.
"How did your stalking adventure go last night? Probably not well."
Laxus glared at him. "Did you not hear anything last night?"
"I was drunk. I put the hatchling under a sleep spell. She threw a fit without you. Did something happen?"
There was a squeak on the stairs and Wendy came down, wearing one of Laxus' shirts and a pair of track pants she'd rolled up as she carried her heels in one hand. At the sight of Makarov, she became instantly embarrassed, as she knew he usually woke up much later and wasn't expecting him to see her slipping out of the house.
Makarov looked at her, and at the remains of the gold sequin dress hanging over one of the chairs at their table. Then back at his grandson, then at Wendy.
Wendy tried to find some excuse she could tell him, but there was no explaining away her dress getting ripped up and her being at their house all night.
She nervously laughed. "Master, please don't say whatever you are about to say."
"But-"
"Leave her alone, geezer," Laxus warned.
Laxus pointed to his pan of eggs. "You want breakfast?"
"I want…to escape?" Wendy anxiously answered.
"We'll meet at the train later for work?"
She nodded.
Laxus put the pan down, walked across the kitchen, and kissed her on the cheek. "Later then."
She smiled at him and fled as quickly as possible, hoping to avoid being seen wearing Laxus' clothes by anyone else that she knew.
Makarov, hugged the baby dragon and exclaimed, "My grandson finally made it with a woman! I never thought this day would come!"
"Stop that…she understands a lot of what she hears."
Laxus already had a bowl of fruit ready for Caela and when Makarov put her on the floor to eat it, rather than eating like a dog like she had been, she used one of her claws to pick up the food and hold onto it while she ate and eventually sat up on her hindquarters so she could use both of her front claws at once.
Makarov clapped his hands together. "Has your life changed?"
"I have a girl now, so I guess?"
"Were you good to her?"
"Mind your own business."
His grandfather said, "It took you long enough. I was starting to think you were really going to die a virgin. Thank goodness Wendy is such a sweet girl. I don't know how much pity it took, but I know it was a lot."
Laxus made two plates of eggs and got two beers from the fridge. "Anyway, I did have something I need to ask you about."
"I'm listening."
"Is it normal to fall asleep? Like right after its over?"
Makarov stared at his grandson. "You mean in the time when a woman wants to tell you every secret she's ever had?"
"I mean, I don't know what she wanted to do. I was asleep."
"What kind of idiot are you?" he said, slinging a rubbery arm out to smash him right on top of the head. "How am I going to get great-grandchildren from such a useless moron? Intimacy for a man is about the sex. Intimacy for a woman is about the time after when you talk. You can't not attend that part of the ceremony. It's not optional."
His grandfather went on, ranting wildly, "I can't even imagine that poor girl, after trying to help a dumbass like you figure out what goes where, and then you fall asleep on her when she's ready to share her heart. Worst of all, I know how you sleep, like some sort of rabid animal, growling with your mouth open! Not cute! You bring shame to our family name with this stupidity!"
"This is what brings shame to the Dreyar name? It seems odd that this would be the issue. I seem to remember doing some things that were definitely worse than this," he argued.
Makarov rolled his eyes. "I'm tired of you. I'm also retired and bored. Go make some babies so I can have something to do with myself. You're honestly getting a little old to be getting all granddaddy's time and attention."
Laxus went on to a different subject and said, "I've decided I'm going to learn to dance. For the orphans."
His grandfather just laughed at him and answered, "Yeah right. You and Elfman!"
The way his grandfather kept laughing continually, and in spells, seemed to suggest he thought his grandson would be especially terrible at dancing. The mere thought of it left him hysterical with laughter as his grandson quickly ate his beer and eggs, a Dreyar family staple.
Laxus put both of his elbows on the table and gave his grandfather two middle fingers. "Thanks for all your support."
"You're supposed to be in a happy mood."
"That's just for Wendy. She makes me happy. What do you do? You're still the same moldy old sack of piss as always," he answered.
His arm went rubbery again so he could pinch Laxus cheek. "That's my grandson. Found himself a girl, and she is incredible. Sweet, understanding, patient, and gorgeous on top of that. She's out of your league, but you made it happen. I'm so proud!"
Caela went to Makarov's chair. "Gramps!"
"Come here, baby girl."
"She calls you Gramps now?"
Makarov nodded. "We had a good time without you. You left her when it was bedtime and she's still pissed. She's probably going to have a rough time when you're on this job."
Laxus frowned. "Caela, you want to hang out with me for a bit?"
"Layla!"
The old man laughed. "Rejected! She wants to go play with her friend."
"I'm the reason you're here, how are you going to do that?" he asked.
His grandfather only kept laughing. "…said every parent ever, since the beginning of time, when their kids act like little shits."
Laxus put his dishes in the sink and said, "Fine. I'm leaving early if that's how it's going to be. There's something I have to take care of before we go."
He dressed and left with his travel bag, tracking a scent toward the train.
Bacchus had his bags and was less than two blocks from the train station when he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
A lightning bolt hit him so hard he was left stumbling back, and then there were fists. Not fists intent on winning a battle, as Laxus had overcome Bacchus long before. They were fists of punishment. Bacchus was left in a Bacchus-shaped hole in the middle of the street, his fingers twitching from electric shock.
Laxus took a swig from his gourd, stepped on the back of his neck and said, "Now I feel better."
Bacchus picked himself up as the dragonslayer was walking away. "W-Wild…?"
"Fuck off and get out of my town before I use your drunk ass to ring the bell in the Cathedral."
Satisfied that he'd repaid Bacchus for provoking him, he took a deep breath and decided things were finally looking up for him. Being someone who now had sex filled him with a strange sense of optimism and an eagerness to see Wendy again.
When he turned, he found Erza walking up the street with a cart full of luggage.
He knew she could tell what he'd done, and she knew they'd had some fights in younger days. She seemed displeased, and as she passed by, she requipped some horrible armor he'd never seen and punched him in the stomach so hard he crumpled to the ground, almost threw up, and couldn't breathe.
"Just a little reminder from the plateau that you need to grow up," she said.
Knocking the wind out of a dragonslayer was actually quite a feat, so he wasn't even really that pissed that she did it. With the first breath he was able to take, he said, "Impressive."
"Thank you."
"If you want to slap me around, you can just come back to Fairy Tail," he gasped, rubbing his abdomen where he knew he was going to get a massive bruise. "Because fuck…that was painful. Wow."
His bruised ribs protested as he stood, and Erza gave him a slight smile and said, "I'm glad you're back, Laxus."
"You just tried to punch a hole in me with your first."
"How was I going to do that if you never returned?"
Laxus asked, "Fair enough. I have to go. I have a job to do now that I have bruised ribs and lungs and insides."
"Wendy will fix it. She cares about everyone too much to let anyone suffer, even when they deserve it."
When he realized she was leaving town without seeing his grandfather, he said, "But really, the old man isn't mad you left, Erza. He's happy you're happy. Don't be like that. Go talk to him."
"I left Fairy Tail. After you were gone, and master. Gildarts had become the master so except for Mirajane, the whole S-Class roster was gone. I know it hurt the guild. Weakening the guild might have played a role in what happened."
Laxus said, "Is that what this is about? Gajeel didn't die because you left. He died because someone fucking murdered him. End of story. If you'd been sitting in the guild when it happened, he'd still be gone. Everyone feels responsible for what happened."
Erza hesitated and then looked back the way she'd come. "I have missed Master. I guess you're right."
"I have to go find Wendy because I think I have some internal bleeding. See you round. And when you get to my house, stay calm. No swords please—we know a monster lives there. And don't tell anyone."
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Thanks to Lustwell for taking time to review! You're awesome, and I'm glad you're enjoying.