At three months, the relationship became the longest Laxus had ever had. Strangely enough, it was the only one that hadn't involved sex, which made him wonder at times if all the people who told him to get to know a girl first were actually right.

It was precisely three months after the ball that Laxus was limping along the street in Magnolia at three in the morning, thinking about how three months before, he'd been laid out on the hill sipping champagne with the woman who had been the biggest surprise of his life.

Bandages were wrapped around most of his body and his skull, and he stopped at an intersection. He hadn't been injured so badly since the final battle of what was being called The Great Fairy War, the chaos that destroyed an empire, the world's greatest dark wizard, and the 'king of the dragons.'

God, they'd all been so bloody in the end...

Pain wracked his body as he took fifteen more steps and used the last of his energy to leap from the sidewalk to a window ledge. He'd never broken in before, but he didn't want to bother her. He just wanted to see her face—God, he'd missed her.

Lucy sensed him and opened her eyes to find him beaten to hell in her windowsill.

He braced himself, waiting for the high-pitched, loud outburst, but her eyes had nothing but love and concern. "Hey..."

"Laxus, you already broke in. You might as well come all the way in."

When he jumped down from the window, he crumbled on the ground and winced. "Shit..."

"What happened to you?! Who did this to you?!"

The dragon slayer sat up on the edge of her bed and teased, "Why, do you plan on avenging me?"

The blond scowled at him. "I was feeling like being nice, but now that I know you have enough energy to be a jerk, I know YOU HAVE ENERGY TO GET OUT OF MY APARTMENT, YOU CREEPY BEDROOM INTRUDER!"

He laughed, and immediately thereafter threw up blood on her carpet and nearly fainted. "S-Sorry...I'll go..."

Lucy threw her arms around him, which was as welcome as it was painful. "Laxus, you're really banged up this time. You don't need to go anywhere. You're going to stay here with me."

"Trust me to spend the night?" he asked.

"You're hardly up for that," she answered with a roll of her eyes as she started to undress him. First she took off his coat, then his boots and socks, then his shirt.

There was a brief flash of mischief in his eyes. "I could be 'up' if I had to. If you said you needed it and couldn't wait another moment."

Lucy roughly tugged at his pants in a way she knew aggravated his abdominal injuries a little. "...but I didn't, did I?" she asked as she pulled them off and scowled at a deep cut on his calf.

"Or I could just let you be on top."

The blonde dismissed him. "I'm developing an immunity to how childish you are, have you noticed that?"

"I did. You have learned the pattern of your enemy and adapted accordingly. It's impressive," he answered. "I am adapting too. I'll just find new ways to get under your skin."

"Lay back now and stop talking until I'm done," she said after she gathered her first aid supplies.

Laxus smirked. "I'll be saying that to you pretty soon."

Lucy sighed. "I still can't figure out why I miss you."

The blonde scrubbed and put clean bandages on every bloody wound on his body. She was lending him strength, not pity. She understood the bandages now led to victories tomorrow. She understood him, and this that she was doing? It was the practice of being his.

"You don't have to handle me so gently," he sarcastically commented, "but you do."

"You don't have to crawl through my window half dead at three in the morning," she answered in a voice that sounded sweet but actually was not at all, "but you do."

Wearing nothing but bandages and boxers, he watched her turn out the light as she crawled back into the bed with him in her blue pajamas.

Laxus ran his bandaged fingers through her hair but quickly went to sleep.

When he woke up, it was raining hard outside and Lucy was in the living room reading a book. There was a stack of clothes there, undoubtedly from one of his teammates.

Lucy gave him a quick kiss, but she noticed that he was extremely quiet as he moved about. He showered, and he seemed lost in thought when she was re-dressing his wounds, which had improved quite a lot overnight. It was pretty easy to see something was on his mind, but she didn't press it. Laxus wasn't afraid to say what he thought, so if he held his words, there was usually a good reason.

She made him a sandwich, which he ate, and then he looked around the apartment for awhile almost like he was avoiding her.

Then Laxus saw the Castille game on the floor and asked, "You play?"

Lucy looked at the little table with different colored and shaped pieces. "Natsu and I play all the time. I always beat him."

"Defeating Natsu in a battle of wits is not necessarily noteworthy." Laxus sat on the floor with a wince. "You ready for a real opponent, little girl?"

She took her place with a confident smile. "When I beat you, you can't blame your silly little injuries."

"I'm glad being impaled and being stabbed in the liver are now 'silly little injuries.' I was worried for a minute there," he commented.

While they were playing, Laxus said, "Let's talk about the future."

Lucy looked up at him in question as she moved her piece. "What do you mean?"

"How long do you want to do this? Be with me, I mean," he asked as he moved a piece.

She licked her lips and felt a little nervous, but she made a masterful move before answering, "I don't really want to think about us not being together anymore. That's my resolve, and I plan on sticking to it with everything I have. Unless you want to go."

Laxus nodded. "You are mine. I don't plan on giving you up, or letting you go for any other reason than you want to. Yesterday, I was laid out in this field bleeding, I started to think if I died, you'd probably cry about it, but then you'd move on and another man would have you. A certain face came to mind, and I got so mad I beat the bastard that banged me up like rented mule."

Lucy wasn't sure what to comment on first, so she attacked the entire thought. "First of all, I'm not going to go anywhere. Second, if you died, who could come after you? Have you ever really considered how ruined I am? I wouldn't even know what to do with another guy. Third—and most importantly—whose face? Did you really try to predict who I'd end up with if you died?"

The dragon slayer captured one of her pieces. "You've never had the thought? What happens if this ends? What do you think will happen to me if something happened to you?"

Truthfully, she had. "I think that this may be a once-in-a-lifetime thing for you, Laxus. I think you would never trust another woman."

"Sounds about right," he admitted.

"But who did you think I'd end up with?"

"Let it go already."

The blonde captured his most powerful piece. "Tell me!"

"Gray."

Her face melted. "Gray...Fullbuster? Gray. Gray?"

Laxus knocked one of her captured pieces across the room as a spike of jealousy hit him. "He already broods. He's more mature than anyone else in your team, so he would try to be supportive, but you both have painful pasts. You sit around moping one night about the pain and he reaches to hold you...I got so pissed while I was laying there bleeding I got up and practically ripped that guy to pieces. He was so confused. I don't really remember it all, but he kept saying, 'but I'm not a stripper' while I was hitting him."

Lucy stared at him blankly and then burst out laughing. "You're so ridiculous, Laxus!" She practically rolled on her side giggling. "You decided not to die...to keep me from Gray...I'm sorry but that's so stupid I can't..."

It took five minutes for her to calm down while he scowled in irritation, but once she recovered, she toppled his main piece. "By the way, I win."

While they were resetting the board, he asked, "So back to us. What do you want out of life? You want to move in eventually?"

"Eventually..." she said.

"Get married?"

Lucy nodded. "Is that a problem?"

Laxus shook his head once. "It might take me a long time to get there. You're okay with that?"

"Of course. As long as we're together and we're happy, I don't think it matters how long it takes," she gently answered. "I'm good with talking about these things, but I don't think we should put a time table on anything or make any plans. We went out because we wanted to. Let's move in when we want to. Let's get married when we want to."

Laxus sat there with his legs crossed for a while, seeming oddly boyish and vulnerable to her. "Lucy..."

When she saw how apprehensive he was about whatever he had to say, she said, "We had to talk about this stuff eventually. Three months is a long time, but it's different for us. We do everything to the extreme with our feelings. Because as wizards, our feelings give us power. So for me to love you like this...makes me powerful."

His countenance eased a little. "Do you want to be a mother someday?"

The depth of this question hit her in the face like fifteen tons of bricks. "What do you mean?" she dumbly asked, unable to connect the dots on such short notice.

This was cute to him, but it was a subject that was sticky for him too, which is why he'd been so nervous about asking. "Do you want have babies, Lucy?"

Somehow, the way she responded—without even thinking—was, "...yours?"

Laxus narrowed his eyes. "I would hope so."

Her eyes snapped away from him and she shifted uncomfortably. "Y-Yeah. Not any time soon. Just someday. Do you?"

He nodded once as his mouth twitched into a little smile. "In a few years. I am so serious about the birth control thing. I'm a second generation oops. I've been trying really hard not to fuck it up, and so far so good."

Lucy decided that since they were on delicate subjects, she would also address one that had been on her heart. "On your birthday in a couple of weeks...I want us to come together finally."

Laxus met her eyes. "You're ready?"

"I'm ready."

Please Review!

Special thanks to Darkfae7, Guest, RainbowShift, yumeyumi1986, aoutre, jozaanimelover,MWolfe13, and ArouraLeona for reviewing!

AN: This story kind of has a life of its own at this point. I'm having a blast with it.