Natsu scowled at her as she moved, but then his sulk melted into a rather handsome grin.

Laxus was so good for her. Since they'd gotten together, Natsu had watched her transform from a somewhat self-conscious girl to a woman. Long gone was the girl who was scared to throw a punch. She believed in her body, and she was learning to use it all kinds of ways. She was surprisingly nimble, and picking up speed by the day.

He'd been hit with a powerful spell and was laid out, but just as he prepared to leap up and shield her, she activated her confidence and sprang into action.

These days, it was all over but the crying when Lucy Heartfilia reached for her whip.

He watched and grinned. "Go Lucy!"

She gave him a thumbs-up and winked as she wrapped her whip around a dark mage's throat and pulled him in to deliver a knee to his nose. She made ugly faces in battle when she really exerted herself, and it reminded him of Laxus. He knew they were weirdly entangled the first time she saw Lucy get pissed in a fight and snarl.

But this wasn't a job they were on. This was a rescue mission, because someone woke up and decided 'let's kidnap Lucy.'

A clap of thunder caused Natsu to sit up, and Lucy froze.

"Here comes the thunder...Wow, you made him really mad," Lucy whispered.

This foolish but powerful group of dark wizards needed a celestial spirit mage for something or another. So they had taken her, and Natsu happened to be there, so he chased.

The sky got dark and exploded into lightning, and the dark mage looked around. Lucy and Natsu looked at one another, and Gray and Erza, who were laid out in different parts of the room, all looked around because they knew that two hundred pounds of pissed was about to crash the party.

Lucy was distracted by the lightning and didn't notice a ball of dark magic flying toward her until it was stopped by an explosion of electricity right in front of her. The blinding yellow light lingered and took a familiar form.

Laxus was so incredibly pissed that his magic nearly mad Natsu shake and Natsu knew he wasn't the one that was about to get pounded into the ground.

"H-Hey man, ch-chill..." the dark mage whispered, realizing he'd made a rather colossal mistake.

The lightning dragon slayer tilted his head curiously. "Give me one reason I should show you mercy."

"Well for one, I don't know who you are or why you're so pissed. And two, all I need is a little of the celestial mages blood. A pinprick. You let me have a pinprick, and I won't call my men up here," he threatened.

Laxus headbutted him through the nearest wall and then yanked him back by the arm. "WHOSE blood do you plan on spilling?"

"The blood of that bitch."

Gray and Erza blanched at the word, and Gray said, "Yo, dude, stop talking."

Lucy watched as her darling fiance punched the man so hard in the mouth that he was thrown through no less than three floors of the tower. "Say it again, I dare you," he growled.

They heard soldiers running up the spiral stairs, but Laxus blew lightning roar down the curved corridor, and all they could hear after that were screams and a chorus of thumps and bumps of about thirty grown men rolling down the same staircase.

The man laid out three floors down could be seen through the hole Laxus left in the structure. He sat up, and he spat out some of his teeth.

"Oh? You can't talk without your teeth? That's a shame. I hope you choke on the rest of them and have to shit them out later," Laxus commented.

Lucy brought a palm to her face. Prince Charming, she thought.

He looked around at the various members of the team and shook his head. Glancing down at Natsu, he said, "Get it together, would you?"

Natsu grinned. "We already beat up most of them. Thanks for stopping by."

Laxus threw Lucy over his shoulder. "I don't take kindly to people touching things that belong to me."

"H-Hey!" she screamed.

They lightning teleported across fifteen or so hops to the balcony of their house, where Laxus currently lived by himself while they were putting finishing touches on it.

Suddenly, Laxus embraced her.

She rolled her eyes.

"Laxus, I really can take care of myself. You don't need to worry."

Then, she realized something was a little 'off' about the embrace and her arms fell at her sides. She knew this trick! She called it the 'artificial hug' which was invoked as a play to quench her wrath preemptively with behavior that was innocently affectionate.

"...What did you do..." she hissed.

Knowing that his ploy had been called out, Laxus let her go and made a bored face. "I'm glad you're okay."

"I was okay before you showed up. Stop trying to change the subject. What did you do, dragon?" she asked.

"Nothing recently. I don't know why they're so hung up on the past."

"Who?"

Laxus opened the door and went inside, and she followed, her eyes immediately drawn to the tiger-print rug in the living room. It was the most loathsome thing in her life, first of all because she hated animal print, and second of all, because it camouflaged their pet tiger and led to Lucy being scared shitless at least twice a week.

In the kitchen, she found he'd made her breakfast: coffee, bacon, pancakes, eggs...and it was still warm.

Laxus poured her some orange juice. "I teleported to your apartment and couldn't find you so I chased your scent. I had no idea you were kidnapped until I was almost there and then I was pretty irrate someone ruined our breakfast. I didn't even burn the eggs this time."

When he fiance made her a plate, her countenance softened a little and she sat in a bar stool at their tall counter, looking at the lake. She loved their home so much, and she was looking forward to sharing it with him full-time.

The meal was actually very impressive considering who had cooked it.

The blonde thanked him for it as she tasted his progress as a cook. Because Laxus would literally eat anything (like literally anything), she believed he hadn't developed good cooking skills. Sometimes, she wondered if the lightning had fried the nerves in his tongue and that was why he was such a wretch in the kitchen.

"So...what did you do? I know you did something that's going to piss me off."

Laxus sat next to her with some coffee. "We can't get married at Kardia Cathedral."

Lucy's spirit sank. "Wh-Why?"

"Apparently, I've blown it up eleven times. They've chosen to take offense."

She swallowed a mouthful of bland egg. "That actually makes sense. You do always go over there and make a mess."

"Usually, saving the city."

"Need I remind you of the time you, Gajeel, and Natsu nearly leveled it?"

There was really nothing Lucy could do to change this, and she understood why the clergy would be antsy about Laxus coming around. It was very true that he very frequently caused massive structural damage to the cathedral, and this simply came with the territory. The trick to being happy with a destructive dragon slayer was accepting it and moving on.

"How about South Gate Park?" she asked.

Laxus nodded. "I already thought of that. It's available, and it's cheaper anyhow."

Really, he was sulking about the cathedral, and felt like he might be a little more delicate with the imposing structure if it held some sentimental significance; for instance, he might be a little hesitate to blast it to hell if it was the place he got married. When he presented this argument to the priest, it was not well-received and was taken as a threat.

He made a mental note to give the cathedral a new moon roof the next time the opportunity presented itself and went back to his breakfast.

Their wedding was in three months, and things were starting to come together nicely. Of course, there were different things that happened here and there, but they were famous wizards so it wasn't like they'd get into a huge fight over something silly like a rug, right?

Hell yes.

When she looked over her shoulder and saw the tiger print rug, she gave it a dirty look like it had personally insulted her. As a frame of comparison, she seemed more offended by the 'tasteless, disgusting fail' on the floor than she had been by her kidnapper.

Laxus grinned devilishly at her annoyance, because it was still there, which meant he won. "It's just a rug, Little Girl."

"I hate it. It's tacky. It's freakin' orange, Laxus. There isn't anything else that color in this whole house! And it just looks so terrible. God, why?!"

He teased her then. "After all we did on that rug the other night?"

She indignantly answered, "...and it's hard to clean!"

This was all fine and good to Lucy. He might have felt like he won the war, but she would come out victorious somehow. One thing she'd learned from him was to take up a position of acceptance and wait patiently to strike.

"I don't know why you have a problem with my taste."

The blonde gave him a look of utter adoration. "There's nothing wrong with your taste. I wouldn't mind it if I was a forty-year-old drag queen who dreamed of living in an animal print and faux fur palace."

His eyes narrowed, but he kissed her on the cheek instead. "When you are forty years old, you'll still be prissy, you'll probably still hate my cooking, and I'll still get on your last nerve just because I can."

Laxus felt her irritation crumble at this earnest affection.

That's what made it hard.

They were so close to each other...

"I'm going on a long job. I'll be back before the wedding, I promise. But uhhh...you might not see me until right before," he announced.

Lucy accepted this; they didn't bitch about each others' teams, jobs, or schedules. They were wizards, and this was the way it was, at least for now.

She had plans, but she ditched them in an instant, and she spent the day with him.

They spent the whole day laying around in the bed. They had a tickle fight, made love, took a nap, had a pillow fight, made love again, ate a snack, fucked, showered, snuggled and talked for hours, and made plans.

When Laxus was sweet, she loved it, and for a minute, she almost forgot this was the same man that had knocked a man's teeth out for ruining breakfast. It was only a matter of time before he pissed her off again, but for some reason, this flow of energy was normal and it was good. He was a challenge—always a challenge!

Lucy stretched as he nuzzled one breast affectionately. "My breast isn't a pillow, you know."

"It's better. No matter how much I tweak my pillow, it'll never moan my name."

This time, it was her turn to pick. And maybe it was because she'd just been downstairs to get some juice and saw the rug, but she was ready to crawl under his skin. "I'm thinking about keeping my last name."

His energy shifted in an instant and he sat up in the bed. "Like hell you are."

"The Heartfilia name means something to me. It's my link to who I am."

He glared. Her voice sounded earnest and sweet, but surely she wasn't suggesting such a thing in his presence. "Lucy Dreyar. That's going to be your name."

She sat up with him. "We could hyphenate. Heartfilia-Dreyar. Our kids could have that last name."

Her fiance's brows rose. "Woman, have you lost your mind?"

"Are you in a chauvinistic mood tonight?"

"Tonight and every night."

Laxus decided she was probably just annoying him for the sake of it, and decided that since was just how they did things, he'd play his part too. "If you want to keep the Heartfilia name, I understand. After all, you being independent involved going from one man who paid all your bills to another. Aren't you a mighty, empowered little woman."

Lucy grabbed the nearest pillow and hit him in the face. When he gave her a dismissive eye roll, she crawled into his lap. She planned on saying something catty, and he planned on saying something rude, but instead, she threw her arms around him. "I'm going to miss you."

"I'm going to be counting down the days," he whispered as he embraced her gently.

Yes this is the same man that was talking about a man shitting out his own teeth this morning, she thought.

There were moments where he wondered how he'd fallen so hard, but most of the time, he just didn't care. He loved their conversations, their dynamics, their chemistry...she was princess in public, a bitch in battle (but God have mercy on any one else with the nerve to call her that), a goddess in bed, a muse one minute and a maniac the next.

Lucy felt him smile against their kiss and did the same. This was simply everything. The hidden side of him was nothing short of delightful, and if she could spend the rest of her life arguing about that damn rug, she knew she'd be happy because she'd be with him.

Laxus laid back on the bed, and she stayed perched on his hips. The view was perfect; naked, blonde hair disheveled from a romp, eyes glazed over with affection. "I've been thinking a lot."

"What about?" she asked as she took the hands he held out to her.

"Let's ditch the birth control."

Lucy gave him an annoyed look. "That time I forgot and you had to use condoms I wasn't happy. I don't want to switch to that."

Laxus blinked in confusion. "Lucy, you totally missed it."

"Missed what?"

He grinned. "Let's have a baby."

With his senses, he heard her heart flutter in her chest a little.

She couldn't stop the blush that crawled across her cheeks. This was not a conversation about the distant future. But this little desire had been brewing for a while, since the first time they'd talked about it a year before in her apartment. Of course, she loved him to death, so the desire had grown over time and it felt natural.

Lucy squeezed his hands. "You mean..."

Laxus' eyes seemed brimming with warmth as he nodded. "We're going to be married right when I get back. We have an excellent relationship, a nice home, financial stability. We've been together for over a year and the worst disagreement we've had is over a rug."

The blonde leaned down and kissed him. When they'd first gotten together, Laxus had a fear of becoming a father that had bordered on a psychological phobia, but over the course of the relationship, he had outgrown it and come full circle.

The idea of getting pregnant and raising a baby was infinitely exciting to both of them by that point.

He let her think for a few minutes, watching her facial expressions as different thoughts coursed through her mind. But finally, he said, "You'd probably get pregnant not long after the wedding. So during our first year, you can just take a little break and have the baby."

"You're really serious, aren't you?"

"I am so serious."

Lucy nodded once. "Okay. Let's get pregnant, but I have one condition."

"You could ask me for anything and I will tell you yes," he answered in excitement.

"I'll let you get me pregnant after you get that godawful rug out of my living room."

He scowled because he'd been beaten at his own game. "Deal."

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