A/N: Welcome to the final chapter for this part of the series, everyone. I'm so sorry that you had to wait more than a year for this update. But enough with the apologies! Let's get down to business!

Here Comes the Sun

It was strange to be back in Sun Village for Cobra. Everything looked just the same as it had when he'd left. There were giants milling about, smiling at one another as they lumbered through the wide streets and milled about. He wasn't really sure just what they did, or why no one really knew about their existence. It seemed like this was something people would be interested in knowing about.

Then again, these giants preferred to keep to themselves. That was probably why their village was in the middle of the fucking desert, where no humans would be dumb enough to venture.

It also had him wondering how Flare had even ended up in a place like this.

"Cobra, you have to be dying of thirst by now," Meredy groaned from a few feet behind him.

He rolled his eye and unhooked his canteen from his belt, then tossed it behind him. He really wasn't all that thirsty, but she was starting to get dehydrated. And while he hadn't wanted to have her following him for the past week just to get here, Cobra also hadn't wanted to waste anymore time in trying to get Meredy to leave him the hell alone.

Besides, she'd gotten the idea to steal an SE vehicle three days into their journey, and it had seriously cut down on their travel time. If they'd walked, it would have easily taken two whole weeks just to get here. He supposed he could at least give her credit for that. While Meredy hadn't known why he was storming away from Crime Sorciere on a direct path to find Flare, she'd been able to tell that it was urgent. Urgent enough that, when she broke away from him and proceeded to steal the SE vehicle herself - subsequently peeling out and scaring the everloving shit out of him when she came to a screeching halt in front of him just outside of a town - Meredy had put the pedal to the floor and used up every ounce of magic she could spare to get them here as quickly as possible.

When she couldn't take it anymore, she'd pulled over and said she just needed to rest for a minute. But Cobra knew the truth. He'd gotten out and walked around the car, then carefully moved her to the passenger seat and took the wheel himself.

Sure, there had been a bit of a learning curve for a few miles - he'd never actually driven one of those things before - but he'd gotten the hang of it relatively quickly. And with each mile that flew past them, bringing him closer to Flare, he'd felt a little more of his soul relax.

Oddly enough, his instincts were making him feel as though they just wouldn't get there in time. That he'd be too late, and find her lying dead on the ground.

Fuck, maybe he should've called her on the lacrima to see how she was doing.

Cobra was about to take another step forward when he heard her soul. He'd grown so used to the way it called out for him that it had become nothing more than background noise. Sometimes. But since he'd been on his way toward her, he hadn't tried listening to what it was telling him. And now… Now he couldn't stop hearing it. Not necessarily what she was thinking about, but he felt the way her soul shrieked with fear. Why the hell was she scared? It wasn't the sort of fear that someone felt when they saw a spider unexpectedly crawling on the wall. This was deeper than that, more intense.

He hadn't realized he'd stopped until Meredy walked right into him. Before she could ask what was wrong, his feet were moving. First at a brisk walk, then a jog, and suddenly he was running as quickly as he could, easily navigating the streets to get to where Flare was.

Cobra didn't care if Meredy followed. Something terrifying surged up within him, a burning, venomous rage the likes of which he'd never felt before. Whatever it was that had scared Flare like this would die.

There was no time for him to question why he wanted to protect her. He didn't wonder if it was because she was his mate and carrying his baby. At that point, he didn't fucking care why he barreled through her closed bedroom door, breaking the wood from its hinges.

He found her there, alone. No one was around her, and there was no immediate threat he could see. But after a moment, he realized that she was naked, save for the towel hanging from her hands that he was sure had been used to dry herself off after her shower. With how her hair was still dripping, that had to be it.

His eye trailed over her from the top of her head down to her bare feet. And as his gaze moved back up, he noticed something that had his blood running cold. Right there beneath her navel, where the crimson scales should have been spreading from one hip to the other. And then he smelled blood in the air, noticed how it trailed down her inner thigh, and how the grey towel in her hands was already spotted with it. Then over to her futon with the sheets removed, piled on the floor with large stains on them.

"Flare," he whispered.

"I-I don't know what's wrong," she sniffled. She dropped the towel and her hand lightly touched the scales. His stomach turned when several crumbled and flaked at her touch. "It hurts."

"Fuck," he hissed. Cobra rushed into the room and pulled her into his arms. And as soon as she was pressed against his chest, her soul opened up to him fully. She knew, deep down, what was happening. She just didn't want to accept that it had really happened in the first place, that she'd really gotten pregnant at all. And she definitely didn't want to consider the fact that she was in the process of miscarrying.

But she couldn't really deny it. Her body knew. She was feeling it. And the longer he held her, the less she could deny the truth.

She didn't sob wildly, and she didn't scream, but her legs gave out so suddenly as she began to cry that Cobra barely had time to catch her.

"Tell me it's not true," Flare cried.

"I'm sorry," he said, nestling his nose in her hair. "Flare, I'm so fucking sorry I wasn't here."

"Tell me it's n-not…" He didn't hear Meredy stumbling into the room, or how she gasped while taking in the scene before her. "I'm not… Cobra, tell me-"

His lips puckered against her forehead while he carefully lowered her to the floor, keeping his arms around her. "You lost the baby," he said softly. "I'm so fucking sorry."

"B-But I wasn't… I couldn't…"

He shook his head as she latched onto him and cried harder. Fuck, he didn't know what to do now. How the hell was he supposed to handle this? For once, Cobra was lost. He didn't have the answers he needed, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do to make this better. "It's not your fault," he said gently, pulling in a trembling breath as he fought back the tears welling on his own lashes. "I'm here now, Gingerbread. It's gonna be okay, I promise."

'She was pregnant,' Meredy thought. 'And she lost… It wasn't that long ago that he was here. It had to have been his baby. But Cobra seems to know that.'

"Meredy, just go," he said softly. "Not now."

"N-No, it's alright," Meredy said, drawing Flare's attention. She gave the sobbing Hair mage a gentle smile, wiping at her own teary cheeks. "Flare, I can help."

Cobra's eye opened into a glare sent her way when she took a step into the room. "I said fuck off," he growled.

Meredy shook her head and reached up to unclasp her cloak. She came forward and slowly draped it over Flare's shoulders. While kneeling next to both of them, she met Cobra's gaze with a sad smile. "This happened to Ultear before," she said. His eye widened, and she paused to reach into her pack for some painkillers that she'd been holding onto for the next time she had killer cramps from hell. "We didn't talk about it, but…"

Cobra's jaw dropped slightly as he read the truth from her soul. Siegrain. More accurately, Jellal when he'd still been brainwashed and thinking that he needed to finish the Tower of Heaven. When he'd been using a thought projection to dupe the Council into thinking Siegrain was one of the good guys... He'd actually fucked Ultear and had gotten her pregnant. And she'd been ready to keep the fucking baby and raise it with Meredy as its older sister, but then she'd miscarried.

"Meredy, I'll be alright," Ultear said through her tears. "We'll just pretend it's a really bad period, okay?"

"But Ultear…"

"I doubt I was ever meant to have children," she laughed. It quickly turned into heaving sobs, and Meredy rushed forward and wrapped her arms around the older mage.

"But I'm your daughter," Meredy whispered. "You don't need anyone else."

"That's true," Ultear said. Even through her tears, she smiled down at Meredy. "And you're the best daughter a mother could ask for."

Meredy simply nodded. "You heard it," she said. She didn't question whether or not he knew the truth. "So you know, I can help. Please, Cobra… Please let me help her."

Slowly, he nodded. His grip on Flare loosened, but she stayed right where she was, even wrapping her arms around him for good measure.

"Flare, we're gonna act like it's a period, alright?" Meredy said tenderly. "But you'll need to wear pads."

"I-I don't… use those," Flare whimpered.

"What do you normally use?" Meredy asked.

Flare curled in on herself slightly, her cheeks burning a bright red. She stayed silent though, and even though Cobra could hear her soul so much more clearly than ever before, he kept it to himself.

"It's alright," Meredy said with a gentle smile. "It's natural, Flare. You don't have to be embarrassed."

"I-I don't use anything," she finally whispered. "I just… let it happen."

Meredy blinked in surprise, and she couldn't stop herself from staring for a moment. "As in…"

"She free-bleeds," Cobra said.

"Oh," Meredy said, her eyes widening further. "I-I've never met anyone who does that."

"You don't?" Flare asked, wincing.

Meredy shook her head. "I use pads. Sorano uses those weird little period cup things."

While Cobra really didn't feel like getting stuck listening to their menstrual regimens, he could hear how it was helping Flare relax. Mostly because she'd literally never had this sort of conversation with another woman before. All the giants were men around here, from what he'd seen, and there had been very little for her in the way of reproductive education until she'd left Sun Village and joined a guild.

Finally, he pressed a gentle kiss to her hair, drawing her teary gaze up to his face. Cobra gave her a small smile, brushed away the tear tracks on her cheek. "Stay with Meredy," he said gently. "I'll put sheets down, and we'll get you comfortable."

"You won't go, will you?" she whimpered.

"Hell no," he chuckled. "We've got a lot of shit to talk about later on. For now, just rest and relax, okay?"

"And drinking lots of water," Meredy said. She fixed her cloak over Flare's shoulders while Cobra stood and started moving around the room to pick up the already stained sheets and replace them on the futon lying in the corner. She offered Flare the painkillers and Cobra's canteen that still had water in it. "This will help with the cramping."

"Am I gonna be okay?" Flare asked, staring at the little pills in her hand. She popped them into her mouth and took a large gulp of water.

"You'll be fine," Meredy said with a gentle smile. "Cobra will be able to smell it if anything changes. He's really good at picking up on infections."

"Kept you from getting gangrene when you got a splinter in your fucking foot," he chuckled from where he knelt in the corner. "You're welcome."

"Yes, you saved my life," she said, rolling her eyes. "You're truly a saint."

Once he was finished, and had taken the sullied sheets out of the room to deal with later, Cobra knelt by them and pulled Flare into his arms. "Time to lay down," he said.

Flare squeaked when he picked her up, and she stared up at him while he carried her over to the futon and carefully set her down. Before she could ask if he would stay, he turned to look at Meredy.

"Call Jellal and tell him where we are," he said, reaching up and unfastening his cloak to get more comfortable. "They'll need to stop and pick up some things to make her more comfortable."

Meredy nodded and left the room right away, pausing to grab the door that Cobra had broken down and prop it over the doorway as best as she could so they could have some privacy. She walked further down the hall and turned at another open doorway, and found herself in a dusty, unused room that she and Sorano had slept in when they'd stayed here more than a month ago.

Meredy sat down on the floor and pulled out her lacrima, then called Jellal.

"Meredy, where are you?" he asked urgently once he saw her face. "Where's Cobra?"

As soon as she saw the concern shining in his eyes, her tears broke free. "We're in Sun Village," she sniffled. "Flare was pregnant and she lost the baby, a-and… Cobra said to call you."

"He what?"

She nodded. "Jellal, something's going on. I don't know why he came back here, but… You guys need to come. Fast."

By the time Crime Sorciere arrived, it was late into the night. Jellal had used his magic to teleport them as far as he could, which left only a few miles for them to travel to get into the village. Meredy met them at the large gate that loomed high overhead, and the group was quiet while she led them toward Flare's room.

Only Midnight and Jellal followed her past the rooms where the rest of the guild would be sleeping. They carried the supplies Meredy had told them to bring - extra blankets, pouches of rice that could be warmed up to use as a heating pad, more painkillers, and a fair bit of chocolate that Flare could eat as comfort food (which, Meredy hoped that she liked chocolate to begin with) - and followed her lead as she quietly made her way closer to Flare's room.

Jellal watched with a raised brow as she lifted the broken door and moved it off to the side. She put a finger to her lips to remind them to be quiet, then waved them inside.

What Jellal hadn't expected to see was Cobra fast asleep on a futon mat on the floor with Flare in his arms. He should have anticipated it, to be honest, but it still threw him for a loop. And if that wasn't enough of a shock, then the soft smile on Cobra's lips and the fact that he was very clearly shirtless with Flare's hair draped over the both of them, definitely was.

Midnight smirked while they set down the supplies, glancing at the Poison Slayer again. He couldn't help but notice how her hair shifted as though it was alive, how it tightened around Cobra only slightly while his nose nestled in the crook of her neck. "Her hair is her magic?" he whispered.

"Yeah," Meredy whispered back.

Flare groaned and her face pinched with discomfort, and before anyone could wonder what was wrong, or if she would wake up, Cobra's hand shifted down to the few scales still on her stomach. He gently massaged her until she relaxed once again.

"He's passed out," Jellal breathed.

"He never sleeps like this," Midnight said with a nod.

Meredy smiled at the pair of sleeping mages. "Must be her magic hair."

The next day, Flare didn't notice the members of Crime Sorciere milling about, or how they had split up and gotten into conversations with the giants she considered her family. She and Cobra spent their morning lying on the futon, ignoring the stained sheet beneath them and simply talking to one another.

She wasn't really sure how to handle the information Cobra gave her about them being mated. Or how she'd been sucking down his poison when they'd fucked, because they were fated to be together. Or that she should have paid more attention to those scales on her stomach - she'd only just noticed them a few days prior and had honestly thought she was having an allergic reaction to something.

It was just really hard to get her brain wrapped around the concept of someone like Cobra being the perfect person for her. And it probably didn't help that he seemed pretty damn unsure of the validity of it in the first place.

"I'm sorry for what I put you through," he said again. He'd been apologizing so much lately. She wasn't sure how to handle that, either. "If I hadn't left, this wouldn't have happened."

"But you had to go," she said, frowning as his fingers trailed down her spine.

"I didn't, really," he said. For the briefest of moments, he looked uncomfortable. "I figured I needed to, though. It was… really hard to leave."

"Why?"

"Because we'd mated," he said. "Rogue told me about it. I wasn't supposed to leave you. And I'm the reason you lost the baby."

She honestly didn't know what to say to that. It wasn't like she really blamed him for the baby dying. "I'm probably not meant to have them anyway," she finally sighed. And that was the truth. Flare had always assumed that she would never have children. When she was just a child, she'd grown up with the giants, and she'd known that she wasn't like them. And when she'd left Sun Village, the world and her place in Raven Tail hadn't made her all that hopeful of procreating.

She'd never really wanted kids to begin with.

And Flare was positive that the last thing she wanted or needed right then was to have a baby to take care of.

"Besides," she continued, "We barely even know each other, so it'd be weird to try and raise a kid with you." Flare's frown deepened and she found herself looking away from his glimmering indigo eye. "Or without you, if you hadn't come back."

"Well, we both know now that I would've had to, one way or another," he said softly.

As she looked up into his eye, Flare couldn't tell if she was supposed to feel relieved at hearing that. She wanted to, she really did. Except, it wasn't all that comforting to know that they didn't have a say in whether or not they would be together. He didn't really want to be here with her, she knew, it was just that something about fate had made it so they were supposedly meant to be together.

Apparently, they weren't supposed to have a baby just yet though.

Cobra surprised her when his thumb brushed across her cheek. "If you need to cry, I get it," he whispered.

"I'm not going to cry."

A small smile lifted his lips then. "I hate when women cry," he said. "Hurts my ears." Her brows drew together as he kept stroking her cheek. Hadn't he just told her that she could cry if she needed to? "But you're different. And the last thing I'm gonna do is fucking complain about that when-"

"I'm not going to cry," she said again, frowning up at him. What did she have to cry about? So what if she'd lost a baby she hadn't even wanted? So what if the man holding her, who she'd hoped would one day come back to her and take away her loneliness that grew with each passing day, had only granted her wish because he hadn't had a choice in the matter? So what if she knew that they would never really be happy together, because this wasn't what he really wanted?

She didn't have a thing to cry over. This was just her lot in life. This was the way things had always gone for her.

All that time she'd spent, feeling like an outcast before leaving Sun Village had prepared her for this. The years she'd spent in Raven Tail, secretly terrified of the world around her, but not letting anyone see the truth and hiding behind the new and improved Flare she'd created, had prepared her for this.

"Gingerbread-"

"I-I'm not," she whimpered. She tried to fight it when his hand pressed tenderly against the back of her head. Her stomach tightened, and just as she moved to push his hand away, there was a stark reminder of just what she'd lost - through no fault of her own, she silently told herself - running in a slow, thin rivulet down the front of her thigh. "I won't cry," she sniffled.

"It's alright," Cobra said. His arms wrapped more tightly around her, pulling her flush against his chest. She struggled even more when she realized that he was still wearing pants, and her blood was soaking into the fabric. "You can't hide from me."

"I'm not t-trying to-" Her next inhale shuddered, and she whimpered when pain speared through her stomach and down to her knees. The first sob broke free when he reached down and gently massaged just below her navel, breaking loose the last of the scales that - as she'd learned - were supposed to protect the child she'd failed.

She collapsed against him, curled into his chest, and finally let the anger and bitterness swelling inside her out in a torrent of uncontrollable tears. And Cobra simply kept holding her, ignoring how something inside of him ached at hearing her so broken.

Hours later, as the sun began drifting down toward the horizon, Cobra and Flare stood before the altar to the Eternal Flame. They hadn't spoken all that much since she'd cried in his arms. He wasn't sure if she just didn't know what to say, and he hadn't wanted to pry.

Cobra hated that he felt so lost when dealing with her right then.

But then she'd finally spoken. She asked him if he saw the great fire dragon during the Grand Magic Games who had come through the Eclipse Gate. Cobra hadn't seen it, and he'd told her as much, but then Flare had smiled that shy little smile, and asked if he wanted to see it.

Of course, he'd been intrigued. Cobra ignored the stains on his pants - there had been worse blood stains on his clothes before, from his own mildly murderous tendencies - and waited for Flare to get herself dressed. She'd led him away from her room and out into the village, through streets that weren't bustling with activity from the giants, and finally up the side of a mountain to this shrine.

Cobra hadn't known what to expect, but he'd kind of hoped there would have been an actual dragon there. Instead it was a shrine to what Flare and the giants saw as their village's protector.

She'd even told him the story about how their village came to be, how Atlas Flame protected them and granted her magic. It was the first time he'd been able to see her setting her hair on fire in person.

In turn, Cobra told her about his own magic. He wasn't sure what it was that had him opening up, but it just felt… right, somehow. So, he told her how he'd been born with Soul Listening magic, how he'd gotten the lacrima because of Brain, and how he'd sacrificed his eye to add Sound magic to his arsenal. She listened and she asked a couple questions - mostly about his Sound magic, which was interesting - and he'd even showed her some of what he could do with it.

But then she looked up at him, and he heard what he was sure she'd been hoping to keep to herself as her soul warbled with dread.

'Why is he acting like there could be more for us?'

That really was a good question. He knew he didn't love her. There wasn't a whole lot of anything that he felt for her, honestly. He just… wanted to be around her. He wanted to know why seeing her in pain hurt him too, and if it was just this mating bullshit they'd been forced into or something more. Whatever it was that he had with Flare wasn't love, or anything close to it. She was sexy, sure, and her soul was interesting when he could hear it… but he didn't know much about her past that and the bits of information she'd told him already.

He didn't even know why she lived in a village full of giants.

The sudden tightening in his gut was foreign and strange, but oddly comforting as it forced him to say something he'd never thought he would. "Leave with me."

Flare stared at him, her eyes wide and a little horrified. "What?"

"When you're okay to travel, leave Sun Village with me," he said, clearer this time.

"I can't."

"What's keeping you here?" he asked as she took a small step back from him. He didn't try to follow, but he noticed how that one step brought her closer to the ring of stones that had once held a vibrant fire.

"The giants are my family," she said. "I can't leave them."

"How?" he asked. "What is it, exactly, that you contribute by being here?"

"The Eternal Flame gave me this magic," she said, never looking away from his eye. "Now that he's gone, I have to protect them."

"You're just a human. The giants can protect themselves."

She scowled at him then. "They were frozen until Blondie and her friends came to help them. I wasn't here to protect them then, and-"

"Gingerbread, how did you even get here?" It was a question he'd had burning in his mind ever since finding out that she lived with giants.

She took another step back. "They found me," she said. "I don't know where I came from, but they found me in an abandoned caravan. They raised me."

He frowned and took a step closer to her, forcing his magic out and delving into the bits of her soul that he could latch onto. "What kind of caravan?"

"I don't know," she said, backing away from him. She gasped when her legs bumped into the Eternal Flame's altar, and Cobra advanced until his hands rested on her shoulders.

"Let me listen," he said. "Don't you care where you came from?"

"No," she said, trying to shake him off. "Sun Village is my home. The giants-"

Cobra ignored her after that, strengthening his magic and weaving together the fragmented bits of her soul that he could hear. With each passing second, it grew stronger. Her soul became clearer the longer he looked into her wide, burnished orange eyes. "How old were you?" he whispered.

If he could get her to think about it, then it would be easier to pinpoint.

"Five…"

So long ago… and she had no memories before then. Maybe not consciously, but her soul knew. A person's soul never forgot, regardless of the trauma that the mind erased. It was one thing Cobra had always been able to count on when it came to torturing people. Bringing up a painful past was one of his specialties. But he didn't want to torture her. He just had to know.

"Were there people with you?"

"I don't know."

"What do you remember?" he asked.

"I don't remember anything," she whimpered.

She was lying, in a sense. Flare didn't know on the surface, but he caught the whisper of a memory that had been buried deep within her soul. And once he did, he held tightly to it, dug deeper, and finally… he heard the truth.

"... Can't believe we're working for a kid… But Jellal's the boss, and we have to do this to resurrect Zeref…"

"Think these kids will be good enough?"

"... True, just more bodies until they give out…"

"Fuck, are we lost? Should we be in a desert?..."

"... Need water so bad…"

"...Fuck, shut those kids up with their crying! Want me to come back there?!"

She squinted against the suddenly bright light surrounding her. She wasn't sure how long she'd been in the dark and the heat, but something large wrapped around her whole body and lifted her into the air.

"This one's alive!" a booming voice bellowed.

She looked toward the quickly disappearing ground and saw the bloated, decaying bodies of the other children who had been chained to her in the back of the caravan. They all looked so… wrong. A piercing shriek filled the air, and it took several moments for her to realize that it was coming from her small, weary body.

Cobra blinked and took a small step back from her. "They really did find you," he said.

Flare just nodded. She still didn't remember. She didn't remember any of what he'd heard though. She didn't remember being abducted by the same fucking cult that had snagged the other members of his guild and forced them into hard labor. She didn't remember the other children that had been stolen with her, or seeing their little bodies when the bastards who had kidnapped them… left them for dead, baking to death with no water, chained in the back of that caravan. She didn't remember just when she was found, seeing those corpses and screaming until her throat was raw and bloody.

"Leave with me," he said again.

"I won't leave them again," she said. "I left once before, and I hated what I found."

That had him remembering what Kinana had told him about Flare before he'd finally gotten the courage to call her. He'd been confused as hell when Kinana had said that there were two Flares, but it eventually did make sense. He'd seen both of them for himself, after all. And he knew from experience what it was like to have to hide.

"The world is a scary fucking place," he said. "I know, I've been living in it - and running from it - for years." His hands trailed down from her shoulders as she stared up at him in confusion. Once he had her slender fingers in his grasp, Cobra broke their prolonged eye contact to look at her hands as he lifted them in the small space between them. "I'm terrified of what's out there, but the one thing that I've figured out between running from Rune Knights and trying to forget about the Tower…"

His thumbs brushed across her knuckles, and he chuckled when a lock of her hair brushed across his scarred cheek.

"It's not so bad if you've got people who really give a damn on your side," he finished.

It was the truth, and something he'd come to realize in the past day. When he thought about how much help Meredy had been, how she'd ignored his insults and how he'd actually fucking hit her (which… he really did need to apologize for that major lapse in judgment, now that he thought about it), how she'd made sure he got to Flare faster than he would have on his own… Cobra knew that it was because Meredy cared about him, even though he tried to push her away. Jellal and the rest of his guild had come running when they found out where Cobra and Meredy had disappeared to, not only because they didn't know whether Cobra had gone off the deep end… but because they gave a damn.

All of them cared. When Meredy explained a little of what was going on, all of Crime Sorciere had come, ready to help however they could.

The world had been an easier place to deal with, having his guild around. When he'd abandoned them, he'd been so fucking scared. And when he thought that he'd gotten rid of Meredy, Cobra hadn't been as relieved to be alone as he'd thought he would be. Her showing back up had helped him to relax just a little bit, but he hadn't wanted to accept it at the time.

"I had Raven Tail," she said. "That's not who I want to be."

The soft whisper from her soul about there being two Flares inside of her drifted through his head, and his eye darted toward the horizon. "Then you're a lot like me," he said. "Raven Tail Flare and Sun Village Flare, right?"

She nodded, and he turned back toward her.

"Well, you've already met Cobra…" He chewed his cheek and found the ground a whole lot more interesting than having to look her in the eye. She was much more like him than he'd thought before. "Maybe you could meet Erik sometime."

"Who's Erik?"

"Me," he deadpanned, only to find her smiling shyly up at him. Cobra couldn't help but laugh while finally pulling her into his arms. "You dickbag."

He only had to wait a moment for her to laugh along with him, but then she melted against him. It was so easy for his arms to wind around her again. They stood in silence for several minutes before she spoke. "Just so you know, I'm not some creepy stalker," she sighed. "And I'm not in love with you."

"Good," he chuckled. He already knew she didn't love him, but it was still a relief to hear her say it. He sighed as her hands slid beneath his jacket and rested low on his back. "I'm glad you'll come though."

"We can't really be separated, from what you said."

Cobra shook his head while they both looked out toward the setting sun, bathing the world in orange, fiery light. "It's more than that," he whispered. "I want to get to know you. You're my mate and all that bullshit."

"You wouldn't want to know me if we weren't?" she asked.

Cobra shrugged, resting his cheek against her warm, comforting hair. "I can't really say," he said. "I'm not much of a people person. More often than not, they fucking suck ass."

"I never knew that," she giggled. "Do they do it often?"

And even though the day's events had worn him down more than he'd expected, Cobra found himself laughing along with her. Because he could hear in her soul that she meant it in a literal sense, complete with picturing whole scores of people crawling around ass-to-mouth in a disgusting human centipede. He looked into her eyes again, pushing his fingers into her hair. "I know you're scared of all the shit that's out there," he said, "But you'll have me around. And the rest of my guild, too."

"But you don't love me." She winced and glanced away from him. "And I don't really feel that way about you either. I mean, you're great in bed but…"

Cobra couldn't help but chuckle. "Well, I think it's safe to say that if you need me, I'll come running."

"What makes you think I'll need you?" she asked with a challenging smirk.

"You don't, really," he said. Fuck, he seriously loved seeing this fire in her eyes. "We got to see the Games in prison. Raven Tail Flare is pretty fucking sexy…" He loved even more the way she blushed as his hands slid down to cup her ass. "All you have to do is be her when the situation calls for it."

"And when it doesn't?" she breathed, stepping closer to him with her hair sliding under his clothes.

"Then be Sun Village Flare," he rasped. Cobra took a shaky breath as he kissed her. It was the first time he'd really kissed her since coming back to Sun Village. The tension curling in his gut from the direction of their conversation - and especially knowing just what she'd almost been forced to endure in her childhood if those slavers hadn't gotten lost - dissipated as time ticked onward. "Be my little Gingerbread."

Flare moaned against his lips and kissed him more fiercely than before. By the time she drew back, he was breathless. Fuck, what the hell was she doing to him? Cobra knew for a fact that he hadn't been nearly this desperate for her minutes prior. He hadn't needed to feel her under his questing fingers that massaged up the length of her spine as she grinned up at him.

Except this wasn't a normal grin. It wasn't just her smiling at him. Hell no, this was that creepy fucking smile that he'd seen on the small lacrima television in the prison while she'd been torturing Lucy during the Games. This smile sent chills down his spine and a ravenous fire swirling in his gut.

Flare took a small step forward, pushing him away from the altar to the Eternal Flame, back the way they'd come. And damnit all, he let her push and pull him whichever direction she wanted to, because after that first step, she whispered something to him that had this strange urge to lay her out and claim her over and over again filling his entire being.

"I'm always going to be your Gingerbread, Erik."

He gasped when his back pressed against a pillar, bringing both hands to her cheeks and all but dragging her lips up to meet his in a kiss that was all desire and battling tongues and this gut-twisting need to feel her closer, to know that he hadn't lost her even if their baby was gone. He had to taste her, to feel the fire and cinnamon dancing along his tastebuds that could only come from her.

And deep down, Cobra readily admitted that he rather liked the idea of her always being in his life.

He would need to tell Jellal at some point that Flare would be leaving Sun Village and the giants behind to be a part of their guild. But that could wait. He could already hear Meredy starting the conversation with Midnight about trying to convince Flare to come with them as they walked along the street far below the altar.

"Do you think Jellal would go for it?"

"Meredy, I don't really see another option. If they can't be apart, then Cobra will probably say it's the only way. I think he hates being tied down to one place."

"Well, yeah. But it's more than that…"

"He doesn't love her. What else could it be?"

"I don't know, Macbeth. I just know that I saw something else there when I found him holding her. He does care about her, even if he won't admit it. I just want him to be happy, and I think Flare can help."

"Fine, you've convinced me. We'll tag-team Jellal in a little bit. For now, I need a nap."

"You really are a narcoleptic diva," Meredy laughed.

And Cobra, for all he'd hated her prying on the surface beforehand, seriously fucking appreciated that Meredy gave a shit about him enough to go and talk to Jellal about Flare joining them. She didn't even know what he was planning, and Meredy was going based off of her romanticized version of the events surrounding them being there, but it meant that he didn't need to waste time making Jellal see that there really was no other way to handle this. Instead, he could focus on the woman in his arms, whose hair had slithered into his fucking pants when he was distracted.

Cobra whimpered when her hair wrapped around his cock and started to slowly stroke him. Flare drew back from the kiss and smirked, but he didn't fucking care. The strands tightened slightly, then warmed and moved with more purpose.

"I think I need to get you back to my room," she whispered, watching as Cobra gulped down a moan and his head tipped back against the pillar she'd pinned him to. "We can't really have sex, but I want to know more about this thing you have with my hair."

He wanted to deny it. Cobra really fucking did. Except then her hair twisted, and he could feel the silky strands winding around his cock and even down to his thighs, shifting and writhing like a clutch of snakes. It left his knees weak and shaky, his breath shortened to nothing more than pathetic little wisps of air. He could feel his cheeks burning already as he looked into her eyes.

For the first time in his life, though, he wasn't really all that embarrassed about someone finding out he liked this sort of thing. Not when he could hear her soul, and how happy she was that she had this magic that so perfectly suited what he secretly loved.

And maybe one day, he'd tell her about his mother, and how it was her hair that used to soothe him when he was in the Tower of Heaven. And later on, how Midnight stepped up to the plate to soothe Cobra's nightmares with his own long hair - and how he knew that it was the only reason Midnight had grown his hair out in the first place, just to help Cobra calm down again. But all of that could wait.

"Tell me, Erik," Flare rasped, nipping lightly at his pliant lips as more of her hair slithered out and wound around his wrists, pinning them at his sides. "Do you really have a hair fetish?"

He wasn't going to admit that to anyone. Cobra had never planned on actually saying the words out loud. In the past, he'd just silently demanded it while wrapping a woman's hair around his cock and jerking himself off. Still, the longer he looked into her eyes, the more at ease he felt until he finally nodded. He hadn't said it, but still…

Flare smiled and kissed him tenderly. "You know, I think Fate might be pretty smart," she whispered against his lips.

"Yeah?" he breathed. A lewd moan escaped him when her hair twisted.

"Yeah," she giggled, kissing him again. Her hair moved with more purpose, causing Cobra's back to arch as he struggled to move his arms. He couldn't fight it as her hair lifted his arms over his head. He looked down at her, his eye widening when he felt his pants starting to slip down his legs.

When the hell had she done that?

Flare winked and dropped to her knees in front of him. "Maybe we don't need to wait to get back to my room," she said.

"Wh-What the fuck are…" Cobra's voice trailed off when he saw her hair wrapped around his cock. Feeling it had been one thing, but seeing it was entirely different. The vibrant red locks crossed over one another, curled so easily as they coiled around his rigid length. And then her smiling lips came closer, and her tongue slipped out from between them to lightly flick across the tip of his weeping arousal. "Shit…"

"Should I stop?"

"Please don't," he groaned. "Don't fucking stop."

He lost himself in the heat of her mouth and hair as her lips surrounded him. Cobra forgot to listen to the world around them, far too focused on the beautiful sunset glow washing across Flare as her hair warmed and she slowly bobbed her head. For once, it was quiet. Her soul was nothing more than a soft, happy sigh, drowning out all other sounds. Her scent filled his every breath.

For the first time in his life, Cobra felt like he was at peace, even though he was bound and pinned to a pillar, out in the open. Her hair tightened slightly around his wrists, and several locks slid around his stomach, and his head tipped back once more.

And he smiled.

.The End.

And that's it for Cobra and Flare! There was a super citrusy scene that I'd had planned for this last year when I should have written the update, but when I read through what I'd plotted out, and finally got to that point in this chapter... it just didn't feel right anymore. I wanted to keep some of the citrus for you guys, because honestly we haven't gotten much of the smut from this pairing, but I just had to tweak it a lot.

And yes, if you're picking up subtle Midnight/Meredy vibes, I was definitely laying them down in here.

Also, the plan all along was for her to lose the baby. If you think back to the Freed/Gajeel story (which takes place, chronologically, after this story), Flare and Cobra are travelling together with the guild, and there's no baby/child with them. Like I said when this particular story started, relationships come in all shapes and sizes. I'll leave it up to your imagination (for now) on whether these two have babies in the future hehe.

I hope you all enjoyed this final chapter - and this story in the Submissive Dragons Series. Now it's time for us to move on to the next Dragon Slayer pairing... we all know who that's gonna be.