Downstairs and Dead
Chapter Four
Grateful
The dancing practice was worse than the eating, because at least with the eating there was food. With the dancing all he wanted to do was turn it into fighting, but he was forced to keep it to slow, boring, dull... walking... spinning... walking... spinning...it was hell. An awful, waking nightmarish hell.
And then, during breaks, when refreshments were brought up for them, it was more of the eating practice. Two days, never leaving that room. Always dancing or eating. If he had to keep this up for six weeks, seven weeks, he was likely to turn killer himself.
She, however, maintained a serene expression throughout. Which disturbed him. She wasn't a serene person. She wasn't Mira. Fuck, Mira wasn't Mira when Mira first went from her usual demon self to that false face of serenity.
And maybe that was it. Maybe her serenity was a false face, just as Mira's had been. So he watched her. He watched her and waited for her to reveal herself.
"How are you doing without your team?" she asked during one of their rare breaks when she wasn't nagging him about the proper timing of when to pick up and put down a spoon. Because, apparently, there was a beat for eating. Who the fuck knew. "I know you were with them when I called you away."
"You know, we're doing okay, but I'm used to being away. And they're used to me taking time to myself. Been awhile since I've been off on my own, so I was feeling a bit... They know I don't like to be around a lot of... um..uh..."
She grimaced, "Right, right. This is going to be everything you hate."
"But it'll shake things up." Laxus studied her. Looking for her old joy. He felt guilty for complaining so much before. If he stopped, maybe she'd come back. "That's something. What about you? You've been solo this whole time. That's not exactly your style. I'm sure there are lots of places that would have-"
Lucy shrugged. "But that's true of all of us, isn't it? Yet we didn't all join up. Group up. We flew off in different directions. Here and there, guilds and shops, far-flung cities, odd jobs. All sorts of things to make end's meat, to make up for our losses. We could have stayed together, but we went our own ways. I'm waiting. Same as you. Waiting for whatever comes next."
"We didn't all join up? How do you know? In fact, how exactly did you know where I was? You tracking folks?" he asked casually, but she saw the tension in his shoulders.
"Yes. Part of the benefits working with the magazine. I've got tabs on almost everyone. You were simple. Mira I keep up with through work with the magazine, Elfman through Mira, Ever through Elfman, you through Ever. Done. Not everyone is that easy."
"Who can't you find?"
"Master, of course." Laxus flinched at her use of the title, but Lucy wouldn't shy away from it. "Gildarts. Natsu and Happy. Gray and Juvia."
"Gramps..."
Lucy leaned forward, "Do you know? Do you know where he is? Why..."
"No."
She sighed, slumping back. "Still waiting, then."
"Waiting for Gramps?"
Her brown eyes locked on to him, stopping his movement, his breath. Thought. "Waiting for my family to come together again."
"Family."
"Family, yes. We have a home to rebuild, but I understand needing some time apart. I understand that. I bet you do, too. We're runaways, you and I," she smiled at him, "but we came back. Tried to come back." She looked out of the window at the lush evergreen gardens of the castle grounds. "Wanted to come back. Won't be too late this time. So I keep track, yes. I watch. I wait."
"Runaways."
"Mmm."
"I was kicked out."
"Before that. Years before that."
He considered what she said and thought about all of the time spent wrecking bars with Ever, Freed, and Bicks. Angry. Trying to escape the overlarge shadows of his famous grandfather and infamous father.
Couldn't say she was wrong.
"You had a better reason," he admitted.
"You actually made it back home," she responded.
There was salt and sorrow in her that never turned into tears. He was doing a terrible job at making her happy. A really, really terrible job. Making things worse, more like.
"If you're keeping up with us, that means we're not lost." He tried to be comforting. He knew he wasn't exactly the best at comfort, but he tried to channel memories of his gramps – before the old bastard had turned into a giant dick and ran off on them – and come up with a statement that would give her a slight measure of hope, if nothing more than slight. "Our home, it's still with you, I guess. If you believe in it, and you're protecting it."
The entire shape of her body changed, legs drawing in, stomach tightening, diaphragm expanding with an intake and holding of breath. Her cheeks paled and then flushed; her eyes were wide. Her hands trembled.
"It's not just you," he looked away. Giving her the privacy she needed. It was still not happiness, and it was still not what he intended, but her heartbeat was so strong and she was leaning towards him now, breathing again, rapidly. Hungry; desperate. "Gramps said, after Gildarts left, that he'd be Master until he died. The old asshole isn't dead yet," he grumbled, "so he's still Master. It's not just you waiting. He'll come back. He'll come back."
It wasn't just her he was giving hope to.
"As long as we protect our home," she said.
"Yeah. Yeah. It's been torn down before. And we've been gone before. But we still made it back. And we'll make it back again." He cleared his throat. "In the meantime, we've got work to do."
"You're right," Lucy nodded while wiping away tears that never actually fell. "We leave tomorrow, and you're still kinda bad at the group dancing."
"I'm not bad, it's just boring as hell."
"Ugh, no. Well, yes, boring, correct. But you are also bad. Both things are true, in this case. Stand up, Laxus. We have a few more hours before we sleep, then wake, then get your sad dragon-slayer-self on a carriage. You need to master this tonight."
"I-" she tilted her head, a faint, sad smile on her lips that said she knew what he was going to say, and he remembered that he'd told himself not to complain, "will try."
"Be still my heart. I mean, it was obviously a terrible lie, but the fact that you even made the effort has me swooning in my dancing shoes."
He did as ordered, taking her small hands in his own large ones. The music began to play, and she pulled at his arms, directing him to lead. His mind slid into a place of calm, where he considered their conversation. She had thought of them this whole time. Kept track of them. Followed them and stayed with them, as much as she could. Never lost them.
He looked at her, walked with her, spun with her, and he wasn't bored. No matter the number of hours or the general silence.
As evening darkened the room, Lucy called up a female spirit, a female with a harp, who sat in the corner and played slower music.
"You don't need much talking, they'll yammer at you, but every once in awhile, you'll need to prompt your partners." Lucy began, as he used her teaching to step her around an oddly placed decorative table. She smiled. "Let's practice that." Clearing her throat, she looked up at him with an obviously false expression of adoration.
He rolled his eyes.
"Oh Laxus! I'm surprised that a man of your interests and skills chose to travel to such events as this!"
"Wanna know why I'm there," he said, talking to Lucy, not the character she was playing.
"Correct, though, more trying to find out why you're there with me as much as there in the first place. Parties for business, business equals marriage, remember."
"Yeah. Right. Okay. So..." he shrugged, "I had some free time, and Lucy needed protection for her trip. Figured I could help out."
"Mmm, not bad. Makes it wholly your decision, and as a protective role, which young women will find romantic, but slightly apathetic towards me, which means you have little thought in my direction, making you open for pursuit. Very good."
She sighed, high pitched and long, resting her head on his shoulder. "Oh Laxus, this place has become so dull. Let us flee from here."
"And where would we go? Lots'a people here... probably." He glanced around the people-less room before looking back down at her.
"The pantry is pretty big, and after all the food they served at dinner," she giggled, "likely quite empty."
"Wouldn't want your dad catchin' us going to a pantry."
"We can go separately! But that's a good place to meet."
"Dunno. Heard stories about bad things happening to girls last year and the year before. Might not be a good idea, wondering off alone."
"Oh, well. That's no big deal. I'll be okay. Don't worry!"
"Why will you be okay?"
"I've heard the stories, too, but I'm not really sure they're true. And anyway, those stories are always about servant girls. Seems suspicious, doesn't it? But, since I'm not a servant girl, even if it's true, I'll be okay!"
Game or not; play acting or not, Laxus found himself getting agitated and angry with the character Lucy was playing. "Anytime you're alone it's dangerous."
"That's why I want you with me, silly!"
"I..." he shook his head, trying to figure out what to do next. "I'm not sure what... what should I say to her?"
"What do you want to say?" Lucy asked, as they continued to dance, accepting easily how he spoke of that character as a completely different person.
"I don't know. I don't want to send her downstairs alone."
"Do you want to continue dancing?"
"No."
"Because you dislike her company, or because you dislike dancing?"
"Both."
She laughed.
"It's not funny."
"Yes it is."
"But I really don't want to go to the pantry with her."
"No, I guess you don't if you can't even stomach dancing with her. But, still, she's given you a reason to leave off dancing and go downstairs."
"And that's where the killer will be."
"Might be," Lucy corrected.
"Is most likely to be," Laxus agreed. "So I go downstairs."
"Only if you want to."
"I don't."
"Then don't."
"That's not really an option, is it. Elsewise I wouldn't be fucking doing this," he indicated his current position, which was with her back not pressed against him – it was important that the whole of their bodies not quite touch, so a sliver of space was left between them, teasing – and their hands clasped at her midsection as they walked... danced at a brisk pace in front of the large fireplace.
"A valid point. Can you get her into the pantry and then sort of zap her asleep without her realizing what's happened?"
"Uh, yeah. I can knock her out," he looked at her like she was a lunatic, "but that's bad."
"Truuuue. She really wanted more than unconsciousness from you, didn't she?" The young blond grinned. "Better that you signal me, then, if a situation occurs that takes you from the dance floor. I can send Loke or another spirit with you, to follow you. They can call you back to me, faking an emergency. A reason I desperately need you by my side that would take precedence to your personal time with a lady. To be called on after you secured the information you wanted. That sound good?"
He considered her plan and decided it would work. "Yeah. Yeah, that sounds fine."
"Since I've already decided Loke's going to be your servant, I can just give him free reign."
Light glittered between them and the fire, and Loke stepped up to take his master's hands and steal Laxus's partner from him.
"I would be happy to rescue him from willing women, Princess. And equally happy to step in and take his place, if the opportunity presents itself."
Lucy smacked Loke's hands away with a laughing scowl, "Yeah, I bet you are."
"Now then, Princess. I believe it's time Laxus had some practice in speaking with the sort of men he'll be likely to meet. I suggest you call out Capricorn while you're in the bath, and the three of us will talk."
Laxus was suspicious at his tone and the lion spirit's affable expression, and by Lucy's narrowed eyes, he wasn't the only one, but she nodded anyway and a second spirit appeared. This one was tall, extremely so, and dressed in a suit. Like Loke, he was wearing sunglasses.
"You don't have to come out on your own power, you know." Lucy reached out a pale, fine fingered hand to touch the goat spirit's elbow. Her touch was light. Laxus doubted he felt it. "I can call you."
"We're only talking, Master Lucy. It's no trouble."
"Exactly."
"Come on, Princess. It's bath time. Want help?" Loke leered, and Lucy kicked him in the shins. It was half hearted at best.
It was... odd. She was odd. They appeared, and the spark of buoyancy that had ignited in her was fading. What the hell was happening?
"First thing," Loke told him as soon as the bathroom door shut, while he was still off balance, "you hurt her, we kill you."
Laxus snorted. "Bullshit. She wouldn't let you, even if I did hurt her. Not that I will. But empty threats won't get you anywhere."
"Our threats aren't empty," the tall goat told him. "She may not give us leave to recoup our vengeance, but spirits talk to spirits, and spirits talk to their owners, and owners talk to their friends. Word gets 'round. Sooner or later your treatment of her will spread to someone who takes exception to it, and that person will do to you what we would want to do ourselves."
Dirty.
Laxus was a direct man, but he also knew you did what you could with what you had. Shattering someone's jaw or cracking a few ribs wasn't always the way to solve problems. Convoluted shit like that would stress him out, but it's how Freed worked, too, so he knew how the game was played. Knew it could get the job done.
Knew that when they made this threat, they meant this threat.
He approved.
"Like I said, I'm not going to hurt her. But I hear what you're saying, and I'll keep it in mind. Now, if that was all..."
"Of course not. We're also here to school you in the manner of courtly-"
"Fuck," he groaned.
"-speech."
Correction. This was the worst. At least with the eating lessons, there was food. At least with the dancing, there was Lucy. With this, it was all talking and bullshit.
"How do either of you know shit about what guys talk about at these things? Lucy's not a man, neither was your previous owner, her mom. Or yours," he nodded to Loke, "who from reputation, wasn't much of any sort of lady."
The goat stood up straighter, "You ignore the long history of our existence. The number and variety of people we have served would astound you."
"Capricorn is right, and our princess asks that we help you, so that's what we'll do."
So very difficult to remember that promise he made to himself not to complain.
So. Very. Difficult. But, then, she wasn't here to hear him.
"I hate this."
"Oh, we know," Loke grinned. And they began.
OOOO
He'd never been so glad to bathe in his entire life. Lucy's spirits were happy to have her return from her bath, and he was happy to take her place away from them in the bathroom, which was still warm and humid from her time there.
The whole room was filled by her and her presence. It was extremely comforting. She had used the tub, but he instead chose the shower. His own time in the bathroom was quick, but he relished in it. In the warmth and comfort. In the quiet simplicity of water. Of clean water and relaxation.
As quickly as he washed, he dried. Flashes of electricity burning away what stray drops remained on his skin after wiping down with a towel. The same was done for his hair.
He left the bath and found that Lucy and her spirits had gone. The room had been straightened from the mess they made while dancing, and the door to his room was left open. He could hear her breathing. Already half asleep, waiting for him finish and come to bed.
He did as expected.
"Laxus?" she murmured, her mouth half buried in her pillow.
"Yeah."
"We leave tomorrow. Morning. Early. Ready?"
"No."
"Me, too," she sighed.
He rolled over so that he could look at her, and then away. "We'll do fine."
"Mmm, yeah. That's what we do."
"It is."
"'Night, Laxus."
"Night."
OOOO
"Okay. Let's have a birds and the bees conversation."
"Wait. What?"
Like it wasn't enough that he spent days trapped in that miserably gilded castle suite learning to dance, or that he was currently trapped in this fucking carriage wanting to puke up his fucking guts, now she wanted to talk sex.
"My first time-"
"WAIT. WHAT?!" He was sitting up, nausea forgotten (that nausea) with his hands raised between them like a shield.
"Ha! You should see your face. But, seriously, this is actually important, since girls are going to be attracted to you. Since we – young women of wealth – know we're going to be sold off to the highest bidder, girls, daughters get good at losing their virginity at these events.
"My first time was when I was fifteen in-"
"I don't-"
"Laxus! Shut up! … In the gardens with a guard at a baby-naming ceremony party. I chose him and the place carefully, so he wouldn't know who I was, and it wouldn't get back to my father. If Father found out, he would have been so angry with me. If he knew, others might know, and my value might be lessened in any marriage he could contract. I was very careful, but not all girls are that careful."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying, if a girl invites you into a pantry and wants to have sex with you, and you with her, one: don't get caught, and two: please remember it could be her first time. Probably not, if you're the target, but it's possible. Please be considerate. She won't necessarily say, you know. She could be very headstrong and brash about the whole thing. She may not want you to know; she may not want you to treat her differently, but it would be nice of you to consider the situation. I'm just saying."
His mind was almost completely blank. Sweet Mavis, what was she making him listen to?
Advice. Warning. Request.
This was all way too personal, and there was no way he was going to screw a society princess, anyway. None of it had anything to do with him.
"Never say never," she said, studying his face.
"This is already complicated as all hell. No need to make it worse." Laxus growled through clenched teeth, "And I am not sleeping with a fifteen year old girl."
"Granted, but things aren't always as easy as saying them. I thought it was better to arm you with the knowledge unnecessarily than have it happen when I stayed silent out of concern for our levels of embarrassment. And not all virgins are fifteen."
"How long before we get to town?" he asked her, wanting like crazy to get off of the subject.
She grinned at him, "We won't make it to where we're stopping until near nightfall. I know a hotel we can stay at, but you're stuck here with me for another couple of hours. Deal with it."
"Remember how I wanted to beat that statement out of you a few days ago? What was it? Something about something. I can't even remember because it wasn't as important or as horrifying as this entire conversation. I want to beat this entire conversation out of myself."
She blinked several times before exploding in laughter. "You are such a drama queen, Laxus."
He decided to ignore her and go back to trying not to puke. Though, he did notice a faint blush along the line of her cheekbones and around the shell of her ears. She was upfront about the topic, but it had embarrassed her, too. He smirked.
What a weird thing to be brave about.
He heaved and put a hand over his mouth.
"Hey, you okay? If you're going to really throw up, stick your head out of the window! The window, Laxus!"
OOOO
"Why bother with two rooms?" Laxus asked Lucy, after they had checked into their very nice hotel.
She bumped him with her hip and put a finger to her lips, shushing him.
"Lady Lucy! Is that you?" Three men loitering in at the bar adjacent to the lobby had turned and were openly staring at his nakama.
Lucy put on a wide smile. One of those expressions that reminded him of Mira. Mira behind her bar. If Lucy put on a black dress and walked to the other side of that wooden table, it would be like going home. A chill crawled up his back.
"Magna, Char, Richard. How are you?" She walked to them, luggage still at the check-in clerk's desk, and motioned for Laxus to do the same. He followed her as she went to sit by the men.
Men of wealth. Men she obviously knew. Men he was almost certainly to despise.
"Quite well!" Proclaimed the tall, dark-headed man in the center. Though it was still early in the evening, Laxus could almost see alcohol coming off of him in waves. No match for Cana, of course, but this man was no professional drunk. And he was in no way well.
"Good to hear, Magna. And you, two?" Lucy asked the others.
"Char's run away from home-"
"Hey!"
"-and I'm aiding and abetting." The man who had to be Richard proclaimed. Proud.
Lucy's wide, fake smile, shrank slightly and became more real. Laxus relaxed.
"Ran away, did you. Why ever would you do such a thing? You should be ashamed."
The apparent youngest of the group, Char, who looked to be around his early twenties, pushed Richard off of his bar stool to capture all of Lucy's attention. "I didn't runaway. I just left a few days early. Thinking to spend a little extra time in town. I like it here. It's fun, you know? And home's a little... stressful right now."
"Ah," Lucy reached out a hand to rest on his shoulder. "Yes, I had heard that. I'm sorry. And it's no bad thing to take a break. Speaking of breaks! My friend and I," she finally acknowledged him, "Laxus, who I'm sure you recognize, only just got out of our carriage. We're both a little travel worn. We're going to run up and get some rest before heading out again tomorrow, but you three have a fun night!"
"Aw, come on! Have a few drinks!" Magna, who had had a few more drinks of his own during the talking, slurred.
"Thank you for the offer, gentlemen, but I must decline."
Laxus smelled a wiff of Lucy's power coming from behind the stair case, and Loke came around the corner to whisper in his ear.
"She's much too kind a person."
"You can say that again," he grunted back to the spirit. To Lucy he said, "Leo has the rooms ready. We can go up, now."
It took a lot of control not to just throw her over his shoulder and haul her up the stairs by force. It wasn't that he didn't like the way they looked or talked to her. That was no big deal. All men looked at her like she was medium-rare steak, plated especially for them. Evergreen, Erza, Mira, Lisanna Cana, and all of the rest of the women he knew were treated the same way. His gramps was like that. He had been like that.
It was fucked, and he got it, but he also got that he couldn't beat the shit out of every guy who acted that way. So no, it wasn't that. It was the aura of greed that rolled off of them like a fog of sickness. Like if they decided to stop looking and start taking, they wouldn't hesitate. There wouldn't be a pause for morals.
He knew that look. He knew that attitude. Knew it.
"Fuck," he said as they reached the third floor and started down the hall to their rooms. "I get why you picked me," he told her. "I get it perfectly."
"You're not like them."
"But I was."
She sighed. "Yes. Yes, you were."
"Worse. Because I actually did it."
"Yeah."
"Shit."
"Glad you decided to grow up and stop being a jerk?"
"Hell yes."
She grinned and pushed him into a door. "Me, too. This is your room."
"Again, what's with the two rooms?"
She slid her key into the door next to his and walked in without answering him. He shrugged and opened his own. Walking in, he watched as she opened an adjoining door, meaning their two rooms were basically one.
"Saw the fancy carriage in the lot. Figured there would be another group staying here and that it was better safe than sorry." She smiled while leaning on the adjoining door frame.
"You could have said that."
"I was going to when we saw the guys, and then I thought I better not in case they were listening."
She was pouting. Or, rather, she was pretending to pout while trying not to laugh. It was genuine, all genuine, so he let it go. He was afraid to push the teasing like he had before. If he went too far, he might make it bad. Might make her sad. Now she was happy. This was the time to stop.
"Sure you did. Guess this means you're still going to be hogging bed space?" he walked over to the hotel bed which was about half the size of the one in the castle. "No orgies in this one."
"No what?"
"Huh?"
"You said something about orgies."
"I," had he? "I don't think I did."
"Oh, Laxus!" she said in her dancing-lady voice. "Exactly what secrets are you hiding, I wonder..."
"And that's enough of that shit. When's dinner? We ordering up so that we can avoid the asshole trio downstairs?"
Giggling, probably at his transparently awful change in conversation, or maybe still at the orgy thing, she stroked the keys on her hip. This time two lights appeared. Loke, and the funny-looking small one... Plue.
"Loke, can you go see what meal options are for the hotel? And if there's nothing interesting in the hotel, can you ask for a listing of what can be had for delivery in town?"
"Of course, Lucy. I'll be back in a few minutes."
"Thanks."
Lucy picked Plue up and cuddled him before sitting in a chair beside the bed. Left with no other options, Laxus sat on the bed itself. In a hotel this nice, he guessed there were bigger rooms, but there was no need for anything so fancy or large as what they had in the castle.
So this felt a little claustrophobic after all that space. He'd gotten spoiled. He'd have to deal with it. Have to deal with suddenly being so close to everything. Walls. Ceilings. Her.
"We'll be there tomorrow," she said without preamble. Leaving behind pleasant thoughts of food and awkward jokes about beds large enough for group sex.
Having no answer for that, Laxus leaned back against the headboard and waited for Loke to return with something to eat.
She was nice enough not to pester him with eating rules that night. Neither did she make him dance. For the first time since he'd entered Princess Hisui's study, they took time to simply relax. She sat and read; he sat and listened to music. Meditating inside the protection of his soundpods.
Warm hours slipped by them before the 10 o'clock bell chimed from a large clock somewhere in town, calling them both from their personal realms of escapism, and back into reality.
They each prepared for bed, and even though this bed was not as big as the one in the castle. Not big enough for six. There was still plenty of room for the two of them, and enough room for them to sleep without interfering with one another. Without discomfort.
Or they could have.
"That guard," Laxus asked, calling himself a fool and worse for doing so, especially in bed, but feeling compelled to ask none the less, "was he considerate?"
She answered without missing a beat, without the slightest hint of self-consciousness. She hadn't been lying before; her previous feelings of loss and loneliness had been so strong that she was willing to put up with anything remotely uncomfortable for the sake of simple companionship.
It made him want to hold her in comfort, because even if she was right next to him, she felt far away. It made him pay closer attention to her answer than he previously was prepared to. This mattered. She mattered.
"He didn't know I was a virgin, but I chose well. He was kind and handsome and not focused only on his own pleasure. If he had known, it would have been better, I think. I didn't know myself well enough to... anyway, he didn't, but it wasn't bad, not at all. He'll never know how grateful I am. I had a friend married that year..." her breath was so heavy in the air, he could almost see it when she sighed.
"Bad?"
"It should be illegal what they're allowed to do! She was so shy and so well behaved. Proper. Good. Not like me. Nothing like me. Seventeen. Never broke the rules. Married off to a thirty-five year old man, who beat her that first night. I saw the bruises with my own eyes, and I found my guard. Even though I knew I'd never let myself get married to someone like that, I had to make that choice, just in case...
"He wasn't my best partner, but he was my first, and I'm glad I can say my first was special to me. And the gardens were beautiful that night. The sky so clear, the stars so bright." She pulled at the sheets, clutching at them. But she was smiling.
Advice. Warning. Request.
He thought he better understood why she said what she did earlier that day. "Still say there's no way in hell it'll happen, but I get what you mean." He cleared his throat. "I'm...ah.. glad that...ah..."
She started laughing, and the bed shifted when she slid up to wrap her arms around his neck and shoulders. "Erza's right. You really are adorably awkward."
"...Adorably awkward?" he hissed, pulling at her thin arms so that she would let go of him and hopefully stop laughing at him. It pleased him that she laughed. It pleased him that she laughed true laughter. It was the at him part he resented.
"Well, she usually just says awkward, but adorable fits, too."
"The fuck it does."
"You are most certainly right, Laxus. It fucking does. I agree. It's perfect. The Adorable Laxus and Freed with my adorable godbabies."
"Ugh," he grunted. "You only get one godbaby, remember? You said so yourself. Don't be so damn selfish."
"Oops! Forgot. Too excited. Don't tell Mira or Erza. They'd probably kill me."
Snorting, he used all four of his limbs to pry her off of him. Giggling and teasing apparently made her freakishly strong. "If somehow Freed and I – good god – were to reproduce – how the fuck am I even having this conversation? - it would be Evergreen you'd need to worry about. She'd slaughter every damn one of you."
"Yes, but surely she's more of an aunt, right?"
"You're making it worse. Which of us is she playing sister to?"
"...ew."
"Hey, you're the one who said it."
"I take it back."
"Thank shit."
"...ew."
"Let go of me and go to sleep, will you? Like you said, we've got a big day tomorrow."
"Hey," she tweaked his nose and he nearly broke her hand, "you're t he one who started the conversation, bub. Don't blame me for your mess."
She rolled back over to her side of the bed, leaving his skin warm where she'd climbed over him, clinging to him with humor and joy. He thought he'd sleep well, despite knowledge of what was coming the next few days.
OOOOXOOOO
AN: Don't ask. I've no clue.
Ehh! See! Out of the castle! Mostly! And then next chapter, I'll put them in dangerous places! That'll be fun, right?!
I enjoy the idea of someone teaching Laxus sex ed. I don't know why this is, but it would be even better if it were Mira teaching a class on the proper way to respect a woman in bed or something. Followed by a class on the wide and wonderful world of fetishes, co-taught by Erza and Levy with guest lectures by Laki.
...this is seriously right up Mashima's alley. He's done this already, hasn't he?! This is how all the boys learned about sex, isn't it!?
Thanks to all who are reviewing. (As well as faving and following.) I really appreciate that you take the time to put a bit of encouragement into the box!