Parenthood

Chapter 5

"Well, this is a little disappointing."

Laxus wouldn't look up at Mirajane though as she came into the room, instead continuing to glare down at the floor as he sat on the couch, eyes glaring down. Nathan, who had been holding onto Mira's dress as her hands were full, let go and rushed back into the room. Over on the corner sat the parts of the unfinished playpen, but that didn't interest him. Oh no. He still had all those toys to play with.

"What happened?" Mira asked Laxus as she closed the door before heading to the kitchen to start putting the food portion of the groceries away. "Laxus?"

"It's stupid is what happened."

Rolling her eyes, she said, "Well, I'll look at it and see if-"

"Mira, if I can't do it, why the hell do you think that you can?"

"I'm just being helpful, Laxus."

"Well, knock it off."

When she made it back into the living room, it was to find him back over at the mess of parts, trying once more to put it together. She only sighed, heading towards the bathroom.

"I'll put his diapers and stuff in here, all right, Laxus?"

"Whatever."

She took a moment to stare at herself in the mirror. Could she really, truly, put up with Laxus for…however long it was that she was going to be putting up with him?

She wasn't sure.

"What are we going to do with all his toys?" Mirajane asked as she got back to the living room. "We can't just leave them laying out all the time."

Grunt.

Sighing, she went to sit on the floor with the little boy and help him get some of his other toys out of boxes and containers they were in.

"I guess I'll buy him a toy box next time I go out."

"Mama?" Nathan asked Mirajane after a few moments, tilting his head back to stare up at her. She only took to playing with him to distract him.

At that point, she didn't know what to say about his mother. She honestly thought that the woman would be back already.

"Hey, Laxus?"

Grunt.

"Do you know where his mother lives?"

"No," he grumbled.

"But I thought-"

"I don't go to women's houses, Mira," he said. "That's stupid."

"Then they come here?"

"Gross. No. I don't want whores in my apartment."

"Laxus-"

"I take them to hotels and shit. Or hook up with them in other places." He was so invested in his work then that he wouldn't even look back at her. "Why? Where do you hookup with men?"

"I-I don't… I'm not like you," she told him, blushing then. Nathan was gently tapping one of his new action figures against her arm, trying to get her attention, but she could only stare in shock over at the man's father. "I don't…hookup, Laxus. If I'm dating a man, I might…I… I don't want to talk about this!"

"Then shut the hell up. And hand me my headphones," he said, nodding over to where they sat on the couch. "The sound of you and him breathing is bothering me."

Rolling her eyes, she went to go do so, if only to get him zoned in on something else.

"I'm not a whore," she grumbled softly as she handed over his Sound Pod. He was on the ground while she was standing and actually looked up at her in shock after that statement.

"I never you were," he told her.

"You call all the women that you hookup with whores and then you accused me of doing the same with other guys. You-"

"They aren't whores because they have sex with me," he said. "They're whores because they throw themselves at me. They want to have the prestige of saying they've had sex with me. They think that I actually give a shit about them. They're stupid."

"Laxus-"

He only shrugged as he moved to hook his headphones onto his ears. "I don't think of you like that, Mira. I assume that if you do… I mean, I've met your boyfriends before. I was just being a dick by asking it like that."

They were both feeling awkward then and it was obvious, so she quickly went back to the little boy as he only started working once more on making the playpen.

And man if he didn't feel accomplished when that was done. He didn't mean to, but he did kinda grin, betraying his usual unattached demeanor.

"Wow, Nathan," Mirajane said as she went to set him in it. "See? Now you can be in here when Laxus is busy and I'm not around."

"Not around?" Laxus glanced at her. "I thought-"

"I have to go home at times, Laxus," she told him. "Besides, I can't stay every night."

"Why not?"

"Well… Where would I sleep?"

"In bed," he said with a slight shrug. Then she, as she was close enough, she landed a rather hard punch to his arm.

"Mira!"

"We're not… Laxus!"

"I didn't mean it like that," he growled, rubbing at his arm. "I was going to sleep out here on the couch. Unless you want to. I really don't give two shits. But hit me again and you're gonna get backhanded."

"The couch will be fine," she huffed, looking off.

"Whatever. I try and be nice and this is what I get?" He headed for the door then, but stopped short. "My wallet?"

Mira had set it on the coffee table, but quickly went to hand it over to him. Then he was gone and she had a feeling he would be for awhile.

"That's okay though, Nate," Mirajane told the little boy who was trying in vain to escape his new prison. Reaching into the playpen, she left him out before setting him on the ground. "Me and you are just fine on our own. Aren't we?"

She must have sang to him a thousand times that night. He really liked it. And she made him dinner from the things that she'd bought, as well as a plate for Laxus, which she put in the fridge. Just in case he was hungry when he got home.

"I'm a babysitter," she reminded herself. "Not a butler."

Still though, she figured it wouldn't hurt anything to make him dinner, just that once.

Nathan thoroughly liked his own though, giggling the all the while and, a couple of times, trying to feed Mirajane some of it as well. She'd only smile and let him while congratulating him on sharing.

She was busying trying to bathe him when Laxus came home. And he only stood in the doorway of the bathroom, peeking in, watching as she sat on her knees next to the tub and attempted to clean the dirty child.

"If it gets water on the floor," he said simply, "you have to clean it up."

She frowned over her shoulder as Nathan continued to splash around in the bath. "You could help, you know."

He only shrugged before turning and walking off. Not a moment alter, Mira heard his bedroom door shut.

Nathan made a noise at the sound, looking up, but Mirajane only went back to scrubbing at him.

He was rather dirty.

After his bath, Mirajane went to work making the toddler a bed out of his playpen. Then she laid him down in it, though he didn't rather seem to like that. He kept standing up and whining for her to take him out. She only turned off the light in the living room and went to lie down on the couch.

He wouldn't stop crying though. When he began whining for his mother, Mirajane only sighed and began to sing to him, wishing she had her guitar so she could at least practice while she was at it.

Twenty minutes passed before the boy drifted off. And even then, Mirajane only laid there in the darkness, as if holding her breath and waiting for him to wake back up. It wasn't until Laxus showed back up in the room that she sat up.

"Shhh," she shushed him as she pushed off the couch and followed him into the living room. "The baby's sleeping."

"Great," he grumbled as he went to open his fridge and peer inside. "So I can even use my own damn living room?"

"I think he's down for the night," Mirajane said simply. "So… Now what should I do?"

"I don't know," he grumbled. "What do you usually do?"

"I'd still be up at the bar," she told him. "And hey, I made you a plate in there. Wrapped in foil? It's your dinner."

That made him glance back at her. "Why-"

"I had to eat, so I just figured I'd make you something."

Grunt. Then he grabbed the plate and went to reheat it.

"I have some books," he offered to her then.

"What?"

"You asked what there was to do until the kid woke back up," he told her. "In my room, there's some books. You can read one of those if you wanna."

"Like books on magic or-"

"Books, Mira. Like…novels."

She frowned. "You read?"

"I ain't some kinda Neanderthal," he grumbled, glaring over at her. "Don't read 'em if you don't wanna. I don't care. I was just trying to be nice."

Curiosity got the better of her then as she headed out of the kitchen and to his bedroom. What sorts of books did Laxus Dreyar read? Probably some sort of graphic horror.

Or worse. Some sort of erotica.

Still though, you never knew until you check yourself, which was Mirajane's main driving force behind most of her snooping. That and the fact that she wanted to know everything and anything about everyone and anyone.

It was one of her faults, sue her.

She'd be in his bedroom that once, to grab the blanket and pillow for Nathan's nap, but she'd never actually looked around. It was big enough to house both a desk and a dresser, as wall as a tiny bookshelf in the far corner. Going over to it, Mirajane bent over as she began glancing at the titles and the authors, trying to see if she recognized any.

Right off the bat she noticed two books of spells, but most mages had a couple of those lying around.

Most of the books though, as she found out, appeared to be adventure fantasy style, the covers having mountains or forests on them and the backs claiming to be about someone traveling to a distant land and battle all sorts of evil. Then there were the nonfiction ones, which appeared to just traveler' guides and things.

"I said you could pick one. Not go through them all," she heard from behind her.

"You like traveling?" Mirajane asked, glancing back at him. Laxus only grunted.

"What? You wanna stay in Magnolia for freaking ever?" he grumbled, coming further into the room. "Besides, I leave Fiore a lot. I need to know about the other-"

"You've left Fiore?" she asked, looking over at him in shock.

"Well, yeah," he grumbled. "Haven't you?"

"Not really," she said slowly. "I mean…my villiage was in Fiore and then Fairy Tail is, so-"

"You should," he told her simply, his voice still sounding rather gruff, but it seemed more forced then than usually. "Travel. Why just stay here? I mean, what do you got going for you? Being a bartender?"

"Fairy Tail-"

"There's more to life than Fairy Tail," he told her simply. Slowly, he came over to the book case and pulled one out. It was a thick book. A travelers guide to Isvan. "Here. Look over this."

She took it from him, still a little shocked by not only his attitude, reading material, and demeanor, but mostly their proximity. He was so close and just staring down at her. As if he were actually interested in her.

Then the moment was over and he was walking back out of the room, no doubt figuring his food was finally warmed up, leaving her alone once more in the bedroom. Taking the book, she went over to his desk and took a seat. Spread across it were many things, mostly weird letters that, after glancing through them, Mira saw were from some of his, err, women, mostly wondering why he didn't respond or wouldn't speak to them anymore. There were some bills as well though and even a journal full of what looked like a list of things he ate and his workout schedules, kept daily.

"Little obsessive," she mumbled before figuring she'd better go ahead and get down to reading a little bit of the book, if only so that Laxus didn't accuse her of snooping again.

She was busy mostly looking at all the pictures of different tourist attractions in Isvan when Laxus came back into the room, no doubt finished eating.

"Need to mark this," he mumbled, coming up behind her. He picked up a pen and marked down on the journal what he'd just eaten. Mirajane watched before glancing up at him.

"Why do you-"

"I have the body of a god, Mirajane," he grumbled as he then shut the journal and sat it to the side. Taking a step away from her and the desk, he said, "You think genetics gave it to me? You seen Ivan or Makarov? I built this right here. I'm like a sculpture. I-"

"And the moment's over," she told him to which Laxus only snorted before going to lay down on his bed, grabbing a book off his nightstand.

"Whatever," he grumbled. "Just don't bother me."

It was like that for an hour at least. Nathan crying was what finally forced Mirajane to leave the room, Laxus calling for her to make him shut up.

Sigh.

The baby needed his diaper changed, which Mira took him into the bathroom to do. But he was also a little upset about his surroundings. She could tell. He kept asking for his mother and crying out.

Not wanting to make him feel any worse, she decided not to leave him in the playpen again. He really was all worked up. Instead she took him over to the couch, laying out on it as she laid the baby on her stomach, him snuggling up almost immediately.

"Mama," he moaned miserably. "Mama."

"Shhh." Mirajane only stroked his back gently, shutting her own eyes. "It's okay. Don't you like being here with me, Nathan? Huh? I thought that we were friend."

He took to sniveling then, but Mira only kept speaking softly to him. Eventually she found herself telling him stories. Just the basic bedtime stories that a child hears. Full of dragons and magic and all sorts of other things.

She didn't know what happened first. Her falling asleep or him, but next thing she knew, there was a loud banging at the door, startling both her and the toddler snuggled against her chest.

Before she had time to react, Laxus was in the room, rushing over to the door. When he opened it, he found Bickslow on the other end, drunk and declaring his hatred of the other members of the Thunder Legion.

"I work hard! Hard as Ever and Freed," Bickslow was venting almost immediately. "But what don't they give me? Respect!"

"Respect," his dolls floating around his head crooned.

"And they treat my babies like trash," he yelled. "Trash!"

"Trash," they agreed.

"Bickslow," Laxus growled before reaching out to grab him by the shoulder and pull him in, the babies narrowly missing being shut out as he slammed the door right after.

"I already got the kid yellin'. You think that I need you making a scene to? I have neighbors, you know." He tossed his bodyguard from him then before going to turn on the light in the living room. Nathan was whining them, but Mirajane only sat up, rubbing his back gently, trying to sooth him.

"Mira," Bickslow greeted loudly at the sight of her. "This ain't the guild!"

"Shut the fuck up," Laxus growled at him as Mira only sighed, getting to her feet.

"Nate needs to go back to sleep, Laxus," she reminded as she held the boy in her arms. "So maybe-"

"Take him to my room," he grumbled, not glancing at her. "For now."

"The baby!" Bickslow seemed shocked to see him. "So you are a papa, boss? Me too. Right, babies?"

"Papa," they all agreed, rushing to circle around him. Mira only headed out of the room, knowing the longer she stayed in there, there more riled up Nathan would be.

As she found out, Laxus bed was actually kinda comfy. If he hadn't told her previously though that he didn't just take a bunch of women to bed in there, she probably wouldn't have even sat on it. But he had assured her before that he didn't and, honestly, it made sense. If the letters were any indication, Laxus was (for some reason she didn't quite get) a catch to some women. The last thing he wanted was for his one night stands to know where he lived.

"There you go," Mirajane sighed as she laid Nathan down next to her in the fluffy purple sheets. "You feel better? Huh?"

"Toys," she heard Bickslow yell from the other room. "You got such cool toys, boss."

"Those aren't yours," Laxus growled in return. "So don't touch 'em! Now lay down on the couch."

"But boss-"

"Either that or I kick you and your demented dolls out!"

Mirajane only took to snuggling the toddler, trying to distract him from the yelling. The last thing she wanted was for him to start screaming too.

"Bad," he told her after he calmed down, pointing at the closed bedroom door. "Bad."

"Yeah, Daddy's pretty bad," she agreed. "And Bickslow's not much better. But that's okay. 'cause you're so good. Aren't you? Huh?"

Eventually she got the child to calm down again and fall back to sleep. And, against her better judgment, she dozed off as well once more.

Besides, his bed was comfy.

She wasn't too far gone though to notice when the bedroom door was opened once more. She heard the heavy footsteps of Laxus as he walked across the room and over to the desk, which he immediately sat down at.

"Night, Laxus," she whispered.

She was expecting a grunt back, but after a moment, she got a, "Night," just before she truly fell back asleep.