Parenthood
Chapter 14
After being chewed out by Porlyusica about how they were bothering her too frequently and over nothing, as well as that the child wasn't a part off Fairy Tail technically and she wasn't required to do anything to him, she told them that he was fine. All they needed to do was keep him hydrated and make sure he got plenty of rest.
"That was a waste," Laxus grumbled as they made it back to his apartment. "I mean-"
"Let's give him some water," Mira sighed as she headed to the kitchen. "And some crackers. Then you can lay down again, huh, Nate?"
"Mira," he whined as she only pressed another kiss to his head. Frowning, Laxus followed.
"So what are we doing, Mirajane? Are-"
"Right now, Laxus, I don't care about me or you. I want to make him feel better. Alright?"
It took awhile, but eventually, Mira did get Nathan down for another nap, curled up in his playpen. Then it was just her and Laxus along with a lot of things that still needed to be discussed.
"Lisanna and I both want him, Laxus," she began as she started on a pot of tea. "You don't. So why-"
"But I do," he insisted as he stood there in the kitchen wit her. "You haven't even given me a chance to-"
"To what? To tell me how you were lying to me, tricking me-"
"I…I get it now," he tried, staring at her. "Why I wanted you here. Why I still want you here. And Nathan. Because-"
"Because you like someone babying you. You like having a woman making you dinner and cleaning your place up," she said, turning to glance at him then. "And you can have that. One of your women would gladly give it to you. I guaranty you that. And they'd probably even pop you out a few more kids, to stroke your ego some. But me and Nathan aren't going to be a part of that."
"But Mira, you're not listening," he growled at her. "I want you. Not one of them. I like this. I like having you here and knowing that when I get home-"
"Well, I don't like it, Laxus. I don't like being treated-"
"I'll treat you however you want to be treated," he said then, puffing out his chest. "Honest. Just stay with me. Here. With Nate. And we'll be just as happy as we were before. You just-"
"I'm not… I don't do that stuff, Laxus."
"What stuff?"
"Guys don't get to sleep with me and then run back to their girlfriends," she said. "It works the same way too. They don't get to sleep around and then come back to me at night. So-"
"I told them all that though," he insisted.
"Told who-"
"That's why I wasn't there when he first started getting sick. Why Bickslow and Freed were babysitting," he said, coming closer to her. He was looking at her with such a serious face that it was hard for Mira to look away. "I went and talked to some people I know. Some…you call them my women, but they're my friends, Mira. And I told them that I couldn't hookup anymore. That I don't do that. That I'm going to try to be with you. If you want me."
"I don't."
"Mira-"
"I don't, Laxus. I don't want to be some sort of experiment to see if you can be faithful. Because you can't. And I don't want to deal with all of that," she said. "I just want Nathan. That's all."
Just like that, his face changed, completely bypassing his usual void one and turning instead into his enraged one.
"You can't do this, Mira," he growled then. "I'm…I'm trying! Why can't you? Huh? We were happy. We went out to do things with the kid, you sang for me, I walked you to work. Why can't we keep doing that?"
"Things change, Laxus. You-"
"No. Not in single fucking day." His breath was coming out in short puffs. "I want you to be my girlfriend, damn it. And I want to do this all right. And I want to keep Nathan and be happy and we'll be fine. Let us be fine, Mira! Why won't you just let us be fine? Huh?"
"Laxus-"
"If you're not seeing anyone and I'm not going to be, then why can't we see each other? Huh?" He shook his head. "You don't have to live here with me. I don't care. We can do it right. I can pick you and Nate up for dates or just you and sometimes I could stay over there or you could stay over here. And we could take care of him together. Honest. And… If you still need money or whatever, if that's part of the problem, fine. He's still my kid. I'll keep paying for you to keep him. Like…child support or whatever. You just have to give me a chance, demon."
She hadn't noticed until that moment, but he'd backed her up against one of the counters and was standing right in front of her. She'd never heard him talk like that and, honestly, she never wanted to again. She knew, of course, that Laxus had to have feelings underneath all of his gruffness and anger, but it was one of those things she'd rather know was there than actually see.
"Laxus," she whispered as he only moved to rest his forehead against hers. That was the most touching they'd done since the whole thing began. "You-"
"It can be day by day, Mira," he went on. "I don't care. But I just… This is the best my life's ever been, with you and Nate here. And I tried to resist it, but… I can't alone again. I don't want to be alone again. Don't make me be alone again."
She wanted to tell him something, but it didn't work. Her mouth didn't. He wasn't Laxus anymore. He was…different. Or at least he was behaving different. And she wasn't enjoying it.
Just then, they heard Nathan start up from the living room and Laxus took a step back, as if being brought back to reality, as Mira made her escape to go check on the child. When he joined her in the living room a moment later, she knew she'd wasted the moment and he'd never be like that again.
"I'm taking a shower," he grumbled as he passed through and headed down the hall. "Take the kid if you want. Or leave him. I don't care anymore."
In the shower, Laxus had his own little moment where he knocked everything off the bathroom counter and growled at anything and everything. Then he stayed in the steaming spray of the faucet for so long that it became cold. He was cold.
Why didn't she want him? Every other woman wanted him. And he didn't even go to the lengths for them that he was willing to for her!
What the hell was wrong with Mirajane, huh? Huh?
After getting out of the bathroom, he found her on the couch, Nathan resting on her chest, as she sang softly to him. Her guitar was at home then and it was only her voice that could soothe him.
"Mama," Nathan moaned at one point. He was tired and hot and his tummy hurt and no one was helping him. All Mira kept doing was giving him water and crackers and making him sleep. Why wouldn't she stop the pain? "Mama."
"Oh, Nathan," Mira sighed as she stopped singing then to give him a few kisses. "I wish you would go back to sleep for me. Please? I want…I want to take you home. But you have to get better first, so we can move all your things there. You wanna go home with me? Or you do you want to find a new family?"
He only snuggled closer to her. "Mira."
"Shhh."
Laxus stayed back in the hallway, frowning at what he saw. Then, slowly, he came further into the living room, only wearing a pair of jeans.
"You think he'd feel better in the bed?"
Mira glanced up at the sound of his voice, glancing over her shoulder to stare at him. "I don't know."
"You can put him in there," he grumbled. "If you want. Is my tea ready?"
"Here. Take him and I'll pour you a cup, huh?"
Nathan liked that even less. Laxus only moved to sit down on the couch as well, though he didn't lay down. Nathan whined for Mira to come back, but Laxus only frowned down at him.
"You gotta get this crying stuff under control, kid," he told him softly. "I'm trying to persuade her here, you know? And you're really putting a damper on that."
When Mira returned, she sat his cup on the coffee table before moving to take Nathan back into her arms.
"You don't want any?" Laxus asked.
"I just want to get the baby to sleep," she said as the toddler snuggled closer to her. "I'm really supposed to be at work right now."
"You're gonna leave me with a sick kid?"
"I said I'm supposed to, Laxus. I'm not going anywhere."
Grunt. Then, "Can we talk again?"
"Laxus, I thought you said that you don't care?"
"I don't. But I need to know if you're going to be all weird now."
"What are you-"
"If you want him, Mira, and you really don't want me, fine. Take him. He likes you," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "But if you're not going to give us a chance, then I'm going to go out the second Nate's well again, get wasted, and probably fuck more women in one night than you do guys in a year. So tell me now if you really don't want to give this a try. It's your last chance."
She gave him a look then. "You know, Laxus, maybe if you stopped trying to sell me on the fact that I would be so lucky to have you, that you're giving up so much for me, then maybe I'd try and hear you out some. But for the record? You're not going to pick up a decent woman if you tell her about all the women that you're turning down just to be with her. I don't care, Laxus, that you told a couple of your so called friends that you don't want to hookup anymore. The proof is in the pudding."
"What are you telling me?"
Nathan was done crying then and Mira only got to her feet, heading over to the playpen to lay him down.
"You can't go one day without hooking up with some random woman and think that's some sort of badge of honor to me," she told him as she gently covered the baby over with a blanket. "It's not."
"What do you want me to do, Mira? I want you. Alright? Tell me how I get you."
"Stop it, Laxus, you-"
"No." He got to his feet too, glaring over at her. "I thought you wanted this too. You liked being over here. You liked going out and doing things together. Just because I wasn't planning on giving Nathan up, that makes it different? That makes it fake? It wasn't fake. I was doing it because I wanted to keep you around. Not just some woman. You. I wanted you here. I wanted to come home to you. And Nathan. I thought… Just give me a chance, huh?"
"Laxus-"
"I haven't felt this way about a woman since…since I was a kid, okay? Since, like, I used to get stupid crushes and shit. I haven't wanted something this badly," he said. "And I didn't want to want you, Mira. I wanted to get rid of you and Nathan. But the longer you stayed the more I…I love it. I love having a little family. A lot. And if I just have to stop sleeping around then, well, I'll do it. I'll give it a shot. I'm not saying that I'm prefect, Mira, I'm not saying that I won't fuck up, but I… If I can try, why can't you?"
She didn't have an answer for him. She didn't want to answer him. But she was sort of stuck, so…
"I don't want to like you, Laxus," she told him, glancing over her shoulder at him. "I don't want to feel this way. At all. You're rude and a jerk and you're nice sometimes, but does being good occasionally overshadow being bad constantly? I thought only doing good made you a good person?"
"I want to be good though. To you. But I have to have a chance to be, don't I? And haven't I been good, while you were staying here?"
"Laxus-"
"I'm not going to beg you, Mirajane. I'm just telling you. I want to be with you." He crossed his arms. "And you more or less just said that you want the same thing. You might not want to want it, but you do. So just… Stop being stuck-up about it. I can't be that bad. Can I?"
He was standing in front of her once more and Mirajane only stared at his chest.
"Laxus," he whispered. "I just-"
"I want you, demon. And you want me too. So who's stopping us from being together? Huh? What is?" He grinned at her, but it was forced. He was still angry. "You won't know until you try. So give me a shot. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. But-"
When she kissed him, it was impulsive and Laxus didn't even really have a chance to think about it because just as soon as she realized it, she was backing way, staring at him.
"You can't kiss me and then not give me a chance to kiss you back," he told her before reaching out to grab her chin. "Demon."
She hated all of it so much then as she wrapped her arms around his neck, having to stand up tall as he got his turn. It had been a few months since her last date, much less her last boyfriend, and it was all coming to a head then.
It was true. She admitted it. She hated it, but she had to admit it. She was one of those women. One of Laxus' stupid women.
Why had she even fought it?
Nathan was whining again then and Mira had to tend to him. Laxus was rather put out by that, but only went to sit back down on the couch.
Little brat. Maybe they weren't on the same side.
Mirajane was blushing then as she came to join him on the couch, Nathan in her arms. Taking a seat once more, she said, "If you're going to be with me, Laxus, even if we're just dating, you're not going to be sleeping around with other women. I'm not… I'm not okay with that."
"Okay," he said, nodding his head as Nathan wiggled in her lap. Mirajane only moved to set him in his father's lap.
"And I want Nathan," she said, looking him in the eyes. "He's not going to be, like, a pawn or something. Alright?"
"Alright."
"And-"
"I really want to fuck you, demon."
"L-Laxus!"
He blinked as she actually sounded outraged. "What?"
"I'm not…no. That's not going to work." She took Nathan back. "You can't just say things like that. Especially in front of Nathan."
"But I do."
"Shut up." She got to her feet then and headed into the kitchen. "Just… Let's just focus on Nathan for the rest of the day, alright? And maybe tomorrow, if he's feeling better, we can talk more about us. Alright?"
Grunt. Him and the brat weren't on the same side at all!
Mira made dinner that night as Laxus walked around the apartment with Nathan, trying to calm him down some. He really didn't seem to like either of them in those moments. Not that there was much they could do about it.
Eventually though, he gave out again, the little toddler did, and fell asleep. Then it was just Laxus and Mirajane sitting at the dinner table, awkwardly staring at one another.
"So…you wanna sleep in bed tonight?"
"Laxus, seriously?"
"What?" He looked back down at his plate. "Just trying to be hospitable, demon."
"You're asking me if I want to sleep with you."
"What? Me? Never." Then he paused, "But that's sort of what I thought this whole thing was about."
"A relationship is more than sex."
"Right. And all the other stuff is what we've already being doing. Taking Nate out to go fishing or to the park. Staying up talking and you playing your guitar for me and him. But now I'm ready to add to that."
"With sex."
"Exactly."
Rolling her eyes, she said, "All you're doing is making me rethink this whole thing."
"So it is a thing now?" he asked, glancing back up at her. "We are? A thing?"
She was looking very pointedly at her plate then as she slowly said, "I will admit that it was fun before. And if you can actually keep from sleeping with every woman in Magnolia-"
"I will, Mirajane. Seriously. I-"
"Okay." She looked up then, right at him. "But you mess up, it's over. Understood?"
"Completely."
After dinner, she went to go check on Nathan and left him to do the dishes. Which, usually, he'd complain about having to do as that fell under woman's work, but considering they were already off to a shaky start, he didn't want to cause anymore problems.
"Maybe I should go home," Mira told him at one point, as the baby slept. "To get my guitar? You know, before he wakes up again."
"I think he's fine," he said from his spot on the couch. "But… You could still sing to me, you know."
"Laxus-"
"You could."
She was standing over the playpen then and glanced back at him with a frown. "We're being too loud. Come on."
He thought that they were headed back to the kitchen, but instead, she led him to the bedroom. The air felt different though than times passed as Laxus went to take a seat on the bed. She only stood in front of him for a moment before slowly sitting down as well.
"If we're going to keep being awkward around one another-"
"You want me to sing to you, right?" Mirajane moved across the bed then so that she was up near the pillows. "Lay down."
He was hesitant though, as he knew her and the way she was. Part of him was worried that she'd just lured him in there to murder him and take off with Nathan or something. Seemed right up her alley.
Slowly though, he moved to lay back against the pillows, right next to her. Then she started.
Her voice was just as pretty a cappella as it was with her guitar. Then again, part of it probably had to do with how much Laxus wanted to screw her. It had been all of a day, after all.
"When do I get a song?" he asked eventually after she finished one. "'cause listening about all the other guys you've been with isn't exactly appealing."
"You want a song?"
He nodded slightly.
"I only write songs about two kinds of guys, Laxus," she said then as she laid on her side, staring down at him. "Ones who I hurt or ones that hurt me. Which do you wanna be?"
"I wanna be special."
"Special?"
"Yeah. 'cause that's what I am. Special." He only stared up at her, trying hard to keep a bored expression. "I'm gonna be the type of guy that you can't help, but to write all your songs about. Because I'm so great."
"Mmmm," she hummed before sighing. "No."
"No?"
"Na-ah." Then, in a way too casual way, she reached out and tapped his nose. "I'm gonna hurt you."
"Are you?"
"Real bad. And you're going to grovel at my feet to get me back when I do it," she said. "Just like you had to today, to get me in the first place."
He'd had enough. Sitting up then, he turned onto his side to glare at her.
"I don't grovel for nobody, demon."
"You grovel for me," she told him. "Or did you forget that a demon can kill a dragon as well as tame it?"
It was instinctual to him, the same way he always was in bed, as he pushed her off her side and flat onto the bed.
"I said I don't grovel. And I don't get hurt."
"Someone hurt you," she told him as he only worked on getting his belt undone. Reaching out, she stilled his hands before doing it herself. "It's obvious. That's why you're so intent on-"
"It's been too long for you, demon," he told her then, making a face. "You're talking too much."
She rolled her eyes. "The way you're acting, all overeager, one would think that you were the one that it had been too long for."
"One day," he told her as he moved to kiss her neck. "You?"
"Mmmm. Months."
"That's a damn shame, demon," he mumbled as he let her up some, so she could shimmy out of her dress. "Damn shame."
"I pity you more than me."
"How so?"
"I care about every guy I've taken to bed, in one way or another," she told him, her eyes shimmering slightly as he reached up to undo her bangs. He'd never said anything, but he found her hotter with them down. "Have you ever even loved a woman?"
"What business is it of yours?"
"Just curious."
"And so what? You love me?"
"I said that I care about every guy I've been with," she corrected. "And I do care about you, Laxus. Or else we wouldn't be here right now."
There was something nice about being cared about. Something real nice. He wasn't sure, but he was pretty certain that he felt the same way about her. That he cared for her. At the very least, he was glad that they'd made it that far. And he was more than ready to see how far they could take it.
Did that count as caring for someone else? Because if it did, then he really, ready cared about Mirajane Strauss. And he hoped to keep caring about her for a long time.