Summary: A little honesty never hurt anyone.
Disclaimer: Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail.
Day 3: Skeletons in the Closet
take it to the grave
"Mirajane, I think this is completely compulsory in order for our relationship to work."
Said Take-Over Mage could only stare, baffled, as her fairly new boyfriend stood in front of her with a serious expression on his face. "…Laxus?"
"You heard me, Mira. We need to come clean with each other, a hundred percent honesty." There wasn't so much as a twitch in Laxus' eye as he said this, seemingly completely genuine as he stared at her sternly.
"Laxus… what's gotten into you?" she asked, her face twisted into one of concern at his odd behaviour. The lightning mage had barged into the guild that morning and made a beeline for the bar, not even bothering to sit down in his usual seat and instead immediately stating that something was wrong with their relationship.
Laxus sighed at her muddled and worried expression, relaxing a little from his rigid posture and uncrossing his folded arms. "Look, Mira, I think we lack a certain amount of trust between us."
The look of hurt that flashed across her face was immediate, and Laxus could feel his heart squeeze painfully as he watched her slowly put down the glass she was polishing.
"Wh-what?"
"Mira…"
"Laxus, I- I trust you with my life!" she all but shouted, and an awkward silence enveloped the guild as they watched tears well up in Mirajane's eyes. Natsu and Gray were restraining Erza as she seemed to be about to punish Laxus for making Mirajane cry, while Lisanna had her head buried in Elfman's chest as he held her, an extremely confused frown pulling down on his features.
"That's not what I meant, Mira," he assured her, and despite the relief she felt she was still uneasy to let her guard down completely. "…Can we… take this somewhere else?" he then asked, eyes sweeping over the entirety of the guild with displeasure.
She nodded and followed him as he led her down into the wine cellar, believing that the distance was just sufficient for them not to be overheard by the sensitive hearing of the multiple Fairy Tail dragon slayers. An uncomfortable silence settled beween the two as they stood, overwhelmed by the musky smell of the cellar and the fermenting alcohol. Fidgeting with her fingers, Mirajane could only wait impatiently as Laxus breathed another sigh, carding his fingers through his hair before folding his arms across his chest once again.
"Mira, I've been taking our relationship into serious consideration, and I know we're only a couple months in but we've known each other since we were kids and-"
Swallowing the lump in her throat, Mirajane could feel her heart dropping in anguish at the unpleasant thoughts that infiltrated her mind. "Laxus… Are… are you breaking up with me?"
The resulting blanch from the said male managed to let Mira feel a tiny bit better, paired with the comforting thought that not all hope was lost. Yet.
"What the hell?! Where did that come from?" he shouted, the frown on his face looking almost offended as it deepened.
"Then… why…"
"No, Mira, you've got the wrong idea. What I'm trying to ask you is, what is your deepest, darkest secret?"
"My what?"
"You know, a secret? Something you've never told anyone else about? The skeleton in your closet?"
"I know what a secret is!" Mirajane blushed. Although infinitely thankful that her wild imagination was proven wrong by the man she loved, she couldn't help the embarrassment as she thought about the skeleton that immediately surfaced in her mind. "Why do you… want to know?"
Ears burning, Laxus turned his head away to avoid eye contact, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly as he did so. "Look, Mira. You're really special to me and… and I want to make sure I'm not hiding anything from you, so I hope you can trust me with your secrets, too."
Mirajane grinned. "What's your secret then?"
"I…" Laxus sighed as he looked his girlfriend in the eye, the determined bright orange clashing with her curious brilliant blue. "I was the one that set the guild on fire when we were kids."
A brief silence followed.
Then, "it was you?!" she gasped. "Oh Laxus… Master was so angry, and everyone thought it was Natsu losing control over his flames again!"
"Yeah, yeah I know. I was a stupid kid that tried playing with matches, okay? I bailed once it got out of control."
Mirajane shook her head with a frown, expression akin to one chiding a child. "That's not very nice of you, Laxus… Rebuilding the guild took a long time! And you burned all the paperwork to a crisp, too!"
"Well, it wasn't my fault that Natsu got angry because he was blamed and accidentally set the office on fire, too!" he tried, but could only look down in shame at the disapproving look on Mirajane's face. "Alright, I'm sorry." He groaned.
"Good boy, you better apologise to Master and to Natsu, too!
"To Natsu? No way!" His stubbornness could not hold a candle to the Demon's glare, however, and he rolled his eyes in agreement. "Fine, fine I'll do whatever you want."
Mirajane beamed and nodded gleefully in reply, as Laxus huffed unhappily.
"Enough about me, Mira. You haven't told me about your secret." The blush that immediately flamed across her porcelain skin only piqued the Dragon Slayer's curiousity even more, and he couldn't help himself as he took a step closer to Mirajane to survey her unease.
"That bad?"
"Um… I, um…"
"Come on, Mira, I've already come clean with a not-so-glorious anecdote from my past, you should too."
She regretted instantly once she sneaked a glance at Laxus' face – all genuine curiousity that seemed so pleasantly innocent on one of the guild's best S Class Mages. But Mirajane knew he would be absolutely disgusted if she even tried to call him innocent, after all, he was known and feared for his power and might.
Heaving a purposefully loud sigh, she closed her eyes in dismay. "You'll have to promise me not to laugh."
"Laugh? I won't laugh at you, Mira."
"Just promise me!" A raised eyebrow and a reluctant nod later, Mirajane finally decided to reveal the "skeleton" she was being overly protective about.
"I…"
"You…?"
"I… I have a tattoo on my butt!" she rushed, squeezing her eyes shut in fear of his reaction. The stale silence that followed had Mirajane popping one eye open in anxiety, only to see a completely stoic expression where a frown usually took it's place.
"You have a tattoo. On your butt." Laxus deadpanned.
Her blushed brightened but she nodded nonetheless. "Yeah, what you said."
"Please tell me the backstory."
The tension bled out of Mirajane's shoulders as she saw that he didn't have a particularly negative reaction, and she moved to sit on a nearby stool with a defeated slump.
"It was before Lisanna got sucked into Edolas, okay? I thought tattoos were badass and I wanted one, but I was afraid of the pain, so the tattoo artist told me to get it at the butt where it's full of fats and it'll hurt the least." She explained, her voice barely louder than a whisper. Laxus pulled up another stool and settled beside her, his face contemplative as he listened to her story.
"So… what did you get?"
"Oh, it was nothing special, it's just 'Demon' to remind myself of my power."
"…Right… But… you model for bikinis all the time and no one has ever seen it?
Mirajane was seriously getting tired of blushing so many times in one conversation, but the embarrassment of her teenage decisions were weighing especially heavily on her at this present moment. "I was scared so I told him to make it small… and it's just below the waistband so the bikinis that I wear cover it perfectly."
"Hmm…" The lightning mage's thoughtful expression gave nothing of his opinion on the issue, and Mirajane could feel herself growing annoyed at his lack of a response.
"Well, what made you ask about secrets, anyway?"
Laxus shrugged despite the fast reddening of his ears; Mirajane was glad that she wasn't the only embarrassed one, and casually crossed his arms across his broad chest, where his own tattoo lay. "Lisanna told me the most important thing in a relationship is trust, and that you'd appreciate it if we exchanged our deepest secrets."
"She what?" she spoke through gritted teeth, her quickly darkening aura causing even Laxus to break out in sweat. "She did this on purpose! Lisanna's the only one that knows about my tattoo… Oh, Lisanna… Just you wait for what advice I'm giving Bickslow…" The fact that he could practically see the gears turning in her head sent shivers down Laxus' spine – he knew that Mirajane was the number one person you did not want to piss off.
He sat up a little straighter as something crossed his mind, along with fumes of rage hotter than the flames that burnt the guild down so many years back. "Wait, so the tattoo artist saw you naked?"
"Oh, don't look so murderous, darling," she giggled, her anger dissipating at her boyfriend's jealousy. "The tattoo artist was female. I wouldn't have let a boy touch me like that!"
"Good, you better not," huffed Laxus, seemingly satisfied by her response.
But then the same brooding expression that had gotten Mirajane mildly riled up was apparent on his face again, and he slowly turned to look at the platinum-haired mage with a serious expression on his face.
"So, you have a tattoo on your butt, right?"
"…Yes…?" She was almost afraid at the slight smirk that tugged on his lips.
"Can I see?"
A/N: I was contemplating on letting her tattoo say 'FENCE' so you sit... on the fence... get it?
fairyscribe . tumblr . com
