Author's Notes:

TW:
sun and moon references
we are our own gods
love that transcends time and space
celestial bodies
mentions of blood
explicit content

Chapter 129:

Laxus was curled into a ball on the ground. He felt more than a little silly, more than a little insane. He truly thought he'd handle this better than he was right now. After all, Gajeel had gone through this very thing since he was a teen, so why was it that he felt he was dying? Each breath he took, it felt like his flesh was alive and hated him, growing more and more exasperated with every labored inhale. But when he held his breath his heart would squeeze painfully and his entire body would throb. He was feverish, hot, like he'd been smothered under a warm blanket next to a roaring bonfire and he couldn't catch his breath from the air thinning. He couldn't think past what his body felt, past heat and ants crawling under his skin. Gajeel had once said it was like bugs and he was dreadfully correct. Hundreds of thousands of prickles stuck into his skin, and each delicate touch of his own hand made it skitter away and then rush back once it had moved away, bubbling to the surface for something it couldn't have. It whittled away at his sanity until his hands roved across his body against his own volition and he realized he was being swept away again, falling in and out of a continuous wet dream, and only waking up when he realized the pleasure was actually real and not a fabrication of his mind.

There was no relief. Not without Gajeel. Not without his mate.

Gajeel... it was his fault. He was the one who put the idea in his head. He'd told him not to bite, but his jaw and teeth ached to sink into giving tissue and muscle, to break skin and taste blood. He'd been on his knees, chasing release again, when the desire had overwhelmed him and he'd sunk his teeth into his own arm. The pain, the building pleasure, orgasm, but instead of the brief seconds of ebb before the Heat returned again it just amped up the pressure. He needed to let the venom out, craved connection and reciprocation, but doing it to himself had made everything unfathomably worse.

There was blood coating his fingers. He'd sunk his claws into himself and the pain had given his mind focus until it didn't, and then he was left in misery and agony from lacerations dragged across his arms in a moment of frenzy. There were no sweet kisses to ease the harsh bite, no deep and dulcet voice to make his soul shiver and still. No other body to concentrate on aside from his own that raged against him.

Gajeel had left him. He was alone. And it was maddening.

His mind was reeling with thoughts of what he'd do when Gajeel finally returned. Because he would return, a man of his word who somehow, someway, despite everything Laxus put him through, craved him just as much. He was coming back, desperate for Laxus's teeth, his talons, his selfish taking. And that only left the question of what Laxus would do when he got there. Would he even have enough restraint not to just drag him to the ground and raze his body until there was nothing left?

Laxus grinned to himself. Knowing him, he'd enjoy it.

The sun was fading. Somehow the span of hours had taken ages and was also over in the blink of an eye. Tomorrow would be the worst of it, Gajeel had told him, and he blearily wondered how his body could possibly withstand any more. Just laying there in misery, he considered ignoring Gajeel's warning and just going to the water's edge anyway. At least if he froze to death he'd get some sleep. Could he freeze to death when his insides were on fire? Maybe he couldn't. He'd just boil the water around him.

He felt magic press against the edge of his own smothering presence, silently entering his borders, treading lightly, carefully, and then with dramatic swiftness; a meteor breaching the heliopause and hurtling towards him, dragged onward by electric wind and gravity. It reminded him of the male spider that taps along the web's edge when it courts its much larger mate, terrified of being eaten despite its dreadful need for an end. Gajeel was so small compared to him, and so resilient. Obsessed. So obsessed he didn't hesitate to head for a town he couldn't stand to make a deal with a powerful man in order to keep him not just sated, but happy. To alleviate his guilt when he would inevitably come crashing down from his dizzying height, when the god-complex would shatter and reveal the nervous man beneath it.

The close proximity turned his affliction into an overwhelming thirst, twisted it with his well-kept superiority, stoking it back to his forefront. Gajeel was so good to him. He hardly deserved it. But if the gods are flawed, then do they deserve the worship they so greedily consume, either? He thought not. And he also sort of felt like a god. Gajeel was walking into his decimating storm, dwarfed by magic that constantly raged, thunder that grew stronger the closer he came, and never once flinched.

Be obsessed with me. Let me possess you.

Goddamn, he loved him.

He drew himself up and waited, splayed on the blanket haloed by the parhelic light of his magic constantly enshrining him now that he'd lost so much of his grip. A spectacle, he was sure, covered in a sheen of sweat and glowing like a god waiting for his acolyte to come and fall to his knees before him, only barely holding it together as he tried to be patient. He let his head fall back and felt his love returning to him, picking up speed as he approached. He saw him in the distance and then he heard him and then he scented him on the wind. He was on his feet without realizing he'd commanded his body to move and began crossing the distance between them.

"You've hurt yourself," Gajeel said, breathless. He was struggling against the raging storm, his knees weak from his overwhelming magical pressure. The high branches of the trees creaked in agony from vengeful wind and static.

Laxus cupped the sides of his face and drew him close, "You left me."

"I had to," he got out before Laxus drew him into a deep kiss. He was dropping his bags, calloused hands hastily fumbling off his shirt. Unbroken skin was revealed, not that Laxus could notice too much, he was dragging him back towards the blanket splayed out on the ground. Gajeel could hardly keep up with him, shucking off clothing to be sure he wouldn't try to rip it off later.

Laxus, quite literally, threw him to the ground. He huffed, pushing himself up onto his elbows and kicked off his boots as Laxus straddled him. He twisted his fingers into raven locks and yanked his head to a painful angle.

"You said I could be mean?" Laxus breathed, "How mean can I be to you, Gajeel?"

Red eyes were swimming, "As mean as you want."

"You left me alone too long, again, baby," Laxus warned, breathless, hungry. His dick was already weeping against Gajeel's chest. The raven's strong hands were digging into his thighs, drawing him closer, already seeing where this was going. "You should be careful..."

"I did, didn't I? Downright bastard, for what I keep doing to you..." he purred, running his nose up his inner thigh and placing a burning kiss to pale skin, "Mîn yst, what can I do to make it up to you?"

"F-fuck..." Laxus gasped, "I want to fuck your throat."

Gajeel's pupils widened like an excited cat's, and a wry smile tugged at his face, "Do what you want to me."

"You're such a glutton, aren't you?" Laxus's voice dropped to a snarl, "What was all that shit about setting yourself on fire?"

"Setting myself on fire implies I'm hurting myself to keep you comfortable... I like you unhinged, swête weder. I want you to use me," he breathed, leaning forward so that his breath was ghosting across his flesh. Laxus shivered at his open mouth, how it drew close and he ran the flat of his tongue up his shaft. "Do you want it badly? You can command me, if you want, fairy. I worship the ground you walk on."

"Less than dirt to me...?" Laxus simpered down at him, golden eyes filling with the spark of electricity. He grabbed his wrist and pulled it around him. Gajeel dug his nails into his ass, impatient to have him closer, "I want to fuck you until your throat is raw. Do you think you can handle me?"

Blush tinged Gajeel's cheeks and he moaned as he took him into his mouth, wetting him with his tongue before taking more of him. Laxus sighed as shivers broke down his thighs. The hand in Gajeel's hair balled into a fist, twisting so he held him fast, could direct him easily. He shifted his hips forward, straddling his shoulders so Gajeel had to slip his hands underneath him, strong arms guiding him so he could go deeper. His eyes rolled back as he thrusted experimentally, pulling out just so Gajeel could take a breath and then fucking back into him again. He didn't stop until he was thoroughly sheathed deep into the hot clutch of his throat, his mind going blank with white when he felt him swallow around him.

"Fuck, baby..." he hissed, "You feel so fucking good."

He started slow at first, trying not to be so brutal. But the buzz beneath his skin pitched feverishly, driving away reason with each thrust into the wet heat of him. He heard Gajeel choke and it made his heart hammer in his chest. The desire to hear it again made him nearly violent and he picked up his pace, his force. He snapped his hips forward hard at the same moment that he forced Gajeel's face into him, and reveled at the noise he made in his desperate attempt to swallow him down again. He thrusted faster, chasing pleasure doggedly until the grip holding him turned painful. He pulled out and Gajeel pushed him off of him, gasping for breath between painful coughs. Laxus almost felt bad until his fiery eyes snapped back up to him.

"Was that really the best you could do?" Laxus sneered.

"No," his voice was ragged, husky, and it made a thrill race up Laxus's spine. He crawled back on top of him, "Let me try again."

"I don't know..." Laxus smirked, cupping his chin and guiding him towards him, "Do you deserve a second chance?"

Blazing ruby eyes narrowed. His hand splayed against Laxus's belly, slipping down to wrap around his slicked dick. Laxus clenched his teeth to not groan.

"I can try again for you..." Gajeel breathed, his voice still thoroughly wrecked.

Rogue exhilaration thrummed in Laxus's veins. He tilted his head to the side, like he might be leaning in to kiss him, "If you want to try again that badly... then beg for it."

Gajeel's face twisted with disgust and he glared, "I don't beg."

"Didn't you say you worshiped the ground I walk on? That you'd do whatever I told you to?" Laxus gripped his chin harder, looking down on him, "Humiliate you? Make you weak? Gajeel... I want you to beg. Now beg."

He could see Gajeel's jaw working where he clenched his teeth so hard. He tossed his head, pulling free from Laxus's grip. His glare turned into an outright scowl. He leaned up to bury his face in the crook of Laxus's shoulder. Laxus plucked at his hair, excitedly waiting for the payoff he knew would come.

"Laxus..." he hissed, "I don't beg..."

"Then you're denying me?" Laxus snarled into his ear, "You said I could be mean... should I tell you how disappointed I am? Maybe I won't bite you until I'm satisfied… do you think you could stand that?"

Gajeel made a noise like a dog's whine and buried his face even further into him. Laxus could feel the studs on his eyebrows digging into his skin.

"P... Please..." he muttered.

"Please... what?" Laxus prompted.

"Let me try again, Laxus... please."

Laxus's heart began to race, "Again."

"Please... let me try again," Gajeel said, louder this time, but still haggard and angry.

Laxus was suddenly unable to contain himself. "Again, Gajeel. Like you mean it."

He felt Gajeel breathe him in, hands running up his thighs and digging into him. Laxus couldn't help it, he tipped his head back and moaned. Gajeel slipped his face up until his lips were resting against his ear, speaking so quietly Laxus could hardly hear. It made Laxus's spine feel alive with energy, surging up through him until his borders struggled against themselves. He'd made Gajeel beg.

"Mîn luz... p-please..." he gasped. Laxus felt him shiver, "I can do better for you. Please let me try again..."

"Again." Laxus commanded, and Gajeel obliged, his voice again growing just a little bit stronger.

"Please, Laxus... let me try again," his voice twisted up into a whine at the end. His breathing hitched, panting like a dog against him. Laxus fisted a hand into black hair, pulling the strands taught so he'd moan against his ear, "I can do it. Let me try again. Please. Please, let me try..."

"So good to me..." Laxus whispered, "You're so fucking good to me..."

He dragged his face back down and Gajeel captured him in his mouth without hesitation, taking his length deep into his throat. Laxus moaned and fell back onto the ground. Gajeel sucked him down greedily and Laxus chose the pace, forcing his head down until his nose dug into his skin. Laxus spread his thighs wide, thrusted up into him as he dipped his head down again. Gajeel swallowed and let out a self-satisfied hum, nearly making Laxus's vision fade out again.

"Inside..." Laxus gasped, "I want to feel you inside..."

Gajeel pulled back just long enough to slick his fingers in spit and rub against his entrance, "What do you need from me, fairy?"

"Fuck me..." Laxus gasped as he pushed his finger inside, "Hard. I need to feel it..."

"Patience…" Gajeel muttered, "I don't want to hurt you."

"I fucking need it," Laxus cried out, falling into frustration. He forced Gajeel's head back down. Two fingers pushed inside of him and he arched his spine, desperate for more, "Fuck. Gajeel…! Please hurry!"

He kept Gajeel's head pressed firmly against him, fucking up into his throat with abandon. He chose a ruthless pace, chasing it when a third finger stretched him open. He needed more. Harder. He heard Gajeel choke and it made him throw back his head and keen. After long last, Gajeel was thrusting into him with his fingers, fucking him with his hand while Laxus razed his mouth. His eyes rolled back and he forced Gajeel down hard as he thrusted upwards. His throat closed around him and he groaned, the fire in him stoking higher.

"Fuck baby…!" Laxus cried out, "C-close… close…"

Gajeel rocked his fingers into him harshly and it made his head swim. He swallowed him down, hollowed his cheeks, and Laxus arched. Fingers fucked him relentlessly until his breath fled him and he came, pushing Gajeel down so he'd release down his throat. Gajeel – so good to him, fuck! So fucking good – swallowed and held him deeply as he spasmed, not losing a drop of him, all the while fingering him gently until pleasure frayed into overstimulation and Laxus pulled him back.

"Oh fuck… gods… fuck…" Laxus gasped as Gajeel finally tossed his head back. His eyes were bleary and distant, bloodshot and watery from Laxus's brutal thrusts. He wiped the spit from his mouth with the back of his hand, hardly able to catch his breath before Laxus lunged for him, gripped his shoulders tightly and forced him to the ground.

"Not enough, fairy?" Gajeel said, so absolutely wrecked his voice was nearly guttural. Laxus realized he liked it far too much.

"Your mouth is so good…" Laxus gasped, "So good… taking me like that."

"Laxus…" he began in warning, "I don't…"

"I didn't say you're a good person, did I?" Laxus snapped, "I said you're good at taking my dick down your throat."

Gajeel's eyes widened. He bared his teeth in a grimace. The fact he'd so quickly refuse his compliment made Laxus want to be even meaner, maybe to show him what he was missing or maybe just to try to ruin his pride.

"You should be proud... being such a good fuck. Unless you'd prefer I call you a whore?" he threaded his fingers into the fine ebony strands of his forehead and forced his head back. Gajeel shivered beneath him and it was enough to make Laxus pause in his single-mindedness, "Do you want me to call you names, Gajeel?"

Gajeel ran his tongue over his sharper teeth, "That's... up to you."

He felt he should follow this conversation, but the warmth on his skin wouldn't let him concentrate. He quickly abandoned whatever he had wanted to say next.

"Do you want me to bite you, darling?"

"Y-yes…" he hesitated, his hands resting against Laxus's waist, "Do I have to beg again?"

"I'll let you off easy since you did so well," Laxus groaned against his throat, "Don't make me regret it."

He bit down, and even that felt like release. Skin breaking beneath his sharp teeth, the pulse in his gums from venom that eased immediately, the vibration against him when Gajeel moaned, the taste of blood… his eyes rolled back and he shook for as long as he held him in his teeth. Magic unfurled beneath him as Gajeel was dragged into his embrace.

He leaned back on his knees, not bothering to make Gajeel take off his pants and just freeing his already incredibly hard member instead. He felt Gajeel's grip on his waist tighten. Something about the magic of the air changed, tinging with something he knew innately didn't like. The scent was sweet and rancid, reminiscent of something he'd seen in a basement far from here. Fear. It made his entire body snap tight and he froze, mind reeling as Gajeel's nails bit further into him.

Golden eyes dropped to the man underneath him glimpsing how scarlet irises were desperately trying to drown something behind dark shadow where Laxus couldn't see. But he had already been bitten. They were binary stars, now, pushed and pulled together by magic. The strings between them had grown brilliant and opened a bridge between them, emotions flowed freely from one to the other, unfettered floodwaters. Gajeel was trapped in his grasp, diminished without his encapsulating force, and Laxus used this connection to dive deeper into him, root around, and gaze at best kept secrets to find out what had caused this sudden terror. Gajeel was scared, and it made every instinct in Laxus scream to find out why and alleviate it.

"What's wrong?" Laxus asked earnestly, his mind running over everything he'd done to make sure there was a plea he had missed in his haste, "What did I do?"

"It's n-not you..." Gajeel was jittery and nervous, his lips were a thin line. He didn't want to make him upset, and that made Laxus all the more worried, "I don't like this position. Can we... try something... else?"

"Why?" Laxus shivered, trying to contain himself.

It was the fact that Gajeel wouldn't look at him that gave him pause. Heat bubbled up from everywhere and Laxus was quickly losing his grip on himself. He cupped the sides of Gajeel's face, ran his thumbs up the line of his jaw and wouldn't let him look away.

"Tell me," he growled lowly, "Don't hide it from me."

Gajeel's eyes closed, his face overcome with burning shame, "I just don't... like this position... Laxus. I'm sorry."

It was then that Laxus could feel it, this barely caged terror rattling at its bars to come out and devastate, was just like the fear when he held down his wrists. Realization hit him. Thunder rampaged over the mountain, shaking the trees and everything around them, the calamity of his burning hatred swelling until the sky burned with brilliant white light.

He gazed down at Gajeel, the way he had curled up slightly, how small he seemed, biting back the reaction waiting to bob to the surface like a body in the marsh. Laxus knew now, after what Orotrushit had shown him, the true extent of the damage done to the man trapped beneath his hips, and his blood turned black and toxic in his veins as he understood where this dread was coming from. Bianca had held him down, sat astride him, and turned into him. He'd felt Gajeel's burning shame, his shock and horror, and his deep-seated fear he'd never be able to even look at him again. He didn't want Laxus over him like this... because it reminded him of her.

A growl ripped up his throat and his vision bled with red.

"I'm sorry..." Gajeel whispered, flinching beneath him, also achingly aware of the rage that was suddenly consuming him. He sounded on the verge of panic, "I'm sorry. I-I can try, I just..."

"I'm not sharing you with anyone," Laxus said, his voice low and dripping with poison, "Especially not her."

Gajeel started to say something but it was lost to the blonde. Slowly and guided by resolute and lethal purpose, he brought his hand forward and wrapped it around Gajeel's throat, pushing him back into the ground. Laxus's face was placid, calm, covering the building supernova beneath, and the irate stillness made Gajeel's soul tremble with thrilling dread. Lightning crackled in Laxus's eyes, all around them, strobing them with brilliant yellow as his magic charged the air. It sparked around his figure, dousing them in stark shadows from the dying light of the sun setting. Gajeel clung to his wrist and tried not to drown in the oppressive brutality that turned the air fetid and bitter like acid.

"Gajeel..." his voice echoed with thunder cracking and Gajeel shivered, "...who do you belong to?"

"I don't..." his throat closed as lightning struck nearby.

"Who do you belong to?" he asked again, tranquility overlaid with the quiet menace of his burning anger, "Me or her?"

Gajeel shut his eyes and whispered, "You, mîn luz, only you."

"Mine... Gajeel, you're mine... all the best parts of you, baby, and the worst."

He leaned down and kissed him, sweeping his tongue across his lips and coaxing them open. Gajeel gasped for the breath graced to him as Laxus's tongue dipped into his mouth. The blonde reached down and gently uncurled his fingers from where they dug into him and caressed the back of his hand, bringing it up so he could kiss the delicate inside of his wrist. It was a sweetly disarming gesture that Gajeel didn't fall for in the slightest, shaking like the sinner about to face the vengeance of a malevolent god.

"My love... my mate... can anyone hurt you when I'm here? Can she hurt you while I'm here?"

"N-no..." Gajeel whispered, his stomach coiling as teeth sank into his wrist. His thoughts muddled, his body responding to his love's demand by snapping tight and wanting. A bead of scarlet slipped down his arm. "A-ahh... Laxus...!"

Laxus released his harsh bite but didn't release his hold on him.

"Every part of you, Gajeel, is mine...?" He gripped his arm tighter in his hand, threatening bruises, and glared down at Gajeel as he swept his tongue against wounded skin, "...including your wrists?"

Gajeel shuddered beneath him. His reply was so quiet it was nearly nonexistent, "Y-yes."

It was a shame he didn't have the stomach for murder. He wanted to drag her spirit back into the world just to burn it into the afterlife once again. He was ready to be done with that bitch once and for all. The ghost of her had haunted them for long enough.

Despite his obvious trepidation, Gajeel's dick twitched. Laxus felt it throb against him, and it made him feel incredibly smug, powerful. He was the sun, and one merciless flare could sear her from existence forever.

"Gajeel..." he hummed lovingly, pushing his arm down against the ground. His wrist, his wrist, that he hated being held down. He felt his pulse jump beneath his tight grip. Laxus didn't relent, even when fear bloomed into the air again. "I never apologized to you, did I? For what I said to you that day, bleeding out on the floor while you did the dirty work? If I had known what she had done to you, baby, I never would have doubted your decision. I never would have told you she should have gone to prison instead."

Gajeel was nearly swept away in unbridled emotion. On one hand, filled with dread that reached blindly for despair, on the other submissive devotion colored with abject adoration. Venom and arousal and fear mixed together into something intoxicating. He'd just been relieved of some guilt, but didn't understand the reason for the alleviation. Laxus was so imposing. He forcibly put light to everything so painfully ripped from him and thrust it back upon him again, not in a request, but a demand to reclaim what he'd lost.

The disk that kept the sun's harsh light at bay had shattered and Gajeel was left staring straight into it and all its blinding resplendence. Somehow, his fear had disinterred the lord of the dawn from the graves crafted by the wizards for all the gods, and he had emerged from the desolate ground a devil. Hauntingly exquisite, Laxus was ablaze like some demigod of vengeance, arms around him protectively, jealously, framed in lightning.

Laxus swept up his other wrist and pinned it with the other above his head. Gajeel's chest heaved and he whimpered, tugging lamely to be free from wide hands which held him deftly. Commanding. Unrelenting. Laxus could feel him shaking, see the way his eyes were muddled with terror and breathless devotion. Laxus wasn't going to let him up, not this time. Alluring and fearsome. Gajeel would be slain in bacchanalian madness on his altar if only he found the courage to kiss his bloodstained mouth.

"M-my wrists..." he whispered, "Laxus..."

Laxus held them both in one hand and with his other he splayed his fingers against Gajeel's chest.

"You said you'd kill for me, darling?" Laxus hummed. Gajeel shivered, his eyes bowed as he looked up at him, growing more and more desperate but confused as to what for. Venom in his veins clouded the fear that came with being held down. He couldn't calm his breathing, his stomach twining around itself and crawling up into his chest. Was it anxiety or was it anticipation? Either way, his core twisted again and Laxus grinded against him, "Gajeel, I want you to kill her for me."

Like a dog that had been struck, Gajeel bared his teeth, his canines flashing dangerously. Magic snapped between them as Laxus called to the lightning he'd placed in his chest days ago.

"Laxus!" Gajeel gasped as his entire body came alive. He writhed beneath him but couldn't get free, "You're playing with fire!"

"You promised you'd be my dog of war. You told me to free you with servitude, darling," Laxus said, a wicked smile pulling across his face as he mocked the slight Gajeel had made to him earlier that day, "Kill her for me, Gajeel. Take your knife and cut her throat. I want to hear her dying breath when she bleeds out on the floor. I don't want her in my bed ever again. She's been there long enough."

Gajeel threw his head back as Laxus freed the energy trapped inside him. His own snapped into being, green and yellow light dancing together as lightning struck ground. Gajeel groaned, as the borders of his body struggled to keep their shapes almost as much as when Laxus had turned him into lightning and dragged him up the mountain. He felt bloodlust pulsing up into his throat, vignetting his vision with red. Every atom in his body, his soul, screamed for violent retribution, a feeling so dreadfully familiar but colored in a brand new shade of red that emitted its own light, a conflagration the likes of which spills over the horizon on a winter morning like blood on snow. He felt Laxus's hips shift backwards, grinding down against his dick.

"Am I still a god to you, baby?" Laxus asked amorously, like he wasn't making him feel like he was about to die.

Gajeel's eyes rolled back as energy surged through him, brought him to the edge of something and held him there precariously. Laxus's lightning and his mixed together so much he couldn't stand it. He was treading along the surface of him, desperate not to fall under and drown. But his arms and legs couldn't compete with the coming squall. He feared he wouldn't be able to stand so much magic; it would smother him like the ocean.

"Yes!" he gasped, every muscle in his body taut and shaking, "Y-yes, Laxus! Oh, fuck. T's... too much!"

"If I'm still your god, you should worship me... you're so good at it." Laxus gripped his wrists tighter, allowed lightning to dance across their bodies. Gajeel cried out, tossing his head to the side as he writhed beneath him. He snapped his knees up, getting his feet beneath him as Laxus grinded against him again, "Will you do what I say, love?"

"Y-yes...!" he hissed, his eyes cracking open just a little, "Whatever you say..."

"Tell me you'll kill her for me." Laxus demanded and ran electric fingers across his chest. Static danced over his skin and he arched his spine.

"I'll kill her for you!" he gasped, tears collecting in the corners of his eyes because he nearly couldn't stand it, and enjoyed it far too much. Maybe Davian was right, maybe he was attracted to something that could kill him, "I'll enjoy it."

"You're so good to me, Gajeel…" Laxus crooned, and reached back to aid Gajeel's dick pressing into him. He felt his head pierce into him and marveled as Gajeel curled his spine and cried out, shaking as if he were already on the verge of release, "Who do you belong to?"

"You!" Gajeel snarled, barely containing himself. Scarlet eyes flashed open, his pupils concentrated, ravenous slits, looking ready to rip out his throat, "I belong to you, Laxus, and no one else."

"Fuck… I wish I could take a picture of you like this. Look at you, darling, you look like an animal." Laxus sighed as he finally let his hips sink down. The stretch was divine, stoking a burning inferno inside of him. Gajeel growled and Laxus smirked, "You look like you're going to kill me, Gajeel."

Gajeel's grin spread slowly, exposed his sharp teeth glittering like a threat up at him; a smiling fox glaring up at the kestrel that thought itself safe from its reach. Between ragged breaths, he asked, "Do you want me to?"

"Absolutely." Laxus breathed.

Gajeel snapped his hips upward, sheathing inside of him. Laxus tipped his head forward and groaned. He took him almost completely before it became too much and he had to pause, gasping where he perched on top of Gajeel.

"Fuck… it's deep…" Laxus hissed, feeling the tenuous connection between them deepen. He glanced up to red eyes swimming with avarice. Gajeel's lecherous tongue ran hungrily against his teeth.

"But it doesn't hurt." He stated, grinning.

"No." he breathed between rugged gasps, "It doesn't hurt."

"Don't pull away from me, fairy. I'm going to give you what you want so badly."

He thrust up into him harshly and Laxus saw stars. The sound that dragged from his mouth was animalistic. He leaned onto his hands, unable to do much more than just accept what Gajeel gave to him so ruthlessly. Laxus lost all control of his magic and it flooded the spaces between them.

Gajeel was completely overwhelmed in the tide he inspired, the tide of Laxus's magic when his grip slipped and he was doused in lightning. He sobbed from being consumed completely, mixing together, suddenly unable to tell where he ended and Laxus began. He felt heat and he felt venom and he felt building ecstasy, and the world faded away into abstract shapes and the memory of what once tethered them down.

Fire scorched his chest where Laxus's hand still rested, searing through his veins. Lightning. He felt it tearing apart what made him and turning it into something different, molding itself to his DNA, to his wild nature, saturating him with technicolor. He screamed and felt his own magic release itself, dragging metal from the ground to puncture the sky around them. It consumed the body connected to him, digging in hooks and drawing it impossibly close, framing bones with a second skeleton. He felt Laxus's core tighten and he moaned his name, but Gajeel must have been blind because he didn't witness his unraveling, just felt it shake the ties that bound them together.

Gajeel smiled, blissful and proud. "Yes fairy… feel good…"

Laxus slipped his hand up his throat and back, weaving it into the gossamer hair at the base of his skull and drawing his head back to sink his teeth into him. He was completely lost in it. No thoughts, just instinct, just basic need. But not a need for ecstatic release, a need for connection that went past what nature intended, what magic should be used for.

The Dragons were different. They knew how foolish it was to deny the unseen world.

"Don't let me go, swête weder…" Gajeel's voice pierced his haze. It was thick with lust, bloodthirsty and coarse, "I will hurt you so badly."

"Are you losing control, darling?" he spoke and his voice came from everywhere around them, roared in thunder. Lightning snapped around his form, framing his shape like the brilliant solar flares only visible when the moon covers the sun. He could taste blood in his mouth, ran his tongue against an exposed throat, "I have scales now, too."

A growl trembled the air between them and he felt Gajeel twist his wrists in his hand, "Why are you so desperate to turn me into a mindless animal?"

"Tell me this is mindless," Laxus gasped when he hit him deeper, a feeling that made his body sing, "T-tell me… you don't love it as much as I d-do…?"

"If I'm going to set myself on fire, Laxus…" Gajeel's voice was a low threat. Golden eyes drew up and focused on exposed teeth. But he didn't look livid. His gaze was impossibly soft, staring at him with nothing but bleeding adoration, "You're going to burn with me."

"Yes…" Laxus breathed, his grip on Gajeel's hands slipping as he fought against him.

"Promise me?" Gajeel snarled, the muscles in his body coiling tighter, readying to let loose, "Promise."

"I promise… Gajeel," Laxus breathed, resigning himself.

Those words snapped whatever frail chain it was that held him back. Gajeel's wolfish grin, his howling, scarlet eyes, glittered with viridescent magic that spiraled out around them both. Laxus could feel the pulse of iron almost as if he'd summoned it himself. The hooks the raven had dug into him vibrated like the chords of an instrument struck and allowed to finally at long last to sing.

Gajeel groaned as his hands broke free and he raked his talons against electric yellow scales. Laxus gasped because the feeling incited something divine, his flesh trembled and craved more. Laxus dug his own talons into Gajeel, though they could no longer pierce his skin. Gajeel's eyes snapped wide for an instant, disbelieving and wretched. He was breathless, his voice broken into sharpened edges.

"Do it again," he begged, "Dig your nails into me again."

Laxus didn't understand but he did, using force that would have shredded deep into flesh if they hadn't been there. He didn't hold back, felt the velvet smoothness beneath the tips of his fingers and tried his hardest to break through. Gajeel was shivering with excitement, eyes wide and wild.

"I can feel you…" he whispered. It was nearly a sob, "I… I can feel you… do it again."

Laxus obliged happily. How many times had Gajeel said his scales made him maddeningly numb? Oh, to be touched for the first time again… Laxus's mind reeled to know how he felt. Restraint frayed and snapped. Gajeel came without warning him, thrusting up as he dragged the blonde into him so he'd be deep and undeniable. Laxus gasped at warmth inside him, the throbbing of his member that he could feel buried inside. He closed his eyes and groaned, lost in sensation when Gajeel twisted his hips and threw him onto the ground.

"Bite me again," he gasped, plunging back into him. Laxus threw his head back and swore.

Lighting turned the world white, ricocheted off the metal that surrounded them. Two magic circles opened up beneath them, colors raging and converging on one another. Neither had summoned them, or they both had. They didn't know, they didn't care. They were all that existed out in the nothingness of space around them, two binary stars connected and burning out in one glorious, frantic dance. Blinding and wild, pieces of them spiraled off into the endless night to make something new. Metallic scales parted for him to sink in his teeth.

Wings opened. Thunder cracked. The air tasted like iron. The ground trembled. Magic threaded together and became one. Laxus, at long last, felt what Gajeel had wanted to show him so many months ago in the safe house. He finally felt what it was like to fly.

The sky split with the roar of a dragon and he could have wept for how incandescent his body felt. Every piece of him resonated with ecstasy, every touch a new and beautiful sensation. He'd never imagined what he was missing when he forfeited surrender in his flight from pain. His sense of self was lost, entwined in Gajeel, consumed by him, consuming in kind.

Their souls resonated against each other. Magic and life energy swirled together. Laxus felt iron sinking into his bones as Gajeel felt lightning breaking across his marrow. Heat and venom worked in synergy as they'd always been intended to. The universe and all its boundless beauty ceased to exist beyond what they could witness, and all they could see was each other. Laxus took greedily what was offered, transformed it the way only lightning can. Gajeel kissed him like his life depended on it, something on his lips that felt like prayer.

What did it mean to pledge yourself to a god?

"Goddamnit, Laxus, you always make me realize how starved I've been my whole life, for fucking love, of all things. Love. I never needed love until you, mîn luz, I never needed the light. Thank the gods and all their awful wisdom that there's so much of you. I could eat you forever. I have to. I need to eat all of you to make up for how long I've gone hungry."

Laxus sighed, "I'm too much."

"Not too much, Laxus. Never too much. Don't ever make yourself small for my sake. If loving you means drowning in an ocean of you, I want my lungs to burn. I'll drink you until my stomach is full and I'll still crave more..."

"Gajeel..." Laxus shivered from his words, "...you always say crazy things..."

"Sweet things, only sweet things..." Gajeel purred against his jaw, "I can say crazy things if you'd like, though. I can do crazy things. Make crazy promises..."

Gajeel's lecherous tongue razed up his throat. He carved pale skin with lunate bites, whispering insanities into the divots made by savage teeth.

"I love you, I adore you, and I fucking hate that I only know one way to show it to you, mîn lîeg… I burn for you, Laxus. Can you feel it? Because of you, for you, Laxus, I'm burning, and I never want to go through life without feeling this fire. Whatever is left of it, I promised to live it for you…"

Silver coated talons that reflected rampant electricity cradled his own, brought it to his chest. The fire seared his fingers, energy stung into his skin, warped around his own, trickled down his skin like divine ichor leaking from a bleeding god. Laxus couldn't catch his breath. It felt like melted iron slithering down his skin.

"If I give you my heart, do you think they can still rip it out of me?" he said breathlessly, "I'd have to come back for it, if they did. A grave couldn't keep me from you, mîn luz. I'd fight my way through hell to come back to you… everything that's left of me, remember? Everything that's left of me is yours just as it was."

Giving voice to fears they refused to look at head on felt treacherous. To ignore them was so much easier. But Laxus was a helioid god, and he would take this heathen into him so none could touch him.

What did it mean to pledge yourself to a god?

"Yes…" Laxus dug his claws into his shoulders and drew him down into him, yearning to have him close, for their borders to burst at their edges and consume each other. "Gajeel, swear it to me. Say that you belong to me… forever."

Gajeel laughed darkly, "What happens if you change your mind? What will you do with me, then?"

Laxus scoured his claws up to his back, drawing a delicious keen from the iron dragon's lips. He felt muscles ripple under iron scales, how earnestly he craved the touch penetrating through what had always denied him true sensation. It was enthralling. Laxus was mystified by him, every new thing he learned, taking apart this impenetrable creature piece by piece and turning him in the light under his hands. He could do it forever, discover more, brighten every dark side, explore every uncharted place. Never. He'd never get enough.

"I won't," he replied, passionate and nearly outraged at the very idea, "I'll never get enough of you, Gajeel."

The power to not only utilize magic, but to also use Virale. To transform energy from one form to another…

Red eyes raked into his soul. He leaned down, slowing their frantic pace. Laxus still dug a hand into Gajeel's chest, still clung desperately to him. He moaned into Gajeel's ear when he felt him slip his hand down his navel and wrap around his dick.

"Swear it to me…!" Lauxs demanded, suddenly frantic. Suddenly craving something he couldn't put words to, something unsung and unnamed. Gajeel could give it to him and he might die without it, "Gajeel…! Please, swear it to me! I need you to, fuck, I want you to..."

"Be patient with me, Laxus. This is all so new to me, too." Gajeel whispered against his neck, "I barely know what I'm doing."

The symbols of their magic circles shifted, changing into something different. The soil beneath them burned, scorching draconic symbols into physicality. Gajeel's scarlet eyes crackled with emerald lightning, lightning that effused across his body and over the pale hand clutching at his chest, dragging out something and giving it reality. Iron surged to the surface of porcelain flesh, foreign and inextricable from him. It was known to him now. It was too late to turn back now, they were already being altered.

A power harnessed only by the dragons… and the gods.

Laxus's head was spinning. It wasn't just the build of ecstasy in the base of his spine anymore. There was power in his chest that grew until it was unbearable. He could hear Gajeel's haggard breathing, how he whispered things in a language he shouldn't understand but somehow did.

"My heart and my soul, sweet storm, belong to you. You are my everything, my sunlight. Little sun, you have my heart… take it. I'm yours. Have what belongs only to you…"

Laxus gasped, his muscles tense and shaking at the precipice approaching. He couldn't move his hand from Gajeel's chest, so with his other he fisted frantically into beautiful raven hair, adoring the feel of it tangling around his fingers, and dragged him down. He rolled his eyes back, terribly close to his limit.

"Wait for me…" Gajeel spoke against his mouth, "Not yet."

"I c-can't…" he whined, pleasure and Gajeel's rhythm pressing into him, bullying him towards the edge, "I'm… I'm so close…"

"Wait."

It was a command he couldn't deny. Gajeel had an annihilating will, and like iron bindings it fixed him in place.

"What do you want from me, Laxus?" he growled, "Say it out loud for me."

Laxus was confused. He cracked his eyes open and found himself looking deeply into Gajeel's murderous gaze, so close to him he could see where the dark outer scarlet faded into honeyed orange. Question was on his lips until he suddenly understood. Old Magic wove a fabric in the air around them. Magic circles fade when magic is released, but the symbols that burned boldly around them now left blackened marks like scorched ground, shimmered with iron and electricity, held substance, could be touched, felt.

"Your heart, your soul, everything… be mine forever…" he clung to him tightly, "And me… take mine, Gajeel, you can have me, too."

Gajeel's jaw clenched and unclenched again, "I can have you?"

"Yes!" Laxus all but cried out, "Why would you give me everything and not expect it back?"

"Fairy…" he sighed against him kindly, "I'd never ask for something like that. I don't deserve it."

Pain stabbed through Laxus's chest, but before he could be outraged Gajeel spoke again.

"But I'm a greedy bastard, Laxus. If you're giving it to me, I won't hesitate to take it," he smoothed his hand against Laxus's own bare chest, "Do you know what forever looks like, Laxus? Can you picture it for me?"

"Fuck, Gajeel!" he was so close to oblivion, he needed to fall.

"Picture it, Laxus." Gajeel spoke against his mouth before he kissed him, "And come with me."

Forever.

Laxus pictured forever with Gajeel by his side. Running away together, building the place Gajeel had spoken of once. A cabin, or a nice house, out where no one could find them. Perhaps in a forest ancient and wild as the Casraines. Hearing the warm tones of his voice singing in the next room, the stray scent of cigarette smoke when the window was open and he thought Laxus wasn't paying attention. Watching pines sway when warm winds approach, bringing a coming storm. Weathering it. Together. Telling him to leave his boots by the door because he'd just swept and the dirt on his bare feet drove him crazy. Reading out in the garden while he strummed his guitar on the grass, writing songs or poetry or just being silly. Waking in the phosphorous morning to arms wrapped around him, a dulcet voice singing to him in a forgotten tongue, teaching him to sing those same foreign words. Bringing out the best sides of each other, filled with an uncompromising love. Finding new adventures and chasing what lay on the horizon, a tomorrow just as bright and brilliant as the last.

Forever.

Forever in sunlight cresting over a jagged mountaintop and dusting the lake with its amber threads, gifting riotous color to the world. Superfluous for every day it says I'll meet you when love asks where. Bidding the heliomanic world to bloom in morning and fade in night again, enamored by the parting west and all its dying magnificence swallowed up by the blanket of twilight. The ascension of the sun, a body growing older but the spirit growing ever stronger, a love so intense it will one day consume the heavens in one fateful rush.

Forever.

Forever in an autumn moon illuminating the violet sky, drowning out the frail light of lesser stars nearby. Watching the night pass and lunary cycles calling to the tides of his body. Stars gathered in tired eyes, each constellation cluster a map of the never-ending heavens above. A raised and ethereal thing, transmuting silver into the world and enriching it with bewitched midnight. Waiting with bated breath as the world trembles in the silence of the new moon, the illunis darkness revealing a new beauty that could only be witnessed in the deepest blackness of night; the seam of the sky where once a dragon rippled the waves of the heavens with its great and powerful wings.

Forever.

Their pieces consoling each other, an indelible waltz, revolving together hand in hand and bidding the earth to turn. To be known at the end of the world, scattered in the inevitable heat-death of the universe. To have the name of someone else gripped tightly even in death, in the other world, the next life after. To never be ready to relinquish that grip and let go. To search for each other in the dust left over from the explosion of stars. To find them in their renewal and reincarnation. Never having to say come back to me because the other had already been searching in kind, desperate to find them. The machinations of the cosmos funneled down into two infinitesimally small points on a pale dot in space, hung like an ornament on a pagan's tree; two pilgrim souls journeying across branches of time to a divinity that can only exist when two bodies create a shrine.

Forever.

Laxus pictured forever when Gajeel pressed his lips to his. He pictured forever when he was finally allowed to tumble into oblivion. And when the first consuming wave of pleasure flooded through the parts of him, he felt a pulse on the fringes of his mind growing stronger, the weight of it pressing into his hand. He threw his head back in utter ecstasy. Gajeel was shaking over him, his taloned hand carding into his chest and taking what rested there from him to cradle it in his palm. The pulse deepened, producing light that broke between the gaps in their fingers, breaking the night around them with colored light. Two hearts beat in time together, racing into a frenzy, each one clutched in the hand of the other. Energy burned rapidly with the effort it took to manifest this spell and ritual, a combination of two elements, of two energies, two souls, two bodies. Like two binary stars finally falling one into the other, they shattered, sending sparks flittering in all directions around them.

The sun and the moon. A creature that had never known true darkness for the light it always carried with it, and a creature who knew only night until the day it finally glimpsed the sun. What did happen when the son of Apollo fell in love with the son of Hades? That which signified measure, number, and the limitation of everything wild and untamed, sunlight; that which embodied lunacy, the beasts, the trees, the waters, poetry and moonlight. Light and darkness, day and night, yearned for each other, mixed until they couldn't be told apart again and created something new. Twilight and Dawn are both their own gods as well.

What did it mean to pledge yourself to a god?

Laxus rose up, gripped Gajeel's leg and pulled him astride him. The raven was trembling with fatigue that was suddenly so great it dragged the warmth from him. Gajeel, a frail, flickering candle when compared to the mighty star that existed in Laxus, held on as tightly as he could as he burned through energy and magic like petrol-soaked paper. His head swam, a migraine pushing itself to the forefront of his awareness, fighting to break through pleasure. All the while, Laxus was drawing him close, chest to chest. The fleeing pulse between them twining together, trading one into another.

"You're mine, Gajeel, all of you," he breathed, a vow that grew stronger with every word he spoke, "I'll be a jealous god for you. She can't have you anymore, Father can't have you. No one can. You're mine."

Gajeel sagged into him, rubbing his face into his chest. "If I worship the ground you walk on, will you fight god for me, Laxus?"

"I'll fight every god that exists if I have to." Laxus wrapped his arms around him tightly. His voice was a shaky whisper in Gajeel's studded ear. "And I'll win."

In his mind's eye, he saw Gajeel standing in the shadow of the Temple of the Moon, his eyes wide and distant as he stood amongst the wraiths. He had unwittingly pledged himself to a devouring god, and It called him from the darkness. A bond forged with blood and revenge that could not be broken without blood. But if It called from the darkness, he would call in kind from the light. Laxus would draw blood if he had to. He would break the covenant, no matter what it took. Anything, he would do anything.

"Min swête weder," Gajeel's voice was rough with sleep. He was fighting and failing to stay awake, "The only god I believe in is you."

"I'll find a way to keep you by my side, I fucking swear it. And when it's over, I'll give you the world, Gajeel. For every ugly thing it's done to you, I'll give you something beautiful."

"Such a big promise... I want to be around to see you keep it," he sighed, drifting away as exhaustion became too much, "That took something out of me, fairy. I'm... so tired, now. You'll have to take care of me. I'm sorry."

"D-Don't be..." Laxus said, holding him like he was glass, "You're so good to me, Gajeel. Of course, I'll take care of you."

Gajeel's warm chuckle was deep and slow, "You give my heart wings to fly, Laxus."

"You are the magic in my veins."

Laxus clung to him tighter. The pulse between them was calming, but it didn't grow less strong. If anything, it grew stronger until magic and light was bleeding into all Laxus could see, all he could feel. Emerald green and electric yellow. The runes in the dirt smoldered in time with their hearts, deepening, burning his will into the dirt. Laxus spoke one more promise into the collapsed form of his love, knowing well he couldn't hear him, but saying the words anyway. One day, he'd take the chance to say them to him again.

"Don't you know, you are my light in the darkness just as much as I am to you, Gajeel? I don't think I can live without you anymore, either..."

Scales were dissolving from the unconscious form of his love. Gajeel curled against his chest, and Laxus held him like he was petrified he'd disappear in the dusk of night. He was a bleeding heart, wasn't he? Entrusting himself to this man who could barely control himself in the wake of him? To gift him with such deep promises, to give himself over to him, Laxus didn't deserve it. Laxus pressed his forehead to his, so stupidly in love it drowned out sense.

"You won't regret your promise this time, I swear to you. I'm going to build you a home after the equinox. We will have happiness together, even if you have to kill again to make it happen, Gajeel."

What did it mean to pledge yourself to a god?

He ran his fingers through ebony hair, gazing down at the man in his arms. A chilling solemnity sank into his heart, quieting his soul with its severity. He kissed his forehead gently. Resolve turned his soul to stone.

I will give you anything you could possibly desire.

"Even if I have to kill for it, too."