When Laxus got into town after a job, he expected to be showered with love from Mirajane. Perhaps not immediately. The woman did have work, after all. But if he strolled in on one of her off days or when she wasn't particularly busy up at the hall, he wanted her to come take care of him.

Him come in at three in the morning? He expected steak.

Was it a holiday and the hall was empty when he got back from a job? Obviously the woman was going to find someone to cover for her so that she could go home and rub his very sore shoulders for him.

And what about should she be getting slammed at work when he arrived in Magnolia after a month long job? Clearly she was going to finish her shift and rush right over to his apartment with dinner and beers and some very interesting late-night activities in mind.

Which is why Laxus found it odd when he came home one day from a very grueling job to find Mirajane very much so not heavily working, but also very much so not concerned with him. In fact, as he walked into the guildhall, she hardly spoke to him at all.

"Mmmm," she yawned as he came up to the bar, where she was filling a pitcher of beer to take downstairs. "Hey. You're back."

He frowned at the subdued greeting, but only nodded. "I am. I-"

"Can you do something for me?" Mira hardly gave him a true glance. "Please? Dragon?"

Confused, he still just stood there, awaiting his proper greeting. Maybe Mirajane was playing a joke on him? Or something?

"What?" he asked, still hoping to be keyed into what was going on. "Did you want me to-"

"Just take this downstairs for me, please? To the guys playing pool down there?" She moved then to hand him a tray of beers before taking the pitcher and heading off to go refill the mugs around the main hall. She did spare him another glance then, her bloodshot eyes locking with his. "Please? Dragon?"

"Uh, yeah, sure. Of course, Mira."

He glanced down at the tray before back at her, but she was heading around the bar to get to the refilling of beers. And, with a sigh, Laxus went to do what Mirajane told him to.

"Hey, which of you idiots want these?" he grumbled as he went down to the game room to find some of the guild's typical slackers hanging around. "Going once, going tw-"

"What're you doin' then, Laxus?" Macao slurred as he came to snatch one of the mugs. "Doin' Mirajane's job? Huh?"

The man only grunted though, to all of the questions. And, once all of the mugs were claimed, he trotted right back up to the bar area to speak with Mirajane.

Only she was still rather busy, it seemed, as some people had come to sit at the bar and were ordering food or something. And when Laxus came to give her the tray back, she only quickly thanked him before getting back to work and, well, hell, if she was playing a joke on him, it just wasn't funny.

At all.

The Thunder Legion wasn't around and, though the place wasn't very busy, Mirajane seemed like she just didn't want to spend any time with him, so Laxus only caught her in a free moment, pressed a kiss to her cheek, and said he was taking off.

"'kay," she muttered and, again, when she looked up at him, he could see how sunken her face was and the way she was trying far too hard to grin. Shaking his head, Laxus reached a hand out to rest on her cheek.

"Are you alright?" he asked quite blatantly. "Do you… Are you sick or-"

Shaking her head a bit, she looked away as she said, "Just… Today hasn't been a great day. Lisanna's run off with Natsu and Lucy to do something without telling me and she was supposed to work and then Kinana's not feeling well, so she can't work and I just…"

"Oh." Laxus coughed, dropping his hand then before shrugging a bit. "Well, more tips for you then, right?"

"Yeah," she sighed. "I guess so."

Then, smiling finally, if only slightly, he said, "Well, if you have to work all day-"

"I do. And all night."

"-then I guess I'll be seeing you later. Right? At my place?"

Nodding slowly, Mirajane leaned up then to give him his own kiss, mumbling something to that affect against his lips.

So Laxus went home. And napped. Showered. Shaved. Got all ready for a night with the demon.

Needless to say he was rather antsy when she rolled in sometime passed midnight. He'd been waiting out on his couch, stretched out in only his boxers, contemplating just what the demon was going to bring him to eat.

Nothing.

When the door opened up and she came walking in, her arms were completely empty. And Laxus was not the type to hide his disappointment.

"Uh, demon," he complained as he got to his feet. "Where's my dinner?"

"Your wha- Oh, Laxus, I forgot." She shut the door behind her before just walking right passed him. "I'm sorry. I'm, like, so out of it today. Did you want me to cook you something?"

"There's nothing here to make," he complained. "I've been gone forever, remember? My fridge is only filled with rotten things. That's why I was waiting for you to bring me-"

"Well, I forgot, Laxus." She came to a stop, in the middle of his living room, and only stared over her shoulder at him. "Did you want me to go get you some-"

"It's the middle of the night," he pointed out. "So-"

"I'll go find something for you to-"

"No, Mira. You-"

"If you haven't eaten all day," she said, voice taught as she turned to go right back out the door, "then I need to feed you something."

"I'm not a child."

She only made this odd noise that kind of sounded like a snort. Laxus frowned at it, going to catch her arm and stop her from leaving.

"I'm not," he told her. "So-"

"You still haven't eaten," she pointed out. "I'll go home and make you some sandwiches and then come back-"

"Mira, knock it off." He tugged her then, away from the door. The man didn't want to admit, of course, that he had actually eaten. He'd stopped off and gotten something to eat after leaving the guildhall. He was hungry still, of course, because hours had passed since then, but not nearly to the extent he was leading her to believe. "Just come on. That's all I want. To go to bed."

"Me too," Mira yawned as she gave in though it was rather obvious that they had two different definitions of the word in their mind.

In his bedroom, Laxus only tugged her over to the edge of the bed, where he let the woman sit down. He was just tugging of his boxers when Mirajane scooted up the bed, to the pillows, and nuzzled up against them.

"Demon?"

"Mmmm." She forced her eyes open, staring over at him in the darkness. "Help me out of my dress."

"Of course." Tossing his boxers to the side, he bounced into the bed with her. "Gladly."

Mira was as helpful as she could be with this, but it was rather obvious that she wasn't into it. Err, rather, it wasn't so much that she wasn't into it as she was far more into falling asleep on him.

"Mira," he complained at one point as he had his head buried in her neck and she had hers tilted to the side, breathing softly. "Are you awake? Mirajane-"

"Mmmm?" She kept her eyes shut, but did shift a bit. "It's okay. Just keep going."

"What? No. Mira-"

"I want you too," she said through a yawn as she managed to gently stroke the back of his head. Laxus was still settled into her, but only held still. "Dragon."

"I can't if you're… I'd feel… No."

"It's okay if I tell you it's okay."

"But is it though?"

"Laxus-"

Groaning, he fell off to the side of her, staring up at the ceiling as Mirajane slowly rolled over to face him.

"It would feel too much like I was..." Laxus glanced down at her. "I dunno. Like you were passed out or something and I'm… It would just be too weird."

"I'm not passed out." Mira was shutting her eyes again then though and, once more, had to yawn. "I'm just...not...completely...awa..."

Letting out a soft sigh, he gave her a minute, to see if she'd startle awake again, but when she didn't, only moved to pull the covers up around the woman.

"Sleep then, demon." He pressed a kiss to her head while he was at it. Staring for a long moment, he added, "If you're that tired."

Laxus left for a bit, to go relax once more in his guestroom (though it didn't even have a bed in there and mostly just housed junk and a random chair) until he felt like he could actually fall asleep again. He felt rather disappointed and led on, just a bit, but when he found Mirajane to still be snoozing rather deeply, he felt bad for this.

She only woke up once, around three in the morning, at which time he heard her fumbling around in the darkness with his alarm clock before tumbling back into the bed and passing out again.

That was the end of Mirajane for quite a long while.

In fact, it wasn't her alarm that ended up waking her. Rather, it was Laxus shaking one of her shoulders and asking, "Are you still alive? Because if you ain't, I'm gonna have a hard time explaining a dead woman in my bed." When she didn't move, he added, "Again."

That got her eyes opened. Blinking, she got out a, "What?"

"Knew that would get you."

It was with a loud yawn that she slowly sat up, rubbing at her eyes. Laxus was standing there, clearly having already been out for the day, as he was dressed for working out and was sweating quite profusely. Clearly he'd been working out and come back home.

Which would have made sense, given the amount of light streaming through the window suggested that it was sometime in the late afternoon and Laxus' workout typically ended around five or six.

The only problem was, however, that Mira had set her alarm for five. In the morning.

When that finally occurred to her, she tried to scramble out of bed, but Laxus, who was still standing over her, only leaned down to grab her arm and force her to keep still.

"Laxus!" She tried to shove him off. "I have to go! Work! The guild! I had to open and I-"

"Calm down."

"But I-"

"Honestly." His voice was rather calming then and, staring her into the eyes, he said, "I took care of it."

"What," she asked, "does that mean?"

"It means that I took care of it."

"Laxus-"

"When your alarm went off," he began, slowly moving to help her to her feet rather than holding her down, "and that didn't wake you, I figured I should let you sleep for another hour. Then you didn't get up either, so I made an executive decision."

"Meaning?"

Letting her go, he rubbed his knuckle against his chest before saying, "I got up, showered, went out to find Kinana and hop her up on some cold medicine-"

"You what?"

"-then had her open the place, went to go get Freed and Bickslow, force them to go out and track down the dang Salamander and your sister, then went back to the hall to help out Kinana-"

"You worked?"

Laxus glared. "What's with the surprise? I'm not some sort of prissy, spoiled brat. I work hard all day! I can wait tables."

Mira raised an eyebrow. "And you got tips?"

"Well… Shuddup, Mira. I got it all taken care of for you. Isn't that all that matters?" It was his turn to give her a long look. "Now, are you okay? I mean, honestly? You slept for over twelve hours! You're not, like, sick or something are you?"

"No."

"Because I don't think I could deal with that. Especially if it's, like, terminal."

"Why would you immediately think-"

"It's just the way my head works!"

He huffed then and Mirajane only rolled her eyes before, slowly, moving to sit down on the edge of the bed.

"Then...who's at the hall right now? With Kinana?"

Laxus shrugged a bit. "Your sister and Natsu's loser friends weren't far away. Bickslow and Freed drug them in around noon. I made her work and scolded her real heavy for...doing whatever it was she did to you."

"Nothing," Mira defended. "She didn't do anything to me."

"She ditched out on you," he pointed out. When he'd been worried about her, before, it hadn't dawned on Laxus that they were sort of having that conversation as she sat there naked, which wasn't too odd, but still. It definitely said something about how close they were.

Then again, the fact he'd just gone through all of that for her said much more.

"She ditched out on work," Mira corrected as he still just stood there. The realization had brought on a bit of ogling because, hey, he could be with Mirajane forever and still get a bit gleeful about her flashing him. "I'm just tired because I've been having a really hard time lately. I worked, like, every single day since you've been gone."

"Take time off."

"You don't get it. I have to work." Mira gave him a bit of a shrug before shifting back on the bed. "I need money."

"Then take a job."

"I don't want to take a job."

"Then ask Gramps for a raise."

"I can't do that."

"You should."

"Laxus, you're not helping."

"I'm giving you solutions."

"Yeah, crappy ones."

"Mira-"

"It's your stupid fault," she said as, slowly, he turned to walk off.

"How do you figure?"

"I don't get as many tips anymore."

"Age will do that to you."

"Laxus-"

"What," he asked as he went into the adjoining bathroom, leaving the door open as he slowly stripped off his workout clothes, "does you not getting tips have to do with me?"

"Guys won't tip me as much now that they know that we're..."

"We've been together," he complained, "for a long time now."

"Yeah, and it's been a problem for a long time now. And it's getting worse. Then when you're off on a job, I feel bad about...you know."

"I know what?"

Shrugging a bit, she stared into the bathroom, watching him. "Flirting to get tips."

"So you admit it."

"It wasn't something I ever denied." Rolling her eyes, she said, "They sit around and hit on me constantly and I have to just sit there and take it with a smile? As oppose to at least getting some jewels out of it?"

"I never said you couldn't try and...butter other men up." Once nude, Laxus went to go turn on the shower. "For jewels."

"You make it sound like you're pimping me out."

"Nah." He glanced back into the bedroom at her. "I ain't too good at even thinkin' about what you did before me."

"Makes you jealous?"

Grunt. Then, grinning once his back was to the door, he added, "Maybe even a little hot."

"You're so full of it."

Still, that got Mirajane up as she bounded into the bathroom with him. He only stood there, waiting for the water to warm up, as she came to wrap her arms around him from behind, resting her head against his back.

Lips ghosting over his taut back, she whispered, "Thank you. For taking care of things for me today."

Laxus patted the hands she had draped around his middle. "If you were that tired, you needed a day off. You'd have died of exhaustion before you admitted it. And if you're hard up for cash, woman, why didn't you say so?"

"What are you saying? That you want to take care of me?"

Snort. "No. Gross. I ain't pullin' in that kinda money. Especially with the kind jewels you like to waste on stupid things."

"Clothes aren't stupid."

"They are when you can just transform into them without spending money. And hey, are you even truly short on cash? Or have you just been going on shopping sprees again? Because-"

"Don't ruin the moment, dragon." Releasing him, she just as quickly said, "Come on. I'm getting cold."

For the moment, anyways.

When the next ended, Laxus was all talk about them going out to a nice dinner and maybe they could revisit just what sort of, erm, flirting was allowed and just what wasn't.

Mira, however, had other plans.

"Kinana and Lisanna have covered for me more than enough today," she said as she gave him a kiss and left him to his own devices. "I have to at least close. I just have to."

Which sucked. For both of them. Though Mira felt completely rested then, she still wasn't too thrilled about having to go in.

Especially when she found what everyone wanted to talk about for the night.

"You cannot," Makarov grumbled when she arrived, seated atop the bar, "ever trade shifts with my grandson again. It is not allowed. He was horrible for business."

"And he ruined my day," Lisanna carped from behind the bar, where she was filling mugs of ale. "He made me come back here and work for you."

"I thought it was sweet," Kinana said as she passed, carrying discarded plates and silverware. "That he would- Achoo!"

Mira only rushed to take the things from the other barmaid. "You're still sick, aren't you?"

"Well," she said with a slight shrug, smiling softly at the older woman. "Laxus said you were worse off than me."

That wasn't all either. She had to contend with the regulars that were, as always, milling around, who either commented on how rudely they were treated by the slayer or snickered about the esteem he held her in.

Mira, as always, found gossip far more entertaining when it wasn't directed at or about her.

It was only a few hours until close and Mira sent both Lisanna and Kinana off, telling the latter to take the next day off and the former that she better not run off again without mentioning it, less she'd be the one hunting her down.

Laxus, as always, had spent his first night back in Magnolia with a bottle of whiskey and nothing else. He was sleeping in his bed, headphones strapped to his ears, playing loudly when Mirajane arrived.

"Dragon." She went to tug one off, causing the heavily inebriated man to let out a low moan. "Look what I brought you."

It was languidly that the man shifted onto his back, blinking up at her with just as red eyes as she had the day before, though it was for drastically different reasons.

"Here you go." Mirajane presented him with a wrapped plate, from which he could smell sneak beneath. "Your dinner."

"Mmmm." He struggled to sit up, one headphone still attached, both blaring some rock music. "Mirajane."

"You created quite a stir, dragon," she remarked as, slowly, she sat on the edge of the bed, just holding his plate for him then as the man gathered himself. "Going to the guildhall and pretending to be me. Even for a little while."

"I'm drunk," he mumbled, finally giving up and falling back into bed. Mira only grinned at this, moving to unwrap the plate, grabbing the knife and fork she'd sat on it and began to cut up his steak.

"Don't choke," was her one warning, though the pieces she fed him were so small that it would be hard to do so. She giggled some more as he forced himself up to allow himself to be fed. "You're so cute. Especially when you're pretending to be me." Then she paused, glancing down at the plate as Laxus only swallowed. Softly, Mira told him, "You're too good to me, dragon."

And he wanted to deny this. Inform her that it was the other way around. That...that it was her that took such good care of him. That cooked for him and cleaned for him and made sure that he was okay, mentally and physically, at all times. Was there for him when he was too afraid to let the Thunder Legion be.

But he was too drunk. And too bashful. Proud maybe, even. And even though she was making up for skipping out on her pampering the day before, a little peeved still too that she hadn't showered him with praises upon his return to Magnolia.

She hadn't even asked him how his job had gone yet.

So he said nothing. And Mira fed him his fill, sitting there in the comfortable stillness that was only bothered a tiny bit by his headphones, which he didn't turn down and she didn't ask him to.

Because whether they agreed or not, it did not matter. Both took care of the other quite well and allowed the other to do the same for them. Very little mattered outside of that.

"And just so you know," Mira sighed that night as she laid down with him, Laxus finally having ditched his headphones, though he was still rather sloppily drunk and hardly seemed conscious, "you're going to have to apologize to all the people you were rude to today, dragon. Nice gesture to me or not, refusing service to people because they annoy you is not the Fairy Tail way. Getting them so plastered that you can overcharge them as revenge is. Or at least that's what Master says I should do..."

"Mmmm." He patted her head as it rested against his chest, a finger sightlessly tracing his tattoo and guild marking as she shut her eyes. "Demon."

Content after the rather shortened day, Mira grinned. "Dragon."

"Wanna hear 'bou' my job?"

"Maybe in the morning." Her finger stilled and she patted his gut gently. "When you can at least remember the facts."

"Don't ever forget nothin' 'bou' myself." Then, drifting back off, he added, "Or you."

"Yeah." Mira held down a yawn as she felt about ready to do the same. "I know."