"Isn't it so weird?"

"Isn't what so weird?"

Mirajane only sat there, back pressed to the slayer's chest, one of her hands cupping the man's far larger one as her other hand ran its finger freely across all the natural lines and crevasses on his palm.

"It's like," she whispered as she traced the long line he had that spanned from one end of his right hand to the other, "no body can be perfect."

Laxus, who was fiddling with the music lacrima that rested on the lip of the tub, only said, "Nobody can be perfect, demon."

"No," she giggled, glancing over her shoulder as he turned the current song up. "Like…body, Laxus. Like this." She patted at his palm then. "The human body. No human body can be perfect."

He considered this as he relaxed once more against the back of the tub, the water still nice and warm. They hadn't been in long at all. "Well," he began, snaking his free hand around to her tummy, where he ticked, "Ms. Strauss, I find I must disagree."

Giggling some more, she wiggled in his grasp, but never stopped cupping his hand. Through this, she said, "I don't mean proportions, dragon."

"Better not," he warned. "'cause I don't take kindly to no one that don't recognize the perfect that is my demon. Even, well, my demon."

It was one of the rare, simple, calm nights that the couple so infrequently were able to share with one another. He trained so much, when he wasn't out on complex jobs, and then Mirajane never seemed able to tell the guildhall fuck it; she needed some demon and dragon time.

Laxus was very good at telling them for her.

Especially when Gramps had been the Master.

Now with Erza heading the place, however, it was done perhaps a bit more respectfully, but still with the same amount of unnecessary force as, typically, everyone thought she deserved more, at the very least, off days. Not necessarily demon and dragon days (as Lisanna said more than once, in a rather snarky way, that those could be a chore in themselves), but what did they know?

Nothing.

Mira wanted to spend all of her free time with the slayer.

He was certain of it.

Which is why they spent the day shopping with her sister (err, Laxus mostly walked around with Lisanna and Mirajane, carrying stuff, but they did offer to buy him a hat with their own money, as a token of their gratitude; this would have meant more, if he hadn't just spent all his jewels on the two sisters and if he also didn't hate hats, but you know, demons and pseudo little sisters, what can you do) and going out to a very nice lunch where they met up with the rest of their little group of the Thunder Legion and Elfman.

And, for once, it wasn't a complete and utter flop. Lisanna and Bickslow didn't get sloppy drunk (chipping in for that hat had actually cleaned Lisanna out and Bickslow was perpetually broke because, you know, cool stuff isn't just going to buy itself, and neither felt as if Laxus would foot the bill for the food and alcohol...that day), Ever and Elfman didn't fight (they just didn't speak to one another and, honestly, that was a stroke of luck that even Mirajane didn't try to delve into), while Freed was just, well, Freed.

And that was perfect.

They all went their separate ways after lunch with Laxus and Mirajane heading back to their apartment to just relax. It was such chill, stellar day that the man was a bit fearful of ruining if they continued to press their luck and stick around one another, but this didn't happen. They sat around and he finished a book (Laxus liked reading, something that Mirajane loved to reveal to people because, for some reason, everyone thought that he was some sort of uncultured lout; maybe that's because most the other male slayers were…) while his girlfriend played with their puppy (it had been bought only weeks previously, when Mira's old stray finally gave in to his old age) and napped.

Dinner was to be some sort of cute couple moment that Laxus knew Mira would eat up.

They would make it together.

Whenever they decided to.

Which they hadn't yet. Instead, at six that evening, Mira wanted to bathe and, well, there they were.

Laxus managed to talk the woman out of bubbles, but she had dumped some liquid in the water that gave it a feminine scent that Laxus was concerned he would be trying to wash off his skin for a week.

Ii had happened before.

"I meant, Mira was saying then as he shut his eyes, feeling completely at ease," that, you know, no one is really a complete blank canvas. Like...you have freckles. That are there for no reason. You have birthmarks just because. And then all the creases and lines in your hands and knuckles and joints and just… No one is completely without a single blemish."

"Aren't you insightful," he muttered as he peeked open one eye, just to stare at her pale fingers toy with his much tanner ones. "Wouldn't matter if they were without them or not."

"What do you mean?"

"For me, is what I'm saying," he told her simply. "Look at me."

He got a glance over her shoulder. "I'm lookin', Mr. Dreyar."

The slayer only shut his right eye, allowing the overarching scarred pieces of flesh to connect. "I'dda gotten this, regardless."

"Who said anything about you being one of the lucky unblemished people to begin with?"

"Touche," he conceded with a slight grin. "Thought it went without saying, but I suppose I stand corrected."

"And I'm glad it's there."

"Oh?"

Her grin over her shoulder was bright then. "Yeah. It's a great cautionary tell to other women when we're out."

He blinked. "You've lost me."

"Whenever we go out together, like, dancing or to a play or something, if I hear other women talking about how unbelievably attractive you are-"

"It is quite deadly, my attractiveness is, yes."

"-I'll somehow work my way into the conversation, mention that you're all mine, and that I'm the one that gave you that little lightning bolt over your eye. With my demon claw."

More blinks. Then, slowly, Laxus asked, "How is that...gonna put a stop to them-"

"If I beat the mess outta you, what do you think I'd do to a woman I caught you with?"

That time, a sigh. Then, "Mirajane."

"Hmmm?"

"If I made that same joke about you," he slowly questioned, "would it be funny?"

"It wasn't a joke. I really do that."

"Mira."

"It wouldn't be funny, no," she admitted, her bright grin dying out a bit then. "But you have to admit, I probably could give you a matching set with a good clawin'. Couldn't I?"

"I'll give you that," he agreed, the hand rubbing her stomach doing so a bit more forcefully then. "But I'd shock the hell outta you for it."

"Well don't get all sparky right now," she warned as he only grinned. "I really don't want to die in the tub."

"I really don't want you to die at all."

"But the tub especially."

"You planning on making a pretty corpse, demon?"

"The prettiest."

He let out a bit of a laugh, perhaps more of a chuckle, before saying, "So I take it then, you really don't like my scar?"

"Are you kidding?" And her grin was back as she literally shifted around in the tub. "I love it."

And he was expecting her to...stroke it with a finger, ghost over it, something.

Not what she did.

Mira legit sat up a bit, leaning towards him all the while, and, as Laxus shut his eye in what was preparation for what he thought was going to be a brush of a finger tip, the woman opened her mouth and…

She licked him.

Like a damn cat.

He almost felt like he was in the tub with the wrong Strauss…

"M-Mira!"

"What?" She giggled too as he opened his dark eyes to find them staring into her deep blues. "Dragon?"

He wasn't sure. About most things, honestly, when it came to Mirajane, but this one in particular.

It's not like the woman's spit bothered him. Or her tongue. Or her mouth. Those things were very useful. Especially in positions such as they were in at the moment.

It was...his eye wasn't normally where he enjoyed her tongue tasting.

Still, Laxus only sat there, staring at her, before saying, "You're not going to eat me, are you? Devour my soul? You weren't tasting me as a meal, were you?"

"I'll definitely devour you one day, dragon, but no, not today." Then she winked. "At least not in the way you think."

As she wasn't holding either of his hands then, Laxus was finally able to do with them what he wanted. And, at the moment, there was only one thing that he desired.

"Mmmm," he chuckled lowly as he ran his hands in opposite directions, one running up towards her shoulder blade and the other moving to grip at her ass, just enough to get her to squirm. "And let me be the first to say, demon, that I can't wait. For both."

Leaning forward again, she watched as Laxus shut his eye before her tongue darted out and, that time, with the tip of it, actually zagged it across the jagged scarred flesh. Even though the water was still near boiling, the slayer shivered as if frozen, letting out such a deep, guttural growl that made his chest rumble enough so that Mira could feel it under her hands, as she rested her palms there.

"You have no idea," he told her as Mirajane pushed her forehead to his, "what you do to me."

"Feeding me lines tonight? Dragon?"

"Telling you the truth." He started to moan again, but for some reason, that time what slipped out was a very large yawn.

That alone brought the mood right back to where Mira felt most comfortable with it.

Silliness.

"Sleepy, dragon?"

It was a groan, that time, as his head lulled back, away from hers and Mira, subconsciously let out her own yawn.

"You wear me out, baby." His head was still resting back, against the lip of the tub, but he only peeked open a single eye, to stare at her. "And you freak me out, just a bit, but in a good way."

"You like it when I trace your tattoo," she said, the hand closest to it moving then to halfheartedly do so. "Or guild mark. Or even your other scars."

"It's just weird, being over my eye." Not even needing to observe her expression to know that wasn't the right word, he immediately rephrased. "Err...just...different. But everything about what we do is. Isn't it?"

"Mmmmhmm." The water was shifting around then as Laxus shut both his eyes and Mirajane fell against him a bit. He could feel it, even with his eyes shut, when Mirajane dangled a pointer finger over his eyelid, but didn't flinch in the slightest. Just held still as she gently ran the tip of her finger across the flesh then, tracing the jagged scar with the perfection only one who studied it many times could.

Humming, he whispered, "But for real though, babe, you surprised me with that."

"For real though, babe," she mocked right back, "you didn't taste that good. At all."

"Wash my face for me then." He squeezed his eyes shut then. "Soap and water."

"Then you'd still just taste like soap."

"Good." And then hand on her ass squeezed a bit harder. "You need your mouth washed out, anyways."

"Me?" But she was shifting then and he knew she was roaming around for where that pesky washcloth had gotten off to. "You're the one definitely being bad."

"Last time I checked, woman," he grumbled, "you're the one that licked me."

"I lick ice cream. That doesn't mean I want to sleep with it."

Oh, the implications.

Mira had the cloth then and Laxus still managed to hold perfectly still as she ran it along his chin first, after soaping it up, of course. She pressed a kiss to one cheek, as she scrubbed at the other, her lips lingering against the little hairs left there from a few days of apathy towards shaving.

"I like that little scar you have," she whispered, "right here."

"It's hardly noticeable," he whispered. "Demon."

"From where the puppy clawed you in the cheek his first day home."

"He about got his sorry little ass taken right back to the pound."

"Daddy, no."

"Yes."

Huffing a bit, she pressed one more kiss to his cheek before saying, "Well, you at least like him now, right?"

"I mean, for a dog, sure, but-"

"He's our firstborn."

Laxus only let out a soft sigh before saying, "Of course, demon. And don't get soap in my eyes."

"Never."

"Mmmm," he hummed again as she focused more on covering all of his face in soap. "When I was a kid, Ivan, like, used to go to get his beard trimmed at this legit barber guy. And I'd go with him and sit there and watch as he'd lean back in a chair and the guy would, you know, lather up his face it looked so fucking cool. To a five year old. So I'd go home and do the same, with soap, in the bath and… Is that weird?"

"No." Mira dipped the washcloth in the water then and, after wringing all the suds out of it, took to wiping his face clean once more. "Papa would shave with this huge razor in our little bathroom in our house. I always liked watching him. It was fascinating. Isn't it still, kind of? That our body is clearly growing all this hair for some reason, but we just cut it off. Like no; years of evolution be damned. You don't know what you're doing. At all."

"But do we ever really evolve?" Laxus asked, blinking his eyes open when she was finished. Lifting his head so that they could stare at one another, he said, "Like, ever? Was there monkey Dreyars running around? How did that all happen?"

"Well, no, there weren't monkey Dreyars."

"No?"

Shaking her head, Mira said, "Because you definitely came from dogs."

"Ah." He even nodded with her. "Is that why my son is a dog?

"No." She was scrubbing at his chest then. "Your son's a dog because you love me so much."

"That makes sense. I guess."

"You're just not as bright at me, dragon."

"Is that it?"

"That's it." And that was whispered against his left right pec as, hovering over it, Mirajane traced a finger over the feint scarring there. "This is from that time that other mage sliced you with a blade when you were on an S-Class job, right?"

"You remember my stories, demon?"

"You only tell them to me constantly."

"Well, you ask for them, but-"

"I bet I could tell you the story behind every single scar you've ever gotten."

"No, you can't."

"Uh, yeah, I can."

"Bet."

"Bet." Suddenly though, Mira's face lit up. "Or no! Change bet."

"You can't change the bet," he tsked. "Especially when it's because you'll just lose-"

"Is not; you currently have fourteen scars that are visible on your body," she told him rather solomnly, "and three that are so feint now that unless you were looking for them-"

"What did you want to change the bet to, Mira?"

"Oh, now that you know you'll lose-"

"Demon-"

"You tell me how I got all of mine."

That got a snort. "As much excessive studying of your body that I've done, demon, you think that there's even a chance that-"

"I didn't say tell me where they all are. I said tell me how I got them."

Another snort. "And you don't think I can? Demon. Little tiny demon. Listen to your dragon."

"I'm listening to him trying to backtrack-"

"I could do that," he told her simply. "I could tell you were you got every single scar. But-"

"Then do it."

She said this while shifting again, so she was between his legs once more, able to relax into the water. Laxus only made a face at her back before reaching for the music lacrima on the ledge of the tub and changed what was playing from it before speaking.

"You got," he said slowly, staring at her back, spotting the start of one on her left shoulder blade that usually wouldn't be visible. Most of hers typically weren't. Mirajane would usually use her transformation power to hide them (which he always found peculiar, to waste your magic on such a thing, but Mira assured him transforming into herself and keeping the transformation for the duration of the day hardly drained her at all; not to mention, she mostly just served drinks from sunup to sundown, so who cared). "This one right here." And he ran a finger down her shoulder, into the water, keeping the tip pressed to her flesh, making the woman shiver. "And it was given to you by that mugger when you were out on a job with Elfman before you became S-Class."

"It was really scary too," she admitted softly. "It was one of our first jobs and I'd never been cut up that badly before."

"And then this one," he breathed as his other hand snaked around to her front, running across her inner thigh in a way that made Mira bat at him, though he stopped at the end of the scar, not even needing to look at it to know where it began and finished, "was from your S-Class Trials. You and Erza had to battle it out and she somehow managed to get you with her blade. Right here. Which, honestly, I would have loved to have seen and still wonder just how occurred-"

"We were teenagers when it happened," Mira told him with a frown, "so you're being a real creeper right now."

"What?"

"You know what."

Grinning, Laxus said, "And I know you still have that weird shaped scar from where you fell when you were a kid, back on the farm."

"I didn't grow up on a...farm."

"Uh, Mira, your father grew things and sold them." He nodded at himself. "Farm."

"We didn't have cows or chickens or-"

"So you weren't a very successful farm? How is that my problem?"

"Laxus-"

"Farm girl."

"You're annoy-"

"But a hot farm girl. Like, put you in a magazine milking a cow with a worthless article about your boring interests hot."

"Back to the scars, mister."

Oh. They were still on that.

"Well, uh… Yep. Hot farm girl. My sexy little-"

"You don't remember any other stories I've told, do you?"

Scoff. "Seriously, demon?"

No scoff. Just a tad of disappointment that was out shined by the confidence in her accusation. If not a bit of expectancy. "Seriously, dragon?"

Laxus paused before saying, "In my defense-"

"Knew it."

"-you don't talk about yourself as much as, well..."

"You talk about yourself?"

"As much as you ask me to talk about myself."

Mira hummed and, from over her shoulder, Laxus was glad to find her soaping herself up. It was the whole reason he took a bath with her.

Among other, unmentionable things…

"I do like a good Laxus Dreyar over inflation."

"Yeah, I- I don't over inflate anything!"

"Mmmmm."

"I don't."

"Okay, dragon."

He only snorted. "Tricky woman."

More hums. "But the argument still stands."

"What argu-"

"I know," she told him as she ran a soapy washcloth down one of her arms, "every single story behind every single scar you have or ever have had."

Back to snorts. "This has yet to be proven."

"It will be."

"I'm waiting."

"And I was thinking-"

"That's scary."

"-that we could wait," she said as she glanced over her shoulder, "until we got out of this tub and then I can trace all of them as I talk about them."

"Tongue them."

"Tongue them?"

He nodded decisively. "All of them."

That got Mira to giggle. "Even if it's weird?"

"Different," he told her as he reached over to take the soap from her and get her back for her. "It's different." Smiling brightly because no one could see him, not even Mira, as her back was to him, the man added, "And that's perfect."

Mira, who very much so could see his grin from the mirror over by the sink, only replied, "Nothing's perfect, dragon. That's what this whole thing was about."

"Was it?"

"It was."

"Hmmmm." He wiggled his toes a bit before saying, "Maybe we've just found the exception."

And that time Mira was able to bite back the giggle, but not the smile. "Maybe."

So... If any of you don't know, this is the start of Miraxus Week and the prompts are up on Tumblr if you wanna check 'em out.

The original plan for this fic was a lot more complex than what this came out to be, but this was the first day's prompt, so I couldn't spend much time on it and not be able to get started on the others, so it got trimmed to just Laxus and Mira being cute together. They rarely get that anyways, in my world. And what was cut can easily be turned into a full fic at another time.

But I do hope to be back for the week, posting. Right now, I've only finished the first three days, but I should have some free time to knock out the others.