It was in a slight haze that Mirajane Strauss awoke that morning. She could hear talking, off in the distance, rather loud voices, in fact, as well as what sounded like music playing. Then there was the smell of some sort of cooking (she couldn't quite place it when she was so drowsy) and the fact that, though light was attempting to stream in through the windows, it was being blocked out not by blinds, but rather some blankets tossed up over them.

Ah. She was over at Laxus' apartment.

Mmmm, she remembered too, as she snuggled deeper into his cozy purple sheets, how she'd gotten there the night before, after working all day up at the bar. It was only customary, after all; if she heard that the man was in town, it was the first place that she went.

When she was free, of course. Because she and Laxus were great together and all, but the guildhall came first. Considering he felt the same way about her and his job requests, she figured he wouldn't take offense to such a statement.

It seemed, however, that she hadn't been the only one to catch wind of his arrival back home. From the sounds of it, the Thunder Legion was out there, bothering him in the living room. And cooking for him, if she knew Freed the way she thought she did.

Shutting her eyes once more, Mira decided to give them a few more minutes alone before she made her presence known. She took up so much of the man's free time those days that, once and a while, they just needed some of their own with the man. It was, after all, only the right thing to do.

But there was more to it than that, it seemed, as she just didn't give it a few minutes. Rather, she fell back asleep entirely and didn't awake again for, at least, another hour. And then it was just as groggily as before.

She almost felt drugged, but knew that wasn't right. Just brumous. Which could only mean that she was…

Ugh.

Mira refused to accept that she was sick. Even tried to get up once, but it was too much work and she only flopped back into bed, bundling up under all the blankets then as she felt as if she were frozen. And, thirty minutes later, when she was suddenly burning up again, she only suffered through it.

She had to sweat that cold right out of her.

You know, the one that she didn't have.

More time passed as she laid around in her boyfriend's bed, trying hard to manage the strength to get up, but it just wasn't coming.

"Mira?" It was Laxus, coming to peak into the room, whispering softly as he did so. "I'dda sent one of those bozos to check on you sooner, but I didn't know if you were decent or not, and I really don't want them to know that you're- Mirajane? Demon? Are you alright?"

"No." Her voice was hoarse when she tried it out. "I'm not."

"Are you...I mean…uh...sick or something? Do I-"

"Not sick."

"Well-"

"Go away." She didn't take her head out from underneath the pillow. "Sleeping."

If Mirajane was down to broken syllables, then Laxus knew something was up.

"Hey, no, let me at least do...something." Laxus stood over the bed with a frown. He hardly got sick and, when he did, he just holed up with a bottle of whiskey and a trashcan to vomit in until he felt better. With his woman though, clearly he was supposed to try and help out in some way or another. "Err-"

"Go away."

"Mirajane-"

"Sleeping."

"If you're sick-"

"I'm not."

"-then I need to at least, like, take your temperature or something. Right?"

Damn. These are the moments that he needed the Thunder Legion. They did all of his tedious, boring things for him. The problem was, however, that though they were right in the other room, he didn't want them to know that Mira was there. He'd been able to avoid that so far (somehow; they should have been able to sense her magic; he'd yell at them for that at another time) if only because they always acted so weird about those sorts of things. It'd gotten even worse since he and Mirajane started...whatever they were doing. Then there was the fact that he just didn't want them to know that he cared so much for the woman that he was willing to, you know, examine her or whatever. Medically. Not just sexually.

It was probably for the best anyhow; if he was in a real relationship, he had to act like it.

He was going to have to get Mira's situation all figured out on his own.

"Here." He reached out then, for her, leaning over the bed to do so. "Let me, uh, feel your head, yeah? Come on."

"I'm fine, Laxus. I-"

"And I want to be sure of that. So just come on."

Finally, she moved to sit up, just a bit, blinking sleepily at him. Laxus only tentatively moved to rest his hand against her head.

"Uh...how do I know if you have a fever or-"

"Laxus, shut up."

"Well, how do I not know you're not always this hot? Huh?" Snorting, he dropped his hand. "Anyways, open wide."

"Ew, Laxus, I'm not going to-"

"Why can I not just say that in a normal conversation and you not take it the wrong way?" He made a face at her. "I gotta look down your throat."

That time, her blink was out of confusion. "Why?"

"I dunno." He shrugged. "To see if anything's, like, inflamed, right? Isn't that something doctors do?"

"You're not a doctor."

"I ain't no MD, fine, but I think in all my years of life, I'd acquired some sort of doctorial-"

"Yeah, well, doctorial isn't a word, so-"

"Yes, it is."

"Doctoral is, but doctorial-"

Growling, he said simply, "If you're well enough for this, then-"

"I already told you I'm not sick. So-"

"Fine! Fine! You're not sick. I don't care then."

"Good."

"Good."

Then they both just stayed there, her sitting on the bed, him glaring down over her. Slowly, Mirajane titled her head back before opening her mouth a bit.

"Wider." He bent down too, to stare down in there. Holding up a finger, he ran a bit of electricity through it. "I- Hey!"

Mirajane shut her trap quickly. "What are you doing?" she asked, hardly opening her mouth at all as she spoke, as if fearful of him. "You can't just shock me, Laxus. You-"

"I needed light," he grumbled. "To see. Now open up. I wouldn't shock ya. And even if I did, it's weak; you're the freaking she-devil. Did you forget?"

No. But senseless pain when she already wasn't feeling well just wasn't something she wanted to contend with at the moment.

Allowing the man to peek down her throat was mostly worthless anyhow. Laxus made a very corny joke about deep throating or something ("There's your tongue, the back of your tongue, uh, wisdom teeth look okay, and hey, look, way back there is where I always hit the back of your throat"), but mostly just admitted that he had no idea what he was looking for or, honestly, even doing.

"What?" Mira croaked out. "Homegrown Dr. Dreyar can't check a simple throat?"

"I said I gathered the info over my many years," he growled. "And, shocking as this may be, woman, I've never had to look down anyone's throat before. And I can't my own, so-"

"Oh, but you're just so good at shoving things down throats, huh?" Mira was sitting on her knees then and was glaring up at him. "I bet it's your fault I'm sick."

"My- Hey, what are you implying, woman?"

"You just got back from a job," she pointed out. "And then I came over here and we… And now you've given me a disease. Thanks a lot, Laxus."

Growl. "You are so ungrateful. I let you come over unannounced, let you sleep in my bed, didn't say a damn thing about your stupid morning breath which, by the way, is deadly, Mira. I mean, seriously."

"Yeah, from the disease you passed on to me."

"If I have a disease, why am I not sick? Huh?"

"Duh, Laxus, you're just the carrier." She rolled her eyes. "idiot."

"I'm not an idiot." He huffed. "You're an idiot."

"How?"

Narrowing his eyes, he leaned over to press his forehead against hers. "To even accuse me of that."

"Oh, whatever."

"I mean, come on, Mirajane. The women I sleep with are definitely all clean. And definitely this past time." Then he lifted his head and stared at the sky. "All though in that one town, there was that one that kept complaining of, like, she had parasites or something-"

"Laxus-"

"I didn't sleep with anyone else, demon." He shook his head. "And you know that already, so stop acting otherwise."

Mirajane only shrugged her shoulders a bit. "I don't know what I know."

"And anyways," the man went on, "if anything, I should be mad at you."

"What?"

"You heard me." He shook his head at her. "Lying all in my sheets, contaminating them with your clammy sweat and disgusting germs. You're the carrier and the infected, woman. Tryin' to pass the buck ain't gonna work. No way." Then, arms crossed over his chest, Laxus looked off, as if thoughtful. "If anything, I'm owed an apology."

It was Mira's turn to narrow her eyes. "If you really think I'm so sick, Laxus, and am just contaminating the place-"

"You definitely are."

"-then I'll just go. I'll-"

"Oh, shut up, woman." Now she was annoying him. When she moved to get up, he none too gently forced her to lie back down. "You know I ain't kicking you out. Just...relax, okay. No more games. You're sick. Now just rest up some, huh? I'll bring you a glass of water and some-"

"I don't want anything." Mirajane sniffled then, watching him as he headed out fo the room. "Honest. And I have work soon, so-"

"Oh, Mira."

"What?"

"You're not going to work and you know it."

"I am too."

"You can't."

"Can so."

"You deal with food preparation and beverages. If you're sick, you shouldn't be there. It's best, actually, if you're not. That's sorta common sense, woman."

Mira only moaned back at him. "I'm just a little under the weather, is all. I'm not, like, ill. Not really. Not hospital caliber ill. Which means I'm more than capable of going into work."

"Demon-"

"My father worked every day before his death until he just couldn't get out of bed any longer," she said simply. "And he died of a very devastating virus. So-"

"Didn't you tell me that your father also got your mother sick because-"

"Because she loved him so much that she cared for him, Laxus, while he was dying," she said with a frown. "But yes."

"Surely you see how this proves that was a bad call, right?"

"He didn't get anyone, but her sick."

"You told me that was because you guys cropped for a living and he just worked the fields and then came home to her and that they tried to keep you guys separated from him as much as possible."

"Well… The crops never got anyone sick."

"Mirajane-"

"I'm going to work." She put the pillow back over her head. "Eventually."

"Oh, woman." Laxus only moved to pull some blankets up around her. "I'm at least bringing you water. And something to eat."

"I'm not hungry."

"You have to eat."

"Do not."

"Mirajane-"

"Fine." She even let out a cute little sigh that he grinned over because, with the pillow over her head, she couldn't see. "I'll eat."

"Great. I'll go get you some crack-"

"I want two eggs and sausage and-"

"Is this a game to you or something?"

Sorta. A terrible one that left her feeling quite light headed and really just craving the all allusive sleep.

"Can I have eggs, dragon, or not?"

"Yeah. I'll fry ya some eggs."

"And sausage?"

That time, when he leaned down, it was to lift up the pillow just enough so he could lean in there and give her a kiss to the cheek. Against it, he mumbled, "No."

Mira only weakly shoved him away. "Boo."

Dropping the pillow over her once more, Laxus started to tell her that she needed to give him a minute, as he wanted to get rid of the Thunder Legion so that he could dedicate all his time towards her (but not in those exact words because that sounded sappy and all lovey-dovey and Laxus was neither), but was interrupted by the sounded of a sharp knock at the bedroom door.

"Laxus? We heard voices. Are you okay?"

Freed. Great.

"Yeah," he growled out. "I thought I told you idiots to clean out my fridge?"

"You what?" Mira's muffled inquiry came from beneath the pillow. She was constantly trying to tell him how to be a good friend/mentor/idol/stalkee, as if he needed lessons. "Dragon-"

"We were, boss." Bickslow. "But, uh, we kinda got bored and, well… Hey, you wanna go train with us? We were thinking about-"

"Don't open the door," Laxus growled as the thing started to do just that. Given they were having a conversation, the seith had no doubt assumed such a thing was alright. "You-"

"Oh, no, boss! Are you smotherin' someone?" Bickslow opened the door further, shocked to find a woman's body there, beneath a sheet, with a pillow over her head. "Shit. Was it a hooker? Shit. Shit. Ever! Get Laxus' big carpet from the study. We're gonna have to- Oh. Mornin', Mrs. Boss."

Mirajane had sat up rather suddenly, holding the sheet to her bare chest as she made a face at the two members of the Thunder God Tribe that were standing there. Bickslow had his tongue hanging out, grinning widely as he stood in the doorway and Freed, behind him, had a hand covering his eyes.

"This," the letter mage said as Laxus came over to shove them both out, "is a bad time. Sorry, Mirajane. We didn't realize-"

"That you and boss were into asphyxia." Bickslow cackled at the word, just a bit. "But it makes perfect sense considerin'- Oy, boss! How come you're only hittin' me? Freed was botherin' ya too!"

"What's going on?" Ever was rushing towards the bedroom as well then. "Wha-"

"Get out! All of you! I got shit to do," Laxus growled though he left the room with them, slamming the door behind him.

"Like Mirajane?"

"Bickslow, I'm going to strangle you!"

"See? I knew you were into- Ah! No, Laxus, knock it off! That hurts! Ow!"

Mirajane grabbed another pillow then and held it over her head as well. Why had she gone to Laxus' apartment again?

Through the muffled sounds of the ensuing argument between Bickslow and Laxus, Mirajane somehow managed to drift off. She didn't realize this fact until, some time later, the pillows were shoved away and she was blinking up at the face of Laxus.

"Your breakfast, demon."

It was with a moan that she sat up, quite slowly in fact, and croaked out, "I can't go to work, dragon."

"Oh, I know." He didn't even gloat about it. Just passed off her plate of eggs and toast to her. At the sight of the sausage, she about vomited. It was far too greasy, in actuality, than it had seemed in her mind. "I told Freed before he left to inform Lisanna or Kinana that you weren't going to be showing up. Whichever was up at the bar."

"Mmmm. You're too good to me."

"Well, I did infect you, after all."

"After all."

Laxus got into bed with her then, sitting there silently, wiggling his toes, just a bit. He did that a lot, Mirajane had noticed, when he was unsure of himself.

"Hey, dragon?"

"What?"

"How come you went ahead and made me sausage?"

"Stupid woman." More toe wiggling. "I was always gonna make it. But if I tell you that, it takes the fun outta moments like these, yeah?"

She only stabbed at an egg, nearly losing what little was in her stomach from the day before at the sight of the yoke bursting.

"Dragon?"

"What?"

"I…I think I'll just take crackers."

"Yeah." He only reached over then, to his bedside table, where he must have set the package of them while she was still sleeping. "I know."

She gave him a look as they traded. Laxus only dug right into her breakfast without hesitation.

"I think maybe I just have, like, one of those bugs that you only get for a day or something," Mirajane informed him as she hunkered back down into the bed, back to him, munching on the cracker all the same.

"Or somethin'," Laxus remarked back, mouth full of sausage. "Or you could just be sick like a normal person and need to rest for more than a day."

"Doubt it." Sniffling a bit, she said, "I bet I'll be better by nightfall."

But she wasn't. She stayed in bed, actually, for the majority of the day. It was only around eight that night that she felt well enough to go into the living room, where she only fell into the couch with a miserable sigh. Laxus was out training (he'd made sure she was fine with this before doing so, because he weirdly thought him hovering around made her feel better; it didn't), leaving her alone in his place.

Which, usually, she'd revel in, as it gave her a chance to snoop around. It was, after all, what Mira was best at. And most interested in.

At the moment, however, she only felt incredibly tired. Which was odd, considering she'd slept the whole day. Mirajane did not, at all, enjoy being sick.

She was lying around, putting as much effort into trying to fall asleep as she was trying not to, when the front door suddenly opened. Glancing towards it, she smiled a bit at the sight of Laxus.

"You're up," he remarked as he came through the door. "Here. I brought you some soup."

"Soup?"

"Mmmhmm." Carrying it over, he handed her the container of it before rushing off to get her a spoon. "That's what you do, right? When someone's sick? You get them soup?"

"Sure," Mirajane agreed as, with her stretched out on the couch, Laxus only went to lift her feet before sitting under them. Giggling a bit, Mirajane grinned when he moved to massage them for her. "Why are you being so nice?"

"'cause you're sick." Laxus glanced over at her. "If you don't want me doin' nice stuff for you, woman-"

"No, no." She wiggled her toes. "Go on. And mmmm, this soup's good."

"Should be, what I paid for it. You know what that damn restaurant wanted for some soup to go? I mean, hell, who even goes out and orders soup to begin with? They should've been happy that I was takin' it off their hands, if anything."

"Well, I'm glad, anyways, that you bought it for me."

"Almost just said never mind. I mean, seriously. You should have seen the bill. Sure, I had a steak and a beer or three and a baked potato and all that before I got your soup, but come on! That bill was outrageous. I-"

"Lax, if you didn't want to get me anything-"

"Oh, no, I did." He even nodded a bit. "I just want the recognition for it."

Mirajane only huffed. "Dragon."

It was his turn to sigh as, while he was massaging her foot, she jerked away from him a bit. "Hold still, will you? I'm tryin' to take care of you."

"I think I'm going to take a shower," Mirajane told him as she languidly spooned up some soup. "Or a bath, maybe." Sniffle. "I have to get ready to open tomorrow."

That got him to stop messing with her foot (he was more annoying that soothing, but Mirajane wasn't going to tell that to him). "Mirajane, you can't be serious."

"Why not? I'm well enough to be out there, eating soup, talking to you."

"You're still all sweaty and you sound horrible and-"

"I'm fine. I've gotten better in just a few hours. By seven tomorrow I'll be-"

"You're so crazy, woman," Laxus chided. "You do know that your life isn't defined by that hall, right?"

"Of course not. But I take pride in it regardless."

"You serve beers."

"To very capable and accomplished mages."

"You're a very capable and accomplished mage!"

"I don't get your point."

Laxus took a deep breath, held it in for a moment, before going back to messing with her feet. "Do what you want, demon. Just eat your soup, huh?"

She ate half, at least, before giving the rest to Laxus to put in the fridge. When he came back, she was already curled back up, facing the back of the couch, and snoring softly. Sighing, Laxus decided not to wake her for her shower as he headed off to his room, figuring she'd come to bed later.

He was lying in bed, numbly watching an old movie on the lacrima that he'd seen a thousand times when it finally happened. Mirajane came stumbling into the room before falling face first into her half of the bed with a groan of defeat.

"Dragon?" he heard weakly muffled against her pillow as he only sat there, lacrima in his lap, staring over at her.

"Yes?"

"I can't go to work tomorrow."

"I know, baby." Reaching over, he gently patted her on the back of the head. "You just rest up here, huh? I'll buy you some more soup." Then he paused. "From somewhere else though. Because that place is crazy if they think I'm going to pay-"

"Not now, Laxus." Turning her head to the side, she stared over at him. "Please."

He only nestled down into the bed before nodding at his lacrima. "I'm watchin' somethin', yeah? So don't croak during it. Huh?"

And then he pulled the covers up around her (and him by proxy, even though he was actually more than a bit warm) and kissed her head before getting back to his senseless movie. And, when he could tell that it was keeping her up, he claimed that it was boring before turning it off and going to bed as well.

Even though he wasn't the least bit tired.

Mirajane tossed and turned most of the night though, frequently tossing off the covers in anger about how hot it was in there and then pulling them back up whining about how frozen she was. Laxus was miserable as well, if only because she was galling the hell out of him, and he thought about mentioning that, you know, her fever was only going to continue to break and come back continually and that maybe, gee, she should grow the hell up and get over it, but then he remembered that she was his demon and he was supposed to...love her...err…

The point was, she was killing him and there was nothing he could do other than lay there and try his hardest not to kick her outta bed, if not the apartment, because, hey, he didn't put up with that kinda crap.

At around four in the morning, Laxus only pressed a kiss to her cheek and told her he was going to train super early and he'd be back later to check on her. At that point Mirajane had stripped down to her panties in an attempt to cool off and only groaned back something about how she'd see him later.

And then Laxus got the heck outta there. Before she contaminated him or something. He was nearly certain that was going to happen eventually.

So he spent the morning jogging and training and then going up to the hall to take some glances at the request board. Then he stopped off and got Mirajane some tissues, some medicine (literally just random medicine as, not being a man of science, he didn't believe in that kinda shit and thought his body could just heal itself, but was tired of Mirajane feeling so bad, so just got some generic shit to help her through whatever was going on), and some more of that damn soup from that same damn place (seriously, he was being robbed blind), before heading back to the apartment.

"Mira." He kicked the door shut behind him as his arms were full. "I got you shit. I mean, stuff. Since you don't like the word sh- Nope. Not gonna say it. Where are you?"

He'd found the bedroom door open, but she wasn't in there, nor the kitchen. The bathroom was empty too.

Where was his demon?

As he was going to drop her things in the kitchen and put the soup away, he found a note taped to the fridge door. It was in Mirajane's silly, feminine handwriting and was very concise. Jsut said that she'd gone home, taken the leftover soup, and she'd be seeing him when she felt better.

"This is bullshit." He crumpled up the note and tossed it to the ground. "I let you germ up my bed, buy you stupid shit- And yes, I say shit, Mira. Shit, shit, shit! You can't just leave me!"

Hmph.

Didn't she know that he was in the middle of nursing her back to health? What kind of idiot leaves in the middle of that?

Did she not know how rare it was for the Laxus Dreyar to give enough of a damn about you that he would actually go out buy over priced soup? Soup that he wouldn't even buy for himself because it was just so outrageous? Huh?

That was the first thing out of his mouth when Lisanna opened up the door over at the Strauss house.

Blinking, she only said, "Um, Laxus, maybe you could have just bought soup somewhere else. I mean, it's not like-"

"I wanted to get Mirajane soup from that place because I was already at that place! And the second time just because I was comfortable there by that point. With their serving size of soup and… I'mma level with you, my waitress was really hot and-"

"Laxus-"

"But the point was Mira liked the soup so I bought more. But where is she? Huh?"

"Uh, in bed right now," Lisanna said as, with a sigh, she took a step back. "But I'm sure she's heard you out here having one of your stupid dramatic meltdowns over nothing-"

"I do not," he told her harshly, "have dramatic meltdowns."

"Laxus, last month when Mirajane turned you down for a date, you-"

"She canceled on me last minute and I had train tickets and play tickets and-"

"Elfman got hurt on a job!"

"I'm sorry, is she sleeping with him or me?"

"Gross. On both accounts."

Growl. "Look, girlie, I don't want to talk to you right now, so-"

"Dramatic."

Louder growl. Then, taking a deep breath, Laxus said, "If I'm dramatic-"

"Biggest drama queen ever."

"-it's only because your sister makes me this way. Constantly. I was in the middle of caring for her, you know. And-"

"She said that you acted like a jerk about her being sick and left before sunrise, grumbling under your breath about how annoying she was."

He blinked. "That's not how I recall that going."

"Of course not."

"I- Hey! Where are you going? I'm talkin' to you!"

"Uh, try back to my room? Mira's in hers if you wanna go bother her while she's, you know, sick."

"I'm not bothering her." He continued on through the house, grumbling to himself. "I'm caring for her."

Damn. Was it that hard to just care for someone? That's why he never fucking did it. Because it was always a hassle. Oh, Laxus, you made your papa a nice gift for his birthday? Too bad he's not there because he's too busy out on jobs, trying in vain to be an S-Class wizard and plotting against your gramps who, yeah, is plenty loving, but super busy too and then, what? You found your mama a pretty flower out at the park? That'd be nice if she wasn't dead after being a completely horrible person and never caring and oh, look. You're alone.

...But the point was, he'd been plenty nice to Mirajane and she was a butt for leaving without telling him.

Err, whatever.

When he popped open her bedroom door, Laxus was expecting Mirajane to be up. He had, after all, been pretty loud when he was having his...non-dramatic non-meltdown.

But upon barging in, he found her passed out on her bed, pillows and blankets thrown around it as her face rested straight on the mattress, drooling just a bit. Which, while gross, was also a pretty big tip off just how sick she was. She literally never drooled.

"You take some medicine, babe?" he whispered to the sleeping woman, going to set all the things he brought for her down on her dresser before picking up the pill bottle that was sitting on nightstand. Glancing it over, he said, "Oh. This is what I shouldda gotten. Good call, I guess, not waitin' around on me. I kinda just bought a lotta junk, I think. But...I brought you soup. And...I brought me."

Going over to the other side of the bed, Laxus moved to get into it as well, grabbing one of the haphazard pillows before pulling the sheets back up around both him and Mirajane. And then he sat. And sat. And realized he kinda stank. He should have showered.

"Uh, demon? You gonna...be awhile? Sleepin'? I read the back of your pill bottle and it said it would conk you out for at least eight hours, so I'mma go catch one. Huh? And then maybe you'll be up. I hope."

He took his time too, in the bathroom adjoining Mirajane's bedroom. It was kind of a deal breaker to him staying over at her house. No way he wanted to have to share a bathroom with Elfboy.

It was only once he was all clean that Laxus went back out there in only a towel, finding Mirajane to still be just as passed out as before. Heading over to her dresser, he glanced in there to find something of his. She had a habit of washing anything he left over there. Which, of course, meant he left a bunch of stuff over there so she'd wash all of his stuff.

He'd periodically take it back to his house to be sure she didn't catch onto his scheme (although, honestly, she'd known from the beginning what he was doing). That's also how he'd get his motorcycle cleaned after riding it through the mud (or barfing on it when his motion sickness got to him). He'd just park it over at Mirajane's, leave it there, and eventually she'd wind up washing it for him.

Yeah. Mira was pretty great.

And he was pretty much an ass for allegedly grumbling under his breath as he left her that morning. Which, yeah, he probably did. But it was coming from a place of deep love.

A deep love that wished she hadn't kept him up all night.

Laxus only slipped on a pair of his shorts that were left in her dresser and went to climb back in bed. Mirajane was snoring by that point, the only way that he knew for certain she hadn't, like, died in her sleep. Which, given his track record with things he cared about (he also had a puppy, once, when he was four that Ivan killed by 'accidentally' hitting it with a blast of some sort of magic and, wow, when he really examined his life, he was kinda lucky that Mirajane and the Thunder Legion loved him through all his fucked up dysfunctions), wasn't really out of the realm of possibilities.

A lotta things entered his life and, usually through his own doings, left them. He kinda expected it for the most part by that point.

Especially with women.

And being the only one he loved so much, Mirajane probably would have to go out that way. Jade him completely to the world.

Why was he even fighting it?

Sighing, he settled down into the bed and just stared up at the ceiling. Mirajane was always telling him he was depressive, but Laxus wasn't so sure. More just apprehensive and intelligent. Clearly, if they couldn't even get through her being sick without him driving her away, it wasn't going to work out.

Heh.

"Mmmm."

"M-Mira? You up? Or are you dying? Because if so, I've kinda been thinking a lot about it in the past ten minutes when you were snoring and it made me think about how, if you weren't, I might have thought that you were, and then I thought about how fitting that would be for me and-"

"Too much. Shhh."

"Oh. Condensed version; I'm glad you're not dead."

"Mmmm." Mirajane shoved up a bit. "Me too."

Grinning over at her, he asked, "You feel better?"

"No." Sneeze. Wiping at her nose with the back of her hand (disgusting, but he didn't feel like getting her those tissues he bought at that moment), Mirajane moved to lay against his side. "Dragon?"

"What?"

"What are you doing here?"

Letting out a slow breath, he said, "I dunno. I got home with soup and tissues and medicine for you and you weren't there and it really pissed me off. Then I came here and Lisanna said you left because I said I didn't want you there and that pissed me off, so I came to yell at you about it. Then you were sleeping and you looked so...honestly, kinda nasty and dirty, but I… I wanted to make you feel better. You're my woman. And I- Are you sleeping?"

Yawn. Then, muffled against his side, she got out, "Just about."

"Oh. Well… If I made it seem like I didn't want you over at my place-"

"You grumbled about me hogging the blanket and rolling around and that I was really sweaty and was getting you all sick and-"

"I was sleep deprived."

"Aren't you still?"

"Yeah, but I'm in the delirious stage of it now. Hence the childhood traumas relived."

"W-What?"

"Uh...Delirium. So… You want some soup? I got you some more soup. You did like that soup, right?"

"I-"

"You better have. It cost-"

"I'm going back to sleep, dragon. Before you start, just know that."

Letting out a short breath, Laxus went back to staring at the ceiling. "I got you soup, medicine, and tissues. And cough drops, which taste horrible, by the way.

"By the way."

"And, I don't know if we covered it before, but I don't do well sick," Laxus added. "So keep sneezing, puking, or snotting on me to a minimum. Alright?"

Lifting her head, just a bit, Mirajane said, "You'll be here then? For the rest of the day?"

"Yeah, demon. Of course."

"Even when I get to tossing and turning and sweating and get all...germy?"

"Definitely."

"Oh." She dropped her head again, into his side. Softly, she said, "I think I might make it, anyways, into work tomorrow, so-"

"Demon, if I'm putting up with you being disgustingly sick, then you need to accept that you're disgustingly sick and just be it without complaint. Got it?"

Nuzzling into him, she slowly mumbled, "Got it."

This was kind of just a pointless, out of place little one-shot that I spent the week writing on randomly until I felt like it was finished. It originally was just going to be about the Thunder Legion being around as Mirajane was in Laxus' bedroom, hiding, but somehow it shifted and, well, then shifted again.

Not all of them can be winners though, right?