Waking Up

Elfman and Ever's bed was always warm. And cuddly. Evergreen kept all these thick blankets on it and the sheets always smelled like…like really good smelling things. Like flowers or cookies or other good things like that.

Then there was the way that Elf would snore loudly, stretching out flat on his back with his mouth hanging wide open. And Evergreen would grumble about it sometimes, but mostly, she'd just lay on her side and snuggle the child between them to her, muttering about why she ever let the man into her home to begin with.

And the little girl would only giggle because she loved her aunt and uncle very much. She'd stayed over with them a lot, ever since she could remember. She even had her own set of pajamas over there as well as some toys.

But as great and Ever and Elf were, they were no Lisanna and Bickslow.

Aunt Lissy and Bickslow were just as great as Ever and Elf, if not better. When they slept in their bed, they were surrounded by all his little wooden dolls. And Bickslow would have his helmet off and the little girl would only giggle because then she could see his face tattoo, which always mystified her. Sometimes, honestly, it scared her, but usually just made her giggle. Especially because Lisanna was there, which meant nothing would ever happen to her.

Usually though, they wouldn't sleep in bed. Instead, Bickslow would make a big fort out of everything in the living room and Aunt Lissy would find them flashlights and they'd turn off the lights and have a campout in the fort. Bickslow would get in there with her along with his babies, but Lisanna usually just went to sleep in bed alone. That was fine though, because Marin loved the fort, with or without her aunt there to protect her.

Upon hearing about how great the fort was, Elf tried, once, to build her a fort when she spent the night, but that plan was thwarted by Evergreen, who yelled about him ruining her living room, putting an end to that idea before it even flourished.

The best place to wake up though, out of all of them, was at home, with Daddy and Mommy, in their big bed with all her stuffed animals strewn around. That usually meant though that her big sister Haven was there too, but that was okay, because she wouldn't be mean to her with Daddy around. Ever.

It wasn't every night that he'd let them sleep in bed with them though. Usually the night before he left for a job or the one after he got back. And then, when he became Master, it was just when he was in a really, really good mood. Or if she was sick. Then Haven didn't get to sleep in there too. Only her.

She was sick a lot.

He didn't seem to mind though. He'd only snuggle her up real close and he'd say funny things, like how he loved her and wanted her to feel better. Which was a really weird thing for Daddy to say, because he didn't say things like that. And Mommy would only say,

"Laxus, be quiet and go to bed. You're not helping her feel better by keeping her up."

And then they'd argue. And he'd complain about getting no respect.

He did that a lot.

"I'm the greatest fucking mage ever, Marin," he'd growl, Laxus would, whenever they were alone. Or sometimes Haven would be there, but she was usually in timeout, because she was very bad. Very, very bad. Even Bickslow and Aunt Lissy thought so. But Daddy would only keep talking, saying things like, "But no one gets that. You get that, don't you kid?"

She'd either giggle yes or he'd find something else to get preoccupied with, like Haven yelling about not wanting to be in timeout or something like that.

He did that a lot. Forgot about her for Haven. Which was understandable. Haven required lots of attention.

Lots.

And when she didn't get it, Marin would usually get the brunt of her aggravation over this. She'd gotten pinched, hit, slapped, and once pushed out of Laxus' lap when she caught Haven on a bad day.

For the record, Haven didn't have good days.

That's probably why, even though she hated not feeling well, she didn't mind being sick that much, if only because that meant that she got to be alone with him.

Like she mentioned before, Haven didn't get to sleep in bed with them then and Mommy had to go to work early.

"Demon, you think the whole damn guild'll fall apart if you ain't in it twenty-four seven," Laxus would grumble when Mira would wake them up early, trying to be quiet, but failing typically. And the sun would still be down, which Marin thought was weird. Mommy didn't get home until the sun was down, but then she'd have to get back before it even got back up. It didn't seem fair.

Daddy thought so too.

"I told you, Mira, that we have it in the budget to just hire a new barmaid," Laxus would tell her a lot. "It's not that much."

"We have me, Lisanna when we need her, and Kinana. Why do we need another, Laxus?"

"Because-"

"What? Do you think I'm too old? That I'm not pretty enough? Hot enough?"

"When the hell did that come out of my mouth?"

"It didn't have to! I inferred it!"

"Don't talk smart to me, Mirajane. It's not fair."

Marin thought that they were very funny when they fought like that. Sometimes though, their fights were a lot more serious, usually about Haven and her antics. Apparently, Laxus spoiled her or something.

Surprise, surprise.

Anyhow though, waking up to Daddy all alone was the best. He liked to sleep a lot later than her, usually turning off his alarm before just falling back asleep without even getting up. That'd make Marin giggle though because Daddy was just so funny.

"Gonna get up?" she'd ask, shoving his shoulder a few times. He'd only groaned and shift on the bed to grab her and pull her close. "Daddy."

"Keep it down, kid," he'd mumbled. "'fore you wake the monster."

That was Haven, of course. He'd never call her that to her face, but it was a pretty good description of her. Aunt Ever was probably the only one brave enough to face her. And sometimes Mommy. Everyone else, when they saw how she acted, like Lisanna when she was babysitting or Lucy or Levy or whatever other unfortunate person got stuck with the duty (Erza did it once and refused to ever try again), would only stick her in a room by herself and wait for Laxus to show up to take care of it.

Not that he did. As he told Marin a lot, he just loved them both too much to ever really punish them. The only time Haven got in trouble was when she hit or bit. She liked doing that a lot. Especially if she did either of those to Marin.

"She's the baby," he'd growl at Haven. "You can't hurt the baby!"

Then she'd stick her tongue out at him and, well, Daddy didn't like that.

But Marin hardly ever got in trouble. Mainly because she didn't ever much have the strength for it. Even in her short four years on the planet, she'd probably spent more time fighting off sicknesses than actually being healthy.

"You gotta a bad lot in life, kid," Laxus would tell her a lot. "It's probably my fault. Or Mira's. I mean, she practically worships Satan, so-"

"Laxus!" Mommy would always hiss when he'd say that and he'd only wink at Marin as she would giggle.

Did she mention that she loved Daddy?

Because she did. Just in case it needed to be restated.

"You can never be too careful," Laxus would mumble sometimes as they tried to be as quiet as possible as they laid in bed, the sun more than likely rising at that point outside, hoping to ward off Haven and her morning dramatics for as long as possible. "She's like a caged…beast. Or demon. Or dragon. Whatever. All three."

Then he'd kiss her head and she'd giggle if her throat wasn't too sore.

Of course, eventually, Haven would find her way into the master bedroom, either complaining that she was hungry or that it was hot or why did Marin get to sleep in bed when she didn't? She'd find something to complain about.

She was good at that.

For those few moments though, it was almost like Marin was Navi, who was one of her very best friends. Their daddies didn't seem to like each other much, but given that Laxus hated everyone other than his family, Marin figured it was okay.

But Navi told her that her daddy, Natsu, would snuggle with her like that all the time. Because she didn't have an annoying older sister like Haven (though Haven constantly told her that she was the annoying one and that she was the one intruding on her life, not the other way around), she got to spend all the time she wanted with both her parents.

It seemed pretty great.

Because as soon as Haven showed up, it was…not like Daddy forgot her. He always insisted that he didn't. He just liked Haven more. Which was fine. Everyone did. Except maybe Aunt Ever. But that was okay. Really.

Since she always had those early mornings with Daddy. Even if it meant she had to stay sick for the rest of her life, she hoped that she'd always have them.

Did she mentioned she loved the guy? No? 'cause she did. Very, very much. And nothing would ever change that.

I was looking into some of my unfinished stuff and this was something I started back in December and never got around to posting, so here it is. Laxus does seem to favor Haven a lot, or at least I'd rather write about her for the most part, so this is kinda in the vein of that.