When Gajeel woke again it was morning. The first thing he did was look over at Laxus, who appeared to still be sleeping. He sighed, wondering when Laxus would wake up, but the movement caused his stomach to hurt. "Damnit...stupid fucking bird."

"Tell me about it." The voice made him jump, and he looked over at Laxus in disbelief. Sure enough the man was looking at him, grinning as if everything was normal.

"Y-you're awake! Fuck, Laxus, are you okay? I tried to stay awake but after that thing stabbed me I couldn't, but I knew you were hurt and-fuck, I was so worried about you!" Gajeel sat up and tried getting out of bed, hissing in pain as he did so.

"Hey, don't get up you idiot! You're going to hurt yourself!" Gajeel ignored him, feeling the overwhelming need to be close to Laxus, and quickly got into his bed. He was wheezing and in pain, but at least he was with his mate.

"They told me it missed your heart by an inch and I just-" Gajeel broke off, feeling stupidly emotional and hating himself for it. He knew by now it was a submissive thing, but it wasn't like him to be so irrational. Laxus was alive, and that's all that mattered. Still…"I almost lost you."

"Hey, how do you think I felt, watching that thing run you through? I've never been so pissed in my life. Everything after that is...fuzzy."

"You fucking mauled the shit out of it, apparently. Even after it was dead."

"Sounds about right. I just...couldn't control myself. I really thought I'd lost you, and it fucking killed me."

"We're both alive." Gajeel said, throwing an arm around Laxus' waist and resting his head on the man's broad chest. "I just...can't believe you could have died."

"Are you getting emotional on me?" Laxus asked with a chuckle, and Gajeel felt his face heat up.

"Shut up! How can I not when I love you so damn much?" Gajeel snapped his mouth shut when he realized what he said, although he had wanted to tell Laxus. He just hadn't expected it to come out so easy like that. Laxus seemed to freeze as well, looking down at Gajeel in shock.

"What did you say?" He asked, tilting Gajeel's face up which only made him blush more.

"You heard me, damnit, I meant what I said! I've felt it for a while now, I just...didn't know how to say it. But last night made me realize that you could have died and never known that. So now you know. I love you, sparky."

Laxus grinned at him and sealed their lips together, neither of them noticing the door opening until there were several awkward coughs. They both looked up and made faces of terror when they realized their guild mates as well as the mayor and doctor were watching them.

"Gajeel, I believe you were told to stay in your bed." Erza said, her voice deathly serious, and Gajeel felt his heart drop.

"W-well you see, I just, uh..."

"Oh leave them alone, their mates! You can't expect them to stay separated!" Natsu laughed, walking over and clapping Laxus on the shoulder. "At least they're both okay."

"Yes, well, I've come to thank both of you personally for everything you've done. I'm sorry you both got injured so badly, but you've saved our town! Anything you need for the rest of your stay will be complementary!" The mayor said, bowing to both Gajeel and Laxus who grinned in return.

"Wait, what happened to the missing villagers? We never went to find them." Laxus asked.

"Ah yes, wonderful news about that! They were all found in a cave not too far from town, with minimal injuries. Truly a miracle!" That had everyone smiling, and it seemed like everyone had gotten a happy ending.

"So I guess we get to stay here for a few days, huh?" Gajeel asked, although he knew he would be spending most, if not all of his time in the hospital with Laxus. Which was fine with him considering he'd almost lost his mate.

"I won't say no to some downtime." Lucy said with a grin, Erza nodding in agreement. The town was rather small, however, and there wasn't much to do.

"Sounds boring to me! Oi, ice princess, how about a fight?"

"Sounds like you wanna lose, flame brain."

"Do it outside!"

Gajeel watched as his loud guild mates left the room, the doctor lingering to make sure everything was set up properly before leaving the two alone. Once silence filled the room both he and Laxus sighed in relief, both hoping that they healed fast because as nice as it was spending time together, hospitals really were boring.

"So I take it we can't fuck." Gajeel muttered after a period of silence, Laxus snorting in amusement.

"No shit, metal head. Although as soon as we're both healed I'm gonna claim you as mine." Gajeel grinned up at the blonde, looking forward to that day.

"Idiot, I'm already yours."

"So you don't want me to fuck you?"

"I never said that."

Time had flown by quick, and before either of them knew it a week had passed. Gajeel had the money he needed now to buy a bigger house, and had found the perfect one after only a day of searching. They were still in the process of moving everything, and so far there hadn't been any problems.

He could hardly believe he was going to live with Laxus, when they had hated each other not very long ago. It had all happened so fast, but they were happy now and that's all that mattered. They were mates now, and nothing would change that. It was still an adjustment for Gajeel, being submissive, but Laxus had gotten a lot better and wasn't nearly as aggressive as before. It made things easier for Gajeel since he really hated being bossed around.

They still had things to work on, and neither one of them were perfect, but it wouldn't ever be as hard as it was in the past. Gajeel knew they were okay with the mate situation now, so things could really only get better from now on.

"Hey iron face, the bedrooms finally done. Why don't you come see for yourself?" Laxus asked, his tone implying that he had something else in mind. They were both still a little banged up from the mission, but at this point sex wouldn't be a problem, which was great because neither one of them could wait any longer.

"It better be up to my standards, Sparky, or we'll have to redo it." Gajeel gave Laxus a suggestive smirk, letting the blonde lead him into the bedroom.

The door closed, leaving a rather uncomfortable Pantherlilly in the living room.

"Are they even aware that I can hear them? Honestly..."

I guess this is how I'm ending it, haha. I'm really out if ideas for this one so there's no point in dragging it out any longer. So I'll leave you with an awkward Lilly and hope you all enjoyed it, even though the updates were super inconsistent and at some point I forgot where I was even going with this. In the end, I think it turned out...decent. Just decent.