"Do you think we could go into town today?"
Laxus looked up from the paper and raised an eyebrow.
"Why? We have food and enough money to last the week."
"I wanted to see if we could go into the flower gardens," Emi sheepishly replied.
Laxus looked back to the newspaper and set it down before stretching. He walked past Emi and up the stairs. Emi gave a pronounced sigh and lowered her head. The lightning wizard reappeared with his cloak.
"Are you coming or not? Go get your cloak."
Emi looked at him in wonder before smiling and rushing over to the couch and fastening her cloak. She skipped out of the house and started to make her way out of the clearing.
"Hey, wait up. Let me lock it first."
Emi turned around to face the wizard and put her hands on her hips.
"Hurry up! I want to see the flowers."
Laxus grumbled under his breath and caught up to her. When they got into town, Emi quickly navigated her way through the people and stood in front of the gardens. She pulled Laxus into the gardens and started talking about the flowers.
"This one is Artemisia," Emi pointed out before jumping from patch to patch. "This one is Hyssop and that one is a pansy."
"Nerd."
Emi puffed her cheeks before pulling him further into the gardens. Laxus put up some resistance, but she kept insisting.
"Isn't this fun?" Emi happily asked.
Laxus rolled his eyes before sarcastically replying, "Yeah. Super fun."
"Look at those!" Emi exclaimed before running off.
"Don't run off!" Laxus scolded, but she was already out of hearing range.
She looked at a patch of moonflowers and smiled. She leaned in and closed her eyes and she smelled them. A smile appeared on her face.
"Excuse me," Emi started as she approached who seemed to be the gardener, "where would I be able to purchase some of the flowers?"
"There's a flower shop over on the west side of town. I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for over there. But in the meantime," he said as he pointed over to a cart a few feet away, "you should be able to buy some individual flowers over there."
Emi's eyes sparkled as she thanked the man and skipped over to cart. She asked if there were any moonflowers, and she ended up buying two. After looking around her and not being able to find Laxus, Emi started to wander around. She ended up bumping into Laxus near the back of the gardens.
"There you are. Don't do that," Laxus chided.
"But look at what I found!" Emi beamed as she shoved the flowers up towards his face.
Laxus pushed the flowers back down and continued, "That's no reason to run off. What would happen if you had been kidnapped?"
"Kidnapped?" Emi giggled. "Who would possibly want to kidnap me?"
"Doesn't matter. It could still happen."
"Aw," Emi cooed, "Laxus, you actually care."
He rolled his eyes before grabbing her by her wrist and pulling her out of the gardens. Emi protested a bit before giving up and following him. Once they were out of the gardens, Laxus and Emi started to head back to the house. Something caught the dragon slayer's eye, and he turned to see an ice cream cart close by. He tried to ignore his stomach, but he ended up guiding Emi to the cart.
"Ice cream? You're a genius!" Emi cheered.
They both ordered their ice cream and began to stroll through the streets of Hargeon. Emi happily ate her ice cream, humming a song quietly to herself. They walked without speaking to each other for about ten minutes when Emi decided to speak up.
"So what're we doing now?"
"What are you talking about? We're heading back to the house."
"What? Why?"
Laxus pointed to the sky, showing that it was dark out. Emi looked up in shock.
"We spent three hours at the stupid gardens. It's time to head back before it gets too late."
"Oh," Emi breathed, clearly disappointed before she seemed to get an idea. "Well can we come back out tomorrow?"
"I have a job I'm going on tomorrow, and it will probably take the whole day--"
"Take me with you!"
Laxus looked over at her frowned, explaining, "It's a long job. I don't think you'd want to be there."
"Well what is it?" Emi pressed.
"It's a Vulcan job at Mount Hakobe."
"Again? How many Vulcans are there?"
"A lot," Laxus said simply.
Emi thought for a minute and jumped in front of the lightning mage before announcing that she would still like to go. Laxus rolled his eyes, called her a pain in the ass, and pushed her closer to the forest.
"So can I go?"
"You better not complain," Laxus warned. "It gets cold up there."
"I promise!"
--------------------------------------------
"Laxus," Emi whined. "I'm cold."
Laxus groaned before turning to Emi with a serious look on his face.
"I told you that you can't complain."
"But I didn't realize you meant it was freezing cold. I thought it would be chilly cold."
Laxus gritted his teeth before taking off his coat and throwing it over her.
"Take that and stop complaining. We're not even halfway there."
After a while, Laxus was able to smell the Vulcans and guided Emi into a small cave for cover. She heard a couple of Vulcan sounds, a loud crash and then a boom. She crawled out of the cave and ran over to Laxus. Before she could reach him, a Vulcan came up behind her and held her upside down by her ankle.
"Hey! Let go!"
Laxus turned around at the sound of her voice and growled. He aimed a lightning dragon roar over at the Vulcan, Emi gasping as the lightning came rushing towards her. She pressed her eyes shut and waited for the shock, but all she felt was her body falling onto the snow. She opened her eyes to see an irritated Laxus standing over her.
"Woah," Emi breathed, completely ignoring the fact that she was supposed to be apologetic, "that was so cool! You totally hit the Vulcan without hitting me at all."
"Are you done? I told you to stay in the cave until I came to get you and you ignored me and put yourself in danger."
Emi laughed nervously before rubbing the back of her head and looking off to the side. She eventually looked him in the eye and gave a small apology.
"We can get out of the cold now, right?" Emi asked, hopeful.
Laxus rolled his eyes and started to tug her towards the bottom of the mountain.
-------------------------------------------------
"Would you like some hot chocolate?" Emi asked when they got home.
Laxus seemed to think for a minute before nodding. He hung out his coat and both their cloaks outside to dry and flopped on the couch. Emi came in with two mugs of hot chocolate and sat on the seat opposite him. He took the mug before groaning, heading to the kitchen sink and dumping it out.
"What's wrong with it?" Emi fretted.
Laxus looked over towards the kettle and saw the hot sauce sitting there. He decided to make another cup and eventually rejoined Emi in the living room.
"You fucking put hot sauce in the hot chocolate."
"Oops."
They both quietly sipped their hot chocolate before Emi leaned back in the seat and closed her eyes. She sighed in content before shifting in the chair so she was sitting sideways with her legs draped over the armrests.
"Why can't you just sit normally?"
"Because this way is more comfortable," Emi argued.
Emi drifted off, her head rolling on the other armrest. Laxus stood up and brought both the mugs to the kitchen, leaving them to be cleaned later. He checked on the cloaks and his coat and brought them back in when he saw that they were dry. After doing that, Laxus looked outside to see that it was starting to get dark, so he made his way back into the living room and threw his coat over Emi as a blanket and climbed up the stairs, entering his room and going to sleep.
Emi's eyes fluttered open to see that all the lights were off. She stretched as she stood up and started to look around the main floor.
"He must be sleeping," Emi concluded.
She tiptoed her way up the stairs, cursing when they would creak, and peeked inside Laxus's room to see that he was laying there asleep. Emi went to her bedroom and jumped on the bed before wrapping herself in her blankets and falling asleep. This only lasted about a half hour, as she was woken by a nightmare. It seemed to leave her shaken, and her body fought her as she tried to go back to sleep.
"Well, it's worth a shot," Emi thought out loud before she grabbed her blanket and quietly stepped to Laxus's door.
She could see that he was still sleeping, so she approached the bed with caution as to not wake him. She tried to crawl into the empty side of the bed, but a voice startled her.
"What do you think you're doing?" Laxus asked groggily.
"I, uh, had a bad dream."
"So?"
"I was hoping that I could sleep here so I could get to sleep."
"No. Go back to your room. Just sleep with the lights on or whatever."
Emi sighed and turned around, entering her room again and tucking herself into bed. She was able to sleep another hour before she jolted awake again. She whimpered before grabbing her blanket and rushing back to Laxus's room. She readied herself for his reaction before slowly opening his door.
"Out."
She continued to whimper, causing Laxus to mumble something incoherent and sit up.
"You're gonna keep doing this all night, aren't you?"
"I'm sorry," Emi pushed out through her tears.
"Let's go. Before I change my mind."
Emi gave Laxus a weak smile before crawling into the empty side of the bed and hugging her blankets.
"Hey Laxus," Emi whispered, "can I--"
"No. Go to sleep."