"This is so cool!" Natsu shouted. "Everything is happening before our eyes. Do you think we can do Lucy next?"
"Why me?! We should do you next."
"That's not fun at all," Natsu pouted.
"Um," Levy interrupted, "this spell is really complicated, so I don't think that we should do it more than this one time. It takes up a lot of magic energy."
Erza grabbed their attention, saying that there was another memory.
"Laxus, do you think that I'll ever recover my memories?"
"You better."
Emi giggled before stepping in front of him and going to hug him.
"Absolutely not," Laxus barked as he stepped backwards.
Emi rolled her eyes while smiling and put her hands up in defeat. She walked past him and made her way into the kitchen to start cooking dinner.
"Are you okay with having grilled fish?" Emi called out.
Laxus shouted back from the living room, "Sure. Whatever works."
Emi hummed and started to prepare the fish before Laxus appeared behind her. She jumped when she turned around and saw him, questioning what he was doing. He said nothing, only reaching into the cabinet next to the stove and taking out the hot sauce. He brought it back over to the table and sat down.
"Why are you--"
"Because I don't trust you with this."
Eventually the food was ready and they both ate. They sat there for a couple minutes after they had finished and took in the silence. Emi stood up and entered the living room before sitting down in the rocking chair in the corner. She looked out the window and smiled at the trees. She loved watching how the leaves fell off the trees. Getting an idea, Emi walked back into the kitchen and stood in front of Laxus.
"We should rake the leaves outside."
Laxus looked at her and silently told her to continue.
"It's our yard, so we should clean it up. Plus I think it'll be fun."
He stood up and rummaged through the front closet before taking out two rakes. He handed one over to Emi and opened the door. After a while, there were two big piles of leaves in the clearing.
"I have an idea," Emi happily said. "We should jump in the piles."
"No."
"Oh come on. Have some fun."
"You're free to jump in it yourself, but just know that you'll be responsible for cleaning it back up."
A few seconds later, Emi was buried in leaves. She laughed as she continued to play in the leaves. Looking up, she saw that Laxus looked bored and indifferent.
"He always looks like that."
Emi got an idea and asked Laxus to help pull her up so she could start raking the leaves. She tried to suddenly tug him down into the leaves, but he wouldn't budge.
"That's not fair. You're supposed to fall down."
"I've learned to be prepared for your antics."
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"Can I go to the gardens later?"
Laxus shrugged before continuing to make his bed. Emi jumped onto the bed, ruining the work he had done.
"Cut it out. I'm trying to do something here."
"What's the point of making the bed when you're just going to take a nap later anyway?"
Laxus gave Emi a side look and pushed her off the bed. She laughed under her breath and walked back to her room to grab her cloak.
"I'm heading out!"
"If you get into any sort of trouble I will kill you."
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"Let's see...I could go to the gardens or I could look around in the flower shop. Which one?"
Emi decided to go to the flower shop, saying that she felt like the house needed some flowers. She ended up picking up some dragon lilies and alyssiums. She sang under her breath as she wandered over to the ports. The sparkling water captivated her, but she was soon panicked. A loud boom was heard, and she looked over to see that one of the ports was completely destroyed. Emi's mouth hung open before slowly backing away from the harbor and fast-walking back to the forest.
"That was strange."
"That," Laxus spoke up from in the clearing, startling Emi, "was Fairy Tail."
"Are you serious? They took out an entire harbor!"
"Knowing them, it was Natsu."
"Wow," Emi breathed, "Fairy Tail is super strong."
"No. They're just a bunch of idiots who don't know when to stop."
Emi giggled and walked back inside the house.
"Oh. I almost forgot. Look what I bought!"
"Why do we--"
"Because we need some decorations, and these are perfect."
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"You do this every night, and every night I tell you to leave. So why, may I ask, do you still insist on coming in here?"
"Because I'm tired."
"So sleep."
"That's what I'm trying to--"
"In your own bed. You're a grown up, not a small child."
Emi started sniffling and Laxus groaned.
"Now what?"
"I just...don't want to be alone."
"Fine. Hurry up."
Emi smiled softly before slowly crawling into bed. She went to hug Laxus when he turned his head over his shoulder and glared at her. Emi laughed nervously before turning away from the dragon slayer and facing the far wall.
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Emi woke up feeling a weight on her. She slowly opened her eyes and found that somehow Laxus was facing her back and had an arm draped over her shoulder. Emi giggled, unintentionally waking the dragon slayer. He forced his eyes open and looked around.
"You know," Emi started, "for someone who protested so much, it seems like--"
Laxus seemed to realize what he was doing, quickly retracting his arm and sitting up straight. Emi laughed at his flustered reaction before rolling out of bed and stretching. Emi left Laxus's room and went to go downstairs to make breakfast. She heard a quiet and worried "fuck me" before reaching the stairs.
"Yeah," Sting aggressively repeated, "fuck you."
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"Ice cream, ice cream!" Emi cheered as they exited the gardens.
"You're a child."
"And you're too serious. Soon it's gonna be too cold to get ice cream, so we should enjoy it while we can."
"Let's just get home."
"But we didn't get the ice cream!" Emi protested.
Laxus huffed before turning back to the cart and getting two ice creams. He handed the cone over to Emi and waited for her to take it. Emi beamed and snatched the cone before Laxus could pull it away. She happily licked her ice cream and started to hum to herself.
"You do that a lot."
"Hm?"
"You're always humming."
Emi looked away sheepishly before shyly saying, "I started doing it recently because everyone says I talk too much. I guess I hum instead."
Laxus stayed silent for a short time before stopping in the middle of the road. Emi had wandered ahead of him and turned around when she realized that he wasn't beside her anymore.
"You don't...have to," Laxus forced out.
"Huh?"
"You don't have to force yourself to stop talking just because people say that--"
"Don't you find it annoying too?"
"...Besides the point."
Emi giggled and forced Laxus into a hug. He tried to pull away, but Emi wouldn't let go.
"Thank you, Laxus."
"You're gonna make me spill my ice cream."