"Look at this one," Emi started, "It's an astilbe."
"So?"
"It can grow up to six feet tall! That's almost as tall as you. Isn't that cool?"
"I guess."
"Come on," Emi said as she dragged him further into the gardens, "I thought I saw some malva somewhere over here."
Laxus rolled his eyes and let her tug him along. He was eventually freed, so he went over to sit on the fountain to wait for Emi's energy to run out. He leaned on the little ledge and closed his eyes. A few minutes later, he felt something on his face. He snapped his eyes open to see Emi standing over him as she dropped flowers on his face.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"You were asleep. I was just trying to wake you."
"I wasn't asleep. I was--"
"Resting your eyes?" Emi snickered.
"Are you two married?"
Emi and Laxus looked towards the ground to see a little girl holding a couple flowers. Laxus gave her a wide eyed look and Emi just giggled.
"You two talk like my mom and dad, and they're married. So are you married too?"
"Why the he--"
Emi smacked his shoulder before he could swear at the girl and jumped down from the fountain's step and crouched down to meet her level. She whispered something in her ear with a smile on her face. The little girl gasped and turned to Laxus, pointing a finger at him.
"You need to ask her to marry you already!"
"Uh--"
"She said that she's been waiting for you to propose for a year. You need to hurry before she goes away!"
Laxus's eyes twitched and he glared at Emi who just tittered and gave him an innocent look.
"Yeah, sure," Laxus forced out. "I'll make sure to do that. Thanks, kid."
The girl seemed to be pleased with his answer because she turned to Emi and smiled. Before she returned to her parents, she handed Emi a purple flower and stood on the fountain steps to give Laxus a red flower. Emi waved her goodbye and turned around to get Laxus to go explore the gardens more. She was met with an aggravated look from the dragon slayer.
"You're unbelievable."
"Now what did I ever do to you?" Emi feigned offense.
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"Get your suit ready. Because we're going to a party!"
"Absolutely not."
"Don't be a party pooper. We only have to stay for a little bit."
Laxus rolled his eyes and retreated into his room. Emi groaned and stood outside his door.
"Please?"
She could hear a huff from inside the room before the door unlocked and slowly opened. Emi looked at him expectantly for his answer, and Laxus rolled his eyes and nodded his head.
"Alright!" Emi cheered. "This is gonna be so fun."
Emi rushed towards her room and picked out a dress. She practically jumped down the stairs and met Laxus in the living room. She laughed when she saw that he was playing with his tie with a look that could be described as determined and pissed off. He groaned and threw the tie off to the side.
"Now what did that tie ever do to you?" Emi teased.
"It existed."
Emi rolled her eyes and picked up the tie before playing with it.
"What the hell. Why isn't it working?" Emi mumbled as she continued to tie it in all different ways.
"So I guess this means that neither of us know how to tie it?"
Emi stuck her tongue out in concentration as she tried to get it to work before she sighed in defeat and threw the tie back on the couch.
"That's so stupid," Emi muttered. "Why make something like that if people can't even use it?"
"So you forgot how to tie a tie along with your other memories?" Cana laughed.
"Guess so."
"I'm not wearing it."
"I don't blame you."
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"Look at all the food," Emi breathed.
"Did you seriously come for the food?" Laxus mused.
"No," she pouted. "I wanted to dance and hang out with people."
Laxus hummed as he dragged her to the food tables. They ended up bickering about how much food they should take when a young woman approached them.
"Excuse me," she interrupted, "but are you Laxus?"
"Uh, yeah."
"Oh my gosh. Will you please dance with me?"
"Uh, I'm not really--"
"He'd love to!"
Emi pushed Laxus towards the woman and urged him to go to the dancefloor. He went to protest, but Emi gave him a stern look.The dragon slayer sighed and took the woman's hand.
"Finally," Emi breathed, "now I can take as much food as I want."
About twenty minutes later, Laxus returned to Emi's side.
"That was a long dance," Emi observed before she smiled. "You must've had fun."
"Very far from fun. Some other girls saw me and wanted to dance."
"You're pretty popular, mister Dreyar."
"Don't call me that."
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"That was fun," Emi stated as they walked through the forest.
"Seriously? All you did was eat and make me dance with random people."
"Which is exactly why it was so fun."
"Didn't you say you wanted to dance? You didn't even--"
"Actually, I danced five times. You were too distracted by all the women surrounding you," Emi snickered.
"Sure, laugh it up. You know, dances are so annoying. This is exactly why I didn't wanna go."
"Admit it. You had fun."
"No."
They had arrived at the house and both of them went to their rooms to change. Emi groaned as she tried to reach the zipper again. She stretched her arms as long as they could, but she couldn't seem to be able to hold the zipper long enough to tug it down.
"Laxus!"
"What?"
Emi called him in and asked for his help again. He scoffed before making his usual remark about her struggle and reaching for the zipper on her back. He stood there silently and looked at the zipper intently.
"Uh, are you gonna help me?" Emi asked. "I would like to read something. There's this book on water magic that seemed interesting."
Laxus shook his head to get any thoughts out and slowly pulled down her zipper, revealing her scars. He became angry again at the sight and had to look away.
"Are you okay?" Emi hesitantly asked. "You don't seem--"
She was cut off when she felt him kiss the back of her neck. Her body jolted from the unexpected contact before settling down. She closed her eyes and stayed there not moving. He tugged her to him so that her back was against his chest before moving to kiss the side of her neck instead.
"Cain, you were a genius to knock him out," Lucy remarked.
"Thanks, kid. It was my pleasure."
Everyone looked towards the unconscious Sting as he laid face down on the "ground."
"I'm really glad you came tonight," Emi breathed as she continued to close her eyes to take in the feeling. "I was starting to think parties weren't your thing."
Laxus laughed and slowly turned her around so that they were facing each other. He whispered a small "they aren't" before he held her cheek and brought their lips together. Emi broke away from the kiss after a little bit and looked up to him with a smirk.
"Is this gonna be like the last few times where you suddenly freak out and run away from me?"
Laxus returned her smirk and responded with a "probably" before kissing her again. They had somehow moved from the center of the room to by the door. Laxus had her hands pinned on either side of her as she was pushed against the wall. He let go of one of her hands so he could hold the side of her face. She wrapped her free arm around his neck and pulled him closer.
The whole group took another worried glance at Sting, but were relieved when they saw that he still wasn't moving. Emi had walked so she was beside Sting and sat down next to him. She softly rubbed his head. Makarov looked at Laxus with a stern and scolding look. Laxus avoided his eyes.
Emi raked her hand through his hair and leaned up so he could get as close to him as possible. They broke apart for a second before Emi pulled him down by the collar of his suit. She pressed their foreheads together and looked at him playfully.
"You really need to get laid or else you're gonna keep doing this to me. I was hoping to find you someone at the dance, but you ignored every single woman there. Figures."
He laughed deeply before hiking her up on the wall. He let go of her other arm to place both his hands in the small of her back and push her towards him. She took the chance to hold the back of his head. His hands moved from her back to her thighs before he backed up, walking backwards and then tossing her on the bed.
"Laxus..."
The memory had ended and the dragon slayer refused to look at his grandfather, settling his eyes upwards.
"Well it's not like I'm gonna apologize to you. I have to wait for that idiot to wake up."
"Yeah," Cain mused, "if he even lets you live long enough to speak."