Sunlight beamed onto Freed's face, causing him to hide under the covers. He slowly peeked through them to see Laxus was no longer by his side. His head was heavy. His body ached everywhere, his throat felt like he had swallowed a bucket of sand. Every time he inhaled he experienced a sharp pain around his rib cage. His body felt like it was going through a combination of a hangover and the flu. Bits and pieces of the night prior were coming back to him. He placed his hand on his forehead, shielding his eyes from the bright sun.
"Dammit." he said aloud, sounding hoarse.
"Goodmorning Sleeping Beauty," Laxus said as he walked into the room carrying a tray full of food and water.
Freed groaned, pushing onto his palms until his back found support with the bed's headboard, "Nothing about this is beautiful."
Laxus let out a soft chuckle. He placed the tray over Freed's legs and took a seat on the edge of the bed next to him. Freed scanned the items on the tray. There was a small potion bottle filled with a clear green liquid.
"What's this?" Freed asked as he picked up the potion bottle and peered through it with one eye.
"That, is your life saver," Laxus said before explaining, "The innkeeper is apparently a healer too. She made you a potion to heal you from the effects of that weird hypnosis spell you were under last night."
Freed popped the cork out of the potion bottle and took a sniff. "This smells like burnt fish" he says, holding back a gag.
"Don't be a wuss" Laxus grabbed the bottom of Freed's chin, pulling his mouth open and poured the potion into Freed's mouth. "Bottoms up!"
Freed nearly spit the potion out onto Laxus' face at the taste until he felt the instant relief coming over his body. The soreness in his back and the migraine he had gradually disappeared, and Freed was like a brand new person. Laxus was looking at him, like he was observing a test subject who tasted some experimental concoction. He pushed the plate of food closer to Freed.
"Eat. The innkeeper said to have you eat after drinking the potion."
Before Freed could give Laxus an earful about manhandling him, he heard his stomach make a loud growling noise. Of course he was hungry, he spent the night barfing his insides out. He grabbed his fork and knife and started eating the food sitting in front of him.
"You know... you've been taking care of me a lot during this job," Freed says in between bites.
"Is that a problem?" Laxus replied.
"Not at all! It's just... I'm usually the one taking care of you, with these little things. It's nice. I think I can get used to this" Freed smiles.
Laxus was still watching Freed. He felt a smile creep up on his face when he noticed Freed had some food stuck on the corner of his mouth. He reached up and wiped the food off with his thumb, caressing the corner of Freed's mouth in slow strokes. Laxus moved his gaze up from Freed's mouth to his eyes. His eyes widened once he realized what he was doing and jerked his hand back down beside him. Freed's face quickly turned bright red, he took the glass of water to try to wash down the heat rising to it.
"Yeah well..." Laxus cleared his throat, rubbing his now sweaty palms on his pants, "You're always so put together. I've never had the opportunity to take care of you before."
Freed rubbed his temples, "Yeah, guess I've been a hot mess lately."
"It honestly makes me feel relieved," Freed looked at Laxus, a little shocked by his words. "Freed the Dark, not as perfect as he seems" Laxus shot up a smirk at Freed.
"Whatever" Freed laughed. He playfully kicked Laxus' back. He finished the rest of his breakfast, feeding Laxus a bite every now and then, Laxus happily accepted each one.
****
Freed and Laxus were back on the road to moonlight. They were making good time, and expected to reach their destination a little after sundown. They spent their time talking about past jobs and reminiscing about the adventures the Thunder Legion had. Freed showed some of the new spells he had learned to Laxus. Laxus was shocked, Freed really did improve his skills since becoming S-class. He was probably close to reaching Laxus' level.
Maybe we could pull off a unison raid, Laxus thought. The reason he shut Freed down was because he wasn't sure if it would have been possible with the two of them. He didn't want to risk any chance of disappointing Freed or even worse, hurting him... again. His mind briefly flashes to the memory of the battle of Fairy Tail.
We can practice it after this job.
After I tell him.
"So, what do you think?" Freed asks, interrupting Laxus' thoughts.
"You're good Freed. Like really good."
"Yeah. I know" Freed replied, smug as ever.
"Show me what else you got hiding up your sleeve."
"Ah ah, a magician doesn't reveal all his tricks."
Laxus frowned and started pouting. Freed still refused to show him the rest of his new spells. They continued on their path to Moonlight.
****
A few minutes past sundown, Freed and Laxus had finally arrived in front of Moonlight. The two stood in front of the town entrance, speechless.
The entire town was deserted.
As they walked in and explored the buildings they noticed all the houses were empty, the street lights were dark, and there was a quiet tension filling the air.
"Are you sure we're at the right place?" Laxus asked.
Freed pulled the map he was using along with the job flyer, "Yeah. This should be Moonlight. Do you think we're too late?"
"I'm not sure. Did one gang really cause all of this damage? What were even the details of this job?"
"It was honestly pretty vague. I just thought they were a lowly gang, stealing the town's goods"
Freed and Laxus continued throughout the town. They stuck close enough together to the point where their shoulders would brush against each other with every step.
Out of nowhere, there was a loud scream. Freed reacted instantly, running forward into the darkness ahead of them. Laxus followed behind him. They stopped once they realized they had reached the center of the town. Freed frantically turned in circles looking for the direction the scream came from. He heard the scream again and ran toward it. Before Laxus could react to stop him, Freed had stepped into a circle of rope triggering it to tighten around his ankle. The rope started to raise, causing Freed to lose his footing and hit the pavement, almost knocking him unconscious. The rope swung him into the hair, now hanging upside down.
"Freed!" Laxus shouted. As he was about to cut him down, an arrow flashed by his hand slicing a small cut through it. Laxus winced, immediately pulling his hand back. He turned in the direction the arrow came flying from and saw a herd of what looked like soldiers dressed in some sort of metal armor. Laxus circled around to see they were quickly being surrounded by these soldiers. This was a gang? More like a small army. Laxus quickly shot out a lightning bolt to ward off the soldiers that were getting near them. It was clear this "gang" was not going to talk this out.
The sound of lightning jolted Freed awake from his nearly unconscious state. Remembering where he was, Freed quickly unsheathed his sword. With one swing he cut the rope and flipped onto the ground, landing perfectly on his feet next to Laxus.
"About time," Laxus quipped "I was worried I'd have to do all the work."
"Well isn't that what you usually love to do?" Freed snapped back. The little banter between them was almost routine with every job they had. With that comment they both swung into action.
Freed moved into his hand to hand combat strategy. The soldiers had them completely surrounded at this point, there was no way they could fight them from a distance. He used his darkness magic to enhance his speed. From one side he was fighting with soldiers using his sword then used his free hand to punch other soldiers on the opposite side. The soldiers had yet to land a single shot on him. It would seem almost too easy if there weren't so many of them.
Laxus was doing the same, punching left and right with fists full of lightning. He and Freed were fighting back to back. Laxus started to get impatient. Irritated. "Damn, there's no way this is some gang. There's way too many of them" he said while pounding a soldier into three others, sending them flying across the deserted town. "Alright, I'm done fooling around."
Laxus inhaled a deep breath. When he was ready to exhale he yelled, "LIGHTNING DRAGON ROAR!!" The flashing yellow light that emerged from Laxus' mouth wiped the floor with the soldiers. He whirled around and continued to knock the soldiers down with his power.
Freed was finishing off the last two soldiers that came near him, "You just had to go and show off didn't you?" he said, sighing with a laugh. He wiped a bead of sweat off his forehead.
"Laxus?"
There was no response.
Freed turned around to see Laxus bent over, his palms on his knees breathing heavily. His forehead looked like he had suddenly broken into a cold sweat, his face pale.
"Laxus?! What's wro-" Freed was making his way to Laxus when he felt the air get knocked out of him. He crashed to the floor, rolling a few feet away from his original footing. He coughed and could feel his eyes watering from the impact. He propped himself up on his elbows when he felt another kick to his stomach sending him across the pavement once again. Freed heard a laugh that sent chills down his spine.
"So this is the great Lightning Dragon Slayer!"
The man who had kicked Freed was now circling Laxus. He was dressed in similar attire as the soldiers they had been fighting. It was tailored differently, indicating him as someone who is of higher authority. He walked to Laxus and lifted his chin up, pointing Laxus' face to his.
"The boss told me to be wary of you, but I didn't think you were going to be this pathetic!" he boasted as he smashed his fist against Laxus' face. Freed winced.
"It only took one lacrima deactivator to knock you on your knees, how boring" he continued on.
Lacrima deactivator?? What is that? And why is Laxus still on his knees?
Then the knowledge struck Freed. Laxus has lightning dragon slayer powers because of a lacrima his father put into his body. The basis of his magic is from that lacrima. Without it, could it be possible he would go back to the way he was as a child? Sick and weak?
No.
As if Laxus could hear Freed's thoughts, he pushed himself up to his feet and landed one blow to the man's face, making him stumble a few steps backwards. Laxus' shoulders were still slumped and he was struggling to stand up straight.
The man composed himself. He spit out some blood as a result of the punch Laxus had thrown him and made his way back to Laxus. "That's more like it." He sent a fist into Laxus' gut, making him gasp for air. The two start fighting with their fists, neither one of them using magic.
Freed heard the distant steps of more soldiers coming their way. He rolled onto his back and jumped up onto his feet. He felt a sharp pain in his stomach. It was definitely forming a bruise already. He pushed the pain down and ran towards the soldiers, sword in hand.
****
Freed was too busy fighting off the rest of the soldiers to check back in with Laxus. A million thoughts were running through his head. What does this 'gang' want? Who's the boss? Who's the guy Laxus is fighting? How did he know who Laxus was? How did they have Lacrima deactivators? He kicked off the last of the soldiers and finally turned back to where Laxus was supposed to be.
When Freed turned, Laxus and the mystery man were no longer at the center of the town. He heard distant fighting noises across the way from what looked like an abandoned church. He quickly ran to it.
My magic is almost depleted. I used most of it against those soldiers. Laxus isn't at his full strength either.
Freed started to feel anxious.
He burst through the doors of the cathedral. Inside, he saw the man from before pushing back against Laxus' arms. The two were still going at it.
"Just in time, Freed. I am about to teach your boyfriend here a lesson" he cracked. He swooped Laxus' leg from underneath, knocking him back to the ground.
"Who are you?! How do you know my name?! What do you want?!" Freed shot back, his face full of rage.
The man just laughed at him. He grabbed a fistful of Laxus' hair and lifted his face up, dragging Laxus' body up with it. He looked beaten, defeated. Freed had never seen Laxus like this before. It wasn't like when he was beaten by Natsu and Gajeel, or injured by tartaros or Alvarez.
The man proceeded to grab a silver dagger, embedded with jade jewels. He lifted it up, with an evil grin on his face and looked Freed in the eyes.
No.
"LAX-"
Freed took one step forward to aid Laxus before he realized what had happened. He felt his legs go numb as warm liquid was sliding down his body. The same warm liquid was traveling up his throat and out of his mouth as he coughed it out. His eyes became dark and watery, as he looked down at his chest and saw a large silver blade, covered in his own blood, piercing through it.
Laxus, who had been fighting off the man's grip from his hair, turned his head to face Freed. His eyes widened. The fear in his eyes had spread to his whole body, paralyzing him, as he watched the blood from Freed's mouth drip down his chin.
"F-Freed?"