Felix and Chester quickly followed after Laxus and Freed as they were walking outside in the yard. Behind the guild house there were a big pool, a place where to grill food and just enjoy spending time outside. It was still early spring but days started to get warmer and warmer.
A little bit further, far enough so there wouldn't be danger to others, there was a huge area for battling.
"It's big", Chester said as they arrived at the area. "Not as big as the Domus Flau, though."
"Of course it's not, this is not a place big enough for that", Felix said.
"Felix! Chester!" Vellanja shouted as she ran towards them. She was wearing a cute orange dress and her fluffy hair was open. "Isn't this cool! We can see Freed and Laxus fighting against each other! I've never seen that since they never train here at the guild."
"I've seen them", Felix smiled. "They're really strong!"
"I hope they're really gonna show what they can do", Vellanja smiled excitedly. "I wanna see a real, good battle!"
"But they are not supposed to hurt each other", Chester reminded. "So they can't really fight like they usually would."
"That's just stupid. Why call it a battle then? And what's the point with it anyway if they're not gonna find out which one is stronger?"
"That is not the point here", Levy smiled as she stepped beside them with Gajeel.
"Well, it's true that it can't be called a battle since they're not actually fighting", the raven haired man said. "I wouldn't call it even a good spar."
"Gajeel, you're not helping", Levy pouted. "Did you think that way when we got married and went through this same thing?"
"What? Of course not! But you have to admit it, it's not a battle", Gajeel said. "When you battle, you aim for the win."
"That's not true", Levy said her hands on her hips. "Winning is not always the most important thing. This is about love and trust."
"Pfft, they're guys, of course they aim for the win."
"You are such a jerk, not romatic at all."
"Whatever", Gajeel said while picking his ear. "But yeah, sure, it can also be all that crap you said..." he agreed.
Felix frowned and he looked towards Laxus who was talking with Makarov while Freed drew runes around the area so they wouldn't accidentally hurt anyone watching them. He left his place beside Chester and Vellanja, running through the area towards Freed.
"Mama, are you sure this is safe?" he asked. He was worried. He didn't want Freed or Laxus to get hurt. And he was more worried about Freed because... Well, Laxus was bigger than him! And stronger! What if Laxus would accidentally use too much lightning and it would really hurt the rune mage?
"Of course", Freed smiled not lifting his sword as he kept drawing the runes. "Are you worried?"
"Yeah... I don't want anyone to get hurt", Felix said and he grabbed Freed's hand. "Do you really have to battle?"
"You've seen us sparring many times, you know we wouldn't hurt each other", Freed assured looking at his son. "This is just like one of those times, I promise. You just stay with others and cheer for us", he smiled.
Felix frowned, still worried and Freed chuckled.
"Everything will be fine", he assured lifting his son up and kept drawing the runes.
"How do you do that?" Felix asked pointing towards purple runes on the ground. "How do you know what you have to draw?"
"Because I can read these runes."
"I see... I want to read them too. I want to learn how to read", Felix smiled.
"Are you sure? You're still young", Freed said amused and finally he linked the runes together, hoisting up barriers that covered the whole battle arena.
"I'm almost five! Did you forget?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. You're right, you're almost a grown up man", Freed chuckled. "You're almost too big to carry around anymore."
"I'm not that old yet", Felix assured quickly. "Will you teach me how to read?" he smiled.
"Of course if you want to", Freed promised. "And if Chester and Vellanja want to learn as well, I can teach you all at the same time. First we have to learn all the alphabet."
"I'm sure they want to learn too", Felix smiled. "Can we learn how to read these runes?"
"No, these are different than the normal writing. This is a language no one uses anymore normally because it's so old."
"How can you then use it?"
"Because I've learned how to use it. You can learn it too after you've learned to read the normal alphabet. There are many kinds of languages around the world, some of them are languages that are no longer written or spoken. Sometimes you don't even use words to write but pictures."
"Wow! You can write with pictures?"
"That's right. They are hieroglyphs and it's called a logographic writing system."
"I don't really understand but I want to learn that!"
"One thing at a time", Freed chuckled as they stepped towards Laxus and Makarov.
"Is everything ready?" Laxus asked turning towards them.
"Yes, barriers are up and no one can enter or leave without permission", Freed nodded and he let Felix down. "Now there won't be any accidents."
"Good. I don't remember when the last time we sparred here at the guild was", Laxus said looking around on the big area. "We usually train in one of our regular places outside Magnolia."
"Well, this is not a real battle anyway", Makarov chuckled. "This is just a little show, but please make it enjoyable. There are many people here who have never seen you two fighting against each other."
"What's so amazing about that?"
"It just is, trust me", Makarov laughed. "They are going to watch this battle closely, even if they know you're not going against each other with full power."
"Who said anything about not using full power?" Freed smiled and it surprised the old man.
"We just don't fight until one of us can't continue, right? But we are not gonna do just some little dancing around", Laxus smirked.
"Dad! Are you really gonna hurt mama?" Felix asked and he was seriously worried.
"What? No, we're not going that far, I promise", Laxus smiled ruffling Felix's hair. "And you know your mama is strong, I have to be careful he won't hurt me."
"That's okay", Felix nodded.
"You brat..."
"Alright so let's start this so everyone can start eating and drinking", Freed said amused. "Felix, go with your great-grandfather."
"Okay", Felix said, grabbing Makarov's hand as they walked over to the crowd.
Freed smiled looking at the others waiting. He turned his head and looked at his husband, silently chuckling when thinking about him that way. Laxus really was his husband now. It wasn't just a dream anymore, a wish he secretly had for so long... This was reality.
"You done staring at me?" Laxus smirked and Freed snapped out of his thoughts.
"I was just admiring your face before I give you a beautiful bruise around your eye", the rune mage smiled and Laxus laughed. "No, I won't do that, I don't want something like that to ruin this day."
"So not going far enough to cause bruises?"
"We just have to make this showy, remember? Let's show them we can use our full power without hurting each other", Freed smirked.
"Yeah, let's do that", Laxus said and gave Freed a kiss before they both started to walk to their places.
Felix was trying to see everything with Chester as people cramped against the fence. It was easy to forget there were smaller viewers when everyone was so excited.
"We can't see!" Felix shouted annoyed, when suddenly someone grabbed him. He smiled when Bickslow lifted him up to sit on his shoulders and 'babies' flew up with Chester.
"Don't fall off", the seith mage cackled.
Felix chuckled and he looked ahead. Now he had a perfect view over the whole arena. It looked even bigger than before! That whole area was covered with rune walls they couldn't see and just in case there was a small distance from the arena and after that came the fence that went around it. They were all standing behind that fence, all excited to see how things would go.
"I want to see them really go against each other!" Natsu laughed.
"I wonder which one would win if they really had a battle?" Sting pondered.
"That doesn't really matter", Rogue smiled, looking how Freed and Laxus stopped after getting to their places. "If that day ever comes when they have to go against each other, it must be because of something that is forcing them to do so and the winner doesn't matter."
"Sting, your man is boring", Natsu huffed and Sting laughed.
"No, he's just perfect", he assured wrapping his arm around Rogue's shoulders and making the shadow mage blush.
They looked back at Laxus and Freed. Two handsome men in their suits, standing other sides of the battle arena. Suspense in the air was high.
In just a flash, Laxus bolted right ahead and they could hardly see it how the rune mages hand moved, fingers drawing something in the air and he vanished. Laxus stopped immediately and he was looking around. Just as swiftly as he disappeared, Freed appeared in the air just few feet above the Thunder God.
His hand gently touched the blond hair as he dropped down, his fingers already writing more runes. The air tingled around him and a burst of lightning almost blinded them. As it cooled down, they could see Freed with runes all around him that had covered him from the destructive power.
Laxus knew he would do that. It gave him one second time to pull his arm up and he grabbed Freed's collar, yanking him down on the ground with loud crash. Felix almost shouted but even if he had, they wouldn't have heard it since there were so much cheering and yelling around them. But his worry was needless since almost immediately Freed bounced right back on his feet, taking distance from Laxus.
Freed knew very well that fighting with Laxus wasn't easy. He could attack far with his lightning and even if he could get near him, he was an excellent melee combatant. But well, same went with him.
"Dark Écriture: Moranga", Freed smirked and Laxus frowned.
For a second the rune mage took a dark shape, flashing dark purple and changing his form. In Moranga's form he wasn't really big, but he was swift and he could do things he normally couldn't do with his runes.
Laxus looked at the colourful mage who was using demon's appearance to streghten himself. Unlike when using other demons, his body didn't really change that much with Moranga, mostly just his clothes. And by god, Laxus didn't care if no one would agree but his husband looked sexy as hell in those clothes!
He didn't have time to ogle that sexy beast when the ground started to shake and he had to move. Tall pillars of ground hoisted up, shaping the whole area differently. Laxus huffed and looked at Freed who was tiptoeing on one of the pillars, chuckling so damn smugly.
"Yeah, grin while you still can you trickster", Laxus smirked and sparks of electricity emitted from his blond hair.
His hair grew bigger and flash of lightning shot down his spine, forming big wings and a long strong tail. That made many of their guild mates gasp, as his nails grew bigger and sharper, orange eyes burning. It had taken hell of a lot training, but he was able to draw out some of the dragonic traits without instant danger of losing his mind to his instincts as well.
Felix shut his eyes, too scared to watch and he heard so much crashing and thundering, how something hit against something, ground was crumbling and stuff like that. Others were screaming with thrill and excitement, cheering for them both and enjoying the show. He was just scared that something bad might still happen.
"Hey, don't worry", Bickslow said when he noticed Felix wasn't watching. "They won't really hurt each other. They are both strong, they can handle some tossing around."
Carefully Felix opened his eyes and looked again. There was a huge mess on the arena. Dust was whirling around as Freed and Laxus fought in close combat right now. Both doing their best to land a kick or two, punching and shielding themselves from attacks at the same time.
It was... Amazing! Felix's eyes went wide when he saw how both men were smiling all the time, obviously enjoying this all! They were in a perfect sync! Again they took distance and used magic, lightning colliding against runes and causing blast that was so powerful Felix had to grab Bickslow's head so he wouldn't fall.
The area was filled with dust and now there was a silence. Slowly the dust faded and revealed two fighters who were staring at each other. It was clear that the fight was over. They had shown their power and trust, as well as how well they fit together. If they wouldn't there would be serious injuries by now.
Moranga's form faded and Freed stepped towards Laxus who started walking as well. They stopped, facing each other with smiles that told it all. This was how it was meant to be. There couldn't possibly be anyone more suitable for them. They had something many people spend their lives looking for and maybe never finding it.
They were soulmates. They belonged together like a coin that has been split in two pieces. There were thousands of metaphors how to describe their situation and even then none of them seemed like enough.
There was one thing that was an ultimate proof of how they were meant to be, how strong their bond was and once the runes disappeared and others could come forward to congratulate them, that proof came with others and hugged them both.
"That was amazing!" Felix yelled with a wide smile.
"Thank you, Felix", Freed smiled.
"Laxus! I want to fight with you too!" Natsu said. He was too excited after watching that fight!
"No way in hell", Laxus snorted. "Not today."
"Let's just all go inside and start celebrating", Freed suggested dusting his cloths and they agreed.
It was starting to get dark outside, but that didn't matter since inside they had bright lights and the party was still going on. Freed smiled while holding a glass of wine, looking how others were eating and getting drunk. It was alright, it was how Fairy Tail partied after all.
He looked towards Rogue who sat down beside him with the little exceed in his frog costume. The raven haired man had a glass of juice since he wasn't too keen of alcohol.
"Congratulations once more, Freed", he said to the rune mage.
"Thank you, Rogue", Freed smiled. "We are really happy that you and Sting came here."
"We're really sorry it was so sudden", Rogue said. "And you invited us to eat and drink. I will make sure we will send a gift later."
"Don't worry about that. By the way, now that you mentioned it, why did you appear so suddenly here?" Freed asked curiously.
"We wanted to come and help", Rogue smiled. "That Emmett attacked Minerva and Yukino. We simply can't forgive something like that. Rufus and Orga are helping them and they're making sure everything will be fine while we're here. I'm not sure if we will be much of a help, but at least we are ready to do our best."
"Fro thinks so too!" Frosch said happily as always.
"We have to talk about that with Laxus, but I'm sure no one is against of you guys helping us", Freed nodded. "We are grateful that you want to help us."
Rogue smiled and he let his gaze to wander around the Guild Hall. Some were fighting, some were drinking, others were eating and so on. Everyone was so happy. His stare stopped as he saw Felix, Chester and Vellanja playing together with Bickslow's 'babies'.
"Rogue?" Freed said after a moment of silence and Rogue jolted slightly, looking at the rune mage who was smiling. "You look like you have a serious baby fever", he teased and Rogue's face flushed bright red.
"I don't... Sure, I wouldn't mind, but..." he stuttered and Freed laughed.
"That's fine", he smiled. "I'm sure you and Sting will have a family. We can't know when the next mating season will start."
"That's true", Rogue said with a tiny smile. "Have you talked with Laxus about that yet?"
"No", the green haired man said shaking his head. "It's not an easy task to talk about that... But still, I know that Laxus won't just ignore my feelings. He will listen."
"I'm sure of that as well", Rogue nodded. "So are you two perhaps going to the honeymoon?" he asked and Freed chuckled.
"No", he said. "Now that the wedding is over, we really have to start helping Naava Town."
"I see. Me and Sting will help as much as we can of course."
"Thank you for that."
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Hello! Okay so I suddenly wanted to draw a picture of Freed when he's using Moranga's form ^^ I hope you like it! This is just my vision of how he might look like but since Moranga uses Surrealism Magic, he can pretty much look like whatever he wants xD