Love Sick

Chapter Three: Thunderous Heartbeats

Freed didn't want to let go but eventually he did. "You should go back to the guild now, everyone is worried." Freed said as his feelings fought with logical side. "Let's have one last night, just me and you. Tomorrow I will have to release some sort of statement about what's been going on and then I won't be able to have a quiet moment" Laxus responded softly.

"Go on that job?" Freed laughed. "They wouldn't let me take a job" the S-class wizard said. "But you're still strong enough to take one, right? I'll take a job by myself and have you secretly join." The rune mage suggested. 

Laxus laughed. "How devious of you". 

"Is that a deal?" He asked. "As long as you get us a good one" the blond responded.

...

Freed was back at the guild and ready to go. He stopped by Laxus' place first to make sure their packs were together and then showered so that hopefully he other dragon slayers wouldn't be able to tell that he was harbouring Laxus.

"How did it go, baby?" Bickslow asked. Freed shrugged. "I tried using runes and they couldn't find him. I'm not ready to process this and I think I need to do what I prepared myself to do when I came back. " Freed said as he bypassed his friend. He immediately beelined it to the job board. 

"Freed's finally taking a job again" Gajeel observed from his table. Levy immediately turned around and smiled at him. "I'm proud of you, bud" she encouraged.

Mirajane looked at him skeptically but she didn't say anything and let him take the job.

...

When he got back to his apartment he proudly presented the job request. He grabbed his pack while the blond read it over. 

"This should be simple enough. Be back by lunch time tomorrow" Laxus said. And while that sounded like nothing to anyone who didn't know him, that was high praise coming from him. It left Freed beaming. 

And when Laxus smiled back he seemed so much younger, he didn't look like he had been weighed down by the world and any doubts about this job flew straight out of the green-haired man's mind. If he could keep his spirits this high for as long as possible then he could die happy.

Freed decided to use his runes to teleport them close to the town. They couldn't take a train because making Laxus feel any worse was out of question and walking would take them too long. 

"You sure this use of magic is worth it? I don't want you over exerting yourself" the blond man said with a worried tone. "I should be fine. I've come a long way as a wizard" Freed said. The dragon slayer chuckled fondly. "You'll be the next S-class wizard for sure" he said. 

In a companionable silence the duo walked the rest of the way into the town, occassionally bumping shoulders and timidly looking at the other while they weren't looking.

...

The job was your average run of the mile kind of job. A town that had a primary resource of farming and farming animals had their livelihoods threatened by some unseen yet hulking shadowy monster that was rampaging.

It was a creature that only came out at night and people had only ever seen it out of the corner of their eyes. But the entire town fully believed that the beast was coming from the cave systems from the mountain.

The cave system was too winding with many branches- like a giant millipede was created from the earth and escaped- to be able to explore. Apparently not only could you get lost in there, you could lose your mind. But luckily for them, there was only the entrance. 

Freed set up a rune trap that ensnare the creature when it leaves for the night and would alert them when it does while Laxus set up their camp. Of course, the rune mage was so lucky that he managed to finish first because it allowed him the oppurtunity to selfishly watch the lightning mage work his muscles involuntarily flexing.

He immediately felt guilty for it though. 

...

Unbelievably, the mountains are cold. They tried to just hide in their tents until night fell but the tents didn't help, eventually Freed joined Laxus in his. And due to the duo not getting enough sleep, they quickly fell asleep in the tent.

When Freed woke up he was bracketed by Laxus' arms. He was being held very closely to Laxus. "You were shivering pretty bad" the blond mumbled into Freed's hair when he felt him stir. On average the dragon slayers ran a lot hotter than other people, and being a wizard who specialized in an element that could produce heat raised it even further.

The smaller wizard tried to reason to himself that given those facts it would be natural for Laxus to try to use his body heat to warm him if he worried about hypothermia. The wind was too strong to be able to create a fire and lightning was too unpredictable to be used. Plus Freed was already burning a lot of magic on the trap.

"Look Freed, I-"

He was interrupted by the trap's alarm. Both of them had to abandon their prior thoughts and rush out. When they got outside of the tent they saw that it was probably some time after midnight. 

And they also saw a giant ugly subterranean almost bug-like mole creature. It's eyes were too weak to handle the bright lights that the Thunder God was associated with and they managed to blind it and then kill it in quick succession. 

But they were both terribly burnt out and needed to talk to the job giver anyway so they decided to spend the rest of the night in Laxus' tent and do the rest in the morning.  Laxus never finished what he had to say earlier.

(A/N: sorry if you were looking for an action sequence of them fighting the monster. Also let me know if you want me to continue publishing two at a time or if you want me to post as soon as I finish a chapter) .