Love Sick

Chapter Twenty-Three: Sparks Fly

He felt like a child. The euphoria he was feeling after consuming lightning and enjoying the storm. 

Maybe this was why he wasn't paying attention and ended up within a few feet of Gajeel without noticing his scent first.

"What are you doing out here?" The gruff voiced asked. Laxus scoffed. "You really asking why a lightning wizard is out in a lightning storm?" He asked back. "Just thought that you'd be with Freed after you hoarded him away" the black-haired man said.

The blond felt his blood go cold. It was like the rain was finally seeping in. "What do you know about Freed?" He couldn't stop the defensive growl. Gajeel rolled his eyes. "Figured it out when you at that punk were fighting" the iron dragon slayer said. Oh. 

"And you aren't with Levy?" He sounded very much like a child who had just been scolded. "I'm a bad luck charm during storms like these. I'd rather not attract lightning to the guild" he said it like it should be obvious. Then his expression changed, it became inquisitive. "You and your nerd. You're okay?" He asked. Laxus' eyes narrowed. "What do you mean by that?" The blond asked. 

"I mean do you want to be with him?" Gajeel asked. The question was stupid enough that it shocked a laugh out of him. "What do you mean? He's my soulmate!" He exclaimed. The iron wizard shrugged. "That doesn't mean much" 

It was like time had stopped, the rain still fell at it's even tempo but Laxus could forget about the world around him. 

"What do you mean by that?" He asked. "When you're raised by a dragon you learn a lot more of the ins and outs of how we work. I don't think the others know, maybe my dragon was just a jerk" he sighed. "There's a way to severe a mateship. You fall out of love with them. Eventually you'll fall for someone else and they'll be your soulmate." He ammended quickly.

"I think Metalicana thought that I would end up with the wrong sort" Gajeel said.

"Why are you telling me this?" Laxus asked. "You're scared of trapping someone in a relationship. Being stuck with someone who will never love you but doesn't want a guilty conscious. I wanted to let you know that there's a way out" he said.

"And you couldn't think of this when I was still in the infirmary?" The lightning wizard asked. It felt like the other man was trying to ruin his relationship. "You wouldn't have listened to me. In order to fall out of love you would have had to push him away and that would have broken Freed. And then you would go back on your plan to keep him at a distance." Gajeel explained.

"You don't know me" Laxus hissed. "Maybe not. But I know myself"

...

He made sure he showered and had warm clothes on before he crawled into bed. In his sleep Freed happily rolled over and and pressed himself against Laxus' chest. It was sweet but the lightning wizard wasn't able to think about it really. 

His 'chat' with Gajeel had unnerved him and he was still thinking about what he had been told.

Laxus looked down at his soulmate's sleeping face. Gently he stroked the side of his face with his thumb. "Do you really want to be with me?" He whispered into the dark, knowing he would get no answers.

The night was not kind to him, he was in and out of sleep and kept on tossing and turning. It was nearing three a.m mwhen his restlessness woke up Freed.  Seeing him in such a disheveled state was almost funny as the rune mage tended to wake up flawlessly. Almost as funny as Freed half-threatening to smother him with a pillow if he didn't settle down.

He ended up sleeping curled around the smaller man.

...

Freed had noticed that something was up. Not with the storm even though it was still going strong outside, but with Laxus. The blond seemed to be avoiding him even with their close quarters. He seemed withdrawn.

"Something the matter?" He asked as he cooked. "Just um,  thinking" the dragon slayer said distractedly. "Yeah? I was worried that I could smell something burning" he attempted at lighy humor while removing the pan from the hot stove. He didn't get a reply and he decided to not push it.

...

Later he noticed Laxus scribbling in something. A notebook? A journal? Perhaps he was writting a letter but the rune mage couldn't think of anyone he could possibly be writing to. 

"What are you doing?" He asked as he sipped on his tea. Freed hoped that his question had sounded casual enough and not at all prying. "I'll uh. I'll tell you later" the blond responded. Now that was just plain odd. Laxus wasn't the type to hid secrets, not from him at least. Sure the dragon slayer couls be a loner at times but never secretive. 

The illusion was starting to faulter, to shatter. It was crumbling before his very eyes and he didn't know what to do to keep himself sane.

He busied himself around the house, one final attempt to keep reality from setting in. To let himself stay in a dream just a bit longer. He was greedy like that.

...

To his surprise Laxus was the first of both of them to approach the other after that. It had been a couple hours after the writing incident and Freed had been reading an old book.

"They want me to go see the new house. Check up on it,you know, make sure they're doing it right" the blond announced. When Freed looked up he saw that Laxus was now fully dressed. "I didn't know they were building in this whether" he voiced. "It's out of range of the storm." Laxus said.

The blond ran a hand through his short hair. "Do you want to come with me? To check it out?" He asked. "I'm good" Freed responded politely.

'I wouldn't want them to think we're in a relationship' Freed thought to himself. It would hurt to have Laxus explicitly say that they were not a couple.

(A/N: Only three chapters left! Thank you all for reading this story as well as the votes. I'm planning on doing another Fraxus story after this one so here I ask. Vampire or Ghost?)