Stuck in Runes

Chapter 45

Freed POV
The busy office rushes around me. The book in my lap sits not being read. I pulled it out too read but I just keep zoning out. What happened to being cold? Ignoring her. Treating her plainly like I do most guild mates. What happened to that Freed?!

Oh great now I'm having internal monologues where I talk to myself, surly this is me going crazy. Is that what happens? Crushes make you go nuts? That's great. Cool. Yeah... I needed this in my life. This simplifies everything.

An Erie thought lurks in the back of my mind, the same thing I told Laxus when he fell for Mira...

Flash back
"Just tell her!" I groan too the large man laying on my sofa.

"But what if she says no?! Ignoring it is fine! I can handle it." Laxus pouts, honestly sometimes I think he is a child.

" Fighting feeling is futile... although I am a logic driven person I know feelings will over power it" I say sitting in a chair across the room from him.

"You don't have to deal with this freed! You don't know how hard it is! It's not too bad!" He debates, mostly trying to convince himself.

"I do know enough. The last time you were on my sofa for this many days is when you were poisoned, and when you came out of the coma you had a case of pneumonia so bad  you couldn't be alone for more than a few hours at a time." I rebuttal, crossing my arms.  The yellow haired man sits up, elbows on knees, and face in hands.

"If I tell her and she rejects me... what if I do something..." Laxus says sounding defeated.

"Then you do. I know you won't hurt anyone, and if you fear you are going to I can lock you in a rune. But In all fairness I really don't think she is going to reject you." I say standing up to address the kettle in the kitchen that had started to whistle.

Normal time

I look down at the book in my lap. I'v read this page a dozen times, and still, it looks like another language now. My mind is so busy that I can't even process words... ugh... I gently slap my cheeks trying to get myself to refocus.

The large Metal door next to me creaks open, I stand putting my book back into my bag, looking up intime to see Sophia step out from behind the tall woman. She steps forward nodding thanks to the guard and walking to me.

"Should we go try and catch the train?" she asks peering up at me. I swallow hard.

"Ya. Let's go. We have a little time but it's good to be there early this train can get full pretty quickly with business people trying to get home from trips." I say, she nods in reply and steps out of the front door I had pulled open. We walk through the shopping district towards the train station, small shops of all kinds bustle around us. I recognize some, but others seem to be new or recently remodeled. I see a few mom and pop shops that I used to visit all the time still standing, others gone, or changed. I've always enjoyed this shopping district no large stores really existed here. And people have a lot of respect for quality goods, so places here last a long time or no time at all depending on what quality and craftsmanship of the items.

"Wow..." I here Sophia sigh softly from beside me. A turn to see her peering in a shop of jewelry. Most if it made from polished stones, not many gems sit in the front window, but it was lovely none the less.

"Would you like to look inside?" I ask stepping behind her. Her eyes were locked on a necklace in the front a small gray rock hanging off of it.

"O-oh sorry, no no it's ok. I don't want to make us late." She says turning and starting to walk again.

"Well I would like to look if you don't mind?" I say smirking softly pulling open the shop door. She smiles and steps in the shop. As I pull the door closed behind us.

"Well only if you really want to look..." she jokes knowing I only said that so she would calm down and look.

A little old man with large ears and a large nose sits at the counter. Thick glasses perch on his nose, and his mostly bald head had two white patches of hair just above each ear, each tuft a perfect swirled cone shape.

Sophia walks over to the shelves with necklaces hanging finding one like she saw in the window. It sat on a thin black leather cord, two circular gold beads framing a small polished gray stone.

"Is that the one you like?" I ask peering over her shoulder. What are you doing freed?stop.

"I mean yes... it's lovely! But I could never justify spending so much money on a necklace. Maybe once I make a little more I mig-" she starts, but stops when I pick it up taking it to the front desk. What am I doing, this isn't calm or collected.

"This please." I say plainly pulling out my wallet handing the money to the man.

"Freed! No! I can't afford that right now! I can't pay you back. Please! It's fine! Let's just go." She protests behind me. This is stupid Freed.

"Thank you" I say plainly, then turning to Sophia.

"Im not expecting you to pay me back, it is a gift." I say walking around to the back of her clipping it around her neck.

"But Freed I..." She begins to protest again.

"I don't want any buts. It is a gift. Accept it and say thank you so we can go reach our train." I reply. Standing next to the door. That was stupid freed your an idiot. You are a greedy little... you just wanted to have something on her so that you can try and get other men to leave her alone.

"Thank you then... it's lovely..." she says her hand clasps over the rock. I push open the door letting her leave and following her out.

"We need to hurry now, my stop took a little longer than I thought..." I chuckle and start to jog, she hops up and floats next to me. We hurry down the street skidding onto the train at the last second. I sigh walking over to a set of free seats, she floats over sitting next to me.

"Good thing we ma- UGHUH" she starts and is, again, thrown forward by the train moving. I offer my hand pulling her up and she sits back down on her seat coughing all the way.

"Are you alright?" I inquire as she chokes on the air.

"I'm ok -cough cough- just hit my throat -cough- ok the chair -cough cough-" she chokes out. I can see a small bruise on the side of her neck.

"Can your cloth fix it?" I ask, it looked quite painful.

"No, it can -cough cough- only heal open wounds." She explains gaining control of her coughing. "But it doesn't really hurt..." she smiles rubbing the bruise forming on her neck.

I could tell by the way she was rubbing it, it had to hurt at least a little bit... I lift her chin to look at it. It was a soft purple-pink color, and a little smaller than her thumb, the bruise forming into a thickish line.

"Im sure Wendy can help when we get to the guild." I say my eyes trailing up her neck to her face, letting my hand drop from her chin, realizing how red me taking her chin made her face.

Crap. I did it again...

"Mhm..." she mumbles in a small voice.

I just made this train ride that much longer. . .

((Doodle today is unlined and not rendered (meaning proportions and stuff are off) because this was actually a wip (work in progress) photo and then my cat decided that my sketchbook would be a good place to spill my bottle of pop, a few pages got recked, but for the most part it's pretty ok. So sorry for the sloppy work though :p
~<3 Author))