Heavy footsteps clumped up the brick pathway towards the little white house on the outskirts of Magnolia. Laxus hitched his bag higher up on his shoulder and inwardly cursed at his agreement to buying a house so far away from the main city. As he stepped up onto the dimly lit porch, he felt the flow of defensive runes over his skin. The runes passed over him and dissipated after a moment, allowing him to walk forward and open the unlocked door without fumbling around in the darkness for a key. Having a rune mage for a partner had its perks, he thought smiling slightly.
Toeing off his boots and dropping his duffle bag at the threshold, Laxus craned his neck trying to work out the kinks. It was late, and he had been going almost non-stop trying to get home early from a mission that had requested him alone (a pain in the ass side affect of winning the magic tournament), in an effort to make it back before the Fantasia parade the following day. It's gonna be nuts this year with all the popularity we've gained. Gramps will go crazy to make up for the time we were stuck, damn we'll embarrass ourselves again, what a pain, he thought, although he was slightly excited for the parade he hadn't really enjoyed since he was a child. Laxus however had no intention of following along with the old man's over the top ideas without a fight, and keeping his teammates from falling into the Masters ideas.
These thoughts flitted through his mind quickly as he mostly focused on making it silently down the dark hallway to the warm bed where his lover was likely sleeping. Laxus wasn't at all perturbed by the thought that the man had not waited up for his return, even though he had told his lover that he planned to return as soon as possible. He may be a night owl, but it is too late for him to even be up reading, or rather too early now.
Rubbing a hand over his face and shedding his traveling clothes, he looked forlornly at his fur coat, which was pierced with multiple holes. Fucking son of a bitch, he thought. Who the hell shoots fucking knitting needles? Not even in the job description, those bastards. He stood outside the bedroom door and fumed for a minute, before dropping the coat the ground with his shirt and pants and turning the knob quietly entering the darkened bedroom.
His lover would probably be irritated with him in the morning for getting into bed without showering first, but the missions had been long, shitty, and nothing like what he would normally choose. Laxus had missed his house and warm bed, good food and watching his guild mates make a ruckus, but most of all he had missed the man currently laying curled up around his pillow in the center of their bed.
Freed, he thought, the name laced with affection he rarely showed to anyone nowadays. For the past ten months the green haired rune mage had been an exception. Laxus wasn't entirely sure when he began to fall in love with the captain of the Raijinshū, only that by the time they returned for the tournament he was completely infatuated with him. At first it had pissed him off, and he denied his attraction to the rune mage vehemently, even though he had always been mildly aware of the man's more-than-loyal-follower attraction to him.
When it was his turn to do battle in the tournament and his asshole father put up that illusion, he hadn't realized at the time the level of shock and worry it had placed in his guild, most of all his 'bodyguards.' Had Laxus realized how upsetting such a thing would be for Freed, he wouldn't have taken the time to hold a conversation and just smashed the whole of Raven Tail from the start.
Laxus was almost surprised when he saw Freed anxiously waiting for him in the hallway, arms wrapped around his midsection while he waited for his thunder god. It took a good amount of restraint to stop his self from embracing the obviously distressed male and it took Freed the same level of restraint to stop himself from jumping the lightning mage and looking for injuries. He may have had an unlimited amount of faith, but it appeared he also had a healthy amount of paranoia in his system when it came to his leader.
Watching Freed, who he knew had been pining after him for years without saying anything at all, hold himself back as he probably had done countless time that Laxus realized that if he didn't do something the two of them would spend the rest of their lives holding themselves back. So without a second thought, he took two large steps forward and ensnared Freed into a (somewhat crushing) hug.
Almost immediately the green-haired beauty froze up and flushed a tomato red and tried to pull away in embarrassment, at which point Laxus practically growled at the man to stay still. It wasn't until later that night after the guild 'celebrated' with a rather large amount of alcohol that he pulled the giggling rune mage into his bed and they arose the next morning more than just friends.
It took two months for Laxus actually tell Freed that he truly loved him, to which Freed blushed like a school girl and shyly said he returned the sentiment and they officially started dating. He had given the house to Freed as a gift, knowing that the rune mage had wanted to have a place they both could call home together, and finally getting fed up himself on having to decide whose place they would be going back to after missions. Freed idea of repayment for agreeing to move farther from the city was simply an added bonus.
And here they were, their guild mates still oblivious to their relationship (they hoped to keep it that way for awhile longer), making up for all the time they spent denying one another.
Laxus, who by now had completely pushed aside his irritation towards his coat, quickly crept across the soft carpet and pulled the pillow gently from his lovers grasp, easing down next to him in its place. Freed stirred slightly, tightening his arms around the thunder god before burying his face into the thunder gods chest and letting out a contented hum. Its cute how he snuggles up to me even when unconscious Laxus chuckled, running his fingers through long green hair and pulling Freed flush against him, reveling in the warmth he radiated.
Yes, he thought drifting off; it's so good to be home.