The Secret in the Box

a Fairy Tail fanfic

by Rhov

Laxus was gone on a mission, so Freed decided to go to his house and clean up a bit. He knew Laxus liked privacy, but he was also messy. Freed had heard Lucy complain about Natsu's sloppy way of living. Levy sighed every time she went over to Gajeel's house and ended up spending most of her time trying to maneuver around his crap. Even Carla lamented at times that Wendy's bedroom looked like a tornado had struck it. Perhaps messiness was a Dragon Slayer trait.

Freed pulled his hair back into a messy bun and pulled on cleaning gloves. He gripped his broom, nodded to himself, and got started.

After sweeping and mopping, Freed dusted a shelf filled with strange trinkets. He knew not to throw away anything not obviously molding. Laxus horded some of the weirdest things, little mementos of moments he felt were important. A rock could mean something precious to Laxus.

There was a little wooden box filled with sand from an island he went to with his mother as a child, a snow globe from a trip up north on his first solo mission, a beer bottle from the tavern where he first met Bickslow, a teacup Evergreen gave to him as thanks when he rescued her and invited her to join Fairy Tail. So many memories wrapped up in baubles and bagatelles: a bracelet, a tiny horse statue, a woman's hair ribbon, some golden scissors, a leaf pressed between two panes of glass, a ceramic cat, a wrapped candy that was probably rotting away inside the wrapper—strange items, all of them, yet each was a precious memory.

Freed handled each item with gentleness. These were Laxus' treasures, after all. He dusted them as if they were holy relics and returned them precisely as they had been.

Near the end of the shelf was a new item, a handsomely carved box with a lock on it. Freed had never seen it before. It was so small, adorable really, made of metal. Freed touched the ornate filigree.

"Real gold," he muttered to himself.

Freed paused to look at the design. It was truly a lovely gift, silver and gold with sapphires and emeralds embedded. If that was real gold, they surely must be real gems. Freed wondered if it had been a present from the king. He lifted the box and turned it around, searching the carved patterns. There were no marks of nobility, no crest of the Fiore family. Still, such a box was not a simple gimcrack keepsake.

The lock surprised him. What could be inside such a box? Freed glanced around. Laxus was gone, no one was around, and he was feeling insatiably curious. Who would have given Laxus a box like this? It was far too precious.

"Ouvre," he whispered, swirling his finger. Runes flew into the tiny lock, and it clicked open.

Freed removed the lock and looked around again in paranoia. He lifted the lid slowly, peering in, just in case it was something magical and he needed to close it before something escaped. Instead, he saw a gleam inside. Freed opened it wider, and his mouth dropped.

He slammed the lid closed. His brow pinched, not sure what to make of this. He clumsily grabbed the lock and put it back on, forgetting to close it. He set the gold and silver box back on the shelf and stumbled away.

"Who gave that to him?" he asked aloud. "And why? Why that?"

He looked around. Were there other signs? His mind was too dizzy to do an investigation, and now he felt ashamed for having opened something Laxus obviously wanted no one to see. He raced out of the house and back to his own, still stunned by the secret in the box.

"Freed, you're quiet today."

"Am I?" he asked hollowly, looking up into the worried face of Mira. "My apologies. I'm just thinking."

"Oh?" She settled in front of him with her elbows resting on the bar. "About what? Or about whom?" she asked with a tiny smirk, eager for gossip.

Freed glanced around. It was the normal crowd, Natsu and Gray arguing in a corner, a group of girls giggling over something Lucy wrote, some of the older members sitting with beer steins telling bawdy jokes. No sign of Evergreen, Bickslow, or Laxus.

"Mira?" he began in a hushed voice.

She leaned in even closer, eager for something juicy.

"Do you know anything new about Laxus? Does he have a girlfriend?"

Her eyes widened. "I thought you and him … um, I mean … well, it's not really a secret anymore, is it?"

Freed blushed. He and Laxus never actually came out, but he supposed those who looked closely enough must have seen the signs. They had been a couple for months now.

"Are you two having problems?" she asked.

"We're not … that is … we've been very … cautious."

"Obviously," she giggled. "I don't think even Master knows about you two yet."

"We don't get to be together that often. Sometimes, I wonder if I'm enough for a man like him," Freed mused sadly. "Sometimes … I wonder if I'm merely something on the side."

"Freed!" she whispered in alarm. "Do you really think that about him?"

Freed's lips pursed tightly. He hated to say anything bad about Laxus. Still… "I know how he was in the past. I mean way back, before … you know."

Mira nodded solemnly. No one in the Raijinshuu liked to talk about that one fateful Fantasia.

"He was … indiscriminate," Freed said, phrasing it as politely as possible. "He was like that for about as long as I had known him. Women were … objects, little more than a toy to please him for a night. It wasn't until after Tenrou Island, he changed. Or so I thought. That was probably the only reason I … um … confessed. I thought he would finally take my feelings seriously."

"Is there some reason you don't think that way anymore?" she asked with concern.

Freed thought back to what he had seen inside that box. "Call it a hunch." He laid down some money for the food. "Thank you, Mira. You've always been a good friend."

"Freed?" she asked, not liking the finality of his tone.

He turned aside and left the guild. Freed hiked out of the town, heading up into the hills.

Laxus stepped into the guild. "Mira," he boomed. "Have you seen Freed? He's not at home, in the library, or any of his favorite coffee shops."

"He was in here yesterday," she said, recalling their conversation. "Something wasn't right with him. Laxus, did anything happen?

"Maybe," he grumbled, glaring at the floor in guilt. "I think he saw something he wasn't supposed to." Laxus turned around and marched back out.

Freed sat on a tall hill overlooking Magnolia. He had meant to walk off, leave everything behind, and start off life fresh. However, he stopped when he saw the view, and he could not walk any further. He stayed a night on this hill, looking at the city lights in the evening, watching the bustling of the harbor during the day.

Could he really leave it all behind?

He needed to be going. He could not live up on this hill, trapped in a sort of decisional limbo. People would realize he was gone. Someone might start a search party. He needed to get far away so the noses of the Dragon Slayers would not pick him up.

He paused as he thought about that. In the past, no one would have realized if he ran away. Maybe Evergreen and Bickslow might grow concerned, but the others? Laxus would have let him go, and no one else would care. He hardly considered Magnolia to be a home. The Raijinshuu took off for months at a time, returning only briefly. Even then, he did not go to the guild. It was noisy, childish, just drunks and loudmouths bragging about their strength. Power should make a person humble, not cocky. Strength should be a private matter, hidden from all, since anyone could one day become an enemy.

Or so he had thought back then.

He knew now, the people of Fairy Tail were friends and allies, not potential enemies. He even made a few friends outside of their team. How could he leave all of that behind without even a goodbye?

How could he leave Laxus…?

"I finally caught up to you."

Freed jolted and looked around. Laxus was just cresting the hill.

"I thought since you had a day's lead on me, it'd be a rough hunt." He dumped a traveling pack onto the ground, and it clanked with gear for an extended trip.

"You were going to … to hunt me down?" Freed asked in surprise.

"If that's what it'd take." Laxus took a seat beside Freed and looked out over the busy harbor city. "You saw it, didn't you?"

Freed gulped and lowered his head.

"That box was locked for a reason."

With guilt, he whispered, "I know."

"What do you think it was?"

"I know what it was," he snapped.

"Who do you think it's for?"

Depression sank in deeper. "At first, I figured it was for you, since it was on that shelf of keepsakes. That box is really nice, filigree gold. My first impression was that a noblewoman gave it to you. Then I reasoned, a woman would not give a man like you that sort of gift, nor would it come from a client. That meant you bought it, and you put it on that shelf so I would think it was yet another curio."

"But you opened it," Laxus said in quiet accusation. "You forgot to lock it back up, and you put it on the shelf at a weird angle. I noticed right away. I saw you had been by to clean and checked on that box. It's not like you to forget to lock something back up. You also left the broom out. I figured you must have run off. That means you saw what's inside."

Freed silently nodded, biting on his lip.

"What are your deductions about it?"

Freed gulped hard. Why was Laxus asking him like this? "You would not buy a thing like that, in such an ornate box, unless the person was of noble birth. Perhaps you're planning on giving it to a woman of high social status."

"You assume so quickly that it's a woman."

Freed paused as he realized a flaw in his deductions. "I suppose it could be a man. Most men would not want something like that, but a man of high standing would."

"A man of high standing," Laxus mused, staring off. "Why do you think that?"

Freed finally lashed out. "Why are you asking me?" Tears gathered in his eyes. "Do you like tormenting me? You meant that for someone, you locked it away, tried to hide it on that curio shelf. Such an ornate box, and ... and something ... like that." He yanked his head aside so Laxus would not see him cry. "You obviously have a lover."

"Is that your deduction?"

"It's obvious!" shouted Freed. "You have a lover, someone you love deeply, someone you've hidden from me for a long time, long enough to know the person well enough to buy a gift like that. This lover … she's someone you want forever."

"You're assuming it's a woman again. You're really not thinking straight."

"How can I?" screamed Freed.

Laxus reached out and placed a hand over Freed's arm. "If you calmed down and thought about it, that super brain of yours would work it out."

He inhaled slowly, calmly. "It's … something you bought."

"Yes."

"You hid it from me."

"That's true."

"It's for a lover."

"It is."

Freed felt pierced in the chest from the confession. "Y-you … you love that person."

"Deeply."

Freed yanked away violently. "Then why are you here? Go be with them. Let me go and be with them. Just … just let me go." He finally broke into sobs and turned his back to Laxus, feeling deeply shamed.

Laxus crawled up behind him. "You're missing one vital fact that should have been obvious."

He wiped his nose and gulped down his tightened throat. "What's that?"

Laxus pulled out the gold box from his pocket and brought it around Freed's shoulders. "That person I love so deeply is you."

Freed looked down at the box, now opened and shining inside.

"Do you really think I'm that sort of man, Freed Justine?"

He looked around sharply in shock. "M-me? But … but the box—"

"The box itself was a trinket from a baron I did a job for. Or I should say, from his wife who flirted with me the entire time and sneaked that box into my pack."

"Then it was from a noblewoman."

"The box was. But this?" He pulled off the engagement ring that had been sitting inside the golden box. "This, I bought. If you had looked at it closer, you'd have realized it was a man's ring."

Freed shook the confusion from his head. "I … I didn't really see it closely."

"You panicked and ran."

Freed hated to admit that was true.

Laxus held up the ring between two thick fingers. "I bought this, but I needed to hide it from you until the time was right. So I hid it in the box. It had a lock, and I thought you'd assume it was yet another keepsake from a mission. Just how often do you go pilfering through my stuff?"

"I don't!" he insisted. "I just … it was too nice of a box."

"Shit, too nice?" grumbled Laxus. "Then my plan backfired. If I had kept it in it's regular box, you never would have cared. Damn." He looked down at the engagement ring, then up to Freed. "I was waiting for the perfect time. This ain't it, but if I don't say it now, it'll be shitty." He took Freed's hand, and sitting together on the hill, he asked softly, "Will you marry me?"

Freed's lips quivered. He could not speak for a while, and when he did, his voice shuddered. "It was meant for me?"

"From the beginning," Laxus whispered. "Your deductions were off on one fact: I love you fully and exclusively. It shouldn't be that big of a secret. If you had realized it, you would have known right away that the only person such a ring could be meant for was you yourself. So get it through your head." He stroked down Freed's hair with a gentle touch. "I want only you, and I want you for the rest of my life."

"Even though I didn't trust you?"

Laxus dabbed away the tears. "I need to earn that trust, and I know it won't be right away. So long as you believe me now, then I have a chance. This ring was bought for you, no one else. Believe me when I say, I will never cheat on you. I will never do anything to hurt your heart. I love you, and I need you by my side. Otherwise, I fear I'll turn back into that man of the past. I hate that past-Me, but with you, my future looks so bright. I want that future to always be with you. I will never break your heart, because you're the one who rescued my soul. Trust me on that, at least."

Fresh tears dripped down his cheeks, but now Freed blushed with joy that could not be expressed in words. "In that case … I accept."

Laxus picked up Freed's shaking hand, slipped the diamond ring on, and then kissed his knuckles. "Let's make a promise. No more secrets between us."

"I dunno," Freed laughed, admiring the ring. "I may want to surprise you and get even one day."

Laxus chuckled and wrapped him into a hug. "Fine, but no more running away from me. And don't you ever think I'm cheating on you or I'll kick your ass."

"I'd like to see you try," Freed shot back with a sassy smile.

Laxus laughed and squeezed Freed tightly. "Let's stay here for one night. I packed for a hunt, and I want to use all the crap I brought. We can sleep under the stars, make love in the open, and head back in the morning."

"Mmmh, sounds good," he sighed.

Laxus tipped up Freed's chin and gave him a lingering kiss. "I'm gonna marry you, and I'm gonna make you the happiest man in the world."

Freed hummed with joy and snuggled into him. "We still have to tell others about us."

"Yeah, it's still a secret, ain't it? My Gramps is gonna drop dead of a heart attack when he finds out."

"He'll be happy." Freed squeezed Laxus' hand. "When he asked me to be your bodyguard, he hinted that he knew I had feelings for you."

Laxus jolted. "Wait, way back then? You never said anything."

"I guess I was keeping it a secret."

"No more secrets!"

Freed chuckled and leaned on Laxus' shoulder. Together, they watched the sun setting on the Magnolia bay.

The End