A/N - Just so y'all know, this is set some time after the Grand Magic Games but before they go to Blue Pegasus, although it does jump around a bit time wise.
Everyone always assumed that it was Laxus who invited her to the guild, but they were wrong. Not that anyone ever realised that, because not a single person had ever bothered to ask her. But it was late, and she was drunk, and that date on the calendar was ringing a bell and she just figured out why.
It had been cold. She remembered that. No snow had actually fallen, but the wind was biting through her thin cotton shirt that hadn't been washed since the last time it had rained. It only had a few holes in it, it would last a few more months as it was. She pulled her arms closer around her chest, shrinking further back into the alcove she had claimed as her own for the night. She was too tired to steal any more food tonight, too tired to even beg for money from the men and women walking past. Not that many of them had the money to spare, anyway. This was the poorer side of town, and if any of them had food in their bellies and a roof over their head it definitely wasn't enough for them to give food away to the street rats. The only reason she was here was the fact that she was less likely to have the rune knights called out on her. And the last time she had barely escaped them. She hoped that her stone magic wore off on its own, otherwise she had left a few dead men in her wake. Not that she cared. They always leered at her, now her body was changing. They didn't want to protect her, that was for sure.
She pushed her glasses further up her nose. They were too big, and they made everything blurry. She had stolen them out of the pocket of an old man as he was distracted by the cakes in the window of a shop on the posher side of town. But they were better than the alternative.
The first thing she saw was a shock of bright green hair as he walked past. She was sure she would have seen hair like that if he had been here before, but it was obvious he hadn't. He didn't belong here, he stuck out like a sore thumb. From the white pressed shirt to the bright red waistcoat to the perfectly shined boots he was too rich to have ever lived here. She would have feared for his safety if it wasn't for the comically oversized sword that swung from his hip. As she watched him walk, not weaving in and out of the adults or sticking to the shadows like she did but with his back straight and head held high she suddenly realised why he was there.
He was a prince and he was surveying his kingdom.
She had to follow him. She couldn't read, but she had spent countless nights huddled in the treehouses of the rich families, and sometimes she could hear them tell stories to their children. The prince always fell in love with a poor girl, and they would get married and she would live as a princess forever. Evergreen's eyes lit up. It was all she had ever wanted and more. She shrugged off the old sheet she was using as a blanket and stretched her sore muscles. She couldn't let him get too far. She just had to look him in the eyes and he would be hers forever. Or, at least until she set him free but then he would see her and fall in love at first sight, right?
She slipped out of her alcove heading along the edge of the street, wanting to catch up with the boy but needing to keep to the shadows. He moved fast, but he underestimated her speed. She knew these streets, he didn't have a chance. All she needed to do was get in front of him and then he could be all hers. As soon as she drew level with him he seemed to speed up, but that must have been her imagination, he couldn't have known she was there. Jumping over one of the younger boys that had made his own bed behind some rubbish bins she smiled at her own stealth as she slipped back into the shadows. The Prince didn't slow his pace, or stop, but made a sharp turn to the left away from her and ducked into an alley. Why was he going in there? There was nothing down there except muck and the back entrances of some of the less reputable bars. Definitely not a place that she liked to go down, let alone a Prince. What was he doing down there? Maybe he was fighting crime with that sword of his. Her heart sped up. Not only was he Royalty, but he wanted to help out his citizens too. He was perfect.
Slipping into the alley behind him she spotted the boy with his back to her, stopped still with his right hand resting gently on the hilt of his sword. Was she walking in on an important deal? Was she going to ruin this for him?
"Why are you following me?"
His voice was higher than she had thought it would be. She had imagined deep, soothing tones but it had the tell-tale cadence of someone who hadn't hit puberty yet. She froze, not knowing how to respond to him. How had he known? She started to reverse back out of the alley, not breaking eye contact with his back until she could get into the open and sprint away. She could blend into the crowd like nobody else, he wouldn't have a chance. She must have gotten turned around at some point as her back bumped into a wall, and she moved her fingertips across it to try and feel her way out. It wasn't cold and wet like the bricks usually were, instead, it was smooth and slightly warm to the touch. She had never felt anything like it before.
"Jutsu Shiki. You cannot get out until you answer my question."
She stared at him as he turned around, and for the first time, she could see his face. One eye looked turquoise from above a birthmark on his cheek whereas the other was almost entirely black with a pink and purple iris that shone from behind a few strands of his hair. Evergreen took a deep breath, moving her hand up to play with her glasses. She may need her magic to get out of this. And plus, this way she would have a beautiful statue to admire for a while.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
It might have been threatening if his voice didn't crack halfway through. Evergreen had survived worse, she could survive this. She snatched at her glasses, pulling them off her face before opening her eyes with her magic shining out. She was going to turn him to stone, and then she would escape. He would come back to life at some point. Maybe. But when her eyes opened she was met with his eyelids and a self-contented smirk. She could hear her heart speed up. No one had ever managed to avoid it before.
"I was about to say I am used to avoiding eye magic. I do not know what yours does, but if I were a betting man I would say I would not enjoy it."
Evergreen pressed back into the magical wall. He was slightly shorter than her, so if he didn't have that sword then maybe she would have had a chance if she fought him hand to hand. Although… if his eyes were closed then he wouldn't have a chance at hitting her.
Bouncing on her bare feet she rushed forward, knowing that she would have to catch him off guard. She kept her eyes trained on his if he even tried to sneak a small look at her he would be hers. She collided with his torso, barreling him over until his back smashed against the dirt in the alleyway and she straddled his waist, starting to punch at his face. He kept his eyes screwed shut, raising his hands to protect himself as she kept whaling at his arms while they blocked his eyes. Wait. If he was blocking his eyes then he…
"Dark Ecriture: Pain."
The magic slipped under his arms to collide with her chest. All of her synapses fired at once, her muscles tensing as the pain flowed through her system. She screamed but knew that no one would come to help her. She was just another poor girl being attacked, and it wasn't worth anyone's life to even attempt to save her. The pain stopped almost as quickly as it started, and she scrabbled backwards through the filth until her back slammed against a real wall this time and she stared up at the boy in terror.
His eyes were closed again, and he patted through the dirt until he came across the frames of her glasses, picking them up into his hand as he stood. His perfect clothes had been sullied and crumpled, and she felt a pang of guilt before she chastised herself. Why should she care? He was going to kill her anyway, dirty clothes or not. He made his way over to her, feeling in front of him with his left hand until he found her face. She tried to shy away but he grabbed onto her cheek, much more gently than she thought he would. He pulled the arms from the glasses before stroking his fingers over her face until he found her eyes and slipped the glasses over them. The lenses had been cracked but they would hold her magic in place, and he seemed to know that as he opened his eyes and smiled down at her. Both irises were now that same shade of turquoise and he stroked her hair out of her face as she started to whimper.
"What do they do?"
His accent was clipped and his words were perfectly chosen, and she just knew it was royal. Who was he? He must have seen her confusion because he clarified as he squatted down so he was at her level.
"Your eyes. What do they do?"
Evergreen sniffled slightly, hugging her knees. No one had ever been this nice to her before, what did he want to do to her? What did he want her to do to him? Her voice was quieter than she had heard before, and she wondered if he was even able to hear her.
"They turn people to stone."
The boy giggled slightly, rolling back on his feet as he held his right hand out for her to shake.
"My name is Freed Justine. What is yours?"
Evergreen took his hand in hers like she had seen other people do, and he shook it up and down slowly before letting it flop back down to her side.
"Evergreen."
Another warm smile, and for the first time, Evergreen felt herself warming to this child. She still didn't trust him, it was too good to be true and she knew she would wake up and this would all be a dream, or he would have sold her into slavery. She had heard stories about that, and the girls never came back. It would be clever, sending a child. She knew better than anyone that no one suspected children.
"No surname?"
Evergreen cocked her head to the side in confusion. She had seen dogs do it, and it worked for them.
"What's a surname?"
The boy laughed, standing up and trying to smooth out his clothes to no avail. They were still just as filthy as before.
"That's okay. You don't need a surname. A close friend of mine tells me that all the best people don't have a surname."
Evergreen laughed. She didn't understand what the boy was saying but it felt right to laugh at that point. A grin spread across his face, and he extended a hand to help her to her feet. She took it gingerly, and within seconds they were both on their feet and she was once again looking down at him.
"Would you like to meet him? My friend, that is. He can be a bit… strange… but he has eyes like yours. Well, not exactly but close. I have another friend too. He's strong, stronger than me, and he can give you a home if you would like. Train that magic up too. Did you know that people with eye magic often have a secondary magic as well? Do you know what yours is?"
Evergreen couldn't believe what she was hearing. This couldn't be right. She was being led to her death, but maybe it would be a quicker death than out on the streets. Even if she could experience luxury for a day, that would be worth dying for. She shook her head at his questions and he started to tug on her hand as they headed out of the alleyway. Just before he was about to bump into the invisible wall she had backed into earlier, the barrier fell in a shower of purple characters she had never seen before and they walked straight through. The falling letters felt like butterflies.
"I have eye magic too, you know. That is what I used to attack you earlier. I am sorry, by the way. But mine aren't always active like yours."
He had dragged her out into the main road, street lights just starting to flicker into life as the sky grew dark. It gave the street an otherworldly glow that she was too familiar with. This district was poor, they couldn't afford the magic for proper lighting.
"Freed Justine, where're you taking me?"
The boy looked over his shoulder, smiling as he tugged on her hand to make her hurry alongside him.
"It's just Freed. And to Fairy Tail, of course."
Evergreen's heart skipped a beat. Fairy Tail. It sounded nice. She didn't know what a fairy was, but she was sure she was going to find out soon enough.
"What are you thinking about?"
Evergreen looked up to see Freed standing next to her, putting his own drink down on the table. There was a party going on around them, celebrating something or another that Evergreen didn't really care about. He had a glint in his eye, the one he always got when he had slightly too much to drink. Freed had always been a storyteller through and through, but it had never really been her. As far back as she could remember Freed told stories. When he was drunk, when Bickslow was trying to get to sleep and on long nights when the two of them stayed watch while the others slept. He told stories of jobs he had been on, tales he had read in books or gossip he had heard from around the guild. But his most important story he had told her only once.
Freed was fighting far more than someone who had lost that amount of blood should be able to fight. He had been hit, hard, and it was all Evergreen's fault. She was supposed to be taking down everyone on the left side of the battlefield as Freed set up his traps, but someone snuck behind her. The spear that had lodged in his spine was still hanging down as Laxus carried him towards the hospital and Bickslow stayed behind to hold down the battlefield. Evergreen had offered to stay behind as well, but the Sieth simply shook his head as he pulled his mask off his face and threw himself back out there.
"You'll just get in the way. I'm trying out something new and I can't risk looking you in the eyes."
Evergreen knew exactly what it meant. He thought she was too weak to fight alongside him. And to be honest, she didn't blame him. That's how she ended up running in front of Laxus, reading a map to the nearest hospital while Freed kicked and screamed.
"Stop it, Freed! You're going to injure yourself more!"
Laxus grunted as a stray fist collided with the side of his head and he sped up in his running. His lightning body would have been so much faster, but he couldn't risk the trauma it would put Freed's body through, and it forced him to run the ten minutes to the nearest hospital. He managed to keep pace with Evergreen despite the extra weight, and he focused on putting one foot in front of the other as they got closer and closer to salvation.
Evergreen was sat staring at her hands when Freed woke up. Laxus had gone back to check on Bickslow and wreak revenge on the dark guild that had done this to Freed, and the nurses had left him alone for the night. They had been told that he should make a full recovery, he just needed to rest now and let the magic they had used take effect.
As soon as he woke he started screaming, and Evergreen rushed to his side and took his hand in hers. He struggled against her, trying to get out of the bed but she pushed against his shoulders to hold him down.
"Freed! You have to stay down, you're…"
"Why did you bring me here?"
His voice was loud as it cut across hers, and his right eye started to shine with magic as he writhed in fear. His hair had come loose and was wild around his head and he shook his shoulders to try and get her off him.
"Why didn't you treat me back there? I had first aid supplies, you could have…"
Evergreen screamed, tears starting to pour from her eyes as she fought. It seemed to slow him a bit, his eyes widening as the first liquid dropped down onto his cheek and his magic dissipated.
"You had a weapon in your spine! Nothing we could have done ever would have saved you!"
Freed sighed heavily, collapsing back onto the bed sheets and groaning as it shot pain throughout his own body.
"But why the hospital? Laxus knows I hate the hospital, why not Porlyusica?"
Evergreen collapsed onto the bed next to him. She pressed the base of her hands into her eyes to try and wipe away the tears, but it didn't help. All of this was her fault.
"We didn't have time, Freed. I'm sorry, I…"
Freed's hand found it's way up to the back of Evergreen's hair and he pulled her down into a hug as he started to rub circles on her back.
"You're not blaming yourself are you, Ever?"
Evergreen simply snuffled slightly. It was bad enough that she was the weakest member of the team, let alone Freed never letting her take the fall even when it was definitely her fault. He always said that their team was more of a family than a team, more of a family than the rest of Fairy Tail. She had never had brothers, not that she remembered anyway, and in the last five years, she had found herself with three.
"I shouldn't have let anyone past, I should have…"
Her words descended into sobs as she curled up into his side and Freed tried hard not to wince at the pain it caused him. That would only make it worse.
"Did you want me to tell you a story, Evergreen?"
Evergreen nodded, not trusting herself to even open her mouth anymore as she knew she would start crying again. Freed smiled, he could read his team like a book. Whenever Bickslow needed calming down, he would sing. Whenever Laxus needed calming down he would slip into talking tactics about upcoming battles, or how they could have improved previous encounters. And whenever Evergreen needed calming, he would tell her stories.
"What story would you like to hear?"
Evergreen tilted her head to wipe her eyes, looking up at Freed as she did. She wanted to ask but had never found a time before. It couldn't hurt, right? If he didn't want to tell her, then he simply wouldn't tell her.
"Why are you so afraid of hospitals, Freed?"
Freed sighed, looking up at the ceiling as he warred with himself as to whether or not to tell her. Taking a deep breath he decided that as he knew everything about her, it was only fair if he told her about him.
Freed had been born into a noble family. Not close enough to the king in order to ever be in line to the throne, but close enough that appearances were everything. Not that he ever would have been able to rule, anyway. It was made apparent to him even when he was a small child that he was illegitimate, the product of an affair his mother had with a servant. His childhood had been lonely, to say the least, hated by everyone but still kept around because his stepfather couldn't produce a child. Not that that fact stopped the man from telling Freed regularly what a mistake he was. He had spent the majority of his time in the library, teaching himself to read and write and educating himself to the world outside. He had been told magic existed, but apart from the occasional wizard servants they had he had never seen it used.
His own magic had manifested early. He first realised it when he woke up one day, looked in the mirror and his right eye was black. He had started screaming, falling to the floor as he clutched onto his face and the servants rushed in around him. The last thing he remembered before he passed out was them calling for his mother.
He had woken up in a hospital bed. His clothes had been stripped off him and he was left with a hospital gown and nothing to read. He had to just lie there, right eye bandaged up, as he listened to the doctors talk to his mother in the other room. Apparently, his stepfather couldn't be bothered to come.
It was experimental surgery. It had never been successful before, but that was on children with two magical eyes. As Freed only had the one, it was much more likely to go well. And if they did have to remove the eye, at least he would only be half blind.
The procedure would be painful. His mother didn't care. He may not survive it. His mother paused a little longer on that one, but it was still less than thirty seconds before she said it was fine. No child at all was better than a child with dark magic, after all.
The next few weeks of Freed's existence passed by in a blur of pain. When he wasn't in operations to try and get the magic removed he was laying on his bed, back arching as the pain remained spasming through his body. He never got any visitors, and the doctors and nurses avoided him after the time he turned into a literal demon on the operating table. The lack of windows in his room and the way his sleep schedule was fucked up with all the anaesthesia made logging the passage of time impossible, and so he didn't know exactly how long he had been there until he heard the next human talk to him.
"Hello!"
Freed looked lazily to the side as another boy, just a little older than him, was wheeled into the room. He had a bright shock of yellow hair and warm orange eyes that at any other time Freed would have found comforting. He grunted in return, his voice far too out of practice for him to say anything out loud, but the boy still grinned until the nurses had left the room.
"My name is Laxus, what's yours?"
Freed sighed, grabbing a piece of paper off the side of his desk along with a pen and scribbled down his name. He couldn't trust his voice right now. He passed it over to the boy in the bed next to him and watched as he struggled to read it.
"Freed Just… ine. That's a cool name! My full name is Laxus Dreyar, and it's nice to meet you!"
After that Freed's life improved. The boy who he shared a room with was chatty and told him so many stories about himself and his life outside the hospital. He was the grandson of one of the most powerful mages in the country, and his father was a powerful mage as well. He grew up in a guild called Fairy Tail, surrounded by people with magical powers but he himself had none. That's why he was here, they were implanting a lacrima inside of him to give him magic. He had told Freed the last point when the boy had come back from the operating theatre with a bandage across his face. His body had finally accepted the lacrima, but at the same time the electricity inside it had arced and cut across his face. It was certainly going to scar, but Laxus found the thought of it exciting.
"You know, it is highly amusing."
The blonde boy froze, hearing his roommate's voice for the first time since they had met. It was crackly like he hadn't used it in a long time. He had assumed that he wasn't even able to talk.
"That you are in here to have magic implanted, while they are trying to rip mine out."
Laxus stayed silent at that. He knew the treatment the other boy was going through was painful, too many nights he had awoken to the younger boy sobbing and had to leave his bed to try and soothe him. One turquoise eye turned up to meet him, and the other boy ran a hand through the hair that had been shaved too short to even begin to see the colour.
"I am going to miss you, Laxus Dreyar."
The implication hit Laxus like a brick wall. Now that the lacrima had taken, he wasn't going to be staying in the hospital anymore. He was going to go and his new, maybe even only friend outside of Fairy Tail was going to stay here. And the only friend who liked him for him, and not just to suck up to his father and grandfather. He could hear the nurses talk, he knew that the treatments weren't working and they were just going to jack up the intensity behind them. He also heard when they said he probably wouldn't survive it. He took one look at the small boy, tiny in his little gown and massive bed and made up his mind.
"Let's run away together."
For the first time in his short life, Laxus understood the importance of time. He was getting stronger and healthier, and thus closer to being discharged while Freed was only growing weaker. Either Laxus was going to be released or Freed was going to die in his hospital bed and he couldn't even begin to guess which would be first. The younger boy couldn't even talk if he wanted to, and spent every day in fits of pain or violent seizures as his body started to give out on him. They hadn't come up with a solid plan, even Laxus knew that, but they were going to have to escape tonight.
"Can you stand?"
He looked over at Freed. He was squirrelled up in his bed, bandaged eye hidden in pillows as the other looked dully through a hole in the sheets. He hadn't spoken since the first time, and the last few days he had been unable to even write. Laxus used one of the words he was forbidden to use but heard around the guild a lot. There was no way he would be able to carry the younger boy, no matter how small and weak he was.
Freed himself knew he didn't have long left. He could feel it when he came back from his treatment that day. The demon that lived in his eye escaped again, he didn't have enough power to hold it in, and it took all the energy he had with it. The next step was having his eye removed, but they whispered that the demon might migrate to his other eye. Freed didn't think it would. The operation would kill him.
Laxus came back that day in a wheelchair. He looked weak as the nurses helped him to his bed and tucked him in with a care Freed had never received himself. But he grinned as soon as the nurse was gone, pulling himself up to sitting and almost bouncing in his bed.
"They shocked me today. I've never felt more powerful! But I pretended I wasn't so I could get a chair for you. We have about an hour till dark and then we're breaking out of here."
Freed couldn't react to that. He didn't have the strength. Was escape possible? Or was he just dragging his friend down with him?
Laxus spent the next hour collecting the dry food he had squirrelled away in the last couple of days into a pillowcase and tying it onto the back of the wheelchair along with padding the seat out with blankets. He was told it might be cold out there. Freed watched him while he remained bundled in his own blanket. How long did he expect to survive out there?
Finally, Laxus made his way over to Freed, hauling the younger boy into the chair and wrapping a blanket around him. Before they could set off Freed tugged weakly at his sleeve, before pointing to the bandage over his eye. Laxus was confused for a second, before going around to the back of Freed's head to start unwinding it. As soon as it was completely free of his head he dropped it to the floor before his curiosity got the better of him and he went to see his friend's forbidden eye.
It was breathtaking, and even at his young age, Laxus knew it was beautiful. A purple iris was surrounded by an almost jet black sclera, and the colours swirled and moved in a way that mesmerised Laxus. He couldn't look away, and in the end, it was only when Freed closed his eyes and tilted his head down that the trance was lost. Laxus shook his head, knowing that he couldn't waste any more time before running back behind Freed and starting to push.
They got most of the way out of the hospital before Laxus realised just how heavily guarded the place was. He already knew that most of the rooms had no windows and a solid door, but he hadn't expected the high wall around the outside along with the multitude of guards. The first couple he managed to electrocute, but the third managed to send out a warning before he fell. Before they knew it they were swarmed, and Laxus knew the game was up. Slowing the chair down he stopped, trying to work out just how many he could take out before he was done.
Freed felt his chair slow beneath him and regarded the big men that were surrounding them. He could see the gate to the outside, to the forest beyond where he would be able to be free. These men would take him back, back to all the hurt and the pain. He started to scream, clenching his eyes shut as power started to build behind them. The memory of his pain, his suffering, all the agony he had been through swirled in his mind until he couldn't hold it anymore and he exploded.
He could see the characters fly from his right eye, and hit one by one into the men around them. Each of them started to scream, their voices mirroring his from inside the hospital and for a moment Freed felt bad, until Laxus started pushing on the back of his wheelchair again, running the two of them towards freedom, towards a life without any more pain. As soon as they were out of the hospital grounds Laxus wrapped Freed's arm around his shoulders, grabbed their rations and started to run into the woods, leaving what seemed like hundreds of men still screaming in pain behind them.
"We were in the woods for eight days before Makarov found us. I thought he was going to kill me, and I kicked and screamed until he told me he was taking me back to Fairy Tail. My family had offered him 50 million Jewel to take me in and keep my heritage a secret."
Evergreen didn't move her head up from his chest, remaining silent throughout the whole of his story and just listening to his voice. Freed's fists had clenched and unclenched throughout the whole tale, his voice wavering slightly at some points. She could definitely see why, in the five years she had known him, Freed had never visited a hospital even if the entire rest of his team were being treated there.
"He refused to take it, of course. Told me he didn't need money to want to take me. Laxus had finally found a friend. I think he was punished for the escape, but he never really talks about it. Neither of us does. It wasn't the best way to meet."
Evergreen could feel Freed's fingers start to twirl through her hair, more to calm himself down than her. If it was anyone else she would have pulled away, but not Freed. He did enough for his team, he deserved some of the little luxuries. He stayed silent for a few moments, but Evergreen wanted to know more.
"Where are your family now?"
Evergreen felt a shrug before Freed hissed in pain. Obviously, the painkillers were wearing off slightly. She would call a nurse as soon as they were done.
"Living the same life they were living when I left. They're still childless, still spinning lies about what happened to me at royal parties. And before you ask, no. They've never tried to contact me."
Evergreen sighed. She couldn't even remember her family, and she wasn't sure whether that was better. She sat up, looking into Freed's eyes and pressing a call button to get him more painkillers. She held his hand as his breath quickened at the sight of the nurse, and his fingers crushed into hers as the needle entered his skin. She watched his eyes close as sleep began to take over him before he opened his mouth again and spoke in little more than a whisper.
"Don't get me wrong, Evergreen. I'm happy. I have two brothers and the most wonderful sister. I don't need anyone but the Raijinshuu."
Evergreen was ripped out of her memories by Freed sitting in the chair opposite her, taking a long drink from his tankard. He never drank much but hey, this was a party.
"How many years has it been now?"
Evergreen scoffed. She knew he knew how many years it was. He was just trying to make some sort of conversation, one which they would both be comfortable with having in the middle of a party where anyone could hear.
"An entire decade. Ten years."
A smile spread across Freed's face, and he sat back in his chair. Looking to the left he could see Laxus trying to outdrink Cana, and Bickslow was hidden somewhere in the rafters of the guild, his five totems busy annoying anyone they could find.
"Did you want to do anything?"
Evergreen knew what he meant. In the absence of knowing when his real birthday was, Bickslow always celebrated the date he joined the guild as his birthday. Evergreen couldn't see the point. She shook her head, and Freed didn't even question before he took another sip of his drink and they slipped into another comfortable silence.
"What about you, Freed?"
The rune mage stopped watching Natsu and Gray start another fight to look at her questioningly. If she had been any less drunk she never would have said it, but there was enough alcohol swimming through her system that she didn't care.
"You know when your actual birthday is, and still you don't tell us."
Freed paused. He had never told her that the birthday they celebrated was a rough approximation of the day he met Laxus. Evergreen saw the confusion on his face and smirked.
"Being all private and secretive is all very well and good, but you write everything down in journals that you don't even try to protect."
Freed laughed slightly, finishing his beer before his mug disappeared in a cloud of runes, and Evergreen noticed a barrier erupting around them and she knew anything that was said wouldn't be overheard.
"I figure what's the point of celebrating my birth into a family that couldn't give a shit whether I'm alive or dead. I celebrate the day I found my real family."
Evergreen smiled slightly, dragging a finger around the rim of her drink. Well, when he put it like that maybe she had to celebrate.
"Alright, I bite. Let's have our own little party, over here. We don't tell anyone else what it's for though, deal?"
Freed smiled. It was difficult enough to get Evergreen to agree to anything, but maybe this was it. He let his runes fall, called to his two brothers and prepared to celebrate a decade since his family was completed.
Freed awoke to a pounding headache and a dead leg. At least he had made it to a bed, but as he pulled his head up to survey his surroundings he could see Bickslow sprawled over the lower half of his body, his totems littering around the bed. Obviously, the Sieth hadn't been so lucky. Rubbing his eyes, and cursing at the bright sunlight that was breaking through the window, he turned over to grab a book to read until Bickslow woke up. As his hand groped over the bedside table he made contact with a small box that definitely wasn't there when he went to sleep.
It was beautifully ornate, made out of some sort of oak with a delicate filigree flowing out from a golden clasp on the front. Pressing the button slowly he watched as the lid sprang open, revealing a small fairy inside that slowly span to a tinkling tune and a small note. He clasped the note between his fingers and instantly recognised the intricate handwriting Evergreen had insisted on copying from her favourite book when Freed had taught her how to read.
"Thank you for rescuing me, Freed Justine"
A/N - My first submission to Raijinshuu appreciation week! My plan for the first three prompts is the member of the Raijinshuu as seen by another member, for example this if Freed seen through the eyes of Evergreen. Hopefully that makes sense?
Check out the prompts and other awesome entries on Tumblr - raijinshuuappreciation
Many thanks to Gajeelswoman for the betaing and Kmmcm for the blind testing!
(This has been uploaded a day early due to being super busy tomorrow)
