The apartment was bleak and the setting suited Bickslow, as he spent most of his time there brooding and lamenting his pathetic life, as well as the lives of those around him, and mourning for time gone by, which only continued to slowly pass by as he spent all of it doing nothing significant, only to lament more over the even more fragile amount of time he had left.
Freed, however, only made a face as he stood there, in the doorway, glancing around the place. He had not come by since he helped his friend move in and, well, he couldn't say that he liked what he'd done with the place.
"I am...intrigued, Bickslow, by what you've done with the place."
He could tangle words though and squeeze that sentence out.
It was difficult though.
"Oi, it's nothing fancy. Not for a dark knight, like me. Not for someone that is sentenced to forever suffer through this life! But...it's home. You can set your bags there. Or there. Or anywhere! But just not there, on there. That's where I sit and stew while I smoke."
"Freed," some of the little wooden dolls the man had sang as they rushed to greet the man. "Visit. Visit. Freed visits, Papa."
"Yeah, he is, huh?" And the seith was heading away then, back over to the spot he'd pointed out before where he promptly sat and looked about ready to stew. As he fished a pack of smokes and a lighter out of his pocket, he only said to his best friend, "Make yourself at home."
It would be difficult.
But it was also the rune mage's only option.
Everything went wrong a few days ago when a pipe began leaking in his apartment. Never one to fear, Freed took to attempting to fix it himself, to contacting the management, to having a flooded apartment when the management screwed things up. Not that he could be too angry over this as, before he contacted them, he'd actually made the mistake of asking for help down at the hall.
"Someone to look at your pipes, huh?" Mirajane asked with a bit of a hum as she considered this. She'd been very busy tacking up jobs for the day and was a bit shocked to see the man at such an early hour. Freed was far more likely to spend the dawn hours training than he was milling around the hall. "Well, you know, I'd have dragon head out there, but Laxus is-"
"Out on a job, yes, I understand."
"Elf though, he-"
"Someone else."
"Freed, Elfman is very handy," the woman insisted. "He-"
"Someone," the rune mage insisted, "else."
"Well, no one is really here- Oh, Gajeel!" And Mirajane waved at him as he walked in, his kitty on his shoulder, and a snarl playing at his lips. The sound of the woman beckoning him only made the grimace deepen. "You're pretty handy, aren't you?"
"Did that woman just call me handsy?" the slayer complained to Lily as the cat jumped off his shoulder and flew over to see what it was that Mira wanted.
"Handy, I said," Mira answered him with little fear (when you were dating Laxus, the other slayers were hardly a concern; especially when you were nearly as strong as Laxus…). "Gajeel. You like metal, don't you? Surely that means you'd be great at fixing a pipe."
"Why," Freed asked with a heavy frown. "Would that mean that? Mirajane? In what-"
"I'm trying to help you, Freed, and you're yelling at me-"
"I'm not yelling. I only-"
"If you'd rather Elfman-"
"That is the last person that I-"
"Alright, alright," Gajeel grumbled as, before them then, he crossed his hands over his chest with a snarl. "You don't have to argue over me. I'll eat both your pipes."
"You'll what?" Mira asked with a deep frown and Freed hated that he'd gone to her. Why, oh why, had he gone to her. Why did he like Mirajane Strauss so much? Hmmm? She offered him nothing, but heartache and turmoil. He didn't have to be so close to her. They could be friendly without being true friends. Of course they could.
And yet…
When she first began to date his idol, the man that he revered above all and, if he was being honest with himself, saw himself being a far better match with than her anyways, Freed didn't think he'd ever care more for her than was required, given their past with one another. He didn't love Mirajane Strauss, but he certainly didn't loath the woman either. And, at the very least, she did cause Laxus to be around more, in Magnolia, and seemed to put the man in a far better mood.
His love for Laxus went beyond the physical. He wanted, above all, the best for the man. And though he saw himself as the one who could provide that, what Mirajane did bring to the table was in no way lacking.
Just different.
And Freed didn't hate different things. In fact, he understood there. He knew the value they had.
That didn't mean that he had to be such close friends with Mirajane, however, of course. No, that came much more naturally.
She was just so...something. Innocent, naive, ditzy, air headed, cute, silly. Which, in describing that, Freed realized it might sound as if he were...attracted to her, but that certainly wasn't the case.
No, honestly, it wasn't.
Rather, he found that it complimented his more serious demeanor well. Mirajane was much softer than he and a lot of times this provided interesting conversations. His other closest friends were Evergreen, who recently had developed a mind for nothing outside of fear over her relationship with Elfman progressing even more (or not progressing at all; she went back and forth on which was worse), and Bickslow who spent his days doing as he was as Freed stood there, in his apartment that day. Sulking and bemoaning life.
Though he had other friends, non-guild relationships that were far more conclusive of production and maturity, in the guild, it was nice to have someone in your corner. And though they were a bit wacky, there was nothing wrong with the Strauss siblings. You didn't win them over though, without going through the oldest and, lucky him, Mirajane was far more enthusastic about being 'best friends with Laxus' best friend' (and yes, Freed did swoon a bit at the thought of owning such a title and decided not to correct her) and now that he'd done so, well, the rune mage found little reason to ever go back.
That didn't mean that sometimes he didn't regret the things he told her.
Like in that moment as he stood there with the glaring Gajeel, snickering Panther Lily, and the thoroughly confused Mirajane.
"Fix," the slayer corrected then. "I'll fix your pipes. For a fee."
"I could get a plumber for that," Freed complained though Mirajane only beamed and elbowed him a bit. When the man looked down at her, she spoke softly.
"Freed, this could be your chance," she insisted with a whisper. "You're always saying you wish you had stronger bonds with people in the guild. Who better to start with than Gajeel?"
Literally anybody under the sun.
"I don't-"
"Or I could ask Elf," Mira said, going back to that because it was obvious how much the other man did not want it.
:"Am I gettin' a job from you shmucks or what?" the slayer was griping then. "Don't got all day. I just told you I could do both pipes-"
"Freed's the only one that needs help," Mirajane said as, hands clasped behind her back, she bounced a bit on her feet. "And as for the fee, why, Gajeel, how about I let you play a little guitar for us? This weekend?"
"This weekend, huh?"
"If you can fix his pipes, yes," she said with a nod of her head as Freed decided then to definitely not be around the hall that weekend.
"Both Saturday and Sunday?"
Mira glanced at Freed before nodding a bit. "Sure. But only if you do a good job."
"Oh, I'll do a good job, alright," the slayer grumbled before barking, "Come on then! Let's get to it."
Freed was uneasy with the whole arrangement, but Mira seemed so into it that he couldn't quite bring himself to tell her no. Plus, best case scenario, Gajeel helped him out some. Worst? Well, at the time he thought that worst was that he was unable to.
But oh, it would get much worse before long.
When they arrived at the apartment, Freed showed the leaky bathroom pipe to Gajeel who only got down on his knees and grunted as he looked the thing over.
"Seems like it's cracked," the man remarked. "You know, it did get a bit cold the other night. Probably froze right up, expanded, and popped. It happens."
"But you can fix it? Or should I go ahead and speak to management?"
"I mean, you could get tied up in all that," the slayer said as Panther Lily shook his head behind him. "Or you could let me do it without the hassle."
"I'm not so sure of the hassle-"
"There would be hassle."
Sighing a bit, Freed said, "Yes, well, I suppose if you are capable in stopping the leak, then I do not see a reason to involve-"
"This is a nice metal, here. That this pipe is made of. So many are plastic or some other shit these days. Not this here."
"A healthy dose of lead to starve off the life of a bachelor then, I'm sure," Freed agreed with a nod. "Now about the supplies you'll need-"
"Some sorta alloy," Gajeel continued to muse, down there on his knees as he ran a rough finger over the steel. "Not lead."
"He was only joking, Gajeel," Lily said as, from where he, in his tiny form, watched from the kitchen counter. "What are you doing? Why are you-"
"Yep. An alloy, for sure," the slayer said as he brought two fingers, after tracing the pipe, up to his lips. Tongue peaking out, he got a taste before saying, "And not a bad one at that."
"Well," Freed said slowly, "if you're anything like Laxus when there's a good lightning storm, I know that it is rather difficult for you to control, yes? The...desire? So after you have properly installed the new pipe, the old one you may certainly- What are you-"
"Gajeel, no!"
And he couldn't help it. He just couldn't help it.
The slayer had leaned down there for another quick taste, just something to tide him over until he was able to truly feast, that an uncontrollable urge came over him and wow, it tasted just as great as his little nibble had led him to believe!
But there was also some lead in there, yeah.
Freed should really get those checked.
At the moment though, he was far more concerned with the fact that the slayer had, in his zealous, ripped the pipe straight from the wall, past the shut off valve and caused water to begin gushing from the gaping hole in the wall and why, oh why, had it gotten this far?
Freed didn't want to bother the management, then didn't want to upset Mirajane, and somehow felt the need to appease Gajeel and now here they were, in quickly flooding water.
Sometimes, Freed liked to reflect late at night at the hilarity in the situations Fairy Tail presented to him.
Others, he cried.
As he heard Lily remark to the slayer, "I hope that metal was good, because you're definitely not getting your gig now," the rune mage found himself doing both.
Still, if the guild would one day be his untimely death, it was also his source of hospitality and friendship that would not be found under different circumstances. He had offers from most everyone to assist in cleanup and any other thing he may need. It was with long sighs though that the man explained he only needed a place to stay.
"Well," Mira told him slowly as she thought and he was slowly learning to hate that. Her process for doing so was whack, clearly, and useless. "The dormitory is filled up at the moment, but I know someone who could rough up some lower level member. If you really want me to call in a favor."
He only blinked before saying, "Are you the person you know?"
"It's how I have such a good relationship with said person." With a giggle then though, the woman said, "But Laxus is out of town, you know, and it's not like he'd have a problem with it anyways, but you can stay in our guest room if you want. Or the couch. Or the other guest room. Or the den. Or-"
"Mira, I don't think..."
"You don't think what?"
"It would be...inappropriate. For the two of us to be all alone, in a house, with Laxus out." The man blushed at the thought. Or maybe just out of exhaustion from the entirely stress filled day. "Just the thought..."
"I really don't think it's that big of a-"
"Oi, boss while the real boss is away." And, as they stood there in the middle of the guild, an arm was tossed over Freed's shoulder and he got the intense feeling of an even worse decision washing over him. "What are you going to Mrs. Boss for? When you got me?"
"Bickslow," he sighed as the man's dolls began to circle around and, with a grin, Mirajane nodded. "When did you get in?"
"Just now, I did," the seith said as he looked to Mirajane. "All caught up too, on the situation. Where's this Gajeel? Huh? I'll possess his body and make him jump in a frozen lake. Naked. While we all watch and cackle. Would you like that?"
"What? Bickslow, please do not-"
"At the moment," Mira told the man simply, "probably just that place you have to stay would be enough, Bickslow, I think."
"Whatever you say, Mrs. Boss. You fuck the boss, after all." And the seith saluted her before, looking to Freed, he said simply, "You can stop by whenever. I'll head back to my place and get it all ready. You know, for company and all? Hey, Mrs. Boss, hold the beer I ordered, huh? I gotta go get ready for a boys night."
But, when Freed arrived at the place, Bickslow hadn't cleaned up. At all. Cigarette butts still littered the coffee table, stemming from the overflowed ashtray. Beer cans covered the floor and an assortment of other junk replaced the few spaces unoccupied. There was something frightening, for certain, in the obvious fire hazard presented before him as well as the obvious chances for suhc a hazard to occur and Freed considered turning the run right back out of the dust covered door.
Then a voice from the bathroom as well as the sound of someone approaching let him know that Bickslow was a liar in more than one way.
"Ah, cool, now that Freed's here, do you think we can start the movie?"
It was not a 'boys night'. Rather, it was third wheel night, apparently, as Lisanna Strauss stood there and why was he so foolish to not realize that of course she would be. Bickslow and Lisanna were living together, after all, and she was rare to be out on a significant job when the seith wasn't.
"Lissy, Lissy, Lissy," the seith grumbled slightly as he'd gotten busy with his smoke. "Freed's the guest, remember? Shouldn't we let him pick?"
"You're right, Bicks. I'm sorry."
Nodding, the seith glanced over at his friend as he asked, "You want boring, drawn out, totally lame detective noir shit that Lissy likes? Or-"
"Or stupid, no words and totally extra and nonsensical comedies that Bickslow forces me to-"
"You take that back, Lisanna!"
"No. Because they do suck. And I refuse to let our guest-"
"They're wonderful and you know it!"
Freed only let out a long sigh though, as he slowly made his way over to the couch that, under normal circumstances, he would so much as glance at, and took a seat.
It would be a very long next few days. Of that, he was certain.
Five chapters. One of those stupid, nonsensical, drawn out, and totally lame short stories I put out for you guys who love them. And you know you love them.
