Her Faithful Shadow
Lady Countryrose
Ch. 4
Freed had walked in, just moments before Lucy had and sat at his team's table. Where each one of them was giving him curious looks. "Speak your mind," he barked softly at his friends. He knew that he needed to be direct with them.
"So how did it go," asked Bickslow as his tongue lolled out of his mouth.
"It went," he smiled softly. "It went as well as one would have thought for." He saw the looks friend his team and knew that he needed to speak frankly with them. "It went better than I had hoped for. She wasn't angry when she found out that I have followed her to her job. I had even was able to watch over her from a safe distance." He let a chuckle out of his lips. "There was danger to her, other than exhaustion. How she handled that spirit was, a sight to behold."
Laxus seemed to have been listening to the conversation at the bar. Just moments after Lucy had made her way to Mira. His eyebrows lifted higher than Freed had even seen before. The massive male glanced at him with an amused look on his face. "You're her first relationship, Freed."
The rest at the table even Freed had frozen after hearing that from their leader. Making every one of them shock before glancing at the blonde at the bar. Each one of them surprised, not realizing the kind of life she had before coming to the guild. How much of the knowledge of knowing that she really didn't have much of life, to begin with.
Laxus sighed, as he closed his eyes. "She has no way of knowing what love should feel like." He opened his eyes, letting them see the sorrow in them. "She wishes that her mother was around…" He shook his head. "I had no idea…"
Freed closed his eyes and nodded. "No you wouldn't, I grew up around knowing the Heartfilia's at an early age. My father had dealt business with Jude, her father. I remember years ago, my father running through our home calling for mother. Letting her know about Lucy's mother, Layla had died from a sickness that dealt with her magic." He saw understanding from his friends after seeing it in their eyes. He took a deep breath. "I can only imagine after her mother's death that her father had tried to keep her from learning magic. She nearly said as much when we talked earlier."
Evergreen leaned across the table to look at Freed with a fond smile on her face. "Freed, make sure to take things slow. You both deserve the kind of happiness that we all dream of." She hit Bickslow with her fan, after hearing wrenching beside her. "You're just jealous because you don't have one romantic bone in your body."
"No, baby." His smiled pulled for a moment before he became serious for a moment. "I'm more jealous of him get Cosplay." He gave a soft whistle. "I mean look at that fine body he may get to see…" He shook in his seat after seeing Freed with heat in his eyes. Causing Bickslow to raise his hands. "Don't kill me for being a man with eyes, Freed. You gotta admit that she is a looker."
"If things go well…"
"When," stated Ever with heat in her eyes and voice. "The word is when, Freed," she hissed at him.
"Okay, when things go well. I was going to ask her to join our team," he saw surprised but happy looks from the rest of Thunder Legion. "After seeing her old team leaving her behind. I want to ask to join ours, maybe she can grow into her power more. Knowing Natsu had prevented from doing so."
After seeing the agreements from Bickslow and Evergreen. He turned his focus on Laxus, who seemed to be deep in thought. "I'll agree to it after we do a simple mission with her. Sometime after your date of course. The reason I want to start simple with her is to see where she may need to improve on something. Before taking something like an S-class mission with her."
Freed sighed, "Agreed." He glanced around the guild for a moment. Noticing that Lucy had already left for the day and knew that he would have to go through with his plan for the evening. "I better go, if I want my future the way I want to be."
Laxus laughed out loud after hearing Freed's statement. But also hearing the calm laugh and giggle from the two others. "Enjoy your night, man." Laxus shook his head, seeing the misbelief behind his stormy eyes. "Let's do a mission with Blondie in a couple of days. It'll give the two of you to know each other in the meantime."
Freed stood up and bowed to his blonde friend. "Your kind words humble me."
Laxus laughed some more, as he waved towards the minted-haired man before him. "Go, have fun." His laugh became a chuckle. "Just don't do what I would do. Knowing the kind of woman that you're seeing tonight."
Bickslow nearly fell out of his chair. "Yeah, ya might scare her away. Knowing what this Thunder God of man does when courting women."
"Courting," smirked Laxus as a snort came out of his nose. "Isn't it a too long of a word for you or something?"
"No," Bickslow answered with his own hummer. "Just too snobbish, if you ask me."
If was then that Freed left his friends behind. Making his way out of the guild, not really believing the kind of friends that he had made in Fairy Tail. As he walked down the street, a woman with pink hair in a maid outfit came to him. Nearly scaring him out his mind, since he was deep in thought, to begin with.
"You must be the man that is courting my princess," stated the maid with hardly feeling from her face.
"Your princess," asked Freed with a raised eyebrow, until a thought came to him. "Are you one of Lucy's spirits?"
"I am," she glanced around for a moment. "I came here with my own power to assist you on your endeavor. So I must ask, what are you plans for this evening with princess?"
Freed gave the maid a worried look but lead her away from the guild. Making his way towards his home. One of the better neighborhoods in town. Opening an iron rod gate to a Victorian two-story home. The house was a blue-green color with a white finish, along with a white porch. Inside, the wooden floors were in a rich color red furnished floors. The walls, a light sage with gold accents.
The minted-haired man glanced at the maid, as she made her way toward the up to date kitchen. With all its bells and whistles that it needed to function. She opened the refrigerator and cupboards, as well as the pantry to see what he had. The maid glanced at the man with a timid smile. "You have enough stuff for me to make lemon chicken over some rice, along with steam broccoli of the side. I can also make some kind of dessert for the two of you."
Freed crossed his arms as he leaned on the back of the chairs that were in front of the island. Glancing at the spirit before him. "Virgo," he asked in his normal tone of unfeeling. "Why are you doing this? I could have come up with something for your princess."
"That may be true, Mr. Justine." She gave a true smile when she saw the surprise in his eyes. "But I want this night to go well for my princess. It means something to her, even though she may not show it. You are the first person to ask her…" She brought out the things that she would be needing. "Plus, I would like to see her happy… She has always done things for others and not herself." She turned to the man of the house with a thoughtful look. "I'm just hoping you're the guy to show her that it's alright to be first once in awhile."
Freed gave a short nod, showing her that he heard her. "Since you're taking care of the dinner." He glanced towards the stairs. "I should see what I should look like, in a few hours."
He turned to make his way up the stairs. Once he found his bedroom, where he passed through the door to make his into the walk-in closet. Where he pulled out one of his best. A button up burgundy dress shirt. Along with a pair of black slacks, with a matching vest. He glanced down, realizing he needed the proper shoes and not his everyday boots that he wore.
'I don't remember the last time I dressed to impress anyone. Then again, there was no one before Lucy that I wanted to do it for.' He brought his clothes out of the closet and onto his bed. He glanced over at a clock next to his been seeing he had time to take a shower. 'I just hope this date goes well. I wouldn't mind having a beauty like Lucy in my life…'
Once he had taken a shower, he dressed for his date and noticed he had a few minutes before he needed to leave his home. Freed made his way down the stairs to see that Vergo was nearly done with everything.
The spirit maid glanced up with a raised eyebrow. "Shouldn't you be off to pick up, my princess?"
The minted-haired man smirked. "I'm nearly leaving now. But I must ask, do you know Lucy well to know what kind of flower she may like?"
"Deep red rose," stated Virgo with deep-rooted knowledge in her voice. "It reminds her of the roses that her mother once grew. It is one of the kinder memories she was able to have."
"Thank you."
He had left his house behind, knowing that it was in good hands while he went out to do what he needed to do. About five minutes before the time that he needed to pick up Lucy, he found himself outside her door. Knocking. When the door opened, he was greeted with a beautiful sight that nearly took his breath away. Before him, Lucy in an over the shoulder firm fitting dress that reached to her knees. Along with a shimmering burgundy wrap, wrapped around her shoulders.
"G...good evening…. Lucy." He was starting to hate himself for stuttering around her. He handed her the rose that he was told that she may like. She gave a smile before taking it into her apartment and placed it in a vase on her table.
"Thank you, Freed. You didn't have to." She grabbed her handbag before ushering him out of her apartment to lock the door. "Where are we going?"
"My place," he stated as calmly as he could. "I thought a nice quiet evening, would do as well." He was trying to hide his blush again. Once they were on the street level, he offered her his arm again before leading her back to her house. "I must confess that someone else took control of my kitchen…"
Lucy gave him a look, trying to come up with anyone that she would believe would do that to him and come up with nothing. "Who?"
"Your Celestial Spirit, Virgo came and commandeered my kitchen." He allowed a chuckle to leave his lips, after seeing her feeling uncomfortable. "I think it was the best. She did help me out by allowing me to look sharp for this evening."
Lucy giggled, trying not to see his dark green eyes. "I'm sorry that she did that. I don't know what's gotten into her…"
"Like I said, Lucy. Don't worry about it. She said that she wanted to make the night nice for you." He let out a small chuckle. "To be honest, I've never done this. Asking a lovely lady on a date...before. So this is a first for me."
She gave a slight squeeze of his arm, trying to get him to look at her. Which he did. "Hey, it's alright, this a first for me too." She fought to turn her eyes away from him. Wanting to see where she was going. "I guess living the life we came from had limited us from a lot of luxuries that we should have experienced?"
"You make a valid point." After a moment of walking into the better-looking neighborhood of houses. He stopped them outside of his house. "Here we are." Then lead them into the house, where they were greeted with soft sounding music. "Hahaha, I see she thought almost everything."
Lucy glanced around, hoping to see her spirit maid and give her a stern talking to about. Freed lead her into the house to where she could only imagine being where the dining room would be. It was where she saw two place settings, at two different ends of the table. Along with candles being lit in the middle of the table.
"I stand corrected," stated Freed with an amused sounding voice. "She did think of everything." He went to one side of the table to see a wine bottle that was sitting and took a look. "She even brought out some rosehip wine that I had made about a year ago."
"You make your own wine," asked Lucy with wonder in her voice.
"Believe it or not, I enjoy learning new things. I've been making my own wine since being at Fairy Tail. I also make wine for my friends for Christmas presents. I figured it's something that everyone would enjoy. This year, I've made Huckleberry wine."
"Wow," Lucy was impressed by what she learned about him. "I've always wanted to learn things like that but afraid to even try." She found herself sitting down, at the other end of the table from where Freed was standing. "From what I've seen, you do have a lovely home, Freed."
He smiled at her warmly. "Thank you, Lucy." He glanced around. "It has taken a long time for me to get this house fixed up. I even had Laxus and Bickslow's help." He chuckled softly. "Remembering those two doing simple things like fixing a house. It was humorous to watch, to say the least."
Lucy smiled as she tried to picture the wild energetic man like Bickslow picking a hammer. Or even Laxus… well, he could lift up boards and nail things in place. For some odd reason, she could see him doing manual labor. Then she glanced over to Freed, she could see him determined to do whatever he wanted to do. It gave her some kind of comfort in knowing that.
Off to the corner of their eyes, a figure came into the dining room with hot dishes in her hands. "You two came back in time. I just finished with dinner." She went to each side of the table, placing the dishes where they needed to go. "Is there anything else you two may need?"
Lucy glared at Virgo, while a smile graced her lips. "Can we talk for a moment, Virgo?"
"Sure princess." The spirit maid leads Lucy into the kitchen. Where the two were able to talk. "What can help you with, princess?"
"Virgo," she hissed softly, hoping that Freed wouldn't able to hear her. "Why did you do all this? I didn't want you or anyone else to make things hard on me. You know that things like this make me uneasy. Especially when people talk about it around me."
"I did this to help you, princess. I wanted you to have a memorable night." She glanced into the dining room for a moment. "You should go and enjoy your date. If you still angry about everything later. Call me when you get home and punish me…" She raised her eyebrows with hope in her eyes. Then she sparkled out of the house, leaving Lucy by herself.
The blonde woman shook her head. "I sometimes wonder the kind of spirits I have." She then made her way back to the dining room, seeing Freed waiting for her there. "Sorry, I just wanted to talk to her before she left."
"It's fine," he stated with a wave of his hand. "Let's enjoy our dinner."
She smiled before sitting down. Enjoying her time with the first man that ever asked her out. She can only hope that none of her spirits would scare him away. Which she hoped that they wouldn't.
