A Nervous Habit

Music was incredibly important to Laxus.

For him, it was more than just something he listened to out of boredom. He had practically become reliant on it as a form of easy therapy. When he was a child and the lacrima had only recently been infused with his body, his ears were constantly ringing. It was like an ever-present form of torture that he had to live with. That was until his thirteenth birthday when some random guildmember got him a crappy music lacrima he realised that the ringing could be drowned out by something infinitely more tolerable.

After his magic had attuned itself to his body the ringing in his ears had stopped, but he still needed music. He listened to it when he was tired and needed to relax, nauseous from a train journey or when he was stressed out and needed some form of distraction.

The latter reason was why he was unapologetically blasting music through his headphones in a hospital corridor.

Evergreen and Bickslow would send apologetic glances and smiles to people when they walked past the small group. Laxus was playing his music so loud that the headphones he was wearing seemed redundant, but neither of them said anything to him. They knew of Laxus' reliance on music and knew that he definitely needed it in this situation.

The Raijinshuu, along with Laxus, had taken a mission that turned out to be bait. This was when a group of people left a fake mission at a guild and lured a mage or group of mages into a trap. Sometimes it was to rob them, sometimes to get revenge of some kind and sometimes to hold them ransom.

Usually, these bait missions didn't happen to mages of high stature. The people responsible would mostly downplay the danger of their fake problem so the mission would be ranked low and be given to training mages. However, this mission was an A-Class, which almost never happened.

The group responsible had a rune mage with them, so they expected that they could set a simple box trap and do as they please with whatever skilled mage took their job. However, what they didn't expect was Freed being part of the group that they had trapped. Freed was known for his skills in rune magic, practically famous for it. So, when they realised who they had trapped, and how easy they could get out of the trap, they had panicked.

An all put attack had been aimed at Freed. They had hit him with every spell they could conjure in their panic. It ranged from elemental spells, physically hitting him and their own rune mage knew how to remove oxygen from certain parts of an already created enchantment.

Their attack hadn't lasted long, they weren't strong fighters and the rest of the Raijinshuu had managed to defeat them with ease. However, they lasted long enough for Freed to be covered in bruises, scars and burn marks. But Freed had fallen unconscious, the oxygen removal spell having been in place for longer than what was safe.

Bickslow got him breathing again, Laxus was panicking and Freed needed a steady hand to be resuscitated. The moment Freed's eyes opened, Laxus scooped him up and teleported them all to Magnolia Hospital.

"I'm gonna punch that bitch in the face if she glares at him one more time." Evergreen muttered.

From down the hallway, some rich woman was glaring at them for the music that she could hear. Ever understood that the music might seem obnoxious, but anyone with eyes could see that Laxus wasn't in a good state at the moment. The music was the only thing that was keeping him sane and if she had a problem with that, she could come over and see what Evergreen thought of people who stuck their nose in her team's business.

Laxus was unaware of the woman. His eyes were closed and his ears were blasted by the loud drum and guitar track he was listening to. He hadn't been allowed in Freed's room in the hospital for whatever reason and until that changed, his world was simply the music in his ears.

He tapped along with the beat against his thigh, forcing back the image of Freed's hurt body. The group had been brutal in their attack and their lack of finesse had only made their attacks more blunt and powerful. It made Laxus sick to his stomach that something had happened to his fiancé and it was even worse to know it happened when Laxus was right beside him.

"Just let her glare." Bickslow mumbled, looking at the door Freed was behind.

Ever and Bickslow were just as anxious to see Freed good and well. Bickslow had been too focused on reviving Freed to let the reality hit him at the moment, but now he realised just how much Freed had been hurt. Evergreen had stared in shock. The mission was meant to be easy but now Freed hurt more than he had been for years and the shock had affected her. She felt awful for not being able to help at the time.

Out of nowhere, Laxus' hand shot up from his leg and took Evergreen's hand, squeezing it in comfort. Years ago someone let it slip she sweated a lot when she was nervous so Freed had put a rune on her that masked the smell of sweat in similar situations to the smell of her favourite perfume. Laxus could never block out his sense of smell, and the sudden amount of perfume in the corridor signified him to how anxious Evergreen was. And he refused to let her feel that without any form of comfort.

The three sat in silence, ignoring the glares they got for the loud music. Worrying about their teammate was much more important than letting insignificant people get under their skin. Freed was the biggest priority.

"Excuse me, who's here for Freed Justine?" A small nurse said after leaving the room.

Evergreen and Bickslow both stood up from slumping against the wall, Evergreen knocking off one of Laxus' headphones so he was alerted to the nurses presence. His eyes shot open and he looked up at the nurse, masking his fear of the worse happening behind a stoic façade.

"The patient is doing a lot better than expected. His breathing has returned to a normal state and the physical injuries are healing as well as to be expected. And given his job as a mage, I'm sure that he's used to dealing with injuries like this."

All three mages relaxed where they were, breathing sighs of relief at the news. Laxus pulled off the other headphone and switched off the music lacrima, resting his head against the wall. Freed was okay and that was all he needed to know.

"He's awake now. I've also got a request from him." The nurse pulled a piece of paper from clipboard. "He wants to see the inconsiderate moron who won't turn off his damn music even though he knows how loud it gets. He insisted that I use those exact words."

With a small blush, Laxus stood up and rubbed the back of his neck. The nurse smiled and opened the door to Freed's room, Laxus walking in. Freed was sitting up in the bed, arm and right leg in a sling. He was looking at Laxus with an expectant smile.

The blonde man slowly walked around the bed Freed was lying in, hissing when he realised that Freed's leg was raised by a sling. That meant he probably wasn't going to be walking on it for a little while, he expected that Freed wouldn't be happy about that. His arm wasn't too bad, he didn't have any bandages on it so it was probably a dislocated shoulder. The burns and scratches still made Laxus seethe with anger, however.

"Which one was it this time?" Freed smiled weakly. He regretted it, a cut rested right across his lip and smiling made it hurt.

"The drum and guitar one. Starts out with a minute of bass and then goes nuts."

"I like that one."

Freed rolled his eyes when he saw Laxus glance down at the clip board at the end of the bed. He had requested that the nurse read his status out from the clipboard to Laxus when she invited him in. But he had expected that Laxus would read it anyway.

"If it makes you feel any better, I know that I've recovered from worse than this." Freed spoke gently. "As has everyone in our guild."

Laxus placed the clipboard back into pocket at the bottom of the bed. He pulled up one of the uncomfortable wooden chairs that seemed to be in every hospital in Fiore and sat beside the bed, taking the hand that wasn't in the sling and wrapping his palms around it. Freed smiled at him again, ignoring the pain from the cut.

"Should've killed the fuckers." Laxus grunted, hearing the near silent hiss of pain from Freed.

"No you shouldn't have." Freed spoke with force. "Me being hurt is certainly not justification for that."

Laxus nodded but looked down, hand tightening around Freed's. He began to hum softly, tapping his foot against the tiled floor of the room. Freed watched with curiosity as Laxus made a small beat, even managing to incorporate the constant beeping of the heart rate monitor into his song. Bickslow had once suggested that Laxus compose music and the Raijinshuu should also become a band. It was a joke, of course, but if they had actually decided to do it then it most probably would have worked.

And it would have been amusing to see Gajeel's reaction, given that he saw himself as Fairy Tail's resident musician.

The two didn't talk for a short while, Laxus focusing on the music he was absentmindedly creating and Freed enjoying the sound. He couldn't pinpoint what kind of genre Laxus was trying to go with, but he enjoyed the steady rhythm and slow pacing. It was incredibly therapeutic. Freed slipped his hands out of Laxus' grasp and picked up a glass of water. Laxus didn't react until the heartrate monitor suddenly became too fast for the beat.

His eyes opened again and he glanced at Freed, dread filling his gut.

"Laxus, calm down, I'm fine." Freed spoke gently to calm his fiancé again. "I'm just getting some water. The nurse said that, as my breathing corrects itself, my heart will be sensitive to any form of movement. It's normal and you shouldn't worry yourself with it."

Although he did believe the nurses and doctors at this hospital, he had trusted them with his life multiple times, Laxus took the now empty glass from him and placed it on the side table. On the chance that they were wrong and Freed had an injury that they didn't know about, he wasn't going to take any chances and wouldn't let Freed do anything unless it was completely necessary.

Freed watched this with a sigh. He had hoped that the little joke he'd attempted when inviting Laxus into the room coupled with the nurse's assurance that he was fine would have calmed Laxus, but it hadn't. Freed didn't know what was going on inside Laxus' mind, most likely a lot of self-loathing or threats to the group who had done this, but Freed did notice one thing. Laxus was tapping his thigh in the exact same tune that he had described when he came in.

"Hey." Freed said to get his fiancé's attention. "I don't appreciate the fact you're listening to music in your mind without me."

He nodded to the music lacrima sticking out of Laxus' pocket, grinning when Laxus pulled it out and placed one headphone onto Freed's left ear, the other going on Laxus' right. Although Freed wasn't reliant on music, he loved it with an equal amount of passion.

Soon enough, a steady but pleasing bassline was flooding into their ears. They both sat back to share their mutual love for the track Laxus had chosen, both anticipating the sudden raise in energy that was going to happen. When it did come, Laxus began to tap his hands on his legs in time and closed his eyes, this time his face relaxed. Freed leant back in his pillow, smiling as his finace's nervousness seeped away.

He closed his eyes, glad that he had forgotten about Laxus' birthday ten years ago and got him that cheap music lacrima. He sometimes wondered if Laxus remembered that it was him who got him it, as they hadn't known each other well at that time. But that didn't matter.

Because now, they were calm.