A/N Sorry this took so long to update, the plot derailed for me just as much as it derailed for the guys. But, I think I know where it's going now and hopefully it's still good!

"So, do you prefer regular gummy bears or sour gummy bears?" Freed asked, pointing his can of Red Bull at Laxus like it was one of his fencing swords.

"Neither. I am all about those sherbet fizzes." Laxus said as he finished filling a bag with them and tossed it into their trolley. Freed stared down at the mess of budget lemonade ('it's so much better than full price stuff' according to Bixlow), three different bags of pick n mix because none of them would share their candy with one another, more chips than any three people should physically be capable of eating in a mere week, a good stock of iced tea for Freed and an even more impressive amount of red bull for Laxus.

"Should we be buying so much liquid? There's not exactly a hundred and one bathroom stops on the highway?" Freed asked.

"The world is my toilet bro," Bixlow said as he looked for something on his phone. "Also, bladder of steel. I can go a whole keg party without breaking the seal, I don't need toilet breaks."

"That was nearly poetic," Laxus said. "Anyway, Freed just let it be, go with the flow. Got to stay hydrated on the drive."

"Well then we should be getting water not…"

"Hush my sweet spring prince." Bixlow pressed his finger against Freed's lips and gave him that patronising 'you're over planning and I'm smarter than you' look he'd mastered years ago. "If we need to piss, we're big boys we can pull over. Calm down, and go buy a pineapple or something so you don't feel guilty about all the junk."

Freed huffed but, Bixlow had read him too well. He was trying to just sit back and chill but, over-thinking every little detail was something he was much more comfortable with. If he didn't do the planning who would? Bixlow was more than happy to just see where the road took them and Laxus wasn't much better. Also he really loved pineapples.

So Freed tried to let go, go with the flow as he watched the delicious mess of sugar go through the checkout along with one pineapple, he watched the cashier be charmed by Bixlow and wished he had that ease with people.


Bixlow called shotgun so he was in charge of navigation and music, he had Nicki Minaj blaring the second the ignition started and Google maps on his phone pulled up already to direct Laxus out onto the highway.

Freed chatted easily with them, the tenseness he felt in the supermarket long gone and he was kicking himself for getting so worked up about junk food and energy drinks. He had gotten all worked up over nothing but he was glad to see they didn't hold a grudge. Although he was definitely going to be teased by Bixlow after an allotted buffer period passed.

On the open road the only concern in Freed's head was that the back seat wasn't nearly so fun to lean out of and enjoy the wind in his hair. He loved how easily the three of them fit together, it was hard to imagine that he'd only known Laxus for a couple months. Perhaps that was more Bixlow's influence than anything else, he wove people into conversations so easily, making sure that neither Freed nor Laxus ever felt like a third wheel and constantly pushing the conversation forward whenever it lulled. There was a reason he was the life of the party and it wasn't just his legendary beer pong scores.

It was the peaceful, easy feeling that the guy was singing about through Bixlow's 'epic road trip playlist'. All was going great. Hours of driving passed by and it felt like no time at all had gone. They stopped by the side of the road to dive into the river and laze in the sun for a bit. Laxus had thrown him into one of the pools, diving in after him and initiating an epic splash battle. They sang along to classic and new songs and even though they were all terrible it was perfect. The budget lemonade disappeared in no time and, true to his word, Bixlow didn't ask for a piss stop once. Freed didn't want to be impressed but, it would be a lie to say he wasn't.

"I don't want to be that person but, are we there yet?" Freed asked, leaning forward and resting his chin on the back of Bixlow's seat.

"Who knows man," Bixlow said.

"I should hope you do Mr Navigator Extraordinaire."

"Wait…I was in charge of navigation?" Bixlow asked. "I thought I was just the music guy?"

"Front seat gets navigation and music dude," Laxus shrugged. "I thought that was universal road trip rules."

"I thought we divvied it up, me on the sick beats, Laxus on the sick turns and Freed on the sick knowledge."

"Then why Bixlow, have I said nothing about directions this entire trip?"

"Nah dude, you got us out of the city. Once we were on the open road I thought you were just finally, going with the flow and letting it happen."

Freed collapsed back in his seat rubbing at his face with his hands and trying not to kick the seat in front of him like a toddler throwing a tantrum. Although, if he did a little then at least it was definitely warranted.

"So, does anyone know where we are right now?" Freed's voice was muffled by his hands but he hoped one of them got the gist. He heard Bixlow pick up his phone and then make that awkward throat noise he did when he was guilty of something. "I take that as a no and I'm assuming there's bad news."

"I don't have phone service and GPS won't pick up my location."

"If we by some miracle don't die in the middle of fucking nowhere, I will kill you myself."

"Want to know the icing on the cake?" Laxus asked.

"No but tell me."

"We're almost out of gas."

There was a long silence as that sunk in, broken finally by Bixlow's hysterical laughter. He apologised between snorts and gasps for breath and after a while even Laxus was sniggering. It was only Freed who was quiet, thinking over ways to rectify this situation at a thousand miles a minute. Scrapping ideas as quickly as they came to mind and trying to map out new options. He opened his mouth to voice his suggestion but, Bixlow beat him to it.

"Oh well, guess we'll just stop when we see lights and ask them where the hell we are. No use panicking if it turns out a town is 20 minutes away and it's not like we can Google anything."

"And if they're not friendly?" Freed asked.

"They live in the country, of course they're friendly."

"It's all we can do." Laxus shrugged.

That wasn't exactly true but a sense of anxiety settled in Freed's stomach. His plan wasn't much better after all and he didn't want to bring them all down. So he settled back and stared out the window at the silhouette of a mountain range against the last light of the sun and hummed along with the latest track on the radio. It would work out, he told himself again and again, it had to. The mountains disappeared as they wove up a hill bracketed by towering pine trees and when they emerged they could see a red tin roof in the distance. Bixlow let out a woop and punched the roof of the car.

"Everything's coming up Milhouse!" He cheered happily, turning back to grin at Freed with his tongue poking out in that weird way of his. Freed rolled his eyes and turned back to the window, staring at the growing red shed. The light in it switched off and he saw a figure wander round it and up past the back. A driveway was just past the shed and they pulled up just as the man walking past his garage.

Standing well over six foot, pushing a wheelbarrow of firewood and dusting off his hands on his pants he looked like he'd walked right out of a kids' book about farming. He was wearing a plaid red shirt, blue overalls, gumboots up to his knees and one of those big wide brim leather hats. All he was missing was the bit of hay between his teeth to be the proper stereotype. When he smiled at them as they piled out the car and his eyes crinkled at the edges Bixlow's 'everyone's friendly in the country' statement came to mind.

"Good evening sir," Freed said. "We don't mean to be a bother but we seem to have gone off course."

"Y'all are lost I assume?" The farmer asked with a grin. "We get all sorts of folk out this way looking for a short cut or scenic route. It's a shame for them since it's just a dead end. Road goes about 15kms on and then just stops. You get to the back end of a forest park and that car doesn't look like you're ready to go off road. If you go back down the way you came for about half an hour you'll see a turn on the left, that road will take you back to the highway. Or if you keep going down it you'll get to a sea side town, pretty quaint. 'Bout an hour away."

"Thank you so much, but um we just have one more little problem." Freed said. "We're out of gas."

"Oh that's not a problem at all." The woman who spoke had just wandered out from the house, her grey hair was tied up in a bun and she walked lightly across the paved pathway. She wasn't that short but she looked tiny next to her husband. "We've got a fuel tank for the bikes, we can give you enough to get into town if you've got some cash."

Freed looked to Laxus and Bixlow who were both looking to him. There was some silent communication though gestures and facial expressions and by the end of it the conclusion was obvious, none of them had cash.

"Don't suppose you've got an eftpos machine handy?" Bixlow asked and Laxus elbowed him in the ribs.

"What he means to say is, we don't have any cash with us but we could do a bank transfer if you've got internet?" Laxus stated politely. Freed tried not to laugh at the sight, it wasn't that Laxus was an uncouth loud mouth bar dweller but, he was hardly the poster boy for perfect manners.

The woman laughed and it was a sweet sound, no bite to it at all. "I know we're far out of the way but we do have the internet sonny. Come on in, I'll show you where the computer is. I'm Margaret but you can call me Marge and this here is my husband Jimmy."

They followed her round the edge of the house, Laxus taking the wheelbarrow for Jimmy as he asked them about their plans. Freed and Bixlow went inside with Marge while Laxus stayed and helped him throw the firewood into the wood-box. Jimmy told him about the sights out this end of the road and Laxus wondered if they'd let them park up and stay the night, they could explore the natural hot pools he was talking about and maybe do some of the hikes if the guys were keen. He thought it could be good for Freed, no disasters for a few hours, some time to just chill and get their bearings back. But he couldn't really tell what made Freed happy, he'd promised himself that it would be epic and so far he wasn't sure how well that was going.

"Jimmy, how much do you think it'd cost?" Marge asked when Jimmy and Laxus walked inside. Laxus noticed how cosy their house was, the walls covered in family photos and paintings. They'd walked into the dining room and he could see into the lounge straight ahead, a large fireplace taking up a good chunk of the space. To the left Marge was standing behind Freed who was sat at a computer tapping his fingers while he waited for a page to load. Bixlow was sitting at the table staring at a seaside painting on the wall between the dining room and the kitchen.

"Well, either 30 dollars or a couple days helping me with the cattle." Jimmy shrugged, walking past them all into the kitchen and flicking the kettle on.

"Huh?" Laxus asked.

"I'm not as young and fit as I used to be and while I try to keep it easy, have the cows nearby the yards and all, I was thinking about it and it'd be nice to have an extra pair of hands. They could stay in the quarters. The vets coming up tomorrow, they'd only have to stay two nights. Free accommodation of course, we'd even throw in some meals if you need food."

"We can't ask them to do that," Marge scolded him. "Please don't feel like you have to, we can handle it fine on our own."

"No it's not a problem, I'd be happy to stay if the guys are." Bixlow looked excited by the idea, his green eyes flashing and his whole face lit up like a kid at Christmas.

Freed on the other hand looked more nervous, biting at his lip he swivelled the chair round to face everyone. "What would we be doing exactly?"

"Just helping me move the cows from the paddock into the yards then, if you want to you can just help keep them moving through, the vet will do all the real technical stuff. Marge is right though, I can handle it myself it's just you were saying you didn't really have a plan and there's plenty to explore up here, you'd have the afternoon tomorrow and the whole of the next day free. You can leave once the vet's done the day after."

"Well, I'm keen. What do you think Freed?" Laxus sat down in the seat on the end of the table by Bixlow which made Freed feel oddly ganged up on. Them telling him to go with the flow, to chill out was still ringing in his head and that probably was what spurred him to give a nod of assent and close the internet banking page that had finally loaded.

"Right then," Jimmy said, "do you want tea or coffee?"


A couple hours, a long chat with Marge and Jimmy and a full roast dinner later they found themselves in what Marge called the shearers' quarters. She told them all about how she rented it out to fisherman mostly but sometimes a few backpackers came up. None of them were sure what to expect when they were told they'd be staying there but it was just, a second house a paddock away from the main one. She apologised again and again about the lack of hot water, no matter how many times they told her it was fine, but she promised it'd be good to go by the next morning. She even made their beds for them despite Freed's protests that it'd be fine, she was doing more than enough. After reminding them to be up at 6am and that a full cooked breakfast would be waiting for them, she cheerfully wandered back to the house.

"This is a horror movie plot," Freed said, putting what food they did have away in the fridge.

"Or a great adventure," Bixlow shrugged, coming back into the kitchen after throwing the last of their bags on the floor in their room. He had changed into his pyjamas. "Anyway how would you know, you don't watch horror movies you're too squeamish."

"Touché." Freed acknowledged. Smiling as Laxus passed him "But, if I get murdered by a cow tomorrow you're the one who'll have to live with the nightmares."

"You'll be fine, animals love you." Laxus said. "And just think, you'll get to pat the dogs. Did you hear Marge say they have five dogs? Try not to get fleas, I'm not dealing with you itching the whole way back to civilization."

"I know and I am going to hug them all." Freed ignored the flea comment, he also tried to hide how excited he was but he knew it wasn't working when he heard Bixlow snigger. "So I've got to hit the hay so that I'll have all the energy in the world to give them the attention they deserve."

"Hit the hay? You're talking like a country local already." Laxus teased. Freed stuck out his tongue and wandered down to the room he and Bixlow were sharing.

After changing he collapsed into bed and tried to quiet that part of his mind telling him every way it could go wrong and focus instead on how lucky they were, how kind Jimmy and Marge were and how much fun he was having before he started over-thinking.

Bixlow came in and flopped back on the bed and pulled the blanket up to his chin. "See, I told you they'd be friendly."

Freed threw a pillow at him. Bixlow's laughter echoed around the quiet room followed by a call of goodnight, sweet dreams, don't let the tiki dolls bite. Just before Freed fell asleep, he found himself not thinking about any of the bad stuff, and instead thinking about how nice Laxus had looked relaxed in front of the fire, how excited Bixlow was to work with cows and how this was honestly shaping up to be a pretty great story to tell.