Summary: They never really spoke to one another but then they never really needed to….they both understood. Their friendship was one built on silence.

Pairings: Laxus/Mystogen friendship, parental Makarov/Laxus, implied parental Makarov/other guild members, Laxus/Thunder God Tribe friendship, implied Laxus/Mirajane, one-sided Mystogen/Erza, Jellal/Erza, and lots and lots of general friendship and family feels.

YouTube Prompt: A tribute to Erza and her temper to 'If Looks Could Kill' by Heart.

Gildarts was the one to bring him home.

He was a little scrap of a boy, Laxus towered over him and Laxus was considered quite small for his age thanks to his poor health and his father's treatment of him, he had big eyes that looked too large for his little face, one of which had a strange red mark round it, and beneath his big white bandage sprouted hair a vivid blue colour that Laxus had never seen before.

"I found him wandering the woods," Gildarts said grimly as he placed the strange boy down on a table, the boy blinked once as he gazed at the guild warily, "poor little mite was all alone and I think he has a concussion we oughta call Porlyusica."

Everyone shuddered at the mention of the terrifying hag but Laxus' grandfather called her anyway as Gildarts tucked the boy into one of the infirmary beds. Porlyusica brought her usual cloud of fury and terror with her.

"Well?" She snapped. "Don't just stand there like a lemon, Makarov! Take me to the child." Laxus watched, embarrassed, as his grandfather fell over himself to obey Porlyusica when she flickered her hard eyes in his direction. "You too, brat," she ordered, "I need to assess where you are in your recovery."

Laxus tried to run for it, he hated physicals, he hated being prodded and touched and he hated having an eye on the bruises and scars and his unhealthy skinniness, he hated being reminded that he wasn't a normal child, but Porlyusica was quicker than him and he was caught by the scruff of the neck and dragged into the infirmary for another check out. He hated it all the more with the strange boy in the room though the blue-haired boy kept his eyes averted and grimaced just as much as Porlyusica's attention turned onto him. Soon enough they were left on their own with instructions of bedrest for the new boy and more fruit and vegetables for Laxus.

The silence in the room was overwhelming after all the noise from downstairs. Laxus had been irritated by the noise for weeks now. They were all too cheerful and happy while he was too miserable and grumpy so as overwhelming it was, it was also rather nice.

The new boy looked uncomfortable and Laxus felt the urge to say something kind but nothing could come to mind. "Hey," he mumbled, "want a glass of water?"

The boy nodded.

Laxus poured out a glass from a pitcher Porlyusica had left behind for them and handed it to the boy who accepted it silently. "What?" Laxus snapped after more silence. "No thank you? Didn't your parents teach you any manners?"

The boy flinched at that and Laxus instantly regretted saying it. For all he knew the boy's parents were dead. "Thank you," the boy murmured as he flushed with embarrassment, there was a beat of silence. "Where am I?" he asked.

"Fairy Tail," Laxus replied instantly with pride. He couldn't help but be proud of his home despite everything. The boy just stared at him blankly. "You don't know what Fairy Tail is?" Laxus asked incredulously. After all, who hasn't heard of Fairy Tail? "It's one of the best magic guilds in the Kingdom."

The boy blinked at that again. "Magic," he said quietly, "I see."

"I'm Laxus Dryer," Laxus introduced, "who are you?"

"Prin – I mean, Jellal," the boy hastily corrected himself. "Just….Jellal, though I suppose I can't go by that name either."

Laxus frowned at that but decided not to press the issue. The boy was uncomfortable enough as it was and Laxus had plenty experience on being questioned about things he didn't want to talk about. He can respect this guy's privacy. "What caused your head injury?" he asked instead.

There was more silence then finally, eventually, Jellal spoke up. "Someone who was supposed to care," he said sombrely as a hand clutched the bedsheets so tight his knuckles were turning white. "I don't want to talk about it."

Laxus touched the newly made scar on his eye, he can feel the lacrima under his skin, it was bumpy and cold and uncomfortably like scales, and the scar itself was still fresh and raw and red. As were the memories and nightmares and the fact people could still see his ribs poking out of his skin, and the pitying look in people's eyes. He knew all too well about being hurt by someone who was supposed to care about you.

"I get ya," he said softly, "trust me, I get ya."

Understanding flickered in Jellal's eyes. "I'm sure you do," he murmured.

Another silence fell over them but it was a more comfortable one that felt almost nice and Laxus felt more at ease than he had in years.

Then his grandfather walked in and Laxus was hustled out. There was a long conversation that he might have just eavesdropped on. An unbelievable story. One about another world that was losing magic and magic sucking holes and evil kings and cats that can talk, and Jellal being a prince. When his grandfather came out he looked grim but determined and unsurprised and unbothered by the fact Laxus had been eavesdropping.

"Jellal will be joining Fairy Tail," he announced simply, "but because of his….unusual circumstances," he worded carefully, "he doesn't want to use his name in case someone recognises it. I'm asking you to be a responsible adult and to protect his identity at all costs."

"All right," Laxus said, "What do we call him instead?"

His grandfather paused for thought. "Mystogen," he decided, "We'll call him Mystogen."

"Freaking stupid name."

"WELL NO ONE ASKED YOU!"

It was easy at first, protecting Mystogen's identity and privacy, he means. There was only Cana to deal with. All he had to do was glare at her and tell her to buzz off and with an irritated huff she did so which left Laxus and Mystogen to soak in the silence of their own companionship. They read books, they practised magic, and they listened to music but they rarely actually spoke or made much noise. They really didn't need to.

It was easy with no one to bother them.

But then the Strauss siblings turned up, and Levy, and Gray, and with them came a storm of bickering and nosey questions and a constant demand of 'play with me, play with me, play with me' from Elfman and Lisanna. Laxus found his world disturbed on so many levels, as his grandfather's attention and love was given out to others, more fights and explosions occurred, and the smouldering glare of Mirajane Strauss caused the insides of Laxus' body to do strange things. Meanwhile Mystogen started to disappear looking for those magic sucking holes more and more often and Laxus felt a hole that used to be filled with companionable silence.

But nothing too much had changed. They held their first S-Class exams in which all candidates were children and Laxus passed with flying colours and Mystogen the year after and they got to share the top floor to themselves as Gildarts was also away and his grandfather was too busy policing the brats and managing the paperwork. It was like a private clubhouse and Laxus loathed the idea of sharing it with anyone else though it was beginning to look like Mirajane might be joining them soon.

Then Erza arrived.

Erza made things a hundred times worse.

She was damaged in more ways than one and Laxus felt sick when he saw her missing eye. It made him touch his scar and wonder what could have happened if his grandfather hadn't intervened when he had. Mystogen hadn't seen her then. He had been away on one of his heroic missions and didn't know about her until she had long recovered physically and learnt more control over her magic, and been introduced to the Magical Council. Paraded proudly as if she was the granddaughter of Makarov Dryer instead of another adopted stray like the others.

Mystogen had been enjoying a lunch on the top floor when he first saw her. Gray and Elfman had been fighting and she swooped in and kicked them both into the furniture telling them to shut the hell up. Laxus witnessed how Mystogen's wide eyes went even wider with admiration and adoration for the scarlet-haired warrior princess and winced.

His grandfather had burned him with the duty to tell Mystogen he now had to hide his face.

Laxus had met Siegrain once before. He didn't like the smug tosser who thought way too much of himself and was nothing like Mystogen. He liked him even less now he knew he was related to the cause of all of Erza's nightmares and the reason his friend was going to have to hide himself.

"She knows you," he said bluntly, "this world's version of you I mean."

Mystogen blinked. "Oh?"

That Oh asked hundreds of questions. Were they friends? Did she like him? Would she understand and possibly like him too? Was it okay for Mystogen to talk to her?

"He hurt her," Laxus said, "really badly. Grandfather said you need to wear this from now on," he handed Mystogen a dark bandana that could cover most of his face and woollen hat to pull over the beginning of the red tattoo. "And not let Erza see you. It might set her back a few months in her recovery."

"I see."

Laxus grimaced as silence fell over them but this one wasn't one of their many pleasant ones that built their friendship. It was one of regret and resentment, and Laxus hated that he had been tasked with the job of hurting his only real friend's feeling.

Mystogen spent even less time than he had before at the guild after that. And when he did come home he tended to put nearly everyone to sleep before picking and job and leaving again. There was no more companionable silences on the top floor where they watched the guild brawl below them.

The years flew by and Laxus managed to pick up more friends. He surrounded himself with Freed's adoration, Bickslow's noise and insanity, and Evergreen's sarcastic wit, and yet he missed Mystogen's silence.

There were huge gaping holes inside of him that were caused by a lot of things. He found he was incapable of being carefree because of his childhood and resented the fact that most of the abandoned children and orphans of the guild were still able to keep that innocence despite everything they had been through. He found it irritating to forever be compared to his silly grandfather and never quite meeting those expectations everyone seemed to have him. He found himself at loss about why his father had been the way he had, why his grandfather banished him when he had, why his grandfather never talked about it, and why everything that happened to him seemed to be brushed under the carpet, and that pissed him off all the more. He found himself strangely heartbroken over the death of Lisanna Strauss who had been the baby of the guild (if you didn't count Romeo, the actual baby of the guild) and bewildered by the changes in Mirajane. He found himself missing her murderous glare. He found he had no one to talk to. He found he had no one he could really sit in silence with.

Mystogen was distant in more than the physical sense. If he was ever home he was either staring at Erza with a disgusting longing or gnawing his lip in worry as he stared out of a window.

He doesn't talk either and this silence was deafening and unwelcoming.

Their friendship is now in tatters without them saying a word and he lashes out but taunting Natsu and Lucy and all the others about Mystogen's secret after his most recent visit.

The visit where he doesn't even bother to look up at Laxus as he snatches another job and marches out of the guild leaving everyone else but the Dryers to wake up from his sleeping spell.

The guild changes again and Laxus feels fury boil his blood as the people who had kidnapped, tortured, and beaten his family have become members, and that everyone accepts it cheerfully enough. He's finally pushed over the edge after years of resentment and leads an uprising so he could prove the world he's just as good, if not better, as his grandfather.

A lot of crappy things happen that day but the fight between him and Mystogen definitely ranked in the top five. Not because his friend, the only friend who knew everything, had chosen to fight against him, but because when he gleefully tore that stupid mask off just as Erza walked through the door (as he knew she would), he had just broken Mystogen's heart and opened a horrible wound that had already been opened again recently for Erza.

The other crappy things weigh on him as well, like his grandfather's near death, his attempt to destroy the town he had promised to protect, the look of hate on Natsu's face, the look of disappointment on his grandfather's, and Freed's tears as he pleaded with him.

And now he was banished.

He now had no home to go back to.

And for the first time in over a decade he actually allowed himself to cry. Horrible, snotty, crocodile tears that he will deny if anyone brings it up….which no one would because there was no one to see apart from Mystogen who was sitting cross-legged on a boulder….wait.

Laxus stopped and turned to face Mystogen. He had his mask back on and he looked as sombre and solemn as always. Laxus stared at him conscious about the fact that his face was wet his tears and snot. Mystogen didn't comment on it but he didn't say anything at all as he gave Laxus a disapproving judgemental glare that conveyed everything.

Laxus' eyes flickered to the floor and for the second time today he felt like a little kid again. "I'm sorry," he mumbled.

Mystogen raised an eyebrow. "Whatever for?" he said coolly.

"For unmasking you in front of Erza like that," Laxus muttered as he examined the weeds poking out of the dirt, "I know how much you like her."

"If I was you," Mystogen said curtly, "I'd be sorrier about almost killing the people you promised to protect."

"I am," Laxus grimaced, "trust me, I am."

"I know."

There was another silence that was heavy and sad and a bit cold, there was nothing friendly about this. Laxus shuddered, rubbed his eyes furiously, and pulled his bag up higher on his shoulder. "Well," he grunted, "I best be going."

There was no reply.

Laxus waited for a full ten seconds, counting them slowly, hoping, desperately, that Mystogen would at least say goodbye. They never had to in the past. It was never needed. Laxus always assumed they would see each other eventually. At home. In Fairy Tail. Surrounded by noisy brats who can't shut up or stop fighting…..but now he was never going to be able to go home, and he may have just ruined his friendship forever.

"See ya."

Still no reply.

Laxus began to walk away to….well God knows where. The silence followed him with the only noise for miles around being the sound of twigs and leaves crunching beneath his own heavy footsteps…..

And then the sound of twigs and leaves crunching beneath a much lighter set of footsteps. Laxus paused and turned slightly in time to see Mystogen standing beside him. He was still silent as ever but his silence spoke volumes. It would be unkind to leave you alone right now, his silence said, I know what it's like to be exiled from your home. To never see your family and friends again. I won't let you be alone in your moment of need.

Laxus tried to smile but then Laxus was never good at smiling and it came out as a grimace. Mystogen's eyes lit up with dry amusement and there was a sudden warmth to their silence as they walked together to wherever they pleased.

They explored the whole damn country in silence. They are in silence, they slept in silence (well Laxus assumed they did but according to many people he snored "But it's very heroic and manly!" Freed used to rush in with reassurance), they walked in silence, and they sat in silence, and yet it was the first time in a long time that Laxus actually felt connected to someone. Felt like a friend to someone.

Then one day he just disappeared.

Laxus woke up to find an empty space where Mystogen and his sleeping bag had been and not a single word to where he had gone to. Laxus knew though. It was where Mystogen always disappeared to.

Laxus just assumed that Mystogen would come back when he sorted out the latest magic sucking hole.

But he didn't.

Laxus ended up in a desert during his wanderings when he suddenly heard it. His grandfather's voice calling out to him and instantly he felt needed. He hadn't even given it a single thought when he used the lightning to travel to Tenrou Island and gave Natsu his magic to defeat the newest big bad.

And then he saw Lisanna.

Lisanna!

Sweet, annoyingly perky, adorable Lisanna Strauss who had died and crushed the hearts of everyone….was alive and back and well, and all grown up, he pulled her cheek and she grumbled irritably in reply.

And that was when he learnt that Mystogen had returned to his home world. That he had finally done what he had set out to do and saved both worlds, meted justice out to his father, and taken on his new responsibilities with ease. He was finally home.

It stung that Laxus had to find out like this but the hurt was overwhelmed with a hope that if Mystogen could finally go home then maybe so could Laxus.

And thanks to Gildarts, who seemed amused, strangely proud, and annoyingly loud as ever, Laxus was finally given a chance to earn his redemption.

Then the Grand Magical Games happened and Laxus actually met Jellal. It was Mystogen's face but it wasn't Mystogen. Not really. Though he was just as quiet and solemn and responsible, and noble as Mystogen, Jellal carried a lot of guilt with him, a guilt that Laxus could relate to (though he really wished he didn't), and he brooded more, was a little less hopeful.

Was still as hung up over Erza as Mystogen had been and Laxus wondered if Erza was just a magnet for blue-haired, red-tattooed, boys.

(God he really hopes there isn't a third one wandering round because that would just make it even more complicated and fucked up and weird.)

Their room was buzzing with noise, Gajeel was singing (despite all threats of bloody murder from EVERYONE apart from Bickslow who was encouraging Gajeel for shit and giggles), Mirajane, Cana, and Evergreen were gossiping and giggling, Juvia was wailing loudly about Love Rivals and Gray-sama, Freed was having a very enthusiastic conversation with Lily about the different runes from Edolas, and Laxus was trying to block it all out when Jellal suddenly climbed through the window from his latest espionage meeting.

(Though Laxus was half-convinced it was less spying and plotting and more snogging Erza under a bridge but that was just him….and Mira.)

He smiled wryly at Laxus before sat on the edge of the bed and said nothing at all. Laxus remembered their one, and only, conversation earlier that day when he told Jellal that Mystogen wasn't much of a talker. Jellal flashed Laxus a polite look with a silence that seemed to convey a lot of information without a single word uttered. Just like Mystogen used to.

Laxus smirked slightly in reply.

They sat in companionable silence as the rest of the room exploded with noised around them.

Jellal could never replace Mystogen….but Laxus might just be able to be friends with Jellal anyway.