Summary: Freed brings home his new boyfriend who looks frightfully familiar….
Pairings: Freed/OC, implied one-sided Freed/Laxus, actual Freed/Laxus friendship, and lots and lots of other friendship feels.
Author's Note: ForBaeBears, who totally inspired this fic.
When Freed first announced that he had been seeing someone everyone had promptly spat out or choked on whatever it was they were eating or drinking (or in Wakaba's case he suddenly choked on his cigar and accidentally swallowed it….Porlyusica was not impressed to be bothered about this at all). They all stammered stupidly as they tried to wrap their minds round what Freed had just said.
Not that they didn't think Freed could get a girlfriend or boyfriend…in fact many thought the opposite, especially the girls, as they considered Freed to be the very definition of a regency novel gentleman with good looks, intelligence, loyalty, and power to back it up. No….no one had ever thought of Freed dating anyone because everyone believed that Freed was so hopelessly in love with Laxus that he would never move on.
So it was a huge shock to be proven wrong…..but it was a welcomed shock, as Mira clasped her hands together and squealed delightedly. "Oh that's wonderful!" she shrieked. "How long have you be dating? Was it love at first sight? Who asked who out? What is he or she like? Are they pretty? Is it serious? TELL ME EVERYTHING!" she demanded in her most terrifying demonic voice.
"Mira-nee," Lisanna sweat-dropped as Freed back away as quickly as possible from the absolutely crazed look in Mira's eyes. "I think you should let Freed have time to actually answer your question before you ask another."
"Oh!" Mira flushed with embarrassment. "Oops?" she giggled sweetly. Her entire demeanour changed from what could have only been an insane interrogator to the deceptively innocent girl she pretended to be. "I'm sorry Freed," she apologised softly, "I got a little ahead of myself. Please," she bowed her head respectfully, "tell us everything!"
It was an order, not a request, but Freed happily complied.
"Well," Freed mumbled suddenly feeling very self-conscious as everyone suddenly leaned in with curious expressions. "We have been dating for six months, it wasn't love at first sight but I was incredibly attracted to him, yes, him," he laughed nervously as Mira opened her mouth to jump in with what was undoubtedly another question about 'him', "He asked me out, he's….amazing, as amazing as Laxus-sama!" Freed gushed and everyone's jaw dropped open in surprise. This mysterious man must be something if Freed could make this comparison. "He is very good-looking," Freed continued, "and it's become fairly serious which is why I wanted him to meet all of you. You are, after all," Freed turned so red at this point that a couple people absent-mindedly wondered if Natsu had sprayed him with tomato sauce again, "my family," he finished in an embarrassed mumble.
"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!" Several of the girls cooed. "Freed! We love you too!" Lisanna, Levy, Evergreen, Cana, Juvia, and (for reasons only he knew) Bickslow all then glomped Freed into a bone-crushing group hug.
Freed's face went an even deeper red which was beginning to rival Erza's hair. "That's….erm….very nice," he stammered shyly, "I was going to invite my boyfriend for tea on Sunday, would that work for all of you?"
"Sunday," Mira said firmly and cheerfully, "is perfect."
She then shot a deadly look that promised worse than hell to anyone that dared argue with her.
(No one dared. They all trembled in fear of her.)
And so, for the next few days the guild worked tirelessly to ensure the guild building was sparkling clean and utterly spotless. Mira worked everyone to death until she could see her own reflection in the wooden surfaces of every bit of furniture. When Sunday arrived there was an air of relief mixed with excitement as everyone dressed in their best.
Much to Natsu's disgruntlement. "Why are we getting all dressed up?" he complained as he tugged at his shirt collar. "It's just Freed and some random dude. They don't need this much effort," he grumbled.
"It's Freed and his boyfriend," Lucy corrected with a heated glare. "This is someone who is very important to Freed so we have to make an effort in order to make a good impression on him."
"But why?" Natsu whined childishly. "If the guy loves Freed then he ain't going to care if I'm wearing a shirt or not."
"Just keep quiet, smile politely, and don't do anything to insult the guy."
"Does it really matter?" Natsu groaned. "Like I said before if the guy really lo-"
"Just be on your best behaviour!" Lucy snapped irritably. "Or so help you, God, Mira will tear you a new one!"
Natsu gulped as Mira smirked upon hearing that and nodded in agreement. Mira might not seem at all scary with her sweet smiles and innocent laugh but everyone knew that wasn't true….Mira shared the title of Most Scariest with Erza.
Fortunately, before Natsu ended up terrifying himself into a complete panic with vivid mental images of torture at the hand of Mirajane, Freed arrived. He looked nervous and jumpy as he peered round the door, smiled weakly at them all, and then vanished quickly before anyone could say a word.
They all fidgeted nervously as they suddenly became keenly aware someone that wasn't from their guild or circle of friends was going to come in, meet them all, and make a judgement that would affect one of their own.
"Hello everyone," Freed smiled as he appeared through the door properly again, "I want you all to meet my new boyfriend…." Freed's new boyfriend walked in through the door and immediately half the room's jaws dropped to the floor while the other half's eyes bulged out of their sockets in shock. Wakaba once again choked on his cigar, Bickslow's babies all gasped dramatically, Makarov rubbed his eyes to make sure he was definitely seeing things clearly, Cana dropped her (thankfully empty) glass. "So….erm….yeah," Freed laughed nervously, "This is my boyfriend. Love," he turned to look at his boyfriend and when he did so everyone swivelled their eyes to look at Laxus, who was sitting in a corner, arms crossed and looking incredibly unbothered by everything, to see how he was taking this. "This is….well everyone."
Freed's boyfriend lifted up a hand lazily. "Yo," he said in a bored tone.
No one replied for a very long time. In fact the silence was so vivid that they could all hear one of the taps in the bathroom dripping as they all stared at Freed's boyfriend in disbelief.
It wasn't that he was ugly.
Quite the opposite in fact! He was very tall, muscular, blonde, and had a strong, carved, face that resembled a Roman God of some sort. He was gorgeous…..
….and he was also Laxus' very image to almost the very last detail, if, you know, you ignored the fact he was missing Laxus' scar and had a thick, black (why?!), moustache.
A couple people pinched themselves just to make sure they weren't dreaming.
"And….everyone," Freed coughed, highly aware (and therefore immediately embarrassed) of why everyone was staring in silence, "this is my boyfriend…..Naxus Myer."
"….You're joking, right?" Natsu said loudly. Lucy immediately elbowed him for it. "Ow!" he moaned as he rubbed his side. "What the hell was that for?!" he asked heatedly.
"Hush!" Lucy hissed "It's nice to meet you, Naxus," Lucy said in a much louder, and falsely cheerful voice, "Do you live in the local area?"
"Hn," Naxus mumbled n a Laxus' like grunt.
Natsu's eye twitched.
This was unnatural.
And wrong.
And really, really, really weird.
Did Laxus clone himself or something? You know, so Freed could be happy without Laxus having to actually be in a relationship with him. Because that was seriously the only conclusion Natsu could come up with. Nothing else made sense!
"That's nice," Mira said sweetly, "what do you do for a living, Naxus?"
"He works in an electrical company!" Freed jumped in enthusiastically. "He helps provide the non-magical power to all the towns. He's very good at it. He's the Team Leader."
Natsu's eye twitched again…..electrical meant lightning, and being Team Leader was pretty much Laxus' job description as well. This coupled with the fact the look alike with the knock off name dressed exactly like Laxus – terrible shirt choice with a pimp-looking coat - and had the same anti-social air about him, sent Natsu spiralling down into feeling very much creeped out.
To make everything worse no one said anything about it. The all smiled pleasantly and acted as if Freed wasn't dating some pale copy of Laxus. The whole afternoon carried on with everyone acting as if there wasn't something awkward and weird going on.
The entire time Natsu's eye twitched furiously. He was beginning to wonder if he developed an actual problem when finally Not-Laxus actually left the building…..with Freed all draped over him and just before they left the door, Not-Laxus actually placed a hand under Freed's chin and tilted Freed's head so their lips would meet in an unnaturally sweet, innocent, and chaste peck.
Natsu choked on some bile that rose up in his throat.
"Well…." Mira said loudly, "Freed's new boyfriend seems nice."
"Yeah," Bickslow boomed in an equally loud voice, "very nice."
"Very nice! Very nice! Very nice!"
No one paid Bickslow's babies chanting any mind as they all made over-the top compliments in an over-exaggerated, way too fake, perky voices.
Natsu's eye twitched all the more furiously.
He couldn't take it anymore.
He snapped.
"CAN'T ANYONE ELSE SEE HOW WRONG THIS IS?!" he bellowed which caused everyone to jump. "Freed is literally dating what appears to be Laxus' clone. He even dresses the same, does a similar job, and has a creepily same-sounding name, and no one's worried that something weird is going on?! None of you don't think that this might be some evil plot or Freed might have been dabbling in some dangerous magic? You're all just going to accept this?!"
"Don't be stupid, Natsu," Gray snorted, "Sometimes a coincidence is just a coincidence. So there's a whole bunch of them in Naxus Myer. It doesn't mean anything."
"It's unnatural!" Natsu insisted. "What about you?!" he whirled round furiously to Laxus. "Doesn't this bother you at all?!"
After all, Freed was blatantly shoving his tongue down what was Laxus' doppelganger's throat, and therefore, it looked like Freed was snogging Laxus.
"Eh," Laxus shrugged unbothered (and very likely, he was entirely indifferent, after all he has sat back and allowed Freed to essentially molest him in the bath many times before without battering an eyelash), "as long as Freed is happy then I really don't care. But," Laxus' eyes flashed dangerously as sparks of electricity danced all over his body and a dark, ominous, shadow loomed over his face, "if he does hurt Freed, they will never find the body."
No one could quite compute the mental image of Laxus murdering….well, himself.
"SERIOUSLY HOW CAN NO ONE SEE HOW FUCKING WEIRD THIS IS?!"