Freed dodged his way through the busy marketplace, politely declining offers from merchants. He didn't have time to browse. He had to find Laxus. After his exposure at the guildhall, he was determined to prove himself, even if no one who was there would see. Laxus would see. He wouldn't understand that Freed was redeeming himself, but he was the only one worth redeeming himself for. Finally, he spotted the large man on the other side of the crowd and walked faster.
"No thank you." He said to a merchant who stopped him to advertise his wares. Shaking his hands out in front of him in declination, he continued. "I'm in a little bit of a hurry, and I'm not all that interested, sorry." Freed bustled past, feeling a little guilty but at the same time desperate to get to Laxus, who was so close. "Thank you for the offer, though."
"Don't worry! Don't worry!" The merchant replied optimistically. "There are always other customers." He turned away from Freed, who was hurrying off to chase Laxus, and shouted his product to the large crowd.
"Laxus!" Freed called, and he ran to catch up to him as Laxus paused. He fell into place beside him, and they walked along, shoulder to shoulder.
"What is it Freed?"
"Oh, nothing." Freed rubbed his shoulder self-consciously. "I've just noticed you seemed a little tense lately."
"Huh?"
"Well, you know, with all the dangerous jobs you've been going on, you must be exhausted. It really takes its toll on a man!"
"I suppose so," Laxus said thoughtfully.
"I was thinking we- you and I- could do something together, to help relieve your strength."
"Like what Freed?"
"Like a calm stroll, a peaceful job, another-"
"Backrub? Don't worry Freed. We'll see what jobs are at the guildhall." Laxus smiled at him
"Okay." Freed sighed. He was sort of hoping Laxus would want a back rub.
The next day, Laxus found Freed at the job board, staring intensely at each of the jobs with a thoughtful hand on his chin. Laxus walked up to him, and his sudden appearance beside him must have frightened Freed, because he turned quickly, accidentally tearing the job he was holding off the board.
"Oh, Laxus, hi. I was just looking for work." Freed said, staring at Laxus, but Laxus wasn't looking at Freed. He had already turned to look at the jobs available. As he reached out to grab a job that seemed very exciting (taking out some monsters giving some town trouble), Freed touched his arm. He looked over at him and saw he was holding up a job request from a bakery. Just cooking? What an easy job! Laxus took the job request to look at it. Cooking, cleaning, shopping, just simple stuff. Looking at the reward, he realized that along with 2 000 Jewel, they would also get a cake of their choice to eat.
"Why not." He shrugged, then walked off to tell Makarov that they were taking the job, before checking to make sure Erza wasn't nearby. She wasn't exactly discreet about her love for baked goods.
"Can we come along?" Laxus looked down to see Wendy and Carla staring hopefully at him.
"Yes, we're very good bakers." Carla pitched in. "We would be a great help!"
"And boy does that reward sound yummy!" Wendy licked her lips, closing her eyes happily as if thinking about all the cakes that would be there.
"Sorry, but I was thinking-"
"Come on Wendy, leave him be. We can do our own job!" Natsu called.
"Carla, we're a great team, you know? We should work together again! It'll be fun!" Happy cried, flying around Natsu's head.
"Oh calm down tomcat!" Carla called, walking over to where Natsu and Happy were excitedly (and rather loudly) searching for a job request they wanted to do. Wendy followed, and a few moments later Natsu was running past Laxus with a job request in his hands over his head, the others following him. Laxus walked back to Freed.
"Let's go then." He said, and they walked side by side out of the guildhall.