Laxus didn't remember much after nearly passing out in the forest. Not much but the pain, overwhelming and endless and scarier than he wanted to admit. He had vague images of Porlyusica's cottage, and Freed, and almost passing out again, but they were dull and blurry next to the agony in his arm.

But now, it kind of seemed like the pain was gone. Or, not gone, not quite, but kept at bay. His arm wasn't moving, and as long as he didn't try to change that, he thought he would maybe be okay.

Now, he was mostly tired. It kind of felt like he was lying on a floor, which seemed pretty embarrassing, but he was too exhausted to do much about it. Besides, he didn't really trust his legs.

"Laxus?" A slightly blurry Freed appeared in his field of vision.

Laxus blinked a few times, and the image sharpened. Freed looked kind of worried. Laxus wondered vaguely if it was about him, and whether that would be good or bad.

"Hey," he said. Laxus had wanted to sound cool, or at least as cool as a guy lying on a witch's floor with only one good arm could. Instead, he mostly sounded drugged, which explained the lack of pain.

Freed's face came closer, and Laxus realized Freed was kneeling down beside him. Laxus wished he could stand, or even just sit up, but trying and failing to move would probably be even more humiliating. Laxus stayed still.

"Do you think you could walk?" Freed asked. He kind of sounded like he was speaking from underwater, which was neat. But Laxus was pretty sure the fact that he thought that meant that the answer was definitely no.

"Um…."

"Nevermind," Freed said briskly. "I have a spell I've been working on that will enchant my body to be stronger. It won't take more than a few minutes…."

Laxus was pretty sure it took less than a few minutes. In fact, it seemed to be no time at all before Freed was sliding a hand beneath Laxus's back and carefully lifting him to his feet. Laxus was used to being big enough to pretty much squish Freed - pretty much squish anyone, as a matter of fact - so it felt strange to feel himself being supported. It felt strange but…not bad.

Freed set him on his feet, and gave him a moment to get his bearings, then wrapped an arm around Laxus's waist. Laxus was alarmed by how weak and unsteady his legs felt, but as he leaned more weight on Freed, Freed continued to take it.

Laxus was impressed. His jutsu shiki must have really worked. That was really pretty cool. Laxus couldn't believe that Freed had just created that. From his brain. Laxus felt like what he mostly created was problems. Sometimes lightning. But Freed had created this cool kind of magic, and now he could help Laxus walk home.

Laxus had half a mind to tell Freed how cool he thought it was. But he was pretty sure he was extremely high, and would probably regret it later, so he thought it was probably better if he didn't.

Freed said something to Laxus, but Laxus had been distracted, so he wasn't really sure what it was.

"Yeah?" he slurred. Whatever Porlyusica had given him also seemed to have made it very difficult for him to form words properly.

"Are you ready to start walking?" Freed asked.

"Oh," Laxus said. "Um. Yeah."

Freed tugged Laxus forward, and Laxus followed along obediently. It was a lot easier to walk with the drugs. And with Freed being so strong. A half hour ago, Laxus was half-convinced he'd have no choice but to sleep on Porlyusica's floor, but now, he was pretty sure he could make it back to Freed's place.

It seemed like it took barely any time to get away from Porlyusica's house. Laxus figured that was the drugs too, since he didn't think Freed also had a spell to make time move faster, but it was still cool. He'd felt kind of keyed up at the witch's place, which was easier both to admit and ignore with the drugs. But the further away they got, the more Laxus could relax and let the painkillers take hold.

Now that he wasn't focused on the pain, or Porlyusica, he was kind of starting to get excited about having a real bed. It had been a while. Pretty much since getting kicked out of Fairy Tail, actually. Laxus liked camping as much as the next guy, but it got pretty old after three months. After one month, actually.

Or maybe one week.

"Never camping again," he mumbled, and didn't realize he'd said it out loud until Freed turned towards him.

"What's that?"

Laxus shook his head, deciding even through the drugs that it was too embarrassing to repeat. "Nothin'. Just walkin'."

Freed's apartment turned out to be on the first floor, which was great, because Laxus didn't even want to think about stairs at the moment. He leaned on Freed as the smaller man rummaged in his pocket for his keys, then cursed quietly and wrote a series of rune letters on the door. The lock clicked to the side with a small thunk, and the door swung open.

That was cool, too. Laxus didn't remember Jutsu Shiki being this badass before he left. Maybe Freed had gotten cooler while he'd been away. Had he worked on it, or had it just kind of happened naturally?

That was probably also the drugs talking. Laxus kept his mouth shut as Freed helped him inside and turned on the lights.

Laxus didn't know exactly what he'd been expecting. He'd never seen Freed's place before, or the homes of any of the Thunder Legion. He wasn't typically the kind of guy that got invited to other people's places, since he was mostly known for breaking stuff and being kind of a dick. And since both of those were pretty accurate, Laxus didn't really usually push his luck.

Unsurprisingly, Freed's place looked…intentional. Fancy, at least to Laxus. It was less cluttered than Laxus's place had been (before he got kicked out, and was missing for seven years), but Freed wasn't a Dragon Slayer, and he'd been missing for seven years too. Aside from the weird modern looking pieces of furniture that seemed dangerous to sit on, or touch too hard, it was a pretty nice place.

"Nice place," Laxus's mouth parrotted obediently, without any input from his brain.

Freed seemed taken aback. "Th-thank you," he managed.

"I mean…it's okay," Laxus said, in something of an attempt to recover his pride.

"Ooookay," Freed said. "You must be exhausted. It's probably time to get you to bed. You'll need a lot of sleep to recover. Porlyusica said so. You can take my bed, I'll take the couch. Here, let me show you-"

Laxus looked at the couch. It didn't seem very comfortable if he was being honest - it was black and leathery, and it looked cold and not very well-padded. Laxus didn't want Freed sleeping there.

"I'll take the couch," Laxus said.

"What? No, Laxus, you need a proper bed, I doubt you'll even be able to stretch out on my couch, and I'm not the one with a broken arm…."

"Nah," Laxus said. "I'll take it."

"Laxus…."

"Do you want me to leave?"

Freed's brow furrowed. "No. I just-"

Laxus sat down on the couch. It was just as uncomfortable as it looked. But then again, it was significantly more comfortable than sleeping on the ground in the woods. "Can I get a blanket or something?"

"I…yes. Of course. Hang on a second, I'll be right back…."

Freed disappeared for a moment, and arrived back with a pillow and an armful of linens. He made up the couch for Laxus, then disappeared. Laxus figured he was heading to sleep, and started trying to do the same, when Freed reappeared with a glass of water. Then a heating pad. Then a box of crackers. Then a magazine.

"I'm just gonna sleep, Freed," Laxus said gently.

"Well…you'll let me know if there's anything else you can think of that you need, right? And you'll wake me if something happens in the middle of the night?"
"Sure, Freed." Laxus was completely exhausted at this point, and he would have said pretty much anything to simply get Freed to leave him alone.

"Okay, well, just know that my home is your home. Feel free to get yourself anything you would like. If you get bored, you can of course watch the lacrima, or, I don't know, raid my fridge, perhaps? Not that you have to get up! You are injured, after all. Maybe you should just wake me up if…."

Freed kept going, probably for a long time, but Laxus was too tired to even begin formulating a response. Silently, he closed his eyes and let Freed's voice carry him off to sleep.

Freed had been talking for about a good five minutes before he realized that Laxus hadn't responded to him at all during that time. At first, he thought that this had been a subtle hint on Laxus's part that he should stop talking, and he was mortified that he'd missed the social cue.

But when he looked back at the couch, Laxus was curled up on his right side, breathing deeply. He'd fallen asleep, sometime during Freed's unintentional monologue.

Freed put his hand over his mouth to stop from gasping and waking Laxus. He was just…surprised, to say the least. He'd always admired Laxus, even aside from having a gigantic crush on him. After a while, he'd even called Laxus a friend. He had trusted Laxus with pretty much everything he had, and he counted himself lucky that Laxus would trust him back with anything at all. Freed never would have expected, or even hoped, that Laxus would trust him enough to leave himself vulnerable in front of Freed. To the best of his knowledge, that was something that Laxus never did willingly.

Overwhelmed, Freed tiptoed to his bedroom and opened the door as quietly as humanly possible. He did his nighttime routine quickly, cutting out any steps that he felt made undue noise. He usually despised skipping any steps of any routine, but in this case (and possibly this case alone) it was worth it.

Freed climbed into bed and closed his eyes, waiting for sleep to come. Instead, completely unbidden, an image of Laxus sleeping on his couch appeared behind his eyelids. Laxus was in his house. In his living room.

Sleep was impossible under these conditions. Since the day that he had met Laxus, Freed had been daydreaming of how he would finally win the man's affection. An important part of every iteration of the plan had been inviting Laxus into his home, under a variety of pretexes.

Freed had to admit that this had not been one of them.

But…this was better than Laxus not being in his house, certainly. And Laxus had very much agreed to be here, seemed like he wanted to be here, in fact….

Going to Freed's house willingly certainly didn't mean Laxus was gay, but it had to at least mean that he cared for Freed….

Freed had already resolved to be the perfect host - he always strived to be the perfect host, under any conditions. But now, he was determined to be an even better one. Whatever Laxus required, Freed would provide. Whenever Laxus needed something, Freed would be there with it.

Tomorrow, at least. There wasn't much Freed could do while Laxus was asleep.

But as soon as Freed turned over to try to go to sleep again, he started worrying that the middle of the night would be when Laxus would need something, and if Freed was sleeping, he would be unable to provide it. That wouldn't do at all. Freed wasn't sure he could fall asleep, not if he was worrying about this. And either way, he definitely wasn't sure that he should. He decided to read a book, at least for…a while, at least until he was really sure that Laxus was deeply asleep.

Freed turned over, turned his light on, and grabbed a book from his bedside table. This would be…a long night, certainly, but Freed did always appreciate having a bit of extra time to read….

About six hours went by, and nothing at all happened. Even Freed was starting to admit that he wasn't really enjoying the book anymore - his eyes had gotten dry ages ago, and as determined as he was to make sure Laxus was taken care of, he simply would have rather been sleeping than listening for a cry for help that never came. His eyelids were getting heavy, and it was all he could do not to actually go check on Laxus, just so he would have something to do.

And then, Freed heard a small shifting sound. It definitely wasn't loud enough that it would have woken him up, if he had ever been asleep in the first place. But Freed had been listening to Laxus shift around all night, and this was definitely different. Louder.

But Freed couldn't be sure that he hadn't imagined it. So he just waited, stock still, in case this was finally the moment he would be called upon to provide Laxus with something.

Laxus did not call out. On second thought, Freed supposed that he might have been expecting a bit much. He couldn't remember Laxus ever asking for help, not even the sort of help that was along the lines of "does my hair look okay" (yes) or "is purple a good color for me" (also yes).

But the shifting sounds didn't stop. In fact, they grew louder, and more frequent, eventually culminating in a painful-sounding sigh. Freed was now positive that Laxus had woken up, and he was also fairly sure that he was going to need something.

He would be an even better host if he anticipated the need without Laxus having to ask, wouldn't he? Freed told himself that he would, and carefully considered the best way to make it seem as though he'd just woken up himself.

After a decent interval of about two minutes, Freed got loudly out of bed, made sure his hair looked presentable, and walked heavily into the living room. He stopped by the door, carefully staging a yawn, and looked towards the couch with an expression of manufactured surprise.

"Oh! Laxus! I didn't know you were-"

Freed broke off mid-sentence as he actually got a good look at Laxus. He was still curled up on Freed's couch, twisted into an uncomfortable-looking ball, and he looked…terrible. When Freed had found him in the woods, he had been convinced that that would be the worst he would ever see Laxus. Now, however, he was being proved wrong.

Laxus was pale beneath his newly-grown stubble, somehow even more ashen in the morning light. His skin looked clammy, and despite the carefully-controlled coolness of Freed's living room, he was clearly sweating. His eyes were tracking Freed now, but slowly, and they looked dull and hazy, with wide, glassy pupils.

"Are you alright?" Freed asked, without thinking. "Can I get you something?"

Laxus's eyes opened and closed lazily a few times, and he looked like he was thinking very hard. He didn't answer, which was unsurprising. He'd probably been lying here for the past ten minutes, trying to figure out what was wrong and whether or not he could fix it without bothering Freed.

Suddenly, Freed felt relieved that he'd stayed up all night, rather than stupid. Laxus was clearly suffering, and Freed was here to help him without him even having to ask.

"Do you need another round of painkillers?" Freed asked, hazarding a guess.

Carefully, Laxus licked chapped lips and nodded. "Thanks," he whispered.

"Think nothing of it," Freed said grandly, then retreated to the kitchen before he could embarrass himself further..

Freed remembered that Laxus was supposed to take painkillers with food if he could. That sounded right - Freed was pretty sure he'd been on the exact same blend of herbs when he'd burned his shoulder a few years ago, and he remembered feeling nauseous and woozy when he'd taken them without eating. Not that he'd wanted to eat much, when he'd been in that much pain, and he very much doubted Laxus would either. But still….

"Can I get you something to eat?" Freed called from the kitchen.

"No," Laxus said.

"Crackers?"

"No."

"Rice? Toast?"

"No."

"I could probably make some soup…."

"How 'bout nothin'?"

Freed frowned, but figured that maybe Laxus would be more likely to eat once he was in a little less pain. Breakfast would do him some good, at least, even if he'd already taken the painkillers. So Freed just gathered up the little bottle from Porlyusica and a glass of water, and went back to Laxus.

"Here you go," Freed said gently. He waited until Laxus had put the pills in his mouth to give him the glass of water, since he only had one usable arm. Laxus looked grateful.

It was only about four in the morning, but at this point, Freed was pretty sure there was no chance of either of them getting any more sleep. Laxus tended to need a little more sleep than Freed, but he was in so much pain Freed doubted he would be getting it tonight, and Freed certainly wouldn't have dared rest now that he knew there actually was a chance of Laxus needing him. So he retreated into the kitchen once more, this time to make himself a cup of coffee. He didn't even bother asking Laxus if he wanted one.

Freed was surprisingly hungry - he supposed he had gotten an unexpected workout in the form of hauling nearly unconscious Laxus all around Magnolia, so he made himself a sandwich. He remembered Porlyusica saying fresh fruits and vegetables would be good for Laxus, so he peeled and chopped a banana and figured he wouldn't take no for an answer.

Freed returned to the living room, carrying his sandwich in one hand and the plate with the banana in the other. "I brought you a banana." Maybe if he said it confidently enough, Laxus would just accept it and finally get some food.

"No thanks," Laxus said quietly. He looked kind of queasy, although Freed wasn't sure if it was from his injury or from taking the painkillers on an empty stomach. "Not hungry."

Freed frowned down at the banana in distress. At this point, he had next to no idea whether Laxus was refusing because he didn't want to accept help, or because he was genuinely feeling ill. Not for the first time, Freed wished that human beings worked by predetermined rule sets, like Jutsu Shiki. He wanted to help Laxus, but he didn't even know where to start.

"I'm just going to leave it here, then," Freed finally said, putting the banana down within easy reach of Laxus. It was all well and good to think about not taking no for an answer from the safety of the kitchen, but when he was actually looking at Laxus it was a very different matter indeed.

Freed ate his sandwich at the desk he'd put in the corner of the living room, trying not to stare at Laxus. That didn't work very well, but Laxus clearly didn't notice. As soon as Freed had stopped talking to him, his eyelids had drifted closed and he'd burrowed back down into the blankets on the couch. Freed could tell he wasn't asleep, because he seemed to be clenching his jaw, but he wasn't really awake either.

Freed waited for some of the tension in Laxus's face to smooth out, knowing that would be when the painkillers had kicked in. As the pain lines around Laxus's eyes eased, Freed cleared his throat.

Laxus didn't move, so Freed cleared his throat again. This time, Laxus's eyes drifted dreamily open, staying half-lidded as he looked at Freed.

"Are you feeling better?" Freed asked, hoping that the answer would be a firm "yes" and he could reintroduce the concept of the banana. Laxus didn't really look that much better, still pale and kind of hollow, but it was worth a try.

Laxus shut his eyes, frowning, like he was trying to remember how to answer the question. Clearly, the painkillers had very much kicked in.

"Are you feeling better?" Freed repeated.

Laxus's eyes drifted back open, glassy and certainly not focused on Freed, and he shrugged with only his right side. "'M okay."

Freed had never been more horrified to hear the word "okay." He had memorized all of Porlyusica's instructions verbatim, and she was clearly right. Laxus was definitely not "okay," but he was well enough to attempt lying to Freed about it.

Briefly, Freed thought that maybe it was a good thing that Laxus looked so ill that it was immediately obvious he was lying. It wouldn't read as strange to start treating Laxus as if the exact opposite of "okay" was the truth.

Freed wondered briefly if there was a surreptitious way to check for a fever, and decided there probably wasn't. Before he could overthink it, he took a few steps forward and rested the back of his hand on Laxus's forehead. Laxus scrunched up his face, and retreated to the other end of the sofa.

"You're hot," Freed said. "Yeah, definitely hot."

Laxus just looked at him, and Freed's face grew warm. "You're feverish, I mean," Freed said stiffly. "Does your arm feel infected?"

"Um…I don' know?"

"Well…there's probably something wrong with you, since broken arms don't cause fevers," Freed mused aloud. "I should probably take you to Porlyusica, but she made it sound like she would kill me if I took you when you were anything less than dying…you don't feel like you're going to die in the next few hours, do you?"

"No," Laxus said. "I don't."

"Alright then, it's settled," Freed said. "I'm sure I have some fever reducers somewhere around here, and that should make you a little more comfortable. We'll see if we can get you feeling a bit better on our own. You just focus on getting some rest."

Laxus frowned. "I already rested."

"Well, get some more," Freed said, and left Laxus to go rifle through his medicine cabinet.