Sanctuary

Chapter 4: Moonlight

Sunlight beamed onto Freed's face, causing him to hide under the covers. He slowly peeked through them to see Laxus was no longer by his side. His head was heavy. His body ached everywhere, his throat felt like he had swallowed a bucket of sand. Every time he inhaled he experienced a sharp pain around his rib cage. His body felt like it was going through a combination of a hangover and the flu. Bits and pieces of the night prior were coming back to him. He placed his hand on his forehead, shielding his eyes from the bright sun.

"Dammit." he said aloud, sounding hoarse.

"Goodmorning Sleeping Beauty," Laxus said as he walked into the room carrying a tray full of food and water.

Freed groaned, pushing onto his palms until his back found support with the bed's headboard, "Nothing about this is beautiful."

Laxus let out a soft chuckle. He placed the tray over Freed's legs and took a seat on the edge of the bed next to him. Freed scanned the items on the tray. There was a small potion bottle filled with a clear green liquid.

"What's this?" Freed asked as he picked up the potion bottle and peered through it with one eye.

"That, is your life saver," Laxus said before explaining, "The innkeeper is apparently a healer too. She made you a potion to heal you from the effects of that weird hypnosis spell you were under last night."

Freed popped the cork out of the potion bottle and took a sniff. "This smells like burnt fish" he says, holding back a gag.

"Don't be a wuss" Laxus grabbed the bottom of Freed's chin, pulling his mouth open and poured the potion into Freed's mouth. "Bottoms up!"

Freed nearly spit the potion out onto Laxus' face at the taste until he felt the instant relief coming over his body. The soreness in his back and the migraine he had gradually disappeared, and Freed was like a brand new person. Laxus was looking at him, like he was observing a test subject who tasted some experimental concoction. He pushed the plate of food closer to Freed.

"Eat. The innkeeper said to have you eat after drinking the potion."

Before Freed could give Laxus an earful about manhandling him, he heard his stomach make a loud growling noise. Of course he was hungry, he spent the night barfing his insides out. He grabbed his fork and knife and started eating the food sitting in front of him.

"You know... you've been taking care of me a lot during this job," Freed says in between bites.

"Is that a problem?" Laxus replied.

"Not at all! It's just... I'm usually the one taking care of you, with these little things. It's nice. I think I can get used to this" Freed smiles.

Laxus was still watching Freed. He felt a smile creep up on his face when he noticed Freed had some food stuck on the corner of his mouth. He reached up and wiped the food off with his thumb, caressing the corner of Freed's mouth in slow strokes. Laxus moved his gaze up from Freed's mouth to his eyes. His eyes widened once he realized what he was doing and jerked his hand back down beside him. Freed's face quickly turned bright red, he took the glass of water to try to wash down the heat rising to it.

"Yeah well..." Laxus cleared his throat, rubbing his now sweaty palms on his pants, "You're always so put together. I've never had the opportunity to take care of you before."

Freed rubbed his temples, "Yeah, guess I've been a hot mess lately."

"It honestly makes me feel relieved," Freed looked at Laxus, a little shocked by his words. "Freed the Dark, not as perfect as he seems" Laxus shot up a smirk at Freed.