The Rune's Shadow

17.

. . ."Hello Kiba. It's been awhile, hasn't it?" 

Kiba was frozen where he stood, unable to move, emotions whirling in a chaotic storm in him. There was too much to say, too many questions, and an endless amount of apologies that needed to be spoken. Finally, words came from his mouth,  "I'm so sorry..." He half whispered.

Awai's smile finally faded from his face, replaced by a sad, regretful expression. "Both of us know it wasn't your fault, Kiba." The ghost shook his head and quickly repainted the smile onto his face, "Besides, its all in the past! It's time to move on and forget about it. Also we have other things to do."

Kiba said nothing as the ghost walked over to Thunder Legion and introduced himself. Evergreen and Bixlo were polite and didn't mention the conversation, but they were still curious. As Laxus watched all of it, he noticed how forced Awai's smile was, and how his eyes showed repressed emotion.

After Laxus explained everything about how exactly he had met Awai, they now needed to find their missing teammate.

"So that brings us up to speed, but the real question is where the hell is Freed?!"

Ever and Bixlo had been pretty calm about the whole situation, focusing their concern for their teammate. As Laxus thought about this question, Evergreen spoke up quietly.

"Do you-do you think he might be back at the Himitsu household? I mean, we haven't seen him ever since we left the Memorium."

"She has a point..." Bixlo agreed.

Laxus lifted his head slightly, thinking about their statement, and finding the situation more and more likely.

He stood up and stretched, "I think that's our best shot at finding him for now."

Awai got to his feet as well, a ghost of a smile on his face (Sorry, bad pun lol) 

"I agree."

Kiba stood up silently and followed them as they left the clearing, not saying a word and avoiding their eyes.

🌸

"I'm not trying to be rude or anything, but why do you look so...odd?"

Awai turned his attention to Bixlo, who was walking beside him with a look of curiosity on his face. Awai chuckled, "If you're talking about my skin and my legs, then I wouldn't be able to tell you. I honestly have NO clue why I look like this!"

Bixlo grinned, "Ohhh, I see."

Not a minute had passed before he had another question.

"Alright then, how'd you and Kiba meet?"

Awai took a moment to contemplate the mage's question, while Kiba gave a loud bark of laughter from behind them. 

"I may or may not have threatened into being my friend when we were younger?"

Bixlo did a double take at the man behind him, "Wait-you WHAT?"

Awai rolled his eyes, "I guess that's one way to put it."

Kiba rolled his eyes back at him, "Well it's true!"

After a moment Kiba explained the full story behind it. "When I ran away, I wanted to throw as much dirt on my family's name while I was gone. So I was quite determined to befriend the 'Pale Beast', as the town called him." 

At the mention of the 'Pale Beast' Kiba placed his hand on Awai's shoulder as a small act of comfort for his friend. His hand would have passed straight through him, so instead he held his hand so it looked as if he was physical. Awai glanced at Kiba's hand on his shoulder then almost immediately turned his gaze away, staring straight ahead. 

Bixlo could have sworn that there was a bit of color on the ghost's cheeks as he did so. Bixlo smirked slightly, then slowed down so he was in walking beside Evergreen and Laxus. 

"I think our ghost friend has a little crush." 

Ever smiled, "I was wondering if you were going to catch that."

Laxus walked beside them in silence, somewhat confused about what they were talking about, but saying nothing.

🌸

The five of them had just stopped for a quick break, when Awai called Laxus aside to talk with him. 

"What do you need?"

Awai shook his head, "Nothing, I just had a bit of...advice." Laxus said nothing, only raising an eyebrow as the ghost continued. "It's a tad bit obvious that you have feelings for your missing teammate, Freed I believe his name is-?"

Laxus interrupted him, spluttering both in embarrassment and fury, "If your saying I like Freed like-like THAT, then NO. HE'S JUST- HE'S JUST A FRIEND!"

Awai had a deadpan expression on his face as he replied, "I beg to differ. Even if you haven't come to terms with it, that doesn't make it any less true. And believe me," His eyes drifted away as he spaced out for a moment before he continued. 

"-It's better for both people the faster you accept it. I get that it can be a bit awkward, but trust me, it hurts worse than you'd think if you let him go."

Laxus thought about his words, falling silent as he began to picture Freed with someone else, the idea of Freed never knowing about his feeling for him. The thought of being with someone else...

Awai took his silence for understanding and smiled, "I just thought I should tell you that. No one ever told me, so I didn't want for you to make the same mistakes as me." The ghost then turned around to walk away, but Laxus called him back.

"Wait, wait, wait. Before you leave, I heard that you liked Kiba...?"

It was more of a statement, than a question.

Awai didn't bat an eyelash and calmly answered, "I have no idea what your talking about." But at the statement, his face turned dark pink. That was a good enough answer for Laxus.

The Dragon Slayer stifled a chuckle, "I beg to differ. Anyways, I think you should take your own advice."

At his words, Awai's stony expression melted away, leaving only remorse. He laughed humorlessly, "Any hope for me and Kiba is long gone..."

The ghost turned away and headed back to the rest of the group, "But thanks for the suggestion."

Laxus didn't say a word, keeping his thoughts to himself.

🌸

Freed opened his eyes blearily, feeling as if he had been asleep for years. He slowly sat up and stretched, wincing as his muscles ached from the sudden movement. The rune mage scanned his surroundings, but his eyes wouldn't clear. After a minute, Freed realized that it was his surroundings were completely blurred out, but he could see himself clearly. 

Freed felt his blood run cold as he saw that his surroundings were actually more of just a wide expanse of white-ish silver fog, with little streaks of blue in it.

"L-Laxus? Ever? Bixlo?"

Freed's heart dropped even farther if it was possible at the discovery that not only was he trapped, but trapped alone in the Memorium.