Five Little Sacrifices

Chapter 7

Freed yawned and rubbed his face, trying to keep himself awake. It was already far past midnight and they had managed to get back to Magnolia somehow. All the townspeople from Naava Town who needed medical attention were in hospital and rest of them had tempory shelters all around the town.

There were more of them who got hit by those spores than he thought. Jet, Droy, Warren, Macao, Vijeteer, even Mirajane, Gajeel, Panther Lily, Natsu and Lucy had gotten sick. Few others also had mild symptoms but Porlyusica had assured that she knew how to cure them all. It would just take few days. Until then, they would have to stay in the infirmary and Evergreen had to stay there as well. Porlyusica said she would be just fine after few days of rest. For this night, Freed had decided to stay in the Guild House just in case so Bickslow was doing the same.

This had really been one hell of a day. For now, they hadn't had any time to think about the collars him, Bickslow and Roscoe had but they could think that later. Right now Freed was just enjoying the moment of silence, leaning against the bar counter in their Guild Hall.

Freed sighed deeply resting his head against his arms, closing his eyes for just a second. Laxus was still talking with Porlyusica, so he wanted to stay awake too. Bickslow and Cana were sleeping on the floor on a futon, as there wasn't enough rooms to sleep anywhere else. Roscoe stayed as well, but he had refused to go in to the infirmary since as he said, he only had few broken ribs that Porlyusica could cure easily. Maybe it was for the best. It was easier to keep those infected by spores in same rooms.

The rune mage stood up and stretched, trying to wake himself more. He decided to make some coffee in the big kitchen and after making it he sat down beside the fireplace on the couch. He just huffed and leaned against the soft back of the couch and before he knew it, he was already sleeping.

Freed woke up when something soft and heavy was pulled over him and he opened his turquoise eyes. Laxus groaned silently as he sat heavily on the couch next to him, lifting his feet on the table in front of them.

"You look exhausted", Freed said, enjoying the warmth of his Thunder God's coat.

"You're one to talk", Laxus snorted. "I thought you were asleep already."

"I was but I woke up. How are you feeling?"

"This day... So much happened. In the morning everything was fine, Felix was excited to go spend a day with Gramps and Vellanja and we were going through all the last things for our wedding and then suddenly..."

"I know", Freed smiled. "It's hard to believe all that really happened. In just one day."

"We could have handled it better", Laxus said with a deep sigh. "Instead, the town is now ruined."

"Laxus, it might be true but if we weren't there, the whole town might be gone by now. We managed to help most of those people to get out and prevent anything more horrible to happen. Yes, maybe things could have gone better, but they also could have gone far more worse, remember that."

"Thanks, babe", Laxus smiled. "I know there's no point in wondering how we could have done things differently. Instead we have to figure how we're gonna make things better now."

"That's right", Freed said and he shifted to lean against Laxus. "We did our best. It was a situation we didn't see coming. This is your first time as a Master to have to go through something like that, of course you hope you could have done something more. But what is done is done."

"You're right", Laxus smiled leaning his head against Freed's head.

"I know. So stop being so hard on yourself. You did a good job there. You made sure we wouldn't get hurt and even though I think it was stupid, you were ready to even sacrifice yourself in the end by sending others away and taking care of things by yourself. You Dreyars really like doing that."