Five Little Sacrifices

Chapter 26

The night was dark and the sky was filled with dark clouds, but it wasn't raining. At least for now. On an empty street there was only one person walking by, a street lamp's light occassionally revealing the green colour of his hair as he walked past them.

Freed stopped as he arrived at an intersection, looked around and finally he turned left, walking along the new street. He didn't hurry as he knew there was no need for it. He walked over an another bridge, stopped again and followed the canal before turning into a new street. Now he was walking more confidently, as he was almost certain he was feeling Laxus' presence so he was somewhere around here.

He couldn't really explain it how he knew it. It was... A hunch. An instinct. Something like that. He rarely needed to rely on it so he wasn't really used to listen to it, but at situations like these it really was helpful. They were soulmates after all and just like Laxus was able to find him, he was able to do that same when he just followed his instincts.

And truth to be told, Freed wasn't really good at just purely following his instincts, leaving all the rational and logical thinking out. But he was pretty sure he would find Laxus. He had a feeling where to go so he just followed that feeling.

He stopped once again and glanced around. Laxus said he would go to drink and if his instincts were right and the lightning dragon slayer was still in Magnolia, he just needed to find a pub from the area where his feelings of Laxus' presence was strongest. At this area, there were only three places and one of them wasn't really Laxus' style, so that left two pubs to investigate.

Freed already had a pretty good picture which one of those places were the one where Laxus currently was. He took a new turn, walked along the street and finally stopped in front of the door. Just before soft drips were starting to fill the street and he stepped inside the old building.

It wasn't a big place, nor it was really special in any way. Just an ordinary bar where people could hang out, talk to each other, drink their worries away or drink until there was nothing more but worries in their mind. Only few guests were remaining, one of them just gazing somewhere far and two were talking with each other. They all completely ignoring the person who had stepped inside.

Freed huffed when he saw the last person and really, for one to not notice Laxus instantly when stepping in would be impossible.

Laxus was leaning against the table, still holding a stein with his other hand and there was only few drops left. It seemed like there was also a bottle of whiskey that was empty. So now Laxus was either so drunk that the owner didn't want to sell him any drinks anymore, or he was sleeping.

The rune mage stepped beside his Thunder God, gently touching his shoulder.

"Laxus", he said. "Come on, let's go home. You've had enough."

"The fuck I've had enough..." Laxus growled, but he sounded more groggy than intimidating.

"The owner will throw you out soon", Freed said looking at the counter where the owner had noticed him to approach Laxus. And he could see how relieved the small man was that someone appeared to get Laxus so he wouldn't need to be the one to try and get rid of the big, now also drunk mage.

"Like hell he will... I could use him as a toothpick..."

"Well, at least he won't sell you anything", Freed said. "So there's no reason for you to loiter around, you can't sleep here either."

For a while there was a silence, until Laxus shifted a little bit under his dark coat he had over his shoulders.

"Is Felix home alone?" he asked and Freed was happy to notice Laxus at least recognised who he was talking with and he was sober enough to be worried about his son being alone.