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"Fire Dragon, Brilliant Flame!" Natsu's blast disperses the rest of the dark guild members. Laxus had insisted he could deal with them alone but Natsu had ignored him and joined the fight himself, and this annoyed Freed greatly. It was unusual for Laxus and the Thunder God Tribe to work with the fire dragon slayer and his team but the job request had been very specific that they wanted both Natsu and Laxus on the job.
The group move out again, they're hunting a terrifying beast that could harness both electricity and fire, it turns out the dark guild Nitemare were also after this creature and weren't too happy with Fairy Tail interrupting them. Natsu takes the lead role despite the fact he clearly has no idea where he's going. "We're going in circles Natsu, you should've let Laxus lead ages ago." Freed only just had time to speak before an explosion separates the group and Freed's world falls to blackness.
When Freed awakes he looks around and is surprised to find he is no longer in the clearing he'd previously been in, the blast must've sent him further away. Slowly getting to his feet, he checks to make sure he isn't too badly injured and starts trying to figure out where he is; after walking a few minutes in a straight line Freed finds nothing but more trees, no sign of Laxus or any of the Thunder God Tribe, or Natsu's team. He is about to give up and walk back the other way when a head of pink hair in a bush catches his eye; great, of anyone he could find it had to be Natsu. Walking over to the bush Freed gently kicks the side of it, "come on Natsu, get up. We need to find the others."
No response. Leaning forwards slightly Freed looks down at Natsu in shock, the young boy is unconscious, and bleeding badly from a large wound in his stomach among other small wounds over the rest of his body. The most terrifying thing is that he is hardly even breathing. Reaching down, gently, towards the dragon slayer Freed checks for Natsu's pulse; a steady heartbeat greets his outstretched figures, thank God! While the rash acts of the fire dragon slayer do frustrate Freed, along with most of the other guild members, Freed does have a sort of...respect for him, and the way he always protects his comrades, although recently he'd started to think it could've been more than just respect.
Freed gently picks up Natsu, trying his best not to worsen the dragon slayers bleeding, perhaps he could write some healing runes around him, he just needs to find a clearing he can settle the dragon slayer down in. Freed felt like he had been walking in circles for hours despite the fact he had walked in a straight line the whole time, he hadn't found any sort of clearing yet and was getting seriously worried about Natsu, his already slow breathing was getting slower and it was getting harder to find his pulse when Freed did stop to rest.
Close to giving up Freed finally finds a clearing with one flat rock in the middle. Freed gently lowers Natsu onto the flat rock and quickly writes healing runes around the rock, almost instantly Natsu features relax and his breathing starts to even out again. Sighing in relief Freed settles himself down next to the rock and looks around the clearing, he was glad his coat was red as it hid most of Natsu's blood that had stained it, although his hands weren't as lucky. Only now did he realise how this place seemed too good to be true, just when he was about to give up he finds a clearing with one flat rock the perfect size to lay Natsu on, looking around he also saw that the clearing was a perfect circle - trees never clear in a perfect circle! Becoming very suspicious and wary of their surrounding Freed sets up protective runes around the healing runes and moves closer to Natsu.
Freed didn't have to wait long before he heard the snarling of the very beast they had been sent to hunt. He couldn't be sure if the beast had been attracted to the scent of Natsu's blood, Natsu VERY loud snoring or some other reason completely. When Natsu had started snoring Freed had thought his wounds might have healed but he was still bleeding heavily. There's no way he has the energy to fight this beast. Freed steps out of the circle of protective runes to face the creature, "Dark Écriture, Absolute Shadow!" Casting the runes onto himself Freed enters his Absolute Shadow form to confront the beast.
***
Natsu awakens to the sounds of snarling, his entire body hurts and his stomach feels strangely wet and warm. He struggles to sit up into a position where he could actually see himself and is shocked to find a large wound on his stomach. Despite the pain Natsu struggles to sit up fully on the rock he'd previously been laying on. Looking around, at first he can't see any of his teammates but he knows Freed must be close by as there are runes written into the floor. Looking up more Natsu sees Freed fighting with the beast they'd been sent to hunt, he's fighting and isn't sharing with Natsu? After struggling to stand inside of the runes Natsu now notices that Freed is using his Dark Écriture, Absolute Shadow form - he only ever uses that in very tough battles - and he's being over whelmed in it!
The beast lunges at Freed and knocks the young man to the ground, it's stomach starts to glow orange as it readies it's fire breath attack. "FREED!" Natsu yells out and runs towards his comrade just as the beast releases its attack, standing in front of Freed Natsu breathes in the fire attack, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand Natsu grins menacingly at the beast. "You chose the wrong guild to fight! Fire Dragon, ROAR!" Natsu's attack hits the beast straight in the stomach and it screams out before keeling over to the ground.
With the beast defeated, Natsu turns back towards Freed and the two grin at each other, but their celebrations are short lived. Many Nitemare mages walk out from the trees, one walks forward and starts speaking, "I'll thank you fairies for defeating the beast for us, but we'll be taking it from here." And with that he launches an attack towards Natsu, who just happens to be stumbling from the injuries he'd received earlier.
Before the attack has the chance to land, Freed rushes forwards - using his Dark Écriture, Wings - and takes the attack for Natsu. "Freed!" The fire dragon slayer calls out to his comrade and runs forwards to catch Freed, he doesn't do a very good job with a hole in his stomach though! Both Fairy Tail wizards regain their footing and agree to take half of the dark wizards each - despite Natsu insisting he could take them all.
Despite the weakness of the wizards they face, in his current state Natsu's finding this fight to be one of the toughest he'd had recently. He's starting to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of wizards he's facing, but once he decides to use his lightning, flame dragon mode his opponents no longer stand a chance. "Lightning, Flame Dragon, Brilliant Flame!" dispersing the last few wizards Natsu turns back to see how Freed is doing, just as Freed's Dark Écriture, Fear forces the last of the wizards he's dealing with to flee. Turning back towards their leader, the two Fairy Tail wizards are left watching the back of the fleeing figure as he dark mage turns and runs away.
Freed starts walking towards Natsu and Natsu tries to meet him halfway but finds that after the fight he'd just had, all of his energy has disappeared and he starts falling down to the ground. He hears Freed's footsteps quicken as he runs to Natsu's aid and feels the strong arms wrap around him and hold him up off the ground. Then the last thing he expects to happen does, he feels Freed's lips against his own; Natsu doesn't really do this kissing stuff often, but finds that this time - wrapped in Freed's strong arms - he actually quite enjoys it and he relaxes into the kiss.
***
Freed starts to walk towards Natsu and check on his wounded comrade, he sees Natsu turn towards him and it looks like he's going to walk over to Freed as well. To Freed's surprise, Natsu's legs appear to give way underneath him and he starts to fall. Worried for his safety Freed starts to run towards Natsu and catches the boy, as he cradles Natsu's wounded form in his arms he finds his heart unexpectedly skipping a beat.
The warmth he feels from Natsu's body is too much for him to resist and Freed leans in towards Natsu and kisses him. The kiss is hot, but what did he really expect when he's kissing a fire dragon slayer after all! Freed didn't think Natsu was the kind of guy that would want to kiss and had expected him to push away, so he's particularly surprised when Natsu's body relaxes in his arms and Natsu starts to kiss him back.
Neither of them pull away until they both have to, gasping for air. As he looks up and away from Natsu - reluctantly - Freed sees that the rest of the group have found them and feels his face go hot. He's still cradling Natsu in his arms and looking back down at the dragon slayer he sees that Natsu is still grinning while he pants, presumably because of how flustered Freed is right now.
Floating over with very large and cheeky grin is Natsu's exceed Happy, immediately Freed has a bad feeling about the blue cat flying towards them. With a rather evil sounding laugh Happy says, "They Like Each Other!"