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eryiss · 6 years

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Offshoot: The Champagne Suite

Summary: On the one year anniversary of their wedding, Freed and Laxus chose to go on a vacation to the beutiful town of Akane. Their love as strong as they day they wedded, they find themselves in the luxury Champagne Suite. [Fraxus Oneshot]

Hey all. This is set in the same world as my Gambler’s Luck multi-chap. You don’t need to have read it, but it may help to know Freed is a gambler and Laxus’ boss. Also, the third part of this is smut, so you might want to skip that part if you’re not into that. The rest is just fluff. ^.^

You can read it on Fanfiction, Archive of our Own, or under the cut. I hope you all enjoy it!

The Champagne Suite

"Here's your suite," The bellhop proclaimed as he opened the door. "Your luggage will be here momentarily. Enough time to acclimatise yourself to the room, I'm sure."

Freed and Laxus walked into the large hotel suite, looking around the room with interest. Laxus wore a small, subtle grin as he scanned the room that could only be described as luxurious. The swelling of pride doubled as he glanced up at his husband's face, to see a soft, unrestrained smile painted across his features as he walked over to the balcony and looked across the unrivalled view of Akane's coast. To be accredited to Freed's smile, Laxus couldn't help but feel proud.

He himself was happy with the room as well. They had walked into a modern looking living room, sofas pointed towards an open fireplace and wall mounted TV. Partially cut off by a waist high wall, a kind sized bed of pristine quality, well made and incredibly inviting. Behind a glass wall was a large bathtub that, according to website, was designed to fit more than one person in at any time. Attached to that was a black door that Laxus assumed connected to the more private – but assumedly equally luxurious – bathroom. The suite had looked fantastic on the website, but seeing it in person revealed just how awe-inducing it really was.

"If you need anything – food, an early turndown, or the concierge – you'll find multiple phones throughout the suite you can use to call down. If you're asked, the room is under the name Dreyar," The bellhop smiled, standing at the door. "On behalf of Lacrima resorts, please enjoy your stay."

"Thanks," Laxus nodded, handing the man a tip. Freed repeated the sentiment, and the man left.

Now a little more relaxed, Laxus looked towards his husband and grinned. The two were sharing their first wedding anniversary and Laxus had insisted he be in charge of how they would celebrate it; deciding on a weekend away at a luxury beach hotel. The room had been Laxus' main concern, so to have that worry quelled meant he could fully start to enjoy the weekend fully.

"So," He began, wearing a small grin as he walked up to his husband. "You like it, right? Up to your standards."

"Incredibly so," Freed mused, smiling as he felt strong arms wrap gently around his waist. "The view's beautiful, as well. Though pales in comparison to my husband."

The gambler turned around in the arms around him, leaning up and connecting their lips slowly. Laxus' grin turned to a smile as they engaged in a slow kiss, pushed slightly against each other in a moment of tranquillity shared between the two men. It was heavenly, and a thrill that Laxus didn't think he could ever tire of.

Although both men would be happy to continue the moment long into the night, Laxus forced himself to pull apart from his husband's taunting lips; though not too far, as he made sure their foreheads stayed together. He stared into the other man's eyes for a moment, before speaking.

"You're pretty damn handsome yourself."

"You think I need reminding?" Freed spoke with a taunting tone and a slight raised eyebrow.

Laxus chuckled slightly; a year together hadn't removed the gambler's snarky attitude. Or ego. That was more than fine, that somewhat cocky persona was part of the man he loved. The blonde simply grinned at his husband, leant down and delivered a short, chaste kiss to the smirking man; the kiss was accompanied by a mumbled 'asshole' against his lips.

They stood together, illuminated by the mid-afternoon sun streaking through the windows. Their lives were busy, somewhat metropolitan and often without break, so to have a moment like this – where time seemed unimportant and without repercussions – they would make sure to revel in it. To take the time to adore the other, relive every moment of their romance and remember exactly whey they were enamoured with each other.

Sadly for the two men, the moment couldn't last forever. A sharp knock came to the door, pulling them out of their conjoined trance.

Pulling away from his husband with a grin, Laxus delivered a final split-second kiss to the mans lips before walking to the door of their room. He opened it to see that their bags had been placed against the wall opposite, and the person responsible for it was half way down the hallway already. Impressed by the fast service – Laxus still hadn't fully become used to the luxurious side of life yet – the blonde brought the two bags into their room and placed them beside the door. They could unpack them later, they'd been travelling for most of the day and he would rather just relax for a short while.

Looking towards Freed, he pouted slightly. He had wanted to continue their kiss from before but saw that Freed had walked to the bed and was looking through a small catalogue that had been left upon it. Laxus didn't mind, they had all the time in the world to kiss each other.

Besides, relaxed and under a soft light, Freed looked damn fantastic.

Closing the door to the suite, Laxus walked to the bed and sat beside his husband. He slipped off his shoes and rested his head against Freed's shoulder, absently looking at the catalogue Freed was reading. The page he was on highlighted all the hotel's amenities, including the spa, pool, gym and personal theatre.

"Anythin' jumping out at ya?" He asked, stifling a yawn as he nuzzled slightly further into his husband.

"The pool and the spa are enticing," Freed mused, sounding just as tired as Laxus felt. It made Laxus nuzzle him further and press a kiss against his jaw. "It's been some time since I've been able to swim, I used to do it quite often. It was relaxing."

"You gonna leave me alone on our anniversary, huh?" Laxus teased softly, nudging his husband's waist with a grin. "That's cold, asshole."

"I suppose so. How could you handle it, sitting at the poolside bar, seeing your husband dripping wet in a swimsuit without anything to stop you," Freed smirked back. "I don't know how you're not demanding a divorce from me here and now."

Laxus chuckled, planting a kiss on Freed's jaw again and making sure to take Freed up on the offer. He brought his feet onto the bed and laid down, half-tempted to groan at how comfortable the mattress felt and how soft the sheets were against his exposed arms. He looked towards Freed with half lidded eyes, fighting back another yawn as he nudged the still-reading Freed with his foot. The gambler chuckled a little, resting a hand on Laxus' lower calf in acknowledgment as he placed the catalogue on the bedside table.

The moment Freed's hands were empty, Laxus grabbed one and tugged his husband towards him. With another small chuckle, Freed quickly removed his own boots and joined his husband on the bed, looking towards the other man with a soft expression that Laxus found himself melting into. God he loved the man.

They stayed like this for a short while, their limbs tangling slightly as they got themselves comfortable. Their foreheads came to touch again, and Laxus found his eyes straying shut every few seconds. Freed smiled at this, reaching up and removing a stray strand of his husband's hair, before shifting slightly so that he could look into the other mans clearly tired eyes without obstruction.

"If you're tired, why don't you just sleep for a while?" He suggested softly. "You look ready to pass out."

"Nah, just need a couple seconds and I'll-"

"Pointlessly try and stay awake until you realise you're being stubborn?" Freed completed, half smiling. "I'm not going to fly into a rage because it's our anniversary and you're tired, if that's what's stopping you."

"I know," Laxus mumbled slightly. "Guess it can't hurt, what time is it?"

"Nearly two-thirty," Freed supplied after checking his watch.

Good. He had yet to tell Freed, given that it was a part of the weekend that he wanted to keep as a surprise, but he had organised something for the two of them at four-fifteen that he hoped his husband would enjoy. It was his main gift for Freed – as it was paid from his own earnings rather than their joint savings – and he would be damned if he missed it.

Having made up his mind that he could sleep for a little while, he allowed his eyes to close fully. The yawn he had been restraining slipped out, loud and ferocious, and he wrapped an arm around Freed's waist to pull him closer. The gambler smiled and allowed it to happen.

"Make sure we're up by three thirty," The blonde mumbled, knowing Freed was better at sticking to a deadline when sleeping than he was. "Got a surprise for ya, don't wanna be late."

"Of course," Freed nodded slightly, and Laxus felt the shift on the overly-comfortable pillow they were both sharing. "I might look around the hotel if I wake up early – see what the bar is like and book something at the spa. So if you wake up and I'm not there, that'll be why."

Laxus made a small hum of acknowledgement, though lips tugged into a smirk. "As long as you ain't going to the pool without me."

"I wouldn't dare."

After hearing his husband's words, the blonde allowed himself to relax fully. He leant forward and planted a final chaste kiss on the other man's lips, before loosening his grasp around his waist and leaving his arm draped over him. This was the same position that they would sleep in at home – or at least try to sleep in, as they usually woke up having moved – and Laxus found himself smiling as he willed sleep to overtake him. It had been nearly a year since he had first fallen asleep beside the man he could call husband, and he still felt privileged to do so.

He was determined to make this weekend as good as he possibly could. Throughout their relationship Freed had often surprised him or treated him, and this was one of the few times he felt he could put as much thought towards Freed as Freed did to him. He wasn't intending to fuck it up.

His ear pricked slightly as he heard a small sound come from his husband's lips. The gambler often allowed all facades to drop when he was tired, and his inhibitions often went with it, meaning the man would allow small sounds of comfort, pleasure and overall enjoyment slip out without him meaning to. The sound that had just occurred was that of content and comfort, and Laxus found his heart beating faster.

Even if they did sleep over the surprise, or over the whole damn weekend, Laxus didn't think he would be annoyed. Because time's like this, with his husband by his side, was perfect in every conceivable way.

-~~~-

Freed hadn't been sure what to expect when Laxus said he had planned a surprise for their afternoon. The blonde had clearly been slightly anxious while planning their vacation – having come to Freed to check he was okay with his plans multiple times – so the fact they were doing something he wasn't aware of was a welcome treat. Although, the gambler would be lying if he said he wasn't confused as to what this treat could be.

It wasn't dinner, they'd eaten well at lunch and had reservations for a restaurant later in the evening. Nor could it be anything overly active, as Laxus had insisted he bring his anniversary gift so they could exchange them during the surprise. It was only when they reached their destination when Freed was given the answers to his questions.

They were in Akane harbour, and had walked to a small, luxurious boat.

After speaking to the person sitting beside the boat – it's owner and operator – Laxus climbed aboard it and held out a hand to Freed. The gambler laughed slightly at the gesture, taking the hand and allowing Laxus to help him aboard. He took a seat on the comfortable leather sofa as he adjusted to the gentle rocking of the boat. Laxus sat beside him, resting an arm on the side of the boat and smiling at Freed as the boat started to move from its parked position, assumedly piloted by the man Laxus had previously been speaking to.

"So, a boat ride," Freed spoke first, tone soft as they navigated through the harbour. "That's quite romantic."

"Yeah, well, you did a lot of romantic shit for me over the years. Thought I might do it back for you," Laxus shrugged slightly. "You like it, right?"

"Yes," Freed smiled, resting his own arm on the side and the boat and interlocking their fingers. "It's fantastic."

Laxus grinned, taking the action as an invitation to shuffle a little closer to Freed. He wrapped his arm around Freed's shoulders and melted into the other man, watching as the boat made its way into the extensive canal system of the town. Laxus had chosen this route as it seemed more interesting, romantic and overall pleasant. It was also longer and, if it went as well as Laxus hoped it would, then the boat ride would be something he wouldn't want to end.

As the boat started to float past buildings with beautiful, colourful architecture, Laxus found Freed's head fall against his shoulder slightly. It was a small action, but one Laxus found himself smiling about. Part way into their first year of marriage, Freed had confessed he felt more comfortable being openly affectionate with him than he had thought he could be, which gave the blonde an odd sense of pride.

"This is lovely," Freed reaffirmed, voice soft. "Thank you."

"It's barely started," Laxus chuckled, pressing his lips against Freed's forehead. "But I'm glad that you're enjoying it. D'you wanna drink? The whole trip should last for about an hour, so you might want one."

"Yes, please," Freed smiled, sitting up so that Laxus could move unhindered. "What do you have?"

Laxus smirked a little as he opened the small mini-fridge that was built into the underside of the sofa. He pulled out two glasses and two bottles of alcohol – one of scotch, the other of rum. It was a small thing, but Laxus had requested that the brands be the same as those the two had drunk the night they had met. He didn't expect Freed to identify this detail, but it was something Laxus did to make the afternoon more personalised. A testament to the night that had kickstarted their relationship, in a way.

After Freed asked for scotch, the drink that Laxus expected him to prefer, he poured him a half glass and handed it to him. The gambler smiled and took the drink, sipping at it as Laxus poured himself a glass of rum. Freed smiled at the taste, having recognised it as the brand from Mirajane's bar. He glanced at the bottle of rum Laxus poured, seeing it was also the same brand that Mirajane stocked.

It didn't take him long to realise it wasn't a coincidence and he smiled. The amount of effort Laxus was putting into his surprise was cute.

Leaning back with his drink in hand, Laxus returned his free arm around Freed's shoulders and smiled. The canals were busy with boats, and the streets crowded with people, but it was still scenic as hell. The sun was beating down on them, a gentle wind cooling them as they moved.

Both men sipped at their drinks on occasion, chatting idly as they traversed the beautiful town. They were leaning against each other, perfectly content as they were given a tour of the water ways that allowed them privacy and moments of calm. Time passed quicker than Laxus would have hoped, and they were soon floating alongside a decorative fountain that marked the half way point of their journey. He sat up slightly, causing Freed to look towards him questioningly.

"Seems like a good time to exchange gifts, right?" Laxus suggested, reaching down and picking up a small box.

Freed nodded, and reached to the other side of the boat where he had placed his gift for Laxus, which was considerably larger than Laxus'. The blonde had given Freed a questioning look after he saw the size of the box, but hadn't said anything about it, choosing to take it as a surprise rather than spoiling it.

The two had made a deal that their gifts to each other would be inexpensive. The vacation itself was expensive and acted as a gift to them both, meaning they didn't need to spend too much on further gifts. Laxus had been happy about this, partly because he could focus all his efforts into making the vacation as good as possible, and partly because he could have some fun with what he was getting Freed.

He handed the small, wrapped box to his husband, trying to restrain his grin. Freed noticed this, but didn't mention it. Instead, he unwrapped the gift, opened the small box and looked at the item inside. Laxus grinned at the frown presented in him.

"A monocle?" The gambler asked, laughing slightly.

"You know, to complete the whole 'extra in a Victorian detective show' thing you got going on," He teased with a small grin, nudging his husband slightly. Freed laughed, picking it up. "And you better wear it. Put a lot of effort into finding it."

Freed chuckled, picking up the eyewear and placing it in his right eye; Laxus found himself wondering if Freed had worn a monocle before, given how easy he found wearing it.

"I'll wear it whenever we're together," Freed smirked a little in promise. "In fact, one day you'll forget what I look like without it. It'll fuse with my skin and will be the next step in human evolution, all because of you."

Laxus chuckled, nudging his husband and mumbling a small 'asshole' in response. Freed smirked further, removing the monocle from his eye and placing it back into the box. He then picked up the large box that he had wrapped that contained Laxus' own gift. The blonde took it with a smile, sitting up fully so that he could better unwarp it. He made quick work on the paper, not showing the same amount of restraint that Freed had, and carefully opened the box.

What he saw was all the proof he needed that he and Freed were fated for each other. Because, just like Laxus, Freed had seen the no-expensive gifts rule as an excuse to get a gag gift for him. Though, Laxus had to admit, he had received the better present.

He pulled it out slowly, showing a large yellow dragon plush toy. He looked at Freed with a smile and raised eyebrow.

"You grandfather takes great joy in telling me how much you loved dragons when you were a child," Freed explained, smirking further. "Apparently you couldn't sleep without your dragon toy to protect you, I wouldn't want that to happen again."

Laxus chuckled, shaking his head. "I'm gonna kill that old bastard when we get back."

"You don't need to do that," Freed chuckled, before adding. "You've got your dragon to do it for you."

Laxus grinned, placed the toy safely on the leather beside him and pressing his lips against Freed's forehead for the umpteenth time that day. Laxus wrapped his arms around his husband, trying to ignore the fact that the way he was holding Freed slightly resembled the way he had held his dragon teddy when he was younger. He was half tempted to mention it, but he didn't need to give Freed any more teasing ammunition.

He relaxed where he sat, enjoying the time spent with his husband. Over their year of marriage, the blonde had grown to appreciate the small moments of domesticity that he had previously expected to find boring. Sometimes these moments came while the two tried to sleep – one memorable example was during a hailstorm where the beating of ice against glass was almost hypnotic to the two men as they tried to drift off – or simply when the two spent time alone together – again an example had spring to mind, this time being when Freed had a client who lived in the next city over and Laxus had driven him, the journey of two hours seemingly flashing by in an instant.

Sharing time with Freed was faultless. And doing so in such a heavenly place, with the knowledge that their anniversary was coming within the day, just made it so much better.

Laxus knew that this weekend wouldn't last forever, and time seemed to go faster within moments like this, so he would make the best of the situation before it ended. He nuzzled the crook of his husband's neck and intertwined their legs, feeling the slight rumble of Freed's chuckle reverberate through his bones.

They spent the majority of the ride in silence, enjoying each other's company and the views of the scenic location that surrounded them. They spoke on occasion, filling their drinks whenever needed, but neither wanted to break the spell that had occurred between them. It was perfect, an undeniable moment in their lives that Laxus felt proud of orchestrating. There had been so many parts of their relationship that Laxus looked back fondly on because of what Freed had done, and Laxus hoped that this would offer the same pleasure to Freed.

With a smile, Laxus leant up slowly, pressing his lips against Freed's in a soft, but passioned kiss. Freed returned it immediately, his hand landing on the man's thigh as he leant down further into his husband's embrace.

The kiss became strong faster than Laxus had expected, and he found himself resting his hand on the man's chest. He could feel the muscle under it shifting slightly – the same muscle that he had been witness to, and have used upon him, multiple times in their relationships – and leant further into the kiss. Freed's hand slid up his thigh slightly, and Laxus felt a chill go down his spine at the small movement.

Shit. This needed to stop.

Laxus gently pushed himself off his husband – a torturous task as they had made an effort to keep their hands off each other in the days leading up to their vacation – and sat back. They had just pulled into the harbour again, signifying the end of their boat ride, and they only needed to last the short walk to the hotel before they could continue their actions.

"I know you wanna hit the pool," Laxus whispered, somewhat huskily. "But, you maybe wanna go to the room first?"

"Definitely," Freed replied, smirking. Laxus happily matched it.

-~~~-

The moment the door to their room shut, Laxus found himself pushed against it by his husband. They were kissing a second later, passionate and without restraint. All pre-tenses of innocence and chaste were gone as they attacked each other, both men knew what was going to happen and damn did they want it immediately.

Freed's hands explored Laxus' torso without shame, his hips pressed against Laxus' in a way that pinned him against the door. Laxus leant into it, his hands tangled into Freed's hair and occasionally tugging at it. It was a small action, barely causing a reaction in the gambler, but the small sounds of pleasure that they elected were pure magic to both Laxus' ears and his crotch, which twitched in need in the tightness of his trousers.

Freed placed his thigh between Laxus' legs, gently rubbing the needy area and forming a small growl of both lust and annoyance in the blonde's throat. Freed smirked into the kiss after hearing it.

"Stop fucking teasing," Laxus grunted as their lips parted.

"I don't think you're in much of a position to make demands," Freed smirked, pushing his thigh up higher to elect another groan of impatience. "So let me take control, and I assure you that it'll be worthwhile."

The gambler didn't give Laxus any time to respond, pressing his lips against his exposed collar bones and leaving a trail of featherlight kisses across it. His hands returned to the blonde's torso, feeling the impressive expanse of muscle under his command and Laxus felt a moan ripple up his throat after the strong hands rubbed against his pecs. He glared down at his husband, knowing he was acting like this on purpose, and only earned a smirk in response.

Deciding to show mercy – both on Laxus and his own aching need – Freed stopped taunting his husband and moved his hands to his stomach. He peeled the bottom of his shirt up his body, taking a moment to admire the perfect abs that Laxus had cultivated, before continuing his removal of the clothing.

A moment later, Laxus' shirt was flung to the floor and Freed was gifted an unhindered view of the man's godly physique. Still after a year, those perfectly sculpted muscles, rounded shoulders and chiselled chest awoke something deep inside the gambler. Raw and hungry.

God, Laxus was flawless.

Freed was on him again a moment later, kissing him as passionately as he could. One hand had grabbed the blonde's waistband to pull him as close as possible, while the other latched into his short blonde hair and was grabbing at it as if his life depended on it.

The gambler passively became aware that Laxus' hands were over his torso as they explored each other's mouths. He soon realised that Laxus was unbuttoning his shirt when a cold blast of air hit his bare chest, followed by hands rubbing against the strong contours of his stomach. Those same hands quickly went to the gambler's arms, running the sleeves of his shirt down while admiring his large biceps. Freed unhooked his hands from the blonde and shook his shirt off completely, before returning to their kiss.

When they came for air, they pulled back. The two men took a moment to admire each other's bodies, eyes as hungry and needy as they had been the first time they had slept together. They ran off lust and need, and without the need to speak, they were kissing again a moment later, still pushed against the door they had entered through.

"Bed," Laxus growled before biting at his husband's neck. "Now."

Seeing no reason to deny the demand, Freed pulled away from his husband's lips. His right hand was still grabbing the waistband of Laxus' jeans and, rather than letting it go, he walked towards the bed backwards and dragged Laxus with him. Laxus grinned at his husbands' actions.

Laxus found himself on the bed a moment later, his husband straddling him with his knees. They kissed again, this time Laxus looking up to the man he adored as their lips connected and disconnected time and time again. Their hands were over each other like animals, and Laxus found himself enjoying the strong curve of muscle that made up his husband's back.

His hands slipped down further, groping Freed's ass without a semblance of shame. He felt Freed's breath hitch slightly as he did so, and the blonde's eyes shot down to see how obvious Freed's hard dick was poking against his trousers. He smirked, wanting more.

One hand remaining on his lovers perfect, awe-inspiring ass, he brought his right hand to the buckle of Freed's belt. He fumbled slightly, engrossed in the kiss, but managed to unbuckle it. He slid it off without mush difficulty, tossing it to the side in the same way Freed had done to his shirt, before unbuttoning his pants and undoing the fly.

Lifting himself off his husband slightly, Freed allowed Laxus to remove his pants fully. Once they hit the ground, Freed was back to straddling him again, now only wearing a pair of tight grey boxers that Laxus adored. The position he was in highlighted how damn hot the gambler was. His muscles glinting in the light with a small layer of sweat covering them; his underwear sticking against him like a second skin, moulding around his clear hard-on; and his slightly condescending smirk making him seem like a devil.

A devil who could do whatever he wanted to Laxus.

Mesmerized by the sight before him, Laxus found himself unable to move as Freed lowered his head again. He missed the mans face entirely, pressing his lips against the cross section of Laxus' strong pecs. He kissed down lower, then lower, leaving a train of taunting marks down his torso. Laxus' head snapped back slightly when Freed reached the small tuft of blonde hair poking above the waistband of his jeans.

With quick movements, Freed took the buttons that made up Laxus' fly and undid them one by one. He forced eye contact with his husband, daring Laxus to look away from the actions of Freed's tongue.

"Fuck," Laxus breathed, trying not to buck his hips in response.

Freed crawled up his husband again, using a hand to push Laxus' jeans down just enough to fully expose his black boxers. His strong hands rubbed against the clear, large bulge that Laxus had adorned, forcing a loud moan from the blonde that he had no intention of stopping.

With a smirk on his face, Freed wrapped his hands around his husband's cloth covered dick and started to pump it slowly. The pace was intentionally torturous but Laxus knew better to question it, so leant back on his hands with a constant steam of uneven panting leaving his lips as he looked to the ceiling, willing his sensitive dick not to react too badly over the light pumping. A task made harder by Freed's teeth attacking his neck, leaving what would become a hellish hickey in the days to come.

After a few moments of hellish teasing, Freed removed himself from Laxus' body; a whine following from the blonde due to the sudden lack of contact. The gambler quickly pulled Laxus' jeans off him completely, throwing them to the side and allowing his eyes to rake over his husband.

The man was godly. Every inch covered in muscle that rippled with every small movement. His skin slightly tanned, with black ink covering his chest in a tattoo that Freed had grown to adore. His boxers, black and tight, were tenting hard with a small stain of leaking pre-cum visible at the top. Freed found the sight drool worthy, and the animal like expression om his face was a testament to that.

"God your hot," The gambler whispered, eyes adoring his husband.

He acted quickly, crawling down his husband and kissing him with power behind him. Laxus found himself pushed fully against the mattress, Freed's strong thighs straddling his waist. Their hard dicks pushed against each other as they kissed, and it took all of Laxus' strength not to buck his hips hard to get more contact.

"Fuck," He grunted. "Stop fucking teasing, asshole."

In any other situation, Freed would double down on the teasing. But he felt the need as much as Laxus did, so ran his hand down the mans rippling stomach and towards his boxers again. He grabbed the tight waistband and quickly pulled it down, removing them fully. Laxus gasped as his needy, throbbing dick was released into the cold room. Freed smirked, pressing their lips together and rubbing their strong torsos against each other.

Laxus couldn't fight back the loud moan he felt as his husband's muscular body pushed against his. His eyes shot open when his hand slid down past his needy dick, going to his ass and slowly pushing in two of his fingers.

"S-shit," Laxus moaned.

Freed smirked slightly as he slowly fingered his lover, rushing slightly but relishing in the sounds that poured from his husband. They were now completely unfiltered and loud, the blonde seeing no shame in letting Freed know just how much an effect that he had on him. Freed felt his dick pressing against the tight constraints of his boxers, but didn't consider removing them when his lover was demanding attention.

The blonde's jaw went slack and his eyes all but rolled into the back of his head when Freed slowly inserted a third finger into his ass and started to stretch him out. A loud moan filled the room, and it went straight to the gambler's dick.

Wanting more than the fingering his husband gifted him, Laxus pushed down against the three digits that toyed with him. Feeling this, Freed smirked and gently scraped a nail right across his prostate, making the blonde moan loud and with passion. His eyes shot open and he looked right into Freed's eyes, begging for more.

"Sure you're ready?" Freed whispered, Laxus nodding silently.

Again, Freed pushed himself off of his husband. Laxus groaned loudly, sitting up and trying to keep his lover close. Freed chuckled, gave a quick kiss against the mans reddened lips and stood up. He maintained eye contact with the blonde as he slowly removed his boxers, grinning openly when Laxus gulped as his cock shot from the waistband of his boxers. He slowly pumped his cock for his husband's enjoyment, relishing in the hunger in the other man's eyes.

Moving with purpose, Freed opened the bedside cabinet and pulled out a bottle of lube supplied by the hotel – they obviously knew that this suite was used for young couples. He slowly dripped a large amount onto his hand, lathering his cock with the clear, strawberry scented liquid while looking directly at his husband.

"Fucking faster," Laxus demanded through gritted teeth.

Freed complied, moving to the bed and smirking. He leant down and gently dragged his tongue over Laxus' shaft, the moan elected sending a shiver down his spine. Freed continued to crawl down his husband's body, pressing their lips together with a smile.

He moved Laxus into a position that suited him. The blonde's legs were placed over his shoulders, bent almost entirely so that Freed could still kiss his lover.

Without warning, he thrust his weeping dick into Laxus' ass. It was a powerful thrust, and both men moaned loudly at the action. Laxus' jaw went slack again and Freed gritted his teeth, getting used to the warm, tight ass that he had come to love. He waited for a few seconds, allowing them both time to catch their breath, before raising an eyebrow at his lower in silent question. Laxus nodded, giving Freed all the acknowledgment needed.

He started to thrust fully into the blonde, bucking his hips and fully enveloping his cock into the tightness of his lover's ass, before almost removing it completely. With each thrust, he slammed into Laxus' prostate and sent a rush of lust fuelled electric through him.

Laxus moaned, pushing himself into the mattress and relinquishing all power over his body to Freed. Noticing this, Freed's grasp around Laxus' ankles tightened, and his thrusting's became faster, stronger and more erratic.

Both men were clear in their enjoyment, Laxus letting out a string of whispered profanity every time his prostate was breeched, and Freed unable to stop himself from panting and moaning as his dick was enveloped by the warm tightness of his lover's body. Seeing such a man – a god among men – under him and moaning so unashamedly was his idea of perfect. To have this amazing man writing for him, it was heavenly.

"F-Faster," Laxus demanded, feeling his orgasm fighting down his defences.

Freed did as told, quickening his pace to remove any elegance. Both men were running from pure lust, need and want now. Freed pushed their bodies together, beginning a strong kiss again between them both. His eyes were clenched shut as he tried to hold in his orgasm, determined to make sure his husband came before him so they could both finish with a powerful orgasm.

The thrusts became quicker and quicker. The urge to let go became faster and faster, orgasm encroaching on both men like a tidal wave.

Laxus broke first.

A shaking breath stopped their kiss as his balls pulled up and his pulsating, spasming cock erupted with a thick stream of cum, landing on both men's torsos. Laxus moaned loudly as spurt after spurt of cum left his dick, the orgasm wrecking his body and leaving him breathless.

Freed was quick to follow. The intensity of Laxus' ass tightening around his thrusting dick pushed him over the edge, forcing the gambler's own cum from his throbbing dick and into Laxus' tight ass. A low, elongated moan split open the man's mouth and filled the room, his thrusting slowing down as his orgasm made his body tense and relax at the same time. He was left panting, looking into his husbands' eyes with adoration.

After a moment of catching their breath, both men relaxed. Freed allowed himself to drop onto his husbands sweat and cum covered body, neither caring for the lack of hygiene. He carefully removed his half-hard dick from Laxus' ass, allowing the man to intertwine their legs and wrap his arms around him.

"Holy shit," Laxus panted, wiping Freed's sweat covered hair from his forehead. "Damn."

"Yeah," Freed breathed out, smiling slightly. "Worth the wait?"

"God yeah," Laxus grinned.

They stayed embraced in each other's arms for a short while longer, both somewhat exhausted from the intensity of their actions. Freed could hear the pace in which Laxus' heart was beating – his face resting against the man's strong chest – and he found a small amount of satisfaction from knowing that he was the only cause of it.

"We should get washed off at some point," Laxus suggested, though made no effort to move.

"True, but not now," Freed said with a small smirk. "I hardly think we're finished."

Laxus raised an eyebrow, smirking. "You're ready for more?"

"Is that a problem?"

"Hell no," Laxus smirked wider, hand sliding down his husbands glistening torso. "As long as it ain't a problem if I'm doing the work this time."

Freed smirked, pressed his lips against Laxus' and ran a hand over the other man's strong barrel chest.

"Not at all."

-~~~-

"Here."

Laxus took the glass of champagne from his husband, taking a small sip of the luxurious drink and leaning back against marble bath tub. Both men were sharing the hot water, Freed leaning against Laxus' chest and their legs intertwined in a small act of intimacy. Steam filled the room, the hot water relaxing both of their muscles and creating a comfortable setting.

The two men had entered the bath recently, having previously showered and attended their dinner reservation. After eating, they had shared some slow kissing and, as they were both exhausted from their previous actions, decided they would share a bath and relax.

Freed must have suspected that Laxus would want to do it, as he had ordered a bottle of champagne and a plate of chocolate covered strawberries to their room, which arrived mere moments after they had returned. Freed had placed both the champagne bucket and the strawberries on a small table beside the large bathtub, so that they could enjoy them as they relaxed. Laxus had certainly been happy with that arrangement.

Now relaxed in the warm, soap filled water, the two men allowed the quietness of the room to envelop them. All tension in their bodies relaxed and they allowed their minds to wonder, though they still kept their attention on the other.

Seeing Freed eyeing the plate of strawberries, Laxus grinned slightly and reached over. He picked one up and gently brought it to Freed's lips. The gambler smiled, opened his mouth and allowed himself to be fed. Laxus grinned as Freed took a bite, obviously enjoying the sweet combination of flavours.

"Thank you for this," Freed said, resting his head against Laxus' shoulder and speaking softly.

"Just handed you something to eat. Not exactly hard," Laxus chuckled, though pressed his lips against Freed's slightly damp cheek.

"You know what I mean. Thank you for planning such a good weekend," Freed smiled, looking up to his husband with a loving expression across his face. "You clearly put a large amount of effort to make this perfect and it's been great."

"You don't need to thank me," Laxus said, blushing slightly. "I'm sure you could've done something just as good if you were in charge."

"Don't devalue yourself," Freed said with a small amount of authority. "You still did something incredibly thoughtful and I'm enjoying it greatly," He then grinned slightly. "So either accept the compliment, or I'll make sure that I take a picture of you sleeping with your new dragon toy in your arms and I'll send it to your grandfather."

Laxus paused for a moment, before smiling. "You're an asshole."

Persevering that as Laxus deciding not to refute the compliment further, Freed didn't press the issue and instead pressed his lips against Laxus' jaw. The blonde returned the gesture by placing a soft kiss onto the crown of the man's head.

Freed closed his eyes, relaxing himself against his husband as he felt a strong arm wrap around his shoulder. After placing his glass of champagne back onto the table, he let himself slope against Laxus completely and possibly attempt to sleep. He vaguely heard Laxus snort slightly but couldn't find it in himself to open his eyes to retort, deciding that the bath would act as his spa treatment for the day and that he would make the most of it.

They stayed silent for a short while, Freed enjoying the warm water and the occasional ripples that came with either man moving. Laxus didn't seem bothered by his husband's lack of movement, or at least didn't say anything, so Freed saw no reason to move.

The gambler's eyes opened when he heard a soft chiming coming from outside the bath. He frowned slightly, looking up to see Laxus push himself up in the bath tub and reach for his phone, the apparent source of the sound. He turned what Freed assumed was an alarm off, before placing his phone down again and looking at Freed with an expression that could only be described to as lovestruck. The gambler frowned, not sure what would have caused it.

"Exactly three-hundred and sixty-five days, to the minute, we kissed for the first time as a married couple," Laxus said in explanation.

Freed's pupils dilated slightly, wondering how Laxus knew the exact minute they had gotten married. He didn't doubt that he was correct though; he would hide it publicly, but Laxus was an incredibly romantic man and the type to know exactly when they had said 'I Do' to each other. He smiled, sharing the same lovestruck expression his husband did.

"Happy anniversary, Laxus," He whispered.

"Happy anniversary."

The two men raised their champagne glasses and clinked them against each other. The sound of their glasses carried a promise; this was to be the first of many anniversaries they would share, and they would each be filled with the same amount of love for each other. Forever and always.

#freed justine #Laxus Dreyar #fraxus #Ft: Gamblers Luck #One Shot #Fairy Tail #Fanfic #Writing

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ofcastora · 4 years

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@lavolumnia replied to your post: i wanna read more from this AU

In which I continue the DiVerona Regency AU // Part 2 of me transforming Castora and Vivianne’s baking class into a Regency women’s archery club, inspired by this historical club and these outfits ft. Bridgerton-level historical accuracy. Also in which Castora becomes deeply invested in her mother-figure’s happiness and bears witness to a bodice ripper romance, but does not care for it at all.

MENTIONED/APPEAR: Vivianne Sloane // @lavolumnia, Everett Craven // @evcravens, Priam Taravella // @priam-taravella, Cosimo Capulet (NPC), Silviana (NPC), the du Pont family, the Daly family

It was a truth universally acknowledged by all who had the misfortune of taking a stroll in Hyde Park in the morning hours in the month leading up to the Hyde Park Amazon’s Liston Hall showcase and ball that Lady Vivianne Sloane and Miss Castora Aguilar were very awful at archery. Nothing, sans for hanging at the Old Bailey for accidental homicide, would prevent them in their endeavors, however.

Both ladies were quite indomitable and all members of the ton who sought a stroll and all squirrels seeking whatever squirrels sought quickly learned it was best to steer clear of them all together. On the bright side, while they made poor exhibition archers, perhaps in another life they would have made fine huntresses; neither of them had gotten anywhere near a bullseye, but they have gotten significantly closer to skewering a squirrel.

“It appears, Lady Vivianne, that we are actually getting worse.”

“Nonsense.” Such a thing cannot be possible was the unspoken truth.

Castora loosed another arrow. It did not land on the target, soaring high overhead and landing squarely in the tree behind it. “Perhaps you are, but I think my form is improving.”

It was Vivianne’s turn to try; the arrow skimmed past the edge of the target, nestling itself in the dirt by the unfortunate tree that caught Castora’s arrow.

“I can see that.”

If the pair still had any arrows in the quiver, Castora was quite certain that Vivianne would have stabbed her with one. She gently placed her bow on the ground, fighting the impulse to break in two. It looked like Vivianne had the same thought as her. “Shall we?” she asked

This was, perhaps, the most depressing part of their practice sessions – collecting the evidence of their failures.

“I suppose we have no choice –– unless you could hire a lady’s maid for this purpose?”

“A lady’s maid for the sole purpose of fetching our arrows?”

“I dare say she would have her work cut out for her.”

Castora pulled a stubborn arrow from the dirt, ignoring how it stained the hem of her dress. She took a look at their de facto practice field, something akin to distress on her face. “At least we did not lose any arrows in the Serpentine today,” she muttered. “Do you think it is too late to ‘come down with something’?”

“Mrs. Silviana will have your head.”

“Good. She can take it. She’s so often taken leave of her senses, maybe she’ll find use for my head,” Castora remarked.

Vivianne raised an eyebrow, “You are quite bold to assume she has the sense to take advantage of such an opportunity.”

They had reached the tree where Castora’s last arrow had lodged itself. Oh, damn it, she thought, seeing that it had landed about a foot taller than Castora herself. She jumped, trying to grab hold of it, but could not reach.

Vivianne, who Castora was quite certain could reach it, stood by watching the younger woman take out all her energy on an arrow, the corners of her lips threatening to curve into a smile.

A few more attempts occurred, each more feeble than the last. Castora leaned against the tree to catch her breath. “I simply have no wish to embarrass myself in front of the ton, Lady Vivianne – yes, I am keenly aware of the irony.”

"Surely you cannot be afraid of them?” Vivianne asked. Castora wished she could read her expressions better – was the woman surprised by this? Disappointed?

“I am aware of the reality of my circumstances,” she said grimly. “And I feel like I have exhausted my quiver of accidents for this season.” Castora was a wit, a court jester the ton tolerated despite her father conning half of their father’s out of a not-insignificant sum of money because of powerful friends, a beautiful cousin they would all like to wed (or bed), and because someone had to provide some amusement, but their tolerance was ever-wavering tightrope. She could walk it, but she would always teeter.

The fall was inevitable.

Vivianne looked seriously at Castora, then smirked. “Yes, that game of Pall-Mall was certainly something.”

Castora’s cheeks burned. “It was an accident and Priam Taravella knows it.”

“If your aim with a bow and arrow is any indication of your aim in general, I believe you.” It was not. They both knew that – and Castora had surmised that Vivianne realized that she had been aiming for her future-stepson-in-law’s head, but that was to be expected when the beast knocked her own ball out of the way on purpose. “If it is any consolation, Miss Castora, I promise that I will be there with you to suffer Silviana and that exhibition together.”

“Thank you.” She understood the hidden meaning – no one would insult her at the Exhibition with a future duchess by her side.

Vivianne stepped forward, easily reaching the arrow.

Snap. In her efforts, the arrow had split – the tip and a quarter of the shaft remained lodged in a tree. Vivianne glowered at the remnants of the arrow in her hand.

“If I have to look at another arrow today, I think I might die.”

“I quite agree, Miss Castora.” She was quiet for a long moment. Then, she asked, “How about tea?”

A maid poured their tea and quietly left. Castora looked around at Vivianne’s apartments in wonder – surely, this was the most beautiful place she had ever been in. If I ever have the funds to decorate my own lodgings, I should like to make it look like this, Castora thought.

“Who do you picture when you fire an arrow?” she asked. Vivianne sipped her tea, thinking over the question carefully.

“Silviana,” she answered. “And a few others, but lately mostly Silviana. And yourself?”

“Silviana, too.” It wasn’t a lie, but it was not the whole truth. “I take turns picturing all the people who have made me cross.”

“And somehow you rarely hit your target.”

“Perhaps I would have more luck if the person I wished to strike was in the vicinity. There is only so much the imagination can do.”

A lull fell over the conversation. “I suppose you must quit this place when you and the Duke marry.” An odd expression crossed over her face at the word marry.

“Nonsense – this is mine.”

“Yours? How?”

“My late father bequeathed to his cousin, Philip Allard, in his will -–”

“–– The Duke of Beaufort?”

“Yes. His only daughter, Lady Daphne, is married.” Castora detected a hint of a grimace in Vivianne’s voice. “Since the family hates London, he saw no use for the property, so he gave it to me.”

Ah. This was as close to Vivianne’s as it could be, and yet it did not truly belong to her. It was charity. It was alms for a less fortunate relative. Castora understood. At least Vivianne owned something, bittersweet though it may be.

“My distant cousin who inherited Uppercross after my Andrés’s passing pays for my lodgings in London for the Season.”

“Do you reside at Uppercross the rest of the year?”

“No,” Castora scoffed. Uppercross wasn’t the home she had as a child, the one she lost twice over. It did not belong to her anymore. It never did. “I usually take invitations from friends in the countryside. I toured the Lakes with Lady Pandora the last year.”

“Your mother does not miss you?” It did not surprise her that Vivianne knew that her father was gone, but did not know what happened to her mother. No one really cared what befell Isabella Aguilar in the wake of her husband’s scandal.

“My mother is dead,” Castora replied flatly.

“Mine is too.”

“I suppose that makes us both orphans.”

“It’s quite an ugly word, do you not agree?” Vivianne sipped her tea. “It comes from the Greek word orphanos, which means ‘bereaved.’”

“Orphanos.” Castora tested the word on her tongue. “You are right. It’s ugly. What is the best way to shed the label, orphan, do you think?”

“Why, marriage, of course.”

Castora hesitated before asking, “Is that why you are marrying Duke Capulet?” It was odd, their match – after all, before all this Vivianne Sloane had been a spinster.

Another one of Vivianne’s inscrutable expressions crossed her face. “No. Not the whole of it.”

“Is it a love match, then?”

“What constitutes a love match in your opinion?”

“The fool’s errand known as love, of course,” Castora replied. “But I suppose it can be a love match if you love his house, his title – I would hardly begrudge anyone a desire to become a duchess – although I would characterize that as a love arrangement, not a love match.”

“I did not take you for a romantic – is that why you are still unmarried? Holding out for love, Miss Castora?” Such blunt questioning from anyone else would have offended her, but from Vivianne, Castora did not mind.

“I do not wish to marry.” Only the greatest love could persuade me...or an offer from a Duke, a Marquess, an Earl, or a Viscount. Barons and men with gambling debts need not apply. Both options struck her as improbable, if not outright impossible. “It seems to me that every marriage I’ve witnessed has only brought misery...particularly for the women in the match.” Sure, her Uncle Aguilar’s marriage was quite happy by all accounts – surely, it helped that Ramona’s mother died young before the marriage had time to sour.

Vivianne seemed curious. “What do you intend to do then?”

“My cousin, Ramona, is adored by the ton. She shall marry well.”

“And what if you received an offer from someone suitable?”

“I would...consider it, as long as he is not a drunkard or a gambler. Actually, I believe I could deal with a drunkard. No gamblers,” she said. “Anything is better than ending up as a....governess.”

“I could not picture you spending your days tutoring children.”

“My mother was one, actually, before she married. She worked for a good family, too. One that Vivianne was likely acquainted with. That was the other thing about Isabella Aguilar – she was intelligent. She was unfortunate, but bright. Love robbed her off her senses and killed her in the poorhouse. “She was unable to get back into the line of work with a child, however.”

“Children complicate matters,” Vivianne said solemnly. The rumors of Vivianne Sloane’s first Season being delayed by a year floated back to the top of Castora’s head; there were whispers of a bastard child, but Castora had know interest in Vivianne’s secrets unless she chose to share them with her.

“We do,” Castora said. “Lady Vivianne – I hope this goes without saying, but could you –– could you not repeat that my mother was a governess?”

She nodded. “You have my word. Drink your tea, Castora. Before it gets cold.”

Liston Hall was a lovely country estate of middling size; it was pretty, spacious, and very green, everything a country estate ought to be, but it paled in comparison to the surrounding homes such as Campden Court. The true glory of Liston Hall was its apple orchard, where the archery exhibition would be held.

Castora had not been to Gloucestershire since she was a child, accompanying her mother and forced to bear witness to her demise. During her year here, she had never been to Linton. The families of the other Gloucestershire estates – the Craven’s of Campden Court, the Daly’s of Aubrey Park, and the du Pont’s of Kellnych Hall – were not the type to deign to visit Linton Hall.

At least, that’s how Castora remembered them. She prayed that some things never changed.

Whether or not the neighboring aristocrats visited seemed irrespective today – more than half the ton was here, but no one in the ton that Castora actually liked –-- except for Vivianne.

Who she could not find.

Good God – she had one friend, or one person who was close to a friend, here and she could not find her. There was only so much small talk a girl coud do with a glass of lemonade, as anything stronger would not be served until dinner.

Leaving the hall to look for Vivianne, Castora collided into the chest of a gentleman, almost spilling her lemonade all over him. Well, perhaps there was a splash or too on his shoes....and slight more than a splash on his white cravat. Said gentlemen did not seem angry so much as annoyed, however. Still, Castora wished she could melt into the floor.

“I apologize, sir, I am sorry,” she started, her cheeks aflame.

“It is quite alright.” Oh no, this was worse – he was trying hard to be genteel about this. Something about his voice – and face, and countenance – looked familiar, but she could not place him.

“Let me fetch a servant, perhaps they can....wash it?”

He looked at her curiously, as though he was trying to place her, too. “I live at Campden Court – I shall send for a change of clothes direct.”

Realization hit Castora like a ton of bricks. “You are Everett Craven, Marquess of Montrose.” She dropped into a courtesy and cursed every God for not answering her prayers. “I apologize again, my Lord.”

He had come into the title several years ago with the death of his father and was one of the most desired bachelor’s in England –– and one of the most skilled at fending off ambitious mamas. He was almost more desired because he was, by all accounts, a proper gentleman who left rakish activities to the rest of his peers; it truly was a miracle he left London alive and unmarried.

She had heard more fearsome stories about him, however. The Season before her and Ramona’s debut, he accompanied Catherine Daly to London, as Lord Daly was unwell at the time, and practically bit off the head of every man who came near her.

“I am. Pardon me – have we met before, my lady?”

Yes. See, while Isabella Aguilar was unable to find work as a governess, her former employer, the damned du Pont’s of Kellnych Hall, had found employment for Isabella at a lady’s maid to Lady Daly of Aubrey Park. She told them she was a widow, and with Bastian du Pont’s introduction, they accepted a lady’s maid with a child of the right age to be a playmate to their three daughters.

Melting into the floor suddenly seemed insufficient. Perhaps she could suddenly collapse and die, like a lady in a novel, and be reincarnated as a bee. Yes, that seemed good.

“No, I do not believe we have had the occasion, my lord.” She shook her head again, “Just Miss. Miss Castora Aguilar of Uppercross.”

“Castora? That is quite an––”

"–– You can say unusual, my Lord. I cannot take offense since I have ruined your cravat.” At least it didn’t spill on his pants.

He looked at her again. “Are you sure we have not met before?”

“Perhaps in London?” Castora lied. “London is full of faces and names, it’s hard to keep them all straight. Especially during the Season.”

Just as he was about to say something again, Vivianne rounded the corner. “Miss Castora, there you are ---” Whatever words were on her lips died when she saw the Marquess. It was quite a spectacular (and quite unsettling thing) to see Vivianne Sloane rendered speechless.

She looked at the Marquess. He looked like he had seen a ghost. Is it too late to melt into the floor? Castora wondered, thinking about how to best extricate herself from the situation.

Suddenly the lemonade-stained cravat seemed like the least of everyone’s problems. “Lady Vivianne,” the Marquess greeted.

“Lord Montrose,” she said, similarly stiff. Neither pair seemed to notice Castora. They only had eyes for one another. God, now would be a lovely time to answer my call for death.

She took a step backwards in the hopes of sneaking out and leaving them to...whatever was going to happen, but unfortunately, Fate had other plans for them as a person – namely, Duke Capulet – had rounded the corner in search of his wife-to-be.

Duke Capulet was tall and distinguished with greyed hair; age suited him. He walked like someone who never doubted his importance and was unused to being denied. Castora had a difficult time thinking of him as anyone’s husband, or father, or guardian.

“Montrose,” he said in greeting, falling back to Vivianne’s side. The man appeared jovial and pleasant, but there was an air of darkness about him – and he appeared to be in quite a fowl mood.

“Capulet,” the Marquess replied. Castora searched Vivianne’s eyes for a single clue as to what was happening. The future Duchess gave no indication that anything odd was going on.

“What on earth happened to you, Montrose?” the Duke asked, gesturing to his clothes.

“I was not watching where I was going and collided into the young lady whilst she carried some...water?”

“Lemonade,” Castora quietly corrected. “The Marquess is too kind. This is my fault.”

“Regardless of whose fault it is, I hope you shall excuse me to get this matter sorted with.”

“Of course. Shall I see you at the exhibition, Montrose?”

The Marquess nodded, made his courtesies, and left.

The Duke’s attention fell to her, “And who are you?”

Vivianne answered for her, “Miss Castora of Uppercross, dear. She is in the Hyde Park Amazons with me.” The Marquess of Montrose seemed surprised at the revelation that Vivianne was in an archery club.

“Right, of course. You and Lady Vivianne have been hard at work these past few weeks, I have gathered.” He looked at her. “You are Aguilar’s girl, are you not?”

“His niece,” Castora said quickly, pretending not to know his meaning. “He passed away several years ago.”

The Duke did not stop. “Your father was an interesting character, more than what one would expect from one of Montague’s whelps. I think he tried to swindle me during a game of vingt-et-un.”

“My family is very lucky to consider the Montague’s our friends, my Lord,” she replied diplomatically, keenly aware that she could not afford to offend one of the most powerful men in the country.

“For your sake, Miss Castora, I pray the apple falls far from the tree. My dear, see that you never play cards with her,” he said with a snake oil smile. Castora supposed it was a charming smile, if one could ignore the malice hiding in his words. Still, she laughed at his joke.

And I pray the same for your daughter, you wretched man.

“If you will pardon me, my Lord, I think I am going to replace my lemonade.”

“Let me accompany you, Miss Castora,” Vivianne said. “We have much to discuss before the exhibition.”

They returned to the main hall, arm in arm. Castora squeezed Vivianne’s hand, and the woman squeezed back in silent apology. What reason is there to marry this man? Surely a duchy is not worth it?

“I apologize for the Duke. He is not himself after travelling.”

There was something odd about resorting to pleasantries with Vivianne – they had so often bypassed them in their conversations in Hyde Park. A cold sensation settled into Castora’s bones.

“No apologies necessary, Lady Vivianne….how do you know the Marquess of Montrose?”

“Hmm?”

“It looked to be like you two knew each other.”

“A lifetime ago. I did not think he would come.” Castora quietly wondered if Vivianne had been making the same prayers she had made on the journey over.

Castora was lined up with the other ladies of the Hyde Park Amazons...in the very back of the group, where no one could see her miss the target. Vivianne was not there.

“Mrs. Silviana, have you seen Lady Vivianne?”

Silviana startled at Castora’s voice. “Oh, you are here.”

“Yes, why wouldn’t I be?” She remarked before asking again, “Where is Lady Vivianne?”

Silviana’s eyes narrowed. “She has a headache and she is unable to join us. I am quite surprised, Miss Castora, that you do not have one as well.”

Damn her, Castora cursed, Damn her for leaving me to fend for myself. Damn her for breaking her promise.

“Are you alright, Miss Castora?” Silviana asked.

No. I feel rather foolish, you useless twit, she thought bitterly. “Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Right, dear. And – do remember to aim, please?” She nodded and glared at Silviana’s retreating figure. Aim. She could do that.

At last came time for the Exhibition. Gentlemen and ladies of the ton and other appropriate social circles gathered around the Hyde Park Amazons at a respectable distance, mostly on the sidelines by the tree. For this exhibit, the ladies were to fire five arrows and hit their targets. The more advanced archers would perform in a play about Artemis and her huntresses later in the day.

Five. You only have to get through five.

On the first arrow, she thought of Vivianne and aimed. Predictably, she missed – not as poorly as usually, however. On the second arrow, she thought of Vivianne and aimed. She missed again.

On the third, Castora vowed to clear her mind. Do not aim for anything but the target. When the last thought melted away, Castora closed her eyes and fired the arrow. The audience gasped.

Did I hit a bullseye? She opened her eyes to find that no, she had not hit the target. Her arrow was nowhere near the target. In fact, she could not see it all. Why is everyone staring at me?

The Hyde Park Amazon next to her, sensing Castora’s confusion, helpfully pointed at an apple tree towards the edge of their circle. Pinned to the tree by Castora’s arrow was a gentleman’s hat. One of the lower hanging apples helpfully fell to the ground.

And not just any gentleman’s hat. No, it was Duke Capulet’s hat. The man was positively glowering at her.

“Oops.” She swore quietly under her breath using a word she learned from Marcelo that no lady was supposed to know. I almost killed a duke. I almost killed a duke. Fuck, I almost killed a duke.

But she did not feel so bad for Cosimo Capulet after all. It wasn’t like she had stabbed him. It was only a hat, after all. It could be worse, Castora thought to herself. I could have swindled him during a game of vingt-et-un.

Suffice to say, while the play continued without incident later in the evening, the ladies of the first exhibit did not fire their fourth and fifth arrows.

After profusely apologizing to the Duke several times over, each time more insincere than the last, Castora excused herself from the luncheon with, appropriately, a headache. There

There was a knock at her door. Castora cautiously opened it to find Vivianne, standing in front of her right as rain. “Did you or did you not try to kill the Duke?”

Castora ignored the question. “How is your headache, Lady Vivianne? I do hope you will be able to attend the ball.”

“Castora – did you try to kill the Duke?”

“No, of course not! Not intentionally at least! The only thing I ended up killing was his hat, and a trip to a good haberdashery could fix it right up!” She insisted.

Vivianne closed the door to Castora’s guest chamber behind her. “You deeply offended him, Castora,” she said seriously.

“I was aiming for the target. I missed. That is not out of the ordinary for me, Lady Vivianne. Nor is it for you, and if you had shown up, you may have done worse!”

“Perhaps, but as it stands, you are the one who accidentally attacked a duke. You also accidentally hit his future son-in-law in the face with a pall-mall ball several months ago – an incident of which the Duke is very much aware of. You can see why this...why this is problematic.”

“It was an accident. I have offered to pay to replace the hat, an offer which the Duke said he is considering.”

“Castora, the Duke has strongly suggested to me that I find another hobby outside of the Amazons.”

Her face fell. But you’re my friend, the girl wanted to protest. “He is not your husband, yet. He cannot make you do anything...unless you wish to leave.”

“In some matters of life, what you want does not matter.”

“Surely it does in this one?”

Vivianne smiled bitterly, “Dear Castora, I forget how young you are sometimes.”

With that, she left, closing the door behind her. Castora did not know why, but she had the sudden desire to cry for the first time since her mother’s death.

There is absolutely no way this evening can get worse, Castora thought to herself as she prepared to enter the ballroom for the evening festivities. No chance in hell.

Still, halfway to the ballroom she turned on her heel and thought best not to risk it. On the way back to her room, Castora decided that she did not want to sit in her room all evening and decided to visit the Liston Hall library.

Scouring through the library, Castora settled on The Mysteries of Udolpho, a novel she had greedily consumed several years ago because Ramona suggested it. She had not liked it much, as Castora was not one for Gothic romances, but she was in no mood to explore. Take me away, Mrs. Radcliffe, to a world far less complicated than ours.

Settled by her desk, she was halfway through the second chapter when she heard two voices, one belonging to a man and the other to a woman, deep in the throes of an argument. The man dragged the woman into the library.

Castora froze – it was Lady Vivianne and Lord Everett. They did not see her from her position, and so they kept on spitting venom Castora did not comprehend at one another. Wishing to avoid another awkward encounter with the both of them, she simply sunk behind the desk before they could see her and waited for them to leave.

About ten minutes later, they were still arguing and Castora still had no idea what in the hell was going on because she was trying not to eavesdrop, but sometimes she could not help it.

But what she did hear was the Marquess of Montrose, voice laced with pain, asking Vivianne why she was marrying him. It did seem to be the question of the day.

“Someone knows about Cyrus.” There was an eerie silence across the hall; Castora resisted the urge to emerge from her hiding place to ask Who is Cyrus? “They are trying to exhort me for money, but no one would dare come for me, or Cyrus, if I am Lady Capulet.”

“How much? Who is blackmailing you?” Reasonable questions.

“It matters not, Everett.” I fail to see how that is true.

“Vivianne, how can you say that?” Castora quietly noted the use of their Christian names, and quietly prayed to God for the upteenth time to day, that they would finish their argument somewhere else.

“Because what is done is done. I cannot break this engagement.” Fair enough.

“You did not seem to have much of an issue with that before.” Ah, okay. There is that mystery solved.

“Don’t you dare. This is not remotely the same situation. If I do not marry Cosimo, then I will be ruined. Cyrus will be ruined. By association with me, Juliana will be ruined. I cannot have that.” A love arrangement, Castora realized.

“I loved you,” the Marquess said. To Castora’s ears, it did not sound like his affections were in the past tense. Vivianne did not respond to Everett with words, but with actions.

Oh no. Oh no. Dear God. From her hiding position under the desk, Castora saw the Marquess’s – clean – cravat flying off. Their….noises grew closer, and she heard someone place the other on the desk, knocking the copy of Udolpho off the table, but too far out of reach from Castora.

How generous, Castora thought dryly, realizing that there would be no escape for her now.

Castora covered her ears and cursing God, she laid back, and tried to think of England.

Much to Castora’s surprise, Silviana welcomed her back the following Thursday to the Hyde Park Amazons, remarking something along the lines of “At least we know you can hit something now, Mis Castora.”

To everyone’s greater surprise, and Mrs. Silviana’s palpable disappointment, Vivianne showed up for practice. “I hope you are feeling better, Lady Vivianne. You can go and practice with Miss Castora in the back,” the instructor commanded.

“I know the place,” the future Duchess replied, unable to keep the hint of bitterness out of her voice, before walking over to her and Castora’s usual spot.

Castora could not look her in the eye. She refused to do so, for if she did, she would admit to all she saw and heard. Around 15 minutes went by of excruciating silence, before Lady Vivianne chose to break it.

“How are you, Miss Castora?”

“I am well.” I want to die. “How are you, Lady Vivianne? How is Lord Capulet’s hat?”

“We are both fine,” she responded wryly. “Once the Duke calmed down, he did not object to me continuing on with the Hyde Park Amazon’s...you can look at me, Miss Castora, I will not bite your head off.”

Do not say anything, she commanded herself. Do not –– “Lady Vivianne, I was in the library during the Liston House ball.”

Vivianne, who was preparing to fire an arrow, loosened it without bothering to see where it landed. The blood drained from her face. “I do not know your meaning, Miss Castora.”

“I wish I did not know my own meaning either.”

She lowered her voice, “How much did you hear?”

Too bloody much. “All of it, unfortunately. I did not intend to. I truly, truly did not intend to. I decided against going to the ball, and was trying to read when you and the Marquess entered. I thought it best to hide until you two were finished ––” Everything seemed like a poor choice of words, but Castora persisted. “–– And I did not intend to hear….so much.”

Vivianne was silent for a long time. The girl in front of her was so distressed that she could not help but believe her, and then, “The Mysteries of Udolpho, really, Miss Castora?”

“I am not proud of it either. Listen, Lady Vivianne, I want to assure you that I...I will say nothing of...of, well, anything, to nobody. I do not know, or care, who Cyrus is. Or that you were once engaged to the Marquess, or that you two appear to still love each other very much.”

“I appreciate your discretion, Miss Castora, but I must correct you on the last point. Whatever we had was in the past.”

“From where I stood, what was past seemed present.”

“I would prefer if you did not discuss myself and the Marquess anymore.”

“As you wish, Lady Vivianne –– however, there is one point, I do have an inquiry on. Who is blackmailing you and is there any way I can help?”

“No, dear girl, there is not.”

The pair were quiet for a long moment. “I think you would be a better Marchioness than a Duchess. Marchioness Vivianne sounds better than Duchess Vivianne, does it not?”

“That is your opinion.”

“And what is yours?”

“Miss Castora, I thought we agreed not to speak about the Marquess anymore.”

“Yes, but in all honesty, I like him more than the Duke and I think you do, too. He is titled, wealthy, and is capable of weathering scandals. The Craven family is powerful. No one would dare come for a Marchioness of Montrose, either. If Duke Capulet was ever unwise enough to gamble with my father, I do not know how wise he will be in the future. And Juliana Capulet is set to be married in a month to a powerful, wealthy man. She could weather her father’s broken engagement if done with grace.”

“There are more forces at play here than you understand, Castora.”

“Yes, but I understand enough to know that you do not deserve the misery that is to come with a life chained to Lord Capulet.” Yes, but after everything I was forced to witness in that library, this the least you could do for me.

“And you are convinced the Marquess is a good man from the five minutes you saw of him?”

“He is always kind to those lower than himself.”

Vivianne laughed, “You are a romantic, after all.”

“No, I simply believe that the only reasons to marry are for great, true, unshakeable love, or comfort and protection. The Marquess appears ready to provide you with both,” Castora said.

“I did not realize you cared so much.”

I saw my mother collapse in on herself from misery; I will not see it happen again. “I--I like my friends to be happy, Lady Vivianne.”

“Happiness requires miracles. You and I both know too well to believe in them.”

Castora could not argue with Vivianne on that point.

Mrs. Silviana screamed and ran up to the region her two least favorite students were exiled to. “Oh my God, you did it! Which one of you did this?”

The pair followed her gaze to the target where the last arrow Lady Vivianne fired had landed in the center of the target. A bullseye.

For a moment, Vivianne Sloane and Castora Aguilar both believed in miracles.

#&. asks | answers & memes & drabbles & more oh my #diverona regency au #this was supposed to be up on valentine's day ooops #&. vivianne | a reflection in a fun house mirror #&. vivianne | in another life we would fight side by side #so many bridgerton and austen easter eggs because i can't think of names oops

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itwillbeall-dwight · 4 years

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hi king,,, i saw u take drabble requests and i humbly ask for some fluff ft. the grandpas (overconti) if that's something u feel like doing. there's not enough ace fluff out there ;w;

me staring at this ask since last night like surprised pikachu.. tumblr user dweetwise give me ur autograph-

you are absolutely right, and it’s a crime that I haven’t made any content yet. this was more hurt/comfort than fluff, but there’s some cute in there, just for you <3 i rlly hope u enjoy this, it was a lot of fun to write!

likes < reblogs, any comments in the tags are appreciated

ao3 mirror in the reblogs!

lovesick - ace visconti/bill overbeck; canon typical violence; tiny emeto tw; 2908 words

Preview: The two of them walked out of the basement side by side, Ace taking the lead to make sure the coast was clear before they left, taking the exit closest to them through the hole in the wall, heading towards a corner where a generator remained half-power, mechanisms slowly chugging from the inside. The soldier nodded to him, quickly taking over the lead and taking the long side over and leaving Ace to take one of the shorter sides, with the wires exposed. "Hey, Ace?" “Hm?” Ace looked up at the sound of his own name, odd coming from Bill, even now. “...Thanks.” “What for?” “Wh- what do you think?” “Oh, I know, I just wanted to hear you say it.” Bill scowled, though only momentarily, the shit-eating grin on the gambler’s face was enough to make him crack into a brief chuckle, even if it did make him a little (read: a lot) more punchable, before resuming work on the generator.

Ace was not the overtly romantic type.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He had the charisma to back him up, a backlog of dirty euphemisms and sultry compliments for him to cruise off of when spoken in a low whisper at the poker table, but that was only enough to get him one night of fun, maybe two if he pushed his luck (which he did, quite often). He was plastic flowers and Las Vegas weddings - the fake kind of love that you could easily replace once it got broken. And for a while, he was fine with that. At the craps table, you couldn’t count on a forever, so going from lover to lover was a fate he’d more than settled with. Hell, even if his engagement only lasted a few months (the man had some sense, at least - the last Ace heard he’d gotten hitched with another man much richer and happier up in Illinois), it made for one hell of a lie to cover his bluff for a losing hand.

Romance hadn’t been something he’d thought about a lot, in the fog. There were more important things to think about, weren’t there - whether it was those cocky kids from the Legion wanting to go for a swipe or the bony form of the Hag slashing at his heels, his main focus was on escaping first, and testing his luck second. That didn’t change, for a while. Or at least, didn’t change enough for him to notice, until, like an unstable cliffside, everything caved in and he realised just how much shit he was in. It was a gradual process, not like how he’d rush things from the casino floor to the bedroom day in and day out for years at a time, knowing that it was likely to be his only chance before they moved onto someone new and better.

Ace didn’t know why it was him. Bill was a hardass, a stickler for the rules, a self-sacrificing hardass who could just say was way too high up on his horse and leave it at that. And normally, he would. But this time… he didn’t. He watched the old soldier with intrigue, with the way he commanded the room despite them being in the forest, his biting wit and genuine strategy enough to straighten the backs of even Nea and David, and that was a task worse than freezing hell over. He would listen to the words he used, insults peppered in like salt to a cheap takeaway meal, half drunk and lost in the belly of the Californian night, how his brow furrowed and how his eyes flickered with intent between survivors, and how his lips quirked and moved as he talked, or didn’t talk. All these little details finally came to a head when he’d began noticing how his words would bounce off of him like glue to rubber, unfazed mostly - though one time, he got a laugh out of him, while making a joke about David’s recklessness as the two offered their assistance in patching him up behind a rock (“takes an idiot to know one, Visconti”, he’d said). And that small chuckle was all it took for Ace to realise he was in deep, deep shit.

While luck had always been on his side, courage had not. Ace had let his feelings sit for a long time, trial after trial, not sure whether to be grateful that he was finally yearning for attachment or cursing the heavens that it had to happen here, of all places, enough to the point where avoiding Bill had become as natural as breathing air. Wasn’t anywhere to run eventually, though, as a terrible trial in the Autohaven Wreckers, where generators remained powered down and Micheal patrolled in his usual, methodical way, had left the two of them the only ones left alive. Hiding behind a wall, they had been silent for a while, before the old soldier had pressed him about his odd behaviour, calling him out to the very centre of it. And for the first time in a long time, Ace didn’t have a retort - there was no shitty movie quote, no stupid joke he could bounce off of - leaving him stumbling and hanging slack-jawed as his face grew hot and he rubbed the back of his neck, enough to make Bill growl and start to stand to his feet, ready to take the fall as he’d done so many times. But as if on instinct, Ace had grabbed his wrist and pulled himself to his feet, asking him to take a chance, just this once. Bill had chastised him as he normally did, pulling his arm away as he did so. And Ace had swallowed hard and looked him head-on, letting his eyes fall on every feature of his face, before grabbing the old fool by the collar of his shirt and pulling him in for a long-overdue kiss that seemed to last too long but not long enough, hoping that that was enough of a message to say that he’d trade his life for Bill’s in a heartbeat. He did, evidently, meeting his end at the hand of a knife in his lungs, but behind tinted glasses where he quickly lost vision, he’d seen Bill running for the hatch, glaring daggers at him as Ace could only smile, and die. Words were said at the campfire when he got back, but the message had been sent, loud and clear, earning him another kiss back when the two were, pinned against a tree with the glow of the campfire on his back, an answer to the silent question that he had posed for if it was really okay to do this. And it was.

It had been a good while since that moment, though Ace played it in his head over and over as if it was some crazy dream that he was getting to live in. Things hadn’t really changed between them - he was still just as stupid, if not more so, trying to impress the man who made the mistake of liking him back, and Bill was still as much of a hardass - but there were moments now that made every injury, every lost chase and terrible mistake, and every death, so much more worth it. The soldier shared with him small smiles, laughs and jokes and tales of old friends, his doubts and his anguish, but most of all, showed him a side of himself that wasn’t as harsh, a side of himself that was vulnerable, and kind - a bleeding heart, as it were, and that was the side where their hands interlocked walking back from the campfire, where they’d joke and slow dance and laugh like normal lovers did, out on the edge of the campfire. They had each other’s back, and out here, that’s what they needed most.

Another trial was underway now, as one always was, and the forest of the Macmillan Estate was cold as it always had been, especially around the old ironworks. The atmosphere in the old factory giving off ice cold vibes of unhappiness and solitude. Ace felt a shiver run its icy fingers up his spine from under his shirt, pulling his hands away from the generator for a moment as his head twitched a little from the moment, recovering quickly with a quiet sigh before he got back to work. The trial had been rather relaxed, as of now; one generator was already powered (he’d watched Dwight and Nea work on that together, which was like seeing snow in July, as far as he was concerned) and he’d only heard a few yells of pain after that as he was searching around the factory through chests for a key (no luck this time) before hoping down again. Over the sound of the mechanisms powering up like a beating heart, the fountain behind him flowed, the sound of pure water almost calming, if not for the sign that the Plague was roaming around.

Two wires he was holding sparked together, and that was enough to get the generator to flicker on. Perfect. Ace stood to his feet and took off his hat for a moment, scratching the top of his head before he put it back on again, as if it would help him figure out his next move. As if just going for a stroll (the poor priestess was making this trial seem like a cakewalk, after all), he slid his hands into his pockets, beginning to head out of the factory-

Running towards him made him step back inside, pinning his back against the wall near the door, his heart lurching into his mouth. From out of the corner of the doorway, he saw Bill sprinting past, the tall form of the Plague not too far behind. Ace smiled despite himself, though that soon faded as he heard the gagging coming from the woman, before she swallowed down her own vomit as the soldier turned a corner, and then subsequently hit her with a palette as she tried to follow after him.

With the threat gone, though that wasn’t as reassuring as it ought to have been, knowing it wasn’t far behind the man he loved - Bill was capable enough, though, so there wasn’t much to worry about, was there? Right? - Ace moved away from the wall and sighed. Better to head in the opposite direction of the scary lady with the sacrificial censor and the terrible disease. But as he started to make his way towards the hole in the wall under the stairs, his eyes fell onto another set of stairs that were all too familiar. The whispers of the basement were calling for him. Ace swallowed, fiddling with the collar of his jacket. ...Bill had this, right? And if not, Nea and Dwight would have his back, surely. It was fine for him to dig around for another key, right? He looked around. No one was here to tell him not to, so the only other choice…

He descended the basement stairs carefully, a hand running along the rotting and misshapen planks of the old wooden wall the didn’t fit with the rest of the factory at all, as if it had been stolen and shifted from another building entirely. Those whispers of death were louder now, as he turned a corner and saw it, the chest at the back. Ace rubbed his hands together, hoping to channel some sort of magic to get this thing to open up. The gambler got down on one knee, picking at the lock of the chest while grumbling and talking to himself, praying for a key, or a flashlight to toss to the feisty young Swede if he saw her again. It didn’t take long to open, though nothing was waiting for him inside but a crusty old medkit. Ace stood up again with a frown, cursing Lady Luck for turning her back on him-

Heavy hands hitting the wall of the killer shack startled him, heart in his mouth. The Plague was probably already mad enough with how things had been going, he didn’t need to be spotted hiding out in the basement to make matters worse. Scrambling to his feet, the gambler lept for the locker just behind him, and clambered inside, hoping not to alert the tall, diseased woman that he was an easy target. But instead of sickly breaths and the sound of bare feet on concrete, the stumbling, heavy footsteps down the stairs and strained, pained breathing were enough to get him to poke his head out-

“Oh, shit- Bill!”

The panicked whisper made the soldier look up, watching as Ace climbed out of the locker, leaving the doors to close on their own as he jogged over. Bill gritted his teeth, knuckles white as he clung to the edge of the wall beside the stairs with one hand, the other clutching his stomach. “Dammit, Visconti, what’re you doin’-”

“Don’t matter. C’mere.”

“No- get off me, dammit.” He tried to swat the gambler away, but lost his balance as he did and slipped from under his feet, yelling quietly as Ace rushed to grab him and help him stand, his hand grabbing hard at the side Bill was holding.

“Ah, shit- sorry, babe. Come on, there’s a medkit over here-”

“Oh, of course you were fuckin’ around in here-”

“You want the help or not?”

Bill paused, about to open his mouth again before catching the look on Ace’s face, an oddly solemn frown that seemed out of place, before sighing in resignation, if only to see the small smirk that overtook the other man as he led him over to the chest, letting him lean against the locker and slide down to sit.

“You’ll thank me later, trust me.”

“Just get it done.”

Ace nodded, taking the medkit out of the chest and opening it up, fishing through what little supplies were in there to try and help, hands shaking ever so slightly. For as long as the two of them had been here, you’d think he’d be used to this by now - but he was as cowardly at heart as always, it seemed.

He wasn’t an expert medic, but in the fog, you had to adapt fast, so Ace had picked up a few things from watching Claudette patch people up (and watch Nea complain about how wrong it was, but even he would doubt her judgement in that department), enough that he thought he was doing a pretty good job as he slowly wrapped the gauze around Bill’s torso, watching at the heavy bruising was slowly covered, and listening for a wince of pain every so often to tell him he was doing it a little too tight. Ace glanced up to him as his glasses fell down his face from looking down, just catching the soft expression he was giving before he grumbled and look away, making the gambler chuckle to himself as he finished tying off the gauze, moving his hand to gently hold his shoulder.

“She get you up there?”

Bill looked back again, an eyebrow raised.

“Vomit Queen up there. You caught anythin’?”

“Oh, hell no. Saw Karlsson instead, went after her ass. Considerin’ the run around she’s been givin’ her, ain’t surprised.” He paused, trying to push himself up now. “I gotta help her-”

“Aht, aht. Down, boy.” Ace put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down to sit. “C’mon, Bill, she’ll look at you funny and you’ll go down if you go up there again, ‘Sides, Nea ain’t a damsel. A few more minutes, yeah?”

“And Dwight?”

“He’s no idiot either. He’s our leader for a reason.”

He stared, before looking away again.

“We’ve talked about this, Bill. I know you gotta stick your neck out for everyone else, but you can only go so far.”

He didn’t say anything else, but from the way he tapped his fingers against the concrete floor, he wasn’t happy about it.

“There… no worries, you old coot, I got you.” Ace laughed as he got a punch to the chest, moving to hold a hand where the impact had been made, expression going soft as Bill laughed too, albeit it was quieter. He stood to his feet and wiped the dust and blood off of his knees where he’d been kneeling before offering the soldier a hand, which he took, helping him stand to his feet with only minor wobbling. "You good?"

"Yeah... yeah. Just... give me a second."

"Take all the time you need."

The soldier kept his grip tight in Ace's hand, sighing to himself before he went to move his hand away.

Though Ace kept his grip, if only to bring the hand up to his lips and gently kissed Bill’s knuckles, skin old and weathered on his lips, before pulling away and running his thumb across them. “Now come on. We've got a trial to finish."

The two of them walked out of the basement side by side, Ace taking the lead to make sure the coast was clear before they left, taking the exit closest to them through the hole in the wall, heading towards a corner where a generator remained half-power, mechanisms slowly chugging from the inside. The soldier nodded to him, quickly taking over the lead and taking the long side over and leaving Ace to take one of the shorter sides, with the wires exposed.

"Hey, Ace?"

“Hm?” Ace looked up at the sound of his own name, odd coming from Bill, even now.

“...Thanks.”

“What for?”

“Wh- what do you think?”

“Oh, I know, I just wanted to hear you say it.”

Bill scowled, though only momentarily, the shit-eating grin on the gambler’s face was enough to make him crack into a brief chuckle, even if it did make him a little (read: a lot) more punchable, before resuming work on the generator.

They got out of that game alive, thankfully, Bill saving Dwight from a last-minute hook and the two of them shielding him on their way out. As the two younger survivors rushed on ahead to give their friends the good news, Ace and Bill hung behind, strolling back hand in hand. It wasn’t an ideal world, but it was theirs, and having each other was a hell of a lot better than not.

#dead by daylight #overconti #ace visconti #bill overbeck #head on #off the record #dweetwise

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fanmaniac · 7 years

Text

King Dice X Reader

After catching a certain dice’s eye how will the rest of the night proceed?

Reader is gender neutral and fic mentions smoking, alcohol, and gambling.

Critique is welcomed! (You might have to go to my tumblr to actually read the whole thing)

____________________________________

You were dragged into the casino by your drunk friend. You offered to just bring him home but you didn’t want to argue with him since he tend to get violent when drunk…

‘The Devil’s Casino’ you thought to yourself as you see the huge looming grinning devil on the sign. ‘What’s the worst that can happen? I lose my soul or something?”

The casino welcomes you with an overwhelming scent of smoke and booze. The sound of laughter, the shuffling of cards, the rolling of die mixed in made up the atmosphere of the casino.

“*Hic* imm go ovra therrrr…” your friend said after stumbling away to a poker table. The people there gave him a big sleazy smile and sat him down. You don’t know who to feel more bad for him or his wallet?

That left you alone. In a huge casino.

You weren’t much of a gambler. You barely know a couple of games and were hastily taught just because your friends needed an extra player.

Maybe you could just watch.

You walk over to a craps table. Two cup fellows seem to getting in trouble with the devil. They were on their knees begging for their souls. ‘The poor guys probably wanted to just have fun. To bad they ended up on the wrong side of the tracks.’ You shake your head at them.

“Hello there~ Lookin for somethin’?” a voice behind you said. You spin around to be met with a tall dapper figure. Said figure greeting you with a smile and small bow.You could see that he was obviously someone important. His dapper light royal purple suit was certainly made with fine quality and probably cost a pretty penny.

“My eyes ar’ up here~” he caught you staring. You desperately tried to cover up your blush and that voice wasn’t helping at all.

He just smirked at you.

“You know how to play Craps?” he asked with that deep voice of his.

You shake your head and say no. But that only makes him grin more.

“I have some time on my hands. I guess I’ll be nice this one time and teach ya”.

You don’t know if you have the best or worst luck in world right now.

He moved next to you set it all up. As he went into detail about the game you can’t help but be distracted. The way his touch lingers on the table, how focused he was, that look he was giving you…

He caught you staring.

Again.

“Here” he pass the dice in your hands,” see if you can toss those all the way back there” he cocks his head to the back wall.

You were trembling. You could barely even hold the dice and now he wants you to throw it? You weakly throw the dice and it barely reaches midway across the table.

“Let me show you my dear~” he came behind you. You stopped breathing. You blushed hard. “Wow darlin’ you got hands softer than rabbit’s feet~” he said as he placed your hands in his own. He swung back and let the dice roll.

“Ya lucky I came ‘long!” he exclaim showing off his pearly whites. “I bet you can’t even roll- Whoah there!”

Your knees were weak. Palms sweaty. Arms heavy and you had none of Mom’s spaghetti. You collapsed into King Dice’s arms. His big arms supported you. You were surrounded by smell of expensive cologne and whiskey.

His face is full of concern when you look up at him. “You ok there? Your face is all red…We got a room-” You cut him off mid-sentence. “A-ah no no that’s fine I was just a little bit dizzy” If you can barely handle being 5 ft from him what makes you think you could survive spending the night?

He frowned at that but then smiled a mischievous smile.

‘Oh no what is he thinking now?!’

“Since you’re ‘n expert now how about we play a game o’ Craps?”

‘Expert? You could barely hold the dice!’

“But let’s make a wager shall we? If you win you and your friend gets a free room! But if I win you have you have to spend the rest of the night with me~.

‘Oh’

It was your turn to smirk now. “Is that all?”

“’ll even treat ya to dinner just for you sweet cheeks~”

‘Now that’s a wager’

You reeled your hand back and hope for the best. And when the dice hit the backboard you held your breath then smiled.

“Snake eyes~”

#king dice #cuphead dont deal with the devil #fanfic #x reader

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247londonairporttransfers · 3 years

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The World's Top Five Airport Casinos

Some airports now offer special gambling areas where you can play slots, gamble on roulette, and play card games. You have never believed gambling could take place in such congested areas like airports. They're always packed, chaotic.

Still, there are certain advantages to gambling in airports. To begin with, airport casinos are tax-free. You keep whatever you earn in the airport, because gambling games also belong to duty-free zones.

Reno-Tahoe is home to one of the top airport casinos in the world. The Nevada International Airport welcomes visitors with a large and engaging gambling area of approximately 4.100 square ft.

Pittsburgh, another American city, has a good airport casino that covers a huge area. While waiting for their trip, travellers can play a variety of slot machines. Because slots require little space and have no dealers, they seem like a fair choice for a gambling zone in such a popular location. Fans of poker and roulette, on the other hand, will not be disappointed when they visit Pittsburgh.

Rivers Casino, one of the largest land-based casinos in the US, is located in the city. It has over 2900 slot machines, 100 table games, a 30-table poker room, numerous restaurants, and live entertainment. The casino is 24 hours and in general it is one of the best states to visit for gaming.

Heathrow is London's busiest airport. Despite the fact that the popular UK airport lacks a full-fledged casino, gamblers may find slot machines all over the waiting hall, flight zone, and other areas.

Years ago, Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands certainly had one of the top airport casinos in the world. Gamblers who travelled to the capital to try their luck initially arrived at Amsterdam's main international airport. Unfortunately, the Schiphol casino was removed in 2018 and Amsterdam West Casino was opened in its place.

In Nevada, Elko Regional Airport is another place with a casino nearby. This airport, unlike others, does not have a gaming zone but does provide a shuttle service to the nearest casino.

247london-airport-transfers.co.uk

#Londonairporttransfers #Casinos #airportservices #gaming #travel #heathrowairport

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noblecrumpet-dorkvision · 7 years

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Rogue Week: New Roguish Archetypes

Four new homebrew roguish archetypes for the D&D 5e rogue: the Shady Dealer, the Gambler, the Firebug, and the Grave Robber!

image credit: Clint Cearley

Shady Dealer

The ultimate intrigue character, the Shady Dealer is a smuggler of a thieves guild or a black market merchant. They use their connections to get information to the adventuring group far easier than anyone else. They know who to talk to and can get just about anything that the party is looking for... as long as the price is right.

Their ability to essentially cast a stronger version of Locate Object and Locate Person is useful for most narratives and their ability to cast Identify on objects they appraise is noteworthy for any adventuring party. The class is far from combat-oriented but they have a strength in their ability to access the best poisons for cheap. A player will get the most out of this class in abusing their Merchant's Knowledge abilities to make money to buy better poisons and buy the specific magic items they want.

Tools of the Trade: At 3rd level, you gain proficiency in the Disguise Kit, Forgery Kit, and Poisoner's Kit.

Merchant's Knowledge: At 3rd level, you trade in the most valuable commodity of all: information. You gain access to a handful of abilities.

Appraise: You have advantage on checks made to judge an item's worth. If you successfully determine how much an item is worth, you may also learn its magical properties as if you had cast an Identify spell on it.

Informants: In a populated area there is bound to be somebody who knows something. As long as you are in a town or city, you may add your CHA modifier to INT checks. You must spend 1d4 hours gathering.

Locate Person/Object: You can find out the location of a specific person or a object using your ties to the criminal underbelly. As long as you are in a town or city, you may make a Persuasion or Intimidation check against a DC based on the description of the target person or object (See below). If you succeed, you find out the current location of the target if the target is within the town or city. If the target is not in the current city, you discover where the target was headed when they last left the city, if possible. You must spend 8 hours to find any specific object or person.

Death Dealer: At 9th level, you have honed your abilities and knowledge of the best weapon for your profession: poison. When you use a poison, you increase all saving throw DCs of the poison by 1 and reroll 1s and 2s on damage dice of your poisons. You may buy poisons for half of their market price.

Use Magic Device: By 13th level, you have learned enough about the workings of magic that you can improvise the use of items even when they are not intended for you. You ignore all class, race, and level requirements on the use of magic items.

Soul of Deceit: Starting at 17th level, your thoughts can’t be read by telepathy or other means, unless you allow it. You can present false thoughts by making a CHA check contested by the mind reader’s WIS check. Additionally, no matter what you say, magic that would determine if you are telling the truth indicates you are being truthful, if you so choose, and you can’t be compelled to tell the truth by magic.

image credit: Maichol Quinto (Satibalzane)

Gambler

The gambler is a character that is constantly pushing their luck to its limits. Some postulate it must be some sort of magic or trickery, but only the gambler knows for certain why they always end up ahead: a deal with Tymora, the goddess of luck herself!

I wanted this class to really feel like you are gambling when you play, so I made the key ability (Risky Action) enable your sneak attack (even on opportunity attacks since it lasts until your next turn!) so players would be tempted to use it often. Risky Action feels like gambling because you are literally playing Craps every time you play!

The immense variety of their spell list is balanced by only getting one each day (twice at 17th level) and completely at random to prevent planning. I think this will be enjoyable to improvise their day around a spell or two. I picked the spells in the deck of cards according to their suite and value. Clubs="Elemental" spells, Spade="Utility" spells, Diamond="Trickery" spells, and Heart=Healing spells, while the value equates to the spell level.

Also note that I made a homebrew magic item for Rogue Week called a Lucky Charm that works well with this class as it gives them an additional luck point.

Risky Action: At 3rd level, you can use your Cunning Action to take a risk during combat. Pick a number from 2 to 12 except for the number 7 and roll 2d6. If the result is a 7, you have disadvantage on all attack rolls made until your next turn. If the result is anything other than 7, you gain advantage on all attack rolls until your next turn. If the result is the number you chose when you rolled the dice, you can steal a tiny object (less than a pound) from the next creature you hit with an attack that isn't currently held by the creature. For instance: a piece of jewelry, a small coinpurse, a scroll, a belt, a stowed dagger, or similar object.

Lucky: At 3rd level, you gain the Lucky feat. If you already have the Lucky feat, you instead gain one additional daily luck point. You also gain proficiency in a gaming set of your choice.

Up the Ante: Starting at 9th level whenever you spend a luck point you may choose one of the following:

Gambler's Conceit: You gain +10 temporary HP until your next turn.

Gambler's Ruin: Attacks you make deal +2d6 damage until your next turn.

Inconceivable: You may force a creature that can see you within 10 ft. to make a CHA saving throw with a DC equal to 10 + 2d6. On a failed save, the creature becomes stunned until your next turn.

Luck of the Draw: Once per day starting at 13th level, you may draw a card from a magic deck of cards granted to you by the goddess of luck (or roll 1d20). You gain a spell corresponding to the card drawn as shown below. You may cast the spell once within the next 24 hours. Any spell cast this way is treated as if you cast it using a 5th level spell slot. Use your CHA modifier as your key ability modifier for your spell save DC and spell attack modifiers. At 17th level, you may draw two cards from the deck each day.

1: Two of Spades: Feather Fall

2: Two of Diamonds: Charm Person

3: Two of Clubs: Thunder Wave

4: Two of Hearts: Healing Word

5: Jack of Spades: Spider Climb

6: Jack of Diamonds: Invisibility

7: Jack of Clubs: Scorching Ray

8: Jack of Hearts: Prayer of Healing

9: Queen of Spades: Blink

10: Queen of Diamonds: Hypnotic Pattern

11: Queen of Clubs: Stinking Cloud

12: Queen of Hearts: Mass Healing Word

13: King of Spades: Dimension Door

14: King of Diamonds: Greater Invisibility

15: King of Clubs: Stoneskin

16: King of Hearts: Death Ward

17: Ace of Spades: Passwall

18: Ace of Diamonds: Dominate Person

19: Ace of Clubs: Cone of Cold

20: Ace of Hearts: Mass Cure Wounds

Lucky Break: At 17th level, you can use your reaction and spend a luck point to gain immunity to all forms of damage until your next turn.

image credit: Jesper Ejsing

Firebug

The Firebug is a rogue that delights in fire and explosions. They use their abilities and prowess to get the drop on their victims like no other rogue can. Their bombs surprise their foes and cause panic and mayhem while the firebug wades into the chaos to backstab them.

While the Fire and Smoke Bombs are technically spells, if your DM allows or prefers they can have them not count as casting a spell but instead as throwing a fist-sized bomb at the targeted location. I could have made this class all about the explosives in the back of the DMG, but I thought it would be more interesting (and more versatile) to make the effects more spell-like.

Fire and Smoke Bombs: At 3rd level you learn how to easily create bombs out of either alchemical or magical material. You learn the Create Bonfire (EE) and Produce Flame cantrips gain three spell slots which replenish after a long rest. Each spell slot level is equal to half your rogue level rounded up. You can cast the following spells using your spell slots (provided the spell slot is high enough):

Fog Cloud (1st)

Pyrotechnics (EE) (2nd)

Fireball (3rd)

Delayed Blast Fireball (7th)

Shock: At 3rd level, whenever a creature must make a saving throw against your Firebug spells, if that creature is surprised, the creature has disadvantage on their saving throw.

Commando's Vision: At 9th level, you gain the ability to see through smoke, fire, and fog without any penalty.

Awe: At 13th level, whenever a creature must make a saving throw against your Fire and Smoke Bombs, if that creature is surprised, the creature becomes frightened for the duration of their next round and deafened for 1d4 rounds.

Undermine: At 17th level, your Fireball and Delayed Blast Fireball spells deal an equal amount of damage as force damage to structures in their area.

image credit: Felicia Cano

Grave Robber

The grave robber has lived on the fringes of society and among the dead. This roguish character is often paid to find corpses for necromancers and less-than-ethical surgeons. Soon, they found that the dead hold their own secrets and riches. The grave robber uses their expertise of tomb raiding and their knowledge from their arcane and medical patrons to assist their adventuring party with quasi-magical poisons. Most good characters will be hesitant to work with such a rogue of such a grisly profession, but they won’t be complaining once their life is saved by Ghoul Ichor!

I wanted to have unique poisons for each type of undead for the Waste Not ability but besides the ghoul they all do the same thing: reduce max HP with necrotic damage. This was incredibly boring so I looked back at 3rd edition for inspiration. This class is resilient and ruthless. They don’t get their important combat boost until much later in the progression, but their access to essentially free poison each day can take down the most powerful enemies.

Tomb Raider: By 3rd level, you have become familiar with a variety of faiths and learn how to notice the magical defenses they set for their sacred dead. You gain proficiency in the Religion skill and can cast Detect Magic at will.

Waste Not: Starting at 3rd level, you use knowledge gathered from undead you've encountered to make unique alchemical poisons out of the corpses you plunder. You can prepare one dose from the listed poisons below for every 2 hours you spend with a corpse (provided you meet the level requirements for the poison). A maximum of two doses can be harvested from any one corpse before it is wasted of usefulness. The saving throws for each of these are equal to 8 + your INT modifier + your proficiency modifier.

Ghoul Ichor (Level 3): You may use a bonus action to coat your weapon in Ghoul Ichor. If the next creature you hit with that weapon within 1 hour is not an elf or an undead, the creature must succeed at a CON saving throw or become paralyzed for 1 minute. The creature may repeat the saving throw at the start of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

Wight Blood (Level 3): You may use a bonus action to coat your weapon in Wight Blood. The next non-undead creature you hit with that weapon within 1 hour must succeed at a CON saving throw or gain one level of exhaustion. The affected creature repeats the save at the end of its next turn, gaining one additional level of exhaustion on a failed save.

Vampire Blight (Level 6): You may use a bonus action to coat your weapon in Vampire Blight. The next creature you hit with your weapon must succeed at a CON saving throw or take 6d6 necrotic damage (half damage on a successful save). The creature's maximum hit points are reduced by an amount equal to the damage dealt.

Mummy Powder (Level 9): You may throw a glass vial of Mummy Powder at a creature up to 20 ft. away or you can coat a Tiny object in the powder. A creature that comes into contact with the powder must succeed at a CON saving throw or become cursed with Mummy Rot. A creature cursed this way takes 3d6 necrotic damage immediately and again every 24 hours thereafter. The creature's maximum hit points are reduced by the same amount of damage dealt. Mummy Rot can only be cured by a Remove Curse or similar effect.

Bodak Eye (Level 13): Although not technically a poison, the Bodak Eye can be pointed at a creature within 30 ft. If the creature can see the Bodak Eye, the creature must make a CON saving throw. If the creature fails the saving throw, they take 10d6 necrotic damage. If the creature fails their save by 5 or more, the creature instead dies instantly. The Bodak Eye loses its effectiveness once used.

Night Moves: At 9th level, you are accustomed to working in pitch darkness. You gain Darkvision out to 30 ft. If you already have Darkvision, your existing range for your Darkvision increases by 30 ft. In addition, you can move at a normal speed while moving stealthily (normally you must move at 2/3 your regular speed to maintain stealth).

Grave Fortitude: At 13th level, your grim work has made you accustomed to the threats of death and disease. You gain advantage on saving throws against spells and effects that deal poison or necrotic damage or inflict disease.

Bury Them: At 17th level, you become accustomed to having the upper hand and are desperate to keep it that way. If you hit with an attack against a prone creature the attack automatically counts as a critical hit.

#D&D 5e #Rogue Week #homebrew class #Gambler #rogue #roguish archetypes #subclass #D&D #DnD #Dungeons and Dragons #grave robber #firebug #bomber #sapper #black market merchant #shady dealer #poisoner #thief #assassin

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eryiss · 6 years

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Gabmler’s Luck: Chapter Twenty Six

Summary: A drunken night at a bar; that’s how it always starts. A few shots, some self loathing and a decision you would never make when sober. But for Laxus Dreyar, the morning after doesn’t include regret, copious amounts of aspirin and a stranger in his bed. For he only made one drunken decision, becoming the personal driver for professional gambler - Freed Justine. [Fraxus Multi-Chap]

It’s here. The final chapter! Weirdly emotional about posting this, but i hope you all enjoy reading it and had fun getting here. I go on about it at the end a little more, but I just want to say thanks for everyone who made it here. You’re all awesome. :)

You can read it on FanFiction, Archive of Our Own or under the cut. You can also catch up using the chapter list here. Hope you enjoy ^.^

Chapter Twenty-Six – The End

Date: July 12th, 2019.

Freed had often portrayed his life to be finished. He made people believe he found his place in society, that he had overcome the supposed hardships of his childhood, and had forged a life for himself that he was happy with. It wasn't untrue, exactly, but Freed had never quite believed himself when he said it. It felt as though something was missing, the final piece that would finish the puzzle that was his happiness.

Apparently, that piece was Laxus Dreyar.

He would never say he needed love; he could never depend on another person that much. But, after nearly a year of being with Laxus, he realised that just because he didn't need it, didn't mean he wasn't enjoying it. Because, damn he was enjoying it.

Small things had changed throughout the year. He found himself becoming more social, as previously his interactions with other people usually were over a game of cards and part of a long-standing arrangement. But now, he found himself at a bar with friends or at another social occasion on a somewhat regular basis, which he accredited to Laxus even if the blonde didn't know it. Other things about his life had changed as well, even his expression seemed a bit softer upon reflection, and he long since let go of the rigid hold over what he allowed people to know as they engaged.

The changes hadn't gone unnoticed by the people around him, either. Mirajane had commented how he seemed less uptight and pretentious than before; apparently she hadn't wanted to be tactful that day. Even Bickslow, when he had visited again, made a few comments about how he seemed more relaxed and was smiling more. Freed denied the claims, but the evidence spoke for itself.

He was happier. It was a fact. A fact that lead to Loke's comment as he placed a card on his balcony table.

"You're phasing out again," The words were spoken in a teasing way. Freed looked down to his gambling companion and saw the bachelor grinning. "I can't begin to imagine what strong jawed thing you're thinking of, oh man of mystery."

Freed rolled his eyes a little but was smiling. "I would have thought that, after me and Laxus got together, the comments about his jawline would stop."

"And you thought wrong," Loke chuckled, before grinning. "Although, if you really want me to stop, a threesome might cleanse my pallet."

Deciding not to give that a response – he didn't want to so much as dignify the 'suggestion' – Freed looked down to the hand of cards he had been dealt. They weren't too bad, a little above average but with no certainty of him winning. He pushed a few chips into the pot, deciding to raise it a little but not to the point where he might lose anything significant. He looked to Loke with a raised eyebrow, waiting for him to continue.

The two men were having their monthly poker game, which had only just begun. Throughout the year he and Laxus had been together, they had made an effort to keep their friendships strong. There had been some instances where the relationship had allowed both men to get close to new people – Freed and Evergreen had become quite close after she moved back to Magnolia full time, for example – but they both had made sure to keep time to spend with their friends alone. This worked well for Freed, he was a man who treated the people close to him with loyalty to which Loke had earned a great deal, and he suspected Laxus was the same.

After Loke had matched the pot but not raised it, he presented his cards. Freed smirked a little, presented his own, winning hand, and took the pot for himself. He saw Loke sigh a little as he began to shuffle the cards, while Freed started to stack his chips up.

"You know," Loke began as the cards flew between his hands. "It's not fair that you're still good at this game when you're distracted."

"Perhaps you're just not as good as you thought," Freed smiled a little.

Loke chuckled a little at the teasing, having noticed that it was something that occurred more often now that he was with Laxus. It didn't take a genius to know why; Freed and Laxus teased and mocked each other often in their relationship – without malice, of course – and that form of interaction was coming out more in Freed's daily conversation. Loke wasn't going to complain, Freed was finally become the verbal sparring partner he always wanted.

"Speaking of blondie," Loke continued, starting to deal with cards. "Little birdy told me you've got an anniversary coming up."

The little birdy in question would almost definitely be Bickslow. After Freed had introduced them to each other, Loke's flirty nature and Bickslow's easy going personality had melded together immediately and they were acting like the best of friends by the end of the day. They kept in contact a lot, and Freed wasn't entirely sure what the nature of their relationship was. He found it was easier and better for his sanity not to ask.

"Your informant is correct," Freed said, looking over the hand he'd gained. Not too bad. "Why?"

"Just wondered if you've got anything planned for it," Loke said as he looked over his hand. Freed couldn't decide how good his cards were based on his reactions, yet. "If romantic literature has told me anything, a rich man like you needs to rent out an entire island, explode a country's worth of fireworks and buy him a forest and cover is with his favourite flowers, or you just don't love him."

Freed chuckled a little, doubting Laxus would enjoy having such attention give to him. The blonde always would prefer something more intimate, Freed had quickly realised, and the situation would probably become quite awkward if given the kind of surprise Loke had suggested.

"Well certainly nothing that extravagant," Freed smiled a little. "But I do have a few ideas."

They both added money to the pot, Freed making sure to keep an eye on Loke's expressions as they did to see if he could get a better judge on his hand. As the money mounted up between them, Freed still had no idea who would be the winner, so decided he would simply match the pot the next chance he got and see what had happened; it would either be a relatively unimportant amount of money to lose, or a small amount to win. Either way, it wasn't going to affect the overall outcome of the game too much.

As per tradition, after both men showed their hands – Loke had a flush, so had won – it was Freed's turn to shuffle the cards. His way of doing it was had less showmanship than Loke, as he didn't see the point in pulling card tricks in a professional situation; he was almost sure Loke learnt how to toss the cards as a way to get attention at a bar.

"Speaking of my anniversary," Freed continued, now dealing the cards. "There's something I need your assistance on."

"Sure," Loke nodded, before grinning. "Though, from experience, threesomes aren't a good anniversary present. Made things a little tense last time."

"It's not going to happen, Loke," Freed deadpanned a little, finishing dealing them both a hand. He didn't look at his cards immediately though, neither did Loke. "I just need you to look after something for the rest of the night, and don't let me forget about it, or ignore it."

The gambler reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small piece of lined paper, that had been folded neatly in half. He held it forward for Loke to take, who did and frowned a little as he inspected it. He decided not to open it immediately, not sure what the paper was for or how it related to his friend's anniversary. Instead of voicing this, he placed the paper in his own jacket pocket and looked at Freed with furrowed eyebrows.

"I've told you that, when we play, I sometimes put up alternative odds to give me a reason to take the games seriously, haven't I?" Freed asked, Loke nodding a moment later. "Well, if I end the day with getting more money from you than what you've got from me, I'm going to go through with what I've written on the paper."

Well, that kind of made sense. There was still no obvious connection to what it had to do with his anniversary, but Loke could guess that he had a plan that he was second-guessing himself about and needed to force himself to do. He could probably handle not knowing what that plan was, exactly.

"Can I read it?" He asked a moment later.

So he couldn't handle not knowing. Oh well.

"Of course," Freed nodded, and Loke was pulling the paper out from his pocket a moment later.

As Loke began to unfold the paper and read the promise Freed had made to himself, the gambler looked directly at his friend's face. He was not subtle about this, wanting to fully understand his friend's opinions on what was written. This was important, and if Loke thought that he was making a mistake then Freed wanted to know why he felt that way immediately.

Despite playing a game where the poker-face was a necessity, Loke's face became incredibly emotive. First, the furrowed eyebrows intensified and Freed identified the expression as either confusion or disbelief. Then a small smile, perhaps a show of support from Loke in what Freed had written. And finally, his expression returned to something more resembling how he looked normally, but still a little different. Perhaps a mixture of happiness and confusion, Freed wasn't entirely sure though.

"You serious?" He asked, and the lack of judgment told Freed he didn't think it was a bad idea completely.

"I am," Freed nodded, and his nerves jumped a little at his own words.

"Okay," Loke nodded, thinking through what he was going to say next. He gave Freed a hard time sometimes, but they were pretty good friends and he needed to get this right. "If this is what you want, I'm gonna be completely supportive of it and do anything to help. But this is big, and if you're not sure if you're ready and you're doing this to make up your mind, maybe you just shouldn't be doing it yet."

Freed understood what he meant, and the clarification that Loke was supportive of what he wanted to do calmed him a little. The criticisms were valid, and Freed understood why Loke felt the need to bring them up, but Freed was sure he wanted to do it.

"I know," He nodded. "And I am sure this is what I want. I just… I feel as though that if I do it because I win, then it's as if fate is giving me permission."

He blushed a little as he spoke, and looked down to the cards in his hands rather than at his gambling companion. He knew that, a year ago, he wouldn't have spoken about fate as if it had some effect on his life, but this was the effect that Laxus had had upon him.

Perhaps it was another way that Laxus had allowed him to be less up tight than he once had, giving him the ability to have a sense of wonderment about the universe without worrying about his dignity. Laxus was a large believer that fate had some influence on life, and was an entirely respectable person, so Freed could be the same.

"That's," Loke spoke after a few moments. "That's sweet, actually."

"I'm glad you think so," Freed smiled and nodded a little. "Though I should say, if I find out that you either went easy on me or cheated so that I win, I will buy out your father's company and make you work in the worst position I can find, just out of spite."

Loke chuckled and nodded, placing the refolded piece of paper back into his pocket, and the two men went back to their game. Freed was now playing to win, and his analysis of Loke's expressions could not be wrong. He was considerably more vigilant, stoic and focused than he had been while playing for quite some time. This was the first time in years that there had been anything he cared about as stakes for a bet, and he was going to do everything he could to win.

A nervous energy filled him as he started to raise the pot for his impressive hand. He started to think back to what was written on the paper he had given to Loke, what would happen to his life if he managed to win more than Loke over the next few hours. His future would be held in fate's hand and was written on the small piece of paper.

'In the event that I end the day in a victory, I will ask Laxus Dreyar to marry me.'

Date: August 4th, 2019

Laxus had never had a one-year anniversary. He found himself enjoying it.

He had woken up beside Freed, something that had become a regular occurrence as he was sleeping at the other man's apartment more than his own, it seemed. The two had spent the morning relaxing, having a breakfast of pastries from a local bakery and just enjoying each other's company. The afternoon had been spent on a pseudo-hike around the forests around Magnolia, something Laxus had admitted he wanted to do with Freed month's prior. Now, as evening started to fall, Freed had said they would get dinner together and Laxus smiled a little when he saw where Freed had decided to go.

It was a diner. The same truck stop diner that Freed had taken him to when he as still undecided about if he was going to take the job or not. It was the first time the two had eaten together, the first time they had been relatively social with each other when not drunk. Although it wasn't the bar they had been to for their first date, it still had a large amount of sentimental value to it.

As they walked through the doors, Laxus found himself smiling. It was just as comforting, welcoming and warming as he expected it to be. Given the time of day, it was almost empty other than the staff, which was fine with Laxus as he preferred the privacy.

Freed walked them to the same table they had eaten at before, in the far corner of the diner beside a large window. As Laxus slid into his side of the booth, he wondered if Freed would have pulled out his chair if they had chairs to pull out, or if he would do it for Freed. Knowing their luck, they would somehow manage to both do it at the same time and would stubbornly refuse to sit until the other did; he smiled at the idea.

"You okay?" Freed asked, pulling the menu out from behind it's stand.

"Great," Laxus grinned.

He silently took the menu offered to him. He quickly scanned through what was offered, deciding that, from what was offered, he would probably end up having ribs and fries. It wasn't the most elegant thing to eat, and probably wasn't the kind of thing you were meant to order on an anniversary, but Laxus doubted Freed cared.

As he considered what he was going to drink – probably something non-alcoholic, even though Freed would end up driving – he found his hand straying to the small parcel beside him. It was a simple box, wrapped in brown paper with a small brown string tying it together; Mirajane had been the one to wrap it. It was his anniversary gift to Freed; the gambler had insisted that they wait until their meal until they exchanged them, and Laxus was looking forward to seeing how the other man would react when he saw what it was.

Freed placed his menu down on the table, and saw that Laxus was distracted by his own gift and wasn't paying much attention to him. He took the short moment to reach into his jacket pocked to reaffirm what he already knew.

The ring was still there.

After winning against Loke nearly a month prior – by a significant margin, as well – Freed had faced no doubts that he was going to make Laxus his husband. He had spent almost all his free time trying to find the perfect ring, which he believed he had done. He had also planned what he hoped would be the perfect date for their anniversary, which Laxus seemed to be enjoying so far, and had decided he would end the day with his proposal.

He had expected to be more nervous, but he wasn't. He found himself worried about things going wrong, hence how he had checked for the ring multiple times despite knowing it was there, but felt that there was no doubt that the outcome would be positive. He hoped that his confidence wasn't misplaced.

"So," Freed begun, making Laxus look up. "I know the day isn't over yet, but have you enjoyed yourself so far?"

"Yeah," Laxus grinned. "Really have."

And he had. The morning spent together had been great, simply spending time together without the pressures of working was always something Laxus enjoyed. Having good food and an extra affectionate boyfriend only improved this. And the hike they had been on had been just as enjoyable, allowing him to spend more time alone with his boyfriend and also doing something that he found both relaxing and fun.

"Kinda wish I could have done some stuff for you though," He continued, though was smiling. He really couldn't complain. "Just so you feel like I do, y'know."

"I'm sure you'll manage something," Freed grinned. "And if you want, I'm sure that you can organise our next anniversary."

Laxus nodded and smiled, liking the sound of spending another year with Freed. When that happened – because he had no plans of leaving Freed – he would make sure to put as much effort as Freed had to make him feel the way Laxus did.

Freed soon walked to the counter to order both their meals after asking Laxus what he wanted, and Laxus found himself looking down to his gift again. It was harder than he thought to buy something for Freed, as he wanted to get him something more personal than just showing off about how much he could spend on him; especially because it was well known that Freed made a lot more than he did. He thought that what he had settled on something good and something that his boyfriend would love.

He didn't have any idea about what Freed's gift for him was, he had been particularly secretive with that part of the day. With everything else, he had been willing to tell Laxus a few days before about what he had planned, but Laxus hadn't so much as seen anything wrapped. Still, he trusted the man so wouldn't worry about it.

"It shouldn't take long," Freed said as he returned to their seat. "Half an hour at the most."

"Great," Laxus smiled, looking back up from the gift he had placed to his side on the leather booth. "So, I know you said you wanted to leave it until the end of the meal for you to give me whatever you got me, but d'you mind if I give you mine now? That okay?"

"Of course," Freed nodded. "As long as you don't mind waiting to get yours."

"Nah," Laxus shook his head slightly. "Is it really that important that you give it to me at the end? Not that I mind, just wondering."

"It will make sense, I promise."

Laxus nodded a little, Freed was a romantic guy when called upon and the fact he was being so secretive about the gift probably meant that he had everything planned out to a fine degree. He had quickly grown use to the odd eccentricity that his boyfriend showed him, and he expected that Freed did the same with him. In fact, instead of being confused by it, he found himself more excited about receiving the gift because of the apparent effort Freed was putting into it.

He lifted the brown package and handed it to Freed, a small smile on his face as he watched his boyfriend open it; carefully and slowly, of course. He soon revealed the box that Laxus had put the two gifts in, and Laxus felt his stomach twist a little in apprehension as to how Freed received the gift. He hoped it matched up to what he had gotten him.

Freed looked down into the box to see two things. The first was a large bottle of whiskey, his favourite brand and, upon further inspection, it had been aged for thirty-five years. Freed had only ever justified himself buying the twenty-year version of the whiskey, so to be given an entire bottle of its older, more luxurious counterpart was already exciting to him. He was smiling already at the thought that Laxus had put into the present, and he hadn't yet seen all of it.

The other half of the gift was in a small jewellery case, which he slowly pulled out and opened. Presented to him was a black leather bracelet with indentations spread across it. He carefully brought it out to examine it, and Laxus smiled.

"They're soundwaves," The blonde explained. "I noticed you liked that one song of Bickslow's, 'Demons Water' I think, so that's the soundwaves from it's chorus. There's, erm, if you look on the inside then there's a little something else."

Freed lifted the bracelet to his face, and Laxus was given the beautiful sight of Freed's eyes lighting up as he saw what Laxus had organised. It had taken some time, but he had found someone who could attach a small, engravened plate of metal onto the inside of the bracelet. On the plate, Laxus had written a short message in Anglo-Saxon runes, something that Freed had once admitted to being fluent in.

The message simply stated: My Love, Freed.

Any façade that Freed may have worn – unintentionally or otherwise – was completely depleted now. The thoughtfulness and effort put into the gift was astounding; he had both managed to find out his favourite song without having to ask and had done something so personal that Freed himself wouldn't have thought of, but now realised he loved.

"This," Freed said with a smile. "This is perfect. Thank you so much."

Freed's smile was still present as he leant over the table and pressed his lips against Laxus' for a short moment, and Laxus couldn't help but light up at the fact that he had caused such a joyous expression on his boyfriend's face.

Laxus watched as Freed carefully slid the bracelet onto his wrist and clicked it into place, and Laxus found himself proud that he had made his boyfriend happy and gotten him something that he actually liked, rather than something that was more of a hollow gesture more than anything else. So, even if he felt as though Freed's gift was better than his own, he knew that he had done something to make Freed smile, and that was the important thing.

"I feel a little bad that I can't give you your gift right now," Freed admitted, hand resting on the bracelet.

"Don't worry," Laxus smiled. "I know you well enough, I'm pretty sure that it'll be worth the wait."

"I certainly hope so," Freed smiled.

The food took a short while to arrive, and conversation came easy between the two men as they waited. Laxus couldn't help the bursting sensation that occurred in his stomach the few times that he caught Freed playing with his new bracelet or glancing at it when he didn't realise Laxus was looking. It was a little thing, but the blonde enjoyed seeing it happen.

After their meals were given to them, they ate quickly and finished their conversation. Although Laxus hadn't remembered how good the food had been the last time they had been there, he was surprised as to just how good their ribs had been; he was glad that Freed wasn't the type to be a dick about table manners, because Laxus had eaten faster than he was proud of. In fairness, Freed was also eating his meal – chicken salad with a side of gravy fries – at a pretty impressive speed, so if he did bring it up then he would be a hypocrite.

Laxus gave a small smile of thanks to the waitress as she took their emptied plates away and asked if they wanted anything else; Freed asked for a refill on their drinks. As the waitress walked away, Laxus leant his arms on the table and smirked a little.

"So," He began. "Apparently Ever and Elfman are finally gonna go on a date."

"He asked her?" Freed frowned. He honestly expected their feelings to go unspoken between them for years to come.

"Nah, she asked him," Laxus chuckled. "Well, she told him. Said when he was going to pick her up, what he had to wear, and where he was gonna take her. Did it in front of the bar, poor guy didn't know where to look."

"I imagine," Freed chuckled. "It's for the best, though."

As the blonde went to speak again, he saw that two members of the diner's staff walking towards them. One was carrying a metal bucket, and the other had what seemed to be a bottle of champagne wrapped in a small towel. Laxus looked over his shoulder to see if anyone had arrived in this part of the room without them noticing, but saw no one. His frown intensified a little when he watched the waitress place the bucket of ice onto their table and then place the champagne inside of it. The waitress who had held the bucket also produced two champagne glasses.

He watched in confusion as the waitress asked if the drink was satisfactory, and Freed nodded to her. Both members of staff smiled and walked away, leaving Laxus and Freed alone with the champagne that Freed had apparently ordered without him knowing. He looked to his boyfriend, his frown questioning the arrival of the drink.

"I told you there was a reason that I wanted to leave your gift to the end of the meal," Freed offered as explanation, and his voice portrayed something akin to vulnerability.

Laxus had no idea what was going on.

"We've been together for a year now, Laxus, and I can honestly say that I think I'm happier now than I have been throughout my life," Freed continued, Laxus just watching with slight wide eyes. "It feels as though you prefect things for me. As if, when I'm with you, some kind of burden is lifted from me. I can see things in a new light, with more optimism and happiness than I would have previously allowed. You do something to me that just improves, well… everything I do with you seems better, it feels."

Laxus found himself entranced by his boyfriends as he spoke. What the hell was happening?

"I never expected to find love, if I'm honest," Freed looked down for a second, before meeting Laxus' eyes again. "I felt like it would be a burden on me. But I was wrong, because I am madly in love with you Laxus and I would be willing to do anything to keep that love strong for the rest of my life. That is something I know for a fact."

Holy shit. Why was he saying this?

Laxus felt his heart pounding out of his chest and couldn't find words as he watched Freed slowly stand up. What was happening. The gambler left the booth and walked so that he was standing in front of Laxus, who's hand he took in his own and forced him to stand up beside him. Laxus' eyes widened, and he was sure that he was dreaming.

Then, Freed got down onto one knee.

He reached into his jacket pocked and pulled out a small, velvet lined box. Laxus, still unable to speak, was completely overwhelmed at the situation. This was actually happening, it was actually fucking happening! His throat was dry, body filled with the very same electric feeling that he had always associated with Freed, and his body was covered in wave after wave of chills. Holy fucking shit!

After Freed popped the box open, Laxus could see the ring. It was made out of a dark metal – probably purposefully dulled steel – and was split apart by a series of black diamonds that glinted under the lights overhead. It was beautiful.

Fuck. Fuck, this was actually happening.

"Laxus, I love you more than I thought possible," Freed's voice broke a little as he spoke. He wore such a beautiful smile, and Laxus felt his insides melt. "I can't imagine a life without you in it. A life where I don't wake up knowing that we are together. A life that I don't love you.

"So please, will you do me the honour of becoming my husband?"

Laxus' body was on fire. Every cell burned with electricity, every emotion roared throughout him and he felt a wide smile split apart his face. He knew that tears were forming at the edges of his eyes, but he cared little for his dignity at that moment. He felt as though his whole life had been leading to this moment, as if this was the most important second that he had lived through and, as he looked at the man he adored, he felt no doubt in what he was going to say.

This was his fate. This was his destiny. And it all was going to start with a single word.

"Yes."

Date: September 21st, 2019

Teeth gritted and body tense, Laxus focused all efforts on pushing the weighted bar upwards so that his arms could become straight. It was heavier than his usual weight, an admittedly impressive amount considering it was making the man struggle in a way that he hadn't in years. He closed his eyes, forcing himself to work through the burn that was rushing its way through his overworked arms as he exercised.

The reason for his overexertion in working out was his wedding. Although it had only been a little over a month since he and Freed had gotten engaged, they were both working towards making the day as perfect as it could be. Part of that included making sure they were in shape.

Wedding planning was happening in an… informal way. They had both decided that they would not hire a wedding planner – neither wanted their wedding day to be twisted into some kind of 'statement' because it was between two men by someone who didn't know them and didn't care about what they wanted – and instead they were working with a mixture of online assistance as well as help from their friends; Mirajane had been incredibly insistent that she help in any way that they needed, and both men were incredibly thankful for it, even if she did occasionally get too excited.

One piece of advice they had gotten was to start their wedding diet immediately. Freed had dismissed this, claiming that they were both incredibly healthy and didn't need to worry about their pictures, but Laxus had been intrigued. He liked to push his limits and had somewhat felt he was letting himself go in his fitness – again, Freed disputed this – so he saw this as a good opportunity to see how in shape he could make himself become.

He had decided he would get Elfman's help for this. Laxus knew a fair amount about keeping himself healthy, but Elfman had perfect it. So, with Elfman's help, he could make strives in his fitness and not worry about taking things too far or hurting himself. They'd set a target weight, something feasible that Laxus could achieve well before the wedding date that he and Freed had chosen – they had decided to set it in late January of the next year – and would then maintain it when he had reached it; this plan also took away the stress of having to retailor a suit at the last moment because it couldn't fit.

"Come on, man," Elfman said, brining Laxus' focus back. "Nearly got it."

Spurred on, Laxus seemed to gain a second burst of adrenaline and raised his arms higher, managing to make them straight and hold aloft the heavy weight in triumph. He then placed it on the bar rest, letting his arms loll to the side in relaxation.

"Forgot you were such a hardass," Laxus muttered, sitting up and panting.

"It's what you signed up for," Elfman said, handing Laxus a hand towel to clear his face of the sweat that had formed. "You know it ain't easy to gain muscle, man. You've been going easy on yourself."

Laxus was too busy panting to reply, having forgotten how seriously Elfman took his job. It should have been obvious, considering that Elfman looked as though he had replaced some of his bones with muscles, but Laxus knew that he could handle it. Like Elfman had said, he'd signed up for it himself and he wasn't going to give up because of a little bit of pain.

As he recovered and drained some of his water, Laxus looked the room. It was late now, so the gym was mainly empty, but it was the same as always. The upbeat music was still blasting from the speakers, the bright lights reflected off the blue walls, and the faint smell of sweat assaulted the senses.

If he weren't as tired, Laxus would perhaps chuckle a little. He was almost in the exact same place where he had first laid eyes on Freed – only two benches over, actually – and now he was going to marry the guy. It was funny to think that the guy who had slightly captured the attention of his younger self a few years ago was soon going to become his husband, and the guy who had nearly set them up and could have kickstarted their relationships early was here with him. It really did feel like they were fated to be together, with how close they had come before.

He wondered what would have happened if he had taken up Elfman's offer of getting Freed's number. Any number of things could have happened, maybe they would already be married and living happily as husbands, or maybe the timing wouldn't have been right and they wouldn't have lasted.

That didn't matter, though. Because they were engaged now, Laxus was happy now, and he wouldn't take life any other way.

"Come on man," Elfman spoke up after letting Laxus rest for a moment. "You gotta stretch, or you ain't gonna be able to move."

With a nod, Laxus stood up and walked towards the corner of the room, where both all stretching equipment was stored as well as a series of mats had been set up. Knowing the best stretches he could do to settle the aching in his arms, he didn't wait for Elfman's instructions and instead began immediately.

As he stretched, he heard the sound of running on one of the treadmills beside him. He looked up and rolled his eyes to see that Elfman had taken the chance to use it, despite knowing that Laxus' stretching probably wouldn't take any longer than five minutes; the guy really couldn't go any amount of time without doing a workout of some kind. Laxus wondered if his friend would do this with any of his other clients, or if he was being more lax because they were friends.

"You just can't help yerself, can ya?" Laxus chuckled a little.

"Cardio's important," Elfman said, and Laxus could see he was grinning. "Crap, reminds me. Mira asked if you and Freed are free next Saturday? She's lined up a couple caterers that'll do the food you want, wants you to do a taster day."

"Should be fine," Laxus nodded. "How did doing cardio remind you of that?"

"You're gonna be eating a lot, man," Elfman chuckled. "You're gonna have to do a load of cardio to counter that."

Laxus sighed but nodded, seeing Elfman's point. Cardio was probably his least favourite part of a workout, but he knew the significance and wasn't going to complain about it. And if he got to eat great food the day before, then he could deal with a bit of jogging on a treadmill or whatever the hell Elfman had planned.

Stretching completed, Laxus sat cross legged on the floor as Elfman continued his short burst of cardio. The blonde knew that he could catch his breath better if he was standing up, but Elfman had also put him on the leg press – he didn't see the point in focusing on different aspects of the body on different days, apparently – and Laxus didn't intend to stand for any longer than needed. That was part of the reason as to why he had chosen to workout at night, so he could return home and rest immediately without judgement.

His home was now Freed's apartment. It started off as a temporary thing – the apartment above Laxus' flooded and damaged his ceiling – but after a week of living together Freed suggested they move in together. Laxus had, of course agreed, and most of his things had been moved in within the week. Laxus expected it to feel strange, but it hadn't; Freed was the reason for that, no doubt.

"Sorry about that," Elfman said as he climbed off the treadmill. "Got a couple new clients this week, haven't rescheduled my own work out yet."

"No worries," Laxus said, standing up again and wiping his face with the towel again.

"So," Elfman continued, and the two men started to walk towards the locker rooms. "How's everything going with planning. Heard it can be pretty stressful if you ain't doing it right, or don't have enough help."

"It's been good so far. Your sisters done a lot for us, so has Ever," Laxus said, looking towards his friends. "Basically, for half the things that we've planned, we just told Mira what we want, and she finds out a way to make it happen. Kinda feel bad, like we should be paying her or something, 'cause she's basically acting like a wedding planner."

"You're two of her closest friends getting married, man," Elfman chuckled. "The fact you're involving her at all is like a gift to her. Although, if you don't at least make her a bridesmaid or whatever the guy alternative is, she'll kill you both."

"Yeah," Laxus chuckled. "Definitely."

The topic of bridesmaids – as well as groomsmen – had been something both Freed and Laxus had put some considerable thought into. As there was no bride in their wedding, the traditional way of having a wedding party couldn't happen unless one of them decided to act in the female role, which wasn't going to happen. They had decided that they would both have a best man and a maid of honour, and the rest of the wedding party would be made up of their closest friends, therefore removing any complications from the situation.

The process of choosing who would be their best man and maid of honour had been completed in the previous week. Freed's had chosen Bickslow for his best man, and Mirajane for his maid of hour. Laxus had chosen Ever for his maid of honour and, of course, Elfman as his best man.

Neither groom had asked their respective choices. But Laxus was going to change that.

"Speaking of that, man," Laxus said as he walked into the locker room. "I know you said you had to rush off, but can I talk to you before you go?"

Elfman frowned a little as he opened his locker and pulled out his clean clothes; he hadn't packed a towel because he would shower at home. He placed his clothes on the bench and sat down, nodding to Laxus and inviting him to continue. He didn't know what the blonde could want, though, as their conversations didn't typically have a serious edge to them.

"Well, we both thought that we'd have a best man and a maid of honour, to make it even," Laxus began, sitting on the bench beside Elfman. "I don't have many friends who are guys, and we've been close for years now, right? Well, I mean, you've always been there for me, y'know. I mean, if I took up your offer to get Freed's number, you would've bene the guy that set us up. You're a good guy, always had my back. So, I wanted to ask you – shit I ain't good at this – you wanna be my best man?"

Laxus found himself looking down at the tiled floor of the locker room; he really should have been able to ask that in a less awkward way. He'd gotten better at discussing his emotions with Freed, but apparently he still couldn't easily do it with his friends.

"You serious man?" Elfman asked, voice a little disbelieving. Laxus nodded. "Of course I will, dude. That's awesome, thanks!"

Laxus looked up, and was quickly pulled into a slightly sweaty hug. He winced a little at the two slaps the other man delivered to his back but grinned a little at how well his question had been received. He and Freed had been spending a lot of time together and, while they did make an effort to keep up with their friends as much as they could, Laxus couldn't shake the feeling he might have pushed away someone accidentally; perhaps he still had some lingering abandonment issues.

But still, the fact Elfman so happily accepted made Laxus' doubts calm down considerable.

"It's… thanks man," Elfman grinned as he pulled apart. "You do realise, Mira will be really pissed off if she's not involved now."

"Yeah, but Freed's got that covered," Laxus chuckled.

"Well, looking forward to it man," Elfman gave Laxus a final clap on the back as he peeled his sweat soaked shirt from his body. "Now all I gotta do is make sure you get down that aisle on time with your guy on your arm, and look damn good when you're doing it."

Laxus grinned and nodded. He was going to go down the isle with Freed. Holy shit.

Date: January 30th, 2020.

"You know, you're being awfully mysterious."

Laxus' head snapped up at the words, and his expression settled into a smile as he saw that it was Freed who had spoken. The gambler was slowly walking towards him, wrapped up both in his red coat and a scarf, with hands wrapped around two cardboard cups that Laxus assumed was from Starbucks. He looked amazing.

It was nearing the middle of the night, the air was crisp and the gentle flakes of snow were starting to fall to the ground. The city was relatively silent, and despite the chilling cold that accompanied them, Laxus couldn't stop himself from smiling.

In less than twenty-four hours, he would be wedded to the man he loved.

They had intended to spent their final night as an engaged couple apart from each other; a suggestion made by Mirajane as a way to make their wedding night more of an occasion as well as following a tradition she had found out about. It hadn't gone as planned as, while he was trying to get some sleep in the motel room Laxus had booked himself into, he found himself craving the other man. The excitement for his wedding was too much, and he couldn't bare think about not seeing his husband-to-be until they were walking down the aisle. The sentiment of the idea was obvious, but it was becoming near torturous.

His first attempt to counter this was to go for a walk to tire himself out, so he could sleep the moment he got to his motel room. But, obviously, that didn't work and only made him more awake as he thought about how much he wanted the next day to come. Furthermore, his thirty-minute-long walk had ended right in front of the Magnolian Library, the place where he and Freed had first kissed.

He found himself walking in without thinking, glad that it was attached to the city's university and therefore was open all the time. On instinct, he began to walk up the staircase to the entrance of the rooftop garden. A moment later, he was sitting on the same bench he and Freed had occupied nearly a year and a half ago.

After sitting there alone for about five minutes, looking over the city, the craving for his fiancé began again. He texted him before he could stop himself; asking Freed if he would like to join him despite their agreement to stay away form each other. The reply came almost immediately.

"I'm sorry I took so long," Freed said as he got closer. "For midnight, Starbucks was shockingly busy."

The gambler sat beside Laxus and handed him a large cup of white-hot-chocolate, which Laxus took with adoring eyes and sipped at gently; it was still steaming hot. He leant over and pressed his lips against Freed's jaw in thanks, of course Freed would have known Laxus would be freezing up here and got him something to help with it that wouldn't keep him up any longer.

Both men were silent for a moment, leaning on each other and enjoying the quietness. It was impossible to deny that, despite both men wanting the next day to come more than anything, the last few weeks had been stressful. They not only had to get themselves ready, but make sure that everything they had organised over the last six months was still happening, and thankfully nothing had gone wrong. Even still, it had been a lot of stressing over things and this was one of few calm moments they'd been able to share over the month.

Neither man particularly minded the cold of the rooftop as they sat, the view of gentle snowfall falling over magnolia was more than enough to justify it. The sentimentality of the location just added to the experience. This was the view to which they first kiss, the place that had started their relationship and brought them to this point.

After sitting in silence for a few minutes, Freed turned his head and looked to Laxus. He smiled a little as he saw his fiancé illuminated by the garden lights scattered across the rooftop. He reached up slowly and ran a hand through the man's hair.

"It looks good," He commented, smiling softly.

"You think?" Laxus asked, turning around and looking down at Freed. "Wasn't sure you'd like it."

"No, you look incredible."

Earlier in the day, Laxus had visited the barber's shop that belonged to their wedding stylist: Cancer. As the man was doing both Laxus' and Freed's hair – who would take a considerable amount of time, given the length of his hair – Laxus had his haircut organised for the day before. It had been shaved a little at the sides and, when completely styled, was to be slicked back. He had liked it upon first seeing it, and now knowing that Freed liked it as well, he found himself loving it.

Wearing a soft, tired smile, he looked down to Freed. The gambler was looking at him with slightly tired looking eyes, as if he wasn't focused on anything happening around them. Laxus chuckled a little, having noticed Freed do that more as their relationship progressed.

"Something on your mind?" He teased a little, catching Freed's attention again.

"Just trying to imagine how you'll look in your suit tomorrow," Freed sighed, resting his head on Laxus' shoulder tiredly.

They both knew what the other's suit looked like. They had been designed both by Freed's usual tailor and Evergreen, who had worked together to make clothing that was specifically tailored to both men's appearances. Laxus' suit had a black velvet blazer, a light brown waistcoat and an equally brown tie. Freed's was dark blue, with a black waistcoat and a tie that matched Laxus'. They were both fantastic, and both men looked forward to seeing the other wearing them as they were getting married.

Of course, every aspect of the day was done to their specifications and they looked forward to it all. The venue was decorated to how they liked it, the meal was designed entirely by the two of them, and even the cars they had hired were specifically chosen by their needs.

"Yer in your own head again," Laxus grinned, and Freed looked up to him with a smile.

"Can you blame me?" Freed chuckled. "And don't act like you've been doing anything different."

"Wasn't gonna said I haven't," Laxus smiled.

He lifted the hot chocolate to his lips again and drained some of it. His mind had been straying to the future a lot of late. Not only because of the wedding, though many times he had found himself thinking about it when he shouldn't be, but also about how their lives would be when they were married. They were still planning on moving into a new apartment that would be their married home, and Laxus found himself excited by the prospect of looking for that place with Freed.

Everything seemed to be exciting him, and he certainly wasn't going to have any shame about that.

They sat beside each other for a little while longer, Laxus having wrapped his arm around Freed's waist at one point. Their silence was broken by the loud chimes from Magnolia Cathedral, signifying that the day was over, and the last day of the month had come. Their wedding day.

After the chimes had died down, Freed slowly removed his head from Laxus' shoulder and looked up to him with a soft, tired smile. Laxus wore the same expression, and found a yawn splitting apart his lips as he tore his gaze away form the snowy skyline. Having the thirty minutes with his fiancé had done wonders to his restless heart. It assured him that, no matter what happened, he would be married to the man he loved. If sleep was the only thing between now and then, then he would sleep better than he ever had before.

"Time to go back?" Laxus asked, his words being overthrown by a yawn.

"We can't stay up here all night, unfortunately," Freed chuckled, patting Laxus on the thigh. "It wouldn't look good if we were to be yawning throughout the procession."

"Guess not," Laxus grinned tiredly. "Can I walk ya to your door, though."

"Of course," Freed smiled, standing up and offering Laxus a hand to pull himself up with. "You know, you don't have to stay at the motel if you don't want to. Nobody would know either way."

"You okay with breaking the tradition?" Laxus asked, taking the hand and standing up. As they walked, he kept Freed's hand in his own.

"Well, I suppose we are known for sticking to all romantic traditions, aren't we?" Freed joked sarcastically, walking along side Laxus with a smile. "Come on, the bed was getting cold without you. You're like a damn space heater."

"Hell yeah I am," Laxus boasted playfully. "Gotta make sure my husband is gonna be warm, right?"

"Well you've done an excellent job practicing," Freed smiled, leaning a little further into his fiancé. "I'm sure you'll make a more than fine husband."

"You bet I will," Laxus grinned. "Hey, speaking of tradition, Gramps told me you asked his permission to marry me. You know you didn't have to, right?"

"I know," Freed smiled. "But you're important to each other, I needed to be sure."

Laxus smiled, raising their interconnected hands and placing his lips on the back of Freed's. Thoughtful asshole. He kept walking, keeping pace with his boyfriend as they walked towards the glass doors of the library rooftop. He relished in his fiance's presence, knowing that he wouldn't be able to call him that by the end of the day. No, by the time the day had finished, he would be Freed's husband and damn did the thought send a rush through his body.

Just before they exited the rooftop, Laxus stopped himself. Freed took another step before he realised, and turned around when he did. Their hands were still connected, and Freed was presented with the beautiful sight of his fiance's unburdened smile aimed directly at him. He walked closer to the blonde, wearing the same expression Laxus did.

As Freed closed the gap between them, Laxus wrapped his arms around Freed's waist and looked down at him adoringly. Freed replied to this action by bringing his head closer and lightly pressing their foreheads together.

"Are you okay," Freed smiled a little.

"Perfect," Laxus whispered. "Just thinking, twenty-four hours, and you're gonna be my damn husband. Kinda hard to believe."

"It is," Freed whispered back to him, smile soft and filled with love. "Honestly, I sometimes can't believe that it's been nearly a year and a half since we kissed here for the first time. It feels as though time's flow by."

"People say it happens when you're in love," Laxus grinned a little. "Used to think it was bullcrap but, well, here we are. Honestly, sometimes can't believe that you kissed me back that first time. Guess I'm just lucky."

"I was going to say the same thing," Freed smiled, pushing forward a little more with his forehead.

Laxus leant down and pressed his lips against Freed's, bringing him into a slow and passionate kiss. Freed reached up, leaning into the kiss and bringing his hand into Laxus' newly cut hair, pulling him down to further the kiss, something Laxus was willing to reciprocate.

The moment was beautiful. The two men kissed in silence, the snow falling around them and landing gently on the clear pavements of Magnolia below. The wind blew between them, lifting both their coats as Laxus pulled Freed closer by the coat to deepen the kiss. This lasted for a few moments before Laxus pulled away, keeping their foreheads softly pushed together as they stared into each other's eyes. Both men were completely in love with each other, and neither would accept anything less.

"Twenty-four hours until you're mine forever," Laxus grinned. "No regrets?"

"Don't even suggest such a thing," Freed smiled, leaning up and pressing a final chaste kiss on Laxus' lips. "I love you, Laxus."

"Love you too, Freed."

Twenty-Four hours. That's how long it would take for Laxus' new life to begin.

Date: February 4th, 2020

At a gentle shake of his shoulder, Laxus found his eyes flickering open. He made a small sound of annoyance, having been in a pretty relaxed sleep, but that annoyance died on his tongue when he saw that it was Freed who had woken him up. He sat up a little, smiling at his husband with a small amount of giddiness.

Husband. The very fact he could think that, and the fact it was true, sent a shiver down Laxus' spine.

The wedding had been fantastic. It was relatively small, with only some of their closest friends and family there. Nothing had gone wrong, mercifully. The ceremony had been beautiful and specific to them. The reception had been the perfect mix of romance and fun; the latter part mainly accredited to Bickslow and Elfman's best mans' speech, where the two men had made a shockingly good team. And the rest of the day, the two husbands couldn't stay away from each other.

After the reception had ended, they were driven to the most luxurious hotel in Magnolia. Although their honeymoon took place a few days after the wedding, Laxus had insisted that their first night as a married couple should be special, and organised the hotel without Freed knowing. The gambler had been overjoyed when he found out.

Half of a week later, Freed and Laxus had begun their honeymoon; a luxury cruise around the Caribbean. Despite boarding the ship taking some time, Laxus couldn't stop the electricity flowing throughout him for the entire time. He was going to spend two weeks with his husband in a luxury cabin suit on the Caribbean. He felt as though there was no way that the week could be improved upon, but was quickly mistaken when Freed had awoken him early in the morning.

"What time is it?" Laxus asked, voice croaking a little as he reached up and pressed his lips against Freed's jaw.

"Three in the morning," Freed smiled a little, pressing his lips onto the top of Laxus' head.

"Why're you up then?" Laxus mumbled, resting his back against Freed's chest and allowing his husband to wrap his arms around him. "You didn't need to piss, right. Cause Gramps always needed to piss at three in the morning and wasn't quiet about it. If you're the same, I'm gonna have to leave you."

"You can't leave me, we're on a boat," Freed chuckled. "But no, just a little jetlag. That, and the rain woke me up."

"So I have to wake up too," Laxus grumbled a little, shuffling a little further into Freed's body. "That's low, asshole."

"Perhaps," Freed grinned. "But it's more than just rain. There's a pretty big storm happening across the sea and, if I remember correctly, you quite liked the sound of watching a storm hitting the ocean. But if you'd rather sleep like a little baby, then that's fine."

Laxus chuckled, delivering a weak punch to his husband's chest and sitting up fully. True to his words, when Laxus looked towards the glass doors to their private balcony, he could see lightning striking the sea through the netted curtains. He smiled wide despite his tiredness; on the first day of their honeymoon something had happened that they had promised they would do together at some point. If that wasn't fate's way of showing its support, then Laxus didn't know what was.

The blonde leant up and pressed his lips against Freed's for a short moment, smiling after Freed did the same a moment later. Both men climbed out of the bed, reached for their clothes slung over a nearby chair and slipped on their coats.

Walking through the door to their balcony, they were hit by the cold sea air and a rush of rain hitting them. Neither man cared as Freed closed the door behind them and they slowly walked to the edge of the balcony, leaning against the metal bar and looking across the baron, sloshing ocean presented to them across the horizon.

The lightning storm across the ocean was beautiful. Bolt after bolt slammed across the water, illuminating the darkness and sending crackled of sound across the ocean. It was beautiful, chaotic, and perfect.

Just like the two of them.

Sure, their relationship was far from conventional. Maybe they hadn't gotten together in a normal way, and instead had indulged in a kiss on a rooftop of a library in a party. Perhaps they hadn't taken as long as normal to confess their love for each other; it was their lives and their emotions, and they could say it however they wanted. And yes, maybe some people would suggest that a working romance wasn't logical, but they more than made it work and neither man was going to take heed of any patronising warning by people who didn't affect their lives.

Laxus grinned and wrapped his left arm around Freed's shoulders, pulling him a little closer as he watched the chaotic show before him. He rested their heads together and allowed himself to relish in the love of his husband.

Heh, he still wasn't used to calling the other man his husband. He wasn't going to stop saying it until it lost the magic, which he doubted would happen.

"I love you so much, Freed," Laxus whispered over the sound of crashing waved and powerful lightning. "So fucking much, you know that right."

"I love you too, Laxus," Freed smiled back, face completely showing his emotions. "More than you could possibly fathom."

They leant into each other, lips gently touching in a soft kiss. The rain beat down against them as their kiss intensified, tongues bumping against each other and lips parting and connecting multiple times in a second. They pulled each other closer, pressing against each other and kissing each other with as much passion and love that they could possibly show.

This was his life now. Joy, acceptance and love were in abundance because of the man he had married. His husband. The electricity that Freed sent through him that was once a rarity could now be constant that burned throughout him like lightning. He had taken a risk, rolled the dice and won perfection.

He truly had been blessed with the gambler's luck.

Hey all. So there it was, the end of my little fic. I really want to thank all of you for taking the time to read this, and for commenting and reviewing it. You have no idea how much they can help give me inspiration, and I'm pretty sure this fic would have been abandoned without them.

This is the first multi-chapter fic that I've managed to complete, and I know it's not perfect. There's probably a few continuity errors and spelling mistakes that I couldn't see when I was reviewing, so thank you so much for looking past them and managing to reach this point. It means the world to me in a way that I can't quite put into words, and I hope the final chapter was a good enough ending.

Although the fic is over, I do plan on revisiting the AU with a few oneshots; mainly things that I wanted to write but couldn't fit in. I've also got another Fraxus multi-chapter fic, a smaller one, already written and ready to publish. It's a samurai AU should be out throughout February as it's part of an event. So, if you want some more Fraxus from me, please think about checking it out.

Again, thank you for reading this far. I love you all. ^.^

#fraxus #freed justine #Laxus Dreyar #Ft: Gamblers Luck #freed x laxus #fanfic #fairy tail

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millionairelive610-blog · 4 years

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Miss Marquette Riverboat Casino

Miss Marquette Riverboat Casino Marquette Ia

Miss Marquette Riverboat Casino

Pinky and the Miss Marquette Riverboat Casino – Marquette, Iowa Pinky is the 14 ft. tall, bleary-eyed elephant at the entrance of the casino.

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Nestled along the banks of the Upper Mississippi River, Casino Queen Marquette offers a small, intimate gaming experience that will make you feel right at home!

Upper Mississippi Gaming Corporation (formerly known as Marquette Gaming Corporation) originally formed in 1993 to meet the Iowa law requirement that riverboat casino licenses must be held by a qualified sponsoring organization. UMGC is the non-profit license holder for the riverboat casino, the Casino Queen located in Marquette, Iowa.

A riverboat casino experience gives people the chance to play their favorite games while afloat. First approved by the U.S. In the late 20th century, riverboat casinos have since offered a special type of gaming experience for people everywhere, now even expanding their reach to South America and Europe.

Stay away from the 'Farmer's Market Buffet' at Lady Luck Casino in Marquette, Ia We are not big gamblers, maybe go to a casino 1x yr and spend $20 and are lucky to break even, but figure it's a night out that's cheaper than a movie.

Pinky is a great place to have your picture taken, just how many people can say they have actually been with a pink elephant?

Miss Marquette Riverboat Casino Marquette Ia

Location: Hwy 76 in downtown Marquette.

Miss Marquette Riverboat Casino

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lufancy · 7 years

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Put Money Where Your Mouth Is (M)

Jongin x You (ft. Jongdae) Summary - Your friend Jongdae drags you to a casino, where you pique the interest of the most feared lucky bastard in the entire country. A/N - Yeah.. just enjoy it. Want to thank my friend for doing the smut part (<3 amy).

Casinos have never been your thing. That’s why it took your friends a lot of convincing for you to join them. It’s not that you didn’t like gambling. In fact, you really enjoyed watching people go rich or go broke but testing your own luck was just a lost cause in your case.

“I don’t wanna go because I suck.” you rolled your eyes when one of your close friends was standing in front of your house, “I’m pretty sure I have told you countless times before, Jongdae.”

He groaned in frustration, “Once, come us with just this one time. Play one game, I swear you’ll think it’s fun!” He clasped his hands together and whined. Giving his best cute face. “Besides… what’s not fun about watching me win money? I’m on a streak!”

“First of all, you know I’m pretty much the goddess of misfortune so why would I play when knowing I’m going to lose my money? Second, you’re a cocky asshole.” You smiled. He has been going on about being a good gambler for a while now, and yes, he has won a ton of money ever since he started but that doesn’t mean it’s meant for everyone.

You hate it that your friends have become regulars at casino’s and you can’t join them. You don’t have the need to get addicted to something that is clearly not put away for you. In all honesty, you call yourself lucky if you don’t have a coffee stained shirt when you arrive at work.

“Fine, while you are going to watch Netflix in your sweats I’m going to become rich..” He crosses his arms and huffs in frustration when you stare at him with little interest. “I’ll be going..” he takes slowly takes a step away from you, hoping to still be able to tempt you. “I’m reaaally going..”

“Goodbye. Good luck.” You wave to bid your farewell.

Jongdae whines again. If you haven’t caught on; he does this quite a lot. “The least you could do is hug me after rejecting me!”

Oh god, talk about needy.

You roll your eyes for maybe the tenth time this day and close the space between you and your friend. You are ready to let go but Jongdae, as the stubborn little bastard he is, has other plans. He crushes you into his hug and lifts you up so you can’t escape. You can’t move out of his embrace because of shock and the fact that he started working out made him a lot stronger.

Then you hear it. A click. That smirk on his face confirms your suspicion. “You locked me out!”

“Now you have no other choice but to come along!” He seems to enjoy this whole thing very much.

“What the hell, Kim Jongdae?! You locked me out! What am I supposed to do now?!” You scream. It’s too late to ask your landlord for a spare key, you will be locked out of your apartment until next morning. Thanks, Jongdae.

He grabs your arm and drags you outside, “Oh boohoo, seems like you have nowhere to go~ you can stay at my place! I’ll be your savior!”

“Are you being funny? It’s because of you that I’m locked out! How am I supposed to even go to a casino?! I’m not even wearing any shoes!” You are fuming. Only Kim Jongdae can pull something like this.

“I have everything you need!”

So there you are. In a, quite fancy, casino wearing shoes that are way too big because you had to borrow Jongdae’s soccer shoes.

Your blue socks with polka dots are sticking out, you feel very self-conscious about your track shorts. Plus, you have gotten quite some unwanted looks for wearing a university tee.

You look stupid. Very stupid.

A few snickers of neatly dressed women passed by. “I hate my life,” you whined as you lowered your head in shame.

“Geez, stop moaning. Minseok is coming as soon as he can. I’m sorry for what I did but hey I’m paying for drinks tonight, okay?” He pats your back.

You raise an eyebrow. “Well, first of all, I don’t have any money on me since you pulled me out of my apartment and then locked the door. Second, you’re not sorry.”

“I totally am not.” Kim Jongdae is officially the devil.

You notice everyone staring at you. Especially this man on the other side of the bar seems to be enjoying the embarrassing sight.

He enjoys it so much that he isn’t even paying any attention to the girls flocking around him. He looks rich and hot so it’s not really such a surprise that he has many followers.

Maybe you’d make a shot if you weren’t dressed so ridiculous.

If only you could leave this place.

“I’m here!” You see Minseok, your lifesaver, with clothing in a plastic bag and extends his arm out to you so you can take it. You assume it’s your dress.

“I really want to ask why you own a dress, but I feel like I’ll regret it. Thank you anyway.” You take the bag and open it. It’s a black dress.

He laughs. “It’s my little sisters’ and please keep it. I hate it when she wears it. She’s at that age, you know? Boys and stuff.”

You quickly get into the restroom to change and you can definitely understand why he hates this dress on his little sister. The v cut of the dress is extremely low and the stretchy fabric makes the dress form fitting. Hugging and accentuating your body shape, but also making it look curvier.

It’s kinda sad that when you look down you still see those sneakers with mismatching polka dot socks but whatever. At least you don’t look like you came here in your pajamas.

All the women here are wearing beautiful dresses paired with Jimmy Choo’s or some shoe brand you can’t afford.

“Damn,” you hear Jongdae a curse and Minseok coughs.

And like this began your first time at a casino. The first hour you spent sticking to the bar, determined to drink until Kim Jongdae is broke. But in the end, you got dragged to the tables anyway.

“Miss, are you going to pick a number or not?” You don’t even notice that you have been standing there for that long, thinking about a number.

“It’s her first time at a casino,” Minseok explains to the impatient dealer.

It’s so hard. There are too many numbers.

“Yeah, well. Minseok and I are going to try our luck at the slot machines. We’re giving you a hundred bucks okay? Don’t use all of it immediately. Also, you know how to exchange them for chips, right?”

“We?!” Minseok, not quite happy that Jongdae is dragging him in.

Even though Minseok is Jongdae’s hyung he doesn’t really seem to care and places a hand over his mouth while dragging him away.

Now you are left with the roulette table. Well, and the impatient dealer but whatever. Are you going for 7? The lucky number? Or should you go with your birthday…

“Place everything on 13.” Someone whispers softly into your ear, sending shivers down your spine. You look to your right and you see that handsome guy from back when you were sitting at the bar. He seems to have ditched his fans.

You kind of mumble in the surprise of him talking to you. He subtly places a hand on your hip. “Isn’t that an unlucky number?” You ask.

He laughs, and man does it sound cute. Never in your life did you expect someone to look like a million dollar playboy, which for all you know he might be. He is wearing this dark maroon colored suit with a dark dress shirt. His hair is styled back and he has a shiny Rolex watch around his wrist. “Just trust me.”

Should you listen to him? The payoff is 35-1 and you have nothing to lose. That would mean that if he is right you’ll win 35 times what you have bet on it..

“Trust me.” He eggs you on and you do feel a bit of pressure. You barely know the guy. For all you know he could work here and is now trying to make you lose your money. “What about this? If you lose.. I’ll give you your hundred back.”

If that’s true..

“And if you win.. I’ll take you out..” he moves your hair away and his lips trace your ear gently.

“Straight bet on 13, please.”

You don’t know what or why but somehow he has you in the palm of his hands.

The dealer is definitely making fun of you as you are about to waste a lot of money on one number and the guy who told you to go for 13 is gone. However you don’t even notice, all you are focused on is the ball after the dealer spins it.

And it lands on..

…

..13

An indescribable feeling of joy washes over you. You actually won money! No way. You have never been this lucky ever in your life before. The dealer pays you out in chips and you went from 100 bucks to 3500!

You run to Minseok and Jongdae as soon as you can to tell them the news and to give them their money back. “I can’t believe it! I thought you were going to just flush my money down the toilet but you actually won a shit ton!”

“I got help.” The two boys stare at each other.

“From who?” Minseok asks.

You turn around to scan the crowd in order to find his face. One of the tables looks to he unusually crowded compared to the other tables, full of cheers and howling. While motioning the two to follow, you head over to the table.

Just like you thought, it’s that guy that everyone is making a fuss over. Once again he is surrounded by females and men are almost kissing his feet.

“That guy,” you point to the same maroon suited man that helped you earlier.

Minseok slaps Jongdae in excitement and you don’t understand why. The older boy holds a hand in front of his hand while the other is on his hip. “Do you even know who that is?”

Jongdae hisses in annoyance, “Don’t overhype the guy he is already over appreciated and I’m sure he is just a big hustler.” He says to his hyung but Minseok ignores him.

“That is Kim Jongin. Kim Jong-freaking-in!” Minseok tells and Jongdae rolls his eyes and shakes his head. “He is a master in gambling - no! A god. I’ve never seen that guy lose, like casino’s hate him. And he helped you! Oh my god!”

“Calm down, hyung.” Jongdae pushed him off of him. “He is a total fraud, a hustler. I can see it on his face. All of his opponents are just too busy with ogling at his face to notice it. He’s just trying to get into your pants.” Jongdae warns you.

“Woah, is someone jealous?” You poke in his side and he hisses in annoyance.

He steps away so your finger doesn’t reach him anymore and glares at the one he was badmouthing. “I bet I could win from him if he played fair.”

“Okay, okay. You’re a really really tough guy.” Minseok mocked him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “But let’s face it. You against him? Don’t get ahead of yourself.”

Jongdae shrugged it off, clearly not happy with the little confidence his friends had in him. “I’ll prove it. Watch me.”

And then he did something both you and Minseok were very shocked to see.

A furious Kim Jongdae stepped with his not-so-tall frame to the infamous King of Gambling with great confidence. He then slammed his hand on the table in front of him for everyone to see.

The Jongin guy looked up when he noticed everyone becoming silent, even the girls who gave him consistent attention stopped for a second to see what was going on.

Oh god no..

“You against me. Whatever game you prefer.” He said after the whole room went silent. Only he wasn’t as cool and manly as he thought. His plan turned out different than he had in mind.

Because Jongin started to stare the boy up and down with a laugh stifled. He was able to keep it in, but when he scanned him again he couldn’t help but cackle a loud laughter. Leading the people around to follow his laughing. “Sorry, kid. I only play with the big boys.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? I bet I’m even older than you. Just because your suit is Prada or whatever doesn’t mean you’re better than I am.” Jongdae spat back at him. He is quite well known as the one who can’t take a joke in your circle.

“Woah, woa.. we don’t want any trouble.” Jongin raises his hands as if he were protecting himself from Jongdae, but everyone could hear exaggeration in his voice. He was mocking him, and you didn’t feel like this was going to end well for your friend. “Fine, if you really want to play with me. My only condition is that you play with chips no lower than 50 dollars.”

Once again everyone started cackling. They were mocking him, knowing he would never be able to bet that much money. He was wearing his worn out black skinny jeans and a big red hoodie, that didn’t scream ‘Ferrari owner’, or anything like that, at all.

You had to step in. Not only because this was extremely embarrassing but also because he was your friend, and you had to help him when he makes himself look like a total fool. “Come on, Dae. It’s not worth it. Let’s just go home.”

“But that bastard is making fun of me,” he gritted his teeth, “I want to punch him in the face!”

Rolling your eyes, you tugged on his arm in an attempt to get him to leave.

“Wait!”

The tree of you turned around when a voice called you, only to see that Jongin guy calling you. “Big two. We’ll play big two.”

Jongdae knitted his eyebrows in confusion, “I don’t have the money-”

“No need,” he wore a smug look on his face.

The three of you exchanged looks. What did this guy have in mind? Was he going to make you look even more like losers? “What made you change your mind?” Jongdae asks as he slides into one of the chairs without negotiating, and Jongin waves over someone to give him a deck of cards.

“I know something you can bet instead of money,” Jongin whispered for only Jongdae to hear.

Jongdae became a little suspicious. “What..?”

“Your girl.”

People started murmuring. The girl in pajamas and oversized shoes? Really?

Jongdae followed to where Jongin was pointing his finger. It was directed to you, who was very busy talking and huffing with Minseok. This was a bad idea, so he quickly shook his head. “First of all, she isn’t ‘my girl’. She would kill me if anyone referred to her like that and she’d hear. Second, I can’t do that. That’s my friend, besides.. the whole 'women’s right’ is very active so I’d rather not bet a woman.”

Jongin leaned back in his chair. “Are you sure?” He shoved a whole tower casino chips his way. Jongdae’s eyes dilated in awe. Were those really poker chips of 5000 dollars?! “Just one night.”

You’ll be so mad at him..

The man across from him dangled a pair of keys right in front of his face, then dropped them without much care. Jongdae swallowed, this was so tough for him. There’s a tower of poker chips that could pay off his student loan debt, and there’s a key of a Maserati lying right before his eyes.

“Okay..” he hesitated but agreed, “on the condition that you remove that blazer. I know you got stuff up your sleeve.”

Jongin raised his eyebrows and his mouth pursed, “I feel insulted, but as you please. Well then, follow me.”

You watch the both of them walk to a more secluded place. It’s an odd sight seeing that man in suit and Jongdae in his skinny jeans competing. Suddenly you hear them call for you and Minseok. “What are you two waiting for? You play this with four.”

A few minutes later you’re facing all the man and next to you are your two friends. You have quite decent cards. Two aces.. three sixes and a clover two. Also, you are the one to start the game. You hold the lowest four, so you dump it together as a flush. The game continues and Jongdae and Minseok seemed to get rid of five cards as well, only Jongin passed.

I have two cards left, a King and a 10. Not bad but considering all of them are throwing doubles, I can’t continue. Jongdae throws a smug look and I can see why. Two aces.. I wish I had mine left, I could have overthrown him. Jongin chuckles but I wonder why. He has 7 cards left, Minseok has 3 like Jongdae. Jongin places two two’s down and everyone gasps. Bold move. Quite risky.

However, he had it all planned out because no one can overthrow him and all of a sudden he pulls a flush out that he didn’t take out the first round.

He won.

“Shit. Jongdae, did you just lose all your money?” I ask him and he looks up from his lap, guilt displays in his eyes.

He seems hesitant. “I-I’m sorry but I.. I..”

“What?” I ask in confusion.

“Oh no. Jongdae, what the hell did you do?” Minseok asks him, trying hard not to get violent - knowing his friend messed up.

“I didn’t bet with money.”

Minseok looks at me and I look him back at him in the eye. We turn to Jongdae at the same time, searching for answers when I feel a hand on my shoulder.

I turn around and its that Jongin guy.

“Are you ready?” He asks me.

And suddenly it all clicks together. He sold me. Kim Jongdae used me.

I can’t even kill Jongdae as I get pulled away. Two large men are close behind me as I follow Jongin to another room upstairs. He must be staying at the hotel above.

A nervous chill shoots through my body. I don’t want this. Don’t I get a say in this? What is going to happen to me?

A large door opens and my eyes almost fall out of my casket. Never have I ever seen a suite so beautiful, it looks as if royalty lives here. I make a turn to take everything in and the door shuts with a loud bang.

I feel hands on my shoulders and I know it is Jongin as he whispers into my ear. “I know you are nervous and worried but I will have you for tonight only.”

I turn around and he smiles in a gentle manner, nothing like the man back down at the casino. This man is.. different. Not out for money… but for something else.

“I won’t do anything you don’t want to do.” He assures me, but the way he talks and looks at me makes me melt right into his arms.

His voice is alluring yet sweet. “I..” With a slick touch, he moves my hair from my face.

“You are so beautiful.” He says and I snort. He looks at me like I did something weird and starts laughing too. “What’s so funny?”

He really doesn’t know? He had beautiful women surrounding him just a couple of minutes ago. Women with makeup, high heels and designer dresses.

Yet he chose the worst dressed person to spend his time with. And he thinks you’re beautiful like this?

“Have you seen me?” I ask him and though I am laughing he doesn’t laugh along.

“I am, right now.” He replies.

“I look hideous like this, yet you want me?” I pull the ugly fabric I am wearing and look up at him. I probably have a pimple above my eyebrow, I look like a hobo and my friend was rude to him. What in the world would make him want me? “You should have picked one of those models.”

He shakes his head. “What I see is beyond superficialness. I like you for what is under your clothes and foundation.”

“What is it exactly that you like?” I ask him.

“Your body. You.” He then leans in and I am overwhelmed by such a passionate and breathtaking kiss. His lips and soft and fine against mine. My body feels like it’s under heath when he touches me more and more.

I don’t even notice he has been leading me to the bed until my legs hit the bed.

“Can I?” He asks between the kissed while tugging my shirt. I nod too eagerly and he chuckles.

My clothing is long gone and so is his shirt. I am only in lingerie and he steps back to look me up and down. “Fuck.” He curses.

The undressing slash make-out session continues when I am pulled onto the bed. His fingers dance up my thigh as I feel his bulge press into my other leg.

My breath hitches as his fingers slip into my folds and spread the wetness for better access. He slips in a finger slowly while his thumb is softly flickering my clit. I break the kiss and close my eyes to preserve the moment. This feels incredible.

He moves away from me and sits up straight, then undoes his belt and with one hard pull he removes his belt. Then he does something I did not expect. I was too focused on his caramel muscles flexing that I didn’t notice him strapping my wrists. A 500 dollar Valetino belt.. just like that.

Then he moves into his pocket. I expected him to pull out a condom of some sort but instead its a wad of money. “Open your mouth.” He commands, and I comply. The wad of money is being pressed right between my teeth and I look at him. “Holy shit. What a sight.”

He quickly removes his pants and moves back up on me. His lips trace the lines of my body and his lips slowly and dangerously near my private area. He bites my hip one time before digging into my most desperate body part. The lewd sounds turn me on when he sucks slowly and licks gently. I can’t keep my eyes open to see his mop of hair between my lips, giving me joyful pleasure.

My entire body feels paralyzed by the blissful feeling. My shaking thighs, loud screams and arching back tell him I am drawing close.

So he stops.

Leaving me unsatisfied.

He flips me over and puts his hands on my hips, lifting my ass up in the air. “Ready?” He bends over me and asks me in my ear. I nod and he smiles. “Oh. So bad.”

His hands are on my hips again and he aligns himself. His boxer is long gone and I feel him slip inside of me very very slowly. It’s almost painful how bad he is trying to tease me.

With every thrust, he cranks up the speed until he has me screaming from how erratic he is going. If he keeps his up I’m going to pass out. “Fuck, yes.” He curses. “How can you be so fucking wet?!”

He gives one very deep thrust and I gasp. He notices how much I like it and does it again.

“You like that?” He smiles.

I nod shamelessly. And he does it again. My heart is going erratic from this.

“Close?” He asks and I nod. My legs are going to give any moment. “Me too, sexy.”

A few moments later he comes in spurs and pulls out of me slowly. My vagina is leaking his and mine combined liquid and I can feel it between my thighs as we both lie down after that intense session. He removes the belt and the money he throws it out, sending it flying over the room. Then kisses me again.

“Goodnight.” And you fall asleep.

The next day, he was gone.

And so was the room you were in.

A/N: Haven’t updated in forever so I decided to finish this old thing I had in my drafts!

314 notes · View notes

carminecarne-blog · 4 years

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hunty-booboo · 4 years

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Las Vegas Hidden Secrets for Tourists

Even within the city that in no way sleeps - in which restaurants, bars, nightclubs and grocery stores hardly ever near. In Vegas, even 24 hours is every now and then still not enough time. With a lot to do and till a sunrise to do it, why waste time in Vegas identifying what to do? If you have been to Vegas before and you're interested in attempting some thing new or maybe you're greater interested by sorting out backstage of Sin City, you have come to the right place. Here's some guidelines and tricks EVERY local knows.

CLUB HOP cach danh lo ngay nao cung trung If there's one Vegas membership you can not leave out, it is the XS Nightclub positioned in the Wynn Casino. If you are not from Vegas, you'll locate yourself paying a pretty penny for now not just access to the XS nightclub, but in all likelihood every membership in Vegas. The excellent factor to do is to connect with a nightclub promoter. You can find plenty of promoters soliciting alongside the streets of the Las Vegas Strip. You'll know them with the aid of their three piece fits, handing out cards and wrist bands hollering to the public about their free bottle service and limo rides. If you've got been to Vegas you understand precisely who I'm speakme approximately. Sure, they will seem a touch at the shady side, but as a nearby, I can let you know - those workers are respectable. Club promoters aren't the shady avenue hustlers and swindlers they seem to show. They are truely employed by using the casinos to carry people into their clubs. You see, soliciting on the Strip is illegal in Las Vegas and so, how are those promoters getting away with it? Well, who do you think is jogging the city? The Las Vegsa Strip Casinos! Talk to those promoters, good buy a chunk, hook them up with a pleasant tip and you will receive reductions on pretty much something. Looking for unique VIP carrier, all you have to do is ask.

It's beginning to become common information: the two:1 ratio is rule. If you will the membership with a set of humans, there wishes to be a ratio of at the least 2 guys to one woman if you want to growth your probabilities of having in. Use this records on your benefit. Also, membership promoters can hook you up even better in case your institution can abide by this rule.

WHAT TO DO BESIDES CLUB?

You're not confined to simply night golf equipment even as in Vegas. The sports available to you within the town of lighting fixtures are countless. Why no longer check out a Vegas Strip pool party like the Encore Beach Club. Domestic to DeadMau5, AVICII and other first rate electronic track DJs. Again, membership promoters are the people you need to speak to for discounted access and bottle service.

Or, why no longer take a two hour helicopter journey to the Grand Canyon and walk alongside the Grand Canyon SkyWalk? Experience the phantasm of floating over the canyon as you tip toe onto a obvious floor suspended 500 ft above the base of the Canyon. If you do not experience like flying all of the way to Arizona, you may always hover over the Las Vegas Strip in a chopper whilst toasting bottles of champagne. And, you could locate all of this, at the Las Vegas Boulevard.

If you want to "aid the financial system" or buy groceries but, you are on a budget, hit up the nearby's favored - The Premium Outlets placed in downtown Las Vegas. They're known for the excellent selection of stores and ridiculously low expenses on items you won't discover anywhere else. I as soon as purchased 2 pairs of footwear, 3 pairs of jeans and a pair of shirts occupied with underneath $a hundred - all name logo stuff too! Plus, the Premium Outlets mall is positioned at once on the brink of traditional Downtown Vegas where the cocktailes are reasonably-priced and the table games brag $5 minimal plays.

The strip golf equipment in Las Vegas are said through many to be the nice inside the international. Looking for the maximum suitable girls, then Spearmint Rhino is wherein you need to be. Right across the street is the Deja Vu membership, an 18 and over all-nude strip membership, the simplest one in Vegas. All your free access and loose drink reductions on the Strip Club could be provided by means of your street corner membership promoters. Oh yea, suppose of those membership promoters as the gate manner to reductions and the undergound. Whatever it's far you are looking for, probabilities are, they recognize.

GETTING THE MUNCHIES?

Las Vegas is thought for a number of the nice meals within the world and recollect, the Casino cafes are open 24 hours a day. Buffets just like the unknown Rio Seafood Buffet are, guaranteed, high-quality. Here's a brief tip: sign up for a gamers card every time you go to a new on line casino. Sometimes, simply by means of signing up, you may get a loose buffet dinner, like at the Silverton Casino. Also, with these player's cards, you could rack up points which could later be used totally free gaming, loose meals and other perks. You're going to should spend a couple of dollars playing to earn factors, but in case you're going to gamble anyhow, why not stack up factors to your card and win some thing each time?

A region you furthermore mght want to test out is the name of the game pizza spot within the Cosmopolitan. It's at the 1/3 ground subsequent to the pool tables via a hallway you will in no way guess brought about probable the excellent pizza in Vegas. Find a hallway with a checkered ground that looks as if it is only for personnel.

A Vegas winter can be mighty bloodless and once in a while a bowl of true Japanese noodle soup will keep you stage. Try the Monta Noodle joint on Spring Mountain and Decatur. If you need mother and dad, this is it. Delicious red meat, duck, or chook noodle soup served hot and fresh.

DOWNTOWN VEGAS LIVES

The Fremont Experience has come to be the icon for Downtown Las Vegas. Here, you may test out unfastened live tune suggests, grasp your self a delectable cocktail, a fried twinkie, you may strive your success on a $3 BlackJack table and if you obtain not anything to lose, zipline throughout Fremont Street. What many human beings don't know is that Downtown Las Vegas obtained a large $17 million facelift intended to restore Classic Downtown Vegas. So, you will be pleasantly amazed via the points of interest, made over antique timer casinos, like Golden Nugget's water slide through a shark tank, and truly the low low expenses.

If you're attempting to find something to do in the afternoon, take a gander on the Arts District also located Downtown. Here, you'll discover beautiful avenue graffiti painted on historic buildings and artwork interwoven into the town's structure.

On First Friday, the Arts District becomes a sidewalk facet show packed with road performers and artists growing stay art work on the market. Bargain for an original piece made by means of one in every of Vegas's very own. You may also want to test out the Cornerstone Art Gallery a low forehead avenue artwork current gallery of exquisite pieces.

At night, The Griffin Club, The Beauty Bar and the latest installment to what's going on in Downtown Vegas, Insert Coins, cram hundreds of devoted birthday party human beings and drown them in alcohol while damn the pix off the wall with the track of stay local DJs.

CASINO HOP

Hopping from Casino to Casino is the game we like to play. But, in case you do, obviously, you need to make sure you're carrying lots of coins. And, if playing is your component, be sure to recognize that the chances on the Strip are constantly going to be in favor of the residence. Of course, each casino has the percentages in their favor, however in keeping with local Las Vegas gamblers, you may have higher luck attempting your good fortune in the off-the-Strip Casinos together with The Orleans, The Gold Coast and any of the casinos in the downtown area. True, those off-web site casinos won't be as glamorous, but if you're right here to win, they are the location to be.

Las Vegas is and always may be the amusement capital of the arena. If you really want it, you will discover it in Vegas. Just make certain to take care of the enterprise employees, the hosts, waitresses, card sellers and so forth. Due to the fact the way to benefit VIP status right here in Vegas isn't always constantly through your pockets. If you show Vegas and it is human beings love, you will benefit special get right of entry to to the metropolis's riches - loose tables at golf equipment, unfastened liquids, loose limo rides, free food, and loose entry to almost anywhere you could imagine. Sometimes, you can even frolic in the perks of the VIP that even most Vegas locals can not get entry to. Just play your playing cards proper. Make certain human beings in Vegas recall you so you can for all time be taken care of.

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deannathebambi-blog · 7 years

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[BIC] This Template was by [Zatanna Zatara|http://aminoapps.com/p/ns1q7c] ☆☆♡♡♤♤◇◇♧♧☆☆♡♡♤♤◇◇♧♧☆☆ #ARTContest102017 🌌🌌🌌----------------------------------------------------------🌌🌌🌌 [BIC] Quotes [IC] "Oh its on ..be prepared to get burned " [IC] " im not a team player ..mainy because people get hurt" ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ [IMG=GPF] 🌌🌌🌌----------------------------------------------------------🌌🌌🌌 [BIC] Full Name: [IC] Deanna Rebecca Constantine [BIC] Pet Name: [IC] Chicken Nugget [BIC] ID Number: [IC] 36800881 [BIC] Signature: [IC] D.Constantine [BIC] Gender: [IC] Female [BIC] Sexuality: [IC] Bisexual [BIC] Real age: [IC] 21 [BIC] Age apperance: [IC] 23 [BIC] Birthday: [IC] 04/08 [BIC] Birth place: [IC] London [BIC] Zodiac Sign: [IC] Leo ♌♌♌----------------------------------------------------------♌♌♌ [IMG=7SI] ⚸⚸⚸----------------------------------------------------------⚸⚸⚸ [BIC] Spicies: [IC] Human / Homo Magi [BIC] Ethnicity: [IC] English [BIC] Blood type: [IC] O Negitive [BIC] Preferd hand: [IC] Right [BIC] Facial shape: [IC] Oval [BIC] Eye colour: [IC] Blue [BIC] Hair colour: [IC] Pink - Good [IMG=9YN] [IC] Black - Evil [IMG=0KC] [IC] Dirty Blonde - When her powers shut off [IMG=3IH] [BIC] Hair style: [IC] Depends on the colour of her hair [BIC] Skin Tone: [IC] Fair [BIC] Complexion: [IC] Light [BIC] Makeup: [IC] Heavy Eyeliner, Mascara and Purple Lipstick [BIC] Body Type: [IC] Small frame [BIC] Height [IC] 5 Ft [BIC] Weight: [IC] 6 Stone [BIC] Cup Size: [IC] C [BIC] Shoe Size: [IC] 5 [BIC] Birthmarks/scars: [IC] Sevral stab wounds ⚕⚕⚕----------------------------------------------------------⚕⚕⚕ [IMG=0F2] ⛋⛋⛋----------------------------------------------------------⛋⛋⛋ [BIC] Memory: [IC] 5/10 [BIC] Senses: [IC] 8/10 [BIC] Allergies: [IC] None [BIC] Handicaps: [IC] None [BIC] Phobias: [IC] Spiders [BIC] Addictions: [IC] Alcohol and Nicotine [BIC] Mental Disorders: [IC] ADHD, Anxiety, Depression ☽☽☽----------------------------------------------------------☽☽☽ [IMG=Z21] ⚝⚝⚝----------------------------------------------------------⚝⚝⚝ [BIC] Style: [IC] Emo [BIC] Habits and Mannerisms: [IC] Bites her lip ⚜⚜⚜----------------------------------------------------------⚜⚜⚜ [IMG=W03] ⚴⚴⚴----------------------------------------------------------⚴⚴⚴ [BIC] Lovers: [IC] Second Gen Justice League Universe : [Wonderbat - Alex Wayne|http://aminoapps.com/p/6tlcq7] [IC] Second Gen Justice League Dark Universe : [The Demon Tribute - Ray Grant|http://aminoapps.com/p/4vnqlz] [IC] Universe: [BIC] Marital Status: [IC] Second Gen Justice League Universe: Married [IC] Second Gen Justice League Dark Universe: In A Relationship [IC] Universe [BIC] Type: [IC] Careing [BIC] Turn-Ons: [IC] A Good Smile [BIC] Turn Offs: [IC] Being Evil ☊☊☊----------------------------------------------------------☊☊☊ [IMG=4JO] ⚹⚹⚹----------------------------------------------------------⚹⚹⚹ [BIC] Mood: [IC] flirty [BIC] Stability: [IC] 3/10 [BIC] Expressiveness: [IC] 1 /10 [BIC] When Happy: [IC] Smiling [BIC] When Depressed: [IC] Listens to Music [BIC] When Angry: [IC] Self harms ☙☙☙----------------------------------------------------------☙☙☙ [IMG=OEL] ⚚⚚⚚---------------------------------------------------------⚚⚚⚚ [BIC] Current Residence: [IC] House Of Mystery [BIC] Family: [IC] Mother:Zatanna Zatara [IC] Father: John Constantine [IC] Sister : [Zamyra Constantine|http://aminoapps.com/p/kh4kmc] [IC] Brother: [Johnny Constantine|http://aminoapps.com/p/k1hh1c] [IC] Brother: [Mitchell Constantine|http://aminoapps.com/p/cgo3au] [BIC] Friends: [IC] [Zoe Kyle-Wayne|http://aminoapps.com/p/s5xkew] [IC] [Emily Kent|http://aminoapps.com/p/ieygfv] [BIC] Enemies: [IC] Lucifer [BIC] Bosses: [IC] Her Mother [BIC] Pets/Familiars: [IC] A Pet Cat Called Lucky ☿☿☿----------------------------------------------------------☿☿☿ [IMG=93M] ⚕⚕⚕----------------------------------------------------------⚕⚕⚕ [BIC] Wardrobe: [IMG=1VA] [BIC] uniform: [IMG=H8W] [BIC] Weapons: [IMG=MV6] [IMG=S6S] [BIC] Trinkets: [IMG=L48][IMG=7FC] ⚪⚪⚪----------------------------------------------------------⚪⚪⚪ [IMG=HBM] ⚸⚸⚸----------------------------------------------------------⚸⚸⚸ [BIC] Powers / Abilitys [IC] She has to say her spells in backwards Latin [IC] Blast Power [IC] Dimensional Manipulation [IC] Earth Manipulation [IC] Electricity Control [IC] Fire Control [IC] Flight [IC] Force Field [IC] Healing [IC] Hell Fire [IC] Ice Control [IC] Illusion Casting [IC] Levitation [IC] Magic [IC] Stamina [IC] Telekinesis [IC] Telepathy [IC] Teleport [IC] Time Manipulation [IC] Time Travel [IC] Unarmed Combat [IC]Weather Control [BIC] Deanna uses magic Crystals for most of her spells. [BIC] Here are the crystals and there uses to her [BIC] AGATE [IC] Eases stress and pain of a loss. Reduces anxiety. [BIC] AMBER [IC] Fossils from pine tree resin, they add strength to magick and spells, attract love and increase beauty. [BIC] AMETHYST [IC] increases spiritual awareness, used in all workings for peace, love, happiness and protection, used in divination and psychic work. [BIC]APACHE TEARS [IC] Apache Tears are "transparent" black obsidian. It is said that these are the tears that Apache women cried when warriors did not return from battle. Simply hold them up to a light or the sun and you can see through them. Good for Protection, grounding, good luck, and they may used for divination. [BIC] AVENTURINE [IC] increases mental powers, perception and creative insight, gambler's stone. [BIC] BERYL [IC] Attracts Deep Romance and Love. [BIC] BLOODSTONE [IC] increases physical strength and courage, brings victory in the courtroom, used to banish, exorcise. [BIC] CARNELAIN [IC] Promotes self-confidence and peace, eases depression. [BIC] CLEAR QUARTZ [IC] Holding or increasing energy [BIC] CORAL [IC] Protects against the evil eye, all spells intended to harm the wearer, natural disasters and unfortunate occurrences. [BIC] DIAMOND [IC] Reconciling differences between those who have quarreled. This stone is said to symbolizes peace, fidelity and opulence. [BIC] EMERALD [IC] Precognition and the ability to see into the future. It is said to nurtures love and beauty, and turns all negative spells back to the sender. [BIC] FLUORITE [IC] Reduces emotional involvement, used to gain perspective, increase mental power. [BIC] GARNET [IC] Enhances strength and endurance, protection, healing, enhances self-esteem and encourages success in business. [BIC] HEMATITE [IC] Legal Matter, Victory, Healing [BIC] JASPER [IC] Can protect from pain and guard one's independence. It is said to bring the wearer good fortune and protection from the controlling influences of others. [BIC] JADE [IC] Good Luck, Protection from disease or Evil spirits. It is said to enhance one's occult powers. It presents serenity and immortality. [BIC] LAPIS LAZULI [IC] Stimulates wisdom, truthfulness, psychic awareness, healing. [BIC] LEPIDOLITE [IC] A calming stone, this is carried for peace, spirituality and to drive off negativity. [BIC] LODESTONE, GREEN [IC] Draws money, employment, strengthens loyalty, used in bindings [BIC] LODESTONE, RED [IC] Draws love, friendship, strengthens loyalty, used in bindings [BIC] MALACHITE [IC] Draws money and protection, guards wearer from danger [BIC] MOLDAVITE [IC] Form of Tektite. Made when meteorite hit the earth thousands of years ago,...it's getting very rare, as it is only found in a small region of Russia. Said to have links to extraterrestrial energies and will greatly enhance the power of other stones. Brings you into communication with your higher self. [BIC] MOONSTONE [IC] Draws love, hope and protection, promotes unselfishness and helps settle disputes, induces prophetic dreams. [BIC] OBSIDIAN [IC] Used for grounding and centering, divination, and increasing spirituality [BIC] OPAL [IC] Good luck, and extra mental powers [BIC] PETRIFIED WOOD [IC] Good for past life work, nervous conditions, and grounding. [BIC] ROSE QUARTZ [IC]Draws love and happiness. Helps heal broken heart. [BIC] RUBY [IC] Qualities of Power, Loyalty, and Courage [BIC] SAPPHIRE [IC] Radiate Gentleness and Peace. It is said that this stone helps bring Justice and truth to light [BIC] TIGER'S EYE [IC] Draws wealth and money, protects travelers, increases clarity of thought. [BIC] TOPAZ [IC] Give protection to warriors, has the qualities to put demons to flight and vanquishes the evil spells of sorcerers. Can be used for Divining purposes. [BIC] TURQUOISE [IC] Believed to bring love and courage. It is said to be a protector against violence in thought and deed. Also good for reducing bodily and mental tensions. [BIC] ZIRCON [IC] Attracts fame and fortune. It is considered to be a wishing stone. It is also a protector against accidents or natural disasters. ♒♒♒----------------------------------------------------------♒♒♒ [IMG=AHD] ♆♆♆----------------------------------------------------------♆♆♆ [BIC] Favorite Colors: [IC] Black [BIC] Favorite Animals: [IC] Cat [BIC] Favorite Mythological Creatures: [IC] Dragon [BIC] Favorite Flavors: [IC] Cheese [BIC] Favorite Foods: [IC] Chicken Nuggets [BIC] Favorite Drinks: [IC] Whiskey [BIC] Favorite Movies: [IC] Annabelle [BIC] Favorite Music: [IC] Pop Punk [BIC] Favorite Bands: [IC] 30 Seconds To Mars [BIC] Favorite Songs: [IC] City of angels 💠💠💠----------------------------------------------------------💠💠💠 [IMG=YQ2] ⚹⚹⚹----------------------------------------------------------⚹⚹⚹ [BIC] Accent: [IC] British [BIC] Alignment: [IC] Good [BIC] Song : [IC] Better Of Dead - Sleeping With Sirens [BIC] Backstory [IC] Born to Zatanna Zatara and John Constantine Deanna was brought into the world. She trained with the JLD and was happy [IC] She grew up getting training from both her parents. She turned out more like her father then her mother. [IC] Deanna became a demon hunter. She went against a demon that was to powerfully and she was dragged to hell. [IC] once in hell Deanna was tortured and raped by Lucifer. Because of this she gave birth to his child. Daniel, Deanna was saved from hell by her father but unfortunately she had to leave Daniel behind. [IC] Aswell as a demon hunter Deanna has a singing career. She mainly.sings punk / Pop punk. She performs magic on stage as she sings . [IC] Deanna is a Satanist, she gets defensive when people say that she harms animals and little children. When she doesn't . [IC] Sometimes Deanna does magic shows but she always has a different crystal to her power . During the shows she wears the corresponding crystal to the magic she will be using

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thehikingnerd · 5 years

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Day 92.

If you want to really talk about lucky… last night was the last night Nancy and Terry were hosting hikers, I was literally the last hiker they hosted in 2017. They took all of our pictures with a polaroid to remember all of the hikers they had hosted each year. We woke up to fresh squeezed orange juice and a huge amazingly delicious breakfast they had made for us (not all pictured even). They were amazing people, and they never asked for a penny in return, these are the people and times on the trail that restore my faith in humanity and make me want to be a better person myself. They ran a few of us up to a small convenience store nearby and then they came back by their home to load all of us up who wanted to leave early (9ish) into the truck and were dropped back off at the point we had all hitched in. It was a nice experience and I felt both refreshed and not in a super big hurry since I had done a 30-mile day yesterday. It was no time at all before the day got hot. I mean really hot and not the super-dry desert heat either, despite being somewhat arid, my sweat didn’t seem to be going anywhere. It was the kind where I had to stop and wipe all the sweat from my face and pull out my phone to see just how hot is was, turns out… 99 straight temp with an earlier high of 102 and god knows what the heat index was. Much of the morning and early afternoon was on top of the ridge with some pretty great views. I was happy to have a pretty large and easy decent coming into the town of Belden. In fact, I had made it into town somewhat early in the afternoon and it was so hot I decided I would rest there through the hottest part of the day and take off near evening to do a little night hiking. The climb out of Belden on the Guthooks app looked to be huge, im talking a 4,000ft steep climb out of the valley back up to the ridge line, and wasn’t something I was looking forward to doing in this kind of heat. So I went inside the restaurant in this tiny but odd and potentially awesome little town. I had heard they had wild parties here and that it was something to behold. I would have been eager to see or even stick around for a night here if they were going to have one within a day’s time, but alas, I had rolled in on a Wednesday and they wouldn’t be having any of these parties for days, probably not until the next weekend, so that was out. Much to my surprise when I went into the restaurant, Achilles and J-man were already there. When it came down to it they were undoubtedly faster than I was, but I had been making great time and suspecting they weren’t far behind. But I never saw they pass me and was a little in disbelief. Turns out they had hitched from Sierra City to Belden I think to make it in time for the weekend parties. I spoke to Achilles, and he was saying J-man was wanting to (I think skip this huge, hot climb) hitch to the next town and start up again from there. He looked visibly disappointed though and expressed that he had come to hike the PCT and they were skipping more than he felt comfortable with skipping. I ordered and ate a big burger and spoke with a few other hikers that were hanging around. No one was looking forward to this climb and heat. I tried to get in contact with my friends without any luck, but at some point another hiker had told me that they had seen Dixie and that she had left that morning, so I knew I was starting to get closer to my crew and that they were only a day or so ahead. It wasn’t terribly comfortable waiting out the heat there anyway as it didn’t seem very cool inside and the big fan already had a group of hikers enjoying the best seats for some relief. I was eager to head out and work on catching them, but it was just so hot that I continued to wait around charging my batteries until it was nearly dark. I put on my pack and walked across the bridge out of town. I started the uphill that I knew would last into the night and the next day. I’m not even sure how useful it was to have waited until evening, to get any real heat relief it seemed maybe I should have slept there and left early, early in the morning. But here I was already a few hundred feet up and I might as well just push on. The sunset happening over the small town (if you want to call it a town at all) was just blazing orange, pink, and red and was absolutely gorgeous. As the light was all but gone for the day and before I had stopped to get out my head lamp and put it on… I had gone by a ledge about waist height and heard a rattle snake suddenly start its rattle, warning me that I was too close for comfort. I was alarmed and caught off guard and since it was close enough to my body that I was worried it might try to strike in the dim light where I had trouble seeing it, I hopped forward and to the left on the trail to evade him/her only to then hear another rattle right at my feet even closer. I stepped back a bit and was in a bit of a panic stuck between two rattling rattle snakes. I just held still for a minute and couldn’t see much and relied more on the sound of their rattles than on sight, and as I heard the one ahead on the left slowly move off further to the left, I quickly hopped ahead and to the right and got about 20 ft ahead before sighing some relief and pulling out my head lamp. I hadn’t been thinking of rattlers since I hadn’t seen one in a bit, but that experience set me up for a stressful night. So, here I was, in the dark night, all alone, walking on a narrow trail with knee-high grass on both sides (meaning it was very hard to see where you were stepping even on the trail), having just seen there were rattle snakes active, still hot as balls and sweating, and to top it off, rumors had been going around about bears being sited all over in this stretch of trail. So it was slow going and stressful as I made my way up 1-2 thousand feet of elevation gain all the while, stabbing at the grassy sides of the trail with my trekking poles every foot or so to make sure there wasn’t a rattle snake at the edge of the trail and simultaneously loudly singing old country songs to try and make enough noise as to not sneak up on a bear and startle it. I’m sure I was a nervous sight to see, but I forced myself to go on as I was for quite a while, yelling out the lyrics to songs like The Gambler, lol. To make matter worse, I saw a small black furry animal for just a split second and was afraid it had been a bear cub (I later did some research and determined that it must have been what is known as a fisher). Even after I was tired I still had to push far enough to find a decently flat spot to camp. It was pretty late when I finally bedded down for the night. Since I was so tired and I was wanting to head out as early as possible the next morning I chose to cowboy camp. I ended up flashing my light a few times around me in all directions when I heard some noises as I was trying to fall asleep, still worried about a bear encounter. Finally, I drifted off and had an alarm set to get up fairly early to try and finish the climb before the full on heat of mid-day returned.

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eryiss · 6 years

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Gambler’s Luck: Chapter Twenty Five

You can read it on FanFiction, Archive of Our Own or under the cut. You can also catch up using the chapter list here. Hope you enjoy ^.^

Chapter Twenty-Five – The Home of The Heart

There were few moments in his life that were faultless. This was one of them.

Laxus found himself sitting in the kitchen of Makarov's apartment, with the smell of a partway-cooked mushroom julienne wafting around the room and invading his senses. He rested his arms on the kitchen table with a soft smile on his face, looking at his grandfather as he cooked and his boyfriend as he occasionally asked questions about the process of making the Russian dish. The entire situation was domestic, calm, and infinitely more comfortable than Laxus could have hoped for, and he was relishing in the moment.

Makarov had been out of hospital for a week and a half. Every other day he had been visited by his new dietitian and nurse – an apparently formidable woman named Porlyusica – and he had been doing well. It wouldn't be long before the dietitian would only come once a week, and she had decided to give him the equivalent of a 'cheat day' on his new diet. He had taken the opportunity with open arms, inviting Freed and Laxus over for dinner and cooking a very dairy heavy dish.

And Laxus was so glad that he had.

It was just perfect. His grandfather and his boyfriend had – despite Laxus' previous worries about the two of them not getting along – proven themselves capable of being pretty good friends. Even if the majority of the conversation was just Makarov talking his usual endless nonsense with Freed only interjecting on occasion, he knew that the gambler was doing more than just humouring him.

As Freed asked something about the sauce, the blonde leant back against the chair he was on and closed his eyes. With what had happened with Makarov's health, something from the night of their date had been pushed to the back of Laxus' mind. Something that, in this situation, Laxus found hard to ignore.

He was ready to confess his love for Freed.

It sounded so stupid when put that way; so juvenile. But there was no other way to define it; he had fallen in love with Freed and wanted him to know. Perhaps it had happened too early, perhaps if he told someone then maybe they would say he was overcompensating for his issues with his family, but he really didn't give a damn. Because he knew what he felt, and nobody could change that.

As convincing a statement that was, it was harder to believe when he needed to act on it.

Hypothetically confessing to Freed wasn't difficult at all, all he needed to do was say that he was happier than he had ever been before, that he filled him with an electric burning that was impossible to fight, and that he was in love with him.

In reality, there had been two times when he had tried to get the words out and neither went well. The first had been on their date, and how that ended was obvious. The other time was two days prior, where there had been a storm and Freed had insisted that he drive Laxus to his door, so he didn't need to walk through it. As Laxus had tried to speak, he stumbled, second-guessed himself, and made up some half assed excuse before retreating into the building.

Not his finest moment. Nor the most dignified.

After that had happened, Laxus had decided that the next moment he felt the urge to tell him, he was going to force himself to do it. When he made that decision, it hadn't seemed daunting at all. But it did now, mainly because he really felt the need to tell Freed in that very moment. Which was nauseating, as not only would he have to deal with the actual confession, but he would likely have to do it in front of his grandfather. And who the hell could guess how he would react if he heard that?

Thankfully, even the most pressing of self-contained existential crisis could not survive the loud cackle of a laugh that Laxus had long since come to partner with Makarov doing something embarrassing.

"He never usually lets me tell that story," Makarov chuckled, looking towards Laxus. "Whenever I tried to in the past he starts yelling. Consider yourself lucky."

Bastard! He was trying to embarrass him. And Laxus didn't even know what story he was talking about. There was more than one he didn't like repeating…

He looked towards Freed and was only met with an amused expression and a slight raised eyebrow. Well, either the story couldn't have been that bad because Freed wasn't laughing at him, or he was just using his poker face to make this hell worse for him. He should have gone with his instincts and never let the two of them meet; this was so much worse than them arguing.

Okay, it wasn't, but they were ganging up on him and he was allowed to exaggerate.

"Look at his face," Makarov continued with a large smile. "Anyway, food's nearly done. You boys set the table."

Laxus half considered glaring at his grandfather for his demand – Freed was a guest, not a friend who Makarov had known since birth – but knew any scowl would simply be twisted into annoyance at whatever story had been told at his expense. He simply stood up and walked to the cutlery drawer without showing any reaction to his grandfather.

As he passed him, Freed reached up and placed his hand on Laxus' jaw. He leant up a little and pressed his lips against Laxus' for a short second, most likely done as a way to comfort him after the soft, unheard teasing. Laxus was thankful for it, and he smiled a little.

"Bastard," He muttered almost mockingly. "Didn't earn that, y'know."

"I didn't expect any complaining," Freed whispered. He leant a little closer, so their lips almost touched. "It won't happen again."

He pulled away before their lips connected again and turned to the drawers, pulling out the needed cutlery for their meal. He didn't look at Laxus as he passed and began placing the knives and forks beside the placemats, and Laxus couldn't help but grin at the man despite the intention of Freed's actions being to annoy him. He really couldn't imagine loving the damn asshole more than he did in that moment.

Fuck, he needed to tell him.

"And here we go," Makarov's exclamation made both men's head turn. He was pulling a large pot out of the oven. "The main event. Mushroom julienne, just like my babulya used to make."

"You sure you're okay with that?" Laxus took a step forward and nodded to the pot.

"Keep treating me like a frail old man, Laxus, and you'll go without," Makarov warned, bringing the steaming pot of food to the table and placing it on a resting placemat. "But if you really want to help, get that garlic bread you insist on having with it out from the oven. He can never stick to tradition, always needs to add something of his own."

"Doesn't stop you from scarfing half of it down whenever we have it," Laxus muttered as he removed the tray from the oven shelf. Makarov either didn't hear or just ignored him.

"Freed, my boy. You couldn't pass the serving ladle by the chopping board," Makarov said as he sat at the head of the table. "My old legs aren't what they used to be."

"Of course," Freed nodded as Laxus' head snapped up.

"So I offer a hand, suddenly I'm a patronising shit. Now you get to pull the old man card," Laxus looked at his grandfather with annoyance. He knew this was the reaction the old man wanted but didn't find it in himself to care. "The hell kinda logic is that?"

Makarov just shook his head with a smile. "Such an angry child."

Laxus didn't reply, instead deciding to place the garlic bread in the middle of the table beside the pot of julienne and taking his seat; perhaps placing the tray down with more force than needed. Freed was quick to deliver the ladle and passed Laxus as he walked to his own seat, placing his hand on his shoulder as he did so. The small touch sent a disproportionately large shiver down the blonde's spine.

Laxus had noticed Freed was being more consistently touchy throughout the day, which he wasn't going to complain about. He slightly wondered if meeting Makarov had anything to do with that; it was the closest thing to meeting a parent that either would have in their relationship after all. Maybe Freed saw this as undeniable proof that Laxus saw this relationship lasting and now the floodgates had been opened on affection. Laxus definitely wasn't going to complain.

He absently wondered what would happen when Laxus managed to tell Freed how he was feeling.

His stomach flipped at the idea.

"Wow," He heard Freed whispered, and his head snapped up to see Freed holding a fork with a half-eaten mushroom. He also saw Makarov looking towards him. "This is delicious." Freed continued, probably for clarification on what he meant.

"I'm glad you like it," Makarov smiled and took a bite of his own meal. "Russian food might not be the most popular or elegant, but I'll be dammed before I let someone say it doesn't taste good."

Laxus rolled his eyes a little – Makarov wasn't particularly patriotic about his Russian heritage, but the food was a weird exception to that – and decided not to add fuel to the fire, instead tearing out some garlic bread out and beginning to eat. As the taste invaded his senses, he was reminded as to why his grandfather was so prideful of the meal; the damn thing was good. He let out a small groan of appreciation to let Makarov know this.

For the first few minutes of the meal, the conversation was pushed to the side in favour of eating. Laxus had always loved when his grandfather had made Russian food, it was considered a treat when he was younger, and Freed was obviously enjoying the new food, so saw no reason to speak. And Makarov was probably just taking the silence as a compliment.

As Laxus reached for his third slice of the garlic bread – Makarov was on his forth despite his complaints – he noticed that Freed has eaten almost as much of the julienne as he had. The blonde was impressed; the meal was stodgy and someone who wasn't used to it couldn't often finish. Yet Freed had practically devoured it without so much as drawing attention to himself.

Laxus and his grandfather shared a glance, and Laxus found himself grinning.

As they finished the meal, Laxus found himself relaxed completely and thinking about where he was again. Less than a year ago, he had been a single guy in an unfulfilling job who spent almost all his spare time at a bar. Now, he was having dinner with his grandfather and his long-term boyfriend, who had also been responsible for getting him a job that he loved. The contrast was quite drastic, and Laxus was more than happy for it. So happy that he wasn't aware of the somewhat dumb smile on his face that was aimed at Freed.

Makarov did notice the smile, however, and felt himself smiling as well. He hadn't voiced it, but there had been moments where he had worried for the younger man. Many of Ivan's problems were accredited to his alcoholic tendencies, and Makarov didn't want Laxus going the same way. But to see him now, he practically glowed in comparison to who he had been. Certainly in comparison to Ivan.

Because of this, he decided that he would spare his grandson the teasing for his expression and instead stand up and leave the table.

"I didn't get a desert, but if you really need something there's some ice cream in the freezer," He said, snapping Laxus out of his state and making Freed look up. He then continued, voice melodramatic. "You two can clear the table, right? I'd help, but, well, don't want to overwork my heart."

Laxus rolled his eyes, he should have expected the old man to use it as an excuse once he was starting to recover. The man had no shame.

"You seriously using it to get out of doing the dishes?" He muttered as Makarov started to retreat into the back room. Makarov turned around, looking him dead in the eye and slowly, tauntingly placed a hand on his chest.

"Even thinking about it makes the palpitations start," He spoke using a purposefully withered sounding voice.

"You're an awful person," Laxus deadpanned as Makarov left the room and closed the door behind him.

The blonde turned to see that Freed had lifted the three plates and was walking towards the sink, apparently doing as Makarov had said. Laxus was quick to take the plates from him – he was less of a guest in Makarov's home than Freed was, so it made sense for him to help out more than Freed did – and placed them in the sink. He wasn't going to make Freed work, and he knew Makarov wouldn't get involved and would just dig his heels into his excuse to get out of it.

As he began to rinse the plates clean so that they could be placed into Makarov's crappy old dishwasher, he turned to look towards Freed and saw that he was moving the now empty pot of food to the draining board.

"You know you don't have to help, right?" Laxus asked. "You're just encouraging his bullshit."

"He's old, Laxus. You can't expect him to do such heavy lifting," Freed said. His tone was serious, but the smirk on his face told Laxus that this was just him teasing. "Maybe you should move in and act as his full-time carer. Just in case."

"Yer funny," Laxus said sarcastically, but couldn't fight back the small smile on his face.

"I'm being serious," Freed continued as he picked up the placemats. "Its only so long before he needs help on the toilet. You wouldn't want to leave him alone during that hard time, would you?"

Laxus considered replying, wondering how far – and more interestingly, how graphic – Freed was willing to go with the hypothetical, overly dependent grandfather. But before he could actually say anything, a small chuckle left his lips and he shook his head slightly, taking the unclean pot and rinsing it with the plates before putting it to the side.

"Yer both assholes, y'know," He informed, grinning.

"Perhaps," Freed smiled a little, leaning on the counter beside Laxus. "Would you forgive me for my oh-so abhorrent behaviour if I stacked the dishwasher for you."

"Might," Laxus muttered, though still grinned as he walked to the side. Technically it wasn't forcing Freed to work if the man instigated himself in a joking way. "But if you're gonna keep doing shit for me, I'm gonna take advantage of it, so no promises."

Freed chuckled and pulled open the dishwasher, which was thankfully clean and empty. As he started to place the unwashed plates, glasses and cutlery into it, Laxus found himself admiring the man again as he had been throughout the day. Because there was so much of him to admire, so much of him that was just so perfect that a few moments of thought couldn't even begin to cover it all.

Even the fact he was doing the dishwasher was, in some ways, admirable. Being blunt, the guy was loaded and could have easily been an arrogant dick, and yet he didn't seem to care that he was doing a chore in a house that wasn't his with the hosts being lazy. If you didn't know him, you would have no idea that he could probably buy your house without it making too large a dent in his savings. It was perhaps a little thing, the fact he was willing to do help out with Makarov's chores, but it reinforced the idea that Laxus had chosen the right guy to be with.

He needed to tell him. Today.

With a sudden burst of courage, he walked forward and wrapped his arms around Freed's waist. He could feel Freed stop for a moment, before he relaxed into the grasp and leant against him; the blonde could just about see the smile forming on his boyfriend's face his position, and it warmed him again and spurred him on.

All he needed to do was say it. Just say the damn words and just see what happened. People liked hearing that someone loved them, specifically when they were in a relationship with them. Freed should like that.

He couldn't though. The words were just lost on his tongue.

Instead, he parted the hair that covered Freed's neck and placed a quick kiss on the pale skin presented to him. Freed turned his head so that they could look at each other and placed his lips against Laxus' to return the gesture. Laxus looked at him with slight doe-like eyes expression and made a promise to himself as he became entranced by his boyfriend.

He would confess his love by the end of the day.

---

"Hey," Laxus whispered, "Come 'ere. Wanna show you something."

Freed frowned a little as he looked up. Both he and Laxus were still in Makarov's apartment, though it was significantly later in the day than when they had eaten. The older man had fallen asleep in his chair, something that his nurses had said would become more regular and was not something to worry about, so the two men had spent a good amount of the afternoon watching the mans TV with only occasional conversation; neither wanted to wake Makarov up if they could help it.

Throughout the afternoon, Laxus had considered how he would broach the topic of his feelings for Freed. Almost all ideas had been a dead end, and now the sky was turning dark and Laxus knew time was running out. He needed to act now, because the moment they left the apartment Laxus knew it wasn't happening.

Slightly confused by the sudden request, Freed stood up form the sofa and followed Laxus. He walked down the small hallway that cut apart the kitchen from the sitting room and was taken into a small office. His frown intensified a little.

"My old room," Laxus explained.

Laxus hadn't been angry when Makarov had converted his room into an office. Maybe a little sad at the start, but he knew that it wouldn't make sense to have a teenager's bedroom in an old man's place when he could turn it into a room where he could do his work without having to leave his home. And, thankfully, his old bedroom wasn't what he planned to show his boyfriend, simply just a way to get there.

He walked to the window on the back wall and pushed it open, getting hit by a brisk but not unpleasant breeze. After sending a smirk to Freed, who still seemed confused, he put his leg through the window and started to climb through it.

Because Makarov's apartment block offered multiple sizes of apartments, the actual building thinned out after a few stories. Makarov lived on the first layer of smaller apartments, meaning that outside of Laxus' old window there was a layer of tiled roof. It was pretty large, had a rail at the end and was the entrance to the fire only fire escape of the apartment. Laxus had used the space as a makeshift balcony throughout his teenage years, and wanted to share it with Freed.

"This used to be my hideout," Laxus explained, sitting on the tiles and motioning for Freed to do the same. Freed climbed through the window and sat next to him.

"I suppose hiding out in an apartment must have been difficult," Freed chuckled a little.

"You've got no idea," Laxus grinned. "Used to think I was being hot shit, though. There was a guy who sold me beers and I used to hide them here. Gramps knew about it and kept replacing it with non-alcoholic stuff; didn't realise until I went on my first night out." He heard Freed chuckle. "Turns out I wasn't just really good with booze like I thought."

"I imagine your grandfather was ecstatic about you finding that out," Freed teased slightly.

"You've no idea," Laxus groaned, leaning his head back against the stone wall and smiling a little. "Honestly, nobody has ever had more fun with a hangover than he did. Kept laughing and drinking hard lemonade, pretending to be me and boasting about how high his tolerance is."

Laxus smiled at the memory. He had deserved all the teasing his grandfather had put him through.

The blonde looked over the skyline, or at least what he could see of it from this height, and felt himself relax. This had always been the place he used to get away from it all; it made him seem like a small part of a larger world and, while that didn't always make him feel good, it always put any issues into perspective and helped relax him. It was doing that now; so many people in Magnolia had confessed their love to someone, and Laxus was just going to join them.

But that wasn't the only reason Laxus had chosen to confess here. He wanted to back himself into a corner; this was the place he was going to tell Freed he loved him, and he wasn't going to leave until he did. He just needed to follow the makeshift plan he had made.

Step one: break the ice for himself.

"Y'know when you were cooking," He began, turning slightly and looking towards Freed. "What was Makarov talking about? The thing that I apparently wouldn't be happy that he was talking about."

"Actually, he didn't tell me anything," Freed confessed with a small laugh, and Laxus frowned at him. "We could both see that you were quite deep in thought and that you weren't paying attention to either of us. He thought it would annoy you if you thought we had been talking about you and that you didn't know what it was."

Laxus sighed, that was defiantly a Makarov thing to do. He found himself smiling and fighting back a small laugh, though. Having his boyfriend and grandfather gang up on him was weird, but at least they got along. And he could take jokes made at his expense without issue.

"Honestly, I thought he told you about the time I went goth," Laxus chuckled, and saw Freed turn to him with a shocked expression.

"You're joking," Freed's voice was clearly disbelieving.

"No. Did it for like two days or something. Don't remember why, probably just to piss Gramps off, but I was gonna go all out," Laxus ran a hand over his face in slight embarrassment. "Even asked Gramps to buy me some black hair dye so I could own the look."

Freed laughed a little at that, and Laxus could feel the other man press his side against his own. "Please tell me you looked how you do now. Because a goth with a body like yours would just be… perfect."

"Pretty close, actually," Laxus admitted, cheeks tinted red. "He said no, though. Which is good, because it would have been a bitch to get rid of."

"I imagine," Freed smiled. "It's good he didn't. I like blondes."

Laxus chuckled and relaxed, glad that he could joke about the embarrassing parts of his life with Freed. Again, when compared to how he was just a year ago, he wouldn't have imagined talking about the stupid shit he did when he was a teenager. But with Freed, despite the fact he knew he would get a little teasing for his younger self, he knew that there was no maliciousness behind it. Something about Freed made things seem more comfortable; like the other man could understand him in a way that most people couldn't.

He smiled and placed his hand over Freed's, which was still resting on his leg. He then shifted a little so that he was closer to Freed, and continued to look over the skyline as the wind cooled them both. It seemed that the ice was broken, and step one completed.

Now for step two: making things serious.

With a small sigh to psych himself up, he looked towards the other man and squeezed his hand a little. He noticed Freed look towards him, but kept his eyes steady on the skyline. He didn't know if he could look Freed in the eye when he said this, but he knew that it was something he needed to get off his chest before he confessed his feelings.

"I need to thank you," He said, voice not as loud as he wanted and almost timid. "For like, putting up with all the shit I've had happening and sticking through it."

"Laxus, you don't need to-"

"No, I do," Laxus cut him off. He'd apologise for that later. "Maybe you won't say it, or maybe you really don't agree, but I've had a lot happen and I feel like I'm putting it all on you, y'know. Even before we got together, when she first came back, I came to your place and unloaded all the shit I was feeling on you, and you were just my boss at that point. And I did it on the roof as well, and then you had to deal with me cutting the date off early because of what happened with Gramps.

"And I get that you probably wanna say I don't need to apologise for that, and that I couldn't help any of it. But we got together when all this shit was happening and, well, I kinda feel like we didn't get the honeymoon period thing that happens at the start. Like, maybe I threw you in at the deep end of emotional Dreyar shit."

His grasp of Freed's hand was getting tighter. He felt Freed's finger running across his hand again in the comforting way that Freed had seemingly always done; he relaxed into it.

"Shit, sorry," He continued. "Didn't mean to make this about me. Just, thanks for putting up with this while it was happening. I don't think Sophia is gonna try talking to me again and Gramps is looking good, so I think maybe I can be as good a boyfriend to you as you've been to me. Okay, so yeah."

God, that sounded fucking crap. But at least he had said it now.

Freed seemed to wait for a few moments, something that Laxus had noticed he did a lot when he wanted to be sure he was going to do the right thing before he acted. He shifted a little so that they were looking at each other, and Laxus found himself lost in the man's eyes.

"First, I will not have you doubting yourself as a boyfriend. If I wasn't happy, I would leave you, and here I am. Second, you're right that it's not your fault that this happened. It was completely by chance and, perhaps it would have been hard to help you through it if we had only known each other for as long as we've been together, but you were my friend before we became involved and I would have helped you with or without being with you," Freed's voice was stern, but he then smiled. "And third, you think we missed the honeymoon phase? We literally went on a week-long vacation together for the start of our relationship. That's practically an actual honeymoon."

Laxus found himself nodding, a small grin on his face at the latter sentence. Freed was right, he would have been there for Laxus in some capacity anyway, and there was some form of intimacy between them even as friends. Laxus had tried to tell himself that he wasn't being selfish by involving Freed in his issues but couldn't have believed himself. But hearing it from Freed, maybe he could start now.

God he was perfect.

He could get the important things into Laxus' head while breaking through his stubbornness, and still managed to make him smile at the end of it. How could anyone be better than him for Laxus? The blonde simply couldn't imagine it.

Silence formed between them both, and Laxus had no doubt that Freed wasn't speaking because he wanted to give Laxus time to think. The blonde closed his eyes and allowed the gentle breeze to tickle his face and the sound of the city to lull him slightly, as it always had when he was younger. It did little to calm himself down, but it was helping.

Only the third part of Laxus' plan remained now.

"Freed."

Just say it.

"I…"

Fucking say it.

"I'm in love with you."

Time seemed to stop for the moment. He had said it. For the first time in his life, Laxus Dreyar was in love with someone and had admitted it. He felt a million contradictions invade his emotions all at once. Nervousness and excitement. Relief and dread. Fear and giddiness.

"A-And I know that it might be too early," He continued, unable to stop himself. "And that we've only been together for a few months and that I shouldn't be saying it. But I've never felt like this with anyone else before. There's something you do to me that just feels so good, like I want you to be around all the time and that I think things are better with you around. This is new to me and I just-"

"I'm in love with you too."

Laxus paused.

What?

Freed was in love with him too? He was fucking in love with him! They were in love with each other! Holy Shit!

"You serious?" Laxus asked, and Freed smiled.

"Yes," His boyfriend replied. "I love you, Laxus."

"I-I love you too, Freed."

The blonde cupped Freed's cheeks within the moment, and pulled him into a strong, passionate, and loving kiss. Freed pushed into it, kissing back with just as much emotion as Laxus was putting in himself. Freed loved him back. Laxus had found love with a man who reciprocated his feelings. With a man who made him happy. With a man he adored.

And for once, life was perfect.

Happy Holidays everyone! And if you're not celebrating, happy Tuesday! So here we are, the penultimate chapter of my little fic, with only one more chapter to go. The final is going to be uploaded on New year's Eve, and it's an extra long one, so I hope you look forward to that. See you next week ^.^

#fraxus #freed justine #Laxus Dreyar #Ft: Gamblers Luck #freed x laxus #fanfic #fairy tail

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