Triad

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“It’s eleven, are you sure you still want coffee?” Laxus asked from the couch, looking up from the magazine he was flipping through.

“Yes.” Freed answered, sitting on their dining table, face buried in his laptop, piles of books and papers around him.

Laxus looked pointedly at Mira, who shrugged helplessly as she laid a cup of coffee in front of their busy housemate.

“Thanks, Mira.” Freed said softly.

“Anytime, honey.” the woman smiled and pat his shoulder before heading over to join Laxus in the living room. The blonde shifted so Mira can curl up beside him and join his reading.

Laxus whispered, “You should’ve told ‘im we got no coffee left. What time did he sleep yesterday?”

Mira frowned and whispered back. “I don’t even know if he slept.”

“I’m pretty sure he was with us when we woke up.”

“Yes, but then he woke up too. And went to class.”

Laxus groaned.

They finished flipping through three more boring magazines (Who even owned this stuff? Maybe Evergreen left it last time.) before they realized it was midnight.

Mira nudged Laxus, who raised an eyebrow at the gesture. “Go talk to him. Tell him to take a break.”

Laxus sighed, but didn’t complain as he passed the magazines to her and stood up to stage a much-needed intervention.

It was midnight, Freed knew. He heard the soft chime from his phone that alerted him of the calender date changing. It was midnight and he still wasn’t finished and there was someone massaging his shoulders and it feels really good-

“We’re going to bed, Freed.” he heard Laxus’s voice from behind him. “You should, too.”

“No, not yet, I… I’ll just finish this.” he said, but couldn’t help but sigh as the other man’s hands eased some of the tension from his shoulders.

“And how long would that take?”

Freed didn’t look up from his paperwork. “Um… soon. You should go ahead.”

Laxus sighed and rolled his eyes, but leaned down to leave a kiss on Freed’s forehead before withdrawing.

He turned towards Mira and simply shrugged before heading towards the bedroom. Mira followed a few minutes later.

It was 1 AM when Freed felt soft, gentle arms wrap around his neck, and Mira’s chin tucked on his shoulder. “Still not done?” the woman asked, voice laced with sleep.

“Soon, Mira.” came Freed’s answer. “Go back to bed. You’ve got an early start tomorrow-… err, later.”

Mira clung to him tighter. “But we can’t sleep without you…”

“I can literally hear Laxus snoring.”

“Well, I can’t sleep.”

“I’ll join you soon.”

“How soon?”

“Real soon.”

“Freeeeeed… Let’s go sleeeeep…”

“I promise I’ll go to bed in a few.”

Mira pouted. Freed stopped for a moment and turned towards her, knowing she was making a face. He smiled softly and gave her a soft fleeting kiss on her lips. “Sweet dreams, love.”

The woman only sighed before withdrawing.

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A few hours later, Laxus woke up when Mira rolled over and gave him a headbutt in her sleep. He groaned. The bed was too big without Freed.

The blonde wrapped his arms around the woman to prevent her from potentially punching him next. As he did this, he caught a hazy glimpse of the time from the glow-in-the-dark digital clock on their bedside table.

What the hell.

Laxus sat up groggily. “Dammit, Freed.”

Getting up from bed, he trudged towards the doorway to lean on it while he stared at Freed still writing, reading, typing and sorting through endless papers.

“Hey.” he greeted tiredly.

Freed didn’t look up from his work. “Hm? Laxus, why’re you up?”

“I dunno, why are you still up?”

“I’m almost done.”

“It’s 4 AM.”

“Mm-hm.”

Laxus sighed, ran a hand through his hair tiredly and leaned against the doorway as he said, “Freed. Baby. Sugarpie honeybunch. You’re overworking yourself. Please, you need to rest.”

Then they also heard Mira’s voice from the bedroom shout, “GO THE FUCK TO SLEEP, JUSTINE!”

Freed was silent as he stared at his monitor. After a few more seconds, he saved his work, put his laptop on sleep, and stood up.

He only said, “I need to sleep. I’m starting to hear things.” before heading straight to their bedroom and crawling under the sheets.

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