Thunder Snow [Fairy Tail fanfic - 2/12]

Laxus shuffled down the hallway from the baths heading towards his room.  He’d discovered on the second day that the bandits let their prisoners have hot baths each night, which felt like heaven after spending the day working in the mines.  But then back in the rooms, with the cold leeching into relaxed muscles and stealing all that warmth away, his body started to stiffen up.  He’d woken up several times that night with cramps in his arms or legs and only got back to sleep after forcing himself to relax.  It was also a harsh way to learn that working out and being fit wasn’t the same as doing draining physical labor for hours on end.  His whole body hurt and made sleeping almost impossible.  He refused to even acknowledge the pain though, not after seeing another woman punished because her “husband” had an accident while digging.

Ciel woke up on the fourth night while he was trying to ease another cramp in his leg.  Contorting himself around to massage one leg was putting him on the verge of a cramp in other locations.  Laxus didn’t even realize she’d woken up until he felt strong hands grab his calf and start massaging away the knots, working her way up to his thighs and back down.  She switched back and forth between both legs, stopping only once she felt his muscles relax.

“You should have said something,” she whispered.

“Tonight was the first time it happened,” he whispered back.  “I was fine before this.”

“I’m not that heavy a sleeper,” was all she said before climbing into bed with the children, leaving him to stare into the darkness and realize she knew he was lying.

The next night, after they returned from the baths and she’d gotten the girls settled into bed, Ciel turned and ordered him to sit down on the edge of his bed and hold out his hands.  He did so, wondering what she was doing.  She picked up a small pack from the chair and opened it up, pulling out a small jar and rolls of white fabric.

“Your palms,” she said, waiting for him to turn his hands over.  When he hesitated, she sighed and gently grabbed his right hand, turning it over to rest on her knees.  She slathered ointment from the jar over his broken blisters, rubbing it in carefully before wrapping white gauze around his hands and fingers.  Once she’d done the same to his left hand, she told him to lay face down on his bed.  

“What?”

“Just lay down.  I’ll rub out your muscles so you don’t cramp up again.  Plus, it’ll probably help you tomorrow when you’re digging.”

Laxus laid down on the bed, feeling uncomfortable mostly because he wasn’t used to being touched, especially not like this.  Sure, the Raijinshuu could be a bit exuberant around him, and Freed was clingy sometimes, but that was different, they were his friends.  Right now, he was just very conscious of the fact that a woman he barely knew was giving him a massage.  It felt nice and while he didn’t really mind that much and wasn’t entirely sure he wanted it to end, he also wasn’t about to say that to her.  

“Thank you, that…uh…helped.”

“You’re welcome.  Next time, don’t wait to ask for help,” Ciel replied.  “Don’t forget, it’s in my best interests to make sure you stay healthy while we’re all stuck in here together.”  They both heard giggles coming from the other bed and looked over to see the two girls grinning at them from the mounded covers.  “What are you two monkeys laughing about?” she said with a smile, getting up and moving over to their bed.

Six days after waking up a prisoner, the bandits threw a new variable into the mix.  Laxus walked into their room after the evening baths and ran into the back of Ciel, who was standing frozen just inside the doorway.  He grabbed her around the waist to keep from knocking her to the ground but she didn’t seem to notice.  Looking past her into the room, he tried to figure out what was wrong.  The girls weren’t there and the room was bigger somehow.

“Good evening!  Tonight is adult’s night for all our fathers and mothers!  Don’t worry about your precious children; they get to have a big sleepover toether!  That means all you loving couples won’t be interrupted all night long!  And since tomorrow is a rest day, you can sleep in to recover if you need to!  Gwahahahahaha!”

The cell door slammed shut behind him and Laxus realized what was missing – one of the two beds, the other replaced with one that was larger.  That meant that he and Ciel were going to have to share the bed if they didn’t want to risk freezing.

“I forgot.”

“Huh?”

“I forgot about this. Since I’ve been the only adult in this family for so long, they didn’t do this before.  I’m sorry.”

“For what?  It’s not your fault these bandits are sick bastards.”  Through the door, he could hear faint cries and once, a short scream. “So some of the men don’t care if the woman is willing or not, huh?”  He could feel anger begin to rise.  Taking advantage of someone weaker in a situation like this was sick, especially when the other person couldn’t fight back properly.

“No, some of them don’t care at all.” Ciel’s voice was tight with anger and he realized they were still standing in the doorway, his hands clamped around her waist.  He could feel her sides move as she took a deep breath and he abruptly let go, stepping around her to sit on the edge of the bed.

“Look, I’m not going to do anything to you,” Laxus said, not looking in her direction.  “Let’s just get ready for bed as usual and….” He didn’t continue, unsure of what else to say.  He’d been with women before, but he couldn’t think of any instance when he’d just slept with one. That screamed of domesticity.

“Right, you’re right,” she said. “Why should this be any different than usual?  Go ahead and lay down.”  

Their nightly routine suddenly felt much more intimate now that there were no giggling children around.  The other nights when she’d massaged his back and shoulders had been uneventful, but now they were alone and he couldn’t stop thinking about how an attractive woman was straddling his hips, her legs pressed against his sides.  He could feel her thighs flex whenever she leaned forward to reach his shoulders, the rough weave of his shirt pressing into his skin.  Her hands moved across his shirt, traveling from the small of his back up the spine, pressing outwards towards his sides and sliding across his shoulder blades.  Her thumbs dug into the muscles of his shoulders, easing the tightness there before moving down his arms, first one side then the other.

“That’s enough!” He pulled his arms under his chest and pushed up; not realizing it would result in her breasts pressed against his back and her arms around his shoulders. The back of his head collided with her face and with a gasp, Ciel scrambled off the bed and fell onto the floor.  She twisted around to face the door, sitting with her head bowed.  She didn’t move when he got up and moved to her side.

“Ciel, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen.”  He leaned forward to see her face and caught a glimpse of blood before the lights went out for the night.  “Dammit, are you all right?” he said, placing a hand on her shoulder.  She didn’t move for a few seconds, making him wonder what to do next.

“I’m fine; it’s just a bloody nose.  You’ve got a pretty hard head, heh,” she finally said, moving to stand up.

“Yeah, sorry about that, too.  I promise I won’t do anything else to you tonight, all right?”  They moved to the bed and he urged her to climb under the covers first before climbing in after her.

“It’ll probably be easier if we sleep back-to-front, if that’s fine with you,” she said quietly.  “I mean, I normally sleep on my side but I don’t know about you…”

“I’ll be fine, just go to sleep,” he said roughly, putting his arm around her waist and pulling her body back against his.  The position wasn’t as awkward as he was afraid it would be; he just hoped the feel of her body against his wouldn’t cause any problems in the night.  After several minutes, he felt her finally relax against him, so he tucked his chin into the hollow of her shoulder and closed his eyes, falling asleep more quickly than he expected.

The next morning he slowly woke up to the feel of a calloused palm softly running up and down his arm.  He felt rested and there was a comfortable warmth pressed against his front.  He could feel freezing air biting at his exposed skin and had just decided to stay in bed a little longer when the memory of the previous night flooded back in.

“Good morning,” Ciel said softly when she felt him jerk awake. “It’s still early so we don’t need to get up yet.  Breakfast isn’t for a while.”  Laxus froze at her words and stared at the back of her head for a few moments before relaxing again.

“At least it’s warm,” he said wryly.

“Yeah, very warm like this,” she murmured back, already half-asleep again.  “Oh! You’ve probably been freezing before this with only the one blanket, haven’t you?”

“Don’t worry about it.  As a… friend of mine would say, it’s manly to not feel the cold.” Laxus smiled to himself thinking about Elfman’s favorite saying.

“Well, that may be true, but freezing doesn’t do anyone any good when there’s an alternative.  Besides, with the four of us, it’ll make things easier on the girls.”  Laxus noticed that while she was talking, Ciel kept running her hand over his arm, letting her fingers skim gently over his skin, and like the night before, he realized he enjoyed how it felt.  He wondered how her hands would feel on other parts of his body….

“Uhh, I’m awake now.  Why don’t you just stay here under the covers though?  No reason for you to get up just because I can’t sleep anymore.”  Laxus scrambled out from under the blankets, tucking them against her back once he was up.

“Mmm, thank you, Laxus,” she said, already falling back to sleep.  Laxus stared down at the dozing woman, confused about what was going on.   After a moment, he just shrugged and started stretching to stay warm.  If he didn’t want to be stuck here forever, he needed to make sure he was ready when an opportunity to escape presented itself.  First he had to do something about this collar though. He started reviewing everything he knew about body-link magic and how it worked, trying to see if there was a way to break the link without causing too much damage.