A Pattern of Dots and Dashes.

Laxus had always been good at recognising patterns.

It was an odd little talent, one that was very rarely useful in his line of work, but it was one he had non the less. He didn't know where this talent had come from, but it seemed that whenever some kind of pattern was in place, he could find it relatively easy. It could be something visual, something he heard, or even something he smelt.

He had a few ideas as to what might have caused it. It could have been that his dragon senses made it easier to pick up on things. It could be that, after having the dragon lacrima forced into him, he focused on anything that could distract him from the pain and looking for patterns helped in some way. Or maybe he was just the kind of person who looked out for patterns in the world and there was no greater reason for it.

It didn't matter, really.

What did matter was a certain pattern Laxus had picked up on. A pattern that Freed Justine was responsible for.

Freed and Laxus had been dating for months now. It was a private thing, neither wanting to deal with the hassle of their guildmates finding out and jumping to conclusions about their future. Perhaps Bickslow and Evergreen knew, the two knew Freed and Laxus better than anyone else after all. But for all it was important, their relationship was private to the two of them and nobody else needed to be involved.

Something that had shocked Laxus was how intimate Freed could be. He wasn't interested in public displays of affection, but he did small things that made Laxus smile. It was little actions, like a firm pat on the shoulder if Freed walked behind him in the guild, or a quick glance and smirk when something happened that Freed knew would amuse Laxus. Just small things.

Even thinking about him made Laxus feel warm inside.

But recently something new had happened. Laxus had no idea if it was related to their relationship, but he felt that it must. Because Freed had repeated this little pattern multiple times over the last few weeks, and it was always in a way that Laxus would be aware of. It felt like a message, but Laxus didn't know what it was.

The first time, it was when they woke up side by side. They had been kissing, waking themselves up properly, when Freed's fingernail scraped across the back of Laxus' neck. This wasn't abnormal, but the pattern in which he did it stayed in Laxus' mind.

Tap. Scrape. Tap. Tap.

Laxus had dismissed it immediately, his boyfriend was in his bed and kissing him after all, and for the rest of the day it had been forgotten. However, when they went to the market the next day, as Freed was looking over a fruit vendors stock, he made a clicking noise with his tongue.

Click. A click with a pause. Then two more quick clicks.

It was the same pattern, and Laxus immediately recognised it. He couldn't remember where from exactly, but he knew for sure that he had heard it before. For a few minutes he tried to think where it had come from, but then Freed suggested that maybe they get something to eat at one of the hot food stores and the appeal of cooked pork overthrew most of Laxus' senses.

The next time it happened was on a mission. They had been called in to see the mayor of a small town who was having issues with a group of bandits. They were waiting in the mayor's office and Freed tapped out the same pattern again on the desk.

Tap. Tap and pause. Tap. Tap.

Throughout the rest of the week, he heard it again and again. When they were walking together, Freed patted his finger against his thigh to the pattern. When playing his violin, Freed had begun a song with that pattern. Even when he was cooking, Freed had removed residual soup from the wooden spoon by tapping it on the ridge of the pot in the pattern.

It seemed to be a thing Freed did now, and Laxus didn't understand why.

Furthermore, he had gotten so used to it that he felt as though the pattern was missing now. Freed and the Raijinshuu had gone on a mission and had been gone for two days, leaving Laxus alone. This wasn't an unusual occurrence, and normally Laxus wouldn't have cared, but he now found himself expecting the pattern to appear. The fact that it didn't felt as if he was missing something. It wasn't bothering him, exactly, but he couldn't exactly think of anything else. So, as he sat at the bar and nursed a tankard of beer, he found himself questioning what the sound was. And where had it come from.

His immediate thought was that Freed had a song stuck in his head, but it didn't make sense. The pattern wasn't a rhythm – not a good one anyway – and surely he wouldn't have fixated on a song for weeks.

For a second, he had considered maybe Freed had some kind of spell put on him. But again, it made no sense. What kind of spell advertised itself so obviously? And Laxus knew Freed's magic, he could tell if something new had been added to it. A long-lasting spell would have been obvious.

Other than that, no explanations had come to mind. Which was annoying.

Not quite as annoying as the fact that he was now tapping his tankard in the same damn pattern.

Clink. Clink and a pause. Clink. Clink.

Maybe that was why Freed was doing it, just to be an asshole and get the stupid little chime stuck in his head as some sort of weird prank. Laxus wouldn't put it past him; Freed had a mischievous side, as subtle as it may be. He also had a weird sense of humour, so perhaps this really was him. Laxus smiled a little at the thought.

He probably should stop thinking about it. There was no reason to, it wasn't as if he could get a definitive answer without Freed being there. All he was doing now was-

"Okay, you seriously need to fucking stop that."

Laxus looked up from his beer at the sound of Gajeel's raspy voice. The other dragon slayer was looking at him with an expression of annoyance, his ridiculous metal eyebrow twitching a little as he did so. Laxus at up a little straighter, putting on an equally annoyed expression. Couldn't a man drink in peace?

"The hell d'you mean?"

"The fucking tapping you've been doing for like twenty minutes," Gajeel continued, apparently not put off by Laxus' stature. "It's fucking annoying, so cut it out or fuck off and do it somewhere else."

He'd been doing it for that long? He hadn't realised it was that bad.

"Why should I move, kid?" Laxus butted back, hoping 'kid' got under Gajeel's skin. Annoyingly, he seemed unaware of it.

"I just fucking said, it's annoying," Gajeel reiterated, turning to face Laxus. "I mean what the hell even is it. Who fucking taps the same damn thing again and again for half an hour?"

So it was half an hour now? Either Gajeel had some time magic nobody knew about or he was just exaggerating to make his pissy attitude seem more justified. Laxus was going to say just as much when another voice spoke up.

"Sounds like Morse Code," The voice said, and Gajeel turned to show Laxus that Levy was sitting on the other side of the iron dragon slayer. Both Laxus and Gajeel looked at her with confusion. "Well, it is Morse Code. I think it's an L, actually."

Morse Code. Laxus knew what it was, of course, but he didn't know how to speak it; well, speak isn't the right word. But it made sense that Freed would know, given that he seemed to know every damn language under the sun. And tapping out secret messages would definitely be the type of thing he would do, the fucking smartass. But why would be just keep saying L over and over again? It didn't really make sense.

But still, it was an explanation. And something he could do to occupy his time alone.

He stood up from the bar, leaving his beer half drunk and making a note to remember Gajeel's comment about him not being smart enough to know what Morse Code was; the iron bastard would regret it later. He stalked past the stairs and towards the Guild's library, an expression of determination painted onto his features.

There would be a book on Morse Code in there somewhere; if there were books on all the random languages Freed wanted to learn about, there would be one on Morse Code. And the time it took to find it gave Laxus some thinking time.

The more he thought about it, the more the repetition of the letter L made sense.

Freed had shown himself to be something of a romantic, in a downplayed way. Knowing that Levy – and perhaps others – knew Morse code meant that messaged told in it wouldn't be private. So maybe it was just a small romantic gesture from Freed. It seemed too coincidental that Freed would be tapping out his first initial whenever they were around each other. Maybe it was something that Freed did to show his feelings; it sort of made sense.

Laxus wished he had a way of communicating his feelings better. Words had never been his strongpoint, and he was even worse at being honest with his feelings. He never could be vulnerable.

But he wanted to be. He really did. Because these few months of dating Freed, it made him realise a lot about himself. Freed was perhaps the most important person in his life, and he wanted to let him know. Let him know that he loved him.

Because he did. He really did.

And as his fingers ran across a book named 'A History of Coded Languages', an idea came to mind.

When Freed returned to his home, he was exhausted.

It was just past midnight, he had been walking for hours in the rain because of a cancelled train journey, and the cuts covering his body from the mission he'd been on were starting to irritate him as they rubbed against his sodden clothes. Needless to say, he was incredibly happy to be back in his home.

He moved without thinking. He went to his bedroom, had a warm shower that was the perfect remedy for the dirty rain that had been beating down on him for hours, treated the wounds that would need to be bandaged when he went to the guild, put on some comfortable clothes, and went to his living room. A fire was roaring within moments and the heat from the open flame was heavenly. As the room started to heat up, Freed walked to the kitchen to make himself a pot of Chamomile tea; he was in an annoying middle ground of being exhausted but not actually tired.

As he waited for his kettle to boil, he saw that Laxus' sound pods resting on the kitchen table. Freed frowned a little; the blonde rarely went anywhere without them. Freed knew that he was on a mission – it was unfortunate that their missions overlapped, but it happened.

The rune mage walked slowly towards them, to see the headphones were resting on a small note written in Laxus' handwriting. He picked it up and smiled a little at what he saw.

'Made a puzzle for ya, see if you can figure it out. Smartass.'

He laughed a little at the note, including the small kiss that had been put at the end that had been crossed out. He slid the headphones over his ears and went to press play, but the kettle started to whistle. He made himself the tea, walked into his sitting room and rested in the large leather chair that he did most of his reading in, and pushed the play button on the side of the headphones. For a second, he heard a small amount of scraping, before the tapping began.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

He knew that it was immediately, and he smiled. So Laxus had picked up on his use of Morse Code, and was apparently using it now. The rune mage paused the track, picked up one of the notepads that he had lying around his house. Once he was ready, he restarted to track and began to write out what Laxus had coded.

... . -.- / -. . .-. -..

Hey Nerd.

Freed smirked a little at the nickname Laxus had taken to giving him. While it wasn't exactly flattering, he saw it as a sign of endearment that Laxus had started to use, and the rune mage wasn't bothered by it. It was cute, in a certain way.

.. / .- - / -. - - / -. - - -.. / .- .. - ... / .- - .-. -.. ... / ... - / .. / .- .. .-.. .-.. / .- ..- ... - / ... .- -.- / .. - .-.-.-

I am not good with words so I will just say it.

After translating the second sentence, Freed found a little. The rune mage knew his boyfriend well, even the small sentence told Freed that this was something serious. Laxus had never been good at speaking about his feelings – no doubt the result of his father's bad parenting – but perhaps this was a way of doing it for him.

.. / .-.. - ...- . / -.- - ..- .-.-.- / .. / .- - / .. -. / .-.. - ...- . / .- .. - ... / -.- - ..-

I love you. I am in love with you.

Freed looked down at the words he had written. He re-translated it again, just to be sure, and found himself smiling wide when the same result came out. Laxus had just confessed his love for him, he didn't know how to react to that. But damn was he happy about it, and he felt a fire burning inside of him.

Laxus loved him. Just as much as he loved Laxus. They were in love with each other. The feeling was… euphoric.

But, as much as he wanted to let that feeling sink in, the message wasn't over. He pressed play again.

... - .-. .-. -.- / - ... .. ... / .. ... / -. - - / .- / -.. .. .-. . -.-. - / .- .- -.- / - ..-. / -.. - .. -. -. / .. - .-.-.- / -... ..- - / .. / .-.. - ...- . / -.- - ..- .-.-.-

Sorry this is not a direct way of doing it. But I love you.

Freed felt a small laugh split his lips apart. Of course Laxus would second guess his declaration of love. He didn't need to, though. Because Laxus had learned a language just for the sake of this message, and the effort that he put into this was spectacular. Freed would make sure Laxus knew how much he appreciated what Laxus had done for him when he returned. With a smile on his face, Freed pressed the play button again.

... . . / -.- - ..- / .- ... . -. / .. / -. . - / -... .- -.-. -.- .-.-.- / .-.. - ...- . / -.- - ..- .-.-.-

See you when I get back. Love you.

Upon returning from his mission, Laxus found arms wrapped around his neck. He was pulled into a kiss by his boyfriend, one that he was happy to return. He dropped his bags on the floor of his hallway and wrapped his arms around Freed's waist, leaning down and strengthening the kiss. Returning from a mission to a kiss was something Laxus was very quickly getting used to.

Honestly, he was shocked he had lived without it for so long.

When they pulled apart, Laxus smiled at Freed. "Hey."

"I love you too," Freed said immediately, his smile heavenly. Laxus felt a rush of exhilaration at his words, an equally love-filled smile plastering itself on his face.

"You do?" He asked, voice cracking slightly.

"Of course I do, idiot," Freed whispered, resting his forehead against Laxus' shoulder. Laxus pulled him a little closer. "And before you ask, learning Morse Code to tell me that you love me, perhaps the sexiest thing you – or any man – has ever done."

"Of course you'd think that," Laxus chuckled, before tilting Freed's chin to initiate eye contact. "I do love you, Freed."

"I love you too, Laxus."

And within a moment, they were kissing again. As they did, Laxus felt Freed's finger scraping against his neck again; the same pattern that had been plaguing his mind for weeks. It made the blonde smile and lean further into the kiss. He knew what the pattern meant now; it was Freed's way of saying that he loved him.

Dot. Dash. Dot. Dot.

So, just as Freed would affirm his love for Laxus by tapping out Morse Code for L, Laxus would do the same for Freed by tapping out Morse Code for F.

Dot. Dot. Dash. Dot