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raijindork · 1 year

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Souls & Spirits - Ch. 60

Summary: Everything seems to fall into place when the right person comes into your life. That was what Bickslow realised, anyway, but if it hadn’t been for them getting paired up for a job together, he never would have realised that Lucy was that right person who would light up his world in ways he never thought possible. Pairing: BixLu Rating: T/M (Mostly T. Explicit chapters marked.) Words: 5000~ Read on FF.Net.

After several years, the final chapter has arrived.

“You’re a little asshole, you know that?”

Bickslow gasped dramatically, quickly covering his son’s ears with his hands. “You take that back!”

Laxus puffed out his chest and crossed his arms. “No,” he insisted. “Hunter’s an asshole.”

“He’s nine months old!”

“Yeah, and he’s an asshole,” Laxus once again insisted, leaning down just to ruffle his newphew’s short cobalt hair. “Aren’t ya, buddy?”

Hunter merely looked up at Laxus for a moment and started giggling, his tongue just barely peeking past his lips. The first time Bickslow had seen that Hunter had managed to pick up that particular trait, it had been in the middle of the guild a few months early, and at first, he’d thought it was just a coincidence. But then it had happened again, and again, and then Lucy had seen it and berated him for a week for teaching their child bad habits. Now though, Bickslow couldn’t help but feel a little proud every time he saw his son do his little tongue wag.

“He’s not an asshole,” Bickslow argued though, finally taking his hands away from Hunter’s ears—he’d heard far worse anyway, much to Lucy’s annoyance—just to sit back on the soft, cushioned floor of the guild’s new playroom. “Jax is an asshole.”

Laxus straightened back up and narrowed his eyes at his friend. “Now you take that back. Jax isn’t an asshole, Hunter is—“

“Your kids are both fuckin’ assholes,” Gajeel groaned from the other side of the room, his daughter on his lap with one of Levy’s Rune Basics books in front of them both. Gajeel had argued it was too advanced for a kid who wasn’t even two, but he’d lost that war the second it had begun. “Just like their fathers. So both of you, shut it.”

“Ash-hole!” Gajeel’s daughter said triumphantly. Bickslow and Laxus paled when the toddler grinned and began triumphantly echoing her new favourite word. “Ash-hole, ash-hole, ash-hole!” she said.

Laxus wasted no time in scooping up his own toddler under one arm and making a quick departure, mumbling something about going and hiding behind the bar as he went. Bickslow could only laugh nervously as Gajeel continued to glare at him. It was probably a miracle that Hunter wasn’t old enough to talk yet or he’d be saying the same things. “Look, it’s not my fault,” Bickslow defended himself. He would maybe admit he was part of the problem, but it was most definitely not entirely his fault. It was Laxus’ fault, too. “Technically, you said it too.”

“I’m telling Shrimp it was you,” Gajeel said.

“You wouldn’t.”

Gajeel grinned menacingly. “I would.”

And Bickslow knew all too well what that meant. Gajeel would tell Levy, Levy would tell Lucy, and Lucy would… Well, Lucy would yell at him for teaching their friends’ kids bad habits, too. “Hundred jewels and you blame Laxus,” Bickslow offered instead. He didn’t really want to give Lucy more reason to yell at him. She’d only just stopped yelling at him for breaking the living room window a week earlier whilst playing with the babies and Hunter. Granted, it had been snowing all of that week and getting it replaced had taken a few days, but Bickslow really didn’t like it when she yelled at him. She terrified him.

“Two hundred and deal.”

Bickslow would, of course, take that deal. It was a bit of a bargain, especially by Gajeel’s standards. Two hundred jewel was merely a fraction of how much the guitar he’d had to replace all those years ago had cost him. Still, Bickslow groaned as he pulled himself up off the plush mat for a moment just to fish the crumpled jewel notes out of the inside of his cloak and toss them loosely in Gajeel’s direction.

“Pleasure doing business with my, my friend,” Gajeel said, cackling as his pocketed the money and turned the page for his daughter.

Bickslow sighed again and rolled his eyes, turning his own attention back to Hunter still giggling a little too maniackly for his own tastes as he slammed the poor totems into each other. “Yeah, yeah,” Bickslow grumbled under his breath. “Now who’s the asshole, huh?” Only assholes used blackmail as a threat, and Bickslow seemed to know all too well that it was Gajeel’s way of getting under everyone’s skin.

“Ash-hole!” Gajeel’s daughter giggled again.

That time, as Gajeel glared at him and no doubt plotted a murder, Bickslow could only grin sheepishly as he took a page from Laxus’ book, jumping up, grabbing his son, and leaving the playroom as fast as possible. “It’s not my fault!”

###

Lucy stirred awake at the sound of the lock being turned and she stretched her arms above her head just as Bickslow made it inside into and into the dark foyer. “What time is it?” she asked, straining as she stretched out her hands.

“Late,” Bickslow sighed, shutting the door behind himself gently. Hunter would be fast asleep at the other end of that hall and the last thing Bickslow wanted to do was wake him up. Bickslow wasn’t sure what it was about four-year-olds being allergic to bedtimes and sleep, but he knew from experience that getting his son to bed was a nightmare and he didn’t want to wake him unnecessarily. He could wait until morning to see his son. “Too late.”

Lucy didn’t have her keys nearby to check the time, but the street outside was quiet—no quiet conversations just outside in the street as party goers and bar patrons made their way home—so she knew to take Bickslow’s word for it. She shifted slightly, scooting to the front edge of the lounge and then patting the soft back cushions behind her. “Come here,” she said.

The lounge certainly wasn’t big enough for the two of them, but Bickslow would indulge his wife for a few moments in the peace and quiet and quickly kicked off as much excess clothing as he could. His boots, cloak, belt, and wrist guards sat in a pile by the foot of the sofa, and he groaned from aching muscles and a growing bruise on his shoulder as he carefully climbed into the crampled space behind her on the comfortable lounge. Lucy always smelled of home—those days it was apricot body scrub—and he closed his eyes as he buried his face in her hair.

“Sometimes I wish I could just stay at home forever, with you and Hunter and the babies and all those annoying spirits of yours.“

“They’re not annoying, thank you,” Lucy scoffed.

He smiled and chuckled quietly as Lucy elbowed him gently in his stomach. “They are annoying. Especially Loke. And to think I kept his secret for all that time.”

As if to prove Bickslow’s point, Loke cleared his throat from the foot of the sofa, by Bickslow’s clothes. “We are not annoying,” the spirit insisted, pushing his glasses back up his nose at Bickslow’s groan and Lucy’s giggling. “I merely aim to help make Lucy’s life slightly more tolerable and assist in any way I can. Although, given that she married you and refuses to divorce you after all this time, I’m not sure my best efforts really do much.”

“Loke, man. Come on. You hurt me.”

“Oh, no. What a shame.”

Bickslow didn’t miss the spirit’s grin before returning to his own world. He doubted he’d ever be best of friends with his wife’s prized spirit, but after several years together, Bickslow could almost say that Loke summoning himself at inopportune moments just to annoy him wasn’t actually that annoying after all. Still, he would go to the grave calling Lucy’s spirits annoying.

“See? Not annoying,” Lucy giggled. “And, you can’t stay at home forever. I can’t stay at home forever either.”

Bickslow sighed into Lucy’s shoulder. He knew. He knew it was unreasonable. It was just as unreasonable as them leaving the guild before Hunter had been born. Sometimes, part of him still wouldn’t have minded giving up his job—just stop working as a mage, and find a normal, safe job somewhere. He still wouldn’t have been able to stay at home every second of every day then, but he wouldn’t go days, sometimes weeks without seeing his family.

The list of moments and firsts he’d missed grew longer each time he took a job. Lucy’s, too. He’d missed the birth of his son. Lucy had missed Hunter’s first steps. They’d both missed his first words that weren’t just complete gibberish that not even Freed or Levy could decipher. And, Bickslow wanted to say that the next baby would be different, when they came in just a few more months, but he knew it wouldn’t be the case.

“I know I can’t,” Bickslow said. “But I want to.”

“I know you do.”

“Thanks for not divorcing me yet, though. Honestly a miracle you haven’t.”

Lucy laughed, and she turned on the sofa so she could face Bickslow and press soft kissed to his cheek and his lips. “Maybe next year,” she promised. “Happy anniversary, Pixie.”

“Happy anniversary, Cosplayer. I’m sorry we missed another one.”

She kissed the tip of his nose gently. “Don’t be. It’s fine.” As far as Lucy was concerned, they had plenty more ahead of him. Missing a couple was nothing. “But, I did get a little something. Freed called earlier this morning to let me know you probably wouldn’t home until late. Help me up, will you?”

Bickslow didn’t get much of a chance to process Freed being one step ahead of him as he helped Lucy up, and watched her disappear back into the dining and kitchen. She came back a few moments later with a pink cake box, a glass bottle, and some glasses.

“Now, I know it wasn’t for our first date, but, it’s still one of my favourite dates.” Bickslow couldn’t stop grinning as Lucy laid out the plain chocolate cake, save from the messily frosted five in the middle, and popped the cork on the large bottle. Lucy didn’t miss the concerned look he gave her when she poured the liquid into the glasses, and quickly said, “Sparkling apple juice!”

“Cake and wine—well, apple juice,” he chuckled, pulling himself up from the couch just to drag Lucy back onto his lap and smother her with even more kisses. “I love it. I love you. You know, I’m pretty sure I was in love with you then, too.”

“I know.”

“What do you mean, you know? How did you know?”

“You’ve told me,” Lucy answered, giggling around a mouthful of rich chocolate cake. “A few times, actually.”

Bickslow scowled as he snatched away the fork Lucy had been using to pick up the next piece of cake, shovelling it in his own mouth before she could take it back. “Well, fine. But it’s true anyway. Probably.” He shrugged, leaning back into the sofa with another bite of cake. “All I know is, I must have been super fucking in love with you to willingly get hurt that many times. All by this very date, by the way,” Bickslow said, energetically gesturing between themselves and the food on the coffee table.

Lucy gawked at him. “I never hurt you.” Well, apart from those times where he was helping her train down in Hargeon, but Lucy didn’t count those.

“No, you didn’t. But your team sure did.”

“Oh, yeah? When?”

“Well, there was that time I pissed off Gajeel—“

“Gajeel isn’t with my team,” Lucy pointed out quickly.

Bickslow dismisseed it with a slight shake of his head and roll of his eyes. “No, he’s not. But I broke his guitar and he broke my nose.”

Lucy smiled, a soft turn of her lips that almost had Bickslow concerned. “Oh, I remember that one. That didn’t have anything to do with me though.”

“It kinda did.”

“Yeah? How so?” Lucy snorted.

“Well, it was right after I’d properly asked you out. So, you know…” His cheeks warmed as he lifted the glass of apple juice, hiding behind it some as he tried to sink further into the sofa and away from Lucy’s growing smirk. “I was happy and shit,” Bickslow said bashfully.

Lucy had to cover her mouth from squealing and laughing too loud, lest she wake Hunter up just down the hall. She was vaguely aware of the fact that it was a miracle they hadn’t already woken him. “Aww,” she crooned. She leaned into Bickslow’s side, squeezing his cheek and making it just that little bit more red. “You were happy, huh?”

Bickslow groaned and pouted. “Yes, I was, thank you.” He rolled his eyes and tried to fight off the infectious smile when Lucy giggled again and pressed light kisses against his cheek. “Anyway, the point is, it was your fault I got into trouble with Gajeel, because I had a major crush on you obviously, was super fucking happy because you, for some fucking reason, agreed to actually go out with me, and I was doing dumb shit because I felt on top of the world. Okay?”

“That’s adorable.”

“No it isn’t.”

“Yes, it is,” Lucy giggled. She settled into his side comfortably, resting the cake box on her lap and offering a bite to her husband. “You’re still on top of the world though, I hope?”

“Oh, abso-fucking-lutely,” Bickslow mumbled around the cake. He didn’t need to think about that answer.

“What about the other two then?”

“Well, then there was that time that Erza threatened me with her swords.” He couldn’t help but grimace slightly. “You know, for the time I apparently stole your first kiss in the guild, in front of everyone, because I couldn’t figure out a way to talk to you in the guild without making everyone question just why the fuck I was talking to you in the first place.”

“Oh, yeah,” Lucy said. “She made you come apologise in the middle of the night.”

Bickslow nodding, sipping on the fizzy juice. “I still have that scar on my hand, you know.”

“No you don’t. I’ve seen your hands.”

Maybe not physically. “Fine,” he conceded. “Anyway, then there was that time after our third date, where I stayed over but then Natsu came to your apartment in the morning and he threw me into your coffee table.”

“I really liked that table too…” Lucy mumbled.

“It was a table.”

“But it was a nice table. It was one of the first things I bought when I moved to Magnolia…” Granted, it really hadn’t been the fanciest table—it was a coffee table, and a plain and cheap one at that. But it had been something she’d done on her own.

But, Bickslow understood that. “I know it was,” he said softly, tilting to rest his cheek against the top of her head for a moment. “But, and I may be biased, but I think I was a pretty damn nice boyfriend.”

Lucy scrunched up her nose, shrugging slightly. “Eh… Better boyfriend than husband, sure.”

“Excuse me?” Bickslow feigned his shock, pulling himself away abruptly. There was a glint in Lucy’s eyes and a smirk plastered on her lips. “And how would you know, huh? Who you comparin’ me to? I know for a fact I’ve been your only boyfriend, ever, Cosplayer.” He wore that badge with pride. Weirdly.

“Yeah, and I know for a fact that you never had a proper girlfriend before me, either,” Lucy said, prodding the Seith mage in the chest.

“…Okay, fair point. But, you did marry me, so at the very least, you thought I was a good enough boyfriend five years ago.”

“Maybe I just didn’t know any better,” Lucy said, almost wistfully as she settled back against her loving husband. “Alas, you knocked me up so now I’m stuck with you… Oh, the misery.”

“Mm. Poor you,” Bickslow agreed. His hands were by Lucy’s waist, poised and ready. “Poor, miserable, Lucy.” He didn’t give Lucy a chance to get away before he tickled her ribs, wrapping his other arm back around her waist as she squealed and planting soft kisses all over her cheek and lips. “I don’t know how you cope, Cosplayer. Being stuck with me, your doting, loving husband, and our wonderful son, and another perfect child, and let’s not forget all of your niblings and my sisters and… Yeah, actually, never mind. I feel sorry for anyone who has to know those two fuckwits.”

Lucy snorted. Years later, she still found the feigned animosity between the Alderwood siblings all too amusing. “My life is just so horrible.”

“So very horrible.”

She craned her neck to look up at him, a soft smile on her lips that reached her eyes and she kissed him again gently. Sometimes, Lucy still just loved sitting there on the couch with Bickslow, on the quiet and late nights, and forgetting—even if it was just for a moment—that a world existed beyond them. The quiet nights were rare, but when they did happen, Lucy cherished them. Her heart was full—Bickslow’s too, she knew—and when Bickslow grinned down at her, with the same goofy, wide grin he’d had since their first date and that their son had woefully inherited, she still felt those gentle butterflies in her stomach.

But, as happy as Lucy was in the warm bubble of her husband’s hug, the sickly sweet scents of apple juice and cake could only mask so much. “You need to go have a shower,” she said, “and we need to go to bed. I’m definitely not falling asleep on this lounge with you, either.”

Bickslow knew better than to disagree, and he was sure his spine would thank him anyway.

###

"Harper! Get back down here!” Bickslow shouted up towards the guildhall’s rafters. “Don’t make me come up there,” he threatened, only causing the small girl clinging to the wooden beams to giggle even louder.

Beside him, Laxus snickered into his fourth cup of coffee for the morning. “You know Blondie’s going to be back any minute now and she’s going to kick your ass if Harps doesn’t have both feet on the ground,” he said.

“I know,” Bickslow said through gritted teeth, continuing to glare up at his daughter twenty feet above them. The second Lucy had left the guild to grab some extra supplies in town for the parade later that night, Harper had run straight for the rafters. The girl had turned four barely six months earlier, but she was already double the menace Hunter had ever been at the same age. But Bickslow narrowed his gaze to the five totems circling Harper, bobbing up and down in the air. “Babies, you know better.”

“Harp! Fly! Harp! Fly!” the babies cheered.

But, Bickslow didn’t get much more of a chance to yell at the babies for taking too many orders from a four-year-old, or try and convince said four-your-old to come back down on her own before he felt a sharp pain in the side of his head from someone getting a fistful of his hair and tugging on it. “Ow, ow—“

“Why in the world is my child hanging from a beam?” Lucy demanded, one hand on her hip as she tugged forcefully on her husband’s hair, having him leaning over just to lessen the pain. It wasn’t her fault he refused to cut it though; if he’d merely let Cancer give him a trim she wouldn’t be able to yank on his hair that was just about long enough it needed to be tied up.

“It’s not my fault!” Bickslow said. He was keenly aware of Laxus snickering at him, and he was sure he could hear the familiar giggling of his daughter above him too.

“Then why do I see the babies up there, huh?”

“Because they keep listening to her!” Bickslow winced, trying to pry his wife’s fingers out of his hair. He didn’t need to glance at her to see the fury that was no doubt aimed at him.

Still, Bickslow would maintain that it wasn’t really his fault. His daughter just really had a knack for bossing the babies about—more than Hunter had ever been able to, and more than Lucy had ever been able to as well. He’d tried telling his babies to just stop helping the damn kid get into mischief too, and it had worked for all of about five minutes, but then Harper had wanted the babies to help her get into the tree in their backyard one day, the babies had refused, Harper had started bawling her eyes out and before Bickslow had had a chance to figure out why his daughter had been having a tantrum, she’d been swinging happily from a tree branch with the babies giggling around her. He’d even tried taking the babies out of their bodies when they were at home, too, but hiding the babies from his daughter didn’t work too well when Harper could, in fact, see them anyway. That much, Bickslow wasn’t too fond of. Lucy, however, had just about wet herself from excitement from finding out her then almost four-year-old had inherited at least some Seith magic. She’d been just a little disappointed when Hunter hadn’t, but that disappointed had quickly dissipated once he’d borrowed Lucy’s Canis Minor key whilst playing and claimed it for his own.

Of course though, Lucy knew she couldn’t do much in the way of Bickslow’s babies doing whatever it was their precious spider monkey asked of them. That was, as far as Lucy was concerned, entirely a Bickslow issue. So, she let go of his hair, finally, crossing her arms over her chest instead. “Harper, honey,” she said gently. The festival parade was beginning in a few more hours and truthfully, the last thing Lucy wanted to be doing was having to coax her child down to the ground again. She had a float to finish decorating! “Come on down now, please. Aunt Mira will make you a nice big milkshake if you come down now!”

“No!” Harper shouted, shaking her head as she continued to cling to the beam.

Sometimes, not that Bickslow would admit it, it was tempting to just let his daughter do what she pleased, mostly because when she got what she wanted she was happy and his childrens’ laughter had long since replaced Lucy’s on his list of favourite things in the world. But even high above him, Bickslow could see the devilish little grin on her mouth and hear her giggling at them because she damn well knew she was in trouble and enjoyed it far too much for reasons that Bickslow would never understand, and even if Harper might as well have been a miniature version of Lucy, he knew for a fact that she got the attitude entirely from him. His sisters had made sure of telling him that the last time they’d visited.

But, while Lucy was fine just promising milkshakes, Bickslow knew it was time to pull out his trump card. “Harps, if you don’t get down here right now, we’re not going to watch the parade tonight,” he said.

Harper sat up, gasping. Even Lucy was a little surprised at his threat. But Bickslow meant business. Sure, he didn’t want to miss the parade, or even the fireworks from his favourite rooftop in town, because he’d not missed a single year since the guild had gotten back together, but Bickslow wasn’t really sure what else he could do to get his daughter to come back down to earth.

“No see Mama?” Harper asked.

Bickslow shook his head. “Nope. No fireworks either. And it won’t be just you that doesn’t get to see the parade or Mama or the fireworks. Hunter won’t be able to go either. You don’t want Hunter to miss out, do you?”

And for a moment, Bickslow thought he’d finally won. It was an offer too good to refuse in his eyes, and as Harper sat quietly, he knew it would be just a few more seconds before she was telling the babies to take her back down to the ground. But then she leant back down to hug the beam, shaking her head again. “Nope! I stay,” she said instead.

“Harps! Stay!” the babies cheered.

When Lucy flicked his ear and muttered something about their kids being brats, Bickslow knew he’d deserved it.

###

Lucy squealed the second arms were wrapped around her middle, and her straw hat when flying in the gentle breeze when she was pulled down onto the soft picnic blanket. “Stop doing that!” she giggled, swatting Bickslow’s arms away and doing her best to wriggle out of his soft grip just to try and fetch her lost hat. “I’m going to hurt you one day, you know that.”

Bickslow shrugged, grinning as he instead leant back on his hands. Sneaking up on Lucy from behind was, undoubtedly, one of his favourite things. “You have before,” he reminded her. As far as he was concerned, it was an occupational hazard. Still, it had been years since she’d last impulsively swung at him, thinking he was just some random creep.

“Fine,” Lucy admitted. With her hat back on her head, shielding her from the harsh summer sun, she sneaked a glance back to her children playing in the field—Hunter was chasing Harper around, with Plue doing its best to keep up—before joining her husband on the blanket and stealing a gentle kiss. “But you’ve deserved it, each time.”

Across the field, Hunter only groaned as he looked over to his parents at an inopportune time. “Ugh, gross!”

Bickslow rolled his eyes at him, all but ignoring the growing blush on Lucy’s cheeks as he did his best to irritate his child even further and take Lucy’s cheek in his palm and kiss her again. The park was mostly empty, aside from a few stragglers, and Bickslow had never cared about being affectionate in public. “Go play, babies,” he murmured, smiling against Lucy’s lips, and when he distinctly heard his son yell at them to quit being gross, he couldn’t help but chuckle. “Oh, fine, stop your whining. Jeez.”

“It’s fine,” Lucy said, an airy giggle escaping as she instead accepted just leaning into his side. “We’ll have time for that later. Hunter wants to have a sleepover with Jax tomorrow. As long as you let Harps have the babies for a little bit we’ll be able to sneak away for a few minutes.”

“It’d be better if we could have no kids for a night, but I guess one is fine for a night.”

“Hey,” Lucy laughed, elbowing him in his side. “You’re the one that had baby fever, remember? You don’t get to complain about them now.”

“But that’s for babies,” Bickslow whined. “Teenagers are annoying.”

“We only have one teenager. And only barely.” Although, the fact that her baby boy was officially a teenager did have Lucy feeling just a little wistful from time to time. He’d been so small once, and now there he was, just about taller than her and rolling his eyes at any form of affection she tried to offer him.

“Still counts.”

Lucy tried not to roll her eyes. “Mm-hmm,” she mumbled.

“Speaking of no kids for a night though,” Bickslow began after a moment, trying not to get too distracted by figuring out just what his children were yelling at each other about. “Picked up another job flyer today. Thought we could do it together. I’m sure we could get someone to watch the kids for a day.”

Lucy couldn’t even remember the last time they’d gone on a job, just the two of them. It had been years, at least—before Harper had been born, even. It had been easier when it had just been Hunter. Getting a babysitter or timing it with a sleepover had been fine. But once they’d had Harper, Lucy had just never really liked the idea of leaving the kids without both of their parents for a day or two. But, Hunter was older, and Harper was nearly nine. Leaving them with someone else for a day or two would be different, surely. “Maybe,” Lucy hummed. “What kind of job?”

“Just this small gang that’s taken up residence there, I think. Nothing major.”

“Where is it?”

“Cartervale.”

The corner of her mouth twisted up into a soft smile, and Lucy wasn’t the least bit surprised to turn back to Bickslow and find him grinning at her. “Cartervale, huh?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Well, I guess if it’s just a quick job…” Lucy picked herself up from the blanket, readjusting her hat quickly. It’d been years since she’d even heard Cartervale, but now all Lucy could think about was whether that one little inn still existed. “Should probably still go ask the kids to see if they’d be okay with both of us leaving for a couple days, though…”

“Yeah, maybe.” Bickslow wasn’t going to tell Lucy that he was pretty sure that Hunter probably wanted both of them to leave him alone for a couple days, because she probably already knew it.

He could only watch with with a wide, tongue-hanging grin as Lucy slowly backed away, onto the soft grass and towards the open field where their children were. She was up to something, he knew; the cogs in her brain were ever turning, and the less than innocent smirk on her lips still occasionally had his heart skipping a beat. But Bickslow waited, just for a few more moments, before he rose to his feet, only giving Lucy a chance to sneak up and join in on the fun their children were having, before he went and chased after them all.

#bixlu #bickslow x lucy #bickslow #fairy tail fanfic #fairy tail fanfiction

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raijindork · 2 years

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Souls & Spirits - Ch. 59

The long awaited, second-to-last chapter for my long-time project, Souls & Spirits. It’s been a hot minute since anything was updated but I’m slowly getting my groove back.

“Is it bad that I kinda just want to go home right now?” Lucy asked, snow crunching under her boots as she walked alongside the frozen canal.

Bickslow kept eyeing her warily, as if she’d slip and fall into the canal with one misstep. “You do remember it was your idea to go into the guild today, right?” he pointed out. Bickslow would’ve been quite happy to stay home that day. They’d barely been back in town for twenty-four hours. Maybe it was because he’d just been sick of trains and walking and people by that point, but Bickslow had half expected Lucy to want to just spend a couple of days recuperating at home.

But, no. She hadn’t. No, Lucy had woken up bright and early that morning, after their first night back in their own bed for three months, and told him they were going into the guild that day.

And she hadn’t liked it when he’d groaned and rolled back over with a pillow over his head, either.

“Yeah, but… I don’t know.” Lucy sighed deeply. Her heel slipped, just enough for her to lose her footing for a second on the slippery ice and snow. Bickslow caught her around her middle, gently still as his arm rested against the rounded bump hidden beneath her thick winter coats. Lucy could only smile as she got her footing back, Bickslow scowling at her as she caved and let him help her step down from the canal edge. “You can say it. I know you want to say it.”

Bickslow wasted no time. “I fucking told you so.” He shook his head.

Lucy grinned up at him, her gloved fingers twisting with Bickslow’s. “Yeah, you did. But you know I never listen.”

Bickslow knew that all too well. He sighed again, wrinkling his nose as the cold bite in the air began to sting, a rosy hue settling on his cheeks. “Anyway, we’re going to the guild. I’m up. I’m dressed. You wanted to go see our friends, so we’re going to see our fucking friends. You can’t change your mind now, Cosplayer,” he said.

“Aww, but are you sure?” She leaned in to his shoulder, pouting and batting her eyelashes at him. “With the babies, we could be back home, all warm and cosy in bed with hot chocolates in a matter of minutes. Are you saying you don’t want to stay in bed with me all day? Keeping each other warm?”

“Woman, you know damn well that’s what I would rather be doing. But no. We’re going to the guild. Stop tempting me.”

“Guild! Guild!” the babies chanted in support.

Lucy huffed but couldn’t keep the small smirk from turning her lips. “Fine,” she muttered. She hadn’t really expected anything less from her stubborn and petty husband. But it had been three months since she’d seen her other family, and while part of her was dying to see them again and tell them about all their adventures around Ishgar (and the baby, too, she supposed), there was another part of her that just… really didn’t mind if she waited another day or two to do it. There was only so much time left where it was just her and Bickslow, and the more the baby grew, and the bigger her belly got, the more Lucy wanted to cherish that time left.

The guild would always be there. At least Lucy hoped.

###

Bickslow had been seconds away from pulling the large, wooden doors to the guild open when he paused, one hand on the heavy iron handle, and looked back over his shoulder. Lucy just stood there, hands wringing together in front of her belly with the babies hovering cautiously behind her.

He frowned at the worried look on her face and his hand fell away from the door, turning his back to it to take the few steps over to his wife. “Lucy?” he said softly. “You good?”

She looked up at him, chewing the inside of her cheek before staring back at the doors, and all the deep gashes and burn marks ingrained in the wood from years of fighting. She’d never really noticed them before.

Maybe we leave Fairy Tail.

She could hear Bickslow’s words echoing in her mind, the ones she’d done her best to ignore since he’d first said them barely two weeks into their trip. She’d hated them before, and she hated them now. But something felt wrong—very wrong. And for the first time in a long time, Lucy wasn’t sure she wanted to go through those battle scarred doors and into the place she called home.

Bickslow’s hands dropped to her shoulders, squeezing her arms gently when she didn’t respond. “Hey, baby,” he repeated softly. “What’s going on?”

“What if you were right?” Lucy whispered, looking back up at him that time.

“What?”

“Leaving. What if leaving is the right thing?”

Bickslow sighed deeply, glancing back to the doors behind them before gently scooping Lucy up into his arms and stepping up onto the babies as they settled into formation in front of him. He knew when to not push her. If that was what was eating her up right then, then Bickslow knew they weren’t going through those doors that day at all. “Alright. No guild today. Let’s go home.”

###

Bickslow had never been one for pacing. He’d also never been one for biting his nails. But as he waited for his wife to return to their hotel room after a day out with his sisters, he was sure he was going to have to pay for the carpet to be replaced in their room by the time he was done walking the narrow path between the bed and the small sitting area.

“Stop, stop,” the babies said for the umpteenth time, nudging their master’s hand away from his mouth as he moved onto an already dangerously short fingernail.

He flexed his hands and huffed, balling them into fists and trying to keep his hands busy as he kept walking back and forth. “I know, I know.”

But it wasn’t long before he was absentmindedly bringing his hand back up to his mouth and the taste of iron sat on his tongue.

“Fuck,” he hissed, only stopping the chewing to suck on his bleeding finger and stare up at the small clock by the door. It was nearly seven already. Lucy should’ve been back by then. But knowing his sisters, Bickslow was already sure they’d just found something else to distract his bride with, and Lucy was just too polite to say no to her sisters-in-law.

And, for the most part, Bickslow liked that. Because he knew Lucy adored his sisters, probably more than he did, and the fact she got along with his family was just a miracle because Bickslow wasn’t really sure what he’d done if it had turned out he couldn’t stay in touch with them after being reunited the previous year. Lucy not getting along with them really just would’ve made things difficult and Bickslow wasn’t really that good at choosing.

But, on the other hand, Lucy really should’ve been back by then, and Bickslow had had the unfortunate pleasure of spending his afternoon with Xander and Rory. And of course the fools had asked if he and Lucy would be leaving the mage life behind now that they had the baby on the way, and Bickslow just hadn’t been able to just say no. Because the second he’d said fuck no, of course not, the twisted cogs in his brain had started turning and all of a sudden his head had been full of images of monsters like Thorne snatching his child away in the middle of the night, and Bickslow had made enough enemies in his life that he would give up his work in a second if it meant keeping his family safe.

It had been hours since then though, which meant it had been hours that Bickslow had been there in his hotel room, waiting for Lucy to come back from her day out with his sisters, and ask her the dumbest question he was sure he ever would ask her.

It was so dumb that Bickslow was torn between going against his better judgement and not saying anything about leaving the guild at all, ever, and actually trying to have a conversation about it. But surely it was a conversation they needed to have, like the responsible adults they were—or, like Lucy was at least.

Finally, he heard the sound of a key being fumbled with just outside the door, and after a brief moment of panic, Bickslow breathed a sigh of relief and stopped in his tracks. He looked down to his nails and the dried blood in the cuticles and quickly pulled his sleeves down over his hands and folded his arms. The door opened and Lucy smiled apologetically at him as she saw him.

“Your sisters are very hard women to say no to,” she said with an airy laugh.

Bickslow was momentarily distracted by the trail of spirits behind her. Taurus was first, his torso and head obscured by the mountain of boxes in his arms, with Loke and Virgo following behind the bovine spirit, their arms and hands equally full with colourful tissue lined bags and boxes from various boutiques.

“I thought they were taking you to a spa,” Bickslow said incredulously.

“They did.” Lucy collapsed onto the plush sofa with a sigh, closing her eyes and breathing deeply for a few moments. Even for such menial tasks, having three of her spirits out at once wasn’t Lucy’s idea of fun, and the strain on her magic only made her physical exhaustion that week all the worse. “You guys can go now though,” she said, finally sitting back up and looking to where Loke carefully placed the last of the shopping boxes atop the pile now sitting on the coffee table. “Thank you for the help.”

“You are mooost welcome, Lucy,” Taurus said.

Loke bowed before taking his leave. “Any time.”

“Of course, Princess,” Virgo said last. “Was there anything else you needed?”

Lucy shook her head and smiled. “No, thank you.”

The maid spirit nodded politely. “Well, good evening then, Princess.” Virgo looked to Bickslow then. “Prince.”

Bickslow couldn’t keep the shiver from going down his spine as the last of Lucy’s spirits finally left. He couldn’t even remember when Virgo had started calling him that, or why she had, but he was sure he’d never be able to get used to it. There was something almost disturbing about it.

But Bickslow wasn’t going to complain about his wife’s less than normal spirits right then. He had the rest of his life to do that as far as he was concerned. And while he was sure he should instead be asking Lucy how her day had been, or just what the fuck she’d ended up buying because he had never seen so many shopping bags in his entire life, Bickslow just couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d been worrying about all afternoon.

He cleared his throat, rubbing his arms anxiously. “Hey, so, um—“

“Are you hungry? I’m hungry.” Lucy said quickly, slipping the hotel’s menu out from under the pile of boxes. “Oh. Sorry. What were you saying?”

“Uh… No, not really. But, I mean, we can eat now if you want.”

Lucy waved her hand and set the menu back down, smiling back up at her husband. “No, it’s okay. I can wait.” Maybe not forever, but she already knew the hotel kitchen made the best banana pancakes she’d ever had in her entire life, and she’d been waiting to get back and order them again ever since Bickslow’s sisters had dragged her out the room that very morning.

But it didn’t take Lucy long to realise her husband wasn’t his usual self, and her smile quickly faded and her worry grew as she wondered just what it was that had Bickslow in such a state.

“Bicks? Are you okay?” she asked softly, scooting over on the sofa to pat the space next to her. “Come on, talk to me, baby. What were you wanting to say before?”

He sat down reluctantly, tucking himself into the edge much to Lucy’s disappointment. “I’ve just… I’ve just been thinking a lot about the guild today. Like our jobs, and our lives, and our friends and all that,” he began, shoving his hands between his knees to resist the urge to bite his nails again.

“Uh-huh…”

“And, you know I really fucking love the guild.”

Lucy smiled. “I know you do.”

“But I think… I think we should leave—quit being mages and move somewhere else.”

“…Excuse me?” Lucy couldn’t help but laugh, leaning away as she looked to her husband in shock. “You’re kidding, right? You’re joking.”

Bickslow tried not to look away or sink in on himself. He’d expected Lucy to react that way, although perhaps he’d expected her to be a little more mad at him. Bickslow knew he’d be acting the same way if it were reversed. Still, he knew he couldn’t just shy away from it now, and while part of him did want to just say that it didn’t matter and just pretend he’d said nothing at all, Bickslow knew it would eat him alive if he didn’t say anything at all. Even then, the thought of something happening to Lucy or their child was already bound to keep him up at night, and if something did happen after he’d decided not to say anything at all, then Bickslow wouldn’t be able to live with himself.

But Bickslow didn’t even need to say anything for Lucy to get her answer; his silence right then was all the answer she needed.

“No.” She shook her head, quickly getting up and turning away from her husband and crossing her arms. She found it hard to believe he was actually being serious. “No, absolutely not,” she repeated. “How could you even think about suggesting that?” It was like she was talking to a completely different person.

“Because I care about our family and not fucking dying,” Bickslow snapped. Lucy looked back over her shoulder, looking down her nose as if she were daring him to say something he regretted. Luckily, Bickslow liked dares. “This shit is dangerous, Lucy. You get hurt almost every time you take a job. Fuck, you almost died less than a month ago and you’re acting like it never fucking happened, again.”

“So do you!” She didn’t get hurt whenever she went out. Not all the time, at least. And if she did, it was hardly ever major—a few scratches and burns here and there, but Lucy had dealt with worse. But Bickslow? When Bickslow got hurt, he really got hurt. Lucy had started to think the Raijinshuu were the cursed ones who just caused trouble wherever they went. But she spun back around then, filled with anger and rage, and pointed to him on the couch. “And you’re one to talk,” she shouted. “I sat by your side for an entire week waiting for you to wake up after you got that stupid scar.”

“And I was only there because your team were stupid enough to get lured in by Thorne’s guild!”

She tried not to take his comment personally. “But it happened again—that… that thing, from Tartaros! Your entire team would’ve died if Porlyusica hadn’t made that antidote.”

“Yeah, and you lost our fucking baby.”

Lucy sucked in a harsh breath, and she couldn’t help but find herself taking slow, careful steps backwards. Had it all been a lie? Was that how Bickslow had truly felt all along? Was that how he saw her? Lucy wasn’t sure she recognised the man in front of her.

“That has nothing to do with any of this,” Lucy said, mustering all the calmness she could in the moment.

Bickslow regretted the words the second they’d left his mouth.

“I… I know, I’m sorry, I didn’t—“

“I think I need a little air,” Lucy said softly, not so much as looking in Bickslow’s direction as she brushed past him, grabbing her purse and keys and heading for the hotel door.

###

“Alright, alright. Come here,” Bickslow sighed, sinking into the corner of the plush sofa and pulling Lucy into his lap as soon as she’d shrugged her winter coat off. “Tell me what’s got that pretty little face of yours all worried now.”

Lucy’s mouth lifted into a small smile, suppressing a laugh as she tucked her head against her husband’s shoulder. “I don’t know,” she said softly.

“Well… How about you start with telling me why you think I might be right?” he asked instead. “Because, I mean, I’m never right.”

“Always wrong!” the babies agreed.

Lucy stifled another smirk. They always did know how to try and cheer her up, and, well… Lucy did like to remind Bickslow that she was right most of the time, too. But for once, Lucy was willing to admit that she might not be, and she hated that more than she should.

She took a deep breath, stretching slightly in Bickslow’s lap and leaning back into a pillow as she tucked it behind her back. “When we got to the guild, I just… I kept thinking about all the fighting, and the amount of times I’ve walked in and had to duck just to have a chair thrown at my head or something.”

Bickslow shrugged. “I think I’d be worried if there wasn’t at least one fight per day,” he mumbled.

“So would I,” Lucy agreed.

Lucy had lost count just how many times her team’s petty arguments had ended in guild wide brawls, or how many beer glasses she’s dodged over the years just from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And as for her husband’s involvement… Well, Lucy had really just stopped paying attention after the third or fourth time she’d seen him fleeing to the rafters and cackling like a maniac while avoiding the wrath of whoever he’d pissed off that day. The guild just really wasn’t the same unless it was in complete chaos, and still, Lucy wasn’t sure she’d change anything about that.

But now…

“But I don’t know if that’s the kind of environment I want to be raising our child in,” she said.

Bickslow frowned, pressing a gentle kiss to the top of her head. It had been nearly two months since they’d last talked about any of that, and Bickslow had long since accepted his defeat. “I know it’s not. And you know I don’t want that either. Fuck, I’d keep the kid in a safety bubble for the rest of his life if I could,” he said.

“His?”

“Her life, I don’t know. Figure of speech. But we talked about this, Lucy. You said you didn’t want to leave.”

“I know, but... That was then. This is now. And… And it’s different now! I mean, before… It just felt the same, and now…” She lifted her head slightly just to look down to her hands clasped over her rounded stomach, where Bickslow’s thumb traced idle arcs over the baby’s favourite spot to kick every now and then. “It feels more real now,” Lucy whispered.

“I know. But, do you know what else I know?”

Lucy couldn’t help but try not to roll her eyes then, as if Bickslow wasn’t about to tell her something she should probably already know. “What?”

“Those morons wouldn’t do anything to hurt our kid.” Not intentionally, at least. Bickslow was still trying to figure out how to stop the unintentional, though. But Lucy knew he had a point, only offering a meek shrug. “And besides, do you think Al and Bisca would’ve practically raised Asuka in that hall if it was that much of a death trap? Laxus and the Demon, too.”

“I suppose so…” Lucy mumbled. And it wasn’t as if things hadn’t calmed down a little over the years, too, but Lucy figured that was just everyone growing up and settling down. Still, of all the people to remind her of that, Lucy didn’t really expect Bickslow to be the one to do it. He was supposed to be telling her that the guild was full of lunatics and psychotic baby-eaters and that they needed to go live on a remote island somewhere in the middle of the ocean. “You know, you’re really not so great at this, though.”

“Aren’t I?”

“No. No, you’re not. You were supposed to be convincing me to leave.”

“Was I?”

“Yes.”

Bickslow shook his head. “Mm, no. No, I don’t think so. Are you thinking of someone else?”

Lucy pouted, but the infectious grin on her husband’s face soon won her back over. “Why don’t you want to leave anyway? It hasn’t been that long since we last talked about this, and you were just about begging me then,” she decided to ask then.

“I do want to leave,” Bickslow admitted with a heavy sigh. He couldn’t even lie about that, nor did he want to. But even having accepted that leaving the guild to raise their family wasn’t something Lucy would be all that willing to do, part of Bickslow would still give anything to do it.

But, it was just that: a part. And Bickslow had learnt to deal quite well with the parts of him that didn’t agree with how the rest of him—the likely more rational parts of him—felt. He mostly just ignored them.

Still, as much as Bickslow did still want to whisk Lucy off to some deserted island where they could raise their kid away from everyone and everything evil in the world, he somehow still knew that there was no better place than right there to raise their family.

“But like I said, none of our friends would’ve stuck around with their kids if it was that bad,” he said gently. “You know that at the end of the day, those morons would be the first people to come help if our kid was in danger.” And, Bickslow knew they’d do the same for their friends as well. He may not particularly like Jax, but he’d sure as hell drop everything for that little demon if Laxus and Mira needed him to.

“I don’t like it when you’re right,” Lucy grumbled, tucking her head against his chest and feeling the rumble within from the gentle chuckle he let out.

“Yeah, neither do I,” Bickslow agreed.

###

“You’re…”

Lucy nodded, sipping bemusedly on the banana shake in front of her. “Yep.” She couldn’t help but admit she’d missed Mira’s shakes while she’d been travelling. There was something about strawberry she still couldn’t quite deal with, but the banana shakes with all the whipped cream, rainbow sprinkles, and cherries on top were a new kind of delicious and Lucy almost hoped that her glass would never empty.

Still, as she’d walked into the guild that morning, all of her fears and worries about staying and raising her child there had instantly disappeared. Ironically, it had been Natsu spotting her across the guild as he’d been about to throw a blazing chair at Gray that had done it, too.

“Lucy!” he had shouted, a great big grin plastered on his face at the time. “You’re back! And you’re fat!” Which, naturally, hadn’t been Lucy’s ideal way of telling her friends that she and her husband were having a child, but it sure had saved a lot of time since Natsu had drawn their attention to her.

“How far along again?” Mira asked.

“About six months now.”

Mira rubbed her forehead. “But… But you’ve only been away for three.”

Lucy nodded again. She had a feeling Mira hadn’t slept in a while, if the bags under her eyes and her difficulty accepting the simple maths were anything to go by. “Yep.”

Evergreen didn’t seem to have as much patience though. “Mira, for the love of god, tell that idiot partner of yours to take the kid for the rest of the day, and go home and take a damn nap.” The kid wasn’t much older than a year, but Laxus had fathered a demon more hellish than anyone could’ve ever expected and Evergreen was kind of just sick of watching Mira do all the work on top of trying to keep the guild fed. Laxus was, somehow, very capable of looking after his own child. At least she hoped.

But Mira still sighed, a guilty look on her face as she glanced over to where Makarov and her son were playing in the corner of the hall. “No, no… I have too much work—“

“Mira, go home,” Lisanna agreed, a gentle hand squeezing her older sister’s shoulder.

“I suppose I could take the night off… Just this once…” Mira mumbled, already setting the dishes and rag down. Lisanna and Kinana could take care of the bar, surely. She set her sights on Lucy then though, and Lucy couldn’t help be just a little worried with the insistent gleam in her eyes. “But you’re going to fill me in on all this baby news later, okay?”

Lucy nodded as she laughed. “Absolutely.”

Eventually, Evergreen and Lisanna were able to get Mira through the doors and on her way home, offering Lucy just a few minutes of reprieve, but all too quickly she was the target of their pestering again. Lucy couldn’t really help but enjoy it—that, and the slight flutter in her belly the whole time.

###

“I can stay, really. It’s not a big job. It’s not like they need me.”

“Stay! Stay!” the babies echoed.

Lucy rolled her eyes. She’d expected her husband to be more of a brat the closer she got to her due date, but she hadn’t expected him to be quite so bad.

Heaven forbid she go more than a day without him by her side to ask her stupid questions. Just the week before, she’d spent too long in the bathroom and he’d burst in asking if it was baby time. It had almost been the most mortifying moment of their entire relationship. She couldn’t even go and pick up groceries on her own just in case she slipped and fell on her way to the small grocer just a few streets away, or in case she somehow, miraculously, went into sudden labour in the middle of the street.

Sure, at that point, she was just a few weeks out, but Bickslow had annoyed her and invaded her personal space so much over her last trimester that she’d threatened to go to Crocus to have the baby, and she’d have his wonderful, amazing sisters forcefully keep him away from her throughout the delivery. Of course, she’d mostly meant it as a joke, and she’d kind of felt bad for saying it seeing how quickly he’d shut up. But Lucy was a strong, independent woman who was (at least she hoped) quite capable of having a baby on her own.

Besides, Lucy still wasn’t too sure about letting Bickslow see any of it anyway. Months earlier when they’d been talking about birth plans and the such, he’d joked about how watching her bring their child into the world would be like watching his favourite bar burn down. Lucy hadn’t been able to get it out of her head since. She also hadn’t let him go anywhere near said favourite bar since either, much to Bickslow’s dismay.

And hers.

Still, there was just a few weeks left before their precious bundle would be in their arms, and while Lucy could no longer take jobs with her team, Bickslow could. The problem was, he was being a brat.

“He’s right—we don’t need him,” Laxus chimed in, flicking the leaf on one of Lucy’s plants in her front garden. It was too close and too green.

“He’s pretty useless anyway,” Evergreen agreed with a slight sigh. “Mostly too busy talking about you to be of any use.”

“See! See, they don’t need me!” Bickslow said. “Ever, fuck you,” he quickly added over his shoulder, a scowl on his face before he looked back to his wife. Evergreen snickered.

“I don’t care if they don’t need you,” Lucy insisted though, slowly stepping forward and forcing Bickslow back towards the open door. One more step forward and her belly would be pushing him out the door. “I need you out of this house so I can get some peace and quiet for once.”

Laxus and the rest of the Raijinshuu snickered from outside, and Lucy could just make out the yelp that came from all three as Bickslow sent the babies flying into the back of their heads. “But… But what if something happens with the baby and—“

Lucy groaned. “If something happens, the guild isn’t that far away, and all four of you have lacrimas so it’s not like I won’t be able to tell you to come back early if I need.”

Bickslow didn’t like it, but he knew when he was defeated, even if it did take him a while to realise that fact. But Lucy was right, probably. She wasn’t wrong very often. Everything would be fine. He could go do a simple job with his team, come back home, and his wife would still be pregnant and grumpy when he got home. Probably.

He pursed his lips, a frown forming and horrible creases settling in his forehead that were beginning to become annoyingly permanent fixtures on his face those days. “Are you sure?” he asked worriedly, already knowing Lucy would simply groan, roll her eyes at him, and try and push him past the threshold of their home.

“Yes,” Lucy replied, doing exactly what Bickslow expected. “Now please, go and get out of here before you all miss your train.”

“Yes! Wonderful idea, Lucy!” Freed said exasperatedly, stepping up onto their small porch to grab Bickslow’s arm. “Let’s be off.”

Bickslow fought Freed’s impatience just to stretch and press a chaste kiss to Lucy’s lips. “Fine, alright, alright,” he grumbled. “But promise me you’ll call if something goes wrong, okay?”

“Promise! Promise!” Pappa and the rest chirped.

Finally, Lucy breathed a sigh of relief as the Raijinshuu dragged her husband off the porch, Laxus not bothering to wait around for a second longer before he zapped himself away to meet the rest of them at the station.

Sometimes Lucy couldn’t help but miss the times when they struggled to find time to be with each other. Now, Lucy just missed having a little bit of time to herself once in a while.

###

Bickslow nearly jumped out of his skin as Evergreen skipped up and threw her arms around his and Freed’s shoulders. “Can you believe it, Freed?” she said. “This is the last time the three of us will be able to go on a job before our idiot here goes off to baby jail.”

“I know. Isn’t it wonderful?” Freed teased. “Bickslow’s babies won’t get us into trouble for a change.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Bickslow mumbled.

Freed and Evergreen shared a worried glance. Normally they couldn’t say a single bad word about Bickslow’s babies. Right then, they could probably say whatever they wanted and they weren’t sure Bickslow would care.

“Is everything alright?” Freed asked.

“You’ve been quiet since we left Magnolia,” Evergreen added. “Not that I mind or anything, but, y’know.”

Bickslow supposed he had been a little quiet. He’d been mostly lost in his own head since they’d left. He looked down when Pippi nudged his side under his cape, a silent urge to talk. “Do you ever just… feel like something is about to go wrong?” he asked, beginning with a deep sigh.

Freed shrugged a little. “Sometimes, I suppose. Why, do you feel like something is going to happen?”

“I don’t know. I just… I feel like I should’ve stayed home.”

“You’re worried ‘bout Blondie,” Laxus chimed in from just behind them.

Bickslow shrugged. “I guess so.”

“I felt like that right before Demon had Jax.”

“Naw, look at that,” Evergreen giggled. “Papa Laxus has feelings.”

“Call me that again and I’ll shock the living shit out of you, Ever.”

That, Bickslow couldn’t help but chuckle at. Still, Laxus had a point. The closer Lucy’s due date got, the more Bickslow worried. He’d found a grey hair just a week earlier. But even as much as he constantly worried, it wasn’t the same as how it felt then. It just didn’t feel right. And the only thing Bickslow could think about was how he knew he should be back home, fretting over his wife enough that she’d threaten to divorce him precisely eighty-three times.

“Well,” Freed cleared his throat, “I can’t say I know too much about pregnancy and childbirth—“

“Hold on,” Evergreen interrupted. “Are you saying there’s a topic you aren’t a know-it-all in?”

“There’s many topics I’m not a know-it-all in, Ever. But, as I was saying, I’m certain you don’t have anything to worry about, Bickslow. Lucy made it this far without any complications, didn’t she?”

“I guess so…” Bickslow mumbled. Getting through the first trimester had almost been worth celebrating as far as Bickslow was concerned. Then again, Lucy had done most of that before he’d even known she was pregnant.

“See? I’m sure she can handle a few days without you by her side pestering her. We’ll be back before you know it, Bickslow.”

Bickslow decided not to delve on the insult—when was Evergreen not insulting him anyway—and kicked a small pebble in his path. “Fine.”

As night fell though and they reached the town their job was in, Bickslow still couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right. At one point, he’d debated calling home and checking in on Lucy to put his mind at ease, only to realise he’d never packed his lacrima in his bag, and Freed had refused to let him use his in an attempt to get him to stop worrying over absolutely nothing. Naturally, it hadn’t helped, but Bickslow had already decided he wouldn’t beg Freed for the lacrima.

Probably, at least.

###

Lucy had had everything planned. With Bickslow out of the house for a couple of days, she had every intention of enjoying the peace and quiet.

She had laundry to do—mainly the bed sheets—because as much as Bickslow tried to be useful and help out with things around the house, he always added way too much detergent and Lucy was sick of scratching all night. The fridge and pantry needed to be cleaned out; if she had time, she’d probably even go grocery shopping. The floors needed to be mopped; there were still a few boxes in the basement they hadn’t sorted out; her bookcase needed to be reorganised again because Bickslow could just never put books back in the right spots and most of the time, Lucy just couldn’t be bothered fixing it…

And, if she had time after all of that, she had some writing to do. Well, she had some writing she wanted to do. It hadn’t exactly been easy to work on her novel when the baby had decided it would practice its swimming every time she sat down at her desk. Bickslow, of course, found it amusing. Lucy did not. He could have a five pound creature moving around in his stomach and see how he liked it.

Still, despite all of her plans for her few days of solitude while Bickslow took his last job for a few months, every single one of them fell through once that annoying little cramp Lucy felt while pulling the bedding off the mattress, decided to happen several more times throughout the rest of the day. Far more than she liked.

Luckily, Lucy had managed to find her lacrima in the little cleaning she had managed to do before the panic set in. She hadn’t really wanted to call Bickslow over nothing (probably), but the more logical part of her brain decided it was a better idea to summon her husband and his team back home. Just in case, really. She called Bickslow first, only to end up hearing the faint chime of his own lacrima coming from the dining room where he’d left it. Freed was next. Freed will be responsible. Freed will have his lacrima on him. It went unanswered. Lucy groaned and threw the lacrima onto the nearest cushion. She swore right then that Bickslow would never hear the end of it once she finally got hold of him.

“This is fine.” Lucy took deep breaths, in through the nose and out through the mouth. I’m not due for a couple more weeks. This is fine. She remembered Levy telling her that she thought she’d been going into early labour at least half a dozen times before she’d actually gone into labour, only for Porlyusica to tell her she was an idiot each time. So Lucy decided right then that she probably wasn’t actually going into labour—it had only been a few hours since she’d felt that first cramp, she’d probably just pulled something while doing the laundry—and imagined Porlyusica standing in front of her and grumbling about the current generation of mages being dumb, or something equally as demeaning.

Still, Lucy knew better than to stress on her own—not that she was stressing. Nope. So she still had to drag someone else into her misery. But with her husband and his team unreachable, it took Lucy a few moments to think of someone to call. And she had just the person.

###

Evergreen sighed in disgust at the blood stains on the side of her dress. “I should make him pay for my laundry when we get back,” she scoffed.

Her clothes had been clean, but then Bickslow had gone and fucked everything up and it was a miracle they weren’t all dead. All he’d had to do was keep the mages guarding the front of the compound busy while Evergreen and the rest could sneak their way in the back and take out the leader of the club as quickly and quietly as possible. But the Seith had been too damn suspicious and the guards had shut down the compound, and when the compound got shut down, all the interior guards flooded into the boss’ room.

They’d completed the job, of course, but Bickslow had seemingly bailed the second the alarm was raised.

“I’m sure he would, you know,” Freed said. Freed wasn’t too happy about the situation (at least Evergreen didn’t have blood and other bodily fluid in her hair), but he knew his teammate and he was certain Bickslow left for a good reason. "And I still think there’s a perfectly logical reason for him leaving.” Or, he hoped.

It was well past dark when the team eventually made it to the town’s train station, their job finished, payment collected, and ready to head back home. Evergreen would’ve liked to find an inn for the night, or at least a bath house, but Laxus had insisted they just head back and try and make the last train back to Magnolia that night.

“Sorry, ma’am,” the small man in the ticket booth said, “the next train passing through Magnolia isn’t until quarter past eleven.”

Evergreen pouted and her face scrunched up. Freed noticed and quickly wrapped his arms around the mage’s shoulders. He knew that look. “W-Wait, Ever, it’s not his—“ Freed smiled awkwardly at the man as Evergreen pushed her glasses back up her nose with a huff. The last thing they needed was to have Evergreen turn the station attendant into a statue. “Apologies,” Freed began then, roughly pushing his comrade away and fishing out enough coin to pay for all of their train tickets—along with a hefty tip for probably cutting a few years from the man’s life. Freed had, at least once, been on the receiving end of Evergreen’s Stone Eyes. “My friend just really wants to get home.”

“O-Of course…” the attendant stammered.

With the tickets, Freed went off to find his lost team. Laxus had already wandered off somewhere but Evergreen was off sulking in the corner. He offered the woman a kind smile and her ticket for her to shove roughly in her small bag. “You can’t just turn everyone you dislike into a statue, Ever,” Freed reminder her.

“I know. But he called me ma’am. Do I like look I’m old enough to be a ma’am to you?”

Freed knew better than to answer that question. She might’ve only been in her mid-twenties, but Freed already knew that Evergreen was going to insist on being eternally twenty-nine even when she was in her fifties. “He was just being polite,” he said instead. He cleared his throat, then, “Anyway, we’ve a while to wait. I’m sure there’s a… somewhat clean bathroom somewhere. You might try rinsing the blood out a bit before it stains.”

“Probably,” Evergreen muttered. As much as she wanted Bickslow to pay for her getting into such a mess, she did happen to like that dress in particular, and it would be a shame to have it stained and only have a future as a rag. She sighed, quickly glancing around to see if she could a spot a sign for the bathrooms. “Well, I’ll go do that; you go find Laxus and make sure he hasn’t gotten lost somewhere.”

“He likely already has,” Freed snorted.

Thankfully, Laxus hadn’t gotten lost or wandered onto the train tracks like a lunatic (he had, somehow, done it before). But he seemed to have found a friend, one Freed didn’t expect to be seeing again for the rest of the night at least.

“I thought you would’ve been on a train back to Magnolia by now, Bicks.”

The Seith looked back up, raising his head from his palms. “I missed it by a few minutes,” Bickslow replied with a heavy sigh. “I’m so sorry. Really. I just… Something didn’t feel right and I wanted to get home as fast as possible. Laxus said you finished the job, and… And I’m glad you guys got out okay, and—wait.” Bickslow’s eyes darted around the platform behind his visor. “Where’s Ever?” Laxus had already told him the details of the job and the trouble he’d caused them, but he hadn’t mentioned anything about Evergreen. Surely, she was just off somewhere, perhaps getting a drink or yelling at some poor child for getting in her way. At least, Bickslow hoped.

Freed waved his hand as he took a seat to Bickslow’s left. “Oh, Ever’s just cleaning up,” he reassured Bickslow with a gentle pat on the shoulder. “She’ll be sending you a laundry bill, however.”

That, Bickslow could deal with. He couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief, nodding to himself and sinking back into the uncomfortable bench. “Good… Good…”

Laxus clicked his tongue then, reaching into his coat pocket for a crumpled envelope before holding it out in front of Bickslow. “Here.”

Bickslow shook his head. “Fuck, no. No, you guys split my cut. I don’t deserve it.”

“You don’t,” Laxus agreed, shrugging. “But, you’re getting it anyway. Think of it as a baby gift. This was your last job for a bit. You and Blondie could use it more than any of us could.” It wasn’t like it was a high paying job anyway. It had only meant to be something fast, something easy—a way for them to just do what they do best one last time before Bickslow got too distracted by the family life. Even if Bickslow had always said that it would just be for a few months, that once the baby was a few months old and he and Lucy had settled into their new roles a little, he’d be back to work and they’d continue on their Fiore adventures, Laxus and the rest knew that it would never really be the same again.

For a long time, they’d never really had much to live for outside of each other. They’d been reckless and put themselves in harm’s way more than any other mage would’ve, purely because they could. But they’d opened themselves up to more. The guild they’d been part of for years became more than just a way for them to make money. It had become what it always should’ve been: their home.

But Laxus knew better than anyone that things would never be the same again. And that was something he was okay with. They would, surely, still go on jobs together whenever they all found the time for it, but Laxus knew it was only a matter of time before Evergreen and Freed settled down as well, and eventually, they’d all be just like Wakaba and Macao and all the rest—permanent drunken fixtures of the guild hall.

He’d done his bit to make Fiore a better place. They all had. His son was going to grow up in that world and Laxus wanted to make sure he was there for it, and he knew that once Bickslow and Lucy’s baby arrived, they’d want the same. The kids were what were important now.

Still, Laxus hadn’t really any need for money those days. Neither did Freed or Evergreen. Their walk back to the train station earlier had been mostly silent, all too busy remembering the days gone and knowing what that job represented, but Freed had suggested they offer the job’s pay to Bickslow as a gift of sorts and it was probably the fastest they’d all agreed to anything.

Bickslow took the envelope, staring down at it for a moment. “Thanks, guys. I appreciate it,” he said softly. He was usually too proud to accept money, especially since years of doing S-Class jobs with Laxus had made it so he hadn’t needed it either. But the house, the wedding, and the baby had gone through just about all of what he had tucked away in the banks. And it wasn’t like he would’ve spent it on anything else, but it was going to be months before he or Lucy took on any more jobs, and bills didn’t just stop when you weren’t working.

Although, that was assuming Magnolia hadn’t just somehow exploded, like part of Bickslow thought it had. The last two hours of him sitting on that bench, pissed at having missed the earlier train by a mere few minutes, had been filled with nothing but stress and dread over the fact that he couldn’t stop feeling like something was very, very, wrong, and that he shouldn’t have left Lucy to go on the job so clue to her due date. He’d even gone so far as using the pay-lacrima at the station and calling Lucy, but she hadn’t answered.

Evergreen eventually joined them on the platform, her dress annoyingly wet from rinsing it in the bathroom sink and echoing Freed’s original statement of wondering why he wasn’t already gone. “Well,” she announced, after hearing the story of the missed train, “I’m starving. I think we passed a diner on our way here. Come on, let’s go get something to eat. Bicks is buying.”

Bickslow snorted, pulling himself up from the bench. “Yeah, alright.” He supposed it was fair. The babies seemed to think so, too.

Freed hung back for a moment while the others slowly headed back to the entrance. Bickslow and Evergreen were already arguing and Freed smiled to himself softly. He pulled his small satchel around to the front, digging around in the mess of rune scrolls until he felt the small lacrima. He’d vaguely heard the small chime earlier when they’d been busy fighting but simply hadn’t had a chance to check it until then. His brow furrowed and his smile faded as he saw the faintly glowing image in the lacrima.

He looked up, clearing his throat quietly. “Laxus? A word, quickly?”

“Eh?” Laxus looked back over his shoulder to Freed still by the benches, only glancing forward again to Bickslow and Evergreen as they kept walking, either not hearing or caring what Freed could say to Laxus then. “What is it, Freed?” Laxus asked. Freed held the lacrima out to him. “When?”

“A few hours ago. When we were at the compound, I assume.”

“Bicks said he tried calling her from the station when he got her. Said she didn’t answer, though.” He’d tried telling Bickslow then that Lucy had probably just been busy, maybe even asleep. She’d not answered her lacrima before. If anything, it was a rare occurrence for her to answer it. But that hadn’t really meant much to Bickslow when he’d left them in the middle of their job just because of a sick feeling in his stomach from something not feeling right back at home. Still, Lucy calling Freed wasn’t a sign that anything was wrong. “She was probably just checking in,” Laxus said, although he couldn’t tell if he was reassuring himself or Freed.

“Of course,” Freed agreed. “Should we tell Bicks?”

If they did and Lucy had just been checking in, then there would’ve been no point in telling Bickslow at all. But if something had been wrong and they told him, then there was no telling what Bickslow would do. His sanity was questionable as it was and Laxus didn’t want the man breaking down any more. There was nothing they could do out there; they were stuck waiting for the train no matter what and they still wouldn’t be back home for hours.

“No,” Laxus eventually said. He wasn’t sure it was the right decision. He wasn’t sure there was a right decision. But Bickslow knowing Lucy had called wouldn’t do him any good.

“Are you sure? I can try calling Lucy and—“

“No. It’s late. Let her sleep. If… If something is wrong—“ Laxus swallowed, his throat feeling a little dry all of a sudden “—if we get back and something happened, and Bicks would’ve been better of knowing she called, then it’s on me. I’ll deal with it.”

###

It was well after midnight by the time the train passed through Magnolia and Bickslow was already waiting at the carriage door before the breaks had stopped squealing and Laxus’ face was no longer green. The second he could, he stepped up onto the babies and simply said to take him home.

The more rooftops he floated over and the closer he got to home, the more Bickslow’s heart hammered in his chest. He still felt sick, and the second he stopped moving Bickslow knew he was going to throw up somewhere but he couldn’t stop moving until he knew everything was fine. He hoped, against all of the negative thoughts he’d had swimming in his head for the last twelve hours, that he’d get home and find Lucy fast asleep and not a single thing out of place.

She’s fine. I’m crazy. Everything is fine. He repeated it like a mantra as if it was the only thing keeping his feet steady on the babies. There’d been no reason for him to fret something was wrong but Bickslow had learned to trust his gut when something did feel wrong. He’d nearly lost too much too many times before but there was too much on the line then for Bickslow not to trust his intuition. He wouldn’t forgive himself if he let himself believe that it was just all in his head.

The lights were on and Bickslow felt his whole world crashing down around him. The babies tried telling him it was okay before he lost his footing and stumbled onto the cold pavement. It had only been a few metres but Bickslow hissed and groaned in pain as he picked himself off the ground hastily. His shoulder would be bruised come daylight but that was the least of his concerns.

He quickly made it up the front steps, fumbling clumsily with the key in the lock with trembling hands for a few moments before he heard the floordboards creak from the other side of the door and it swung open. For a moment, Bickslow had hoped Lucy had simply fallen asleep on the lounge and he’d woken her up. But instead it was Gajeel, his nine month old infant asleep on his chest, and Bickslow wasn’t entirely sure what to think for a moment. His heart was in his throat but fear and concern melded into confusion when Gray came out from the hall, an unlit cigarette in his mouth, and raised a finger in greeting before heading out onto the back porch.

“Ah, fuck. I thought Erza was still in here,” Gajeel grumbled from behind him—his daughter down on the couch next to Lily, already curled up in a ball—and Bickslow spun around.

“Am I missing something?” Bickslow finally asked. Was he going to find any more stray mages in his house? The fact that no one was telling him a horrible accident had occurred and that Lucy had spontaneously combusted into a fiery ball of flame was really the only thing putting his mind at ease for a brief moment. “Why are you here? Why is Gray here? Where the fuck is Lucy?”

“In bed, probably,” Gajeel answered. “And I’m only here because Blondie called Shrimp because she thought was goin’ into labour—“

“Labour? Why the fuck didn’t you start with that?!” He didn’t give Gajeel a chance to explain anything else before he rushed off down the hall. Something had gone wrong. The sick feeling was back. “She wasn’t supposed to be due for a few more weeks, why the fuck—“

“Shhh, keep it down,” Erza commanded, appearing in the doorway just as Bickslow reached the threshold to his bedroom, her voice quiet but no less threatening. “They’re resting.”

“Was, resting,” Lucy corrected. Erza moved aside to return to her post on the foot of the bed, her tea is hand, and Bickslow continued to stand in the doorway, frozen in time as he stared through wide eyes. “Not that I’m sure you could call it that anyway,” she mumbled.

“You… Is that…” Bickslow struggled to find his voice. Natsu grinned at him like a madman from the corner of the room, perched in the chair that Bickslow had fallen asleep in so many times before. His arms were full with the bundled joy and Bickslow could just make out the tiny pink nose and cheeks from within the blankets.

Lucy watched Bickslow almost creep into the room, like he was sure one misstep would set the world on fire. He dropped his visor, shed his cloak, and Lucy couldn’t help but let out a tired, airy giggle at the incredulous look on her husband’s face as he turned to her, pointed, and then pointed back to Natsu with their newborn. “I did try calling, but you left your lacrima here and Freed didn’t answer his,” she said.

“Holy shit,” Bickslow whispered. He didn’t make it as far as Natsu though, instead only reaching the foot of the bed where he collapsed down, still staring at Natsu with the baby for another few moments. He’d woken up that morning kissing and holding Lucy’s belly as he had every morning, telling them that he couldn’t wait to show them a world full of love and wonder and finally hold them in his arms. He just hadn’t expected to finally arrive home after a day of panicking that something was wrong and Lucy had somehow been in danger, just to find… a baby. His baby. Their baby. All tiny and pink and warm.

“He smells good,” Natsu said, still grinning down at the baby as he carefully stood up and made his way over to Bickslow. “Sweet, kind of. Wanna hold your kid, Bicks?”

His shoulder already beginning to ache was long forgotten as Natsu helped settle the baby into Bickslow’s arms. His heart felt full—calm, though—and Bickslow had never felt so much joy, love, or adrenaline course through him. He vaguely heard Natsu, Erza, and Gajeel leave the room, but Bickslow could only stare down at his son, the new centre of his world, with choked back sobs.

“I was thinking Hunter,” Lucy said softly from behind him. If she had the energy to, she’d be sitting back up next to him. For now, she was fine. She had a lifetime of watching and holding their son.

“Hunter,” Bickslow whispered, tasting the name on his tongue and lips. “What do you thing, babies? Hunter any good?”

The babies chirped their approval with echoes of the name and Bickslow chuckled. “Hunter it is,” he said.

#bixlu #bickslow x lucy #bickslow #fairy tail fanfic #fairy tail fanfiction #I need to figure out how to get the linebreak back

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raijindork · 4 years

Text

Double Trouble

Summary: Bickslow and Lucy decide to expand their family, but get more than they bargained for. Part of my HWHL (Happy Wife, Happy Life) Universe. Pairing: Bickslow/Lucy (BixLu) Rating: T Words: ~3.4k

Read on FF.net.

Chace had only been six months old the first time they’d talked about having another baby.

Bickslow had taken his first overnight job since their son had been born. Bickslow had hated leaving more than Lucy had—she’d wanted the bed to herself for a night—but the job had only been a few towns over and Laxus had practically all but dragged him out of the apartment come time to leave in the morning. Lucy had been all to happy to lock the door behind them, too.

Lucy had enjoyed the alone time with Chace. She hadn’t even gone to the guild that day. She’d just been catching up on all the baby cuddles and overdue laundry and there hadn’t been a single thing wrong. But then the night had come. And Chace’s bedtime had come. And Chace had decided that he just wasn’t going to sleep that night; that he would just cry, and then cry some more, much to the displeasure of all the other residents of the building, Gajeel included.

At one point, Lucy had thought that maybe Bickslow was the favourite parent. Because, sure, she had the boobs and food and the softest cuddles ever, but… Even Lucy had to admit that Bickslow made bath time look fun. And reading time. And, well, most of what he did with their son, actually. Lucy had accepted the fact that she wasn’t necessarily going to the fun parent though. She’d realised that it was a lost cause when they’d figured out that sometimes, the only thing to get Chace to stop crying was to have him watch Bickslow yell at the babies when they were being jealous little lost souls.

But after a while, Lucy had just thought that maybe Chace just really missed his dad. Nothing else had seemed to make him happy again, and Lucy had tried everything she could think of. Even Gajeel, at four o’clock in the morning, having had no chance of sleeping when his neighbours had the demon child from hell, had tried his best to get Chace to stop crying.

Nothing had worked. And no matter what Lucy did, she just hadn’t been able to get Chace to stop crying for more than a few minutes at a time. Not until he’d just tired himself out so much that he eventually went to sleep early in the morning.

But it was when Bickslow came home that afternoon, finding Gajeel on his couch and watching Chace play on the mat, and then Lucy curled into a ball on their bed, that they’d first talked about whether they’d have another baby.

Because after that hellish night (one Lucy did, in fact, later realise the cause for), Lucy hadn’t been sure she wanted to go through that again. Chace had been a nightmare from the moment he’d been born, and as loved as he was, the kid had nearly broken her in one night.

So Lucy had proposed that maybe they don’t have another baby at some point down the track. Maybe they just have Chace and have their perfect, albeit chaotic little family. And Bickslow had agreed.

But it was when Chace was two that they talked about it again. Because as much of a handful Chace was, Lucy hadn’t been able to help but start to look back on all those firsts she’d been to see and remember how much she’d loved them. So she’d brought up the topic again then, over breakfast one morning as Bickslow had been getting Chace’s food ready.

There’d been no suggestion that time—no telling Bickslow that she probably did want to have another kid at some point. It had merely been a question. Because they’d already both agreed that there wouldn’t be another, and it had been so long since then that Lucy hadn’t know if Bickslow still felt the same.

So she’d asked him, over the slices of apple and banana and burnt bits of toast, if he still thought that their family was perfect the way it was.

And Bickslow just hadn’t been sure at that point.

But it was when Chace was nearly four, that Bickslow decided he wanted to revisit that fated conversation once more.

It had been a month since they’d released Georgia the bat back into the wild, and Bickslow still couldn’t help but visit the tall trees by the cave every now and then to see if he could maybe spot his beloved sky puppy. He knew better, of course, but a part of him still hoped that he’d look up one evening and see his favourite leathery-winged-friend hanging from a branch and maybe waiting for him.

It was morning, though. Chace was still asleep and it was quiet and Bickslow didn’t want to do much else other than just lay there silently, enjoying the comfort and serenity of home until he actually had to get out of bed.

Lucy pressed a kiss to his cheek before curling around him, and Bickslow smiled softly, keeping his eyes closed still. “Good morning,” she murmured. “The big three-oh today. Happy birthday, baby.”

“Mm-hmm. Thanks, Cosplayer.”

“Did you want to do anything special?” Lucy asked. She sat up on an elbow slightly, rubbing small circles on his chest with her other hand still. “We could take Chace to the park, have a picnic or something.”

Bickslow liked the park. “That sounds perfect,” he mumbled. He breathed slow and deep, just enough that he was sure he’d fall back asleep if he was even capable of sleeping late those days. His wife’s touch and soothing voice kept him awake, though.

“Chace will be up soon. Do you want something to eat?”

“No…” Bickslow sighed, only moving to stretch out his toes and his arms above his head. “I want a baby,” he mumbled. Maybe he was still a little too asleep.

“A baby?” Lucy laughed, a gentle sound to his ears. “You can’t eat a baby, Bicks.” Or maybe he could. But she’d be deeply disturbed if he did. Unless, that was just his weird way of asking he wanted a super weird baby-shaped birthday cake or something—at which, Lucy would still be disturbed by if it was the case.

“No, not food.”

It took Lucy a moment to click, but then it did. Her hand stopped moving in the small circles on her husband’s chest and her smile quickly faded. “Oh.”

He hadn’t meant to bring it up right then. Soon, maybe even later that day, but not first thing in the morning. But caring for the bat the last year had made him miss how much he’d loved Chace when he’d been little.

When they’d gotten married the first time, and even when he’d found out Lucy was pregnant with Chace, Bickslow had always pictured their family together as something a little… bigger.

He’d forgotten that at one point, not long after Chace had been born and it had all been so chaotic and horrible, and for a brief moment in time, Bickslow had regretted them having Chace at all—a fact he wouldn’t admit to anyone. But it had been years since then, and Bickslow liked to think he was a better dad than he had been back then. He could deal with the chaos.

If Lucy could, at least.

He finally moved, rolling onto his side to face Lucy who could still only stare at him and process the kind of bombshell he’d dropped on her. “It’s been a while since we’ve talked about this.”

“Well… We’ve been busy,” Lucy said, although it wasn’t an answer she was sure of and the silent question mark at the end didn’t go unheard.

“No, we haven’t.”

“You had Georgia.”

Bickslow would give her the point for that one. Looking after a bat probably did count as busy. “Fine, but I don’t anymore. So are we going to talk about this?” Because Bickslow wanted to talk about it then. Even if he got completely shut down, it was still better than not having that conversation at all.

But it was Lucy’s turn to be unsure. It had been hard to think about whether or not another kid was something she wanted when she’d had to deal with a bat flying around the apart every damn day for a year. And then even with Chace getting older, he was still a menace might as well have been a pet tornado, and Lucy’s only time to herself those days was when she decided to go and take a job by herself for a night or two.

But Lucy had never minded that. She tried telling herself she had, especially after the last conversation where she’d mostly taken Bickslow’s maybe as a no. Another baby would mean another nine months of being host to a parasite that had every chance of being just as much of a nightmare as Chace, if not worse.

Or they could be the most adorable, sweetest baby in the whole world and perfectly fill that second child shaped void in the family picture in her head.

Really, Lucy didn’t care which. They were the same to her.

She just didn’t want to be let down, and the last thing she wanted was for Bickslow to be the one to realise that Chace really was all they’d needed after she’d already gotten her hopes up.

“No,” Lucy said before quickly correcting herself, “I mean, yes, of course. I want to talk about this. Really, I do. I just… I don’t think now is the best time, is all.”

But Bickslow didn’t see that. “Not the best time to talk about it, or not the best time to be pregnant?” he asked. “Because those are two entirely different things.” And it wasn’t like he’d said anything about wanting another baby right away anyway.

“To talk about it.” She needed at least one cup of coffee in her to have that conversation properly.

And if the tiny footsteps just outside were anything to go by, Lucy would wager that the conversation was about to come to a screeching halt anyway.

Chace ran in squeezing his bat plushy. “Mama, I hungry!”

Bickslow tried not to roll his eyes too hard when Lucy gave him just the hint of a proud smirk, knowing full well she’d gotten herself out of the rest of it.

“You’re hungry?” Lucy gasped dramatically, clicking her tongue. “Well, we can’t have that! I suppose we should go and get you something to eat, huh?”

“Uh-huh.”

“But first…” She sat up against the pillows, leaning forward and curling her finger to beckon Chace closer. “Why don’t you come up here and—“

Chace wasted no time and bounded up onto the bed, climbing over them both settling into the gap just big enough for a nearly four year old to fit. Bickslow quickly pulled his son into a tight hug, tickling his sides and kissing his head as he squealed and giggled loudly.

“You know, it’s Daddy’s birthday today,” Lucy said. She smiled as she watched them; smiling seemed inevitable whenever she watched them together. “Are you going to say happy birthday?”

“Happy birthday, Daddy!” Chace beamed. “You old now?”

Bickslow tried not to be hurt by his son’s innocent question, but it stung, just a little bit. “Why, thank you! And I am old. Can you guess how old I am?”

“Nine?”

“…Close enough.” Bickslow shrugged. Not that Chace could count much higher than that, but still, Bickslow would take it.

Lucy stayed for a few more moments before finally pulling herself out of bed, grabbing her dressing gown to wrap it around herself first. Breakfast needed to be made, so she couldn’t just sit in bed with her favourite boys all day.

Bickslow couldn’t quite help himself though. So when Lucy got up, he didn’t miss the chance to quietly get in, “All I’m asking is if you want to have another one day. And we can talk about the rest of that after.” Because that was still all Bickslow needed right then. He just wanted to know if it was something he could maybe look forward to.

“I do,” Lucy answered.

###

Lucy just about skipped down the hall after putting Chace to bed. She’d been waiting all day to be able talk to Bickslow properly. At one point, she’d considered telling him her news in the guild, just to watch him freak out, but try not to freak out too obviously and cause people to ask questions, and see what kind of nonsense he could come up with on the spot.

He was in the living room, tiny tins of paint sitting on an old sheet on the coffee table and the babies’ wooden forms all laid out next to them and drying. If the floating plushies and toys above his head were anything to go by, Lucy suspected he’d borrowed some of Chace’s toys earlier so he at least had something to house the babies in until the tikis were all shiny and new again.

“So,” Lucy began, sitting down next to him on the sofa. “I have some good news. Well, maybe good news.”

Bickslow glanced to her as he continued carefully moving the thin paintbrush dipped in red paint along the carved wood. He was just a little worried about her expression—that nervous smile and her hands compulsively squeezing her own knees wasn’t exactly reassuring when he had genuinely no idea what Lucy was about to tell him.

“Yeah? What?”

Lucy took a deep breath, announcing quickly, “I think I might be pregnant.”

That explains it. Bickslow’s head snapped back to her, quickly forgetting the wooden doll in his hand and the paint slowly forming a drop at the tip of the brush. “Wait, for real?”

He’d heard that before, though, only a few months earlier. They’d decided to wait another year or two before trying to have another baby after they’d properly talked about it after his birthday, but then Lucy had been late, and it had been just slightly disappointing when it had been nothing more than a false alarm. So their plan had gone out the window, and now there they were, with Lucy telling him again the same thing she had months earlier.

She nodded. “Well, I think so.” Lucy hoped so, too.

“But… You know, last time you thought that—“

“I know, I know,” she dismissed him quickly, rolling her eyes. “This is different, though.” It wasn’t like she told him every time she was a day or two late anyway. That would just be stupid. She knew better than to jump to unlikely conclusions. There was a difference between days and weeks, and Lucy liked to think she knew her body well enough to suspect if she was knocked up or not.

Bickslow knew better than to question her judgement, even if he refused to let himself indulge on the excitement that his wife was clearly feeling then. “I mean, okay. Uh…” He finally set the tiki and the paintbrush down, briefly looking up to the babies zooming around the ceiling. “Well, what’s next then? I mean, have you taken a test, or—“

“No, not yet, but…” Lucy shrugged, offering Bickslow a sheepish smile. “That’s what you’re for!”

“You want me to look?”

“Well, duh.” Lucy wasn’t sure why she wouldn’t. Bickslow had the ability to do something she could only dream of being able to do.

And sure, Bickslow had loved being able to find out about Chace, although maybe not before Lucy had herself, but that had been different. Finding out about Chace had been… weirdly relieving, mostly because it just meant Lucy hadn’t actually been dying of some mystery illness. Then, though? Bickslow just didn’t want to not see, well, anything. He didn’t want Lucy to be disappointed again.

But he couldn’t really say no to her then, either. They had to find out at some point.

So he turned on the sofa, tucking his foot under his knee and moving the cushion out from behind him to get comfortable. “Fine. But, you have to promise me that you won’t hate me if I don’t see anything.” And he doubted Lucy would hate him, but still. That was his price.

“Bicks, I promise,” Lucy said softly, reaching out just to squeeze his hand briefly. She had to admit that the pessimism was getting just a little frustrating. She’d wanted him to excited, not worried about every tiny little detail. “If I’m not pregnant, then we just keep trying. That’s okay. Now hurry up.”

Bickslow sighed loudly, taking just a moment to tell himself that it would be fine no matter what he did or didn’t see. “Eyes, then,” he mumbled. Lucy quickly covered her eyes with her hands, only peeking through her fingers for a second before covering them back up after a frown and a glare from him. And then he looked, blinking quickly as his eyes adjusted again. He saw Lucy’s soul first, before looking down to where he’d seen his son’s once, and… “Oh.”

“Oh?” Lucy echoed. She tried not to peek again to try and see what kind of expression her husband was wearing right then. But she could already feel her heart sinking just from one little syllable. “Bicks? What did you—“ She reached out with one arm, blindly reaching for him while keeping her eyes covered with her other hand. “I’m not pregnant, am I?” she asked softly, right as Bickslow caught her hand.

“No, no… You are,” Bickslow chuckled almost nervously as he rubbed his eyes. There’d really been no denying the fact that she was pregnant—something that was beginning to make him feel just a little giddy and exactly like how he’d felt when he’d seen Chace. “You can open your eyes again though.”

“Wait, I am? Oh, god… Then… Why did you say it like that?!” she shrieked, grabbing a cushion to throw it at him. Somewhere at the back of her mind she realised she should be questioning just what it was Bickslow had seen, but for a moment, Lucy was just going to ride the relief and excitement because she was knocked up and that was totally the entire point.

“Because, there’s not—Cosplayer.” Bickslow swatted the pillow away before grabbing hold of it and stealing the soft weapon away, grabbing Lucy’s shoulders to hold her steady. “It wasn’t just one soul.”

Lucy’s eyes widened as she stared back at the growing grin on Bickslow’s face. “You mean…”

“Uh-huh.”

She only continued to stare in silence and shock for a few more moments before she squealed so loud it probably woke up her son. “Twins?!”

The babies zoomed and chanted above them as Lucy jumped and threw herself onto Bickslow’s lap, laughing almost hysterically with him through a tight embrace.

But then it seemed to properly sink in, that Chace wasn’t going to be a big brother to just one new sibling. She pulled away, panic quickly growing. “Oh god. We’re having twins. Can we even manage that?” The questions came from her lips as soon as they appeared as thoughts in her head. “Oh god, do you think Chace will hate us? Oh, and the babies!”

Bickslow’s face fell just as quickly. “I mean, sure, of course. We’ll be fine! We’ll make it work. I think. Yeah? Yeah, we’ll make it work. Chace will be fine,” he said, nodding and trying to reassure himself from than anything. They could handle two babies, plus the kid from hell. They were them. It would be fine. Right?

But then Bickslow remembered the babies. The babies that, when he looked up, were circling a little too close to his head and far too menacingly.

“Babies, no. Don’t you—“

Lucy was smart enough to take the opportunity to flee right before the babies began their bombardment on their master, curled up on the lounge and enduring the onslaught. Apparently they weren’t too happy about having to share Bickslow’s attention with another two human babies.

#bixlu #bickslow x lucy #bickslow #fairy tail fanfiction #fairy tail fanfic #hwhl

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raijindork · 4 years

Text

Neighbours from Hell - Ch. 12

Summary: Lucy’s neighbours are, for the most part, interesting characters. But she loves them all to bits, and even if she met them under some pretty strange circumstances, she wouldn’t give up her apartment family for anything in the world.

Pairing: BixLu, mostly. Rating: T Words: ~2.7k

also on ff.net

“Alright, don’t forget I’ll be home late. Got that parent-teacher thing tonight,” Bickslow said quickly, leaning over Lucy at her desk to kiss her cheek. “Do you want me to grab something for dinner on my way back?”

“Mm-hmm, that’d be great,” Lucy hummed.

Bickslow was about to leave before he paused and gently squeezed her shoulder. “Hey, you’ll do great today, okay?” he said softly. “I believe in you.”

Lucy leant back in her chair just to smile up at Bickslow and let him kiss her again. “Thanks, you,” she whispered. “Now get going before you’re late.”

“Alright, fine, I’m leaving. Love you, dork. Text me how it goes!”

“Mm-hmm, love you, too.” And just like that, after hearing her apartment door close behind Bickslow on his way out, her apartment was in silence one more. Well, apart from Blair meowing at the door, but Lucy was used to that.

In a little over six hours, she was going to have her first meeting ever with a publishing agent, and Lucy didn’t really know what to do with herself.

Since losing her job, she’d had more than enough time to work on her writing, which meant she’d spent plenty of time sitting at her desk or sprawled out on her living room floor writing out ideas and then tossing them into the trash. Erik had been helping her out with it, too, much to Bickslow’s annoyance. Lucy would bounce ideas off of him, and Erik would be brutally honest and tell her just how garbage they were. Whenever she had a decent enough idea she could expand on, he’d even read it over and let her know what he thought. Most of what she wrote ended up in the trash, but Lucy hadn’t really minded. Somehow, she’d known that none of those ideas would ever have made it into a best-selling story.

It had been three o’clock in the morning when she’d gotten her perfect idea. She’d been lying awake in bed, mindlessly patting Blair when it had come to her. She’d gotten out of bed so quickly that she’d woken Bickslow in the process, but that had been fine. After that, she’d spent the next three hours sitting at her desk and plotting everything out, just in time to scream to Bickslow when he woke up about how she’d finally found the perfect idea.

Of course though, she never actually told Bickslow what that idea was. To that day, Erik was the only person she’d shared the details with. He’d just about burst out laughing when she’d told him, and admittedly, it had scared the shit out of Lucy when it had happened. Erik didn’t really laugh. Not like he had that day, at least.

Erik had told her to write what she wanted, so that was exactly what she’d done. Fortunately since then, she’d also managed to pick up an office job in the city, but every second she wasn’t at work, she was writing.

She’d never really planned on sending it to anyone, much less getting any kind of response. But Erik and Bickslow had talked her into it, and the next thing she’d known, she’d been sending off query emails to every single agent she could find. Much to her surprise, one agency had actually responded and asked when she could come in. Lucy had honestly thought it was a prank at first, because what respectable agency would read her silly work, let alone like it enough to respond. For some bizarre reason though, they had, and now here Lucy was, freaking the fuck out about her meeting with the agent.

Lucy couldn’t help but find it a little odd that they were asking her to come in so late in the day, though. She’d always thought that when she did actually start meeting with people to try and get published, it’d be mid-morning and she’d be walking in with coffee and a breakfast bagel and seem like she was some kind of professional who had her life together and it’d be a great start to the day. Instead, she’d be battling the afternoon traffic and be on her third cup of coffee of the day, and probably be late from said traffic and really just wanting a damn nap.

Bickslow and Erik had said it was a good thing they were trying to squeeze her in for a meeting, something about it meaning they really loved her work and that they just had to meet her in person as soon as possible. Lucy thought it was all a load of bullshit, but she knew better than to turn down an opportunity like that, even if she knew how unlikely it was to get her anywhere.

###

Lucy usually hated her habit of leaving painfully early, but that day, it was her saviour. She’d barely made it to the office in time for her meeting, only being able to grant herself the few seconds necessary to catch her breath after running up the three flights of stairs to get there, because of course the elevator had been out of order.

Once inside the office, Lucy was guided towards a small office by the grumpy receptionist and told to sit and wait. Lucy usually didn’t like being told what to do, but considering where she was, she figured it was safer to obey. She didn’t want to give a bad first impression there of all places.

She glanced at her watch every few moments and bounced her knee nervously. Her agent was running late. Lucy wasn’t sure if it was a power move or if they had forgotten about her. Honestly, Lucy wouldn’t have been surprised if it was the latter. If anything, it was probably just some kind of joke.

It was nearly forty-five minutes later that they showed up, with a stack of manuscripts under one arm and a coffee in the other. His long green hair he’d tied up in a bun was falling loose and Lucy couldn’t help but feel like she’d seen that tired, disheveled face before. Probably online or something, she thought.

“You must be Lucy! I’m Freed Justine.” he greeted her, juggling the papers and coffee to extend his hand before a look of mild panic crossed his face. “Oh, do forgive me. Is it alright if I call you Lucy?”

“O-Oh, uh, yes, of course. Lucy is fine,” she replied.

“Excellent. Please, come in.”

She followed him into the small office, closing the door behind herself and trying her best to refrain from asking if he actually preferred it open. Wringing her hands together as she sat herself opposite the large desk, Lucy became all to aware of how sweaty her hands were—and to think she’d just shaken the man’s hand! Oh god, I hope he didn’t notice. Oh dear god…

“I am so very sorry for making you wait,” Freed said as he settled himself at his desk, taking just a few seconds to set everything in its proper place—the manuscripts on the pile to his right, his coffee on the coaster to his left, and straightening out the notepad he kept to his side for convenience, right next to the photograph of his husband. “I hope I didn’t keep you for too long.”

Lucy laughed nervously, rubbing her hands on her thighs to try and dry them. “Oh, no. Not at all.”

“Well, let’s not waste anymore time, shall we?”

###

Freed’s questions were short and to the point, something Lucy appreciated even if his note taking was just a little worrying. It felt like the worst of job interviews and Lucy couldn’t help but feel like all of her answers were wrong somehow. Still, the fact he didn’t end the meeting with her the second he learned anything about about her career as a writer, Lucy had high hopes.

But then the questions stopped, and Lucy grew wary when Freed just stared down at his watch for longer than anyone should ever stare at a watch, unless they had trouble telling the time, at which point Lucy wasn’t sure what the point of wearing a watch was.

But Lucy was nervous and she couldn’t help but open her mouth and ask against her better judgement: “Is there something wrong?”

“No…” Freed sighed. “Well, yes, actually.”

“Oh. I… I see.” Lucy just knew it had been too good to be true. Bickslow and Erik could suck it. “Well, I, uh… I appreciate this opportunity, and—“

“Oh, god, no. It’s not you,” Freed said quickly as Lucy stood and grabbed her bag.

Lucy stared down at him with a look of confusion and he scratched his head, causing even more strands to fall loose of his bun. He always did his best not to mix professional with personal, but he’d been so been looking forward to meeting Lucy that day, but it was the one day that he just couldn’t stay late at the office to finish her interview, and it had been such a long time since Freed had read something he’d enjoyed that thoroughly.

“I would honestly love to finish this interview and actually talk to you about your manuscript,” he began to explain, quickly beginning to pack up all the things he needed to take home that evening. “However, I, uh… I have dinner plans and I promised my husband I wouldn’t be home late today, and—“

“No, I… I totally understand,” Lucy interrupted. Who was she to stop the man from being able to have a nice dinner with his husband? Lucy supposed she should just be grateful she was able to meet with him at all, even if it had been so short. “It’s fine, I get it.”

Freed still felt bad, and he was used to having to cut interviews short or having people leave feeling disappointed in the outcome. But Freed didn’t mind taking risks when he was sure of the outcome. “Look, this is completely unorthodox, and, probably highly unprofessional as well, but it’s going to take me at least thirty minutes to get home in this traffic, and I would be more than happy to continue this conversation in a cab if you would like,” he suggested. “Of course, we can also reschedule and I can have my assistant fit you in as soon as possible.”

Lucy did find it a little odd, but what if it was actually her one shot at becoming a published author?

Those little stories in the newspaper hadn’t been getting her anywhere. They’d just been a way for her to make just enough money to get by while doing something she loved. And of course, she loved that she’d even been given the chance to do it at all, but Lucy had always known it wasn’t a job she could keep forever. She remembered Victor then, the sweet old man who’d written the Monday story for nearly three decades; how he’d told her on her first day there how he’d always dreamed of becoming an author, but he’d missed his chance and all he’d had left was the paper and his handful of loyal fans.

And Lucy didn’t want to miss her chance. She didn’t want to end up like all the Victors in the world. She didn’t want to end up stuck ten, fifteen, twenty years down the track, looking back on that moment and regretting such a stupid, tiny decision.

“Uh, I mean, sure, I guess!” Lucy agreed. She tried to sound confident and sure of herself but she knew she still sounded like some nervous wreck.

Really though, Lucy supposed she’d done weirder and worse things in a taxi.

On the way downstairs, Freed tried his best to assure her that not all meetings were such disasters. He really didn’t want to terrify Lucy into never working with an agent again. But it was when they were outside again and he wasn’t trying to savour his breath because even walking down stairs was a bit of an effort, that Freed realised he’d failed to point out just where they’d be going. The last thing he wanted was for Lucy to spend half an hour or more going the opposite direction to where she really needed to be going. He’d much rather just have her reschedule if that was the case. He wasn’t a monster.

“I feel as if I should’ve mentioned I live in South Magnolia, near Latham Park,” he admitted, making it out onto the busy street and already hailing a passing cab—the only good thing about peak hour, really. “I hope that’s not too far out of your way.”

“I actually live right next to Latham Park,” Lucy said. Although at that point, Lucy would’ve sat in traffic for two hours if she thought it would help her get her own agent. It wasn’t like she had anything else to be doing that night.

“Oh! What a coincidence!”

Freed let Lucy climb into the taxi first before sliding in after, giving the driver his address before reaching into his satchel for his notepad again and flicking through the pages until he found the notes he’d scribbled down while reading Lucy’s manuscript. “Now, a few suggestions so far…” He cleared his throat, skimming the next few pages before looking back up to the passenger next to him and noticing the incredulous look on her face. “What? Is there a problem?”

Lucy shook her head. “No, no, it’s just… You said 1073 Strawberry Street.”

“Well, yes. That’s my apartment building. Do you know someone there?”

Do I know someone there? At that point, Lucy was sure she knew half the building. “I live there,” she answered.

It was one thing to live in the same district, but to live in the same apartment too? Freed knew he should’ve picked up on it when Lucy’s letter and manuscript had first been assigned to his desk, but he’d always jumped straight into the writing and he’d just gotten so excited that he hadn’t paid much attention to anything else.

Freed quickly shut his notebook. They could talk about her manuscript later. “Fifth floor. What about you?”

“Fifth floor!” Lucy said excitedly. But then something dawned on Lucy, because she knew everyone on the fifth floor—everyone except Laxus’s husband. “Wait, are you—“

“You’re 502!”

“—in 504?”

The driver cast a worried glance to his backseat in the mirror. Sometimes he really did just prefer it when the passengers decided it was a good place to make out or just have sex. It was a lot easier to understand than whatever was going on with those two.

“You made me that soup!” Lucy said. “God, I really loved that soup.”

“And my husband broke down your door,” Freed added. “Although I am glad you liked it!”

“How have we not met before, though?”

“I tend to work late. And Laxus doesn’t like to socialise much.”

“Huh. You don’t say.” She should’ve guessed Thor wasn’t a socialiser—he was too awkward for that, obviously. “But, wait…” Lucy knew better than to let herself get too carried away and forget why she was really there. “Not to get ahead of myself, but is this… I mean, we’re neighbours, and I called your husband Thor—“

“I heard about that,” Freed chuckled. He’d been quite irritated by it, too.

Lucy shook her head. “I didn’t know his name at the time,” she defender herself “But, is that, you know, going to be a problem? I mean, if you think I’m good enough?” Because Lucy wouldn’t be surprised if she’d just blown her probable one chance at getting an agent to like her. Of course the one that does like her enough to meet her is the guy who lives just down the hall from her. Surely she was just cursed.

Freed sighed. “In all honesty, I don’t see why it would become a problem. Of course, I still have some concerns I’d like to discuss with you, and some suggestions as well. But… As long as personal and professional remain separate, I see no reason why our common neighbours would be a cause for concern,” he explained. If anything though, if things worked out, Freed saw it as an excuse to work from home a little bit more. But Freed didn’t care about talking about Lucy’s work right then. They could do that later on a day he wasn’t running nearly nearly an hour behind. “For now though, please tell me you know something about this mysterious banana bread everyone keeps getting when they move into the building.”

#bixlu #bickslow x lucy #fairy tail fanfic #fairy tail fanfiction #bickslow #lucy heartfilia #finally freed's chapter!

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raijindork · 7 years

Text

Asked and Answered

this is just another one of those random ideas i get in the middle of the night, and i just had to write it. i’m kind of proud of the fact i managed to get this done in one afternoon/evening, because i haven’t been able to sit down and actually write like this for a long time.

summary: Bickslow needs to work on his word choice when he’s asking Lucy to get him something to eat, especially if he wants to avoid her thinking he’s actually proposing. rating: k+ genre: romance/friendship/humour (fluff) pairing: bixlu words: 1925

also on ff.net

The loud, rumbling, gurgling noise that came from his stomach had Bickslow frowning. He was so hungry he was almost in pain, but… He was just so warm and comfortable in bed, and as hungry as he was, he wasn’t willing to leave the fluffy cloud he was, again, extremely comfortable on. Not even his babies were responding to him silently calling them in his mind. It was bed time for them too, and even they had no intentions of moving from where they were all nestled together at the foot of the bed.

He groaned when the pang of hunger struck again, and attempted to curl himself up into a ball under the covers. So… hungry… Why did food have to be so far away, damn it? Maybe I should put a mini-fridge where the nightstand is…

Bickslow didn’t get the opportunity to think much more about the mini-fridge idea before a feminine sigh came from the door behind him and in walked his favourite (well, one of them) human being.

“Why, just why did Mira have to give Sage so much damn cordial?” Lucy whined as she came around the bed and climbed in beside the Seith mage. She’d spent the better part of the last two hours trying to tire out her six-year-old daughter enough so that she’d actually sleep. It had taken so long that it was past Lucy’s bedtime now as well, and all she wanted was to close her eyes and get some sleep. She’d played so much of Mouse Trap and Monopoly that she was probably going to be dreaming about damn mice in tiny silver cars passing ‘go’.

Of course though, if Mira hadn’t given Sage a giant class of cordial right before Lucy had gone with Bickslow to pick her up from the guild, then everyone would be asleep right then and Lucy would be happy. The kid had practically been bouncing off the walls all evening.

Bickslow found it a little funny though… Probably because he hadn’t been the one trying to coax Sage back to table to eat her vegetables for dinner because he’d been too busy adding the finishing touches to new wooden bodies for his babies after the last ones had been destroyed during a job.

“I don’t think Mira would’ve had much choice,” he chuckled. “We both know Sage is good at using those eyes of hers to get what she wants…” And that much, she’d gotten from Lucy. Bickslow was completely certain of that.

“Fair point…” Finally, Lucy’s head fell down onto her soft feather pillow and she sighed in delight “God, I love this bed. This bed is like heaven. I think I might fall asleep exactly like this.” Her legs were still hanging off the side slightly, but by god, was she comfortable already. Her eyes were already far too heavy to keep open for much longer anyway.

“Mm-hmm…” But then, Bickslow’s painfully empty stomach rumbled again, and he winced with how painful it really was. He didn’t think he’d ever been so hungry in his entire life.

He had an idea though. A wonderful, marvellous, amazing, brilliant idea. One that would keep him from getting out of bed where he’d been so comfortably sitting and awaiting Lucy for the last two hours (going to bed while Lucy was still awake had become pretty much impossible since they’ve started living together years earlier). But any who, for his plan to work, Bickslow realised that he needed to move fast. Because once Lucy got comfortable enough that she wasn’t willing to move (which usually didn’t take very long) or she fell asleep, it wouldn’t work.

So, Bickslow quickly got to work. And that just meant scooting closer to his human and throwing his arm over her waist to rub gentle circles on the small of her back. “Hey, so…” he began softly, just in an attempt to get Lucy’s attention if he hadn’t managed to do so already – honestly, he worried she’d already fallen asleep with how silent she was.

But of course, she hadn’t fallen asleep just yet. She’d never been good at getting to sleep quickly… unlike Natsu. Not willing to actually say anything though, Lucy merely hummed in response.

“You know how much I love you, right…” Bickslow said cautiously. “And how much you really, really, love me…”

“Mm…”

“And how I’ll like, do anything for you… Well, ninety-eight percent of the time, at least. But for the most part, you want something, or you need something, I’ll be there in a heartbeat.”

“Uh-huh…”

“And, uh… Did I mention the part where you really, really love me?” he said.

Lucy forced herself to open her eyes, just so she could look at the strangely hopeful look in her Seith mage’s eyes. Was she confused? Most definitely. She couldn’t for the life of her figure out just what Bickslow was getting at. “You did…” she drawled.

“Okay, right. Well, uh… Lucy. Cosplayer. My favourite human – well, apart from Sage, but you know that. Will you—“

“Yes!”

Bickslow just stared at the blonde in complete shock as he sat up on his elbow. “Huh? But I—“ Her saying yes so quickly might’ve been a good thing had he actually managed to get the rest of the damn question out. She didn’t even know what he wanted!

“Yes, of course!” she blurted out again, and by that point, she was well and truly convinced that she knew exactly what Bickslow had been trying to say – or ask, more accurately.

He had to be asking her to marry him. That was all that made sense to her. And, well… After seven years together (Sage had been a huge surprise at the beginning of their relationship, but a happy surprise nonetheless), Lucy was more than ready to be marrying the father of her child. She’d hoped it would’ve come sooner, to be perfectly honest, but it was better late than never, right?

She was too elated to even question just why he’d waited until after midnight to do so – and in bed no less – after they’d had the entire day together. But, it was Bickslow, after all. He was known for being a little sometimes…

Except, once he saw how happy Lucy was, and once she planted close to a dozen kisses on his lips in close succession, Bickslow came to realise that something had most definitely gotten lost in translation.

“Uh, baby? What exactly do you think I was going to say before you cut me off?” he asked cautiously. Honestly, he was a little scared of the answer.

“That you were going to ask me to marry you!” Lucy answered. Although, the grimace on Bickslow’s face then, as well as the suspicion in his voice had Lucy feeling more than a little stupid. She was instantly pulling away from him and shrinking in on herself. “I totally misread that, didn’t I?” she mumbled.

“…Just a little,” Bickslow admitted. God, he felt so bad! In hindsight, he realised that his word choice had totally been partly to blame for getting his girlfriend’s hopes up. Looking guiltily to the girl-shaped lump hiding under the covers just in front of him, he added, “I was actually just going to try and convince you to get me some food…”

Lucy’s mood turned so quickly that Bickslow honestly feared for his life for a second when Lucy flicked the blanket back and sat up to stare at him incredulously, pure anger burning in her coffee eyes. She sure as hell wasn’t feeling embarrassed anymore… “Excuse me?” she said, an eyebrow rising as the grimacing Seith mage was the one left wanting to hide under the blanket. “You were going to ask me to get you food?”

He shrugged. “Yeah… I’m hungry… I didn’t eat dinner.”

A sound close to a growl tore from her throat, terrifying Bickslow even more, before she rolled onto her other side and collapsed down onto the mattress. “You’re a damn jackass,” she muttered. She wasn’t going to get him food! No way! He was a grown man (sometimes). He could go and get his own food, thank you very much. She wasn’t his slave.

Bickslow’s stomach rumbled again, but he ignored it as he slid down into the bed and crossed his arms over his chest. I guess I’ll just have to go without then. Because really, he still wasn’t going to get up to get food himself. The kitchen was all the way downstairs, and the bed was still way too warm and comfy for him to even consider leaving it.

Still… Lucy sulking was making him feel terrible. And he didn’t like feeling terrible, especially when it was because he’d upset Lucy. Honestly, her jumping the gun and thinking he was proposing wasn’t even on the list of things Bickslow had expected to happen. But, it had happened. And now she was probably lying there thinking that the reason he hadn’t proposed already was because he didn’t want to marry her at all.

And, well… That was pretty far from the truth.

But, maybe Bickslow was just going to have to swallow his damn pride in order to make Lucy happy again. It wasn’t the first time he’d done it, and he doubted it would be the last, as well. So, before he could talk himself out of it, he pulled open the second drawer of his nightstand, picked out the small box that he’d hidden in the back corner of it, and then tossed it over to where Lucy was sulking and pretending to be sleeping.

When something hit her, she wasn’t too pleased, naturally. “Oi, what was that?” She fumbled around in the dim room to find whatever it was that had hit her until her fingers brushed over a velvet box resting by her hip.

“Just open it,” Bickslow grumbled.

Lucy sat herself up and turned on the lamp beside her just so she could see a little better. Once she realised she was holding a ring box, however, and once she opened it to reveal the square-cut amethyst on the thin gold band… “Are you kidding me right now?”

Bickslow shrugged. “I was going to ask you eventually,” he said. “I was just waiting for the right moment.”

She could only gawk at the obvious engagement ring and Bickslow beside her. Of all the times and ways for him to actually propose… He chooses to do it then… And after she’s already made a fool of herself for assuming he was asking it earlier. Honestly, it was times like that that Lucy wondered just why she’d put up with him for the last seven years – and their daughter wasn’t even being factored in right then.

But, the simple answer was because she was ridiculously in love with the guy (it annoyed her sometimes), and if she didn’t want to be with him, she would’ve already left by then.

“So are you going to say yes or are you just going to sit there and make me worry?”

Of course, Lucy still stood by her earlier statement (and she probably always would). So, quickly taking the ring out of its box and slipping it onto her finger herself – it was a little loose but it’ll do – she slid down into bed again, grabbed the spare pillow behind her, and then thumped her now fiancé’s face with it.

“You’re still a jackass,” she mumbled.

And Bickslow took it as a yes, of course.

#bixlu #ficsforvera #drabbles #ft fanfiction #ft fanfic #bickslow #lucy heartfilia #bixlow x lucy #bickslow x lucy #bixlu fanfiction #fairy tail fanfiction #fairy tail fanfic

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raijindork · 7 years

Note

“Damn auto-correct…” for BixLu!!! (Pls this could be hilarious)

Okay, this is somewhat based on an actual conversation I had a while ago… And yeah. This was all I could come up with that actually worked. Since it involves text messages, I tried to make it somewhat neat and easy to read…

Rating: T, I supposeWords: who fucking knows. I didn’t check. But I’ll put most of it under a break anyway. (734)

Hearing his phone vibrate on his desk, Bickslow momentarily set his term paper aside to check his notifications. Seeing that it was Lucy who had made his phone light up (amongst other things in his world), he couldn’t help but smile to himself a little bit.

LUCY: OH MY GOD I JUST MET HER OH MY GOD OH N KYJFGDKM.

She’d been out meeting her biggest idol, famous author Mavis Vermillion at a book signing in the city. Apart from the fact that Lucy had been posting about it for days online, she’d also been reminding him of it practically every ten minutes, so Bickslow knew full well just how excited his roommate had been.

The little bubble showing that Lucy was typing out another message popped up at the bottom of the screen, so Bickslow only waited for it to appear before he decided to reply.

LUCY: SHE SIGNED MY BOOK TOO!! AND SHE GAVE ME WRITING TIPS AS WELL AND I’M JUST??? I CAN’T.

Bickslow couldn’t help but chuckle as he read her messages. The shelf in their living room dedicated to all of Mavis’ first edition novels showed just how much Lucy worshiped the woman. He remembered having to wake up at 3 a.m. just to sit with Lucy in the freezing cold outside a bookstore so she could be one of the first to get her hands on the fifth instalment of Mavis’ most read series. Of course, Bickslow couldn’t be too annoyed by occasionally having to do that, because of all the things that Lucy could be addicted to, books - specifically written by her favourite author - were one of the safest things to be addicted to… Well, as long as he managed to drag her away from a book long enough to get her to eat and shower and all that (although Bickslow had caught her reading in the shower once, and how she’d managed to keep the book bone dry was beyond him).

BICKSLOW: I take it the three hour drive back to Magnolia was worth it then?

LUCY: Um, yes, definitely. Why would you even ask that.

Probably because it’s my car you took and I’m the one that pays for the fuel. But of course, Bickslow wasn’t going to say that. Last time he did, Lucy only corrected him and said that it was their car. He didn’t really care much anyway.

LUCY: I actually cried when I met her. And I was shaking so bad, oh my god. I had to pinch myself to convince myself it was real.

Now that, Bickslow believed.

BICKSLOW: Nice job, Cosplayer.

LUCY: Shut up. LUCY: I just… holy crap. I’m so???

BICKSLOW: You’re a giant nerd, that’s what.

LUCY: I’m dead. So dead. I was fingerling so hard.

Bickslow stared at his screen, rereading the message three times to see if he had in fact just read fingerling. The first time he’d read it, he’d read ‘fingering’, and, well… He’d been pretty damn convinced that was wrong. Or he’d hoped, at least… sort of.

BICKSLOW: Fingerling?

LUCY: I MEAN FANGIRLING OKAY. FANGIRLING. Damn auto-correct…

BICKSLOW: …What the fuck is fingerling?

LUCY: I have no idea, okay. It was auto-correct. LUCY: Don’t you dare look that up.

He was already looking it up on his laptop, and switching over to the ‘Images’ tab in his search engine had him almost choking from laughing too much.

BICKSLOW: IT’S A SMALL FUCKING POTATO.

LUCY: BIX SHUT UP.

BICKSLOW: It’s also a small fish. You’re a small fish now baby. I’m going to call you Small Fish.

LUCY: I hate you.

Bickslow just hadn’t been able to help himself. He teased Lucy any opportunity he had, and considering it was surprisingly rare for her to make any typos or let auto-correct rear its ugly head, he’d just been incapable of letting that little blunder slide. And, as soon as she got home later that evening, he was sure as hell going to be reminding her of it - like printing out a sheet of paper with ‘SMALL FISH SLEEP HERE’ with an arrow on it and placing it on her side of the bed. The possibilities were endless, really.

Still, he knew all too well that she really didn’t hate him. And he couldn’t help but rub that in her face as well.

BICKSLOW: Nah. You love me.

LUCY: Shut up.

#empressofeverything #ficsforvera #bixlu #bickslow x lucy #bickslow #lucy heartfilia #bickslu #lucy x bickslow #bixlow #bixlow x lucy #ft fanfiction #drabbles #fairy tail fanfiction #bixlu fanfiction

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raijindork · 4 years

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The Boy of the Lamp, Ch. 10 - Home Among the Stars

Summary: As far as Lucy always knew, genies weren’t real. Cleaning her new house one day, Lucy comes across an old lamp in the attic, and now she has a supernatural being inhabiting her house and bugging her about using up her wishes.

Pairing: BixLu Rating: T Words: ~4.3k

Read on ff.net.

Had Bickslow been a normal, caring genie, then perhaps he would’ve appreciated the link between himself and his master a little more. Perhaps he would’ve even enjoyed being able to feel his master’s emotion, too—share their pain, or even their joy, at least a little bit.

But Bickslow wasn’t a normal, caring genie. He’d never had anything against his brothers and sisters who had all been doting and oh so fond of the tiny, adorable, little humans. It was just that that had never been Bickslow’s thing. He wasn’t that kind of genie and he’d stopped trying to be somewhere around his fifth or sixth human. It hadn’t exactly won him any commendations, and certainly not the elders’ or even his family’s respect, but Bickslow had mostly stopped caring about that. He’d lived far too long to get caught up on the minuscule things in life, so caring about anything really had mostly just seemed silly. He had better things to do with his time, and it wasn’t like caring was a necessity in his job.

At least that was what he told himself.

The problem in the whole not-caring-about-anything-at-all thing though, was that it didn’t really work. Or it did, and it had for a very, very long time. But if Bickslow had learned anything from the humans, it was that even the best laid plans could be completely destroyed by just one fucking asshole—one that Bickslow did, for some ridiculous reason he still couldn’t quite fathom, like. Well, as much as he could like a human, at least.

But it was because of that, that Bickslow found himself caring just a tiny, tiny bit when he sensed unease and pain in his master’s soul. Or at least, more than usual. He’d found there was always a little bit of something lurking, a little sorrow and a little bit of suffering, and he’d put that down to human nature so he mostly just shrugged it off. But with Lucy, it had started to grow, to fester, to transform into something else, and it was just a little concerning. It wasn’t like her, and Bickslow liked to think he’d gotten to know his new master reasonably well over the last few months.

Still, had Bickslow been a normal, caring genie, then he would’ve dived into his master’s mind the second he sensed something had changed, just to see what it was that ailed their soul.

But Bickslow couldn’t do that. Or, he wouldn’t do that. After the third day, when that sorrow, just barely resembling a flash of regret truly began to manifest, where all Lucy did was mumble a few words that Bickslow still couldn’t figure out what she’d said, he had briefly considered doing it. He’d even considered just flat out asking her what the fuck was wrong with her, but he hadn’t been able to do that, either.

Bickslow just hadn’t wanted to pry. It hadn’t felt right. Lucy had asserted her independence and Bickslow could, grudgingly, live with that. If she wanted her genie to know what had her so worried and all zoned out, then she would tell him, on her own, without any kind of push from said genie. And, well, if Bickslow was honest, he wasn’t entirely sure that Lucy even liked him most days, so he really wasn’t interested in bugging her too much right then.

So Bickslow waited. He kept his distance for a few days, just watching her, silently for the most part, and he waited.

###

Busy days were rare in the bookstore. Even with the school tours in the museum at the start of every week, actual busy days—the kind of days where she barely had time to take a two minute bathroom break—weren’t all that common. It was a fact Lucy enjoyed.

The sleepy little town of Mayflower was thriving all of a sudden though. New families were moving in, seeking the country charm the small town offered. The old theatre had been bought up by some young and rich bachelor from the city (it was all the older ladies in town could talk about).There was even a new bakery across from the bookstore—although that, Lucy hated, simply because she couldn’t resist the smell of fresh pastries in the morning. It had all happened so quickly that Lucy had a hard time believing that the town she called home had been struggling just a couple of months earlier.

But it was a busy day that day. The museum was fully booked for the day and between the school children shouting and giggling and the bell on the bookstore door, Lucy’s head began to throb.

She managed to get a quick sip of water in before the next customer came up to to counter, laying out brown paper wrapped books with Lucy’s own scrawl written across the front, and a keyring from the gift section.

For the first time in a long time, Lucy couldn’t wait for the day to be over just so she could go home and crash. She’d hardly slept at all the last week and at that point, Lucy was just trying hard not to cry whenever she told a customer to have a good afternoon or a child to stop fiddling with the items on the shelves. She never thought she’d be desperate for a break while working in a tiny bookstore.

Finally, there was a lull, a break between the tours and the last customer in the store leaving with their new reads. Lucy didn’t resist pulling the stool out from under the counter as soon as the door had swung closed, sitting and breathing a sigh of relief.

Peace. Finally.

She checked her watch—twenty to one. She hadn’t remembered to pack her lunch that morning and all she’d had was a single, disappointing slice of toast.

“Why don’t you take a break while it’s quiet. You look like you need one, my girl!”

Lucy tried not to jump at the kind voice. The owner smiled at her, shooing her off the stool and setting the stack of paper and his glasses down on the counter.

“No, no. It’s fine,” Lucy said, offering a smile in return. Most days she didn’t even need a break since she spent most of her shift trying to find things to actually do. “I just wanted to sit for a few minutes. I’m good now, I promise.”

He shook his head at her, all but pushing her out from behind the counter. “I insist. Now go and get yourself something to eat and get some fresh air. I’m sure I’ll be able to hold down the fort for a little while.”

Lucy sighed and grabbed her purse from the nook under the bench. “Fine.” Something to eat wouldn’t be the worst idea, and it really was a lovely day. “But I’ll be back before the next tour starts!”

“Yeah, yeah… Now go on.”

She couldn’t reach the door before she felt her purse begin to vibrate from her phone stashed within. She paused, fishing it out as quickly as she could without dropping anything. Lucy didn’t recognise the number, but she really only had a dozen or so contacts saved in her phone and even then she wasn’t sure who at least two of them were anymore. But she answered anyway, sliding the bar at the bottom and bringing it up to her ear.

“This is Lucy!”

“Is this Miss Heartfilia?”

“Uh, yes. May I ask who’s calling?”

“Hi, my name is Oscaar Redricks and I’m calling on behalf of Faust and Porla. Are you currently someplace we can talk?”

###

By the time Lucy shut her front door behind herself, she couldn’t even remember having driven home at all. If she hadn’t still had her car keys in one hand, she probably would’ve assumed she hadn’t driven herself home at all.

He’s dead, he’s dead. It echoed in her head. Her father had been dead for a week and all Lucy could think about was how much it must have sucked to be so low on the food chain at Faust & Porla’s law offices that they got paid to call people like her and tell them their loved one had died. Lucy almost felt bad for the kid.

But Lucy just… wasn’t sure what to feel. She hadn’t spoken to her father in years, not since she’d finished college, and even then Lucy wasn’t sure that had even counted. If she was honest, Lucy couldn’t even remember the last time they’d had a proper conversation, where they’d just been father and daughter and she hadn’t been the constant reminder of her mother’s death. And she’d never really forgiven him for that either.

She could see Bickslow hovering by the door to her bedroom, peeking around the frame and just watching her like some worried mother hen. She’d been aware of it for days, but the peace had been oddly comforting at the time, and she hadn’t really wanted to talk about the fact she’d been thinking about taking one of those olive branches that had been sitting in her missed calls list for weeks.

But now the peace just felt suffocating.

“My father died,” she said, just loud enough for her genie to hear. She didn’t move, continuing to stare straight at the large mirrored wardrobe next to her bed. She could just make out Bickslow finally coming into the room from the corner of the vision. “A week ago.”

“I’m… I’m sorry.” I think. Bickslow wasn’t quite sure what the appropriate response was—human emotions perplexed him—but that one had felt oddly right.

But Bickslow still knew death, even if it wasn’t quite the way humans did, and he could respect the impact of it in human lives. They lived such short lives that death was all around them, from friends, family, and even all those silly creatures they called pets. He might have lacked the ability to be sympathetic to the human plight, but feeling all of his master’s emotions wasn’t really something he had a choice in. And right then, Bickslow kind of hated it.

“You know, it was supposed to be his birthday yesterday,” Lucy said. Bickslow was standing just to the side of her, but all she could see in the reflection was how clear and dry her eyes were and how tightly she gripped the edge of the mattress. She didn’t look like someone who’d lost a parent. She didn’t feel like one, either. “He called me a couple of weeks ago. A few times, actually. I never answered so I thought he might’ve just stopped trying when he didn’t call again.”

“Why didn’t you answer?”

Lucy shrugged. “I don’t know.” She couldn’t help but huff out a tiny laugh. Whether it was self-pity or amusement at how idiotic it all seemed in hindsight, Lucy couldn’t tell. “I guess I just expected him to remind me just how much of a failure I was to him.”

Bickslow had joked once about her father not having a presence in her life. Lucy had even said that the only person he cared to judge was her rather than any kind of possible suitor. But Bickslow had never really taken it seriously. He hadn’t had much of a reason to. His master’s relationship with her father just hadn’t been all that relevant to him; whether he existed or not, Bickslow’s task was to aid Lucy, and it was simple.

Now though, it was relevant. He couldn’t fathom how she was a failure. Not to anyone. Annoying, stubborn, irritatingly independent for a human, and just a little too bossy, most definitely. But Bickslow didn’t see any of those traits as signalling failure, and being a failure and disappointment was something he had extensive experience in—nearly two millennia worth.

“You know what the really sad part about it all is, though?” Lucy continued. Bickslow couldn’t really do anything but listen at that point. Trying to say the right thing was bound to end in disaster and Lucy didn’t need that then. “He wrote me out of his will. The only reason his attorneys called was to make sure I wouldn’t be contesting the stupid thing. Like I actually want his money to begin with!”

If she hadn’t just been too dazed and still coping with the news her father had died, Lucy was sure she would’ve laughed when they’d told her the part about his will. She’d never expected anything from her father in the first place. She’d barely even asked him for anything in her whole, albeit short, adult life. Lucy wasn’t even that concerned to know just where her father’s fortunes were going to end up.

When that pang of guilt began to creep up on her, Lucy buried it as deep as she could. “Think I’m just… I don’t know.” She sighed, finally loosening her grip on the edge of the mattress just to rub her hands down her face and gently rub circles with her fingertips at her temples. A headache is just what I want right now. “Might just take a shower and go to bed or something,” she mumbled.

Bickslow still just found himself unable to say, or even do anything that he thought might help. It didn’t help that he wasn’t sure how Lucy felt, because there just didn’t seem to be any one overwhelming emotion. How could he be of any help when he couldn’t even tell if the human he was serving was sad, angry, or something else entirely different?

Whatever the case was though, it was enough to make her seemingly oblivious to his presence still. That, or just simply didn’t have it in her to care he was still there, and for the most part, he didn’t blame her. So when Lucy wasted no time in getting herself undressed, leaving a trail of garments and shoes from her bed and out into the hall and into the bathroom, Bickslow quickly dispersed and left her be. He could tease her about her stripping habits another day.

###

In the dark of her room hours later, it was that crushing sense of loneliness that reigned supreme. And she was cold, even huddled up under her blanket. All she could do was stare at the empty space beside her with the untouched pillows and wish there was someone, anyone, to fill the space and make that horribly feeling go away for just a little while.

It seemed fitting for her genie to make an appearance again, peeking down from the ceiling that time. Lucy wondered if she’d somehow called him—he was always listening—or if it had simply been good timing.

“I was trying to give you some, uh… space…” Bickslow began, tapping his fingers together as he hovered inside the ceiling. “But a, uh… A wish tends to, um… You know, summon me.” He’d even tried to ignore that one and remain in his lamp, but ignoring a wish that wasn’t just some odd fleeting thought was difficult to do. He was bound to serve at his very core and he really didn’t have much say in the matter. “But I can still go, if you want me to.”

Lucy almost found it amusing. How he could go from begging her day in and day out to properly wish for something and use him, to doing his best to leave her alone and ignoring the one thing he actually wanted from her.

“No, it’s… It’s okay,” she said. Lucy had learned weeks earlier she wished for things far more often than she ever though. The difference was that Bickslow had always been there anyway, with the only notification that she’d wished for something at all some snarky comment from her genie about how weird she was for wishing that she couldn’t find any rainbow penguin socks online, before providing her with a pair of perfect rainbow penguin socks that she refused to accept anyway. Still, for a change, Lucy knew better than to waste a wish. “You can stay. I would, um… I would like you to.”

“Oh! Oh… Okay. Uh, of course!”

Except even when Bickslow finally left the ceiling, instead settling on top of her dresser on a cushion of coloured smoke, nothing really changed.

She was still alone, nearly painfully so. She had no friends, not ones she could talk to anymore at least, and definitely not in Mayflower. She had no family, not even any uncles or cousins. There were no pets to greet her when she got home, no partner to curl up with on those cold, dark nights. Lucy wasn’t even sure she knew any of her neighbours.

All Lucy seemed to have left in the world was just a lone genie who probably still kind of loathed the idea of being bound to her, regardless of what he’d already said.

And that was finally what got to her, and the tears came, and for a moment, Bickslow had the disgusting urge to hold her, comfort her like all the other humans did. But it was just for a second.

For the first time though, Bickslow finally found clarity in his master’s soul. And it was bittersweet for a moment. The war Lucy’s emotions had been waging for the past week had finally ended. Except in the darkness, behind the sorrow and the solitude, remained only guilt. The muffled crying into the pillow wasn’t from sadness, though. It was loneliness—the realisation she had no one left, except for him, it seemed—and hatred in that her tears weren’t even truly for her father.

Lucy felt something tap on her shoulder, almost startling her. She lifted her head from her damp pillow to find a small, golden tissue box being offered, and the empty space beside her not quite so empty anymore. Somehow, even if it was just barely, she didn’t feel quite so alone anymore; just the closeness brought her that sense of comfort and part of her hated that it was coming from the thing that was also part of her problem.

But Lucy wouldn’t reject that comfort, as small as it was. She doubted her genie wanted to be a reminder of her failures, especially when his existence alone had nothing to do with it.

“You know humans better than I do,” she sniffled, scrunching the tissue up in her hand. “Why do I feel like this is just what I deserve for cutting him out of my life?”

“Because you’re human,” Bickslow answered. “And he was your father. That means something to you.”

“Guess so,” Lucy mumbled. She just couldn’t shake the feeling that it was all her fault somehow. Maybe if she’d answered those calls, or even just called him herself, maybe it would be different. Maybe she wouldn’t have so much regret.

She didn’t say much after that, simply lying in silence and enjoying Bickslow’s presence there far more than she felt like she should. It was easy to stare, even if it was just something else to stare blindly at for a change, but especially when her mind was elsewhere.

Lucy wasn’t sure she could remember what a family was like. Not a proper one, at least. Not a normal one. She’d lived more years without her mother than with. When was the last time she’d even celebrated a holiday with family? It had been over a decade, easily. She remembered the Christmas trees and the snow angels, and sneaking downstairs in the middle of the night to peek at all her presents.

Vaguely, she remembered Bickslow telling her his appearance was different for each master. Lucy wondered just what it was that chose the mask he wore for her, the one that had stared back at her for as long as she’d just stared at him. She wondered what his true face was, though.

She remembered her friends though as well, before she’d moved and before they’d all gotten on with their lives back in the city without her. The first year she’d met them, when she’d still been living in the dorms on campus. Her roommate had eaten so much strawberry cake that Lucy still had trouble looking at one and not being instantly reminded. But she remembered all the holidays they’d invited her to, their small group of friends near inseparable—until they weren’t.

Maybe I’m the issue. Lucy wondered if that was the case. Maybe she was just destined to live out her life alone. It sure felt like she had trouble when it came to keeping friends and family around. Maybe, her family was actually just a two-thousand-year-old genie with an attitude problem and a contract to keep.

“Do jinn have families? Parents?” Because now Lucy was curious. And after staring and just seeing her genie for so long, it occurred to Lucy that she really didn’t know all that much about him or his kind, or anything, really. Would he even tell her anything? Could he? “Or do you just… I don’t know… Hatch from like, eggs or something?” she asked, almost without shame.

Bickslow still enjoyed the weird questions, whenever they did pop up. There was something oddly refreshing and just a little amusing when it came to watching Lucy learn of all the hidden, magical things around her. Most humans just simply hadn’t cared; why would they when they had a creature like him at their disposal for the rest of their short lives? Lucy was curious and Bickslow didn’t mind that.

What Bickslow did mind, however, was being asked if he had hatched from a fucking egg. What exactly did she think he was? A chicken?

“That is literally the most idiotic thing I’ve heard in my entire life.” And Bickslow had really wanted to just be nice to her for the rest of that night, until she was back to her old self even, but he had a limit. “No, we don’t hatch from fucking eggs. What the fuck kind of question is that?”

“W-Well, how was I supposed to know!” Lucy shrieked. In hindsight, it might not have been the smartest thing to ask, especially out loud, but the fact it offended him that much had Lucy unable to keep the small smile off her face afterwards.

“I don’t know. By using your fucking brain? And here I thought you humans had actually evolved.”

“Hey, no fair. I didn’t even know you existed until a few months ago, remember?”

“Mm-hmm, I remember,” Bickslow muttered. How could he forget the days it had taken for her to stop thinking she was just hallucinating. “But fine, I’ll let that one slide. Fucking eggs. What the fuck.”

Lucy gave him a sheepish smile as he shook his head. She was sure he was never going to let her forget that. “So you have a family then?” she asked. She knew better than to ask if he was born in some weird chamber.

“I have a family.”

“Tell me about them.”

“Well, they’re like your human families.” He shrugged slightly. “I have a mother, a father. Brothers, sisters.”

Lucy couldn’t help but find it somewhat endearing to learn that even her foul-mouthed genie had a family somewhere. “Do you ever see them?” She couldn’t imagine what any family reunions would be like, not after living as long as Bickslow had.

“No.”

It was such a definitive answer that Lucy knew not to press further. And she was fine with that, at least for the time being.

But it was late, and for a little while, Lucy had started to think that maybe things would get better; the light within the dark would grow brighter and warmer and she’d have someone else there just to keep that light from going out.

“Can I ask one more thing?” Lucy asked quietly.

“What?”

“Would you stay here for a while longer? Just… Just until I fall asleep.” She hated asking, but the thought of being alone right then was terrifying and Lucy wanted to cling to that comfort for as long as she could.

Bickslow would’ve done it without her even asking, but he was still far too proud to admit so. “If that is what you wish.”

“Please.”

“Then yes,” he said softly.

It took Lucy a moment to get comfortable again, pulling the blanket up over her chin and fluffing her pillow. It was one thing to spend hours looking at someone, simply enjoying the close company, but to fall asleep with someone watching her? Lucy couldn’t think of a better way to deal with the nerves than to just close her eyes and focus on falling asleep. And it came easier than she expected, feeling warm and safe under the soft glow of the moonlight through the window, and not at all alone.

When she was finally asleep, Bickslow had a moment of weakness. He reached out, just barely, stopping just above her cheek where her hair had come loose from behind her ear and fallen across her face. She was human—so, so very human—and it was a fact that Bickslow found himself to be constantly reminded of. He knew better. He didn’t get attached. And yet, he still fell victim to those strange, new feelings, and, even worse, emotions, that felt remarkably human-like.

Bickslow just couldn’t quite wrap his head around any of it, either.

But he knew better. He didn’t get attached. He pulled his hand back away after another moment of hesitation, just to clutch his arm at his side with his other hand to try and relieve the pain; it wasn’t the first time his brands had started to burn, and Bickslow doubted it would be the last.

Still, Bickslow couldn’t bring himself to leave and return to his lamp for the night. So he stayed, eventually finding his own strange comfort on the human bed, and closing his eyes.

In the morning, Lucy couldn’t help but notice the creased covers next to her, where the warm still lingered.

#bixlu #bickslow x lucy #bickslow #fairy tail fanfic #fairy tail fanfiction

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raijindork · 4 years

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The Boy of the Lamp, Ch. 9 - Clingy

Pairing: BixLu Rating: T Words: ~4.5k

Read on ff.net.

Spring came to an end and summer was just around the corner. Following the rain-ageddon, things started looking up for the small town of Mayflower, and Lucy go to see the town flourish and thrive in a way she’d never yet seen.

It had rained nearly every day for three whole weeks, enough to fill up all the town dams and bring life back into everyone and everything. There’d been a few casualties in the storms, namely a few crops, but they’d been nothing to worry about in the end. The rain had saved lives, saved families, and even saved dreams.

Things returned to the way they were in the quiet town as quickly as they ever would. The bookstore hadn’t needed to be put up for sale with the draught ending, which meant Lucy still had a steady job to keep a roof above her head - something Lucy had come to respect a whole lot more following the disaster that had almost struck.

It was a Friday, Bickslow’s favourite day of the week. In the lounge room, Bickslow was glued to the television, watching the cartoons playing on the screen with mild fascination and Lucy finished getting ready for work, and her evening, in the next room. Lucy wasn’t entirely sure when her genie had discovered that there were other shows other than reality television, but she couldn’t help but feel like a mother to a seven-year-old whenever she walked into her lounge room to see the man-shaped genie sitting three feet away from the screen.

“Alright, I’m off. Running a bit late,” Lucy said, grabbing her water and lunch from the kitchen before picking up her keys and purse. Bickslow didn’t acknowledge her, not that it was entirely unsurprising, so she made a point to at least pop her head around the corner to see if Bickslow even noticed she was speaking. “Don’t watch T.V all day, alright? And don’t watch last night’s episode of Candy without me, either!”

Bickslow rolled his eyes, waving his hand in her direction. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll wait. Don’t worry,” he muttered. He knew better than to watch shows without his master, especially ones she actually liked. She’d gotten all huffy when he’d binge watched the next season of a show they’d started together.

Hearing the front door close, followed by Lucy’s car pulling out of the driveway a few moments later, Bickslow finally looked up from the T.V, quickly floating himself over to the window to peek out through the curtains and make sure his master was gone. He hadn’t been that glued to the screen, at least not as much as Lucy thought. He wasn’t a pitiful human male only capable of focusing on one thing. No, he was of the higher form; he could focus on two things, sometimes even three.

Bickslow usually hated when Lucy went off to work, mostly because he was left to his own devices and there wasn’t all that much in the human world he could occupy himself with, other than the T.V. (but even that got a little boring). But for a little while, during the first week or so of rain, Bickslow had loved the solitude. It was the only time he’d been able to rest and regain his energy, because petitioning Ukko had used up far more than he’d intended.

He’d never told his master that he’d had anything to do with the storms, mostly because he wasn’t sure if he had at all. There was no reason for a god to listen to him, especially one forgotten and cast aside by his followers. For all Bickslow knew, the rain had been coming anyway; Ukko could’ve ignored him and carried on with whatever it was that gods did in their spare time. But Bickslow hadn’t wanted to tell Lucy anything either. He’d been fine not taking credit for it. It hadn’t felt right when his master’s first proper wish had been one out of completely selflessness.

It had been nearly a month since then though, and Bickslow was quite happily back to his usual self. He still napped most of the day, purely out of boredom, but he’d also started using his days a little more productively, too. Lucy didn’t give him anything specific to do, which was fine and he could, unfortunately, respect that (at least most of the time). But there were still a few little things around the place Bickslow could keep himself occupied with, without Lucy throwing a fit at him. Namely, it was organising. Bickslow had found joy in organising everything and just squaring up everything in Lucy’s tiny home. So much so that he did it every single day Lucy was gone.

Aside from making things look pretty, it also filled in the time, both of which were pleasing to a being such as himself.

He had a routine for organising Lucy’s house. He started with the lounge room, arranging the pillows neatly and making sure all the little trinkets she had were perfectly spaced apart. He moved onto the books next, arranging them all alphabetically first, and then by colour, and then alphabetically once again. He usually moved onto the kitchen next, aligning all of her dinnerware in neat rows and perfect stacks, then arranging all of her food in the cupboards and fridge and making sure everything was all grouped up. Lucy had unsurprisingly noticed his work in the kitchen, simply asking if he’d organised everything. She hadn’t said anything else about it, so Bickslow had figured it was safe to keep doing it. Although really, he wouldn’t have stopped anyway.

Once he was finished organising, Bickslow’s day was painfully boring. He napped, he watched the T.V, and he stared at the clock when he had nothing else to do. The latter was more entertaining than it seemed.

In the evening, Bickslow would merely sit and wait for Lucy’s eventual return. Her predictability was something he’d gotten far too used to, but he did kinda like it.

But that day, Bickslow sat a waited far longer than he should’ve, and after establishing the fact that Lucy lacked both a social life and friends to share a social life with, Bickslow can’t quite help but begin to freak the fuck out. It was so unlike her to be so late that she even missed her favourite show at half past seven.

Every five minutes, Bickslow would peek out through the curtains just to see if there was anything going on outside. He wasn’t surprised that he couldn’t see anything, but it was something to feel in the time. He knew he’d hear Lucy’s car anyway. Bickslow just wasn’t fond of waiting for it, because not knowing where his master was just wasn’t acceptable.

Eventually, far past his master’s usual bedtime, Bickslow heard Lucy’s piece of crap car pull into the driveway. He made himself scarce until the door finally opened, and Lucy immediately rolled her eyes when the coloured mist swarmed almost protectively around her for a moment. She felt her genie take form before he spoke, something Lucy had been getting quite good at noticing over the weeks.

“And where were you, hm?” Bickslow demanded.

Lucy was almost positive she could feel the genie hitting the back of her heels, he was following that closely behind her. “If you must know, I was on a date,” she muttered.

Bickslow fell behind for a moment, Lucy’s news just a little difficult to wrap his brain around. He blinked in surprise. “Um, excuse me?” That was just absurd. Lucy had to be fucking with him. “Did you just say a date?”

“Yes, that is exactly what I said.

Bickslow couldn’t believe his ears. He was positive he’d missed something, because nothing was making sense. Lucy? On a date? That was just… It was completely absurd.

He caught back up to her in the kitchen, watching as she kicked off her shoes and went straight for the fridge. Admittedly, Bickslow had gotten so used to seeing his master in her usual attire that the skirt and colourful blouse looked somewhat nice. He hadn’t paid all too much attention that morning, but he supposed if he had, then he might’ve realised earlier that Lucy had made plans for the evening.

But was Bickslow going to compliment his master’s attire? Oh no. Definitely not.

“Well, why wasn’t I aware of your plans?” he asked, pouting just a little. He didn’t like not being included.

“Because I didn’t think you needed to know,” Lucy answered, just slightly confused as she finally spied something edible within her fridge. “Also didn’t think you’d care, to be honest,” she mumbled.

Bickslow huffed. Of course he cared. The fact Lucy thought he wouldn’t was just idiotic. “You are my human, therefore I need to know such things so I don’t—”

“Did you just call me your human?”

“I—yes, why? That’s what you are.” Bickslow wasn’t sure why Lucy found it so amusing, but the smirk on her lips was strangely terrifying. He felt an odd warmth creep up on his face, one he intended to get rid of as soon as possible. “You are human, and you are my master. That is all I meant.”

“Uh-huh, sure,” Lucy murmured.

Bickslow didn’t like that, either. He had half a mind to just go back to his lamp, but he had other matters to attend to first. He perched himself on the counter, next to where Lucy was compiling the ingredients for her sandwich. Bickslow supposed there wasn’t much point in dwelling on the fact Lucy hadn’t told him about her date since there wasn’t anything he could do about that now. He wasn’t capable of controlling time - at least not to that extent.

“Well, when are you going to introduce us then?” Bickslow asked.

Lucy couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Why on earth would I do that?” she chuckled. That had to be one of his jokes. Besides, even if Lucy did want to introduce her genie to anyone, she wasn’t even sure how it would be possible, based on the fact that she was the only one who could see him.

Admittedly, Bickslow hadn’t thought that far ahead. He looked away embarrassingly, waving his hand as he tried to come up with some kind of answer. “W-Well, like I said, you’re my human, so I think I should at least know who you’re sleeping with just in case something happens,” he spluttered, ignoring the raised eyebrow his master was giving him. “And, it doesn’t exactly seem like your father is around anyway, so it’s only fitting that I get to judge your potential friends in his place.”

“Hate to break it to you, but the only person my father judges is me,” Lucy scoffed.

Bickslow frowned. He was sure that would be a perfect opportunity for him to prove that he was actually an empathetic being, but really, he just wasn’t. That didn’t stop him from wishing he knew what he was supposed to say to that. “I don’t want you getting hurt by some pathetic excuse for a human,” he admitted quietly instead. “Strangely enough, I would prefer it if our contract didn’t end with your untimely demise, all because some asshat decided to make a lampshade out of you.”

Lucy rolled her eyes, shaking her head slightly. Of course her stupid genie had been watching more horror movies. She wasn’t entirely sure why he found them so fascinating. Still, it was probably the nicest thing he’d ever said to her. Smiling softly, she said, “If it makes you feel any better, I won’t be seeing him again anyway.” He’d been awful and Lucy hadn’t been able to wait to leave.

She hadn’t even wanted to go in the first place, if she honest, but he was her boss’s grandson (or nephew - Lucy couldn’t actually remember) and she hadn’t been able to say no after all the family had been through with the drought and almost having to lose the store. Lucy just hadn’t seen the harm in going on one little date.

It did. It made Bickslow feel tremendously better. The last thing he wanted to be worrying about was his master being murdered by some lunatic. She was his human, no one else’s. Bickslow never had been good with sharing.

###

Another week passes, and once more, Bickslow is swarming his master as soon as he hears the jingle of keys and feels her presence. Lucy had started treating him as an actual pet a few days earlier, much to his disgust, asking ‘who’s been a good boy?’ in that annoying voice and going to pat his head - or, well, the air. If Bickslow hadn’t just been too glad to see her then he might’ve silenced her tongue again and had her learn her lesson.

Still, Lucy coming home was truly the highlight of his days by that point. He didn’t blame Lucy for working, and they’d been together long enough that he’d started to accept her oddities and incessant need to actually do things, but none of that changed the fact that he was at home, by himself, for ten hours a day, with nothing but reality television, cartoons, and horror movies to keep him occupied. If he was human, Bickslow knew he’d be well and truly fucked in the head. But Bickslow had spent hundreds and hundreds of years standing by a master’s side, so when Lucy left every morning to go and do her thing, Bickslow couldn’t help but feel a little lonely.

Lucy got home right on time and Bickslow greeted her as usual.”Did you enjoy your day? Anything exciting? Any more dates planned you care to let me know about?”

Lucy sighed, making a beeline for her living room where the T.V. was still on from whatever her genie had been keeping himself occupied with. “I did, nothing unless watching two ants fight over a piece of bread counts as exciting, and no.”

Bickslow wasn’t going to question the ant thing, but the last part was reassuring. “Well, any plans for tonight then?” he asked, although he knew better than to expect an answer other than no. It was a Friday, and Lucy never went out on Friday.

“Nope! I’m gonna have a shower, order a pizza because I’ve been craving one all day, and then finish the rest of that season.”

That was something Bickslow could get on board with. Pizza was likely the one human food he didn’t completely hate, too, and garlic bread wasn’t bad either. Still, Bickslow wasn’t going to bring up the fact that he’d already finished the season Lucy planned on watching.

Bickslow waited until Lucy sat herself down in the middle of her couch with the box of pizza in front of her before joining her again. He still didn’t quite get the shower equals privacy thing, but Bickslow had already figured it was just easier to go back to his lamp and wait. Lucy was already stuffing her face with a slice of pizza and fiddling with the remote when Bickslow announced, “So, suggestion.”

“Yes?” Lucy mumbled.

“Take me with you when you go places.”

Lucy choked. Bickslow leant back and gave her a concerned look as she coughed and spluttered and tried to regain her breath again. “What?” Lucy shrieked. “What do you even—how?” Aside from the fact that Lucy wasn’t even sure why Bickslow would ask such a thing, she didn’t know how it would even be possible. Last she checked, he was bound to his lamp.

Bickslow shrugged. “Just take my lamp with you.”

“Take it with me?” She stared and pointed at the bronze lamp above her fireplace. “What, so you just want me to chuck it in my purse and carry it around with me all the time?”

“I didn’t say all the time, moron. But yes, that would be ideal.”

It wasn’t as if Lucy hated the lamp - honestly it was the kind of thing she expected to find in a thrift store for a couple of bucks. It was just that Lucy really didn’t want to have to lug that thing around everywhere. It wouldn’t exactly be all that convenient. She’d have to buy a new bag just to fit it in.

She shook her head, picking back up the slice of pizza she’d dropped during her coughing fit. “I’m not putting your lamp in my purse. It’s too big anyway,” she mumbled.

Bickslow raised an eyebrow at her. “Really? You’re complaining about the size?”

“You are despicable.”

The genie shrugged. The thing about humans was that they tended to mirror traits of those closest to them, but even a genie thousands of years old like him hadn’t been able to avoid picking up a few habits and mannerisms from his human counterparts. “Well, I can’t change my lamp, so you’ll have to live with it,” Bickslow huffed, crossing his arms. “But I still want to come with you when you leave. At least sometimes.”

Much to Lucy’s surprise, the most interesting thing in the room was no longer the fact that all the episodes of the her show were already marked as watched. Instead, it was just Bickslow. There’d been something off about him for the last few weeks as it was and Lucy figured it was about time she ask about it. “Are you okay?” she asked worriedly.

“Yes, of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You’ve just been really weirdly lately, is all,” Lucy mumbled. “I mean, ever since I went on that date, I guess. You’ve just been really… I don’t know, clingy?”

“Clingy? I am not being clingy, thank you very much,” Bickslow gasped, folding his arms again. How dare Lucy accuse of him of being such a thing, something so human and so pitiful.

“There’s no need to get all defensive about it.”

“I’m not being defensive. You’re being defensive.”

Lucy’s eyebrows shot up as she leant back. “Seriously? That’s how you want to do this?” she deadpanned. As if he wasn’t being weird enough already. Lucy wasn’t sure if he was doing it on purpose or if he just genuinely didn’t think anything was different. She was still trying to wrap her head around genie etiquette as it was, but Lucy still had a feeling that all went out the window when it came to her own genie. Bickslow only shrugged at her. “I’m just saying, first you got all weird about my date, and now you don’t even want me leaving my house without you. It’s just… It’s a little strange, okay? And I’m worried about you.”

Now Bickslow felt bad. He wasn’t supposed to make his human worry. That was the last thing he was supposed to do. And in hindsight, Bickslow realised he could’ve been a little less obvious about thing, but that had never exactly been a strong point of his. Still, Bickslow had enough sense to realise that if he had any chance of getting Lucy to agree to anything he proposed, then he probably had to start telling the truth - something else that also wasn’t his strong point.

When her genie said nothing and just continued staring at the opposite side of the room with a pout, Lucy just shrugged and set her focus back on her food and her T.V. “Alright, fine. You don’t have to tell me what’s up. That’s okay.” Lucy just thought it would be nice if Bickslow told her things, mainly because she figured she was going to be stuck with him for the rest of her time on that planet, so it just made sense to her to reach a point where they did just tell each other everything. Besides, it wasn’t like Lucy had anyone else’s problems to listen to.

After a moment, Bickslow sighed loudly and uncrossed his arms. Lucy only glanced at him from the corner of her eyes. “I don’t like being left alone,” Bickslow begrudgingly admitted. It was probably the most pitiful thing he’d ever admitted out loud, at least to a human. “Everyone else was always around all the time and gave me things to do. But you just work all the time, and then all I get to do is sit around here and wait.”

Considering her genie’s general lack of affection towards her, or any other human on the planet, Lucy had just never pegged Bickslow as being one to get lonely. But, Lucy supposed it wasn’t really all that surprised. He’d told her before his last masters had all quit their jobs if they’d even had them, but that had been right back at the beginning of their contract when he’d still been bugging her about actually wishing for things. But Bickslow didn’t pester her about any of that any more, or at least not nearly as much as he used to. If anything, Lucy wasn’t sure what Bickslow did those days, other than just sit and wait patiently for her to return each day.

“I, uh… I didn’t know it bothered you,” Lucy mumbled, setting the slice back down in the box. “I still can’t just quit my job. I have bills to pay.”

“I know you do, stupid. And I’m not telling you to, either, because you’re stubborn and you like to be independent and I know you’re not going to quit your stupid job. I don’t care about that.”

“You just don’t want to be left alone so much,” Lucy repeated.

Bickslow shrugged. It was a simple enough concept. He was, by nature, a social being. Granted, he didn’t particularly care for most humans which was a failure on his part, but Bickslow still thought there were worse things to be than lonely.

And while Lucy now understood why Bickslow had been the way he had been for the last few weeks, she still wasn’t sure if taking him anywhere was a good idea. Lucy still didn’t know the extent of her genie’s abilities (and she wasn’t sure she wanted to know), but letting one loose on the world didn’t seem like the best thing.

Besides, there was still a part of her that thought it was a stupid idea anyway, actually taking his lamp places. He was supposed to be serving her, so really, why should Lucy bother listening to him? Of course, that would be the nice thing to do, and it would probably make the rest of her time on that planet a little more bearable if her genie didn’t despise her, but still. It wasn’t her fault her genie couldn’t handle being on his own for a few hours every day. Honestly, Lucy thought she’d be better off with a dog. At least they just slept when there was nothing else to do.

Judging by the scowl on her genie’s face right then though, Lucy figured she hadn’t been the only one inside her head at that precise moment.

Lucy shook her head, sighing as she finally managed to get another bite in of her dinner. “Anyway, no, I’m not taking you anywhere,” she mumbled, mouth full. “You’ll just have to find something to do during the day. Sleep or something.”

“My kind do not need to sleep as much as you tiny humans,” Bickslow huffed, crossing his arms again. He was bored of sleep, and he slept when Lucy slept anyway just because he was bored.

“Well, I don’t know then, but I’m still not taking you anywhere.”

Bickslow knew when he had lost. But while he might’ve lost the battle, he could still win the war. Bickslow was sure he could convince Lucy at some point. He just had to wait for the right moment.

Unfortunately for Lucy though, Bickslow wasn’t nice enough to leave her alone. She was being stubborn, so he was just going to be annoying, and being annoying was something Bickslow considered himself to be quite good at.

“So, when are you going to actually start writing? Or whatever shit you said you moved here to do,” Bickslow asked. The glare his master gave him was highly worth it in his book. He couldn’t help but respond with a small shrug and smug smirk.

Lucy guiltily looked over to her desk across the room. She knew Bickslow was just trying to get back at her or something since she’d told him no, but… He still kind of had a point. That was why she’d moved out into the middle of nowhere.

“I’ve… I’ve been busy,” Lucy said. She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d written anything, or even had the urge to. Moving had just taken so much out of her that sitting down and writing had been the last thing she’d wanted to at the end of the day.

“Bullshit.”

“It is not!”

“Honey, you’ve come home and made me watch T.V. with you every night for the last three months.”

Lucy scowled at him before huffing and looking back away. Her genie always pointing things out was beginning to be a little annoying. “W-Well… Well I just haven’t had the inspiration, okay?” she admitted quickly. “I don’t know what to write anymore.”

“Oh.” Bickslow supposed it made a little sense. Still, Lucy wasn’t the first budding author he’d served, so he was still just a little confused by her statement. “Why don’t you just, I don’t know… Make it up as you go? Isn’t that what you writers do anyway?”

“No! Well, maybe. I can’t do that though. I need… I need to have an idea in my head before I start. Like, I need to have something to go off of so I can brainstorm and plot and…” The genie raised his eyebrows as Lucy began making vague motions with her hands as she tried to explain herself. Sighing, she dropped her hands to her lap and pulled the pillow to her chest. “I just don’t know what to write,” she whispered again.

Now Bickslow just felt bad. He’d meant to be annoying, not mean. Inspiration wasn’t something he could give his master. Not really, at least.

But Bickslow wasn’t really sure what he was supposed to do then, now that he’d upset her. Did he apologise? Or did he try and come up with something comforting to say? Neither were things he’d ever particularly done well. So he did he only thing he was good at, which was be himself.

“Anyway, hurry up and start the episode already. I’m bored.”

Lucy sighed, rubbing her nose and reaching for the remote on the table. “Right, yeah, sorry,” she mumbled.

In hindsight, Bickslow supposed he should’ve just stayed quiet.

#bixlu #bickslow x lucy #bickslow #fairy tail fanfic #fairy tail fanfiction

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