Lisanna ran down the street of Magnolia, trying desperately not to trip on the uneven flagstones that made up the surface of the pavement. She was supposed to meet Juvia at the guild hall at exactly noon, and the sun was already almost exactly above her. She had got caught up in talking to Mira while she was packing and now she was running late.
"You're going on a job with Bickslow and Juvia? That's a really weird combination of you. What exactly is the job for?"
Lisanna sighed, pulling clothes out of her chest of drawers and trying to decide what she needed for the couple of days ahead. Bickslow had told them they would be back by nightfall, but Lisanna always packed for a few days just in case. You never knew what was going to happen.
"It's the one in Vikx Atoll, Mira. The one that came in a couple of weeks back? Juvia has been on a job for the last two weeks, and Bickslow has been busy with the rest of the Thunder Legion so this is the first chance we have had to go."
She folded up a t-shirt and placed it into her bag, zipping it up as her sister continued to talk. She understood that Mira just worried every time she went on a job without her or Elfman, but Lisanna was a big girl now. She could handle herself fine. Plus, Juvia was S-Class back in Phantom Lord and was an S-Class candidate back on Tenrou. Sure, they had both got their arses whipped by Erza, but come on that was Erza.
"Isn't that the exorcism? Why are you going along?"
Lisanna made her way to the kitchen, going to grab some supplies for the job. She had been on far too many missions where there had been nowhere to find food, and she didn't want to find herself going hungry again. She opened a couple of the cupboards, pulling down tins as she replied.
"The client says the ghost haunting him used to be an animal take over mage. Bickslow asked me to come along in case I could talk him out of the haunting. If it doesn't work out, he'll just do whatever he does to sort it out. Juvia was sat next to me when we were talking about it and says there are no boats that go out to that island. She's going to help us swim over there."
Mira passed Lisanna a few bottles of water from the cupboard closest to her and asked her final question.
"Surely Bickslow can just fly on his little baby thingies, and you can transform into a fish? I don't see why you need Juvia there at all."
Lisanna paused for a second, before shrugging and adding the last few supplies to her bag.
"It doesn't help having another powerhouse on the team, right? I thought you'd be happy that I had someone else protecting me."
Mira gave her little sister a look, before pulling her in for a hug. Lisanna sighed, and simply allowed herself to melt into her sisters embrace. She tried to not get annoyed by her older sibling's overprotective natures, she really did, but nothing helped better than the last hug she had with them before she left for a job.
"Just be careful, ok? And if Bickslow does anything to you, I will personally kill him. No matter how much of a crush you have on him."
Lisanna blushed, pulling away from her sister as soon as possible. They had been drunk one night, and her older sister had been plying her for information regarding her love life. Lisanna had admitted that she found Bickslow attractive, much to the amusement of all the other girls who were sat in Cana's apartment at the time. It wasn't even a crush. She just thought he was good looking, that was all.
Lisanna ran into the guild and saw Juvia sat on a table right next to Gajeel. She had always been somewhat wary of the Iron Dragon Slayer, after being told what he had done to the guild, but his Edolas counterpart had been alright and Levy insisted that he had changed so it had gotten better. He simply scowled at her, but the way Juvia was talking to him he looked relieved that she was about to leave. The water mage picked up her backpack and joined Lisanna on their way to meet Bickslow at the docks. He had said he would be coming off a training session with the Raijinshuu, and he didn't want to make his way all the way back to the guild to just go back to the docks again straight away.
"How was your job, Juvia? Are you sure you mind coming on another job straight away?"
Juvia smiled, hoisting her backpack onto her shoulders as she hurried to catch up with Lisanna.
"Juvia enjoyed it. It was relatively easy, but she did get lonely. She managed to go back home and shower and repack, so she is fine. Plus, she loves spending time with Lisanna-chan."
Lisanna grinned. No matter how much she loved Edolas-Juvia, she much preferred this shy Juvia. No one was more friendly than Earthland Juvia, and she really was fun to spend time with. Whereas in Edolas you really needed to fight to have a conversation with Juvia, here in Earthland you fell into conversation pretty easily.
"So what did you have to do on your job?"
Juvia adjusted her bag, before blushing slightly. The job had been pretty embarrassing, but she knew that Lisanna wouldn't ever judge her.
"Well, Juvia had to go to a village that has been in a drought for the last few months. They had heard that Juvia was the rain woman, but hadn't heard that she can't control the rain and hasn't cause rain around her for a while. But it's ok because Juvia got sad that she disappointed them and it started raining! And then she was happy and it stopped raining. It was embarrassing. Juvia ended up spending time refilling their reservoirs so they should be ok for a while."
Lisanna smiled at Juvia's predicament. She had been told about how much more powerful the woman was in the rain, and really did feel sorry for her. It must be difficult losing the majority of your power when you were happy.
"Are you sure you're going to have enough magic power to go straight into another job?"
Juvia nodded, smiling as she did.
"Juvia doesn't use that much magic power allowing people to breathe underwater. She had enough rest on the journey back to Magnolia, anyway."
Lisanna nodded, happy that her friend wasn't going to be too put out. She had gone on many back to back missions with her siblings back before she was taken to Edolas, and it always took it out of her.
They carried on talking about everything and nothing until they got to the docks. Juvia looked around, shielding the sun from her eyes, trying to spot the Sieth mage they were looking for.
"Can Lisanna-chan see him? Juvia can't see him and he doesn't exactly blend in well"
Lisanna sighed, putting down her bag so she could transform into a bird and get a good vantage point in the air. The docks weren't super crowded, but a view from the air would help spot the man. And like Juvia said, he wasn't good at camouflaging with the ordinary people of Magnolia.
Juvia was the first one to come across a clue to where Bickslow was. One of his small dolls floated alongside her and surprised her as she was looking the other way.
"Drip Drip Drop! Drip Drip Drop!"
Juvia span around to see one of the totems, the one with a large grin, spinning around next to her. Juvia held her hand out for it to land, but it simply zoomed around her and continued to talk.
"Follow! Follow!"
Juvia looked around to try and see where Bickslow was controlling the doll from, but to no avail. The small doll just kept flying around her, repeating "Follow", before trying to bump into her. It flew straight through her body, before stopping in surprise, giggling and doing it again and again.
Juvia giggled at the happiness the doll was experiencing, before realising that she had a job to get doing, so she grabbed the doll and spoke directly to it.
"Juvia is glad we are having fun, but we need to find Bickslow. Juvia will let you play more later."
The doll tilted in a way that made Juvia think that it was cocking his head, before spinning around in circles again.
"Papa? Drip Drip Drop! Follow! Follow!"
Juvia scrambled to pick up Lisanna's bag, before following the small doll through the crowd. Everyone seemed to part for them, and Juvia could see why. If you didn't know the dolls they could sure be creepy. They had been around the guild enough for her to realise they were pretty funny, especially when they drove Freed and Evergreen angrier and angrier.
The doll led her to a ship that was docked next to one of the piers and flew over the gang plank. Juvia couldn't see much over the high sides, but the doll flew back and told her once again to follow.
"Juvia can't follow you. This isn't her ship."
The doll bounced up and down, flying around in circles.
"Papa! Papa ship! Papa high! Up! Up!"
Juvia wrung her hands, trying to figure out how to explain to the doll why she couldn't just fly up to where it thought Bickslow was. The doll sat itself on the ground next to her, staying still and for a second Juvia thought something had happened to it before it spoke again.
"Help Drip Drip Drop up!"
Juvia looked at the doll, wondering how she would be able to balance on top of the thing. She needed to make sure that she didn't understand.
"You want Juvia to stand on you, so you can take her to Bickslow?"
The doll rocked slightly on the ground, repeating her words.
"Juvia stand! Papa! Up!"
Juvia swallowed her anticipation, before grabbing both of the bags and stepping onto the doll.
Lisanna had not been up in the air for long before she heard something talking to her from behind.
"Tweet Tweet! Birdy! Pretty birdy!"
She hovered in the air, before looking around to see one of Bickslow's dolls floating next to her. It had big wide eyes, and generally looked surprised, and Lisanna recognised it as Puppu. She had spent some time learning all of their names as soon as she found out that they had them, they were part of the guild after all and she just found it to be polite. The doll flew closer to her and bounced up and down in the air.
"Birdy! Follow! Find Papa!"
Lisanna moved closer to the doll as it flew away, turning around occasionally so that it could make sure that he was being followed. Lisanna flew over the crowd, keeping a close eye on the doll until it led her to a ship. She was confused for a second, until she noticed Bickslow perched on the mast, waving to her like a maniac.
"Lisanna! You came!"
Lisanna grinned at how excited the Sieth mage was, before perching next to him.
"Erm, Bickslow, who's boat is this?"
The man shrugged, before allowing the doll to float down onto his head. He patted it's top, before sending it off flying again, Lisanna assumed to find Juvia.
"Why are you sat on a random person's boat?"
The man turned to look at her, sticking his tongue out to reveal his guild mark as he did.
"I needed to find somewhere easy for the babies to remember. Otherwise, they might get lost."
"Don't you control them?"
Bickslow just shrugged, before spinning around the centre mast to rest on the other side. Lisanna didn't think she had ever seen him sit still, and this was no exception.
"Are you all ready for our job then, little birdy?"
Lisanna blushed at the nickname, but simply nodded her head. Against all expectations, she was really looking forward to going on a job with Bickslow. Ever since she had seen him fight seriously on Tenrou Island, she had been fascinated by his magic and wanted to know more. She was about to reply when she was interrupted by Juvia arriving on another one of the dolls, with three more around her keeping balance. The last doll zoomed up to Bickslow, landing back on his head as they all chanted together.
"Drip Drip Drop!"
Bickslow laughed out loud, the creepy laugh that Lisanna had come to know since she got back from Edolas. Juvia giggled as well but quickly grabbed onto some of the dolls for support. Bickslow looked over at the bags that they had packed, before laughing to himself.
"Why have you brought so much stuff? I told you we would be back by nightfall."
Lisanna scoffed, flying over to take her suitcase from Juvia's hand, making it easier for the Water mage to balance.
"I like to prepare for the worse. What are you gonna do if we need to stay somewhere overnight? Sleep in those?"
Bickslow grinned again, allowing his tongue to loll out. He walked along the top of the sail until he got to the end, arms flung out to either side for balance, before he spun and looked at Juvia.
"Would you be able to make an air bubble around me and the babies? They warp a bit when they're wet so I try to avoid it."
Juvia looked down at the doll she was standing on, still wet from where it had been flying through her earlier. She blushed slightly, before deciding not to mention it.
"Juvia need someone to hold her up while she does it. Would Bickslow mind carrying our bags through the water?"
Bickslow nodded before the totems flew Juvia over closer to him. Lisanna sensed what she needed to do, and after handing Bickslow her bag, she grabbed onto Juvia to allow the wooden dolls to fly close to Bickslow. Juvia constructed a bubble of water around him and their luggage, before instructing to Bickslow that she would be able to move him through the water for higher speed. She was halfway through the explanation when they heard a shout from down below.
"Hey! What are you guys doing up there?!"
Bickslow looked down to the sailor beneath him and laughed when he started to climb up towards them. He looked towards the two women and shouted in excitement.
"That's our cue to leave, ladies. Let's Go!"
With that, Bickslow jumped off the mast, flipping three times before he hit the water. Juvia sighed, and Lisanna lowered them both into the water, transforming just before she hit the surface. At least this job wasn't going to be boring.
A/N - Isn't this the second new fic you have uploaded today? Yes. Yes it is. This is the long awaited (by a couple of people, at least) companion fic to Iron and Paper focusing on Bixanna. Many thanks to my wonderful friend Gajeelswoman for beta'ing this for me, and just being a general awesome person to bounce ideas off. Go check out her fic if you haven't already!
Some answers to questions you may have:
Is Iron and Paper finishing? No, it isn't. It's still going to be released every Sunday for a considerable time yet. Trust me, it isn't ending soon.
Is this going to be released regularly? Maybe. Maybe not. I don't have a set schedule for this one, but I am hoping to release it weekly like Iron and Paper once I get more organised. Going forward the chapters won't be as long, but should hopefully be regular.
Anyway, as always, let me know what you think. Did you love it? Did you hate it? Do you not care either way?