UPDATE: So, turns out, I like writing these four dorks, so it's a universe. Kind of like how the BixLu Happy Wife, Happy Life stories are. What this means is that this will instead be turned into one giant collection of stories set at various points. GaLu, BixCo, BrOTP BixLu (there is so much of it in this later it's insane). Each one will have a chapter/story title at the beginning, and you should be able to figure out when it's set from the actual story itself.

So uh... I tried to write a GaLu... I don't know how to feel about this, because I've never written anything other than BixLu for Fairy Tail, but it's one of my favourite ships and I just really, really wanted to do something else since it was a possible idea for Shattered, surprisingly, and it was too good not to use. So yeah, GaLu with a lot of BixCo because I adore them all and I needed to have all of my babies in one story.

CATCH THE BOUQUET - PART 1

It all started when Bickslow and Cobra announced their engagement.

Their engagement in itself wasn't surprising to say the least though. They'd been together for a little more than two years and despite Bickslow being Erik's Dragon mate and Erik being Bickslow's soul mate (according to him, anyway), they still decided to officially tie the knot. The two, for whatever reason, worked well, so no one had actually bat an eye when they'd announced it in the guild that afternoon. Or, technically, Bickslow had walked in and shouted it with Cobra following behind him with a bored expression on his face.

It was really about the problem it seemed to have caused, and of course, Gajeel was the only one who seemed to notice it, and that was only because it was the blonde he adored more than metal who seemed to be influenced by such a joyous announcement. Ever since the Seith mage and the Sound mage had come in and told everyone the news, Lucy had been just a little quiet. There had quite obviously been something going through her head after her friends had shared the news, and Gajeel had known right from the second something had changed.

Gajeel knew it wasn't jealousy for Bickslow and Cobra. Oh no. If it was though, Gajeel would be more than a little worried. Not only was Bickslow essentially her brother by that point, but Erik had become one of her closest friends (technically by extension, really). Not to mention that she was and apparently always would be in love with another Dragon Slayer anyway. Or at least, that had been the case the last time Gajeel had asked her. He still liked to check occasionally, despite her having become his mate surprisingly not too long into their relationship. But of the things Gajeel knew for certain, it was that her sudden shift in demeanour was not because she was jealous. He knew she was incredibly happy for them, but there was obviously eating her up inside. He really just wouldn't have been a very good boyfriend if he couldn't notice just the tiniest of changes.

But of course, Gajeel wasn't going to try and figure out what was wrong when they were in the guild, especially when he had a feeling it really did somehow involve Bickslow, Erik, and their engagement. It just wouldn't have been wise to ask her what was wrong when she was still surrounded by said people. No, Gajeel would wait until they got home that night to find out because then they'd be alone and she hopefully would be able to tell him what was up. It was his job to make sure she was happy, after all.

With great effort, Gajeel kept his mouth shut about it until the exact moment he'd closed and locked their front door behind them. Swiftly, before she could get too far away and start getting ready for bed, he had her back against the door with his arms caging her in. "Bunny," he said softly but firmly as he stared into her chocolate orbs. He could see something wasn't right, and it pained and frustrated him to no end that there was something at all. "Tell me what's up."

Lucy only let out a quiet sigh. "It doesn't matter, okay?" she replied, and she quickly ducked just to escape under his arms and get around him, heading towards the bathroom next to the bedroom.

She wasn't surprised in the slightest that he'd decided to finally ask her what was bothering her, because he always did, and Lucy would almost always tell him whatever it was that was on her mind. He heard all of her rants and complaints about her team that were more a case of Lucy just needed to vent to a wall rather than a person, and he heard all of her insane and illogical ideas for her stories that had her up at four o'clock in the morning when they just needed to be written down somewhere they were that good. She told him whatever was on her mind, whether it be bad or good or something else entirely, because he was her best friend and she could tell him everything.

But… Some things, she kept to herself, just because she couldn't tell Gajeel those certain things for any number of reasons. What was bothering her right then though was another of those thoughts she would keep to herself, because if anything, it just wouldn't be fair to tell Gajeel that. Lucy reasoned he'd probably just find it silly, anyway, so she'd just keep it to herself. Things would be better that way.

As he watched her disappear into the bathroom at the end of the hall over his shoulder, he let out a sigh and dropped his hands and let his forehead hit the door. Usually, just asking her what was wrong or sometimes just reminding her that she could tell him anything did the trick – even after nearly four years together, he still had to remind her sometimes – but that time, Gajeel knew the conventional methods when it came to getting his girlfriend to open up weren't going to work.

Gajeel couldn't help but be a little worried about what it was she was thinking about. The last time she'd pretended that there was nothing bothering her or that it wasn't important only ended with her blurting out she wanted a baby after he'd pestered her about it for three entire weeks after things just got progressively worse for nearly half a year. And that… Well, they'd started working on that after he'd gotten over the initial shock from finding out his girlfriend wanted a kid. Actually, they'd gotten to work on that pretty fucking quickly, because it really wasn't one of the worst things he'd ever heard come from her mouth.

But he was still a little worried about whatever it was that had her not wanting to tell him about it. Despite Gajeel not knowing what it was that was bothering her and how it had anything to do with two of her friends getting engaged (there was still, of course, the possibility that it was all just a coincidence and it was something else entirely, but Gajeel doubted it), he knew for certain that he wasn't going to wait three weeks like he had the last time to find out what was going on with his partner. No way in hell.

After staring at the wood grain of the door for a few minutes, Gajeel pushed himself away when he heard Lucy turn the faucet off in the bathroom, and then the quiet flick of the light switch as she exited the room. He knew she was getting ready for bed, like he should have been considering it was very, very late and everyone had spent all night at the guild celebrating Bickslow and Erik's engagement, but that wasn't going to stop Gajeel from finding out the truth.

He came up behind her just as she pulled her top off and threw it to the hamper by the dresser, leaving her in just a bra and skirt, and his arms came around her to close the drawer she had open, stopping her from getting any more clothes on – or off for that matter. His red eyes stared into the reflection of the mirror in front of them, his body pressed against hers and keeping her pinned to the drawers, and he quietly said, "Tell me."

"It's not important," she mumbled.

"Yes it is. Everything you say is important."

Lucy looked down to the top of the the dark bureau and her fingertip lightly traced over one of the light scratches on the polished surface. Part of her did actually want to tell him, because it was hard not to tell him absolutely everything. Gajeel had been her rock, her person, for a long time, and she'd gotten used to just saying whatever was on her mind. Half the time they really were just random thoughts, but it didn't matter because there was always someone there to hear them.

But this… This, Lucy really didn't want Gajeel knowing, because she didn't want him feeling like he had to blame himself or anything. That was the last thing she wanted or needed. Sighing, she placed her hands over his and looked back up to meet his eternally piercing gaze in the reflection, and she pulled his hands away from where they were on the edge of the dresser and pushed them away from her. "Well this isn't important," she insisted. "I love you, but I really want you to just drop this one, okay? Please."

Gajeel frowned as he tore himself away from the blonde and he turned just to look to the Exceed fluffing up his small pillow in his own miniature bed at the foot of their own bed. They shared the same look of concern, and after Lily just shrugged and settled himself for the night, Gajeel silently went about getting himself ready for bed in silence, all the while his growing concern for his girlfriend continued to eat him up on the inside.

It was always like that for Gajeel when it came to Lucy. He was always worrying about her and concerned about her wellbeing or health or just her in general, even when he knew she was more than capable of taking care of herself. He just couldn't stop himself from caring too much if he tried, and he was well aware that he really might care too much. But it had just always been like that, even more so when she'd become his mate, of course, so he'd mostly stopped trying to convince himself to stop actually caring about how much he cared. Aside from the fact that it was quite possibly one of the stupidest thoughts that had crossed his mind – surely there was no problem with caring far too much about the woman he loved – in the years he'd been with Lucy, it was also just a lost cause.

He was always going to care about her far too much for his own good, and she was always going to tease him just a little bit about how he was literally the biggest fucking softy in the entire guild. Deep down, of course. You know, under the entire menacing exterior that was covered in piercings and all that. He'd only ever let Lucy tease him about that, and anyone else was going to get a punch to the face if they called him a teddy bear. Bickslow had done that a year earlier, and he'd never done it again, considering Gajeel had broken his nose. Of course… That one hadn't really gone done very well with Lucy, since he'd hurt her brother over a joke. The punishment for that little incident was definitely not worth the crime.

But no matter what, he would care about her. He would always worry about her and for the rest of his life, he would do his best to make sure he could make her happy. And when he could see there was something troubling her, whether it be a stray thought or something else, he didn't like it one bit. He needed to get to the bottom of it.

So he waited until she'd climbed into bed to press the matter again because he was obviously not going to drop it. As soon as she'd laid down on her back and reached out for the lamp beside her to switch it off before she got comfortable, he practically pounced on her. Not because they were in fact trying to get pregnant (it had only been a few months though since they'd started, so they weren't worried that it hadn't happened yet), but because he needed to get her to spill whatever it was she was set on keeping from him.

If anything, that just wasn't how their relationship worked. Though they'd been together for a long time, there were still times when Gajeel let some of his darker thoughts get the better of him. They would whisper in his ear and try and convince him that Lucy really didn't trust him as much as she said she did, that she didn't really love him at all. He knew they were stupid though; she did trust him and she did love him. He knew that for certain.

It was just that when she purposely kept things from him for whatever reason, he couldn't help but feel like there was a part of her that was only making her keep whatever it was from him because she maybe didn't trust him enough. It was why they could tell each other anything and everything. There was nothing between them because they trusted each other dearly, and that was just how it had always been for them.

For the most part though, Gajeel could deal with Lucy not wanting to tell him a few things every now and then. It wasn't like he didn't keep some of his own measly secrets from her at times, just because they were stupid or he was scared of his Bunny overreacting and kicking his ass to Bosco. Almost every time he'd known there was something on her mind and she didn't want to tell him what it was about, she'd dealt with it on her own. Things always got better.

But this? This, Gajeel wasn't going to let her get over on her own. He was sure it was going to end up getting worse if she let that thought fester in her mind, and he didn't want her blurting it out when he was sick of him annoying her.

With his body above hers, his weight on his arms and off of her, he looked down to the blonde beneath him with the lust quickly burning in her eyes and a smirk turning her lips as her arms looped around his neck and into his unruly hair. That… Was not the reaction he wanted. Not right then, anyway. "Bunny," he said firmly as he turned her head away so she instead kissed his cheek. "Not right now."

Lucy's smile instantly melted when she sensed the seriousness in his tone. And granted, he always sounded serious, but not so much with her. She knew exactly what he was going to do, and her mouth only twisted into a thin line as she continued to blink up at him. "Why can't you just leave it alone?" she mumbled. Why couldn't Gajeel just drop it, huh? Why couldn't he just let her have that one and instead fuck her into the mattress like she wanted him to and he always wanted to be doing? Lucy would really much rather be doing that than talking about something stupid.

"Because I know it somehow has something to do with Bix and Cobra and I'm worried about you, Bunny."

"Well, don't be. It's nothing."

He arched a pierced brow as her eyes flicked to the side. She wasn't denying that it involved her brother and his now fiancé, and that didn't really surprise Gajeel in the slightest. It had been incredibly unlikely that it had been a coincidence, because Lucy realising she wanted a baby was sparked by almost everyone (or really just a few people in their circle of friends) suddenly getting pregnant in the space of five months. First it had been Juvia and Gray, then Erza and Laxus, Mira and Freed, and then Bisca and Alzack again. Apparently they had been the last nail in the coffin and ultimately led to Gajeel's girlfriend getting baby fever, and that was something he didn't really understand for a little while (he'd been just a little nervous when Levy had said that was what she apparently had, and that it was somehow some horrible contagious disease).

So if anything, for Lucy to suddenly be getting a little quiet and secretive, it made a little bit of sense. Sort of. Not really, because Gajeel had no idea what it was about and how it involved their friends' engagement, but it made a tiny lick of sense.

"Suddenly not a fan of gay marriage or somethin'?" he chuckled.

Lucy scowled at the Dragon Slayer with the wicked grin above her, and she removed her hands from where they were tangled in his hair and instead pushed against his chest as she turned away from him to finally switch off the lamp. "No, you dumbass," she muttered, hearing another low chuckle by her ear when he pulled her side into him as she turned back slightly. "You know it would never be that."

"Then what is it?"

"Gajeel, seriously," she whined. "Just leave it alone. It's stupid."

"Nope. Tell me."

Lucy rolled her eyes as an annoyed sigh escaped her lips. Gajeel was persistent sometimes, and it was enough that she was really getting tempted to just tell him so he would either leave her alone for the night so she could sleep, or just get on with being pounded into the mattress. At that point, she really wasn't fussed, but she would definitely prefer the latter first.

She still thought it was absolutely stupid though. It was absurd, and it wasn't important in the slightest. And still, she didn't want Gajeel to feel like she wasn't happy with the way things were, because she was. She wouldn't change anything for the world, but she just couldn't help feeling the way she was.

"Come on, Lucy. Tell me what's wrong," he murmured, pointed teeth lightly grazing over her ear and down the side of her neck, just light enough to have a shiver running down her spine.

Lucy sighed again, and she shifted in his grasp so she was facing him instead of having her back against his chest. "Promise not to freak out or anything?" she asked softly, her worry almost instantly melting away when he gave her that rare smile that only a few people ever saw.

"I'm not gonna freak out. Did I freak out when you said you wanted a kid? Hell fuckin' n—"

"Yes," she cut him off quickly. "You were nearly catatonic when I finally told you, and then you went on a rampage in the guild about how you were going to catch my baby fever and that I needed to go see Wendy to get it treated before I died."

"Well, it sounded pretty fuckin' dangerous at the time, 'kay?" he muttered. "But back to now. What's going on?"

She pulled her lip between her teeth to nibble on it lightly, and she let out a shaky breath when she heard her inner voice just to tell her to get the hell on with it. Quietly, so quietly that she could barely even hear it herself, she said, "Well… You know I'm really, really happy for Bix and Erik, because I love them both and I'm glad they're happy and going to be getting married."

"But…"

"But I'm just…" She paused as she tried to find the right word, and Gajeel watched as her brow became creased and he could only picture the intricate cogs and gears working in her head non-stop as she tried to find her voice. "A little envious," she mumbled finally.

And she was, if she had to pick a word to describe it. Lucy didn't like feeling that way though, because it made her want to hate herself. She should only be happy for her friends, because it was something to be incredibly overjoyed about. But she wasn't, and she hadn't wanted Gajeel to know that because she truly was happy with the way things were.

Or at least, she thought she was. She couldn't help but wonder if her envy was a sign she wasn't as happy as she though, and that thought truly terrified her.

Gajeel only blinked at her as she made a point of avoiding his eyes. "Whaddya mean?"

"I mean that I guess I'm a little disappointed that we're never going to get married," she answered, watching as the shock and realisation hit Gajeel and he stared at her in silence. "And you know I love you and you know I'm always going to, but when I was younger, I always thought about what my future wedding would be like. Like most little girls do, I suppose."

"So you're disappointed you never got the wedding you dreamed about as a kid," Gajeel said as she nodded slowly. Suddenly, Gajeel was feeling incredibly inadequate. They were, technically and officially, mated, so they really didn't have a reason to get married. The life commitment was essentially the same, anyway with only a few minor differences from what he could gather, but he'd always assumed Lucy was fine with that.

But if she was saying that, then maybe Bickslow and Cobra announcing their engagement had just made her away of how she'd always felt. Gajeel didn't know, but regardless, he wanted to fix it.

Lucy smiled softly when she could see that it had hurt Gajeel, and it was why she hadn't wanted to tell him. She'd seen it coming a mile away, but there wasn't much she could do about it. All she could do was try and remind him that she was happy, and she didn't need to be married to get that. She was fine not being Mrs. Redfox (or Heartfilia-Redfox), and she needed to make sure Gajeel knew that. Her children would bear his name, but she wouldn't. She didn't need to to be his.

Lifting a hand to lightly rest against his cheek, she leant forward to press a kiss to the tip of his nose. "But it doesn't matter, okay?" she said softly and still smiling as she looked directly into the crimson eyes. "I told you it wasn't important, because you're still my dragon and I'm always going to be your Bunny. I wouldn't change this for anything in the world."

But Gajeel thought it was important, and he knew that Lucy must have thought it was important too. At least a little bit, anyway. For the first time in his life though, Gajeel was thinking about marriage. It surely wouldn't be all bad, right? He'd heard a few rumours about what happens after marriage from older guys when he went to bars when he was finishing up a job in another town (mostly the old guys complaining about their wives doing something, or not doing something, as it turns out), but they couldn't all be true, surely. They were practically already married as it was anyway, so technically, a ring wouldn't change anything.

"We could get married," Gajeel said quickly and suddenly, Lucy's eyes going wide when he broke his silence.

Did he want to marry her? Hell yeah, he did. That much had only taken him a millisecond to realise. And surely Lucy wanted to as well, especially if she was disappointed that they hadn't and weren't going to. "I mean, we basically are already, and it's really just a ring and a piece of paper anyway so it wouldn't…" He trailed off when when he noticed the way her mouth suddenly twisted into a firm line and the way her eyes narrowed at him, and he swallowed his terror. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

A ring and a piece of paper. That's all it was to Gajeel, and even if it was mostly true, it hurt Lucy to hear him say the words. She'd never ever expected him to propose, especially not right then, and even if that was his way of proposing, it was quite possibly the worst way to go about it. Yeah, good job, Gajeel. Say they could get married and make it seem meaningless.

"Because, you jackass," Lucy snapped as she reaching behind herself just to lift his hand from where it was on her back and push it away from herself as she put some (but not a lot) distance between them. "I expected you to realise it was just a little more important than that."

"Huh?" Gajeel blinked as she quickly turned and rolled to her other side, her back to him once again. "What are talking about? All I said was that we could get married—"

"No. Now goodnight, Gajeel."

He blinked again, and stared at her in shock. Did she just say no? He was so far past confused it hurt his brain. He hadn't expected her to say that, and granted, he also hadn't expected to suggest that they could get married so she could have the wedding she'd apparently wanted since she was a kid, but he hadn't expected her to get mad at him.

He just didn't know what he'd done wrong, and as he rolled to his other side to turn off the lamp on his side, he only stared up at the ceiling with the only sounds filling his ears being her quiet breathing and her steady heartbeat.

Somehow, Gajeel had done more harm than good, and he still knew he needed to find a way to fix it.

So, this part of the story has two parts, and of course, the next chapter will be the second part (Catch the Bouquet - Part 2).

I am so incredibly sorry if this is way to OOC for them, but yeah, this was an experiment if anything, since I have a couple of other one-shots planned that aren't BixLu (yay!) and I need to try and figure out how to write for other characters.

I do hope you enjoyed this though, and that you enjoy the other part to this when it's out! Like I said, I'm just trying something new and I have no idea what I'm doing.

Until next time.

- April