This is my entry to BixLu week, each prompt will be a new chapter, and there will be random jumps in time. Semi AU, since I don't intend to have Lucy become a reporter during the year of disbandment, but I hope you enjoy!

X792 - January (Two months after Fairy Tail's disbanding)

Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail

KEY TO HIS SOUL


The jagged edges of gold cut into pale flesh, her skin was coated in cold sweat as shivers wracked her body, and the scent of copper became prominent in the room as crimson life dripped down the golden piece and onto pink sheets. Dried tears clung to her cheeks, dark circles made her eyes seem hollow and empty, and it was easy to tell this wasn't the first nightmare. He watched her, stormy blue eyes willing away the darkness in her heart, but it wasn't enough; he could intmidate monsters, beat a wizard saint, but he couldn't chase away her nightmares. Laxus had found her alone, after the guild disbanded, when she was wandering with nowhere to go simply because she had no other home to go to; her pink emblem was like a beacon to his eyes, reminding him that there were some who would never leave, and those that did only chose to do so to ensure their survival; the Lightning Dragon Slayer was at a loss for what to do. He couldn't comfort someone, he couldn't make a person lose their fears and walk back to the light, so he was bringing her to the only people he knew who could.

The door to the hotel room cracked open, three sets of glowing eyes peeking inside, and as their eyes fell on the blond he knew they saw it. Something had happened, she was suffering, and nobody had stayed for her; when he'd found out that Natsu had left and only told her by a letter...it had made him want to find the child and beat him senseless. A strong jaw tensed as a pained whimper left her, the shaking getting worse, and brown eyes shot open as the blond toppled out of the bed and seemed to go into a panic. "No! Don't! Please, anything but that!" Her yell was broken, hoarse from tears, and then there was a distinct shift before someone folded her in their arms. Laxus watched Bickslow cradle the girl against his chest, the helmet gone in his haste to get here it seemed, and the Seith Mage held strong even as Lucy began to struggle. "Cosplayer!" The blond couldn't hear him, or if she could she was ignoring him, so Bickslow grabbed her cheeks and made her look at him. "Lucy." He spoke her name so softly, so tenderly, and her brown eyes widened before he watched them gain a green ring. To calm her down he'd used his magic, to get her to still, and in that moment he saw everything. It was rare, if it happened, that he ever saw memories; it was an exception to his magic that happened when the bonds with the target were strong and their emotions were strong.

He watched as she suffered, as she was assaulted by three monsters, and then he watched that sacrifice. He could hear her thoughts, how distraught she was to lose Aquarius, and how she had determined to fight at that time and grieve later. He ended the flow of magic, watching her eyes return to normal, and her own eyes were filling with new tears as she raised her hands to his face. "I'm sorry." She whispered, wiping the tears now leaking down his cheeks off with her thumbs, and he did the same to hers. "For what?" The blond closed her eyes. "I had known your Babies were close to you...but I didn't know." His expression hardened, she'd seen everything, and yet she didn't look disgusted. He pushed his thoughts aside and picked her up, glancing at Freed and Ever as they waved him over, and the Fairy Mage began wiping the blood from Lucy's hand while Freed prepared a bandage; once her hand was treated they all stared at the jagged remain of Aquarius' key. Nobody wanted to speak first but this at least, Laxus decided, he could do. "What happened to her?" Bickslow went to answer but a stern look from Laxus silenced him, he watched the way Lucy's face seemed to tense before her voice came out at last. "Every mage was trapped in a spell, it froze them in place, they couldn't do anything. I was the only one left...and I was attacked by three of the Kyuukimon." Laxus would never forget the fight against Tempester, the pain of eating the anti-ethernano particles, nor would he forget the fact that he hadn't been able to save the town of Hargeon.

That Lucy had faced three of those fearsome monsters, alone, proved how far she had come as a Fairy Tail mage. "I had Loke and Virgo out when Jackal found us, his curse was explosives, I was going to die either way...so I opened three gates at once." Freed's ocean blue eyes widened, unable to stop himself he blurted out his immediate thought. "But that takes so much magic, it could have killed you." Her eyes moved to his face. "I would have died either way...I decided that I would do whatever I could. They wouldn't be the reason I died, I wasn't giving up to them." Her answer was cold, frigid, and Bickslow took her hand and ran his thumb along the soft skin. Lucy's eyes met his and a sparkle of gratitude formed in them before it flickered away. "I called Aquarius...and she did come. But the one demon, Torafuzar, could swim through the water; when he injured Aquarius it was one attack from Jackal that took out Loke and Virgo. Jackal ended up threatening Torafuzar, one wanted to kill me and the other wanted to torture me, and once Torafuzar left Jackal actually killed Lamy. When he was going to kill me Aquarius stopped him...but she said..." A fresh bout of tears flowed down her cheeks and her chest heaved. "She said that she wasn't strong enough, that I didn't have much of a choice, I had to summon the Celestial Spirit King." The Raijinshuu all looked at one another, none of them had heard of the King having a key, and as if reading their thoughts Lucy let out a whimper. Bickslow pulled her onto his lap and held her close, letting her cry on him, and the blond clutched him as if he were her lifeline.

"I had to break her key to summon him! You have to break the key of a spirit you have a mutual bond with...and I had to lose her." Lucy couldn't talk anymore, the others knew that Aquarius was one of the keys she'd inherited from her mother...that the mermaid spirit had essentially raised her after Layla Heartfilia died, and to know that Lucy had let her go to save them rung deep with them all. "The others tell me that she's happy, she's okay, but I just...I never got to say a proper goodbye." The Seith Mage ran his fingers through her hair, letting her cry out her grief, and Laxus watched his best friend. He'd known Bickslow had a huge thing for the blond, the playful man was not only a raging perv but he had a thing for strong women, ever since she'd kicked his ass in Fantasia actually. But the man would never act on it due to the fact that he'd always assumed she was with Natsu, when the normally playful mage had heard what the Fire Dragon had done to Lucy in his departure he had been furious, now he was stepping up to prove why he was the one that would take care of Lucy. Freed and Evergreen seemed to come to the same conclusion, Bickslow's harsh expression showed that he knew just where their thoughts were going. The Raijinshuu were as loyal to Laxus as he was to them, if there was anything he could do to make Bickslow happy then Laxus would do it, and if Bickslow was stepping up for Blondie than the Lightning Dragon would get rid of any potential competition.


Stronger, faster, more agile...she had to be more. Lucy was pushing her body past its limits, she knew, but she would not be put in that situation again; Lucy's tears no longer came, the guilt was gone when she thought of Aquarius, all because of Bickslow. He'd given Loke a letter to the Celestial Spirit King and not more than ten minutes later Hige-oyaji had come to the human world (freezing time around her again) and brought Aquarius with him so Lucy could say goodbye, after being nearly drowned and strangled the mermaid had finally talked and the two women had found a peace in their bond as friends. "You need to eat." Her brown eyes raised from the wall to the shining blue eyes of Freed, he'd been following her around like a mother hen for weeks to make sure she ate, none of the Raijinshuu or Laxus ever left her to her own anymore. Her room was with Evergreen, her training was with Laxus when he wasn't on a job, and Freed had started teaching her how to re-write his runes and tested her wit...but Bickslow was working with her on agility and speed. He had been in a circus, an acrobat of all things, and so he was making sure she could perform some of the stunts he could; while she'd taken gymnastics as a kid, per her father's orders, the blond hadn't ever learned how to use them in combat. "Thanks Freed." Lucy continued to push magic to her hands, she was forcing herself to learn how to re-quip so she could keep more than Fleuve d'étoiles on her as a weapon; her skin was pale and covered in a light sheen of sweat but she wasn't done yet.

Freed's eyes never left her form, watching her hands, the magic amount was far too much and something should have happened by now; Yukino had admitted to being able to use transformation magic, sleep magic, and the ability to requip a small blade and she'd used far less magic. "Lucy you should-" The blond's arm split open, a long laceration tearing across her skin, and blood sprayed across the floor as Freed rushed over to her; Lucy's eyes were wide as she began to shake, the combination of exhaustion and blood loss now wearing on her, and the Rune Mage caught her and used his coat to staunch the blood flow. "Evergreen! Get the bandages, a needle, thread, and boiling hot water!" Freed shouted, knowing Bickslow and Laxus were on a job, and the Fairy Mage hurried into the room; her eyes wide as she took in the frightened look on Freed's face. "Lucy's arm just ripped itself open." He explained as Evergreen handed him the sterilized needle and thread, watching as he quickly sewed the skin shut, it was done neatly and the thread was spelled so it was more resistant to ripping or being cut, but without a healer he had little choice in the matter. "That's not normal, she should have no problems learning some caster spells." Things like transformation magic, sleep spells, and even small re-quipping were the easiest magics to learn. "Princess is having a hard time because she's trying to channel the magic as she would her keys, Evergreen-sama, and while she's doing it she is blocking the magic flow to the rest of her; channeling all her magic into her hand caused it to backfire into her arm." Virgo explained as she appeared in a small shimmer of stars.

The maid had begun popping out at random, seeing as Lucy didn't want to depend on her spirits, and Loke too would appear when he felt like it; Capricorn was the only one Lucy really summoned frequently and that was because they meditated together. "Lucy isn't a caster mage, it makes sense that she isn't aware there is a difference in magic channeling, I hadn't thought about that." Evergreen whispered, guilty, and Freed turned his head as shame colored his face. Neither had he. "Princess will be alright, the stitching is quite good Freed-sama, but I suggest staying with her when she begins to train again. I shall take my leave." The maid spirit didn't want to draw on Lucy's already low magic, in her arm splitting her magic had just scattered, all that power in a single instant had just gone. If the blond learned how to channel that magic into either bullets, arrows, or some projectile she'd be a deadly foe but it all depended on Lucy and how willing she was to listen instead of pretending. Virgo and Loke weren't blind, neither was Capricorn, the blond had been brushing help off and giving people the bare minimal of her attention; part of why she was having the issue she was.

It was only minutes later that Lucy woke up, eating without a word, and the two members of the Raijinshuu locked gazes before Freed captured Lucy's empty hands; he noticed her eyes gain a shine, knowing that by making contact physically she was paying attention, and he smiled warmly at her. This was how Bickslow found them, when he strode into the room, with Freed holding Lucy's hands and explaining to her the difference is caster magic channeling compared to holder magic channeling; the Seith Mage resisted the urge to smirk and instead strode over, dropping a bag on her lap, and Lucy looked at it before looking up at him in alarm. "Figured you'd like this." It was a bag of books, all of them about ancient Celestial Spirit Mage spells and even some tomes about learning multiple magics. "Did a job for a library, these old books weren't registered as theirs so the owner let me keep 'em." Freed blinked, eyes narrowing, and Bickslow raised a brow in challenge; so what if he'd Figure Eyes'd the librarian into deleting the records? It was for Lucy and Freed would have simply used runes to hide them while Ever would have seduced the man. "What happened to your arm?" Bickslow asked, staring at the bandages, and Evergreen flinched when he saw the blood. "Lucy was channeling too much magic to her hand, it caused her arm to split open, we had to stitch her up." Bickslow's gaze shot to the bandages and he ran his hand along the skin, watching Lucy flinch, his eyes hardened. "You need to rest, go read in bed after a shower, we'll clean up here." The blond opened her mouth to argue but his expression said it all and she relented after only a minute.


The pale glow hadn't happened by Lucy had done it, in her hand was the small knife she'd gotten as a gift from Laxus; her requipping wasn't fancy like Erza's was, it was subtle, and she kind of liked that about it. The blond took a breath and sent the knife back, replacing it with her whip, and then sent that back. It was like breathing, how easy it was, and she glanced at Laxus' sleeping face; the spell was stronger than she'd intended, really, but he was finally resting after weeks of non-stop training. "Not bad, still too slow." Bickslow commented as he wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her from behind, and Lucy chuckled before her form seemed to vanish and Gemini hovered over him. The Seith Mage felt the sharp point in his lower back, knowing Lucy was learning to switch places with Gemini meant that she'd be one hell of an opponent. "Not bad, Cosplayer. Mercy." The blade was gone, her giggle sounding, and he turned around only to see that she was wearing a tight black dress with light blue edging and a gold band around her shoulders and waist; the blond had her hair pulled into pigtails and her feet were bare, t was something he'd never seen her wear. Her eyes seemed to glow gold before her outfit seemed to change, taking on something similar to the outfit he'd worn when they first met, and her eyes were glowing green. "What is-" Lucy grinned as her tongue dropped from her mouth in a clear imitation of him. "Star Dress, Gemini. I can copy enemy magic." Lucy explained before her eyes glowed once again, her hair spiking slightly before lightning crackled around her, expression harsh as she seemed to look almost like a female Laxus. "Thanks to you guys...I've learned the limitless potential of my power." Bickslow grinned, watching lightning lick at her skin, and he prepared to attack; the fire in her eyes was back, she'd found her strength, and now he would show her his own.

Their spar was tough, considering Lucy was now more agile, and she'd even broken one of his Babies' wooden bodies. As they sat down, breathing sort of heavy, the blond smiled and handed him a bag. "Happy Birthday." He blinked, looking at the bag, and as he opened it he felt his heart thud in his chest; the wooden totems were beautifully carved, not quite like the silly ones he had made, but more like an authentic native totem pole. Animal faces, not people, the favorite animals of the friends who now protected him. "Lucy..." Her eyes twinkled with tears. "I thought you'd appreciate it." He did, more than he'd ever say, and he transferred the souls to the new containers and smiled. "All fixed." She giggled, holding the broken wooden doll, and he nodded in agreement.


So there is chapter one for BixLu week, not too romantic but there will be romance in the next chapter...maybe some smut. Most likely. Anyway, hope you enjoy!