I blame Brenna (aka Bicksinator, whose stuff you should most definitely go and read) for this. I can't even remember just what made me want to turn this into a story, but I know it's strange as all hell. I'm too scared to actually go back and find out just where this came from, too, so yeah...

Enjoy!

"Stupid goddamn motherfucking caves." He kicked a rock as they emerged from the mouth of the cave within the mountain, then winced and cursed under his breath before he began to hop around on one leg, clutching the foot he'd just kicked the boulder with, then slipped over on the loose gravel and landed flat on his back. "Ow, ow, ow. Damn it."

"That's what you get for kicking the rock, you moron," Laxus chuckled up ahead.

"Oh, shut up, Spark Plug," Bickslow muttered as he picked himself up from the ground. Granted, Laxus had a point – if he hadn't kicked the rock, he wouldn't have hurt himself. But was he going to admit that he had realised his own stupidity to Laxus? Hell fucking no. He couldn't let the boss man get that satisfaction, so Bickslow would just continue being bitter all the way until he got back home to Magnolia, and back to Lucy and Chace.

And honestly, it wasn't like being gone was that bad, considering his son was in the 'terrible twos' stage that was probably far worse than Satan's or Hades' had been, so Bickslow was all for leaving Lucy with the kid for a couple of days and more than she liked. Besides, Chace still liked Lucy a whole lot better than he did him, anyway, so it really wasn't that horrible.

But when being gone for just one day (ugh, unfortunately, because he really needed more than one day away from his kid sometimes) meant going up to the mountain ranges just to search for a goddamn motherfucking cave, and then meant spending a day walking through that goddamn motherfucking cave – it was really that horrible. But, Bickslow figured that was what he got for not asking Freed what the mission was when they'd left and they'd asked if he even wanted to go. Since, you know, they for some reason thought he'd rather stay home with his wife and kid instead of taking a job.

Idiots.

If Bickslow had known it would involve a cave though, he probably would have stayed home and actually put up with his son's (and wife's) tantrums for a change. He hated caves, so much so that he could rant about them for hours (he had once, and then Laxus had electrocuted his tongue and made it so numb he couldn't talk. Nerve damage wasn't something Laxus worried about, apparently). But caves, Bickslow hated. They were dark and damp and cold and gross and there were bats.

Bats were annoying little fuckers. He would know – he had one fly at his face once.

The cave they'd just come out of had been no exception, of course, and he had hated every second of being in it, tripping over the rocks and tiny little stalagmites, and stepping into gross puddles every now and then and getting swooped on by swarms of tiny little vampires. Even now that they were finally on their way back to Magnolia, Bickslow had absolutely no idea why they'd gone in the first place. The jobs they took those days weren't really all that engaging or fun.

"Uh, Bickslow?"

He rolled his eyes at Freed's cautious tone, the Runes mage now behind him as he'd stormed past them (with a slight limp thanks to that goddamn rock) just because the sooner he got home, the better. "What?" He only turned to find all three mages behind him; Freed looking a little worried, and Laxus and Evergreen trying not to laugh, apparently.

"There's a, uh…" Freed paused to clear his throat before continuing as calmly as ever, "There's a bat in your… helmet." Though really, even when Freed had known Bickslow for too many years to count (he'd counted, and it had been fifteen, unfortunately) and the Seith mage had been using his current visor with the purple plume-like thing attached to the top of the hood for several years now, Freed had still yet to realise just what it was actually called.

Helmet seemed to suffice right then, though. Sort of. Because nestled in the fluffy plume at the back of his hood, was a tiny little bat, trying to hold on for some bizarre reason.

"Huh?"

Freed pointed to the back of his own head and to his own actual ponytail (it was just so much easier to manage when it was tied up). "In your… ponytail. On the back of your hood," Freed explained.

Bickslow made a face under his visor. There was just no way a bat was on him. "Come on, no there's isn't. Stop fucking with me." Regardless, out of curiosity he lifted his hand to reach for the back of his hood, then he instantly pulled it away when he felt something move and pull on the plume, and something that felt remarkably like a claw on the back of his hand. "What the fuck—no! What the fuck is that thing?!"

There was something on him.

He didn't like it.

Damn it, he hated caves.

"Like Freed said, it's a bat," Evergreen said.

"Get it the fuck off me!" the Seith mage shouted. Bickslow only began running around like an even bigger lunatic than he already was, screaming and jumping around on the gravel path and hoping that moving around would get the vampire off of him, because he wasn't going to physically remove it himself or take off his hood and hope it moved then. Oh no. But he didn't want to become food for a goddamn bat.

Laxus was grinning wickedly as he cracked his knuckles. "I'll get it off you."

Then Bickslow stopped screaming and running around, and his hands shot up to protectively cover the little vampire bat that was entangled within the fluffiness. "No! Don't you dare!" He couldn't let Laxus hurt his little vampire friend! Aside from the fact that Laxus would most definitely not care about hurting him as well as the bat, he just couldn't actually let the poor little creature die. Laxus would no doubt harm him (or maybe it was a her) just a little too much, and Bickslow couldn't let that happen.

"But you said to get the bat off you," Laxus pointed out innocently.

"Not like that."

Freed sighed and stepped forward. He could see Bickslow's reasoning behind not letting Laxus help – no, really, he could – so he would help remove the winged creature himself. "Here, let me get it," he offered, coming up behind the Seith mage as he hesitantly lifted his hands to uncover the bat lost within the plume and give Freed access.

There was some fumbling, and some pulling on the fabric of the hood, and then there was a sigh from Laxus who was disappointed he didn't get to be useful, and then Bickslow and bat were finally separated and he breathed a sigh of relief.

Bickslow couldn't help but find the little creature adorable in Freed's palms – it wasn't that big, fitting easily in the Runes mage's hands, and it was so fluffy with its grey, red, and black fur and leathery wings. Honestly, Bickslow really never did think he'd find a bat cute. Bats lived in caves and caves were gross. "He's kinda cute, I guess," Bickslow mumbled. Evergreen nodded in agreement as Laxus just rolled his eyes and left them all with the bat.

"I think it's just a pup," Freed mused.

"A what?"

"A baby bat," Freed clarified. "And, I actually think it's a fruit bat, too, which is odd since one would assume it has been with you since we were in the cave, and these types of bats usually avoid caves…"

Bickslow's brow creased. He wasn't even surprised Freed knew that since the guy's knowledge was way too extensive, but he was glad for it. Poor little baby bat! "So, what? You think it got lost or something?"

"Possibly. I did read something once where it isn't terribly uncommon for pups to be orphaned and abandoned by their mothers."

"So we should uh… We should probably look after it then, right?" Ah, and the paternal instinct emerges once again (not that he could help it – it was part of who he was now). Poor baby bat's mother was gone, and who even knew if the little creature could survive on its own in the wild? Could it even fly? Or get food for itself? Bickslow just hated to think about what would happen to his new friend if they just let it there, all alone, when it was getting cold out and winter was almost upon them, too…

Besides, the bat had been clinging to him. Him! Bickslow felt bad for running around and screaming about trying to get it off him. It just wanted a hug and it's mother, and his helmet wasn't that, but it made his heart melt just a little bit.

The looks Freed and Evergreen were giving him went mostly ignored as he carefully pried the little bat from Freed's hands and tucked it into his own, its wings folding in on and around itself and beginning to quietly squeak – it was a cute noise, almost. "At the very least, we can take it to a vet to see if it's okay," he said. A vet would know what to do with his new friend for sure – it was their job to know.

But until they got to a vet back in Magnolia, which was thankfully only a little over an hour away by train, his little bat friend was going to be tucked up inside his cloak.

Bickslow closed and locked the door behind himself and headed straight down the hallway. "Oi, Cosplayer," he called before ducking into Chace's bedroom where he knew he'd find his wife – it was bedtime for Chace, after all. "I have a surprise for you."

Lucy only rolled her eyes when she looked up from the book she'd been reading with Chace from where she sat on the small bed, Chace tucked into her side, just to see her husband holding some kind of animal wrapped up some kind of blanket. "Please tell me you didn't adopt a kitten or something," she groaned. She didn't have time to look after a grown man, a toddler, and a pet.

"I didn't," he said. Lucy let out a small sigh of relief. "I got a bat."

"I'm sorry, a what?"

"A bat." He sat down on the edge of the bed, grinning, and turned the small bundle that was his bat friend swaddled in the orange blanket towards his wife and son. "She was an orphan and she's still only a pup. Look how cute she is though!"

The bat, which did turn out to be a girl according to the vet, had also apparently taken a liking to him. Though, also according to the vet, they liked humans and could easily bond with them, which really worked out great for Bickslow because honestly, his bat friend was adorable and he really liked her – partly because she was adorable and partly because she was lost and abandoned and he couldn't accept that.

The vet said she was too young to be set back in the wild though, and even though she hadn't been injured, she still needed to be cared for until she was bigger and stronger. Bickslow had only instantly offered to become a foster-mother to the bat, too, of course, much to his team's amusement, so he'd been given a crash course in bat-parenting.

Lucy only tried to move away from him on the bed and she wrapped her arms around her son protectively. "A bat?! Bickslow, no." She was trying to be calm, but really, she had a goddamn bat in front of her and she wanted it gone. "Get it out of here, now!"

Bickslow shook his head and covered the bat again. Little had had little ears and Lucy didn't have a little voice. "Can't. Gotta look after her 'cause she's not old enough to be on her own and find her colony."

"Someone else can look after her. Just get her out of my house, and now! Please!"

He ignored her pleas and turned his attention to his son, who for once, was looking interested in what he had to say. Lucy, on the other hand, only got up and stormed out of the room out of fear of strangling her husband – seriously, who the fuck brings home a bat? Why couldn't he be a normal husband and bring home a puppy or a kitten or another lost soul or something? "What do you think we should call her?" he asked Chace.

The nearly three year old was sitting up next to his father and looking curiously at the little beast.

"You can pet her, if you want to." Hell, he'd been doing it the entire way home. "Gently, though," he added, and he watched Chace gently begin to stroke over her head and her ears. Little bat didn't mind at all.

"Soft bat," Chace mumbled before quickly drawing his hand away.

"She is soft. So, what do you think her name should be? She's gonna be here for a while so she needs a name."

"George!"

"Chace, George is a boy's name. She's a girl bat."

Chace shook his head and began pouting. "George!" Little bat was to be named George.

"Okay…" Bickslow laughed nervously. The kid was set on naming her George, apparently. "But how about we call her Georgia instead, huh?"

The toddler sighed continued pouting, folding his arms. "Fine."

"Good." Georgia was a good name for a bat, thank you very much. Well, Bickslow thought so, anyway. "Now, it's bedtime for you, Evil Prince," Bickslow said, standing up so he could set Georgia the Bat down on the nightstand for a second and tuck Chace in. "So how about you close your eyes and go to sleep." He saw Chace went to protest, like he usually did, but Bickslow shook his head and put his finger to his lips to make the 'be quiet' gesture. "Nope, it's sleep time. You can see the bat in the morning, okay?"

After getting Chace to agree to count sheep (or, bats tonight), Bickslow was venturing back into the living room with Georgia Bat snuggled to his chest and in his arms (well, he was the one doing the snuggling) to face his wife. Who, was, of course, waiting for him.

"Alright, please, just…" Lucy only sighed and shook her head as her husband sat down on the lounge and continued to pet the bat's head. "Please explain to me how you ended up with a bat." She didn't want it in her house, but she had to least know how and why it was in her house to begin with. She had to be calm about it.

"Well, she landed in the fluffy thing on my hood, I guess," Bickslow answered.

"What, you mean that feather duster on the top of your head?"

Bickslow rolled his eyes. "Yes, the feather duster." He was pretty sure Lucy would only stop calling it a feather duster if he stopped wearing it on missions, and that was not going to happen any time soon – it was too difficult to get new clothes made. "We came out of the cave, and she was stuck in it. Though, we don't know how she ended up in the cave in the first place, since she's apparently a grey-headed flying fox and those are fruit bats not those tiny little vampire ones, and megabats don't like caves."

Lucy only blinked. Where the hell had all of that bat knowledge come from? "So, what, you decided to just keep it?"

"Well, yeah. She's only little and it's nearly winter! I couldn't just leave her out there all alone. She lost her mother. Georgia's an orphan, Lucy! I'm an orphan, too!"

"You are not a—never mind." It wasn't even worth getting into an argument over what constitutes one being an orphan again. "But wait, hang on…" Lucy paused as she sat down next to the Seith mage who was still cuddling the baby bat that had apparently been given a goddamn name. She groaned. "Oh god, you didn't name her, did you? Bickslow! You get attached to things if you name them!"

"That's a lie. I gave Chace a name and I'm not attached to him."

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that," Lucy muttered. "But regardless, you are not keeping her, Bickslow. It's a bat! They have, like, diseases, you know."

Bickslow shook his head. "Got a shot for it. I'm good. You should get one, too. I'm not sure if Chace can have one yet, but oh well."

"Bickslow, I'm not going to go and get a vaccination for some bat virus, because you are not keeping her."

"I have to."

"No, you do not. You said you took her to a vet, so why can't you just take her back to the vet? They can look after her."

"They don't have enough staff to care for her," Bickslow said morosely. "She needs a lot of care because she's just a pup and they can't do it."

"But you don't even know how to look after a bat," Lucy pointed out.

He shrugged. "I'm still keeping her. I'll learn how to care for her. And besides…" Bickslow brought the baby bat up next to his face to show Lucy the adorable little face with the pointed nose and big brown eyes (that were apparently really good at seeing in both the day and night), and he pouted at his scowling wife. "Can you really say no to this face?"

"Do you mean you or the bat?" she mumbled.

"Georgia, naturally." Lucy always said no to him and his crazy ideas (which was when he pouted), no matter how many adorable faces he made. It was just a little depressing that Chace, who had apparently inherited his puppy-dog face, was so good at getting anything he wanted from Lucy. Bickslow didn't know how his son did it. "Come on, she's adorable. Look at that widdle face!"

Okay, so it was a little cute, but she grimaced and sat back on the lounge, and away from her husband who was now holding a bat wrapped up in a blanket right in front of her face. "It's a rat with wings."

You're a rat with wings. "But baby," Bickslow cuddled up to her side and pulled Georgia Bat back against his chest and held her like he'd held Chace when he'd still been a baby. "She's so little. She can't even fly yet. And she's still supposed to be holding on to her mother, because they do that, you know. They cling to their mum's back for the first month but sometimes they get abandoned and orphaned, but mama bat is gone so I've gotta be her mama."

Lucy rolled her eyes. "You've got to be kidding me…" Her husband had gotten himself attached to a bat of all animals. Honestly, now that she thought about it, it didn't seem that odd since it was Bickslow, after all.

And really, she already knew that he was most definitely not going to let someone else look after Georgia until she was old enough to fly and survive on her own. Bickslow was just the type of person to go all in (or out) with something, and apparently, that meant mothering a goddamn bat. If he was actually planning on keeping that rat with wings on his back for the next month, he was firstly going to be sleeping on the lounge, and secondly, she'd probably be leaving before she ripped out her hair.

Lucy so hoped Georgia Bat wouldn't be staying for long, though. Christmas was just a month away, and honestly, Lucy didn't want to be sharing her holidays with a bat that Bickslow probably loved more than her and their son.

"I'm not helping you look after her at all, you know," Lucy said as she looked down to her apparent adopted second child that Bickslow was still cuddling. "She's your responsibility, not mine."

He nodded excitedly. "I know." Yes! She was letting him keep Georgia! He was gonna keep her anyway, but he got too much satisfaction over making Lucy cave.

"And Bickslow." She stopped to look over her shoulder once she'd gotten up and made for the hallway. "This isn't permanent." Because there was no way in hell she was having a pet bat for longer than necessary.

As it turns out, looking after an orphaned bat wasn't all that different from looking after a baby. No, really – it was scarily similar. They had to be fed multiple times a day, usually a few hours apart; they got wrapped up in a blanket to go to sleep in, and Bickslow had even cut up one of Chace's old baby blankets to give to the bat, which Lucy hadn't been fond of; and they even liked having a goddamn 'pacifier' (though really, it was just a rubber teat they'd used to feed her with at first) to comfort them. It apparently calmed them down since they had a fear of falling when they were so young.

Bats were easy to look after, as Bickslow had quickly figured out. And honestly, Georgia was so much easier to look after than Chace had been. Georgia didn't cry or scream or hate him. Georgia only squeaked occasionally, and she ate her fruit, too, which was more than Bickslow could say for Chace.

But bats were great. Bickslow loved bats.

Lucy… still not so much. Especially so when she comes out of the shower just to find her husband sitting up in bed with Georgia the Bat hanging off the back of his hand and flapping her wings. "Bickslow, I told you the bat was not to come into the bedroom," she said, climbing into her side of the bed and grabbing her book from the nightstand.

"I know, baby, but look!" Bickslow carefully moved his arm up. "She's getting so good!" Of course, Georgia started flapping her wings again, and Lucy only sat back slightly to avoid getting hit by the damn animal. Bickslow was so proud of his bat-daughter though, and he most definitely didn't hide it by gently scratching her head and praising her when she folded her wings back in and just hung from his hand. "Oh, aren't you a clever girl!"

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Good. If she's getting better at that, then that means she'll be flying soon, and that means you can let her go soon." Christmas was just a few days away, so Lucy had already resigned to sharing her holidays with the winged rat. She didn't want to be, of course, but she had no choice in the matter – that much she knew.

Still, Lucy hoped to have Georgia gone as soon as possible. Bickslow had gotten far too attached to her which was admittedly just a small problem – he almost treated the bat like his child, though Lucy couldn't complain that much since it wasn't like he was neglecting his actual child or anything – and more often than not, whenever Lucy came home from going out for however long, she would find Bickslow either sitting on the lounge with Georgia clinging to the front of his shirt or his arm like she always did, or he would be sitting there feeding her all kinds of fruit. She apparently really liked apple juice, too.

Regardless of how attached to the bat Bickslow had gotten, though, she would have to eventually go. Bickslow did know that. He didn't like it, because he was its mum (sort of) and he was very fond of his bat-daughter, but… He knew it was just temporary.

"I know, I know," he sighed. Once Lucy had started reading, Bickslow pulled himself out of the warm bed with a sigh and grabbed her bear (that was actually Lucy's, and baby bat now clung to it at bedtime in place of her mother) and the blanket (that had once been Chace's) to put her to bed. "Alright, fine. Bedtime for little bat. You can flap your wings some more tomorrow."

And so Georgia flapped her wings the next day. And then the day after that. And even the day after that, too, because Christmas came and went, just like the New Year, and much to Lucy's distaste, her husband was still looking after the damn bat. She really could not figure out why or how for the life of her, either, but regardless, Lucy was sure the bat was becoming a permanent member of her family, which really was quite disappointing because that was most definitely not what she pictured her second child to be like.

Who the hell wants a bat as a second child? Literally only Bickslow.

But still, she'd somehow just gotten used to walking into their apartment and seeing some odd things. The time Bickslow had been cooing and feeding Georgia pieces of mango was most definitely one of the weirdest, and she'd only turned around and left again. However, getting home that day, she found the mango incident being bested on a grand scale, because opening the door after being gone for two days, she was greeted by the sight of her husband jumping around like an over excited child with his arms up in the air, and their nearly three-year-old son trying to chase and catch Georgia.

"Lucy, look!" Bickslow shouted, pointing to the bat that just knocked one of Lucy's favourite photos of Chace off the wall. "She's flying! My baby's flying!"

"I can see that, Bickslow," Lucy replied through her teeth, ducking as the bat swooped over her. "And you're going to catch her before I do, as well as clean up this mess." Because really, the entire living room and kitchen was almost in shambles – this is what happens when she leaves a grown man and a three-year-old alone with a bat for two days. It was just one of those times where all Lucy wanted to do was turn around and walk back out the door and book herself in for a spa weekend. Preferably somewhere where there were no nearly thirty-year-old males, children, or bats.

Except before Lucy could even really actually consider doing that, Georgia the Bat was landing on her arm and clinging to it upside down like she did with Bickslow.

"Bickslow, get her off me. Now." Lucy wasn't all that fond of having Georgia near her, let alone actually on her. Sure, she would admit that the baby bat was really quite adorable – she'd accepted that that one time she'd had to look after her for a day when Bickslow had gone out. But as cute and cuddly as she actually was (no, really, the damn bat loved cuddles), Lucy didn't want the bat on her arm.

"Aw, but she just wants a cuddle! See?"

And sure enough, that was all the bat wanted, and Lucy rolled her eyes and pushed past the man that was cuddling the baby bat like a newborn baby and scratching its head to go straighten up the photos on the wall. "I want her gone by the end of the month," Lucy said firmly once she'd turned back around, hands on her hips.

Bickslow only pouted at the bat crawling all over the front of his shirt. "Aw, but…"

"No buts. She's strong enough to not be looked after anymore."

And she was, but she still ended up staying. Georgia the Bat had really become a permanent member of their family, and by summer, where they'd had the bat in their care for a good six months, she had just given up. Bickslow had somehow trained the bat, too. Lucy really wasn't sure how that had happened, but the guy could even walk to the guild with a bat hanging off his hand or his shirt, and she wouldn't fly away and do bat things.

It was strange.

But Lucy was still getting home to find Bickslow and Bat in even stranger situations. Most of the time, Georgia would just be hanging from her 'tree' (it was a metal frame that Gajeel had so kindly made, and it was where she slept) and going to town on some form of fruit that Bickslow had hung from it. He spoiled the bat – gave her all kinds of fruit. And really, more than he probably should.

But that day, Lucy was sure that what she was witnessing took the cake. Coming home and finding Georgia flying around the apartment and Bickslow jumping around like a moron and Chace trying to catch Georgia wasn't even close to being as strange as what Lucy saw right then. Because it was Georgia hanging like a bat from the eaves of the roof on their tiny little balcony, and next to her, Bickslow hanging by his feet while holding Chace upside down too, who only had his feet over his father's shoulders and was wearing a grin that was eerily just like Bickslow's.

If it had just been Bickslow hanging upside down, she probably would have just ignored it and not even bothered wondering just how the hell he'd gotten up there (she wasn't surprised he could do it at all. Nope). But she couldn't ignore it, because her moronic husband was holding their three-and-a-half-year-old son upside down over a balcony.

She wondered just why she'd married him again.

Sliding the glass door open quickly, she reached for Chace instantly. "What on Earthland do you think you're doing right now?!"

Bickslow reluctantly loosened his hold on his son as he answered, "Becoming a bat."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm unleashing my full capabilities of a bat carer. To look after a bat, one must see the world from their perspective. One must become a bat themselves."

Lucy just had no idea what she was supposed to say to that. At all.

"Plus," Bickslow added, folding his arms so his hands were folded over his shoulders once Lucy had managed to get Chace from him (it had been an awkward task, to say the least). "It's cool to hang upside down. Right, buddy?"

"Right!" Chace agreed. He was a little dizzy as his mother tried to turn him back the right way up in her arms, but whatever. He wanted to be an acrobat like Bickslow!

"See?" He turned to look at the napping bat beside him and shrugged as best he could. "Besides, it's nice and warm today, too. We're just enjoying the sun."

"Uh-huh. And, um, how exactly were you planning on getting down? You know, without hurting our son."

Bickslow looked up towards where his feet were hooked onto the edge of the roof, then down to the concrete floor of their little balcony, then turned slightly to see the railing behind his head. He was only just realising that getting down was going to more than a little difficult – or at least it would have been if he'd still been holding Chace, since he'd have to avoid dropping the kid on his head (though would it have been the worst thing to happen anyway?). "Uh, well, I…"

Lucy smirked down at the Seith mage. "You don't know how to get down, do you?"

"No, I do."

"Would you have been able to with Chace?" she asked.

"…No," Bickslow admitted reluctantly. Yeah, no. Getting down by himself was easy. But with Chace, not at all.

She only sighed as she set Chace down on the ground safely before turning to follow him back inside. "And this is why your mug from last year only says 'World's Okayest Dad'." It was still Bickslow's favourite mug though. Right next to the one that marked when it was okay to talk to him in the morning and he was only having his first cup of coffee.

It was time to let Georgia go, much to, well… It was to everyone's disappointment. Even Lucy was a little sad when it came to set the not-so-little-anymore bat free, because over the last few months especially, she'd come to love the little winged rat. And really, bat cuddles were kinda nice. It had taken her a long time to admit that to Bickslow, though.

Still, it had been nearly a year since Bickslow had somehow befriended the little bat, and Georgia was more than strong enough to go and find a colony to do bat things with.

Bickslow was the saddest, of course. It had been his call to let Georgia go, much to Lucy's surprise, but that didn't mean he liked it. It was just one of those things that had to be done, regardless of how he felt.

He'd brought Georgia back to where he'd first found her (or, really, where she had found him). It was close to the same time of year, so Bickslow hoped that a colony would maybe be nearby, or that she'd at least find one before winter hit or something. Winter had been forecast to be worse than it had been the previous year, and Bickslow didn't want Georgia to freeze or anything – hell, he didn't even know if bats could freeze.

Bickslow was only giving her one last cuddle then as he stood by one tall tree, gently scratching her head before reaching into his cloak pocket for the last grape. He'd been feeding them to her the entire train ride out there, much to the other passengers' confusion, but it had just been his last time to spoil her, so of course he was going to take advantage of that. He was going to miss Georgia the Bat.

"Bickslow," Lucy said softly from behind him, holding Chace's hand beside her. "You can't keep her forever."

"I know," he sighed, moving Georgia to be hanging from the back of his hand, and then holding her out just so she could stretch her wings before folding them back in. "But what if she doesn't want to go? Can we keep her then?"

"No."

"Fine." It was worth a shot.

Besides, letting her go was the best thing anyway. They couldn't keep her in the apartment, even when Bickslow went outside with her all the time. She was too big for captivity now. If they'd had a bigger place and had the room to let her fly around a bit more and do bat things, sure. But they didn't, and she really did belong outside, not inside. Bickslow knew that.

So… It was time to let her go. "Alright, come on, little bat. Time to let you go free," Bickslow said with another sigh as he stepped up onto the babies and they lifted him up to the treetops so he could let Georgia hang from one of the branches first. "You can go eat all the nectar and pollen you want now," he said sadly, trying to get her to latch onto the branch from his hand. "And then you can go and have your own baby bat and be a good mama bat. But don't lose your baby bat, either, because then they'll be alone and—"

Bickslow only ducked when Georgia suddenly took off from the branch and flew over his head, apparently not being interested in what he had to say, now that she was having all the space in the world to flap her wings. But then she was gone, flying off to go find some bat friends or something, and Bickslow was just a little disappointed his little bat-daughter had left so easily.

He sniffled when he stepped back onto the ground, and Lucy gave him a sad smile before she picked up Chace so they could both give Bickslow a hug – one he apparently needed. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay," he mumbled, sniffling again before he ducked his head against her shoulder. "B-But they just grow up so fast!"

Lucy only rolled her eyes and let her proud mama bat of a husband cry on her shoulder. She couldn't even imagine what he'd be like when it came time for their actual children to leave home.

I told you it was weird, didn't I? If you've read any of Neighbours From Hell, it's like Bickslow and Blair all over again.

Also, the ending was kind of terrible. I wasn't quite sure how to do it, to be honest.

Anyway. Here is where this story is set in the HWHL timeline:
1. How It All Began
2. Pride
3. Spontaneity
4. Not All Accidents Are Horrible
5. We're Telling Them
6. The Job Boycott
7. Here We Go Again
8. Sleeping Arrangements
9. The Bet
10. Trick or Treat
11. 2AM
12. Jealousy
13. The Adopted Child

Regardless... I do hope you enjoyed this one. It was kind of fun to write, especially since researching meant looking at lots of pictures and watching videos with adorable little bats.

Until next time.

- April