Bells and Tales
She could smell paint before she awoke.
It was feint though and really only irritated her as the smell was never one she was fond of.
"Bickslow?" she whispered, voice laced with a heavy douse of sleep. "What are you doing?"
"Making new bodies, kid."
She peeked an eye open to find him sitting in the corner of the room, tiny bottles of paint open as he mixed them together on a paper plate. She couldn't tell in the dim lightening of the moon, but she was pretty sure he was making Puppu.
"Why are you doing that at, oh, three in the morning?"
"I can't sleep. Too excited."
"Mmmm."
"Tomorrow's gonna be great."
"Yeah," she sighed, shifting to lay on her back. "But you don't wanna be sleepy to whole time, do you?"
"I'll just drink a few cups of coffee."
"But you hate coffee."
"And? It'll have an even bigger effect then, since I don't ever drink it, huh?"
She only sighed. "Just be quiet, huh? I'm trying to sleep."
"Sorry, Lissy."
She rolled over onto her side then, where all of the current bodies of his capture souls laid, dormant as they always were during the night. Unless Bickslow awoke them, that is. Smiling slightly, she shut her eyes and tried to find a few more hours of sleep.
Her wish was granted too, until the blearing sound of an alarm went off and awoke her. Fumbling around on her bedside, eventually her hand was able to hit the off button and then there was silence.
For a moment anyways. Then, upon listening harder, she heard Bickslow in the other room, messing around. He was yelling, it sounded like. From what she could gather, he couldn't figure out the coffee pot.
Sigh.
The carpet was soft against her feet as she got out of bed and headed in there to check on him.
"Bickslow," she whispered as she walked into the still rather dark living room. She could see the light on in the kitchen though. "What are you doing?"
"This damn thing won't work!"
"It isn't plugged in, silly. I have to unplug it to use the toaster."
"Ah-ha!"
His babies were all floating around in there with him and, upon her entrance, they launched themselves at her. Luckily though she had braced herself and they were close enough that they hadn't built up much momentum.
"Be careful with her, babies," Bickslow grumbled, not glancing back at her. "Can't break her before the big day, huh? You got a few more hours. Just-"
"What have you done to their bodies?" she asked in shock as she finally glanced at them.
"You likey?" He glanced back at her and winked. "They needed to, you know, have some suits. That was what I was doing last night. Getting them new bodies for special occasions. And I think that our wedding counts as the biggest of occasions."
She only looked over Pappa, who came to rest in her open palm, taking in the fact that his wooden body had been painted black, mostly, except for a little white upside down triangle on the front. And then up around his mouth and eyes were normal. Bickslow had tried to give them tuxes, it seemed.
A knock at the door stopped her from diving deeper into this overly cute move as she had to go answer it. Bickslow, even after plugging something in, still couldn't get the coffee pot to work.
"Lisanna-"
"You plugged in the can opener, silly."
He only growled. "This is too complicated!"
Upon opening the door, she found Mira of course, who only bounced slightly at the sight of her sister and came further into the apartment.
"Have you showered yet?" Mira took no time for greetings as her own husband came in behind her and shut the door. Laxus only patted Lisanna gently on the head, his usual show of love (though he'd never admit that was what it was) before going to flake out on their couch and no doubt sleep until it was time for him to get into his own tux. "Checked over your dress one more time? Eaten? Done your hair? No, obviously not. Lisanna-"
"Mira, chill," she told her, grinning as her older sister only looked her over disapprovingly. "It's only six in the morning. And the wedding isn't until four this afternoon. So-"
"So? You need to be ready, Lisanna. You-"
"Hey, Mirajane? Can you work a coffee pot?"
Bickslow came out of the kitchen then, staring at his soon to be sister-in-law.
"You," she said simply, pointing a finger at him. "Are not supposed to be here. I told you to stay the night at Freed's last night. You guys aren't supposed to be together the night before your wedding. Did we not go over this?"
"We did," he said slowly. "But then Freed wanted to leave the guild at, like, eight, and I wanted to go out and drink and Lissy wanted to go drink and the babies, well, they just like watching us drink. Then she totally was al over me and I had to take her home, you know, since she's vulnerable and all-"
"I was not drunk, Bickslow," Lisanna told him, frowning over her shoulder. "And you know it. You were the one-'
"Do you guys not care anything about making this wedding perfect or what?" Mira asked, frowning at both of them. "I mean-"
"Mirajane," Laxus said softly as he only laid on the couch, not opening his eyes in the slightest. "Be quiet. They're fine. Just go shower, Lisanna. And Bickslow, shut the fuck up about the coffee. Then, Mira, can you bring me a pillow please? And a blanket?"
Lisanna gave him a look. "You're not the boss over here. This is me and Bickslow's apartment. Not-"
"I'm the boss everywhere, kid," he grumbled. "Now be quiet."
"Did you come over here to just sleep?"
"Are you talking back to me, kid?"
"Behave, Laxus," Mira said, though she was still glaring at Bickslow. He only grinned at her though.
"You like the babies new bodies? Special occasions only. Like me and Lissy's wedding and, well, I guess funerals. Which sounds weird to say, but-"
"They're cute," Mira said, nodding her head. "But I'm still mad at you."
"And that's great. Just what I always imagined having siblings was like," he said, nodding his head. "Sibling rivalries and the such. Now that me and you are going to be brothers, Laxus-"
"We're not."
"-I think it's high time that I told you-"
"I fucking said we're not. So stop talking."
"Behave, Laxus," Mira sighed.
"-that I'm pretty disappointed in you, as of late."
"The fuck you say?"
"Behave," Mira said again, but Laxus was sitting up then, glaring over the back of the couch as Bickslow. The seith only shrugged.
"Now that we're brothers-"
"Stop saying that!"
"-I think we should have a more open relationship. I mean, I always wanted an older brother. And now I have a big one and little one." He grinned, tongue falling from his mouth. "We can tell each other everything!"
Mira was staring hard at Laxus then, as if waiting for him to misbehave so she could comment on it. With a grumble, he merely got out a, "No, thanks," before falling back down on the couch, his wife nodding approvingly.
Bickslow wasn't ready to let up yet though.
"Seriously, bro. Can I call you that now?"
"No."
"Me and you and Elfman, we're going to be super close. And now that I got an older sister, just, wow. I always wanted my parents to have other kids, but-"
"We are not discussing parents."
"Why not?" Bickslow cocked his head to the side. "I mean, you and me are already super close. Let's be closer!"
"And this is your pre-coffee?" Mira asked making Bickslow grin at her. Lisanna only sighed.
"He's only annoying Laxus 'cause he knows you're around and he can't get hurt," she said before turning to walk away. "I'll go shower, Mira, if you think that I need to right now. But can you please help Bickslow figure out the coffee pot?"
"I'm super slow about stuff," he told her. "But as my older sister, that means you can't get mad or be judgmental about it."
"As your wife though, I can," Lisanna muttered.
After she was gone and Bickslow headed off into the kitchen, Laxus finally got up and went to get his own damn blanket and pillow. If they were all going to be one big happy family, fine.
He was the oldest. That means they did whatever the fuck he wanted. Period.
It was only after he was all settled on the couch and planning on napping until, oh, noon, that there was a knock at the door. And with Lisanna in the shower and Mira busy explaining the simplest of things to Bickslow and his stupid dolls in the kitchen, that left Laxus to answer it.
"No," he said simply as he stared out at Evergreen and Elfman. "Seriously, not today."
"Oh, shut up," Ever said, pushing past him. Then, after a moment, she seemed to remember who she was talking to and smiled over her shoulder at him. "Just kidding."
He only grunted before stepping aside to let Elfman in. He was in tears though as he came into the apartment, hiding them in his hand.
"Where's Lisanna?" he whined, looking around. "I have to tell her that I love her and that-"
"Has he been like this long?" Laxus grumbled to Evergreen as he went back over to the couch to lay down.
"Since last night," Ever sighed, glancing at her boyfriend. "We were asleep and, suddenly, he just woke up and realized that tomorrow Lisanna would be married. And then he started crying."
"It's worse than when Mira got married," he wailed. Then, as an afterthought, he added on, "Though at least Lisanna's marrying a somewhat acceptable man-"
"Watch it, Elfboy," Laxus grumbled as he shut his eyes. "I have no problem with it storming on her wedding day."
"Behave, Laxus," Mira called from the other room. Grumbling, Laxus only rolled onto his side, facing the back of the couch. No respect. He got no fucking respect.
"Mira," Elfman cried as he headed into the kitchen. "I love you too!"
"Oh, Elf."
Evergreen stayed in the living room though, taking a look around. "The place is more clean since Lisanna moved in, but still quite small."
"Sleeping here," he grumbled to her.
"You'd think they'd at least buy some more furniture than just a couch."
"Why would you think that when they buy all that other stupid stuff? Like bodies for his damn babies."
"You sure are a sour older brother, Laxus."
"I'm not their brother!"
It wasn't until Mira and the others joined them in the living room once more that they were presented with a problem. Seeing as they never had visitors, Lisanna and Bickslow truly did only have a couch. One that Laxus was totally hogging at the moment.
"Get up," Mira ordered with a frown.
"No. I was promised a chance to nap if I came."
"Laxus Dreyar-"
"Mirajane-"
"Where's Lisanna?" Elfman asked, looking around. "I thought-"
"She was in the shower," Bickslow said. "But it's not on anymore."
Going over to the bathroom door, he knocked on it. "Hey, Lisanna! You about done? I gotta take a leak."
"Ew," Ever said, making a face over at him. "Can't at least one of you boys behave today?"
"She's crying in there," Laxus said randomly then as he shifted on the couch.
"What?"
"Can't you guys hear anything?" he grumbled as Bickslow pressed his ear against the door. "I mean, I don't even need dragon ears to know that."
"Lissy." Bickslow tried the door, but she'd locked this. "Are you really upset? What's wrong?"
"Why didn't you say anything?" Evergreen asked Laxus, but he only shrugged.
"She's Mira and Elfman's sister. She cries at freaking everything. All three of them do. One time I was training and did more pushups in a row than ever before. Mira cried for two hours."
"It was a milestone and I was proud," she complained as she headed over to the bathroom door as well. "Lisanna, open up."
Slowly, they heard the lock slide out of the door and then she was opening it, standing there in a t-shirt and some shorts as tears ran down her cheeks.
"I can't do it," she announced to them all. "Get married. I can't."
"Welp." Laxus moved to get up. "I'm heading home then. See-"
"What do you mean you can't do it?" Bickslow frowned. "If this is about that bachelor party thing, I totally didn't fuck around on you."
Evergreen rolled her eyes. "Lisanna, everyone gets cold feet sometimes."
"Then yours must be frozen, Ever," Laxus mumbled. "Not even a damn engagement ring."
She sent him a look. "Watch it."
"Lisanna," Elfman sobbed too as he rushed across the tiny room and over to her. Bickslow's babies had taken to surrounding her, but he only moved to wrap her tightly into her arms. "It's okay. I knew this wouldn't work out. Don't worry, you're making the right choice. You can come stay with me and Ever till you get-"
"The hell she can," Evergreen said as Mira only batted at her brother's arms. "I mean, Lisanna, you're just freaking out. Take a breath and- Elfman, she's turning blue! Let her go! She couldn't take a breath if she wanted!"
Upon her brother releasing her, Lisanna took a deep breath, but didn't get a chance to speak before Mira was taking her by the arm.
"We'll be right back. And do not leave, Laxus. The wedding is still happening. So…just carry on, boys." Then she was dragging her younger sister off into the bedroom, Evergreen rushing to follow. Then it was just the three guys and Bickslow's babies.
"Mama?" they asked him, but he only shook his head.
"I dunno, guys," he said before glancing over at Laxus. "Big brother-"
"Do not start calling me-"
"-can you make me some coffee?"
"I thought Mira did?"
"She put it on, but I can't make a cup of it. Only Lissy knows how to make it just right so I can drink it."
"I'm sure she just dumps sugar in there," Elfman offered up as he sniffled and wiped at his eyes. "Being helpful is so manly!"
"And hey," Bickslow complained, glaring at the muscular guy then. "What was the big idea? Trying to talk her out of marrying me?"
"I got caught up in the moment," Elfman admitted. "I only was trying to help out."
"Yeah, well, all of you shut the hell up and let me get some sleep," Laxus grumbled, moving to settle back into the couch. Glancing at the closed bedroom door, he said, "'cause if I know those three like I think I do, this is going to take awhile."
I'm halfway finished with the last chapter of Firsts and Solace only has one more left too, so I figured I'd start a new one before they're over, as an interim before I find a new story. This one'll probably only be five chapters though and don't expect them to be very long chapters at that. This is probably going to be the size of all of them, give or take. Then again, with three of my favorite couples at my disposal, who knows?
