An: Late again, but I'm trying to get the next one out on time.
This chapter will be continued in the next one 'home' I'm not sure it will end there or if I will link it to another prompt later on in the week.
"No Natsu! For the last time I am not going to do another mission that requires me to dress up, not after that last one. That man we were working for was old enough to be my grandfather and he kept pinching my butt and all you two did was laugh and eat. Go find someone else." I yelled unpacking my pack that Happy and Natsu had gotten ready for me the moment they entered my apartment.
"But Lucy we get free fish for an entire year! Do you know how much fish that is, that's a LOT of fish! We were going to ask someone else to do it with us but the requester is adamant that the girl be a natural blonde, and said something about checking… how do they check if you're a natural blonde?" Happy asked, flying at my head to get a good look at my hair; lifting up my hair in chunks he inspected it.
"Check! There is no way I'm doing the job now, how could Mira even put that mission on the board, that's preposterous!" I screamed, sitting down and tightly crossing my legs. Just the thought of someone checking gave me the willies.
"Well she didn't put it on the board… we found it on the ground behind the bar. It can't be that bad Lucy, you have to do this for us!" Natsu said snatching my empty pack from my hands so he could repack it.
Seeing that they wouldn't take no for an answer I let Happy and Natsu rummage through my clothes and slipped into the kitchen mumbling about preparing them some fish. Once I was behind the kitchen curtain I ran to the window and threw it open. Taking a page out of Natsu's book I jumped out of the window and took off running in the direction of the guild. Halfway there I realized that, that would be the first place they looked for me and changed direction randomly.
Cutting through the market place I made sure to spritz myself with several of the sample perfumes before changing direction again and making my way towards the forest. After having to escape Natsu and Happy several times before I had learned that it was best to leave a spare pack hidden in the forest so I could get away for a few days until their desire to do a certain job died down, or the job expired. But after hearing the reward for this particular job I knew I would have to vanish for a bit longer than usual.
Passing by the landmarks I had strategically placed I found my way to my spare pack. As I got there I heard leaves rustling and branches cracking behind me and scrambled up the nearest tree thinking it was Natsu and Happy. Hearing grumbling directly under me I risked a peek to see who it was. Seeing a familiar head of blue hair I started climbing back down.
"Bickslow what are you doing here?" I asked halfway down the tree.
"Cosplayer?" He said looking up. "Take your time climbing down." He chuckled moving closer to the trunk of the tree. Realizing where he was looking I quickly closed my legs and covered up. Squealing when I lost my grip on the tree I closed my eyes in anticipation of hitting the hard ground, but instead Bickslow caught me.
"I didn't think you'd fall for me that quickly Cosplayer." He laughed letting me down when I slapped his head.
"You never answered me, what are you doing here? Natsu and Happy didn't send you did they?" I asked, frantically looking around for them.
"Chill out, I wouldn't help those two even if they paid me. I'm heading over to Clover Town for a few days for a job." He said setting me down. "What have those two numbskulls done now that you're hiding from them?"
"They're trying to make me do this stupid job they found. The guy is looking for a blonde mage to act as his girlfriend to make his ex-girlfriend jealous. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that this guy has the gall to demand that he gets to check me to make sure I'm a natural blonde." I had barely finished talking before he bent over and burst out laughing. When he didn't stop laughing after a few minutes I grew impatient with him. "It's not that funny. I'm glad that his ex-girlfriend got away when she did." I said shoving him a bit. When that didn't stop him I resorted to threats. "If you don't stop laughing, I'm gonna tell your team where you're going. I'm not the only one hiding out am I?" I smirked loving how his laughter instantly stopped and the horrified look he gave me.
"If you do I'll tell Natsu where-"
"Where what? I haven't told you where I'm going, so you have nothing on me." I said sticking out my tongue at him.
Glaring at me he turned around and started walking away. Walking in the opposite direction towards my family's estate I thought about how lonely the place was with no one there and turned around.
"Going to Clover Town sounds nice, do you mind if I tag along?" I asked when I was right behind him.
"Not at all Cosplayer, just don't destroy anything. I know how much mayhem you and your team cause on almost every mission." He snickered, looking as if he was rethinking letting me tag along.
"Hey! That's not fair. I have only destroyed one building and that was on accident! Natsu, Gray and Erza are the ones who are always mucking things up and getting our reward taken away from us before we can even get a hold of it." I said, my words falling on deaf ears as Bickslow spun around, covered my mouth with one of his hands and threw us down in between two fallen tree trunks.
Feeling something crawl on my scalp I tried to wiggle my head to dislodge it only to have Bickslow tighten his hold on my head and bring his mouth to my ear. "Quiet, my team is close by."
Nodding once I closed my eyes and tensed up as I tried to remain calm and ignore the fact that there were now two creepy crawlies in my hair. Just as my resolve was about to falter I felt Bickslow comb his fingers through my hair until the bugs were gone. Opening my eyes I silently thanked him.
In the distance I could hear Ever and Freed talking.
"Why does he do this every time Freed?"
"I don't know, it's not like it's a dangerous job we're just visiting a few orphanages to help build expansions." Freed sighed.
"I know, if he would focus all of his efforts to hide from us into building the expansions then we'd be done in no time. Luckily he doesn't do this with the other places, but it does make me wonder." Ever said as the sound of their footsteps faded as they walked away from us.
When we couldn't hear them any more Bickslow let go of me and helped me stand up. "Sorry about that." He said picking something out of my hair again. Choosing to ignore that there had been something in my hair I brushed myself off.
"You're avoiding them so you don't have to help an orphanage?" I asked, not quite believing it.
"It's not what you think. We do a whole bunch of charity work that I always go to, so it's not like I'm a horrible person for sitting out on a couple of jobs." He said defensively, stalking off.
"Whoa, I that wasn't where I was going, I know you're not a horrible person. I was just going to ask why you've been avoiding going to the orphanages." I said jogging up to him.
"Drop it. It's none of your business anyways." He said efficiently shutting me up and halting me in my tracks.
I knew I should have just gone to the estate like planned. Turning around, I walked the other way deciding it was best that I didn't tag along with Bickslow.
"Cosplayer… stop. I'm sorry it's just a sore subject. Come on Clover Town is waiting, and the job that I'm gonna need your help on." He said offering an olive branch. When I continued walking away he tried again. "Cosp- Lucy." He sighed. Hearing how defeated he sounded I stopped. "Let's just get there and I promise we'll talk about it after the mission is over."
Giving in I turned around.
During the rest of our three hour walk Bickslow and I chatted about various subjects, avoiding the obvious subject until we both decided silence was best for now.
When we were an hour from our destination we both froze having heard something out of place. Looking around I saw nothing out of the ordinary. Walking a few more steps forward I stopped again but this time I looked up in time to see two figures jumped down from the trees. Pushing Bickslow one way and flinging myself the other the two people landed on the ground instead of us. In the next instant they started coming after us. Using what little hand to hand Erza was able to teach me I blocked some hits, and avoided those I couldn't. When I felt a sharp sting I realized that the woman had daggers in her hands.
Using my whip to pull her feet out from under her I ran a few feet away from her to see Bickslow bent down on the ground facing away from the man that was attacking him. Seeing the ground beneath the man sizzling I guessed that he was about to attack and shouted out a warning to Bickslow.
"Bickslow! Watch out!" I yelled momentarily adverting my attention from the woman who was getting to her feet. Hearing my warning Bickslow jumped onto the nearest and highest branch he could to avoid a stream of acid. Returning my attention back to the mage who was attacking me just in time to duck when she sent several daggers flying towards my head. Seeing her summon more daggers I rolled away from her until I could scramble behind a tree. Breathing hard I reached for my keys only to find them missing. Muttering a curse I glanced around the tree to where I had rolled from and spotted them hiding beneath some leaves. Taking several deep breaths I slid up the tree picking up rocks from the ground as I did. Peeking to make sure the mage hadn't moved I hefted the rock up and chucked it at her. Missing by a mile the first attempt because she had anticipated the move I grabbed another one and put one in each. Leaning to the right side I threw another rock at her before whipping to the other side to throw my remaining rock at her while she was distracted with the first.
Cheering when it hit her in between the eyes I ran for my keys and picked them up before bum rushing the bent over mage. Once I had her tightly restrained I turned towards Bickslow to see he had already taken care of the other one.
"Who are they?" I asked dragging the girl with me as I got closer to him.
"I'd say they're from the dark guild I- we need to take down." He said jumping down to the ground.
"So much for staying hidden." I muttered picking my pack up off of the ground.
"I don't know about you but I'd take this over what our teams wanted us to do any day." Bickslow chuckled.
Let me know what you thought. Please and thank you. :)