Lisanna followed Laxus through the clothing store as he flicked through shirts. She had already been all shopped out when she went with the girls, and so she wasn't super excited to come with them but hadn't wanted to let Bickslow down when he'd looked at her with shining eyes. Laxus was still shirtless, a small bandage stuck to his chest where her tail had struck him. She had to admit she still felt guilty about that.

"If you're just after something to cover up why not just pick the first shirt and go?"

Laxus looked over at her, rolling his eyes before going back to the rack in front of him. She had never seen him as particularly obsessed with fashion, but the more she thought about it the more it made sense she supposed.

"Fine. What about them, why are they here?"

She flicked her head to the side to indicate where Bickslow was holding up a shirt with a stupid slogan on it and Freed was shaking his head. Their bickering had gotten annoying, and plus she needed to find some way to make it back to Laxus. The Dragon Slayer scoffed, pulling out a black shirt to look at it more closely. Lisanna didn't think it would ever fit him.

"I'm here, so they're here. That's how it works."

"I'm just saying, maybe if you don't have to focus on getting your babies to sort your clothes out you might be more effective in training."

Bickslow leant back on one of the tables, his babies flying around the shop to play hide and seek with one another.

"And I'm saying, Freed, that what's the point? I'm not gonna have time to change before a fight, so I may as well train in my normal clothes."

Freed sighed, putting the sweatpants he had found back down onto the table and heading over to where rows upon rows of tank tops were folded neatly.

"Fine, but at least get some shirts so Lisanna doesn't have to borrow mine."

Bickslow followed him lazily, shaking his head at every piece of fabric the rune mage held up.

"She could have worn one of my shirts…"

He trailed off as he thought to himself, imagined Lisanna in his shirt and nothing else and immediately knew what he was doing that night. Freed sighed. He knew exactly what the Sieth was thinking.

"I'm home tonight so don't you dare."

Bickslow sulked for a moment, and Freed struggled to get any opinion from him at all. He was about to give up when the other man suddenly jumped, running out of the store with his totems following not long after. He wasn't particularly concerned, Bickslow was always the type to come up with an idea and act on it straight away and not even Lisanna was going to change that. Plus, he was a big boy now. He could survive on his own.

"I don't think any of these shirts will even fit you, Laxus."

He had pulled out a fluorescent green shirt in the largest size, and it still looked like it would be a stretch to get it over his shoulders.

"I know. I usually get them custom made but someone just had to tear the one I had and I'm not Fullbuster. I'm not gonna just walk around shirtless the rest of the day."

Lisanna blushed, looking down at her feet. It was obvious Laxus had forgiven her, even if he hadn't explicitly said it, but she still felt more than a little guilty.

"But still, green?"

Laxus smirked, throwing the shirt over his shoulder before turning around to move further into the store where they had last seen his bodyguards heading.

"Yeah, watch."

Lisanna moved in step behind him as he weaved through the stacks of clothes. She couldn't see where the other two had gone, but Laxus appeared to have an almost sixth sense as to where they were. Finally they rounded a corner, to see Freed stood on his own looking through t-shirts on a table before folding them neatly back up again. He seemed to know they were there without looking up and spoke to Laxus as he finished the last shirt.

"Have you managed to find some… what is that?"

Laxus had held the shirt over the front of himself, and Freed looked over at it in disgust. Laxus just grinned, and it looked almost predatory.

"What's the matter, Freed? I thought we could match."

Freed turned the brightest red Lisanna had ever seen and spluttered out the start of a few words before Laxus clapped him on the back and headed to pay.

"Relax, Justine. It's just for today anyway then I'm gonna burn the thing."

Freed stared at the floor as he desperately tried to lower the blush he could still feel burning his cheeks while Lisanna looked around the store to try and spot the one guy that should stick out like a sore thumb.

"Hey, Freed, where's Bickslow gone?"

Freed smiled a little, not knowing if she had asked out of curiosity or to try and take the subject off his embarrassment. He was grateful either way.

"You know… I have no idea. He just… up and takes off sometimes. I was trying to get some more functional clothes for him if you wanted to help?"

Lisanna looked over at the man, her brain beginning to whirl. She'd seen what was underneath the clothes that Bickslow wore, and suddenly she was thinking of clothing that would better show off his assets. She nodded quickly and a grin spread across Freed's face. Something told her that Bickslow hadn't actually agreed to this.

"Has he left you some money?"

Freed shrugged, starting to head further into the menswear department and suddenly Lisanna knew that whatever she said he was going to be doing it anyway.

"No, but he'll pay me back."

"You know full well he won't."

Laxus appeared out of nowhere, making Lisanna jump. He'd thrown on the shirt, which was pulling at the buttons over his chest, and skulked behind Freed as he started picking up jeans. The rune mage just sighed but didn't stop.

"Yeah, I know. But it's a small price to pay for revenge, right?"

They didn't get much, in the end. Just a few different coloured tank tops and some sweatpants for training, some jeans that Lisanna mentioned Bickslow's arse would look great in and Freed moaned he didn't even want to think about and some spare clothes for Lisanna that Freed insisted on buying so she didn't have to steal his shirts anymore.

They had dropped the bags back at Freed's flat before heading to the guildhall. Lisanna had to admit it was nice to be in a group where everyone could fly, it was so much quicker than when she had to carry someone or they were relegated to the floor. She was told that she wasn't needed to work that day, and the hall was uncharacteristically quiet so she ended up following Freed down into the library of the guild and curling up with a book while he worked on his runes.

"What you reading?"

She hadn't even heard him come in, but there he was, sitting on top of one of the bookshelves while the babies all floated around him aimlessly.

"Words"

He smirked at her, so she held the book up for him to read the title before placing in a bookmark and walking over to greet him. His babies all shrieked when they saw her, zooming over to bang into her and she patted each of them in turn as she stopped at the base of the shelves and looked up at where Bickslow was sat.

"Where have you been?"

Bickslow leant down, clenching and unclenching his hands to ask her to raise her arms. Grabbing onto her wrists he pulled her up to sit next to him, her feet scrabbling for purchase on the shelves as he spun her to sit next to him and forced Freed to shake his head in exasperation.

"Doing stuff… and things… Hey, seeing as you're apparently training with us now, d'ya wanna jump me? I mean… jump WITH me."

Lisanna giggled slightly, not even having the chance to open her mouth and respond before Bickslow jumped off the bookshelf, pulling her down behind him until she landed heavily and ungracefully on the floor.

"Great, come on. I wanna get there before it gets dark."

Lisanna was nearly toppled over as Bickslow tugged on her wrist, starting to sprint towards the exit of the guild as his babies all started chittering amongst themselves as they flew excitedly around them. Her brain started flipping through all of the possibilities of where they were going, Bickslow had suggested they were going training and apparently even Freed didn't know what he did.

As soon as they cleared the building, Bickslow leapt into the air, landing with perfect precision on the totems as they flew away. Lisanna followed suit, stepping onto a low wall and running along it to launch herself into the open space as she slipped seamlessly into her bird soul to catch up. It was a leisurely flight, Bickslow almost seeming to fly slowly compared to normal. She didn't mind, really, it made it easier to keep up with the sporadic twists and turns the babies took, but at the same time it worried her a little. If he was taking it easy on her, wherever they were going was going to be a challenge.

After about an hour, her wings were just starting to ache from the flight when she noticed a clearing in the trees that they had been flying over. It was a strange sensation, she didn't know how she had missed it, really. There had been trees as far as she could see, even with the enhanced vision of her bird soul, and then suddenly there weren't. There was a huge open field, that was actually wider than it looked initially because the massive trees at the edge of the clearing branched out at the top to cover the ground with shadows, almost forming a dome over the field. She hadn't even realised that she stopped flying to gape around at the conglomeration of equipment that was scattered around in the grass, not to mention the wonder of the way the trees were covering things.

"Babe?"

Lisanna squeaked and jumped a little higher in the air, blushing as she looked around to see where Bickslow had called to her from. How had she been so absorbed with sightseeing that she'd lost him too? Finally, her eyes locked onto the Sieth mage standing on his totems a few yards below her. She'd missed him at first because he'd been in the shadows cast by the nearest trees. Angling her body slightly, she stilled her wings, allowing herself to drift down to meet him. As she drew near the babies dropped further, flying in a lazy spiral until they deposited the man on the ground. As soon as her feet touched the ground, Lisanna released her bird soul, dropping her arms to her sides and shaking them out as she looked around. From the ground, it was even more intimidating.

Directly in front of them rose several boulders that were so large Lisanna had to crane her head back to peer up at the top. She remembered seeing a few things on top of them as she'd come down, but couldn't tell exactly what the metal that the sun had been glinting off of was. Lisanna glanced over at Bickslow, noticing a sort of tension in the way he was standing as if he was nervous about showing this to her. She looked away quickly, her mind racing at the implications of him revealing to her such a huge thing that he'd kept from everyone else. Trying to ease the tension, she gestured at the nearest rock.

"Can I?"

Bickslow nodded very slightly, and Lisanna realised he was too nervous to even speak, Pippi and Poppo hiding underneath his cape as the other three peeked out from behind him, picking up on their owner's mood and hiding as well. Lisanna sprinted up to the wall, pulling herself up onto a boulder and testing the wall underneath her hands. It was solid and obviously natural and not magically made. She grabbed a couple of the hand holds and started to hoist herself up. She could fly, sure, but she guessed that wasn't the point. Transforming into bare feet she used her toes to grip onto some of the holes in the rocks and pushed herself up further.

She was about halfway up the cliff face when she noticed one of the totems start to float in front of her, and she looked down to see Bickslow just below her. She didn't know when he had started to climb, but he had caught up with her quickly. She put more effort into scaling the rocks in front of her, arms starting to protest as she pulled up her weight. The totems periodically gave her encouragement, and she smiled as she finally pulled herself over the edge of the cliff and rolled onto the grass. As soon as she was there she felt her jaw drop in awe. She didn't know how Bickslow kept this a secret, but it sure was impressive.

A/N - As always, I send the biggest thank you to Gajeelswoman for being the bestest friend ever and helping me out whenever I have writer's block. We're currently writing a collaboration which is being released on both of our profiles, so check it out if you haven't already!