Author's Note (from the present!): Thank you all for the faves, reviews, and follows! Also, reading so much hate for Carol made me laugh! It's so interesting to write such dark, dumb, twisted, or just unusual characters, and then not get feedback for them until so much later! Carol has evolved to be such an interesting and tragic character (in the following variations and final version in the books). Hooooh, she, uh, well if you hate her in this version, you will definitely have some words for the final version, should any of you choose to read it. Each version of her just gets more aloof, frustrating, and tragic. If anyone is interested in learning more about her character, send me a message and I can give you more details!
On a similar vein, I find great amusement and joy when you guys post reviews about how much you hate a character or got frustrated by them. Some of the main characters were continued into the books I've been working on, so hearing that feedback is actually SUPER useful! I love hearing what you guys think of the characters- good, bad, or anything in between!
Also, small comment on the spelling of names (can't remember if I've commented on it) but that's probably the result of watching the subbed versions of Fairy Tail (and they will mispell names sometimes) along with just general translation mishaps. Like for example, in Boku No Hero Academia, I've been coming across a lot of instances where the names will be spelled slightly different in some areas, and I realized that it's just a translation thing. (like I've found Todoroki's first name spelled as "Shoto" and "Shouto", and that's likely because of the small accent with the hiragana spelling of his name) Also, I'm sorry if the mispellings wig you out! I simply don't have the energy to go through and fix them all every time I do a post. (Sidenote: I've been working on Boku No Hero fics that I might post soonish!)
Author's Note (from when I wrote this): For the record, regarding the abortion topic and souls: after I brought back in Carol's character, I remembered Claire's problem with birth control, and how it would also be a problem for her sister as well, which is why I included it. In regard to the soul issue, I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other whether an unborn child has a soul or not, I just thought it would be an interesting topic to explore in my story since Bickslow is a seith mage.
If Carol's character had gotten pregnant back on her home world, I don't think she would have taken the issue as lightly. Ever since she turned Claire away for her soul mate, she started ignoring her issues instead of dealing with them, such as when her dragon mate died. She ran to find some semblance of what her life used to be by working as a waitress. When she found out she was pregnant she just wanted things to go back to the way it was, and the easiest way to do that was an abortion. Sex is always something that she's enjoyed, but by this point she's using it to escape her world instead of embrace it.
Fairy Tail timeline: So, for the manga I haven't caught up to the Avatar arc, although I read a little of the latest chapters about Mavis telling her story about Zeref. Since I haven't seen the Avatar arc I'm skipping around it in my story, so don't be surprised if I end up completely ignoring it.
Walking Cliché 36
Consequences
When Claire returned to Clover Town, Bickslow had technically narrowed down the search to three houses to rent, but his heart was set on one in particular. To the fire woman's surprise, Michael was less than opinionated on the matter, and instead insisted that she 'just choose one already!' so that the house searching could be over.
The someday seith mage had been dragged along by his uncle all over town in search of their new home, forced to hang out in empty houses with nothing to do while the man chatted with the owners, and to Claire's further amazement, Michael was also tired of ice cream. Bickslow had kept a solid diet of healthy foods for the main meals, but in between and the end of the day they'd get ice cream to reward mostly Bickslow for getting things done, and Michael had had more than enough.
In her absence, her sister's status at Blue Pegasus had faltered. Although she was still immensely popular, the knowledge that she aborted her child spread fast, and most people now felt at least a little uncomfortable. Carol had that type of personality that it was hard to stay mad at her, so in actuality it didn't irreparably damage her relationships with her friends and coworkers, but there was a new awkwardness in the workplace.
1.
Claire missed moving trucks from her home world.
"Fucking primitive fucking WAGONS!"
"Sweetie, calm down." Bickslow chuckled, kissing her cheek as he walked past her. They were in the process of loading their belongings from the storage unit into their transport unit, in this case a large wagon that they rented, and Claire was less than excited about it.
In reality, it really wasn't that bad, she was just tired and didn't want to deal with it. Their babies would be doing most of the work using Claire's magic, which was good, but their ropes to tie down their belongings was too short and their 'tarp' covered less than half of it, so that if it rained, their stuff would get soaked. In order to keep the most important things from getting rained on, she tried to prioritize what would be more 'okay' to lose, along with trying to keep the more fragile stuff from breaking, and all the while Bickslow laughed and moved something to mess everything up.
"Can't we just make two trips?" She finally asked, glaring at her fiancé. "Or get another tarp."
"If it'll keep you from burning all of our stuff, sure." Bickslow said with a nonchalant shrug. "I mean, it'll be a bit more work to get there, unload, and then come back and do it again, but I don't mind that much. And it's your magic we're using to pull it."
2.
After a day of moving half of their things, the trio was tired. Halfway through his second slice of pizza Michael fell asleep on the dining room floor, meanwhile Claire and Michael quietly ate their share of food.
Most of their stuff was in boxes or unpacked, and they had yet to move their mattress, so for the night they were stuck with sleeping pads. Michael, in his love for arts and crafts, had made paper lanterns to hang around the house, which ended up being immensely useful.
"Can I ask you something?" Claire spoke quietly, hoping not to wake the sleeping brunette. He was a pretty heavy sleeper so she wasn't too worried, but she would feel bad if she woke him up with the question she had.
Bickslow looked up at her curiously, a little surprised by the hesitation in her voice. At that point in their relationship they usually just blurted out things to each other with mixed results, so it was strange to see her so nervous. "Of course."
"Laxus mentioned something that surprised me a lot more than it should have… I was just wondering, how early does a person's soul develop?" She asked, catching him completely off guard. After all the research into seith magic she'd done, she knew more about the technicalities of his magic than he did, and it was rare that she'd ask something so basic.
"Uh… depends on the person." He said after a moment, and took another bite of his pizza to ponder a good answer for her. "I mean, technically when the, you know, guy and girl do the thing and then the baby results,"
"Sex."
"… yeah." He glanced over at Michael, making sure he was asleep. "Anyway, sometimes when the two pieces of the souls meet, they'll instantly match and form a new soul within the body. Other times, the soul takes much longer to form than the body, and I've heard in rare cases that it can take a couple of years for the two pieces of the parents souls to mesh into a new one. In even more rare cases the parent's souls die out but the body keeps going, and usually these people don't live for very long after birth."
"Interesting."
"Why do you ask?"
"Carol got an abortion." She replied, and the seith mage choked on his bite of pizza. "When I told Laxus he got really pissed off and said it had to do with the fetus's soul, and I realized that I hadn't done any research on that, so I thought I'd ask you."
"Why the hell did she do that?"
"You know how birth control doesn't work for me?" She asked, and he paused, waiting for her to rephrase the question. "I mean, how birth control has painful side effects for me?"
"Yeah."
"Turns out Carol thought she was taking birth control, but when I told her that our dragon physiology prevents us from taking it, we found out that her birth control was fake. Took her to the doc and she said she was one month along, and with the dad's written consent they would do it. They tested half the male staff at Blue Pegasus before they found him."
"And you let her do that?" He asked incredulously.
"It's not my body, and even if I tried to stop her, you really think she would have listened to me?"
"You could have tried."
"I didn't know souls formed that early." She replied, and took a bite of her pizza, not looking at him. He grunted, setting down his half eaten slice, and thinking about what she said.
"So if you didn't know, she definitely didn't know." He muttered, sitting cross-legged with his head resting tiredly in the palm of his hand.
"You said that souls sometimes develop later."
"They sometimes develop early, too." He replied, and they both sat in silence for a while, Claire slowly and quietly eating her slice. After a few minutes, Bickslow sighed, going back to his food. "I'm sorry, I'm extra grouchy because I'm tired."
"I am too, no worries."
"I'm kind of surprised you didn't know that about souls, though." He commented, looking up at her. "I mean… you did so much research a while back…"
"My research focused on dead souls… it never really clicked for me what living souls were like." Claire hated not knowing things, and after using seith magic so much, it made this all the more embarrassing for Bickslow to look at her that way.
Bickslow saw her pout, and for once, it wasn't a joking pout. It was a genuine, dejected, sad pout, and he hated it. "You're not perfect, and I mean, dead souls are what we deal with. There wasn't a reason for you to research souls that are still in a body, and I mean, considering how many different things you research you know tons of stuff. Hell, you use three completely different magics on a regular basis and you're actually good at all of them."
Still pouting.
"Tell me why your sad so I can make it better."
"I'm just tired… sorry…." She muttered, and gave a heavy sigh.
"You know, I snagged one of the Christmas bottles from storage today…" He said, and when she looked up at him, he wiggled his eyebrows. The smile on her face appeared, and the seith mage jumped up and ran over to the kitchen.
3.
Claire liked the house that Bickslow had chosen.
Granted, he had her look at the 'top three' so that she could veto it if she really hated it, and didn't officially tell her which was his favorite so that she would get an unbiased opinion. Nonetheless, is was pretty easy to figure out which one he liked best just by the way he talked about it, and ultimately, she thought it was also the best one out of the bunch, too.
It was fairly close to an elementary school, and once they were more settled both Claire and Bickslow would go and meet the teachers. The school year had already started and Michael had missed quite a few tutoring sessions since Fried started working at Blue Pegasus, leaving him a little behind, but he'd almost caught up to his grade level. Hopefully they could work out an arrangement with the teachers.
The neighborhood was decent. Most of the neighbors seemed to keep to themselves, which both Bickslow and Claire liked, it was a slightly lower income block. It was average, and safe for Michael to play outside and even a few other kids rode their bikes up and down the street.
The house itself was unique and had its quirks, which matched their own personalities well. It was a two-story house with light green paint and dark brown trimmings, with an extra artistic flare that she couldn't put into words. The general shape of the house was odd, with its angles just a little too pointy (or perhaps it was designed to simply look that way) and artistic swirly shapes at the ends of the gutters and various other places.
It was an odd, artistic house, and Claire wouldn't be surprised if they'd gotten a good deal on it for that reason. They had honestly gone a little above their ideal budget when choosing the house, but it was worth it.
Claire was currently sitting on the front lawn with Bickslow, a blanket beneath them as they rested and leaned against each other, while Michael remained busy learning knots. Fried had given him a house warming present on knot making, and Bickslow suggested that he learn how to make hammocks with it.
It felt all too surreal right then, for both Claire and Bickslow. Getting a house together had been a huge step even though they were technically renting it, and after Claire had looked at it upon arrival from work, it only took a week to get the paperwork signed, deposit paid, and their belongings into the house. They still had to get Michael's belongings from Magnolia, but that was a headache for later.
Adopting Michael had been a possibility ever since his grandparents signed the paperwork. Even though they'd had high hopes that his dad would raise him, there was always the chance that it wouldn't work out. Bickslow made it clear that he wasn't going to desert his nephew, and Claire made it clear that she would stay with Bickslow. So even though it was tragic what happened to his father, the couple had been mentally prepared for the possibility of raising Michael.
Along with the possibility of raising Michael, there had also been the unlikely chance of Bickslow's parents wanting to hand off Nathan and Samantha to them. Last they heard from them, Nathan had been a handful, and they were threatening to send him to military camp like Michael.
Their decision to get a slightly bigger house than they needed had been partially because of that possibility- that they might end up with more kids. It was a three bedroom house, three bathroom, spacious living room, dining room, and the kitchen was a little small, but it worked for their needs.
Kids.
Until he met Claire, Bickslow always thought he'd be a loner. His babies were his family and that's all he needed. Sure, he had the Thunder Legion, but their relationship was casual at best despite their years of working together. When Fantasia happened they opened up a little, and when Bickslow fell for Claire, he started realizing that his world didn't have to revolve around himself and his babies. Bit by bit, he changed.
He now had friends outside his souls. Hell, his new job required that he socialize to get a paycheck, and people actually liked talking to him. He had a family- a growing family at that- and it included his babies. Ultimately he didn't have to choose between his babies and a living family, and that made him happy. Ironically and much sooner than they planned, they ended up adopting just like they'd been telling people.
Claire was in a similar boat.
She had never really thought that she'd be a loner, per say, but she never expected to have kids. Hell, she never would have guessed in a million years 99% of the things that happened to her on this world, so she really wasn't that surprised by the turn in events. Even though she acknowledged that, and for the most part she wasn't that bothered by it, it was still weird that she'd gone most of her life unable to picture herself as a mom and suddenly she was one. It wasn't traditional, and she wasn't married yet, but she'd decided to be a parent with her fiancé and get a house with him.
At the moment, their lives were stable and coming together.
"This would have been a lot easier if our friends had helped…" Bickslow muttered out loud, without thinking. Claire nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, it was pretty lame that they held a grudge against us for not helping them move. Not our fault they did it when we were gone."
What, are we chopped liver? Riley asked her, and she chuckled, hearing Bickslow groan as well.
"Of course, the babies were amazing when they helped. We couldn't have done it without them." Claire spoke, suspecting that Bickslow was also getting chewed out by his group. "How are you holding up with the telepathy thing?" She asked, turning to look up at the seith mage. His eyes were closed, and he sighed, moving his head to lean against hers.
"It sucks when they all talk at once."
"I'll bet."
They hadn't really gotten the chance to talk about their new souls since they got back, considering the recent drama. Over their travels they'd accumulated 3 new souls to their collection, making Bickslow's babies a total of 7. It didn't really drain his magic, but it was emotionally difficult to be connected with so many at once. If it got to be too much for him he'd planned to give one or two of his already trained babies to Claire: Pippi and Puppu.
"Is it time to transition Pippi?" She asked him, and Michael snickered, like he always did whenever 'Pippi' or 'Puppu' were mentioned.
"Let's wait a while longer." He replied.
"Alright, but don't strain yourself too much. We've got a lot going on right now, and I don't want you getting overloaded."
"I can handle it."
4.
After two days of moving and unpacking, Claire and Bickslow decided to take Michael to work. While Bickslow worked, Claire went to the spa to relax, and Michael got to meet their coworkers and hang out with Master Bob.
The seith mage was more than thrilled to host again, as he hadn't had the chance since their return from traveling, and his babies were happy at the non-heavy-labor work they were able to do. All of their babies despised moving since it required so much heavy lifting, and most of their duties had been moving back and forth over and over again with various objects to and fro the house. At least with hosting they carried things, but they were light and they got to entertain guests.
Bickslow's only issue with work was their newest member: Carol.
It wasn't just his fiancé's dislike of the woman that made him irritable around her. In fact, when it came to people in general, he was pretty good at tolerating them or at least acting civil even if he didn't care for them. Ichiya was a prime example of this: when they weren't in front of clients or fellow coworkers they both actively hated each other, and when they were in public, they acted civil. They had a mutual loathing for each other, and only their closest friends had any clue about it.
He wished that Claire hadn't told him about the abortion, but even if she hadn't, his coworkers would have. It was the main gossip at the guild hall and it was impossible not to know.
He was a seith mage. His life revolved around souls, living and dead, and he'd interacted with hundreds of wandering souls. He knew what happened to a baby's soul when it was killed at the wrong time of its development and it was tragic. One of three things happened to her child's soul: it hadn't developed a soul at all (no harm done), it formed a weak soul and simply disappeared from existence (not moving on), or it formed a soul and became a wandering soul.
When it came to unborn souls, it was usually the second that happened.
The idea that she created a soul just to destroy it made him sick. At the very least she could have checked if the baby had formed a soul, and he would have gladly stopped by the infirmary to check for her, but she didn't.
As he entertained his clients, he tried to not be obvious when she passed by his table. When they had to interact, he tried to bite his tongue and hold back that glare, although the tone in his voice was all too obvious. Just knowing she was in the building made his blood boil.
Towards the end of his shift, he had one last break, and Carol asked to talk to him in private. If she hadn't done it in such a public way he would have declined, but when he saw the look on his boss' face, he knew he couldn't.
So he followed her to the currently empty break room, leaving the door open, and waited for her to say whatever she wanted to say.
"Look, Bickslow," Carol started. "I don't know what my sister has told you, but I'm really not as terrible as she makes me out to be."
"When you got the abortion, did you check if the soul had formed yet?" He asked, not bothering with pleasantries. She rolled her chocolate brown eyes, making an aggravated huff as she placed her hands on her hips.
"You people here are so religious."
"It has nothing to do with religion." Bickslow spat. "Claire was pretty surprised when she learned that people develop souls so early, so I'm guessing no one has filled you in on it since you came to this world."
She looked up, unsure by what he meant.
"What you did, what I'm assuming you did since I don't know how far along it was, was create a soul and then destroy it. You brought something into existence only to deny it the ability to fully form and move on."
"It wasn't a soul, it was a fetus. It didn't even have brain function, so really, it was the equivalent of a tumor when I terminated it."
"Do you have any idea what my magic is?"
"All I know is you make those things float." She answered, gesturing to the flying totems behind him. He took a step towards her, towering over her with their vast height difference, and just the proximity made her uncomfortable.
"I use seith magic, specifically Human Soul Possession Magic. I can see your soul right now, and if I wanted, I could control it with a simple spell. In fact, these 'things' behind me are wandering souls, which I found and put into dolls." He spoke, and as he stared into her eyes, activated Figure Eyes. Instead of fully controlling her body, he simply kept a loose hold on her soul so that she could feel the power he possessed.
It was exceptionally rare that he did this, especially nowadays. Since Fantasia he had been cautious when showing his magic, and this was the first time in months that he'd used it on someone outside of battle.
Her soul quivered under his grip, and without a word, he knew that he'd gotten the desired effect.
"What happened between you and Claire is your business. What happens to human souls is mine." Bickslow didn't bother hating any of his malice or dislike of her, he let it drip from his tongue like poison.
If she could have, the dreadlocked woman probably would have run, but she was glued to the spot. Without another word, he turned, letting go of her soul after he left the room.
Claire gave him a questioning look when he returned, to which he merely leaned down and kissed her cheek. Neither of them said anything, and Bickslow started asking Michael how his day has been.
5.
Claire was tricked into spending the day with Evergreen.
… and Carol.
After her spa day, and previous days of unpacking and moving, she really didn't feel like finishing the job. Half their house was still unfurnished, unpacked, they still needed to get Michael's things (he was running out of patience), and in the millions of things they needed to do… both Bickslow and Claire voted to not do any of those things for one more day.
When Bickslow came to work and Claire went to the spa, Ever stopped her, insisting that they hadn't gotten to hang out in 'forever', and that they needed to catch up. Saying 'no' to Ever when she was this insistent rarely worked, so she just went with it. Only when they were leaving for the mall, did Carol 'happen' to be going in the same direction.
"You need to have a house warming party." Ever insisted as the trio stopped at a small bar for drinks. It was near the entrance of the shopping center, somewhat crowded on this Saturday afternoon, but they were able to find a small round table to sit at. Two of the walls were open to let people wander in and out, and there were several tables just outside in the sunshine for people to drink. Ever and Carol got more than a few looks for their revealing dresses. "It'll be a great opportunity for a party, and you'll get free stuff. You should do it before you go super shopping to fill up your house with stuff, that way you don't get repeats."
"That requires actually throwing a party. I don't have the energy for that." Claire argued.
"Oh come on. We'll help with the food and preparations, Fried will too, so it won't be that difficult."
"So you're willing to help throw a party at our house but when we asked for help moving into it…"
"Oh come on, it was only fair." Ever rolled her eyes.
"Are you sure that you want to move into a house with this guy?" Carol asked, and both women turned to her. She had been mostly silent for their entire time together, and Claire had been kind of hoping she'd stay that way.
"Yeah." Claire answered curtly, and just in time their drinks arrived.
"How much do you actually know about him?"
"A lot."
"Bicks is a good guy." Ever spoke up, and quickly slurped up a third of her margarita glass.
"I don't like him." Carol said decisively.
"Okay." Claire shrugged indifferently.
"He said that he controls souls."
"Yeah. He's good at it."
"How can you date someone like that? He controls souls."
"At least he's not a mass murderer."
"Hey, after we finish our drinks, why don't we head to the party store and get supplies for the big event? I'll pay for it! Well, most of it, it is for your house, afterall." Ever laughed loudly.
"I may have been gone for a long time, and I'm sorry you had to deal with our brother's… death, on your own," Carol spoke, and reached her hands across the table, taking Claire's hand and holding it in her own. "But I'm here now. I want to be there for you, and I don't want to see you make a big mistake. If you're afraid to leave him, I-"
The fire woman snorted in laughter, taking her hand back and sipping her drink.
"I know people that can get you out. Powerful people."
"Pretty sure Claire isn't being forced to stay with him, Carol." Evergreen said with a small smile of her own. Just the idea of Bickslow trying to pick a fight with her was amusing, and she remembered the couple's last public fight with each other.
6.
"How'd your day go?" Bickslow asked that night, as they unloaded the grocery bags in the kitchen. After Bickslow's shift ended and Claire met up with him and Michael, they all went grocery shopping for the first time together. Since they were creating a new system for where things went, they asked Michael to do something else while they put away the food.
"Pretty good. Apparently we're going to have a house warming party."
"Uuugh," He groaned loudly. "That means we have to unpack our shit."
"We've got a week to do it, at least. Technically we can just shove most of the boxes in our room if we run out of time." She told him, and he nodded thoughtfully, liking the idea. "Ever and Fried are going to help with the party, apparently."
"They'll help throw a party in our house, but when we-"
"I know, I know," She interrupted. "I'm annoyed by that, too. Oh, and speaking of annoying, my sister thinks you're abusing me, and that if I want to get out, she 'knows powerful people'."
"Wait, she thinks I'm abusing you?" He asked, stopping in the middle of the kitchen with a loaf of bread in his hands.
"You did take control of her soul, honey," She told him, and he pondered it, nodded and went back to moving around the room. "Ever and I laughed in her face, a lot, and for the rest of the day she kept trying to get info about our relationship."
"Your sister is really something."
"At least she's not accusing me of lying anymore. I think she's even got a lunch date with Laxus soon."
7.
To Claire's dismay, both Ever and Carol decided to move up the party date without consulting the couple. They didn't find out until Fried stopped by that morning to talk about party arrangements, what he could do to help, and so forth.
So instead of a week to get their house ready they had all of today, and then most of tomorrow, until that night. Bickslow, Claire, and Michael had to shove the boxes into their rooms for the time being, get decorations up, plan out the food, and figure out how many people Ever and Carol decided to invite.
Michael was probably the most upset.
He'd been looking forward to making decorations, and had everything planned out for the week- but when Fried told them the news, he promptly had a meltdown and broke into tears. When Bickslow tried to calm him down, he immediately ran to the stairs, to his room, and slammed the door shut. He didn't come out for most of the day.
Carol and Ever showed up at around 5 to help with decorations, to which both Claire and Bickslow were tempted to kick them out instead. The decorations they'd bought the previous day were in bags in the living room, untouched.
"How many people did you invite? And why the hell did you move up the date?" Claire asked, to which they both side stepped answering and went straight to the exploring the house. Neither had gotten the chance to actually get a solid tour yesterday, so they were both excited to look around.
"This place is… quaint." Carol said as she walked around.
"It's not bad." Ever added on her arm, they were linked as they wandered, making comments about this and that and finishing each other's sentences. Carol would sneak in the occasional insult to Bickslow's direction, and he would just stand there and seethe, since the pair was moving and talking so quickly that he didn't get to respond.
"Do they have any idea how inconsiderate and bitchy they're being?" Bickslow asked his fiancé, who had resigned to sitting on the floor of the living room with her back against the wall. Ever and Carol's opinions of the house could be heard from every room they visited, and they didn't bother holding anything back.
"Doubt it." Claire muttered. "Two single women in their early 20's with no responsibilities… except a job where they hang out and socialize all day."
"They've done apartment hunting before?"
"For themselves." She muttered, listening as the giggling girls gushed about how terribly small the bathrooms were.
"Can't we kick them out?"
"You're going to try and kick Ever out?" She asked, looking up at her grumbling fiancé nearby.
"I miss Fairy Tail." He finally muttered.
"Same."
8.
When the party happened, Bickslow and Claire put on their best 'happy' faces for their guests, which was their entire guild. Unfortunately they weren't the cleanest guests, as Claire found herself picking up napkins and paper plates tossed carelessly on the floor for most of the evening.
"Where's Michael?" Laxus asked, and took a bite of the chips and dip.
"Crying in his room. Ever and Carol ruined his 'big night'."
"Oi! That is not for the party!" Bickslow yelled in the kitchen, and both Claire and Laxus watched as a group of men ran out of the room carrying a bottle of their extremely nice stash. On their way through the room, Laxus discretely snagged the bottle from their hands, and looked at it. They'd drunken half of it, and he recognized it as the Christmas present he'd given them.
"Was this at least open when they got into it?"
"No. We were saving it." She replied, and he growled in annoyance. She could hear her fiancé cursing in the kitchen, and she didn't even want to know how much of their Christmas present had been snatched.
"Claire," Carol stumbled over, smiling with a half empty glass in hand and handsome man next to her. "I'd like you to meet Jose, he works at the guild."
Claire reached out and grabbed the glass in her hand, and took a sip of it.
"Rude, much."
"This isn't the alcohol we got for the party."
"Oh come on, that was cheap crap. I got into the good stuff I found in the kitchen- it's not like you were short on it. Anyway, he's single, and-"
"Where is the rest of it?" Claire demanded.
"Here and there, I- hey!"
Claire started moving through the house, her eyes darting around the rooms and nose out for the expensive alcohols. Laxus followed close behind, and they started locating and gathering the bottles. "Party's over- everyone out." She started telling people, and Laxus simply nodded and pointed to the exit.
"Claire, it's a party, lighten up!" Carol told her, and upon hearing that people were being kicked out, Ever came to see what was going on.
"Out! NOW!" Claire yelled at the water mage, so frustrated that she felt like she'd burst. "And anyone with bottles of booze, LEAVE THEM or so help me I will kick your ass!"
"Same here." Laxus added, and with his added threat, people started hurrying out of the small house.
"What is your problem?" Carol asked. "It's just booze."
"Expensive booze that we got from our last Christmas at Fairy Tail! These were gifts from people we care about, people that we consider family and you were giving it out without our permission like it was candy! I have a crying 9 year old child upstairs upset because of you and Ever and a trashed house that we just started renting! You have done nothing but insult our house and my future husband and that is not okay! Either get the hell out or I will force you out and believe me when I say that you do not want the second option."
Carol gaped at her for a moment, truly surprised by the outburst from her sister, and stood there in the middle of the hallway. That was the most that she'd ever said to her in a short amount of time, and everyone up and down the hall had stopped to watch the drama taking hold.
"Did I stutter?" Claire asked after a minute of awkward silence, and the dreadlocked woman set down the glass she was holding on the stairs next to her.
"Overdramatic much." She muttered, and walked out of the home with her head held high.
"I'm sorry about the alcohol. I didn't know she got into it without asking." Ever told her sympathetically. "I'll help you clean up."
"Thank you. I'd appreciate that." Claire sighed, and went back to ushering people out of her new home, kicking a few people along the way. After they were gone, she reconvened with Bickslow, Laxus, and Ever in the living room. The damage to their house could have been worse, and it didn't look like anything was too broken, but they'd found a few new holes in the walls and trash was everywhere on the ground.
"How much was left unopened?" Claire asked her fiancé.
"None." He sulked, and Claire's shoulders slumped.
"I'm so sorry, Carol said you said it was okay, and I figured that you guys were happy to share with everyone." Ever apologized quickly, still holding a pile of partially full and discards plates she'd picked up from the floor.
"We weren't." Claire muttered, and sighed. "And now that they've drank half of our good liquor, we've got a shit ton of fucking cheap liquor that no one touched." She cursed, eyeing the unopened bottles of wine, champagne, and beer on the main fold up table they'd bought yesterday. That Claire and Bickslow paid for.
"Well, I mean…" Laxus spoke. "It doesn't have to stay untouched. This night doesn't have to be a total loss."
"If you guys want to relax and hang out, I'll start cleaning up. Drink some wine, eat some food, maybe bring Michael down from his room?" Ever asked hopefully, accidentally dropping the plates when she tried to clasp her hands together. "I'll clean that up, too."
"We won't make you do all of the work… but if you want to do most of it, we won't stop you." Bickslow told her, some of his anger fading at how genuinely bad his friend felt. Ever got carried away sometimes (a lot), but when she messed up or went too far, she did try to make up for it. She knew what Fairy Tail had meant to them because it meant the same to her, and she knew that they'd been saving their Christmas gifts for a special occasion. She had just hoped that this was their special occasion. "I'll go get Michael and let him know the party is over. He'll love the guacamole Fried made."
"Since this is already opened, do you mind if I try it?" Laxus asked his sister, holding up the bottle of Scotch.
"Go for it. I might have a taste, too."
It wasn't long before the small group was in the living room, sitting on the couch and floor, and drinking. After about an hour of watching Ever run around the house frantically trying to clean everything up, Claire and Bickslow decided that she'd done enough and that she should join them.
Michael was happy that everyone had left, and filled up his plate with as much food as he could. While Ever was cleaning she unfortunately discovered that some of his lanterns he'd been exceptionally proud of got broken beyond repair, and a couple of them had been doused in alcohol. She subtly put them in the garbage bag she'd been carrying with her, planning to tell Claire and Bickslow, along with promising to make it up to her favorite kid at a later time.
"So, before you guys shoot this idea down," Claire spoke. "this wouldn't be a rushed thing or anything, but just an idea to keep in mind. What if we had a small get together with our Fairy Tail friends? We can have enough time that Michael can make all the decorations he wants, it won't be rushed, we invite who we want, and we can offer our nice alcohol so that it doesn't feel completely wasted."
"I'd be down for that." Bickslow said. "Who would have thought they'd have more class than Blue Pegasus." He added, looking over at the house warming gifts they'd gotten. Most of the guests didn't bring anything, Master Bob got them a blender, and the rest was extremely cheap bottles of wine. All of them were from the food market downtown called Apple Stash, and Claire knew this for a fact because she'd bought the same kind for the party at $2 each. Their guests had enough taste to drink their nice alcohol, but couldn't bother to get them at least half descent wine. If they didn't know for a fact that all of their guests were extremely well off financially, it wouldn't have been as insulting.
"What about you, Michael?" Claire asked. "Would you be up for seeing our friends from Fairy Tail again?"
He nodded quickly, smiling with his mouth full of food. "-akaroph?" He said, and Bickslow told him to swallow before speaking.
"Makarov?" Claire asked, and he nodded. "Last I heard he was traveling, but I'll ask around and see if he's back."
"Mira will probably be able to come. Same with her siblings." Laxus said, causing the boy to beam.
"It would be great to see everyone again." Ever added with her own smile.
9.
When Bickslow went to work the next day, everyone said that he had a nice home and thanked him for the party, but he heard the whispers that he wasn't supposed to hear. Most of the staff knew, or he supposed forgot, that his souls could hear what they said.
People didn't like being kicked out, and they didn't like Carol being yelled at. Even Fried was on her side, despite not having been at the party (he had planned to show up later), and it made the seith mage grind his teeth. Some of them made comments about the couple being ungrateful for their presence, for Carol and Ever's contribution, and more than a few were peeved that Bickslow didn't thank them for the wine they brought. He honestly didn't bother remembering who brought the bottles, and the only person he thanked was the guild master, who had put the time and effort into getting them something useful.
No one apologized for getting into their nice alcohol, not even the ones he'd caught taking the alcohol from the very back of the cupboard, where they'd had to take out various items and crawl back there to get. The others he could at least understand since Carol gave it to them, but that small group had no excuse. Ichiya was among them, which he kind of expected, but Hibiki? John?
"I'm sorry that your party didn't go so well last night." Master Bob apologized, talking to the seith mage on his break. "Did anyone stay to help clean up, at least?"
"Ever did. She felt terrible and cleaned up half hour house, so I'm not mad at her. This sucks." He grumbled, and leaned his elbow on the counter with his hand holding his cheek. "I really liked it here."
"You still have friends here."
"I thought I did…" He muttered sadly, looking over at the people in the guild hall. It was a normal day at Blue Pegasus, with guests laughing and chatting happily and hosts and hostesses smiling charismatically. When he first came to the guild he was a little nervous, namely because socializing wasn't his forte and he hated going without his visor, but he'd soon grown to love it. They liked being around him, he learned how to talk to people, and he fit in with his team almost immediately. Easy come, easy go….
Back at Fairy Tail, his team was a team. At Fairy Tail, they helped each other no matter what, they were rough around the edges but they cared for each other and went the extra mile. They screwed up and they weren't pretty, but they had beautiful hearts.
This guild…
They were nice, and they were pretty, but they were also shallow. Going the extra mile was a foreign concept to them and they really didn't understand what hard work was, because they would smile and pay for someone else to do it. Most of them had lived sheltered and closed off lives, given a good education, and never had to worry about a paycheck or if they had enough to get by.
He suddenly understood why Laxus disliked being a host here. Bickslow didn't get it back then, but he suddenly did now. It was fake.
"They may not be the best at showing it, and they are a bit spoiled… but they're still good people." Master Bob defended, watching the mage carefully. When he'd asked the Thunder Legion to join his guild, he'd honestly been a little worried that this might happen, but hoped that their variety of jobs would keep them from feeling too different from the other guild members. Laxus had been the first, followed by Claire, and now Bickslow was beginning to realize it, too.
"No offense, but… they're kind of shallow."
"Unfortunately, yes." The guild master agreed, and the seith mage looked up at him in surprise. "I've tried to make them a bit more grounded over the years, sending them on jobs to try and expose them to less fortunate areas to try and open their eyes. I love my guild, I love the dresses and suits and beauty involved… but, yes, they are shallow. They're young and naïve."
Bickslow thought about his guild master's words, looking back to his comrades.
"It's very different from Fairy Tail in that respect. Most of their beauty was in their hearts, and I had hoped that the Thunder Legion could bring some of that to my own guild."
The blue-haired mage felt rather nostalgic that moment, missing his old guild. He missed getting into a brawl with his friends, only to have a drink and laugh with them minutes later. He missed watching Makarov teach Michael how to sew, how Romeo used to play with him even after he learned about his gift, and how other members of his guild would interact with his nephew like he was family. Master Bob interacted with him, and sure the other guild members here would say hello or compliment his adorable suit, but they didn't really talk to him. Fairy Tail had been his family.
"Am I right to assume that you'll start taking the S-Class jobs with Claire and Laxus?" Master Bob asked after a moment.
"Yeah." He answered after a moment. It was ironic that after so many times of worrying over Claire and insisting that S-Class or other almost as dangerous jobs weren't the answer, that she could work here or do something less dangerous for an income, that he was now doing the same. Sure S-Class jobs were risky, but Laxus and Claire were the strongest mages he knew, and they were the only traveling jobs available through the guild. Bickslow himself was pretty damn strong, and he knew how to keep out of dangerous situations.
"I'll fix the schedule so that you don't have regular shifts anymore."
"Thanks, Master Bob."
10.
Their mattress was ruined.
At some point during the party, someone spilled half a bottle of wine on it, and no matter what they tried it wouldn't come out. The stench was terrible, and whoever did it also got something else smeared into it, which they didn't try too hard to figure out what it was. Since they had been so rushed the previous days they hadn't gotten the chance to put sheets and blankets on it, so not only did they not get the chance to sleep on it, but there was nothing to protect it from spillage.
Bickslow and Claire sat on the other side of the room, on the floor, with their backs leaning against the wall and staring at it.
Michael had been picked on that morning by some of the neighborhood kids, and locked himself in his room. Claire had tried for most of the day to talk to him and get him to come out, but he wouldn't budge. When Bickslow came home from work he managed to talk him into eating a sandwich and hot soup Claire had made earlier that day, and after eating the meal quietly in his room, Michael still wouldn't come out.
"You think Carol would pay for the damage?" He asked after a while. At the party she had been walking around in a skirt, while her breasts had been decorated in paint and glitter. The latter covered most of their previously white, now red wine stained mattress.
"Probably not."
"Didn't think so."
"I'm a little impressed she had found the time. We were supervising the party and somehow shit got messed up."
"We were supervising the entire fucking guild…. I had seen the bottles of booze being passed around, but I thought other people had brought it."
"Same."
"I feel bad for all the times I didn't help clean up after the parties at Fairy Tail."
"They had cleaning magic to help them, so it wasn't as bad."
"Ah…. I told Master Bob I'll be doing jobs with you and Laxus now. Hope you don't mind."
"But you love hosting." She commented, surprised.
"I did, but… I think the party and how they acted with Michael showed their true colors. I don't think I could enjoy working there knowing how shallow they are. Besides, they hate us for throwing a lousy party."
"Seriously?"
"Even Fried is mad at us."
"Well, that's not too surprising, since he's boning Carol."
"What!?" Bickslow exclaimed, jumping to his knees and kneeling in front of her. "Since fucking when!?"
"When we were traveling, apparently. It's not the first time she's slept with a gay guy."
"But I mean… Fried? Our Fried had sex with the baby killer?"
"Unfortunately."
"Noooo…" He groaned, falling forward so that his face rested in her lap, and burying his face between her legs. It was a really weird position for both of them, and Claire couldn't help but smile at the sight of her fiancé's butt in the air like that. After a moment he shifted so that he was laying on his side, head still on her lap, and pouting as he resituated to go back to staring at the mattress. It was currently tilted and leaning against the opposite wall so that they could study it in silent contemplation. "I hate your sister."
"Should we go to Magnolia tomorrow to get Michael's things?"
He sighed tiredly, eyes closing softly as she started petting his soft blue hair. "Yeah."
11.
"Shit." Bickslow let out, and Claire was so similarly shocked, she didn't even catch that he'd cursed around Michael.
"I'm sorry about the mess… we had to search everywhere." The police officer stated.
The all stood by the doorway to Michael's old room, gaping at the terror within.
It hadn't just been 'searched', it had been gutted and destroyed. Posters torn, clothes thrown carelessly around the room, some of the floorboards ripped up, toys and art projects broken- nothing was left 'unsearched'. Even his books were on the floor and open, and muddy shoe prints were on the torn crumpled up pages.
"What the hell is wrong with you people?" Claire asked, looking over at the police officer. Over the years she had gotten pretty good about holding her tongue around law enforcement, but come on. It was a little kids room.
"Some of the guys get a little carried away… I'm sorry," He spoke, and he really did seem to mean it. It wasn't his division that had done the search, and he'd mentioned earlier that he had kids of his own.
"Bickslow, why don't you and Michael go down to the park and I'll see if I can salvage anything?" She suggested, and the seith mage nodded, putting a hand on Michael's shoulder and leading him away back down the hallway.
"I'm so sorry buddy, I had no idea it would be that bad." Bickslow told him. "Do you want to piggy back ride there?"
Claire sighed, knowing it was going to be a long day.
12.
When they got home, they were surprised at the uninvited guest walking through their house and shaking their head angrily while muttering.
It was their landlady.
"Less than a month and you've already put holes in my walls!" She yelled, pointing to one in particular in the living room.
"We had a house warming party the other day," Claire tried to explain, setting down the light box of belongings on the floor. Unfortunately, the landlady shook her head feverously and pointed at a stain on the carpet, and list off all the problems she'd found with the house. All of them were extremely minor and it wouldn't take much time to clean up, and they'd planned to get it done over the weekend.
Technically it was illegal for her to enter the home without notice, and it was written so in the contract, but as Claire and Bickslow tried to reason with her they didn't bring it up to make her more angry.
After 20 minutes of talking with her, Michael having run upstairs as soon as they got there, the couple found out that they were being kicked out. They had one month to move.
Later they would find out that she only did it for her grandson, who was moving back into town and needed a place to live. The landlady had been wrong to enter the house without permission, but there was no getting around the damage (no matter how minor) because it gave her the right to evict them. They managed to convince her that they would fix the damage in order to get their deposit back, and if Claire hadn't read the contract so carefully, the older woman would have tried to kick them out that night.
Once the landlady had left, both Bickslow and Claire went up to Michael's room and sat on his mat on the floor with him, contemplating their next move.
13.
Claire heard screams coming from inside the guild hall, and quickly ran inside to investigate. As she made it past the doors, a man almost knocking into her after being thrown, her eyes locked on the person that threw him.
A wide smile fluttered across her face.
"Natsu, stop scaring the customers." She told him, and the pink-haired mage looked up at her, a matching smile on his face. He turned from the woman he'd been towering over menacingly, his fire magic activating.
"What the hell are you going to do about it?" Natsu asked with a cocky smirk.
"Don't hurt her!" A woman yelled, and both of them looked in surprise, watching as a certain dreadlocked woman stood between them with her arms spread. Her eyes were wide, body shaking as she stood between the two fire mages, obviously terrified of the man. Considering that the man was standing there, shirtless with his muscles bulging and fire magic dancing threateningly along his skin, it was no surprise that Carol was scared of him.
The majority of people in the room were cowering from him, and Claire could only guess that he'd been his usual rambunctious self.
"Are you kidding? I'm going to kick her ass!" Natsu announced, pointing to the woman behind her with a confident smirk. "I've been training, and I'm tons stronger now!"
"She's my sister!" Carol yelled. "I won't let you hurt her!"
"… eh?" Natsu squeaked awkwardly, looking between the pair. Lucy, who had been standing nearby overlooking the horrible event, started laughing with Happy.
"Calm down, Carol. As if this punk could lay a hand on me. His fire magic is weak at best." Claire antagonized, and several of her guild member's eyes widened at her words.
Natsu ran around the water mage so fast she didn't see him move, and he launched his fist at Claire's face.
She easily caught his hand, and the resulting collision sent an energy wave through the entire building and a quarter of the town.
"Not bad." Claire commented, and then shifted to pull him into a hug. They both laughed as he hugged her back, and the entire room stared with wide and disbelieving eyes. "Dude, you have no idea how nice it is to see a friendly face."
"Can you take these hooligans out of the guild hall?" Master Bob requested, and she nodded with a smile, keeping an arm around the dragonslayer.
"Yes, sir! C'mon guys," She spoke, waving Lucy and Happy over to them, and guided them all out of the Blue Pegasus guild hall.
14.
Later that day, Claire came back home with a smile on her face, and strolled over to her fiancé in the dining room. Michael was sleeping near him, a pizza box was nearby, and house listings were surrounding them.
He didn't look up from the house listings, looking depressed as he sat there, lazily looking over the pages upon pages. Searching the first time had taken so long, and now they had to go through it all over again… their other 'top two' choices had already been taken off the market.
"Why are you looking for places in Clover Town?" Claire asked, peering over at the pages.
"I assumed we wanted to live near our guild."
"Well yeah. Which means we need to get Magnolia listings." She said, trying to sound casual as she spoke. The man looked up at her, and she'd hoped to be more subtle about it, but she couldn't.
"Why? And why do you look so happy? We just lost our house."
"Which is pretty good timing." She said, still beaming at him. He didn't even think it was possibly for her to mouth to get that wide.
"… why?"
"Fairy Tail is back."
He stared at her for a moment, processing it, and then a similar smile overcame is face. Reaching forward, his hands on either side of her face, he pulled her in for a deep kiss, overjoyed by the news.
15.
The next day, Claire, Bickslow, and Michael all entered the new guild hall.
Most of their friends were already back, and the guild hall wasn't as great as it used to be, but it was definitely home. Even Laxus was there.
"Claire! Bickslow!" Lisanna cheered happily, and a good portion of the group looked up from their conversations to greet them. Soon enough they were pulled into a round of hugs and laughs, and joined their comrades for a drink. Michael, who had been rather timid and shy around people as of late, had even smiled and talked to the adults. He was still quiet, but he was getting better, and the improvement didn't go unnoticed by his aunt and uncle.
"Why the hell aren't you losers married yet?" Macao demanded. "Haven't you two been engaged forever?"
"We've been a little busy." Bickslow answered with a smile. He was back in his old work outfit, visor and all, and he was more than happy at the nostalgic atmosphere. Everyone had changed in their 10 months apart, but they were still Fairy Tail. "To Fairy Tail!" He announced with a raised beer mug, and everyone in the guild did the same.