Lucy finally felt like she could address the elephant in the room once they were curled together under the blanket on the most comfortable bed she'd ever laid on. One perk of suffering through the photoshoot was getting two free nights at an upscale resort in Crocus. Being waited on hand and foot by the highly trained staff almost made up for knowing all of Fiore would soon see evidence of the ridiculously embarrassing photoshoot. Almost, but not quite.

"We're going back tomorrow. Are you going to get weird on me again?"

Cobra's arms around her waist tightened enough to pull her back more snugly against his chest before he mumbled. "Why the hell do you want to talk? Can't we just go to sleep?"

"No. I don't have the luxury of hearing your thoughts, so I don't know what's going through your head unless you tell me." When he didn't say anything, she added, "That's how this started last time. You said something I completely misunderstood, and then you didn't say anything to correct the mistake, so I just kept thinking I was right. Then we went for more than two weeks not speaking to each other before – "

"For fuck's sake, stop talking so I can figure out what to say." His grumpiness made her laugh, but she did as he so rudely demanded and stayed quiet. It took him so long to start talking that she almost fell asleep.

"I will try not to 'get weird' on you but I'm not making any promises. When I said I wasn't supposed to start caring, I meant I wasn't supposed to give a damn about what changed when we finally got back to Magnolia. My entire purpose in taking you out of the city was to make sure the bullshit in your head got better, and then maybe push you off on the dragon slayers at Sabertooth. I wasn't supposed to get attached, but then I fucking did." He sounded so irritated by the idea of an attachment that Lucy started to feel a little offended. Before her thoughts could go much further, Cobra said, "You've got it all wrong. It's not that I don't want to be attached to you, it's that I don't want any attachments at all. I prefer being on my own. I don't fucking know how to care about someone."

Lucy stayed quiet as she let all of that sink in. An idea popped up in her head that she wasn't sure she should suggest, and she wasn't at all reassured by the way Cobra froze against her back. It was as if he'd even stopped breathing.

Deciding she may as well dive in head first, she said, "Why don't you just live with me? Your rat hole of an apartment is horrible, anyway. I won't expect you to stop being you. You can still go out on your solo job requests or do whatever you do when you disappear for a while. The biggest change will be that when you come back, I'll be there. At home. Waiting for you." Saying the last bit was difficult and made her feel a little like she had the day she thought he was saying he didn't want her. The following silence only made the pit in her stomach grow, but she put every ounce of effort she could muster into not jumping to conclusions so he could have time to give her an answer.

He imagined what that might be like. It was easier than he expected to picture a life where he went out to do his shit and then came back home to Lucy. It made sense in a way few things did, as if what he was imagining was how things were meant to be. "Alright."

Rolling over to face him, Lucy smiled brightly as she asked, "Alright? Just like that?"

"Don't get too excited. I'm a bit of an asshole." He pulled her fully against him again, though this time in a much more suggestive manner.

"Oh, don't worry, I've known that ever since you laughed like a maniac while locking my wrists into that giant clock."

In the dim light shining around the edge of the window coverings, she could just make out his brows scrunching together as he attempted to look confused. "You sure that was me? I'd never sacrifice my woman to bring about the end of the world."

She snorted and then said, "Must've been some other one-eyed, poison spewing guy with maroon hair."

"Yeah, must have been." And then he kissed her, partially because he wanted to but also because it was one of the few ways to get her to stop talking.