Hey y'all! Sorry it took so long to update. When I started this story I had a clear picture of where I wanted it to go and then life happened and that picture went away replaced by a very fuzzy one. I'm still not sure where it's going to end up so you'll just have to bear with me.

Chapter 2

As soon as Lucy collapsed Bixlow lunged forward to catch her as Wendy was spurred into motion. Bix laid Lucy down with her head in his lap just as Wendy reached her, her power already at the surface. Bix noticed his brother Cristoff step forward to see if he could help but before he could warn him Wendy noticed and turned her attention from Lucy to the unknown dragon slayer. Seeing the unknown slayer try to approach Lucy again, Wendy lost control and growled out while activating her dragon force. Her growl spurred the other slayers into action.

Laxus, knowing that Cris was okay, and Cobra, being able to hear that Cris wouldn't hurt Lucy, tried to reassure Wendy that Cristoff wouldn't hurt Lucy, that he was a healer. Gajeel, Natsu, and Gray all stood between Wendy and the Pradesh family to prevent anyone from getting hurt and try to block her view of the other slayer.

"Little Dragon. Mooney over there won't hurt Nightshade. He's Crazy Eyes' brother and a healer. He's not gonna come any closer though okay. Just go back to making sure Bright Eyes is going to be okay."

Wendy growled once more before deactivating her dragon force and turning her attention back to Lucy. Quickly finishing her examination, Wendy let out a sigh noticing Lucy would wake up within an hour or two. Once the slayers finally deemed it okay to approach the blonde and blue haired girls again the first one they let though was Romeo.

Sensing her mate nearing Wendy turned around and latched onto Romeo who just wrapped his arms around her and ran his fingers through her hair to help her calm down some more.

"It's alright Wen. Lucy-nee is going to be just fine. She'll wake up soon. You made sure of that."

After a few more minutes passed Bix noticed the girl was almost completely back to normal so he decided to speak.

"Hey Lil' Blue. I'm gonna take Cosplayer back to my house so she can rest somewhere more comfortable okay? I'll call you if something is wrong before letting my brother look at her."

Wendy nodded her head at the Seith and let Romeo lead her back inside as Bixlow picked up the blonde and carried her in the opposite direction. The Pradesh family just stood there for a minute before hearing Bix's voice through the family link.

"Are y'all comin'?"

Quickly catching up to him they all walked back to his house, though nobody said a word.

Once they arrived Bix laid Lucy down in the room he had given her before heading back down the stairs to talk with his family.

"So what was that all about with the sky dragon slayer? Why wouldn't she let me help?"

Bix raised an eyebrow at Cris and noticed Emi was just as confused.

"I mean I get that they're kin but I'm a more powerful healer and she should have been able to sense that I could help."

"You two seriously can't tell? Cosplayer is their tatsu queen."

Seeing the looks of shock and a bit of jealousy Bix decided to speak again.

"Y'know, Cosplayer would gladly welcome you to her tatsu if that's something you want. Just give her a chance to wake up and meet everyone before asking her. Though I'll tell you now her tatsu includes all of Fiore's slayers, not just the dragon slayers."

Moving on from that Bix saw his family all deep in thought about the events they just watched unfold.

"Bix why would Miss. Heartphilia do that? Why would she be willing to give up her magic to remove the compulsion from Zen? Is she gonna use it as a bartering chip to take advantage of one of us?"

Bix just sat there in shock.

"What the hell Fare? I get that you don't know her but do you have so little faith in me? Do you really think I would pick a manipulative bitch as my best friend and little sister?"

His family looked at him in shock that he would even ask them that.

"Bix I didn't mean…"

"Whether you meant it that way or not that's really what it comes down to. Lucy is an absolute sweetheart. She's sassy and fierce but loyal and protective to a fault. That's why she's my best friend and little sister. That's why she's got a room in my house. Besides aren't you supposed to know her or some shit? Didn't she say earlier that she used to play with you and Zen when y'all were young? Just forget it I'm gonna go check on her."

Bix turned and walked to the stairs, but stopped as he reached the bottom one.

"Just to answer your question though, she removed the compulsion because she's a good person, better than me for sure and probably better than all of you. The compulsion was wrong and like she said she protects those of the heavens. She expects nothing in return and will probably tell you as much herself when she wakes up."

With that Bix walked up the stairs and went straight to Lucy's room, making sure to shut the door behind him.

Everyone sat in stunned silence after hearing the door to the blonde's room close. They just comprehend what had just happened or why Bix had looked so hurt at the idea of Lucy just being accused of possibly wanting to hold something over them.

The house remained silent for close to an hour. Not once did Bix leave the blonde and the only one of his family to enter was Vander, but he remained in his shadow form and quickly left after seeing the state his brother was in. The pain that was so clearly on his face wasn't something Vander wanted to see and the muffled apologies that he heard was enough to know there was more to what was going on than his family knew of.

"I'm sorry Cosplayer… I'm so sorry"

Maybe another ten minutes passed when Lucy finally started to stir. Bix quickly noticed and moved from the chair to the edge of the bed.

When Lucy opened her eyes it only took her a moment to realize she was in her room at Bix's house and that Bix was in the room with her.

"Bixy? What happened? Where's your family? You're supposed to be spending time with them not taking care of me. You haven't seen them in years."

"It's fine Cosplayer, they're down stairs last I checked. I came up here to sit with you until you woke up after getting into a bit of a fight with Farron. You passed out after your whole Princess of the Stars transformation. Ooh that reminds me. You might want to check on Wendy. She was looking over you when Cris stepped up to help and she went dragon force on him. We got her calmed down enough and by we I mean our slayers and sent out Romeo."

Lucy giggled "Alright I'll reach out to her in a minute. I think I may need to call a tatsu meeting anyway. You have to slayer siblings right?"

"Yeah Cristoff is the Lunar Dragon Slayer and Emzadi is the Solar Dragon Slayer."

"Cool. Think they'll want to be part of our tatsu?"

"Yeah they were jealous when I mentioned the tatsu earlier. I'm sure they'd love to join. You really gonna call a tatsu meeting today though? With how last minute it is not everyone may be able to make it."

"Did Erik not tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"We're all going out tonight to Laxus's club. The whole tatsu plus a few others. Erik said he'd leave it up to you if y'all joined us or not because your family was going to be in town. I wanted to do something now though because the games are in a couple weeks and you know how competitive we can get."

"I'll think about it."

"Okay. We're meeting up around 9 outside the club if you decide to come. Your family is welcome to come as well."

It was quiet for a minute, neither really realizing or caring that the others could hear them talking though.

"You wanna tell me what happened between you are Farron?"

"Not really."

"Bix."

"Cosplayer."

"Don't you Cosplayer me. I can tell whatever he said is still bothering you. Talk to me. That's what best friends and annoying little sisters are for."

Bix sighed and rub his hand down his face.

"Sometimes I hate that you know me so well."

"I love you too nee-chan now talk."

"Farron started questioning your motives for removing the compulsion and I just... I don't know... snapped. After everything you've done you don't deserve to have people be weary and mistrustful of you. Then it jumped to their lack of trust in my judgement because you are my best friend and little sister by choice."

Bix slumped back and released a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding.

"I know they didn't deserve that and I'll apologize for reacting the way I did later. I just couldn't let them think of you like that. You're the best thing that ever happened to me and so many others. You deserve so much better than the shit hand you were dealt and I would have never forgiven myself if you really had had to give up your spirits to save my brother. I'm not sure I could fix your soul from that again. Some days it still looks like it's barely holding together."

Lucy crawled over to Bix and wrapped her arms around him giggling when he lifted her into his lap so he could hold onto her tighter.

"Bixy, it would have been my decision. You know how I am about fixing injustices, and your family doesn't know me like you do. I don't fault them for being hesitant. And if I had had to give my spirits to Yuki then I know you and the rest of our tatsu would have done everything you could to make sure I didn't end up like last time. Besides, They wouldn't have been gone from my life like last time. Yuki would have summoned them for me to see them on occasion and a couple are bound to me so they wouldn't have been able to go to Yuki anyway."

Lucy tightened her hug and smiled when Bix nuzzled into her hair.

"C'mon. Let's go see just how much of that they heard since I highly doubt you thought to activate the noise canceling runes when you came in."

Bix chuckled and let go of her, laughing when she almost fell out of the bed because her foot was caught in the blankets.

"Before we confront them on eavesdropping how 'bout you contact Lil' Blue and let her know you're up so she doesn't go dragon force on my ass again."

Lucy chuckled as she skipped out the door and straight to the kitchen.