I wanted to hold off on posting this until I'd actually finished this story and completed the last few chapters, but... I'm impulsive. And reviews keep me motivated to actually keep working on things, so I figured it was a win-win for everyone if I just posted this anyway. Anyway, hope you enjoy! Comments and such are always appreciated and keep me motivated and wanting to work on more things!

Also, since I'm not sure if I'll have another update out before Christmas (maybe I'll get another one-shot or something done), I hope you're all having a wonderful time of year and doing whatever it is you enjoy.

As it turns out, a baby shower was a wonderful idea. A birthday party for their infant daughter was also a pretty damn awesome idea. Bickslow still didn't quite get it, but he knew better than to argue. The whole birthday party and baby shower debate was clearly one he'd lost.

With Ingrid's birthday falling on a Monday, they decided it best to have everyone around to celebrate on the Sunday beforehand instead. The weather was in their favour and nice and sunny, and even Bickslow had to agree that it was a nice day to have everyone around. Lucy had been up bright and early that morning cleaning the house and making sure it was up to scratch for all their friends to visit. After being woken up to Lucy vacuuming around the bed, Bickslow quickly realised that he'd much rather wake up to an infant screaming.

Bickslow hadn't figured out why the crazy cleaning was that necessary, but questioning it had been the wrong decision since it ended up with Lucy throwing a cleaning cloth and spray in his direction, and telling him to help (he'd been planning on doing so anyway, though).

Freed was the first to arrive at a little before noon, followed by Evergreen and Elfman just a few minutes later. Evergreen had come with a pile of gifts for whatever reason, some for Ingrid, some for the twins when they were born, and even an annoying squeaky toy for Freya. Lucy had been absolutely thrilled. As if Ingrid had needed more toys to not play with. Bickslow had spent over an hour searching the house and rounding up all the stray toys around the place. No matter how many fluffy animals or annoyingly loud and musical contraptions they threw her directions, she still loved the wooden babies.

Before long, everyone had arrived, and Ingrid had woken up from her nap, too. Bickslow had thought his house was noisy beforehand, but then he had a dozen people, three screaming infants, a four-year-old, and a dog all making noise at once, and Bickslow was way too tempted to just pick up his keys and go find the nearest bar. But that wouldn't have been fair to Lucy because she couldn't drink.

"And… We're back downstairs. Tour complete. Although really, I'm not even sure why you all wanted a fucking tour to begin with," Bickslow mumbled, rounding the bottom of the stairs. He'd never liked museums and guides, so he certainly didn't like being a guide himself. "Not like you haven't seen the place before."

"Places look different with furniture in them, though," Gray said.

"And clearly Lucy picked all the furniture, too," Evergreen snickered.

"Alright, now hold on, that just isn't true," Bickslow defended himself.

"No? She let you pick the doormat?"

Bickslow scowled. "No." That one, Lucy had picked. The one he'd liked had been too offensive, something about it saying 'fuck off' on it and being rude. "I… I picked the piano!" He pointed towards the upright piano sitting just next to the staircase in the foyer.

"Mummy, I wanna play on piano!" Blake said excitedly, tugging his hand free from Mira's grip to run just out of her reach and towards the lonely piano.

"Oh, no, honey, don't do—" Mira couldn't pick him back up fast enough before he was climbing onto the matching seat and mashing on the keys.

Bickslow tried not to grimace. He loved that piano almost as much as he loved his family. He hadn't played it since buying it, but it was still his baby. He'd at least remembered to have it tuned after impulsively purchasing it, but even then, Blake mashing away on the keys was not pleasant. "It's… It's fine…" Bickslow mumbled, pained. That was what he got for not having the lid down. He wasn't sure why it was up in the first place.

Having gotten Ingrid changed and into her special birthday dress, Lucy eventually joined the rest of the party outside. She knew she was the one to agree to having everyone over, but seeing everyone at once, and knowing they were all staring at her as she finally stepped onto the patio, kind of just made Lucy want to run back inside and hide until they all left. The last time they'd all seen her had been when they'd moved into the house, and that had been nearly two months earlier. Lucy liked to think she hadn't been quite as fat then.

Now though? There were many things Lucy thought she was a similar size to. Her favourites were hot air balloons and blimps, the latter being what she felt like a good portion of the time. Except she didn't think a blimp would be in as much pain as she was, so Lucy wondered if it was an accurate comparison at all.

"Ah, there's my girls!"

Lucy tried not to cringe as Bickslow's little announcement. Now everyone really was looking at her, including the damn pets. Yep, here I am… Hard to miss… "Sorry for taking so long," she said with a polite smile. "I had to get the birthday girl here dressed."

"Oh, look how big she's gotten!" Lisanna cooed.

Lucy almost thought she meant her.

"Luce, too!" Natsu piped in.

And there it is…

"Oi, Flame-brain, that was rude," Gray mumbled.

"You look wonderful, Lucy," Mira assured her as sweetly as ever.

Lucy continued to smile politely, even as Bickslow got up to take Ingrid out of her hands and kiss her cheek and whisper that she really looked wonderful. Lucy didn't really listen when Bickslow said that though. He didn't count.

"Well, it's nice to see you all," Lucy said. And, it was true. Lucy just happened to much rather be back in bed right about then. She knew she couldn't have it both ways though. "I feel like it's been forever since we've all gotten together."

"That it definitely has," Freed agreed.

"So do you know what you're having yet?"

"Uh, yep…"

"Does Bicks know? Is it like some big secret and you're waiting until—"

"Nope… Having a boy and a girl…" Lucy shook her head slowly, letting out a sigh.

The women crowding around her all awwed and giggled. Lucy tried not to let her annoyance show but her patience was quickly fading. She hadn't meant to get roped into the conversation, at least not for as long as she had, but now she was stuck out there by the pool with everyone asking her annoying questions about the babies. At least Bickslow got to sit in the shade with the rest of the guys and drink and laugh about whatever it was they were busy talking about. Lucy felt like she was the only one who wasn't laughing that day, and it was her damn party.

Well, it was her daughter's, but she was one so it was really her party.

"I think Bickslow mentioned that at work a little while ago, actually…" Erza chimed in.

Evergreen nodded and Lucy tried not to roll her eyes. "Mm-hmm, he did," the former Fairy mage said, sipping on her drink.

"I think you're lucky," Lisanna said from the pool, leaning her arms on the edge while Blake continued to paddle behind her with the brightly coloured floats.

Lucy had to try her hardest not to say anything as everyone else agreed. If Levy hadn't already left with her twins, Lucy was sure she would've scoffed and said something. If it was one person who could understand how miserable it was, it was Levy. Bickslow tried to, but he wasn't the one who'd put on twenty kilos and was a walking incubator.

"Everything here is so perfect," the youngest Strauss continued wistfully. "Ingrid is so sweet. And being able to feel them move inside you must be an amazing feeling."

Admittedly, Lucy agreed with that. Her life was far from perfect - in fact, she was just waiting for the next thing to come along and ruin everything - but she adored Ingrid more than she thought she ever could, and she always loved feeling the twins kick and move around. Well, most of the time. "I guess so," Lucy murmured. "Although, it's not so great when I'm trying to sleep and they think they can have their own little party in there."

Bickslow wasn't the only one to look back over his table to the poolside when everyone giggled like schoolgirls. He'd been hearing it all afternoon, but occasionally he hadn't been able to help look over and wonder just what on earth they were talking about that was so funny.

Usually though, whenever he had, Lucy had just looked like she was figuring out how much longer she'd have to put up with everyone. Bickslow wasn't stupid - he knew she hated everyone being there right then, and that she probably hated the fact she did, too. He didn't really blame her, either. But when he looked over that time, Lucy was laughing, and it seemed genuine, too.

It was almost as if Lucy was enjoying herself even if it was only a little.

"What about Ingrid?" Juvia asked then. "Is she excited about being a big sister?"

"I, uh… I don't know," Lucy answered. She'd never even thought about that, but she very much doubted that her daughter cared about anything beyond her toys and crawling after the dog. "I mean, she's one. I don't think—"

"Oh! What about the room?" Mira interrupted gleefully. "Have you started that yet? What about furniture shopping? Oh, it must be so exciting!"

Lucy didn't have time to think about her answer before Erza said, "Forget about the room. What about names?"

"Of course! What surname are they taking again, Lucy? Was it Heartfilia? Or are they taking Bickslow's last name?"

"I, um—"

"Isn't it hyphenated now?" Evergreen said.

"Oh, that's right!"

"Juvia likes the name Gloria," Juvia mused.

Erza shook her head. "Gloria is boring. Maxine is better. It means greatest, anyway."

"How about Eugene for the boy?" Mira suggested. "You could call him little Gene!"

"I… I don't know…" Lucy murmured, although no one seemed to hear her anyway, being too involved in their own conversation about her.

She tuned out quickly. Really, Lucy didn't care for what they were talking about, and it was clear they didn't care about including her in it, anyway. Lucy supposed she should've seen it coming. She'd been cooped up at home for so long that everyone has just forgotten she exists. She was a person, damn it, not a topic of conversation - well, she could be that, but not right then when she was sitting right there.

Lucy couldn't even hear what they were saying any more. Her heart beating in her ears drowned everything out. Staring blankly ahead, Lucy noticed the twins moving around. That much didn't really surprise Lucy though since she learned that they were more active in the afternoon. She was sure if she looked down, she'd see them move, too, although that was something Lucy still found a little odd.

"Really? Let me feel!"

"Huh?" Lucy came back from her daze to quickly be surrounded, all of them trying to get a hand or two on her to feel the babies move. Did I say that out loud? She must have for everyone to be surrounding her like that.

"I can't feel them—oh! Guys, here!"

Did Levy ever get this? Lucy sure hoped not. She was feeling sick, if she was honest, although whether that was all the hands pressing into her abdomen or the heat getting to her, Lucy couldn't really tell. "Please stop," Lucy whispered. Except her plea fell on deaf ears. Lucy honestly didn't know if they hadn't heard her or if they were just ignoring her for the sake of being able to poke and prod her more. "Come on, that's enough—"

"Ooooh, god, that must feel so weird!"

"No wonder you don't get any sleep."

"Y'know, it's squishier than I thought it'd be."

And just like that, Lucy snapped. "No. Just stop. I mean it this time," she shouted, swatting all the hands away and rising from the lawn chair she'd been sitting on. She might've cared that everyone, including the damn dog, was looking at her, if she hadn't been too busy trying not to cry. Still, everyone was looking at her like they had no idea what had happened, as if it was impossible any of them could do anything even remotely close to wrong. "Just because I'm pregnant, it doesn't mean you can all just walk up and touch me whenever you feel like it. I'm still a person, okay? And… And I don't like sitting here and listening to you all talk about my life and my children like I'm not even here!"

"Lucy, we're not—"

"No. Don't. I don't care." Lucy sniffed, trying her hardest to remain composed. She hated that they all looked so hurt, but that wasn't her fault. "Now if you'll excuse me."

Silently, Lucy made her way back inside as quickly as she could while everyone no doubt continued to watch her. Bickslow was the only one who didn't turn to watch Lucy leave, only letting out a tired sigh and taking a quiet sip from his beer before returning his attention back to Ingrid on his lap.

The turn of events really hadn't surprised him. He'd kind of been waiting for it.

Only waiting a little while, Bickslow eventually headed inside to go check on his girlfriend. He would've waited a little longer, but then Evergreen had yelled at him and Bickslow had mostly just wanted to get away from her. Not that he didn't care about Lucy, it was that he wasn't sure there was anything he could say to help.

Unsurprisingly, he found her upstairs in their room, Freya curled up at the foot of the bed and leaning on Lucy's leg. As much as the dog loved him, she'd taken quite the liking to Lucy, and Bickslow knew Lucy loved Freya, too.

"Can I come in?" he asked, knocking gently on the door frame. Lucy was facing away from him so he couldn't really tell what kind of mood she was in. She wasn't telling him to go away, or saying anything at all really, so Bickslow took it as a good sign. He sat down on the edge of the bed as carefully as he could, sitting silently for a moment before asking quietly, "Are you okay?"

"No, of course I'm not okay!" she wailed. Bickslow couldn't help but grimace. He'd walked right into that. "Everyone must hate me."

Bickslow sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. He was convinced the whole party had caused more trouble than it had been worth. "No one hates you, Cosplayer."

"You sure? Because Mira looked like I'd insulted her to her face, and Ever just looked offended."

"Eh, that's just Ever's face. She always looks like that."

"That's not funny, Bicks," Lucy mumbled.

Bickslow rolled his eyes as he got up, quickly walking around the other side of the bed so he could lie down in front of her instead. "Right. Sorry," he said sheepishly. Lucy was looking at him like she was waiting for him to say the right thing, but Bickslow wasn't sure what that was. He wanted to hold her, but that was off the table. "They don't hate you, though," he whispered. "And if they do, then they're shitty people and you shouldn't care if they hate you."

"I don't want them to hate me. They're our friends."

"And our friends have some serious boundary issues."

Lucy couldn't help but crack the smallest of smiles for a second. "Well, duh…"

"You did nothing wrong, Lucy," Bickslow whispered. He had to stop himself from reaching forward to caress her cheek. "Don't feel bad. About anything."

"Easy for you to say," Lucy scoffed. "You don't have people jabbing at you and calling you squishy."

"Well, no… But if I did, I sure as hell wouldn't feel bad for telling everyone to fuck off and leave me alone, either."

"You tell everyone that, anyway."

Bickslow rolled his eyes. So she had a point, but it wasn't his fault that Lucy was just too nice to even consider being rude to someone. "Beside the point," he muttered. "The point is, that you're fine, and you did nothing wrong, so you shouldn't feel bad. Okay?"

Lucy wished she didn't feel bad. But she also wished her friends weren't annoying jackasses with no concept of boundaries or personal space. So, maybe Bickslow really was onto something. She wasn't the one who should feel bad right then; it was everyone else. They'd treated her like she wasn't even her own person any more, and they hadn't even noticed or care.

Maybe, what it came down to, was that Lucy needed to be more like Bickslow. Bickslow just did what he wanted to do without caring what others wanted. Lucy thought that was what she needed to do.

"I guess you're right," she finally said with a sigh.

"Damn right I am. I'm always right."

Lucy shook her head against the pillow. She'd just have to let Bickslow believe he was right about that, too. "Do I have to go back out there, though?" she asked worriedly.

"Oh, fuck no," Bickslow answered. "Nah, stay in here. Make them suffer." Bickslow wished he could stay up there and hide. He'd much rather stay up there than go back outside. But he had guests to attend to, and at the very least, he had to go back out there to get his kid since he left her with Freed.

"And what am I supposed to do then?"

Bickslow shrugged into his pillow. "I dunno. Sleep, watch a movie, get yourself off."

"W-What? No!" Lucy shrieked. "Why would I do that?!"

"Because it's your house and you can do what you want in it? Besides, it's what I would do."

"Really?"

Bickslow shrugged again. "Probably," he answered. If he was bored enough, sure, or maybe if he was just irritated and wanted to blow off a little steam.

Lucy ignored the slight warmth on her cheeks. Bickslow might not care about his guests, but she still did, even if she'd already decided she would not go back out there to see them. "Well, I think I'll pass on that…" she drawled. "But… A nap sounds tempting…" So did a movie. But she also hadn't eaten, and it wasn't like Lucy could go downstairs and get something to eat now.

"Well, take a nap then. I, on the other hand, am going to go back outside and pretend I don't hate everyone."

"How about this one?"

Bickslow stared at the changing table Lucy was pointing at on the computer screen. "Looks the same as the last one," he mumbled, looking back down to the emails open in front on his own screen.

He didn't like starting his day with catch-up work, but the sooner he got everything done, the sooner he could spend time with his family. But since Ingrid had moved onto feeding herself - or, trying to - breakfast seemed to be the best time to get work done those days.

"But it isn't the same," Lucy said. "The last one had shelves on the side. This has drawers."

"That's wonderful, honey."

Lucy scowled as she slammed her laptop shut and pushed it away from her on the table. She stared at Bickslow for a moment, watching as he kept typing away on the keyboard and occasionally scrolling along the page, before she glanced to the other side of him to where Ingrid was making a mess in her high chair. "Why don't you go to work today instead?" she suggested, pulling herself up from her chair to take her dishes back to the kitchen behind her. "You're obviously more interested in your work."

"The fuck? Where did you—Baby, come—"

"No, no, no. Don't 'baby' me right now."

Bickslow groaned his hands as he leaned over the table. He still hadn't figured out how to navigate around Lucy's moods. It was like there was a new thing that set her off every day, and apparently that day it was him working.

He shut his laptop to swivel around in his chair, just to see Lucy scowling at him as she cleaned up the breakfast dishes with a little more force than necessary. "Lucy, you know that was part of the deal. I can take time off if I do the work at home."

"It's not about that. I don't… I don't care the work," Lucy said, shaking her head quickly. She liked it when Bickslow took time off, and she didn't mind him taking a couple of hours of those days to focus on his work. He had fewer distractions for the rest of the day that way.

"Then what the hell is it?"

"It's the nursery!" Lucy shouted. She looked to Ingrid when she realised how loud she'd been and watched her daughter for a moment to see if it had disturbed her. Apparently using her hands to shove pieces of banana and halved grapes was more interesting than the humans shouting at each other, not that Lucy was complaining. Softer that time, she continued, "Every time I try to ask your opinion on something for the room, you just… You act like you don't care."

Bickslow shrugged, looking away guiltily. "I mean… I kinda… don't."

"That's my point! And I don't understand why you don't care."

Bickslow shrugged again. "I've just never really cared about furniture?" Bickslow wasn't sure how to explain it. Furniture had just never been something he'd ever felt he needed all that much of. His apartment back in the other world had only had enough to make it somewhat liveable; he'd had a bed and a wardrobe, and a couch and a small table to eat at.

He supposed it stemmed from the fact he'd never really stayed in one place for more than a few weeks or a month before joining Fairy Tail. Even then, once he'd met Laxus and joined his team, he'd spent so much time out on jobs and camping out or crashing in motels along the way that he'd never seen the point in buying more stuff for his place. He'd never needed furniture, so it wasn't something he cared about.

And in that place, Bickslow still didn't care. He'd really been happy letting Lucy decide on everything, especially once he'd realised she had her own vision for everything. If Lucy had gone out and bought all lime-green furniture and obnoxious orange curtains and cushions, Bickslow would've been fine.

"And, honestly, they're babies," he continued, looking back up to his girlfriend still scowling behind the counter. "I don't think they'll care about what furniture you buy either. It's not like Ingrid does."

"That's… That's not the point!" Lucy spluttered. Although, Bickslow had a point. It was just that she didn't care about that point. The twins' nursery looking good was for her benefit, not anyone else's. "The point is that I would just really appreciate it if you could take an interest in this!"

Bickslow sighed and rubbed his cheek. He really didn't see what the big deal was, but he figured it was in his best interests to just indulge Lucy. "Alright, fine. I will try to have an opinion on the next piece of furniture you show me."

Lucy nodded once, just a hint of a pleased smile on her lips as she returned to her chair and reached for her laptop. "Good. Now, what do you think of these cribs?"

Bickslow's latest favourite thing to do in his free time at work was look up names for the babies. Lucy still had her favourites but Bickslow would rather die than let her name their son Nathan. He wasn't sure what it was, but he couldn't stand it, so he considered it his life mission at that point to find something better.

When he wasn't looking up names and scouring the internet for the top baby names of random years, he was still reading up on how the twins were actually developing. He'd stopped keeping Lucy updated on what fruit or vegetable the babies resembled weeks earlier in fear of making her feel worse, but Bickslow still found it interesting to know. That week, the twins were squashes.

Still, Bickslow could get caught up in looking up baby names for hours if he let himself. There was something so calming about pressing the 'generate new names' button on some sites he'd found. He found the meanings behind some names fascinating, too. Lucy had popped up in one list, and Bickslow hadn't really been surprised to learn that her name literally meant light.

He checked the time on his watch and set the cap back onto the bottle of whiskey he kept in his office. He hadn't planned on staying late that day, but then Erza had walked in and added a stack of folders to his desk and Bickslow had wanted to get a head start on it. Except, after a couple of hours, Bickslow had gotten sick of flipping through all the pages and typing up notes for it all, so he'd allowed himself a drink and a break, but a drink had turned into two and before long he'd started looking up baby stuff, and that seemed to be a slippery road.

Bickslow figured it was about time to head home. It was late enough that even the office maintenance crew had shown up and Bickslow could hear them vacuuming outside his office. A few more minutes, he told himself. It was close to eight as it was and Bickslow didn't want to be too late.

He moved the cursor to press the button again, watching as the page reloaded and presented him with a list of new names.

Zaina. Beautiful.

Bickslow tilted his head slightly, giving a small shrug to himself. He didn't seem to mind that one.

Judith. Praised.

Fleur. Flower.

He liked that one, too, but he didn't think it would work with the surname.

Louisa. Famous.

Natalie. Birthday.

Karissa. Dear one.

Stella. Star.

Bickslow snorted. He thought it had said stellar for a second. He rubbed at his eyes before gently closing his laptop. "Home time, methinks," he mumbled to himself. It had been a long day, and Bickslow could really go for some food and a warm shower about then.

Bickslow couldn't quite tell if it was his tiredness or the fact he'd been drinking that was making him see things. Either way, he couldn't help find it a little amusing that the first thing he thinks of is Lucy's magic - well, former magic - when seeing the name that literally meant star. It wasn't a bad name, either. In fact, he really liked it, and he thought it went well with the surname his daughter would have, too.

Bickslow was inclined to think it was the perfect name. And then Bickslow paused, his thoughts hanging on that one notion. Stella wasn't a solution for the Nathan issue, but it was still a name for their little girl, and as far as Bickslow knew, Lucy hadn't found anything she liked for her.

He packed up his belongings and headed home as quickly as he could. Lucy was waiting up on the lounge with her computer out on her lap and the T.V on in the room's corner. She looked up over her shoulder with a tired smile when she heard the door. "Hey, I was wondering when—"

"Stella." Bickslow dropped his bag the second her hand the door closed, rushing over to sit on the edge of the cushions. "Stella," he whispered, feeling just a little out of breath and with a wide grin on his face.

Lucy looked at him blankly. She felt like she was missing something. "Huh? Who is—"

"The baby."

"What on earth are you talking about?"

Bickslow had half a mind to realise that he wasn't making any sense. He picked Lucy's laptop up to close it and gently set it down on the coffee table beside him. "Our daughter. I found her a name," Bickslow whispered. He wasn't even trying to curb his excitement though Lucy was still looking at him like he'd spoken in a different language. "Stella."

"I-I mean… It's a nice name…" Lucy mumbled. It was nicer than anything she'd thought of for their daughter. "I just…" She gave a small shrug. "I don't know?"

"No, no. Just hear me out, alright? I was looking at baby names before I left work, and… And Stella came up, right? But I thought it said stellar when I first read it. You know, like your magic. And then I saw what Stella - the name, I mean - meant, and guess what it means? It means star, baby."

Lucy supposed it'd be mean to ruin Bickslow's excitement just to point out she already knew what the name meant (it wasn't like it was hard to figure out). Still though, Lucy thought it was a nice name. It had a nice ring to it. And if the kick under her ribcage was anything to go by, the babies like it, too. Lucy liked to think it was her daughter that had done it though. "Stella Heartfilia?" Lucy murmured.

"I mean, I'm probably biased, but I think that sounds super fucking cool."

"You know, I'm going to agree with you this time."

"Wait, really?"

Lucy shrugged. Surely it wasn't that surprising. "What? I like it."

"So you wanna… Did we just… Did we just name our daughter?"

"I think so," Lucy giggled.

Bickslow was too shocked to do anything other than stare dumbly for a few seconds. He hadn't expected it to be that fast. Lucy genuinely liking it was a surprise, too. He wouldn't have guessed that naming a kid was really that easy.

He leant down quickly to cup her face and capture her mouth in a rough kiss. "God, I love you. Now I just need to get you off Nathan."

Bickslow expected a scoff or maybe even an eye roll from his girlfriend, but nothing of the sort happened. Instead, she merely tilted her head up and said, "What about Seth?"

"Seth?"

"From Seith," she said.

It was Bickslow's turn to look mildly confused as he made the connection in his head. "Huh." He found it a little funny that he could see Stella in Stellar, but he took five whole seconds to see Seth in Seith. He supposed that was what he kept Lucy around for.

Well, that, and other things.

"No good?" Lucy asked.

"No! No, I mean… I just didn't think of it," Bickslow said. Seth Heartfilia. Granted, the kids were all Heartfilia-Theroux, but either way he liked it. It was far better than Nathan, or at least he thought so. "Do you like it?"

Lucy gave a small shrug. "I don't know what it means, but I like the sound of it." It wasn't like the meanings mattered much, anyway. Still, she'd never considered the name before then. She would've happily argued with Bickslow until the day the twins were born about naming their son Nathan, but now Lucy didn't care for that. She had her heart set on something else now.

And, so did Bickslow. Anything beat Nathan in his book. Seth sounding awesome as hell was just a bonus. "You know what? So do I. Let's do it. Seth and Stella."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that. Fuck, that was easy. Is it supposed to be that easy?"

"Well, I don't really know, but I'm not complaining," Lucy laughed. She dug her hands into the couch cushions to try to pull herself up the sofa more. "I really expected this to take ages, though."

"I mean, it already took us a few weeks," Bickslow pointed out.

"True… But imagine if we'd just thought of our magic in the first place? We could've had names picked out weeks ago."

"We don't have any reason to think about that stuff anymore, though," he whispered. Even then, Bickslow wasn't sure he would've made the connection to any names if he'd just thought of his or Lucy's magic.

Lucy frowned as she looked down to where her hands were resting on top of her abdomen, fingers tapping lazily. "I guess you have a point there," she mumbled.

Every now and then Lucy couldn't help miss how things had been, despite all she had in that world. And even right then, when she should just be happy, Lucy was all too aware of the hollowness in her chest that just never seemed to completely disappear.

Bickslow noted the shift, frowning slightly as he shifted on the edge of the cushion. He didn't blame Lucy for missing their old world because he did too. Bickslow just tried not to think about it too much. He had nicer things to think about those days.

Gently, he laid his hand on the side of Lucy's tummy. "Can I?" he asked, glancing down for a second.

Lucy still wasn't fond of people touching her, and Bickslow had long since realised it was safer to ask if she was comfortable with the odd gentle touch here or there. It was a better day though, or perhaps a better moment, so when Lucy gave him the gentle nod to go ahead, Bickslow slid off the cushion to kneel on the ground and rest his head on her lap instead.

"You hear that, babies?" he whispered, rubbing small circles against the side of her belly. Even with Lucy not liking contact, Bickslow still got to talk to the twins each night before bed. It had almost become the highlight of his day, especially now that they could hear things. "You have names now. Stella, my perfect little star who's going to be just like her mama. And Seth—" A gentle force right against where he had been pressing a soft kiss to the side of Lucy's tummy had Bickslow sitting upright, eyes shining and a wide grin on his face. "Did you feel that?!"

Lucy had felt it. She'd wager she'd felt it more than Bickslow had, but she liked to let him have his fun when it came to feeling the babies movie. "I did."

"That was definitely Seth." It had to have been. Only his unborn son would punch him through the womb. Stella was too nice for that. She had to be. She was Lucy's daughter, after all.

"I don't know… Could've been your daughter…"

Bickslow shook his head. "Nope. No way. That was Seth," Bickslow insisted. He leant back down to kiss the same spot again, finding himself a little disappointed he got nothing back that time. "You little shit. Already being a pain in the ass. It's fine, though. I still love you. And you and your sister have so many people who love you so much already, and we all can't wait to meet you."

"But that doesn't mean you can come out just yet," Lucy piped up. No, no. She was relying on those last few weeks left even if her doctor kept telling her she should be prepared for anything a little earlier.

"Nah, not yet," Bickslow whispered. "We can be patient."

It was the one thing Bickslow could be patient for even if he was permanently excited and just a little too antsy to sleep most nights. But Bickslow could wait if it meant he had a few less things to worry about. Besides, he still had to get their room out in the real world ready, and Bickslow had already decided that Lucy wasn't allowed to have the twins until their nursery was complete. He'd consider it a bad sign if it happened any other way, and he'd had enough shit go wrong in his life that year that he couldn't handle something else not going to plan.