The last person Bickslow expected to see waiting for him on the train station's platform was Natsu, especially since the guy had fire crawling along his skin and looked ready to fight. What he didn't know was that Natsu had been listening for the train's arrival and sprinted at top speed to the station as soon as he heard the locomotive nearing Magnolia.
"What the hell took you so long?" Natsu demanded as he stomped toward Bickslow.
"Calm down, man. I can't control how fast the train moves." Bickslow wasn't sure how to handle an angry Fire Dragon Slayer. All the dragon slayers he knew were difficult when they became angry but he had zero experience managing Natsu. If it were Laxus, he could reason with him, but Natsu was an entirely different type of guy.
"Well, let's go." Natsu's voice was mostly a growl as he added, "Luce hasn't woken up in hours, so you need to get to her apartment and fix her."
Those words stole all chances of Bickslow coming up with something to say. Lucy wasn't waking up? She seemed mostly alright the day before. What had changed?
Laxus came to Bickslow's rescue when he stepped off the train, having heard the conversation as he approached. "Put out your fucking fire before I pump you full of enough lightning to leave you drooling on the ground."
The words only seemed to make Natsu angrier. "You wanna fight, Laxus? Cause I've been wantin' to punch somebody and your face is lookin' great right now."
"We can fight later. I'm taking Bickslow to Blondie's." Laxus placed a hand on Bickslow's shoulder, giving the Seith Mage only a moment to have his totems line up along his shoulders before the two of them disappeared with a clap of thunder and flash of lightning. Natsu growled angrily as he started running in the direction of Lucy's apartment.
A second later, the teammates appeared in front of Lucy's door with Bickslow holding his stomach as he groaned, "A little warning would've been nice." His totems bounced in the air repeating him, "Warning! Warning!"
"Yeah, well, Natsu was ready to light the place on fire, so it was better to leave right away. Besides, it's good that we got here fast because I can smell Lucy's tears from here." Laxus' last words were enough to distract Bickslow from his nausea and have him opening the door to enter Lucy's apartment.
What he saw had him sucking in a sharp breath. She looked even more pale, almost deathly so, and she was lying still on her back with a blanket pulled halfway up her stomach. If he couldn't see the shuddering of her chest as she silently sobbed, he might've believed she was dead. Bickslow jerked his helmet off his head as he approached her bed with glowing eyes, taking in the horrifying sight of her soul. It was almost translucent, like it was disappearing, which didn't really make sense. Living souls didn't fade away like this, at least not at far as he knew.
"What wrong with her, man?" Laxus asked. He could see as easily as Bickslow that Lucy wasn't doing great, and Bickslow's suddenly panicked scent wasn't at all reassuring.
"I don't know. Her soul is almost gone. I don't know what that even means." He walked over to the bed and sat on the edge of it to get a closer look. His totems followed him over to hover close to Lucy's head, but the sight of their souls was distracting. Instead of letting them move around on their own as he usually did, he forced them to stack up in a pyramid next to her bed.
With his full attention on her soul, he could easily see the green strands of his soul were still there and looked vibrant, but her soul didn't look right. It almost looked like it was slipping away right before his eyes. Noticing a bit of hair in her face, he absently pushed it away while trying to decide what to do, and noticed a reaction. When his fingertips made contact with her skin, her soul seemed to hum with life, glowing brighter with an immediately obvious change that ended as soon as he pulled his fingers away. He laid his hand against her cheek and saw the same reaction, making him mutter, "What the hell?"
"What is it?" Laxus asked, having also moved over to stand directly next to Lucy's bed to watch what would happen.
Without looking away, Bickslow again pulled his hand away and then touched her face once more as he said, "When I touch her skin, her soul starts glowing brighter."
Unsure what that meant, Laxus said, "So – what? Her soul is responding to you?"
"Something like that. Maybe." Bickslow wasn't sure. It would be so much easier to figure out a solution if he could talk to Lucy to find out what she was feeling, but she still hadn't moved a muscle.
"Well, shit. Just touch more of her then and wake her up. She looks half dead."
Bickslow scoffed, "I can't just get naked and climb into bed with her."
"That sounds exactly like something you'd do." Laxus said seriously.
"Not while she's unconscious!" Bickslow couldn't deny the logic in Laxus' suggestion but it would just be so wrong. He already had a reputation as a pervert. Doing something like that would definitely make it worse.
"Look, man, I'm not saying you should get naked but you gotta do something. Blondie can't die." Laxus wasn't one to get attached to people but he liked Lucy. She was nice and got along with his teammates when many people didn't. The entire guild would take a huge hit if she wasn't around, and he cared about the guild more than most people realized.
"Fine." Bickslow huffed as he started undoing the straps connecting the protective pieces of armor to his shirt. While he worked on that, he said, "You gotta keep Natsu from killing me when he gets here, because he's going to lose his shit when he sees this and I won't be able to defend myself."
"Don't worry about him. Just keep Blondie alive." Laxus could hear Natsu nearing, which wasn't difficult since he and Evergreen were shouting at each other. He had known without even talking to them that Ever and Freed would keep up with Natsu to make sure the idiot didn't do anything.
Once Bickslow was shirtless, he pulled back Lucy's blanket to see her shirt was as small as all the others she wore and shorts that likely showed off half her ass. It was a relief because he really didn't want to undress her. Feeling like it would be way too weird to lay in the bed with her, Bickslow slid his arms beneath her to lift her up into a sitting position and then leaned her against him. It took a bit of rearranging but he was able to get her seated across his lap with her face against his bare chest and his arms around her bare waist. The change in her soul was immediate. It started glowing brighter, as if it was fed by his soul, or maybe by the nearness of the missing pieces of her own soul.
Watching the change was fascinating. Bickslow had no idea why his own soul wasn't draining away since it was also missing pieces, but he could only surmise that his magic had healed whatever damage may have been caused by the partial merging and then separation. He would need a mirror to really get a good look at his own soul, but he had a hunch he would find signs of repaired damage, which would help him figure out what to look for in Lucy's soul.
The front door of Lucy's apartment busting open had the gaze of both men turning to a furious dragon slayer. Natsu's eyes went wide when he saw Bickslow shirtless in Lucy's bed with her in his lap. "What the hell are you doing?! Get off her!"
Laxus stepped into the other dragon slayer's way with a hand outstretched to shove him back. "Stop being a fucking idiot. He's helping her."
"Like hell he is! That pervert is just being a freak, like always!" Natsu tried again to get around Laxus, but he didn't get far. He was taken off guard when Laxus quickly stepped into him to trap him in a tight bear hug before lifting him up and spinning around so Natsu was facing the door over Laxus' shoulder. "Ever, do it," was the last thing Natsu heard before his body was turned to stone.
"It appears we arrived in the nick of time." Freed stated before looking past Laxus to the odd scene on Lucy's bed.
"Really, Bickslow?" Evergreen said snidely as she walked all the way inside to close the door behind her. "This is low, even for you."
Before Bickslow could answer, Laxus defended him, "Shut the hell up, Ever. I told him to do it."
Making a disgusted noise, she said, "His perversion is spreading like a virus."
They all ignored the woman as Lucy began to move a bit. She spoke before opening her eyes, her voice sounding faint and weak as she said, "Bickslow?"
"Yeah, Cosplayer. It's me." His eyes were still glowing as he watched her soul continue to gain its strength. It wasn't back to its usually bright, golden color, but it no longer looked in danger of disappearing completely.
"Why don't you have a shirt on?" Lucy asked sleepily with her eyes still shut. Instead of pulling away like Bickslow expected, Lucy shifted to put her arms around his waist to hug him as she leaned more fully against him. Now that he wasn't completely focused on making sure she stayed alive, he noticed having her embracing him felt right in the same way it had the last time, like their physical nearness created a sense of unity between them.
"It was the only way to wake you up." He said it seriously without a hint of flirtation in his voice, but Lucy smiled slightly as she said, "It's a great way to wake up."
"Gross. See what I mean? It's a virus." Hearing Evergreen's voice, Lucy finally opened her eyes and looked around to find an entirely unexpected group of people in her apartment. Once her gaze landed on Natsu's stone shape, it didn't take long for her to figure out what happened.
Looking at Evergreen, Lucy said, "Thanks for not letting him burn down my apartment."
Opening her fan to cover most of her face, Evergreen glanced away from Lucy's grateful look as she said, "Yes, well, you could return the favor by putting some clothes on. You too, Bickslow."
"They can't." Laxus said before an argument could begin between Evergreen and Bickslow, which is the direction most conversations between the two of them went. "Something is up with Blondie's soul and she only got better once she was laying against his skin."
"Fascinating." Freed whispered at the same time Evergreen muttered, "Convenient."
Being the center of everyone's focus was becoming a bit awkward for Bickslow, especially since he was in completely uncharted territory. His usually confident demeanor had fled somewhere far away, leaving him feeling unsure of what to do or say. He let the magic fade from his eyes as he said to Lucy, "I'd let you go but I don't know what would happen. Your soul looks a lot better than it did a few minutes ago, but it only got better once our skin was in contact. I think it will start to fade away again once we're separated."
"Mmmkay." She answered sleepily, "We can test it in a little bit. Just let me sit here for a second. This is the best I've felt in days."
"If I may," Freed began as he stepped forward and knelt next to the seated pair to speak to Lucy. "I would like to help by researching this unusual situation. Bickslow spoke to me briefly about the circumstances leading to your predicament, and I believe I've read about something similar in one of the academic texts I own. If you would not mind, I can retrieve it from my home and return here to review it with you?"
"Sure, that would be great." Lucy said to him, making Freed nod in agreement. As he stood to his feet, he said, "Very well. I will go straight there now. Evergreen, would you like to accompany me?"
She agreed, glad to no longer be forced to witness the strange scene that threatened to upset her delicate, conservative sensibilities, but Lucy spoke up before they could leave. "Can you turn Natsu back? He'll be alright now that I can talk to him."
"You sure?" Laxus asked, not trusting Lucy's judgement.
"Yes. He's been here since we left the guildhall after everything happened and has been constantly worried. I know from experience he can hear everything we're saying, so I know he knows what's going on and won't come out swinging. He's just worried about me."
Laxus didn't look convinced but he nodded to Evergreen, so she reversed the spell keeping Natsu frozen in stone and then left behind Freed. Just as Lucy expected, Natsu didn't try to attack anyone once he was free. He walked quickly over to her and sat down next to Bickslow, completely ignoring the way the Seith Mage was watching him warily, half expecting be attacked at any moment. Natsu's relief was clear as he said, "You're awake."
"Yeah, I'm better now." She answered as she reached out a hand to hold Natsu's. He squeezed it as he said quietly, "I thought you were going to die and there was nothing I could."
"I'm not going anywhere." Lucy answered with a tired smile. "You can't get rid of me that easily." She knew he wasn't going to like what she had to say next, but that couldn't be helped. "Natsu, I need you to leave for a little while, and I mean actually leave this time."
"No, Luce. I'm not leaving." He looked as angry as she expected him to, but she didn't let that deter her. She was feeling a lot better than she had even minutes before when she'd first woken up, so she wasn't going to miss the opportunity to finally talk to Bickslow while she had him in her apartment.
"Yes, Natsu, you have to. I need to talk to Bickslow but it's not a conversation I'm having in front of you or anyone else."
"But Luce – " She cut him off to say, "No. I'm serious. You have to leave. You're my best friend and I love you, but you don't have to be part of everything I do."
Natsu stood up with an angry growl and pointed a finger at Bickslow to say, "Hurt her or do anything she doesn't like and I'm coming for you."
Unable to resist, Bickslow said, "Believe me, she'll like everything I do to her."
Just as Natsu moved to lunge, Laxus grabbed his scarf and said, "Come on, idiot. He's just messing with you."
Jerking away from Laxus' hold, Natsu glared at Bickslow one more time before saying to Lucy, "I'm coming back later."
When the door closed behind both dragon slayers, Bickslow said, "Well, that was intense."
"You weren't helping." She said in obvious annoyance. Deciding to test out Bickslow's theory, she moved from her place in his lap and sat next to him. There was an obvious difference as soon as they were no longer in contact. Looking at Bickslow, she asked, "You feel it too?"
"Yeah," he answered while running one hand through his helmet-shaped hair, "it's like a piece of me just came off."
"Same for me. At least now I don't feel like I might collapse." She felt more energetic than she had since leaving the guildhall two days earlier.
"It was that bad?" He asked while looking at her face, not seeing any improvement to the paleness or dark circles under her eyes.
Nodding, she leaned against his shoulder, feeling immediate relief to the drain on her body. "Just doing this helps."
Lucy noticed he was uncharacteristically quiet and assumed it was because of the strange situation. Feeling like she needed to cheer him up, she looked up at his face as she said, "I never would've guessed you have such a toned body hidden under all the stuff you wear."
His tongue came out of his mouth, looking much more like himself than he did before. "I've got a lot more surprises for you," the playful look faded back to one of concern as he added, "but that can wait until you don't look like you're on death's doorstep."
"Yeah," she closed her eyes as she tucked her arm beneath his to hug it against her as she said, "feeling like this would take all the fun out of it."
"So," he started off, trying to hide how uncomfortable he felt with where he assumed the conversation was headed, "you wanted to talk to me about something?"
Without opening her eyes, Lucy said, "I've pretty much figured out I'm seeing your memories when I sleep." The way he stiffened spoke volumes, so she decided to drop that line of questioning before it even started. Instead, she asked, "I guess that means you're seeing mine?"
"Not when I sleep, but they were all dumped into my head while I was holding your soul. I'm still trying to straighten it out because learning so much so fast was really confusing." He thought about some of the things he'd seen and wanted to ask what she'd seen from him, but he was afraid to know.
"I guess that means we now know each other better than anyone else can claim to." She didn't sound terribly happy about that in Bickslow's opinion, but she seemed to be taking it in stride. Her next words answered his curiosity, "I know it doesn't count for much, but I'm so sorry. No one should have to endure those sorts of things, especially not as a child."
"Yeah." He didn't know what else to say to that and did his best to push away the reminder of things that still haunted him.
There were so many questions spinning in Lucy's mind, but she didn't feel entitled to ask when she hadn't learned about any of it from him voluntarily. It was clear that he kept all of those things private and likely never would've told her about any of it under normal circumstances. Sensing his need for a subject change, Lucy asked, "So, what did you mean about my soul fading away?"
Sounding relieved, he answered, "I'm not sure, other than literally exactly what it sounds like. I could still see the parts of my soul mixed with yours and those looked fine but your soul was disappearing. It acted more like the soul of a dead person that was ready to move on to the afterlife."
"That makes it seem like Natsu's guess was right. He thinks my soul is broken."
"That's probably the most logical thing I've ever heard of him saying." Bickslow flinched when she pinched him as she defended her friend, "He's not an idiot. Well, not always."
"If you say so," he said while pushing away her pinching fingers and rubbing at the spot. "You good to walk to the bathroom? Looking at both our souls in a mirror might give me an idea of what I'm looking for."
"I should be fine." She answered as she stood up. The loss of wholeness was as distinct as it had been before, but she ignored it in favor of walking to the bathroom on her own. When Bickslow followed her inside and stood next to her, his eyes were already glowing green.
Lucy looked at his brightly lit eyes, not at all worried about the potential danger they posed. It wasn't like he hadn't already basically possessed her soul anyway, so she didn't see any harm in it. He was looking at what she would've thought was her boobs, but not exactly. It was more like he was looking through her, and then his eyes moved until he was looking at himself with the same zoned-out expression. His head cocked slightly to the side and his eyes narrowed a bit, making him look way too adorable – which she promptly ignored to avoid making this any weirder than it already was.
Totally unaware of the direction Lucy's thoughts had taken, Bickslow said, "I definitely see something different with my soul. The pieces of yours are still in there but the edges look newly healed, almost the way a fresh scar looks." He glanced at her soul again and then said, "Yours doesn't have that healed look, so maybe it's like an open, bleeding wound?"
His words ended sounding more like a question than a statement, so Lucy shrugged and then touched his arm as she asked, "What does it look like now?"
"Wow," he said breathlessly and then went on, "it's like my soul coats yours, sort of. I don't know how else to explain it. Let's try this." He put his hands on her shoulders to move her to stand in front of him, and then leaned down slightly to put his arms around her bare waist with her back against his chest. His face was right next to hers as he said in an awed tone, "Well, that explains why we both feel different when we touch."
"What do you mean?" She wished she could see what he was seeing, because all she could see was him holding her tightly, which had her mind going in an entirely different direction than anything soul related.
"Our souls just kind of merge together into one soul with two parts. That's not normal. Two people touching each other doesn't make something like this happen." Bickslow stared at the strange phenomenon for a moment longer before deactivating his eyes, finally noticing exactly what Lucy had seen. He grinned with his tongue hanging from his mouth as he said, "We look good together."
She was grinning too as she teased him, "Mira would say we'd make pretty babies."
Bickslow snorted and said, "I don't know about having babies but we can definitely go through the steps of making one."
As much as Lucy was enjoying the interaction, she pulled his arms from around her waist and stepped away before it could go any further. To make sure he knew where she stood on that, she said, "As much as I'd like to test your claims of being amazing in bed, I just don't do casual."
"Aw, come on, Cosplayer," he whined, "you don't know what you're missing out on."
She turned around to face him, wanting to look directly at him as she said, "Maybe so, Bixy, but you don't take me seriously enough for me to consider anything more."
The playfulness evaporated out of Bickslow after hearing those words. He wasn't even sure exactly what that meant. The complete opposite of that was exactly why he liked spending time with her – she took him more seriously than most women. What did it mean that she thought he didn't take her seriously?
Noticing his obvious confusion, Lucy explained, "I always get hurt in casual relationships, so I just don't do it anymore. The interest you have in me has a very clear direction, which isn't something I want to get into. I like you, but I'm not willing to go there." She dropped her gaze to the side as she muttered, "My teammates would flip out, anyway."
His irritation was obvious when he said, "I already knew that part."
She looked back up at him in surprise, and then realized what he meant. "You knowing so much about me is really weird, especially since I don't know anywhere nearly as much about you. Well, not things from recent years."
Bickslow turned to walk out of the bathroom as he said, "Yeah, well, I wouldn't want to embarrass you, so it's best if nothing happens between us."
"Embarrass me?" She asked, unable to stop herself from following him after an odd statement like that.
"Yeah, you don't want your teammates knowing you have any interest in me. That much was as clear as day from your soul."
Lucy grabbed his arm to stop him from walking further away from her as she said, "Bickslow, you totally misunderstood that if you think me being embarrassed of you is the problem."
"Then what is it?" He asked as he turned around to face her. It was obvious to Lucy that him believing what he did had struck a nerve because he looked hurt by the idea.
"Everyone who knows you knows you're open to casual sex with anyone that catches your eye. I'm not judging you for it, and even envy you a little for being able to do it without getting caught up in your emotions." She dropped her eyes to the floor, clearly mortified to be saying this out loud but feeling like it needed to be said. He already knew so much about her, so she figured he might as well understand it properly. "I've had a little crush on you for a long time and this whole soul thing has only made it worse, but I'm not willing to have anything more with you simply because of your reputation for multiple casual relationships. When I said my teammates would flip, it's because they know how I am and are all really protective of me. They hate to see me heartbroken, so they make a big deal of running off any guys they feel aren't worth my time. It's annoying but also sweet, so I don't stop them."
She finally looked at him again and found a dumbfounded expression on his face, which made her smile a bit as she finished, "You're a great guy, Bixy, and I really like you, but I don't want what you're offering. Gray said it the best – I've got too much to offer to the right guy for me to let myself get hurt by all the wrong ones."
Bickslow was still trying to figure out how to pick his jaw up off the floor, so he didn't respond before she walked past him to enter her kitchen. He was glad he hadn't released his hold over his totems because the souls inside would be announcing all sorts of things he'd rather Lucy not hear. If he was understanding her right, and he was pretty sure he was, she liked enough about him to consider him one of those right guys to hold out for, but also disliked enough to keep him at arm's length like all the wrong guys. He didn't think he'd ever been in this position before.
He suddenly felt really uncomfortable being shirtless. The feeling wasn't one he could explain even in his own head, but it just no longer felt right when Lucy had laid down such a solid boundary between them. While she dug around in her kitchen preparing something to eat, or that's what he assumed she was doing, he walked over to her bed to find his shirt lying on the floor next to it with his armor scattered nearby. The sight of his belongings strewn about haphazardly by her bed added to his discomfort, so he picked up the shirt and quickly put it on. Instead of reattaching the protective pieces, he set them in a pile next to his totems and then just stood there feeling lost. He really hoped Freed would be back soon because he had no idea how to interact with Lucy now.
A/N: I'm suddenly super excited to write this! But if I don't get back to work, I'll be jobless. So, there will be more as soon as I can get it done.