A few things happened in the few short seconds of complete silence as everyone tried to comprehend what Lucy had just said. To begin with, everyone's eyes were as wide as their mouths as they stared at either Lucy or Bickslow, and that was including the two cats in the room. Natsu had sat up straight as his eye twitched, and Gajeel was leaning over the back of the lounge – and consequently Levy as she tried to sink lower but was finding it difficult to do so and instead found herself leaning to the side towards Cana – to stare at Ingrid with a look of confusion, who was looking back at him with just as much confusion for someone so little. Lucy was surprised she hadn't started crying again, and she was a little proud of herself for not crying. Gajeel's face at such close proximity was a little terrifying at times.

Freed had dropped his notebook; Cana had dropped the bottle of wine that she had picked up from the coffee table at some point as the red liquid was spilling out onto the grey rug; and Erza looked like someone had just told her that cakes don't exist Magnolia 2.0.

And then everyone had remembered how to form their words and the room as no longer silent, leaving Lucy to try and sink into the cushions as much as she could, and Bickslow wishing he could morph with the stool he was sitting on and just pretend he was a piece of furniture.

"What the fuck?!"

"Huh?"

"Bick—?"

"What?!"

"—slow?"

"Love Rival?"

It was at this moment, Laxus wished he could just shock them all with a little bit of lightning to make them all shut the fuck up. He'd had a headache all morning, and between Juvia's incessant 'Juvia and Gray are together' and the cats that never seemed to stop meowing, the sudden noise from everyone going absolutely insane from what Lucy had just said was not making his headache get any better.

"Will you all just shut the fuck up?" he shouted over them all and the room suddenly fell into silence. If you listened closely, you probably could have heard the sound of everyone blinking as they stared at Laxus.

Mira silently walked over to where Lucy sat before kneeling down in front of her, and Lucy understood what she had wanted when she moved her arms to hold them above Lucy's lap. With a quiet sigh, the blonde carefully moved Ingrid so she could hand her over to Mira. The oldest Strauss stood up, holding Ingrid out before her as she studied her face.

"What's her name?" she asked quietly.

"Ingrid," Bickslow answered to everyone's surprise, including Lucy's, before they all looked back to Mira and the child, watching the interaction between the two in silence.

Mira smiled at Ingrid as she held her up higher. "Well, hello there, Ingrid! Aren't you just a bundle of adorableness!" Her smile got wider and brighter as Ingrid surprisingly smiled back, leaving Laxus to just groan before slapping his palm against his forehead. Leave it to Mira to get attached to someone and something in a matter of seconds.

The former Takeover mage continued to study Ingrid, noting how the small amount of hair atop her head was the same shade of blonde as Lucy's, and how her large, round eyes were the same as Lucy's, except she wasn't staring into Lucy's brown eyes. As she moved across the room, Mira moved Ingrid to her hip and as she came to stand in front of Bickslow. With her free hand, she placed her fingers under his chin and forced his head up.

"Mir—" Bickslow had started as he stared at her in confusion. What the hell is she doing?

"Shh," she hushed, cutting him off as she stared at Bickslow's face for a moment before her gaze flicked back to Ingrid, and then back to Bickslow once again. Almost everything about Ingrid had reminded her of Lucy, but it was the eyes that were most definitely not the blonde's, and instead they were Bickslow's. So as she stared in to Bickslow's own deep red eyes again, she smiled, which caused Bickslow to just raise his eyebrows. The guy was confused as hell.

"Are you done now, Mira?" Laxus asked in a flat tone, deciding the staring game had gone on long enough.

Mira giggled as she dropped her hand to wrap it around Ingrid again before lifting her up slightly to smile at her again. "Who would have thought Bickslow and Lucy would have a cute baby?"

"Oh god…" Bickslow dropped his head once again. He'd known Mira long enough to know when she had latched on to an idea, and this was one of those moments. Bickslow knew that he was never going to hear the end of this, and if and when they got back to their own world, he had a feeling the demon barmaid was going to give him hell about the entire situation with Lucy, if not try and set him up with the blonde. He couldn't help but feel sorry for Lucy then. It was never fun to get dragged into one of Mira's matchmaking schemes, and he knew that from first-hand experience. And if he couldn't handle it, no one could.

"You should probably give the kid back, Mira," Laxus said.

She blinked before she looked over her shoulder at the blond man with his arms folded over his chest. "But she's so adorable!" Mira whined as she hugged Ingrid tighter.

"Demon."

"Fine…" Mira sighed in defeat as she walked over to Bickslow again.

Bickslow had raised his head on his own this time when he realised that she was standing in front of him, holding Ingrid out before her. Why the hell is she giving her to me?! Why can't she give her back to Cosplayer? He grimaced when he had no choice but to grab hold of Ingrid, and he instantly tried to pass her over to Evergreen who just shook her head with a smirk. Bickslow looked at Freed next, but as much to his dismay, the green-haired man just shook his head as he took a step closer to Laxus and away from where Bickslow sat.

"You all suck," Bickslow muttered under his breath, positioning Ingrid so that she was sitting on his lap with one hand on her front holding her upright and against his stomach as the other held her incredibly tiny hand loosely – her hands were so small and cute though!

The room was in complete silence again as they all stared at Bickslow, all of them thinking how strange it was to see the guy with a kid, let alone a baby in his lap. No one really had any words for the chaos that had just occurred, since most of them were still trying to wrap their heads around the fact that Lucy wasn't with Natsu in Magnolia 2.0, but instead was with Bickslow. Natsu, on the other hand, was still having a hard time figuring it all out.

"Wait…" He said quietly as everyone turned to look at him. Bickslow inwardly sighed in relief that everyone's eyes were off him for the moment. Well, most of them, anyway. He could still feel Evergreen's gaze burning holes into the side of his head but she always did that.

"What now?" Laxus rolled his eyes. He just knew Natsu was about to say something stupid. He'd seen him grow up in the guild, and he'd seen the face he pulled when he was thinking about something much more than he should have been. It was the face he had then, so it was just a matter of waiting to see how stupid the next thing he said was.

"So who is the Bickslow of this world married to?" He looked around at everyone quizzically, apparently not noticing the expressions on their faces that basically just screamed 'you're an absolute idiot.'

If Bickslow was able to hit his head on a bench or a wall at that point, he would have. He really would have. Laxus, on the other hand, wished he could throw Natsu out a window and down onto the streets that were below them, but if he had done that, Mira probably would have done the same to him. Lucy could only try and sink further into the couch as she felt her cheeks heat up once again, and Gray just shook his head as he looked down at the ground.

Surprisingly, Gajeel was the one who did anything. "What the hell was that for?!" Natsu shouted as Gajeel slapped him over the back of the head, causing the blue cat to jump from his hair and make its way over to sit on Lucy's lap.

"He's married to Lucy, you dumbass!"

It was like a lightbulb went off in his mostly empty head as he looked to Lucy and then to Bickslow and Ingrid. Then Natsu suddenly jumped up from the lounge as he pointed at Bickslow. "What the hell?! Why are you married to Lucy?!"

"That's actually a good question…" Evergreen gave Bickslow a sly grin as she turned in her stool. "Were you two secretly dating in our world or something?"

Bickslow narrowed his eyes as he turned to glare at Evergreen. Never would he ever possibly be secretly dating someone, especially Lucy. Bickslow didn't date. He didn't do relationships, and he knew that Evergreen knew that about him. Well, two can play at that game. "If that's why we're married, then wouldn't that mean you and Elfboy were actually dating? Hmm?"

"That's not manly."

"Shut it, Elfman," Evergreen shot back instantly.

"Don't tell me what to do, woman!"

By this point, Laxus was considering throwing himself out the window just to get away from all of the shouting. For such a small group, they made a hell of a lot of noise. You'd think the man would be used to a bit of noise after growing up in Fairy Tail, and he was used to it, it was just the people that pissed him off, really.

"For the love of god, can you all just shut up?" Laxus groaned.

Gajeel blinked as he loosened his grip on Natsu's scarf suddenly, only causing the former Dragon Slayer to fall to the ground as Evergreen made her way back to the stool she had been sitting on before. Bickslow only wondered just when it was she'd moved in the first place.

Freed cleared his throat as the tension in the room lowered some. "Uh… Well, moving on, I guess…" he mumbled. "So you've all probably realised there's no magic in this world either."

"Good thing, too, otherwise Laxus would have fried us all by now," Bickslow grinned as Laxus gave him a menacing look.

"I can still punch you in the face."

"You wouldn't punch me while I'm holding a baby."

"Don't test me."

"…Anyway," Freed cut in again. "Since this world is without magic, would I be correct in assuming that those two felines are Happy and Pantherlily?" The two cats meowed mournfully from where they sat on the floor and Lucy's lap as Freed nodded once again. "So it seems the distinct personalities of Happy and Lily have also been transferred to their counterparts… Interesting…"

"Yeah, sure, interesting." Laxus clapped his hands as Freed trailed off. "Now can you all get out since we're probably done here since we know practically nothing about this place?"

Muffled affirmatives were heard as everyone stood up and moved towards the archway again. Lisanna turned around when she realised that Mira wasn't moving from where she stood next to Laxus, and she raised an eyebrow as she asked, "Mira? Aren't you coming with us?"

"Oh, uh…. That's the thing…" Mira giggled.

"Huh? You two? Really?"

"Laxus and Mira?"

"That's… kind of manly."

"Are those two really together here…?"

Laxus dropped his head as he rubbed his temples with his fingertips as everyone started freaking out again. He could count on one hand the amount of people who knew about his relationship with the eldest Strauss, and all three of them were in the same room with smirks on their faces. Sensing their fearless leader's discomfort from the chaos that had once again descended, they spoke up, putting the room into silence once again. "They were already dating in our world," they all said.

"What?"

"Are you fuckin' serious?"

"Man!"

Mira's blush deepened. "Sorry, everyone…" she said quietly with another smile.

"Anyway. Get out already," Laxus mumbled as he looked up, giving them all a threatening look before he glared at Natsu. "And don't do anything stupid until we have more information about this… situation."

Mira and Laxus watched as everyone left the room through the archway. Natsu and Gajeel were still arguing about something as everyone else murmured amongst themselves on their way out. "Do you think we should have told them above Blake?" Mira asked quietly as she looked up at Laxus.

"Nope." He wrapped an arm around her shoulders as he led them over to the now vacant couch. "Not gonna happen unless it's absolutely necessary, and besides, they know about us now, so are you happy?"

"Very," she replied with a giggle as she lowered her head to rest on his shoulder.

Everyone had piled into the elevator, and it was a mystery as to how they all managed to fit. They descended in an uncomfortably awkward silence after Freed had reminded them all not to cause too much trouble in the next twenty four hours because it was unknown whether they would still be in Magnolia 2.0 at that point in time. Then the elevator stopped on a floor that none of them lived on, and as the doors opened they were greeted by a group of teenagers.

"Uh…" one of them began as they all took a step back away from the elevator filled with the strangely terrifying group. "W-We'll get the next one…"

"Gi-hi," Gajeel smirked as the doors closed and they elevator began its descent once again.

Lucy stood in the front corner next to the doors. Next to her, she had Natsu with Happy perched atop the pink hair once again, and Lisanna was clinging to his arm much like Juvia was doing with Gray in the corner opposite her. Lucy was looking down at her feet as she leaned against the panel next to the doors. She felt strangely jealous, and she didn't understand it. She didn't like Natsu in that way, but he was one of her best friends. She hadn't been in the room at the time when Lisanna had announced that the Magnolia 2.0 versions of themselves were married, but Gray had whispered it in her ear once she had sat down.

But Lucy still couldn't shake the feeling of jealousy towards the youngest Strauss. She knew there was nothing between the two of them, because Natsu would have told her about it – or so she thought anyway. She knew that Lisanna and Natsu had been close friends before she had been sent to Edolas, and she knew that there was never ever going to be anything between herself and the namesake of her team, but with Lisanna so boldly and blatantly clinging to her 'husband', Lucy felt like she had had Natsu taken away from her somehow.

The entire situation with Magnolia 2.0 and their becoming their counterparts was stressful to say the least, and when you were feeling stressed, sad, or just needed someone to talk to or hug, you could always go to your friends, because they would get you through whatever situation you had found yourself in. And that's what Natsu was for, most of the time. He may not have understood half of what anyone said – mostly because he misheard things when he wasn't entirely listening – but he somehow always knew how to cheer someone up. Whether it was a bone-crushing hug that made her feel like she was on fire (and she had been a few times), or his sneaking into her apartment at odd hours of the night to tell her he'd found a job that would be perfect for her, or something else entirely. Natsu always found a way to do something nice for Lucy because that's what it meant to be part of a team and a family.

But Lucy felt like all of that had been taken away from her, and she knew she was being stupid for even thinking that, but that's just the way it was.

The elevator came to a stop and as the doors opened, Lisanna pulled Natsu out of the small room and into the hallway. "Well, this is us. Bye, guys!" she said cheerfully as she waved to everyone, and the metal doors closed once again as the two headed down the hallway.

Unfortunately, everyone else in the elevator had noticed the sad look that the floor was receiving from the blonde, and they all knew why. They all watched Lucy carefully as the elevator lurched slightly before beginning its descent to the next highlighted floor. Whether Lucy would she was upset by the whole Lisanna and Natsu thing in Magnolia-2.0 or not, they were all still trying to get over the shock from finding out it was Bickslow and Lucy rather than Natsu and Lucy in Magnolia 2.0, and Bickslow was still quite possibly the most surprised of them all, really. Everyone loved Lisanna dearly, and they all loved Lucy just as much because they were all a part of the same guild and they were all one big, crazy, fucked up, chaotic family. That's just what it meant to be a member of Fairy Tail.

But when Lisanna had returned, she had immediately jumped back into her old life and everyone had accepted it without a bat of an eyelid, because they had all missed her. The only problem was that Lucy had almost been pushed to the sidelines, especially when it came to Natsu, and they had all seen it. Nevertheless, as time went on, the two became close friends and somehow the Dragon Slayer had found himself in the middle of what was arguably the most ridiculous predicament that anyone had seen him in – relationship wise, anyway.

It was never determined if Lisanna had actually liked the guy in that kind of way, but when anyone ever brought it up, she had never denied nor confirmed it, so they were all left trying to figure it out on their own. On the other hand, they knew Lucy would never admit she liked Natsu, and she had flat out denied it whenever she had been asked. The guild may have been full of drunks most of the time, but most of them weren't stupid, and despite them both denying it – or not denying it in Lisanna's case – everyone knew that none of them were just friends. Not really, anyway. There was too much weirdness going on there for that to be the case. When it came to Natsu's feelings, though, no one really knew. Most just assumed he wasn't capable of liking someone. His entire body was probably hardwired to only care about fighting and winning.

But, Bickslow wasn't exactly one to 'ship' people together (and he still hated Mira for ever talking about 'ships' and 'shipping'), not unless it was Evergreen and Elfman, but when it came to the whole Natsu and Lisanna or Natsu and Lucy debacle, he was most definitely on the Natsu and Lucy side of things. If he wasn't hating Mira for the whole 'shipping' talk, then he was hating himself for ever even thinking about it past that first conversation, because honestly, the concept of liking two people together as a couple and giving them a name was really fucking weird. As he continued to watch the blonde stare at the floor and act like she wasn't bothered by anything (not that she's doing a very good job of it), he found himself wondering if the demon barmaid and matchmaker from hell had come up with a name for himself and the Lucy. Bickslow couldn't help but shudder at the thought when he remembered he'd given Ingrid the name of 'Lucks' while they didn't know her actual name. That was bad enough.

Lucy could feel everyone's eyes on her in the silent elevator, too. She looked up, narrowing her eyes slightly as she looked over everyone briefly as they all made an effort to act like they hadn't in fact been staring at her. Gajeel had started whistling, Freed and Erza were pretending to be deep in conversation, seemingly about flowers, and Bickslow was apparently completely captivated by Ingrid's hands as they tugged at the collar of his shirt. Everyone else just made a point of looking at the ceiling or around the small metal box they were in, but the entire thing was way too obvious.

"Why were you staring?" she finally asked as it went silence once again.

"We weren't staring, were we, Lucks?" Bickslow said as he grabbed Ingrid's tiny arm to wave it slightly.

"You idiot!" Evergreen hissed from behind him. "Now she knows we were! Jeez…"

He turned his head over his shoulder to look at Evergreen. "Well, we kinda were," he mumbled.

Erza cleared her throat as she stepped out from behind Freed and moved closer to Lucy, placing her hands on the side of her arms gently. "Are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Lucy replied as she straightened up, folding her arms across her chest. Why wouldn't she be okay? She was fine. She wasn't jealous, or hurt, or even remotely bothered by anything (apart from waking up to find out she was married to that jackass and jokester). She was perfectly okay.

The elevator came to a stop as the doors opened with a quiet chime once again, and Gajeel and Levy made their way to the front of the elevator. Gajeel had stopped just before he stepped into the hallway and he looked down at Lucy from the corner of his eyes. "For the record, Bunny-girl is better than Mini-Strauss," he mumbled.

"Gajeel!" Levy's hand shot back into the elevator to grab Gajeel's shirt to pull him out of it as the doors began to close. "Why would you say that?!" she said in a hushed tone as the doors closed behind them, leaving those in the elevator feeling slightly more uncomfortable than they had been before.

"That wasn't very manly at all…" Elfman muttered as Lucy looked around at the remaining people in the lift.

Lucy finally understood why they had all been staring at her and why Erza had asked if her she was okay, but she didn't quite understand why they'd done it at all. Maybe it was because she didn't entirely understand why she was slightly jealous of Lisanna and Natsu in Magnolia 2.0, or maybe it was because she didn't realise that everyone else had caught on to what she thought she was hiding by staring at the elevator floor? Everything was just confusing, that was for sure.

"Is that why you guys were staring after Natsu and Lisanna got off?" She asked quietly as she looked back down to the floor. When no one responded, Lucy looked up and forced a smile as she looked over everyone again. "I'm fine, really. I don't know why you'd think I wouldn't be."

As the doors opened once again and Lucy stepped away from where she stood to move out into the hall, she turned back to face them all as Erza stood staring back at her. "Are you sure?" Erza asked quietly, watching the blonde for any tremble or falter or mistake that would prove that she really wasn't okay.

She smiled and nodded again. "Really, Erza. I'm okay."

Bickslow stepped out just as the doors were closing when he remembered that he was supposed to be getting off on the same floor as Lucy – to go back to their apartment that they apparently shared. He looked down at her as they walked down the short hall. Her smile was gone and it was like her soul had been hurt somehow. This wasn't the cheerful girl that sat in the guild every day; the girl who always believed in the good in someone; the girl whose soul literally radiated joy and happiness and love; the girl who was always smiling and laughing at someone or making a new friend every five minutes.

This wasn't the same Lucy that Bickslow was used to seeing the in the guild, and it wasn't that hard to see that.

"I know you're not okay."