Prompt: C - "Can't you see I'm a little busy right now?"

This took me like 700 years to write. I'm not sure why it did. Anyway, it's set in my knight/princess AU that I took down last year. One day I'll return to it and expand on this little scene.

TW: Blood, gore. I don't know. Just in case. Although it really isn't anything at all.

Bad Timing

When Bickslow had told her to run, she hadn't been able to do it. Had it been two months earlier, then she probably would've done it with just a moment of hesitation. Now though, she couldn't leave him to die fighting to protect her. She cared too much to do that. Plus, he was probably the worst knight she'd ever met, and to that day, she still had no idea how he'd been part of Seven's elite guard at one point.

An arrow flew right past his face from behind him and straight into the chest of one of the bandits. Bickslow hadn't even needed to turn around to know who'd shot the thing. "I thought I told you to fucking go." He ducked just as another lunged for him, dodging the blow and twisting the blade in his hand to plunge it into his stomach.

"I know!" Lucy shouted, drawing another arrow into the bow and aiming it carefully. She couldn't risk hitting Bickslow, and it was a miracle she'd missed him before. But with how much he and the others were moving, she almost didn't want to shoot it, but it was the only thing she could do to actually help; it was the only thing Bickslow had been willing to teach her. "But I just… I couldn't leave you alone!"

Bickslow pulled the knife out and spun to face Lucy perched on a rock behind him. She was already drawing another arrow, too busy to notice the bearded man sneaking up behind her in the snow.

"Move! Now!"

She tripped over her own feet as she turned and was yanked back up by the back of her shirt. She screamed and kicked at him, trying to get herself free. Her feet hitting his shins didn't seem to deter him, though. "Now, now. You'll fetch a pretty penny, won't you?"

The taste of bile filled her mouth as she struggled. The situation felt all too familiar, and having it happen once was more than enough. "L-Let go…"

Her knight came to help before she could even try and get herself out of it. Bickslow dealt with him quicker than she could, stabbing his leg just so he couldn't chase after them - or at least not very quickly.

The remaining two picked themselves up to set their sights back on Bickslow. He growled under his breath, stepping to the side purposefully to put himself between them and Lucy. "I told you to get the fuck out of here," he said once more, quickly glancing back as Lucy picked herself back up and readied the bow he'd given her. He briefly wondered why the others were taking so long to attack; he didn't have all day and they both knew he only had the one short blade left anyway. "Why the fuck did you come back?"

Hadn't she already answered that? "I told you! I couldn't leave you alone!"

"I can handle myself, Princess. Now move." He didn't give her the chance to do so herself before he shoved her out of the way. It was for her own benefit anyway, and he'd already known that the only thing she would've fallen on if he'd pushed her just hard enough was a bed of snow and leaves. But with Lucy out of the way, it gave him the room to move.

The thieves were predictable - and dumb, too, as Bickslow had quickly realised. Launching themselves at him together, all Bickslow needed to do was duck at the right time to avoid them. Swinging his leg, he tripped one of them over and stuck the short blade into the back of the other's thigh. He screamed in agony, falling to his knees and trying to clutch the wound.

Lucy picked herself back up again, not bothering to dust the snow from her legs or her hair. She could barely hear anything over the sound of the blood rushing in her ears as she stared at her knight, his back to her as he collected one of his daggers from one of the bodies beside him. "I… I need to tell you something!" Lucy heard herself shout.

Bickslow didn't even bother sparing her a glance, but she could still see the scowl through the look of focus as he continued to stare at the last bandit. "Can't you see I'm a little busy right now?" he snapped. As much as he'd taught Lucy on her way back to Fiore, she was still the naive princess he'd had hanging upside down from a tree at one point. And right then, she was just being fucking stupid.

She tried not to jump when they both ran at each other, the other shouting as he ran over his fallen comrades without a care in the world. Right then, Lucy just didn't know if Bickslow was going to be able protect her like he'd promised to do. He'd already killed two, injured three, and the one he was fighting then only had a few scratches on him. Bickslow's blade just barely scraped across his face, leaving a deep gash that bled steadily and soaked his collar. But he was against a sword, one that he was only barely stopping with the metal cuffs on his arms. Perhaps for the first time, Bickslow wouldn't win, and while that was a possibility, Lucy couldn't help herself from taking a single step forward and shouting, "I love you!" She wasn't entirely sure why she did, but she really couldn't let her stupid knight die without her saying it to him.

Bickslow finally looked at her, right as a single arrow was let loose from behind her and flew true until it hit Bickslow's shoulder. Lucy could only quickly turn around, seeing the same man Bickslow had knocked out just a moment earlier running straight into the woods. She didn't give herself the chance to think before she picked her fallen bow pack up and drew an arrow, aiming it straight for the burly man stepping away from her knight, hitting her mark perfectly and drawing another bow just to deal with the screaming man on the ground still clutching the back of his thigh.

Just a month earlier, she'd refused to shoot a rabbit just so she wouldn't starve. Now, she'd killed three men twice her size within a matter of minutes.

She dropped the bow again as Bickslow finally fell to his knees on the pink snow, dropping his blade and holding the arrow sticking out of his shoulder. He knew it was poisoned. He could feel it already. He fell back down onto his back just as Lucy reached him, quickly removing his visor and throwing it behind her as she pushed his hand away from the arrow.

"Shit… You have… the worst fucking timing…" Bickslow said slowly, struggling just to get enough air into his lungs.

"God, I know, I'm… I'm sorry," Lucy spluttered. She tried pulling on the arrow and Bickslow groaned. She didn't think it had gone straight through, which made getting it out even more difficult. "I just… I thought you were going to die, and I couldn't… I needed you to—"

"I know."

"—know, and now I'm the reason you got hit—"

"Lucy, shut up…" Bickslow groaned.

"—with the arrow at all and—"

Bickslow really didn't know what else to do other than reach up to grab the collar of Lucy's coat, pulling her down far enough so he could crane his neck and press his lips to hers, fighting to ignore the burning pain that came from moving. Still though, as horrible as the circumstances had been, he had kind of wanted to kiss her, so he considered it a win. "The arrow… was coated in poison…" he managed to get out quietly, with Lucy just staring at him with red cheeks and wide eyes. "And I really, really… need you to get it out." He wasn't quite fond of dying that day.

"P-Poison?" Lucy whimpered.

Bickslow shook his head. He probably had an antidote for it in his pack. It was probably the only good thing to come from his friendship with the grumpy with the poisons master. "Just get it out. I'll be… fine." Assuming Lucy helped him within the next thirty seconds, anyway.

Lucy nodded and looked to the arrow, reaching up quickly to dry her eyes for a moment. "It… It will hurt," she whispered. "I don't want to—"

"Just fucking do it already."

So she did, wincing as she pushed the fabric out of the way as best she could to dig her fingers into the wound, doing her best to widen it just so the arrowhead wouldn't get stuck. Her knight's scream of agony echoed throughout the forest.