Poor Bickslow. Lucy it turning his poor brain into a strawberry smoothie. Can they make it out of town before Lucy's spirits give him a heart attack?
MirandaLoveBug I have indeed squealed at stories. It's not good unless it generated a physical reaction. Squeals, sad tears, laughter tears, and desperate cries of 'Nooooooo!' Are all acceptable.
Fairy Tail is not mine (weeping).
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Bickslow's head was still spinning as they left the hotel, bag of pastries from the downstairs cafe in hand. He was convinced there was something wrong with the temporary partner Mira had forced upon him. His babies disagreed. Pipi objected to him referring to her as anything but Cosplayer or Our Friend. Pepe called her The Girl Who Isn't Stupid. Papa called her an angel. Popo and Pupu just called her sexy, which irritated him because it was causing him enough issues without having it pointed out.
Papa and Popo were circling his head as they followed the other four chattering members of their party. Lucy was in search of a sweets shop. She had informed her little entourage that carrying sweets even tucked away in the celestial realm was strait up dangerous when traveling with Titania and her very combustible garbage disposal of a partner. After extracting a promise from him, under a dark glare, not to badger her for candy, she had informed Pipi that she needed a lollipop supply if they were going to be traveling with Plue.
"There it is. This is my favorite shop in town. They have these chewy strawberries and cream things that are amazing. I wasn't sure if they would be open this early in the morning, I'm so glad they are." *strawberries, lollipop, lollipop.
Bickslow smiled as he watched her practically dance into the little shop, taking the majority of his babies with her. He reached through their link to tell them not to touch anything unless Cosplayer specifically asked them to do so, and leaned against the wall in a shadowed corner. No way was he going in there. Between Evergreen's fan, Freed's runes, and Laxus's lightning he had long since accepted that sugar was off limits to his hyperactive ass. He didn't need to give Lucy and her spirits a reason to kill him, not that they weren't already trying without a reason.
She must have known what she was after because she was back with her colorful purchases not ten minutes later. He watched her call Virgo and hand over three surprisingly large bags of candy to the maid, keeping two smaller ones with her. The pink haired maid spoke sweetly to his babies before she left. It seemed Lucy's offer of friendship had been embraced by at least some of her spirits. He and Loke had a history so he didn't hold his suspicion against him.
"Love Rival?" He had forgotten that she had told Mira the stripper and his stalker were in town.
"Lucy? What are you doing here? I thought you were going to hole up in your apartment and write this week?"
Bickslow did a quick check on his babies to keep them out of trouble. They had on their own fallen into sneaky mode like they usually did when in public. Four were hovering arround him in his dark corner. It took him a minute to find his littlest trouble maker. He smirked when he did. The ornery little soul had managed to find her way to what was apparently her new favorite spot, tucked against Lucy's chest, all but shoved down her shirt, with the woman's arms wrapped around her cuddling her like a teddy bear. That would have been his new favorite place too if he could get away with it.
"Gray! Juvia! Hey guys. Well I was going to, but what I wanted to write didn't want to be written, and then Mira decided to volunteer me for a mission, so here I am."
"Where's Natsu?"
"Fishing with Lisanna."
"Wait. Mira sent you on a solo mission? You sure that's a good idea?" Bickslow couldn't understand why Gray would think it was a Bad idea. She was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. He could personally attest to that.
"Nah. She knows better."
"Then who..." Bickslow heard Pipi giggling through the link and smirked, eyes glued to Gray's face.
"PEEKABOO!" Pipi shouted, launching from her hiding place.
Gray screeched, jerking away, and Juvia lost control of her water body for half a moment. Lucy began to laugh.
"Pipi you silly little goose. Tell poor Juvia you are sorry for scaring her. You could have sent her washing down a storm drain."
"Pipi silly. Pipi not hurt Water Woman. Pipi not sorry."
"You remember when Loke scared me this morning and you were upset?" Pipi hummed at her. "Well you scared Juvia like Loke scarred me, so you need to say sorry." Bickslow felt a little awed as he felt Pipi file the lesson Lucy had just succeeded in teaching her into a place to be remembered for future reference. Huh. He had tried teaching that lesson several times since the first time Laxus had disintegrated Pipi's wooden body over a similar stunt. It had never taken. Not till now.
"Pipi is sorry for scaring Water Woman. Pipi didn't want to make Water Woman mad like Slippery M..."
"Ok! That's enough apologising!" He could only imagine how red her face was. Even the back of her neak was blushing.
"I...umm...I accept your appology...Pipi."
"Isn't that one of Bickslow's dolls? Why is it here?"
"SHE is here because Bickslow is here of course. Umm. Pipi, where is your daddy?"
"Daddy sneaky."
"Sneaky like hiding or sneaky like in the restaurant last night? Is that where Pepe and Pupu went?"
"Daddy and babies be sneaky quiet."
"Mira sent you on a mission with Bickslow!"
"The disco ball thing gave her ideas and there was a haunted house so she called the client and...yeah...mission."
"...disco ball... what... nevermind. So where is he?"
"Did you not hear Pipi and I discussing that very thing before you interrupted?"
"So it," Lucy cleared her throat. "So she knows where he is?"
"Of course she does. Where is daddy, Baby?" Something about the way she said that sent a weird feeling through his gut.
"Daddy sneaky."
"Pipi we just...you know what... Bickslow so help me I know you can hear us talking about you. In fact I'm blaming her lack of cooperation on you." Bickslow grinned.
"Daddy says 'Now you know how I felt last night. And this morning. You polluted them remember?' Cosplayer what is pollute?"
"To pollute is to make dirty. My polluting comment at dinner has nothing to do with this, Bix. Are you sulking?"
"Pipi is clean not polluted."
"I know. Daddy is just being dramatic."
"Daddy is being sneaky not dramatic. Daddy is laughing. Sneaky laughing." Lucy face palmed. Juvia was giggling and Gray was staring at the littlest soul and his teammate as if they had transformed into slobbering vulcans. Bickslow was having a ball, and a very hard time holding still. He wasn't ten feet away from her and she was oblivious.
"He's watching us isn't he?" He gave up.
"I never went anywhere, Cosplayer." She screamed. A banshee would have been proud. Juvia lost integrity again, all accept her feet which were frozen solid from Gray losing control of his magic. Bickslow collapsed in a cackling heap, guildstamped tongue on full display. The group was showered in golden sparks.
"Lucy! Princess! Are you alright, My Love?" Tears began leaking from the corners of Bickslow's eyes as Loke spun in a circle searching for whatever had caused the fear he had felt from his master.
"Dude!" Gray shouted, pulling his magic back to thaw out poor Juvias feet. "That was creepy! Way to scare us all to death!" Juvia began to laugh as a giggling Popo landed on her head.
"What has he done to you, My Princess?"
"Nothing! Mavis, Bix! What the hell? What did I say about ninjas?! It's like working with a really tall, smart, nonflamable Natsu! So help me if anyone of you calls me fat I'm having Virgo bring me a hammer and painting them blue after they recover from the wrath I will rain down on their heads!"
"Punishment Princess?"
"No!" Bickslow couldn't breath. Juvia laugh escalated. Gray began to smirk.
"So you don't need my help Princess?"
"No! Both of you go home!" Juvia sat on the sidewalk and attempted to breath so her face wouldn't turn the same color as her hat. Gray began to chuckle as Bickslow rolled onto his back holding his sides to keep his laughter from splitting him open. Lucy's spirits shrugged and disappeared.
"I hate you all. You know that right." Lucy glared. Bickslow began to take deep breaths and Juvia smothered her laughter into giggles.
"Cosplayer not hate Pipi."
"No. I don't hate you, Sweety." Bickslow pushed himself up to sit against the wall.
"Daddy should apologise to Cosplayer for being a Slippery Kitty." Lucy turned white. Gray choked. Juvia finally fainted. Bickslow collapsed again.
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It took a while to settle everyone down. Then it took another while to get Juvia to stop raving about how her beloved Gray had swept the ice sculpture competition he hadn't even been a part of. Gray tried to insist that he go along on their ghost hunt, but had decided he was better off not going, once Lucy pointed out that Mira had sent them on is mission in a matchmaking attempt and his joining them would leave him object to her wrath when they returned. Juvia had kissed Popo's nose before wishing her Love Rival good luck and dragging an only slightly cooperative Gray down the street. The ghost hunting team had all but run out of Shirotsume, praying nothing else would delay their mission.
"Open! Gate of the Little Dog! Nikora!"
"Punn, punn!" *lollipop friend
"Here, Plue. It's blueberry."
"Pun!" Lucy watched as Plue ran off to play some convoluted surfing/ hopscotch game with the babies. It thrilled her that they got along so well.
"Got you something, Disco Princess ." She waited half a moment to make sure he was actually looking at her through his visor, before tossing him a small bag filled with brightly colored objects. "Those are orchard drops. I've seen you steal bites of that fruit pie Mira makes for Freed and Evergreen."
"Cosplayer, if you've seen me do that then you've seen them go all psycho crazy on my ass for doing it. There is a reason my team objects so violently to me having sugar."
"Natsu stole cotton candy from me once. It was terrible." She watched Bickslow shudder in horror. "Point being I know not to give hyper people sugar. These are made by the shop owner's daughter specifically for people with such... issues. I even give some to Natsu sometimes." He slowly started to open the bag. "Wait!" He jerked back out of reflex when she knocked on his visor. "Take it off."
"Umm..."
"I wanna see your reaction when you taste them. Don't you dare deny me, Bix." That stupid visor had annoyed her before, but after being able to see his face and look in his deep red eyes this morning her feelings about the everpresent piece of metal were almost violent.
"You're... Are you sure?" Why did he sound so confused?
"Yeeeesss. Why wouldn't I be. Gifts are given specifically for the joy they bring those you give them to. You give that joy back by sharing it with me."
"But... my eyes..." Oh. Now it made sense.
"Are the windows to your soul, which is beautiful. At least I guess it is since I can't see souls like you can. However! I can see your eyes, but only if you take off that metal monstrosity. You have perfect control over your magic, Bix. Why would I be afraid of it?" She was pretty sure he was staring at her, but, you know, visor... She reached up and gently pulled his head down by the annoying object to undo the latches on either side. She couldn't tell just what he was feeling but it lit up his eyes. This close she could definitely tell that, while she couldn't see his soul, his eyes were beautiful.
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To be continued