I keep trying to steer these two into a serious discussion but they always run off and do adorable fluffy stuff. Its...well... adorable, but I feel like I'm skipping rocks over the top of their relationship, ya know? I know where we are going it's just... they have the map and are choosing our route.

In case I lost anyone...
*chattering Babies

"Speach"

'Bix and the babies talking through the soul link'
"And 'quotes' while speaking aloud"

So. Fairy Tail was created by Hiro Mashima, who is an artistic powerhouse, not me.

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Lucy loved flying. Happy always complained so much he ruined it, especially since he sometimes accidently dropped her on purpose. The babies were thrilled to be able to take her soaring over the tree tops and told her so, enthusiastically. She had one foot on Pepe and one on Pupu, with Pipi clutched to her chest for balance.

Bickslow was a cat. He needed no help balancing. In fact she had seen him hopping back and forth between Papa and Popo with ridiculous ease. Not just hopping. No, he had been tossing jumps and twists and flips in there too. She had seen him go from a one armed handstand on Popo into a flip that landed him perfectly with both feet on Papa's tiny flat head. All this was while the group moved at a fantastic speed at a height sure to end in death if a fall occurred.

She wasn't sure if he was training, or intentionally using up some of his seemingly endless energy, just having fun, or strait up showing off. She suspected it was all of the above. Whatever his purpose was ,watching him was having an interesting effect on the lowest regions of her belly and her ability to breath. When Pipi had noticed her respiratory rate and asked if she was scared she could have sworn she heard him chuckling at her, as she tried to convince the little soul that she was just excited to be flying with them.

"Pipi," she asked, a thought occurring to her. "Could you ask your daddy a question for me?" Pipi was handling all their communication since talking up here just wasn't practical, especially since Bickslow wouldn't or couldn't maintain a position relative to hers.

"Daddy says to avoid vital organs." Shoot me huh?

"Can he teach me to fight like he does?"

"Daddy says 'how so?'."

"My team only understands one thing when it comes to fighting. Attack. If that fails they do it again. If that doesn't work they yell and scream and attack harder. There is never any strategic retreat or evasive maneuvering. I'm just not physically strong enough to fight like that. It's not how my magic works. They don't understand that, and it tends to cause problems. Bickslow can teach me to keep myself safe." She watched Bickslow come to stand a few feet in front of her, facing her, so she was sheltered from the wind by his body, as his eyes began to glow. Pipi gave a little jerk and began to speak in a very un-Pipi like manner.

"I can do that."

"Bix?" He sent a humming sound through the soul. "I didn't know you could do that. Is she still there?"

"Yeah. Basically she allowed me to use her as a puppet. It's a trust thing. They trust me, that's why they listen to me. Pipi trusts both of us enough to give up complete control to me even when you have her physical body. It leaves her completely vulnerable. She can still hear you. This is a first for her."

"Thanks Pipi. It makes me very happy that you trust me so much."

"With a soul love and trust go hand in hand. You can't have one without the other." She felt tears well in her eyes, and sent him the biggest smile she could manage, before pressing her forehead to the little totem in her arms. "I love you too, Pipi."

She looked back up to see Bickslow smiling. This wasn't his usual crazy grin that the guild saw every day. This was a real smile that went all the way up to his eyes. She felt her heart swell as she realized she had brought him that smile. It wasn't a hiding smile, it was real, and it was beautiful.

"Time to head down, Cosplayer. We don't want to run our magic down to far." Pipi jerked again and started giggling in a way that told Lucy Bickslow was definitely no longer in the driver's seat. The babies tipped her body forward and she acted on trust, letting Pipi support her upper body and throwing her hands in the air to scream in delight as they shot toward the earth.

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The babies had roped Lucy into a game of tag. Sort of. They would tag her and fly around in circles like a bunch of chickens untill she caught one of them, then they would scream hysterically and streak off into the surrounding forest, chasing each other at near supersonic speeds. They would play on their own for four or five rounds, with a little hiding, and a lot of seeking, before remembering that she was playing and zip back to the road again to tag her.

Bickslow laughed as Pupu flipped Lucy's hair into her face, tagging her it, and zipping around to hide behind him. He kept walking as she chased his babies up and down the road, occasionally dodging as she threw herself through the air in an attempt to cut off one if the totems. He didn't remember being this happy and relaxed in... ever.

The babies loved Lucy, and she seemed to love them back. She accepted what she knew of his magic and quite honestly embraced it as the beautiful healing magic it was originally intended to be. Granted, there were things he hadn't told her, that were bound to change the way she saw them if she ever found out, but for now... He was content. His babies were happy.

"Tag, Popo, you're it!" The babies shreiked and took off again. "Bix, do you still have some of those nut clusters Virgo gave us in one of your pockets? I'm starving." He grinned.

"Repeat after me..."

"Ugh... I don't have to. I have it memorized. You've made me say it five times today."

"I'm waiting." She literally growled at him. It wasn't scary. He worked with Laxus. This was just cute.

"Fine. Bickslow's armor is ridiculously useful."

"That seriously lacked enthusiasm, but I'll take it." He handed her the snack.

"You do realize that no matter how many times you make me say that it will never change my mind right?"

"My armor doesn't have to be sexy. I happen to be steamy enough to pull it off."

"If you actually pulled it off you'd be steamy. With it on you are just a bunch of flags wrapped around a really tall dude." He stared at her. He couldn't help it. She just kept walking as he stood there in the middle of the road like an idiot. Did Lucy Heartfilia really just say that? "Keep up, Bix. We still need to find a decent camping spot before the sun sets." He jerked into motion, his long legs easily catching up to her.

"You know, one of these days I'm going to take you seriously when you ask me to get naked, Cosplayer. What will you do then?"

"Well the way I see it I'll have two options at that point."

"Oh yeah? We've got options huh?"

"Yeah. Either I Lucy Kick you out of town," He'd seen that coming. "Or I get naked too." His feet stopped moving. The rest of him didn't. His face caught him. It hurt. "See now, this is what I ment yesterday." She was still walking. "You toss around pervy comments all the time, but the minute I do it... boom, down you go." He rolled over and tipped his head back to stare at her. Mavis, the view from down here was amazing. "Is that why you wear so many layers? I steal your visor and suddenly you are as bad as Freed in the Bikini Babe Battle. At least he was faking it."

"Hey!" He flipped himself onto his feet. "Who told you about that? It was supposed to be a secret! Does Cana know?"

"No. If she did you would have heard about it. I just figured it out." He started walking backwards in front of her to watch her face. Smug was sexy on her. Well, everything was sexy on her.

"How?"

"Pool parties. Freed doesn't have nearly the bikini weakness he pretended to, and it's not the girls at the guild his eyes follow when the summer months get hot and people other than Gray start stripping."

"Oh... well... how many people have noticed that? He doesn't like people knowing. It makes him uncomfortable. His dad left a really bad impression."

"Nobody as far as I know, but they do talk about his Laxus... thing. What is that by the way?"

"Mostly just hero worship. He would probably die screaming hysterically if Laxus ever looked at him that way. He knows Laxus is safe. Laxus knows he doesn't mean it like that so he tolerates it. Keeps Freed out of trouble elsewhere."

"Makes sense. You know what else I've learned since that fight?" Evil smirking could be sexy. Who knew. "The babies don't have nerves like we do. Means Aries's wool doesn't really affect them. You were faking too."

"Well damn. Thought I was a better actor than that."

"I do have two questions though." He tipped his head to the side and waited. "Why?"

"Cana deserved it. She should have made S-class that year. That and we owed you. We still had shit stains from Fantasia that hadn't been washed out yet."

"Which leads to my second question. How the hell did I beat you that time?"

"You are one bad ass babe."

"Umm. No. Not that bad ass."

"I didn't let you win that time, so yes you are. My heart wasn't in it either. The reality of Fantasia is it was a huge ass temper tantrum but only a half ass takeover attempt. None of us had the conviction needed to go all the way. Just between you and me though? I was stupid enough to think you were stupid. That's why you beat me."

The babies came swooping back screaming at each other. Apparently no-one knew who was it because Lucy was tagged in by three different babies. He froze as a grinning Lucy threw herself into his arms and wrapped her legs arround his waist.

"Umm... Cosplayer?" She planted a tiny kiss on his forehead and he stopped breathing.

"Tag. You're it, Disco Princess." She dropped back to the ground and took off. When he managed to breath again the smell of strawberries was still hanging in the air. He blinked a couple times and looked up at the clear blue sky. Maybe once Lucy finally killed him he wouldn't haunt Mira. He had a feeling he would be following Cosplayer instead.

If anyone had been around to see Bickslow chase after his traveling companion they would have seen a new kind of smile on his face. Gone was the over the top grin he wore around the guild, along with the visor, as a shield against the world. There were no half hearted or mocking smirks. The pure happiness welling up from his heart had given him a crazy stupid kind of smile that Laxus would have mocked on as love sick.

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To be continued