Kisses! Mira would be thrilled. You guys make me so happy that my story makes you happy. The recent reviews have inspired little happy squeal dances. Love you guys!

Fairy Tail is not mine

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Bickslow took big gulps of the morning air as he leaned back against a tree with his eyes closed. The sound of the creek whose very cold water he had just doused himself with was only minutely calming. She had to know what she was doing. She couldn't be this oblivious right? She was good friends with Cana after all, and no-one could stay innocent around that woman. He just couldn't believe that Lucy Heartfilia would really be trying to wind him up like that.

Then again, yesterday morning he wouldn't have believed that she would kiss him either. The sweet little forehead kiss could have been overlooked, but not this one. He had been fighting the urge to kiss her since he woke with his face buried in strawberry scented gold. It had gotten monumentally worse when she opened those big brown eyes and started smiling at him. When she had climbed right on top of him and forced him to look into her eyes, he had lost that fight. She was just so fucking beautiful, especially when she was angry for his sake. Her body had melted against him and he had felt her kissing him back. He was ruined, and he knew it. There was no recovering from the faint taste of strawberries and Lucy. Though, from her actions after that, it looked like she might let him stick around.

Shit! He sat up strait. Her team would kill him for so much as touching her, let alone kissing her. Erza would chop him into little pieces, which Natsu would burn to ash while cackling with glee. Gray would then freeze said ashes into an eternal monument in remembrance of his epic stupidity. He was so dead on so many different levels.

His panic had risen to an intensity that drew his babies from their play to investigate by the time Lucy emerged from her pink tent. The bright open smile she gave him as their eyes met caused the panic to fade instantly to almost nothing. Dieing wasn't that bad really, not if he got to kiss her again before Erza chopped his head off.

"You ready to head out, Bix?"

"Sure, Cosplayer. Virgo has our stuff right?" The maid stepped from the treeline to present Lucy with a bag.

"Breakfast for you, Princesses, so you may begin today's journey immediately. I will finish breaking camp and return to the spirit world. Feel free to punish me for my earlier intrusion."

"I'm not going to punish you, Virgo. Thank you for breakfast. Is Plue's lollipop for today in here?"

"Yes, Princess."

"Thanks. Shall I call you when we are ready for lunch?"

"Please do. Travel safely, Princesses." Bickslow hopped to his feet and the babies spun through the air, excited for today's adventure.

"Walk or fly first, Cosplayer?" *fly fly, fly Cosplayer.

"As much as I would love to take you up on that offer, I think I'd better walk till I finish waking up. I wouldn't want me to be floating around half asleep if we got attacked or something."

"Pipi keep Cosplayer safe!" *protect Cosplayer, daddy protect Cosplayer, babies keep you safe.

"That's sweet of you guys, but I can keep myself safe. I don't need to be protected." There was an edge to her voice he had never heard before. The smile she was giving the babies only looked sweet. It wasn't real. It didn't reach her eyes.

"Hey babies why don't you go find Cosplayer some flowers to tuck in her hair?" *flowers, flowers, pretty. He waited till they were thoroughly distracted before turning back to Lucy. "You wanna call Virgo so you can hide behind my visor for a while, or do you wanna talk about whatever's got a burr in your bra?"

"Excuse me?" Congratulations, Bickslow, your extreme tact has summoned Scary Lucy. This was why he sent the babies away. He didn't do subtle. At all.

"Somethin's got you upset. A lot. Enough you all but snapped at the babies. Anyone else I would ignore it, but not you. If you get to be pushy with sensitive shit so do I. Talk to me." She sighed.

"I know you guys weren't around for the Phantom War but it kinda started a trend. Lucy gets kidnaped, her team rescues her. Lucy gets threatened, the guild protects her. Lucy gets looked at weird, fucking Happy takes her somewhere safe! You see the pattern here!" She wasn't even looking at him anymore. She was yelling at the forest in general and waving her arms in the air. He was a little surprised none of the trees burst into flames from her glare. "Poor weak little Lucy has to be fucking protected from everything! If I can survive Natsu's stupidity and Erza's idea of training I can bloody well take care of myself!" He really hoped she wound herself down from this, because he was feeling like he was in way over his head here.

"You know what the worst part is? Apparently I really can't keep myself safe! Every stinking time, when it comes down to it, I end up half naked, laying on the ground helpless, and I really do have to be fucking rescued! Every! Single! Fucking! Time!" She was kicking a boulder on the side of the road to punctuate her words. Good thing she was wearing boots.

The babies returned without flowers, drawn by the noise, and hovered behind him as he followed her down the road. He explained to them that she wasn't angry with any of them, she just needed to express herself. Internally he admitted to himself that he was going to have to do something soon. Expressing yourself was all well and good, but if she broke her foot off in some poor tree's asshole it would be his fault for provoking her.

"I'm a Fairy Tail wizard and I can take care of myself! I'm a Fairy Tail wizard." Her voice suddenly dropped to a whimper and she stopped walking. "I can take care of myself. I'm a strong wizard. I mean... I am... right?" He had caught up to her rather quickly once she stopped moving forward, and now that he could see the tears running down her face. How had she gone from pissed off at the world to crying so quickly?

Now, normally he wouldn't have the first idea what to do with a woman's tears. His team all had their own emotional crutches, but crying was not one of them. Laxas got mad and broke shit, or blew it up. Evergreen used her pride and her sharp tongue as a spear to kill anything that came to close. Freed just pretended to feel nothing. He himself delt with everything by turning it into a joke and laughing at it.

It had been nearly two decades since a female turned to him for the solution to a tear inducing problem. That was a very bad memory he tried not to think of if he could help it. It hadn't turned out to well. Lucy had delt with tears last night though, and her method seemed to work pretty damn well. So he pulled her close, wrapped her tight in his arms and held her.

"You're right, I wasn't around during the Phantom thing, but I've heard Natsu and Gajeel tell the story of their fight. There are very few things those two ever agree on, but they both say it hurt and was an awesome fight. You know what else they agree on?" She shook her head as she sobbed against his chest. "Natsu would have lost that fight if you hadn't gotten him that fire when you did." She pulled away to stare at him with red rimmed eyes.

"And I guess you are also right when you say you set a pattern that day. You handed me my ass during Fantasia, and I'm not sure anyone else would have been able to stop my Figure Eyes. Honestly, beating Gray was easy, and we all know he is one of the guild's strongest. Let's not forget that you were a key part of bringing down the Tower of Heaven, and in showing Juvia what it ment to be a Fairy Tail wizard, before she even was one. I heard her tell that story to Lisanna when they became friends." The look she was giving her was making him more than a little uncomfortable, but he felt the need to keep going.

"Nirvana couldn't have been brought down without you there. When I went on that mission with Wendy I heard all her stories about Edolas too. It was your words that inspired the Fairy Tail there to fight. The Real Nightmare. You. The Eclipse Gate. Also you. I'm pretty sure there are several stories your spirits could tell me if I asked." He wasn't going to tell her about the depth of his talk with Loke that morning. "Do I need to keep going? Sure in a one on one, pure magic power type battle against your team mates I probably wouldn't bet any money on you." She laughed. It was a choked, watery laugh, but it was still a laugh. "But they are monsters, Lucy. I'm pretty sure they aren't human. In fact I'd bet my next three S-class mission rewards that Happy isn't." He got a real laugh out of that one.

"You know why I still call you Cosplayer? "

"Because people trick me onto dressing weird, and my spirits choose to because they are crazy?"

"Nope. That's why I started calling you that."

"Because it annoys me?"

"That's why I kept doing it for a long time, but not anymore."

"Why don't you enlighten me, Oh Wise One."

"Because you can be anything you want to be. Once you put your mind to it you can do anything. I've seen you do it. You set that beautiful mind of yours on something and nothing can stop you. Then the next day you come into the guild, as our very own Lucy, and order a strawberry milkshake. Like you didn't just shake the foundations of the cosmos the day before. And you complain about your rent and your feet hurting, till the next time life calls for you to pick up your sword and be a warrior princess. It's amazing and I wish I could see more of it with my own eyes instead of hearing about it second hand."

The babies finally felt it was safe to rest their little wooden bodies on their shoulders, and Pipi started burrowing down into her favorite spot. Lucy shifted to hold the totem seemingly without thinking about it. The tears were gone. The red splotches on her pale skin were still there, but starting to fade. He had to keep reminding himself not to use his eye magic to intrude on her privacy and check on her soul. The wide eyed look she was giving him made him feel good, and a lot worried.

"Wow, Bix. I never knew you were stalking me so hardcore." That's why he was worried. Here he thought they were having a moment and she went and blew it up right in his face.

"Oh come on. I wasn't! I didn't. I swear! You know how the guild talks, and no-one thinks I ever pay attention to anything, and the babies like to hear stories even if they aren't ment..." She had her finger on his lips. He shivered.

"I was teasing, Doc." Soul Doctor. Did that mean he had helped her feel less broken. Mavis, he hoped so. "I actually think it's really sweet. I've never seen any of that that way. I was never able to look at myself and think I was needed by anyone. I definitely never saw myself as a cosmos shaking kind of girl. Thank you" He barely felt her lips brush against his when she dropped her finger, before she stepped away. "Shall we fly for a few miles babies?" *fly, fly, wheee! Off they went. He just stood there.

"Touched by an angel." The old soul sighed.

"Pretty sure this is the part where we follow her daddy"

'Chase her down and ravish her. That's always a safe option.' Pepe added through the link. Bickslow jerked his body into motion.

"Shut up guys. There will be no chasing and no ravishing." He paused and thought for a moment. "Yet. We all know Cosplayer isn't the hop into bed type, and she deserves better anyway. If she will let me though... Let's just stay I'll stick arround."

'You'll stick...'

"Shut up Pepe."

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Lucy managed to avoid any more serious, emotional,or depressing conversations that day. They flew, they walked, they laughed, they played tag, they ate lunch on a red and white picnic blanket. After their chocolate silk pie they flew untill the babies needed to stop for the day, then continued to walk in silence. She didn't know what kept Bickslow so quiet, but Lucy spent most of the time thinking.

It wasn't dark thoughts that filled her mind. It wasn't all rainbows and unicorns in there either. Though she did feel like a carnival game. A shell game, with about 173 shells and she was trying to guess where the red bead was hiding. Her traveling companion was a puzzle. Did she want him? Yes. Hell yes if she was honest. Did he want her? She thought so. But how much? And for how long?

She was starting to like the idea of having all of him for a very long time. Liked the idea more the longer she thought about it and the more she learned about him. Bickslow had a hit it once never look at it again kind of reputation. Was it warranted? Was it the way he chose to do things? Or was it because he was hiding? Would he ever think about her in a more permanent kind of way? They were friends now she thought, and she knew he thought she was attractive, but would he be willing to combine those two things? Was he even capable of a real relationship?

By the time they came within sight of their destination the sun was beginning to paint colors along the horizon and her head hurt. Elm Hill didn't help any. The town was built around a pretty grassy hill. It looked like most of the hill had been turned into a park. Even from here she could see that it wasn't an elm tree. The town of Elm Hill was built around and named after a hill topped with a huge ancient sycamore. The white bark practically glowed. She was very irritated.

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To be continued