Also. As of this chapter I will be responding to my reviewers directly instead of in my author's note because I've discovered that you guys are fan-flipping-tastic and I love talking to you. Now. On with the show! This chapter is a little shorter, but that's just the way it worked.
Hiro Mashima still holds the rights to Fairy Tail. Duh.
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"I still don't see how wearing this jacket is supposed to suddenly make jeans and a T-shirt a costume, Cosplayer. You're the authority on this, but I don't get it." He unlocked the front door of his house and let the giggling babies escort Lucy inside before he followed with the bags from today's shopping trip over his arm.
"Trust me on this, Bixy."
"I do, I just don't get it. Unless I'm dressed as some sort of cloud a white shirt and a light blue jacket don't seem like a costume." *a cloud, so fluffy, doesn't make sense.
"Probably because you usually wear a super jester knight suit as everyday clothing."
"What am I supposed to be?" *yeah what, what Cosplayer, tell us.
"It's a surprise." He headed to his room to drop off the bags.
"How is it a surprise if I already know what I'm wearing?"
"Because you don't know what you are." *nobody knows that, something extra special that's for sure, be nice Pepe. He leaned down to rest his head on her shoulder and tried begging one more time.
"Cosplayer..." She copied his whining tone in her response.
"Bickslow..." He stood back up and tried puppy dog eyes. He could see her resolve waver a just a little. "Nope!" She turned and walked through the kitchen to the back door. "You just have to wait for the party. You'll see. It will make sense then." He gave her his best longsuffering groan as he followed her outside. "You just don't handle secrets very well, do you?"
"It's not the secrets. It's the waiting." *waiting, so boring, it's so hard to wait.
"Less than three days, Bixy." He jumped up to hang from a horizontal bar.
"That's a lot of hours. Seventy-two of them. Do you know how many minutes that is?" *minutes, so many minutes.
"Far less than four thousand because you don't have to wait the whole three days. Over a quarter of those minutes will be spent sleeping. I'm sure we can think of something to occupy us during the ones we are awake for." He pulled himself up and made a dramatic pouty face at her from over the bar. "Erza will be here before the party will. Sure you don't want to wait?"
"Well would you look at that? I have vast wells of patience I never noticed before." He could never stop himself from smiling when she giggled like that.
"You going to come down here and teach me something or do I just get extra time to watch you perform gravity defying stunts that make your arms do absolutely delicious things?" She did look like she was thinking about taking a bite out of him. He wouldn't object if she decided to try that. He gave her a big grin before he responded.
"Which one do you want more babe?" He lowered himself a little so he was no longer looking at her over the bar. He couldn't hold this position long, but he knew her eyes would like it. The fact that she couldn't seem to keep those big brown eyes on his face said he was right.
"So tempting." There was a husky quality in her voice that was bringing back vivid memories of their more-than-a-moment this morning. If she kept that up he was the one who would be taking a bite out of her. "I'm going to have to ask you to come down though. I'd like to actually have expanded my skill set when I go on my next mission."
"Right." He dropped down. "First we warm up then." She tackled him in a completely unexpected kiss and this time he didn't have a pole behind him to prevent them from ending up on the ground. He groaned into the kiss and held her tight. She had won far to many of these little moments of theirs and he was not going to be the one who's brain shut down this time. When he finally pulled released her so she could breath she blinked down at him with unfocused eyes.
"Umm... I... I'm warm now."
"You're a smoming hot little devil that's what you are. Now stand your sexy ass up so we can train."
"I don't want to." When she started to lean back down he clapped a hand over her mouth and grinned.
"Babe if I have to roll over on top of you we will be stuck out here till tomorrow and my team doesn't have any qualms about watching us through the windows." She flushed and her eyes went to the house windows. She then sat up, still straddling his hips, and gave a cheeky little wave toward where he knew Freed's window to be. "Is he really watching us or are you being sarcastic?"
"He's sipping tea and absolutely watching us." He rolled his eyes. "You guys are just like my team that way aren't you?"
"Voyeuristic?"
"I was thinking more like 'all for one and one for all accept when it comes to privacy and then nobody gets any' but voyeuristic works I guess."
"Cosplayer?" He was pretty sure she hadn't realized just where she was sitting.
"Hmm?"
"Get up and start the stretches I taught you this morning." She pouted. If she stayed there much longer he was going to roll over on top of her, Freed or no Freed.
"Slowly?"
"Get up quickly and stretch slowly."
"Fine."
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"You want me to do what now?"
"Hop."
"For real?"
"Yes." She just stared at him. She understood the words she just didn't get the point. "I'm going to go do my own thing and try my damnedest to ignore the way your boobs are bouncing which is going to be," He gave one of his overdramatic 'sexy' groan's and closed his eyes. "Just glorious," He opened his eyes and grinned down at her. "And you are going to hop in circles. Now." He looked at her feet and tapped her toes with his. "Keep your feet together and your toes even at all times. Two hops on the ground, hop up onto the northern point of the cross, hop down, two hops, hop onto the eastern point, hop down, two hops..."
"Ok! I get the idea." She gave him a half hearted glare before looking at the wooden compass cross on the ground in front of her. "Can you tell me why I'm doing this?"
"Balance and proprioception."
"Isn't that what yoga is for?"
"Yeah, but this is in motion. Plus it's really good for your legs, not that they need any help being perfect because they already are, and your core."
Ok. That didn't sound to bad. She could do this. She gave an experimental hop and then crossed her hands over her boobs to prevent their 'glorious' but uncomfortable bouncing. Her boyfriend pouted and she just grinned at him, before starting her circle of hops.
She found that focusing on her hopping while Bickslow was doing yummy things was not easy. She almost fell due to distraction a couple times before she came to the conclusion that this was going to have to be a mental exercise as well as a physical one. She changed directions twice and was at this point considering this activity to be equal parts boring and potentially embarrassing.
"Damn strait." Cobra's voice startled her a bit and her hop wobbled a bit, but she kept going. "Don't let Lug Nuts catch you doing that."
"Fuck you, Slither Bat."
"No thanks. Kina's got that covered." She paused atop the southern point of the wooden cross and grinned.
"Already got your dose of Sugar for the day huh?" Then her eyes flew wide. "Bix! Bix, I made Cobra blush!" There was a thump behind her and Bickslow's cackling laugh approached.
"You were so hoping she was drunk enough she wouldn't remember you were drunk enough to say that weren't you?" He dropped an arm over her shoulders and she leaned into him, unwilling to look away from the faint pink on Cobra's cheeks even to look at her boyfriend.
"Fuck you, Echo."
"Nope." She let her 'p' pop. "That's my job." He narrowed his eye at her.
"Still doesn't count. You're getting closer though." She was probably blushing now too.
"For the record I think it's sweet that you call Kinana your Sugar." She was hoping to freshen the blush in his cheeks, but was disappointed. Oh well. Once was a monumental feat on its own.
"You think everything is sweet, Tits."
"What are you doing here anyway?" He shrugged at her.
"Guild is noisy as fuck and Kinana's busy so..."
"So you were bored."
"No." He was so bored. "No I wasn't. "
"I think now would be a good time for chocolate popcorn and a movie, Cosplayer."
"Chocolate, popcorn, and a movie or chocolate popcorn and a movie?"
"You heard me. Chocolate popcorn. It's a Thunder Legion tradition." She squealed and ran for the door. She could hear both men laughing behind her.
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To be continued