Lucy woke up early the next morning to the sun shining on her face through the window. She rolled over and groaned into the blanket as she attempted to pull it up over her face, but only stopped fighting with it when she realised that there was someone sitting on her blanket.

"Good morning, Princess."

Lucy sighed as she opened her eyes. "Morning, Loke," she whispered, smiling at the spirit and mentally thanking him for his version of an alarm clock. She pushed the blanket back and slowly got out of bed, then began heading towards her small kitchen to grab a glass of water as Loke trailed behind her.

"Heading out with Natsu today?"

"Not today, but I am going out on a job." She looked at the clock and noticed she had to start getting ready if she was going to get to the station in time. She placed the glass in the sink and then headed towards the bathroom, closing the door behind her. She knew Loke wouldn't come in (as much as he probably wanted to), but she also knew the closed door wouldn't stop the conversation.

"Going out alone then?" Loke asked as he pulled her blankets back up over the mattress, making it neat once again. He could hear the bath filling up as he walked over to the kitchen and began tidying up, rinsing the cup she had just used.

"Well, no, actually." She paused as she stepped into the bath, the water slightly burning her skin and she slowly sat down. "Cana decided that she would use her cards to assign jobs to people in the guild since no one was really doing any… So I'm going with Bickslow, actually."

"Bickslow? Interesting…"

"Why does everyone keep saying that?"

"Well, that's probably because you haven't worked with him before, and you both tend to stick with your own teams, so it's a little unexpected that you two would get paired together…" He wasn't even sure if their types of magic would be compatible in the field. But shaking his head, hoping he need not worry about his master, Loke looked around at the now tidy apartment. "I must return now, Princess. I'll send Virgo out soon. I trust you will call me out if you need me."

Lucy looked towards the door to see the golden light from his departure peek through the gap at the bottom. Just a few minutes later, Virgo had appeared in the middle of her bathroom holding a large fluffy towel, so she stepped out of the bath and wrapped herself in the towel from Virgo before walking back into her living area. She noticed the bed was made and all the cushions on her sofa were now neatly arranged, and mentally thanked Loke again before she grabbed her clothes for the day, just a purple tank top and a black skirt, from the dresser.

"Thank you, Virgo," she smiled as she pulled on her boots.

"Was there anything else I can do for you, Princess?" Virgo asked.

"No, thank you. You can go now."

"As you wish." Virgo bowed before disappearing in the usual golden light. It always felt warm to Lucy, so she smiled as her beloved spirit returned to her world.

It was almost 7 a.m., and as Lucy gave a quick onceover her apartment, she made sure she had everything with her. The job seemed easy enough according to the request, so once she was confident she had everything she needed, she locked the door behind her and made her way towards Magnolia train station.

Bickslow made his way over to the platform where Lucy stood. He realised she wasn't aware that he was behind her, so he quietly walked towards her before making his presence known. "Hey, Cosplayer." He watched her just about jump up to his height as she spun around, and he couldn't help but chuckle quietly to himself at the site of her flushed face.

"Don't do that again!" she shouted, placing a hand over her chest and feeling her heart race. Once she wasn't wanting to slap him as much, she reached into her bag and pulled out the tickets to hand one of them to Bickslow. "Here, I got your ticket for you since you decided to cut it so close."

"Hey, there's still two minutes until the train is leaving. Plenty of time."

"Yeah, right," she scoffed, and she only turned her back to him to head towards the nearest carriage door.

Once they had boarded, they made their way towards the first empty seats they could find, only to find themselves sitting across from two elderly women. Lucy was used to having all four seats filled on train trips with her team, but then she was only remembering that she wasn't with her team, she was with Bickslow. And suddenly, as Bickslow quickly took the window seat for himself, Lucy was thinking that their pairing really was just a little interesting.

"So how long is this train ride going to be, exactly?" Bickslow asked once Lucy had settled herself down beside him.

"About five hours, I think," she sighed. It was definitely going to be a long trip, that was for sure. "I don't know if we'll be able to get back in tonight, either. I'm not really sure how long this job will take us."

"Well, I hope these chairs are comfortable."

They were only a little over an hour into their train ride then, and Bickslow had spent most of that time staring out the window. The sky had gradually gotten darker the farther they got from Magnolia.

He looked over at the elderly ladies seated opposite them. Both had their eyes closed, and he seriously wondered if they were still breathing or not since they seemed a little too quiet. He didn't want to risk removing his visor, though, so he just had to guess.

When a yawn broke the silence, he looked back down to the girl beside him. "You and Loke up all night?" he asked as his tongue lolled from his mouth in his usual grin. He couldn't help but tease her about the spirit. He really couldn't.

"I'm not… We're not…" Lucy knew she was blushing then as she struggled with her response. You'd think she would be better at telling the actual truth, especially since it was the truth, but still, no matter how many times Bickslow asked her that, she struggled. Composing herself, she calmly said, "I've told you before, we're not together." Lucy looked back down at her lap. "I just couldn't sleep last night."

"Uh-huh. If you say so."

So then Bickslow went back to looking out the window. He could see their reflections in the window against the stormy skies; the blonde of Lucy's hair stood out, as well as the purple from his hood. But he was pulled from the reflection when one of the ladies suddenly began coughing, and just as soon as she was done, she appeared to be dead again.

"Not dead then."

He looked back down to Lucy when she quietly began to giggle, and Bickslow couldn't help but laugh quietly with her. "Apparently not," he agreed quietly.

And then Bickslow was back to staring at the sky as they continued on their journey, only noticing that it kept getting darker and stormier the farther they got from Magnolia. He later felt something soft on the side of his shoulder and he looked down out of curiosity. Bickslow tensed when he realised it was Lucy using his arm as a pillow. Did she just fall asleep on me? He lifted his free hand and lightly poked her on the head. "Cosplayer?" he whispered, but he got no response from the blonde.

"Oh, leave her alone. Let the girl sleep."

Bickslow looked up then just to find one of the elderly ladies opposite them smiling at him.

"Uh… Right. Yeah, okay…" he mumbled. He looked down at the now sleeping blonde once again before turning to look out the window. He closed his eyes for a few minutes, wondering what was going on. First he was feeling strangely nervous about his job with the woman, and now he was letting her sleep on him? It was weird.

Bickslow only shook his head lightly and tipped his head back in the chair. Well, if she's sleeping, I suppose I should try and sleep too. He only looked down at her once again, and then back out the window once more before closing his eyes once again and attempting to sleep.

Lucy was awoken by the train's intercom announcing that they would arrive soon. She rubbed her eyes and pulled herself up so she was sitting up straight once again. Wait… What? It was only then that Lucy even realised what she'd done, and she only looked over to her right to see Bickslow beginning to wake up himself.

"Oh. I'm… I'm so sorry," she quickly apologised. "I didn't mean to fall asleep on you…" She said a little too fast.

Bickslow shrugged. "It's fine. You seemed comfortable and you said you didn't sleep much last night, so…" He stretched his arms up over his head before looking back out the window and mumbling, "Plus I got told you leave you alone…"

"Leave me alone? Who could have possibly told you to leave me alone?"

"One of the old ladies across from us." They'd gotten off at one of the other stops, Bickslow figured. Surprisingly, he'd managed to fall asleep himself. "She said to leave you alone and let you sleep, so I did. I didn't think it would be the end of the world. Next time I promise I'll just continue poking you until you wake up."

"Oh… Well, uh, thank you, I guess." Her nap really had been needed as it turns out, and she was strangely thankful that Bickslow had let her be. But as much as she felt like she probably could do with another nap, they were almost at their stop, and she didn't have time to sleep. So as Bickslow went back to staring out at the dark and ominous clouds beyond the window, Lucy only turned her attention to her hands in her lap.

They stood outside the station in town. It was almost eerily quiet due to the bad weather with everyone staying inside, but they weren't there for the weather, so Lucy just began heading towards wherever it was they needed to go.

"So what exactly is this job for anyway?" Bickslow asked once they'd left the station. It was the first time he had asked about the job itself. He'd figured there had been no point in knowing all that much about it until they were in town, and now they were.

Lucy pulled the flyer from her bag and unfolded it, quickly studying it. "It says we just need to make sure some trail in a forest is clear for a school trip or something tomorrow."

"Sounds easy enough."

The school that the request had come from was unfortunately on the opposite side of the town, which only meant they had a long and painfully silent walk ahead of them. Bickslow still couldn't help but look up to the dark sky above them. Something didn't seem quite right about, but he only pushed it to the back of his mind and continued to silently follow just behind Lucy.

When they did reach the school, Lucy met with the teacher in charge of the trip while he stayed out in the hall. Watching the weather through the window seemed more interesting, so he only watched the strong wind blow around leaves and small pieces of debris from various places within the town. Even the odd plastic bag flew past.

Lucy came down the stairs once she was done just to see Bickslow slumped on one of the small chairs, staring out the windows at the front of the building, and she noticed from the thin line his mouth was in that he still seemed troubled by something. Probably just the weather.

Bickslow turned to face her when he noticed her lurking by the bottom of the stairs. "Are we going to go do this job, or are you going to continue staring?" he asked with a smirk.

"I wasn't staring," she muttered. Okay, she was. Just a little bit. She shook her head and headed for the door, only to find that Bickslow was already ahead of her and was now holding the door open for her. "Oh, such the gentleman today."

"Aren't I always one?"

They made their way out into the town once again, heading towards the entrance for the trail, which was on the southern side of the town. Lucy looked around at the buildings as they went. The town wasn't like Magnolia. There were no canals to walk along, no streets filled with various shops, and no guild. She wondered what it would be like to live in a town without a guild. Fairy Tail and Magnolia went hand in hand. Without one, the other just didn't seem complete. And even if she hadn't been a member for very long, she still didn't know what she'd do without the guild to constantly have her back.

She sighed quietly to herself and looked up at the man next to her. She noticed that he would occasionally look up towards the sky and from the corner of her eyes she could see the slight frown on his face. Fed up with the silence, she decided to question it.

"You seem tense. What's up?"

Bickslow slowed as he heard her. There weren't exactly many people in the guild that asked him such questions. Sure, they were all one giant family, but there's always going to be separate groups within each family. Laxus and the Raijinshuu were his group, and Team Natsu – hell, the rest of the guild – was hers. Lucy wasn't really one to ask him that kind of question.

"It's fine if you don't want to talk, but if you do, I'm here to listen," she said.

Bickslow looked down at her. He figured he would indulge her with his thoughts. She had asked, after all. "This weather," he said. "It doesn't seem normal."

Lucy looked up. It was the first time she had really noticed it, despite how dark it was making everything with the sun having been swallowed up by the clouds. She figured it was just a typical storm though – she'd seen worse, and really, she was just thankful it wasn't raining yet – so she just ignored it and looked back down to continue watching where she was going. "What do you mean? It seems like a normal storm to me."

"Laxus tends to… attract bad weather, I guess. So I'm used to being caught in storms on jobs occasionally. But this… This just seems weird." He shrugged as he looked forward again. "Maybe you're right, though." Maybe he was just being paranoid.

He seemed to visibly relax as they continued along their way. Lucy would still occasionally sneak a glance, just out of curiosity. She could tell something was still making him slightly uncomfortable, but decided to just leave it alone. She didn't think it was her place to pry.

As they continued walking, the streets eventually turned to worn cobblestone and the buildings became sparser. Before long, they were reaching the edge of town and entering the forest where the trail supposedly began.

"Is that the cabin we were supposed to go to first?" Bickslow asked as he pointed to the small log cabin just behind a few trees.

"I guess so," Lucy said. She peered in through the windows to see if anyone was inside, only to find it dark and empty, then joined Bickslow in front of the map to the side of the building. "There doesn't seem to be anyone here, though, so I guess we'll just keep going."

"So what exactly are we supposed to be making sure isn't on this trail?" Bickslow asked drily, breaking the silence that had been surrounding them the entire way so far. "I mean, so far it just seems like a boring trail. Did I mention that it's boring?"

Lucy rolled her eyes. "The teacher said there's been a history of bandits and smaller vulcans being around here or something."

"Well, I haven't seen any, but with this weather I doubt anything would be stupid enough to stay out in the open anyway. Not even vulcans."

"Probably. But still, it's an easy job, and nothing is going to get destroyed for once…" she mumbled. Surprisingly, Lucy was inwardly thanking Cana for the pairings. The lack of destruction that would come from that job was a very welcome change.

Bickslow had heard about her team going a little insane, and he couldn't help but chuckle. "I heard most of the reward money goes to repairs on your jobs." Glancing down at her, Bickslow quickly continued when he saw the blush on her cheeks. "Don't worry. We do quite a bit of damage too. Laxus just destroyed the mayor's home in Borwatt. Like, completely destroyed. It's just a Fairy Tail thing. We either go all in or not at all." And oddly enough, seeing Lucy smile then had him smiling to himself as they kept walking along the seemingly never ending trail.

For most of the afternoon, having already been on the trail for over two hours, the wind itself had been warm – or at least it hadn't been cold enough for her to call out Horologium to hide inside (plus, she didn't exactly want to give Bickslow a reason to judge her too much). But as they went deeper into the forest and walked further along the trail, it slowly became colder and the chill began to get to Lucy. It wasn't really until she felt the weight of something being draped over her shoulders that she even noticed she'd been getting that cold. She looked to see what it was, only to look up to the Seith mage in surprise when she saw the white fur trim of his cloak on her shoulders.

"You were shivering," he explained before Lucy could question it. He'd noticed it a few moments earlier, and he'd felt bad for her. Her clothes were really not at all appropriate for that weather, but that wasn't exactly her fault.

"O-Oh. Well, thank you, Bickslow," she whispered as she pulled it around her more, enjoying the warmth from it. She felt that the bottom of it was dragging on the ground behind her as she walked, so she made a mental note to get it cleaned before she returned it. Virgo could probably take care of that. It was the least she could do.

It wasn't long before she started to feel tiny drops of water falling onto her face, and soon after it was bucketing down with both of them becoming soaked in a matter of seconds. Lucy instinctively pulled the cloak even tighter just to savour the warmth, and as the fur brushed against her nose and held it close, she realised that it smelled like cinnamon, but sweeter almost, and there was an almost woody scent to it that made her want to wrap herself up in it even more. Even the way it smelled was making it seem warm, even in the middle of a storm.

She had been enjoying the warmth of it in silence as they continued walking. Only occasionally would Bickslow sneak a glance towards Lucy from where he mostly focused on muddy trail beneath them, and he really couldn't help but smile to himself at her completely wrapped up in it. He liked it way more than he should, that was for sure.

Eventually, though, the trail started heading downhill. The heavy rain was turning the path into something that resembled a muddy river scattered with rocks, and it only caused them both to briefly lose their footing more than once. "Careful, Cosplayer," Bickslow warned her as the downward slope became a little steeper. "It's getting slippery. Don't fall on me now."

"I know, I know," Lucy muttered. She didn't need Bickslow reminding her of what she already knew. She was about to open her mouth to tell him just that when her foot slipped on a rock and she lost her footing completely. No words were able to come out of her mouth as she found herself slipping down the trail.

"Lucy!" Bickslow quickly reached out to try and grab hold of her to keep her from falling, but as he leaned forward to get his hand on the only thing within his reach, which ended up being his cloak, his feet were coming out from under him and Bickslow was tumbling down the muddy path after her.

Cries and groans came from the two, mostly resembling 'ow,' 'ouch,' or whatever curses fled Bickslow's mouth, then they both eventually came to a stop when the terrain evened out. Lucy ended up on her back, and somehow, Bickslow had landed sprawled across her. Both were covered in mud, though with the heavy rain that was still coming down on them, it was quickly washing the dirt away from any exposed skin. Lucy was only able to stare up to the still dark storm clouds high above them and let the rain pelt down on her face.

Bickslow was the first to realise their current predicament, and he was quickly pushing himself up and off of the blonde. "Shit, are you okay?" he asked a little breathlessly as he sat down beside her instead.

She nodded as she pushed herself up, only wincing slightly until she was leaning on her elbows. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said. She felt fine, anyway. Nothing was broken, at least, so that was good. She could handle a few cuts and scrapes. But when barely a minute had passed where neither of them had picked themselves up from the ground, and when Lucy again glanced to the Seith mage sitting just in front of her with his back against her, she couldn't help but quietly begin to giggle as she looked up towards the skies again.

Bickslow stared back at her when her giggling seemed to turn into a full blown laughing fit, and he raised an eyebrow behind his visor. "What's so funny?"

"You called me Lucy," she giggled.

Had he? He couldn't remember, but Bickslow couldn't help but smile. "You're mistaken, Cosplayer."

"Yeah, right."

Bickslow rolled his eyes and finally stood, then helped Lucy to her feet. And for a second, Bickslow didn't even seem to register the fact that Lucy had yet to let go of his hand once she was just standing in front of him. He only looked down to her, seeing how the mud from the fall was smeared on her cheeks and her hair was plastered around her face, and Bickslow couldn't help but lift his free hand to tuck a section of her hair back behind her ear.

When she blushed, quickly looking away and stepping back, Bickslow was just as quickly taking his own step away and bringing both of his hands back to his sides. What the hell did I do that for?

"Well, uh…" She cleared her throat as she adjusted the cloak around her shoulders., wrapping it around herself once again. "The path loops around from here, I think, so I guess if we just keep following it we'll end up back in town…"

And soon enough, the two began walking again in silence, albeit they were just a little closer than they had been before.