Lucy rubbed at her eyes with one hand as she awoke the next morning before tucking the hair that had fallen across her face behind her ear. A stretch behind her to paw at her keys on the nightstand allowed her to brush over Horologium's key and a lazy smile crossed her face to know it was only a little past nine o'clock. She was usually in the guild by that time, but she didn't care she'd slept late that morning. After all, she'd read for most of the night.

She shifted in the bed slightly, only to have Bickslow subconsciously pull her closer to his side. It was then that Lucy realised the shirt that was really more like a dress had ridden up in her sleep, leaving Bickslow's arm draped across the small of her back. But she didn't mind. As long as his hand didn't roam any higher or lower (definitely not lower), she was fine with it.

But Bickslow was still asleep anyway, still unaware that he'd moved in his sleep just to be closer to her.

Lucy looked at the peaceful form beside her. There was something about seeing people asleep that warmed her heart. When people were asleep, they were exposed, and even the strongest of her friends all looked peaceful when they were completely asleep. Lucy had always thought that even if you'd had the worst of the days, there was always something to look forward to. That was sleep. It was the one time she could just forget about everything that had happened, and be truly at peace, even without realising it. And Bickslow really did look like he was peace.

A small smile crept across her face as her eyes roamed up to his hair – strands of blue at all odd angles, some even covering a part of his forehead. And then she focused on the mark that covered a fair share of his upper face. Curiosity got the better of her as she slowly raised a hand from where it had been resting on her pillow and she ran a finger lightly down the mark, from where it began at the top of his forehead and down to where it ran onto his nose. She didn't know what to expect, texture wise, anyway. It wasn't rough, nor did it feel any different to that that was unmarked and she was pleasantly surprised.

Bickslow shifted slightly at the strange tickling sensation running down the bridge of his nose. His nose crinkled up at it, only to be followed by a giggle from a blonde that was apparently still next to him. He opened one eye slowly and it was at that moment, he knew the days that he could wake up next to Lucy were going to be good days; the days where the first thing he would see in the morning would be her smile.

"What are you doing?" he asked quietly, still laden with sleep.

"Nothing," she replied, her smile faltering as she remembered the previous night's awkwardness. She'd decided she'd leave it then, but that was only because she was tired. Now, she wasn't, and since she'd remembered it, Lucy knew she'd have no way of getting it out of her head until she talked about it. She just didn't know how painful that conversation was going to be. "Look, um… About last night…" she mumbled.

Fuck. I was hoping she'd leave that. Bickslow finally took note of where his arm was as he stifled at groan. He'd wanted to leave his arm there, draped over her so he could feel the warmth coming from her skin, but he knew he couldn't. Not when there was the issue of whether or not she still trusted him. He moved his arm to join his other one under his pillow, folding them over each other as he shifted to get comfortable again, waiting for Lucy to finish her sentence.

"I… I'm glad that you answered every single one of my questions, I really am, because I know I asked you some that you didn't really want to answer… But… I just…"

I just don't think I can trust you? Is that what she's going to say?

Bickslow rolled over to the edge of the bed, placing his feet on the black rug below the bed before he stood up to make his way over to the drawers by the end. If Lucy was going to say what he thought she was, then he didn't want to be only a few inches away from her, just because he wouldn't want her to see that it would hurt him. The guy who always laughed everything off, never caring enough to get hurt by anything, would get hurt by her losing trust in him over something he couldn't control. And he laughed, internally, because that was the problem. It would be over control, control that could be lost at any time, should he lose focus or have something thrown at him complete unexpectedly, and he hated that.

He shrugged a shirt over his head as he stood with his back to the bed, still waiting for her to finish as he mentally braced himself for the words he didn't want to hear.

A quiet sigh escaped her lips as Lucy sat up, folding her legs under her as the duvet pooled around her hips. "I just… I feel like you didn't want me to know about your magic too much, not your eyes, anyway."

…Huh? Bickslow turned his head to see the bed from the corner of his vision. Where is she going with this?

"But… I just want you to know that I don't really care, and if you don't want me to learn more about Seith magic, then I won't."

She… doesn't care? What?

Lucy watched and waited for Bickslow to do anything or make a single sound. She was starting to get worried and she didn't like that. What if I said the wrong thing? What if I made things worse? What have I did?

Bickslow stayed motionless for what felt like hours when in reality it was only a few minutes. His head was working overtime with trying to understand what Lucy had said. He was still trying to figure out what it was she didn't care about – was it him, or was it the fact that there was a possibility he could lose control of his magic? Only one of them was good, and he would be lying if he said he wasn't curious as to which it was.

"What…? I don't…" he murmured, still not looking at her.

Lucy sighed quietly. It was hard to talk about something when you were really only going on what you thought someone felt like and thought about something. The problem was that it wasn't the kind of situation where the two could sit down and talk about it openly and Lucy knew that. She knew there was a serious reason as to why Bickslow was acting the way he was and she wanted to help him. She wanted to be able to sit down and talk about it openly, but she didn't know if Bickslow would go for it.

"Bickslow, sit, please," She said quietly, because she wasn't going to try and talk to the guy if his back was facing her. Not a chance. So when he remained standing, still not having moved a muscle, Lucy narrowed her eyes as she pointed to the vacant spot on the bed beside her. "Sit," she said firmly.

And boy, did Bickslow sit, although still with his back to her which was something that Lucy still didn't like, so she moved to kneel on the bed, letting the blanket fall down more and expose the tops of her thighs, and she placed her hands over Bickslow's shoulders and pulled him down to lay on his back. Bickslow hadn't been expecting her to do that in the slightest, but if he had, he definitely would not be on his back and staring up at Lucy who hovered over him, her hair falling down and into his face. He just… didn't know what to do, or say. He had nothing at that moment, and that was rare. His mind was just blank.

"Now, Bicks," she began as she tucked her hair behind her ears and she leant back slightly, leaving her hands by his head. "We're going to talk about this, and by that I mean you're going to talk, because I was trying my best last night to avoid offending you in any way, but that seemed to have failed. I tried to explain that I don't care, but do you know how hard it is to try and understand something when someone won't talk about it? It's really fucking hard, okay." She took a deep breath to calm herself down. "I just want you to talk about whatever it is that's worrying you, but… If you really can't, then tell me so I can leave."

"So much for wanting me to talk…" he mumbled, only warranting a small smile from the blonde above him. He took a few moments to think about it, even though he already knew he'd have no choice but to talk about it. Bickslow didn't want her to leave – in whatever way she meant by that. That was one of the last things he wanted. So that left him with talking.

There was really only one thing that was bothering him, and that was whether or not she still trusted him – enough to be around him, anyway. There was a very big part of him that still didn't want to know the answer, but again, he needed to know.

So when he was certain Lucy was going to get fed up of the silence and walk out anyway, he finally tilted his head back into the mattress just enough to look her directly in the eyes, only to be surprised when she didn't look away.

"Do you trust me?" he asked quietly.

"Yes," Lucy replied without a flicker of doubt.

"Why?"

"Because I have no reason not to trust you."

"Yes you do," Bickslow said.

"No, I don't. You're still missing the point, Bickslow." She sat back and folded her arms.

But Bickslow, in the somewhat stressed state he was in, had completely forgotten about the point. He didn't know what the point was, and didn't even have a tiny idea of what it was. "You shouldn't trust me," he insisted. "Seith magic is unsta—"

"Bickslow," she said quickly. "I don't care. That's the point." And Lucy really didn't think she'd have to basically lay it all out for him. She knew he was smart – smarter than he let on because there was no way in hell that Laxus would socialise (or whatever it was that Laxus did, aside from electrocuting his team when they pissed him off) with imbeciles or idiots. It was probably why he hated Natsu so much.

And Bickslow was slowly beginning to understand what she'd meant. Sure, he still didn't get it completely, but he was getting there and he wasn't as worried about the possibility of Lucy deciding that they should stop doing whatever it was they were doing.

After a moment's pause, Lucy continued, "I don't know everything about your magic yet, but I want to. That includes your Figure Eyes. And do you want to know why?"

"Not really…" he mumbled, a little afraid of what the reason was.

"Because it's a part of you." Her hands came to rest on the mattress on either side of his head again as her hair came loose from where it was tucked behind her ears. "I don't care that there's a chance you can lose that control you have over it. I don't care what the likelihood of that happening is, and I don't care that you think I shouldn't trust you, because I do. I trust you because you know more about it. It's your magic and you know exactly what your limits are when it comes to it." Lucy tucked her hair behind her ears once again with a quiet sigh.

The plan had been to make Bickslow talk, but there she was, rambling on about it and barely letting the man get a word in (not that he really had anything to say and Lucy knew that deep down). But regardless, she felt like she was getting somewhere, finally. It hadn't even been a month and they'd already crossed over to the 'we're gonna sit down and have a mature conversation about this when it's really just you being a complete idiot' part. It wasn't necessarily bad; it was just… new. New could be good.

"The point I tried to make is that whether or not you want my trust, you have it, and I know I've said it about a million times already, but I really don't care, and I really hope you understand that now," Lucy said quietly.

Bickslow honestly felt like a complete idiot. Lucy had been right – he did know what his limits were, and that included knowing exactly what it would take for him to ever lose control over that aspect of his magic. Bickslow realised he'd made it seem like the chance of ever losing that control was something that was incredibly likely, when in reality, it was rare. That was the problem with that chapter in the book – it failed to list the common reasons for Seith mages to ever lose control, along with forgetting to mention that it was a brief occurrence. Not only that, but never once had that book said anything about Seith mages who had established control ever losing that ability to control their Figure Eyes. Bickslow was one of those who'd learnt how to control it, and that meant the chances of him ever losing that control were incredibly slim.

More than anything, he hated himself in that moment. But self-hatred aside, he was happy. He was happy because Lucy had taken one of the many cons of his magic in stride and she just didn't care. She trusted him, and that was what he'd wanted.

He ran his hands down his face as he groaned into them, before he spread his fingers over his eyes and looked up at the blonde who was still hovering above him. "I feel like an even bigger idiot than I usually am right now," he mumbled when he dropped his hands from his face.

"That's because you are," Lucy said with a quiet giggle before she lowered her head as her hands went to either side of his face and with her blonde hair cascading around his head, she kissed him softly. "Do you get it now?"

"Yeah," Bickslow said quietly as he tilted his head back more. "But you know what the worst part is?"

"What?"

"The likelihood of me not being able to control it is incredibly low, so I was really just worried over nothing and making a big deal for no reason." And it was the first time Bickslow had ever said it out loud, and that was because he trusted Lucy. He was comfortable enough now to be able to talk about it.

Lucy smiled as she pushed herself up from her knees to move to the edge of the bed. "I figured, otherwise you'd constantly be wearing your visor." Bickslow was a little shocked, and there were two reasons for that. The first reason was that he'd sat just in time to see the shirt that had apparently ridden up fall down to cover the dark purple lace panties she'd been wearing - something Bickslow found he really liked. And the second was, once again, Lucy had somehow known more than she'd let on and purposely waited until the perfect time to let whatever it was she had been holding on to be known. Bickslow realised that she'd just been waiting for him to say it himself, and in a way, he was a little grateful. "Also, I'm using your shower."

Lucy sank down into the warm water of the female bath at the guild. Levy and Gajeel had decided to return to the guild after almost a week, and before the poor girl could even take a seat at a table, Mira and Cana had decided to drag her to the baths. It didn't take very long for everyone else to get the message and soon they all ran off to join Levy, Mira, and Cana in the baths. What could Lucy say? She just really wanted to hear about Levy's week with Gajeel, much like everyone else.

Unfortunately, they had still yet to realise that anyone who was using the male bath on the floor below could hear anything that was going on.

"So, now that our little Levy has stepped up her game and got a man, what about our other favourite virgin?" Cana said mischievously as she turned to the blonde beside her.

Lucy blushed furiously as she tried to form her words, only to fail dismally. "I… I…" she managed to squeak out before sliding down to dip her head below the water, just wanting to hide for a few seconds. She could hear the giggles from the women around her in the bath from below the water. As she broke the surface of the water and made herself comfortable again, bringing her knees up, she pushed her hair back and out of her face, ready to deny any questions about whether or not she was seeing anyone.

"Holy shit, is that a hickey?!" Cana shouted as she sidled up to the blonde, grabbing her hair and pushing it back out of the way to examine the mark on the blonde's neck.

Lucy squealed as she tried her best to tilt her head to be able to see whatever it was that was on her mark, only to realise she wouldn't be seeing it unless she had a mirror. A hickey?! When the hell did he do that?! "What?! No!" she shrieked as she swatted Cana's hands away, covering the side of her neck with a hand. Damn it, no wonder he said to wear my hair down!

"I bet it's from Natsu," Mira giggled as she stepped down into the bath.

Lisanna turned to her sister with an equally as mischievous smirk. "Or Gray."

"Love Rival?!" Juvia said almost mournfully just from the thought of her beloved touching another woman.

Lucy was slowly sinking down into the water the longer it went on. She couldn't tell if her face was so hot because of the steam from the water or the fact that she was most likely blushing profusely. There was no way she'd be able to deny the fact she was seeing someone, and there was no way she'd tell any of them who it was actually from. Not any time soon, anyway.

"So? Who did it?" Cana asked as she took a drink from the tankard that was sitting just to the edge of the bath.

Lucy only shook her head as she stood up and stepped out of the bath, picking up her towel as she wrapped it around herself and made her way over to the changing rooms. She could hear the sounds of everyone else getting out of the bath to follow her, having decided that they really wanted to know about the blonde's love life. Levy was old news.

"Are they in the guild?" Erza asked, though everyone knew it wasn't just because she was curious. It was because the scarlet-haired mage was most likely going to run a through sword through them.

But Lucy was just going to remain silent. She wasn't going to flat out say no to anything, nor was she going to confirm anything. She would say nothing at all, because she knew that if she did say something, there was the chance she'd let something slip and that was what the group was hoping for.

Bickslow was leaning against the bar with Laxus by the time they all came downstairs, Lucy being surrounded by the group of women who were giggling and whispering to each other. Laxus turned his head to glare at the group as they came closer to the bar, listening intently to the questions coming from all of them. "This will be interesting…" e muttered before taking a drink.

Bickslow could only raise an eyebrow, wondering what his friend could possibly mean, but he watched as they all took a seat at the bar or stood around it, Cana taking the seat next to him with the blonde next to her. It was then that he finally understood what Laxus had meant.

"Come on, just tell us already!" Cana whined as she rested her head in her palm.

"We all know it's Natsu, there's no point of hiding it," Mira said as she moved to stand behind the bar, lining up the dirty glasses and picking up a rag from behind her.

"I still think it could be Gra—"

"No!" Juvia interrupted the youngest Strauss, still not entirely willing to think about that possibility.

And Lucy could only sigh as she rest her head in her hands. "I never said they were in the guild," she finally said quietly, breaking her oath of silence. There was no way she was going to let two of her best friends get brought into the mess she had unintentionally created (well, it was really Bickslow's fault, she decided).

"But you never denied it," Levy said.

Bickslow sat there amused the entire time. It was only when they had started listing off the names of all of the guys in the guild that could be potential secret boyfriends did he lose his smirk. But then he remembered he'd never be on that list anyway, so he could go back to listening to Lucy get hounded with questions and find it just a little entertaining.

"Seriously, it has to be Natsu," Mira stated again.

Lucy shook her head. "No." She wasn't going to remain silent anymore, but she wasn't going to give anything away. No, she'd go along with the little game they had decided to make out of it. "And it's not Gray, either." She said as she looked towards Juvia and then Lisanna, one of them smiling while the other had a face masked with confusion.

"What about… Laxus?" Cana said with a devilish smirk as she turned in her chair in time to see Laxus choke as he took a sip.

"Fuck off," he mumbled.

"Oh! Maybe Freed?" Levy mused as everyone at the bar turned to the small woman. There was a moment of silence before they all burst out into laughter, Laxus included. "Yeah, maybe you're right…" she finished with her own giggle. Although Lucy was just a little confused for a moment, because she wasn't sure there was anything wrong with Freed.

And it went on for a while. Lucy was running out of ways to say no and she was getting a little irritated by how persistent they were. As the list went on, Bickslow found himself tuning out as he wondered just why he wasn't even considered. He knew he wasn't going to be, but he kind of wanted to know why. What was it about him that made it so?

"Aren't you forgetting someone?" Evergreen muttered from where she stood next to Lisanna and Elfman (who at some point had decided to join in on the conversation, though he wasn't too happy about being put on Lucy's list). They all turned to the only female of the Raijinshuu. Lucy wondered just what she was doing, and so did Laxus. Bickslow, on the other hand, had stopped paying attention completely and had no idea what was going on. "Maybe it's Bickslow?" she finished with her own brand of mischief.

Suddenly, Erza's favourite short-sword had appeared in her hand and Laxus had to elbow the Seith mage in the side to get his attention.

"Hey! What was that for!" he hissed at the blond who tipped his head towards the group of women who were eyeing him curiously (though Evergreen was smirking so he instantly knew that whatever was going on, the self-proclaimed Fairy Queen had something to do with it). "What?"

And then they all looked between themselves as they leant in over the bar. "I mean, he did kiss her the other week…" Mira said thoughtfully.

"Yeah, but it was a dare or something," Lisanna chimed in.

"You're forgetting something important here," Cana said as she shifted in her seat. "There is no way that Lucy would ever date Bickslow, and let's not forget that Bickslow doesn't date."

Bickslow shrugged. "She has a point."

"See?" Cana gestured to the grinning Seith mage beside her. "It's not him."

"He only said you had a point, not that you were right," Evergreen said from the other end of the bar, warranting a glare from the Seith mage and she knew it.

"It's the same thing," Bickslow said. "Trust me, if I ever started dating someone, you'd know about it."

And when they were all certain that Lucy's secret boyfriend wasn't the Seith mage, they all frowned slightly. Between them, they'd gone through almost every male in the guild (including some of the ones that weren't even available) and they'd still come up with nothing. Lucy hadn't had a chance to get a word in once Evergreen had involved Bickslow, but she hadn't had to. They'd shut it down themselves.

So with a small smile she shrugged and rested her head in her palm. "I never said he was in the guild."