When Bickslow finally managed to get the move perfectly executed and he was able to actually get all the way down the runway and land on the landing mat like he was supposed to, he couldn't contain his excitement, jumping up and yelling before he fell back onto the softer mat, laughing to himself. After so many hours of running and flipping only to mess it up over and over again, it was a great feeling. Every muscle in his body was hurting and he was exhausted, but he still had to do it one more time to make sure it wasn't a fluke, and when he did it again he felt even better.

So when he made his way into the guild the next day, still aching from nearly a week of having done more exercise that he'd done in six months, he went straight for the table where Laxus was once again sitting with Levy and Gajeel.

A quick glance over his shoulder at where the majority of Team Natsu were seated made him raise an eyebrow as he sat down. "Whats up with them?" he asked, cocking his head to the side to motion to the other table.

Levy looked up from the notes she had been working on, a small mischievous smile on her face as she looked towards the group. Erza's nose was as red as her hair and she looked like she was on the verge of falling asleep while still sitting up. Natsu actually looked like he was asleep, though he was wearing a few extra layers which was an odd sight, and Wendy coughed into her hand as Carla passed her a tissue box. Gray was keeping his distance from the ill-looking group, watching them distastefully from a few tables over where he'd been forced to sit with Juvia.

"They've all come down with the flu, it seems. I guess their bodies didn't cope too well with adjusting to the temperature again from their job," the Script mage said. "Freed ended up putting up runes around their table just so they wouldn't get anyone else sick since they won't go home and rest." Levy sighed.

As Bickslow looked over his shoulder at the group again, he finally realised something was missing. Not so much something, more someone. He scrambled up from the table and made for the door before he backtracked, leaning against the table. "She's at home, right?" he asked quietly. He didn't even have to say her name for them to know who he was talking about since he could really only mean one person anyway. So as Levy nodded, Bickslow made his way for the door once again, not hearing her giggle as he walked away.

"I wonder how he'll feel when he finds out Loke's been keeping her company all morning…"

Lucy pulled the three blankets she had on her bed up to her ears as she brought her knees up to her chest, trying her best to warm herself up since she was still shivering slightly. What I wouldn't give to have Natsu here. Natsu was always good at keeping her warm, but since he was also sick (something that was also rare), he couldn't be.

"Here, Lucy." Loke's voice was gentle as he placed the honey and lemon tea down on her nightstand and he sat down on the edge of the bed to watch his master sit up slowly.

"Thanks, Loke," she whispered, not having the energy to do much else. As she took the first sip of the warm tea, she closed her eyes as she felt the liquid warm up her insides. She hated honey and lemon tea, but when she was sick, she could live off the stuff. It was weird.

As she continued taking small sips at the tea, fighting to keep her eyes open, she looked around at her apartment. She'd only gotten back from Hargeon in the middle of the day, and only twenty-four hours later, the place was already disgusting, and really, that had only been from that morning alone, since when she went to bed the night before she was only feeling a little bit under the weather.

She cringed when she saw just how many tissues and empty tissue boxes were scattered around the floor of her bed. Her head hurt too much and she couldn't even begin to count them so she just closed her eyes again and focused on the tea, because if she focused on just how many germs were floating around her usually tidy apartment, she was going to start feeling nauseous again.

Once she'd placed the cup back down on top of her nightstand delicately, sliding back under her blankets to get warm once again, she felt like she could be asleep in under a minute with how exhausted she was.

"Loke," she mumbled into the pillow, "I think I'mma get some rest now." She didn't want to tell Loke to get the hell out his apartment, at least not with those exact words, but she really just wanted to sleep. There was no way she'd be able to force his gate closed if she'd tried so she just had to hope he'd go back on his own. It wasn't like she was complaining about him being there either, because she was incredibly grateful he was since he was really the only one who could open his gate with his own magic for long enough to actually look after her, and she had kind of liked being looked after for a moment.

With a sigh, Loke stood up and picked the empty cup again. "Of course, Lucy," he whispered with a smile before walking through to her small kitchen, washing up the cup and placing it in the dish rack. With a final glance over at the form curled up under the blankets, Loke finally returned to the spirit world.

Lucy smiled softly into her pillow as she closed her eyes again, already feeling herself drift off into sleep.

A knock on the door woke the blonde from what felt only like a minute of peaceful sleep when it had actually been three-quarters of an hour. She didn't have the energy to get out of bed to answer it and she was finally warm so there was no way she was leaving her blankets. "It's open," she shouted as loud as she could.

Bickslow pushed the door open when he heard what sounded like permission to go inside. He really wasn't sure. When he pushed the door closed behind him, a wide grin spread across his face as his tongue hung from his mouth. He honestly felt terrible for doing so, but the way Lucy was curled up under what looked like a mountain of blankets was a little entertaining.

"Hey," Lucy whispered with a small smile as she pushed her hair behind her ear.

"Jeez, you look terrible," Bickslow mumbled as he navigated the minefield of wadded up tissues and crumpled boxes towards the bed, lifting up his visor in the process.

"Gee, thanks," she replied with as much sarcasm as she could muster, crinkling up her nose when Bickslow's path changed course and he disappeared into her bathroom before coming back out with her small wastebasket and going around her room to clean up all of the mess she'd made with the tissues. "Ew, don't do that. That's disgusting."

He chuckled as he went back to the bathroom to wash his hands. After drying his hands, he walked back into the main room and over to the bed, climbing over the now almost overflowing wastebasket to sit on the bed. "Yeah, but I don't care," he said quietly before leaning down, going to kiss her just to prove his point, but only to end up kissing her cheek as she turned her head at the last second and let out a slight giggle.

"Stop it," Lucy giggled as Bickslow held her face, peppering kiss after kiss to her cheek as she tried to get away. "You're gonna get sick."

"No I'm not."

"Yes you will!"

"No, I really won't. I never get sick," Bickslow said, sitting up again. "Now move over."

Lucy rolled her eyes as best she could as she moved over slightly, pulling the blankets back up to her ears and curling up under them. "Never?" she mumbled into the pillow when she got comfortable again, already feeling her lids get heavy again.

"Never," Bickslow replied with a grin as he moved up the bed, leaning against the headboard.

She closed her eyes just because it was getting too hard to keep them open, then, after a moment of silence, she mumbled into the pillow again, "Did you get the flip thingy yesterday?"

A short laugh from Bickslow as he looked down at the blonde. "Yeah, eventually."

"Is it cool?"

"Very."

She hummed in response as she buried her face in the pillow even more, once again already feeling herself drift off.

Bickslow didn't mind the silence that followed, because he'd expected it before he got there. He didn't care that she was already half asleep (if not completely asleep), because he'd just wanted to be there with her. The fact she was sick was fine, because he really didn't get sick. Ever. Bickslow couldn't even remember the last time he'd had just a cold, it had been so long ago. He'd hung around Evergreen and Freed when they'd been sick and he'd always been fine. A few hours with Lucy was going to be fine, he assured himself.

When he slid down the bed a tiny bit to make himself more comfortable, careful not to disturb Lucy, he looked towards the nightstand, picking up the Seith magic book he'd given her. As he brought his knees up slowly, he rested the large book on top of them, flicking open to where a small piece of paper was tucked between the pages, marking her spot. Ah, the basics of souls, Bickslow thought as he skimmed over the paragraphs.

Then, after a few minutes of the only sounds in the room being the pages being turned and her steady breathing, he froze. Everything froze. Time completely stopped for a moment. It came out as a barely audible whisper and Bickslow could only wonder if he'd even heard it at all and it wasn't his imagination playing tricks on him.

"Mm, I love you."

When he was finally able to move to look down at the blonde incredulously, his brow furrowed in confusion when she still looked like she'd been asleep the entire time.

What the hell just happened?!

It didn't make sense to Bicksow. Barely a month ago, she'd been apparently falling in love with him and then he'd gone and done something stupid, and somehow, they'd gotten back to a point where they were fine and everything was okay. Everything was more than okay as far as Bickslow was concerned. But in that last month, she'd been gone for three of those weeks and they'd barely spent a week together out of that entire month. There was no way she could have fallen in love with him in that amount of time. Right?

Fuck, could she?

Bickslow could feel his heart hammering away in his chest as he stared back down at the book, not being able to focus on the words on the page anymore. He didn't understand any of it, because after all, there was the issue of whether she'd said it at all and it really wasn't his imagination.

Bickslow had stayed until it was dark. Lucy had barely moved in the several hours he'd been there, only rolling over once and then she'd stayed like that. When he'd finally got up from the bed, he'd instantly gone over to her desk to write out a small note for her when she eventually woke up, saying he'd be back at some point tomorrow.

He'd been in a complete daze since she had maybe or maybe not mumbled those three little worlds. The game changing words. He wasn't even capable of thinking about it anymore. There was nothing in his head apart from those three words.

When he got back to the guild, he spied Evergreen at the bar and instantly went over there, his hand wrapping around her elbow as he tried to drag her away from Elfman. "Ever, I need your help." Because maybe, just maybe, talking about what the fuck had just happened with someone of the same gender might actually help.

"Oi! What do you—" The self-proclaimed Fairy Queen stopped when she saw the dazed expression on Bickslow's face as he pulled her through the guild. "Woah, what happened?" she asked.

"In a minute," Bickslow mumbled, running a hand through his hair. Oh fuck. I left my visor there. He slumped down on the bench next to Levy when he got to their table, not really noticing that he basically sat down on top of the small woman.

Freed gave him a concerning look from across the table. "What appears to be the matter Bickslow?"

"Uh… well…" He didn't know if he should even be talking about it at all, but he felt like he really needed to. After all, they'd probably tell him if he was insane or not. Maybe. "She might have just said she loves me… Maybe," he mumbled as he stared, not really looking at anyone or anything in particularly.

Evergreen shrieked, Levy squealed, Freed gasped, Gajeel dropped the mug he was drinking from and spilled it all over himself, and Laxus just looked like he hadn't heard it at all.

"Did you say it back?" Levy asked, her book long forgotten.

Bickslow shook his head as he folded his arms before lifting a hand up to bite on his nail, for once not caring about the polish he was chipping.

"How could you not say it back?" Evergreen shrieked, leaning over the table to swat him with her fan.

"I… I can't… I don't think… I don't know." Bickslow shook his head. "I don't even know if she actually said it and it wasn't just my imagination or something."

"Eh?"

"Well, she was half asleep, so really, she probably could have been talking about the pillow and not me, if she even said it at all."

"Probably the pillow," Gajeel scoffed, the smirk on his face instantly falling when Levy elbowed him in the side.

"So… Does that mean you don't love her?" Levy asked quietly as they all stared at Bickslow intently.

"I… don't know." And that was the problem, because he really didn't know if he did or not. The entire dating thing he could figure out, but love was something else entirely and it honestly terrified him.

Bickslow didn't get much sleep when he eventually left the guild for the night. In fact, he didn't think he got any sleep. Instead, he was staring up at the ceiling the entire time without a single thought in his head. Just… nothing.

But when the morning sun started streaming in through his window like it always did, he pulled himself out of bed slowly. Laxus had found a job in Clover that would get them all out for a couple of days, and honestly, Bickslow needed that. If anything, his team (plus Levy and Gajeel) had just made him feel worse for not knowing if he did love her or not.

And it was kind of funny, because if anything, those were the three words he'd wanted her to say the most, yet when she did, he couldn't do anything. He wasn't happy, either. He was just terrified.

When he reached her apartment a little while later, he stared at the door for around a minute. He didn't know whether it was worth getting his visor back or not.

No, I need it for jobs, I know that.

He knocked on the door lightly, and when he heard Lucy mumble something from inside her apartment, he pushed the door open slowly.

"It's not even seven o'clock, what are you doing here?" Lucy asked with a small smile as she rubbed her eyes.

"Going on a job for a day or so and I needed my visor," he said, walking over to the coffee table where his visor was still sitting, picking it up and twisting it in his hands before moving to sit on the edge of the bed as Lucy slowly sat up, adjusting the pillows accordingly. "Wait, I didn't wake you, did I?"

"I've been awake for a while," she whispered with another small smile, trying to ignore the wave of nausea that washed over her as she sat up.

"You feeling any better?"

"Eh, I'm better than—" Lucy stopped mid-sentence as her hand flew to her mouth, and she scrambled from under the mountain of blankets and towards the bathroom.

Bickslow winced when the sound of her retching could be heard through the curtain separating the rooms. He got up from the bed and walked towards the bathroom, dropping his visor back on the coffee table on the way.

"Jeez…" Bickslow knelt down next to her, gathering up her hair behind her and keeping it out of the way. Then, when she rested her head on her arm, breathing heavily, he pushed the lever on the back of the toilet. "Do you want me to stay?" he asked quietly. Because even if he didn't know if he was in love with her or not, he still cared about her a lot and when the people you care about are sick, you look after them. He'd choose Lucy over a job if she wanted him to stay. Any day.

"No… I'll be fine." Lucy pushed herself up on shaky legs, walking around him to get to the sink. "Loke will probably—"

"My apologies, Princess."

Bickslow rolled his eyes at the impeccably timed entrance of the lion spirit, with Loke pushing the curtains apart and walking into the bathroom. He stood up slowly, folding his arms as Loke pushed past Bickslow to scoop the blonde up in his arms before carrying her back out into her living area.

"Is there anything you need?" Loke asked tenderly as he took a seat on the edge of the bed where Lucy was curled up again.

"I'm okay," Lucy whispered, patting the pillow as she got comfortable.

Bickslow glowered from across the room as he picked up his visor again. He could feel the jealously bubble up inside of him, just because he thought he should be the one sitting there and looking after her, not Loke. Then again, anyone would be better than the stupid spirit that's been in love with her since Lucy had even joined the guild.

"Bicks?"

His glare dissipated as the quiet voice brought him back from his thoughts of what he'd do to the pesky lion if he took advantage of her. He moved to kneel down in front of her with a weak smile. "Yeah?"

"I'm fine, really," she whispered. She knew Bickslow didn't like Loke being there, and as much as she hated the fact the guy had just seen her puke the entire contents of her stomach up, she still knew he was worried. "Go catch a train."

A quiet sigh escaped his lips as he stood up slowly. "Fine," he mumbled before leaning back down to press a kiss to her cheek. "Hey, that reminds me. Freed had a somewhat brilliant and stupid idea. Come to Hargeon on Saturday. With your team."

"Hargeon?"

"Yeah, the gym." He grinned, because really, apart from being a stupid idea, it was absolutely brilliant. Gotta hand it to Freed. "If you're better, I mean," he added.

She narrowed her eyes at the Seith mage from where she lay curled up under the blankets. "What are you planning?" she asked.

Bickslow shook his head. "You won't know unless you come." He glanced towards the clock as he straightened up. "Shit, I've gotta go before I get electrocuted. Get some rest, okay?"

She nodded into the pillow as Bickslow walked backwards away from the bed. "Have fun," she mumbled.

As Bickslow clipped his visor back in place and continued heading towards the door, he turned over his shoulder to glare at Loke. Seeing the smug grin on his face just made Bickslow want to go back and punch him in the face. "You better fucking look after her, Loke."