A/N: 'lil bit of smut in this chapter, too, pretty much in the first half only. I figured I'll just add the notes for when a chapter includes smut, since I know some people aren't comfortable reading it and that's fine.
"Oh, fuck… Lucy…" Bickslow moan as he pulled the blonde down one final time, his head going back before he fell back down to the bed and pulled her down with him before he shuddered slightly, filling her as her core gripped him tightly, pulling every last drop from him.
Lucy rested her head on his shoulder as his hand smoothed down her sides and to her thigh. "That was…" she whispered, breathing heavily still.
"…amazing?" Bickslow murmured. Always amazing.
"Well, I actually didn't have a word for it… But amazing works."
Bickslow chuckled slightly before tilting his head to kiss the top of Lucy's head. "Always amazing with me."
A breathless laugh escaped her throat as she finally rolled off of him and onto her side next to him, pulling the sheet up as she went. "I'll take your word for it." She had take a moment regain her breath, only staring up the ceiling in Bickslow's room.
Bickslow pulled himself free from the way Lucy had tangled herself up with him, something he didn't mind, and sat up from the bed, pulling on a pair of boxers as he stood. "Still before midnight?" he asked over his shoulder.
Lucy rolled on the bed, reaching out for her key pouch on one of the nightstands. Her fingers ghosted over each of them until she touched Horologium's key, a small smile on her face as she rolled back to the way she was. "Five to," she said.
"Good." Bickslow ducked out of the room, walking past the kitchen and over to the living room. "Now… Where did I put it?" he muttered to himself as he walked over to the desk in the corner, lifting up papers and books until he found the grey rectangular box. When he got back, Lucy was just coming out of the bathroom, already with the grey and pink guild shirt on again. Bickslow's hand caught her waist and he wrapped his arm around her, pinning her to him as he lifted the small box from behind his back and handed it to her with a wide grin. "Merry Christmas."
"Huh? What?" Lucy looked down to the box in her hands before looking back up to Bickslow. "What is it?"
"Open it and find out."
So with one final sceptical glance towards Bickslow, she looked back down to the box and lifted the lid up. "Oh, Bicks…" Lucy choked as her breath caught slightly. In the box was a small eight-pointed star pendant inlaid with diamonds on a silver chain. "I-It's beautiful… When did you…"
"I went on a job a few weeks ago when you were out on one. Saw it and couldn't help myself," Bickslow chuckled as he took the box from her hands before lifting up the chain as she turned around. "I was actually going to give it to you when you got back at the start of the month… But , uh… Yeah, stuff happened…" he mumbled, clasping the chain at the back of her neck as she held her hair out of the way.
Lucy turned again, walking over to sit on the edge of the bed as she began to wring her hands together, staring down at them. "I'm sorry for that, I really am…" she whispered. "Every day I just wanted to come and apologise for it, but I was stubborn and I… I just wanted you to say it first." She'd been too scared to say it first, even though every day she'd known that she should have just gotten over her fear and said it before any of it had started.
"It's fine, really," Bickslow said quietly, sitting down on the bed next to her as his arms wrapped around her to pull her close. "And, uh… You said it first anyway…" H
"What?"
"Remember when you were sick and I came over?" When she nodded into his chest, he continued, "Well, when I was sitting on the bed, you whispered 'I love you' when you were half asleep… Or asleep completely. I never actually figured it out."
Lucy groaned into his chest as he chuckled again. "Oh god, that's embarrassing. So basically, my mind and you knew that I loved you before I actually realised it?"
"If it makes you feel any better, everyone knew I was in love with you before I realised it." And they knew about you too, but I won't bring that up.
"We're hopeless."
"Yeah, we are," Bickslow whispered with a small smirk as he leant back on the bed again, propping his head up with his elbow on the mattress as Lucy rolled onto her side. "I do love you, though," he whispered before leaning over to press his lips to hers softly. "I think I was in love with you the entire time."
Lucy gasped quietly before a small smile graced her lips as she propped herself up on her own elbow. "The entire time?"
"The entire time."
It was Lucy's turn to move forward to kiss Bickslow, rolling him onto his back as her hands cupped his face. "I love you, Bicks," she whispered.
"Best. Christmas. Ever." Bickslow said with a wide grin before pulling her back down, his arms lacing around the back of her waist, and his lips found hers yet again.
Bickslow was awoken by something cold pressed against his back, which he realised where Lucy's feet, and instinctively he arched away from it as he grabbed another pillow and put it over his head.
"Come on," Lucy giggled, pressing her feet into his back more. "You promised you'd get up early to come to the guild."
"Promises after two o'clock don't count," he mumbled into one of the pillows.
"Why not?" Lucy asked with a pout as she drew her feet back, resting her head on one of the other pillows.
"Because I'm either drunk, hung-over, or too tired to remember what I agreed to by the morning.
Lucy giggled again as she trailed a finger down the back of Bickslow's neck, making him shiver. "And why is that?" she asked with a mischievous smirk on her lips.
He lifted up the pillow and tossed it to the end of the bed before rolling to his other side, his arm instantly going over the side of Lucy's waist before rolling to lean on top of her slightly. "Hm… What were the words my neighbour used again?" he asked as his lips trailed over her jaw.
"I think it was something along the lines of, 'stop fucking her brains out and go to bed.'"
"So am I drunk, hung-over, or exhausted?" he murmured between each kiss, trailing down her neck and to her shoulder.
"…Exhausted?"
"Correct."
Lucy rolled out from under him with a smirk on her face before padding over to the bathroom door, looking over her shoulder as she sighed quietly. "Well, in that case, maybe you should just stay in bed."
Bickslow fell back to the bed as she closed the door behind herself and he heard his shower start. He stared up at the ceiling for a few minutes as he lay tangled in the sheets, deciding if he was really that exhausted. They'd ended up staying up until just after 2 a.m., only because they'd been making up for lost time - or at least that was how Lucy had put it when she'd climbed on top of him the second and third time. And really, Bickslow was totally fine with that. It had been a little unexpected, but totally fine.
He reached out to pick up the small alarm clock that sat on his nightstand and he all but groaned when he saw that it was only a little past seven. Mornings fucking suck. But… Lucy was in the shower. He'd definitely find energy for that.
Lucy was rinsing out her hair in the hot water when she finally heard the door to the bathroom open, letting some of the steam that had formed out of the room. "And here I was thinking you'd rather go back to sleep."
"Never," Bickslow scoffed, stripping back down and stepping into the shower and under the water as his hands went to her waist, backing her into the tiled wall slowly before claiming her mouth. He let out a moan as her hand wrapped around his cock, stroking up and down slowly. "Oh, Jesus…" he murmured, having no choice but to pull his head back from the kiss.
With another small smirk, Lucy pushed him back into the tiled wall, slowly lowering herself to kneel on the wet floor, feeling the hot water run down her back.
Bickslow could only look down in shock the entire time. He suddenly had a reason to like mornings. When she ran her tongue along the underside of his shaft, from the base to the tip, he couldn't help but throw his head back into the wall, ignoring the pain that followed from doing so.
Slowly, she swirled her tongue around the head as her hand continued working along the length. Up. Down. Up. Over and over, rotating her wrist each time. "Oh, God," Bickslow moaned, desperately searching for something to hold on to until his arm went up, his hand wrapping around the curtain rod. "Fuck me…" he muttered when her mouth finally closed around him. Lucy had only been so bold (by her standards, at least) to do that once, and honestly, Bickslow was having a hard time with believing that even though he'd seen it with his own eyes – both times.
"Later," she mumbled around his tip, the vibrations causing him to moan with a light shudder.
It was taking Bickslow all he had to keep himself standing, but the wall and the curtain rod were doing a great job with helping him do so. He watched as her lips met her hand over and over. When her tongue swirled around the tip again he couldn't help but fist his free hand in her wet hair. Jesus. Fucking. Christ.
Each moan she made would send vibrations right through him, and each time he'd moan her name. Over. And. Over. Lucy suppressed her shivers when the hot water running down her back ran icy cold, instead focusing on that which was in front of her.
"Shit… Please…" Bickslow mumbled, swallowing hard when Lucy once again looked up to meet his gaze with her own lecherous one, never stopping what she was doing. He slowly began to lightly thrust his hips and guide her mouth back onto him. He didn't really know which he was doing more of – he'd stopped thinking by that point. Whether he'd be able to was a different issue. Lucy was giving him head and that's all that mattered, really.
Another moan as her tongue flattened out on the underside, and slowly, she quickened the pace of her hand, closing her eyes when he moaned her name over and over. She loved hearing him like that, almost more than he loved hearing her.
His breathing was shallow and he could feel the curtain rod slowly starting the give the tighter his grip got on it. Her hands, her mouth, her tongue. Bickslow was in absolute heaven, or he thought so, anyway. "Fuck… Lucy," he groaned, reaching the back of her throat before pulling back slightly, and he came, spilling himself down her throat while his hand still fisted her hair.
She jumped slightly when there was a loud clang, only to look up in time to see the curtain rod falling to the ground with the curtain and hand continued stroking the twitching member slowly as her lips stayed around the tip, making sure to swallowing every last drop – something that Bickslow was too shocked to even comment on.
When Bickslow finally let go of her hair, his hand falling limply to his side like the other had done, she stood up slowly, stepping up onto her tip-toes to kiss his lips briefly with a small smirk. As she stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel from the rack, Bickslow slid down the tiled wall to sit in a heap in the corner of the shower. He was too busy watching the blonde walk away and into his bedroom for him to register that the water that was still running was absolutely fucking freezing.
And then he noticed the missing shower curtain before realising that it was now on the floor just by the shower and he couldn't help but chuckle. "Jesus, Cosplayer…" he muttered under his breath before staring up at the shower head, slowly becoming aware of just how cold he was.
"Are you sure we can't just stay in bed the rest of the day?" Bickslow mumbled as they walked up to the guild doors.
"Positive," she said, dragging him by the hand when he stood his ground. "I promise you're not going to die. You'd be dead already if that were the case."
"You're not helping. Erza is fucking terrifying. Do you remember what she did when I kissed you? I still have a goddamn scar from that!" He lifted up his hand to show the faint line across his hand.
"Bickslow, we're doing this together. You're not feeding me to the wolves after last night, you got that?"
The Seith mage could only be glad that he was wearing his visor, because if she'd seen him roll his eyes at that, then he'd be more scared of her than of Erza. So with a final sigh, he finally let the blonde pull him into the guild, only just catching her smug grin as she turned back around.
They'd only taken a single step and crossed through the doors when everything went silent as all eyes went to them. Lucy was sure she heard someone scream from a few streets over it was that quiet. As her eyes slowly went over the guild, she saw Mira, Cana, and Levy share a look before they all shot up from where they stood or sat and rushed over to her.
When Lucy tried to turn and head back out the doors that had only just closed behind them, Bickslow moved to stand behind her, his hands just below her shoulders. "This was your idea, remember?" se said, leaning down to her ear. When the three finally got close enough, he pushed Lucy towards them. He was literally offering his girlfriend to the wolves, and he knew he'd be in trouble later. "Have fun!" he shouted.
"Bickslow, you…" Lucy glared at the grinning Seith mage, her friends pulling her across the guild and no doubt to the baths as more than half of the women in the guild got up and followed them.
It was only then that Bickslow noticed the chilling gazes that more than half of the males that were stuck in the hall were giving him. Turns out, there were just as many male wolves as females in Fairy Tail.
With a gulp, he turned and tried to push the doors open and run away from what he knew was going to happen, only to have that all too familiar pain run through his spine before falling to the ground. "Laxus!" he shouted with his face pressed into the ground. God fucking damn it.
Lucy didn't think she'd ever seen so many people in the baths before. The bath itself was practically overflowing with bodies, and then the surrounding area had just as many. She knew the questions were going to get uncomfortable but she knew there was nothing she could do about it. Her friends would make sure of it.
So slowly, she padded into the bathhouse with her towel wrapped firmly around her, trying to keep it on as long as possible. Cana had other plans though, and as soon as Lucy sat down on the edge where they'd all kept a space for her, the brunette reached up from the bath to pull the towel from the blonde, throwing it towards the other side of the room.
Lucy squealed as she tried to sink down into the water, only to have small hands wrap around each of her arms to keep her out of the water as the room burst into a fit of giggles.
"Holy shit, Lucy!" Cana said, placing her bottle on the edge of the bath as she pointed out every single mark and hickey on the blonde – that she could see, anyway. "Bickslow went to town on you!" And he had, really. Her neck, breasts, abdomen, and even the inside of her thighs. Lucy had hoped that she'd be able to hide most of them for a while, but no, that just didn't work out.
"Guess we know what you did last night," Mira said with a giggle as Lucy finally slid down in the bath, bringing her knees up and folding her arms across her chest under the water, not even trying to hide the fact that her face felt as hot as the water just from her blush.
"So… what's dating Bickslow actually like?" Cana slurred, sidling up to Lucy.
"Yeah!" Lisanna added. "It's gotta be weird, right?"
"Well, I mean… It's kinda great, you know?" Lucy said with her own great big smile. She wouldn't have been able to stop that happening if she tried, because it really was great. And she really had no intentions of lying about how great it was either. "He's really sweet and caring, and he's ridiculous, and honestly, sometimes, he's a bigger idiot than Natsu—"
"Find that hard to believe," someone scoffed, followed by quiet giggles around the room.
"—but he makes me laugh, a lot. And smile. And ridiculously happy, too."
"Aww," the room chorused. Lucy ducked her head, actually trying to hide her blush.
"You're so cute together." Levy finished.
"You've only seen them like once and it was last night!" Cana said.
Lucy shook her head. "Nope. We went on a double date a while back. Levy and Gajeel are like the only two to actually see us together…" She shrugged when everyone stared between the Celestial Spirit mage and Script mage in shock. "Sorry."
"Pfft, whatever," Cana mumbled. Then, turning to the blonde again, she leant in closer. "What about the sex though? That's gotta be great."
"I… That's… It's… Cana!" she spluttered, causing everyone to burst into a fit of giggles again.
"The tongue?" Cana said, waggling her eyebrows.
As everyone stared at her expectantly, Lucy cracked. She'd be lying if she said it didn't feel good to finally talk about her relationship with Bickslow, because honestly, she'd been waiting four months and she'd only really had Levy to talk to about any of it. Sure, Levy already pretty much knew the ins and outs of her sex life, but the guild didn't. And besides, nothing stays a secret in that guild forever.
But, she was dating Bickslow, after all. The guy had a reputation, and honestly, he really did live up to it.
"Oh god, his tongue," Lucy sighed before bursting out into her own uncontrollable giggles with everyone again.
Much like Lucy, Bickslow had been dragged to the baths, and honestly, he was a little uncomfortable with the fact that Erza was in the corner of the bath itself and glaring at him. Hell, uncomfortable would be putting it lightly. Half of the guys in there were just glad they weren't bleeding from their noses. She was still Erza.
He sat on the edge of the bath with the towel wrapped low on his hips and his legs in the water, and honestly, it was starting to burn. Natsu was down one end, trying to raise the temperature as the males around him all had sweat dripping freely from every millimetre of skin, while Gray down the other end was trying to drop it a few degrees as the males down his end were shivering with their teeth chattering as the Ice Make mage and Dragon Slayer were in a constant battle. He'd chosen the wrong side, honestly.
"Holy shit, Lucy! Bickslow went to town on you!" was heard from above and everyone, for the most part, shut the hell up and got ready to listen.
A few hands were offered to Bickslow to high-five, and obviously, he was going to oblige, because really, he did go to town. He hadn't been able to help himself.
Bickslow looked down at the bowl of popcorn that someone had passed him before narrowing his eyes at the bunch. "What the fuck, guys? Really?! Popcorn?"
There were a few shrugs and 'why nots?' before Gajeel yanked the bowl from him with his own shrug and threw a handful into his mouth, sliding down into the bath just next to where Bickslow sat. "Shut up," he muttered around the popcorn.
"Guess we know what you did last night."
A few chuckles went around the room, Bickslow included, though he instantly stopped when he saw Erza narrowing her eyes at him from across the bath. Nope, nope, nope. He cleared his throat as he looked down at his nails, examining his own recently fixed manicure that Lucy had given him hell for before they'd gone to the guild.
"So… what's dating Bickslow actually like?"
"Yeah, it's gotta be weird, right?"
It was only as Lucy's answer travelled through the floor did Erza's glare lessen. Laxus just about choked when she'd called him as idiotic as Natsu, though of course, Natsu wasn't really listening. Either that or he didn't care too much.
"How the fuck did you get Lucy Heartfilia, dude?" someone asked.
With a grin and a shrug, Bickslow leant back on his hands. "I have no idea." And he really did have no idea. It had been an eternal mystery as to how it had happened, but hell, was he glad about it all. Whatever it was he'd done to get her to like him, and even love him, was something that would probably always remain to be a mystery to Bickslow.
"She so tamed you." Wakaba muttered as Macao nodded in agreement.
"What? She did not!" Bickslow snapped, sitting back up as everyone else agreed with their own nods and chuckles. I am not someone who can be tamed.
"She fuckin' tamed you, dude," Gajeel mumbled. "Like she tamed Salamander and the Ice Princess."
"She really did," Gray agreed as he focused on pushing his ice further down the bath, slowly causing more people to huddle over to Natsu's side.
For the most part, Gray's reaction to the entire relationship thing was one that confused Bickslow right to that very moment. He'd expected the guy to flip out like Natsu had done when he'd found out, but from what Bickslow had seen, he just didn't seem to care. Bickslow really didn't know whether or not to be happy or worried about that, because Gray was the only one who hadn't lost his cool – not yet, anyway.
In reality, Gray just didn't care all that much. Natsu and Happy had let a few things slip here and there before muttering and trying to cover it up and it hadn't really taken Gray very long to put two and two together. He'd heard a few rumours here and there about Bickslow possibly seeing someone – a blonde, as it turns out – before they'd been squashed, and he knew that Lucy was seeing someone. Sure, he wasn't exactly the best of friends with the Seith mage, but he could also see that he made Lucy happy, especially after the previous night's events, so he had no reason to freak out like Erza had, and like he probably should have.
He wasn't going to meddle in someone else's life when he really had no place to do so – not unless the guy hurt Lucy, and honestly, Bickslow already had a line of people waiting to hurt him should he ever do so. That, and if he got involved, he'd have a certain blue-haired mage on his back and getting on his nerve, and those days, Gray was trying his best not to give Juvia a reason to do that.
"What about the sex though? That's gotta be great."
They all turned back to Bickslow and his smug tongue-lolling grin as Lucy spluttered. A few more high-fives and as the popcorn bowl got passed around, he could only turn to avoid the look that Erza was giving him. He was pretty sure he could feel her boring holes into the side of his head and scorching his hair in the process.
But when Lucy's voice travelled down to the male bathhouse again, Bickslow couldn't help but choke on his, well… tongue.
"Oh god, his tongue."
Even Gajeel had choked on the popcorn that had made his way back over to him and Laxus could only shake his head as a fair few of the faces in the bath turned as red as Erza's hair.
Bickslow could only grin with the topic of the women's conversation hanging from his mouth as he usually had it. Ah, yes. His tongue – something he was quite proud of, and honestly it had played a small part in choosing the location of his guild mark. Lucy didn't know that detail though since he'd refused to tell her that part, but that didn't matter, obviously.
So when Erza sunk down into the bath up to her ears with her own embarrassment at the conversation choice, Bickslow chuckled as he leant back on his hands again before looking up to the ceiling, ready to continue to listen to what else his girlfriend had to say about that tongue of his.