"I still can't believe you didn't actually tell them it was me who was coming with you," Lucy muttered under her breath as she walked up the steps to Sara's quaint little home in the quieter streets of Crocus.
"Oh, come on. If I'd told them that we were back together in a letter, it would ruin the fun," Bickslow insisted. "Trust me, when they see you, they will freak out."
She frowned, and as she stopped before the wooden door, she realised she was nervous. Why? She had no idea, because she'd met Bickslow's sisters before, and she thought they'd gotten along great considering she'd been the ex-girlfriend of their long lost brother at the time. She didn't have a reason to be nervous. Bickslow seemed to think they'd love her if they didn't already, and he'd told her numerous times on their way over to Sara's house that she had nothing to worry about.
But she was worrying. Because she was meeting her boyfriend's – err… Fiancé's – family. Including their kids and their husbands (if they were there, anyway). She was meeting all that was left of Bickslow's family, and it was the same family that she was marrying into in just under a year. Looking back up to him with his stupidly contagious grin, she quietly asked, "Good freak out, or bad?"
"Definitely good."
When Bickslow raised his hand to knock on the wooden door, Lucy couldn't help but step back to be behind Bickslow, and she didn't even let go of his hand when she did, so she only pulled his arm behind his back to hug it tightly to her chest and peek around him. He was large enough to hide behind, and that's what she wanted to do right then. She was too nervous, damn it! Meeting her future sisters-in-law for the second time was more nerve-wracking than it should be, especially when they didn't know she'd be there at all.
He only shook his head at the cowering blonde with a quick glance over his shoulder, and then looked back to the door before him as it was pulled open with a wide grin and his tongue hanging like it usually did. "Evil Two," Bickslow greeted the youngest of the twins (by all of four minutes), Sara.
"Bicks!" Sara's face lit up as she saw her brother standing outside her door. She'd been so excited ever since she'd received the letter from him saying he'd come up to visit that weekend, and ever since she'd told her twin boys that they'd be getting to meet their uncle, she hadn't been able to control them. She couldn't as it was, because her four year olds were absolutely full of energy – and on more than one occasion, Sara had told her husband that her sons were very much like how Bickslow had been when he'd been that age. She was just too excited to see her baby brother (and the fact he was seven years younger than he should be only made him that much more of a baby to her and Saskia), but she wasn't exactly going to leave him standing on her doorstep, was she? Stepping back and pulling the door open, she quickly beckoned him in towards the hall and quickly said, "Come in, come in! Sas had to go down to the store quickly to take care of something but she should be here soon."
"Oh, sweet." He took just one step forward before he stopped, and a slow grin spread on his face as he turned to look over his shoulder and to Lucy who was still cowering behind him. "Now, am I going to have to carry you in or are you going to be fine as long as you're holding my hand?" She glared up at him before taking the smallest step she possibly could to the side, still not letting go of his hand, and still hiding behind his back. Only turning back to his sister, Bickslow shrugged and explained, "Sorry. Fiancée is being a little shy for some reason."
"Fi-Fiancee?" Sara spluttered, staring wide-eyed at Bickslow. He didn't mention anything about a damn fiancée in his letters! "I… I thought you weren't even seeing anyone! And… And what about Lucy?" She'd been sure Bickslow still had at least some feelings for the blonde, since the last time they'd met, he hadn't even been able to say Lucy's name. Considering that had really only been two months earlier, Sara had no idea how he could have been able to move on and get engaged so quickly.
Glancing back over his shoulder to where he could feel Lucy pulling on the sleeve of his shirt with her hands tightening around his forearm, he wasn't surprised to see the dusting of crimson on her cheeks. "Come on, Cosplayer. You can't hide behind me forever," he chuckled.
Damn it. Lucy knew he was right, and she knew that she was really just making a fool of herself by hiding behind him. But she just couldn't stop being nervous! She'd never thought she'd get the chance to meet his family, and that was a pretty big thing to her, even if Bickslow had been her first boyfriend anyway. Lucy just wanted to be accepted by his family, because they would be her family too along with Bickslow.
She still knew she was being stupid though. Bickslow's sisters liked her. She'd met them, Saskia's daughter apparently idolised her, and both Sara and Saskia had agreed that catching up again was a good idea (and Lucy had found the letter they'd sent them just after the games had ended, and it only made her feel guilty). She had nothing to worry about whatsoever, because she had already been welcomed into that family with open arms.
She was just being a wuss for no reason, and she was truly making a fool of herself. Nodding, Lucy stepped away from the safety that hiding behind Bickslow's back apparently offered, and she peeked around him again before stepping up beside him with his hand still clutched in hers. "So uh… Hi."
"Oh my goodness, you…" Sara was almost at a loss for words as she looked between the blushing blonde and her grinning brother. "You two are getting married?!" Her voice was so high it rivalled Evergreen's when she got excited, and Bickslow knew that Sara rarely got that excited. But when she launched herself at Lucy and threw her arms around her before she'd even finished the sentence, all Bickslow could do was step back and blink to try and see if he was actually seeing what he thought he was. "Just… How?!"
"It's… A bit of a long story. We'll explain it later," Bickslow laughed. When Sara released Lucy, who was only looking just a little shocked (and relieved), he leant down just to quickly kiss her temple and quietly said, "Told ya there was nothing to worry about."
"And then the knight fell from the window!"
Bickslow gasped as he stared to the four-year-old standing in front of him, and he leant forward to rest his elbows on his knees and rest his chin in his hands. "Was the knight okay though?" Bickslow asked the boy with the light brown hair that matched his twin brother's. "Did the princess make him feel better?"
The boy, Jasper, shook his head. "Nuh-uh!"
"How come?"
"The princess didn't love him," Jasper said.
"What a shame." Bickslow sighed as he straightened up and leant against the lounge Lucy was sitting on just beside him. "I was really rooting for them, too. What went wrong?"
Sitting down on the rug in the living room next to his brother, Damian, Jasper reached for the colourful blocks with the numbers and letters on them and began stacking them up. "Princess had her own princess," Damian explained simply instead, finishing their story.
As Lucy choked on her drink, not expecting the child's answer, Bickslow only burst into laughter and was almost on the brink of being in tears. He had not expected that answer in the slightest, but oh, was it great. "Yeah, well… That'll break a guy's heart for sure," he chuckled. Looking up to his sister and her husband sitting on the lounge opposite where he sat on the floor, Bickslow said, "These two definitely have a vivid imagination."
"That's for certain," Sara replied as she placed her cup down on a coaster on the coffee table. If it was one thing her boys were capable of doing, it was creating very unexpected endings to their stories. She and her husband loved them, and on more than one occasion she'd been in hysterics over their slightly twisted takes on the classic fairy tales.
Of course, there had been a few parents of her boys' friends that hadn't exactly been that thrilled over finding out just how different their imaginations were, but that was okay. Not everyone had a sense of humour and decency like most people did.
What Sara had loved though, was watching her sons and her brother bond. Jasper and Damian had never exactly been all that good at talking to new people, and even when they'd been excited to meet their Uncle Bickslow, Sara hadn't expected them to be so comfortable so quickly. Whenever they met someone new, they were always shy and reserved and a little quiet for a while. But with Bickslow, they'd just been their normal selves and they'd pretty much attached themselves to Bickslow once he'd walked into their living room. All they'd been doing so far was telling their outrageous stories while she and her husband, Rory, talked to Lucy and got to know her – and Bickslow, when he wasn't too preoccupied by his nephews' antics.
Though Sara had known Lucy had been just slightly more interested in watching Bickslow with Jasper and Damian, and Sara had quickly decided that she was going to need to ask if they would be giving her any nephews or nieces in the future. It was only fair, of course. But she couldn't even ask that until Saskia was back from their store, because it would be just a little weird to ask if she was going to be getting any more kids to spoil the hell out of (and be given a reason to visit Magnolia every so often) before finding out just how in the hell they were back together in the first place.
That was all Sara wanted to know.
"Aunty Sara! Aunty Sara!"
Everyone in the room turned to look to the hall as a girl with dark blue hair ran into the room and straight for Sara, jumping up into her lap to give her aunt a big hug. "Hey, Layla." Sara kissed the top of the girl's head with a bright smile, and let her crawl over her lap and to her husband, before returning to the ground.
Both Bickslow's and Lucy's eyes went wide when they heard the name, and Bickslow couldn't help but steal a glance in Lucy's direction to see her reaction. Of all the names in the world for what Bickslow was safely assuming was his niece, it also had to be the name of Lucy's mother. When he only saw Lucy smiling softly to the girl who was only staring back at her in shock, he relaxed just a little, but he couldn't help but let out a quiet chuckle as a hand came up to rub at the back of his neck. I guess that name can be taken off the list of possible future baby names…
Had he ever told Lucy that he'd been thinking of random names for the last two weeks straight? No. He really didn't plan on it either. He hadn't thought of many, but Layla had been one of the first that had crossed his mind.
Bickslow looked back up just as his other sister walked into the living room, and his tongue only lolled from his mouth again in his signature grin at the shocked expression on her face. "Evil One."
With Sara hiding her smile behind her hand and her husband appearing indifferent, Saskia looked quickly between the blonde on the lounge and her brother on the ground in front of his nephews. She was so far past confused she just didn't even know what to say, so instead she only quickly stepped into the room and crouched down beside Bickslow to quickly pull him into a hug. "Pixie! You're here!"
"That is not my name, Sas," Bickslow mumbled.
"Yeah it is," Saskia giggled. She stepped over his legs to sit down on the lounge next to Lucy, and as she did so, she couldn't help but catch a glimpse of Lucy's hands folded on her lap over her crossed legs. Leaning over to the side slightly to gently nudge the blonde, Saskia said, "I like the ring, by the way." Was she just as confused as Sara was as to just how they were together? Of course she was, but it really didn't take a genius to work out that they were engaged.
She just, of course, really hoped she'd have it explained, because she was more than curious.
Smiling, Lucy replied, "So do I." Then, when she saw the small girl with the dark blue hair tied up in a ponytail hesitantly approaching her mother beside her, Lucy sat forward slightly on the lounge to smile at the nervous girl. "So this is your daughter?"
"Yup! She's usually not this shy though." Saskia said proudly, then she held out a hand for her daughter to take so she would come closer. Leaning down slightly, she turned Layla by the shoulders until she was facing Lucy, and softly said, "You know who this is, don't you, sweetie?"
Layla nodded and kept her eyes trained on the smiling blonde.
"Hi there," Lucy said softly to the girl as she leant down over her knees. "Your name is Layla, right?" The girl nodded, and Lucy's smile got brighter as she excitedly said, "That's a really pretty name, Layla. Almost as pretty as you, actually."
"Tha-Thank you," Layla said nervously as a dusting of rose covered her cheeks. She was only six (and recently six, actually), but she still had her idol, and she was sitting right in front of her and smiling at her. Ever since she saw Lucy in the X792 games, she'd been in love with her and on more than one occasion throughout the Grand Magic Games that year, which had been the second time Fairy Tail had competed but only the first time Layla had seen them at all, only being a few weeks shy of turning five at the time, she had pointed to Lucy and looked up to her mother and said that she wanted to be just like the pretty blonde lady when she grew up.
It didn't help that Lucy's spirits, of what she had seen when she'd been competing and of what she'd seen in the magazines her mother had shown her and read to her, were all more than adorable and Layla loved them all.
But for her idol to be sitting on her aunt's lounge next to someone who looked a lot like her mother and her aunt, it was something her young little mind couldn't comprehend!
Looking up to Saskia again, Layla asked, "Mama? Why is she here?"
"Well, Layla." Saskia smiled and pointed to Bickslow sitting on the floor, lifting his hand to wave to the girl. "Remember how Mama told you Aunty Sara and I have a baby brother?"
"Hey now, you're not that much older than me," Bickslow grumbled. They were originally only supposed to be four years older than him. He wasn't a baby. Or at least, he wouldn't be if he hadn't been frozen on an island for seven stupid years.
"Pixie," Sara interrupted, only making Bickslow's scowl deepen. "We're thirty-five at the end of the year. You're not even twenty-five right now. You're always gonna be our baby brother whether you like it or not."
"I don't like it."
"We don't care," Saskia giggled, and settling back into the lounge and crossing one leg over her knee, she watched Layla slowly and carefully walk towards Bickslow to be standing in front of him.
Bickslow only blinked as the girl stared at him. The twins had been easy – they'd just jumped straight into it and got into their stories that Bickslow honestly loved. But Layla? Layla was… Well, Bickslow didn't know. He just didn't know what to do.
"You look funny."
He blinked again, and had to refrain from reaching out to to shove Lucy's knee to stop her laughing. "Do I?" he asked Layla.
She nodded.
Shrugging and folding his arms across his chest, Bickslow said, "Well, so do you."
"You look funnier," Layla argued, folding her arms too and continuing to stare at her strange looking uncle who only stared back. When she unfolded her arms and stepped forward to climb up into his lap, he stared at her with wide eyes before the tip of her finger touched his nose and the mark across his face. "Why do you have a person on your face?" she asked curiously as she outlined the figure with her finger. All nervousness was long gone as everyone bar Jasper and Damian, who were too busy playing with their blocks, watched the two.
"Because I wanted a person on my face," Bickslow answered, shutting one eye when her finger got dangerously close to it. "Why don't you have one on your face?"
"It looks weird."
"I like being weird."
She dropped her hand away from his face then as her little mouth twisted into a tight line and huffed, and then stepped to the side to climb up onto the lounge he was leaning against. He tilted his head back to look up to her when she stood up on it, and winced slightly when her small hands tugged on a section of his hair at the back of his head.
"Your hair is funny too," Layla said as she continued to pull and part sections of his hair, completely messing it all up.
"So is yours."
"Nuh-uh. My hair is pretty. Mama says so."
"Well, Lucy says my hair pretty too."
"Hey, don't bring me into this," Lucy chimed in as she held up her hands defensively. Sure, she might really love her fiancé's hair, but she wasn't going to be taking sides when he was arguing with his six-year-old niece. Or at least, she wouldn't be taking his side. No. She had to get on Layla's good side, after all, even if she had remembered Saskia saying that her daughter loved her from her performance in the guild's last time in the Grand Magic Games. "But seriously," she said as she reached out to the girl standing just next to her on the lounge for the long ponytail, letting the strands fall from her fingers as she dropped her hands back to her lap. "Layla definitely has the prettiest hair here. There's just no competition."
Bickslow looked to Lucy with a frown and a pout just to see her giggling along with his sisters and Layla looking up to her with adoration and a smile that reminded him so much of his mother. "What? Aw, come on, Luce," Bickslow whined. "You're supposed to be taking my side, you know."
"I can take whoever's side I want, darling."
"No you can't. You marrying me means you're supposed to be on my side and always say that my hair is prettier."
Sticking her tongue out at Bickslow, an act that only made Bickslow stop dead and have him fighting not to burst out laughing, Layla proclaimed proudly, "Lucy likes me more than Uncle Pixie."
"Oh my fu—freakin' god…"
"Hey, careful, Bicks," Saskia said.
Only sighing dejectedly and dropping his head to rest in his palm, he mumbled, "Fine, sorry." He forgot that he wasn't allowed to swear around the kids. They didn't like that kind of thing.
With Layla sitting next to her, feeling comfortable next to her idol who said her hair was pretty, and her slightly weird uncle, Lucy suddenly looked down to the girl with a wicked smirk that only Bickslow would be able to tell what it meant, and she leant down to gently nudge the girl with her elbow. "Hey, Layla," she said quietly. "You wanna make Uncle Pixie's hair prettier?" She still had no idea where the name Pixie had come from yet, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to use it. Oh no. She loved it too much.
"Yes!"
Lucy reached into her purse sitting next to her, ignoring the suspicious look Bickslow was now giving her, and she pulled out a whole bunch of tiny rainbow elastic bands. "I bet you could do all sorts of things with these!" Another peal of laughter slipped past her lips as Layla scrambled back behind Bickslow and stood on the edge of the cushion. As Bickslow's fiancée, it was Lucy's job to make his life a living hell, and that just meant giving his niece the tools to make him prettier.
Or not, because he was getting his hair done by a six-year-old. But still. It was her job to do that kind of thing, and when Bickslow only lifted up his hand to hold the elastic bands for Layla so she could easily reach for the next one when she needed it, Lucy was realising just that little bit more that waiting for the day when they had their own child was going to one hell of a wait. Also, that she was really, seriously hoping that they had at least one girl. Bickslow was going to need his own mini hairdresser just like Layla.
"Now," Sara said with a clap of her hands as she placed her cup back down on the coffee table. "You two need to explain just how it is you got back together and managed to get engaged in the space of like two months."
Lucy tore her gaze away from Layla who was pulling and twisting sections of Bickslow's hair into tiny little ponytails and tying them up with the colourful bands, and to his sister sitting opposite them. "Uh, well…" She looked back down to Bickslow for just a moment to see him wince as Layla grabbed another fistful of hair. "Am I telling this story or are you?"
"You," Bickslow answered. "I'm a little busy. Can't you see I'm getting my hair done?"
"I can see that," she laughed, then sat up again to look to each other person in the living room with a quiet sigh and a shrug. "Well, it's actually not that long of a story at all. After a friend of ours, Natsu, crashed the games—"
"Is that the one that set fire to the entire arena?" Sara's husband, Rory, asked.
Lucy nodded. "Yup. Straight after that, we headed back to Magnolia. I went with Natsu, since he's been my best friend since I joined the guild, and Bicks came back a little while later with his own team when they heard Fairy Tail was reforming."
"So you didn't run into each other in Crocus?" Saskia asked.
"No, but I was sitting on the opposite side of the arena to her at the games, apparently," Bickslow said, then narrowed his eyes slightly to glare at his sister from the corner of his eyes, trying not to turn his head too much. "And I'm still mad at you for not telling me you two talked to Lucy literally minutes before you saw me."
Sara and Saskia shared a guilty look and they shrugged in sync with matching smirks. "Didn't wanna upset you, baby brother," Sara chuckled at her scowling brother.
"Anyway," Lucy continued with her own quiet laugh escaping. "We ended up meeting up when they got back because we uh… We had some things to talk about. Then, I was out of town for the next few weeks, and then he just um… Proposed, I suppose, despite the fact I was covered in bandages and bruises and had just woken up."
"That's kinda romantic," Saska sighed. "Surprising you like that."
"I think I am literally the only person in the entire world who doesn't think it was romantic at all," Bickslow grumbled, wincing again when Layla continued pulling on his hair, tying it up as many times as she could manage.
Sara arched a blue eyebrow and stared at Bickslow. "Alright. How was it not romantic then?"
"Because when I went over there, I hadn't planned on proposing at all."
"Yet you had a ring," Rory stated.
"Well… No."
"Did you get the ring later then?" Saskia asked. Bickslow just continued to look more and more embarrassed, and he shook his head. "Then what? Unless that isn't an engagement ring Lucy's wearing."
"O-Oh, no. It is," Bickslow mumbled. "It just uh… It wasn't exactly in my possession at the time."
"Okay…"
Lifting a hand just to try and pull the few strands of hair at the nape of his neck from the bottom ponytail Layla had tied in his hair free, Bickslow mumbled, "Lucy had it."
"Huh?"
Sighing, and feeling just a little bad for Bickslow having to explain the situation over the silly ring, Lucy said, "Bickslow sent me the ring for my birthday, right before the start of the games."
Saskia and Sara looked to Lucy, and then to Bickslow with a deadly glare. He only grunted when Sara flung a small pillow at his face, and he flinched when they both shouted, "Are you a moron?!"
"Hey, come on." He took the pillow and only folded his arms around it as he scowled at Sara. "It wasn't exactly like I'd thought I'd ever see her again after we broke up, and I'd been carrying the stupid thing around for nearly a year and it was getting annoying, okay?"
Both of their faces softened then, and with just a small smirk, Saskia leant forward around Lucy to poke Bickslow's shoulder. "So you planned on asking her to marry you, and then broke up with her?" A bark of laughter escaped before she said, "Nice one, Pixie."
"Shut up, ass."
"Language."
"Sorry…"
"But really," Sara chimed in suddenly as she looked up from her boys still happily playing (and attempting to poke each other's eyes out). "It is just a little romantic. Obviously not planning on asking her but then doing so after you'd only seen her what, twice? Since getting back to Magnolia."
Nodding, Saskia agreed, "I think so too. It really doesn't have to be a grand gesture to be romantic."
"See? You just need to accept that it was romantic, Bickslow," Lucy laughed as she flicked one of the tiny ponytails on the side of his head. "You should listen to me sometimes, you know."
"Yeah, yeah. No need to rub it in."
"Set a date yet though?" Rory asked suddenly.
Lucy nodded quickly. "Yup. August twenty-fifth."
"What?" Saskia's brow wrinkled and she looked to them in shock. "But that's a year away! You can get engaged without even being together, or at least I'm guessing that's what happened, but you want to wait a year to actually get married? Why wait?"
"Because August twenty-fifth is special to us," Bickslow answered with a soft smile.
"How come?"
"We had our first date then," Lucy said.
"It was also the date I was supposed to propose on," Bickslow added.
"And also the day he did propose on."
Sara and Saskia turned into Mirajane Strausses so quickly it made Bickslow wonder just who the imposters were and what they had done with his evil sisters. He'd never known they were capable of making an awwing sound, but that's what they did. Guess growing up and having kids and all that will change a person.
"So romantic!" Saskia cried.
"So, so romantic!" Sara added, curling into her husband's side for good measure, seeming unaffected by his amused face. "So you'll be getting married three years from your first date then? That's so sweet."
Shrugging, Bickslow only glanced up at Lucy just behind him with a soft smile still, and said, "I suppose so." He didn't really care when they got married, to be honest. He wouldn't care if it was the next week, two weeks or even months from then, or even two decades from then. All that mattered to him was that he knew he would be with Lucy for the rest of his life, and that meant the most to him, no matter how excited he actually was about marrying her and being able to have a life with her.
But maybe it really was time to accept that it was just a little romantic and sweet that everything seemed to revolve around that one date, and not all of it had been intentional.
Bickslow lowered himself into the rose-scented bubble bath with a groan, and he leant back against Lucy and slid down the bath until he was sitting lower than the blonde. It wasn't exactly how they usually did it, but Bickslow wasn't going to complain that much.
"Those kids really did a number on you, huh?" Lucy giggled as she sat up, quickly beginning to work on pulling out all of the tiny little elastic bands that had Bickslow looking like some blue hedgehog.
He winced each time she managed to pull one out. "Yup."
They'd spent almost the entire day at Sara's house with his sisters and their kids, and it had truly been a great day. Most of that time, Bickslow had been playing with them, and it warmed his entire being to know that they actually liked him. He hadn't wanted to leave when they had in the evening, but the promise that he'd be able to see his nephews and his niece again before they went back home made Bickslow feel just a little bit better about having to pry himself away from their little arms and tight hugs.
From making Damian's and Jasper's blocks stack and arrange themselves with the help of the babies, to being Layla's own personal guinea pig when it came to practicing to become a hairdresser, apparently. Bickslow hadn't minded any of it in the slightest though. Not even when Lucy summoned a few of her spirits – Loke, Aries, and Gemini – for Layla throughout the afternoon, and Aries made a giant wool bouncy-castle for all of them to play in. He'd been jumped on, trampled on, sat on, had his hair pulled more than he was used to… But he'd loved each second of it.
Especially when Loke seemed to decide that Layla was his new favourite princess. That had made his niece very, very happy, and made Bickslow just that little bit less worried about Loke stealing his future wife. Bickslow had realised that Loke wasn't exactly on 'Team Bickslow and Lucy Forever and Ever' anymore after leaving a year earlier. Bickslow didn't exactly blame him either, but that's just the way it was.
"I didn't think little kids could hurt so—Ow, Lucy!"
"Sorry," Lucy giggled again when she pulled another one of the bright elastic bands from his hair, only dropping it to the growing pile of bands on the edge of the tub complete with a few strands of straight blue hair. "They're hard to get out and she did them really tight."
"I know she did," Bickslow mumbled, wincing again when another was pulled out. He tilted his head back over her shoulder to look to her with a slight scowl. "And you're the one that gave them to her."
"So she could make your hair prettier."
"My hair is pretty enough, thank you very much."
A pat to his spiky head, the elastic bands having been in for far too long, had him scowling as Lucy laughed again. "I know it is, sweetheart. I know it is."
Rolling his eyes, Bickslow sank down into the bath some more and instead just stared down to the mountains of bubbles that the babies were playing in down the other end and between his feet, occasionally coming back up from beneath the water with the bubbles still on the top of them. Each time Lucy pulled out another one of the elastic bands, he winced again and the number went up in his head for just how many he'd had in in the first place. He was already up to twenty-seven and he was beginning to get a headache from all the hair pulling.
"All done."
He almost sighed in relief when Lucy dropped the last neon green band to the pile with the rest of them, and Bickslow lifted his hands from where they were on the edge of the tub to run them through his hair, trying his best to smooth out and separate each little section.
Pulling one of them between her fingers, Lucy couldn't contain her laughter as she watched Bickslow try to sort out his hair. "Maybe you should leave it like this and dye the tips blond."
Bickslow huffed a laugh as he rolled his eyes again. "Yeah, because that would look downright fucking sexy."
"Mm, it would," Lucy murmured.
"A blue, black, and blond-haired hedgehog… Thing. Maybe you'd have some competition if I did that. I'd have women all over me all the time."
"That's okay, because at the end of the day…" Lucy sat up again just to rest her chin on his shoulder, and she turned her head to quickly press a kiss to his cheek when he tipped his head back. "I know that you're all mine."
"Damn right I am. But can we switch places now? Because this is getting really uncomfortable."
Lucy rolled her eyes as her hands gripped the edge of the tub, and she slowly stood up to climb out of it before stepping back into it in front of Bickslow. "Oh, fine," she mumbled. Lowering herself down into the perfectly warm water, a contented hum left her lips again when she leant back and settled herself against Bickslow's chest. That was much better and much more comfortable, and she could probably very easily fall asleep in that tub.
Or, she could have, if Bickslow wasn't suddenly playing with her hair for whatever reason. She turned her head to look up to see the amused smirk on his face as he held the ends of her dripping hair over his hand. "What are you doing?"
"Maybe you should dye the ends of your hair blue," Bickslow mused with his smirk only turning into a wide grin. "I'd dye mine blond if yours was blue."
She pulled the strands of golden hair from his hand and pulled the rest around to her front. "No. Definitely not," Lucy scoffed.
"Pink then?"
"No way."
"Purple."
"No."
"Black?"
"Bicks, I'm not dyeing my hair," Lucy laughed as she swatted his hand away from her hair again.
"Why not? You'd look hot with two-toned hair," Bickslow insisted, only dropping his chin to rest on her shoulder and murmur in her ear, "Get the piercings and tattoos to go with it, too. You've already got the badassery down-pat."
Lucy hummed in thought as she sank further into the water and let the bubbles sitting on the surface get closer to her chin, and she lifted up a hand when she felt a small object nudge it beneath the surface of the water. She couldn't help but laugh when she saw Pippi covered in bubbles sitting in her hand, and with a gentle push the totem flew up and shook itself free of the bubbles before diving back down to join the other four, who Lucy could feel moving around and bumping into places she really wished they wouldn't sometimes.
But black hair, god knows how many piercings, and tattoos to go with it? Lucy was convinced it would not suit her in the slightest, even if she supposedly was a badass. Which, she really didn't think she was. Not really, anyway. Leaning back again against Bickslow's shoulder, her lips quirked with her amusement, and she wondered aloud, "So you think I'm a badass, huh?"
"Mm-hmm. Sexiest badass I know."
"Is that so?"
"Yup. And you're the second sexiest smartass I know, too," Bickslow added
Her eyebrow arched curiously as she took note of the gleam settling in his eyes. That was never a good sign, because it usually meant that her fiancé was up to something, and she had seen that look far too many times. "Only the second?" she mumbled, her bottom lip sticking out slightly. "Who's the first?"
"Me, of course," he answered, his tongue lolling from his mouth as he laughed at his own joke. Of course he was the sexiest smartass he knew. If sexy smartass was in a dictionary, Bickslow was sure it would be with a picture of him.
Sighing, Lucy turned back to the front as she lifted a leg out of the water and watched the suds roll down, and said, "Alright, I'll let you have that one."
"How kind of you," Bickslow chuckled. Then, dropping his head again, as he lightly kissed the side of her neck down to her shoulder as his arms dipped into the water to wrap around her, he added, "But there is one category you'll always be first in."
"And what's what?"
"Greatest ass."
"I already knew that," she smirked.
"Nuh-uh," he mumbled, his lips still turned up into his smirk against her shoulder.
"Yes," Lucy insisted with a bubbly laugh. "You tell me that almost every time you see me naked."
"Well, it's true. So I'll tell you again since you're very much naked right now." Granted, Bickslow was realising that he probably did compliment her on her assets just a little bit too much, considering how long they'd been together in the past, but sometimes, he just couldn't help himself. Sometimes he just really needed to say it, because holy fuck was Bickslow still trying to understand just how he'd ended up with her again after everything he'd done. Bickslow was just trying to accept that he really didn't think he would ever know just what it was he'd done to deserve to have her back in his life, and for good that time, because he was almost convinced that he didn't deserve her at all.
It didn't matter how many times she had told him otherwise over the time they'd been together, Bickslow would always feel that way. He still thought that there were so many other better people out there for her; people that wouldn't hurt her like he had more than once before.
He still hadn't forgiven himself for the time he'd been a total jackass to her when they'd first met, even though it had been so many years earlier. He had accepted that it had happened and that it was in his past, but he hadn't forgiven himself for it. If he could go back to that time, he wouldn't do any of it again, and he knew that Laxus, Freed, and Evergreen all felt the same. They'd all changed so much since then, but it still hurt them the most, even if they'd long since received the forgiveness from everyone they'd hurt.
And then when he'd left her, just a year earlier… Bickslow would never, ever forgive himself for that. Never. Not even if he was immortal and he lived until the end of time itself. He should have stayed with her, not left her. That was where he had always belonged, not off on some edge of the country and wondering just what it was she was doing and if she was okay. He should have stayed and made sure she was okay, because it had been the one time that she should not have been alone, but she was.
And for that, Bickslow hated himself. If it was one thing Bickslow knew he deserved, it was how miserable he'd been over the last year. He'd accepted that it wouldn't have gotten better without Lucy, but he had deserved every single second of misery he'd been in.
He was still more than thankful to have Lucy back in his life, because he really was never going to be stupid enough to ever let go of her again, and he was just a little glad that she'd been able to see parts of Fiore she hadn't before and she'd been able to have some sort of life outside of the guild… But he almost wished she hadn't had to do any of that all. He regretted leaving so much it really did hurt, but when he thought back to all of the stories that Lucy had told him over the last couple of weeks about her year, Bickslow almost wished he'd been doing all of that with her.
Travel the country and the world, see everything and do everything… Bickslow would gladly do that with Lucy. Hell, he'd pack up his life and follow Lucy to the end of the world if that was what she wanted. As long as Bickslow had Lucy by his side for the rest of his life, he didn't have any cares in the world about what they did.
Leave the guild, pack up everything, travel the world and find somewhere to settle down and really start their life together. That was something Bickslow would gladly do, if Lucy would want that. He doubted she did, because Fairy Tail was her home and her family, but that was still something he would do, all because he just wanted to be with her. The guild was his family too and it always would be, but Lucy was more than that.
Lucy was… Home. Not so much Magnolia. Wherever she was, that's where home was to Bickslow. It didn't matter whether they were in Magnolia, or even Fiore. Just… Wherever she was, that's where he would be too. That was the way things always should've been, but even then, Bickslow could still be glad that things were falling into place around them and were returning to the way they always should have been.
But when Bickslow turned his head to look out the window just next to the stone tub yet again, he was reminded once again that Lucy had had a life there. Crocus. She'd had a job, and friends, and a life… But she'd traded all of it in a heartbeat to help the guild get back on its feet.
"Do you ever think about leaving the guild?"
Lucy tilted her head back to look back up to Bickslow behind her. "No, why?" Lucy asked quietly, her brow becoming furrowed as Bickslow continued to stare out through the window to the country's capital around them. "Where is that even coming from?"
"I don't know," Bickslow mumbled. "I just… I just look around right now, and then I remember that all of this was your life just a couple of months ago."
"But it's not the life I was happiest with," Lucy reminded him.
Frowning, he looked down to Lucy. "So you don't regret leaving any of this for the guild?"
"Not one tiny bit."
"Are you sure? 'Cause you know that if you did, if you wanted to move back here or anything and have a normal kind of life, then I'd come with you without a moment's hesitation."
With a gentle sigh, Lucy spun herself around in the bath and dispersed what was left of the bubbles in the near lukewarm water, and she looked back to Bickslow with a soft smile as her hands lifted from the water to hold his face between her hands. "Bickslow, I really don't want to move back here. Or move anywhere else, for that matter," she insisted. "Magnolia is where I will happily live the rest of my days, and the only way I'll be leaving Fairy Tail again is if they kick me out or we disband again, and I am really, really hoping that neither of those happen. Especially the latter."
The corner of Bickslow's mouth lifted up into a small smile as he nodded and said, "Yeah, me too."
"You know our kids are going to grow up in Fairy Tail, right?"
That seemed to make Bickslow perk up quickly, and the bright and hopeful smile that Lucy loved so much was quickly replacing the slight frown. "Yeah?" he whispered.
Lucy nodded. "Uh-huh. Mages or not, they'll be honorary members of Fairy Tail and welcomed into our giant, crazy family with open arms."
"They will be, won't they?"
"Of course they will be, and we won't be able to let Mira and Ever spoil them to death if we don't live in Magnolia, will we?"
A huff of laughter escaped Bickslow's lips, and he nodded slowly. "I guess not." Mira spoiling the hell out his kids was already a given, and Evergreen was no doubt going to want to turn their future daughter (the one that Bickslow really wanted) into a fairy lover like she was. He'd still be the one to spoil them the most, because they'd forever be his babies… But it just wouldn't be the same if they weren't in Fairy Tail.
Magnolia and being in Fairy Tail was where they both belonged, and it was where they would happily live out the rest of their days with their family. Bickslow knew that.
"Oh, before I almost forget…" Bickslow turned away from the front door of Saskia's house and crouched down to pick up the bag he had on the ground, all packed and ready for their trip back to Magnolia. Pulling out a large black box, he crouched down in front of the twins, Jasper and Damian, and opened up the lid for them to see inside. "These are for you."
Inside the box were two matching sets of plain tikis, ten of them in total resting against the light blue fabric that lined the box and each of them without faces, ready for Bickslow's nephews to paint their own faces on so they weren't exactly like Bickslow's.
Seeing their light green eyes light up even more – something that they'd most definitely gotten from their mother and grandmother – had Bickslow almost grinning ear to ear. "I know you guys liked playing with the babies, and I know that the babies liked being stacked up and all too," Bickslow explained as the twins each pulled a totem from the box. "These ones won't make any rude comments or stack themselves up, but I just wanted to get these for you since you liked them. And, you'll be able to give them their own little faces if you want to, so they'll be all yours. There's even some paint and some brushes at the bottom of the box for you to use if your mum lets you make a mess."
He barely had a chance to put the box on the ground before he had his two nephews jumping forward and throwing their arms around him. "Thank you, Uncle Bicks!" Jasper said excitedly from one side.
"They're so cool!" Damian added from the other.
"You're very welcome. I'm glad you guys like them," Bickslow said softly as he hugged the twins back, the smile never leaving his face.
They'd only been in Crocus for a few weeks, mostly sorting out Lucy's apartment and packing up the things she wanted to take back to Magnolia, but there'd been so many days where they'd been able to visit Bickslow's family and Lucy had been able to get to know them better and Bickslow had been able to catch up with them all and bond with his nephews and niece. He was so happy they'd seemed happy to welcome him back into their family even though he'd never met them – or known they'd existed until that long ago – and it only made him all the more excited for the day when his own children were that age. He'd had too much fun with them while they'd been there and he almost wished they weren't having to go back home.
Bickslow would miss them for sure. He'd even miss his sisters, but he'd miss the kids more, and Bickslow knew Lucy would too. Layla had grown rather attached to Lucy, and Lucy with her. She was already Aunt Lucy to the girl (and to the twins, too), and Bickslow didn't know who loved it more – him, or Lucy. If Bickslow had had any doubts about Lucy being a great mother to their own kids, they were long gone after watching her with his nephews and niece. He almost thought they liked her more than they did him, and he wouldn't have even cared if that was the case.
Lucy had even gone as far as finding someone in Crocus to make up some copies of her spirit keys – both gold and silver – so she could give them to Layla, and all morning, Layla had been playing with them and doing her best to impersonate her Aunt Lucy. She knew they didn't open any gates, but she still loved them, just like Jasper and Damian loved their new totems, because they were gifts from their Aunt Lucy and Uncle Bickslow, and they were just as sad to see them go home as Bickslow and Lucy were to be going home themselves.
But as much as they wanted to stay, they had to go. It was a long journey home, and they'd only had time to come visit one final time. They didn't know when they'd be able to come back next, but they had both decided they would definitely have to make time to visit Crocus every now and then.
Standing up and watching Jasper and Damian turn down the hall with the tikis in their hands and handing the box with the rest of them to Sara, Bickslow sighed and looked behind him to where Lucy was stepping away from Layla. "Do I get a hug too?" Bickslow pouted before crouching down again and holding out his arms for the blue-haired girl.
Layla was the saddest of them all over her aunt and uncle leaving, but it was mostly because of Lucy.
When Bickslow stood again and threw his bag that was by the door over his shoulder again, Layla went back to Saskia's side and looked up at her with sad eyes. "Mama, will Aunt Lucy and Uncle Pixie be coming back?" she asked, just a little hopeful.
"Of course we will," Bickslow answered with a smile. "We'll come visit again soon. You could always come visit us in Magnolia though. It's not as big as Crocus, but it's a nice place and there's a really nice park there you'd all love."
"Oh! Mama, can we?" Layla bounced up and down excitedly.
"We'll see, kiddo," Saskia laughed.
"You'll see Magnolia one day though," Lucy chimed in as she knelt down on the ground in front of the girl again and reached up to fix the ribbon that held her side-pony in place – something she'd gotten from Lucy. Seeing her only blink in her confusion, Lucy smiled and added, "I'll need a flower girl when I get married, so you'll have to come to Magnolia then."
"R-Really?"
Lucy nodded. "Really." It was a given that Bickslow's entire family was invited to their wedding, and even if it was still a year away and she was sure her friends would eventually take over in the planning, she could still decide on some things… Like who the flower girl would be. She was Bickslow's niece and she was an adorable little girl, so she was perfect for the job.
"Well, I think we'll still be able to find another reason to visit Magnolia before then," Sara said. "Right, Sas?"
"I think we'll be able to," Saskia agreed as she looked down to Layla with her great big smile. She was just so excited to be Lucy's flower girl and go and visit her aunt and uncle. "But we won't have anyone to go and visit if they're here though, so Aunt Lucy and Uncle Pixie need to go home."
"That we do," Bickslow mumbled. He really didn't want to, but they had to. Magnolia was their home after all, not Crocus. That was part of the reason they'd been there at all – to get everything sorted out so Lucy could move in with him finally.
As they said their goodbyes, Bickslow was telling himself that they'd be back. Soon, hopefully, even if it was just for a few days. It was a long way to Crocus from Magnolia but he'd do it just to see his family, especially the twins and Layla. And so with the front door of Saskia's house closed behind them as they made their way down the steps, Bickslow looked down to Lucy as she tucked herself into his side as they walked.
"I think that if we didn't have the guild and all that," Lucy said softly as they headed towards where they needed to go to get out of the city. "I wouldn't mind moving to Crocus. Our kids would be close to their cousins, and we'd always be able to go and visit everyone like Laxus and Levy and all that anyway."
Bickslow smiled. "Yeah, I guess that would be nice, growing up with family."
"Yeah… But, Magnolia is home. We have family there too, since the guild is our family as well. I still want us to raise our kids there when it happens, but if anything ever happened that had the guild no longer existing, I think Crocus would be a nice place to call home."
"But Magnolia is home," Bickslow repeated softly. Or wherever Lucy was, really, but if Lucy thought Magnolia was home, then that's where it was.
"Magnolia is home."