It didn't take very long for Lucy to get all of her things moved in, surprisingly. Most of the stuff she'd wanted to keep had already been at Bickslow's, either from when they'd brought some of her things back from Crocus, or from where she'd just been gradually bringing some of her things over after they'd gotten back together.

And after that, once she'd finally given up her apartment and handed her keys back to the landlady, everything just seemed to fly by.

But it was in a good way, because they were both more than glad and ready to just be getting on with their lives, because really, it was about time they did.

At some point over the weeks that followed Lucy officially moving in, Bickslow had managed to stop bringing up the entire baby thing every five minutes. He still thought about it constantly, because he really could not get himself to stop, but he didn't talk about it, because it really just got him nowhere. He was still a little envious of Levy and Gajeel, too, and Lucy knew that, but he was also still glad in his own weird way that it wasn't them.

Still though, he'd come to accept that there was just no point in talking about it. He wanted a kid, but he also didn't want a kid (not right then, anyway), but regardless, he had to wait, because he had to wait for Lucy. So until Lucy was ready, which he assumed wouldn't be for another year and until after they were married, he just had to bide his time.

…And try not to have a complete mental breakdown, which he had joked about happening more than once over the last few weeks, but he'd been just a little serious, too. Death by baby fever had to be a thing. It just had to be.

But of course, in those weeks that had followed Lucy officially moving in and her best friend announcing that they were starting their family, Lucy of course spent a lot of time with her said best friend. She was just a few months by the end of November, yet she'd already started buying a whole lot of baby things, and Lucy had most definitely been helping her. If anything, she'd spent more time out with Levy and buying literally every single book on pregnancy and babies and all things related that they could find, than with Bickslow.

But that was fine. Bickslow could survive on his own. He most just took odd jobs with Freed and Evergreen since Laxus was mostly too busy with Jax and Mira was still running the bar. And, well, when it came to Jax, Bickslow still wasn't all that invested. The kid was cute as hell, sure, but he was still being a bit of a bitch because of the entire situation and he didn't really like letting that show. So he mostly avoided his godson.

But as the weeks went on, and they fell even further and further into their old routine that just felt so good to be back into, and as Bickslow quieted down on the whole them having a baby front, and as she spent more time with Levy and Gajeel and then with Jax, Lucy started to realise something.

She started realising just how much she wanted a baby.

It wasn't really a case that she didn't want to have kids, because she did, and she'd told Bickslow that already. They'd already had that conversation. It was just that she'd wanted to wait, because getting back together had kind of made it all hurt again and she'd wanted to deal with that, and Bickslow had needed to as well.

And then it kind of just made sense for them to wait until after they were married and had maybe moved to a bigger place, because even with the spare bedroom in the apartment, it wasn't all that big, and she didn't really want to be having a kid while living there still anyway.

But the more time that passed, the more she began to realise that she was just a little – only a little – envious of their friends, too.

Lucy was so happy for Levy and Gajeel. She really was. And she loved Jax too because he really was just so precious. But, as Bickslow had put it once, she found herself really wanting one.

Was she ready for one though: that was the question. Physically? Definitely. Emotionally? Well, she liked to think she was. It had been a long time since the last time, and it wasn't like she was the first woman to ever go through a miscarriage. It was still just one of those things that happened sometimes, and she'd accepted that. She worried about it happening again, too, but Bickslow had tried to get her stop thinking about that so much.

Still, Lucy hadn't been able to help but think about them actually having a baby, and she had reached the point where she was almost sure she was thinking about it more than Bickslow was.

Mostly, she was just thinking about how long it might take. The first time, it had taken upwards of six months, which sure, in the grand scheme of things hadn't been all that long. But it wasn't like they'd taken any kind of precaution to stop her from getting pregnant. Not a single one. And it wasn't like she hadn't been aware of that fact either, because she had, and she was sure that Bickslow hadn't been completely oblivious to it either – he was smarter than that. But they just hadn't really cared about what could happen, or at the very least, she hadn't.

But how long would it take when they were trying? Would it take just as long as it had when they hadn't been planning on it, or would it take even longer?

And even then, at that point, they weren't going to be married for another nine months, so even if it took just as long as it had the first time she'd been pregnant, it would still be another two years before they actually had a baby that they could hold in their arms. Lucy knew it really wasn't that long, because they'd have the rest of their lives together and compared to that, two years was really nothing, but to her, it still felt like such a long time.

She didn't really want to have to wait that long, but on the other hand, she just didn't know what to do about that. Surely it really was too early for them to be having a baby considering all things, but the more she thought about it, the more she really did want to, and the less she cared about whether it was too early or not.

So when Bickslow was getting home that evening, tired from the mission he'd been out on all week and really just wanting a shower, all Lucy was thinking about was their future, and what it would entail and when. Bickslow didn't know just what she was thinking about though. He had no clue what she'd been thinking about for the last few weeks, though Lucy knew that she would have to talk to Bickslow about it at some point, and that point would have to be soon because there really were things she needed his opinion on.

"Cosplayer?" the Seith mage called out into the too quiet apartment. He was already pulling off his cloak as he made his way down the hall. "You here?"

"Bathroom," Lucy answered, and she smiled towards the door when he stepped through it from where she sat in her bath that was probably more bubbles than it was water. But it was warm, and it smelled like rose petals, and it was relaxing, and that was all that mattered. "How are you?"

"Tired," he sighed before leaning down over the edge of the tub to lightly press his lips to hers. "And sore."

"Did the job not go well?"

"No, it did…" It went really well. "It was just one of those ones, y'know? The ones that are so easy, they're just…"

"Long, exhausting, stressful, more time consuming and a hassle than anything?" Lucy finished for him.

He grinned – though it was tiredly – as he pulled his shirt off. "You know the ones."

"Mm-hmm." Oh, she really did know the ones. But it was just part of her job, so she dealt with them. She lifted her leg slightly to flex her foot, and watched the suds slide off before she dropped it back under the surface, then looked back up to Bickslow who was still pulling off the multitude of layers he wore for jobs, and suggested, "You should join me. Baths are nice to relax in, you know."

And he so would have joined her if it had been any other night, since he'd become quite fond of baths thanks to Lucy (or, really, fond of them when she was in them), but it wasn't any other night. "Raincheck. I really just want a shower right now." It didn't help that he was kind of gross right then from being out on a job all week and only having had one other shower in that time, so the thought of actually being in a bath with his lovely blonde really wasn't all that appealing. Not at all. So as he finally got out of his mission wear and stepped into the shower cubicle just next to the bath, he asked, "How was your week though?"

Lucy sighed as she heard the water pressure in the shower change as Bickslow adjusted the temperature. "Uneventful. I took a job with Natsu just after you left, but that was only for one day and it was only in Hargeon and it wasn't really all that difficult or anything," she answered. The babies had joined her in the bath by then, like they almost always did, and she was trying not to giggle with how much they were tickling her legs and her sides beneath the bubbles. "Then I just spent the rest of my time with Levy, and I started doing some of my Christmas shopping, too." She'd only gotten a few small things for some of the people in the guild, though. She'd gotten Erza's out of the way weeks earlier (a giant, seven-tier, strawberry and cream cake from her favourite bakery, to be delivered on Christmas Eve to her door), and Wendy's, too, but everyone else, she wasn't quite sure of what to get them just yet.

She had Bickslow's figured out, though. Well, one of them, though it had kind of been one he'd 'requested', so she wasn't all that sure if that one counted (but she'd told him no to that particular request at the time since it involved the same lacy red bra and panties she'd been in for one particular photoshoot, so surely it did count since he thought she wasn't going to go through with it).

"But it's not even December."

"It will be in a few days."

"Alright then… But hey, that reminds me. I wanted to talk to you about something."

She opened her eyes again and stared at the wall with the shelves and towel rack on it that separated the shower cubicle from the end of the tub. "What about?" she asked.

"The evil ones—"

"Your sisters," Lucy said, smirking.

Bickslow rolled his eyes. "My sisters," he corrected himself, not that he was sure why since they really were the evil ones, "were wondering if we wanted to stay with them for Christmas." They'd sent him a letter in the week he'd been gone and it had been waiting on the bench for him for when he got home, since Lucy wasn't going to open it, and in it, they had only asked if they were interested in spending Christmas with them in Crocus. Bickslow, of course, was actually really wanting to do it, because he'd come to have a new appreciation for family over the last few years specifically and his sisters were his family. He hated them just because they were his sisters, but he loved them too, and he really, really loved his niece and nephews.

He was almost sure that was why he wanted to go so much, because it meant he'd be able to see them again.

Still though, as much as he wanted to go, if Lucy didn't want to, they wouldn't. He'd be fine with staying home, too.

But the talk of the holidays only made Lucy remember what she'd been thinking about, and thinking about a lot over the last week and night alone, and she was worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as Pippi came up to nuzzle her cheek. Lucy knew she couldn't bring that up just yet. Soon, though. Talking about their Christmas plans came first.

"Um, maybe," she mumbled. It wasn't like she didn't want to, because she guessed that she did want to. It would be nice to spend some more time with Sara and Saskia and their families, because after all, that was the family she was marrying into, and now that they were a part of Bickslow's life once again, it made sense for her to get along with them – not that that was a problem in the slightest, because she already did.

It was just that it was the first holiday season back in Magnolia and with Bickslow, and she just assumed that they'd spend it in the guild and with their teams like everyone else usually did every year…

"We don't have to go if you don't want to," Bickslow said softly from within the shower, rinsing the shampoo from his hair. He could hear the hesitation, which was fine. They really didn't have to go. "We can stay here and we can go visit them in a few months or something."

"No, it's not that I don't want to," Lucy replied. "I just… don't know."

"Alright."

Lucy paused, and she stared long and hard at the wall in front of her. Was it wrong that she felt bad? Probably. But they were his family, and she had a feeling that he really did want to go because the three weeks they'd had there before just hadn't been enough. "You really want to go, don't you?"

"Yeah," Bickslow admitted with a sigh. "I really do."

"Then we'll go." It wouldn't be the worst thing if they did go, so where was the harm in it? It was just one Christmas, and maybe they could all visit Magnolia the year after or something.

He stuck his head around the wall after pushing the turquoise curtain back slightly, and he gave his fiancée his childlike grin that was just always so full of happiness and hope and constant excitement, and Lucy couldn't help but smile whenever she saw it. "Really?"

She nodded. "Yup. You can write them back and tell them to make room at their table for two more."

"Have I ever told you how much I love you?"

"A few times, yes," Lucy giggled.

He pulled the curtain closed again and went back to his shower with his stupid grin on his face. "Well, I haven't told you for a week," he said. "So I love you. Like, a lot. Like a lot a lot." Like, to the end of the world and back a trillion billion times over. That was how much he loved her, and even then, that didn't really feel like it was enough.

"And I love you too, Pixie, but…" She was biting down on her lip again as she paused for another second before continuing, "There's something I wanted to talk to you about, too." There was no better time, right? That was what she told herself, at least.

"Okay?"

Lucy had to gather her courage to get her mouth to open again, and she really didn't know why, because she'd never really had that problem when talking to Bickslow before. "Well, you know how I've been spending a lot of time with Levy lately and… And helping her get things organised for her baby already," she began nervously. "And watching Jax in the guild for a few hours every now and then when Laxus and Mira are busy…"

"Uh-huh."

"Well, uh… I've been thinking a lot lately, too."

He was glancing up to the ceiling then and furrowing his brow, because it wasn't exactly like he could make that face at her. The ceiling was the next closest thing… Sort of. "Should I be worried?" he asked carefully.

"N-No! I… No."

"You don't sound too sure there, Cosplayer."

"Well, just be quiet and listen to the rest of it then."

"As you wish," he chuckled, and even though there was technically a wall between them, he could feel her glare through it.

She took a quiet yet steadying breath before she continued. "Well, I've been thinking a lot lately," she said again. "And… And I've been thinking a lot about us having a baby. And before you say that we've had this conversation before, because trust me, I know, just… Just hear me out."

Well, that was what I'd been planning on saying, but okay… He remained silent and let her continue once more, only grabbing the conditioner bottle from the rack to squeeze some into his hand. It smelled like green apples, which had always been a bit of a guilty pleasure of his. He had a certain fondness for apple pies, too.

"So you know how when I was pregnant before, we didn't… We didn't plan it?"

"Uh-huh."

"And, um… You know how we weren't at all careful? Like, we never made a point of being safe so I wouldn't get pregnant?"

"I do know," he answered. He'd always known. He'd just never really cared, to be perfectly honest. The entire children conversation had come up pretty early in their relationship anyway since it had awkwardly been brought up by Lucy when he'd been a kind of human kebab (and that was still something he wasn't allowed to make jokes about, apparently), so he'd just never really worried about a particular accident happening.

He'd been optimistic about it not happening, anyway. And so had Lucy.

Lucy nodded. She was wringing her hands together under the water and disturbing the bubbles near her chest then. "Well, uh, I've just been thinking about how it took kind of a long time for it to actually happen, you know?" She paused as soon as the words left her mouth, before she added quickly in afterthought, "Or, well, I guess it wasn't a long time at all since six months is pretty normal…"

"Lucy. There is a point to this conversation, right?" Bickslow asked suddenly. He felt like there was, but he also felt like Lucy was just having a hard time getting there.

She only let out an audible sigh. "I'm impatient."

"Huh?"

"Well, just a little," she clarified. "Because, I mean… I know I said I wanted to wait until after we were married to start, you know, trying, but that's still nearly a year away. And… And what if it takes us that long again? What if it takes even longer for me to get pregnant this time? I don't want to wait that long to have our family."

"Is it really going to be that long though?"

"Two years."

"Two years?"

"If it takes as long as it did before, then… Two years before we'd actually have a baby," Lucy sighed.

Now, Bickslow was, in a way, fine with waiting. Because really, he knew that he wasn't completely ready, and Lucy knew that, too, just like she wasn't ready – or at least she hadn't been the last time they'd talked about it. But two years felt like such a long time, even Bickslow could admit that. He didn't want to have to wait that long, either. "What exactly are you trying to say?" he asked softly. Except she didn't answer, and Bickslow grew worried. "Lucy?"

"What I'm trying to say is…" She trailed off when she tried to sink further into the bath, bringing her knees up to her chest and sliding down so much that the bubbles were almost tickling her nose. The poor baby in her hands would have been strangled to death if it were possible, that was how tightly she was holding it in her lap. But, as nervous as she was, because it felt like such a big thing, considering only a handful of weeks earlier she'd been feeling guilty about not being ready to have a baby yet, she knew it was also what she wanted to say. Lucy was sure of herself right then.

Well… Mostly sure of herself.

"What I'm trying to say is," she repeated, a little steadier than before. "If you want to, because I know you said you weren't ready for a baby the last time we really talked about any of this, maybe in the new year, we can start, you know… trying."

Bickslow was quickly pushing the shower curtain back slightly and sticking his head back through it and around the corner. "What?" he asked, too shocked to do anything other than stare at her as he quickly pushed his hair back and away from his face.

Had she really just said that?

She had really just said that.

And Bickslow really was too shocked to do anything but stare at her, because he hadn't been expecting it in the slightest. He hadn't been expecting that they'd even have that conversation again for a while, either, but there they were, having that conversation.

"We don't have to, not unless you really want to," she mumbled. "It's just that I don't really want to wait anymore, and I'm worried it will take a really long time this time…"

Huh. Bickslow retreated back behind the wall into the shower and just stared at the tiled wall and the metal rack in front of him. He… really didn't know what to say. Like, at all. He knew what he wanted to say, but whether that was the right thing or not, he didn't know.

He really had been convinced he'd have to wait all that time until they were even married to just start trying to get pregnant again. And, you know, he was okay with that. Sort of. It gave him plenty of time to get ready, and it gave Lucy plenty of time, too, but he'd never really thought about just how long it would actually take. Two years really was a long time, which he now knew, and he didn't want to be waiting two years just to hold their baby, either.

But on the other side of things, there was the issue of whether or not they would be rushing things if they did start trying in the new year like Lucy wanted to. Then again, did it really matter if they were? They both knew what they wanted, and they had both known when they would want it – but that had obviously changed – so really, where was the harm in just doing it?

"So…" Despite being in the shower, he had to lick his lips to make them a little less dry before continuing, "You want to actually start trying to get pregnant?"

She nodded, even though he couldn't see her. "I do, but it's not something you have to decide on right now, either. You know, you can… You can think on it for a while because it's not really something you should decide on right away…"

Bickslow didn't need to think about it though. He knew what he wanted, and he knew what Lucy wanted, and that was important. Or at the very least, it was all that was important to him – the rest could come later. "Lucy."

"Yes?"

"You have five seconds to get in here."

Lucy rolled her eyes. "No. I'm comfortable here." And to be perfectly honest, she didn't really want to face him right then, just in case she got disappointed.

"Four," he began counting down.

"Bicks, no," she giggled.

"Three."

And then the babies managed to pull the plug in the bath, and she heard the water begin to spiral down the drain and she felt it slowly begin to empty. "Babies, no!" But they just giggled at her before floating back up just to twirl around and rid themselves of the bubbles and excess water.

"Two."

"Okay, okay, I'm coming…" Standing up, she stepped out of the tub and carefully crossed over to the shower, and as soon as she had stepped in and slid the curtain back closed, Bickslow's arms were around her and she was trapped between him and one cold wall when his lips found hers.

"So you really want to?" he asked as he took a step back, just so Lucy's back wasn't against the tiles. Even if he'd tried to, he wouldn't have been able to keep the grin from his face, because, well… He was really excited all of a sudden.

Lucy shrugged and she avoided his gaze. "Yeah…"

"And what if it doesn't take a long time? You know, like, what if you're pregnant before we're married?"

"What? You think I wouldn't look good in my dress if I was knocked up?"

"The opposite, actually," he chuckled.

Lucy didn't really care all that much about the wedding though. She was excited about it, sure, but she was much more interested in starting their family right then. And even if it did happen in the eight months from the start of the year to the date she would like to be married on, and she was actually pregnant then, she wouldn't care. "Well, even if I am, I won't mind," she said. "And the date can always be changed. We don't have to get married in August."

Well, she has a point. But whether it took one or ten months that time, Bickslow didn't care. As long as it happened, they'd be fine, and then if it didn't, well… They'd figure something else out. Right then though, if it was one thing Bickslow was sure of, it was that he wanted to do it. He wanted to try. And even if it did take just one month, he'd be fine with that, because at the end of the day, they'd still have another nine months before they even had their baby, and that was more than enough time for Bickslow to be ready.

And, well… Say goodbye to sleep, too. He was going to have to do that.

Everything else they'd need to do to get ready for that though, could just come after.

"So you really want to try to have a baby?" he asked once again.

"You asked me that like thirty seconds ago, Bickslow," Lucy answered, though the way Bickslow was smiling right then made it hard for her to glower, and her own smile was tugging at the corners of her lips. "My answer hasn't changed."

"Then let's do it."

"You… You want to?"

Bickslow nodded. "Yup. Why wouldn't I?"

Lucy shrugged. "I don't know…" she murmured. "I know that you said you weren't really ready to have a baby anyway, and, you know, that's fine. I just… I want to make sure that you're sure you want to do this."

"I'm incredibly sure."

"So we're really going to do this?"

His face was nearly hurting with how much he was smiling, but he didn't care in the slightest. He was the happiest he'd felt in a while, and he was so incredibly excited for the next year, because hopefully, there'd be a lot of great things happening that year, and those, he couldn't wait for. And just seeing how excited Lucy was right then too, so hopeful and overjoyed – he knew that Lucy felt the exact same way as he did.

"We're really going to do this," he whispered, though he surprised himself a little when an easy chuckle slipped past his lips. They were really going to do it, and that was… Wow. "Looks like baby fever really is contagious though, huh?"

And then it wasn't long before Lucy was giggling near uncontrollably, though slightly nervously, and Bickslow was laughing along with her while trying not to slip on the wet tiles as he picked her up and had her wind her legs around his waist, because really, where was the harm in getting a little bit of a head start?

The holidays had crept up faster than Bickslow had wanted them to. Before long, they only had a few more days left in Magnolia before they'd leave for Crocus for just another week to spend Christmas with Bickslow's family.

That wasn't the problem that Bickslow found himself facing though. No, he was incredibly excited about being able to go back to Crocus. The trip there was long, but whatever, it was still worth it, even if he would have to get up at 6 a.m. to get on a train.

Bickslow's problem that he was struggling to deal with one week before Christmas, was that he had absolutely no idea what to get Lucy. He'd managed to figure out what to get his team – and, unfortunately, her team too – and even his sisters and their kids (buying Layla, Damian, and Jasper presents might have been the best and easiest part of all of his Christmas shopping), but he didn't know what to do about Lucy.

Well, he'd gotten her a few things, but they were only small items. None of what he'd already bought her was enough though. He knew that he needed something more, because to him, nothing else felt like it was good enough, and considering it was the first of many, many Christmases they'd have together (the first one from the year they'd started dating the first time didn't count anymore), he wanted to make it super awesome and super special.

Bickslow just didn't know how to.

And that was how he found himself wandering Magnolia one afternoon, trying to think of what would be the gift of all gifts for his fiancée. Since she was out on a job and wasn't due back for another two days, he had time to do that. He could wrap the other ones that he'd hidden in places she couldn't reach, too, but wrapping presents wasn't anywhere near as important as finding something else to give her.

It was just so goddamn difficult, and when he realised that he'd seemingly walked around the entire town and quite possibly been down every single street and passed every single store and shop of any kind, he sighed. He really was running out of time.

But he just kept walking anyway, his hands in his pockets and the babies following lazily behind him, because he was most definitely not going to find anything to get Lucy for Christmas in a street filled with nothing but houses and apartments.

Or maybe he was…

The topic of them moving had been brought up once or twice in the last few months, not so much recently, yet they'd come to the agreement that they would move after they were married, or maybe a little beforehand. But now that they'd be trying to get pregnant in the new year, several months earlier than they'd originally planned on doing so (which Bickslow was still very much excited for), Bickslow was suddenly realising that maybe, it would be best for them to move and find a bigger and better place before they were married. You know, maybe it would be good for them to get things like that sorted out before everything became too chaotic…

He'd never really put much thought into them moving until right then, either, and he could admit that seeing all of the 'home open', 'for sale', and 'for rent' or 'auction' signs on the buildings on that particular street were partly to blame for him slowing his pace and actually looking at some of them and thinking about it seriously. The last time he'd even come down that particular street had been more than a year earlier, though then, it had been in a state much worse from the aftermath of Tartaros. Even now, some buildings were still being fixed up and repaired from all of the damage they had sustained – he knew this area had been one of the most badly damaged ones in Magnolia – so it almost did make sense that a lot of the houses on that street alone were back on the market. They were getting fixed up and it was time for them to have new tenants.

It wasn't a bad area, either. It was actually one of the nicer parts of Magnolia. And it wasn't as if there were things that made it really stand out as being nicer, because as large as Magnolia was, almost the entire town was built with the exact same style, and almost every building was an apartment building or a townhouse, not that that was a bad thing. It was just a nice part of the town, because it was near the heart of the town, and everything was just a short walk away.

As Bickslow walked, still slowly through the relatively quiet street – a lot of people had moved after the town had basically been destroyed – he could actually see himself living in that kind of area. He hadn't really been able to before, not when he'd first moved to Magnolia and when he'd been looking at apartments before he'd just ended up buying the one he'd lived in for years. But he could see it now, because they were nice houses and he had a nice life now, and it was a nice life that was only going to get nicer…

He stopped then outside one particular house, one with a 'home open' sign on the fence around the small yard that was so small Bickslow wasn't even sure it could be called a yard, since it was really just a few empty garden beds in the front of the townhouse that obscured what Bickslow assumed to be the windows of a basement. The house itself was nice enough, too, though the faces of some of the people who just walked out and passed him made Bickslow think the inside wasn't as nice as the outside. Which, sure, admittedly wasn't all that great if he had to be perfectly honest, though Bickslow could see that it was still going through some repairs from the scaffolding out the back that he could just make out over the steep roof.

Regardless of that and the faces of the couple who were walking towards the market district just at the end of the street, Bickslow found himself stepping forward and climbing the five steps of the stairs, and walking through the open doors.

He found himself in a hallway then. The first thing he noticed was how the wallpaper in there was torn and peeling, and just horrible. Honestly, it looked like it hadn't been changed in the last forty years.

On his left, there was a living room of sorts, he assumed, with a well-maintained fireplace against the wall, and on the other side of that room where it narrowed, he saw an old desk sitting in the middle above a dusty rug.

Ahead, there were stairs going down, and beyond that, a long hall which he figured would lead to bedrooms and bathrooms.

And on his right, he had the kitchen and dining, but as he stepped in there, he was stuck staring at where the kitchen should have been. It was missing. Well, most of it was. The island and some of the cabinets were intact, yet the back wall had most obviously been demolished and rebuilt quite recently, which Bickslow didn't find all that surprising considering the previous year's events. He could see a small yard at the back of the house through the glass door between the full-height cabinets on one wall and the windows on the perpendicular wall, and there was another door next to the cabinets which when he peeked inside, showed a small bathroom.

Before he could explore any more though, a voice had him turning around. "Oh! I didn't think anyone else would be coming in today," the man in front of Bickslow said. He was older than Bickslow, much older, and his dark brown hair was slicked back though the loose strands only made him look tired.

"Oh, sorry," Bickslow mumbled. "I was just a little curious. I can leave."

"No, it's fine," the man laughed nervously. "I can give you a tour of the place if you're interested?"

Bickslow considered it for a moment before nodding and extending his hand to the man. "Thanks, that would be great. And, I'm Bickslow." A tour seemed like a good idea. Sort of.

Bickslow was walking into the guild the next morning and instantly seeking out his team with a grimace. Thankfully, they were all sitting down in the same place, and so he was skipping the bar to get something for breakfast and instantly heading over to the table where his team sat.

"I did a stupid thing," he announced.

"What did you do?" Laxus asked, smirking.

Oh, Bickslow had done a very stupid thing. "I… bought a house," Bickslow answered. "Sort of." Well, he'd paid the deposit on it, and signed some kind of official document with the man that had owned the house – Hamilton, his name was – just that morning, so it was pretty much his…

But as crappy as the house had been, by the time Hamilton had shown him around and told him all about the upcoming renovations and repairs that were still scheduled to be done come January and February (there was a lot of work that still needed to be done to get it into shape), he'd been completely in love with it, which had surprised the original owner since so many people had walked away, having the image of what it currently looked like stuck in their heads. The floorboards in the master bedroom at the back of the house were having to be replaced, and the entire thing was supposed to be repainted (though Bickslow had told him not to bother with that, since painting he could take care of) and all of the wallpaper to be removed for good. The kitchen was getting completely rebuilt because of the damage from Tartaros, which had only wiped out most of the back end of the house, hence being rebuilt. The bathrooms were just gross and old, but those could easily be remodelled too, so Bickslow hadn't bothered with that, either.

But as much work as it needed, he'd still loved it. It was perfect for what they needed. Not too big that it would be too hard to clean and maintain, though it wasn't too small where they'd be driving each other insane. The bedrooms were moderately sized – the master had its own bathroom and a walk in closet which Bickslow completely adored because they most definitely did not have enough room for all of their clothes in the apartment. The basement could be turned into absolutely anything since it was basically just one big room with windows at the front and the back so there was some natural light being let in, and the area off the side of the living room could easily be turned into a small study for Lucy. Or even just a place to put all of their books and curl up on a comfy chair with a blanket and waste the day away with a book.

He'd only seen the endless possibilities for what every room could become when he'd been there, unlike every other person who had seen it, and, well… He'd done the very stupid thing. Because he was stupid.

"You sort of bought a house?" Evergreen repeated.

Bickslow nodded. "Yup."

"…Does Lucy know?" Freed asked slowly.

"Ah, no," the Seith mage answered, scratching the back of his head and wincing. That was the problem: Lucy had no idea. She wasn't even in Magnolia, yet she'd be coming to back to Bickslow suddenly owning one apartment, and being in the middle of owning a house too. That was most definitely not going to go down well, because buying a house was something they were supposed to talk about.

He wasn't supposed to see one and buy it within twenty-four hours (because really, even if he'd only paid the deposit, he could actually afford to buy it because he had savings from so many years of not paying rent or a mortgage on the apartment, but he hadn't been allowed to pay anything but a deposit right then). That was just crazy. And even then, he wasn't supposed to buy a house that still had a lot of work to be done to it, even when they wouldn't be the ones to do all of it because it wasn't even close to being ready to live in anyway.

...But it really had been so perfect, and if he hadn't been one thousand percent sure of himself that Lucy would love it too – because he almost felt like he knew her better than he knew himself sometimes, and even when they hadn't talked about what they would want their home to have when they moved out of the apartment, he'd just known it was absolutely perfect for them – he wouldn't have bought it otherwise.

"Wait, so," Laxus chimed in again as he took a breath to regain himself – he'd been laughing too much at the situation. "You bought a house without telling your girlfriend?"

"Pretty much."

"Did you at least talk about buying a house beforehand?" Freed questioned.

"Nope."

Evergreen was trying not to laugh as she kept Jax occupied in her lap. "So you, what, bought a house on a whim?"

"Something like that, yes," Bickslow sighed, and he leant forward to rest his chin in his palms. "What do you think the odds of me coming out of this alive are?" Because really, he was questioning just how much they would be in his favour.

At the very least, though, he could say it was a Christmas present.

Well, maybe.