Well, it's the start of my weekend. Having the next two nights off, I decided to get down to it and write up another chapter. I did have something I wanted to ask though. How does everyone feel about the level of smut in this story? Too much and not enough plot? Should there be more? Is it just right? I wanted to ask, and if there's any suggestions, feel free to let me know. I'm just curious how this is standing with everyone and I'd really like to know. If you could be so kind as to review and tell me your thoughts I would really, really appreciate it.
Chapter 6: In Which Interruptions can be Rage Inducing
"So Bickslow is going to be teaching you magic?" Mirajane asked as she wiped out a mug that had been freshly washed just a short time ago. There was an entire wet tray of them and the barmaid was getting them all dried off. Lunch rush would no doubt be starting soon and the woman was nothing if not good at preparing for a heavy work load.
"Yeah. I've been feeling a little underwhelming since Tenrou Island," Lisanna admitted. "I could have helped out a lot more back then, and I want to get stronger. I thought studying a similar branch of magic could help out, or at least pep me back up."
"Well, that's awfully kind of you, Bickslow. Thank you."
The Seith mage looked up from his drink and merely grinned. So far it seemed the story was going well. Lisanna had been chatting happily with her older sister for a while now before he'd slid up to the bar and she'd brought it up as if just remembering some small, little detail. Practically unimportant. Hardly even worth mentioning.
He had to admit, he felt relieved Mira was swallowing the lie so easily.
They'd decided to wait a little while in order to tell her about it and had let an entire day pass before bringing it up to her. No one had seen Lisanna at the male dormitories, but they'd decided that the story of her wandering by and talking to him about lessons was the perfect cover. Truths sprinkled in with lies made it all a lot easier to keep straight. Honestly, he would have been willing to even tell her the day they'd come up with the plan, but his babies were being very stubborn in misbehaving. Shushing them when they'd continued to tease Lisanna about being an exhibitionist, and how they even knew that word was beyond even Bickslow, had only encouraged them to tease her more. It had taken him threatening to lock them in a box for hours to finally get them to calm down and he had a feeling they knew it was a bluff. He'd never had it in his heart to curb their behavior, especially since he wasn't the pillar of maturity anyway.
Still, so far they were behaving today and hadn't said anything that would give away the big secret. Good thing they knew the difference between teasing and getting Bickslow in real trouble. He was grateful they knew boundaries, and admittedly while it had been embarrassing to be seen by them doing such things, watching Lisanna freak out about how sorry she was right after had been cute too. She really seemed to have thought she'd done something wrong. As if they could be mentally scarred or anything.
"So when will these magic lessons happen?" Mira asked as she went over to refill his mug of ale. He was several seats away from the Strauss sisters as if to appear close by to be part of the conversation if need be, but not so close it would have looked like he was seeking Lisanna out when he had sat down. What could he say? The details were in everything.
"Probably whenever we have time," he answered casually. "She's got her work and I've got my own missions too. Ever already has another lined up we'll be going to tomorrow or the day after."
"Why the wait?" Lisanna asked.
"Oh, she just wants to see a certain muscle bound man before we leave," he drawled out with a smirk. The Strauss sisters giggled loudly together, not sounding unlike a set of bells chiming and his babies giggled as well.
"Man! Man!" they exclaimed.
"Oh, don't laugh," Mira said, though she was still grinning wide. "I think it's sweet that they're getting along so well."
"She turned him into a statue when he opened the door for her," Lisanna pointed out. "She said he claimed he was treating her like she was weak or something."
"She's just being coy," Mira replied with a wave of her hand. "They're cute, I tell you."
"Well, I won't argue with that last part."
"You know, Lisanna, I think it's really nice that Elfman has someone he can be close with. It's really important to have someone you can rely on, that can make you feel special. I know it seems foolish when all you see if two people bickering but sometimes something really special can come from adversity," Mira said.
The two glanced at each other, wondering where she was going with this before she just smiled and went back to the mug she was drying.
"So, have you heard from Laxus?"
Bickslow had taken the wrong time to sip from his ale and he ended up coughing it up all over the bar. What the fuck? Did she think she was being subtle?
"Bickslow! Are you okay?" Lisanna cried out as she jumped up to hit him on the back, only causing him to cough and spit out more of his ale. The entire guild starting laughing before a green beam of energy shot out from Pappa and hit Gray right in the face, which of course caused Juvia to start yelling at him and swear eternal revenge, and of course Natsu had to get into it because fighting was like crack to the kid.
"Oh my," Mira said as she watched the mess before shrugging. "Well, I'll just ask him again later."
By the time it was all over, several holes were in the already beat up building and Macao was scolding all of the ones involved, which had pretty much been everyone. Bickslow didn't pay much attention to it, just catching words like debt, fees and other garbage. Honestly, he really missed when Fairy Tail was rich and powerful enough to not have to worry about such things. Besides, he was more concerned with thinking about Laxus.
Lisanna had told him about the woman's feelings for his leader but to actually hear a hint of it from Mira herself was still jarring. Maybe it was just because of his own relationship with Lisanna but the idea of those two suddenly seemed kind of weird. Then again, he couldn't imagine Laxus with anyone. Oh sure, he'd slept with plenty of girls, but since Mira had changed from vicious she-demon to a sweet and bubbly barmaid, she didn't strike him as the type to randomly knock boots with the Dragon Slayer and no way was Laxus a settling down type.
No way. That relationship would go nowhere fast.
Finally it seemed the chewing out was over with, which was a good thing because both he and Lisanna were supposed to be busy. They'd decided an actual lesson would be a good idea, in the guild hall were it was public and seen by everyone. That would avoid any suspicion when they would sneak off in the future and be allowed to fuck whenever they liked in peace.
The brawl has sort of delayed that, but it was fine. They could start now.
So he spread out a few books he'd brought for the occasion and Lisanna came right over once she'd seen what he was doing.
"Ready to get started?" she asked him happily and he grinned right back at her. Somehow this seemed oddly thrilling and naughty to him.
"Ready! Ready!" his babies cried out.
"Well, you heard them. Ready as we'll ever be," he said as he sat down. "Now, the first thing that's important to note is unlike most other magic, Seith magic doesn't rely on circles as much as-"
"Why's that? Sounds kind of lame to me?"
He glared over at Natsu, the stupid idiot having just plopped down next to Lisanna who looked just as surprised by his sudden presence as Bickslow was irritated.
"Natsu, hey there," she said, smiling a bit but casting a glance over at Bickslow. He only frowned back at her. It's not like the lesson was for anything other than show, but he hated to be interrupted.
Yes, interrupted. That, and only that, was the reason why he was annoyed Salamander of all people had to sit down at the table right next to Lisanna.
"So why don't you use circles?" Natsu asked.
"Um… Natsu, this lesson is kind of between Bickslow and I," Lisanna noted. "He agreed to teach me to help me with my magic."
"What's your magic have to do with one another?" Natsu asked. "I mean, you turn into animals and he has those freaky little dolls. Totally different. OW! OW! GET THEM OFF OF ME!"
"They don't like to be called names," Bickslow replied with a shrug as his babies continued to bounce off of the Dragon Slayer's skull. Served the idiot right for coming over here. He looked away so no one would notice the slight green glow behind his visor, a sign of his silent command to his babies to teach the brat a lesson for butting in.
"Call them off!" he demanded, waving his arms around like crazy to try to shoo them away.
"Bickslow!" Lisanna cried.
"Fine, fine. Babies, knock it off," he ordered. He couldn't help but feel pleased when every single one of them got a final hit in before flying away from Natsu, taunting him with vulgar names as they did so.
"You little pieces of wooden garbage! I'll make charcoal out of you!"
Lisanna just buried her face into her hands. Bickslow silently agreed with her. This was getting them no where fast.
"Can you tell your boyfriend to get lost?" he asked with mocking sweetness. He wasn't so much mad at her, but he was feeling irritated and there was a savage sort of happiness in him when both of them blushed.
"Y-yeah right! I aint her boyfriend!" Natsu exclaimed. "We're just friends!"
"Then why are you here?" he asked. "We're trying to have a lesson here and-"
"Well, I was interested! What, your magic too good to show off to more than one person at a time?"
"You aint smart enough to get it!"
"You calling me stupid?!"
"Guys!" Lisanna cried out suddenly, standing and slamming her hands on the table. "Come on, stop fighting! Bickslow, it's not a big deal if Natsu wants to sit in on the lesson. We're at the guild hall. If someone is interested, it's not like we can make them go away."
"Nyeh," Natsu taunted as he stuck his tongue out at Bickslow. The older mage envisioned cutting it out of his mouth.
"And Natsu," she said as she rounded on him next, "Bickslow has been very kind to say yes when I asked for magic lessons. I really want to do this, but I was the one who asked him, not you. If you want to sit in, I'm not going to object but if you're going to annoy him then he's gonna quit before we even get started and I really, really want to learn. So can you please just behave while we do this?"
Natsu grumbled a bit but nodded and Lisanna smiled before sitting back down next to him.
"Thank you. Tell you what, why don't we go fishing after this and catch some fish for Happy? Where is he anyway?" she asked.
"With Lucy," he said with a sulk. "There was a small job for running some errands in town and Lucy and Happy went out to do it. I was gonna go along, but it was all deliveries by cart and even looking at one of those things swaying around gets to me."
"Awww, you poor thing," she said as she patted him on the back. "Well, once their done all four of us can go fishing. Sound good to you?"
"Okay!" he exclaimed, seeming excited by the prospect. Bickslow's imagine in his head of cutting out his tongue suddenly included a much rustier knife, but he said nothing.
"Okay, shall we continue with our lesson?" Lisanna asked cheerfully. The oldest mage simply forced himself to grin, nod his head and get back to it.
The staged lesson didn't go very well though. Like Bickslow figured he would, Natsu ended up interrupting every five minutes with a question. After getting several insults from both the Seith magic user and his babies, things had fallen onto Lisanna to explain. She kept things simple for the Dragon Slayer, explaining mostly her own magic and how it related to Bickslow's.
"See, I take souls into my own body," she'd told him. "Mostly the souls of animals. Those are the weakest, but the safest to handle. There's a lot of diversity to it too, since I can swim and fly or anything else I might need to do because I have so many Take Over forms of different animals. Mira and Elf had stronger souls, but harder to control. It's all really complicated, but that's the basics of Take Over magic. You just have to find a balance you're comfortable with."
"And what about your magic?" Natsu asked Bickslow, but he'd long since gone to drinking from his ale and ignoring the whole damn thing. He didn't even bother to act like he'd heard him, and so Natsu went back to Lisanna. "You know anything about what he can do?"
"Oh… well, that was the point of the lesson, Natsu."
"Yeah, but he's not teaching anything to us."
At that point the man had pretty much just tuned out the rest and went back to his drink. A big part of him wanted to kick the crap out of the kid, but the fight from before was still pretty fresh and he didn't want to start something else again. Instead he just drank and watched his babies float around. He should have hit the Dragon Slayer harder with them, maybe knock him out.
Not that it would have done any good. Lisanna would have just freaked out and drug him off to be healed by Wendy or something. Not that he could blame her for preferring Natsu's presence, being in love with him and all.
Stupid Dragon Slayer.
A few hours went past before he finally gave up and packed up his books. This was going nowhere fast and he was starting to develop a headache anyway.
"We'll go ahead and continue another time," he told the girl as she looked up at him in confusion. "Go enjoy your fishing."
"But Bickslow," she protested before he cut her off.
"Don't worry about it, babe. We can always do this when I get back. There's no rush after all."
"No rush! No rush!"
She pouted but he forced himself to ignore it. It was getting late and he knew he wasn't getting any time with her anyway. Even if he had stuck around, Lucy would be back any time now with the job completed and some pay in hand, and they'd all run off to shop or hang out or something. The day in her company was as good as gone. Why bother to stick around any longer?
"Well, alright," she said, ignoring Natsu as he jumped up and ran to the bar to ask for some worms in order to get to fishing. "I'll see you later?"
He only shrugged.
"Probably when I get back from the job. Whenever that is," he said with easily an easily faked air of a nonchalant attitude. "I'll see you when I see you."
After all, he was the one who'd strictly forbidden jealousy. He couldn't blame her for wanting to spend time with her beloved. So what if they fished? So what if they fucked? It wasn't any of his business or concern where she got her pleasures when not with him and it seemed Natsu had all but claimed his territory on her for the day.
Whatever. He could do other things. It's not like putting on a show to the guild in order to bed her easier without getting caught was the only thing going on in his life right now. There was scouting out other jobs, digging himself out of debt, dealing with Evergreen's own debt and Freed's worry along with his own on just where Laxus could be hiding. He had way more important things to worry about Lisanna.
So he only gave her a casual wave as he finished packing up his books and made his way out of the guild hall. He didn't even wait for her to say good bye. Clearly she was already busy.
He wasn't even out of sight of the building when he heard running footsteps. Curious, he turned around only to have Lisanna tackle him and kiss him hungrily. Groaning immediately against her lips, he drug her into the cover of the trees in order to hide from any potential prying eyes.
"Keep watch," he snapped to his babies, who gleefully flew off to keep them from getting caught.
"Don't go without saying good bye," she panted against his lips before he devoured her mouth with his own. His hands were already going under her shirt to grope her breasts and she arched up into the touch, clearly happy for the attention.
"I thought you were busy," he hissed as he shoved himself against her and she hopped up to wrap her legs around him. He pinned her back to a tree and started grinding against her, making her hiss in approval at his use of force. "Don't you have fishing to go do?"
"Lucy isn't even back yet," she moaned out before pulling him by his collar into another kiss. His visor kept getting in the way, bouncing against her nose as they made out but both were too busy to move it out of the way. "We'll have to wait a little bit anyway."
"Won't the Salamander notice if you're gone?" he snarled as he grave a thrust of his hips against her core. She already felt warm under her tight pants and she gasped as she ground back against him.
"I can… afford a few minutes. Oh god, Bickslow. More," she pleaded with him.
"We don't have time," he protested, even as he imagined ripping her pants off, pinning her to the tree and fucking her from behind until she screamed so loud everyone in Fiore would hear her.
"I know," she whined before pouting. "Tonight. Can I meet you in the guild hall? I'll come here at midnight. No one will be around, and I can just tell Mira that I forgot something here, and when I get back I'll say I saw you here and that's why I'm late getting back."
"'Cause I forgot something too, and we decided to have an impromptu magic lesson to make up for the one Natsu interrupted," he agreed with a growl right into her ear before he bit the lobe and tugged playfully.
"It'll take hours," she agreed with a grin.
"It'll take all fucking night," he corrected, slamming his hips into her by this point.
She nearly screamed in her pleasure before he shoved his mouth against her own. Her nails were digging into his back harshly enough he could feel it even under his layers of clothing. God, he wanted to have her right there. He knew they'd be caught though. She was too loud to fuck just right outside of the hall and not have anyone hear. Besides, everyone must have seen her run after him. They'd come to check on her before too long.
It took all of his willpower to set her down and get his hands out of her shirt. She looked a little out of it, but smiled when he helped her fix her clothing and pat down her hair.
"Sorry Natsu interrupted the lesson," she said, her tone sincere.
"Meh. It happens. At the very least it's a good excuse to have the rest of them in private now," he said with a dark grin. "You should go, before Natsu thinks you disappeared and launches a rescue mission to come find you."
"Okay," she agreed before giving him one last peck and running off back to the guild. Damn, she looked really good from the back, just as good from the front. Her muscles just looked so fine when she was moving, so taunt and tight underneath of her smooth, milky looking skin. Those legs of hers would be the death of him.
He didn't bother to even go back home, instead hitting some restaurant to sip coffee until it got dark. He stuck his tongue out at the waitress that had his table every single time she insisted he should order something and left her a measly tip, just knowing it would piss her off. Sometimes ruining the day of someone else was the best way to pick up your own, and he was feeling pretty good by the time midnight swung around. He even picked up a bouquet of flowers for her, feeling he should give her a small thank you for making the effort to see him even as the day had sort of been shot to hell.
Then again, he was obviously treating her right if she was being so eager for his sexy body that she just couldn't help herself. Clearly sex with him was just as good a thank you as any. Screw it though. They smelled nice and he could afford some jewels to blow on her. It's not like it would hurt anything.
By the time morning rolled around, they were crushed in his hand and he wanted to rip every single stem apart. His babies had long since settled on the table he was sitting at and had gone dormant in order to sleep, and still no sign of Lisanna.
"Hey there, Bickslow. You're here early," Macao commented as he walked into the guild. The sun had only just come up and the wizard could feel the bags growing underneath of his eyes.
Where the fuck had Lisanna been?!
"Morning," he groaned, tossing the flowers onto the table. If he held them any longer he'd give into his urges and reduce them to mulch.
"Huh? What are the flowers for?" Romeo asked as he walked in behind his father. "Did you have a hot date?"
"Shut up, kid," he muttered. "They were for a lesson. Lisanna and I were going to continue after she was done fishing with Natsu, Lucy and Happy. I was going to show her the difference between getting souls into inanimate objects and freshly dead ones, like cut flowers. She never showed."
"Wow. That's a lot of dedication to teaching," Romeo said with a smile Bickslow wanted to wipe off his stupid face. Little brat. "She never showed?"
"Does it look like she showed?"
"You should have gone over to her house then, if you'd planned to continue the lesson," Macao said as he went over to the small stove for the guild. Bickslow saw him messing with the kettle and coffee grounds, obviously on the start of the day with some caffeine. "She was there after all."
"Right. Of course," he replied. "Should have figured."
"Well, Elfman did come back from his job last night. I guess she was so wrapped up in him being back, she forgot."
Bickslow would have preferred to think she hadn't been able to sneak out of the house and had spent all night missing him, longing for his body, but that didn't really help him feel any better either. And of course with Elfman back, Evergreen would be satisfied and want to get back to work. She'd probably insist on hopping a train right after breakfast. There was no excuse in his mind he could come up with that could get him out of it or get himself into Lisanna's bedroom long enough to have any fun.
He groaned and his forehead hit the table. Was this really worth the effort?
He remembered her clinging to him as he pushed her up against a tree, their mouths searing hot as they moved together and her groaned suggestion to meet him, just how needy she'd sounded when she'd suggested it.
Well… maybe he could swing by their place before allowing Ever and Freed to find him. Perhaps he'd get lucky and her siblings wouldn't be awake yet.
End of Chapter 6
I'm a bitch to Bickslow, and it's oddly satisfying.
