A/N: I've been on some kind of roll with writing and updating lately, so I thought while I'm at it, I'll keep working on these minor fic chapters since a lot of them have been sitting in my WIP folder half-finished since some point last year.

I still have a couple more chapters planned for this AU... Not too sure yet. I had limited ideas to begin with. What I will say, though, is that there are two side-AU (basically what I'm calling any side-story of this AU that deviates from the 'canon' in this AU). One of them is, well, smut - assuming I ever get around to finishing it - and the other involves them becoming human again, and basically they grow up together and it's pure fluff. Naturally, these don't follow the canon storyline that I've created for this AU, hence why they will be posted separately when I eventually get around to finishing them.

Life and Death

If it was one thing Bickslow didn't particularly love about being a reaper, it was that things like birthdays and holidays were never celebrated.

He'd already seen so many Christmases and Thanksgivings go by – so many that he'd already lost count – that he'd forgotten what it felt like to celebrate something himself. Every year, Bickslow saw how much joy and happiness his humans felt from being able celebrate just the simplest thing like a birthday with their family and friends, but it had just been so long since he'd felt that himself for the same reasons that he honestly didn't know how it felt.

And he felt joy and he felt happiness, because by some stroke of luck he'd found himself paired with that one particular guardian angel right from his first day as a reaper. But the joy and the happiness he felt from getting to spend almost every hour of every day with that guardian angel, or even from constantly learning something new about the world – it just wasn't the same.

Bickslow just wanted to be able to celebrate something again. But reapers…

Reapers, and even angels… They didn't have anything to celebrate. There was nothing in their world that was worth celebrating. And that was what Bickslow hated the most.

So he only decided that something needed to be celebrated. The only problem was that Bickslow didn't know what to celebrate, but he knew that he wanted it to be grand and memorable; he needed it to be something he could remember until the end of time itself. Because honestly, things were just getting boring, and he missed being able to look back on his memories and laugh about everything, all because he couldn't remember a single thing about his life.

The fact that he couldn't remember anything about his life as a human was exactly why he didn't want to celebrate anything that was distinctly his – like his birthday, or even his death-day for that matter. It just didn't interest him, and even less interesting to him at that point in his life as a reaper were the holidays. He'd just seen them change so much over the decades that they'd lost all meaning to him, and after his parents had reached their times and then his baby sister had decades later, Bickslow had just stopped caring about anything that had once been all about family.

But then he remembered Lucy, not that he could ever forget about her. She was the person he adored more than life – well, sort of – itself, and with them nearing the end of their third human in a row together, Bickslow really couldn't imagine being paired with any other guardian angel. He didn't want to be, either.

But celebrating something with Lucy – that was sure to be memorable. And he loved the idea of being able to do something for her, too, because as far as Bickslow was concerned, Lucy deserved the whole goddamn universe. He couldn't give her that, as much as he wanted to. But he could give her something to celebrate and something to enjoy, and he was sure as hell going to try his best and make it something that Lucy wouldn't ever be able to forget.

The only problem was that Bickslow still didn't know all that much about Lucy. As immortal beings, they'd lost most of who they'd once been, so asking Lucy when her birthday (or death-day) was, was simply out of the question, because she just wouldn't remember. Even then, Bickslow didn't want to ask Lucy anything, because he wanted it to be a surprise.

So that was how Bickslow found himself visiting the grand archives – the one place in their universe where both reapers and guardian angels could be simultaneously and there were zero segregations. Nothing in the grand archives belonged to just the reapers, and nothing belonged to just the angels, either. Every single thing in there was available to everyone.

No one really visited the archives, though, and Bickslow didn't blame them. It was just an oversized library with the records of every single person that had ever existed. The only reason he'd been there at all was because Lucy had taken him there not long after his re-birth as a reaper, just to let him know that it a place that actually existed. But for the most part, Bickslow hated the place, just because he'd found it a little weird that there were tomes describing each and every person that had ever lived on that planet. There was one for him there as well. The only problem was that it was sealed off from Bickslow – reapers and guardian angels alike weren't allowed to access their personal records of their human lives.

There were, of course, a few people that did like to frequent the archives, although they were mostly researchers and trying to figure out the last remaining mysteries of the world… Like how some people are reborn as reapers or angels, despite having lived their entire life like they'd been supposed to, whereas others just go straight on to the next world. From what Bickslow could tell, it involved a hell of a lot of reading, studying everyone's records in immense detail, and then experimenting with what little control they had over a human's life to see if it was something that occurred in their human life that determined being reborn as an immortal (all that was certain, as far as Bickslow knew, was that anyone who did die before their time, became a reaper just like he had). That was what reapers like Freed and Levy – and countless others – focused on, because they were complete fucking nerds.

And as new and young as he was as a reaper (compared to others, at least), Bickslow could never see himself forfeiting his humans just to fucking study them. He was pretty sure he'd hated it as a human himself, so doing as a reaper? Hell to the fucking no.

When Bickslow arrived at the grand archives that particular evening (well, it was his human's evening, so it was his evening as well), he wasn't the least bit surprised to find his favourite nerds sitting at two of the executive desks in the large hall, and with stacks of brown leather-wrapped tomes on either side of them. There were hundreds of other scattered about with their own stacks of records beside them, and then some were just sitting back with their feet up and chuckling at the life story of a random human.

Bickslow didn't bother talking to anyone that day though. He was there for one reason, and one reason alone.

He made his way towards the sectioned-off quarter of the archives, where all the records of every former and current reaper and angel existed. Bickslow had no idea who it was that moved each record over from the general section to the immortals section, but he didn't really want to know. Whoever the guy was, he had one hell of a tedious job.

The immortals section was a little smaller than the general archives themselves, but the records of reapers and angels were stored a little differently. Those records utilised pockets of space that didn't exist in the human world (not that anything about his world was humanistic to begin with), which meant the amount of space required to hold ten records in the general section, was equal to a hundred in the immortals. Bickslow really had no idea why, but it was fancy, and the magic archives were pretty damn cool, so he wasn't going to question it.

An archive attendant greeted Bickslow when he passed through the gate to that section. "Good evening, Bickslow," the spritely old man behind the desk said. Bickslow wasn't fazed by him knowing his name, either – apparently, the people who worked in the archives knew everything and everyone automatically. Or that was what Lucy said. "How can I be of assistance?"

"I'm, uh… I'm looking for the records of someone," Bickslow answered. He'd never actually done this before, not for a guardian angel at least. He'd only ever accessed his sister's records, not long after she'd finally passed at the age of ninety-four. She was the only part of his human life that he could actually remember, and he planned on keeping it that way for as long as he could. Still, for humans, all Bickslow had to do was wander around for a file until he found the book he was looking for. Somehow Bickslow didn't think it was for same for the records of angels.

"A reaper's?"

"Angel's," he mumbled.

The man nodded. "Ah, I see." He hopped off his chair and walked around the desk, and motioned for Bickslow to follow him deeper into the archives. Bickslow could help but stare as he slowly followed. The man was shorter than Levy, and his pure white beard was almost long enough that it touched the ground. "Do you have a name?"

"Um, Bickslow," he said.

"For the angel."

"Oh! Right! Sorry, uh. Lucy. That's all I know."

After walking for what felt like an hour, they finally stopped at a row labelled Hea-Hea, and Bickslow followed the archive attendant halfway down the row. He climbed the ladder, then pulled himself along the rack. He scoured them for a moment, finger tracing the edges of the spines as he searched for the record in question, then suddenly exclaimed, "A-ha! Here she is…" The attendant carefully pulled the leather-bound tome from the sixth shelf, and gently blew the dust from the cover before climbing down the ladder to hand it to Bickslow. "Is this the one?"

"I don't know…" Bickslow mumbled. He opened it up though, and like with any other record, on the front page there was a moving portrait of the person it was about. And on that one, there was a portrait of Lucy, looking exactly the same as she did as a guardian angel. Below it, the name 'Lucy Heartfilia' was printed in fancy lettering, along with her birth date, death date, and location of both. Without a doubt, Bickslow knew it was the right record. "Actually, this is it. Thank you."

The other man nodded and smiled politely. "Glad to be of service. Just remember that these records cannot be taken out of the archives," he said. Bickslow nodded as he idly walked down the aisle, already reading the first page of Lucy's history. "When you're done, just place it on the cart at the end of the row. I'll leave you to it now."

"Uh-huh… Sure thing…"

And so Bickslow found somewhere to sit down, and read. And his eyes didn't leave the pages once, not until he was finished. But by the time he was finishing the last page, he was almost wishing he hadn't read Lucy's records. She'd had such an amazing life right at her fingertips, one with a family, but then… Then she'd died.

Regardless of how reading about Lucy's life and death as a human had made him feel, Bickslow still went ahead with his plans. It wasn't really a milestone or anything, because he would've been waiting decades for that and he was strangely impatient when it came to Lucy. Part of him had debated whether it was a good idea to go ahead with his celebration plans, but in the end, he'd decided to try and make it as joyous as he could. The last thing he wanted was to upset Lucy.

So, a few weeks after first reading Lucy's human record, Bickslow was taking Lucy's hand pulling Lucy away from their human for the night, ignoring her questions, and teleporting them to the rooftop garden that boasted the best views of the city at night. When Bickslow pulled out a cardboard hat and blew on the paper horn, Lucy couldn't help but laugh and roll her eyes at him.

"Alright, spill. What's all of this?" she managed to get out while putting her hand up beside her face to stop Bickslow from poking her with the damn paper horn.

"It's a celebration!" Bickslow answered excitedly. He got rid of the paper horn, thankfully (for the time being, at least), and then had two party poppers appearing in his hands, one for him and one for Lucy. She took it hesitantly, giving him a sceptic look in the process, before he let his own off and got them both covered in confetti and miniature streamers. "Man, I can't believe this things died out. They're so cool!"

Lucy scowled as she pulled paper from her hair. "They're amazing…" She set hers in her pocket before crossing her arms over her chest, and then stepped away from Bickslow to look around the rooftop. There was nothing but a few herb and vegetable gardens, as well as some deck furniture and clothes lines. It certainly didn't look like there was going to be a celebration of any sort there. "But… How exactly is this a celebration? And what are we celebrating to begin with?"

"Ah. Right." He'd forgotten to actually set up. So with a simple wave, the entire rooftop was transformed, lanterns suspended on ropes over the entire area, and comfy lounges next to the edge for them to sit and just wait for the sun to rise – it was supposed to be a spectacular view. "Better?"

That time, Lucy smiled. Sometimes she thought Bickslow's materialisation skill was better than her own. Her lil' baby reaper… She'd taught him so well. "Much better," she whispered.

"As for what we are celebrating…" Bickslow began. He took Lucy's hand again to lead her over to the lounge chairs, and then sat down on the edge of one of the lounges, and let go of her hand just to lay his out in front of him, palms side up, and have a tray of perfectly decorated rainbow cupcakes with gold and silver dust sprinkled over the icing appear in front of him. "Well, we're celebrating just for the sake of it, really," he finished with a grin.

Okay, so it was a lie. Sort of. Knowing how Lucy had died, and knowing what she'd missed out on experiencing, Bickslow couldn't really bring himself to tell her that the day actually marked her 526th year as a guardian angel; and 526 years since she'd died at the mere age of nineteen. Her death wasn't exactly something to be celebrated, even if her death marked her birth as a guardian angel as well, and the latter… Well, Bickslow preferred the latter naturally.

So in the end, Bickslow hadn't really needed a reason to celebrate anything. All that mattered to him was that he got to have a little bit of human fun with Lucy just once, because she was his best friend and he loved her and of course he liked making her happy.

And, once Lucy saw the cupcakes, her eyes were widening with delight and her mouth almost began to water. They didn't need to eat, but like many things angels and reapers still did, they did it because it was good. And cupcakes, like the occasional nap every year or so, were great.

"Mmm… Please tell me they're chocolate…" Lucy murmured as she carefully picked up the cupcake from the top of the tray.

"Of course. Come on, I've known you for like, three humans. You think I don't know by now to always give you chocolate?" Bickslow scoffed. When Lucy had been teaching him to materialise things, about how they had the power to create anything they imagined, as long as they had a clear image of it in their head, she'd had him create a whole lot of sweet treats. Mostly double fudge brownies.

So, with their chocolate rainbow cupcakes, they made themselves comfortable on their lounge chairs and just enjoyed the city view while teasing each other as they usually did. It wasn't until Bickslow had wound up on Lucy's chair and the cupcakes had all been eaten, with Lucy leaning against his chest and his arms around her, that Bickslow began to feel guilty again.

Did Lucy even want to know what day it was? Did she want to remember just how it was she'd died? Bickslow supposed she didn't, but on the other hand… She was happy now. Or at least he thought she was. Maybe telling her that it was the day she'd been born as a guardian angel wouldn't hurt her as much as he worried it might. And, hell, it had been 526 damn years. She'd have been able to move on by now, right?

Fuck it, though. If he didn't say it then, he was going to blurt it out eventually, and in his head, that would just be a disaster. And he didn't want it to be a disaster.

So he decided to tell her and just get it out with.

"I went to the grand archives again," he finally said softly. "A little while ago."

Lucy tilted her head into his shoulder to look up to him. "Yeah? Were you reading your sister's record again?"

"No. I was reading yours."

She looked back down and it was easy for Bickslow to notice the sudden shift in her. "Oh…" she whispered. That wasn't what Lucy had been expecting to hear in the slightest. She had to admit that it was a little unnerving that Bickslow knew more about her than she did – or at least about who she had been. "Any good?" she laughed nervously.

Bickslow frowned. "I know when you died. How you died."

"When was it?"

After a beat, he answered, "…Today." She tensed in his arms and Bickslow tightened his arms around her, ducking his head forward slightly just to glance over her shoulder and peer at her face. This wasn't a conversation that she was comfortable having. He could tell that.

"I see…"

Bickslow didn't know whether he should tell her the rest of what he knew, though. He could tell her all about her human life if she wanted to, tell her the exact time she'd met her husband in that life or the first time she'd ever truly felt proud of herself for something. He knew it all. Every single detail.

But did Lucy want to know all of that? He doubted it. Just like he doubted her wanting to know just how many years she'd been a kind, caring guardian angel, or how it was she'd come to reach her end in the first place.

But that was when Lucy surprised him, and she asked with a small voice, "How, um… How did it happen? You know… How did I… die?" It had been a hell of a long time since she'd died. That much Lucy knew. So… So maybe it wouldn't be that bad if Bickslow told her. She'd probably forget in a few years, a decade or so at most.

"…Are you sure? You probably don't—"

"Bickslow, please," she said a little more firmly, turning slightly just so she could look up at him a little easier. "Tell me."

With a sigh, Bickslow nodded. "Alright." He couldn't deny her anything if he'd tried, especially not when she looked at him with an almost ferocity in her eyes that he hadn't seen in… Well, years. "It… It was during childbirth."

"Oh."

If anything though, as much as it had upset him to find out how Lucy had died, he hadn't been that surprised, not once he'd seen the age she'd died at and the century she'd been alive in. The world she'd known then had been entirely different to the one Bickslow had grown up in, and then different again to the world they were currently in. Technology, medicine… None of it had really been around in Lucy's time. Most of it had been based on faith or natural remedies, but those kinds of things didn't do much for severe bleeding. Some things, faith couldn't heal.

"Girl or boy?" Lucy asked then.

"I, uh… I didn't find that out…" Bickslow mumbled.

She looked back over her should with an eyebrow raised. She could see right through him. "Are you really trying to tell me you didn't go and look for their record after you read mine?"

He looked away guiltily. "Maybe…" Okay, so he had, because he'd been damn curious, and Lucy's own records hadn't actually said whether she'd had a girl or a boy. So, he'd gone and searched for her child's records, and much to his delight, he'd found it in the general section. "But are you sure you even want to know? I mean… I don't want to tell you if it's going to upset you…"

"I'll be fine. I'm a big girl. I'm—wait, how old am I anyway?"

"As a guardian angel? Or you know, like… Your physical age…"

"As a guardian angel."

"Oh. Five hundred and twenty six," Bickslow grinned.

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Sheesh, I knew I'd been around for a while, but five centuries?" she mumbled. She'd thought it closer to maybe four. Time really flies when you're technically dead… "Anyway. Come on, tell me. Girl or boy?"

It was Bickslow's turn to roll his eyes, and he did so when Lucy shifted so she was sitting sideways in his lap and leaning against his arm and one of the wooden armrests. "It was a girl. Her name was Arden, and she lived to the ripe old age of fifty-seven after living a wonderful life." Although in Lucy's time, fifty-seven was pretty close to a miracle. "And no, she did not become a reaper or an angel like you, either. She was in the general archives."

She smiled softly to herself, letting her head fall to rest on his shoulder and then gazing back out to the city view. "That's good," she whispered. Naturally, Lucy had no memory of it at all. And she would admit, that she felt a strange yearning for something that she'd never really had the chance to know, but that was okay. She was happy the way she was, as who she was. Hearing how she'd died hadn't really upset her at all.

Bickslow was only relieved to know that it hadn't upset her, too. Had he done so, then he would've known. He wasn't the least bit concerned about Lucy's happiness right then.

And so, for a little while, all they did was sit quietly, with Lucy still sitting against his chest and with Bickslow having zero intentions of letting go – he cherished any kind of contact he had with her those days. But after a while of just watching the never-sleeping city before them, and listening to the faint hum of the traffic far below, Bickslow couldn't help the smirk that tugged at the corner of his mouth as he eventually said, "You know, you're pretty damn sexy for someone in their five-hundreds."

And for that, he got an elbow in his stomach. "Remember when I used to hate you?" she mumbled menacingly.

"Aw, baby, come on. You never hated me to begin with."

Maybe, for once, the reaper was right.

A/N: Is it hundreds or hundredths? Honestly, I couldn't figure it out. (Edit: I did actually know it was 'hundreds'. It's just been a long time since I've actually done actual math-math, and referring to an age in the hundreds just sounded strange to me, naturally. But thank you for those who did clarify it for me.)