Cleansing
Lisanna liked many things about Bickslow. So many that she even had a list. A few of those items included the following.
Number one: He was fun.
And he was. Completely and utterly. Most everything they did had some sort of a twinge to it that made it a game. They could just be going to the market to buy something and he'd turn it into a race or something.
He just loved those sorts of things. He lived for the here and now. Considering all she had been through, she tried hard to ascribe to that life as well.
Which brought her to her next point.
Number two: He was easygoing.
Literally nothing bothered him. Not really. Not the way she still wasn't completely over Natsu. Or that her siblings were completely overbearing. Then there was the fact that she herself was that way as well. It was her first relationship, after all, the one she was forging with him. So she was clingy in many ways and unsure of herself, of their relationship. It was all new to her. But he was patient and kind and…well…
Number three: He was fiercely protective.
Of his babies, of course. Not her. Err…well…maybe her. She wasn't too sure yet. A situation hadn't arisen where he'd need to prove himself on that front, but hey, she figured if one did pop up, he wouldn't fail to impress her.
Oh, that was the next one.
Number four: He always managed to awe her.
He just did. In battle, he was beyond stellar. He and his babies could manage anything. Now, she didn't put him up there with, like, Mirajane or anything. No, she put no one on her big sister's level. But he was pretty dang close.
But in other ways, he was just as humbling.
Like how even though he played hard with the Thunder Legion, he was actually really sweet. Not that he wasn't pretty dang malicious at time (his maniacal cackle was one of the fixtures of his personality that she could do without), because he was. But she'd seen him before, helping Asuka with her coloring or offering to walk Ever home from the guild when it was super late out and he didn't want her to be alone.
He was kind. And engaging. If not downright charming. You just had to dig a little deeper with him.
That was all.
All of those things and more went into why Lisanna liked being with the seith so. However, that didn't mean that he wasn't without his faults.
There was only one, though, that day that she was focused on.
"You cannot be serious. Bickslow-"
"I don't see what the problem is," he said as he peeked over at her from the couch, where he was painting one of his babies. She'd come over about an hour ago to hangout and, eventually, got up to go to the bathroom.
Only to find it in its usual state of disarray.
"I mean," he went on as he went back to painting Pappa's new body (he and Pippi had had an unfortunate run in. Literally.) "So what? There's some stains and old clothes and all around the sink it practically black. I mean, sheesh. Didn't know you were such a priss."
"Bickslow," she hissed, turning to glare at him. "We just cleaned this last time I was here. Which, by the way, was only a month ago. Remember? I bought you all those cleaning supplies?"
"Yes, Lisanna," he said, making a face. It had been torture. "I remember it well. But you're forgetting something."
"What?"
"I'm a man. And I need my space. I didn't want to girl up my bathroom just so you could take a piss. I mean, please."
She blinked. Then she headed over to the couch and flicked the back of his head.
"Hey!" he complained as all his captured souls took to snickering. "It's not funny, babies."
"It's really not," Lisanna agreed, glaring at him. "I mean, honestly, Bickslow? You can't even pick up your clothes a little?"
"I just told you, I don't want-"
"I'm not trying to…girl up your apartment," she complained. "I mean, if I was, for one, a lot more would be changing around here than just you wiping up the piss stains off the floor from when you're drunk and can't aim."
"I resent the drunk remark. How do you know that I just didn't wanna piss on the floor? Huh? Huh? Yeah, Lisanna. Think about that one."
"No, Bickslow," she responded, almost embittered at that point. "I don't want to think about it. At all. I just want you to stop doing it. You're a big boy. You-"
"Hey, kid." He stood then, still holding his paint brush and Pappa's prospected body in his hands. Turning to face her, he said, "I'm a man, alright? And this is my place. Not yours. So if you don't like it-"
"Then I'll leave," she finished for him, turning to walk away. "Let me get my shoes."
"Lissy," he complained. Sure, he was going to threaten her with it, but the idea of her actually walking out that day hadn't crossed his mind.
"Lissy," the dolls whined. They had waited all day to play with Lisanna. They didn't want her going nowhere!
"Just…fine," he groaned as she continued on the front door. "Let me fix up Pappa, huh? And then we can…clean."
Lisanna was annoyed with him then though, he could tell. Just like that, just from one exchange, his sweet, innocent Lissy had turned into the she-devil's little sister and, unfortunately for him, he was caught in her crosshairs.
"Fine," she said, turning to look back at him then. "But we're not just picking up the bathroom this time."
"H-Huh?"
"This whole place is disgusting, Bickslow."
"Disgusting is-"
"You have rotting plates of food in your bedroom, beer bottles littering around, and I know for a fact that the most of the clothes that are all over the floor you don't even wear anymore."
"So?"
"So," she went on as he only frowned. "We're going to give your apartment a good cleaning. A cleansing, if you will, of all the bad things you have in here."
"Like you want me to take laxatives or something?"
"What?"
"What?"
They just stared at one another for a moment before Lisanna shook her head.
"I want you to clean all of this stuff out of here, Bickslow," she told him then. "That's the only way I'm going to keep coming over here."
"Well…" He was defeated. "Me and the babies like you lots. And we definitely want you to keep coming over. But…"
"But what?" Her arms were over her chest then and her eyebrow was raised just so. "Bickslow?"
"Well… We kinda like the apartment like this. It's ours. Shouldn't we have a say in how it gets cleaned?"
"That's the problem, Bickslow. It's not," she told him. "It's not getting cleaned at all! You don't even feel the need to take out the trash hardly."
"Hey, in my defense, most off the trash never makes it in the can anyhow."
"Bickslow-"
"It's so boring though, Lissy," he complained to her before going to set Pappa's new body on the coffee table along with the brush, next to the paint bottles and his discarded sallet. "Cleaning is. And tedious. I mean, if I took the time out to clean, then I would lose hours that I could spend doing better stuff."
"If you just cleaned it all now," she told him, "and then continued to keep it clean, it wouldn't be that much. You just can't let it get to this state again. That's all. This? This is atrocious. And that bathroom is horrid."
"Don't use complex words on me, kid," he grumbled. "Because I can just as easily use them back on you."
Groaning then, Lisanna took a few steps over to him, reaching up to take his face in her hands.
"Just help me clean up this once," she said. "And then we can talk about figuring something else out, alright?"
He didn't wanna…but…Lisanna…
It took forever. She actually made him scrub out the sink and the toilet as she went around his apartment, tossing out old clothes and trash. She even tackled most of the dishes, but some were so gross she threw those away too.
And the babies, well, they were mostly just happy that there was so much activity going on in the apartment. It meant that they got to flying around, going from in the bathroom where Papa was complaining and off to see what Lissy was doing. She didn't seem too thrilled to be purging the apartment of all its junk either. Which Bickslow tried a few times to use to his advantage, asking her if they were both miserable, how about they just give up? Eh?
But no. Lisanna was inexorable when it came to his pleas for mercy. She made him do everything. She wanted the place spotless.
"Maybe, Bickslow," she'd say whenever he'd gripe, "you'll think of all the hard work that you had to put in today and try and keep the apartment a tad more tidy next time, hmmm?"
Bleh. She made him wanna vomit. In fact, the only reason he didn't was because he was sure that she'd only make him clean it right back up.
She was one tough cookie.
The day slowly ebbed into early evening and then into night. She literally killed his entire day. For what? A clean apartment? It was crazy!
He was busy vacuuming when she departed, calling out to him that she'd be back with dinner. He'd been so good, she declared, that she would go pick them up something. Half of his babies, the little traitors, went along with her. It was Pappa and Peppe, of course. They were such suck ups.
"Not us though," he spoke to his other dolls, Pippi, Poppo, and Puppu. "We're loyal to each other. Aren't we?"
It took Lisanna forever to return. In fact, they were finished vacuuming and had moved on to the next tasked she'd assigned them before departing, which was folding the clean clothes that she'd taken downstairs earlier to the laundry room of his apartment building to wash.
"Bickslow," he heard her call as she entered, using her key to get back in. He was starting to regret ever giving her that thing. "We're back."
"Papa!" His two dolls that had gone off with her came floating in to his bedroom, excited to be reunited. He only greeted them joyfully, figuring it not best to point out that they had willingly left him.
"Okay, so I have food," he heard Lisanna say from the other room. "And we can eat it in a minute, but I also have something even more important than that."
Intrigued, Bickslow headed out of the bedroom, babies following.
"More important than food, you say? I call bullshit."
He found her in the kitchen, a bag with some takeout boxes in them on the counter. What was in her hand though caught his attention.
"Candles? Candles are more important than food? Babe," he sighed with an air of disillusionment. "I think we've lost base somewhere-"
"They're not just candles, Bickslow," she said, carrying the candles over to him. There were two of them, one deep blue and the other a dark purple, both skinny and protracted, their wicks long as well. "They're special."
"Meaning?"
"I went out looking for some of that…sage stuff," she said as he took one of the candles in his hand, sniffing at it. "You know, so that we could really cleanse the place."
He blinked. Then he stared hard at her. "You really believe in that shit, babe?"
"Well, no, but…I mean, what could it hurt? We cleaned this place out. I thought that now we could get rid of some of the bad vibes around here."
"What bad vibes?"
She gave him look. "Just do this with me. Huh? It'll help you."
"How will this help me?"
"It just will," she said before reaching out to take the candle back from him and head over to the living room. "Get me a lighter. And hit the lights."
So they sat there in the darkness, her quickly going to set the candles down on the coffee table, in the center of it, before sitting on one side of it. With a sigh, Bickslow took to sitting on the other, his babies floating around in interest.
"So it here a chant or something?" he asked. "Or-"
"Shut up."
"What? Why is that such an odd question?"
She rolled her eyes before reaching a hand over the table, waiting for him to set the lighter in it. He only reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out his cigarettes.
"Bickslow-"
"If I got smell these nasty candles, I'm at least having a smoke."
"And that's another thing I'm getting you," she complained as he lit up before giving her the lighter. "An ash tray. Seriously, Bickslow, it's not cute that you leave cigarette butts in the sink and stuff. It's nasty."
"Meh."
"Either that or I'll make you stop smoking."
He gave her a look in the darkness. "You just think that you're in charge here, don't you, kid?"
"You tell me," she said as she gestured around at the clean apartment. The babies snickered as their papa only took to taking a deep drag.
"So anyhow," he grumbled then as Lisanna sat on her knees, catching the wick of the blue candle with her lighter.
"Anyhow," Lisanna agreed, glancing over at him. "This candle is supposed to represent…um…"
"Lisanna," he warned.
"Well, the woman selling them was talking so fast," she complained. "And she made it all sound so convincing and good."
"Great. So you blew money that could have gone to something great," he grumbled, blowing his smoke away from her. "Like a ping pong table."
"Where in this apartment would you possibly fit a-"
"I would get rid of the bed, Lisanna," he grumbled. "And put it there. And we could sleep in sleeping bags."
She blinked. Then she shook her head. "You're beyond saving."
"I never asked to be saved in the first place!"
"Okay, okay," she complained then as the scent of the candle hit her. It was actually rather stinky. "Let's just take a breath. And let the bad feelings out."
"I'm not-"
"That's it. Let it all out."
That time he blew his smoke straight at her. "The only bad spirit here right now is you."
"Bickslow."
"Papa," the babies complained. He only looked off though.
"You're changin' everything," he grumbled. "And now your candle's all smelly. I don't like it."
"I'm trying to make you better, Bickslow," she told him. "I'm doing all of this for you. Don't you like this? You have to. I mean, we're sitting on the freshly vacuumed carpet and there's no trash scattered around and we don't have to worry about sitting on a broke beer bottle or something. There's no way that you don't."
"Well…fine. I'll stop just tossing beer bottles around all willy-nilly, but-"
"And yeah, this candle does stink, fine, but doesn't this place smell better than it did before? You have to admit that it does."
"I don't have to admit nothin'."
"Bickslow."
"You're just… You change everything! Constantly."
"I do not. I-"
"You went and got rid of my old microwave last month, without askin'."
"And I got you a new one. You-"
"You keep deciding for me when to do everything. When I need to throw out old boxers, when I should change toothbrushes, when to-"
"I'm just trying to take care of you. I-"
"Well, knock it off! You're fucking smothering me," he grumbled. "And if I didn't love you so much, I wouldn't put up with it."
Lisanna stared at him then, there in the darkness, over the flame of that stupid candle before saying, "Fine, Bickslow."
"Lisanna-"
"So what, Bickslow? I'm a bad person for caring about you? For wanting you to take care of yourself?"
"I-"
"Then I won't anymore. Live in a pigsty. Wear boxers with holes in them. And keep using the same damn toothbrush after it fell in the toilet, which, by the way, is why I made you get a new one." She got to her feet. "But I'm not going to sit here and let you make me look like the bad guy for caring about you. If that makes me a bad girlfriend, fine. I'm a bad girlfriend. Sorry I gave a damn."
Growling, he jumped up then, shifting his smoke to his right hand before saying, "Did you not just hear me, kid? I said that I fucking love you, alright? Do you not get that? I just… Sometimes you treat me like I'm the kid or something. And I'm not. You can't just-"
"I wouldn't have to treat you like one, Bickslow, if you didn't acted like one. I mean, gosh, how many times have I had to go down there and smooth things out with your landlord because you forgot to pay the rent for, oh, two months?"
"I was fine before you, Lisanna, and-"
"Because Evergreen and Freed were constantly looking out for you. Well guess what? Even they're tired of it. But I'm trying to take their place. And you can hate me for it, Bickslow, but-"
"How many times do I have to say it, kid? I fucking love you, alright? So stop trying to play like I'm the one in the wrong here."
"You are, Bickslow. You-"
"I'm happy, Lisanna, that you wanna help me out with shit. But-"
"There is no but," she told him. "There just is. You blow things off. Everything's a joke to you. And because of that, you don't get business done. You go on jobs, rake in jewels, and then just blow them on stupid things."
"Stupid? Name me one stupid thing in this apartment."
She blinked. "Bickslow, you have, like, five broken movie lacrima's laying around."
"Yeah, Lisanna, because I got them on the cheap and am gonna flip 'em."
"Do you now how to repair a lacrima?"
"W-Well-"
"You have three foot statue of a dragon in the bedroom. What the hell is that for?"
"Ambiance!"
She turned from him that time. "I'm done. Have fun mucking up your clean apartment again. I'll see you at the guildhall tomorrow. Because I am so done coming here to hangout."
"Papa," the babies whined at him. He was driving Lisanna out and that was not okay. "Papa!"
More growling. Then, "What…What do you want me to do? You want me to like everything that you do? Because I don't. I-"
"I want you to grow up, Bickslow."
"I am grown. You don't know what the hell it even means to be grown, over there living with your brother and sister. You just play adult. I am a damn adult."
She didn't even turn around. Just went into the kitchen to get her half of the food in there. "Okay. That's great. Have fun, Mr. Adult, all alone."
"You're not being fair."
"That's fine. I'm not fair. Okay. See you tomorrow-"
"Fine! Fucking fine!" He had a back up lighter, just for such occasions, and pulled it form his pocket as well. Lighting the other candle he said, "Be gone, whatever the hell we're trying to run out!"
"Bickslow," she hissed as she came back into the living room. "I told you that there was no chanting."
"I can chant if I wanna! It's my apartment. I'll bless it however I wanna bless it."
"You-"
"Lisanna!" His babies launched themselves at her then, crashing against her.
"Hey," she complained. "Stop-"
"Don't go," they whined. "Lissy."
"I-"
"I'mma go get your sister," Bickslow said then. "Maybe she'll know how to summon a demon."
"Summon a- Bickslow, that's not what we're doing!"
"Well, we have to have one here before we can force it out, don't we?"
"Are you joking?"
"I don't know, kid," he groaned as he only went to crash down on the couch. And he hated it so much because even though he was upset with the whole situation, he had to admit, it was nice to sit on the couch without worrying about sitting on anything or it reeking of old clothes. "I mean, what's involved in summoning a demon anyhow? Satanic stuff? 'cause I'm really not in the mood for that today."
It took a moment, but slowly, Lisanna went to sit down on the couch with him, there in the darkness, each staring at the burning candles on the table.
"I guess," Lisanna said slowly as she handed him the food to let him peek inside the box to check what she'd gotten. "That we both make some stupid decisions."
"No," he sighed. "Your candles are… Nah, you're right. They smell like shit and I don't feel like any of my negative feelings dissipating."
Lisanna sighed as the babies came over to the couch to join them. "I just thought that it'd be cute. Kinda like… I dunno. Never mind."
He took a puff on his smoke before glancing down at her. "It was cute, kid. Real cute. I… I mean, hey, think of this. How do negative things go away?"
"Bickslow, shut up. It was stupid and-"
"You gotta get 'em out somehow," he said before elbowing her gently. "And we got 'em all out now, didn't we?"
"I don't-"
"Of course we did," he said. "We got every last one of 'em out and now we're fine. I mean, I'm not even upset anymore. Are you?"
"No," she whispered.
"Me neither." But he was. A little. Annoyed at least. But…if it made Lisanna feel better… "So see? Your little candles were great! Smelly, but great."
She leaned against him then, resting her head against his arm. "Do you really hate that I made you clean up?"
"I don't…like it, no, but I do have to say that it looks better in here."
"I'm gonna buy you a hamper, see? And you can put your dirty clothes in it. Then-" She stopped herself before sighing. "Never mind."
"What?"
"I forgot."
"Forgot what?"
"That you don't like it when I try and make you do things."
He blew smoke out slowly then. "We got pretty fucked tonight, kid. We were supposed to go out, remember? Then Pappa had to get a new body and you looked in the bathroom and…"
"And tomorrow you're training and then the day after you're leaving for a job," she finished for him. "So I just ruined our day together. Great."
"That's not what I meant. You didn't do nothing. You… You're right, Lisanna," he said then. "I act like a little punk most the time about shit. And Freed and Ever are tired of cleaning up my shit. You know, Freed and I, when we first moved out of the guys dormitory, we lived together."
"Really?" She frowned, glancing up at him. "I didn't know that."
"Oh, it didn't last that long," he said before taking another drag. "Not at all. He's real…anal about shit."
"Bickslow." Lisanna sent him a look. "That's rude."
"No," he grumbled. "I don't mean… He's organized. You know? And I'm…not. And he used to get so mad about the stupidest stuff. Like me leaving my shit everywhere. It'd make him crazy! We got into to a lot of arguments about it. Ever used to have to break us up until finally…I had to move out. Me and the babies. Went back to the dormitory for awhile before we found this place. It's small, so I figured I'd be able to keep it somewhat clean but… I guess I'm not real motivated, you know? To pick up? Ever don't come over because of it, but who needs her? And whenever Freed and I hangout, it has to be at his place, but that's fine. He always has tons of food and beer and shit. Not that I'm allowed to drink or eat much. He keeps it for Laxus."
He snickered then, but it was soft. Sad.
"But see? They love me, huh? Freed and Evergreen, they do. But even they get tired of me. I'm real immature, aren't I?"
"N-No, you just-"
"Don't lie to me, Lissy. I know that I am."
"Well…I am too."
"Completely."
"Bickslow," she complained.
"We both are," he said with a sigh. "Maybe that's how come we're so good for one another, huh? You're mature in ways that I'm not, and I am in ways that you can't be."
"What do you mean?"
"You, like, know how to keep things in order. When bills need to be paid, how to budget money. You give me that. And I know what it's like to live alone. To not have my brother and sister breathing down my neck the whole time. I know what it's like to not have someone there for me. I know what it's like to have to grow up real fast, all alone. So maybe…maybe we complete each other."
She blinked. Then she giggled and nuzzled up against him. "You're so corny. You can't even help it, can you?"
Another puff. Then, with a sigh, he said, "I…I'll try harder. For you. For me. At keeping this place clean. And myself in check. And if you buy me a hamper…I'll use it. Really. I-"
"No, you won't," she sighed. "You'll throw clothes all around it, but I'll be shocked if more than two articles make it in there."
"Well, I'll try at least," he told her.
"He'll try," the babies pleaded with her. They really didn't want her going nowhere. "Lissy."
"I know," she told the babies with a giggle. "And I will too. To not…smother you so much."
He nodded then before saying, "You should go get some forks. For our dinner."
As she stood, his babies followed. And when she returned to him, she had two beers as well.
"We're really something, ain't we, kid?"
"I don't think there's anyone else that would take us."
"Good," he said as she sat down next to him once more. "Don't want no one else to want you. You're mine. And I'm sorry that sometimes I make you feel like you're not."
Lisanna only glanced up at him before smiling slightly. "Well, we do have one thing right. I mean, even Mira doesn't get a candlelight dinner that often."
He snickered again, but that time, it was real. And it was just for her.
"Yeah, well, next time let's bypass these things and get some normal candles, huh?" he laughed. "What? I gotta go with you now to the market? Make sure that you don't get swindled?"
"Shuddup," she told him as he only cackled, the babies reading their tones then as good ones and giggling as well. "Me, Pappa, and Peppe were just trying to help out. That's all."
"And what is this then anyhow?" he continued. "Them going places without me?"
"Maybe they just love me."
"Oh, no, there's no maybe. They do love you," he agreed, the laughter stopping as he glanced down at her again. "They love you lots."
"I love them lots."
"And they don't ever want you to feel unwelcome here again," he continued. "So… We'll clean up from now on."
"Thank you," she whispered, smiling. "I'll help too."
He took another puff of his cigarette. "So when are you getting me this ashtray?"
"Soon," she assured him. Making a face, she said, "I can't believe you don't have one."
"I ain't got a lot of things, kid."
"Except for a statue of a dragon."
"For ambiance!"
It was her turn to giggle and his to smile.
Oh! That was another thing she wanted to add on.
Number five: No matter what, no matter what sort of fight they'd just gone through, he could always make her laugh. Always.
And at the end of the day, that made all the strikes against him irrelevant.
More Sea Wolf and more Lisanna and Bickslow. Maybe I'll write some more Elf and Ever stuff next. I dunno. I feel real tapped right now, but every time I feel like I'm out of ideas for these couples or Laxus and Mirajane, something comes to me.