Lucy was exhausted from the morning's training with Capricorn. She entered the house and went straight to the sink to fill her water bottle. The cool water was soothing and refreshing as she chugged it down. She could feel the soreness in her leg and arm, she moved stiffly through the home on her way to the bathroom where she wanted to have a long warm soak to soothe all the aches.
After she finished up she made her way to her room to put on some comfortable clothing, she grabbed the muscle balm and was off to Bickslow's room to see if he would massage her arm and leg. It was always a guilty pleasure for Lucy, the man knew how to work a body with his hands, and when she would return from missions she often sought him out covertly. The foot rubs he gave alone were a slice of heaven, it often led her to the most lascivious thoughts as he would massage her sore muscles after her missions.
Lucy was thankful that these small tidbits of her personality were not wiped away. The fact that she fell back into a familiar routine with Bickslow, as if she was never gone, was a relief. It gave Lucy hope that other aspects of herself would come back naturally. She had also begun to embrace the new elements of her personality through her fast bond with Cobra. She felt a natural connection to him and she often wondered how she could have missed it in the past. She also sometimes wondered if it was never there before and that the bond they had was forged in tragedy, which left a bitter taste in her mouth. She often shoved those more morose thoughts into one of the various lockboxes in her mind.
As she approached Bickslow's room she realized it was far too quiet. Unusually the babies played and their typical chatter could be heard. She knocked and waited a moment before opening the door. She was surprised not to see him in his room, since she had not seen him elsewhere in the house, but she chalked it up to him going on a run. She did pause and think it was strange that the babies were neatly displayed on the shelf, their magic suppressed. He had been doing that a lot lately, often running by himself. It concerned her and she felt like maybe he was hiding something, but she couldn't understand what. Her thoughts turned to the tensions rising in the house. She knew that he and Cobra had some very strong chemistry together and the sexual tension between them palpable. The babies vocalized on it often, especially Papa. It was to the point where she had more than her fair share of dreams about what it would be like to be caught in the crossfire of their lust.
Lucy walked further down the hall to see if Cobra was in his room, while she went to him second, he was far from the second choice. His ability to know exactly where the pain was and know exactly what felt the best without uttering a word made him a formidable contender with Bickslow. Which is exactly why she always opted for Bickslow first, she had to be a lot more cautious and careful about her thoughts and about just how good the poison slayer's hands felt on her body. She wasn't sure if she was successful in hiding it, he wasn't interested, or he was so wrapped up in what he was doing that he didn't notice. All she knew is he never spoke a word about her errant thoughts about the skills he could utilize in the bedroom that she so desperately tried to keep locked away.
She shook her head of all these thoughts because she began to feel the telltale signs of arousal while thinking about the two men and their potential abilities between the sheets. As she shook the last of her daydreams aside she exhaled deeply and opened the door. She never felt the need to knock on Cobra's door because he always knew when she was coming. She had no reason to think this time would be any different. Once she opened the door she was stunned, a torrent of conflicting thoughts racing through her mind.
It was clear at that moment that the two handsomely naked men wrapped up in each other on the bed had no idea that she was even present. A remarkable feat for Cobra.
Her attention was thoroughly captured as she witnessed Cobra straddling over Bickslow, his back arched in a perfect showcase of his taut muscles, the slight sheen of sweat highlighted just how muscular he was under his many layers of clothing. She couldn't tear her eyes away as his hips rocked in a tantalizing rhythm on top of Bickslow. The man beneath held firmly in place by the neck as he bucked up into the poison slayer. The lewd sound their bodies and their voices made as they writhed on the bed together only added to the erotic scene before Lucy.
Lucy backed away slowly and closed the door as quietly as possible, she hoped and prayed they never realized she was there, witnessing their private moment together. She walked back slowly to the kitchen and grabbed another glass of water and headed out to the back deck where a comfortable chair was waiting for her. To say she was stunned about catching them in the act was an understatement, once those feelings of shock began to wear off, she was met with wave after wave of conflicting emotions.
One wave was her absolute happiness for the two men, they had been walking a tightrope around each other all this time, She understood that Bickslow had needed an outlet and he was repressing a lot of who he truly was for the sake of fitting in as a Fiorian. She knew that with Cobra he could truly be himself, they had a connection that was undeniable and she was truly happy they finally acted upon it.
One wave was a streak of jealousy that she was ashamed to admit. It was more complicated by the fact that she was jealous of both men for being in such an intimate position with the other and not her. She pictured herself in Cobra's role riding Bickslow just as easily as she pictured herself being in Bickslow's position being driven into hard by the Poison Slayer. Worse yet she felt jealous of not being in the middle. The fact that they left her out, hurt in some ways, there was no room for her in their tryst. This lead to realizing that in the long run there was probably no room for her in their lives together. Lucy had no doubt that they had a bond that would last a lifetime. She wasn't sure if such things as mates or soul mates existed but in understanding her magic she knew that there were unbreakable bonds that can be achieved in life with the right person or persons. Whether the bond was friend, companion or lover did not matter.
She also experienced a wave of shame and regret at even feeling this way. What right did she have to walk away from the last year with only a scant few months of freedom again, barely healed? She had no right to have these wanton feelings for either man, let alone both simultaneously. As she saw it she had nothing to give herself, never mind anything to give either man. She was just lucky that they stuck around as long as they did. She was not well, both physically and mentally and she felt as though she would be more of a burden on them.
Underneath it all was a profound feeling of disappointment that she was not meant to be a part of either of their lives in the capacity that she has witnessed since she was found. For once Lucy cried for the woman who was currently existing, the one that had difficulty defining who she was and teetered on the edge of sanity as she regained normalcy in her lie. The men in the other room were her collective rock, along with her spirits, and in her selfish moment, she wondered if she just lost a huge piece of her anchor to a newly budding relationship. One that did not include a broken woman trying to heal herself and using her best friend and savior as crutches, preventing them from finding happiness in each other.
Just as she found her body giving in to the convulsive sobbing that was surfacing she felt the hairs on her neck stand up, a feeling she hadn't felt in a lifetime. She almost forgot what it meant, her crying sobered up quickly and she dried her eyes in panic, fear froze her body as a crack of lightning sounded, Laxus appearing at the treeline.
As Laxus gained his bearings he saw what appeared to be someone resembling Lucy sitting frozen, like small prey, staring at the behemoth of a man walking toward her. The dragon part of Laxus could only smell fear on the small woman who looked like merely a shell of the blonde he once knew.
Lucy's body was frozen in utter panic, she couldn't move or speak even if she wanted to because the look in Laxus' eyes reminded her of the old Laxus and she was in no way prepared mentally or physically with a confrontation.
"Who the hell are you?" Laxus asked with an edge of anger in it.
Lucy looked on as he got closer and couldn't find the will to speak; she had been too wounded in her previous pity party to be able to comprehend if this was even real. How could Laxus not know who she was? She felt a sudden flood of panic wash over her like ice in her veins, surely her mind had truly cracked and this was all some epic hallucination that would end with her waking up in the dark dungeon that smelled of death and decay.
As Laxus came face to face with the blonde woman he peered down at her, "I asked, who the hell are you? How did you find this place?"
The anger was bubbling up in his voice and Lucy began to stammer a response but nothing came. She squeezed her eyes shut and flinched away when his hand came out and grabbed her by her bad arm and yanked her up. She felt as though the whole arm was going to break at that moment, setting her rehabilitation back weeks. She cried out in pain and she felt the telltale signs of his magic. At that moment she screamed in her mind, she was filled with terror. She was either going to wake up in the dungeon or somewhere she was not ready to be, away from the two people she trusted most in the world.
It felt like only moments had passed before she found herself collapsing to her knees throwing up the contents of her stomach outside of Fairy Tail.