The characters belong to Hiro Mashima. The OCs I introduce belong to me.

Hey! Sorry for such a long wait! I needed a much-needed break.

It has been brought to my attention that all I do is fave/follow other stories and very rarely leave a review. I would like to apologize for that and I'll be sure to start reviewing more often.

I would also like to take the time to thank those who follow and fave my stories or, in the case of AO3, give kudos and bookmark it. It's my driving force to keep me going.

I've been having some trouble because I know how I wanted to start this and I know how I want it to end, it's just a matter of filling in the middle.


Chapter 7

The week leading up to the wedding goes rather quickly. It helped that she spent a lot of her time catching up with her friends.

On Wednesday she hung out with "Team Natsu" which was a riot, especially with all of their kids. They offered to get babysitters, but Lucy quickly shut that idea down and invited them over to Gramps' place and hung out in the backyard.

It wasn't difficult to corral Natsu and Iggy since it was Natsu's day off. Gray is his own boss, so it was just as easy to have him come over with Greige, Juvia was fine running the store by herself.

Wendy interns at the hospital and it is always busy, but Dr. Porlyusica gave her the go-ahead to go. The doctor may or may not have a soft spot for her and her girlfriend Chelia. The doctor never voiced it, but those two girls are her favorite. Gramps once told her that Dr. Porlysusica said they're the only competent ones in the damn building. So, Wendy was able to make it along with her and Chelia's adopted two-year-old daughter Deanie who lived in the orphanage. Having the Connell family agree to be the on-call sitter helps.

Lucy thought it would be more difficult for Erza, but with Gildarts as the Chief of Police, she was instantly granted permission. It helps she's the hardest worker they have. She takes her job very seriously, sometimes too seriously for a town with such a low crime rate. She was the only one who didn't bring a child with her. She and Jellal, who is also a police officer, have been debating on whether to try for a baby, adopt, or possibly even both.

She learned that Evergreen and Elfman are in the same predicament as Erza and Jellal. Not only are Minerva and Rogue expecting but so aren't Yukino and Sting. Freed and Rufus adopted twins who are seven years old. Kinana and Erik are looking into adoption.

Lucy was asked if she planned on having any children of her own or adopting. She wasn't sure how to answer that. Would she like to have children? Yes. Would she be willing to adopt? Yes. But she would like to settle down with someone before she brought a child into her life. Bickslow's face popped into her head, and she quickly shook that out of her head. They just met not even a week ago and they're not in that type of relationship.

While she watched the kids play, it hit Lucy like a ton of bricks how much she missed in their lives and how much she missed them in general, and she had a breakdown. She's missed engagements, anniversaries, birthdays, births...

Wendy calmed her down reassuring her it was okay that she wasn't there. Wendy herself was super busy in medical school and super busy being an intern.

Wendy calmed her down reassuring her it was okay that she wasn't there. Wendy herself was super busy in medical school and super busy being an intern. Erza had to attend a police academy. A lot of their other friends were also busy with college and getting their degrees. Mira worked her ass off to make sure her siblings could attend college if they chose to. They are also guilty of not being there as often as they would have liked. Lucy's rebuttal is that at least they tried to be there she avoided everyone and only kept in touch with Gramps, Laxus, Mira, and Levy.

Natsu, Gray, and Erza also tried to make her feel better. It made her feel better about it but it'll take a bit for that guilt to go away. They all partook in a group hug and were tackled by the children because they wanted to join in on the hug.

That night she texted Bickslow. They told each other about their day. The man was understanding, he knew how much her friends missed her and knew it was a good thing they spent time together catching up and having those necessary conversations.

Thursday she went around and visited everyone that she could. She first stopped by the orphanage and helped out Levy and Kinana. She hung out in the kitchen with Yukino and Minerva. She was strictly forbidden from helping them. After that, she went to the library and hung out with Rufus and got caught up with him. They spent a lot of time chatting about books they've recently read more than anything.

She and Gramps had dinner at The Seven Dragons and then went home. The next couple of days were going to be even busier so she just wanted to relax. She wanted to stop by Bicks' store, but she was too emotionally drained to be good company.

Lucy didn't take any chances after that first night her nightmares returned and took her medicine. She did at least talk to Gramps about it, she didn't want to burden Laxus or Mira about it with their big day coming up.


For Bickslow, on Wednesday it was a busy day at work. Quite a few people came in to browse, and some of them bought what they were interested in right on the spot. The ones who couldn't haul their purchase Bickslow delivered it himself, along with the other orders he finished since it was Erik's day off.

Later that night he managed to get through a big chunk of his belongings that Gajeel and Romeo dropped off from the storage unit. He had it all separated into piles. What would go to the store to sell, what would stay at his home, what he would give away, and stuff he could toss.

Once he was settling down for bed Lucy texted him. When he told her that he was getting ready for bed she tried to tell him that she would leave him alone and he had to convince her it was alright. He was glad to hear from her. For some reason, he felt the need to ask Lucy how she felt about all the guys getting together at a strip club.

She told him she's cool with it, it's what guys normally do the night before the wedding. She swore him to secrecy to not tell Laxus about male strippers being hired while they party at Cana's bar. He told her he was a little jealous that other men were going to be rubbing themselves on her and her rebuttal was that there's no need to be jealous, and it's not like she's going to fuck them. She's pretty sure that he himself will have women all over him. He couldn't argue with that and assured her he had no intention of fucking any of them.

Thursday was a slow day and Bickslow had a lot of time on his hands. He hauled everything from home that he planned on selling and put it in the back room. Erik, being back to work, delivered everything that Bickslow couldn't the day prior. Only a few people came in and that was to browse. No one requested to have something customized. He was all caught up on the paperwork, so a lot of his time was spent daydreaming about Lucy stopping by. He would send Erik to his apartment upstairs and flip the sign from open to closed. From there he would fuck Lucy on the counter, bent over his desk, anywhere. He may have had to go to the bathroom to rub one out.

That is something he's never done, fucked a woman in his store as well as rubbing one out in the bathroom there. That's not to say women didn't try and he's so thankful this week he didn't have any women coming in to just flirt with him.

After work, he loaded up all the stuff he planned on taking to the dump so he could do it first thing Friday morning. He decided to close up shop Friday and Saturday giving himself a four-day weekend. Everything he planned on giving away went into his spare bedroom aside from the motorcycle he planned on giving Sonny, which went into the garage with everything else he was keeping at home.

Later that night Bickslow called Lucy and thankfully she wasn't busy, she was taking it easy since the next two days were going to be busy between the bachelor/bachelorette parties and the wedding itself. They both wanted to see the other but were going to be busy first thing in the morning, so they did the next best thing and switched to video chat and had phone sex. He almost said fuck it and drove over there but with how he wanted to fuck her, well Gramps wouldn't be too thrilled.


Lucy wakes up from another dreamless sleep. She doesn't know what she's going to do tonight since she can't take her medicine after drinking and she knows she can't get away with not drinking. The DDs are already assigned to the pregnant women so she can't use that as an excuse. It's been a while since she partied so here's to hoping she doesn't ask them to make her purr.

She slowly makes her way to the bathroom to get ready for the day. Being on vacation, she decides she can go without her morning meditation and yoga routine. Once ready she finds Gramps in the kitchen with Laxus, Mira, Natsu, Lisanna, and Iggy.

"What are you guys doing here?"

"Aunt Lucy!" Iggy runs over to give her a hug which she reciprocates. He's heard so many stories about her and seen so many pictures that he was so excited to finally meet her the other day.

"Well, since Mira and Laxus will be gone for two weeks she asked me to pop in now and then to make sure you two are well-fed," Lisanna says matter-of-factly while scrambling eggs.

"Oh c'mon, we're not that helpless." When Lisanna moves to the side Lucy sees what else she is making. "Is that French Toast? I love the way you Strauss's make it." She sits down on the stool next to Gramps.

Mira giggles.

"I got something for ya sis." Laxus holds out a box.

"You didn't have to do that."

"We wanted to Lucy as a thank you."

Lucy opens it up and finds Laxus a new camera. A really big upgrade from her other one. "You guys, you didn't have to do this."

"We know how old your camera is and thought we would upgrade it for you as a thank you for taking photos of our wedding."

"You're welcome and thank you." Lucy goes through all of the features. She has to admit, it's good they got her a new one. "With this, I just may get into photography again."

Yeah, Laxus may have an ulterior motive for getting her a new camera. He really does want her to have a new one, but she's really good and can make a career out of it. If she falls back in love with it she can leave the magazine and come back home.


Bickslow has spent his day getting errands done so he doesn't have to worry about it over his long weekend and before he knows it he's pulling up to the strip club where all of the guys are getting together. He parks his bike and heads over to where Laxus and Orga are waiting for him.

"Look who finally took time off of work." Bickslow and Orga grab each other's hands and pull for a man hug, slapping the other on the back. "Glad you could make it."

Laxus removes himself from the side of the building he was leaning against, "I know right? He's just as bad as Erza."

"I almost didn't. We're all a little unsure about leaving Sting and Rogue at the precinct without supervision."

Bickslow starts cackling, "I can't say I blame ya, after that stunt Sting pulled."

"Let's hope Rogue will be able to stop him before he does something stupid," Laxus says.

"Speaking of those two, we've been talking about getting together and playing football," Orga states.

"That's right, you two played football in high school."

A couple of cars pull into the parking lot and it's their buddies piling out of them.

"Wooo! Who's ready to have some fun!" Orga yells.

"Aye!" Almost everyone shouts in unison. They all go inside and are led to the V.I.P. section. The server makes her way over to ask what they would like to drink. She winks at Bickslow before heading back to the bar.

"Why did you get the V.I.P. section? A lot of us are in relationships and aren't interested in getting lap dances."

Orga swings an arm around Bickslow, "We're not in a relationship."

"Dear god I hope not."

"I didn't mean it that way!"

The woman places their drinks on the table and brushes up against Bickslow, "How is a sexy man like you single?"

"I'm not," Bickslow says and doesn't pay her any more attention which frustrates her.

"Wait!" Orga yells, "You're in a relationship?" Instead of watching the practically naked woman on stage, he's very interested in this turn of events.

Gray speaks up, "You haven't heard? He's with Lucy."

Orga looks at Laxus, "your sister? Dude, you told me to stay away."

Laxus shrugs, "It wouldn't have worked out between you two."

"Besides we're not exactly in a relationship."

"What the hell do you mean by that?"

"We're exclusively fucking and if more comes out of it then great."

"If not?" Gildarts asks.

"I'm focusing on living in the moment and don't want to think about that outcome."

Natsu doesn't like his answer, "But what if she doesn't?"

"Then I'll be hurt but will eventually get over it. I won't make it awkward if she's ever in town."

Laxus knows that's one of the outcomes and sure it would suck for his friend but he's the one that wanted this chance. Although thinking back he and Mira did kind of encourage it by taking Lucy's keys so should anything bad come out of it, that will partially be on them. But if something good comes out of it then well he'll be glad he did that. He does have a gut feeling that he'll be welcomed back from his honeymoon with some kind of drama though. He nods, "Good. Now about we get off that topic please."

"Yeah, I agree," Gray says.

"One last thing," Bickslow pulls something out of his coat pocket, "Lucy gave me her old camera to take photos." He doesn't know much about photography, but Lucy assured him they don't have to be excellent quality, just get some to capture the moment. She wants to make a scrapbook, but none with strippers in them will be included in it. That includes the bachelorette party as well.

Throughout the night, the camera gets passed around and everyone takes group and solo photos. They stop when the strippers come over to them. Thankfully they're the ones that do not hit on the patrons in hopes of getting laid later.

Natsu lets it slip that the women have male strippers, and Orga and Gildarts hold him back, the guys talk Laxus down from storming to Cana's bar. Gildarts is the one to tell him Mira could just as easily storm over here and shut down their fun. Not that a lot of the men have been paying attention to the strippers. Laxus gives up the fight mainly because Mira and his sister would kill him if he were to ruin their fun.

Elfman passes out and before Natsu can draw on his face Laxus stops him and tells him to think about what Mira would do to him. He tosses the marker which ends up hitting Gray in the eye. The fight gets stopped by Orga, who has three half-naked women on him before it can begin so they don't get kicked out.

The majority of them were smart enough to not get too sloshed or else the next day would be a nightmare dealing with a hangover. Freed, Rufus, and Natsu drive them all back to Bickslow's place since Mira and the girls will be staying at hers and Laxus's place. Laxus thought about staying at Gramps' place, but due to its close proximity to his own home, the temptation to snag Mira and take her somewhere would have been too tempting.

Lying in his bed his drunk ass decides to text Lucy: Missed you tonight. Hope you had fun with the strippers. I know I did 😊


At Cana's Bar

The women are surrounding a mechanical penis. Yes, you read that right. Instead of trying their best to not get bucked off of a bull, they're doing their best to remain riding the large penis. It's Lucy's turn and the others are watching while they are either blowing on penis-shaped whistles or drinking out of penis-shaped straws.

"Oh my God! Ah!" Lucy exclaims as she falls off, landing on the small mat. She remains where she's at, trying to calm down her breathing and racing heart.

Cana yells, "Damn! Lucy knows how to ride cock! She has the new record of 30 seconds!"

Lucy puts a fist in the air, "Beat that, bitches!" She opens up her hand and waves it around, "Can someone help me up?"

Levy, being the closest grabs her hand and tries to pull her up, but instead, ends up falling on top of her. "ACK!" Her shout is cut off when her lips land on Lucy's. They both stare at each other wide-eyed in shock. A flash goes off and their lips disconnect both turning their heads to see Mira smiling at them, Lucy's camera in hand.

"My, my I wonder what Bickslow and Gajeel will think."

Cana laughs, "Nothing bad that's for sure." She and Mira help them out of the pit.

"They'll be jealous that they weren't here to see it," Levy replies.

"So, when are the strippers coming?" Minerva asks.

"They're running a little late so how about in the meantime," Lisanna looks at Lucy, "Update us on what's going on with you and Bickslow."

"There's really not much to update you on. We've been spending a lot of time texting and talking on the phone. He's busy with work and I've been spending my time catching up with everyone."

Cana puts both hands on Lucy's shoulders, "I know you just got out of a relationship with Ren, but I think when the time is right, you should give Bickslow a chance."

"When the time is right?" Levy asks.

"Yeah, when she feels like doing more than just fucking the guy. He's actually quite the sweetheart." Cana states.

"Yeah, he's already showed me that." Lucy blushes.

"I may not have seen your interactions together, but I've known the man forever and from what I've heard through the grapevine he really likes you."

"Friends with benefits rarely turn into an actual relationship though," Yukino says.

"Well," Mira starts, "If you do want it to be that way then emotional intimacy is crucial." She looks at Lucy, "This means sharing more than just your physical desires but connecting on a deeper level. Spend quality time together, engage in meaningful conversations, and be there for each other emotionally."

Lucy fidgets because she knows what Mira is getting at. Lucy has never been one to open her heart like that. After going through what she did in her childhood she's very unsure about opening up her heart completely to only have it destroyed. She and Bickslow are actually kind of already there. She broke down crying the first night she spent with him. He so easily told her about his past.

"We already have been, sort of. It's just so easy to talk to him. But we've only met not even a week ago. I don't want to jump into another relationship right away."

"There's no pressure," Yukino says.

"Yeah, just take the time to get to know him while fucking around. If it works out, awesome. If not, he's a big boy, he'll get over it," says Minerva.

Evergreen cuts in, "I don't want my friend to get hurt. He'll fall in love with you, I just know it so it might be best if you break it off now. You're leaving in a couple of weeks and you won't be the one having to deal with the emotional damage."

Cana rebuts with, "he's the one who put himself on the line, knowing he might not have a shot at an actual relationship."

"Well-"

"STOP!" Lisanna shouts. "Now, if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. Bickslow is an adult, he's the one who mentioned the friends-with-benefits relationship. He put himself in the situation knowing full well she leaves in a couple of weeks. Should Lucy decide not to pursue a relationship, then that is her right, and should not be made to feel guilty. Would I like to see them together? Yes. If they don't it should be because Lucy chose not to of her own accord, not because," she looks at Evergreen, "she was made to feel guilty. Now, I would like to continue enjoying my sister's party. The strippers arrived."

"Woooo!" A lot of the other girls shout in response to Lisanna's long retort and the fact the strippers have arrived.

Throughout the night Lucy hides her inner turmoil. They both made valid points and now she doesn't know what to do. Yes, she just got out of a relationship. Yes, she may already have some feelings for Bickslow but what if it's only because of the endorphins from the awesome sex? What if in the end, she doesn't want a relationship with the man? She'll end up hurting her brother's best friend and he as well as others will be the ones picking up the pieces.

Mira can see her future sister-in-law having an internal debate while she watches the others get lap dances. She walks up to her and whispers, "Just live in the moment and take it day by day. There's no rush to make a decision, okay sweetie."

Lucy smiles at Mira and nods, "Okay Mira."

"Now, get over there and get a lap dance. That one over there has been eyeing you."

Lucy laughs, "Alright, alright."

While Lucy sits there enjoying the lap dance from the cute stripper she smiles watching her have a good time. She knows Lucy and Bickslow can make each other happy. Friends-with-benefits relationships can work out. There's a couple of women in this room who started their relationship with their man that way. Lucy and Bickslow are both in a place where they both know what they want in a partner. She's heard it from Lucy and heard from Laxus what Bickslow wants. Given time without others butting in it will work out. She's rarely wrong about these things.

"Mira!" Lucy shouts.

Speak of the devil and she shall yell at you from across the room, "Yeah?"

"Get your cute ass over here and receive a dance or two."

"I don't know…"

"Bickslow took the guys to a strip club."

"What?"

"Yeah, so get your ass over here and get yourself a lap dance, and if my brother has a problem with that well, tough shit."

"Well, in that case." Mira smiles and skips on over.

The rest of the night Lucy's camera gets passed around and by the end of the night it will be filled with the moments captured through the night. The girls laugh and have fun playing games, dancing, riding the mechanical penis. Even the strippers joined in on that! She can't wait until she has time to look through it all.

Lucy hopes her extra camera survives the night with the guys. She's going to have fun looking through those too and see just what kind of shenanigans they got up to. She feels her phone buzz in her back pocket and decides to check it. When she sees it's a text from Bickslow she decides to ignore it and focus on the party. This is about Mira after all.


I got the idea of a mechanical penis from the Netflix original Grace and Frankie. Season 1 Episode 12