And we're finally here!

EPILOGUE - GOING FORWARD

Acceptance.

It was the fifth stage of grieving to some, which was something both Bickslow and Lucy knew a little bit too much about, but to others, it was just a part of everyday life. Constantly, you accept the things that change around you or in your life, and you move on, because that's just what people do: they move on.

Bickslow was used to doing that, too. There were so many times where he'd just had to accept things and try to move on with his life as best he could, and half of the time, it really wasn't easy.

But that was okay. He was okay with that, because sometimes, you have to get through the hard times to get to the really, really great times. Bickslow knew that better than anyone, and he'd honestly thought he'd gotten to the really, really great part of his life when Aurora had been born. But… He wasn't there yet, and that was something he'd had no choice but to accept.

It was just like how when Lucy had been allowed to leave the hospital that night, they'd both had to accept that they weren't able to take their baby home with them just yet. And seeing all of the happy couples and families around them with their new babies had really hurt, because that was what they'd wanted to look like. They'd wanted to be able to walk out those doors and be smiling because they'd have their daughter in their arms, but they hadn't been. That night, they'd only gone home to a painfully silent apartment, almost exactly like the way they'd gone in, and still not quite feeling like parents.

When the doctors said Aurora would have to stay in the hospital for a few days at least, they'd accepted that, too, because as much as they had wanted to take her home, they had known that the hospital was where she had needed to be right then. They'd even accepted that there just wasn't much they could do with their daughter in the hospital. They couldn't hold her for very long, Lucy wasn't really able to feed her – though it really wasn't from a lack of trying – and even then, Aurora had only been a few days old by then, and she really did spend most of that time sleeping.

But they'd had no other choice but to accept that they were having to deprive themselves of even the simplest of parental duties, and when the few days turned into a week and Aurora suddenly got worse, Bickslow had had to grudgingly accept that Lucy didn't really want him anywhere near her most of the time, let alone touching her. And that had been near impossible for Bickslow to live with because he knew how much she was hurting, and when she cried each night and locked herself in Aurora's room that had been ready for her for weeks, all Bickslow wanted to do was hold her and be there for her to remind her that she really wasn't doing it alone.

But he couldn't. And he hated it.

And when the impossibly long days continued to roll by and Aurora's room remained uncomfortably empty, Bickslow began to accept that annoying feeling of uselessness. He could sit there each time they went to the hospital together and he could watch Lucy bond with their daughter, and he could see her smile – the only time she did at all – when she just held her for the limited time she was allowed to, or read random pamphlets to her just because she could, and he could see her just slipping so easily and comfortably into motherhood. Bickslow had loved seeing that happen, too, because he knew how happy she was when she got to spend time with Aurora.

But Bickslow felt almost completely useless when they visited her every single day. The things he could do when they were there, they just weren't enough, and when Aurora was two weeks old, he still didn't really feel like he was a dad.

That was when they started fighting.

Bickslow just couldn't keep going to the hospital each and every morning to see his daughter like that – so small and defenceless even though she'd grown a little, and connected to more machines and monitors that he had ever wanted to see. Because even when he knew she would be okay and that they'd be able to take her home soon like all the doctors and nurses kept telling them, it broke him just a little bit more each time he saw her, and he'd just stopped being able to handle that.

So then Bickslow stopped going and spending as much time as he could there, Lucy only wondered if he was giving up and thinking that none of it was worth it anymore, and when she was barely sleeping or taking care of herself, Bickslow telling her that he only felt like he didn't really need to be there because he felt almost completely useless just made things worse. She could only wonder if it was Bickslow thinking that all of it was a mistake, and then wondering if she was really going to need Bickslow at all. She was tired, stressed, almost always miserable, and the last thing Lucy needed to be worrying about Bickslow.

And when it got dangerously close to the end for them, Bickslow accepted that, too, even when he knew that things had just gotten so out of control so quickly and he wasn't even really sure how they had. But accepting everything in those short few weeks had become his way of coping. It was his way of trying to convince himself that everything really would end up working out, because he was still so terrified of it not, even when he knew he didn't really have any reason to be.

But accepting things was what he needed to do. He had to keep moving forward and trying his best not to let it completely ruin him like it almost already had, because if it did, he knew that he wouldn't be able to be the father to Aurora that he really did want to feel like. He'd be too far gone, and maybe whenever he looked at her when she was healthy again, he'd only see what she looked like in the hospital, and he didn't want to do that. He just wanted it all to be one horrible memory from an even worse time in his life, and he didn't want to get stuck on that.

It was when Aurora was a little over three weeks old that Lucy realised that them fighting and actually considering going their separate ways (to an extent) had been more than ridiculous. She hated that they'd even got to that point because she could honestly say that she never believed they ever would, and over their daughter, no less.

She'd had too much time to think over the last week and the last few days alone, where she really just spent all of her time sitting next to Aurora and doing all that she was allowed to do, or just wandering through the parks and the town when she wasn't allowed to be in the hospital during the rest periods. It had been harder without Bickslow there, and where she'd first hated that he could just leave so easily after coming in with her in the mornings and go and do whatever it was he was doing each day, Lucy had come to accept that maybe, he just really could not be there like she could.

And she got how hard it was. She did. Each day was a struggle and she wished she could be anywhere else with Aurora every time she sat there and listened to the cacophony of beeps coming from each monitor and machine. But Lucy knew that she couldn't be, and she knew that Aurora couldn't be anywhere else, either, so she put up with it because she didn't know what else to do. She couldn't not be there, and by the time she was coming home to the quiet and dark apartment that night, she found herself almost wishing that she could do what Bickslow could. And it made Lucy feel so incredibly guilty that she wished she could actually stand to be away from her daughter, even for just a few hours, really, and it made her feel like an even more horrible mother than she already did.

But none of that really mattered anymore, anyway. Lucy knew that. What mattered was that she kept moving forward and trying her best to get through each and every day, even if they were hard.

When the bedroom light came on, Bickslow didn't even move from where he was somewhat curled in on himself in bed and holding the small white bear with the guild's mark on one of its paws tightly to himself. That was what he did every night, along with twist the leather bracelet with her name and birthday engraved on a metal plate around his wrist – a gift from Caspian, where Lucy had a matching one and Aurora even had her own silver one for when she was out of hospital with just her name on it – so much that it made the skin red. Because even when he couldn't be by Aurora when Lucy could, it didn't mean it was easy. It made him feel guilty, and that really didn't help with his insomnia.

The light was turned back off and the room was dark once again, and Bickslow expected Lucy to just disappear to Aurora's room again and lock herself in there for a few hours or the night, or maybe even just climb into her side of the bed with her back facing his and lie awake in silence, just as he did.

She didn't do that that night, though.

Instead, she only came around to his side and silently pulled the covers back and laid herself down right in front of him with her back against his chest, and just as silently reached back to pull his hand that was still holding the bear over her to lace her fingers through his after setting the teddy bear on the nightstand.

Bickslow was stunned, for lack of a better word. That was the closest they'd been since their daughter had even been born, and then they'd barely even talked in the last week alone. But his confusion over what was going on didn't stop him from shifting backwards towards the middle of the bed so Lucy wasn't right on the edge, and he just as carefully curled around her as she settled back against him. As confused as he was, he'd missed being able to do that – just being able to hold her – and right then, Bickslow was only realising that it was something he'd really needed to be able to do. He could already feel himself calming down and relaxing just that tiny bit.

"What—"

"I miss you," Lucy whispered suddenly.

Bickslow frowned. "I was always here. I never went anywhere, and I really don't want to go anywhere, either," he said softly. "I just… I couldn't…"

"I know, Bicks." She knew that he couldn't be there each and every day, and she knew that it was hard for him, too. That wasn't something he needed to tell her, and it wasn't something she wanted him to apologise for, either. "And that's okay."

"It isn't, though. I… I should be there with Aurora and with you, and I want to be, but I just… I can't be there and keep watching her like that when there's nothing I can do."

"Bickslow," She slowly turned around in his arms and brought her hand up to his cheek, and smiling tenderly – something Bickslow hadn't seen within the walls of that apartment for nearly a month – she whispered, "It's okay now. I promise."

He didn't get it. How was it okay? He hadn't even been to the hospital since the previous morning and had only spent that time putting on a brave face in the guild so no one knew that he and Lucy weren't in the best place, or sulking in bed. His daughter was in hospital and just to add to that feeling of uselessness where he didn't know if he would ever be able to be as good with her as Lucy was, he was hating himself for it, too. "But you… You go there each day, and… And you're good with her and she… She needs you," he mumbled. "She doesn't need me. She's… She's okay without me."

"Bickslow," Lucy said again. "She does need you."

"But—" He was silenced by Lucy placing her finger over his lips, and he only blinked at the face before him he could only just see in the dark room.

"Will you just be quiet for once?"

Bickslow nodded.

"Good," she smiled again. "Because she really does need you. She might not know it right now, but she does, because you're her dad, and once she's home, she's really going to need you to be there for her because you're the one that's going to have to take care of her and make sure she's happy."

But Bickslow didn't think so. He doubted he'd feel any more useful or even competent once Aurora was home, because in his eyes Lucy was perfect with her – she gave their daughter everything she could possibly ever want or need. And even then, there was no telling when Aurora would be home at all.

"And," Lucy continued when she could see that doubt and that fear on his face, even in the dark, "Even when you don't believe you'll be useful, I know that you will be, because you already are."

"I'm not…"

"But you are," she insisted. "Because you're useful to me. I need you, too, Bickslow. I told you before I wouldn't be able to do this unless I had you by my side, and I really meant that."

And Bickslow knew that she always needed him, just like he always needed her, but he just felt like it was different when it came to Aurora. "You're so good with her though…" he whispered sadly. "And I know that not even you can do everything because she's still sick, but… You're great with her. You don't really need me, either."

Lucy shook her head and she was quietly laughing for a moment, but it brought just the smallest of smiles to Bickslow's face right then, because he hadn't heard that sound in so long. "Has the lack of sleep made you just a little stupid?" she asked. Bickslow didn't even need to answer that though, because she knew it did – they'd both honestly said and done some stupid things over the last week alone. "I have no idea what I'm doing with Aurora, and I have no idea how I'm going to survive her being home with us to be honest, because I'm just going to get so lost and be constantly worried whether I'm doing something right or wrong."

"You'll be fine. I know you will be," he said softly.

"I hope so. Really. But I'm still not as great as you think I am."

"I don't believe that for a second."

She rolled her eyes. "Well, I'm telling you so, okay?" she laughed weakly. "And I'm also telling you that I truly do need you. I'm always going to need you, because I love you so much, and our daughter, too, and there's really no way in hell I'll be able to do anything unless I have you, okay?"

Bickslow nodded reluctantly. "Okay," he whispered. She needed him, even then, and that… Well, Bickslow was finally just coming to accept that.

"And Bickslow?"

"Mm?"

"I know it's hard for you to go to the hospital," she began worriedly. "And I don't blame you for not coming at all today because I really do know how hard it is, but… Can you please come with me tomorrow and stay with me? It's harder when you're not there and… And the doctors said Aurora would be able to come home if she still looks good tomorrow afternoon but if—"

He sat up suddenly and reached over Lucy to turn on the lamp. "Wait, what?"

She could see all of that fear and doubt clearly now, but there was hope there now, she could see it in his eyes as he just waited for her to say what she'd just said, and she couldn't help but smile up at him. That was why Lucy had realised that all of their fighting had been stupid, because it had all just been from them really just needing some sleep and their daughter to be able to come home with them.

She'd just about cried from happiness when the doctors had told her that that afternoon, and she'd wanted to just turn around and hug Bickslow, but he hadn't been there. He hadn't been there to know that their daughter was actually able to breath on her own without any kinds of machines and that her lung had healed from when she'd been a week old and she'd had to be kept in hospital. He hadn't known that she was better because she hadn't seen her since the previous morning when she'd still been a little sick.

And of course, Lucy was still worried that maybe something would go wrong again and Aurora would get worse, but she still hoped that at that time the next night, they'd be able to lie there and have their daughter home with them.

"The doctors said that she'll probably be able to come home tomorrow," she whispered.

"Are you… Are you serious right now?"

She nodded. "I mean, there's still a chance she won't be able to, but… They're confident that we'll be able to bring her home."

Bickslow was only quickly leaning back down and wrapping his arms around the blonde, before pulling her tightly to him as he rolled back towards the middle of the bed. "God, Lucy," He took her face between his hands once she'd seemingly finished detangling her legs from the sheets. "Why didn't you start with that?" he laughed quietly.

"Well, because I… Because I wanted to talk to you first because we haven't even talked for so long," she answered. Although, she could see that she probably should have started with the fact that their daughter would most likely be coming home tomorrow. That was pretty important, and seeing how happy that Bickslow suddenly was only had her smile growing brighter and matching his. "I guess I probably should have started with that though, huh?"

"Yeah, probably," the Seith mage chuckled, and then gently pressed his lips to hers. He'd missed being able to kiss her, too – he'd missed a lot of things like that, and he was really hating that all of that had been lost just because of some silly argument that had gotten so out of hand.

But none of that mattered now. What mattered was that everything felt like it was all coming back to where it belonged, and everything was beginning to feel right again, and just that knowing that there was a chance that their little girl would finally be able to come home to where she belonged was why he felt that way.

And so when Aurora really was finally home that next night, they were almost exactly like the way they'd been the previous night, except that night, they had their daughter asleep, safe and sound in the gap between them as they finally managed to get some actual, somewhat decent sleep themselves.

Well, until Aurora woke up about three hours later, but that was okay. Bickslow had long since accepted that he'd have to forfeit his sleep, and he was fine with that because that was all part of being a parent. And that…

That was the really, really great part of his life that he was finally enjoying, because Aurora was finally home and everyone was where they belonged.

Lucy sat herself down on a somewhat flat rock and pulled her coat tighter around herself. It was the middle of December, so it was freezing outside, but when she was between towns on her grand adventure (that really wasn't all that grand), she had to cope with spending the odd night outdoors. She didn't mind it, though – she just happened to prefer it a whole lot more when it wasn't winter.

Still, it wasn't like Lucy could just waste those three months. A lot could happen in three months where she just stayed at home with her family and enjoyed the warmth, or more accurately, and as much as she wished she could stay at home with them all the time (sometimes, that is, because Bickslow still got a little annoying sometimes, but she still loved him), she couldn't. She had Aquarius' key to find, and the sooner she found it, the better.

She'd been reluctant to leave at first, and that had just been for a job because she'd needed to give herself a break from Aurora and Bickslow for just one night. It wasn't like she could stay at home forever and pretend she wasn't a guild mage, and if anything, she hadn't really thought it was all that fair that Bickslow be the one to go out on jobs to pay for everything. He always said that he didn't mind the latter – it was just being away from them both that made it hard.

But Bickslow was almost getting used to it by then. Lucy knew that it still wasn't easy for him to leave to take jobs, even when he would only be gone for a few nights at most, but it wasn't as hard as it had been when he'd had to take one right after Aurora had been able to come home from the hospital just to be able to pay her hospital bills. Three-and-a-half weeks in the hospital had not come cheap, or even anything close to cheap.

But… It was where Aurora had had to be. They'd accepted that long ago.

Still though, it was incredibly hard for Lucy to be away from them, but she had to do it. They'd talked a lot about what Lucy would do when it came to Aquarius' key once Aurora was old enough for her to leave every so often, and they'd always said that there would come a time where she'd be able to go out on her own and leave Bickslow with Aurora for a few days. And yeah, their daughter was older now and when Lucy was gone then she wasn't spending all of her time worrying about them because Bickslow really was more than capable of looking after her.

But she still missed them all the time and worried just a little, and she missed them even more since the holidays were just around the corner.

Sighing then as she wrapped her scarf back around her neck and adjusted her coat once more, Lucy reached for her bag and rooted through it until she was pulling out her small communications lacrima. As convenient as Warren's compact version was, Lucy still preferred the crystal ball-like ones sometimes, just because she could see the person on the other end.

It was the fourth night Lucy had been away from home, and like she did each night, she called Bickslow just to check up on them and check in. The previous night she hadn't had a chance to until it had been late so Aurora had already been asleep and Bickslow hadn't wanted to wake her, but this night, Lucy was greeted by the sight of their bathroom filled with bubbles in the lacrima in her hand.

"Hey, you," Lucy giggled as the totem that Bickslow's lacrima was no doubt perched on settled itself in the corner of the bath so she could see Bickslow, whose sweater was almost completely soaked even with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows; ten-month-old Aurora who was happily squealing and playing with the bubbles; and… All of the bubbles. Because there were a lot of bubbles. "Got enough bubbles there?"

Bickslow had been grinning before, just because he really did like bath time, but his grin only got almost impossibly wider once he saw Lucy. Just talking to her without seeing her was fine, but actually being able to see her when they were talking was a whole lot nicer. "Hey! And… You know, probably not. There's never enough bubbles."

"Ba-bub-bub-bub!"

Bickslow only scooped up a handful of bubbles from the bath as Aurora decided to chime in. "Yes, bubbles!" he said happily to the cheerfulness of his daughter. "We like bubbles a lot."

"I feel like I'm missing out now," Lucy laughed.

"That's because you are. But don't worry, once you get back, you can have all the bubbles you want. Speaking of, though…" Bickslow trailed off as he grabbed the bottle of baby shampoo from the row of other soaps and shampoos they used on the shelf, and carefully turned Aurora around. "When are you going to be back?" he asked as he instead just watched with a bored expression as Aurora began to crawl forward in the bath and away from him.

It was because she'd noticed her mother's face sitting in the crystal orb on one of the flying tikis she adored so much (they made bath time even more fun, and they proved to be fun to follow around, though she didn't quite understand why her parents seemed so intent on following her and picking her up sometimes). "Mama!"

Lucy only smiled when she saw Aurora reaching for her with her own wide smile – or, well, she reached for the lacrima. She'd mastered the art of crawling already, and she could pull herself up to stand (which made bath time just a little frustrating since she was more interested in trying to stand on the edge of the bath), and she even knew who Lucy was and who Bickslow was. It had surprised him when they realised that she knew the difference and it wasn't just her random sounds (Bickslow still called it whale-speak, even though Lucy couldn't see it at all), because they'd expected her to be a little slower in the development front since she'd been born early, but she hadn't been so far.

"Hi, sweetie," Lucy said softly. Oh, if only she could actually reach out and pick her up. But she couldn't. She could see that Aurora was trying to reach for her now that the non-human baby she was sitting on had moved lower and was level with her, and she could see how confused Aurora was getting because she was there, but it wasn't her face she was touching but instead it was the cold glass of the lacrima and it was the first time she'd ever seen that. As Aurora turned to look to Bickslow, he only shrugged and gently sat her back down in front of him and Lucy said, "And, um… I'm probably going to start heading home in the morning, so I'll probably be back tomorrow night or the day after."

"Where are you now?" Bickslow asked as he gently massaged the soap into the soft blue strands that sat atop her head – she'd been born with black hair, actually, or at least it had looked black, but once it had started growing out again, it had turned the same shade as Bickslow's. Lucy didn't understand it since the roots still remained the same shade that was too dark to really be classified as the same cobalt that Bickslow's was, but neither did Bickslow.

"Just outside of Malba City, I think it's called."

"Huh. Never heard of it."

"It's really pretty," Lucy said. "There's lots of trees and flowers and there's so many beautiful gardens and parks. It's a bit like Crocus, I guess, but… Smaller."

"Sounds nice," the Seith mage mused. He leant around the infant who was back to staring down at the bubbles that filled the bath up to her stomach and was watching the other four babies that kept ducking down and hiding beneath them, and smiled down at her again. "We should go visit one day, shouldn't we?" When she only squealed, Bickslow rolled his eyes and said, "I really wish you would just hurry up and start talking properly. I still don't understand this whale language you seem so fond of."

"Bickslow, it's not whale."

"But it really is. I mean, listen to her! It's whale. She even has a shirt that says so."

"It's really not whale," Lucy giggled over their daughter's squealing that was most definitely not its own language – or at the very least it wasn't whale. But then Aurora was starting to cough, and then Lucy was most definitely not laughing at that, and Bickslow was finishing rinsing her off before lifting her out of the bath. "Is she still not better yet?"

Aurora had been a little sick before Lucy had left, but Bickslow had practically had to push her out the door to get her to leave. It was just a cold, and that was something Bickslow could deal with on his own. Plus, he knew how much finding Aquarius' key meant to Lucy and he knew that she was constantly worrying about someone else finding it before she did, so of course he was completely behind her leaving every now and then and whenever she could to go and find it.

He really didn't mind it, but it most definitely had something to do with the fact that he got to have Aurora all to herself. He was an Aurora hog.

"Ah, no…" Bickslow mumbled. The tiki with the lacrima on it followed him into Aurora's room and hovered in front of him as he sat down on the white lounge that was forever laden with pillows with his back against the armrest, and set Aurora who was all bundled up in the bright yellow towel down on his lap. He didn't really need to look up to know that Lucy was either pouting, scowling and glaring at him like she wanted to murder him, or looking like she was going to die from worrying too much. Or all of them, which was more likely. "I mean, I took her to see her doctor earlier today just because I wasn't sure if I needed to freak out yet…"

"And…?" Lucy pressed.

"And… He said it wasn't anything to worry about yet, but if she got any worse then I'd need to take her back and then she'd probably get admitted to the hospital for a few days to be treated…"

"But… But you said it was just a cold! You told me to—"

"And I thought it was just a cold," Bickslow said quickly as he got up, holding Aurora in one arm and grabbing her pyjamas in the other. "It still could just be a cold, too, but… It might not be, either."

"Then what?"

Bickslow shrugged. He did have to admit it was just a little weird talking about how their ten-month-old daughter could very possibly end up in hospital again for a few more days while making faces at her – that was just a must when it came to dressing her, just like playing with her toes was, or kissing her nose, which was something he was very pleased to know she enjoyed just as much as her mother did. "Not sure," he admitted. "He thinks that it might be some kind of viral infection if she does end up getting worse. Like, the airways in her lungs get inflamed, I think he said."

It was a more than worrying thought knowing that their daughter could end up back in hospital because there was something wrong with her lungs again. But she also might not, which Lucy was choosing to focus on, because she really could not let herself be consumed by her anxiety when she was that far away from home. So she only nodded, smiled, and continued to wave to Aurora when she pointed up to the lacrima and kept telling Bickslow that she was there. "Well, I'll try to get home as soon as I can."

After putting Aurora to bed, which had strangely involved a lot of saying 'bye' since she'd apparently (and surprisingly) learned how to say that, too, and leaving her to sleep with the babies watching over her like they always did and the giant pink ladybug in the corner of the crib (Bickslow had gotten fed up with it at one point after Lucy had sleepily hit him in the face with it when they'd both been somewhat asleep, and so it had been donated to Aurora when she'd been six months old, though she'd already been made quite familiar with the ladybug since she'd come home from the hospital because it made the perfect nursing pillow of sorts for Lucy), Bickslow only ventured out to the kitchen to get his own dinner organised, and with the lacrima sitting on the bench, their conversation once again drifted back to Lucy's adventure.

"So," Bickslow turned away from the stove to lean against the counter and folde his arms across his chest. "If you're going to start heading back tomorrow, I take it you didn't get any closer to finding her key?"

Lucy shook her head. "I think I'm heading in the right direction…" It was how she'd ended up in Malba City in the first place: she'd just had a feeling that it was somewhere in that direction and she just kept following that feeling. "But no, I didn't."

"Well, you will eventually. I know you will."

"I hope so," she whispered – Bickslow's unwavering faith that she would seemed to be the only thing that kept her going, really. "I just wish it wasn't going to take this long. I miss my babies."

He arched an eyebrow at the lacrima on the counter. "Plural, now?"

Lucy shrugged. "Well, there's Aurora, and then there's you…"

"Right," he scoffed, and he only scratched the back of his head as he turned back to the stove for a moment. "But, um… When was it you said you'd be home?"

"I'll say the day after the tomorrow at the latest. I'm hoping for tomorrow night since I'll be able to catch the trains coming back."

He nodded. "Right, okay…"

Lucy hesitated when she could see that something was… off. Something didn't sit right with her right then, because Bickslow had gotten unusually quiet very quickly. It wasn't like their calls when she was out searching for Aquarius' key were always easy, because they were just as hard as being away from them both, so it wasn't out of the ordinary for Bickslow to be just a little quieter than usual or seem a little tense. But it was different then. Maybe it's because of Aurora. "…Or if I leave now, I could probably be back by tomorrow afternoon," she added slowly.

"No, no. You don't have to do that. No, you should… You should get some rest tonight and just leave in the morning like you said earlier," Bickslow mumbled.

"Are you sure?"

"Very."

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong then?" she asked.

"Nothing is wrong."

Lucy rolled her eyes at the stubborn Seith mage. "Bickslow, I don't need to physically be in the same room as you to know when something is wrong," she reminded him. "Just tell me. Please?"

Bickslow only shook his head. "I promise you, nothing's wrong." But then he paused as he turned back to the pot he had on the stovetop, and even when Lucy was quite possibly on the other side of Fiore – he had no idea where the town she was in actually was – he knew she was watching him intently through the lacrima. "I just… I wanted to talk to you about something when you got back, and you just reminded me of it," he admitted quietly before adding in afterthought, "Though maybe now isn't the right time to bring it up…"

"Hm? What about?'

He shook his head again. "It doesn't matter." Well, it did matter, but not right then. He could only give her an embarrassed smile as he turned back to lean against the counter, and he said, "Besides, it's not exactly something we should talk about like this."

Lucy could honestly say that she had absolutely no idea what it was Bickslow apparently wanted to talk to her about, though she was more than a little curious. She knew Bickslow well enough to know that he wasn't going to cave on telling her just yet, though. She would have to wait. "If you say so," she hummed.

And with that, they only continued to tell each other all about their day and anything else that came to mind, right up until Lucy ended up falling asleep in the cosy tent made from Aries' bright pink wool that she'd retreated into halfway through their conversation, and after making Bickslow promise to have a bubble bath waiting her for when she got home.

Bickslow still hated going out on jobs, but by that point in his life, he was sure he was always going to hate going out on jobs, because it wasn't like he could stop. He was a guild mage, and that was what guild mages did. He'd accepted that it was just something he was going to have to find a way to get over. When that would be, though, he had no idea.

It made coming home nice, though. Coming home was the best part of taking jobs (apart from the fact that it paid the bills and let them buy really nice things they they – Bickslow – didn't really need) because it meant he got to be back with Aurora again. And Lucy, of course. But Aurora was important.

So when Bickslow got home that night, he was, as usual, more than happy to leave the setting sun behind him on the quiet street and walk through the front door that Lucy had apparently decided to paint black at some point over the last three days. Odd.

As soon as he was into the kitchen where Lucy was getting dinner ready, Aurora was getting up from the window seat and dropping the book she'd been 'reading' to rush over to him, and of course, he only picked her up just as quickly as she'd run over to him. "Daddy, I missed you!" the two-and-a-half-year-old said happily. Though honestly, he sometimes forgot she was still that young.

She'd been ahead with almost everything after she'd started actually talking (Bickslow had been so glad when she'd started moving on from the whale speak) and walking. She talked a lot, or at least it was more than what some were capable of, and she loved having conversations with them or the babies, though sometimes it was a case where they just let her prattle on because sometimes she just made no sense (though most of the time she did), and she absolutely loved her books. She didn't quite know how to read though, and she was still learning the alphabet, strangely, but she still liked learning as much as she could, at least, so they let her go off with it on her own every now and then. It was clear to Bickslow that Aurora had gotten Lucy's brains, but sometimes, he kind of wished she wasn't so smart.

Was it too much to ask that she just stay little forever and not be so independent already? And if he had to be perfectly honest, he did kind of miss the whale speak…

Just a little.

"Oh, well I missed you too," he replied, though he was just a little surprised because it was the first time Aurora had ever said she'd missed him. He'd honestly been beginning to think she didn't when he was gone, what, with Lucy being there with her… "But aren't you forgetting something?"

Aurora stared at him as he walked around to where Lucy was behind the counter, and then he tapped his cheek with his finger and her face lit up with realisation before she quickly gave him his 'returning home' kiss that he'd been getting for far too long (though they'd grown much more precise over the years and less… wet).

"Ah, much better. Thank you, Aurora."

She only giggled and laid her head on his shoulder.

"But as for you…" he murmured as reached for Lucy's cheek to turn her towards him, then gently pressed his lips to hers. "I missed you as well."

"I missed you, too," Lucy whispered, and let Bickslow quickly kiss her again, but it was only quickly because Aurora was grabbing each of their faces and was apparently set on trying to separate them. Bickslow only rolled his eyes, because it wasn't the first time she had, but Lucy laughed and poked her nose before she turned her attention back to the chopping board in front of her. "Fine then, Little Miss Jealous. He's all yours."

As Aurora had put it three months earlier, Bickslow was hers. Not Lucy's. He was her knight in shining armour, and, well, as much as Lucy found herself just a little bit jealous of their daughter because she didn't really like having to share her doctor in shining armour, she still thought it was cute.

"Wait, is something burning?"

Lucy looked back up at Bickslow's question, and then her eyes went wide as she spun around and stared at the oven next to the pantry that she was still trying to figure out in their new house (they'd needed the space), even though they'd been there for over six months by that point. "Oh, no! No, no, no, no, no!"

Bickslow chuckled as he got out of the way of the blonde, taking Aurora over to the edge of the room while Lucy fanned the smoke (after she'd spent a few days in the hospital when she'd been ten-months-old, they'd found out she was asthmatic, and with her lungs still not quite being as strong as they should be, they needed to make sure she was kept away from certain things) with the mitts after opening the oven. He set Aurora down then quietly said, "Why don't you go play with the babies in the lounge room for a little while?" She only nodded and followed the five tikis into the other room happily, and once she was gone and he could only just hear her telling them off for something (she was incredibly bossy sometimes), he went around to the counter once again and tried to peek at what Lucy was pulling out of the oven and asked, slightly amused, "So what is it you were cooking? Or… Trying to cook, I should so say."

"A roast," she admitted miserably. "Roast chicken."

"A roast, huh? What made you want to do that?" He really did find it amusing that she'd burnt it even though he probably shouldn't, but he had to give credit where it was due. She wasn't anywhere near as horrible at cooking as she had been three years earlier, but only because he happened to be a very good teacher, but she still wasn't a goddess in the kitchen.

In a whole lot of other things, she was, yes, but… Most definitely not in the kitchen. The kitchen was his domain, and when they'd decided to move, he'd most definitely pushed them getting a house with a nicer kitchen that had plenty of room for him – and Aurora, because Aurora liked to 'help' – to make mess in.

"Well, I knew you were going to be home tonight, and I wanted to make something nice since you always spoil me whenever I get back from a job or looking for Aquarius' key…"

He smiled as he wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder, and stared down at what was supposed to have been a roast. "Yeah, but you don't need to attempt to cook a roast to spoil me. You do that enough by putting up with me."

"Mm, don't remind me how much I want to strangle you half the time."

"But you don't because you still love me too much, and I'm like, the best dad on this planet."

"That I do." She couldn't help but smile when he decided to slip the last part in just a little sneakily. He couldn't help himself sometimes.

"Now," He kissed her cheek then pulled away from her suddenly, and said, "How about you get rid of this, because honestly, if it wasn't already dead before, it most definitely is now, and after I shower, we go out for dinner?"

Lucy sighed as she tipped the roast tray into the bin and watched the burnt remnants fall into the trash. She tried, and had most obviously failed. "That sounds like a good idea," she mumbled.

It was as Bickslow was making his way into the hall and down to the bedroom that Aurora suddenly came running down the hall, and he stopped and stared down at the blue-haired girl that was hugging him and shaking her head. "Hey… Hey, Aurora… What's wrong?" It was just a bit difficult to get her to actually let go of him just so he could crouch down in front of her and get on her level, but once he had, she instantly hid herself beneath his arm and under his cloak he'd yet to take off.

The hiding-under-cloak thing wasn't new – she was shy around most people, so even when they went to the guild, she'd retreat under his cloak if he was wearing it and pretend to be invisible, or she'd just run to either parent for a hug and try to hide that way.

But Bickslow didn't really know why she was doing it then, because it wasn't like she was shy around them. It was a very rare occurrence for Aurora to want to hide when she was at home, and even then, she only did if it was just part of a game.

Lucy only curiously stuck her head around the archway as she dried her hands with a towel. She gave Bickslow a look as if to say, 'what the hell is going on?' But he couldn't even answer that. He just had no idea and all he could do was shrug.

He slowly lifted up the cloak to peek at the girl who had her arms wrapped around him, but she only reached up and tugged it back down again so she couldn't be seen. Alright then. If Aurora was going to be like that, there was only one solution to getting her to tell him what was wrong. So swiftly, he undid the clasp and sat himself down on the ground with his legs crossed, pulled Aurora into his lap so she was still hiding, and threw the cloak over the top of both of them. Or really, it was over her and over his head, but it was dark and it was warm, and she was most definitely hiding.

Well, sort of.

"Now, come on," Bickslow said softly. "Tell Daddy what's wrong."

"Babies scary," Aurora mumbled.

"Hm? The babies are scary? But you love the babies. How are they scary?"

"They were glowing and they scary."

Lucy was the one who froze when she heard Aurora, not Bickslow. They both knew that the babies weren't exactly all that aware of their boundaries when it came to playing with people which is what they did best, but they also knew that Aurora was different to them. They were almost sure the reason she was so shy and never really liked going to any playgroups or being around any other children her age was because of the babies. She'd grown up with them mostly, not really any other kids, so the babies were her friends. Bickslow and Lucy knew it was probably a bit of a mistake on their part, not having her be around other children when she'd been younger, but they weren't worrying about it too much.

Bickslow's argument was that they'd both been kids who had grown up pretty much on their own and without any other people their age around them, and they'd turned out just fine. Well… Mostly.

But she still had the guild, too… It was just other kids she wasn't really that great with, so they were just working on that slowly and were letting the babies stay as her best friends for now.

Bickslow wasn't even worried that the babies had crossed a boundary they shouldn't have because they knew they wouldn't ever do that – they liked to play, sure, and when it came to him they mostly weren't all that gentle. But with Aurora, they were just that. She didn't even know what they were capable of – what he was capable of – and he'd wanted it to stay that way for at least a little while longer…

Not everything goes to plan though.

So it was after he wondered how he was going to approach the subject – because he really hadn't thought he'd have to, at least not for a while – that he finally asked, "Were they green?"

"Uh-huh."

One of the five totems flew down into the hall and he caught it in his hand before bringing it under the cloak. "Aurora, sweetie, I need you to look up now, okay?"

She nodded and hesitantly lifted her head from his shoulder and opened her eyes. But as soon as she saw the faint green glow just off to the side in the otherwise dark enclosure she was in, she whimpered and hid her face again. "I don't wanna," she sniffled.

"Was it glowing again?"

"Uh-huh."

Bickslow sighed and let the wooden doll wriggle out of his grasp. He let Aurora calm down for a minute and waited until the hall was quiet once again before he carefully pushed the cloak back so it was just acting as a blanket over the two of them. "Aurora, I need you to look up again, and I want you to look at me this time, okay? Can you do that?" he asked softly.

It took her a moment, but she nodded again and slowly lifted her head. She could see the baby hovering just behind him with its strange green glow, and all she wanted to do was hide under the warm cloak again because it frightened her, but she couldn't. She had to be a big girl, and it didn't really help that Bickslow was holding her face gently between his hands so she couldn't hide as much as she wanted to.

He only watched as she glanced to the floating totem just behind him every now and then, and sighed quietly when he could just make out the warm golden glow in her deep coffee eyes. He'd already known from the minute she'd said the babies had been glowing, but seeing her eyes glow in response to it – he knew that the babies being close to her were bringing that out because that was how it started – only confirmed it. He'd just really been hoping to avoid seeing that for his entire life, or at the very least a few more years.

Bickslow had the last totem go down to their bedroom with the other four to sit on the shelf they'd been given. He knew he'd probably have to remind them later that Aurora really wasn't scared of them, and that it was all just new to her. But, that was later. For now, though, he had to tell Aurora that she didn't have anything to worry about. So he got up from where he was sitting on the floor in the hall with a groan, and then sat down on the lounge in the living room with Aurora still on his lap and still hiding beneath his cloak, despite the fact that it was summer.

He looked down to her head resting on his shoulder and gently said, "You don't need to be scared of them, Aurora."

"But they're weird now…" she mumbled.

"I know they are, but it's nothing to be scared of. Do you know why?"

She shook her head.

"Because it means you're a mage just like Daddy is."

"It does?" Aurora whispered when she looked up suddenly. The small smile she had on her lips only had Bickslow smiling back as Lucy caught a tear that slid down her cheek, and turned back to the kitchen to finish cleaning up the mess she'd made.

"Yup," Bickslow answered. "You can see souls just like I can, so that's why the babies were glowing, because they're souls."

"And… And will I always see them?"

Bickslow shook his head. "Not unless you want to, because I'm going to teach you all about Seith magic and you're going to learn how to control it, too, because that's important, okay?" He could tell his daughter that she was essentially a glorified puppeteer, but he chose not to. That, he could tell her later, maybe once she was a little calmer. "But… For tonight, how about we just leave the babies alone so they don't scare you again, and then maybe tomorrow, if you want me to—"

"Oh, please, Daddy!" Aurora said quickly as she sat up suddenly

"You didn't even let me finish what I was saying!"

"Oh, but…"

He rolled his eyes as she seemed to deflate some. "So you want me to start teaching you about Seith magic tomorrow then?" he asked, even though he was pretty sure that was what she wanted. He wasn't quite sure if she liked her excitement, though.

"Uh-huh!"

"Well, if you insist…"

It was only later that night once they'd gotten home from dinner and he'd put Aurora to bed without the babies staying with her like they usually did, that Bickslow let the walls he'd put up for Aurora that evening all come crumbling down. He'd seemed fine with it, sure, but the truth was that he wasn't really sure if he was.

He'd really been hoping that Aurora hadn't been passed on that particular trait, but only because he didn't really know how he would teach her. No one had taught him because no one had been able to, but Aurora had someone to help her – she had him. He just didn't know how to or how things would turn out.

And even then… It only meant that she was like him, and that still terrified him even though he knew he didn't really have to be.

"So…" Lucy pulled the bathroom door closed after she dropped her towels into the hamper, then slowly padded over to bed where the Seith mage sat with his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose, and she climbed up onto the edge to sit on his lap with her knees on either side of him. "Aurora's a Seith mage then?"

He sighed as Lucy pulled his arms down so she could wrap her own around his shoulders. "Apparently, yeah," he mumbled.

"Are you okay?"

Bickslow shrugged as he laid back, bringing Lucy down with him (because how could he not? Plus, he was comfortable, and so was she). "I guess so. I kinda wish she wasn't though, to be honest, but it's not like there's anything we can do about that now…"

"I don't mind it. I told you years ago I'd gladly have baby Seith mages with you." They'd been together for nearly four years at that point, but she most definitely had not changed her stance on having her children be Seith mages. She quite liked Aurora having Bickslow's magic, and then if and when they decided to have another baby (though it really was an if, because Lucy wasn't quite sure if she wanted to, but Bickslow had already expressed his desire for another baby before Aurora had even turned one), she'd still be over the moon if they got his magic, too.

"Well, you got one. My bad."

"Oh, shush, you," Lucy laughed quietly. "But I mean it. Are you going to be okay? You know, are you going to be able to teach her?"

He didn't know how to, but yeah. He'd be able to, because he knew that everything always worked out in the end. This was no different. Nodding, he whispered, "Yeah, I'll be able to. But I don't exactly know how much I'll be able to teach her because I don't know whether she'll be able to understand some of it."

Lucy slid off to the side and propped herself up on her elbow. True, Aurora was their genius baby, but even Lucy knew that there were some (a lot) things a not yet three-year-old could understand. "I suppose you have a point, and I guess now that it's been brought up, I never really expected her to show any signs of any type of magic for a few years yet. How old were you when it happened for you?"

"Five? Six, maybe? Somewhere around there, I think. But if you think about it, we really shouldn't be that surprised that she developed her magic early, too, since she's been ahead with pretty much everything else…"

"I guess," Lucy sighed wistfully before adding just as quietly, "You know, sometimes I almost wish she hadn't been? She just… She used to be so small! And she's already so big! And she's so… So independent now and I feel like she doesn't even need me anymore."

"Well… I miss her being tiny, too, but you know we could—"

Lucy laughed as she suddenly sat up and put her hand over his mouth. "Nuh-uh. Nice try, Bicks, but we're still not having this conversation." Oh no. Definitely not. Besides, she had other things to do… Like finish cleaning up the kitchen from earlier. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a kitchen to finish cleaning."

Bickslow only watched the blonde escape out into the hall and yet again completely shut down the conversation he'd only been wanting to seriously have for the last nearly two years. But that was okay. He could wait for as long as he needed to.

He already had something else on his mind by the time he was getting off the bed to follow his still-fiancée down the hall, because it was only just occurring to him that the only room that they'd yet to christen in their new house in the six months they'd lived there was in fact his favourite (well, second favourite) room of them all: the kitchen.

"I hope there's a town nearby," Lucy mused as she walked alongside her recently turned four-year-old daughter, Aurora's hand in hers and their arms swinging idly between them. "We should be at least getting close to one. What do you think, Aurora?"

Aurora hummed as she turned to look at their surroundings, but she could only see the trees on one side and on the other side of the train tracks they were walking along, and then her father walking slowly behind them on the dirt path. She knew they'd been walking for a while because she was getting tired again, and she knew that they hadn't passed through a town for the last two days, so they had to be getting close to one. That was just the logical thing, naturally.

She also really hoped there was a town nearby, too, because she really wanted ice cream.

"I think so, Mama," she replied brightly.

Lucy looked behind them to the Seith mage. "And what do you think? Do you think we're close?"

Bickslow looked up suddenly when he realised Lucy was talking to him instead of Aurora. "Huh?" He hadn't really been paying all that much attention to them at all since most of what they talked about when they were walking from one town to the next was Lucy just satiating Aurora's endless curiosity about absolutely everything. He helped too, of course, because when they were gone for two, sometimes three or even four weeks at a time because they were all out looking for Aquarius' key (they hadn't started until Aurora had been nearly four, but even that they'd wanted to put off), it gave them plenty of opportunities to teach her about the world and everything else in it.

They were still working on her magic, too – or at least Bickslow was. She'd started being able to see their souls and not just the babies' forms not too long after her magic had started developing in the first place, and at four, just a few months earlier, she'd managed to get some kind of control over her eyes, which had honestly just blown Bickslow out of the water. He had downright refused teaching her about her Figure Eyes yet, though – that could wait at least a few more years – but the rest of it, being able to see someone's soul and having her learn how to control that ability was fine, because she'd clearly been ready to understand that.

And even when they'd decided that Aurora was just old enough to come with them so Bickslow could actually go with Lucy, too, like he'd always said he'd wanted to do, he didn't stop teaching her. When they were mostly travelling the country by foot and they had a four-year-old who got tired incredibly easily if she was being active because of the problems she'd always had with her lungs (though she was still a happy little girl. She just happened to get tuckered out faster than she should have), they spent a lot of time just resting and taking breaks. It wasn't an inconvenience to them, though. Not even in a million years would it be an inconvenience.

But over the last few days… Bickslow hadn't been able to help become just a little distant, and for the first time, he hadn't really liked where Lucy had been leading them. He'd really just followed her up until that point because she was the only one who knew where they needed to go (or, well, she wasn't certain since she was really just following a feeling, but she'd been following that same feeling for years and she still claimed they were heading in the right direction) and it was how they'd gotten to the far north of Fiore near the border and near the mountain ranges in the first place, because each time she or they had gone out, they'd been getting farther and farther away from from Magnolia.

It was just that this time, it was different, and he didn't really want to let Lucy know that there was anything wrong, and it worried him that he really might have to.

"I asked if you thought we were close to another town," Lucy repeated. "You know, so we can stay a night or two at an inn and maybe just relax for a couple days?"

"Oh. Right, um… Yeah… There, ah… There should be one close by… Maybe… I don't know…" he mumbled. Liar. You know exactly where the closest town is. He just hoped he wouldn't have to go through it, let alone stay in it. "But, hey… Baby," he began again before she could even question what was wrong, because he knew she was wondering (and it wasn't like he was very good at hiding it when his visor was tucked away in his rucksack). "Are you sure you want to keep heading this direction? Like, don't you maybe want to head west? Or… Or maybe east?"

"Of course I am. Maybe if we don't find anything this way we can try that." Lucy looked down to Aurora again with a great big smile and asked, "How does that sound?"

She nodded. "Mama has the good plans!"

Lucy smirked over her shoulder again. "See? I have the good plans."

"Yup… You sure do…" Bickslow mumbled. So maybe he really was just going to have to put up with it. There was still a chance they'd be able to avoid the small town that was just a little farther north-northeast. There was one in the west that he wouldn't be against Lucy wanting to pass through or stay in for a few days (as much as Aries' wool was comfortable and made the best beds, he missed an actual bed most of the time when they were out on the hunt for Aquarius' key); it was just his old hometown he wanted to avoid like the plague, just like how he wanted to avoid Lucy finding out that that was where they were essentially headed.

He'd never seen the point in telling her where he'd grown up, and she'd never asked so that part of his life he'd gladly kept secret.

"Mama, there's something up there," Aurora suddenly said, pointing to what Lucy could just make out as a small crossing for the tracks with what looked to be a map of some sort, just a couple hundred metres up ahead.

"Oh, you're right! Wanna go check it out?"

"Uh-huh!"

"I'll race you—" But just like that, the blue-haired girl with the short pigtails was running off and Lucy was, of course, left chasing after her and trying not to laugh too much. "Don't get too close to the tracks!"

But Bickslow didn't chase after them like he would have if they'd been anywhere else. He really wasn't in any kind of rush to go to where they were running towards, but he had no choice but to follow them right now, so he just did so as slowly as he could possibly manage.

By the time he got there, Lucy was busy studying the large map of the area on the board, and Aurora was walking around in circles and staring at the ground for some reason. But then Bickslow just stood there and kept flexing his hands or wringing them together, because all he wanted to do was just try and wrap his arms around himself and close his eyes to stop himself from seeing it all happen all over again.

The worst part about it, though, was that it wasn't Dallas standing there in front of him anymore. It was his daughter, and he just couldn't stop seeing that train, and he couldn't move, either…

"So… There's a town just on the other side of the tracks, just a few kilometres west," Lucy said absentmindedly as she continued to study the map. "And then there's another one on this side that's closer to us, and that's just a bit farther north… North, north-east, actually."

Bickslow didn't hear her – or maybe he was just ignoring her – because he was too busy watching Aurora still. Or, more accurately, he was looking between the four-year-old who was still spinning around and giggling at how she was almost losing her balance, and the train that had just rounded the bend as far as his eyes could see. He couldn't do that again. He just couldn't.

"H-Hey, Aurora… Don't be silly, now…" he mumbled, suddenly aware of how dry his throat felt. "Don't play near the tracks. Come back over here."

"But it's fun!"

"I know it is but… But it's not safe there. Come on, just come back over here now." Somewhere in his mind he knew that he still had time, because the train was still hundreds of metres away and she wasn't even that close to the tracks, but it was still way too close for comfort.

But Aurora just ignored him after that and kept spinning around, and Lucy kept staring at the map and trying to figure out where the best place for them to go next would be, and the train kept coming, and Bickslow…

Bickslow couldn't move.

Again.

He was stuck standing in the same spot he had fourteen years earlier, staring at the same place and seeing it happen all over again. Everything was so different and yet it felt the same as it had back then.

But then something seemed to click and he wasn't frozen in place anymore; he wasn't feeling utterly useless and at a loss for what to do. Because things were different – everything was different. And Aurora was just a kid still (though sometimes, he wondered if she knew that herself) so she didn't really understand the gravity of the situation, but that was okay, because it was his job to keep her safe and make her understand.

The train still wasn't anywhere near them, and the Aurora still wasn't that close to the tracks, but it was still too close for Bickslow. So he just stepped forward and quickly scooped her up before setting her down on an old wooden bench near the map – far away from the tracks. "Aurora, I told you not to play near the tracks, and you're supposed to listen to me when I tell you to do something, remember?" he scolded her mildly. It wasn't like he was going to yell, because he just wasn't the type of parent that could, and it still wasn't exactly something that she needed to be yelled at for...

But he still kept seeing that train from fourteen years earlier and he could still see that place where Dallas had once been standing. He couldn't do that with Aurora, too.

Aurora looked down and nodded. "I'm sorry, Daddy," she whispered.

"It's—" He stopped himself abruptly and flinched when he heard the train's horn and felt the ground he was kneeling on just barely shake from it as it got nearer and eventually came past. It was only then that Lucy was realising that something else was off and he wasn't just worried about Aurora having gotten a little too close to the tracks before the train had come past – she did have to admit she felt horrible for not noticing herself until Bickslow had had to go and pick her up – but she didn't have a chance to ask about it before Bickslow was looking up to give their daughter a forced but small smile. "It's fine," he said softly, wrapping his arms around the girl to pull her into a hug from where she stood on the bench. "Just be careful and listen to me the first time next time."

Lucy watched Bickslow slowly step back and begin to pace a little just where the small clearing for the map and rest point point met the dense forest. Turning to Aurora who only sat on the bench kicking her feet out in front of her, Lucy reached into the bag that was sitting on the bench beside her and pulled out the handcrafted book, So You Want to Be a Badass Seith Mage, Vol. 4 (Because You Are Four Now!) – something Bickslow had made her for her fourth birthday as a bit of a joke even though it was strangely useful and she loved reading it – and then knelt down in front of Aurora to hand it to her. "Here, why don't you sit here for a little bit and read this? Do you remember what part you were reading last?" she beamed.

Aurora nodded quickly. "Colours of souls!" she answered as happily as she always did.

"Ooh, that sounds interesting! Tell me what you learn later?"

"If you want me to."

"Well, of course I want you to!" She already knew because Bickslow had told her when she'd seen him working on it, but still – it was always nice finding out what Aurora could learn on her own just from a very bright and colourful book with lots and lots of pictures of the babies. "But…" Lucy stood up again and put her hands on the girl's cheeks to tilt her face up to look at her, and continued, "You have to sit right here, okay? I don't want you moving from this bench at all. If I find out your feet have touched the ground…"

It was tempting, because her parents only threatened her with lots of tickles if she did something they didn't want her to do, but she wouldn't. She wanted to read with the babies sitting next to her, and Pippi was already sitting on her shoulder like it always did anyway. So she shook her head. "Sitting right here, Mama," she said, nodding once.

Lucy kissed her forehead. "Good girl. Keep the babies company."

So with Aurora already flicking the cardstock pages in her book and beginning to read aloud to the babies who were helping her with the words she hadn't quite gotten (honestly, Lucy hadn't even known what the babies were actually capable of until they'd basically started raising Aurora themselves), Lucy headed over to Bickslow to finally see what was bothering him.

She caught his hands between hers when she stepped in front of him, and not holding them tightly she could feel that they were just barely shaking. "Bickslow, what's wrong?" she asked softly.

In hindsight, Bickslow was realising he probably should have told Lucy just where her gut instinct happened to be leading them through. He told her everything because he never had a reason not to tell her something, and he knew that the situation right then was no different. He had to tell her because she needed to know, even if it was something he'd honestly thought would never ever happen. "Do you, um… Do you remember when we went to Akane like, five years ago? And I… I told you all of that stuff about my parents, and… And Dallas?" he asked in turn, though his voice was much shakier than he'd anticipated and Lucy most definitely caught it.

She nodded. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, uh… It was… It was here."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean…" He had to swallow the lump in the throat as he pulled his hand free just to point through the forest and to a small path that he'd trekked hundreds of times growing up that led to the small town he'd lived in. "This was where I lived before I moved with Caspian," he explained.

"Oh no…" Realisation seemed to hit Lucy then like a… Well, ironically, a train.

"And uh… Dallas was, um… Here."

Lucy quickly let go of his hands and looped her arms around his neck and pulled him down slightly so she could rest her chin on his shoulder and he could with her. "I'm so, so sorry, Bicks…" she whispered. She knew that Bickslow hadn't gone back to where he'd grown up since he'd left with Caspian, and she knew that he'd left relatively soon after it had all happened – from Dallas dying to Bickslow hurting himself – so she could only assume that it was Bickslow's first time coming back to where it had all happened. She could honestly say right then that she had no idea how Bickslow was feeling, and she didn't really want to know what he felt right then, either, because she knew that he was in pain right then; she could see that. "You should have told me earlier. We could have avoided passing through here so you wouldn't have to come back."

Bickslow shrugged. "I didn't want to tell you."

"I figured as much, but you still should have. I wouldn't have come anywhere near here if I'd known."

He lifted his head to rest his forehead on hers, and the corners of his mouth lifted up into a small smile for the barest of moments. "I know you wouldn't have, but you obviously needed to," he said. "I told you I'd follow you to the ends of the earth when it comes to finding Aquarius' key, and I'm not going to get in the way of you getting her back. I wasn't going to tell you that there was a chance we'd get so far north that we'd pass through here, because that's just not fair. You'd avoid it like that particular conversation that I still really want to have one day—"

"Hey, come on, you know I'm not avoiding it…" Lucy laughed weakly. Well, she kind of was. For now, anyway.

"You are, but that's okay," he smirked. "But you'd avoid coming through here if you had known, and… And what if Aquarius' key is here? Or near here? You're the one she belonged to, and you're the one leading us right now. I'm just following you and trying to keep our daughter safe."

"I know you are. But um… You know, you don't have to follow me if you don't want to."

"I do want to, though."

"But I… I want to go through your old town. That's just… That's just where I feel like I need to go right now, you know?"

Bickslow shrugged and let out a shaky breath. "Okay then."

But Lucy continued, "So you can take Aurora to the town on the other side of the tracks, and… And you can stay there for tonight or something and I can come and find you tomorrow or in a couple days if I don't find anything near the one that's just up here…"

"I'm not leaving you."

"But if you follow me, you'll have to go back to your old hometown…"

"I know that."

"Isn't that going to be hard for you, though?" Lucy asked worriedly. She didn't want Bickslow coming with her if that was the case. She could pass through there on her own, look around for a couple of days and meet Bickslow and Aurora in another town and then if north was the direction she still felt she needed to go, they could find another way to get there that would allow them to bypass his old town. "I mean… Even being here is difficult for you, and I know that it's because you saw Dallas die here, but… I don't want to make things any more difficult for you."

He smiled softly again as he brought his hands up to her cheeks. It was tempting to just take Aurora to the town on the other side of the tracks, but that wasn't going to achieve anything. "Lucy, baby, I'm going with you. Even back to that goddamn hellhole, which is really what it is, no matter how much it hurts me, okay?"

"Are you sure you want to do that?"

He nodded. "Positive. I need to… I need to face my demons, you know? I think I need to do this," Bickslow admitted, though it was more to himself than anything. He felt as if he needed to go and do that right then – face it all head on once again to finally move on like he'd never really been able to do. And he felt as if that was possible for once. "Besides, anyone who knew me as a kid would've forgotten me by now. It's been nearly twenty-two for everyone else years since I left, after all… And even then, as long as I have you and Aurora by my side, I'll be okay, because you two and can get me through everything."

And they did. They got him through the worst of it. And when two people that he'd thought would be gone by then had somehow recognised him, his own family that held him together were still there.

But going through there had truly been what he'd needed. It had hurt, and he'd hated every second of it, but it had helped, because he'd learned that the two people that he'd wished were his actual parents on more than one occasion in his life had recognised him, and that they'd never blamed him for their son's death. Dallas' parents were who he'd worried about hating him the most all those years, because where everyone else that he'd ever known besides Caspian had blamed him, his best friend's parents hadn't – not even for a second.

He'd been able to forgive himself for something he hadn't even done because of them, and when he visited his own parents' graves (his father's just a little reluctantly) and showed Lucy and Aurora the house he'd grown up in, still right next to where Dallas had once lived, Bickslow had almost felt as if he was finally able to really leave all of that behind, and that was a feeling that had surprised him.

But it was one he loved.

"Well, you don't really have a fever, so I guess that's a good thing," Bickslow mumbled as he brought his hand back down from Lucy's forehead. "At least you're slightly better than Aurora is right now…"

"How's her fever?" Lucy yawned, pulling the duvet up a little higher to her ears.

"Still not too bad. She'll probably get better in the next day or two."

"That's good…"

"Yup." He stood up from the bed and stretched his arms out in front of him, and sighed when it looked back down to Lucy. "Are you sure you don't want me to stay? Aurora already had her cuddles for the day and she's asleep now anyway."

She rolled her eyes, and if she had the energy right then to throw a pillow at him, she would have. "No, just go," she laughed weakly. "I don't want to make you sick. If I want cuddles, I'll come find you later."

"Fine… But do you want anything? I'm making chicken soup since Aurora wanted some—"

"You mean she actually asked for soup? We're talking about the same kid here, right?"

"She actually asked for chicken soup," he repeated. Bickslow had been utterly shocked when his six-year-old had asked for some chicken soup for lunch that day, because every time they'd tried to get her to just try a tiny bit of any kind of soup, she'd claimed she would rather go hungry. But suddenly, she wanted chicken soup. Bickslow was just a little proud.

"Wow…"

"Mm-hmm."

"But no, thank you," Lucy continued when she seemed to quickly get over her shock of her daughter wanting soup. "I just want to get some rest. I might try some soup later, though."

Bickslow nodded and switched off the lamp beside Lucy, then turned for the bedroom door. "Alright then. I'll come check in on you later then," he said softly, and closed the door gently behind him. He couldn't help but peek into Aurora's room on his way back down the hall, and he smiled when he saw her all tucked up in her bed with the giant pink ladybug held tightly to her and with the babies nestled around her on the mattress.

Honestly, when his daughter and wife – or fiancée, technically, still – were both sick, he loved how quiet the house was. It was clean for a change, too, but that was really only because Aurora had spent most of her time in bed or on the lounge watching movies with him over the last two days, and Lucy had spent all of the day before in bed and so she hadn't been tossing countless crumpled up paper balls to their living room floor (or at him). Life was great, considering all things.

It was a miracle to Bickslow that he hadn't gotten sick yet himself. It was the end of winter, and Aurora had only turned six the week before, yet he was the only one who hadn't gotten sick. Lucy had, and Aurora had, but he hadn't. It was fabulous. For the first time, Bickslow hadn't gotten his yearly dose of the flu.

He was pretty sure he was jinxing himself by enjoying it too much, though.

The next week, however, saw Bickslow still without any kind of cold or flu or sickness, and having officially entered spring, he assumed he had only made it out alive… And slightly less germy than usual. Aurora had gotten better by then, which meant she could go back to being the blue-haired, brown-eyed ball of sunshine she usually was.

Lucy, on the other hand… Well, she was still a little under the weather, though she hadn't been sick enough where she'd spent that entire week in bed. Most of it, but not all of it. There'd been lots of cuddles on the lounge with everyone, though, and that was always nice.

It was only when Lucy stayed in that state of 'kinda feel like throwing up, kinda feel like taking a nap, but I kinda feel like eating choc-mint ice cream and watching movies all day, too,' (her words, not his) for longer than she probably should have, that Bickslow realised something: that when she'd been pregnant with Aurora, she'd gotten really bad, really early.

Lucy had eventually decided to admit that she wanted to have another baby. Though, it had only come after she'd found Aquarius' key at the end of autumn the previous year, which she'd been so ecstatic about because she'd been looking for it for so long, and she'd loved that Bickslow and Aurora had been with her then when she'd found it. She'd been too busy giggling and squealing with Aurora to care too much about how Aquarius had decided to sweep the Seith mage away in a mini-tsunami because he'd been stupid enough to say 'so were you always this much of a bitch, or are you just bitter from being stuck in the spirit world for so long?'

Aurora had thought it was funny seeing her father get taken away by the wave, though.

But Lucy had still wanted to have another baby, and she had been thinking about it a lot before she'd finally found Aquarius' key. She'd just wanted to wait a little while, and if possible, wait until after she'd found her key. Of course, part of her had thought that maybe she really wouldn't ever get Aquarius back because her key could've honestly been anywhere…

But she had. And she'd been so, so glad and relieved once she'd had her back.

Lucy knew she'd probably get sick again too if she had another baby, and as much as it had sucked the first time, she'd do it again because it was worth it in the end. Lucy had never quite been able to figure out why Bickslow wanted a second child, considering he hadn't exactly wanted Aurora until she'd been born, but he'd never really been able to give her an answer as to why he wanted another, either. Even he wasn't precisely sure why he wanted another, but he had for a really long time, and he'd seemed to realise that the older Aurora got, the more he wanted another baby because Aurora really wasn't little anymore – he'd sulked the night she'd started calling him 'Dad'.

So… With them both wanting to have another baby, and with Aquarius back with Lucy where she'd always belonged and with them all home and happy, they'd started trying to make their family grow a little more. Though, it wasn't like they were going out of their way to try and make it happen, but they weren't trying to stop it from happening, either.

And that was what Bickslow was remembering right then (though it wasn't exactly like he'd forgotten, oh no). So he was leaving Aurora at the dining table where she was working her way through some maths worksheets with the babies helping her (honestly, he felt useless sometimes when the babies were involved), and then he was rushing down the hall to their bedroom and then to their bathroom where he figured Lucy actually was. She was, of course, though Bickslow was only finding her putting her toothbrush and toothpaste back in the cup next to the sink.

"Before you even ask," she began suddenly, and before Bickslow really could open his mouth to even speak. "The answer is yes."

"Wait… Like, yes yes? As in…"

"Yes, as in yes, and as in I'm not letting you touch the stick I just peed on because that's weird and gross."

"So that's like, a definite, positive yes, though, right?" Bickslow asked as he followed her out of the bathroom.

"Yes, it is. Well, probably," she said for some clarification. "Now can we please stop saying—" But she stopped herself short just because she had to let out a surprised shriek when Bickslow suddenly lifted her off the ground to throw her down onto the bed. The mattress was soft, sure, but she couldn't help but groan quietly because she already felt like death all over again, and if anything, earlier than she had with Aurora, which kinda sucked.

Bickslow was grinning as he hovered over her, but really, how could he not be? He'd only been waiting for that for five years… "Yes?"

"If you say yes one more time, I'm going to kick you."

The funny thing was that he really didn't doubt her, so he only asked instead, "So are we gonna have another baby?" Lucy only nodded, just because she wasn't going to say yes again, and then Bickslow was leaning down to wrap his arms around her again and completely shower her with affection, because really, what else was he going to do? "Really?!"

He was like an over-excited six-year-old (she would know, she had one) and Lucy couldn't help but find his excitement contagious. "Mm-hmm."

"When? Like… Do you know how far you are?"

"Five weeks, I think, so… Towards the end of the year, I guess."

"Oh, well, that's a lot better than last time," he chuckled. At least she wouldn't have a doctor yelling at her for being irresponsible that time, because five was much more reasonable than ten.

But they'd have another baby by the end of the year and they'd be there for the holidays, and Bickslow was so looking forward to that now. He loved the holidays anyway, just because they happened to coincide with their anniversary, and even though it was still the start of the year, Bickslow really couldn't wait until it was winter again, because it would mean he'd spent the best eight years of his life to date with his favourite person (well, one of his favourites, because he suddenly had two more favourites) on the planet, and he'd have already gotten two perfect children in those eight years, too.

"Can I look?"

Lucy blinked. "Huh? What do you mean look?"

"Like, you know, at its soul."

"Oh! Uh… Yeah, if you must," she laughed nervously. Honestly, she wasn't quite sure what she'd been thinking of before, but that made much more sense. Though whether or not Bickslow would be able to see anything, she didn't know. Stretching out and rolling her eyes when Bickslow moved down and pushed her pyjama top up so it was out of the way, not that it really was, she added quietly, "But, you know… If you can see it now, I don't want to know if it's a boy or a girl yet."

"No?" Lucy shook her head, and Bickslow shrugged. He could keep it a secret… Maybe. Probably. "Alright then," he shrugged. And it wasn't as bright as Aurora's had been when he'd first seen hers, but it was there and just starting to form and he was just able to make out the colour radiating from the very centre.

And when he moved back up after lightly kissing her stomach right above where the tiny little soul was and wrapped his arm around her, he only kissed her cheek and whispered, "I love you, Cosplayer." And then, they just enjoyed the silence and each other's company for a little while, because with Aurora, they really didn't make enough time for each other, but that was fine.

It was just moments like that they needed every now and then, and once they had baby number two there, those moments would be even harder to come by, but that was still okay. Even just the quiet moments would be hard to come by, because there'd be a baby crying half the time, and then Aurora will probably be crying because she won't be getting all the attention… And then Lucy will probably be crying, too, because she'd be sleep deprived like he was.

Bickslow did wonder how Aurora would feel about having a baby brother, though. He liked to think that she'd be okay with it, though really, he was expecting a few tantrums.

"You know…" Lucy said suddenly with her head still buried against Bickslow chest, their legs intertwined and arms around each other on the middle of the bed. "I feel like we should probably get married before this one gets here."

"That sounds like a brilliant idea."

And so they were finally married a month later after a nearly seven-year engagement. There'd been a few times over the years where they'd honestly forgotten that they'd never actually tied the knot which seemed to entertain their friends and the rest of the guild to no end whenever they brought it up, though really, the only reason they hadn't gotten married until then was because they hadn't really needed to.

They'd never had any intentions of getting married any time soon when they'd first gotten engaged, and then Aurora had come so they'd had to push back the idea of a wedding regardless, because their child came before them getting married. But they'd been happy with where they were, too. They'd always just said they'd get around to it one day because they weren't in a rush.

But then it had been about searching for Aquarius' key, and there hadn't been time for them to get married because they spent more time away from Magnolia than they did actually at home. It hadn't been easy, but they all stuck with it because they were a family and they stuck together, and being able to travel all over the country and the continent had been one of the best things they'd ever done because they'd been able to show Aurora the world beyond the home she knew, and they'd been able to create so many new memories.

And once they'd gotten back, it had been more about readjusting to everything again, because even when they'd always had to take breaks between adventuring because they'd need to take jobs to pay their rent and their bills and just be able to afford being able to travel everywhere with Lucy, they'd spent a long time constantly leaving and coming back home, and Lucy especially had. But they hadn't had to do that once Lucy had found Aquarius' key. They hadn't had to travel the world, they hadn't had to leave all of their friends and the rest of their family behind for weeks at a time. Getting back home had been about relaxing.

But… They'd still never completely forgotten that they still needed to get married. They'd always know, even when it slipped their minds occasionally, but they'd just never been in a rush to do so.

Finding out they were having another baby changed that, though. They'd ultimately put it off for Aurora when she had been born, and then again for Aquarius, and then again just so they could settle back into their lives at home. But they weren't going to put it off again, because there was just no better time to finally get married, because everything was feeling utterly perfect yet again.

It had been relatively small by Fairy Tail's standards, just because they hadn't wanted something grand or extravagant. They'd just wanted their exuberant guild family there to share it with them. If anything, it had been planned more for the guild than it was them, because as happy as they were about it, Lucy had known she wouldn't be in the mood to do much on the actual day. She'd hoped otherwise, and she'd really, really wished that she wouldn't have been feeling absolutely terrible, but she had.

She didn't let that stop her, though. Never in a million years. Because when she sat there in the guild that evening (and on Bickslow's lap, no less) and just watched everyone enjoy themselves and smiled at Matt dancing with Aurora (or trying to, really), she was happy. And happy was really just putting it lightly, but that was what she was.

She didn't need to dance with Bickslow, and she most definitely did not want to, either, to be happy. She could sit there and watch everyone else and say that she was more than glad with how everything had turned out. She wouldn't have changed anything in the world for where she was right then, and she knew Bickslow wouldn't, either.

She had Aquarius back, and she had the most wonderful husband in the world (and she was so glad that she could finally call Bickslow that, even though she'd kind of been calling him that for the last two years), the brightest daughter she ever could have wished for, and then another baby on the way, and even the rest of the guild, too. She had absolutely everything she wanted, and to her, it was all perfect.

Absolutely every single thing that had got her there, she was glad had happened, too. Even when things had been hard, and even when Lucy had thought she would never be able to reach that point in her life, she had. She'd gotten over every single obstacle that had come up in those last seven-and-a-half years, but she hadn't done it alone. She'd had Bickslow helping her all that time, and she knew that she wouldn't even be there if it weren't for him.

He'd been there at her lowest of lows, to help her leave the darkness behind her and keep it from swallowing her whole ever again. He'd made her feel a little less alone and been the friend she'd needed, and he'd been there to piece her soul back together, piece by tiny little piece and he'd made her whole again when she'd been broken.

He'd been there when she'd been sick, and been her doctor in shining armour.

He'd been there just listen to her when she'd needed to talk, too. Even when things had gotten hard again and she'd been scared, he'd still stayed and been there for her and with her.

But even when Bickslow had been scared, he'd still never left. Lucy was proud of what Bickslow had achieved in those seven-and-a-half years – she was more proud of him than she was herself or even Aurora (though she never said that out loud).

He'd let her in when he hadn't let anyone else in. He'd made himself feel vulnerable, and he'd risked everything he'd known at one point in his life for her, just because he hadn't wanted to lose her.

He'd made himself uncomfortable time and time again and put himself through more than she had ever expected or even asked him to, all for her.

He'd trusted her in a way that he hadn't trusted anyone else and had let her see just how broken he was beneath every single wall he'd ever put up.

But he'd let Lucy help him, and he'd worked through every single thing that had been difficult or just made him want to curl up in a ball and hide for the next eternity behind his walls, just because he'd always wanted to be the kind of person that didn't need to hide. He'd just wanted to be someone who Lucy could actually be proud of being with by his standards, and he'd just wanted to be someone who was actually comfortable in their own skin, which was something he'd never really been.

He was now, though. He didn't have his walls anymore, and he didn't have the person that he let the guild see, and then have that side of him that only Lucy and Caspian knew. He was just Bickslow. And it had taken him a long time to get to that point, but that was something Bickslow had always known. How long didn't matter, though. It was that he had at all, and he didn't think he would've been able to unless he'd faced each of his fears and every demon from his past head on.

And Lucy still couldn't be prouder, because she got to call that person her husband and the father of her children, which really, might be the best part of all. He'd gone from being completely terrified of having even one because he hadn't wanted them to be even anything remotely close to what he was like, to wanting another and being the most supportive of having their daughter learn about her magic.

She tore her eyes away from Aurora and Matt still sort of dancing in the middle of whatever the hell everyone else was doing (it wasn't dancing, that was for sure), and lifted her head from where it had been resting on Bickslow's shoulder and smiled up at him. "I know I've said this a million-and-one times before, but thank you for loving me," she whispered tenderly.

"It's my pleasure, really."

"I know, but I mean before," she said. "You know, because if you hadn't, you wouldn't have noticed me or come to my apartment all those years ago, and then I wouldn't have wanted to come talk to you at like three in the morning."

"Well, it was really more crying than actual talking if memory serves me correctly..."

Lucy rolled her eyes as she said, "Okay, fine, but still… Maybe we wouldn't be here right now if you hadn't cared about me back then."

"We could've," Bickslow said, but then the raised eyebrow Lucy was giving him only had him tilting his head slightly and the corner of his mouth curling up into a smirk. "Yeah, probably not, actually," he admitted a second later. "Not unless I decided to man-up and just ask you out, which is as unlikely as you actually saying yes if I did do it."

"You do realise you never actually asked me out, right?"

His brow creased as he stared at his slightly amused wife sitting sideways on his lap. "Really?"

"Nope," she giggled. "We didn't have our first actual date until after Christmas and I was already so head over heels in love with you by then anyway."

"Huh… Well, maybe it was for the best, y'know? I mean, we're still here now." Sure, he was trying to defend himself because he felt just a little bad about never really having had the change to ask her to go on a date with him before they'd gotten together in the first place, but he knew it didn't really matter all that much in the long run. "And it's not like we took the most typical of paths getting here…"

"No? Fall in love, be oblivious morons about it before eventually getting together, get knocked up, engaged, knocked up again, then married – I thought that was the norm these days."

"You are such a dork sometimes it's unbelievable."

She leaned in to kiss his cheek, then whispered by his ear, "But this dork is your wife now and you totally love it."

"I do. I really love it," he said, a slightly surprised laugh slipping past his lips. "But I still mean it. We're here now, and that's what matters."

"I know," she whispered again.

Aurora was suddenly skipping over to them then, apparently leaving Matt to actually dance with Wendy (which Bickslow had to admit he'd grown less bitter about once they'd gotten engaged the year before, though the Dragons still hated him a little), and then the six-year-old was climbing up onto Lucy's lap and making herself as comfortable as she could be. Bickslow only groaned when she did and couldn't help but roll his eyes. "There's too many people sitting on me right now," he groaned.

"Oh, don't be dramatic," Lucy laughed. "There's only two of us, and I am not that fat, thank you very much. Well, yet…" She'd had to choose her dress to not make it glaringly obvious they were having another baby, even though half of the guild had already found out because she really hadn't been able to keep it that hidden. But that was okay. The important thing was that she'd been able to tell them all themselves (well, not Cobra, but Cobra knew everything, somehow, and it honestly worried Lucy sometimes, and the guy wasn't even a part of their guild).

"Three," Aurora said.

"Hm?"

"There's three people sitting on Daddy."

Bickslow could probably freak out (or cry) then because she'd reverted back to 'Daddy', which he really did love because Aurora was still his baby even though she was six-and-a-half (ish). But he didn't. He instead just let his grin grow wider. "That's right, Aurora. There are three people sitting on me!" The kid knew how to count, apparently unlike Lucy. "My arms really aren't long enough to hug you all, though. Sorry."

Lucy rolled her eyes once again. Okay, fine, she'd let Bickslow have that one, but only because Aurora had brought it up. But then Lucy was suddenly sitting up and looking just a little bit too excited about something, and Bickslow couldn't help but raise his eyebrow at her and turn his attention away from the necklace he'd only just noticed his daughter was wearing, just because it happened to be the same one he'd given Lucy seven-and-half years earlier. Though, he seemed to know why Aurora was now the proud owner of the former water spirit's key on the golden chain, and he really did love it.

"So, I was thinking…" Lucy began slowly, looking between both Bickslow and Aurora. "I know it's probably too early to talk about this, but… If we have a boy, what do you think of naming him Dallas?"

Bickslow just stared at the blonde in stunned silence for a moment. Of all the things for Lucy to have said right then, that might have been the absolute last one he'd expected. But maybe that was made Bickslow love it so much, because he really hadn't expected it in the slightest.

"And I know we are actually having a boy, by the way, so you can tell me if you like it or not," she added quietly when Bickslow seemed just a little hesitant to say anything. "Aurora told me before." Well, she'd tickled it out of her because she'd really wanted to know without asking Bickslow and she knew Bickslow had told their daughter, but it had only led to lots of squealing in their living room because Aurora was apparently too excited to have a baby brother.

He wasn't even mad that Aurora had told her. He couldn't have been mad, or annoyed, or even just a little frustrated in that moment, even he'd tried to be. Because right then, he was feeling like he was falling just that little bit more in love with Lucy, like he did each time he saw her, even.

He could barely even get his voice above a whisper when he finally nodded and said with tears beginning to well up in his eyes, "I think that's perfect for him."

And in that moment, Bickslow was the happiest he'd been in his entire life. Everything was so completely perfect because everything was right again, and even when he hadn't ever thought he'd be able to live such a perfect life, he was more than glad he was. In just eight short years, so much had happened, and even when some of it had been bad, he wouldn't change any of it. None of it. Because what he had then was more than he'd ever thought he deserved, and all of those horrible things that had ever happened in his thirty years on that planet, they were just memories now. That was all they'd ever be.

And even if that perfect moment didn't last forever and he found himself having to get through the hard times yet again, he'd be okay. He'd learned to accept and move on over the years, and that the really, really great times were always just around the corner. And Bickslow knew that they would always be there, too, no matter what, and he would always be able to get back to them. Nothing in the world could stop him from being happy, because there wasn't anything that scared him anymore, not when he had people like Lucy and Aurora and Dallas in his life to keep him grounded and feeling together.

Because when he had Lucy and his family, everything always worked out in the end.

Ahh, we made it! 190-odd thousand words, seventeen chapters, a prologue and an epilogue, random author's notes that barely anyone reads later, we are done. And, honestly, I found myself getting a little teary finishing this up, but I'm also super happy with it. I do have to admit that this didn't turn out exactly how I'd planned (not just this chapter, but some parts in the story, too), but... I'm okay with that. I never go into stories with complete plans, usually just general ideas of what I want to have in them, and the rest I just make up as I go... This was no different, of course. But I'm still glad with how it turned out.

To everyone who has followed, favourited, reviewed, and even read this, especially from when it was started back in November for BixLu week, THANK YOU SO MUCH.

If you enjoyed this story, I'm going to tell you I love you, and I really just want you to deal with it because I'm really not affectionate at all but I'm sending pixel hugs to each and everyone one of you.

I'm kinda hoping I gave this story the epilogue it deserved - I don't think I did, but I still tried. There were things I wanted to have in it, and I rewrote so many parts of this too many times, but this... I'm okay with. So I do hope you enjoyed this as much as I did writing it.

- April

(P.S - How the fuck do you write children?! No, seriously... I have no idea, and half of my BixLu stories that aren't even written yet involve young children... What have I gotten myself into...)