I'm struggling with my muses right now guys. I haven't abandoned anything, my stories just aren't flowing. Hang in there my beloved readers!

Fairy Tail is not mine. If it was there would be way more romantic stuff and their responses to trauma would be more realistic.

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She could hear the hollow laughter echoing around her. There was no warmth in the sound, no life. Behind her she could feel the chill of the darkness. She ran faster, searching for someone, anyone, just so she wouldn't be left alone for the darkness to devour. Ahead was an endless hallway, no doors, no windows. Occasionally she would come upon a hazy figure, but when she looked at their faces in hope she would only see empty eyes looking past her. She ran faster, even as the darkness drew closer, stealing the life from her limbs, the cold emptiness was like fingers arounf her throat. She couldn't breath. She was going to die here. All alone. Nothing would be her end. Noone would miss her once she was gone, because she was alone. Unwanted, unneeded, useless. Alone.

Lucy fell out of her bed gasping for breath and shivering in the cold. She glanced around desperately only to find that she really was alone. She tossed the tangled blanket away from her legs and struggled to her feet. Her window had blown open again. After being forced open from the outside so many times the latch just couldn't handle strong gusts of wind.

After closing the window she stumbled into the kitchen to make herself some hot tea. She could never go back to sleep right after a dream like that. For a moment she wished for Bickslow, but shook it off. She was a big girl and could deal with bad dreams all by herself. She wrapped herself in her blanket and curled up on the couch while she waited for her water to heat.

Once the party Sybil's visit had set off started slowing down Lucy had simply been content to sip her strawberry shake and watch the boys bicker like a bunch of children. Not that they didn't do that normally, but the dynamic had shifted in recent days. Laxus and Cobra picked on everyone, even eachother, and of course Natsu tried to pick fights With everyone, and Bixy encouraged the lot of them. Jellal and Freed snuck underhanded insults into the conversation and for the most part spoke right over the heads of the rest of them about how hopeless their own gender was. Gray alternately sulked and taunted the others into focusing their attention on him in the worst of ways. They were a bunch of idiots and Lucy thought they were all adorable.

She would have prefered to go home with her boyfriend last night, but with Erza home... That just hadn't happened. Lucy wasn't sure if her teammate had seperated her from Bixy on purpose or not. The very first yawn the red-head noticed had seen her forcefully escorted home 'for her own safety' despite her protests. Lucy had been able to physically feel the red puppy dog eyes that had followed her removal from the guildhall. Of course what do you know, her first night without Bickslow in ages, and Bam nightmare.

Lucy had just settled back onto the couch with her tea when the window slammed open again. She just glared at it and cursed her overly intrusive teammates in her head. There was no point in closing it just to have it pop open again. Maybe she should replace the latch or even the whole bloody window. She could get one of the new ones that slid open instead. That way when Natsu broke the latch it still wouldn't pop open when it stormed. She could do without midnight showers in her bed. Those sucked.

"Cosplayer awake? Pipi come in?" Lucy blinked in shock at the little totem floating in her open window.

"Pipi? Sweety what are you doing here in the middle of the night?" She beckoned the soul inside and had to grit her teeth not to screech when the totem tucked her cold little body against her chest. "Shouldn't you be sleeping so your daddy can get good rest?"

"Daddy not sleepy. Playing with woodies in workshop." Say what?

"Does he know you are here?"

"Daddy say Pipi could go play."

"And your sister and brothers? Are they awake?"

"Yes. Stay with daddy."

"Baby, I'm gunna ask again because I think you avoided answering me. Does your daddy know you came to see me?"

"...no." Lucy bit her lip to keep from smiling at how adorable the little soul was.

"Tell you what. How about I finish my tea, dress a little more warmly, and I will walk you home." Ha! Take that Erza! "I can't sleep anyway."

"Ok!"

Lucy didn't bother taking her time with her tea. A single hug from Bixy was better than twenty cups of tea and Pipi already had her feeling better anyway. It didn't take them very long to get to the Thunder House either. Pipi actually helped her hop over the canal so she didn't have to walk all the way up the street to cross the bridge.

Pipi nudged the handle of the door open and closed it behind them. It was while the sneaky little thing was deadbolting the door behind them that Lucy came to the realization that Bixy had probably had those lever type doorknobs put on all the doors specifically so the babies could come and go on their own when they needed to. Though sneaking out at night was probably not what he had in mind.

Pipi led her to a door she hadn't seen opened before and a simple finger to her lips kept all 5 babies quiet while she watched Bickslow work. 'Playing with woodies' apparently ment carving wood. It made sense now that she thought about it. After all where else would the babies bodies come from. She knew very well that they got destroyed regularly on missions and had to be replaced. Bixy didn't just carve and paint totems though. There were other things on the shelves in this room. One section of wall had rough sketches pinned on it. Ideas for future carvings she guessed.

Standing behind him as she was she couldn't see what he was working on, but she did have a good view of the way his back and shoulders flexed with each little movement of his hands and arms. How he could make what was essentially fancy whittling look sexy was a wondrous thing. She tore her eyes from his skin to study his finished projects. Animals, people, some childrens toys, even a few carvings of guildmembers. He was quite talented.

There was one of Laxus leaning against a wall, eyes closed, sound pods on, smirk almost lifelike. That one was half of a set. Its other half was Evergreen dramatically posed in one of her classic 'Queen of the Fairies' poses with a single hand on her 'wall'. Lucy was fairly certain they were bookends and would eventually end up in Freed's library office room.

She suddenly felt guilty looking without Bickslow's permission. She hated people reading her manuscript. This could be something similar. After all he hadn't shown it to her yet. She tried to banish her guilty blush before gently clearing her throat. Bickslow turned and blinked at her with a slightly blank look on his face. He obviously was having trouble coming to grips with her sudden presence.

"Trouble sleeping, Doc?"

"Cosplayer? What... What are you doing here?"

"I had a little visitor and thought I would bring her back to you."

"Pipi!" *bad girl, shouldn't leave the house, woke up Lucy.

"Don't be to upset with her. I was awake anyway and she was a perfect excuse to come see you." She was glad she hadn't taken a good look at whatever he was working on when he shoved it behind something else before standing.

"Since when do you need an excuse?" * no excuses, since when. Gee that grin was sexy.

"Since Erza might possibly see me wandering around in the middle of the night." He flinched.

"Yeah. I can see that. Why weren't you sleeping though?" *why, night time, why awake. She avoided eye contact and shrugged. "Babe?"

"Why aren't you?"

"I asked first, but..." He blushed a bit and seemed to think over how he wanted to answers that question. "My bed felt to cold and to big." *no strawberries, Cosplayer missing, want Cosplayer. Lucy smiled and he dropped his forehead down to rest against hers.

"You smell good."

"Oh really?" His eyes were glowing and the way he was grinning said some ornery, pervy comment was about to happen. She decided to head that off.

"Yep. Good enough to cuddle with, but only if you can get all those wood shavings off first." His eyes flashed a bit.

"What if I don't smell as good after I shower?" * no more wood smell, wash it away.

"You'll still smell like cedar. Hurry. I want kisses once you are sawdust free."

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Bickslow rushed to wash off the sawdust and little wood chips so he could curl around his girlfriend and soak up some of her soul soothing cuddles. She needed cuddles too. She was awake because she had a nightmare he was almost sure of it. If she didn't want to talk about it he wouldn't push her, not tonight. What he had done to help her heal was soul deep, but it took time for healing like that to reach the mind, and the mind was where most dreams came from. She was in his bed when he came back, giggling and playing with the babies.

"OK guys. Time to sleep." He should probably scold Pipi for sneaking off, but since the end result was Lucy in his bed he was going to let it slide. This time. "Tell Cosplayer goodnight." *night Cosplayer, night, see you in the morning, sweet dreams, don't let daddy bite.

"Night babies. I will see you in the morning." Bickslow closed the door behind the babies and practically tackled Lucy, wrapping himself around her and tucking his face into her neck. "Silly boy. I was only gone a few hours." She said that, but she was holding him back just as tight. He hummed and attempted to snuggle closer.

"Yeah, but Erza was here and I haven't been able to touch you near enough today."

"Agreed. We will have to ease her into it, but eventually we can be just as cuddly and adorable around her as we are around everyone else." He couldn't help but chuckle at that.

"Adorable, huh?"

"Well, yeah. Mira, Meredy, Juvia, Levy, and Wendy all use that word to describe us." He pulled away and grinned at her.

"I won't deny that you are adorable, but I'm not." She rolled her pretty brown eyes.

"You are too."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Nope."

"Bixy y-" She broke off with a moan when he dove down to suck on the sensative spot below her ear. He loved the sounds she made. She was just so damn sexy. He rolled them over just a bit so she was pinned under him and felt his heart do something that was probably unhealthy when she shuddered and arched against him. "Mmm. Wh-what about my actual kisses."

He let her pull him away from her neck only because he knew it was so he could taste those sweet lips of hers. He slowly slid his hands over her curves as he kissed her. Mavis she was perfect, from the noises she made to the way she fit perfectly in his hands no matter what part of her he touched. Her skin was so smooth and the little raised scars fron her life as a fighting guild wizard sent a thrill through him. Strong muscles all wrapped up in soft, womanly perfection. He had her writhing and gasping under him before he was forced to break the kiss and breath.

"See babe." He really wanted to dive back in, but he had a point he was trying to make. Didn't he? "Not adorable."

"You can be sexy as hell and adorable as fuck at the same time."

"Nope." Her bottom lip started quivering.

"But... Are you saying I'm not sexy or not adorable." And he totally just lost this argument.

"Fuck." He really should have seen this coming. "I just can't win against you can I? Nobody can."

"Good thing my boyfriend is pretty much always on my team then, huh? Means you will never lose." She smirked that super sexy smirk that ment whatever she was about to say was going to go straight to his head, and not the one on his shoulders. "At least not in public and not unless you want to." He gaped at her a bit. "There are some games that will just be so much more fun if you choose to let me win."

"Woman you are going to kill me."

"As long as it is only the little death I doubt you will complain." He groaned and rolled off of her, throwing an arm over his eyes. He felt her press a kiss over his heart and smiled. "I'm being bad, I know. I'll stop now and go to sleep."

"You'd better, or we won't be sleeping at all tonight." She curled up with her head on his shoulder and he wrapped an arm around her. This right here, Lucy in his arms, her scent, her warmth, the sound of her breathing. This was his heaven. This was his home.

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To be continued.

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One more thing actually. It has been brought to my attention that we are impressively close to 500 reviews. If we reach that monumental mile marker my characters have agreed to post a special Q&A/interview chapter. If you want one. So. If you have any questions for them (or me, or us) please send them our way so they can begin formulating their responses and we can post that as soon as we hit review number 500.