#he stopped decoding and goofed a little bit and went back to decoding

[nortonwifey]

i may have been too emotionally invested in this one random nor.ton player in this one match i played,,,,,,

[bsidethetrees]

Crush.2

Previous Chapter

Some pleasant scent floated about the tidy little apartment and Lisanna was kind of shocked, honestly, that this was Bickslow's place of residence. It was spotless, light, bright, inviting. Not at all like something she'd imagine the seith keeping.

Then she noticed the sword propped up against the wall, beside the coat rack, and knew it all wasn't the masked man's doing.

"Shoes off and all," the seith was grumbling as he struggled to get his own boots off. This as mainly because he was refusing to get down there and actually take them off, rather just trying to kick one off with the other and, well, it wasn't going so well. At all. "I wouldn't care none, but Freed-"

"I think most people actually don't like shoes in their house, Bickslow."

"Well, I wouldn't. If I lived alone. Who cares if a little mud and dirt get caked in? I sure don't! Adds to the piles of it that I would be accumulatin' anyways."

"Why would you be-"

"Ah, Bickslow, I thought I heard you loudly making the same speech you make to every visitor you have over." Freed was coming into front room then, staring curiously over at them. "And...Lisanna. I do not think I have had the pleasure of having you as a guest. I-"

"Yeah and you ain't now either." Bickslow finally was able to kick off one boot, it flying across the room as he himself stumbled a bit, nearly falling flat on his face. Still, even for all this, he managed to get out, "Lisanna is my guest."

"I am merely being courteous," his friend assured him. "Although, I am also curious. Why exactly are the two of you together?"

"Well-" Lisanna tried, but the seith kicked off his other bot with much more ease that time, the loud bang this provided cutting her off effectively.

"Can't have friends now, is that it? Eh? Freed? I'm just such a hopeless, lost in the darkness, down on his luck knight that there's no way that a kind, sweet, nice girl might take pity on me and accompany back to my definitely not dimly lit, dark, dangerous home? Is that what you're saying?"

"I...I'm not even sure what you are saying," Freed admitted.

"And I'm really not liking the implication of it," Lisanna added.

"We're going to be having a super secret meeting, yeah?" Bickslow only looked to Freed. "We can't have any interruptions. At all. I let you have your meetings here."

"You," the rune mage pointed out, "are part of the meetings."

"Yeah, well."

Freed waited. Then, slowly, he asked, "Yeah, well what?"

"What?"

"What?"

They stared at one another for a long few moments, the pair did, before Bickslow lifted up his visor and squinted.

"I guess," he broke with a slight shrug, "you could help out. Freed. If you wanted. Basically, we're plotting. And scheming. Wheeling and dealing. Me and Lisanna. Outlaws, cast aside by society. Dark knights who-"

"I do, actually," Freed gave in as he turned to walk back the way he came, down a hall and no doubt back to his bedroom, "have some work to be getting back to. Decoding spells and such. So I would enjoy it greatly if you two kept it down. I do not mean to offend you, Lisanna, with this suggestion. Bickslow merely has a habit of getting rather...rowdy, when he has guests."

"Rowdy?" The man dropped his head back and laughed, loudly, much to the amusement of his dolls who began to do the same. "Me? No way!"

"Yeah," Lisanna whispered to the rune mage softly as she took to looking around. "I see what you mean."

But after Freed bowed to them and truly left them alone, Bickslow's cackles stopped and he only moved to pull of his hood, toss his visor to the side and then go fall face first into the couch.

"Uh...Bickslow?"

"Papa's waiting, Lisanna," his babies explained for him as they began to circle about.

For what?"

"Ideas! Ideas, Lisanna," some chanted.

"For plan! For plan, Lisanna!" replied the others.

"I thought," she griped, but at them, "that we were coming over here to come up with one together."

"I gave my part." Bickslow lifted his head then and motioned her over with one hand. Slowly, she came to stand before the couch. "We gotta figure a way so that the boss and your sister, you know, get it on or whatever. Will brighten the boss' day, get me out of the doghouse with him, and your sister, oh man, your sister is in for the shock of her life. Get it? Eh? Why aren't you laughing?"

"It's not really that witty." Slowly, Lisanna went to take as seat in the nearby chair. "I can think of some things though, for us. Yeah. Yeah! Okay, so we need to get Laxus and Mirajane together. And how do you do that? Well, they're both at the bar a lot. Mira has work tomorrow and, do you know what Laxus' schedule is? Surely, you can get him there, even if he's not planning on coming around."

"Don't call me Shirley."

"What?"

"What? It's wit."

"I really don't think you understand- If you throw one more coin at me-"

"Alright," the seith was talking over her because he'd sprung up, so suddenly, to fling the coin he found on the couch cushion her way, but now was just sitting there, eyes expectantly turned to hers. "So the boss and your sister are at the bar. Then what? That happens everyday. My boss, that sly dog, he's real heartsick over her, yeah? Just sits around and watches her. Watches and waits. Knows her schedule. Why, he might even follow her home, he's so smitten."

"Uh," Lisanna began as second thoughts began to surround her head, "that sounds kind of stalkerish."

"What? No."

"Yeah, Bickslow."

"I do that all the time! Peek in a window here, leave love notes full of threats of violence there. A true love story!"

"I'm really regretting coming to this apartment all of a sudden."

"Hey, you know what we need?" Bickslow took no note of her discomfort and only snapped his fingers together. "Code names."

"Code names?"

"Sure, sure, code names, yeah? We're a team, ain't we? Partners in crime."

"Actually, I'm starting to have second thoughts about this whole thing-"

"Come on, Lisanna." And his face changed then, back to the serious look he got when something difficult was taking place down at the hall. "You don't really think I'm insane. Do you?"

"Papa's not crazy," his dolls complained as they flew all about. "Papa's sane!"

Well, she wouldn't go that far, but as she let out a slight breath, she did concede that she was nearly certain most of the things he did were just put on. For show.

"I know he is," she told the dolls steal and the seith only beamed as they cheered. "But just...cool it some, okay, Bickslow?"

He could do that.

Well, he could try.

It was always exciting to him when he got someone knew to play with. That's what all this was, really. Play. Sure, he wanted the boss to be happy and he was nearly certain that Mirajane was what he was pining after, but at the same time, no one said work couldn't be fun.

Other than, like, Freed and Evergreen, who were frequently annoyed when he showed up on a job chipper and jovial. Because that meant he was just going to goof off the whole time. And as Lisanna was finding out on their little mission, he was just going to goof off the whole time.

"How about," he hummed as he walked about the living room eventually, tapping a finger against his lip, "Return to Sender?"

"What? Why would that be my nick-"

"That's what the anima did to ya, huh? Returned ya to your sender? Imagine going to meet your maker, only to be sent back. Wow. What a low blow."

"You know, I don't be here right now."

But she didn't leave.

"Well, you turn into a cat, right?" Eventually, the seith pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and began to smoke. "So something that rhymes with cat. Or kitten. Kitty. Mitty. Tit-"

"Bickslow." That didn't come from Lisanna though. No. It was called from the back. Freed. "Did you just light up a cigarette? We've spoke on this many times-"

"Nah, not me, man," he said around the literal smoking gun as it hung from his lips. "Nope."

"I can smell it."

"Cannot."

"If I came out there right now-"

"Might be Lisanna. The kid. She might be smoking. Not me. And you wouldn't want me to tell a guest no, would ya? Come on now, Freed. The guest is always right."

"The customer," the man complained, still from his room, "is always right."

"She purchased the cigarettes off me. Don't wanna mar her image, yeah? Buyin' 'em? Filthy habit. I tried to caution her, but-"

"Stop," Freed finally just yelled at him, "smoking in the apartment, Bickslow. Take your little...meeting somewhere else if you want to smoke."

"I'm done anyways, thanks."

But not with his cigarette. Walking with it in his mouth to the door, he just motioned to Lisanna to follow and, with a groan, she rushed to slip on her shoes and do so. As she called out farewell to Freed though, Bickslow had a hell of a time stumbling back into his boots and he was complaining, as they left, about the whole process.

"Where are we even going?" she asked him. "To finish planning? We could go to the park or-"

"Plannin'? We're all done plannin'!"

"How do you figure?"

"How do you figure not, kid?" He took a deep drag as he led her out of the apartment building. "We get the boss and Mira both in the same place, force a conversation and bam! They're fuckin' like hounds. The boss is just that smooth. And your sister-"

"I'm really starting to regret ever coming over here."

"Look, what more do you want, eh? That's the plan." He even nodded at her. "Don't you think so, babies?"

"Great plan, papa," they assured the man. "Best plan!"

"But it's not a plan," she told them and him both. "It's an outline. We have to fill it in, for it to be a full-fledged plan. What conversation are we going to strike up between them? And how? We have to think about these things. Plan them out. If we don't-"

"If we do," he countered because he was really just tired of listening to her talk and was hoping to shove her right out of the apartment building door when they got to it, "then it won't feel natural. When they start talking. And the boss, he's a tough one. He'll figure it out, yeah? And he'll realize that I had my sticky fingers all in it. And that's not want I want him to realize far too late that I had my sticky fingers in."

He didn't have to shove her out. Lisanna easily walked out. And, well, all was done for the day.

Now he had to go figure a way around smoking in the apartment….

The next day arrived with some nerves from Lisanna, but resolve regardless. As she and her sister put in their dual shifts up at the hall, she was pleased when she saw Laxus walk in. He wasn't accompanied by Bickslow in the slightest, which meant he'd come ther3e all on his own and now, without the seith to weigh her down, maybe Lisanna could actually do the plan.

Because she had a bad feeling Bickslow arriving would only ruin the plan.

"Oi, boss, I was looking all over for you."

He was going to ruin the plan.

Lisanna had just suggested that Mirajane go over and take Laxus' order (she'd actually been behind the bar while the younger of the pair was walking about, but she only agreed with an easy nod, thinking nothing of the suggestion), but as Lisanna took her older sister's place, she was dismayed to find the seith slank right into a seat across from Laxus.

"And Mirajane, right on time, yeah? I'm glad you took my suggestions into consideration," the man was saying as the head barmaid appeared at the side of their table. "Not interrupting at all today. Wow. A quick one on her feet, this one is, Laxus. Would you like a tip? I have a coin around here some-"

"Bickslow!"

Lisanna, suddenly, had coming running over and was glaring at him, hand poised to toss the coin at her sister. He only shifted direction before hitting Lisanna squarely in the eye instead.

"Hey!"

"There ya are, kid." To Mira, who moved to pat her sister on the shoulder while Laxus only began to seethe, the seith said, "It's a game, yeah? I throw a coin here, the kid gets hit by it there-"

"I am not," she growled at him, "a kid."

"Lisanna, why are you even over here? Was it to speak with Bickslow?" Mira made a face. "I thoguht you wanted me to take Laxus' order."

"How come?" The dragon slayer was glaring at the youngest Strauss then. Something smelt like fish. And well, yeah, Happy was close by sucking on a fish head, watching it all unfold as Lucy, who he was sitting with, was just glad to not be on the receiving end of the slayer's wrath. But there was a strong stench of treachery all about! "Since when are the two of you all buddy buddy? Huh? Bickslow? Lisanna?"

"I think he blinded me," Lisanna complained, "so we're definitely not."

"One in a million shot!" Bickslow declared with a cackle.

"Lisanna and Papa go back," the babies insisted. "Way back."

"We do," the woman in question informed them, "not."

It was more than a bit disheartening to hear.

"W-Well," Mira offered then with a bit of a frown, "if you want to take their orders then, Lisanna, someone should really be behind the-"

"I'm good, thanks." Laxus rose then and Bickslow felt a cold shiver run up his spine. "Suddenly not very thirsty."

And as the slayer left, Mira was still confused, but she went through most of life that way, so she only shrugged and went back to her post as Lisanna, rubbing at her eye, glared with the other at Bickslow.

"Good going, Lisanna," he retorted simply with a shake of his head. "Wow, babies. Didn't Do Not Resuscitate just drop the fucking ball or what?"

"DNR!" The babies were just having so much fun with the woman. She was the best,. "DNR!"

"I'm really close, Bickslow," the youngest Strauss threatened, but as she'd never threatened someone before, she wasn't too certain what she was close to. She just knew she was nearing it. "Really close."

"There are no losses, Lisanna, only chances at redemption." He banged a fist on the table. "We will rebuild! Or regroup, I guess. Say, my place? Same time?"

"N-"

"Perfect."

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