Fate Decides

Chapter 11

Levy stepped into the silent house almost hesitant to fully enter it. Bickslow was behind her and gave her a gentle push, chuckling.

"Go on Kitten, nothing will bite you...I hope." He grinned under her sharp glance without remorse and she shook her head, walking into the house so he could close the door.

Still smiling he slid past his still tip toing girlfriend, Levy was so careful about people, but not him, nope, he wanted to know if their "guests" were still there. So before she could reach out and grab him to stop him he slid past her and marched through the kitchen to the study door and tested it.

If anyone was inside the study it would chime, a little warning Freed had set up to warn anyone (particularly Bickslow even though he owned the damn house in the first place) that someone was working in the study.

Now the runes had been set up that way to prevent Bickslow from bursting in and starling Freed into making mistakes with careful transcriptions and such, something Bickslow frankly DID love doing to the rune mage. The Runes didn't distinguish between someone studying and a couple screwing though, someone just had to be in the study for them to work.

So, when there was no chime, Bickslow opened the door and checked the room. No sign of Lucy or Gajeel anywhere, though he caught a whiff of Lucys distinct strawberry scent so the pair had been in there at some point.

"Bix!" Levy frowned at him and he smiled "What? I checked first, I totally touched the door and waited for it to warn me if someone was in there!"

She smiled, she'd forgotten Freeds pretty in genius rune arrangement for the study. "They're not here, must have gone to his place or hers, good thing we loaded up her fridge and pantry...she didn't have near enough in there to feed him for long." He grinned then, pulling her into a firm embrace and she leaned into him with a sigh.

As soon as they had seen what she had bought, and Levy knowing what Lucy usually kept on hand, they had decided to go the extra distance for their friends. After talking with Gajeel it was clear the man was in love with Lucy, still refusing to admit it, but he was.

He meant to have her as a mate if she wanted him but was somehow convinced that wasn't a certainty even when Levy had outright laughed at him when he'd expressed his doubts.

"She's crazy for you Gajeel, God I think she was already half in love with you when you and I were still kind of teetering toward a relationship." She had laughed.

"Which was long ago and I don't want to think about so you need to suck it up Iron Balls and talk to the girl you want, because you can't have another shot at this one." Bickslow had chuckled, and his smile never faltered, but even Levy had noticed and been delighted by the distinctly protective and possessive edge to the Seith Mages words.

The Dragon Slayer had smiled at him "You're lucky I consider you a friend, even though you play with dolls." Gajeel had countered.

The Slayer had yelped a second later when he'd been hit in the back of the head by one, Bickslow just smiled, having not moved a muscle or said a word. Just reminding his friend he didn't need to in order to extract retribution.

"Careful." Gajeels eyes had narrowed and Levy had steered the conversation back to Lucy to protect her boyfriend from his own antics and dangerous habit of poking at the Dragon Slayers.

Levy knowing that if things went well between the two Lucy and Gajeel would likely hole up for a while had prompted them to hit the market for more food for the pair than Lucys meager shopping trip and they had stuffed her fridge and pantry. Bickslow adding in a couple cases of the beer he knew Gajeel drank and Levy scripting a several stacks of iron bars that she filled a pantry shelf with.