Fate Decides

Chapter 18

By the time Wednesday came Levy was close to being a nervous wreck. The house was so clean even Erik thought she had gone overboard, though he'd helped with everything without complaint. Grateful Bickslow and Levy, in the midst of all of the commotion around their wedding, were still happy to have him there for Nola and had never once even hinted that he should stay at his own home more now that Nola was doing so well.

Their job had gone flawlessly, Nola could have soloed it had she known how the etiquette worked with the client. Propriety mattered to her, approaching things the right way. She didn't worry about cussing and saying what you meant even if it would offend someone, she was Joyan, the Joyan people were not known for beating around bushes or mincing words, they were plain spoken, but their adherence to proper observance of traditions and manners were legendary.

She had also shocked him when they had retired for the night, job complete. She'd been unable to sleep, and he'd awakened near midnight to find her, in human form, curled up with him in his bed.

She'd never allowed him so close, and had only gotten close to him when she was in her fox form, so finding her curled against his side had stunned him.

When he'd moved, rolling to his side to get a little away from her but still facing her, she had immediately closed the distance he'd created, tucking her head under his chin and putting and arm around him.

He hadn't known what to do, had laid there almost afraid to breathe until her yellow eyes had looked up at him sleepily "I will move if you want....but...I would like if you would hold me. I cannot get thoughts to stop. When I am near you, they stop." She'd said, and he had slid his arms around her tentatively and pulled her against him.

He had not once, ever slept holding someone before, had expected himself to have some sort of bad anxiety about it, touching and closeness tended to set that off, but he'd fallen asleep and slept through the night breathing in her sweet jasmine scent and waking with her still tucked into his arms, neither one of them waking from nightmares for once.

So he pitched in without comment, and made a point of taking Nola to the guild before Bickslows father was due so they could have time with him alone for a bit. They had promised to bring him to the Guild for dinner, something Mira and Max were going crazy preparing for.

Bickslow swept up behind Levy and wrapped her in a tight hug that left her giggling. She'd been staring out the window and looking entirely too serious.

"He's my father Levy, not the leader of darkness, I promise he's a nice person who is going to love you." He whispered in her ear, nibbling at her neck trying to coax her to smile. "He's so famous Bickslow, he's the man who negotiated the peace between Fiore and Bosco, he's maintained a cease of hostilities between the clans of Bosco for the last 12 years and single handedly brought Seven to the negotiating table to stop the rising hostilities between them and Bosco." She recited off some of his adoptive fathers accomplishments with nothing short of awe in her voice.

"And he is a closet chocolate junkie, collects model castles, prefers jazz to rock and owns a grey sweater older than me that he always wears when he needs to think." He told her with a grin "He reads romance novels to relax too."

Levy gaped at him and he just nodded "All true I swear to the Gods." He vowed.

"I hid all my romance novels, took them off the shelves in the study and had Erik put them in the attic." She admitted. Bickslow smirked "Yeah, noticed that, so I went and got them, brought them down and put them all back on the shelves this morning after my work out. Pretty sure my Dad isn't familiar with some of the authors you like, he might be interested."