A/N: Back by popular demand, here is a continuation of Smoking Bishop! Ask and ye shall receive! Okay, I'm done…

I'll say right now that this chapter is returning to my normal multiple-perspective style, rather than only in Midnight's head. It was fun for chapter one, but I like it better this way.

This will be the final chapter for this though, no matter how much you guys ask for more lol.

Everyone in the small group fell into a state of stunned silence, staring at the mage who hadn't spoken in almost a month. The Reflector mage wasn't really one for talking if he could help it, but as far as any of them knew, he'd never gone that long without speaking.

Although, Cobra was rather enjoying everyone's confusion on the matter, and he knew they were torn between gaping at Midnight and trying to figure out why the Poison Dragon Slayer was laughing.

"What was that, Macbeth?" Jellal said slowly.

"I said, we should visit Fairy Tail. And it's Midnight."

"Yeah," Cobra snorted. "You fucking did."

Midnight glared at the maroon-haired mage. "Fuck you, Cobra."

"No need," he snickered. "You've had enough sex, I'd say."

"Wait, Midnight had sex?" Meredy nearly shouted, grunting when Angel punched her in the ribs.

"Shut the hell up," she hissed, then turned to the Reflector mage. "So, what's this about Fairy Tail?"

"Cobra wants to see his girlfriend," Racer crooned.

"I will fucking end you," Cobra snarled. "I'm not fucking Cubellios."

"Kinana."

"Whatever. Not happening."

"Well, I'm sure Jellal wouldn't be opposed to it," Meredy sighed happily while pinching the skin under Angel's arm as retaliation. "He can see Erza."

"And the two can stare at the table and hardly say two words to each other," Cobra groaned.

"Back to the point," Jellal said, waving everyone's comments off. "Why do you want to visit Fairy Tail, Macbeth?"

"It's Midnight. And because it would be a good idea to show that the guild full of criminals-"

"Ex-criminals," Meredy corrected.

"Whatever," Midnight sighed. "It'll prove that we're their allies. Which, I'm assuming, we are since it's painfully obvious that you want to impregnate Erza."

When Jellal collapsed to the ground, the group let out a collective sigh.

"And you guys say I'm bad with my nosebleeds," Midnight muttered.

"Be glad you can't hear this shit," Cobra winced.

"Um… Guys?" Meredy chuckled nervously. "Did everyone else forget that we were scouting a dark guild?"

Everyone turned with a frown to look at the Maguilty mage, blinking in surprise at the two large men that had shackled her with magic cancelling handcuffs.

"Cobra, this is the epitome of failure on your part," Midnight yawned.

"Says the one who's supposed to be using his magic to keep us hidden," Cobra growled. "Nice illusions, dick."

"G-Guys?" Meredy let out another nervous laugh while being dragged away from the group. No one moved to help her. "Um… Guys?!"

Angel rolled her eyes as Cobra and Midnight started pushing one another, then descended into an all-out slapping fight while rolling on the ground. "Fine," she groaned, flicking two golden coins into the air. "I'll handle it."

"Oh god, what the hell is that thing?! Angel, tell it I'm on your side! ANGEL!"

Two weeks later found the entirety of Crime Sorciere sitting in Fairy Tail. The former Oracion Seis members were still a little leary of the acceptance they'd gained from their old enemies, but each of them had someone they spent their time with.

Angel and Juvia. Both of which spent their time astutely ignoring Gray's existence, since Angel was of the firm belief that he actually liked the attention Juvia gave him. She'd told the Water mage that if she played coy and hard-to-get, he'd be so fed up with the lack of attention that had become his norm, he'd make a move.

Meredy and Mira, the bosom buddies that everyone was sure had been separated at birth. The logistics of their age difference notwithstanding, the two were shoulders-deep in their shipping plots.

Racer and Hoteye had bonded with Team Shadowgear. Cobra with Kinana. Jellal with Erza. That only ever left Midnight to his own devices, and more often than not on these trips to Fairy Tail, he would simply sleep in a corner of the second floor, where no one could bother him.

This time was different, and everyone in the small independent guild - with the exception of Cobra, who had heard the entirety of Midnight's planning on the way to Magnolia - watched with rapt attention as the Reflector mage strode through the open doors and right over to the bar, then sat down as though it was completely normal.

It was even less normal for him to be within twenty feet of the blonde Celestial mage he'd just sat next to.

Mira came to stand in front of him with a sweet smile. "What can I get for you, Midnight?"

"Smoking Bishop," he answered.

Lucy smiled around her straw, her cheeks flushing slightly even with the chill of her smoothie. He didn't look at her, though. Instead, Midnight kept his crimson gaze locked on the bartop, then the glass set in front of him.

"Hello, Mister Scrooge," she finally whispered.

Midnight nodded and took a sip of his drink. Still he didn't look at her. All of that planning, and it was going right down the drain just by being next to her. All the things he'd wanted to say, to ask her, right in the shitter. Because when he really thought about it, everything just boiled down to one question. Why the hell had she fucked him in a club, knowing that it was him?

"Didn't think I'd see you around here," Lucy continued. She remembered very well just how reserved and soft-spoken Midnight had been at the club. It had mostly been her talking that night, but she really hoped it wasn't a matter of him getting ready to brush her off. If that was the case, then why would he have sat down next to her in the first place?

"The guild came," he shrugged. Even as the words passed through his lips, he wanted to take them back. 'God, and I tease Jellal about how he is with Erza… This is just pathetic.'

"... Oh." Lucy glanced down at her drink, her shoulders slumping only slightly.

"You like Dickens, though," Midnight continued. He had to think of something, anything, at this point. Just to get Lucy to stick around long enough for him to get his head out of his ass. He wasn't sure when the thing had decided to lodge itself there, but it was wedged and superglued and so far no amount of pulling or pleading had loosened it.

"I do," Lucy nodded. She set her gaze on him once again. Their eyes met, and in an instant the rest of the sounds in the guild faded into the background. Everything disappeared. Until it was only the two of them. And so slowly that Lucy hardly believed she'd been sitting in the guild in the first place, she and Midnight were sitting in a small cottage with wood-paneled walls and a round table with a grey-faded, beechwood top. A fire crackled in a small cast iron woodburning stove, combating the sudden chill in the air and forcing her to shift closer to him for the added warmth.

"Where are we?"

Midnight shrugged again, still looking into Lucy's bright honey eyes. Taking in the flickering light and dancing shadows across her glowing features. "Christmas Carol," he whispered. She looked so different without the makeup she'd been wearing the last time they'd met. So much younger, more innocent.

He knew for a fact, now, that Lucy Heartfilia was far from innocent.

"You did this," she said, her brows drawing together. "Didn't you…"

"I did."

"And… the guild?"

"I'm carrying you upstairs right now," he answered. "Everyone thinks you fainted."

Lucy frowned slightly, but in the next moment her eyes were widening as Midnight's makeup started to fade. "What's… happening?"

"It only seems appropriate," he said softly, turning away from her to look into the fire again.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because I have a pretty good idea of who you are," he said. Well, he'd thought he had an idea of the blonde by his side, but she'd turned that all on its ear and spun the wheel like her life depended on it. "Sort of."

"And…?"

"And…" Midnight bit his lip while turning to look at her once again. He waited while she took in his appearance, the white face powder and foundation missing. The eyeliner and deep onyx lipstick, altogether gone. "This is just an illusion," he said. His voice shook slightly, but this was the first time he'd ever really taken a chance on anything like this. Letting someone get to know him. "But, it's safer here than anywhere else to… talk."

"What would you want to talk about?" Lucy asked, smiling and scooting a little closer to him again.

"Lots of things, I think."

"Like what?"

"Why," he sighed. "That's the big one."

Lucy frowned. "Why? Why what?"

"Why me, when you knew who I was, and what I did before?"

"You mean, why did I…"

"At the club," he nodded.

Lucy's cheeks burned even brighter under the nearby light from the fire, but she waited until Midnight was looking at her once again before she forced herself to answer. She'd never really planned on telling him, or anyone else for that matter, just what had made her pounce on him that night.

"Well," she said softly, "You'll probably think I'm, uh… a little… I don't know. Silly, I guess? But… You're, um… Really sexy."

If the Reflector mage blinked any slower, time would have started ticking backwards. Lucy was positive of that. It just made her a little more embarrassed by all of it, but that really was the gist of it all. Midnight was a sexy bastard, and she really didn't have that much of an issue admitting it. It was more that she kept her preferences on the opposite sex a tight-lipped secret. Always.

Men in makeup just sent chills down her spine. Well, when it was well done, which Midnight's always was.

"That's why?" he frowned. "What about everything else?"

"What do you mean, everything else?"

"I tried to kill you." Midnight winced then, and let out a slow sigh while turning more fully toward the fire and sipping at a glass of spiced wine that suddenly appeared on the rustic table. While it was a relief that Lucy hadn't been after him for some despicable reason, he was just a little disappointed that it had only been about his looks.

Then again, even that was just a little odd. No one had been interested in him for that before. Okay, or anything else, really. But something so superficial? Really?

Lucy's brows drew together as she caught the sight of snow fluttering down in sheets of white just outside the small frosted window she hadn't noticed before. It was hardly even May, but if this was an illusion, then she could only guess that Midnight was able to control the weather there as well.

She shifted again, placing her fingers lightly on Midnight's arm while leaning around to look into his downcast crimson eyes. "Midnight?"

He took another sip of the wine, then placed the glass on the table again.

"You know I forgave all of you for that stuff," Lucy whispered. "And I'd like to really get to know you, but… It's just so hard to talk to you, I guess."

"Is it?"

"Yeah," Lucy giggled. "I mean, you're always asleep, so…"

Midnight nodded. Cobra and the others had told him to stop sleeping so much while they were actually taking a break and visiting Fairy Tail.

"But, I've been wanting to talk to you," she continued. "Because, I was curious about something."

"What's that?" he whispered.

"That whole thing before. Was that just a lapse in judgment, or something else?"

"You mean, trying to destroy the world and send everything spiralling into chaos?"

"Yep."

"Well, there's not really a good reason for it, now that I'm thinking clearly about everything."

"So, a lapse in judgment then."

"One that lasted my whole life," he cringed. "But now… There's this quote that I've had stuck in my head since Jellal got us out of prison. 'I wear the chain I forged in life... I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.'"

His head turned so he could see the blonde who'd gone still at his side, and he didn't pull away when she reached up to gently tuck the hair that obscured his face from view, behind his ear.

"Midnight…"

"Call me Macbeth," he whispered. His voice sounded small, even to himself. "If we're here, call me Macbeth, okay?"

Lucy nodded slowly, a small smile on her lips. "Is there a reason a quote from Dickens is always on your mind?"

"Because it's the truth," he said. "I made my choices, no matter what the others tell themselves about Brain 'brainwashing' us. That's part of why we did the things we did, but after that… It was all me. It wasn't Brain or Klodoa pulling the strings. The Infinity Clock was my doing, and I put the pieces in place to make it happen. That's why I can't understand what happened with us… Why you wanted it to happen."

It was the most she'd ever heard him say at one time, and Lucy had a feeling that there weren't many people that had actually heard Midnight talking this much ever before. Villain monologues notwithstanding, he was a quiet man.

But this was a side of the Reflector mage that she was sure no one saw. Something he kept closely guarded with barbed wire and rabid dogs. Just looking at him right then, she was seeing beneath it all. Beneath his makeup that never smudged - not counting that night in the club. And for some reason, the longer Lucy looked at him, the more his clothing faded into something different.

His gold-orange coat with grey fur lining the edges dissipated to reveal the long-sleeve black shirt beneath. The leather collar around his throat faded. Next was his shirt and pants, each of them shifting until they were slightly tattered, plain. Brown pants and a grey tank top that hung too loose on his thin frame. The black polish on his nails disappeared. Then the bead clasps holding the two white braids in place.

"Macbeth," Lucy whispered with a frown. "What's happening here?"

"I don't actually sleep all the time," he said while gazing at the fire again. "Cobra's the only one that knows, though. Usually, I'm here."

"In A Christmas Carol?"

"No," he chuckled. He took a moment to look around with a certain tenderness in his gaze that he always kept to himself. From the recently swept floor with dust still creeping along the edges, the wood warped and chilled from the winter air outside, to the short table in a corner with blankets folded beneath it, to the lamp sitting on top of it that had no oil to soak into the wick. "Home."

Lucy blinked in surprise, unable to look away from the Reflector mage by her side.

"Everyone thinks that I don't remember what life was like before the Tower," he said. Not even Cobra knew just what this place really was - Midnight had actually been asked just where the little illusion had come from by the Poison Slayer. "They think it's just being a slave, then thinking Brain was my father."

"I-It wasn't though…"

"No," he answered. "I lived here with my mother. But she was sick, and she died in the winter right before the slavers came and took me away. It's miles from the village, so no one knew I was gone. Or that she was even dead."

Lucy just couldn't understand why he was telling her any of this, or even why things were slowly morphing the longer he talked. A small bedroll appeared just next to the stove, barely big enough for one person and patched almost beyond recognition with small scraps of random fabric. The lamp in the corner lit with a desperate, barely alive flame.

A soft sound from behind her drew the blonde's attention, and she turned to find a thin, spindling woman with long black hair in untamed waves that trailed down to her hips, kneeling beside a metal bin, running bunched up fabric over a washing board.

The woman's head turned, and Lucy was struck into silence by her beautifully sculpted cheekbones and narrow chin, soulful crimson eyes, and pouty pale pink lips. She was a female version of the mage at Lucy's side, the same one who stood and made his way over to kneel by the woman, his feet suddenly bare.

"M-Macbeth?"

He turned and gave her a rare, fleeting smile. Just the smallest upturn of his lips. "We didn't have much, but that was fine," he said.

It was strange, though, showing someone this part of himself. Midnight never did this. He just didn't let people in, but with Lucy he couldn't help it. Really, all he'd wanted to do was talk to her and find out where they stood after spending a month apart, with that one night burned into his memory. But the longer she was there in his illusion, the more he wanted to show her the kind of person he'd been before.

Maybe he was trying to justify the decisions he'd made, to show her that he'd been raised - for a short time - by a good, kind woman. His skewed perspective of the world had come about after being taken from his mother's side.

But, that wasn't the case and he knew it. Midnight always did this when he created this illusion. He visited his mother, helped her clean, just like he'd done back then, and put her to bed so she could rest. It gave him a way to see the woman he'd lost so long ago, and he'd been doing it ever since his Infinity plot had been foiled.

When he thought about it, he'd been doing this since the blonde he'd brought into his secret world had beaten him at his own game.

His mother's hand gently stroked his hair, and Midnight looked up at Lucy again. "This is all I have left of her now. Our house was burned down a long time ago."

"Just a memory," Lucy nodded. Her gaze shifted to the nameless woman, and she couldn't help but see the love shining in those long-lost crimson eyes toward her son. "That's… all I have of my mom, too."

Midnight's head tilted to one side as he looked at the blonde. And then he remembered everything he and the others had seen while scouting out the Heartfilia Konzern. And he remembered how much Lucy looked like the older woman in that torn portrait in a closed, dusty wing of the manor.

The air shimmered and wavered just next to Midnight, and Lucy's eyes widened when the form of another woman took shape. Slowly, as if unsure of their accepted presence, hair formed and framed a familiar face. A flowing ball gown that Lucy remembered all too well. Gentle brown eyes opened, and a small smile ticked the corners of the older woman's lips.

"M-Mama?"

Layla nodded, a silent laugh shaking her shoulders as Lucy lunged across the small space and crashed into her in a crushing hug.

"They can't talk," Midnight said. "But they feel real. If I knew what they sounded like, I could make them talk, though."

Lucy sniffled and turned her head to look over at the Reflector mage as he pulled his own mother into his arms. She looked so sick and frail, much like Layla had at the end of her days. This had to be the only way he really remembered her though. "Y-You don't… remember her voice?"

He shook his head while carefully standing and leading the woman toward the bedroll. Midnight tucked her in, brushing her hair from her eyes, then smiled down at his mother as her eyes closed. "I was too young," he whispered. "But I'll never forget her. What she looked like, how she made me feel."

Lucy's eyes closed as Layla's lips puckered on her scalp, and the arms holding her tightened just a little in comfort.

"Lucy," he said after several minutes of watching his mother sleeping. "I know you forgave us, but I never apologized. I'm sorry for trying to hurt you. And for using this against you…"

Lucy's eyes opened again to see him watching her and her mother. Even with what he'd said, how sad he'd sounded, he was still smiling. And right then, Lucy knew that this was a once in a lifetime moment. Not just the apology, or seeing this illusion, but seeing him smiling.

Once she had, the blonde wanted to see more of it.

"For using something so precious to hurt you," he finished. Lucy simply nodded, but that was all he really needed. He knew he'd been forgiven, that hadn't been the issue. It was just time for him to actually do something about it. That single nod was enough for him to know that she accepted his apology. But there was no sudden weight off his chest and shoulders. No relief from it. It was just another moment.

Finally, Midnight sighed and stood, letting his clothes shift back to the way they were in the real world. "I wish we could stay here," he said while gazing down at the image of his mother while she faded. "But, staying too long will mean I'll never want to leave."

Lucy sniffled again and swiped at the slowing tears on her cheeks. "O-Okay."

"But…" He waited until her teary eyes were locked on him again as he knelt next to her and Layla. "I can bring you here whenever you'd like… To see her. It's the least I can do."

A small gasp crackled in her chest and the vision around them darkened. Her mother's arms slithered away. The last thing she saw was Midnight's face, still free of makeup, a hopeful smile on his pale lips.

Her eyes fluttered open a moment later, and Lucy found herself lying on an infirmary bed. Her head turned toward the soft breath off to her right to find Midnight sitting in a chair, his eyes closed and his makeup once again in place. She carefully sat up, waiting for the moment he finally looked at her. He seemed to be in his own little world though, and now that Lucy knew the truth about it all, that he tended to throw himself into his own illusions and acted as though he was sleeping, she found herself whispering, "Macbeth?"

Midnight's eyes snapped open then, locking onto the blonde and the tears welling on her lashes, slowly trickling down onto her cheeks. "I didn't mean to make you cry," he frowned.

Lucy shook her head and reached for him, instantly catching his hand and pulling him closer to her. She didn't let him stay seated on the chair, and instead continued pulling until he was standing. "I-It's okay," she sniffled. "Dickens also wrote, 'We never need to be ashamed of our tears.'"

"Great Expectations," Midnight smiled. His thumb swiped across her cheek, his palm curving around her jaw.

"Th-Thank you, Macbeth."

"Midnight," he whispered.

Lucy shook her head while she reached up to sink her fingers into his hair. "Midnight didn't show me his home, or his mother, or mine. That was Macbeth." For a breathless moment, the two looked into each other's eyes, their lips inches apart until they moved in unison to meet in a slow, passionate kiss.

Midnight leaned further over the infirmary bed as Lucy rested back on the pillow, eventually crawling on top of the blonde and never taking his lips from hers. He still knew hardly anything about her, but there was one thing that he knew they had in common - aside from loving Charles Dickens' writing. The blonde had loved her mother, and missed her just as he missed his own.

For the first time in his life, Midnight had let someone see him. The real him. A part of his soul that he was sure not even Cobra heard. He'd always been afraid of letting anyone in, showing another person where he'd come from, who he really was, because Midnight had been so sure that they would turn tail and run. What little he remembered of his childhood before the Tower was filled with happiness, even though he knew, now that he was older, things hadn't been easy.

But Lucy, a woman who'd come from a world so completely different than his own, from money and a mansion and servants at her beck and call, hadn't judged him for what she'd seen.

A quiet moan drifted through her lips as Midnight's fingers caressed her bare shoulder, down the length of her arm, until he was holding her hand. Their tangled legs shifted until his hips were resting between her thighs. His tongue teased her lips to part, slow and unsure even as hers met with his and the two curled in a sensual caress.

He was perfectly content to stay just like this with her, just kissing a woman he really had no right to, but his body had other ideas. The longer he simply kissed Lucy, the more he wanted to feel her quivering beneath him. It wasn't about anything physical though. He wanted to know this woman who'd wriggled beneath his armor and got in his head without even trying. He knew exactly how she'd felt when seeing the illusion of her mother, because he'd been reduced to tears the first time he'd created his own.

His free hand grasped at her thigh, pulling it just a little higher as he ground against her core. She gasped against his lips, and he didn't even try to stop himself from moving higher, just under the hem of her skirt.

The last time they'd been together, Lucy was the one to take the initiative. This time was going to be different. More than the fact that she was attractive, Lucy understood him in a way no one ever had. She'd seen into his soul, and he just couldn't pull away from her.

"Mm, Macbeth," she whimpered as his thin fingers slithered over her stomach, pushing her shirt higher until her bared breasts quivered and her nipples puckered in the cool air.

For the first time since being taken in by Brain, the Reflector mage didn't mind someone saying his birth name. He wanted to hear it from her, again and again, and never the name he'd been given by the man who'd taken the moniker of his father. When they had been enemies, that's what she'd called him. But not now, he was only Macbeth to Lucy, if he had anything to say about it.

Lucy's moans grew more breathless as his fingers gently teased the hardened peaks of her breasts. Her skirt shifted until it was up around her waist, and she whimpered as the buckle on his belt dug into her pelvis while his hips rocked again. As if sensing the reason for her slight discomfort, Midnight reached down and unbuckled the strip of leather.

His pants were unfastened next, each move he made slow and calculated. There was no rushing, not like the last time they'd been together. And while the blonde was desperate to feel him moving within her, as he'd been well over a month prior, she loved the closeness between them like this.

Feeling his chest against hers, the fabric teasing her flesh, his knuckles lightly brushing against her sex as his zipper was lowered. Her hands left his hair and slid down to his shirt, and Lucy forced herself to move slowly while unfastening each button.

Once his shirt was open, her hands moved on their own to map out every inch of his chest and stomach. She hadn't been able to feel him quite like this the last time. Everything had been too rushed, too spur-of-the-moment and out in the open for her to really enjoy everything the Reflector mage had to offer.

She'd expected him to be muscular beneath his clothes, but he wasn't. Not like Gray and Natsu, at least. Over Midnight's lean frame, he was thin, nearly emaciated. She could only assume that this was just how he'd always been though. Her fingers almost rippled as they brushed over his ribs, but there was just enough meat on his bones to make her core clench excitedly.

She'd always had a thing for skinny guys. When her hands drifted down to his thin hips and lightly gripped them, Lucy couldn't hold back a shuddering moan of approval when she easily felt the bones. Those things would bruise her thighs in all the right ways.

Midnight, on the other hand, was more than surprised by how much she seemed to like touching him. Angel had told him, the only time they'd had sex when she'd taken his virginity, that he was too skinny. Then again, she tended to go for men twice her size and more muscular than was probably healthy.

For the first time, Midnight felt like he wasn't repulsive or creepy. As the seconds ticked by, he could feel her desire rising in how her fingers quivered while hooking under the band of his boxers. Slowly, he pulled back to look into mocha eyes clouded with lust. Then he caught sight of his lipstick smeared on her lips as they pulled up into a seductive smile.

"Even sexier than I'd imagined," Lucy whispered. She could swear the universe had downright consumed her soul when Midnight blushed through his makeup. And that was when she realized that he was hardly wearing any. His lipstick was a light grey instead of black. His eyeliner, lighter than she'd ever seen before.

Her eyes drifted downward until the blonde saw his chest, the same shade as his throat and face. Good lord, he was scrumptious.

"God, you're beautiful," Midnight rasped. He just couldn't tear his gaze from the barely there pale pink, silk triangle at the apex of her thighs. Propped on one elbow, letting Lucy's hands drift over his flesh as she pleased, Midnight reached down and gently hooked a finger beneath the fabric, then pulled it off to one side. "Perfect…"

He hadn't gotten the chance to actually see Lucy like this the last time. Her thighs visibly trembled as his thumb lightly slicked up the length of her slit, brushing the evidence of her arousal to her sensitive bundle. Slow, gentle circles had the blonde beauty beneath him whimpering, and he found his lips lilting into a small smile as Lucy's shaking fingers brought him in for a sensuous kiss.

"Macbeth," she gasped as his hand shifted and his fingers fluttered over her sex. "I'm n-not one for foreplay. Just f-fuck me, okay?"

"Sorry," he smirked. "I can't do that."

The blonde stopped in an instant to stare at him, but that didn't stop Midnight from continuing to pluck at her core as though it was a harp, the tune something only he could hear. "Wh-What?"

"I can't just fuck you," he whispered. Midnight looked deeply into her eyes, his smile widening as two fingers slowly invaded her. "I have to show you… What you did to me just now."

"I-I didn't do anything," she whimpered. Still, her body didn't lie. No matter how much Lucy said she didn't like foreplay, it was a habit. Men weren't interested in all that nonsense, in her experience. They wanted to get laid. But her hips still curled in an attempt to draw his long, thin fingers deeper, to feel the soft flutter drawing the coil within her tighter, as they scissored without pulling back.

"You did."

Macbeth's lips slid down her throat, leaving a barely visible trail of makeup in his wake, to the tip of her breast. He paused just above her heart, pressing a series of short, tender kisses there while his hand rotated and withdrew.

A sharp cry split through the air as Midnight slammed back into her, his palm flush against her and the heel brushing over her clit.

"I've never let anyone see that about me," he whispered. Slow strokes had the blonde panting and her fingers sinking into his hair.

"Oh, M-Macbeth…"

"You saw it though," he continued. His breath danced across her nipple, and his tongue snaked out in a languid lick over the rosy peak. "And you accepted me. Just like this. After everything I've done…"

Lucy nodded quickly and tipped her head back into the pillow as his teeth scraped over her.

"I want you, Lucy. I want all of you…"

"T-Take me, then," she rasped. He didn't say anything then, and instead his lips parted and wrapped around her nipple, suckling and teasing the blonde until she couldn't tell which way was up any longer. "Macbeth, please… Please…"

"Promise me," he whispered while kissing back up to her lips. His fingers moved just a little faster, and he watched as the blonde licked at her dry, kiss-swollen lips. "Promise you'll let me take you back there again."

Lucy nodded, her breath catching as his glittering crimson eyes bored into her from above. In all her life, she never would have thought that she'd see the Reflector mage like this. So openly showing her how he felt, his emotions swirling in his eyes and the happy tears on his lashes. "Wh-Whenever you wa - Oh, I'm… I-I'm gonna…"

Lucy cried out as the fullness inside of her suddenly disappeared. Hot tears of frustration teased the corners of her eyes. Her chest heaved and her limbs felt as though they'd been drawn tight with a string as her climax plateaued just before she'd found her release.

Midnight pushed his boxers down his thighs and grasped his aching length to brush it over her swollen sex. "Promise me," he sniffled. "I can show you everything."

Lucy gulped and nodded again.

"That I can… I-I don't have to be afraid with you…?"

She blinked in surprise as a tear dripped down from his lashes onto her cheek, unable to see the little grey spot left in its wake from his makeup mixing with the salty droplet. She couldn't believe what she was seeing right then, and it threw the agitation she'd been feeling right out the window and down into the canal.

His words hit her like a ton of bricks, but she knew in an instant just what he was feeling. That serpent of fear that slithered around in your gut and poisoned everything with doubt. After what Midnight had showed her, Lucy didn't blame him for it in the slightest.

And if he needed some reassurance, to know that she wasn't just in this for what she could feel between her legs, just waiting to surge forward, then she could give that to him in spades.

Her thumbs brushed under his eyes, accidentally smudging his eyeliner while whisking his tears away. "You'll never have to be afraid again, Macbeth," she smiled tenderly. "Never with me."

His lips covered hers as he pushed forward, tight heat enveloping his length as hot tears burned his cheeks. He stilled once his hips were flush against her, deepening the kiss before starting to move again. Midnight could feel Lucy everywhere. Her fingers anchoring on his back, beneath his shirt, her legs hooking around his hips. Soft skin brushing against him.

He didn't even think about the fact that they were still in her guild, in an infirmary bed where anyone could walk in to see them. All he could focus on was the blonde and how her moans felt vibrating against his lips while he continued rocking into her.

His eyes opened as Lucy broke away from the kiss on a sharp gasp, and he found himself mesmerized by the sight laid beneath him. Even with his makeup having dripped onto her cheeks, his lipstick smeared across her lips, Lucy was beautiful.

He'd never thought a woman could be as breathtaking as she was in that moment. And even though his body screamed for him to surge forward, to rock the bed to the point of denting the wall it was pushed against, he couldn't. And Midnight came to the startling realization that it was because he wanted more than just a quick lay with Lucy. He'd never wanted anything like this before, to move so slowly with a woman.

To feel such a deep, gut-twisting passion that had him peppering her cheeks and chin and nose with tender kisses as she whispered his name so reverently.

Lucy's fingers rippled over Midnight's ribs on a slow, quaking quest up to cup his cheeks. She wanted to look him in the eye, even if the crimson orbs were filled with tears. Her own eyes sure as hell were. And that was most definitely a first for her.

Eyes locked, their breath mingling, he kept his slow, gentle pace.

"Don't look away," he whispered, feeling her sex slowly tightening around him just as her eyes started to close. "Let me see you."

It took everything she had to keep her eyes open. She was so close, but the pressure just kept building, coiling around inside her until the blonde was sure she was going to actually explode. She wanted to writhe beneath him, to make him move faster just so she could finally crest that peak into bliss, but Lucy was frozen beneath the weight of his desire-darkened gaze.

"M-Mac…" Lucy's voice died in her throat as his hips rolled once they were fully joined again, pushing just a little deeper and grinding the bony joints into her inner thighs just the way she liked, changing the angle as he withdrew.

He smiled as she trembled in his embrace. Her short, staccatoed breaths puffed across his lips. "I'll never be afraid again," he groaned quietly. "Never with you…" And just like that, the blonde fell apart around him. Her eyes stayed open, locked on his, and he hardly saw the first tear trickling down the side of her face.

Her lips parted on a crackling whimper. Just a simple word, really, but something so perfect to his ears that he knew right then, he'd never tire of hearing it. Not from her, at least.

"Macbeth…"

"Hey, where's Midnight?" Mira asked while making her rounds past Crime Sorciere's table in the guild. "Did he go upstairs to sleep again?"

Cobra bit the inside of his cheek to keep the truth of where the Reflector mage was at to himself. He was an asshole, sure, and loved harping on his best friend about pretty much everything, but some of the shit he'd heard coming from the infirmary was enough for him to put all of that to the side for a change.

It seemed that little blonde was the perfect breath of fresh air for Midnight.

"I don't think he ever came down after Lucy went to the infirmary," Jellal frowned.

And that was the reason the Poison Slayer was going to fucking execute that little tramp-stamped bitch. "Sure he did," Cobra said. "He's asleep."

Meredy raised a brow at the maroon-haired mage, then glanced up toward the balcony. "It's been a few hours. Why don't we see if he wants to head out?"

"We should be leaving soon anyway," Jellal nodded.

"I doubt he'll want to leave," Angel smirked, giving Cobra a sly glance to the side. Out of everyone, she and Cobra were the only two to really understand the Reflector mage. And while she didn't necessarily have the ability to hear Midnight's soul - not that she wanted to know the horrible shit that went on in there in the first place - she could tell when he was interested in someone. And Fairy Tail's Celestial Mage was very obviously the object of his desire.

"Why's that?" Mira asked. "I mean, you know you guys are welcome to stay in town, and-"

"We can't do that," Jellal sighed. "Best to keep moving."

"We should stay the night, at least," Cobra said. He scowled as everyone turned to gape at him. "Oh, fuck off. I wanna get some more Cu-time."

"Her name's Kinana," Meredy giggled.

"It's Cubellios," he growled. "And no, we're nothing more than friends."

"Every time we stay in town, you sleep in her bed," Angel pointed out. "Sounds like more than friends to me."

Oh, Midnight was definitely going to owe him for this. Especially since the purple-haired barmaid's face was a brilliant cherry red from across the bar, and she was nervously giggling at the odd looks Gajeel and Cana were giving her. "We sleep," he sneered. "And yes, we cuddle. I have no problem admitting that I love cuddling with her, because we kept each other warm when she was a snake. Force of habit."

"You're pretty forthcoming right now," Jellal said, his eyes narrowing slightly. "What are you hiding?"

"A dead body," Racer snickered.

"Shut up," Cobra growled.

Mira blinked slowly, then looked up toward the infirmary where Midnight had taken Lucy. The guild had been too busy for her to keep track of everyone's movements, so maybe Midnight had stayed up in the infirmary and snagged one of the empty beds to get some good rest. "Well, I'll go check on Lucy, at least," she finally said.

What she hadn't expected was for Cobra to stand from the table as she started to turn.

"He's asleep," he said. "Safer for everyone if you just let me go wake him up." He growled when Jellal stood as well. "One person job, asshole."

"I have something I need to speak with him about," Jellal answered. He didn't care that Cobra could hear it was a lie. Instead, he started walking toward the stairs. And, of course, because of his odd behavior and Cobra's, the rest of Crime Sorciere stood and joined them on their little trip to the infirmary.

Mira, for all her confusion at the oddities of the guild's guests, simply led the way and opened the door to the infirmary. She walked down to the end of the line of beds and froze in her tracks at the sight of Lucy and Midnight curled around one another, fast asleep.

Cobra frowned and stepped around the barmaid when he didn't hear anything from the occupants on the bed, then cringed. He'd always hated how skinny Midnight was, and the fact that his too-pale friend was completely bare from the waist up was creepy as hell.

His collarbones, his ribs, even his hips where they jutted out over the top of his pants. His slender wrists. No matter how much Midnight had actually tried to gain weight, he just couldn't. And he didn't work out, so there was hardly any muscle definition. Still, Cobra found himself fucking floored by it all.

Lucy's fingers threaded through Midnight's black-and-white hair, her other arm winding around his back. His head lying on her tube-top covered chest and his face free of makeup. The thin sheet from the bed pulled delicately over their tangled legs, with both pairs of their shoes on the floor.

He heard the barest whisper of a dream from the blonde, but when he looked at Midnight, there was nothing. No illusions, no nightmares. Not even happy unicorn dreams. Just blank space and soft winding cogs that always coiled in the Reflector mage's soul. At least the two weren't dead.

And thankfully, Cobra was the only one who could smell the barely there scent of sex and tears in the air.

"Did they…" Mira whispered.

Angel gave the slumbering mages a tender smile, a sight that was a first for the majority of her guildmates. "Who cares?" she whispered back. "Maybe they're just cuddling."

"He's shirtless though," Jellal said. "And why-"

"He's just a skinny fuck," Cobra hissed. "Leave them alone." Based on the new dream in the blonde, the snippets of a memory she was replaying of Midnight sitting in a little shack with her and making an illusion of Lucy's mother, holding a frail woman in his own arms, there was something serious between these two. Midnight just didn't do shit like that for people. And Cobra really didn't feel like barging in on the peace and quiet they were having.

"We're staying," Cobra added after another moment.

Meredy nodded, wide-eyed. "Definitely."

"Leave them alone," he hissed to the Maguilty mage when her hand started stretching toward the bed. "No touching."

"But they're so cute…"

Mira bit her lips and turned, ushering everyone out of the infirmary. Erza appeared in the doorway with a job request in her hands, and the barmaid frowned. The Requip mage had some of the worst timing in existence.

"Ah, good," Erza smiled. "Mira, Team Natsu will be taking this mission."

"You're aware that Lucy passed out, right?" Mira asked. No way was she letting this ship sink so soon.

"She will be fine," Erza nodded. "I am prepared to take extra precautions to ensure her safety, and…" Her eyes had strayed across the room, zeroing in on the pair of mages in the bed, still fast asleep. "Is that…"

"Erza," Jellal said softly as her face turned an unnatural shade of red. It would have been endearing if it wasn't reaching from her hairline to her chest.

"Midnight has…" She blinked rapidly, not noticing how Cobra grabbed Meredy and Sorano and pulled the two several feet away. Suddenly, a large hammer was requipped into her hand and a deep scowl settled over her lips. "He's sullied Lucy's honor!"

Jellal, ever the peacekeeper, stepped between Erza and the bed. "It's not like that," he said, holding up his hands to keep her fury at bay. "They're just sleeping!"

Midnight shifted in the bed, burrowing his head just a little more between Lucy's breasts, his hand sliding up her side and pushing beneath her shirt.

"Pervert!" Erza screeched. She swung the hammer right into Jellal's stomach, sending him careening out of a conveniently opened window - one that Lucy had made sure to open so the room could air out after she and Midnight were back to normal and clothed.

His scream was heard across a good portion of Magnolia. All anyone in the Fairy Tail infirmary could see was a small twinkle of light where Jellal had landed in the distance.

Kinana made her way into the infirmary and handed Mira the tray, giving the demon barmaid a placating smile. With all the commotion, Gajeel was giving everyone a play-by-play down in the main hall of just what was happening. So, she knew that it was time to intervene.

She smiled at Cobra and his guildmates, then placed a hand on Erza's gauntleted hand.

"Kinana-"

"Erza, it's not what you think," she said softly. "Lucy asked me to go with her last month to meet up with Midnight and Cobra at some club."

"Th-They have been in a relationship?" Erza asked, lowering her hammer.

"Um… Not really," Kinana laughed. "She wanted to hook up with Midnight. It was, um… a little terrifying to see her turn into a sex-demon like that, to be honest…"

"Th-They had… I-In a… In public?"

Kinana nodded. Erza wilted to the ground, her hammer clanging loudly in the room. With a wicked grin, Cobra threw his arms around Meredy and Angel's shoulders. "Looks like you ladies are sleeping with me tonight," he chuckled.

Meredy and Angel elbowed him in the stomach, and Erza miraculously regained consciousness enough to yell about protecting Meredy and Angel's innocence. Cobra wasn't lucky enough to get hit through an open window with her hammer, and instead created a Poison Slayer shaped hole in the bricks of the infirmary.

And all the while, Lucy and Midnight were blissfully unaware of everything going on around them. Because after they'd gotten their clothes back on and cleaned off all of Midnight's makeup, Lucy had simply held him and sung a gentle lullaby to help him fall asleep. In the process she'd fallen asleep as well, and now they were far too comfortable to care about the real world.

And when they eventually woke up, the two would return to Lucy's apartment with no one being any the wiser, all so they could get to know one another better, read some Dickens and, of course, share several glasses of the Scrooge's favorite drink (and theirs): a smoking bishop.

.The End.