“My collar is fine,” Bickslow consoled Freed, who was taking the concept of a themed party a little far, as he was prone to do with most everything.  “I promise - you’re looking dapper enough for the both of us.  No one is expecting the level of detail that you’re accustomed to.  I promise.”

Straightening out his own collar, Freed let out a huff of indignation at the very thought of displaying anything less than perfection at all times.  “Then we’ll be certain to win the costume competition.”  He indicated for Bickslow to bend down so he could work on the offending collar.

Bickslow groaned, but complied.  There was no arguing with Freed once he’d set his sights on a task that needed completing.  “Can I at least still wear my helmet?”

Freed’s hands stilled on Bickslow’s collar, his expression one that Bickslow would categorize as a solid 7 on Freed’s disgust scale.  After a long moment, Freed painfully bit out, “I... suppose...  if you... really must.”

“Thank you,” Bickslow told him, grateful that Freed wasn’t going to push on something that actually meant a lot to him.  Although he was much more comfortable around his guildmates than he had once been, it still felt more like a private thing.  Something just between Bickslow and the Thunder Legion.  And even then... it was mostly just around Freed these days.

With a curt nod, Freed finished messing with Bickslow’s collar.  Bickslow suspected that the whole thing might partially have been a pretense to touch him though, judging by how the man’s hands lingered around his collarbone.  Freed patted him twice and then withdrew his hands.

“Now where’s your babies?” Freed suddenly asked.  “It’s their turn.”

Bickslow choked. “No!  They look fine as they are!  You leave them alone!”

Freed peered up at him, determination glinting in his eyes.  “I have prepared temporary new vessels for the occasion, so you just need to transfer them inside.”

Sweat ran down the back of Bickslow’s neck.  The man had certainly come prepared, hadn’t he?

“It’s just for one night,” Freed insisted.

WELL... 

Nah. Okay. 

CoLu is one of my OTPs. Right up there with BixLu, BixCo, and of course, CoLuBix. Literally top four ships involve the same characters. 

Anyway. I see CoLu in a similar way to how I see GaLu and BixLu. They all have the potential (or they straight up do) to have had a really dark, horrible upbringing. And they’ve all done some really shitty things that they’re not completely okay with (or are actually okay with, and more so in Cobra’s case). But then with Cobra, I feel like there’s little he does actually regret or show remorse for. Most of the things he’s done, I imagine he did them because he wanted to or needed to. He probably wasn’t as somewhat misguided as the others were. 

But then I see Lucy as the forgiving soul she usually is, who always wants to see the best in people and that everyone always deserves a second (or third chance). And she’d see Cobra no differently. So that could be tricky. While Cobra doesn’t exactly feel any remorse for anything he’s done (to her specifically, e.g. in that clock filler arc), Lucy would probably end up thinking that he’s actually thinking he doesn’t deserve forgiveness. When really, it’s just a case that he doesn’t want it. I don’t know. 

Anyway though. Any relationship they did have, I imagine it would be a long journey as far as getting there went. Lucy would be more open to it, but Cobra is Cobra and he wouldn’t exactly like the idea of admitting he has feelings for anyone, much less someone of FT (if it’s in the canon verse, that is). Then whenever they did get together, it still wouldn’t be that great right off the bat. Cobra would probably have a lot of trust issues and he’s used to keeping secrets from people, and then Lucy just... Well, it probably takes her a while to actually acknowledge that and realise that. 

Of course though, once they get past that, then they’d be a really, really great ship. Cobra is probably grumpy 99% of the time, but there’s the rare occasion where he’s a total dork and/or sweetheart and it probably makes Lucy cry because she totally doesn’t expect him to do overly nice things. (She knows that he loves her, he’s just not the type of person who is able to show it very easily.) And then Cobra is definitely ridiculously protective of her in extreme cases (or not so extreme cases, e.g. if she was pregnant lmao). 

tl;dr i love colu to pieces and as much as i see it as a healthy ship for the most part, i don’t think it would always be that way. modern verse is slightly different from my perspective, but he’d still be mostly reserved for a long time and it takes lucy a while to realise that he just doesn’t really care all that much about ‘fitting in’ in certain places. 

Bixeed. Okay. I’ll admit, I do like this ship. I don’t love it, but I certainly don’t hate it. It’s kind of just one of those ships that occasionally comes across my dash or whatever, and I’m like, ‘Oh yeah. This is a thing. Cool.’  

My only issue with this ship is that the few people who did/do write for it, tended to write Freed specifically as extremely damaged/constantly needing support/reassurance etc. It was really... one-sided and OOC, at least to me. Also, a lot of those people tended to show Freed as ridiculously feminine and... No. I just don’t like that. Especially when it’s paired with a Bix that is just completely fucked in the head. But that’s not actually to do with the ship itself I guess. That’s more with how others have written it, and I’m protective of my babies and the way they’re written. 

Anyway though. I do like it. I think it’s cute sometimes, but I know people who have it as NoTP so it’s kind of fallen off for me. I’m somewhat influenced by what ships my mutuals like/dislike? I don’t know why. Or at least, they kind of help me realise that I don’t actually love something as much as I think I do. 

//Another entry for @semegal‘s christmas event.

Day 21: Person A dresses up as a gift for person B