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acacia-may · 2 years

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The Jam Problem [Gajevy & Fairy Tail Guild Shenanigans Past & Present]

Story Summary: Gajeel signed up to be part of a guild--not to pose for ridiculous photos for merchandise. When he refuses to participate in the creation of the Fairy Tail guild's promotional items, however, First Master Mavis tells him and the rest of the guild the origin story of Fairy Tail's merchandise business which began with Yuri Dreyar, his stubborn denial of his not-so-secret affection for Rita, and way, way too much jam. Will this story provide inspiration for Gajeel and a not-so-secret affection of his own in the present?

The Secret History of the Fairy Tail Guild’s Promotional Items and Merchandise.

Fandom: Fairy Tail

Genre: Fluff and (Attempt at) Humor, Tongue-in-Cheek/Satirical Humor, Fluffy Romance, Friendship, Fairy Tail Guild Shenanigans, Idiots in Love, Fluffy Ending, Affectionately Silly (Please don't take this too seriously)

Relationships: Gajeel Redfox x Levy McGarden (Gajevy), Fairy Tail Zero (Mavis Vermillion, Yuri Dreyar, Warrod Sequen & Precht Gaebolg) Friendship, Yuri Dreyar/Rita, and Fairy Guild Found Family. Some Gray Fullbuster/Juvia Lockser (Gruvia), Some Juvia Lockser & Gajeel Redfox Friendship. Hints at/Joke about Mavis Vermillion/Zeref (Zervis) for kicks & giggles.

Characters: Gajeel Redfox (POV Character), Levy McGarden, Mavis Vermillion, Yuri Dreyar, Warrod Sequen, Precht Gaebolg, Rita Dreyar, Makarov Dreyar, Juvia Lockser, Gray Fullbuster, and The Fairy Tail Guild

Rating: G (though there are a few instances of some mild language so PG would probably be a more accurate rating. However, it didn't merit a T rating by any means).

Warnings: A few instances of minor language, but otherwise nothing but fluff, humor, and shenanigans here. This story is silly and is not meant to be taken too seriously.

Word Count: 5560

Link to original post on AO3. Please do not repost to another site.

Story Below the Cut! Thank you so much for reading! 💕

The Jam Problem

(Or The Secret History of the Fairy Tail Guild’s Promotional Items and Merchandise)

“No.” Gajeel glared pointedly at the rest of the guild and at Makarov in particular. The guild hall was suddenly quiet, and Gajeel could feel all eyes transfixed on him. However, he stood his ground and argued, “I’m not posing for any stupid pictures.”

“Everybody in our guild does promotional photos,” explained Master Makarov. “It’s for official merchandise.”

“I was kind of nervous for my first photoshoot too, but it’s actually kind of fun,” said Lucy with a smile.

“Lots of fun,” agreed Happy with a bright smile. “And when you’re done, sometimes they give you nice fishies.”

Gajeel huffed. “I don’t like pictures.”

“It’s really not that bad.” Gray shrugged. “You just go. They snap a few photos, and it’s over. Takes like fifteen minutes tops.”

“Shut up,” grunted Gajeel irritably. “You just want an excuse to walk around shirtless.” Gajeel huffed again. “Why do we even have to have merchandise in the first place?”

“It’s a way to supplement the guild’s income,” explained Cana who was sitting on the table clutching a barrel.

Mirajane nodded, “Running a guild is expensive.”

“Then, why don’t we charge more for jobs or something? Why make us all into dumb calendar girls?”

“There’s not just calendars,” said Natsu. “They make lots of merchandise with our faces on it: figurines, posters, clothing, jewelry…”

“I don’t want my face on any of that stuff.”

“Oh come on, Gajeel,” chuckled Levy, appearing behind him. “It’s just part of being in the guild.”

Gajeel sighed. He supposed Levy had a point, but he was too stubborn to concede on it.

“The Fairy Tail guild has been selling merchandise and promotional items from the very beginning,” explained Makarov. “It’s a tradition my father started with the help of First Master Mavis.”

“That’s right,” giggled Mavis. “I had almost forgotten about that. It’s kind of a funny story actually. You see, it all started with this jam problem…” Her voice faded wistfully before she playfully smirked at him. “If I tell you the story will you promise to take the pictures?”

“I want to hear the story, First Master,” exclaimed Natsu.

“Me too!” Happy chimed in floating around her. “I hope it has yummy fishies in it.”

“I’d like to hear it too,” said Lucy, and Levy nodded in agreement as they chuckled amongst themselves.

“I’m actually kind of curious myself.”

Gajeel frowned, but eventually he sighed. “Alright fine, but I’m not making any promises about any dumb pictures.”

Mavis positively beamed at them before she settled down into her seat to begin her story. “Well…it all started when the Fairy Tail guild was just starting out, and Makarov’s dad, Yuri, and I were out at the market shopping for supplies…”

“What do you think, Mavis?” asked Yuri balancing an apple in one hand and an orange in the other. He threw them up in the air and eventually caught them, clearly trying to hide the fact that he fumbled and nearly let the orange drop to the ground.

“I think you can’t juggle,” Mavis replied with a tilt of her head. She nodded sympathetically at the poor fruit seller, Rita, who was clearly growing exasperated with Yuri’s antics. Mavis wondered if she would be more exasperated if she knew that the main reason for Yuri’s show was likely to get her attention. “I also think we have plenty of fruit back at the guild hall and don’t need any more.”

Yuri waved his hand at her insisting, “No, I just checked earlier today and we’re running low on apples and oranges.”

Mavis blinked at him. This was a bold-faced lie. They currently had at least a bushel of each back at the guild hall, possibly more since Precht and Warrod had been trying their best to think of creative storage places for the, frankly, ridiculous amounts of fruit Yuri kept bringing back to the guild. Their last solution, which Mavis had assisted with, involved stacking crates of berries on Yuri’s bed. This must have been at least somewhat of a deterrent for him since he wasn’t insistent on buying any more berries. Perhaps they would have to try the same thing with the apples and oranges he bought today.

While Mavis tended to see the humor in the whole situation, Warrod and Precht were at their wit’s end. Sure enough, when the pair returned from their shopping trip with two more crates of apples and oranges, they were greeted by a very exasperated, “For the love of Ethernano, Yuri, stop buying fruit.”

Warrod sighed heavily as Precht shook his head at the crates and added, “What are we even going to do with it all?”

Yuri shrugged his shoulders. “Eat them, of course.”

“This is way too much food for us to eat, Yuri,” sighed Warrod. “We could probably feed the entire city of Magnolia.”

“And it won’t keep forever. Fruit perishes quickly,” added Precht with a frown and a shake of his head.

“Well…” hummed Yuri, seemingly unconcerned besides a slight furrow of his brow and wrinkle of his nose. “I don’t know we can make it into jam or something.”

“That’s what we’ve been doing,” explained Mavis. It had been her idea to make jam in the first place, and it was turning out quite well given Warrod’s hidden and previously unknown talents for jam-making. She’d taken to teasing him that if one day he chose to retire from the guild, he could have a very successful and lucrative career as a marmateer.

With a weary sigh, Warrod nodded in concurrence. “We have enough jam to last an apocalypse.”

Yuri chuckled with a somewhat disbelieving scoff. “I’m sure we don’t have—” He stopped abruptly as Precht opened a cabinet door to reveal shelves stacked with jam, then another cabinet of the same then another and another.

“We’re running out of cabinet space,” observed Precht in his dry, matter of fact way.

Warrod sighed shaking his head at the jam jars before turning to Yuri with a pointed, almost pleading expression. “Please Yuri, stop buying fruit and just ask the fruit lady to go to dinner with you already.”

Yuri’s face flushed, but he frowned indignantly with a bristly huff. “First of all ‘the fruit lady’s’ name is Rita, and second of all this has nothing to do with her.”

Precht blinked at him, and Warrod shook his head with a sigh. “You’ve bought enough fruit to feed an army and you expect us to believe that’s because what? You just really love fruit?”

With a stubborn glare in his companion’s general direction, Yuri huffed again. “As a matter of fact, yes, but it’s none of your business why I want to buy fruit.”

“You’ve made it our business,” sighed Warrod. “And believe me, no one is more upset about the fact that we’re involved than we are.”

“I’d like to go back to that time when the fact that you were besotted wasn’t our problem,” said Precht with a dry, matter-of-fact expression.

There was a flash of red in Yuri’s cheeks, but he huffed indignantly, “I’m not besotted, and even if I was, it wouldn’t have anything to do with you.”

“It would if you kept trying to turn our guild hall into an orchard,” quipped Warrod.

“Which you are,” Precht solemnly added with a pointed stare. Yuri rolled his eyes.

“Yes, I got the joke the first time, Precht,”

“There’s nothing wrong with being smitten with Rita and wanting to go on a date, Yuri,” chimed in Mavis with a reassuring smile. “I’d like to go on a date too someday.” She paused and a somewhat dreamy sigh she had not been intending accidentally tumbled out of her mouth as she added, “With Zeref.”

Yuri’s brow furrowed at her, and he turned back to a somewhat concerned Precht and Warrod. “Are we ever going to do something about Mavis’s ‘Zeref Problem’?”

“I think it’s just a phase,” reassured Warrod with a thoughtful nod.

“She’ll probably grow out of it before anything bad happens,” Precht agreed, before he frowned. “The real problem here is you squandering our guild funds on way too much fruit for the four of us to eat.”

“We’ll probably be eating nothing but jam for the next decade,” sighed Warrod.

Yuri wrinkled his nose, but his face suddenly lit up. “I know! I’ll sell the jam!”

“What?” asked a cacophony of confused companions.

“Yes, I’ll take all the jams down to the market and sell them. Then we won’t have to worry about the cabinets or the money or whatever it is that has you both so twisted up.”

Yuri’s plan was, unfortunately, easier said than done. Though he and Mavis took several crates of jam down to the marketplace the next day and set up a makeshift shop table, they failed to sell a single jar. Never one to be defeated, Yuri determinedly took to trying to stop potential customers in the street which only made matters worse. Eventually he sunk back to his stool with a defeated huff.

“Don’t worry, Yuri,” Mavis tried to reassure him with a pat on the shoulder. “Maybe our guild can just have jam with every meal from now on.”

Yuri sighed, but before he could say anything a woman with a basket full of vegetables walked up to their booth with a gentle, “Excuse me? I didn’t mean to overhear, but did you say you’re in a guild?”

Mavis nodded. “Yes, we’re in Fairy Tail.”

The woman smiled. “Oh my goodness! Your guild saved my town when we were overrun by wild boar a few months ago. Thank you so much.”

Yuri perked up immediately, and standing up from his stool, shook the woman’s hand with a lopsided grin. “All in a day’s work m’aam.”

“Is Fairy Tail selling jam as part of some fundraising efforts? I’ll take four jars, please.”

Yuri’s eyes grew wide, but his smile widened. “That’s right. This is genuine Fairy Tail guild jam made by our guild members at the Fairy Tail guild hall itself.”

Some of the customers passing by stopped as they heard Yuri’s impassioned speech and began to crowd around their booth to buy their “Genuine Fairy Tail Guild Jam.”

Yuri turned to Mavis with a smirking smile. “Mavis, I have an idea…”

*-*-*

The next time Yuri and Mavis returned to the market all of their jam jars had labels that said “Genuine Fairy Tail Guild Jam” with their guild mark on it. The jam was a major hit, and the people of Fiore couldn’t get enough of it…until, of course, they could…

“Sales are down,” sighed Yuri with a slight shake of his head. “But we still have a ton of jam back at the guild hall.”

Mavis frowned. “We wouldn’t have nearly as much if you hadn’t made Warrod make more orange marmalade.”

“We were running out,” Yuri protested.

“We’re not trying to run a shop here. We’re trying to get rid of the jam we already have, right?” When there was no response, Mavis repeated, “Right, Yuri?”

Yuri’s eyes were glossy and his expression was distant with a somewhat dopey grin. Curiously, she followed his gaze across the market to the fruit stand. Mavis sighed. Of course…

“Yuri!”

He startled and whipped around to look at her. “What?”

“You’re making goo goo eyes again.”

His face flushed, but he huffed and bristled, “I am not making goo goo eyes.”

With a pointed tilt of her head, Mavis blinked at him; then, sighed. “I don’t understand why you don’t just go ask her to go to dinner so we can be done with this whole jam business.”

“I don’t want to go to dinner with her,” Yuri insisted. “And besides, if I did—which I don’t—it wouldn’t be that easy.”

“It seems pretty easy to me,” shrugged Mavis. “If Zeref was running a fruit stand, I would be over there right now—gazing deeply into his intense, sensitive eyes.” She sighed dreamily, and Yuri shook his head.

“I always thought his eyes were kind of emotionless, but okay…” quipped Yuri.

“Yeah…” sighed Mavis wistfully. “His intense, dead gaze, but yet his eyes are so sensitive and so sad…”

Yuri’s face contorted, and he blinked at her. “Yeah, Mavis…about Zeref…don’t you think he’s kind of…?”

“Wonderful? Handsome? Amazing?” Mavis interrupted with wide eyes. “The ideal man.”

“I wasn’t going to say any of those things,” Yuri replied bluntly. “In fact they’re not even close to anything I was about to say.”

“Have you seen his abs, Yuri?”

Yuri spluttered. “Have I…what?”

“Have you seen his abs?” Mavis repeated emphasizing each word.

“Well…no, but…”

“Then you can’t possibly understand.”

“You’re right about that,” Yuri muttered dryly under his breath. “I definitely can’t understand.”

“They glisten, Yuri. They glisten!”

“Yeah…okay…I’ll take your word for it…” Yuri huffed and rolled his eyes before he said hurriedly, “Oh look a customer.” He stood up from his seat and donned his brightest, salesman smile. “Good Afternoon, Ma’am. Welcome to Genuine Fairy Tail Guild Jams. Home of the official jam of the Fairy Tail guild—made by the guild at the guild. How can we help you today?”

“Yes, um…this might be a bit of a strange question, but my son is a big fan of Warrod…” A young boy shyly peeked out from behind his mother. Yuri smiled at him with a wave of his hand before turning back to the mother.

“Well you’re in luck. Warrod actually made all of these jams—it’s one of his many talents.”

The woman and her son smiled. “Does he have a favorite kind of jam?”

“Oh…uh…” stumbled Yuri, his brow furrowing.

Luckily, Mavis cut in. “He loves orange marmalade.”

“That’s right!” agreed Yuri holding out a jar to the customer.

On the opposite end of the table a group of young women giggled, and one of them asked somewhat sheepishly, “What about Precht?” before she and her companions started giggling again.

Mavis smiled. These girls must like the strong, silent type. She could understand that, but it was a bit funny to think about Precht having fans infatuated with him.

“Oh I know that one,” said Yuri proudly. “He likes blackberry jam, and Mavis here likes strawberry. I’m a raspberry guy, myself.” He said as he made a show of balancing some of the jars before holding them out to the giggling girls.

“Mavis,” he turned and winked at her. “I have another idea…”

*-*-*

When Mavis and Yuri returned to the market again, their “Genuine Fairy Tail Jam” jars not only had the guild symbol, but each member’s favorite flavor of jam had their face on it and the words “Warrod’s favorite jam” or “Precht’s favorite jam” and so on. The people of Fiore ate this up, both literally and figuratively—though Warrod and Precht were both mortified at the idea of having their face on a jam jar. Sales were rising through the roof, however, and the jam inventory at the guild hall was quickly decreasing so they didn’t complain about it too much. In fact, there was so much demand for the new jam jars, that Warrod and Precht were needed to help run the booth and carry more crates down to the marketplace. This only attracted more attention and sales steadily rose as people calmored not only for the jam but for the chance to meet their Fairy Tail heroes.

Mavis could tell from the weary looks on their faces that Precht and Warrod were both looking forward to this jam problem finally reaching its conclusion, but she knew they feared that until Yuri sorted things out with Rita they would be trapped in the vicious cycle of excessive fruit buying, marmateering, and jam selling.

Yuri, however, seemed content to take his sweet, sweet time, but this didn’t stop him from falling all over himself whenever she stopped by their booth.

“And now you can get a jar of jam and my pretty face,” teased Yuri with a lopsided grin that Mavis could only assume he thought was charming, as he practically shoved a jar of raspberry jam under Rita’s nose.

Rita merely blinked at him, but eventually sighed and conceded, “Alright fine. How much do I owe you for the jam?”

“What? Oh…”—Yuri waved his hand with a dismissive shrug of his shoulders. “Don’t worry about—”

“A dinner,” interjected Warrod.

Yuri whipped around to glare at him, then at Mavis as she added, “At our guild hall.”

Even the serious Precht joined in with a somewhat curt and monotone, “Tomorrow night.”

Yuri glared daggers at them though the blush in his cheeks betrayed his embarrassment. It seemed he couldn’t bring himself to turn back around to face Rita.

“That—” Yuri hissed at his friends through his teeth though it was clear that even he didn’t know what to say.

Rita’s brow furrowed in confusion, but she hummed thoughtfully at the jar of jam. After a long pause, she finally shrugged her shoulders and sighed, “Okay.” Yuri’s blush deepened though, of course, since his back was turned Rita couldn’t see it. Mavis, however, giggled at the strange combination of his embarrassment and indignance. Even Warrod and Precht shared a knowing look as a slight smile twitched in the corners of Rita's mouth and she quipped, “This had better be some jam.”

“So what you’re saying is, we all have to take these stupid pictures just because Makarov’s dad was too scared to ask out Makarov’s mom?” huffed Gajeel.

Mavis hummed thoughtfully. “Well I guess that was part of it, but the other part is that eventually Precht made a cost-benefit analysis and realized it was a pretty lucrative business and a good way to supplement the guild’s income.”

Gajeel blinked at her as Makarov agreed, “Running a guild is expensive.”

“Sure,” he grunted. “But you’re still lucky to have been born. Your dad was hopeless.”

“Don’t say that,” interjected Freed from his seat at the bar with the rest of the Thunder Legion. “Then Laxus wouldn’t exist either.”

Bickslow and his floating dolls, or his “babies” as he called them for some reason Gajeel would never understand, all nodded in agreement. “I can’t imagine a world without the boss.”

“It would be awful,” bemoaned Evergreen with melodrama.

Freed, seemingly unprepared to allow Evergreen to outdo his own melodrama, shook his head and added with a solemn, utterly horrified expression, “It would be such a dark, cruel and terrible world.”

“I don’t know, without Laxus’s bad moods things might be a little more cheerful around here,” argued Mirjane with a cheeky, teasing smile.

Freed huffed, “How dare you—” but Laxus cut him off.

“Everybody knock it off and calm down. Everything worked out, obviously, and even I can admit my great grandpa was pathetic.”

Surprisingly, Alzack jumped to the late Yuri Dreyar’s defense. “I don’t think he was pathetic. It can be difficult to express your feelings—especially in the beginning.”

Bisca nodded in agreement, but Laxus rolled his eyes.

Gajeel sighed. Though he could admit that maybe Alzack and Bisca had a point, he grunted, “Okay but the jam—really? It’s dumb.”

“I don’t know, Gajeel. I thought it was kind of sweet,” said Levy looking up at him with a smile that made his cheeks feel warm. He cleared his throat.

“It was kind of romantic,” agreed Juvia. “But too subtle. I would’ve been a little more obvious.”

Gray snorted in a muffled, disbelieving laugh. “A little?” he repeated incredulously before he dryly quipped. “You know you could learn a thing or too from Makarov’s dad.”

Juvia’s eyes widened, and she blinked at him doe-eyed for several seconds before she asked, “Would you like me to get you some jam, my darling?”

Gray pressed his hand to his forehead with an exasperated sigh.

“Maybe you should get some jam for a certain someone,” Happy teased Natsu by poking him in the arm.

Natsu shrugged. “Oh do you want some jam, Happy? That story made me kind of hungry for some myself actually.”

Levy laughed. “You know I wouldn’t mind some jam now either.”

“I can get you some jam, Levy,” interjected Jet.

“Well I can get you jam too—even more jam,” Droy quickly added.

“Not as much jam as me,” protested Jet before he and Droy descended into an argument.

Gajeel sighed and rolled his eyes, but before he or anyone else could tell them to knock it off, Lucy said, “I don’t think any of us should be using jam as a romantic gift.”

Juvia began to protest, “But my darling, Gray—”

“I don’t want any jam!” Gray cut her off in exasperation before standing up from the table.

“I think it’s kind of creative,” said Levy in what seemed to be an attempt to return to the original topic. “I mean anyone can give roses or chocolates, but you never hear about anyone giving anybody jam.”

*-*-*

You never hear about anyone giving anybody jam. Levy’s words stuck in Gajeel’s head for the next several days, despite his somewhat desperate attempts not to think about it. Could she really be serious about that? Was this some kind of girl code that she wanted jam?

“Mr. Redfox? Mr. Redfox?” called a somewhat exasperated voice, and Gajeel rolled his eyes with a frown. The photographer from Sorcerer Weekly was obnoxious, and even more obnoxious was the fact that he couldn’t get around having to take these ridiculous pictures. He’d like to give that Yuri Dreyar a piece of his mind, but, unfortunately, for now, he was stuck taking these dumb photos. He sure as hell wasn’t going to pose for them though.

“What?” he grunted, and the photographer looked somewhat frightened as he tightened his grip around the camera. “Are we done now?”

“Well we got lots of pictures, but we’re um…” He glanced nervously at his assistants. “We’re still hoping to snap at least one of you smiling…If that’s okay with you? Then we can wrap things up here.”

Blinking, Gajeel glared at them. No way was he going to smile for any of these stupid pictures. They should be glad he was even letting them take these pictures in the first place, and he was about to tell them so when a voice interrupted.

“Oh…sorry…I must be early…” Levy chuckled lightly as she walked into the room.

“You’re right on time Ms. McGarden. We’re just finishing up with Mr. Redfox,” said one of the assistant photographers. Levy’s eyes widened and she turned to wave at him.

“Oh hi Gajeel.” A wide smile spread between her cheeks and her dark eyes seemed to shine as she met his gaze. “You look handsome,” she chuckled, and Gajeel felt his mouth twitch. He wasn’t sure she was right about that.

“Eh,” he shrugged his shoulders. “You look nice too.” He heard Lily sigh and figured he probably deserved that after such an understatement. She looked beautiful, always looked beautiful, especially now when her cheeks flushed pink at the compliment and her whole face lit up with that bright, beaming smile of hers and it reached her kind eyes.

“Finally! Thank you!” sighed the photographer in relief, throwing up his hands. “That’ll be all Mr. Redfox.”

Gajeel’s brow furrowed. “What? What about…?” He stopped abruptly as his face grew suddenly warm. They must have gotten their smiling photo. Of course, they did. That smile had tugged at his lips as it nearly always did when he was with Levy, but he hadn’t even noticed.

Narrowing his eyes, he twisted his mouth into a frown, but he shrugged it off. “Yeah whatever…” he muttered. “Good luck with these morons,” he quipped only half-joking to Levy with a quick wave of his hand as he and Panther Lily walked off.

Sorcerer Weekly had had the bright idea to shoot photos on location in Magnolia, so Gajeel had to make his way back to the guild hall through town and the busy marketplace which was bustling with people, and who would’ve thought the first shop stall he noticed sold nothing but jam. Gajeel huffed and rolled his eyes with a slight shake of his head. It was all that stupid jam’s fault, but…he couldn’t help but wonder.

“Hey, Lily?”

“Yeah?” Panther Lily replied with a tilt of his head.

“Do you think Levy was serious about all that jam stuff?”

Lily shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe.”

Gajeel frowned, but his brow furrowed. He supposed it wouldn’t hurt to at least take a look at the jam booth.

Anyone can give roses or chocolates, but you never hear about anyone giving anybody jam.

“Oh hi, Gajeel,” said Juvia who was perusing the jam selection herself.

“Hey, Juvia. Shopping for jams?” He realized that was probably an obvious question, but he and Juvia had been friends for so long, he knew she wasn’t about to judge him for it. Sure enough, she smiled and nodded.

“Yes, I came straight here after I wrapped up my photoshoot. I wanted to get some jam for Gray.”

Gajeel blinked. She must have been shopping for a long time since she had had the photography appointment immediately before his. He would usually have said he couldn’t imagine how someone could spend so long shopping for jams, but now that he was actually at the booth and saw how many different types there were he was beginning to understand. He picked up a jar of blackberry jam, then blueberry then something called boysenberry whatever the hell that was.

“Why are there so many different kinds?” he grunted with a shake of his head. How was someone supposed to know what kind to pick?

“I was wondering that too,” sighed Juvia thoughtfully, but her mouth curved into a kind smile. “But I think I’ve finally narrowed it down. I’m going to get boysenberry because it’s so unique so it’s very special, and Gray is very special to me. And I’m also going to get strawberry because it’s sweet and Gray is sweet.”

“What kind of jam is smart, do you think?”

Juvia tilted her head. “Smart?” Her brow furrowed for just a moment before she perked up with a: “Well, yes, I suppose Gray is very smart. I should probably get him a smart jam too.” She hummed thoughtfully. “I read somewhere that oranges are supposed to make you smarter so maybe an orange marmalade.” She picked up a jar and held it up to Gajeel. “Yes, orange marmalade. I like it. Thanks for the idea Gajeel.”

Gajeel shrugged. “Sure.” That wasn’t his intention, but he didn’t really want to explain that to Juvia right now. Besides maybe she was right about the orange marmalade. He picked up a jar. What if Levy didn’t it like it though? Would she be upset? Maybe he should get more than one kind like Juvia. Levy was sweet but she was also spunky so maybe a tart yet sweet raspberry would be good… Or there was one time she and team Shadow Gear had invited him and Lily along on a hike through the woods where they had picked blackberries so maybe she’d like a blackberry jam. She helped make a strawberry cake for Erza once, but that seemed to be more of Erza’s favorite so maybe Levy wouldn’t like strawberry jam. And for the life of him he had no idea what boysenberry even tasted like. Gajeel huffed. Why in the world was this so hard? And why the hell were there so many damn jams?

*-*-*

“I’ve got a delivery for a Levy McGarden,” said the delivery man carrying a large, wooden crate into their guild hall.

“That’s me,” Levy replied. Gajeel quirked an eyebrow and glanced up from his food just briefly enough to see the look of confusion and surprise that passed over her face. Several guild members began to crowd around Levy as she opened the crate with a crowbar.

“Is that…jam?” asked Lucy with a tilt of her head.

Gray snorted a dry laugh and quipped, “Did they buy the whole store?”

“Do you want me to go back and buy you all of the jam, my darling?” asked Juvia in a fidgety concern.

“This has nothing to do with us, and you already got me jam, okay?”

“Wow! There has to be a hundred jars in there,” said Happy flying over the crate, but Carla huffed.

“Don’t be ridiculous. That crate can only fit about 25 jars.”

“25 five jars is still a lot.”

“I’ll say. I’ve never seen so much jam! It’s making me hungry!” chimed Natsu enthusiastically.

“Who’s it from?” asked Wendy, curiously climbing up on one of the benches to peer into the crate.

Levy shrugged her shoulders. “There isn’t a card or anything.”

“Ooh…a secret admirer,” gushed Mirajane who was wiping down the bar. Though she acted surprised, Gajeel could have sworn she turned to wink at him. He frowned.

“So manly!” agreed her brother, Elfman.

“Hey, I was going to get jam for Levy,” protested Jet.

“Yeah, well I was going to get jam for Levy too,” Droy argued in response.

After a few minutes they pointed at each other and said in disjointed unison, “Wait! You didn’t get this jam?”

First Master Mavis giggled. “It’s nice to know we’re still keeping with the Fairy Tail tradition of hopeless men.”

Gajeel huffed. She definitely glanced pointedly in his general direction.

“I guess that means Juvia is me,” she added with a cheerful chuckle. “And Gray can be Zeref—except not a dark wizard yet.”

Gray whipped around. “Yet?”

Mavis shrugged. “You never know.”

“Didn’t things between you and Zeref turn out terrible?” questioned Laxus dryly though he didn’t look up from his drink.

“Mmmmm…” Mavis hummed. “I guess, but it was good while it lasted. He was so sensitive and strong and have you seen his abs? He’s really handsome, just saying…”

Laxus blinked at her. “He’s a dark wizard—the dark wizard Zeref.”

“He’s still cute!” insisted Mavis, playfully huffy.

“He tried to kill you and trapped you in a rock crystal.”

“Actually Precht made the rock crystal, and that wasn’t Zeref’s fault. Our love was just too powerful.”

Laxus could only blink at her in disbelief as Juvia cried, “Oh no! Gray, my darling, do you think our love is too powerful and could hurt you?”

“What? Uh—” He stopped abruptly and clearly sensing an opportunity said, “Well actually yeah, Juvia. You should probably tone it down a little bit before I end up in a rock crystal like Mavis.”

Juvia nodded solemnly. “I will try my best, my darling.”

“This is ridiculous,” muttered Laxus under his breath.

“You’re just like Yuri,” giggled Mavis, teasingly poking him in the arm. “Though less friendly.”

“With all due respect, First Master, Laxus is extremely friendly,” interjected Freed, followed by Evergreen’s enthusiastic agreement.

“Laxus is the most friendly.”

“I would be his friend,” added Bickslow with emphatic nods that were mirrored by his “babies.” “And I am.”

Laxus glared at his companions. “Are you telling people I’m friendly? Stop going around telling people I’m friendly. I’m not friendly.” However, his protests earned nothing but more arguments from the Thunder Legion and laughter from both Mavis and Mirajane.

Gajeel decided this was probably enough chaos from one day and nodded at Lily as their cue to leave. He made his way out of the guild hall, but he must have failed to notice Levy get up from her table as well because the next thing he knew she was right beside him tugging on his sleeve. His cheeks grew warm, though he cleared his throat and tried his best not to appear too startled.

“Gajeel,” she said with a smile, and he felt a smile of his own tugging at his lips as she met his eyes. “Leaving so soon?”

“Eh, there’s only so much of these knuckleheads I can take,” he quipped dryly but the corners of his mouth twitched. “You should go back in though.”

“I will, but I just wanted to make sure to catch you and thank you.”

“For what?”

“For the jam.” Levy’s smile widened. “It was from you wasn’t it?”

Gajeel shrugged his shoulders. “So what if it was?”

She chuckled. “It was sweet—though you really didn’t have to buy every kind they had.”

“Listen, there were so many different kinds and I didn’t know what kind you wanted and—”

He stopped abruptly as Levy suddenly stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek which he was sure was flushed right about now. Levy was red faced herself as she pulled back from him, but she smiled sheepishly and said, “Thank you, Gajeel” before she scampered back off to the guild hall.

Gajeel stood frozen in the street outside the Fairy Tail guild for several moments. He imagined his expression was more similar to if Levy had whacked him on the back of the head with one of Erza’s swords, and he slowly raised his hand to his blushing cheek where she had kissed him in disbelief. That really must have been some jam.

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