#fthumour

[impracticaldemon]

Tales of Iron & Paper: Gajevy #1 Fiction of the Iron Slayer

Author's Note: The first of my Gajevy (or Gale) drabbles & short stories.  These will be published under the overall title “Tales of Iron & Paper”.

Prompt: [from @eliz1313 / eliz1369]  Gajeel & Levy in college... maybe stuck in an English/creative writing course together? :)

Words: ~ 1600  || Fanfiction Link

Fiction of the Iron Dragon (or, Secret Art of the Iron Dragon)

Levy was undeniably excited about her creative writing course. It was an invitation-only class, and invitations were only issued to students in their second or third year at Magnolia University who had demonstrated a talent for and an interest in writing during a prior year. Levy had always been a shoo-in, along with her best friend Lucy, but she hadn't fully believed she'd get in until the letter from the Chair of the English Department had arrived in the mail over the summer.

Levy and Lucy arrived early for the class and grabbed good spots by the windows not too far from the front. There was only one other student in the room, a guy a little older than they were who looked like he'd probably just stayed after an earlier class. They assumed that he would be heading out as soon as more of their own classmates arrived. Nothing about his multiple piercings, sleeveless navy T-shirt, or elaborate black Mohawk suggested an honours English student. He eyed them as they came in, but then went back to his book.

The rest of the students arrived in twos and threes, and Lucy eventually noticed that she'd lost her friend's attention. Levy kept looking back at Black Mohawk.

"What's up, Levy? I'm sure he'll figure it out once the class starts. Why do you keep staring at him?"

"I'm not staring," Levy replied, frowning. "It's more that… I recognize him now, and I feel kind of weird that I didn't say hi when we walked in."

"Um, he kind of stands out—how come you only remember him now?"

Levy huffed in exasperation. "Maybe because he had fewer piercings and no Mohawk last time? Geez, Luce, give me some credit. The point is, he's actually a local artist; he does amazingly delicate metalwork, real showpieces. Mostly for rich folks, I assume."

"And now he wants to learn how to write novels?"

"This class isn't just about novels," Levy pointed out. "You're just fixated."

"Moving right along, your point is?"

Levy turned a little pink. "Ah, well, he has this really cute—"

"Cat?" asked Lucy, sighing. "Levy, just because a guy has a cat—"

"Says you. You never would've met Natsu if I hadn't noticed Happy, am I right?"

Lucy sighed. "Yeah. But… it's not like he's asked me on a date."

Levy rolled her eyes. "So why don't you ask him? And it's not like you haven't been out to movies and dinner and stuff. He's just kind of… clueless, you know?"

"Yeah," repeated Lucy.

The prof arrived at that point, gave an enthusiastic outline of the course, and then explained that they weren't going to do introductions the usual way.

"Because that's boring, especially for a class full of budding creative geniuses." Lucy and Levy exchanged looks—they honestly couldn't tell from the prof's tone whether he meant it seriously, or in a joking way, or in a bitter, sarcastic way. Then the man grinned and raised his eyebrows. "Not sure how to take that? Well keep that in mind during the first part of today's first exercise: I'm going to assign partners, and you have ten minutes to get to know each other. You can say anything you want, but you both have to keep your eyes closed the whole time. There should be time to meet five or six other students—we'll take an hour—and then everyone will write down everything they can remember about who they met."

Several hands shot into the air, and some students just started calling out questions. The prof waited for the shouters to tail off and then picked up a sheet of paper. He ignored the waving hands just as thoroughly.

"When I call your name, please stand up. Like the animals of Noah's ark, you will get together two by two. I will inform you when time is up and who the next partners are. All set? Excellent."

He read out the first two names, ignoring a final, feebly waving hand. The two students named stood up, smiled a little awkwardly at each other, and walked away to the corner of the room not occupied by Black Mohawk. Speaking of whom…

For some reason, Levy wasn't remotely surprised when she found herself paired up with Black Mohawk, whose real name was Gajeel Redfox. Since he had a back corner of the room to himself, Levy walked over, trying not to stare. She was glad that the prof had read out the names. She could remember the cat's name—Pantherlily—but she wasn't all that good with people names, unless they came out of a book.

"Um, hi Gajeel, I'm Levy. You probably don't remember—"

The man grinned at her. He was big, and rather scary-looking, but Levy kept picturing the tears he'd blinked hastily away when she'd brought him his cat, in answer to a "Lost" ad posted on a tree.

"Ain't ya supposed to close yer eyes or something Levy? I wouldn't want ta mess up my first time in a university class by breakin the rules."

Levy stared at him. How did he even get into this course? What was he doing here?

Gajeel took in Levy's stunned expression. "C'mon, sit down, shorty. We don't want to waste our ten minutes, right?" He indicated a chair with a tilt of his head, and Levy sank into it, still confused.

Gajeel had seemed like a really good guy when they'd met before, but not exactly the Creative Writing course type, even without the mohawk. They'd kind of traded favours, in a way—she'd brought him his cat and he'd beaten the crap out of the guy who'd jumped her a couple of days later on her way back from a late class. She'd been lucky that Gajeel had been in the area. With the clock running now, Levy opted for the direct route.

"So, Gajeel," she said, obediently closing her eyes "how did you get into this class if you weren't attending Magnolia U last year?"

"Bribed the Dean," Gajeel responded immediately.

"You what?!" Levy's eyes flew open. There was an odd expression on her partner's face and a hint of a blush on his cheeks, but he made a big production of looking away until she closed her eyes again.

"Offered him two pieces of my art for the university if I could take this course. It was a good deal for him—my art's pretty pricey these days."

"Um, okay, yeah… I know it's gotten really popular, but why did you want to take this course."

There was the sound of a chair scraping against the floor, and Levy could picture the big artist twisting in his seat.

"Well… seemed like a good way ta meet ya. Under better circumstances, so to speak."

"What?!" This time Levy kept her eyes closed, but she could feel the heat of the blush spreading across her cheeks. "You bribed the Dean of MU to let you take an invite-only class just so that you could meet me?"

"Kind of. I figured that this was the one class I could do okay in—on account of my song-writing, right?—and that way I'd get a chance to see you more often."

"You write songs?!" Levy asked, grasping at facts like a swimmer trying to grab a raft so they don't drown.

"Yeah. The band made me get the stupid Mohawk, but my hair's never been exactly normal anyway."

Gajeel sounded like he was on the verge of laughing. The more flustered Levy became, the more he relaxed. Levy debated asking him why he had gone to so much trouble to take a course with her, but she could only think of one answer and it made her too shy to ask.

"How, um, how much of this did you set up?" Levy squeaked instead.

"Gihi! Most of it, to be honest. It's how I demonstrated my creative ability to construct a viable plot with interesting and moderately rational characters." Gajeel was clearly quoting somebody, and his mimicry was perfect—he sounded exactly like their current prof. Levy wished she could open her eyes to see whether anybody else was paying attention to this bizarre scene out of a cut rate Disney movie.

In an eerie coincidence, their prof called out a two minute warning—although Levy was sure that it had been at least ten minutes already. She could only suppose that the Dean was a fan of Gajeel's artwork.

"Gajeel?"

"Yeah?"

"Aren't you supposed to ask me questions?" Levy asked a little timidly.

"Nah, that's okay. Although, uh… I do have one." He cleared his throat. "Would you go out with me on Thursday night? Just dinner, nothing weird, I promise. I'll, uh, try ta fix the hair, but no guarantees on that."

This time Levy opened her eyes on purpose and fixed Gajeel with her best 'don't mess with me' glare. It was surprisingly good for somebody who only reached five foot two in two-inch heels.

"I barely know you, Mr. Redfox," she said severely.

"But you had ten minutes to ask anything you wanted," he protested. "Not my fault you got stuck on irrelevant details."

"Irrelevant details?!"

"Is that a maybe?"

Levy stood up haughtily, took one look at Gajeel's wistful expression and sat down again.

"Fine. Thursday night?"

"Yes!" Levy turned red and tried not to grin when the artist-songwriter-maybe-boyfriend pumped a fist in the air in a universal expression of victory.

At the front of the class, the prof looked up from whatever he was writing.

"Ah. Very good then. Time to switch partners, class. Two-by-two if you please…"

[END]

A/Note: I have no idea where this came from. I just... I don't know. I hope you enjoyed this! Please leave a note or review if you can. :)

Tag: @shell-senji @pocketwoman7 @sanguine-fairy @sassyhazelowl @miss-zei @unashamed-shipper @faerieshrimp @thesweateristoobig @strawberrysweetlove35