#its very much what a girl in lucy's circumstance (how she grew up etc) would think is appropriate

[earlyspringtranscendence]

finished watching lockwood earlier today and im gutted there wont be a second season bc it's so much better than [redacted] on all levels and ALSO claire finlay thompson of costume design fame i owe you my liiiiiiiife

[shell-senji]

Gajevy Week 2017: A Surreptitious Suitor, Chapter 3

Third chapter of my Gajevy Week story (find Chapter 2 here).

Thank you to all of you who’ve read, reblogged, liked, commented, etc. It is very much appreciated!

Read HERE on fanfiction.net.

                     Days 3 & 4 Prompts: Pillow Talk and Trouble Twins

Fortunately for Levy, the Fairy Tail gossip/rumor mill had barely enough time to process the story of Gajeel carrying her home before other, bigger news took its place.

Crime Sorcière had been in town, and in the wee hours of the morning, someone—Mira—had caught an extremely inebriated Jellal and Erza in the throes of passion.

In the guildhall.

On Laxus’s desk.

Meredy and Mira were nearly foaming at the mouth happy, already planning a wedding, honeymoon, baby showers, the whole nine yards.

Laxus was threatening to burn his desk, if not the whole damn place, in order to “sterilize” it. Freed had cornered an uncomfortable-looking Jellal and was ranting about them disrespecting Laxus. Evergreen and Bickslow had tried to maintain fierce, disapproving glares, but only lasted about two minutes before dissolving into a fit of giggles over the entire situation.

Erza was the same color as her hair, and she kept apologizing and telling Laxus he could hit her. And of course, Natsu happened to walk into the guildhall at the tail end of that conversation and, being Natsu, had assumed it was an opportunity to fight Erza, Laxus, or both.

Levy felt a smidgen of guilt about being happy that better gossip had overshadowed her embarrassing story, but more than that she was relieved.

With a day off from volunteering and no job with her team at the moment, she opted to let the drama run its course before venturing out and planned to have a nice relaxing day in bed. Just her and a good book or two.

Perusing her own personal library, she spied a title that she didn’t recall buying. Wait, this is an out-of-print first edition! But…how…

Her first thought was Bickslow, as he’d become some bizarre sort of reverse book thief, sneaking books into her stacks at the library. But surely he wouldn’t stoop to sneaking into her apartment.

Besides, this wasn’t some kinky fetish book or a grotesque culinary anthology. This was a book she genuinely wanted, one she would appreciate, by one of her favorite authors. There was no way Bickslow would’ve even known she’d like the book, much less gone out of his way to find a first edition.

Maybe I bought it and I don’t remember? Wouldn’t be the first time. Hmm… Maybe Lu-chan got it for me and forgot to mention it?

Whatever the circumstances, Levy figured it didn’t really matter, though if it was a gift she’d like to thank the person.

Shrugging, she curled up in bed and cracked open the newly acquired addition to her collection, sighing happily as she began reading.

Three or four days later, after things had wound down from the “Great Desk Defilement”—as Laxus had taken to calling it—Lucy bounced into Fairy Tail, a wiggly Plue at her heels.

“Good morning, everyone!”

The cheerful blonde received a few waves and greetings in response, but her cheer was dampened when she spotted her friend Levy.

The bluenette was seated at a table in between Jet and Droy, which was perfectly normal. What wasn’t normal was the fact that Levy had her shoulders slumped, head down with her forehead grazing the table, her hands tangled in her hair and her signature headband in a crumpled ball on the floor next to her. Lucy could swear there was a dark cloud hovering over her.

Lucy made a beeline for her friend. “Levy-chan? What’s wrong?”

Levy lifted her head and stared blankly at Lucy, her eyes glassy and lips pressed in a flat line.

“Vendor error. Back-ordered. Don’t know availability date,” she said brokenly.

The celestial mage struggled to make sense of what Levy was saying, and then suddenly the proverbial lightbulb went on.

“Oh, Levy, no! They messed up your book order?”

Levy nodded briefly before dropping her head into her arms on the table.

“I know I’m overreacting, but I’m just so bummed. Let me wallow in my misery for a little bit longer, ’kay?” The edges of her lips quirked up slightly.

Relieved that it seemed her friend would recover, Lucy nodded and patted her on the back before walking over to her team.

Just as she sat down, she felt a tap on her shoulder.

“Hey, Bunny Girl, what’s wrong with the shrimp today?”

“Oh, evidently Book Land messed up her preorder of two new books coming out this week that she was really looking forward to. Said they’ll have to back-order them from the vendor, so she’s not even sure when she’ll get them now.” Lucy gazed at her friend, feeling both sympathy and disappointment. Truth be told, she’d been looking forward to borrowing them after Levy was done.

“What books?”

She stared at Gajeel, eyes wide. “Ehhh? Umm, one was Lazuli Le Fer’s new novel, Pillow Talk, and the other…” Lucy pursed her lips, thinking. “Oh! Dr. Flint Azure’s Trouble Twins, a study of twin archetypes in mythologies around the world. Why?”

The iron dragon slayer shrugged. “Just wonderin’ what was so special about them that she’s so bent outta shape.”

Lucy twisted in her chair to glare at Gajeel. “Listen here, mister. She’s entitled to be upset, even if— Hey! Where do you think you’re going?”

Gajeel smirked. “C’mon, Lily. Let’s go take care of that, uh,  job we snagged earlier.” Then he scooped up his Exceed and strode toward the door.

“Whaaa— Ch-chotto matte!”

Gajeel didn’t pause to explain, just kept walking.

A week or so later, around 10:30 am, Lucy pushed open the doors to Fairy Tail. She’d barely stepped a foot inside the guild when she was attacked by a pint-sized, blue-haired, overcaffeinated whirlwind.

“Lu-chan! Finally! I thought you’d neverrrrr get here, and I would’ve called, but I didn’t know what time you got in last night, and it would’ve been totally rude to wake you up just because I never went to sleep last night, so—”

“Wait, what? Why didn’t you go to bed last night?” Lucy interrupted.

The wired solid script mage thrust two books into Lucy’s face so excitedly, she almost smacked her friend square in the nose.

“Wow… Okay… I can’t read the titles if they’re that close.” Lucy backed up a step, refocused, and then her eyes grew huge.

Pillow Talk and Trouble Twins

“Are you serious?”

Levy nodded vigorously, somewhat resembling a bobblehead doll, before speaking rapid-fire. “Lu, they were in my room when I got home from volunteering yesterday, must be from that mysterious admirer of mine, and gods, you have no idea how good they are! Pillow Talk is precious and hilarious—precarious! No, that’s already a word, heehee… But you’re going to love it. And this!” She grabbed Lucy’s arm and dragged her over to a table.

There, Levy flipped open Trouble Twins, turned to a marked page, and stabbed her finger at it enthusiastically.

“Look—it’s about Gemini! I mean, it’s a tiny section, and they acknowledge that not much is known, but can you believe it? It’s about your spirits! Though they don’t cite you as the current contract holder, which is probably good…”

Lucy squealed excitedly in the middle of Levy’s outburst and hugged her friend’s arm. Then a thought occurred to her.

“Matte, Levy… Don’t you have to work at the library today?”

Levy twirled a piece of her hair around her fingertip distractedly. “No…”

Lucy gasped. “Levy! Don’t tell me you lied and called in sick!”

Levy blushed scarlet to the tips of her ears and planted her hands on her hips defiantly. “I didn’t lie, okay? I just told them I had trouble sleeping—which is technically true, except I never actually went to bed—and asked if they absolutely needed me today. They said no, not to worry about it.”

Behind them, Gajeel burst out laughing. He’d been eavesdropping and observing their antics—the whole guild had—and Shorty’s forced confession of how she’d weaseled her way out of work without technically lying had been too much for him to keep the “gi hi hi” from escaping.

“Oi, Shrimp, how much coffee’ve you had, anyway?” he choked out between chuckles.

“I don’t see what that has to do with anything.” Levy huffed. “Mind your own business.”

When his amusement had faded and the ache in his sides from laughing so hard had subsided, Gajeel called out to her.

“Hey, Shorty.”

She and Lucy had their heads pressed together, leafing through the book, but only Levy glanced up at him.

He gave her a genuine smile, one so rarely seen. “Glad you got your books. Nice to see ya smile.”

Then he left to browse the job postings without awaiting her response.

Levy felt her cheeks grow warm and butterflies take flight in her stomach.

I really hope it was you, Gajeel.

Author’s Note: As I’m guessing you figured out, these books don’t actually exist (to my knowledge). And I hope you’ll allow me the bit of leeway taken with Jellal and Erza, since alcohol does loosen inhibitions and getting them both laid, finally, pleases me to no end…