AN: My humble contribution to the Gajevy ship. It's kinda a weird combo, but I got Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer and could totally picture Lucy and Levy getting really into it. Semi-Modern!AU. Obvs, I don't own Fairy Tail or Animal Crossing.
Interior Design
Levy's tongue poked out in concentration as she stared at the arrangement of furniture. Something still seemed to be off, even though she had been working on this room for the better part of an hour. The small bedroom next door had been a breeze to organize. With its nice, neutral tones of cream and moss green, Levy had wanted to grab a book from the stack in the corner and make herself at home in the cozy space. The mellow song playing from the phonograph had been pleasant enough for reading, and not for the first time Levy wished her room could look the same.
The second room, however, was more of a challenge; she personally would never arrange a room like this for her own home. Her client wanted the space to be a shop for zodiac figures.
Sighing, she checked the list she had been given. Two items were required to be used in the room, and luckily for her, they were small and easy enough to incorporate into the décor. The small ram and cat figurines were cute, sitting on their brightly colored pillows. Picking them up, she placed them on a low wooden table near the back. Light from the single window highlighted the leaves on a bonsai next to the table, and birdsong could be heard from outside. All in all, it wasn't a bad room to decorate. But what could she add besides tables and figurines? This was her fifth room today, and she felt drained of creativity.
She shuffled around a few more plants and other figurines she found, becoming more satisfied after a few different configurations. Looking through the catalogue one more time, she double checked that everything was to her liking. Levy turned around and spoke to the small goat who had commissioned her services.
"You're playing that game again, aren't you, shrimp?"
"Wah!" Levy jumped at the voice by her ear, her red glasses falling off her nose. Her face coloring, she leapt off the couch. "Gajeel, you know I don't like it when you sneak up on me!"
Gajeel just snorted, his chortles at her reaction dying down. "Sneak up on you? I made enough noise for a dragon when I came in."
"R-really?" Her blush intensified, and Gajeel recognized the warm feeling in his chest that appeared in response to the reddening of her face.
Deciding to needle her more, he affected an unconcerned air. "Yeah. And don't ya know better than to leave your front door unlocked?" He grinned, showing teeth. "A weirdo could sneak in or something."
The blunette smacked his shoulder. "Dummy! You know I only keep it unlocked when I know you're coming over. Besides, Lily is here with me. He'd let me know if any weirdo besides you got in." The cat in question padded into the room and jumped onto the back of the couch, fixing the towering male with a level gaze.
Gajeel scoffed, folding his arms across his chest. "Pff, right." Lily's tail swished, almost in challenge over his trustworthiness. "He doesn't even come to investigate me anymore."
Setting her Nintendo DS down, Levy picked up the brown cat and hugged him. "It's because I trust you. Right, Lily?" She headed to the kitchen to put on some tea, Gajeel following after her.
"Why do you play that game anyway, shrimp?" She'd had it for nearly a week, and it seemed like all of her free time now went to planning virtual rooms for animals. Again, he felt a slight stab of irritation towards Lucy; she was the one who had introduced Levy to the world of animal interior design in the first place.
Flashing him a cheeky grin as she opened a tea bag, she said, "Feeling jealous, Gajeel?"
He looked to the side, rubbing a finger under his nose. "Like hell I'd be jealous of a game." How could she tell?
Levy just giggled, dancing over to him. She wrapped her arms around him and pressed her face into his chest, and he became aware again of how small she was compared to him. His muscled arms returned her embrace.
"It's called 'Happy Home Designer' for a reason, Gajeel. It makes me happy." Sounding wistful, with her voice a bit muffled in his shirt, she added, "It almost makes me wish I was studying interior decorating, rather than linguistics."
A chuckle rumbled through his chest. "Oi, we both know you'd get bored without your words, shorty."
The tea kettle whistled, and Levy pulled away to make her tea. "You're right, of course. Sometimes it's nice, though, to imagine the what if."
"What are you talking about?" The shift in her tone caught him off guard.
Blowing on the tea to cool it, Levy sighed dreamily. "I like to design all of those rooms, and wonder what it would be like to live in them. It's relaxing, and gives me a chance to picture how I want my own home to look someday." She closed her eyes and leaned against the counter, lost in her thoughts. It was in these types of moments Gajeel saw just how girly she actually was. Begrudgingly, he admitted to himself that she was adorable. "I can go with any style I want, and money's not an object." At his snort, she shot him a defensive glare. "Hey, a girl can dream, dummy Gajeel!"
"Of course you'll have your own home, shrimp. You don't want to stay in this crummy apartment forever, do you?"
She huffed indignantly, turning to start taking things out of the fridge for dinner. "My apartment is NOT crummy. And besides, it wouldn't look so messy all the time if you didn't leave things here."
Coming up behind her, Gajeel pressed his face into her neck. He felt her shiver against him, caught between the cool air from the refrigerator and his body heat. "I thought you liked it when I stayed over~?"
He could only imagine the expression on her face as she stammered out "O-of course I do, dummy. Now let me go, so I can get this food going."
Later, when Levy was getting cleaned up –she had batted away his hands and told him that sometimes she wanted to shower alone –Gajeel's resolve broke.
He gingerly picked up Levy's red DS and opened the game application; he didn't play handhelds, but that didn't mean he was oblivious as to how to use them. He had watched Levy enough to know how to open her client list and look at the rooms she had designed.
He systematically visited each of her clients' homes, feeling foolish for putting so much stock into a dumb game. As clothed animals burbled to Levy's character in Animalese, Gajeel made notes of Levy's decorating style.
She liked to make comfortable and homey rooms, complete with stacks of books or bookcases that took up entire walls. Little baskets of towels or of yarn rested on dressers, and plants sat tucked into corners. One room even featured a fireplace and a little tea set on the coffee table. Each touch, each detail, screamed Levy, and Gajeel found himself wanting to live in these rooms of hers, too, to be surrounded by things she had touched and carefully selected. He wanted to be sitting in a room, like he was now, knowing she was in the next room reading or cooking or caring for their child—
He felt his face heat at that last thought, cursing at how much being with Levy had softened his tough exterior.
The water shut off in the bathroom, and Gajeel hurriedly closed the game, filing away the gathered information. Levy had said she sometimes wished she was an interior designer; he was determined to make her wish come true.
After all, she had said designing rooms made her happy, and Gajeel wanted her to be happy designing the rooms in a house all their own.