Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Fairy Tail or any of its characters. This story is mine though, bitches.


Their first encounter was anything but hopeful.

She had been sitting at the table right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the little café at the peak of its afternoon rush, looking for all the world as though she was on a deserted island with no disruptions or distractions to be seen for miles. A waitress had damn near spilled an entire tray of croissants right on her head in all its blue-curled, bird's nest, ignorant bliss, and had managed to smack them at just the right time to keep them from touching her. They did, however, continue to fall and crashed in a bready heap on the floor. Several customers had started toward the poor server as she fussed with the food on the ground, throwing it all back onto the tray and apologizing more loudly than was necessary, but she begged them to sit back down, saying this was her job, and nearly started crying in her fit of panic when the manager came out and tenderly removed the weepy waitress, coming back out a moment later to clean up the mess himself. It'd been a solid fifteen minutes of raucous, unpleasant, uncomfortable noise, and she hadn't even batted an eyelash. She'd just continued to sit at the little round table for two, her mountainous stack of books occupying most of it, and flip through page after page of the thick tome in her dainty little hands. So, he watched her. She would shift in her seat every now and again, tuck an errant lock of that shocking hair behind her ear once in a while, but save for those miniscule movements, she was the epitome of concentration and stillness. It was one last miniscule movement that started a storm in her body, and all he could do was try to hold back his laughter at the performance she began to put on.

It started with a wide smile stretching across her pale pink lips, and her hand reaching into her bag. She extracted a pencil, and a phone. Still grinning like an excited idiot, she carefully underlined something in the book, set the pencil down and sat back to admire her work. Her smile grew so wide it forced her doll-like eyes shut, the skin crinkling in an endearing way around their edges as a soft chuckle flew from her mouth. Content with her work, though he wouldn't call what she'd been doing "work" himself, she checked her phone.

Whatever she saw had her suddenly fumbling around the table like a marionette doll cut from its strings, scooting books and glasses this way and that, and it occurred to him then that she was trying to procure a bookmark of any form whatsoever.

His eyes tingled with curiosity as he watched the blunette search for something, anything to mark her place, seemingly desperate to avoid leaving a dog-ear crease on the page of her book. He grinned, stood, and sidled over to her table, the noises of the café disguising his footsteps. He continued to study her as she rummaged through her bag – which was nearly the size of her whole upper body – and that did nothing to speak for the size of the bag, instead speaking volumes of her compact stature. What a shrimp, he mused.

His grin grew wider as he pulled the chair opposite hers out and plopped into it with one swift movement, doing nothing to quiet the screech of wooden leg against brick floor or keep from jostling the small round table between him and the girl.

Her surprise was a short cry and a startled jump and his sides were aching from holding in his guffaws at the sight of one hand flying to her throat while the other raised in some sort of… fist, if you could call it that. The way her thumb was pressed inside the ball of fingers would break the entire appendage if she'd actually had to swing a punch his way.

"Sorry," he grumbled, still trying to cage the laughter in his chest. "Wasn't tryin' t'scare ya." Her head tilted, her enormous brown eyes gleaming with something he couldn't quite place… It made him sorely uncomfortable, and he realized that blood had started to rush to his cheeks. Dammit, he cursed inwardly. He cleared his throat loudly; trying to snap her out of whatever thoughts she was getting lost in. The staring was unnerving and he'd rather die than get caught blushing about it.

"You're not from around here, are you?" She stated as she came back to reality, and he understood. So his accent had thrown her for a loop, was all?

"Nah," the man admitted. "From up north quite a ways."

But the words had fallen upon deaf ears, as the little blunette had finally found a satisfactory bookmark in the form of a napkin beneath one of her many empty coffee cups. Her look of victory was a determined one, and, he noted, he'd like to see it again. She threw it on the page and hastily snapped the book shut, tossed it into her bag, and stood to gather her things.

"Oi!" He said, his face a picture of confusion. "Wait, where ya goin'?" But she was still zooming around in her chair like an expertly contained whirlwind, shoveling her incredibly high stack of books into her oversized bag and stowing her bright red glasses inside their hard case.

"M'sorry," she mumbled after throwing her pencil between her lips and speedily tying her hair up into a more elaborate bun than he thought would be the product of such a short second of work. How did women do things like that so quick? He thought, waiting for her to explain why she was running off so damn fast.

"M' late fer work," she spoke again around the pencil, her clear pronunciation sacrificed in the process.

"Oh."

And that was all he had the luxury of saying as the short, impossibly pale, and ridiculously cute girl nearly flew past him, out the door, and onto the snowy Magnolia street beyond the café's warm walls… without even a wave. Well, it's not like she had a hand to wave with, what with carrying that monstrosity of a bag and a cup of coffee almost as big as her head as well as the laptop she'd tucked beneath her left arm. But… he didn't even get a wave. He'd been observing this girl in all her strange, quirky, tunnel-vision glory for the last hour and he didn't even get a wave?

His shoulders slumped and his face morphed into an irritated grimace that even a mother would have trouble loving. He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair so far that it began to teeter on its hind legs, when suddenly he was upside down face-to-face with one of the white-haired baristas he'd seen shelling out latte after latte during the earlier rush. Not being one to startle easily, unlike that bird of a woman he just knew he wouldn't be able to get out of his head, he just looked at her sardonically.

"Yeah, what?"

"She comes here everyday around eleven."

With that, the shorthaired girl winked, and skipped back over to join her sister at the espresso machine to leave Gajeel to his flustered, blustering coughs as he did his best to look as though he didn't actually give two shits Bluebird showed up 'round here at eleven every damn day, even going as far as to holler those same words to the meddling barista as she smirked at him from behind the counter.

Truth was, if the fact that the blush he'd been fighting since her entrancing brown eyes had stared at him was now glowing almost fluorescently across the bridge of his oddly pierced nose was any indication, he gave two shits. And then some.

He stood up and straightened his coat, turning to leave when he saw the same shorthaired barista giving him a strong side-eye, that stupid devilish smirk still plastered on her face. With all the dignity of a six-year-old kid, Gajeel stuck his tongue out, turned tail and all but stomped out of the café.

The snowy breeze hit him full in the face and he puffed out the last bit of warm breath the cozy shop had given his lungs, and turned to look through the glass doors toward the coffee bar. She was still looking at him, that waitress. But this time, she genuinely smiled and raised her hand in the air as she gave him a thumbs up. "Everyday at eleven!" She over-dramatically mouthed, and went back to her drink orders. He felt the neon blush light his skin up again, and ducked his nose and chin beneath the thick wool of his scarf.

Every day? He thought as he began to make his way home.

What's got you comin' here every damn day, Bluebird?


"Looked all right to me," Lisanna said with a cheerful smile to her sister as she dumped the espresso grounds into the trash. The lining of the bag slipped off of the edge of the can and she dropped an "F" bomb as the grounds she had just poured in splattered all over the inside of the can, and instantly received a sharp smack on the back of her head. She reached up and rubbed the sore spot, wincing as she turned to face her older sister. The spitting image of their mother and near twin to Lisanna, save for the exception of the waterfall of snowy curls that ended just above her hips, Mirajane stood tall with her arms crossed over her chest, one brow arched so high it ended up being hidden by the edge of her bangs and consequently lost all the condescending effect it might have had otherwise.

"You aren't allowed to say that," Mira stated, before taking the espresso machine's grounds drawer from Lisanna's hands and shaking the rest of its contents into the trash bag and then cleaning off the mess her little sister had made.

"Oh, but you can?" Lisanna replied, placing her hands on her hips indignantly.

"Yeah," Mira shot back, re-tying the garbage bag to the edges of the trashcan, tugging on the knot for good measure. She dusted her hands off and turned back to face her little sister. "I fucking can." She thrust the grounds drawer into the shorthaired girl's stomach as if for emphases, letting it go before Lisanna had grabbed it. She was quick, though, and caught the drawer effortlessly. She sighed, and walked over to slide it back into the machine, before turning around to lean against the counter.

"All I'm saying..." She began, tilting her head. "He's the exact opposite of the last guy Levy was with."

"He's said all of ten words to you, yelled seven of those ten at you, and you're already rooting for him?" Her sister said sarcastically from where she scrubbed what seemed like hundreds of coffee cups in the sink by the prep station. Mirajane didn't trust easily. But where she lacked faith, her sister believed. Lisanna had faith, and she could read people like open books. Whether one was a consequence of the other, Mira couldn't say, but Lisanna did always seem to be able to feel out a person pretty accurately - sometimes even before she'd spoken to them.

"I'm a great judge of character, sis. Always have been," she exclaimed, voicing her sister's thoughts as she grinned and brandished an enthusiastic thumbs up.

"Always the positive one," Mira commented with a smirk, continuing to clean the cups. "And always with the thumbs up! What is this, the 90's?"

Lisanna laughed, then busied herself with refilling the syrup bottles and continued on with her reasoning on why she had such high hopes for the stranger with all the piercings and their dearest Levy McGarden.

"Anyway, Todd was a straight laced, bookish type. Like Levy. I mean, I know there were other reasons why they ended things, but one of the big ones has to be that all they ever did was... well, read, right?"

"Y'got that right," a new voice chimed in as a bodacious brunette emerged from the stock room. "T-dog was a total snooze." She popped a flask, a discrete black color, from her apron pocket and took a quick swig before stashing it again.

"Hey, Cana," Mirajane called. "Can you get Elfman to bring out the new milk steamer and set it up? This one's been burning all my goddamn foam."

"He's on lunch, sweets."

"Fuck."

"WHY CAN'T I SAY IT?"


Levy dashed through the parking lot after practically launching herself from the bus before it had even come to a full stop, her scarf and coat whipping around her petite form, falling easy prey to the harsh wind's commanding gusts. The snow was coming down thick now, each flake looking fatter than the last, and she could smell the beginning of a storm in the air.

"Sleet," she mumbled, grimacing at the thought. The bus stops on the way to her apartment were severely lacking in shelter from the elements, not a single one boasting an awning or any shelter whatsoever. She shivered in disdain, already apprehensive about the journey home. She pushed the thoughts aside as she leaned her side against the heavy oak door, shoving it open with her hip. The warmth of the library's interior wrapped around her and she audibly sighed, letting her eyes slip shut so as to bask in the euphoria of relief from wintry Magnolia.

She didn't have time to revel in the coziness, however, and she quickly came back to reality and continued rushing toward the office. She had to put her stuff in her locker and hang her coat up and clock in before-

"Miss McGarden?"

Shit.

"Mr. Justine! I'm so sorry," and for a brief moment Levy pondered what it would be like to lie to her boss, but the mere thought had her nearly breaking out in hives and so she explained her lateness in all honesty. "I was researching a lost language at Tenrou and neglected to set an alarm..." She looked down and shuffled her feet nervously, tugging on her lower lip with her teeth and avoided meeting her boss's gaze at all costs.

"Levy, dear," came the startlingly gentle reply. His tone of voice coaxed her out of her nervous shell and she stood up straight. "I am not Evergreen. You're only five minutes late; hardly a punishable offense." He smiled at her, and she found herself smiling appreciatively in return. "I won't breathe a word of it if you don't." He said, and with a short bow from the waist, he winked, and walked off toward the east branch of the library. She let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding, and giggled in relief as she scurried on to the staff office.

The room was empty, and Levy was grateful for it. She made quick work of filling her locker up with all her belongings, expertly managing to fit every last thing into the narrow metal closet. She removed her coat and grabbed it by the collar and stood a good ten feet away from the rack. She squared her shoulders, widened her stance, tongue darting out to rest on her lip in concentration, and suddenly spun herself in a manic pirouette. She spun once, twice, three times, and then flung the coat through the air toward the coat rack with an embellished flourish of her left leg, pointing out as if she was some kind of jacket-flinging ballerina. The coat landed safely on the last open hook of the rack, and Levy's eyes bulged as she hooped and hollered in celebration.

A slow, singular round of applause began behind her, and she whirled around, ready to be embarrassed out of her mind, only to find that it was her best friend Lucy Heartfilia who was genuinely applauding her efforts. "You did it! You've got to work on that spin, though. Looked a little... what's the word?"

"Too graceful for human eyes to comprehend?" Levy interjected with a grin and another flourish of pointed legs and sweeping hands.

"Clumsily orgasmic," Lucy supplied with a grin.

Levy squeaked and turned bright red, rushing over to smack her laughing friend on the shoulders with all the mock force her tiny frame could manage.

"It did! It looked like you were having your first ever big "O" and-" Levy slapped a hand over Lucy's mouth, but Lucy continued to guffaw around her tiny fingers and soon Levy was giggling along with her, her cheeks pink and eyes bright and happy.

After their fit of giggles subsided, Levy walked over to the punch cards and clocked herself in. She began easy conversation with Lucy while she pinned her hair up a little bit more neatly than she'd done at Tenrou, and fastened her nameplate to her shirt. Lucy discussed her weekend with her hotheaded boyfriend, whom Levy had yet to meet, and Levy informed Lucy of the breakthrough she'd found while studying up on the lost languages of the Fiorean people earlier that morning. Just as the discussion turned to ancient syntax, a very angry, very haughty woman burst through the door to the staff office.

"And just what do you two think you're doing?" Evergreen sneered, giving the pair a glare that threatened to turn them both to stone. Her presence alone was domineering beyond reason, but when she turned her eyes on you... Well, you better start groveling. So, that's what Levy did.

"Evergreen, I'm so sorry, we were jus-"

"We were just discussing the ancient syntax of the lost national language of Fiore. A customer asked Levy earlier if we had any books on it, and she was asking me." Lucy answered coolly, cutting Levy off. "I was just about to give Levy my recommendations." The blonde smiled easily, even jutting a hip out slightly to adopt a more relaxed stance in the presence of their second-in-command, perfectly feigning an air of calm and collected and yes we were definitely doing our job and no she was certainly not late.

Evergreen surveyed them harshly, looking for any flaw in Lucy's story. Levy had caught on very quickly though, and was trying to blend into the easy, chill picture Lucy had painted for the both of them. "Well..." The intimidating woman began, "I suggest you finish up quickly. Laki is about to take her lunch and we need someone at returns." With that, she turned on her heel, and sashayed out of the staff office.

Lucy grinned triumphantly, and Levy looked about ready to melt into a puddle. Before she could, though, the blonde grabbed her hand, shook her awake and gave her a good bop on the forehead.

"Don't be late again. I'm good at lying, but I don't like doing it."

"Oh, I guess that's why you want to write fiction?"

"That's different!"

"When's the next chapter going to be finished? Lucy, pleeease let me read it as soon as it's done!"

And with that, the excited pair strolled out into Magnolia's public library and began another afternoon of work.


A/N: Okay, so first thing's first: Lisanna never disappeared in this AU, therefore there is never a catalyst that makes Mira into the sweet, sugary princess she became. She's still the sassy, rough around the edges Mira that I personally love the most. Secondly: There will be other minor pairings. But only briefly. This story will be Gajevy-centric, so don't expect me to pander to the masses. Thirdly: no lemons. Bye, Felicia.

Please review! Thanks for reading. :) xo syd