It was with a light heart that Lucy Heartfilia, stellar mage of the guild Fairy Tail, skipped happily down a cobblestone street in the shopping district of Magnolia. Today was the day she had been looking forward to all week long. The Fairy Tail Ladies' Book Club was coming together for its weekly meeting, and Lucy couldn't be more excited. Levy had told her about its formation a little less than a week ago, insisting that she join them for their next session, and it was with genuine eagerness that Lucy had accepted. They were to meet at a café called Au Latte (a play on the phrase "au lait," translated as "with milk," as noted by the stellar mage) to discuss any interesting books that they had read.
"It's really laid back, Lu-chan," Levy had said. "We all get along fairly well."
Fairly well could mean many things, Lucy thought, in conjunction with her raucous guild-anywhere from light camaraderie to inches away from premeditated murder. Okay, not that bad, Lucy amended. But pretty close.
She soon came upon the café. It was an interesting-looking place, to be sure; painted jewel green and appearing to have been shoved tightly between its neighbors at an odd angle, so that the upper floors tilted none to steadily over the shorter building on its right. Rickety steel chimneys jutted from various places on its shingled roof, and four-paned windows stared out through drawn multicolored curtains. Stone steps led up to an all-glass door between two of these windows, through which Lucy spied the rest of the club sitting in and around a comfy-looking alcove. Erza was thumbing through a book as she reclined in a squashy bean bag; Evergreen was perched primly on a wrought-iron chair and studiously studying a page of one of Kemu Zaleon's early works. Lucy climbed the steps, pushed the door open, and joined her group.
"Lu-chan!" Levy exclaimed, setting down the large hot chocolate she had been sipping (it had left behind a dollop of cream at the corner of her mouth, but no one was pointing it out because dammit, it was adorable). "Pull up a chair! Now we can get started."
The circle of ladies was made up of the usual group: besides Levy, Erza, Evergreen, and Lucy, Cana, Wendy, Charle, Laki, Mirajane, Bisca, Lisanna, and Juvia were present as well. They all had some sort of refreshment at their side, all strangely coupled with a tall, thin glass of milk. After having ordered a cappucino from a passing waiter, Lucy too was given a glass of the same to go with her drink. Apparently it was a café tradition.
"So, why don't we start off today with Lucy, since she's joining us for the first time?" Levy suggested, marking her page with a heavy-looking metal bookmark. "Lu-chan, is that all right with you?"
"Sure!" Lucy agreed cheerfully, extracting a thick volume from her messenger bag. "This week I began reading The Tale of the Desert. It's set in a fictional desert, naturally, and it's about a group of explorers searching for a lost kingdom. The main character is a girl who just got out of prison for killing someone, even though she only did it in self-defense. It's so beautiful because the girl tries to distance herself from her traveling companions but she really just wants to connect with someone, and they go to all of these mystical places that serve as symbols for important events in the protagonists' lives and-" Lucy realized she was babbling. "And it's really good," she finished sheepishly, twiddling her fingers over the book's cover.
As Bisca asked a blushing Lucy if she could see the book, Erza decided to be proactive and volunteered to go next. "I have been reading the second book in a series that I find quite scintillating. The trilogy is not very well known, which is a shame, for I find that it would appeal to a wide range of readers."
"What series would that be, Erza?" Mirajane asked.
"As I said, you may not have heard of it. One Hundred Shades of Grey?"
"Gray-sama?!" Juvia cried, looking around anxiously.
"Not that Gray, Juvia," Cana said with a chuckle. "Let's hear some, Erza."
The rest of the ladies nodded in agreement, and Erza opened her book to a passage she found to be one of the best-written. She cleared her throat, and began to read.
After the first few sentences, the entire book club was wide-eyed and overheated. Laki had slapped her hands over Wendy's ears the moment she had heard the word "punishment," having suddenly remembered hearing about Erza's book and its contents. Wendy was confused-the other women had never acted this way before. It was very strange, seeing them shift in their seats as their faces turned redder than Erza's own hair. She gave a questioning look to Laki, who bravely but bereavedly interrupted the reading.
"E-E-Erza-s-san, maybe we s-s-s-should move on t-t-to the next person..." Laki suggested weakly.
Erza, having noticed her companions' unease, obliged, though disappointed to have to cut short what she thought was a very excellent scene. With the thump of the cover being shut, the group seemed to remember itself.
"My, my, Erza," Evergreen said, having been the first one to recover. "You certainly know...how to pick them..."
Bisca had to be shaken slightly, and fanned with her hat. Mirajane, who had been the least affected by the reading, suddenly said, "I just remembered, Bisca! I wanted to know-how are things going with Alzack?"
Bisca quite nearly fainted, having previously been thinking, during Erza's reading, of her partner in ways that would obviously make a grown woman blush. "O-o-oh...uh-uhm...w-well...they've been going...well..."
Obviously they're about to get a whole lot better, Lucy thought, sipping her milk primly in an effort to cool herself down. Meanwhile Levy was still blushing even up into the roots of her sky-blue hair. Certain...descriptions in the reading had reminded her soundly of a certain iron dragon slayer...
"Juvia would not mind if Gray-sama punished her..." Juvia sighed melodically, hands pressed to her cheeks.
"Perhaps we should move on?" Mirajane suggested, nodding at Laki, who removed her hands from Wendy's innocent ears.
The next one to go was Evergreen. "I just finished reading Diaries of a Countess. The main character, who is considered the loveliest girl in her village, is invited to a soirée at the castle of the handsome Count who administrates over the region. He falls in love with her, and they marry, but a jealous woman tries to tear them apart."
"Ever would read something like that," Cana muttered to Lucy, who laughed weakly. She didn't want to do anything that might start a brawl.
Unfortunately, Evergreen heard Cana's comment. "Why don't you tell us what you've been reading, then? Something about a drunkard whose life goal it is to find the best pub?"
"Now, now, Ever," Mirajane trilled, her sweet voice laced with threateningly demonic undertones. "Don't make me have to punish you."
For a split second there was silence. Then, Laki barely whispered the word "punishment" before the ladies of the book club collapsed into a fit of red-faced laughter, Evergreen and Mirajane included.
"Eh?! Eeehh?!" a very confused Wendy cried. "Charle, why are they laughing so hard? All Mira-san said was that Evergreen shouldn't make her punish her!"
Meanwhile the cat was trying to hold in her amusement, getting out the sentence, "You'll understand when you're older, Wendy."
Levy wiped tears of mirth from her eyes before calling for the attention of the still-giggling gaggle of ladies. "Why don't we all take a short break to...to collect ourselves?"
The rest of the group agreed, and most excused themselves to touch up their makeup, use the restroom, or order something else from the barista. Lucy remained, but, finding that even a glance at the cover of Erza's book could send her into another round of giggles, got up and wandered to the second floor. It appeared that Au Latte not only housed a cafe, but a used bookshop as well. She happily began browsing the shelves, feeling like a spelunker searching for buried treasure. It was in the middle of this activity that she discovered something displeasing.
Natsu, Gray, Gajeel, Pantherlily, and Happy were on the floor. Gajeel was on his side, his ear pressed to the floorboard. Gray was sitting cross-legged beside him, an earpiece hanging on his ear and attached by a cable to a conical device sitting beside him. Happy and Pantherlily also wored earpieces, albeit modified to fit their animal ears, and Natsu was in the same position as Gajeel, though resting on his other side. All five wore expressions of absolute shock.
Lucy approached them, but they made no indication that they had noticed her presence, though it was almost certainly hard to ignore what with the heels of her boots clacking on the hardwood. Lucy crouched down and waved a hand in front of Natsu's face. Nothing.
"Lu-chan, we're getting ready to start again-oh my gosh!"
Lucy looked over her shoulder to see Levy standing at the end of the aisle. Her expression went from one of surprise to on of indignance. "We've told them over and over, boys aren't allowed!"
"I think they heard Erza's book," Lucy said, nodding her head at the device on the floor, guessing that is was some sort of magical eavesdropping tool. "I guess the dragonslayers wouldn't need that thing, what with their hearing and all."
"What should we do with them?" Levy asked.
"I don't know...they're pretty out of it..." Lucy said, poking Happy between the eyes. The cat didn't even twitch. Lucy looked back over her shoulder to find Levy with a curious glint in her eye.
"I think I just had a wonderful idea, Lu-chan," she said, grinning. "Come on-let's go back."
"What about them?" Lucy asked, glancing at their frozen guildmates.
"Just leave them. They'll recover soon, I imagine."
The girls made their way to the stairs. Lucy recognized the change in Levy's demeanor-it was just like the beginning of the S-class test seven years ago, on the boat just off Tenrou Island. Levy had been plotting to get herself and Gajeel ahead of the rest, and Lucy had the distinct feeling that this time it would be the Fairy Tail Ladies' Book Club getting that essential head start.
"Let's mess with some mages," Lucy said to Levy, grinning.