Speed Dating…Fairy Tail Style
"But Mira!" Lucy whined into her cell phone as she opened the door to her apartment, immediately kicking her shoes off and hanging up her keys on the rack by the door, "I don't want to attend a speed dating event! Seriously…I like being single!"
Lucy cringed internally as she lied that she enjoyed being single, and she heard utter silence on the other end of the phone that made her grow very concerned for her slightly older, white-haired friend.
"Mira?" Lucy asked cautiously when after a few moments Mira still had not responded.
"YOU C-C-C-CAN'T LIKE BEING S-S-S-S-SINGLE!" she moved the phone a good foot away from her ear as Mira's sobbing voice came booming through the phone. Feeling utterly bewildered at Mira's overreaction, Lucy tried to calm her down after moving the phone back to her ear.
"No, really, Mira," she insisted as Mira blubbered on and on about her friend never getting married and not having beautiful brown eyed babies and taking Lamaze classes with her, "I'm fine with being single right now. I'm at a really critical part of my career and I need to just focus on that…" Lucy felt her blood chill as yet another silence came over the phone, although she knew it wasn't the same kind of silence as the last one. Worriedly, she wound a lock of her long blonde hair around her finger.
"You will come to this event, Lucy Heartfilia," Mira told her quite ominously, "I am the coordinator for this event and I will personally drag you here tomorrow night if I have to. Saying you have to focus on your career instead of love…honestly…"
"So that's how I have wound up getting ready for a speed dating event I don't actually want to attend," Lucy said as she looked over at her good friend, Erza, sitting on her bed.
"Mirajane is a force of nature, Lucy. You shouldn't be so surprised she is having you do this," the beautiful redhead said quite seriously, critically eyeing the dress Lucy was holding up. It was a deep maroon color, full-length, low-cut, and had thin straps and a ridiculously high slit; when on the busty blonde, the slit went practically up to her hip on the right side.
"Well that's what I'm getting ready for, anyway," Lucy repeated with a shrug then gestured towards the dress, "So do you think this would work?"
"I think it's a bit fancier than the event itself, Lu," Lucy and Erza's friend, Levy, responded as she walked into the room. The petite blue-haired girl had a plate of nachos in her hand and Lucy and Erza both gratefully took one when Levy offered them.
"I've never been to a speed dating event!" Lucy wailed as she threw her dress onto the pile of already discarded outfits on her bed. The pile was growing quite quickly and was in danger of being taller than the redhead seated beside it. "What do you even do at a speed dating event?"
"I believe you go on dates," Levy murmured sarcastically under her breath, causing Erza to smile gently when she overheard.
"But…but…" Lucy spluttered, having also heard Levy's comment, "But what do you wear?! You're expected to go on several dates at once, right? So what do you wear!"
"This is what I'm wearing," Erza said, gesturing towards the dark wash skinny jeans, knee high black boots, and long sleeved white sweater she was wearing. Before Lucy could do anything more than open her mouth disbelievingly, Levy spoke up as well.
"And I'm wearing this!" Levy said brightly, gesturing towards her khaki pants and vividly orange sweater. Lucy gaped at her two friends disbelievingly for a moment before she was actually capable of forming words and letting them out of her mouth.
"You…you…" Lucy started, swallowing hard to try and center herself, "You're both going to this stupid event! Why didn't you tell me before right now!" Erza raised an eyebrow at Lucy's outburst while Levy just chuckled uncomfortably.
"Um…well…" Levy began, reaching up to readjust the orange headband in her hair, before Erza interrupted her.
"Mira called in a favor," Erza said imperiously, standing up and disregarding Lucy's indignation as she began to comb through the clothes left in the blonde's closet, "We were…coerced into attending the event and then when she got confirmation you would attend, as well, we were called in to make sure you went through with it."
"I can't believe you two!" Lucy yelled in outrage, pacing her room as she threw her hands up in the air and started gesturing wildly at her two best friends. "So how did Mira get you to agree to go to a speed dating event? Was it bribery? Blackmail? Extortion!"
Feeling concerned for her blonde friend, Levy turned to Erza, who's mouth was set in a grim line as they both listened to her rant. A silent communication occurred between the two women as they watched Lucy; they decided to just let her vent while they found her the perfect outfit for the event. Lord knew Mira would murder them all in their sleep, or worse, set them up on blind dates with really disgusting men just to get back at them, if they didn't show up to the first speed dating event she was the coordinator of.
When Lucy had finally run out of adjectives to call Erza and Levy and was breathing heavily, the blue and red-haired women looked at their friend before holding up the outfit they had chosen. It was a fairly simple outfit; tight black jeans, a bright pink, off the shoulder top that also had a silver "necklace" of sorts attached that, once on, would wrap around Lucy's neck like a halter top, and a pair of ridiculously fun and sexy strappy silver heels. As they held up the outfit like a peace offering to their infuriated friend, they watched her face lose all traces of anger and the flush leave her cheeks. With triumphant grins, they watched as Lucy took the outfit in awe.
"I didn't even remember I had that…" the busty blonde whispered as she took the outfit from their hands and slowly walked to the bathroom to put it on. As Lucy pulled on the outfit and looked herself over in the full-length mirror, she couldn't believe what amazing friends she had. Yeah she had been initially pissed Mira had essentially threatened her into going to this event and that Levy and Erza were both in on it, she couldn't help but admit that being single sucked, especially when she was trying to write a best-selling romance novel. Kinda put a damper on the whole creative process when she didn't have any experience to actually draw from…
"Oh Lu!" Levy gushed as soon as Lucy had exited the bathroom, "You look great! Those guys aren't going to know what hit them!" Erza nodded in agreement as she took in the blonde's style change. Her hair was no longer flowing freely down her back; instead, it was up in a somewhat messy bun with a few tendrils falling out. In a word, Lucy looked perfect.
"Shall we head out now?" Erza asked once they were all done checking (and re-checking…) one another for any imperfections in their outfits or food left in their teeth.
"Ah I don't think I can do this!" Levy whimpered as both Lucy and Erza moved to the door of the blonde's apartment. Both of them looked back at Levy incredulously as she faltered in the middle of Lucy's living room.
"Oh no," Lucy said viciously as she grabbed hold of one of Levy's arms while Erza grabbed the other, "You two came here to make sure I went to this damn event, so now I'm going to return the favor! Suck it up and let's go!" Despite her words to Levy, Lucy felt her heart hammering in her chest and wondered what the stoic Erza was feeling and glanced at her out of the corner of her eye and felt her nerves amp up as she took in the redhead's tense, pale face. Did any of them actually want to be doing this?
"Lucy! Erza! Levy!" they heard Mira call out to them as they neared the restaurant she managed. They had walked in utter silence, each seeming to support the others more as they neared their destination, as they dreaded the event they were about to go to. They had no idea what to expect and were fairly disconcerted Mira was the one running the event. The ridiculously gorgeous, white-haired woman wasn't exactly known for her restraint…
"I'm so glad you guys could make it!" she said with a maniacal glint to her eye when the three had reached her, "All of the other participants are here already, but you won't get to see any of the men yet!" Mira informed them with a giggle.
"So…" Erza said somewhat croakily before clearing her throat, "What is our expectation for the evening?" Levy and Lucy both looked at her in bewildered awe; Erza made it sound like this was some sort of mission they were going on.
"You'll fill out these forms and then go have a seat at one of the tables after writing your name on one of these name tags!" Mira said, clapping her hands to one of her waitresses, who quickly scampered over and shoved some paperwork and pens into the women's hands before moving away like they had the plague. Huh…maybe they did since they'd been forced into this event against their wills.
Feeling a bit jittery, the three women went further into the restaurant, finding ten tables set up in a horseshoe pattern around the back room and women already seated at six of them. With a gasp, Lucy recognized several of her friends, including Mira's sister, Lisanna, her good friend from high school, Aries, the resident "drunk" of her group of girl friends, Cana, her youngest friend (only twenty compared to her twenty-five) Mavis, her good friend from her college years, Juvia, and finally Evergreen, who she knew through Lisanna and Mira.
With friendly, and commiserating, smiles, Lucy, Erza, and Levy joined the group of women. Lisanna immediately said hello to the three, followed by the other women. As they all finished filling out their paperwork, they laughed and talked about how Mira had gotten them all together for this ridiculous event. Most of them had been coerced, blackmailed, or otherwise strong-armed into coming. When most of them had finished with the paperwork, Mira came into the room, beaming.
"Yay now we're all here!" she said joyfully clapping her hands together. All of the women looked around her, trying to see who the tenth female participant was going to be, before Mira announced that she herself would be taking the final spot, since their other friend, Kinana, had already hooked up with someone. Almost simultaneously, the other nine women in the room's jaws dropped; how could Mira coordinate the event if she was also a participant!
"Mirajane," Erza began seriously, but Mira cut her off.
"This will be so much fun! I've put two of my very best staff on as the 'coordinators' so I could participate tonight! Wendy, Romeo, come on in!" she hollered over her shoulder as she took a seat at the one empty table. As one, the ten women watched two teenagers, barely sixteen, walk into the room, looking incredibly awkward and uncomfortable. The girl, Wendy, had long blue hair and was ridiculously adorable while the boy, Romeo, had dark hair and a blush that seemed to be permanent on his cheeks as he looked at the women and then quickly looked away again.
"H-hi there!" Wendy spoke up shakily, waving at the ladies gathered, "I'm Wendy and I'll be co-coordinating this event with Romeo for Ms. Mirajane. We hope you all have a wonderful time!" Unable to help themselves any longer, several of the girls let out "Aw!"-s at Wendy's cuteness.
"S-so this is how the speed dating event will go," Romeo said, stepping in for Wendy when her cheeks flushed a brilliant red, "There are ten other, male participants. They will be entering the room shortly and will sit down at a table of their choosing. You will have five minutes for each 'date' before Wendy or I hit the bell, signaling the date has come to an end and the man needs to move on to the next table. You each have been given paperwork to complete as well as a folder. The paperwork will be given to us and you will keep the folder. In the folder is a two-column table. In the first column, you will write the name of the man you are on the date with and then in the second column you will write a simple 'Yes', 'No', or 'Maybe'."
"Why maybe?" Evergreen asked, flipping her long light brown hair over her shoulder impatiently, "I am pretty certain I will know for sure if I want to date a guy or not after five minutes." Lucy couldn't refrain from rolling her eyes at Evergreen's rather imperious attitude. She knew the slightly older woman was very opinionated, but that was a bit unnecessary in her opinion.
"Oh give it up, Evergreen," Cana said with a slur, probably from the amount of alcohol she had consumed prior to coming to the restaurant, "We all know you and Mira's little brother have a thing for one another and you still haven't owned up to it." As the women around the room let out a collective chuckle, Evergreen's face turned bright red and she spluttered about how she absolutely did not have a thing for Mira's little brother.
"A-anyway," Wendy said, clearing her throat as Romeo looked at the women, utterly flabbergasted with their behavior, "You can write maybe if you think you might like the person enough to have another date with them. At the end of the event, we will provide you with the contact information to the ones you wrote 'Yes' next to and give you the opportunity to decide whether or not you would want the 'Maybe'-s contact information."
"Will the men know if we said yes or no, before we call them up that is?" Erza suddenly spoke up. All of the women looked at her, stunned at the question but agreeing it was a good one.
"Yes," the petite woman named Mavis said, running a hand through her long, golden hair, "I don't want to hurt any of the men's feelings, but I also don't want my contact information going to someone I don't want it going to."
"Contact information will only be given out to those men who agreed with your 'Yes'," Romeo stated reassuringly, "And to the men you said 'Maybe' to if you so choose."
"That's a relief," Lucy said under her breath. She didn't think any of the guys Mira would have allowed into this event would be creepers, but one can never really know, so it was great to know she wouldn't have to worry about somebody potentially stalking her.
"Are there any more questions?" Wendy asked sweetly as she looked the women over. When no one answered with an affirmative, Wendy smiled and continued, "So once the men are in here and seated, you will have five minutes to talk with them about whatever topics you choose. I do suggest keeping the topics…appropriate," Wendy blushed here when Cana whistled and catcalled before continuing on, "And if you at any time feel uncomfortable, you can raise your hand and Romeo or I will come to your aid."
"As most of you have probably already noticed, each of your tables have numbers on them," Romeo said, taking over the speech for a moment, "Once your 'dates' are over, the men will rotate in a counterclockwise manner around the tables moving in numerical order. So, if you are at table 3, after your date the man will move on to table 4 and the man from table 2 will join you at your table."
"Any other questions?" Wendy asked as she nervously pulled at the collar of her button up shirt. Mira beamed at her when no one asked anything else, "W-well let's go ahead and get started then! Romeo, please go get the gentlemen from the other room for their dates."
With a grin and a wave at all of the ladies assembled, Romeo turned and took off towards another part of the restaurant, leaving the room in utter silence.
W-well…here goes nothing! Lucy thought to herself as she heard footsteps heading back towards them. A sense of excited trepidation washed over her as her heart raced as she looked down at the single candle and rose on the table in front of her. She listened closely as she heard the chair across from her being pulled out and she hesitantly rose her gaze to meet the man's across from her…
AUTHOR'S NOTE: So…instead of writing Evading Destiny's next chapter, like I should have, I came up with this lol. I'm thinking I'll continue it, probably with at least another ten chapters to encompass each date and then maybe one more after the final date to kind of wrap it up. I would love to hear any thoughts people have on it though! For instance, if you are interested in me continuing this, would you want Lucy's perspective of the dates only, or would you want all of the girls' perspectives on their dates?