Title: Excitement
Summary: "You're really tall, you know?" "And I can throw you across the quad, you know?" Lucy said Levy needed more excitement in her life.
Pairing: GaLe/Gajevy
Note: My first story for the Fairy Tail fandom. Enjoy! I do not own Fairy Tail, anything associated with it, or any other familiar brand names or popular series that might pop up. This is strictly fan-based.
"Lu-chan?" Levy called while searching the empty room for her roommate.
Her eyes landed on the desk at the side of the room. Lucy, ever the aspiring author, left her most recent attempt at a novel open for the eye to see on top of her desk. Curious, Levy walked over and picked up the stack of papers, skimming over them. After all, Lucy said she'd let her edit it.
"Just when Princess Levy thought all hope was lost, she peered out the window of her tower for her Prince Charming once again, hoping he'd be riding up on horseback to free her," Levy read inwardly, quirking an eyebrow higher with each word.
"Lu-chan!" Levy yelled, adamant for an answer about what she was reading. "What the hell is this?!"
Lucy walked into the room, drying her hair with a towel. "What the hell is what?"
Levy spun around and shoved the pages in Lucy's face. "You're making me the subject of your next novel? I never agreed to this!"
"Well, you said you wanted to edit it," Lucy giggled, taking the papers from Levy and stacking them neatly on her desk. "What are you doing in my room anyway?"
"That's beside the point! I said I wanted to edit your novel, not be in it!" Levy followed Lucy wherever she walked in her room, hot on her heels.
Lucy spun around and bumped into her. Rubbing her head with one hand, she pushed Levy back with the other to sit on her bed while she continued to get ready. "What's the big deal, Levy? Is it such a crime that I wanted to write about my best friend's life?"
"But that's not my life!" Levy slammed her hands on the bed for emphasis. "I'm not some fairytale princess! And really, a tower? Isn't that kind of over-done?"
"It's just a start," Lucy defended, combing out her hair in front of the full length mirror on her closet door. "And I had to spice in up a bit. After deciding to write about you, I realized your life isn't the most interesting thing in the world. You're an English major, a total bookworm, and started up the only book club on campus; you don't really have anything exciting going on."
"I can be exciting!" Levy said, jumping up. "I mean, my hair's blue! How much more exciting can I get?"
"Levy, I'm not saying you're not an exciting person. All I'm saying is that you don't really have anything exciting going on right now. We were wild in high school, sure, but we're in college now. I don't blame you for wanting to focus on your major, and that can mean sacrificing a few things." Lucy watched Levy react behind her in the mirror.
Levy ground her teeth and clinched her fists, ready to throw a tantrum. With her small size and high-pitched voice, tantrums were her strong suit. But, being the new college woman that she was, she took a deep breath and released the tension from her body. Perhaps Lucy had a point.
"I guess I have gotten kind of soft," Levy admitted, scratching the back of her head. "Maybe I do need a little more excitement in my life. College is when all that is supposed to happen, right?"
Lucy smiled at her roommate in the mirror. "Levy, I just want you to do what you're comfortable with. Don't let me, my novel, or anything else change that about you, okay?"
Levy returned her smile and hugged her from behind. "Alright, Lu-chan. But if you're going to write about me, at least make it a good story."
"I will try and do you justice," Lucy promised, turning to face her. "So, why exactly were you in my room in the first place?"
Levy laughed sheepishly. "I wanted you to print out the sign-up sheets for the book club so that I could lay them out at our booth later."
"What's wrong with your printer?"
Levy avoided the blonde's questioning gaze.
"…You printed out too many online book coupons and ran out of ink again, didn't you?"
"Maybe."
Sigh. "Fine. Use my printer."
XxX
The activities fair was Levy's favorite part of college when she was a freshman the year before (aside from starting up a book club on campus when she realized the campus didn't have one), so she was excited to be a part of one of the booths this year, advertising the book club she started. Standing on a ladder, she looked down to admire their table and tarp with all the papers stacked up neatly lining it. All that was left to do was hang the banner across the top of the wooden slats attached to the table below her, and their set up would be complete. Posters were for chumps.
"Levy-chan, don't fall!" Droy called from beneath her.
"Yeah, we won't know what to do without our club president!" Jet added next to him.
Honestly, her boneheaded friends acted like she was on a tightrope above the whole campus. Although, it would hurt if she hit the concrete from her height, so she passed on scolding them.
"I'll be alright. I'm almost done!" Levy assured them.
After fastening this one side, she just had to move the ladder to the other side and straighten out the banner. This would be a lot easier if they had more members. Currently, there were five: Jet, Droy, Lucy, Freed, and herself. But the flashy banner they had would hopefully change everything. They painted it themselves, and who doesn't love hand crafted decorations?
"Where are Lucy and Freed?" Jet asked.
"They wanted to check out the rest of the fair, so they're going to come join us later," Levy explained, finishing her tape job on the first side of the banner. "All done over here!"
"Careful when you come down," Droy warned, holding a death grip on the ladder.
Levy just shook her head and was going to start her descend before she realized the tape was coming up. She wrapped another layer of duct tape around the pole, just in case.
"You idiot, she'll be fine! She's not as dumb as you," Jet said, smacking Droy for emphasis.
Droy faltered into the ladder, shaking it a bit just as Levy tore off the piece of tape she was working with. She teetered at the top.
"Be careful down there," she warned, descending the ladder.
"Look what you did," Droy said, shoving Jet. The action shook the ladder once again.
Levy looked over to see the commotion and warn her bickering friends that they'd make her fall, when she lost her footing and slipped the last couple of steps, effectively twisting her ankle and sending her to the concrete sidewalk below.
"Levy!" her friends called to her as she smacked the concrete.
The concrete wasn't as hard as she expected. It felt like it had a soft coating and was really warm. She also felt like she was still elevated…
Levy opened her eyes, not realizing she had squeezed them shut, and met the red eyes of a man she didn't recognize. His tall stature and long, wild black hair blocked out the sun, allowing her to effectively see his face, which exhibited piercings along his eyebrows, nose, lip, and all the way up both ears. She was tempted to count them all until it dawned on her that she was curled up in the arms of a stranger.
"You alright there, pipsqueak?" his voice thundered over her. It was deep and gritty.
"You're really tall, you know?" she stated, voicing the first thing she could think to say.
"And I can throw you across the quad, you know?" he retorted, moving to set her down next to the ladder she fell off. Jet and Droy looked dumbfounded.
"Sorry, I'm just…I…thanks," Levy sputtered, hopping out of his arms. Her ankle rolled underneath her in the process, and she hit the concrete anyway, despite her rescuer.
"Man, you were just dying to taste asphalt today, huh kid?" the mysterious man asked, squatting down to give her a hand up.
"I'm not a kid," she grumbled. "I'm twenty."
"Shorty," he snickered, hoisting her to her feet.
"Crap," she hissed, looking down at her scraped knee and swelling ankle, bracing herself against the man.
"Yeah, you really did a number on that leg," he said, helping her hobble over to sit on one of the steps of the ladder.
"Levy, are you okay?" Jet and Droy asked in unison.
"Yeah, I'll be alright," she assured them, rubbing her throbbing ankle. "Can you guys go get me an ice pack and a first aid kit or something?"
"Yes ma'am!" They both saluted and ran off, blaming each other for the mess on the way out.
"Do they always do that?" the stranger asked, following her friends with his eyes.
"More often than one would think," she giggled before hissing at the pain in her ankle.
"I'd stay off that ankle until the swelling goes down," he advised, examining her injury with a raised eyebrow.
"Thank, doc," she said, gently putting her leg down. "You an aspiring medical student?"
"Hardly," he scoffed. "I'm here for music production."
"That sounds neat. I'm an English major here; I want to edit books one day—"
"I didn't ask for your life story," he cut her last word short, glancing at her with narrowed eyes and his arms crossed.
He was an intimidating character, no doubt, but Levy was short and scrappy. She could nibble on his ankles or jump on his back and cover his eyes until he begged for mercy if she needed too.
She blew some hair out of her face. "I don't suppose your sticking around to sign up for the book club?"
He shook his head. "Reading isn't really my thing."
There it was; the typical answer everyone always gave her.
"I see," she sighed.
"If I'm giving you the wrong impression, I guess I'd better go," he said. As if on cue, a woman with blue hair called out to him, motioning him over to her. "See you around, shorty."
Before he got too far away, she yelled at his back, "I'm Levy, by the way! Thanks for helping me!"
"Gajeel," he tossed over his shoulder before he was out of earshot. Then, he disappeared into the sea of college students.
Levy glanced from the half hung sign to the ladder, down to her swollen ankle and bleeding knee, and then settled on the crowd of people her savior disappeared into.
Lucy said Levy needed more excitement in her life. She wasn't sure if this is what she meant or not.
The sound of the banner falling behind her broke Levy out of her thoughts. She cussed under her breath. Perhaps posters weren't for chumps.
Short, I know, but it's only the first chapter. More to come!
Reviews are love!