*I do not own Fairy Tail*
"Alright, does anyone have anymore questions?" Mira gave a sugar coated smile, eyeing the crowd, daring anyone to speak.
Everyone shook their heads vigerously, for fear they say something wrong and invoke the wrath of the Mirajane Strauss.
No one wanted to end up like Natsu who lay sprawled over a broken table out cold, where Happy and Lucy had their arms crossed solemnly agreeing that it was his own fault.
"I'm expecting you all to participate." It was Master Markorav who spoke this time. " I found Mira's idea to be a good way to strengthen the bonds within our family and she put a lot of effort into the planning."
Mira stepped up, "In order to keep who you were assigned to a secret, you all will go on jobs with different guild members. Whenever you take a job I will record who has gone with who and so forth. The more people you go on jobs with the more points you'll collect, these point will go towards receiving a bigger prize later on."
The last sentence was the magic phrase to spark genuine enthusiasm or, at least minor interest from the guild members and soon enough almost everyone was pairing up.
"Good morning Bickslow," Mira called out to him as he walked into the guild. It was about two weeks since the secret Santa had begun and Mira was checking up on everyone's progress.
What did she want? Bickslow really did not want to be bothered, he was busy moping over Laxus still not having come back and the enthusiasm of the other Raijinshuu over the secret Santa and prize. Because of that he'd had nothing to do but exist in the guild hall, passing the time conversing with his babies or going out to train.
"So have you found the person you were assigned to? I noticed you haven't gone on any jobs with anyone."
"No." He answered simply.
" Have you tried?" She questioned sternly.
"Not really." His tongue drooped out of his mouth.
"I see," she nodded thoughtfully, frowning.
"Well I'm sure you'll start getting in the spirit!" She perked up.
" Why would I do that?"
"Mmm, just a feeling." she smirked. " Besides Master said he wanted everyone to participate, and you need to make more friends than just Laxus and the Raijinshu."
Bickslow laughed his manic laugh "I don't need other friends especially those weak newcomers. They may be my comrades and I'll protect them but that doesn't mean I gotta get all chummy either." Turning his back to Mira he crossed his arms haughtily.
He nearly wished he hadn't, feeling unease as he felt Mira's demonic presence approach him from behind to whisper in his ear.
"You know I can always ask Laxus to have a word with you, so if I were you I'd be looking at the job board and for Lisanna" She turned back to wink at him as she walked away.
The excitement of the mention of a prize had died down and the guild was no longer frantically going on jobs with other random members. Instead, taking their time to plan out a strategy, keeping the one who they had to bond most with, in order to get a suitable gift, in mind. There were no two definite pairs. For example while Evergreen was Lucys secret Santa , Lucy had Gajeel.
"Levy help me..." She moaned.
"Why me?" The blunette responded, her nose buried deep inside a book.
" Because I need to find Gajeel a present, and I don't know what to get him." Lucy groaned.
Levy just sighed in response " That's why you have to go on at least two jobs with him remember?"
"I remember." Lucy said miserably, letting her head fall onto the hard table with a THUNK!
"Lucy he's not that bad" Levy scolded her not taken her eyes off the page she was on.
"Then invite him on a job with us!"
"Wha..?"
"Yes! This is perfect! Mira did say for us to go on jobs with a bunch of different people then I won't have to go alone and we'll build up our comradeship!" Lucy clapped her hands together twirling in excitement.
"We're already best friends..." Levy reminded her, but the blonde wasn't listening.
"Plus..." Lucy added with an evil smile, making Levy rethink what she had just said about them being best friends. "I can always disappear for a while so that you and Gajeel can have some alone time."
Levy froze gripping her book "What are you talking about?" She replied calmly, burying herself deeper into the novel.
"Come on Levy," Lucy whispered in her ear. "I know you have a thing for Gajeel."
"I do n..."
"Did Juvia hear right?" A blue snow cap appeared in front of their faces.
"Gah!" The two friends jumped in surprise.
"Hmmm so Levy has a thing for Gajeel" Juvia put on a thoughtful face. " But Gajeel is a very distant person." She frowned.
" This must be hard on you Levy," she placed a comforting hand on the little bookworms shoulder.
"Um not really..."
"Oh, Levy," Lucy chided her, "Don't deny it .I believe I just heard you say 'I do' when I said you had a thing for him."
" NOT! I was never allowed to finish speaking and say NOT!" Yelled the small Mage getting flustered.
"Do not worry Levy, Juvia understands, Grey-Sama is also too shy to respond to Juvias feelings."
"Um Juvia? I don't think..." Lucy spoke.
"Love Rival!" Juvia glowered at her.
"Nevermind!" The blonde squeaked.
" There is nothing going on between me and Gajeel!" Levy insisted.
"But Juvia will will fix that!" The rainwoman said with a look of determination, her eyes glittering.
Juvia skipped away leaving a spluttering Levy to be comforted by Lucy.
*-From a table not too far off-*
"What do you think Levy is freaking out about?" Grey asked Gajeel.
"How should I know?" He muttered.
"Well I thought you might have some ideas," Grey answered nonchalantly.
"Considering you've been staring at her for the past twenty minutes."
Lisanna would have to do this sometime, it had already been two weeks, she should get it over with as soon as possible then she could freely, or at least try, going on jobs with other guild members.
She took a deep breath and made her way to her target who was standing in front of the job board carefully going through all the requests.
Just before she reached him the white haired transformation Mage stopped in her tracks.
You know he sure looks busy, she thought to herself, why don't I just come back another time? Next week sounded good.
Backing away to leave her head bumped into something hard.
"Ow"
"Ow,ow,ow." She heard her exclamation of minor pain echoed back.
Looking up from rubbing the back of her head she saw five wooden dolls whirling around in the air.
"What's wrong babies?" Bickslow asked them, turning away from the board. His eyes trailed from his dancing dolls to the person in front of him. At least they would have if Lisanna could only see them.
"Um, hello." She stammered feeling awkward.
He just stood there. He didn't have a particularly muscular body like Laxus, but he was still a good height and pretty fit. Lisanna felt like he was looming over her. The helmet covering his face did nothing to ease the uneasiness she felt, as she couldn't read his facial expression.
Was he mad that she accidentally bumped into one of his babies? His mysterious ness and manical laughter aside, she knew he cared a lot for his souls.
"So who did you get?" She asked him, she might as well just get it over with, while trying to rid of the tension that she potentially felt.
"Some girl called Lisanna." He told her crossing his arms, tongue sticking out.
"Oh." Lisanna looked at him expectantly.
"What?" He asked.
"What, what?" The wooden dolls questioned.
He didn't know who she was did he ? Well he did just reveal that he was her secret Santa. Which was now no longer secret. She sighed and, deciding to test her theory spoke.
"Do you even know who she is?"
"Ah..." He scratched the back of his neck. "Nope."
She stared at him, hesitating, while he went back to searching the list of jobs.
"I... " she began but he had already found a suitable job and was making his way to Mira so she could approve it.
"Well see ya kid,"
"See ya!" The dolls circled around Lisanna once before zooming off to follow Bickslow leaving her just standing there.
So, this was the second chapter, thank you so much for the reviews and follows on the first chapter. I'm going to try to make the future ones longer. And just to make it clear Juvia is Levys Secret Santa .
Thanks for reading! ^_^
*Just a heads up, The next chapter won't be out until sometime in September.*