Meet The Fairies

"Sorry, girl. But no can do. We got enough people already." This was from the head of coal collection.

"Sorry, we're full. But maybe Erza can help." It was a no from the head of kitchen staff.

"I am sorry, but there is simply no room on my team. We may be few, but we are strong and don't need any extra hands," Erza- team leader of turbine repairs- explained as respectfully as she could muster.

They were all answers to the same question- "Hi, I'm Levy. I'm new here. Do you have any job openings?" So, Levy figured she would try with Lucy. I'll also get to talk to her with my head screwed on right- instead of all shaken up from being almost killed. Levy asked around a bit, and she finally found someone who could help. It was the pink haired boy from yesterday who tried to help her up.

"You're looking for Luce? Er, Lucy? She's in the laundry room! It's down the ramp and two doors down on the right!" He said. Levy thanked him and he assured her it was no problem. She would have asked him if his department had any openings, but he worked with fire - and after the nasty burn on her back, Levy didn't want anything to do with flames. She got down to the laundry room and looked around the crowded hall to see Lucy in a far corner. Lucy looked up and waved her over.

"Hey, Levy. I'm glad you're feeling better from last night

She asked basically the same questions as she did the others, "Thanks, but do you know if there are any open jobs around here?"

Lucy shook her head, "I don't think so, sorry."

"It's okay. Thanks, Lucy," Levy was about to walk away, maybe find someplace else. But Lucy shot up and caught her uninjured arm.

"Wait! Will you come to dinner tonight? You can sit with me an meet my friends!"

"I would Lucy, but-"

"No buts! You're coming. If you promise, I'll tell you who has an opening for sure!"

"Fine, I'll go. But who has an opening?"

"Gray! He's been complaining about it for a while."

"Okay. I'll give it a shot!" Levy said with a smile. Famous last words.

~(^.^)~

"What the hell are you doing? Can you even stir right?" Gray agreed to let Levy try being part of his team, but Levy just kept making mistake after mistake. Apparently she put him in a bad mood already, since her blood stained his precious too small shirt she borrowed.

They both had their long sleeves rolled up and Levy's teeth were chattering. How could his entire team be okay with doing this day after day? The vats had water vapor pouring out of the top, they were so cold. Her arms had just been elbow deep in that stuff! And they were surrounded in tons of water in those same vats.

Gray was in charge of the part of the workshop that nearly freezes water. The coals are heated and water nearly frozen during the day, then the water is poured on the coals all night long. This water gets poured onto the hot coals to make steam, which rises and spins the turbines on the ceiling. It was basically like man-made geothermal energy.

And when Lucy told her about Gray's inability to find new workers, she was relieved. When Lucy said Gray was one of her close friends, Levy felt excited. But when Lucy said Gray was also caring and patient, Levy thought it was almost too good to be true. And it was. Now all she could feel, was embarrassment. This was not the Gray Lucy described. This Gray was callous and bad-tempered.

"Yes, I know how to stir! You just never told me how fast or in which direction to go! You just have me a giant stick and said 'go'. I'm not telepathic you know!" Levy yelled.

"You're right! You're incompetent. You can't do anything right!" Gray yelled at Levy, snatching the stirring stick away from her, "I changed my mind! Water cooling supply is not hiring!"

"What? But you promised me and Lucy that you would mentor me!" Levy's first day with a cleared head was not going well.

"Yeah, but Lucy also promised me you would take care of my shirt. And now there are stains on it and it has cooling chemicals all up the sleeves!"

"Your shirt has the same stains! More stains, even. You have cooling chemicals splashed all over you!"

"And that's your fault! You backed into me and Lisanna, who accidentally splashed me! You're an incompetent menace and I won't let you work for me!"

"Fine!" Levy yelled, offended at his tone. How dare he be so rude! And I didn't even do anything wrong. The whole Lisanna thing was an accident. Maybe if he had been paying attention-

"Fine!" Gray yelled back. The bell rang to signal the end of the work day.

"Oh, just perfect. Now, after you've been fired, I have to work overtime to get up to quota. Because you fucked everything up, I have to clean up your mess. Just leave already, would ya?" Levy stormed off. She was caught in her daydream of pushing Gray into his own vat of chemicals and watching him get out to remember her promise to Lucy. She was walking back to her room, when a mess of dark blue hair blurred by in her peripherals. She stopped in her tracks, and slowly backed up.

To the little girl in the room she asked, "Hey, coming to dinner?" Levy was looking in on Wendy. Her head whipped up, she didn't know she was being watched.

"Uh, sh-sure," she stuttered. She jumped up and ran to the door. Then she looked back at her medicine bag.

"Just a second," Wendy ran back to into the room. She took a sharp tool out of her bag. She set her bag down and went to work on the door. Five minutes later, Wendy was done, and her door read "Door closed = in cafeteria. Not in cafeteria = in bathroom." Levy had to hand it to the girl, she was clever. She didn't have any paper or pens- they are all on lock down, especially in workshops because of the no writing law- so she just carved into the door! That was genius! Levy had a whole new respect for Wendy, especially if she was intending to carry that heavy bag with her everywhere.

"Do you want me to carry your bag for you?" Levy put her hand out in offering.

"No, that's okay. Let's go!" Wendy said. She led Levy to the cafeteria where Lucy, Erza and the pink haired boy were already sitting. They were at a table in the center of the hall, surrounded by chatting workers.

"Levy!" Lucy saw the two bluenettes as they walked up, "and Wendy!"

"Hi guys!" Wendy said. By the way Lucy was surprised to see Wendy, Levy figured it wasn't often she sat with them at dinner. Or maybe even any meal.

"Levy, sit here!" Lucy excitedly patted the booth next to her. Erza scooted over so Wendy could sit down.

"Levy this is-" Lucy began, gesturing to her crimson haired cohort.

"Erza," Levy waved.

"We met earlier," Erza said, reaching her hand across the table to shake Levy's.

"Hey! I met you earlier, too!" the pink haired boy said, on the other side of Lucy.

"You two also met?" Lucy was confused, "How?"

Erza replied first, "She asked me for a job, and I respectfully declined."

"Yeah, and with me she was looking for you, Luce. I told her where you worked but-" he started to yell, "Hey! Why didn't you ask me for a job?"

"I don't really know you. I was mostly asking people I knew were department heads. I'm sorry,-... Uh..." Levy floundered for a name to apologize with. Then she realized she didn't know it. She scratched the back of her head.

"That's Natsu," Lucy saved her, content she could introduce at least one of her friends to Levy.

Surprisingly fast, Natsu recovered from his anger, "Nice ta meechya!" Natsu put his hand out in front of Lucy and steadied himself by putting his arm around the seat behind her, "And I'm not a department head- yet. Gildharts is my boss. He was my mentor, then he made me his assistant."

"I'm Levy," she shook Natsu's outstretched hand.

"Hey, when're we eating?" he asked next.

"Do you want to go now, Natsu?" Wendy asked.

"Well, if you insist."

"I agree. It's been a long day," Erza said. They all got up, but Levy stayed where she was.

"Come on, Levy, what are you waiting for?" Lucy said and the three others stopped and turned to look at her.

"I... can't," Levy blushed.

"Course ya can! You just give 'em a token and-" Levy cut Natsu off.

"I know how it works, I just don't have enough, okay? I already had breakfast this morning. I only get seven meals this week: one per day," Levy explained ashamedly.

"So you chose to have breakfast everyday. That's smart. But it's cruel to do such a thing to someone," Erza said.

"Yeah. It was the Queen's orders," Levy said, she couldn't meet their eyes. It was almost as humiliating as if this was the outside world and she didn't have enough jewels to buy a bagel.

"Well, the Queen be damned. You're eating. And we'll make sure it happens," Natsu got kind of dark. He seemed a lot more upset than he needed to be.

"Natsu!" Lucy tried to warn him. It wasn't good to curse on the Queen, even if no guards were around. But this was a workshop, so it must have been expected there.

"It's not a big deal, Luce. Anyway, you ain't gonna starve. We won't let it. We'll share our food with ya," Natsu said and Levy looked up. It may have seemed like an insignificant little thing, but when you only get two meals a day, plus working all the time, food ends up being a highly priced commodity. It was really kind of them to share their food with her. Especially when they had only just met.

"Now, come on. We need to get our food soon or all the good stuff'll be gone!" And just like that, he was smiling wide again. Well, not really, he was kind of bouncing up and down like a toddler who wanted a particular toy and couldn't wait to get into the toystore. But when Levy smiled at him, he smiled back. And Levy realized, He's smiling at me. And its a genuine smile. It was the first time she had felt someone was rooting for her since her father died. Not to mention, the first time in her life that person wasn't her dad. It gave her hope.

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