Smokin' Hot
Summary: In years to come, her children would ask, "how did you and Daddy meet?", and she would blush and say, "I burnt down my apartment complex."
4; Gossip
As she ruffled through her fathers study, looking for the large telephone directory she knew he kept around somewhere, she made a mental checklist of all the things she needed to do to get her life back on track.
The first thing on her rapidly growing list was to contact the head teacher of the school at which she worked at and inform him of her plight. She hadn't really interacted with the man very often, save for the odd "good morning" or "good afternoon" greetings when they passed each other in the corridor, but from what she could remember from her interview he was a rather amiable man and she felt confident that he would understand her problem.
She would ask for a few emergency days off work, just to get over the shock of being rendered homeless and callously dumped (though she wasn't sure she would mention the latter) in a matter of hours and try to find herself a semi permanent place of residence.
She was very grateful that her parents had been so willing to take her back under their roof with open arms, but she couldn't deny that she felt uncomfortable staying there. Her time as one of her parents wards had long since passed and she needed to find her own place.
After sorting her job out, the next thing on her agenda was to contact her insurance company. She wasn't particularly looking forward to that phone call, but it was inevitable and she could only hope the fact that the fire had been her fault wouldn't do too much damage to her claim. The prospect of calling her insurance company also reminded her that sometime soon the police would be in contact with her and that was yet another annoying and still unavoidable conversation she didn't want to have.
The final task on her list was to find a new home. She had enough money in her savings account to put down a deposit and the first months rent if she dug deep enough into her account, on a small apartment. She knew she wouldn't be able to find anywhere nearly as nice as her old apartment with the limited amount of money in her account and the short amount of time she was giving herself to find somewhere, but she decided whatever she found would have to do. Mooching off her parents for an extended period of time would only leave a sour taste in her mouth and she just couldn't have that. Her parents had made it a point to teach their daughters the importance of independence whilst they were growing up and the lessons had been instilled in her thoroughly.
"Ahah!" she huffed triumphantly, tugging out the large white book from the bottom of a, what seemed to be, barely used drawer. A small smile gracing her lips, she settled herself into the comfortable chair her father kept in his study and opened the book on her lap. She automatically flipped towards the schools section of the directory, but decided against it. It was a Sunday afternoon and even though teachers did occasionally come into school on weekends to finish off some last minutes notes or prepare the classroom for Monday morning, those occasions were few and far between and she sincerely doubted the receptionist would be manning the office anyway. Making her decision, she quickly flicked to the private residence numbers at the back of the book and began to scour it for her bosses last name. She only hoped he wouldn't be too angry.
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Much to his annoyance, he woke up relatively early that Sunday morning. After having worked the late shift at least five days in a row, he was rather looking forward to having a long and lazy lie in that Sunday, but for some reason his body apparently had other plans for him and he soon found himself glaring angrily at his alarm clock when he realised it only read, "9:06AM".
"Flippin' crack of dawn," he grumbled angrily, still refusing to get out of bed even though he was wide awake. He would have his Sunday lie in, god damn it!
He rolled over onto his back so he was facing away from the damned alarm clock and took to staring up at his ceiling, with the hints of mild frustration etched into his face. He really wanted to go back to sleep. Just for a few more hours or so.
He sighed as he came to terms with the fact that getting a bit more sleep was simply not going to happen, and lying in bed mulling over the tragedy (and yes it was a tragedy) of not getting it was just going to infuriate him more.
With a reluctant sigh, he edged towards the side of his bed and swung his legs out, the mild shock of bare feet hitting the cold wooden floor waking him up slightly. Cracking his muscles as he went, a bad habit he'd developed a while ago, he stood up slowly and moved towards his bedroom door, but paused as he got halfway across the room.
He sniffed the air gingerly and frowned. In his many years as a fire fighter, the smell of smoke had become extremely noticeable to him and he could smell it from a few miles away. However, the distinct smell was coming from somewhere much closer to him. He quickly looked left to right and all around his room, searching for the smell before it dawned on him.
Chuckling lightly, he gingerly grabbed a bunch of his long hair and sniffed it.
Yup. Smoke.
Normally he would have a shower when he arrived home from work, to wash away the stench of sweat and smoke that inevitably clung to his body after a hard days work, but last night he had been so tired that the very idea of a shower had completely slipped his mind. His nose wrinkled in disgust as the smell of smoke permeated his senses once more, so he doubled back to his cabinet, pulled open a drawer and yanked a towel out before purposely making his way to the bathroom.
His stomach was asking for breakfast, but he knew he wouldn't be able to enjoy his meal whilst he still smelt of last night.
As he passed his stereo, he quickly punched the "on" button and turned the volume up considerably, so he would be able to hear it from the shower.
By the time he had stripped off his boxers and was quickly testing the water in his shower, his favourite CD began blaring his favourite song and a large wolfish grin spread across his face.
"Colourful, colourful, shooby doo bop!" he sang along with the CD as he stepped into the shower, the warmth of the water hitting his skin setting him at ease, "tremble with love, steel gray metallic! Doo, doo, doo Shalala~~"
If the whole fire fighter thing hadn't worked out, he was pretty sure he could've made it as a singer. Despite what everyone else said.
The warmth of the water helped to relax his aching muscles and ease the bad mood he had woken up with. Eventually his song ended and the CD moved on to another one, one he didn't like as much but was still familiar with so instead on singing along at full volume, he simply hummed and allowed his thoughts to drift.
Absentmindedly he reached for his shampoo and began methodically squeezing it onto his hands and massaging it into his scalp, doing his best to rid his locks of that damned smoke smell. Against his will, as the thought of the smoky smell entered his mind, he couldn't help but wonder if the blue haired woman he had met the previous night had suffered from the same plight as he. Something reminiscent of a sneer spread across his features as he imagined the petite woman scrubbing furiously at her hair trying to rid herself on the stench.
Served her right.
If he had to suffer from it, then so did she.
His shower lasted for twenty more minutes, until he felt thoroughly cleaned and relaxed, and until his stomach began growling in protest. He hopped out of the shower, wincing slightly as his feet hit the cold tiled floor, a sharp contrast to the wonderfully warm shower he had just had. He then grabbed a dark grey towel and quickly gave his hair a dry, not really caring that it was still fairly damp. Once his hair was dry to an acceptable level, he wrapped the towel around his body and left the bathroom, intent on going to the kitchen.
With his towel wrapped loosely around his waist he began rummaging through his fridge, deciding he would pop some food in the microwave whilst he chucked some clothes on. His nose wrinkled in annoyance as he stared at the relatively empty appliance in front of him. All those late nights at work had resulted in him either not being in to eat during the week, or if he had been in he had spent those precious scarce hours sleeping, thus he had forgotten to go shopping in a while.
With a resigned sigh, he plucked out a half empty pizza box and gave it a tentative sniff.
"No bad," he muttered, deciding that although he couldn't remember when he had last ordered pizza, it probably wouldn't do that much harm. Probably.
He grabbed a plate and chucked the three and a half slices onto it before pulling open his microwave door and placing the plate inside. After a brief moment of hesitation at the prospect of eating off food, he punched in "4 minutes" deciding that if it was good enough for his growling stomach, it was good enough for him.
He'd just have to go shopping later on.
Still humming softly to the music that was blaring around his apartment, he moved towards his room intent on getting dressed in some comfortable clothes. As he walked however, a small flashing light caught his attention and he made a detour to the phone that sat on its hook on the cabinet in his living room.
He rarely got phone calls on the house phone, as he worked with most people who wanted to contact him and they saw him practically every day. Frowning slightly, he pressed the button that would allow him to hear his message.
"Evening Gajeel," a familiar voice drawled out, "I tried calling your mobile, but it appears to be dead. As usual. Anyway, I dropped the girl off, she didn't stop crying for the whole journey-"
Gajeel snorted at that, he had suspected as much.
"- but she asked me to tell you thank you. That's all I wanted to say, don't forget you owe me a drink for this favour. Catch you later."
Gajeel nodded to himself as he resumed his walk to his bedroom, he did owe Lily a drink for that favour.
He tried to push the thought out of his mind, but for some reason he felt glad to know that the girl, Levy, had gotten home safely. She had been a wreck last night, and as much as Gajeel liked to pretend otherwise, he did in fact have a heart, and if something had happened to her he would have undoubtedly felt extremely guilty.
The ping from the microwave interrupted his reverie and he growled, rushing to his room to get his clothes on.
He didn't want his food to get cold after all.
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Her day was moving rather smoothly. To her delight, he boss had granted her the following week off work, telling her not to worry and just sort out what she could. After their brief and still pleasant conversation she found that her mood had severely improved. Knowing she wouldn't have to worry about work for at least a week was a huge load off her shoulders, and she knew she would need to use all the free time she could get her hands on.
Once that was all sorted she squared her shoulders and moved on to the next task on her list. Her insurance company. Her stomach has plummeted as she prepared herself for that phone call, but as it turned out, she need not have worried too much about it. The phone call with a polite young man from the company had told her that she was covered for fire damage, and as soon as the company got written confirmation from the police that the fire was indeed accidental and not arson, then she would be reimbursed for any damages and loss. The man on the phone assured her they would be in contact with her as soon as they received the information from the police and she thanked him sincerely before hanging up.
Although ideally she would have preferred to have all her insurance claims sorted out that day, she was a reasonable woman and figured there was no point stressing about it when there was simply nothing that could be done until the police filed their own reports.
Once she had put the phone down after that call, she dropped the heavy phone directory to the floor and swivelled around on the chair so she was facing her father's computer. Her heart felt slightly heavy as she waited for it to boot itself up.
Not too long ago she had been done this, except David had been sitting by her side. It was almost ridiculous to think that the two had been planning on purchasing a property together just a few months ago. She scowled as she thought of that day, had he already been cheating on her then? She found that she didn't doubt that he had been. She shook her head and sighed, pondering on David's misdeeds wasn't healthy and if she was ever going to get over him then she needed to stop letting her mind drift to him every five minutes.
The computer flashed blue and the log on screen popped up.
"Whatcha doing?"
She paused, hand hovering over the mouse as she prepared to log into the device, "house hunting," she muttered out, all to aware that Rianne had sidled into the study and had hoisted herself up onto the side of the desk.
"So soon?" Rianne asked with wide eyes, "you hate sharing a room with me that much?"
"Yes," Levy said curtly, though she smiled as she spoke.
"Liar," Rianne scoffed, "you love sharing with me."
Levy hummed half heartedly, not really paying attention to his sister anymore, and instead tried to work out what her budget was for the apartment she would have to purchase.
As luck would have it, because of her previous intentions to purchase a home with David, she did have a fair bit of money saved up, which was a comforting thought. She wasn't sure she would be able to swallow her pride enough to ask her parents for money.
"That's a nice one," Rianne said suddenly, pointing to a large house Levy had just scrolled past on the website she was looking at.
Levy snorted, "too expensive. I need something cheap, affordable and ready to move in immediately."
"You really want to get out of here huh?" Rianne asked softly.
Levy swivelled round on the chair so she could face her sister, hearing the hurt in her voice, "you'll understand once you've moved out, but…coming back here and relying on mummy and daddy again is like a stab to the gut for me. I have to get out and up on my own two feet again."
A comfortable silence ensued for a few moments, as Rianne digested what Levy had just told her. Finally, she nodded before forcibly pushing Levy's chair the right way round so she faced the computer screen once more.
"Well then, I'm gonna help you find somewhere to live if it means that much to you."
"You don't have to Ri," Levy protested, "go have fun with your frie-"
"Nope! The quicker you find a new place to live, the quicker I have my bed to myself again!"
Levy giggled.
"Fine," she sighed, "let's find me a home."
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The "Great Mission to get my sister out of my bed", as Rianne had so cheerfully dubbed it, last until the early evening. Unfortunately, Levy wasn't sure they had actually accomplished anything. Despite having a decent amount of money saved up, she didn't have nearly enough to compete with the rising house prices in the type of neighbourhood she had lived in before.
She had loved her old neighbourhood, it was safe, clean and not too far away from any major transport links that would take her into the city when she needed. However, it was a pretty costly neighbourhood, and the only reason she'd been able to afford her home then was because her parents had kindly chipped in. She hadn't minded her parents helping her out as much back then since she had just been starting out in her job, and there was no way she would have been able to afford it alone, and she had made sure to pay back every penny. But this time, she had a steady job and source of income and felt silly relying on her parents.
The two sisters had quickly ruled out the areas that were similar to her previous neighbourhood and decided to downscale a little.
Levy conceded that she didn't mind living in a busier and more noisier neighbourhood if it meant house prices were cheaper, but she would not compromise on safety.
The areas that search brought them to were slightly more run down than her previous area, but nothing she couldn't deal with. They soon found several apartments for sale that were within Levy's price range, and one small flat that was cheap enough that Levy would still have a modest amount of money left in her bank account after purchasing.
Because of that fact, Levy found herself vying for that apartment more than the others. It looked a bit run down, but she was sure it wasn't anything a lick of paint wouldn't fix. She jotted down the number of the estate agents she needed and proceeded to call.
As luck would have it, all four apartments were being sold by the same agency, and the person she spoke to on the phone agreed to meet her on Wednesday morning to view each of the homes.
Levy would have preferred an earlier meeting, but the woman had apologised and said they were swamped, and Wednesday was the earliest she could view all the apartments.
With a reluctant sigh, she had agreed, thanked the woman and hung up.
"Oh c'mon," Rianne said cheerfully, noting that Levy looked rather crestfallen after hanging up the phone, "it is a Sunday evening, realistically you can't have expected to get much of a response."
"No…I knew I wouldn't get a viewing today, but Wednesday? That's so far away!" Levy wailed, burying her head in her hands.
Rianne narrowed her eyes, "welp," she huffed, jumping off the desk and stretching her legs, "I'm afraid you'll just have to deal with your family for three days longer. Sorry if it causes you any discomfort."
"Don't be like that Ri," Levy said softly, "I just…well this is tough for me ok?"
"And that's what you have your family for, to help you through it. You don't have to do everything alone Levy."
The two sisters stared at each other critically for a moment or two before Levy gave in.
"Jeez," she grumbled, switching the computer off and following her sister out of the room, "again with the you acting older than me. It's creepy."
Rianne just cackled.
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With stealth that would put a ninja to shame, Lucy quietly snuck out of her office and hurried towards the kitchen where she could hear several hushed voices. It was only due to the long period of time she had spent working at the firehouse and how close she had become with the people inside it that she could deduce that Erza's voice was not one of them. Still, that didn't mean Erza wasn't near by and Lucy did not want to be caught slacking off by the scarlet haired woman, so she quickened her pace whilst still trying to remain as noiseless as possible.
To her delight she had been right in her assumptions and when she entered the kitchen she found a cheerful Juvia talking to a tired looking Gray and to her surprise, an even more tired looking Cana.
"Cana?" Lucy asked in confusion as she entered the room, being careful to close the door behind her, "what're you doing in today? I thought Mira was supposed to be doing this shift?"
Cana nodded, stifling a yawn as she bobbed her hair, "y-yeah," she yawned, "but I swapped with her. Something about meeting her boyfriend's parents. I wasn't stopped listening after she promised to by me drinks next time we go out, so," she shrugged and shot Lucy an impish smile, "I wasn't really gonna say no was I?"
Lucy chuckled as she strode deeper into the room to lean against the small coffee table, "I keep telling you Cana, that dependency on alcohol you've got is so not healthy."
"Yeah yeah," Cana laughed good naturedly, having heard it all before, "I'm young, let me have my fun."
Lucy nodded in agreement, in their line of work you never knew if you would make it to the next day. It was a harsh truth, but a truth all the same.
"So what're you doing here Lucy," Gray mumbled, "you know Erza's on duty today?"
"Don't I know it," Lucy replied with a roll of the eyes, Erza was such a stickler for the rules it was so unfair being on duty with her around, "but I haven't seen her around in a while, I thought it would be safe for me to come and have a talk with you guys. Where is she by the way?"
"Erza-san noticed there wasn't any milk left in the fridge so she went to get some," Juvia said helpfully, "Juvia thinks she'll be back soon."
"Damn."
Everyone in the kitchen laughed.
"What's so important that you risked your life to tell us anyway?" Gray asked, he had moved to sit down at the table and was now resting his head in his hands. Clearly working a late shift and then the morning shift the following day was taking its toll on the young man.
Lucy faked a look of innocence, "why nothing Gray!" she gasped, pretending to be hurt, "can't I simply venture into the kitchen to talk to my good friends without having an ulterior motive?"
"Not when Erza's on duty you can't."
Cana giggled, "he's got a point there, so…" she moved to sidle up to Lucy and Juvia did the same, "spill."
Lucy rolled her eyes, was she really that easy to read?
"I just had a question about a certain fire fighter we all know and love," she said slowly, "Cana, Gray, you both worked last night right?"
"Yeah."
"Hngg," Gray grunted from his place at the table, his head was now lolling against the wooden surface, and it looked like he was about to fall asleep at any moment.
"And Gajeel," Lucy continued, "how was Gajeel?"
"Same jerk as always!" Cana answered cheerfully.
"Pretty much," Gray muttered in agreement.
Juvia looked at both of friends with reproachful eyes, "Cana , Juvia doesn't think you should call Gajeel a jerk. Gajeel is just…just…different."
That comment elicited another bout of laughter from her friends. Out of everyone at the fire house, Juvia had known Gajeel the longest, both of them having come from a different fire house across the city, and thus was more tolerant and kinder towards him than most. Despite how rude he could be to her, they seemed to have a fairly close relationship and Juvia tended to dislike when people commented on his brashness.
"They don't mean it in a harsh way Juvia," Lucy assured her, "it's more of a friendly observation."
"Juvia does not think it sounds very friendly," she huffed, but decided to let it go.
"Why the fascination with Gajeel?"
Lucy waggled her brows, "it's not a fascination, I was just reading over his case notes from last night, and well…they were pretty interesting."
Cana frowned, "nothing interesting happened last night. Did it, Gray?"
Gray replied by snoring faintly.
"Ooook," Cana sighed, "well I'm fairly certain nothing interesting happened last night. There was a fire. We put the fire out. Listened to a few hundred people moan about it. Voila, nothing interesting."
"Nothing interesting you perhaps, but did you see who Gajeel was talking to?"
Cana shrugged, "some girl? I think it was her apartment that the fire originated in, what was that nickname he gave her?"
"Lasagne girl!" Juvia put in helpfully, Gray had been telling her about it before their shift had started, "apparently she fell asleep cooking lasagne and well…you saw the results."
"Pssh," Cana snorted, "who burns lasagne?"
"She did."
"I can see that Juvia."
"But you asked wh-"
"One of these days I will explain rhetorical questions to you. Maybe."
Juvia's brows furrowed in confusion, but she nodded silently, a lot of people seemed to say that to her.
"Anyway," Lucy butt in, getting increasingly worried that Erza would arrive soon and send her back to solitude, "I was reading over the report and that wasn't the only nickname is christened the poor girl with. Lasagne Girl, Fairy, Pixy, Crybaby…I could go on and on, but that's not the interesting part. Here!" she stuck out the folder she had been holding under her arm and thrust it in Juvia and Cana's faces.
Gray snored a little louder this time.
"What?"
"It's the case file, read it. Just flip it open and read!"
Eyeing Lucy up as if she had possibly gone insane, which in all honesty was a pretty plausible idea, Juvia and Cana opened up the case file and dutifully read the notes.
Lucy watched in triumph as slowly their eyes began to widen in disbelief.
"No," Cana said once they had gotten through most of the file, "no."
"Juvia…" Juvia sighed, "Juvia finds it difficult to believe Gajeel wrote this."
"No way in hell did Gajeel write this!" Cana exclaimed, "you see this? This right here is correct spelling and grammar, I didn't even know Gajeel knew what grammar was!"
Lucy giggled at Cana's exaggeration to Gajeel's normally very short and scruffily presented reports he usually handed in.
"No, I'm serious Lucy," Cana said, "this report is like Erza level. What the hell got into him last night?"
"I'm fairly certain it has something to do with that girl, the one he called lasagne girl? She must've caught his attention somehow," Lucy replied rationally.
Cana stared at her dubiously, whilst Juvia was still eyeing up the report, still not believing what she saw.
"Just think about it," Lucy said quickly, noting that Cana didn't think her reasoning was very sound, "Gajeel only ever puts effort into things that interest him personally, even if he doesn't know he's doing it. For him to actually write a report that won't get him in trouble, shows he's seriously interested in her, for some reason."
"I don't think I've ever seen Gajeel interested in a girl," Cana murmured, "what about you Juvia, you've known him for longest?"
Juvia paused, contemplating her answer before shaking her head, "Juvia does not think she's ever known Gajeel to have a girlfriend."
Lucy nodded wisely, she wasn't sure what it was but something about the young woman from last night had sparked Gajeel's attention, even if he wasn't aware of it himself yet.
She opened her mouth to voice her opinion, but another voice spoke out.
A voice nobody particularly wanted to hear.
"Lucy," said the voice.
Lucy gulped.
Cana gulped.
Juvia gulped.
Gray snored.
"this is not your desk, is it?"
Lucy shook her head.
"Maybe you should get to your desk?"
"Aye sir!" Lucy yelped, dashing past Erza to run back down the corridor to her office. If there was one thing Erza hated, it was people slacking off when they were supposed to be working.
"Cana, Juvia, shouldn't at least one of you be manning the emergency phone?"
Juvia nodded sheepishly before darting off, purposely making her way past the table to nudge Gray into hopefully waking up.
Unfortunately her plan didn't work, and all it did was allude Erza to the fact that Gray was fast asleep.
Erza's eye twitched and Cana took that as a sign to high tail it out of there.
Sorry Gray, every man for himself, Cana mumbled to herself as she snuck out of the back entrance to the kitchen.
Gray's yelps of surprise could be heard from around the block.
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A/N: *sheepishly updates and hopes you don't hate me*
I am so sorry for this fics lateness in updates, so sorry. A combination of being so damn busy and lack of muse meant I neglected this. But it's summer now (even though its been raining non stop ~_~) and my muse has returned so I'm going to try and update much more regularly now!
Next chapter will probably have some interaction from Levy and Gajeel! (wink wink nudge nudge)
review pls~