"So where is Gajeel-kun taking you, Levy-chan?"

The majority of the females in Fairy Tail were crammed into Levy's small apartment, as Mira and Lucy rifled through her wardrobe. The script mage herself was sandwiched between Juvia and Lisanna on her bed, as Cana and Erza sat on the floor waiting for their opportunity to weigh in their opinions on any outfit choice. Levy turned at Juvia's question, blushing as she did.

"I don't actually know… He's told me that he is going to pick me up at eight tonight, and that I should be ready for then."

Seeing as it was currently midday, Levy didn't think that she needed to start getting ready for at least another six hours, but the girls had other ideas as soon as she told them. At her answer Juvia practically attacked her, wrapping her arms around the smaller bluenette and squealing in her ear.

"Juvia remembers her and Gray-sama's first date! Gray-sama took Juvia to a lake just south of Fiore, and he used his ice magic to freeze it and we went ice-skating even though it was July! Juvia thought it was magical!"

Levy blushed. It didn't take much to get Juvia started on her relationship with Gray, and she should have predicted that the fact she had a date would set the water mage off again. Mira pulled a dress out of the wardrobe, showing it to Levy before the script mage shook her head. She hadn't fitted in that dress for a few years. Contrary to popular belief, she had actually grown since she was twelve. The takeover mage sighed, dropping the dress to the floor before disappearing back into Levy's scant clothes stash.

"You know, we're probably going to have to go shopping. There's just nothing here Levy can wear out on a date. At least Freed had the decency to give me some sort of warning so I knew what to wear."

Lucy popped her head out of the wardrobe, holding a pair of jeans in her hand that she held up for consideration.

"What did you and Freed fo on your first date, Mira?"

The takeover mage reappeared from the depths of the wardrobe empty-handed. The look in her eyes was almost as dreamy as Juvia's as she remembered her own first date.

"Freed took us dancing in Crocus. It was a royal ball that he got invited to after doing a job for the king and we danced all night long."

Cana smirked, grabbing her bottle of liquor from the floor and taking a swig out of it.

"You know we really could have guessed that you and that geek would have gone on such a boring date."

Mira pouted at the drunk, before opening her mouth to respond.

"At least my first date wasn't just getting drunk in a bar like every other day."

Cana just laughed back as Mira disappeared back into the wardrobe. If she was bothered by Mira's insult she didn't show it, and simply went back to drinking. Levy looked between all of the girls in her room before speaking.

"If I'm honest, I can't see Gajeel taking me ice skating or dancing, and I hope he's not taking me to a bar… Maybe I will get away with just the jeans?"

The jeans in question were definitely not casual, and paired with a nice top could pass as date wear. Lisanna grabbed them off Lucy, and added them to the pile for further consideration.

"My first date with Jellal was on a mission, maybe he's going to take you to do a job?"

Lucy nodded at Erza's story, giving up on dresses and looking for tops she could pair either with the jeans or with one of the skirts she had found.

"That's exactly what Natsu did. I didn't even realise he meant it as a date until he was bragging about it to Gray later on."

Levy grabbed a shirt that was thrown at her, a simple black blouse that had ruffles around the chest to try to accentuate her breasts. She remembered the kind of jobs Gajeel tended to go on, and couldn't imagine joining him in the types of clothes they were suggesting she wore. She really did hope that he knew better than to do that. In fact, none of the dates that her friends had described were really appealing to her. There was always Lisanna's first date, but she really wasn't holding out for whatever Bickslow had planned to be that much better.

"Lis? How about you and Bickslow, what did you do as your first date?"

The younger takeover mage blushed, pausing in her job of pairing tops and bottoms together to make whole outfits for consideration.

"Well… Bickslow and I have never really had a date. He either turns up and we do whatever comes to mind or we just stay in and…"

"Nope! Nope, nope nope." Mira pulled back from the wardrobe with a final top in her hands, before heading over to the bed. "I do not want to know what you and Bickslow do. Now, Levy. Let's get trying some of these on."

They had finally settled on a black blouse and jeans, something that was nice enough if Gajeel decided to take them to a fancy restaurant but casual enough if they just wanted to a bar. Erza had leant her a scarf that was knotted around her neck, and Cancer had put her hair up in a bun. Mira and Lisanna had fussed around with her face, arguing how much make-up they should be putting on her before settling for something very minimal. Juvia had finally shooed them out of the apartment at ten minutes to eight, and Levy found herself pacing her front room while waiting for Gajeel to appear. The clock on her wall clicked forward for the ten minutes, and as soon as the second hand turned to eight o'clock, she heard three raps on the door. Levy smirked. She wondered whether Gajeel had been stood outside staring at his watch until the exact second before knocking. Swallowing down the last of her nerves, she headed over to the door, took a deep breath and opening the door to her Dragon Slayer.

Gajeel was stood outside her apartment, dressed in jeans and a button down shirt, and handed Levy a bunch of forget-me-nots the exact same colour of her hair without saying a word. Levy smiled again at the blush across Gajeel's face as he refused to look at her. Levy took the flowers as she opened the door wider to let Gajeel in.

"Good evening, Gajeel. Do you want a cup of tea while I find a vase for these?"

Gajeel stepped through her door, but still looked awkward as he stood next to her desk and absentmindedly move papers around as Levy headed to the kitchen.

"No, thank you. We'll have a drink where we're going. Are you ready?"

Levy reappeared from the kitchen with the flowers in a small jar, placed them on the desk and grabbed Gajeel's arm while they both headed to the door.

Gajeel kept quiet about where they were going all the way along the main high street of Fiore. They passed the many bars and restaurants that lined the street, and headed further along to where the buildings shifted more to shops than places to eat. They walked along in silence, Gajeel wringing his hands as he walked along. Levy never would have thought that she would have been the least nervous on their date. As Gajeel peeled off and moved down a side alleyway her brain was moving at a hundred miles an hour trying to figure out what was going on. She tried to remember the shops that were down here, but all she could think off were the small cafe, the tattoo studio and a small independent bookshop that sold specialist books that Levy couldn't even dream of affording. Was Gajeel going to take her to get a tattoo, or a piercing? She had to admit that was a very Gajeel thing…

Levy was pulled out of her thoughts when Gajeel produced a key from his pocket to open up the shutters to the book shop. As soon as they had hit the top of their runners he proceeded to open the door and let them both in.

"Uh, Gajeel?"

The iron Dragon slayer didn't reply as he flicked on the lights and relocked the door behind them. He disappeared behind the counter for a second, heading through a door to the back room before returning with a thermos flask full of what smelt like coffee. As he poured out the almost black liquid into two mugs he'd retrieved from under the counter he finally started to provide Levy with some answers.

"I saved the owner's daughter from a dark guild a couple of months ago. Despite owning this place he didn't have any money to pay for a reward, so I just left it with him owing me a favour. Now he can't spare any of the books to give to you on a permanent basis but we're free to come in here whenever we want." Disappearing back under the counter he came back up with a notepad and pen, and pulled her gale force reading glasses out of his coat. He must have pocketed them when she went into the kitchen at her apartment. "I thought you might need these."

The rest of the date ended up with Levy surrounded by incredibly rare books, and Gajeel sitting to the side and just observing her. Occasionally he would get up and provide her with more coffee, but for the most part he just watched her face light up as she found something interesting and scribbled it down in her notepad. It wasn't a conventional date, sure, and he knew she would be feeling guilty about ignoring him in the morning (which at this point was only about two hours away) but for Gajeel, this was perfect. Despite her silence, being able to spend time with his shrimp was more than enough for him.