Dawn soon broke and the group woke up to finish their journey.
Levy yawned and got up to stretch her stiff muscles. Satisfied grunts coming from her as she did so. Gajeel stared subtlety as she bent over and made suggestive sounds and dug his claws into the earth as he struggled to suppress a growl at the sight before him.
"No! Get it together!" Gajeel yelled to himself as he vigorously shook his head to clear his mind of his lewd thoughts. "Stupid pheromones!" He thought grumpily.
"Gajeel?" Gajeel snapped his attention back to Levy at hearing her calling out to him.
"We're heading out now to catch some breakfast before we arrive at the Selection location." Levy said softly.
"…Gihi~ Sounds good, I'm starved." Gajeel smirked as he built up false bravado to mask his tense state of mind.
"Come on Levy! You're an even better fisher than we are, let's go get some grub!" Droy called out as he rushed towards the river.
"Coming~" Levy smiled as she waited for Gajeel to finish stretching, watching out of the corner of her eye as he did so with a tinge of blush crawling up her face.
After eating the group continued their journey and made it to the center of the forest by late morning.
"WOW! Look at all the cats! I'm getting fired up thinking about all the new challengers I get to face!" Natsu ran off and Lucy sighed at the idiotic display.
"Gihi~ the dumbass has the right idea!" Gajeel ran off after him but looked back at yelled to Jet and Droy, "Look after the girls!"
"Heh, those two never change." Lucy chuckled.
Levy hummed softly in response as she watched Gajeel barrel into an all out brawl with several other males.
"Should we take a look around?" Jet asked, eyes drifting to the many females giggling excitedly in his direction.
"Go on Jet, we'll stay right here, out of harms way." Levy urged, wishing her friend luck in finding a mate.
"W~ell… if you promise to stay safe…" Jet said taking a half step towards a group of females.
"We promise." Levy and Lucy said in unison.
Jet dashed off and soon after Droy decided to lie down effectively fell asleep.
"So what should we do now?" Lucy asked nervously.
"According to Mira, the Selection lasts for 5 days, but it technically doesn't begin until noon after the rules are explained." Levy said while surveying the area.
"I vote for just staying here and resting, something tells me we'll need it…" Lucy said eyeing several males that were watching them.
They sat near Droy and enjoyed their time together.
"Excuse me ladies~" They turned to see two males approaching them, the first was the one who called out to them, he was large with white gleaming fur and an assortment of spots trailing down his body and green eyes, the other an average sized male with brown colored fur and swirls along his sides and one across the right half of his face, highlighting the clear blue in his eyes.
"I couldn't help noticing you two beautiful felines all alone with no one to talk too~ Especially you, such lovely golden fur~" The male said with charisma as he took a step closer to Lucy.
"U-uh… t-thanks, your fur is very nice too…?" Lucy stammered at the unexpected attention.
"Come on Shiro give her some space, you just met her." The other male interjected.
"Pardon me ladies for my rudeness, I hope you'll forgive me?" Shiro said with a dashing smile that made both girls blush.
"No offense taken…Shiro was it? My name is Lucy"
"A-and my name is Levy." Both girls still getting used to male attention.
"My name is Atlas, and it's a pleasure to meet you both." He said humbly, seeing that they weren't the only ones nervous helped them relax a bit.
"Is this you're first time here?" Atlas asked.
"Yes it is, we're here with friends of ours as well. Is this you're first Selection as well?" Levy answered.
"This is the first time the Selection has the honor of my presence~ Perhaps some lucky cat will win over my heart~" Shiro said with a purr as he smiled at Lucy, causing her to blush madly.
Levy tensed as she noticed Atlas staring at her.
"I-is there something wrong?" Levy said self-consciously.
"I-I'm sorry if I was staring!" He said nervously. "I-it's just… you're even more stunning up close…" He said looking away, blushing madly.
"W-what do you m-mean?! Have we met before?" Levy racked her brain for clues.
"Not formally… you see I… I first saw you siting in the moonlight last night… you were breathtaking!" Atlas said while stepping closer to Levy. Levy was taken aback at the compliments and was about to respond when she felt anger bristling in the air.
"So you're the fucker that was rustling around the bushes last night." A voice laced with scorn said unexpectedly that made the group tense at the sudden pressure emitting off of an irate Gajeel.
"Gajeel! Don't be rude." Levy scolded but Gajeel was more focused at the unknown male that was just a few feet away from Levy.
"So sorry about that Atlas." Levy apologized.
"…Not to worry Levy, I should explain myself. I had broken away from my group on our way here to get something to drink, and that's when I saw you by the bank. I wasn't going to disturb you but I accidentally broke some branches while I was heading back and when I looked back, you were gone."
"How romantic~" Lucy sighed.
"W-what?! N-n-no no no, I was just-"
"Leaving?" Gajeel said as he moved to sit between Levy and Atlas, challenge loud and clear to the rival male.
"Gajeel!" Levy turned to reproach his sudden hostile behavior.
"Actually I think that would be best, its almost noon and we have to get back to our friends. Let's go Shiro." Atlas said as he gave a timid smile to Levy.
"Until next time Lucy~" Shiro said with a wink as he strutted away.
"Nice to meet you two!" Levy said cheerfully.
"Ohho Levy~ Someone has a suitor~" Lucy said in a singsong voice.
"Tch!" Gajeel grumbled as he watched Atlas with his group.
"Eh!? D-don't you start Lucy… how about you? Shiro seems to like you."
"Who likes Lucy?" The group turned to see Natsu returning with a blissful looking Jet.
"Err… N-nothing!" Lucy said quickly.
"…?" Natsu cocked his head and was going to continue to question her, but the starting of the Selection interrupted him.