Ch 4

New chapter! I feel so proud of myself.

Lucy bounced in her seat, pressing her phone to her ear impatiently, waiting for her friend to pick up the phone.

"Hallo?"

"LEVY! I have fantastic news!"

"Lu! What's up? Actually, give me one sec." Levy pulled the phone away from her ear and yelled "Ich komme wieder. Üben Sie Ihre Sprech bis dahin!" Turning, she left the room and put her phone back on her ear in time to hear Lucy giggle.

"Were you teaching? Sorry for the interruption."

"Nah, it's fine. I was planning on abandoning them to each other for practice anyway. My TA should keep them on track."

"So what class was that?"

"German 4200. Anyway, what was the news you were so excited about?" Levy grinned as she said the second part; she knew how forgetful her best friend was.

"Well it's got a couple parts."

Levy flopped into a desk chair and leaned back, twirling a pen on her fingers. "Okaaaay?"

"First off, the manuscript for my next book went through!" she said excitedly.

"Good job girl! I know how hard you worked on it."

"Second, and this is the big one… Song of the Wind has become so popular here, they want to release it in other languages too!"

Levy's jaw dropped and she almost fell out of her chair. "LU! THAT'S FANTASTIC!"

Lucy hugged herself and wiggled. "Isn't it? Plus…" She grinned slyly. "They gave me a choice of translators for the book for different languages."

Levy smiled to herself. She knew how much this meant to her friend. "So, who did you pick?"

"Well, that's actually one of the reasons I'm calling."

"Oh, do you need some help choosing? Each language has specialty translators-" Levy was cut off by Lucy's cheerful laugh.

"No, silly! I want you to be the translator!"

This time she did fall out of her chair, making Lucy laugh even harder.

"Lu, are you sure? I specialize in non-creative prose translations, I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep the emotions right."

"Apparently I trust your skills more than you do" she said drily. "I'm sure you can do it. Besides, you know every language they want to print it in, so the translations will all have the same feeling!"

"I don't know…" Levy was clearly still worried.

Lucy smiled softly. Her best friend could be incredibly modest and reticent at times. "Levs, you know I wouldn't ask if I didn't think you could do it. I'd love to have you as my translator. Will you do it?"

Levy sighed and smiled. "You're going to regret it!"

"YAY! And no, no I will not. Anyway, can you come to my publisher's office in about an hour? And bring some samples of your translations if you can, just in case."

Levy glanced at the clock. "Yeah, I guess. I warn you though, I'll have to come straight from class so I'll still be in my teaching clothes."

Lucy snickered. "Somehow, I don't think they'll have a problem with you showing up in your language freak clothes." 2 years before, Lucy had jokingly gotten her a long, tunic style shirt with patterns of Cyrillic, Greek, and Arabic letters, with borders of various Korean, Japanese, and Chinese characters. She had loved it so much that the shirt, paired with leggings, had become her standard outfit for when she was teaching classes at the nearby colleges.

Levy shrugged. "True. I'll go straight there after I finish beating these kids with the language stick. Can you text me the address?"

"Sure. See you then! And thanks a ton Levs!" The blonde blew kisses through the phone.

Levy giggled at her antics. "Ciao, Lu."

Ending the phone call, she lept up from her chair and raced back to class. Time to drive some grammar into her victims–er, students.

3 hours later, the 2 women walked out of the tall building together, bubbling with happiness. In Levy's large bag was a copy of the manuscript to be translated. The publisher had been thrilled that one of Lucy's best friends was a skilled translator, and wanted her to get started right away since she would have to translate it into several different languages – all time consuming processes. Though the publisher was paying her generously enough that she had no problem having to skip other translation jobs for the time it would take to finish the project.

As they split up to head to their cars, Lucy stopped Levy, who looked at her questioningly.

"Let's go to Lily's tonight to celebrate. I'll get everyone to come along. We can have a girls night out!"

Levy lit up at the thought of some of Lily's wonderful drinks and food. "Sounds awesome. Let me know when to get there."

"I will. Have a safe drive back!"

Levy laughed and strode over to her car, ready for a solid few hours before she had to leave.

Or not.

Levy sighed, glumly watching the flashing lights that filled the street in front of her apartment building. She could have been reading a nice book. Getting started on translating the book. Maybe binge-watched some Netflix with her cats.

But noooooo. Instead she was sitting on the curb across the street from her building, with nothing but her teaching materials and the manuscript. All because her idiotic neighbors had to set their food on fire while she was gone.

Her apartment was fine, of course, as were her cats. If it wasn't, she'd be making heads roll instead of just being annoyed. As it was, Gail and Jeel were probably just hanging around the apartment wishing all the people would go away so they could sleep. Ooh! Maybe they were fuzzy cuddling; Jeel had proved to be a sucker for the tiny blue cat when she wanted to snuggle.

But anyway, all her stuff was perfectly fine. No, her building was old enough that city code mandated that they couldn't enter the building until the fire was put out and the ENTIRE building had been inspected for structural damage. So here she was, stuck outside with nothing to do – all her books, translation tools, and her computer were inside. Unfortunately, so were her clothes. She had really wanted to freshen up some and change before they all met up at Lily's that night.

"Oh, my!"

Levy turned towards the source of the exclamation and came face to face with Lisanna, who had come up behind her and was now watching the scene with interest.

"What happened here?"

Levy snorted. "Y'know those idiot twins that live down the hall from me? And how the one keeps trying to beat Natsu's restaurant's reviews?"

Understanding dawned on Lisanna's face. "Oh dear. Was he trying some new technique?"

She rolled her eyes. "If you can call failing at flambéing something a technique, then yes."

Lisanna groaned. "Speaking of which, I'm surprised Natsu hasn't burned down the Salamander's Sushi Bar yet, what with all the flambé and other fire he uses. Though I guess Erza would fillet him if she lost a chance to be constantly brandishing her knife collection."

Levy shivered. Erza without an outlet for stress was a terrifying creature. Thank god her boyfriend owned a cake shop...

Lisanna seemed to read her mind. "Every time they do something stupid, I thank Mavis that Lucy and Jellal can control their idiots."

Levy was about to reply when she heard a new car pull up, distracting her. Curious, she craned her head to see who it was.

The building manager. Talk about useless.

Levy buried her head in her arms in frustration as the man starting screeching at the fire department that they'd better not damage anything because he certainly wasn't paying for the damages.

Suddenly Lisanna clapped, making Levy jump. "I know! Why don't you come hang out at the shop until it's time for us all to head to Lily's? It doesn't look like this mess will be cleaned up any time soon, and I'm sure we can find something for you to do so you aren't ripping your hair out."

Levy smiled at her thankfully, standing up. "That sounds like a great idea. Want a ride to shop? I'll just drive straight to Lily's from there." Lisanna nodded, and the bluenette turned and started walking to her car.

Unnoticed by Levy, Lisanna pulled her phone out and sent a text to a certain match making demon.

Target acquired. En route to shop.

Then she innocently slid her phone back into her pocket and ran to catch up.

I was totally going to make them meet this chapter but I was having major writer's block about how to get her to the shop (oops, mini spoiler)… so I ended up doing this. Plus you got some tidbits of backstory – though more will be coming.

Thanks to CallItAdventure, TiPoLover 22 (your named enlightened me; I didn't realize Kung Fu panda shipping was a thing) and midnightreader (again!) for your wonderful reviews.

Random notes: a TA is a teaching assistant (basically a term for older college students that act as sort of an assistant to professors in university class) and the German she yelled was saying that she would be back and that they should practice their speaking until then.

So, I have a plan for the next chapter but actually putting it into Word is proving difficult. The next chapter will definitely be up before September ends (Green Day will wake up to at least one new chapter! Yay! Sorry, music adorer). Also, confession, I was feeling melancholy so I used the majority of my words today on a short Laxana one shot about 9/11. But yeah, the next chapter should be out within a week or 2 so see you then.

Bonus points: Anyone pick up my massive hints and figure out who her mysterious neighbors that caused the fire were?