Ch 5
Soooo… Thanks to…
TiPoLover – lil' bit in here. Major GaLe is coming soon – like sickeningly sweet amounts.
LuxRayGuy – ding ding, you win! We might see a few more cameos from them since think they're a great way to add some random throwaway comedic relief, but we'll see.
Ink-Strings – you know Mira's gonna be all over them. Also, I feel so special for getting a double review :O
midnightreader – Hello to you too! And yeah, honestly I meant to have them meet earlier… but I kept not doing it. I guess I'm pulling a Mashima and procrastinating on my ships. Anyway, you were really close with your guess of where their meeting would be, and I applaud you for that, as well as guessing the twins correctly. I'm glad I'm not the only one enjoying some background info XD it's my weakness – and I could totally picture her in a tunic too. Plus they're so comfortable, so I figured it would be a great thing to wear for teaching.
…for the reviews. Also thanks to everyone who follows and favs it, it means a lot to me that people like it enough to keep track of their struggles.
On to chapter 5!
"Okay… tilt your head a little more, I need a better angle… ah, that's great! Okay, I'm all done." Mira set down her camera, smiling, as Levy relaxed.
"Jeez Lisanna, when you said you could find something to keep me occupied, I didn't think this was what you had in mind" she joked.
The moment she had stepped into the Strauss's clothing shop, Mira had pounced on the small woman, whisking her away to the back of the shop, babbling about 'perfect timing' and how she had a dress she wanted Levy to model for the photo wall.
See, the Strauss siblings owned a rather… unique shop. Their parents had begun it years before as a small boutique filled with cute clothes made by their mother. After the 3 siblings – Mirajane, Elfman, and Lisanna – had taken over the shop when their parents died in a car crash, they had expanded the store to specialize in made-to-order clothing, made from either a brand new custom design or based off of their previous products. Hence, the photo wall – one entire side of the store that was covered in posed photographs of outfits. Many of the photos used the family's friends from the area as both inspiration and models for the outfits.
Which was why Levy was currently perched inside a birdcage.
To be fair, it was a very nice birdcage. The massive, white filigree cage – she had idea where it had come from, and quite frankly was terrified of being enlightened about its origins – had been placed on the floor by the window and festooned with flowers delicate white and baby blue flowers and ribbons. Paired with the dress Levy was modelling, it looked quite spectacular. Though, again, Mavis knew why Mira had the cage lying around to begin with… sometimes it was better not to question her.
Lisanna giggled as she disentangled the ribbons wound about the bars enough that she could let the bluenette out. "You have to admit, it did pass the time." She glanced at the clock. "It's almost time to meet the girls at Lily's to celebrate."
Levy frowned, climbing out of the cage. "Do you think I have time to go back to my apartment and get ready? I really should change."
Mira suddenly leapt into their conversation, still holding the camera. "Why don't you just wear that? It's casual enough but looks stunning. Plus it would be good advertisement for the shop!" she chirped. "Besides, we aren't even sure if you're allowed back in the building yet, remember?" Lisanna reminded her
Levy studied herself in the full length mirror beside her. The dress was a pale orange color, fitted around her torso and flaring around her hips to accentuate her small waist, the hem falling around mid-thigh. The neckline was edged in cream colored braids, with a matching larger braid as a loose belt around her hips. The girls had also put her in a pair of matching orange wedges and even enlisted their sister-in-law, Evergreen to do her hair and makeup to coordinate with the outfit before the woman left to pick up her daughter from kindergarten.
Sighing inwardly, she realized that they were probably right. "If you're sure it's okay…" Mira nodded eagerly – Hm, suspicious – as Lisanna dug out an orange purse with the same cream braiding as a strap. "Here, use this while we're there. You can leave your bag with your clothes in your car." Lisanna glanced at the clock as Levy stuffed her clothes into her oversized tote, pulling out a few small items to slip into the smaller purse. "Speaking of which, time to go! You go on ahead, we'll lock up and follow you." Levy nodded in assent and leaned in to hug them both. "Thanks for the outfit guys! See you in a few."
As the door swung shut behind her, the two sisters high fived, smirking.
"This is gonna be great."
Adjusting the strap of her purse on her shoulder, Levy pushed open the door to Lily's Bar and Café. She sighed happily as the ever present scent of coffee, alcohol, tea, and old leather washed over her. The drink shop was paneled in dark wood, with leather-cushioned booths lining two walls, small tables and chairs filling the floor, and a wide bar wrapping around the other two walls. The back corner of the restaurant, by the end of the bar, held a small stage where local bands could perform or customers could dance along with the old fashioned jukebox.
Glancing towards the loudest part of the restaurant, Levy chuckled. It looked like almost everyone was there already, and their group had taken over the entire corner opposite the stage – people were perched at the bar, sitting in booths, and circling the freestanding tables. Everyone was laughing and joking with each other. Just seeing the rowdy group melted away all of her apprehension over Mira's somewhat suspicious actions.
"Ah! Levy! Over here!" came Lucy's excited voice, the blonde waving to her wildly from her seat beside her boyfriend, Natsu. Smiling, the bluenette wove her way through the tables towards her friend, greeting everybody. It looked like a standard day at the café, plus a few extra people. Juvia was holding hands with Gray, who was exchanging glares with Natsu from where he was talking with Loke and Aries about the pink-hair woman's new pregnancy. Bisca and Alzack were laughing as they watched Elfman try to teach both their child and his own about being manly, the two little girls staring at him solemnly as Evergreen punched his shoulder and started scolding him for giving them weird ideas and Bixlow cackled maniacally. Further down the bar, Macao and Wakaba were watching Vijeeter try to teach Max, Warren and Jet the dance his students had choreographed while Droy was stuffing his face, the observers laughing every time one of the men stumbled over their own feet. Levy noticed that Lisanna had gone to talk with Bixlow – the two had an interesting relationship – and Mira had greeted Freed with a kiss before moving to the bar to chat with Cana, who was nursing a beer. For some reason, she got a foreboding chill as she watched the two women mutter to each other secretively, occasionally glancing her way.
Shivering, she slid into the free chair across from Lucy and Natsu at their table. "Where are Romeo and Wendy? I don't see them anywhere."
The pink – ahem, salmon – haired man grinned triumphantly. "I finally convinced him that it was okay to ask Wendy out. Last I saw, they were heading out to get ice cream together."
Levy couldn't help but squeal at the news. Ever since Wendy's mother, Grandine, had moved to Fiore to marry Igneel, Natsu's father, their whole group had been trying to get Natsu's long-time admirer to confess to the girl.
Lucy gestured to the bar. "Why don't you go grab a drink? The tab's on me today in celebration!" Laxus came by to pick up the order form for Makarov, but Lily should be back in just a moment."
Laughing, Levy gave a mock salute, turned, and marched to the bar – Cana and Mira's conversation coming to a mysterious halt as the brunette raised her mug in greeting.
"Yo, baby blue!"
Levy smiled at her. "Heya, Cana. Seen Lily around?"
She jerked her chin towards the door by the end of the bar, which led to the back rooms – changing area, office, storage, and so on. "Yeah, Laxus came by to pick up Lil's order for Makarov. Shouldn't be too much longer."
Mira's face lit up. "Oh ho! Paying special attention to Laxus's whereabouts, hmm?"
Cana rolled her eyes, taking another swig from her beer. "One ship at a time, hon."
Confused, Levy glanced at the white haired woman, recoiling at the look of pure demonic glee pasted on her face. Forcing a nervous laugh, she slowly began backing away from Mira – at least until she was stopped by Cana slinging an arm around her shoulder as the older woman yelled to the men that had just emerged from the back rooms.
"Yo! Lily! Levy's here!"
Looking towards them, he cracked a rare smile. "If it isn't my favorite caffeine addict!"
Lily Pantera certainly seemed to be the exact opposite of his given name. He was tall and heavily built, with dark skin, cose- cropped black hair, and a scar at the corner of his left eye. When he had first moved to Fiore after the death of his wife, Shagotte, and opened his shop, Levy had been one of his first customers on her hunt for the perfect caffeinated beverage and a quiet spot to get some work done. Soon the whole group had established the bar/café hybrid as their favorite hangout. Since then, two of them had become good friends, despite his being almost twice her age.
Interrupting her musing, Cana slammed her hand down on the bar. "Lil! You should get your new barista to make Levs a drink to get the Baby Blue Bookworm Seal of Approval!"
Cana's comment caught the attention of several of the surrounding group. Curious, people started gathering at the bar.
"You hired someone new?"
"Who is it?"
"Someone we know?"
Lily shook his head, quieting the questions. "That's right, Cana was the only one around earlier."
Levy shot the drinking woman a suspicious look. Something was definitely up.
"Anyway, in answer to your questions, my nephew moved here a few days ago. I invited him to come work the bar with me."
Gray raised an eyebrow. "Never realized you had any family."
The big man chuckled. "It's a long story. But anyway…" he stuck his head in through the door to yell back. "Oi, get out here!"
A deep voice answered him, snorting. "Yeah, yeah. I'm comin' Lil."
Levy froze. Speechless, she glanced frantically at Mira and Cana – who were both currently barely able to restrain their glee. Nonononono.
That's impossible.
Definitely NOT him.
Hearing heavy footsteps entering the room, she slowly turned her head towards the sound.
Insanely tall? Check
Piercings? Check.
Shaggy black hair? Check.
Sexy bartender outfit? Hot damn.
After that observation, her brain opted to shut down, leaving her to stare at oh-so-familiar man that seemed rooted to his spot.
Staring back at her.
Vaguely, she heard a whisper from somewhere in the direction of 2 platinum blondes and a brunette.
"I told you it would be awesome!"
Please don't kill me for all my tangents. I love you guys and hope that you won't kill me for constantly trying to shove in bits of world building instead of making them meet already X3
Anyway since I feel bad about the uber late meeting but wanted more of Mira plotting, here's a little bonus section from Gajeel's POV since we haven't really heard from him since his travel troubles. A note on writing him; keeping his internal monologues appropriate for children is hard. Anyway, enjoy their first encounter again… but this time form his view~
Bonus mini chapter: Gajeel's side of the story
Yawning, Gajeel cracked his neck, waiting for whoever was behind the door to answer it already. Feeling a small paw prodding his stomach, he looked down at the blue cat that was nestled inside his leather jacket. Grinning, he scratched its chin as it purred at him in approval. He'd become quite attached to the little furball.
Hearing the door begin to creak open, he quickly removed his hand from inside his jacket. When the door opened, he was definitely confused. He wouldn't have pinned the rather terrifying red head in front of him as a lover of small, fluffy cats, but then… who was he to talk?
"Are ya Levy McGarden?" At his question, the woman crossed her arms, tensing up. Apparently it wasn't her after all.
"No, she's my friend. Who are you?" He almost snorted. Talk about defensive. She would never be able to bluff her way out of anything.
Well, whatever. He'd just drop the cat off and get going. As he reached into his jacket, he noticed a flash of blue out of the corner of his eye – weird.
Mentally shrugging it off, he began "I think I have somethin' of hers-" but was cut off by a shrieking blue blob hurtling towards him. Shocked, all he could do was stare dumbly as the tiny woman – who he would have sworn was the human form of the cat he had just carried for the past half hour – hugged the furball to her chest.
Internally freaking out – was this the Twilight Zone or something? – he turned to the third woman that the house had expelled, who had somehow appeared beside him as he stared at the ador– nope, nope, not going there, brain – blue one, to make sure he wasn't the only one seeing this.
She considered it, looking between the two. "Yep, she sure does…" Just as he felt some relief that he wasn't going insane, she turned a maniacal grin towards him that wiped it away. "You're in the same boat though!"
The hell? Noticing the bottle in her hands, he decided to dismiss it as the ramblings of a drunkard. Or at least he hoped they were.
His attention was brought back to the smallest one when she beamed at him – dammit she was adorable. So cute and tiny, with bouncy blue hair – the one other person he knew with blue hair hadn't been nearly this hyper – and one of the brightest smiles he had ever seen… seeing that she was looking at him expectantly, he immediately rewound his brain to figure out what he had missed while staring at her.
Oh. "Er… a ways out of town, stuck in a tree. I was heading in this direction anyway, so I just took her back with me." He winced as he stumbled over his words, suddenly embarrassed. This chick was turning him into a wreck.
"Just like what Jeel did!"
His first reaction was jealousy. Was Jeel her boyfriend or something? He really had no reason to be jealous, though – he barely knew her… He opted for a confused look in the hopes she would explain.
"He's my other cat." The amount of relief he felt when she said that was terrifying. Though, really, Jeel? That was quite a coincidence.
"What is?" Oops. He hadn't meant to say that out loud.
Hastily, he tried to backpedal, shaking his head. "Nothing much." He seriously had to get out of here before she made him lose any more brain functions. He didn't have that many to spare.
"Anyway, take care of her." His hasty retreat was momentarily halted, however, by her calling after him.
"Wait! What's your name?"
He paused. He definitely wasn't in the habit of giving out his name. Where he came from, being too free with your name could be dangerous.
Still, he knew her name – only fair that she know his.
Having made up his mind, he looked back and grinned at her.
"Gajeel. Gajeel Redfox."
Besides…
He smirked to himself. Maybe he'd get a chance to see her again.
