A/N: Before you all read this chapter, I'd just like to address that I'm not a huge fan of overly dramatic writing. Yes, I do anticipate (and have written) some conflict in this story, but there's not gonna be a whole lot of "shit hitting the fan" so to speak. Sorry to disappoint anyone who likes that type of writing, but I'd rather have this be as drama free as possible while still keeping it interesting (in my opinion). Thanks and enjoy!
"Hi!" Lucy chirped with her usual bright smile, her eyes scanning the room, brightening when they landed on Gajeel.
"Hey Lucy." he nodded at her.
"Gajeel! I didn't know you were coming!" she and Levy took seats on either side of him. Gray stared at the spectacle, his mouth gaping open. He just couldn't understand how two super popular girls had actually approached the pierced, mean-looking mechanic. Gajeel shot him a sharp glare before addressing his two new friends.
"I didn't know you were gonna be here either." he replied.
"Well, hi everyone else!" Lucy waved to the rest of the group. "I'm Lucy, and this is Levy." she introduced them.
"I'm Gray." the black haired teen said.
"Hey guys! It's good to see you again." Lisanna smiled.
"Levy! Lucy! You two look manly!" Elfman complimented them (really weirdly, in Gajeel's opinion). Lucy was wearing a white belly shirt and a pink skirt, leaving her hair loose and shiny. Levy was dressed in a blue vest with white capris, her hair tied back with an orange ribbon. He had no idea why they weren't wearing warmer clothes, the high temperature that week had been a mere sixty eight degrees fahrenheit. So Gajeel had no idea of how either of the girls could look manly.
"I'm Natsu!" the pinkette grinned at them. Mirajane couldn't help but notice that Lucy was eyeing the pyro's open vest, revealing his bare chest underneath.
"Nice seeing you two haven't been scared off by my girlfriend yet." Laxus smirked, he had met the girls on multiple occasions due to them coming into the cafe Mira ran. He and his girlfriend were both a year out of high school, working full time at a restaurant called Fairy Tail.
They all chattered, getting to know the two new arrivals while munching on pizza. Gray flirted with both of them, Laxus acted like Mirajane was the only girl in the world, Gajeel exchanged the barest minimum of words, and Lisanna tried (and failed) to get Natsu to feed her. It was impressionable on the two newcomers, to say the least. Once the pizza was gone and Elfman had stopped shouting 'MAN' at the amount of food the girls had put away, Mirajane's eyes lit up with schemes.
"Now it's time to start the activities!" Mira squealed, causing Gajeel to groan inwardly. She held out a bowl with papers in it. "It's a partner game this time!"
"Partner game?" Lucy questioned as she was passed the dish of papers. She rummaged around before pulling out a white slip with a number on it.
"We're playing match game!" she smiled sweetly. "Well, you guys are. Laxus and I are the ones asking the questions."
"How come we have to and you don't?" Natsu groaned.
"Don't complain." Erza smacked him in the back of the head. Once everyone had a number, they were told to partner up with the person who held the same digit. Gajeel was paired with Levy, Gray with Lisanna, Elfman with Erza, and Natsu with Lucy. (Mira totally rigged it, by the way).
"Okay, the rules are each of you get a pad of paper and a pen. I'll ask a question about your partner, and you must each write down the correct answer. If you get it right, you get a point! If you get it wrong, you each lose a point!" Mirajane explained to her friends.
"What happens if we win?" Gray asked.
"Bragging rights!" she grinned.
"And if we lose?" Natsu gulped.
"Punishment." she had a devious aura that surprised Lucy and Levy, but the rest of the group was used to it by this point. "Now let's start! Everybody sit together with your partner!" Gajeel could tell that Mirajane was eyeing up Natsu and Lucy, scheming up a storm. Levy giggled as she noticed as well.
"That's never gonna happen." Levy whispered to her partner.
"Why's that?" Gajeel grunted, trying to sound disinterested, but couldn't help but feel relief t her words.
"Reasons." Levy smiled sweetly. He shot her a confused look, but the game was starting so he promptly began to pay attention. He did not want to get punished.
"Okay, first question is for the guys to answer about their partners, try to match it, everyone! What is… your partner's favorite color!" Mira cheered at the end. It was silent. Gajeel quickly wrote down blue, paused, crossed it out, and changed it to orange. The Shrimp had worn something orange almost every time he saw her. Plus, she had an orange license plate. That was a telltale sign.
"Aw man! Why is this so hard." Natsu scratched his head, not knowing anything but the name of the girl beside him. She was wearing a white shirt so he quickly wrote white on his paper.
"Everyone ready?" Mira asked, and when everyone nodded they revealed their papers to each other.
Gajeel had gotten his color right, and Levy high fived him with a grin. Elfman wrote down blue(?) and Erza blushed when she revealed he was correct. Everyone knew that she had a crush on Jellal, the blue-haired student council president of Kardia Academy. Gray and Lisanna didn't match; he wrote pink whereas she had written purple. And Natsu wasn't even close with his guess.
"White isn't a color." Lucy sighed down at his paper, lifting up hers which read pink in a neat script.
"Is so!" he challenged. She raised a blonde brow before laughing.
"White is a blend of all the colors."
"No it's not! Black is a blend of all the colors!" he argued with her.
"Black is the absence of color." she corrected him.
"Enough you two! Your team lost the point." Erza scolded.
"Yes ma'am!" they both replied to her, straightening instantly. Gajeel couldn't help but smirk at the blonde, most girls just giggled and agreed with the popular pink-haired boy. It was refreshing to see someone argue with him (other than himself, of course).
"Okay, next question is for the girls to answer about their partners!" Mira said sweetly. "What's your partner's favorite movie?" And so everyone went back to writing furiously. When they were all done again, Mira had them hold up their answers.
"Yes!" Levy squealed; she had chosen Rocky, surprisingly matching him. "There's a poster of him in the movie in the garage." she looked smug at her intelligence.
"It's a classic." he simply shrugged back.
"What?!" Erza was shocked that she had guessed wrong. She wrote down Citizen Kane, but Elfman had written Skyfall, a James Bond movie that came out recently that he couldn't get enough of. "I thought it was Citizen Kane, how could that not be it?" she stared glumly at her paper.
"That's a very manly movie, my second favorite." Elfman grinned.
"Good job Lis!" Gray congratulated his partner. They had both written Happy Gilmore. Gray was obsessed with hockey, and he was the captain of their school's team. So Lisanna thought it obvious to write down the only movie she knew had hockey in it.
"Well." Lucy sighed at her paper. "I wasn't expecting much from my guess, but I've never heard of Enter the Dragon."
"I can't believe you thought my favorite movie was Air Bud!" Natsu pouted. Lucy began to shriek with laughter at her ridiculous guess.
"Y-you are the captain of Magnolia's basketball team." she stuttered, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye.
"Eh? How do you know that?" he looked at her suspiciously.
"Our team just played yours two weeks ago - it's really hard not to notice a kid with pink hair that keeps yelling he's 'fired up'." she rolled her eyes at him. Mira's eyes sparkled once again. Gajeel felt kind of uncomfortable.
"Also, you knocked her over during halftime." Levy giggled behind her hand.
"Yeah, there's that too." Lucy began to laugh again.
"Lucy's the cheerleader you knocked over?!" Gray hissed, and Natsu gulped before apologizing profusely. Erza glared.
"Okay, next question! Gajeel and Levy are in the lead!" Mirajane announced. "Guys turn again… okay, what is your partner's favorite thing to eat?" it went silent in the room again. Mirajane was silently giggling to herself by the way that Lucy and Natsu were staring blankly at each other. She was extremely surprised by how Gajeel and Levy were doing, but she was shipping up a storm. This round went a lot faster, and so when they held up their papers Gajeel couldn't help but grin.
"We're on a roll!" Levy high fived the mechanic again, they had both written chocolate bar.
"It's really hard not to notice the insane stash of chocolate in your center console." Mira eyed the pair again, but they ignored her.
"We're doing better now!" Gray had written down ice cream since he and Lisanna bonded over the treat.
"Yes! Cake is manly!" Elfman got Erza's favorite food right, only because everyone knew what her weakness was. She brought cake to school for lunch every day.
"How is your favorite food freaking scones?!" Natsu was incredulous.
"Why did you even think I liked jalapenos?" she shot back.
"Who doesn't like em? They're the best!" The pink haired boy had an affinity for all things spicy, and assumed everyone else in the world did as well.
"Okay, next question!" Mira announced. They played seven more rounds, and the final standings were surprising for the white-haired matchmaker. Levy and Gajeel scored a perfect ten, who she would have picked to probably lose in the beginning, seeing as they barely had anything in common, and Gray, Lisanna, Erza, and Elfman all tied for second. Lucy and Natsu got a perfect score as well, just… negative. They hadn't gotten one question right, and now they were terrified of what Mira would do to them.
"Lu, it'll be alright!" Levy wanted to be encouraging to her friend. Lucy gave her a fearful look as Mira's face lit up.
"I've got it! The losers have to… switch clothes for one hour!" she shouted. The two teens froze before jumping away from each other.
"I am not wearing his clothes! His shirt isn't even a real shirt, it's a - a - some type of vest!" Lucy wailed.
"No way am I putting on a damn skirt! I don't even think that'll fit me!" Natsu protested. But they were dragged by Mira into the bathroom, and when they all returned sure enough they had switched clothes. Lucy sat cross legged, clutching the vest closer to her chest. Mira had pinned it shut, but it was still embarrassing. And when everyone saw Natsu in a white belly shirt and pink mini-skirt, roaring laughter ensued. They lasted the full hour, albeit very upset about it, and when they changed back everyone was disappointed by the lack of skin showing (from both parties). They chatted a bit more until Erza decided they should play the kings game.
That game was even worse than the first, because Erza kept getting the King's stick and making everyone do embarrassing things. She somehow made Lucy change into a bunny outfit for the rest of the night, and the blonde complained about her always having to wear the weird clothes, but nobody could deny how good she looked in it.
Gajeel called her bunny girl to tease her, though. He'd never let her live it down.
Levy was forced to kiss Gajeel on the cheek, Lucy had to hug Natsu for five minutes, Lisanna and Levy had to dance on top of Gray's back, and many, many more horrors occurred that are too terrible to even mention in passing.
By the time they all begged to stop the game, Laxus was wearing a full face of makeup, Levy was wearing her clothes backwards, and Gajeel had his hair forcefully put into cornrows. Not to mention the bunny outfit. Erza was unscathed by the event.
"Well, it's almost time for my curfew." Lucy sighed as she returned from changing yet again. "I had a lot of fun you guys! It was nice meeting you all!"
"Your curfew is eleven?" Natsu snorted. Lucy stiffened.
"So?" her arms crossed in front of her chest.
"Natsu, I don't-" Levy began to defend her friend, but Natsu cut her off.
"That's so lame! You scared of the dark or somethin?" he laughed.
"So what if I am? It's none of your business why I have an early curfew." Lucy picked up her purse, a cool tone overcoming her voice.
"Lucy, don't get so wound up, he's just joking." Gray frowned at the blonde. She stiffened even further before waltzing out the door.
"Is she-" Gajeel began to ask before Levy hopped up.
"Lu-chan is fine! I'll go talk to her." she scurried out after her friend.
"Is it just me, or does it feel like there's something I should know about?" Gajeel peered at Erza. The redhead simply sighed.
"It is not our place to tell. It is Lucy's father's rule that she always text him what her plans are and be home before eleven. That is all I will say." Erza said stiffly, avoiding the eyes of Natsu, Gray, and Gajeel.
"I'm gonna go check on her." Gajeel mumbled before stepping outside after the two girls. Lucy was sitting on the curb next to her car, face in hands as Levy cooed to her and stroked her back.
"I-I can't believe he's still controlling my life even though he's not around anymore. I just-UGH!" she shouted. Gajeel could only see them from behind, but he knew the blonde was crying from the way she sniffled and wiped at her cheeks.
"Lucy, he's not gonna be the only one. I think you're brave for being the way you are after all that happened." Levy reassured the girl. Gajeel was extremely curious, but he felt like he was intruding on them and quickly retreated back into the house. Everyone inside continued to chat, but Erza, Mira, Elfman and Lisanna all had troubled looks on their faces. Elfman was whispering furiously to Lisanna, and Gajeel couldn't help but overhear.
"I wasn't kidding when I said I'd beat the crap out of him. What he did to Lucy wasn't manly." Elfman growled, his fists clenched at his side. He was a brute of a man, extremely muscular, and Gajeel wouldn't want to be on the other side of all that rage. But who were they talking about? Some crappy ex-boyfriend? Gajeel really wanted to know.
"She'll tell you the whole story someday." Mira appeared next to him with a reassuring smile. "But for now, I think we should call it a night."