[Disclaimer: I, obviously, do not own any parts quoted from the series, just any padding/expansion centered on them. Quotes will usually be derived from the English dub, because one has to be picked, but that doesn't mean the subs will never be referenced.]
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"Hey there~" chimed Levy. "You're the new girl- Lucy, right?"
The blonde looked up to the source of the voice, unsure whether she should be pleased or filled with dread, though with the way her day had gone so far she somewhat suspected the latter. Still, she didn't want to be rude. "Uh, that's right. We haven't met yet, have we?" She was almost certain, but there were so many new faces that Lucy was just a bit paranoid that she was going to get them mixed up or forget someone and offend them.
The bluenette just smilled, however. "Nope. But I thought I would fix that~" She extended a hand. As Lucy took it, two tall young men came to stand behind Levy, each wearing confident but friendly expressions. Levy slid into a seat at the table then, leaning toward the new girl a bit. She'd honestly been a little nervous about meeting her for the first time, but fortunately she'd found a perfect excuse just a few minutes before. "Sooo, Lucy. I heeaard that you're writing a novel~?"
So much for privacy, Lucy thought with a mental sigh. She groaned. "Word's gotten around already, huh?" Happy seemed to flit by for the sole purpose of making Lucy's mood worse, and Levy found herself feeling a bit guilty for mentioning it. She would've thought that would have gotten a much more positive reaction. "I should've known I couldn't trust the cat and the pyro to keep a secret.."
The novel was a secret then? With a sudden realization, though, Levy piped, "Oh! I'm being rude, I didn't introduce myself! I'm Levy McGarden-" Was that too formal? "-but you can just call me Levy." She was pretty sure she sounded a lot more confident than she felt at just that moment, but that was something for which she would never complain. "My friend in the hat is Jet."
"Hey there~" He flashed the girl a grin, oozing confidence as usual.
"And that's Droy."
Incidentally, this was the first time Droy had ever gotten a really good look at Lucy, who he.. had not expected to have such a body when he'd heard how old the new girl was. "Oh.. Wow.. You are so cute." Was.. that okay for him to say?
Levy, though, actually found it super cute. She might even have to tease him a bit later! But right this moment, they still had an introduction to finish. "And together.."
Without a word between them to coordinate, as if somehow telepathically linked, the trio struck a group pose. In perfect unison, they announced, "We're the awesome Team Shadow Gear!"
A little stunned by the display, and still coming out of the slump caused by Happy's gossip, she simply squeaked, "Oh. That's cool."
Oh dear, that was no good. Back to the original strategy! "Anyway!" Levy called, all but leaping back into her seat what no she wasn't feeling at all jittery today. "I'm a horrible writer myself, but I really love to read~" She propped her chin on her hands in something of a compromise between trying to look casual and adorable, the latter being a habit she seemed to have gotten into when she wanted something from the boys. "Do you think I could read your novel some time?"
Lucy startled before blushing deeply. "Well I... I didn't really plan on anybody reading it..." Although Levy did feel bad that she still seemed a bit uncomfortable, she did have to admit that Droy was right; she was really cute.
"What? How come?" Jet asked. "I mean what's the point of writing a book that no one's ever gonna read?" The very end almost broke into a small laugh, but it was all meant to be encouraging, of course. Voice of optimism as always.
Droy countered, "You know, some people say that being a writer is like showing your butt to the world." With an embarrassed shriek, Lucy's hands flew to the mentioned area.. which wasn't the intention, but he couldn't say he was complaining.
Quirking an eyebrow, Jet asked quietly, "What does that even mean?"
"You know, it's-" It was a phrase. To show one's butt. Like. Showing one's ignorance or flaws. The more one tried to show what they knew the more likely they were going to prove how little they knew. And writers, especially, because the broader they tried to write about the more likely they were to get something wrong, and..? "..Nevermind." The others were trying to encourage the girl anyway, and his thing just would have been counterproductive to that, so. Yeah. He was just. Gonna be quiet.
While the guys were having that little conversation, though, Levy had jumped back in with Lucy. "You don't have to be embarrassed!" the bluenette assured her. Breaking out a full begging pose, she went on, "C'mon Lucy, please show it to me."
...Oh. Hey. Uh. With what Droy just said that kind of sounded like.. Quickly covering any chance of misunderstanding, Levy raised a hand to hide her mouth (incidentally, she may have been flustered enough that she didn't realize her hand was on the wrong side to hide her words from the guys) and clarified, "And I'm not talking about your butt, so don't get weird." Yeah. So. So weird. Recalling Droy's apparent interest, she gave something of a wicked smirk and unsuccessfully fought a blush. "The boys might wanna see it, though~" And, you know, if Levy happened to be around for that she might not mind either. ..Was she thinking about this a little too much?
Lucy was just going to ignore all of that, yeah? Fighting down a nervous laugh, she answered, "I'm not exactly finished with it yet.."
Ah, progress! "All right, so when you are done, I wanna be the first to read it!" She gave the girl a wink.
"Uh.. Sure?" Lucy conceded.
Levy clapped her hands together. "Yay! I can't wait!" Again, she propped her chin on both hands. "So! How are you liking the guild so far?"
The blonde seemed to brighten at this. "It's really great!" Her eyes trailed off to a virtual flamethrower going off nearby; it was a little depressing how quickly she was learning to tune out something so dangerous. "For the most part.." Levy gave a knowing grin at this. "But I've always been a huge fan of Fairy Tail!" she said, snapping back to attention. "I've already met so many wizards I'd only ever read about before, and-"
She suddenly had a belated moment of realization. "Oh! You- you guys are the Shadow Gear! I'm so sorry!"
The team collectively raised its brows. "Oh~ You have heard of us, then?" Levy asked brightly.
"Of course!" answered the blonde, somewhere between excitement and reverence now, along with an appropriate amount of embarrassment for the name not clicking sooner. "I mean- Not too much of course! You guys normally turn down interviews, right? But your names have still come up several times in Sorcerer Weekly! I've been absolutely in love with Fairy Tail ever since I was a little girl, so of course I've heard of one of its most prominent teams!" They weren't really the most prestigious or publicized, but they got things done, from everything Lucy had ever read. Excitement, it seemed, was winning out.
Jet gave a pleasant laugh. "You just give it another year," he asserted. "Pretty soon you won't need that 'one of' in there~"
This got a giggle from Levy and a smirk-eyeroll combo from Droy. "Jet's always insisted we'd be the guild's best one day," the latter explained.
"Guild's?" asked Jet. "Last I checked Fairy Tail was vying for the top spot in all Fiore! So we're going to be the best in the whole country!"
None of them could have guessed at the time that the newcomer in their midst would be a part of the team to actually rise to nearly that title over the course of that year; after all, Lucy had done only two jobs thus far, and one of those wasn't even a proper job.
"Well I wish you the best of luck!" said the celestial wizard. "It's such an honor to meet you guys."
Levy waved a hand, physically brushing the comment aside; the guys remained leaning on her. "Don't be so formal," she insisted, lightly scolding. "We're all guildmates here. You wouldn't treat Natsu like a celebrity, right?" Lucy deadpanned for a moment before leering over to the Salamander, who seemed to be betting Happy that they could- actually, Lucy just looked away at that point; she didn't want to know. "I'm sure his name pops up way more than ours," finished Levy.
"Yeah.. For all the wrong reasons," Lucy muttered to herself. She sighed and rubbed her temples a moment, but then settled back into a state of pleasant contentment. The Dragon Slayer certainly came with a lot of headaches, but he was proving to be a pretty good friend all the same, and she did have him to thank for getting her into the guild of her dreams. "But you're right, I'm sorry. I guess it's just gonna take me a while to get used to being around so many awesome wizards. Still, a pleasure to meet you," she corrected, and Levy seemed to approve.
"You too~ You know, it's not every day a new wizard around our age joins. Most of the teen members have been here since we were kids." In truth, it seemed Fairy Tail had become as much an orphanage as a wizard's guild, but damn if it wasn't the world's most badass orphanage! "Maybe we could hang out some time and get to know each other?"
Lucy could hardly believe it, and struggled not to overreact, a tiny squeal still peeking out. "Sure!" Thinking over her own schedule for a moment, she then asked, "Might you be free tonight?"
There was a very subtle reaction among the team, so small Lucy wondered if she imagined it.
Perfectly casually, Levy responded, "No, afraid I have plans. Maybe over the weekend?"
"Uh- Yeah, that should be fine! As long as nothing too crazy comes up." Why did she feel like 'nothing too crazy' was quickly becoming an act of wishful thinking? Eh, she was probably just letting her nerves get to her; surely things would settle down soon.
"Great! I'll look for you tomorrow to make more definite plans, okay?" Incidentally, the next day would go down in history as 'The Eisenwald Incident'.
"See you then," agreed Lucy. She wouldn't.
-
That evening, though, a hooded figure walked through a back alley with a familiar ease; although the person remained thoroughly concealed and took secluded paths with few eyes, there was not much in the way of 'sneaking', really.
The hooded figure reached a particular back door of a particular apartment building and knocked in a pattern; said pattern changed almost daily. For a moment, there was a delay, and she wondered if she had miscounted, but then the door cracked open. With a smile that nearly lit up the inside of her cloak, the figure slipped inside.
Immediately Levy was greeted with two tight hugs and a barrage of kisses, causing a slight squeal to escape her. "Heeey," she laughed, even as her cloak was stripped and tossed aside.
"We miiiiiissed you," growled Jet softly against her neck.
"I just saw you an hour ago," she noted, just before being quite literally swept off her feet. Despite the argument, she wasn't exactly complaining.
"Yeah, a whole hour," groaned Droy, who supported half of her negligible weight. "That's like, foreeeeeever." Levy rolled her eyes affectionately.
It seemed they were headed to Droy's room today. They boys had been certain to get their shared apartment on the ground floor for both their sakes, as it meant Sarusuke could jet out the door with greater ease whenever he needed anything, and Droy could tear up the floors in some places, as had been done throughout his bedroom. Vines, some sporting a gorgeous assortment of flowers, had been grown up through holes in the floor to adorn the walls and furniture and snake around every bedpost. To anyone with allergies, said room would be a nightmare, but Levy found it all very pleasant and relaxing.
"So I heard you had some plans, hm?" teased Jet. "Were you gonna tell us about them?"
Levy gave a long sigh. "You know why- oof!" she squeaked as she was tossed onto the bed, followed by a small chuckle before she began again a bit more pleasantly. "You know good and well why I say things like that."
This was answered first by a shirt to the face, then by Droy. "Y'know Jet, sometimes I think she's embarrassed of us."
Only a little.. "Of course, if you guys could curb your affection in the slightest I wouldn't haf-"
She barely had time to remove Droy's shirt before its owner cut her off with a kiss. Levy pretty well gave up the argument at that point; it was more a standard banter at this point than an actual issue anyway. She knew perfectly well how much it bothered them that she actively distanced herself in public, just as they knew perfectly well how much it bothered her that they left the vast majority of the secret-keeping to her, and after well over a year together both sides had just sort of accepted that the other wasn't budging. In truth, she got a lot more upset with them than they did with her, but so long as they never directly told anyone, were never too physically affectionate in public, etc, then she had decided she was all right with it.
"You don't understaaand," rasped an also-shirtless Jet as he joined them. He lifted Levy's own shirt enough to expose her midriff, burying his face against it, but her clothes stayed otherwise in place.
Droy was not being especially helpful in the communication department at the moment, but Levy managed a clear "Hm?" in spite of it.
"If you want us to stop doting, you have to stop being so perfect," Jet mock-scolded. Levy simply rolled her eyes even behind her lids, then went on soaking up the attention as hands began exploring.
The trio fooled around over the next few hours, but things didn't go any farther than that. They never did. They never had.
Although Jet and Droy- both collectively and on individual bases- had assured her repeatedly that they were done being competitive and that they didn't care who 'got there first', Levy couldn't help but worry about it. She knew good and well the competition part was a lie as well, or perhaps wishful thinking, or an honest intent that didn't always play out quite as they meant it to. Whatever the case, she was sure neither would say anything, but whoever came in 'second place' would definitely be stung for quite some time, and Levy didn't want to do that.
That said, she was also nervous about such things, when she even thought of them, which was almost exclusively when would-be opportunities arose. Honestly, though she definitely enjoyed a certain amount of intimacy- and enjoyed it immensely- the idea of actual sex had never seemed incredibly appealing to her. Certainly it was possible that part of this was just due to the lack of experience, but Levy was rather certain that wasn't all there was to it.
But, again, even with the 'limitations' of their little excursions, Levy did adore them. As evening drifted into night time, however, she still had to gather her things and- with a passionate kiss good night to each of her lovers- take her leave. The script mage had to get back to Fairy Hills before curfew, after all.
Erza was not the strictest matron, and for that Levy was grateful. On a very rare occasion, she did return home a bit late, and once or twice had not gone home at all, on days when she had no job or other official excuse to justify her absence. But Titania, quite thankfully, was content to let her off with a warning, if a stern one, and a few times a bribe in the form of a new book. Still, if Levy started making a habit of it, Erza would surely start asking questions, and she couldn't have that.
Making it home with ten minutes to spare was a rather pleasant feeling, then, although how big and empty her bed felt was rather less so.
-
Although a bit later than expected, Lucy and Levy did manage to hang out at some point over the following week. Levy couldn't believe the newcomer had been involved- even key, pun intended- to taking down a dark guild! She insisted Lucy had to stop treating guildmates like celebrities now, between hanging out with the Fairy Queen and turning into such a rising star herself; and Lucy, though embarrassed, had to admit she had a point.
Moveover, they discussed their magics in a bit more depth, and their interests and hobbies outside the guild, which naturally came to books. As it happened, Lucy was in the middle of reading one of Levy's favorites (admittedly, that was a long list), and was even able to give Levy a few promising suggestions. Of course, that turned the conversation to Lucy's own project.
"I haven't really made any progress since last time, you know.." Lucy said sheepishly.
That did make sense, given the week she'd had. "But stiiiill. ...I don't guess you could maybe give me a little plot teaser, then?" she asked hopefully.
Lucy laughed. "I guess I could."
The next two hours quickly melted away discussing plot points and characters and unwritten plot bunnies that had been hopping around Lucy's head looking for a home and a few of Levy's own ideas that were individually wonderful but that she swore she'd have no idea how to implement into a story of her own.
"Oh my gosh~" Levy sang at one point. "Lulu your romance plots all sound adorable!"
Lucy blushed. "You think so?"
The smaller girl nodded. "Most definitely. I'd love to date a guy you wrote," she both teased and encouraged.
The blonde laughed, but then had a tangent thought. "Oh, hey. Have you ever dated anyone?"
Levy did not outwardly react, but took perhaps a second longer to answer than usual. "No, I haven't," she said, taking the wording very particularly. "Why do you ask?"
"Aww," replied Lucy. "I'm sorry. You and your teammates seem really close, so I honestly kind of wondered if you were with one of them."
Levy fought not to grit her teeth as she responded with a light, slightly uncomfortable laugh. "Ah, no. I've never had a boyfriend." Again, she wasn't lying; she'd never had one boyfriend.
Lucy raised both hands to wave as if trying to clear away any offense caused. "I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to assume! Anyway, the main reason I asked was because I haven't either, and it just would have been cool to have someone with a little more experience to ask for advice," she explained.
"Oh! Eheh~ Well I'm sorry I can't be much help, but I'll do my best to pitch in anyway," she offered. Honestly, she didn't think she would be much help. She'd never had a 'normal' relationship, after all, and although it would have been really great to see more writers portray a relationship that looked even vaguely like her own, that.. wasn't really a thing she was willing to suggest to Lucy at the time, heh.
"All right then. Well thanks then!" answered the writer, happy to have a second opinion to turn to from here on.
"Happy to help~"
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A/N: Apologies for the delay. Various busy-ness combined with a big annual week-long competition over the past month, but things should be settling down again now. Hopefully I can get back to week-or-less updates~
Worth noting, I don't condone the attitudes of any of the main chars thus far. Ironically, the healthiest is Juvia somehow, at least for the moment, but we all know where that's going. For everyone else, communication is super important, as is respecting your partner(s)'s needs! Friendly PSA~ :P