Happy Friday! Hold on to your hats... this is going to be an interesting one... ;D

- K. Chandler

Lucy wiggled her toes. "Am I a pro or what?"

She grinned at the swirl of blues and purples on her toenails. It was like having little galaxies on her feet. Pretty appropriate for Fairy Tail's resident Celestial Wizard, if she did say so herself.

Lucy was spending the afternoon at Fairy Hills. She and Levy were giving each other makeovers in preparation for the upcoming dance.

"Lookin' good, Lu! Do me next?" asked Levy, passing Lucy a bottle of metallic polish and offering out her hands. "I can do my left hand okay, but my right ends up being a total mess."

"Sure thing. Ooh, rose gold. That would be a great color on you," said Lucy approvingly. "Does it match your dress?"

"Well…" Levy looked hesitant.

"No matter. You okay if I do an ombre? That would tone it down a little, but keep it classy."

"That sounds fancy," said Levy. "You know how to do that?"

"Of course, I do," said Lucy, shaking the bottle of nail polish. "Do you have a make-up sponge?"

Levy dug one out of her drawer and Lucy got to work.

"So have you picked out your dress yet?" asked Lucy.

"Not really… I don't really know what I'm doing yet," said Levy.

"The ball is this Saturday, Levy! What do you mean you don't know what you're doing?"

Levy shrugged, looking uncomfortable.

"Well, do you know what Gajeel is wearing?" asked Lucy. She worked slowly, trying to keep the polish neat and even. "He always wears black, doesn't he? You would totally rock a little black dress. I mean, you don't have to match or whatever, but it would be way cute."

"…See, I don't know that we're going together."

"What?" Lucy froze, shocked. Quickly, she returned the brush to the bottle. She didn't trust herself to keep her hands from shaking. "But I thought you guys were together. I mean, he did kinda serenade you in front of the entire guild."

"Yeah, but that was months ago. He didn't actually ask me out or anything. And he didn't say anything about this ball," said Levy quietly.

"What do you mean he didn't?!" she said indignantly.

"See, I asked Lilly about it, and he told me that Gajeel hadn't said anything about the dance. He figured that Gajeel probably just wasn't going."

"That's stupid," said Lucy.

"Lilly called him an idiot…" said Levy.

"He deserves it," interrupted Lucy.

"…before offering to take me himself," said Levy.

Lucy fought to keep the surprise off her face. "Oh. Are you…?"

Levy giggled, shaking her head. "It was sweet of him to offer, but I told Pantherlilly that it probably wouldn't work too well, even if he can turn into a full panther for a little while."

Hulking Pantherlilly and dainty Levy. Lucy couldn't help but smile at the mental image.

"I'm sure it's fine," said Levy. "A lot of the other girls are going by themselves: Juvia, Erza, Mira… You're not going with anybody either, right?"

Lucy made a face. "That's because the guys on my team are idiots."

She hadn't bothered asking that idiot Natsu. Juvia would probably drown her if she even looked at Gray. She had considered asking Loke to take her, since he was planning to attend as well. But how lame would it be to go with one of your Celestial Spirits? Even if he was the Leader of the Zodiac.

"But you might have better luck than me," said Lucy. "Jet and Droy are free, right?"

"I don't know, Lu… I don't want to encourage them," said Levy. "I guess I could always go stag, right?"

Could a girl even go stag? Lucy thought that term only referred to guys. And as much as Levy would have a great time with or without Gajeel, Lucy wasn't sure she wanted to encourage her friend to do that.

Lucy considered her dear friend to be intelligent, loyal and very pretty. Levy could be a little quiet at times, but she could be assertive when she wanted to. Levy was an incredible person and any guy would be lucky to have her. And if the Iron Dragon-Slayer couldn't get that through his metal skull, that was his loss!

"You are not going stag," said Lucy firmly.

"But—"

"Don't worry, Levy. I gotcha covered," said Lucy, digging her lacrima out of her bag.

Just because Levy was an independent woman didn't mean she didn't have options. Lucy happened to hear a convenient rumor lately, and she was hoping it was true.

"Who are you calling?" asked Levy.

"Just a friend." It had been a while since they'd worked together and honestly, she was pleasantly surprised to find his number still worked.

"Hello, Hibiki? This is Lucy. From Fairy Tail," she added.

Lucy wasn't sure how many other Lucys would have called Hibiki lately, but he seemed like a popular guy, so it was possible she wasn't the only one.

"Lucy! Great to hear from you. What's up?" Hibiki's voice was smooth in her ear.

"I'm calling in a favor… Did I ever introduce you to my friend Levy?"

Despite being a bit of a flirt, Hibiki had been a pretty nice guy. He also seemed to be more of an intellectual than the other Blue Pegasus guys. Lucy thought that he and Levy would get along well. It would be a fun one-time kind of thing. Once Gajeel got this wake-up call, he wouldn't be letting Levy out of his sight for a while.

"She sounds familiar. I don't think we've met though. Oh, wait. She was with you guys when we found you on Tenrou Island, yeah?"

"Uh-huh. Yeah. That's right." Lucy gnawed at her nails before jerking her hand away from her mouth. She had a bad habit of biting her nails when she was bored or nervous. It was one of the reasons she'd rarely paint her fingernails, preferring to stick to toes.

"It's coming back to me now. So, what about Levy?"

"I heard you were free on Saturday," said Lucy carefully.

"You heard correctly," said Hibiki. "I'm guessing your friend Levy is too."

"I was hoping to introduce you," said Lucy.

"We're talking about the Gala, right? Is this a blind date?" he asked, his voice teasing.

"You could say that," said Lucy, a smile in her voice.

There was a pause that made Lucy's stomach flip-flop. She didn't understand why she was nervous. She wasn't even asking for herself.

Finally, Hibiki responded.

"You know I'm always game to meet new people," he said.

Lucy let out the breath she didn't know she was holding. "So you wouldn't mind? Oh, that's great! I knew I could count on you."

"It's no problem. Like you said, I was free anyways."

Lucy noticed Levy watching her with wide eyes, suddenly realizing that the other girl had only gotten to hear half of the conversation. Levy hadn't even met Hibiki before.

Well, that would soon be fixed.

"Do you want to say hi to her?" asked Lucy. "Let me put you on speaker and you can say hi."

"Lucy!" squeaked Levy, turning pink.

"It's fine," Lucy mouthed, passing the lacrima over to her friend with a grin.

"Hello?"

"Um, hi?" stuttered Levy.

"Whom do I have the pleasure of addressing? Is this Miss Levy?"

"Um, yes. Yes, it is!" said Levy.

"What an honor. My name's Hibiki. Hibiki Lates." Ever the gentleman, Hibiki was in top form.

In Lucy's opinion, Hibiki wasn't nearly as handsome as Gray or as strong as Natsu. But there was a reason he was one of the most sought-after wizards in Fiore.

"Hibiki Lates?" repeated Levy. "That sounds familiar. Do I know you from somewhere?"

"Where's last week's Sorcerer Weekly?" whispered Lucy. "The one with the Blue Pegasus special?"

"Dresser," whispered Levy.

"I don't think we've met. But I'm hoping to remedy that this Saturday. You'll do me the honor of accompanying me to the Victory Gala?" he asked smoothly.

Lucy found the article she was looking for, sliding the magazine at Levy. She tapped at a picture of a good-looking wizard with sandy blond hair and brown eyes.

"That Hibiki?" whispered Levy, going bug-eyed.

Lucy nodded, grinning.

"Miss Levy?"

"Huh? What?"

"Are you free Saturday? I was hoping to escort you to the Victory Gala," he reminded her.

"…yeah," said Levy, smiling. "That sounds like fun."

"Excellent. Where should I meet up with you? Maybe I can pick you up from your place?"

"I live in Fairy Hills. That's our guild's girls' dorm. Do you need directions?"

"Nah, I'm sure I can figure it out. I'll see you at six on Saturday."

"Sounds good. See you then," said Levy, ending the call.

"So?" asked Lucy. She took Levy's hand and went back to finishing her manicure.

"This… might actually work out," said Levy, a smile pulling at her lips. "I was a little nervous at first, but… well, I'm kind of excited now."

"I hoped you might say that," said Lucy. "You totally have to dig out that little black dress now!"

So... Hibiki X Levy?! (I'll bet some of you thought that I was going HibLu with this one, didn't ya?) XD So I got the idea from a submission on the Fairy Tail Confess blog. Somebody had suggested a cute headcanon that Levy used to have a crush on Freed (or something like that). But that got me wondering... what would it be like for Levy to date her intellectual equal (or even just a fellow nerd)? I started to think through who might make a great conversation partner for our adorbz little Solid-Script Mage. I considered everyone from Freed to that nerdy writer guy that Lucy meets in the one side episode. I stumbled upon Hibiki as a potential match, and the idea was so strange that I couldn't ignore it. So here we are.

Same deal as before. Suggest a ship name in the comments... (or hope that Gajeel changes his mind about the dance before we settle on a name.)

Next time, in the final scene of [Mazeverse] Much Ado About Nothing, we find out what special secret task Master asked Laxus to do in Chapter 1: "Good to see we understand each other," said Laxus.There's a mystery guest... can you guess who it is?

Stop back next Friday for the next installment, or just follow me, Karine of R011ingThunder.