Author's Note: Here's chapter 9 Ladies and Gents, took me sometime to put together and many rewrites but this the end result. Read, Review and Enjoy!
Chapter 9
It was a regular night in Levy's dorm room, her mountain of books surrounding her bed as she read her latest book. Ever since coming back to the guild, she was delighted when her best friend had decided to go along with the partnership although she was still fretful when it came to the news Loke brought back to the table. She tried to get rid of it as best as she could with keeping her mind busy, but it kept replaying in her mind and it truly bothered her.
FLASHBACK
Levy and Lucy were busy discussing how Gray acted when they were on their way to the library, when Loke had returned with no Gray in tow. Levy noticed how he looked like he was troubled about something and he sighed before he spoke up to them.
"I've got some news to tell you Luce." Loke began, but Lucy interrupted him as she turned to look at him.
"I do too, me and Levy have decided to work together to get Gray for ourselves!" She said happily and Loke's eyes widened as he turned to face Levy. He was shocked to hear that, believing what he had been told earlier to be a lie.
"Hold on, Levy did she just say that you two are after Gray together?" He didn't see that one coming, out of all people he didn't expect to have Levy liking Gray.
Levy was blushing since she hadn't expected Lucy to be so open about it with Loke and to have her crush told to someone else so fast. She wanted to reply to him, but she decided against it since she fully knows how much of a stuttering mess she becomes. She merely nodded to him in response and he leaned back in amazement of how these two friends easily banded together like that.
"Whoa, didn't see that one coming..." He simply said before the two gave him a questioning look. "What?"
"Didn't you say that there was some news for me?" Lucy said as he sat up again, completely focused with a serious expression on his face.
"That's right, this concerns the both of you now. Juvia is not the only problem you two will have to get through." He said and both Lucy and Levy's interests were piked at hearing this.
"What do you mean Loke?" Levy asked as her blush slowly disappeared from her face.
"I mean that there are other players in your mission for Gray." The two mages looked at each other in concern. The only person they saw who took any interest in Gray at all was Juvia, so that begs the question of who else was into Gray.
"Where did you hear this from Loke?" Levy wanted to know who gave him this information and who the other people are.
"Cana told me and get this, she's one of the people that's into Gray." Loke said catching the blonde and bluenette by surprise. They knew Cana was one of Gray's childhood friends, but for her to like him wasn't what they thought would happen.
"How do you know there are others beside her?" Lucy asked as she tried to locate the card mage somewhere in the guild.
"It wasn't easy, but from the way she was talking to me it seemed that she wasn't alone." Loke said as he regained Lucy's attention. "She was serious when she said she liked him and the only time I've seen her that serious was when the guild was under attack and when someone took away her beer."
"Great now we've got to handle Cana too!" Lucy whined as she couldn't believe that one of the guild's sexiest women was after her Gray, not to mention that she was just as bold as Juvia when it came to things.
"Don't worry Lu-chan, I'm sure we can still get through this. The only thing that really concerns me are the other people she said." Levy said as she tried to think of the people who would want to be with Gray other than Juvia and now Cana. "How many people do you think Cana was referring too?" Levy asked to Loke, surely with a solid number she could dumb it down to who they could be.
"To me it sounded like two or maybe three people, but I'm not very sure. Plus she said it in a way that meant that they were all working together." Loke replied causing Lucy and Levy to ponder this further.
Not only do they need to overcome Juvia of all people, but they also have to get past a group of three maybe even four other guild mates working as a team. That team was drawing most of their concern because for all they knew, Cana was working with Juvia and another person or two. Those two could prove quite the challenging pair given that one person has known Gray since they were children and the other is a devoted follower to him.
"Look girls I know it may seem that this doesn't look good, but I'm sure you two will do just fine. Plus you guys have the spirit of the stars to back you up!" Loke said saluting to the two before vanishing into a shimmer of light.
"Let's just hope he's right." Lucy said as Levy nodded her agreement, deep in thought of who else would be at Cana's side.
FLASHBACK END
Levy was quickly pulled out of her thoughts when she heard knocking coming from her door and quickly made her way to answer it. She was surprised to see Erza standing there, a bag in her hand and her face had signs of restrained joy and worry at the same time. Levy could also smell delicious strawberries coming from the bag, but focused on Erza.
"Levy come to my room as soon as possible, I need to talk to you." She commanded allowing Levy to simply nod before walking away down the hall.
The solid script mage was confused to what had just happened, but decided not to go too far into it. She quickly bookmarked her page, putting away the book on a nearby shelf and went after the red head as quickly as she could. Not holding up Erza was a universal rule that many have learned and the consequences that follow if you do as well.
The petite bluenette stood in front of Erza's dorm room waiting patiently for the red head to open the door for her. In no time she was let in and seated herself on her couch watching the requip mage pacing in her living room as if she was dealing with a difficult situation. The smell of strawberries coming from the box was prominent in the room and Levy would guess it to be a cheesecake Erza bought, although this one was somehow different from the rest.
"Levy I need to confide in you, this is an important matter and I need someone else's help with it. Will you help me?" Erza asked stopping in her pacing and Levy smiled up to the mage.
"Of course Erza, what are friends for?" She replied and Erza let out a sigh of relief before sitting down next to her.
"You see this has to do with Gray." She began and Levy couldn't help but slightly flinch hearing his name.
"Did something happen to him, is he alright?" Levy asked, trying not to sound very panicked but concerned instead.
"No he's fine, it's just that we spent some time together after he came back with you." Levy's attention blew out to max when she said that she spent time with him. "And well, a few things had happened between us."
"I'm sure it's alright Erza whatever happened between you two, Gray will most likely forgive you for it." Levy wanted to escape before she did something unexpected to Erza and she was completely afraid of that.
"No Levy it wasn't an argument that happened, it was something very different." Erza was slightly feeling her heart rate increase and just at the mere thought of her kiss with Gray had her on the verge of blushing like mad.
"Oh, then tell me what happened. I can lend a hand if you need it." Levy's worries were growing increasingly now that she found out that it wasn't an argument the two had.
"Well we spoke to one another about my time when I first arrived in the guild and soon enough one thing led to another very quickly and..." Erza was searching for the right words to say what happened without surprising Levy too much. Too bad she knew it would anyways.
"And? Come on Erza you can tell me." Levy didn't want to know, she truly didn't want to but the good friend instincts she had overpowered her to let Erza continue.
"I kissed Gray"
Levy's world came to a stand still when she heard what Erza said. All the time Levy spent at the guild thinking of who would like Gray and Erza had skipped her mind. She didn't see a way that Erza would fall for Gray, nothing seemed to connect the two at all.
"You k-kissed Gray?" Levy was shocked to know that Erza had kissed the ice mage and couldn't believe that was true.
"Yes I did, it was on impulse that I did that. I tried to describe how I felt about him, but my words were failing me so I took action. As the saying goes, 'actions speak louder than words'." Erza wasn't wrong about that, she put everything she had into that kiss to make her point.
"B-But what about Jellal, didn't you say that you started liking him? And not to be rude or anything, but how did you start liking Gray?" Levy was so filled with questions and she was worried that Erza was teamed up with Cana. Making that challenge down right impossible now.
"I had thought through it and I believed that I did like him, but in a way I figured out that I was only crushing on my childhood appreciation of him when he rescued me back in the Tower." Erza replied and Levy knew that it made complete sense of why she liked the man, but that was only one of her questions answered.
"Then what about Gray? How did you ever come around to like him and k-kiss him?" Levy was still trying to get the thought of those two kissing to pass her mind, but it was if it didn't want to accept it.
"T-That's very personal, however I'll tell you as much as I'm comfortable with." Erza said as Levy nodded in understanding waiting on Erza to speak again. "I hadn't really thought of him other than my close friend, until I noticed how Cana was behaving with him. She said something that got to me and I thought about it some more. It later turned out that I wasn't seeing the bigger picture." Erza had decided to speak of a few points of her sudden change of view for the ice mage.
"What do you mean?" Levy was interested, but when she heard Cana's name she became nervous to find out if they have a connection.
"I realized that Gray was doing much more for me than I had led myself to think. Jellal had helped me get through life in the Tower sure enough, but there were others who helped guide me too." She replied remembering everyone from back then like Uncle Rob, Simon and Milliana. "But Gray was the one who helped me get through the aftermath, he was the first to go further than anyone else who tried to get close to me."
"But you seemed pretty connected with everyone when I joined the guild Erza." Levy said now receiving a smaller history lesson on the relationship between Erza and Gray.
"That may be true, but Gray was there for me every step of the way. I had trouble talking with the others at first after he truly welcomed me into the guild, but that didn't stop him from trying." Erza continued, remembering the times where she would stutter talking to one of the older mages like Macao. "He was so stubborn to get me accustomed to the guild and before I knew it, I became a true Fairy Tail wizard with his help."
"Wow, I didn't know you two were that close." Levy had always thought of Erza as the strong independent woman who could anything if she set her mind to it.
"Well now you know, but that's where I require your help," Erza said as Levy looked at her nervously. "You see, with that kiss I chose to be closer to Gray more than what we already are and I need help doing that. Both you and Lucy came to mind."
"That's nice to know Erza, but shouldn't you talk to Mira? She's best suited in this field than us." She asked now worrying about her best friend, but at the same time for herself because she realized how angered Erza looked when she said her name.
"That she demon is the last person I'll ever go to for this advice." Erza growled out and Levy was afraid to say anything if it was going to anger Erza. "So will you help me?"
"I would like to help you Erza, but there's something you've got to know first..." Levy knew she was walking in a minefield at this point, but it'll better for her to know now than later, right?
"Very well, I'm listening" Erza knew that Levy was willing to help, so she was more than willing to hear her out.
"Well..."
When Levy first entered Erza's dorm, another event was taking place at Lucy's apartment to which the blonde wasn't prepared for. Lucy was busy finishing up her nightly routine before bed; happy but also troubled by the fact that Cana was in the race for Gray and she wasn't alone.
The blonde beauty couldn't believe it herself, but after talking with Loke when she got home, Lucy knew she still had a chance. With her mind confused on her current situation she was glad to be finally home and get a good night's sleep to ease her worries.
"Yo Luce I need your help!" Natsu had sprang right behind her right when she was about to get into bed, scaring the blonde out of her skin.
"Lucy Kick!" She spun around with incredible speed and hit him right in the stomach making the dragon slayer fly right into her wall falling right onto her floor with a thud. Sadly his furry friend was also caught in her attack, sliding slowly off her wall knocked unconscious from the strength of the blow.
"Ugh...Luce what was that for?" The dragon slayer groaned, still amazed by the strength the celestial mage possessed in her.
"Don't you know you shouldn't sneak up on people like that!" Lucy exclaimed as Natsu finally sat up rubbing his sore stomach.
"Sorry about that Luce, but that doesn't matter right now. I need your help" Natsu replied making his way over to her couch, laying Happy down on one of the couch pillows.
"Sure I don't need sleep anyways, so what do you need help with." Lucy sarcastically replied, but the smile on Natsu's face told her it didn't get to him at all.
Thanks Luce! This is super important so don't let anyone else know okay" Natsu did a complete 180 and was being pretty serious, which caught Lucy off guard.
"If Natsu's being like this than it must be pretty serious..." She thought to herself looking at Natsu before nodding in understanding.
"Remember that thing I asked you guys in the afternoon, well I went deeper into it to find out the truth and it turns out that I do like the person." He said and Lucy was ready to start gushing for her best friend who finally liked someone.
"So who's the lucky person you like Natsu?" Lucy was just waiting for him to say Lisanna, it was pretty obvious in her opinion.
"Gray" He replied smiling to her and in that second Lucy's brain froze any other thought she had.
In the Celestial Spirit World, Loke was about to enjoy his favorite drink when a knocking on his door stopped him from taking a sip. With a bothered sigh he made his way to open the door, thinking hopefully that they just needed his opinion for a quick second so he could go back to relaxing. He opened the door to see Virgo standing there, her emotionless face ever so present and asked her to come inside.
"Onii-san we have a problem" She said standing in front of him as he made himself comfortable on his couch.
"Alright tell me what's wrong." Loke replied, taking a sip of his drink.
"Natsu is in love with Princess's man." She said monotonously, but Loke spat out his drink in shock, coughing harshly for air.
"H-He's what!?" Loke couldn't believe that dense Natsu was in love with Gray. "How the Hell did that happen?!"
"The others are gathered in the Grand Hall, Princess is talking with the dragon slayer at the moment." Virgo continued as Loke began to calm himself down from his earlier reaction.
"Thank you for telling me Virgo, you can go back to them I'll see you all there soon." Loke replied to her and Virgo bowed her head as she dismissed herself.
Loke was confused as to how Natsu could like Gray, he knew they cared for each other like brothers, but they were always at each other's throats. He sprang up onto his feet and made his way towards the Grand Hall, he had to see this for himself. He passed the groves of beautiful plants and the multitude of Nicola enjoying themselves, but it didn't take him long to reach his destination.
A large building reminiscent of the ones from the old age of Fiore, where the stone buildings where beautifully crafted to show such high society. Of course that outside appearance couldn't compare to the much more modern items inside since it's construction, one of which was a huge lacrima screen that allowed the spirits to view the human world if they needed to.
"Looks like you finally showed up, the damn brat's gotten herself in a loop now." Came the snarky reply from Aquarius, but on the inside she was troubled on how this problem would escalate.
"What's been happening since Virgo went to get me?" Loke asked as he looked up at the screen to see an exclaiming Lucy flailing her arms around with a confused looking Natsu on her couch.
"The Young Miss began to ask how it happened and if he was truly serious about liking Gray, although he has yet to reply to her." Capricorn spoke up as they continued to watch their friend and master deal with the dragon slayer.
"Let's hope things don't wrong for Lucy." Loke said hoping she could cool down a major misunderstanding if it came up, but he was prepared to intervene if need be.
"Calm down Luce, you make it sound like it's the end of the world or something. I'll tell you but you've got to sit down." Natsu said as Lucy paced a bit before giving in and sitting down on her bed.
"Fine Natsu, I'm sitting now tell me how this all happened." Lucy was beyond worried of how this could play out since she hadn't expected Natsu to like Gray at all.
"I didn't get it at first myself, but than Gray told me he was falling in love with me and that's when I started thinking that maybe we could make it work." Lucy was worried at first then it turned into complete shock when she heard that Gray was falling in love with Natsu.
"Is that why Gray wasn't interested in me because he was secretly gay this whole time?" Lucy couldn't help thinking it would be the reason as to why, but she wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.
"Then just a little while ago I went out to look for him and tell him that I was willing to make it work." Natsu was smiling to her when he thought of it, but to Lucy she was deflating with defeat that both she and Levy were crushing on a possible gay guy.
"Wow Natsu, I'm so happy for you" Lucy said with sarcasm, restraining her will to Lucy Kick him again and end the night. All her bravado against Juvia for nothing so it seems, she also had to break the news to Levy.
"But that's not the best part Luce, I kissed Gray and it was like nothing I've ever done!" Natsu was excited to say this bit and Lucy was in shock that he did it and simply gave in to the fact that Gray was gay. She couldn't blame Natsu since she's positive he's very new to this.
"That's nice to know Natsu, well it's late and I want to get some sleep so you should get going for your house." As far as she knew that's seven people disappointed; her team and Cana's for sure.
"But Luce this is where I need your help! I don't know what to do now." Lucy wasn't pleased to know her crush was gay, but seeing Natsu so happy made her feel guilty not to help just so she could spite him.
"Hmm...fine. I'll help you, but not now because I want to get some sleep alright. Tomorrow at the guild is a good start for me to help, okay?" Lucy didn't want to deal with this for now, so hopefully he would agree to her terms.
"Thanks Luce you're the best! Tomorrow at the guild it is!" Natsu replied happily, holding onto Happy and jumping right out of her window. Lucy closed it after him and sat on her bed, completely drained from her interaction with Natsu and wasn't looking forward to dealing with him.
Back in the Celestial Spirit World, many of Lucy's spirits were in shock to know the ice mage was gay. They were also feeling very sorry for their master that she had to go through that, but one spirit was beyond angered and focused it on Loke.
"This isn't good Loke, I thought you said that stripping boy had a thing for the brat!" Aquarius was furious that after the brat stood up for herself it crumbles down because that ice mage was gay.
"I'm positive Gray is straight and he does like Lucy. Something isn't right with Natsu, but that's as much as I can say okay." Loke was trying to calm down her temper, but that was something he hoped Scorpio would do for him.
"I'm sure Loke will fix this babe, for now let's get going the show's over anyways. We are!" Speak of the spirit, Scorpio had come in the nick of time and led her away which Loke soon noticed little hearts coming out from the top of her head.
"You best be going Loke-san, the Young Miss doesn't seem very happy. Reassure her that everything will be alright." Capricorn said as he walked away, back to his own devices while Loke began to shimmer and head for the human world.
"What am I going to do?" Lucy questioned, how can she face either one of them now. She crushed on one who was actually gay and the other doesn't even understand this concept.
"Don't worry Lucy this isn't the end yet." Loke said as he materialized in front of her, the rest of the glow dimming away.
"It kind of is Loke, Gray's gay and he's in love with Natsu." Lucy was saddened to know it, but Loke wasn't going to let her down now. Hopefully Gray would forgive him after what he was about to say.
"Look Lucy you've got it all wrong. Gray didn't want me to tell you this, but he was actually crushing on you for a while now." Loke had said his secret, full knowing that he broke one of the bro codes, but this was an emergency that required drastic measures before it spiraled out of control.
"W-Was he really?" Lucy as blushing for the fact that he liked her back, but the thing with Natsu popped up in her mind. "But what about Natsu? How do you explain that?" She was still weary of everything at this point.
"I don't know how to explain it, but don't worry I'll find out soon. Your handsome guardian will do everything in his power to secure your romantic interest." He said in his best 'knight in shining armor' voice, which got Lucy giggling at him.
"Thanks Loke, you've made me feel a lot better now." She said getting back to bed as he smiled down at her.
"No problem Princess, don't worry about a thing. It'll work out soon enough." With that he waved good bye, thinking he did pretty good with the rescue but he still needed to talk to Gray about this.
"So you and Lucy have formed a team to capture Gray's heart and share him once you do?" Erza said her arms crossed as Levy was slightly sweating from nervousness.
She had finished explaining her time with Gray, Lucy's crush with him and how they teamed up to overcome Juvia since she'll be their main objective. It wasn't intentional at all to say this, but Levy was beyond intimidated when she started talking about being with Gray that she couldn't keep her mouth shut. Now Erza has summed up the last bit of her and Lucy's team up and was afraid to know what might happen.
"Yeah, but we've got more information that Cana and possibly two or three others are also invovled." Levy added and yet again Erza seemed angered by hearing a person's name.
"That explains her behavior today and I've got a good feeling who one of the others may be." Erza said, closing her eyes as she pondered an idea in her head for a bit while Levy waited, still nervous of Erza's reactions. "I'll help."
"You'll help? What do you mean by that?" Levy was confused as she randomly said that compared to their previous topic.
"I mean that I'll join your team and help you overcome the others. One of which I'm positive you two will need my help with. Of course you must also share Gray with me, understand?" Levy was blown away by the idea of having Erza on their side, it would make their worries disappear having her with them.
"Yes of course! We'll talk about it some more with Lucy tomorrow and get the details settled with." Erza smiled with understanding and Levy smiled back before leaving for her room in joy.
It was one thing banding together with Lucy to beat Juvia, but having Erza on their side was a sure way of victory. Still she was concerned with the fact that they will require Erza's help with one person she believes to be in the race for Gray. Even if they needed to share him with another person, all in all Levy knew that they'll be well set now and Lucy would be happy to know that one of her own team is helping.
Back in Erza's room, she was quite surprised that those two would be very interested in Gray and didn't think it would come to teaming up. Then again she hadn't expected to finally realize that she loved Gray for who knows how long. Erza was also thinking of who those people may be, three of which are Cana, Juvia and Mira, but who are the other two? She'd have to give it more thought tomorrow with the other girls, for now it will be a good night's sleep
"An alliance with Lucy and Levy will be very interesting, hopefully we're still a step ahead of Mira and Cana." Erza thought as she slowly closed her eyes and let sleep overtake her, hoping her dreams were filled with cheesecake and Gray.
At the similar hour three female figures were standing by near the entrance of the Fairy Tail guild hall, their identities shrouded by the guild building's shadow. An unusual meeting time, but perfect to report without having anyone become suspicious of their activities.
"So anything new to report in?" Said the taller of the three, although she wasn't by much compared to the second tallest.
"Apparently Erza's had herself a little date with Gray for the evening." The second tallest said as she also remained vigilant in case of anyone would notice them.
"She's moving fast, hopefully that was all she managed to get." The tallest responded until she took notice of the third member who was busy fidgeting with her fingers. "Do you have anything to add? Any info on the slayers?"
"Umm...So far Gajeel hasn't made a move yet, but it's different with Natsu." She replied which caught the interest of the other two women.
"Oh and what did our pink haired friend do?" The second asked as the first stood with great interest as to what he might have done.
"He...well he...kissed Gray." The third girl had slightly began blushing from the memory of when she saw them, but was thankful Natsu hadn't picked up her scent at the time.
"He what!?" The second exclaimed in a hushed tone while the third tried to calm her down.
"Those two together hadn't crossed my mind before, they'd look adorable together." The first commented, but the second simply glared at her.
"I'm not going to let a moron ruin that image I have of Gray." She said as the first merely raised her hands in surrender.
"Now, now what are we going to do about that?" The third spoke up, trying to change the subject before this argument broke out even further.
"We'll just have to be careful in the meantime, besides he'll have to get through Juvia if he wants to be with Gray." The first said as they all nodded in agreement with her claim.
"She's right, so there's not much to worry about." The second said although she was still miffed for the fact that Natsu kissed Gray.
"Don't worry ladies we'll win over Gray, together to the end." The first said as the second agreed with her.
"R-Right..." The third slightly stuttered, but went unnoticed by the other two, thus concluding their little meeting.
A misunderstanding has Lucy questioning her crush, Levy's got Erza to be apart of their alliance and Natsu is no longer confused(in his own way). Although trouble is coming over the horizon, a mysterious group of women are keeping tabs on them, but who are they and what are they planning to do to get to Gray? Find out what happens to these Fairy Tailers next time on Emotion Potion and an Ice Mage!
