chapter six

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"So, did you two have a nice chat?" Lucy asked, reclining happily in her innertube.

Levy shrugged nonchalantly, but her grin gave her away. "You did! Yay!" Lucy cheered, clapping her hands together.
"Well, it wasn't a very serious talk... actually, he was just talking about how short I am..." Levy realized with a frown.
"Do you like it when he teases you?" Lucy asked in surprise, propping herself up on her elbows to see her friend's reaction.
"Of course not." Levy sniffed, but bit down on a smile she couldn't stop. Lucy grinned slyly at her.
"I saw how you sat on his shoulders for ages after you won the chickenfight... felt good to be touching him?" she guessed with a suggestive wiggle of her eyebrows. Levy splashed her, laughing.
"He wouldn't let me down at first, silly! He said it must be a nice change to be tall, or something." she said with a roll of her eyes.
"Naughty." Lucy tutted.
"By the way, Lucy... I'm surprised you summoned Loke here." Levy commented, finally bringing up the person who had been floating next to them the whole time. Loke winked at her, his arms folded over his floating paddleboard. Lucy's eye twitched, but a smile was tickling her cheeks.
"I didn't. He came here by himself, for some reason."
"I wonder why. Maybe because I wanted to join in on the fun. Or maybe because I'd hate to miss an opportunity to protect my mistress." he said, in his sweet, casual voice.
"More like you'd hate to miss an opportunity to see her in a bikini." Levy teased the spirit.
"Would I do something as vulgar as that?" he asked innocently, and Lucy hid her grin with her hand.
"What's that noise?" Levy asked, blinking and looking over her shoulder, seeing water flying everywhere.
"Natsu and Gray are fighting. Again." Loke said, and Lucy rolled her eyes.
"I mean, I get the whole fire and ice thing, but they sure pick inconvenient times to brawl." she sighed.
"Take that!" Gray roared from behind them, and they turned around to see Natsu rolling over the water at high speed, barelling towards them.
"Grab onto something, Natsu, before you hit the wall!" Lucy shrieked, pointing at the side of the pool, just feet away.

Loke put himself between Lucy and the oncoming Natsu. Levy covered her face as he came shooting towards them, looking quite ill as he span head over heels, splashing everyone he passed. He crashed into them, and Levy squealed as she felt his arm slam into her, and then he was flipping through the air and slamming into the wall. Levy wiped the hair from her face and treaded water, having been knocked out of her innertube. She stared at Natsu, groaning on the wall, and gasped when she saw a bikini top -her bikini top- in his hand. She immediately grabbed Lucy from behind, pressing against her before she could be seen.
"When I said grab something, that was not what I meant, you moron!" Lucy was roaring at Natsu. All around them, people were laughing and muttering to each other, wondering who the top belonged to.
"Oh my god, Lucy, what do I do?" Levy moaned, pressing her head against Lucy's back, completely mortified.
"Don't worry. I'll get your top back, but for the moment..." Lucy scanned the pool area, looking for a place for her friend to hide.
"Loke, can you take Levy to the steam room? You can hide in the steam until I come give your top back. Better go quickly, while people are still stuck in the aftermath." she said, nodding at her friends before paddling towards Natsu, who had recovered and was charging back towards Gray, oblivious of the swimsuit top that was now hanging out the back of his trunks.
"Climb on my back. I'll piggy-back you there." Loke said, patting Levy on the shoulder.
"'Kay." she murmured, holding his shoudlers as he grabbed her legs. She pressed against his back, resting her cheek on his shoulder, and trying to pretend that none of this was happening- that her bare chest was not pressed up against the back of a person she hardly knew, that her swimsuit top was not in the hands of an ignoramus, etc.
"Don't worry, we're almost there." Loke said cheerfully, now wading through the shallow end.
"Uh-huh." Levy said, taking a deep breath to calm herself- it didn't work, but she felt better for the effort.
"I'm glad Lucy's got a friend like you. Lets her be herself for a while, just a normal girl instead of a celestial spirit mage all the time." Loke said. Levy blinked in surprise.
"But I'm from the guild too, so-"
"But you're not on the same team as her. When she hangs out with Erza, for example, she often ends up worried and tense, talking about danger or their jobs. She seems so relaxed with you... it's good to see her like this." he said, and Levy smiled at the warmth in his voice.
"I know I don't know you all that well, Loke... and I see you even less now that you're Lucy's celestial spirit... but just so you know," Levy said, closing her eyes and imagining Lucy's face if she knew what she was about to say, "I've always thought that Lucy would be happiest with you." she said, and she wondered if Loke was smiling.
"Okay, here we are." he said after a few seconds, and he pushed open the door to the steam room. Levy coughed, blinking rapidly, but she still couldn't see more than a foot in front of her. "Ok, just wait for Lucy in here." Loke said, putting her down.
Levy pressed her arms against her chest and waved as he left, then clambered up into the corner to wait. She looked carefully on either side of her, but couldn't make out anybody sitting near her. She was safe, for the moment.

A few seconds later, when Gajeel and Juvia resumed their conversation, Levy realized that she was not, as she had hoped, completely alone in the steam room; the pair were sitting in the opposite corner, blocked from view by the thick steam, but certainly present.
"Don't you get bored of talking about Gray all the time?" Gajeel said, his tone bored.
"Never. It's impossible. Juvia is meant to be with Gray-sama forever- boredom is impossible." Juvia replied passionately.
"Whatever... why is he so important to you, anyway? I don't care, but you were never this crazy about anybody before you came to Fairy Tail." Gajeel pointed out. Juvia sighed.
"Juvia's life was miserable and lonely and cold, full of endless rain... until Gray-sama stopped it. In our fight... he touched me..." Juvia's voice grew thick with emotion and Levy grinned, imagining her pressing a hand to her chest, the other draped over her forehead.
"You mean he groped you. Damn that guy... stripping naked every two seconds, grabbing your chest the next..." Gajeel said, and Levy imagined him shaking his head and grinning.
"Juvia hopes, for your sake, that you're not insulting the love of her life..."
"...Right."
"Juvia is glad... that our lives have gotten so much warmer since joining Fairy Tail..."
"Warmer?"
"Friends. People who care about us. We're not alone anymore." Juvia said softly. Levy felt awkward, listening in on their private conversation, but there really wasn't much she could do to block them out. Gajeel snorted.
"All of this friendship crap sure has made you sentimental."
"Don't you think that's a pot calling a kettle black? You're practically a marshmallow now, compared to before."
"What are you talking about?"
Levy blinked around herself, a vice of tension gripping her as she realized the steam was dissipating- the timer had run out!
"You know exactly what Juvia is talking about. Ever since the S-class exam, maybe even before that, you've almost become a different person. And you know why."
Levy was chewing her nails like a maniac, watching as the steam began to fade, and the shadowy forms of Gajeel and Juvia appeared in the opposite corner. Which meant that they could see her, too, if they looked over... and unless she did something fast, they would be able to see she didn't have anything covering her chest within the next ten seconds or so. Levy tore at her thumbnail, the sting and blood not distracting her at all from her situation. She didn't know where the timer was, which meant that if she stood up now and looked for it to turn the steam back on, she'd have to pat at all the walls until she found it, by which time the steam might completely disappear, leaving her completely exposed. But as she worried about that, the steam was vanishing faster, and she realized with a start that Laxus was also in the steam room, sitting to her right on a lower level.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Gajeel muttered. Juvia laughed.
"Do you really want Juvia to say it? You'll just get embarassed."
The steam was almost completely gone. Levy brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, trying to hide herself.
"Here, I'll get that." Laxus said, standing up and walking towards the timer.
Levy sighed in relief, glancing at Gajeel and Juvia to check they hadn't noticed her, but froze when Gajeel met her gaze, looking surprised. The next second, however, the room filled with steam once more, just as the door burst open.
"Levy, I got your top!" Lucy cried, rushing in.
"Over here, Lucy!" Levy called, and the next second, Lucy was clambering towards her, the bikini top clutched triumphantly in her fist.
"What took you so long?" Levy asked, taking it from her and turning, letting Lucy tie it up.
"Natsu and Gray were still fighting, and your top was stuck to Natsu, and Gray had taken off his trunks, and then Gray made this huge pillar of ice, sending Natsu up really high, and you know I suck at climbing, so I summoned Taurus to go up and get it back for me, but then he was distracted-"
"By your sexy body?" Levy asked drily as Lucy tied a double-knot at her neck, then started on the next string.
"Yeah... Anyway, he was so useless I sent him back, and by that time Loke had come back, and he dealt with it, but then Natsu thought he wanted to join in and started fighting him (that moron...) so Loke tossed it to me, but it went in the deep end, so I had to swim back and then Gray thought it was his trunks, so he was in the way-"
"Well, I'm glad it's back, anyway." Levy interrupted with a sigh. "This is the last time I wear a swimsuit like this." she said as they walked through the steam towards the door.
"So, have you been sitting here topless the whole time?" Lucy asked with a grin.
"Shut up!" Levy hissed, shoving her friend through the door.
"Gajeel was in there!" she said when the door shut again, and Lucy clapped a hand to her mouth.
"Whoops... well maybe he's kicking himself for missing out." she suggested with a shrug.
Levy rolled her eyes, and they returned to the pool, Levy staying far away from Natsu and Gray's fight this time.

A few hours later, everyone got out of the pool to get changed. Levy gratefully took her bikini off, and then sighed as she changed into one of the outfits Lucy had designed for her: a white tanktop with a sweetheart neckline, pink shorts, a soft, blue cardigan, yellow Doc Martins, and black, thigh-high stockings. This was very tame compared to the rest of the outfits her friend had loaded her up with (various bustiers, cut-out minis, stockings and garters, and various brassiere-croptops). She emerged from the changeroom to find Lucy waiting outside, dressed to the nines in a tight, red cocktail dress and black stillettos.

"Good choice." she said with a grin, pointing at Levy's legs. "The 'absolute territory' look. Very good." she said, giving her a thumbs-up before linking arms and heading over to the lockers.
"'Absolute territory'?" Levy asked curiously. Lucy grinned.
"The delicious sneak-peek of skin where the stockings end and the shorts begin. Any man's dream." Levy raised her eyebrows.
"I'm sure." she said drily.
"I wish my hair towell-dried as well as yours... mine just goes all crimpy, but your hair looks great!" Lucy said, eyeing Levy's curls enviously.
"Come on, Lucy. You know I'd kill for your hair. You can do so much with it! I can't even do a ponytail without half of it falling out." Levy smiled, grabbing her bag and heading out the door, Lucy right behind her.
"So what's the plan now?" Levy asked quietly as they made their way through the pool's entrance hall, which was packed with happily chatting guild members. "Well, once everyone's changed, most of us are heading for that japanese food place across the street- Master's reserved it. All-you-can-eat, of course. So, I suggest we both go, and you and Gajeel leave early and go for a romantic walk. How does that sound?" Levy bit her lip.
"I mean, to be honest, it sounds great... I love walking at night, Jet and Droy and I used to go stargazing a lot... but how would you like to try and convince Gajeel to leave a meal early?" she asked Lucy, who snorted.
"I wouldn't, but it's not me asking, it's you, and when it comes to you, I'm pretty sure Gajeel's willing to be flexible." Levy sighed.
"I wouldn't be so sure." Lucy patted her head, smirking.
"Believe me, Lev, you are the only person Gajeel has ever let stay with him. I'm pretty sure he'll do what you ask."
"Fine, fine." Levy muttered before going over to chat with team Shadow Gear.
"Is everyone here? Yes?" Master called, standing on the registration counter (to the bemusement of the pool secretaries) and nodding good-naturedly. "In that case, let's head out!" Everyone from the guild cheered as they pushed through the doors and made their way, talking, laughing, and fooling around, to the nearby sushi bar. "
You know, Levi, I've been thinking," Lucy said, sidling up to her and putting her arm around her shoulders.
"That can't be good." Levy said with a grin.
"Shut up! I've just been thinking that you're the only person I know except Wendy who can literally climb someone like a tree." Levy burst out laughing.
"That's what you've been thinking about? Why?" she asked. Lucy shot her a wicked grin.
"Because, as demonstrated during the chicken fight, Gajeel is the perfect height for that."
"Hey!" Levy said, shoving her friend over, but laughing all the same: the ridiculous image of her climbing somebody was still lodged in her mind. Lucy laughed, too, then tousled Levy's hair affectionately.
"I've got some great ideas for tomorrow, Lev. They're gonna blow him away." Levy raised an eyebrow skeptically.
"Right. And your other plans haven't worked so far because...?"
"Hey, hey, this is a work in progress! I'll bet you anything he's been going crazy all week!"
"It's only been like three days."
"Details, details..." Lucy said, flapping her hand as though she were shooing them away. "In any case, I'll lay the whole plan out tomorrow morning, so be ready for an early wake-up call!" Lucy said cheerily, ignoring Levy's groan.

They reached the sushi bar within a few minutes, at which point Lucy seized Levy's hand and shot through the crowd.
"Where are we going?" Levy hissed.
"I'm looking for Gajeel, who you have to sit next to." she said, scanning the long table, which was quickly filling up, for her tall, dark, and spiky quarry. "There he is." she said triumphantly, and all but shoved Levy forwards. She stumbled a little, over balancing, but managed to fall straight into the seat next to Gajeel, rather than onto the table.
"Thanks, Lucy..." she muttered sarcastically, before smiling and saying hi to Juvia, who sat down across from her, holding the arm of a protesting Gray in a vice-like grip, beaming.
"So, just to clarify," Gajeel said suddenly, turning to Levy with a kind of shit-eating grin she hadn't seen before.
"What?" she asked, looking up at him.
"So you were in the steam room the whole time... completely topless?" he asked, snickering. Levy's face flamed up and she scowled.
"Jeez, why are you bringing that up? Seriously, that's not even funny." she said, folding her arms and turning away as Gajeel continued to laugh. Levy caught Lucy's eye from further down the table and pouted at her. Lucy rolled her eyes and shrugged.
"Come on, it is funny. Just a little." Gajeel said, leaning his arm on her head.
"No, it's not! It was really embarassing. Stop that." Levy said, batting at his side, but he just grinned.
"Well imagine if it were me, missing my trunks and hiding in the steam." Despite herself, Levy snorted. "What's this, are you laughing at me?" he teased her. "Seriously, that's not even funny." he repeated back to her in a sing-song voice, and Levy had to cover her mouth with her hands, giggling.
Across the table, she spotted Juvia smiling at her before turning back to Gray, blushing and asking him to share the 'love-love sushi boat' with her.
"Hey, I've been wondering," Gajeel said thoughtfully, his arm still resting on Levy's head. "How come you don't do any physical fighting? I know you do your stuff with words, but why do you leave all the melee stuff to those two idiots?" he asked, jerking a thumb at Jet and Droy, who were sitting further down the table. Levy scowled.
"Don't call them idiots! I know you don't like them, but they're my team! We've been friends since we were kids!" she said, irritated. "But I would have thought the answer to your question to be obvious. I don't fight like you do because I can't. If I tried to punch out a bad guy, I'd be killed in, like, ten seconds." she muttered, picking up her menu at last and browsing through it. Gajeel slid his arm off of her.
"I'm not talking about punching people out. I'm asking why you don't do all that acrobatic stuff in fights. You should- it sure took Mirajane by surprise." he said, and when Levy glanced up, she saw that he was frowning.
"It would interfere with my letter magic. And I'm not good enough at it for it to really be useful. But..." she said, smiling a little, "I'm glad you noticed." Gajeel glanced away.
"Hard not to, considering you were sitting on me at the time..." he muttered, and she grinned wider.

An hour later, Levy caught Lucy's eye, and nodded at her. She was nervous, but she wanted to get out of the restaurant anyway; with everyone there, it was really noisy and stuffy.
"Hey, Gajeel," she said, poking his arm. He looked at her, half-way through a plate of california rolls. "Do you want to go for a walk? It's really stuffy in here." Gajeel frowned at her.
"Why don't you take Lucy?" he asked, and although she kept her smile, Levy scowled inwardly. She might have known he was going to be difficult. He hated having a meal interrupted.
"Lucy's busy." she said, giving her friend an intense gaze which she hoped made her understand.
Lucy, apparently, got the message. She grabbed Natsu's arm and yelled out she was starting an arm-wrestling competition, then muttered quickly in Natsu's ear. Gajeel looked up the table at them, then back at Levy, his expression unreadable for a few minutes, then he sighed.
"What the heck. It's too damn noisy in here, anyway." he said, standing up.
Levy beamed at him, and triumphantly walked out of the restaurant, Gajeel right behind her.

/
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