Chapter nine

Sorry for the slow update! I've been travelling, and the wifi's been a bit patchy.

The guild hall was hardly recognizable; red, pink, and gold streamers hung from every wall and criss-crossed over the ceiling, draped over the wooden support beams; brass instruments and huge sparkling drums were servings as centerpieces at every table, which had been pushed to the edges of the room; deep red carpets were layered over the floor; huge piles of squashy, tasseled pillows were strewn all over the place; feathered decorations and top hats were hung from the ceiling with clear wire; large balloon hearts floated in clumps over the glitter-strewn bar, and brassy, big-band music was blaring out of a fancy record player in the corner. All around them, people dressed as drum majorettes, conductors, and acrobats sat in groups on the pretty carpets, chatting and laughing and drinking.

"This is... this is huge!" Levy breathed, staring around her as they took it all in. "When Lucy goes all-out, she goes all-out!"

"I'm gonna grab a drink. You want anything, Levy?" Jet asked. She shook her head, and he and Droy headed off to the bar, where Mirajane was serving, wearing a red sequinned dress and a blue officer's jacket, complete with tasseled epaulettes.

"Um, I guess... do you want to sit down?" she asked Gajeel, who was still staring at the heart-shaped balloons in disbelief. She took his silence as a yes, and they sat down next to a pile of over-stuffed pillows, next to Cana and Gray, who were chatting over a few drinks, the former perhaps having more than her fair share.

"Are you starting to regret coming?" Levy asked, grinning at how blatantly uncomfortable Gajeel looked.

"I think I was regretting it shortly after agreeing to go, actually." he replied tossing her an ironic smile. Levy ignored the resulting jolt in her stomach and played with the pillow in her lap.

She was just about to ask when it would start when a huge bang shook the hall and a huge cloud of confetti burst out of a huge sparkling cannon. A few seconds later Lucy emerged from the cloud of paper and glitter, decked out in a navy-blue general's coat, a matching mini skirt, a huge double-peaked, feathery hat, and bright red thigh-high boots. Everyone cheered and clapped as the rest of her team appeared around her, each wearing a matching (if altered- Natsu and Gray were wearing pants and regular boots, although Gray was missing about 80% of his outfit, and Erza had upped the fetish fuel by about 70%) outfit and grinning.

"I knew Lucy couldn't've pulled this off by herself," Levy muttered, grinning, "But I bet she had to beg and blackmail them all into helping."

"Thanks for coming, everybody!" Lucy called over the cheering, getting everyone's attention.

"The party goes until ten! Free drinks, free food, and obviously, free fan service." she said with a flirty wink, gesturing to Erza, who gave her the stink-eye for a second, then gave a little twirl, to a huge wave of cheers and whistles. (To elaborate on Erza's outfit- Her general's coat was pinned to reveal a lot of cleavage, and was cropped just below her chest, her shiny red boots hugged her fish-netted thighs, and her butt was squeezed into tiny blue booty shorts.) Lucy cleared her throat and the cheers died down a little.

"Spin the bottle's in the corner to my right, 7 minutes is straight ahead, Truth or Dare and Would You Rather's over by the bar, Strip Poker's in the centre, and there's a jello-wrestling ring just out back!" Lucy finished with a red-lipped smile. She snapped her fingers and soft music with a distinct groove and beat started playing.

"This is... really..." Gajeel said, shaking his head as the confetti-cannon fired again, covering Evergreen and Elfman (who were closest) in glitter. Levy couldn't even speak- her jaw hung loose as she stared.

"W-Well," she began, clearing her throat after her voice cracked, looking up at Gajeel, "Do you want to play anything? I kind of like truth or dare." she said with a shrug and a smile.

It might be overkill -it was definitely overkill- but Lucy had gone to a lot of effort for her, so the least she could do was try and get Gajeel to have some fun. He looked at her, his eyebrows crinkled in disbelief.

"Do you seriously think I'm gonna-"

"Yes, I do." she cut him off and pulled him up, dragging him behind her, keeping a hold on his wrist. "This will be fun!" she insisted as she led him over to the bar, where about twenty of their guild were already gathering.

She turned her head, listening to his muttered protestations for a few seconds before laughing. Somehow, even though his presence was part of the reason Levy's stomach was tangled in a nervous knot, just having him with her made it all easier. He made her laugh.

Fifteen minutes later, they were sitting next to each other in a large circle of people as Juvia was being forced to list all of the BDSM toys and accessories she had in her closet at home. She was bright pink in the face, but was sending heated looks to Gray all the while.

"That's... that's a lot..." Levy breathed as Juvia finished, ending with 42 items.

"Cana. Truth or Dare?" Juvia asked, hugging her knees to her chest and smiling. Cana pressed a hand to her mouth to silence a burp and shrugged.

"Hmm. Dare, why not?" Juvia smirked.

"Call Gildarts over to play, and call him 'Daddy'." The circle inhaled as a unit, staring at Cana, who looked shocked.

"Oh crap. Oh crap, Juvia, why? Ugh!" Cana whined, pressing her hands to her face.

"Come on, it's what you deserve! You made my darling Gray-sama swallow twenty hot peppers!" she said, glancing again at Gray, who shuddered at the memory. Cana blew her long, chocolate-brown hair out of her face and sighed.

"Okay, fine." she cleared her throat and looked around the hall for her father. Gildarts was leaning against the wall with Laxus, holding a huge tankard of beer and quite obviously laughing at him.

"Hey!" Cana called out, waving at him. He looked up and grinned. Cana shut her eyes and bit her lip. "Hey, Daddy, come play with us!" Gildarts dropped his beer and stared at her for a long minute before shuffling over and sitting next to her, looking pretty stunned. Cana was bright red in the face. She cleared her throat and tried to hurry the game up to take the attention off of her.

"Lucy! Truth or Dare?" Cana asked, giving Gildarts a small smile. Lucy leant forwards and grinned.

"Dare!" she cheered, raising her fist in the air. Cana thought for a second, then dared Lucy to summon Loki and flash him.

"UGH!" Lucy exclaimed, tilting her head back and pinching the bridge of her nose. "Why, why, why did I pick dare..." she moaned, reaching half-heartedly for her keys. Gritting her teeth, she opened Loki's gate. Levy leaned forwards, giggling.

"What're you so excited about? What's going to happen?" Gajeel asked from her right, sounding bored.

"I don't know! But it's going to be awesome!"

"You're this excited about Lucy's tits?" he asked, confused. Levy laughed.

"No, stupid! But I wanna see what Loki does."

"Knowing him he'll probably propose." Gajeel muttered and Levy beamed.

"I know, right?" By this time, Loki had already appeared in front of Lucy, wearing his usual black suit.

"What's up?" he asked, glancing around and taking in the garishly-decorated guild hall.

"Ugh, we're just playing truth or dare... and it's my turn." Lucy explained, scowling.

"Let me guess, you've been dared to kiss the man of your dreams?" Loki asked with a grin. Lucy blushed and rolled her eyes.

"No! But... well... okay, I'm gonna do this, but... um..."

Apparently Lucy decided there was no way to explain what she was about to do. So she just opened her coat. All around them, the room filled with cheers and whistles (although nobody except Loki could see anything), but Levy's eyes were fixed determinedly on Loki, who just stared. And then he suddenly lit up like a torch, making everyone within ten feet of him have to squint and shield their eyes. He then burst into flame and spouted confetti and heart-shaped clouds, and was gone.

"Where'd he go?" Evergreen asked, distastefully wafting away a shower of glitter. Lucy shut her coat and scowled.

"He closed his gate." she replied.

"He probably went to write in his diary. An entry called 'the best day of my life'. Levy quipped, grinning when Lucy scowled at her and Gajeel laughed.

"Okay. Levy. Truth or Dare?" Lucy asked sitting down and fixing Levy with a naughty grin that made Levy's insides freeze.

They'd been playing for at least an hour and a half, and so far, Lucy (who so far had been the only person to pick Levy) had given her pretty easy things. Things like telling embarrassing stories, or singing stupid songs, or motorboating Erza or something, but this time was different. For one thing, Lucy was nodding at her and giving her a meaningful wink. For another, she was subtly jerking her head upwards, and when Levy looked at the ceiling, there was a sign stuck to it that read 'SHOWTIME'. This wasn't going to end well.

"Uh... Uh..." she stalled, completely unsure. She was pretty certain that Lucy would find some way to enact her plan whether Levy chose Truth or Dare, but she hoped there was a way out.

"Come on Levy, just choose!" Lucy said, her voice teasing, her eyebrows raised. Levy bit her lip. If she chose dare, she'd have to do something, and it most certainly would involve Gajeel. Like, sit in Gajeel's lap for the next ten turns, or something. And if it was truth...

"Dare. Dare, I pick dare." she said at last, crossing all of her fingers and toes that whatever horrible thing Lucy was going to make her do... that it wouldn't be too horrible. Lucy smirked slowly, the edges of her mouth creeping towards her ears as her eyes narrowed in a distinctly feline way. As soon as she made that face, Levy knew she was toast.

"Dare, huh?" Lucy said, propping her chin up on her hands and biting down on her smirk.

"Well then, Levy, I dare you to do 7 minutes in heaven with both Jet and Droy at the same time, right now."

Levy choked on her own breath.

Next to her, Gajeel seemed to have frozen, but to be fair, the confetti-cannon had just gone off again, coating him in sticky glitter. "Uh..." Levy's mouth had gone terribly dry, and she swallowed with difficulty, trying to speak.

"But... but-"

"Hey, hey, Levy. This is a dare! No backing out!" Lucy said, raising her eyebrows and chin, giving Levy a challenging look. Levy scowled darkly.

"This is... this is..." she couldn't think of an adjective strong enough to express herself, (other than fucktacular, but she didn't like to say that in public), so she just stood up, fists clenched, and tried not to look at Gajeel as she walked past and into the storage closet, slamming the door shut behind her.

Once inside, she sat down on a bucket and put her face in her hands. This was horrible- not only would she have to either explain really quickly, or get into a very uncomfortable situation with her team, but she was sure this wouldn't help her get Gajeel's attention. In the highly unlikely situation where he got jealous (why would he, though, if he hardly cared about her?), what could he do, anyway?

After what felt like ages, the door opened, and Jet and Droy walked in. Droy looked totally wasted, making this a whole lot more difficult.

"Hey Lev-" Jet began, but Levy cut him off before he could even get going. She held her hands up and took a deep breath.

"Okay, okay, I know this is a dare, and I know I'm totally chickening out, but I... I can't kiss you guys. I absolutely can't. I can't because I don't like you that way, which you know, and I know you know, but jeez you sure don't act like you know half the time... But that's not the point!" Levy knew she was rambling, but she couldn't stop. She had to get control of herself and the situation, but she was terrible, she was terrible and this, at everything, and she just couldn't shut up.

"I can't kiss you because I like Gajeel! I like him like crazy, and even though we're not dating yet, and I doubt we ever will, I don't want... I don't want to kiss anybody else." she mumbled, pressing her hands into her face and then sliding them up to grip her hair.

"Woah there, crazy." Jet said, grabbing her shoulder and giving her a friendly shake. "If you'd let a guy get a word in edgewise, please?" he asked, giving her a friendly grin. Levy blew out a deep breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and nodded.

"Chill out, Lev! Lucy already told us everything. It's not like we aren't totally crushed by the news-" he said, his voice cracking for a second, winking at her to make her laugh, "but hey, we're Shadow Gear, together forever, right?"

"Right!" Levy murmured, wiping at her eyes. She couldn't believe she was crying. Not only was it cliche, it was making her mascara wet, stinging her eyes.

"So we're your bros. Lucy was just doing this to check Gajeel's reaction. So go out there and get him, Lev!" Jet said encouragingly, giving her a quick, tight hug and pushing her towards the door.

"Okay. But... what about Droy?" Levy asked, looking at her other teammate, whose lower lip was trembling like crazy. Jet laughed.

"Droy's fine. Or, he will be. He's drunk for a reason." he said, patting his friend on the back. Levy beamed at them both- she loved them like crazy. They might not be boyfriend material in her mind, but they were her brothers, and always would be.

"Thanks guys." she said, before disappearing out the door. She barely heard the loud cheers and whistles that greeted her as she searched the circle for Gajeel. Her stomach dropped as she realized that he was gone.

"Levy!" She turned and saw Lucy waving at her from across the room, running. "He got up and left! Go, go, go!" she shouted.

Levy didn't need an invitation, but she took it gladly. Without at second thought, she took off, sprinting through the hall, jumping over circles of laughing people and dodging fights.

Her boots slapped against the floor, and her heart was hammering in her mouth as she ran after Gajeel.

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