The Thirteenth Key
Chapter 3
The Grand Librariam
Levy yawned slightly and snuggled contentedly into Gajeel's chest. She was so warm and comfortable. It would be fine if the world ended right now, just like this. Huh? Was Gajeel's chest so soft? Wasn't it normally rock hard? This was big and bouncy, just like…
Levy's eyes snapped open as her cheeks coloured. She slowly looked up into Lucy's grinning face.
"Morning, Levy-chan! Dreaming of someone? Or just enjoying the feeling?"
"I, I'm sorry!" Levy screeched, practically hurling herself backwards and falling off the edge of the bed. She tried to ignore the annoying laughter as she clambered back up onto the mattress. "Well, that's the closest I'm gonna get to a pair of double Ds," Levy mumbled.
"Don't look so down! Come on, I'll brush your hair to make up for it." The pair got dressed to go out and Lucy worked to pull Levy's hair back into her traditional headband. She had no idea how she did it by herself! But her hair was fantastically soft. Lucy had a rare moment of body envy with Levy.
"Are you going to go out like that?" Levy asked sceptically. Lucy tried to understand the criticism. Levy was wearing a pale yellow elegant sundress and Lucy wore a white top with a short blue skirt. What was wrong with that? "I mean your shoes," Levy clarified.
"What's wrong with my shoes?" Lucy inquired with bemusement.
"Do you really need to wear four inch heels when you're with me?" She asked wryly.
"It's not my fault if you choose to wear flats," the blonde huffed. "I know! Let's go shoe-shopping on the way there!"
"Why? Don't you have enough shoes by now?"
"I have no idea what you just said," Lucy replied cheerily.
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"No, Lu-chan! I don't want to go clothes shopping!" Levy protested as the larger girl forcibly shoved her into a mall. "I just want to go to the library!"
"Come on, Levy-chan! This is prime girl bonding time!"
"Says the girl with huge knockers and a shoe fetish!" Levy cried desperately. "This isn't my idea of a good time!"
"Nonsense! Let's find something for you that Gajeel'll like, yeah?" Having successfully subdued the blunette by forcing her into a downward spiral of insanity, Lucy managed to manhandle her over to the clothes section.
"They don't even have underwear in my size," Levy said miserably. "I bet I'd have to go over to the kiddies' section."
"No, look they have resizing magic here! I bet Gajeel would like these lacy undies, eh?" Levy looked at the infernal device in Lucy's hands with amazement. Those were clothes? There wasn't any material there! "No? How about this negligee?"
"What kind of shop is this?" Levy squealed thinly, staring at the semi-transparent garment with fear. "Do women wear things like that?"
"Levy, you have thousands of romantic novels. Stop acting so innocent."
"It's different in real life!"
"Oh! I've got a great idea!" Lucy shouted happily, dragging Levy halfway across the store to the outerwear apparel. Levy looked around in confusion, slowly realising where she was. The leather section. "See! Let's get you a nice leather jacket! Nothing risqué, and I think it'd be right up Gajeel's alley!"
"I-I don't think that this is my style," Levy noted nervously, touching the shiny garments tentatively. "Look at the prices!"
"Well, we could always get you another kitty hoodie. I'm sure that Gajeel will like that." Lucy decided to do a bit of shopping by herself after that, as Levy appeared to have completely collapsed in on herself mentally, mumbling something about dragons and shrimps. She happily spent an hour going through shoes before Levy finally found her again.
"Can we please go?" She begged. "There are books waiting for me!"
"You really hate clothes, don't you?" Lucy asked amiably, untying the laces of the shoes she currently had on. "They're just a big mystery to you."
"Try being a permanent child size. That puts you off clothes shopping. Now are you going to buy something or not?"
"It's all too damn expensive," Lucy grumbled. "But the selection is fantastic."
"Maybe Natsu will buy you a pair if you ask him nicely."
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, we're going. Well played, Levy-chan!"
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"Oh my word, Lu-chan look!" Levy cried, running up to the window of a store. Lucy looked over her head at the display. It was a pair of gale force reading glasses, with 'x64' stamped on one lens.
"That's pretty fast," Lucy said, thinking that her pair was only a x2.
"Sixty four times speed," Levy marvelled, doe eyed. "Mine are only sixteens. Think how much faster could read with those. I'd pay a thousand bucks for a pair like that."
"Then don't look at the price tag," Lucy advised gently.
"Ten thousand!?" Levy shrieked. "I hate this blasted city! Everything is too damn expensive!"
"Maybe we can ask master to fund them for you," Lucy suggested kindly. "After all, you'd use them a lot for guild business."
"You think?" The blunette asked hopefully.
"Well, with you reigning in Gajeel's destruction, perhaps he'll make up the difference in the damage bill!"
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"Roar of the Iron Dragon!" Gajeel's blast took out most of the carriage and two enemies in his way. To think that this train would be attacked by bandits! Unlucky bastards to be facing three dragon slayers at the same time. Well, two slayers…
"Ulph," Natsu emoted, wriggling on the floor. "I wanna fight too…"
"Wendy's stopped the train, aren't you back to normal yet?" Gajeel shouted. Two more bandits appeared, firing guns at Gajeel. He laughed as the bullets ricocheted from his iron scales and grabbed the flame dragon by the ankle. Wielding him like a club, he struck the two assailants down, laughing like a madman.
"Gajeel!" Lily shouted angrily, reappearing from the next carriage. "Don't use your nakama as weaponry!"
"He said that he wanted to fight!" Gajeel whined petulantly, dropping Natsu to the floor. Natsu clambered falteringly to his feet, trying to take stock of the previous few minutes. He'd been catatonic, vaguely hearing Gajeel and Wendy talk about…reading? That couldn't be right, but whatever. Then a bandit had thrown open the compartment door, shouting that this train was under their control now. Then Gajeel had put him through the wall.
The outside wall, onto a fast moving countryside.
Lily went to check one end of the train. Wendy had gone to the engine with Happy and Charla to make sure that the engineers were safe and to apply the emergency break. Gajeel had gone back and forth, drawing the enemies' attention all onto himself. He'd had fun, gihi!
"Bandits?" Natsu said at last as his queasiness faded. "How unlucky were we?"
"I'd say that they were the unlucky ones, gihihihi!"
"But the train's damaged," Wendy reported. "We'll have to limp into the nearest station and then wait for a replacement."
"It's like we're being kept away from them," Natsu hissed.
"You're being overly dramatic, Salamander," Gajeel replied dismissively. "This is just unlucky."
"What if…our visions have to happen?" That got Gajeel's attention. "What if fate or something is delaying us so that the visions happen?"
"I don't believe in destiny!" Gajeel snarled. "I'll rip apart fate itself if it's gonna stand in the way of my Shrimp!" Natsu glared at him for a while, because his only thought was: I wish I'd said that.
"We're thinking too hard," Charla stated. "They'll get the train rolling soon and we'll just have to be patient."
There was a soft rumble as the engines engaged again and Natsu immediately flopped down into his seat. Gajeel grinned, still under the effect of Wendy's Troia spell. Those two slayers sat down next to one another as Lily went about tying up the bodies lying around. It'd been little more than light exercise for the Fairy Tail mages, although Gajeel had significantly reduced the structural stability of this carriage.
"So, Gajeel-san! You were telling me about the book that Levy-san read to you!" Wendy said cheerily, restarting their conversation. "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?"
"Oh yeah! It was really good. See, Charlie's like Shrimp, cuz he's all small and puny, but he wins this ticket and then…"
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Finally! They had arrived at the Grand Librariam. It was a huge building, almost the size of a football stadium. Every inch of it was crammed with details. Stonework, columns, statues, windows. It was a majestic sight.
"Remember, you have to be quiet in a library," Lucy teased, seeing that Levy was about to explode with anticipation. They hurried inside, uttering strangled squeals of excitement, balancing the need to be quiet with sheer joy. It was everything they'd dreamed!
The rooms were huge, lined with rows upon rows of books reaching from floor to ceiling. The carpet was a rich red and all the shelves were a deep wood, lending warmth to the surroundings.
"Come on, Levy-chan! We can enjoy ourselves in a bit, but let's see if we can find anything on Celestial Spirits!" Nearby, a figure crooked his head in as he overheard the conversation by complete accident. He leaned out to watch the two girls disappear into another section of the library.
"Celestial Spirits, eh?"
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"Push me down, Lu-chan!" Levy had ascended one of the many stepladders that adorned the rows of bookshelves. Lucy pushed her down the row slowly, as they both scanned the books on different levels. The library was difficult to search simply because it was so large. There was just one section for all things magical, and they were working through the Cs.
"I found something-no, we have this one back home," Lucy said, going from happy to despondent quickly.
"Hold on, Lu-chan," Levy called. "I think that this one is new."
Lucy watched warily as the small girl tried to move a huge tome from where it was wedged into the shelf.
"Levy-chan, I don't think that's safe," she advised.
"I've almost got it," Levy replied distractedly. With a wrench she freed the book. The large book was almost half her own weight and she overbalanced as it came out. She closed her eyes. This was going to be bad.
"Open Gate of the Ram: Aries!" Pink wool filled the space between the shelves, cushioning Levy as she fell. About a hundred people rushed up to 'shh' them. Never mind the mortal peril, how dare someone make noise in a library! And Levy agreed with them! Aries apologised profusely, as is her normal idiom.
The next few hours became boring for Lucy. She was practically a mule, bringing every book that she could find for Levy. With her sixteen times glasses and naturally superior reading, Lucy would have just been slowing her down, really. If nothing else, it gave her some time to think.
She loved him, didn't she?
No matter how much she tried to ignore it, it kept coming back. No amount of distraction was sufficient to stop these feelings. Lucy had never met a person so radiant with passion. A man who could and would stand up a hundred times over to protect that which he cared about. And he was so easy to be with, to talk to, to laugh with. They were best friends. When exactly had that changed?
She remembered when he came to rescue her from the princesses' castle during the grand magic games. It wasn't the first time that he'd rescued her, but it felt like the first time as something more than just nakama.
Thinking about Gajeel and Levy, they had both thought their love one sided. Levy had thought that Gajeel only protected her due to guilt and her own weakness. Gajeel had thought himself undeserving of the person he'd once hurt. But Lucy's love was reciprocated. Of that, she was sure. Why didn't that make it easier? Damn it, why was this emotion so tricky!?
Trying to distract herself, she drew Ophichus' key and stared at it. She tried to reach out to the spirit, but it remained as distant as ever. The key might as well have been completely inert.
The day wore on and the sun began to set. At one point, Lucy returned to find Levy slumbering over an open book, more piled high around her. Gah! How did Gajeel survive the cuteness that this one put out? She was like a napping kitten!
"Come on, Levy-chan," Lucy said softly, gently shaking the bookworm by her shoulders. "We should probably go."
"But I haven't found anything useful yet!" Levy protested, sounding woefully distressed that she'd been unable to help Lucy.
"Excuse me." The girls turned at the sound of a refined, cultured voice. There was a man, tall and slender. Everything about him oozed wealth and high culture. Well trimmed alabaster hair, a proud nose, exquisitely tailored clothes. "I don't wish to be rude, but I overheard you talking earlier about the celestial spirits."
"Yes?" Lucy ventured cautiously.
"Let me be direct. I am Alexander C. Vanquez. I am a rather frequent visitor of the Librariam. I also have a rather sizeable collection of books at my estate…I must confess to being something of a bibliophile. But, I'm rambling. What I should say is that I have a curiosity for the celestial world, and have quite a few books on the subject."
"Really?" Lucy asked, renewed hope shining in her eyes.
"Indeed." He reached into a breast pocket and produced a card. "I am aware of how it might seem for a man of my age to approach two young women as yourself. So here, please take my card. If you are interested in looking through my collection, please stop by my place at around ten tonight. I'll make sure that my collection is ready for you."
"Um, thank you," Lucy said as the man bowed and departed from them. She looked at the card, which had his name and address in beautiful print. "What do you think, Levy-chan?"
"Well, if he likes books, he can't be all bad! He said ten, right? That would give us time to get dinner and rest a little bit. It seems like a good idea to me. And I don't think that he was a mage; I'm sure that we could take him down if he had improper intentions."
"I suppose," the blonde replied a little uncertainly. Then she felt the weight of the key hanging at her waist and her resolve hardened. I will help him.
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As he walked down the street towards his home, Alexander grinned to himself.
This is it! This is perfect! A powerful celestial mage is exactly what I need! Prepare yourself, Igneel!