Inspired by the song "What Makes You Beautiful"! Hope ya like it!


Wendy never thought she was beautiful.

When she was little, of course, beauty hadn't mattered because she had her dragon, and then her guild, and, in her mind, who really needed looks to be happy?

When she was twelve and joined Fairy Tail, she saw so many gorgeous women there that the next thought she had concerning her beauty was that she'd never be able to be as pretty as them.

And then, after the timeskip, when she met Romeo, her future boyfriend, the need to be beautiful intensified to the maximum. Because, in her mind, she was plain. She was just barely thirteen- she didn't have a figure, she still held a bit of her baby fat, and her hair was dead straight. No cute curls whatsoever.

So she did the logical thing a girl who is desperately craving a boy and beauty did- raided her best friend's closet for something close to 'okay' to wear. Tonight was special. Tonight was the night the guild finally had enough money to throw a small party to celebrate getting said money. They were setting up lights and getting out tablecloths and actually trying to maintain some normal peace so the party money wasn't wasted on replacing broken tables and chairs…again.

Tonight was special to Wendy, though, because tonight was the night she was going to force herself to be at least close to beautiful.


"Do you think I can fit into this?"

Lucy looked up from her novel to glance at the dress Wendy had pulled from the closet. It was a sparkly, strapless black dress that just reached the knees. Lucy got a strange expression on her face as she looked between the dress and the Dragon Slayer. After a minute, she finally said, "I think it may be…a little to adult for you, Wendy."

"Oh." Wendy frowned and put the dress back on its hanger. She scanned the remaining dresses- two. She'd spent the past two hours here tearing apart Lucy's closet for something she could wear. But everything she picked was too adult for her, apparently. Lord, why didn't Lucy have normal clothes? Sighing, she plucked another off the hanger and held it up. "This one, maybe?"

Lucy looked up again. "Nah, I think that's too big for you."

Wendy bit back an irritated sigh as she put the dress back up. At this rate, she was going to be stuck plain. And how would Romeo ever notice her then? At the thought of the dark-haired boy, her cheeks reddened a bit. She quickly grabbed the other dress before Lucy could question her about her blush. "How about this one, Lucy-san?"

This time, Lucy smiled. "I think that might work."


Wendy felt like her dress was trying to prevent her from breathing. It was pretty- she had to give it that. It was a light turquoise with light sparkles around it. It ended a little below her knees, which made it appropriate for the young girl, and had a sort of lace bluish train coming out of the back. But it was so tight. And the more she thought of it being tight, the more she dwelled on whether it was really pretty enough to be worth it. Did it really make her beautiful? She stared down at herself for a minute, unsure.

"Wendy! C'mon!" Lucy called from the guild doors.

"Coming!" Wendy said back and made her way towards the door, hoping she didn't waddle like a duck due to her impossibly high heels that added five extra inches to her height. How were these shoes-slash-death traps appropriate, but the black dress wasn't? Wendy just couldn't understand it.

Finally she made it to the doors. Peeking her head in, she felt her face light up excitedly. Streamers were hung everywhere in all colors and the tables had fancy white tablecloths on them. A stage was set up for Mira (and hopefully not Gajeel) to sing, and a whole table was set with refreshments that made Wendy's mouth water a little. Mira's cooking was the best…

But then she remembered with how tight this dress was, she wouldn't be able to eat anything. Any added fat and she'd burst. So, with a disappointed sigh, Wendy carefully made her way to one of the tables. As she walked, she scanned the crowd. All the guild members were there, all smiling and laughing. She smiled at how happy everyone seemed…but she had one person on her mind to find.

Then her eyes landed on him- there, sitting at the highly-decorated bar with Natsu and Gray. He was waving his hands animatedly, obviously very into their conversation. At the sight of his wide smile, Wendy felt her heartbeat falter a bit. Lately, seeing him smile did that to her. It made her feel all jittery, like she should run and stay at the same time. She always ended up blushing furiously though when she recognized what those feelings meant:

Wendy had a serious crush on Romeo Conbolt.

For a second, she considered "casually" wandering over to talk, too. But then she remembered she was a terrible actress. There was no way she could pull of a supposedly casual walk-and-enter-conversation without stuttering like an idiot. Plus she still couldn't walk very well in these shoes. So, instead, she sat down at the table she was leaning against and plopped her head into her hands with a sigh.

At this rate, she was never going to get Romeo to notice her.

Especially not with Lucy and Cana and Mira and Erza and…well, the list was endless. She was too unnoticeable, too plain, against all these other girls, even in her dress and heels. In fact, as she pondered her dress yet again, she realized she didn't feel beautiful in it at all. She felt like a suffocating, stumbling bluebird.

God, she was hopeless, wasn't she?

Wendy sighed again, feeling the hope she'd mustered at Lucy's house shatter. How in the world did she plan to stand out against all these other girls?

Suddenly she realized Mira was singing. And the song happened to be her favorite of the pretty barmaid's selection. She smiled a little at that…then felt the smile fall as she saw Romeo getting up and pushing through the crowd. He was probably going to ask Kinana to dance, like the day Lucy was trying to teach Natsu. And she was going to have to sit here and watch it. Because who was really going to ask her to dance?

Wendy sighed for a third time.

"Hey, Wendy."

Wendy almost fell out of her seat at the sound of his voice. Her head snapped in his direction, looking up at him with a sort of stunned look on her face. He was giving her that smile, that one that made her feel funny. After a second, she finally managed to stutter, "H-Hi, Romeo." Then she cursed herself for stammering. How much of an idiot could she be?

"What are you doing sitting all by yourself over here? Shouldn't you be dancing?"

Wendy's face flushed embarrassedly and she looked down at her hands. "No one's asked me to dance."

Then she saw Romeo hold out his hand to her out of her peripheral vision. Her heart stopped for a second as he said, "Well, then, why don't we dance?"

"You and me?" she blurted.

Romeo frowned a little. "There's nothing wrong with that, right?"

"Oh, no! Of course not!" You dummy, you sounded to eager! "I-I'd love to dance, but…" And she gestured to her shoes, all the while keeping her eyes locked on the floor as a blush crept across her face.

"Take them off, then."

"Eh?"

Romeo smiled again. "Come on. It's just the guild. They won't care if you're barefoot. I think they'd care more if you tripped."

Wendy stammered, "I-I just…don't f-feel pretty without them…" Why would you tell him that? she screamed at herself mentally. Why?

"Aw, come on, Wendy. You don't need shoes to make you beautiful."

Wendy completely froze for a second at the boy's words. You don't need to shoes to make you beautiful…don't need…to make you beautiful…

And then an ecstatic grin spread across her face. Beaming up at him, she pulled the heels from her feet and took Romeo's hand. "I'd love to dance."

In that moment, as he led her off into the crowd of dancing couples, Wendy knew for certain that she could seriously fall for the boy who mistook her for beautiful.