Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Lucy sat on the picnic blanket, nibbling on her sandwich as she watched Levy barrel through her routine. She would set her food down to clap when she landed a tuck and finished in a pose. The bull rider was otherworldly as she vaulted this way and that and in enough repetition that it made even Lucy dizzy just following the motions.
Levy would talk until her face turned blue about books and bookstores and libraries, but she had another passion given to her with the skill.
The blonde swallowed her bite of sandwich and cleared her throat, beaming at her friend, "Been awhile since you've practiced like this, I bet."
"It has! I got so used to just trying them all out while on Aurora's back, I'd almost forgotten what grass stains looked like." Levy held up her open palms to show Lucy the pale skin smudged with shades of brown and green. "And how fast I actually have to throw my weight around so I don't fall flat on my face."
"That'd be quite a sight, though." Lucy giggled past Levy's indignant scoff. "Doesn't bother you, though, being caked in soil?"
'Well, I didn't always have Aurora, remember? So I guess it's just getting back to my roots. Just the country bumpkin that never had much of a mind for shoes." She plopped down on the edge of the throw blanket and wiggled her dusty toes.
"Well, thank goodness you joined the circus, because they'd never allow you into a cotillion." Lucy popped the last bite of her sandwich into her mouth with a wink and took a big gulp of Mirajane's lemonade to punctuate the joke.
"You're splitting my sides, Luce." Levy monotoned, standing to stretch once more, and arched backward to slowly bend to the ground. "I'd fight tooth and nail before some pinch-nosed nanny got me into one of those deplorable hats."
"Hey! Those pinch-nosed nannies aren't half bad." Lucy swatted at her friend's ankle playfully, Levy's limbs wobbling with the force of her laughter. Her struggle only doubled when Lucy accidentally snorted in her guffaws.
"What're you doin'?"
Levy's eyes snapped open, craning her head back to look up farther, meeting Gajeel's stoneygaze. "Practicing."
His brow shot up to his hairline at her answer, training his gaze to her amusingly flushed face. "Doesn't your act require a fair bit more pachyderm?"
"It does, but she's currently with Lily getting the regular check-up. Although, the way she carries on around him, I doubt she'll come back to me this time." Levy carefully shifted her arms, straightening them."I figured I could do with some old fashioned practice before I get too spoiled."
"Uh-huh." Gajeel slipped his hands into the pockets of his trousers, glancing to Lucy before returning a dangerously satisfied smirk to Levy's person. "You plannin' on givin' me an eyeful the entire time or are you going to converse right side up like a normal person?"
Levy's face flamed and her limbs went slack, a sprawling mess on the ground desperately trying to cover her red face with an arm slung over her eyes. She could hear Lucy chortling in the background around bits of turkey, and Levy hoped she would just choke on the damn sandwich because having a witness to this was the worst thing imaginable. It'd get back to Lily and Mirajane before she could even pack her bags.
"Sorry."
He rolled his eyes and turned to the other girl, not acknowledging the apology. "Oi, Lucy. Salamander's turning the grounds inside out lookin' for ya."
"He is? What for?"
Gajeel rolled his shoulders and squinted in the distance, catching sight of a lion tail weaving through the tents. He shook his head; Salamander never learned, and it was sure to get him a one way ticket to Makarov's office for another lecture about detaining jungle cats. "Said somethin' about the felines."
"Shoot! I promised I'd help take care of Happy and Carla today. I gotta go, Levy." The blonde turned a sorrowful grimace to the heap of limbs on the ground, "Good luck." Lucy shot off toward the cages, tossing an enthusiastic wave over her shoulder to the girl who still lay on the ground.
Gajeel stuck his hands in his pockets and chuckled down at her, "You're only half way there, moineau. Next step is sitting' up." He teased her with the nickname and laughed louder when he saw her ears start to pink.
"Go 'way, 'm waiting for the ground to swallow me up."
"I wouldn't hold your breath." The juggler leaned down to rest his weight back on his haunches and removed one of his hands from his pockets to idly scratch at his jaw. "I actually came here to ask you a question."
She hesitantly lifted her forearm, peeking one eye up at him. He was a little taken aback by the curiosity that warred with the embarrassment in her stark irises. "What for?"
Gajeel blinked and cleared his throat, refocusing his attention back to his initial request and not yeux de biche. "I need help with an experiment."
Levy snorted, unladylike and genuine. "Your vagueness isn't winning you any favors."
"I've gotta couple different types of metal I want to forge into a sword, but it's going to take more than one pair of hands to mold together and get it to set. Seein' as you've got a wide range of words in that dictionary brain of yers, you'd be a big help if you wanted to be."
Levy moved her arm and set her palms to the grass, pushing herself to sit up. "Do I get a 'please'?"
She idly drank from her glass of lemonade and watched his eyebrows climb his forehead. "Don't push your luck, the flame brain was my first choice."
"Pfft, you'd land yourself with a singed ponytail and be forced into a haircut from Lily." She scratched at her own unruly locks and gathered them into a cord to hold off her clammy neck.
"Don't tell me you-"
"Of course not!" She smiled, wide and bright. "Luce did."
"She gotta death wish?"
"Most days." Levy hummed thoughtfully, watching the man before her patiently await her decision. "Doesn't sound too difficult, let's see what we can do."
Gajeel smirked, settling his hand into her hair and lightly shoving her, "Tsk, I owe you one, half pint."
Erza had slaved for weeks to put the luncheon together.
A private, ladies only, big to-do that had Levy shucking off her practice clothes and yanking on boots and actual skirts. She didn't have a particular distaste for the garb, she just liked not having to worry about humiliating herself by tripping over long skirt hems. But since Erza had put her heart and soul into getting them altogether for the first time in nearly a month, she'd don the part with grace.
Unfortunately, practice had ran longer than expected with Jet. Their teamwork was asseamless as always, but coordinating ballroom steps with wild flips was easier said than done. If Mira believed Levy didn't take the ordeal seriously and purposely took her sweet time, she'd have her head.
Luck was not on her side as she hopped and skipped on one foot across the grounds, running smack into Lily and Gajeel on their way back from the cages. Giving them an eyeful of her underskirts as she laced up her boot was not what she had had in mind for the afternoon.
"Moineau, what's got you so flustered?" Lily caught her shoulders as she tipped dangerously far over while pulling her laces tight.
Levy smiled and nodded her head, sweeping an errant curl from her eyes as she stood up straight. "Erza's luncheon."
"Ah."
"And I'm running late." She felt guilty for being so rude to her old friend, as he'd obviously opened his mouth to say more to her, but her skin was on the line for this one.
"Oh, well then don't let us hold you up any longer; I'd rather not further anger our dear Titania. Perhaps she'll feel lenient with the festivities?" Lily smiled as she wiggled in her boots and smoothed out the pale yellow dress, "Your dress looks lovely, surely fit for the party. Doesn't the frock look nice, Gajeel?" Lily turned to his friend, a look Levy couldn't quite decipher passing between them. They clearly warred over an issue that involved her, and it took everything she had to fight the embarrassed flush heating her cheeks.
Levy and Gajeel seemed to be the only thing anyone could concern themselves with these days.
The second he bared that blood curdling canine she knew Lily had just unknowingly sacrificed her to the dragon. Gajeel's laugh sent a foreboding chill down her spine as he opened his mouth, "Which part?"
For all her literacy and eloquence, Levy managed a squeak, excusing herself and darting past them at a fast saunter, all too eager to leave lest they catch sight of the traffic light shade her face had replicated. A small, small sense of justice quirked in the back of her mind at the sound of a hand colliding with the back of one particularly thick skull and Gajeel's protesting 'Ow!' that echoed in the field. The man was forever infuriating and oblivious concerning decorum. If she wanted to spend time with a proper gentleman she could always just spend her time with Freed.
Her disloyal mind smiled, reminding her that therein laid the key word, if.
Levy shook her head and slid the intricate wooden door open to Makarov's library car. The first eye she caught was Lucy's, her friend quirking a brow at her anxious demeanor and flushed complexion. The elephant ridercheerily waved her hand in dismissal and greeting, gasping once she took in the redecorated room. It was barely recognizable and, for a moment, she worried what happened to the overflow of books that once stood in stacks.
Mirajane and Lisanna had coordinated the details, no doubt. The soft pastel table cloths and delicate china were a dead give away, the female Strauss' calling card. All of the glitter made her feel like a ragamuffin in her simple dress, and she startedthinking maybe she should have taken Lucy as her fashion confidant beforehand.
Lisanna's robin's egg dress was the mirror image to her older sister's soft pink one. Bell sleeves of lace fell over their delicate shoulders and wide white bands wrapped over their defined waists, their white leather boots peeking out from under the long hems. Lucy's dress had a straight skirt, the hem most certainly something hand sewn, a cover of lace laid atop the creamy silk underdress. Pale chiffon, a beige that complimented her complexion beautifully, bunched and darted into leafy patterns around the bust and the shoulders fit her like a glove. Wendy looked darling in her own white chiffon and her hair bundled into twin braids at the nape of her neck. Kinana and Laki wore similar frocks, bunched lace and silk falling like water over their svelte figures.
Erza wore a navy dress, sheer sleeves that went down to her elbows with an abundance of lace that flowed behind her elegantly when she sashayed around the room. The dress had been a gift bestowed upon her in private by Jellal on her last birthday, and it brought a happiness that glimmered just beneath the surface when she had the occasion to wear it.
As expected, Cana's dress was the outfit of the century. Daring and low-cut by society's standards, and the hem was raised to show off her high heels. The plum dress's diving neckline and the brown piping outlining her bust and shoulders accentuated her features. Despite being the girl's intention with the revealing garment, her eyes were what stood out the most: an enchanting shade as uncommon as Levy's cyan locks.
Long strings of pearls clinked together as she waved to Levy. "Doll, we all but gave up on you."
She ducked her head and settled in a seat across from Cana, "Sorry, I got sidetracked."
Cana winked knowingly from her seat, sipping from a wine glass demurely, "Would it be an owner-of-red-peepers kind of distraction?"
"What?! No! Jet and I had practice scheduled and trying to work out this new routine while Aurora's out is just- It's proven to be difficult." Levy scratched at her brow and willed her mind not to overheat with planning and running through routine after routine. This was supposed to be an afternoon to relax with her friends.
The older woman answered her distress and set her hand over the smaller girl's, squeezing it lightly. "It'll all pull together, don't you worry."
Tea and sandwiches were served and at least seven conversations had Levy's mind reeling with the effort to keep up and answer when she was called upon. Her problem didn't last long when a silence lapsed over the group and various sets of kittenish eyes landed on her simultaneously. It was Cana that spoke for them, her wine glass refilled and a cigarette holder perched in her long fingers like that grandest of orchestra conductors.
"Bird, nobody saw much of ya at Makarov's big to-do couple nights ago." Oh, she was in trouble. "You were Lucy's pride and joy for the evening, so imagine our surprise when we found you wasting your glad rags sittin' and smackin' your jowls with Redfox." A lot of trouble.
Cana's purposeful entendre had her putting Erza's vibrant hair to shame, she was sure. What Levy had thought to be a chance to unwind and actually spend time with her female friends had all been a setup to gossip, areconnaissance mission with flutes and laces rather than back alleys and pistols.
Levy made her disbelieving snort as ladylike as possible, light and airy with out a trace of the nerves eating up her insides. "That's hardly the case. I was terrified of the slippers Lucy lent to me and she worked so hard to put my hapless self together, I knew she'd hunt me down should I even entertain the thought of shucking them just so I could make the social rounds."
"All those tables filled with people to talk to and you secluded yerself to a corner with that wet blanket?" Cana Alberona raised those otherworldly glims of hers and tapped her cigarette ashes into a crystal bowl, amusement alighting her doubting features.
Levy narrowed her eyes and monotoned, "In our defense, we were instructed to that table under Lily's behest. It was following orders, is all."
"And the part where you swooned over each other's rags was 'following orders'?"
Levy rose her hand to her chest and scoffed, affronted, "Of course not, common courtesy. It was just nice to sit with likeminded company, for once."
She wasn't truly cross with them, asthey meant well. Cana most of all; the woman was far ahead of her time, but kept a close watch on her chicks when it came to the opposite sex and fragile hearts. It was done out of kindness and love. She'd told Levy she never wanted to see the hopeful girl slighted by whirlwind acquaintances and silken words obscuring true intentions.
"Doll, Scarlet and Fernandes are a fair bit more subtle."
"Excuse you."
Cana waved a hand nonchalantly in the lion tamer's direction, mentioning it was merely a slip of the tongue to assuage the Titania.
"I only wish to get to know him better." Levy cleared her throat and smirked. "However, if you want to see more into it, don't let me stop you from getting your kicks. Although, I think it's only fair to share this marvelous spotlight. What of Lucy with Natsu?"
She turned in her seat to set her attention on the Strauss sisters, Mirajane smiling as sweetly as ever and Lisanna taking a hesitant step back. "Or better yet, your brother and Evergreen?" Levy cutely scrunched her nose to Juvia, a caring smile aimed at the jittery rain bringer. "Gray seems to have gotten his head screwed on right enough to pull that wool from his eyes too." She reached for a wine glass and eagerly sipped from it. "I also seem to recall a very chummy conversation between you and Dreyar."
Cana narrowed her smoky gaze on the younger girl. "Dreyar's gum on the bottom of a shoe, bird. I ain't about to tie myself to a man as infuriating as Laxus."
Levy's brow rose in disbelief as she smirked. "As infuriating as the man can be, you've met your match. After all, it's not everyday a girl finds a good challenge and a handsome face to go with it."
Her friend's jaw hung for a moment, suspended in disbelief. Levy reveled in the warm drink that slithered down her throat and settled comfortably in her stomach, prolonged moments passing with giggles and no comebacks from the the Tail's feistiest dame. Victory.
The rest of that crystal afternoon was passed with flurried excuses and unladylike laughter.
The man with the curiously tattooed tongue was likely their darkest act.
Amidst porcelain faces and benign flourishes, he kept the audience in rapture,turning them to his will.
The lights dimmed and trepidus strings accompanied with maleficent brass announced his entrance. Smoke curled at the edges of the audience's vision, and children whimpered with the tension that choked the air.
Bixlow was by no means truly vile, he was a carefree man that played up to the odd novelty.
His electric eyes roved the crowd and called on a young man that had the misfortune of making eye contact with the circus man. Bixlow threw his head back and chortled, clapping the stranger on the back and promised no ill will.
The audience nervously laughed at his light joke.
"I won't fool you. I'll just hypnotize you to show that it's no smoke and mirror, you'll only remember the sensation of wakeful sleep. I'll have you perform along with me. A right privilege to be a part of the circus, huh?" Bixlow offered his gloved hand to the man.
The volunteer's peers cheered him on and trampled his apprehension into dust. He smiled and took the magician's hand, easing with the promise that it was all in good fun.
Bixlow shed his coat and stood before them in his trousers, suspenders, and black shirt, "All in good faith."
He requested a suspension of disbelief for his overture,as it would be no fun if they spent his act questioning and searching for deceit behind velvet curtains. He took a step closer to the man, straightened to eye level and not even an arm's length away from the perfect stranger. "I'll only need you to look into my eyes." The hypnotizer touched his index finger to the top of his cheekbone and smiled when the man nodded in agreement.
"Shall we begin?" Feet stomped and voices shrieked for him to continue; the tattooed man in question had an ethereal ability to have audiences on puppet strings without being the volunteered participants.
The young man startled in fright as the burgundy eyes flashed into lime, his body freezing to the spot. Warm liquid filled his veins and dulled his senses, the world unfocused and blurring as those eyes continued to pierce through the fog. The volunteer's head lolled fractionally to the side, signaling Bixlow to begin his act.
He circled his assistant and placed a hand on each of his shoulders, "Now, we've got the stands filled, and we're going to stun them with the marvel of hypnosis. Let's make a few believers out them, eh?
"Ladies and gentlemen, let the real show begin. My friend here is going to open his eyes very quickly and be able to speak fluent Russian at my command. Ready?" His eyes widened and flashed with the surge of his power and the young man's eyes flew open, his irises charged with the lime color of the hypnotist's.
The bigtop was filled with a staunch accent and stories that rumbled deep from the chest as the young man thrust his arms up with the passionate, thick speech. With his bewitching eyes, the volunteer juggled china effortlessly and recounted a winter poet's work seamlessly. His words flowed and dipped with an ease free of nerve.
Bixlow's showcase went on, and audience members clambered for a chance to do things they always lacked the knack for.
His last volunteer was a boy of eight, a scrawny youth whose broken smile flashed with the lights. He obediently watched the hypnotist's eye, threw his head back, and wailed like a tusked calf.
French:
moineau: sparrow
yeux de biche: does eyes
A/N: I had a few weeks kind of knock the circus mindset right out of me, so I let it take a backseat in order for time to smooth things over. I didn't want to half heart it, y'know? And this was a chapter that needed a good deal of TLC. Apologies for the wait and thanks for the patience.
Cana gets a dose of her own medicine and the Laxana was for Rae.
Also, there's a nice little shoutout to one of my favorites in this. Did you catch it?