This one is Levy/Gajeel based on another prompt from my Pintrest board.
To paraphrase, you have a curse that makes people see you as their form of beautiful and then one day you meet someone who can describe exactly what you look like.
"And then he just exploded in fire! Everyone else in the lab started going crazy, thinking he'd hurt himself! He was testing out a new fireproof jumpsuit, but he'd been so excited about the test run, he completely forgot to tell us what he was doing!"
Levy chuckled as her date finished his story and dug back into his food. He was nice, she decided. He'd opened the door to the restaurant for her. He'd told her at the beginning he was planning on paying and that she should get whatever she wanted. Plus, he was smart and loved to read. They had a lot in common, and she was dreading the real test. She wanted so badly for him to pass but…
No one ever had.
It was half an hour later, once their desserts had been delivered, that she finally worked up the nerve. "So I have a question."
"Ask me anything," he said with a grin. It was then that she noticed he wasn't quite meeting her eyes. His gaze was locked around her hairline.
Oh no…
"Why exactly did you ask me out? I mean, it wasn't just for my brain, right? There are a ton of other girls in the department."
He blushed and his eyes briefly landed on her chest before skirting away.
Strike number two…
"Well, uh, you're smart, obviously." He smiled a little, obviously uncomfortable. "Uh, and you're beautiful. Not that that's the main reason or anything, it's just a fact." He sighed. "Honestly? There are a lot of reasons, but I've always had a thing for girls that dress the way you do."
"What do you mean?"
He gestured at her body. "All the black. Not," he rushed on, "that I'd ever judge or call you goth or anything…"
Levy zoned out at that point, her hunger evaporating as he droned on and on.
Strike three…
It was always like that. Ever since she could remember, no one had ever seen her for what she really was. No one in her family had ever known what happened. For as long as she'd been alive, no one could ever agree on what she looked like. Her parents had noticed early on and could never explain it.
They called it a curse, but had no idea where it could have come from.
As she'd gotten older, she'd figured out that not only did people not see what she really looked like, they saw what they considered to be beautiful.
So she'd found ways to test people. Like drawing.
"You wanna what?"
"Draw each other. Come on, it'll be fun!"
He looked doubtful. "You're just trying to get a free portrait."
"Nuh uh! I'll be working for my picture since I'm drawing one, too."
"Alright, fine."
Levy laughed as she looked at her picture. "What is that?!"
"It's one of your loose hairs. Why are you laughing?"
So I don't cry instead. "Well thanks for drawing my flyaways."
"What? I think they're cute!"
Or asking them outright.
"What do I look like?"
He raised an eyebrow at her. "What?"
"Humor me for a second," she said. "What do I look like?"
"Uh, okay. Well, you have black hair and green eyes- hey wait! Where are you going?!"
Or asking them what they liked about her. People always mentioned something physical- they couldn't seem to help themselves.
And Levy moved on, like she always did.
The day after the goth incident, Levy called in sick. Normally she could just brush off the incidents, but that one had hurt. She'd been convinced that she'd chosen a good one that time. But she'd been wrong, so she'd stayed home for a day to wallow before pulling herself back together.
It was why she'd missed the new guy.
The day she came back, she saw him from afar, but didn't get the chance to talk to him. From what she could tell, he worked somewhere in the other end of the school, possibly in the shop class?
Lunch had been rough, since she'd had to avoid her former date in the breakroom. She'd let him down as easy as she could, but he'd still been confused since they'd had such a great time. To avoid the conversation, she'd gone out into the agriculture's gardens to eat.
Half way through, she'd seen the new guy doing the same, up in one of the trees. He was covered in piercings and wore all black. She gave him a cursory look, long enough to deduce that he didn't have sawdust on him, before she returned to her food and her book. Whatever he did, it wasn't teaching the shop class. Under normal circumstances, she'd want to collect more information, but she just wasn't interested in it that day.
Or the following, it seemed. After she'd grabbed her lunch, she found herself heading for the garden once more. She sat in the same place and didn't say a word when she noticed the man in the tree again. Levy saw him watching as she sat down and also didn't say anything.
This continued for a couple weeks. Levy worked through her annoyance quickly, but they'd already settled into a routine and she didn't want to ruin that.
A couple months later, he caught her eye when she arrived and nodded at her. She was surprised by the action, but she smiled at him in response.
And that became their friendship.
Levy took a break from dating after the researcher. In fact, she took a break from everyone, except Lucy. The blonde had left the country with her father to help with his work, but they messaged back and forth once or twice a week. Outside of those few emails, Levy spent most of her time researching for her class.
It was nearly six months after that first lunch that they finally spoke.
By then, Levy had figured out who he was. His name was Gajeel, and he taught the welding class, with an occasionally metalworking class on the weekends. He was quiet and mostly stuck to himself. From the little she heard, outside of his classes, he rarely acknowledged anyone.
As Levy sat down that, she didn't look his way, didn't smile when he nodded at her. Instead, she pulled out her book and ate quietly. She'd considered eating in her class, but she spent enough time there, and in the faculty room, people would try to talk to her, so she ate in her usual spot.
She'd had a particularly rough night, and was still working through it. A couple of men had hit on her when she'd gone out for food. Even after they'd left, she'd had to listen to them when they'd returned to their booth- right next to hers. It was like they hadn't even tried to be quiet as they continued to talk about her with their crude language- comments about the shape of her body, the size of her-
Levy refused to allow the tears to fall when she realized she'd been staring at the same place in her book for a long time.
It didn't matter that they had been rude. It didn't matter that they were pigs- they weren't the first to hit on her for that reason. It didn't even matter that they had been so persistent.
Well, she amended, it did, but that wasn't what bothered her so much.
She was tired of men not seeing her. She was tired of people treating her the way they did because they thought she was beautiful instead of for her brain. She was tired of talking to people and having them not meet her eyes.
She was tired of this stupid curse ruining her life.
"Hey, Shrimp."
Levy didn't respond right away since she didn't realize the voice was talking to her. It wasn't until there was a dull thud behind her that she realized someone was trying to get her attention.
She turned around as Gajeel sat down heavily beside her.
It took her a moment to gather herself so she could speak. "Hi."
Finally, he lifted his eyes her way and she was surprised to see his eyes are a bright red color. She'd never seen eyes like his before.
"Shrimp." His voice was deep, deeper than she expected, and soothing in a way she'd never known a voice could be.
"So…" Levy was annoyed to find that she didn't know what to say. She, master of many languages, could not find the words she wanted to say.
"Not that I care," he said, "but you look like hell."
"Thanks for noticing," she said drily.
"Like I said, it's not that I care, but you didn't say hi today. Kinda rude don't you think?"
Levy clenched her jaw. "You didn't say hi."
"Not in so many words, but whatever." He leaned back and folded his hands behind his head. "So? What's with the face?"
"It's none of your business," Levy said. "And if you don't mind, I was looking forward to a quiet lunch." She lifted her book, pointedly not looking his way as she tried to get back into her book.
Much to her annoyance, the man at her side began to hum. It wasn't a tune recognized, and the longer he did it, the more annoyed she became. "Do you mind?" she asked.
"Hm?"
She glared at him over her book. "I'm trying to read and you're annoying me."
"Is that so." It wasn't a question.
"Yes, now if you don't mind, I'd like-"
"You know it's not me that's the problem here."
"Excuse me?"
He looked her way with a smirk. "Gihi. Don't even try to scare me with that face, Shrimp, it won't work."
Levy frowned. "I'm not-"
"I know you can read through my humming. You've done it plenty of times before. Hell, I've seen you so deep in your books, you've ignored students who stopped to speak to you. I was starting to think you were just as rude as I am, until I realized you were just that caught up in your reading."
Levy was surprised by that. "I really ignored students?"
"Gihi." He chuckled a little. "Only a couple times. Hell, I'm surprised you've never been late leaving, considering how focused you get."
Levy wasn't sure what to say, so she didn't say anything for a while.
The silence was comfortable, and she wondered why he was bothering to talk to her, after what she'd heard. Perhaps he really was interested.
"I just had a bad night," she said, and then didn't fight as the words came on their own. "I had to deal with some morons last night that were more interested in my hips and 'pullable blonde hair'," she said, making air quotes.
"So you decided to dye it?"
Ignoring that comment, she leaned forward a little. "I just get tired of men only looking at me and not seeing anything past the surface."
"Sounds like you're not looking at the right guys."
"Where I'm looking isn't the problem," she said.
He shrugged and then got quiet again.
When lunch was nearly over, she collected her things and stood, surprised when Gajeel stood to leave as well. "Well, uh, I guess I'll see you tomorrow."
He grunted in response and she turned to walk away. She was surprised by the conversation, but realized that she felt better because of it.
She was halfway to the building before he called out to her again. "Hey Shrimp!"
Levy paused and turned back. "My name is Levy."
He scoffed and she realized she could see a pink tinge to his cheeks. "I just wanted you to know the blue suits you better."
"Blue?"
"Your hair." His voice grew a little more gruff and he turned to leave. "It looks better blue. Especially with the orange dress."
Levy was speechless as she watched him walk away and enter his own building. When the bell finally rang, it surprised her so much, she nearly dropped her books.
Despite being late returning to her classroom, she felt lighter than she ever had.
No one had ever noticed her orange dresses before.
And they'd definitely never seen her blue hair.
When she entered her classroom, she put her books away and grabbed her lesson plan, noticing the strange looks. She realized she probably looked like a lunatic with how wide she was smiling, but she didn't care.
For the first time, ever, someone had actually seen her.