Chapter 14
Home Sweet Home
Levy jolted upright in her bed. Blankets twisted around her legs and her pillows lay haphazard on the floor. She raised a trembling hand through her hair, squinting at the morning light that peeked through her window shades.
"It was just a dream," she whispered in the empty room.
With a groan, Levy flopped face first onto her bed. She grabbed a stray pillow and buried her head underneath it. Her face burned and she kicked abuse on her bed.
Lucy's the writer, not me…so why did I come up with that kind of story anyway…and with him of all people!?
Her legs stilled. Levy slowly lowered the pillow and looked at the Christmas decorations covering nearly every surface of her room. She glanced at her full bookshelf, noticing the empty spot in the middle of the highest shelf. Her heart began to thump in her chest.
It was the most delicious dream she had ever had. Every scene was exactly like her favorite book; the Candy meadow, the colorful trees, even the medicine-tasting road. It was a bookworm's dream and she had never wanted to wake up.
"But why him?" she whispered to her bookshelf she knew housed a shiny nutcracker the night before.
Her face warmed as her mind remembered the sight of Gajeel in his white breeches and dashing red uniform. It was so different from his normal, rough-worn image that she had been completely taken aback. Oh, he looked all kinds of uncomfortable as they trekked across the countryside, but he had cut such a commanding figure that Levy was hard pressed to keep her distance like she did at the Guild Hall. And then he said the two little words she always dreamed he would say.
Levy sighed, rolling onto her back. The white ceiling of her dorm room blurred as her eyes began to burn with tears.
It had all been a wonderful, lucid dream, she knew that. She knew she would regret any choices she made once she woke up, but that didn't stop her from following after Gajeel, asking him questions and seeing what sort of answers her mind conjured up. It didn't stop her from teasing, from playing, from opening up to him and talking more than she ever did to anyone else in her home.
And it certainly didn't stop her from kissing him.
Levy lifted a finger to her lips, where she could swear she still felt the warmth of Gajeel's kiss. With a groan, she shifted on her bed and covered her head with her pillow.
What were you thinking!? Hugging and kissing him like that!
She knew she was in trouble when he looked ten kinds of debonair and respectable with his sword strapped to his side, or when he somehow managed to look like a kicked puppy anytime he stared at her when he thought she wasn't looking. She shouldn't have fallen for his quiet charms and she certainly shouldn't have kissed him…and multiple times at that!
Her small clock chimed on the wall. Levy scrubbed the heel of her hands against her eyes, brushing away the burn.
"Don't you dare cry over a silly dream," she hissed to herself, scrambling out of bed.
She wouldn't cry. No matter how ridiculous she felt, no matter how much she wished she could fall back asleep and enter back into the wonderful story with handsome Dragon Slayers and sweet, oh so sweet moments.
With a final glance to the clock, Levy quickly changed into her special Christmas outfit, a red and white dress with a multiple layered skirt and matching white ribbon. And surely no one would blame her if she added a few more layers to her already bruised and battered heart.