Fairy Tail © Mashima

A/n: Another attempt at my 500-1000 words One-shot for WEEK 4's FAIRY FEST Individual Contest... I think I went through half a dozen stories. I'm still not completely satisfied, it's definitely not my best work... but it's the best I could do within the 1000 word limit and the contest entry is due today so... I have to turn something in, don't want to disappoint my team.

Pairing : Gazille/Levy
Theme : "Lovely romance"
Genre : Romance/Comedy/Fluff
Word count : 1000 (exactly!)

Please tell me what you think of the story

Polka-dots

"Gazille!" Levy cried, startled by the sudden appearance of her former S-class exam partner as she stepped out the front doors Fairy Hills dormitory. Boys weren't allowed there, even if they were fairy tail members. "What are you doing here?" the petite girl whisperingly questioned as she pushed the metal-studded man off the grounds to the outward gates of the girl's dorms.

"I'm here to get you," the iron dragonslayer cooly replied as he looked down at the small girl questioningly, half expecting an explanation but mostly just curious as to what had the girl so riled up.

For her part, Levy had no idea what he was talking about and wasted no time in pretending as if she did. "Get me for what?" she panted, tired from having pushed the much bigger male off the dorm grounds, with no help on his part.

"You said you wanted ice cream when we got back," Gazille reminded the bookish girl.

They had talked about that on their return trip from Tenrou Island three days earlier. Everyone had been rather busy trying to get their lives back together after their seven years absence so Levy had completely forgotten about the conversation. Still, she didn't remember them actually having any definite plans. "Oh..." she disappointedly sighed, almost wishing she could say yes. But she already had something to do. "Lu-chan and the other girls asked me to go shopping with them," Levy regretfully informed the spiky haired mage, smiling apologetically as she let him know that she couldn't go with him, although deep down Levy wanted nothing more than to spend a little more time with her former teammate. She'd gotten really attached to him those few days on the island and had really wished they'd be able to stay close even after their return.

"Shopping?" the dragonslayer repeated unsurely. Despite his rough and tough outward appearance, Gazille was a man who loved sweets, and so he didn't quite understand why the tiny girl would rather go do something as boring as shopping, than go out for ice cream.

As if knowing exactly what the man was thinking, Levy answered by saying, "After seven years, most of our clothes have spoiled, so we need to replace them."

He couldn't argue with that. With the exception of the few clothes he had brought back from Tenrou Island, most of Gazille's clothes had been ruined too. He didn't particularly care though, having gone to the nearest store the previous day and picked up whatever was there in his size. But he knew girls were different. They liked all those pretty outfits their wore. He wasn't completely unfamiliar with the desire to dress up though, so he somewhat understood the girl's desire to go out and replace her clothing. "Polka-dots"

"Huh?" Levy stared at the taller man questioningly after hearing his reply.

"Your polka-dots look good," Gazille replied before turning and making his way back to the guild without another word of explanation.

Levy wasn't quite sure what polk-a-dots meant. She'd never been a particularly big fan of dotted patterns so it made no sense to her why he would say he liked her polka-dots. "Maybe a scarf?" the petite bookwork wondered to herself as she thought over all the differently patterned head-scarves she owned. There were stripes and solids and squares and diamonds and all manner of unique designs and prints, but she couldn't think of a single one that had dots. "polka-dots?..."

"What about polka-dots?" a stern voice came from behind the blue-haired girl. Behind her stood Erza, the queen of the fairies, and her rival for that title, Evergreen, along with Mirajana, Lisanna, Cana, Lluvia and Wendy.

"Oh, it's nothing," Levy dismissively waved it off, "So should we go get Lu-chan?" the solid-script mage asked before they all started down the hill toward Lucy's apartment. There, the celestial spirit mage was already waiting for them. The girls spent the rest of the day shopping, buying all new outfits and shoes to replace the ones that had spoiled, unused in their closets for seven years. By they end of the day they had all new wardrobes. The only thing left for them to do was to buy new undergarments.

At the tiny lingerie shop near the corner of Magnolia, the eight girls ran in and out of the dressing rooms trying on the different bras and some cute sleepwear. Despite how much fun she was having, however, Levy couldn't help but feel a little intimidated. Compared to the other girls, who were more than a little blessed, she was a bit … small. She knew that it shouldn't have concerned her as much as it did, but lately it had really begun to bother her. It wasn't because she had any self esteem issues, nor that she didn't think she was pretty enough, but there was something she had noticed lately. Although she couldn't say for certain on all of them, most of the guys from their guild seemed to prefer girls who were a bit more well endowed than her. And while that never used to bother Levy, she couldn't help but wonder about a certain metal-wearing mage. She didn't know what kind of girls he liked. Would he even be interested in a tiny bookish girl like her?

"Levy!" the buxom blonde, the most well endowed of their little group, cheerfully bounced over to the dressing stall the timid bookworm was hiding in. "You should try these," Lucy called from the other side of the curtain. "I remember you had a similar pair," the celestial spirit mage added before pushing her hand in through the curtain holding out a bra with orange and white polka-dots.

"Polka-dots..." Levy whispered softly before a sudden hot rush of crimson flushed her cheeks and spread across her face and down her body, covering her completely.

A/N : I was having the hardest time trying to figure out what to use as for my Week 4 Contest entry for FAIRY FEST, so I went and took a shower to clear my mind and when I got out I was choosing a pair of panties and realized they're polk-a-dots... and I hate polk-a-dots! I will not wear them. Yet for some reason, love my dotted undergarments. Go figure. And well... that kind of spawned this story ;p lol inspiration comes in the most random of places sometimes. XP