Title: Boy Troubles

Summary: Poor Gajeel can't catch a break.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

AN: I was originally planning on giving this thing a plot but I have enough WIPs already. So, this is more of a slice-of-life au based on/inspired by the weird stuff that happens to me in college (plus a few college stories from friends). Updates are sporadic. Figure all chapters are individual one-shots with vague links to each other and all occur in the same universe. No particular order to them either, though that might change later. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Her books wobble and Lucy gives a strained yelp as she sways awkwardly to keep the tower of books in her arms from falling over. She ignores the librarian's glare and Lucy's purse slides to her elbow as she slams her hand on top of the stack. Unfortunately, this just makes the situation worse and Lucy hastily jogs over to a table nearby and dumps her books a second before they would have fallen completely out of her arms.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lucy notices that the table already has an occupant. "Sorry," she says distractedly, cringing at the librarian's stink eye.

"Hey Bunny Girl."

Lucy blinks and finally turns around to see Gajeel sulking next to her. Lucy lets out a small sigh of relief. She always feels awkward when she barges onto a stranger's table. "Hi Gajeel, I didn't notice you there."

Lucy stacks up the books before turning to Gajeel, surprised he didn't retort like he usually did. She's surprised to see him hunching his shoulders more, listlessly blowing some strands of hair out of his face and alternating between glaring at the corner and staring forlornly at the table. Lucy follows his glare and sees Levy bent over a table, her head pressed up against another student's. Lucy eyes the long, luscious green hair enviously before the person sits up. Lucy watches with puckered lips as the guy - a rather pretty guy at that - ties up his hair in a pony tail. It marginally helps mitigate the way his hair clashes horribly with his deep red coat but maybe he's just getting ready to celebrate christmas early?

She looks over at Gajeel who's gone back to glaring at the table. She shouldn't find it funny that the normally confident, almost arrogant guy looks so crushed. She tries to swallow a laugh but fails, giving a strangled giggle.

Gajeel glares at her. "Shaddup."

Lucy presses her lips together but can't suppress her snort. "Jealous much?"

Gajeel growls. "Shut up!" His eyes flick back over to Levy and his gaze darkens when Levy squeals and hugs the guy. Gajeel growls again before pointedly tearing his eyes away. "I don't care who she dates."

Lucy raises an eyebrow. "Good, because Levy's kissing him now. She'll regret that, it's against library policy."

"What?" Gajeel whips around, jostling the table in his haste. He growls once at the grouchy librarian before staring at Levy again. Levy nods at the green haired boy while packing up her stuff, a good foot and half separating them. Gajeel slumps again and sighs loudly. Lucy giggles and he tenses up again before whipping back around to glare at Lucy.

Lucy wriggles her eyebrows suggestively. "Not jealous huh?"

Gajeel groans and slams his head down onto the table, shaking the table enough that Lucy's books fall over again. He grunts when one of her books slides and hits him on his cheek. "Sorry."

Lucy rolls her eyes and whacks him lightly upside the head. She notices Levy heading over and she smirks with glee. Levy raises her eyebrows at her and Lucy laughs. "Hey Levy."

Gajeel grunts and Levy looks down at him with a small frown. "Hiya Lucy."

Gajeel sits up faster than a spring board. He flushes under Levy's inquiring gaze. "Levy! Uh, hi, didn't think you were actually there." His blush deepens. "Thought Bunny Girl was teasing me again," he mutters.

Levy's eyebrows draw together. "What?"

Gajeel jumps in his seat. "Nothing!"

"Okay…" Levy drawls, turning to Lucy, who's smirking deviously. "What are you doing here?"

"Just getting some books." Lucy eyes the back of Gajeel's head and his darkening ears, her grin grows wider. "Who were you sitting with?"

Levy's eyes light up and Lucy can see Gajeel hunch in his shoulders. "His name's Freed. He's such a sweetie. Smart too."

"That why you were hugging and being all sweet on him?" Gajeel mutters sullenly.

"What?" Levy yelps.

Gajeel blinks. "What?"

Levy frowns. "What'd you say?"

Gajeel blinks again. "What?"

Levy gives him a deadpan stare. She crosses her arms and turns to Lucy.

Lucy swallows another giggle. "Metalhead over here," she says with a small slap on his shoulder, "and I were wondering why you were hanging out with Freed. I've never seen him before."

Levy's shoulders relax. "Oh. He's a third year CSE and an absolute whiz with computers. Did you know he's already working for Bank of Fiore and even teaching their full time programmers how to set up good software security?" Levy's eyes sparkle and Gajeel's shoulders tense up under Lucy's palm. "When I was having trouble in class and talked to my professor, he said he'd ask an old student of his if he was willing to help me out."

Lucy cocks her head to the side. "So Freed's your personal tutor?"

Levy nods happily and Gajeel growls. Levy blinks at him, seemingly surprised at his glare. "Personal tutor? Is that why you hugged him?"

Levy's eyebrows hit her hairline and she looks at Lucy with a surprised expression. Lucy just grins and waves between Levy and Gajeel, hoping Levy somehow gets the message.

"Um." Levy blinks again and turns back to Gajeel. "Well, I was happy that he helped me out, yeah, but, uh, he had seemed a bit distracted and upset throughout the session. When I asked what was up, he said that he was going to ask the guy he likes out on a date and was nervous. He has a really sweet plan and I hugged him because it sounded adorable and I thought it would help with his nerves."

Gajeel's smile nearly splits his face in two. "He's gay?"

Levy scratches her cheek. "I got more of a bi vibe from him. What do you think Lu?"

Lucy cocks her head to the side. "Nah, he's totally gay. You're going to have to tell me what his plan is later, it sounds interesting."

"He's gay?" Gajeel grins wider. "You really think so?"

Levy frowns slightly. "Yeah."

"Good," Gajeel says happily. He relaxes in his seat and stares off slightly to the side with unfocused eyes.

Lucy smacks her forehead.

"Oh," Levy says quietly. She fidgets a bit before taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders. "Um, Gajeel?"

Gajeel turns to her, still smiling wide. "Yeah?"

Levy scratches the back of her neck. "Uh, don't get your hopes up."

Gajeel blinks and slumps. A crestfallen look flashes across his face before the usual mask of indifference slams back into place. "What are you talking about?"

Levy fidgets. "Look, I'm sorry if you have a crush on Freed but, he said he was going to ask a guy named Laxus out. He doesn't like you."

Gajeel's jaw hits the floor. He tries to speak but nothing comes out, leaving him looking like a goldfish.

Lucy wraps both hands around her mouth to hold in her giggles. She tries to take a discreet breath of air and a snort escapes.

Gajeel goes as stiff as a statue before he jumps up and slams his hands down on the table, drawing everyone's attention to the trio.

"I'm not gay!"

AN: Bc I need to specify - Gajeel is actually queer (I headcanon him as heterosexual, demiromantic), he's just worried that Levy doesn't think he'd ever be into her (she's kinda oblivious, much to her friends' amusement and Gajeel's frustration lol) so he blurts out the first thing that comes to mind. I later realized that this almost came off as Gajeel saying "no no, I'm not gay ew!" to me and I just wanted to clear up any possible confusion over that. (The other planned ending would mean I'd have to write another 1k words and I'm sorry but that's not happening, I don't have that in me at the moment.)

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