Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or anything to do with the 1989 record (i.e., title and summary where lyrics used).

It's not like any of it was real, the clap board clacked, and they were officially being paid.

Not that it mattered to her, dollar signs weren't what made her knees shake and it certainly wasn't the adrenaline rush of cashing a crisp check with her name scrawled across it zinging lightning through her veins.

No, it was him.

It was the damnable cameo for an action film she had gladly agreed to and it was him being dragged through the surprise of being bumped from nameless extra to minor, minor character that shared a moment with someone he cared about as the camera would pan over a battlefield in the wake of victory. Somehow, her name had come up and their height difference mentioned and every way they differed beyond that discussed and decided upon before she could even get out of the makeup chair.

They were smudged beyond recognition to appear as if they'd been through hell and back, for some cause or another, in the middle of rolling hills in a far, far away country she had only dreamed of visiting. She was overly excited the director and his crew had decided it would be a two or three day event to ensure they captured several takes and angles and ideas to ensure plenty of options were recorded for editing. It gave her time to enjoy the wide, blue sky and land so lush and green it was dizzying. The price was almost worth it. The two day event had them repeating the action over and over again for full work days. Over and over again, but it never stopped catching her off guard or gluing her boots to the soil.

Over and over until she could almost feel the dust settle in her lungs and a shout of victory and relief catch in her throat when his hand caught in the fabric of her tunic to pull her close for the kiss each time. It was nothing short of unprofessional the way he seemed to steal the dust and victory and relief and her heart without any effort at all.

Everything ached and little of it had to do with her stunt work and everything to do with a man she barely knew kissing her once and knocking the breath out of her while sweeping the floor out from under her for days on end. She tried, in vain, to talk to him more, to move past the initial acquaintance phase where he smiled and told her his name and the professional phase where he asked her what was okay to do and what wasn't - as their script direction gave them wiggle room as long as it was good. She wanted to tell him her favorite food and joke and what her middle name was and her favorite song and her top ten movies and hang on to his every word as she asked him the same questions.

Her words always stalled on her tongue, her mouth working to form words that were lost to her as soon as she figured out what she was going to say.

He was like catching smoke with bare hands, on set and next to her and holding her to him in a way that had never made her feel safer one moment and gone the next with the director's abrupt 'CUT!'

Quietly, and subtly, she tried to tell him - in what would be their last take where they were encouraged to throw caution to the wind and overact for one electric, genuine last try. This time she didn't overthink her options and, for the first time in her life, let her actions precede her words. Levy grabbed back as his hand found its way to the usual spot on her hip, wrapping her arm daringly around his neck to bring her feet off of the ground and tangling her fingers in the singed and torn fabric of his shirt. They were two in a field of two hundred and she knew, knew that this was the sole time she would be brave enough to tell him.

She meant to leave an impression on him like he had given her, but it was only herself she made gasp.

He evaporated like smoke all the same - leaving her head reeling every moment after - once the scene was ended and officially declared the final take.

Once the check finally arrived, it was little in the wake she felt when he wrapped his arm around her waist and the warmth of him palm seeped into her taught muscles. She pressed her fingers over her name and frowned, the slick, neat print didn't make her feel that everything she had done was real. When her fingers had brushed over the hairline at the back of his neck, it was definitive and so much more grounding than a sum in her bank account. Money would come and go with time and she would eventually forget every little thing she spent the paycheck on, but she knew in 20 years or more she would be able to recount, with accuracy, the thickness of his hair sliding through her fingers and the gentleness of his calloused hands.

She had almost reserved herself to living among the ghost of things she almost had or could have had if their love had broken past film and scripts and characters they played to become a bond between the real them.

Almost.

Her phone rang with an unknown number and his voice was there again, hushed in her ear and just as gravelly as she remembered it. In a rush of lightning zinging through her veins, she said of course she would be his plus one for the premiere. Everything she had felt and pushed away for the sake of continuing to live in the real world, slowly crept its way back to the forefront. She found herself smiling with hope. After several months and back into another makeup chair, he stood there at her door in black tie with the possibility of having all of her questions answered tucked neatly inside the breast pocket of his jacket. He watched her with curiosity and something else that had her cheeks pinking as she spent her own time taking him in.

She saw the possibility that maybe she really had made him feel as equally lost and elated.

The way he helped her to the car and out of it as lights and a long strip of red blurred her vision, she checked one question off of her list when he chuckled at a joke he made to her. His breath ghosting over the baby hairs near her ear had her laughing with nerves - and humor at such a person who seemed so serious all of the time making such a corny quip.

The rest of her questions fell away as unimportant details as he helped her hold the length of her dress up as she ascended the stairs, his wide palm gently pressed to her back where her dress dipped low. Before they followed their A-list co-stars before the flash of cameras and sling of questions from smiling reporters, he offered his arm to her and made another joke - this one sarcastic in a way that had her bumping his shoulder with her own and laughing loudly.

If this would be the last night they had, she would be grateful, but as she caught his eye as her laughter subsided and, once again, had everything in her slinging toward the moon and stars as his gaze dropped from her eyes to the end of her nose to her mouth and along her jaw, she had an inkling that it wouldn't be just one more night.

Whatever questions she had deemed unimportant to bother with, resurfaced. Levy grinned as she squeezed his hand and nodded, stepping with him into the world where the bright carpet and light flashes blurred together and they broke past film.

A/N: This will be the start of an unrelated series of oneshots inspired by tracks on 1989. The stories will range from canon to AU and won't fall in any particular order unless otherwise stated.