Author's Note: Something to end 2015 on a good note.

I don't own Fairy Tail.

The Science of Seduction
by: SmurfLuvsCookies

Levy McGarden heard the gentle smack of her guest's bare feet on the hardwood floor from her bedroom. She yawned and stretched out in her bed. The smell of coffee and toast wafted from the kitchen. Levy smiled. Lucy had apparently attempted to make breakfast using the limited resources in the pantry. It was amazing that she had even convinced the ancient toaster to work.

A quiet yelp cut through the breakfast smells. Maybe the toaster was being difficult, after all.

Levy opened her door and popped her head into the rest of the apartment to assess the situation. She blushed and let out an involuntary squeak of her own when she got an eyeful of her good friend's bare ass, bent over to retrieve the charred pieces of bread the toaster had violently ejected. Lucy straightened up and turned her head at the sound, unconscientious of the towel that could hardly contain the voluptuous curves of her naked body. Her blonde hair was wrapped up in a second towel, a few wet strands clinging to her face and neck.

"Good morning, Levy-chan!" Lucy greeted fondly. She set the hot toast down on the counter and gave it a disparaging look. "I was trying to make you breakfast, but…"

"I-it's alright, Lu-chan," said Levy, still recovering from the shock of Lucy's nudity. The two friends weren't prudish with each other, and had in fact seen each other naked many times in the hot springs of Hosenka, but the spontaneity of it had taken Levy off-guard. "There's a reason I eat breakfast at the guild every morning."

"I guess. You really should invest in a new toaster, though," Lucy suggested, giving the hunk of metal a doubtful stare. "At least one that isn't a fire hazard."

Levy laughed. "I spent all of my money on a good coffeemaker."

"True," Lucy agreed. With the long nights required in Levy's field of expertise, she had spared no expense on the luxuriant expresso machine. Lucy grabbed two mugs from the cabinet and filled them, offering one to her hostess. "Thanks again for letting me stay here while my apartment is fumigated. I'll have to give Natsu and Happy a piece of my mind later, leaving food out for all those ants while I was on that mission. Disgusting."

"Disgusting," Levy agreed. She was strangely captivated by Lucy's breasts, which held the towel up by themselves. She sipped the hot coffee to clear her head. "I'll get a shower and we can go get breakfast, if you want."

"I already promised Natsu I'd meet him," said Lucy with an apologetic furrow of her brow. "But I'll treat you to dinner tonight, how does that sound?"

"Great," Levy said. They enjoyed a quick coffee before Lucy went to get dressed for breakfast. Levy turned on the shower after she heard the door to her apartment close. She stripped in front of the mirror and scrutinized her skinny body. Lanky, tree-branch limbs. Bony hips. Tiny breasts. Shoulders, slightly hunched from long nights in the library. She met her own brown gaze as the steam fogged up the mirror, and was surprised to find sadness there.

Levy stepped into the hot water with a frown. It wasn't like her to feel pitiable about her body. Though she knew she was underdeveloped compared to her female colleagues, Levy had always maintained a positive body image. She had always found comfort in her own skin, had never given much thought to her sexual appeal. She had never needed to; romance wasn't high on Levy's list of priorities. The pursuit of knowledge and the bonds of friendship she had forged over the years held much more value for her than finding a boyfriend. She had never wanted to seduce anyone, so she hadn't considered how she might go about it.

Why had that suddenly changed?

The water was too warm. Levy fumbled for the knob and shut the shower off. She watched the puddle spin down the drain, willing herself not to think of the name. The face came to mind instead—his intense red eyes, that exhilarating grin, the spiky black hair, those iron-hard muscles, so toned she could identify every single exterior one…

Levy scrubbed her hair dry with the towel more vigorously than she ought to. Stupid, stupid Gajeel. That damned dragonslayer. How he had managed to worm his way into her heart, Levy would never know. He was the only person she had ever hated, and though he had more than redeemed himself for the sins of Phantom Lord since the day he joined Fairy Tail, Levy never would have imagined that her hatred would develop into an entirely different sort of passion. Gajeel managed to inspire emotions within her that no one else could.

The worst part was that Levy didn't seem to faze him at all.

And why would she? Gajeel didn't give any woman in Fairy Tail a second glance, and all of them had bodies like Lucy—voluptuous breasts, flared hips, toned abs and legs from fieldwork, bursting with a mysterious feminine sensuality that had always eluded Levy. If Gajeel could ignore them, a scrawny blue bookworm wouldn't even register on his radar.

She stepped out of the shower and tucked the towel around her chest. It fell almost to her knees, and slipped onto the bathroom floor as soon as she took her hand away from the hem. She had nothing to hold it up.

Levy turned to her blurry reflection in the mirror. All she could see was the shape of a girl with a cloud of blue hair. She stood up straight, put her hands on her hips. "Self-pity will get you nowhere," she told the girl, jabbing a finger at her. "There's no reason you can't be sexy."

Levy felt foolish just saying the word.

"The real question is how to do it," she murmured, scratching her chin. Field research was usually the way to go in sociological problems like these, but no doubt any advice her female companions could offer her would be useless. They didn't have to try to attract men. Levy, with her two-dimensional figure and bookish ways, was at a distinct disadvantage. Besides, her questions would no doubt prompt questions in return, and Levy didn't feel like explaining to her friends that she wanted to seduce the Iron Dragonslayer. If she failed, it would make her rejection much more humiliating.

Jet and Droy were attracted to her. Levy considered asking them why—but then again, she wanted even less to explain to them her goal. They would probably fly into a jealous, protective rage and attack Gajeel. Not to mention there was something morally repugnant about utilizing their affection to gain the affection of another man. Levy felt guilty just thinking about it.

If field research was out of the question, there was only one place to go.

The library was nearly empty on that Wednesday morning, with the exception of some graduate students and wandering seniors. Levy stopped in the center of the reading area when she realized that she had no idea where to begin her research on seduction.

She turned to the circulation desk, where one of her favorite librarians, a middle-aged woman named Miriam, was typing away on a keyboard. Levy inched toward her until Miriam glanced up from her computer monitor.

"Good morning, Miss McGarden," the friendly librarian greeted. "How can I help you today?"

Levy fidgeted with the pamphlets on the desk top. She struggled for a moment to phrase her question, finally deciding on a straightforward approach. "I'm looking for something on romance."

Miriam raised her eyebrows. "You mean…like romance novels? Or are you looking for something more scholarly? I don't think we have a very large selection of that sort of academia, but I could make some calls for you if you wanted."

"Um…th-that won't be necessary," Levy blurted out, blushing. "It's more of a…personal matter. There's no reason to put you through all that trouble."

"A personal matter, huh?" Miriam chuckled. "Let's see what we can do."

Miriam took her down an unfamiliar aisle full of battered paperbacks with rose-colored spines. She stopped in the center and gestured around her. "This is the romance section. Maybe you'll find what you're looking for here," she recommended. For a moment she skimmed through the titles until her eyes landed on a thick paperback with a purple spine and flashing gold letters. Miriam plucked it from the shelf and placed it tenderly in Levy's hands. "This one is a personal favorite of mine," she said with a conspiratorial wink. "The author doesn't spare any of the details, if you know what I mean."

Levy did not, in fact, know what Miriam meant—she had never picked up a book dedicated only to romance—but she appreciated the librarian's thorough help. "Thank you," she said gratefully, peering at the blurb on the back.

"No problem," Miriam said, patting Levy's shoulder. "Happy hunting. I'll see you at the front."

Levy investigated the rest of the aisle, frowning at most of the titles and their blurbs. Most of them seemed to take place on a ship, or at the very least on the beach. She ignored those, since there wasn't a beach close enough to Magnolia to warrant a random encounter. Maybe if her seduction succeeded she could invite Gajeel on a weekend trip. Others featured triangular trysts, lesbian lovers, and other scenarios that Levy couldn't imagine would help her seduce Gajeel, though she did file away some of the more interesting titles for future exploration. Eventually she chose five of the most promising novels, including the one Miriam recommended, based on their description of the male character—a gruff loner, rough around the edges, with a past that haunts him and a hint of some gentler side known only to the female protagonist. Miriam seemed to approve of Levy's selections.

"I thought you might like the tsundere type," she laughed.

"What's that?"

"You'll find out," Miriam responded evasively. She finished stamping the last of the books and handed them to her young acquaintance. "These are due back in two weeks. Enjoy."

Levy finished the first book in two hours.

She was blushing as she closed the paperback. Not only had Miriam's recommendation cast the quiet librarian in a whole new light, but the racy book had unleashed a flood of new sensations previously unexplored by Levy. She peered at the cover art, which featured a muscular man embracing a woman with her head tipped back in ecstasy. It looked very similar to the art on the other books she had checked out. She wondered if, at the end of it all, she and Gajeel would ever look like the protagonists on the covers of the books.

Levy devoured the rest of the romances that day, practically skimming through the last one. They were all very similar. She dissected the basic structure of the plots and identified pivotal moments that were necessary for the progression of the relationship. Several of the milestones—such as a rocky first encounter—she and Gajeel had already accomplished. Most important were the actions of the heroines that facilitated the milestones. Levy made a list of the techniques she could use depending on Gajeel's reactions to her advances.

Around six, Lucy knocked on the door. Levy quickly cleaned up the evidence of her research, and the two girls walked across town to their favorite diner.

"What have you been up to all day?" Lucy inquired as they sat down at their booth.

"Oh, just reading some old stuff from the library. What about you?"

"Let me tell you, Levy-chan, what that idiot did today…"

Levy nodded and laughed as Lucy launched into an animated story about Natsu and Happy. The waiter nervously interrupted to introduce himself. He was a cute, flustered teenager whom Lucy mercilessly manipulated using her famous sex appeal. Levy watched their exchanges with scientific focus.

When he brought the check, Lucy offered to pay for the meal. "To show my gratitude for your hospitality," she declared, slipping cash under the receipt. Levy noticed that their appetizer and their drinks were free.

They walked back to her apartment in Fairy Hills. Levy retired to bed early, complaining of a headache. She pulled the library books from underneath her bed and began scribbling on her research notes, amending them based on her observations at dinner.

By midnight, Levy had engineered a complete seduction strategy.

When Gajeel walked into the guild hall Thursday at noon, the first thing he noticed was the bookworm balanced on her tip toes, trying to reach a flyer tacked to the top of the request board. Nab was absent, and no one else seemed to notice the short girl's dilemma. He shrugged and walked toward her, reaching over her head to pull the flyer down. Levy blinked at him when he handed it to her.

"Gajeel," she blurted out. "Oh, thank you."

"Lily says it's good to help out the less fortunate," Gajeel replied, grinning over his smugly crossed arms. His eyes ran her up and down in a way that suggested her height qualified her as less fortunate.

Levy was not amused. "I doubt this is what Pantherlily had in mind," she quipped.

"Hey, just be grateful you had me around," Gajeel grumbled. Levy felt her heart skip a beat, but the words left a funny taste in Gajeel's mouth and a weird feeling in his stomach, so he changed the subject. "What's the job?"

"Wha—oh, just something small," Levy said. She paused and peered up at him with coy brown eyes. "If you wanted, you could always...come with me."

Gajeel frowned. "Didn't you just say it was a small job?"

"Yeah, but a girl could always use some protection." Levy eyed his muscles with indiscretion. Gajeel fidgeted and rubbed his bicep, in case she had spotted a mosquito or something. He glanced at the flyer.

"Protection from what, paper cuts? This is a research job in Magnolia. The full reward's not even payin' a quarter of the rent."

Levy's infallible scheme was crumbling around her feet. He had taken her by surprise, and during the conversation had steered her away from every scenario she had anticipated, leaving her working in the dark. Within just a few minutes he had mocked her stature, discredited her display of vulnerability, and literally shrugged off her verbal and nonverbal flattery. She only had one more method to deploy.

"Are you sure you don't want to come with me?" she inquired with fluttering eyelashes, channeling every ounce of her limited femininity into her brown stare.

Gajeel seemed perturbed. "You got somethin' in your eye, shorty?"

"…No," Levy sighed. She was officially defeated. Foolish, stupid, and defeated, all in just two minutes.

"Since when do you need me as your fuckin' protection detail, anyway?" Gajeel scoffed, scrunching his mouth into a sour pucker. "Ain't that what those two stooges are for?"

"Jet and Droy are—" Levy stopped, suddenly, and her grin spread from ear to ear. Gajeel continued with his tirade, ignorant of her unabashed glee.

"Then again, it looks to me like you're protectin' them, more than they protect you. You never seemed the type to want protection, though, so I guess it's okay that they do a crap job at it." Gajeel's frown deepened. "You really askin' for my help? Got some reason to believe you're in danger?"

Levy was over the moon. Not only had Gajeel shown genuine concern once he realized that asking for help was uncharacteristic of her—indicating he knew something about her character—but he was jealous of Jet and Droy. Levy had seen that bitter green expression on the faces of her friends too many times to mistake it for anything other than unadulterated envy. In some unknown capacity, Gajeel was attracted to her.

He cared.

Levy smiled a brilliant smile that sent Gajeel into a new bout of confusion. She clutched the flyer to her chest. "Actually, you're right. It's a small job, there's nothing to worry about. No protection needed." Then Levy McGarden left the object of her affection in the guild hall looking baffled and blushing a little around the ears.

She considered him thoroughly seduced.