Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. I also don't own what inspired this one-shot. It's the video on YouTube, posted and created by Jordan Oram, under the title, "Kiss Me Now, Meet Me Later."

- Kiss and Tell -

"Levy, can you help Natsu out? He needs to make a social experiment video for one of his film classes."

"Uh, yeah, I guess? What is he doing?"

"He wants to film blindfolded strangers kissing for the first time."

"…"

"…"

Levy was not entirely sure how she ended up in Natsu's dorm, being blindfolded by her best friend, but here she was, twisting her fingers in her lap as Lucy tied a rolled up bandana around her head.

"So, Levy, please do know you can back out at any time. Natsu isn't going to force anyone to do this if they want to stop. He planned ahead for once and left himself plenty of time to set up another filming day if he doesn't get enough shots from today." Lucy explained, slim fingers trying to comb Levy's thick blue mop of hair into submission. It was difficult, given the fact that Levy's hair never cooperated and because she was only able to use one hand since her other was holding the bandana around Levy's head. Levy hissed when Lucy accidentally gave her hair a sharp tug.

"Yeah, I know… I did want to be more adventurous at New Years, remember?" Levy laughed, shrugging her slim, bare shoulders.

"Well, so does the rest of the world celebrating New Years." Lucy reminded her, pulling playfully on one of Levy's wavier sections of hair.

"Hurry up so I can't back out, Lu. Who knows, maybe I'll be inspired like you." Levy teased, knowing she had earned the gentle slap upside the head she got from Lucy.

"Shut up! Now I'm gonna ignore being nice to your hair and just tie this thing however it goes. I hope your hair gets caught in the knot." Lucy retaliated. Levy knew, even though she couldn't see her best friend, that she was sticking her tongue out. Levy laughed, though she somewhat regretted her words when she felt Lucy tying the bandana behind her head; she could feel some of her hair being caught in the tight knot and wondered if Lucy had done it on purpose. Levy had, after all, brought up the fact Lucy felt "inspired" (her words, not Levy's) after meeting Natsu to tell her father she was quitting business school to pursue her dream of becoming a world-renowned author.

"Yeah, yeah… you're the only one who'd think Natsu is 'inspiring,' so…" Levy sighed, trying to peer around the bandana. Most of the time, if she was blindfolded, she could still see either above or below the blindfold, but Lucy (or Natsu) had gotten a wide bandana. She couldn't see anything but the black material completely covering her eyes.

"I hope Natsu decided to switch your partner up." Lucy grumbled, grabbing ahold of Levy's shoulders to help her friend stand up.

"Wait, what?" Levy asked, feeling her heart skip a beat and ice starting to grow at the base of her skull. She knew Natsu had paired up people that he figured normally wouldn't even talk to each other, but Lucy had been there with him to set up the pairs… Surely Lucy controlled his prankster impulses and kept the pairs decent… Levy wouldn't mind kissing a girl since she was doing this for Natsu's film (and grade), but at the same time… Her heart started beating even more frantically against her chest. Maybe she shouldn't do this…

"I'm just kidding! Sort of. I mean the last pair Natsu had changed after I left ended up tonguing... Oh! You might know one! Sting, Natsu's friend?" Lucy laughed, pushing on Levy's shoulders to make Levy move away from the chair she'd been sitting in. They were in Natsu's suitemate's room. Natsu had agreed to let Lucy blindfold people in Gray and Loke's room while he blindfolded people in the suite's bathroom that bisected the two dorm rooms. The filming area was in Natus's room. He'd been staying in Levy and Lucy's dorm while it was set up since he'd had to dismantle both beds and shove all the furniture and his stuff off to one side of his room so he had space to film. Levy was slightly jealous he was one of the lucky ones who didn't have a roommate, but considering how he didn't quite get along with his suitemates (Loke apparently had girls over a lot and was not quiet, and since Gray was also an art student, he and Natsu always argued over which was better – film or sculpture), she figured it evened out. Although, they were being awfully nice to let Natsu borrow their room for the weekend to film… Levy was curious to know how he got them (or, rather, Gray – except for the girls, Natsu and Loke got along well enough) to agree to let him use it.

"Yeah, I know Sting. Did Natsu set him up with someone like me?" Levy hazarded a guess, picturing the blond in question. Natsu had met Sting when they had literally run into each other on the second day of class. Sting, an electrical engineer who had no idea where he was going on the art side of campus, was running late for his creative arts core class. Natsu was running away from Gray after dropping off Gray's laptop, newly covered in pink unicorn stickers. That had been the start of a very odd friendship, to say the least. Sting had recognized Natsu from YouTube, and was an avid fan. He was the perfect image of a young frat boy, and so Levy figured the last person he'd look at was someone small and bookish like her.

"Natsu set him up with Gray's photography friend that apparently lives in the dark room, Rogue. I had left thinking it was gonna be Sting and Yukino, a friend of mine who's pretty shy. Rogue, the poor guy nearly ran out when he heard another man's voice. Apparently he's not out to his dad yet and doesn't want anything to do with him looking gay until his dad knows. Natsu promised to not include them if Rogue still isn't out before he posts the video to YouTube since they got pretty into their kiss." Lucy explained, pushing Levy towards the door that adjoined the two rooms in the suite. Besides the shared bathroom where Natsu was prepping Levy's partner, it was the only inclination the room was part of a suite.

"… wait, what?" Levy froze, stiffening by the second, "'Posts the video to YouTube?' Lucy! You didn't tell me about that!"

"Oh. I didn't?"

"No! I thought only Natsu's professor would see this!"

Even though she was no where near the rec center, Levy felt like she'd just been pushed into the indoor pool that was always kept at incredibly cold temperature. Her legs suddenly felt numb, and her thoughts were swirling around her head. She knew Natsu was a YouTuber, and she knew he was pretty famous. No wonder Rogue didn't want to be in the video unless he came out to his dad first. Natsu's influence would make the video popular, and the audacity of it would get people other than his followers to watch it.

Dear Mavis, what had she gotten herself into?

"I'm sorry, Levy. I thought I'd told you Natsu intended to post it to his channel. You want me to tell him you don't want to do this anymore? Or only want to be included in the assignment video?"

Levy almost didn't hear Lucy as she tried getting over her initial shock and really process the information. Levy was a number cruncher. She liked solving problems. If she treated this conundrum like a code she needed to decipher, she could rationally decide what to do. Levy decided she had three options.

Option 1: Back out of the video completely. This was her initial gut reaction to the surprise of finding out Natsu would post the video to the Internet, the place where everything lasted for forever. She shouldn't have been surprised, though, considering she knew he was a YouTuber. It made sense he'd want to post his videos online to get a bigger fan base and have more potential of being noticed when he graduated.

Option 2: If Natsu was allowing Rogue to have conditions of his involvement, she could get a similar solution to her current problem. Natsu was a nice guy; he'd understand if she didn't want her blindfolded self kissing a stranger all over the Internet.

Option 3: Just continue with her involvement, no strings attached. While her parents might not approve of her kissing random strangers, Levy knew they wouldn't do anything about it. The video wouldn't break any scholarship or university rules, so she couldn't get punished by the school or the companies providing her with enough money to go to school for free. Really, the only thing she'd have to deal with was people on campus recognizing her from the video, if they watched it. That in itself wouldn't really be a bad thing, except they might think she was open to kissing strangers. Or something more. Which she wasn't.

"Lu, is Natsu putting in the video somewhere this whole 'kissing strangers' thing was done only for his video?" Levy asked, leaning her head back into Lucy's ample chest. Normally, she'd be looking up at Lucy's face, but all she could see was darkness.

"I can make sure he does. Right now, he's only got filming the kisses in mind and not the whole video. He wants to decide which kisses to show, what order, and what conversation bits before and after the kiss to show before getting an intro and outro done." Lucy replied, chin falling on Levy's forehead as she spoke. Taking a deep breath, Levy thought back to her three options. It really wouldn't be that bad if she was on the YouTube video. Or, if something weird happened during filming, she could always, like Lucy said, specify she only wanted to be in the academic video. Decision made, Levy blew a raspberry up at Lucy's face, cackling when she felt Lucy recoil.

"I'm in it still. For now. Depends on what happens on camera." She explained, hoping the feeling would come back to her legs soon. It wouldn't surprise her if it didn't, though, considering she was still nervous as hell about partaking in the video.

"Whatever, you little twerp. Let's go. Reach out and you'll feel the door handle." Lucy grumbled, flicking the back of Levy's head. Levy grinned, blindly reaching out until her hand met the cool metal of a door handle. Pulling the door open, she let Lucy direct her to Natsu's set. It was completely dark in the room except for where he'd set up where to film; lights seemed to be coming from every direction. Even blindfolded, Levy could tell she was in an incredibly well lit spot.

"Took you guys long enough. What happened, Luce?"

Levy jumped at the sound of Natsu's voice. Since it had been silent, she'd figured she and Lucy had beaten him and her partner to the set. Knowing she wasn't alone in the light made her cheeks flush bright red.

"Girl talk. Forgot to tell her you're posting this to YouTube." Lucy replied. Her voice sounded like she was standing by her boyfriend, which Levy supposed wasn't weird. There probably wasn't much room to stand anywhere else, anyway, since Natsu liked hoarding things. She had to wonder how good of a Tetris player he was since, considering all of the things he kept in his dorm room, he had a lot to move around.

"Gihi, ya scared of a lil' video?" A completely new voice spoke. It was miles closer to Levy than either Natsu's or Lucy's.

Her partner's voice.

It wasn't that bad, actually. Deep and gravelly, but still pleasant enough. Though, she definitely wouldn't want to hear it in a dark alley somewhere. And… it sounded like it was above her head… way above her head.

"More or less, yeah. Aren't you, Mr. Tall Person?" Levy snipped, placing her hand on her cocked hip. She had a sinking feeling Natsu had changed her original partner since Lucy knew of Levy's aversion to taller guys. It wasn't that she didn't like them – it was just that kissing them without something helping them lessen the height difference made it a very difficult task. Considering the video was going to be just them standing up and kissing, Levy figured Lucy would've done something to keep her out of being partnered with someone around six feet tall.

"Nah. I ain't scared a' much, Shrimp." He sounded amused, for sure. Levy rolled her eyes even though he couldn't see it. She just had to get the arrogant tall one, didn't she…

"I am not that short." Levy snapped. Natsu's muffled guffaw made her partner snicker.

"Whatever lets ya sleep at night, Shrimp. Salamander over there obviously doesn't agree with ya."

"Well, I don't think you're that tall. Over compensating for something?" Levy grumbled under her breath, miffed that the conversation was going over her height even though he couldn't see her. Honestly, she made anyone look tall by comparison, so he shouldn't really be that smug.

"I ain't overcompensating' fer anything. Yer talkin' to someone that's six foot four without shoes on. Ya gotta be pretty small – five foot three, maybe?"

Levy's cheeks flamed. She hadn't expected him to be able to hear her and thought the camera hadn't picked up what she said (although his response made that thought a moot point).

"Oh my god this is great." Natsu laughed. Levy could hear him slapping his thighs in mirth.

"Don't tell me yer smaller 'n that? I haven't kissed anyone under five-five before…" Her partner sounded shocked, as if people under his original assumption of five foot three existed. Levy wondered if her face could explode from all the blood rushing there.

"… I'm five foot one."

"Don't lie! That's with shoes on! Oh man, this is turning out better than I'd thought." Natsu was positively cackling. From the way he was stomping his foot and laughing, Levy assumed his camera was on a tripod. Or, at least, for the sake of the video, she hoped it was.

"Shut up! I'm wearing shoes right now!" Levy snapped, body moving automatically towards where she heard Natsu's voice. He was so getting punched in the face after she was off camera.

"Okay, Shortie, like I said, whatever lets ya sleep at night. Gihihi."

Levy assumed the strange noise at the end was her partner's laugh. She growled, turning back to him. He was probably a tall lady killer, like Sting (well, Sting wasn't that tall, but he definitely was a lady killer and very sought after). He probably thought commitment was a disease and should be avoided at all costs.

"Let's just get this over with. Where are you? How are we going to do this?" Levy huffed, wondering if she was even facing the right way. It was hard for her to tell where his face was.

"How about ya find me? I don't wanna touch anythin' I shouldn't."

Following his voice, Levy reached out until her hand hit… well, normally she would've assumed a wall, but it was warm and reacted to her touch. Great. Now she was positive she had a frat boy on her hands. Probably a sports player, too, considering the firm muscles under her palm along with his diction.

Levy groaned in her mind, reaching out her other hand and fisting both into the soft fabric of his ribbed shirt. She felt like she had something to prove now, although she wasn't sure why. Probably because he'd picked on her height after accusing her of being scared of being put on YouTube (which, okay, she'd admitted to, but it was unnerving thinking of the whole world being able to watch her like this).

"I'm gonna find yer face now, all right? Gonna follow yer arms up. That okay with ya?" Her partner asked. It felt odd, hearing and feeling him speak at the same time. Levy could even feel his even breathing beneath his shirt. He seemed perfectly calm.

"Yeah, go ahead." Levy replied, grateful he was being decent and asking permission to do things like touch her. That was the first redeemable quality he had, she supposed. She sucked in a sharp breath when she felt large hands encircle her wrists. A smooth, thick-feeling fabric covered his palms, but his calloused fingertips sent electricity through her body as he started to skim them up her bare arms and past her shoulders and neck. When his hands stopped to cradle her face, they were gentle, like he was handling fine china. It made the heat that was burning Levy's face spread to her neck, and the pain in her pounding chest worsened, almost becoming unbearable.

"May I kiss ya now, Shrimp?"

Suddenly, Levy was hyper aware of where he was. The core muscles beneath her tiny fists curled as he bent over, and his breath fanned over her cheeks. It smelled strongly like spearmint, and behind that, she could smell him. She could pick out a slight smell of sweat, but, over that, a spicy smell, possibly cinnamon, and the smell of leather. Being so close, he could no longer hide his own nervousness; his breaths were shorter than before, though not as short and quick as Levy's.

"Y-yeah. Go for it." Levy replied, teeth biting down on the inside of her lower lip. She was aware of how her hands started shaking, and he seemed to notice, too, because his thumbs stroked the skin directly below her bandana soothingly. Before she knew it, his right hand slid down from her cheek to her chin. His fingers curled beneath her chin, tipping it upwards, while his thumb pulled her lower lip downward slightly (and, unknowingly to him, out of her clenched teeth).

Levy forgot to breathe as she waited for him to kiss her, all previous concerns gone. What if she was a bad kisser? No one had told her that before, but she had been dating them at the time. And now she was being filmed! What if he was a bad kisser? Would she be able to keep her face straight? He'd clearly been chewing gum recently. What if her breath smelled? From what she gathered, he wouldn't be averse to commenting on it. What if they looked stupid? After all, he was a good sixteen inches taller than her. They probably would look stupid. What if Jet and Droy, her best friends that she considered her brothers, harassed Natsu over this? What if they found her partner and harassed him for—

The thoughts running around her mind like a headless chicken froze when she felt a pair of lips pressing against hers. He'd missed slightly, going a bit high, and his nose bumped against hers because he hadn't tilted his head enough. His nose felt weird, somehow, like something was there that shouldn't be, but she was too distracted to think of what might be there. The only thing Levy could focus on was the way his slightly chapped lips slid over her skin to align with her lips and the way he pulled back a few millimeters before pressing to her again. The hand beneath her chin slowly slid to the base of her skull, fingers dragging leisurely across her neck and causing her to shiver. Levy tightened her hold on his shirt, tugging it downwards and closer to her. Her legs felt weak again, and she subconsciously wondered if she was going to fall until he pressed an open mouthed kiss to her lips and dragged her lower one between his teeth. She was vaguely aware of gasping and his lips quirking into a smirk.

Levy was aware that something smooth in his chin was pressed against hers, but it was as warm as his skin. It didn't bother her, so she didn't spend what little brainpower she had trying to figure it out. Instead, she wanted to surprise him. He was being far too dominant. Because he was sucking on her lip, it was easy for her to slip her tongue into his mouth and skim the roof of his mouth. Levy was surprised when his smirk turned into a smile, and he tugged gently on her hair in response. He applied more pressure to her lips, tongue sliding against hers. Levy wondered if she whimpered. She wouldn't doubt it if she did. She hadn't kissed anyone in a while, and it had never felt like this before. This kiss kind of felt like magic, which she had, sadly, never experienced before with any of her ex-boyfriends. Kissing had felt like a chore before, but now she just wanted more of her partner. Levy wanted him closer, greedily wanted to take some of the body heat he radiated. She wanted to run her hands over his chest and dip her fingers beneath his shirt to feel his skin, to run her nails over it and make him gasp. She wanted his hands to go down her back and press her against his firm chest. She wanted to know what she could do to get him to make a vocal reaction, what she could do to please him. She wanted…

Her thoughts halted when she felt the ball of his tongue piercing pressing into the bottom of her tongue. That certainly didn't fit with the frat boy image she had for him… But it was pretty hot. She wasn't going to lie to herself.

It was then Levy recognized the pain in her chest as her lungs being on fire instead of her heart doing a number against her ribs. Regretfully, she pulled back from him, teeth catching slightly on his piercing. A breathless snigger escaped from her partner's lips, and Levy retaliated by pushing her fists into his stomach. She couldn't help the wide grin from forming on her swollen lips, nor could she help the giggles bursting forth from her throat. Damn did she feel alive.

And like she wanted to kiss him again. She could still feel his breaths, winded as they were, mingling with her own. He was right in front of her and all she had to do was tug on his shirt or reach for his face and she'd be able to taste the spearmint still fresh on his tongue…

"Okay, we're not shooting a porno, guys. Fuck, I must be destined to be a matchmaker. First Sting and Rogue, now you two. You can take off your blindfolds now." Natsu's voice interrupted Levy as she was about to pull her partner back down to her burning lips. His words broke the haze on her brain, and she immediately let go of her partner's shirt. She wanted to whine when her partner's hands detangled themselves from her hair, and in the seconds they were gone, Levy already missed the branding heat they created on her skin. She heard him take a step back and knew he had to had straightened up to untie his blindfold.

If she thought her face was going to explode before, now she knew it had to be literally on fire. There was no other way to explain the heat Levy felt gathering on her cheeks. With trembling fingers, she reached behind her head to untie the knot that kept the bandana secure over her eyes. It took Levy longer than expected because her fingers didn't seem to cooperate with her brain. It seemed like forever before she untied the knot, the bandana falling from her eyes to drop, forgotten, the ground. She blinked rapidly as her eyes adjusted to the bright lights, and her heart seemed to stop when she finally saw what her partner looked like.

Boy, had she been wrong, though now the tongue piercing made sense. If he was actually a frat boy, he didn't look it. Not one bit. Levy felt her jaw drop on its own accord.

"Not what ya were expecting, eh, Shrimp?" He grinned roguishly at her. It showed off his unnaturally sharp canines.

"Not at all. It's Levy, by the way." Levy responded shakily, sticking her hand out. He was, quite frankly, huge and very intimidating. He filled out his tall frame with thickly corded muscles that his shirt did nothing to hide from view. Because it was sleeveless, she was able to take in the way his dark skin moved along with his muscles when he shook her hand, the black tattoo ink racing down his left arm rippling fluidly. It also brought to her attention the eight piercings on both of his forearms – four on the inside, four on the outside. The ones of his left forearm interacted with the tattoo… or, rather, the tattoo interacted with them. A silver colored dragon stretched the full length of his arm, spewing metal shards onto his hand from a face twisted in pain. The studs lining his arms seemed to pierce its hide, since the trace amounts of red ink probably depicted blood. It was an incredibly intricately beautiful tattoo, one that would have normally made her too scared to talk to the owner. If that wasn't enough to send Levy away, the piercings decorating his face would have. Three ran up each side of his nose, a vertical piercing was in his chin, and two horizontal piercings replaced each of his shaved eyebrows. He had even more silver studs in his ears; five danced up from his lobe to the upper cartilage.

"Eh, I prefer 'Shrimp,' or 'Shortie,' or 'Shortstack,' or—"

"Oh my god. Shut up." Levy interrupted him, though she couldn't find herself to be annoyed with him. All she could do was laugh, her hand still within his much larger one. Before kissing him, she'd been worried that Jet and Droy would find him and harass him. Now, she was positive they wouldn't do anything of that sort. He was much too intimidating, from the top of his wild mane of curly black hair down to his steel-tipped boots. His whole body screamed danger, but the redness in his ears betrayed how embarrassed he was (and that his earlier statements had to be bluffs).

"You're so stupid, Stupid…" She trailed off, raising one eyebrow at him challengingly.

"Gajeel." He grinned at her again, tightening his grip on her hand.

"Stupid Gajeel." Levy returned his grin.

Maybe Natsu wasn't going to get punched in the nose after all…

A/N: Hello, lovely Gajevy/GaLe shippers. :D Hope y'all enjoyed this little thing lol. It kinda came out of nowhere. Was just thinking about the video and was like, "I'm gonna write it," and boom. First time I've written a kiss since I was like 13, so fingers crossed it wasn't too bad or came out flat. It's more of an experiment for me than anything.

~ Stitch