VERiTY (Fairy Tail Fanfic)

28. The Shift.

"I'm Levy!" she introduces herself. "I just got back from school for the weekend!"

"Cute," Gildarts crouches down, examining the long-sleeved sailor uniform laid out in magic council white, turquoise and dark blue. The emblem of the school was clear on her breast pocket, and she even had a short white cape to complete her look.

Levy, despite being just a year younger than Cana, was deemed too inexperienced to be immediately dropped into a guild. She had no background as a wizard, and her living situation wasn't so terrible to begin with-- there was no need for them to remove her from it just to toss her into frugal and independent living conditions.

After a general consensus among the guild masters, it was decided that, instead of settling her into the guild immediately, Eir would send her to school.

(Which meant dorm-living and school fees higher than anything Fairy Hills has to offer, but that's beside the point. Eir has enough money for that.)

"Huh? So Levy's going, but Cana's not?" Gildarts asked, turning to the taller of the two girls. "I thought you were around the same age."

"I'm fine, there's no point," Cana responded, evidently not for the first time. "I can read, I can write, and I can use my card magic just fine."

"So you live in the dorms there alone?" Gildarts asked, patting her on the head.

Levy shook her head, "Sherry-chan's with me!"

Eir could deem magic schooling as a glorified government system that taught basic to advanced magic control, under the premise of cultivating either future soldiers or scholars. Most of the graduates eventually go on to work for the magic council, but not all of them.

It's basically like higher education in the old world, except here it's generally less valuable simply because not everyone has access to education to begin with.

"Then what about you, boy with the strange mask?"

"It's a sallet," Bickslow said, proud, "Laxus gave it to me! Isn't it cool?"

"Stop telling everyone that!" Laxus snapped, face flushed red as Gildarts gave him the smuggest grin in the history of smug grins.

"He gave me these too!" Bickslow said, reaching for his floating totem poles, "they're my babies."

Gildarts gave Laxus a suggestive look.

Laxus bowled right over and socked the man in the face.

-

They made it to the kitchen eventually, Gildarts settling down at the bar as the children filed in. Reedus had his usual spot by the bar, and Gildarts couldn't hold back a grin when he saw what he was painting.

Eir had Levy's cloak in his arms, trying to convince her it would be a better idea to just change out of the uniform. But the girl just rolled her sleeves up, pulled on her apron, and was all set and ready to make the best cookies in the world.

"School really gave her one hell of a confidence boost," Laxus said, watching the scene with mild interest. "Hey Bickslow, take the helmet off."

"No."

Gildarts watched fondly as they communed in the kitchen, enjoying themselves like the children they were in this guild of drunkards and adults.