Penpals

Day 1

Lucy strode into the guild hall, her long, sunshine-colored hair pulled up into a ponytail. She stopped a couple feet after entering the hall, confused by the new layout of the tables.

Nearly all of the tables were pulled into a huge circle, with the guild members sitting around them. A short, blue haired figure stood in the middle of the circle, talking.

Lucy slipped into a seat on the circle, next to Erza who had her arm around her girlfriend, Mira. The redhead nodded at Lucy in acknowledgement as she sat down to listen to Levy.

"Everyone will have a little mail slot in the wall over there, near where we have our job assignments hanging," Levy pointed to a small shelf with many different slots with numbers attached to each one. "I'll give everyone here a number randomly, and then once you pick your number from this basket," Levy picked up a small bin with many tiny pieces of paper inside.

"So we all have a number but what's that supposed to mean?" Lisanna asked from her spot between Elfman and Bixslow.

"Well," Levy said, "all of the mail slots in the shelf have two numbers on them, so that person who has the other number is your partner. You'll write to each other, and whoever figures out who their partner is first through what they write by Christmas will get a years worth of food from Mira!" Erza leaned over and kissed Mira's cheek as Levy continued. "I know that at least some of you will not wait to figure out who your partner is, but you should keep your number and who you are a secret-"

Natsu stood up, his chair slamming backwards into the ground. "But if we're gonna find out who our partner is in the end what's the point of doing this!!??"

"It's supposed to be fun..." Levy answered unhappily. "If you don't want to do this you don't have to-"

"Let's do it!" Gray exclaimed as he placed an ice-make tiara on Wendy's head. The small dragon slayer beamed.

The guild members whooped and yelled in agreement. Lucy smiled, levy had talked to her about this idea beforehand. It would be like having a penpal within the guild, but Levy wanted it to be anonymous between the partners so that it would be challenging but still fun.

"Last thing," Levy said confidently, "you're not allowed to completely give away who you are in the letters you write, and you can't tell other people what number you have." At that she began handing out papers with numbers on them to the people who wanted to participate.

Levy eventually arrived at Lucy's seat, handing her blond friend a number. "Thanks!" Lucy smiled at Levy, who grinned back.

24. That was Lucy's number.

As people got their numbers, they headed over to the mail slots to see what number their partner had. Lucy joined them, finding her mail slot. 24/13.

Whoever you are, number 13, I hope we will win! Lucy's eyes lit up as she skipped back to her apartment, ready to write her first letter.