This story takes place right after the return from Tenrou Island before any following story arc begins.

o.o.o.o.o

"Are you going to rust?" Little Asuka Connell asked with a curious smile as she stood on a stool outside of the Fairy Tail Guild Hall. She eyed the soaking wet Iron Dragonslayer with a fair amount of awe, losing interest in the toy target she was trying to set up. The thrill of seeing the legends of her Fairy Tail guild come back to life still hadn't worn off. The little girl trailed after the returning wizards eagerly. They and all the highest ranking members of Fairy Tail had been in suspension magic for seven years, why that was longer than Asuka had been alive!

Reedus doffed his tall hat to the child with a murmured greeting even as Gajeel walked past her without acknowledgement. "He's just feeling a bit grumpy."

Asuka hummed under her breath. Reedus was always nice, but she knew him. The Dragonslayer on the other hand was something else entirely. Her whole existence she'd heard her parents and the other wizards remaining behind talk about their larger-than-life friends and guild-mates.

The water mage trailed behind the two others looking dejected. Asuka stuck her finger out and poked Juvia, a bit disappointed that her finger didn't sink into her. Hadn't she overheard her mother talk about this wizard having a body made up of water? Suddenly Asuka's eyes widened. Her finger was wet! Her little mouth formed a perfect circle of amazement and delight.

Mirajane looked up from the bar area with a smile that didn't dim as she took stock of each member's condition. "Welcome back! Successful mission?" She asked her eyes going over the Dragonslayer's surly demeanor and Juvia's dejected aura. Her pretty eyes settled on the older wizard, Reedus, instead. Indeed these three didn't usually pair up together, but the job had required someone with pict magic and in Fairy Tail, that meant taking Reedus.

Normally neither Gajeel nor Juvia would have taken such a job, but they needed the money. With everyone simply vanished they'd come back to find that each of them owed seven years worth of back rent. Or storage fees for those whose apartments had been reclaimed and their personal items put away.

In that time Fairy Tail, without its leaders or any of its higher ranking wizards around, had sunk in status to the lowest guild in the land. Any of the lands. That meant the job offers had dwindled and that meant that until they could reclaim their former glory that high ranked wizards, even Dragonslayers, were working for very little.

Gajeel turned away toward his regular seat only to find it missing. Not taken by someone else sitting there. It was simply gone. He started to scowl. Looking around he noticed belatedly that all the usual chairs were missing. "What the hell?"

"Most everyone is out on jobs and I thought it would be a good time for some deep cleaning." Mirajane beamed without apology.

"Whatever." Gajeel climbed onto the table and sat cross-legged as he propped his chin in his hand which in turn rested on his knee. "Beer." He ordered in a gravel rough voice.

"Oh dear." Mirajane apologized for this at least. "I'm so sorry. Cana drank up the last of our reserves yesterday. We ordered more, it should be here in another hour or so. You see, the standing order for the guild was cut down when Cana was off on Tenrou Island like the rest of us. With her missing for seven years there wasn't the need to order so much I guess, and when we came back they didn't think to increase the order." Her smile brightened. "How about some juice?"

Gajeel sighed. "Whatever."

"Or how about a glass of water?" She suggested as Juvia drew up next to Reedus, watching.

Another scowl from the Iron Dragonslayer. "I've had enough of water." His tone fairly dripped with sarcasm, just like his black vest dripped water onto the table.

"Oh dear." Mirajane said again, blinking as she turned to Reedus and Juvia for any kind of explanation. "Did the mission fail?"

"Non, non." Reedus reassured her. "It just …got a bit messy."

The indigo-haired wizard drooped, hanging her head in shame. "Juvia is so sorry, she did not mean to douse you Gajeel."

Mirajane's gaze flew between the two, both relative newcomers to their guild from the destroyed Phantom Lords. She knew them to be good friends and comrades. Her hand daintily covered her mouth as she watched.

"Stop speaking in third-person." Gajeel snapped, his red eyes flashing angrily. "It was cute once, but now it just grates."

Juvia bowed, hanging her head even lower.

Mirajane's gaze sought out Reedus as the older mage put the job flyer on the bar counter along with a bag holding their payment. He sighed. "Gajeel mentioned that there were gray skies over toward the town of Lucia to the east. Juvia thought he said that Gray's eyes were toward Lucy."

At hearing this Mirajane's eyes widened comically as she quickly nodded in understanding. Every guild member knew of Juvia's crazed crush on Gray Fullbuster, and her unwarranted jealousy of any female even remotely close to him.

"Juv …I …I am really sorry, Gajeel."

The Iron Dragonslayer slid his eyes over toward her and he must have decided enough was enough. "Forget it." He muttered, dismissing the soaking as trivial.

"We did expect you yesterday." Mirajane said quietly.

"We walked." Reedus moaned, sitting down on the steps leading upstairs. "Heard there were some bandits on the road back here to Magnolia and decided to try and see if we could flush them out. Alas, no one attacked."

"Gray took them out already." The white-haired beauty remarked with a smile.

Gajeel groaned and shook his head, still a bit disgruntled as long wet hair whipped around him.

Juvia, however, beamed joyously. "Of course my love already took care of it! He's so marvelous and so strong!" She clasped her hands in front of her, and if you were a dreamy sort of person then there might have been little hearts floating around her head.

Gajeel said something rude which Juvia ignored, gone from dejection to the clouds of love. Or at least, obsession. "Any new jobs come in?" He asked hopefully.

Mirajane hesitated. "Well, technically Team Shadow Gear already called for it."

"Aw! Come on!" Gajeel barked at her. "Those dolts don't need the money, they've been here for the past seven years!"

"Not Levy." Mirajane pointed out quite reasonably, mentioning the Solid Script wizard who'd been on Tenrou Island like the rest of them. "She could really use the money."

"Pfft. Fine." Gajeel made a fist and pointed his thumb at his exposed chest, framed by the long black vest he habitually wore. "I'll escort her. Juvia too. Hey, Juv …well, where the hell did she go?"

"Gray." Reedus, Mirajane, and even little Asuka all said at the same time.

"Whatever, tell Levy I'm taking her on this job and she can ditch Team Losers." He said of Jet and Droy.

Again, Mirajane hesitated. "Er. It's a particular kind of job. Requires discretion. Subtlety. Detection."

"Pfft. That's where Levy comes in." Gajeel pointed out with some reasonableness of his own. "I'll be the muscle."

"Uhm." The always-chipper Mirajane sighed almost unhappily. "You'd have to be able …."

"Anything Team Losers could do, so can I!" Gajeel thumped his chest this time, grinning so widely he revealed the points of both fangs in his white smile.

"To pretend to be normal." Mirajane finished her sentence with a rush, then eyed him as if the Dragonslayer might be angered by her words.

Raucous laughter was his response.

"First of all …it's Team Shadow Gear, and my friends are not losers." Levy's voice cut through the room like a blade.

Gajeel grinned even wider as he answered. "So, we're finally friends then, cuz I ain't no loser!" He turned and then his eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open impossibly low. "What the HELL?"

Levy stood there, short and cute as ever, and pregnant as all get out.

In an instant Gajeel was on his feet, fists raised and fire nearly pouring off of him. "Who, what, when, HOW?"

"It's a disguise, dolt." Jet said smugly, his arms crossed over his chest. Droy grinned, his shirt stretching over his wide girth in a vain effort to close. The buttons had to be sewn on with industrial wire to keep from snapping under the pressure, in Gajeel's estimation.

"And if you don't know how, there are some books I could lend you." Levy said sarcastically.

Gajeel quieted, stared, and then sneered. "You have books on the subject? Pfft. I could tell you all you need to know. One stop research."

Jet and Droy nearly fell over themselves as they went sheet-white, standing head and foot over their diminutive teammate. These three were Team Shadow Gear. A team cut to the quick when Levy had been picked for the S-class trials on Tenrou Island seven years ago, and she hadn't chosen either of them for her partner. That had been Gajeel. Something that still ate at both men.

Seven years ago they'd been in love with her, then they'd had to mourn her. Now she was back, and to her it was if no time had passed. She hadn't even aged. Jet and Droy on the other hand, had. All three were still adjusting the 'the return' as it were. Their devotion to Levy though, that hadn't changed. Not one iota.

"What's the job?" Gajeel grinned menacingly and cracked his knuckles.

"Disappearing couples. In Burlone." Mirajane mentioned a town a long train ride away.

Gajeel nodded slowly. "Never been there."

"Hardly would I think so." Levy said dryly, pushing her blue hair back behind the flowered headband she was currently wearing. "It's a honeymoon destination. A place that welcomes runaway couples and marries them quick. A town for lovers."

Jet smiled at Levy. "Just the place for us."

Droy shoved Jet aside. "Back off, I'll pretend to be her husband."

"I wouldn't pretend." Jet avowed.

As the two fought behind her, Levy stepped forward and stared up at Gajeel. He stared back at her. Not a word was spoken between them until he suddenly laughed rather darkly. "Knocked you up, did I?"

Levy frowned at him. "I think this disguise is too much. I believe we should be running off to get married because I just found out I was pregnant."

Gajeel grunted, eying the baby bump she was sporting. It was oversized for her petite frame. When he wasn't standing on tables she barely came up to his chest. "Works for me."

"WAIT!" Jet protested, his hand spread wide in Droy's face, his own expression looking horrified. "Levy, you can't let him be your husband, he tried to kill you!"

"If I'd tried, she would be dead." Gajeel said smoothly, though on the inside he cringed a bit at the memory of his first meeting with Levy. As a member of the Phantom Lord guild he had indeed attacked her and her teammates. And left them pretty injured, marked, and hanging from a tree like a sacrifice.

Then when the Phantom Lords had been broken and dispersed, Master Makarov had gone so far as to invite him to join Fairy Tail. The only thing the Master hadn't forgiven? The injuries to his 'children', his guild members. With every job, with every fight, Gajeel was paying them back and everyone had eventually come around to accept he and Juvia as part of their family.

But the memory of Levy strung up on that tree still haunted him, though he'd never admit it aloud.

Since then he'd stepped in front of an attack meant to devastate her, and become her partner in the prestigious s-class trials. Now it looked like he was going to be her other half. Gajeel grinned. "I can make that bump real." He insinuated. He might owe her, but that didn't mean he'd turned nice. No, not him.

Levy sneered. "We have a lot of planning to do." She walked away, trusting him to follow. He did, still damp and still hungry and still grinning like a fool.

Jet and Droy watched the duo move off with a sense of foreboding doom. They slumped to the floor, supporting each other as they nearly wept.

Asuka tugged on Reedus' coat. "What's wrong with them?" She asked sweetly.

The tall pict magic wizard sighed and shook his head. "They lost a very important battle to them."

"What battle? I didn't see anyone fight!" The little girl asked so innocently.

Reedus and Mirajane shared a look between them as they both turned away, leaving the remnants of Team Shadow Gear to console themselves.

"I'll see if I can speed up the beer delivery." Mirajane called out to anyone who cared.

Reedus looked down at Asuka's confused face, wondering just how to explain this to someone not even seven yet. "Oh dear." Then he smiled sadly. "Ask your mother." He said, blatantly passing the responsibility onto someone else.