Chapter 1

She was trying to get the beat, but her movements were too calculated, too stiff. She definitely had the counts, the steps, and the position, but she lacked the attitude. Hip hop was meant for the confident, for those with attitude, and an in your face sexiness she had never had, did not presently have, and which she was sure she would never possess. She went through the choreography once more, and made faces in the mirror trying to mimic the video vixens. Levy McGarden laughed at how ridiculous she looked trying to mirror a fake sexiness that was definitely not her. That got her thinking, dance was supposed to be a representation of the person. Dancing had to be honest, that had always been her motto. She stopped the track and looked through her phone contacts, until she found Laxus' phone number. While they were mere acquaintances, he had never been completely hostile with her and they had exchanged phone numbers at the last party he had deejayed. If there was someone that could help her find a silly, funny, hip hop song it was Laxus. His music collection rivaled her book collection in depth and volume.

Without thinking too much about it, so her shyness wouldn't kick in, she texted him.

You: Hey, it's Levy. Do you think you can help me find an upbeat and silly hip hop song?

Laxus: Sure. By when do you need it?

You: Sometime by Friday. I'm trying to choreograph for a competition next month, and I'm having a major inspiration block.

Laxus: You can pass by the studio on Friday night, bring sexy friends as payment. Big boobs required.

You: I can pass by on Friday, and we all know you're going out with Mira so save the bravado for someone else ;p

Laxus: Sigh… whatever.

You: I'll ask Mira, Cana, and Lucy if they want to tag along. How does that sound?

Laxus: Like hell.

Levy laughed at the exchange, everyone knew Laxus had carried a torch for Mira for years before she even gave him a second glance. She immediately texted the girls and they all said they would go. Levy had the feeling that her research session was going to turn into another infamous "Fairy Tail" party. She sighed, at the last party they had all drank too much and the gang had thrashed Cana's apartment, which they had to clean and fix the next day, under the supervision of a very angry Erza. She knew if the studio suffered the same faith, Laxus would kill them all. She packed her things and walked out of the dance studio. It was late and even though it was only early October, it was already bitterly cold. She thought about school, her competitive dance team, her gang, and smiled. Life was pretty good and her applications to college were already filled out and sent. She hoped that she would at least make it past the first cut and get to the auditions. She wasn't only applying to dance institutes, but to the local university as well, which luckily for her had a strong dance and arts programs. Magnolia as the most rebellious and financially independent city in Fiore, still had some of the things the whole country had had before Coronel's Acnologia's coupe d'etat. Acnologia's tyranny had started five years before. The coup d'etat had been barely violent, and he had unseated an immensely unpopular candidate, after one of the closest elections in country had been divided in two and Acnologia with the help of Zeref had taken advantage of it. At sixteen Levy was deeply involved in politics due to the fact that her father had been a top advisor to the now defunct Liberty party. Her father, her mother, she missed them dearly. The pain as fresh as six years ago. Immersed in her thoughts she failed to notice that a tall shadow had followed her from the studio all the way to her apartment, and stayed watching for some time after she had made it past the doors of the Fairy Tail Girls' Dormitories.

By Thursday night, the little get together had increased to more than ten people. Now the complete list was: Lucy, Cana, Mira, Jet, Droy, Natsu, Gray, Juvia, Erza, Jellal, Lisanna, Elfman, and of course Freed, Bickslow, and Evergreen, and all the people they would probably decide to invite. If she had any hope of getting the songs she needed, she would have to get there before everyone else. She rubbed her shoulder where the house's symbol was tattooed and smiled, they weren't a gang, they were a family. Levy had lost her parents at the tender age of ten, because she had no other family she had been placed in a group house in the city of Magnolia. No one knew the official name of the group home after the military had taken over, but everyone called it by it's old name "Fairy Tail."

She knew how lucky she had been at being placed there, the house was maintained by Makarov Dreyar, a wealthy magnate that sought to give back by offering disadvantaged youths a safe place, specially in a country that did not tolerate anyone with a rebellious spark. The night was cold, but she took out her phone to look at her calendar and hoped she didn't have too much homework due the next day. It didn't help that everyone at Fairy Tail was in the same high school, and shared most classes, it usually meant they all wanted to talk instead of giving her the quiet she need to complete her assignments. Even though she was younger than everyone, they were all in the same grade. She had advanced two grades, and half of her classes were currently at university level. That made her the runt, the little sister everyone protected. Yet, she was still the most responsible one out of the whole group, she shook her head at the memory of having to bail out Gray, who was only wearing boxers, and Natsu who was full of soot, after he had accidentally caused a small fire at an abandoned building. She had never asked the boys what in the world they were doing that required fire and nudity, because she honestly did not want to find out.

They had all tattooed the house's insignia somewhere in their bodies and it just felt right to do so. It was the only tattoo she had, and she somehow knew it was the only one she would ever have. She had often wondered why she was so loyal to Fairy Tail. It probably had to do with the fact that thanks to Fairy Tail she had been able to keep dancing. Levy had been dancing since she could remember, her mother had been a dancer, and her father a political science professor and a government advisor. She always felt like a combination of both, and her dream was to be a dance professor at the Magnolia university dance program, it was like the perfect merging of her parent's spirits. But now she needed a damn hip hop song to choreograph for the upcoming competition and her lovely family wasn't going to get in the way of that. She turned off her lights and as she fell asleep she knew that the reason why she was so loyal was really because though she had lost her parents, she ended up in a place where she had found siblings. Outside her window the same tall figure as a few days before watched her room even after the lights had gone out.

Levy was cracking up the whole time with Laxus, he had pulled more than thirty tracks for her to listen and choose from. From Eminem, Redman, Beastie Boys, Ice-Cube, Biggie, Kanye West, Ludacris, Run-D.M.C., Afroman, to artist she had never heard of like Suga Free, ItstheReal, Bloodhound Gang, and Lil Dicky. And according to Laxus, she had to include "Just a Friend" by Biz Markie, "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugar Hill Gang, and the fact that Laxus had actually told her to include "I'm on a Boat" by the Lonely Island almost made her pee her pants with laughter. When everyone had gotten to the studio they had played all the songs and even voted. Everyone was rolling on the floor laughing with "Ya Mama" by The Pharcyde, but Levy honestly thought it was one of the dumbest songs she had ever heard. Everyone made fun of her for liking "Parents Just Don't Understand" by the Fresh Prince, and the "Humpty Dance" by Digital Underground. They had had a great time, and now she had multiple songs to splice and choreograph to.

The night had been perfect, especially since she had managed to slip out when people started partnering, which saved her the trouble of turning down Jet and Droy, again. They had been her best friends since her first week at Fairy Tail, and she could only see them as brothers. Which was a feeling she felt towards all of the Fairy Tail males. In the six years she had known them she had never been interested in anyone from Fairy Tail romantically, whether male or female. She wasn't a complete saint, she had dated Hibiki for a few months, but they were more reading buddies than anything else, all their dates had always ended up with going to a bookstore and reading for hours on end without speaking to each other. Levy guessed that if she told Lucy that she and Hibiki had only kissed twice in the months they had "dated" she would laugh uncontrollably at her naivete and complete lack of romantic interest. Even romantic novels made her blush, she still remembered the first time she had read one of the smut novels Erza loved, her hair had almost caught on fire from how red hot she had blushed at the sex scenes. Levy had really thought her ears were going to blister from how hot they got whenever the protagonists hooked up. She knew she should worry more about her dating life, since all the other girls seemed so intent on it, but she honestly didn't care. Romance was not what she was focused on right now. Maybe college would be an eye opener, and boys, or girls, would finally get her juices flowing, literally. Maybe sex would stop being such an embarrassing topic for her. She put on her headphones and started going through the tracks she liked the most, as she walked she choreographed, because the streets were empty every now and then she would find herself dancing, hip hopping around like a bunny. She laughed the moment the thought came to her mind, and she wondered if she could introduce it into the choreography somehow, a bunch of bunnies hopping to hip hop.

Gajeel Redfox's headphones were also pumping hip hop into his ears but he wasn't listening to the light hearted spectrum of the genre that Levy was listening to. His ears were being assaulted by the angry, and violent lyrics of N.W.A. He identified with the lyrics. Since the age of thirteen his life had revolved around, guns, drugs, alcohol, and most of all violence. It hadn't always been like that, the fact he had a last name was evidence of a different life, but that felt as though it could have been centuries ago. Gajeel was also an orphan, abandoned by his father at the age of thirteen. He never knew his mother. When his father first left, Gajeel spent a few months on the streets, stealing in order to survive. Once he got caught, the state took custody over him and placed him into a juvenile facility for a few months until a group home decided to accept him. He ended at the group home, nicknamed "Phantom Lord", a violent and cold place. It's head, Jose Porla, was one nasty piece of work. He pretended he was helping disadvantaged youths with criminal records straighten up their lives, when in reality he was using the children in the group home to commit all sorts of crimes that benefited him financially. Gajeel knew Jose had ties with the government, and the stunts they pulled weren't unknown to them, but he was not going to ask, because it was dangerous and he honestly could have cared less. Jose had seen a lot of potential in Gajeel, due to his size, and his even larger anger issues. Gajeel had arrived to Phantom Lord swinging. From the first month he was one of the most feared boys. Now he was Jose's most powerful fighter, in the illegal boxing matches they held for gambling purposes, and whenever there was a big heist. Gajeel's second in command, and only friend, was Juvia. Juvia was one of the scariest and most powerful people Gajeel had ever known. While she had only been in Phantom Lord three years, she had raised through the ranks by wit, sneakiness, and physical prowess, she was a better fighter than most people Gajeel had ever fought. She was also honest, did not try to suck up to Gajeel, and for some reason she didn't fear him. Somehow they had found in each other a sibling kinship they didn't have with anyone else. Juvia was currently keeping track of the blonde girl named Lucy, while he kept track of the bluenette named, if he remembered correctly Levy, a ridiculous name which somehow fit the ridiculously happy slip of a girl dancing in the middle of dark streets like a moron. Jose wanted both girls kidnapped, for reasons Gajeel had ignored not caring as to the why, all he knew is that it was an easy job. Yes, Fairy Tail members had a reputation as troublemakers, who always got into fist fights and caused chaos wherever they went, but they were clowns. These kids had never dealt with all the violence he had seen, and caused.

Every night Gajeel watched the girl he became more enraged at her. How could she be so stupid, so naive to walk the streets alone at night? Did she not have a clue of the evil that lurked in the dark of the city streets? He smirked at the question. No, the little girl had no clue that monsters like him existed. She had been sheltered, protected. The thought enraged him, and at the same time made him pity her. After all, he was strong, he wasn't scared of anything, he was the monster in the night and nothing worse than him lurked in the dark. That was true freedom. Yet, in the recesses of his brain, a voice laughed at him. It said Gajeel was nothing more than an idiot following an innocent girl in the night because he had been commanded, like a dog. The voice sounded like that of his father. No one had told Metalicana what to do. Metalicana would have never wasted his nights following a girl that had caused him no harm, and who wasn't a threat to anyone. Gajeel shook his head to dispel the voice, after all Metalicana was gone. He had just disappeared one night. His father had been rough, he had taught him how to fight, and was as cuddly as cold steel, but he had never been irresponsible. His father had loved him, that he knew. To this day Gajeel was trying to figure out what had happened, and every day that passed without news, the more convinced he became that his father had been killed. Metalicana had been a mechanic, but his garage had been a meeting place for a group of people who should have not been meeting together. Now that he looked back he figured that his father was a rebel, part of what was referred to as the insurgency. Fiore's politics had never interested him. He knew that people complained of oppression, corruption, injustice, that there was no freedom of speech, of religion, and a lack of basic human rights, but to Gajeel that was just what the world was - a cold place where only the strong survived. He didn't see, how having any of those things would change his life anyways. If he was going to break the law and get into trouble with the authorities, he might as well get some money out of it, and not simply due to some ridiculous ideal of a better world. His musings were cut short by his phone vibrating on his jacket. When he looked at the screen, he wasn't surprised to see Jose's number, but he was surprised to see the time. He had spent an hour just standing there lost in his own thoughts and staring at the girl's window. He really needed something to take off the edge, a fight, a robbery, a willing female sex partner, anything to get out of his own miserable thoughts. He ignored Jose's call and answered with a text that he was on his way. He knew he was violating the statewide curfew, but if he kept to the back alleyways and out of the main streets no cops would catch him. He turned around and headed toward Phantom Lord, where if he didn't find a fight, he could at least find alcohol.