It had been an active night to say the least but Gajeel and Lily were at last back in their inn room resting before tomorrow's journey back to Fairy Tail. Gajeel lay on his bed staring out the window; while his body may have been resting his brain was working non-stop and it seemed all he could do was think about the advice he had been given earlier.
"Get a life inside the guild" Gajeel repeated to himself " what the hell are they on about"?
The more he thought the more his head hurt and no matter how hard he tried Gajeel just couldn't take in what everyone seemed to be telling him. Eventually, he began to fall asleep but as he did the dragon slayer began to remember the days after he had been abandoned by Metalicana the dragon who he had trained with since he could remember and even dared to consider a father figure. In his tired state Gajeel recalled the weeks he had searched for his dragon along with the unhappy emotions he had experienced at the time. The fear of not knowing where Metalicana was or what had happened to him, the anger of having been abandoned and the loneliness he felt huddled in those dark alleyways alone had clouded his mind turning the young wizard into a delinquent. The unpleasant trip down memory lane was enough to snap Gajeel out of his slumber and he now sat on his bed more awake than ever.
"Guess when you think about it a runt like me was easy prey for that jerk" Gajeel was thinking about the man who had shown him a way out of the alleys and for a while had given him the home he had longed for; he was thinking about Jose Porla the master of the disbanded Phantom Lord guild. Gajeel was barely a teenager when Jose had made him apart of the guild and to Gajeel it was the perfect guild. With rude and thug like members, Gajeel had at least two fights every day to keep himself entertained and when a job came his way the young delinquent was more than happy to use the request as a reason to beat the crap out of some dark wizard. The guild may have taken a large number of smaller jobs too but none of them seemed to make it Gajeels way, Jose was always insistent that the dirtiest jobs be given to him. Looking back on his time at the guild Gajeel could see how much he had let himself be manipulated by a man that at times seemed very sweet and funny but had a hidden dark side. The more he ran through his memories the more he saw just how much he had changed thanks to Phantom Lord, "DAMN IT I GET IT NOW!" he cried as a sudden realization crept over him.
Phantom Lord had been his home, his family, his everything and he was willing to do anything for it even going to war with Fairy Tail. When he had attacked levy, Droy and Jet, when he had beaten up Lucy, when had fought with Natsu; all of this he had done because it was for the guild he loved and Gajeel had done the same thing as a member of Fairy Tail.
"If Jose asked it of you would you take a life for him? Is his power absolute? Is his every wish your command? If that's the case then your nothing more than his puppet."
The words of Master Makarov echoed deep in his heart. Gajeel had shown such loyalty for Phantom Lord that he may as well have been Jose's puppet and once having joined Fairy tail he had done it again. The wizard overcome with Makarov's acceptance of him despite his past was willing to devote his life to a new guild and Gajeel was prepared to do anything for Fairy tail even put himself at risk. This was the reason he had accepted the mission to infiltrate the raven tail guild even though he knew he was putting himself in danger we was willing to make any sacrifice for his guild. After hours of trying to figure out the answer, it was like a dam had burst and everything was making sense, while Gajeel's loyalty to Fairy tail was admirable he had no real connections to anyone inside the guild apart from Lily and he could no longer be so careless when it came to his life.
As the wheels in his brain continued to turn Gajeel, at last, came to a conclusion " The guild is precious to me because of the morons who are apart of it".
He could see them all in his head Salamander the fire-breathing lunatic and the one man he could get into a scrap with for fun, Ezra the stubborn pain in the neck who was always looking out for him, Wendy the annoying little girl who was the closest thing he had to an underclassman and the list went on until he got to one name, Levy Mcgarden.
After everything he had done to her, she's the last person that would care for him. Well, that's what Gajeel would have liked to think but every time since he had joined Fairy Tail there had been one person who was always hanging around him and taking care of him and that person was Levy. Gajeel had one more memory to recall and it was one from only a few hours ago. Before the Raven Tail cry babies had shown up, at the ball Gajeel and Levy had shared a moment with Levy declaring she would always worry about him and then letting out what seemed to be happy tears. No sooner had this memory past through his mind Gajeel was hit by a sudden chest pain followed by a sweat and feeling of sickness. Now up and looking in a mirror he could see his face which was now full on blushing and he couldn't help but realize the truth, he had fallen in love with Levy Mcgarden. However, did he really have the right to tell her after everything he had done? With a determined face, Gajeel made a vow.
"I will live for me and for the members of the guild that I call my family. I will fight with my family for our guild. I will protect every member of my home and I will keep that little shrimp safe for all time."
Putting on a cloak Gajeel raced out of the room leaving Lily alone not noticing his cat had been awake the whole time. Pantherlily looked a little confused as to his friend's behaviour but he felt that Gajeel had made some kind of breakthrough and went back to sleep with a smirk on his face. " I think one day he'll tell her the truth but maybe not just yet". The next morning Levy along with Lissana and Elfman Strauss were reading the local paper at breakfast.
"SERIOUSLY!" cried Levy
The three were reading an article on a mysterious cloaked figure that had been photographed last night near the inn.
"That's right outside my window what did the creep want with me and who is it!" Levy screamed.
At the next table sat a suspiciously quiet Gajeel hiding his face behind another newspaper with Lily sat on the other side given him a disapproving look.