Crimzon: Not necessarily something for Gajevy week considering it doesn't really match any of the topics . . . I think . . . I don't even know what they are. This cute little idea popped up in my head and I couldn't let it go so here! A cutesy one-shot! Also, the book that is mentioned in the fic is an actual book. It's called A Dog's Life: The Autobiography of a Stray by Ann M. Martin. It's fairly short but a good read. I got it years ago when I was in middle school and damn this thing made me shed tears like no other. I've read it over and over so many times and it is one of the few books that I'll never give away. So now onward with the story. I OWN NOTHING!
Levy couldn't remember how long it had been since her and Gajeel got together. A year? Maybe two? She wasnt sure. All she knew was that he had, in his own awkward way, asked her to move into his home. Mainly because she wouldn't stop complaining about the fact that she had no more room in her tiny apartment for her massive book collection. He told her that if she needed more room, to live with him and Lily.
His home lied not far outside magnolia, resting comfortably in the forest. Gajeel and Lily had taken the day to clear out a room they were using for storage in order to fit the dozens of tomes. Luckily, the book shelves he had built into the wall was going to fit the majority of her collection, though the rest, much to her dismay, would have to go. As Levy entered the spacious room and dropped a box onto the floor, causing a wave of dust to float up and hover around her face making her cough
"When was the last time you dusted in here, Gajeel?" she asked, waving her hand around in a fruitless attempt to clear the dust.
"Probably around the same time you last had a yard sale," he replied, each word dripping with sarcasm. Levy crossed her arms in a huff and stomped passed him to the window, opening the glass to let some fresh air in. She leaned out to take in a deep breath while Gajeel went to open the box she just brought in. As Levy looked out the window, taking in the view, she noticed some chrysanthemum blossoms blooming just underneath the windowsill. She noticed how their red-ish color in the very center of the blossom would slightly fade into a lighter shade as it reached the ends of the petals.
"How's it going in here?" asked Lily as he floated in. Levy turned around when she didn't hear Gajeel start complaining about how she has too much books and such. What she saw surprised her. Gajeel was reading one of her books. In fact, he was so entranced he hadn't noticed Lily flying around his head, trying to get his attention. Lily looks over, wide eyed, at Levy. His mouth moved to silent words while pointing a paw at Gajeel.
"Are you seeing this?" she saw him say while he quietly floated towards Levy. All the while, she had a hand to her mouth, completely in shock. She shrugged her shoulders and shook her head in complete bewilderment.
"It-It's a miracle . . ." she mouthed in return. He looks back to her while nodding his head in understanding, though his expression remained the same.
"Gajeel?" she spoke in the silence. He didn't make a move nor a sound. She took a step towards him while calling his name a second time. She peered over his shoulder at the small book in his hands. She remembers the book being one of her oldest and most favorite. It was a short book, a little over a hundred pages. The story revolves around a dog as she grows from being a puppy to an adult dog, trying to find both her mother who disappeared when she was a puppy and her brother who disappears not even half way into the book. She goes through hardship and tragedy from meeting a heartless couple who had no patience in having a puppy to seeing a friend she met along the way getting hit by a neglectful driver. Although the story has a happy ending, the road to it is full of tears and emotions. It's a book Levy could never part with. The fact that she saw Gajeel of all people be interested in the tiny book and its worn pages was surprising to Levy, but then she remembered something; an important fact about the book. At the very beginning of the story, the mother dog leaves her two pups one day and doesn't come back. One of the puppies, the main character, one day leaves the safety of the shed they had been hiding in and goes in search of her mother while the scent was still fresh. Her little brother follows after her. The realization hit Levy like a train. Abandonment. The parent leaves and doesn't come back. Disappeared without a trace. Gajeel's dragon-no-father, left one day without warning. Levy suddenly knew why Gajeel was so entranced by the book. He wanted to read if the dog finds her mother. Instead of bothering him a moment more, she smiles and motions for Lily to follow her out of the room.
The two walked silently down the hall and into the kitchen while she quietly discussed the contents of the book. Lily was practically in tears when she told him the main plot and its ending.
"So let's leave him to finish the book. It's kind of nice seeing him take an interest in something other than training, you know?" said Levy as she turned to the fridge to grab some fruit. As she turned to face the counter that Lily was sitting on, she noticed a mischievous gleam in his eyes. She raised an eyebrow as she slowly placed the fruit on the counter and reached for the cutting board and knife.
"What are you planning?" she asked. She reached for a mango and started peeling away the skin.
"Remember last week's thunder storm?" he asked with a shudder. Levy looked up at the ceiling, remembering that night's events. There was a huge storm that got them stuck staying at the guild. Not only were some of the streets flooded, but the lights at the guild went out, leaving them to use candles (which there weren't much of to start with). Natsu had tried using his fire magic, but no one would let him at the risk of him burning the place to the ground. Levy looked down as she started cutting away at the mango into tiny slices. She remembers how Lily had disappeared at some point only to find him underneath one of the tables, cuddling with a blanket (which he swiped from Asuka) as if his life depended on it. Levy attempted to be subtle when she reached to comfort him but that only made things worse when Gajeel-and his stupid new ability over the shadows- popped out of nowhere and scared the living day lights out of the two. Of course this caused a fuss in the guild and they became a laughing stock. Levy didn't mind it much, but it put a damper on Lily's pride.
"God he is such a jerk sometimes," she stated as she cut a piece of kiwi in half for Lily which she handed over to him. That's when the thought struck her. "Oh come on Lily, not when he's so into the book! Can't you find another way to get your revenge?" He had finally found interest in reading and that was a miracle for Levy. She had been trying for months to get him to read something, but instead he'd get her to read something to him which only resulted in him falling asleep. The events of the past few minutes was progress.
"Besides whatever that mischievous brain of yours is planning may ruin that book and I love that book, Lily. There are no more copies of it anywhere and so help me if anything happens to it, I'll-"
"Levy, you may want to calm down because I think you're about to cut through the cutting board." Levy looked down at that moment and noticed a slight dent forming in the wood caused from her vigorously sliding the knife on its surface. With a sigh, she placed both items in the sink and moved to eat her mango slices. "Alright, let's hear it."
Pantherlily smiled a toothy grin in response and flew up to whisper his plan in her ear. As he spoke, her grin couldn't grow any wider. After he told her the plan, he jumped back down to the counter top and raised an eyebrow in question. Levy could only smile and nod as she finished her mango and made her way back to the spare room. The plan was set into motion.
Levy snuck a peak into the room and noticed Gajeel still sitting in the middle of the floor with his legs crossed and the book sitting on his legs. He had one arm propped up on one knee with his chin leaning against his fist while he used his free hand to turn the pages. Levy noticed Gajeel's eyes moving slowly as they scanned each word carefully. Every now and then she'd notice a slight twitch in his lip or brow in reaction to the story. She stood there watching, wondering how much time had gone by. There was a little part of her that felt bad that they were about to play a really mean prank and probably put him off to reading forever, but a bigger part of her said that it was WORTH it. As she took a step into the room, the wood flooring creaked at the sudden weight which caused Gajeel to look up from the book.
"Oh hey," he said, a small smile forming on his face. Levy walked over to him and pulled up a small stool to sit behind him. Without a word or any warning, she reached for his hair and started playing with it. "Uh . . . what are you doing?" he asked, looking over his shoulder at the script mage.
"I like your hair, so sue me. Besides, you're reading one of my most prized books so it's only fair I get to play with your hair," she pouted. With a smirk, Gajeel leaned back against her knees and continued to read the book. Levy picked up on the silent 'go ahead' and gladly started to run her fingers through his mane, all the while, Lily was in the hall, laughing to his little heart's content
As unruly as Gajeel's hair appears to be, it is surprisingly soft and hardly has any knots. Levy was sure that if the girls back at the guild knew just how little care Gajeel put into his hair only for it to be as sleek and soft as it was, they'd envy him. She had most of his hair piled on her lap as she subtly wound them into a long braid. As difficult as it was, she managed to contain her urge to laugh. To help her from laughing, she'd occasionally look over his shoulder and read a paragraph or two of whatever page he was on. It helped almost too well considering the majority of the book is borderline depressing. Every now and then, she'd see a slight shake in Gajeel's shoulders or a non-too subtle sniffle.
"He must be really into the story," she thought to herself. Maybe half an hour or so passed and she had gotten half of his hair in a braid and oddly enough, it looked somewhat good on him. Out of the corner of her eyes she could see Lily scurrying up and down the hallway.
"What is Lil' doing?" Gajeel mumbled, clearly too immersed in the book to bother waiting for a response. Levy only responded with a shrug and continued with her project. At one point in time, Lily silently flew into the room and landed on Levy's shoulder. He held up his paw in a thumbs-up gesture when he looked at Gajeel's hair. He then started to hand Levy tiny chrysanthemum blossoms and she carefully wove them into his hair while suppressing her laughter. She noticed them to be the one's from the bush outside. The color matched so well into his hair that her stomach was cramping from containing the bout of laughter that threatened to escape. Lily had to leave the room at some point because he was at the point where he could barely breathe.
"Whatever it is you two are planin', knock it off" he mumbled, hardly putting effort into his 'threat'. She managed to hold back another chuckle. Lily walked back into the room after that while Gajeel was nearing the last few pages of the book. Lily silently nods at Levy's work with his hair while Levy cocked her head to one side, trying to see if it was missing anything. She then silently snapped her fingers and waved her hand in the air, writing one of her scripts.
"Silent Script: Ribbon," she thought as the words formed a big pink ribbon. As Gajeel read the last two pages, Levy was running against the clock. She carefully wove the ribbon from the top knots in the braids and wove it down to the very end. She pumped her arms in the air in silent celebration as she leaned back to admire her hard work.
She heard the soft thud as Gajeel closed the book and set it aside. As he did, Lily ran out of the room and probably left the house considering she heard the front door open then slam shut. Gajeel didn't acknowledge him as he left, instead turned to look at Levy. Without so much as a word, he pulled her into his lap and laid his head against her shoulder.
"Um, Gajeel? Wh-What are you doing?" Had he noticed their plot to embarrass him? But that thought was quickly trashed when she felt a slight drop of liquid land on her shoulder. "Gajeel? You okay?" She tried to look over her shoulder at him, but his tight grip around her stopped her from trying.
"You and your stupid books," was all he said as she just leaned against his chest while he held her, clearly feeling the emotions the words inside the book created. She smiled slightly and rested her arms over his as they tightened their grip around her stomach. In that moment, she noticed Lily poke his head from the window, shrugging his tiny shoulders in a silent question. Levy mouthed the words, "we'll meet you at the guild." He smiled then and nodded as he flew off.
~at the guild~
"Lily had already riled up the guild with news of Gajeel's new look. They all patiently sat as they waited for the guild doors to open. It was quiet until Levy managed to slam open the massive guild doors with a half conscious Dragon Slayer leaning on her shoulder.
"What happened?" questioned Mira as she walked over to help the Script Mage. That's when she noticed the small red bumps covering his skin.
"I think he's allergic to the flowers," Levy chuckled nervously. Mira giggled when she took notice of the amount of flowers intertwined in his hair.
"Help me take him to the infirmary. We have some medicine that will help," she took a second to look back at his hair and with a smile, added, "We should probably take those out of his hair.
~some time later~
"I'm allergic to flowers?" Gajeel had woken up later that night with both Levy and Lily sitting by the bed he was in. As it turns out, Dragon Slayers are slightly allergic to Chrysanthemum blossoms. Wendy explained that the seemingly innocent flower was just as big a weakness to the slayers as transportation was. Natsu was stunned when he heard news of it. Apparently Gajeel wasn't the only one who didn't know.
"Chrysanthemum blossoms to be correct," Levy responded with a nervous sigh.
"I'm allergic to FLOWERS?! ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDIN ME?!" He snapped then he turned to glare at the Exceed who stood at the edge of the bed.
"Let's look on the bright side of this, Gajeel," Lily started, only for Gajeel to cut him off.
"What bright side? That you and the Shrimp over here were plotting to make me the laughing stock of the guild? Or the fact that I'm going to be itching all over for WEEKS!"
"Uh-well I'm glad you're doing ok, Gajeel. Now, I think I hear Erza calling me," he spoke as he nearly dodge Gajeel's iron fist and flew for the exit.
"AINT NO ONE CALLIN YOU YA LITTLE SHIT, NOW GET YER ASS BAC-"
"Gajeel," the Dragon Slayer stopped yelling at Levy's soft tone. "We played a little prank. No harm, no-" She stopped short at Gajeel's raised eye brow. "Ok, the reaction could've been worse, but the important thing is that you're ok. But let's face it, it was pretty funny up until you passed out on me." Gajeel smiled then, almost letting out a slight laugh himself. Key word here is almost.
"Guess I did kinda deserved it," he scratched at a small red bump at the base of his shoulder, "But I'm just gonna warn ya, Levy. IT'S ON." He grinned devilishly at her which only led her to roll her eyes. "
Yeah, yeah. Now lie down. Wendy said the medicine is helping and you'd be alright to come home in the morning." Levy felt her face grow warm at her own words. 'Come home,' she had said. At a loss for words, she looked down to see Gajeel looking up at her, as if wanting to ask her something. "Did you need something before I head out?" she asked, her words coming out rather quickly.
"Yeah, uh . . ." He trailed off and she noticed a slight blush form on his face, "Think you can read me that book? The one from earlier?" His eyes shifted away in embarrassment. Levy smiled and pulled the chair closer to his bed.
"Sure."
"You have the book on you?"
"No, but I've read it so many times that I can recite the entire thing word for word," Levy smiled and took a deep breath to begin the story only for Gajeel to hold up a hand. "Was there something else you needed?" she asked, confused.
"Yeah, can you undo whatever mess you made with my hair?" He asked, sitting up as he did. Levy almost doubled over in laughter when she saw just how messy the braid became, especially after her and Mira were tugging at the flowers, trying to get each of them another giggle, Levy started with his hair while simultaneously starting the story.
~The following morning~
Gajeel had woken up to the entire guild laughing at his appearance. Needless to say, the braid Levy had unwoven for him the night before had left his long hair in shiny waves. Something she didn't have the heart to point out last night. Gajeel, with a bright blush, walked through the guild hall while laughter filled the air around him. Juvia had at one point asked what his secret was to 'such shiny and wavey locks'.
With another angry glare towards the giggling guild mates, he turned towards home, while yelling, "LEVY! LILY! YOU TWO STARTED THIS WAR AND I'M FUCKIN' ENDIN' IT!"
Crimzon: Well, I believe I had way too much fun with this. Be sure to check out my other fic, Possession, which has plenty of Gajevy feels. Review and have a nice day!