HER FAVORITE BOOK
I don't own anything Fairy Tail.
Kinda wish I did.
AN: okay guys and gals if you like this and want me to continue let me know. I can go from here.
As predictable as ever, Levy McGarden sat at her normal table, nose in a book. Even after not being in the guild for a full year she still got the table in the back row closest to the missions board. Only thing missing her lap dogs. He knew he had to stop calling them that. That is what they were. They would see her and they would come running, yapping uncontrollably until she gave them a pat. Jet and Droy would sit drinking, arguing while she tried to read. Often cheering on whomever was brawling at the time. This time all that was sitting with her was a pile of books and Lil, his Exceed partner whom was always with Levy.
Levy and Lily were cuddle partners which made Gajeel jealous. How could it not? He wanted to cuddle his Shrimp. Yet anytime Levy came over to hang or they all got home too late from a mission it would be Lil and Levy snuggled together in Gajeel's bed. While he took the couch.
He knew that he didn't deserve so much as her friendship but he dreamed of more. Not just the snuggles. Holding her when it stormed. Kissing her when she was being particularly Levy-ish. Some day seeing her walk towards him in a white gown that he forced himself to ignore at the GMG.
Its bad luck to see your bride in her dress before the wedding. Gajeel got so excited that he dressed in a black suit even for the contest but the moment he saw her head between her lap dogs something told him not to look at her any more. He wanted everything about their wedding day to be perfect. Jinxing it that early on would just cause issues. Gajeel would not have that.
"What you reading there, Shrimp?" She turned to him glaring. God what had he done? He just got here.
"Someone wrote in my favorite book. I don't know what script it even is." She showed him the page she was trying to figure out. He held in a smile. He had written her little notes in the book one night when she and Lil hid under his bed. Reasons he loved her. By the time the storm was over Gajeel knew she was his new goal. Thinking one day he would help her decipher them. Hopefully they were enough to help her see past that he had written in old Draconic.
"Maybe take a break." He sat next to her. "I don't think I have seen this book before. What is it about?" She eyed him up. "Come on Shrimp what is the harm in telling me about yet another one of your books? It's not like I don't know the contents of half your library at this point."
She sighed. "It is about a woman that gave up her freedom to save her family." The picture on the first page showed her father being pulled from her. "The monster makes a deal with her. She has to stay in his home or her father dies. She agrees." Levy slid her hand down every picture in the books as she scowled at the hand written words in the columns. "Life with the monster was not all it seemed and as the months then years went on she came to love him." She stopped at the middle of the book showing Gajeel a wonderful painting of a rose in a glass ball.
"But?" He urged.
"This is where she finds out that he was cursed. That he had been a spoiled brat before the curse and it was because of this he was cursed to die as the monster. He tells her that she is free to leave the castle because there was no way she should see him die." Gajeel could smell the salt water. "She ran back to her father not knowing what to do."
"Take this Levy." Lil passed her a napkin from the table. She was so in to this book that she would cry after reading it hundreds of times. "That seems like a horrible ending. For the monster to die alone after finding a friendship like that seems cruel."
"That is not the ending though." Levy flipped to a scene where the monster is facing down a knight. "The local Lord heard that she had returned. When he went to her to ask for her hand she said she would never marry. That she had found a knight in her beast. The Lord raced to the castle to kill the monster. The monster was already on his death bed when the lord and the woman showed up."
"She went back to save him?" Lily turned his gaze to the dragon slayer.
"Or die trying." Levy pulled her book closer to her chest. "She loved the monster with all her heart. She didn't care if he loved her or not she couldn't let him die at the hands of the real monster. After the fight her monster fell to the ground mortally wounded."
The woman cried into the chest of the dying monster. Its bloody hand on her back. The page across from it had three words. "I love you." Gajeel had not written anything on that page. He felt that it spoke enough that nothing more could be added.
Levy turned the page. "The woman watched as his chest and the last petal of the rose fell. She was caught up in rage then. How could he leave her? He was the one that said that he loved her. How could she live without his voice, arms or even laugh? She beat on his chest as the sun's rays shone down on the body. It started to glow. When the glow faded the man he once was lay there groaning." The next picture was that of a wedding. "Then they lived happily ever after." She smiled laying the book on the table.
"How did she not know that he loved her?" Lil asked flipping through pages.
"The monster probably didn't love her until she came back to him."
"That is where I think you are wrong." Four eyes turned to him. "He fell in love with her the moment she stood up to him." Gajeel searched the pages for the picture of them dueling. "Everyone feared him then one day a woman dared to not be afraid of him." Levy had left out that they shared things like book and combat. "Here doesn't this look like she is standing up to him?" He asked her. In the column he had written something about her red bag meeting his face on Tenrou.
"That seems like an odd moment to fall for someone." Lil frowned at him.
"He has a point. This could have been." Levy slid her fingers over the text. Shit! Did he just give away that he was the one that defaced her book? "She would have been so scared of him and now she is facing him as a warrior and not the scared little girl."
"She was never a little girl to him. He always thought she was beautiful. That is why he told she was never allowed to leave him."
"Gajeel after I finish translating this can we go on a mission?" She asked softly. Had it not been for his dragon hearing he wouldn't even have heard her.
"Sure Shrimp. Anything in mind? Or do you want me and Lil to find one?"
"You pick while I am doing this." Gajeel stood up walking to the board. "It's Draconic."
"Something only you could translate." Lil smiled at her. "I'll find something easy for you two. Then I will find something for me, Carla and Wendy to go on."
"Thank you Lily." Gajeel and Lil stood at the board when Wendy and her Exceed came over. Lil went off with them as Gajeel search for something not to hard for his Shrimp but nothing too easy for him. That way if they needed to talk they could. Mira was just giving him the details on a translation job when he heard books slam shut.
The look she gave him as she stocked over to him seemed complicated. Anger tightened the lines on her face. Joy made her eyes wide. Her tense body said he was in for some pain. "Gajeel you asshole." She hissed as she swung here bag in his gut. The corner of the bag hit him right in the diaphragm. Everyone watched as Levy ran from the guild hall.
"Shit." Gajeel used the bar to help him stand.
"Run after her you fool." Mira scowled. Gajeel took the mission request from her hand when he catching the scent of salt, vanilla and old books. Levy was fast for someone so small. Like on Tenrou so damn hard to find too. When he did finally find her she was sitting under The Tree. He could feel the blood fall to his boots. The scars from what he did to her still in the wood. God he missed judged. She didn't like what he said. Why else would she be hiding under this cursed tree?
"Shrimp-" She threw her book at him. This time he was ready for it.
"You could have just told me, you know."
"Told you what, Levy?" She started crying as he knelt down in front of her. "That you broke my curse? That you were my light?" He took her left hand. "You know I'm not good with words. That is your job."
"I want to hear you say it." Wet and red Levy was still the most gorgeous woman ever.
"I told you on Tenrou."
"I know. That was the moment I knew I might have hope. Sum up what is written in this book." Gajeel took the book flipping to the page. Then turned it back to her. Heat all over his face. "No Gajeel." She sat up facing him in the eyes. "Say the words." She said gently, pushing the book aside.
"I love you." Nothing was more shocking than His Shrimp's lips on his. Nothing as pleasurable either. That was when he felt the afternoon sunlight on them. Just like in the book the beast was gone because of his Beauty's love.
"See our love parted the clouds." She smiled. Gajeel couldn't help it he had to kiss her again. They could hear the people in the park all around them talking about how cute they were. "Ignore them."
"But I am not done with the show yet." He sat Levy back down on her heels. "I have been carrying this around since the Grand Magic Games." The little pouch held a little box. "I saw it in the store the day you yelled at Rogue to stop." She blushed. "Nothing could break my curse like you telling me that you will be my mate, the mother of my hatchlings, my wife. Levy Anne McGarden will you marry me?" He opened the box. Her eyes lit then burst into tears. Her hands were over her mouth. "I knew I wanted you the moment you floored me with your purse."
"Yes. For a thousand years yes." Shaking he took her hand slowly sliding the ring on to her finger. He had guessed the size right. "Now just promise me you won't write in anymore of my books." He pulled her to stand.
"I was hoping that it would make you more attached to it. It is our story you know." She touched the tree. "It is what we can tell our children. Since the reality was so much worse."
"Gajeel, you have paid for that for eight years. I have forgiven you. The guys have too."
"Good cuz I have no doubt that they are going to want to come on this mission with us." Gajeel pointed over his shoulder. Levy gripped his coat looking around him. Jet and Droy stood there crying just as hard as she had. "Come on Shrimp. We have to get to the train by 3. When we get back we can tell the whole guild about it."
"Not yet." She pulled him down to whisper in his ear. No one in the park could hear what she was saying but the great and mighty, scary dragon slayer gave her a gihi before picking her up to run for the train. "Sleeping car for 2 please." Was the last any one heard from Levy and Gajeel for three weeks.