Gajeel, first prince of the kingdom of Magnolia, was pissed off. His aide, and right hand knight was late. Sir Pantherlilly was typically extremely punctual and organized, so Gajeel had no idea where he could possibly be. Lilly was supposed to be helping him with his paperwork, and Gajeel had gone half an hour, before getting pissed enough to go looking for him.
Gajeel found his aide in the training ring, seeming to be helping a new recruit. The palace training grounds were opened certain days of the week to those attempting the knight exam, and he knew that Lilly liked to go and help them out. The man, if he could be called that, that Lilly was sparring was tiny to say the least. The fellow was short, even by women's standards, and very scrawny. If going by appearance alone, one would think that he was no more than fourteen or fifteen years of age. The prince watched, prepared to see his knight going exceptionally easy on the boy, when he noticed something. Lilly was barely pulling his blows, and the boy was holding his own. He was fast, and wielded the sword with enough agility to counter the height difference. When they called their sparring match to an end, the smaller fellow was visibly worse for wear than Lilly, panting and with scuffed chain mail, while the larger man was much less out of breath. Still, it was an impressive show against one of his best Knights. As the two turned to exit the ring, Lilly caught sight of the prince leaning on the fence, and immediately dropped into a bow.
"Prince, what are you doing here?" Asked the large man, the shorter fellow, who had taken off his helmet to reveal startlingly blue hair, under a bandana pulled low on his forehead, jumped at the word prince, before dropping into a clumsy bow as well. Gajeel sighed. He was no longer angry, and found himself interested in the small boy.
"Get up, get up," he grumbled, and the two stood, the blue haired one standing awkwardly, seeming to be trying to inch away.
"Lilly, you're late. Who is the fellow who took so much of your time?" At this, the fellow went to bow again, voicing nervous apologies.
"No, no. It's fine. What's your name, who are you?" He asked to the boy gruffly.
"My name is Levy McGarden." He responded. "I'm eighteen, and I'm training in the hopes of passing the knighting qualification exam." Replied the boy, rather stiffly. Gajeel snorted when he mentioned his age. This boy really was tiny. Lilly pitched in now,
"I saw Mr. Levy fighting with Jet and Droy, you know, the two of the ones who passed last year, but he seemed to be beating them fairly easily, so I gave him a more difficult partner.," he shrugged sheepishly," I may have lost track of time." Lilly tended to get absorbed in helping the trainees, as they were taking the exact same path he had taken eight years ago, when he was eighteen. Knighthood was one of the only ways for common folk to raise their social standings, but it really wasn't an easy path to follow. As well as being able to fight, the Knights had to have a grasp of strategy, conflict resolution and de escalation, and a grasp of the nations politics. The Knights acted as military commanders, and advisors to the royalty in times of turmoil. Of course, the older or more skilled ones were the ones who often were given military command, or consulted on issues, but if one stuck to it, they could gain significant social and political standing, even from a low birth. Of course, most of the Knight candidates were second or third children of nobles, or children of lower noble houses, looking to raise their standing. Only about two in ten actually passed on testing day.
Levy, seeing that the two much taller men were absorbed in their own conversation, took the opportunity to slink away. It was probably disrespectful, but prince Gajeel was terribly intimidating. On the way home, the little blue haired fellow stopped to pick up a loaf of bread, before making his way to the cottage, which was shared by his adopted sister Lucy, a pretty blonde girl one year older.
On the way in, Levy stomped his boots on the entry rug, and then removed them, making his way into the living room. There was Lucy, sitting gracefully, reading a book. She gave a greeting as Levy passed her on the way to the bedroom. There, the tunic, chain mail shirt, and long sleeved undershirt were removed, to display a slender body, with tight bindings tied about the chest. The bindings came off to display the soft curves of a young woman. Levy McGarden was female.
Levy sighed as the ability to breathe freel was returned to her, then removed the bandana from her forehead, and put on a dress, washing her face in a basin, before heading back to the room where Lucy resided. Lucy glanced up and smiled.
"How was training today," she asked brightly. Levy responded,
"It was actually really good. I ended up sparring with a very skilled knight named Sir Pantherlilly. I might have gotten him in trouble, because Prince Gajeel came looking for him, and that was scary." Levy shivered at the memory of the intimidating man. "Have you ever met him?" Levy was curious, because Lucy actually worked as a made for the third and youngest of the siblings, Wendy the princess. The second Prince Natsu got a lot of mentions in the household, because of his habit of breaking down walls with cannons. Lucy had barely ever mentioned first Prince Gajeel in her daily reports though. As Levy worked at a bookstore, and therefore had no chance to encounter him, she had had no idea what to expect, but she had not expected quite that many piercings.
"He keeps to himself mostly, though I have heard that his and Natsu's sparring matches are epic," shrugged Lucy. "Are you doing okay? I always say, you don't need to go this far for me," said Lucy worriedly. Levy had been training and studying for the past couple years to take the knight exam, in the hopes of making enough money to send her sister to a medical university. Lucy was fascinated by it, so though the two had met on the streets and had nothing to their names, Levy wanted her to be able to chase her dreams. They had adopted each other, and supported each other since childhood. Both were bookish, though Levy ended up far tougher, and one of her former employers, in another city, had taught her how to fight, at her request. Old man Makarov, head of The Fairy Tail Tavern, had employed and looked after the two for two years, before they decided to move on and chase their dreams. The two lived contentedly, working their way slowly and steadily forwards.
A. N.: so this is my second gajevy fic, though it's the first one with an actual plot. I made the dragonslayers royalty, and siblings, for the sake of simplicity. If you read this, then thank you very much. I did no research in this topic, and nothing is historically accurate. There will be no magic. Any and all comments are welcome, and thank you for reading.