A.N.: I don't know why, but I was listening to Owl City's "I'm Coming After You," and my brain went "Gajevy…. Yessss". Because terrible police puns, and because I need something happy to help me cope with this week's update.
"Baby blue?" a slurred voice rang out from the back seat over the din of the music that blasted from the car stereo. The owner of the voice rested her head against the seat, cheek flush against the fabric in a drunken stupor as she stared out the back window and waved her hand further behind. "Didja change yer mind 'bout hirin' that stripper?"
"What do you mean?" Confusion filled the answering voice.
When her question went unanswered, Levy, the blue haired woman in question, shifted in the driver's seat, the seatbelt rubbing uncomfortably against the expanse of her stomach. The unexplained glee that colored her friend's voice instantly raised warning flags in Levy's mind. She eased up on the gas and let the car slow a tad to meet her friend's gaze.
Rush hour traffic long gone with the late hour, the women drove down the deserted highway, headed home after a night of partying. A hand reached out to turn the music down to a more acceptable volume and Levy hazarded a calculated glance in the rearview mirror at the inebriated brunette behind her.
"Cana…" she started, fear lacing her voice at the mischievous tone of the brunette's lewd giggles. "Cana, what are you talking about?"
"Ohhh nothing," Cana sang. She wagged a pair of perfectly sculpted eyebrows conspiratorially at the girl next to Levy. "Right Lu?"
Levy turned to Lucy who gave her an innocent smile from the passenger's seat. "Lucy, what is she talking about? I didn't hire any strippers; you told me not to. Lu?"
Unsure where to look, Levy's gaze skittered from Cana and the knowing look that set Levy's heart racing, to Lucy, who clutched her sides, her rambunctious laughter joining in with Cana's cackling -whether or not Lucy realized why the two were laughing so hard Levy didn't know- to her fellow blue-haired friend, the one who hadn't made a noise in the last twenty minutes.
From the way Juvia sprawled across the back seat, one leg propped up on Cana's lap and one arm tucked between her head and the window, Levy knew she would be offering no help. The copious amount of alcohol the three consumed must have finally taken its toll on Juvia if she'd been able to sleep through the din of the music Lucy insisted they listen to on the way back to Levy's house.
Pushing back the strands of long blond that stuck to her face, Lucy twisted in her seat, peering out the back window to the road behind them. She covered her mouth, stifling back her laughter with the tips of her pink manicured fingers.
Up until this point, Levy had been more than pleased at how her best friend's bachelorette party turned out. The hours of research she spent looking for the perfect restaurant and club, all within walking distance- well stumbling distance for her inebriated friends- from the parking lot.
And yes she researched the perfect place. Being the maid of honor in her best friend's wedding was an honor she took very seriously and Lucy deserved the very best bachelorette party, free from the odd hiccups that seemed to plague their group of friends. Well as free as they could hope for, and Lucy had been an easily pleased bride-to-be, requesting three D's: dinner, dancing, and drinking.
"And no, Cana", Levy told her at the beginning of the night, "there is no mysterious fourth D. And yes we all know what the D stands for," she added to her friend's smirked response.
Dinner had been delicious. The girls splurged on an upscale restaurant in downtown Magnolia that sat at the top of one of the more expensive hotels in the area, but the view alone had been worth the price. It also hosted the hottest rooftop dance floor, and by hottest, Cana assured her when they discussed it weeks in advance, meant that it had the best booze. While Levy, as the designated driver and resident pregnant lady, couldn't actually partake in the harder drinks, the bartender, one of Cana's ex's with whom she was still on good terms, made a mean mocktail.
Aside from a minor incident when she'd snuck off to the bathroom and returned to find a very drunk and overly flirtatious Lucy attempting to dance with some creep who declared his undying love for the blonde, Levy considered the evening a success. After corralling her three friends out of the club and into the car, the only thing left was to get them home, hydrated, and into bed, a place she was more than ready to be.
The night had been winding down. Which was great because Levy wanted nothing more than to change out the ridiculous dress that Cana had forced her into- seriously, it was like the shortest dress you could possibly put on a pregnant woman and still consider it socially acceptable. Why Cana even owned a dress like that… Well Levy knew better than to question her- and into her comfiest set of flannel pajamas, no matter how much teasing her friends would force her to endure about the adorable kitten pattern.
So now hearing the two tease her about hiring strippers, especially since the rest of their friends had headed home for the night hours ago and after both Lucy and her fiancé expressly forbade Levy, or more specifically Cana, from paying for anyone's services, pushed a button that the exhausted Levy didn't know she had. A growl rumbled in the back of Levy's throat.
"I didn't hire any strippers," she deadpanned and the girls' snickering petered off. Levy returned her focus to the road, adjusting her grip on the steering wheel.
"Oh," Cana mumbled, sounding slightly dejected. "I guess that means the cop that's been following us for the last mile and a half is the real deal then."
"What!?" Levy all but shrieked. Amber eyes flew to the review mirror. Hands still carefully holding on to the steering wheel, only her quick reflexes saved them from swerving off the road at her shock. Sure enough sirens and flashing lights lit up the lonely road, and with no other car around, the likelihood of it being for someone else was slim.
"Great. Just great," Levy muttered.
Up until this point in her life, if someone asked Levy what here favorite colors were she would have found herself torn between two options.
They signified familiarity and comfort. Like fireworks over the ocean in the middle of summer where the heat of the day has just begun to cool and you can't help but 'oh' and 'ah' as each blast booms over the water and the reflection makes it that much better.
Or curling up on a cold night with a blanket next to a crackling fire after a long day with a good book and a pile of pillows so deep you could lose yourself in them.
But now, with the kaleidoscope of blue and red flashing in the rear view mirror and illuminating the empty highway at nearly two o'clock in the morning, Levy felt the severe irritation and sneaking suspicion the perfection that had been this evening had weaseled its way from her grasp.
Maneuvering the minivan across two lanes of traffic to pull over, Levy racked her brain trying to think of what she could have possibly done to warrant getting pulled over. She'd been going the speed limit, less so since Cana's first remark, and seeing as she'd just bought the car, there wouldn't really be a chance of one of the taillights being out. Aside from Juvia's awkward position in the backseat, all four girls sat securely in the car with seatbelts fastened. They'd been in the same lane for the last ten or so miles; so merging lanes without signaling was out too.
As the list of probable causes dwindled, a faint twinkling of intuition glimmered in the back of her brain, but Levy quickly shrugged it off, figuring it completely improbable.
No way that he'd be that stupid… She shook her head.
Cana and Lucy were somber and quiet as she put the van into park, and a heavy silence hung over them while they waited. Eyes glued to the rear view mirror, she watched a large man emerged from the patrol car behind them. The shadowy shape stretched, taking a moment to reach back into to the car to retrieve something, his hat most likely, as the silhouetted figure placed one on top of his head. Levy's eyebrows narrowed as he sauntered toward the driver's side window, the walk of a predator who knew it had its prey cornered. The way he walked seemed familiar.
Too familiar.
"You have got to be freaking kidding me," she muttered under her breath.
Levy's minor irritation at being diverted from their way back home, and more specifically, her nice warm bed grew into a seething rage, grew stronger as each step drew the man closer to the car. The shadows of the night unfurled from around the man's body slowly like thick fog, clinging to his outline and obscuring his face.
The hat he'd retrieved fit snuggly atop a head of hair that was much too long to be regulation. How he managed to convince his commanding officers to look the other way when it came to the locks that shone in the flash of the cruiser's lights and cascaded down the officer's back like an obsidian waterfall was beyond Levy. As he approached the car, the light from the lamppost she'd parked under illuminated the finer features of his face, and the thought of how he managed to pass off his hair flew out her head as a multitude of piercings caught the light reflecting off the windows.
Even through the rage, she couldn't help noticing that he was sinfully gorgeous. A pierced longhaired gorgeous specimen of a man who's uniform accentuated the muscles of his biceps and she found herself wondering if the outfit did as much for his backside as it did for the front.
He was like some weird combination of bad boy and authority figure. Just enough that you would doubt whether or not to bring him home to mom or keep him locked in your basement. Levy wouldn't have minded him handcuffing her to the bed, slowly unbuttoning his shirt to reveal the corded muscles that lay hidden beneath and…
Oh jeez.
She was going to kill Cana for putting these thoughts in her head. Levy scrubbed a hand over her face trying to banish the flush on her cheeks.
Finally stopping next to the driver's side window, he gave the glass a tap with the side of his flashlight. She hesitated with a scowl and then pressed the button to roll down the window.
"Hello, officer," she spat, glaring up at the uniformed man who smirked down at her.
The grin that spread wide across his face when she locked eyes with him made her grip the steering wheel tighter, until knuckles turned white and the tips of her fingers lost feeling. He leaned against the edge of the window, oozing the confidence of someone who was incredibly attractive, and knew it.
"Evening ma'am," he drawled, the muscles of his forearm flexing against the plastic. He shined a flashlight with his free hand into the car and across the occupants. "Ladies. License and proof of insurance, please."
Red eyes drank in the view of a tittering Lucy in the passenger seat, and a cackling Cana. The only silent one in the car was Juvia, who most likely would have joined in the laughter at Levy's predicament if she'd been conscious.
"Is this really necessary?!" Levy demanded through gritted teeth, reaching into her bra to retrieve said license before flipping down the visor to retrieve the insurance card she kept there.
"Oh absolutely," he smirked.
The smug grin plastered across his face further grated her nerves when his fingers brushed against the palm of her hand; a slow sensuous motion cut through her anger and sent a shiver down Levy's spine at the deliberateness of it.
And then, if that hadn't been enough, he winked. Turning back to his car, he walked back the cruiser with a sway in his gait as though he knew Levy would be watching his retreat. So what if he, and her earlier assumptions on how his ass would fill out the back of his uniform, was right.
Still, it took every ounce of patience left in Levy's body not to drive off then. It wouldn't have mattered that he still had her license and her address; she'd done nothing wrong, and to make matters more infuriating, she could tell that he knew and that he knew she knew it too.
"That ass," Levy groused bitterly.
"Mm-hmm check out that ass," Cana said, piping in and intentionally ignoring Levy's tone. "Bet he'd look good dipped in chocolate." She licked her lips, eyeing the retreating man's back. Levy made a chocking noise but Cana continued on. "Blue sure does suit him, doesn't it Lu?"
Lucy giggled again, and the conspiratorial tone had Levy praying to whatever deities awake and listening that one of them would strike her dead at that moment.
"I dunno," Lucy slurred, exchanging a knowing look with Cana. "I like 'em a little more clean cut, ya know. Lev…" she said rounding on a furiously flushing Levy and jabbing a finger in her direction. "Lev, you like them all pierced and muscle-y."
"Ooh!" Cana exclaimed. "Maybe if you're a naughty girl, he'll let you take a ride in the back seat. You know, take you downtown. A little serve and protect."
Cana must have unbuckled her seatbelt while Levy was distracted by the view behind her because she lurched forward, hitting Levy's arm lightly several times before latching onto the reddened appendage and shaking her.
"Oh my god, Cana!" Levy slapped Cana's hand away and sunk further down in her seat.
"Hey, 's not my fault you hired a stripper without tellin' me."
"Cana for the last damn time!" Levy nearly shouted, resisting the urge to pull her hair out. "I did not hire a…"
The clearing of a throat- a very deep masculine throat- interrupted her.
Cheeks burning from the intensity of her blush, she refused to look up, knowing exactly what would be greeting her when she did, most specifically the shit eating grin that would be staring down at her. Obviously they missed the officer's return.
Cana's overly flirtatious, "Evenin' occifer" was quickly silenced with a hiss and another flurry of giggles from Lucy rang through the minivan.
Levy bit back the urge to mutter another 'Oh god'. Instead she peaked up at the man, who leaned on one elbow against the car with a casual nonchalance and looked entirely too delicious with the top buttons of his shirt unbuttoned to an almost scandalous length.
Buttons that Levy would have sworn weren't unbuttoned when he first approached the car.
So what if Cana was right and the exposed skin of his chest looks downright lick-able. Levy found herself fantasizing about running her tongue down his chest and over the washboard abs that lay hidden beneath his shirt.
"Ladies," he addressed the car a second time that night, raising a brow at Levy's scarlet face. He paused, holding the insurance card and her license just outside Levy's reach, and waited. The fact that he'd yet to address her by name hadn't escaped her notice either. What was he thinking messing with her like this?
Then it clicked. Well then, if he wanted to play, she was more than game.
"Something wrong, Officer…" she paused, staring at the stitching over the pocket on his chest. The fibers beneath her hand were soft smooth underneath the finger that brushed across the letters of his last name that were embroidered into it.
"Redfox, is it?" The tone she used was a tad coy and did a decent job covering the concealed rage that still boiled underneath her skin. The corner of his mouth turned up at the use of his name and her blatant flirting. "Does there seem to be a problem?"
"Oh there's a problem alright! Baby blue here needs to get laid!" Cana exclaimed from the backseat, dragging out the last word and waving what looked like a flask in her hand.
How the hell?
Levy was sure she'd checked Cana's handbag for extra alcohol before leaving that night. She knew the brunette's propensity of drinking in excess -and the fact that Levy herself wouldn't be able to drink with them had been a topic of much discussion in the month leading up to the celebration- would have the lush drinking far more than she usually did. Regardless of Levy's insistence that Cana did not, in fact, need to drink for her and her unborn child, she had taken it upon herself to make sure that Levy's drinks didn't go to waste.
Levy's calm façade snapped and in a rush she nearly yelled, "I'm sorry about her! She's had way too much…"
"Ma'am," he raised a hand to cut her off. "Have you been drinking?"
Levy sputtered some sort of denial. With the swell of her stomach well past the awkward stage of 'Is she really pregnant or has she just gained a ton of weight?', it was pretty obvious she hadn't.
But her denial was drowned out by Cana lunging forward and exclaiming, "She's had soooooo many drinks. Like all the drinks in the world! Margaritas and martinis and mojitos."
She most likely would have continued on, listing every drink in her extensive catalog of alcoholic drinks if Officer Redfox hadn't stopped her by clearing his throat.
"I'm gonna need you to step out of the car," he said, stepping back to make room for Levy to exit the vehicle. He made a grand sweeping gesture with his arm, mocking her.
"Oooooh. Somebody's in trouble," Lucy sang from the passenger seat, nudging Levy with her elbow as the blue haired woman reached for the handle to the door. "She's been so, so naughty, mister officer," she added with a coquettish wink. "She should be punished."
"And spanked!" Cana added, cackling wildly.
Levy shot the two a look of betrayal and then heaved herself out of the car. She had no doubt that the two would continue to watch once she was out of the car; Levy just hoped they would stay there.
Tottering on unsteady legs, she leaned against the door to regain her balance before turning to face Officer Redfox. The scowl on her face deepened at the mocking smirk. He looked like he was about to make some smart-assed comment about her stumbling, but she cut him off, pointing down to the instruments of torture that Lucy considered shoes and forced her into at the start of the night. Six-inch heels on a woman who preferred to wear sandals were bad enough, but the fact that they were a shade too small, despite Lucy's insistence that they matched her outfit better than the shoes she'd planned on wearing, made walking that night almost unbearable. A grumbled explanation was all that was needed to shut him up, at least for the moment. Instead he inclined his head, indicating that she should move towards the back of the minivan with him.
Placing a hand on the small of Levy's back, right onto a sliver of exposed skin, he asked, "Are you concealing anything?"
"Well," she retorted blandly, "I was trying to smuggle a watermelon but I guess you caught me." The snort of mirth from the man beside her was the only indication he'd heard her. They stopped at the back of the car, and Levy waved a hand across the short dress, eye roll evident in the tone of her voice. "Honestly, where would I have room in this outfit to conceal any weapons?"
"Doesn't matter how skanky yer dress is," he replied, expression unfazed, "I'm still gonna have ta frisk ya."
Levy glared at him again, but with an over-exaggerated sigh obediently turned her back to the man. Her palms itched to slap the grin off his face, but the harsh reality of a night spent in a cold jail cell for attempted assault on an officer kept her in check.
She could just see the headline now. 'Pregnant woman goes on rampage: Bachelorette party murders cop; high-speed car chase ensues'. What a shame Lucy would never get the chance to walk down the aisle in her mother's wedding dress. Levy would give birth in a dank cell and turn her baby over to the government to be raised by strangers. If she were lucky, one of her friends would take the baby in; Jet and Droy would probably go to court over who would get the privilege of getting full custody.
She was brought back to reality by the barest caress of fingertips, running across her bare shoulders. He ran his hands from the top of her shoulder down to her wrist and placed it onto the car window, before dragging ever so slowly back to her shoulders to repeat the process with the other hand. A shiver coursed down her spine as wisps of hair tickled the back of her neck from a huff of breath he blew near her ear.
Levy cursed out loud when he ran a hand down her sides, taking his time, lingering on the swell of her ass. Her body reacted to the feel of callused hands gliding over the thin material of her dress that clung to her body like a second skin and she had to bite back an embarrassing moan. The second his hand stopped below the curve of her breast, all rational thought fled from her head, a warm fire settling the pit of her stomach.
Focus, she needed to focus. Yes, focus on the way her hips rolled back into his. No, bad Levy. Need to get home. Cana and Lucy and Juvia are counting on you. Oh fuck.
"Are you gonna," she mewled as he gave her ass a rough squeeze and huffed out a deep breath of her own. It was almost embarrassing how husky her voice sounded, but at the moment Levy couldn't care less. "Gonna do a strip search right here on the side of the road?"
"Nah. No need." He chuckled low in her ear. If her mind hadn't already been in the gutter the dark sound would have sent her head to indecent places. "Not like ya got enough clothes to hide much."
Levy scoffed, or tried to, but the stuttered breath that came out of her mouth in no way resembled the scathing noise she wanted to make, especially not with his chest pressed firmly against her, her body flush with his.
"Ya do realize your friends are probably recording this on their phones right now?" he murmured in her ear.
"Mmmm" Levy hummed, distracted by the hand that brushed up her thigh. When had her eyes closed anyway? She shook her head to clear it. "I confiscated their phones at the start of the night."
"And you stored them where?" he asked, running his hand up her other thigh, stopping just shy of the hem of her dress.
"In my purse…"
"In your purse?"
"Yes."
"The purse you left where?"
"In the," her breath caught as he stood, and his hand stroked gently over the swell of her stomach, before coming to rest on her breast. "Car."
"In the car?"
"Yes." Levy was torn between stomping on the instep of his foot and grinding her ass into him at his flippant tone.
"Where your friends are?"
"Yup."
"And you're not worried why?" he asked.
"Besides the fact that I turned them all on airplane mode at the start of the night, like I do every time we have girls night out, and Drunk Lucy and Cana have yet to figure out how to turn it off? Or the fact that I know all of their passcodes? Shouldn't you be worried about the dash cam on your car."
"Nah," he said. "My partner's got it all taken care of."
She was going to kill him, absolutely annihilate him. Find a furnace that would burn hot enough to destroy his body and make sure he could never pull this kind of stunt again.
The hand over her breast slid over Levy's collarbone, fingertips ghosting across the bare skin it found there. It traced up the flesh of her arm again where it paused, brushing over the ring on her left hand.
"Bet yer husband wouldn't appreciate you wearin' this outfit," he purred, a seductive growl that caressed the shell of her ear.
"He appreciates it plenty," she said, pressing her back deeper into his chest in a last ditch attempt to get him to break. The fabric of his uniform rubbed against the bare expanse of her exposed back. "I'm pretty sure he'd be more pissed off by some random police officer using a bogus traffic stop to cop a feel."
Levy could feel the rumble of his laugh when he said, "Damn Shortie! I should arrest you for that pun alone."
He stepped back finally giving Levy some air.
"Gajeel," she said, her face a mix of triumph at finally getting him to break, and outrage that he'd carried on for this long as she rounded on him. "Gajeel Redfox, you ass, what were you thinking?!"
She jabbed a finger at him, and he held up his hands defensively, hoping the gesture would placate the woman.
"What? A man can't check in on his pregnant wife to make sure she isn't over doing things?"
"Most people wouldn't fake a traffic stop!" she shouted, small fist connecting with his shoulder. He winced as she continued, "I have a cell phone, you iron-headed lunk!"
"Thought you banned all the guys from all communication for the night?" The serious look on Gajeel's face stayed the same, but Levy could swear she saw the corners of his mouth twitch. Most likely hiding yet another smug smirk, one that if she saw at this point in time she would almost be willing to trade the jail time just to slap it off of him.
"That didn't stop Erza from drunk texting Jellal all freaking night, or Gray from just randomly dropping by, claiming that he frequents the bar quote, 'all the time', even though we all knew he was there to check on Juvia."
Gajeel barked a laugh, knowing full well that the rest of his friends checked in on their significant others. The guys' group chat had logged almost hourly updates on the girls' evening, and even if he had been the most paranoid of the group- a very pregnant wife combined with his normal overprotective nature- he wasn't about to tell her this. Levy placed a hand on her hip, leaning slightly against the side of the car.
"Stupid Gajeel," Levy murmured, the fight draining out of her as exhaustion began to catch up to her. "Aren't you at least going to ask me how the night's been?"
"And why would I want to do something like that?"
She let out a long drawn out sigh. Eyes narrowed as she bit back the urge to growl at the man and then turned to slow blinks as the night's exertions finally cut through the last of her anger and irritation.
"Gajeel, I'm tired," she whined. "I'm tired, and I'm pregnant and tired and it's two a.m. and I have three extremely drunk friends, one of whom is already passed out, in the car waiting for me to take them home, and unless you want any number of those friends, one of whom took it upon herself to 'drink for three' one for her, one for the baby, and one for me, since I couldn't do it myself and she's the drunkest I've ever seen, and that's saying something because its Cana and she's always drunk, to barf all over the interior of our brand new minivan, which you so graciously had detailed last week…"
"Lev," he said, brushing a strand of her sky blue locks behind one of her ears and then cupping her cheek. "You're rambling"
"I know," she sighed, leaning into his touch, "but I'm tired."
"Yeah, well at least I can understand ya this time. I didn't realize how much I needed to brush up on my conversational Boscan until your last tirade."
She breathed a soft laugh and he leaned forward to kiss her forehead.
"Sorry," he apologized. "I just wanted to make sure you were doin' alright."
"I'm tired," she repeated again. "Tired but fine."
"Alright then," he said, straightening up where he stood. The abrupt movement startled Levy. "I'll let you off with a warning this time."
Instantly her eyes narrowed at the grin that lit his face.
"A warning?" she growled, ire returning.
He chuckled again and motioned for the two of them to return to the front of the car.
"Just kiddin', Shrimp. No need to get your panties into a twist."
Levy glared at him as the two sauntered back to the driver's side. Her silence speaking volumes as to how burnt out she truly was. Gajeel placed an arm around her shoulder and kissed her hair.
"Do you need a police escort home?" he asked, voice earnest, even though he couldn't help the teasing smile that accompanied it.
"No," she said, returning his gaze with a soft smile of her own. "We're only five minutes away from home. I'm pretty sure I can make it that far on my own."
Gajeel nodded as he pulled open the door for her. He grumbled a farewell and made to move back towards his patrol car when a slender hand grabbed on to the back of his shirt.
"Gajeel?" Levy asked, voice holding a hint of amusement.
"Yeah Shortie?"
He turned towards her and braced a hand on his hip. The hand latched onto his shirt, and Levy pulled herself up to his height.
"You ever pull this kind of stunt again, and you'll be the one in handcuffs," she growled, her tone matching the one Gajeel'd used earlier. "And not the way you like."
Before he could react, Levy flicked the brim of his hat knocking it askew and slipped into the car with a saucy wink. She quickly buckled her seatbelt and surveyed the car. She glanced at Lucy, who indeed had her cell phone out, flash blinding her as she took one last picture. Cana had succumbed to sleep. Juvia must have shifted while Levy dealt with her wayward husband because her head now rested on Cana's shoulder as the two slept, blue mixing with brown.
"Soooooooo," Lucy purred, leaning across the armrest. The blonde nestled her head against Levy's shoulder, rubbing her cheek against the exposed skin. "Did he show you his gun?"
"Oh god," Levy groaned for what felt like the billionth time that night. "You're worse than Cana when you drink."
"It's cute," she said, giggling through a yawn. "Him checkin' in on you."
"Yeah well," Levy grumbled, jerking a thumb towards the passenger side of car behind them. "Five bucks says your stupid fiancé put him up to it."
Opening the door to the cruiser, Gajeel climbed into the car with an over-exaggerated groan. He turned to face his partner, mischief dancing in his eyes and the deep smirk crinkling his cheeks.
"What?" he asked without a hint of innocence.
"Seriously dude?" his partner said, running his hand through salmon colored locks. "The hell was that?"
"Puh-lease," Gajeel snickered, punching him in the shoulder, hard enough that Natsu winced. "How many times have I caught you and bunny girl usin' the back seat of the cruiser for a quickie?