Hello, all! I'm a Natsu roleplayer on Tumblr, my pen name being natsueatsfire.

This story is up there as well, along with an ElfEver story that I might post on here as well.

:D

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, Gajeel, Levy, or really anything. Only the plot.

Entitlement: Chapter One

(AU 1930's Fic)

Levy walked quietly through the large house, making sure that her footsteps couldn't be heard. She glanced left and right with large brown eyes, making sure that no one was coming.

She turned down that hall and crept down it. Looking everywhere, she finally assured that no one was following her. Tap-tap. Her breath hitched in her throat. Footsteps. She hit her back to the wall, her hands slammed down to her side. She kept her face to the wall, waiting for the footsteps to pass. Once she thought they passed, a slow, relieved sigh slipped past her lips.

"Miss Levy! We've been looking everywhere for you! The tailor is here to have you fitted for your new dress!" She gasped, almost having a heart attack as the maid glared at her. "Now come on!"

"I don't need another dress! Didn't I just get one last week?" Levy crossed her arms over her chest, taking a step back from the maid. "I am not going to get another dress. I don't need one." The maid's shoulders dropped as she lost the angry look in her eyes.

"Please, Miss Levy? Your father will be angry if you don't get a new dress for Chicago." At the mention of the trip, an almost childish pout appeared on the young woman's face, as if she was planning to give up on the venture altogether, making the maid smile.

"…If you say so." Clapping her hands together, the maid grasped Levy's hand excitedly, pulling her towards the giant dressing room in the mansion.

_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_

Levy didn't understand why her father insisted that she get a new dress for every single occasion. Her sixteenth birthday? A new, lacy dress to match her hair. Her father rakes in more money from his obviously illegal business? A dark blue, long Chanel gown waited in her room when she got back inside from her violin lessons. Seriously? She hadn't worn half of the dresses that gathered dust in her closet. Why did she even need more?

Yes, it had gotten too risky in Boston— her father's apparent rival had his feathers ruffled, and now anyone concerning the don was considered a target.

Including his daughter.

So, it only one hour, she was to board a train to Chicago, where she would stay with friends of her father's until things died down in Boston. It would be simple, and the train would be an overnight trip. Apparently, no one was traveling with her except a bodyguard that she had yet to meet. Her father wanted the trip to be as undercover and clandestine as possible, as to not draw attention to herself.

In the end, Levy was kind of torn between her feelings about the situation. On one hand, she didn't want to leave the city she had grown up in all these years, all her friends, and her family. She had way too much rooted here to just up and leave suddenly because her father felt like she was a little bit threatened. But then again, she knew that the streets of her home city were nothing to be blindly brave towards. Many people she, and her father, had known died on these streets, and their killers were no-doubt still roaming the alleyways. It wouldn't be any different for the daughter of the McGarden family. Well, it would be different, but not in the way that anyone would hope.

After she thought about it for a while, she reasoned that the pros of the trip outweighed the cons, and she might as well play it safe with a bodyguard. It wouldn't be that bad, after all. She'd just spend a day and a night with the guy, and then she'd never have to see him again.

"Miss McGarden?" Her eyes snapped towards the servant that waved her hand in front of her face. "Your father wants to see you before you head off to the train." Levy nodded, sending the older woman a smile as she stood up from her seat in the family garden.

"Thank you." Taking in a deep breath, she started to make her way towards her father's sitting room indoors. Walking down the hall, Levy bit her lip in anticipation, wondering what her father planned to tell her just before she was to leave for what he had said was a 'couple months, maybe more.'

Taking in a deep breath and counting to three, Levy slowly opened the door to one of the smaller rooms of the large house. "…Father? Are you in here?"

"Come in, honey." She slowly stepped in, locking eyes with her father as she closed the door behind her. "You're going to leave in a few minutes, you know." Levy nodded as her father walked up to her. "Do you have everything ready? Everything packed? Said your goodbyes for now?" She continued to nod at every fragment, a small smile on her face.

"You worry too much. I have everything ready. And I mean everything, daddy." The man returned the smile, placing his hands on her shoulders.

"I should have thought so. You've grow— become a smart young woman, Levy." It was silent for a moment.

"…You were just about to say 'grown,' but you stopped." Mr. McGarden seemed to blanch as his daughter scowled at him.

"…No I wasn't." Levy crossed her arms over her chest, a pout on her face as she stomped her foot.

"You were! It's not my fault I haven't gotten any taller, daddy!" Her scowl deepened as she continued to glare at him. "What did you want to tell me?"

He coughed into his hand, as if he was trying to gain some dignity, and stood up straighter. "Well, honey, since we want you to attract as little attention as possible, you're only going to be traveling with one other person. That person will be your bodyguard, okay? You are not to leave his sight under any circumstances, understand?" Levy nodded, even thought the idea of a guy following her around like a puppy dog for sixteen hours wasn't exactly her idea of a relaxing trip. "He is there to protect you."

"Well, am I going to meet him?" She said, a small smile on her face, "I want to know who I'm dealing with." Her father laughed, turning towards a group of maids.

"Send him in now." The young maids seemed nervous as they looked at one another.

"Nancy… How about you fetch him?"

"N-nonsense! He asked you to get the man, Laney."

"No, no, no. I think it was you, Nancy."

"I don't want to get him, you, Victoria!" The first maid that spoke, Victoria, nodded sheepishly, walking around Levy and opening the door and shutting it quickly behind herself.

"What's wrong with them?" Levy asked out loud by accident, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. Her father shrugged, not having the slightest clue either.

"H-here you go, sir. In here," Victoria returned, her forehead sweating slightly as she opened the door and scurried back over to the other maids as quickly as possible.

Why are they all scared? Levy turned around, confusion still on her face, the man can't be that bad—

Her breath caught in her throat as she basically stopped in her thoughts. She could understand the maids' fear of the man now. The man seemed to tower over her in height and size, and his downward gaze of piercing crimson and long, thick black hair weren't really helping his image either. He crossed his bare arms over his no-doubt muscular chest— were those piercings in his arms?— as he glared at her from under metal eyebrows.

"Levy, honey," Her father began, smiling, and obviously not taking any note of the connotation this man had, "This is your bodyguard, Gajeel Redfox." She nodded slowly, trying to form words in her mouth, but the intimidating man beat her to it.

"I thought I was supposed to be guarding a woman," He said gruffly, his voice coarse as he pointed at her with a long finger, "Not some grade schooler."

"I'm eighteen, you jerk!" Levy didn't mean to make an outburst, of course, but the words just left her mouth without any warning. Gajeel's eyes narrowed as he refolded his arms. "A-and I'm not afraid of you, so you can stop trying to scare me, sir." This time, Levy pressed her lips tightly together so she wouldn't say anything else. He just looked at her for a moment, before grinning and bending down so he was eye-level with her.

"I don't need to try, dollface, because I know I already am scarin' you." He said it quietly, in a seemingly dark tone, like he didn't want her father to hear it. Levy shivered slightly, holding it back so he wouldn't get any satisfaction from it as he stood back up, turning to her father. "Are you ready for us to leave, sir?" It seemed as if his whole demeanor changed once Gajeel turned to her father, who was picking up papers.

"Ah, yes. You too best be off." Mr. McGarden nodded briskly, turning towards his daughter again. "It's time to go now, honey. Be good for your father, okay?" Levy nodded, trying not to pay any mind to the man that stood behind her.

"Yes, I'll try." Using that term reaaaaly loosely, daddy. She thought, nonetheless smiling slightly. Her father smiled back, before turning his attention to Gajeel.

"You are to stay by her side every second during the trip, understand? Do not lose sight of her for any reason."

"Yes, sir." He turned one eye towards Levy, grumbling, "It's gonna be hard always keeping an eye on someone so damn short…" That was it.

Levy slapped him in the face.