Hey so I forgot to do the disclaimer for the other chapters so I'm going to do it from now on. Also I would like to thank alexandriathecat for being my first reviewer, and follower while we're at it. Also thank you to my new follower, you know who you are *wink, wink*. The length of the chapters will mostly be around 1K, just FYI, sorry if you like them longer.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, unfortunately, but I do own this story.

Chapter 4

"How is this possible?" Gajeel asked as he stared at a dead body of a man whose throat had been slit by either a knife or a sword.

"Juvia does not know," Juvia replied to his rhetorical question making him get even more irritated than he already was.

"I know that rain woman" he said through gritted teeth.

"Juvia is sorr-"

"Wait, what is that?" Gajeel interrupted pointing at a small piece of paper that was caught in the between the window sill. He went over a took it, read whatever was on there, and then grinned a grin that showed his longer than usual teeth(wasn't sure how to spell the right word). Juvia shivered.

"Look here, Juvia" Gajeel said lifting up the piece of paper, "it seems our thief turned murderer has left us an invitation to go to a certain ball."

Juvia walked over there to read the invitation when she did she frowned and said, "You're going to have to go there under cover, you know, right?"

"Why can't you, rain women?"

"Juvia would like too but Juvia is not fluent in the art of talking to nobles"

"I can see that now" Gajeel said with a bitter sound, "who else can go?"

"Nobody except you"

"shaddup"

"Juvia thinks it's true though" She replied confused on how she was wrong.

"Just shut up, rain woman!" He yelled, "I'm not going to same stupid ball with fancy nobles that are just a bunch of idiots!"

"Juvia wonders why? Is she wrong?"

"No your not wrong, I just don't want to go, get it through your head!" He shouted while running his hand through his spiky, black hair.

"You don't want to catch a thief?"

"Murderer now, and I do."

"Then Juvia thinks you should go undercover to catch a thief"

"Fine but keep this between us" Gajeel sighed, since when had rain women been able to influence his decision like this?

She nodded in agreement, but when his back was turned looking at the invitation again, she smiled almost as creepy as Mira.

"Hey Juvia, am I the only one who thinks it wasn't Shorty" Gajeel questioned. For some odd reason his gut was telling him that it wasn't shorty, but there was no proof that supported it. All the evidence pointed towards shorty, a book was stolen, no card or message, and the fact that it was flawless. It all pointed towards the thief-murderer now- but he couldn't get rid of the feeling.

"No, Juvia thinks that shorty was framed, too," she responded in a whisper and looking around as if she was going to be killed or something. Gajeel scoffed at the ridiculousness of it, they were guards, damn it. They were not killed at a flick of a switch.

But Gajeel was glad that he was not the only one who thought that shorty didn't do it, it wouldn't make sense. Then again if he was told three weeks ago that he would be going to a ball to catch a thief that stole books, he wouldn't have thought it made sense either. Not that it made sense now but probably more than it would have back then.

"Alright"

The wait was almost too much for Gajeel. It had only been a day since finding the dead body and he was already dreading it. He hoped he didn't meet his father who was a pretty powerful noble, if he did he didn't know what he was going to say. The last time Gajeel saw him it was when he broke the news that he was going to be a guard instead of some fancy noble, let's just say disappointment was an understatement.

While he told himself, he was only looking over the crime scene of the dead body and robberies done by shorty because he wanted to make sure they had the right person, not because of some gut feeling both he Juvia had. Certainly not because he wanted to find out who the killer or thief was before the ball, that way he wouldn't have to go. If he went he would have to wear an old suit of his, and Gajeel wasn't sure he could fit in them, he had after all gotten some muscle after being a guard for three years. And training every morning with his iron sword that he cleaned daily had certainly helped the process of getting more muscular.

He was also going to have to get a mask for the ball, it was a masquerade ball. He decided that he was going to get a dragon mask because he felt like it was symbolic for some reason. Also because he liked dragons, because they were strong and invincible, unlike human beings.

Gajeel wondered if he would meet the thief in disguise at the ball, or if shorty would steal while they were distracted with the ball and sneak in. He wasn't sure which one he prefered, because if shorty went in disguise they would probably not be able to catch shorty. But it would probably be the same result with the latter anyway. Sometime while he was thinking his mind had shifted and decided until he knew for certain who the killer was, Gajeel didn't want the thief to get caught because he knew if shorty got caught they would execute him or her almost immediately, and he wouldn't get the chance to find out if shorty had killed the man.

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