Chapter 7

Levy looked at the huge man sprawled out on the two seats.

The woman pointing out directions had taken one glance at her bright blue hair and the leather jacket and pointed her in Gajeel's direction.

He was not happy to see her in the slightest.

At least, he didn't look happy.

She figured it was because he was expecting her partners to show up.

"It's going to be a few hours. Mind if I sit?" She asked.

He stared at her for a second.

"On one condition." He said.

She stepped inside the compartment.

"Do not, under any circumstances, get in my way. This is my mission." He said.

She nodded. "You're supposed to have a partner."

"We're clear on the basics then?" He growled.

Levy moved to sit beside him.

She clenched her hand around the paper of the mission.

"You're terrified of me. I can see and smell it." He said.

"Smell?" She flinched.

"You're shaking like a loose scale and I can hear your heart beating faster than normal."

Part of her wondered how he knew what normal was.

The other part still wondered how he could smell fear.

She heard him sigh as she was staring at her hands.

She felt the warm leather of his glove and the even warmer touch of his fingers as he put his arm around her back and on her shoulder.

He pulled her so that she was leaning against him.

"You'll never stop fearing me unless you believe I won't hurt you."

She closed her eyes as she relaxed against him in slow measures, pulling her feet up to tuck under her.

"I do believe you will try not to hurt me." She said. "I just...think there will come a time when you won't want to try anymore."

He was warm and his arm was heavy over her side as she took in the scent of metal and leather.

She'd always loved books. Everyone who met her knew that.

What most never knew was that she also had a fondness for metal and leather. Even Jet and Droy didn't know that.

It was something she had never been able to explain.

She loved seeing Erza's new armors simply for that freshly smelted metal smell. Now she'd be able to have that scent all the time, since Gajeel was in the guild.

She felt herself drifting off to sleep against his warm body as the train began to make it's way down the tracks.

xXx

Gajeel glanced down at the little bookworm.

She really did look adorable in his old winter jacket. He only had the summer one he'd torn the sleeves off of now.

He fingered the metal studs along the sleeves of her jacket and felt the one coming loose.

His magic flared up as he melted the stud down and replaced it with a bluish tinted metal he'd been working on creating for several months.

He redid the rest of the studs on the jacket, even carefully adjusting her to be able to reach the studs under her.

When he was finished he felt a little satisfaction.

The blue was a much lighter shade than her hair and had a silver baseline color, but in sunlight, it looked like pure blue silver.

Like Metalicana once told him, 'Iron isn't the only metal you'll be able to utilize, just the easiest.'

And he was right.

That blue silver took a lot of work.

He yawned as he looked out the window.

A cat-nap would have to do until they got to the town for the mission.

xXx

Levy rubbed at her eyes as she came awake.

The train was slowing down, which had been the thing to wake her.

Gajeel was dozing as she sat up.

"Your face has imprints on it." He mumbled as he started to push himself up.

He stretched and she rubbed at her cheek.

She stood up as the train was coming to a stop in the station.

She stumbled into his back as he reached up to grab the bag he'd thrown up on the rack.

"Sorry." She looked down as she stepped back.

"Come on Shrimp, we got work to do."

"I..." She frowned as he moved around her and into the corridor. She walked fast to catch up with his longer stride. "I'm not a shrimp."

"No, just small like one." He said as he reached the exit door.

He held it open after he stepped down onto the platform.

She glared at him as she moved past him.

As she came into the station proper she looked around.

It was a smaller town than Magnolia, and it was reflected in the size of its station.

There was only one large room with a smaller audio room to the side. She saw what looked like one bathroom with a locking door too.

xXx

Gajeel walked past her.

"Come on, mansion is on the other side of town. I'd like to get there before nightfall." He said.

She nodded and hurried to catch up to him.

Gajeel had to consciously slow his pace, but she kept up very well.

He stifled his inner growl at the thought that it was because she had to keep up with that Speed Mage.

Little Levy wasn't even out of breath as they walked up the long driveway to the mansion.

He caught scents as he walked and filed them away for inspection later.

He came up to the door and was raising his hand to knock when it opened and a staunch older man stood there.

"We serve no vagabonds here. Please look for employment elsewhere."

Gajeel opened his mouth to speak, but Levy spoke first.

"We aren't here for employment per-say. We're mages of Fairy Tail and we accepted your case." Levy pulled out the paper detailing the mission.

She handed it over and the little older man made a show of putting his glasses on to read it and then looked over them both.

"So I assume the young lady is able to verify the books and you are merely her bodyguard." The man stated.

Gajeel was a little miffed that the butler thought Levy couldn't be the one to do the fighting simply because she was a female, small, weak, or just didn't look the part of a fighter even in his jacket.

"No, she's the fighter, I'm here to make sure we get back the ones that belong to the Master of the house." Gajeel said.

The man blinked at them both and then cleared his throat.

"If you would follow me please. I shall take you to the Mistress."

He glanced at Levy again and frowned.

She looked up at Gajeel as he motioned her to go first.

He heard her sharp whisper as they followed behind the man.

"What are you doing?"

"Just sick of people not giving you credit. You're a strong mage, you should be thought of as one." He whispered back.

She cracked a smile and reached to hold his arm for a moment and lean against him.

He liked it. Until she pulled away as they came to a set of doors.

Gajeel walked in first with Levy right behind him.

"Milady, the Fairy Tail mages have arrived."

xXx

Levy stared in awe at the glamorous look of the room. The hallway had been darkened by the lack of sunlight coming in the windows, so she hadn't been able to see then.

But this room was grand, like a billion-jewel-price-tag kind of room.

Nothing in the room could be considered less than fifty thousand easily.

Levy saw numerous editions of rare books on the glass case on the far wall.

No wonder it was easy to steal from this woman. She had no security and kept such valuable books in the open.

"You two will be assisting in the capture of whoever is stealing my precious books?" She frowned at them.

"Yeah. You requested two people." Gajeel said.

"I requested two people who could identify my books from the rubbish of whatever else got stolen from other people."

"That's easy enough." Levy said. "We can handle that."

"Forgive me if I fail to believe either of you know a lot about books." The woman had a snooty air to her that was beginning to piss Levy off.

Gajeel outright snorted his disproval of her thoughts.

She raised a brow at him.

Levy wanted to snicker. The woman and her butler had no idea that the two of them were the most capable for this particular mission out of the entire guild. He was one of the strongest mages there and she easily knew the most about books in all of Magnolia.

"This little mage is the best when it comes to books and nobody has ever defeated me, save for the Fire Dragon Slayer and that was because I went easy on him." Gajeel said.

Had he?

Natsu had been bragging for days about how it was such a close battle.

"Well then..." The woman was flustered, but hid it well in Levy's eyes. "Here is a list of books that are missing." She held up a piece of paper and the butler brought it to them.

Levy read through it quickly and Gajeel looked over her shoulder, scanning the page.

"Alright, we'll begin right away." Levy said.

xXx

Gajeel led the way out of the mansion.

She kept on his heels.

"So you think we can find them?" Levy asked.

"Sure. I can trace the scent of the books and you can identify them as real." He shrugged.

"I thought you wanted to do this on your own?"

He shrugged again.

"I'm still keeping the bonus to myself, but I will give you a third of the reward money."

xXx

Levy scoffed. "A whole third eh? Guess I should consider myself lucky."

He led the way around the mansion, taking in scents with his heightened abilities.

He paused as he looked at the windows of the huge display room library.

"You saw that book at the end of the list right?" Gajeel spoke quietly.

Levy nodded. It was a book on Dragons in a dead language. She hadn't known it still existed, but she had read about it in her History of Dragons book on her shelf.

"I saw that same book on Metalicana's shelf years ago. There is only one copy in the world and it's a magical heirloom of his family." Gajeel said.

Levy looked up at him.

"I'm taking it with me if it turns out to be the same one."

Levy stopped.

"You mean...stealing it?"