Author's Note: Guys, guys, guys! So there's an artist in DeviantArt that had accepted my request and made the dance scene between Erza and Natsu! Well, not exactly the same thing but it gives you a great vivid imagery of both!
h+t+t+p+:/+cdartcd+.+deviantart+.+com+/+art+/+Natza+-+618891553
Just take off all the "+" and the link to the art should work. In case it doesn't, the artist name is CDartCD. You should go check her other art, it's pretty amazing.
Okay, it's now story time!
"Can this scan thing work any faster!?" Gildarts asked the petite forensic scientist, growing impatient with every second. He looked at the screen along with Laxus, awaiting for match in the facial database system.
"Can you be more patient!?" Levy didn't like it when others hurried her work, especially from those she didn't know that well.
"Can you two can it?" Laxus tried to stop their bickering from ensuring any further.
"I would if this machine wasn't so goddamn slow!" Gildarts continued to complain.
"Oh oh." Jet and Droy sweat dropped. If anybody ever insulted Levy's machines, they would never hear the end of it.
"My computer is not slow! Now apologize to it!" Levy was now pissed. Guess the can of beans have finally opened.
"I will not apologize to an inanimate object!" Their bickering was now getting louder.
"I SAID APOLOGIZE!" Levy was about to lunge at him but Laxus stopped her.
Her arms flailed around the sides of Laxus body as she tried attacking Gildarts. Her action immediately scared the red headed agent. "Jesus Christ! Keep her away from me!"
"This wouldn't have happened if you didn't mock her computer!" Laxus exclaimed. "Now can you apologize to it so we can get back to work!?" He sell held Levy back. She was small so it wasn't hard for Laxus to hold her back.
"Let me at him!" Levy grew more ferocious with her flailing though still nothing for Laxus to hold back.
"Alright, alright," Gildarts raised his white flag of surrender. "I'm sorry…for being a slow hunk of machine." He muttered the last part.
"What was that!?" Levy could've sworn she heard the man insult her machine.
"I said nothing!" Gildarts took his words back into his mouth.
"Hmm." Levy put his arms across her chest and looked the other way, still pretty pissed at the man.
"Thank you." Laxus finally had some peace and quiet.
Suddenly a second party walked into the forensic lab, joining the 5. "Any luck?"
Mainly Gildarts, Laxus and Levy turned to look and it was the Chief, Jura. "Oh, no, nothing yet, sir." Laxus answered.
"This assassin is pretty good," Levy had to admit, usually someone like her with her background would've at least have some criminal background. "So far, she's evaded the finger scanner and is coursing through the facial recognition scanner pretty easily."
"What if you added something else from the database?" Jura asked.
"Like what, exactly?" Levy raised an eyebrow at her boss. What was he getting at?
"Like instead of searching just at the criminal database, why don't you search for runaways? Or people who have gone missing?" Jura suggested.
"Hmm, that's actually pretty smart." Levy went back to her computer.
"Well if she's a runaway, wouldn't you like make her face younger?" Laxus now suggested.
"That too." Levy was behind her computer, adding more stuff to the search and de-aging the face of the assassin to her teenager years.
"Please, if the computer has been at this for almost 2 hours and has yet to find anything, I doubt adding those filters wouldn't change a thing." Gildarts was a bit pessimistic about it.
"And there," Levy finished in putting more to the search. "We should get a hit pretty so-"
And finally, they found a match.
"Holy crap!" Gildarts was in awe.
"Way to go Levy!" Jet and Droy quickly cheered in the background.
"That's the Levy magic for you." Laxus happily smiled, finally getting a hit.
"Alright," Levy opened up the picture of the young assassin to get more info. "Her name is Mirajane Strauss, ran-a-way from home at the age of 16. Mother and father died in a car crash and has two siblings, Lisanna and Elfman Strauss. Her sister was the one who reported her missing on December 14, 2003."
"Anything else?" Laxus asked, staring intently at the big screen filled with the information.
"Nope, no bank account, no police records," Levy scrolled down. "It's like this woman literally made herself invisible."
"Not entirely, she still has some siblings we can talk to." Gildarts pointed out.
"Where do they live now?" Jura asked Levy.
"Well Lisanna actually lives here in Magnolia City whereas her brother Elfman, lives two cities over in Rios." Levy searched up their living records.
"Guess we start with the sister then, huh?" Gildarts looked at Laxus.
"Good work men." Jura complimented their work.
"Uh-huh…" Levy looked at Jura, fake coughing towards him.
"And you too, Levy." Jura walked out of the room now.
"Alright Gildarts I'll meet you in the garage in a bit, I have to talk to Levy for a different thing." Laxus told him.
"Alright." Gildarts was the second person to leave the room.
"Guess we'll see you in the cafeteria room, eh Levy?" Jet said. Looks like he, Droy and her were in their schedule lunch.
"Yeah, save me a seat guys." She asked of them.
"Alright," the two of them said as they walked out. "See you."
Levy and Laxus were now the only ones in the lab. "Alright Levy, what did you find out about the flower?"
"Come here." Levy grabbed Laxus by the hand and brought him to a desk where the black rose stood in the spotlight of a lamp.
"Okay, now what?" Was Laxus supposed to see anything different about it?
Levy looked at her wristwatch and finally turned to look at the rose. "Now look."
Laxus turned from looking at Levy to looking at the black rose. "What the-?" Only this time, it wasn't black anymore.
"The color changed back to it's original scarlet red color." Levy told him.
After a minute or so, the color of the flower changed back to black. "How did it do that?" Laxus was still at awe at the rose.
"I believe it was genetically modified Rose, making it change the color of red to black in a certain amount of time." Levy added her inquiry on the rose.
"That's pretty cool, didn't think it can be genetically modified to change it's color." Laxus shook his head like he just learned something new in class.
"You'd be surprised at what you can do to genes," Levy smirked. "Speaking of surprises…" Levy turned to look at Laxus, almost in a flirtatious way. "What are we doing tonight?"
"If we can wrap this case up," Laxus brought Levy closer to her, almost embracing each other. "We can go to a fancy restaurant and after that, go back home and maybe do some-"
"Naughty stuff?" Levy smirked at the thought.
"If you say so." Laxus smiled brightly at the petite scientist and slowly reached in for a kiss.
Levy was on her tippy-toes and Laxus reached down a bit, meeting each other half way and kissed. Her soft lips up against hers, tongue fighting for dominance, which ended when the two gasped for air.
"It's a deal." Levy happily returned the smile back still in each other's arms..
"Let's just hope we don't have to work late." Laxus said.
"Don't jinx us now!"
…
Natsu and Erza were now in the guest room part of the house in Natsu's home in the second floor.
Considering the events that had happened at the Cruise party, neither of the two had spoken about since until now.
Erza sat down on the bed, without her shirt on, revealing her black bra once more and the bandages used for her gunshot wound. Natsu sat in front of her on a chair, checking to see the wound once more.
Slowly, Natsu took off the bandages which were now bloody. "Does it hurt?" He asked her.
"I-It only stings…" Erza held her breath as Natsu continued to slowly take off the bandages.
He finally made it to the end where he had stitched it up. "You're still bleeding, but not as much as before." With a towel in hand, he dipped it in a pot filled with steaming hot water and slowly dapped and cleaned her wounds.
"Ah!" She felt the burning sensation of the water hit her wound, gently but still making her breathe a little hard.
"Stop moving," her heavy breathing made it uneasy for Natsu to continue to clean it gently. "I don't want to hurt you, can you control your breathing again?"
"I-I'll try." This was Erza's first gunshot wound. She's been beaten, burned and even at times tortured but the pain from the gunshot wound lingered the most.
"Okay, you can turn around now, I need to clean the exit wound." He dipped the towel again in the hot water while waiting for Erza to move positions.
"I want to thank you again for this…" Erza slightly blushed. Thank god she had turned around or else she would've seen her face.
"No problem I guess." Natsu continued with his similar actions as he did to the entrance wound.
The way it's going between the two of you, it's going to end, badly… Mirajane's words still lingered in Erza's brain. Is she right? If I do this the way I intended of doing, would this end badly? Her mind quickly trickled back to the dance. She didn't expect herself to enjoy it much less feel the emotion of loving someone. I have to hurry this up, but how?
"You okay, Erza?" Natsu brought her back from her mind.
"Oh, nothing, I was just thinking about something." Erza quickly replied.
"About what exactly?" He wanted to know. "Is it about your crazy ex that tried killing us?"
"I would rather not have this conversation right now." She immediately told him.
"S-Sorry didn't mean it like that." He was finally done cleaning the wounds.
"It's… It's alright." She didn't mean to lash out at him like that. The thought of having Mirajane's final words in her head were quite enough already.
"But yeah, I'm sorry about that," he apologized once more. He got more bandages on his side and now was ready to patch her up once more. "You can turn back around now, I just have to put you the new bandages now."
"Alright." She held her arms up, letting him roll the long bandage around her stomach and back.
He tried doing it as best as he could considering he was only mere inches away from her stomach as he rolled the bandages around her waist. "…" She could feel his breath up against her skin, somewhat making her a bit red.
After just a few seconds, he was done. "Okay, that's that now." Natsu placed the bandages back in a med bag, took it and both the towel and pot as he went to put them away.
Erza, slowly, put her blouse back on and got off the bed. She leaned towards the floor to get the bloody rags to throw them away. Still having some pain issues, she managed to grabbed them.
Natsu went to the bathroom across from the guest room and placed the towel into the dirty laundry and the med bag into the sink's cabinet. He poured the rest of the not so hot water anymore down the drain and took it back to the kitchen.
He met Erza back in the kitchen. "You hungry?" He asked her as he placed the pot in the top cabinets above the stove.
"Yeah." She placed her palm over her wound once more.
"Does it still hurt? Did I tighten it too much?" He asked her as he saw her pain stricken face.
"I'm fine," she assured him. A few seconds passed and the pain went away. "You said your father was a medic, right?"
"Yup, taught me how to treat my wounds," Natsu walked towards the refrigerator and opening it. "That reminds me, I have to go visit him at the hospital this Friday."
"Is he a doctor?" Erza asked as she took a seat by the table.
"No, a patient," Natsu answered. "Stage 4 of lung cancer."
"Oh, I'm sorry about that." She tried to feel sympathetic towards him.
"Doctor's saying that the treatment he's undergoing isn't working anymore…" Natsu sighed bringing milk to the table. "Might only have a few weeks left."
"I'm very sorry to hear about that…" She apologized once more like if she's the one who gave his father cancer.
"You don't have to apologize for that," he slightly laughed as he brought out two bowls, two spoons and two different boxes of cereal. "How he got cancer was his fault, he started to smoke right after mom died a few years back, as a way to ease his pain."
"Oh really?" Learning more about his parents almost made her feel somewhat left out. She didn't know them, all she's got to remember by them is that she was left at an orphanage as a baby. Still, she continued to ask him more questions, as a way to better understand him. "How did your mother die if I you don't mind me asking?"
"You remember the tragic flight 97 airplane malfunction in 1999?" He asked her.
"I do." She remembered that. An airplane malfunctioned while it was on flight and crashed down killing all it's passengers and both it's drivers. A tragedy like isn't easily forgotten.
"She… she was on that flight." He deeply sighed as he placed the cereal boxes on the table: Cocoa Balls and Marshmallow Swirls.
"I figured much…" She lowly said.
"Let's just start another topic, shall we?" Natsu said, trying to lighten up the mood in the room. "What kind of cereal do you want?"
"Were having cereal for lunch?" She looked at him, skeptical at idea of having this for lunch rather than something more typical.
"It's all have really at the moment." He lightly chuckled.
"Fine, I guess I'll take the Marshmallows Swirls." She joined with a light laugh of hers.
"Thought you might say that."
…
Laxus and Gildarts were now in a patrol car, driving towards their destination.
It's only been 10 or so minutes of driving yet neither spoke, only driving halfway in silence before the agent finally broke the cold quiet in the car. "So how long have you and that blue haired scientist been together?"
"Ahem, what?" Laxus cleared his throat before answering. He was quite shocked to know that Gildarts saw right through him and her.
"You know what I'm talking about." Gildarts moved his eyebrows up and down with his forehead. He knew Laxus heard him the first time but at this point, he was somewhat mocking him.
"I'm impressed actually, didn't think anyone would besides my boss, Jura, would figure us out." Laxus told him. Though he would look at the agent, he was focused with the road instead.
"So your boss knows huh?" Gildarts continued with his questions.
"Well yeah, there's no rule against dating one of the forensic scientists," Laxus explained. "Only partners from what I recall."
"Yeah but still, I would never date a coworker." Gildarts stared out the window, conversing while watching a few people walk on the sidewalk.
"Well there's nothing wrong with dating a coworker, but whatever floats your boat buddy." They came to a stop at a red-light, not much further to their destination they are.
"I guess, still, you haven't answered my question though." Gildarts awaited for a response.
"Almost 2 years." The light turned green and Laxus continued to drive.
"2 years!?" Gildarts was quite amazed at the response. "Damn, I could barely make it past a month."
"Ha!" Laxus slightly laughed at the agent.
"And there's still people at your work place that don't know?" Having a long relationship is one thing, but keeping it a secret was another.
"Well there's a few people back at HQ who know we're dating," Laxus further explained. "Her parents, my gramps, a few of our friends."
"Then it's not so secret." Gildarts said.
"Well it's not but we're not out of the open like most people would." Laxus told him, turning a right on Unison Street.
"Ah," Gildarts now had some clearness added to his question. "So, you guys live together? Your place or her place?"
"My place but at this point, she practically owns everything." Laxus slightly chuckled at his own remark.
"Huh, maybe that's why I'm not so committed to my relationships," Gildarts sighed, putting his on the head part of the chair and looked up. "Then again if I wasn't so committed, maybe I would've found a good wife to help me raise my daughter, Cana."
"You have a daughter?" Laxus turned again.
"Yeah," Gildarts took out his wallet and inside the wallet, took out a small picture of him and a brunette. "That's her right there."
"Oh, nice," Red-light once more, stopping the car. Laxus glanced right over and saw the picture of the two of them. "How old is she?"
"27, she's on her last semester in college, won't see her 'til the end of the month." He put the picture back into his wallet and the wallet back into his pocket.
"Oh." The light turned green and Laxus stepped on the pedal.
"But still, 2 years? That's a long time, I'm surprised you haven't placed a ring on that finger." Gildarts told him.
"I'm kind of thinking of that actually," Laxus revealed. "I don't know though, I have no idea what she'll think of it."
"Hey, if you lasted this long with her, there's nothing that fuck that up for you." Gildarts patted Laxus's shoulder, trying to reassure him of the blonde's intentions.
"Thanks I guess." Laxus didn't feel a slight change in his mood but still, he knew what the agent was doing.
"Okay, we're here now."
Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed the chapter.
And yes, Laxevy (Laxus×Levy) is established in the story. I don't know, as much as I love Gajevy (Gajeel×Levy), I kind of leaned more towards Laxevy, they look a bit more cuter with each other if you ask me.
Nonetheless, keeping this note short. Hope you like the link to the art and the chapter. See you in a few days.