*Readers. If it helps jump start your imagination, I imagine the new Magnolia as a mix of looking somewhat like a larger scale of Lake Town from "The Hobbit" except a bit more modernish and the surrounding environment that closely resembles "Silent Hill" but a bit less extreme (day time and dark). If you imagine something different, feel free to share! Enjoy Chapter 10*
Chapter 10: The Outside World
Morning came to Magnolia to start off the new day. It was a gray morning filled with busy streets and hard workers. The chimney pipes active and smoking and old cars spewing polluted black carbon from its exhaust pipe. The humidity from the ocean and river felt sticky and the heat from the smoke and the sun made it a paradise for arthropods and other pests to thrive. Some say it would be a brutal morning, but to the people of Magnolia they were used to the pollution and climate that some would say that they had experience worse mornings. The clouds were gray, the streets were gray, the colors were barely visible or fading away. The buildings had seen better days. A few holes, rubles, peeled paint, rotting wood and a few broken windows were the remainders of what each building had used to be and now lost its luster and more to lose for the days to come. It was a busy day indeed. It was hot, it was polluted, it was loud, it was about to rain, and the people were reckless and restless all except for two sleeping beauty and beast.
Levy woke up warm and refreshed opening her eyes to something tan and feeling something close to leather. She heard a low rumble and looked up to see Gajeel's face only a few inches away from hers, sleeping and peaceful. She saw one of his arms wrapped around her shoulder and the other laying near his stomach and little too close to her hips. She blushed knowing she had fallen asleep on his chest in a lover's position and tried to wiggle her way out of his arm. She squeaked when his arms tightened pulling her closer to his chest and his other arm now wrapping her hips. He rolled over almost on top of her and that's when she had enough and placed a palm in front of his face pushing his head back and a knee at his groin. He woke up and groaned.
"Fucking hell shrimp! What was that for?!" he groaned.
"For being a pervet!" she stuck her tongue out at him. "You know, I'm okay with cuddling but you don't have to be so grabby and crush me underneath you!"
"Gihi" he laughed, "So you liked sleeping in my arms then?"
"Hey, don't let your head get carried away! You were the one who said to start over and then suddenly I wake up cuddling next to you…Just exactly how fast do you move on!"
He grew a smirk on a his face, "I did say that. And you agreed but you sure weren't complaining when you were in my arms last night. Admit it shorty, you liked it!"
Levy's face blushed even more at what he said. "It was cold" she huffed and crossed her arms, "And you were warm. To be honest I could get used to using you as a personal heater, that's all it was."
"Ouch. Well, then you made a good pillow and I only did what felt natural. I guess it's a good trade off." he chuckled.
"Indeed."
There was a long silence between them. Gajeel looked at the clock reading 8:23am and pulled the covers away from him and walked to his closet dropping his usual clothing gear by the bed side..
"I promised I would take ya outside when you are feeling better. You go on and wash up first, I'll make some breakfast."
Levy nodded her head and grabbed her bag picking out something to wear for today. Gajeel made his way to open door still wearing only his shorts and was surprise to see a dark blue haired woman wearing a navy coat and a navy Russian Cossack hat standing in front of the doorway smiling at him.
"Good morning Gajeel-kun!"
"Juvia?! What the hell! Were you just listening on us?! Where the hell is Lily, did he let you in?!" he growled.
"Yo Gajeel" Lily said from the kitchen, "sorry man, couldn't stop her."
"Bullshit. So why are you here?" he asked.
"Juvia heard from Mira and Wendy about your new girlfriend! Juvia is so happy for you!" she smiled and peeked to the side of Gajeel and saw Levy staring at the doorway then right at her. She pushed Gajeel to the side and ran toward's Levy and touched her hair.
"Juvia is most amazed! Your hair is so blue!" She looked at Levy and saw her giving a weird look at what just happened. She pulled away and apologized. "Sorry, I uhm..I am Juvia!" she smiled and gave her hand for her to shake.
"Nice to meet you Juvia, I'm Levy!" she shook her hand and noticed her hair. "Juvia you have the same hair color as Wendy!"
"Yes it is" she smiled, "but Juvia envy yours. Juvia wishes her hair to be that blue!"
Levy giggled, "So you're friends with Gajeel?"
"Yes. We've been friends since being in Phantom."
"Oh!" she gasped, "so you two were mercenaries together then."
Juvia nodded and sat down in the bed. Levy smiled and then looked towards Gajeel who stood leaning towards the doorway with a frown on his face. Levy thought back to the conversation with Wendy and her hair.
"Gajeel, don't tell me you didn't notice her hair was blue too?" Levy asked
"Nope. She's always wearing a hat. Never seen her without it" he smirked, "For all I know, she probably hiding a bald spot underneath that."
"Gajeel-kun is so mean!" Juvia cried.
Levy scolded at him, "Gajeel! Don't be rude!"
"Shrimp, I told you to go wash up! We have a lot to do today!"
"Juvia, is Gajeel always this bossy?" she asked.
"Most of the time!" she replied.
Gajeel just gave a growl and got out of the room to go to the kitchen to join Lily to make breakfast. Levy gathered her clothes and went to the bathroom locking the door behind her. Juvia smiled as she walked to Gajeel and Lily.
"She's cute! Be gentle with her Gajeel." she winked.
"What the hell do you mean by that, woman?"
"Oh, nothing. Juvia just heard Levy yelling something about 'being crushed underneath'"
Juvia and Lily began laughing. Gajeel stood there gritting his teeth and annoyed at the two of them. He took his mug of coffee and drank it with much anger that he'd break the mud if he held it any harder.
"Something is fucking wrong with your heads, the both of ya!" he growled, "Nothing happened all right!"
"Sure." They both said as they continued laughing at him.
"So why are you really here, Juvia?" he asked.
"Makarov sent me, Juvia heard you're joining the team… and also heard what happened to Levy."
"So… I take it that you are in the team too?"
"Yup! Where Gray-sama is, Juvia is there too!" she smiled
"So that's where you've been? Stalking after some guy?"
"Gray captured Juvia's heart…" she became lost in her words as infatuation took over her.
Gajeel groaned and made coffee and a slice of bread with butter for Levy. A few minutes later Levy came out of the bathroom wearing a black sundress with white laces and a black headband pulling her hair back. She went to dining room and Gajeel gave her a plate of bread and a cup of coffee as he made his way to the bathroom to wash up next. As Levy almost finished eating her breakfast while having a conversation with Juvia and Lily, he came out to join her wearing his usual black attire. Juvia looked at them both and clapped her hands together.
"So cute. You two match!"
Levy blushed and Gajeel gave a growl towards Juvia and ate his bread. It slowly started to rain outside with dribbles and tiny droplets hitting the window.
"I don't think I have a raincoat with me." Levy stated.
"I may have an extra you can borrow" Lily said as he went to his room to find his spare coat.
"Juvia," Gajeel said, "tell the others that I'll meet them tonight at the bar, Levy and I are going out."
"Enjoy your date, Gajeel!"
"God dammit it's not a date!" he growled, "she hasn't been to the outside and I promised to show her around today."
He left the dining table and went to his room grabbing a worn out black coat and two gray scarves. Lily came out of his room to give Levy his spare brown hooded coat and boots.
"Here, take this. Sorry if it's too big on you I tried to find smaller boots and well this is the smallest I can find."
She wore his coat and looked like a gown on her and the boots were big but small enough for her to walk in without tripping.
"It's feels a little off but I guess it will do, thank you Lily!" she smiled.
"Are you ready?" Gajeel asked.
Levy nodded and they both made their way out the door.
"Stay safe you two!" Juvia said while waving her arms at them.
They walked down the hallway and stopped in front of an elevator. Gajeel pulled out one of his scarf and wrapped it around Levy's neck and pulled her hood out in front of her. The elevator squeaked open and Gajeel lightly pushed her in still kneeling a little down with her. He fixed the coat to make room for the scarf to act like a mask to cover her nose and clipped a round metallic object by the coat's collar as the elevator slowly made its way down the ground floor. He pulled out another small device and handed it to her.
"Here put this in your ear. I have one too." He pointed at his ear and showed her. "That thing I clipped to your collar, there's a button on it. Just pinch your collar and speak to it and I will be able to hear you. Try not to make it obvious though."
"So I guess this is for emergencies only, right?"
"Yeah. If anything goes wrong or if you don't feel like speaking out loud, use it! Lily will also be able to hear us too. Watch." He cleared his throat and pinched his collar from his coat. "Lily! Are you on stand-by."
Levy heard his voice through her ears from the device followed by Lily's voice.
"Roger, over."
"Wow this is amazing!" she smiled, "I feel like a super-agent!"
"Pretty cool huh"
"Did you make this?"
"No." he chuckled, "Warren made this, he's our communication manager. If you want to contact him just press the button three times to call him and he will connect you to any channel to the other members that you want."
The elevator door opened and made their way into the lobby stopping in front of the entrance to the apartment. Gajeel knelt down to her again and grabbed both of her shoulder forcing her to look at him in the eye.
"Levy, when we get out there, it will be crowded. I'd hate for us to get separated. It's so hard to look for someone so small, so don't leave my side."
She nodded. Gajeel pulled her scarf up to her nose and he did the same to his. "There will be smoke, so keep it on like unless we are inside a building." She hummed to reply back feeling nervous that she was about to step out for the first time. She grabbed hold on to his arms and they both walked outside into the drizzling rain.
Levy did not imagine for the outside world to be so crowded and in poor conditions. The polluted smoke made it hard for her to see as well as sting her eyes. She grabbed tighter on Gajeel's arm to keep up with his pace. She saw worn out buildings, and some she saw was surprised that it was still standing. With Gajeel's intimidating size, people made way for them making it easier to navigate through the crowd. In a way she sensed this town was overpopulated as more people passed by them giving them glares. She continued to look around her as Gajeel led the way. She saw the streets littered and unkempt, she saw beggars begging for money or food and the homeless sitting in a dirty alley. She saw closed down shops with their doors broken, that now sheltered the homeless and even starving pets. Flies and gnats paraded into what garbage they can land on. The drizzling rain grew heavier as the clouds darkened. She realized the heat and humidity as the air cooled, she noticed her sweating brows and body. The rain continued to pour, cleaning some of the air around them. Gajeel has been quiet for a while and figured that he was letting her soak everything in and so she did. She took everything in her mind all at once, it was all new to her and she felt fortunate to have not lived this way.
She didn't know how long they were walking and was lost in a trance as she tried to study the environment around her. She didn't notice Gajeel had stopped walking until she heard him yell.
"Levy, stop!" he tried to push his arms back and reach for her. But the crowd going the different direction shoved her shoulders a few times knocking her out of balance causing her to let go of his arm and she stumbled her way into other crowd with her hood coming off her head. She panicked and got separated from Gajeel. She tried to fight against the flow of the crowd to get back to him but she was only shoved to walk back with the flow as people gave her glares and yelled at her to walk the other way or to watch where she was going. She didn't know where the flow was and stuck to walking in just one direction following random strangers with fear racking up against her chest afraid to get trampled on. Then she remembered the device on her collar and what Gajeel said about it. She pinched her collar and talked in a hushed voice.
"Gajeel! Can you hear me?!" her voice shaking.
"I hear ya shrimp!" he growled, "Just keep calm, go with the crowd."
"I don't know where I'm going."
"You'll be fine, just... don't panic"
She kept walking with the crowd and pulled her hood back up from the rain. She didn't like walking here alone and contacted Gajeel again.
"I'm so sorry Gajeel! I should've paid more attention." She said.
"Look, don't worry about it. I want you to focus right now Levy."
Lily came in through the signal, "Gajeel is not far behind you Levy, just do as he says all right?"
She kept quiet wondering how Lily knew where they were. Is he tracking us? She thought. She slowed down her footsteps hoping Gajeel would catch up with her but she didn't realize how close he was to her when she felt something grab her shoulder. She panicked and accidentally bumped into a man who carried a bottle beer in his hand and was now on the floor.
"You little fucking brat! You spilled my drink!" he turned around with his fist clenched but didn't turn far when Gajeel caught the punch and threw the man to the side of the street.
"Back Off!" he growled and grabbed Levy by the waist and walked again with the flow; his hand now wrapped on her shoulders.
Levy was surprised that the crowd didn't react much to what just happened nor did they help the man laying flat on the side of the street. She looked up at him. He had a fierce glare ahead of the crowd and his hand locked on to her shoulder afraid to let go. She took a deep sigh and regretted it as the smoke came rushing towards her nose. She coughed and pulled the scarf back to mask her nose.
"Don't be doing that out here, shorty." Gajeel said.
"Gajeel! You could've warned me that you were right behind me!"
"Shrimp, There's still a lot I have to teach you if you're going to survive here. For starters, quit being jumpy! That's bound to cause you some trouble like at what just happened." He growled.
"Hey, this my first time being out here! I didn't plan on getting separated!"
"I know." He sighed, "look you did good all right? I wasn't expecting you to last this long."
"Oh… uhm. Thanks I guess?" she smiled
"Shrimp, what did you notice between me walking with you and you walking by yourself?"
Levy knew what the answer was to that question but felt a little ashamed to answer it. "Walking with you, people just get out of your way because you're big and scary. It was easier and more roomy since people don't like being close to you."
"And with you alone?"
"They seem more savage…because I'm smaller."
"Right. They will pick on the smaller ones and associate them with weak making you an easy prey. That's how most of the world works."
"You think I'm weak, Gajeel?" she frowned.
"No. You made it this far right? Beside, you think someone weak would want to stay this close to me?" he smirked.
She giggled and appreciated for trying to make her feel better. "I suppose not."
Gajeel turned from a sharp corner and headed forward to his next destination.
"Where are we going now?" she asked
"I know a place where we can take a break and get out of the rain. I was going to take you to a special place but since it was raining, I'll save it for a different day."
When she heard the word 'break' she didn't realize how tired and sweaty she was. She was so caught up in the moment that she forgot how long they were walking.
"That reminds me…how long have we been walking?"
He chuckled, "...about an hour. You look like a mess, we'll stop by the bar and get you cleaned up."
"Bar?"
"Shrimp, I'm taking you to Fairy Tail."