Chapter 17

Zeke

Levy woke up in tears, having nightmares of her mother's death. 'It seemed so real,' she thought to herself. She went to sit up, being met with some resistance. Gajeel had his arm wrapped tightly around her body, as if he were afraid of her disappearing or something. She relaxed, giving in to his hold. She knew he wasn't letting her go, not any time soon at least. At lease she felt somewhat better in his arms.

She tried to stifle her sobs, not wanting to wake the sleeping slayer. She was unsuccessful in her endeavor, Gajeel slowly opening his eyes and staring at her face. She noticed this, as she turned over to try to cover her face. She hated feeling weak around him. She was already small, she didn't want to feel smaller.

Gajeel quickly rolled her body to face him. "There's no use hiding from me, Shrimp," he says, moving her hands from her face. His heart broke seeing her like this. He wiped away her tears as he cupped her cheek.

"I'm sorry," Levy said, her voice barely audible. "I'm trying to be strong, but I….. I can't." She buried her head in his chest, letting out soft sobs.

"What is it?" Gajeel asked, concerned.

"It's… my… my mom," she said between breaths. "I keep reliving her death and I don't know why!" She looked up at him, her eyes wide.

He wanted to do something, anything to erase her mind of that horrible memory, although she never told him what happened, it had to have been gut-wrenching for her to be torn up like this.

"Is there anything I can do?"

Levy sniffled, sitting up and wiping her face. "Let's just go, it'll help me get my mind off things."

Gajeel nodded, gathering their things for their journey back to Clair's.

"Wait, it's still pretty early," Levy says. "We don't know if Lily is even awake yet."

"You stay, I'll go check." Gajeel leaves the room in search of Lily, leaving Levy with her thoughts.

Levy remembered the waves being particularly aggressive that day…

Tears welled in her eyes again as she shook her head trying to brush the painful memory away. There was something else, though. Like her mother's death was not an accident. Levy never gave it much thought, the thought being too painful for her to have in her mind, but that nightmare…. She felt like she was missing something important. As much as she didn't want to think about the event, there was something gnawing at her. She had to delve deeper. She didn't quite know how she was going to do it, but Levy was smart, she'd figure it out.

Gajeel and Lily appeared in front of her, startling the girl.

"We're ready to leave," Lily said. "We've said our goodbyes to Kaomi, she's waiting for you."

Levy went down the hallway and knocked on the older woman's door.

"It's open, my dear."

Levy slowly opened the door, seeing all the enchantments written all over the walls and ceiling. Kaomi noticed the script mage's astonishment, feeling pretty good about her work.

"You did all this?" Levy asked, her eyes full of wonder.

"It's to monitor the land surrounding my home. It also keeps me off the grid, in case someone were after me," the older spatial mage looked at her hands as she twiddled her thumbs.

"Someone is after you," Levy deduced.

"You're very bright, young one." Kaomi smiled at Levy. "But they won't find me, for I'll be long gone by the time they get here."

Levy looked concerned, her natural instincts wanting to help the lady.

"Don't fret," The woman says, holding Levy's hands. "You have far more important things to worry about than a little old lady."

Levy smiled, standing to take her leave. "Thank you so much for taking great care of me, I wouldn't be here without you!"

Kaomi chuckled. "I believe you would have pulled through regardless of my actions. Give your thanks to your mate, I'm sure he'd appreciate it."

Levy was exiting the room when Kaomi called after her. "Oh, just one more thing."

Levy stopped, waiting for the woman to say her piece. "His name is Zeke." Kaomi beamed at the confused blue-haired mage, pushing her out of the room and shutting the door.

The trio walked through the foliage, trying to get back to civilization.

"You know, it'd probably be a little easier getting to Clair's if we took a train," Lily suggested.

"We can't," Levy countered. "You know Gajeel gets terrible motion sickness."

"Whatever, if it'll get us done and home quicker, I'm all for it."

"I'll make you some iron when we get there," Levy offered.

Gajeel was beyond excited, he hadn't had her delectable iron in a few days, and he also hadn't really eaten much while she recovered so anything that sounded like food in his belly was a plus.

At the train station, Gajeel happily munched on her iron, Lily was scoping out the area, and Levy was sitting on the bench thinking about all the events that occurred in the past few days. She had finally gotten with the man she loved, she'd earned enough money to finally get another place big enough for her many books, she'd learned extremely powerful spells that made her a stronger mage, and much more. This was an eventful few days.

Gajeel saw her in her thoughts and walked over, sitting next to her.

"So much has happened," he said.

"Yeah, it's hard to take it all in, you know." She said, resting her head on his shoulder.

The sat in silence for a bit, listening to the birds chirp and the leaves on the trees flutter.

Levy was in the all-white area again, more confused than ever. She didn't remember the little boy or how she got out last time, all she knew was that she was trapped.

"Hello?!" She called to absolute nothingness. "Is anyone there?"

The silence was almost deafening, Levy started humming a tune to drown out the unbearable silence. The tune was something her mother sang to her as a child when she couldn't sleep. It always calmed her at her worst times, when she felt she had nobody, she would sing or hum that tune, feeling her mother's presence as she sang.

She heard a pitter-patter of feet that sounded like they were getting closer and closer. She turned around to see a small boy with wild black hair and hazel eyes smiling widely up at her.

"Pretty hair!" The boy exclaimed, reaching up toward her hair. Levy smiled and crouched, so that she was eye level with the boy. She watched his eyes widen as he grabbed a handful of her hair.

"Come on, Shrimp." Gajeel gently nudged Levy awake. "The train is here."

Levy boarded the train, mentally preparing herself for the ride ahead, she knew she would have her hands full with a sick Gajeel.

Levy encouraged Gajeel to sleep for the entirety of the ride just to make it a little more bearable. He obliged, choosing her lap as a pillow. His nausea dissipated as she ran her fingers through his long mane, lulling him to sleep.

Lily sat across from the two, proud of his work. He'd successfully gotten them together, though it did come at a price. But anything was worth seeing his partner finally happy. He noticed Levy was bothered by something.

"What's on your mind, Levy?"

"It's nothing, really," she said.

Lily watched her for a few seconds.

"I promise!" Levy exclaimed, waiving her hands.

"Well, I'm always around if you want to talk," the cat says, getting comfortable in his seat.

Levy nodded, watching the trees whiz by on the other side of the glass. She began getting lost in her thoughts again. She had so much information thrown at her within these few days, and she still needed to process it all. Overall, she considered it a successful job. The amount of knowledge she gained was enough to satisfy her for at least a week or so, and she made enough money to finally get out of Fairy Hills. She thought about her new relationship and thought about whether she should keep it a secret from the guild or not. They would be supportive of course, but they would blow it out of proportion. She shuddered at the thought of getting bombarded with questions and Gajeel with death threats. 'Yeah, we'll keep it to ourselves, for now.' She smiled to herself as she looked down at her sleeping mate.

The train ride back to Clair's wasn't too long. Lily sat quietly the whole ride, he himself had information to process, as well as figure out what he was going to do with his share of the loot. 'Maybe I'll invest in a kiwi stand.' He chuckled internally.

Levy had plenty of time to go over everything and process it in her own way, but there were still a couple things she was stuck on. Why she has the sudden urge to dig deeper into her mother's death and figuring out who the hell Zeke was. She let the thoughts linger in her head on the train ride back home.

Finally back in Magnolia, the trio was exhausted and were glad to be back in familiar territory.

"It's getting a bit late," Levy says, grabbing her things and heading the direction of Fairy Hills. "I'm tired, and I'd really like to sleep in my own bed."

"What, you're not coming home with me?" Gajeel grinned.

Levy did think about what would happen once they got back, but going home with him would blow her cover.

"Oh, about that," she started. "I wanted to keep, you know, us to ourselves for a little bit. I want to enjoy the peace as long as I can before the guild pounces on us."

"Tch." Gajeel rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms over his chest. He knew she was right, but he wanted the world to know she was his. He glanced at her neck, the mark from his fangs still there. "Well, you're gonna have ta hide my mark a little better then," he smirked.

Levy gasped and covered her neck with the collar of her jacket. It was going to be a little harder than she thought.

"Come on, I'll walk ya home," Gajeel said, grabbing her bags.

They arrived at Fairy Hills fairly quickly, as the station wasn't too far from her apartment.

"I'll stop by first thing in the morning, I promise!" Levy says, hugging Lily and heading into the building.

"Oi!"

Levy turned around, seeing a frown on Gajeel's face.

"You hug the cat and not me?" He asked, pulling her into his chest.

Levy had a method to her madness. She really wanted to do more than just hug him, but she knew men weren't allowed inside and she really just wanted to get some rest. The moisture in between her legs said otherwise.

She reluctantly gave into his embrace, taking in his iron scent that was somehow therapeutic. The script mage quickly had to snap out of her trance.

"Ok," she says, breaking free from his grasp. "I really want to get some sleep." She was desperately trying to ignore the waves of lust that washed over her from his touch. Avoiding eye contact, she quickly went inside, almost jogging to her door.

"Home," she sighed, leaning against her door. She ran herself a bath, letting herself soak for a little bit. She was happy, genuinely happy for the first time in a while. After a while, the water started to get cold.

Wrapping herself in a towel, she looked in the mirror, looking at his mark. 'It doesn't look like it's going to go away,' she thought to herself as she examined her neck. The two bite marks looked like they'd faded a bit, but it was still very visible, not too hard to miss. Levy was annoyed that she would now have to go through great lengths to hide their relationship, but she was still very happy that she had a relationship to hide. She did very well choosing her mate, or rather her mate did a very good job choosing her. She was with the love of her life and the hottest guy she's ever laid eyes on. Smiling, she tiptoed to her room, almost shitting bricks when she saw a dark figure in the shadows.

"You thought you were gonna get away that easily, huh?" The iron dragon slayer said, closing the distance between them.

"G-Gajeel…"

"You didn't really want me to go, I could smell ya," he smirked.

Levy's words were caught in her throat, getting caught off guard by him swiftly removing the towel from her body. He stared at her body, satisfied that he made his presence known, but not enough to his liking. He was going to abide by her rule to not tell anyone yet, but he was definitely going to make it hard for her to hide it.

His eyes wandered up to her neck, where he saw his mark again. He didn't know what it was, but seeing her bearing his mark was the most arousing thing on the planet to him. He needed to have her.