Summary: Set in my Wild West Verse. Gajeel the blacksmith has an unnatural interest in Levy, the piano player at Fairy Tail.

Pairings: Levy/Gajeel, implied one-sided Jet/Levy/Droy, and some Gajeel/Lucy if you want to look at it that way.

YouTube Prompt: a tribute to the difficult relationships between Lucy and her father, Master and Laxus, Cana and Gildarts to 'Perfect' by Simple Plan, because the song is beautiful for those sad moments.

Gajeel won't admit it out loud but he loved Fairy Tail.

How could he not? With the good drinks, warm atmosphere, excellent music, and the sexy dancers, it was a paradise in the dry, dusty, hell they all called home. Bunny Girl was a favourite of his but what man didn't like big tits? She was a favourite of everyone.

Then something changed.

One day the piano player caught his eye. She was different from all the girls that danced or served in Fairy Tail. She was just a small and blue-haired as Wendy, the ward of everyone, but she was delicate. Like a lady. She held herself differently as well, she sat upright as if someone shoved an iron rod up her back, and when she was away from the piano she kept her hands neatly folded on her lap when she wasn't reading, her legs never once crossed over invitingly, or lean forwards to emphasis her cleavage. She was dressed differently as well. Her dress was in a different style from the rest of the ladies of Fairy Tail, instead of low front with a corset to emphasis her curves, she wore a dress that was cut low at the back, revealing her milky white shoulders and the stunningly simple white tattoo, and was high on the front covering her neck and keeping everything else a mystery.

It was enticing as hell.

Before he knew it, he was close to piano and could breathe in her scent of old paper, oranges, and the smoky, boozy, air of the bar. She turned to look at him with wide open eyes, not the hooded glances of flirtation others use, which just made her all the more prettier.

"Do you play?" she asked sweetly.

He jumped at being caught out. "Do I fucking look like I do?" he barked angrily.

"I was just asking," she reproached him. "There was no need to snap!"

"Why do you ask that?" he snapped defensively. "Who does?"

"I was only curious. You stare a lot."

"I like the piano."

"Would you like to learn?"

She was sincere and warm with her offer and before he knew it he was persuaded to sit down beside her and learn the keys of the piano. It was gruelling work, a little tedious, but he enjoyed it and he loved it when he was allowed to bang on the keys and sing his own song.

"Ship doo bap, bap," he crooned as the piano player ("Levy, she had introduced herself, "my name is Levy.") giggled, "oh yeah, yeah, yeah!"

Several patrons groaned and clutched their ears while others looked as if they were being tortured but Gajeel didn't care. He just played and sang all the more louder. "TURN THAT OFF!" Macao roared. "MY EARS ARE BLEEDING!"

"WHOSE TRYING TO KILL HAPPY?!" Natsu bellowed. "THAT'S TORTURE!"

"Now, now," Mirajane, the owner of Fairy Tail, chided them all as she served drinks. "It's nice to see Gajeel try something new."

"Yeah," Gray grouched, "but couldn't he try something quiet? Like knitting or mime?"

Gajeel merely growled in reply and the Shrimp (his new nickname or the piano player because she's so tiny) giggled again before she put a comforting hand on his arm and he suddenly fell silent.

He hadn't expected her to be so warm.

FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT

Over the next few weeks Gajeel began to have regular meetings with Levy. Just to learn the piano. Nothing else! Don't get any funny ideas!

He was there in the day when the Smithy was quiet and there would be no one else to complain while he banged the keys and sang as loudly as he wanted to – well, okay, that wasn't entirely true. The dancers all slept upstairs and one or two of them (usually Bunny Girl, or that terrifying demon Erza) would come down in their nightgowns to scream at him to shut up – and then Shrimp would play for him the most beautiful melodies that would make him thoughtful and quiet for the rest of the day.

He got to enjoy his days instead of being harassed by rich bastards who wanted their horses to be shoed quicker. He got to enjoy the music, drink in the sight of the sun reflecting of Shrimp's blue hair, and have an actual conversation without someone making the assumption he was too fucking stupid to know what they're talking about.

In return he ensured Shrimp had everything that she needed. When one of the patrons were being too handsy, he'll protect her, when she was thirsty, he brought her a ginger beer, and when that moron Natsu broke her piano tuner when he used it as a weapon on Gray, he made her a brand new one.

They had suddenly built something intimate and wonderful, something he didn't want to label because she sure hell wasn't his friend but he wasn't in love with her, no matter what that demon Mirajane said.

"Did it hurt?"

She blinked her beautiful hazel eyes at him. They were wide and innocent as always. "Did what hurt?" she asked.

"The tat," he nodded to her back, "did it hurt?"

"A little," she murmured, "but Lu-Chan held my hand the entire time."

"Why get one then?"

"We all have one," she smiled, "it's a Fairy Tail thing. Mira and Juvia have them on their legs, Erza has one on her arm, and Lu-Chan has one on her hand. Surely you've seen that?"

"I'll be honest with you, Shrimp" Gajeel grunted, "when Bunny Girl dances, I sure hell don't look at her hand."

Levy pressed her lips together and huffed prissily. Gajeel edged slightly away, he learnt from previous experiences that when she got angry she tended to throw heavy books at the person she was pissed at….damn those hardbacks were painful.

They were silent for a moment and then Levy turned her back to him in order to play the piano. She played something stormy and furious – Beethoven, if he remembers correctly, like he cared what it was called – and he stared intently at her tattoo, completely entranced as he had been on the first night he truly noticed her.

Before he could stop himself he reached out and traced it with a finger. She paused in her playing but when he did nothing more than trace circles on her warm, baby soft, skin, she continued to play – something much softer and sweeter.

"Can patrons get these?" he asked.

"Sure," she said as she started to play a more cheerful tune, "most of them have one already. Jet and Droy have ones that match mine."

Gajeel snorted. Those pathetic hanger-ons had no original idea in their head, they constantly tried to woo the Shrimp, but never did more than bicker and squabble between them and glare at Gajeel for daring to talk to her. They were disgustingly weak and pathetic to not go out and have something different.

Gajeel decided right then and there he would have one somewhere completely different, and in a much more suitable colour, and no one would be allowed to touch it apart from her….and his cat of course.

FTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFT

Gajeel ended up in the jail cell of Sheriff Laxus' office.

It didn't surprise him. It was a long time coming, he was often in there for fighting once a month before he met her. Only this time he was actually innocent – not that the fucking Sheriff cared. He just wanted a clean town and didn't give a damn about the details.

Gajeel had been suddenly attacked from behind. By Shrimp's admirers Jet and Droy, it turned out the two could work together….when it was against him. He fought back and didn't hold anything back just because Shrimp was rather fond of her morons. The Sheriff caught him good and proper as he broke Jet's nose and kicked Droy hard in the ribs, all three ended up arrested, and Gajeel sulked on the bed as he waited to be other let out or charged.

He didn't expect Shrimp, dressed in her usual orange dress, only she had a dark brown jacket to mute it and hide her back, and her blue hair was bundled under a bonnet, which made her look proper and respectable, to come in and argue with the Sheriff.

"Fine!" Sheriff Laxus barked. "It's your money Miss McGarden, if you want to waste it on this," he glowered at Gajeel, "wastrel then that is your own choice."

"Yes," Levy said calmly but firmly, "it is."

The Sheriff snarled wordless as he yanked the keys off it's hook and unlocked the cell door which, rather ironically he realised, Gajeel had made several years ago. Jet and Droy, who sat together in the other cell burst into tears.

"Levy-Chan!" they wailed. "What about us?!"

"Natsu told me you two attacked Gajeel from behind," she spat out furiously, "the two of you deserve to stew some more!"

"LEVY-CHAN!"

Everyone ignored their pitiful wailing, the Sheriff to glare at his newspaper while Levy guided Gajeel out of the jail house.

They made their way back ot Fairy Tail in silence. Until finally Gajeel got the nerve to thank the Shrimp.

"You didn't have to."

Okay, maybe not thank her but there was gratitude in there!

She whirled round to look at him furiously. "They attacked you!" she snapped. "Without cause! You were the victim. You shouldn't have been arrested."

"They were only trying to protect you."

Well not entirely true but for some strange reason he felt the urge to defend his fellow patrons of Fairy Tail. Perhaps Mira's harping on how they were family was finally getting to him.

"I don't need protecting!"

"Yeah you do," Gajeel stepped closer and reached out to touch her face, "'cause I ain't gonna let you go. And they know I'm not nice."

She placed both of her hands round his and kept his hand on her cheek as she closed her eyes, and smiled. "You are too me," she murmured. And then suddenly her eyes flew open and a cheeky, uncharacteristic smile, took over. "Besides you're in a world of hurt tonight, so whatever pain you cause me in the future can be considered revenge."

"What the hell are you on about, Shrimp?"

She just smirked at him before she suddenly dragged him back to Fairy Tail which was quiet and not so crowded like it usually was. The girls, Natsu, Gray, and Elfman were waiting for him with stupid grins on their faces, and when Mira holds up a needle like pen and asks him what colour he wants, he realises why.

That was the night he gets his tattoo and becomes a real Fairy Tail member.

And he now wears it proudly much to Sheriff Laxus' disapproval.

(All the more fun if you ask him.)