Gajeel stormed down the hallway on the third floor of Fairy Tail's headquarters.

He'd reported back to his superior about the drugs he'd found on the guy in the ally, but instead of giving Gajeel the go-ahead to pursue the case, the guy said he had to take it to the higher-ups first.

Gajeel turned a corner and slammed hard into a woman standing near the end of the hall, her hot coffee splashing all over his navy tee shirt.

"Watch where you're going!" Gajeel snapped without stopping.

"Hey!" The woman's small voice cried angrily. "You're the one not watching where you're going!"

Gajeel paused and turned to look at the girl. Well, to look down at the girl, as she barely reached the height of his shoulders.

"You're the one just standing at the end of a hallway, waiting for someone to knock into you," he said taking a step toward her.

The girl set her jaw and bent her brow in a stern look. "You don't have to be so rude."

The girl was cute. Gajeel noticed that right away. Despite the modest, high collard, coffee-stained shirt secured at her neck and the slacks that looked meticulously pressed, the girl looked hot. Her bare arms were lean but toned, her waist narrow- a perfect contrast to her curving hips.

"I'll take that as a complement."

The girl scowled back at him. He could almost see the steam coming from her nostrils.

Gajeel grinned at the girl.

"Don't worry about an apology," he said turning away from her. "I never liked this shirt anyway."

"You're the one who should apologize!" He heard the girl cry after him. Gajeel snickered again. Cute and feisty. He liked that.

He threw the door open to the conference room and made a b-line for the empty seat next to Natsu.

Natsu was his supervisor, heading up the PI team. The guy was as annoying as that girl was hot.

"Nice shirt," Natsu quipped immediately as Gajeel sat down.

"Shut it," Gajeel said lowly.

"Play nice, boys," Erza Scarlet said from the other end of the table, her loose red hair cascading in a wave over her shoulder.

"Where's the old man?" Gajeel asked.

"He'll be here when he's ready," Gray Fullbuster, head of security said as he made his way into the room, coolly taking a seat across from Natsu. His black hair was a sharp contrast to his stark white button up.

"Gramps runs on his own schedule," Natsu grinned, "it's the perk of being so old."

A restrained murmur of laughter rolled through the room.

"I heard that," a voice said from the door.

A short, balding man with white hair and matching mustache stepped pointedly into the room followed closely by a tall man Gajeel recognized as Freed Justine.

Makarov took a seat at the head of the table, while Freed sat at the opposite end.

"Let's get started," Makarov said seriously.

Freed glanced at the clock with a frown. "We're still waiting on-"

The door banged opened as the blue haired girl from earlier nearly fell through the opening.

"Sorry I'm late," she said in a small voice as she took a seat next to Freed. She now wore a pale orange cardigan but it did little to conceal the coffee stain covering the front of her shirt.

Natsu glanced at Gajeel with a quizzical brow.

"Looks like she ran into the same coffee pot you did," he whispered wryly.

Gajeel returned a scornful glare.

"Right, so we've run into an interesting case that we need a team for-"

"I'm in Gramps!" Natsu shot out quickly. "What's the job?"

Makarov gave him a studied frown.

"Recently," he continued, deciding to ignore Natsu's outburst, "a case came by Freed's desk to investigate a small time drug dealer who started using a forum on the dark web to sell his goods. Freed?"

Freed cleared his throat. "The suspect has been more evasive than expected for a small time dealer. And why exactly he is bothering with the dark web to move such a small amount of merchandise is unclear. But based on the profile of three drug addicts we've recently question, we believe the suspect is actually dealing a new drug that only recently started circulating in the city."

Gajeel only half-listened as he watched the blue haired girl. She was focused. She had a notebook in front of her and was jotting down line after line. She'd put on a pair of glasses when she sat down. They made her look like a hot librarian.

"Lullaby," Makarov took over, "is a crystalline purple substance that, as far as we know, was originally disbursed by, if not also created by, the Tartaros Family."

A murmur sounded around the room.

"Those bastards again?" Gajeel sneered.

Natsu threw an overzealous fist on the table. "We should have taken Tartaros down when we took Ivan down for the human trafficking."

"Yeah well, that was your operation, wasn't it Natsu? So why didn't you take them down? Oh that's right, your cover got blown."

"And whose fault do you think that was Gray," Natsu shot back with a violent look.

The two men stared angrily at each other as if playing a game of chicken.

"My contact at the FBI is coordinating with the Drug Enforcement Agency to monitor the new drug but until they can get a profile on it, their hands are tied," Erza added. She was in charge of handling Fairy Tail's government contracts. Gajeel had a lot of respect for Erza. She was always calm and collected, and smart as hell. Natsu had warned him not to get on her bad side, adding that she had a temper like a hailstorm in a hurricane. But Gajeel couldn't picture it.

"So what's our part then?" Gray asked matter-of-factly.

Makarov surveyed the room as he spoke, "I want a team on the street who can trace the drug to its source. But it's going to be a lot of work. First we need to identify the small time dealers, and for that we'll need someone from the cybersecurity team since that's how they are managing their sales. Second we need to physically apprehend the dealers so we can trace back to the supplier."

"We'll also need a paper trail," Erza added. "We'll need the team monitored 24-7 so all of the data we collect can be hard-copied for the feds. We'll need any audio and video from physical encounters as well as computer records and any traceable leads."

"To sum up," Makarov finished, "I want two of you in the field, one operative from PI, and one from cyber."

At that Natsu grinned.

"I'm in gramps, this will be a piece of cake."

"You can't investigate Tartaros you moron," Gray taunted again. "Your cover with them was already blown, remember?"

Natsu half stood, raising his voice. "Shut your mouth Gray-"

"Enough!" Makarov's voice boomed, a sudden shadow of anger straining the aged lines in his face. He may not have been in his prime, but not even Gajeel wanted to mess with the old man.

The room fell silent. Makarov waited a moment, making sure his message had been received.

"Gajeel, I want you on this."

"What!?" Natsu cried but was immediately silenced by a glare from Makarov.

Gajeel smiled slyly. This was just what he was hoping for, a real case. Maybe he would go ahead and stick around if they were finally giving him something fun to do.

"You'll be working on this with Levy McGarden, she'll be our cybersecurity operative."

There was a choking noise from the other end of the table. Gajeel looked over at the blue haired girl. She looked like she had swallowed something foul.

"Me?" She asked hesitantly. "You want me in the field?"

"Wherever he goes, you go. I want you monitoring him constantly. Have you two had a chance to meet?"

"Sure looks like it," Natsu said under his breath, "doesn't look like it went well either."

"Shut it salamander," Gajeel growled lowly.

"Not exactly," Levy said quietly, avoiding Gajeel's eyes.

"Well you two will have plenty of time to get to know each other now," Makarov said definitively. "The equipment department is already putting your supplies together, you'll be getting a surveillance van and any tech you need Levy, just give them a list."

"Yes sir," she squeaked.

"No offense sir," Gray chimed in, "Can we really trust Gajeel on this? Isn't he still on probation?"

"From what intelligence we've gathered," Freed answered ignoring the negative implication in Gray's question, "Natsu's cover as being part of the Edolas Family was shattered after the last operation. Not only that, but now the Edolas Family's reputation has been damaged as a result. Gajeel, on the other hand, has a good amount of, what would you call it... "street-cred"? If he runs into anyone connected to Tartaros, there's nothing to lead them to believe he's working with us."

"What exactly is the Edolas Family, and what's it got to do with Fairy Tail?" It was a question that had irked Gajeel for a while. As far as he knew, the Edolas family was a low-profile organization that dealt mostly in money laundering. They had a good reputation in the underworld, but no one ever seemed to know much about them.

"The Edolas Family is a construct we designed to use as a cover for some of our operations. They exist mostly on paper," Gray explained.

Erza took over with an air of confidence. "To sum up, Natsu, Gajeel can operate as a free agent since his last employer is now behind bars. If needed, he can get close to the supplier without raising any red flags."

"This is a load of crap," Natsu said grudgingly.

Makarov ignored him.

"You two go get set up," Makarov nodded at Gajeel and Levy. "I want you ready to start by 8am, which gives you about six hours."

"You got it, boss," Gajeel grinned. He was a little pissed that he was stuck with a usually desk-bound book worm, that was going to be a pain, he could already tell. But, on the bright side, at least she was easy on the eyes.

"Yes sir," Levy said quietly, gathering up her notebook.

The group stood and disbursed.

"You better not screw this up," Natsu said to Gajeel as he passed him in the hall.

"Don't worry," Gajeel said snidely, "I'm better at this than you are."