Chapter 53

Gajeel ran a hand through his shaggy hair, briefly missing his long hair but deciding that this was much better. He looked over the contents in the folder again before turning his crimson eyes to the two nervous men sitting in front of his desk. Jet and Droy had been waiting around for three days for his answer, and he'd finally made a decision. He would have talked it over with his father, first, but the old man made it clear that this was his responsibility now, since he'd asked for it. What a bother. Whatever, at least this one was easy enough.

"There are conditions... but I've decided ta help you." Gajeel finally told them, watching as relief filled their eyes and smiled appeared on their faces. "I wouldn't get so excited yet. Like I said... there's a few conditions."

"Such as?" Jet inquired.

"Well, first of all, y'all gotta stop pissin off my wife." Gajeel rolled his eyes at them. "Three days in a row... you guys ain't doin yerselves any favors." Today they'd ticked her off by constantly interrupting her reading to ask her questions. All she wanted was to read in peace. Every time she managed to get away from them and find someplace quiet to read, they popped up again. It had gotten to the point that she'd snapped at them to leave her alone, then gone to ask Lily to keep her company and shoo the pests away from her. She'd forgotten how annoying her childhood friends could be sometimes...

"Uh, yeah... sorry about that." Droy scratched the back of his head as both men pouted sadly, looking like rebuked puppies. They just wanted to catch up with her and get their questions answered, but Levy wasn't used to such loud, persistent company anymore and their constant questioning quickly wore on her nerves. "We don't know when to shut up sometimes."

"Right..." Gajeel drawled, looking back at his notes. "Just... give her space. She's been in a mood this week, anyways." He didn't know why he was trying to make them feel better. "Anyways, another condition. I still don't trust ya, so I want you both to stay in Magnolia where I can keep an eye on ya. We'll set up a way for ya to keep in contact with the rest of your family while the merge is goin on, and ya can go check on them now and then as long as ya take some of our guys with ya... but ya need a permanent residence in Magnolia." Jet and Droy could only nod to this. That wasn't so bad, but...

"Where will we stay? Clearly, we're not welcome to stay at the mansion." Jet commented, to which Gajeel gave a small sigh.

"Well... ya better not tell Levy yet, but I've been meaning to talk to her about moving back to the mansion permanently. When we do, you guys will be put in the safe house we've been usin." he told them. It worked better that way, since they already had their security systems set up there, and the guards knew the layout of the house very well. There were other reasons Gajeel wanted them to move back to the mansion, but he'd bring those up to Levy later. "Til then, you'll be stayin in that hotel. Fairy Tail will pick up the tab from here, since we're requiring ya to stay there."

"Oh, uh, thanks." Jet gave a small nod of appreciation. "So... how does this merger happen?"

"We're gonna keep our end of the deal first." Gajeel explained. "I'm sending some people to yer hometown to clear out the Believers. After that, the McGarden family is gonna be disbanded. Anyone that wants to join Fairy Tail will be allowed to. Anyone that doesn't will have ta clear out, cause we don't allow rivals in our territory. You two will be liaisons fer those that stay, to help them with the changes. Some of our guys will go there and fortify things fer a while, until everything's goin smoothly." He described before looking back at the folder. "You do have some nice territory, there. Port town, lot's of warehouses, lot's of small businesses. It'll help open up more trade options fer us, and can act as a second base in case we need it." He looked back at Jet and Droy with a smirk. "So. You still wanna do this merger?"

"Of course." Droy said, both men nodding at once. "Anything to keep us going. Whether we are McGarden or Fairy Tail, it doesn't matter. We just want to survive. Everyone in our family is just trying to survive."

"Well, joining Fairy Tail will let ya do more than that. Don't worry, yer family is in good hands. Fairy Tail protects their own."

"How'd the meeting go?" Levy asked as Jet and Droy were leaving the office. She was still a bit annoyed with them, but she did hope the meeting went well. Lily stood behind her, leaning against the wall as he watched over his charge. He usually wouldn't follow her around the mansion but Levy had requested his company for the day. Seems she was still a bit anxious about Jet and Droy being in the mansion, and today they were without an escort. Not that she didn't trust them... she just wanted to play it safe. Besides, they'd annoyed her already today, and Lily was good for scaring them away if she needed him to.

"Great. Everything's going to be just fine." Jet answered while Droy smiled quite happily.

"That's wonderful." Levy said honestly. She hadn't known what Gajeel's decision would be, especially considering the fact that Jet and Droy had been getting on her nerves lately, to which Gajeel took personal offense. But luckily that didn't affect his thinking and he was able to make an informed decision based on the facts laid out for him. The McGardens had great territory and a fair number of members that might be willing to join Fairy Tail. What they lacked in resources and income was made up for by those two facts. All Fairy Tail had to do was wipe out a little gang... and they were pros at that. Really, Fairy Tail gained more out of this than the McGardens did... though now it looked like that family would be absorbed into Fairy Tail. It was kind of poetic, really. The McGardens and Redfoxes uniting this way. A tad bit ironic, too.

"Oh, shrimp..." Gajeel also came out of the office, stopping when he realized everyone was standing just outside the door. "Didn't know ya were waitin on me. Ya ready fer dinner?" He raised a brow at his wife, who nodded with a happy smile.

"I saw this cute little bistro when I went out with Wendy yesterday." her way of hinting that she wanted to go there made him smirk.

"Wherever you want, shrimp. Go wait in the car. I gotta take these two ta my old man." he shooed her off with a small smile. She grinned happily and gave a quick wave to Jet and Droy before hurrying off with Lily in tow. Gajeel watched her intently as she walked away, forcing back an amused growl. The shrimp was wearing tight jeans again, and adding an extra sway to her hips. She knew he'd be watching that perfect ass of hers. Little minx.

When she was fairly far away, Gajeel came back to reality, and his eyes turned cold as he noticed Jet and Droy had also been staring unabashedly. He scowled and grabbed them both by the back of their heads, bringing them together with a delightful 'thwack!' Both men shouted in pain.

"That's my wife, you idiots. Keep yer eyes to yerself if you wanna keep yer eyes." he growled in annoyance as Jet and Droy held onto their foreheads with pained grimaces. "Now come on. Old man wants ta see ya to finalize everything."

"Aw but I like the safehouse." Levy pouted cutely when Gajeel told her that he wanted them to move back into the mansion. They were at that bistro Levy wanted to try. It was very quaint, and the food was quite good, not to mention the quiet atmosphere made for a nice dinner. They were waiting on dessert when Gajeel decided to bring up moving.

"I know, shrimp, but you know we can't stay there forever." Gajeel gave her a small smile. "And we're both always at the mansion, anyways. Besides, things are about ta get pretty dangerous, with this Heartfilia business." He paused as the waitress came by and set their desserts in front of them. "I just wanna keep ya safe, shrimp, and the mansion is the safest place right now."

"I vaguely recall being abducted while staying there." Levy pointed out. It was true, during the incident with Phantom Lord, she'd been in the mansion and under guard the whole time. But...

"Levy, we weren't expecting something like that, and I am sorry. More than you can understand. But we learned our lesson, and now we're prepared for anything to happen at any time. Security is tighter than ever." Gajeel assured her. Levy gave a soft sigh at this. She knew he still felt guilty over her abduction, and she knew that their entire guard had gone through intense training after that. They were always on high alert now. Still...

"I feel like there's more to this that you aren't telling me." she finally said, giving her husband a serious look. He just grinned at her. She was sharp as ever.

"There is, but that's a discussion we shouldn't have in public." he told her. "Look, Levy... I know ya'd rather stay at the safe house. I would, too. But I really think this is the best course of action." Levy sat back and thought it over. Eventually she let out a soft sigh.

"Alright. But on one condition." she added. Gajeel grinned and motioned for her to go ahead with her request. "I want to go back to work. Being stuck in the mansion all the time is so boring, Gajeel."

"Levy, you could have gone back to work at any time." Gajeel told her with a soft chuckle. Then he sighed. "But... right now, I'd rather you not. Not because I don't want you to work," he added quickly when he saw her open her mouth to protest. "It's cause I was serious about things getting dangerous soon. Jude Heartfilia is a dangerous man, Levy. He will be trying to stop us any way he can, and he will target you if he can. It's easy to find out where you work. It's easy to get men on the inside, sneak them into your nurse team and such. I would know, I did that when we first started dating, to keep an eye on you." He shook his head with a small smile. Good times, good times. "Look, shrimp, if you can wait until all this settles down, it would be much better. I ain't gonna stop you, if you really wanna go back now... but I am asking you, as yer husband... please wait." he turned serious eyes to her.

How could Levy resist such a heartfelt request from her concerned husband? She looked at him with soft eyes and offered a small smile.

"Okay, Gajeel... but only until the danger passes." His genuine, relieved smile was well worth her waiting a few months to reenter the workforce. But only a few months.

Woo, another chapter! I'm so glad people actually commented on the last one. Believe it or not, you guys really do direct the flow of this story. I listen to y'all... sometimes. This time I did, anyways. Not going to reveal what it was, but it was something I got a fair amount of comments on.

Anyways, please continue to comment. It really encourages me to write!

Finals are right around the corner, btw, so I may have a rocky span of two weeks or so where my updates aren't very regular. Once I'm on summer break, things will go back to normal. Promise.

Thanks for reading, like always!

-Nerdy12