Chapter 57

"It's so pretty." Levy awed as they walked out of the train station. Clovertown was a beautiful town tucked between lush mountains and a dense forest. The town, itself, had a very vintage feel to it, with the buildings made of stucco, painted white, and roofed with beautiful deep orange tiles. Beautiful flowers were everywhere, planted by the sidewalks, hanging from baskets near shops, in window planters, everywhere. The street even kept with the beautiful atmosphere; it was a nice tan-colored cobblestone road.

Gajeel smirked. He knew Levy would love this town. It was old, vintage, and beautiful... and he knew it reminded her of a scene you would usually only find in books. This was partly why he'd taken her with him on this trip. Well, this and the fact that this trip was quite safe. Even now, he could see the guards everywhere. Patrolling the streets, standing on roofs, guarding the train station. Why would such a small town have so many guards, you may ask? The answer was simple. This town was the base for Blue Pegasus, and every single citizen was one of its civilian members.

Blue Pegasus was a smaller family, yes, but that was only considering the trained members that actually committed crime, not the civilians. If you took into account the civilian members, they were second in number only to Fairy Tail, who also had a huge amount of civilians in its ranks. What Blue Pegasus had done was quite ingenious, really. They'd managed to get an entire town under their control, and willingly to boot. They came in, wiped out some drug cartel that was terrorizing the place, and put themselves up as Clovertown's new protectors. Their only condition had been that everyone in the town join them. The civilians were allowed to live their lives as they pleased, only paying some small taxes to Blue Pegasus to keep everything going. Blue Pegasus' real income was from black market goods, after all (though not arms, like Fairy Tail), so it's not like they needed a lot of money from the citizens. Blue Pegasus was actually doing pretty damn well for such a small family.

"We can explore it later, shrimp." Gajeel promised his excited wife, directing her towards the waiting cars just outside the train station. They needed to be getting to Blue Pegasus' headquarters to start this meeting.

"Welcome, welcome, my beautiful guests!" Don Bob of Blue Pegasus certainly was an interesting character. He was a short, plump, middle-aged bald man, but he was wearing makeup and lipstick... and a red dress. Levy briefly remembered someone like that being at their wedding, though he'd been wearing a black dress, then. "Please, let's get you settled into your beautiful rooms! Oh, Ichiyan-san, do you mind escorting these beautiful guests?" Bob turned to look at an even shorter middle-aged man with long orange hair and a very, er, chiseled face.

"Of course, sir." he said eagerly, moving quickly to escort everyone. He stopped in front of Levy with a wide smile and started sniffing the air. "Ah, the perfume of a young woman, how refreshing!"

"I-I'm not... wearing perfume..." Levy stuttered out with a small blush, moving closer to her husband. This guy was giving her the creeps. He continued to sniff at her, and she hid behind Gajeel, who glared down at Ichiya.

"Oi, Ichiya, that's my wife. Back off." Gajeel huffed at the short man, who was shorter than even Levy. Ichiya merely shrugged with a careless smile and led them away.

Their rooms were quite nice, actually, like a five star hotel, even. Levy and Gajeel were in a room next to Jet and Droy, who got a room with two beds, and Gray and Natsu were sharing a room as they were alternating sleep and guard duty during the night.

Gajeel quickly set about changing into some nice slacks and a white dress shirt, grumbling to himself that he should have brought his suit. The problem with that was he would have had to iron it if he'd brought it, because it would be wrinkled after being in a suitcase. He was not going to bring it in a dry cleaning bag onto a train, not when they were trying to blend in.

"Are you coming to the meeting, shrimp? I packed you something to wear for it." Gajeel commented as he was fixing up his tie.

"Eh? I can come to the meeting?" Levy asked with wide eyes.

"Of course. You should know what's gonna happen, too." Gajeel gave her a light smile. "But if you wanna relax after such a long trip, I'll make sure Gray stays with ya."

"I wanna go." Levy smiled brightly at her husband. He smiled back and pulled out the dress suit he'd bought for her. It was simple but very professional looking, a black form-fitting dress with a gold chain belt around the waist and a matching blazer with gold buttons. Levy stared at it in awe. "You got this for me?"

"Sure did. Figured you'd be comin with me to more and more meetings, so ya need somethin to wear to em." he grinned as she took the dress. He dug out a pair of black flats, too, handing them to her and watching as she happily changed into the dress. It looked fantastic on her, and she looked very mature and professional, almost like a lawyer or, you know, a don's wife.

"Thank you, Gajeel. This is so nice. And really comfortable, too." She marveled over the soft material of the dress suit for a moment before smiling happily at her husband. It really meant a lot to her that he'd go this far to ensure she felt welcome to be involved in family matters. He wanted her to be involved, of course, but he knew she still felt like she didn't belong at the meetings. She stood out, she'd told him once. Everyone was wearing a suit, and she only had a couple of dresses that weren't even remotely that formal, not for a business setting, anyways. Well... now she had something. And he'd buy her more, if it made her feel better about attending meetings.

"Got ya somethin else, too, shrimp." Gajeel smiled at his wife, digging into their suitcase again. He'd been meaning to give her this one for a while. He pulled out something that looked like straps to Levy, and she gave him a curious look. He just grinned and approached his wife, kneeling down in front of her and hiking up the skirt of her dress a bit. "You put it on like this, and tighten it to keep it in place. Don't cut off circulation, though." he explained as he attached the straps to her upper thigh. When he was done, he went back to the suitcase and pulled out a much smaller metal case. Opening it, he took out the contents and turned to face her again. He was holding a pistol that looked absolutely miniature in his hand, keeping it aimed up to show her.

"This..." he gestured to the weapon with his free hand, "is yours." Pointing the gun down, he held it out to her and she took it with wide eyes. It was the perfect size for her, a smaller gun with smaller ammo. The gun, itself, was a deep steel color, but there was a black dragon carved and painted into one side of the handle... and the Fairy Tail emblem on the other side. Gajeel pulled his own pistol off the holster on his belt to show her that her gun perfectly matched his. It was customized specifically so it would match his. So everyone that saw that gun would know who she was and who her husband was. Much like how her necklace and the tattoo on her shoulder did.

"You've been gettin really good on the range, shrimp. Figured a pistol your size would be better in helpin ya aim. Plus, it's pretty small, so ya can hide it anywhere." Gajeel explained, holstering his pistol and taking hers from her. He slid it into what Levy now realized was a holster on her thigh, clipping it in place securely before pulling her dress back down. You couldn't even tell it was there. He looked back up at his wife, and frowned upon seeing tears in the corners of her eyes. "Shit, Lev, did I fuck up? I know ya don't like em, but it's really important that ya have one and-"

"You big dummy, these are happy tears." Levy cut him off with a small giggle, throwing her arms around his shoulders with a big hug. "You're so sweet sometimes, Gajeel. First you buy me a suit and now a customized gun that matches yours? I really like it, Gajeel. I don't like that I need it, and I hope I never have to use it... but if I have to have one, then this one is the best I could ever have." Gajeel let out a soft sigh of relief at that. For a moment there he'd thought she was upset. "I've got the sweetest husband ever."

"Yeah, well don't be tellin no one. Got a reputation ta keep." Gajeel chuckled softly as he returned her embrace. Then he turned serious eyes to her. "I don't need to remind you, but I will. You be real careful with that pistol, Levy. It's loaded this time." He warned, to which she gave a firm nod of understanding. "The safety's on, but try not to let your leg hit anything, just in case. A bullet through the foot ain't fun, shrimp, trust me." Levy swallowed thickly at this and nodded. It did not sound fun one bit. "Misfires don't happen a lot, so don't worry too much. But do take it seriously, okay?"

"I-I understand." Levy nodded again, relaxing a bit. Gajeel grinned and placed a quick kiss to her neck before standing up again and straightening his tie.

"Alright, shrimp, let's get goin. The idiots should be done changing by now."

Sure enough, Jet and Droy had changed already. Levy found it odd to see them in such normal dress attire, considering they liked to dress to stand out. Unlike Gajeel, they wore khakis and a white dress shirt, but they still looked pretty nice and cleaned up. Natsu and Gray were in suits, though the wrinkles revealed they'd packed their suits into their bags. It wasn't horrible or anything, just noticeable, and they both looked a little embarrassed about it.

"Oh, Levy, are you joining us?" Droy asked as Levy and Gajeel came out of their room. He'd taken note of her dress instantly. Levy smiled and nodded, much to Jet and Droy's upset. They didn't like the idea of her in and kind of danger, and being involved in a war in any way certainly was dangerous, but they bit their tongues. She'd chewed them out enough that they knew they wouldn't get away with complaining about it.

"Let's go. They're probably all waitin for us." Gajeel took his wife's hand and started leading them off. Levy gave her husband a curious look and he smirked at her. "I've been here often enough. I know the way to their meeting room." he answered her unasked question. Sure enough, a minute later they were all walking into the meeting room, where Bob, Ichiya, Roubaul, and Sting and Rogue were all waiting.

"Look who's finally here. We've been here since sunrise, ya know." Sting commented with a laugh. Gajeel rolled his eyes at the Sabertooth leader.

"Che, you try keepin a train on schedule." Gajeel scoffed.

"A train? You guys seriously took the train? What, is Fairy Tail having money issues?" Sting mocked.

"It's called being inconspicuous." Surprisingly, it was Roubaul who said this, giving Gajeel a wide smile. "And it's rather smart. We must keep under Jude Heartfilia's radar if this plan is to work."

"Thank you, Roubaul." Gajeel grinned smugly, nodding to the old man.

"Alright, enough chit-chat." Sting scoffed. "How about some introductions? I ain't seen three of these people before, especially not the girl."

"That's his wife, idiot." Rogue elbowed his brother roughly. "You'd know that if you had gone with me to their wedding."

"Right." Gajeel coughed, getting their attention. He gestured to Levy. "This is my wife, Levy. These two idiots are the former leaders of the McGarden family. They've merged with Fairy Tail, but they've still got control over their members, and they're gonna help out with this Heartfilia stuff." Gajeel introduced his group. "These two are Sting and Rogue, the leaders of Sabertooth. Next to them is old man Roubaul, leader of Cait Shelter. He's Wendy's grandfather, Levy." he looked to his wife at that. "Then there's Ichiya and Don Bob of Blue Pegasus, which you've already met."

"Nice to meet you all." Levy gave a small bow, while Jet and Droy nodded politely.

"What a beautiful introduction." Bob smiled from the head of the table. "Now, please, kindly take a seat. I have a beautiful dinner waiting for us after the meeting, so let's get started, yes?" Everyone agreed to that. Gajeel sat by Rogue, Levy sitting next to him. Jet and Droy took their seats beside Bob and Levy, respectively. And then the final meeting in preparation for the war against Jude Heartfilia began.

So sorry for the late posting! Y'all can blame my boyfriend for that, making me wake up early and shit. Threw off my routine lol! So, sorry that this is kinda late. But hey, it is still Thursday!

Man, some of y'all are really hating on Jet and Droy. I know I'm making them out to be annoying but geez, I don't think I've put in any reason to hate them yet. Their hearts are in the right place. That's all that matters right?

Anyways, thanks again for reading, my lovely followers! Please tell me how you guys are liking this. I've got about ten chapters written up now, and working on more, so aside from the hectic week ahead, regular updates should continue to happen (at least until I hit another wall haha...)

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Love,

-Nerdy12