In reply to the guest reviewer, Miri: yes there will be, and here's the next set of appearances! As for your other question... you'll have to wait and see... fufufufufu... ;D
Horrific Family Reunions
"Yer cheerful," Gajeel murmured as he observed Levy rushing back and forth, hanging up Halloween decorations. She had orange, pumpkin-shaped paper banners and black, bat-shaped paper banners which were slowly but surely being taped up around the book store. She also had laminated cut-outs of cartoons witches, black cats, zombies and vampires.
"Halloween's nearly here, Gajeel!" Levy chirped happily in reply, shoving some white mesh into his chest. "Hang up some spider webs, please?"
"Aren't girls supposed to be scared of Halloween?" Gajeel grumbled under his breath. Levy smirked at him, and suddenly he felt himself shivering.
"Oh Gajeel," she sighed, "You've yet to learn something very important about me...I love horror." At his slightly worried face, Levy chuckled to herself. "I really love horror. Blood, gore, violence! All of these are the best qualities in a good story. The terror of dying an unpleasant death, the agony of broken bones, feeling the anguish coming off the characters in waves...fufufu..."
Gajeel started backing away.
"Y-yeah, so, those spider webs-"
He ran.
Giggling, Levy's face returned to normal and she carried on her preparations.
"Oh yeah, Gajeel!" she called out to the dark haired teen, who appeared warily from behind some bookshelves. "My brothers will be visiting for a few days for Halloween, so stop by if you want to meet them too."
Gajeel frowned, his eyebrows furrowing. "You have brothers?" In his mind, he pictured short, skinny, blue-haired brats.
"Yep. Their name's are Jet, who's twenty-eight, and Droy, who's twenty-seven." Levy smiled. "And before you ask, they're average height for adults."
Gajeel snorted, relaxing once again now that Levy's scary aura had fully disappeared.
The door jingled as a regular customer entered the shop.
"Oh! Miss McGarden, you've done a wonderful job again this year." The frail-looking lady smiled gently at the blunette.
"Why thank you, Mrs Applefield! Here, let me walk you to your usual seat, and I'll get you a nice hot chocolate with whipped cream, how does that sound?" Smiling, Levy guided the woman to her seat, chattering on about this and that. By the time she went to the back room, she found Gajeel was already there, the kettle was boiling and he was sat looking at her phone, which she'd forgotten about.
"Oi! That's mine, brat!" She exclaimed, reaching out to snatch it away. With her advantage of surprise, she managed to snag it before he stood up.
"Brat?" Gajeel smirked. "I thought we weren't allowed to use age-related pet names?"
"You can't," Levy quipped back. "I never said I couldn't."
Grunting, Gajeel shrugged. "Who's Dan Straight?"
"You looked at my Facebook! Rude brat!" At the she received a hard poke in her side, causing her to jump in shock. "Gah! I don't know! He keeps adding me!"
"Block him, right now. He should get the hint then." advised the long-haired teen. At the silent response, he noticed she was staring at him intently. "What?"
"Are you jealous?" Levy asked curiously. She made her eyes widen in an innocent manner, to which Gajeel fell prey to and began to stutter.
"N-no! It's just those creeps will stalk you until they find you and kidnap you!"
"Are you saying you're worried about my safety, then?"
"NO! I-I mean, yeah, but- yer makin' fun of me now, aren't ya?"
At her mischievous giggle, Gajeel groaned and left the back room. "You. Are. Impossible."
"Deal with it."
"I'd rather not. I've got a thing at college in an hour, and I have to meet up with a classmate beforehand, so I'll catch ya later."
"Ah.. okay. Bye bye," With a small wave, Levy watched him disappear before making the hot drink for her customer.
A few days later...
Gajeel was halfway through town, with music blasting in his ears, when he noticed two people who were standing around awkwardly. Taking a good look at them, he realised they seemed to be lost.
One of them, a tall, lanky man with orange hair pulled back into a ponytail, was yelling at the man next to him and pointing around. His actions made the other man, a chubby fellow with short black hair, cry out in protest whilst he stuffed his face in a packet of crisps. For some reason, Gajeel felt obliged to help them.
"Oi," he grunted, taking his headphones out. "Ya lost?"
The two men looked half scared to death. To be fair, it was quite dark out at 6pm at this time of year, plus it was Halloween day.
"I-Inkwell...it's c-called The Inkwell!" the orange-haired guy stammered out.
Gajeel raised an eyebrow. "The bookshop run by the shorty?"
"Yes! That's the bookshop our precious little sister owns!" the fatty wailed, producing a burger out of nowhere and stuffing it into his mouth.
"Ah, so you're Jet and Droy..." Gajeel muttered under his breath.
"Ah, yeah! I'm Jet McGarden and this is Droy, my brother." The lanky guy pointed his thumb over his shoulder. "Do you know our sister?" Looking the obviously taller teenager up and down, Gajeel could tell he was trying to be threatening.
"Yeah I do. We hang out." On second thought, he added, "My name's Gajeel Redfox. Please to meet you, Levy's brothers."
"Hmm," Jet pondered with a small smirk. "You're polite when ya want to be. I kinda like you."
"H-hang out! Levy-chan would hang out with someone like you and not us?!" Droy bawled.
"I'm obviously the less annoyin' choice by the looks of it..." rolling his eyes, he started walking down the street. "Hurry up, I'll take ya there. Was headin' there anyways."
For the entire way there, Gajeel learned several new things about Levy and her brothers.
One; Levy and her brothers are of Japanese heritage and all had naturally black hair, though Jet dyed his in highschool for popularity and Levy dyed hers during her 'rebellious' phase in college and stuck with it. Droy lacked the courage and decided not to.
Two; their parent's were very sick when they were young and passed away when they were ten, nine and seven respectively. Levy spent most of her childhood looking after her brothers, to which developed into the third thing Gajeel found out.
Jet and Droy had a sister complex.
They talked non-stop about her, from how she was as a baby to the way her voice sounds on the phone when they call each other every month. The two of them were happy enough to devulge information on her (other than embarrassing things of course!) so Gajeel went along with it quietly enough. It meant he could learn more about her and get along with her brothers, even if they were yet to realise his intentions.
When they reached the book shop, the main lights were off in the main room and a strange green light was coming from the back room. As Gajeel warily pushed the door open, a misty grey fog drifted out of the doorway around his feet.
Hesitantly the three of them entered the shop properly, letting the door fall shut behind them.
"Jet-onii...Droy-onii... where are my onii-chans...I want my onii-chans..." a quiet, echoing whisper drifted out from the back room.
"Levy! Levy, are you there?" Jet called out, looking around. Droy grabbed his shoulder and pointed towards the back room.
"There! She must be in there!"
The two of them cried out simultaneously, "Levy-chan! Your onii-chans are here-"
COME AND PLAY, ONII-CHANs...
Bursting out from the back room, a foreboding shape appeared as an evil cackle loudly resonated through the shop from the speakers.
Standing there in ripped, doll-like clothing, was Levy, soaked in fake blood. The dress was pink and child-like, and had puffy shoulders and lace trimmings that were, unfortunately, splashed with drying blood. She wore an equally blood-soaked eye patch that had blood dripping down her face from underneath it. There was a cut down her cheek to her neck that seemed to ooze blood. Her hair, though tied up with a pretty pink ribbon, also had dark streaks in it. She smiled up at the three men before her, a menacing grin stretching her features horrifically.
"Want to play, my dear onii-chans...?!"
"AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Jet and Droy screamed, high-pitched and terrified for their lives. They ran straight out of the shop again and down the street, crying uncontrollably.
Giggling like a school girl, Levy moved past a frozen Gajeel and flicked the lights back on, turning off the fog machine as she returned behind her desk.
"Gajeel... you okay in there?" she waved her hand in front of his face.
"I...er...what?" Shaking his head, he frantically tried to erase the haunting image from his mind.
"Did you like my prank?" she cradled her un-bloodied cheek innocently with one hand.
"Prank? Ya mean ya do this all the time?"
"Yep. Every year. Especially when we all lived together. October was my time to shine!" Her eyes darken as she frowned suddenly. "The only time I can fully get my revenge for their annoying sister-complex..."
"Ahh, so ya know about that?"
"How could I not? It's endearing some of the time, but this was every day! I can't handle it all day, every day, yaknow?"
"I only had to put up with it for a few minutes, but I get what ya mean."
"Oh? Did you meet them on your way here?"
"Yeah, they were lost."
"Typical brothers." Smiling gently, Levy sighed and untied the eye patch, murmuring to herself, "I do love them though."
"Yeah, brothers are okay." Gajeel agreed.
"Do you have any siblings, Gajeel?" Asked Levy curiously.
"A step-brother who's a couple years younger. We're not close though."
"Jet and Droy like you, I think." After washing her face off, Gajeel could see that the blunette had used wax to make the fake cut.
"That's...good?"
"Yeah. They're very protective of me, even now."
"Understandable since yer so small."
"Shut up. Brat."
"Tch!"
Extra
"Demon sister!"
"Why, Levy-chan?"
Quiet sobbing could be heard inside the quaint little bookshop, as well as a delighted giggle and a tired sigh. For the next few days, Jet and Droy used Gajeel as a human shield between themselves and Levy, and through that the three of them bonded quite well.
Yoooo have an early Halloween thing. Because I'm never on time with these things so might as well have it early right? In other news I've been working on a farm all week and have been really super tired so I've written this really quickly! I know several of you have requested Gajeel meeting Jet and Droy and this was what I liked writing the most! The situation and interactions just seemed to fit.
Anyway, I need sleep.
Also I used a bit of artistic licensing since in the Fairy Tail Wiki Jet and Droy don't have surnames so I made them Family.
Leave a suggestion in a review and I'll see what I can do! :)
