Chapter Three
AN: So, this story has gained rapid popularity. Thank you all! Well, let's continue, shall we?
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Levy woke up in her bed a week later still trying to adjust to her new home. She could hear Wendy and Gajeel in the living room playing Little Big Planet on Gajeel's PS3, laughing as they gave voices to their characters. Listening to them have a good time, suddenly made Levy very sad. One day this would end. Wendy would pass on to the next life and Levy will have to leave. This wasn't her home. This wasn't her room. The walls, the blankets, the books, and TV, it would all be taken away and she'd be all alone and homeless. She knew this. It was why she couldn't let herself get comfortable. Why she hadn't bothered to unpack.
Sighing, Levy drug herself from the soft folds of her bed. She stood for a while in the mirror, taking in her reflection. Her hair was wild, locks of blue sticking out all over her head, a crown of knotted curls. Her lips were pale and chapped from the time she'd spent on the streets. Her eyes looked sad and tired. Putting on her best smile she went to the closet, now filled with thousands of beautiful outfits and pulled out her small backpack full of clothes from the floor. Dressing in a pair of Daisy Duke cut off denim shorts and a white crop top, she went to leave the room, pausing at the conversation going on in the living room. She put her ear to the door to listen.
"Where ya goin', kid?" Gajeel's growl was muffled by the wood.
"Levy's not up yet. She's usually up at the crack of dawn. I was going to go check on her."
"Let 'er sleep. We'll wake 'er up when we get back." There came a faded jingle of keys from somewhere in the apartment.
"Where are we going?" Wendy's sweet melodic voice filled the hallway as they went to leave.
"I got a surprise fer ya." The door to the apartment shut cutting off their voices.
Leaving her room, Levy went to the kitchen in search of food. It was a little past seven and it didn't look like anyone had made breakfast yet, so Levy decided to make everyone some eggs, bacon, and pancakes. She turned on the radio as she moved about the room to the beat of Papa Roach's song Last Resort. Pulling a skillet from the rack above the sink (with the help of a chair) she quickly scrambled a small bowl of eggs, made a few sunny-side-up for Wendy and even poached and boiled a couple. Then, using the same skillet, she fried up some bacon, chopping a handful into bacon bits and adding them into the pancake mix and scrambled eggs. Once the bacon was done she rinsed the grease from the pan and used it for pancakes. She made a few with bacon bits, a few with fresh strawberries, and a few with chocolate chips. She used her left over eggs, bacon, and fruit to make the special breakfast omelet Wendy loved.
Once she finished cooking, she set the table, pouring two glasses of orange juice and a glass of milk and placing a bowl of freshly cut fruit in the center of the table. Just as she was placing her dirty dishes in the fresh soap water in the right hand sink, she heard the door open and Wendy start singing along to Evanescence's My Immortal. Smiling, Levy went to greet her sister and Gajeel.
The apartment smelt heavenly as Gajeel and Wendy came through the front door. The kitchen radio was playing a beautiful rock melody sung by a haunting female vocalist and the small twelve year old next to him didn't miss a beat jumping into the song. Levy came around the corner to greet them looking as free-spirited and strange as the day he had met her; her smile as radiant as ever.
If he were being honest with himself he'd have said she was beautiful. A wild angel gracing the soft carpets of his once quiet and lonely home, bringing with her the energetic beat of rock and the wonderful smell of a home cooked meal. Life followed the strange girl and her sister, even if life was limited for the younger blunette. They brought a sense of love and warmth into his life and he knew already that a day would come when his home would be silent and cold again, a day would come when he'd miss his strange new companions. The iron heart inside him would cease to melt at the warm smiles that met his growl in the morning and the soft snores that floated from the once empty rooms at night. If he were honest with himself he'd ask Levy to stay with him even after Wendy departed, but he was the Iron Dragon of the upper class. The cold heart that didn't play well with others. The man who sent business men and bankers running in fear, afraid to set foot in the Dragon's lair again.
As he entered the kitchen, Gajeel found his table set in a breakfast feast. Delicious food covered the table top, drinks were poured, and seats set out. Wendy was filling her plate as Levy went to finish the dishes before sitting down to eat with them. His plate was bare, but as he neared the table he realized it was due to Levy having made multiple versions of the food to fit everyone's particular taste buds. He sat down and started to fill his plate with bacon pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, and fruit when he remembered his favorite ingredient was missing.
Gajeel walked to the back of the kitchen, towards the pantry. As he passed Levy, the tiny woman turned to face him with a whip of her head. "Is something wrong with breakfast?"
"No, I just need to get somethin' for mine."
"What is it?" Curiosity sparkled like a diamond in the gypsy's eyes.
"Powdered iron." His blunt answer held no sarcasm or humor, it was merely an answer to her question. Levy's delicate blue eyebrows shot into her hairline at the remark, an unspoken question held tightly to the tip of her tongue like an invisible lover as he pulled a bag of ground up, powdery iron from the pantry door. The man gave an explanation in the form of a growl, "medical condition."
"What kind of medical condition makes a man eat ground up metal?" The twelve year old asked joining them in the kitchen.
"Lack of iron in the blood and a body that refuses to absorb it into the blood stream unless its in this form."
"How often do you have to eat it?" Levy asked leaning forward to look at the powder shining in the morning sunlight glistening through the kitchen window.
It was strange to Gajeel that his house had changed so much in such a short span of time. The kitchen window was open for the first time in two years, the entire place smelt of baked goods and flowers, the walls had been washed, the floors vacuumed, swept, and mopped, laundry was always done, dishes never sat in the sink, the trash never overflowed, and the windows were spotless. There were days when Gajeel forgot what it was like to live alone. His new life made him feel complete, causing dread to build up inside his heart of the day he'd have to say goodbyes to the blue haired child dancing in the kitchen. He wasn't ready for that. He didn't want to see her grow weak, faded, and wither away to nothing before finally passing on. The man gave that sweet smile and kind eyes his heart the day she moved in.
The wild angel pressing against him to see his bag of iron dust had changed his life in a bigger way. Sure, the kid made him smile and had stolen his heart with her love for life, but that damned gypsy princess, with her cooking, cleaning, and crazy life style, made his blood sing, his heart race, and his palms sweat. She turned him from a fearsome beast to a nervous, tongue-tied preteen boy in front of a porn star. Her eyes took his breath away, those blue locks begged to be touched, and her lips, God, those lips. He knew he was falling for a girl who would run once Wendy left, but Gajeel couldn't help himself. He had fallen for his gypsy angel.
"Every morning with breakfast and every night with dinner," he finally grunted out. "Let's eat."
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It had been a long day for Gajeel. It was a beautiful Wednesday afternoon, perfect weather to work in, but everything that could go wrong did. Some time in the days before hand, rats had gotten into the wires the team had set aside for the new house's electrical system. They ate through almost half of them. The window company and the lumber company delivered the wrong materials, Natsu accidentally nailed Grey to the wall, Mira knocked Eric unconscious with a two-by-four, and Elfman blew out his back trying to carry more shingles then he was able to up a ladder. Lucy couldn't find the order form for the lumber so now they had piles of birch when they needed oak. It couldn't possibly get worse, right?
Wrong. As Gajeel stepped through the door of the apartment, he knew something was wrong. It was only seven thirty and Wendy wasn't at the door to greet him, Levy hadn't started dinner, and Rogue was standing in the living room on the phone with the police. He was giving a description of a small blunette with big brown eyes in a blue, green, and yellow dress. When he saw Gajeel, he silently pointed to Wendy's room. Dread filled him as he moved toward the bright blue door, but he could never prepare himself for the sight he was about to see.
Levy was sitting on Wendy's bed. Her hair sprung from her head in wild, curly spikes held back with a gold headband. Tears streamed down her face and worry filled her eyes. Her skin was unusually pale and she was clearly very upset. "Levy?"
The blunette looked up at him, her gaze empty and broken. "Wendy, she's missing."
Gajeel felt as though the world had collapsed around him. He'd be lying if he said that the small girl hadn't infiltrated his heart. He felt like a father to her. His sight began to darken, his heart pounded, a strange buzzing filled his head, and his palms began to sweat. He pulled Levy into a hug and whispered something into her ear before leaving the room, dialing his phone.
"Laxus, round up as many people as ya can. I need help." Gajeel growled into the mouth piece of his cell as he moved towards the warehouse, Fairy Tail. "Wendy's missing. Meet at Fairy Tail. We need to find her."
Levy stood in the window by the door watching, waiting for anyone to bring her news of her baby sister. Gajeel had disappeared about three hours ago with a promise that he'd bring Wendy home. It was pushing eleven at night and Levy couldn't help it as her mind played out every single possibility of what happened. She went through rape, murder, kidnap, and severe injury scenarios as well as a few lost track of time at a friends, new boyfriend, and got lost ones. By the time it hit midnight, she had crossed over to the absurd, with attacks from escaped zoo animals, suicide attempts, and ran away due to pregnancy.
Finally, about twelve thirty, she decided to sit down. She set the house phone and the cell phone Gajeel had bought her on the coffee table in front of her and put in a kid's movie to try to easy her nerves. She made herself a cup of tea and grabbed a muffin from the counter before settling into her favorite spot on the couch. Levy pulled the throw blanket from the back of the couch and wrapped it around her.
Just after one in the morning, Gajeel came home to find Levy asleep on the couch, Finding Nemo playing on the TV. Only the strange little blunette would watch a movie about a missing kid to find comfort while her own sister was missing. Shaking his head he picked the tiny woman up and carried her towards her room.
"Please don't leave me," the soft sleepy voice barely heard over the movie made the man pause to look down at his roommate. "Gajeel."
Levy was still sound asleep, talking as she drifted through her dreams, but those whispered, pain filled words ripped his heart to shreds. Gajeel pulled the girl a little closer and walked down the hall. Glad the girl left her door open, Gajeel slid into her room, surprised to see it hadn't changed at all. Her gypsy bag was still packed and lay forgotten on the foot of her bed. The clothes in the closest went untouched, the TV was still unplugged and the DVD player still in its box sat on the dresser. She may be staying here, but Levy didn't see this as her home, Gajeel realized, she thought she was only here til Wendy moved on to the next world. Those crimson eyes looked down at the girl in his scarred, pierced arms. Didn't she know he wanted her to stay even after?
Laying the girl in her bed, Gajeel left the room for the living room. As he shut Levy's door, Laxus's ringtone began to sing from him pocket. Hope filled his soul as he answered, "Yea?"
"We found her."
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AN: So this chapter was a little shorter than originally planned, but I wanted to get it out to you guys. R&R please.
