Authors Notes: AHOY! LET'S FIND ONE PIECE AND BECOME PIRATE KING! Oh wait, wrong fandom. Let me start again...
AYE SIR!
There we go(;
Here's the first chapter of my new story, Iron Shadows. This is GaLe but with a sprinkle of another sexy Dragon Slayer named Rogue. Maybe a little NaLu if you squint.
As usual, I do not own Fairy Tail!
Enjoy and R&R :)
Chapter 1 - Men are Infuriating!
After the Grand Magic Games and the battle of dragons, the mages of Fairy Tail came back to Magnolia surprisingly suffering only minor damage. They all decided to take a little break, many people going out on small missions or just gathering at the guild. Levy took this time to finally move out of her room in Fairy Hills. She had found a beautiful place that was fairly close to the guild and plenty of space for her books. It was a two-bedroom apartment with a spectacular view of the city – it was cozy and perfect. She had filled one of the bedrooms with bookshelves and books (shocker) and the other bedroom was for her bed and another bookshelf for a collection of her favorite books she liked to keep close.
She was elated; she had a home to call her own and a place where should could read without any interruptions.
At least, until Mira and Lisanna began to "help" her.
Levy opened the door to her apartment tiredly, sighing as she removed her high heels and tossed it on the nearby couch. Men were so infuriating! She had come back from another blind date set up by the Strauss sisters, both claiming that he was perfect for her. Yeah, they had claimed that for the last three guys too.
This date didn't really work out either. She was on a roll here; maybe she was meant to be alone and single forever? A picture of her surrounded by only books and multiple cats popped up in her mind. It didn't sound too bad...
No. It did sound bad. Why couldn't she find someone that could sweep her off her feet and take her in his arms while kissing her until she couldn't breathe and take her to his castle and love her until she couldn't feel...
Yeah, she needed to stop with the romance books.
She shook off her dress with a huff and pulled on her pajamas. The date was running smoothly in the beginning. At first glance her date was charming and fairly attractive; he had navy blue hair and beautiful aqua eyes to match. But halfway into their meal she found that he was extremely arrogant and he had the nerve to stare at their waitress' ass blatantly in front of her! Unbelievable!
She had bit her lip and begrudgingly tried her best to go through with her date without trying to burn the man to ashes. But when he walked her home and wrapped his arms around her for a kiss, she hastily said goodbye and slammed the door in his face. Hard.
Hopefully she wasn't going to hear from him again.
Levy checked the time: 7:00 p.m. She groaned and crawled into her bed trying to erase every memory of the guys she's had a date with for the past week. She didn't know why she even accepted these dates.
In the eighteen years Levy had lived she had never had a certain "type" that she was attracted too. Like any other single female, strong and good looking was on her list but she had never had a straightforward "type" she swooned over. Maybe that was her problem. She didn't really know what she wanted.
Levy shook her head from her frustrating thoughts and curled up on her bed, hugging a pillow and wallowing in her own sadness. The one person she was actually attracted to was as dense as Natsu. She had dropped hints over and over again but he still didn't get it. She growled and threw her pillow at her bedroom door, imagining the Iron Dragon Slayers face.
Why were men so damn challenging?
She pulled the covers over herself and tried to fall asleep, hoping that maybe with some sleep all her boy problems would be solved.
Yeah, as if.
As she was about to fall sleep, she heard rough knocks on her door. She frowned and checked the clock. It was almost 8, who could be here?
She yawned and rubbed the sleep off her eyes and made her way to the door. She stood there dumbfounded when she found a stoic faced Dragon Slayer and his cat on her doorway.
"Gajeel?"
Gajeel growled as his cat forcefully ran a brush through his hair.
"Watch where ya pull, ya damn cat!"
Lily snorted and pulled even harder, finally getting the brush through the tangles of thick black hair.
"If you would brush frequently we wouldn't have this problem." Lily scolded but received only a grunt in response.
"What's the point of this anyways, we're only going to see the bookworm." Gajeel complained, chewing on a piece of iron obnoxiously. Lily began to run the brush through his hair again, ignoring the growling mage beneath him.
"Don't you want to look decent for her at least?" Lily retorted, hiding a small grin as he noticed a red blush paint his partner's face.
"Wh-why would I want to do that?" Gajeel looked to his left to cover his face from the cat. Lily rolled his eyes; he knew they both had feelings for each other and couldn't understand why no one made a move. He yanked the brush one last time and finally finished brushing the mage's hair. He let out a yell of victory.
"I have conquered the monster that is Gajeel's hair!" Lily bowed at the air as if there were people clapping for him, but his imagination was cut short when Gajeel threw a pillow at the his face.
"Let's go already." Gajeel pulled on a black v-neck that complimented his chiseled body and his usual khaki pants. He ran a hand through his hair, surprised that it was actually soft and not its usual knotted mess. He flung open the door to his home and stomped out. Lily scowled at his partner's impatience but quickly followed, closing the door behind him.
"Wait, do you even know where she lives?"
"...yeah."
"Gajeel, how many times do I have to tell you. Stalking is a bad habit."
"Shut it, damn cat!"
When they got to the front of her apartment door, Gajeel didn't hesitate to bang her door wildly. Lily just rolled his eyes at his rudeness. A soft click was heard and the door opened to a very tired looking solid script mage. Gajeel had to bite his tongue to control an incoming nosebleed.
She was wearing a large t-shirt that clung on to her lean body and reached halfway up her thighs. Her hair was ruffled as if she was just in bed and she let out a small yawn. Her eyes were halfway open and she was rubbing the sleep off them with her hands. So fucking adorable.
"Gajeel?" Oh god even her sleep-induced voice was adorable. Gajeel couldn't seem to form any words from his lips and stood paralyzed there paralyzed, but Lily jumped to the rescue and spoke for him.
"Hello Levy. Seems as if you were sleeping. Is this a bad time?" Levy smiled at his politeness but opened her door all the way.
"No, it's all right, please come in!" She glanced at the still frozen dragon slayer and giggled shyly.
"Are you feeling okay Gajeel?"
When Gajeel nodded but didn't make any effort to move, she grabbed his wrist and pulled him into her home. While Levy was closing the door, Lily punched Gajeel lightly on the thigh helping him regain his composure. Lily threw him a "get a hold of yourself" look and casually walked over to the couch and made himself comfortable. Gajeel scowled at Lily and followed after, plopping himself down next to him. When Levy turned back to her guests grinned softly at the sight; it was unusually endearing seeing the usually brash man cuddling next to a small cat. Although she knew Lily could be just as ferocious as the man next to him. She waved off her thoughts and made her way next to Gajeel.
"So, why are you guys here?" She questioned, staring at Gajeel's suspiciously brushed hair. Of all the times she had seen him she had never seen his hair so perfectly kept.
Before Lily could answer, Gajeel frowned and scrunched his nose.
"Bookworm, you reek."
"Excuse me?!"
"No, I mean you smell like..." Levy tensed up as he aggressively grabbed her and sniffed around, reminding her of a dog. "You smell like a guy." He concluded.
A blush had formed on Levy's face at the close proximity between them.
"Oh, it's probably because-," she stopped herself when she remembered her date grabbing her for a kiss. She turned another shade of red. She couldn't say that. "You're probably smelling the guy I was with a couple hours ago...a date." Levy's breath hitched as she saw a flicker of anger in his crimson eyes.
"Don't worry he didn't try anything. I kind of slammed the door in his face before he could." She hastily reassured the mage as Lily chuckled beside them. Gajeel let go of her, grumbling something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like "how dare he touch her". She raised her eyebrow but brushed it off.
"So, why are you two here?" She asked again and Gajeel looked at Lily then back at her. He pulled out a crumpled piece of paper and placed it on the coffee table in front of them.
Levy reached out and read it, her eyes widening.
"'Help wanted: catch several bandits. Beware, their leader is a strong mage. Reward is 1,000,000 jewels.' One million jewels just to take out a group of thugs?!" Levy exclaimed looking wide eyed at Gajeel.
"Yup." Gajeel nodded.
"If you're up for it you can partner up with us, Levy. We'll evenly split the reward of course." Lily told her. Levy beamed and pulled Lily into a tight hug.
"Of course I'll go!" Gajeel laughed at Lily's face in her tight grasp.
"That's settled then. We'll pick ya up at your place tomorrow around noon. Don't sleep in, Shorty." Gajeel teased, knowing Levy's habit of staying up late while reading.
"I promise I won't." Levy beamed up at him. She heard Lily let out a noise of discomfort so she let him out from her grasp, tossing him an apologetic look. She smiled at the two again and stood up.
"Well since you guys are here let me grab some snacks!" She skipped her way to the kitchen and grabbed a kiwi for Lily and a couple other snacks for herself and Gajeel. She pondered for a moment and wrote out "Solid Script: Iron" and placed the iron on the tray as well. She came back to the two mages and placed the snacks on the table. Gajeel immediately dug into his iron while Lily's eyes sparkled at the sight of the kiwi. Levy looked at the contented boys and smiled. She pulled out a deck of cards from the drawer beneath the table and began to shuffle them.
"Now, who's up for some card games?"