So I know this chapter is long, the longest one yet but there was really no way for me to split it up because all the next few chapters, like the last one as well, are going to be longerish. Hopefully it isn't too long that you start to lose interest, but I really like the Gajeel meets Lily story so I'm hoping its worth it, enjoy!

It was after supper, bath and bedtime before Gray was able to pick up the files again. At one time he'd had an at home office but it was turned into Lyra's bedroom when she moved from the crib to a toddler bed. So now he did his homework in the living room while sprawled out on the couch, usually with a beer or two and some kind of a game on for background noise.

He finally picked up the last file, Bluenote Stinger, which had to be some kind of an alias, and opened it apprehensively. It was just as disturbing and ambiguous as the others; all they had were potential crimes that were believed to have been done by him but since he was a ghost like most of the others they had no way to know for sure. He closed the file and drank the last little bit of his third beer, he hoped that whatever Erza was doing was fun because she had definitely stuck him with a tiresome task. Gray heard his cell phone start buzzing from the coffee table beside him; he checked the caller display and saw that it was Mest.

"Hey," he answered. "How did things go this afternoon?"

"Interesting," Mest answered. "I know it's late but I thought that it would be better to call later on."

"Yeah, thanks. Interesting huh? Care to explain more?"

"Well, we stopped by at the office first and Laxus seemed genuinely surprised about the whole thing at the salon…"

"But?" Gray could sense the unspoken word.

"But, Laxus wouldn't give me a straight answer about where Natsu was, plus there was a file on the desk with the roommate's name on it."

Gray couldn't remember the name off the top of his head, but it was an interesting connection. "And her apartment?"

"There was no answer at the door which wasn't surprising but then one of her neighbours came out and told us that he had spoken to her right around the time she was taken. She texted him and told him that they would both be gone for a few days, but this is the most interesting part. Earlier he saw the roommate with a man coming out of the apartment and they had bags with them, when he tried to ask her what was going on she was very evasive. I can't be sure but the man he described sounded an awful lot like Gajeel Redfox."

Gray felt a ping in the pit of his stomach at the mention of Gajeel's name, Mest had no idea about him being a person of interest in the Zoldeo murder case. Could it be a coincidence that he was possibly connected to this as well? Then Gray had another thought.

"The roommate, she doesn't have blue hair does she?"

"I don't know, I've never actually seen her. That's the second time you've asked me that question, why?"

Gray knew he had to be careful about what he told Mest but the man was tenacious enough that he probably wouldn't let it go without something. "Gajeel is a person of interest in another case right now and it involves an unidentified girl with blue hair. Lucy is blonde but we don't know anything about the roommate, these cases might even be connected."

"Well you won't know until you talk to at least one of them, but from the sounds of it Laxus has them tucked away somewhere and the way he was this afternoon I don't think he's in a very helpful mood."

Gray groaned inwardly, having grown up with Laxus he knew how stubborn the man could be, especially when it came to his work. Pretty much the only chance they would have at finding out information was waiting for them to turn up. "Thanks Mest, I will do a little more digging tomorrow and see if I can find a more solid connection between the girls and the Dragons."

"No problem, let me know if you need any more help."

They disconnected and Gray sat leaned back against the couch. Everything was becoming an intricate mess and that worried him. Juvia came into the living room carrying Gage who was fresh out of the bath, his long hair was sticking straight up in tuffs of soft baby fluff. It was a little ironic that his youngest son had been named after the very same man who was giving him the most grief right now. He could always try asking his wife about him and any potential connections to Grimoire Heart, the two of them had been close since they were teenagers and even though they had started leading different lives they still had a strong bond. But asking about Juvia's past life had always yielded mixed results, Gray knew there were some things about his wife that he would never find out and he was understanding about that. Juvia sat down on the other side of the couch and put their son between them, Gray reached out and tickled him under the chin.

"Work?" Juvia asked motioning to the stack of files on the coffee table beside Gray.

"A case," he answered, trying to figure out the best way to approach the subject. "What do you know about Grimoire Heart?"

Juvia's pretty face, which had been unconsciously smiling when he sat down, went into a tight frown. "Juvia does not know much about Grimoire Heart," she told her husband solemnly. "But Juvia does know that they are dangerous and Juvia was told to stay away from them, no exceptions." Gray didn't want to pry further but Juvia had a way of sensing his unspoken questions.

"Is that what is troubling Gray so much with his work?" She asked him with concern, glancing at the files again. "Juvia does not like it."

"It's my job," Gray explained gently. "It's what I do; I go after the bad guys."

"Juvia knows this and Juvia is proud of Gray and Gray's work, but it worries Juvia because it is dangerous and she cannot be with Gray, to help him."

"You do help Juvia, by being here and protecting our family you make it so that I can go out and do my job without worrying."

"But Juvia wants to be on Gray's side," she insisted.

"You are on my side." Gray thought about the first time they had met, it was the only time when Juvia hadn't been on his side even though it had taken him a few years after to realize it. They were wild teenagers caught up in a feud between their different gangs; Gray had ended up beating her but then saving her when the rest of her friends had abandoned her. It was then she had decided to turn her life around and had asked old man Makarov for his help, she had been right there beside him ever since. Juvia might be a little peculiar and have some pretty strange quirks, but she was loyal and faithful. "Even if you aren't by my side all of the time."

She let out a sigh. "Juvia could talk to someone-"

"No," Gray knew he made that one word sound more ominous than it needed to but he was regretting bringing it up now. "I don't need you to do that, I will handle it."

The last thing he needed was for her to go poking around and get caught up in this. Juvia smiled and gathered sleepy Gage into her lap and then moved over to cuddle against her husband's side, laying her head on his shoulder. Gray put his arm around his wife and pulled her even closer to him so that she was practically sitting in his lap. They sat there in silence as their son fell in his parent's arms and it made Gray feel the best he had been all day, this was what made his job worthwhile, his family.

Gajeel felt the hit take him on the shoulder but he managed to lean back enough that most of the impact was lost and it was only a small burst of sudden pain. He had his hands up and was able to block the next punch easily before reciprocating with his own right hook to his opponent's jaw that was dodged right in the nick of time. Gajeel and his opponent went back in forth in the sparring ring, neither landing any solid blows but it was a quick and dynamic match.

"You're getting faster," Gajeel observed in an uncharacteristically happy tone. "And smarter."

His opponent threw his head back in an effort to move a chunk of hair as black as Gajeel's out from in front of his piercing dark eyes, his slightly pale skin was glistening with sweat across his bare torso and shoulders. Gajeel took advantage of the distraction and jabbed at his right kidney with a jarring thud, the other man grunted slightly and got out of the way before the second hit could connect fully but he was too winded to try and land his own strike. "And then you go and do something like that," Gajeel continued. He pointed with a gloved hand to his own long hair which was tried back in a low pony tail.

"Understood," the man ground out between his teeth and then in the same second shot out a kick to Gajeel's left kneecap. It connected hard enough for him to fall back slightly but not do any permanent damage, Gajeel danced backwards and managed to block the next kick to his liver but it unfortunately pushed him into the ropes. There was some pushing and shoving with small punches to critical areas on each side before Gajeel managed to escape. Despite his larger size and longer reach he preferred distance fighting to up close, which was his opponent's strength.

It was time to end this for tonight, Gajeel thought to himself. He was tired, his muscles were starting to throb in protest despite the endorphins flowing though his body and he had a long day to look forward to tomorrow. It took a few more back and forth bouts before he saw his opening, his opponent was getting tired as well and was not used to long fights like this so he was not lifting his blocks as high as they should have been. Gajeel faked a left jab to his chest which he moved to block immediately but left his face wide open, halfway through the motion Gajeel switched up and put most of his remaining power behind a right shot to the jaw. It connected solidly and the other man flew back into the ropes, nearly throwing him over but he managed to catch himself on the top one and fall down to one knee instead.

"Aw Rogue," another man called out from the ringside. "He got you."

Rogue was still too dazed and trying to catch his breath to reply right away but lifted up the hand that was not still clutching the top rope in acknowledgement. Gajeel went to the opposite ringside and picked up a clear bottle of water, he emptied it over his head and then shook his body like a dog before starting to un-wrap his hands.

"Again," Rogue called out from his side as he unsteadily climbed to his feet with help from the rope. "Let's go again."

Gajeel shook his head. "Nope, Laxus will kick my ass if you show up black and blue for work tomorrow. Put some ice on your face otherwise your jaw will swell." He gathered his water bottle and gloves before climbing through the ropes and jumped down onto the gym floor. Sounds from the other people working out drifted to his ears, but there were not too many left at this time of the night.

"I still don't know why you didn't bring Natsu with you." The other man, the one who had spoken from before, caught up to him on his way to the locker room.

"I told you Sting, Natsu is working," Gajeel explained patiently. He didn't mention that he was also under house arrest for being an impulsive dumbass, but he would find that out tomorrow, Gajeel didn't feel like dodging any more questions tonight.

He stripped off his shorts and underwear before stepping into one of the single shower stalls, pulling the tie out of his hair he leaned back into the water and let it flow all over him. He inwardly catalogued his injuries, nothing beyond a few minor bruises and tenderness. He reached up and poked at a spot on the side of his face where he knew there was a small and almost unnoticeable bruise. That one did not come from this fight, but from the night before and that girl, or her purse to be more exact. He turned off the water and grabbed one of the clean towels from the pile beside the door, wrapping it around his waist before walking back out into the main dressing room.

Rogue was standing in front of one of the mirrors by the lockers checking out his red jawline. "Don't poke at it," Gajeel scolded. "Or it will just swell more." Rogue gave him a half glare but moved away from the mirror and stripped off his own shorts.

He passed Sting coming out of the showers without a word but the blond man broke out into a wide grin. "Man, getting beaten has put him in a bad mood." Gajeel just grunted as he toweled off and changed back into his street clothes. Sting started whistling as he dropped his towel and admired his physique in the mirror before getting dressed.

"So, what is this big secret mission about anyway?" He asked casually like he was trying to make conversation. Gajeel shot him a sharp look and glanced around the room to make sure they were alone.

"Relax," Sting chided as he pulled his t-shirt over his head. "It's past ten; we are practically the only ones here."

"That doesn't matter," Gajeel replied while stuffing his things back into his gym bag. "This isn't anything like you've done so far, it could be really dangerous if the wrong people hear."

Instead of taking the warning, Sting became even more interested. "Common, it can't be that bad."

The young guy had an almost unshakable amount of self-confidence that at times it could be maddening, it was both one of his worst and better qualities because it meant he would never give up trying once he took the challenge. Rogue came back from the showers then, his shaggy hair slicked back and dripping. Gajeel weighed the decision of telling them about the case so far, on the one hand it might be better that they have an idea of what they are walking into tomorrow but on the other it might give them time to develop wild ideas.

"Alright," he said finally to their attentive ears. "I'll give you the short version." Sting and Rogue listened quietly as he told them about the events from the night before. It seemed like it was getting quicker to tell the story each time he said it, but it might have been just because he left parts of it out that they didn't need to know, like how he got hit by a purse.

"Damn," Sting muttered when he had finished the part about the murder. "That is a lot of work down the drain…"

Gajeel shared some of his thoughts but felt like maybe he wasn't getting the big picture. "Then I found out this morning that they were going after the girl."

"The girl?"

Gajeel almost did a face palm in aggravation. "The girl that was in the alley with me when Zoldeo was murdered, I found out who she was and got to her before the killer did." He explained about taking her and her roommate to Gramp's place for safe keeping. "Laxus will tell you anything else you need to know tomorrow, but that is the situation in a nutshell."

Rogue had the sense to look a little apprehensive but Sting's face broke out into a grin again. "Finally! A real case instead of all that boring spywork." He was practically bubbling with misplaced excitement. Gajeel sighed; he would learn soon enough what a "real" case was like and how messy it could get.

He picked up his gym bag and threw it over his shoulder. "I will see you guys tomorrow." He didn't wait for a reply before heading out of the dressing room and then the building.

The small gym was in a bit of a seedier part of Magnolia but it was one of the only places that would stay open until all hours of the night or didn't care if you got a little bit of blood on the floor. He walked the two blocks back to his apartment in solitary silence, which was his preferred state of being if he had to be honest.

Gajeel lived in the top left half of split duplex that looked way nicer on the inside than it did on the outside. Two small bedrooms, a bathroom and one larger living area with almost a full kitchen was all he needed and it kept him from getting attached to things and accumulating too much stuff. Back in his criminal days he had often had to leave without much more than the clothing on his back, only a few things had managed to stay with him since with short-lived childhood. He opened the door to his apartment and was greeted by a loud half-meow and half-growl from the large black cat sprawled out on his old and threadbare couch. He hadn't so much decided to keep the cat as much as he couldn't seem to get rid of him.

One day not long after Gajeel had moved in nearly three years ago, the large tom cat had been prowling outside by the dumpsters looking for his next meal. He had stuck around for a few days before Gajeel decided to feed him some kitchen scraps instead of letting him rip the bags open anyway. It was a few weeks after that that Gajeel saw him defending his territory against another stray cat in the alley, all the fur on his back was straight in the air and his tail as thick as a bottle brush. He could relate to the cat, when you found a little piece of something to call your own you had to fight for it.

It went on like that until one day Gajeel was walking passed the dumpster and he heard a terrible sound, like a wail of pain. So he looked all around it but couldn't find anything until he heard it again and realized it was coming from across the alleyway. He poked around in some bushes until he finally found the body of the black dumpster cat, bleeding heavily from bite marks that looked like they came from a dog. The cat eyed him suspiciously and then cried again, trying to move his front legs in order to move away but not being able to get very far.

Most of Gajeel's senses were screaming at him to leave the dying cat alone and that there was nothing he could do about it, it wasn't his cat anyway. But the other part of Gajeel won out and he took off his sweater and gently gathered the cat up, to its loud objections, and went off in search of a vet. He must have walked twenty blocks and asked a dozen people but he finally found a walk-in emergency vet clinic where he could leave the cat. The lady at the front desk took one look at the bundle in his arms and then rushed him back into the operating room.

"What did you do to your cat?!" She screeched at him while unwrapping the sweater to assess the cat's injuries. "These look like dog bites!"

"First of all lady, I didn't do anything to that cat," Gajeel scowled back at her. He was tired of everyone always assuming the worst when looking at him, although some of the time they were right. "Secondly, it's not my cat; he just eats out of my dumpster sometimes." Then the vet and his assistants came in and they were ordered to clear the room.

Gajeel went to leave when he receptionist stopped him. "Hey, you have to stay until I get the paperwork filled out for your cat."

Gajeel stopped and glared at her, was she stupid or something? "I just told you lady, that isn't my cat, I just found him, he belongs to nobody."

"But you brought him in here to get looked at didn't you?" She started scratching something on a piece of paper. "That must mean that you somewhat care about him."

"I just did what any decent human being would do, that doesn't mean I want the cat. Find somebody else to take him."

"What's his name?" She asked him absently.

"What?" Gajeel didn't understand the question, wasn't she listening to anything he was saying?

"The cat," she repeated. "What's his name? For his file," she clarified, like it would explain everything.

"He doesn't have a name. I told you, he's some stray alley cat that eats out of my dumpster sometimes and I found him beat up like that under a lily bush so I brought him here so you could fix him up."

"Hmm…" She scribbled on the paper. 'Lily it is then…"

"What?! You can't name him something like that!"

"Why?" She asked absently. "It's better than 'Dumpster' or 'Black Cat'."

"Because he's a boy cat, he needs a manly name like Spike or Butch or Panther, not a flower." Gajeel realized that he had been pulled into this despite his best efforts.

"Hmm…" The receptionist sounded thoughtful. "'Panther Lily' has a nice ring to it." She scribbled again. Gajeel had finally had enough. "Whatever," he growled as he stalked out of the door and headed back home. It should have ended there, but all that night and the next day he couldn't help but wonder about that cat, whether or not it lived. Finally, once again against his better judgement, he went back to the vet clinic to check in on the cat. When he walked through the door the same receptionist was at the front desk.

She gave him a knowing glance. "Did you come back to see your cat?" She asked him.

He scowled. "I just want to know if he lived or not," he replied stubbornly.

"Come back here and I'll show you." She led him back to the recovery kennels and opened one of the top cages. The black cat was inside, he looked like he was sleeping peacefully despite the shaved fur and white bandages that covered a large portion of his body.

"Right now we are keeping him lightly sedated so that he doesn't try and bite his way out of the bandages," she explained. "But despite his injuries we think that he will make a full recovery, he is already drinking water on his own which is a really good sign."

Despite himself Gajeel reached out a hand and scratched the sleeping cat behind a notched ear. "So…" He began apprehensively. "Where is he going to go when he gets better?"

The receptionist sighed. "Well, if no one claims him we will have to turn him over to the animal shelter. He is out of the woods now and there isn't a reason for him to stay here anymore, he just needs recovery time before he will completely healthy again. We just don't have the room to keep him here any longer than we have to so he could be going there as soon as tomorrow."

"But they will find him a home right?"

The receptionist shrugged and then stepped back so she could close the kennel. "That depends; he is a very healthy and strong cat but at least five or six years old, most people adopting cats like little kittens or young adults. He also looks pretty scary with all the scarring he will have and his size, not something that families usually look for in a new pet."

Gajeel realized that she was basically telling him that the black cat's days were numbered unless a miracle happened. "I'll take him," he said quietly, not even fully realizing what he had just said. "Don't take him to the shelter, I'll come and get him tomorrow."

The receptionist smiled at him and he thought that she was going to hug him too. She led him back out to the front office. "Here," she handed him a pamphlet with the caption EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR NEW CAT! on it. "You're going to have to pick up some food and a litter box, and then once he gets healthy again a scratching post and some toys. That should help. Come back tomorrow around two and pick him up."

Gajeel realized once he left what he had agreed to and he ground his teeth in annoyance, what the hell did he just do that for? He wasn't a pet person, and he definitely wasn't a cat person. Regardless, he got the cat food and the litter box and made up a bed for him like the pamphlet told him too. When he went back to the vet clinic the next day they gave him the cat in an open faced cardboard box with enough meds to keep him groggy for the next week before he would be healed enough to walk around.

"But make sure that he eats at little bit at least every day and drinks a lot of water," the receptionist told him as she handed the box over. "And regulate his litter, if it doesn't look like he is going to the bathroom you have to bring him back in again."

Oh joy, Gajeel thought to himself, he already was not keen on the idea of cleaning a litter box as it was. "So, um, how much do I owe you?" He asked awkwardly. He had just started his new job with the Dragons and he wasn't making a lot of money yet.

But to his relief the receptionist waved him off. "The vet agreed to do this for free if it meant he went to a good home. We have gotten kind of fond of Lily the last couple of days."

Gajeel rolled his eyes at the name, he would be changing it as soon as he could, but he thanked her and promised to bring him in a couple of weeks for a check-up.

The first few days the cat didn't do much except eat and sleep, which the occasional growl thrown in. Once he was healed enough to be moving around he quickly grew accustomed to his new surroundings. No longer able to keep him in a cardboard box, Gajeel had to break down and buy him a portable kennel so he could take him to the vet's again, he was given a clean bill of health and the vet said that his recovery was astounding.

Gajeel never did find him a better name, most of the time he referred to him as "the cat" or just "cat" anyway but he did eventually start calling him Lily like everyone else. After three years together Gajeel and Lily had become reluctant but empathetic roommates and when Gajeel collapsed on his couch after his long day he felt the familiar weight of his tom cat climb onto his chest. Lily started to purr as he curled up under Gajeel's chin, a rare thing but it was like he could sense the man's long and stressful day. Gajeel reached up and scratched him in the usual spot behind the ears before closing his eyes and joining the cat in sleep.