The sun was setting by the time Gajeel and Levy were able to walk back to the resort, not that they had been in a hurry. The view was stunning. The ocean sparkled like gems on fire in colors of blue that ran from nearly white to the dark depths of blues and greens. The sky had turned bright and russet, golden and red all mixed in together in streams of brilliant light.
Levy sighed happily and squeezed Gajeel's hand. "How gorgeous." She murmured, her voice a mere whisper as if not wanting to break their shared cocoon of silence. She leaned closer to him instinctively.
Gajeel wasn't blind to the beauty of nature, not even slightly. But his eyes slid to the petite woman who had been holding his hand, but now had both hands wrapped around his bicep as she smiled.
"Yer gorgeous." He murmured, then watched as his Levy's cheeks turned colors bright enough to rival the sunset before them. Gajeel grinned. He started to turn down the lane that would lead them to the resort's entrance. She didn't fall into step with him.
Gajeel turned, raising what would have been an eyebrow if it weren't decorated with iron piercings. He gave her a questioning glance. "Levy?"
"They tried to capture us." Levy said calmly.
"Poorly." Gajeel responded snidely, remembering the badly crafted spell sheet that he hadn't even tried to break. His and Levy's innate magic levels had broken the spell-binding without any effort on their part. He grunted, thinking he knew where she was going with this. "We need to be alert to who is surprised to see us return."
"Yes. No." Levy shook her head. "Of course. But they will already know that we weren't captured, there had been three people spying on us. They ran off when their spell didn't work."
The Dragonslayer nodded thoughtfully. "Plan?" He asked, knowing she'd already probably come up with something good. Her mind truly was a wonder. So it was a bit of a wonder to him when she merely shrugged.
"Why Levy McGarden. You don't have a plan?" He teased her with a rough chuckle.
The petite young woman scrunched up her nose at him. "More like too many plans, too many scenarios and not enough facts."
Gajeel nodded, but continued to tease her. It was who he was. "No plan from Levy. I never thought I'd see the day, wait … was it the sex? Did sex with me turn your poor brain to mush? Miss McGarden, I'm shocked."
"That's Mrs. Redfox." Snapped Levy, letting go of his arm and slapping his bicep instead. "Maybe Redfox's just aren't as smart as McGardens."
The warrior in him drew up straight, hissing, then he starting laughing. She frowned sharply and that made him laugh even harder. It took a minute or two for his humor to wind down to a broad smile. Levy stuck out her tongue at him and he sobered enough to give her a smoldering look.
"Don't." He warned. "Unless you plan to use that tongue on me."
Levy paused, eyeing her muscled husband. Not even a pretend husband, but the real deal. Her lover. A man whose gaze was nearly hot enough to burn her and turn her blood to steam. "Stop it." She said without heat.
"Never." He growled out the statement with conviction.
They both froze. Suddenly each was looking elsewhere. Never? Never? The word echoed in each of their brains.
Levy's thoughts reeled around about sex, possession, possible pregnancy, and utter embarrassment. Did he really mean NEVER? As in, did this mean until they got back home? Got an annulment? They were new lovers, surely it wasn't a confession of love and commitment? Her heartrate raced at the very thought.
Gajeel's mind was reeling as well. Did he really mean NEVER? What if she didn't want anything long term? What if she realized what an ass he really was sometimes? Gajeel winced, of course she knew that already. She probably wanted to run away from him right now. Was he turning into Juvia, pining for someone whose feelings weren't on the same level?
"Plan. We need a plan." Gajeel switched topics lightning fast, his own face heating up.
"Right." Levy jumped on the bandwagon. "Plan. We … go eat dinner and go dancing?"
Gajeel grimaced. "I can't dance, not formal and shit. And are you asking me on a date?"
"Cover story!" Levy blurted out. "Honeymoon!"
"Right, right." He groaned. Stupid, of course that's what she'd meant.
Levy visibly shook her hands out and Gajeel realized she'd let go of him and suddenly he felt chilled, on a personal level. His skin missed her touch and he had to clench his fists not to grab her hands and put them back on him. Not a good idea. No scaring the woman he'd married. The Dragonslayer snorted at the ridiculous thought. Levy was his wife. They were on a mission. He could touch her.
Only. Gajeel's hand froze as he started to reach for her and he turned the movement to pluck something imaginary from her hair and flick it away. He didn't want to seem needy in front of her. And he wanted her to touch him for reasons that had nothing to do with their mission.
"Okay. Basics. We were hired by Mrs. Milestone who owns the resort. At least six couples have gone missing in a little over a year."
Gajeel frowned. "We don't like Mrs. Milestone." He still remembered her rudeness on the train, toward himself and Levy but also to his Exceed cat, Pantherlily. In his estimation, that made her a bitch.
Levy didn't disagree. "But. If she were behind the disappearances, why hire wizards to solve the situation?"
Gajeel didn't have an answer and simply shrugged. He watched her thinking and felt the moment linger. "Too many guards at the resort. Thugs and muscle." He sneered, not impressed.
Levy nodded. "Someone tried to snare us. Why?"
Gajeel bared his teeth menacingly. "To get us out of the way." He held up a fist. "It's what I would do. Take out the strong."
"With a weak spell meant to capture, not harm?"
The Iron mage stilled, physically and mentally. "To take us as their next target couple? Could they be that stupid?"
Levy nodded slowly. "Maybe. Remember, Fairy Tail as a guild is now the lowest ranked. Maybe they thought they could?"
"They're idiots." He shook his head. "No. I doubt they are that dumb."
"I don't know, Gajeel." Levy spoke slowly. "I would have thought the same, but they used a spell sheet that was poorly written and used several times. That doesn't make them seem like genius level villains here."
"So? Plan yet?"
"Yes." Levy smiled intently, her bronze eyes rising to meet his gaze.
The night was warm with a nice breeze coming off the ocean. The sound of the waves didn't clash with the romantic music played by the resort's musicians. The moon hung low and fat over them, mid transition from full to half but still beautiful. The stars glowed brighter over the darkness of the ocean than it did over their home in Magnolia, or at least it seemed that way.
Levy felt a pinch of jealousy watching loving couples hold themselves closely and twirl around the dancefloor in the light from purchased magic-fairy lights. Her small foot twitched in time to the music.
Pantherlilly, sitting on their table and sipping kiwi juice, sent a questioning look over at Gajeel who seemed oblivious. "Nice night for dancing."
Wearing an outfit picked out for him by his wife, Gajeel glowered at the romantic tableau laid out before them. "How are they out of liver?"
"Because you ate their supply. Not the most popular item on the menu." Levy pointed out archly.
"You could take your mind off of having to make do with a juicy steak by dancing." The Exceed cat pointed out.
Gajeel growled loudly.
Pantherlily rolled his eyes, turning to give Levy a sympathetic look. "I tried."
Levy managed a weak smile, not admitting that she didn't know any of these couple dances either. Ballroom dancing. Not a skill in her repertoire. She filed the thought away to maybe look into it in the future. A look at Gajeel had her smile drooping. He probably wouldn't be interested in learning to dance and she knew that she didn't want to learn with anyone else. Maybe she was destined to be danceless.
Unless Gajeel tired of her. Unbidden, the horrid thought crossed her mind and stabbed her metaphorically with tiny, sharp swords. She slid her gaze back to her husband. Would he want to get an annulment immediately on returning to Fair Tail? No. No, he'd wait and make sure she wasn't pregnant, like they'd planned. So. In however long it took to finish this job, she had a new plan. Seduce her husband as often as possible and make him want to be with her and no one else.
"So. Is there a plan?" Pantherlily frowned absently as he finished his drink. Absently he yawned, giving a giant kitty stretch as well.
"Of course. I need to …" Levy said a bit shortly and then bit her tongue hard enough that she started coughing and sputtering, drawing attention from the tables closest to them. Even Gajeel gave her a look. She blushed, which seemed to confuse her husband. She wasn't going to tell him she'd almost told them the wrong plans! The ones to keep a husband and lover, not the to capture a villain.
"I mean, we need to …" Levy started to try and rectify the moment when a whirlwind of a woman dropped down into a chair technically at their table for Pantherlily, though the cat had chosen to sit on the table instead. "Sally?"
The blond tornado of an activities director smiled weakly at them. "Hello! Fantastic to see you both here tonight!" The nervous energy fairly radiated from the young woman in the sleek red dress that Levy secretly envied.
With pregnancy as a cover story, Levy had chosen a softer flowing dress in a rich butter cream-yellow with red embroidered flowers. It had a lovely empire waist but Levy was self-conscious that it didn't have the curves of the other woman. Still, she'd heard no complaints from Gajeel last night …. Or today … or even in the hour before they'd come down for the dancing. Only not to dance. For the plan. Levy swallowed a sigh and cast another lingering look towards the dance floor.
"Why? Miss us today?" Gajeel growl-crooned.
Levy's attention sharpened and she felt ashamed, musing over dresses and figures while Gajeel was actually working! She eyed Sally, mentally cataloguing her breathing and general emotional state. Was the resort's perky employee part of the plot?
Sally's color was high, but that could be excitement. "I wasn't sure you two would return to us today, you were gone so long."
Levy watched and listened carefully, suddenly sure that if Sally wasn't in on things, she at least knew something. "Why?" She asked in a tone meant to convey no real interest, which was a lie of course.
"How did you know we weren't simply camping out in our room?" Gajeel asked and Levy blinked, her cheeks pinking up a bit. She needed to stop blushing so much, it was embarrassing!
"Saw you storm off earlier." Sally shrugged. "And my friend Kerri saw you two sneak back in."
"Wasn't sneaking." Gajeel avowed. "Or you'd not have seen us."
Sally blinked twice in quick repetition, then she smiled so brightly her own eyes squinted shut. "Oh that's right. Wizards! I saw your markings."
"We really weren't hiding them." Levy pointed out gently as she reached for her wine glass. The vintage was alright and she'd have rather had juice or water, but the waiter had actually pointed out that wine was for adults, romantic adults. Levy had given in, not because the waiter was right, but for their cover story.
Sally shrugged lightly. "I've always wondered about magic. Do you use it all the time, or is it something you have to do ….things for?" She made her point by waving her arms and hands about in a vague attempt to look mysterious and magical while blowing out her cheeks and holding her breath.
"Trying to look like a squid?" Gajeel asked darkly, not at all clueless to the small sting of the insult.
Levy, in the act of sipping her wine, nearly choked. Not only was Gajeel being an ass, which she didn't approve, but it was toward Sally, which she kinda did approve …. But there was something wrong with the wine. Something in it, maybe?
Briefly Levy thought of using an anti-poison healing spell. But the problem with Solid Script magic was it was visible for all to see. And she might not want certain people to know she'd detected their trap.
Sally drew back as Levy spit her wine back into her glass. "Eww?"
"It's gone off." Levy said calmly with a reasonable tone, reaching for her husband's water. He'd not bowed to the waiter's efforts to get him to drink the wine.
Gajeel eyed her speculatively, his gaze flicking to the wine glass and back to Levy's face. His lips tightened slightly. Levy smiled on the inside, he'd understood. She then frowned as the Dragonslayer moved his water out of her reach, in fact knocking it off the table to spill at their feet.
"Gajeel?!"
"I think the water must be as off as the wine and the juice." The Dragonslayer said with a deep rumble that hinted at potential violence.
"Juice?" Levy turned to look at Pantherlily, and his empty cup of kiwi juice. The Exceed cat was curled up like a semi-colon, fast asleep. She reached over to pet him and the black cat didn't even stir. His body was warm and his breathing was steady, she was relieved to note. "Oh dear."
"Not everything is at it seems, nor is everyone as they seem." Sally whispered uncharacteristically. "You've been lucky, but maybe you shouldn't have come back here."
"You know something." Levy's fingers curled in Pantherlily's fur, not liking that he wasn't waking. "Is this poison?"
"Doubtful." Sally frowned and shook her head. "They don't want you, any of you, dead."
"They?" Gajeel said in the soft rumble that promised nothing good.
Sally shivered. "Not here. Meet me in two hours behind the laundry building."
Gajeel and Levy watched Sally rise and slip away into the crowd, laughing and socializing as she went.
"That was fast." The voice came from the cat whose eyes remained closed.
"Shut it." Gajeel whispered. "Yer supposed to be knocked out."
Levy nodded and picked up Pantherlily, cradling him gently as she and her husband made their way out of the social scene, heading back toward their room.
"Jealous of my cat."
Levy's ears twitched at the barely caught words, but she couldn't help but smile even as she ran a soft finger over the cat's nose, which twitched slightly.
"Is he purring?" Gajeel complained. Which only seemed to make Pantherlily purr louder.
The couple made their way upstairs and they slowed as they approached their door. "Levy."
"I feel it." She said quietly. Her plan was working. Let themselves get 'caught'. Find out what was going on.
Gajeel grinned as he opened the door to their room and simply walked inside. A quick puff of smoked from twin spell sheets on either side had his nose wrinkling in disgust.
Levy frowned and looked around the empty room. Pantherlily leapt free of her arms and settled on the bed in a battle stance, though not yet triggering his larger battle form.
Gajeel kicked at one of the two spell sheets. He sighed heavily. "How are we supposed to let them catch us if they're this weak?"
Levy shrugged in disappointment and picked up one of the two sheets. "Still poor spell crafting, some transpositions and poor grammar. Freed would faint if he saw how bad these were."
Gajeel ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "I guess we could still meet Sally later. That's gotta be a trap, right?"
"Why would she set up a meeting if this was their attempt to capture us?" Levy sighed in consternation. "Oh well, we have two hours to figure out a new plan."
Gajeel frowned. "Plan was easy, let them take us. Lean what we needed. Beat them up."
"Not beat them up." Levy corrected. "Turn them in."
"Whatever." Gajeel balled up his fists and rolled his neck, wanting to hit something, or someone. "How do we help them take us prisoner? They're not doing so great a job on their own."