In the late morning Gajeel slowly opened his eyes to the room around him, his eyes found Levy as he watched her write on her naked, love bitten, and passion bruised skin with her pen while standing before a dingy full size mirror that hung on the wall by the door. He could not help but observe her as he felt the proof of his passion on her skin made her all the more beautiful.
"What'r'ya doin?" he asked while propping himself up from the mattress with his arms, startling the small woman. She sucked in a sharp inhale as she turned to the dragonslayer, but levy's fear quickly ebbed into relief and a chortle as she backed away from the mirror.
"Oh! Gajeel, you dummy, you scared me! I'm just concealing some of...these..." The Fairy Tail mage turned her nude form around to both show Gajeel, and admire with her own hooded eyes, the small bruises and and marks that covered her fair skin.
She smiled sheepishly as she continued, "it's not that I wish to cover them up, but given my small stature and all; if anyone from the guild were to see me like this, they would become ridiculous about me going on missions solo."
"Well that's stupid! Don't they trust ya?" Gajeel questioned as she returned to writing her magic on her delicious soft skin. Watching how every pen stroke caused the evidence of his love for her to fade away.
"You would think," Levy answered while focused on her work, "considering the group missions I go on end up with me doing more of the work than my comrades. I may be small, and my magic isn't very offensive. But as you know, it is how I use my magic that makes me strong. Sometimes strength is more about how cunning you can be with your magic rather than how much power you can force behind it.
The Iron Dragon curled his lip into a smile. She was truly incredible.
"Promise me," he commanded from the bed stopping Levy in the middle of her spells.
"Gajeel..."
"When this war breaks out, and I know it will, promise me ya'll let me pull ya outta harms way."
"But my-" Levy tried to argue but was interrupted with a shout and a hard thud as Gajeel struck the headboard with the bottom of his fist.
"Damn it, woman, I don't care about yer friends! Hell I don't even care about my own damn guild!" the dragonslayer quickly left the bed,the bed sheet that covered him slid away from him silkily as he stormed up to Levy. He grabbed his lover's shoulders before pulling her into a tight embrace. His face fell into her wild hair; it was soft and her scent was like a truth serum as he let his guard down and whispered, "Please. Just let me do this. I don't wanna lose ya."
Levy returned the embrace and held her ear to his chest, hearing his beating heart that now belonged to her. A monotone melody that, she wondered, had faintly been heard by anyone else. The script mage could not reject that gentle beating that reverberated within him. In her thoughts on sunny days, dreaming about what love could be like, she never imagined how powerful a feeling could be. She assumed nothing in Earthland existed with the power to forsake her family.
"I promise," she sighed into his firm tanned chest. "I'll run away with you when the time comes."
They held each other in a comfortable silence before separating to finish packing and readying themselves to go their separate ways. These were their last hours in the City of Thieves.
After leaving the inn their walk to the train station was long and solemn with both mages walking slowly through the streets to prolong their last moments together. Other than the occasional small talk the stroll through the city was also a quiet one to boot. Upon reaching the station levy purchased her ticket back to Magnolia from a small old man who reminded her of her guild master. Typically seeing familiar faces of her guild mates in strangers made her eager to return home, but today it only caused melancholy to stew in her stomach.
Gajeel stood behind her a few feet from the ticket kiosk. She would probably wish for him to join her for the ride back home but he rather her not see him fall ill from motion sickness from the train. It always made him feel embarrassed for anyone to see how weak transportation made him.
She turned and walked to him after receiving her ticket, he heard the words before they even left her soft full lips, "You're not getting a ticket? This train makes a stop as it passes through Oak Town."
Trying hard to retain his confidence he shook his head and replied, "Nah, I'd rather walk. It'll give me time ta think about some things."
The Fairy Tail mage was curious if Gajeel's decision to walk was for the same reason her friend and guild mate Natsu always declined the use of transportation, wondering if all dragonslayers had a deficiency for uncontrolled motion. She found it easier to leave the curiosity a mystery for the time being. "Would you at least wait for the train with me at the platform? I feel like there's so much to talk about before we go our separate ways." Levy paused before continuing, "I don't want to say 'goodbye' yet."
"Then don't," was all that Gajeel stated to the blunette as he brushed a stray lock of hair that escaped her headband behind her ear with a rough calloused hand. The Iron Dragon felt the same, not wanting to return to the routine of his everyday being around so many hooligans he honestly wanted nothing to do with. He did not want what he had before him to be a passing ship in the ocean voyage of life, but that was neither here nor there, she had to go home to her guild and he had to give in, he had to let her go.
"C'mon, let's get ya to tha train before I decide ta take ya back ta Phantom Lord," he added as he reached for her hand, leading her to the train's platform.
"G-Gajeel!" She called out as he pulled her stumbling form down the station's wide hallway and outside to the sunny wooden platform.
"What?" He turned to her seeing a determined woman with fire in her eyes.
"Why are you being so calm about this!?" Levy demanded an answer for his sudden behavior. She could not shake the feeling that maybe somewhere in her extraordinary mind she had doubts about her feelings; mainly of whether or not he reciprocated them.
Gajeel stood tall before her, the sun eclipsed by his great form, he was dark and his red eyes glowed like stoked coals in a fire as he stared into her own that shimmered like gold in the sunshine. It were as if the light of the world had met darkness for the first time, unaware of how they both needed the other to simply exist.
"There ain't nothing calm about me," his voice was quiet but rough with a miasma of emotions he was withholding. He was frightening and beautiful to the script mage, and Levy's heart began to beat like a war drum within her ribs. "I wanna steal ya from Fairy Tail, I wanna go rogue from Phantom Lord. But I know how ya fairies are about yer loyalty, and well, I like tha dirty work I get ta do for my own guild." Gajeel ended with a dark chuckle and a grin to match.
"But," He added with a sudden change in his tone, "ya do somethin' ta me and I'm startin' ta think I know what it is. 'N' because of that I am anything but calm."
With those last word, Gajeel brought his hands together. He held one hand open while the other had his fingers clustered to a point as he placed the bundled fingertips at the center of his open palm. The iron mage pulled his hand away from his open palm as a thin trail of iron followed his fingertips, subtle movements of his hand added shape to the iron as he created it with his magic. The result of his spell revealed an iron quill much like the one Mira had gifted Levy. But unlike the golden light pen's soft feather fringe, the dragonslayer formed the feather to resemble dragon scales.
Gajeel grasped the iron quill in the hand that molded it and reached for Levy's small hand with the other before placing the offering into it lovingly. His gentleness reminiscent of their first kiss the night before. Staring at the gift now in her hand, the scrip mage understood the gravity of her lover's internal battle, and how remarkable it was that someone as notorious as he would have the heart to be compelled to make such an amorous gesture.
Suddenly Levy understood her own fears and desires, awestruck of the splendid power that something as simple as love possessed. She tightened her grip on the iron quill in her hand knowing her new pen was strong and dark like its creator as tears began to swell in her eyes only to plummet down her cheeks.
"It's not fair, you know, forcing me to make a promise to abandon my family," The Fairy Tail mage began as tears continued to fall from her eyes. "Like I'm some princess that needs to be saved. Well I'm not! I am bound to the chains of fate just like you! So it's only right that you do the same for me!"
Gajeel was relieved that they were the only ones waiting on the platform. Having this shining woman crying before him would only bring him misinformed glares and whispers of judgment from other passengers awaiting their trains, hoping the shadow that darkened her mood would just leave her alone and go away. However by being alone he was free to reveal his heart to her as the iron walls that encased it had crumbled to rubble for the fairy woman effortlessly. His eyes widened upon hearing her confession and was ready to comply to any demand she would ask of him.
He cupped her face in his hands and wiped the tears from her cheeks. He wanted to look into those amber eyes as he spoke to her words that would never be meant for anyone else.
"Name it, I'll level entire countries if ya wanted. Whatever ya wish I'll give t'ya."
Levy gazed into his garnet eyes as she whispered her wish.
"Promise me, no matter what happens, that you'll be by my side. If this war destroys everything, or never comes at all; even if I somehow become a casualty, please promise me you'll stay by my side."
The Iron Dragon heard the words and answered her without hesitation as he leaned in and pressed his forehead against hers, taking in her scent of ancient tomes and ink now laced with hints of his own scent mixed in, "I promise."
They leaned in for one last kiss as the train whistled for passengers after slowly coasting to the platform. Levy smiled at Gajeel as she reached for one of his hands that were holding her face and wrote the word 'iron' in the palm of his hand, creating one last gift for him. The metal word in his hand was different than the first time she created iron from her magic as he noticed the small heart in the 'o'. The dragonslayer smiled letting out a small "gihi" from his lips.
Levy began to step away, their hands holding tightly as long as they could before finally letting go. Allowing their fingertips to graze each other in a final effort to remain connected before becoming two lonesome travelers once more. As she walked to the train car she looked back at her dragon with the long unruly hair that cascaded down like a jagged shadow, making his piercings shine brighter in the sun, one last time; waving her goodbye to him as he lifted his own hand to the same. The smiles they wore were bittersweet, for despite being forlorn about separating, they were happy beyond words to have found each other in the chaotic world they lived in.
Moments after she was no longer visible after boarding the train began to whistle one last time to announce its departure from the platform as it trailed away, gaining speed while it disappeared in the distance toward Magnolia.
Gajeel sighed as he lowered his waving hand and looked down at the iron in his hand. He placed it to his lips and bit down, tasting the sweet element only her magic could conjure. The dragonslayer devoured all but the 'o' with the heart in its center. He eyed it for a moment with a smile before stuffing it in his pants pocket as he walked away from the platform pondering over the seeds of change she planted that had now taken root in his heart. With that, for the first time, he hoped the gods would allow fate to be kind to them if the war between the Fairies and the Phantoms were to finally break out.
A/N: the final part of this story with Gajeel eating all but the 'o' in the word iron was inspired by Rboz's doujinshi when Gajeel became injured during a solo mission after seeing someone confess their love to her.