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KABOOM! A long steel rod collided against the wooden wall, causing debris to rain down and screaming inhabitants to run outside as it caved inwards. The metal weapon was attached to the arm of none other than Gajeel Redfox. He threw another punch while the last person escaped, bringing down the entire building.
He wore a black shirt with tan trousers, a white coat haphazardly thrown over his shoulders. It bore the emblem of a captain of the Magic Council—a golden shield with a black cross in the middle. With a grin plastered on his face, he watched the destruction from his own power unfold before him. Preparing for overkill, he was stopped short as a hand came to rest on his side, prompting him to halt.
“That’s enough, Gajeel.” A short blue-haired girl sporting the same uniform as him said sternly.
He looked down at her, retracting his steel extension. “Tch,” he scoffed, crossing his arms. “You’re no fun, Levy.”
She simply rolled her eyes and playfully flicked him on the arm as they continued with their fellow Council mates towards the wreckage. They had been sent on a mission to investigate a guild that had recently popped up in the town of Shirotsume. Its residents had reported a severe spike in crimes since the group had appeared, and it was their job to get to the bottom of the matter.
As soon as they had arrived, however, they found that not a single citizen would cooperate with them, refusing even to listen to their inquiries. This was presumably caused by a fear of the new guild, which led the group of Council members to seek out the guild hall. They were greeted with hostility, which Gajeel found extremely irritating. Resisting the Council was punishable by law, and he was therefore given the excuse needed to react with force.
When the ragtag group of amateur mages was rounded up, a section of the official party began interrogating the leader while Gajeel and the others searched through the rubble.
“We would really have an easier time searching the place if someone hadn’t smashed it to pieces,” Panther Lily—the dragon slayer’s Exceed companion—frowned. This warranted a small chuckle from Levy and a scowl from Gajeel.
“What would have made it easy—” he trailed off as he spotted something while sifting through the debris. Squatting down and lifting it from the ground, he turned it over in his hands in disbelief. Etched onto the tattered piece of black cloth was a purple insignia resembling an eye with a tail.
It was the Phantom Lord guild symbol—the very one that Gajeel himself had once been apart of. Memories of the things he had done, ones he had pushed to the back of his mind began bubbling to the surface once again, leaving him in an utter state of shock.
Noticing his quietness, Levy looked over to check on him. “Ga—” she started, but stopped herself when she saw the look on his face. She silently made her way over to him and put a tentative hand on his shoulder. “Are you alright?”
He stuffed the fabric into his coat pocket and got up with a start. “Yeah.” he said curtly, continuing through the wreckage. She gave him one last dubious glance then did the same.
Later that evening, the council troop had set up tents in a clearing found during their journey out of town. They had detained the members of the suspected guild, and since they hadn’t gotten much as far as answers out of them, they were to be taken back for further questioning. With their mission nearly complete, the members of the Custody Enforcement Unit found themselves relaxing. Sitting in groups around the fires lit in the makeshift camp, many were drinking and chatting loudly amongst themselves.
The head of the faction was often found among the ranks, partaking in the festivity with his subordinates. However, he was nowhere to be found. Levy noticed this while politely refusing the many beverages being offered to her. Since the duo had joined the council, they had become close friends, and the bluenette had become better at reading his emotions. With his strange behavior earlier in the day and now this, she sensed something was up.
Excusing herself from the campfire and telling Lily of her suspicions, she made her way towards the captain’s tent. “Gajeel?” she called softly as she approached the entrance. With no response, Levy slowly pushed open the front flaps, peering inside.
He was sitting on the edge of his cot and looking down at the object in his hands forlornly. It seemed that he hadn’t even heard her say his name. Taking a step into the room, she eyed his face. He wore the same crestfallen expression as before.
Without breaking the silence, she made her way over to him. “What’s that?” she asked quietly, close enough to recognize the object as a piece of cloth.
Startled, Gajeel’s head shot up and he tucked the item away. “It’s nothing.” he stated bluntly, not meeting her eyes. Frowning, Levy closed the gap between them and sat next to him.
“It’s obviously not nothing,” she said, slightly upset at his obvious attempt to hide it from her. “Tell me what’s going on.” She reached out and put a hand on his arm, giving him a small but reassuring smile.
He sighed and pulled out the fabric, displaying the purple emblem for them both to see. Levy stared at it, furrowing her brow in confusion. “Is that…” she leaned in to get a better look. “The Phantom Lord guild mark? What—where did—”
The dragon slayer shook his head. “I found it in the wreckage of the hall.”
“Ah...” She pondered this for a moment. Phantom Lord was the guild Gajeel had been in before becoming a member of Fairy Tail. Sure, he had fought with the dark guild against them before joining, but what about finding an old piece of its history had disturbed him so much? She decided to voice her thoughts. “It’s strange to have found this, but… what’s gotten you so upset about it?”
He met her gaze with a sad look in his eyes, a contrast from his usually outgoing demeanor. He cleared his throat and glanced away. “I did some… pretty horrible stuff in that guild.” He awkwardly scratched the back of his head. “I guess, seeing this, brought back some bad memories.”
Levy simply nodded and gingerly offered, “Do you… want to talk about it?” He blinked at her in confusion. She tilted her head back at him questioningly.
“I guess I’m just… surprised you don’t have anything to say.” he mumbled.
“What do you mean?”
He gulped, reliving the memory. “About the time… when I… to you and your friends—” he grit his teeth and covered his face with his hands. He forced back the tears that were threatening to spill.
“Gajeel...” she had both hands on his arms now. She finally understood what he had been so distraught about. He was thinking of what he had done to Shadow Gear so long ago—how he had brutally nailed them to a tree and branded Levy herself with the mark of Phantom Lord. She wasn’t sure what to say. She had forgotten the event fairly quickly, but it appeared he himself had never forgotten what he’d done.
“I just… I can’t help but hate myself, for—for doing that to you. I don’t know how you can be friends with a monster like me. It’s unforgivable, it’s—” he was cut off as a pair of arms wrapped tightly around him. He removed his hands from his face to see Levy embracing him, her eyes shut tight as tears formed in the corners of them.
“Shut up!” her voice cracked. “Don’t talk like that.” she sniffed, looking up and meeting his surprised gaze. “I forgave you for that a long time ago, so… you need to forgive yourself.”
Heat rose in Gajeel’s cheeks at the girl’s closeness, her small frame pressed up against his larger one. “You’ve… already forgiven me?”
“Of course I have!” she responded. His eyes widened at her words. He hesitantly reached his arms around her, returning her actions, and she tightened her hold on him.
“You’re really something else,” he murmured as she wiped away her tears, causing her face to flush. “Too bad you’re such a shortie.”
Levy pushed her hands against his chest, propelling herself backwards. She glared up at him with her tear streaked face, eliciting an amused grin from the dragon slayer. He placed a hand on her head, ruffling her hair playfully.
“Whatever.” she turned her head away from him with a pout, hiding the red in her cheeks.
“Seriously though,” he continued, removing his hand from her head. “Thanks… for, uh… being understanding and stuff.”
She glanced back at him. She rarely got to see this side of Gajeel, and while what had happened was slightly embarrassing, she was glad it occurred. It saddened her to think that he had been agonizing over his actions all this time, but she felt relieved that things had been resolved. She beamed at him. “Of course, Gajeel.”
Gajeel met her gaze and began reaching his hand toward her face. “Gajeel! Levy!” a voice called from outside the tent. He quickly retracted his hand and the pair jumped off the cot, blushing as they awkwardly avoided each other on the way out of the room.
Standing at the entrance was Panther Lily, who realized he had made the right choice to wait outside once he saw the duo’s tomato-like faces. “Lily?” Levy asked as Gajeel cleared his throat. “What’s the matter?”
The exceed raised an eyebrow at them and responded, “I just wanted to make sure you two were alright and invite you to join us,” he gestured to the others dancing merrily around the fire, drink in hand. “But it appears I should have given you some privacy. My apologies.”
Flustered, Levy replied “N-no! That’s alright, er—uh, of course we’ll join you.” She looked over to the dragon slayer at her side. “Won’t we, Gajeel?”
“Mhm.” He grunted in reply.
The bluenette clapped her hands together happily. “Let’s go, then!” she quickly walked away towards the group of partying council members, leaving the two men to follow slowly behind.
Left alone, Lily wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at his friend. Gajeel scoffed and elbowed him in the side. “Yeah, yeah,” he sneered. “Whatever.”
While they did indeed join the dancing drunks in their festiveness for the rest of the night, Gajeel found himself not paying attention to the party at all. His eyes continuously wandered to the small girl sitting across the fire, and he reflected on the earlier happenings in the tent. He wondered what could have happened had Lily not interrupted the two of them. More importantly, he couldn’t help but smile faintly as he recalled her reaction toward his self-loathing words. Not only had she openly accepted him for who he was, but she had also urged him to do the one thing he couldn’t have done before: forgive himself.