Work Text:
“Lily! Fly over, cut ‘em off!” Gajeel gestured over the row of terraced houses and saw Lily’s small form shoot into the sky on Aera wings.
The buildings in this part of Era were all too damn close together, packed in so tight that even a spare inch of space or a determined sunbeam felt like a luxury. It wouldn’t be so bad – Gajeel was used to skulking around the seedy parts of town like a gutter rat – except the pair of thieves the Custody Enforcement Unit had spent all week tracking down were definitely more familiar with this area. They were using every nook and gulley they could to escape capture. Only superior Dragon Slayer senses and the Exceed’s aerial view had kept this chase going.
Gajeel ducked down the alleyway in pursuit, Levy hot on his heels, and growled under his breath. The laneway was filled with laundry, hung from lines that crisscrossed the space on every floor of the tall buildings. It smelled like clean cotton and laundry soap down here, and the flapping of fabric in the breeze was masking any sound of footsteps.
“Fucks sake,” he muttered, batting aside a bedsheet and running down the cobbles.
“Wait!” Levy whispered breathlessly, grabbing his arm and pulling him to a stop behind a long nightgown. Her training was proving effective at least, there was definitely more strength in her grip and she’d managed to keep pace all the way from the marketplace even if she was red-faced and gasping for air. “Movement through there.” She pointed to a narrow, wrought iron gate set into a single-storey stone wall on the left side of the alley. There was a lock on the gate but a scuffed boot-print on the brickwork gave away the thieves’ escape route. Gajeel listened hard and, in a lull between gusts of wind, heard the rabbit-fast heartbeats of their targets.
“I’ll break the lock, then we gotta hit ‘em quick.” Gajeel kept his voice as low as possible and gave a hand signal to match his instruction. Together, they crept over to the gate and flattened their bodies against the wall. Levy formed the first shapes of a spell and Gajeel pushed iron spikes through the soles of his boots in response as he inspected the lock. It was flimsy, more of a suggestion than anything, and he gave a countdown on his fingers before reaching out and snapping it with a twist of his wrist.
“Solid Script: Ice!” As soon as the gate opened, Levy flung her pale blue magic into the courtyard beyond and it settled with a burst of frigid air, leaving the cobbles coated in a layer of slick ice. With twin startled yelps, two bodies hit the floor. Gajeel dug his makeshift crampons into the ice and sprinted into action.
The courtyard was small, only a few metres in either direction with several doorways leading to different houses. In the furthest corner were some trash cans, one of which had tipped over when the younger thief, a devious-looking ginger kid who couldn’t be older than fifteen, had tried to catch his balance as he slipped on Levy’s ice. The older thief, a short but muscular man with a dark beard and a dagger in hand, was already pulling himself to his feet with the assistance of a large vegetable planter shoved against the wall.
“Iron Dragon Club!” Gajeel dropped low onto the ice to dodge the hurled dagger, heard it clatter off the brickwork next to the gate, and swung his Club toward the bearded thief. With one hit to the back of his knees, the thief was on the ground again. “You just tried to kill an employee of the Magic Council.” Gajeel grinned triumphantly, looming over him. “If the thieving wasn’t enough, that sure woulda been.” He tutted patronisingly for good measure as he cuffed the man.
“Gajeel! Wizard!” Levy’s voice called urgently at the same time as the ginger kid shouted:
“Gum Magic: Chew-nado!”
A whirlwind of white globules appeared in the tiny courtyard, immediately covering every wall and window on the ground floor with a series of disgusting squelching noises. Gajeel held up his arms to protect his face and cringed at the feeling of squishy gum hitting his skin.
“Solid Script: Wall!” Levy appeared next to Gajeel at the same time her Wall sprang into existence, protecting them from the worst of the gum. “Solid Script: Rope!” She lunged out from behind the wall and coiling snakes of letters sprang from her fingertips, winding tight around the kid and binding his arms to his sides. The Chew-nado halted instantly.
“Unngh, gross,” Gajeel flicked lumps of gum off his arms and barely managed to keep from gagging. “What the hell, kid? Outta all magic, why would ya choose that?” He grumbled at the ginger thief, running his fingers through his hair and freezing at the pulling sensation as he encountered…
Gum. In his hair.
Gum. In his hair.
A feral noise tore from his throat and he bared his teeth, trying to unsnarl the mess.
“Don’t! You’ll tangle it in more,” Levy explained, pulling his arm down and pursing her lips sympathetically. “I can get it out at home, just don’t mush it in.”
“Kid, you better hope she can get it out,” Gajeel snarled in as menacing a voice as he could muster, rounding on the teenager. “If I gotta cut my hair ‘cause of yer nasty ass magic, I’ll visit yer cell and garrotte you with it, then feed it to yer-”
“Gajeel!” Lily’s voice shouted from the alleyway a second before the Exceed flew into the courtyard, surveying the scene and grimacing. “Well. That’s unpleasant.” He turned his attention to Gajeel and Levy, taking in their gummed-up state. “Oh dear.” There was too much amusement in those two words and Lily ignored Gajeel’s grumbling in favour of helping Levy secure the Gum Wizard. Fucking Gum Wizard. Gross.
“Thanks, Lily.” Levy patted Lily’s arm as he assumed his battle form to take both thieves by the shoulder and lead them out of the courtyard. “Do you think you can handle this if we go clean up?” She raised her arms with distaste and gestured at the gum covering her coat and shirt.
“Of course,” Lily agreed easily. “Backup’s at the alley entrance at my end. You should probably go back the way you came though; she’d have a field day with this one.” He and Levy turned to look at Gajeel then shared a knowing glance.
“We’ll go our way,” Levy agreed in a whisper, biting her lip against a smile.
Gajeel growled again, though everyone was annoyingly immune to his growling nowadays, and stalked away along the alley. He went back the way he and Levy had come. He wasn’t a coward, he wasn’t afraid of Yariel, but that witch really didn’t need any more ammo.
-
“Okay,” Levy said, dropping her bag by the front door and shucking her white Council coat. She’d scraped the worst of the gum off outside in the herb garden and made a mental note to go out and collect it for the trash later. Thankfully, she hadn’t been hit too hard by the Chew-nado; she’d only been in it for a moment as she ran into the courtyard to summon a wall for Gajeel. Gajeel was… covered. Head to toe. “You want to change first? Your hair might take a while.”
“Sure,” he grumbled with a tiny pout as he headed off to the bedroom to get fresh clothes.
“I’ll grab what I need and be on the sofa,” she called after him, beelining for the kitchenette. She rummaged through the cupboards to find a bottle of sunflower oil, then stopped off in the bathroom for a fine-toothed comb and a hand towel. “Alright, let’s hope this works…” she mumbled to herself, lighting the fireplace with a flick of her fingers.
“It might not work?” Gajeel shouted from the bedroom. He emerged a moment later in a fresh pair of baggy pants and a sleeveless tunic. He handed over his hairbrush, matted as the bristles were. “I swear, if I have to cut it…!”
“You won’t have to cut it,” Levy assured him, pulling him towards the sofa and sitting them both down, Gajeel’s back to Levy so she could see his hair. She could barely reach the top of his head like this. “Hmm, you might be too tall. Can you sit on the floor?”
In the end, Gajeel perched on a cushion on the flagged floor, his back against the front of the sofa and his head now the right height for Levy to work on. She settled in behind him, cross-legged on the couch cushion with her supplies on one side and the hand towel spread out on the other. With her hands resting on his shoulders, she examined just how bad the situation was. There were at least six globs of gum stuck in Gajeel’s beautiful, if somewhat dishevelled, hair.
“Okay. Let me know if you get uncomfortable,” Levy instructed him, pouring a little sunflower oil into her palm and starting to work it into the first lump. The cottage was silent aside from the crackling of the fire as she focussed hard on her task, coating the gum in oil and carefully working it free with the comb until it came away in chunks. Levy took a full breath for the first time in long minutes. “Okay, that’s great news,” she sighed in relief. “It’s going to come out, it’ll just take time.”
“That’s fine,” Gajeel said quietly, his voice way calmer than Levy would’ve expected considering his earlier threats.
“You okay?” She asked, matching his quiet tone as she wiped the comb off on the hand towel and reached for the oil.
“Uh.” He cleared his throat. “Yeah. Keep going.”
“Okay, bossy,” Levy teased gently, rubbing a palmful of oil into the next section. A wave of nostalgia flowed through her at the familiar task of combing someone else’s hair. “I used to do this all the time,” she reminisced softly. “After Lisanna arrived at the guild, we used to take turns brushing each other’s hair, playing at being hairdressers. Sometimes Cana or Laki would join in, but mostly just me and Lisanna.”
Gajeel made a querying noise and leaned his shoulders more heavily against Levy’s folded legs.
“It was nice. We’d sit in the corner of the guild hall for hours.” Levy giggled at the memory. “We’d watch Erza and Mirajane butting heads. You wouldn’t believe how feisty Mira was as a teenager. Sometimes Laxus would try to break up their fights but mostly he’d end up joining in then sulking when he lost. All the while, Lisanna and I would be quietly chatting and doing our hair.” She ran her fingers through a section of Gajeel’s hair, the texture so different to Lisanna’s short, fine strands. “Your hair is so much thicker,” she murmured, letting the lock fall back over his shoulder and returning to the gum. “Have you always had it long?”
“I guess,” he mumbled, tipping his head back slightly. With the changed angle, Levy could see that his eyes were drifting closed, his face relaxed and his mouth soft. “Was short when I was a kid but Metalicana never cut it.” His expression lacked the complicated swirl of emotions that normally rose when he spoke of his dragon father and Levy took the opportunity.
“Was he a good father?” She asked gently, combing out a big chunk of gum and wiping it onto the towel.
“Nah,” Gajeel answered nonchalantly, then added, “Eh, I dunno. Wasn’t as bad as some.”
“Oh?” Levy hoped her tone wasn’t too eager.
“Wasn’t a deadbeat like Gildarts or an evil bastard like Laxus’ old man.” A frown twitched his metal brow briefly before smoothing out again. “Feel like I can’t complain after working with that asshole.”
“Yeah, Ivan was always…” Levy trailed off, remembering how tense the atmosphere at the guild hall had felt every time Makarov’s son came to pick a job or collect a reward or cause trouble with the Master. It was like a poisonous miasma seeping into every corner and hushing every conversation. The adults hadn’t wanted to draw Ivan’s attention and the children followed suit. Levy hadn’t minded the quiet that came along with Ivan’s presence but the tension had rendered her unable to concentrate on her reading. “He wasn’t nice.”
“He was a mean motherfucker,” Gajeel said easily. He gestured to his left cheek. “Mean right hook, too.”
Levy’s hands froze and she stared as though she might see a long-faded bruise still marring Gajeel’s cheek.
“He hit you?” She whispered, brushing over his fire-gold skin with the back of her hand. His eyes cracked open to look up at her, his head tilting back until it rested in her lap.
“I can take a hit, Lev,” he said by way of answer. His voice was sleepy and careless, as though his mistreatment at the hands of everyone he’d ever known wasn’t worth the effort it took to keep his eyes open. “It was a loyalty test, and a pretty easy one. It got me in the door.” Gajeel nudged at Levy’s stilled hand with his head. “Keep going.”
The comb started to move again, teasing out the wads of gum one by one as Levy considered all that Gajeel had been through, especially that which he’d been through at Master Makarov’s behest whilst infiltrating the dark guild Raven Tail. Ivan had always been cruel and callous, unpleasant and mean when dealing with anyone he deemed beneath him. Makarov must have known there was a risk of serious injury when he sent Gajeel to find Raven Tail. Why was it so important that he have a spy in his son’s guild?
“Quit thinking about it, would ya?” Gajeel grumbled, the frown back on his face. “Yer all tense.”
“I don’t like… that pain is so normal for you,” Levy confessed in a small voice. She forced her body to relax and her hands to keep working at untangling the mess of his hair. The last chunk of gum combed away with little fuss but even with the gum removed, it was knotted and snarled from the wind of the Chew-nado. “I don’t like that you’ve been through a lifetime of hardship before you’re even twenty years old.” Levy set down the comb, wiped off her hands on the towel, and gently set her fingers on the bare skin of Gajeel’s shoulders. “I wish… I wish life was kinder to you.”
“Life’s being pretty kind to me right now,” Gajeel pointed out, his eyes dark and vulnerable in the firelight. They gazed at each other for a long moment and Levy realised how blessed she was to have this. Most would probably say Gajeel was a closed book, written in a foreign language and sealed shut with the most potent of magics, but for Levy, and only for Levy, he let whole libraries of words pass between them in the silence. His eyes slowly slid closed and he rested his head on Levy’s forearm. “I miss him. Sometimes.”
Levy’s brain scrambled for a moment, trying to backtrack to a place in their conversation where that made sense.
“Metalicana,” Gajeel clarified with a twitch of a smile. Oh, yeah. “He kept me alive, taught me how to survive. Mostly ‘cause he forgot I gotta eat real food so I learned to feed myself.” This said with such warmth and fondness that Levy couldn’t help but smile, despite the sadness of a child being so neglected. “He was a good teacher when he tried. Harsh, but effective. Sometimes he’d fly off if I got too annoying. Never for more than a couple days but…” Gajeel took a deep breath, barely noticeable aside from the movement of his shoulders beneath Levy’s hands. “Can’t say I was surprised when he left me behind for good. Except… I guess he didn’t leave me behind.” He massaged at his chest with one hand, kneading the same place he’d clutched at all those weeks ago, right before said dragon reappeared from within Gajeel’s own body. “He was there the whole time. Saw everything.”
Was there anything to be said to that? Levy wasn’t sure. It had certainly seemed like the other dragons had witnessed everything their Dragon Slayers had accomplished in the time since they’d parted ways and for the others, especially Wendy, that had seemed like a positive thing.
For Gajeel?
Levy knew that for years, Gajeel had lived a life steeped in violence. How much blood did it take to drown a father’s love?
“He seemed happy to see you,” Levy offered truthfully. “Um, you know. In his own way.”
“Ol’ rust bucket was never happy to see anyone.” Gajeel huffed a tiny sardonic laugh, but his smile was genuine when it emerged. “He still cared enough to insult me though. You done?” He asked flatly, his mouth turned down at the corners. Levy wasn’t sure she wanted to be done, especially when her Dragon Slayer was feeling so relaxed and talkative. She could do this for hours as long as Gajeel kept that calm, soft-mouthed expression.
“It’s pretty tangled back here,” she observed hesitantly, combing her fingers carefully through his pretty hair. “I can brush it if you like? It’ll be easier to wash the oil out if it’s untangled.”
“Sounds good,” he agreed immediately. “Thanks.”
Levy picked up Gajeel’s brush and pulled the matted hair from its bristles.
“It’s good to wash your hairbrushes, just so you know,” Levy said as casually as she could, trying to sound nonjudgemental as she set the dense black hair onto the hand towel. “Every couple of weeks, to remove oils and dirt.”
“Huh, didn’t know that,” Gajeel admitted, tipping his head forward so Levy could section off the top layer of his hair with the hair tie looped around the handle of the brush. “Dragons ain’t big on haircare.”
“But he had such lovely hair! So shiny,” Levy joked, starting to untangle the first section from the ends all the way up to the root. “You can use my conditioner by the way,” she added in the same breezy tone. “It’s the purple bottle, just put a little on the ends after you shampoo and leave it for a few minutes, then rinse.”
“Guess I can try-” Gajeel cut off at the first stroke of the brush from his scalp all the way to the ends of his long, long hair, then gave a full-body shudder and a shaky exhale. Levy let her fingers trail through the newly tangle-free segment of hair and watched as goosebumps chased across Gajeel’s shoulders and all the way down his arms.
Huh.
With slow consideration, she did it again – first the brush and then her fingers, lingering to rub lightly against his scalp before combing through the length.
Gajeel trembled.
Levy moved onto the next section of hair, restarting the long process of detangling from the bottom up and then pausing before she brushed it through.
“Fuck.” It was a tiny whisper, released on a light breath into the quiet of the cottage.
The question felt unnecessary, and Levy was so afraid to ask in case it broke whatever spell of openness had been cast over Gajeel this evening, whatever moment of vulnerability was allowing him to take comfort in a way he never had before, but it was important to ask, to be sure he was comfortable.
“Good?” Levy whispered and held her breath, watching Gajeel’s throat bob and waiting for him to decide whether their moment was over or if she could take care of him for a little while longer.
“…Good.” His voice was shaky but certain and Levy smiled to herself. For all Gajeel did for their family of three, all he’d sacrificed and worked for, this was something Levy could joyfully give back. Without conscious thought, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to Gajeel’s bare shoulder, enjoying the heat of his skin beneath her mouth for just a second before sitting back and taking up the next segment of hair.
For almost an hour, Levy methodically detangled and brushed Gajeel’s hair until it shone in the firelight, glossy and smooth. For almost an hour, Gajeel shivered and sighed beneath her careful touch, his skin prickling with goosebumps and his body boneless against the support of her legs. After a particularly good scratch of fingers just behind his ear, Gajeel let out a soft purr of contentment and leaned into the touch, turning his head until the angle was just right. Levy lingered on that spot for a long time.
The sun had gone down by the time Lily arrived home and popped the perfect little bubble of quiet and caring they’d built for themselves. Gajeel jolted upright as the Exceed’s key turned in the lock and his eyes darted around for a moment before settling on Levy with a dazed expression. She smiled shily and set down the brush.
“I can start on dinner. Why don’t you go wash your hair?” Levy suggested as Lily opened the door, letting in a wave of cold air before he closed it behind him. “We can do this again sometime, whenever you like,” she offered tentatively with an awkward gesture to their setup on the couch. “Without the gum, hopefully.”
Gajeel didn’t laugh at the joke, instead just stared with eyes that were a little brighter than usual. His expression was one Levy had never seen on him before – overwhelmed and a little frightened, but intimate and trusting all the same. He looked like a lost little boy who had finally been found after spending weeks in the scary woods. It felt like an age before he nodded wordlessly, then stood. He patted Lily’s head once before walking purposefully down the hall to the bathroom and shutting the door softly behind him.
“Everything okay here?” Lily asked anxiously, staring after Gajeel as he hung up his coat. Once he’d unstrapped his sword, he flew over to the couch to greet Levy.
“Everything’s wonderful,” Levy confirmed, pulling him close and whispering in his ear, “I think I found a way to take care of him, too.”
-
Gajeel stood in the shower with his back against the cold tile wall and hot tears flowing unchecked down his cheeks.
He couldn’t even figure out why, for fuck’s sake.
Maybe it was the renewed grief of knowing Metalicana was gone – gone forever this time, with no room for doubt or interpretation. He’d watched his father die years after accepting that he’d never see that old dragon again. And maybe he hadn’t really… processed that?
Had he ever really dealt with the pain of losing Metalicana the first time around? He’d been a kid, lonely and angry and abandoned, with no idea of where his father had gone. That was, no idea aside from all the threats that if Gajeel didn’t shut up, if Gajeel didn’t behave, if Gajeel wasn’t good enough then Metalicana would leave.
Fuck, but maybe it was the reminder of how bad things had been after Phantom Lord, when Gajeel was desperate enough to trawl through the ruins of his old life for scraps of metal to chew on. Maybe thinking about Raven Tail had broken the dam? The dark guild had been almost as depressing as Phantom and he’d definitely downplayed the beating he’d received upon arriving on Ivan’s doorstep with nothing but a reputation and a mission to complete.
No. Deep down, he knew none of that was right.
Rehashing his past was always miserable but it was nothing new and Gajeel hadn’t truly felt like crying until the moment Levy first ran the brush through his hair. The comb had been nice, relaxing even, but there was something different about the feeling of her small hands caressing his skin and scalp. The feeling of each strand tugging for just a moment before slipping through the bristles, the knowledge that he was safe with her at his back, that he could let go for just a moment.
It had made him feel truly looked after for the first time… ever.
Huh. Maybe this feeling was grief after all because he sure felt like he’d been mourning something for his entire life, and Levy had brought it back to him with a hairbrush and the offer that she would do it again whenever he wanted.
He laughed to himself, shaky and humourless beneath the spray of the showerhead.
“All the time!” He wanted to drop to his knees and beg at her feet. “Make my body feel like a safe place to be!”
“Get it together,” Gajeel muttered to himself and wiped away his tears, running a hand through his hair and marvelling at how smooth it was. It was gonna be so easy to wash now it wasn’t tangled halfway to hell. He could easily get addicted to the feeling of Levy’s hands in his hair, fixing a problem he didn’t want to admit he’d struggled with for years. He loved his hair but it could be hard to manage, and it wasn’t like Metalicana had taught him to wash his brushes or use conditioner.
Gajeel eyed the purple bottle suspiciously. Would it really make a difference? Levy seemed to think so and her hair was the softest thing he’d ever felt in his life.
Well, he should probably start taking care of himself now his life was finally worth living.
He reached for the conditioner and never looked back.
-
Two days later, Gajeel dropped his hairbrush on the couch next to Levy and planted his ass so firmly on the flagstones that he worried it might bruise. He did it with as much confidence as he could muster, as though it was no big deal, as though he hadn’t been pacing in the bedroom for twenty minutes trying to work up the nerve to come and ask for what he needed.
Without comment, Levy set aside her book and picked up the brush.
And Gajeel… felt safe.