Work Text:
Gajeel reached up and wiped some sweat from his forehead. The mid-day sun was blazing overhead and it was rather hot although typical for September. The welder had used his day off to do some yard work that he had been putting off all of August in the hopes of cooler weather. He had managed to thatch the half acre of grass that he and Levy owned, mow the grass and weed out a flower bed all before dinner.
Tired from the constant work, Gajeel placed his weeding tools back in the small shed in the corner of the property and make his way back up to the house. He entered through the back kitchen door so he could get a drink, but he stopped at the sight of Levy at the kitchen table. His fiancée's hands were dug into her blue hair, and her teeth were clenched as she looked at the papers scattered across the table.
"Everything alright?" Gajeel asked hesitantly. He made his way over to the sink and began washing the dirt from his hands.
Levy gave a sigh of frustration. "It's the wedding plans!" she said, her voice laced with annoyance. "There just are way too many options and it's all so-"
"So…?"
"Expensive," she said quietly.
Both of them worked full time jobs, Levy as a librarian, Gajeel as a welder and mechanic. Even with their combined pay checks, Levy was finding it rough to make the wedding perfect and big enough to involve everyone they wanted to invite. They each had several friends that they wanted in attendance and some of their living family needed to be there.
"Weddings aren't cheap," Gajeel shrugged as he turned off the water and dried his hands on the dish towel hanging on the oven. He crossed the kitchen to ruffle her hair gently.
She sat back in the chair and ran her hands through her blue hair. Gajeel noted she had tossed her hair band aside already. She must be really stressed out, he thought to himself.
The papers that were scattered across the table included estimates for the flower arrangements, his suit, her dress, her veil, renting for various different buildings for their reception and so many other nitpicking details it almost made Gajeel's head spin. No wonder Levy was stressed.
"Why don't you-"
Gajeel snapped his mouth shut. He was about to suggest to Levy that she call her mother to come and help her out with the planning, but that would be a disaster. Levy hadn't spoken to her mother since she started college years ago. The woman had been overbearing and didn't agree with Levy's desire to have a job involving books. He doubted his fiancée even told her that she was engaged. Because of her alienation from her mother, Levy had the burden of paying for all the years of school tuition by herself.
Covering his tracks he began again. "Why don't you call up Lucy? She'd know."
"I would if she were available to call," Levy replied glumly. "She and Natsu went on vacation."
He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. He had left most of the wedding planning in Levy's hands because he wasn't the creative type. She after all had been the one who wanted a ceremony; he would have been happy to just get the papers from the court house. But he couldn't blame her. Wasn't it every girl's dream to be the most important woman for a day? To have a party where they were celebrated? Where every eye was on her? Gajeel went along with her wish for the ceremony in order to make her happy. He was having second thoughts as he saw her struggling with the planning. They were supposed to be married in a month's time.
"Don't sweat it," he told her. "Everything will fall into place."
She smacked her head against the table. Gajeel merely shook his head. "I'm going to go shower."
As he walked down the hall to the bathroom Levy let out screech of utter frustration.
After kicking off his clothes and shoes, Gajeel took a nice cool shower. He may be a mechanic and used to dirt and grime, but that didn't mean he enjoyed being dirty. After a half hour of scrubbing here and there he stepped out of the foggy bathroom a clean man. He padded barefoot back into the kitchen, holding a towel around his waist, expecting Levy to still be sitting there. However, she was noticeably absent. The papers that she had once been looking through were now strewn across the table and floor as if a rouge breeze had swept them up. But he knew what it had been. Levy had thrown them. He couldn't help but smile as he stood in the doorway looking at the mess. Wasn't he supposed to be the one having outbursts?
From somewhere else in the house Gajeel could hear a noise. Music? he wondered. It sounded like it was coming from the bedroom.
Reversing direction he walked back down the hallway. Their bedroom door was cracked open allowing him to peer inside.
Levy stood on the other side of the bed to the left of the nightstand. The window on that side of the room was open allowing for a night cross breeze to drift through the room. Perched on Levy's shoulder was a violin, in her right hand moving across the neck of the instrument a bow. Her back was half turned to him, allowing a partial side view. Levy's eyes were squeezed shut as she worked the bow across the violin's string with an ease that told Gajeel she had been doing this her entire life. Music filled the room. It was dark and lonely at points as Gajeel stood there listening, while at other times Levy would suddenly play higher and quicker notes to make whatever she was playing seem happy. Gajeel knew next to nothing about classical music, but he could tell that whatever she was playing wasn't scripted; it was a secret concert of her own design. She bounced back and forth on her heels and at those moments she seemed almost peaceful as she played. As he watched from the opening in the doorway Gajeel couldn't help but notice the tension in her shoulder slow slip away, and her eyes lids didn't seem as screwed shut as they once been. As her strokes across the neck of the violin became more rapid and the song less solemn, Levy sat down on the bed, her back to Gajeel.
Her fiancée had stood in the doorway for several minutes, watching her sway back and forth, immersing herself in the music, before he decided to move forward. Silently he pushed the door open a little more and approached the bed. Without a warning he hopped onto the bed behind her, causing the two of them to bounce up off the bed. Levy gave a surprised cry and dropped the bow but clutched the violin to her defensively. Gajeel rolled onto his back laughing.
"G-Gajeel!" she stammered. "You scared me!"
"That was the idea, Shrimp," he laughed.
Levy glared at him and hopped off the bed. Upon retrieving her bow from the floor, she walked over to the semi open closet and pulled a black case from within. In it she stored both the bow and the violin before replacing it back into a slot in the closet.
"How long were you watching me?" she asked quietly as she shut the closet door.
"Long enough."
There was a silence as she returned to sit next to him on the bed. "When I got stressed as a kid my dad taught me how to funnel my stress into music since reading didn't make things better all the time."
Gajeel nodded. It hadn't sounded like she had picked up the violin for the first time; he knew she had practiced before. "You were good."
Levy smiled gently and snuggled up next to him. "If you say so."
"I do."
Levy was about to lay an arm across him when she noted his lack of clothing. She raised an eyebrow and sat up. Gajeel grinned up at her.
"Can you draw?" Gajeel asked her teasingly as he stretched out on his back across the bed. "Cause if you do, I could give you something to draw."
Levy smiled coyly at him and wasn't so shy about letting her eyes roam up and down his body. Watching her eyes move across him made Gajeel shutter in anticipation. Slowly but surely she was gaining confidence in herself. When they had first started dating, she could hardly look at him without turning beet red. Now she was eyeing him up like he was dessert.
"Sorry Gajeel. I don't."
She ran a finger across his chin, trailing it down is neck, over his Adam's apple, and down his torso to his naval. He bared his teeth at her.
"You are treading on thin ice," he said through his teeth. She knew he like when she ran her fingers up and down him. And as she made a second loop back up his chest and down again, this time to the top of the towel, he knew she was toying with him. He met her eyes. "I'm guessing you're done with the wedding plans for today…?"
She hooked her fingers under the top of towel and in a flash it was on the floor; Gajeel hadn't noticed it was gone until he felt the breeze from the window on his pelvis. Leaning forward she began to plant kisses along his chest.
"We could…always…push the date back," Gajeel suggested. "Of the wedding I…mean."
His fiancée didn't stop her kissing, but she did glance up from her work, her hazel eyes seductive and mischievous. "No…" she murmured against his ever so sensitive skin, "I just need a break."
"Or we can work on it tomorrow…"
Eventually Levy would have to make final decisions about their special day, but it wouldn't hurt to put it on hold. In truth she knew what she wanted for the wedding, but there was a nagging feeling of having to involve her mother. They weren't on good terms, and she doubted they ever would be. But she needed to be there. It was something she had to do.
But for the moment, she immersed herself in the feeling of passion for the man she loved most of all.