Beauty of Fairy Tail (Gale/Gajevy AU)

Chapter 2

Team Shadow Gear, Pantherlily, and I decide to split up. Lily chose the teams, so he went with the Jet and Droy, while I was put with Levy. Jet hands out communication cards and makes a bet with the boys and I before splitting. Whoever catches the creature, gets a larger share of the reward.

My team goes left and they go right. I really wish we had gotten a map to this place. It would be easy to get lost in.

We turn down a dark corridor and Levy uses her magic to create a fire that lights our way. A pile of rocks topples over and Levy nearly jumps out of her shoes. A devilish laugh echoes down the tunnel and a shadow scurries across the wall.

I chase after it and nearly get lost in the darkness. Thankfully, Levy catches up with me. I growl, angry that I lost my monster.

"What was that thing?" Levy asks as she tries catching her breath.

"That's what I want to know." We continue down the tunnel, talking a bit. Apparently, she was one of the first members under Makarov and she doesn't have any family left either.

There's another spout of laughter and the shadow appears. Levy and I chase it down several corridors and corner it. It hides behind a rock, but I can smell it. It wreaks of dirt and blood.

We can hear a sound like crying. Levy approaches the stone and positions the fire so that she can see. She gives a little gasp as she tiptoes around it slowly. I can only see her head behind it. I see her crouch down and hear her whisper sweetly.

"What on earth is going on? Is she messing with me?" I wonder. I stand, impatiently, with my back leaned on the cave wall for a couple of minutes, while the shrimp does whatever it is she's doing.

Her head drifts back up and she's looking down at something with a smile.

"What's up, Shrimp?" I ask her. She carefully walks around the rock with a small bundle in her arms. She had taken a cloth, as blue as her hair, out of her knapsack and wrapped something.

She stops infront of me and shows me. In her arms lies a sleeping, infant. It's a small, gray exeed with matted hair. It has what I think are white paws and a white belly, but it's hard to tell with all the dirt. From what I've seen, it looks like Natsu's exceed, Happy, but with those obvious differences.

I pull out my com card and tell the other group that we found the 'monster' the miners were so afraid of.

* * *

We find the other team at the entrance when we arrive. Jet and Droy crowd Levy to see what we found. I go and talk to the head of the mining crew to get our reward. He pays us loads of extra jewel for our trouble and how fast it got done. It totalled 5,000 jewel for each of the others and 7,000 jewl for Levy and I.

We head back to the guild after Team Shadow Gear stops for some lunch. I sit down under an apple tree and take out an iron pipe to munch on. I am forced to take the sleeping exceed, since the others will be inside having soba noodles or ramen or whatever.

I find a water bottle and rag in my pack and clean up the little cat. I can't stand the smell of it anymore. Once the knots, dirt, and dried blood are gone, I see the tips of it's ears are folded down and the insides are white, as well. I can barely believe the little thing slept through a bath.

I discover that the kitten is a female, too. I wonder where her parents are or if they abandoned her.

Levy, Jet, Droy, and Pantherlily exit the diner and we continue back to Magnolia. Levy smiles at the newly cleaned exceed and me and I give it back to her.

"It's a girl," I tell Levy, stuffing my hands in my pockets. I start to walk ahead of the group so that we could get moving again. I was a few meters up when I hear Levy call.

"Hey, wait up!" Jogging with the exceed in her arms, she catches up and smiles at me.

***

"So this is the 'cave monster' you went to find," Mira coos at the little exceed playing on the floor.

"Yeah," replies Levy as she folds her arms. She crouches and talks quietly to the cat. I can't hear what she says from my stool. I don't really care.

"So what's her name?" asks Mirajane as she wipes down the bar.

"I don't know. She hasn't told me." Levy turns to the exceed and back again after about 5 seconds. "She doesn't have one. She said her mom hadn't given her one. She's dead." Levy sadly strokes the exceed's head.

I remember my time alone with the kitten and recollect a small juniper bush growing by the tree. It so happens that Levy and Mira are staring at me.

"What do you think we should name her? You did help us find her and spent some time with her," Levy asks.

"Uhhh... Is Ironpelt out of the question?" They glare. "Just kidding, geez. I say Juniper." The kitten giggles in agreement. Levy giggles along and tickles the newly dubbed Juniper.

"Great. Three new members of Fairy Tail in two days." Makarov hops up on the bar. "I do believe that it has to be a new record." Mira stamps Juniper. The tiny exceed now has a dull tan Fairy Tail emblem on her back, the same way Levy has hers.

We are all members of Fairy Tail, now.