Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

"Half way expected you and Lil' to follow me and show up from the brush at any moment."

Levy smiled and laughed as she settled on the bed, folding her legs beneath her and flattening the hem of her dress. "Don't think we didn't consider the idea, if only to make sure you actually went."

Gajeel snorted, pulling the chair from the room's desk closer to the bed and sitting in it backwards.. "Yer vote of confidence is a real heart-warmer, bookworm."

"Don't mention it." Levy let the joke hang in the air for a few minutes before she spoke again. "So?"

"Not gonna give me a chance to catch my breath, are ya?" The dragon slayer crossed his arms over the back of the chair and leveled a look at the script mage's obvious and anxious impatience.

She scrunched her nose at him and let her head hang in mock annoyance. "Please, you've been back for an hour and you even had a meal."

"Fine. What do you want me to say?"

She rolled her eyes disbelievingly at him. "Well, were you happy to see him? Was he happy to see you?" Levy ignored his grunt of amusement and pressed forward. "Will he nest somewhere close so you can still visit him? Did he tell you why he left or if he hated having to leave you?" The mage glowered at the look Gajeel was giving her. The questions lent a more loving nature than either the dragon slayer or his father had, but she had hoped they did more than fight or curse at each other.

"I want you to tell me what you want me to know, Gajeel." Levy sighed and propped her elbow up on her leg, resting her chin there in earnest.

He answered her sigh with one of his own and rested his head over his arms. "Not gonna let me off the hook so easily are ya, shorty?"

"I might consider it when you start using my name."

He scrunched his brows and looked at her confusedly. "Shorty's not yer name?"

"Gajeel."

"All right, all right." Gajeel cleared his throat and tossed a glance at the Exceed fast asleep and nearly lost in a mountain of pillows and blankets at the headboard of the bed. "If yer wantin' some bedtime story like Salamander fondly rough housin' with Igneel or Wendy purring and fallin' asleep curled into Grandine-"

"I'm not." He raised a brow at her interruption, causing a slight flush to crawl across her cheeks. "F-For the record."

The iron dragon slayer nodded and continued. "Called me a brat right off and asked what the hell I thought I had been doin'. Got a pretty good tongue lashin' for all that mess with Phantom Lord and that I should be grateful it was Makarov that came for me after the fact and not him.

"Obviously I didn't need to be told any of that, but I wasn't about to interrupt him, I knew better." His not-so subtle hint had her fidgeting and slyly shrugging her shoulders. "Anyways, he asked what had changed. Whether it was a bad decision or not, he knew his brat wasn't liable to change his mind for anyone so easily." He cleared his throat and briefly broke eye contact with her. "Told him 'bout Shadow Gear and you."

"Oh. Wh-what did he have to say about that?"

"Tch. That it was a shame Igneel's firecracker didn't hand me my ass, which I had to tell him had already happened, but he seemed somewhat pleased those partners of yers managed to knock me around enough to kick some sense into my thick skull.

"I don't know, it wasn't a very thrilling talk. I was expecting that much, but there was one thing I wasn't expecting."

"What was that?"

"He asked about Tenrou." Gajeel scrubbed a hand over his tired eyes and down over the shadow of stubble on his jaw. "Metalicana ain't anything close to a sentimental dragon, but he's not as nearly as cold as those metal plates on his body.

"Igneel and Grandine never brought it up to Salamander or the kid, but they knew. Old man said it was hard to explain, but they could smell the moment our scents vanished. They knew we weren't dead, because even dead we'd still have a scent, but it kinda rattled 'em." He stopped once he caught the wide, sad eyes that bore into him. He reached forward, flicking Levy's forehead and snapping her out of her thoughts. "Stop that."

She scowled and rubbed the tender spot; this habit of his was high on her list of things she couldn't stand, even higher than the ridiculous nicknames. "Would you-! You didn't have to do that, sheesh!"

"'M not about to deal with you cryin' because of some sappy scene you formulated in that noggin of yers."

"I wasn't going to cry! I just thought it was sad, but it's interesting that they could sense something like that. I suppose it must have happened the second Mavis' spell was cast and-"

This time, he craned his arm to catch a lock of her hair and pulled on it. "Knock it off. Yer're gonna fry that brain of yers trying to figure that shit out."

Levy humphed and crossed her arms petulantly, grumbling curses at him under her breath. He laughed at her, missing Pnatherlily pop open an irate eye at the loud interruption to his sleep. Without a word, the cat lifted a pillow and yanked it over his head, unworried about the conversation that was happening at the moment. Gajeel would tell him another time, one that wasn't edging on the crack of dawn.

"Nothing really notable happened after that." Gajeel shrugged and stretched his arms over his head, a wide yawn sneaking past his defenses.

"You still didn't answer my question."

"Which one? You asked about a thousand of 'em."

She huffed and narrowed her eyes. "Were you happy to see him?"

"Would it matter if I was or wasn't? You've already got yer own idea of what happened formed in that big brain."

"I do, but I want to hear it from you."

"I was glad. He kept as tight lipped about where he'd been and why he left as the others, but apologized all the same."

"Really now?"

"Yeah, blames himself for apparently never teachin' me what a haircut was."

Levy slumped forward, shaking her head as she cradled it in the palm of her hand. "You're impossible."

"Yet you still came, even when you had a chance to get a decent pay from that mission your boys went on." He was silent a beat before he continued. "I'm still not sure what you want me to say. We're not really the sappy kind. In not so many words, we made our peace and, yeah, in the future I'll know where to find him if I need too."

"Good, I'm glad." She smiled; it was small, but relieved and assuring.

"Since you get to butt into my personal business, what about me? This where I get to ask a million questions about what your folks have to say about you bein' in one of the most infamous guilds or going off on missions with two grown men? Or how about pestering a dragon at all hours of the day?"

Despite his playful cajoling, a shadow crept into her eyes, slithering into the bottom of her irises and settling deep in the curve. "My parents passed when I was seven."

Gajeel bit the inside of his cheek and mentally felt the harsh slap of Pantherlily's paw on the back of his head. In hindsight, he should have figured it out, but he wasn't going to assume on those kind of things considering his own not-what-it-seemed past with his father. He'd always kind of adapted to the idea that she wasn't originally from Magnolia and that a middle-aged couple, one with her smile and the other with her unnatural level of curiosity, happily cheered their daughter on from some cheery sea-side town through letters and maybe, maybe, the occasional message through lacrimas if there was time.

It was her turn to rise from her spot and flick him in the forehead without mercy. The resounding snap pulled a growl low from his belly and plastered a victorious smile across her face.

"Stop that. Yer're gonna fry that brain of yers trying to figure that shit out. Don't look so affronted, Gajeel. It's all right that you didn't know. It's almost hard to believe you didn't, considering nearly all of us came to Makarov and the guild because we didn't have parents, but it's okay. I was sad, and it's horrible losing people you rely on and trust so much, but at Fairy Tail, there's always someone that knows the same sorrows and can make you laugh despite it."

Gently, she placed her small hand on his forearm, not even flinching as her palm came to rest on the cool metal embedded there. "Since I don't have my own, it makes me happy to see others resolve whatever shaky ground they stand on with theirs."

He blinked disbelievingly at her as she stood with a happy disposition and her thin arms tucked behind her back. Gajeel knew her hands would be clasped together like she did in any other casual conversation. "How the hell do you do that?"

Levy winked at him and moved her hands to rest proudly on her hips. "I'm a mage of Fairy Tail."

"Don't you even start. I have to listen to that flame brain of a broken record spout that every single fight we're in and I'll be damned if I don't get a break from it every once in awhile."

She laughed and ducked from the swipe of his hand, sidling up to his other side. Levy didn't say anything else, just watched Gajeel settle back into his seat and then, sweeping her gaze back to Pantherlily, caught the even rise and fall of his little chest. The script mage hummed and turned back to the dragon slayer. "We should both get some sleep, our train leaves early tomorrow and I don't think Pantherlily will want to carry your cranky hide all the way back to Magnolia."

The thought of the train ride back had his vision momentarily swimming. "Yer sure we can't just walk back?"

Levy scoffed and shoved his shoulder. "You're going to make yourself sick just sitting here and overthinking it."

He made a noise of discontentment in the back of his throat and frowned at her. "Easy for you to say."

Her laugh was quiet as she moved toward the door of his and Lily's shared hotel room. Levy was halfway out the door when she turned back. "I did some research and I might have a few tricks up my sleeve to help you out. There's no guarantees on it since it's just a theory, but if it doesn't work out, there's always a healthy chunk of iron to placate you for the trouble anyways."

"I'm goin' to hold you to that, shorty."

It wasn't until they were on their way back to Magnolia, in the rickety train that should have been retired decades ago- he was sure this ride would be the one to be his undoing- that he realized something.

Somewhere between his restless lapses between wakefulness and sleep, she had moved from her bench opposite him to occupy the window seat of his and placed his head on her lap. Gingerly, Levy smoothed her hand through his hair and occasionally over the balmy line of metal studs over his eye. He figured it was a safe bet she acted subconsciously- if the distant look on her face was any indication.

Gajeel carefully adjusted his position, moving as if still asleep, to search out his Exceed. He caught sight Pantherlily, dead to the world, in the middle of his own nap. The dragon slayer was relieved that he hadn't been caught giving her the odd look that must have struck his features once the revelation had sank in.

The iron dragon slayer risked one last glance to her, habitually inclining his head into her touch. He exhaled deeply, the scent of paper calming the uncomfortable roiling in his stomach. Gajeel cleared his throat and laughed lowly at the look of abject surprise on her face.

Her eyes darted back to the window. "Y-You're supposed to be resting."

"Kind of hard to stay that way when-" His words were harshly ripped away as the metal heap going 57 miles per hour jerked and swerved on a particularly sharp curve.

He drew his legs up, planting his feet firmly on the seat, and crossed his arms over his chest. His exhale was sharp and drawn out through his nose.

Levy's hand came back to rest on his forehead, her fingertip absently ghosting over the piercings over one eye. "Hang in there, we won't be long from Magnolia now. If you can, try to go back to sleep."

"Easier said than done, shorty."

She sighed and briefly fidgeted under the weight of his head. "If it gets unmanageable, we'll go the rest of the way on foot."

"Nah, I think I can make it. Besides, I don't need Salamander findin' out I stopped a train just so I can get off." The train jarred once more, causing him to flinch with the resulting spike of nausea. "I'd better get a week's worth of iron for this."

The script mage smiled brightly and moved her hand over his hair once more. "Sure thing, Gajeel."

He thought back to the conversation he had with Metalicana, the part where the stoic dragon had asked what had changed about his son. How his own answer had come in flashes of blue hair and forgiveness with enough force to convince mountains to bow.

The iron dragon's interest had been piqued, wondering at the strength of something so small for its kind and not hesitating to compare the script mage to the mate he had lost ages ago when his son went on to explain.

Gajeel mentally blanched with the realization that he would be following in Salamander's footsteps.

A/N: And so ends the dragon family trifecta! I never got around to mentioning this, but these all happen roughly three years after Tenrou and Metalicana came back in the fall. Kinda wanted Metalicana to keep some of his mystery, so that's why he never officially appears.