Author's Note: I should really start naming my chapters, sometimes I myself get confused when I'm trying to re-update and fixing a few errors here and there.
Alright, enough of all these ramblings and let's get down to the story…
Nightfall had stricken and in a cheap yet comfortable motel not to far from the storage unit which contained most of Erza's family belongings, did the two took refuge in.
It had been a long day, especially for Erza who took the bed while Natsu took the couch in the living room of the motel room.
She laid on the bed, facing the ceiling and having her left arm over her forehead, thinking about all the stuff she's encountered so far in the day. The flashback of the murder of her parents, her cries in front of her parents tombstones, so much had happened that made her feel stressed, both physically and mentally. Still, she finally had received some answers to her long lingered questions from the back of her head.
She got off the bed and went into the bathroom. Erza looked in the mirror, having her eyes puffy and red from her earlier tears.
"I look like shit…" She muttered to herself. She opened the sink's faucet, letting the cold water run. She held both of her hands, holding water in them, now splashing that water in her face as she cleaned herself a bit up.
Right next to the shower was there a towel in which she used to dry her face, gently tapping underneath her eyes with two fingers.
She placed the towel right back next to the shower. Erza looked at herself once more through the mirror. "I guess that'll do."
"Hey, Erza." A light tap on her door, followed by a voice from the other side of it called out to her. Must've been Natsu who went out and tries getting the two something to eat.
"Yeah?" She answered him, still in the bathroom.
"I got us some burgers, you hungry?" He told her what he got them.
Though she wanted to lie about not wanting to eat, her stomach on the other hand had a different opinion. Not left with many options, she gave in and walked towards her door, which connected her room to the living room in which the pinkette slept.
She opened the door and walked right out into the living room where Natsu had sat down on the couch and placed a brown plastic bag that had their food on the coffee table, waiting for her to join him.
He had made himself comfortable. At least one of them has to be after all what's happened. "Didn't know what exactly you liked so I just got a double stacked cheeseburger with bacon." He took out multiple aluminum paper wrapped burgers from the bag and placed two of them in front of him and the last two next to him where Erza took her seat.
"Not much of a burger person." Erza unwrapped her burger. She didn't fancy fast food but needless to say, she didn't like them.
"Come on, who can say no to bacon?" Natsu said as his mouth was stuffed with a bite of his burger. So much for manners.
She sighed, with her stomach aching, longing for the burger, she took a bite of it and to her surprise the burger was actually good. "Wow, this is really- good." She took a napkin and wiped some ketchup that was on her upper lip.
"Yeah, that sheriff dude said that these were the best burgers in town." Natsu was half way done with his burger. He took a sip from his beverage and continued to divulge his teeth into his meal.
"They sure live up to that expectation." Erza took small bites, quite enjoying the flavor of the combination of meat and edible onion, lettuce, cheese and tomato.
"Oh yeah." He was now done with his first burger, now unwrapping the second one.
"Did you only get this?" She turned to look at him, now devouring his second sandwich.
Her question instantly made him reach into the bag. "Right, literally forgot to give you this." Unlike the burgers which were wrapped with the aluminum paper, he handed her a small box.
"What is it?" She asked, hoping to know it's contents before opening it.
"A strawberry cheesecake." He meekly answered.
She opened it. A slice, not too small but neither too big. The whipped cream was a bit all over the place, must've been when he was walking back with it. "Where'd you get it?" She grabbed a plastic fork that was next to the bag and over the napkins.
"There was this nice little pastry shop right around the corner of the burger joint," he recollected his steps. "Saw that it was the last slice on their counter and then I remembered the times you asked for a strawberry cheesecake slice at some of the events we were, so I bought and brought it."
"Oh, thanks." She gave him a small but heartwarming smile for his delicacy. And like he's done to his burger, she stabbed the slice of cake with her fork and took some in her mouth.
A sensation of well balanced ingredients, she's never had such a great tasting slice of cake like this one before. "I take by the look of your face, you enjoyed it, right?"
"Definitely!" She chewed on it slowly, enjoying the well sought out flavors that mixed in her mouth.
"You know I was thinking…" Natsu stopped for a minute, trying to say what was on his mind. "You know what, never mind, you'd probably find the idea kind of stupid."
"I don't know, you didn't even tell me what you were thinking." Erza looked at him, still having some left over cream on her upper lip, almost like a mustache.
"Would you really like to know what I was thinking, oh mustache lady?" He mocked her cream like mustache on her lips.
She glanced down to her lips and surprised to see the cream on her upper lips. She grabbed her napkin from earlier and wiped it away. "Haha, very funny," she couldn't help but chuckle at his light heart joke. "Now tell me what you were proposing."
"Like I said, you'd probably think it's a stupid idea." He sighed. He wrapped up his half eaten burger and leaned back onto the couch.
"Well, I'm waiting to hear your stupid idea." She finally finished her cheesecake, putting the opened box she was using as the cake's plate on the table with still some left over crumbs and itsy bits of cream.
"…" He was thinking of the right words to choose from. "I was thinking… maybe we can go to… that carnival…" He held his breath, bit by bit hoping to hear what she was going to say.
"The carnival?" She remembered seeing the Ferris Wheel from when they entered Caelum Town. Erza imagined the smell of popcorn, other travelers trying to win prizes from game booths and the typical small but enjoyable rides people would get on.
"Yeah." Natsu stroke his cheek, slightly nervous to hear of her answer. He'd knew by now that she was slightly oppose of his ideas, for well being of course.
"…" She thought about it for a minute. Erza would've immediately said no, but maybe it was a good idea for them to got to the carnival, blow some of the rest of the stress she had.
"So?" He awaited an answer from the scarlet haired woman.
"Yeah, you know what? After everything that has happened, maybe we need it." And just like that, she got up from her seat, went into her room for her purse and walked up to the apartment's door.
"Awesome."
…
He was still at the precinct. Laxus had to stay over night, along with Gildarts and the two Interpol agents.
It was bad enough he had to cancel his dinner night with Levy but it was also bad enough that this was the second time he had given her the cold shoulder, something that may give the petite bluenette some mixed feelings.
He was in the office room where the chief had assigned the group to settle down. The blonde detective sat right across from the white board, staring intently at the pictures and thinking about the case… or at least that's what he made the others think as Ultear and Meredy took out some files from boxes and Gildarts who too was sitting across from the white board.
Laxus still thought about Levy, hoping he'd find some way to make it up to her.
Gildarts turned his attention towards the blonde detective. And instantly he knew the man wasn't thinking about the case at hand. "Alright my sparky friend, what's troubling you?"
"Hmm," Laxus was broken from his concentration, startled by the way he blinked as he stared away from the white board. "Oh sorry, just… probably nothing."
"Oh really? I know that look, I've had that same look before as well," Gildarts placed his left hand on the detective's right shoulder, patting it in comfort. "So, what'd you do to piss off your lady?"
"Which one?" Meredy joked around, getting the gawking stares from both men. Her humor wasn't so great.
"The real one." Still, Laxus was stressed, deeply sighing.
"The forensic scientist, right?" Gildarts remembered. Well, he remembered his bickering with her.
"Yeah, that one." He took a deep breathe.
"What? She doesn't like the security detail we put on her?" Ultear now butted into the conversation while placing some files that pertained to the current case with Minerva.
"No, it's not that, it's something else entirely." Laxus told them.
"Come on now, what'd you do?" Gildarts asked, hoping to get that bit of information he hasn't told him yet.
"I… may have given her the cold shoulder early in the morning…" The detective scratched underneath his chin. It was the first he's done so to her.
"Oh." Gildarts said.
"And I may have… given her the cold shoulder again…" He hunched over on his chair.
"Again?" Gildarts asked.
"Yeah, we were supposed to have dinner like an hour ago but with this case and all, I told her that I had to cancel…" Laxus answered.
"Bummer." Was all Gildarts had to say.
"And the worst thing was that… today was the day I was… finally going to propose to her." Laxus sighed.
"WHAT!?" His co-workers suddenly, and shockingly, all said in unison.
"Dude, it's been 3 months that you told me that you were finally going to propose, 3 FRICKING MONTHS!" Gildarts lashed onto the man, almost shaking the detective. "WHY HAVEN'T YOU DONE SO YET!?"
"You know, if you had told us something, maybe we could've covered for you." Meredy had told the detective.
"Well I think it was a good idea not to do that." Ultear, out of all the people in the room, she had to be the one to say this.
"What? Why?" Her pinkette associate asked.
"Well for starters, we have a homicidal assassin slash terrorist on the lose practically in a delusion that she's in love with the detective!" Ultear explained. "If she knew or saw that Laxus was proposing to that forensic girl, in her mind, she would think he was the one proposing to her. She'd probably kill her for the ring."
"Oh come on, that girl, Levy, has a security detail appointed to her, she would be fine." Gildarts retorted.
"He's right." Meredy agreed with the FBI agent.
"Point is, Minerva is dangerous and everyone in Detective Laxus' life is endangered, he should tread lightly." Ultear advised.
"Though you're right, something good at least has to come around some time, I mean his friend is in the hospital in a comatose state and one of the leads is dead," Gildarts reasoned and hopefully, Laxus was listening as well. "Something good should at least happen, like I said."
He was right. When something bad happens, at the very least, something good should be around the corner, whether you have to make it or not for it to happen. With those words, Laxus took out the small ring box from his inner pocket in his jacket, opening it and looking at it's beauty.
"Wow, that's a nice ring." From behind, Meredy stood right behind him, looking at the emerald embedded golf ring in the box.
"Yeah, it is," he smiled at the ring. And with that, he finally chose what he wanted to do. "Alright, I'm going to do it."
"That's great!" Gildarts cheered at his answer.
"Okay then," he got up from his seat and took out his phone. "Wish me luck."
He left the room, leaving the three to figure things out now.
Laxus, now in his car, drove out to the restaurant where he told Levy to meet him. Where he had canceled but managed to put a last minute reservation.
It was out of the blue, yes, but after treating her a bit harshly with the cold shoulder and such, she deserved what Laxus had been planning for many months now.
As he parked in the restaurant's parking lot, he saw the security detail in a black SUV, she had beaten him to the place first.
He quickly turned off the engine and got out of his car, making his way into the restaurant. Cesno's Pizzaria, was the name of the restaurant. A fancy pizza place at that.
He was finally inside. "Hello, sir, do you have a reservation with us or are you currently looking for a table right now?" The hostess standing by right behind her desk asked.
"Uh, I canceled a reservation but just reserved another one under Dreyar, a table for 2." Laxus answered her first question.
She looked at the names in her index cards that laid on her desk and saw the name. "Ah, your partner is waiting for you at table 7."
The hostess lead him through, taking him to his table where he saw Levy already waiting for him. Their table was right in front of the restaurant's big window, seeing the street and it's cars through and through.
"A waiter will be here shortly." She left the two now.
"Hey." Laxus greeted the bluenette, taking his seat right across from her.
She looked away, still pissed. Well, not pissed enough that she still came to the restaurant.
"You're not going to talk to me, aren't you?" He expected much of this scenario to play out like this.
And still, sitting in silence, looking away at the man and through the window, she sat there.
"Listen, I'm sorry I gave you the cold shoulder, and twice as well!" He pleaded for her, hoping she would at least talk to him.
She didn't give in like that and continued to sit in silence.
"Look, there was a reason why I did what I did." He tried explaining to her.
Still no budge from her side.
"This morning, the whole thing caught me off guard," now he hoped she was just listening to him. "Interpol and FBI and yada yada yada… it just caught me off guard, made me a bit more stressed out than usual."
She listened but she didn't look at him still. Her mouth was still shut.
"But I also got something before I made it to the precinct." He slowly reached into his inner pocket from his jacket. Her eyes followed closely at his hands, intrigued at what the man was going to show her. And then, her jaw dropped as she saw the ring box in his right palm. She covered her mouth with her left hand, at awe.
He got off from his chair and got on his right knee, kneeling towards her. His action alerted the eyes of the other people around them and made the waiters stop in their tracks as they saw the blonde man's moment.
"Levy McGarden," he opened the ring box. It's emeralds glowed right into her eyes, making them sparkle green. "I love you and it would mean the world, hell, the universe, if you would, forever, be my partner in crime, my apple to my eyes; to be my wife."
Tears escaped her eyes, bringing down waterfalls on her cheeks. "YES! A THOUSAND TIMES YES!" She happily jumped out of her chair and quickly jumped into the detective's arms.
The crowd around them cheered, happily clapping as the two now celebrated and rejoiced their happy moment.
"You still mad at me?" He asked her, breaking their deep kiss they shared.
"You know I can't stay mad at you, dork." She smiled at him, reassuring his worries.
"Hah!" He got off his knee and the two sat back down on their chairs. "Here, try it on."
He took out the ring from it's small box and gently placed it on her left hand's fourth finger. A perfect fit. "It's so beautiful!" She brought the ring close to her, inspecting it's beautifulness.
"You deserve it babe." Laxus enjoyed the bright smile that Levy made, it brought him joy to finally know that he tied the knot officially.
"I have to tell my parents! All of our friends!" Levy now had to plan the wedding, alert all her friends and family of the happiest moment she's ever received so far.
"Yeah, you do that." Laxus told her.
Just as he and her were finally relaxing, Laxus' phone rang. "RIIINNGG!"
Without checking the caller ID, he quickly answered. "Hello?"
"Yo, we just got a lead on a possible whereabouts on Minerva." It was Gildarts, informing him of new information.
"Seriously? That's great." The day was finally getting better by the minute.
"Yeah, I'll send you the address, don't want to do this without you man." Gildarts said through the other side of the line.
"That's fine by me, I'll meet you there." He hung up now.
"It's the case, right? You just got a possible lead?" Levy knew, but still, she put on a happy smile for him.
"Yeah, they got a location," and his text was now here. "And I just got it, 4984 Tauras St., in a motel on the other side of the city."
"Well then go babe, don't want to keep you hanging." She leaned over the table, gently kissing the man on his lips.
"Heh, see you at home then and do tell our friends about it!" He got off his chair and dashed right out of the restaurant.
A waiter finally approached her table. "Did he just leave?"
"He's a detective, it's fine." She told him.
"Oh, well someone just got you guys a nice bottle of champagne." He brought the champagne and two small cups.
"Really? And who was the person that bought us this?" Levy looked around the room. She knew people cheered when Laxus proposed to her but to buy them a bottle of champagne? That was very generous.
"I did," out of all the people in the room, from out of the shadows came out Minerva who know took a seat across from the petite bluenette. "Run along now sir, she and I have much to discuss." She gave her a creepy grin.
"Minerva." Levy wasn't in the slightest intimidated by her.
The waiter now left the two woman.
"It's good to finally meet you," Minerva opened the bottle of champagne and poured some in both small glass cups. "Here, why don't you have some?"
"Not in the slightest thirsty." Levy declined.
"Suit yourself, more for me then." Minerva quickly gulped down her drink and did the same for the other.
"What do you want?" Levy asked. She knew she wouldn't show herself to her unless she wanted something from her and only face to face was the only way.
"You know exactly who I want, the question is though, are you willing to give him up?" Minerva answered.
Levy knew who she was referring to: Laxus. She knew all about that infatuation she had over her boyfriend. How far she'd go for him though? That was still a mystery. "Not in a lifetime."
"Let's go for a walk, shall we?" Minerva got off her chair and as did Levy. "Don't try anything funny." She added. "Or else."
Knowing she wasn't in any way able to get out of this situation, Levy complied.
"Out the back, shall we?" Minerva suggested.
They walked through the kitchen and out the back where they now were in the middle of the alley.
They continued to walk for about a minute and then the two stopped completely in a different alley. "I'm guessing you're the one who sent the police to that motel on the other side of the city, no?"
"Smart girl, I can see why he would fall for a girl like you." Minerva now had a gun, now pointed over the bluenette's head.
"So, this is the part where you kill me?" Levy wasn't intimidated at all by the woman's repulsive actions.
"That depends," she put away the gun and took out a knife instead. One with a serrated edge. "You give me that ring he gave you and maybe you can leave here alive."
"No." Levy refused. After waiting many years for this moment to happen, not even a delusional terrorist like Minerva would spoil her day.
"Then you leave me no choice." Minerva lashed out at her.
Levy ran but Minerva was faster. He pulled her by the hair and with her knife slashed right on her back. "AHHH!" She yelled as the wound secreted a lot of blood.
With just that cut, Levy collapsed on the ground, face flat on the dirt. Minerva turned her around and grabbed her emerald gold ring from her finger. It's beauty now covered in blood. "Thank you for this."
"And thank you for this!" Levy had managed to get the woman's gun. She shot a bullet from below, shooting her right in her left shoulder from the front.
"AHH!" Minerva yelled, getting off Levy as she put her hand on her shoulder wound.
"Now die!" Levy now sat straight on the side of the dumpster, pointing the gun at Minerva. As she pulled the trigger, nothing came out and she realized that the gun was jammed. "Out of… all the things to happen now… this happens…" She chuckled, Minerva was saved by the most unexpected thing.
"I'm going to enjoy cutting you piece by piece!"
…
Laxus was halfway there in his car towards his destination. And the it finally hit him. He stopped the car, stomping and holding the brake pedal all the way down.
He realized that the address was nowhere near here. The motel couldn't be the place where she hid in the last few days.
Laxus started to have a bad feeling in his gut. He quickly took out his phone and dialed a number, Levy's number. "Come on, come on, pick up!" Her phone continued to go to voice message.
And his gut feeling turn for the worst when his dispatch radio reported a crime in progress. "Shoots fired, I repeat shots fired at 1125 Baker Street."
Baker street, it was at least a block away from the restaurant he was in less than 15 minutes ago. "Oh fucking-" He immediately cut himself off and turned his wheel, making a hard U-turn back to the restaurant.
He didn't even bother to answer the dispatchers.
He made it back in less time, hauling ass on the gas.
Relentlessly, he checked the streets and afterwards the alleys. And finally, what he found shocked him the most. "No."
With his car still running, he got out of it and ran quickly to the victim. "No, no, no, no, no!"
Levy, his beloved girlfriend and fiancée laid lifeless on a pool of her own blood with her eyes still wide opened and her entrails and guts sticking out of her stomach. Lacerations all over her body as Laxus couldn't believe what had happened to her.
"No, no, no, no, nooooo!" Laxus stood right next to her body and broke down into tears. The love of his life, dead. He fell to his knees, continuing to look at her.
"Levy…" As a detective, he was supposed to preserve the scene but this was his loved. Even with her lifeless body, he closed her eyes and held her in his hands. "I should've been here… with you…" And once again, his agonizing cry, his loss, the person he loved the most no longer was here…
Author's Note: Should I have put spoilers for major death? Well, she was mostly a side character, but was still important to one of the main character's. Eh, I don't know.