Author's notes: It's done at last! I had this idea stuck in my head for a while and I finally got it out.

Rated T because of a lot of dirty words... and it's not even Gazille's fault! 0.0 ( btw, i dont own them )

From the other side

#1 The meeting that started it all

The dark sky was giving a gloomy look at the city in spite of the early hour of the day. Rain was threatening to fall over the citizens of the kingdom and most of them were just hurrying to finish what they had to do before being caught in the bad weather. However, in one of the many backalleys, a chubby man was too busy running for his life, his footsteps echoing on the cobblestones.

After a couple of turns, he slowed down and looked behind him, his breath ragged. He seemed to have lost the one who was after him. He waited a few seconds and when it looked like he had escaped, the man resumed his walk toward his goal, cursing under his breath at that crazy bitch that made him late. His boss would chew his face off, for sure.

He was about to start whistling a tune when a small blur of blue emerged from a corner in front of him and he shrieked like a girl. A kick too fast for him to avoid got him right in the stomach and he bended in two in a groan of pain. A slender leg lifted a boot up in his face and sent him flying backward where he landed like a bag of potatoes.

His aggressor stood over his body, a short young woman with shoulder-lenght blue hair held in a bandana and dressed in a dark red sleeve-less jacket, an orange top, dark red skirt and long black boots. She was holding a stun gun in one hand while she grabbed the collar of the man with her other and she started shaking him:

" Tell me where you hid it, you fat bastard! Talk or I'll break your teeth! "

In her rage, it took her a moment to realize he had passed out and he was now uselessly hanging by his collar. She tried to revive him with a couple of slaps to the face but he didn't wake up. Cursing like a sailor, she dropped him without care.

" Tsk, what a waste of my fucking time. "

She was passing a slender hand in her hair to calm herself when she heard a sound behind her. Spinning quickly on her feet, she aimed her gun at whatever was standing there. Her eyes met at first a dark blue business suit, a white shirt and a red tie but when she lifted her head, she met the ruby eyes of the owner of said suit: a tall guy with a sharp nose, glasses, fedora and curly black hair. He was looking at her with surprise, probably thanks to the gun she was pointing at him, with both hands lifted in surrendering. He looked over her head ( which wasn't a feat in itself since she was quite short ) and made a disapproving face:

" Ah, it's no good, you knocked him out. "

Levy scowled at the intruder:

" So what if I did? Gotta problem with that, Four-eyes? "

The man gave her a good-hearted smile as if she hadn't been rude to him two seconds ago.

" Actually, that man was my lead to solve an important mystery and now, the chances that he cooperates have been highly reduced, thanks to your... delicate treatement. "

" Well, excuse me for using my delicate treatement as you call it but that guy has information that I want and I will get it, even if I have to use him as a fucking punching bag all night long to do so. You, Mr. Fancy Pants, will have to wait your turn. "

He made somewhat of a grimace at the nickname but she didn't give a damn, she never gave a damn about others's feelings. He kept a polite tone of voice:

" What is the kind of information you need from him, if I may ask? "

" That bastard stole stuff from my client and if he hadn't fainted like a pansy, I would have made him confess where he hid it. "

The man raised an eyebrow at the cute thing in front of him: the top of her blue head was barely reaching his chest and she was so slim he was pretty sure that a strong enough gust of wind could blow her away. If he hadn't witnessed most of the thing, he would have had a hard time believing her capable of such violence. Even if he was impressed by what she had done, he would have prefered she had used a more pacific method:

" If you had waited another fifteen minutes, you would have got what you wanted: he was on his way to his hideout. "

She frowned, she wasn't the type of girl that accepted critisim easily. Especially from a stranger.

" What makes you think that's where he was going, huh? " She pointed the gun at him in an even more menacing manner, if that was possible. " You wouldn't happen to be his friend, right? "

" Not at all! I overheard him so I followed. I swear this is all there is to it. "

Levy let out an angry sigh: she was mad at the bastard and even a litle bit at the Know-it-all in front of her but it was herself that she was pissed at the most, right now. If she had been more patient, she would have already reached his hideout and most probably found the red chest that she was supposed to recover. It wasn't surprising tho, the petite woman was the type to act first, violently of course, and ask questions after, if there was someone still in shape to answers questions when she was done. She had been fooled by her impulsivity, yet again.

" It appears we have a similar goal. " He smiled in that calm manner again, using one long finger to slowly lower the gun aimed at him. " I believe it would be more efficient for us to work as a team. That way, we both get what we want faster and in a safer way. "

" And what is it exactly that you want? You don't look like a detective or anything, what's in it for you? "

" How impolite of me, please forgive my rudeness, I never introduced myself, " he offered a hand, " I'm Gazille, a freelance writer and currently investigator of the wave of robbery the city has been victim of for the last weeks. It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss?"

The young woman glanced at the offered hand but she ignored it:

" Levy. I'm from Fairy Tail. "

The man lowered his hand and ajusted his glasses, yet again seemingly not minding her coldness:

" Well then, Miss Levy, shall we do this together? "

Levy looked at him with a critical eye, he was obviously not a fighter with his polite way of speaking and his geek look. She doubted that he would be of any use to her if it came to fighting. However, she figured that, in the worst case scenario, she could always just use him as bait.

" Alright, but let's make something clear: the reward from the job is all mine. And you better not get in my way. "

" You have my word. " Gazille nodded before moving beside her to kneel near the unconscious body, who's face had turned a pretty shade of purple. Levy asked him what he was doing.

" Checking if our friend here have the adress of the hideout on him. " He said while searching every pockets and also looking inside his wallet.

" Oh, come on, no one is stupid enough to have that written down on-"

She fell silent at that moment, her eyes wide with shock thanks to her partner holding a little piece of paper between two fingers and looking at her with a victorious smile. On the paper, there was an adress and the word Hideout was clearly written over it.

" Seems like luck is on our side. "

The adress led them to an industrial area of the city, on a street filled with grey warehouses. When they arrived, it was starting to rain and when added to the eerie look of the street and the dark sky, it made the place looking even more creepy. The warehouse they were looking for was the number eight.

They were hiding behind the shadowed corner of the building. Looking at the entrance lighted by a lamp, they could see two armed man discussing with a third person who was granted entrance after a few seconds. Gazille was taking some notes in a little notebook while Levy was fingering her gun:

" If you distract them, I can beat them up in no time. "

She looked ready to jump into action when the man's arm blocked her path:

" You can't, Miss Levy, " he whispered, " we don't know how many of them there is inside, it would be unwise to create a turmoil before we know exactly what we are up against. "

She scowled:

" Okay, Mr. Big-words, what do you suggest? "

Gazille looked at the two guards for a second before undoing his tie and stuffing it in his pocket, giving himself a more casual appearance. In front of her questioning look, he motioned for her to hide her weapon:

" Follow me. "

" What the? Wait, Dumbass, what the hell are you doing? " She whispered back at him but he was already walking toward the warehouse's entrance. She hid her gun in her jacket before quickly catching up with him, silently cursing him with the most vulgar words she knew. What nerves he had to scold her then rush in right after telling her that they had to be careful. They walked straight to the two guards who didn't fail to see them and pointed their weapons at them. Gazille raised his hands and answered the first guard that asked them who they were:

" Woah. Easy, guys, don't shoot, we're here for the job. "

The two men looked at each other:

" The job? "

" Yeah, Eddy sent us here. " He lowered his hands and made a gesture that pointed Levy and himself, " Said that we could make good money if we came here, tonight. He gave us the adress so we would meet him there."

Gazille gave the piece of paper they had found to the guard, who checked it carefully.

" We're at the right place, right? "

The man lifted his eyes from the paper and after checking the afro-haired man, made a movement of the head toward Levy:

" Who's the babe? "

The blue-haired woman answered before her partner could:

" Peggy. I'm Eddy's cousin. "

The two men laughed and whistled.

" Damn, that bastard, he didn't tell us he had such a cute cousin, " said the second guard with a perverted smirk before sharing a nod with his friend, " Alright, follow me, I'll show you what you can do. "

They followed the thief inside, seeing first hand the extent of the whole organization's power. The warehouse was full of stolen goods from all kind but the item presents in the biggest quantity were the oil barrels. Hundreds of those barrels were stocked against the wall, surrounded by a couple of workers that were placing them in crates. The place was also well guarded: almost twenty armed men were patrolling around the workers.

The guard led the duo much further inside the building, almost at the back, where there was thousands of stolen items, crates and boxes waiting for them. The man ordered them to take the stuff and load it in a container. He left them to work but not before giving Levy one last glance that she ignored with ease. Gazille had taken out his jacket and was rolling his shirt's sleeves when his partner spoke in a low voice:

" How did you know his name? "

" I saw his ID in his wallet, " then he smiled, " Cousin Peggy? "

" Shut up, it was the first thing that came to my mind. "

He raised his hands in an innocent manner, chuckling, then picked up a box and started to work. Levy frowned when she realized he was genuinely working, surely he wasn't expecting her to just go along with all this shit, she had a real job to do! Which got her wondering: what was he actually trying to find in here?

" Isn't it the army's job to catch thieves and all that? Why are you here, exactly? "

If he heard her, he didn't let it know because he dropped everything he was doing before getting busy climbing on top of various crates. That allowed him to see the other side of the warehouse, near the oil barrels. He took out a small black object from his pocket. Curious and insulted that he wasn't answering her, she joined him at the top where she saw what he was looking at: a rich-looking man was discussing with what was probably the thieves's leader, both of them chatting with enthusiasm. The rich man gave the other man a mallet filled with money.

" Just as I suspected. " whispered Gazille with a smirk. The black object in his hand was a little camera to take pictures. He was also scribbling in his notebook. A few minutes passed as the duo were just observing the exchange in silence.

" Who's that guy? "

" This is the owner of Bison's, the only company left in the city that still sells oil. Every companies that have been robbed in the past weeks were his direct competitors. I had a feeling it was more than coincidences so I investigated for a couple of days and now, " he showed her the little camera, " I've got the proof. When I'll publish my article, this guy will go down. "

The short blue-headed woman raised an eyebrow at the man, she hadn't expected him to be anything special when she had taken him along. Since the beginning, she saw him as a smartass with an infuriatingly proper attitude but now, with this and the act he had pulled earlier to get them in, she was starting to change her mind. Plus, when she paid more attention to his features, she had to admit there might have been a little something attractive about him. Barely. That is, if you didn't mind the suit and the horrible hair fashion disaster under his hat.

" Next, finding your client's belongings. "

They went back at ground level to search for the red chest, checking among the things they were supposed to move but there was no sign of the lost item. As Gazille checked inside the container, Levy began searching in another pile of stolen objects. She was so absorbed by her task that she didn't notice she wasn't alone until a voice called out to her:

" Hey, Babe, you look tired. "

She stood up and faced the one who was talking to her: it was the guard from earlier, the one who had brought them there. The guy was a good head taller than her and seemed to be in his thirties.

" How 'bout you come have a drink with us? They all wanna meet you, you know. " Even a blind person would have guessed the man's intentions, Levy didn't miss it neither.

" Not interested. " She turned back to her task but the guy came closer to her:

" Ah, come on, don't be shy. " He was about to grab her arm when another voice interrupted them:

" The lady said she wasn't interested. So, leave her alone. "

Gazille's voice had been filled with obvious threat which surprised her and sent a chill down her spine. The one who always spoke in a calm and cultured voice was surprisingly standing between the other guy and her, glaring at his adversary as if he could set him on fire. She couldn't help but feel her heart rush at her partner's actions. If she didn't knew better, she would say he looked like a hero.

That lasted for a second.

" Shut up and go back to work! " The guard threw a solid punch in Gazille's stomach that sent him straight on his knees, gasping for air. Levy quickly glared at the thief with anger then swiftly lifted her right leg and hit him hard in the crotch, making him fall over in pain.

The blue-haired woman faced her teammate who slowly got back on his feet but was still holding his stomach, his breath coming in wheezes. She was so busy checking if he was alright that she didn't hear the other guy leave while calling her a bitch. Not that she would have cared.

She put her fists on her hips and the corner of her mouth lifted:

" You sure know how to get yourself in trouble, Superguy. "

He coughed as he waved a hand:

" It's alright, happens to me quite often. "

Levy rolled her eyes at the poor man. So much for trying to be a hero.

" I think I found the chest, in the container. " Gazille pointed behind him and she felt a real smile crawl on her lips. She was getting sick of this place and she sure didn't want to be there when the moron and his friends would come back. As she was about to go get it, voices began shooting from the other side of the crates:

" What the hell, Ed, what happened to you? "

" Where's that bitch? A short chick with blue hair? "

Oh shit. That's the first words that came to her mind. They exchanged a look, she took out her gun and followed him inside the container. Almost at the back was indeed the red chest she was looking for. They took it and were barely outside when a dozen armed men appeared and, of course, Eddy was with them.

Levy pulled Gazille by the front of his shirt just in time to avoid the first gunshots. They started running like crazy in the maze of crates and containers, chased by the angry mob of thieves and the flying bullets. The young woman, following her partner who was holding the chest, shooted back at her ennemies as much as possible but they had real guns while hers was mainly good to stun. They turned right and left a couple of time, trying to find their way out before they became swiss cheese, until they arrived at one corner of the building with no way out.

The Fairy Tail member placed herself in front of the writer, shooting at the coming group of ennemies. The duo was forced to duck to avoid being hit but it was obvious that they were running out of options. One of the thieves took out a giant weapon that he put on his shoulder and pointed at them: it was a rocket-launcher.

What happened next was so fast it felt unreal. The rocket was shot at the two intruders but it spiraled upward until it hit one of the giant beam that held the roof, there was a loud explosion over everyone's head then the ceiling caved in.

Gazille had already let go of the chest when he rushed in front of him:

" LEVY, WATCH OUT! "

The young woman felt something powerful push her in the back, she unsurprisingly lost her balance and was sent flying a couple of feet away where she landed hard on her belly. A huge crashing sound resonated around her and a blinding smoke invaded the space.

Coughing and hurting, Levy painfully raised herself on her feet:

" Damn, that fucking hurt, you bastard! "

She felt silent when she turned around to see the result of the explosion: most of the building was in rubbles, roof parts covered everywhere she could see and some groans of pain from the bandits echoed into the night.

But Levy's surprised state was quickly replaced by panic. Her partner was nowhere in sight. The partner that had just saved her life... Shit!

" Gazille! GAZILLE! "

The blue-haired woman looked right and left for any sign of the afro-haired man but there was nothing. Her stomach was getting heavy with dread as she kept shouting his name until she noticed the red chest sticking from under a large part of the roof, a few feet away from her. Running toward it and clawing at everything she could take away from her path, the young woman kept begging the man to not be dead, over and over.

Lifting one large piece of metal, Levy finally saw a long leg dressed in dark blue pants. Letting a strangled chuckle of happiness escape her mouth, she pushed every pieces of scrap out of the way until she could clearly access him, her face torn in a mix of pain, joy, despair and hope.

He was sitting against a large piece of wall, his head hanging in front of him with one half covered in blood. Beside that injury, he seemed fine althought he was unconscious. She quickly knelt at his side:

" Gazille! " she took his head in her hands, " Gazille, please, wake up. Talk to me. "

She didn't dare slap him, his skin was hot and there was so much blood on his face she wasn't sure he would be okay. And for some reasons she wasn't sure she liked, she really did not want him to be dead.

After a moment, he began to stir. He lifted his head and blinked a couple of times then he focused his red eyes on her:

" Hi, Miss Levy, " he smiled faintly.

Levy smiled back, feeling something strange in her chest warm her up. Even if she barely knew the guy, right now, she never had been happier to see someone come back alive.

And that was when the feeling of relief morphed into something a little bit more... passionate.

Her fist shot up and crashed down against his shoulder with enough strength to break a nose.

" Ow! " His eyes widened in pain before he stared at her. " Why did you hit me? " He could only hold his bruised shoulder in disbelief as she started shouting:

" What the hell did you do that for? You fucking dumbass! What's the big idea to not save your stupid ass? You could have died! You hear me? DIED! Asshole! "

Gazille blinked at the young woman standing over him with her arms crossed and her lips stuck in a cute pout. He was torn between the desire to laugh at her outburst, which would probably just make her hurt him even more, or to yell back at her because she wasn't grateful he had actually saved her, which would also probably make her hurt him again.

Even if her whole body was showing anger, her eyes were shinning with relief and happiness and that was enough for him to know what to say:

" Sorry to have worried you, Miss Levy, I am glad that you are alright. "

He smiled and saw surprise in her eyes. He liked that. Then:

" Idiot! You're the one you should be worried about! " She hit him again. He groaned.

So much for trying to avoid pain.

A tall man with an afro sat at the bar, a cup of coffee spiced with a drop of alcohol in one hand and the newspaper in the other. On the front page, the picture of the president of Bison's and a stunning title that claimed him as a crook. The man smiled as he took a sip.

Reading his article of the previous night's event made him think of the small blue-haired spitfire he had partnered with. A short girl with the attitude of a gang leader who had swept him off his feet. Of course, he had heard of Fairy Tail's reputation before magic left Edolas but seeing it live in front of you was something entirely different. It was thrilling.

What intrigued him the most about her was her personality. She acted cold, rude and fearless but after seeing her worried about him, he couldn't help feeling that it wasn't the real Levy. There was more underneath all that. Maybe it was just his curiosity taking over him but he was intrigued. He wanted to know more.

" How you doin', Four-eyes? "

He watched the short bluenette taking a seat next to him and grinned. Seems like he would start his new investigation soon.

End's notes: So? hope you enjoyed! I intend to write more eventually :3