Gajeel's last brawl had almost gone a little too far, even for him. But he couldn't stand those idiots and the taunting comments coming from their mouths, so he had to teach them a lesson; though he almost lost for a moment. He had multiple large wounds and bruises on his arms, head and ribs. He paid particular attention to one on his bicep, poking and scratching at it.
"Don't do that." He heard her voice sternly say, as she came around the corner with a bowl of hot water and clean rags, placing them on to the table that he sat on top of. Slowly immersing one of the rags into the water, she took a moment to examine his wounds. None of them were deadly and this definitely wasn't the worst of his injuries, but it seemed to be the one he was picking at the most and that would only make it worse. Thoughtlessly, she patted the rag against his arm, wiping up the dried blood around the wound. She hesitated and glanced up to him, preparing for a big reaction when she gently touched the rag to it. A big reaction was exactly what she got. He roared in pain and jolted away. But his noise and anger didn't scare her. Instinctively, she made a calming shushing sound through her lips, unfazed by his outburst.
"That hurts!" He leaned close and yelled at her in response.
"If you'd hold still, it wouldn't hurt as much."
"Well, if you didn't run off by yourself this wouldn't 'of happened!"
"I ran off because you told me to leave!" She said momentarily offended. With a short huff, she glanced down to what she was doing to avoid facing what she just said. She hated bringing up what happened earlier, but it needed to be said. "So if you want to split hairs, none of this would have happened if you could control your temper." She added softly, still looking down at her hands that had already moved on to the next injury without either of them noticing.
Gajeel opened his mouth to protest, but stopped once the connection clicked. He hated losing, especially at battles that dealt with his pride. But she was right. Being a hot-head almost always got him into trouble. He just couldn't help it. When he saw those guys pestering her on the street, he just had to pick the fight. He couldn't stand there and do nothing.
"Thank you, by the way," She said, quickly glancing up at him and back down to tending his wounds, "for saving me from those guys." Her eyes slowly drifted back up to his.
After a long, shocked stare, a toothy grin slowly grow on his face. "Ghihi." He smiled as a little blush lightened his cheeks. He knew what he needed to seriously work on and it wasn't going to be easy, but she thanked him. This meant she wasn't mad at him, at least not too mad.
She focused desperately on his injuries, so that she wouldn't look up at his infectious smile. It would only ruin the point she was trying to make.