Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
"We're going to be late to Lucy's wedding." Levy cried as she struggled against the ropes tying her to the large tree. Her movements did nothing to improve her situation and her squirming legs caused some dirt to go up her dress. One of the men who'd captured her appeared from the tree line and back handed her across the face. Levy looked scathingly at the man.
"Shut up and stop struggling. You won't get out of those ropes no matter how hard you try." He snarled.
"Untie me and you might not get hurt." She said. The guy let out a barking laugh as he slapped her again. He went off again into the thick wall of trees. "Come back here and untie me!" She shouted as she resumed struggling against her bonds. There were sounds of a scuffle and then Gajeel emerged from the throng of trees and untied her.
"Stay by me." He said as he grabbed her hand and raced off. He was running through the trees breaking twigs and branches and dragging Levy behind him. That was until he stepped on a trap and a stake impaled him in the lower abdomen. He looked down as the blood began trickling out from around the wound. He turned to Levy who looked horrified. "Pull it out." He said as he braced himself on trees on either side of him before sinking to his knees.
"I don't think you're supposed to pull it out." She said as angry tears stung her eyes.
"It's poisoned. Pull it out now." He growled. "Pull it out and then run and don't stop until you're far away. Until you're safe."
"I'm so sorry Gajeel." She said as she pulled it out and tossed it aside before pressing her hands to the wound to try to stop the blood. He collapsed. The men who captured her appeared, making a ring around her, jeering and laughing.
"Look at what we have here." The one who'd slapped her said as he stepped closer.
"I won't let you hurt him." She said as she pressed on his wound with both hands. It didn't seem to be helping; blood was spilling through her fingers.
"Wont you?" He asked laughing that same barking noise from before. "Looks like we already did."
"Stay back." She said warningly.
"Poison in that wound. Want the antidote?" He asked as his foot came to rest on Gajeel's mane of thick black hair.
"Get off him." Levy cried.
"If I give him the antidote he might even survive." The man said as his foot moved to Gajeel's hand, grounding it into the ground with sickening crunching noises.
"What do you want?" Levy asked as her tears mingled with Gajeela's blood.
"Nothing much. Tiny little thing like you can't be worth too much, maybe a few goes round for the boys."
"You're disgusting." She said.
"Do we have a deal?" He asked.
"Give me the antidote first." She said holding out her hand.
"Sure thing." He said dropping a vial in her hand. He waited patiently as she poured the small vial's contents into Gajeel's mouth. "Now leave my boys to patch him up and I'll get the party rolling." He said but as his hand came to rest on her shoulder she wrote the word bullet. With a thousand yellow flashes, the entire group of men fell to the ground, blood spilling from holes covering their bodies like Swiss cheese. Next she wrote bandages and two long strips of bandages began warping themselves around Gajeel's body and hand. She made sat with him for a while, her head on his chest and her bloody hands running through his hair. When he finally woke he groaned in pain.
"Gajeel." Levy said hugging him and making his wince painfully. "Stay down." She said when he tried to sit up.
"What time is it?" He asked looking up at her.
"I don't know. Night." She said looking around at the darkness filling the woods around them. The little light that filtered in through the canopy of green foliage had dimmed until a dim silvery light was all that remained.
"We're going to be late to Lucy's wedding." He said.
"Its tomorrow. I only told you it was today because I knew we'd be late." She said chuckling as she sniffled.
"You were crying?" He asked frowning. "For me?"
"Yes you idiot. You almost died." She huffed, his eyes finally found the bodies surrounding them.
"You killed them?" He asked.
"Yes." She said.
"Did they deserve it?" He asked.
"That one-" She pointed at the one who'd hit her, clearly the leader. "-he slapped me twice. They set the poisoned trap. And they wanted to make a deal for the antidote." She said.
"What kind of deal?" He asked, eyes narrowing.
"They'd use me, you know as a party favor." She said as his arms tightened around her protectively.
"And you said no-"
"I said yes." She said as his hands twitched. "So he gave me the antidote and I gave it to you and then I made sure they'd never touch me." She said softly.
"Help me up." He said.
"No. Stay down." She said firmly.
"I need to eat. It'll help me heal." He said as he began sitting up.
"Gajeel if you don't lie down right now I swear I'll kill you." She said firmly. Before he could say anything else she made Iron for him to eat. He took a bite out of the iron she made and wrinkled his nose.
"Doesn't taste particularly good." He said.
"You don't like my cooking?" She laughed. His eyes landed on her and for a moment his face was neutral, just looking at her. His eyes traveled from her tear stained face down to her hands, coated in his drying blood. They softened at the sight of her hands. She saved his life, killed these men for him, and still, her smile seemed unchanged. It was softer than usual, not fully amused, a small part of her was not happy, but that was to be expected. And yet, she was smiling. Was it for him? For his benefit? No, she wouldn't smile; she would pretend to be happy for him.
"Help me up." He said at last.
"We'll stay here tonight and go home in the morning." She said firmly.
"No." He said. They couldn't sleep surrounded by bodies of men she'd killed. She couldn't be okay sleeping surrounded by bodies of men she'd killed. He stood up feeling all the pain double as blood soaked the bandages of his lower abdomen. His fanged teeth clenched as his bandaged hand found his bandaged abdomen. He forced himself to stand straight and walked in the direction he thought was the right way. She appeared by his side with a displeased expression but put his arm around her shoulders and tugged him softly in a different direction. They walked until the silvery light changed back to golden and not long after they arrived at a train station which bore them swiftly to Fairy Tail. On the way Levy gave Gajeel real medical attention so by the time they arrived at Fairy Tail he was able to walk on his own. His hand would take a while to heal but his puncture wound seemed to be healing quickly. Levy chalked it up to Dragon Slayer. When they got to Fairy Tail Levy rushed to put on her Maid of Honor dress and find Lucy. Gajeel appeared with the people attending in his suit while Levy joined Lucy in the bridal chambers.
"Levy!" Lucy said hugging her best friend.
"Are you ready?" Levy asked as she pressed her hand into Lucy's.
"Now that you're here. I needed something blue." Lucy laughed. Her dress was a thing of fantasy, stunning. And as the two stepped out walking down the aisle together each had a boy's eyes glued to her. Levy's eyes found Gajeel's pierced face and a fanged grin met her. Levy stood a little straighter knowing he was there watching her, and more importantly that he was still alive. Stupid Iron Dragon. Always getting himself hurt. Loke's eyes felt no need to look away from his bride to be as she walked down the aisle. She was the most stunning girl he'd ever seen and she was to be his.
When the wedding was over and Lucy threw the bouquet, much to her surprise, Levy caught it. Sure she was a bit suspicious because she wasn't near the mass of girls clamoring for the best vantage point to catch the flowers. Lucy threw a wink her way confirming her suspicion. "We're next then." Gajeel shrugged.
"It doesn't count if she threw it at me on purpose." Levy laughed.
"I think it might still work." Gajeel said as he produced a small iron band. It was simple and small and before he could get down on one knee and ask her she'd snatched it from his hand and slipped it on her finger.
"Yes." She said beaming and hugging him around the neck.
"Gentle shrimp." Gajeel chuckled. "I didn't even get to give you the speech or get down on one knee or anything." He said frowning slightly.
"You can tell me your speech later. We don't want to ruin Lucy's moment." Levy said as she kissed Gajeel.
"She gave me her blessing." Gajeel said looking over at where Lucy was dancing with Loke. Levy laughed.
"I hope you know, now that we're getting married, if you ever suffer a near fatal injury again, I'll kill you." She said.
"Near fatal? This little scrape?" He asked as his hand gently touched his still injured abdomen. She swat him laughing before dragging him out onto the dance floor. He cringed through the moved but complied. Anything for her.