A/N: 33rd fic. 3rd FT fic.

I'd like to say that I've gain better writing skills as of late and I'm more or less seeing what I can really do, so be sure to review. This fic is not my main priority at the moment, nor was I suppose to post this fic this early, but I'll update as much as I can.

Chapter 1: In A Different Light

Raining didn't even begin to describe the weather in Magnolia; an outright down pour was more fitting.

Streams of muddy water, courtesy of the surrounding dirt, appeared to be endless, loitering the many pathways of the usually active streets. Rain sounding off against the rooftops of the countless establishments, pounding against it as well as the windows were very much audible; the sounds being emitted similar to that of an hail storm. As for the trees, whether near or far, their branches swung in conjunction with the harsh winds, nearly groaning in protest as the unrelenting winds showed no mercy.

Frequently, flashes of lightning became apparent, lighting up the dark, gray skies as it seemingly danced about. Thunder, not too far behind the lightning, made its presence known, rumbling so hard one would think that the heavens itself were trembling. Not a soul was in sight for one would be a fool to be out in this type of weather. With vacant streets, mostly everyone opting to stay inside their homes until the afternoon storm passed over, one could state that it was fairly quiet if you excluded the weather.

And the rowdiness those neighboring Fairy Tail could hear, of course.

As per usual, the concept of "quiet" seemed to fall short upon those of the guild or just plain out foreign to them. Though, one should have known better than to think that something as trivial as weather could affect a guild such as Fairy Tail. Especially since Fairy Tail had quite the reputation of causing more damage than deemed necessary — going overboard as one would put it (much to the Council's dismay and aggravation). But of course, in order to understand the ways and morals of Fairy Tail, one would have to be in it; it was merely one of those things that words failed to describe.

And indescribable as it may seem to those outside the guild, one from inside the guild would beg to differ. A certain Solid Script Mage, Levy to be precise - whom desired nothing more than to concentrate on the intriguing book in front of her - managed to described it as one word: Chaotic.

Gray and Natsu were at it again.

Granted, Levy knew better than to think that those two could go a day without getting into some sort of altercation, but that did not - in any way - make it any less chaotic and a quick glance around the guild confirmed that. For a moment, she wondered why they couldn't at least take their fight outside for once, but as quickly as that thought appeared, it vanished just as quick. After all, it was Gray and Natsu she was thinking about here. Besides that, she hardly thought it mattered where they were; for it seemed that no matter the place or time, anywhere could become their arena quicker than Cana could finish a barrel of beer.

Elfman, on the other hand, was ranting loudly about the importance of being a man.

Weirdly enough (or possibly not), his rant fell on deaf ears for it was to no one in particular. Whether or not the second oldest Strauss sibling was aware of that, Levy wasn't certain and therefore, didn't give it much thought. She could possibly be exaggerating, but she could probably repeat all of his 'importance of being a man' speeches back to him word for word. That alone spoke volumes and...slightly frightened her.

Wakaba and Macao were arguing over who knows what.

If she had to take a guess, having knowing them rather well, Macao had most likely reminded Wakaba that he was married and that it would be in his best interest to relinquish any false hopes he had of him ever getting a woman like Mirajane - whom made it known, politely, that she wasn't interested on countless occasions. Of course, Macao had stated this in a jokingly manner, but Wakaba had made the mistake of retorting 'at least, I can keep a woman' and it was pretty much needless to say that things took a complete 360 from that point on. Quickly.

Cana, seated ontop of a table with several barrels of beers (too many in Levy's opinion) at her side, was laughing rather boisterously.

What her brown-haired friend found so humorous at the moment was beyond Levy, especially when Cana was laughing as if she had every reason to be guffawing at nothing in particular. From what she could tell, nothing in the slightest was even remotely funny and though, curious, Levy wasn't ashamed to admit that she was afraid of the response she would receive from her. This was Cana, after all, and she was rather...unpredicatable.

To put it in a nutshell, anything was possible with her.

Jet and Droy, both of whom she considered to be like brothers to her despite their romantic feelings for her, happened to be located at the request board, indulging in a loud argument about which mission they thought she'd like best.

Though, she loved them both dearly - like brothers, mind you - and they always had the best intentions at heart, they tended to get on her nerves on a seemingly daily basis. They could be taking a walk and an argument could break out right then and there about which path she'd prefer to take to the guild. They could be accompanying her on a trip to grab a few groceries and yet another argument could break out about the type of brand she'd like best, or which would be better for her health. As she stated before, they did contain pure intentions, but with everything being an competition with them, she tended to find their company more annoying than enjoyable.

Of course, she never relayed anything of the sort to them for fear of hurting their feelings, but aside from that, that wasn't even half of what was occuring in the guild at the moment. If she had to be honest, the guild could probably put a Zoo on its worst day to shame.

Brown eyes suddenly - distractingly - looked up from the book she held in her hands, searching for one person in particular that would certainly know how to get the guild back undercontrol. Said person was the only person in the guild that could make even the strongest of men turn around and run with their tail between their legs. Of course, it was either that or they faced her wrath - which wasn't too wise of a decision. Noticably perking up upon finally locating a certain scarlet-haired Mage, Levy proceeded to mentally rejoice, more than convinced that Erza would shoot up any minute now to get everything back into order. Though, she couldn't help but wonder why Erza hadn't put a stop to eveything as quickly as she usually did when the guild went chaotic in the first place.

At least, that was what she had been wondering until the Solid Script mage noticed that Erza was eating cake...

Darn.

And at that precise moment, Levy knew it was all over, knowing full well that when Erza was eating cake, she was in her own little world...

Would it be cruel of her to hope that someone would accidently knock her cake on the floor? That usually snapped her out of her trance.

Releasing a defeated sigh, Levy decided to close her book and attempt to read it later. It wasn't as if she'd get any reading done with the guild being this rowdy anyways and she certainly didn't have a umbrella or any jacket of the sort on her person to depart elsewhere - she hadn't given it much thought on to whether or not it'd rain or not. Though rainy days did occur in Magnolia, it was quite rare; thus, the reason for why she hadn't given the weather much thought, so she really couldn't be blamed.

Aside from that, it usually didn't take much for Levy to get engrossed in a book, so she found it rather peculiar that the rowdiness of the guild was actually getting to her. Especially, when it didn't take much for her to get absorbed in her books in the first place. Reading, after all, was one of her favorite hobbies to indulge in. Whether something was troubling her, or whether or not she just wanted to escape, or even if she was just in the mood to learn something new - reading had always lured and pulled her into another world. It was a heavy passion she carried from her childhood, and a heavy passion such as that shouldn't be easily distracted, now should it?

But...as of late, her thoughts had been drifting towards a certain Dragon Slayer - one that seemed to intrigue her to no end ever since he saved her yesterday.

When she was first informed that he would be a member of Fairy Tail and her eyes landed on him, she was utterly terrified; her face immediately paled, her brown eyes went wide - filled with trepidation, dread, worry, as well as many other emotions that seemed to be swiriling around within her that she couldn't identify at the moment - and her body began to tremble. It probably wasn't too far off to say that she broke out in cold sweat right then and there, and was on the verge of having a panic attack.

For the life of her, she couldn't understand why the Master would invite someone who destroyed their guild. For the life of her, she couldn't understand why the Master would invite someone who pinned her, along with Jet and Droy, to a tree to hang on display like a Christmas ornament after brutally beating them. There was just a lot of things she couldn't understand at that moment; and with her mind running a mile a minute, and various 'what if?' questions swimming through her head along with different scenarios of what could happen if Gajeel stayed at the guild - in which none of them looked appealing - it was just too much for her to take in.

So, Levy did the only thing she could do: steer clear from him, and just basically avoid him as much as possible. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to work too well; for whenever she saw him in the guild, she couldn't help but start trembling in fear. The guild was but so big, and it wasn't exactly hard to miss Gajeel. He was rather intimidating, and he hardly conversed with anyone besides Juvia. Majority of the time, he'd just mostly snatch a mission off the request board and go on about his business, or when he wasn't on a mission and was still in the guild, he'd just isolate himself with nothing to keep him occupied but the iron he was so fond off.

And when she wasn't at the guild - whenever she was alone, and wasn't trembling in fear of her life - she'd constantly try to rack her brain for answers. For anything. Anything at all, but nothing hardly came.

Until finally, one day, a realization hit her: Master wouldn't invite anyone to the guild that'd harm or endanger his children in any way. She found herself feeling quite guilty that she hadn't trust Master's choice. However, in her defense, she really couldn't be blamed. And it wasn't as if she was the only one who didn't trust Master's choice; majority of the guild didn't either, and they made sure to show it. Whether it was merely trying to get a rise out of him by voicing their opinions about the Iron Dragon Slayer whenever he came within range of them, or staring at him none-too-discreetly with hatred in their eyes - it was all a blatant attempt to provoke him to do something in order to prove that he didn't belong.

However, what ever thoughts and feelings she had pertaining to him, drastically changed when he protected her from Laxus's attack.

Her teammates, Jet and Droy, had approached Gajeel upon catching sight of him in the midst of them heading towards a small restaurant. Naturally, not wanting any trouble, she protested and requested that they just forget about it, but her boys just weren't having that it seemed. Things quickly escalated, and a fight broke out and it wasn't until she realized that Gajeel wasn't fighting back and why he wasn't fighting back, that Laxus suddenly appeared, ranting about how Gajeel was ruining Fairy Tail's image as he proceeded to dish out a beating on Gajeel as well.

Laxus, being a S-Class Mage, dished out far more damage than Jet and Droy did and having realized Gajeel's intentions, Levy pleaded for Laxus to stop only to receive a 'shut up' and a lethal attack that would have no doubt provided her a straight ticket to the hospital. Emphasis on would have because to the shock of Team Shadow Gear, Gajeel had appeared in front of her faster than she could count to three and took the full brunt of the attack. For Gajeel to take an attack for her, when she had done nothing but tremble in sight whenever she saw him and watch from the sidelines as he took quite a beating...it rendered her speechless. In fact, she had been so speechless that she could hardly give him the proper 'thank you' he deserved.

Presently, things had returned back to normal and there were no hard feelings - as far as she knew of - and it was almost as if nothing had happened. Granted, some members still regarded Gajeel in the same light prior to Laxus attempting to take over the guild, but it was obvious that some had eased up - albeit slightly.

As for her, ever since he rescued her...

...she viewed him in a whole different perspective.

A different light.