Chapter 1 - Nakama

He thought he could protect her.
He was so sure of it.
She was the only one, the only one who fully accepted him for who he was: former member of Phantom Lord, Iron Dragon Slayer, and all.
She forgave him, cared for him, even after all he had done to her, and she still considered him a friend.
And he considered her as more.
She was his bookworm, his script mage. Next to Panther Lily and Juvia, she was his closest friend in the entire guild. It mesmerized him to watch her submerged in a book, even if he couldn't understand any of the runes or the things she spoke of when she finished reading. But he was always there, right next to her in the guild's library, ready to bring her back to reality when she was done reading.
So why couldn't he be there for her when she needed him the most? When that bastard of a rogue mage attacked her?
When her last breath was stolen away from her small body, when she collapsed to the ground, without a single friend by her side to hold her?
It could've been me, he thought.
I could've saved her.

Five Days Earlier
"Lu-chan! Have a safe trip, Lu-chan!" Levy called out cheerily to her blonde-haired friend, waving as Team Natsu, along with Erza, Gray, Wendy & Carla headed out on an important job from Master Makarov. Levy jabbed the man seated next to her & Gajeel grunted a goodbye.
"You need to wish them a good journey, Gajeel. They're nakama!" Levy chided.
Gajeel casted her a sidelong glance before turning back to the iron meal in front of him. "They'll come back, that hothead always does," was his only reply.
Levy simply shook her head with a small smile. She knew Gajeel really cared for his comrades, but he hid it behind that iron shell of his. She wondered what it would be like to crack that shell, to see what really goes on his mind and what he feels. She knew that behind all his big talk and his shoo-be-doo-bopping, there had to be something more.
And she wanted to be the one to find it, to be the only one to keep it.
To keep him.
But you can never tame a dragon…
Levy shook herself out of her thoughts, feeling her face slowly turning red as she slammed the open book in front of her shut.
"I'm going to the library to find another book on ancient runes," she announced, before quickly getting up and making her escape to the guild's rather large library.
"Again?!" Gajeel yelled after her. He looked at Panther Lily, who was sitting across from him, enjoying his own food.
"Go after her like you always do, Gajeel," Lily advised.
Gajeel was already gone.

***

Levy made her way through the maze of books. When she first saw the guild's library, she had been impressed by how large it actually was, and how rarely it was ever used. It became her sanctuary when she had nothing to do at the guild, and Mira-Jane could always find her sitting in the middle of a huge pile of books whenever someone from the guild needed Levy.
And nobody knew the library like Levy did.
If it wasn't for his sense of smell and his familiarity with Levy, Gajeel would never be able to find her amidst all the tall shelves and thousands upon thousands of books. He would like to enjoy a book or two, but he honestly never had the time or the patience for that. He would much rather just watch Levy read, content with just being near her.
Gah, you idiot! Stop thinking about her like that. She's too good for you.
Gajeel had always convinced himself that she was, ever since he had to live with the guilt of branding her with the Phantom Lord's mark.
He will never, ever forget that night…..

"Script magic, Fire!"
"Geehee! Do you really think that would work on me? An Iron Dragon Slayer?" He pinned the small, blue-haired mage to the tree, where her two partners already hung by their arms, already branded with the mark of his dark guild. He leaned down, his forehead pressed to hers, her eyes wide, both fearing and courageous, a look he had never seen before.
"Think again, little girl."

Her screams echoed through his mind whenever he replayed that dreadful night. Although she had long forgiven him for it, he would never stop beating himself up for being so stupid. He had never known how much she would mean to him now, how far he would go to protect her from anyone who would try to even come close to doing that to her.
He would kill anyone that hurt Levy McGarden.
It came as no surprise to Levy when Gajeel appeared beside her and sat down on the floor, already clattered with books. She gazed over at him, her glasses on, magnifying the cheerful look in her eyes.
Gajeel met her stare. "It got boring downstairs. It's too quiet with the stupid fire dragon gone. There's no one to fight," he grumbled. He always had an excuse, but they both knew that he wanted to be in Levy's company, and she in his.
A comfortable silence fell between them as Levy laid out on the floor, reading the two books open in front of her. Gajeel leaned against a shelf and watched her, her eyes skimming rather quickly over the foreign symbols on each page.
"Watcha reading there, shorty?" he asked after a few page flips.
"I'm comparing two different runes. I want to learn more effective magic and which one will give me that," she replied, still engrossed in her reading. She wanted to be stronger. Gajeel inspired that in her.
He nodded, and then something else crossed his mind.
"Hey, shorty…where has your team been?" The Iron Dragon Slayer realized that he hadn't seen the rest of Team Shadow Gear in a while.
"They went out on a job. I chose not to go with them this time so I could study more magic and relax a bit," Levy answered. She had been going out on a lot of jobs recently, working hard to save up money, just in case she may need it in the future. A break was exactly what she needed, so she had waved aside her team's pleas of her coming along.
Gajeel snorted. "I bet they miss you too much, Levy. I know I did when you were gone on so many missions…." he trailed off, before realizing what he just said. He sucked in a breath and looked at Levy, who had actually moved her brown-eyed stare from the books to Gajeel. A blush was slowly staining her cheeks that were as red as his eyes.
So that's what it takes to get her attention from a book, Gajeel subconsciously thought.
"You…you missed me, Gajeel?" she asked him, her heart racing. Was his shell starting to slip away?
"I mean, you're always around, babbling about runes and whatever it is you read and you know, just being all happy and it's just weird when you're not here 'cause you're nakama and all that and-"
"I miss you a lot, too, Gajeel," Levy cut him off, saving him from his embarrassment. She flashed him a wide grin, instantly easing his worries about pushing Levy away by saying that he missed her.
"Remember? I have to stay by your side. We'll protect each other because that's what nakama is for, right, Gajeel?"
In that instant, he was brought back to Tenroujima, when those idiots tried to hurt Levy.
"It's hard looking for someone so small. So don't leave my side."
That was his promise to her.
Little did he know how much his promise was going to be tested.
Gajeel nodded in agreement with the script mage, a smile playing on his own lips.
"Nakama. Right."

***
Gajeel was asleep.
After some time of reading, Levy had moved and sat next to Gajeel, leaning against the bookshelf, so he could read over her shoulder. She had finished studying the two rune books for the moment, and was taking a break from studying by reading an action/adventure book. It was a story about a mage who betrayed his friends and was being hunted down by them before he caused any more mischief. She had picked it out for the sole purpose of sharing it with Gajeel, but after a while, he had started nodding off, and she realized how tired he must be, since she wasn't the only one who was working one too many jobs lately. She promised to finish the book and let him know what happened as his sleeping head fell onto her shoulder.
She was content.
She could be like this with him forever.
But that moment was shattered when Levy heard a bang, then a shout.
"Levy! Levy, are you up here?"
It was Mira-Jane, and she sounded frantic.
Gajeel had instantly woken up at the noise and was already standing up, not even aware of the position he had fallen into when he was sleeping.
"What's going on? Why is Mira-Jane here?"
Levy grabbed his hand and pulled him towards Mira's voice, ignoring the clutter of books that she left behind.
"It sounds like something's wrong, Gajeel," Levy said as she guided him through the maze, a bit of an unnecessary action since he could pick up Mira's scent among the books.
"I'll have to ask you about the ending to that book some other time, then," he growled, frustrated that Mira-Jane had interrupted him & Levy's time together. "It better be something pretty dang important!"
They reached the door to the library to find Mira-Jane standing there, her eyes wide, and her hands already grabbing at Levy the moment she saw her.
"Mira! What's wrong? What is it?" Levy asked, Gajeel standing behind her, his arms folded across his chest.
Mira paused to catch her breath, her hands tight on Levy's shoulders, before answering.
"Something's happened, something terrible has happened, Levy. Very, very terrible."
Mira met the script mage's eyes.
"It's Droy."