The beast rose high above them, its wings and roar matching in size and awe-inspiring strength. Rearel remained standing, his sword clenched tight in his fist, fear a deep draw in his gut- "Levy!"

Levy jerked in her chair, reality crashing through the climax that she had been so engrossed in. Her cheeks darkened when those around her chuckled, but Lucy gave her an understanding look. Then she noticed the teacher looking at her with both affection and slight irritation. This happened often in class.

"Would you care to solve this problem for us?" Luckily, she'd always been good at school, and happened to have been studying this subject just last night. Would her teachers never learn that she wouldn't ever be caught in a class where she hadn't read the whole textbook at least once?

"Sure." She bookmarked the page she was on, and slid out of her chair, walking to the front of the classroom. She took in the equation the teacher had set up on the board, and deftly went to work. It was solved in just a minute. She was a bit irritated that it had taken her much longer than she had thought. She'd have to work a bit harder on that.

"Thank you, Levy." The teacher was grumpy that she had done it with no problem, thus teaching her no lesson. She just shrugged inside. She made sure she knew what she was doing before she did it.

A few hours later, at lunch, she closed the book loudly, and sighed in enjoyment. "Geez, Lev, done already?" Natsu teased her.

She stuck out her tongue at him. Lucy laughed. "Leave her alone Natsu. You're just jealous Levy's so impressive." Lucy winked at her.

"Yeah, she's probably stronger than you too, with all those huge books she carries around!" Jet, her life long friend- sitting right next to her- said.

While Natsu rebuffed and then challenged Levy to an arm wrestling contest, she simply got up and took her book with her. She loved the rambunctious groups she surrounded herself with, but she was in dire need of the sequel she knew was in the library. No one questioned her as she left with her tray, the book tucked between her arm and her chest.

Then she slammed into a hard chest, thus having the remains of her food and trash, along with a whole trayful of someone else's. She ended up on the floor, her book landing hard on her chest. She gasped for air.

"Ah shit, watch where you're going, ya damn shrimp!" A harsh voice rang out above her. When she was finally able to get air, she noticed him shaking out his hands and glaring at her. He was huge,- tall and muscular- with long black hair, piercing red eyes. His clothes were also ruined from their crash. When he looked at her clearly, his face softened when he saw she was hurt. As she tried to get up, picking up trays and trash as she got up, he bent down and helped her, then took them and helped her up.

"Sorry about that." He grumbled, nearly under his breath. He handed her her book. She took it nervously, but smiled a bit, showing it was alright. Then came her friends, parading around her, asking if she was alright. Jet and Droy went to glare at the man who she had run into, but he was already headed out of the lunchroom.

When Lucy and her had managed to salvage some clothes for her to use, they parted ways to their next class. Levy's thoughts went back to the man she'd bumped into. She knew she'd seen him around school, and she'd heard his name before, but it wasn't coming to her, all she could remember was that it started with a g. Gale? Grole? Ugh, she hated not knowing.

School ended like normal, and she went out with everyone afterwards, celebrating the last day of the second to last month of school. When Natsu was explaining why they were going out, she rolled her eyes, but looked forward to it. They had all grown up together, or they were accepted as family once they came in, like Lucy. The main group was Natsu, a crazy, hotheaded but loyal-to-a-fault leader of sorts; Erza, the backboned redhead was a force to be reckoned with, with top grades in both class and PE, she could be the scariest thing you'd ever seen, or the kindest and most understanding friend; Gray, often preferring clothes off than on, fiercely loyal as well, but more methodical, and not as easily trusting; Lucy, the blonde who was almost as outspoken, loyal, and impulsive as Natsu sometimes, was also wickedly intelligent, and could solve most puzzles and problems put before her, also an amazing friend who stood by anyone and everyone she knew to be doing the right thing.

Levy's very small group tagged along often with them, just Levy, Jet and Droy, who had all grown up together from a very young age.

When they got to the local sweet shop- which served everything from pastries to candy to ice cream- Levy noticed the man she'd bumped into earlier, and another girl, Juvia, who often hung around Gray now. Everyone but Gray knew the girl was hopelessly in love with him, and it showed when they entered the room, and she nearly fainted. Levy wondered if they were going out, but thought that odd if Juvia was so obviously infatuated with her friend.

What she hadn't expected was Natsu calling out his name and waving him over. "Gajeel, hey, what's up?" Gajeel! That was it! But how did Natsu know him? "Hey Luce, wanna meet my cousin? He comes to our school, but skips all the time, so I don't see him that often."

That would explain why hardly anyone knew about him. Levy wondered if anyone remembered that he had been the one she had run into that day. The look Lucy sent her made her think so.

"Sure, Natsu." She sounded a bit hesitant. Levy watched as Gajeel walked over towards them, with a quivering Juvia behind him.

"What's up flamebrain?" Flamebrain? Levy wondered where the nickname had come from. It sounded like a good story, and she loved any and all of those. His gaze flickered over to her, and a flash of surprise flickered over his face, before he turned back to Natsu. Levy ducked her head down. She wished they hadn't met under such circumstances. Despite the permanent scowl, and the potty mouth she had noticed earlier, he didn't seem that bad.

Natsu was able to convince him to join their group, and before long, everyone knew what they wanted, and they collected orders. Levy volunteered herself to order, knowing no one else would be able to do it without being tempted to intentionally mess with them. She didn't want to have to take Droy to the hospital again for his peanut allergy.

Lucy went with her. While they were waiting in line, they talked about books and school, when Lucy suddenly looked at Levy with a mischievous smile that made her wary. "Gajeel seems to like you more than most, Levy." Levy was shocked to say the least.

"What makes you say that?"

"He sat across from you without even asking, and then earlier, even apologized. I've never seen someone so surly go out of their way to help someone else."

Levy shook her head. "He seems naturally irritated by noise, and I don't talk nearly as much as others, or as loud. That's probably why he sat down at my end." She had just met the guy that day, there was no way Lucy was going to convince her that he already had a crush on her. Lucy was enough of a matchmaker as it was, she wasn't going to let her see something there that wasn't real.

Lucy just shrugged, but didn't look convinced. "If you say so." When the girls came back with everyone's treats, laughter and conversation was heard throughout the whole group, but tapered at the very end, where Levy and Gajeel were. He had only ordered a frozen lemonade, and had his head down on the table, seemingly taking a nap. Levy was reading a book, engrossed in the other universe, so when he looked up at her and watched her with a smirk on his face for a few minutes, she didn't notice.

"You sure read a lot, Shorty." His voice rumbled over to her, snapping her out of her little world. He watched as she blinked a few times, and then smiled. He assumed that was her default expression, like his was a scowl.

"Uh, yeah I do. I love reading." She seemed a bit shy, but was open and welcoming.

He snorted. "What's so great about it? It's just a book." Her look of almost outrage and complete astonishment made him almost regret the words. But he loved getting reactions out of people, especially ones that looked like her, like sunshine poured out of every orifice and like the world was sunshine and fucking rainbows.

"They are not just books! Every book is different, telling a different thing, a different story, a wholly different wealth of knowledge held in simple, amazing pages!" Her voice had risen a bit, and she looked a bit miffed. He almost chuckled, but thought that would just make her madder. A few people had glanced over at her raised voice, but once they listened in, they smiled and just left her to it. Quite a few looked at them with raised eyebrows, but no one said anything.

She was glaring at him with a grumpy face, which he tried very hard to not notice, partly because it was honestly one of the most adorable things he'd ever seen, but mostly because he had a feeling she would yell again if he showed his amusement, and he had a horrible headache. That's why he'd sat next to her in the first place. She didn't talk.

He smirked, but simply said, "Well then, guess you showed me." Then he put his head down again.

Levy felt ridiculous. She had yelled at a stranger. Sure, he had disregarded books and reading in general- which was nearly unforgivable in her mind- but she shouldn't have yelled. Though a tiny, very mean part of her felt avenged over him yelling at her earlier at lunch for an accident. But he had apologized afterwards as well.

A few minutes later, after much internal debate of hers- most of which was her pride battling with her kindness- she murmured an apology to him.

He shifted his head to face up to see her again, noticed the pout on her face, and chuckled. "It's fine Shorty."

Her face flushed a bit. "My name is Levy. Not shorty or shrimp."

He shrugged. "Not gonna happen Squirt." He saw her grumpy face before putting his head back down. She didn't say anything though.

A few minutes passed by again, before a shot of pain rang through his head again, on top of the constant thudding and pressure. He got up out of his seat, said his goodbyes to the group, and walked out.

Levy watched him leave, wondering what was bothering him, but quickly went back to her book, telling herself it was none of her business. Another hour, and they all talked of going out to the mall, but she decided against going. Jet and Droy offered to walk her home, and she accepted. As they were on their way, Droy realized he had left his backpack, and rushed to get it before the place closed. Jet and her continued on their way, talking about school and how stressed Jet was for finals in a few weeks, and other things. Finally, when they got to her house, Jet hesitated when she said goodbye. Inside, she cringed. Please, not again. But she could tell by his body language what he was going to say next.

"So, Levy, what are you doing after school tomorrow?" He smiled sheeply at her. She hated doing this, but she was forced to now, almost every time they were together. At least Droy had gotten over the crush he'd had on her years ago, but Jet had never admitted defeat. It was a bit admirable, but at this point it was just annoying for the most part.

"Not much, just going to the library, like always." Despite knowing what he was about to say, he was still one of her best friends, and she wasn't going to be mean to him because he had a crush on her. That would be horrible.

His face was hopeful, as it was every time. "Do you want to maybe go on a date afterwards?" She sighed, and smiled again, but she felt the weariness of answering the question for the upteenth time dragging the edges down a bit.

"Jet, you know I don't like you like that. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to say no." She saw the disappointment. It wasn't like she could ignore it. But she knew that she could also do nothing about it. The only way she could figure to get him to stop asking would be to say yes, and that wouldn't be fair to him or her.

But Jet had tried this many times now, and the disappointment was brief, and then he kissed her forehead goodbye, and made sure she got in the house fine. She sighed. She wished he would stop asking her out, but she wouldn't know how to ask him without being really rude or mean, and that wasn't the point. She just wanted him to know that she didn't see him that way, and she was very much sure that she never would, no matter how much he hoped she would.

As she got ready for bed in her apartment, her pictures caught her eye. She smiled as she perused them all, the most recent ones with Lucy and Natsu and everyone, to the ones with Jet and Droy when they met at four. Then, the few ones of her and her parents. She picked up her favorite, her on her father's shoulders, laughing, her father and mother smiling at each other.

When she laid down and turned off the light, she put the picture back, and took out a flashlight. When she picked up her father's favorite book, which she had read so many times the leather was soft from the oils in her hands and the constant wear and tear of life. She reread a few chapters, and then Gajeel slipped into her thoughts unbidden. He had seemed a strange mixture of kind and gruff. It was also only their first day of meeting, but she sensed that he was a naturally kind man, but time had taught him to be the opposite. She wondered what he thought of her, and if he thought she was absolutely crazy for the way she talked about books. She hoped not.

She fell asleep smiling, her head resting on the book for not the first time.