A GaLe Fan fiction
Gajeel x Levy
The Dragon's bookworm.
Gajeel's eyelids were heavy as he woke from his long sleep. After a month's long mission with Patherlily the first thing he thought about doing when he got back was to sleep. That was three days ago. All the dragon slayer did the past few days was sleep, eat and watch TV. After all, the mission he was on involved one large dark cave just riddled with monsters and dark merchants looking for trouble. He lifted himself to sit on the side of his bed and pushed the cover off of himself. A cold draft hit his bare chest and legs. He could hear Lily's soft breathing which set him at ease; he was always looking out for his partner. Ever since they came back from Edolas he was always grateful for Pantherlily's company and friendship. For a cat or more precisely for an exceed he was very wise and gave him surprisingly useful advice about his life, and her. Gajeel shook his head. Dammit, it always came back to her. Stupid shrimp. Constantly swimming around in his thoughts like the little shrimp she was. He shook his head again in a failing attempt to get her out of his mind and decided to head to the guild.
"Yo, Lily get up" The slayer exclaimed whilst putting on a grey shirt. The exceed moved and growled like a small kitten in protest. Gajeel sighed. "Suit yourself, I'm heading off to the guild buddy." He stated softly, Lily nodded before a low purr could be heard. Gajeel grinned and finished dressing, and finally grabbing his new bandana off of his bedside table wrapped it around his head just above his eyes. And without another word he shut his bedroom door, took a few steel nails from his kitchen counter and headed off to the guild with a mouthful of steel.
Typically, the guild was noisy and as lively as ever. Gajeel stood in the doorway to his guild of Fairy Tail. As usual he scanned the room and spotted a familiar blue headed mage. He smiled a little at the sight of the laughing mage, standing with her best friend Lucy. He finally broke off his stare and found an empty booth on the other side of the room and wondered how long it would take for people to realize he was back from his month's mission. Which didn't take long for a pink haired dragon slayer who began to approach Gajeel.
"Gajeel! You're back! How'd your mission go? Where's Lily? Nothing happened to him di-" Natsu stopped as Gajeel cut him off.
"Stop asking so many fucking questions you fiery bastard, the mission was fine, Lily's just sleeping, 'kay?" The iron dragon slayer replied gruffly, not in the mood for the fire mage's happy being.
"You wanna fight you iron bastard?" Natsu shouted to his face, clearly he wasn't in the mood for Gajeel either.
"Try me!" He shouted back with a smirk on his face, this was going to be fun. He hadn't sparred with anyone in the guild for a while, and he needed to test his strength. He stood up and cracked his knuckles.
"Alright! I'm all fired up!" Natsu shouted, bringing his face up to Gajeel's height. Gajeel caught the fire blazing from the dragon slayer's hands and felt the heat being conducted by the studs in his knuckles. Gajeel transformed his right hand into an iron club and brought it infront of Natsu's face quickly extending the club so as to knock him back. Gajeel let out a laugh as he went flying across the room. The fire mage gave Gajeel a determined look as he leapt from the ground to Gajeel's direction. The members of the Guild were beginning to crowd around now, watching their fight. Natsu grunted in the air as he flew down to Gajeel and brought his fist back.
"Iron first of the fire dragon!" He shouted as he brought his flaming fist forward in Gajeel's direction, he thought quickly and dodged to the side, making Natsu go straight into the booth Gajeel was previously sitting in. "Bastard" The fire dragon slayer mumbled as he got up from the wreck of wooden debris. Gajeel only chuckled in return and smiled. He continued to form an iron spike from his left hand, and began to charge at Natsu. The pink haired mage suddenly snapped into concentration as he prepared to fight Gajeel head on. Natsu stood with his legs apart and brought his hands behind his back.
"Fire dragon's breath!" Natsu shouted once more, a long trail of flames was forced from his mouth, but Gajeel saw it. He quickly jumped up and forward just missing the hot flames. Small screams were coming from behind him as people from the guild must have had to dodge the attack as well. He brought the spike towards Natsu as he fell towards him, but to no avail Natsu had realized and brought both his hands on either side of the iron spike. Gajeel formed his right hand into an iron club again and forced it into Natsu's gut; making him splutter. He proceeded to retaliate with a flaming leg with a kick to Gajeel's gut. Now both of them were winded. Gajeel's iron weapons turned back into his usual studded hands, as he brought one to his stomach. "Now you're the bastard." The iron dragon slayer said barely audible.
"Not… yet." Natsu smiled as he brought his hands behind his back once more. "Fire dragons wing at-" He suddenly stopped as he brought his attention towards a redheaded mage standing on one of the tables.
"OI!" Erza shouted, her voice boomed around the room stopping everyone in their tracks, bringing their attention to her. "Sorry to cut you guys off, but we have an important issue to discuss with all of the guild." The requip mage stated, Gajeel wasn't going to argue, he wouldn't admit it out loud but that woman scared the life out of Gajeel even at the guild normally. She especially terrified him whenever he witnessed her defeating an enemy. She was badass in all ways, and there was no arguing with her, if you did then there wouldn't be much hope for you; as you'd be in the hospital for months.
"Everyone gather by the stage in 5 minutes, and sort out this mess while you're at it." Erza left it at that as she jumped down from the table and left to go behind Fairy tail's main stage. She's like a second master in this guild sometimes, Gajeel wondered what was so important at this time of the year. It was only August, nothing special ever happened in such a mundane month. He was just pissed off what his fight with Salamander was cut off.
"Next time you're mind, fiery bastard." Gajeel grunted to Natsu with a smirk. He only retorted with an evil stare as in a 'yeah, whatever' kind of look. But Gajeel took no notice as he began walking towards the wooden stage. Until a voice caught his attention from behind him.
"Aren't you going to clear that up?" Gajeel recognized the small voice, Levy stood beside him. Yet her height was nowhere near Gajeel's himself. He looked towards her, and he knew that he hung over her like a skyscraper, but wasn't really bothered. He found her size cute. Gajeel slapped himself in his mind, idiot. Thinking about her like that again, he hated himself for it. Around her he always softened, he felt he had to, to be around such a kind character. It surprised him that she ever wanted to talk to him after the whole fiasco when he attacked her and the rest of 'Team shadow gear'. He always regretted doing it, he remembered painting the phantom lord mark on her small flat stomach. And hanging all three of them to the tree, and couldn't help but admire the shrimps beauty, and her petit body. He slapped himself metaphorically again, he hated remembering that. But couldn't help it, every time he saw Levy, he was her unconscious body hanging from that tree. And had the guilt of remembering it was him who did it all. Which made him all the more confused about why she forgave him for it all. She spoke to him like all of her other friends. He couldn't help but be amazed by her forgiving and kind nature. Nothing like his own.
"Uhm, Gajeel?" Her sudden voice made him jump a little, forgetting that she'd asked him a question.
"Oh, no I'm sure Salamander can handle it himself." He smirked, in an attempt to cover the fact he must have been standing there for a few minutes saying nothing. He wasn't about to clean up something that was destroyed from a fight initiated by Natsu. He could handle it fine, at least Gajeel presumed. But everyone knew Natsu wasn't one for clearing up things he destroyed. Someone would eventually; he figured it always was cleaned up by someone at somepoint. Levy chuckled at Gajeel for an unknown reason to him.
"Ok then, here let's go and see what Erza's got planned, eh?" She smiled cheerfully at him and grabbed his arm guiding him to the front stage. He had realized after some time at the Guild that she was the only one he would allow to get this close. Apart from his partner Lily, who was his best friend. If anyone else acted the way Levy did with him, he would just feel blatantly embarrassed and not to mention, uncomfortable. As much as he hated to admit it, he took a liking to the shrimp. And regretted doing what he did to her ever since he realised she had forgiven him, that day when Jet and Droy took it upon themselves to get revenge. Poor shrimp was behind that tree like she hadn't seen anything so frightening in her life, and found it so goddamn cute.
He followed his small blue haired friend over to the crowd of guild members, standing with Salamander and the blondie, who seemed to be engrossed in a conversation about a mission they were going to go on. Gajeel remembered the time he tried to talk to Natsu about love. He seemed completely lost in the fact, he knew how he felt, just didn't realise it was love.
Poor flaming bastard.
He thought, and then realised Lucy was the one he should feel sorry for. It was blatant they like eachother, but never did anything about it. Not that he was one to talk. Gajeel felt a blush creep into his cheeks as his site returned to the top of Levy's head, trying not to think like that about her was hard for him. His attention was brought from Levy to the stage as he heard Erza walking onto the stage, in... heels?
"Listen up everyone!" She shouted, Gajeel looked to see Erza surprisingly dressed as if she were about to go to a really posh manor for dinner. She wore a long sleek black dress with a slit on one side, exposing her left leg up to her thigh, as well as the strapped black heels on her feet to match. Her hair was down, but some pulled back into a braid. Not like Levy though. Dammit! He needed to stop it, he wasn't going mushy anytime soon. Erza thankfully continued bringing his thoughts back to watch she was going to ask. "Master has a special announcement... master?"
The small grey haired Makarov appeared from behind the blood red curtains of the large guild stage. You wouldn't believe that the old man could kick ass if he wanted too. Although Gajeel grew up in Phantom Lord hearing about the man's strength and power. He always imagined a large, bulky man that would loom over him. Definitely different once he saw Makarov in real life, even though soon after realised his first expectation wasn't that wrong – when he used his magic. "Okay my Brats, we are all going on a mission. And I mean ALL of us! The council is under threat, and we as well as two other guilds have been asked to surround the area as well as some go looking for those threatening to kill council members and take over the building. Any plans you have are now cancelled, regardless of importance. This is a job Fairy Tail cannot afford to fail. Sorry Brats, we leave Monday. Pack enough for a while..." He said finishing, looking a little stressed. The little man pushed himself to far sometimes in Gajeel's opinion. The master trailed back off behind the curtains saying no more. Erza looked confused, as if expecting some kind of other news. She slummed off of the stage with her head hung low in disappointment. She was so strange sometimes.
After Erza left the stage the silence broke into the whole guild's gossiping to each other about the newly acquired mission, some were complaints about how inconvenient it was to them, so with squeals of excitement for a new job. Gajeel just brushed it off. He hadn't had any missions on his agenda, and really needed an opportunity to kick some ass, and this was his chance to do just that. However it seemed different to the small bookworm stood next to him.
"What's up Shrimp?" She must've been upset, she ignored the nickname and his question altogether. Why the hell was she upset? What was so important to her happening on Monday that made her so upset? "Seriously... Levy what's wrong?" Gajeel asked concerned, he touched her shoulder awkwardly in an effort to console her for whatever was wrong. She turned to him with puffy red eyes, and damp cheeks. She... she was crying? Gajeel's brain went into meltdown now, how was he supposed to deal with a crying fragile little woman when he was so large, and awkward.
"I- I can't go." She stuttered, her voice was croaky now. Man something must really have upset her?
"Well, why not? What are'ya doin' Monday that's so important?" Gajeel tried to step carefully, she got mad at him a lot for small things, and he really didn't want her to be angry and upset.
"I... I can't do it." She cried, sobbing uncontrollably. She turned and headed to an empty booth in the corner of the guild so go hide and cry. But Gajeel wasn't so stupid to just leave her. She got to the booth and crawled onto the cushions. Sat sheltered from the site of everyone else in the Guild she pulled her legs up to her chest and whimpered.
"What? Can't protect the Council?" Gajeel assumed, shuffling himself onto the booth's soft cushioned seats; genuinely concerned for his friend. All she did in response was nod into her legs slowly. Gajeel let out a sigh, grateful that no one had hurt her. He rested his back against the curve of the booth, looking up at the ceiling trying to think of something useful and not insulting to say. "Look, Levy..." She twitched at the use of her name so softly; she mustn't have been used to him calling her that.
"You aren't useless ya know? You are part of this guild because you're a strong mage, look shrimp, you're just as able to fight off the threats as anyone in this guild. So stop doubting yourself." He tried, not sure whether he was being any help or not, so he stared off to the rest of the guild, everyone had returned to their seats now and were talking in excitement. He thought they must have figured out any other problems they had for their upcoming whole-guild mission, everyone seemed happy – except Levy.
"Ga-gajeel?" He turned to look down at his bluenette friend, her sobs seemed to be subsiding for now. "Thank you. But promise me something?" She said breathing in short breathes as her tears stopped falling and she gathered herself back together. He was glad he did something right, he was never good with people crying – especially women.
"What's that?" He said brushing off her gratitude, not feeling like he did much anyways. He looked down at her slightly red puffy eyes and decided she couldn't get more cute if she tried, pouting like a puppy with those big green eyes. He didn't care at that moment whether it was wrong to think of her like that; he felt it was true.
"Stay by my side, I'm not good alone." Her words seemed hard for her to say, as she broke off from their stare and looked down at her lap in a kind of embarrassment. He spotted a blush on her cheeks as one crept up into his. Gajeel realised just how bad he was at understanding them. But he slowly took in her words and it reminded him of Tenroujima. He knew she'd remembered that day when saying that and he chuckled at her. He meant those words, he hated seeing her run away from him in anger. He truly wanted to protect Levy so his answer was true.
"I was planning on it anyways." He smiled and patted her on the head for reassurance. So. Darn. Cute.
Thank you to all those who have read the first chapter of my GaLe story! I promise the second chapter will be out soon! So thank you for reading and if you could leave a review and tell me what you think! I love the fairy tail ships and I plan on making more! Thanks!