The scent of her fear in the air was enough to awaken him. He opened his eyes moments before she jolted upright beside him, tense and visibly shaken. Gajeel blanked; comfort was still very much a foreign concept to him, despite his genuine efforts. He reached out instinctively, grasping her arm a bit more roughly than he had intended, and she flinched — just barely, but he had noticed, and he saw a flicker of alarm in her doe eyes.
Levy collected herself after the split-second uncertainty and fell back under the blankets, refusing to meet his eyes. They lay facing each other in uneasy silence, Levy unwilling to recount her dream and Gajeel waiting for an explanation to settle the feeling of his quickly sinking heart.
Finally, finally, she looked at him, stared into the intense crimson that she had grown to love so deeply. "I had a nightmare about you," she whispered.
He stiffened, her words confirming his concerns, and he felt, yet again, the crashing wave of guilt for being the monster that still tormented her mind and caused her pain. He didn't deserve her; had no right to talk to her or touch her, much less claim her as his.
But before he could turn away from her touch, she pressed her body into his, wrapping two thin arms around his neck and gripping her tiny feet against his hard calves. She buried her face into his broad chest and the smell of salt reached his nose a moment later, accompanied by a sensation of wetness on his skin, leaving the dragon slayer speechless and afraid to move. One wrong move could tip her already fragile state, and he wasn't willing to risk her reaction with his coarseness.
"Y-you were… gone," Levy stuttered. Her voice cracked into stifled sobs then, fingers digging into his hair as she tried desperately to pull him closer. He exhaled a breath he wasn't aware of holding and curled a strong arm around her shoulders as she melted into him, relief flooding his mind with the knowledge that he was not the source of her distress — a selfish thought, he realized, but it placated the twisted feeling in his stomach. They held onto each other until the slow rhythm of his beating heart calmed her uneven breaths, neither willing to let go of the other.
A while later, Levy was settled against his side again, basking in his warmth and familiarity. She pressed a kiss to his collarbone and trailed upwards to his mouth to kiss him again, harder this time, as if the taste of his lips would dispel her inner demons. The grip around her shoulders tightened as he returned the gesture, searing and passionate. When they broke apart, a shaky please don't leave me escaped her lips in a tired sigh, dissolving into his skin. She burrowed into his chest as sleep threatened to take over, his steady pulse a sure confirmation that her nightmare was just that, a nightmare.
Gajeel would ask her later exactly what her brilliant mind had conjured up to unsettle her so, but for now, he was intent on keeping his girl tucked safely in his arms, protected against the world.
"Wouldn't dream of it, shorty."