CH. 2 : Just add water

As the evening continued, Levy was put on so many tasks, it made her dizzy. For some reason she felt like Gajeel was trying to make her fail. But if Lisanna was right, he would take it easier on her if she worked hard. So Levy cut away at the vegetables, skinned the potatoes, and tried to make a decent vegetable soup.

"Don't forget the herbs, shrimp."

Levy froze as Gajeels voice was right next to her ear, whispering. Her face turned bright red in shock as she mumbled:

"Y-Yes chef!"

He walked around the kitchen checking on everybody's progress. Levy looked around for some fresh herbs to use, and decided to use some salt and pepper, but also fresh garlic and parsley.

As she started cutting them into small pieces, suddenly a pink haired waiter with a huge smile on his face popped up right next to her.

"Heyya newbie!"

"EEEK!"

Levy jolted up in surprise, slipping the knife into her indexfinger.

"Ow!"

Quickly she dropped the knife in the sink and opened the tap to rinse the wound with water, as the pink-haired-smiley-face turned into a pink-haired-worried-face.

"Sorry I scared you. Is it bad?"

Before Levy had a chance to answer, a voice like thunder basically growled behind her.

"Is WHAT bad? What did you do Natsu?"

Natsu turned to face Gajeel.

"Uh, just. I wanted..." His voice trailed of into silence.

Levy turned around, realising Gajeel was a lot closer than she anticipated, and now she basically had to put her head in her neck to look at him. Though she felt intimidated, she looked at him with a firm look in her eyes.

"It was an accident. He just said hi, and he startled me a bit, that's a-"

She was interupted when Gajeel suddenly grabbed her hand and jerked it up, to examine the cut.

"Ow! Hey!"

Levy protested, but her hand seemed to be caught in an iron grip. Gajeel sighed, shot a glance at Natsu and growled.

"Back to work,Salamander."

Looking down at Levy as Natsu quietly left, he almost had a kind look on his face. He dropped her hand and walked towards the lunchroom door.

"Follow me."

Holding the door open he looked back at her.

"Shrimp? Today, if you don't mind."

With a shock Levy started walking towards the door, wondering what he was planning. He gestured at a chair and told her to sit as he walked towards some cabinets and started going trough them. What was he looking for?

Gajeel grumbled to himself. Stupid Natsu. Startling her like that and cause her to cut herself. Allright, he had put her onder some pressure, maybe she was already a bit tensed beacause of that. Still, he blamed Natsu. Loud, annoying, overly cheerfull reptilelover. Finally finding the first aid kit he was looking for, he slammed the cabinet shut.

"Stupid idiot," he mumbled.

For some reason Levy lowered her gaze. Was she emberassed or something? He kneeled at her feet, taking her hand in his, and looked up at her face. His grasp on her hand tightened when he saw tears slowly rolling down her cheeks.

"OW!"

She gasped softly in pain, since he was basically crushing her cut finger. Her head jolted up, and she looked at him in agony.

"Why are you crying shrimp?"

The tension on her hand softened a bit, and suddenly Levy blurted out:

"You called me an idiot!"

Gajeel looked up at her in surprise. When did he do that?

"Did not."

"Yes, you did. I heard you. Just now when you took out that first aid kit."

Gajeel thought for a second, realising she heared him mumble about Natsu. Just as he opened his mouth to explain, the door was opened by Lucy and Natsu, who were about to take a break. Unfortunately, Gajeel just started his sentence with

"Will you.."

and abruptly stopped as the couple came in. Considering he was still holding Levy's hand and he was on his knees, it looked like something else entirely. Natsu just stood in the doorway dumbfounded with his mouth wide open, as Lucy seemed to swoon at the romance of the situation. Gajeel and Levy both turned bright red when they caught on to her thoughts.

"I wasn't.."

" He didn't.."

The started protesting at the same time, and silenced when they heared the other speak. Emberassed, Levy janked her hand free from Gajeels grasp, revealing the cut. Natsu giggled.

"So that's why you were so angry at me just now. You liiiike her!"

Levy's face got even more red, as Gajeel turned pale.

"Don't be an idiot, you numbnuts! I was just taking care of the cut that YOU caused! I don't want blood on the plates, you fucking moron."

He turned his head away from Levy and the others.

"As if I would like a shrimp."

Somehow that hurt. Not that she liked him, but he just made her feel so unwanted. She actually got angry at him. She tried to work hard, it was her first day and he was a big bully. If he wasn't the Chef she would..

"I can take care of myself perfectly!"

Levy suddenly shouted at him.

" I don't need you to do that for me, and I wouldn't even want you to like me!"

Levy saw his face turn purple, then white and finally back to normal. He looked at her with a straight face as she took out some bandages from the first aid kit and started to take care of her cut.

"Tch. Fine. Back in five shorty."

And with that he went back to the kitchen. Natsu shivered.

" Geez, the atmosphere turned cold pretty quick."

Ignoring his remark, Lucy walked over to Levy.

" Sure you don't need help?"

Levy nodded, still a bit irritated.

"Yup, but thanks."

She looked up at the blonde waitress, finishing the bandages on her finger.

"I'm Levy, by the way. Nice to meet you."

Lucy smiled. "Nice to meet you too. I'm Lucy and this is my boyfriend and village idiot, Natsu." Natsu bashfully scratched the back of his head. "Hi there. "

Levy put back the first aid kit in the cabinet where she thought Gajeel took it out of, and went back to the kitchen, where Gajeel was frantically chopping away at some shrimps.

'Surely hope he isn't thinking of me when he does that.' Levy thought to herself.

She walked over to her side of the counter, put a latex glove on her hand to cover the bandages, and cleaned the blood from the counter. She then calmly continued cutting the parsley, carefull not to cut herself again. As the water in the pot slowly started to boil, she noticed Lisanna making a gesture to draw her attention. As she looked, Elfman raised an eyebrow at her, while Lisanna mimicked teh words

" You ok?".

Levy nodded en lifted her hand to show her finger, and lifted the knife, to explain she cut herself. They nodded and went back to work. Levy understood why they were so quiet. She could just feel Gajeels anger pouring from him right next to her. Admitted, she felt a little bad. She yelled at him, while he was trying to help, and in front of the staff no less. She had to apologize as soon as possible

The evening went by quietly, the restaurant not being too busy tonight. Levy started to wonder how late she was suposed to be staying. As if he read her mind, Gajeels voice rumbled towards her for the first time since she yelled at him. He hadn't said anything about her cooking, good or bad.

"Oy, shrimp."

He was obviously still agitated. Levy turned her head to face him.

"Yes chef?"

"Cleaning duty."

Levy stared at him from the side, as some of the other cooks started to leave.

" Err, What do you mean? "

Levy mumbled softly. Slowly he turned towards her, his eyes stone cold.

"You're staying to clean,with me. Elfman and his sisters take care of the restaurant, we do the kitchen. Clear enough for ya, shrimpbrain?"

Although she felt herself getting angry again, she ignored her annoyment and answered with a submissive

"Yes chef."

All be it not so timid this time. Shrimpbrain? How dare he?

After all of the kitchen was finally completely void of people, besides Gajeel and Levy, she decided to make up first. No way the could clean up like this.

"Gajeel?" she started to say, but he cut her short.

"Still chef for you."

Levy sighed, sensing he was just angry and annoyed.

"Chef. I'm sorry for yelling at you, while you tried to help me. It wasn't your fault. Natsu and Lucy...well , well that was just emberassing."

Gajeel only snorted in response, making sure to turn his head away so she wouldn't see the slight blush on his face. That was indeed emberassing. Stupid Salamander and his Blondie girlfriend.

Levy cleared her troath, wich made him forget about Natsu for a minute. She had more to say?

"Although..."

Her voice trailed off. He didn't like the sound of that.

"You could have been a bit nicer yourself."

That did it.

"What?!"

He growled as he finally faced her, his eyes burning.

"I was trying to be nice!"

Levy raised an eyebrow, making a sceptic face.

"Like I would like a shrimp."

She trid to mimick his voice, and failed misserably. Gajeel looked at her, half surprised, half amused at her attempt to sound like him.

"Don't tell me that actually hurt you?"

Levy looked at him deviantly.

"Yes! Yes it did. Just your stupid nickname, and the fact that you made it very clear how unattractive I am, hurt."

Levy whirled around trying to hide her tears. Unfortunately, she stood very close to a pot filled with cold water, to let it soak. As she whirled around , her elbow knocked the pot over, spilling the cold water allover her, soaking her ice blue blouse. She gasped in surprise and shock.

"Not really the right moment for a swim , shrimp."

Gajeel chuckled at his own joke, as she slowly turned back around to face him.

"This isn't funny. And for the love of all that's holy, could you sto-"

Her voice broke of midsentence as she caught him staring at her blouse, almost intrigued. She followed his gaze down, to find her blause soaked all the way trough, revealing her black, lace bra, and her cold ,hardened nipples

A/N : Sorry it took me a while to upload. i hope you enjoyed this chapter too!

please also read my other fanfic : You are my light.

and please leave a review ?

thanks!