Sup guys! XD Hope you guys liked last chapter and now this one! Trying to have at least 1,000 words per chapter too just so that it doesn't seem like a downer!

Chapter 2

Before what happened,

Gajeel finally opened his eyes while his head was still turned, looking at a pair of guys laugh, they were just looking at Levy and him talk with each other but obviously they were checking her out. They walked across the street and towards the area Levy had just walked to. He saw them pass in front of him and he knew something was up. "Goddammit shrimp, you said you didn't need a fuckin' body guard" he grunted getting up to his legs. He followed quietly behind the two men holding his sac.

It was then and there that Levy was about to get raped by two men she didn't know. There wasn't much help either since all the guards that surveyed were few and drunken. She was finally cornered until she saw something behind them, about another head taller than them before she heard a loud CRACK after the man behind grabbed both of their heads and bonked them with each other's and making them both unconscious as he threw them to the side.

It was pretty easy for Gajeel to do something like that; two men who were shorter weren't much of a trouble to deal with. Besides, he even got there before something even worse could happen, which he absolutely wouldn't allow. It would crush him knowing that he couldn't protect someone from two measly men, especially if it was someone like Levy on the line. If they approached her faster, he would have not been able to control his anger as it was already. He could have honestly killed them too, but why would he go that far for someone he just met? His mind was on a constant conflict while he tried to get himself together and got out of the shadows and close enough so that Levy could see him.

"Oiiiii, shorty, thought you didn't need a body guard! Gihihihi!" Gajeel was the one behind both of them, giving out a smirk showing off his fangs while he managed to hide off his anger from just a while ago "Guess you have no choice but to hire me!"

"Shit, now I can't go back…" he thought as he was face palming in his head, but he just couldn't hold the urge to and try to see what happened.

"Ga-Gajeel!" she said dumbfounded. "Thank you so much! I thought…I thought… well you heard them!" she said sighing out, landing on her butt to calm down from just happened as she wiped her eyes from the still on flowing shedding of tears. She was so overcome on how she just got so close to being sexually assaulted she didn't realize the meaning of what Gajeel said. All she can think is that she was saved by a man she had just met. A pretty damn fine one too. She thought as she began to heat up from the thoughts lingering in her head.

After Levy had taken her 5 minute silent time of sniffling and trying to stop sulking from the event, she attempted to get the books still. Gajeel thought it was surprisingly fast for someone like her to just shove what happened but what was more peculiar was what she was actually doing he felt a bit assured too that he had not gotten a response to his little offer he gave her. But he still couldn't help but feel a bit sad.

"So it was for some shitty books you came here for? How can you ever afford th—wait…. Were you were trying to steal them and rid of them before getting caught? Gihihihi, oh this is gold, who woulda known a shorty like you did something like this!"

"I- I'm not stealing! You buffoon, just a trade! I'm getting new ones to read while I return the ones I finished reading yesterday!" she said with a stutter as she scrambled to get her books and her satchel that was thrown to put back the other books and put the new ones in. "Please, please, please don't tell anyone. Books are my life and I have no choice but to borrow them in secrecy since they are so expensive and such a luxury to folk like us!" she said in a worried tone as she looked at him with her hazel brown eyes, still swollen from crying.

Gajeel snickered, "Well if you hire me then you got a deal, I need a job, home, and food. Then I'll do most of what you want."

"God. Fucking. Christ. Gajeel Redfox YOU IDIOT. You were safe and look at what you did….oh well…" Gajeel just face palmed himself again inside his thought process but at the same time rewarded himself. He kept having conflicts with himself and he didn't know why, was it the woman doing this?

Levy began to get up and stretched out her hand towards him, "let's shake on it to make it official" she said with a small smile as she used the other arm to wipe herself.

Gajeel was a bit surprised that the woman was so quick to agree, let alone trust a stranger she just met basically 10 minutes ago. He stretched his hand out back, gripping it with hers and shook. "Boy, she does have soft hands…." He began to think as he let go, wanting to keep it on for a while longer but he had no choice. He was so happy inside that he just got taken in but thought of how much of an idiot he was by forcing his existence onto someone.

"Well, now that this is over, I guess you shall start your job by escorting me out and taking me home, err… well our home now." She said with a slight giggle in the end. Her face gave off a slight blush; it felt weird to have said that her home now belonged to now someone else. She knew she owned it overall, just the idea of someone else living there made her think something different. "Marriage…. This only happens in marriage…But why am I thinking of this in a time like this?!" Levy thought as she turned red for a moment.

Both of them began to walk out the alley, back the same way they got in and looking like nothing happened, leaving the lunatics in the alley for rats to scavenge in their unconsciousness. Levy and Gajeel felt very awkward walking out, someone had to break the ice, and that was Levy.

"Um… so you aren't from around here are you? Just wondering since well… Magnolia is a town that doesn't have a man as tan, pierced, and tall as you…" she said with a tint of red on her cheeks, she liked those traits in this man already, she didn't mind at all, it was just the stares the others were giving them as they walked down the cobbled streets that gave him a foreign feel.

Gajeel scoffed at what Levy had said, he couldn't tell whether or not to take this as a compliment or not, so he just went on with his usual talk. "Tch, well obviously, I came from the other town next to Magnolia. Dracon. In there we have districts, and I happen to be in the Metal district. Which explains my piercings." He said with a slight grunt, glancing down to the side to see the reaction the small lady had.

Levy raised a brow, but otherwise accepted what he had said. She still had plenty of questions, but some had to be restrained. Some he had in mind seemed too personal and lots of them made her blush a bit and she couldn't get them out of her head. She had to be careful of what she asked of him, she didn't want to get into someone's life like a creeper. She finally opened her mouth to ask the next question.

"So…. What did you used to work as?" she asked. She had many guesses as to what it can be, like a smith, but there were far too many to start off with; he smelled a lot like metal, specifically like iron, from the distance she was from him. It didn't bother her at all, she was rather comfortable with the smell, and she enjoyed it.

Gajeel had a hard time answering that question, he didn't even know what to start off with, and he worked a lot with metal and lots of laboring. He made blades, arrow heads, farming tools; you name it, for many customers.

"I guess I just work with metal, I guess a smith, but from all sorts of stuff. Pay is good." He finished off; he was really bad at socializing and found it surprising how he still managed to get a job.

"I see… Then how did you end up here? Just wondering again, I find it weird how you moved from where you used to live to here in Magnolia with basically nothing and looking for a job." Levy asked right off the bat, she didn't wait a while less to ask,

Gajeel was widened his eyes to her question, "Is she serious? She doesn't know?" he began to think.

"Shrimp, Dracon doesn't exist anymore. It's been 10 years since it got attacked by rebel knights. It was so small, it was easy to destroy. Plus my dad just disappeared out of nowhere after the next day. I just began to wonder around the place trying to make a living." He tried to finish the last part of his father without the lump in his throat stopping him. It was hard to forget that day, he hated it and he felt so abandoned. He tried not to look at Levy; he didn't want her to find out how he felt about the situation.

Levy felt dumbfounded, "10 years?!" she kept repeating in her head as she felt so much guilt after finding out that even Gajeel had been abandoned. She looked at him, knowing that he was sad from the aura being given off, it felt sad as she tried to see his eyes, and they had a gleam of sadness in them as his face became a bit pale with a slight grimace.

"I'm…I'm sorry for bringing this up. It must have been hard…." She said, not choosing to be quite for the rest of the walk over to her home as Gajeel kept quiet too. He wasn't much of a socializer like always.

Levy opened the entrance to her home as she set the keys used to open them on the hanger next to some hanging coats. It had just gotten dark when they had arrived as she left the door open so that Gajeel would walk in and settle down. Her home wasn't so big, it just had all she needed: A toilet*, 1 bedroom and guestroom, a kitchen, living room, and a study space. She had a shack next to her home, containing a space for her horse, which happened to be very stubborn and old so she used him once in a while. It had some food for her and the horse and a small corner where there was nothing much to put there but some tools. She did have a fair amount of land for living on the edge of the town, giving her advantage to the use of her land there as it wasn't claimed by anything.

Gajeel sat in one of the 2 chairs that were in the living room as he looked inside; there were more books he thought he would have seen in his lifetime. They were scattered around her home and he knew this was more than what an average person can afford.

"I'm assuming you are borrowing these books as well?" Gajeel mentioned to Levy as she was thinking of what to make for dinner, she still had some meat that didn't spoil over the night. Good thing it was chilly, guess it was stew today with some veggies. Levy turned to Gajeel and chuckled. "Some are while others were given to me for my birthday hehe!" she said with a happy tone. Gajeel couldn't help but make a small smile too.

After a few minutes of just sitting there, it felt awkward; he didn't know what to do as Levy was just waiting for the food to cook over the fire as she set up two bowls and utensils by the fireplace to easily serve from the pot. Levy had got out cups and filled them with water as she walked out to put one in front of Gajeel as he sat by the table.

"Sorry that I didn't get you a drink earlier! You must be thirsty!"

Gajeel grinned at her statement "I went without water longer" he chuckled as she went back to pour in some of the stew she had prepared into the bowls as she brought them back and gave him his steaming bowl of stew.

"I can only imagine how long you went without lots of stuff" she said with a smile as she sat across from him and began to get her spoon full.

Gajeel got a whiff of how the stew smelled before he even received it, and he had to say, it smelled great as he got a spoonful of chunks of meat and began to chomp down. Levy had barely gotten a few spoons of her stew when Gajeel finished his bowl. He stared at his now empty bowl as he then stared at Levy with a slight pink glow on his cheeks as he desperately wanted more of her good cooking. Levy thought that this man's hunger was outstanding.

"Oh! I'll get you seconds, I don't mind getting you some more we have plenty more where it came from." she exclaimed as she stood up and got his bowl to go get more of the stew and hurried back to give it to him. Gajeel eagerly ate more of it until he felt his hunger calm down after another 3 more bowls. Levy was astonished, she never had anyone eat that much of her cooking, not even herself as she was only able to eat one bowl that night and the kettle in which the stew was in was basically empty.

"Thanks for the meal shortstuff" Gajeel said with a grin on his face as he tilted on his chair, relaxing from his dinner. He couldn't help but get the thought of her becoming a good wife with that kind of cooking. Even more, how does she not have a man yet, he wouldn't mind taking up that spot but he felt an odd sense that it was too soon. Especially when he was the one working for her and asking her to let him live with her as well as providing him with food, he felt like he didn't deserve to get her kindness from such a short pretty woman. His cheeks fired up and he shut his eyes closed tightly, trying to get the thought out of his head.

"No problem, I didn't think you would enjoy it that much!" she said as she was cleaning up and lighting up some of the candles. She smiled like an idiot facing away from him, she felt glad he enjoyed his meal and she didn't know why it was better coming from him. She had some guests before but when they complimented her cooking, it felt normal. His felt more meaningful.

"I'll show you where your room is for the night after I'm done and then tomorrow we will speak about what you can do around here, or some ideas of what you can do. You have input as well so don't worry." She said as she tried jumping up to get some of the candles that were hanging above her head. She needed more of them so that she could put some in the guestroom for Gajeel. She felt embarrassed; she didn't even know how she got them there in the first place and still not be able to reach them. "Erm… Gajeel, could you reach these candles for me?" she said with a slight blush.

Gajeel laughed as he got up and walked over and Levy moved a bit to the side, not too far from him as he reached the candles easily as he looked at Levy and handed them to her.

"Only for you shrimp" he said with a grin, he could have easily done it for someone else, but for her it was different and he didn't know why he said what he did. It was just instinctively.

"Only for you…" he thought.

FUN FAACTTTT~~~

*toilets back then were basically just deep holes connected to a body of water sometimes. Only exception is that they didn't sit on the hole on the ground but that it rose up a bit and had a bit of a seating to it. Flushing toilets did come about later on but they were super expensive and there were more holes than those. Ordinary people used a plant similar to moss to clean themselves or a rag if you were rich enough. Baths worked almost the same but usually it was group baths or they used the river or even heated some water and just washed themselves. Remember the bath and toilets were about to get an upgrade but in this time it wasn't it XD (unless my research was wrong _ I checked for a good time before posting this chapter up owo)

Okay guys I think I did a pretty good decent sized chapter this time. I think I'm slowly getting better. XD Thanks to the people who gave out reviews and support~ I love you guys~ All of you who have followed me gave me new doors to new fanfics and it helps me a lot when it comes to thinking of some ideas. It was a rollercoaster of great reads 3

As you can see Gajeel is having a hard time knowing what love is and so is Levy xD

Hehe and I wonder if you guys found the connection I just replaced in the movie with the ending in this one's chapter :333 see you guys next chapter! ~:3