"So," Levi looked across the compartment at the dragon slayer, who was involved in a ridiculous staring contest with Pantherlily. "About how long will it take us to get there?"

"A couple hours at most," Gajeel replied, not taking his gaze away from his cat. "Then we'll have a bit of a walk to the town itself. It's a smaller town, so it doesn't have a train station."

"Gajeel," the solid script mage stared at him.

"What?"

"Why won't you pay any attention to me? You're the one who wanted me to come on this mission in the first place."

"Cause," Gajeel huffed. "I'm doing something important."

"Are you really?" A mischievous grin spread across Levi's face. "So, you wouldn't be able to do this oh so important thing if I," She lunged across the compartment, scooping Lily up in her arms. "Stole your cat from you?"

"The hell?" the dragon slayer locked eyes with the bookworm and regretted it almost at once. She had huge innocent brown eyes that made him blink from surprise.

"You lost," Lily commented in amusement from his comfortable position in Levi's arms.

"Shut it!" Gajeel growled. He pointed a finger at the small girl in front of him. "You have less than a second to give me back my cat."

"Why would I want to do that?" The evil little grin stayed on Levi's face. "I think he likes it better with me. Don't you Lily?" She cooed, petting the Eksheed on top of his head. The former soldier sighed in contentment.

"There's no damn way he'd like being with you," Gajeel yelled. "You're weak, defenseless, and a pain in the ass to protect!"

Levi's arms fell limply at her sides. Lily landed gracefully at her feet, giving the dragon slayer an incredulous stare. Levi's eyes filled with tears, her mouth clenched in a thin line to keep from sobbing. She turned away and went to the compartment door.

Gajeel felt something that could only be guilt in the pit of his stomach. "Uh-"

"Stupid Gajeel!" She turned back to face him, tears falling down her face. "I hate you!" With that, she ran out of the compartment.

The dragon slayer stared at the door, a slightly hollow feeling in his chest. She had just said she hated him. "You've really done it this time, you know?" He snapped out of his trance as Lily spoke. "I mean, I didn't think I was even possible for you to become even more of an idiot than you already were."

"Keep your mouth shut," Gajeel muttered, walking out of the compartment to find the bookworm. He didn't have to look far: she was in the dining car, shoving her face full of vanilla ice cream, drizzled in caramel and chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and had multiple fudge covered strawberries decorating it. He sat in the seat opposite of her, attempting to make eye contact. She ignored him and continued eating, covering the lower half of her face with flecks of white, black, red, and brown. "You're going to make yourself sick eating that fast," he said quietly.

Levi swallowed, spoon resting right at her lips as she kept her head bent down so she wouldn't have to look at the man in front of her. "What do you care?"

He let out a frustrated sigh. "I didn't mean what I said earlier. You've actually gotten a lot stronger since the first time I met you," He mentally winced at the thought of what he had done back then. "You're amazing with you magic and you know how to use it to get yourself out of any situation."

Levi looked up, seeing the pale pink on the dragon slayer's cheeks as he attempted to apologize and compliment her. His red eyes were shifted away and he kept his voice low, like he was afraid someone was going to hear what he said.

"And I-"

"Excuse me, ma'am," the waiter came up to Levi, cutting off Gajeel's last comment. "Here's your bill." He laid down the slip of paper before fluttering off. Before the solid script mage could even think about picking up the ticket, it was already in Gajeel's hand.

"I can pay for my own ice cream," she said, reaching into her pocket for her money.

"Too bad." As the waiter came by again, Gajeel shoved a handful of Jewels into the waiter's hand to pay for the ice cream. As the puzzled man walked off, the dragon slayer stood, once again hefting Levi over his shoulder.

"How do I keep ending up like this?" She asked, arms crossed as he carried her away from the half a sundae she had left.

"You wouldn't have to keep ending up like this if you didn't always try to run away," he replied. Once again, she didn't have a good comeback. They passed Lily, who was on his way to get some food of his own. When they arrived back in the compartment, Gajeel deposited Levi on her row of benches. "Now sleep off all the sugar you just ate. You damn well aren't going to be slacking off on this job just because you went on a pity trip!"

Levi rolled her eyes and halfway smiled before replying with a sarcastic, "Sir, yes sir." Using her bag as a pillow, she fell asleep in minutes.

Gajeel looked at her from his seat on the other side of the compartment. Quietly, he finished what he was going to say earlier: "And I don't mind protecting your ass every now and then."

Yay, second part! I just want to thank everyone who reviewed, added me to their favorite author lists, and added this story to their story alerts and/or favorite stories. It really means a lot to me. I want to clarify this because I noticed how this could be confusing as I was writing it, Gajeel and Levi are not together (yet) in this story.

–Chidori R. Fullbuster