Chapter 2

I've Got Your Back

Lucy tapped her foot impatiently on the train platform as she looked around for her temporary partner. The train whistle blew again announcing the last chance to board before he appeared. Lucy instantly snagged his hand without a greeting and dragged him onto the train just before the final whistle and preliminary lurch of the cars. Gajeel tried to reclaim his hand as she pulled him along the car, but she didn't release him until she found an empty compartment for them to drop into. Lily had followed them in quiet amusement and settled on the seat next to Lucy while Gajeel instantly collapsed face first on the seat opposite them with a groan.

"I told you we should have gotten up early enough to visit Wendy," Lily said with a sigh. Gajeel muttered something into the seat.

Lucy regarded the uncomfortable slayer for a moment before dropping on her knees to the floor next to him. She began rubbing small circles on his back while humming a lullaby her mother used to sing before she died. Lily felt his eyes drooping slightly, but he tried to shake himself awake as Gajeel began snoring loudly. Lucy slowly retracted her hands and returned to sit by the exceed.

"How did you do that?" Lily asked. His voice was laced with mild awe.

"My partner is Natsu," Lucy said with a laugh. "His motion sickness is way worse than Gajeel's. Since Wendy's troia spell stopped working on him, I had to find some other way to help him. I could just knock him out like Erza does, but this works, too."

She and Lily chatted quietly together for the duration of the trip while Gajeel's snores continued to fill the compartment. Lily shook his friend awake as the train came to a stop. Gajeel shot up in his seat and tried to reorient himself. The last thing he really remembered was soft hands on his back and a low humming that helped to push back the nausea.

"What the hell happened?" Gajeel asked. He ran a hand through his long black hair and resituated his bandana.

"Lucy sang you to sleep so you wouldn't puke on everything," Lily said with a smirk.

"Well, hummed him to sleep actually," Lucy said. She picked Lily up and headed out the door without waiting to see if Gajeel would follow. He stumbled out after her and finally began to feel more like himself again as they started walking through the streets of Clover.

He scowled at the back of her head, though he found his eyes drawn more to the sway of her hips, which gradually distracted him from his annoyance. He was so focused on trying not to stare at her ass that he ran into her when she suddenly stopped in front of a large brick house. Lucy nearly tumbled forwards, but Gajeel's arms reached out to catch her before she fell. She dropped Lily in her surprise, and the exceed nearly collided with the cobblestones instead before his wings snapped out to catch himself.

"Warn a guy next time," Gajeel murmured. His breath tickled over her ear, and she shivered at the feeling as well as the husky low quality of his voice. She was intensely aware of the arm still wrapped around her waist, and she had to fight the urge to just sink backwards into his broad chest. Too soon, he released his grip on her. Lucy stepped forward to knock on the door while she pointedly ignored Lily's tiny smirk.

A few hours later, they were deep into the forest north of Clover heading for the "likely location" the client had given them. It was just a hunch based on some old maps, but with Gajeel's nose, they would quickly find out if there was actually anything worth mining. Either way they had a decent reward coming, though they would be receiving a bonus if they actually found a viable deposit for a mining operation.

Gajeel sniffed the air and grinned before picking up the pace slightly. Lucy nearly had to jog to keep up with him. Lily was flying overhead as lookout, but somehow he missed the dark shapes moving through the underbrush. Lucy heard a twig snap to her right, and some instinct sent her hurtling at Gajeel. She tackled him to the ground just as a bolt of fire singed the air where he had been standing before colliding with a tree. Lucy hissed at the pain where a bit of the flame hit her leg. Lucy drew out a key as she pushed up to her feet and Loke appeared at her side. She snapped out her whip with the other hand and lashed out at the fire mage. She counted three attackers before having to focus back on the opponent in front of her.

Gajeel was stunned when he landed on the ground with the blonde on top of him. She'd quickly regained her feet and a man in a suit appeared by her side. He jumped to his feet as Lily rocketed down to him and took on his battleform. There were three mages in front of them; one was trying to get a shot at Lucy who managed to hold him off with her whip while two others were attacking the suited spirit that he now recognized as Loke. Lily leapt forward to help the spirit, but Gajeel turned as he heard a fourth figure approaching. He sent an iron club into the newcomer's stomach as the man tried to sneak up on Lucy from behind.

By the time he'd finished pounding in the face of the fourth mage, the others were also finished dealing with their battles. Lucy's maid spirit appeared to restrain the four, and Lucy asked her to take them back to town and deliver them to the rune knight contingent stationed at Clover. It was only after the spirits disappeared, with the would-be bandits in tow, that Gajeel realized Lucy was still sitting on the ground. He sniffed the air and felt some of his nose hairs curling at the scent of burnt flesh.

Without really thinking about it, Gajeel was kneeling by her side and checking her over.

"Gaj, I'm fine," Lucy said.

"I can smell the burn," he said. Lucy weakly pushed him away and turned slightly so he could see the red gash on her thigh.

"Lucky shot," she whispered. "Nowhere near as hot as Natsu's flames, but still hurts like a bitch."

"Lily, first aid kit," Gajeel said. The exceed dug the box out of his pack and handed it to the iron slayer. Gajeel had barely begun searching for the burn cream and gauze bandages when Lucy's head fell back to the grass as she passed out from the pain.

"Pretty sure she took that hit when he first attacked," Lily said. "I'm amazed she was able to keep fighting for so long."

Gajeel grunted in acknowledgment, but he kept his focus on tending to the blonde's wound. He poured some water from a canteen onto a cloth and gently laid it over the burn in an attempt to draw out some of the heat. Running water would be better, but he hadn't seen so much as a creek in this forest since they entered it. Her maid spirit appeared with Lucy's pack a short time later and began setting up their tents for them at record speed. Gajeel carefully spread a layer of ointment over the nearly 6-inch burn before wrapping a piece of gauze all around her leg as gently as he could. He picked up the petite celestial mage and placed her in one of the tents while Lily got a fire going.

The sun was just beginning to set, and normally they wouldn't have camped so early, but Lucy would need rest if they were going to continue the mission. Gajeel stared at the flames while he gnawed absently at a spoon.

"You know, I was planning on using that to stir the stew," Lily said.

"Oops," Gajeel replied. He shoved the rest of the utensil in his mouth. Lily rolled his eyes and merely continued the dinner preparations. The only sounds came from the breeze in the leaves and a few bugs that were beginning to wake up for the night.

"What's on your mind, Gajeel?" Lily asked as the silence bore down on them. He didn't really expect an answer, but Gajeel surprised him.

"She took a hit for me," the iron slayer said softly. "Didn't even think twice about it. Just knocked me out of the way and got hit in the process."

"She's a very brave women," Lily murmured.

"Yeah," Gajeel said. He leaned back on his hands to stare up at the leaves overhead, and for a moment he wished they had moved to a clearing so maybe he could see some stars. "She's brave alright. Known that since I met her. When I tried to beat her to death for the hell of it."

Lily froze. He'd picked up bits and pieces of how Gajeel came to Fairy Tail from the other guild members, but the man never actually spoke of it himself. This was new territory. The self-loathing was evident in his friend's voice, and Lily wasn't entirely sure how to help him get rid of that.

"We've all done things that we regret," the exceed finally said. "Lucy doesn't hold it against you. You were a different person back then."

"That's what Levy says, too," Gajeel replied. "I still haven't completely forgiven myself for what I did to the shrimp, either, but at least that was following orders. But Lucy… that was… different. I wasn't supposed to hurt her, but I did. Because I wanted to. I wanted to break her. Turns out that's impossible."

Gajeel rose to his feet.

"I'm going to check out the perimeter. Make sure nothing else out there wants a piece of us tonight," he said. He took off into the growing dark before muttering, "Watch out for her, Lily."

A while later, Lily finished the stew and shrank into his normal form to take a bowl into Lucy's tent in the hopes that he could wake her up and get some food into her. He found the blonde staring at the tent ceiling without really seeing it. Lily padded over to her and laid a small paw on her arm. Lucy was startled out of her thoughts, but she offered a smile to the exceed.

"Sorry, I didn't hear you come in."

"No worries, I brought you some stew. I hope you're hungry."

Lucy nodded and sat up stiffly before taking the bowl. Lily went to fetch his own before coming back to join her.

"Thank you for looking out for Gajeel," Lily said.

"It was an instinctual thing," Lucy said with a shrug. "I heard the attack coming and just reacted."

"I don't just mean when we were attacked today," the cat said. "I mean taking him on this job at all. Gajeel's an observant guy usually, but there are some things that he's just oblivious to. I'm a little less blind in this instance."

Lucy blushed and stirred her stew around for a minute.

"Do you think…" Lucy took a deep breath. "Do you think I have a chance?"

"I think you're the only woman who does," Lily said. He reached out and patted her hand reassuringly. "But he won't make it easy."

"He still blames himself for the things he did with Phantom Lord," Lucy murmured. "I heard the two of you talking. I wish he could forgive himself. I forgave him a long time ago. It's like you said, he was a different person back then."

Lily nodded and slurped up some stew.

"We'll just have to convince him of that," Lily said. "I'll do whatever I can to help. I want Gajeel to be happy again. You deserve to be happy, too."

A/N: So, this shows that there are two reviews, but won't actually let me see them. So, thank you to whoever wrote reviews and I'm sorry that I can't actually reply to them. Also I'm really excited by the followers this story already has, so thanks everybody!