"C'mon, is that all you've got?"

The dark beast roared and plunged forward, only to be intercepted by Gajeel's arm. The creature dropped to the ground as it's jaw was grabbed in a particular way that made his movements freeze on the spot. Gajeel immediately sat straddling its back, and as the animal regained its footing, he dug his strong fingers into the scruff on its neck, anchoring himself firmly as the sun glistened into the sweat beads that covered his bare chest.

After a few more minutes of tugging, jumping and pushing, the animal finally came to the ground with a dry thump, defeated.

"Good work today, Lily." The man grunted, getting off the black panther and drying off the sweat on his brow with the back of his wrist. Lily obediently set down, seemingly perfectly calm, and looked at his owner trough deep dark eyes as he leaned over and grabbed something from a bag on the side. Something that looked strangely like...

Kiwi!

Lily almost got up and tackled Gajeel to grab the fruit from his hand, but after a raised eyebrow from the man in question, he decided he would be better off staying seated at his spot for now.

"Hey Lil'" Gajeel called after a couple of minutes. Lily's ears twitched as he looked at his owner apprehensively. They both stayed immobile for a few seconds before...

"Catch!"

Lily didn't need to be told twice. He immediately charged on him as the kiwi was thrown high into the air, the giant feline jumping and catching it mid air, describing a perfect arch.

He heard Gajeel's strange laugh, but decided to ignore it, firmly believing that his human wasn't worth any time he could spend enjoying his favourite fruit.

"Okay, time to go back into the cage. Chop chop!" Gajeel called, clapping his hands twice for accentuation. Lily huffed loudly trough his nose and turned around, deciding to shamelessly ignore the beast tamer. "Oh, come on, don't give me that bullshit. You're not the only one that needs training." Seeing his partner wasn't about to budge, Gajeel retorted to more drastic measures. "Well, I guess I can give Happy all of these kiwis I have left over here. He's been givin' me hell for some more chew."

The reaction was immediate.

Within seconds, Lily was standing on his hind legs, charging up and pushing Gajeel from the back, making him fall face first on the ground.

"Oh you jealous bastard!"

He was on his feet immediately. The panther, feeling that he was in trouble, bolted away from the man, which started a chase that lasted around ten minutes.

Lily had been Gajeel's very first pet. He'd had more than he could manage, which had led him to his very first heartbreaks. He had found Lily in an alley while he was out looking for food during his short stay in Oak Town when he was a kid. Back then, he had thought the poor thing was just a normal kitten given to his size, and nine year old Gajeel didn't have it in him to leave him abandoned and all by himself. Specially since he was in the same situation, and could use a partner.

After Lily came many others, all of which he made an effort to tame and train. Although currently the circus he only had under his care seven animals (four of which weren't really his), he loved the beasts to death.

Gajeel had a pretty lonely childhood. He had never met his biological parents, and even if Metalicana was a pretty good replacement, he didn't last long either. Before he had turned eight years old, Gajeel was all by himself again. Well, at least until Lily came around. And then Barney, Sussie, Ron, two unnamed Brazilian parrots, a goat that only stayed with him for a day and a half until he had to sell her so that we wouldn't starve, Salomon, Daisy, and many others.

Carla was the last addition to his ever growing family, and he could tell she didn't quite trust him yet. That usually happened when he adopted adult animals, they were just as skeptical as human ones. The Albino tiger wouldn't follow orders unless there was some sort of treat on game, and even then, she would just half heartedly do the simplest tricks he could think of ordering her. Gajeel knew that she was probably just as intelligent as Lily, maybe more so. But she just choose not to care.

"C'mon." He urged her as he waited for her to come out of her cage so they could get started with the training. "Don't be a scrag." He spat in ultimate annoyance.

Her ears merely twitched, as she didn't even look at him.

"Who're you calling a scrag?" A voice asked.

Gajeel blinked, and for a moment, considered the possibility of the cat actually talking to him. Then he blinked again, considering the possibility that he was going bonkers ta such a young age.

"Ehem." That voice again. Now sounding slightly irritated.

Crap.

When he turned around, he noticed she was wearing her training clothes, more revealing than anything that could ever be seen in the streets of a regular city. But Gajeel had been living in a circus for a month, so he was used to seeing wildly indecent women walking around without a care in the world. Her hair looked unkept, probably from hanging upside down on the big tent's ropes with the other girls again, even when Polyrusica had, half heartedly at this point, scolded them millions of times for it already.

Her face demanded an answer for her previous question, not daring to allow other women to be degraded in such way, specially by a man, in front of her.

Shrimp's got balls, gihee.

"Oi, it was just the damn cat. She won't listen to anything I tell her to do." He explained, leaning over the door frame of the door he was standing by.

"Did you try asking nicely?" Levy demanded half jokingly, walking past him (making a very very big effort not to notice his glorious chest) and into the animals wagon.

She had never been in there before, but then again, it was the first time the Cirque had a beast tamer since she had joined. Previously, the wagon was only inhabited by the three horses, which were taken care by Laxus, and occasionally, Bickslow. She remembered they had a couple giraffes a few years ago, but then one of them fell ill and the other one had to be sold off shortly after. Therefore, there was plenty of space for two cats, one elephant and one beast tamer to join the party. Happy the monkey belonged to Natsu, and therefore would follow him everywhere he went, which is why he rarely entered the animals wagon.

This space was longer than the other wagons, but Levy guessed it was only fair. After all, animals did need their space. In the ceiling, she noticed three or four windows for ventilation, which explained why the place didn't smell like a cow's butt (not that she had ever smelled one, but she guessed that was how a place that overcrowded with animals must have smelled). To her left, there was a heavy rug making the means of a curtain to what was probably Gajeel's personal living space. On the other side, she noticed cages, some of which were empty, but each one of them was spacious enough to host about two or three horses comfortably if necessary.

She noticed that the cage Gajeel had probably opened before she so rudely interrupted was currently inhabited by a large cat. No wait, it was a tiger. A white tiger, of which she had only read of in books from far off lands, was currently staring at her with her piercing blue eyes. She couldn't help but gasp.

"She's beautiful." She whispered.

"She's also incredibly stubborn and she looks at me like I repulse her. But all that aside, then yeah, she sure is." Gajeel nodded with a smirk.

"What's her name?" She asked, not looking away from the marvelous creature and ignoring Gajeel's ranting.

"Carla, but apparently she doesn't agree, since I can't get her to do anything I teach her." Gajeel huffed. He was starting to get annoyed, and he really needed to get a move on with the training, otherwise he would have to...

He didn't even wanted to think about it. Sure he'd had many exotic animals over the years, but Carla was one in a million. Not even Ella, the dwarf African elephant could do her justice. She couldn't just sell the cat, not if he could help it. But there was no use in having her trapped all day in a cage, wasting time, space and money.

When Gajeel found her, three months ago, he'd had big dreams for her. It would take a while, but he was sure that if he could get Carla to cooperate, they could get very far, very soon. Unfortunately, the feline didn't agree, and therefore, Gajeel was stuck with his usual street number which usually consisted only in Lily and very occasionally, Ella.

"Carla, dear. Come on, please. This is going to be fun, I promise you. We just need you to cooperate." Levy spoke in soft and sweet tones, leaning over forward to make her posture as unaggressive as posible.

Gajeel just rolled her eyes and turned around, walking out of the trailer and into the bright morning sun. Keep trying all you want, Shrimp. That sweet-talkin' ain't gonna be workin' anytime soon.

He turned back around to voice his thoughts to Levy, but his mouth fell open before he could get any of his words out.

Carla was standing a few feet away from the bluenette, willingly walking towards her as she kept on taking pleasantries to the cat.

The young woman turned to him with a bright smile.

"See? A little kindness never hurt anybody." She giggled.

"Whatever you say, Shrimp."

There was a pause, and Levy realized it was getting a little... awkward, so she quickly excused herself.

"Uh, I should get going. Juvia was waiting for me around here somewhere."

"S-sure." Gajeel's stammered a little, the tip of his ears flushing a bright red. "Eh, see ya 'round, Shrimp."

"See you." She waved and left his trailer hurriedly. Gosh, that was so awkward. I never know what to say to him. Levy sighed. She had other things to worry about other than the tall rookie the girls believed was so 'perfect for her'. She shook her head and walked towards the inside of the big tent, where Juvia was already waiting, perched upside down from one of the trapezes.

"Juvia is glad you could make it!" The other beamed, and jumped off the seventeen feet that separated her from safe ground. "Now let's get started, Juvia has an appointment with Mister Gray for lunch today."

Levy giggled a little and went on to stretch first. Juvia wasn't much of a talker, but when it came to her adored Gray, she could rant on for hours nonstop, just taking about the softness of his hair, or the way his hands moved as he practiced picking locks for his escapist numbers.

"You know you can just call him Gray, right? You guys are friends after all."

The taller bluenette blushed a bright pink at the suggestion.

"Juvia is not comfortable speaking about her beloved in such an... informal way." She explained with a little smile.

"That's okay." Levy reassured her, climbing to one of the trapezes to start of her jumps. "I'm sure he doesn't really mind however you call him."

Juvia was glad for having Levy as a friend. People often made fun of her for her strange way of speech and her old fashioned manners. It wasn't as if she could really help it. Juvia arrived to the circus about a year before Gajeel did, so she was also relatively new. She had known little to no English when she had joined, coming from a far off land, running off from bandits who had threatened her family. So Levy, along with Lucy, took it upon themselves to teach the shy girl how to communicate with her new friends. She had come a long way since then, but she still would not let go of her third person way of referring to herself, and Levy was not about to force it out of her either.

She was also very shy. It had taken some time to get her to wear the tight clothing girls wore for their performances, so they tried to make her as comfortable as possible until she was ready to come out of her shell. Getting her to talk to Gray instead of watching him silently from the side certainly was another feat, since she had a more than obvious crush on the man, but they had become fast friends, so Levy couldn't be happier for her.

Now, Levy watched her as she jumped from rope to rope, until she finally let herself fall into the small water pool they had placed under the ground. Juvia had come a long way since they had first met, and although she still had much to learn, Levy couldn't wait to see how her journey went on from there. She smiled to herself, and nodded quietly as she descended to the ground, helping herself with one of the fabrics. She'd had her doubts in the past, but now she was certain.

Juvia had found her happiness among the faeries.

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