- Out of the frying pan -

Summary: It's telling where she turns when she finds herself in trouble. Rated for language.

I didn't mean to write this (I had something entirely different planned!), but this is what appeared when I started typing. Go figure. At least Gajeel must be pleased not to be injured, unconscious or inebriated for a change.

Incidentally, if you wanted, you could read all these stories as connected little snapshots, and if you were going to do that this one would follow shortly after Crazy Fairy.

Rated: T - Language: English (UK) - Genre: Friendship - Words: 1,975 - Published: 20-06-11

- Out of the frying pan -

Oh, she was dead. She was so very, very dead.

Unless- unless-

The tantalising half-formed hope lodged itself in Levy's mind and quickened her footsteps. She kept her head down for fear of being recognised, and clutched a large square-shaped bag tightly to her chest, as she darted through the moonlit streets of Magnolia.

By the time she reached his apartment her heart was racing. She hammered on the front door praying that he would answer. The lights were on inside- he had to be home. She bounced anxiously on the balls of her feet. So what was taking so long?

She knocked again. She knocked until she lost all feeling in her knuckles. She knocked until the door was wrenched open to reveal one wet, irate, half-dressed dragon slayer.

"What the fuck-!"

Gajeel stopped mid-roar. Possibly because he had realised who had dragged him out of the shower. Possibly because that same person had just slipped under his arm and into his apartment.

"Levy?"

It sounded like he wanted her dead too.

She was dimly aware of the click of the front door being closed, the pad of his bare feet as he stalked after her, but she was fully aware that he was dressed only in a pair of white pants, and that there had been rivulets of water running down his sculpted body.

She was lucky she was still holding her problem in her arms or else she would have forgotten why she'd come. She turned to face him only once she reached his sparsely furnished living room.

"You have to fix it."

She thrust the bag at him, which he eyed with confusion and silent disdain.

"Please?" she begged belatedly.

Gajeel took a step further into the room, but he still didn't take the bag from Levy's outstretched hands. He slowly circled her instead, carefully sniffing the air.

She blushed uncertainly. "W-what are you doing?"

"Checking."

"Checking what?" she demanded, turning on the spot to keep him in her line of sight.

He rolled his shoulders in a noncommittal shrug, head cocked to one side as he continued to study her. Levy pursed her lips, but knew that she didn't have time to play games tonight.

"If you could decide to help me now that would be wonderful because I don't have much time."

Gajeel's eyes narrowed. "Until what?"

"Until Lu-chan kills me!"

He laughed, which was not a reaction that she particularly appreciated.

"The bunny girl? She couldn't kill you if she tried."

"Well she's going to try when she sees this!" Levy insisted, offering him the bag again. This time, with a show of great reluctance, he took it. He reached inside and frowned as he pulled out an ornately carved wooden box. "It's Lucy's music box," Levy supplied, stepping towards him to open the lid. Nothing happened. "I broke it," she mumbled.

"So?"

"So!"

"It's a fuckin' music box, Levy. It's not the end of the world."

"It's an antique! A family heirloom! A present from her mother!"

So declared the cherished handwritten card that had been lovingly stored inside it.

"Why the hell were you playing around with it then?"

"I wasn't playing around with it!" she wailed.

Lucy had asked Levy to keep an eye on her apartment while she went away for a few days. Levy had been asked because she was Lucy's trustworthy friend- a friend who could be counted on not to wreck everything in sight.

Which had been working out just fine until Levy spotted a shelf of first edition Zekua Melon books earlier that evening. She'd only popped around to the apartment to make sure that the fridge was stocked with milk for Lucy's return the next day.

Unfortunately, Lucy's shelves were not of a height that her vertically challenged friend found easy to navigate. And instead of doing the sensible thing of finding a stool (or leaving the books alone entirely- ha!), Levy had done the stupid thing of reaching blindly above her head. She had consequently knocked the entire contents of the shelf on the floor- books, music box and all.

Levy looked up glumly to see whether or not Gajeel was going to take pity on her. Only to find that he'd vanished! Stunned, she sat down hard on the sofa. He wasn't going to help? She supposed she should have guessed as much. Only she'd thought-

She reached into her bag again and pulled out the tiny metal pieces that she'd collected from the floor of Lucy's apartment. She stared at them hopelessly. She had no idea how they fit back together!

"Quit looking so fuckin' sad."

She raised her head with a start. Gajeel walked back into the room rubbing his damp hair with a towel. He'd put on a shirt. Pity. He dragged a table over to the sofa and then sat down beside her, taking up an inordinate amount of room.

He glared at the various bits of metal that made up the intricate workings of the music box, and then gave a loud long-suffering sigh.

"Why'd you bring this to me?"

"A hunch?" she said, smiling nervously.

He growled and glowered, and generally exuded an aura of considerable pissed-off-ness, but he started sorting methodically through the cogs, springs and thingamajigs.

Levy bit back the gushing gratitude that bubbled on her tongue, afraid that if she spoke she might break the fragile spell he was under. She consoled herself with sitting and watching. It wasn't exactly a hardship. He wasn't wearing his gloves, and his hands were amazingly skilful, they reconstructed the mechanism with deceptive ease.

She leaned slowly closer, hypnotised by the deft movements of his fingers- until they suddenly stilled. She glanced up to see what was wrong, but couldn't decipher the expression on his face.

"You're in my light."

"Oh, sorry!"

She inched back, only realising that she had been pressed against his arm, his knee, his thigh when she was bereft of the contact. She folded her hands carefully in her lap and continued her vigil from a safe distance.

"Are you sure these are all the pieces?" he asked, after several minutes of silence.

"Ye-es?"

"Something's missing."

"You mean you can't fix it?" Levy sounded crestfallen.

"I didn't say that."

Gajeel stood up and disappeared into the kitchen.

She waited anxiously, but she didn't wait long. He returned with a box of scrap metal, and while Levy was busy wondering if that was supposed to be tomorrow's breakfast, he surprised her by reaching for her wrist.

"Keep your finger pressed here," he instructed, voice unusually low, as he positioned her hand over part of the movement.

She nodded mutely, wide eyes trained on his face.

He sifted through the box, and eventually found what he was looking for, apparently- a small square of steel.

"That's it?"

"Not yet."

He carefully cut a series of comb-like teeth into the metal, then nudged her hand aside and slotted the new piece into position. Levy crossed her fingers as Gajeel set about sealing everything in place and fitting it back into the box.

When he was done he gave the whole thing back to her.

"Try it."

"Me?"

"Just try it."

Levy wound the key and placed the box on the table. She glanced at him, held her breath and opened the lid. The sweet tinny sound of music filled the room. She could have sobbed with relief.

"Sounds fuckin' awful," Gajeel grunted.

Levy laughed shakily. It sounded beautiful to her. "I really owe you for this, you know."

A shadow passed across his face. "You don't owe me shit."

She disagreed, and although she could see that she'd have to concede the point for the moment, she meant to make him reconsider his position one day.

"Thanks all the same," she informed the scowling side of his face, standing to leave.

Now that she was starting to calm down, Levy was also beginning to feel rather bad about invading his home.

"You're going back with it tonight?"

"Of course. Lu-chan will be home tomorrow morning."

"And you're not going to tell her about any of this?" he guessed. She could feel him noting the guilty heat that stole into her cheeks. "Pretty sneaky, Levy."

"You're making it sound much worse than it is," she muttered, turning again to leave.

Gajeel's laughter followed her to the front door- but an unexpected call for her to wait made her pause. She stopped and looked over her shoulder, puzzled when she saw him coming after her.

"I'll walk with you."

"Why?"

"It's the middle of the night and you attract trouble like a fuckin' magnet."

Levy opened her mouth to argue that point, but then recalled, in the short space of time that he'd known her she had been attacked by Laxus, turned to stone by Evergreen, and well, there had been the whole Phantom incident too.

"And having you come along is meant to reduce my chances of attracting trouble?"

"No, but it'll increase your chances of coming out the other side in one piece," he grinned dangerously.

..ooOOoo..

"You had a relaxing time at the spa then, Lu-chan?" Levy asked, sipping her tea.

"So relaxing!" Lucy sighed with utter contentment. "You should come next time Levy-chan. You- ah- look like you could use a break," she added uncertainly. "You seem a little tired?"

Levy smiled tightly and waved away her friend's concern.

Fortunately, a welcome distraction arrived in the form of Natsu and Happy.

"Lucy! You're home!"

Lucy visibly twitched as the pair burst through the window of her apartment.

"I'm trying to train him," she said blandly to Levy, ignoring her two new 'guests' completely, "but he can't seem to grasp the difference between doors and windows or knocking and trespassing!"

"Mmm," Levy murmured into her cup, watching Natsu as he wandered around the room with his nose in the air. "You're sure he's trainable?" she asked doubtfully.

He had just climbed onto a chest of drawers- much to Lucy's dismay, judging by her shriek of horror. She ran across the room to pull him off the furniture.

"Why can I smell Ga-?"

"Get! Down! Now!" Lucy yelled, yanking him back onto the floor by his scarf.

"Here, Natsu!" Happy cried, landing atop the accursed music box. Levy sank way down deep into her chair. Sometimes she really hated dragon slayers and their cats and their freakish sense of smell.

"Happy!" Lucy turned her attention to the blue cat. "Be careful!"

While Lucy was busy saving her belongings and berating Happy, Levy was trying not to notice the shrewd look that Natsu was casting in her direction.

"You smell interesting this morning too, Levy," he said, sidling up to her while Lucy explained to Happy why she was going to dismember him if he put so much as a scratch on the music box. "Kind of metallic."

Levy took a huge gulp of tea in an effort to avoid giving Natsu any form of response.

"Open it, Lucy!" Happy commanded eagerly, flying in circles above her head, blithely oblivious to the threats that had been thrown at him. "I want to hear it play!"

Lucy sighed, unable to maintain her anger any longer. She smiled softly and lifted the catch.

"All right, but it doesn't-"

The delicate tinkling sound of music punctuated her sentence.

"Pretty!" Happy declared.

"B- but-" Lucy stammered, a slow, joyous, confused smile blooming on her face "-but it's been broken for years! I've been meaning to have it fixed, but I've never managed to get around to it!"

"Really?" said Natsu, grinning wickedly. "Fancy that, huh, Levy?"

Levy hit her forehead with the palm of her hand.

Oh boy, if he found out, was she ever dead.

- Fin -