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Chapter 7

Gajeel flew above the ambulance, following it to the hospital. Landing nearby he watched as they unloaded the blue-haired woman (now on a stretcher) and began to poke and prod her looking for any signs of injury. Following closely through the building after the bluenette, he found himself in the room where she had been left to recover. Gajeel opened the window in the room when he was sure no-one would see it move and waited. After several hours, Lilly had caught up with Gajeel, flying through the open window and clearly annoyed at being left alone on top of a building for several hours with no word or warning; but quickly diverted his temper to concern when he saw their ward. She was in a hospital bed fast asleep, with a sterile white bandage wrapped around her head for good measure.

The two winged stood in the room still watching over her, Lilly noted Gajeel's intense stare at the woman's small form. Once again Lilly was in the dark about the situation, he only hoped Gajeel would be more forthcoming with answers this time. "What happened back there Gajeel?" He tentatively asked.

Gajeel raked a large hand through his thick mane and groaned. "Damn short-stack ran out in front of a car; I yanked her out of the way." The pair had been guarding the building Levy had entered that morning, they say guarding but the whole morning had been completely uneventful. They opted to fill their time with light sparring; practising a variety of punches and kicks – when they noticed she was leaving in the early afternoon. Gajeel elected to follow her while Lil' stayed behind only to join Gajeel later if problems arose. It was pretty calm so Gajeel just walked behind the bouncing blue bundle of joy as she headed back. With nothing better to do Gajeel just watched her, he wasn't gonna complain the view wasn't half-bad (he might even go as far as to say attractive), what he was going to complain about, was the actual ray of sunshine this shrimp was emitting. Seriously how was she so fucking happy, all she had was food! This girl was his near opposite, filled with colour and optimism; he couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy that level of happiness never seemed to reach him.

Regardless he kept an eye on her, while she clearly wasn't paying attention to her surrounding he sure as hell was. Gajeel had watched as the stupid woman walked out in front of a car. Reflexes kicked in and before he could think his hand was grabbing the back of her dress, yanking her back, none too gracefully, as the car skidded to a stop over the spot where she had just been standing. Gajeel had let her drop to the ground, releasing his grip; a sickening crack was heard has her head hit the pavement. Shit. He crouched over her and confirmed she was still alive and breathing before backing away and letting the humans fix this mess.

He had been standing at the back of the growing crowd completely invisible to their nosey asses as they fussed over the girl. He honestly thought she was fine, there was no blood, she just needed to brush it off and carry on, but that clearly wasn't an option with this number of people trying to help. Gajeel considered watching from a nearby rooftop to get away from them when he caught the now conscious bluenette staring right at him. Eye's locked as he glared back, primal instincts kicking in as he tried to look intimidating, an invisible battle of will occurring before an unsuspecting crowd. She didn't back down, eyes equally intense; that is until her gaze flicked sideways and caught sight of his wings. Shit hit the fan then, and she descended into a panicked frenzy pointing at him trying to get the crowd to see what she clearly could.

That was all the confirmation he needed. "I think she can see us now, Lil'. Gave me a pretty solid glare." Gajeel stood still, staring at the sleeping bluenette.

"You're sure?" Lilly watched as Gajeel replied with a sharp nod. "Got some guts staring you down heh." A ghost of a smile graced both of their faces before Lilly thought about the actual effects of the situation. "Maybe we shouldn't be here then? It would be quite the shock to see both of us after such an event." Lilly honestly didn't know what to do now, if the human could see winged it was a safe bet that she could see demons. Perhaps they should wait until the woman was in a more familiar environment before gently introducing themselves. They would have to try and explain everything to her in a calm and collected manner to prevent her from panicking, then perhaps they could advise her on how to stay safe until the barrier was constructed. The Exceed, pleased with his devised plan, turned to share it with Gajeel; only to see the brazen man poking the sleeping woman aggressively in her cheek.

"OI! Get up!" Gajeel said rather loudly, rousing a worn out Levy from her much needed sleep.

Similar to their first encounter Levy couldn't make much sense of the space around her, unable to fully recall what had happened to her in the last few hours. When her active conscience finally kicked in, her first thought was that her head bloody hurt, her second was that she was definitely not in her bed and her third was the man with wings that she was sure she had dreamed up was now looming over her with a rather annoyed look on his face.

Levy began to scream. Gajeel, panicking, quickly clamped a large hand over the woman's mouth clearly agitated. "Oi, Oi! Shut it short-stack. You sound like you're being fucking murdered!" He scalded.

Levy's eyes went wide at the feel of his hand on her face and heard deepness of his voice; there was no way she could convince herself this wasn't real as his warm rough hands pressed against her lips keeping the noise lock inside. Wide brown eyes met red piercing ones for the second time in that day and all Levy could think about was that this was how she was going to die; by a creature that should only exist in her precious books. Tears filled her eyes as her body betrayed her fears, but she never looked away. Her thick gaze pleaded with Gajeel, overwhelming him with the dread and the mortality of her life the girl was feeling. He released her and watched stunned as she curled up on the hospital bed, choking back sobs, and turned to Lilly in a clear call for help.

Lilly on the other hand, couldn't believe his own eyes; this boneheaded nitwit had managed to scare the living daylights out of the human and caused her to become an incomprehensible heap in less than three minutes. Now he had the audacity to look to him for help? Lilly considered flying out the window leaving the man to deal with the mess he made, but another look at the sobbing girl changed his mind. While his partner couldn't be spoken for, he was a gentleman.

In his smaller form, to try and look less intimidating, Lilly stood on the hospital bed facing the distressed woman and put a gentle paw on her arm. "Miss? Don't be afraid we aren't going to hurt you." At first, it seemed like his words fell on deaf ears, but slowly the sobs slowed and he heard her lungs begin to take deep breaths to calm her hammering heart. Lilly offered a comforting smile while now Gajeel sulked in the corner; his eye's fixated on their interactions.

Levy; realising that she was still alive and that a new, hard but concerned voice was now talking to her, looked up to see an ebony cat with a scarred eye and small fluffy white wings smiling at her. Her voice failed her while her brain tried to reason what was going on. "Wha..." was all she could manage staring at yet another unexplainable figure in the room.

"My name is Panther Lilly, Lilly for short. Pleased to meet you. The sulking man in the corner is Gajeel Redfox, I apologise for his rude behaviour" Gajeel growled at the last comment but Lilly silenced him with a glare. That man had brought this on himself.

"Levy, Levy McGarden." The quiet introduction was still unsure, but it was progress from the sobbing from before. Lilly gave her a more confident smile and offered a paw to the now curious woman, the two shook hand and paw further luring Levy out of her curled posture. "I imagine you have a lot of questions, I understand this is a lot to take in." While he was unsure about how much information they should divulge, providing few answers should develop some level of trust between the two parties.

"What are you?" The question came instantaneously, despite the flood of queries she had. With a finally clear head, she was able to study the two beings in front of her calmly. They weren't actually as intimidating as first impressions gave, sure they were straight off the written page, dark and menacing (one was covered in piercings and other was carrying a sword!) but, they didn't seem to want to harm her. In fact, the cat one was actively trying to make conversation with her and comfort her. The other one, however, was giving her that glare again, almost as if he was studying her, ready to pounce should she make a wrong move.

She broke away from her inner thoughts when Lilly spoke again "We are spirits to put it simply, we exist in a realm alongside this one which humans cannot see – well should not be able to see."

"So why can I see you?" She was trying to keep a level head, save conclusions for after all the facts were presented but already this sounded like one of her stories.

"I would bet that it is because of the actions of my partner, do you recall why you're here?" Lilly gestured to the room the three stood in and Levy suddenly remembered that this was not her home. It was what she assumed was a hospital, Going by the sterile white décor at least. She also noted the bandages around her head as her fingers reached to touch them she suddenly cried out in realisation.

"You!" Her finger was firmly pointed at Gajeel now "It was you; you pulled me out of the way of the car!" Her mouth got ahead of her brain as she asked her third question without a second thought. "Why?"

Gajeel felt like he was being accused of some wrong by someone half his height, the idea made him immediately defensive. "People normally say 'thanks' when someone saves their ass, ya know!" The man snorted as her shocked face as he snapped at her.

Clearly taken aback by the abruptness of the man, Levy rethought her reply. Taking a deep breath, she calmed her voice and tried again. "You're right, I'm sorry. Thank you, Gajeel, for saving me. But still, why did you?"

Now the tables switched as Gajeel expected a more aggressive reply from the woman, he kept his demeanour up but his words were softer "Couldn't just let ya get run over could I, kinda person you take me for?" Actively looking anywhere except at the bluenette, Levy could help but think her looked rather cute, like a child trying to keep a secret.

Lilly looked very amused by the sudden interaction between human and winged and elected to not step in allowing them to continue.

A wicked thought graced Levy's head as she spoke again "Some kind of guardian angel I guess!" Levy now had the cheeriest grin on her face as she reached her deduction of Gajeel's question of 'what kind of person he was'. From his reaction it would appear she was right; he was definitely not one who enjoyed being called an 'angel'.

Gajeel looked like someone had just kicked him in the balls, his ego felt severely bruised "Do I look like some kind of pansy angel?!" He almost roared, but Levy wasn't having any of it. A man who had just saved her wasn't about to go about harming her.

"But you are guarding me?" Levy didn't miss a beat, dissecting his words and turning the tables on him yet again.

Lilly was now quietly snickering at the whole thing, sure Gajeel could take on any opponent in a fight, but when that fight came down to pure wit and words, he was at a supreme disadvantage especially against small blue haired women it seemed. Deciding to spare Gajeel further embarrassment, Lilly stepped in, before the bluenette pushed anymore of the dragon's buttons and caused a real tantrum.

"Yes, the current situation has led us to be your protectors for a few days – we will be gone soon and you won't ever have to concern yourself with us again." He hoped there was a way to put her back to normal; she would be labelled crazy by human standards if she went shouting about seeing angels.

Before Levy could inject any kind of reply a nurse walked into the room, oblivious to the two extra bodies in the room, she proceeded to ask Levy standard questions. How did she feel? Dizzy? Sick? Confused? Levy responded kindly saying she felt fine and allowed the nurse to carry out some standard checks on her; satisfied she was in good health she prescribed Levy to take at least one day off and to stay hydrated before discharging her. The whole time Levy couldn't help but look at the two winged figures in her room; silently watching, not the nurse, but the windows and the doors as if they were expecting something to come bursting through.

As Levy exited the room and found her way outside, she watched Gajeel follow out closely behind her with the cat sitting on his shoulder. Both were still watching her like she was about to burst into flames – without warning, Gajeel shot his hand towards her, past her head and into the face of an approaching demon. Levy stared in shock as she saw Gajeel's arm had become a large iron post impaled in some unfortunate creature's head.

"Lilly get her home, now. I'm gonna check for others." The orders were absolute, no room for movement. As he flew to the sky Levy watched the formally small cat become a muscled beast, matching Gajeel in sheer size.

"C'mon Levy its best we keep moving, don't worry your safe." Lilly tried to be reassuring but it did little to help.

"What was that…?" She asked as she watched the body turn to dust and scatter in the wind, Lilly's hands gently tugged her shoulder urging her to walk.

"What we are protecting you from," Was his only reply.