CHAPTER 7 HAS SOME GALE FLUFF! YAAY!

i'm proud to have come up with gray's wake-up plan XD I spent a long time thinking of it.

plz enjoy!

Chapter 7

Gajeel

As the first star winked in the sky, Gajeel slipped through the doors of the town's library, which seemed to have become Fairy Tail's headquarters while in the ring. The familiar smell of books greeted him – familiar because it was how Levy always smelled. He had to admit, it wasn't an entirely unpleasant aroma.

A face peeked down from the balcony, looking to see who had just come in.

"Up here, Rivet-Face." Salamander waved. Gajeel sighed.

Master, couldn't you wait just a little longer to send Salamander in? We were trying to keep the peace amongst our own guild-mates, you know.

Using the iron studs in his boots to simply walk up the wall instead of using the stairs, Gajeel assessed the situation before him.

Freed and Gildarts appeared to be intact, though the former looked a little worse for the wear. There was no Mirajane and no Evergreen. Instead, Gray and Natsu seemed to have been added.

"I understand if Evergreen got out on the first day." The Iron Dragonslayer said aloud, "But Mira musta run into Jura or somebody. He's the only one I can think of that could take her out. I even think she could beat Mikazuchi if she tried."

"Wasn't Jura." Gildarts grinned, crossing his arms under his tattered cloak. "Him and me ran into each other almost immediately and were going at it for a long time. There's no way he would have had time to meet and conquer Mirajane before I got to him."

"You won?"

"Well I'm here, aren't I?"

"Gajeel," Freed spoke up, "We're trying to keep count of how many points we have, since we have no access to the outside. Did you manage to beat anyone today?"

"Listen to you – did I manage to beat anyone today? Yeah I got one of the ladies from Mermaid and Van from Lamia." He answered.

"I totally whupped the fat gravity guy's ass!" Natsu punched the air with enthusiasm.

"The one from Manticore that beat Ichiya?" Gajeel asked.

"Uh-huh. He didn't stand a chance."

"From what I hear it was quite an intense battle." Freed muttered under his breath. "But I got a Blue Pegasus reserve without too much trouble."

Gray nodded, "And I managed that Web lady from Mermaid. I also met Lyon but night fell before we started battling. I knew from what Master told us that this library is our hideout so I took off. He wasn't too happy about that – he wanted to stick it out till morning and battle as soon as the sun came up."

Gildarts chuckled. "It's a good thing you left. I can't say for sure who'd win that one; you two seem pretty evenly matched."

"Hmmm." Gray replied. His eyes were far away, remembering something.

"Well," Gajeel grunted, "I dunno about you guys but I'm tired – I'm goin' to sleep"

"Yeah." Gildarts nodded, "The only good that can come of not having Mira and Ever around is that they can't nag at us for being nasty men."

"Please, no-one try to snore too loudly; I'm a light sleeper and one must have his beauty rest." Freed remarked from his corner.

"Except Freed." Gildarts added in a whisper.

"How're we gonna know when to wake up?" Gajeel asked.

"Leave that to me." Gray chuckled. "Natsu, you sleep there." He pointed to a spot in the middle of the floor.

"Why me?! And why there?!"

"Just do it." Gray answered with a sigh, creating a small pyramid of ice in the palm of his hand and placing it on the windowsill.

"What's that?" Natsu asked suspiciously, pointing to the pyramid.

"Just go to sleep already! You'll understand later."

Gajeel stretched out beside a bookcase, arms behind his head. He mentally pictured Levy's face on the broad white canvas that was the ceiling, thinking about her for a few minutes before he finally fell asleep.

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"AAARGH GODDAMMIT AGH-FUCK ASDFGHJKL! GRAY YOU MOTHERFUCKING FAGGOT!"

Gajeel blinked his eyes open. "Wassamatter Salamander?"

Natsu stomped around the library, ensuring that everyone was awake while snarling several more choice words and setting a few books on fire.

Gray smirked, sitting up in his boxers. "It worked just like I wanted it to."

"What did you do?" Freed mumbled, still bleary-eyed.

"When the sun came up, that ice pyramid in the windowsill worked like a prism, catching and concentrating a beam of sunlight right into Natsu's face. As you can see, he served as a replacement alarm clock to wake the rest of us up." Gray explained, "I put the no-melt spell on the ice so it would stay solid all night. Worked like a charm, didn't it?"

"Uh-huh. Nice thinking." Gajeel nodded, chuckling as Natsu stomped out the fires that he'd created.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT ONE, ICE PRINCESS!"

"No doubt." Freed broke in, "But we should get going for now – try to get a jump start on those who haven't woken up yet."

"Are we splitting up again today?" Gildarts asked. Gajeel nodded.

"Yeah, that seemed to work pretty well yesterday, despite losing Ever and Mira. Salamander, Stripper, you guys are both reserves. What information were you able to gather from watching the Lacrima-vision?"

"There's a Lacrima-vision for the general public," Gray explained, "That one shows all the battles and stuff, but it doesn't reveal information like each guild's hideout or battle tactics. There's another Lacrima-vision exclusively for the Master and the reserves of each guild which shows more specific information for their team. That's how we knew that you guys were teleported here and this was where we were supposed to come at night. Stuff like that. We don't know anything about the other teams other than what was admitted to the public."

"We watched Evergreen single-handedly undo the Trimens." Natsu added, "But both her and Mira got totally steamrolled by that little girl from Manticore."

"One person took out the both of them?" Gildarts frowned.

"Within five minutes of each other."

"Why didn't you tell me yesterday?" Freed glared, "I was trying to keep track of our points, remember? Now I'll have to add three more to the list for the Trimens."

"How did she manage that?" Gajeel asked, ignoring Freed.

"We're not sure of the specifics," Gray replied darkly, "But from what I could gather, she forces you to relive your worst nightmares."

Gajeel had heard enough around the guild to put together the pieces of Gray's past. He knew that if the Ice mage was forced to 'relive his worst nightmares' he'd be virtually ruined.

"That sounds pretty dark..." Gildarts commented doubtfully. Gray shrugged.

"Believe what you want, but that's what I got out of it from watching the Lacrima-vision."

A heavy silence fell as everyone contemplated the effects of what had just been said. Gajeel looked out towards the half-risen sun, lost in thought; thoughts mostly about Metallica with a sprinkling of Levy here and there…

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A hunter stalking his prey, Gajeel had been following the skinny bearded man from Manticore Emerald for the past fifteen minutes, waiting for the right chance to strike. The man didn't seem to have a particular destination in mind; rather it just looked like he was meandering aimlessly through the town, waiting to bump into someone.

As they made their way through a particularly twisty part of the maze of roads, Gajeel struggled to keep up, having to move quicker than he'd have liked to keep the man within his sights. His focus on speed caused his caution to falter, and his foot carelessly skipped a stone on the pavement, which made a loud clattering sound as it bounced along the road, coming to rest at the skinny man's heel.

Gajeel ducked into a sidestreet but he wasn't quick enough – he'd already been spotted.

Rather than turn to face him, the man took off running. Gajeel abandoned all attempts to stay hidden and followed, much faster now that he didn't have to worry about being quiet.

"Come on and fight me you coward." The Iron Dragonslayer growled. The man's only response was to run faster. Gajeel, seriously ticked by now, put on a burst of speed, slowly gaining on the man.

Suddenly, he collided with something and fell to the ground with a grunt.

"Ow." Someone hissed. Gajeel knew that voice.

"Shrimp?"

"Gajeel!" Levy noticed him for the first time.

"There's a cut on your forehead." Gajeel pointed out the obvious as a trickle of blood dripped down into Levy's eye. She reached up to touch the cut, smearing the blood across her brow.

"I think one of the bolts on your jacket cut me when I ran into you." She replied, gesturing to Gajeel's chest which had a smear of red on it. "Sorry; it looks like I got blood on your jacket."

"Ah shit, don't apologize." Gajeel scowled, "It was my fault anyway – I wasn't looking where I was going. I…sorry."

"Why were you running?" Levy frowned, "Were you being chased, too?"

"Naw." Gajeel scoffed, "I don't run when I'm chased. I turn and fight like a real man!" It looked like Elfman's favorite phrase was rubbing off. Levy flushed.

"I-I guess I'm not a real man, then. Someone started chasing me almost as soon as I was sent in for Freed so I ran away…"

"Well…it's okay I guess because you're not supposed to be a real man." Gajeel reasoned.

"Then what am I supposed to be?"

"A shrimp."

Levy glared.

Crap, I said something I wasn't supposed to.

"Ha! Found you!" a new voice exclaimed in triumph. Gajeel and Levy whipped around.

"Sheila!"

"I've been looking for someone like you." Sheila beamed, "I want to see if you all are as amazing as Wendy-chan says."

"You bet we are!" Gajeel grinned, "I'll take you, one on one!"

"Oh, I'll take the both of you at once. I could take Wendy-chan, given enough time, and I can take you, too."

"Believe me," the Dargonslayer smirked, "No discredit to Wendy, but I'm gonna be way harder to beat."

"Bring it on, then." Sheila beckoned.

"Gihihihi."

kukuku I am excited to write the next chapter - battles are always fun to write. it will be in levy or Sheila pov - plz review and tell me which you would prefer since I really don't know.

I heart Chili ;) and Gray.

~ice