Greetings readers! I realize that most of you have probably given up on this story and I want to apologize for the amount of time that it has taken me to post the new chapter. A busy summer and writer's block are to blame, but I want to assure you that I have every intention of finishing this story and I am grateful that you have stayed with me so far! This next chapter was the hardest for me to write so far, so it might not be up to the standards of the others, but I promise that the next chapter will be better! Thank-you for reading!
As always, I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters, they belong to Hiro Mashima and I thank him for their use in my own creative expression *bows* thank-you.
The buzzing in her ears was the first thing Levy noticed as she started to regain consciousness andthat she was laying on something uncomfortable with a lot of weight crushing her. Struggling to remember what happened, Levy opened her eyes slowly but she could still only see darkness. She started to panic before she realized that it was because someone was lying on top of her and she was looking at their black shirt. Then it all came rushing back to her, the log, the lacrima bomb, losing her balance when she heard Lily and Asuka… Gajeel! The panic and fear rose again when she realized who it has to be on top of her. Levy didn't even have time to be embarrassed that she was stuck under the big dragon slayer, just that she somehow had to get out from under him and see if he was all right.
"Gajeel!" she cried out, but she couldn't even hear it herself through the ringing and from her mouth being muffled by his shirt. She started kicking her legs as gentle as she could to move out from underneath him before she suffocated for real, finally Levy's head popped out from underneath Gajeel's arm and she could finally see the blue sky and get a breath of fresh air. Once her arms where free she used them as well to pull herself out, she was so focused on getting free she didn't notice that people from the guild had arrived and couldn't hear them call out her name because of her ruptured eardrums. Once her legs were free, she quickly went to try and push Gajeel over onto his back. No wonder he was so heavy, Levy realized that he had covered himself in his scales to protect them from the shrapnel of the tree and even though his scales where thick iron, bits of log where still embedded in parts of his back, arms and legs. Levy noticed that he had managed to shield his head somehow; there was no damage from behind. She struggled with the remainder of her strength to push him over so she could make sure he was still breathing but before she was grabbed from behind, somebody was pulling her arms away from Gajeel's still form. Levy started to panic and began to fight weakly against them, until she turned to find that it was Erza. The bigger girl was easily holding Levy with one arm now and with the other was trying to make gestures with her hand. Why isn't she saying anything? Levy looked up to see that Erza's mouth was moving, but there were no sounds coming out. Still confused, Levy heard herself ask Erza what she was doing, but again, her voice was muffled over the buzzing in her ears. The red head started pointing to her own ears and mouthing the same word over and over again… Levy thought that it was "blood", but why would she saying that? Erza's ears weren't bleeding… Just then it hit her, her foggy brain was finally starting to work properly again, she couldn't hear anything because her ears were bleeding. Panicking, Levy ran her hands over the sides of her head quickly and was shocked when they came away covered in blood. She started to wobble on her knees unsteadily and then felt Erza's arm going around her shoulders to keep her upright. Then Lucy appeared, looking concerned with her brown eyes full of tears, together they helped Levy stand and she needed to lean against them in order to be able to stay upright. They started to lead her into the guildhall but Levy stopped them and turned to look back to where Gajeel was still lying. Relief flooded her system when she saw Wendy was now beside him and assessing his injuries so she could heal him properly. Lucy tightened her arm around Levy in a gentle side hug and then the three of them made their way to the guild in silence.
When Mirajane heard another crash coming from outside, her first thought was about her squashed pumpkin from the garden and she was just itching to get revenge on this person who thought they could come and destroy property at Fairy Tail. The guildhall had been buzzing with the normal energy that came right before suppertime; almost everyone was already in various stages of drunken tomfoolery so when they all jumped up to make a beeline for the front door it was utter chaos. To their surprise however, when they arrived outside there seemed to be no new damage anywhere in the front yard. They all stood around in confusion until Lisanna spotted Lily in his battle form flying towards them, holding a crying Asuka in his outstretched arms.
"Look up there!" She pointed to him as they started to descend.
Mira ran up to him as soon as she saw the crying toddler and took her into her arms. "Lily, what was that noise? And where did Levy go, she was supposed to be watching Asuka," The white haired woman asked the Exceed while patting the crying girl's back soothingly.
"Gajeel and Levy are at the back of the guildhall and they need your help!" The black cat shrank back down to his small size before following the crowd back behind the guild on foot. There was now a small crater where the log had been and pieces of it littered the ground. Lily looked around frantically for his dragon slayer partner, finally spotting him about ten feet away.
"Levy!" he heard Erza shout as a blue head popped out from underneath Gajeel's still form. She was the first to reach her, "Stop! Don't move him before Wendy has a chance to look at his injuries." But Levy didn't seem to hear her and continued to weakly try and push the big man over on his back until Erza stopped her. There was blood trickling out of her ears and Erza realized that she couldn't hear them because of the damage.
"Levy, your ears are bleeding," She started pointing to her own ears in emphasis. "Blood, blood," she tried saying the words slowly so that Levy would understand.
"Oh my God, Levy!" Lucy knelt down beside Erza, also looking at the small blue haired girl. "Why are her ears bleeding?"
"Her eardrums must have ruptured from the force of the explosion; she can't hear us right now. Other than that she doesn't look injured, help me get her into the guild so that Wendy can heal her as soon as she is done with Gajeel."
Meanwhile, Wendy was looking him over carefully. "Don't push yourself too hard," Charle warned her as she watched her closely to make sure she didn't overuse her power.
"It's alright," The small girl answered, "The iron scales shielded him from everything but a slight concussion and a few big splinters in his back, he is really lucky that it wasn't worse."
"They are both lucky," Laxus answered her while looking on. "We need to check around and make sure there aren't any more explosives around that could go off, everyone, pair up and look around." With only slight grumbling everyone but Mira and those helping the wounded went off to search for more potential hazards.
After an hour of searching every piece of wood from the tree that had been brought in after the first explosion they gave up and went back into the guild to finally have their belated supper. Gajeel, Levy and Wendy were all taken home by their team mates to rest to rest, Lily promising to look after Gajeel and let them know if he needed more healing.
"I will spend the night with Levy and make sure she is ok," Lucy told Mira as she went back to the guild house to pick her up some food.
"Here," Mira gave her a container full of soup. "Make sure she eats at least some of it or tell her I will come and make her eat it." Mira smiled sweetly but Lucy knew the demon that was lurking behind that face.
"I-I will, thanks Mira!" Lucy turned and nearly ran out the door, the last bits of daylight sneaking through it before she pulled it shut. Mira turned back to the bar and watched as Lisanna fed Asuka her supper. It had been a long and eventful day for the little girl and the thought that she had almost been hurt in the same blast as Gajeel and Levy. Thank God Lily had been there to watch her or Mira didn't know what might have happened.
"Mira," she heard Erza call from a table near the back. She was sitting with Laxus and a fairly sober looking Cana and you knew that it was something serious when Cana started looking sober.
"Coming!" she answered, turning away from Asuka and Lisanna to join them.
Lisanna really enjoyed looking after Asuka most of the time because she was a happy little girl, but this evening she was in completely different mood.
"Come on Asuka," she urged the little girl. "Just have a bite, it's really yummy, I promise."
"No!" The little girl answered petulantly and crossed her small arms. Lisanna sighed, ready to give up. She could not get her to eat the stew, no matter how hard she tried.
"Ok then, what do you want?" She answered, her voice taking an uncharacteristically annoyed edge.
"I want the teddy-cat…" Asuka replied stubbornly and she stuck out her bottom lip.
"Gajeel isn't feeling good right now and Lily is staying with him, but he will be back tomorrow," Lisanna tried to reason with her, but she knew it was not going to work.
"No, I want him now," the little girl whined again. Lisanna sighed again, giving up. She picked Asuka up and was surprised when she didn't fight her like she had anticipated. Lisanna looked over to where Mira was sitting with Cana, Erza and Laxus and decided that now was not a good time to bug them judging by the looks on their faces. She then went to plan B and the only other person that she could dump the grumpy toddler off on.
"Elf-niichan," she cooed as she stalked up behind her older brother. "I need you to watch Asuka while I start cleaning up and while Mira is busy." She sat Asuka down on the table before he could object and quickly rushed away.
"Lisanna, wait!" he called after her, looking at the little girl in horror. Asuka stared back at the big man, her sour mood momentarily forgotten with the new person to play with.
"Ever, quick, what do I do?" He asked the woman seated across from him who was also staring at the little girl with apprehension.
"How am I supposed to know what to do with a kid? Because I'm a woman?!" She replied angrily.
"What's the matter Elfman?" Asked Bixlow, who was sitting beside Evergreen at the table. "Are you scared of a little girl?"
"A man is not afraid of anything!" Elfman cried and banged his fist on the table with so much force that Asuka flew off the table.
"What are you doing you idiot!" Evergreen cried as she jumped up to catch the laughing girl in mid-air. "Really! Do you have any brains in that giant head of yours at all?"
"I didn't mean to," Elfman grumbled quietly.
Bixlow let out a chortle, "Hey Ever, I thought you said you didn't hold kids?" Evergreen grimaced at him as she held on to Asuka awkwardly, who was still clapping her hands and asking Elfman to throw her again. "Shut up you!" She growled.
"You better her put her down before you drop her," Freed commented from where he was sitting beside Elfman, even though he didn't look like he was paying attention to them at all. His eyes were fixated on the table where Laxus and the girls were sitting and he had an obvious look of curiosity and longing on his face. Evergreen placed Asuka back on the table carefully, watching Elfman carefully to make sure he didn't toss her unknowingly again. Bixlow sighed as he raised his hand to summon his babies and then sent them zooming off in Asuka's direction, they danced around her head and whispered little greetings in her ears. "Don't worry Freed, they will tell us what we need to do when they are ready."
Freed tossed his head and turned to the masked mage. "I believe that Laxus will know how to lead Fairy Tail in it's time of need, together we will be able to get revenge on those that think they can insult the guild and get away with it." Everyone else at the table but Asuka rolled their eyes at his words.
"Yeah, yeah, we hear ya," Bixlow answered, trying and failing to keep the dry tone out of his voice but Freed didn't seem to notice. "We don't know yet if it was an attack on the guild or just a prank gone wrong but with what happened to Gajeel and Levy, that makes it more serious than before."
Evergreen raised her eyebrows. "Bixlow, that sounds so sensitive, you're not going soft on us are you?" She snickered at him and he glared at her from under the facemask, his eyes starting to glow green in annoyance. Asuka watched in fascination, the wooden puppets still floating around her head momentarily forgotten, all she could focus on were the pretty green glowing eyes...
"Bixlow, control your eyes, you're starting to take over the girl," Freed reached over the table and put his hand over Asuka's eyes to stop the eye contact.
"Oh shit! Sorry kid!" Bixlow squeezed his eyes shut and the glowing light from under the mask was gone, Freed lowered his hand from Asuka's face once he knew that Bixlow was back in control.
"It's alright, just be more careful. She can see under your mask at that angle and doesn't know to look away." Asuka glared at him for making the pretty green eyes go away but he didn't seem to notice as he turned back to continue watching the other table. The wooden puppets started nuzzling her hair while whispering sorries in her ears and nearly knocked off her little hat.
"Cut that out, come back here." Bixlow summoned them back and they perched on his shoulders like little wooden birds.
"Now what do we do with her?" Elfman asked as the three of them looked at the quiet little girl again. When nobody spoke he inwardly groaned, if Lisanna didn't come back soon this was going to be a long night.
I hope that wasn't too bad! I know it was not worth the long wait, but I promise the next chapter will be up quicker and will be better written. I know I might have made Bixlow a little OCC, but I do believe that he would be really good with kids, like he was with Wendy when they were paired together during the recent filler arc. Thanks for reading and more will be up soon.
