I know, I know, it has been ages since I uploaded and yes, I'm deeply ashamed about it.

Also, I've revised this story a bit. Really the first chapters were so badly written! Seriously, how did you guys even want to start this story? The events were haphazardly and it wasn't fluent. Also, there was something weird about the timeline of the story , but I tried to fix those issues. I didn't change the storyline, but I did add some tiny parts to make the story more fluent. You don't have to reread the previous chapters, but it might be handy to do so.

Chapter 10

Hopes

By Neko Erza

Levi couldn't believe her ears.

Salamander? Natsu?

This was the first time in weeks she'd heard something about the other members of Fairy Tail.
She desperately wanted to know what was happening to them and whether they were okay. The chances of them not being okay were next to nothing of course, but still…

"You fought Natsu?" Levi asked stunned, dropping the cloth she was holding against the wound on Gajeel's arm.

The slayer picked it back up and bound it around the wound to stem the bleeding. "Yeah, I did. I hate to admit it but... that fire idiot can fight when he's pissed off."

Levi knew all too well that was true, but still, the chances of Gajeel running into Natsu of al people was just too sporadic. "Where did you even run into him?"

"I don't know, some town." The raven man mumbled almost inaudibly.

'Some town' didn't really sound like an honest answer. Gajeel was supposed to be on a mission and Levi doubted if he didn't know where that was. "What was your mission exactly?"

The slayer's red eyes glared at her. "I told you it wasn't any of your business."

The little bluenette stubbornly glared back. "If it's none of my business, then you shouldn't have said anything about Natsu."

The slayer's eyes narrowed. There were those guts again; talking back, challenging him. He couldn't suppress a small smile.

And she was kind of right too. If he hadn't wanted her to ask about it, he'd just have said it was some random mage that he had fought. "Fine, I'll tell you." He grabbed her hand and placed it back on the cloth on the wound, motioning her to continue tending it. "The master had said to keep an eye on Fairy Tail. About three weeks ago, there suddenly was a lot of commotion concerning your guild."

So many questions came to mind. She felt her stomach flutter with curiosity. "Commotion? What happened? And how did Phantom even know?" Levi asked confused, yet strangely excited to finally hear about her friends.

The slayer stared at her for a moment. Her eyes sparkled with anticipation.

Such an interesting little girl.

"Master has some people keep watch over all the major guilds, in case they are planning something against us. That way we've been able to stay a step ahead and keep hidden this well. Since we have Fairy Tail captives, he deemed it necessary to send some people to see just what was going on with them, what had them all riled up."

"And what was going on?" The girl asked fidgety.

The girl seemed ready to explode with anticipation. Gajeel sighed, this was going to make her go crazy. "They found out you and your friends didn't just stay behind on a mission. They know you went missing."

Levi's eyes widened.

They know!

"They know we're here?" Levi said hopeful. He could feel her fingers tighten around his arm.

Somehow that hopeful tone stabbed Gajeel in the gut, but he decided to ignore it. "No. They just know you're gone; not what happened or who's got you."

The bluenette's hope was crushed again, yet the question why Natsu fighting Gajeel was in all of this, still wasn't answered. "Then why did you fight Natsu?"

"Some of our guild were sent to follow them, to make sure they didn't come too close to our territory, just to make sure whether they know something about us or not. Master has been expecting a confrontation with you fairies for a long time." Gajeel further explained. "He hinted that he wants to use you captive fairies as blackmail if we'd ever need to. We can't do that if they come too close and rescue you now. I just had to follow Salamander, because he's one of the biggest risks, but after a while he noticed me."

"Then doesn't he know? Didn't he ask why you were following him?" She cursed Natsu's density. If it had been Erza, she would have probably made a link.

"He didn't know I had been following. Just that I was there. I don't have the best reputation and he tried to pry information out of me whether I knew if you showed up in the underworld, where the dark guilds roam." The slayer said melodramatic. "If only he knew how close he was."

Gajeel stood up and made his way to the bathroom. "Don't get your hopes up, shrimp. You'll only hurt yourself." He said as he passed the bluenette, ruffling his hand through her hair.

Levi sat on the ground, a feeling of defeat overwhelming her. The situation seemed even more dire than before. Phantom Lord was on top of the dark guild rank and they wouldn't be that easy to take down. After many years and battles, nobody had been able to even weaken them. Up until now she had strongly believed Fairy Tail would find them, but now... she had the feeling it wouldn't be that easy. It had been over two months already after all.

"Fairy Tail will find us. They'll save us." Levi whispered. It was not as much a threat to Gajeel as it was a reassurance to herself.

Gajeel looked back at her. Sitting on the floor like that she seemed even smaller and more vulnerable than she normally did. The slayer let out a sigh and repeated. "Don't get your hopes up, shrimp."

Then he vanished into the bathroom.

A few weeks earlier at the guild

"Okay, Canna, tell us everything what happened that day." Master Makarov said seriously. Most of the guild had gathered around as soon as Cana, Lucy and Mira had informed the master about the strange absence of Gray, Loke and team Shadow Gear and the fact Lucy's key hadn't had any effect on Loke.

The card mage sighed. "A little more than two weeks ago I was on a mission with Gray and Loke, just behind the border of Kingdom Bosco. Once we were finished we went on to the train station to return to Fiore and there we encountered team Shadow Gear."

"Then why did you return if you were on a mission together? Where the hell is Gray?" Natsu suddenly interrupted as he slammed his hands on the table before Cana.

The woman scowled at the dragon slayer. "Am I being interrogated? What? You think I made them disappear?"

"Of course we don't, Cana." The master said assuring, gesturing for the slayer to calm down.

"And for your information, Natsu," Cana said, still pissed. "If you'd let me finish, you'd know I didn't even board the train since I had agreed to meet up with Gildarts straight after. He was around those parts anyway."

Natsu reluctantly backed down, yet he still needed something or someone to cool his anger on. Right after Lucy had tried to call out Loke and failed, she went to Erza and him to inform them about their worries. Especially the fact that Gray hadn't come back seemed to be hard on Natsu, yet he still didn't want to admit that he cared for the ice mage. As he explained, the only reason he wanted to find the raven was to beat his ass up for getting into trouble. Yet ever since Gray left for the mission, the slayer had been bothering Lucy about him returning. He seemed lost without the ice mage. Next to that Natsu's anger was proof enough that he was worried sick for their lost members. He was furious and they had had to hold him back from just storming out and trying to find some culprit and beat him to a pulp.

"So they boarded the train? You're sure about that?" Erza asked. "Otherwise they might have left on another mission together. Bosco Kingdom has some great request, so they might have decided to do one while they were still there. It saves them a long trip."

Cana shook her head. "I waited with them till the train left. By the way, Gray was eager to return home."

"And Loke wouldn't have done that." Lucy added. "He had already been in the human world for quite some time and the mission probably drained his energy even more. He wouldn't risk staying here any longer without first returning to the spirit realm." She was still clutching the golden key of The Lion in her hand.

"Levi would have probably contacted us if they'd prolonged their mission too." Mira added sadly. She cursed herself for not realising something was wrong sooner. She registered and took care of all the bookkeeping and missions. She should have known they were gone too long for the requests the two teams had taken on. She didn't even consider it weird that Cana had returned without Gray or Loke. She had only asked her about it this morning.

"You couldn't have known, Mira-nee." Lisanna quietly assured her sister as she saw the guilt troubling her.

"Then what do we do now, master? Where do we start?" Lucy asked.

"First we go to the station and inform if they ever reached Magnolia. If they did, we split into groups and go search for them. If that isn't the case, we need to know what exactly happened on the train ride."

Before Makarov had even finished his last sentence, Natsu already stormed out of the front doors.

Levi felt quite gloomy after her conversation with Gajeel. She had felt so relieved and excited to hear about Natsu and that Fairy Tail knew they were missing, and yet…

Was it really idle to hope that they'd be freed? They knew she, Loke, Gray, Jet and Droy went missing, but did they even have a clue where to start? From what Gajeel told her, they didn't seem to know yet Phantom had taken them captive. And even if they knew, Phantom Lord had been able to stay hidden and undefeated for all those years, they might not even be able to locate them or bring them down.

This whole mess just got screwed up even more.

Yet, maybe... If Natsu had managed to beat up Gajeel this bad… He was one of the top-notch mages of Phantom, maybe Fairy Tail could bring them down after all.

But even that idea left her conflicted. Because if Phantom Lord was to be brought down, the guild members would be taken away by the magic council. Including Gajeel and Juvia.

She might be hypocrite for thinking like this, but she actually considered both water mage and dragon slayer as friends.
She wasn't sure they felt the same way, and she didn't dare ask, since they just as well might only take pity on her and had no other ideas about her.

The girl decided not to stress herself out with worrying about it. It wouldn't change a thing anyway, only that she would push herself further down. She sighed and walked back to the living room, just as she heard the clattering of the shower stop in the next room.

She sat down on the couch, and barely a second later Gajeel's voice sounded.

"Shrimp, come here for a sec."

Wondering what he wanted, Levi stood back up and went over to the bathroom. She had just heard the shower stop, so she expected him to need help with putting on bandages.

The girl opened the door and let out a startled cry.

Unlike what she'd expected, Gajeel was sitting in the bathtub.

"G-Gajeel!" The girl stuttered uncomfortable. She turned her head to the side, looking away from the naked man. "You're not wearing anything!"

"Yeah, do you wear clothes when you take a bath?" The man asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"O-Of course not, but… didn't you just take a shower already?" The little bluenette asked, still somewhat taken aback. She hadn't been prepared for this view!

"Yes, but that was to get all the blood and most of the dirt off. The bath is just the finishing touch and next to that, the warm water also relaxes my muscles.

"Then what do you need me for?" She was almost afraid to ask.

"Well, I wanted to propose some steamy hot sex right here in the bathtub…" The man grinned. "But, since I have the feeling you're gonna say 'no' to that delightful offer, I'll settle for you helping me wash my back."

The girl felt like throwing something at him, yet she could hardly supress a laugh. "You idiot."

"Hey, hey, you can't insult an injured man."

"I just did and I will do it again if you keep harassing me like that." The girl reprimanded, yet she couldn't fight a smile.

"Now will you come and help me already? I'm going to rust if I have to wait any longer."

Although Gajeel clearly didn't have any bad intentions, Levi still felt awkward seeing him naked. She hesitantly shuffled closer.

"I'm not going to bite, just help me wash my back, I'm hurting all over." Gajeel growled impatiently.

She finally sat down on the side of the tub and grabbed a washing cloth. Her cheeks flushed red as she tried to focus on his back.

"Couldn't you have put some bath foam in or something?" At least that would have covered up most of it.

"That wouldn't be good for my wounds, now would it?" The man grinned.

That was true indeed. And there were a lot of wounds. Natsu must have really gone all out for Gajeel to be this beaten up. His whole body was covered in bruises, scratches and cuts. Next to that, he had a nasty burn running over his shoulder and partly down his back.

Gajeel saw the girl trying her very best to not let her eyes wander from his wounds one bit. He grinned at the sudden shyness. "Are you that uncomfortable around naked people?"

"Gee, I'm sorry I'm not ogling you from head to toe."

"Well, if I had to pick a body part of a naked person to look at, I wouldn't choose the head or the toes either." The man grinned deviously.

"Just shut up."

"I'm just thinking of you, shrimp."

The girl glanced at his face for a moment, "And what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"I mean, now we're even. I've seen you naked, you've seen me."

"Yeah, that was what I was waiting for." Levi said sarcastically.

"Maybe you're just uncomfortable with you being the only clothed person."

"What don't you get about 'shut up'? If you continue like this, you can wash your back yourself."

"You can join me if you want." The man grinned and tapped the water.

"You wish." The girl scoffed.

"Of course."

She halted her scrubbing and stared at the man with the crooked grin on his face. What the hell was he playing at? That last part didn't sound like a joke.
"Stop it, you." She finally said, somewhat flustered. Why did he have to say it in such a sincere way.

"Oh, come on. You know you want to" Gajeel said, flicking his fingers at her so a few droplets of water splattered on her.

"Hey!" Levi rubbed the water of her face annoyed.

"What? Afraid of a few droplets of water?" He asked with a grin as he splashed some more onto her.

"Gajeel, stop it!" She wanted to sound stern, but a laugh managed to slip past her lips.

"Aren't shrimps supposed to love water?"

This time he scooped his hand full and splashed it onto her. Levi gasped as the water hit her and stared at the man incredulously. Now he had done it! In return she scooped her hands full of water and splashed it right into his face.
For the next few minutes the two kept on the water fight, laughing and splashing each other like two little children. When another big splash hit her cheek, she pulled her hands out of the water.

"Okay, okay, enough." Levi finally said holding up her hands disarmingly, yet still not able to hold back all her laughs. This could go on for hours if she didn't stop it now, or until the bath was empty of course, whichever would come first. "You're drenching the floor."

"Okay, mommy."

Levi giggled as she tucked a strand of wet hair behind her ear. She was completely drenched, but this had been the most fun she had in ages.

She was about to get up and get a towel for herself as she saw red trickling down on the edge of the bathtub, next to Gajeel's arm.

"Your wound has started bleeding again." Thick red droplets of blood seeped out of the gaping wound. "Give me your arm."

"No worries, it will stop." Gajeel grumbled.

"Don't act all though." Levi reprimanded as she grabbed his wrist and pulled the arm closer to inspect the wound. "It's pretty deep. It will keep opening up, so it's probably best to get stitches."

"That will have to wait then, Juvia usually stitches me up." He said, starting to pull his arm back, yet Levi held a firm grip on it.

"I can do it." She said determined. Since she wasn't very strong in battle, she wanted to be useful for her friends in other ways. "I help out in the infirmary of Fairy Tail quite often." Mirajane could certainly use a helpful hand in their rowdy guild from time to time.

"Do you wear a cute nurse outfit too?" Gajeel smirked. He wouldn't mind to see that.

"No!" Levi blushed brightly. Really, why did he always have to embarrass her like that?

"There should be needles and thread in the drawer over there, inside a medical box." The man nodded to the cabin under the sink. Levi nodded and went over to get it. "Sure you can do it right?"

"Of course. It's quite insulting actually you'd think I can't do it." She said with a fake pout.

"I never learned to do it decently." The man shrugged, "Juvia is the only one apart from our infirmary that can do it the way it should be done."

"It's one of the first things you learn when you join Fairy Tail. It's important to take care of your own, or your friends' wounds while on a mission." Levi explained. "Since all our members get into trouble all the time, everyone has to take a basic first aid course, suturing was also part of it."

Gajeel didn't really like to admit it, but learning some basic treatments wasn't such a bad idea. "Well, I never learned. I mean, I can stick a needle in, but it's never properly done. It's always more bothersome afterwards, so I don't."

"Then what do you do?" Levi asked as she prepared the needle and thread.

"I usually don't get wounded during missions." The slayer answered with a cocky grin.

"I can see that." Levi said sarcastically and pushed the gaping wound in demonstration.

"Ouch! Hey, don't do that!"

"So you just keep on bleeding if you do get hurt?" The girl repeated her question.

"Of course not, I staple them close if they are bothersome." He pulled his hair up a little and revealed a cut on his head, and indeed tiny metal staples were keeping the wound edges together.

Levi cringed as she saw the badly treated wound. Staples are a commonly used way for stitching, but these were clearly haphazardly done with his own metal magic.

"You should practice some more, but why didn't you do the wound on your arm as well?"

"The one on my head was bleeding pretty heavily and the blood was getting in my eyes."

Levi wondered what shape Natsu was in. She was immensely proud that he stood against someone as strong as Gajeel, but he probably didn't get out of it without taking some damage too.

She carefully pushed back the black hair to look at the stapled wound again. She couldn't help but feel a bit surprised by how soft the slayer's hair was. It always looked so rough, but now she wanted to feel it run through her fingers. She quickly retracted her hand before she did something stupid. He would never let her live it down.

Her cheeks felt warm and she hoped he wouldn't notice, so she quickly said, "I'll take care of that one later. You really should learn to do it a bit better."

"I'm sorry I'm not a medical expert like your little friends."

Levi chuckled. "Oh, we might need to take the first aid course, but even then a lot of them don't take the time to use their skill. They are lazy bastards like you who just use their magic to let the bleeding stop quickly, without thinking of further complications."

She thought of how Natsu dealt with bleeding wounds that got in his way. He usually cauterized those wounds, not caring whether he should or not . She cringed just thinking about the pain, but she guessed the fire didn't have the same effects on the pink haired dragon slayer. But even though it was an effective way to close a bleeding wound, it always took longer for the wounds to properly heal. On the other hand, Gray's method of freezing his wounds shut didn't make her cringe any less. Along with the wound, the ice blocked parts of his arteries as well and it made his blood congeal. It also left nasty scars, like the big cross-shaped one on his stomach.

She focused back on the wound before her, since thinking of Gray only made her feel sad. She was ready with the preparations for the stitching, so she disinfected the cut.

"The edges of the wound are somewhat burned." This definitely was Natsu's work. "You're lucky, though, I've treated wounds inflicted by Natsu a thousand times."

At least once a weak, Gray came to the infirmary after his usual brawls with Natsu. She had seen it enough. In return, she was also very skilled in treating frostbite in all degrees inflicted on Natsu by the ice mage. Those two really should be more careful with each other.

"Hmm, I'm so lucky with a nurse like you." The man grinned.

"Don't start again." She said without looking up as she started stitching. The man didn't even flinch the slightest bit as she repeatedly pulled the needle through the wound edges. "I'm afraid it's going to leave a scar, though."

The slayer just shrugged his shoulders. "One more won't matter."

Levi's eyes wandered to the man's right arm, which was coated in big scars. She wondered what the stories behind those were, yet at the same time she was afraid to learn what he'd done to receive such wounds.

After some time, the wound was completely stitched and the slayer inspected the work closely and nodded appreciatively. "Juvia couldn't have done it better. Nice work, shrimp."

"Thank you." Levi smiled happily at the compliment. She stood up, ready to go outside. She had almost forgotten that he was still naked, yet she still felt more comfortable to be in another room while he was like this.

"Offer still stands you know; the one of joining me, I mean."

"Really, are you still on that?" Levi sighed. Didn't this man give up? "Do you really think it's going to work? That I'm just gonna strip down and hop in?"

"A man can dream." Gajeel grinned slyly.

"You really think I would just like that get into bath with a guy? Especially since I barely even know you. I know your name and that's about it."
Just earlier she had been thinking of Gajeel as a friend, but she actually didn't even know anything about him.

The man frowned, "I don't like talking about myself."

"No reason for me to stay here then."

"I don't know many things about you either, although I now know you're a little perverted." The man smirked.

"What? Where did you get that idea?" The girl asked flustered.

"Wanting to get to know me better while I'm in the bathtub. That's a long conversation, you just want to see me naked." The man grinned.

"Wha…I.. I never meant I wanted to get to know you while in the bathtub, you idiot!" She turned to finally grab a towel to dry herself, she was still soaked from their fight earlier.

The man sighed extravagantly disappointed. "No reason to stay in here then." And he got out of the bath.

Levi wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. Him standing in the room naked was even more embarrassing than him sitting in the bathtub.

She quickly pattered past him, but before she reached the door, she slipped on a wet spot on the floor and fell backwards. She instinctively closed her eyes and readied herself for the thud, but a strong arm kept her from falling.

She carefully peaked an eye open and stared right into the grinning face of the dragon slayer.

"Did you just fall for me?"

Levi opened her mouth to say something back, but no words came out. She quickly stood back on her own feet and stepped out of the bathroom.

Some time later she was sitting on the couch with the book in her hands. Although she was tired, Gajeel was also still up and he was making too much noise for her to sleep.
She heard him rumbling in the kitchen, and just knowing there was someone around she could talk to again, made her happy and calm. The last few weeks had been really lonely, but now things looked a little less dark.

The man stepped out into the room with a piece of scrap metal between his lips.

"I'll let you sleep now. See ya tomorrow."

"Yeah, good night, Gajeel." She said laying down the book and pulling her blanket over herself.

The man walked towards his bedroom, but before he went inside, Levi called out to him.

"Gajeel?"

The slayer halted and looked back. "hmm?"

The girl seemed to hesitate before saying whatever she wanted to, but finally she smiled.

"I'm glad you're back."

He blinked a couple of times as he stood there stunned, yet then he grinned at the little woman.

"Me too, shrimp."

End of chapter 10