XI.

"We didn't even get paid!"

"We couldn't take the money when it wasn't a Fairy Tail job," Levy tried, again, to explain. "It would have reflected badly on the guild."

"Like I fuckin' care!" Gajeel exploded.

"Oi! No cursing on my cart!"

Gajeel twisted to glare at the driver, and then turned imploringly to his little blue-haired companion. "Can I hit him?"

"No!" she spluttered, obviously trying not to laugh. "It's very kind of Saburo-san to give us a lift."

"You said he was creepy!"

"Well yes, but that was before, when he thought I was the demon," she shrugged and smiled with awkward embarrassment.

He groaned and threw himself back so that he was lying on the rough wood of the cart staring up at the clear blue sky. A moment later the view was obscured by Levy's face. He considered it an improvement.

"You're not really mad about the money, are you?" she asked softly.

"Yes."

She studied him until he started to become uncomfortable. Although, he'd never had the chance to notice there were flecks of gold and burnished copper in her eyes before. And then, all of a sudden she smiled and sat back, swung her legs over the back of the cart, while happily pronouncing:

"Liar."

He groaned again and covered his face with an arm, determined to ignore her for the rest of the journey, which was an infuriating and ultimately impossible undertaking.

Saburo stopped just outside a village that was so small Gajeel doubted it even had a name. They climbed off the back of the cart and (Levy) thanked him for the ride. The light had gone out of her face. She was wearing the same sad expression that had first caught his eye back at the train station in Onibus.

"Come on." He adopted a tone of voice that vaguely resembled 'gentle', took her by the hand and started walking. He knew something was wrong when she didn't try to resist.

"Gajeel, I- I should- tell you-"

Whatever she had been trying to say remained unsaid.

The graveyard was easy to find. He stopped outside its wrought iron gates and looked down at her carefully.

"How long have you known?" she asked quietly, talking not to his face, but the centre of his chest. He brushed his thumb over her knuckles.

"I'm not stupid."

"I don't think you're stupid," she said, raising her eyes immediately. "I just- everyone has-" she sighed and shrugged her small shoulders heavily "-stuff they carry with them." She dug the toe of her sandal into the soft ground. "I guess I liked that you didn't know. For a little while, it made it seem not so real."

"And now?"

"And now? Now I'm glad that I didn't have to come here on my own this year."

"Then I'll wait for you here."

"Thank you, Gajeel," she said through a watery smile.

For a second she looked like she was going to- but no, of course she didn't-

He let her go, but he watched closely as she slowly made her way across the graveyard to a pair of neat headstones. She knelt in front of them and bowed her head. He leant his shoulder against a large oak tree and breathed deeply. So this was what responsibility was like, huh? This was the same way he felt about every member of Fairy Tail, was it?

He rubbed the heel of his hand against his forehead.

What a fuckin' joke!

- Fin -

And there you have it, just a little story that was knocking about inside my head.

Many thanks to HeartGold12 and Medley Nightfallen who were so awesomely speedy at reviewing they got in before I'd managed to post the whole story! Thanks guys!