Ice Cream, Indirectly

For some reason, they were having an impromptu party at the lakefront behind the Guild. Someone's birthday or something, he wasn't exactly listening when the Master announced it, but it wasn't as if the idiot fairies needed an actual excuse to host a party, complete with excessive food, drink and bare skin. Gajeel snorted, watching various mages making complete asses of themselves trying to impress Mirajane, who merely waved kindly as they flailed in the shallows.

Idiots aside, there were some perks to being a fairy, he supposed. After all, Phantom didn't have its own damn lake. His eyes drifted to where Lucy, Erza, Bisca and Lisanna were playing a lively game of beach volleyball, and grinned rather slyly. Plus, the view here wasn't half bad either.

The volleyball game was interrupted abruptly by the welcome arrival of an icecream truck, and everybody abandoned what they were doing in favor of getting some ice cream, Gajeel included. As he elbowed his way liberally through the crowd to push to the front, he managed to snag a little pint of something chocolate with cows on it, tossing a few jewel into the cart and wading his way out of the mess of humanity with some difficulty. It was only after he was clear of the crowd that he realized he'd forgotten to grab a spoon on the way. He turned and looked at the seething mass of hollering mages with disdain and considered which way to angle his Iron Dragon Roar to get rid of most of the crowd and not destroy the truck at the same time. God, that would be such a waste of ice cream. Fortunately, before he could carry through with the action, he caught sight of Levy, on her way back from the Guild with more beach supplies and various kitchenware, and his eyes lit up as he caught sight of the spoon tucked in her cheek. Aha! Perfect.

He ambushed her before she could make her way over to her two goons, stepping directly into her path with his arms crossed. The intimidating effect was a bit spoiled by the innocuously cute container of ice cream held in one hand, but he waved that bit of indignity off as a necessary sacrifice. She stopped short, nearly running into him, and craned her head up to look at him, bewildered.

"Gajeel?" She asked around a mouthful of spoon. He held his hand out imperiously.

"Oi shorty, gimme the spoon."

Her brow furrowed in confusion, but she nodded her chin at him, and he looked at her double armful of supplies and garnered that he should take it himself. Fine. Gingerly, he plucked it from her mouth, and she gave him a slightly confused smile before sidestepping him and continuing on her way. Gleefully clutching the spoon in hand, he made his way back to his towel to find Juvia sitting primly on it, face flushed as she clasped both hands to her heart. He followed her line of sight to see Gray wrestling with Natsu in the shallows and he wrinkled his nose with disgust. The pervert had managed to lose his swimwear. Rolling his eyes, he sat down heavily next to her and (finally!) popped open the container of ice cream for a treat well deserved!

He dug into the chocolate-something-or-other and took a bite and made a rather obscene noise of pleasure. Juvia broke off her lovelorn staring to give him a disgruntled look at the inappropriate sound before doing a sudden double-take.

"Gajeel…" she said hesitantly as he jammed the spoon in his mouth again.

"Yeah?" He replied around the spoonful of metal.

"Didn't Levy-chan use that spoon before giving it to you?" she asked, a peculiar look crossing her face.

"So?" He asked irritably, trying not to eat the spoon right along with the ice cream.

"So it is like…it is like an indirect…" she trailed off and turned to look at Gray suddenly, eyes lighting up, and Gajeel gave an irritated snort at the sudden silence.

"An indirect what?" He finally prompted, yanking the spoon out of his mouth so he could speak properly, giving her an impatient glare.

"It is like an indirect…k-kiss," she mumbled. "Gajeel, Juvia has to go take care of something." And with that, she got up and left, making a beeline towards the ice cream truck and leaving a flabbergasted Gajeel staring at the spoon like it'd bit him. Levy walked by at that moment, headed back towards the ice-cream truck after dropping off her armful of supplies. She cocked her head at Gajeel's horrorstruck expression, confused.

"Gajeel? Is something wrong?"

She didn't expect to be bowled over by his hasty exit as he practically threw her spoon and a container of…ice cream? into her arms and fled, yelling "TakeitIdon'twantitanymore!," face as red as Gray's floating swim trunks.

She got up huffily, sand in her hair and her money strewn all about her, making a face at Gajeel's retreating back and folding her arms crossly before getting up to dust herself off. She looked at the pint of ice cream thoughtfully, back at her spoon and shrugged before brushing off the residual sand and digging in. It would be a waste if someone didn't eat it, right? And now she didn't have to pay for her own pint!

From his hiding place behind Bisca and Alzack's beach umbrella, Gajeel flushed a horrible shade of red as he watched her eating his ice cream merrily with that goddamn spoon.

"Indirect fucking kiss my ass!" He muttered furiously, ducking his head and placing both hands over his hot ears. Why the hell did Juvia have to tell him that? His eyes involuntarily tracked the spoon as Levy strolled back towards her towel, counting the number of times it rose and fell. Shit…that was three kisses now…four. He stopped and shook his head wildly. Shit! Why the hell was he thinking about this in terms of kisses?

Discreetly, he broke cover from behind the beach umbrella and followed her back, hunkering ungracefully behind some bushes on the shoreline and grimacing as Jet and Droy greeted her enthusiastically, begging for a bite of her ice cream. For a second, he had to fight the unreasonable urge to burst out of cover, run over, rip the spoon out of her hand and stamp upon it so those two idiots would never be able to claim any kind of kiss from her! Fortunately, he didn't have to enact that extreme plan of action as she refused them both firmly, pointing back in the direction of the ice cream truck, clearly telling them to get their own. They trudged off towards the truck, shoulders slumped dejectedly, and Levy grinned fondly at their backs before sitting down on her towel, blissfully alone with her ice cream. Gajeel got up to five more ki-spoonfuls goddamit, of ice cream before he couldn't take it anymore. He marched over and sat down abruptly next to her, trying to ignore what she was wearing, or more accurately, what she wasn't wearing, which was quite a lot.

"Hi, Gajeel," she greeted cautiously, the memory of him bowling her over still fresh in her mind. He snuck a sidelong glance at her, trying not to ogle her swimsuit, which was very small and very white, before clearing his throat.

"C-can you use a different spoon," he asked gruffly, ears burning with embarrassment.

Her brow furrowed in confusion at the unexpected question. "Why? Is something wrong with this one?" She asked, eyeing it with sudden wariness, like it would rear up and bite her.

"I…I used it already," he said, ducking his head and wishing the sand would swallow him.

She looked at him, uncomprehending. "So?" She asked, and he put a hand over his eyes. She didn't know. She was forcing him to say it out loud. God, could this get any more awkward?

"So…um." He made some awkward hand gestures. "So it's like…I used it…and then you used it…" he trailed off, red-faced, hoping she'd get it.

"That's okay," she said brightly. "Unless…you're sick?" She asked suddenly, concern clouding her face.

"YES!" He said loudly, latching onto the line she'd thrown him. "YES. I'm sick." He coughed once, pathetically, just for good measure.

She looked at the ice cream, at the spoon and back at him, face falling. "Oh! But…but I already used it!" She said, obviously worried.

"Yeah. That's why you should get a new one," he said, giving himself a smug mental pat on the back for being so clever.

She paused and then looked at him closely. He twitched under her gaze as she carefully set the ice cream to one side, folding her knees under her and sitting up straight, and then he was trying to backpedal, scrabbling on sand and towel alike as she leaned towards him close, tooclose, then her cool hand landed on his forehead and she was comparing her temperature to his, a contemplative look on her face.

"Wow Gajeel…you really are sick, your face is so hot," she said and he nodded enthusiastically, but then she tilted her head confusedly, "and so…red? Gajeel, are you sure you're not just sunburnt?"

"No!" he squawked, trying (failing) to ignore the distracting proximity of her breasts to his face. "No! I'm sick, goddamit! So sick I'm dying!"

She looked at him with a wry smile before sitting back down and reaching for her - his ice cream, he corrected mentally and he sighed as she dug back in with enthusiasm.

"I'm sure it's nothing that some ice cream won't fix," she said cheerfully, mouth full. She dug a large glob of ice cream and held the spoon out to him with a smile. "Here! Have some! It's yours after all!"

He stared at the ice cream container, back at the spoon and turned his head away, his blush returning as Juvia's words echoed unnecessarily in the back of his head. "It's like an indirect kiss…kiss…kiss….k-"

"ARRGH FUCK." He said, shaking his head violently to dislodge the echoing voice, startling Levy, who drew back, wondering if she was wrong and maybe Gajeel really was sick because he was acting really strange and did he need to see a doctor? Then he sighed heavily and spoke without looking at her.

"I can't use that damn spoon."

"What?" Levy asked, baffled. "Why not? It's just a spoon! If it's because you think you might eat it, that's oka-"

"I can't use it 'cause you used it too," he said, overriding her brusquely as color rose high on his face, spreading slowly down his neck.

"What?" Levy asked again, completely befuddled.

"Don't you get it?" He burst out. "It's like…it's like an indirect…an indirect k-k-" he sputtered, but the word seemed to be lodged in his throat, and he put one hand over his face, trying in vain to hide his blush. "Aw fuck, forget it." He couldn't bring himself to say it, but Levy's eyes lit up with sudden comprehension.

"An indirect kiss?" She asked, matter-of-factly and he turned his head away from her steadfastly, ears burning. "If that's the problem, you should have said so earlier, Gajeel!"

He opened his mouth to respond, but then her slender fingers cupped his jaw and she turned his head to face her and sat up to press a single, cool kiss to his lips before sitting back with an air of smug satisfaction.

"There," she announced calmly, digging into the ice cream again." Now that you've gotten a direct kiss, you don't need to worry about indirect ones anymore, Gajeel! Now have some ice cream!"

She held out the spoon to him, but he didn't move. She flapped one hand in front of his eyes, with no response. He might as well have been a statue, so she smiled and cheerfully shoveled the spoonful of ice cream into his still-open mouth. He ate it mechanically, and she smiled at him as he blinked, the stunned expression starting to leave his face.

"Good?" She asked.

He looked at her, head still spinning, lips alight with sensation, hot and cold and disbelief and happiness. She had tasted like ice cream. Wordlessly, he nodded, still unable to process speech at the moment. She grinned at his nod and shifted to sit next to him so that their legs were touching, and as he swallowed his mouthful of ice cream, another spoonful was held up for him, and he looked down, flushing as she smiled up at him.

"It's your ice cream, after all," she said, motioning towards the new spoonful, and he leaned forwards and took it from her quickly, his blush spreading up to his ears.

They sat in companionable silence with the warmth of sand and sea around them, sharing the single pint of ice cream until there was no more, and as he lay down next to her and stared at the perfect expanse of cloudless blue sky overhead, he couldn't help but think that ice cream had never tasted so damn good before.

A/N - It's been a while since my last update, so have some cute summer beachtimes for all! Liked it? Let me know! :D