The group rode at a relatively slow pace compared to that of when they had set off. Levy was in pretty extreme pain, though she did her very best to hide it. Every adjustment of her balance sent a twinge through her midsection. Overall it was very unpleasant. Lilly called them all to a stop mid afternoon, much earlier than their previous days of traveling.

"Okay, so the trainees need to continue working. Set up camp, then come meet with me." Levy twisted on her perch, and looked down at the ground from the massive warhorse she had been equipped with. She knew that the jump required would hurt like a bitch, and mentally steeled herself. As she turned around, to step down as far as she could before dropping, hands closed once again around her ribs under her arms, and swung her down to the ground. Levy spun around, glaring up at Gajeel as he pointedly avoided eye contact.

"Why do you keep doing that?" She asked, annoyed that he seemed to keep thinking that she needed help.

"You looked like you were hurtin'" grumbled the much larger man.

Gajeel himself wasn't quite sure why he kept wanting to help out the smaller knight. Perhaps it was lingering guilt that the boy had gotten hurt whilst he remained relatively unscathed, or maybe it was just his appearance. Levy was just so small and delicate looking, that Gajeel couldn't help but look out for him, despite having seen how capable he was.

"Well I'm okay. You don't have to worry about me, it's my job to worry about you." Responded Levy tartly. She got the feeling that Gajeel saw her as a child, which annoyed her to no extent.

"Seen as we have some free time, do you fancy a spar, Prince?" Suggested Levy. She hadn't had practiced in several days, and was leery of losing her touch

"Gihi, sure thing shrimp,"

"Don't go easy."

They took positions in the center of the clearing that they were camping out in, facing each other, swords at the ready. The other three planted themselves nearbye, in order to observe.

Lilly walked over, taking it upon himself to referee the match, and called out a start signal. The two ran at each other, Gajeel using his longer heavier sword, to try and gain an advantage over Levy. Levy attempted to use her speed to get past the reach of the massive broadsword, but mistimed her leap. She caught a strike to the midsection, wincing as her wound pulled. Levy saw him notice, and Lilly took a half step forward. She took advantage of the distraction, to slip in and smack Gajeel across the face with the flat of her blade, successfully knocking him back. They stopped, because had she used the blade, that would've been a killing blow.

"I told you not to go easy," she smirked up at him, one eyebrow raised.

"Guess you got me there, short stuff."

Lilly had the four of them working out for the rest of the evening, practicing three on one fighting. He would pick one person, and have the rest attack them as a group, shouting encouragement to them on occasion.

"Sting! Line them up, don't let them surround you!"

"Rogue, get in there more, rely on the group to cover your back."

"Levy, don't let him use you as a shield."

"Gajeel, you have longer reach than him, use it!"

He was doing this in light of the recent bandit attack. It had caused him to realize, that even though they were skillful, and could take on highly skilled individuals, the trainees were unused to free for all brawls, fights with multiple opponents. Because of his- her size, Levy was especially liable to be overwhelmed by numbers, which was what had happened.

After several hours, as the sky began to darken, Lilly finally let up on them, and they stopped, panting and sweating and filthy. The all plopped down around the fireplace, relaxing and eating a dinner of rations. They divided up the watch, as per usual on trips outside the safety of civilization, and went to bed. As the men changed, she noticed Lilly sending her awkward glances, and putting on pants as quickly as was humanly possible.

Levy had the second watch, whilst Lilly had the first. She was awoken, hours after dark, for her watch, by Lilly, but instead of going to his sleeping bag, he pressed a finger to his lips, and beckoned her to follow him. Once they had reached a suitable distance into the woods, Lilly turned to face her, speaking in a hushed voice.

"Levy... Your secret... How on earth will you keep it when you are literally living alone with four men in the wilderness?"

"With your help, I hope," she responded, giving him a look that said 'if you rat me out I will never forgive you'.

"It's just... Not decent" he said. "It's not proper... I can't believe I am allowing this!"

"Lilly! I am thoroughly prepared to live as a man for the rest of my life!"

"What if you end up wounded too badly?" He fretted, the two of them now forgetting to whisper. "I can't let you die because of your pride, so what then? If you back out now you can still make it, you aren't well known yet!" He was right. Knights often gained minor celebrity status wherever they were positioned, and there was a lot of scrutiny on them and the exams. There had been a lot of corruption in the knight system about thirty years back, and people had kept a close eye on them ever since. They were almost abolished completely once.

"I can't, though. I can't afford to fail, my sisters ability to live a normal life depends on my ability to support her from here!" Lilly stared at her for a moment, before turning away, and walking back towards camp.

"Fine... Just be careful. It's your turn for the watch, Levy." Was all he said, before crawling into his sleeping bag and rolling away from her. With that, Levy was left alone with her thoughts for the next few hours.

Unbeknownst to Levy and Lilly, the crunching of leaves, when the time came to change the guard, awoke Gajeel. This was at first nothing out of the ordinary, and he expected to see Levy take a post, and Lilly retreat to his sleeping bag. What actually followed was very strange. Lilly beckoned Levy into the woods, in a secretive manner, the small boy following without question, as if he had been expecting it.

They were far enough away that Gajeel could only hear Indistinct murmurs, the volume rising halfway through, though still too low for him to pick up. Despite his fatigue, he found himself straining to pick up anything he could. It really was strange for Lilly to keep secrets from him, and he was wondering what was up with the shrimp, that Lilly would do all this to talk to him privately.

Just as he was giving up hope of finding out anything, Lilly walked into hearing range, calling out,

"Fine... Just be careful. It's your turn for the watch, Levy."

Not much useful. Be careful of what? Why would Levy need to be more careful than the rest of them? Levy took his post silently, betraying no more information to the snooping Prince, to his disappointment. He would have to pay attention to Lilly and short stuff in the future.

A. N.: so there it is! A new chapter, finally. Gajeel is getting suspicious, so yay! I'm sorry I'm updating so slowly, school is insane. Thank you so much for reading! On an unrelated note, I just got a tumblr, and I'm not quite sure how to use it, but I'm going to post some random one shots, unrelated to this story, as they pop into my head. I might also take requests. If you think you'd be interested in reading, maybe comment, and I'll tell you the name of the blog. I guess that's all folks. Thanks again for reading.