©Fairy Tail and all of it's characters belong to Hiro Mashima.

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HEREAFTER ARC – PART 5

TRIGGER WARNINGS: ALERT! SUNNY B IS TRYNA WRITE LOVE LOVE! ALERT!

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CHAPTER TWENTY ONE – FLOWERS...

The smallest room in Gajeel's small house was the bathroom. Smaller still was the glass-walled standing shower. He had barely four inches of space on either side of his wide, muscular chest when the shower door was closed. He had to duck to get his head under the water. Gajeel also ran his showers very, very hot. These reasons explain why when Levy joined him there, warm, wet, naked bodies pressed so close together, it made for something much more intimate than your average 'shower sex.' In truth, there was one other factor playing into their increased intimacy that morning... but more about that later.

"Lift me up Gajeel! Your tits are in my face!"

"I thought you liked my tits, shrimp," Gajeel pouted.

Levy would have replied, but her request was granted and she quickly found herself supported against the cold shower wall, legs wrapped around Gajeel's waist.

One could safely assume that the majority of Gajeel and Levy's relationship was spent locked in either loving smiles, goofy laughter, or absolute unrelenting desire. Sometimes in that order, sometimes not.

In this instance, it was in that order. They smiled at each other, giggled, and heat rose to their eyes. Levy still melted when she looked at him, and Gajeel still crumbled in her gaze. For a few moments they just looked at each other. Gajeel's long, dark eyelashes collected drops of warm water that he tried to blink away. Levy pushed aside wet strands of hair that were stuck to his face, and the more he blinked and stared and smiled at her, the closer she came to understanding the idea of being so happy you cry; when he spoke, she may as well have earned a degree in it.

"You've never looked sexier to me than in this exact moment Levy."

With Gajeel, right now, in this exact moment, Levy knew the happy tears had the rest of forever to fall, and she teased him instead.

"... I can tell."

This time the order was desire, giggle, smile, then back to desire again.

Gajeel grabbed Levy's hands and kissed her. Her lips and her forehead, the side of her neck, and her shoulders, he licked hot water from her chest and bit at her collarbone. He let go of her hands, and she was glad for the freedom to touch him. She held his head with both hands, just under his chin. When the running shower water pooled, collecting in the grooves made by pressing their faces together, they separated and took each other in wholly. Levy watched the water run down his face and across his slightly parted lips, where he blew out lightly so he didn't drink it in. His dark eyes peeking at her while water ran over his head was a sight so unbelievably, stunningly erotic, it brought her physical pain to imagine a universe where the sight didn't belong to her, where the light behind the look in those dark eyes wasn't specifically designed for one Levy McGarden.

Gajeel laid one large hand underneath her backside, holding her there against the tiled wall, and he took back every bad thought he ever had about this shower, instead praising it's small size, thanking an unknown builder for creating a place where his vision was clear of everything but her. He thought of every single regret and every single moment of anger, fear, and sadness in his entire life and he thanked those things as well, because if a single one of those moments had been different, and he somehow did not land right here, right now, being looked at with this look that he couldn't begin to explain, then what point would there have been for anything at all.

They didn't talk, and they didn't need to, and Gajeel was moving his hands to either side of Levy, sliding her soft warm body down onto his hard cool one, millimetres at a time and still it seemed to go by too quickly. When he was fully inside her, he just stood there in the hot shower, lifting her off the wall and holding her body against his, laying her head on his chest, letting the water run over them both. They weren't frantically thrusting against each other, or greedily pushing for more. They just kissed and occasionally wiped water from their faces, him buried inside her. For a long time they were like that. They both thought the happy tears would come later but they came right then in that hot tiny shower, for him first- just one, her two running down in reaction to his.

When she whispered his name, he watched her mouth move and it was so quiet yet he had never heard anything clearer. Gajeel knelt down under the stream with her still on his lap, legs wrapped around him, and he stabilized her body on the wall again, holding her body up while he moved his own up and down to meet her. They never broke eye contact, and he never changed his pace. He was in total control and he made himself exist purely for her pleasure. He didn't let go of her for a second, bending down until his ass touched his heels, then rising to kneel again, filling her with his cock. Not for one second did he consider his own need until he saw her expression change.

The pleasure crept up on her, but she knew it was coming from a mile away. When it hit, she reached her arms out to him, and he pulled her onto his lap so she could be as close to him as possible and as she tightened her grip on him in ecstasy, he moaned loudly and pushed into her as deeply as he could. Him on his knees and her on his lap, climaxing together on the floor of the shower, hot water beating down on their heads. When they were finished, the sound of the running water seemed so much louder, and suddenly the water stinging their eyes became noticeable.

Right around that time, briefly suspended between their moment of intimacy and finally rising to get out of the shower, Gajeel and Levy wordlessly agreed that it was probably time to let everyone at Fairy Tail in on the ever so tiny... baby sized secret they had been keeping for the past 6 weeks.

"Lily gets to know first though, OK Levy?"

"Of course."

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It felt like days had passed, but Natsu and Lucy had really only been sleeping for a few hours when they woke up, no way of knowing the time of day due to the darkness of their cell. They just laid awake for a while, listening to each other's breath before Lucy spoke.

"Natsu... I wanna talk about Laxus-"

"Lucy? I wanna talk about literally anything other than that. See that extra dark grey speck of dirt on the ground over there? That is one thing I'd rather talk about. My most embarrassing moment, or every time I have ever lost a fight, both examples of things I would rather talk about."

"Don't do that. You're my best friend Natsu, you are always there for me when I need you, why can't you be here for me on this? I needed-"

"I'm sorry Luce. I really am... but I can't... I can't hear about it. I can't come up with a situation where me knowing what happened that night ends OK. Because if he hurt you, I'll have no choice but to kill him. And if he didn't... if you wanted... I just need you to know that I'm always gonna be here for you, I won't let you down again. I promise I'll never stop trying to make it up to you, I just can't hear about that night."

"Natsu?"

"Hm?"

"Natsu... was Loke right?"

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Today Loke was getting a head start on his search for his love. There were only a small handful of people at Fairy Tail before him that day, Laxus being one of them.

"So you just live here eh big guy? How do you have money? I'm pretty sure there hasn't been a single scene in this story that takes place in this guild hall where you weren't there for it at least in some way..."

"Loke? Yeah. Hey there little guy. Why don't you take those shades off and just get a good look right here. Now look over there on the wall, little higher... you got it. See that? It's called a clock. When that little stick isn't past the 9... you're gonna want to slow your fucking roll. I'm talking screeching halt buddy."

"It's alright Laxus. I think I know what's up with you lately. See, I've been having the same problem. We both just need to find that one woman to soften our tough masculine exteriors, and warm our cold manly hearts at night." Loke reached across the table and placed his hand on Laxus' shoulder. "It's alright big guy, we can figure this out. There are plenty of beautiful women around here, one them is bound to be dumb enough to put up with you."

"Isn't it salt or something that can keep you away from me, or do I have to go find your grave and burn your bones to make you disappear forever?"

"What? What are you- WHAT THE FUCK LAXUS! I'M NOT A FUCKING GHOST!"

"Hm. I was pretty sure that-"

Laxus watched as Loke seemed to be distracted by a lavender haired girl who just walked into the guild hall. He knew the look in Loke's eyes. He saw it before Cana dumped a beer on his head, before Erza knocked him out, before he tucked tail and ran out the other day. Loke may be the most annoying ghost Laxus ever met, but men had unspoken laws that even the deepest seeded annoyance could not break.

"Loke. No."

Loke just kept that stupid sparkly look in his eyes and he started to get up and walk towards the girl. Laxus roughly grabbed his jacket and pulled him back down to his seat.

"Waaahhhh? Hey-"

"Look into my eyes when I say this Loke. No. Not that one. Man to man, hell, brother to brother. Trust me. Not. That one. You got some stupid love fantasy, whatever, but I'm telling you man... it's not her."

Something about look in Laxus' eyes, like a combination of disgust, shame, and terror, told Loke he really wasn't kidding around. That look told him that even though Loke had never really spent any time with Laki, she was probably not the 'one' he was searching for.

Honestly it could never have happened between us anyways. I mean... what would our couple name be... Lake? Loki? It just doesn't work.

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I should just go back and tell her.

Grey turned around on the dirt path and headed towards Fairy Tail.

Nope. Terrible idea. Stupid. I need to just keep going.

Grey turned around on the dirt path and headed away from Fairy Tail.

Stop being such a fucking bleeding heart pussy and go back to her!

Grey spun on his heels and took a step in the direction of Fairy Tail.

You're honestly willing to risk her just because you don't want to see her with anyone else?

Grey spun on his heels and walked in the opposite direction of Fairy Tail.

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Natsu pretended to be asleep.

"Are you... NATSU YOU FUCKING IDIOT! I'M NOT GOING TO BELIEVE YOU JUST FELL ASLEEP IN ONE SECOND!"

He hung his head for a just second before making the decision to take his place in front of Lucy, the way they had sat when she was cleaning the blood from his face. He didn't know how much longer they would be stuck in that cell together, and maybe it was from hunger or the dampness, or maybe the beating he took cost him more brain cells that he thought, but pretending to be asleep until Happy showed up was obviously not going to work, and for some reason Lucy didn't want to drop the conversation.

For the first time since the two of them were thrown into this cell, he was glad for the darkness. She didn't have dragon eyes and wouldn't be able to see how nervous he was. However, Natsu also didn't have a very a good grasp on the way human eyes worked.

"Lucy... is it..."

He's so beautiful. He looks so nervous. Please, tell me I'm not insane. Tell me I'm not completely fucked in the head Natsu. Tell me-

"Is it OK... if... if Loke wasn't lying?"

At one point in her life, most likely while reading a book, Lucy had seen the phrase 'be careful what you wish for.' It was a very strange thing to think about at that moment. Natsu had just told her that he was jealous of what happened between her and Laxus, and as much as she goaded and coaxed this answer out of him, expecting some kind of sweet release to come from it, a thousand more questions popped up in it's place. Why did his nervous, expectant look make her want to pet him like a puppy and tear both of their clothes off at the same time? Why was so suddenly so excited? And why was she suddenly so scared? Lucy had so many simultaneous thoughts crossing her mind so quickly, that she did the only thing that seemed simple enough to consider reasonable in that moment.

Lucy pretended to be asleep.

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How douchey would it be for me to say I kinda teared up a bit writing that Gajevy bit? Extremely? Yeah, I thought so. The thing is, sometimes when I write this story I am writing from fantasy, and sometimes I am writing from my history. I really hope I got across this very specific feeling I tried to convey in that part. I have a few things to say about NaLu, but I'm going hold off for a bit before I do. I know there hasn't been a lot of focus on them lately, but very soon there will be, so until then, I hope someone out there enjoys. Thanks for reading!

How could I forget to mention that BABY sized secret?! Heeheehee!

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NEXT CHAPTER: ...AND CHOCOLATE
A certain sweet couple has lacked page time recently... and can Lucy be fixed?