Today, I legit saw snow. It's April. Thanks, man.

(Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail)

Enjoy! ;)

Chapter 29: Fairy Teaching

Tilly

The whole thing on the beach seemed like a blur. First, we got a lady knight coming in and embarrassing two dragon slayers at once. Next, we got this superhot guy running up the beach, who makes all the girls drool. Then, this supermodel kind of blonde appears as well, who then had all the guys drooling, including Ibisan, who then got a smack on the cheek from Caroline.

Gajeel being Gajeel, he quickly explained what he was doing here, and with every word the blonde girl, which Happy seemed to call 'Lucy', seemed to redden in embarrassment. When Gajeel ended his story, the red haired knight turned to glare at Lucy, who quickly bowed her head.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry!" she cried out. "Forgive me, please!"

As we were still under the shield, we could only stay in one spot. Which meant the guys took on all kinds of poses to get a 'better view' of Lucy as she bowed down.

The red knight sighed and sheeted her sword. "No matter. We all make mistakes. And I personally do not blame you for thinking these kids are strange." She turned towards the sphere, one gloved hand on her chin. "They do have a weird aura."

That wasn't really a nice thing to say. From the corner of my eye I could see Gajeel flinch as well. He crawled onto his feet and started stretching his shoulders, his muscles and bones cracking loudly. "Who cares? I personally do blame you guys for interrupting my lesson, so-" He stopped talking midsentence as he was interrupted by laughter coming from Natsu, the pink haired guy. He rolled around the sand holding his belly like he'd seen something hilarious. Gajeel's eyes spit fire when he looked at him. "What's so funny, Salamander?"

Natsu stomped his fist on the ground and wiped a tear from the corner of his eye. His mouth was still caught in a grin as he spoke. "That. Coming from you. That's funny."

Gajeel's gloved hands formed iron fists as he lunged forward at Natsu. "What's that supposed to mean?!"

Natsu rose to his feet again.

"Lily!" Gajeel barked, and we all jumped up. "Keep the shield up!"

"Y-yes" Lily stuttered, raising her arms again. I gulped. Apparently, the fight wasn't over just yet. We all stepped backwards, away from the edge of the sphere. I saw how Gajeel's hands were shaking. But before he could deliver another punch at our teacher's face, Erza slipped between the two dragon slayers, pushing them away from one another. I quietly thanked her for that.

"They just don't know when to quit…" the dark haired pretty boy sighed. I had to blink a couple times, because it seemed every time I looked at him, another piece of clothing went missing. Apparently, Lucy saw it too and tapped him on his shoulder. The guy looked down at himself, and gasped in shock.

"What he's trying to say" Erza said, as she gently pushed Gajeel away from Natsu, "is that he appreciates the way you've changed. So do I."

"And I do too!" Lucy said, looking up again. Gajeel looked at the blonde girl, and just for a moment, his eyes widened in surprise. Lucy smiled at him.

I smiled a little. Apparently, our teacher had no idea how good he was doing. I thought back to the time I accidently overheard a conversation between him and Headmaster Kubo. He'd smelled me out right away, but didn't involve me. Instead, he'd called me back after class.

"What you heard the other night…" he started, staring me blankly in the eyes. I already started apologizing for eavesdropping, but he stopped me. "I don't care how sorry you are. Just know that the whole thing about the guild….it's just cover up."

"What?" I'd gasped, feeling a bit relieved. I didn't know why I cared so much, but just the thought of him being a bad guy made me really uncomfortable. The image I'd created of the badass Gajeel was in danger. It was about to be shattered by his 'evil' plans, and I just couldn't bare it.

He'd sighed. "Just don't overthink it. Know that I'm not the villain in this situation."

Who the actual villain in the story was he didn't say, but I'd gotten some candidates in mind already.

Watching him then as he was caught by surprise by the support he was getting from the guild members, I felt proud. He was the hero of the story for sure.

Natsu scratched the back of his head and dropped his stance. "Whatever."

Gajeel looked away from Lucy, but didn't respond to Natsu. Instead, he glanced over at us. With a less aggressive voice, he said: "It's ok now. Drop the shield."

Lily nodded, and breathed out. The blurriness of the bubble disappeared, and she fell to her knees. Layton and Rose hurried over, concern on their faces. Lily waved them off by saying she just used up a bit too much magic.

All the while, I could only stare at Gajeel. He glared at Natsu, before walking over to us. He nodded at Lily. "Good job keeping that up. Greg, Floyd, same goes for you."

The twins high fived, Lily blushed and mumbled a soft 'thank you'. Ary approached Gajeel with a pouch in her hands, and like always, the self-proclaimed body guard Kai followed her.

"How's your nose?" Ary asked, already going through her pouch to find something to heal with.

"Nothin' serious, it'll heal itself" Gajeel grumbled. Ary nodded.

A few feet behind Gajeel stood the red haired knight. Her face was caught in something which I assumed was a mixture of pride and sentiment. She'd probably only seen Gajeel as the villain of the story.

"Tilly" Gajeel mumbled softly when Ary and Kai walked over to Lily's. He apparently caught me staring at the new wizards.

"Hm?" was all I said. He glanced over at the red knight and the others, before looking back at me.

"Don't say a thing."

Gray

"Gray?"

"What?"

"I think they're drooling."

Lucy pointed at a group of girls standing not far away from us. Almost directly next to them stood a group of boys, who were only staring at Lucy. "So do the they."

"Yuck" Lucy mumbled, covering herself with her arms. Like that would help.

I strolled over to Erza, who still stood in front of Natsu. A smile played around her mouth as she was watching Gajeel's pupils.

"I hate to spoil things," I started when I stood next to her. She nodded.

"Yes, the mission."

"No, not that" I said. Always the mission. Can't think of anything else, can she? "More like 'what are we gonna do about this?' We can't keep standing around forever."

Erza sighed. "Ah, yes. I had this idea, which I think you'll like as well."

Erza and ideas. That can't be good.

Oh, there it goes. She already had her sword pulled. "What are you planning, exactly?"

From where I was standing, I could see the sparkles in her brown eyes. Just like that time in the theatre, when she'd found her 'new passion', but actually was terrified to go on stage and play the part of the prince.

"Gajeel!" she said, her voice echoing majestically over the beach. The teens quickly stopped chatting with each other, and even stopped drooling. Gajeel just turned his head with a sofht 'Hn?'

"I have a request" Erza continued. One of Gajeel's eyebrows rose slightly. He stepped away from his pupils, putting himself between Erza and the group.

"What do you want?" he barked, crossing his arms. Natsu was suddenly interested as well, and I just grunted. He could never keep his cool.

Erza's eyes sparkled again. "I'd like to see how these kids are doing."

"Kids?" one of the boys mumbled. "We're only a few years younger than you…"

I saw Erza's cheeks redden, but she tried her best to ignore that remark. I grinned behind my hand, as she clearly didn't earn the respect these kids were giving Gajeel already.

The man himself stared at Erza with annoyance. With one tiny word, he shattered all the sparkles. "No."

Right away, a sigh of disappointment went through the group of pupils. I didn't know if it was because they wouldn't fight real wizards, or because they didn't get to fight me and Lucy. According to their drooling, that was a difference.

Gajeel turned to the group and mumbled some things to them, but it didn't seem to change their minds.

"I think I get it now" Lucy suddenly said, while staring at the group with a smile.

"Get what?" Natsu muttered, still pissed he couldn't continue his fight. Jeez, grow up.

"They've never seen a real mage, besides Gajeel" she said. I nodded in agreement.

"Yet they didn't seem eager to meet us before, though" I pointed out. After the fight was over and the explaining was done, they all stayed swarming around their teacher. Only a few glanced at us in excitement (and drooled) but none were really all that interested.

"Well, that could be because a certain someone" (Natsu giggled nervously) "wrecked our reputation right away by battling their teacher" Erza said, sheathing her sword again. It was true. Natsu had a talent for ruining our image right away.

"But they still want to train with us," I said, pointing at Gajeel, who turned around to face us again. And he did not look happy.

"Fine, then" he said softly, just loud enough for us to hear it. The group started cheering and handing out high fives. "But just know I'm not responsible for your injuries."

I shook my head at the sparkles in Erza's eyes again.

"We won't hurt them" she shouted, raising one hand up in the air. "I promise that."

Gajeel just responded with an 'ugh', and then let his pupils pass him. They ran up to us like they were our biggest fans, while their teacher decided to sit down by the side line. He acted as if he didn't care, but I could see he didn't like this idea at all. But then again; these kids needed to see different kind of mages than just each other.

I really didn't feel like beating these kids up, but I could teach them a thing or two. Erza desperately tried to get a hold of the group by saying she'd assign everyone to a different mage present. But there were people who had preferences (for some reason both Lucy and me were highly requested), which was troublesome.

I ended up with a group of three girls and one guy. The three girls kept jabbering with each other and giggling, while the guy moved around awkwardly.

"So, uh" I started. The girls looked up for a second, then continued giggling. "Let's just introduce ourselves first. My name is Gray. I use ice maker magic." The girls giggled again, and I heard my name being spoken several times.

The boy stepped forward. "Hi, uh. My name is Martin. I use wind magic. Well, I think I do."

I raised an eyebrow. "You're not sure?"

Martin bowed his head. "No, not yet. I hope to find that out here."

I nodded slowly. "Alright, we'll –"

Just as I was thinking it went well, a loud bang sounded and sand swirled up. Apparently Erza had already started with her group.

"Oi!" Gajeel shouted, standing up. When the sand wave died down again, one of the pupils stood there unharmed, a slingshot in his hand.

"I'm good!" he said to Gajeel, who grumbled something before sitting down again. It would only be a matter of time before he'd jump in, so it seemed. Gajeel leaned with his chin on his hand, his fingers tapping on his face nervously. It was strange to see him like that. Truth be told, I didn't know him all that well at the time.

But whatever had happened in the other land with these pupils, it changed him forever. In a good way.

I think it's even fair to say that to these teens, Gajeel became the person Ur was to me.