Chapter 2

Gajeel pov

Jet: "What do you want?"

Speedy looked a little ticked about his interrupted conversation but I wanted to finish mine.

Gajeel: "I wanna talk with shrimp."

Jet:"Back off man we were talking first, wait your turn!"

Droy:"Yeah wait your turn!"

Jet: "not only that but it's levy not shrimp! I wonder why the hell she deals with you with how you treat her!"

Droy: "besides didn't you cause part of this mess?!"

… fatty was not helping my mood.

Gajeel: "No."

I grabbed shorty by the waist and ran like hell laughing as I heard speedy thump to the ground. Music to my ears.

Levy: "PUT ME DOWN!"

Outside Gajeel's house

Levy pov

Gajeel: "Oi, stop kicking me, we're home."

His shoulder unfortunately for me isn't the most pleasant thing to be jammed into your gut so when he started lifting me I let out a sigh of relief. I was still being held up like a child by the armpits when I realized his phrasing.

Levy: "Home?"

Gajeel: He blushed slightly and turned his head away like he was embarrassed before he said "Tch… it's a habit."

Levy: "Okay, but why did you do that to jet?"

I was finally on my two feet again.

Gajeel: "Remember last time I tried to take you somewhere."

His fingers morphed into a key and clicked the lock open.

I started thinking about it when I realized the last time that he tried to take me somewhere he ended up running from jet for three hours straight. Gajeel was escorting me to a job in bosco while Jet and Droy had the flu and if Jet hadn't been sick he would've chased Gajeel for another hour or two. I love my boys but Jet was being more than a little ridiculous that day not to mention that incident left him sick a week longer than Droy. ohhhh. My face warmed as I thought of the embarrassment Jet put me through.

Gajeel: "Yeah now you get it."

Levy:"I'm still sorry about that you know"

Gajeel:"Shorty you comin in?"

I hadn't realized I still stood outside. Yet he stood there staring while he held the wooden door open.

Levy:"Oh… yeah sorry."

I felt my face warm even more as I walked in. I had been to his house before but it still amazed me he built it himself. It was on about seven acres of land about an hour walk from the guild. It mimicked an old style log cabin with rich dark wood but with all the modern amenities, open floor plan, and a lofted space in the rafters where he slept. While it was maybe a thousand square feet it felt incredibly spacious.

Gajeel: "So where did that chick come from?"

He came back from the kitchen with a beer and a smirnoff before I sat down on his couch. Knowing the smirnoff was for me I gently grabbed it from him. He turned his fingers into a bottle opener. Clink….clink. Both bottle caps now sat on the coffee table in the center of the room.

Levy:"I… uh … went to an estate sale a few months ago and found a whole bunch of rare books I wanted but I … umm couldn't carry them home so I had them shipped over to Fairy hills…."

Gajeel: "And?"

During my sentence he'd downed at least half of his beer. How he put it away was beyond me.

Levy: " I've been working so much that I hadn't had the chance to look at them till today despite the fact that they showed up a week ago…"

I'd been wanting to read them but with how much work I took on sometimes I couldn't get to everything.

Gajeel: "That still don't explain much shorty." By now the entire his entire beer was long gone. "Give me a minute I gotta get another one"

Levy:I waited until he came back with his second beer. Clink ...this time he lost hold of the cap and it landed in my lap. I played with it in my hand while I recalled the rest of the events "When I opened the box I stuffed the first few books in my bag so I could look at them later… gulp… either way when I got to the guild library today I thought I'd relax and start reading them but when I dumped them out that lacryma stone fell out from the inside of one of them after that …gulp... that girl just popped out"

Back at the guild

Wendy:"That should do it carla."

Carla:…

Wendy:"Carla?... Did you have one of your visions?"

Carla:"Yes child but I saw a blonde girl with red eyes."

Wendy:"That's odd."

Wendy looked toward the girl with black hair with slight confusion in her eyes.

Carla: "Indeed I would've thought it would show me her but I wonder who I was seeing."

Wendy: "Carla?"

Carla: "yes child?"

Wendy: "I'm worried about her."

Carla: "why?"

Wendy: "she's blind. It looks like an old injury and eventually I think I can fix it but that's not important right now. That arrow just barely missed her heart but what really bothers me is how quick she's healing."

Carla: "what do you mean?"

Wendy: " I only did enough to make sure she'd survive… I didn't have enough power for some reason to do much more than that but I sense she's already healed faster than a normal wizard should've."

Carla: "how much faster then?"

Wendy: "like Gajeel or Natsu fast... I think she might be a dragonslayer."

Varana:"... dia?..."

Wendy:"Oh… miss you're awake, I'm Wendy, how are you feeling?"

Varana: "Like shit." the girls parched voice ground out.

Wendy: "I'm sorry let me get you some water."

The girl tried to sit up but fell back down almost immediately. Though it was obvious she would fail she tried a second time. Wendy seeing her plight quickened her step.

Carla:"Don't use language like that in front of wendy!"

Wendy held her head up enough that she could drink "… gulp… gulp...I apologize. Where am I?" her voice sounded more beautiful now.

Wendy:"In magnolia mam… could I ask your name please?"

Varana: "Varana Kachina but call me Rana."

Wendy: "Well nice to meet you Rana."

Back at gajeel's house

Gajeel pov

Gajeel :"Where'd you get the book anyways shrimp?"

Levy: "The aramis estate..."

Gajeel: "Ehh?"

Levy: "Maloret aramis the fifth died earlier this year… his family was wealthy but they wanted to get rid of some things so when they had an estate sale and I saw the books they wanted to get rid of I was so excited but now… uhhgg… that definitely put a damper on my mood."

Aramis. It's a familiar name but I don't know why. I made sure shrimp didn't see the small shift my face made but it was close.

Gajeel: "gihi… I can tell shrimp."

I flashed my signature grin to see if I could get her to smile a little bit. She looked better smiling anyways. Her face brightened slightly as she looked at me. Better, so much better. I wished I had a claim to her at this moment. I keep telling myself I'd be there for her in any way she needed me but I always wanted more.

Levy pov

His smirk made my spirits rise. I wanted to kiss him right then but I knew he never liked me that way, but either way everything would turn out okay.

Levy: " Gajeel?"

Gajeel: "what shrimp?"

I puffed out my cheeks in annoyance. He knew I didn't like that nickname but he still used it… oh well…

Levy: "do you think we should head back to the guild to see if wendy healed that girl… I'm curious about how she ended up in that book and where she's from and... "

He held up his hand and looked to the side signaling me to stop abruptly.

Gajeel: "I get it… sigh… you got questions shrimp."

Levy: "Would you come with me?"

I gave my best puppy dog eyes in hopes he would.

Gajeel pov

Fuckin shit. How the hell does she do that. Those eyes will kill me one day. I realized if I gave in too easy I'd be considered a wus.

Gajeel: "Fine but you're makin me some of yer iron you got that"

Levy: "sure but remind me after we're done okay"

Gajeel: "tch"

On the walk back to the guild I resisted the urge to grab her and take her back to my place instead of going to the guild. Her usual smile was a little distant like she was over thinking today's chaos. Luckily I didn't cause by the time we got there Mira was making lasagna, shrimp's favorite, she'd be upset if she missed this to say the least. When the smell registered her face lit up like the sun. After that I got a nice view. A very nice view. She skipped over which made her dress lift slightly. Orange today. I really gotta stop checking out her ass.

Levy: "Mira! Are you making lasagna today!?"

Mira: " yup I sure am! I figured with the issues that happened this morning it would be a pleasant surprise!"

Levy: "oh wow, thank you I really appreciate it"

The demon's eyes shifted toward me in a bright but unnerving way like she saw something juicy. Shit. I can almost bet that she saw me earlier when I was ogeling shrimp's ass.

Cana: "HEY GAJEEL!"

My head whirled around at my name.

Gajeel: "Whadd'ya want yeh drunkard?"

I sneered slightly after I realized it was Cana. When I walked up to her the smell of strong liquor flooded my nostrils. The woman had a cheshire cat smile and seemed like she wasn't drunk yet but if anybody else drank that much they'd definitely be drunk if not dead.

Cana: "A conversation about your future...you mind if we find someplace private?"