Chapter 22

Sick

As the morning progressed, Gajeel found it very hard to keep his hands off of Levy, who was still recovering from their first two rounds.

"Come on," she said. "I'm tired."

"You can't go one more time?" The slayer smirked.

"No! Natsu and Lily will be back any moment," she said, hoping her excuse was enough to get him off of her.

She loved it when he was affectionate, but this morning, it was just too much for her. She felt a little under the weather, and just wanted to go home and sleep it off.

"I honestly just want to go home," she said, rubbing her eyes.

Gajeel looked at her.

"I know, it's probably not safe or whatever," she said, waving her hand and standing to go to the bathroom. "I'll just go hang out with Lucy."

"What, you don't wanna hang out with me?" He reached up and grabbed her wrist, pulling her back toward him.

"It's not that," she said. She knew he was going to be all over her today and she didn't know if she could handle it.

"Tch. Just be safe then," he said, releasing her wrist.

"Don't worry, I'll walk with Natsu. I'm sure he'll be headed that direction anyway."

Gajeel got annoyed at her statement. He didn't want Flame Brain anywhere near his mate, and he knew that was just the territorial side of him. But, fuck, did it irk his nerves.

Lily and Natsu entered the house, finding a mess in the living room.

"Don't worry, I'll clean it up," Gajeel said, dismissing the fire dragon's immediate anger.

"The least you could do is be respectful of someone else's home, Gajeel," Lily said, shaking his head. "I mean you, I understand, but Levy?"

"Oi! Speaking of Levy, you're gonna walk her to Bunny Girl's place," he said to Natsu.

"Why ya always gotta volunteer me for stuff?!"

"Yer goin' over there anyway! What's it matter?"

The two dragon slayers had their foreheads pressing, a brawl imminent. Levy emerged from the bathroom, already fed up with the fighting, her scent making its way to Gajeel's nose. Once he got a whiff, all qualms he had for Natsu disappeared. He and Levy made eye contact, and she saw the want in his eyes. She needed to escape.

"Natsu, can we go to Lucy's?" She asked, avoiding further eye contact with her mate.

"Sure, let's go!"

She hugged Gajeel goodbye and, with much difficulty, he let her go. His annoyance growing with each step she took with Hot Head.

Lucy made tea for her bluenette friend, feeling bad that she felt sick.

"I hope you feel better soon," She said, handing her the tea.

"Thanks, it just came out of nowhere." Levy sat up and took a sip of the tea, hoping it would settle her stomach.

"Well, let's do something to get your mind off it!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Like what?"

Lucy grinned. "Shopping!"

Levy groaned, and leaned back on Lucy's bed, covering her face with a pillow. The last thing she wanted to do was walk around carrying things for hours on end. The celestial mage noticed her friend's lack of excitement and sighed, a little bummed out. Lucy loved to shop.

"Any other ideas?" Levy asked.

"Nothing that you really want to do," Lucy said.

"I'll just sleep." Levy curled up in the blonde's bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

Gajeel and Lily left Natsu's house and decided to scope out the area around their home. Lily flew above the trees and Gajeel covered the ground level. He thought back to when he was attacked, remembering every detail.

Gajeel felt something cold at the nape of his neck.

"Ya wanna reconsider yer weapon choice?" He smirked.

"Au contraire," The man took the blade and dragged it across his calf, causing Gajeel's body to revert to his normal form.

He hissed in pain, almost collapsing. Whipping around, he was face to face with Levy's attempted assassin. He saw a man, about his height, but a little more slender. He was dressed in all black, with a trench coat that looked to be customized. The hood was rather large, covering most of his face.

"This blade is poisoned iron," The man said. "The deeper the cut, the more damage it does. It can kill within minutes."

Gajeel tried to make out any features of the man, but all he could see under his hood was a shadow.

"You had your chance to talk," Gajeel said, lunging toward the man, his Iron Dragon Sword in play. He swiped at the hooded man, satisfied when he made contact. Only for him to be perched on the tip of his blade.

"Please." The man chuckled, as he appeared behind the dragon slayer. "You couldn't get to me, even if you tried. Which is what I assume is what you're doing, trying?"

Those words pissed Gajeel off and the man knew it. He slipped into the shadows of the trees, slithering up behind the hooded man, taking a swing and aiming for his neck.

"I told you," he said, vanishing before Gajeel's eyes and then reappearing above him, bringing the hilt of his poison iron sword down hard on the slayer's head. "You can't get to me."

"You must be dumber than you look, then," Gajeel says from the ground, his arm and head turning into iron.

"Because it's gonna take a lot more than that to take me out!" He swiftly grabbed the end of the man's coat before he could vanish again and yanked him toward him, head-butting the man and sending him flying.

The man dug his sword into a boulder to stop himself. Once he slowed down, he looked up, smiling evilly, the hood revealing the bottom half of his face.

"Heh," the man vanished and appeared behind Gajeel. "You're going to wish you never did that."

Gajeel's reaction time in this fight was improving; he was learning his opponent's moves and coming up with ideas to counter them. He spun around, and was surprisingly quick enough to knock the sword out of his hand.

"You think I need that sword?!" The man yelled loudly. "That thing is worthless to me, but to you…. Oh to you…." He smiled. "That thing is death." The man punched Gajeel in the gut hard enough for him to cough up blood, then punched him again in the face, sending Gajeel through the trunk of a tree.

He opened his eyes, trying to recuperate as everything was spinning. When he finally got his vision under control, he saw the man walking up to him calmly.

"Now," he said, the sword inches away from his face. "The girl."

"If you think I'm gonna hand her over, you better just kill me now," Gajeel spat.

The man chuckled. "Kill you? Oh, no. You have your own role to play."

Gajeel didn't know what he meant by those words, and he didn't care. He just wanted to waste this asshole. He pretended to be more hurt than he actually was, so the man would lower his guard. Gajeel lunged at the unknown man, tackling him to the ground and started to beat his face in, but before he could land the first punch, he vanished.

Gajeel felt something hard hit him in the back of the neck, causing him to drop fully to the ground.

"You have one week to bring me the girl," the man said.

As soon as Gajeel turned around, the man was gone, just as quickly as he appeared.

Several hours had gone by and Levy was still sleeping soundly in Lucy's bed, which worried the blonde a little because Natsu had been there making enough noise to wake the dead. 'Thank goodness for Levy's silencing spell,' she thought as she cracked the door open to check on her friend.

"Lev?" Lucy said. It didn't seem like she heard. She walked over to her bed, sitting down on the edge.

"Levy," she put her hand on the sleeping girl's shoulder. "You've been asleep for a while now."

Levy groaned and rolled over, opening her eyes to see her best friend next to her.

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm still so exhausted, and I don't know why," she said, sitting up and rubbing her temples.

"Natsu told me to tell you that Gajeel and Lily were home," Lucy explained. "He said to give him a call when you were ready to leave and he'll come get you so you don't have to walk by yourself."

Levy fell back onto the pillow and groaned loudly. She didn't want to go anywhere or do anything.

"Or you could stay with me for the night, to see if you're better in the morning," Lucy smiled softly at her ill friend.

"Ugh, as much as I would like to, I highly doubt Gajeel is going to be ok with me being gone a whole night, especially with that guy after me."

Levy did have a point. Lucy knew the iron dragon slayer wouldn't be too fond of that idea.

"Are you well enough to visit Porlyusica?" Lucy asked. "Me and Natsu will walk with you!"

Levy just wanted to rest, and if Porlyusica could help with that, then she'd do anything to get there.

"Sure, why not," Levy huffed, getting out of bed.

Gajeel was in the woods training with Lily when he smelled her. She was far, but she was around.

"Gajeel," Lily said, confused. "What's wrong?"

"Levy," he sniffed the air. "I can smell her."

"What? Why? She's not supposed to be out alone."

"She's not alone. She's with Bunny Girl and Flame Brain."

"I wonder where they're going," Lily contemplated.

"They're heading this direction. But what I don't understand is why they're coming from the opposite direction of Fairy Hills." Gajeel was curious, but his excitement for his girl to be home outweighed his curiosity. Plus, that aroma of hers was enough to wipe a man's mind clean.

He and Lily walked toward the direction they were coming from, eventually planning on running into them.

"Levy," Lucy said, linking arms with her friend. "Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine," Levy said quietly, looking at the ground.

"Cheer up!" Nastu said, patting her on the back. "Bolt Face ain't gonna let anything happen to ya!"

"Aye, sir!" Happy chimed in, trying to lighten the mood.

"We're close," the pink-haired man said.

"A lot closer than that," Gajeel slipped out of the shadows and crept up behind Levy, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Thank you for taking care of Levy," Lily said to Lucy and Natsu.

"No problem!" Lucy said. "Ok, we're going to get going now, see ya, Lev," She hugged her friend tightly.

"Be careful," Levy said.

"Hey! You sack of dirty bolts!"

"What do you want?" Gajeel growled.

"Take care of Levy, would ya?" Natsu said, walking away with Lucy.

Gajeel looked at his Shrimp, who looked worried.

"What is it?" He asked.

"I'm just exhausted. I want to go home."

Gajeel picked her up and carried her in his arms, heading home.

They got to their hut and Levy was so relieved. She ran herself a bath and soaked for what seemed like forever, going over everything Porlyusica told her. How she was going to tell Gajeel, she hadn't the slightest idea. Maybe she'd talk to Lily about it first, but for now, she just wanted to sleep.

The following morning, Levy woke up feeling a little more rested, but still tired. Whatever potion the older woman gave her yesterday helped a bit, as she didn't feel quite as sick as she did yesterday, but she still felt bad. She looked over at a sleeping Gajeel, trying to creep out of bed without him noticing. So far, she was successful in her attempt.

Walking over to the door, she turned the knob and opened slowly, the door creaking quietly. She had one foot in the hallway when she heard covers rustling on the bed.

"Levy?" Mumbled a sleepy Gajeel.

"Crap," she muttered.

"Crap what?"

Levy rolled her eyes. "I just wanted some fresh air," she said. Which was true, but the real reason was to talk to Lily.

Gajeel didn't fight her, instead, he fell back asleep.

"Ok…." Levy said, closing the door behind her. She definitely expected a protest, but wasn't going to question this amazing feat. She laughed to herself as she knocked on Lily's door.

"Levy," Lily said opening the door, surprised. "You're up early."

"Yeah, I just wanted some fresh air. Walk with me?"

Lily flew Levy to the trees, where they could safely land without being spotted.

"Thanks," The script mage said.

"So, Levy," the black cat perched on her shoulder. "What's on your mind?"

"What?" She looked at him confused.

"You're never up this early unless something is bothering you."

"Well," she started. "I wasn't feeling well yesterday, and Lucy and Natsu walked me to Porlyusica's."

"Ah, so that's where you were coming from."

Levy nodded. "Yeah, all I wanted to do was sleep yesterday, and honestly I could go back to sleep now."

"Did she say what was wrong?" Lily asked, concerned.

"Yes," she said softly. "I'm pregnant."

Lily wasn't too surprised at the information, given that's what Gajeel wanted from the start.

"I wanted to talk to you about it first, you know. We'd never discussed having kids or anything like that." She looked at the ground nervously. "I don't know how to tell him."

"Well, Levy," the exceed started. "It's not my place to tell you when or how to tell him, but I will tell you this." He placed a paw on her arm. "He'd be very happy."

"Yeah, but with all these things happening, he's already so stressed out and I feel like telling him this will only add more to it."

Lily understood where she was coming from.

"I don't want to put more weight on his shoulders. You know him, he's going to go out of his way to make sure I'm safe and expend himself more than he should, and I don't want him to do that."

"Then you should speak with him about it," Lily suggested.

"You really think that'll work?" Levy scoffed.

"You never know what will happen. News like this could change someone."

They went back to the hut, Lily retreating to his room and Levy crawling back into bed.

"You alright, Shrimp?"

"I'm fine, I'm just tired."

"I would imagine so, you were tossing and turning all night," Gajeel said, pulling her close.

"I couldn't sleep," she said, enjoying his embrace. She wanted so badly to tell him right then and there, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She was nervous. She didn't know how he would react, and she didn't want him to worry more. Instead, she closed her eyes and tried to go back to sleep.

"Levy,"

She looked up to meet red eyes. He saw right through her.

"What's wrong?"