Chapter 4

"What a day." Levy sighed heavily as she all but crawled back to her apartment. This had been the longest day yet. She'd gotten a call early that morning that Mrs. Fullbuster was in labor, so she hurried to the hospital. Only to wait 13 hours for the birth to happen. After tending to both the baby and the mother, and making sure both were healthy and happy, Levy finally went home... a grueling 20 hours after she left. But now... now she had a week off! And while she felt bad about making Wendy and Charla work more, she couldn't be happier. She hadn't had a week off in over a year!

"Sure took ya long enough to get home, shrimp. Was startin to get worried." a familiar voice suddenly filled her ears, making her jump in surprise. She turned and found Gajeel sitting on her couch, looking like he owned the damn thing. That smirk of his was on his face as he looked her over. "You look like a wreck. What happened to you?"

"W-what are you doing here?" Levy questioned warily. "How did you even get in here?"

"Window. Told ya the ground floor apartments are easy to break into." He chuckled. "Now answer my question."

"You didn't answer why you're here." Levy narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him. He just grinned.

"I'll get to that in a second." Then he looked at her expectantly. She sighed heavily and dropped her bag by the door.

"A 20 hour shift and a complicated delivery are what happened to me." she told him as she went to the kitchen. She needed a drink, dammit. After a long day like this, and now she had to worry about the mafia in her home once again... she was getting a headache. She grabbed her bottle of whiskey and two glasses. Might as well be a good host. Then she went back to the living room and sat down on the couch next to him, but kept herself at a distance. "How's the wound?" she asked as she poured a glass and handed it to him. He took it with a grin and took a sip.

"Healing. Had our personal doc take a look. He was impressed with your work." Gajeel chuckled. "And that kind of brings me to why I'm here." Levy glanced at him. "My old man found out about you. Wants to meet the chick who saved his son's life, and all that." Levy paled at that. The Don... he wanted to meet her? "Oi, don't go freaking out on me now. I know it's intimidating... but you really don't gotta worry. I won't let nothin happen to ya."

"T-that doesn't make me feel any better." Levy finished off her glass of whiskey and poured another one. Gajeel raised an eyebrow at her.

"Didn't take you for a hard drinker."

"I've had a day from hell and it keeps going on. Do you blame me?" Levy sighed heavily. Gajeel just chuckled.

"Look, shrimp, my old man just wants to thank ya for savin my ass. You really don't gotta worry." He told her in hopes of calming her down. "Besides, it's not like we gotta go right now. You look like you've been to hell and back. When's your next day off? I can take you to him then."

"I have a week off starting now." Levy sighed heavily. "My coworkers made me take a break so I don't work myself to an early grave."

"From the looks of you I'd say that's a good call. Gihi." Gajeel chuckled, knocking back the last of his drink. He took what was left of Levy's drink from her and knocked that back, despite her protests. "Ya don't need it, shrimp. Look, just go to bed and sleep in for once. I'll be back around noon to pick you up." He grabbed the bottle of whiskey and went to put it back in her kitchen before she could pour herself another drink. When he came back into the living room she'd already fallen asleep. He just smirked. It was obvious even to him that she was working herself to exhaustion.

He took a moment to just look at her. He didn't understand why he was so drawn to this girl, why he felt the need to protect her. Sure, he owed her for patching him up, but that was just about honor and repaying debts. It did not explain this urge to protect her even from herself. If she'd told him she was pulling another long shift tomorrow, he would have made some excuse about his father wanting to see her right away. That way she would have to take at least a day off. He'd never actually wanted to protect someone, like he did with this girl. It was... baffling.

Maybe it had something to do with that night. The moment he'd first laid eyes on her, he thought he'd already died and she was an angel come to lead him to the afterlife. Yea, cheesy, he knows. But with the mix of pain and blood loss, that's what he'd thought. But then he came back to reality and saw this short little woman staring at him with wide hazel eyes and a look of pure concern for another human being. He knew in that moment that she was a good person. Too pure to become involved in his life. So he tried to make her leave, for her own good.

And then those innocent eyes filled with fire. She was determined to help him and she wouldn't take no for an answer. This pure, innocent-looking little thing of a woman had a temper. And, damn, did that stir something in him. So he conceded, seeing that he couldn't dissuade her even though she clearly knew even talking to him was dangerous. He was impressed with how she handled treating his injury. She didn't flinch, didn't panic. She just pulled her hair back, rolled up her sleeves, and calmly set about getting down to business.

The only time he saw her panic, was when she found out who he was. His name was well known throughout the city. His face, not so much. Everyone knew of Black Steel Gajeel, the only son of Don Metalicana, and the second most dangerous man in the city. Everyone knew his name, and most knew that there was a reason nobody knew what he looked like. Meeting Black Steel was a death sentence. Levy didn't seem to know about the whole death sentence stuff, seeing as she was just freaking out about the Don's son being in her home and claiming she was under his protection. It took him a while to calm her down and make her accept his offer of protection. She only accepted because he obviously wasn't going to let her deny him.

Gajeel thought it was cute, how she panicked about his claim of protection rather than having a mafia member in her home. She didn't even flinch at a bullet wound, yet she was freaking out over him wanting to protect her. What a weird shrimp. And then he teased her about her height, and she stopped panicking as her temper flared again. Being called short was obviously something that she hated. Her mood deflated as she admitted she hated being called short, and Gajeel suddenly felt... guilty. So he tried to cheer her up, called her snack sized instead, and then faked being in pain from laughing too hard to get her mind off the subject.

He couldn't resist teasing her more, he really couldn't. It was too easy with this girl. He teased her about falling for him already and, instead of getting mad, she... blushed. And Gajeel suddenly found his favorite expression to see on her face. He decided that was when his urge to protect her came up. He felt something at seeing her blush like that... he couldn't describe it, but he felt something stir in him. And it wasn't lust. He was no stranger to that feeling. No, this went deeper. And he suddenly found himself asking if there was a guy in the picture. He was about to leave it at that, but he added on 'anyone living with you,' to cover his slip. When she said no to both, that odd feeling he had grew stronger. He suddenly didn't know what to feel or how to act, so he decided it was time for bed. Anything to give him some space from her so he could think.

Thinking about it didn't help one bit. He was up most of the night 'thinking' but drew a blank as to what that weird feeling was. All he knew was that this girl was perfect, too perfect for him. He didn't want to bring her into his dark lifestyle, didn't want to corrupt her. So he wouldn't pursue her, like he wanted. If he couldn't have her, he could at least protect her. He just never knew the urge to protect her would grow this strong... in just three days, no less. He hadn't even seen her since that day, but he wanted to make sure she was safe at all costs. She didn't know it, but he had someone watching her at all times. Even had a nurse that owed him at the hospital change units so she could inconspicuously keep an eye on her at work.

Gajeel let out a sigh as he walked over to where the shrimp was sleeping on the couch. She was dead to the world, he knew, and he knew from experience that her couch wasn't very comfortable. He gently scooped the sleeping woman up into his arms and carried her to her room. She was light as a feather in his arms, and Gajeel wasn't sure that was a good thing. Taking a closer look at her, he decided she was quite underfed. He would change that. But, only after she got a full night's sleep for a change.

Her room surprised him. All around her room, piled almost as tall as he was, were books, books, and more books. There had to be at least a hundred books in her room, taking up most of the space in the surprisingly tiny bedroom. What's more, she was sleeping on a twin mattress, of all things, probably so she had more space for her books. Apart from the books and her bed, the only other thing in her room was a nightstand with her current book of choice open at the last page she'd read. He laid her down on her bed and pulled the blanket over her before looking around some more. Where the hell did she keep her clothes in this place? He spotted a closet and grinned as he walked over to it.

Gajeel pulled out an orange day dress and some brown loafers and set them on a stack of books next to her bed. He left her a note to wear that to the meeting with his father, and then he left her to get some well deserved sleep. She needed it, especially since she would be meeting the patriarch of Fairy Tail tomorrow. Yes, she certainly needed it.

Yay, a little bit of a longer chapter for you guys, with some insight on Gajeel's take on things. Hope you liked it!

Please review, I love getting comments and suggestions.

Thanks for reading!

-Everythingnerd12