Disclaimer: I do now own Fairy Tail.
There is nothing short of unnatural in the way he ruffles her hair today.
It's light and lingers just an inhale longer than usual and Levy swears his fingers thread more than tousle. The action is genuine and there is no way he's not trying to butter her up for something.
Most likely iron.
Either way, she absolutely does not lean into the softhearted gesture and her heart is not breaking through her ribcage. She's going to get to the bottom of this and find out what he's vying for.
Gajeel quietly sits next to her, the cries of steel twisting in his hands are purposely muffled, as she reads. He's never been shy about the prowess it takes to bend the alloy before, so the iron dragon slayer is surely up to something today. Levy decides to not act on the obvious courtesy, her book is more important and she'll just tally up the kindnesses until it's time to pounce.
Covertly glancing at Lily in two minute intervals gets her nowhere, he's nonplussed by the whole situation and is wholeheartedly sold to the focus of sipping kiwi juice and alternately polishing his Musica Sword. Usually her first clue to suspicious behavior are the exceed's sniggers and smirks at his partner's expense.
No help there.
Despite her uneasiness, she gets lost to the pages. She's forgone tomes about languages and script for the day to dive headlong into an adventure novel Lucy had recommended to her. Levy's unsure of how long gone she is in sword fights and character development before the nudge at her wrist is startling her from the trance.
"Calm down, Levy." Gajeel's eyeing her like she's gone crazy and is two heartbeats away from chucking the book at him.
As if she'd risk damaging a perfectly good hardback against his metal skull.
He has his fingers lightly pressed to her wrist, a last ditch effort after she didn't even flinch to the string of nicknames he'd used to get her attention.
She vaguely recalls Lucy saying something about Natsu being a personified furnace and deduces that it might just be a dragon slayer thing because there's no way his rough fingerprints and callouses are not branded into the smooth skin of her wrist.
The touch is featherlight, but it's seeped into her bones and is still imprinted days after.
"Just wonderin' if you wanted somethin' to drink." Those damnable piercings are rising to his infuriating zigzag hairline like she's gone off her rocker completely.
"Oh…Riiiight. Sure." Gajeel stands from his seat and offers to get Lily more kiwi juice as well. She strikes the second she figures Gajeel isn't paying attention to them and is focused on a back-and-forth with Cana. "All right, spill. What does he want?"
The exceed quirks his little head up to her and flexes a tiny ear. "I'm not quite sure I know what you mean, Levy."
"Not buying, Lily. He's up to something and I want to know what." She narrows her eyes and leans to toward Pantherlily as if they're suddenly co-conspirators for a dangerous mission.
"What's given you the impression he's in want of something?"
"He's being nice."
Cat-ate-the-canary has nothing on the devilish smile winding over the feline's face and she has the sinking feeling she's about to be made a fool. "I believe humans show such physical and verbal gestures as a way to display their affections."
"I'm not foll-," but just like that it's all too clear to her and she's about to swallow her own tongue. Levy sucks in a shaky breath and succumbs to the heat spreading along her cheeks, her heart is a hummingbird wingbeat in her eardrums.
All too soon, Gajeel's returning with three mugs and she's still trying to recover her tongue and a normal breathing pattern. There is no way Gajeel was flirting with her. Just like there was no way she could be so oblivious. At least he has the decency not to say anything about her behavior.
Until her squeak of thanks has him glowering at Lily.
"What'd you say to her?" Those cutthroat eyes slide to the exceed sitting innocently on the table at his elbow.
Pantherlily sips at his new glass of juice before opening his mouth. "I-"
"Uhm, he didn't say anything, Gajeel. I-I'm just embarrassed, I wanted to apologize for acting so weird. I get pretty invested in reading, y'know?" Levy attempts her most award-winning smile and sheepishly scratches at the back of her head. It wasn't the entire truth, but he didn't have to know that.
"Yeah, I know, bookworm." His voice is an affectionate drawl and there's pink crossing his own cheeks as his hand snakes its way back into the crown of wild hair.
She always was a terrible liar.
#70; Gajeel failing at flirting with Levy and her not getting it and thinking he's unusually nice and weird today
originally posted: 8-21-13
A/N: Banter is actually their mutually agreed upon language of love.