Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
She wishes the great big earth, warm and sturdy with summer, would have mercy on her jinxed soul and swallow her up.
"Well, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. So at least you don't have to worry about that." She takes it back, she wants the earth to swallow his smarmy ass up instead.
"I doubt you're making her feel better, Gajeel." Pantherlily flies at his partner's shoulder as they crest back over the hill toward the slayer and Exceed's house.
"I could probably walk on my own, y'know."
"Yeah, probably. Or you could, probably, manage to snap your ankle this time." His rogue attitude and comments didn't waver with her injury, even though the second she collided with ground it had twisted his face in horror and worry.
There's a sharp pain pulsing from her ankle clean up to her pride. If there has never been a time she truly felt like a rag doll before, she does now. Gajeel cradles her to his chest and she's dimly mortified past the pain that her shirt's twisted around her torso and her shorts have risen high enough on her thighs to make her feel indecent.
Insult to injury, as always.
Thankfully, Gajeel's wise to her steadily souring mood and stays quiet. He's hyperaware not to jostle her or smack her feet against the door facing as he enters his house.
She refuses to think about the fact that she still hasn't untangled her arms from around his neck. It had been an honest initial reaction when she had been cautiously lifted from the ground and into his arms before she could blink.
He leaves her sitting on the bathroom counter to help Lily search out their first aid kit. "We didn't get rid of it, did we?"
"Of course not, just because you're too dense to think you'd need it, doesn't mean I'm foolish enough to be that naive."
"I'm not naive."
"Fine, vainglory."
"Just find the stupid box, Lil'."
Their back-and-forth would be funny if she wasn't awkwardly sprawled along the cold countertop, a hairsbreadth away from actually sitting in the sink, and her leg wasn't throbbing with the receding adrenaline rush.
There is some mercy out there after all because Lily finds it first, in the hallway closet.
The dragon slayer pops the top open and diligently sets out all of the correct supplies, not even bothering to look up when he spoke to Lily. "Could you get me some ice?"
"Sure. Levy, would you like something to drink?"
"Oh, no thanks." She's too busy watching Gajeel hover over her ankle and fearing his unrestrained strength will come back any second to be concerned about her parched mouth.
"I'm gonna have to take yer shoe off." It was nice having a left ankle while it lasted, they'd had a good run.
"I'll be careful." He meets her eyes then, for the first time since she fell in the back field, and she feels stupid for ever thinking him incapable. Especially when his eyes are holding whatever it is she cannot name.
Levy watches his throat bob with the tell of nerves as he sets his hand to unlacing her shoes. His moves are deft and equally slow, testing the waters of her pain threshold.
Which they both know isn't anything special.
Gajeel lifts her foot and her rush of breath echoes harshly against the tiled room. The shoe is off and her tiny foot is left unguarded in his broad palms.
"That hurt?"
"No."
"Well, this next part probably will. Sorry." The look he pins on her slides like ice to pool in her stomach because, for all the world, he looks like he's the one with a broken ankle (probably).
If she catches onto the gentle pressure he kneads into the ball of her foot, she doesn't say anything. He arches her foot and slowly rotates her ankle back and forth. They both let out sighs of relief as he places her leg back on the counter and
Lily returns with the ice (and a small glass of kiwi juice for being such a good patient anyways).
Gajeel wraps her ankle as she sips at the kiwi juice with Pantherlily perched in her lap. He finishes with a smirk aimed down at her and ruffling her hair.
"I knew it wasn't broken. You're tough."
#68; Gajeel taking care of Levy
originally posted: 8-22-13