Chapter 3
Sunny side up
by Neko Erza
Levi lay curled up on the couch, hidden within the blanket that was tightly wrapped around her. She never thought she would be able to fall asleep in this strange place, but the events from the past day really worn her out, so within minutes she slipped away into a dreamless sleep.
In the morning she could hear a slight mumbling which was slowly waking her up. She blinked her eyes to get rid of the blurriness in her vision. When she saw clearly she stared into two dark red eyes and let out a shrill scream. Anxiously she sat up and crawled back, hitting her head against the wall behind her in the process.
"Oi shrimp, calm down, will ya?" Gajeel said as he stood up.
Levi looked around a bit disorientated and finally remembered where she was. Now that she thought about it, the mumbling that woke her up was Gajeel saying her name. Well, the name he had given her: 'shrimp'.
"You're a deep sleeper. Now get up."
Levi rubbed the back of her head annoyed and pulled the blanket off of her. She stood up and pulled her clothes (or rather Gajeel's and Gray's clothes) back the right way. She quietly went after the dragon slayer into the kitchen, almost tripping over the way too long pants. Gajeel sat at the table, rumbling through a small pile of metal.
"Can you cook?" He asked without looking up.
"I… I'm not that good, but I can make basic stuff." The little bluenette answered a bit confused.
"Good, then you can make me some breakfast."
Levi stared at him for a moment, but he didn't look up or say anything else. "O-Okay then." She hesitantly walked over to the fridge and pulled it open.
"There should be enough food, Juvia just went shopping."
"Any… preferences?" Levi asked, not quite understanding this 'peaceful' atmosphere. She could hardly believe she was actually a prisoner. An image of Jet, Droy, Loke and Gray locked up in a dirty cell without food flashed before her eyes. She shook her head to get it away, she didn't want to think about it. A cold shiver nonetheless went down her spine.
"I don't care, I eat everything. Just make something that you like."
"I… can eat too?" Levi asked, feeling guilty that she was getting food and her friends weren't.
Gajeel looked up. "Of course, unless you want to starve."
"Thank you…"
"It's not like a shortie like you will eat that much. Now hurry up, I'm hungry." He stood up. "I'm gonna take a shower at the meantime."
Levi nodded and took another look at the stuff in the fridge. She grabbed some eggs and searched through the cupboards for a frying pan. She cracked the eggs and let the contents slide into the pan. It had been such a long time since she had made sunny side ups.
She smiled bitterly at the name of the dish, since it sounded way too positive for the horrible situation she and her friends got caught up in. Especially the situation her friends were in. She was being treated like a queen in comparison to them.
She cracked another egg, but the yolk broke and ran all over the frying pan. She watched the slimy fluid run free all over the other eggs. The sight of the whole yolks somehow pissed her off, it didn't look right.
She grabbed a fork and stabbed the other eggs, letting the yellow pour out. The sunny sides bled out and coloured the pan yellow. The little bluenette watched the havoc she made before as she tried to calm herself down. Messing up the food wasn't going to make any of this better. She looked back at the eggs: Sunny sides up wasn't really an option anymore, so she decided to just go for scrambled eggs instead. It seemed to fit the situation better anyway.
She explored the kitchen a bit and found some bread to make toast. Now she only had to look for some plates. She pulled open the cupboards and finally found them.
On the top shelf.
"You gotta be kidding me, right?" she muttered to herself. She couldn't reach them even if she were to stand on her tiptoes. She looked at the chairs around the table and tried to pull one over, but even with all her strength, she could barely move the heavy iron chairs. "This isn't going to work." She puffed.
She went back over to the cupboard and decided to climb on the counter, that way she would be able to reach them. When she was pulling herself up a deep snicker sounded behind her and she quickly looked around. Gajeel had returned, his hair still dripping wet from the shower. He wasn't wearing any shirt and Levi could see all the scars and wounds on his body. She quickly looked away.
"I didn't know cooking involved acrobatics." Gajeel smirked. "I guess I've been doing it wrong all those years."
"I can't reach the plates." Levi said, pointing at the shelf.
Gajeel rolled his eyes, yet there was a tinge of a smile on his face. He walked over and slid Levi aside on the counter. Even though he moved her, he still hung over her a bit as he reached for the plates. Levi's face was a mere few centimetres away from his chest and she could smell the soap on his skin. A small blush crept up her face and she glanced away. The dragon slayer easily reached the plates and put them down.
"Now come over and eat. I still have stuff to do."
Levi put the food on the plates and quickly brought them over to the table. The meal went by silently, both of them didn't say a word. Levi sometimes glanced over to the tall man, who didn't even seem to notice (or care) that she was there.
'What's his deal? Is this really the Kurogane Gajeel I heard about? He's totally different than what I imagined.' It crossed her mind when she thought about how he had treated her till now.
He seemed so calm sitting here beside her eating breakfast. But other than that, she did also remember the scary side of him; how he had pushed her to the wall and grabbed her. Her breast really hurt from that.
This man was way more complex than he seemed.
"Oi, shrimp." Gajeel said when he was done. Levi snapped out of her thoughts.
"Yes?"
"The master will probably come take a look somewhere this week. He'll suspect you to have been punished and stuff, so act a bit like it, okay? Make it as believable as possible, so he doesn't see through it."
"Ah… yes." Levi nodded. Her fingers ran over the band aid on her cheek. Now that she thought about it, it probably was all bruised and swollen. It sure felt like that.
Her fingers hooked behind the side of the band aid and ripped it off. "Ow… being punished probably doesn't involve being fixed up with band aids."
"Good girl." Gajeel smirked and patted her on the head.
"I'm not a dog." Levi said a bit pissed.
Not expecting such a vitriolic answer, Gajeel stared at her surprised for a few seconds then he burst out laughing. "You really are something special, shrimp."
He slapped her on the back in what she imagined was supposed to be a friendly gesture. Though, it almost made Levi hit her head on the table.
"Well, I got to go. I'll be back in a few hours, behave yourself." The dragon slayer went and grabbed a shirt to put on, then came back. "Oh I thought about what I should do with you."
Levi looked up at the man, not sure what to expect. "D-do with me?"
"Since you'll be here all day, you can make yourself useful and clean up and stuff."
"Like a maid?" Levi asked.
"Yeah, whatever."
With that the man left. Levi could hear the heavy door close and the locks rattled. Levi looked around the kitchen that suddenly seemed so awfully big now that she was alone. A ragged sigh escaped her mouth as she stood up.
She looked outside and saw the clear blue sky. "Don't mock me." Levi whispered against it. She picked up the plates and brought them to the sink. Then something flashed through her mind. 'The window.'
The girl quickly hurried over to it and pulled the handle to open. For a second she thought she would be able to escape through it, but another heavy lock blocked it. She casted a spell, but even her magic couldn't open the dragon slayer's lock. Disappointed she leaned her forehead against the cold glass.
'Even if it were open… it's several stories high. You got your hopes up for nothing, Levi. And where would you run anyway?' A pessimistic voice whispered in her head. She looked down and saw Gajeel outside, marching over the square to the main building. She saw some other Phantom members hurriedly walk the other way.
'So even here they are scared of him.' She looked at his posture and wondered why he'd be friendly to her. And why he'd take her in, just on behalf of the blue haired lady's request. She stared at the man until he was on the other side of the square, where he suddenly stopped.
Levi wondered what he was doing.
The man turned his head and looked up to the apartment, up to her. A somewhat evil looking grin appeared on his face as he looked at her, as if saying 'you really thought I'd leave the window open?'. Levi quickly stepped back from the glass.
"Idiot." She cursed quietly. She looked around the room and let out another sigh.
After she had cleaned the kitchen, she tidied up the living room and bedroom. Now that she had taken a thorough look she noticed that, apart from the one bookcase in the living room, there were little to no personal objects.
No decoration.
No figurines.
No pictures.
Just the necessary.
Everything seemed to have been pushed away in that one room where yesterday she had found the bookcase.
"Weird man."
Next she went to the bathroom. A pile of clothes lay abandoned in the corner next to the bath, along with some towels. She picked them up and threw them in the laundry basket. She cleaned the bathtub and the shower and rearranged all the bottles. When she passed the mirror and caught a glimpse of herself. Startled, she quickly took a step back to look at herself. The whole left side of her face was covered in bruises. The scratch on her cheek was somewhat swollen and her lip was chapped. Her eyes were somewhat swollen too and bloodshot from all the crying she had done yesterday.
Looking at herself had never made her this depressed.
Due to the bruises, one half of her face was almost as blue as her hair. Around the scratch there was some dried up blood. She pulled up the sleeves of Gray's shirt and turned on the faucet of the sink to wash off the blood. When she put her hand under the water she saw her wrists were all bruised too. The pressure from the magic of the mage that controlled her body when she was on the square had left its marks.
The awful embarrassment she had felt when she stood there naked, unable to do anything flushed over her again and a cold shiver went down her spine. Painful tears stung behind her eyes, but she refused to let them go. Levi looked away from the mirror, for she couldn't stand to look at herself any longer.
After a few hours Gajeel returned. Levi was just about to start cleaning up in the hoarded-room. She could hear the door close and heavy footsteps in the hallway.
"You don't have to clean this room, Shrimp." Gajeel said as he leaned against the door.
Levi looked up from the books she was sorting. "Oh, okay…" Her hand caressed the leader cover of the heavy book she was holding.
Gajeel couldn't help but notice the tender touch.
"You like books?"
Levi looked up and smiled, which surprised Gajeel. It seemed like it was a real, genuine smile.
"I love them." Her hand ran over the cover one last time before she placed it back on the shelf.
"I see."
"This…" She let her finger slide over the back of a book with a dark leather cover. "I'd love to read her story."
"Her?" Gajeel asked confused. He was starting to doubt the sanity of this little woman, maybe the master had hit her harder than he thought?
"Yes. Books deserve to be called something else than 'it'. And I don't know… this one seemed like a 'her'."
"Weird girl." He chuckled. He doubted that this was a sanity problem. She genuinely seemed to care for books.
"I guess it's because of my magic or something."
"That you're weird?" Gajeel asked with a smirk.
"No!" Levi couldn't suppress a light giggle. "That I love books so much. Or maybe my magic is a result of the books. I'm not sure, but I'm sure they are connected in some way."
"What magic do you use?"
Levi was a bit surprised that he'd be interested in it. "I'm a Solid Script mage."
"Well, that explains why the word 'key' is engraved into my window."
Levi's heart skipped a beat and she could feel her face flush. She had indeed used her magic on the lock on the window before. She hadn't noticed that it left a mark. "I…"
"My locks don't open by a mere key, even a magical one. Only I can open them. You won't be able to escape that easily."
Levi avoided his gaze and didn't know what to say. This morning he had seen her behind the window, but then he couldn't be sure if she was trying to escape or not. But this was so obvious it embarrassed Levi.
"Oh come on. You really thought I didn't think you would try to escape, shrimp? You told me yourself yesterday: that you're not someone that gives up that easily. He stared at Levi, who had turned her back to him. After a few silent seconds she spoke.
"I don't want to be here. I will keep on trying to escape with every opportunity I see." She turned around and looked straight into Gajeel's red eyes. He glared back.
"I wouldn't have expected any less. Honestly, I'd be disappointed if you didn't try anything. It would make your bravery seem fake." The dragon slayer smirked, then turned around and left the room.
Two full days had passed since Levi was brought here. The days had gone by fairly calm until now.
She had just started preparing dinner when there was a loud knock on the door. Gajeel looked up and sniffed the air.
"Shit. It's the master." He cursed through his teeth. "Shrimp, you know what I've said right?"
Levi nodded nervously. She could feel her heart racing in her chest. The skin of her cheek burned at the memory of the master hitting her, knocking her to the ground. She absolutely didn't want to do this.
"Gajeel-san. Open the door." The voice of the master sounded.
"I'll be right there. Just… finishing something up." He turned to the bluenette and gestured that she should go into the bedroom. Levi nodded and hurried over to the other room.
The dragon slayer waved his hand and unlocked the door. The intimidating shape of master Jose entered the house.
"Master." Gajeel greeted.
"I've come to see how your little… guest is doing."
An evil smirk appeared on Gajeel's face. "She's doing good."
"Oh, I see. That's why it took so long for you to open the door." The master laughed conspiratorial. "Where is she now?"
"Hey, Fairy bitch, come here!" Gajeel shouted. It sounded so full of despise and hate it scared Levi to the bone.
'Well, at least I don't have to act that I'm afraid.' Levi thought bitterly. She quietly went to the other room where she saw the two men. Both had a sadistic smile on their face. Although she had felt quite safe the last two days here, the dragon slayer had actually treated her nicely and hadn't bothered her at all apart from some teasing and nicknames, but now her heart was ready to beat out of her chest.
"She doesn't look that good." The master said with a chuckle.
"Yeah, the little bitch didn't want to listen. So she had to be punished." Gajeel smirked. He hoped that the master didn't notice that all the bruising and scratches were just from the fight and from when Jose hit her, and that he hadn't done anything of those.
"Well, she could use a little more, if you ask me."
Levi gasped and looked to the floor, not wanting to look at that awful man. She hoped Gajeel would wrap this up as quickly as possible, so Jose would leave.
"Yeah, I agree. But I can't mess her up too much. She still needs to be able to move… I need her to last a loooong way into the night, if you know what I mean." Gajeel said with a perverted smirk as he licked his lips.
Levi couldn't believe this was the same man she had spent the last two days with. The way he was acting and speaking was like a vile beast and Levi didn't like it one bit. A shiver ran down her spine as she heard him applying that he raped her. Just thinking of the possibility brought her on the brink of tears.
"You must have had a wonderful night, Gajeel-san."
"You bet."
"This will pain the hearts of those Fairy Men in the cells, to know that their little slut is being serviced."
"That's the good part; I wouldn't call her a slut. She was a virgin." Gajeel smirked looking at the master. He put a slight emphasis on the word 'was'.
"Even better. This will torment the Fairies even more."
Levi couldn't stand him talking like this. The feeling of embarrassment and anger returned full force and she could feel the tears sting behind her eyes.
"I'll let her have some more later." Gajeel laughed evilly.
Levi thought about what the dragon slayer had said that morning. 'Make it as believable as possible.'
The little bluenette vigorously shook her head. "No! No! Not again." She sobbed. Luckily the tears came easily as she was already feeling like crying anyway.
Gajeel stepped towards her and grabbed her hair. To Levi's surprise it didn't hurt, he had just grabbed the ends of her hair, so only a slight tug could be felt. To play along Levi let out an agonizing scream and reached for her head.
"You sounded like that last night too. Just admit that you want it, dirty slut." Gajeel whispered in her ear, but loud enough for the master to hear it too.
"It sure is a lovely possession you got there." The master laughed.
"I'll have a lot of fun with her. You can't believe how tight she is." Gajeel smirked as he let go of Levi's hair and took a step back.
"By just looking at her petite body I can believe that. How old is she anyway?"
Gajeel shrugged. "Don't know, don't care."
"She can't be that old, look how small she is. And then those pathetic small tits." An evil chuckle emerged from the master's mouth.
Levi shamefully hold her arms before her chest. She never felt so bad about herself before. She felt like crawling into a little ball and be forgotten by everything and everyone. She wanted them to stop looking at her.
"How old are you, Fairy girl?" The master asked
The question surprised the bluenette. She didn't expect him to speak directly to her. "I… I'm seventeen…"
"Already seventeen?" Jose said mockingly. "Then I don't expect you to ever become a decent woman. With a body like that. I really can't see why you like this kind of girls, Gajeel."
Gajeel just shrugged.
"Now, I have to pay a visit to our other prisoners. I bet they'd love to know how their little princess is doing. I can't seem to get enough to torment and torture these Fairy Tail bastards." Master Jose said and turned around.
"Leave my friends alone!" Levi screamed suddenly. Both men turned around startled.
"Looks like you haven't broken her enough, Gajeel."
The next thing Levi knew was that her face hit the wall. Pain raced through her nose and she could feel the skin on her forehead split open. For a second her vision went black and her ears were ringing.
"That will learn her." She could hear the master's voice say, before another rush of pain went through her. Behind her the door slammed closed.
Then she felt two large hands wrap around her shoulder.
The dazed figure of the little bluenette lay on the floor. If Gajeel hadn't been able to hear the beating of her heart, he'd have thought she was dead. He quickly went over to her and grabbed her shoulders. Her forehead had a large cut and blood gushed out of her nose. He lightly shook her body to bring her back to consciousness.
"Oi, shrimp." He gave another light tug at her shoulder. "You better not be dead, or I'm dead." He said as he thought about what Juvia would do to him. And honestly, he did want to see more of this intriguing little Fairy Tail mage himself. It had been such a long time since someone had spiked his interest like this.
"Wake up."
Levi opened her eyes and let out a loud scream. To the dragon slayer's surprise it wasn't a scream of fear or pain, but pure anger and frustration.
"Let me go! I'm gonna kill him! That bastard! If he does anything to my friends…" Levi struggled against Gajeel's grip and pulled herself free. She ran to the door and slammed her fists against it. Tears of anger ran down her bloodied face. "Let me go!"
"Shrimp, calm down! You know I can't let you go, you'll be killed for sure."
"I don't care!" She panted hysterically.
"CALM DOWN!" Gajeel's voice roared. Levi jumped up startled. She turned around to look at him. "Just calm down, please."
Levi lightly nodded. Her breathing slowly returned back to normal and the pain pierced her thoughts. Through her right eye she could only see a blurry red vision, the blood from the cut on her forehead had ran into it. She could also feel the blood gush out of her sore nose. She looked down and saw red stains all over her clothes. She felt like crying, yet no tears came out anymore. Her head went light and Levi could feel her legs give in, but two strong hands kept her from hitting the floor.
"Dammit, stubborn shrimp." Gajeel put her on the couch and went to grab a wet towel. He put it against her forehead to stop the bleeding. Levi flinched for a second, but was surprised by the gentle touch.
After a while the bleeding seemed to have stelped and Gajeel pulled the towel away. "That was quite a smack."
Levi remained silent.
"I didn't think he'd hit you that hard. Are you okay?" the dragon slayer asked. Levi nodded lightly. Gajeel sighed frustrated. "Lost your tongue?"
"I'm okay." Levi whispered hoarse. Gajeel stared at the fragile girl for a second. Her face had already looked awful with all the bruises, but now there wasn't a mere centimeter of skin that had been spared. The dragon slayer got a weird feeling in his stomach.
For the first time in his life he pitied someone.
She didn't deserve to be treated like this and it was a shame that her delicate skin was touched in such a horrible way. The girl shivered and before he knew it, Gajeel caressed her hair, trying to comfort her.
End of chapter 3
If you're wondering why I made Gajeel maybe a bit too gentle in this story, I have an explanation! I didn't want this to be a Stockholm syndrome story, since I think there are already so much.
Like I said last chapter, I'm planning to also write an alternative storyline for this fanfiction and there Gajeel is really a monster. I mean, he is really horrible; So I kind of wanted to make up by making him sweet in this one.. I actually don't want him to make him the bad guy in the other one anymore, since I kind of feel bad for him a bit... Do you maybe have another idea for a person I can use as a bad guy? (Btw, it's not a GajeelxLevi story, so basically I just need a bad guy)