a/n: The last chapter wasn't as long as I planned it to be so I'll try to make this longer to make up for it x

Mer

Gajeel thundered down the crowded streets of Magnolia. It was only high noon, and everyone was jammed onto the streets as if they didn't have anything else to do. He had to run faster as he caught a whiff of Levy's slowly fading scent before it mingled with that of the civilians in the city.

He turned a corner fast and slipped on something, colliding with a crash against some boxes. "Oomph, that fuckin hurt." He got up rubbing the arm he had landed heavily on while looking for the source of his fall.

"Aha, there you are!" he exclaimed seeing the corner of some fabric peek through the debris resulted in his crash. He stooped down and pulled it out, immediately knowing it belonged to his Shrimp.

He held it against his nose, drinking in the heavenly scent. Why does it smell slightly salty? Gajeel frowned looking down at what he now identified as Levy's bandana. It's slightly damp too. Was she crying? Gajeel's heart splintered as he thought that his Shrimp was weeping. His pain was increased when he realised that it was probably most likely because of him.

With no warning he began sprinting again towards Fairy Hills, taking no heed of his injured arm. I need to get to her, he thought as he leapt over crates and dodged the townspeople.

At last, the building he was running to loomed up ahead of him. None of the rooms above him showed any signs of movement or life behind the closed curtains. Good, we'll be alone then.

Walking at a normal pace, he finally came to a stop under her window. The tree which he always climbed to watch her at night was behind him, several branches and leaves looking rather bald. He moved towards the brick wall and ran his hands over the rough surface. Once he found a decent hold he pulled himself up, climbing the wall brick by brick.

I did not think this through, he thought when he had reached Levy's window. With nothing else to hold on too, and the window closed, Gajeel might as well have been stuck in a train going around and around in loops.

With nothing else to do, Gajeel began swinging his body side to side, clinging to the wall with his now iron-scaled hands. This hurts my arm. Ow. But Gajeel was Gajeel and wouldn't let a hurt arm stop him from accomplishing what he came for.

Managing to gain enough height, he swung his legs above the window frame, turning them into sharp knife-like iron rods and dug them into the slightly crumbling mortar. With both feet now secure above the window, he let go of the bricks with his hands, allowing his body to follow the rules of gravity. He was upside down, but his hands were free.

He raised his left hand and began to knock on the window pane. The fragile glass rattled in its wooden framework and alerted anyone inside of his presence.

No answer.

He rapped on the window pane instead with his knuckles, accidently using to much force that he cracked the wood. Shit, I have a splinter now, he thought while sucking on said offender.

Come on, Levy. I know you're in there.

He drew his uninjured hand and just as he was about to knock, he felt his right foot give a little. Crap I'm going to fall soon. "Levy! Please, open up! Levy! I need to talk to you, Shrimp!"

He was panicking now. The fall wouldn't kill him, but he would surely be injured enough to prevent him from going on the job with Levy. Wendy's magic power wasn't yet fully restored since her last job and wouldn't be able to heal him for a few days.

He knocked on the window again. "Levy! Shrimp! I'm going to fall! Just please open the window!"

His foot slipped down a crack in the brick and he knew that one more slip like that and he would surely fall. Reaching down to knock again, he heard the unmistakeable click of the window being opened and sure enough, a whiff of cinnamon and strawberries wafted right up to him.

"Gajeel! What are you doing?" Levy exclaimed, shocked the slayer's current position. She reached out and grabbed his arms trying to pull him inside.

"Eh? This? I do this sort of thing all the time, Shrimp." Gajeel said pulling himself in from the inside. Once his feet were free from the wall he collapsed in a heap under the window sill. Why does the damn room have a window sill on the inside of the room? he thought unhappily.

He dusted himself off as he stood up, taking in the stacks and piles of books all around him. He could barely walk a metre in any direction without coming in contact with a novel of some kind. Glancing up at Levy, he noticed she was rather quiet.

"I understand if you don't want to talk to me," Gajeel started off, "but I just wanted to-"

"You wanted to apologise because Lily told you to." She looked up at him, unblinking, her mouth set in that cute pout he secretly adored. "It's not as if it's the first time you've come to apologise because of Lily."

"Oi! Lily didn't tell me to do anything. I came on my own!" But then again Lily did have something to do with it, though she didn't need to know that just now.

Levy's eyes grew wide with shock. He came on his own? Levy couldn't help but feel slightly, very slightly flattered despite the Slayer's earlier actions.

"Well, what did you want?" she finally said.

"I, well, I wanted to say sorry first of all," Gajeel mumbled. Though he'd apologised for his actions a hundred times over, it never made it easier when he had to do it again.

"And, um, well, I uh.." He trailed off, noticing a half-packed bag on the empty space left on her bed.

"You're already packing then," he quickly changed the subject, gesturing with his head towards the bag.

Levy was confused at his subject change, thinking his awkward, mumbling self actually seemed cute and vulnerable. She looked over at where he was looking at.

"Mmm. Yeah."

The tension in the room had returned tenfold.

"So, who are you going with?" he blurted out before he could restrain himself. She probably asked one of her lapdogs to go with her. She wouldn't go alone on a quest like this. She's way too smart for that.

"Um, I'm going alone. I already told you." Levy looked down at her feet, shuffling her toes across the carpet.

"Alone? Are you stupid? I thought you were smarter than that Levy! It's a fucking S-Class quest, and you're going fucking alone?!" Gajeel couldn't help himself. He exploded.

Levy looked up at him, fury glazed her eyes. "Well, it's not like I had a choice in the matter! I can't ask Jet or Droy without either of them thinking they had scored something and gloating about it and you refused to come. Everyone else was already busy with their own jobs so who else was I supposed to ask, huh?" Levy replied in the same manner.

"ANYONE!" Gajeel shouted. "Anyone.." he repeated albeit much quieter after seeing Levy's face.

She looked so sad and disappointed that he knew not replying to her back in the guild was a mistake. She was clearly looking forward to doing this job.

"You could've asked me," he finally said catching her eye.

Levy opened her mouth, to remind him that she already did but Gajeel cut her off.

"No. Mira forced me, and you went along with it. But I'm in no position to say anything now because you did afterwards. And I should've replied, but I didn't know what to say. What was going through my head then wasn't that I hated you, Shrimp, it was just that I wanted to go with you but didn't want the others to get the wrong impression. That I was only going to go on the job for the rewards and to score points with Makarov. And besides, at first, I didn't know you wanted me to come. Mira asked after all. I thought it would be best if I didn't go with you, thinking that what I once did to you would make you uncomfortable around me. I didn't want you to be uncomfortable. But one part of me did want to go. Badly."

While Gajeel was speaking, he had slowly made his way to where Levy was standing, and had placed his hands on her narrow shoulders. He looked directly into her amber eyes as she gazed into his crimson ones.

"Will you let me come with you?" he said, knowing the answer already.