a/n: I'm back! Sorry for being gone for a while. But I hope yous all enjoy the next couple of chapters (:
Gajeel turned his head to face Levy and scowled. "Just because I said it, doesn't mean I meant it, Shrimp," his frown deepened, "and don't call me chipmunk in public."
Levy's laughed, her voice like bells in the quiet of the afternoon. "We're not in public, Chipmunk. AndI thought you liked that nickname." She pouted gazing into his eyes.
Dammit, I can't think straight when she's looking at me like that, Gajeel suddenly growled and scrambled to his feet. "We need to go find that archolologist guild or whatever..." he trailed off, painfully aware that he had mispronounced that damn word.
"Archolologist? Oh! You mean archaeologist," Levy couldn't contain her laughter try as she might.
"Yeah, yeah. I can't pronounce the damn word...no need to laugh..." he trailed off once again, blushing furiously. It was just like him to mess up a word in front of a notorious book reader and Script Mage. He looked up and saw the sun was above their heads, glaring at them from its high advantage. In the distance, he could hear the advancing rumble of the next train. "But really, we should get out of here. Next train is almost here."
Levy nodded, already gathering her things. She stood up bag in tow and began walking towards the station doors.
"Wait!" Gajeel exclaimed.
Levy turned around to see him still blushing, albeit for a different reason than his prior embarrassment. He was looking at her dress.
"What is it, Gajeel?" Levy asked impatiently. Now that they had finally reached the village, she wanted nothing more than to find the ruins and begin deciphering the runes.
"Uh, you can't go walking around like that," he beat around the bush pointing towards the tear in her dress.
Levy looked down and immediately turned red. With a yelp, she jumped back and clasped to ends of her dress together. The leap off the train did more damage than some subtle bruising. A loose thread had caught on the train door and as she and Gajeel had leapt off, her dress had torn.
Her orange dress was slit up to her hip bone on the left side, showing her panties to the world. The bottom hem was raggedy and the bow on top had come undone, causing her the top half of her dress to slightly sag showing a slight curve of her breast. She looked a little worse for wear.
Gajeel rolled his eyes as he watched Levy's desperate attempts to cover herself up and preserve her modesty. He shrugged his dark cloak of and threw it around her shoulders, fastening it at the base of her throat with an iron brooch. His movements were so fast that Levy didn't realise what he had done until he took a step back.
"Umm, thank you..." she mumbled. It was humiliating enough not realising what kind of state her clothes were in but having Gajeel help her cover up touched her heart and a now-familiar fluttering began beating at her chest.
"Ready to go?" Gajeel continued on, pretending her temporary dishabille had never occurred.
"Mmmhmm. Let me just grab-" Levy stopped talking when she realised that the Dragon Slayer had already picked up all their bags and was walking ahead.
"If I let you carry your bags, we wouldn't make it to that guild in 10 years, gihi."
Levy scowled, her bottom lip jutting forward. She nearly ran to catch up with the man ahead of her. "That wasn't nice Gajeel."
"Nope! It was funny, gihi." Gajeel ignored her reproving looks as he cheerfully meandered his way to the centre of the village.
They walked in a comfortable silence. Levy's hands were occupied with a map she had procured from her pack and was reading it, trying to find the way to the guild. Wary of Mirajane's warning that the village did not take kindly to strangers, they had both resorted to walking down quiet and empty streets, avoiding people as often as they could.
"Aha!" Levy beamed. "I found it! If we follow this street to the end, we should come to a fountain and...wait, that's not right." She stopped suddenly, absorbed in the map.
"I thought ye said ye knew where we were goin', Shrimp?" Gajeel looked back at the bluenette.
"I do know, and we are going the right way. It's just that this map says that at the end of this street there is a fountain."
"And?" Gajeel asked her, not getting why she was getting so worked up.
"Well, that's the thing. At the end of the street, where the guild hall is meant to be, is just a fountain. That's it." Levy looked up at Gajeel, thoroughly confused.
The Iron Mage's forehead scrunched up as he pondered on the best course of action. The day was growing late, and they had to find the ruins before nightfall so they could read some runes with the moonlight.
"Let's just go this fountain, Shrimp. We might find something." He sighed. The intense heat from the sun was giving him a headache and he was hungry. So very hungry.
"Okay..." Levy replied, not sounding certain.
They continued walking down the street, passing house after house when lo and behold, at the end of that very street was a grand fountain.
The bowl of the ceramic fountain had grooves so it resembled an upturned sea-shell. From the centre of the sea-shell, grew a single branch, twisting on its self to create a rope-like texture. The top of the branch suddenly gave out to a large flower whose petals were in the shape of flames. The tip of each flame was embedded with hundreds of tiny red jewels which glittered in the sunlight. Water sprouted from the flower in a magnificent arc before diving into the depths of the shell.
"It's beautiful!" Levy's eyes widened as she beheld the stunning ornament. She unconsciously took a step forward. And then another one. And before she knew it, as if by instinct, her fingers brushed against a circular knob on the white branch.
The ground began shaking suddenly and Levy lost her balance. Gajeel was also having trouble standing and had lost his grip on the bags he held. "What did you do, Levy?" he shouted, using her name.
The tiny mage looked up at the bigger man in surprise. Despite the situation they were in, he had used her name for maybe the first time. The ground shuddered more and the fountain groaned as it began to rise up.
Levy yelped as she realised that the fountain wasn't growing but rather the ground surrounding it was falling. Feeling disoriented, she fell onto her hands and knees, trying to crawl towards Gajeel.
The ground shuddered once more and in an instant, the ground which both Fairy Tail mages were lying on, fell faster underground. The buildings around them were a blur and everything took on a reddish tinge as they shot towards where Hell must be.
Abruptly coming to a stop, the momentum didn't prevent Gajeel and Levy colliding into each other once more as they fell haphazardously in a heap on the ground.
Groaning they both got up. "Why does this always happen to us?" Levy grumbled, trying to regain feeling in her right arm after Gajeel had landed on it.
The Slayer looked over at her said once again, "What did you press, Shrimp!?"