Chapter 4: Convince Me

Levy stopped by the plaza breathing hard with her aching legs. She needed to leave the scene and get as far away from Gajeel. She hadn't realized how long she was holding her breath. Thinking back now, she doesn't remember the last time she breathed when Gajeel came in to the studio. She slowly walked to the large tree where they first met and knelt down and palmed her face with both of her hands as she muttered something in frustration.

"Stupid.." she muttered, "Stupid…stupid…stupid Gajeel! This is so embarrassing!"

Levy pulled her knees closer to her body as she shrank herself thinking how juicy of a gossip to the rest of the girls will be doing at the guild. And soon everyone will know and she'd have to do a lot of explaining to Jet and Droy. As her imagination got worse, a glimpse of Gajeel came back from her memory standing naked as the iron shadow dragon.

"Stop it!" she groaned as she grabbed her hair, "What am I going to do…"

Gajeel followed Levy's scent to the plaza and saw her curled into a small ball against the tree. He traced the bark of the tree and found a faded and stretched scars from the day he crucified team Shadow Gear. Seven years may have passed but there's no forgetting that mark no matter how faded it looked.

Lily perched on Gajeel's shoulder, "You should probably handle this alone, I will fly back to the studio and bring her stuff here."

Gajeel grunted in reply and Lily took off leaving him alone to deal with Levy. He slowly made his way towards her and stand near her side. She hasn't noticed him coming towards her yet, in fact, he doesn't really know how she'll react when she does notice. He was sensing something from Levy but not sure what to make of it. It was a bundle of mixed signals, but why stand there and figure it out when he thought he can just get her attention now and deal with the problem later.

"You're always running off away from me, this is really become a bad habit of yours, shorty." He announced.

Levy's face shot up towards his voice and stared into his crimson eyes. She looked away and crawled backward as she quickly stood up feeling her face blush.

"Gajeel!" she yelped, "I-I-I uhh…how-what?"

"Gihi," he laughed, "speechless, shrimp? So…were you ever going to tell me?"

Levy couldn't fight back more of the blush on her face, "I was going to…" she sighed, "but I…no… you…I wasn't expecting you to show up. Oh my gosh, this is so embarrassing! I have to go!"

Levy turned around and quickly tried to run away but she felt a strong grip on one of her arm. She found herself being strongly pulled backward and her body turned; crashing her body against Gajeel's with a squeak. She felt his other hand wrap her waist and froze stiff at the feeling as she dared to lift her head up and look at him. She saw him grinning imagining his signature laugh coming off that grin.

"Running away again, shorty?" He smirked, "Not this time."

"Gajeel…" she exhaled, "Please let go of me…."

"Mmm" he hummed as he lowered his head against her hair taking in her scent, "don't wanna."

As much as she didn't want him to let go either, this was a bit too much for her to handle in one day.

"Sorry about this…" she whined as Gajeel raised a brow at what she said, "Solid Script: Shock!"

She placed a shock inscription on his forearm and sent a shockwave that traveled to his body. He let go of Levy as he screamed from the shock therapy he just received.

"Oi!" he called out.

Levy was already running away but for some reason she felt limp, and couldn't push herself to run faster. She dared turn around and see Gajeel not standing there anymore and heard a loud thud in front of her. She yelped in surprise to see a very pissed off dragon slayer.

"That was a cheap shot, bookworm!" he growled as he ran towards her.

"Solid Script: Fire!" she yelled.

Gajeel dodge the spell easily and cast an iron shackle to bind her wrists and pin itself against the tree. She groaned and yelped in surprise when her back hit the tree and was now hanging off the ground. Gajeel placed his arms against the bark besides Levy's torso and supported her weight with his knee under her. They were now face to face with each other as they both felt each other's breath againts their face.

"Gihi," he laughed, "You're not gonna beat me like that. I admire your guts for trying though."

"Gajeel, put me down!" she scolded.

"No." he grunted, "you're just gonna run away again, and I like what's happening right now."

Levy took a moment to realize that they were indeed in a rather intimate position. Of course, the shackle bound on her arms would've said so otherwise but rising feelings they were both sensing overlooked it. She blushed and looked away, breaking eye contact with Gajeel. He couldn't help but smile at her gesture. To him it was, actually rather cute. He gently touched her face and held her chin to make her face him again.

"I know you like this." He said, "I can smell it. You're aroused by this. I know it's not fear like last time I had you pinned against a damn tree."

"Stupid Gajeel," she huffed, "why do you have to bring that up?"

"I know you forgave me, but I still can't forgive myself. I know you've been opening up to me, and out of all people, it had to be me."

He paused for a moment and Levy stayed silent to hear the rest of his words.

"To be honest…for however how long we have known each other, somewhere there, I let myself open up to you and I have no damn clue as to why." He said, "I think I get the idea…but I need to hear it for myself. Do you like me, shrimp?"

Levy froze stiff at his statement. She could her stomach churning to spew out the answer. There's was no avoiding him this time.

"I…" she slowly spoke, "had some feelings for you, for a while a now…"

That was all Gajeel needed to hear and leaned forward to kiss her lips. Levy was caught off guard but slowly relaxed and felt his strong lips devour hers. The iron binds on her wrist disappeared and quickly she wrapped her arms around his neck as quickly as he wrapped his around her waist, still holding her up against the tree. With one last strong kiss, they pulled away.

"Me too." He confessed and laid his forehead against hers and they both smiled at each other.

"Ahem!" someone coughed as they quickly turned their head towards Erza who was standing with her hands on her hips. Lily was floating behind Erza along with Juvia, Lucy, Evergreen and Mira with their hands in their gaping mouth as they witnessed Gajeel and Levy's kiss.

"Erza?!" Levy squeaked and hid her face against Gajeel's shirt.

"The hell do you want?" Gajeel growled, "We're in the middle of something here."

Erza tugged a smirk on her face, "We saw," she answered, "we're here to return her stuff that she left. But there has been a change plans now."

"Eh?" he questioned.

"Levy" Erza called, "come with us back to the guild, we have much to discuss."

Gajeel and Levy looked at each other with a confused face. He set her down gently and watched Levy's behind as she walk towards the group. The girls giggled and cooed towards her and they soon departed back to the guild. Lily came back to Gajeel with a smug smile on his face.

"So…I want every detail that happened while I left." Lily said.

"I said 'hello' and we kissed, that's it." Gajeel replied back.

Lily gave a stressed a sigh, "That's quite a pathetic romance story, Gajeel."

"What the hell do you want ,cat?" he growled.

"I want every single detail. Convince me dragon slayer."

Gajeel rolled his eyes as they went back home to feed the exceed something to satisfy his curiosity.

A/N: Chapter preview- last chapter- Chapter 5: Sweet Revenge