[[NOTE: if you have not read chapters 8 & 9 since October 7th, please reread them before continuing with the story. They had been redone to fix issues with pacing. Thank you]]

Hoo boy.

Okay, life had me caught up for a weeeeee bit longer than I would have liked. Wasn't originally planning on this 3 month break thing. I had a bad late fall and early winter. And then I couldn't figure out how I wanted to do this (though that was really a last few days thing). But I did it! Thought it is rather short. But I felt bad about how long freaking long I've left this alone (and really, ff in general – only reason I published the other was because I happened to find it, unpublished, on my hard drive. My apologies if anyone got their hopes up for another chapter from that) and I knew that the next scene would take me another eternity to put on paper (er, screen?) so I went ahead and published this little one.

A side note: having someone else watching Kill Bill in the same room while trying to write fluff doesn't work all that well. Fancy that.

Anyway, thanks so much to everyone who still kept up and reviewed while I was busy 3 I love you all and it helped me drag this chapter out of the dark recesses of my mind


"Gajeel?" Oops. She hadn't meant to say that out loud.

He lifted his head, his scowl melting into a look of surprise as he met her eyes. "Shrimp? What're you doing here?"

She rolled her eyes and said drily, "Giving my cats a bath, apparently." Cracking a rare smile, he chuckled, "Yeah, yeah. How're the furballs doing? What was it – Gail and Jeel?"

Trying to ignore the way his grin made her heart do acrobatics, she cleared her throat and replied, "They're fine. Come to think of it, you need to meet Jeel." Her eyes widened and she could feel a blush making its way onto her cheeks. That came out as more of an invitation than she had meant. Not that she would mind if he did come over. In fact, she'd love for him to meet his feline counterpart. Once Cana had pointed it out, it was quite obvious, really. She'd spent way too much time wondering about their similarities already. It would be fun to see how close they actually were.

Wait.

Wait wait wait.

Similarities… what if…

What if HE was as much of a cuddlebug as Jeel was. Oh, Mavis, it was perfect. The big tough guy who secretly has soft spots for small cute things and – She promptly reined her wild imagination in, shaking her head to try to clear out those mental images.

Trying to escape that line of thinking, she coughed and made her way over to see what it was he had been glaring at. Noticing the tin, she quirked and eyebrow, wondering what had offended him so. Looking up to ask, she noticed that he was staring off into space, seemingly lost in thought, a slightly glazed look in his eyes. She nudged him gently to break him out of it, giggling when he jumped at her sudden proximity.

Tapping the tin, she asked him, "What did this poor tea do to offend you? You looked like 'yer tryin to burn holes in it,'" deepening her voice to try to imitate him.

Surprisingly, he looked away, rubbing his neck in embarrassment, muttering something to quietly for her to hear. Raising an eyebrow, she looked at him expectantly. Swearing quietly, he looked away again.

"You're gonna mock me."

Crossing her arms, she tapped her foot, giving him her best teacher Look. "Out with it."

Sighing, he shoved his hands in his pockets, still avoiding her gaze as he muttered, "I can't really read kanji, okay?"

Taking her silence as shock, he continued, embarrassed, "Lil always texts me stuff in English, same as most people I keep in contact with. And I know enough to get by, just not for, you know…" he gestured helplessly at the complicated descriptions on the tins before him, "…this. I know the lingo and all that in English, but I'm way out of my depth here."

Listening to him, she struggled to keep from cheering. It was a language problem? She could most certainly help with THAT. She carefully schooled her ecstatic expression into a more neutral smile as he glanced at her, sheepish.

Smiling warmly at him, she plucked the tin of tea leaves out his hand. As casually as she could, she offered, "Want some help? I've got some free time, and you look like you could use some. And, uh..." She fiddled with the strap of her bag. "I could help you learn kanji, if you'd like." At his surprised expression, she huffed. "I AM a teacher, you know."

A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he nodded. "That'd be great."

Blushing slightly, she nodded in return. "That's a conversation for another time, though." She stuck out her hand and said, "Let me see the list. I'm familiar with the mall, I can figure out what order to get everything."

Laughing at her imperious manner, he started to comply. Suddenly he frowned, remembering something. "Are you sure? Lil said the mall is closing soon. You might not have time to run your errands… oh, sorry, 'wash your cats.'"

Suppressing a giggle at his reference to her sarcasm, she tilted her head in confusion. "You sure he said that?"

"Yeah. Said it was closing 45 minutes from when he called. Why?"

She shook her head. "That's strange. The shops in the mall don't close till 9 on Wednesday. It's very unlike him to make a mistake like that." Unless… no way. It wasn't possible. He couldn't have known that she was planning on coming here right after her classes finished for the day. She had only mentioned it to… shit.

She had told Lucy when she turned down the invitation to help psych up Juvia for her gala that morning. And then Lucy had probably let it slip to Lisanna, and Lisanna had dutifully reported to Mira, and then Mira had plotted with Lily... she shook her head for the umpteenth time since entering the store. She wasn't being fair to her friends – surely they wouldn't be THAT devious. It had to be a coincidence.

Smiling brightly at the amused man before her, she slipped the phone from his fingers – Mavis his hands were large – and turned to the shelves before her. "Now, let's see about those errands of yours."