Gajeel awoke from his slumber as an apple smacked him in the face. He looked up at the tree he was leaning against blearily, but the damn thing wasn't a fruit tree. He looked down again to see a smiling Lucy holding a bushel of apples.
"What the hell, woman?" He snarled, noticing that Natsu had been similarly awoken.
"Breakfast," she said cheerily. "I gave it to you like that because you two couldn't not fight for just one night. But hey, I got to sleep in a comfy bed, so no knee to the balls!"
"Uh thanks," he conceded, taking up the apple and swallowing the whole thing in two bites. "Where's Shorty?"
"Urgh, close your mouth when you eat and Levy is still in bed. Poor thing's arms and legs are hurting, because someone didn't carry her bag for her."
"It's her bag," Gajeel objected.
"True."
"Salamander could have carried it!"
"Also true."
"You're still blaming me, right?"
"Yep."
"That's not fair."
"True."
"Damn woman!" Gajeel snapped, getting to his feet. Lucy wasn't quite sure if he was referring to her or Levy, but he stomped off towards their bedroom, so her first job of the morning had succeeded. She looked down as Natsu was pulling apples out of the bushel at a great rate.
"Oi, I just paid for these!"
"Thanks, Lucy!" Natsu beamed through a full mouth. Lucy sighed and rolled her eyes before sitting down next to him to join him in breakfast.
===][===
Levy snuggled against her pillow with all of her strength. Her limbs were buzzing from the previous day's exertions and she had no plans to get out of this bed in the near future. She heard the gruff voice order her to get up, but she merely squeezed her eyes tighter shut and increased her grip on the pillow.
Then the entire world span upside down as Gajeel grabbed the blanket and yanked, easily pulling Levy off of the bed and onto the floor. She landed with a startled squeak, trying to ignore the annoying laugh coming from far above her.
"Just like a kitten!" He mocked. Now, she was pissed. Would everyone just stop comparing her to a kitten? She jumped to her feet to berate him, but that just made the height difference painfully obvious.
"Don't call me that!" She huffed.
"Oh? What animal would you like me to compare you to?" He asked with a broad grin. Levy pouted, thinking. Damn it, but early morning was not the best time for her cognitive faculties. She was hardly a lion or a tiger, a bear or wolf, was she?
"A…butterfly," she said at last.
"That's actually weaker than a kitten," Gajeel replied, raising a metal studded brow.
"But it's beautiful and delicate, just like me. Also, it's elegant and ladylike."
"Nah, I think kitten is better," he said, rubbing her hair in a condescending fashion. "It's all cute and feisty, even though it has no claws! Gihihi!"
Levy said about a hundred swear words in her mind that never quite reached her mouth. But then, what had Lu-chan said? Gajeel likes cute? Was this his bizarre way of saying that he liked something about her? Wait! This is what he was going to say at the table last night! That she wasn't elegant and ladylike, but round and cute!
"Why are you here?" she asked after a moment, stifling her anger.
"Lucy said to me – hey, Shorty's being a little short baby, go and wake her short ass up."
"She did not!"
"Well, words to those effect," Gajeel clarified. He folded his arms and looked over at her hefty backpack, making a disgruntled tut. "Jeez Shortstack, if you needed help, why didn't you just ask?"
"It's my burden, I can carry it," Levy said sternly. "I do it all the time when I'm with Shadow Gear."
"Little people shouldn't be so proud. Just ask for help."
"Big idiots shouldn't be so proud. They should just offer to help," Levy retorted. Gajeel scowled at the returned sentiment.
"Don't be all clever, turning my words back on me."
"That only works when you're wrong!" Levy asserted. Gajeel grunted this time, annoyed by her persistence. Damn Shrimp wasn't going to lose a war of words! Even though he loomed over her with his intimidating demeanour, she treated him as an equal in an argument. Didn't treat him like a monster, a sadistic sociopath who inflicted harm upon that tiny…
Where the hell was he going with this train of thought? Now he was really pissed, not liking how he was thinking. Damn her for being so cute in her pyjamas, it was distracting! Fine! She'd won this round, but his male pride demanded a vindictive comeback, so he reached over her head to grab the scruff of her t-shirt, effortlessly lifting her off of the ground.
"Fine! I'll offer to carry your damn bag! Should I carry you as well?"
"The bag will be fine! But it's really heavy…"
Gajeel put her down and threw the bag over one shoulder. There was a tonne of books in it, but for the slayer it was nothing. He headed for the door, thinking about if he could get a proper breakfast. Bacon and eggs, none of this pansy fruit.
"Hurry up and change, Shorty. We don't have all day."
"By the way, I'd say that you were a wolf," Levy claimed. He stopped, smiled and nodded before leaving. That sounded about right to him. Wolves were badass. Yes, Levy thought, a wolf. Sometimes violent and aggressive, but possessing a noble spirit and always strongest when with their pack.
"Ah! What am I thinking about!?" She said quietly, hands on blushing cheeks. She hurried to get ready.
===][===
"That was not a large breakfast," Gajeel moped as they went down the mountain trail. Levy looked up at him in shock. They'd all gotten a full English breakfast with his being three times the size of hers and he'd still taken half of her breakfast. She'd been saving the egg, damn him! At least she'd gotten some bacon inside her. But the sausages and black pudding all went to him. She liked meat too, you know!
"Really!" Natsu agreed. He'd tried to steal Lucy's, but she'd fended him off successfully, and by the time he'd turned back, Happy had snatched his sausages from the other side. Of course, he'd eaten about ten apples beforehand, but still.
"I wasn't aware mealtimes were supposed to be battlegrounds," Lucy sighed. "Can we at least get through lunch without any fighting?"
"No," Gajeel and Natsu replied at the same moment and laughed. Then they realised who they were sharing a joke with and harrumphed, turning their noses up at each other. They'd left the mountain village after eating, and were following the trails through the foothills down to the supposed discovery. It lay in the shadow of this mountain.
"I wonder what Drakonic is like," Levy said aloud. Bereft of the weight of her books, she was much more conversational. "I wonder what the subject-object-verb order is."
"The what?" Gajeel asked.
"You know, what order the sentences go in. English is subject-verb-object. I ate the apple. Japanese is subject-object-verb. Watashi wa ringo ga tabemasu. Also, English puts the adjective before the noun, but French puts it after. The black cat. Le chat noir. And…"
"Smartass," Gajeel teased with surprisingly good nature. He frowned as if he was thinking. "I think dragons put a lot of emphasis on the person. Who they are, what they do is important to them, so the subject would go first. I think."
"Wah! That's so great!" Levy enthused, not used to seeing Gajeel thinking. "Anything else?"
"Igneel always said that emotions were important," Natsu said from a little further ahead. "Words changed depending on the mood of the writer or the thing they were writing about. He said that my name as written is with great joy, as that's what he felt when he adopted me."
"Natsu," Lucy said quietly.
"Gihi! I remember that! The old man said something about my name being pragmatic. Bastard never felt any kind of joy!" Gajeel's tone was light, as if fondly reminiscing. Levy watched him for a long moment and turned away blushing when he noticed.
"That sounds complicated," she said to cover the moment. "I hope I can understand it."
"Well, if you can't no one can," Gajeel said. Levy blinked. Had that been a compliment? Sure, it'd been phrased in an unusual way, but still! He'd just praised her! It made her feel a lot better; as she'd been a bit nervous about the company she'd been keeping. Natsu and Gajeel were immensely powerful, two of the strongest in the guild. And Lucy wasn't far behind that, in Levy's personal opinion. She was the weakling here, and by a large margin of strength to boot.
But Gajeel believed in her! She felt like she was walking on a cloud!
"Levy's gone all red!" Happy tried to declare, but barely got a word out before Lily tackled him to the ground. Damn it! How many people was he going to have to tackle to get these two in a functioning relationship!?
===][===
They came across the ruins and they were amazing. Huge sandstone walls were erected, with gateways large enough for a very big creature to pass through. The ruins themselves receded under the mountain, making only the very entrance visible to them. But they just went up, for over a dozen metres, making the party feel very small.
"This must be how Shorty feels standing next to me! Gihi-ow!"
"It goes beneath the earth," Natsu noted. "Strange."
"Why?" Lucy asked curiously.
"Dragons are flying creatures. Why would they build under the ground?"
"You're over-thinking things, Salamander! Maybe that's the reason this is the only dragon ruin today; this is the unusual one. All the spires and towers were collapsed."
"Maybe," Natsu said in an unconvinced manner.
Before the ruins were canvas tents, the camp of the archaeologists. They rushed up to greet the Fairy Tail mages. At last, one managed to identify himself as the leader of the expedition. Alexander Cromwell was a surprisingly young man for his position, in his thirties at the most. He spoke with a charming accent and the slayers couldn't help but notice how the girls sort of gravitated to the front to listen to him speak.
That could not go unanswered.
Both of the Slayers shared a nod in a rare moment of brotherhood and marched towards the ruins.
"Wait!" Alexander called. "We're still trying to confirm if the ceiling is secure, and we don't know what kind of wild beasts might inhabit the depths of that place!"
"Sorry, but don't worry if the place is unstable," Natsu returned.
"Property damage is our thing, we'll know if it's good," Gajeel agreed.
"Wait up!" Levy cried, running after them. "I wanna see the writing!"
Lucy looked around and sighed. "Why do I feel like I'm being dragged on another dangerous mission against my will?"
===][===
In the depths of the temple, a nose twitched.
"They're coming. They'll be here very soon, Garren." Out of the gloom advanced the tall, black haired man, eyes glowing crimson in the dark. He looked down at the man who had addressed him, crouching on the floor like some kind of predator.
"Just remember Erutan, Gajeel is mine."
"Suit yourself, old geezer. Out of my kindred slayers, I'm much more interested in this Salamander." Erutan smiled in a most disturbing manner. "Did you see the magic games? He's so strong!"
"You'll never beat him."
"Maybe not, but I'd like to try. After, that's why you hired us, isn't it? We'll take care of the firebrain and the girls. You'll get your one-on-one battle that you desire."
"Watch out for that black Exceed. He's probably stronger than the girls," Garren advised.
"Gotcha." Erutan began to laugh, his skin forming rocky scales. "Maybe Salamander's fire can scorch iron, but can it handle rock?"
"Iron's harder to burn than rock, moron," Garren scoffed.
"Shut it, old man! I'm too excited to listen to your downers! Bring it on, Fairy Tail! We will crush you!"