Chapter 6: Eject

"Oh. It's you."

To say that statement was least expected was a well, uh… an understatement.

After the whole Phantom Lord battle, Gajeel Redfox and his companion, Juvia Loxar, were accepted into the guild easily by Makarov. The guild had been gauging the reactions of the ones who were hurt by the man made of iron. That simple yet nonchalant sentence passed through Esther's lips like a calm river. Quiet and resounding. Her lithe form twirled in her stool as she stood with a graceful and unreal flourish, her cloak about her.

She silently walked up to the man, who was sitting, and Natsu tried to hold her back. "Esther-chan! Hold on just a minute!" The girl ignored him as she bent to be practiclly inches away from the fellow dragon slayer's studded face.

Her lips formed into a bloody smile.

She cocked her arm back and punched Gajeel so forcefully in the jaw that there was a loud crack and he tumbled to the ground, groaning.

"Yeah..." He muttered, looking up at the mysterious girl he'd been musing over from a distance. "... Guess Karma's a bitch." Gajeel finished, sitting back up. Esther reached out her hand and chuckled.

"And a 1/2." She quipped before pushing a pressure point in his left arm, his favored one, and walking out the door with an evil and quiet laugh. Gajeel didn't know whether to be angry that he couldn't use his arm for another few hours or to be impressed.

He went with the latter.

"Neeya, come."

The shy cat happily agreed to, flying into her owners arms.

The two had been in a bakery, picking up Neeya's favorite syrup covered strawberries and a strawberry cake for the sixteen year old. The old baker had known that she had gotten hurt but didn't know the extension of her injuries. To cheer her up he gave her a ticket to Akane Resort that he was trying to get rid off for ages.

"That was really nice of him." Neeya murmured and Esther nodded, seeming indiffrent but inside warm.

They walked down the route they always take after a bakery trip. In the woods. Neeya had been speaking shyly about Happy (to Esther's enjoyment) when the demonic dragon slayer picked up an unfamiliar scent. Well, unfamiliar to the woods.

Keeping up the pace, Esther's guess was confirmed when she saw the tall figure's back to her. The long, black, spiky mane of hair and feather clad shoulder. He must've caught her footsteps too because she could see his ears twitch.

"Gajeel?" She asked softly, coming up to his side. He grunted and she scanned the area, hoping that if he was hunting she hadn't scared his prey away. Why would she care anyway? Not like he cared about her face when he attempted to rearrange it. But still it was almost common curtesy to respect a dragon's hunt. It was something her dragon always taught her.

So when nothing happened, she thought she did scare whatever it was off when he looked down at her with those strawberry-blood colored eyes. Is this why she was so intimidating to people? Because of her eyes? If so, she understood perfectly now. Esther didn't blame them one bit. They looked dangerous.

And together in these woods, they looked destructive.

"Whatta ya' doin here?"

His voice reverated through the air, deep and rough. Scratchy like sandpaper yet oddly melodic and smooth. She looked back the way they came and nodded her head towards it.

"Neeya and I take this path after we visit the bakery."

Gajeel nodded and she had started to go back to walking when the shyest thing in the universe spoke up.

"Are you..looking for something? G-Gajeel?" Neeya spoke and both dragon slayers looked down to Esther's arms in mild surprise. Gajeel, noticing that she thought like a small child, decided to just answer. He was pretty sure Esther was wondering the same.

"Looking for a spot to build a house."

Esther hummed in understanding. Tilting her head, it look like she was staring at him but it was actually through the iron man.

"Then you would want forest ground up north. This does not seem like much but, your house would sink in the next two years." She then grabbed the man's scarred hand and began leading with a sense of purpose. "Forgetting not to mention it is not to close to the city but close enough to where a morning jog will ensure no wanderers can go up and vandalize."

Her soft voice was almost to hard to pick up, but Gajeel followed her none of the less, almost grateful that the purple cat asked what his agenda was.

They would be fine. Everything was cool between them after Esther punched Gajeel in the face.