Okay, here's the second part of Secrets as promised! Hope you enjoy seeing things from Gajeel's POV. Happy reading! Oh, and my super awesome beta reader is on vacation right now, so loads of thanks to my other Bestie for checking over this for me. Love you Nicole4211!

GaLu Week: Day 7 - SECRETS (Part 2)

Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail.

SEEING HER HEART

Gajeel sat in his corner of the guild, mulling over what to do for the rest of the day. On one hand, he was itching to take a mission, but he kind of wanted to hang around the guild hall too. Things had been strange around there with Bunny Girl. And though he didn't know her all that well, even he could see that something was definitely up with her. For almost two weeks now, she'd been acting weird as hell, tripping and running into things, muttering instead of talking, stuttering all over the place.

He couldn't quite figure it out, and for some reason he hadn't deciphered yet, he wanted to. She was normally so put together and happy, moving easily through the guild talking to everyone she met along the way. So he was at a loss as to why she was suddenly acting so uncertain.

Then there was the way she'd run out of the guild the day before. Gajeel was almost positive she had just been making up excuses to leave, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out why. Mira hadn't been angry about the whole thing, and no one had done anything to make the blonde feel bad about her clumsy action. So why had she resorted to lying to leave right away?

Heaving a thoughtful sigh, he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He still couldn't decide what to do. He kind of wanted to see what Bunny Girl would do next, even if he was bored out of his mind waiting for her to show up.

"Gajeel..."

Hearing the Fire Dragon Slayer's voice, Gajeel grunted, then peered up at him with a dull expression. "I'm not in the mood. Go fight the Popsicle."

"I'm not interested in fighting. I came to talk to you," Natsu said solemnly.

The pierced man's eyes narrowed at his fellow slayer's tone, then he sat forward. "Why?" It had been a while since he'd seen Natsu so serious. The guy was normally so hyper, laughing and goofing off all over the place. So, seeing him this tense immediately put Gajeel on edge... "What's going on?"

He watched as Natsu did a quick scan of the room, then jerked his head to the side and walked off. Gajeel frowned as he stood to his feet and followed the younger mage. What the hell was going on? Why couldn't he just talk where they were?

"Oi Salamander!" Gajeel snapped as Natsu pushed out the back door to the guild and continued on to the training yard. "Why the fuck did you drag me out here?"

The fire mage pulled to a stop some distance away from the guild and slowly turned around, biting his lip anxiously. To Gajeel, it almost looked like he was unsure of himself, and that was strange as hell. Natsu wasn't exactly the type to think things through, and from what Gajeel had seen, rarely doubted himself.

This unusual behavior only served to make Gajeel even more suspicious. What the hell was wrong with him? "Okay, you're acting weird as hell. What the fuck is going on?" he growled.

Natsu swallowed hard, shuffling his feet before he spoke. "Something's wrong with Luce."

Gajeel paused for a moment. That's what this was all about? "No shit Sherlock. Tell me something I don't know."

"You noticed?" Natsu asked, his eyebrows winging up in surprise.

"Kinda hard to miss, dumb ass," Gajeel muttered, crossing his arms across his chest. "She's been acting odd. Now, what's that got to do with me?"

He watched as Natsu's expression changed again, staring at him as if in consideration, but what the pink-haired man was thinking, Gajeel couldn't tell. Then the Fire Slayer nodded his head, clearly coming to some sort of decision. "This is why it concerns you," he stated, holding up a small feminine looking book.

Gajeel eyed it for a moment, then shook his head. "Am I supposed to know what that is?"

"It's Lucy's diary."

Gajeel's eyes shot back up to the other man's face with a look of disbelief. "Are you out of your fucking mind? She's going to skin your sorry ass."

Natsu shifted uncomfortably. "I know, and once she finds out I let you read it, she's going to be even more pissed."

"Me read it?" Gajeel shouted, throwing his hands up to separate himself from the foolish man. "I'm not reading that fucking thing. She's going have every damn woman in the guild after you for this. I'm not letting you drag me into it."

With that, he spun on his heels and headed back toward the guild when Natsu called out, "Gajeel! I...I need your help."

That froze him in his tracks, and he turned to stare at the younger mage in shock. Natsu never admitted needing anyone, never believed he couldn't do something on his own. It was unheard of. Giving a soft curse, Gajeel stalked back over. He could see how much it had cost Natsu to say something like that, and he didn't have it in him to ignore such an act. "What is it, Natsu?" he asked gruffly.

"Luce...she's sad. She's been crying," he said softly, his eyes showing how much the idea hurt him. "...Because of you."

"Me?" Gajeel drew back at his statement. "How the hell is that my fault? I haven't done anything!" he protested.

The Iron Dragon Slayer frowned, trying to figure out what his guild mate was talking about, why Natsu would be blaming him for what was going on with Bunny Girl. He could understand why it bothered the Fire Freak to see his partner upset, but that didn't mean the jackass could set the problem on his shoulders.

Natsu shook his head quickly, his expression frustrated. "I don't mean it like that. I...just read what she wrote today."

"I already told you I'm not getting involved in that shit."

"Gajeel, you said you'd help!" Natsu declared loudly, his patience at a noticeable end. Then he gave the book a forceful shove into the elder slayer's face. "Now stop being such a chicken shit, and help me with Luce!"

Sending a nasty growl at the pink-haired mage, Gajeel snatched the diary from his hands. "Don't call me a chicken shit." He flipped through the pages at a rough pace, muttering curses the whole time before he came to the last submission. Looking up, he glared at Natsu. "I swear if I catch hell for this, I'm going to beat your fucking ass."

"Whatever," Natsu murmured, his mind already distracted as he pointed down at the page.

"This is such a bad idea," Gajeel mumbled, then turned his attention back to the slanted script on the page.

It took him all of five seconds to begin frowning down at the page, his eyes widening marginally the further he went. Before he knew it, he'd gone through the passage three times, but still his eyes couldn't seem to stop staring at it. He kept waiting for the words to change, to morph into something else, but each time, there they were, still just as shocking as the time before.

He didn't know how long he stood there looking at the diary, and quite frankly, he didn't know what to do with it. He was so confused. He felt like everything had been turned on its ear. Everything he'd thought he knew was no longer the truth.

He'd never imagined that he was the reason Bunny Girl had been acting the way she was. In his mind, they were friends, but not all that close. Of course, he wasn't all that close with anyone. Still, he'd had no reason to think that she saw him any way other than friends and guild mates, and now that he knew, he wasn't sure what to do about it.

Did he want to do anything about it? Now that the option was there, he was unsure what direction to take. She'd effectively blown his mind. It was all scrambled, every thought feeling more muddled than the last.

He'd always known when a woman was interested in him, always been able to see even the subtlest of hints, but this had quite literally thrown him for a loop. He'd always assumed that she had a thing for Natsu. They were nearly always together, and the two seemed far closer than what you'd expect from just friends.

Now, he'd been confronted with the fact that all of his assumptions were completely wrong. Bunny Girl had apparently liked him for a while, and he hadn't had a clue. He couldn't believe he'd missed it. Then again, he couldn't remember a single time she'd ever shown even the slightest sign of her affection for him.

Honestly, if he'd ever thought it a possibility, he'd have definitely been interested. She was gorgeous, with a body that any man would desire, but more than that, she was smart and thoughtful. Though the thing that made her the most impressive to him was her ability to forgive. He'd certainly given her plenty of reasons to hate him, and yet, she never had. And until now, he'd thought she had left that part of her life behind, along with any thoughts of him.

Now, it appeared that she hadn't, and thinking back to what she'd written, he couldn't help but cringe. The last part bothered him, her reference to his attack, but it also confused him to no end. Why would she want him after everything he'd done in the past? She could have her pick of all the men in the guild, so why him?

"You see now? You see why you had to read it?" Natsu asked, pulling him from his thoughts.

Gajeel nodded distractedly, his eyes still scanning the contents of her book. He found himself getting more and more curious about what else she'd written. Flipping back several pages, he found another entry about himself, one from about a month ago, and as he scrolled down the page, he couldn't help the grin that spread across his face.

"What the hell are you smiling about?"

Gajeel flashed a smirk in Natsu's direction. "She thinks I'm sexy."

"Give me that!" Natsu snapped, ripping the book out of the other man's hand before he could continue looking through the diary. "I didn't show you this to stroke your big ass ego."

Before he could stuff the book into his back pocket, Gajeel reached out and plucked it out of his hand again. "I still need it."

"What the hell for?"

"You wanted me to help, didn't you?" the Iron Dragon Slayer asked, arching a brow at him.

Natsu frowned, but nodded slowly. "Yeah, but how-"

Gajeel cut him off with a wave of his hand. "Don't worry about," he said before turning to walk back to the guild. A smile cut across his face as he looked down at the diary and called out over his shoulder. "I'll take care of Bunny Girl."

A/N: As you can see, it's still not over. lol I really didn't intend for this story to continue, but eh...whatever. :D I love writing these two, so I don't mind!