Forever Night

Chapter 2

Holier than Your Halo; More Dangerous than Your Horns

"Yo, Shorty," he called across the crowded room.

Things were picking up again at the guild. There were more jobs on the board, and consequently guild members were more confident. People respected them again, and their guild emblem no longer inspired riotous laughter. And they'd even started recruiting.

Levy liked all the new members, but was close to none of them. Jet and Droy were doing well, though she didn't see them as often as she used to. She was slowly getting used to working solo. But she wasn't so used to seeing them as married men. But of course she was deliriously happy for them. That helped. A little lonely at times, but happy for them.

It didn't hurt that they were different people now. All three of them. All, all of them actually. The love was the same, the friendship, but they were different people. So she was doing what she could to embrace the difference in herself. This second chance.

A second chance to live a life she almost lost.

"Shorty!" Gajeel yelled again, skirting around a drunken rumble between the bar and her table.

She sighed to hide a telltale smile, "What do you need now?"

"Hear you got yourself a magic pond, and I need it. Be ready to go in an hour."

Pantherlily's sigh echoed hers as he removed his sword from his back sheath. Jumped. And smacked Gajeel upside the head with it.

"Moron. Ask her politely."

"Damn!" he swore, rubbing the back of his head, "why the hell did you do that?"

"You were being rude, that's why."

"I'm always rude," Gajeel smirked, showing his pointed canines, "it's why she likes me."

Heat. Her skin flushed. Her heart flickered. Her blood hummed. Her lips went dry.

"Well," Lily rolled his eyes, "it's not. She gets on to you all the time for your lack of manners."

Those red eyes flashed, and her breath went thin and cold. "I'm rude. She talks to me anyway. So she likes me because I'm rude. Why in the hell else would she?"

"She likes you because she's nice, there's a difference," Lily informed him.

She thought her cheeks might be steaming with the heat. They were too busy bickering. They didn't see.

Thank goodness.

She shook herself. Time to interrupt them. Anything to stop the backwards compliments and … and well. The other. Her unspoken confession. Her not-so-secret secret. She couldn't listen to them carelessly drip like from their tongues.

"Why do you need me?"

Swallow. That's it. Don't let it show. Don't let it show.

Gajeel folded his arms and smirked. Lily folded his arms and smirked. They were so well suited for one another. Adorable. Scary. But adorable.

"That pal of yours, the one that used to have the dumbass hat-"

"Droy," Lily said.

"Jet," Levy corrected.

"Whatever. He said you knew where water creatures were, and we need a kraken."

Now she was interested. Krakens were rare and powerful creatures, though not intelligent in the same way as the merfolk and selkies.

"A kraken!" she clapped her hands together. "I've never seen one. Why do you need it? I can come with you? An hour? I'll be ready in thirty minutes. Fifteen even! Meet me at Fairy Hills."

She scrambled away from the table and darted for the door.

"Tol'ja she'd wanna come," Gajeel chuckled behind her.

"You were still rude," Lily snorted. "But you might be right. It might be why she likes you."

Pink tinted her flesh.

Running did that.

Author's Note: As previously mentioned, these updates will all be terribly short. More drabbles than real chapters, I suppose. Sorry about that. Ugh, Please review? (I hate asking for that when I feel that I'm not living up to my own standards...)