Forever Night
Chapter 3
Sawdust and Springs
He was beautiful in the forest. The dappled sunlight and shadow that flickered through the leaves played over his olive skin and raven-wing hair. She assumed that he'd grown up in a cave, but he was made for oak and pine.
Pantherlily, too, came alive in the forest. His rounded ears twitched to catch the smallest sounds, and his whiskers trembled with vibrations she could not feel.
The two of them moved in such silence that they made her footsteps rattle for miles. They all three had their talents. Their skills. Stalking and hunting wasn't hers.
Solid script was.
She cast silence around her and hover at her feet. She made no sound and left no trail. Lily nodded his approval. Gajeel chuckled his amusement. His lips moved, and she read some foul-languaged compliment on them, but the silence held, and she heard nothing.
She twisted her lips to wear one of his smirks, and his own lips went lax in surprise.
Lily made what was likely a sarcastic dig at his partner which set them off in a session of fond argument for no less than an hour. Levy heard not a word of it.
Six inches off the ground, she walked. Light step; light spirit. Their hands gesturing madly, and the morning sun tripping around them.
Yes. She'd gotten used to working alone. But there was something to be said for working in a team.
Gajeel was in a snit. Something – Levy didn't know what – had been said to upset him, so he walked in front of her and Lily. Strain hardened the line of his shoulders and pulsed in the veins in his forearms. She wanted to touch him. To put a hand on one of those arms. To put her cheek to the rough texture of his shoulder.
Elbow.
Well. She was hovering after all. So … shoulder.
Instead she picked up Lily, conscious of the self-satisfied smirk he wore. He was too cute for words, and, anyway, Gajeel probably deserved whatever it was he got. Pantherlily could be cocky and abrasive, like his partner, but he was also honorable and honest. He wouldn't say anything truly hurtful.
But he was a merciless tease.
Levy cuddled him and took comfort in the vibration she felt from him. Better if she stayed on his good side.
They reached the way-station as red-and-gold dusk saturated the sky. Whatever argument had separated her two companions during the afternoon had blown over by nightfall.
Levy put together a hasty meal, and Gajeel decimated a few cords of firewood to warm the place while they slept.
"You know," Lily told him, "it would make more sense for you to turn your arm into an ax. The dragon blade is overkill."
"No such thing as overkill," Gajeel grunted while hacking at the defenseless wood.
"I think there is," she laughed. "Give it a rest! There's nothing left but kindling you nut-brain!"
Lily shook his head to hide his surprised snort. Gajeel looked up at her in annoyance. "Nut-brain? Listen Short-stuff. I'm not taking shit from you today -"
"Tomorrow then?" she asked with a sweet smile.
Lily gave a full belly laugh and patted her on the shoulder, "Well done."
"Gihihi, I wanna see you try bookworm." He put the wood (shavings) into the fire pit and tussled her hair, "I bet it'd be fucking hilarious."
Lily was shifting his things and readying the top bunk for himself. Levy caught the twitch of his whiskers. The brief pressing of a paw to his nose. The small shudder that started in his shoulders.
Laughing.
"I'll see if I can make you laugh then," she adjusted her headband and stood. With him kneeling in front of the small fire, and her upright by his side, they were just the right height. Right on the same level.
He would have done it.
She could do it.
She would do it.
She flattened her hand and bopped him on the head three times. Flattening his spiky hair. Grinning that grin she remembered from his many acts of condescension.
"Don't worry, Gajeel. I'll try not to show you up too much."
Lily gave up on hiding his laughter and the old springs in his bed chuckled along with him. Levy, too, openly expressed her own pleasure, which called forth a petulant scowl on Gajeel's face.
In one smooth movement, he lifted her from the floor and threw her over his shoulder. Two steps and he dropped her on her own bed, her springs adding to the general noise. His scowl cracked, but only slightly.
He was a tough-guy. He had to look like a tough-guy.
She had to wipe hysterical tears from the corner of her eyes.
"Sounds like a shit load of fun," he told her in a voice that didn't quite carry over the merriment. Meant for her ears alone (though she was certain Pantherlily heard as well).
Still giggling she wrote log between them, and a small piece of wood fell from the air onto his steel-toed boots. "The fire's gone out already. Maybe a second try will work out better."
With eyes like lava and a grin of sharp glass, he broke the log in two. Then fourths. Then eights. With nothing but his bare hands.
She would have been more impressed if she hadn't already been aware of his strength.
Strength isn't everything, she wanted to tell him, but she liked the way his hands held onto the logs as he placed them in the firepit. She liked the size of the knuckles and the tight lines of his tendons.
Strength wasn't everything. But it was something.
Author's Note: I'm really liking the current arc of the manga for the little bits of insight into the new Gajeel. Sure he's been steadily softening since pairing with Levy for the Exams, but there's a special sort of camaraderie that's grown in him since becoming a member of Fairy Tail B. I think he'll be a little less rude and a little more sarcastic, we'll see how well I can work with that (I hope I do okay since Gajeel has always been my favorite character to write!). As always, thank you for reading and please leave thoughts, comments, complaints, and praise (especially that last one!) in the reviews!