So I was like "hey lets do some good whole-hearted fluff for gajevy week" and my brain was like "cool cool cool okay but angst" and oops here is my contribution to day 1

Betaed by WhatAreAllTheseTears

Warning: blood, angst, fascination with scars

Enjoy!

~ Diana

At first Gajeel wondered why Levy would stare at his arms. After a while he figured that it was because of his muscles, except that she didn't stare at Laxus or Gray like that. Then he figured it was his piercings, because all things considered arm-piercings were rather rare, but it should have been a shock once and then a regular sight, she shouldn't have kept staring with the amount of time they'd known each other which confused him. Then there was the way and when that she looked at them, it was always subtle glances, as if she was afraid that he'd catch her staring, but she never blushed when he did catch her. She just looked away for a few minutes before going right back to staring. At first Gajeel didn't recognize the look, but one day he was helping Levy with research and he saw it again.

Why was the look she gave his arms the same as the one she gave problems she was trying to solve?

So when it came to her gaze it turned out Gajeel was clueless, and Gajeel didn't particularly like being clueless.

As he inconspicuously watched her watch him he noticed one more thing. She wasn't just staring at his arms, but she was staring at one in particular, his right.

One night he stood in front of his mirror at home, examining his appendages. Trying to figure out why they were so interesting. Lily peeked into his room, watching him interestedly. "What are you doing, Gajeel?"

Gajeel jumped, startled. "I'm um… staring at my arms?"

Pantherlily waddled into the room. He floated up to Gajeel's shoulders and stared at the body parts in question from his friend's vantage point. "Why?" He asked.

"Levy keeps starin' at them."

Pantherlily floated back down to the floor. "And you're wondering why?" Gajeel nodded but continued to look back at his body. "Why don't you ask her?" Lily asked.

Gajeel sputtered. "I can't do that!"

"Why not?"

"Because then she'll know that I know that she's been staring at me."

"Yes…?"

"And I can't do that."

"Why not?"

"Cuz I… can't?"

Pantherlily rolled his eyes and walked back out of the room. Puppy love, he thought exasperatedly.

The cave was cold but dry. Gajeel and Levy scrambled around for something they could light, Levy only had enough magic energy for one spell left and as they didn't have anything to light a fire with so they wanted to save her spell for that. Gajeel cried out in happiness as he found some dry mulch in a corner of the cave. He moved the kindling closer to the center and Levy let out her last burst of magic energy writing a solid-script fire, lighting the mulch.

As the rain pounded outside the cave, Gajeel and Levy slipped off their soaked clothes, leaving them on the cave floor near the fire to dry. Levy warmed her hands by the fire, watching as Gajeel bent over, his back to her, to take off his wet pants. His old scars gleamed in the flickering light, the ones that had faded mostly to white by now were shinier than the angry red one which were newer. Levy liked staring at Gajeel's scars, she liked the jagged lines and the way that they moved when he did. She liked the tales they proved true. She looked at her own skin sometimes, and ran her fingers down it. She could feel some of her own scars, but she didn't have many, most were on her hands and they were from some type of paper or another. She had few calluses; mostly her skin was clean, pure, unmarred by anything. She sometimes wondered what it would be like to touch them. She sometimes wondered what it would be like to have them.

"Shrimp?" Gajeel asked. Levy blinked out of her thoughts, averting her eyes quickly from him. It wasn't the first time he'd caught her staring at him.

"Yeah?"

"Are-are you okay?"

Levy nodded, eyes glued to the dirt ground. "Why do you keep staring at me?" he finally asked. She'd known the question was coming for weeks.

Levy glanced back at him. Gajeel was facing her now, naked but for his boxers, he sat on the other side of the fire. The light from it flitted across his skin, marks and all, and across his face. That face that looked slightly concerned and very confused. A very Gajeel look if she did say so herself.

She shrugged. There was a newfound openness, she realized, between them. In this cave, with the rain pounding outside, and the fire that had just started but in no way would stay burning the whole night, with just the two of them. Technically they were on a mission, but they'd been separated from Jet and Droy and Lily and now they were all alone in a storm and Levy really wanted to touch Gajeel's skin.

Levy hadn't had her own thoughts this disorganized for a long time, but there was something about the rain and the cold.

She hadn't realized she was shivering but soon she was, no matter how close to the fire she got. "Shit. Why didn't you say you were cold?" Gajeel chided.

"I didn't know I was." Levy answered, but the response was feeble and Gajeel had already decided on a plan of action. He moved closer to her until they were just barely touching. He felt his clothes, making sure they were still wet so this would be the only way to keep her warmer, and then he held her. He shifted her into his lap, long arms covering her body protectively. Levy's side was pushed against his chest.

Levy could feel his own body heat radiating off of him, warming her up from outside in. She turned slightly so she was facing him and put a hand against his chest, feeling the ruddy dark complexion. Her fingers landed on a scar, smooth and small. What was this one from? Impalement? She couldn't think of any other thing that would make such a circular, small mark. She moved her fingers, drawing them on his skin, almost surprised when they didn't make marks of their own. She wound them up his chest and over his shoulder. Slowly, slowly, she felt down his arm, his right arm, the one with the swirl of scars at the bottom.

She trickled her fingers down. Touching that imperfect skin, feeling it in a way she never had before. When she finally reached the scars on his lower arm, which happened to be around her waist, she traced each of them. Tentatively, as if she was afraid any minute now Gajeel would pull back, that he would make her stop.

He didn't.

In his arms, with her fingers exploring the skin within reach, she had almost forgotten he was there. But he was, and when she pressed down on his wrist, feeling the bones beneath one particular one his breath hitched and she jumped, startled by his conscious presence.

"What-what are you doing?" He finally asked once he caught his breath.

She looked up at him, large hazel eyes that glittering in the shadows from the fire. "I-wanted to feel your scars." She spoke softly.

So that's why she'd been staring at his arm, with his clothes on it would have been some of the only scars she could see.

"Is that okay?" Levy asked cautiously.

Gajeel nodded without hesitation.

"LEVY!" He roared as the female wizard dropped to the ground, cradling her arm. The opponent of theirs, the reason they had been on this mission in the first place, had an odd looking sword, which had several blades so that with one swipe it would cut multiple times.

Gajeel ran as fast as he could to her, but she was shaking her head vehemently as Jet and Droy put all they had into beating the guy. "Help… them." She mumbled, eyes glazed and pale skin sickly sweaty.

"I'm not leaving you." Gajeel argued. He couldn't stop staring at her arm, oh god her hand, her precious dainty hand with which she used to write and cast her magic. It lay before him mangled, but not as badly as her arm which was striped with blood. Oh Mavis, Levy.

"Go!" The mage grit out, body beginning to shake from shock. "Go! Help them!"

"Levy I won't-"

"I said, go!" She snapped, pushing him away with her other hand. Her other hand which was colored red from her own blood. The hand she had been using to support her torn up arm and broken hand. She left a red mark on his clothes and Gajeel had to hold down the bile that threatened to crawl up his throat. Never before had he been so disgusted by blood, but it was just so unnatural to see Levy like that. Blood and muscle. Because Levy was pure and unmarred and Levy didn't have scars. Her precious porcelain skin was flawless. Awkwardly Gajeel stumbled to his feet and with her urging him on, trembling as her own adrenaline checked out and shock checked in, he fought their opponent. He fought for her.

The battle was soon over and Jet was kneeling next to her, her small body curled in a ball. Lily was speaking softly and Droy was saying something to Gajeel, something which he couldn't quite hear. His dragon slayer hearing directed solely on Levy and her heaving words.

"I need you to keep talking to me, Levy." Lily told her gently.

"I-I'm so-rry." She gasped out. "I-I tried to b-be like y-you."

"Hey. It's alright. You're not at fault." Lily responded. Droy had pushed Gajeel closer to her. Lily looked up at his friend, cross eyes snapping Gajeel from his gaze. "Gajeel! Your scarf!"

"O-oh. Right." Oh Mavis Levy was going to die, Levy was going to die, Levy was going to die, why couldn't he get this fucking scarf unwound from around him, Levy was going to die. He stumbled with the article of clothing which was finally ripped from him by Droy and wrapped tightly around Levy's wounded arm. It was quickly stained dark with her blood.

"Levy, dear, does that hurt?" Lily asked.

Levy frowned between shivers. "I don't-does what hurt?"

Lily's painted smile faltered for a second. "The scarf. It's wrapped pretty tightly."

"Oh." Levy glanced down at the arm in question, lightly touching the garment with her other hand. "I didn't-I don't feel it. It's all tingly."

Lily and Jet exchanged looks. Looks that didn't look good. Oh god Levy was going to die, Levy was going to die and Gajeel never told her, they never—Levy was going to die. "Is that bad?" Levy asked.

"No, dear. It's perfectly normal." Even Gajeel could tell that Lily was lying. Oh god oh god oh dear Mavis and anyone else above Levy was going to die oh god he would plead to anyone who would listen to let her live.

"Gajeel," Droy whispered so that Levy wouldn't overhear. "You're the strongest, please Gajeel…" He requested. Gajeel was kneeling beside her. He was picking her up, carefully cradling her to his chest. Jet had already run off, leaving the three others to carry Levy as far as they could to civilization while Jet ran for help.

It wasn't long before Gajeel's scarf was a used tourniquet, thick with spent blood, and had to be switched out for something else. They used Droy's shirt and as they were rewrapping Gajeel had begun to unknowingly cry.

"Gajeel, what's wr-wrong?" Levy rasped.

Gajeel was holding Levy while Lily and Droy applied the new make-shift bandage. She was shaking so fervently Gajeel was afraid if he tried to hold her still she would break. "I'm so sorry, Levy." He whispered. "I'm so sorry for not protecting you."

"Stupid Gajeel." She said with a weak laugh. Those hazel eyes of hers shone in the afternoon sun. "Think on the bright side, now we match."

Gajeel didn't know if it was possible to cry harder.