Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
She messed up.
Miscalculated. Overestimated. Misjudged. Dropped the ball. Slipped up. Missed by a mile.
It would be curtains for her.
These were the last thoughts that whipped through her mind like a dust town storm as she tumbled off Aurora. A woman screamed. Her mind went blank as pain lanced through her shoulder the moment she hit the elephant's tough hide . All she could do was stay curled up in preparation for her inevitable meeting with the ground. There was no telling what the fall would do to a fragile person like her. Levy would be put out of the ring for weeks, if not months. How would she earn money? What would happen to Aurora with her gone?
She was so stupid, what a rookie mistake. Her wrist had wavered too much and she let her senses become clouded with the doubt in that one second of misplaced muscle. Shame and panic stung as they rolled in her stomach.
Everything slammed harshly back into focus when a gruff voice lashed out for her and pair of hands twisted roughly in her clothes to catch her behind her knees and back, roughly crushing her into a warm chest.
Sound returned in a crashing wave as she vaguely recognized her elephant's distressed calls for her and people in the stands were hollering and crying; she could catch slips of Erza and Laxus' commands to orderly file out of the tent. Jet and Droy ushered Aurora out the other side.
It seemed like such a big fuss for something so opposite of dire.
Bile rose in her throat as whomever was carrying her quickly strode away from the crowd and shouting. Levy drew in a breath and opened her eyes. Gajeel's face shifted into focus, outlined in front of the night sky, his jaw shut tight. She whimpered and tore from his grasp with all her strength that remained, fumbling across the grounds to an edge of a stall where she emptied her stomach. Between her gasps for air, she heard him sigh and move toward her. The man set a heated palm between her shoulder blades as she heaved and shook and wept with the pulse of adrenaline in her veins.
"Chut, petit. Vous êtes très bien, juste respirer."
He felt foolish the second the phrases stumbled from his mouth, tripping over some of the accent in his haste. The words were nothing special, just the regular 'you'll be okays' and such, but the rhythmic phonetics of the words were what mattered. Lily had said the same things, over and over again while he'd been bedridden for a week when he was fourteen. In the worst of it, when he truly succumbed to fear, his caretaker had sat on the edge of his bed and murmured the words to him as he dabbed a rag to Gajeel's burning brow. Gajeel wasn't even aware he had memorized the words in his feverish state. But it had helped him, and he hoped that for once he could do the same for someone else. He was relieved that it seemed to do the trick after a few minutes when her breathing finally started to even out and she looked back at him. Her eyes were glassy and bloodshot.
"I-I didn't fall? You cau-caught me?"
"Yeah." He rubbed small circles into her back, at a loss for what else to do. Sick jungle animals were an entirely different thing from shaken bookworms.
Levy steadied her weight on one hand and blindly reached back to his knee, grasping his hand. For a second, she thought he would reject it and shake his hand from hers. It was a bold breach of boundaries, but it was the only way she could convey the thanks trapped in her raw throat. She feared opening her mouth should her stomach betray her again. Instead, his palm swallowed her fist and his fingers brushed against her wrist, and he flexed his hand once in reassurance.
She retched once more as the world settled and a migraine pounded against her temple. Levy sniffed and set back on her haunches, running her free hand over her tear streaked cheeks. Gajeel stood and helped her back to her feet. In the end, he scooped her back up into his arms when she managed a only few wobbly steps, looking for the world like a newborn deer.
A tent flap curled back of its own accord to allow them into the bigtop.
The elephant stepped into the ring, jovially swinging her head to the music that played for them. The children in the seats laughed and waved at her, squealing in excitement as Aurora the elephant returned the friendly gesture. Jet and Droy flanked each of her sides and Levy led the way in front of the pachyderm. The lights caught the sequins sewn into her costume and on the jewels Aurora flaunted atop her head.
Decorated in stars to shine as bright as their smiles, their introduction began.
The team, affectionately coined Shadow Gear when they were kids, bowed in the center of the ring. Aurora blew Jet and Droy kisses as they left to their respective places at the sides of the ring. The audience cooed and awed at the sweet scene as Droy pretended to catch the kiss and put it in his pocket for later. Jet acted as if struck in the heart and tripped backward over the perimeter of the ring, the children's laughter uproarious at his overdramatic game.
Levy grandly spun on one foot to face the elephant behind her, hands set high on her hips and head tilted back.
"What shall we do first, 'Ror?" At the question, the elephant raised her trunk to show her mouth and trumpeted loudly. The elephant rider cocked her head and tapped her chin, considering Aurora's speech. A broad smile broke out on her painted face, "Good call, girl! You always know just what to do!"
Levy signaled to the red head and Jet seamlessly tossed her two metal hoops. Levy caught them with ease and placed one over Aurora's extended trunk. She bobbed her head and the music picked up as Levy stepped through her hoop and the pair began hula-hooping to the William Tell Overture. Cheers burst like fireworks as they carried on with the familiar tune.
"Bet you can't go faster!" Levy stuck her tongue out in challenge to the pachyderm and the song raced faster with their hoops.
She counted down the beats to when she would falter, the hoop clattering to the ground at her feet. Her lithe frame still rocketed comically as if the hoop were still in place. Aurora cried out in victory, spinning the hoop up her trunk until it shot up in the hair and she caught it with a flourish.
Levy stamped her foot in the dirt floor and crossed her arms over her chest, "Show off!"
Aurora tossed the hoop over to Droy, then ruffled Levy's hair with her nose. They made a show of getting back on good terms, Levy placed a noisy kiss to the wrinkled hide of her elephant's trunk.
Levy stepped away to signal to Droy this time and two silk top hats were thrown to her. She teased and baited Aurora with the hat before finally handing it over. The music slowed and flowed into a basic children's song. She held the hat to her head and instructed the elephant to copy her, as if the large animal wasn't already familiar with their routine, forwards and backwards.
"Ready, girl?" Levy snapped her fingers to the beat, "Five, Six, Seven, Eight!"
The elephant followed her master's steps; one foot crossing behind the other for two steps to the right, they paused to kick out one foot and then the other, and repeating the action to the left. The audience crowed with delight as the duo took their bow, tipping their hats in thanks. Aurora threw hers carelessly over her shoulder and snatched her owner around the waist.
"Wha- Hey!" The gentle giant held tight to Levy and dipped her in a final pose, the girl outlandishly huffed and exaggeratedly crossed her arms back over her chest. "I'll teach you to steal the show, Aurora!" She scrambled out of the elephant's hold and snatched the toy gun flung in her direction out of the air. "This town's not big enough for the two of us, tusker!"
The crowd gasped and yelled orders for the beloved elephant to run. The audience was on the edge of their seats; most of the kids had stood up and were jumping in the stands. Levy raised the water pistol to aim, Aurora comically covered her eyes with her humungous ears and waved goodbye. Her finger pulled the trigger and water sprayed Aurora's chest in a direct hit. The elephant slowly lowered to the ground and went limp.
Levy flipped the gun in the air, catching it upright and pretending to blow smoke away from the top of the barrel, and finished with a bow.
The audience cheered and Aurora's signature song started up, her signal to stand back up. Jet and Droy took their places on either side of Aurora as Levy hefted herself into her spot behind the elephant's head. The pachyderm began her tromp around the ring, while Levy stood on her mark and bowed backwards into her handstand. The clapping was thunderous and feet stomped along on the ground. She gulped hard, bending her torso toward the elephant's back. Her ankles wobbled for only a moment as she stuck the landing. As she threw her hands over her head, a flash of movement in the corner of her eyes caught her attention.
She caught sight of Gajeel leaning back against a support beam, grinning rakishly and tipping his head to her.
The next time he saw her, she was picking apart a sandwich with one hand, as the other rested in a sling fashioned from cloth gauze. The appendage was still in its mending phase and obviously taking its toll on the elephant rider's usually brighter mood. The tent where they ate was unusually quiet that afternoon, which Gajeel took it as a near-the-end-of-season miracle and quietly slunk his way to her bench.
"Bit old to be playing with your food, aren't ya?"
Levy startled a little, snapping her head around to face him and raising one of her thin brows when she saw who it was. "This coming from the grown man that throws cutlery?"
He comfortably settled his hands in the pockets of his trousers and smirked down at her. "This coming from the kid that does summersaults on jungle animals."
She rolled her eyes and glanced to the empty spot beside her. "Are you going to sit down and ask me how I'm doing or would you rather continue on the track we're currently heading down? 'Cause I gotta say, Lil' loves sharing your childhood mishaps and I have a few trump cards up my sleeve." Her grin was a carbon copy of his smarmiest smirk.
"I'll let you in on a little secret, half pint." He paused to settle into the seat next to her before continuing, "Lil's stories tend to go both ways, and I gotta few of my own set back for just the occasion." His laugh was rough and warm in her ears as he caught sight of the dread obviously plastered across her face.
The girl laughed nervously and shrugged her shoulders. "Truce?"
"Aye…For now." The juggler's eyebrows scrunched together as his eyes fell on the purple bruise peaking out from the edge of her shirt, the injury set just above her collarbone. "So, how are you holdin' up?"
Levy sighed, briefly going back to plucking at her sandwich before looking back at him. "Okay, I guess. Not much pain, it's more the sour feeling inside that I gotta get over."
"Ye're not the first to slip up during an act. Besides, it was about time I payed back for the patch job." Gajeel lightly touched a finger to the faint and tiny scar just above his brow.
She snorted, bristling her shoulders warily and picking at a frayed thread in the cloth. "Well, thanks."
When she moved, a black stain caught his eye and, without thinking, he brushed his hand over her shoulder blade, thinking it was a bug. When the offending smudge didn't fall away, he moved his gaze back to her exasperated countenance. "What's that?"
"Natsu's artistic skills. I don't even know what it is, all he said was that my bandages needed some pizazz and came running with a black marker. I only hope it's not something vulgar…or worse, misspelled."
Gajeel chuckled and leaned farther back to get a good look at the sloppy mark. "Ye're in luck, it's the Tail's mark. Bit of a crude take on it, but obvious."
A sigh of relief rushed out of her and she finally picked up a corner of her sandwich to pop it in her mouth. "Thank goodness. Luce had been around and she hadn't laughed or punched him, so I had a glimmer of hope that it wasn't anything too bad."
A comfortable silence lapsed between them as she began to eat her meal and her company busied himself with watching the rest of their troupe dwindle from the tent.
He also watched her from the corner of his eye, relieved that she seemed to be to doing okay and that the injury occurred to her non-dominant arm. Gajeel cleared his throat to catch her attention. "Got any spare talents until you can get back in the ring?"
Her mouth twisted grimly and her eyes faded, "I don't really have anything left and I doubt 40 people want to watch me read for ten minutes or so." She sighed once more, the thing heavier and melancholy compared to before. "Guess my next trick will have to be pulling money from my ears because taking care of Aurora takes plenty of it and I only have a few notes tucked away in my sock drawer."
"Tch, you know as well as I do that Lil' won't let that elephant get anywhere close to starvin' or cold. Makarov and the whole damn circus ain't gonna let you get near it either."
"You make it sound so easy. You can't deny that if you were in my shoes, you wouldn't feel a little odd about not being able to pull your own weight and having to rely on others to care of not only you, but your responsibilities. Plus, with the end of the season coming up, I have to cover my rent for the dorm the second we show back up in Magnolia."
Gajeel rolled his eyes and, gently because it was her injured one, bumped his arm against her. "Knock it off, you worry too much. And, if you need help covering stuff, then I'd help." As an afterthought and in response to the sly look she was giving him, he added, "And Lil' too."
Levy hummed and ate another bite of her lunch, the satisfactory curl of her grin not lost on him.
"And not because you've gotta bum arm." The curl vanished from the corner of her mouth as she whipped her head back around to eye him disapprovingly. Levy opened her mouth to object further, but he gave her a look and continued. "Not because of that either, so don't even start. You just happen to not grate on my nerves half as much as the rest of this crazy circus." And damn it all if that didn't incline him to offer a few favors to her.
She scoffed good-naturedly and propped her chin up on her hand. "I'm touched. Really, it's such an honor. Glad to know I'm not as much nails-on-a-chalkboard as the rest."
Gajeel leaned closer to her, his voice dropping to a growl. "Weren't you just a few missed performances from getting kicked to the curb, shorty?"
She tutted at him and awkwardly attempted to shove him away with her opposite arm. "Yeah, yeah. You've made your point. Knowing you, you'll indent me- with interest."
"Nah, but I could think of a few ways to return the favor. All of which involve feeding time in the lions' cage."
"You're horrible! No sooner would my arm heal, it wouldn't be chomped clean off."
He purposely flashed his teeth at her in a wicked manner. "Beggars can't be choosers."
"In that case, I'll just have to find someone else I happen to not aggravate to help me."
"Good luck with that." Gajeel rolled his eyes, earning him retaliation in the form of his company childishly sticking her tongue out at him.
Another comfortable silence spread as their mirth hung around them.
Her thoughts got the better of her before too long and she suddenly felt foolish. She was a grown woman and if someone was going to offer her such a deal with no strings attached, she should be grateful accordingly.
Levy dropped her hands to her lap and inquisitively angled her head at him. "You're right, beggars can't be choosers." She stood, picking her empty plate up in her good hand and stepping up next to him. "Thank you, Gajeel." It shocked the hell out of him when she, of all people, gave him a look that could make the hardest of criminals weep for forgiveness and leaned down to ghost her mouth over his cheek. "I appreciate it."
She walked away like nothing happened and moved into the kitchen, insisting to Mirajane that she could rinse off her dinner plate.
Hours later, staring up at the underside of Lily's bunk in the middle of the night, he wasn't even sure it had been real, the touch had been so light and quick. Little did he know the elephant rider was trapped with the same restless question.
-French
Chut, petit. Vous êtes très bien, juste respirer: Hush, little one. You're fine, just breathe.
-Circus vocab.
tusker: elephant
A/N: *mischievous laughter