Chapter 1: Not Always Alone

3rd POV

A whole month; an entire thirty days is how long Lisanna's party lasted, but Lucy didn't care, in fact, she understood. The girl had come back from the being supposedly dead, and from what she heard, everybody was heartbroken when she died, especially her brother Elfman, and her sister Mira. But what the blonde celestial mage didn't understand was why in the process did they have to ignore her? All of Fairy Tail knew of her lonely past, and knew just how much she feared loneliness and being separated from those she consider her friends and family. Heck, it was the whole reason why the Phantom Lord battle had occurred. But Lucy tried not to think about it, she wasn't going to complain about feeling a bit lonely for only a month; that was just simply childish.

However, she was confused about her team mate's recent actions. As the days passed, she could feel the bonds they once held sprinkle away, as they were too busy being awe-struck by the white haired take-over mage named Lisanna. And despite wanting to be with her team, Lucy just kept away for the glares Lisanna had sent her way explicitly told her that she was not welcomed. Not only that, but the kind hearted celestial mage felt like the white haired girl needed more time catching up with her old friends.

Though in spite of everything, all of Fairy Tail ignoring her wasn't the strangest thing to occur; what was even stranger, was during that time she kept away, as the party was in full blast, Lucy found herself hanging out with a certain iron dragon slayer more and more.

Gajeel had watched as the blonde ended up quite distanced away from her team mates and her guild mates, and though she tried to hide it, he could see the sadness start to linger in her chocolate colored orbs. Having spent the majority of his life feeling completely along, the black haired man knew the feeling and the look all too well. Noting the look, he felt he still needed to make it up to her for what happened in Phantom Lord, despite Lucy already forgiving him, and hung out with her. At first it had been just to make it up to her, but then he later found he liked her company.

With Levy, it was always about books, or her asking about his past life, which he disliked greatly, but talking with Lucy, he seemed to have more fun. They would talk about missions, and funny things that happened on them. They would sometimes talk about magic, and Gajeel felt strangely pleased at just how interested Lucy was in his magic. She wasn't like most people who assumed since its dragon slaying magic it was a lot like Natsu's so they don't ask, mostly knowing how the Salamander's magic worked. She would ask him a bunch of questions, and always made sure to point out that if he didn't want to answer it, he didn't have to (though he would answer them all anyways). Gajeel also found he could understand Lucy more, he wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he sometimes felt like Levy was using a whole different language because he had troubles figuring out some of the things she would say, and that pissed him off greatly. It made him feel as if he was stupid, which he wasn't.

What only Lucy knew, and the fact by itself pained the blonde, was just how much this was hurting Levy. For Levy, her crush was there for one second, and in the next, he was hanging out with her 'best friend.' At first, Levy tried not to think about it much, thinking his pierced body would run back to her like always, but when he didn't, she felt hurt, and for some strange reason, blamed Lucy for all of it. The blonde would find her blunette friend glaring daggers at her from her seat at the guild, and it broke her heart knowing that it had to be her fault, but despite everything, Lucy couldn't find it in herself to push the man away. Lucy could sense that Gajeel too had abandoning problems, just didn't talk about them much, if not, ever, because knowing Gajeel, he wasn't one to get all mushy about his past and his feelings.

Currently, Lucy sat at the bar in the guild, drinking her signature strawberry smoothie. Mira was the only other person who hadn't ignored Lucy; in light Mira thought of the blonde as a second sister, and to be honest, she was one of the few who knew that Lisanna and Lucy were actually quite different. Glancing down at the blonde beauty, the older white haired girl smiled down at Lucy, her heart clenching when she noticed the small, and fake smile Lucy had flashed back. Mira wasn't ignorant to what had been happening to Fairy Tail, how they were treating the blonde, but that didn't mean she liked it. It was honestly quite strange for even her kind hearted younger brother had been giving Lucy the cold shoulder, something that wasn't like him at all.

Right then, the guild doors opened, revealing a black haired man with his signature piercing covered body. Gajeel's eyes ran over the guild, coming upon the blonde woman he was looking for. He took note of how her attention seemed to be taken by Mira, and grinned mischievously. He walked over to her with feather light feet, which was actually quite the feat considering his bulky body, and went behind her, grabbed her by the hips and whispered a small "boo."

"Ah!" Lucy yelped in shock, jumping lightly out of the dragon slayer's grasp. She turned to find the iron dragon slayer behind her, giving her a large, shit-eating grin. Sighing a breath of relief, she then mock glared at the man who was now chuckling at her. "Gajeel," she said lowly, still pretending to be furious, when in reality, they both saw that she really wasn't. Not with the the side of her lip twitching upwards as she tried to suppress a smile.

"Calm down Bunnygirl, it was only a scare." Gajeel waved off nonchalantly, hiding away his own smile. Rolling her eyes as she continued to play along, the celestial mage lightly slapped his arm. Gajeel ignored the slap on the arm, simply giving her a large grin that became so huge, it looked as if it was about to split his cheeks wide open. It was only then that Lucy's eyes softened at the grin, giving him her own soft, genuine smile in return.

And though he would never admit it, the look caused his heart to skip a beat.

Truthfully, it anyone else slapped him on his arm, he would've taken that as a sign they needed the crap beaten out of them, something he would have easily gave to anyone when he had been at Phantom Lord. But for some reason Gajeel allowed Lucy to touch him like that, not only because he didn't want to harm her unintentionally, but also because he didn't even like the thought of hitting her.

It was strange feeling, like a heavy pit in his stomach formed at the thought of, well, anything hitting his Bunny. The black haired man wasn't sure why he had not wanted to hurt to her, but just figured it was probably because he tortured her in the Phantom Lord battle, and then shoved anything related to it out of his mind.

"So, are you going to go on a mission," the blonde asked, changing the subject as she smiled up at him.

"Maybe, haven't been on one in while. What about you, going a mission soon? You haven't been on one in a month now," Gajeel pointed out as he sat down next to her, nether of the two noticing just how close they were sitting. It was to the point their knees and shoulders touched.

Lucy frowned, "same with you. And well, I was waiting for Team Natsu to finish catching up so we can go on one together, but it seems it might be a while."

The iron dragon slayer shrugged, "just go by yourself, what's the big deal?"

"Well… I've never gone on one by myself. I've always went on one's with either Team Natsu or just Natsu, so truthfully, I'm kind of worried," Lucy stated honestly, a blush rising at her cheeks as she looked down in her drink in embarrassment. She didn't want to seem so weak, especially in front of Gajeel, but it was true, Lucy was scared about going on one on her own, she had never done that before, and was scared about screwing it up.

"Then go on a job with me," Gajeel said simply with a shrug of his shoulders, causing the blonde to jerk out her thoughts and snap her head towards him. Two months ago, if anybody told Lucy that Gajeel would offer to go on a mission with her, she would've laughed at them, but here was he now, simply saying that she could go on a job with him and just shrugs it off.

Though to an outsider it wouldn't seem like much, it was actually in reality a big deal. Gajeel had gotten some reputation as lone wolf, always going out on missions by himself or with Lily. The only other person/group that had went out on mission with him before was Shadow Gear, but even then it had happened only twice.

"Are you sure you want to go on one with me?" She asked skeptically, nibbling her lip in hesitation. Lucy wasn't against the idea, in fact, she was kind of excited and a little bit anxious. It would give her a chance to get a new job experience because with going on jobs with Natsu or Team Natsu, it was always just destruction, and the blonde trying to keep them from ruining the entire city, which was easier said than done.

"Whatever Bunnygirl," Gajeel answered with a small shrug, looking down at the bar counter to find Mira had placed a plate of iron in front of him. The iron dragon slayer smirked hungrily and started to chomp on the metal. He remembered at first the blonde celestial mage would cringe at the sound of him eating the iron, but she gotten used to it rather quickly, and didn't seem to mind all that much anymore.

"Okay! Let's go pick out a job later then," Lucy cheered with a brilliant smile, obviously happy that her new friend wasn't against the idea of going out on a job with her. Catching sight of her beaming happiness, Gajeel fought away a blush. Looking away from her face he focused on the iron instead in hopes the burning feeling go away, meanwhile also ignoring how his heart sped up. He wasn't sure why he was reacting this way, but he felt his inner dragon growl with pleasure at how excited Lucy had gotten over just going on a job with him.

"You two going on a job," Mira asked, seemingly popping out of nowhere.

"Oh Mira, yeah we are," Lucy said answered with a tiny smile ,though she instantly realized just how much that was a bad idea with she saw hearts pop into her friends eyes, obviously daydreaming about the 'outcomes' that could come after this.

"Oh I can already see it now, the two of you, together, holding hands, acting lovey dovey! Then there will come the children, oh black haired blue eyed babies, and blonde haired red eyed babies!" Mira squealed, already picturing Gajeel's and Lucy's so-called future children running around.

The blonde sighed heavily, battling away her own blush, while Gajeel stiffened uncomfortably, now remembering why he usually beat the crap out of people who interrupted him while he was eating. "Oh Mira, we're not like that, its just a mission," Lucy stated simply, causing the white haired woman before them to pout in feigned sadness, but there was still a bit of hope in her eyes for the two.

It was only then that the celestial mage chanced a glance at Levy, finding herself suddenly down when she noticed the look on her ex-friend's face. The bluenette was glaring daggers at her with her jaw grounded together in clear fury, having overheard everything. She knew for sure that Levy was angry at the mention of her friend and her crush being together, when the bluenette felt that it was only herself that deserved the black haired man.

"Just like Bunny said, it's not like that," Gajeel said gruffly, biting off a piece of iron with more force than necessary. For some reason that statement didn't feel… right.

The older girl walked away, a bit down because she was hoping that the two most misjudged people she had ever met would just get together already; they fit so perfectly together in her mind. It was just like fairy tale; a lonely, saddened girl, being saved and loved by a strong man who comes in, whisks her off of her feet, and protects her with all he's got. However, for now Mira decided to keep quite content with her daydreams of a certain iron dragon slayer and celestial mage together.

The duo then just continued to drink and eat in a comfortable silence, which was another thing both Gajeel and Lucy liked about each other's company.

When Gajeel was with Levy, it was never quiet, and whenever there was a silent moment between them, Levy would start to squirm. She would was always become well aware of his presence, and didn't feel like the silent moment's between them.

Lucy's team, on the other hand, was always a loud, destructive group, so being able to sit in a silence with Gajeel, made her feel relaxed, because with them, something always happened, and a fight would break out. The blonde couldn't remember once of sitting with Team Natsu in silence.

Once Lucy finished her smoothie, she told Gajeel to meet her by the job request board for he was almost done eating his iron. She was too excited about the prospect of all of this.

"Hmm," the celestial mage hummed, grabbing onto a job request that needed a mage(s) to transport, rare, and extremely expensive necklaces to another town, and it seemed the only way to get to that town was to travel through a forest that was known to be filled with thieves.

"Find one Bunny," Gajeel asked coming up behind the blonde, almost scaring her again. He had this strange ability to sneak up on her, one of which he was well aware of.

"Yeah here," she said, handing him the paper. It read:

Need Help!

Where: Jukina

Description: I need to transport four necklaces that hold extremely expensive and rare jewels in them to Crocus. The only way to get there is to travel through a forest infested with thieves. Need strong mage(s), who are willing to fight, and are reliable and trustworthy.

Pay: 2,800,000 Jewels

"Sounds good Bunnygirl," the black haired man said after looking over the request. Glancing out of the corner of her eye, she the sight of an approving grin on his face.

She was glad he liked it, having purposely picked a job request that involved fighting. She knew it was right up Gajeel's alley, and plus she needed a challenge; when going out on jobs it was always the rest of Team Natsu doing the hard fighting, or just sometimes Natsu. For some reason they never allowed the blonde to do anything.

Lucy snatched the paper out of Gajeel's hands, excitedly running over to Mira to have her approve it. The black haired male just watched where he stood as the blonde jumped up and down excited like a bunny, and smirked to himself. He figured she would be excited; after all, it had been a whole month since she had been on a job, and she must be happy about not having to go on one alone. Mine… his inner dragon growled possessively, followed by a pleased purr when Gajeel thought about the possibility of Lucy being excited about the mission just because he would be going on it with her.

What confused the pierced man, was why his inner dragon would be so pleased at such a thought?

To be continued…

Revised 6/28/2016

A/N: So, we're already seeing attraction Gajeel has towards Lucy (or at least, his inner dragon). Is this better? I know it's a lot different from my original first chapter… Another important question: should I delete my other original chapters so this story is easier to follow? THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR THE SUGGESTIONS AND THE SUPPORT! I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY WITH THIS CHAPTER!