A/N:

Thanks to everyone who sent me names of the islands. It was a big help.

Chapter 7: Forgiveness Is Earned, Not Just Given

I was a NOT a man of my word. It was extremely hard trying to change my ways for Levy. The island trip was tomorrow and I still haven't gained Levy's trust.

Then I had the idea of what I could do. One time I had walking in early for their tutoring session and heard Levy's voice and Bun- no, Lucy's voice behind the circulation desk. Well more like behind it. They were hiding, from what I didn't know. Not yet.

"Hey Levy, why are you-whoa!"

Lucy had grabbed the collar of my button up and swung me over. "SHH!" she whisper-yelled.

Levy seemed hesitant to be near me, but chose to ignore me for the time being. "Are they gone?"

'They? Who's they? I thought.

"I think." Lucy breathed, peeking above the granite tabletop. Whoever they were looking for was gone because Lucy sighed and lifted herself and Levy up.

"Thank god. I thought I was going to be a goner. If Sting spotted me, I'd be in his Ferrari and out of town."

Levy lifted a book and they began to go back into their routine, not forgetting to shover me out of the circulation desk. I sat down on one of the tables and listened intently to their conversations until it was 5:00, the start of our tutoring session.

"Why haven't you told Natsu?"

Lucy blushed, "Well, I kind of like the attention."

Levy gaped. "Are you for real? Lu-chan, this guy is out to get you! What if it's cold and its rainy and you're lost and her corners you and rapes you, what then?"

The blonde scoffed and flung her hair over her shoulder. "I'll get Aquarius to beat him up."

"Didn't she say that she was going on a month long trip with Scorpio?" Levy put in.

Lucy growled. "That damned talking fish, all she ever does is blab about her boyfriend talking her on vacations and how I suck since Natsu never does."

"I heard boyfriend!" Natsu came in with Happy flying above him.

"And I heard fish!"

"Shut up you stupid cat!" Lucy snarled, flinging a book at him.

Natsu sat on top of the circulation desk, eyeing Gajeel. That is, until Levy pushed him off. "You know the rules Natsu. You too, Happy."

"Aye sir!"

The bell rang, signaling for all the detention students to head to their class.

"Bye Luce!" Natsu said with a grin. He hugged her and waved good-bye.

"See what I mean!" Lucy said, gesturing toward the Fire dragon slayer. "No kiss, just a hug. What am I- his best friend?"

"Well that's no excuse for you not telling Natsu about Sting."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll think about something. So what are you going to do with Rogue?"

I blinked. Wait. Rogue? I had a friend name Rogue. He was a Shadow dragon slayer. When we were younger I used to fight him, a lot like how Natsu fights with Gray. And like Erza, Juvia would be the one to break us up.

I stood up and glanced at Levy. She caught my eye, then looked at her books, blushing. "Whatever. Besides, if I wanted to, I could flirt with Rogue. He's kind of cute. His red eyes and black hair-"

I gritted my teeth and clenched my fist tightly. I wanted to pound the life out of Rogue. How dare he make the moves of Levy- his woman! 'Not anymore,' a voice whispered harshly in the back of his head. 'not since you cheated on her with that blond bitch.'

Suddenly the bird clock above on the the entrance of the library made tweeting sound. 5:00.

I grabbed Levy's hand and tugged her over the counter and into on of the chairs.

"Let's get started, shall we?"

And that had been the end of it. So one of the things to do in order to change was to beat the living crap out of Sting and Rogue...right?

The doorbell rang but Panther Lily beat me to it and flung the door open. He was surprised to see the Strip-Gray.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, pulling on a gray wife-beater since I just came out of the shower.

"Juvia," he panted, his hands on his knees. "Have you seen her anywhere?"

My eyes widened and I glanced at Lily. If Rogue was in town, that meant that the rest of Phantom Lord was back in town. And that would mean they would want Element 4 back together, and me as well.

As if on cue an unknown member with the Phantom Lord emblem on his tuxedo burst through my wall. He had Juvia under his arm.

"Damn it, i just got that fixed!" I groaned, placing my hands on my head.

"Juvia is so glad to see you-"

The man covered her mouth with a damp cloth and she was knocked out like a light.

"What did you do to her!?" Gray snarled.

I sniffed the air and the chemicals hit me.

"Calm down, he gave her some chloroform. She should come around in a few hours."

"Gajeel Redfox, you are coming with me-"

He never got to finish because while he was dodging on of my iron fists, he was unprepared for Gray's lances of ice that rendering him unconcious.

"Get Juvia and take her to the safest place you know. I'll meet you in a second."

Gray nodded and lifted Juvia's limp body in his arms, the created and Ice Floor that led to where safety was. He was quick on the ice, rounding the corner of the block within a few seconds and out of sight.

I picked up the body of the guy, slapping his cheek repeatedly to wake him up.

"Lily, get me something other than milk."

The cat tossed me a bottle of Baileys Irish Cream. First I took a heavy drink, savoring the taste, then poured some into the guy's nose, covering his mouth. That got him up and running. The guy was sneezing Bailey's all over my checkered tiled floor.

I gripped his collar and suspending him high in the air. "Tell me what you are here for."

"Ga-Gajeel Redfox and Juvia Lockser."

My hand went from his collar to his throat. "You're lying. There's more." I squeezed and he coughed and began wheezing, scratching at my arm. I turned it into iron.

"Answer. Me."

"Lucy He-Heartfilia and Lev-Levy McGarden."

My eyes filled with rage.

"What do you want from them?"

The man didn't speak. He was turning purple. I loosened my grip, then cleared off the coffee table before slamming his body down.

"Tell me what you want from them!"

"Hurt the slayer's lov-loved ones. That's all I kn-know! Honest! They ne-never told us anything m-more!"

He wasn't avoiding my eyes, which meant that he wasn't lying.

I pulled back and he gasped for air. "Do me a favor and patch up that wall. Lily will keep an eye on you to make sure you don't do anything suspicious."

As if to prove that he could handle the guy, Panther Lily changed into a muscled cat taller than Gajeel with a humongous sword in case he needed to do extreme vegetable chopping. Or body part chopping.

I left them to do as they please and followed Gray's trail. Although the ice had melted, it left behind a dark patch, signaling where the ice once was before the water melted and soaked into the road.

I was kind of hoping that the trail would lead to Lucy and Levy's, but we went to the Salamander-no, NATSU's instead.

I invited myself in. Gray wasn't there, but Juvia was there, sleeping in a hammock. Natsu and Happy were there as well, eating saltine crackers. I was surprised to see Wendy and Carla sitting down with them.

"What the hell are you guys doing?"

"Waiting." Natsu seemed itchy and twitchy.

I looked to Wendy for an explanation. "Carla got an insight on the future. There are men going after Levy and Lucy."

If that was the case, then I didn't want to stick around. I headed to the door, but a certain dragon slayer blocked my way. "If I can't go save my Luce, theres no way I'm letting you get near Levy."

Juvia chose to wake up at the moment, distracting me from the fire dragon slayer. I walked to her side and held her hand. "What happened? You should have held them back, you're strong enough."

"They caught Juvia when she was at her weakness-dreaming about Gray-sama!"

I sighed and hit her head lightly. "Then you're weak all the time."

Juvia just smiled at me, then she peeked over and fainted.

I turned around to see Gray naked at the front door with Lucy and Levy over his shoulders.

Both Natsu and I took the girls and smashed our fists into Gray's face.

Wendy took the girls from us and began healing them. They had minuscule cuts all over their body.

"What happened?"

Gray rubbed the back of his head after her pulled on some borrowed underwear from Natsu. "Well, I sort of burst through their window since their front door was locked and nobody was answering. Those guys were already there, but I handled it. A nice chilly prison."

Levy moaned, her side flinging side to side. "My books!"

Natsu chuckled. "I'll go get them." he glanced at Lucy. "Do you want anything, Luce?"

"Gate keys..." Then both of the girls nodded off, unable to get anymore words out.

Natsu opened the door to leave, but ran into Titania, no Erza, and Mirajane.

"Girls are raiding my home," Natsu muttered, worming past them before running to Lucy and Levy's house.

When Erza saw me, she immediately got on guard, standing next to Levy. I chose to ignore that and kept near Juvia... who had magically appeared at Gray's side, making lovey-dovey faces.

Levy started to stir awake, her eyelids fluttering open. She was startled to see me.

"Gajeel?"

I stepped forward. "That's my name."

"What are you doing- actually never mind. I don't want to know."

That hurt me, but I was careful not to let it show.

"Rogue and Sting-they're back. Along with Phantom Lord."

"Phantom Lord?" Erza asking, crossing her arms.

"It's the school that Juvia and I went to when we were younger. The school was shut down because they were secretly doing tests on us."

"What's their goal? Why pick our school?" Lucy was awake now, with Mirajane by her side.

"It's because of Juvia and Gajeel." the water mage said sadly.

"Not only that, but they're after Levy and Lucy. They kind of think that me and you are dating because of our sessions. I'll confront them about it and they'll leave you alone"

Levy nodded, but something in her eyes told me that she WANTED to keep the lie that they were dating. That she was his girlfriend. But I just brushed it off as a flicker of light in her golden brown eyes.

"I won't let anyone hurt my nakama." Natsu growled, fire pooling around his body.

"What I want to know is how Juvia got knocked out. She is powerful from what I've seen." Lisanna muttered, running her hand through her short white hair.

"Well, from what she told me, She was imagining me and her tomorrow at the waterpark." Gray said, a light blush on his face while Juvia made kissy faces at him.

"Ah, that's reasonable." Erza nodded.

My eyebrow twitched. That damned woman.

Erza's head jerked up. "Laxus."

"Laxus?"

Suddenly Natsu crashed through his own roof with a handful of books and Lucy's gate keys. "Oy! Fight me properly, Laxus! Don't just kick me!"

All that? From a single KICK? This Laxus person must be strong.

"Enough of your games, Natsu. The Old Man sent to the Academy."

I looked above and saw a buff teenager with blonde hair and lightning scar on his right eye. He was wearing loose dark jeans and a tight black shirt.

He was turning to leave, but Mirajane called out to him. "Is it about Phantom Lord?"

In under a second he was in front of her. "How did you know that, barmaid?"

"I became S Class after you left."

They way she said "left" was like she was saying her broke up with her or something. I was also wondering about this S class thing.

"What's S class?" I asked Juvia.

"Student Council Class. Really advanced mages. A few people get picked for a test. If they pass, they get to be S Class. If they fail, they can try again."

"Oh. That's interesting."

"Fine. I'll stay with you Fairy wimps." Laxus muttered, crossing his arms.

Natsu had gotten a nasty scratch on his back when he fell through his own roof, so Mirajane moved closer to him so she could patch him up, but the blonde pulled her back. "You stay by my side. Natsu will heal soon enough."

Erza sighed and changed into her nurse armor. If you could even call that armor.

She tried wrapping Natsu, but he ended up looking like a zombie.

"Nice job with the Halloween costume, Titania." I could never bring myself to call her Erza. That name was going to stick.

To my surprise, she gave me a small smile. Her smile grew as she spotted someone outside of Natsu's open door.

"Principal Makarov!"

"Teacher!" Natsu yelled.

"Old Man." Laxus murmured, nodding at his grandfather.

"What are you all waiting for? We have to get going! All of the other classes have already gone to their Islands!"

Lucy blinked. "What? I thought it was tomorrow!"

His eyebrow twitched. "Of course this group would be so stupid as to forget that we changed the date to today."

"But we're currently under attack!" Erza reasoned.

"They won't be here for a while. Now come. We must head to the docks. The boat has been waiting for nearly 3 hours for you guys."

"But we have to pack!" Levy said.

She was right. There was no way I was going to let her swim in her underwear.

Speaking of underwear, Cana walked in with a bottle of sake and a deck of cards in her hand. She wore. . . her underwear.

"What kind of clothing is that?" Lisanna said.

Cana shrugged, taking another swig from her flask at her hip. "I couldn't find my swimsuit."

"Right then. Let's go." The principal pushed us out of the door.

Natsu picked up Lucy since she was injured. She gave him a big smile and kissed his cheek.

I wasn't sure who was going to pick Levy up. Gray moved to get her, but thought against it since he had Juvia.

So I guess I was the only one. Not that I was complaining.

She was walking a few feet, slower than everyone else, who were several yards away. I walked beside her.

"You want me to pick you up?"

She scoffed. "No way. I don't need your help. I can manage by myself perfectly fine."

Levy's P.O.V.

Who am I kidding- I so needed Gajeel's help. Call it a woman's pride when I said that I didn't need it. Gajeel must've read my face because he let out an annoyed sigh and swooped me up in his arms, catching up to the others. The walk wasn't that far. I could see the mast of the ship.

I remembered last night, unlike most people when they get drunk. I remembered how he didn't take advantage of me. Not once. He was nice and he walked her home, well actually gave her a piggy-back ride home.

Second chances, huh? He had to earn that second chance. There's no way I'm going to open up until he proves himself.

*2 and a half hours later*

After Cana, Lucy was the first to give in. We were on the ship, spread out with traditional fans adding coolness from the heat that was burning us up.

Lucy slouched in her chair, her head tilted back. She had stripped down to her underwear and was sitting in between Cana and Erza.

"It's hot." Lucy moaned.

A majority of the people on the ship were crowding Juvia and Gray, begging for water and ice. Some people even choose to be frozen in ice with only their head and their limbs sticking out.

I was reading a book that Mirajane took with her. Panther Lily was in my lap, reading with me as well. Halfway to the ship, he had came and sat on Gajeel's head, saying something about beating up the beat guy with a carton of milk.

Not even the heat could distract me. It was getting to the good part, the climax of the story. It was all up to him, if he accepted of declined the marriage proposal... and he said-

"Oy Levy, make some Lemonade."

Her concentration snapped and she looked down at Gajeel. He was sitting on the floor between her legs, his head resting on the edge of her seat.

"No." I snapped.

"Find a way to get rid of this heat."

I examined him. Something that would attract heat.

"Well for one, take off your shirt."

He smirked at me. "Didn't know you were that willing-"

"Dark colors attract heat, stupid."

Gajeel gripped the back of his wife beater and pulled it off. His tanned skin was smooth and tightly stretched over his muscles that rippled with the movement. He balled up his shirt, his muscles flexing once more, then set it down in front of him.

"I still feel hot."

I turned to Lucy. "Lu-chan, can I borrow an elastic?"

She plucked a red one from her finger and handed it to me.

"Thanks."

She groaned in response.

"What are you doing, Shrimp?"

"I'm braiding your hair."

He seemed a little hesitant, but went along with it. Alright. Go ahead."

I started making a French braid, but then realized it would look to girly, so I just made a regular braid instead. I tied the red elastic around the last two inches of hair the I couldn't braid. All done.

He seemed pleased. "Much less heat. I'm hungry now."

I rolled my eyes and gave him some Iron. "Eat quick. Or it might heat up."

I didn't have to say that twice. He chomped down quickly, giving me a happy grin.

"Gray, put your clothes on!" Lucy yelled, flinging what looked to be Happy right at him.

And back to the usual once more. Natsu yelling at Lucy not to look, Happy exclaimed that Lucy "lllliikes" him and Carla telling Happy that he was ridiculous when he offered her some heated fish.

The ship was pulling to a stop and my eyes were drawn to where Laxus and Mirajane were standing, right at the front near the mast of the ship. I could faintly see them holding hands.

The Principal was at the top of the ship, yelling down to us. "Okay, there are gift shops there so you can buy swimsuits. I believe that they're fairy cheap. Now go play and enjoy yourselves. You can do the assignment when you come back."

And with that, he kicked us out and onto the sand. I looked at the sign that was lazy plunged into the dirt near a path. "Welcome to Kyushu."

Natsu grinned, taking Lucy's hand. "What are we waiting for? Lets go!"

"Aye sir!" Happy yelled with his fist in the air.

I am so sorry that it took so long. I've been super this chapter will be enough for you. It might be a while until I've updated. I also have a story on Wattpad called Once Upon A Time. The cover is with Gray and Juvia and their water castle, but it's not about them. Tottaly different characters. Read it please. I'm senrishiki10 on wattpad.

Toodles,

Sitboy10