Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, Game of Thrones' character Khal Drogo, iPods, or F.R.I.E.N.D.S.
The following Monday, there was no mess of black spotting the corner of her vision. In fact, she didn't catch the odd mass- what she later learned was excessively long hair- for another two weeks after her night of crash courses on the treadmill.
Her interest had been peaked- no thanks to Lucy- and, once again, she learned why her curiosity would always have the upper hand.
Levy was minding her own business and not even thinking about him when he was suddenly there. This time, she saw him from the side and her brain went into overdrive as she tried to count all the piercings on his face. An unobstructed view of the person attached to the unruly mane revealed what she was sure must have been a subspecies of giant and troll. The man was tall, she could tell even as he was sitting, and had a perpetual scowl on his face- as if the public gym was solely his territory. The look definitely left her with an uneasy feeling, as if she was intruding.
Give him Lily's scar and he's Khal Drogo. She scoffed amusedly to herself, imagining the brooding stranger streaked with paint and a long beard complete with tiny hair tie.
He was built. Another thought crossed her mind as she studied him on her way to the treadmills- either he actually was the infamous Khal or, at the very least, his stunt double. There was no way someone looked that much like the well-known T.V. character by accident. Levy knew exercise was important for keeping up muscle tone, but she just couldn't see how he needed to workout like the others.
In fact, watching him, she was pretty sure her apartment building was a good deal less sturdy.
She couldn't discern much after she reached her treadmill, he sat on a weight lifting bench behind her and if she got a few more looks (strictly for her report to Lucy), she would have been caught and on the receiving end of his murderous scowl.
The gossip of soccer moms and throaty laughter of teenage boys carried over the sound of machinery and the several fans placed in the main room of the facility, echoing to the high ceiling and back down, so the perpetual scowl was fairly understandable. The same irksome twist set to her own brow and mouth as she adjusted the volume on her iPod.
A person could only take so many lowbrow jokes some kid heard whispered in the locker room and scandalized 'just who does she think she is, I mean, really?!'s before they totally lost it.
Levy wished it was Monday, that crowd was always respectfully quiet. However, her schedule that week had been unfortunate and greedy, stealing away her favored Monday slot and trading it for Friday evening. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she'd had the asinine belief that the people of Magnolia would definitely have something more exciting to do on a Friday night than fill up a gym.
"Dude, you should go run by her."
Obviously not.
Was the universe so hard pressed to cut her a break? She was very decidedly not in the mood to dodge underaged attention, so Levy slowed her steps and powered down the treadmill. Her stomach rolled regretfully when her workout summary blinked up at her- only ten minutes ran and she didn't even get to increase the speed or incline this time! She huffed and tried to push the thought away, there were things she'd hadn't tried out yet in the gym anyways. The woman wasn't much of a swimmer on her good days, but if it gave her a reason to use earplugs and a swimming cap to discourage out any possible conversation in the pool area, then, by all means, she was a swimmer.
As she grabbed her water bottle, secured the cord of her earphones neatly around her iPod and turned for the locker rooms, she finally got a straight on look at him. And seeing as she was heading in the direction he sat, she was able to get away with letting her gaze linger a bit longer than before.
Levy hadn't expected for him to have moved, let alone be facing her direction. It caught her off guard enough to have Levy stumble and almost trip. An embarrassing tumble to the carpet played on loop in her mind. She righted her footing in the next point of a second and made her way past him, making sure not to step too close and praying he hadn't noticed her graceful moves.
She blinked a few times, trying to get her brain back in working order. He was striking, to say the least.
The blue haired woman silently thanked every force in the universe that he wasn't the type to fling his t-shirt halfway across the gym the second they walked into the gym, but from the looks of him, he definitely had a better view to offer than the one guy that had just turned 30 and thought he was a modern-day Adonis.
That had been the most awkward workout of her life, as the 'Adonis' had chosen to bench press right next to the equipment she did crunches on and had been much more talkative than anyone else she'd met in the gym. The only amusement she'd gotten out of that situation was her theory that he could give Natsu a run for his money. Luckily, she'd been saved fairly quickly by Lily. There was a very obvious proper clothing policy in the open gym, the older man had none-too-gently chastised him that this wasn't the pool area and, that if he wished to talk with others, he ought to keep it down as he was disturbing the rest of the gym.
The memory brought her back to her next obstacle: the gaggle of children lounging on the gym equipment raucously jeering their way through a conversation.
They would get chewed out by Lily soon enough and, hopefully- for their sake, judging by the dark look on the man-built-like-a-small-house's face- Lily would ask them to take their leave if they weren't going to act like adults.
She squared her shoulders and breezed her way past them, silently ordering them not to say anything to her as she wiped the sweat from her forehead.
Levy never had such luck.
"Hey, can I get your number?"
Without missing a beat she continued walking, not sparing the tangle of baby face leers a glance. "I quit the babysitting gig years ago."
Before the swinging door shut completely, she could have sworn she heard a rumble- chuckling- underlying the hollered chorus of 'rejected!'. In the next moment, she heard the comforting drawl of Lily's voice, giving them a talking to on how to treat a lady and that it was best they take their social visit elsewhere.
Levy's victory was cut short when a double take had her halting in front of the entryway to the women's locker room. The door she'd just walked through closed and she wasn't tall enough to see through the window near the top of the door, so she couldn't check, but there was no way. No possible way she'd caught such a small detail when her eyes were only on the man for a whole five seconds and the wide gray headband he wore threw shadows over his brows from the bright fluorescent lights. She had to have been mistaken.
Red eyes?
"I'm sorry about those kids, Levy."
The shorter woman shrugged as Lily walked her to the door an hour later. She carefully wound her wet hair up into a bun as she rolled her eyes. "They're nothing in comparison to what I've had to deal with before."
Lily snorted and opened the door for her. "Aye, and thank goodness they had the good sense to keep their shirts on." He winked, laughing at her sour expression.
"I wouldn't have put it past them, but, uh, they had some pretty unbeatable competition." Levy tilted her head in the direction of the man with the long hair and smirked. "He looked like he was about to eat one of them."
The gym owner roared with laughter. "I'll have to let Gajeel know that scowl of his actually works. He's a wet blanket most the of time, but great for keeping unwanted behavior out of here." His brow furrowed at her wary look and he set her hand on his shoulder. "Gajeel works the late night and weekend shifts for me with a few of my other employees, he's a very good friend of mine and ultimately harmless. I've known him since he was a kid; you needn't worry."
She had a hard time believing the man who looked like he belonged to a biker gang and ate nails for breakfast could be described as anything close to harmless…But if Lily trusted him, then he couldn't have been too bad.
"If it would help to ease any doubt, next time I could introduce you."
It took some effort to pull her gaze from Gajeel's back to meet Lily's eyes, but she managed and tried her best to ignore the glint of amusement shining down at her. "It's just been a weird week at work, I should be back to my regular Monday nights next week, but I'll keep that in mind."
True to her word, her work schedule had gone back to normal and the introductions hadn't been needed, but she wasn't able to avoid it in the end. That isn't to say she was avoiding them, but Gajeel didn't look like the amicable type and preferred to be left alone.
Lily might have planned for it to happen within the next week or so, but it was another month before she even said her first words to Gajeel.
Magnolia was gearing up for a triathlon that would start in Clover Town and end in Hargeon, with Magnolia being the last change-up from cycling to long distance running. It was going to be a huge event and each town was holding a series of festivals leading up to the day of the race. Dozens of charities were involved and it always brought Lily business from a slew of new people wanting to get in shape.
Levy was very much pro-triathlon, it was the mayhem during the countdown that drove her insane.
Now just one week away from the triathlon, things had slowed down considerably with people realizing how farfetched their goal was and opting out to train at a more sensible pace for next year's race. However, it didn't stop the gym from staying packed to the gills or one or two die-hards from silently bullying her off whatever equipment they wanted that she had been using.
It was a mad house and Lily had only been able to shoot her a millisecond's worth of apologetic smile before going back to the line waiting at his desk. He had his hands full with people crowding the pool past capacity and more than one screaming match echoing so harshly from one of the racquet ball courts, she swore she felt the foundation shake.
Time and time again, she would come later than last time, in hopes that the crowd would be thinner each time. It wasn't until her fourth try, arriving at midnight, that the gym only thrived with a dull roar that, thankfully, came from the various machines at work and not the people. She went straight to the locker room and stowed away her bag and keys before snatching her iPod and water bottle.
She didn't run in hallways, she was a grown woman, but if she denied sprinting down the empty stretch toward the main room for the chance of catching an open treadmill, she would have been lying.
The treadmills were almost full, but she managed to spot one by the wall, with one empty treadmill separating her from one of the die hards practically smoking the track under his feet. By this time of night, only people fortunate enough to have the next day off (Monday) were left and she was one of them. The thought of being expected to function at work after working out until two in the morning had her cringing.
Her boss had noticed Levy's more sluggish demeanor the past few weeks and had given her the next Monday off to recoup.
Not something she was overtly proud of.
In so many words, her boss had noticed the slight decline in productivity and pitied her. The fact that one of her worst nightmares had become a saving grace was almost too much for her to bear and if she didn't have some godawful power ballad Lucy had mischievously added to her playlist drowning out every coherent thought she had right that minute, she was going to lose her mind.
iPod unlocked and glowing with backlight, she started the song and subsequently felt her knees buckle and crash together when the song cut off and the light went out.
The infernal screen and loathsome battery with the horrid red line in it blinked mockingly up at her.
Levy sucked in a deep breath and forced the air loudly out through her nose. Her hands shook with restrained fury as she wound the headphone cord around the device and carelessly tossed the iPod into the cup holder. She pushed any thoughts of listening to music out of her head and focused on the T.V. screen in front of her.
A sliver of relaxation melted into her as she noticed that it wasn't sports or the news or news on sports or anything in relation to iPods or triathlons, but F.R.I.E.N.D.S. A small smile made its way across her face, so maybe the universe would refrain from completely hating her for half an hour. The One With the Prom Video was probably her guiltiest pleasure as far as any of the episodes went and she was getting to watch it from the beginning.
Point for Levy.
In a matter of Chandler scoring a winning shot on the foosball table to the gold bracelet that goes with everything, she was gone. Entirely immersed in the program and all thoughts of traitorous iPods and rude die-hards washed from her mind. She had even hummed along to the theme song subconsciously.
Her bliss didn't last long when, halfway through a dish soap commercial, yanking her out of the reverie.
"-sed?"
Levy blinked, looked to her right, glanced up, and blinked again. "What?"
"I said, is this treadmill being used?"
Another blink. "No."
The man, the one with the wild black hair, very, very red eyes, and named Gajeel sighed, rolling his eyes at her. "Mind if I use it then?"
The synapses in her brain finally sparked and clicked and she was back in her mind, blushing furiously. "No, go ahead."
He mumbled a thanks and stepped on the treadmill, cursing when he turned it on and realized the only treadmill left open in the place was the one that lagged as it booted up. She watched him out of curiosity, shaking her head after a moment and turning her eyes back to another commercial. She dimly registered that he got the machine up and running finally, and started to lazily walk. Levy heard him grumble in appreciation as the die-hard to his right got off the treadmills and made his way for the weights. Levy chuckled at his vexed words, bringing his attention to her once more.
"Is it dead?"
"What?"
He craned his neck to look past her and ticked his head to the long forgotten cup holder. "Yer iPod. Is it dead?"
"Oh." She followed his line of sight and glowered at the aforementioned item. "Yeah…Guess I forgot to charge it."
He nodded at her iPod once more. "Can I?"
Levy's head snapped back to him, scrunching her eyebrows dubiously.
He sighed again and scoffed. "I'm not gonna steal it, mine's better anyways."
"Excuse you," Levy scowled and cut her eyes at him.
"Chill," Gajeel scoffed amusedly. Without another word, he reached over and fumbled under the treadmill's computer screen. In no time, he brought out a black USB cord that was shoved into a compartment she didn't even know existed, snatched up her iPod before she could blink, and plugged it in.
The battery screen flashed again, slowly turning green and redirecting her back to the main menu.
Levy smiled slowly at the electronic before stretching her smile into a grin back at him. "Thanks, I really do appreciate it, but I don't think I'll be using it for a bit." She looked back towards the wall of T.V.s and hummed happily as the last commercial finally faded to black, brightening back up on the well-known apartment door.
He glanced at the T.V. for a moment, watching the show as he untangled the mess that was his own set of earphones. "F.R.I.E.N.D.S., huh?" He shrugged his shoulders. "Fair enough."
She watched from the corner of her eye as Gajeel chuckled at one of the jokes, noting how decidedly harmless he appeared like this. Lucy's round of questioning echoed in her mind and she blushed, snapping her attention back to the T.V. show and adamantly blocking out his presence at her side.
A/N: Posting a day early because I leave for vacation early on Saturday morning and Friday's going to be really hectic. There will be no update for next Friday since I'll still be gone and won't have my laptop. Sorry I'm not leaving you guys with more gajevy interaction to hold you over, but c'est la pacing.