Hello to all the readers out there!

I am thankful for the response so far, and hope to see more as time goes on.

A week and a half had gone by at the Fairy Tail Guild, people returned from missions, others went right back out. Only a few of the louder members had returned so the noise level wasn't too terrible. This was what Gajeel and PantherLily returned to after their mission. Mira was the first to greet them upon their return.

"Nice to have you back," she smiled at them as they approached the bar.

"Hello Miss Mira," Lily greeted her, but Gajeel wasn't paying attention as he was scanning the guild hall, the two lap dogs were wallowing without their leader present. Mira noticed this action and called him on it.

"Looking for someone?" she asked sweetly but Gajeel saw the glint in her eye.

"Nah, just unusually quiet in here," he replied as she handed him a pint of ale, it was near noon and the guild seemed to only be half full.

"Rent for Fairy Hills is due at the end of the week, most of the residents are trying to get a few more jobs in to make ends meet." she explained.

"Levy as well?" Lily asked, noticing the absence of the blue hair script mage.

"No, she is always ahead with all the translation jobs she does, it's not that surprising. I think she is just out today," Mira thought on it. Gajeel was curious, of course she could have a life but it seemed out of routine since she could spend days upon days just reading in the guild hall, oblivious of the world around her.

"Speaking of Levy," Mira continued speaking but in a hushed tone, "did you know that she likes horror novels?"

"What's your game, Demon?" Gajeel questioned suspiciously, Mira had just tried to surprise him with something he realized a while back from just watching her read.

"It's not mine, I can't take all the credit," Mira admitted just as Cana and Juvia walked up to the bar.

"Hey Mira," Cana called as she sauntered up to them, claiming a stool as her own.

"Welcome back Gajeel-kun," Juvia greeted him, "how was your mission?"

"Fine, most of our time was spent actually traveling there and back."

"Someone just noticed our little blue bookworm is currently missing," Mira commented to the girls, he could tell they were all in on whatever this plan of theirs was, he returned to his drink with a futile hope that they would leave him alone.

"We saw her this morning at Fairy Hills, she said she was going over to hang with Lucy. We left her be since we dragged her around most of the past week. She honestly doesn't spoil herself enough." Cana commented, to Gajeel's relief they dropped the matter and he could enjoy some peace.

The next few hours passed by without any brawls or overly loud drunk people. It was near dinner rush hour when Gajeel picked up Levy's scent coming towards the guild. It wasn't like he was waiting for her like her lap dogs were, her scent was just distinct. When he did see her, the scene looked odd to him. Walking into the guild, Levy had Natsu hanging an arm over her shoulders with Lucy and Happy on her other side. They seemed to be in the midst of a conversation and all of them looked sweaty and tired but had smiles on their faces.

"You really are getting better, Lev! I am proud of you!" Natsu called out squeezing Levy's shoulders a little, laughs coming from the whole group.

"Thanks again for helping me out, Natsu, you too Lu-Lu."

"What are friends for?" Lucy replied.

"You wanna try it again tomorrow?" Natsu offered, and Levy nodded in agreement.

"Let's just hope I can move when I wake up in the morning. If I can, I'll meet you here for breakfast."

"It's a deal, come on Luce, I'm starving! Hey Lev, could you make me some fire?" Natsu asked of the bluenette who seemed more than happy to oblige. She spelled out the word 'fire' and soon enough Natsu swallowed the whole word and told her how delicious it was. After Natsu was satisfied with his fire, he went in hunting for real food. Since he was sitting at a corner table by the bar, he watched her walk over to order her own dinner. Once she got close enough he noticed the minor changes in her scent that had been covered by the dried sweat, there was a small hint of steel in her scent that wasn't there before. He also took the time to notice her different outfit, instead of her usual orange halter dress she was wearing a green sleeveless halter top with denim shorts that were covered in grass stains along with solid boots that went up to her mid calf. Though her hair was held back by a orange headband, so that was really the only thing unchanged in her appearance. While looking exhausted and battered she still shined bright and was happy, like she was proud of how she looked.

She glanced over to see Gajeel watching her over his beer. While she waited for her order she decided to walk over and talk to him.

"Hey Gajeel, how was your mission?" Levy asked, smiling as if there were no problems in the world.

"Fine, did you go on one without your lap dogs?" Gajeel countered, he mentally cringed a little at how battered she looked, yet she didn't seem to care at all.

"No, I was hanging out with Lucy and Natsu," Levy answered, "We spent the day training," she explained further.

"Seriously?" he questioned, surprised to hear such a thought.

"Are you alright?" Lily asked, concerned for her well being if she had gone up against Natsu.

"I'm fine, thank you for your concern though," she turned to see Mira standing at the bar with Levy's to go order. "I'll see you around, good night guys." she called as she picked up the bag and happily walked out of the guild. Gajeel and Lily shared a look of surprise.

"I'll go talk to Happy to see what happened." Lily flew off and Gajeel sat there with his beer wondering what the hell got into the shrimp while he was gone.

"Are you alright Gajeel?" Mira asked as she replaced his empty stein minutes later.

"Just peachy."

"She's been like that for a little while now," Mira added, "while I am concerned for her, I'm also proud that she's taking an initiative." Mira walked off and Lilly had decided that moment to return in front of Gajeel.

"Turns out Levy asked Natsu and Lucy to help her train, Happy says her reaction time has gotten better over the past several days against Natsu. All of them were surprised when she asked it of them but they were happy to help."

"What the hell happened to the Shrimp?" he risked a glance at the main doors that she had left through only minutes ago.

"Happy mentioned something about Levy saying she wanted to get stronger, does that give you any ideas that would explain her odd behavior?" Lily asked and he watched Gajeel think for a moment before hearing the groan and rub his hand over his face. "I assume it has something to do with you?"

"She seriously still on that?" Gajeel continued his groan, remembering the moment when that bag of hers hit him in the face, it hurt.

"Care to explain the situation?"

"I called her weak, she hit me with her bag and called me a jerk and then Grimoire Heart happened," he summarized to the bare minimum.

"You probably deserved being hit," Lily stated bluntly.

"Whose side are ya on?!"

"Remember that she made the S-class candidate and not you, Gajeel. I'm sure there were more words said than just you calling her weak to have her training with Natsu." Lily stated, there were some things that Lucy and Natsu commented on that he decided to not repeat, just so Levy could actually surprise Gajeel, she could thank him later.

During the week Gajeel and Lily had been gone on their job Levy was busy. The moment that the Thunder Legion had showed up at the guild, Levy pulled Freed away and surprised many with the action as they were all used to her keeping her nose in her books. Freed seemed fine when he returned to his friends hours later, stating that Levy had needed his input on a project she was working on. Though they did not get an explanation from the solid script mage herself as she did not appear until the next day. They let their imaginations answer it for themselves when she approached Lucy and Natsu right after lunch to ask for help with her training. The project was tested and fixed after the failures thanks to Natsu, so now it was almost functional. Though what the actual project was, no one knew and those involved are being tight-lipped about it, rumors of what it could be went the full spectrum of ideas, from realistic to completely ridiculous.

Lily learned all this from Mira later on when Gajeel left to get some sleep. Lily was silently proud that Levy had taken an initiative despite it being sparked by Gajeel calling her weak. He knew Levy had her set of strengths that Gajeel seemed to be forgetful of, but he still shouldn't call her weak because she was not the same kind of strong as he was. Lily sat there on the bar late into the night as he conversed with Mira and Cana about Levy and their plan that he was more than happy to assist in. Lily did not return to his and Gajeel's residence until very late and when he did return he found the Iron Dragon Slayer munching on some of his scrap metal from the pile in his room.

"Do you want to tell me what exactly you said to Levy that made her angry?"

"Not happening," Gajeel stated before finishing the screws he had in his hand before going to sleep. He felt a little guilty now for the words he said to her during the S-class trial, she is strong, but he was a giant jerk then so he would never be caught saying such a thing.

AN: I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! Please respond and be patient as I am trying to update some of my much older stories that haven't been given as much attention lately. Along with balancing job, soon school again and other important life skills I am in the midst of learning(Driving! Yeah!)

- Greekgeekspywannabe

6/19/16