Gajeel didn't ready himself this time, but instead closed his eyes and inhaled slowly. When he opened his eyes again they seemed strange. It looked like he was remembering something.

"Look at me," Gajeel said quietly, his voice so soft and yet Laxus could hear him just fine.

"I am, you idiot," Laxus growled.

Gajeel rolled his eyes, "Do you want to get control of your new dragon senses or not?"

Laxus fell silent for a moment, studying the Iron Mage. He looked completely serious. Laxus squinted his eyes slightly but relaxed.

"I thought you said you wouldn't help me?" he said at length.

"Don't let it go to yer head," Gajeel snapped, "It ain't because I like ya. I just got sick of watching you jump at everything in the guildhall,

"Now, look at me. Watch how my chest moves when I breathe. How my muscles tense just before I go to hit. You can see things that other people don't pick up on. Use that to your advantage. Focus it in. Drown out the sounds of the forest, the smell of the air, the feel of the ground underneath your feet. Focus on your opponent,"

As Gajeel spoke his voice progressively dropped lower and lower until it was so quiet Laxus had to strain to hear him. The entire time his eyes never left the Iron Mage although he had no idea what he was talking about. Watch the way his chest moved? His muscles? What was there to see? So he was breathing. He was standing. There wasn't anything complex with that. What had Laxus captivated was the Iron Slayer's eyes. They were shimmering in the light of the sun, so bright they were almost orange. But beneath the blazing orbs were deep purple bags, almost dark enough to be bruises and if Laxus hadn't known better he might have assumed that was what they were. But they weren't. Which meant Gajeel wasn't just weary from the injuries he was still healing from, but also from lack of sleep.

Why hadn't he been sleeping?

Gajeel lunged, taking Laxus off guard and making him dodge hastily.

"You're not paying attention!" he brought his elbow around quickly, a hard blow aimed for Laxus's skull. Laxus's response was so swift he almost couldn't believe it himself as he blocked the hit and caught Gajeel's fist with his open palm, a serious look on his face when he blared out the question that for some reason was at the front of his mind.

"Why haven't you been sleeping?" Laxus almost startled himself as the words left his lips, but he held Gajeel's gaze as if nothing was wrong. Gajeel, however, started. His eyes widened and he jumped back, curling his lip in a snarl.

"What has that got to do with anything? I'm trying to teach you…"

"Is it because of me?" Laxus interrupted him, eyeing him pointedly. Gajeel fell silent for a moment, a scowl on his features before clicking his tongue and turning his head.

"I almost died, didn't I?" he said quietly, his voice gruff and just above a whisper as he spoke, "Ain't I allowed to lose a little sleep over it?"

"You didn't…"

"I almost died goddammit! And then I-" Gajeel snapped his mouth shut, clenching his fists and sending a venomous glare a Laxus. His sudden change made Laxus retreat back a step.

"You what, Redfox?" Laxus growled. Gajeel was almost shaking with anger, or fear, or something, Laxus couldn't quite tell. All he knew was Gajeel was stalking over to his jacket and grabbing it from the branch.

"Why won't you tell me what happened that night, Redfox?" Laxus caught up with him, blocking his way.

Gajeel's eyes darkened before he spoke, "Because you don't need to know,"

"Yes, I do," Laxus let a stray bolt of lightning hit close to Gajeel's spot, a warning or a threat, up to his discretion.

"If you needed to know, you'd remember," Gajeel sneered, going to step past him only to be once again blocked by the taller mage.

"I have ways I can get it out of you," Laxus's tone took a frightening edge to it, and for a split second he saw a flash of a pain-filled memory fill the eyes of the Iron Mage and a pang of guilt filled his stomach. Then, suddenly, all of the air left his lungs as two gloved hands gripped his collar and hauled him against a tree, his feet dangling just a few inches off the ground.

He gripped the Iron Mage's wrists, his ember eyes wide as they stared into the enraged rubies below. Gajeel's arms were shaking and he could smell fresh blood again; a reopening of old wounds. Gajeel's face was so close he could feel his breath against his own.

"You think you can scare me with threats?" his voice was shaking and sounded different. This was not a side of Gajeel Laxus had ever met at Fairy Tail. Maybe this was the man that had destroyed the guild and beaten half of his guildmates almost broken, "Be. My. Guest."

"Put me down," Laxus growled out through gritted teeth. He tried to bring his knee up to kick Gajeel but he seemed to anticipate it and brought up his own heavy boot to pin the Lightning Mage's knees together. Laxus could see it in Gajeel's face that he was in pain but at this point he didn't care. It was getting harder to breathe and he was quickly losing his temper. Lightning began to snap at the air dangerously close to Gajeel but he didn't flinch, only set his jaw and held his grip, his arms shaking almost violently.

"Let me go, Redfox…" Laxus charged his lightning even more, calling even angrier strikes to leave red burns up and down Gajeel's arms and scald his shirt and chest. Slowly, Laxus kept amping up the juice; putting more and more volts into his sustained attack. Gajeel didn't waver, didn't loosen his grip around Laxus's throat, but the tightness around his eyes showed he was in pain and so Laxus kept it up. One of them had to cave, either from exhaustion, passing out, or giving up, it had to happen… eventually.

Laxus was digging his nails into Gajeel's wrists, almost calling a full lightning strike down from the sky. Gajeel's eyes were squeezed shut from enduring the pain of it and his breathing was labored. Laxus was starting to see black claw its way into his vision and his lungs were starting to burn, trying to inflate with air that wasn't there. He couldn't bare it. Finally, he let out a growl and released the full amount of his power down on the two of them, causing Gajeel to drop him and recoil.

He watched his back arch, his arms and limbs twist backwards in pain as he tipped his head back and howled. The sound stung his ears and made his heart stop, like it was being ripped out of his chest the longer the noise continued. Laxus cut off his magic as quickly as he could and watched as Gajeel crumpled like discarded paper to the ground. For a while the two just sat on the ground and panted, both trying to catch their breath. After a while, it started to become clear to Laxus that Gajeel wasn't doing well.

"Oi, Redfox,"

No response.

"Gajeel," Laxus reached out to him and hesitated a moment when he realized he was shivering, "Gajeel, seriously, answer me."

"Leave me alone." his voice made Laxus want to cringe with the amount of pain in it.

"I ain't leaving you out here," Laxus growled, reaching forward warily to pull his black locks out of his face. Electricity still raced across his skin here and there and Laxus noticed that the vein beside his eye was twitching. He made no move away from his touch but his red eyes bored through him with a malicious glare. The smell of blood was starting to sting the inside of Laxus's nose, "You're bleeding."

Gajeel's eyes widened slightly before he turned his head away, his jaw tightening angrily, "You think I don't know that?"

"Where at?" Laxus sighed, his ember eyes running across Gajeel's white shirt, noticing nothing amiss.

"Tch, don't you think you've done enough?"

Laxus froze at Gajeel's words. They were cold, harsh, and furious. Laxus brought his eyes up to meet Gajeel's only to see unbridled rage boiling beneath the surface of pain and exhaustion. But more unsettling than that, Laxus noticed a scent beginning to mix with Gajeel's natural musk. It was bitter and brackish, lashing out at him accusingly as he sat with the Iron Mage in complete silence.

The smell of fear, Laxus realized suddenly, the awareness bringing a strangely tense upset to form in the pit of his stomach, He's terrified of me.