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Gajeel had everything under control. Or at least it was what he had been repeating himself for over an hour since the mission started.
He wasn’t supposed to be there, but somehow, he had ended up accepting Levy’s invitation, because he couldn’t say no to that woman, and now he was having his resolve crumble every few minutes.
The thing was, that as stupid as he could feel, he had a crush on Levy. There, he had admitted it.
It started before Tenrou when she had started smiling at him whenever he would go to the guild. At first, he didn’t understand why she would do it.
After all, she had been one of his first victims in Fairy Tail, and her friends (Jet and Droy, although he pretended, he didn’t know their names) were still terrified and angry at him for everything he had done to them. But Levy wasn’t. Or at least she didn’t look like she was.
And so she had started smiling. And then she started waving at him when they saw each other. Gajeel would just snicker or make a noise of acknowledgement, but that would be it. He expected her to stop once she realised he wasn’t going to wave back.
But she didn’t, and one day, Gajeel waved back, and the smile that tore through her face made his steel heart thump nervously.
And at that moment he knew he was screwed.
Because one thing about Levy McGarden that he didn’t know, was that her smiles were addictive, and once he saw one, he was almost looking forward to the next.
Then she had been selected for the S Class exams, and he had jumped at the opportunity of getting to know her better (not that he would confess to that, instead proclaiming that he was doing it in order to kick everyone’s butt).
And she had proved even more amazing than he had supposed. She was witty and resourceful, and really, really smart, like scary smart sometimes. And of course, she was beautiful. Maybe she didn’t have the curves that some other guildmates had, but to Gajeel, she looked delectable, with her blue spiky hair and her big eyes, and the little dusting of freckles that covered her nose and shoulders and that made him lose concentration in his efforts to seem unaffected by her presence.
So yeah, once they came back, he had a pretty massive crush on the bluenette.
Lily would argue with him about the obviousness of his crush on her, but he was adamant that Levy would know nothing about it, for several reasons.
1) He didn’t want her to think that he only wanted to spend time with her in order to date her. She was fascinating to spend time with because she was wickedly smart and even with that, Levy never treated him like a stupid thug that knew nothing, but instead explained to him what she was talking about or simply assumed that he knew of the topic and started rambling about it for hours.
Gajeel found it adorable, and before he could realise it, he had started learning new things in order to have more conversations with her.
2) He knew she was too good for him.
He could pretend all he wanted, and almost all of his guildmates may treat him like he was one of them, but Gajeel knew that he had something about him that made other members of Fairy Tail wary of him. And after what he did to them, he couldn’t expect to be treated like they treated Lucy or Wendy. He had been a villain to them, and that was something that took a lot of time to shake off.
Juvia had that same treatment and wariness at the beginning, but her friendship with Lucy (and Lisanna after Edoras) and her infatuation with Gray made her (at least in the eyes of the guild) rather “innocent”, so she was spared of all those looks that seemed to still haunt Gajeel sometimes.
Levy wasn’t one of the members of course, but Gajeel sometimes had the thought that maybe he didn’t really deserve her friendship either.
He tortured and chained her to a tree, not even sparing a thought about the condition he put her on.
And some days, that was the only thing he could think of. Her body stuck to the tree, her screams of pain when he had hit her with his magic, and the scared look she had when she saw him the first time in the guild.
The script mage had never looked at him like that after she learned of him joining Fairy Tail, and he had been curious about the sudden change of heart, but he was (and still is) too much of a coward to ask her, so he resolved himself to accept every crumb of attention she gave him and continue hoping that he is not announcing his crush to her when she smiles at him through the guild.
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The day had started out great for Gajeel. He had left for the guild after breakfast and a parring session with Lily, thinking about taking a mission with Juvia. The water mage was his normal partner, but lately, she had started taking jobs with Gray and Lisanna, so Gajeel was almost sure he was going to end up doing a mission on his own.
Of course, he is happy for her friend (almost a little sister at heart, but don’t tell her that) especially since she had always been kind of alone, and not by her own decision, as Gajeel had.
Once he entered the guild, he went straight to the board and started rummaging. A few good missions seemed to be catching his eyes, but before he could choose one, he heard Levy’s voice on his right.
“Gajeel!”
He looked in her direction almost praying for her to smile at him.
She was wearing an orange tank top and shorts paired with tights, and Gajeel had to distract himself with her yellow bandana in order to not look like a perv.
“Hey shrimp, what’s up?”
“Don’t call me that Gajeel!” He chuckled. He loved seeing her huff because of his nickname.
The script mage squinted her eyes at him, in an effort to look intimidating, before lowering her eyes into her hands, where a request was.
“I was going to ask you if you were up for a mission with me? The request asks for a script mage and a bodyguard to decipher a text in an abandoned church…. I cover the script of course, but I could use someone with me, especially if I have to be with the text and something attacks me….”
The dragon slayer looked at the bluenette. She was flushing a little, and he wondered if something was up with her.
“Your friends can’t protect you shrimp?”
Levy looked angrily at him. Gajeel knew she was trying to come up with something to defend her teammates, but she came short. Everyone knew that Levy was the strongest of that group, even after 7 years in Tenrou.
“Okay. I was looking for a mission, so if you promise I will be able to punch something I’ll go with you.” He said a second later, not trying to make her back out from the offer.
Her smile could have blinded him for a second, and Gajeel ignored the skip of his heart.
.
.
.
And now he was there, trying not to look up at Levy, who was at the moment up a ladder in the aforementioned abandoned church, trying to decipher a mossy text near the ceiling.
It wasn’t the danger of the height that kept Gajeel looking up, but he tried to reign himself in. He had a job as a bodyguard after all.
Yes, he had already beat a band of bandits that tried to rob them blind on the road, and a gooey monster that had taken residence in the church, but he didn’t know if that was the last of the enemies, and he would rather die than allow anyone to sneak up on him because he was too busy ogling Levy. She was a sight, but still.
So concentrated he was on not looking at her, that at first, he didn’t even register the surprised sound that she made. But once the ladder hit back, he looked up.
And she was, of course, falling.
With his dragon slayer instincts, it was easy to pick her up, even before she was in any danger of colliding with the ground, but she still closed her eyes, ready for impact. He couldn’t help but laugh, she was too cute.
“Did you really think that I would let you fall Levy?”
The blunette opened her eyes surprised, and quickly took in his face, mere inches from hers, and couldn’t help but blushed. Gajeel seemed to realise the proximity of their faces too, and in a swift motion, she was safely on the ground again, on her own feet.
“Thank you Gajeel.”
“Tsch… What made you fall? I didn’t take you for a clumsy one…” He rapidly changes the subject, trying to not seem affected by their position a second ago.
Levy pointed at the inscription she had been deciphering a few seconds ago, and at her notebook, lying on the floor next to the fallen ladder.
“I was almost finished transcribing, but there is something weird about it. Look”
Gajeel knew that he was probably not going to understand a thing of what she was going to show him, but he followed her to retrieve her notebook, and dutifully look at the notebook.
It was full of runic symbols and quotes made by the script mage that he couldn’t understand, but to his full surprise, he knew the last word.
Levy, on the other hand, looked at her transcription and began talking.
“The transcription talks about a creature of metal and fire, and it references the creator of it, but the last word seems written in a language that I don’t know, and that is frankly something I am not comfortable with. I would have to go to the guild and see if I can decipher it…” Gajeel cut her off gently.
“It means dragon.”
“How do you know that?” She didn’t seem doubtful, only intrigued.
He pointed at the word that was not transcribed.
“It’s draconic. Metalicana taught me that when I was a kid, before disappearing. Natsu and Wendy can read it too.”
Levy nodded and looked at the rest of the inscription, slowly adding the word dragon beneath the runes.
After a beat of silence, she looked at the top of the church, like expecting something to pop up from it.
When nothing happened, she looked defeated at it.
“I don’t understand. The transcription is perfect. It should activate.”
Gajeel gave her a strange look. What was she talking about?
“What should activate?”
“It says here that the moment all the words are said on your mind on the tongue that you understand, the magic of the metal dragon should activate… But it isn’t doing anything.”
The dragon slayer couldn’t help but laugh.
Levy didn’t find it as funny as he did.
“Shrimp, the last word is in draconic. That spell can only be activated by someone of dragon origin. You are not going to be able to activate it ever.”
The fed-up look on the blunette disappeared, and after a second, she threw the book at him lightly.
“Then you do it. You are a dragon slayer.”
Gajeel nodded and began reciting on his head, thankful for the translation in the book.
At first, nothing seemed to happen, but after a moment, the church began to tremble, not enough to make them fall, but the two of them planted their feet more firmly on the ground.
The vibrations continued, and slowly Gajeel could see something appearing at the altar.
A little necklace, no larger than a feather, made of iron.
He couldn’t really see it from the distance, but the smell of iron was something so appetizing and familiar to him that he could figure out the shape and location of it in a distance of almost a mile.
Levy, who couldn’t really see it though and advanced towards it before Gajeel could really stop her. Thankfully, it wasn’t warded.
He supposes, after the intricate spell work and the dragon slayer stopper, the person who did it, wasn’t intending on it robbed by anybody else.
“Who actually asked you for this mission?”
Levy smiled, still absently looking at the necklace.
“The Magic Council. They are afraid someone will steal this. Especially since there had been so many Dragon Slayers popping out lately…”
That made sense.
After inspecting it for a few more minutes, Levy decided it was safe enough, and took it from the pedestal.
Gajeel got prepared, in case a trap was triggered, but nothing happened, so the two of them quickly made their way out of the church.
“Well, now we just have to take the train to Era.”
Gajeel made a face at that. His stomach began rumbling in fear at the idea of spending the next hours in agony.
Maybe he wasn’t as bad as Natsu on transportation, but the motion still made him queasy.
But Levy, seeing his face, took something out of her pouch.
“Don’t worry, before leaving I asked Wendy for an anti-nausea potion. You just have to drink it before the train starts moving.”
Sincerely, Gajeel could have kissed her there and then.
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.
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The ride was a comfortable one for the dragon slayer, something he wasn’t accustomed to. The potion did as promised, and for the next five hours, he was able to just enjoy a car ride with the script mage.
She had been almost too engrossed in her book to have a conversation but seeing her enjoy it was almost as entertaining as talking to her. She would be so enthusiastic about what she was reading, and if she didn’t like what the characters were doing, she would make cute huffing sounds with her lips closed, like she was personally disappointed in them.
Once they were in the city though, Levy was full of questions about the dragon language.
“So that was the first language you learned… How did you begin reading our language?”
“After I joined Phantom Lord. Before that, I didn’t need to learn how to read, so I just pretended I know what it said. But once I joined, it was impossible to do, so I taught myself.”
“And could you teach me how to read them?”
Gajeel began blushing, almost not wanting to explain to her that what she just asked for was not as simple.
Maybe Natsu with his thick head couldn’t understand at the time, and he was sure he had already taught the bunny girl how to read some things, but the dragons had made clear something about teaching someone about that…
“Well… I shouldn’t.”
“Why? I’m sure Natsu has taught Lucy at least a few words.”
“And that is Natsu’s fight once Igneel finds out that he had taught her. But I appreciate my skin, and Metalicana would kill me.”
The bluenette made a face of confusion, and Gajeel began (much to his dismay) blushing.
“Is it prohibited of you to teach anyone?”
“No, it’s…. I can…”
She smiled again at his stuttering.
“Then teach me!”
Gajeel stopped walking.
They were almost at the building, but due to the closing hour and the fact that the sun was setting, they were the only ones on that particular avenue.
Great, fewer people to see him made a fool of himself.
“Look, Levy… It’s not that I don’t want to but we are only supposed to teach someone of our kin, like a son or a spouse… So I guess you don’t really want to learn it from me. Sorry.”
The fact that her face could have toasted bread said a lot, but Gajeel refused to let it show on his face.
Without saying a word, the script mage just continued walking, not uttering a single breath, and if he wasn’t so focused on not letting the hurt of her silence on his face, he would have been worried about her passing out.
Giving the council mage the necklace and explaining the situation in the church was easy, and Gajeel barely listened to the conversation, but Levy seemed to revive once the situation was over, and walking back to the station was less awkward than ten minutes prior.
Once they were on the train, that was a different scenario.
Wendy had told Levy that the potion was probably going to last for eight hours, but the “probably” was a little hoping, and once the train started moving, Gajeel felt the vile starting to rise in his stomach.
Nausea hit him full force, and he spend the next hours trying not to projectile vomit on the little mage, that spent the ride apologizing for it.
Thankfully, the train was faster, and once it stopped, Gajeel didn’t even think, he just jumped to the door.
“I’m so sorry about the potion Gajeel, I really am.”
The dragon slayer, feeling better, just made a dismissive motion with his hand.
“It’s okay Levy, don’t worry about it.”
“I could invite you to dinner as an apology.” Gajeel denied while rubbing his stomach.
He wasn’t hungry, and the idea of food right now made him want to barf.
“No thank you. Another day maybe.”
The girl looked a little bit disappointed at that, nodding along while they walked. Gajeel, not wanting to look as if he didn’t want to dine with her (he wanted, a lot, probably more than she could imagine) quickly started correcting himself.
“Maybe we could eat someday this week… Together you know… If you really want to.”
The smile that popped out of her mouth made his stomach jump, but nicely, instead of clawing out of his skin like half an hour ago.
“I would love to! I heard about this place from Bisca, it’s cute but not formal, and she told me they have a cocktail they swear tastes like iron.”
Gajeel giggled at that, the idea of having a good time with Levy, mixed with the excitement of new metal tastes, although he was almost sure it was not going to taste as iron at all (they rarely nailed the aftertaste iron left).
So entertained they were about the menu and the weird combination of their cockatils, they almost forgot they were heading toward sthe guild, until the door was almost in the noses.
Frowning, Gajeel looked at Levy. Now it was the part were they probably part ways until later, as she was going to be whisked away by Shadow Gear and he was going to reunite with Lily (he had missed his cat, he was not going to deny it), so he awkwardly tried to steer the conversation towards it.
“It was good to make a mission with you… If you ever need someone stronger than your friends, you know, and you are probably going to need it because those to are just…”
In his defence, Gajeel would say he was really trying to focus on what to say, and he just didn’t realise until she had already done it. In reality, he was not sure she would ever do that.
The little bluenette had armed herself with bravery and in a swift motion, she had grabbed him by his shirt and lowered him enough to just kiss him, pressing her lips into his.
Knowing her, she would have stopped a second later and made a run for it, but Gajeel passed his initial shock, took her neck, and pressed on the kiss, making her open her mouth in response.
She tasted like honey and ink, and Gajeel lost his mind on that sweetness for a moment, allowing himself to just enjoy something he never taught he could have. She moved with ease once the first couple of seconds, and Gajeel marvelled at the eagerness and trust she was pouring in that kiss like she had nothing to fear of him.
A swift movement of her tongue made him shiver in sensitivity, and her in surprise at the metal texture on his tongue.
Levy, more at ease than he could imagine her to be, just repeated the motion, making him groan, and so reluctantly, pulled away from her. Her cute whine of protest could have made him kiss her again.
“As much as I loved that, we should probably go to that dinner before moving this along.”
Levy sighed but nodded.
“You are probably right, but only if you promised to kiss me after that dinner again… And after that, continuously.”
Gajeel laughed, happy at the knowledge that she wasn’t going to be shy about physical contact with him. He should be careful though, if she matches his speed or, as he was suspecting, surpassed it, they were going to end up popping babies before he was ready to really process it.
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.
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He was correct, and before he could process it, she was pregnant with his kid. And yes, he ended up teaching her how to read dragon runes (he could feel the plotting and scheming of that in her eyes sometimes). Not that he was ever going to complain. He never could have dreamed of a better life for himself.