~Levy~

“Sweet Freedom!” I exclaimed as Gajeel wheeled me to his car. It had been two months, and I was finally getting out of the hospital. I held my crutches across my lap, annoyed that I’d have to use them for at least another month. Apparently, when I wrecked my car, I had spun into ditch, landing with the car tilted straight on its side. The driver’s side of the car had gone down first, so I when the door caved in a little from all the weight, it had done quite a bit of damage to my left side. I’d had a couple cracked ribs, a sprained wrist, a large gash across my eye, and a broken leg. My right side had taken a few good blows as well, but they were all things that had healed up during my time in the hospital.

“Don’t get too carried away,” Gajeel chuckled, helping me into the passenger seat. “You’re supposed to take it easy for the next month, remember?”

“Yeah,” I sighed. I smiled as he took the wheelchair back to the waiting nurses. Ever since I had woken up, and Gajeel and I had confessed to each other, things had been great between us. Given, I had been in the hospital, but still. Every night before Gajeel would leave to go home, he would kiss me on the forehead and tell me he loved me, and I would repeat him, smiling like a fool.

“Mom’s coming over for dinner tonight,” Gajeel said, getting in the car and taking off towards our apartment. “She wanted to make sure you got settled back in alright.”

“I told her I’d be fine.”

“So did I,” he chuckled, “but you know mom. She’d beat down our door if we didn’t agree to let her come over.”

“So, I was thinking,” I said, nervously straightening the bottom of my shirt, “that once everything calms down we could have lunch with everyone and make it official.”

“Make what official?” Gajeel asked, frowning.

“U-Us.”

He parked the car, silent as he shut off the ignition and unfastened his seatbelt. I took that as a negative reaction, so I mentally kicked myself. Stupid! We haven’t even made it official with each other that we’re a couple. For all I know, Gajeel hasn’t even thought about that yet. Maybe he doesn’t want to tell anyone about us. “Nevermind,” I said, chuckling awkwardly. “Forget I said that. I—”

“Everyone already knows,” he said, quietly.

I gaped at him. “They do?” How? Lu-chan never said anything to me about it. Nor did anyone else when they came to visit. Were they all just not saying anything so they wouldn’t embarrass me?

“I told Natsu a couple of days ago, and the big-mouth told everyone.”

“And what was their reaction?”

He smirked. “‘Finally’.”

~Gajeel~

I helped Levy out of the car and handed her the tiny crutches the hospital had given her. I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing at how small the damned things really were—and how short they made her look. I’d never tell her, but they were only about as long as my arm, and I was pretty sure they were for little kids.

“What are you doin’?” I asked, raising an iron-studded eyebrow at her when she came back from her room hauling a large bag of books. I grabbed the bag, ignoring her protests, and carried it to the sofa for her.

“I’m going to study,” she said, propping her crutches against the side of the sofa before taking a seat.

“Why?”

She frowned, taking out one of the books, her notebook, and her favorite pen. “Exams are next week.”

“Shrimp, you’ve been in the hospital most of the semester. How are you going to take exams?”

“I talked it over with all of my professors about a week after I woke up,” she told me. “They agreed that I could do the assignments from the hospital and email them to them so I wouldn’t have to drop out this semester. Lucy offered to drop off a voice recorder in with each of the professors, and at the end of the week she picks them up and I listen to the lectures over the weekend and throughout the next week while I’m waiting on the new lectures.”

“How the hell didn’t I know about this?” I asked, baffled.

“Because I did the work throughout the day while you were in class,” she giggled. “I didn’t have anything else to do, so I thought my time would best be spent studying. I haven’t had the chance to read many of the books for my classes yet, though, because the hospital didn’t want me to have all of them there, cluttering up my room. So, I have to go through all of them before exams.”

I shook my head, watching as she got to work. Mom arrived then, putting me to work in the kitchen as she got things ready for dinner. Once it was finished, I called for Levy, fed Lily, and sat down.

“Hey, mom?” Levy asked about halfway through desert.

Diane looked up from her cake, smiling. “Yes?”

“You knew about our countdown clocks, didn’t you?”

I looked up from my own cake, waiting for her answer.

Her smile grew a little, and she chuckled. “Of course I knew. The doctors put you two in the same room because they said both of your clocks hit zero the second they put you in the ambulance. You were both unconscious at the time, so it was an unusual case, but you were soulmates nonetheless. As soon as I woke up from my coma, the doctor informed me. I asked him and the nurses to keep quiet about it, claiming I wanted to let you two recover before dropping hat kind of news on you on top of everything else that was going on.”

“They agreed, and I began filling out paperwork to adopt Gajeel the next day. I knew that they would send him across the country to an orphanage, and we’d never see him again if I didn’t. I couldn’t let that happen, especially not after what I—” She paused to clear her throat, a sad look coming over her face briefly before she shook it away. “Well, he was such a sweet child, and I couldn’t bring myself to let him go.” She put her hand over mine, smiling warmly at me.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Levy asked.

Diane sighed. “I wanted you two to fall in love on your own terms, not because some stupid clock told you it was the most reasonable thing to do.”

“Would’a made things easier, though,” I mumbled under my breath. Diane heard, flicking a piece of cake at me from her fork.

“Hey!” I shouted, wiping cake off my face as she and Levy fell into a fit of laughter.

“Damn women,” I grumbled, smiling.

“Alright you two,” Diane giggled, taking our empty plates to the sink. “I’m going to clean up here and then head home. I’m sure the both of you have a lot of work to do.”

“I should get back to studying,” Levy nodded, kissing her mother on the cheek. “Love you mom. Thanks for dinner.”

“Want some help?” I asked, grabbing a sponge.

“Sure, kiddo,” Diane chuckled.

~Levy~

“Stupid cast,” I grumbled, stretching out on the sofa. I felt bad for not helping with the dishes, but I knew mom would never let me help—or Gajeel, for that matter. After a few minutes, I pulled my good leg up to prop my book on it. Usually when I studied I brought my knees up and used them as a table while I read and take notes. That proved particularly difficult when I only had one leg to do that with. I tried sitting with both of them up, but it was impossible with a cast.

Everything was impossible with a cast.

No matter how I sat, I couldn’t get comfortable. I stopped squirming when Gajeel took a seat next to me after mom had gone, his own book in hand. If you act like your uncomfortable, Gajeel will notice and get worried, I told myself. When my back began screaming in protest, I sighed and sat forward, laying my book on the cushions in front of me. After only a few minutes, that grew uncomfortable too.

With a sigh, Gajeel stood up. I frowned when he sat down in the floor directly in front of me, propping his back up against the sofa.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“If you can’t get comfortable like that, prop you bad leg up over my shoulder.”

I blushed, embarrassed that he had noticed—and that he knew exactly why I was uncomfortable. He knows how I usually sit? I didn’t think he paid attention to that kind of stuff. “I’m fin—”

“Just do it,” he said. “I’m already down here.”

“Won’t you be uncomfortable?”

He snorted. “I can sit anywhere. You know that.”

“Alright,” I nodded, giving in. I draped my legs over his shoulders as he leaned back, and was amazed that it actually was pretty comfortable. I smirked, wiggling the toes of my good foot in his face.

“Shrimp!” Gajeel laughed, pinning my foot down.

“Don’t you dare,” I warned when he turned and gave me a shitty smirk. He held up one of his fingers, wiggling it threateningly. “Gajeel, do—AHH!” I shrieked as he tickled my foot. “St-stop!” I begged, smacking him on the head with my book.

“Gihi,” he chuckled, releasing me.

“Ass,” I grumbled.

“Brat,” he retorted.

I smiled, opening up my book. He acts all tough, but he’s actually really sweet. “Thanks, Gajeel.”

He grunted, staring down at his book.

I still can’t believe Gajeel has been my soulmate all this time and I never knew it. Although it probably would have made things easier if mom had told us about it a long time ago, I was glad she didn’t. If she had, I wouldn’t have been able to fall in love with Gajeel just because he was Gajeel. I would have fallen in love with my soulmate, possibly thinking that that was the only reason we were so right for each other. But, having had the chance to really get to know him as we grew up, and falling in love with him over all those years, I appreciated the fact that we were soulmates even more.

I’m pretty lucky, aren’t I?