~Levy~

“Where are you off to in such a good mood?” Lucy asked. I had passed her on my way down the stairs to meet up with Gajeel when she stopped me to say good morning.

“Nowhere,” I shrugged.

“Somewhere with Gajeel, I’m guessing,” she smirked. It had been one month since he had come to stay at Fairy Tail, and since that day I showed him around Magnolia, things had been great between us. I could still sense some tension from him whenever our past was brought up, but—thankfully—it never lasted long.

“No!” I snapped, crossing my arms over my black corset top. It laced up the back, leaving most of my back and my shoulders —along with my white guild mark—bare. It also pushed up what little bit of chest I had, and hugged my slim stomach, all the way down to the black skinny jeans I was wearing.

“Really?” She raised an eyebrow, the smirk never leaving her face. “Then why are you all dressed up?”

“I’m wearing jeans,” I scoffed.

“I mean all fuck-me dressed up,” she snorted. “You know exactly what that outfit is for, and don’t try to deny it. That’s what you wear when you’re being all succubus-y.”

“It is not,” I frowned, “and that’s not even a word.”

“You have a thing for him, don’t you?” She gasped, her brown eyes wide as she stared at me.

“I do not have a thing for Gajeel!” I snapped. “He is my protector, nothing more. Besides, he’s a human, Lu-chan. I’m not stupid enough to let myself grow feelings for a human.”

“You say that, but I don’t believe it,” she sighed, “and I have a hunch that you don’t believe it either.”

“What about you and Natsu?” I asked, trying to move the conversation away from me.

“What about us?”

“I think you’re the one with a thing for her protector. You two have been inseparable since he got here. And I know that he shows up in your bedroom all the time.”

She groaned. “He’s always breaking into my room! It’s not like I invite him in or anything. And we don’t do anything, anyways. He usually falls asleep on my bed until I kick him out.”

“You avoided the first part,” I grinned. “You have a thing for him.”

Her face turned scarlet, and she turned, continuing up the stairs. “You’d better go before you’re late for your date with Gajeel.”

“It’s not a date!” I called after her, angrily. It isn’t, and I don’t have any feelings for Gajeel. Even as I thought it, I knew I was just kidding myself. After only a month, I had fallen totally in love with the guy.

I sighed. “Too bad he could never feel the same.”

~Gajeel~

“Ready to go?” Levy smiled up at me, her hazel eyes bright.

“Yeah,” I nodded, leading her out the doors. We were going to that magic shop Laxus had told us all about when we first arrived. I had never been there, so when Levy asked me if I’d go with her, I agreed immediately. I still hadn’t been able to find any more clues as to why there were more supernaturals sneaking into Magnolia. At night, after everyone had gone to bed, Laxus, Jellal, Natsu, Gray, and I snuck out of Fairy Tail to deal with any of them that we could find.

“Here we are,” Levy told me, knocking on the door three times before turning the doorknob and opening the door. I followed her inside, amazed at how different the inside was from the outside—just as Laxus said it was.

“What are you getting?” I asked as we walked around the store.

“Just an old book on supernaturals,” she murmured, focused on the various items on the shelves in front of her.

“Why?”

She looked at me, a small smile on her face. “I like learning about other supernatural creatures. Their weaknesses and strengths. When they’re most powerful, or at their weakest. If they’re usually a friendly breed, or perhaps not-so-nice. There’s always something new to learn, something I have yet to discover.”

“But why all the interest in other supernaturals?” I asked, trying not to notice how her entire face lit up when she talked about it. Her hazel eyes had been bright with excitement, and the small blush on her cheeks nearly sent one to my own, damnably.

“Why not?” She chuckled.

I shrugged. “Whatever brings you joy, I guess.”

“A lot of things in this life bring me joy, Gajeel,” she said with a coy smile before gliding off to the back room while I stared after her in bewilderment.

“Was she just flirting with me?” I shook myself, knowing I was probably just imagining it. Although, it wasn’t exactly hard to imagine her flirting with me, with the way those jeans hugged her entire lower half as she walked.

“She’s a succubus, Gajeel,” I reminded myself, quietly. “It’s what they’re best at.” And I refuse to let it affect me.

“I’m good to go,” Levy grinned, returning from the back with a small brown package in her hands. “I’m eager to return to Fairy Tail so I can start reading.”

“Bookworm,” I chuckled, following her back onto the main street.

She puffed out her cheeks as she pouted. “I’d rather be a bookworm than an idiot.”

I shrugged, knowing the insult was meant for me. “I hate books, nothing much I can do about that.”

“You—”

“Sh,” I snapped, suddenly getting a bad feeling deep in my gut. Something wasn’t right. I did a quick scan of the area, but nothing looked suspicious.

“What are you doing?” She asked, looking around.

“Nothing.” I shook my head. “Must have been my imagination.” As if summoned to prove me wrong, a gunshot rang through the air. I searched for the source, unable to find the shooter in the chaos that had erupted thanks to the shot.

“Gajeel.”

“It’s alright, I think he got spooked,” I said, turning to face her. My blood turned to ice when I saw she was clutching her side and there was blood spilling from beneath her hand onto the pavement at her feet.

“Damn,” she gasped, her knees giving out. I scooped her up before she could hit the ground and took off towards the guildhall.

“Hey, you’re going to be fine,” I told her. “You’re immortal, right? So, this is nothing.”

“Semi-immortal. And I can still bleed to death,” she breathed, wincing at the effort speaking took.

“It’s a flesh wound,” I said, trying to convince myself more than her, “you’re going to be fine.”

“Y-Yeah.” She leaned her head against my shoulder, closing her eyes as she took deep breaths.

“Stay with me.”

“I couldn’t sleep if I wanted to,” she whispered. “It hurts too much.”

“What the hell happened?!” Lucy gasped as soon as I burst through the doors with Levy.

“Someone shot her in town. Where’s the infirmary?”

“Through here,” the blonde instructed, running ahead of me to a back room with all sorts of medical equipment. “I’ll go get Lady Porlyusica. Put Levy on one of the beds and try to stop her bleeding.”

I did as she said, laying the small woman down as gently as I could. “Let me see it,” I told her, moving her hand. After I did, I wished I hadn’t. The bullet had gone straight through her corset—into her side. Wasting no time, I grabbed the hem of the fabric and yanked hard, ripping it up the side until the tear had reached the top.

“Hey!” She gasped. “Don’t—”

“I can’t get to the wound with this in the way,” I snapped. “I need to check for an exit wound, okay? This might hurt.”

“Do it,” she said, closing her eyes.

I gently rolled her over, checking her back. I let out a relieved breath when I saw a hole. “Good news,” I grinned, “we won’t have to cut you open and dig out the bullet.”

She chuckled—then stopped when she winced. “Great.”

“What have you done this time?” And old woman snapped, shoving me out of the way as she stood beside Levy’s bed.

“Hey—”

“That’s Lady Porlyusica,” Lucy said, pointing to the pink-haired old woman. “She’s a witch and specializes in healing, so we often seek her assistance when one of our members gets injured.”

“Gajeel!” Natsu ran through the infirmary doors, followed by Gray. Both of them had worried looks on their faces as they spotted Levy’s bed. “What happened?” Natsu asked. “Someone said Levy got shot.”

“In town,” I nodded, ashamed. I’m supposed to be her protector, damn it! Some job I’m doing, letting her get shot while she’s standing right next to me.

“Who—” Levy’s pained cry cut him off, and it took every ounce of self-restraint in me not to march over to her bed and drag that old woman away from her.

“You guys should wait outside,” Lucy said. “I’ll help Porlyusica in here.”

“Come on,” Gray said when I didn’t move. I reluctantly went into the hallway, sighing once the doors closed behind me.

“Do you know who did it?” Gray frowned.

I shook my head. “Not a clue. Everyone in town scattered when the gun went off, so he could have easily disappeared into the chaos. I didn’t even know she got shot at first.”

“Did you notice anything suspicious before that?” Natsu asked.

Again, I shook my head. “I had had a bad feeling since we left that supernatural shop, but I couldn’t see anyone who looked suspicious as we made our way back here.”

“You realize Laxus is going to give you hell for letting Levy get shot, right?” Natsu sighed, sympathetically.

“I should do more than that,” Laxus growled, coming up behind Natsu. “It’s your job to protect her, not make her an open target.”

“I know,” I sighed.

He cursed under his breath, running a hand through his blonde hair. “How is she?” In response, a shout came from the infirmary. Levy’s voice sounded weak—and very, very much in pain.

After a moment, the doors opened and Lucy entered the hallway. “She’s going to be alright,” she smiled. “Porlyusica said to leave her alone and let her rest for now. Everyone but Gajeel is to stay out until at least tomorrow.”

“Me?” I frowned.

Lucy nodded, “she was asking for you.”

“Go on,” Laxus sighed. “I can give you hell later.”

Wasting no time, I rushed inside. The old woman gave me a good lecture about taking care of Levy before she left, finally leaving us alone once she had finished.

“Hey,” I said, quietly, sitting in the chair beside Levy’s bed.

“Hey,” she smiled.

“What’s the damage?” I asked.

“Twenty-four hours in bed, then two days of taking it easy. I should be completely healed in about three days.”

“Three days?” I gaped at her, astonished. She’d had a bullet hole going through her side, and it would only take three days to heal. If that had been me, I’d be down and out for at least a couple of weeks. Damn. Supernaturals really are a lot different than us humans.

“I’ve seen that look before,” she sighed, looking up at the ceiling. “It’s the deer-in-the-headlights look every human gets after they realize how different I am from them. Which is true. The only thing I have in common with humans is my appearance. That’s it.”

“I don’t know,” I smirked, “you seem to bleed like every other human I know.”

She grinned at me. “So maybe two things.”

The smile left my face as I took a deep breath, wanting to get any information out of her that I could. “Do you have any idea who would want you dead?” I asked.

“Always so serious,” she sighed, glancing at me. “I’m afraid that list would be too long to be of any use, unfortunately.”

“There can’t be that many people who want you dead,” I frowned, unable to imagine that many people hating her enough to put a target on her head. Sure, I had some issues with her because of our past, but I don’t think I ever actually wanted her dead.

“There are,” she nodded, “so unless there’s anything else to go on, I’m afraid that’s a dead end. Honestly, though, I wouldn’t worry about something like this.”

“Why the hell not?” I asked, shocked that she didn’t seem to care.

“We leaders are targeted quite often, so this is nothing new. I’ve had a lot worse than this before, so it isn’t anything to worry about. I’ll just be more careful the next time I go out.”

“No way,” I snapped. “You aren’t leaving the guildhall until we find the bastard who shot you.”

“Why are you so upset?”

“Why are you not?” I growled.

With a sigh, she grabbed my hand, squeezing it gently. “Gajeel, really, I’m alright. I appreciate that you’re worried, but you shouldn’t be. I’ll be back to perfect health in about three days, then everything will go back to normal.”

“I can’t just ignore the fact that you got shot,” I told her, pulling my hand away. “Especially since I was the one who let it happen.”

“Hey.” She frowned, struggling into a sitting position.

“You should lay—”

“Listen here, Gajeel,” she snapped, grabbing my face with her tiny hands and forcing me to meet her hazel eyes. “I don’t want you blaming yourself, alright? I didn’t even sense whoever shot me, so there’s no way you could have. It’s not like you were trained for sensing supernaturals, so stop blaming yourself this instant.”

Little did she know, I had been. All Eradicators went through strict training to be able to sense supernaturals. Hell, I had even been at the top of my class. But I still let her get shot—and worse, I let the shooter get away.

“Yeah,” I mumbled, averting my eyes.

“Look at me,” she said, still holding my face. When I lifted my eyes to meet hers, she smiled. “I know you would have done everything you could to protect me. I trust you, Gajeel.”

Guilt hit me in the chest like a knife. She was so sincere that I nearly spilled everything right there. Instead, I pulled away from her, stood up, and left the room without so much as a backward glance.

Damn, this is bad. This is really, really bad. I had come so close to sabotaging an entire mission—not to mention the safety of my comrades—just because of a damned look from that woman.

“Hey, man, how’s she doing?” Gray asked as I passed him and Juvia in the hallway.

“Fine,” I grumbled.

“Gajeel,” Juvia said, catching my arm.

“What?” I snapped.

“Thank you,” she smiled.

That caught me off guard. “For what?”

“For getting Levy back to Fairy Tail. If you hadn’t acted so quickly, she may have been in worse shape.”

“Don’t thank me. I still let her get shot.”

“If you had known where the shooter was, would you have taken that bullet for her?” She asked, her tone serious.

Without hesitation, I answered. “Yes.”

Her face softened as she smiled. “Then you did your job. Juvia is sure Levy knows that, too.”

“Yeah,” I nodded, continuing down the hallway. I as feeling a little better about everything as I reached my room—until Laxus caught up to me.

“Gajeel.”

“Not now,” I sighed. Before I could escape into my room, Laxus shoved a cellphone into my hands. “What’s this for?” I frowned, looking down at the small device. I had been told to leave mine behind—I didn’t want to be caught with anything that could tie me back to the Eradicators.

“Gramps told me to have you call him,” he said. “That’s a disposable phone. Non-traceable. Gramps’s number is the only one in the contacts. Call him, then destroy and get rid of the phone.”

“Right.” I went into my room, locking the door behind me, then went into the bathroom connected to my room and locked that door for good measure. I sat on the sink’s counter before flipping open the phone and calling Makarov.

“Makarov here,” he answered.

“It’s me,” I said.

“Gajeel. How is Levy?”

“Fine. Three days of recovery and she’ll be back to normal.”

“Good.” When he didn’t go on, I remained silent, not wanting to possibly make the situation worse. I was sure he was going to give me hell, so I was startled when he sighed. “How are you?”

“Fine.”

“Good. I need you in top health so you can go after whoever did this.”

“That’s my plan,” I told him, “even though Levy doesn’t seem to mind at all that some bastard put a bullet in her side.”

“Levy McGarden is over two-hundred years old,” Makarov chuckled, “I don’t think much would phase her at this point.”

“She’s two-hundred?!” I nearly fell off the counter as I tried to process that.

“Succubi age differently than humans,” he said. “Every ten years to us is like one to her.”

“That would explain why she looked exactly the same,” I mumbled, angrily.

“Back to the point,” Makarov went on, “when you go out with the others at night, interrogate the supernaturals you find before killing them. Maybe one holds the answer to who shot Levy.”

“Should I tell the others to do the same thing?”

“Yes. And tell them to keep closer eyes on their leaders. I’m sure they already are, but saying it again wouldn’t hurt.”

“Shouldn’t we keep them inside until we figure out who did this?”

“You can try,” he chuckled, obviously amused by the thought, “but I don’t think you’ll have any luck with that. Your best bet is to keep your eyes open. If anything feels suspicious, hightail it out of there.”

“Alright.” I told him, hanging up after his line cut off. “Things are beginning to get interesting,” I murmured. “I have a feeling this is going to be a pain in the ass.”

WHOOO!! Two updates in the same week! (I feel so damn productive I could just skip around the house! Okay...I'm a fat kid...so probably not...) Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and thank you so much for reading!! <3

~~~Also, the next chapter will have some lemon (I mean this IS supposed to be a lemon fanfic, after all)!! Like, actual lemon. Not this fade-to-black crap I've been pansying out to for the last few chapters. XD