A/N: In honor of that group picture in chapter 390, I give you another one shot. I'll warn you right now. It's pretty cheesy so you might want to get some nachos and buckle up.

Disclaimer: If I told you I owned Fairy Tail I would be a big fat liar.

It was a bright, sunny day when the Fairy Tail gang decided to take a trip to the beach. Everything started out cheerful and calm, but as usual that didn't last long. They mostly had their section of the beach to themselves due to the giant waves Juvia was making at the command of Erza and the boys who were having a competition to see who could ride the largest waves.

Levy looked up from her book to see Lucy and Wendy, who were collecting sea shells near the shore, get drenched from one of the huge waves. She giggled as she watched Lucy lecture Nastu while Erza apologized multiple times on behalf of all of them.

Levy gazed farther out into the ocean where she spotted Juvia gushing to Gray, probably about Gray, and Gajeel looking annoyed by everyone. Levy sighed. She had hoped that coming to the beach would give her a chance to spend time with the iron dragon slayer outside of the guild.

Part of her wanted to join them so she could hang out with Gajeel like usual, but a larger part of her didn't feel like drowning today. With a frown Levy went back to focusing on her book. She would just have to wait until they decided to do something less threatening like building sandcastles. Until then she would read or at least try to. Really it was more like half reading and half thinking about her relationship, or lack of, with Gajeel.

Back at Fairy Tail she would often sit with Gajeel and Lily, but that time was usually limited to some sort of casual conversation between the three of them before Gajeel got into a brawl with their guild mates and Levy went back to reading her book.

Some days were better than others. There was always a little more emotion in their conversations when one of them came back from a mission, especially if they were injured, and whenever they had a little more alcohol in their system, talking, laughing, and teasing would come just a bit more naturally between the two of them.

Special events, like today, were usually the best though. Ever since Levy had finally accepted the fact that she was developing feelings for the dragon slayer, she made certain to hang around him during occasions like these. It was easier, because the rest of the guild had better things to do then spy on them and it made Gajeel loosen up a bit. He had even sought her out first on a few, rare instances and opened up to her on even rarer ones.

Unfortunately, Levy doubted that he felt the same way towards her. She didn't want to push anything on him though. For now her goal was to make him see her as a friend, but even that wasn't a walk in the park. Gajeel liked to keep to himself, that was no secret, but getting him to let his guard down was like pulling teeth. Hopefully with time he'll get more comfortable around her to the point that he starts seeing her as a close friend. If she could manage that then she would be content for the time being.

As Levy was pondering her thoughts she felt the book she was "reading" leave her grasp and looked up in time to see it land a good distance away from her. She turned to the culprit, who was kneeling next to her, and glared.

"Gajeel what are you-"

"Can I kiss you?" he asked with her with a serious face.

"Whaa-What?!" Levy spluttered. Levy wanted him to be comfortable around her, but she didn't think Gajeel was capable of this level of comfort, at least not yet.

Gajeel frowned. "I said can I kiss you?"

"You want to kiss me?" she asked unbelievingly. Levy had certainly not pictured things happening this way. How could he be so blunt about it?

"Yeah, Salamander said he didn't think I could get a girl to kiss me, so we made a bet. There's no way in hell that punk's beating me." He explained with a smirk.

There it was. Levy knew something didn't seem right about this whole thing. It was for a bet. Levy felt her stomach drop and the beginning of tears stinging her eyes.

"Well you're going to have to find some other girl to kiss!" Levy snapped before running off.

As she was running toward the walkway Levy heard him say " Hey wait dammit!" and a familiar "Lucy Kiicckkk!" further off into the distance. She needed to get away.

…

Gajeel stood there looking dumbstruck as he watched Levy run out of sight. A rough looking Natsu walked up beside him.

"Haha looks like you lose this one." Natsu laughed.

Gajeel growled at him. "Like you have room to talk." He pointed to the bump on Natsu's head. "Blondie almost kicked you into the next dimension."

"Eh Lucy'll only be mad for a little bit. I can just ask her again later. But it looks to me like Levy's going to be mad at you for a long time. She looked really upset. You should probably go after her."

"Tch. Shut up idiot." Was Gajeel's only retort, but he took Natsu's advice anyway and started running in the direction he saw her leave.

He passed multiple shops, food stands, and annoying beach dwellers before he saw her sitting alone at a table outside of an ice cream parlor. Levy had her arms wrapped around herself and her head down. Gajeel felt his heart sink. This was definitely the last thing he wanted. He needed to make this right.

Gajeel marched up and sat down next to her. "What the hell! Why'd you run away from me?"

She glanced at him for a second with a startled look in her eyes before turning away from him and glaring at nothing. Maybe yelling wasn't the best approach.

"Come on Shorty, at least look at me."

When it became apparent that she wasn't going to budge Gajeel tried moving to sit on the other side of her where she was looking. As expected, Levy turned the other way. He moved to his original spot on the bench and growled.

"Look at me dammit!" Gajeel demanded as he slammed his hand on the table.

He was getting extremely irritated and, acting on impulse, decided to pick her up and set her down on his legs facing him. Gajeel put his hands on top of the table on either side of her. He saw her squeak in surprise and immediately felt bad when he saw her tear stained cheeks.

"Just look at me." Gajeel said softer than before. "Please."

Levy finally looked at him. Needless to say it was a glare, but at least it was something.

"Go away Gajeel. I don't want to hear about your undying passion for beating Natsu at everything." She told him harshly.

"Damn what the hell's got you so worked up? I didn't think kissing me would be that disgusting for you." Gajeel said with a frown.

"I didn't say that!" Levy shouted. "It's just that I-" She cut off and looked away blushing.

Gajeel tried moving his head, so that she would look at him again. "It's just that you what?" he demanded.

Levy took a deep breath and looked him in the eyes. "I don't want it to be just a bet." She told him quietly then moved to put her head down in her hand.

Surprise flashed across Gajeel's face before the corners of his mouth quirked up into a smile. "That's it?"

Gajeel took her hand off her face with one of his then cupped her chin to tilt her head back up. Levy hesitantly looked at him.

"You wanna know something Shorty?" He smiled with his hand still on her face. "I was the one that suggested that damn bet to Salamander in the first place. You know why? So that I had a good excuse to walk up and kiss you without looking like a god damn idiot. Granted I still ended up looking like a fool anyway, but the point is I wanted to kiss you. With or without it being a bet. I. Wanted. To. Kiss. You. I still do. So I'm gonna ask you one more time."

He moved his face close to hers, until their lips were only an inch apart.

"Can I kiss you?"

Levy was speechless. She knew words would fail her now anyway so she just nodded and closed her eyes.

Gajeel closed the gap between them and when he did she kissed backed. It was a great feeling having his lips moving along hers and before this moment Levy never realized how much she wanted this. Screw being just friends. She wanted to be with him on a much deeper level and it looked like things were heading in her favor. Except…

Levy pulled her mouth from Gajeel's abruptly. He leaned back a bit and quirked and eyebrow at her in question.

"You can't tell Natsu about this." She told him.

"Why not?"

"Because then it'll be just a bet."

Gajeel smiled widely at her. "If I don't tell him can I kiss you again?"

Levy nodded and smiled back.

"Then you've got yourself a deal." And so they went back to where they left off.

Hah I am SO lame. Oh well, I tried. This was actually the first time I've written them kissing. Maybe one day I'll be risky enough to write about another couple. We'll see if Mashima gives me some inspiration in these next few chapters. Well until next time!

P.S. Gray won that bet in like 5 seconds anyway. You don' have to ask Juvia twice when it comes to kissing Gray!