AN: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima! Hope everyone was nice over Christmas!

Sorry this is a day late, I've been really ill since I woke up Christmas Eve and I was forced into going to see a Doctor yesterday so I didn't get home until 6, so I figured I'd wait until today to post – hope everyone has had a great Christmas and New Year! Thanks for all the notifications – brilliant surprise! I came back to 61 notifications, so thank you all for making my day yesterday, and sorry for the problems with 'Christmas at the Dreyar's' – thank you Ice and Thunder for letting me know!

Gajeel sat absentmindedly listening to Juvia telling him all of the latest gossip in the guild – she seemed to forget he could hear it all for himself. What he wanted to know was what was wrong with Shrimp. She'd been avoiding him all week and there was nothing he could do about it. He had a duty to watch out for his friend and that was what he was doing...protecting Juvia from the Ice-bastard. How the hell had he ended up with the job of protecting the stalker from the stalked anyway? Yeah, the Ice-bastard was an idiot and kept pushing Juvia away, but he hadn't been this stupid before.

Gajeel had never thought he'd be stupid enough to say things like that to her. How could the bastard tell her that he didn't care enough to give her a second thought, or that he didn't care if she went on a date with Lamia Scales' pompous Ice-bastard? Gajeel couldn't forgive him for that. Everyone knew how his friend felt about the Ice-bastard and he'd just thrown her feeling to the side as if they were nothing. No-one did that to his friends and got away with it. He was going to make sure the Ice-bastard never got near her again. He'd protect Juvia from the bastard that had hurt her.

He sighed, glancing over at Levy, Juvia oblivious that her friend's attention was elsewhere. He noticed Lily glaring out the corner of his eye and glanced in the direction he was pointedly staring in. Gajeel glared at Gray as he realised he was watching Wendy. He was going to try to hurt the kid now, was he? Like Gajeel was going to let him get away with that. He growled, Juvia looking at him worriedly, before he resettled himself. If he moved, Juvia would be vulnerable. Lily was next to the kid, he'd look after her – he'd have to.

Gajeel watched as Gray walked up to Wendy nervously. A rumble echoed deeply in his chest, unsettling Juvia as she watched him in silence. Gajeel could tell he was making her nervous, but the Ice-bastard was pissing him off. He was going to target Wendy just because Gajeel couldn't be in two places at once. Gajeel took a deep breath, reminding himself that Lily was there to look after the kid. He'd trust Lily with Shrimp, never mind the kid. He looked back at Juvia and nodded at her to continue, his ears focused in the direction of Gray.

"Hey Wendy, any idea what's wrong with Levy? She's been down all week and it really seems to be affecting everyone – she's always so happy."

He was asking about Shrimp? What did the bastard want with his Shrimp? If he even dared touch her, he'd rip him to pieces – wasn't hurting Juvia enough for him? He glared as he started to think about him going near his Shrimp. He watched as he started talking to her, creeping closer to her, worming his way into her. Gajeel could just see the bastard putting his arm around her, cuddling her as they settled down to read a book, only for him to stand up in a huff, yelling at her that he hated that story, telling her she had terrible taste in books.

"...be down because of Gajeel, but I don't know what happened; she hasn't been speaking to him all week."

Gajeel froze. What the hell had the kid just sad? Down because of him? Not speaking to him all week? Was she talking about Shrimp? He'd upset Shrimp? What the hell had he done? Gajeel sat raking his brain for something, coming up empty as he stared at Shrimp. He heard someone clearing their throat, snapping him out of his thoughts. He looked down to see Lily staring back at him, realising Juvia was now staring at him in silence, clearly aware that he genuinely hadn't been listening to her. He nodded at Lily, signalling him to go talk to Shrimp for him, Gajeel deciding against leaving his post. He'd even been walking Juvia home all week, sacrificing his precious alone time with Shrimp to protect his friend from the Ice-bastard – he couldn't lose now.

Gajeel heard a thud and looked in the direction of Gray, smirking as he seen the Ice Mage with his head on the table. He wasn't that stupid. Gajeel held back his laugh as Juvia looked at him in confusion, unaware of the silent war going on between her friend and the man she loved. If she'd realised what was going on, she'd probably start babbling about how wonderful her 'Gray-sama' was, forgetting the pain he'd caused her at the sight of him trying to outsmart Gajeel to get to her. He'd done pretty well so far, but Gajeel was going to win. Gajeel had his Slayer magic and Lily on his side, the Ice-bastard was alone in this, even if he was sitting with the rest of Salamander's team.

Gajeel waited impatiently for Lily to return, hoping it was nothing too serious. He watched as Lily nodded and patted Levy's arm comfortingly. What the hell was going on? He couldn't remember doing anything to upset her. He wished they'd sat closer to the middle of the guild, but the corner had a better defensive position. Gajeel could see the whole guild and the Ice-bastard could only attack from the front. He just wished he could hear what his Shrimp was saying from here. He watched as Lily flew back to him, a serious expression on his chibi face.

"Well?" Gajeel asked as Lily landed on the table.

"It's not my place to say, Gajeel." Lily answered, turning to fly back to Wendy and the other Exceeds, Gajeel growling quietly, warning Lily to answer his question, "she isn't upset with you, so to speak."

"So to speak?" Gajeel muttered quietly to Lily, trying not to gain any attention – they were all starting to get weird looks with the Ice-bastard's and Lily's moving around between groups, not really settling anywhere.

"Yes," Lily nodded, crossing his arms in front of his chest, "she thinks you've decided you've had enough of her and prefer Juvia's company."

Gajeel's face fell. She couldn't really think that, could she? Did she seriously doubt him? He'd had to protect Juvia! He'd wanted to be with Shrimp, but he couldn't leave Juvia. Juvia needed him. He'd thought the rest of Team Shadow Gear would have kept her preoccupied until he'd sorted out the mess with Juvia. Why hadn't they? Had they been telling her something? Had they made her doubt him? He'd never leave her – she was his Shrimp! He'd protect her. That was his goal, to keep his Shrimp safe. How dare she doubt him!

Gajeel stood up, slamming his hands down on the table in front of him as he did so. He didn't even notice the whole guild staring at him. All he could see was Shrimp's back as she blatantly ignored him. She should have at least turned to look at him. She would have before. She'd always looked at him and smiled whenever she'd seen him getting up before. She really was ignoring him. She really did doubt him. His face shone with rage as he realised the truth. He growled, his whole body shaking with fury as he began to storm towards his Shrimp.

He spun her in her seat, the rest of her team pulling back in fear. He forced his lips onto hers before she even registered that he'd even spun her around. He laughed at her crimson blush, loving how adorable she looked as he continued to kiss her. He wrapped his arms around her, one of his hands making its way to the back of her head. He softened the kiss, feeling her start to kiss him back as she slowly stood up.

He smirked into the kiss, the hand on the small of her back slipping down to grab her ass. He squeezed it, earning a squeak as he felt her arms move up his chest to wrap around his neck. He felt her fingers intertwining in his hair, Gajeel taking it as a hint to allow his own to make its way into hers. He felt her soft hair in his hand, wrapped around his fingers, and smirked again, his small laugh escaping him. If felt just like he'd thought it would.

He inhaled her scent, revelling in her deliciousness. He felt her tongue brush along his bottom lip and gasped, thrilled at her wanting. He couldn't believe this was his Shrimp, in his arms as they kissed in the middle of the guild...middle of the guild?

Gajeel heard a shout behind him and spun around where he stood, breaking the kiss but not letting go of his prize. He stared in disbelief as he registered the sight in front of him. The Ice-bastard was lying on the floor, rubbing his head as he shouted at Juvia, making Juvia cry waterfalls as she sat on top of him. A rumble started to grow inside of Gajeel as rage started to build up inside him. The Ice-bastard had outsmarted him by using the kid, Shrimp and Lil' against him, just to get to Juvia so that he could make her cry again. The growl grew as he watched Gray sit up, wrapping his arms around Juvia, her tears stopping as the bastard's lips touched hers before sitting back again.

"Gray-sama?"

"I told you, Juvia – you're the other half of my unison raid."

"Oi!" Gajeel roared, Levy still trapped in his arms, clinging on for dear life as Gajeel launched himself across the guild to murder the bastard that had just kissed his friend.

Hope you enjoyed this! ^_^ I'm pleased with myself for actually managing to write this! 0:)

Today will be the first of the new One Piece posting days, and Friday will be the first of the Fairy Tail posting days!

Today's One Piece story: 'The Twisting String that is Fate'

Friday's Fairy Tail story: 'Conceit and Crudity'

Sunday One-Shot: 'Waiting'

Happy New Year Everyone!