I've been looking forward to posting this all weekend! Just had to give another once-over to make sure there weren't any obvious errors. And... I have to apologize to all the Levy lovers out there for this one. I don't have anything against the girl, the story just played out this way. Though, I never understood why Gajeel and Levy were paired in the manga/anime. Why? From the first time their romantic interest was hinted, I didn't get it. I like Levy and I like Gajeel, just not together. GaLu could have been so beautiful...

Please expect and excuse errors. Leave a review and let me know what you think!

I don't own Fairy Tail.

Things had been great in the beginning. Though it developed slowly, the normally uncaring man found himself unexpectedly with someone that accepted him and put effort into getting to know him beyond the emotionless exterior he presented the world. It had taken awhile before they were comfortable enough around each other to have much of a conversation. She was painfully shy with men and self conscious while he just didn't give a fuck about people in general. Time together, whether forced or by choice, broke the proverbial ice and they started getting to know each other bit by bit. She asked questions about him and about his past, talked about her own past experiences, and spent time with him almost every day. Gajeel thought he had something real with Levy, especially when she got comfortable enough to invite him into her bed. The slayer knew that was something extremely rare for the blue haired girl and felt honored to have been accepted in such an intimate way.

The Iron Dragon Slayer should have known it wouldn't last, though. Nothing ever works out for him with his shitty luck. Everything went to shit slowly when they returned from their extended stay on Tenrou Island. Everyone in the guild had changed so much, including her two teammates. Droy had obviously changed; anybody with functioning eyes could see that. But it wasn't his change that had an effect on Gajeel's lady. Jet, the guy that had been Levy's first crush and taken her virginity, had become a man. Not only was he a man, but he was in a relationship. His maturity and the fact that he'd quit fawning over his female teammate sparked something in Levy.

Gajeel thought Jet's relationship was a great thing for he and Levy since that would make one less person following around his Shrimp, but he'd been so wrong. The changes had been subtle at first, small things that could easily be explained away as adjusting to life 7 years in the future. Shrimp had started to become distant little by little, her attention lingering on the speed mage a few seconds too long for the slayer's liking. When he confronted her about it, she said it was nothing more than her trying to get used to the way her teammates looked now. He didn't buy it, his senses screaming to him that she was lying, but also didn't question her over it. The two of them had never made their relationship official, so he didn't think he really had a right to.

As the weeks passed by, Shrimp started sitting with her team more often, chatting away with them while leaving Gajeel alone in his corner. Not that he cared about that. He liked being on his own with no one else to worry about, not to mention he'd been expecting it with the way Shrimp had been acting lately. The part that stung was when she came back to him. When Jet was out of the guild, Levy would sit with Gajeel and talk to him or just sit and read – exactly the way things had been before – until Jet walked through those doors. Then Shrimp would be off with her team, suggesting they go on a mission or hang out together to strengthen the bond that had weakened while she'd been away. It didn't take long for Gajeel to realize his Shrimp was just using him to pass the time until Jet became available again.

Though they had started to drift apart, Gajeel and Levy still fucked sometimes. Why would he pass up free, clean pussy? And she did everything the way he preferred. She'd been so inexperienced when they started out that he'd been able to teach her to do things exactly the way he liked them done. But that all stopped the day she sat next to him smelling like Jet. Gajeel wasn't the type to share. Not with anyone. Even sharing his house with Pantherlily had taken awhile to get used to. If she wanted to get with that loser, he wasn't going to try to stop her, but she could have told him before doing it. Did she really think he wouldn't pick up on that? His nose never lied. He had been pissed, feeling more used than ever before. It wasn't the first time a woman had used the dark haired man just for sex, but it was the first time his heart had been involved.

The disappointment reached a new level when, a couple days later, Jet came into the guild smelling like the woman he'd been with since before the lost mages had returned from Tenrou. Gajeel had assumed Jet ditched his woman to be with Levy, just like she ditched him to get with her teammate, but he'd been wrong again. He couldn't believe he'd been so wrong about her character. Blinded by the opportunity to have someone close to him in a way he'd never had them before, he'd missed all the signs pointing to what kind of woman she really was. Disgust didn't begin to describe what he felt when he realized Levy was fucking a man she knew was still in a relationship, not to mention still trying to fuck him.

Barely able to stand being around her without talking shit, Gajeel had stayed away from the guild, taking solo missions with just Pantherlily as back up. The missions were shit mostly, with all the hard stuff going to other guilds now that Fairy Tail had become a joke, but it didn't matter to the slayer. He just needed to stay away from Magnolia and the blue haired girl who had crushed his heart.

Eventually, the Grand Magic Games came and went. He couldn't avoid the idiots in his guild while they were all stuck in Crocus, but he didn't have to hang out with any of them. Creating a diversion where he could hide in plain sight was easy enough with Salamander around. When they were all trapped in a bar 'celebrating' – Gajeel was really just drinking away his misery –, it was easy to start a fight with the flaming idiot that would get rough enough to keep anyone from speaking to him.

Winning at the Games had brought an entirely new set of problems. All these damn newcomers always trying to join Fiore's strongest guild. Their show during the games and against the dragons had put Fairy Tail in the middle of every news paper, magazine, and gossip circle. The guild's popularity was greater than ever before, bringing with it an increased interest for mages of every level. Very few of the new mages were anything to more than kids playing with magic they didn't understand, but pops didn't care. The old man accepted anyone and everyone that wanted to join. He just loved having more 'children'.

Gajeel scoffed at the latest additions leaving the master's office as he lifted his mug to take another long swallow of beer. The idiots were over confident and would, hopefully, get killed on their first mission. Maybe a few deaths on jobs would scare off all the new weaklings that had come along.

An odd sight at the guild's entrance made the slayer pause in his drinking to watch. Bunny Girl had just come through the doors much quieter than usual and was now crouching behind a table, peering over the top. She was staring in the direction of the two losers that had just left Makarov's office, who were now flexing their pitiful excuses for biceps to show off their guild stamps.

When the pair turned around at the sound of the guild doors closing, Lucy made a face and ducked lower beneath the table, watching their feet to see the moment they were facing the other way. As soon as their gaze was in another direction, Bunny Girl was weaving her way quickly through the tables. It was an impressive display of agility and ass – the chick's skirt couldn't be more than 6 inches long – with the way she was crouched down, almost waddling like duck. Clearly she was trying to hide from them, but why?

Gajeel looked around for any sign of her teammates, assuming they would be in on her strange behavior in some way, but noticed they were all out. He looked back in time to see Lucy hiding behind another table but not completely out of sight. The newest members of Fairy Tail spotted her and were now making their way over to the frustrated looking woman.

Lucy chewed her lip while frantically looking around the guild for any place she could hide from these weirdos until her eyes landed on Gajeel. When their gazes connected, the dragon slayer thought his ears were going out on him when he heard Bunny Girl whisper a triumphant sounding, "Perfect!"

Standing up from her crouch – there was no point in hiding now anyway – Lucy took off running as fast her legs would carry her until she reached Gajeel's table. "Please help me!"

Big brown eyes were begging him to rescue her, but the situation was so strange that he could only say, "Huh?"

"I'm trying to hide from those guys. I swear they're stalking me! And now they've even joined the guild!" A look over her shoulder told her the two mages in question were only a few seconds away from reaching the table. Without waiting for Gajeel to answer, she squeezed behind him and slid into the bench next to him. Leaning against his arm, the blonde didn't notice the way her breasts pressed against his arm or the way the dark haired man tensed up when she leaned over to whisper in his ear. She just wanted those guys to go away. "Can you make them leave?"

Her question brought Gajeel's sex deprived mind back to reality. Bunny Girl wasn't trying to seduce him, though he probably wouldn't have turned her down if she had been. She was looking for help, which was odd in itself. He couldn't remember a time anyone had ever looked to him to be their savior. Looking at the two annoying mages with a glare that could melt iron, Gajeel managed to make the younger men turn and run before they'd even spoken a word to Bunny Girl.

"What the hell was that about?"

Lucy leaned away from Gajeel to sit up straight, giving the man enough space to find his brain again and calm his dick down. Still clueless to his internal struggle, she explained, "Sorcerer's Weekly released a special on me last week that included a full spread with a few bikini shots. Since the issue released, I've had a new love interest following me around every few days. Those two were more persistent than the others, even telling me they'd be willing to share me and take care of me as their wife. Freaks. That's just gross."

Hearing about two men sharing Lucy brought Gajeel's thoughts back to his own recent heartache, sending his mood spiraling. The sudden mood swing wasn't missed by the blonde. She noticed the way her companion's formerly slouched posture went rigid and how his jaw clenched as if suddenly angry. Assuming this change had nothing to do with her or her weird problem, she asked, "Are you alright?"

Bunny Girl's question irritated him even further. Had Shrimp told Lucy about everything? He wouldn't be able to stand the humiliation if the guild found out he couldn't keep his woman satisfied enough to keep from looking for someone else. He'd be forced to leave the guild and he didn't want that. Not now that he finally felt like this was home. In a cold voice, he answered, "I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know." Lucy shrugged, trying to find the words to explain what she noticed. "You just kinda look… Well, honestly, you just look like shit."

Gajeel snorted, surprised by her cursing so freely and how accurately she described how he's feeling. "Nah. I'm good."

With another shrug, the blonde said, "Alright, don't tell me. Suit yourself. I'll leave you alone now." The dark haired man got the next shock of the day when she leaned over and lightly kissed his cheek before hopping up from the bench and saying, "Thanks for protecting me from the freaks!"

He knew he was gaping at her as she waltzed over to the bar and ordered a smoothie but he couldn't bring himself to snap out of it. Why the hell had she just kissed him?

Days passed quickly for Gajeel as he tried to spend time in the guild hall more than he had been in recent weeks, though he spent most of that time drinking more than was healthy. His pride wouldn't let him keep hiding from Levy, even if she wasn't making a show of her new thing with Jet. Really, the two didn't even act like they had anything going on. Gajeel only knew because he could smell them on each other. The dragon slayer assumed they were keeping it under wraps. Not that he cared.

It wasn't as hard to sit in the guild when the slayer could easily be entertained by the predicament Bunny Girl found herself in. He'd watched her evade two more men and a teenage girl over the past week and a half, though the girl and one of the men turned out to be nothing more than admirers that wanted a picture and autograph. Her team had been in the guild for those two, but had missed out on the guy who acted like an actual stalker. The dude had even weirded Gajeel out with the way he was watching Bunny Girl like she was some sort of toy he wanted to collect. Lucy hadn't hesitated to run to Gajeel's table when she noticed her team hadn't made it in yet, and had stayed hidden next to him for a good hour until the creep gave up and left. That hour had been the most pleasant hour Gajeel had endured in the company of anyone other than Pantherlily in awhile.

Today was different, though. His patience was being tested by some deity, Gajeel was sure of it. There was no other explanation for why Shrimp would have come to sit by him and try striking up a conversation like the old days. No way in hell was he going to do that. He'd only given her grunts or short answers to her prattling, hoping she'd get the idea and go away. It hadn't worked. So, he resorted to ignoring her entirely and sipping on his beer at a much faster pace than he'd planned to.

In the late afternoon, some relief came in the form of Bunny Girl bursting through the guild doors and running a short ways until she dropped behind a table. Knowing what was coming, Gajeel watched the entrance to see what type of weirdo was following behind her. He continued to ignore Levy when she started eyeing him closely as he watched the blonde's now normal routine. He didn't even bother to answer when she asked what was going on with Lucy when the blonde started waddling between tables. The blue haired girl would know if she'd been around lately and not chasing after her teammate.

Gajeel actually felt a twinge of concern for Lucy when he saw the man coming through the guild's doorway. It was the same creep from a few days ago who had lingered way too long for the slayer's liking. This fucker actually seemed like he might be up to no good. Lucy seemed to feel the same way based on how panicked she looked when she noticed her team's table was completely empty. With a hopeful expression, the blonde looked in Gajeel's direction but was visibly disappointed when she noticed Levy there.

Not missing Bunny Girl's reaction to Shrimp's presence and fairly certain he knew what she thought, Gajeel caught Lucy's eye and tilted his head in invitation. He wasn't going to make Lucy suffer through whatever this creepy fuck had in mind just to keep Levy comfortable. Though he'd never admit it, his heart may have skipped a beat when Lucy face split into a thousand watt smile. It was nice to have that look directed at him.

Still ignoring Shrimp's confused look, Gajeel scooted a little further away from her to make room for Lucy, who understood his intention of sandwiching her between them, but assumed it was for an entirely different reason. "Thanks you guys! He's really starting to scare me."

Levy didn't waste the chance to get some answers. "What's going on? What did he do?"

While Lucy explained her situation to Levy, Gajeel watched the guy settle in at a booth across the guild that would allow him to easily keep a close watch on the blonde. The slayer didn't like this at all. The guy was too bold, coming into the guild hall like this and eyeing one of their own like he might steal her away at any minute. He was even wearing dark glasses and a trench coat. Who the hell dresses that way and isn't planning something evil? Not to mention he was completely unfazed by Gajeel's glare. Either this guy was insane or crazy powerful. Gajeel was going with insane since he couldn't detect any level of magic from him. He'd have to tell Natsu to keep a better eye on his partner with guys like this sniffing around.

Shrimp's shrill voice brought his attention back to their conversation. "Oh my! That's just crazy! He shouldn't be allowed to follow you around like that! And he was outside your apartment? That's just not right. You should talk to Master Makarov about it."

"I really don't want to bother him, not yet. If the guy shows up again tomorrow, I'll go talk to master about it. But anyway, did you like the latest chapter I gave you? I want to know what you thought about…"

Gajeel tuned out their conversation after that. He'd heard enough about Lucy's writing during his time with Shrimp to know he didn't want to hear whatever it was they were about to talk about. Shrimp had even talked him into reading some of it once. The slayer had never been able to look at the seemingly innocent blonde the same way again. He figured e HHBunny Girl must be some kind of freak to come up with the crazy shit she writes.

Lucy was starting to get a bit fidgety sandwiched between her friends like this. She really wanted to go home and start writing the scene she'd just worked out with Levy, but she'd have to be patient until this guy gave up and left. This uncomfortable tension in the air wasn't helping her patience, though. She didn't know what was going on with these two, but there was clearly an issue between them. Lucy was curious, they seemed like the perfect match and were cute together, but she wasn't going to pry. That was their thing and she would leave them to work it out on their own. The only problem was she didn't feel brave enough to leave her safe haven with that creeper still lurking around. The guy had barely stopped staring at her.

"Why the hell are you squirmin' so much?"

"Well, I wanted to ask you a favor, but I'm not really sure if I should. We aren't really all that close and I know we're nakama and all but I just don't feel right asking." Lucy's nervous tirade was getting on Gajeel's nerves. He was already close to snapping with the way Shrimp kept giving him those pitiful 'pay attention to me' glances. He really needed to get away from her.

"Get to the point already, Bunny Girl."

"Um, would you walk me home?" The slayer only raised an eyebrow to her question. He knew why she didn't want to go alone but why the hell was she asking him? As if she could read his mind, Lucy explained, "I don't know where Erza is. Natsu and Gray are out on a mission, though I don't know why master sent them out without someone to supervise. They'll destroy everything in a 10 miles radius. Anyway, I'd feel bad if I called out one of my spirits just to walk with me. They all have their own lives and none of them, except Aquarius, will tell me if I'm interrupting something. And this is something so small. I don't want – "

"Ok. Let's go."

Lucy didn't have time to be shocked by his abrupt answer. She was too busy scrambling out of her spot on the bench to keep up with Gajeel as he nearly stormed out of the guild. With a quick wave behind her to Levy, the blonde rushed to catch up with her guardian. When they were outside, he slowed down to allow her to catch up, only just realizing he'd nearly left her behind in his haste to get away from Levy.

"Thanks for slowing down. I don't see how you walk so fast."

Gajeel only grunted in response and watched as Lucy pulled out her keys to summon the little snowman spirit he had seen with her a few times. "Thought you didn't want to bother any of them."

With a smile that may have made his heart flutter again, Lucy said, "Plue doesn't really count. He's more than a pet, but not by much. He's definitely one of my friends, though. Isn't that right, Plue?" The blonde cooed as she snuggled the little spirit closer to her chest and nuzzled the side of his round head with her cheek.

When her companion rolled his eyes at her actions, Lucy said, "Oh come on. I've seen you with Pantherlily. I bet when no one is around to see it, you cuddle on him just like this when he's in his cute little form."

He refused to answer her but his blush gave him away. Lucy noticed and laughed, the sound lifting the slayer's spirits just a little bit.

"Oh my stars! You do, don't you?" The blonde nudged Gajeel's arm with her elbow, trying to push him into admitting it. "I bet you two are just too cute curled up together on the couch watching a movie while eating popcorn."

A brilliant idea popped into Lucy's mind on how she could tease the grumpy man and possibly get him to stop frowning. She held Plue out to Gajeel and said, "Here. Why don't you hold him for a minute while we walk? You look like you need a good cuddle."

His deadpan expression made the blonde think he'd turn down the offer, so she was surprised when he accepted Plue from her. He held onto the little spirit a little awkwardly, as if he weren't sure of how to do it, but eventually settled for letting Plue ride on his shoulder while ignoring how tightly the snowman was holding onto his hair. Plue relaxed when he didn't fall down after Gajeel had taken a few steps, and then started chattering in his odd way with a big smile on his face.

"Does he always talk this much?" Gajeel ask without turning to look at the blonde. The little snowman wasn't jerking on his hair as much but hadn't let go, either. He wasn't going to risk scaring the little guy into pulling on it again. There weren't many things worse than getting his hair pulled, in Gajeel's opinion.

"Only when he's happy."

They walked the last few blocks to her house making small talk about Pantherlily, Plue, and any other random things that came to Lucy's mind. She was enjoying talking to the gruff dragon slayer. They hadn't spent much time together, so she didn't know he was this easy to get along with. By the time they were at her front door and she sent Plue back, the blonde felt like they were becoming good friends instead of just guildmates.

"Can you tell if that guy is anywhere nearby?" Lucy asked, appreciating the way Gajeel didn't answer quickly but took the time to close his eyes and scent the air.

When he opened his eyes again, Gajeel shook his head as he answered. "He's not. I heard him leave the guild right after us and head the opposite direction. Must have gave up for the day and headed home."

" Good. That's a huge relief." Without thinking about it, Lucy stepped forward and hugged Gajeel like she would any of her friends. "Thanks for walking me home. You made me feel a lot safer."

Not used to such familiarity, the slayer tensed up at the physical contact, barely registering the blonde's words. He did his best to pat her back like he thought she might expect him to during a hug, and was relieved when she pulled away with a smile as if he'd done the right thing. The dark haired man was still in a bit of a stupor when Lucy said goodbye, barely returning the farewell before she closed her door.

"What a strange woman", he muttered to himself as he turned to head in the direction of his house. In a few hours, Pantherlily should be home from his fishing trip with the other exceeds and then Gajeel could ignore everything that just happened. His partner's presence would make it easier to pretend his mind wasn't replaying every detail of their conversation while supplying vivid memories of the way her body felt against his, or how he could still smell a hint of her scent on his clothes.