Hello. I'd like to tell a story.

This is a story that I came up with during a slow day at work. And so, during a day while I was on vacation and it was raining heavily, I wrote this out in like four hours.

I wanted to write a story around Levy's scars from the future arc. But considering that Mashima is talking about time travel and changing the past, I wasn't sure if she was going to still have those scars. So, I didn't mention them in the last chapter. That's why I wrote a separate fic around her scars. By the way, this isn't connected to my other GaLe fic in any way.

Hope you like it. Word of advice, this is rated T for Gajeel's mouth.

The Comfort Thing

Gajeel had been sitting in the Fairy Tail bar, glowering at the mug of beer in front of him. He felt really stupid being angry at an inanimate object but he couldn't help it. Something was off.

It had two weeks since the Grand Magic Games. Two weeks after their fight with Sabertooth, kingdoms with stupid ideas of traveling back in time and humans becoming dragons. You know, the usual. All of that craziness was behind them. Now they can focus on the normal Fairy Tail craziness.

Everyone in Fairy Tail had survived. Not that they hadn't escaped without some scrapes and bruises but they had survived. Gajeel was thankful for small wonders (not that he'd ever admit that out loud EVER). But still something was off.

Gajeel took a break from glowering at his mug to glower at the people in the guild.

Almost immediately, the Iron Dragon Slayer caught sight of Natsu and Gray fighting over a game of cards. Natsu was saying that twos are wild while Gray was saying that they aren't. It irked Gajeel how they could be fighting over stupid shit with their injuries. It was just freakin' annoying.

Then there is Salamander's cheerleader, the blue cat. He was hovering over the pink haired bastard, giving him advice over how to hit the stripper. How the hell can that furball be so cheerful is beyond him.

The bunny girl is sitting next to the two, reading a book. Or at least she was trying to read a book. Gajeel would imagine that it was hard to read when two idiots are fighting right next to you. Not that he would ever be caught dead reading anything more complicated than a mission paper.

Behind the two idiots fighting, Gajeel spied Juvia hiding behind a pillar. Oh come on, Gajeel would think. When the hell is that woman going to grow some freakin' balls and tell that ice idiot that she likes him? Not that the long haired man cared or anything, but he's known Juvia since their days in Phantom Lord and it irked him that a woman who was strong enough to be one of the Element Four could be reduced to the level of a stalker. Again, it was none of his business.

Cana was drinking again. Now there's a shocker (massive sarcasm implied). Gajeel had to figure that that drunk's liver isn't her best friend considering all of the alcohol she consumes. He had heard somewhere that 30 percent of the alcohol that Fairy Tail purchases goes down that woman's gullet. And that's suppose to be attractive?

Lily was coloring with the cowboy and cowgirl's daughter. Gajeel found it strange that his cat has a soft spot towards children. When he asked Lily about it, the Exceed said that children have no guile in them. Afterwards, he wouldn't say anything on the topic. The Iron Dragon Slayer had no freakin' idea what that word meant so he didn't question it further.

The barmaid was serving everyone some food and drinks. Her mind was a mystery to Gajeel. It was like she purposely ignored the helter-skelter that is Fairy Tail. Or maybe she got used to it. Either way, it was really weird. Plus, there was this strange thing she had where she knew exactly how you felt. Like ESP, only creepier. Whatever, Gajeel thought. It didn't concern him.

And then there was the shrimp. The shrimp was...

She was...

"Where is she?" Gajeel thought.

The Iron Dragon Slayer scanned the bar quite surreptitiously, searching for that familiar thatch of wild blue hair. However, there were only two people with blue hair, Juvia and Wendy. Neither of those girls was the one he was looking for.

It was strange. He could have sworn that she was here. I mean, her two idiot teammates were here. The fat one was stuffing his face and the skinny one was talking to one of the female guild members. But no Short Stack.

Come to think of it, Gajeel hadn't seen hide nor hair of Levy today. It was strange. She'd either be getting harassed by her lapdogs or talking with the bunny-girl about books or junk like that. In fact, in the two weeks since the resolution of the Crocus incident, Gajeel couldn't remember seeing the little midget.

Which begs the original question... Where is Levy?

Gajeel took a discrete whiff of the air. By now, he could zero in on Short Stack's unique scent. However, while there were a myriad of scents in the guild, not one of them was the one he was actually seeking.

This made Gajeel curious. Where is she? But then, he checked himself.

"I'm not concerned about the shrimp." Gajeel reasoned with himself. "Just curious." That reason felt like bullshit even in his own head.

The long haired mage returned to his dishwater beer, trying to get rid of some traitorous thoughts. Of course, as he tried to do so, she would have to come.

"Are you alright?" Mira asked the Iron Dragon Slayer.

"Fine." Gajeel said curtly. "Just drinking my shitty beer."

Mira just smiled. "Would you like a refill?"

"Of this swill?" Gajeel spat. "I'd be better off drinking the stuff that comes from the garbage disposal to get a better buzz."

Mira chuckled. She wasn't the least put off by his tone. "Okay then."

Gajeel would have gone back to ignoring her and the thoughts in his head. However, they both conspired against him.

"By the way, have you seen Levy lately?" She asked.

Gajeel did a very good job remaining stoic. It would do him no good to give her the satisfaction to know that he was thinking the same thing. However, there was the matter of how to proceed. Mirajane, for all of her outward show of ditziness, was far more perceptive than she appeared. A twitch, a gulp, a hesitation in an answer, all of these gave the barmaid an insight into a person.

"Not since Crocus." Gajeel answered, not too quickly or too slowly. An even tone made it possible to hide what he was feeling.

"Really?" Mira asked. However, the tone that she used was so layered, it was like she was trying to imply something.

"Yeah. Why?" Gajeel asked, trying to put the white haired woman on the defensive.

"Well, I've asked around and no one has seen her since the Crocus incident." Mira said. Gajeel detected worry from her tone. "I'm just concerned."

The Iron Dragon Slayer couldn't help but furrow his eyebrows. No one has seen the shrimp in two weeks? That wasn't like her. Short Stack was just so bubbly that it didn't seem possible that she wouldn't come to the guild.

"Well, I haven't seen her." Gajeel told her.

"Really?" Mira asked. "Because I thought you two were getting closer ever since the Tenrou Island incident. Plus, you two were hanging out together at the water park in Crocus."

This time, Gajeel couldn't help but swallow hard. "Where did you hear that?" Shit. Now he just gave the barmaid an opening.

"Lily told me." Mira smiled. "He said that you and him were in some sort of fish head cutout. He also said that the only reason you agreed to it is because Levy asked you to do it.

Gajeel visibly trembled in anger. Lily would so get it when they got home. "What of it?"

"Nothing." Mira smiled. It wasn't one of her usual smiles that she gave everyone in the guild. Nor was it one of those fake smiles that masked her feelings. No, it was a smile that just crept under his skin and irritated him.

Gajeel shot up out of his chair. "Whatever. I'm leaving." He announced.

As he walked towards the door, Mira called to him. "Could you please check up on Levy?" She asked, concern in her voice. "I'd really like to know if she's alright."

"Do it yourself." Gajeel shot back. "She's not a kid. She can take care of herself." Then he slammed the doors.

Gajeel walked down the streets of Magnolia, Mira's words echoing in his head. The Iron Dragon Slayer made a resolution not to check up on her. Levy was a big girl... well, age and magic wise at least. Besides, it wasn't his job to play the babysitter. And it wasn't like he was really concerned about her. Nope, not one bit.

He was so distracted by trying to convince himself that he wasn't going to see how she was doing that Gajeel didn't realize the fact that he was already in front of the girls' dorm. He cursed his feet for taking him here.

Oh well. Since he was here, he might as well see her. And not because the barmaid asked him to or the fact that he was actually worried about her.

Gajeel went inside the dorm. In an instant, he felt this huge wave of oppression reverberating through his body. And just as quickly as it came, it left. The Iron Dragon Slayer realized that it was the protection magic that surrounded the dorm. It must have concluded that he wasn't a threat to anyone in this building.

Gajeel took a whiff of the air and locked in on the Shrimp's scent, vanilla and musty books. Yeah, he could pick out Levy's scent out of everyone living here. So what? It's normal for a Dragon Slayer. He'd bet jewels that Salamander could pick out Blondie's scent from a crowd too. It's not weird, not weird at all. Shut up.

Gajeel groaned. He was having arguments with himself. The worst part is that he was losing. So freakin' pathetic.

The Iron Dragon Slayer climbed the stairs, following the path his olfactory sense gave to him. And in no time, he was in front of her door.

Gajeel was about to knock on the door when he stopped himself. The long haired mage had no idea what he was going to say to the Short Stack. He came here without a plan. Damn his feet. And it's not like he could say "Hey Levy. Haven't seen you at the guild in a while. What's going on?" He wasn't a freakin' pansy.

Whatever. Knock first, figure out what to say afterwards.

Gajeel knocked on the door very loudly. Then he waited.

"Who is it?" A timid voice that he identified as Levy called out from behind the door.

"It's Gajeel." The long haired mage answered back. "Open the door."

"Gajeel. Please come back another time." Levy answered back.

"Shrimp, open the door." He commanded.

"Please go away." Levy answered. "I'm not feeling well."

Gajeel was getting pissed. Here he was, taking time out of his busy schedule to check up on her and she wasn't opening the door. That irked him. The fact that he kinda sorta wanted to see her had absolutely nothing to do with that, let me tell you.

"Dammit, open this door." Gajeel yelled, feeling rather stupid that he was yelling at a door.

"Gajeel, I don't feel like company." She told him firmly. "Go away."

Gajeel felt a twitch in his forehead. Did she just tell him to go away? Now if Levy had said that to anyone else, he would have smirked and thought that she was finally growing a pair (metaphorically, of course). However, she was saying that to him. And he wasn't going to take that from her, especially since by virtue of the fact that he came here, he was concerned about her well being. Well, two can play at that game.

"Short Stack, if you don't open this door right now, I swear by Mavis I am busting it down." Gajeel growled.

He heard a loud poof sound from behind the door. It confused him a bit.

"I put a barrier on the door. It will only open from this side." She answered back.

"We'll just see about that." Gajeel roared.

The Iron Dragon Mage took a couple of steps back. Then, with all of the speed he could muster, he charged at the door, shoulder down. However, he was repelled by the door, causing his shoulder pain. On any other day, it wouldn't have hurt as much but he was still recuperating from the injuries of two weeks ago.

There was a lot of swearing echoing throughout the dorm. Luckily, everyone else was at the guild. Otherwise, it would have caused quite the commotion.

"Dammit, woman. Open this door." He yelled through gritted teeth, rubbing his shoulder in an effort to ameliorate the pain.

"Gajeel, stop trying to bust my door down." Levy yelled through the door. "I don't want to see anybody today."

"You haven't seen anybody in two weeks." Gajeel shot back. "Now open this door."

"I said no."

Okay, the nice way didn't work. The subtle way didn't work. (Hey! For Gajeel, trying to bust down a door with his shoulder was very subtle.) But now it was time for the direct approach.

IRON DRAGON CLUB

Gajeel turned his right arm into iron and aimed it at the door. He launched his arm, trying to bust the door down. However, the door rebuffed him. In any other situation, the Iron Dragon Slayer would have been impressed by the shield's strength. However, today wasn't that day.

"Dammit woman." He swore.

"Take the freakin' hint and leave, Gajeel." Levy yelled. "I don't want to see anyone."

Oh Levy had better have a good reason for doing this. Otherwise he'd... well, Gajeel would think of something.

An idea came to him. It was so devious that Gajeel had to smirk.

Instead of attacking the door, he put his ear to the wall and knocked with his index finger very gently. He listened to hear if there was nothing on the other side of the wall. When he was satisfied that there wasn't, Gajeel turned his arm into a chainsaw.

He was impressed by his own brilliance. Levy, in her desire to prevent him from busting down her door, probably didn't put up the same protection on her walls. That was a weak spot he could exploit.

Three quick slices on her wall and it came tumbling down. Gajeel walked into Levy's room from the hole in the wall.

When he stepped in, he took a look around. Books were everywhere there was space and even in places where there wasn't. In all honesty, this was exactly how he pictured her room to be. Now to find the shrimp.

"Short Stack, where the hell are you?" Gajeel yelled.

"Why did you knock down my wall?" Levy asked.

Gajeel turned towards the direction of Levy's voice. But he saw something very unexpected.

Levy was wearing her usual clothes. She didn't look pale or nothing that would indicate that she was sick. She looked fine. However, his attention was drawn to her face.

Levy was wearing her usual hair band, except that it was strapped across her forehead. Now Gajeel didn't know much about hair bands (his hair went straight down and the only thing he used to maintain it was a bandana, thank you very much) but he knew that it was doing nothing to keep her hair from being messy.

And if that were enough, she was wearing her bandana over her face. In fact, the only part of her face that wasn't covered was her eyes. Now this was strange.

"What's with the bandana, Shrimp?" Gajeel asked.

"I'm sick. Now go away." Levy commanded.

"I don't believe you." He countered.

Levy moved over to Gajeel to push him out of her apartment. "I said go. I can't deal with this right now." She told him.

However, her efforts to push him out of the room were as fruitless as Salamander not getting sick on a train or Juvia trying to get Gray to notice her. He would have been amused by Levy trying to push him if he hadn't gotten over the fact that she was hiding something from him.

Gajeel grabbed Levy by the scruff of her neck. She tried to resist but the Solid Script mage knew it was fruitless. His grip was too strong.

Gajeel removed the hair band and the bandana. When he did, he understood why she was trying to hid from people.

She turned away. "Gajeel, don't look at me."

Gajeel gasped at what he saw. On Levy's beautiful face were two scars. One extending from her right ear to the middle of her forehead. The other was across her right cheek

"What happened, Levy?" He asked in a soft voice. His previous anger dissipated at the sight of her scars.

"I don't know." Levy whispered. "The last thing I remembered is magic flying around. And then I was knocked out. When I came too, I had bandages across my face. Wendy told me that she did everything she could but she couldn't remove the scars."

Levy started crying.

Shit, Gajeel thought. This was not what he expected when he came here. Now what the hell was he going to do? He had no freakin' idea.

Watching Levy cry made him feel... weird inside. The Iron Dragon Slayer hated it when she cried because usually he was the reason for her tears. He wished she would stop and he would say anything, do anything to see the smiling Levy instead of the crying one.

"And so, I locked myself in my room." Levy sobbed. "I know I can't stay in here forever. But I just don't know what to do."

Gajeel sighed. He took a moment to think about what to say. "Do you really think that people in the guild would change their opinion about you now that you have scars on your face?" He asked.

"No, I know they won't." Levy collected herself. "But these scars make me look ugly."

Gajeel gently put Levy down on her feet. "I've got scars on my body. Do they make me ugly?" He asked. It was strange. The tone of his voice made it seem like was self-conscious about it.

"No, no. Your scars make you look like... well, you." Levy tried to placate the Iron Dragon Slayer. "Plus you look intimidating with your scars."

"Gi hi." Gajeel snickered. "Then do the same with your scars."

Levy was confused and a bit put off by his suggestion. "What?"

"Here's what you do." Gajeel explained. "You go outside and if someone asks you how you got those scars, here's what you tell them. You say that you got those scars fighting a demon that was hellbent on destroying the world. You say that your scars are the result of sending that hell monster back to where it came from and saving their sorry asses. And if they try messing with you, tell them that you'll rip them limb from limb."

Levy looked on in muted wonder. Was he serious? Was he just messing with her?

The waterworks turned on, leaving Gajeel baffled.

"Gajeel, you don't understand." Levy accused, tears in her eyes.

"Dammit, I'm trying." Gajeel yelled. "I just don't understand why you're worked up about it. Everyone in Fairy Tail has scars."

"Not everyone." Levy sighed.

"Well, not the weak ones." Gajeel spat. "But the strong one have scars."

Levy furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "Huh?"

"I mean, think about it." Gajeel told her. "I've got scars. Lily has a scar. Salamander has a scar. The stripping freak has two scars. Titania lost her eye. Juvia has a scar on her leg. That giant lug Elfman has a scar. Laxus has a scar. Gildarts lost an arm and a leg. And even the Master has a scar. So you see, having a scar means you're strong."

"That doesn't correlate." Levy said mirthlessly. "Mira-san is strong and she doesn't have a scar. Neither does Lu-chan."

"Well, the barmaid has a scar but you can only see it in her demon form." Gajeel reasoned. "And as for Blondie, her Spirits do most of the work."

"Your reasoning doesn't add up." Levy told him.

Gajeel was getting sick of Levy put herself down. In fact, he was just getting sick of this whole exercise in general. The only reason he came over was to see if she is alright and, scars notwithstanding, she was. So he should leave. But Gajeel knew he couldn't do that.

"Dammit woman, stop doing that." Gajeel yelled at her. He didn't mean to but he was tired of arguing with her. "Listen, you can sit here and whine about how the world fucked you over with these scars or you can wear your scars proudly and say 'this should have killed me but it didn't and I am stronger than what tried to kill me.'"

Probably not the most tactful thing he's ever said but he was frustrated.

Levy looked down. Gajeel could see tears dripping from her eyes. But then, for some odd reason, she started to laugh.

"You really don't know how to do the comforting thing, do you, Gajeel?" Levy chuckled.

Gajeel huffed and looked away. "Shut up." He only half meant that. "Besides, those scars give you some much needed character."

"Character?" Levy asked.

"Sure. I mean, you can go on the street, wear a leather jacket, and be a total badass with those scars." The Iron Dragon Slayer told her.

"Are you saying that I didn't have character before these scars?" Levy asked, glowering at the towering man in front of her.

Gajeel cringed at her tone. He tried to correct himself or think of something that would get him out of trouble. But anything he said would probably get turned back on him.

"Dammit." He swore. "I'm trying but everything I say isn't working."

The Iron Dragon Slayer would have said more but he felt a pressure around his waist. He looked down and saw the petite woman hugging him.

"Thanks for trying to cheer me up, Gajeel." Levy whispered into his chest.

Gajeel awkwardly patted her back.

When Levy broke the hug, all of her tears were gone. "I guess you're right about one thing." She said. "I can't stay here forever, being worried about what other people might think. All I care about is what my friends think of me."

"THAT'S what you get out of my speech, Short Stack?" He asked incredulously.

Levy nodded. Then she smiled at Gajeel. It was a smile that made his heart skip a beat, or some sort of pansy shit like that. "But thank you, Gajeel, for coming over here."

Gajeel looked away, his ears red. "Yeah, whatever." He muttered.

Levy smirked. "Now can you help me pick up this mess you made?" She asked.

The long haired man shrugged his shoulders. He started picking up the debris that was made when he cut a hole in the wall.

While Levy was cleaning up the mess, an odd thought came to her mind. "You really think I'd look good with a leather jacket?" She asked.

Gajeel snorted. "Well, lemme put it to you this way." He said. "I'd think twice about messing with you and so would a whole bunch of people."

Levy chuckled. "Then maybe after we are done, I'll go buy one."

"Gi hi." Gajeel chuckled. He grabbed Levy and none too gently chucked her onto her shoulder.

"Gajeel, what are you doing?" She yelled.

"Gonna buy you a leather jacket." He told her.

"But what about the mess here?" She asked.

"Fuck it." Was his reply.

Gajeel, with Levy in tow, walked out of Fairy Hills in search of a leather jacket.

Okay, maybe Gajeel wasn't that great at the comfort thing, but he accomplished his goal. He got Levy out of her funk and out of her dorm. So...

Mission Accomplished.

Word Count: 4096

Well, this is the fruits of my mind. Crazy huh? I can't imagine Gajeel really being very good at comforting people. But he got the job done. And that's all that matters, right?

Liked it? Hated it? Have no opinion whatsoever? Leave me a review. I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks for reading.

A. Angel