Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and all its characters are property of Hiro Mashima. I simply like to use them to fulfill my frothing desire to write cheesy romances.

About the story: This is the interlude/companion story to my NaLu story Possession. It is, however, not necessary to read that one in order to understand this story. Of course, if you're in need of a NaLu fix, you should definitely check it out. You Stole the Rain is the Gruvia companion fic in this series, so Limits has heavy ties to it.

Rated T: For language and suggestive themes. If you're not 14 or older, your clean minds may be corrupted. This story is also full of guilty pleasures. You have been warned.

Genres: ROMANCE, with more drama and angst than the other stories in the series, but the tone isn't too dark.

Pairings: LEVY x GAJEEL, but you may see some NaLu and Gruvia.

Author's Note: It should be noted that I wrote this months ago and it's probably going to be the shortest story in the series. I feel like Levy and Gajeel already have something in the actual manga, so I'm just building on it. Please enjoy!

Feedback and constructive criticism (except for spelling errors unless they really bother you) are always very much appreciated and valued. Thanks!

Limits by HawkofNavarre

Chapter 1 – Speak the Truth

Is he looking at me?

Jet and Droy were with her right now, going from booth to booth at the annual Spring Festival, but Levy knew that Gajeel and Juvia weren't too far behind. She knew that if she turned around, she would see him. She knew that if he looked ahead, he would see her.

So…was he looking?

Levy could really care less as to what her two teammates were babbling about. She just wanted to know if the iron dragon slayer couldn't keep his eyes off of her. She hadn't dressed up for nothing, and if all those approaches from various males tonight were a sign of anything, she had to look pretty good. Lucy had helped her put on this new white furisode and styled her hair loose, but all that effort was for nothing if he wasn't looking. This was for him and nobody else.

It was funny how much things had changed from the time the two of them had met. She had once taken a brutal and horrifying beating by his hand and was terrified of him as a result. The blunette hadn't understood what Makarov had seen in such a monster. When he'd saved her from Laxus, though, she finally saw exactly what their master had.

Gajeel was the same as any of them: he was loyal to his guild and loyal to his comrades. His problem had really stemmed from the fact that he'd been in a dark guild. Upon acknowledging this, the solid script mage had had a difficult time continuing to be afraid of him. She gave him a chance, let him in, and they'd had a special sort of connection ever since. A trust that had come so far couldn't possibly have connected them any less.

She never imagined it would turn into this, though. What they shared wasn't just special or different anymore; now, it was almost intimate. It was more intense when they touched and deeper when their eyes met. She could feel it and she knew it was mutual. If it weren't mutual, he never would have touched her when they were alone, or pulled her into his arms. No, they felt the same way, despite the fact that they weren't together.

How long had it been since they'd both felt this way? A year at least, probably more. There were a lot of people that didn't understand why they weren't a couple yet, but they didn't know all the facts. Levy was completely prepared to start a real relationship with him herself; it was Gajeel who was holding back.

The dark-haired male had always been physically responsive, and the blunette had never actually had any doubts that emotionally, he felt the same. That wasn't where the problem lay at all. She was confident in their feelings for each other, but…

He wouldn't let her in.

The matter of trust was a funny thing with Gajeel. He easily left his life in her hands, but when it came to emotions, he shut her out. It was hard to make sense of it when he made it clear that he loved her—never with words, though his eyes and touch said it all. Levy figured that he was simply afraid to leave his heart exposed. It wasn't something he was ready to do.

That was understandable. She'd always understood it. She wasn't going to take more than he was willing to give right now.

…But it had been more than a year and they were still in the same place as they had been then.

It was frustrating, to say the least. The Shadow Gear leader was a rather patient person, but she hated the waiting. How could she not? It was full of insecurities and reassurances. Sometimes she felt like the explanation that he wasn't ready was just a convenient excuse for her to keep chasing after him. Maybe he was waiting for her to give up so that he didn't have to directly break her heart. Maybe he didn't think she was strong enough and that it would be an embarrassment to be seen with her.

Obviously none of those things were true, but it was difficult to keep her mind from wandering after being held at arm's length for so long. Levy was also an avid reader; she'd read plenty of stories where the main character didn't return the feelings of another character and so tried to wait for that person to give up instead of outright rejecting him or her. It was such a common plot device, doing absolutely nothing for her paranoia. There were times when she just couldn't stand feeling like this, but a moment of contact with him always reminded her why it was worth it—why he was worth the wait.

Gajeel…are you looking?

The blunette didn't dare look back. If she did, it'd be obvious to see that she was looking only to see if he was looking, even if it was already painfully obvious that she wanted him to be looking. Perhaps not everyone else could tell, but Gajeel certainly would. He would know that this was for him. They didn't need to speak to communicate; words were overrated.

"Levy-chan, let's go get some takoyaki!" Jet suggested eagerly, pointing at the booth two stalls away.

She thought for a moment, not really that hungry. "Mm, why don't you two go? I want to look at the jewellery here anyway," Levy answered, gesturing to the booth adjacent to her.

The two males exchanged looks before nodding to each other and heading off to get food. The solid script mage smiled softly at their backs, recalling how they'd both had a crush on her a while back. Now they were both just really good friends (although to her, they always had been). Still, they could be so cute together.

Speaking of which, neither of them were particularly fond of Gajeel, though not because they still hated him for beating them up. No, they could detect that special connection that Levy shared with the dragon slayer and they wanted to protect her from it, and though both Jet and Droy no longer wanted to be her boyfriend, she wasn't sure if this instinct was out of actual concern for her or jealousy.

Well, it didn't matter all that much anyway. Nothing was happening with Gajeel and so they didn't have anyone to protect her from. Which sucked.

Levy tried not to think about it as she approached a table full of bracelets and necklaces. She fingered one bracelet, beaded full with small, creamy pearls. Beautiful…

She winced, however, as she caught the number on the price tag. 300 jewels was an awful lot for just a bracelet, and she could buy a couple of really good books for that amount. The blunette knew she would be fine financially if she splurged just this once, but if she let her will power break this time around, she'd start splurging every time after she wanted something. She'd go after everything she wanted…and that wasn't something she could afford to do—especially because what she wanted most was something that couldn't be bought.

"You want that?"

The solid script mage jumped, startled as she whirled to meet the dark eyes of her favourite dragon slayer. He wore his usual stoic expression and, despite the festival environment, he was also dressed in his regular attire. Gajeel was looking down at her expectantly, and it took her a second to realize that he'd asked her a question.

She blinked, finally remembering to answer. "Oh, um, I-n-no—well, yes…"

"It's either yes or no, midget," he snickered, rolling his eyes. To others, his mannerisms might be considered mean or something of the sort, but Levy knew better. His exterior was rough, but that was all it really was.

"I…wanted it a little bit, I guess. Yeah…" Levy replied, somewhat hesitant in answering. She kind of felt where this was going. A male would normally offer to buy the object the female wanted, but that was between a boyfriend and girlfriend. Gajeel wasn't her boyfriend, so it would be incredibly awkward if he actually bought that bracelet for her. At the same time, it just didn't seem right to lie to him, so she'd spoken the truth. She did sort of want that gorgeous string of pearls.

"So just buy it," he grunted as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

His words caused her to smile. What was she thinking? Gajeel buying her a gift? Right.

"Nah, I'll just get a couple good books instead," the blunette responded, unable to keep the upward curves of her lips suppressed.

The dragon slayer's eyes narrowed. "What're you laughing at?"

"Nothing," she giggled in return, quickly trying to change the subject. "Weren't you with Juvia? Why'd you leave her?"

He shrugged and looked slightly embarrassed. Levy swore she saw a hint of red on his cheeks as well, but she chose not to make any speculations about that. It was easy to be wrong about these kinds of things.

"She told me to leave," the dark-haired mage answered gruffly. He was attempting to appear nonchalant and failing miserably. It was really quite amusing.

"Yes, but why? You two are best friends," Levy pressed gently, thoroughly enjoying watching him squirm under her hand. This was a rare opportunity that she was going to take advantage of. Plus, she really was wondering why he'd left Juvia. The water mage was not someone he would just brush off. He told her things.

Things…that he'd never tell Levy.

Any enjoyment she'd had in grilling her friend promptly vanished upon remembering how closed off he was with her. All the solid script mage had asked about was why he left Juvia and he had trouble telling her the truth. Gajeel…he just couldn't bring himself to trust her for some reason. Had she given him any reason not to? If anything, it should be the other way around! She was the one who'd been hurt and scarred to the point of being afraid in her own guild, yet she'd found a way to trust him. She'd put her faith in him.

Why couldn't he just do the same?

"She-she just wanted to go look for the stripper," Gajeel told her, still looking a little stressed in trying to give his companion an answer.

She had to give that he was clever. That was definitely something Juvia would leave Gajeel for, but it didn't mean he was telling the truth; it only meant that now the small female couldn't tell if he was lying or not. She wished she could believe him, but how could she when he refused to open up to her at all?

"If you say so…" Because at that point, she gave up. He wasn't going to tell her the truth? Well, she wasn't going to push him.

There was a bit of an awkward silence after that, for Levy, at least. There was nothing really left to say and her spirits were rather dampened by her own thoughts. She was never going to actually get through to him, was she?

Don't think like that! You can't! Levy berated herself mentally. She was generally an optimistic person; the solid script mage didn't want to get all depressed over something that may or may not happen in the future. She needed to worry about the moment instead.

"Have you gone to catch goldfish before?" the cheery blunette asked, now feeling a bit mischievous.

He raised an eyebrow at her, as though asking, "Seriously?"

"Don't judge before you've tried!" Levy insisted, taking him by the arm and pulling him over to where the fish-catching stand was located. Despite his reluctance, the dragon slayer did nothing to resist her. That, at least, was sort of nice. As such a small person compared to Gajeel, it was comforting to know that she was one of very few who could receive such compliance from him.

When they reached the booth, the blunette paid the congenial old man running it immediately and grabbed a net, crouching down next to a little girl in front of the mini pool and searching for a fish to capture. She quickly selected a silver fish with black and orange speckles and had her small net around it only seconds later. Levy hurried to put it in a water-filled bag before it suffocated or flopped out of her net, and soon it was safely within a plastic bag, ready to take home.

She beamed at her new, scaly friend. Gajeel looked absolutely bored.

"That lasted thirty seconds," he deadpanned dryly.

"Well, it was thirty seconds of fun!" Levy shot back, flourishing her plastic bag. "Besides, now I've got a new friend!"

However, the solid script mage quickly noticed the little girl she'd been fishing beside having a hard time when the younger female let out a wail of frustration after dropping her net into the water. She looked as though she was about to cry, and she couldn't possibly be any older than five or six.

Levy dropped down to the girl's level, patting the child on the head with a comforting smile. "Hey now, don't be sad. You can have this little guy!" she told the small female, holding up the speckled fish in the bag.

The young girl sniffled and wiped her nose on the sleeve of her white kimono. "R-really?"

"Yeah!" the Fairy Tail mage answered with a nod, handing the bag over.

"Thank you!" the child beamed as she took the offering. "You're a nice lady! I'm going to go show my mom!"

As the girl ran off, Levy stood, satisfied with what she'd done. She turned around to see Gajeel staring at her with an indecipherable look that quickly changed into one of amusement. What was so entertaining about her making a kid happy?

"What?" she pushed with a pout.

"You were so happy with that stupid fish and you just gave it away," the dragon slayer explained.

"And…?"

"I thought you wanted it."

"Maybe, but that poor little girl dropped her net into the pool. The fishy's more important to her than it is to me anyway."

"You still wanted one."

The blunette let out a sigh of exasperation. He understood loyalty and kindness, but the latter only to a certain degree. Gajeel was very capable of being kind to others, though he'd do it more unconsciously than anything. Intentional kindness was rather foreign to him, especially if his unintentionalkindness was somehow acknowledged. The iron dragon slayer really just did what he felt was right.

"Well, Gajeel," the solid script mage started, "why don't you go catch a new one for me?"

However, the moment the words left her mouth, Levy knew that that was exactly what he was going to do. His eyes narrowed and that sharp gleam from the corner of the left one. She'd definitely opened a door the black-haired male would go charging through. She'd issued a challenge.

And from the look of things, his response was "challenge accepted".

What actually came out of his mouth was, "Fine." He marched over to the old man and paid the fee to play, snatching a net from the basket holding them while he examined the assortment of coloured fish in the tank. As he approached the side of the tank, the dragon slayer's face grew steely with determination. Levy swore that had he been wearing sleeves, her partner would be rolling them up about now.

It wasn't difficult to catch a little fish, but it appeared to be a different case for Gajeel. The solid script mage noticed that they were particularly good at evading his net or were just steering clear of that general area. At first, it was sort of humorous to watch such a stony man failing at such a menial task, but she began to grow concerned as his frustration elevated. Good things didn't happen when Gajeel lost his temper; in fact, explosions went down when he lost his temper.

He is really just not good with animals, the blunette thought, a nervous smile on her lips as she tugged at her guildie's arm. "Gajeel, that's enough. You're disturbing the other players."

Sure enough, that wasn't a lie. They were on the receiving end of many glares from people who had been splashed by Gajeel's vigorous arm movements on the water.

"Damn fish—why won't you get in the net?" he snarled at the tank, even as Levy dragged him away. She imagined that his ego had taken quite a hit.

"It's not a big deal," She comforted him gently. "I'm happy that you even tried just for me."

The red-eyed male's cheeks took on a nice shade of crimson that the bookworm didn't get to see that often. She was inwardly glad that sweet words had the same effect on him as they did others.

"W-whatever. They're just like the stupid cats," Gajeel muttered stubbornly as he crossed his arms pointedly looking away.

She blinked. "What cats?"

"Nothing!" he seethed in embarrassed rage.

"You just aren't an animal guy. There's no need to be a grump over it," Levy placated him, patting his arm.

"You didn't get your fish," the studded man shot back.

She smiled at him in reassurance. "I have all I need right here."

Red tinted his cheeks for a moment again, eyes only on her for a second before he gazed off in another direction. "You're fucking crazy, woman."

"And you're just mean," Levy countered good-naturedly. She took his wrist this time and began to pull him in the direction of her next destination. "Let's go to the lantern display. I really wanna see it. Please?"

He shot her a dull look.

"Great!" she exclaimed as she walked, her partner following her lead without any struggle whatsoever.

On their way over, Levy passed Lucy and a man that was with her. The blunette waved, but the celestial spirit mage only sent her a pleading look in return. Glancing in that direction for a second, it was fairly obvious that her friend wanted help getting away from that guy. Levy felt a little bad about it, but she didn't get to spend time with Gajeel like this very often, so she had to use it. Lucy was going to have to look for someone else to rescue her today.

Sorry, Lucy, the Shadow Gear leader thought, answering back with an apologetic look her fellow book-lover's way.

Levy quickly walked into the entrance of the lantern display, taking a much larger dragon slayer with her. Her eyes lit up when she took in her surroundings. A frame of wood had been built in a wide circular arc to make the display like a room. A variety of lanterns were lit and attached to the frame, creating an orange-y glow beneath the dark, starlit sky.

"Wow…" the solid script mage breathed in awe. It was absolutely beautiful. It was all she could do to take in the vision as she involuntarily lean back into Gajeel, her head against his chest while his arm wrapped around her shoulders.

Suddenly, it wasn't about where she was and how pretty it was anymore. Now it was about how close she was to Gajeel and how he was holding her. The moment was bittersweet; there was no denying the warmth and bliss she felt being in his arms (or arm, in this case), but how real was it all? They weren't a couple and they weren't dating. They couldn't just be friends when they'd been doing this dance for so long. But then…when was it going to end?

"Gajeel, what are we doing?" she asked, pulling away to look up at him. Right away, she knew this was a mistake. If there was something the dark-haired dragon slayer despised as much as a traitor, it was talking about his feelings. Nevertheless, there was no going back now.

"I thought we understood each other," he grunted uncomfortably.

"I understand that you want me to wait for you forever," Levy countered, her heart throbbing painfully. She couldn't believe she was doing this. She hadn't thought that she'd ever push Gajeel, but here she was. She was sick of constantly wondering if something was going to happen, or if she was the only one in whatever kind of relationship this was. She didn't want to be stuck in that place anymore. Maybe she hadn't thought this through and maybe it wasn't the right thing to do, but at least something was finally happening.

When Gajeel didn't reply, the blunette spoke again. It was time to make herself clear. "I can't keep doing this, Gajeel," she told him, swallowing her fear. "I can't keep being the only one in this. I need you to trust me the way I've trusted you. I've given you time. I've given you forgiveness. I've given you my heart, Gajeel, and somehow, all of it isn't enough."

"Don't…do this," he spoke so quietly that it was barely audible. She could see the hurt in his eyes and she could hear the "please" hanging over the end of his statement. But Gajeel didn't plead. He didn't beg, and neither did he give up.

Her eyes burned, but Levy refused to let her tears fall. She wanted to be happy. This was not happy. This was settling when she knew she deserved more. Today, she was standing her ground. She didn't want to wait anymore, and maybe what she'd just set in motion would have a devastating result, but at least she'd be able to do something.

"I love you, Gajeel," she bit out, the words she'd never told him before bitter on her tongue, "but sometimes, that's not enough. Today, it's not enough for me."

She stepped forward and placed her hand on his cheek, observing the pain etched in his face. Her heart filled with sadness because she knew this was her doing, but she couldn't stop. She needed this. He needed this.

"All I'm asking is for you to try."

She held his gaze for a moment, asking him to understand and just begging him to challenge his fears. With nothing more to say, she got on her tip-toes to kiss his other cheek before turning and starting to make her way home.

Levy let her tears fall this time. She didn't need to keep a strong face for anyone anymore. She was proud of what she'd done, even though she was both shaken and frightened. Still, none of that mattered right now. None of it. Because finally, she was moving forward.