Iron and Paper

Muddyevil

Disclaimer - I do not own Fairy Tail. It is owned by Hiro Mashima

"Solid Script: Lightning"

It was simple enough, in principle. Metal is an excellent conductor of electricity, so even if he used his Iron Dragon scales, her attack would get through to actually damage him underneath, right? If she remembered correctly he was injured heavily by Laxus, so surely her lightning attack must do something.

Levy put all of her hope into this logic as she poured her remaining magic power into the attack, but her confidence waned as Gajeel strengthened his stance and took the blow in his stride. She didn't even see him wince as the shock flowed through him and diffused harmlessly into the ground at his feet. Her logic had betrayed her, and Levy struggled not to visibly deflate. He must have learned something new after his fights with Laxus.

Gajeel simply cricked his neck from side to side, chuckling to himself as he took a step towards her. Did he have to be so goddamn cocky, after all he was supposed to be helping her out with her training! But she simply steeled herself (ha! That was ironic, considering who she was squaring up against) and tried to gather her remaining strength to defend herself from his next attack.

"Solid Script: Shield!"

The word sprang up in front of her just in time, blocking the first blow from the thin sword which her opponent had moulded from his right arm. She almost laughed defiantly at the strength of the word which had appeared, putting on a show of being cocky to show Gajeel just how strong she could be, but instead braced herself for his back hand, repositioning her shield slightly so it…

She heard the cracking before she felt the shield give way and squeezed her eyes shut out of pure fear. She didn't have time to duck, didn't even have time to move her arms from their raised position where they had produced her now-defunct shield, but time ran in slow motion as she waited for the inevitable end. This was it. His sword was sure to slice her in two.

First came the ripping, as the sword pierced the fabric of her baggy training top, and then the first sting of pain as it penetrated her skin. Still she was immobilized, her brain taking in every detail of the scene around her, from the cold metal slicing her flesh to the sweat which still rolled down her neck from her previous exertions. As the blade sliced its way from the entry point just below her right breast across and down towards her left hip, a strange thought entered her mind. Fuck, she hoped Gajeel could forgive himself for this.

It seemed like an eternity passed before Levy realised that she was still alive. She dared to crack open one eye, spotting Gajeel with his right arm returned to normal, frozen in horror in front of her. She winced as her heart pulsed and forced another pang of pain to her chest, before looking down to assess the damage.

Her shirt had torn from below her armpit down to the hem and now hung limply from her form. The wound was like a scalpel cut it was so clean, and she watched as small, gem-like droplets of blood began to well out of it. It only extended as far as her belly button, getting shallower as it moved its way down as Gajeel had retracted his blade.

Levy felt a rush of relief wash over her, and released the breath she didn't realise that she had been holding. Her upraised hands fell to her sides as her knees gave out beneath her and she sank to the ground. As the relief and the pain intermingled, her brain ground to a halt. And she started to laugh.

Gajeel stared at the girl in front of him, unable to move in the moment of shock which had surrounded him since he had reformed his hand into his human form. He watched as Levy fell to the floor, and finally broke out of his daze as the sound of her rasping laughter broke through his ears. It wasn't her normal tinkling laugh that normally reached his ears from across the guildhall, this time it was scratchy and breathy through her pain. He ran over to her, kneeling down next to her to assess the wound which now ran across her front. He picked her up gently, and laid her back onto the ground so he could look at it closer, Levy still giggling as her brain refused to switch back to reality. Gajeel knew it was pointless engaging with her at this moment, even if she was up to talking he wouldn't get any sense from her anyway and he busied himself with examining the wound. It wasn't as bad as he originally thought, he had pulled his arm back quicker than he had thought physically possible. It would need a couple of stitches, and was probably going to scar, but other than that it wasn't too bad. Gone were his worries of glimpsing into the wound and seeing bone, the cut wasn't that deep and it was cleaner than he thought it would be.

Levy took a few deep breaths as her brain started to slowly grind back into gear, and the laughter died down. She looked down at Gajeel as he studied the wound, trying to stay as still as possible so she didn't jar the wound and cause her more pain than she was currently in.

"Are you OK, Shrimp?" Gajeel said as he heard her giggling die down. He still refused to look up at her, refusing to face the reality that he had hurt her again. Levy nodded, before slowly and hesitantly moving her hand to hover over the wound on her stomach.

"How's it looking? It doesn't look as bad as I thought it would."

Gajeel swallowed loudly, before looking up at her face for the first time. Her hair had started to fall out of the pony tail she had pulled it out in, and strands now stuck to the sweat on her face.

"I'm gonna take you to the old woman to have a look at it, the kid's gone out on a mission and you know what the Salamander is like, I dunno when they're gonna be back."

Levy shook her head wildly at just the thought of the old woman who dwelt in the forest. She hated having to visit Porlyusica almost as much as Porlyusica hated humans, and she definitely didn't want to bother her for something as small as this. Although she wouldn't have objected to Wendy looking at her wound, she definitely wasn't going to make the trek out to the woman's home in the woods for something she could do easily herself.

"It just needs a couple of stitches, I can get that done myself after I get it cleaned up. I'm just gonna head home and get it sorted." She tried to stand up, but hissed as she used her stomach muscles. Gajeel heard the pain in her voice, and urged her to stay still. He would have preferred to take her to a proper healer, but he knew how stubborn Levy was when she had made up her mind, but there was no way he was going to let her just go home and do it herself.

"Fine, I won't take you there then. But you're letting me get this all cleaned up for you before I am letting you go home."

Levy sighed, thinking of objecting before thinking that the wound was in a pretty awkward place, after all, and it may be easier for someone else to reach to clean it properly. Gajeel took her lack of protest as an agreement, and picked her up in a single clean movement, and began to head home.

A/N - This first part is pretty short as I wanted to make a break in a logical place. I am hoping the rest of the chapters will be a lot longer.

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