Chapter 1

It was another late night shift. Levy Mcgarden sighed heavily as she walked home, her feet dragging as weariness settled over her. She couldn't keep doing these 16 hour shifts back to back; they were really starting to get to her. But she just felt so bad for taking time off, because that left only Wendy-chan and Charla-san to check up on patients. Why were they so short staffed lately? It made the only three doctors available in her unit work extra hard, and wear themselves out.

Levy let out another sigh. Whatever. She just wanted to get to her little apartment and get some well-deserved sleep. That, however, was not to happen anytime soon... as Levy suddenly heard a commotion going on in the alley next to her apartment building. She froze, fearing it was hooligans coming to mug her, but nobody came out of the alley, and the sounds had been silenced. Still, she listened... and then she heard it, a low moan of pain. She would recognize that sound anywhere. Feeling instincts kick in, she hurried into the alley, heedless of her own safety. She found someone lying behind a dumpster, and her eyes went wide. It was a man, a handsome one at that, with iron studs all over his face and arms. He had long and wild black hair, and he was wearing a rather nice suit, which was now quite dirty. The sleeves had been rolled up to his elbows, letting Levy see his arms and, more importantly, the blood that covered his hands. He was pressing his hands against his side, and his breathing was ragged, no doubt from the pain. He took a moment before he noticed her, and then he locked eyes with her. Crimson, the color of the blood on his hands... she found his eyes frightening yet alluring at the same time.

"Go... away. Forget you saw me, short stuff." The man's voice was gruff and forceful as he glared at her.

"You're hurt."

"No shit, Sherlock." he growled, before wincing in pain and clutching his side again. She hurried to his side but he shot an arm out and kept her at arm's length. "If you know what's good for you, leave now and forget you ever saw me. I won't be responsible for what happens if you don't." he warned her sternly. Levy was close enough to clearly see a bullet hole in his blood stained shirt... and the gun lying on the ground. She suddenly realized why he was telling her to leave. This man was involved with dangerous people, probably even was a dangerous person. But what kind of doctor was she if she just left someone to die?

"I'm responsible for my own decisions, and I've decided to help you. Are you going to let me get that bullet out of you or not?" Levy said, surprising herself with her determination. She'd never been a brave person but, seeing this man injured like this, she couldn't just leave him. He stared at her for a long moment, before giving a light smirk.

"You're a fiery little shrimp, ain't ya?" he chuckled and then flinched in pain again. "Alright, but don't say I didn't warn ya."

Five minutes later found Levy halfway carrying the man into her apartment. She somehow managed to close and lock the door before leading the man to sit on her couch while she went to grab her first aid kit. When she returned she found he had already removed his shirt, and was checking out the wound himself. She went over to him and inspected the injury also. "You know, if that had been an inch higher, it would have pierced your lung." Levy told him as she gathered up the tools she needed. She grabbed some rubbing alcohol and looked up at him. "This is going to hurt, but I need to disinfect it."

"Do it." he huffed out, already bracing himself for the pain. Levy poured the alcohol over the wound and he tensed up, but didn't make a sound. The alcohol helped clear away some of the blood and she got a better look at the injury. It was pretty clean and, luckily, not too deep. She could see the shiny metal of the bullet already. Still, it was going to hurt like a mother when she had to pull it out. She stood and hurried into the kitchen, coming back with a bottle of whiskey. She handed it to him.

"For the pain." she said as she pulled out her medical pliers. He grunted out a thanks and took a long swig while she disinfected her tools. "Brace yourself." She warned, and then she dug into the wound for the bullet. He hissed and gripped at her couch with enough force to rip the fabric. Levy tried her best to hurry, but it was a solid minute before she was able to pull the bullet out. She quickly poured more alcohol into the wound to disinfect it, and then applied some ointment to prevent infection. "I don't have hospital grade medicine here... but as long as you clean that daily and don't reopen it, you should heal up fine." Levy told the man as she set about bandaging the wound.

"Oi, you some kind of doctor, or something, shorty?" the man questioned.

"As a matter of fact, I am." Levy huffed. "And the name is Levy. Not shorty, not short stuff, and not shrimp." She said firmly, to which he smirked.

"I'll call ya whatever I want, shrimp." he grinned. Then his eyes turned serious and he suddenly grabbed her wrist, pulling her up to be eye level with him. "Oi. You never saw me, got it? I was never here. That's what you tell the cops if they show up." He told her sternly. "I owe ya for this, so I really don't wanna have to silence ya, but I will."

"Y-you don't have to worry." Levy huffed, looking away. "I won't tell anyone. I'm not stupid enough to upset the mafia." The man chuckled at that.

"You're smarter than you look, shrimp. What gave it away?" He grinned.

"Y-your gun... it had the Fairy Tail symbol on it." she admitted. The man just chuckled again.

"I have the feeling I can trust ya, shrimp. Don't make me regret telling ya more than ya need to know." he warned before smirking. "The name's Gajeel." He grinned when her eyes went wide as saucers at this information. "So ya've heard of me."

"Y-y-you're the... D-Don's son..."

"Un. And I owe you one. I pay back my debts so, until I do, yer under my protection... shrimp."

Hello! In case you don't know me, my name is Everythingnerd12. If you do know me, I apologize for the lack of updates on my other stories, but this one has been rattling around in my head for a long time so I'm finally putting it out.

Anyways, nice to meet you all. I really hope you enjoyed this chapter of my newest story. Please tell me what you think.

Next update should be out fairly soon.

Thanks for Reading!

-Everythingnerd12