Levy x Gajeel

"Make one sound and you die."

A rough calloused hand was clamped over Levy's mouth preventing her from making a sound. The gruff voice came from behind her, too close, their breath brushing past her right ear and reeking of alcohol. Levy could feel something sharp pressed against her jugular.

"Give me your wallet now. Don't turn around. Or you die."

Levy tried to pull away but felt a sharp bite of a blade near her throat, so with hands trembling, she reached into her purse and slowly removed her wallet. She had never felt so helpless. She had always been small in stature but never before has she felt so inconsequential and insignificant.

She handed her weathered leather wallet over to her assailant and the moment her hand released it, the hand around her face and knife point at her throat disappeared. Levy stood still, too shocked to move. Unshed tears made her eyes glisten in the moonlight. She did not expect her evening to end like this. She could faintly hear the footsteps of her assailant fading into the distance. When she could no longer hear their retreat, she collapsed onto her knees and sobbed into her hands.

Levy worked in a used book store which also housed a small cafe. Only two things were on the menu: freshly baked cookies and brewed coffee - no fancy lattes or frappacinos or whatever other kind of —cinos; just the way she liked it. She loved the way the smell of the old books engulfed the entire store and mixed so well with the smell of fresh coffee. If Levy had to have a signature scent to cling to her all the time, she chose this scent. On Thursday evenings, the store also served as a stage to comedians brave enough to take on a live audience which meant she had to stay later to close up shop. All the customers had just left, the comedian took their complementary coffee to go and she locked the doors. She was looking forward to going home and seeing her best friend and fuzzy buddy, Pantherlily, run to her when she walked through the apartment door. With keys still jingling in hand, she rounded the street corner heading towards her bus stop. She was just thinking about how pleasant the evening had been, how successful the comedian was, and what she should make herself for a late night snack when the voice came from behind her.

Levy made it back to her apartment without any further incidents. As she walked through her apartment door, Pantherlily, her jet-black cat, ran up to her and did his normal routine of rubbing his face against her shins in greeting. She picked up the feline and held him tight to her chest. As if he could sense something was wrong, he patted her face with his paw and licked her chin.

"Lily, I don't want to feel so helpless ever again. You know? When he held the knife to my throat, all i could think of was 'someone please come help me' but I need to be able to help myself."

Pantherlily purred in response, rubbing his cheek against her chin then pulled himself up out of her grasp but to perch himself on her right shoulder.

Levy set to making some camomile tea to calm her frayed nerves. She filled a kettle with water from the tap, turned on her gas stove and set the kettle down. She was careful to make her movements slow so Lily wouldn't fall off her shoulder or dig his claws in to stay upright. As the kettle began its process, she turned on the laptop that was sitting on her kitchen table. She took a seat at one of the dining chairs and began researching self defence classes.

The first link showed, "Wanting for cute female students. Self defence. Much good."

Levy pursed her lips and muttered, "The spelling and grammar are appalling enough to ward off any interested parties"

She scrolled down to the second link but as she was about to read the title the kettle whistled causing her to jump to her feet. She was still not fully herself. Her sudden movement caused Lily to jump down from her shoulder onto her laptop.

Levy walked over to remove the kettle from its spot on the stove and poured the scalding water into her favourite Winnie-The-Pooh mug. She ran over to the living room, grabbing the knitted blanket from the back of the couch, wrapped it around her shoulders, retrieved her mug and held it to her chest for warmth. She made her way back to her chair and noticed that Lily had clicked on a link when he landed on her computer.

The site, in big black block letters read "Kick butt."

Levy thought, "Hmm, quite to the point. At least there may be less B.S."

She continued reading, "Self defence for adults. If I'm investing my time in you, you better take this seriously."

She scrolled down to see a photo of who she assumed to be the instructor. He was wearing a t-shirt that had its sleeves cut off, had his arms crossed tightly across his chest exposing rather large biceps. No smile. Crimson eyes that seemed to stare at her through the screen but she was most surprised by his mane of raven coloured hair. He wore it in a pony tail but it was still long enough to reach his waist. After taking a couple moments to admire his locks, she noticed he had piercings. Lots of piercings. He had three on either side of his nose, three on each eyebrow, three on each ear, and even more decorating the outside of his forearm. Even his picture screamed the word "intimidating".

Levy sighed aloud, "Must be so easy feeling safe in today's world if you're big and tall and strong. If you already look as intimidating as this guy, what kind of self defence do you need?"

She scrolled down further and saw a note below the photo, "'Its not about your size. It's about how you use it to your advantage' - Gajeel Redfox."

Sniffing with doubt, Levy said, "We'll see about that." She took down the phone number and operating location from Gajeel Redfox's website and made her way to bed.

She curled up on her side in the middle of her queen sized bed with Lily wiggling his way under the blanket and against her chest. She held him close and quickly drifted to sleep with the sound of his purring calming her further. The calmness was short lived. She had unsettling dreams that night of crimson eyes starring at her in a way that made her feel even more vulnerable than when she had a knife up against her throat.

Luckily for Levy, she had the day off. She stayed in bed a little later than usual, she even indulged herself with a couple chapters of her favourite book, "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown. When noon finally rolled around, she remembered the number she'd written down the night before. She grabbed her cellphone and dialled the number.

"Gajeel."

"Um…Hi, my name is Levy…i saw your website and was wondering if you had any openings? Maybe a drop in or something that i can do as a trial?"

"Yea sure. Today. 6:30pm."

"Ahh okay that should be fine. Thank you."

The phone clicked and the line went dead. Levy starred at her cellphone in disbelief, "How does anyone do business with an attitude like that?"

Levy looked down at her watch, it read 6:15pm. She was standing facing the front of a small commercial building, one story, tinted wall to ceiling windows, door to her left. She looked down at the address she had written down for the third time to ensure she had the right place. She huffed and thought she better try and psych herself up. She thought, "Okay. Just do it. Remember what the end goal is. As anxious as you are about this, and as much as you want to turn around and go home, you have to remember the end goal." With that, she nodded her head assertively and marched towards the door. She reached out to the door handle and pushed as someone from the inside pulled hard causing the door to swing and Levy along with it. She lost her balance and fell face first into the building. "Gihee, you alright down there miss?" Levy felt strong hands reach down for her forearm and pick her up like she weighed little to nothing. She felt herself placed on her feet.

Levy stammered and kept her eyes down looking at the ground. She could feel the heat in her cheeks from the embarrassment. "I…um…sorry…just…" She noticed through her babbling the massive feet in front of her. Levy was secretly quite the sneaker head and noticed the person in front of her wearing a pair of OG Jordan Bred 1s. She nearly started drooling. "Wow, Bred 1s? Those are really nice! And you've managed not to crease them much!" She looked up. Way up. Wow he's tall. That's when she noticed those crimson eyes she had dreamt about starring back at her. "Gihee, a chick who knows shoes eh? You might've just become my favourite student." Levy found herself stuttering again, "Oh! Um…Levy…I'm…Class?" The large man chuckled, "Yes I assumed so. Gajeel Redfox. Go ahead and get settled in. Class will be starting soon. Oi, shoes off first though." He walked past her and out the door.

She took a scan of the room for the first time and noticed a Japanese style dojo. The entrance way where she stood had large cubbies for students to stow away their belongings. To get onto the training area which was made up of large pale green mats covering the entire floor with red rectangles marking sparring rings, there was a small step up. Three walls were made of brick that had been painted white and each of these walls were decorated with photographs of whom she assumed were Gajeel's previous classes. She noticed most of the photos were set up similar to what she remembered her elementary class photos looked like. The back row of students stood on chairs to ensure they could be seen, the middle row of students were standing with their feet planted on the ground, and the front row of students sat on the chairs. Gajeel looked to be standing on the right side standing with his hands behind his back. Even in stillness he looked a bit menacing. A large mirror spanned across the fourth wall. There were already a couple groups of students there, huddled in small and informal circles, chit chatting and stretching until the class was ready to commence. Feeling awkward and shy as the new person who did not know anyone else, Levy kept her eyes down while removing her shoes, taking some extra time to tuck them neatly into a free cubby and ensuring her bag wouldn't topple out before taking a deep breath and turning around to face the other students. With that, she took a step towards what she hoped would be the beginning of her fearlessness.