Rust Red

He was bleeding. The idiot. He was going to sit there and pretend he was fine, but he was bleeding. She could see the discoloration even on clothes as dark as he fancied. Who comes straight in from a mission, injured, without doing anything to heal themselves? No one could be that hungry, could they?

Should she say something?

No. He'd only get mad or wave her off. What was a little blood to a big, bad, monstrous dragonslayer like him? Then he'd laugh his ominous laugh and mutter something about it only being fun with a little blood involved.

But he'd just be doing that to scare her away. She had his number.

Stupid Gajeel.

He was just going to sit there and bleed at the bar. Alone.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

How absurd was it to be jealous of a cat?

He'd changed overnight. Not even overnight, in an instant. Or at least, that's what it felt like to her. From the stories they told, she knew it was longer, but it wasn't that long. The cat had changed him, and now the cat was his partner.

Gajeel smiled with him and praised him. He was as eager as a boy, and it was all because of that cat. It was impossible to hate Pantherlily, just as it was impossible to hate Happy or Charle, but she couldn't help but be jealous of him. Of the bond he'd managed to form. Of the impact he'd managed to have.

Gajeel never even noticed her.

There were days when she'd stay longer than she needed at the guild, hoping that he'd find some reason to come talk to her. She was such a coward. She tried to get up the nerve, once, to talk to him, but Jet and Droy were there in an instant, and she had never tried again.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

When he picked her up by the knot of her halter-top tie she gasped. Part of it was the surprise, but an even greater part was how his fingers felt on the nape of her neck.

Since he … since the time on the tree, he'd never put a hand on her. She thought it was a conscious effort on his part; he could have shoved her aside that one time with Laxus instead of stepping in front and taking the blow, but that would have meant touching her. And he seemed to make it a point not to do that.

But with his offer of help, it seemed things were changing. Her mouth went dry and her vocal cords lost their ability to vibrate.

The last time he touched her it was to humiliate her. This time it was to shake her out of her self-doubt.

"I'll make you big."

She could read the undertones in that simple sentence; determination and a desire for atonement. The determination was okay, but the atonement she did not want. She had forgiven him some time ago. She wasn't looking for his acts of redemption. There was something else she wanted from him.

But this … this would be a start.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

She should have known training with him would be a real pain in the ass. Feelings-shmeelings. If it weren't something bent on destroying him, he didn't give it the time of day.

Despite her efforts to try and get them to work together, it never happened. Their powers didn't mesh. They could fight next to one another, but their powers would be separate. There wasn't much need in training together when their ways of training were so different. And it was more than clear after that second day that there was no way she could keep up with him. He ran and ran and ran and broke things and ate things, and did so for hours longer than she could remain on her feet.

Even when he had her attack him, she couldn't give it her all. Ass or not, she couldn't try and hurt him. But because of that she was … she was nothing to him. No challenge, no threat. Nothing of interest.

After the first day she didn't think he even looked her in the face.

She spent most nights curled up on her bed fighting back tears. Why had she been so stupid as to fall in love with such a jerk? He wasn't anything resembling the sort of man she would have chosen for herself, but she couldn't keep her mind away from him.

Because he, unlike her, was beyond simply interesting.

He was fascinating.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

During the (awful) training he had touched her more and more. Little things like grabbing her arm to move her out of the way of something, and picking her up to see if carrying her changed his speed at all.

She wasn't exactly sure what it meant, but she liked it.

By the time they were on the ship, he'd become very casual with her. Resting his arm on her head, or her shoulder, or one time elbowing her with an evil grin on his face.

And she never would have made it to the island as fast as she did if it weren't for his arm around her waist, pulling her forward.

But it began to sink into her that maybe he partnered with her to join in the fight and nothing else. Because he was upset that he wasn't chosen and wanted to fight with the others. At first it was cute that he was upset that they got the quiet path, but she gradually realized he had completely forgotten the point of the exam:

Make her an S-class mage. By any means necessary. Even if that meant luck and not outright battle. It wasn't supposed to be about random fights, but about making it through to the top. They made it; they were one step closer to fulfilling their actual goal. He should be happy.

But no, he was complaining about how he didn't get to punch people.

Jerk.

Also, it was hot. And what was with all the giant monsters on the island? Why were there so many? And what in the world were they? She had never seen anything like them in her life. Never read about anything like them either.

She could have sworn she heard one talk …

And then it happened. Out of nothing but frustration at him and at the exam, she brokedown and spoke her thoughts out loud. Told him he was more concerned about the others than her.

And the stupid, stupid jerk had the gall to patronize her!

Like she could fight him! That's not the kind of mage she was! Fight seriously indeed.

So she ran away...

Because apparently he wasn't the only stupid one.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

He was bleeding again. Bleeding everywhere. His iron skin was cracked and blood oozed from it staining his clothes and soaking the ground under him.

Her heart thundered wildly inside the prison of her ribs. It had ever since that chicken took hold of her wrists and she watched that sword descend on her, but this was different. Somewhere behind her she could hear Erza interrogating the bastards who hurt him, but she couldn't be moved to care. The silvery metal of his dragonscales were coated in his blood, and it looked like he was rusting.

And rusted metal was another way of saying dying metal.

She cried. She couldn't help but cry when she knew he was in pain and she would have to hurt him further. He was unconscious, but he might come to at any moment. She lifted him, using every bit of her strength, and started to drag him to their base.

That image kept replaying in her mind, of him stepping in front of the sword just like he'd stepped in front of Laxus' lightening. Of him telling her not to leave his side. Her eyes were open wide so she wouldn't miss anything that came upon them, but that did not stop the tears from falling.

"You said that and then you made me go!" she whispered fiercely. "Not even minutes later, you forced me to leave you."

She felt the scars on his arms and the tacky slide of his blood as it rolled down her neck, shoulders, and back. He'd touched her a few times since that day he said he'd help her, but she'd never touched him, reached out and touched him, flesh to flesh. Until now.

His hair against her cheek as she pulled him through the forest … she wished she didn't have this chance. She wished he'd never …

She bit her lip to stop a sob and dragged him the rest of the way to camp.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Her face was sticky and tender. Bruises from the fight and residual effects from the crying. She and Lissana were doing what they could to care for all four wounded people, but there was only so much they could do. They needed Wendy.

She had a serious feeling of sickness whenever she looked at his arm. He had … he had taken the Oriental solid-script mage's sword into his arm and broke it in his hand, but that left the sword itself stuck in his arm.

Where it destroyed bones and muscles.

There had been no one there to help. When … when she got to camp, there was no one there to help her. She was forced to … to cut open his arm and remove the remaining pieces of sword, piece by piece. And then sew his flesh back together. She wasn't sure if it was the right decision. He'd already lost so much blood, and the amateur surgery caused him to lose a bit more, but she was so afraid that there in the heat of the jungle he would take infection from that sword in his arm.

And who knew where that sword had been.

It was one thing to eat a sword, but it was another to have a nasty thing like that …

She had created a scalpel with her magic. And clamps to cut down on the bleeding. The needles and thread were in the first aid kit in the camp.

She wanted to vomit many times. She wanted to cry throughout the whole surgery. But she didn't allow herself to do either. He had nearly died to give her the chance to warn the others. She would not fail to do everything in her power to keep him alive.

And she had succeeded.

Now, with the four of them lying there, sleeping, she almost smiled. Gajeel's bandage was this side of absurd, but there had been so much blood. And with the broken bones … well, she wanted to be safe. But it still looked a little silly how his right arm was so much larger than his left.

His face was strangely captivating. Though she'd seen him wounded before, she'd never seen this look on him. She realized it was because she'd never seen him asleep while wounded. It wasn't quite peaceful, and it wouldn't be because of the wounds, but it accentuated the beauty inherent in his features.

The shape of his jaw. The length of his nose. The slant of his eyes. The paleness and bruising weren't so attractive, but they drew her fingers as she pushed hair away from his forehead and wiped his skin with a wet cloth.

The only way to win would be to unite, but how was she supposed to leave him like this?

Or any of the others; Mira, Elfman, and Evergreen.

But really, it was Gajeel. She'd never seen him so beat up. She knew he would want her, expect her, and need her to fight, and she wanted, expected, and needed that of herself as well, but … didn't he need her too?

That blank, sleeping expression on his face gave her no answers.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

He was on his knees panting beside her. His bandages torn to shreds from when his iron arm pierced through.

Evergreen, too, had woken enough to help her, Lily, and Lissana beat the remaining dark guild members. Lesser ones than the 7 kin, but still not weak. There was no doubt in her mind that they couldn't have done it without the two of them, but it certainly had done nothing to help their condition.

Someone needed to check on the others. There had been clear sounds of battle from several places on the island. The dark guild's Master had fought someone, but the ship had been destroyed, so she thought they'd one that one. She'd also felt dark power, but that was also gone now. Another battle she was going to assume they'd won.

She was physically unharmed, though her magic was gone and she was wearier than she could remember ever being in her life. But that still made her the most whole of all of them at the camp. With a great groan she stumbled to his side and helped him to stand. Pulling him back to his pallet.

He tried to grumble something, but she ignored him. If he told her thank you, she'd cry. If he told her she didn't need to, she'd cry. She was feeling a little over-exposed. 'Do the job,' she told herself. 'Don't think.'

Lissana managed to get back to camp on her own, but Evergreen needed help. So did Lily. She found him asleep in a clump of weeds. His breathing so shallow and quiet that at first she'd been horrified he wasn't sleeping in those weeds, but dead.

She carried Pantherlily – who was heavier than something that looked like a teddy bear should be – and placed him next to Gajeel. In his semi-awake state, she thought he tried to tell her something again, but this time the world was spinning and melting and sounds were coming into her ears funny.

The last thing she remembered was that hitting an iron chest with her face was probably going to hurt.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Gajeel did some token grumbling when they watched the induction of Cana as the new S-class mage. Since the exam hadn't exactly gone as planned, they'd taken a vote. Since Cana had actually made it to the grave and gotten power from the first Master, it was decided she was the one who deserved the honor.

Gajeel, in an overwhelming need to act like himself, said that if Cana'd had to fight him she wouldn't have stood a chance. Levy and Lily gave each other a look and rolled their eyes. They'd been doing that a lot recently.

She wasn't really jealous of the cat anymore. She felt very friendly with him. And, if she wasn't mistaken, she thought that he might be trying to help her out with the screw-brained jerk. He had started calling her over to talk when they were sitting at the bar. Placing her as close to Gajeel as she had ever gotten before the exam.

Giving her a reason to talk to him now that the exams were over.

She cheered and threw sparks in the air in celebration for her friend's success. Gajeel smirked. He was happy for Cana too, even though he wasn't going to say so. She understood him pretty well now that they'd had the time in the exam together.

He was kinder than he pretended to be. Kinder than he wanted to be, though his wants were changing. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed him watching her too. Their gazes only met for a second before they both went back to watching Cana, but she saw something there. She knew she did.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Author's note: ::sigh:: Another sappy bit of romance (?) from my favorite pair. And also, this will be thrown to the wolves in a few weeks when the manga catches up and concludes the arc in a totally different way (tho Cana will probably be moved up, I bet, it seems like the good happy ending that FT seems to want to provide). Still, I hope there is some enjoyment for you here. Please review!