Beneath the Surface (A GaLe story)

The Protector

Okay, I know I said I would post this yesterday, but I got punched in the mouth by a ten year old aaand had to deal with a very, very annoying, racist, sexist, rainbow-barf JERKFACE. And then my chapter got deleted... Not my best day... but this chapter will probably explain a lot, so yaaay! I hope you guys like it! Sorry for making you wait for so long...

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-Levy’s POV-

 

“I… I got a personal request from my favorite shop,” I continued nervously, trying to avoid Gajeel’s gaze. Seriously, that guy looked like he was trying to murder something with his eyes alone. He probably could if he tried hard enough…

I shook my head when I realized I had stopped talking. “Anyway,” I continued, embarrassed now, “there’s this sweet old lady who runs the shop-- she’s been the one supplying me with materials I need for my Solid Script magic for, well… for as long as I’ve been a mage. She just wanted my opinion on some new gear she was going to purchase from a merchant. Her eyes aren’t as good as they used to be… she didn’t want to be tricked into buying anything low quality…”

The slight smile that had formed on my lips as I thought of her faded as I continued. “While I was in there, a couple people came in. They looked really shady, all of them wearing matching hoods, except for this one person in the middle, who was a lot shorter than the rest. All of them had these dark grey hoods on, but hers was pitch black...

“Anyway, when they walked in, Mary-- the old lady who runs the shop-- looked really scared… her hands were shaking and her eyes were really big.”

I risked glancing up, and met Gajeel’s eyes for a split second. Bad idea, bad idea… I scolded myself mentally, looking away and mentally shaking myself to get his scary look out of my head.

“S-she told me to head to the back, and head out that door,” I said, still unsettled from Gajeel’s murderous gaze.

“You did listen to her, right?” Gajeel growled. I could feel his eyes boring into the top of my head as I stared at the floor.

“I was going to…” I squeaked. “But I-”

“Going to?” he repeated, and I cringed. His voice was even more terrifying, if that was possible.

“Stop, Gajeel,” Makarov cut off, making me breathe a sigh of relief. “Let her finish.”

“Like I was saying,” I continued hesitantly, “I really was going to leave… The other members of Shadow Gear were off on missions, and I had no way of contacting any of the guild members if things turned into a fight.

“But seeing her there, looking so scared, I couldn’t just leave!” I cried, tears blurring my vision as I looked up. I stared straight at Gajeel. “Fairy Tail is full of children who have lost their families. Did you think I was different?”

He looked shocked. I could tell the thought had never crossed his mind. Well, good. I had never wanted anyone to pity me anyway, especially not him. I wouldn’t have told him at all if not to explain why I did what I did.

“It might sound stupid,” I muttered, wiping my eyes, “but Mary’s my friend. She’s important to me. So I stayed and listened from behind one of the aisles.

“They said that the shops on the street were under their protection, that she needed to… pay them, I guess, if she wanted to stay safe.” Makarov’s face darkened at this. “She refused. She’s had that shop for over 30 years, and since there aren’t a lot of mages who need magic writing or drawing tools, she hasn’t been making a lot of money lately.”

My tone turned bitter. “They started to threaten her… They said if she didn’t pay up, they couldn’t ‘guarantee her safety.’”

“Did you confront them?” Gajeel asked tersely.

I shook my head no. “I didn’t, but they said they would be coming back in a little while to ‘collect.’ Mary wanted me to leave, but I offered to set up a protection barrier around her shop, you know, like the barrier Freed set up when Laxus was challenging the guild members of Fairy Tail?”

Makarov glowered at the memory. Oops… I thought to myself, wincing mentally. Probably should have used a different example. But Gajeel actually grinned.

“What?” I asked, frowning at him.

“Of course you would be able to do that, Shrimp,” he said with his trademark “Gihee”.

I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to take that as a compliment or not…

“I mean,” he continued, “you did disable the shield that time, it makes sense that you could construct another one.”

I nodded hesitantly. “Yeah… I set up a version of that barrier around the shop, except with the intent of keeping out anyone who had bad intentions towards the shop or owner.

“They showed up again, the one in black holding herself back behind the rest of them. When they came to the front door, they were thrown backwards. They tried throwing spells at the wall, but, I mean, that’s kind of what those barriers are designed for-- protection from magical attacks. So that didn’t work either.

“I had been there almost all day and I wanted to head back home, so I tried to slip out back while this was going on.”

“Why didn’t you just wait for the fighting to end?!” Gajeel hissed at me.

“Well, not everyone can just scare people off by glaring at them, so I kind of wanted to get back before it got dark so I wouldn’t be mugged!” I shot back at him.

That shut him up.

I continued, rolling my eyes slightly. “Well, when I said goodbye to Mary and was slipping out the back, I bumped into someone. When I turned to say sorry, it turned out to be that creepy guy in the black hood. When the person pulled back that black hood, she turned out to be this girl with this electric purple hair... It was kind of awesome looking.” I said, mumbling the last part.

“Well, anyway, she sucked a bunch of air in, and breathed out this funny purple gas. It surrounded me, which was, obviously, really freaky. But while I was flipping out, the mist dissipated, and she was gone. I felt fine, so I just brushed it off and went home…”

They all stared at me, disbelieving. “So you mean to tell me,” Mirajane started, “that you never even thought that some magic mist that surrounded you wasn’t going to have any side effects?!”

“I--”

“And that the fact that it was from an enemy didn’t scare you at all?!”

I sighed, sitting back as everyone began to talk over each other. Yep, not like they needed me to answer their questions or anything…

I was starting to drift back off to sleep when a little ball of black fur burst into the room. “Makarov!” Pantherlily bellowed, making me jump. I could hear screams and yelling from outside of the door.

Please, please, please, don’t let this be my fault… I thought.

Pantherlily fluttered to the ground, his wings expiring. He took a second to compose himself, breathing deeply, before looking up with a grave expression on his face. “We have a serious problem!”

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My favorite kitty is back!!! And oh my gosh, Levy, all the stupid moves you made... But I guess I get it... And how many of you guys wanna bet that whatever Pantherlily is talking about is Levy's fault?!

Tell me what you guys think! And thanks to all you readers again!! All your adorable, thoughtful comments seriously made my day, and I love that you guys are reading my story!!!

I'll try to make the next chapter awesome... I have some great stuff planned ^~^

~Sky Bubblecloud