Brain and Brawn

Chapter Five: Ruins of the Ancient Variety

"It didn't look like the end of the story from where I was standing," Lily hid his chuckle. After he composed himself he have Gajeel a serious look. "You had an opening there you know."

Gajeel rubbed the back of his neck and stared at his feet. "Yeah I know," there was no need to lie to his partner about something he was already aware of. "But I'm not here to make a move on her I'm here to protect her," he stood up and threw on some clothes. "We both are actually so we should get down there before she comes back up here to lecture us."

They found her in the lobby sitting in an armchair. She had one of her books from her bag that lay open at her feet set in her lap, her bagel in one hand, and was turning the pages with the other. She had her glasses on and Gajeel had to bite the inside of his cheek. He always though she looked sexy with her glasses on, like a naughty librarian...

"There you guys are!" Her voice snapped Gajeel out of his fantasy. "The ruins are really close so I figured we could just walk to them."

Gajeel hoped they would run into some bandits. He needed to blow off the tension he was feeling from his morning wake up call.

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"These are the ruins?" Gajeel asked nervously as he stared at the entrance and shifted Levy's bags of books to his other shoulder. "It's a cave," he wasn't comfortable letting his bookworm be trapped in there with only one way out.

"They must be underground ruins then," Levy mused.

She created a Solid Script: Light to luminate the dark cave and Gajeel found himself thinking that Salamander's fire would work great in a time like this. After ten minutes of walking through winding corridors the cave opened up into a huge cavern with ancient writing on the wall and old, partially, crumbled stone buildings. All three of then shuddered as an intense magic aura hit them. Gajeel grabbed Levy's hand, knowing she'd be in awe of the place and wander off.

"Remember don't leave my side," he warned.

"Are your dragon senses picking up anything?" She asked.

Gajeel lifted his nose and sniffed the air. "These are definitely ruins of the ancient variety but nothing's really lived here for hundreds of years. Yeah I smell a few squatters and I think some of the bandits but nothing that's been here for longer than a week."

Lily unsheathed his sword and gave it a few good swings. "I'm going to go guard entrance and tunnel leading into here. Think you two will be okay?" When they both nodded he took off back towards the entrance.
"I'll relieve him a few hours," Gajeel told himself. As much as he didn't want to leave his bookworm he also didn't want to leave his best friend doing all of the hard work.
    
Levy picked the closet wall to the entrance, sat down, and began studying the language before pulling a book out of one of the bags Gajeel was carrying like a pack mule. She flipped her glasses that sat on her head back into her face, making Gajeel huff and look away, and began flipping through the book.
    
"It's all written in ancient Fiorian," she mused, obviously impressed. "This form of it hasn't been used in over four hundred years!"
    
Gajeel sat down on a rock and watched his bookworm at work. It was impressive to look watch her work passionately to decipher the ruins. He smiled at her. She's in her own little world and she doesn't even know it. He turned his head anytime she bent forward to get a closer look at the ruins.  I wish she wouldn't have worn that damn orange dress though. He growled and followed it with a sigh he did love to see her in it though.
    
After a little over almost three hours of mostly silence Gajeel spoke up. "Hey Shrimp?"
   
"Yeah?" She was obviously still distracted.
    
"How long did it take you to learn this form of ancient Fiorian?"
    
Levy paused from her translating to do some math in her head. "I'm pretty sure it was close to five," she answered.
    
"Years?"
    
"No hours," Levy scoffed. "It's never taken me five years to learn anything. I could've learned it faster if Jet and Droy would've stopped arguing over my shoulder."
    
"Five hours to learn an ancient and dead language and your disappointed you didn't learn it faster," Lily's voice made both of them jump. They hadn't heard from him in the three hours he was gone guarding the entrance. He shook his head. "You're too smart for own good Levy."
    
Gajeel shot up and brushed the dirt off his pants. "Glad your back buddy!" He clamped his arm on Lily's shoulder. "How about I relieve you for a bit?"
    
Lily nodded and switched to his smaller form. "Thank you I was beginning to get a little tired."
    
Gajeel took one more look at Levy, who was already back to work, before striding out of the cave. Not long after he left though he began to get restless. He knew he would feel that way as soon as he left Levy's side. I can't protect her if I'm not with her. He tried to keep himself busy by skipping rocks across the nearby creek but the water was too shallow. He climbed a few trees to get a better look at the area but the forest was to dense. He tried meditating for awhile but he was to restless to do so. He even did handstands against the cave entrance only to find he wasn't very good at them. He sighed and splashed water on his face from the creek. As he stood up he heard a twig snap in the bushes in front of him. He froze, brought his nose to the air, and smiled. Looks like he'd get to blow off some steam after all.

Authors Notes: This one took me a little longer to write than I thought it would but there it is. You finally get some action in the next chapter. How will Gajeel react when his little bookworm is threatened?