In Secret (Sequel to Behind the Scenes)

Learning Experience

Levy's P.O.V.

"N-nothing is the matter, Gajeel. Only..." His face was so close to mine, I could feel his breath on my cheek. I had been planning to talk to him, but then my lips were crashing into his. I felt the iron hard muscles of his arm around my waist as he staggered back from my newest assault. I felt a jolt as he hit the wall behind him, and I broke off our kiss, gasping.

My heart was racing, and I was sure my cheeks were on fire. His eyes were studying my face, like he was seeing me for the first time. I saw them reach my lips and then we were kissing again. I couldn't stop my hands from sliding up his chest, over his broad shoulders, and tangling into his hair. I pressed my body against him, electricity coursing through me.

"Miss Levy!" I was jolted out of my thoughts by a skinny set of arms wrapping around my waist. Glancing down, I saw a blue head of hair tucked against me. "Hello, James! How are you today?"

"I'm good, Miss! We didn't think you were coming!" Gajeel had been gone for three days of his week long mission, and this had been my first time back to see the kids. "Well, James, I have been setting something up. A little training session, we'll call it." He left go of me and stepped back. "Training? But Gajeel isn't here? Oh! Reading?!" Laughing, I walked further into the warehouse. "Well, there's reading involved, yes. Why don't you gather the others and I'll tell everyone, hmm?"

As he ran off, I set the stack of papers I carried onto the table. I flipped through them, folding them in half so the kids couldn't read them right away and writing names on the backs. Sam popped up next to me, startling me and sending things flying. "Sam! Goodness!" I scrambled to snatch the pages back, looking up to see her holding one. "Levy, what's this?" I glanced at the paper she had in her hand. "Well, that's a task I have set up for someone to do. Please hand it here and I'll explain in a moment." She looked at me curiously, passing the sheet back to me.

I reassembled my papers as everyone gathered around me, and smiled brightly at them. "Okay! Everyone here? Good! Today, you're going to have training in following orders, and completing jobs for clients. Is anyone here currently being hunted by authorities?" Two tentative hands slipped into the air, and I nodded, smiling. "That's okay. It just means you're going to be staying here with me today. Everyone else, I've picked and set up jobs around town. Now, normally, only a guild wizard can accept these jobs, but I've arranged things so you can complete these tasks." I saw a few alarmed faces and smiled again, "Don't worry, I've made sure they won't know who you are. As far as any of the clients know, you're my cousin, or a friend's child, or a potential new member of Fairy Tail. Many of these people have known me since I was your age, so they trust me."

With that, I started passing out papers, telling them to start reading. I gave them instruction to come to me when they thought they understood their tasks, and I pulled aside the three who were staying with me, setting them problems to work on. "Miss?" James was standing next to me. I glanced at him over my shoulder and waited for him to continue. "My task. I need to go help the bookstore owner by the river? He can't find some old scrolls, is that correct?" I nodded and looked at him expectantly. "Can I go then?"

"Sure. Go ahead." I raised my voice so everyone could hear me and continued. "Don't forget that you can always tell a client if you don't feel qualified, and come back here for help. I'll be here all day." With an  offended expression and a sigh, James slipped out, leaving me grinning at his back. I'll see him again before too long. The children approached me one or two at a time after that, and before long, they were all gone. I sat on the table reading, and helping Rat and Kasai with their figures. Steven had stayed at my request, so I could work with him on his reading, his dyslexia making that a difficult task. I had a secondary reason for keeping him there as well, but I hadn't told him.

After about an hour, James came thudding through the door. I restrained the giggle that almost burst out of me at the dark expression on his face. "You knew. You knew I wouldn't be able to do that alone." His accusation hung in the air between us for a moment as I finished explaining a problem to Rat. I schooled my features into something serious and looked at the blue haired boy. When I didn't say anything, he sighed and lost the scowl. "Alright, what am I supposed to do then?"

"Sometimes, James, wizards work in teams. So, what kept you from completing your job?" He looked at his feet and took a deep breath, before admitting that he had been tasked with finding scrolls in a dark archive room. The shopkeeper, Daniel, wouldn't allow any flame in the room, for obvious reasons, and his light lacrima had broken. I'd noticed the lacrima's outage when I'd visited the shop two days ago, and spoken with my friend. I asked him to hold off on replacing it so I could test my cousin and his friend on their abilities. Dan's heart was for children was only matched by his desire to educate people, so of course he'd leapt at the opportunity.

"I can't hold my Shine for very long, and I knew if I just kept casting it, I would wear myself out." I nodded and he screwed up his face in thought. "So I came back to see if you had an idea on what I could do. But you said teams, which means you probably have someone in mind who could help me." He sulked a little at that last, but I beamed at him happily. I saw Steven go still next to me, trying to pretend he was still reading.

James sighed again, and it was such an exasperated sound that I almost giggled again. "Steven... Will you help me on this job?" With a loud whoop, Steven jumped from his seat. "Miss! Can I?" James groaned as Steven nearly tackled me, causing a laugh to finally escape. "Stick to First Light, okay Steven? Don't try to show off for the client, it never works out well." He nodded and let go of me, running past James for the door. "James." He turned back to look at me. "Because you are handling this so maturely I'm going to tell you. You're needed for more than just your ability to read. You will need your Script magic." He brightened at that and ran after his new partner. Complete opposites, rivals, and somehow still best friends. Those boys are just like Natsu and Gray...