"Gajeel get up," Gajeel groaned as the voice disturbed his sleep. Suddenly there was a rush of air and he was cold. He felt around blindly for his blanket but only found emptiness. "I said get up!"
Gajeel sat up and yawned before glaring at Levy. "What the heck Shrimp?" He glanced at the clock and moaned, rubbing his face. "It's six in the morning!"
Levy was way to lively this early for him. She shook his blanket at him and nodded. "Exactly! I want to get an early start since this is our first day. Plus we have to report to the guy who posted this job with any findings we have."
Gajeel stretched. They haven't met the man who posted the translation job yet but Mira told them he was an old archeologist who studied the ruins before being attacked by the bandits when they first showed up. He stood up and grabbed his blanket only to find Levy still holding it in a vice-like grip. "Relax I'm not going back to sleep I'm already up," he reassured her.
Levy was still reluctant to let go but she knew she would lose a game of tug-of-war with the large man so she let him have it. As he pulled up on the blanket Levy felt the floor fall from under her. As ground came hurdling towards her face she closed her eyes and she shrieked. A hand reached out and grabbed the back of her shirt and yanked her back up before she felt the pain of falling on her face. Instead she slammed into something only a little softer than the ground, Gajeel. His well toned body didn't make much cushion for impact. As she slammed into him he lost his balance and fell backwards. They landed on something soft and when she didn't feel like she was falling anymore she opened her eyes and gasped.
They had fallen right onto the queen sized bed, together, with Levy straddling Gajeel's hips like a scene from one some her more risqué novels. She blushed and placed her hands on his chest to lift herself up but quickly found them being clamped onto by another pair of hands.
The fall had made Gajeel dizzy so he thought he was seeing things when the room stopped spinning and he saw Levy on top of him. She was a bright red he'd never seen on her before and she was looking down at her hands. I'm dreamin'. I've gotta be. He thought to himself and he blinked rapidly to make sure it wasn't fake. She placed her hands on his chest and started to lift herself off of him but he grabbed her wrists before he really thought about it. This was like something from his dreams and now that it was within reach he didn't want to let her go. He fought with himself to stay calm and just as he was about to lose the battle with himself an image flashed before his eyes. It was Levy beaten, bruised, and crying. Gajeel quickly released her wrists and looked away from her.
"You should be more careful," he growled, angry at himself for almost losing it. "I can't protect you if you crack your skull on the first day."
Suddenly the room door burst open and there stood Lily, in full battle form, with three brown bags in his hands that no doubt held their breakfast. He raised an eyebrow at the predicament his partners were in then smiled. "Is this a bad time?" He teased. "I can come back later if that works better."
Levy quickly jumped off of Gajeel, grabbed one of her bags of books, and ran out the door, grabbing a bag of breakfast on her way past Lily. She darted down the hall and into the elevator where she found herself alone. She dropped her books, slid down the wall, and held her burning face. That was close! She had never been in a position like that in her life. She could still feel the heat radiating off of his body. She wanted him then and had he not looked away from her and told her to be careful she might have been brave enough to go for it. But she lost that bravery when Gajeel's voice told her he wasn't interested. But his body told me otherwise. A small voice in the back of her head reminded her of something that had happened when she was on top of him.
God I hope he didn't notice that! Gajeel screamed in his head as he used a pillow to cover his, finally, now decreasing erection. He glared up at Lily who just sighed. "Don't sigh at me like that cat it's not what it looks like. She fell, I caught her, she slammed into me, we fell on the bed, end of story."
"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?