Pheromones, yanderes, and lemons. Oh my!

Chapter Thirteen

Gajeel's POV

I snuck through the dark streets as quickly as I could without attracting attention. I said I had to go to the bathroom and snuck out the window when Flame Brain made some ruckus about fighting Laxus. I barely fit. If I hadn't been able to undo some of the metal frame, I wouldn't of gotten out at all. I know this is exactly what I'm not supposed to do, but I desperately need to make sure Shrimp's okay. Fucking moron, Natsu could've hurt her! Master wouldn't let me strangle the idiot when Lily dragged him back in.

I stopped at the base of Fairy Hills, hid myself  in the bushes and looked up. Shrimp was probably one of the windows with the lights still on, that bookworm. All of the windows were closed, so I was getting no definite clues. Time to put these new super senses to use. I leaned towards the nearest set of windows on the ground floor and sniffed. I caught a stale whiff of strawberries and metal. I shuddered. Titania. I looked up at the nearest lit window, three windows over on the second floor. Figures. I can only catch the person's scent when I'm next to their window.

Even dragons can't smell through walls. My inner beast huffed.

Shut up. I snap. I shifted my hands into metal claws and started carefully climbing. I'd done this sort of thing before in Phantom, but it's been awhile and since I was always spoiling for a fight, I didn't care if I was caught. As I got close, I heard a muted wailing. Combined with the scent of the sea, I knew whose room it was before I could even make out the words.

"Gray-sama must be so angry with Juvia for ignoring him! Juvia is soooo soooorry Gray-sama!" I perched next to the window and prepared to peek in when a second scent hit me like a train. Flowers with a hint of mahogany and wine. She-Devil.

"Juvia, he's not mad at you."

"But Juvia so rarely sees him! He will forget how much Juvia loves him!"

"You're so...forward all the time dear. I don't think he'll forget anytime soon." The sobs continued unabated. "He's just worried and focused on other things right now, we all are." She-Devil let out a giggle. "He's been so focused that he hasn't stripped since the trip to the library."

There was a sniff. "Juvia did notice th-hic-that."

"In fact, when this is all over, I'm sure he'll pay more attention to you."

"R-really?"

"Of course! Haven't you ever heard the phrase 'Absence makes the heart grow fonder' ?"

"No, but Juvia feels better now. Thank you."

"Anytime." There was the creaking of a bed. "I'll be patrolling, so if you need anything else, just holler, 'kay?" There was the tip-tap of footsteps and the sound of a door closing.

"Gray-sama..." The bed creaked again and footsteps moved into another room, where the sound of running water could be heard. Nothing more here.

I clambered up to the third floor and began moving along it. The next lighted window had the familiar scent of a dragon slayer and an exceed. So this is Lil' Blue's room. I climbed underneath it and was almost past it when the light turned off. I froze and pressed myself against the stone. There was the sound of wings flapping and Wendy's bossy white exceed emerged, locked the window, and flew into the night, carrying what looked like a backpack. I released a sigh of relief and kept going. The next window was one story below me, on the second floor, but I could smell the alcohol from here and just kept moving.

Yer bein' awfully quiet. I commented sarcastically.

The beast stirred. We are going to mate. That is good.