Beauty and the Iron Dragon (A GaLe Fairy Tail Fanfic)

Chapter 19

Five hours. That was how long that Gajeel and Levy fought for. They battered, bruised, and drained each other of their magic energy. "You're coming along in fighting shrimp. I only got ten hits on you" Gajeel said, tired and thirsty. Thanks to the fierce shrimp, his hair was even wilder than usual. Levy looked like she was in a worse state, with big bruises and little scratches thanks to his iron scales. "Yeah, they hurt. But I also got ten hits on you" Levy said exhausted. He couldn't help but feel guilty for the bruises he gave her. Some of them were from when Levy landed a punch on him, hitting his tough iron scales and scratching against them. He walked away, only for a second. When he came back, Gajeel had a small box in both of his hands. A first aid kit. Gajeel grabbed Levys hand, causing her to blush, and sat her and himself on a bench. "Hold still while I clean your cuts shorty" Gajeel said as a started to wipe the little bit of blood on her skin. Levy felt her cheeks blush. Why am I blushing, he's just cleaning my cuts, Levy thought. Gajeel carefully cleaned her cuts, not applying too much pressure but enough so that the blood went away. He was scared that if he wasn't careful he might hurt her in someway. When he was all done, he started to put some band aids on the bigger cuts on her arm. There were only two, but still needed to be tended to. After he was all done Levy asked him if he had any cuts. "Hell no shrimp. But I do got some bruises thanks to you" Gajeel told Levy with a smirk. "Ok. I should get going then. I'll see you later" Levy said happily as she closed the door behind her. "You too shrimp" Gajeel said to an empty training room. He walked back to his room to find Lily peacefully asleep on the foot of his bed. "Hey Lily" Gajeel said, going to his closet to change. The black exeed woke up, stretching exactly like a cat would in the morning. "There you are, I need to talk to you about something" pantherlily said, standing up. "Shoot" Gajeel replied coming out of the closet. "I think it's high time you told Levy about the night and the rose" Lily said with a serious voice. "Oi, Lily! Are you crazy cat!" Gajeel yelled at Lily. "No, I've thought about it. If she is to fall in love with you, she has to know your past, everything" Lily told his friend. "I'll think about it. But it's still a bad idea" Gajeel told Lily, who nodded his head and flew out of the room through the balcony. That Mavis forsaken cat has a point, she has to find out sometime. Better now than later and better me than any other person in this castle, Gajeel thought as he made his way to Levy's room. He raised his hand to knock, but he couldn't. He was scared of what Levy would think of she knew the truth. In his mind, she would hate him for the rest of his life. No, I have to do this. Just knock the damn door, Gajeel thought as he pushed his nervousness aside and knocked the door. Levy opened the door, smiling. "Hey, shrimp. I uh, gotta show you something. Come on" Gajeel said as he walked away from the door, Levy following behind him. "Are you ok? What are you showing me?" Levy asked with a worried face and voice. "Yeah, I'm just gonna tell you about the curse" Gajeel said quietly. "Oh" Levy said quietly. The two continued walking in silence until they came to a heavily locked iron door. As Gajeel opened the door, Levy stood there, unsure if she should follow him. "Come on, it's alright shrimp" Gajeel said with a straight and stern face. Levy walked in, looking around. Not that there was anything to look at. The room was a big round dark room, with nothing really in it. In the middle was a glowing ruby red rose on a small table, a great deal of its petals missing. By the looks of it, it didn't have that long to live. "What's that?" Levy asked. "That rose represents the time we have left to break the curse. And lately its been losing petals faster" Gajeel said quietly. Levy could hear the hidden sadness in his voice. "Three years ago the night when we were cursed, it was the biggest storm of the year. Back then I was the biggest asshole for miles, and didn't give jack about anyone or how I treated them. I acted that way because my old man Metalicana disappeared when I was twelve. I just, never got over it. I got every one cursed because I wouldn't help an old women. I wouldn't even let her stay the night in the stables for free. The rest, you can figure out yourself. Short story, it's my fault we're in this mess" Gajeel said as he stared at the rose remembering that night like it was yesterday. The only detail he left out was what needed to happen so the spell to be broken. She didn't need to know that. Not yet anyway. He could hear the solid script mage walking towards him, his knows what for. He braced himself for the worst. But all he felt was a soft and warm hug around his waist. Gajeel looked down to find Levy hugging him, with a kind smile. "You're not the same person you were back then. You're the smart, caring and strong man that I know today. Even if you do use crude language to my dismay" Levy said calmly. Honestly, she didn't know why she hugged him. Levy didn't know what else to do, and she knew the iron scaled man needed to be comforted. Gajeel didn't know what to do. He wasn't expecting this to happen, out of all the event he thought would happen when he told her about his past. "You can give me a hug back you know" Levy whispered. Slowly, Gajeel wrapped his iron scaled arms around the amazing woman hugging him. "Thanks Levy" Gajeel said. Levys eyes widened when she heard Gajeel say her name. Not her nickname, but her actual name. "No problem" Levy answered. She then realized the at new feeling. Her smile grew, knowing that she was in love with Gajeel, the Iron Dragon Slayer.

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Ever since that day, Levy noticed that Gajeel was a bit more relaxed. Granted he still swore a lot and got into fights, but that was just Gajeel. The said dragon slayer felt like all the weight was pulled off his chest. To think he was so scared of telling her. Knowing Levy, he should have known that he had no reason to be scared. Over the course of a few days, the snow had completely melted and spring cleaning began. Along with gardening. Gajeel and Levy had fun with that. If you call getting covered from head to toe in mud and flower seeds, then having to shower for two hours fun. Nonetheless, I was still a lot of fun. Now it was officially spring, and the castle was completely clean. The only rooms that weren't clean was the iron door rooms, Gajeel decided to clean those rooms himself. They were all relieved when he didn't notice difference between Mira's real book, and her fake one. It was close though, they almost got caught when Gajeel was cleaning the book and couldn't feel any magical energy from it. But thankfully he ignored it. Right now, they were sitting together in the library on the soft couch. Levy was reading the Wings of Fire book series to Gajeel, something he chose since it was entirely about dragons. They were on the third book, The Hidden Kingdom. While the blue haired women was reading the book, Gajeel had been debating whether or not he should as Levy something. The question scared him more than when Levy when they had their training sessions, which said something. Come on you wuss, just ask her what's the worst that could happen?, Gajeel thought as he looked at Levy. After thinking about it over for a few more minutes, he decided to just go for it. "Hey, shrimp," Gajeel said, grabbing her attention. "Yeah?" the blue haired solid script mage replied. "I realized we still haven't had dinner together yet" Gajeel said. My gosh, he's right, Levy thought. "That's true" Levy said. "So, you want to have dinner with me" Gajeel asked. He may have looked calm and cool on the outside, but he was a nervous wreck on the inside. "Like a date?" Levy asked, excitement in her voice and eyes. "Yeah, sure" Gajeel answered, a small blush on his face,but hidden by his scales. "That sounds great! I'll see you tonight!" Levy beamed, giving a living kids on the cheek before hurrying away to her room. I'll need Lucy's, Mira's, Wendy's and Erza's help!, Levy thought. Gajeel just sat completely still on the couch, processing what the heck just happened.