Follow Your Heart

Blanket disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. I do not claim any rights to Fairy Tail or any characters associated with the manga, anime, movie, or game.  No money was made from this fan fiction.

Author’s note:  Once again still no beta, I’m sorry about any grammar errors I missed, did the best I could.  Hope you enjoy this chapter.   

 

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If anything good had come out of Happy dumping that shitty potion on him it was the girls refused to let Natsu bug him on the trip home. 

Ever since the Magic Games Natsu had been busting his chops about what that bastard Sting told them about motion sickness being an ailment dragon slayers grew into. 

Sting was another one he should add to his list of people to introduce their asses to his boot. 

Since Natsu had suffered for years from motion sickness and Gajeel just started having problems that fire brat decided that meant Gajeel was younger than him. 

Like any of the first generation dragon slayers knew how old they were. Not that he was accepting he might be younger, but even if he was, it didn't change the fact he was a hell of a lot more mature than that idiot could ever hope to be.

Sure as far as looks he knew it was mainly his larger build and his piercings Metalicana gave him that made him look older, but hey . . . he was still the more mentally mature out of the two of them.

Nobody held his hand and took care of him when he was a kid after that ass Metalicana had taken off.  So he had to be more mature if he raised himself, right?  

Rolling off Levy’s lap, his knees slammed into the train floor as he dry heave into the bucket one of the porters had brought, his arms shook from the stress of holding himself up to toss his cookies.

If it wasn’t for the Shrimp’s kindness in taking care of him he’d have just threw up on the floor and not cared to aim at the stupid bucket. 

Whatever was in that damn bottle had certainly done a number on him.  On the trip down Gajeel was able to stay mostly silent refusing to act as stupid as Salamander did over motion sickness, not this time though, and that stung his pride just a bit.      

He’d never admit he was gettin’ any sort of pleasure out of all this, but Levy’s attention was kinda’ nice.  One of her small hands held his hair while he got sick and the other rubbed his back.  As soon as he stopped, she was guided him back to her lap and the ice pack she’d created with her magic and a spare shirt she’d brought with her came back to his forehead. 

Lily flew above him, pulling a very flashy blanket Bunny Girl had got from one of her spirits over him –the thing was gaudy as hell, but he guessed the next time he needed a back up dancer he’d let her off the hook as thanks for helping him out.

Once Lily had him covered again the black cat landed on the back of the bench.  Lil’ crossed his arms over his chest and kept a wary eye on everyone that stayed in their car, watching his back while he was down.

Gajeel moaned, he swore he could feel his fever spiking again.  He knew he sounded downright pitiful and he hated every moment of it, but when Levy’s hand started gently petting his hair he decided being able to get this extra special attention from her was well worth looking like a pussy.    

Besides he could totally blame it all on the potion getting dumped on him so no one had to find out he actually liked to cuddle. 

Natsu tried a couple of times to open his mouth about Levy babying him and all the noise he was making; he even dared to compare Gajeel to Levy’s lapdogs, but Lucy put an end to it real quick.

His pride was taking a real beating; especially with Lucy defending him, but it was worth it to see Soot for Brains cowering in the corner in fear of her.   

“Are you feeling any better?”  Levy asked, pulling his attention away from the idiot show.

“Nnnnoooo . . . .”  He drew out, wondering how dumb she could be to think he felt any better.  The way he looked at her must have said he thought she was an idiot too since she bit her lip and fiddled with his ice pack attempting to look busy.  Okay, now he really felt like shit.

Damn it all, he just wasn’t good at dealing with people.  It wasn’t that he disliked Levy.  Hell as far as he was concerned she was the best girl in Fairy Tail. 

Even though he’d hurt her in the past she’d become his friend and they worked well together.  He was friends with that Rain Woman Juvia too, but Gajeel enjoyed Levy’s company more—she wasn’t nearly as crazy as Juvia was.

There were girls at the guild that drew his eye.  Hell half the time someone was wearing something that barely covered their bits he’d have to be dead not to look. 

 

Good lookin’ they might be, but when the girls were someone like Tatiana who could rip your fuckin’ spine out your mouth it definitely put most the guild girls on the look but don’t touch list. 

Anyway in Gajeel’s opinion just like Lily was the best damn cat in the world Levy was the best girl.  Everything about her calmed him; her scent, her personality, her aura, just everything plus she was easy on the eyes and Gajeel wasn’t concerned that she’d try to jerk his spine out through his mouth anytime soon.

“Thanks for looking out for me guys.”  He mumbled, making sure not to look directly at Levy when he said it and at least with his fever for once she wouldn’t be able to tell he was blushing.   

“Don’t worry about it Gajeel.  We’re close to Magnolia, so just hang on a bit longer.”  Levy assured him, resuming her petting. 

A violent shiver ran through him that didn’t actually seem all that bad.  His symptoms were really strange; he felt both hot and cold. 

How the hell you could feel both at the same time he didn’t understand, but that was how he felt. 

Levy’s hand made him feel calm yet he could also feel his heart beating a lot faster than was normal for him.  He was sick as a dog to his stomach from his motion sickness, but at the same time there was this strange fluttering that wasn’t his normal turbulent stomach ache.

Then there was this strange longing for something he didn’t really understand, but Levy’s attention did help. 

Cracking his eyes open he looked over at Natsu and Lucy across the aisle from them.  Something about Lucy had that fluttering in his stomach and longing feeling acting up, but he quickly squashed it.  The thought of feeling any longing for Bunny Girl had him wrinkling his nose. 

Turning his head, he pressed his face into Levy’s stomach and took a deep breath filling his senses with Levy’s smell.  Gajeel soaked in her smell and presence, it gave him a feeling of warmth he hadn’t had since Metalicana disappeared. 

He hadn’t realized he’d dozed off until he became aware of his blanket being pulled off him and a couple sets of hands pulling him away from Levy. 

Snarling he lashed out, his nails lengthened and turned dark from the iron seeping from his blood through his dragon magic.

“Whoa, shit Gajeel!  Watch it, Rust Bucket.”  Natsu complained, jumping back into the aisle just in time to miss getting hit. 

It was Levy’s gasp and call for him to stop that halted him from doing more.  Her arms wrapped around one of his holding him back from trying to gut Natsu. 

Blinking to clear his vision, Gajeel for just a moment felt a little guilty before he huffed at them.  “Don’t just grab me when I’m a sleep Nimrod.  I didn’t realize it was you.” 

It was the closet to an apology he’d give Natsu and his fellow dragon slayer seemed to realize it as he walked back over and nodded to someone behind the bench.  “Okay Lily, since Sleeping Beauty here is finally awake let’s try this again.” 

A man sized Lily took hold of one of his arms and pulled him up while Natsu pulled his other.  Once they had him up they each slung an arm over their shoulders and assisted him off the train.  Well, more like they hauled his ass off the train. 

Next thing he knew he was being put onto a bed.  He must have black out being he didn’t remember the trip from the train station. 

Probably better off not remembering the civilians staring at him while he was drug back to the guild like some kind of loser. 

Master Makarov walked through the door, followed by Happy.  The younger exceed looked up at him with such a look of guilt Gajeel figured he could forgive the little idiot for dropping the potion on him without having to kick him in the butt first.  He was still kicking Natsu’s ass though, just on principle and because Natsu deserved to have his ass kicked. 

“Happy tells me you ran into some trouble during your mission Gajeel.”  Makarov said as he climbed onto the chair beside his bed. 

Gajeel snorted, the old man had a way of putting things.  “You could say that Master.” 

“Don’t worry my boy, I’ve sent for Porlyusica and she’ll get you fixed right up.  In the mean time you just rest.”

He could feel his eye drooping as Master was telling him to rest.  As if that was all he was waiting for Gajeel let himself fall back asleep.  He was back at Fairy Tail and he knew his fellow stupid fairies would take care of him no matter what.