Gavel and levy stumbled off of the last train into a blinding snowstorm at one o'clock at night. The two had been out on a mission that they had extended into a training/camping trip, but had been attacked by a particularly strong monster and had both been wounded. It was a mutual decision to return.

"Shrimp, my place is closer. Let's head there to get bandaged up, and then see where to go from there," said Gajeel, in a pained grunt. Levy simply nodded in agreement before the two headed off, staggering through the dark cold night with only each other for support.

Once they reached his little house on the edge of town, he let them in, before collapsing into the couch in the living room.

"Make yourself at home" he grumbled, before heaving himself up to look for some bandages and ointment. Once he found them, he walked back to the living room and plopped himself in front of levy, before beginning to wrap up some of the larger cuts and scrapes on her arms and legs.

"Gajeel, you're hurt way worse than I am, let me do you first," her words erupted from her mouth as levy eyed his pained movements and soft grunts of discomfort with concern. She worried about what had become her dear friend, and dare she say crush. He pushed himself to far to be strong.

"Nonsense, gihi, I'm fine," he said, forcing out a laugh, but levy could tell instantly that he was lying.

"No. Sit on the couch and take off your shirt." Levy commanded, all buisness now. It was cold in the room, so levy bustled about, grabbing a log and lightning it with solid script: Fire. That filled the room with a warm glow, and more importantly, a better light source. She then returned to his side, still limping profusely, and examined the deep cuts along his chest and shoulders. They had scabbed over on their trip back, but were still weeping slightly, and looked extremely painful.

"Hold still,"she mumbled, digging through the first aid kit and pulling out a needle and thread "it's too deep, I have too stitch it."

As she carried out her task, levy had to fight not to flinch at every soft gasp or twitch of pain.

"Oi, that's enough. Now let me get you," the injured dragon slayer said tiredly," you came out of that fight pretty badly. Where did it get you?"

Levy blushed at this. The monster had injured her across her stomach and left hip, causing quite an obvious limp, but also basically requiring her to strip in order for her partner to wrap it properly. She hesitated befor answering, "it's here"she said, lifting her dress to display the wounds, but also showing the dragon slayer far too much skin for her comfort.

Levy watched as he blushed slightly,and then made an effort to focus only on her wounds. He knelt down to get a better view of them, his sleep deprived brain struggling not to focus on the beautiful girl in front of him. As he wrapped the wounds, he tried his very best to avoid contact with her skin, but his shaking hands couldn't avoid brushing up against her soft waist, and then her thigh. As he stood back up to look down at her, Gajeel knew that he was blushing as much as he could see she was. He wrenched his gaze away.

"I suppose you want to get home, then," he said gruffly, before marching over to the window, with the petite girl trailing after him. She arrived at the window in time to hear him grumble "shit" and see that the snow had piled up against the window past her head.

"Looks like we're snowed in" said Gajeel, glancing at her, " I guess you will have to stay the night." At this point he really wished Lilly was around, and not off on his own mission. Levy blushed, and muttered "guess so." Before glancing down at her tattered clothing.

"I can lend ya some stuff to sleep in, that stuffs gotta be soaking wet" said Gajeel, before going into a room that she could only assume was the bedroom, before returning with some items of clothing.

"Bathrooms in there, you can change and do whatever. When you get out, I guess we can decide sleeping arrangements."

Levy changed, giggling at the fact that the long sleeved shirt was comically large, and the sweatpants pooled at her feet, whilst the waistband sagged, even when pulled to its tightest. As she exited the bathroom, Gajeel sat waiting on the couch.

" this couch is about as comfortable as a rock, so I'll take it shrimp. You can have the bed, okay?"

"No! That's a bad idea with your injuries," she claimed, going to sit by his side,"we can just share the bed. I don't take up much room." "That's not really what I was worried about" grumbled the dragon slayer, before giving into levys big doe eyes. He had noticed just how cute she really looked, almost swimming in his clothes, they were so large."fine," he grumbled," have it your way" before leading the way to the bedroom. The two of them passed out immediately, barely finding time to pull the covers up. She barely had time to register how warm Gajeel felt next to her, and he barely had time to understand quite how soft her hair was under his chin as the two curled closer to each other subconsciously, before passing out on that snowy night.