Betaed by WhatAreAllTheseTears

Here you are, standing there, loving me

Gajeel couldn't sleep. He turned on his side, stretching his body out. The window to his room was open and it was a moderately nice night. The moon illuminated Levy's sleeping face, she'd stolen both his pillows and his blankets (hog), but he couldn't bring himself to care. Her face looked ethereal; she was no longer flushed or sweating from sex.

He still couldn't believe they'd had sex. He couldn't believe that his long years (technically it wasn't really that long, only a few years or so, unless you counted the seven years on Tenrou) of pining had amounted to something. Had amounted to this.

Whether or not you should

He hadn't deserved her. He couldn't believe after everything he'd done that she'd even looked his way. Her wounds had long since closed, but every now and then, when the light caught her exposed abdomen right, you could see the faint scars. You couldn't see them now. The blanket was wrapped around her like a cocoon. But she wasn't a caterpillar, she was already a butterfly. A beautiful butterfly.

He remembered when he'd first walked into Fairy Tail; not as an enemy but as a friend. He remembered the malice showcased on the guild members' faces. He hadn't cared then, not for anyone's face but hers. Oh what he would have given to see her smile then. Now he felt blessed every time she smiled, and she smiled often.

It struck him a lot that she deserved someone better. She deserved someone (and it hurt him to say this) fun like Salamander, or someone she'd known forever like the Stripper, hell she deserved someone who she actually liked like her Pups. She deserved Lily. She didn't deserve him. Not Gajeel Redfox.

So somewhere in my youth or childhood

He wasn't good at this. At dating. At love. Hell, he wasn't even good at feelings. Metalicana never mentioned any of this to him growing up. Well, yes, Metalicana taught him about puberty and yes Metalicana had spoke to him about dating, love, and mating. But most of this he had ignored because he was still in his "Ew! Girls have cooties!" stage. That isn't to say that Gajeel didn't remember what Metalicana had talked about, he definitely remembered, your adoptive dragon father explaining 'The Dragons and The Fairies' to you isn't something you forget easily. But he never believed he would end up needing to know any of this. When he'd pined for Levy he'd thought he'd never get to use any of it. Now don't get him wrong, he'd had plenty of dreams on the subject (plenty), but the idea that he'd ever use any of it never crossed his mind. He still couldn't believe it.

But he had no prior experience in this and no model to follow. It wasn't exactly like he had ever even seen healthy romantic relationship model, his adoptive single father was a dragon. And even though Dragon Slayers do 'inherit' some of their parents' traits that didn't mean he knew how to… court a human. This was all new to him. And to be honest Gajeel was kind of terrified. He didn't know where they stood now, they'd just had sex and there hadn't been much communication about their relationship during that time (they'd been kind of occupied). But he figured that they would work it out when Levy woke up (he wasn't going to wake her, he liked watching her sleep, she looked godlike). Waking up a god had to be a sin.

I must have done something good