Gradually shifting into non-AU stuff. Experimenting is fun!

Earring

As soon as Levy finished etching FAST into her arm, she felt something brush against her skin. Rolling to the right, her magic gave her just enough speed to get out of the way. The sting of air from the scythe whipped past, sending cobalt strands of her hair flying as the ends were sheared off.

Her heart sped, but she couldn't take time to worry about how close that'd been. Thick leaves rained down as the weapon snagged the tree next to her. She didn't stop.

She jumped back as the bandit swung at her again, this time morphing his scythe into a massive hammer. The ground rumbled as she landed, almost pitching her over. A large crater appeared where she had stood moments before.

She flailed her arms in keeping her balance, pushing off the rough trunk of a tree, and then she was moving again. Even with her script, she was barely staying ahead of him, her breath coming in heaves. He was so quick.

The job wasn't anything special. She, Jet, and Droy had traveled a few days toward a small jungle town that needed relief from a bandit troupe sneaking into the village at night. What should've been easy work turned into a three day trek through the foliage tracking three very elusive mages.

They weren't a big power or anything, but they knew the jungle better than Shadow Gear. She was alone now, facing off against their leader while Jet and Droy chased after his cronies.

She swatted away some hanging vines and retreated into a small clearing with a dirt floor, judging it wide enough for what she needed to do.

As the bandit burst through the trees, she pivoted and shouted "FIRE!"

The word came easy. Natural. It was her fallback and barely took any energy at all. Immediately, searing letters formed the word and flew in a spiral toward the man.

He threw his arms up to protect his face, but that wasn't where she was aiming. Instead, the letters arced downward, catching the dusty green cloak trailing behind him. With a shout, he tried stomping the flame out before it caught the rest of him on fire. She just needed a tiny bit of time for this.

Her target thoroughly distracted, Levy crouched, dress nearly touching her feet, writing QUICKSAND. As soon as she touched it to the ground, she jumped back to the trees and watched her new spell go to work.

The tawny letters wobbled and rippled, moving to form a circle by the tops. The ring of letters melted into the earth in a gooey mush. In response, the rest of the ground followed, forming a thick, muddy pit.

The bandit managed to put the fire out, but he'd been side-tracked too long. His boots stuck fast to the ground, and slowly, the earth was pulling him down. The more he thrashed, the faster he sunk.

He whirled to glare at her, weapon poised in the air. With a burst of his magic, the hammer transformed into a spear, but she was ready for that. With a quick flick of her hand, aided by her magic, the word MAGNET appeared. With a glow, it hovered for a second and then attracted the man's weapon, snapping it across the word with a loud clank.

Levy heaved a sigh of relief and let her shoulders sag a little, the spell wearing off from her arm. One down. She was going to feel this in the morning.

That was when the adrenaline faded. Suddenly, her shoulder felt warm, even for the humid air of the jungle. Then she noticed the left side of her head was on fire.

For a second, she thought she might've seared it with her magic. She had a bad habit of not even thinking about FIRE, since she used it so often. Moving around so quickly, it wouldn't be implausible.

Then she touched her ear, and it erupted in pain.

Yanking her hand away, she hissed. Her fingers came away wet with blood. Now that she was still, there was no mistaking that metallic scent. Tentatively touching her head again, she started from her shoulder and worked up. There was a thin slice high on her neck, but that was manageable. His last swing almost got her. But then she reached her ear.

The bottom part of her ear was gone.

Eyes wide, she caught the glistening red on his weapon hovering in front of her, still attached to her word. Behind it, the bandit flailed, continuing to freak out while she just stood there.

Belatedly, she realized she should help him before he suffocated, but the shock was still going through her. Her fingers trembled.

Then, a thick vine laced out across the ground and coiled around the bandit like a snake. It yanked the man out of the pit, but he was still bound, completely helpless. Her magic words faded after he was free, solidifying back into solid earth. The MAGNET disappeared too, dropping the man's weapon to the ground at her feet.

"Levy!" she heard, and her body turned automatically toward her teammates as Jet and Droy ran up.

Jet reached her first, as usual, but Droy wasn't far behind. Their two bandits bumped along the trail behind him, unconscious and dragged along by one of Droy's plants. They were bound in the same way hers was.

Her ear pulsed as she tried not to wince. It wasn't until Jet shook her shoulder that she noticed she'd spaced out for a second.

"You're bleeding," he said.

Levy only nodded. She made sure to keep her left side partially turned away from him so he wouldn't panic.

That was the final straw. She couldn't break down now—she couldn't worry them.

"I'm fine," she told him, rolling her shoulders and starting to backtrack into the jungle. Danger over, she found she had lost her pack somewhere during the fight, too. "Help Droy get them moveable while I patch this up."

She waved off the look of concern first from Jet then Droy. She was a mage of Fairy Tail—she wasn't helpless and she didn't need to be coddled. They'd been through worse.

Even though it hurt, she kept her palm pressed against the wounds as best she could. It was already too late to save the dress, which was a shame since the blue one was creeping up on her favorites next to the orange one. The drips that rolled down her hand didn't look so bad now against the fabric, but it would stain even darker.

With a sort of morbid curiosity, she tried to find where she'd jumped out of the way of the scythe. She wasn't really expecting to find the rest of her ear—which was probably just as well, because seeing it would make it much worse.

Still, she spent several fruitless minutes looking before the ache became too much. Sighing, she sat down against a tree and summoned WATER. After the wounds were clean, she tried to gauge how big the cut on her neck was.

But then something dribbled onto her hand. The ear wound was bleeding again.

Levy bit her lip. She knew a lot of head injuries bled a lot even if they were shallow or not dangerous. But they were also three days away from the nearest town, and she didn't have any antibiotic on hand. Infection was the real danger here—they traipsed through muck and grime, and they'd be even slower dragging three extra people with them. And it would be a lot longer before Wendy or Porlyusica could look at it.

The twisting trees, vines, and thickets were fun to look at, but they didn't make for easy nor quick travel. The wound was minor now, but if she let it get out of hand, it would cause worse problems later.

She was going to have to cauterize it. The churning bile in her stomach was not comforting. Cauterizing was used for amputations too, and with a vein of dark humor, she realized this was sort of like that.

Scolding herself for wanting to just curl up into a ball, she summoned WATER again and cleared the wound. Around her, the heady flower perfume clogged the air. Instead of being soothing, she wanted to choke.

Her fingers were shaking when she formed the word HOT, but she was forced to work quickly. Touching the warm letters to her ear, she whimpered but kept quiet enough so Jet and Droy wouldn't come running.

She held the letters up to her ear for as long as she could stand it, but then the heat became too great. With a hiss, she dropped the word to the ground, where it fizzled out and disappeared. Minor scorch marks marred her fingers, but she could barely feel it compared to the ear.

The wound on her fingers would go away. The ear would not.

At least now there was a lesser chance for contracting an infection. She touched the edge of her now-sealed ear carefully, acknowledging that while it probably wasn't pretty to look at, it was taken care of. Brushing too hard against the roughened skin, she winced. Carefully, she slid her headband down and tied it to cover both her injured ear and the mark on her neck.

Against the tree, her shoulders shook slightly, but she would live. She spent the next few minutes reasoning with herself that it wasn't so bad.

.

.

Gajeel was not looking for her. That didn't mean he didn't catch her scent as he was heading down the street—or that something was wrong with it.

Normally, she was like old parchment and the way the wind whipped through the trees when he was first learning how to use his nose. But now there was a... staleness to it. Clogged the hell out of his nose with how wrong it was.

Not that he needed his nose to tell him something was off. She hadn't been to the guild in three days.

Her accessories had been back, so he knew they returned from their last mission more or less in one piece—which was surprising in itself given their track record. They claimed Shorty was fine, just resting at home, and that Wendy had checked her out.

Except Gajeel was pretty sure they were full of shit. It didn't even take superior senses to tell. If she really was fine, they wouldn't be sulking like lame, dejected puppies. The entire guild had been off its rocker, too—it wasn't normal to go so long without the shrimp reading at a table or cheerily greeting people.

And he did not miss it. He was just curious.

The kid had... hovered, near his table. And while they were all dragonslayer kin and yadda yadda, she didn't usually do that. Lily had asked her what was wrong, and she denied anything. But she didn't go away either. She sat there twisting her fingers and causing that uptight white cat to get impatient.

Since the only thing the brat had really done in the last few days was visit Levy, it was obvious something was up.

When he came around the street corner, she was draped in a dark cloak with the hood flipped over her head. Gajeel'd never seen that before, especially not with the short as shit dresses she liked to wear. But the scent was too telling for it to be anyone else.

She was staring into a shop window—jewelry it looked like. As far as he knew, she wasn't really into a lot of that girly shit either. He could never smell it on her at least.

"Oi, Shorty," he called, but she didn't notice.

He frowned, pulling at the piercings in his chin. The blank look was sorta creepy.

He wasn't quiet as he stomped over, looming in the window behind her. At first, she tensed, and a flash of fear washed over his senses—reacting out of instinct, most likely. Didn't mean it didn't drag up a bunch of shitty memories involving dark alleys and park trees.

But as soon as it happened, it was gone. When she realized it was just him, her entire body relaxed and she breathed a heavy sigh. It sounded a lot like relief. That was almost funny.

Fuck his life was weird. This was not where he imagined he'd be.

"Hi, Gajeel," she said.

Her eyes darted up to his face in the shop reflection, but they didn't stay there long. She was focused on the display of earrings in the window. There were so many that he could smell the metal from here. Did Shorty even have any piercings?

...That wasn't even something he should think about right now.

Instead, he scoffed and crossed his arms. "Tch. Yer lapdogs were acting like you were in a body cast or somethin'," he said, sneakily checking for injuries out of the corner of his eye.

She laughed, but it was brief and there wasn't any energy behind it. She didn't even correct his slang for her teammates. He couldn't really see her face other than in the reflection, so it was hard to tell what she was really feeling. It just wasn't right. "No, I'm fine."

If her hand hadn't twitched at her side, he wouldn't have seen the burns on the fingers.

He bumped her arm, not exactly gently. When she didn't protest like she normally would've, he got nosy. "What's that?" he demanded, jerking his chin toward her arm.

Shorty brought her hand up to her chest and curled it protectively, but none of her emotions spiked. She held her hand out, showing off the minor burns on the pads of her fingers—like she'd held onto something hot too long.

"It's nothing," she said. "A mission scratch."

It wasn't the hand that was bothering her, but something else. She tried to turn and give a reassuring smile, but she was gonna have to do better than that to fool him. The motion made her hood fall down—her hair was a mess and sticking out everywhere. That wasn't normal either. Where was that orange headband?

Apparently, around her neck. And ear.

He rose a studded brow. "And that?"

She tried to brush that one off too, but he caught the wince—the way she seemed to hunch and curl in on herself. Anger started to bubble up in his gut. He'd seen that look on her before, and he sure as shit didn't want to see it ever again.

He leveled a look at her—if all of this was nothing, she wouldn't have been missing for the last three days.

Shorty didn't seem to have any words for him, so she mutely stared at her reflection. Her fingers brushed the oddly-placed headband, but he didn't really think she was seeing it—she was somewhere else. Probably back on the mission that gave it to her.

For whatever stupid reason, he wanted to see it. Wanted to know what made her react so badly.

He nudged her fingers out of the way so he could touch the bright orange band himself, asking the silent question. It was invading her personal space a little, which he hated in general, but she just nodded. "Go ahead," she said.

As he undid the knot at the back of her neck, she started babbling about how she wasn't careful enough and if only she'd been stronger. He ignored most of it because it was bullshit.

But then he saw that a chunk of her ear was gone.

His first reaction was to go very, very still. That rage was still churning inside, like a dragon trumpeting his fury that the nest was in danger. The urge to act was overwhelming, and he hoped the bastard was dead. For his sake.

She winced. "Is it that bad?"

He'd seen worse—at his own hands, even—but that wasn't going to make her feel better. It looked like something sharp had lobbed the bottom, meaty part of her ear right off. At least, that's probably what happened. Now, the end was slightly charred with thick, black scabs where the heat had warped the skin. Tender red spaces where it hadn't been burned too much showed through, too. That explained the burns on her hands—she'd cauterized it. All in all, it wasn't a bad patch-up while on the fly.

They had survived so much impossible shit that it was easy to forget they weren't invincible. It only took one mistake, one lucky shot like this, and it would be over. His fists clenched at his side. It could've been Levy this time.

"You get him?" She nodded. "Good," he said, maybe with too much satisfaction.

Her headband twisted in his hand. "Gonna cover it up with an earring?" he asked, nodding toward the window.

She looked down at her feet for a second, fisting her hands in her cloak. "I have to do something." She sighed. "I know it's stupid and that it doesn't matter. I know that. It's just—"

Suddenly, she grabbed his right arm. "Erza, Lily, you..." she trailed off.

Then, Gajeel shivered, because fuck, she was running her fingers over the scars on his arm. She didn't even notice, just stared while her head was somewhere else. But when she brushed one of his piercings, it was like a jolt of lightning flashed across his skin.

"Those scars have a story. They're glorious. Earned," she continued. "They're proof you're alive. But they weren't from a nobody. Not like..."

He heard the bitterness as she dropped his arm, absently touching her ear. Her face twitched when she did, and it was hard to tell what type of hurt she was taking harder. Strength was always one of Shorty's issues, probably ever since that night at South Gate. She'd grown a lot since then, but it was still a sore spot just as it'd been at the exams.

Didn't mean he had to like it.

"It don't matter."

She brought her head up to look at him, but her brow was wrinkled. He shrugged. "Just as much alive now as if it'd been a dragon that got ya."

Gajeel tilted her chin to the side with careful fingers—maybe that sort of contact was toting the line, but shit, he was already touching her anyway. He made a thoughtful sound, now noticing the angry red line high on her neck. "Any slower and he'd had yer head."

For whatever stupid reason, that made her smile. This time, it was real. And fuck, that shouldn't be so satisfying.

She was still pale, though. And those rings under her eyes weren't going away standing here. He ruffled her already-messy hair and left her headband draped across her head.

"C'mon," he said, nodding his head down the street.

She didn't argue as he took her home.

.

.

The next morning, there were a pair of earrings on Levy's windowsill.

The window was still open from the night before, letting in the late-morning air. She blamed her restless sleep for nearly tearing up at the sight of the jewelry. It didn't take a scholar to know who they were from. Or that they were handmade.

And it wasn't just that Gajeel had done something nice—he was removing the choice she'd wedged herself between. She could go back to the guild and not have to deal with a fuss.

Because that's what she didn't want—to make a big deal out of it. Sure, it was weird for her, but it wasn't a big handicap. Her ear still worked. Erza had lost an eye before—a piece of her ear was nothing compared to that. And certain people would make it more dramatic than it was.

She was grateful there were two earrings, so her sudden showing up with new jewelry wouldn't draw too much attention to the injury. They were lighter than she thought, too, being made of metal—thin but durable, shaped in a curving rectangle that would cover the entire bottom of her ear. The weight wouldn't pull her ear down, and the hinge style meant she wouldn't have to pierce her ears to wear them.

The thought of anything sharp coming near her head again made her go still. The ear throbbed, reminding her it was there. Her heartbeat sped up slightly, too, but she forced her breathing to stay even. It was strange that it bothered her so much.

Maybe in the future it wouldn't, when the idea of pierced ears wasn't so painful. Maybe she could even get Gajeel to help. With all those piercings, he had to be an expert, right?

When she held the blue-gray earrings up to the light, she noticed they both had different designs. She let out an awed noise as she admired the craftsmanship. The details were so small!

One of them had a dragon curled up on a pile of books. She couldn't help the smile that came to her face as she shook her head. The features were engraved. The other sported a similar style, except the dragon was awake and roaring.

She sighed as she carefully curled the earrings in her palm, rubbing her fingers over the etchings. She wanted to go to the guild, wanted to see her friends, wanted to feel normal. A small injury like this shouldn't have shaken her so badly. Jet and Droy had been trying for days to get her to the guild, but she just couldn't.

Leaving Fairy Hills meant having to deal with the wound immediately so she didn't worry her friends. It was harder to let go than she thought.

Yesterday's jaunt into town was born out of desperation. Equal parts restless and scared. Being affected by something so small wasn't like her, and she hated it.

In the mirror, she took in her short stature and wild bed-head. At home, she didn't bother with a bandage—Wendy said some fresh air would be good for it. There was nothing else the sky dragonslayer could've done that Levy hadn't already, so for all intents and purposes, she was cured.

If only it was that easy.

She had been lucky she hadn't ran into anyone else yesterday. If even Gajeel noticed something was off almost immediately, she couldn't imagine what someone more chatty, like Lucy, would've done.

Was Gajeel right? Did it not matter how she got the scar so long as she survived to learn from it?

"I hope you're right," she told her reflection.

.

.

When Levy came to the guild that afternoon, she was wearing the earrings.

Gajeel hid his smirk of satisfaction from Lily behind his stein, but it was only a precaution. Like everyone else, Lily was honed in on the shrimp.

He tracked her with his eyes too as he drained the last of his drink. Bunny Girl and a few others had swarmed, and he picked up their questions even from across the room. A lot of them made sure she was okay, but seeing how Shorty was beaming and generally acting as normal, just as bright as that stupid short dress, the questions steered toward her new decorations.

Surprisingly, she kept that he made them to herself. He was sure she knew, since the bookworm was smart—and other people were going to be able to tell eventually, too. Metalwork wasn't exactly a common talent.

The kid sported a fanged grin when she took a close look at the earrings. His scent was likely all over them. The littlest dragonslayer sent him a radiant smile, and he nodded at her. He figured that's what she'd been trying to tell him yesterday—though why him of all people was something he'd think about later.

For a minute, he had a horrible vision of the kid doing something crazy like shouting her thanks or giving him a hug or some shit—but thankfully, she didn't.

So he made a couple of earrings so Shrimp would stop moping around. It wasn't that big of a deal.

A flash of white and a scent of other whipped by his table as the she-demon set another drink down in front of him, collecting the empty one. He narrowed his eyes at her bubbly smile. Damn gossip-mongers were everywhere.

But she didn't bring up what was going on at all. Instead, she nodded her head toward a table and flittered off as someone called her.

Gajeel followed her gesture. At a table close to the front, Shorty's lackeys were watching him. The carrot top didn't look exactly happy, but it wasn't the sort of glares he was getting before Tenrou either. The bigger one just seemed neutral. Both of them glanced over at Levy—while she was being harassed by a slurring Cana—and nodded at him.

He lifted his mug up to them and took a long pull. When he was done, Lily stood and gave him a look. Gajeel scowled preemptively.

"Is that what you were doing all night?"

The damn cat was too observant. Of course, that was because his cat was the best. But even if it was expected, it was annoying.

"Don't know what you're talkin' about," he grumped, taking another drink.

Lily stroked his chin and Gajeel tried not to tense. "She seems awfully happy," he remarked, grinning at the dragonslayer. "Getting soft, are we?"

"Shaddup, cat." Gajeel swiped at him, but Lily already had his wings spread and was flying off.

Before he could give chase, Shorty was at the edge of his table, holding a book to her chest. That staleness around her was gone. Even that orange eyesore was in its proper place on her head.

He couldn't help it—he grinned at her. "Nice jewelry."

He tried not to be fiercely satisfied at the blush that exploded onto her face—granted, not very hard. Her reactions were much more alive today. She puffed her cheeks up like a fish and huffed. "No teasing!"

Then, she slid into the booth—next to him, instead of across. She was so close that she brushed up against his right arm, giving him a good look at the injured ear and which earring she put on it.

It was the roaring one. He grinned. She wasn't gonna let it break her.

Shorty opened her book and started reading, but he didn't miss her whispered "thanks," so quiet that even Salamander wouldn't be able to hear had he been paying attention and not trying to slam the stripper's face into a table.

As she kept reading, he took another drink—and all was right in the world.

Thank you for reading! Any feedback on how to improve is appreciated! Still getting the hang of this fandom.