She couldn't help but sigh heavily as she closed her book, her hazel eyes full of annoyance. She glared over her shoulder at the sudden explosive amount of commotion. "This is ridiculous," she huffed. "This is the third brawl today."

"Give them a few minutes," the man beside her mused. "Master will come in as soon as Mirajane's smacked around."

"Right about...now," her other teammate said with a grin as Mirajane squealed in pain, clutching her shoulder and darting to hide behind Laxus, who looked over his shoulder at her with an arched brow, but let her hide. A second later, Makarov was there, shouting and prying Natsu and Gray apart. She watched as her best friend wailed apologies to him, dragging Natsu away by the scarf, and then Juvia was there, doing the same for Gray as Erza scolded them both.

Sighing in relief as the commotion died down, Levy McGarden opened her book again, setting her quill to her parchment and flicking her glasses back down to read quicker. She was working on a translation that the Council had requested she do, and she wanted to get it done - soon. The ancient text was fascinating and she'd even had Lucy help her.

"Hey, Levy," Jet said after a good ten minutes of this. Levy barely looked up, scrawling a word out. "Droy and I are gonna head out and get a job done. Do you wanna come?"

"No, thanks," she said, not looking up. She scribbled down a few more notes. "I'm going to get this done. Thanks though, guys. Sorry. Maybe next time."

Jet patted her shoulder affectionately and then he and Droy left. Levy smiled to herself, chewing on a nail as she read through the ancient tablet beside her, one of several. Her sharp gaze skimmed the words on it, reading the language with ease, and then looked up when a heavy hand dropped onto her head, ruffling her hair in a way that she recognized immediately.

"Gajeel!" she huffed impatiently. She glared up at him when he pulled back with his signature "Gihi!" His crimson eyes glowed with amusement, a grin that showed off sharp canines on his face. His gaze lowered to look at her work as he rested an elbow on her head and leaned over her.

"What the fuck is this?" he demanded.

She lit up. "I'm glad you asked!" She made him sit on the bench beside her. "This is a language that was spoken by people countless centuries ago. It's like a really twisted version of our own language." She affectionately ran a finger over the carved words. "The tablet's basically a story at this point, a love story, I think. I haven't confirmed that. I'm working on the tenth out of a good dozen or so. Whoever wrote it has been ranting about some kind of destructive force getting in the way of he and his new wife's love."

Gajeel looked at the tablet, studying the words curiously. "Huh. You fluent in this language, too?"

"Mhm!" Levy quickly scribbled a word down and gave him a bright smile that made him snort. "Do you want to learn it? I could teach you. Natsu and Wendy are never interested in learning a second language-"

He bared his teeth and immediately fired off some sort of combination of sounds that was both powerful and impressive. When she stared at him cluelessly, he grunted and clarified, "Dragons have their own language. I dunno about Igneel or Grandeeney, but Metalicana made damn sure I was fluent in it in reading, writing, and speaking."

Levy's lips parted in shock. She stared at him for a few moments, and then her eyes were sparkling and Gajeel grimaced, fully recognizing the look of someone who was ready to learn. "Teach me," she pleaded, grabbing his arm. Her fingers tightened, her voice rising to a pleading tone when he shook his head. "Please, Gajeel? I want to learn! I bet there's a ton of texts I can't even think about looking about-"

"Yeah," he grunted. "Probably." After a long hesitation, he finally let out a huge breath. "Fine. I'll teach ya, but ya gotta be good and listen, okay? No interruptions during lessons. We'll go an hour a day with it. I gotta job to do, but you can come if ya really want to."

Levy squealed in excitement. "Lucy's going to be so impressed! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She squeezed his arm one more time and then began to pick up her things. "Can we start now?"

"Shorty," he grumbled, "I gotta catch my train. And if you're comin' with, you need to go pack-"

"Just one phrase," she pleaded. "Give me one phrase to repeat so I can practice the sounds and syllables and how the words work."

"It's gonna be tough," he reminded her. "Your throat and mouth ain't used to makin' dragon sounds." Nevertheless, after mulling over the idea for a few moments, he looked her dead in the eye and grinned before rumbling out a phrase. It was short and simple, but the way his tone softened, how he put emotion into the different sounds, told Levy it was a special one.

"What'd you say?" she asked, tilting her head.

He suddenly clammed up. "Just repeat it back, Shrimp."

She tried, and he carefully helped her sound out each sound until she could somewhat figure out what he was saying. It was while they were practicing the various sounds that Natsu wandered past with Wendy - and stopped dead in his tracks. The fire mage squinted for a long moment at Gajeel.

"...you teaching her our language?" he huffed. Wendy lit up, looking excited by the idea as she gave a few trills and sounds that were similar to Gajeel's wording, but different, too.

Levy looked to him expectantly. He sighed. "Dialects, shrimp. She can't produce the same vocals Salamander and I can, so she learned to substitute a few. S'easy to figure out once you know how the rest of us speak it. I think Sting's pretty close to how she talks. Ryos is like us."

"Got it." Levy looked to Natsu. "He's teaching me the language of the dragons, yes," she said proudly. "Are you good at speaking it, too?"

"Yeah. Igneel hardwired it into my head. S'why I couldn't read and write normal." Natsu frowned. "I was just...Gajeel, if you're gonna teach her, why'd you start her off with saying 'I'm-'"

Between one moment and the next, Natsu was on the ground and Gajeel knelt over him, hands over his mouth. "One word," he breathed, growling. "And I'll send that head of yours to Igneel in a goddamn box, you hear me?"

"Aye, sir!" Natsu rasped, shocked.

"Gajeel," Levy protested.

Gajeel released him and Natsu hopped to his feet, giving Gajeel an accusing look. He rumbled something in the language of the dragons, and then scurried away. Levy tilted her head when Wendy suddenly blushed and threw her a smile before sliding away as well.

"What'd he say?" she asked, looking expectantly at the suddenly flustered Gajeel.

"Nothing!" Gajeel retorted, glaring at her until she shrugged her shoulders and shoved everything she'd been working on away. "Lily's comin' too, of course," he added. "Meet us at the train station in an hour, got it?"

She waved him. "Yes, yes. I'll be there. Thank you, Gajeel," she said with a warm smile. He rolled his eyes and gruffly told her to get a move on before stalking off - in search of Natsu, Levy realized, who was suddenly suspiciously close to Lucy, his mouth near her ear as he whispered something to her. Lucy looked shocked, and then delighted as she turned to him - only for him to be gone.

Gajeel had grabbed him by the scarf and had proceeded to haul him off. Wendy trotted after them with a protest, her dark eyes wide.

Levy's lips twitched. Choosing not to question her new teacher, she said nothing and left the guildhall, her bag heavy on her shoulder.

The clock struck noon and the train left. Levy arched a brow, standing there in the station with a book in hand as she paused to check that clock. She rolled her eyes, shifted her weight, and then thought better of it and went to sit on a bench. She'd been waiting for nearly half an hour on Gajeel.

And they'd missed the train they were supposed to be on.

She flipped the page and marked her place. "If he's not going to show up for a job he suggested I go on, then I might as well-"

"Stop talkin' to yourself, shorty, it makes you look crazy."

Levy glared as Gajeel strode over, bag shouldered and Lily beside him. The Exceed had no problem with jumping into her open arms when she offered it. He purred softly as she hugged him and then explained, "Sorry, Levy. Gajeel couldn't find his iron stash. We think someone sneaked their way in and moved it."

Levy rolled her eyes to the sky. "Oh, my - Gajeel, you could have just told me that. I can make you as much iron as you want, you know this."

"S'a waste of magic," he said simply, crimson eyes studying the schedule beside Levy's head. "We got another two hours before the next train now."

Levy jumped on that idea despite having told herself she was going to ignore him until that train arrived to express her annoyance. "Teach me more!" she said eagerly, tightening her grip on Lily, who squawked. She apologized. Releasing him, she turned wide hazel eyes on Gajeel, who dropped to sit beside her on the bench, eyeing her suspiciously. "Of the dragon language-"

"First off, s'called Draconic," he told her in a rumbling voice. "Second, we could go back to the guildhall and get something to eat instead." But she gazed at him, hands clasped, face pleading, and it took mere moments for him to give in. "Fine. Whatever. Did ya figure out the sounds?"

She nodded hastily. With care, she sounded out each one to him. He listened intently, correcting her on one or two that she got wrong. "Good," he grunted when she was done. "For the most part, that's the majority of it. Our language consists of a few others, but they're only used in certain words, generally terms that the dragons use for their mate, or in our case, our respective other. I don't feel like teachin' ya those. You can go to Wendy for 'em."

"Okay," she accepted, not wanting to push him and lose her chance to learn. Lily made a sound of amusement that neither paid any attention to. "Each of those sounds...are they like certain letters put together?"

He nodded, thinking hard. "Sorta." He made a deep guttural sound that Levy admittedly couldn't really make. "That one makes a '-th' sound. Repeat it." Levy did as he said, and he snickered. "Takes years in order to make the sounds properly. I still have problems. Pops is gonna kick my ass when I find him."

Levy's lips twitched at his words, but only said, "Got it."

He patted her head. "Keep practicin' the sounds until I say otherwise. Got it? And you're gonna keep sayin' 'em until the train gets here. You gotta about an hour and a half."

She nodded, looking delighted with the challenge, and went to work.

The train arrived an hour and a half later, much to Levy's disappointment. She'd worked on the Draconian language, just as she'd been ordered to. With reluctance, Gajeel had told her that she was doing ridiculously well at learning how to pronounce the sounds.

When they settled onto the train, however, Gajeel decided they were done for the time being, and she giggled with Lily as Gajeel slid into the seat across from her, already looking sick. His face was surprisingly pale, his crimson eyes closing.

"I'd help you if I could, but I don't think my magic works like that," Levy apologized. She took Lily into her lap. Lily didn't seem to mind, instead making himself comfortable.

"Whatever," Gajeel mumbled, resting his head back.

Levy smiled.

This is a very, very twisted gift for Bubbles, who has not been allowed to so much as read a single chapter. This will update every other day.

I've been waiting to post this for so long. You guys have no idea. This is a darker fic as you can see. It's going to go side-by-side with TGOL. Not a companion fic, but in that manner. So if you can't handle darker things, don't read.

As bad as it is...hope you enjoy. ;)