Prompt: No Panties
Word count: 1220
“Dammit, how did the council figure that job would go anywhere but downhill?” Gajeel growled as we stepped through the door of his captain’s quarters.
“I’m not quite sure what went wrong tonight…” I muttered mostly so myself, replaying the battles events over in my mind for the umpteenth time as I carefully removed my coat and placing it on the table.
“I’ll tell you what went wrong,” he huffed, removing his own heavy, now blood-stained council coat and throwing it angrily onto a chair. “There were a shitload more of those guys than we were prepared for! We barely made it out of there in one piece!”
“I did all the calculations. I guess I hadn’t accounted for the possibility that there might have been more than the reported number.” I scrubbed at my face, too ashamed to look at the injured, infuriated man behind me. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like that…” I breathed, running my hands through my now-knotted blue hair and squeezing my eyes shut. “You weren’t supposed to get hurt! It was supposed to be an easy victory, in and out, routine!”
“Levy, it’s not your-”
“It is though!” I whirled around to face him. “I was the one who messed it all up in the first place. I’m the reason you went in the first place! I’m the reason you-” I choked on my words, taking two slow steps closer to close the gap between us. Not meeting his eyes, I lifted my left hand to brush my fingers lightly over his bicep, careful not to get too close to the large gash there. “I’m the reason you got hurt, Gajeel.”
“Levy, quit talkin’ like that. None of this was your fault, you hear me? None of it,” he placed his hand beneath my chin to tilt my head up, where I found his gaze already resting on my face. “It’s not like I’ve never gotten hurt before right?” He smiled slightly.
I clenched my jaw, trying to hold my tongue as several replies came to mind, but knowing him he would just reject anything else I’d have to say on the matter. So I simply nodded and reached past him to pull out a chair.
“Let me at least help clean your injuries,” I finally spoke.
“Levy, I’m not worried about those. I just want to sleep,” he protested immediately.
Rolling my eyes, I quickly traced a few letters in the air before flicking them to his chest. There, a little “push” stuck, throwing him off balance enough to send him back into the chair. “Stay there, got it? Some of those look pretty nasty.” I raised an eyebrow, daring him to challenge me. With a defeated sigh from him, I turned on my heel to go retrieve the bandages and a wet cloth.
Upon returning, I found a shirtless Gajeel leaning back in the chair, fingers interlaced and resting on his lower stomach. He had his eyes closed, head back against the wall, and the sight made me freeze for a moment. He opened one eye, peering at me curiously with his pierced eyebrow raised.
Clearing my throat, I made my way across the room to his side, placing the bandages on the table to my right. Upon taking a closer look at the wound on his arm, I realized it was fairly deep, so I ran to retrieve an antiseptic and a healing salve before returning to the injured dragonslayer.
“This’ll probably hurt,” I muttered as I poured some of the antiseptic onto the cloth and beginning the process. As I carefully dabbed blood away, I felt his arm tighten beneath my fingers, his jaw clenching in obvious pain. It almost brought a small smile to my face, seeing how hard he was trying to hide his discomfort. I probably would have laughed a bit if I didn’t feel so guilty.
“God dammit that hurts,” he hissed as I began wiping gently at the wound itself.
“Just hold still, I’m almost done,” I assured him softly. My throat tightened as he fisted his hands in the fabric of his pants.
Once the cut was properly cleaned, I applied the salve and gestured for him to raise his arm a bit so I could bandage it. He watched me closely as I moved my hands back and forth, wrapping the dressings with practiced ease. As I finished, he turned his head away just as I looked to meet his eyes, and I quickly turned to pick up the other cloth I’d brought.
Stepping in front of him, I tilted his face up, moving to clean the cuts there. He moved his feet apart then, placing his hands on my waist and tugging me into the space between his legs. Closing his eyes once again, he placed his head back against the wall as his fingers traced shapes on my hips. Feeling my cheeks warm, I took a deep breath to try to calm my heartbeat before he heard it’s manic pace.
Running the washcloth over his forehead, I wiped away a patch of blood that came from a small cut along his hairline. I suddenly realized something then.
“Hey, why didn’t you wear the headband I gave you?” I asked quietly, breaking the silence between us.
He shrugged, staying silent for a moment. “Guess I just forgot,” he admitted, letting his hands slide a bit further down my hips.
“I thought you said it was good luck. Maybe if you’d worn it, we would’ve won,” I challenged mostly jokingly.
His eyes opened, revealing those intense red irises that I’d grown to love. “Is that so?”
“I’m just saying, maybe if you’d worn it…” I smirked slightly.
“Well, I’ve got more than one good luck charm, y'know,” he whispered, his fingers ghosting over the skin of my upper thighs, sending a shudder up my spine.
“Do you now?” I brushed a piece of hair back from his face, letting my fingers trail along the sharp contours of his cheek. I trailed them down over his jaw, before walking them up his chin, making sure to land a finger on both of the studs in his skin. Just before my index finger could land on his lower lip, however, he swiftly caught the tip of it gently between his teeth, giving it a playful squeeze before I smiled, rolling my eyes and pulling it away.
“C'mere,” he mumbled, tugging me closer by the backs of my legs. He moved forward more to sit at the edge of the chair and sat up straighter as I took a small step closer, his legs warm against mine.
“Gajeel…” I whispered as he leaned forward and kissed the hollow at the base of my throat. I buried my hands in his dark hair and placed my cheek against the top of his head as his lips gradually made their way up my neck.
I was vaguely aware of his hands as they slowly inched up my thighs. His mouth had my mind a bit frazzled at the moment. So the next thing I knew, his fingers were playing with the waistline of my panties, his lips just beneath my ear, making it impossible to miss his next, growled words.
“You won’t be needing these tonight…”