Written by @Crystalmy188

¤Day 6

~Third Person~

Levy sighs and stretches her muscles as dawn broke out. Well, Levy couldn't actually tell that it was morning since there were no windows to indicate that the sun had just peaked into the horizon or that the sky was a bright shade of blue. Nonetheless, Levy's body knew that it was morning. Her stomach started to growl while her mind screamed at her to ignore the pain coming from her stomach. Levy let out a tiny whimper, remembering that she had decided to skip all three meals yesterday. It had been hard convincing her friends that she had eaten early, but since she hadn't been forced to eat or told that her stomach would eat her from the inside out, she decided that she had successfully fooled her. "Oww..." Levy cringed, holding her stomach. This is what I get for actually eating; my greedy stomach is forcing me to get more food so that it can grow fat,' Levy bitterly thought in her head. 'Well not today stomach. Trying to ignore the pain, Levy sat up on her bed. That was when a familiar white-headed nurse opened the door and walked in.

"Good morning Levy!" Nurse Mira smiled warmly. "I've brought your pills for you!"

Not again! Levy whined in her head. Yesterday and the day before, she had been forced to eat her pills instead of flushing them like she used to. It had fooled her that food wouldn't make her bloated, but later, near the end of the day, reality came back. Yesterday, she had managed to fool that purple-haired nurse, but Nurse Mira would be a different story. "Morning," Levy forced a smile. She personally liked her, but she did not want to be fooled again.

"You know, yesterday I received a tip saying that you had faked taking your pills and skipped your meals," Mira's smile turned a little dark. Levy's eyes widened. Who ratted her out? No, more importantly, how did he/she found out?!

"R-really?" Levy feigned a gasp, deciding to play dumb. Mira forced a laugh and held out the pills in front of the bluenette.

"How 'bout we skip the act okay?" Mira said sweetly. Levy sighed and nodded. It was not like she had much of a choice anymore. She took the pills from her hand and, pausing once to see if the nurse was still looking, let the two white pills travel down her throat. She slightly cringed as felt them hit her empty stomach. Nurse Mira smiled and took back the cup.

"Thank you for cooperation today Ms. McGarden," she gave her another smile and nod before leaving her room. Once Levy heard her door fully close with a tiny click, she sighed and racked her brain for suspects.

Who could have told on me? she asked herself. Definitely not Lucy, since the..incident had happened yesterday and she had spent the rest of the day with Natsu. Erza and Gray could have done it and they did ask her why she didn't take anything for dinner when they were sitting together, but she was absolutely sure she had fooled them when she said she had eaten earlier. Then...who could it have been...?

¤Magic¤

In another room for 13-18 year-olds was a raven-haired boy. He groaned in annoyance as he was woken up by a knock to his door. "GO AWAY," he said loudly before burying his face into his tough pillow.

"OPEN UP BEFORE I HAVE TO KICK IT OPEN," a feminine but equally loud voice said behind the door.

"LIKE HELL I'M DOING THAT," Gajeel spat back and tried putting his pillow over his ears instead. Yet, he still heard a sigh right before he heard the loud sound of his door being forcefully opened.

"Would you please just get off your lazy ass and eat your pills?" Nurse Evergreen asked irritably, her eyebrow twitching in annoyance.

"No," Gajeel answered bluntly. "Now go away." Ever sighed and pondered her life choices while she flipped Gajeel off his bed. He yelped and fell to the floor with a loud thud. Gajeel slowly pushed himself up from the floor, dumbfounded for a few seconds before he yelled, "OW!?"

"You wouldn't get up," the brunette nurse pushed up her glasses before holding out a cup of pills. "Now hurry up and eat these."

'Rude much?' a voice in Gajeel's head snorted.

'I bet you she would beg for her life if we took her,' another said arrogantly.

'We should do it!' one cheered. Gajeel smirked. That is what he wanted to hear. Why would he want these voices to disappear?

'Because if you lost us, then you'll have to make decisions for yourself without any help,' the feminine voice answered. Gajeel's smirk faded and a scowl replaced it. 'I'm right aren't I? Without us, you would see how lonely and pathetic you are, but don't you think it's time to be a bit more independent?'

"Shut up," Gajeel growled under his breath, but the nurse that was still waiting for her patient to take the pills heard him.

"What did you say?" Nurse Evergreen's raised her eyebrow, a tick mark forming on the side of her head.

"Tch, nothing," Gajeel 'tsk'ed and grabbed the pills from the nurse's hand. I'll show you, Gajeel growled in his head and popped the pills into his mouth.

'Ohh!! He's going against her!' one laughed hysterically.

'I wanna see how this plays out!' another one said, intrigued.

Finally got the balls huh? Let's see..how this..plays out... Gajeel smirked in triumph as the voices left his head.

"You okay Mr. Redfox?" Evergreen asked impatiently. She felt like she was missing something as the raven-head in front of her smirked for no apparent reason.

"Yeah, I am," Gajeel replied, his smirk not leaving his face as he put his hands into his pockets and started walking out of his room, but not before glancing behind him at the nurse. "I'm gonna go get something to eat. Don't ya dare touch anything in my room you hear me?" he warned him before walking out into the hallway and towards the cafeteria. The dumbfounded green-eyed nurse stood there for one second before gaining her senses and sighing.

"I really should have just finished medical school.." she sighed, taking off her glasses and pinching the bridge of her nose.

¤Timeskip to Dinner¤

"Woo! They have spicy chicken wings today!" Natsu cheered, licking his lips at the sight of the pile of chicken wings on his plastic tray.

Levy eyebrows twitched with annoyance as she walked with her friends towards one of the cafeteria tables. Today Lucy and Natsu was joining them, so now Gray, Juvia, and (timidly) Erza was chatting to their hearts content. Gajeel was silently walking with them, a blank expression on his metal-ridden face. Of course, Levy didn't mind any of this. What made her so annoyed was the fact that she was forced to manually get food and put it on her plate. It felt weird, even though she had done it two times already. As expected, she didn't feel anything wrong with getting food during breakfast or lunch, but now was another story. She could practically feel her stomach greedily awaiting food so that it could get bigger, and fatter, and more bloated. A chill went down her spine at the thought, but she hoped no one noticed.

"Natsu, you're going to get a stomachache if you finish that," Lucy laughed.

"Nuh-uh!" Natsu huffed. "I've eaten way more than this!" Levy's face cringed in disgust. How could one person finish so much fat and not feel anxious about how bloated he's going to be afterwards!? At the very edge of the group, Gajeel eyed the disgusted Levy with an amused look.

What did this pipsqueak have again? he asked himself. He reached the back of his mind and tried to remember. I know it had something to do with not wanting to eat, but what was the specific name..ugh, when did remembering become so hard?! He let out a sigh. Maybe I am relying too much on the 'voices'... Since he didn't know what it was, he walked to the other side of the group, where Levy was as everyone else sat in their respective places. Levy squeaked as his tray loudly clattered as he lazily tossed it right next to hers. She then felt even more belittled as he practically towered over her.

It's nothing, it's nothing, she told herself. 'He's trying to intimidate you, like last time. Yeah, don't let him call you pipsqueak or dewb! Just ignore him! You don't know if his apology was sincere!'

So that's what she was going to do, but she got caught off guard when Gajeel bluntly asked, "So what's wrong with you?" Levy was about to snap at him again, but she took a deep breath.

"Anorexia," she responded as calmly as she could, "and...hallucinations."

"Ah, that's what it was called," Gajeel said nonchalantly. "Explains the word wall thing too." His casualty made Levy a tad irritated.

"Why? Want to tease me some more?" Levy asked, the irritation clear in her tone. A small tick mark appeared on Gajeel's head. What was up with the tone of her voice? He didn't like it, but he remembered that he had to be 'nice' and tried to think of what that feminine voice of his would say.

"Er, no, I was just...curious," he said in a soft voice. "And I meant that apology I made a couple nights ago." The sudden change of tone surprised Levy, and she faked a cough.

"Oh, well..." she trailed off for a second before saying, "Thanks."

"No prob," Gajeel shrugged and took a bite of his chicken wing. "You should also thank me for telling that nurse about you not having any dinner." The salad fork in Levy's hand dropped to the floor with a small clank as she froze. It attracted the attention of her friends, but she didn't notice nor care.

"You...what??" she hissed. Gajeel smirked. Sure, he was trying to be nice, but that didn't mean he couldn't have some fun teasing.

"I said that you should be grateful to me for telling that white chick nurse about you skipping your meal Shrimp," he repeated, emphasizing the words 'said' and 'Shrimp.' Levy gritted her teeth in anger, but it was then that she noticed that her friends were watching. So, she stood up from her seat and grabbed ahold of the raven-head's arm. At first Gajeel was surprised at the gesture, but the feeling soon dissipated as he was dragged towards the exit of the cafeteria. Erza squeaked at the scene. She didn't know Levy was that strong, and made a mental note not to make her angry...again.

"It'd be best to leave them," Gray shrugged, watching Natsu (who was oblivious to the entire scene) snarf down his chicken wings.

"Natsu...you're eating your food too fast.." Lucy sweatdropped, also unaware of what just happened.

¤Magical¤

Back to Levy and Gajeel, Levy let go of Gajeel's arm once they were in an empty hallway.

"So it was you!" she growled.

"Yup," Gajeel answered, his smug smile returning. "And again, I'm waiting for that thanks."

"What thanks?!" Levy said loudly. "It's because of you that I have been tricked again!"

"Tricked?" Gajeel questioned.

"Yeah! Tricked!" Levy repeated, this time louder. "Tricked to be brainwashed by society to eat food filled with fat and oil and things that will make me bloated!" At the end of her rant, the bluenette was breathing heavily. It had been a while since she last let out all the anger she let build up inside herself. For a moment, Gajeel stood there frozen. He never expected the shrimp's illness to be that bad, so a little part of himself felt guilty. Of course, he was never going to admit to what he just said to himself.

"Well, if you don't eat, you're just going to end up like Jubi back then," Gajeel said. His words were sincere, but he didn't want to be taken as a sap, so there was a smirk accompanying his words. Levy's eyes grew wide, and she remembered what Juvia had said back then.

Starving Juvia's body only made her body store food when she ate it.

Levy gulped the accumulating saliva in her mouth. That's right. Not eating will only make me more bloated, she told herself. She also realized that Gajeel had witnessed it himself, and he did not want the same thing to happen to her. Sighing, she finally saw Gajeel's intentions.

"..Thanks," Levy mumbled, finding the tiled floor interesting. "But...why would you help me?" Again, Gajeel's mind blanked, but he made up an excuse.

"Because, you're interesting Shrimp." His lips curled upwards in a mischievous way. Levy's face warmed at her new nickname.

"That's not my name!" she scowled, shoving him away. Gajeel merely snickered.

"If that's all ya wanted me for, I'm gonna go back to eat my food," he said, stuffing his hands into his pockets and walking back towards the cafeteria. "And I'm keeping the name Shrimp for ya." He walked a couple feet, but paused for one second and turned his head to face the hazel-eyed bluenette with a strict face. "Seriously though, don't go starving yourself, ya here me?" He then walked away, his far slowly flushing red. Levy's face was also as red as a tomato, and she pressed her hands to her chest, feeling her rapid heartbeat on both the palms of her hands and her ears.