"I friggin hate this damn school," Gajeel scowled as Natsu Dragneel walked with his girlfriend Lucy hand in hand. They were walking up to Gajeel and Natsu's dorm hall when the black haired male had commented, and Lucy had looked at her boyfriend's cousin with a weird look as a response.
"It's not that bad! Besides, I met Lucy here," Natsu said, and Lucy blushed and kissed his cheek. The two were so disgustingly in love that it took all of Gajeel's willpower to not fake a gag. They were a nice looking couple for sure, but PDA always freaked Gajeel out. He wouldn't admit it, but commitment made his throat tighten up too. It was boring being with one person, he thought to himself bitterly, and honestly he would rather have a series of happy relationships than something with someone for a long time. Or, for the rest of his life. The thought made his throat beg for water, and he had to take a swig of his coffee he always carried around to feel normal again. He then redirected his thoughts to the project that his professor had instructed him to make a recipe for.
He, Natsu and Lucy attended the same college, and college lead to sleepless nights and mugs upon mugs of coffee. Especially for Gajeel, who was up at three thirty every morning in order to get his ass out of bed so he could go to class. Gajeel was a heavy sleeper, and he had to sit on the edge of his bed for ten minutes just to wake himself up. That, and a ton of espresso. Shockingly hot and bitter coffee woke Gajeel up, but it didn't help the darkness under his eyes.
Maybe that was why girls didn't like him. Despite having bags under his eyes that were as dark as his soul, he was a pretty attractive guy. He took time out of his schedule every week to work out, and he was taller and more muscular than most of the males in the school. His face was handsome, and he could be pretty damn gentlemanly when he wanted.
The only problem was his demeanor. He walked like he was on a mission to murder someone in cold blood, and his Crimson eyes had the fiercest glare to them. It looked like he was about to kill you even if he just wanted to say hello. Even his hellos were frightening, his voice a baritone rumble and his teeth razor sharp when he managed a grin. And when he finally tried to ask a girl out she would squeal and run away before he could even say hi.
And that was what made the school suck. There were couples everywhere. Even his friends had paired up over time, and he was getting annoyed with everyone being all mushy. Possibly so annoyed that he wanted to find a girl for himself.
Natsu and Lucy took another route than Gajeel so they could have some time alone. Gajeel yelled a "goodbye" and snapped off a bite of a cookie he had made earlier that day in class. He was a culinary major, and he made the best cookies in the world if he did say so himself.
Strutting back to his dorm, he stopped in front of the music room. Every day, the same person would play piano in a rolling tune. The sounds entranced him, and he slumped down in a sitting position and listened to the soft harmony. He didn't know who it was, but their playing was melodic and beautiful as always.
After a few minutes, he also heard a soft, light voice pour from the room.
"Leaves from the vine," the voice sang, and he knew exactly what the song was. It was from one of his favorite shows that he watched as a child, and it always made him sad. Gajeel wasn't really one for feelings, but if something made him sad, he would cry for ages.
The urge to walk into the room overwhelmed him, and he cursed himself for thinking so.
"You can't just waltz in there and watch some person playing on the piano! They'll think you're high off your rocker or somethin'!" Gajeel paced back and forth, talking to himself. He peeked through the door and heard the person sing the end of the song.
"Brave little soldier boy comes marching home..."
"To hell with it," Gajeel told himself, "now or never."
He opened the doors and quietly sat down in one of the chairs, listening to the person's singing.
But that wasn't what stunned him the most.
The girl was beyond tiny, but her beauty was radiant. Her blue hair was tied up in a very messy bun with a pencil stuck in it to keep it together, and her pale skin shimmered underneath the spotlight. Her small hands flew across the piano as she played and sang a different song. The woman was completely lost in the moment of it, her eyes closed and her hands moving to continue the melody. It was if she was entranced by the song, and she sat quietly as she played.
Gajeel was completely entranced by the girl, and he was surprised. Usually he just looked at a woman and looked away because she didn't interest him. Of course, the woman in question was pretty boring as well, and he hated boring women.
But the woman playing the piano, he could tell, was anything but boring. She seemed to just glow. He couldn't take his eyes off of her, and he wanted to tell her that she was beautiful.
He looked at the snack down in his hands and glanced up at her. Would she want what he had made? Maybe she was hungry from playing so long, he thought to himself.
He grasped the cookie bag with his large hand and set it on the floor, right where he knew she would see it when she finished. With a flourish, he wrote a note and signed the note with a pen. He smirked at the woman. That shrimp wasn't going to know what hit her when she got his cookie. It was the best in the school, and Gajeel was pretty cocky about that.
And the note?
He knew she'd like that too.