Author's Note: I want to make this clear right off the bat: I totally didn't come up with this idea – 7/7/777 Gajeel story for and on July 7th. It's my STORY, but the premise was used first by Aulizia in her latest chapter for "Crazy Fairy and other short stories". Here's a link www . fanfiction .net/s/7013340/6/Crazy_Fairy_and_other_short_stories check it out! (take out the spaces. It was being stupid and deleting half the link.)

The Seventh Day of the Seventh Month

7 July X778

He smelled him. He SMELLED him! He'd thought the old jackass was dead, but turns out …

But what was he doing by the sea?

The salt and the water … he hated it there. He'd never come to the sea. Why did he smell him by the sea?

Gajeel's face screwed up in confusion, but it cleared pretty fast. Well whatever. If he wasn't dead and he wasn't picking him up, then the stupid ass wasn't worth his time.

Yup, totally not worth his time. His time was valuble … vabul … valuable? He couldn't remember how to say that word. Probably he needed to start talkin' to all the tasty looking prey so he could figure this place out a little better.

Eh, who the fuck cared. Trash was trash, and that's all people like that were.

One of the people at the beach stiffened at the color of his eyes when he looked that way. Gajeel grinned. He liked it when people pissed themselves in front of him. He was fuckin' scary! That's right, he was a dragonslayer. He'd be even more badass than that silver bastard.

Maybe he'd get some tattoos or somethin'. People were scared of stuff like that, right? Yeah. And then he'd stick a spike through his nose! Freak everyone out. He laughed a few people shivered.

Wusses.

7/7/X779

He hated working for other people. Having to feed himself sucked. Having to eat expensive stuff sucked only slightly less. It was bullcrap.

"Boy! What took you so long? And word's already come that you demolished the temple. You weren't supposed to demolish the temple! You were supposed to threaten the priests! Make them stop fleecing us! Are you going to answer me, b-"

Ug, bullshit. But putting an iron ram in the man's face released the tension. He felt so much better now, and the contents of the fat, whiny bastard's wallet brought a horrible smile. He showed his teeth. Chuckled. Then laughed outright.

Well. Maybe working for other people sometimes wasn't so bad. As long as he didn't have to actually listen to the scummy jackasses. Yeah. This would work just fine. He wouldn't have to take a mission for at least two weeks.

And he could go to the sea.

He wasn't sure why, but he kinda felt like lookin' at the water right now.

7/7/X780

How could he have been so utterly fucking stupid? Cuz he forgot. Only two. No. Three years. And he forgot. He stared up at the mountain, looking for the shadow of his old home.

Hm... yeah he had time. If the idiot complained about him being late, he'd just beat the everloving crap out of him. Gi hi hi hi, well, sure he'd do that anyway, but he'd have another reason. And reasons were useful.

Hands in his pockets he started up the mountain. Hell, maybe somebody would be home.

But it was as empty as the last time he saw it.

7/7/X781

He was in the bathroom washing blood off his thighs. He had pretty much run out of visible places to put piercings. Manly piercings. He didn't do any of that tiny corner of the nose shit. His nose rods were nothin' but badass. And he didn't want no girly fucking tongue ring either.

His thighs were now decked out like his forearms. What would he do next?

He remembered vaguely that the jackass had spiky things on his spinal ridges. That might be awesome. Fucking tough to do by himself. Hard to get straight. But his old man had done it himself, so he would too.

He was tougher and more awesome than someone who just ran away.

7/7/X782

He hated Phantom Lord only slightly less than he hated everything else. There were too many stupid shits, but there were a few creepy dudes who could almost hold their own with him.

And there was Jose. Jose was fucking way stronger than him. But that would change. Maybe soon. Maybe a little longer than soon. His old man had been way tougher. A jackass, fuck yeah, but hella tougher than anything.

And he would be tougher too.

7/7/X783

Who the fuck was the Salamander bastard he kept hearing about? A few of the bigger morons in the guild came back from missions talkin' about nothing but Salamander this and Salamander that. They'd fuckin' dare to glance at him when they talked about it.

Though no one did it twice. Hard to glance at shit with eyes swollen shut.

Fire dragonslayer the rumors said. He wondered if the fire trash had a dragon too, or if some pussy-ass human had taught him the lost magic.

That's probably how it was. Trash wouldn't even be able to touch him. His dragon would roll in his grave, or whatever the fuck the jackass was in, if he lost to a fake dragonslayer.

7/7X784

Jose had finally fucking decided to take those bitches down. Gave him a free pass for funtime. He was just biding his time until the plans got all worked out and shit. He wanted to go after him now, but Jose said not yet.

Not yet.

He wanted someone to fund the attack. All he kept hearing was "wait just a little longer".

Fucking bullshit. His old man wouldn't hold him back. His old man would lead the charge. He was mildly disgusted that Jose was hiding behind Aria and the rest of the Element 4. He wasn't quite sure about fucking with Fairy Tail's weak members either. What was the problem? Why couldn't he straight go after Salamander?

Orders were orders, and Jose was still stronger.

He hated being held back. He hated answering to pussies.

Just a little longer and he'd have Salamander in his grasp.

7/7/X785

He'd never really bothered with noticing how there were all the sevens in the date. When the metal jackass left him. Now that he thought about it, that was pretty fucked up. Not just the numbers, sure that was odd, but what the fuck ever on what the date was; the bastard left.

He'd been an orphan or something when he'd been taken to the cave. He wasn't sure. Too damn young then to remember crap like that, but he thought he remembered being told he was an orphan when he was older. Maybe just some piss ass homeless waif though.

Maybe this wasn't the first time he'd been abandoned.

Maybe that's why he tried to avoid thinking about that shit as much as possible.

Natsu was spending the anniversary somewhere searching for his dad. What was up with that anyway. Dad. No way in hell he could think of that old metal bastard as "dad". But Natsu'd said he could come too. Wendy was going. She wasn't saying much, but she had told Natsu yes when he asked.

He'd said "fuck no". And mostly he meant it. He never really thought about actually looking for him before. The bastard left him. Why would he waste his damn time? It wasn't like with Natsu. Salamander had like a keepsake and shit. That ugly ass thing he wore around all the damn time. It protected him.

He and that jackass weren't like that. He never called the old bastard "dad". All he had in remembrance were the piercings, and he'd done that himself. What fucking reason did he have for going after someone who didn't give a flying shit about him?

But...

It might be … okay … to take a vacation. Lily might like to go to the sea. Or maybe the mountains. Mountains were nice and cool this time of year.

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Author's End Note: So, yeah, there's that. Hope someone enjoyed!