There he sat.
Kicked out from his dorm room by his room mate. Natsu had claimed he wanted some alone time.
Bullshit.
That bastard hat his girlfriend over. He could not tell Gajeel it was not like that. He could smell Lucys perfume here, down in the dorms common room.
Annoyed like he had been, Gajeel had grabbed his tiny brown cat – Lily – and left. He had no desire to watch the roasted brain of his room mate, making out with the cheerleader girlie. Their room was to small for that. And he would not want to have Lily experience this either, so he had just snatched the cat and left.
So... there he sat. His lounge clothes on, cat in his lap on one of the sofas. Leant back, his eyes closed sighing in annoyance once in a while.
That was what he got for giving in when Natsu begged him to share the room with him, and not moving out into an apartment with his best friend Juvia. In that damned apartment he would have had at least a room for himself, when Juvias boyfriend was over.
He deserved some peace and quiet, damnit.
A movement on his lap caught his attention. Lily had shifted, uncurling from his sleep, as if to get his attention onto something. Red eyes landed on the tiny scarred face, with the mean scar he had doctored, and to the uncommonly dark eyes of the feline. It looked like the cat was nodding into a certain direction.
Nobody would believe him, if he told people, but it was like – at times – Lily tried to nudge him into certain directions. A creepy thought though. The man blinked before he lifted his gaze. Slowly averting his eyes from the cat upwards to the door he was facing from his seat.
It was cracked open a little. And a small woman stood in there. She was really tiny, with bright blue hair. Her fragile looking hands grasped the door frame and she looked at him. Brown eyes wide, and brows lifted close to her hairline.
Ugh, shit. It was the middle of the night, and he was supposed to be in his room. If she was a teacher, she would kick his ass.
And seeing how he had Lily with him, whom he had smuggled in the day he found him, could make her even kick Gajeel out of the dorm.
Fucking...
Both of them stared at each other in silence.
She was the first one to break the eye contact they had, looking him over. Her gaze offended him some. She had risen a brow while she looked at him. As if she wanted to say he did not look good.
Gajeel Redfox had a huge self confidence. There was no way she would think he would not be good looking. But that was not what she addressed.
"Cats aren't allowed in the dorms." she said. Her voice was stern, and stunningly interesting.
"Tsk." Gajeel replied. "You got a problem with small homeless cats or what?" he asked.
Of course Lily was not homeless any more. Gajeel had taken him in, given him a name, fed him every day and had tended the injury on his eye. But still.
He had not thought the tiny woman would come closer. But she did. She left the door frame, shuffling towards Gajeel and Lily. Now he saw, she was wearing lounge clothes as well. In the small pocket, right over one of her – equally small sized – breasts, a pair of glasses was tugged in. Under one of her arms she carried a book, a large tome, that seemed like it was half her size. Her shorts revealed long, creamy legs that ended in sandal clad tiny feet.
Now it was his turn to raise a pierced eyebrow at her. Dropping one of his arms down, to protectively pet Lilys back he pierced her with a glare, that said, she would do better, not saying anything against his cat again.
And she did not.
She sat down on the sofa facing his, brought her legs close, and opened the large book. Then she perched the glasses, that had a nice red frame he came to notice, onto her nose, that did not look like it had been made to wear such things.
Brown eyes rested on the page of the book for a while, not moving like they should be. Did she know he watched her? Maybe she felt it, and it made her uncomfortable? Why did she come here in the first place? This place was not actually the warmest and most welcoming place in the dorm.
Lily shifted again, the tip of his long tail moving as he lifted his head, and looked at the small girl. As if to tell Gajeel something.
The raven haired man ran the pad of his thumb back over the cats forehead, from between his eyes, and ended it with a gentle rub behind one of the felines ears. He felt the small head slightly pressing against his hand, the cat obviously leaned into the touch as he did so.
After a quick glance at the small women, he fixed his eyes on the cat again, starting to play with one of the tiny brown paws that were a lighter colour on the inside. It was cute. Not that he would admit he liked cute things...
"So..." he started. Gajeel was not a person to do small talk usually. But being in a room with another person, a stranger nonetheless, without anybody saying something was creepy. And he did not want to just sit there and stare at her. He was sure she would tell her friends, and all of them would see him as the creepy staring person, or even a pervert. Not that he cared much about what people thought of him, but he liked the reputation he had. The punk, the bad boy.
"Why d' ya come here, in th' middle of the night?" His eyes were still on the brown cat on his lap, that was now swiping at his hand in a playful manner. Gajeel did not look up at her. If he had done, he would have seen her surprised look. He did not see how she blinked for a second, before she replied. He even thought, maybe she did not want to talk. He was a stranger after all.
The silence between them was awkward and he was glad when it was over. Her voice, as clear as a day made him look up again.
"My room mate wanted some alone time." she said. His brows rose leaving his expression surprised. Well that was a coincidence.
A laughter rumbled in his torso. A laughter people described as peculiar, but he did not care.
"Yer room mate doesn't happen ta be Lucy Heartfilia, does she?" he asked amused. That would be a surprise. But that also meant that either the flamebrain had lied to Gajeel, or the cheerleader lied to her room mate about this.
Again she looked at him in surprise.
Oh, no. She was the cheerleaders room mate.
"How do you know?" she asked, disbelief evident in her voice. Noone would think Gajeel Redfox knew, who Lucy Heartfilia was. Natsu had said once, she was out of his league. Jerk. He did not know shit about Gajeels league.
The man shrugged slightly.
"Her boytoy is my room mate." the raven haired said, looking down at the cat again. It took him a moment.
The bluenette was here, because the cheerleader chick wanted some 'alone time'. Gajeel was here because the flame brain had wanted the same.
"They're messing with us." he said, squinting his eyes in annoyance. He had successfully gathered the womans attention. One of her hands rested in the book, to keep it from shutting close, but her gaze was at him. She did not look surprised. It was like she had known, but had played along with it.
That cheeky brat of a room mate. He had played his game and Gajeel had been playing along without knowing. He growled, making the cat on his lap tense up and lower its head.
"Tellin' ya 'n me, they need 'alone time'. In what? Two rooms at a time? Fucking bastards."
Not a proper language Gajeel. Not a proper language. He told himself. He was in front of a woman, who most likely, never heard such words. Being roomed with the highness of the high school.
But to his surprise, she giggled. And he had just been about to go off on a rant about how he should have moved in that apartment with Juvia instead.
Her giggle was as stunning as her voice. Her pale cheeks blushed slightly, she had here eyes crinkled, and one hand held in front of her mouth. It was bubbly but restrained. Just as one would imagine from a friend of the cheerleader girl.
"Wha...?"
"It seems they are." she said between giggles, taking off her glasses.
The blue haired girl placed a bookmark between the pages and closed her book. Somehow he had managed to get her away from reading. What kind of sign was that? Lucy had told them – him and Natsu – about her best friend once. And she was rumoured to be a bookworm. Her small nose buried in a book all the time. And his words had made her stop? Peculiar.
He did nearly wince, when she put the book aside. How did she even carry that? Half her size and maybe double her weight.
With silent footsteps, as if she was in library and not the dorm common room, she crossed the space between the sofas, and sat down beside him. A smile was present on her face. When she looked at him, he could swear, he felt a little – and short – warmth on his ears.
Great.
"You're the one Natsu has told me about, I suppose?" she asked. He leant back from her. That damned loudmouth. He was going to kick flamebrains ass into the next month. How many times had he told him, to not gossip? Especially about him?
He should have known he was bound to be a subject the day he brought Lily with him.
"That guy is a pain in my ass." he commented, his hand absentmindedly petting his cat. "And a gossip."
That made her giggle once again. Why did women always giggle and not actually laugh out loud? He would never know.
"He sure is a burden at times." she agreed. With a swift movement she held a hand out to him. And all he could do for the first moment was to look at it in confusion. As if he could not grasp the idea of shaking it, what would be an appropriate action.
And again he did such awkward things. People were bound to think, he was social incapable or something. Natsu had made jokes about this. They got worse since Gajeel had brought the cat with him. Jokes about him ending up as one of those creepy cat-ladies. What he always countered how he was not a woman. It always ended in arguments like that. It was silly, outright stupid, but he did it anyway. Coping with things he did not want to think about, like that.
"I'm Levy." the tiny woman introduced herself, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Levy McGarden. Nice to meet you." She smiled brightly. Her whole face lit up with that smile. Gajeel came to the conclusion, he liked this smile. Slowly he lifted his hand as well, taking hers, shaking it firmly. Her hand felt small. He had the stupid fear, he would crush it, if he squeezed it too tightly. She looked so fragile.
"Gajeel Redfox." He gave her one of his famous smirks, but quirked an eyebrow, when her gaze dropped onto his lap. At first he was confused, about what her eyes had to look at there? They had just met. But then it dawned him, Lily was still there. Curled up, Content and completely oblivious to what was happening around him. Well, at least Gajeel thought so.
"And that's Lily." he said, picking up the tiny brown cat from his lap, holding him up awkwardly. Women liked cats, right? Right?
Levy smiled at him, holding out her tiny hands.
"Can I hold her?" her eyes lit up. At least he had been right, with women and cats.
"Him." he said, making her look at him in confusion. Her brown eyes shifted from Gajeels serious face, to the small cat in his hands. "It's a male cat."
"Lily is a girls name." she said.
People always told him that. As if he was dumb or something.
"Actually..." he started. "It's Pantherlily. Lily for short."
That made her tilt her head. Gajeel put the small cat, into her hands before he started explaining.
"His colour." he said, and then pointed to the rounded ears. "And the ears. Like a Panther."
Levys hands landed on Lilys back petting the cat lightly with a giggle.
"Nice to meet you, Lily."
And thus their conversation started. About Names – she had made him explain where his first name came from – animals – how he came to like cats, and how he managed to keep Lily hidden from the teachers – to their room mates, and further.
Gajeel had never talked that long to a person.
Maybe, it was not that bad, he did not move in with Juvia. Maybe flamebrain needing – quote-unquote – 'alone time' was not bad either.
There he sat, but it was not only him and his cat anymore.
::All of that because a certain artist (yes, I'm talking about you blanania) has successfully brought my attention to this AU-Setting. I loved it.Reviews are welcome~::