Chapter 2- Where He Started

"GAJEEL! Gajeel you better be up and ready in there! It's past noon and your lazy ass still has not come out yet! I would like to get to the guild hall sometime today thank you. Gajeel!? Are you even listening to me?"

Lily's voice was ringing throughout their small two bedroom home. Gajeel had yet to make an appearance this morning and didn't even show up to train with Lily in the forest as they do every day before sunrise. To say Lily was ticked was an understatement. The black exceed needs to follow some sort of schedule during the week. Something drilled into his head long ago when he first joined his lands army. After arriving to Earth-land and being stuck with the brute of a dragon, Gajeel, a lot of his former training had to be altered like his body. Gajeel was a pig. He had rarely cleaned or picked up after himself, scrap metal was everywhere and the slayers home had one too many broken appliances and fixtures to Lily's liking.

"I'm coming in there Gajeel you better be decent!"

Lily was able to get Gajeel to pick up after himself a bit, but damnit all he made it seem like Lily was pulling teeth. The frustrated cat made his intensions known as, even in his small form, he kicks open the once latched door. With a huff the cat walked into his partner's room. The room was the largest room of the home. Having a walk in closet big enough for two people to share as well as an attached bathroom that even Lily was too afraid to peer into after all this time. The horrors he had seen just in the bathroom down the hall was enough to stop the exceed from adding Gajeel's personal bathroom to his weekly cleaning ritual. The rest of the room was pretty bare, light gray walls, a black rug in the center covering most of the chocolate brown wood floors. A few shelves with trinkets, old tomes and books, king size bed pushed off into a corner near the windows while a small desk and chair sit near the bathroom, covered with maps and old mission slips.

And there he was, in all his lazy pigheaded glory, Gajeel Redfox. Said dragon was stretched out lazily on his bed, while his gray and black covers where thrown askew. He laid with his hands behind his head as he blankly stared up at the ceiling, not at all paying any mind to the fuming cat that jump onto the bed beside him.

"Hey Lily," Gajeel didn't even bother looking at the cat as he answered, seemingly too distracted to care for much at that moment.

"Gajeel get up I'm leaving for the guild, we need to see what missions are posted, you know rent is due soon and we only have enough jewels for a few weeks of food."

"Sure I'll be there soon go on ahead," Gajeel lifted one of his hands from behind his head and made a shooing motion at the annoyed cat.

Lily let out a low growl and hopped off of the bed and made his way outside their home to head to the guild hall. Gajeel listen out for his friends footsteps as they became too faint to hear after the exceed past the threshold of the Iron Gate that surrounded the property. Gajeel still didn't move until he counted to 500 just to be safe, before he rolled his large body from his bed and allowed the sheets to fall onto the floor of his room. He only had to run his hand over the middle of his bed for a second before his calloused hand felt the smooth cool iron he was tinkering with all morning long. The gruff man picked up the metal before returning to his desk and once more began to work with the metal figure.

It was a polished iron dragon, to anyone else that's all it seemed to be, but to Gajeel it was more than just any old dragon. Metalicana, his missing foster father, crafted with fine details that are as accurate as his childhood memories would allow. The small figurine stood about 6 inches tall, the figure posed on all four of his legs with his wings out stretched and tail curled slightly upward. Gajeel muttered to himself as he figured out the best way to make the jaw hinges move when the tail is pressed downward.

"Maybe a simple pulley could do.."

To the untrained eye it would seem our brutish iron dragon merely found a hobby, to help with his resentment towards his father or to take his mind off of stressful or tough situations. And to them Gajeel would laugh in their face and knock them around for good measure. No to Gajeel hobbies are for those who can't find better ways to waste their time. Useless he would claim. Even the idea to do something as an escape form harsh realities are just excuses so one doesn't have to face life head on! No no , our dragon slayer tinkered and created metal works to help him think. You see Gajeel found out when he was younger that while his mind plotted and whirled, his hand became restless. On more than one occasion after he would be in deep thought, his hands would have broken, cut up or scraped whatever was in reach without his knowledge. So to stop himself from destroying his own possessions he would conjure up some of his own iron and break that instead.

Lily had some idea this was the case. In the back of their home rested tons of large chunks of metal that would be warped and bent and broken to the will of the slayer. Lily once watched Gajeel take a strait steel beam and bend and curled it till it had such fine and soft contours that it resembled similar large metal works created by great artists all around Fiore. That was until Gajeel would take a massive bite or two out of it before throwing it carelessly on the grass. When asked about this strange behavior, Gajeel would just reply that he was thinking of a new fighting strategy to bash in flame breaths face with. So we could only assume that with such fine detail that the small dragon meant that something is deeply troubling him and would need to be solved with well thought out and executed…

"FUCK!"

The small dragon was thrown harshly at the wall behind his bed, before Gajeel picked himself up and grabbed his coat before heading to the guild as well.

"How the hell am I supposed to get the Shrimp to do a mission with me, WITHOUT her puppies tagging along?" …Or not it is Gajeel after all.


Gajeel was currently in front of the request board trying in vain, to murder all of the written words located on the mission slips before him. Lily was pleased to see that his partner had finally showed up and seemed to be back in his usual pissy mood.

Gajeel took one last look over the missions before sharply turning his head to Mira, who as pleasantly watching him from the corner of her eye.

"OI! Where's all the good missions demon?"

"Hm? I don't know what you mean by that Gajeel-kun; there is plenty of well-paying jobs on that board."

Mira didn't even flinch as Gajeel made his way in front of her and glared daggers at her, she just simply hummed to herself as she polished a glass that was on the bar.

"You know damn well that's all chicken shit up there! Finding lost crap, escorting stupid old or rich idiots or fucking yard work for the crippled and senile. Now I'll ask again, where's all the good shit!?"

Mira opened her eyes to look at the pissed off dragon before closing them again to smile brighter at him.

"Well.. Erza and Wendy took the one to scout out a newly raised dark guild at the south end of Fiore, Gray and Juvia are on their way to the east to help stop a possible flood from the storms that are brewing in the sea. Oh! And Natsu and Lucy just left with the one to round up the escaped criminals that broke out of a prison a few hundred miles from here, you mean those missions?"

Gajeel could only slump down onto one of the bar stools, getting lower and lower in the seat after each mission was listen off.

"Fuck.."

"I told you to get out of bed hours ago! We could have easily snagged one of those but no!"

"Shaddup Lily, Oi she-devil gimmie ah beer," The dragon slayer just slouched against the bar in defeat as he rested his chin on his propped up arm.

"Sure thing Gajeel-kun! Shall I get you some Kiwi Juice while I'm at it Lily-chan?"

"Yes thank you Mirajane" Lily took a seat in front of the sulking dragon as he waited for his drink as well.

The guild was as out of control as it always was so Gajeel had to drown them out as he waited for his beer, 'At least Salamander and Stripper ain't here to throw chairs at me, dropped my beer the last time cause of those asshats.'

"Here you two go! One beer and one kiwi juice," Mira returned with the requested drinks and set them down in front of the duo. Still noticing Gajeel's sour mood, Mira leaned forward a bit on the counter as the two made their way to their booth and said,

"Don't worry Gajeel-kun I know just the thing to cheer you up!"

Said dragon slayer looked back over his shoulder at the take-over mage,

"Oh..?"

Just as Gajeel looked back to the bar he could hear the front doors of the guild slam open and the rush of familiar scent flooded his nose.

"TEAM SHADOWGEAR HAS RETURNED!"

The trio that made the remark couldn't help but laugh at their own silliness as they all three stepped into the threshold of their home. A few welcome backs could be heard around the guild as Levy, Droy and Jet made their way to Mirajane to inform her of the success the group had during the mission.

As Levy made it closer to the bar she veered off course to stop beside the iron dragon that still stood half way from the bar to his normal seating area.

"Afternoon Gajeel, you too Lily!" Levy couldn't help but smile at her two friends, Shadowgear has been away on a mission for almost a week and a half since returning from Crocus, and so she couldn't help but miss the two.

"Ah Levy it's good to see a friendly face, for once." Lily muttered out the last part and quickly floated to the said girls shoulder to avoid the fist that was reaching for him. "Gajeel has been a sour puss all week! I've just had about enough of him, save me Levy!"

"Oi quit yer belly aching, such a drama queen this one," Gajeel nodding his head towards his cat before finishing the short walk to his booth where he planted his boot clad feet on the table as he leaned back into the seat's cushion, enjoying his beer.

Levy just giggled at the boys antics, "It never end with you two does it now?"

Levy reached for Lily and held him in her arms as his wings disappeared, once the cat was situated she walked around to the other side of the booth and sat down and began to go over how her mission went to them.

Gajeel POV-

I really didn't pay any attention as the Shrimp tried to explain to us on how she rewrote a curse or something or other to free the thing to save the stuff. I honestly thought at one point she just started to speak in a different language to see if I was listening or not, which she has before mind you. 'Man she is hot when she says shit I can't understand.. Wait WHAT!?'

I shook the thought from my mind, I could partially feel my ears burning when she asked if I was alright.

"Yah I'm fine so gone on about that.. ugh…"

"Oh! Sorry where was I? AH yes you see when I was looking for the starting point of the rune…"

That damn cat won't wipe that smug look off his face. We'll just see how he likes sleeping outside during the next thunderstorm. No I won't let him distract me; I have to come up with a way to get Short Stack here to go on a mission with me. Her fucking hounds have been stealing her away ever since we came back to Magnolia. I need to make up for the fuck up on Tenrou Island, sure the S Class tests have been postpone till, well I have no clue but I have to make it up to her somehow. Can't really make someone big if yah are passed out the whole fucking time, I was actually wondering how well she could handle herself in combat. She didn't get much of a chance to show off her magic because of all the messed up shit with Grimoire Heart.

'I guess I could just. .. Ask? Yah fucking real original there black steel.'

'Yah hey Shorty mind tagging along with just me a Lil for a mission sometime?'

"Yes sure Gajeel I would love to join you guys on a mission, I mean I love Jet and Droy and all but it will be a nice change of pace and who knows I could learn a thing or two from a previous S-class mage!"

Oh shit did I say that out loud... Levy had winked me sweetly and got up from her seat, "Well I should go I'm a bit tired after that last one so I'll see you tomorrow Gajeel? Just come find me when you have a mission in mind ok?"

"Y-yah sure night Shrimp," I watched as she patted Lily on the head and wave a goodbye and made her way out to the street.

"Smooth my man didn't know you had it in yah," I looked down at Lily as he wore his shit eating grin.

"Oh shaddup," I just guzzled down the rest of my beer in embarrassment. Then again, it fucking worked didn't it? I couldn't help but let out a laugh as my mouth mimicked Lily's. This shit is easier than I thought.

"Gihihi.."

Another one for yal, couldn't stop typing today so enjoy.

-Paint