p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"strongspan style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"A/N Hello. Hello. Long time no post! Just magically felt like updating this story, so here goes!/span/strong/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"The alarm clock went off, interrupting her pleasant dreams where amazing stories from her books came to life. The kind of stories where the main protagonist was a strong, independent female, who feared nothing and could strike down anyone who would dare to harm her. Sometimes, she ended up as the main protagonist, which brought her much joy. She had been having these types of dreams a lot lately. She reckoned it was her mind's subconscious effort to keep her from breaking and falling apart. To help her survive the horrors of her day to day life./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"She turned to her side, hugging her pillow tightly. She felt like bursting into tears but stayed strong. She considered mimicking the same actions as you would see on TV, where kids would heat up thermometers to fake a high fever to avoid going to school. But then again, her parents pushed her to be perfect at everything at school including attendance, that unless she was bleeding out of every orifice in her body, they would still force her to go to school./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"She slowly willed the courage to get up. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and just sat there, hunched over. She looked up at her bookshelf, scanning through all the paperbacks filled with stories of wondrous characters who possessed the courage she could never have./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"She sighed heavily. Levy McGarden was a frightened young girl, with no friends and no life beyond school. Even school wasn't much of a life but rather a horror story involving the evil antagonist, Gajeel Redfox. A shiver went down her spine. Even thinking about his name terrified her./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Her phone buzzed beside her, pulling away from her distracted thoughts. She grabbed it and answered it without even looking at the screen, "Hello Mother."/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Are you up and dressed yet?" her mother asked sternly./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Yes," lied Levy, biting her lip./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Good. Because I know how distracted you get if you are reading a book. You know I encourage taking an interest in literature but I will not tolerate - "/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"" span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"- it affecting attendance and academic excellence from me. I know,"/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Good. As long as you know. Breakfast has been made and is waiting for you on the table. Your father and I will be working late again tonight. So go out there and be my perfect and intelligent daughter. I expect great things from you."/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Yes Mother. I love you." Levy said softly./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"I love you too." replied her Mother./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Levy ended the phone call and got up from her bed. She shuffled towards her bookshelf and selected a book to shove inside her backpack. Edgar Allan Poe shall be her friend today. Some Macabre themes will match perfectly with her dreaded mood today./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="text-decoration: underline;"xXx/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"She sat at her desk, waiting for class to start. Hiding in the classroom before first period was one of the few safe havens she had. Gajeel always arrived late for school. Slowly her classmates started filling the room, many looking at her with pitiful glances. They all knew what she was going through. Some had even tried to jump on the bandwagon of picking on her. But the one thing about Gajeel, was that he wouldn't allow it. He had ripped on many potential bullies who had dared to try approach her. No one was allowed to intimidate Levy but Gajeel Redfox. And the whole school knew it and no one dared to defy it./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"The bell rang and everyone took their seats. A loud rustling noise echoed throughout the room as stationary was taken out of backpacks and textbooks being paged through to the correct chapter. An elderly male educator shuffled slowly towards his desk, showing his lack of interest to be at work today. For the first half hour he droned on about algebra and showing how the Pythagorean theorem worked when Gajeel came stalking in the room. The educator ignored him and didn't miss a beat in his lecture./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"emNot even the teachers would dare step up to Gajeel,/emspan style="font-style: normal;" Levy thought sadly. She peeked out the corner of her eye, watching Gajeel take his usual seat next to her. He let his bag drop with a loud thud and he let out an angry low growl. Levy shivered in fear. He was in a bad mood today./span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"She dared sneak another glance at his face to see in how bad of a mood he was so that she could mentally prepare herself for what was to come. To her surprise she noticed that he had a split lip. The wound still looked fresh. Not only was she surprised that someone had the guts to get into a brawl with this masculine giant, but that someone even managed to land a hit./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Gajeel caught her looking and angrily glared at her. Levy jumped and quickly turned back to the notes she was taking earlier. She shivered slightly. She heard a faint, "Hmph," sound, knowing Gajeel was satisfied with seeing her fear./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"After the bell rang again to indicate the class was over, everyone hurried to pack their things and rush off to their next lesson. The teacher looked at the little bluenette with sad eyes before walking out the room. Levy was busy packing away her things when Gajeel suddenly slammed two hands on her table and towered in front of her. She was too terrified to look up at him./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Did you like what you saw, Short-stuff?"/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Levy rapidly shook her head and looked down at her lap./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Why ain't you lookin' at me now? Since you couldn't seem to stop earlier," Gajeel smirked./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Still she said nothing./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"ANSWER ME DAMMIT!" he grabbed a handful of her hair and jerked her face up, "And look at me when I am talking to you."/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"A small tear ran down her cheek as she tried to ignore the pain, "I-I-I...I'm sorry Gajeel. I didn't mean to stare," she looked at him with fearful eyes, " It won't happen again."/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Damn straight it won't happen again. Not without my permission," He let go of her hair./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"And clean up your desk. It's a mess," with a muscular hand he swiped his hand on top of her table, causing all her stuff to scatter all over the floor. He then stalked out the room, leaving Levy to pick up her things and biting back the tears./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="text-decoration-line: underline;"/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="text-decoration-line: underline;"xXx/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"She had put on the bravest face she could all day, but it was proving harder and harder each time. Every time she walked past him, he would give her a hard push and she would slam into the lockers. He would always remind her of her short stature by calling her, "Short-stuff", "Shrimp" or "Shorty." She also hated the constant feeling of fear by the way he would intimidate her. She'll never know what she did to invoke his constant torment when all she ever did when they first met, was be polite and be nice to him./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"When lunchtime came she was looking forward to eating her tuna and mayo sandwich in the bathroom stall with her Edgar Allan Poe book. She just needed a break and something to distract her from this horrible day. She was just about to head to bathroom with her brown paper bag in hand when she felt a tight grip on her forearm. She was violently jerked back and had she not been held tightly, she would have fallen over./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Oh no you don't!" a rough voice barked. She looked up to see crimson red eyes staring at her. "You are going to have lunch with me today."/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"He walked off, still holding her arm tightly. She had let herself be dragged along. It was better to just go along without putting up a fight because she knew she would not be the one emerging victorious in this fight. She quickened her steps to keep up with his long strides./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"He lead her all the way outside towards a big tree providing plenty of shade. There were kids already having lunch there but with one quick glare from the raven haired boy, the fled within a blink of an eye./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Sit," he commanded. Levy obeyed./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"She timidly opened up her brown bag and fished out her sandwich wrapped in clingwrap. As soon as she took it out Gajeel snatched out of her hands. "What is this shit?" he sniffed at her lunch. "Tuna? That's disgusting!" he stood up and tossed it in the nearby dustbin./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Levy's shoulders sank. She really was looking forward to eating that sandwich. Now all she had to nibble on was an apple. She reached in her bag and grabbed the big red shiny fruit. She was about to take a bite when she caught Gajeel glaring at her. She quickly offered it to him instead. He looked shocked at the gesture. He looked at her then the apple and slowly reached for it and shoved it in his bag and gave a grunt. /span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"He dug through his bag and shoved half a sandwich in her hand, "Here," he growled./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Thank you," she squeaked and inspected what was given to her. It looked like a bacon, egg and cheese toasted sandwich. She could feel his eyes watching her intently as she took a tiny bite. She chewed very slowly, feeling a knot in her stomach. This whole ordeal was making her lose her appetite so she forced to eat what was given to her. She didn't want to invoke his wrath any further./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"'It's good," she mumbled. Seeming satisfied with her comment, he hate the other half of the sandwich./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"They sat in silence eating. Gajeel seemed to be happy not having conversation and Levy was to frightened to utter another word. Not that she would know what to say anyway. What do you discuss with your tormentor? The weather?/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Levy had just finished nibbling the last of her lunch when Gajeel had suddenly shoved another thing into her tiny hands. It was a tiny slice of chocolate cake with red icing. /span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"What's the occasion?" she asked before she could stop herself. She covered her mouth with her hand in shock, hoping she just didn't speak out of turn./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"None of your business," he growled before tucking into his own slice./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"The bluenette said nothing and simply begun to nibble on the slice. Just when they had finished eating, the bell rang to indicate it was time to get back to class. Gajeel stood up first and stalked off, leaving the girl behind./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Thank you," she whispered. The boy had heard her but continued walking./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Levy dusted off her hands and threw away her brown bag. She then rushed off to go grab her things, still feeling dazed and confused about the strange occurrence that had just happened./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"For the rest of the day, Gajeel had taken his normal seat next to her in every class. However he had left her alone. He didn't pull her hair. He didn't kick the back of her legs or push her off the chair. He still stuck close to her but didn't pick on her in anyway. If having lunch with him everyday will calm him down like this all the time, then she would gladly face that awkardness./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="text-decoration-line: underline;"xXx/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Gajeel walked through his garden gate and towards the solid oak front door. He pushed it open and with an exasperated sigh, threw his bag down. As he closed the door behind him, his mother came running towards him, the bruise on her eye still fresh from this morning./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Gajeel!" she looked at him with frightened eyes, "How could you get in a fight with your father this morning!? I don't know how I was able to stop him from injuring you further but since is a new stituation, there is no telling what he is going to do when he gets home!"/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"The 14 year old studied his mother carefully. Her blue eye swollen to the point where she could barely open it. There was a scab in the middle of her bottom lip from where it was split last week. Multiple spots of bruises decorated her two arms. Some browned with age and others glowed a fresh blue and purple colour. She still limped slightly when her ankle got twisted a month ago. Somehow, even after having being used to seeing this sight for 14 years, this morning he had lost it with his father. It had angered him to see his mother fall down after working so hard to bake Gajeel a chocolate cake for his birthday. He was infuriated with hearing his father call her "Ugly", "Useless", "A piece of shit."/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Gajeel had snapped and launched himself at his father. Metalicana was caught of guard and Gajeel was able to land a punch. But his father quickly overpowered and landed a punch in his face. The boy was thrown back and fell to the floor. Metalicana stood up and was about to launch himself at his son when Aries suddenly threw herself over Gajeel./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"She looked up at her husband and pleaded with him, "Don't hurt our son! Please! It wasn't his fault!" Metalicana stopped and looked at her, surprised. Aries continued, "You know your son loves you and adores you too much to ever attack you. It must have been a spike of testosterone levels or puberty or something that made him lash out. I know for a fact he would never do it again. You are too much of a role model to this boy."/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Metalicana looked at his then his son. Gajeel stayed quiet, trying to bite back his fury. Eventually Metalicana turned and grabbed his briefcase and headed towards the door. He turned his head towards them and growled, "Don't let it happen again."/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"As soon as he had left, Gajeel had pushed his mother off of him and left for school, ignoring her pleas for him to wait. /span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Now he was back home and had to face the consequences. He picked up his bag and once again pushed past his mother and stomped to his room, slamming the door behind him. He tuned out the sound of her crying by switching on his computer and playing some Maximum the Hormone./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"He dumped his bag next to his bed flopped on top of the covers. He flipped over onto his back and lay there with his hands behind his head. He stared up at the ceiling, deep in thought about the bluenette girl at school. The one who made his heart flutter. The one who was kind, brave and caring. He thought about how brave she was to dare look at him out of the corner of her eye during Math class. He thought about how kind she was when she gave him that apple at lunch, the first birthday gift he had ever received from anyone at school. Not to mention that she even sat with him during lunch on this special day. How she only devoted herself to him and no one else. Never even bothered to befriend anyone else but him./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"He would never call her names like, "Ugly" or "Useless" like his father does with his mother. He only has pet names for her like "Short-stuff" or "Shrimp" since she is such a tiny thing. He always amazes him how a girl this tiny has such power to make him go crazy./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Levy McGarden, is all he had ever wanted in a companion.../span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"The alarm clock went off, interrupting her pleasant dreams where amazing stories from her books came to life. The kind of stories where the main protagonist was a strong, independent female, who feared nothing and could strike down anyone who would dare to harm her. Sometimes, she ended up as the main protagonist, which brought her much joy. She had been having these types of dreams a lot lately. She reckoned it was her mind's subconscious effort to keep her from breaking and falling apart. To help her survive the horrors of her day to day life./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"She turned to her side, hugging her pillow tightly. She felt like bursting into tears but stayed strong. She considered mimicking the same actions as you would see on TV, where kids would heat up thermometers to fake a high fever to avoid going to school. But then again, her parents pushed her to be perfect at everything at school including attendance, that unless she was bleeding out of every orifice in her body, they would still force her to go to school./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"She slowly willed the courage to get up. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and just sat there, hunched over. She looked up at her bookshelf, scanning through all the paperbacks filled with stories of wondrous characters who possessed the courage she could never have./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"She sighed heavily. Levy McGarden was a frightened young girl, with no friends and no life beyond school. Even school wasn't much of a life but rather a horror story involving the evil antagonist, Gajeel Redfox. A shiver went down her spine. Even thinking about his name terrified her./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Her phone buzzed beside her, pulling away from her distracted thoughts. She grabbed it and answered it without even looking at the screen, "Hello Mother."/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Are you up and dressed yet?" her mother asked sternly./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Yes," lied Levy, biting her lip./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Good. Because I know how distracted you get if you are reading a book. You know I encourage taking an interest in literature but I will not tolerate - "/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"" span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"- it affecting attendance and academic excellence from me. I know,"/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Good. As long as you know. Breakfast has been made and is waiting for you on the table. Your father and I will be working late again tonight. So go out there and be my perfect and intelligent daughter. I expect great things from you."/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Yes Mother. I love you." Levy said softly./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"I love you too." replied her Mother./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Levy ended the phone call and got up from her bed. She shuffled towards her bookshelf and selected a book to shove inside her backpack. Edgar Allan Poe shall be her friend today. Some Macabre themes will match perfectly with her dreaded mood today./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="text-decoration: underline;"xXx/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"She sat at her desk, waiting for class to start. Hiding in the classroom before first period was one of the few safe havens she had. Gajeel always arrived late for school. Slowly her classmates started filling the room, many looking at her with pitiful glances. They all knew what she was going through. Some had even tried to jump on the bandwagon of picking on her. But the one thing about Gajeel, was that he wouldn't allow it. He had ripped on many potential bullies who had dared to try approach her. No one was allowed to intimidate Levy but Gajeel Redfox. And the whole school knew it and no one dared to defy it./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"The bell rang and everyone took their seats. A loud rustling noise echoed throughout the room as stationary was taken out of backpacks and textbooks being paged through to the correct chapter. An elderly male educator shuffled slowly towards his desk, showing his lack of interest to be at work today. For the first half hour he droned on about algebra and showing how the Pythagorean theorem worked when Gajeel came stalking in the room. The educator ignored him and didn't miss a beat in his lecture./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"emNot even the teachers would dare step up to Gajeel,/emspan style="font-style: normal;" Levy thought sadly. She peeked out the corner of her eye, watching Gajeel take his usual seat next to her. He let his bag drop with a loud thud and he let out an angry low growl. Levy shivered in fear. He was in a bad mood today./span/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"She dared sneak another glance at his face to see in how bad of a mood he was so that she could mentally prepare herself for what was to come. To her surprise she noticed that he had a split lip. The wound still looked fresh. Not only was she surprised that someone had the guts to get into a brawl with this masculine giant, but that someone even managed to land a hit./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Gajeel caught her looking and angrily glared at her. Levy jumped and quickly turned back to the notes she was taking earlier. She shivered slightly. She heard a faint, "Hmph," sound, knowing Gajeel was satisfied with seeing her fear./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"After the bell rang again to indicate the class was over, everyone hurried to pack their things and rush off to their next lesson. The teacher looked at the little bluenette with sad eyes before walking out the room. Levy was busy packing away her things when Gajeel suddenly slammed two hands on her table and towered in front of her. She was too terrified to look up at him./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Did you like what you saw, Short-stuff?"/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Levy rapidly shook her head and looked down at her lap./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Why ain't you lookin' at me now? Since you couldn't seem to stop earlier," Gajeel smirked./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Still she said nothing./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"ANSWER ME DAMMIT!" he grabbed a handful of her hair and jerked her face up, "And look at me when I am talking to you."/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"A small tear ran down her cheek as she tried to ignore the pain, "I-I-I...I'm sorry Gajeel. I didn't mean to stare," she looked at him with fearful eyes, " It won't happen again."/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Damn straight it won't happen again. Not without my permission," He let go of her hair./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"And clean up your desk. It's a mess," with a muscular hand he swiped his hand on top of her table, causing all her stuff to scatter all over the floor. He then stalked out the room, leaving Levy to pick up her things and biting back the tears./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="text-decoration-line: underline;"/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="text-decoration-line: underline;"xXx/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"She had put on the bravest face she could all day, but it was proving harder and harder each time. Every time she walked past him, he would give her a hard push and she would slam into the lockers. He would always remind her of her short stature by calling her, "Short-stuff", "Shrimp" or "Shorty." She also hated the constant feeling of fear by the way he would intimidate her. She'll never know what she did to invoke his constant torment when all she ever did when they first met, was be polite and be nice to him./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"When lunchtime came she was looking forward to eating her tuna and mayo sandwich in the bathroom stall with her Edgar Allan Poe book. She just needed a break and something to distract her from this horrible day. She was just about to head to bathroom with her brown paper bag in hand when she felt a tight grip on her forearm. She was violently jerked back and had she not been held tightly, she would have fallen over./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Oh no you don't!" a rough voice barked. She looked up to see crimson red eyes staring at her. "You are going to have lunch with me today."/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"He walked off, still holding her arm tightly. She had let herself be dragged along. It was better to just go along without putting up a fight because she knew she would not be the one emerging victorious in this fight. She quickened her steps to keep up with his long strides./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"He lead her all the way outside towards a big tree providing plenty of shade. There were kids already having lunch there but with one quick glare from the raven haired boy, the fled within a blink of an eye./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Sit," he commanded. Levy obeyed./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"She timidly opened up her brown bag and fished out her sandwich wrapped in clingwrap. As soon as she took it out Gajeel snatched out of her hands. "What is this shit?" he sniffed at her lunch. "Tuna? That's disgusting!" he stood up and tossed it in the nearby dustbin./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Levy's shoulders sank. She really was looking forward to eating that sandwich. Now all she had to nibble on was an apple. She reached in her bag and grabbed the big red shiny fruit. She was about to take a bite when she caught Gajeel glaring at her. She quickly offered it to him instead. He looked shocked at the gesture. He looked at her then the apple and slowly reached for it and shoved it in his bag and gave a grunt. /span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"He dug through his bag and shoved half a sandwich in her hand, "Here," he growled./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Thank you," she squeaked and inspected what was given to her. It looked like a bacon, egg and cheese toasted sandwich. She could feel his eyes watching her intently as she took a tiny bite. She chewed very slowly, feeling a knot in her stomach. This whole ordeal was making her lose her appetite so she forced to eat what was given to her. She didn't want to invoke his wrath any further./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"'It's good," she mumbled. Seeming satisfied with her comment, he hate the other half of the sandwich./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"They sat in silence eating. Gajeel seemed to be happy not having conversation and Levy was to frightened to utter another word. Not that she would know what to say anyway. What do you discuss with your tormentor? The weather?/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Levy had just finished nibbling the last of her lunch when Gajeel had suddenly shoved another thing into her tiny hands. It was a tiny slice of chocolate cake with red icing. /span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"What's the occasion?" she asked before she could stop herself. She covered her mouth with her hand in shock, hoping she just didn't speak out of turn./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"None of your business," he growled before tucking into his own slice./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"The bluenette said nothing and simply begun to nibble on the slice. Just when they had finished eating, the bell rang to indicate it was time to get back to class. Gajeel stood up first and stalked off, leaving the girl behind./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Thank you," she whispered. The boy had heard her but continued walking./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Levy dusted off her hands and threw away her brown bag. She then rushed off to go grab her things, still feeling dazed and confused about the strange occurrence that had just happened./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"For the rest of the day, Gajeel had taken his normal seat next to her in every class. However he had left her alone. He didn't pull her hair. He didn't kick the back of her legs or push her off the chair. He still stuck close to her but didn't pick on her in anyway. If having lunch with him everyday will calm him down like this all the time, then she would gladly face that awkardness./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="text-decoration-line: underline;"xXx/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" /p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Gajeel walked through his garden gate and towards the solid oak front door. He pushed it open and with an exasperated sigh, threw his bag down. As he closed the door behind him, his mother came running towards him, the bruise on her eye still fresh from this morning./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;""span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Gajeel!" she looked at him with frightened eyes, "How could you get in a fight with your father this morning!? I don't know how I was able to stop him from injuring you further but since is a new stituation, there is no telling what he is going to do when he gets home!"/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"The 14 year old studied his mother carefully. Her blue eye swollen to the point where she could barely open it. There was a scab in the middle of her bottom lip from where it was split last week. Multiple spots of bruises decorated her two arms. Some browned with age and others glowed a fresh blue and purple colour. She still limped slightly when her ankle got twisted a month ago. Somehow, even after having being used to seeing this sight for 14 years, this morning he had lost it with his father. It had angered him to see his mother fall down after working so hard to bake Gajeel a chocolate cake for his birthday. He was infuriated with hearing his father call her "Ugly", "Useless", "A piece of shit."/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Gajeel had snapped and launched himself at his father. Metalicana was caught of guard and Gajeel was able to land a punch. But his father quickly overpowered and landed a punch in his face. The boy was thrown back and fell to the floor. Metalicana stood up and was about to launch himself at his son when Aries suddenly threw herself over Gajeel./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"She looked up at her husband and pleaded with him, "Don't hurt our son! Please! It wasn't his fault!" Metalicana stopped and looked at her, surprised. Aries continued, "You know your son loves you and adores you too much to ever attack you. It must have been a spike of testosterone levels or puberty or something that made him lash out. I know for a fact he would never do it again. You are too much of a role model to this boy."/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Metalicana looked at his then his son. Gajeel stayed quiet, trying to bite back his fury. Eventually Metalicana turned and grabbed his briefcase and headed towards the door. He turned his head towards them and growled, "Don't let it happen again."/span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"As soon as he had left, Gajeel had pushed his mother off of him and left for school, ignoring her pleas for him to wait. /span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Now he was back home and had to face the consequences. He picked up his bag and once again pushed past his mother and stomped to his room, slamming the door behind him. He tuned out the sound of her crying by switching on his computer and playing some Maximum the Hormone./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"He dumped his bag next to his bed flopped on top of the covers. He flipped over onto his back and lay there with his hands behind his head. He stared up at the ceiling, deep in thought about the bluenette girl at school. The one who made his heart flutter. The one who was kind, brave and caring. He thought about how brave she was to dare look at him out of the corner of her eye during Math class. He thought about how kind she was when she gave him that apple at lunch, the first birthday gift he had ever received from anyone at school. Not to mention that she even sat with him during lunch on this special day. How she only devoted herself to him and no one else. Never even bothered to befriend anyone else but him./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"He would never call her names like, "Ugly" or "Useless" like his father does with his mother. He only has pet names for her like "Short-stuff" or "Shrimp" since she is such a tiny thing. He always amazes him how a girl this tiny has such power to make him go crazy./span/p
p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"Levy McGarden, is all he had ever wanted in a companion.../span/p