...Three months later...
For the last hour he had been staring at the ceiling, he memorized every swirl, nick ,scratch, and hole. His observation was out of boredom, and the fact there was no way in hell he could sleep through this storm with the way the waves were rocking the boat. He could hear other people running around outside his door, and footsteps on the deck above, but he wasn't feeling very social at the moment. His bunk mate was snoring below him, he envied the way the man could sleep through anything. If Gajeel could sleep actually, he wouldn't have to deal with how sick he felt. Not many people knew about the fact he got seasick, it wasn't something he liked to admit and the only two people who knew about his little problem was the captain of the ship, and his bunk mate below. His sickness just didn't stop at boats, it didn't matter if he was in a carriage, or on a horse or even a train. Anything that moved in that annoying violent jerking motion just made his stomach do flips, but boats were his least favorite way to travel.
Gajeel honestly would have rather walked home, he didn't care if it would have taken the better part of a month, anything to avoid the three days of hell that he just went through. It wasn't very often that he got sick enough to puke, but seventy-two hours of discomfort, plus the extra rocking of the storm was putting him on edge. He had been counting down the minutes until they docked, he still had another three hours until they were in the bay and then an hour after that to dock. The last time he checked he could just see the outline of the city through the fog, he couldn't wait to be on dry land again, he was going to kiss it. This whole trip had been bitter sweet, it was like his last hurrah. At midnight he turned twenty, he asked the captain to keep quiet about it, it was bad enough his mother would have some extravagant get together. He didn't feel like getting drinks shoved in his face all night too.
Gajeel knew he was privileged, there was no doubt about that, he was the oldest son of the Iron Kingdom, one of the most beautiful places in the world. He was heir to the throne, and next year on his twenty-first birthday he would become king. His family's Kingdom was the trading capital of the world, they were pretty much smack dab in the middle of everything. His country was known to have the fiercest warriors, the most beautiful women, and the strongest metals. There weren't many people dumb enough to get on the Iron Kingdoms bad side, and the people that did, were crushed easily. People always told him that he had the life that they dreamed about.
Gajeel grew up with the best tutors, the strictest instructors and the best food. All of his life he was shaped and polished into being a good king and there were a lot of things he was punished for, when others just got a slap on the wrist. The same people who told him how lucky he was, didn't realize the prison he had been stuck in all of his life. When he was a child he didn't want to be molded into a king, he wanted to play outside with his friends, but he was always stuck studying one thing or another and it made him a really shitty kid. He remembered being a snotty little brat when people would question him on his bad behavior and he would ask him if that was anyway to talk to their future king. He got teased about it now, but he was just as jealous of other people as they were of him. Even his brothers had more freedom, it was the curse of being the first born. As an adult he realized that he had a responsibility to his people to be the best King that he could, but most of the time he just thought about how fucked he really was.
"Gajeel if you want to sleep the day away, I suggest you go home and do it. I have things to do." Gajeel didn't even remember falling back to sleep, but when he cracked an eye open to look at whoever was talking to him the room was a whole lot brighter. "We docked over an hour ago, but i figured you could use a little more sleep before you returned to your princely duties." Gajeel rolled his eyes at the comment, but he appreciated the fact that Lily was always looking out for him. Panther Lily was one of the few people who bothered to get to know more about him than the fact he was a prince, most people either had an agenda and tried to get close to Gajeel to use him. Or they just assumed he was some stuck up brat and just didn't bother with him at all. Lily was one of the commanders of the kingdoms army, and when Gajeel's father passed away, Lily told him there was always an open door for him if he needed took a few years for Gajeel to reach out, but when he finally did a friendship formed. Even his mother noticed the difference when Gajeel started spending time with Lily, it wasn't rare that he decided to tag along on Lily's missions and trips, and he eventually became an unofficial part of Lily's team.
"Where's all my shit?" Gajeel was finally up enough to accept the coffee that was offered to him, his whole room was cleared out and he could tell his room mate was long gone by the way the whole room was spotless. He wasn't sure how Lily got his mother to agree to it, but he had spent the last six months traveling around with Lily. It was a breathe of fresh air, six months of just being some guy, after the first month the crew stopped treating him like he was made of glass, and he actually got along with his room mate Laxus. Coming home was bitter sweet, he was so restless to leave in the beginning and he wasn't exactly ready to come home. But the deal was that Gajeel had to be home before his birthday and Lily made it a point to stall as long as possible because they both knew this would be their last trip together for a while. There was an unspoken agreement that neither one of them would be telling his mother any details of what happened during their most recent trip, Gajeel had a few new scars he wouldn't be telling her about, and even though Lily promised that he would keep a close eye on Gajeel the minute they docked in another city Lily let him do whatever he wanted within reason. Gajeel wouldn't be telling his mother about his new piercing either.
"Laxus took care of it for you, he said you looked like you needed your beauty sleep. I told you he liked you." Some of Lily's crew were a little iffy when Gajeel started hanging around with them. But Laxus was one of the few people who didn't seem to care one way or the other. He pretty much treated everyone the same, if you were annoying he didn't want to be around you, if you were a slacker he would get in your ass, other than that he was pretty nonchalant. He even offered to room with Gajeel when he found out he would be tagging along, neither one of them wanted to be stuck with someone annoying, and both of them did their part so they never had any problems. Laxus had a group of followers that were always in his space, so that also meant they had been in Gajeel's space recently, he didn't mind them too much most of the time. But occasionally his sleep would be broken by one or more of them coming in to get Laxus.
"He ain't have to do that, I would have taken care of it." Gajeel knew he needed to quit stalling, Lily had a wife and a kid to get home to. A family he hadn't seen in six months, he didn't need to be standing here trying to convince Gajeel to go home. "Thanks Lil, you better not forget about me, and let me rot in the castle forever."
Gajeel was trying to lay low, he knew a way back into the castle without being seen, as much as he loved and missed his younger brothers he knew the minute he seen them they were going to want to fight to see which one of them were stronger. He was too tired to deal with that right away, so he was hoping that he could at least get in another nap before the twins or his younger brother Natsu caught wind that he was home. Not to mention he knew his mom had a hidden agenda, since the moment he turned fifteen his mother had been parading girls in and out of the Kingdom hoping that he would pick a bride, and Gajeel had been having a hell of a time getting rid of them. Gajeel had no interest in romance, he thought it was an outdated and stupid rule that you had to be married to be King, he was hoping by the time he took the throne they would have changed the rule, or at least made an exception for him. Since he had been gone so long he was sure his mom had every willing woman she could find lined up in a room somewhere just waiting for him to finally cave and chose someone.
What Gajeel wasn't expecting was his mother to be waiting for him in his room. "My baby boy! Look at you. My little mans all grown up." As much as he didn't want to admit it, he missed her the most. It was rare that he was affectionate, but he had no problem pulling his mom into a tight hug and telling her how much he loved her. When you lose one parent, you hold onto the other a little tighter, even with the way they rarely seen eye to eye, he knew she meant well. "It was twenty years ago that I held you in my arms for the first time. And its been twenty years that you've been trying to wiggle free." He couldn't help but smile at that, he knew he could be a pain in the ass, but the more she tried to cage him the more he wanted to be free and it was hard for them to find a middle ground sometime. The last time his mother held him like this it was right before she announced to him and his brother that she was pregnant.
Eight year old Gajeel was pissed, one younger sibling was bad enough. Natsu was a screaming banshee of a six year old, and chasing him around was hard enough. He almost fainted when she told him it was twins, the thought of two more brothers was bad enough, if they ended up being girls Gajeel would have ran away from home. Gajeel didn't have much trouble dealing with his brothers, he just had to make sure they didn't run around lifting skirts, peeking in windows and stealing underwear. He had to knock all three of them in the head from time to time, having sisters would have meant knocking the whole male gender upside the head. Probably some chicks too, and that would just be exhausting. "I know that you just got home, but I don't like to keep secrets. You're already the last one to know, and i don't want you to find out another way. I think you should sit down." Gajeel didn't like being told to sit down, that meant he was about to hear something he didn't want to, and the way his mom was still holding his hand meant that he was really about to be pissed off.
"Honey, I know that you've fought me tooth and nail about finding a bride." That was an understatement, Gajeel spent years running off every princess, duchess, and countess that darkened his doorway. His mother would introduce him to some stuck up, money hungry girl from time to time and he would just be unbearable the minute his mom turned his back on her. The last girl, what was her name? Jenny or something like that, he managed to knock her into a fountain when she was in her best gown. She looked like a wet cat, and the way her make-up ran down her face just made the whole thing so much funnier. Gajeel was just laughing too hard to help her out, so she just struggled on her own until a few of the guards came to her rescue. Good times. "Your engagement was announced in January, and your wedding will be in the fall."