AN: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima!

Cue entrance of the narrator with his own little side story – honest, there is a point to him!

Chapter Two - The New Neighbour

Gajeel sat staring, mindlessly, at his computer screen, the numbers all blurring into one as the bright light from the busy screen failed to register in his preoccupied brain. He was once again sitting thinking in silence about his new neighbour across the hall; well it had been three months since she'd moved into the block of flats so she wasn't exactly 'new' anymore. It was just that he had annoyingly missed his opportunity to start a real conversation with her, the kind where he could ask lots of questions such as 'where had she just moved from', 'did she have any family' and other pointless but interesting things like that.

He'd heard all the commotion of her moving in – it was impossible not too since it had taken over five hours just to unload an unusual number of very heavy-looking boxes from the hired movers' lorry downstairs, and by that point the poor movers had already had to lug all her furniture up the four flights of stairs to her flat. Gajeel was a naturally curious guy, even if he was a little 'reserved'. He'd quietly stuck his head out his door to decide if it was safe to go introduce himself after the movers had finally left, but when he had there had been two tall men standing in her doorway in his way with their backs to him. He'd only known his neighbour was female because they'd repeatedly called her 'Levy' in annoyingly high-pitched voices.

Every time Gajeel decided to introduce himself over the next month he was met with the same irritating problem. After a month had passed he'd decided that it was maybe a little late for 'welcoming her to the building' so he'd have to come up with some sort of 'ingenious' plan – and that's exactly what he did. One late night after he'd finished work about three and a half weeks ago he'd realised he couldn't hear the usual two men in the flat across the hall from him, so he did what any normal neighbour would do. He knocked loudly on her door to ask if he could 'borrow a cup of sugar' while sincerely apologising for not introducing himself sooner. She seemed kind of tiny and vacant to the huge guy as he spoke to her. She told him there was no need to apologise, got him a cup of sugar and shut him out.

Gajeel was totally fixated.

Not only was she the smallest, cutest, most fragile-looking human being he'd ever seen, but she wasn't afraid of him, in fact she was totally indifferent. Everyone stared at him, many even cowered from him or crossed the street just to avoid him. He couldn't help his unusual height, but not only was Gajeel tall but he was also a very broad, muscular man who just happened to have long raven-black hair descending the full length of his back, and of course, multiple piercings on his face and arms. The fact that she had barely even acknowledged him when she'd answered the door to him had him completely and utterly intrigued. He had to know more about her. So for the last four weeks, Gajeel had been knocking on her door whenever she was alone to ask her if he could 'borrow' various items that he didn't even actually need just to entertain his irrational curiosity about the tiny woman across the hall. Each time he did, she was still just as vacant as she had been that first time when she'd answered the door to his usually intimidating figure standing over her.

"Gajeel?" a female voice echoed sweetly through his head, "Gajeel?! Those numbers aren't going to sort themselves into any form of useful information."

"Huh? Sorry." He mumbled to his busty, blue-haired co-worker and 'best friend'.

"It's that Levy woman again, isn't it? Juvia thinks you should maybe take Laxus' offer and go out for a drink with everyone tonight, Gajeel. Juvia knows you don't drink outside your flat anymore, but it might take your mind off that silly little woman you've been thinking about all week!" Juvia scolded him, as she had had to do most days this week.

"I just want to know which one it is! They're both there for the first half of the week, and then she's out somewhere 'til about four in the morning for the other half. She can't be with both of them 'til that time of the morning surely?" Gajeel pondered out loud.

"Sounds like you need a drink! You gonna join us tonight, Gajeel?! How 'bout you baby?!" Bixslow hollered, rolling his absurdly long, pointed tongue out of his ridiculously large, open-mouthed grin, while looking his curvaceous female co-worker up and down with greedy eyes. "Bacchus says it's gonna be WILD!"

Gajeel looked away from the screen to look over at the other over-sized male sitting at one of the other double desks just across from them who was eyeing up his friend, feeling severally sick at the thought of what would be going through the other guy's messed up head. What was it with Bixslow and hitting on every woman he met? Always referring to them as 'Baby' – what would he call 'his girl' if he actually managed to get one and keep her?! She'd start to feel paranoid if she was 'Baby' as well! Gajeel realised he still hadn't answered the other guy and sighed inwardly. One night couldn't hurt, could it?

"Sure. I'll come." He answered grudgingly, silently adding 'even though I'll regret it'.

"Great! Hey! Ever-baby! Tell Laxus his cousin is finally coming out with us tonight!" He hollered over to Laxus' assistant, Evergreen, who gave him a stone-cold glare in return from her desk outside Laxus' office. Then he gave his classic tongue-focused grin to Bacchus on the other side of their double desk, knowing full well how far he could push her before she resorted to violence.

"Last time I checked, Bixslow, Laxus hadn't even agreed to go out drinking. I believe he's still moping over that wench that walked out on him two months ago – remember?!" Evergreen hissed at the over-sized fool that she had to work with, and spend a large amount of her 'spare time' with since she spent most of her time with her boss who was close to the two buffoons...and of course, related to the studded freak – not that they spent much time together. Evergreen decided to phone down to their friend Freed who ran the floor below them. He was their superior since his promotion, but still a good friend, and still completely devoted to her boss.

Gajeel watched his co-workers with some amusement, remembering why his cousin kept the devoted band of idiots around. He glanced over at Bacchus, still wary of the other man. He hadn't been with the company long but he'd somehow managed to get onto their floor. He'd noticed the other man nosing around his cousin's ex-girlfriend when they had still been together, but his cousin brushed it off saying that his chick wasn't going anywhere. Apparently she had been, just not with the guy he'd been worried about. He wasn't sure if Laxus had told him the whole truth about what had happened that morning between him and Lucy, but Gajeel wasn't really all that bothered as long as he wasn't the one that Laxus took it out on. Recently that had been the evil bitch that was his assistant, granted that seriously pissed her off which meant everyone on their floor was at risk of being shouted at or being repeatedly hit by her damn fan! Thankfully a little hand-held traditional folding one and not one of the big modern electronic, rotating ones...

Gajeel noticed his friend watching him silently over the double desk so he stared back at her until she decided she'd be as well going back to her own work. He knew staring back at her would work, she was very self-conscious; unlike her husband who was some stupid model, but her two kids were kinda cute – as cute as two annoyingly loud little brats can be.

Ok, don't worry it gets back on track next chapter! It just seemed like a good idea to help the story run smoothly and introduce the characters. Juvia is married in this, and I didn't say whether it was Gray or Lyon – I've left you to decide that for yourselves! Your wish is her command ;) The next chapter will be up about the same time tomorrow! :D Thank you for the reviews and follows! :D I'll try to make the chapters a little longer :D