So this is what happens when I can't sleep because reasons… Slightly OC simply because I exaggerated some of the things that Gajeel may or may not have done, but whatever. I wasn't in the best of moods, can you tell? Hahha!

ENJOY!

#4: Forgiveness

"A life time won't make up for the things I've done, but I'd gladly spend a life time by your side if it means there's a chance at forgiveness…"

He was a different man.

Before he was not a man at all, but a monster. He had loved it. He wanted to be feared. He wanted to see the panic in his victims' eyes when he advanced. He wanted to hear them beg for mercy under his boots. He love the fight, the thrill of the chase, playing with his prey like cat and mouse, he loved the blood on his hands and clothes. The smell of it, the iron of it, the taste in his mouth and the way it settled in his stomach. There was a time when he wouldn't have thought twice about ending someone's life, especially those weaker than him.

Back then he was the great Karougane. The feared Black Steel Gajeel. He was a Dragon Slayer – a monster like a dragon, and a slayer of those in his way. He was Phantom Lord's strongest mage. Besides Juvia, he walked with no one at his side, a black shadow in the streets of the cities. He was always called for the assignations, the politicians who wanted someone eradicated, the bloody work, and he never turned them down, never failed to deliver, always got blood on his hands, always. He was a fearless, emotionless fighting machine. Raised and trained by a dragon, he was the baddest Motherfucker in the Valley. He got what he wanted, when he wanted, or someone's head got bashed in.

Before FairyTail, he was a different man. He had done terrible heinous things, and for the first time in his life, he wished he could take it all away. He had once thought that he had no regrets – regrets were proof that you were wrong and fucked up – he was not weak, he was the Iron Dragon Slayer for crying out loud! FairyTail changed all of that. He had brushed off the whole "nakama" thing pretty quickly, not that the rest of the guild minded – they still weren't too happy with him or comfortable enough to call him family. Not that he cared really. But still, the desire to take away he pain he had caused them was so strong it kept him up at night, though he would never admit it. The feelings only got stronger when he was accepted into the guild, into their hearts.

But even that wasn't enough. Sure, it was nice to have friends that he could fool around with and let off some steam with – and they kept coming back for more – and the jobs were better in FairyTail than they had been in Phantom Lord. That probably had something to do with the fact that FairyTail was more approachable than Phantom Lord had been. Though he found himself enjoying the company of his peers for the first time in his life, the weight of memories and guilt still held his heart and soul in an iron grip.

Back in the day, he wouldn't have cared if he had hurt someone. He didn't need friends, or love, those were things for pussies and he was no pussy. Just when he thought he was doomed to die a guilty man, a miracle happened. There was one person who he owed the most too, simply for the ass he had been. At first he had resisted, opting to watch her from the shadows as he had done once before. He could only keep that up for so long though, and he resigned to the fact that he had to face her sooner or later. A dragon fearful of a shrimp. Pathetic.

But nonetheless he had offered, demanded really, to be her partner for the S-class Trials. He had spent the week leading up to the event training her. He had been utterly disappointed in her lack of skill when they had first encountered each other, and he wasn't impressed to see how little her fighting had improved since then. By the weeks end she was better off physically, but he had still resigned to the fact that he would have to do the majority of the brute work. Not that he cared really, he still loved to fight.

But he hadn't counted on saving her life, twice. Much less that she would defend him a few times from the enemy. His intent in protecting her was more than simply ensuring the survival of a guild mate, he wanted to show her he was going to protect her from monsters like him, or what he had been. He wanted to make amends for the pain and suffering he had put her through. Though he said it was for the guild when he had battled the two Grimoire Heart members, it was really for her. So that she could be safe, So that she could live, so that her heart-stopping, infectious smile wouldn't ever leave her face. So he told her to run, to get away and live, and he had thought she had obeyed…

But he was wrong. And damnit all if his hear didn't skip a beat when her attack saved his sorry ass from the enemy he hadn't seen coming up behind him. Part of him was glad she was ok, part was mad because she hadn't listened and was in danger again, and part of him was glad she hadn't left him behind. And on top of all that, to go and drag his fat ass all over the damn island… He had seriously underestimated this tiny woman. He had told her so, drunk on pain and adrenaline and the smell of her hair and sweat as she lugged him around, but she probably had brushed it off thinking he wasn't in the right state of mind. He had meant every word. And he had heard every word she had said while she protected him while he was injured. What a cruel twist of fate to have the victim protect the bad guy?

But was he really the bad guy anymore? He felt like it at times still. Something had changed on that island. Something in those seven years they were sleeping or frozen in time or whatever, something about holding her to his chest as the Black Dragon's attack collided with that of the First's power, something about nuzzling his nose into her hair, her hands gripping his hair with all her might as she clung to him, something about thinking these were his last moments and that he was going to die protecting the person he had destroyed not a few months back… Fate really did hate him…

But it didn't matter, because they didn't die, because when they awoke and she was still in his arms sleeping like a baby, he finally felt what peace was. And he felt what love was when she opened her eyes and looked straight into his, smiling that beautiful, radiant smile that lit up the whole world and told him she was so glad he was alive. It was then he knew, he could feel it in every fiber of his beaning that he would protect that smile for the rest of his days. As her small hands wrapped around his neck and her face moved closer to his in slow motion, he swore to the gods and back that he would gladly spend a lifetime at her side, as he had once told her to stay by, if it meant that he would somehow, someday, be forgiven for the sins he committed against this stunning little angle, who was currently kissing him and causing his insides to melt into a happy puddle of goo.

Before that day, he had sworn to redeem himself of his wrongs as a member of FairyTail, but today, he swore it a as a man to the woman he vowed to stand by until the day he died.

And so now, as he sat on the window ceil in his bedroom, gazing at the bright stars above them, basking in the moonlight, he thought about that promise he had made all those years ago.

Movement out of the corner of his eye caused him to look back at the oversized bed where a figure rolled over in sleep. His gaze softened at the mass of blue hair and exposed skin of her neck, shoulders and back as it curved down to that lovely ass of hers. He could identify several marks on that milky skin, marks that were his declarations of love to the petite mage, as he had shown her time and time again how much he loved her. Loved her flawless skin under his fingers and fangs, the silkiness of her hair in his fists, the sounds of her moans and gasps and how she said his name when he found the right spot, loved how she loved him unconditionally. Loved her for all she was the bigger person, the stronger person, the more powerful of the two. He wouldn't ever be as strong as she was, and he felt it his duty to show her that, show her who much he worshiped her.

Yes, he was a very different man now. Different dragon too. Before he fought for himself, for the thrill of the kill, for the taste of blood. Now he fought to protect his beautiful woman, her smile, her love, her happiness, for her, of her, because of her, for the right to be by her side. He may have once been the monster that haunted her nightmares, but now he was the one to chase her fears away and hold her close. He couldn't change the past, and if this was what it meant to atone for one's sins, then he would stay on his knees, at her side for eternity.