Chapter 13: Scrap Metal

With Phantom Lord dissolved, it was next to impossible to find work. Oh, some of the former members had managed to filter into other wizard guilds, but nobody would touch Gajeel with a ten foot pole. His reputation was notorious, and he had managed to get on the bad side of Master Makarov and Fairy Tail. Nobody would give him work.

Well, almost nobody.

Gajeel hauled another twisted steel bar over his shoulder. The scrap yard was paying him a criminally low wage, but after nearly a month he had been desperate. It's not like he'd had much in the way of savings. The money he had earned had always gone towards rent, food, and decent iron (which wasn't cheap). At least he could afford to eat again. It seemed that the universe had decided to teach him humility the hard way. The scrapyard's owner didn't mind if he snacked on some of the smaller broken pieces of metal, so that was something.

He'd had a lot of time to think lately. Hauling for the scrap yard wasn't exactly a mentally stimulating exercise. And maybe… he had a few regrets. He was trying not to dwell on them too much (except the one where he hadn't managed to turn Salamander into an organic smear across the ground).

A familiar scent caught Gajeel's nose, but something was wrong about it. Not the smell itself but the context. Gajeel glanced up at the sky. Clear blue – not a cloud in sight.

"Gajee?"

Gajeel turned his head. Juvia was picking her way carefully through the scrapyard towards him. She'd cut her hair and was wearing a sleeveless dress. Most importantly, she wasn't carrying her umbrella. Gajeel didn't think he'd ever seen her looking so… happy.

"It's not raining," he stated by way of greeting.

Juvia beamed at him and then spread out her arms and lifted her face towards the sun.

"Isn't it wonderful? Gray made the rain stop. Juvia is no longer just a gloomy rain woman."

Gajeel grunted and then continued to walk. Out of all of his associates from Phantom Lord, Juvia was the only one Gajeel would have classified as a 'friend.' Even so, he wasn't in the mood to deal with happy people.

"What are you doing here?"

"Juvia has been worried about you. She has been trying to track you down since the guild was dissolved, but you never went back to Oak Town."

"Yeah, well, there wasn't much point, was there?" Gajeel dumped the steel beam in the pile he'd been making and turned to go get another. If he'd really put his mind to it, he probably could have had this done already, but if he was too quick, he'd put himself out of a job. As it was, he was already doing the work of three people.

"Have you tried the other guilds?"

"Yup. I'm blackballed. Unless I want to join a dark guild – and I ain't that desperate, yet – nobody wants a foul tempered dragonslayer who can barely read enough Fioran to understand job notices."

Juvia frowned and put her hands on her hips.

"You can read Fioran better than that these days. Juvia made sure of it."

"I'm a thug, Juvia. Nobody legitimate wants a thug associated with their guild."

A ball of water smacked into the back of his head, and Gajeel turned with a growl to glare at Juvia.

"You are not a thug."

"I am." This time his comment was rewarded by a miniature waterfall drenching him. "Will you quit that?!" he snapped. The most irritating thing about Juvia was that her water body made his magic almost useless for retaliation against this sort of thing (unless he was aiming to seriously injure her with a breath attack).

"Juvia will stop when Gajeel is done being a moron," Juvia informed him primly. He just rolled his eyes at her.

"So did you find a new guild? I'm sure somebody was thrilled to get their hands on one of the Element Four." Gajeel hauled another twisted steel beam over his shoulder.

"Juvia- Juvia has joined Fairy Tail." Her voice was soft.

Gajeel nearly dropped the steel beam.

"What?! Are you nuts?! Why didn't you go to Lamia Scale? Or Blue Pegasus? At least those bastards aren't going to be holding a grudge! The second you turn your back, those fairies will tear you to shreds!"

"Gray is in Fairy Tail!"

"Gray?"

"Juvia's love!" She clasped her hands together and practically did a little pirouette on the spot. It was, quite possibly, the most disturbing thing Gajeel had ever seen. "He is truly the most wonderful man in all the world! He saved Juvia's life even though she was the enemy and made the rain stop!"

Gajeel watched in growing horror as Juvia waxed on about the wonders of this 'Gray Fullbuster.' Not so long ago, he and Juvia had been Master Jose's go-to team for taking out problematic dark guilds. Juvia had been one of the only people in the guild not intimidated by their infamous iron dragonslayer. She was calm and cool under pressure, level-headed. He'd always appreciated that about her. Now she was bubbling like a hormone-riddled preteen. It was deeply unsettling.

Apparently all that excess sunshine had fried her brain.

It took nearly ten minutes, but finally Juvia's fangirling began to wind down. Gajeel had moved another six large chunks of scrap metal while she'd been babbling.

"But also," Juvia paused, "Fairy Tail is a warm guild. Their master doesn't encourage them to fight among themselves in order to receive the best paying jobs. They're- they're like family. Juvia… wishes to be a part of this family as well."

"They sound weak," Gajeel muttered, ignoring the bitterness in his own voice.

"You know they're not." Juvia paused again and then suggested hesitantly, "Gajeel could join Fairy Tail as well."

Gajeel snorted.

"Yeah. Right."

"They accepted Juvia."

"You helped kidnap one of their members. I crucified three of them to a tree and destroyed their guildhall. Oh, and beat up that girl you kidnapped because I was bored. There's a bit of a difference." His voice dripped with sarcasm.

"Fairy Tail believes in forgiveness and second chances."

"That's a nice line – try it on some sucker who'll actually believe it. There ain't enough forgiveness in the world." Gajeel picked up a ragged sheet of metal that had once been part of a vehicle. "Nobody wants me. That's the way it's always been. I'm used to it."

"Gajeel is Juvia's friend. She would be sad if he were no longer around."

Gajeel looked away.

"Yeah, well, you've never been right in the head to begin with."

Juvia was silent for a long moment.

"Just think about it," she murmured. She reached into her pocket, pulled out a small, shiny black lump, and tossed it to him. Gajeel caught it with one hand. It was a small chunk of hematite. To an iron dragonslayer, hematite was basically like candy. "Juvia is also not above bribery," she added with a small smile. "So take that into consideration as well."

Gajeel simply popped the hematite into his mouth instead of responding. It tasted fantastic.

"I'll think about it," he finally consented, but that was a massive lie. There wasn't a chance in hell of Gajeel joining Fairy Tail. They'd probably skin him alive if he ever so much as set a toe within Magnolia's borders again. It would keep Juvia off his back for a little while though.

Short of some sort of divine intervention, Gajeel really only saw his future going one of two ways: a lifetime of non-magical physical labor or taking Raven Tail up on their offer. Neither option sounded particularly promising. A tiny part of Gajeel – the part that wanted to find Metalicana again – was hoping for just a touch of that divine intervention.

A/N: Gajeel and Juvia are one of my favorite Fairy Tail brOTPs.

Thank you so much to all of my guest reviewers last chapter! You are all fantastic!