A/N: this is a short chapter but I wrote it to give a little background info for some of the characters. hope you enjoy it! feel free to review with criticism!

Chapter 8

Gajeel banged on the door at nine the morning after the party. He was still aggravated about last night but he had told her he would go shopping with her today and he would not go back on his word. When the door opened, it was not who he was expecting. Standing in the open doorway, was the blonde that salamander got stuck with. She was rubbing her eyes while glaring at him. She was dressed in an oversized pink shirt with a smiling bunny on the front of it.

"What do you want? Do you have manners? It is rude to bang on someone's door this early." The blonde snapped.

"Gihi, calm down, bunnygirl. I'm here to pick up the shrimp."

"Bunnygirl? Shrimp? Don't call me bunnygirl! And we have no shrimp here, now go away!" She tried to slam the door but he stopped it.

"Levy. I'm here for Levy."

"Let me go get her. Stay here."

Gajeel stood outside the door, growing more aggravated by the minute. What was taking so long? This was dumb. She probably didn't want to see him after telling him what she thought. She probably didn't even believe him. He shouldn't have come over. He felt so stupid.

"Uh, Gajeel, Levy isn't here. She left a note saying that if you came by to tell you she is really sorry again and that she went to town on her own. It says that she will be back after lunch and that she will find you so you can tell her the rules and everything she needs to know." Lucy stood in the doorway with a piece of paper in her hand. He took it from her and read it himself.

'Lu-chan,

Gajeel should be coming by this morning. If you see him, please inform him that I left for town on my own. I woke up early and just couldn't stay and wait. Also, I know that he dislikes to shop so I am saving him. Please tell him that I am so sorry for last night. I should be back a little after lunch. Tell Gajeel that I will find him and he can finish going over the dorm rule and things. Thanks, Lu-chan!

XOXO,

Levy M.'

Of course she didn't want anything to do with him. No one ever did. He stuck the note in his pocket and walked out the building. She said she was going school supply shopping and birthday shopping for her cousin. There was only one kid store in Magnolia. He headed for town, lost in his own little world.

He was seven and Rouge was five when their father just disappeared. He left no note or any trace of his existence. Their mother had died when he was five and Rouge was three when she and her lover crashed her car into another car. Their dad, Metalicana, was angry but it had made him closer to the boys. Metalicana was always working, trying to support them so the responsibility fell to Gajeel. He tried his best but he was only five. He didn't know what he was really doing.

Then one day a cop came to the school and picked up Gajeel and Rouge. At the station, they found out that their father abandoned them. However, they weren't the only ones who had lost parents that day. There were others who were bought to the police station. Natsu Dragneel (seven years old), Sting Eucliffe (five years old), Wendy Marvell (who was two years old), Laxus Dreyar (who was eleven), and another boy who called himself Erik (he was nine). Natsu's and Wendy's parents had been dating. Igneel -Natsu's father- was Metalicana's brother which made Gajeel, Rouge, and Natsu cousins. Grandeeney -Wendy's mother-had been dating Igneel for a year. They were about to get married until they all disappeared so the boy considered her family.

Sting was alone so he reached out to Rouge and they instantly became friends. It was obvious that Sting was the leader of their friendship. Laxus still had blood family to go stay with so he wasn't there as long as the rest of them. Natsu and Wendy were sent to live with the same foster family. Gajeel refused to be separated from his little brother so they were put in a boy's home with Sting. Gajeel tried to keep his brother away from Sting at first but before long, Gajeel's anger over his father's abandonment began to cloud his mind.

By the time that Gajeel was fifteen, he was on drugs and hanging out with some guys from a street gang. He joined the gang when he was sixteen. He became addicted to the drugs and the alcohol and the women. Gajeel didn't care about anything. He only wanted the pain of not being wanted to go away. His mother had left him, then his father left him, and to top that off, no one would adopt Rouge because the social worker called them a "package deal". Rouge began to follow Sting's every word.

When Gajeel was eighteen and Rouge sixteen, Rouge and Sting came home one morning after being gone all night high and drunk. Sting was bleeding badly but was laughing. He demanded to know what had happened and where they had been. Rouge told him that it wasn't his business since he had no interest in his life at other times. That was when Gajeel realized he was failing his parents. He quit the gang, got clean, graduated, and then got a place for him and Rouge. Rouge got clean as well. They never got that close but at least they were both healthy and on the right path now.

'Rouge, it better not have been you.' Gajeel thought as he went inside the coffee shop to get Levy a coffee.

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