AN: This is a sequel to Fighting Redfox, which you must read first in order to understand the events of this story. Both stories are interconnected.
I had been struggling to write for sometime since my brother's death involving heroin. As I wrote in Fighting Redfox, this sequel contains drug usage; not all who are drowning within the drug's hold are bad people. Not at all. Sadly they just made one bad choice. The rest were made against their wishes, against their better judgement, which could have/may have led to their untimely end. It's not up to us to determine their fate, but we must help them do what is right through encouragement. This story has strong redemption themes as well: there is still hope for the ones still caught in narcotic traps.
Note that I am unwilling to discuss opinions over drug usage/addiction in general in the reviews/comments, as that is reserved for the story itself. If you wish to speak with me regarding the topic, feel free to PM me.
Fighting Redfox and Finding Gryder are dedicated to my brother, Brian.
Storyline: [AU] Taken in by a man named Sting after personal tragedy, Mest Gryder begins his descent down a dark path he thought was his destiny. Little does he know, that same destiny would carry him to the better half of his life. With a family of his own, Gryder knows about sacrifice. After witnessing a crime, he once again finds himself and all those he holds dear in the destructive way of narcotics - something he knew all too well. It will be the fight of a lifetime for both Gryder and Gajeel in this Fighting Redfox sequel. [Two-Plot Convergence/Crime, Drama]
*Major character death warning
Two separate plots - the past and the present - collide as events unfold.
Rated Mature - There is intense language, violence, drug usage, and some sexual situations. Reader discretion is strongly advised.
I do not own any of the media.
I do not own any of Fairy Tail - that's all Hiro Mashima.
"I can't imagine dying for someone I didn't love."
Though I remember saying that once before, I can't call the place and time of the memory to mind. I do know there was a cold. A dark. It was a near death experience. I do know that I had a few of those in my day, when the ground beneath felt more like shifting sand than stable rock.
But now the despair of that distant, fading part of my life is gone. Warmth has cast the cold away, the dark to light. I can't remember, but I can feel the difference. It was you. The change.
It was then I felt my life begin…"
FINDING GRYDER
Sequel to Fighting Redfox
A Gajevy/Melder Fanfiction
By CapAleran2
Chapter One - New Beginnings
"You ready to go?"
His wife's soft voice began to bring him back to reality. It was barely above a whisper, but Mest Gryder had perceived it as a loud, deep echo. It reverberated into his mind, gently shaking him with increasing intensity.
Blinking, Gryder stared blankly at the dull grey headstone. The echo was now gone. He turned his head to see Melina standing there shivering in the cold a few feet away, holding their daughter in her arms and propped with a hip. Their familiar faces reminded him that he wasn't alone.
"Yea," he said meekly. With one last lingering gaze at his mother's resting place, he placed a hand on Melina's back and started for the car.
He hated cemeteries. There was just an overwhelming sense of loss, of grief that never really went away. It was never happy, always gloomy. For him it was even more so than that; it was a place he never wanted to revisit, for good reason. However, it was the only way he could visit with his one true parent.
The day of her funeral had been rough. He hadn't even attended. That had made his guilt multiply and it was something he couldn't quite himself forgive. Just barely an adult and coping through life, in the same manner as she had -and it ultimately killed her- if it weren't for Sting, Gryder would have died. Lying next to her in the ground where he now stood.
He supposed he should be thankful.
A nostalgic part of him wanted to visit the man as well, though still, no one knew where his remains were located.
A fraction of a memory of that night flashed across his thoughts. A night he would never forget. Many things had happened. Many things had changed. His green eyes shifted from the grass ahead to the woman beside him.
It was her. The change.
Looking down at her hand on their daughter's leg across her stomach, he saw the sparkle of the diamond on her finger. A small smile replaced the frown he had been wearing. She had helped him become a better person. Her whole family had. They took him in without question -well maybe there had been a few. They had become his world.
As they neared the blacktop lane separating the cemetery sections, the smell of smoke in the cold, thin air wafted to him. Gajeel leaned against the door, a half a cigarette between his thumb and forefinger. Gryder's eyes immediately went to his mother-in-law still sitting inside the vehicle. She looked a little annoyed, but gave him a smile as they approached.
Some time after Melina's rescue, Gajeel had taken up smoking again, much to Levy's protesting. It wasn't as if he smoked a pack a week like he used to do, way back when. The days when bodies were young and more agile. He made a pack last a month, only lighting when stress was just too much at the current moment.
He turned his head to blow the smoke through the side of his mouth and saw them. He didn't say anything. Just nodded at Gryder as Melina put Briella in her booster seat.
"Where to now, boss?" He asked as he snuffed out the cigarette; it was too disrespectful to throw the filter on the ground even if he had been finished with it.
Gryder gave a quiet snort and rounded the vehicle until he stood behind his father-in-law. He briefly altered his voice into an accent. "Home, Charles." His breath twirled in a vanishing cloud of vapor through his mischievous grin.
Gajeel rolled his eyes and yanked the driver's door open.
"How are you doing?" Levy asked, turning to face the backseat to look at him. She knew visiting graves could fill one full of anxiety.
Clicking in the seatbelt across his chest, Gryder nodded. "Fine. I'm sure Rhett's not though."
She faced the front again and sat back against the seat. "I'm sure he's managing."
With a tsk, Gajeel turned the engine, the vehicle coming to life with a dull roar. He glanced at his tiny wife.
The years had been kind to her. People often mistook her for her daughter's sister. Grey hair was now starting to mingle with her blue locks, but most times the sunlight would make her hair seem just shades lighter instead of aging.
"Do you even know your son?" He asked calmly, his voice thick with sarcasm. A slight tinge of smoke floated from his grey coat as he spoke. He shifted his gaze to the windshield before him. "Rhett couldn't handle a flyswatter, let alone a five year old."
Gryder let out a rough laugh, not bothering to hide his amusement from Levy.
"Excuse me, he's fully capable of babysitting his nephew for a few hours," she said easily. She kept her head facing the passenger window, but her lips fought against a grin.
"I don't know. Owen is challenging."
"Yea." Gajeel looked at Gryder in the rearview. His rough voice spoke, but only his eyes were seen, narrowing and glistening. "He gets that from your wife."
Melina, quiet until that comment, opened her mouth. Her frank tone added to her dry, yet fiery personality. "Hey. I'm right here."
Levy waited until the snickers quieted. "Just wait until Briella is a teenager."
"Mother," Melina hissed. Her glanced at her daughter in the seat between herself and her husband. "You do realize I'm gonna tell Rhett all of this, right."
The car approached the entrance gate and they waited on a clear opening in traffic.
It was easy for Gryder, this family. He loved every member. His heart was full and light all at the same time. The smile on his face was permanently fixed on his lips. How had he lived without this? How had he grown up thinking that his life was ordinary, that it could not possibly get any better? His eyes had been opened to pleasant opportunities and experiences, and he was never going to close them again.
"I guess we'll see." Gajeel pulled out onto the road.
The vehicle slowly drove up the gravel drive, towards the house Gajeel and Levy had bought just before Melina was born. Gryder waited for Melina by the passenger door while the others made their way up the porch steps. Briella had fallen asleep on the ride back. She looked so peaceful when Melina straightened, her small curly-haired head resting on her mother's shoulder.
Melina let Gryder kiss the top of her head before she turned for the house and said easily, "Five bucks says Rhett's asleep."
Gryder's brows furrowed but his lips turned up in one corner. "You're on."
The two of them entered the house to the sight of Gajeel hovering over the back of the couch. Rhett was asleep. Between his eyes was black scribbling connecting his eyebrows as well as above his top lip. Gajeel held up his phone and snapped a picture of his son, shaking his head.
Gryder took a breath; he dug his wallet out from his back pocket and handed Melina a five.
"Bettin' on your brother's failures," Gajeel murmured darkly. "I raised you well."
Owen hurried up to his father, giggling the entire way. He pointed to Rhett. "Look what I did!"
There were crayola markers and a few coloring books on the coffee table. A cartoon channel was still on the tv. Owen had been contently watching it on the floor when they walked in, lying on his stomach with his head propped up on his hands.
Crouching next to his son by the couch, Gryder took the black marker, uncapping it. "Nice work, buddy. But you forgot to connect the goatee."
He lightly connected the sides of the mustache on either side of Rhett's mouth and started on the part below his lower lip. Gajeel raised his voice at a near yell to wake him up.
"Dammit Rhett, your mother and I can't count on you for nothin'."
He woke with a start.
Gryder quickly discarded the marker and picked up Owen. He joined Levy and Melina in the kitchen, hearing muffled voices before a disgusted shout and a deep laugh.
Melina casually walked up to her two boys she loved the most and lifted her fist for Owen to bump with his own.
Levy shook her head but mostly ignored them as she prepared their lunch. Rhett had decided not to go to college like Galen. He was content to work at the auto shop with his father. He was good with his hands, taking after Gajeel in that he found pleasure in fixing broken things.
When he finally joined them at the dining table for Sunday lunch, his face was red from excessive scrubbing. Although the black was faded, it wasn't completely gone. He glared at Owen from across the table, but laughed when his nephew just smiled at him from the safety between his parents.
"I think I'm going to print out the picture and hang it on the wall at work," Gajeel stated as he fluffed his mashed potatoes with his fork before lifting it to his mouth.
"It wasn't my fault," Rhett complained weakly. His skin was raw and hurt any time he made an expression.
Melina dropped her shoulders. "You gave him markers, Rhett. Everything about that is your fault."
"And then fell asleep," Gryder added with a chuckle. Melina made a point to flick her wrist towards him while she looked at her brother. Even though they liked to roast him, they did so lovingly.
Levy gently set her drinking glass down onto the table. "I think it's forgivable, we all mess up."
With a stuffed mouth, Gajeel murmured, "I remember you dropped Rhett as a baby and cried..."
His tiny wife had heard the comment loud and clear though. She shot a frown in his direction and held up her butter knife.
Movement from the living room caught Melina's eye as Briella slipped feet first from the couch. The toddler wandered towards the table, still groggy from her nap. She set down her glass, preparing to rise from her seat when Gryder beat her to it.
He met the little girl as she threw her small arms up to him and lifted her to his chest. Melina quietly watched him tend to their daughter while everyone else ate and conversed. The man was loving and caring. There was not a mean bone in his body. And for the life of her, Melina couldn't understand why he had been involved with the drugs of his past to begin with.
It wasn't his nature. Not now anyway.
He now murmured close to Briella's face and she nodded, and he made her a small plate of food.
Melina tried not to frown along with her thoughts. As she chewed, she mused over the fact that he hadn't told her much of his past. She knew some bits and pieces, but not in detail. Until recently Melina hadn't known about his mother, that she was buried in a small cemetery a few counties west. Every time she had tried to pry deep enough to learn more about the man she loved, he would change the subject with a distraction. Or completely shut down.
The more she tried, the more frustrated Gryder became. Eventually she stopped. Arguments were on the verge of starting and she didn't want that to push a wedge in between them. If anything, for the children's sakes.
And she listened wholeheartedly when he finally began to reveal himself layer by layer. It was slow going. Whenever he decided to let go, she was there. He would have never gone to counseling of any kind, but for those moments when it was just the two of them, it was as if he released years of pent up emotional and mental stress.
He had had it rough.
Though that kind of life he grew up in didn't take away from his soft heart. Love was something he cherished. Which was why Melina found it difficult to imagine his life before her. As selfish as she thought she sounded.
Her husband's voice drew her from her thoughts.
"...I guess so," he was saying as he sat down with Briella on his lap. "Just keep it down."
Owen scooted his chair and ran into the living room to watch what was still airing on the screen.
Shaking her head, she stood up to take her son's plate to the sink. She hoped no one saw the tears welling up in her eyes, but with Gajeel and Rhett arguing about something across the table as was usual, she was sure no one would look up.
Gryder noticed her silence in the midst of the lively argument about the right brand of paper plates. He caught her eye after she rinsed off the ceramic plate under the faucet, narrowing his eyes to convey his interest in her problem. She ignored him.
He promptly handed Levy his daughter so she could continue eating and went to his wife. Touching the small of her back, he began discreetly, "You were fine a minute ago. What's wrong." He watched as she scrubbed the dish.
With his face inches from hers, Melina breathed out. "It's nothing, honestly."
"Don't give me that shit," he murmured, pushing closer and loosely wrapping his large hand around her upper arm. He was genuinely confused. "What's going on?"
The tears were dangerously close to falling. It was something she didn't want to do here. Now. She wanted to wait until they were home, as she had planned. Leaning away from him, she put the plate she had just cleaned and dried into the cupboard above her. She huffed when he tightened his hand on her.
"You said awhile ago that you didn't have any siblings."
"Yea?" Gryder's tone was one of confusion. "What's this have to do with anything? Why're you about to cry about it?"
Her red eyes looked up into his green ones. "I-I don't want that for our kids."
She knew he wasn't following exactly what she was thinking. It hurt her heart to think that he had no one until later in life, and even then it was the wrong kind of people. Half of his life was over and it had taken that long to find a real family to love him. Transferring those thoughts to her children made her full heart ache.
In his eyes she saw a wonder, a sense of excitement. Afterall it had been his idea to continue having more children. His adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed. "I thought you didn't want to after-"
Melina shifted her weight and abruptly crossed her arms over her breasts. A single tear dropped from her lower lashes as she looked at his waist. She quietly cut him off. "Well I do now."
"Ok."
Gryder wrapped his arms around her, gingerly pulling her to him. The revelation was something he had not been expecting. His hopes for many children had died when Melina miscarried their third baby. It was devastation to the family to have heard that news. His wife had wanted nothing to do with night time activities other than sleeping for a long time.
And for her sake he had relented. Two healthy, happy children were better than none at all. When those four words escaped through Melina's lips, his gut had dropped. Maybe this next time she would carry to term. Nervous excitement coursed through him.
Melina had apparently felt it as well. She pushed herself away from him and put a little distance between them. "Not right now," she whispered. Her finger wiped away the one rogue tear and then she touched the front of his jeans with the other. She pressed her hand hard into him, eliciting a near inaudible groan, his face inches from her mouth. "But later."
"Tonight?" Gryder rasped in effort to keep his hands to himself. His eyes were glued to her glossed lips.
Her head nodded deliberately slowly, keeping eye contact with a smirk. Gryder's lips pressed together. She was teasing him. Any other time it would have been annoying. However going several months without that kind of attention and now without warning, it was definitely desired.
Before she could return to finish eating and help feed Briella, Gryder caught her with his hands on either side of her face. He roughly pressed his lips to hers. They lingered there for a moment until the kiss was softly deepened.
"Oi, none of that under my roof," Gajeel's voice rose. He had his arms crossed on the table, his elbows on the edge. He suspiciously observed them for a second. "Take it outside."
Gryder broke the contact with his wife, letting her leave the kitchen with a smile on her face. He stood there facing away from the dining room, willing a low part of him to subside. He shook his head.
"Hey Owen," he called loudly. "You wanna spend the night here with your sister tonight?"
"Oh that's a wonderful idea!" Levy chimed, ignorant to their secret plans. She smiled at her granddaughter on her lap. Owen let out an animated holler and ran to the table to confirm it with his mother.
Once he was able, Gryder abruptly left the kitchen, sniffing as he did. He locked eyes with Gajeel as he made his way to his seat beside Melina. The look on the old man's face was priceless; he was not stupid. He glared at his son-in-law, but said nothing as he sat down with a growing grin.
A small vibration on the table caused Rhett to snatch up his phone. He read the text and causally stood up. "I'm gonna be out for a while." He stuffed the phone in his pocket and took his plate to the kitchen.
Saying a quick goodbye, Rhett pulled on his coat and hurriedly slipped out the front door before anyone could ask him further questions. Gajeel frowned after him. "What the hell was that all about?"
"Maybe he's got a date," Gryder said, half joking. He knocked back the rest of his beverage.
"I hope he knows he can bring her here," Levy said with a sad tinge to her voice. It had been a while since her children had brought home someone romantically.
"If his date's a 'she'." Melina was promptly smacked on the arm with the back of Levy's hand.
Gryder turned to Gajeel, who had stood up to look out the window. He grabbed Melina's hand to hold it under the table. "I'm sure he's fine. It's probably just a new relationship, he'll bring the lucky lady around some time."
Gajeel hummed in response, his humming against the glass loud in his ears. He watched Rhett hop into his truck and head down the drive. Taking a deep breath, he agreed with his other son and tried not to let a newfound worry consume his thoughts. He was accustomed to different and random vibes, especially with a similar background with that of his only daughter's husband.
He just could not shake a familiar one revolving around her younger brother.