A/N: sorry I haven't uploaded in quite some time. Before Christmas I had no inspiration, and now that I have a new laptop without Word, I had to use Google Drive, which I did not think to use these past months because mun is stoopid.

Also, I HAVE been trying to figure out my last fanfic, Wake Up, but I have not come to conclusions. I do want to finish it though. So sorry for the wait!

I came up with an idea for a oneshot but it turned into this Modern!AU Laxeel fanfic, so please enjoy, no hate, please and thank you! Reviews are nice!

Gajeel looked up at his roommate. He was tall, and muscular. There was a scar over his right eyes and a look of annoyance on his grimy, dirt covered face. His clothes were simple, and also dirty, and he smelled like oil. But why did he look so annoyed? Realizing that Gajeel had been standing there gazing at the man for over a minute, he choked out a fake laugh and greeted himself.

"Um...I think you're-?"

"Laxus."

"R-right…" Gajeel's words stuck in his throat, feeling as if it would explode, why was he acting this way? Was he really gonna let a dirty asshole like this guy intimidate him? Though, he DID look like he could take his head right now and crumble it right in his hands, crumble his already exploding head in to tiny, weak, small pieces. He thought it was about time he told Laxus his name.

"M-my name's Gajeel," after hesitating, he reach his hand out towards his new roommate, who left him hanging, walking back into the apartment. Gajeel awkwardly clasped the open hand with his other free hand, later grabbing his luggage and making his way through the apartment. Laxus was repairing the sink, he'd figured since rusty pipes lay on the floor besides an open, dirty, cabinet. Before asking, Laxus glared back at him.

"Shoes off."

Without complaint, Gajeel immediately removed his shoes. Laxus took Gajeel's bags and motioned to follow him. The two walked to an empty bedroom in the apartment, only inhabited by a bed, and a frozen alarm clock on the floor, still plugged into the outlet, but flashing 12:00 over and over. It looked sad, the room. It would have to do, for now, Gajeel was afraid of objecting. Laxus dropped his bags and headed back to work on the sink, closing the door behind him. Soon, there was a bright red color on Gajeel's face, as he covered it with his hands and dropped to the floor, relieved that he was alone again.

He had never felt so much fear in such a little amount of time. Back before he'd dropped out of school, he was the kid that people were afraid of, he was that really tall kid that everyone was afraid to get into trouble with, the kid that people looked up to because he was just that strong. Standing up and wiping his face, he moved his luggage to his bed and moved the poorly folded clothes to the closet. In it, a small crack on the wall and a new pack of 20 hangers. Either Laxus was nice enough to get him hangers, or they'd been sitting there forever. He sighed and grabbed the pack, tearing off the wrapper. The hangers fell to the floor, making a loud clatter as they landed.

He groaned and dropped his clothes on the hardwood floor. Gajeel grabbed the hangers and hung them on the bar in the closet, then removing one at a time to hang his clothes. Once he started putting his clothes on the hanger, they would still slip off the bar and fall to the floor, along with the hanger sometimes, as he tried to do this as quick as possible without noise.

Clearly that was not working.

Eventually, Gajeel dropped the rest of his clothes to the floor, no longer caring about whether or not they fall off the hanger. He spun around to meet with his intimidating roommate.

"What the hell are you doing?" He asked. Gajeel jumped and tried to put words together.

"I-I was just...I'm…" clearly today was not a very good day for him. Laxus sighed and pushed him aside, picking up the clothes from the closet floor. He held up a blue t-shirt, which was stained and wrinkled. He cringed, and turned back around to Gajeel, holding up the shirt, "You really gonna leave your clothes like this?"

Gajeel pouted, "Well they are MY clothes...why?"

"Because they look as though you just pulled this," he held up a green, stained, old band shirt that was barely even legible as to what band it even was, "...out of the trash. Don't tell me those are your best clothes."

Laxus pointed to Gajeel's attire, which was another band shirt covered by a black jacket, which appeared to have hair, possibly cat hair all over it. His jeans were torn at the knees and one could easily see the white thermal leggings, at least they should be white, however at the knees they look brown, as if he'd tripped and fallen over 50 times just getting here. "Don't make fun of my clothes!" Gajeel covered as much as he could with his arms, "I don't have that much money you know...!"

Chuckling, Laxus took his clothes out of the room. "Who knew he had other emotions…" Gajeel said under his breath before following him out the room.

Laxus closed the door and turned on the washing machine. Soon, Gajeel's clothes were drenched in water. Gajeel stared at the slinning colors within the washing machine, and Laxus stared at Gajeel, amused, "What the hell are you so amazed by?"

"Ah-what? I'm not "amazed," I'm just…"

"Whatever man," Laxus grabbed the back of his roommate's jacket, pulling it off and hanging it on the hook. "Listen, I'll stay down here and finish with your clothes, just go ahead and unpack or something."

"I already did."

The room grew silent for a bit. Laxus slowly looked up and down at Gajeel. Was this guy serious? "What do you mean?"

"...That's all I bought," Gajeel shrugged. Unwilling to ask, Laxus handed him 20 jewels.

"Take that and buy yourself some lunch. I have a friend coming over to help with the sink, and he doesn't like new people...no offense."

"N-none taken." Gajeel said before making his leave. As he left the laundromat he felt himself breathe better again. It reeked of sour clothes people left unattended. Not to mention the dust and lint lingering in the air. The green, chipped walls made the room look no better, as well as the concrete floors, with more chipped red paint as well as old pieces of tile, which used to stretch across the floor from the lobby of the apartment building, but for some reason came off.

It was cloudy out, as if it were about to rain. Not cold, but unfortunately, Gajeel had no umbrella. It had been raining for weeks without hint of blue sky or bare sunlight, as this town had gone through a drought the past summer and fall. Winter had almost no snow, and when there was, it would melt, immediately the next day. Gajeel was warned about the crazy weather that would take place before he'd moved.

Back at his old home, the weather was so unbelievably predictable. So predictable, in fact, that one could tell weather by scent-and not just the scent of rain. Though those with such a talent came in few, but Gajeel was one of them. He was the special kid in elementary that could smell anything and everything, everywhere, and it grew better after puberty. He could tell when and who was behind him and with what, he could tell in a drink was drugged, He could tell if his father was drunk (something he was never pleased with), and most importantly, the weather. Here, however, he could hardly smell the rain.

Things were different. But he hoped that things were changing for the better as well. He would finally get away from his father. He could be on his own and make his life the way he wanted it to be...but first he'd have to figure out just what he was doing. He needed money. especially now that he planned on going to school again.

He stopped walking through the brisk winds at a burger restaurant. It was colorful, yet the colors were pale and grey. As grey as it was, it reeked of fresh paint, and crowded with people and hungry children. The framed poster outside the building showed a burger with lettuce and cheese, beside a small bag of fries. Gajeel became twice as hungry as before, plus, it started to rain, so he entered the building.

A burger with cheese and bacon, a ten piece chicken nugget packed in a pale blue paper container, large fries, and a medium soda. 10 jewels. Did anyone blame him for all that food for himself? No, there were no questions. Gajeel was starved, he deserved it. He sat by the window and looked outside. Rain. As expected. He sighed and dipped a fry into ketchup, observing the texture. Crispy and salty. His mouth watered, and he finally stuffed the fry along with four others into his mouth. He ate a piece of the burger. It was well done, with plenty of bacon, and evenly placed yellow cheese with a nice amount of ketchup. The pickles were removed. He liked his pickles cold, and did not enjoy the texture of a warm pickle slice. Still, the burger was excellent. The nuggets were a no brainer. Also crispy, crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside, not too wet and not too dry. He dipped one at a time in barbecue sauce and enjoyed every last bite. Though, the rain didn't set the mood very well. Gajeel felt gloomy. There was no real reason, but he did.

"You don't eat the pickles?"

Gajeel looked up from his trance at a man with an interesting hairdo and a funky tattoo on his face. The man above him took the pickle slices and ate them himself. Annoyed, Gajeel looked back out the window. "I could have licked those."

"You think I care?" the man laughed, sitting with him, "I'm Bixlow."

Bixlow reached his hand out for Gajeel's, who in return took his hand. "I was just at a friend's house," he began, relaxing in his seat, much to Gajeel's dismay, "Had to help fix a sink with new pipes. He got a new roommate today."

Gajeel looked up at Bixlow. "Wait..."

"He told me this guy was a music lover with weird piercings and I assumed it was you." He pointed to Gajeel, smiling, "Right?...If I'm wrong you'd probably want those pickles back, right?"

"Ah-no, no, you're right...that's me." Gajeel said, blushing. He concluded finally that he was not good with conversation anymore.

"Hah, good, good!" Bixlow cheerfully laughed, "So, what brings you here, kid?"

"I-I was-wait, I'm 21!"

"Are you? You look old, but like, 18 and stressed," Bixlow mocked.

"I am 21...I'm going back to school for a while, but I don't know how...there's like, three colleges here, right?"

"Four, and you can go to online college for free. Try again."

"...What?" Gajeel sunk down in his seat, confused. Bixlow grinned, "You're from that town with decent weather, huh? You're nose kid from elementary school."

Gajeel froze in his seat, surprised, "'I've never...met you."

"Well no shit. I only talked to, what, four people, and you weren't one of them. Remember the strauss siblings?"

"...I do…" Gajeel sat back up in his chair, "And the 100% student...uh…"

"Levy? I'm not sure where she'd gone off to...though, there were rumors going around after high school that she went to college overseas. And remember that weird kid-!"

"Natsu. He's not hard to forget." Gajeel said, remembering the pain Natsu caused to his head. Bixlow looked at him funny. "What?"

"Gajeel...where did you...go?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you left our school. People were saying that you transferred back to your old school, but that was shut down, right? Where did you go?"

He froze up again. "I...uh...I just left."

"For what?"

There was no escaping this from this point, "I dropped out," he whispered.

"...You dropped out?" Bixlow whispered as well. He sounded saddened. Gajeel figured he would be as disappointed as he was himself. "I did," he looked off to the side, "I don't...really…"

The rain proceeded to pour, and soon made a thunderstorm. Gajeel stood under Bixlow's large...purple umbrella. It was light purple with white frills and polka dots. This didn't suit a guy like Bixlow. when he noticed Gajeel looking at the pattern of his umbrella, he laughed, "You like?"

"It...uh…"

"Chillax, dude, I know, It's my girlfriend's. Don't get distracted, we're crossing the street." They moved across the slippery street slowly, and made their way back to the apartment.

"Does this belong to you, good fellow?" Bixlow joked, pushing Gajeel towards him.

"Is this yours?" Laxus responded, pushing a smaller, white haired girl towards his friend. She turned around and lunged her small armed back at him, "Hey, that's rude!"

"Now, now, lovely," Bixlow said, cupping her chin and kissing her cheek, "don't get too upset or you'll be grumpy the rest of the day, and who wants a grumpy Lissy?"

"It's Lisanna you...I'm starving, Bixy."

"Try again, sweetheart, it's Bixlow," Bixlow teased, patting her head and waving his friend goodbye, "See you around, kid!"

"I'm Gajeel, and I'm 21, dammit!" Gajeel yelled before Bixlow closed the door.