Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

The mission had been originally meant for Team Natsu (and apparently Flare?). She was still confused about the details, but understandable debriefing or not, she was being sent out to assist the giants in Sun village. Gajeel and Pantherlily were dispatched as her muscle, a fact that had her rolling her eyes and him boasting that infuriating smirk the entire way there.

They weren't supposed to be there and, as always, things went wrong. Trouble found them and now Gajeel wasn't Gajeel anymore.

The top of his head reached the top of her ribcage and the metal wristbands clattered to the hard ground with the icy reveal that he had no idea who the girl with wild blue hair calling out his name was.

No recollection of whom the black cat with wings and nasty scars was either.

But his attitude was as visceral as ever and he wasn't her muscle anymore, she was his.

Levy helplessly locked eyes with Pantherlily, he was equally at a loss, and simply fell to her knees. She bravely made a grab for Gajeel's hands, her mind stalling with the ease it took to stop him from wriggling from her hold. Her breath shuddered and the little boy went completely still.

"Gajeel, d-do you know where you are?" She nearly laughed at the scowl he pinned down at her, but cleared her throat of the sensation, waiting for his response.

"What's it to you, lady?"

"I-I'm trying to help you. I know this is going to be hard, but I need you to listen. We're in a place called Sun Village. We're helping our friends- we're all members of a guild for mages. We're members of Fairy Tail."

He wrenched his tiny little hands from hers and crossed them stiffly over his chest, squaring his shoulders and planting his weight firmly to the ground. The familiarity of the movement made her head reel, but she turned her back to him all the same. Levy's hands shook as she willed them to wrangle in her disheveled locks and hold them to the side.

"See, this is my guild mark. Pantherlily has a white one on his back."

The tiny dragon slayer didn't spare the gaping cat a second glance, completely mesmerized by the white and orange mark on the older girl's small shoulder.

Her breath hitched in her throat when his hand, small and un-calloused, traced the lines of the odd fairy with its tail. "Y-You have a black one like it on your left shoulder."

He didn't answer, only kept his fingers pressed to the orange lining of her mark. Something tickled in his mind and pressed uncomfortably in his stomach at the sight of the weird picture on her skin.

"No, I don't belong to a guild. That sort of thing's stupid anyways. Besides, I don't have time for that. I'm lookin' for someone."

Levy clamped her mouth shut against the keening cry that bubbled up her throat and Pantherlily slowly drifted to the ground with the simultaneous realization.

He was looking for Metalicana.

The script mage let go of her hair and stood up, facing the child once more. "I-I know this is going to be hard to hear, but Metalicana is gone, Gajeel. He's been missing for several years. Along with Natsu's dragon, Igneel, and Wendy's, Grandine. We're here to help Natsu and Wendy, actually. The rest of their team too, Lucy and Gray and Erza."

He stepped closer to her and stuck his chin high in the air. "You're wrong. Metalicana's not gone. It's just a test and you're in my way. I have to become an iron dragon slayer and no one's gonna stop me." Gajeel side stepped her and began to stalk forward.

…Except she caught his small wrist all too easily and yanked him back, the strange girl kneeled before him again. "No, you have to stay with us, it's dangerous. Plus, we have to get you back to normal."

"No way, you're crazy! No way in hell am I stayin' around you insane lot. Let me go, or I'll fight you."

Her grip tightened and her eyes, too big and too expressive for him to stomach, bore into his. He had never had anyone look straight at him before, except Metalicana. Most people were afraid of his eyes. She opened her mouth once more and the force of everything coming back to him knocked him flat on his butt.

"No, you won't, Gajeel."

His breaths came is short gasps and suddenly that weird cat had his dark, furry paw on Gajeel's shoulder to calm him down.

"Shrimp."

Levy sighed and rolled her eyes, of all the names he remembers, it had to be that one. "Yes."

"Levy?"

She tilted her head and held both of his hands in hers, subconsciously rolling her thumbs over the trim bone at his wrist. "What is it?"

"W-What the hell happened?"

34; one character trying to get another to remember them

originally posted: 10-1-13

A/N: So, this was a 'what if' scenario during the arc where Gray, Lucy, Erza, and Natsu were turned into kids. For whatever reason, when Gajeel is turned back into a child, his immediate focus and memories are on Metalicana. I've got a pseudo follow up to this story where someone requested that Levy is dying and Gajeel can't doing anything to stop it.