Phoenix sat on top of the roof of the hotel her and the Fairy Tail crew were staying in. It was night now and the moon large in the sky and the breeze was amazing. She smiled to herself and closed her eyes enjoying the feeling as she pulled her knees to her chest and rested her chin on her knees just in pure bliss.

"It was a night like this right?" she said contently "when we met for the first time? I'm pretty sure I still have that right. It's unforgettable. This is the kind of weather I love most…it's just perfect."

"hmph…how'd you know I was here?" Gajeel asked a few feet away from where she was sitting on the roof.

"Your scent. Can't trick this dragon slayers nose. I know your scent anywhere." She said tapping her nose, her eyes still closed.

"Funny, then why doesn't that help you remember who I am when you forget?" he said taking a seat next to her letting one leg hang over the edge of the building

"I never said it was a good scent. Maybe your scent makes me forget who you are." She joked opening one of her eyes to look at him.

"Hey!" he said glaring at her

"I'm just kidding." She laughed opening her other eye looking at him and then sighed "so what brought you up here?"

"Nothing really…just thought I should tell ya that it's getting late Maybe you should go to bed." He said with a shrug

"nah…I'm not really tired." She said looking back out at the moon

"Come on, you've had a long – "

"I'm not tired Gajeel." She said a little less cheerful this time and he noticed that in her voice there was a slight tremble.

"Phoenix-"

"Please don't say it again." She said closing her eyes and resting her head on her knees "I don't want to go to sleep. I just want to stay here and enjoy this."

Gajeel sat there looking at her wondering what to say next and just stood silent. He didn't want to upset her any more than she already was. He looked away and just started messing with a pebble that was next to him, keeping to himself. It had been a while since he felt like this. Confused and not knowing what to do next. What was he supposed to do now? He mentally smacked himself in the head feeling like an idiot just sitting there when Phoenix was a mere inches away from him clearly upset. Then again, who wouldn't be with the news she heard today…again. She put up a good front, but he knew better. As if expressing his frustration he tossed the pebble watching it was it landed on the roadway blow bouncing before coming to a halt right at the edge of the pier, just a mere few centimeters away from falling into the dark ocean.

"How many times?" he heard her ask suddenly

"How many time what?" he asked as he picked up another pebble next to him messing with it in his hand as he kept his eye on the pervious one he had tossed.

"How many times have you had to remind me of who you are?" she asked and he stopped as he went to throw the pebble

"I don't know…maybe once or twice." He lied throwing the pebble watching it once again hit the pavement and then stop once again at the edge of the pier. He grabbed another pebble going to throw it again.

"I know that's not true, Gajeel…be honest with me. How many times have you had to remind me of who you are?" she asked with more distress in her voice than before, which stopped him from throwing the pebble and just holding it in his hand as he looked at it. Smaller than the others, lighter too yet perfectly smooth on the outside without any dents or nicks. "…Every day this week." He finally said after a moment just rolling the pebble around in his hand.

She scoffed and shook her head running her hand through her hair. "Of course…that's what I thought. it's always the same thing every day. I go to bed in one world and wake up in another. It's like I live a different life every day and I have to be reminded of the one I was living the day before. That shouldn't be happening!"

At this point Gajeel was looking at her as she grabbed her head in frustration squeezing her eyes shut "That's why I don't want to go to sleep. I don't want to forget Natsu and the others, I don't want to forget the times I shared with them…I don't want to forget you!" she said as tears started to slowly run down her cheeks "not after all these years when I finally found you again. I don't want to forget you, Gajeel!"

She let go of her head and lifted it to look at him and for the first time in a long time he felt a familiar tinge in his heart he hadn't felt in a long time as he looked at her. It was like that time when it first happened, the look in her eyes, that pain that can't be removed but only covered to make it a little easier to handle the bad hand she had been dealt in this life.

"I know…" he said when he finally spoke "I don't want you to forget me either…but you're sick. If you don't get some rest…I'm sure it'll only make it worse."

Phoenix smiled gently as she nodded lightly to herself "you never were good with these kinds of situations were you…never sure how to react or what to really say. Your right though…not sleeping will only make things worse, but saying I'm sick is putting it lightly isn't it?"

"I like to think that your just sick." He said still messing with the pebble in his hand "…how long did the doctor say you have?"

"he said judging by how things look and how much worse it gets each day…he thinks I have maybe four or six weeks." She said looking out at the moon again sighing to herself.

Gajeel stopped messing with the pebble as he just stared blankly at the ground.

"That's it?" he said, though he thought he said that in his own head

"That's it." She said looking at him and him at her "hey…don't beat yourself up over this though, okay? If it wasn't for you I wouldn't have even bothered trying to look for a cure when I was younger."

"I still think there might be something out there." He said "there has to be."

"Never one to quite." She said

"I can't!" he said squeezing the pebble in his hand "there has to be something!"

Phoenix looked at him before looking back at the moon. She stretched her arms above her head and sighed contently before laying on the roof of the building tugging on Gajeel's arm to catch his attention. "Enough about that. Come on, lay back." She said

"You're really going to act like nothings wrong here?" he asked

"Of course…I have four to six weeks to worry my head off about it, but for now. Let's not. Now come on, stop being a grump and lay back here with me!" she said tugging his arm out from under him and making him fall back with a grunt, making her laugh.

"Weren't you the one just worrying about this a minute ago?!" he said with a sigh laying on his back

"Yeah, but…I let it out some of that pent up stress so I feel a little better now. Like I said before. I have plenty of time to worry about it later, but for now…I feel happy. You helped cheer me up." She said

"Tsk…I never really did understand why you liked me so much." He said placing his left arm behind his head "shoulda figured there was something wrong with you sooner back then."

Phoenix started laughing at his comment "hey granted your rough around the edges but I know you're not a bad guy Gajeel."

"…I guess." He said as he thought about his days at Phantom Lord

"Hey I don't care what you think or what you say I know you better than anyone else" she said turning to her left to lay on her side "and you're not a bad guy…I wish you would tell me why you thought you were."

"Eh…no reason." He said with a shrug making her roll her eyes, while she just stared at him in thought before she yawned to herself using her hand to cover her mouth catching Gajeel's attention.

"hey…I know I've asked you for a lot the year we were together and even now after it's been so long. I know it was hard and now I'm throwing this on you again and I'm sorry for putting you through this" Phoenix said tiredly as she smiled at him before she reached over and grabbed his right hand making him turn on his side himself to face her and placed it over her left ear "but I have to ask you for one more thing…please. Please don't let me forget anymore, especially you of all people."

"…I won't" he said and she just smiled at him before her eyes slowly closed. He just looked at her watching her almost instantly fall asleep, keeping his hand over her ear. Even at her age he still couldn't believe this was a gesture that brought him back to her memory, then again even he knew he was her security blanket back then, not that he thought she needed one. He knew she was strong physically and mentally, but he also knew that he was the only one she showed her vulnerability to. Why? He could never figure out when he was younger. Even now six years later laying here on a pebble covered roof of a hotel building outside, he couldn't figure it out. He just stood there pondering the thought before he felt his own eyelids start to grow heavy and a thought came into mind.

"Stupid…we're outside." He said as he fell asleep.

Eleven year old Phoenix laughed as Gajeel stood there wide eyed with soot all over his face coughing up a little smoke before he glared at her wiping his face.

"What was that for?!" the thirteen year old asked

"I warned you. I said I was gonna start a fire and not to get to close." She said as she threw some more wood into the fire she had started

"Yeah well I didn't hear you!" he said as he set his bag down fixing it the best he could to turn it into a makeshift pillow as he did every night "Hey maybe tomorrow we can go see a doctor in Bellum."

"Okay…but do we have enough money?" she asked

"Eh we'll make it work. We can always see if we can get a small job to get some more money if we need it." He said

"Or we can be street performers. I make a great fire eater!" she winked and he shook his head blushing lightly before sitting down

"Yeah well…we'll see I guess. We gonna have to do something to get more money." He said crossing his arms over his chest in thought and then looked at Phoenix who was playing with a ball of fire in her hands.

"Hey…maybe you should go to sleep." He said

"I'm not tired." She said tossing the fire ball between both of her hands

"But you're sick, stupid! You're gonna get worse and make it harder for me!" he said

"Okay okay, just stop being so grumpy." She said with a giggle as she walked over to where he was and set her own bag down to use as a pillow.

"Why are you always so smiley for?" he asked her as he laid down

"Why are you always so grumpy?" she asked laying down next to him herself

"whatever." He said averting his eyes from looking at her "just go to sleep already before you get worse."

He fixed himself to get more comfortable, well as comfortable as one could get outside laying on the ground, before he heard her clear her throat. He looked up seeing her looking at him and he sighed before he reached over placing his hand over her ear, his right hand over her left ear to be more specific. "Are you ever going to stop having me do this?" he asked her

"What…the sounds out here scare me awake sometimes. Your hand helps so I can't hear them since I like laying this way. I can sleep better like this." She said with a slight pout and he blushed again before looking anywhere but at her "Fine…if it helps you sleep, then I don't care. Better than waking up to you scared at every little thing you hear."

"Meany." She said glaring at him before her looked softened "hey…Gejeel?"

"Yeah?" he said with his eyes closed

"You don't think that lady will come looking for us do you?" she asked and he opened his eyes to look at her

"What lady?" he asked

"The one we met today. The one who talked to me after we left the doctor's today." She said

"Oh…you mean the lady with the white and black hair and gray eyes?" he asked and she nodded "what was her name again?

"Luxiana she said and she had a weird mark on her hand…it kinda looked like a heart I think." Phoenix said thinking to herself "you don't think she'll come looking for us right?"

"No…why do you think that?" he asked confused "because she said she really liked me and that she thought I should go with her today, but I told her no cause I like traveling with you."

"You didn't tell me she said that to you." Gajeel said

"I didn't think it was important. Why? Do you think she'll come looking for us?" Phoenix asked with a little concern. Gajeel stood quite thinking to himself for a moment before he shook his head.

"No…she probably just saw you were a kid that was alone and wanted to help you. Don't worry." He said

"All right…hey Gajeel" Phoenix said with a smile

"What now?" he asked

"Remember what the doctors keep telling us?...about how I'll start to forget stuff?" she asked

"…yeah." He said

"Please don't let me forget you." She said and he just looked at her before nodding.

"I won't." he said a little embarrassed once she smiled at him

"ok...Goodnight, Gajeel." She said before closing her eyes tucking her hand under her bag

"Night." He said adjusting his hand on her before falling asleep himself. It would be the last night the two would feel completely secure and safe before they're lives would be changed and they would be torn apart.

A/N: Hey guys hope you enjoyed this chapter figured i'd give you a little more insight on the relationship between Gajeel and Phoenix. Anywho, Please ignore any misspellings or typo's and as always...please let me know what you think. love to hear what you all have to say. ;-} TTFN