The next day, at the guild hall, Gajeel still sulked at his table staring at his drink with an iron screw in it. The entire guild noticed his mood and worried about him. Some asked if he was okay, but he didn't respond to them or he told them to leave
him alone. However, the one person who he would never push away came up to him and sat across from him with a worried look in her brown eyes. "Gajeel..." Gajeel looked up at Levy who continued to stare at him, "Are you okay?"
Gajeel looked back down at his drink and replied sadly. "You know what day just passed, don't ya?"
"Of course." Levy nodded as she grabbed a hold of Gajeel's hand.
"Why you sad, daddy?" The little blue haired girl asked Gajeel.
"Yeah, why are you sad?" The little blue haired boy nodded.
"Daddy just lost someone very close to him years back." Gajeel ruffled the kids hair before he told them with a slight smile. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."
"Gajeel," Levy spoke, catching Gajeel's attention, "If you ever need to talk, you know you can talk to me, right?"
"I do, Lev, I do." Gajeel nodded slowly. Gajeel went back to staring at the glass in front of him as the memory of Y/N's death flooded his mind.
Flashback:
"Woah!" Young Jasmine stared at something before grabbing it and running toward young Gajeel. "Hey, Oni-chan! Look at this cool frog I found!" Jasmine showed Gajeel the weird frog in her hands.
"Ew! Put that down! You could get warts!"
"Don't be silly, Oni-Chan. Toads could give you warts, this is a frog!"
"Then...it will...give you frog eyes!"
"Oh." Jasminedroppedthe frog before noticing something fly high above them. She looked up in the sky to see a huge bird. Her eyes glowed with amazement as she yanked on Gajeel's shirt. "Look, Oni-chan! Look!"
Gajeel looked up at the bird and shrugged. "At the bird?"
"Isn't it cool?!" Jasmine askedGajeel as she looked at him.
"No."
"Hey, Oni-chan?"
"What?"
"Will I be able to fly someday?"
"No." Gajeel told her plainly before stating. "I'm going to go find something to eat."
"I'll come too!"
"Fine, Just stay out of my way!"
"I will!"
Later...
"I told you to stay out of my way!" Gajeel shouted at the now crying Jasmine. Jasmine hadruined Gajeel's hunt by yelling when she saw a spider. "Isn't there anything you can do?!"
"I'm sorry." Jasminesniffled.
"I'm going to look for food elsewhere! Stay here and wait until I come back!"
"Okay..." Jasmine sniffledagain as she nodded.
Gajeel stormed off with anger written all over his face. He knew Jasmine had a small fear of spiders and he should've known better than to let her come along. Despite being trained by the same dragon, Gajeel was a whole lot stronger than Jasmine. Jasminescreamedcausing
Gajeel to turn and look in the direction he had told her to wait for him. "Jasmine?" His eyes widened when birds flew out of the trees. "Jasmine!" Gajeel yelled as he ran that way. He ran as fast as his feet could take him. When he got there, he saw
a wizard from a dark guild there shooting magic at Jasmine who was barely dodging with tears of fear running down her cheeks. Gajeel jumped in front of Jasmine and yelled. "Iron dragon... roar!"
"Oni-Chan!" Jasminesmiled as she saw him.
A small iron dragon roll blasted and hit the man, barely having any affect. The man just laughed as he looked at Gajeel. "Is that the best you can do?"
"Run, Jasmine, run!" Gajeel shouted as he grabbed Jasmine's wrist and began to run away, knowing they didn't stand a chance. They ran close to a cliff side with a very long fall. Jasmine almost fell off but Gajeel was able to pull her back up. "Be careful!"
Gajeel shouted to her, keeping his eyes on the road ahead.
Jasmine had tears running down her face as she asked fearfully. "Oni-chan, will we be okay?"
"Of course we will!" Gajeel told her as he looked back at her. "No matter what, I won't let you get hurt!"
"But...!" Jasmine'seyes widened at something Gajeel didn't see. "Gajeel!" Jasminetugged on his arm and slid to a stop, causing Gajeel to fall down and something flying over him.
Gajeel's eyes widened when he saw a huge club smack Jasmine on the right side of her head as she flew into the air. Gajeel didn't realize she was going over the cliff side until a bit later. Gajeel scrambled up and ran. He slid and reached to grab Jasmine
but his hands was just a centimeter out of reach. "Jasmine!" Gajeel screamed at the top of his lungs as he watched her fall towards the ground miles below them. He couldn't believe his eyes as he watched Jasmine's small figure shrink. He stared down
at the ground while he shook remembering their last conversation before. Tears came out of Gajeel's eyes as he screamed at the top of his lungs. "NNNNOOOO! JASMINE!"
Flashback end...
Tears ran down Gajeel's cheek before excusing himself and walking out of the guild. Levy watched sadly, knowing he needed to be alone. Gajeel stormed off to the forest before falling to his knees and crying. "Why? What did she do... to deserve that fate?
She was so young..." he choked on his sobs before yelling into the wind. "It was my fault! I told her to wait instead of taking her with me! I was a jerk to her and got mad because she was afraid! I was supposed to die! Why?! Why did you have to go
and save me, Jasmine?! You had plans for your life while I had none, so why did you throw it all away for me?!" Gajeel punched the ground and began to cry even harder than before.