A/N: Sorry, another late update! I'm starting to get writers block for this story, but I'm so close to finishing! I think there will be only a few more chapters until I finish. Thank you to all who have enjoyed the story thus far! If anyone is interested, I started a fairy tail fan page on instagram! The handle is CelestialKeyWielder, and if you see this and follow me from it be sure to dm me so I know! Love you all, see you next time!

Gajeel was nervous. He had gotten back to his house, Lucy following close behind, and he was scared to know the truth. He didn't know what to expect from her, and so when they had each settled down at the kitchen island, directly across from each other, he couldn't even look her in the eyes.

"So." she began, her voice a bit weak.

"So." he echoed blankly.

"I guess… what happened was a little weird."

"A little." he felt his lips tug into small grin.

"So…" she sighed, pushing her shoulders back. "Let me get one thing straight. What I'm telling you, it's not for sympathy. I don't want you to think of me any differently, and I don't want you to get mad or sad or any of that. This is simply… Just, listen objectively, got it?"

"You're the boss." he waved for her to continue.

"Uh, okay. Um," she ran her hand through her pretty, shiny blonde hair and laughed nervously. "About a year or so ago, I guess, probably more now, actually." she pondered.

"Time frame is a while ago, got it." he nodded to her. She shot him a grateful smile for not being too serious.

"Yeah, so I went through some… stuff." another awkward laugh fell from her lips. Gajeel decided he wouldn't speak until he heard the whole story, so he stayed quiet this time. "I was, what, fifteen going on sixteen? It was my first year on the cheerleading team, second year of real school, I had a lot going for me. Oh, yeah, it was around the time of homecoming." she remembered.

"We already got the time frame, bunny." Gajeel's voice was soft but direct, and she knew she should stop skirting around the story.

"Well, I was dumb and young. And so this guy started talking to me," she forced out another laugh, clearly uncomfortable but powering through it. "He started talking to me and I thought nothing of it. He was nice, handsome, popular… No other guy had ever actually taken notice of me at that point. He texted me all the time, gave me flowers, always wanted to be with me…" Gajeel could see where this was going. He didn't want it to go this way, he wanted her to finish telling the story and laugh and say 'you fell for it!' but he knew deep down that it wasn't gonna happen.

"His name?" his voice was hoarse.

"Dan Straight, he was on the lacrosse team." she supplied the information he asked for. Gajeel put a face to the name, realizing he hadn't seen much of the kid in… around a year, he supposed. Hadn't seen him at all, actually. "Dan was super good to me, for a while. We didn't date, I didn't let it get that far, but I suppose I shouldn't have let it get as far as it did." a shuddering sigh made her shoulders droop. "He suddenly was… overwhelming. He always always always wanted to be around me, and to know who I was with and when. He was jealous of all other guys. I remember I was talking to a guy one day and the next he came to school with a black eye and wouldn't even look at me. I was horrified.

"I knew it was Dan, because it happened to any guy that talked to me, and soon he was going after my girl friends. He hounded them to leave me alone, he wanted me to all to himself, but I was so disgusted by his actions that I started ignoring him and I blocked his number. I didn't talk to anyone about it, I'm such an idiot for not asking for help. The guy was insane, he gave me the creeps and I was so terrified of him that I turned tail and ran any time he came around.

"He showed up at my house one night. He wanted to ask me to homecoming, and I said… I told him I never wanted to see him, speak to him again. I was home alone, and-" Lucy cut herself off, a slight sob escaping her lips. "He just-he kept hitting me. And he hit me and it hurt, so bad. I didn't know what to do, he was so much stronger than me so I just started screaming and then he tried to-" she gasped again, wiping at her eyes, suddenly reliving the moment. "He tried taking off my clothes and then my neighbor showed up, he must have heard me, and he pulled Dan off of me and the police showed up and all I did was cry." Gajeel felt rage bursting inside of him, but sympathy washed over him in waves, tamping down the anger. He grabbed Lucy's hand as she began to sob harder.

"Hey, hey." his voice was soft again, and she could barely stand the emotion that vibrated through his tenor sound waves. "Lucy, you're okay. You're with me, it's okay." Gajeel was practically cooing to her.

"Y-yeah. That fucking bastard… he's not around." she calmed down a bit. "I wish he was in jail." she let out a shaky laugh, and Gajeel was proud of her for being able to power through it. But then ice shot down his spine as he processed what she said.

"You mean he's not rotting in jail?!" he snarled. She should have been afraid of his tone, the way malice dripped from his tongue like venom, but she wasn't. She merely traced her fingers around his clenched knuckles with a sigh.

"He got off easy. We were fifteen, he couldn't be tried as an adult. He got community service and then he moved away, his mom was too embarrassed I guess."

"I'm gonna kill him. That-that fucking spineless, disgusting, I can't even think of any more adjectives I'm so pissed." he tightened his grip on her fingers.

"Hey, I told you that you can't get mad about it." her voice was soft and calm, and he looked up at her to see that she was okay. His eyes were trapped in the deep pools of chocolate that were her irises, soothing him and helping his brain calm down.

"I really can't help it." he snorted. "Any guy that even thinks of laying a hand on someone who-I mean, I've gotten into a ton of fights, but I'd never beat on someone who isn't hitting me just as hard." he snarled. "That's just… Bunny girl, if I had been around during that time you would have known that I would kill him. I'd literally have killed him."

"If you'd have killed him then you would be in jail." she reminded the mechanic.

"Who gives a shit. He doesn't deserve to let his slimy, awful ass prance around on this earth; he deserves to rot in hell. Even that is too good for him."

"All I want in life is to never see or hear from him again. I'm usually okay, I just… I don't like to stay out too late or be by myself too often. My cleaning lady usually stays later if my dad is working so that I won't have to be alone." Lucy laughed, genuinely this time, not in self-pity.

"Bunny… I'm proud of ya. You don't really let this bother you, you really could, but… You're the toughest little shit I've ever met. Gihi." Gajeel squeezed her hands once more before standing. "Now, you said something before about the last one here having to buy the pizza?"

"I'm on it." Lucy grinned, pulling out her phone and dialing the pizza place. She felt all warm and fuzzy and light. The blonde was inexplicably happier around the mechanic.

Lucy ordered their pizza (hawaiian on half for her, meat lovers on the other half for him; they each thought the other was disgusting).

When it arrived they chowed down immediately, and it was Gajeel's turn to pick the movie they watched. They had been spending a lot of time doing just that lately, munching on take-out at the Redfox residence and watching movies. He played a horror film, and so they sat huddled together. The smell of pineapple from Lucy's half of the pizza left a tangy scent in the air, and Gajeel couldn't help but think that it complemented her scent nicely.

Lucy, however, wasn't thinking about the sweet air. No, she was in rapture/horror of the gory film that Gajeel chose for them to watch. She was too terrified to notice his arm snake around her, too frightened to realize she was slowly melting into his side.

But he noticed.

Gajeel continued to pull her tighter into his side, until she was nearly on his lap. The sun had slowly been setting, and most of the way through the flick it was nearly pitch black in his family room. This only seemed to freak Lucy out further, and Gajeel smirked before pulling his arm away. But she latched onto his strong bicep tightly, not letting him move an inch.

"Do you want me to turn a light on?" he whispered with mirth into her ear. She jumped at his hot breath fanning over the lobe, but she shook her head.

"I'm fine." she assured in a (mostly) normal voice. The movie was nearly over, so she only had to bear with it for a short while longer. She made it through the movie alright, but Lucy was half on top of him by the end of it. She didn't even watch the rest of it, her head was ducked into his chest and she clenched onto his black shirt tightly.

"Bunny." he chuckled as the end credits rolled up, ominous music filling the room.

"Is it over?" her voice was slightly muffled by his hard chest.

"Mhm." he absentmindedly stroked the back of her head. The glossy blonde locks felt like silk between his fingers.

"Good." she sighed, but they didn't dare move. In their bubble of space there were no teasing friends, no hidden feelings. They just had each other, and it was all they needed.