Author's notes: not very big chapter but i felt too bad about what happened in the previous one-.-;

as usual, i do not own Fairy Tail or the characters because hey, i'm not that cool. :3

( someone made me notice that in chapter 6 i use the word deceived when it should be dissapointed, thx mr/miss for pointing it out since you're anonymus and sorry for this mistakes.)

From the other side

# 7 What Happened?

Why does it hurt so much? I can't feel my toes, I'm cold, my head hurts a lot. It hurts to breathe, it hurts to move... My throat is thigh, I can't speak neither.

Everything is dark, is it because my eyes are closed? No, I'm blinking and it's still dark. Where am I?

Where's Mommy? Where's daddy?

Steps. Someone is walking. Someone is walking above my head, someone is talking but it's muffled, I can't hear them well.

There is light above me, tiny lines in the ceiling. A shadow passes over the lines, the steps are loud and heavy. I'm scared. Where are you, Mommy?

The floor under me is hard and cold, it's made of cement and it's dusty. Just like the basement in our house. I hate it there, it's scary! I want to come out!

I remember. Mommy and Daddy brought me here. They promised that they would come back for me. Where are they?

A loud noise startles me. Something heavy fell on the floor, above me, I can see its shadow over the lines. Someone's yelling, there's another big noise. Something else falls hard. I really don't like it. There's tears coming out of my eyes.

There's no more noise, now. The steps are leaving. Wait! Mommy! Daddy!

Don't forget me here! Don't leave without me!

Levy's spine was run by a shiver when she snapped her eyes open, the loud ringing in her head making her wince in pain. Her right cheek was stuck to the floor and when she lifted her head, it reminded her of a sticker being removed. Raising her head hadn't been a very good idea, even if she wasn't far off the ground and still sprawled on her belly, that simple movement gave her vertigo and her head dropped on the floor again, adding to her pain. On top of that, there was a nauseous feeling in her stomach and it seemed like something had died in her mouth.

Why was all this giving her a feeling of Déjà vu?

She had to try a couple of times but, eventually, the bluenette raised her head to get a good look around the room. From her point of view, she could see several cans of beer laying on the floor, the strong scent of alcohol invading her nostrils, that and another scent that made her gag. She didn't need to have it spelled out for her: adding this mess to her symptoms, it was obvious that she had had way too much to drink.

Again.

A long sigh escaped her dry lips. How many days has it been? She didn't remember exactly and it was precisely the main point of doing all this, she didn't want to remember. She wanted to forget everything, to erase any traces of his existence in her memory so she could pretend that it never happened in the first place.

Raising herself to a sitting position, Levy groaned as she felt her stomach flip in an unpleasant manner, making her curse, yet again, at how shitty it was to deal with a break up. Which wasn't really a break up since they had never been together to begin with. But she guessed that it was as worse as a real one, she couldn't really imagine herself feeling even more miserable than this.

She barely registered the sound of the front door opening as she dropped her head on the couch behind her, closing her eyes to soothe the pain she felt from everywhere. She heard the footsteps of someone coming closer and letting out a long exasperate sigh:

" Oh my, Levy, what happened? "

Opening one heavy eyelid, the short woman saw the disapproving face of her roommate hovering over her.

" You look even worse than when Juvia left. "

Juvia had spoken in a quiet voice but for Levy, it had sounded like screaming, the little fairy winced before mumbling an answer:

" It's nothin'... Just had a little drink... "

The curly-haired woman snorted:

" Just a little drink? Yeah, right, you had at least a dozen. Come on, let's get you to bed. "

The bluenette groaned when she was picked up by her friend, too weak to resist the strong grip. She hadn't had anything to eat beside crackers for the past days and hadn't been able to sleep well, neither. Juvia stopped in front of the bathroom door, wrinkling her nose at the small fairy:

" You reek, girl. You need a bath, first. "

Levy remembered scowling and saying something against it, but it all became a blur, after that. She didn't recall having been stripped and washed but the warm water woke her up long enough for her to accept to put a t-shirt and some clean panties. Then, the next thing she knew, she was being placed in her bed, forced to take medicine with water before being laid down and tucked under the covers.

" You can thank me later for cleaning up your mess, " said Juvia while shaking her head. " Sleep now 'cause you'll have to explain everything when you'll wake up. "

Levy wanted to say that she had nothing to explain but the softness of her bed made her fall unconscious in mere seconds. Exhaustion and abuses from the previous days drove her into a dreamless sleep.

Gazille thought he hated nothing more than having writer block but when he woke up, that day, he wasn't so sure about that, anymore. Being hungover was now getting pretty close to first place, his splitting head and queasy feeling reminding him why he usually never drank strong liquor. Normally, he wouldn't have resorted to drinking to forget about a break up, he would have just kept himself busy with something else until he got over it, but this time, no matter how much he had tried, he couldn't concentrate on anything else than her. Her face, her eyes, her body, her voice... and the last words he had heard from her.

That was the main reason he hadn't been able to deal with it, for once, in his life, he had wanted, no, needed immediate relief. Never he had felt so miserable after being rejected, and that had happened more than once, in the past, but this time, he hadn't just been attracted to the woman, he had been, and still was, addicted to her. Alcohol had seemed like the only solution for his broken heart and now, he was paying the price.

Groaning in pain and cursing the sunlight, the afro-haired man buried his head in his pillow, promising himself that never he would do something like that, ever again. Since he almost never got himself into such a state, he had absolutely no idea what to do to feel better. He supposed that Bob would be able to help him even if the idea of facing him was far from being appealing, he would have to answer his questions, both about Miss Levy and about why he hadn't given any signs of life for the past three days. It was something highly unusual for the writer to do, ever since he had known the ex master, there hadn't been one day he had not come drink a coffee at his pub. Until now.

Pratically crawling to the Blue Pegasus, the writer snuck inside like a thief and sat at his usual place. The trip, no matter how short, had tired him out so much he couldn't keep his head up at all. He managed to prop it on his hand and closed his eyes to shut off the offensive light around him. The chatting customers made him frown, they weren't even talking loudly but to him, it sounded like screaming.

He didn't hear the heavy footsteps that rushed behind the bar to meet him, barely three seconds after he sat, but a loud clanking noise on the bar startled him awake. The afro-haired man saw the fat owner standing in front of him, eyes glaring daggers, then he looked down at the bar to see what had made the noise. It was a coffee cup which content had sloshed all over the wooden surface. He touched the cup:

" It's cold. "

Bob slapped both hands on the bar in fury:

" COLD? YOU BET IT'S COLD, AND YOU KNOW WHY? IT'S BEEN WAITING FOR YOUR SORRY ASS FOR THREE DAYS, YOU DUMB ASSHOLE! THREE DAYS I'VE GOT NO NEWS ABOUT YOU, I WAS ABOUT TO SEND THE WHOLE FUCKING ARMY AT YOUR DOOR TO BE SURE YOU HADN'T DONE ANYTHING STUPID! YOU FUCKING DUMBASS, MAKING ME WORRY LIKE A FUCKING HOUSEWIFE-"

" Please, stop screaming, my head hurts-"

"-GOOD THINK IF IT HURTS, IDIOT, YOU TOTALLY DESERVE IT! THAT'LL TEACH YOU TO PLAY DEAD, YOU FUCKER! "

Gazille had cringed at the loud voice that left his inner ears ringing and probably bleeding as well. Hibiki, Ren and their customers had all stopped talking to stare at the owner and the poor man who had just been scolded like a delinquent son, the two waitresses grimacing compassionately for the writer, knowing full well how unpleasant it was to be scolded by the man.

The young man felt like crying now, he was sure that he wouldn't be able to stand his own brain for much longer and judging by how mad Bob was at him, he wouldn't be surprised if the fat man refused to help him.

Perhaps he did look too pitiful because the barman simply sighed and offered him his morning coffee, as if he hadn't just chewed him out mere seconds before. He also gave him a glass full of a suspicious green liquid and a pill he recognized as aspirin.

" It's my miracle juice for hangovers. Don't ask what's in it. "

Gazille was slightly afraid that it might be poison but only one glance at Bob's daring stare and he quickly took it. The taste was more weird than disgusting but he was glad he only had one of those to take. He didn't feel immediate improvement but the delicious taste of his coffee helped him slightly forget about his torture.

" And I suppose you didn't eat neither, eh? "

The writer dropped his head in guilt. He hadn't been able to eat anything more than a toast, the day before. He wasn't even hungry, at the moment, he who usually ate almost four times a day.

Ren brought pancakes that were eaten without a word. The young man wasn't sure if he was glad or not about Bob's silence, he wasn't naive enough to believe the man would let him off the hook like that.

" How about you tell me what happened? "

The writer couldn't help giving the barman a Are you kidding me stare, wasn't it obvious what had happened? He surely wouldn't have gotten himself drunk like that if everything was fine between Miss Levy and him.

" Nah, I don't mean about that, " said the fat man, " I ain't stupid. I mean: what did you say or do to make her hates you? "

Gazille sighed while watching the bottom of his cup:

" If only I knew... She said she had the worst night of her life and that she never wanted to see me again. " He didn't feel like repeating the insults she had yelled at him, just thinking about them depressed him. He had been insulted often in his life but it was the first time that it hurt him that much.

" Really? That's not what the girls told me. Apparently, the two of you were being all lovey-dovey the whole time. You sure nothing happened? "

The young man quickly understood what the man was referring to.

" No! No, believe me, nothing like that happened. I just... kissed her. Well, actually, it was more her kissing me, I only responded once. "

Bob raised an eyebrow:

" You just kissed her? "

" Yes. "

" And your pants never came off? "

" No, they did not. " Gazille frowned at the barman's doubts. He wasn't going to tell him that she had tried to take them off, the main point was that he had not abused her in any way. He had held back from going too far to make sure she wouldn't hate him but that hadn't exactly went as planned.

Bob blinked at his customer:

" I dunno if I should congratulate you for your strong resolve or call you an idiot. "

" Well, excuse me for not being as perverted as you. "

The barman was far from being fazed by the writer's scowl, he simply waved a hand before scratching his chin:

" Anyway, that's not the main problem here. You did nothing wrong but she still hates you, there's gotta be a reason, right? "

Gazille shrugged since he had absolutely no idea why Miss Levy would hate him if it wasn't because of something he had done, like kissing her. It couldn't have been something he had said since he hadn't spoken to her after putting her to bed, so why? Why did she hate him?

You did nothing wrong...

Wait a minute. Bob was right, he had done nothing wrong. If he had, she would have said so when she had yelled at him, right? She had only spoken of him in general, as if she had never considered him a friend.

But maybe that was the case, maybe she had never seen him even as a friend?

No. Miss Levy wouldn't bother repairing the motorcycle of a man she couldn't stand the sight of, nor would she accept his invitation to a ball or invite him for a drink. She was a straight-to-the-point woman who would never do things she didn't feel like doing, especially not for people she disliked . Yes, she had called him troublesome, from time to time, but it had never been mean and it had never prevented her from meeting him again. Which meant that she didn't hate him.

She didn't hate him.

A smile grew on the writer's face, something he hadn't done in such a long time. It wasn't him. He was not the problem. There was obviously something that made her push him away but it had nothing to do with who he was or what he had done.

He needed to find out the truth about this. If there was a chance, even just a slim chance, that she liked him more than she had pretended to, he had to do everything possible to take it.

The afro-haired man jumped on his feet and made his way to the door in a rush. The barman shouted in surprise:

" Where are you going? "

" There's something I need to check! " answered the young man before exiting the pub.

Bob didn't have time to ask him what it was all about, but he still rushed to the door to yell at his disappearing form:

" Go take a shower first! "

End notes: Is that a tiny light of hope we see there? hope you liked it thx for all the faves and reviews it's awesome :3