Gajeel walked into his favorite bar, Quatro Cerberus. It had been a rough two weeks for him, and he needed to unwind before they flew to Japan tomorrow morning. Apparently, some other people had the same idea. As soon as he walked in, he was greeted by Juvia, who seemed to have only just walked in herself with her boyfriend, Ice Princess. Flame Brain and Bunny Girl were already at the usual booth.

"Gajeel-kun! Juvia didn't know that you were going to be here tonight," Juvia smiled brightly at her best friend. She had also gotten into the Japanese honorifics, just like some of the other girls had.

He shrugged. "I need a drink before tomorrow. It's going to be kind of a big deal for me, for multiple reasons."

Juvia nodded knowingly, but not saying anything in front of Gray. "Of course it is. You should make sure that you're relaxed tomorrow. Just don't go overboard, okay?"

With a grunt, he smirked. "And have a hangover tomorrow? Come on Juv, i'm smart about this stuff. You know me."

Gajeel wrapped his arm around her shoulder and walked them over towards their usual booth, where fire and ice were once again proving to be opposing sides as they got heavily into an argument about Mavis knows what. He had somehow knew that everyone was going to go out tonight. After all, it was an exciting day for everyone tomorrow, but none more than Gajeel. Not even Shrimp had a bigger day than he did, and she was going to be on the job constantly. No, Gajeel has something way more important than work happening tomorrow. Tomorrow was the first time in years that he would see his little cousin, Rouge.

Rouge had come to America when he was in middle school to go to school for a few years. However, shortly before Rouge arrived, Metalicana, Gajeel's father and sole caretaker, died in a motorcycle accident. However, with everything already in place, Rouge came over anyway, and the two of them worked together to make ends meet. Gajeel, at the time, was entering his freshman year of high school. For the first time, at least. He became an independent minor, and Rouge was just a long-term guest, especially since Skiadrum, Rouge's father and Metalicana's brother, sent money for his son's stay. Rouge was unable to work a real job at such a young age, so his money mostly came from raking leaves and walking dogs for the neighbors. Gajeel, on the other hand, had to take on almost a full time job working at a restaurant as a busboy, which meant a lot of skipping school for work. Even on days when Gajeel didn't have work until that night, he would skip his last period of the day to go pick up Rouge from school. Even though he could have easily asked his uncle for more money, he knew that his uncle was struggling enough as it was to send the money that he was, and Rouge really did enjoy it here, so he never let anyone how much of a struggle it was for Gajeel.

He ended up failing freshman year twice. At the end of his second time going through freshman year, he was bitter about the world. Rouge left that summer, and even though he was sad to see him go, it meant that he could maybe finally go through school. Gajeel was actually pretty smart, but because of the last two years and because he still had to skip school because of work, the teachers branded him as lazy, and only half expected him to pass on the third try. Which is why they were all so surprised when he got As in practically everything, and Bs in everything he didn't get an A in. But just because his grades were good didn't mean he didn't get in trouble. And he did. Constantly. He became the school bully, punching anyone who said anything bad about him.

There was one person in particular the he bullied. Levy McGarden. The blue haired girl was loved by all teachers for how smart she was, and was constantly praised for it. Though he wouldn't admit it at the time, he was jealous of the praise that she got. Though, when he would notice that she was suffering academically because of it, he pulled back on it a bit. After all, he didn't want anyone to feel the way that he did when he got a bad grade.

Four years later, he graduated high school, and with tons of scholarships and loans for being an independent, Gajeel made his way through college. Although it wasn't the greatest college around, he could graduate with honors and impress the Phantom Lord Law Firm to take him in straight out of college. Soon after that, Juvia joined him, but after the Phantom Lord Law Firm got shut down because of illegal activity happening higher up, it was Juvia who took the two of them to Fairy Tail.

He had changed a lot since high school. If anything, he was more like the Gajeel the Rouge and Juvia knew when he was younger than anything else. He hoped that Rouge had done well in all those years. Better than him, at least.

"Gajeel-kun?" Juvia said, lightly putting a hand on his shoulder, bringing him to attention.

Gajeel looked up at the different pairs of eyes that were staring at him. It seems that he had spaced out while he was thinking and ended up staring at the beer in his hand.

"You alright, bro?" Gray asked, and Gajeel nodded, his lips twisting up into his signature grin.

"Of course I am. But unlike you guys, my job is riding on this trip to go well," he smirked before taking a swig of his beer.

And just like that, the group went back to its normal self. Only Juvia was still worried about the large man, but she knew more than anyone else what this trip meant to him.

She just hoped that it would all go well.

"This whole thing is ridiculous," Gajeel grumbled to himself under his breath. He really didn't understand why the whole firm had to go to Japan. Even Gildarts was going, and that guy was barely ever even at the office.

Not that Gajeel really minded. There was a lot of things for him to do in Japan. Gajeel was interrupted from his thoughts when the shrimp spoke, taking him out of his thoughts.

"Gajeel, get your butt off that chair."

He grunted softly. Slowly, he got up and grabbed his bags. "I hate buses."

"I'm surprised you don't hate everything." She said, turning back around to leave the room.

"I don't hate you." Gajeel mumbled, but loud enough that Levy could hear.

It was true. He didn't hate her. After all, they were co-workers, so why should they hate each other? And she hadn't done anything to make him hate her. He didn't know why she insisted on saying that he hated her.

"What?" She said sharply, looking at him once again.

He looked away. "Nothing, shrimp. Don't worry about it." He didn't feel like explaining it to her.

"Tch. As if I could ever relax with you in my presence," she said with certainty.

Gajeel just rolled his eyes as the small bluenette left the room to go board the bus. He let out a small groan to himself. His motion sickness was not going to be fun to deal with, but it had to be done. And riding the bus was not as bad as if they were going in a car.

Gathering up his things, he walked out of the building, making sure that he had what he needed before leaving. He wondered what unfortunate soul would be sitting next to him. Salamander probably, since the two of them had the same motion sickness problem.

Oh boy, he wasn't ready for the real answer to his question.

Gajeel heard the petite translator curse under her breath as he sat down next to her. Hey, he wanted to sit here about as much as she wanted it, maybe even less because he didn't want to be on this bus anyway.

He fell asleep soon after the bus started moving, knowing that it would help with his motion sickness to not be conscious. However, he did drift in and out of consciousness throughout the ride. Apparently, he had fallen asleep on Shrimp's shoulder. During one of the times where he was more conscious, he heard a voice, which most likely belonged to the person he was sleeping on, but he couldn't tell what they were saying. Finally, he actually just slept, letting himself settle down for the long hall. It wasn't until he felt his face hit with a bag that he finally woke up.

"Oi!" he groaned, rubbing his face as Levy shuffled past him. Standing up, he grabbed his bags and made his way off the bus. "Could ya at least try to be a little nicer to me?" he asked her.

"Did you try to be nicer to me back in high school?" The petite woman said, not turning around.

That made Gajeel stop in his tracks, but only for a second. "Look, shrimp…"

"Would you please stop calling me that?"

"That's the one thing I won't do."

"Oh? Then what will you do?" This time she faced him, and halfway down the stairs she could see Lucy peeking her head out from behind a seat, with her eyes wide as if she was watching some intriguing TV show. Levy realised that no one at the firm knew about Levy and Gajeel's relationship except for Jet and Droy.

Gajeel sighed. "Whatever it takes." He mumbled. Really, he only said half of what he meant, but he didn't even want to say anything to her. He wanted to make up for what he did when they were in high school. He was a punk and a bully, and she didn't deserve any of what he did to her. And although the two of them were better than they were in high school, he knew that she still held resentment towards her.

The bluenette watched in shock as he passed her and got off the bus without saying another word. She quickly gathered herself and followed him. "What the heck does that mean?" She called.

Gajeel turned and gave her a smirk. "Whatever you want it to mean, shrimp." He was too much of a natural flirt for his own good.