Countdown to the End (Gale) {Fairy Tail FF}

14 Days

Sorry this chapter took so long, Fairies! I got busy, and then lost my inspiration for a while, but I'm back!!! :D AND!!! I have a DOUBLE UPDATE!!! WHOOP!!! \OoO/

~Gajeel~

"There you are," Lily said as he sat across from me at our usual table in the guildhall. "You left early this morning."

I shrugged, eating one of the bolts out of the bowl Mira had brought me that morning. "I woke up early and figured I might as well come here. I was planning on taking a job, too. Maybe an extended one."

"Is this about Levy?" He asked, frowning.

I popped another bolt into my mouth so I didn't have to respond. Levy had spent the last three days with Deidre, teaching her some basic Solid Script spells. I hadn't seen her at all since we had come back from dinner that night, after she had told me she wanted to get to know me and I had completely shot her down. I didn't know why I had done it, honestly. Something about Levy made me want to tell her anything she wanted to know—no matter how personal it was, but something else was stopping me. I had been alone for so long after Metallicana that I didn't know how to open up to people, I guess. So it's your own damned fault she's ignoring you.

I shouldn't have even cared that she was ignoring me. But I did. I cared a lot. It bugged the hell out of me that she was spending so much time with Eli and Dee, and that she was completely avoiding me.

"Why don't you just apologize? Lily asked, sighing.

"Apologize for what?"

He gave me a disappointed frown. "For hurting her feelings."

"It's not like I did it on purpose," I snapped, "and it's her own fault for getting so worked up over something stupid like that."

"Good morning, Levy!" Mirajane called from the bar.

I turned, wanting to kick myself when I saw Levy. Standing directly behind me. As soon as my eyes met hers, she looked away and hurried over to the bar.

"Damn," I groaned, knowing she had heard me.

"Now you really need to apologize," Lily said, shaking his head.

Grumbling, I stood up and went to the bar, taking a seat next to Levy. "Hey," I said. She ignored me, sipping on the juice Mira had brought for her. With a loud sigh, I resigned myself to apologizing, knowing it would be the only way to get her to talk to me. "Listen, Shrimp, about what I said—"

"Don't worry about it," she interrupted, setting down her empty cup and getting off the bar stool. "It wasn't my business, so I shouldn't have asked. It's not like we're friends, right? We're just comrades." With that, without even glancing back at me, she left the guildhall.

I stared after her, completely dumbfounded. Her usually bright hazel eyes had seemed so dim as she spoke, and I noticed she was paler than usual, too. Maybe she's just tired, I thought, trying to come up with an explanation for her odd behavior. She was never so cold towards me, so I wasn't really sure how to react.

A long whistle brought me out of my daze, and I looked over to find Cana leaning against the bar next to me, shaking her head. "You've gone and done it now, dimwit."

"And what's that?" I growled.

"If you don't know, I ain't tellin' ya."

"You—"

"You'd better go if you're going to catch up to her," Cana said, nodding towards the door.

Grumbling about her being too damned vague, I went after Levy. Why the hell am I even going after her? It shouldn't matter to me if she's angry or not. It'd probably be better if she was, then she'd stay away from me. I shook my head, shaking those kinds of thoughts from my mind.