Iron Flowers

Something was off.

He knew the moment the Fairy Tail emblem was stamped onto his bicep. The white haired mage (Mirajane or something) avoided his eyes and other guild members blatantly turned their backs on him. He shrugged to himself, not thinking much of it. Exclusion was to be expected. Hedid demolish their guild hall, after all. But still, that didn't feel like the problem. But maybe it was. Fairy Tail seemed like the kind of guild that was more sensitive than others. Maybe he was overthinking things. Yeah, that was probably it. He ordered a beer and retreated to a table at the back of the guild, trying to find the darkest spot in the building.

Which was damn near impossible. Did these fairies even know what shutters were? Deciding he'd have to make do, he found a spot and turned his back on the rest of the room.

And there he stayed.

Or he would've, if that pink-haired moron hadn't blasted a fireball at him. The sheer force of the blast knocked him off his chair. He growled and got back up.

"What the fuck was that for?!" He demanded. The Dragon slayer said nothing. His eyes were hidden by his hair.

"How dare you..." He seethed. Gajeel barely heard him at first. "...How dare you come here?!" Before he knew what was going on, he was thrown against the wall. Stars exploded behind his eyes, and he couldn't see for a moment. When his vision cleared, the master was yelling at his assailant.

"We don't attack guild mates, Natsu!" Master Makarov scolded. Natsu's eyes widened as his they landed on his new guild mark.

"You let him join? Him?!" The room had gone silent, save for the fire mage's heavy breathing. "Do you even remember what he did to us? What he did to them?!" He swung his arm out and motioned to the red head and the man in the green pants, both wrapped in bandages and glaring daggers at him. He noticed that the little blue-haired girl wasn't with them. He slowly got to his feet as Natsu and Makarov continued to argue.

"We learn to forgive our enemies, Natsu!"

"But we can't forgive him! What about Levy? Did you forget about her already?!" Before anyone could react, Natsu was sent flying and Master Makarov grew six times his normal size.

"DON'T EVER ACCUSE ME OF FORGETTING ONE OF MY CHILDREN!" Everyone shrunk back, including him. No wonder this guy's the master. Natsu gulped nervously and nodded. The tension remained high until Master Makarov finally shrunk back to his normal size. "All I know," He continued. "Is that our First Master didn't form this guild so we could fight each other." He sounded far older. Or maybe he acted younger than he really was. When he first laid eyes on the Master, he couldn't believe the small man was able to become a master. He believed whole-heartedly that Master Jose would wipe the floor with the Fairy-Scum.

But then Master Jose got the shit beaten out of him.

And after their guild hall was demolished and he was left sitting in the rubble, he made a mental note: Don't fuck with Fairy Tail.

"Look," He panted as he stood up. "I know I acted like an ass. But I'm sorry, okay?" Everyone looked at him doubtfully.

"How do we know you are?" The redhead in the hat asked him. Gajeel scoffed.

"You don't." He answered truthfully. He rolled his eyes and Gajeel felt his anger flare up. "What's the big deal?" He demanded. "It's not like I killed anyone!" He shouted. Suddenly every one stiffened. Mirajane looked down at her shoes as Natsu tensed up. The two guys he attacked deflated and turned away from him. Gajeel looked around. "Right?" Makarov sighed, and motioned for him to follow. Makarov led Gajeel away from the building and towards the park. "Where are we going?" Gajeel asked gruffly. Makarov said nothing, choosing instead to point at a large tree. Gajeel winced as he recognized the tree. There were torn pieces of iron tacked to the tree.