Letters to You

Chapter 13

~Gajeel P.O.V~

I looked down at the letter in my left, clenching the money she had sent with it in the other. Once in America, and exchanged for their currency, it would come out to over two hundred dollars. I could live decently for a while on two hundred dollars.

I was shocked that she had actually written to me, after how I had acted the night before in the garden. I really am an ass. How does she not hate me? I didn’t know the answer to that, but I did know her hopes for me in the letter wouldn’t come true. There was no way I could ever marry another woman, not when she had so completely stolen my entire heart. There would never be anyone else but her.

“Oi! Get out of the way!” A man in a uniform growled, shoving me aside as he led a group of about ten more soldiers down the street. I had reached the docks already, but had stopped in the street to finish reading Levy’s letter before I went in search of the ship going to America.

“British bastard,” I grumbled, taking a seat on a bench, with Lily hopping up beside me, once I found the ship. There was still thirty minutes before they would allow people to board, and twenty minutes after that until it left.In an hour, I’ll be sailing away from Japan. And Levy.

“Don’t let them hear you say that,” a short old man chuckled. “With how riled up everyone is, you may just start the rebellion here on the docks.”

“What rebellion?” I frowned.

“There are rumors of a rebellion starting in some of the lower classes,” he murmured so only I could hear. “The British troops have even come to assist them. The samurai families that hold the most power are going to be targeted first, since they will be the biggest threat against it.”

“Targeted?” I asked, a sick feeling beginning to settle in my gut.

“The samurai will be wiped out, while the women and children will be captured and sent somewhere else out of the fray.”

I was moving before he had finished speaking. I instructed Lily to stay put, threw my bag of clothes down, and strapped my katana across my back before taking off. Despite everything I had said, I couldn’t leave her here knowing she might be in danger. When I reached her manor, I thought at first about just busting through the front door and running around until I found her, but decided quickly against that. I would definitely be struck down before I made it to her, and that wouldn’t be helping anything.

So, I instead snuck around the house, keeping out of sight until I reached that familiar window. Not bothering to knock, I threw it open and toppled inside, closing it quickly behind me.

“G-Gajeel?!”

I looked up, feeling my face turn an unmanly shade of red as I stared at the two women still in their nightclothes. The blonde glaring at me was Lucy, I assumed, and I suddenly felt like and idiot. What the hell am I doing? I should have knocked on the window at least!

“What are you doing here?” Levy asked when I still didn’t say anything.

“I’m sorry,” I blurted out, ignoring her shocked gasp and grabbing her small hands. “I’m an idiot. A complete and total idiot. You should even hate me after last night, but, by some miracle, you don’t. Even if you did, I still would have come back for you, though.”

“What are you rambling on about?” Lucy snapped, obviously mad enough at me for Levy, too.

“There’s going to be a rebellion,” I said, never taking my eyes from Levy’s. “The samurai families are going to be taken, and the men killed.”

“What?” She gasped, the color draining from her face.

I held her hands a little tighter. “I’m an idiot, and I’ll never be able to give you the life you deserve, but damn it, I love you, and I can’t leave you here. Hell, I wouldn’t be able to marry anyone else even if you turned me down,” I chuckled.