Hey! I'm back xD or at least, I'm trying to be. Finally started working on that new story I promised to all my "Holiday Stayers" readers. Took me a little longer than I'd planned, but it's finally started lol Hope you like it ^w^

For the Summer

~Chapter 1~

A short man with thin gray hair and a face full of wrinkles set in from a lifetime of laughter, sat by a window in the living room of his old house. He was probably in his late 60s – he was old but not so much so that he was stiff and incapable. In fact, he was a rather lively old man – he had to be if you took his summer occupation into account. The man smiled and kept his gaze glued to the nearby window.

The window was open, letting in a soft summer breeze and the sounds of busy bees tending to the overgrown hydrangeas that grew in his unruly front yard. The older man was practically bouncing in his seat from the anticipation.

He was expecting someone.

No, scratch that – as of yesterday he was now expecting a couple someones.

Now that had been a surprise, the old man thought to himself.

He'd gotten the sudden phone call yesterday morning while he was in the middle of his chore of cleaning out the upstairs bedroom so that it could once again be fit for human habitation. He remembered thinking that it might have been Mr. Bob calling to see when their favorite part-time worker would be arriving, but that was not the case.

"Makarov? This is Lily," A deep and smooth voice said through the phone.

"Lily! Wow, long time no see, brat! How've you been?" the old man, Makarov said jovially.

The deep voice laughed, "I've been well – and yourself?"

"Well, I've been just peachy. So what's going on? I'm sure this isn't just a social call. No trouble, is there?"

The man on the other end of the line sighed. "Well, it's got to do with trouble I suppose, but I called because I wanted to ask for a favor," Lily started to explain.

Makarov nodded despite being alone in his house, "Give me the details and I'll see if I can help."

"Are you still running that summer program for the kids in Magnolia?"

The old man nodded again, "Sure am – it starts up in on Monday actually. Why?"

"Well, I'm looking for a place to send one of my charges – a seventeen year-old boy. He's been getting into a lot of trouble lately and his most recent court hearing left him with a full three months of community service. I wanted to know if you'd do me the favor of taking him in for the summer and letting him work off his hours at the kids' program."

There was a short silence on the line. Makarov was mulling over all the details. "So why does it have to be me? Isn't all this happening up in Fiore? Why drag him all the way out here just for community service?"

"The thing is, the crowd he's been with lately is a bad one, and I wanted to try to get him away from all of that for a while. I thought a summer out in the boonies could be good for him – he's a little rough around the edges but overall a good kid. He just needs a little guidance."

Makarov sighed into the phone, "Well, I guess it's no big problem for me, especially if I get some free work out of him – but are you sure he'll be alright with the kids? There's quite a handful of them – and not to mention I'll also have Levy over for the summer as well."

"The McGarden's daughter?" Lily asked.

"That's the one. She comes out every summer to help out. Will I be able to trust him around her? God knows the girl doesn't need any more trouble than she's already got."

"There shouldn't be a problem. Like I said – he's a good kid. Just has some bad circumstances."

"Alright then, Lily. You can send him to me. I'll try to knock some sense into the kid."

The rest of the phone call hadn't taken too long – it was just Lily filling him in on some details. Nothing too specific.

So there Makarov was, waiting by the window.

Gajeel Redfox was the boy's name. He and another kid got caught breaking into a car, probably with the intent to steal it but they didn't get past breaking a window before the cops came around the corner and they both booked it. He'd had his hearing two days ago, where Lily had managed to bargain with the judge into giving him a chance to find him a place out of the city to do community service instead of sending him off to Juvenile Hall.

Lily had always been one of those guys with friends in both high and low places. He'd been that way since he himself was a rough-around-the-edges teenager. It didn't surprise Makarov in the least to find that he was good friends with the judge on Gajeel's case.

The old man hoped that Levy would be the first person to come up the little dirt road to his house. He hadn't been able to call her yesterday about having another person staying with them for the summer and hoped to have a little time before Lily and Gajeel showed up to give her a decent rundown of the situation. He knew she wouldn't have much of a problem with sharing the house, but he figured she would appreciate knowing about their house-mate before suddenly meeting him.

A sound suddenly pulled him away from his thoughts – a sound he'd been anticipating. He refocused his gaze on the open window and saw a dark blue, boxy Lincoln crunching up the dirt driveway. His excited heart sank immediately when he noticed that the person behind the wheel was not a blue-haired teenager, but rather a big burly black man with a head of closely shaven fuzzy black hair.

"Lily's here," Makarov muttered to himself. He sighed and pushed himself out of his chair by the window.

A tall and broad shouldered boy sat in the backseat of the old, clunky Lincoln. A coarse mane of thick black hair outlined his heavily pierced face. As if the shiny metal studs and bars weren't intimidating enough, his brow was drawn down to accent his fearfully scowling lips that looked on the verge of a feral growl. He shifted his arms a bit, causing the metal handcuffs fastened around his wrists to clink softly.

He brought his cuffed hands up and banged the back of his hand on the steel grate that separated the backseat from the front, "Did you really have to keep me cuffed the whole way here?" he asked in a gruff voice that perfectly suited his rough appearance.

A tall black man in his late twenties chuckled to himself. "Sorry Redfox," the laughing driver said over his shoulder, "That scowl of yours was just too hilarious. Just a few more seconds and you'll be free."

"You're a fuckin' bastard, Lily," the cuffed boy muttered darkly as the Lincoln slowly came to a stop outside a battered old house. "And I don't think this counts as free," he said as he eyed the house.

"I'm your social worker – it's my job to be a bastard," Lily sighed with a smile audible in his voice. "And while I know you're not too happy to be here, this is a good place. Mr. Dreyar here is one of the best guys I know. He helped me out a lot back in the days when I was the kid in handcuffs."

The boy gave a snort of disbelief – he couldn't imagine the Lily who'd been his case worker for the past couple years in the back of a police car, teenager or no.

Lily opened his door and got out of the car. "Alright, Gajeel – let's get you out of those cuffs."

"Finally," Gajeel muttered. He hated the feel of the foreign metal around his wrists – it made him feel a little claustrophobic. While it was obviously the whole purpose of hand-cuffs to keep their subjects trapped and stuck, Gajeel still hated the feeling. He didn't like being forced to stay still.

Lily opened his door for him and quickly pushed a little key into the cuffs. With those gone, Gajeel was free to use his arms again and immediately pulled himself out of the back of Lily's stuffy car – the long drive out to Magnolia from Fiore had been unbearably hot, considering the only air-conditioning the old car had was rolled down windows.

Lily had popped open the trunk for him so Gajeel went around back to gather up his things. He heard Lily and an older voice talking, but wasn't all that interested in meeting who would become his new warden. He'd probably end up being some boring old man who would make him do a whole summer of manual labor – he hadn't been told yet what he was actually going to be doing for his community service, but Lily told him it would be absolutely grueling.

Lily was indeed a bastard – but Gajeel knew him enough to know that he probably wasn't lying. Gajeel swore under his breath as he pulled one of the straps of his backpack over his shoulder. "I'm stuck out here in the middle of goddamn nowhere," he said darkly. His mind came up with all sorts of terrible chores and jobs the old man would assign him. The most plausible to Gajeel was the idea of picking up trash along the roadsides – probably the whole town since it wasn't that large to begin with.

And that was another thing – this town was painfully small. What in the world was there to do here? Gajeel saw nothing all that interesting besides a run-down looking drive-in theater and all of one fast food joint on their way through town to this dump. What little free time he was probably going to get was going to be wasted doing absolutely nothing. His whole summer was going to be ruined just because of that idiot Byard who got spooked because the cops came around the corner at the exact wrong time. If the guy would have just played it cool, Gajeel wouldn't be in this horrible place and Jose, the leader of Phantom Lord, wouldn't be so pissed at him.

Gajeel slammed the trunk of the Lincoln closed with a little more force than necessary and slowly made his way towards Lily and this Dreyar character.

The old man was short – like really short. Especially when he stood next to Lily, who was excessively tall. He was smirking at Gajeel as he approached, eyes narrowed in observation. Gajeel's first impression wasn't as bad as his imagination had led him to believe – the old man didn't seem all that angry or mean, or even boring like most old people were, but that smirk on his face was a little discomforting.

"Hmm – so you're Gajeel then, huh?" The old man asked.

Gajeel gave a short grunt as affirmation.

"Hmm," the old man hummed again. He started walking around Gajeel as if he were some item in a store he was thinking about buying. "Well, you've got quite the angry mug there, but that could actually come in handy. The damn kids are a rambunctious bunch, but you'll probably be able to scare them into submission," Dreyar laughed sinisterly to himself.

Gajeel's eyes widened a bit. "Kids?" he asked, thinking that he must have been hearing things.

"Ho ho – Lily didn't tell you what you'd be doing all summer I take it," The old man stated looking from Gajeel up to Lily.

Lily shook his head with an evil smirk of his own, "Thought it'd be a nice surprise for him once he got here."

"Well kid – I hope you like young'uns because you'll be keeping track of them all summer," Dreyar laughed, "I run something I call a Summer Day-Camp for the kids in town – Camp Fairy Tail. Gives them all a place to play since school's out for the summer and their parents are gone all day at work."

Kids…All summer long, he'd be dealing with children…

He swore internally. This was just great. Not only am I being kept with some old guy in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do, I'm also gonna be babysitting god-knows how many bratty kids. Perfect.

The old man laughed, "They're a rough bunch but I'm sure you'll deal with them just fine. And it's not like you'll be alone. There'll be four of us counselors in total this year – five if my grandson decides to come home later on this summer."

"Ah – Laxus? How's he been?" Lily asked.

Dreyar started back towards the house as he talked, urging Lily and Gajeel to follow. The old man blathered on about his grandson in college, but Gajeel stopped listening. He was still trying to wrap his head around the whole "Day Care" thing. He just couldn't imagine himself – he, Gajeel, with the nineteen different piercings on his face alone and a tattoo on his shoulder – being surrounded by children every day for the next three months.

And these other counselors were probably more old people, or some parents of the kids who'll end up looking down on him the whole summer. He can already imagine the poisonous looks and the whispers. It's not that Gajeel particularly cares what others think of him, but it'll get really old, really fast if he has to deal with those kinds of things every day. And if he's supposed to keep his temper under all that, there's no way in hell.

And Gajeel knew already that running away – running back to Fiore – wasn't an option. He'd tried running a couple times before – but every time, Lily managed to track him down one way or another. So Gajeel was stuck here with no way out.

The inside of the old house was more well-kept than the outside. The wood floors which were a nice deep mahogany made gentle creaking sounds every couple of steps, and the walls of the living room-slash-dining room (which were separated by the narrow entrance area) were a crisp blue color. Most of the furniture looked and smelled like old man, but there was a shiny new flatscreen hanging on the wall above a small, gray-stone fireplace and a whole bookshelf stocked with DVD's and old VHS tapes. Gajeel recognized quite a few of the movie titles so there was at least something interesting he could do with his free time.

On the other side of the front door was the dining area with a wooden table that matched the floors, and six surrounding chairs – also matching the wood floors. There were picture frames scattered about the blue walls, but aside from those the walls were plain. Through an archway at the end of the dining area was the kitchen, and that's where Dreyar and Lily had disappeared. They were still talking amongst themselves – Dreyar only spared a moment to call back at Gajeel to make himself "at home".

About two yards directly across from the front door was a staircase made from the same dark wood as the floors, that led up to the second story. Gajeel had noted outside that the house had two floors – three if you counted what was probably an attic. The little hallway between the stairs and the living room area led to another open archway on the left that seemed to go back to the kitchen, and three other doors. Two were closed but one was opened halfway. It looked like a plain old bathroom so he didn't give it much notice.

Gajeel sighed and set his backpack down beside a nearby Lazyboy recliner which sat beside an open window. The scowling boy plopped himself down in the plumply cushioned chair and leaned his head back to stare at the ceiling.

"This is going to be a long summer," he predicted in a mutter to himself.

Sunlight glinted off the hood of a white Mercury as it sped down an empty highway. The late morning traffic out to Magnolia from the large city of Fiore was nonexistent except for the little white car. No one usually liked coming out to Magnolia because it was so out of the way and had no appeal to the few travelers who ended up there, but the driver of the little Mercury was humming happily to herself while she drove over the bumps and pot-holes through the middle of nowhere.

Levy was a short little thing with a head of unusually colored blue hair, kept out of her face with an orange bandana she was using as a headband. Red rimmed glasses sat on the edge of her nose and through them, round brown eyes were smiling. She had just turned seventeen a month ago and would be a senior in high school once it started in the fall. She was one of a small percentage of kids who actually liked going to school, but still, the summers were her favorite part of the year.

It gave her the chance to escape.

Her smile slackened a bit at the thought and tucked some of her wild blue hair behind her ear. Usually her hair was very manageable but at the moment she had both of her back windows down. Not because it was necessarily hot, though the morning was quite comfortably warm, but because one of the windows had been broken. If she didn't roll the other one down, the wind pressure while she drove made an annoyingly loud sound that hurt her ears.

She wondered vaguely if the mechanic in Magnolia would be able to give her a cheap window installment because she didn't like the idea of duct-taping cardboard or some other equally ghetto material over the gaping hole in her car. It wasn't a very nice car and the paint was peeling off in places to reveal large rust patches, but she didn't want to humiliate it further with tacky cardboard or clear, plastic sheeting.

She gave the steering wheel an affectionate pat, "I'll get you fixed up soon, Silver."

Yes, her car's name was Silver even though it was white. She named it after the Lone Ranger's horse because it was her trusty white stallion...Levy thought it was slightly outrageous when people didn't get the reference. Psh, young people these days, she thought to herself, as if she wasn't a part of the aforementioned group.

Finally as she reached the top of a small incline in the road, she could see the first signs of Magnolia appearing before her. A simple white road-sign on the side of the highway read:

Magnolia

Population 893

Levy slowed her speed as she crossed into the small town's boundary, and a little under a mile later she was suddenly halfway through Magnolia's main street. She passed all the usual shops and restaurants, as well as the Onibus Theater, the large screen of which cast a shadow over a good portion of the street. She wondered vaguely if Rabian was still in charge of it, knowing that he'd had some financial troubles the previous few years.

She drove through the dusty little town. It wasn't much to look at but to Levy it was a special place. Almost all of her best memories were made in this small town.

She turned down onto Strawberry Street, past the only fast food joint in town which was run by a friend of Makarov's, and straight forward until she started to leave all signs of the town behind.

After another five minutes or so the road started its ever-so-familiar incline and she knew that at the top of the hill was Makarov's house. She was grinning to herself now, a feeling of excitement and expectation building up inside of her.

Finally she reached the top of the hill and the road leveled out in front of her. There the old man's farm house stood like it always had, deceptively run down and old. From the outside you'd think the place was a dump – dried grass and dirt as far as the eye could see, a broken down lawnmower accumulating rust in the front yard, chipping white and green paint on the exterior walls and on the eves, shingles hanging loosely in place on the roof – but once you got inside, things were a lot nicer and more modern too.

But to Levy's surprise, Makarov's little red pick-me-up wasn't the only vehicle in the dirt patch in front of the house. A boxy black car was parked there.

She pulled up to the right of the foreign car and turned off Silver's engine. She pushed open her door with all of her strength, because it wouldn't open otherwise, and got out of the car. After giving the black car a curious once-over, she pulled her duffel bag and backpack through the perpetually open backseat window, leaving the two boxes of her favorite books in the backseat for later – she had a handful of novels in her bags as well so there wasn't an immediate need for them.

Under the weight of the two bags, she shuffled up the porch steps and gave the screen door a quick knock before going right in.

"Master? Are you home?" she called out into the house as she quickly dropped her duffle bag. She looked towards the dining area but didn't see the old man. "I'm here…" she froze for a second as she noticed an unfamiliar body sitting in the LazyBoy by the window. He was a rather angry looking guy, a dark mane of black hair framing a heavily pierced and scowling face. He shot a glance at her, but after the initial shock of his presence wore off, Levy countered it with a light and slightly curious smile.

"Levy~!" an old, familiar voice called out.

She turned towards the dining room and grinned as Makarov's short figure appeared in the archway that connected the dining area to the kitchen. He was beaming at the girl, something suspiciously like a beer in his hand. "You're late!"

She gave her duffel bag a little shove with her foot to make sure it wasn't obstructing the walkway and started towards the old man, "Well, I'm here now at least – and isn't it a little too early in the morning for beer?"

"I'm a crotchety old man – let me enjoy my later years the way I want to," he replied with a quick tip of the brown bottle to his lips, "Besides, I'm celebrating. It's not every day I get to catch up with one of my kids from the good 'ole days."

At that, another figure emerged from the kitchen – this one substantially taller than Makarov. "Technically I wasn't ever one of your 'kids', Makarov," the tall man replied. He turned his gaze from the old man to Levy. "Hello Levy. You finally got taller I see," he chuckled.

"Lilly," Levy's stared in shock for a moment before finally letting a small smile fade into place, "Not by much but yeah, I'm a little taller now. A decade does that to a kid. So what brings you out here?"

"Business, unfortunately. My angry friend, Gajeel, over there is going to be helping with the summer program and Makarov is doing me the favor of letting him stay here for the next couple of months," Lily informed.

"I was going to tell you about the new arrangements yesterday," Makarov added, "But I couldn't get a hold of you."

"Ah – sorry about that. My phone – err – kinda got stolen again…along with my car stereo and some laundry that I had in my car at the time." She smiled sheepishly at the old man.

Makarov sighed and moved towards the door. He picked up her duffel bag and hung it from his shoulder, "Well lets get you settled in first before we figure out how to deal with your bad luck."

Levy laughed and pulled her backpack back on, "They didn't take any of my books at least – my whole backseat is buried in them but not a single book was taken."

The old man snorted, "Thieves are not usually the scholarly type, so that's not too unexpected."

"I've probably got over $200 in books back there, which is more than they probably could have gotten for my crappy pay-as-you-go cell phone or my dirty clothes," Levy shook her head as she followed the old man up the stairs.

Up on the second story of the house, there were three small bedrooms, a bathroom, and a small open space with a small loveseat and a sparsely used bookcase. Makarov nodded towards the bookcase, "I've finally wizened up – now you've got a place for all your books."

Levy gave a small laugh, "Thanks – it'll be nice to see them on a proper bookshelf for once."

The first door on the left was the room Levy usually stayed in when she came for the summers. Makarov led the way inside and set her duffel bag down by the door. It was a relatively small room. There was a bunk-bed pushed up alongside the wall to the left of the door, a desk and chair beneath the large window on the far wall, and a closet with sliding doors that made up the entire right wall. Both of the sliding closet doors had large mirrors on their surfaces, which made the room feel large even though it wasn't.

"I cleaned it up as best I could yesterday – it's crazy the amount of dust that gets in this house." Makarov sighed and sat down on the bottom bed which had clean blue sheets and a quilt laid out on it. "So are you really alright with that boy Gajeel staying here? Because if it makes you uncomfortable at all, I can ask Bob to take him in…" Makarov explained.

Levy sat down beside him and leaned against the old man, "It's completely fine – remember the summer I came and you had like seven other foster kids living here? That was one of my favorite summers," Levy smiled.

Makarov sighed again but returned the girl's smile, "That was definitely one hectic summer, but it was a good one." Makarov took in a deep breath and got to his feet, "Alright! We've got a long summer ahead of us – lets make it a good one!"

"Sounds good to me, Master," Levy laughed.

"Well, you get to unpacking – I've got a little more talking to do with Lily and the boy. If you need me, you know where to find me."

Levy nodded, "Got it. It won't take me too long to get my stuff put away, as long as I keep my books closed."

Makarov shook his head and stood in the doorway, "Try to hold off on the reading until after you've unpacked." He gave her a wink and left her to get settled.

Levy fell back onto her bed and let her eyes close for a moment. This was her place – this town, this house – this was where she belonged. While Fiore was where she lived most of the time, Magnolia was where she felt at home.

A/N: Hope you liked it! I'm excited to finally be posting this after having it rattle around in my brain for so long. Anywho ~ thanks for reading!