I'm so sorry that this chapter is so late, everything is kind of overwhelming and Im just haunt trouble coping with a lot of situations, I am so sorry.

I don't own Fairy Tail or any of it's characters, just my oc's

Chapter Three- Trust

His footsteps where quiet, bare feet quietly tapping against the wooden floor as they just barely creaked beneath his weight. The hallway was long, an almost straight never ending corridor, no doors on either side as he continued making his way down the hall. An unnerving feeling of pure dread settled within his chest, it made him feel sick, as if he wanted to topple over and let loose the contents of his stomach. It was silent, nothing but the sound of his bare feet padding across the floor to disperse the unsettling silence in the slightest. The corridor grew closer and the air felt thinner, almost as if whatever oxygen within his lungs was silently escaping. A sudden heavy thump behind him caught him completely off guard as he stopped mid-step, the heavy, gut-wrenching feeling of dread increasing ten-fold. His mind was screaming at him not to turn around, disobeying his body's orders, he slowly turned around as all the air suddenly escaped his lungs.

The sight was almost too familiar, the same haunting picture forever ingrained in his memory knocking him off his feet as he stumbled back. There, back down within the darkness of the hall lay the all to familiar haunting scene of his mothers body, laying crumpled on the ground. His mind was spinning as the darkened figure hanging over his mother finally turned, noticing him as the familiar chilling look bore holes into him, a chilling smirk spreading across the mans darkened features as he began making his way towards Rogue.

Suddenly finding his feet, he began sprinting down the hallway to the best of his ability. His head was spinning, he wanted to scream out for help, call out for the help of his parents who would never come, he could hear the mans heavy footsteps pounding down the hallway after him, quickly gaining ground. Before his mind could register the current events, the mans large hand was suddenly closed down around his throat, cutting off his flow of oxygen as he raised him into the air.

Just like he had done with his mother.

He clawed at the mans hand as his eyes stung with tears, he wanted to scream, to call out for tears, yet his voice just wouldn't come out. Black spots began popping up in his vision, his limbs were tired, his eyes burned as the blackness around him only grew thicker and thicker.

Suddenly jerking up in his bed, the sudden movements had thrown him from his bed with a heavy thud as he sat up on the floor. His breaths were heavy, coming out in short puffs as he struggled to breathe, he could feel the tears streaking down his face as the images continued to flash in his mind, like a never ending movie he had never wanted to see. He was clutching to his head for dear life as he kept his face buried in his knees. He wanted it to stop.

Why wouldn't it stop?!

His knuckles had gone stark white with his death grip on his midnight locks, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he sat there. Time continued ticking on and on until the tears had dried up, his breathing stabilizing as he pulled himself to his feet, resting his pale hand on the doorknob before pulling the door open and stepping out into the chilled, darkened hallway. Quietly shuffling through the hall, red eyes quietly making note of the other closed room doors before making his way down the stairs.

"Rogue, is that you?" Came the familiar soft voice of his aunt as Rogue walked into the kitchen, the woman's back to him before she turned to look at him.

Emerald green eyes cast a worrying look at him as Rogue let out a shaky breath, memories of his own mother flashing in his memory, replacing the current figure of his aunt. They looked so much alike, yet they were two completely different people, the familiar wavy onyx locks and emerald green eyes, fair skin and pale lips tilted up into a typical smile.

"You had another nightmare didn't you?" Terra asked, her soft voice breaking Rogue's stupor as he immediately let his head drop, hiding his face from her view.

Never before had he felt so ashamed, he felt ashamed for burdening his aunt, he felt ashamed for so many problems he couldn't even begin to dote on.

"Don't worry," she sighed, her tone remaining ever so soft as she sat next to him at the table, "you aren't the only one,"

He couldn't tell if she was sympathizing with him on the experience or simply being empathetic, even then, her words did little to clear air as Rogue kept his head down, the kitchen becoming silence once more, the sound of the crackling oil coming from the frying pan or his aunts footsteps doing little to cut through the silence. Minutes ticked away until a simple white mug was placed before him, catching his attention as he looked to his aunt.

"You haven't taken your medication yet haven't you?" She questioned, leaving the steaming hot cup to Rogue as she made her way back towards the cupboards.

Rogue couldn't even bring himself to simply shake his head yes or no, it hadn't even occurred to him he had forgotten to in the first place. Terra clicked her tongue in distaste as she reached into the cupboard, her hand easily finding the two orange bottles of Rogue's medication, plucking them from the cupboard before grabbing a water bottle from the refrigerator before placing everything before Rogue. Quietly raising his pale, shaky hand to uncap both bottles, shaking out a specific little white capsule from each bottle before placing them on his tongue, uncapping the water bottle and taking a quick swig, washing down the two capsules along with it.

"Rogue, you missed your medication last night didn't you," Terra questioned, Rogue could easily make out the nagging and scolding tone of her voice as she let out a sigh, "you have to stay on top if it Rogue,"

He knew this, he had heard her nag him about it many times before, and even then, sometimes he just couldn't bring himself to register the facts. His mind became numb as he quietly picked up the steaming hot mug, carefully sipping on the steaming hot beverage as time ticked away.

He hadn't even realized when the rays of sun had darkened the dimly lit house.

Thin, pale fingers anxiously toyed with the ends of his sweater as he quietly weaved through the large crowd of students, head hung low as he avoided eye contact. Gajeel had disappeared from his side early upon their, no doubt disappearing in search of a certain bluenette. arrival onto Even just taking the slightest glance upwards he had already identified a majority of the students chattering among themselves, one girl shifting her golden orbs to him, an almost annoyed look as she just glanced over him. His heart thrummed in his chest loudly as he averted his gaze back to his sneakers as they scuffed across the tiles of the school floors, at that point he felt as if all eyes were on him, almost as if everyone were mocking him mentally. That underlying feeling of dread that increased at any given moment within public, it made him queasy, he wanted to pick up his pace and run, but he quickly and wisely decided against the action, simply picking up his pace into a faster walk. It hadn't taken much longer for him to reach his small shoe locker, quickly exchanging his sneakers for his indoor pair before closing the small shoe locker, slipping away unnoticed and into the classroom, much to his own relief, the classroom was empty with the exception of a select few students, only turning to glance at him for a few seconds before returning to their own conversations. He quietly reached down into his book bag, pulling out a small, plain red novel, the pages in between both covers creating a thick stack, his red eyes easily found his marked page halfway throughout the book as he quickly flipped to it. His eyes were quickly roaming over the neatly crafted sentences of the novel, each coming together to form the beautifully intricate details of the plot, his mind ran vivid pictures, each depicting every last scene of the novel, playing back like a small, mental, motion picture.

He had quickly lost track of time as he became engulfed within the small realm of his novel, so much so, he hadn't even noticed the trail of students trickling within the classroom, slipping into their seats or milling around the classroom within their established small groups. Red eyes caught the sight of a small sheet of pastel pink paper being slipped in front of him, familiar near scrawl in dark blue ink staining the paper as he looked up, a pair of all too familiar honey brown eyes staring back at him.

Red eyes scanned over the note, reading the simple greeting of 'good morning' before jotting down his own little response before handing back the paper to the blonde. After only knowing the blonde for only about two weeks, she had already spilled so much information about herself, from her favourite fruit and colour to even her allergy to penicillin, he now knew quite a bit about her.

But even then, as much of an open book as she was, she was….unpredictable to say the least, if he was being completely honest, he didn't know if he could quite trust her. As different as she seemed from most of the other students, he just wasn't too sure about her ulterior motives of befriending him. Was it all some joke? A bet amongst a group of students? Or maybe some sort of sinister plot in an attempt to get him to divulge even the slightest bit of information on himself?

Mentally sighing in frustration, Rogue cleared his mind as he realized the blonde was longer sitting next to him, but rather milling about the classroom as she was chattering among a small group of her friends, typical bright white smile on her face as she sat happily upon the desk. Rogue couldn't help but quietly scan the group of her friends as he felt a small pang in his chest, quickly tearing his eyes away from the group as he began glancing out the window. There was a sudden pang in his chest as he grit his teeth, simply ignoring the feeling as he waited for class to begin.

Familiar chimes of the bell echoed in his ears as he silently noticed all other students filing out of the classroom. Red eyes landed upon a familiar head of blonde hair amongst the crowd, trailing out a amongst other students as Rogue was quietly left behind. He knew he shouldn't feel any sort of way about it, but even then, he couldn't help it. She'd practically stuck by his side for the two weeks , chatting, or in this case swapping notes with him, on the regular. He felt overly clingy, he hadn't meant to, but the ecstatic blonde had been the only one to ever bother attempting to talk with him, and that little bit of friendship she was offering up, he was clinging to it so desperately. Simply sighing, he could only keep his head down and simply await the teachers arrival.

Sounds of chatter an excitement filled the classroom as students piled out in droves, travelling through the hallway as they made their way to the cafeteria. Pushing away from his desk quietly, Rogue held his head up, subsequently noticing he was the only one left behind. Carrying his bento in hand, he silently left the classroom, making his way to the classroom. His heart thrummed loudly in his ears as he was suddenly over come with that same sickening feeling, the eyes of the few people littering the hallway landing upon him made him want to keel over. Pale fingers gripped his bento tightly as he sped up his pace, the sudden laughter of a nearby student only heightening that nauseous feeling of anxiety as he could feel his mind spiralling. His breathing only became heavier as he stepped into the loud, student filled cafeteria, looking up for only a brief moment, red eyes landed upon an empty table, making his way over to it as he sat down, letting out a shaky breath.

'They aren't looking at you,' Rogue tried to reassure himself mentally as his breathing began to get out of hand, he didn't want a panic attack, not here.

Not now.

He didn't know how much time had passed until he had calm down, but it wasn't a difficult task for him to realize quite a bit of time had passed seeing as the number of students within the cafeteria had drastically decreased. Finally taking in his surroundings within the cafeteria, Rogue's eyes landed upon the familiar ecstatic blonde, happily chatting away with her friends as Rogue had just taken in the fact he was once again left alone.

And there it was, that nagging feeling, that annoying pang in his chest after once again being ignored, and abandoned.

He knew he shouldn't of trusted her so easily, and even then, he still didn't trust her completely, he realized his choice to take her friendship with a grain of salt was a correct decision, looking across the cafeteria, he realized the blonde was suddenly looking up at him, flashing him a grin and a wave as he simply looked back down, ignoring it as the nagging pang in his chest only grew.

The week had carried on pretty much the same, the nagging feeling that had settled in his chest refused to go away. All week, he had been relatively alone, with the exception of Gajeel who's presence he simply ignored at this point, the blonde had seemingly deserted him, just as he should've expected. His heart thrummed loudly as his pencil continued to scratch across the paper as he tried to tune out the students.

"Guys, can I have your attention for a minute please," Tami-sensei spoke up, the class subsequently quieted down as Tami-Sensei now had their attention.

"The office just request I let you guys know of a contest they're holding," she announced, her smile bright as she looked at them.

"The aim is to use your knowledge in a sort of questionnaire," she explained enthusiastically, "You can make teams, a maximum of four people, answers are due by the end of the day, top three winners from each grade level can choose from an assortment of prizes,"

Suddenly there was a ton of excitement and chatter within the classroom, many rushed to collect quiz papers as many others rushed to make teams.

Looking back down at his page, Rogue once again began trying to tune out the other students to the best of his ability, trying his best to focus on his work rather than the noise around him.

The sudden appearance of a familiar piece pink note paper caught his attention as he looked up to find Lucy grinning down at him.

'Partners'

Red eyes scanned over the note as he couldn't help but felt annoyed, didn't she have other friends she could go ask? Picking up his, Rogue tore his gaze away from the blonde as he simply scribbled the words "Leave me alone" on the note before sliding it back.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he could easily make out the look of shock upon Lucy's face as she looked down at him.

"Rogue, is something wrong?" Lucy asked silently as she pulled up her chair next to him, she moved a hand to rest it on his shoulder, only to have him shrug her hand off suddenly.

He realized his actions were childish as he resorted to glaring down at his paper, writing away Lucy sat there in confusion.

"Rogue? I only came over here to ask if you wanted to partner up, what's wrong?"

The blonde had continued to poke and prod as Rogue could feel his annoyance spike as the blonde continued to ask him questions, picking up his pencil once more, he scribbled out a note, sliding it to the blonde as she quickly grabbed it. Rogue could see the immediate look of hurt upon the blondes face as she read the note, the simple note was almost his equivalent to yelling out his current frustration, the note explaining all his pent up anger over the last week, including and most importantly, his lack of trust Lucy.

"It hurts that you don't trust me, but I understand," Lucy smiled patiently as she stood up from the table.

"I'm sorry for ignoring you by the way, if it means anything," Lucy apologized, her voice suddenly quiet as she avoided his gaze, almost as if she felt…guilty, "I didn't mean to..I'll give you your space though," she murmured as she grabbed her chair, walking off.

That pang of jealousy had dissipated, the almost satisfactory feeling of telling her off giving him a sense of accomplishment.

But at what cost?

I'm sorry.

I know this chapter was well overdue and, I don't know what to do anymore, everything is sort of overwhelming at the moment and I just currently don't know how to deal with it, I'm sorry.

I don't feel like exactly ranting in my authors note and lay all my problems upon anyone who bothers to read my authors note, I've been offered help by a few people online and I just can't take it, I can't bring it upon myself to lay my problems onto someone else. Sorry

Just a side note, my reference point for Rogue's social problems such as anxiety is simply a mirrored version of my own problems such as social anxiety.