Well, I have a lot of warnings for this chapter. It contains Angst, Abuse, Mutilation, homocide and the type of monster that will keep you up at night. I'm not trying to give too much away, but I don't want anyone to be offended, and this chapter is really a doozy.

"You're infuriating!" She meant it in the way he kept throwing grapes into her cleavage, most of them just bounced off of her chest and rolled onto the table, but a few of them actually made them down her shirt, making her stop eating long enough to fish them out. If that wasn't annoying enough the way he was staring at her when he thought she wasn't looking was really staring to get under her skin. With her cheeks puffed out she tried her best not to turn things into a full blown food fight, just to relieve some of the tension in the room, but Gajeel was really asking for it.

She woke up starving, and alone a little while ago, still wrapped in towel taking up most of Gajeel's couch despite her size. It was the first time she was actually able to be alone with her thoughts. She walked around looking for Gajeel and Lily seeing that neither one of them was home and only finding a note from Gajeel saying he'd be back she finally broke down.

She had a headache, and her eyes burned from crying, but Gajeel never said anything about it. He showed up with food and a bag from her apartment, after she cried herself out. Levy was pretty convinced he came back sooner and waited for her to calm down before he made his appearance, if that was the case she was thankful to him for leaving her alone with her thoughts. She thought wearing her own clothes would make her feel a little more normal, but she ended up trying to hold it together when she actually had a good look at her body, from this morning she had love bites from Gajeel that made her smile, but she also had bruises from the night before and it made her smile drop almost as soon as it appeared.

There wasn't really a point to try and act like her happy normal self around Gajeel, he knew better and would see right through the lie. She didn't say anything for a long time, and they sat in an awkward silence before she decided to ask about Lily. She tried to ignore the fruit bouncing off her chest and kind of wished she was at the guild right now with Lily or that he was still here. She needed a distraction, she could feel the truth trying to come out. Instead she spit out the words "You're infuriating." and puffed out her cheeks even more.

She thought about trying to seduce him, just to stall a little bit longer, but blurting things out in the middle of sex would probably be one hell of a turn off. Not to mention she was sore for more than one reason, and after seeing how bad she actually looked, there was no way he was seeing her naked again anytime soon. She knew he wouldn't push her, but his eyes were staring a hole a hole in her head, let her know he wasn't exactly as patient as he was pretending to be. He laughed "I don't know what you're talking about shrimp, I was just trying to feed you." he made an innocent face, or as close as he could get to one, hoping to get her to talk about anything, instead of staring off into space with a look on her face that was breaking his heart.

"Gajeel... I appreciate your efforts. But we both know, that we can't just drop this." He was conflicted, sure he wanted to know, bad. Really fucking bad. His curiosity had him on edge, and no scenario he could think of made sense and Levy seemed to have trouble sitting on the information.

"That's up to you." He meant what he said, if it would make her happy not to ever talk about it again he would grin and bare it. It would take some time to get over it, but he knew he could do it for her. He was trying to seem disinterested, he wanted her to tell him because she wanted to, not because she felt like she had to. He wanted different emotions play across her face before she stood up and starting walking towards his room.

"I think I need to lie down for this." He took a minute before he followed her, he still didn't want to seem too eager incase she wanted to change her mind. He spent the time cleaning up after their meal, he was glad he made her eat something, even though she claimed she wasn't hungry, her plate was clean.

In his bed, she was staring at the ceiling, he noticed the strip of skin showing between her grey sweatpants and her pink shirt was showing, there was a bruise forming. The long sleeves on her shirt covered the ones he knew were up and down her arms. He knew they weren't from him making love to her earlier, but he still wished he had been a little more gentle. He took up the space next to her, waiting for her to speak. He half expected her to say never mind and run away. Then she finally spoke."I know we agreed to not talk about our pasts, and I don't expect you to talk about yours just because I'm telling you mine. But there's no point in giving you bits and pieces and expecting you to figure out the rest by yourself."

"Just like pretty much everyone we know, I had fucked up childhood... You know the whole dead parents, living on the streets, fighting to survive thing. I don't remember that much of it because I was so young. But eventually I was taken in to an orphanage, and from there I was adopted." Gajeel realized just how much he didn't know about Levy, they had similar beginnings. He was alone, on the streets fighting to survive before he and Metalicana crossed paths, and without him he didn't know if he would have survived.

He watched her expression, her breathe was shaky, he could tell she was trying to find the words to finish her story but she had a hard time getting them out. "When I was about four, the woman that was supposed to be taking care of me, pretty much sold me, but I didn't find that out until much later. " Her whole body language changed, she was tense, he could tell she was trying to resist the urge to curl up into ball and cry. "The man who was supposed to be my new father, made me his wife." She choked on the last word, she was trying to catch her breathe again.

Gajeel wanted to comfort her, but he didn't want to upset her more than she already was, so he just laid there next to her, listening. Waiting for her to finish her story. "He constantly told me I was a bad buy, I was always too small for him to do the things he wanted to me, but it didn't stop him trying." Gajeel was already sick to his stomach, thinking about some old bastard putting his hands on his shrimp as a child hurt him in ways he couldn't describe.

"Instead, he just beat me. He made me cook and clean and wait on him hand and foot. From sun up to sun down, and nothing was ever right. I almost died a few times, he tortured me just because he could. I tried to poison him once, and he beat me into a coma , when I woke up he started making me taste test his food so I wouldn't be tempted to do it again. I tried to run away a few times and the last time he broke my legs, and I didn't try to run after that." She was monotone now, all emotion dropped from her voice, her eyes were glazed over and he could tell, it was something she taught herself to do whenever she had to cope.

"Even when I was a few years older, he still couldn't rape me, I was always too small and he hated me for it. But he made me pleasure him in other ways. If I did a good job, he would let me read, just for a little while as long as his house was spotless and he was bored with me for the moment." She reached for Gajeel's hand, and he laced his fingers through hers, stroking the back of her hand with his thumb. It was the first time since she started talking that she looked for support and he gladly gave it to her.

" I tried telling so many people, what was going on, and no one believed me. I was just a little girl with an over active imagination, or I was a little brat who was acting out, and I was scolded for saying such terrible things about my father. Every Time I told someone I was risking my life, and I eventually stopped doing things to get beaten. He still hit me for fun, but the more obedient I was, the less interest he had in me. He wanted to break me, and after years of being abused by him I let him believe he did." Levy had a strong grip on his hand, and he could tell how much talking about this was hurting her.

"When I was seven, mages robbed our house, and it was a blessing in disguise. He beat me because I didn't stop them , and blamed me for leaving a window open, even though I wasn't tall enough to reach. He broke four of my ribs but still made me clean the house afterwards. He put in a request to fairytail to help find the bandits, and that's how I met Macao. He was the first person to be kind to me in years, and he didn't believe my lie when I told him I was my husbands daughter. The next day master showed up after finishing the mission and he brought Erza with him."

"Apparently he could tell by my body language alone that I was being abused, Erza made me show her my scars and bruises and I ended up telling her everything, and They helped me escape that night. He was long gone by the time the authorities were looking for him. So I changed my name to Levy after a character in a book I read, and my last name didn't come until a few years later. That was over ten years ago and I've been in fairy tail ever since."

"From that day on I decided to be happy, every day away from that man is a good day to me. It's why I smile, and it's why I'm always kind to other people. You never know what someone's going through, or what they've been through and that's why I am the way I am." She gave him a smile, but her eyes weren't in it. "For a long time I had to fake it, I had to learn true happiness and now I have so many things to be thankful for."

Her smile dropped and she sighed, "but That demon from my past, came back to haunt me in a big way." Gajeel stoked her cheek, he wanted to kiss her tears away, but he could tell by the way she flinched when he touched her physical contact wasn't the greatest idea. "Me and the boys took a mission to find a missing girl. It seemed easy enough, the pay was okay and helping to reunite a family seemed like a good thing to do. The client thought that maybe she was kidnapped, but I knew from the moment I saw him that she ran away."

"It didn't matter that it's been ten years for me and almost 20 for him. He's a lot older... But, you don't forget a face that's haunted you most of your life." She bit her lip nervously, trying to read Gajeel's reaction. " At first I didn't think he recognized me, Jet and Droy could tell there was something off with me so I decided to take a walk. When Jet and Droy were looking around for clues, he called me by my old name, told me how much he missed me, and said that even if I was too old now he would always have a place in his heart for the one that got away."

Gajeel was pissed, his imagination was thinking of some pretty terrible things to do to this fucking guy the moment Levy pointed him out. "It stunned me, for that moment, I was that scared little girl again, it made me feel so weak. I puked, I wanted to cry, but I knew I had to hold myself together and get through it. The moment he walked away from me, and I knew I had to save that little girl." She started crying again, and he didn't even think she noticed it, she was trying to recall everything that happened in the last few days and it was tearing her apart.

"I tried my best to do the mission without my feelings getting the best of me so I shut them out. I did my best to fake it around Jet and Droy, but they could tell I was upset about something, So I told them I was sick. It took us a few days of searching and I was hoping she got away already, I prayed she was somewhere safe and he couldn't find her again. But eventually we found the little girl hiding in the woods, she was barely older than Asuka... I didn't want to take her back, I asked her what happened when we were alone but she just said that she got lost, but I could tell she was lying. She wanted to avoid a more severe beating. When she got home, he gave her the same look he gave me before he beat me within an inch of my life and I told myself I was going to save her no matter what it took."

"But I had to be careful how I did it, if I told Jet and Droy the truth I would have had to tell them about myself and I never wanted my old life and new life to meet. I told the boys I was feeling worse and took the train home early and doubled back last night . As far as anyone knew, shadowgear completed our mission and I was at home reading in fairy hills for the night." Gajeel was amazed by how much of this she thought through, she had the perfect alibi , and the girl going missing again wouldn't be surprising if she had already run away before.

"I was able to sneak in pretty easily, I tried to time it to get there before he started hurting her, but he slapped her around a few times by the time I got there. I tripped the alarm hoping to distract him and when we tried to escape, he caught us. I told her to go to mermaid heel, and sent her with a train ticket and a map hoping she could make it on her own. He was pissed I let her go, and asked me if I wanted to take her place. He asked me if I was jealous, and told me that he hopes I'm a better fuck than she was." She hesitated and locked eyes with Gajeel before finally admitted what happened last night. "That's when I stabbed him the first time, I just wanted her to get away, but I knew his screaming was going to get me caught, I would end up in jail, and he would go looking for her again."

"So... I decided I would just cut out his vocal cords, I've read enough medical books to do it. I was going to leave him alive. He couldn't scream anymore but he still tried, he was the scared one for once. And the way he was on his back he was choking on his own blood... As satisfying as it was, it just wasn't enough. I thought about the fact he could still tell someone I was the one who hurt him. So I thought about cutting off his fingers, just so he couldn't write anymore. Then it turned into me cutting off his hands so he could never touch another little girl. And let's just say I got a little carried away. It was supposed to be a rescue mission, not a pleasure kill. But that's what it turned in to."

Gajeel's jaw dropped, there was laughter in her voice. When she smiled, it was bright and beautiful, she was happy with herself and he couldn't blame her for it. "He didn't deserve a quick death so I left him alive as possible and he finally died of blood loss. When I realized what I've done I ran home, and that's when I ran into you..." He watched her close her eyes, and sigh, she seemed relieved to finally get that weight off of her chest. "My days without him were always good, but now that he's gone, they're great."

He was speechless, he looked at her like he was staring at a stranger. He finally got the answer he wanted, and found out Levy was a hell of a lot stronger than he thought. And she was a million times deeper. She was more than his cute, sweet shrimp that he loved. She was a survivor, she was a savior and she could be just as twisted as he was.

She started to say something along the lines of, I understand if you don't trust me anymore. "I don't give a shit about your past Lev, if you wouldn't have killed that bastard, I'd be halfway back from killing him myself, and I'd be drinking wine out of his fucking skull to celebrate. I love you, all of you, if anything I understand you a hell of a lot better, and a little thing like well deserved vengeance isn't gonna make me go anywhere." He pulled her into his arms like he's been wanting to do since the beginning of her confession.

"There's a reason I have the reputation I have, and you think offing one guy is gonna change anything between us, you're an idiot. I thought you were dying, or already dead when I found you. I'm pissed off because you were reckless, you put yourself in danger, and If this turned out the other way and you died, it would have killed me. I don't care when and how you fight your demons as long as You let me be there to have your back." He could feel her nod, and she mumbled something that he barely made out, but responded with. "Yeah, me too."

Levy was glad he finally understood the weight of her words. "My days with you are the best." It was something she's said to him a hundred times before, but it was the first time he knew just how important they are.

When I started this story I was wondering, what it would actually take for Levy to take someones life, and shit just got dark from there. I'm sorry if it seemed rushed, and it ended up being a lot longer than I thought it would be, but I didn't want to just shove that nightmare down everyones throats. I've still been playing with the idea of another chapter, but I'm still not sure yet. Thanks for reading- Chesxca