:D Chapter 4!

It's early morning, the sun hasn't even risen up yet and there's a sense of quiet in the usually moderately noisy household. His eyes are half closed as he shovels cereal that was steadily going soggy into his mouth. He's half listening to Rogue and Wendy's quiet voices as they shuffle about in the kitchen. In all fairness, he's barely awake from staying up all night texting Juvia about dumb boy problems. So he thinks it's entirely fair that when he first hears Rogue's quiet question he believes he's hallucinating, just hearing things.

"What."

His brother doesn't bat an eyelash at how milk trails out of his mouth and down his chin but his red eyes- well eye, his dumb bang covering one of them- are determined as he looks at him. (although there was a little twitch in his eyebrow)

Rogue blinks and bluntly repeats his question,

"Are you dating Laxus?"

Wendy peeks at him from her spot by the stove, only one of her ponytails done as she scrambles some eggs. It's clear she's trying to be discreet but it's not really working with her pink cheeks and how her gaze flickers away whenever she thinks Gajeel is looking at her.

His mind is blank and he just stares for a moment, looking the most dumbfounded they've ever seen him.

"What."

Rogue frowns as his toast finally pops out.

"What do you mean what, yes or no?"

Gajeel furiously chews before swallowing, immediately spewing curses once his mouth is no longer full.

"What the fuck did you just say to me? what kinda bullshit- Shut the fuck up Rogue, it's too early for this."

Rogue frowns as he stares at him.

"Hm." He sniffs, "you know, me and Wendy saw your text messages." (Oddly enough they learned that Laxus is terrible at it, his messages full of typos and kind of ominous in general.)

The brown-eyed girl lets out what could only be classified as a squawk as she looks at Rogue with alarm.

"We-we didn't mean to! Your phone was on the couch just out in the open- I'm sorry!"

Gajeel scowls, finally wiping at the milk on his face. "Stay outta my shit." He growls, standing up and snatching the younger boys toast out of spite as he stomps out of the kitchen.

Rogue frowns even more as he pats Wendy (who looked entirely too distressed) on the head and calmly places another piece of bread in the toaster.

"He didn't answer the question."

-MYOB-

It's still early morning, the sun finally up and the streets slowly beginning to buzz as the townspeople start their day.

And there's a boy knocking at the door.

-MYOB-

Someone opens the door. It's a girl. She's younger, her dark hair done in twin ponytails and she's wearing the uniform of the neighboring middle school. Her brown eyes are wide in surprise as she looks up at him.

"Good morning." She finally offers a smile, snapping out of her stupor, "do you want me to get Gajeel?"

His eyebrows furrow as he stares down at her. When the hell did Gajeel get a sister, was she always around? He knew he had a brother. Didn't remember what his name was and he had a vague idea of what he looked like.

But at least he actually has a memory of seeing him before. For the life of him, he couldn't remember this kid.

The girl starts fidgeting, beginning to look a little nervous.

"Um-"

"Who are you?" Laxus interrupts.

The girl pauses and wilts, her shoulders slumping just a bit. Such a pathetic display almost warrants some guilt.

Almost.

"My names Wendy."

Doesn't ring a bell but he only nods before walking past her and entering the house uninvited.

"Which way is Gajeel's room."

"Uh…" Wendy points to the left, looking a bit scandalized as she softly shuts the door." The last door." She adds, watching as the tall boy walks through their house like he's lived there all his life.

She follows him, stopping at the door to her room. She still needed to get her books together. "What-um, what are you doing?"

Laxus looks back at her, quirking a brow. "We have school." He tells her in a deadpan way before he opens Gajeel's room door and invites himself in.

Oh, okay. She guesses this is just something they're doing now.

Wendy stares at the door as the one next to her room opens and Rogue pokes his head out.

"Who was that?"

"Erm, Laxus came over." She tells him, cheeks going a bit pink as she remembers what happened just 20 minutes ago in the kitchen.

Rogue nods a bit. "Hm...he came all this way to walk with Gajeel?"

Just as he finishes speaking Gajeel's door flies open and he's doing his best to manhandle the larger boy out of his room. He looks a bit flustered, probably thrown off guard by seeing the blonde in his house and furthering Rogue's suspicions.

He pauses when he sees his siblings in the hallway. Gajeel immediately scowls even more.

"Who let him in?"

Wendy begins to look guilty again but Laxus unknowingly saves her.

"Doesn't matter, I'm already here. Hurry up and put your shit on."

"Nobody's talkin' to you." Gajeel shoves him again and Laxus' body sways a bit.

-MYOB-

Laxus is forced to wait in the living room as the siblings get ready. When they're finally finished he sees Rogue. He and Gajeel resemble each other more than the little girl he noted.

"Oi, come on."

Gajeel begins pushing at him again, and Laxus allows it, mildly complaining about him being 'more handsy than usual'.

During the walk Laxus offers Gajeel one of his earphones, grunting "Listen."

They walk to school shoulder to shoulder, practically forgetting about the younger two behind them.

Rogue and Wendy observe.

-MYOB-

Gajeel's not exactly sure when it started. Their tentative friendship he means, maybe it was during the end of summer of last year. In that time where you try to do as much as possible before having to go back to school. Any animosity between them had disappeared years ago instead indifference took its place.

It wasn't until their busy body friends began rounding everyone up for "last minute memories" that they began seeing more of each other, naturally gravitating towards each other. Before they knew it they were exchanging numbers and following each other's social media. Their friendship was a quiet thing, neither of them really one for words. It was full of elbow nudges and bemused smirks. Shared headphones and silent judging of each other's musical tastes.

Their friendship snuck up on everyone, including them.

Somewhere along the way, they began standing just a little too close and hanging out a little too much. Naturally having friends as nosy as theirs, questions were bound to arise.

-MYOB-

Today they had chosen to eat lunch in the courtyard. It was the usual group; Lucy, Gray, Mirajane, Natsu, and Levy. The only person that was missing was Gajeel but every now and then he just disappeared and at this point, nobody questioned him not being there. It was an established agreement that he'd show up at some point.

It's not too long that Gajeel does show up, however, he's not alone.

(He hasn't been all day, she realizes.)

Levy watches with wide eyes, mesmerized by what she was seeing. His ruby eyes were twinkling with a little mischievous smile on his face, the barest hint of teeth peeking from between his lips. The two are walking towards the table, shoulders bumping occasionally. He was talking to Laxus but they're too far for her to hear what they're talking about but they both look…

The short girl feels her cheeks flush at the fond look on Laxus' face when he glances down at Gajeel. It's not the first time she's seen him with that soft smile. More often than not it's directed towards Freed, Evergreen, and Bickslow. Sometimes Mira. However, she can't say she's seen him look so sweet on someone. It feels like she's intruding just by looking but she can't look away from some reason.

It's just then that dark blue eyes snap towards her. The sudden gaze makes her flinch in surprise. She hurriedly looks away, while that wasn't exactly a glare it wasn't a nice look either.

Her face does a thing where it looked she just stubbed her toe again a table leg. And while she is absolutely not scared of Laxus in any way shape or form she will admit that he has perfected the art of staring someone down. It's intimidating, seeing just how cold those eyes could get.

When they reach the table the rest of the group greets them boisterously, Levy taking a quick peek as she mumbles a quiet," Hi you guys."

There's an increase in chatter for a few moments and She gives a little sigh of relief when she doesn't feel his intense gaze on her, in fact, when she looks up she doesn't even see him at the table anymore. Her brown eyes glance around until she spots the blonde walking back into the school building. Her brows furrow and she raises her voice over her friend's chatter," Where's Laxus going?"

Now that she was thinking about it he didn't even have first lunch, so what the heck had he been doing here?

"Said somethin' about having to see Gramps," Natsu informs her while stealing food from whoever was within reach.

Levy nods and her brows furrow even more as she puts the pieces together," So he just came to drop Gajeel off?" Her question rings loud and clear, conversations dying down just enough that Grays snort could be heard with no problem.

Her gaze darts to Gajeel who was already scowling." You talkin' shit shorty?" Seems like he went into defense mode.

Oops.

Levy immediately begins trying to do damage control. "Wha-no, it was just an observation!"

"I mean that is what he did though." Lucy pipes up rather unnecessarily in Levy's opinion.

Levy can practically see Gajeel's hair prickle like a porcupine as the other two boys chime in, beginning to tease him. He's already reaching towards Natsu, ready to flip his tray over with no hesitation.

And then like an angel Mira swoops in,

"You guys have been spending a lot of time together right?" She's smiling so sweetly that just looking for too long would give you a cavity." I'm happy my friends are getting closer!"

"Right you guys? Isn't that great?"

There's a tone in her voice that makes everyone agree (probably because it sounds like one of Erza's threats), allowing her to steer the conversation into another direction.

Levy sighs softly and looks over at Gajeel, who still looked pretty miffed. Ah, she felt bad now, she'd have to apologize for putting him on the spot like that.

After that, the rest of the lunch passes pretty quickly. Natsu manages to fall off of one of the other tables after a rather embarrassing display of a dance he'd watched on YouTube. Gray somehow falls when he wasn't even up there. From Gajeel's satisfied expression she can already guess what happened. She's really sure when Natsu tries to get up and Gajeel shoves him back onto the ground.

Nobody mentions the Laxus thing again, at least not in front of Gajeel and Mira.

Unbeknownst to the white-haired girl, her intervening had only stirred more curiosity in the others. And even more irritation in the one she'd been trying to defend because he sure as hell didn't need her protecting him from those idiots.

-MYOB-

"So, what do you think is going on with those two?" A deep voice drawls out, interrupting Levy's walk back to class.

Levy glances to her right, seeing Lucy and Gray. The two were usually some of the more sensible of their ragtag group.

"Hm? Who?" She asks, eyes narrowing a bit.

Gray rolls his eyes." You know who."

The blonde gives a little grin, "Moody and moodier, of course." She does a little skip forward, hooking her arm around Levy's." Mira seemed pretty defensive of their friendship, ya' know?"

Levy shrugs a bit, biting her bottom lip." Maybe. But she's always been defensive about things including Laxus so maybe that's it?"

Their relationship mostly consisted of Mira trying to protect the blondes virtue. She did a terrible job of it though because even she knew Laxus could be a dick, however, along the year's everyone grew to consider her an unofficial member of the 'Thunder legion'.

"Mira's also always been a pretty big gossip as well," Gray adds, side-eyeing her. And that was true Mira was quite the gossip even though her intentions were always good. She was just a chatterbox like that, talking about any and everything when she was especially happy or proud.

The short girl frowns a bit and looks between them." Well, what's going on with you two? You're not usually so...nosy."

"Nosy? We- We're not being nosy!" The blonde girl stammers.

Gray snorts, "Lucy is very nosy and I want some drama in my life."

"Gray!"

He shrugs," Just kiddin'. It's just that nothing else is going on. Besides you've gotta admit it is a little weird that they suddenly started hanging out with the way they hated each other."

Levy gives a little wry grin," Well they both hated everyone at some point."

"Moody and moodier," Lucy repeats with a little nod. She pauses for a moment and purses her lips."Well...people do change so maybe it's not that odd?"

There's a moment where they all seem to be in agreement.

"They're totally dating."

Of course, it's ruined but those couple of seconds were nice while they lasted.

Levy sputters and Lucy's cheeks go a light pink."...you really think so?"

"Wha-Lucy! Don't feed into Gray's gossip!" Levy scolds, her hands on her hips as she looks between the two of them.

The blonde laughs sheepishly as Gray smirks, "She came over here with me to gossip. Don't pretend that she's innocent."

Terrible! These two were just as terrible as everyone else.

The short girl lightly fiddles with the clasp of her satchel." Well, if you two are so adamant about figuring out whether they're dating or not," she begins, the two leaning further in with raised eyebrows "Cana started this conspiracy theory that they started dating earlier this year," she starts "when we all went to the movies to see that really lame horror movie?"

"She says she saw them whispering and laughing with each other. And a bunch of others are betting on it and even pitching in their own theories." She admits.

"Others like you?" Gray questions and Levy's cheeks turn a little pink.

"Of course not!"

Two sets of eyes stare at her and her shoulders hunch, "I mean I never bet on it so does it really count?" Levy mumbles.

Lucy's shocked laughter makes her try to make herself even smaller, "what was that about feeding into gossip? Hm? You little hypocrite!"

Levy laughs as Lucy ruffles her hair," I'm not! It's just everyone's theories were so interesting."

Gray huffs out a little laugh himself.

"Oh yeah? You can tell us all about the rest of them on the way to class."

Thanks for reading, tell me what you think or even what I could do better!