Date: October 9th 2015

Word count: 1,856

"Go to your favorite places, he said. It will come quickly, he said. Bullshit. Old bucket of bolts…"

This could be heard as a young man walked through Magnolia Park South Gates, murmuring something under his breath. For some side viewer, the sight could be funny or strange, but actually… well, it was something in between.

His name was Gajeel Redfox. He was 18 years old – going to be 19 after something like three months – and going to stud in Magnolia University. And, well… you need to know more for him to understand the situation the poor young man is.

See now, Gajeel is artist. It flows with the blood – his father, Metallicana Redfox (called Ally by everyone in the family who is not his children and literally hates that nickname) is an artist too, but, unlike his son, do it only as a hobby and not for work. From little child Gajeel had been taught to express himself and that made him grow as a full time artist.

And now he had art block. A fucking art block!

Gajeel hated having art block. It was always when he needed his talent most. The school year was starting after like only one month (or little more than a month, actually) and he had literally nothing! He was sure whoever his new art professors were going to be, they wouldn't take "art block" for properly excuse for current inability to draw. And that said a lot, because usually he was able to fill a sketchbook for a month – two weeks if he was having large muse boost.

From the start of the summer, he had nothing aside from few scrappy sketches. Completely nothing!

The black-haired man sighed and continued his path. His father told him to go to his favorite, most dear places, when the muse usually flew into him. So he decided to go to the park. It was where he played as child and spent big amount of his free time as teenager, sitting under the big old oak tree and talking with his friends. A lot of times he had come here, sat on 'their' bench under the tree's crown and drew as much as his heart wanted. As he had heard people say, the place itself had some kind of positive energy and it gave the people that energy. It was quiet and peaceful yet you could see a lot of familiar faces to share their time with you if you feel bored or lonely.

The perfect place.

He made the last turn to his usually place when Gajeel finally noticed the bench he usually sat on – alone or with his friends – wasn't available. It was taken. A young woman, around his age, was sitting on it, a rather large open book in her hand. After few minutes or so he found he was still standing on the same place, his eyes not living her. She was... she was... so beautiful, so fixating, it was impossible for him to move his eyes from her petite body. Her hair was in light, calming tone of blue – gentle cerulean, but the roots and one long, curvy lock on the front were so blond that they looked almost white. It was left to fall on her back and shoulders, but pulled away from her face by bright orange headband. Glasses with thick red frames rested on her nose. Her skin was in warm tone, something between gold and caramel but little lighter, it looked more like natural skin color than suntan. Her shoulders were small and covered with freckles, her bust looked like B-cup from his point of view so he wasn't sure, her waist thin but hips wide, and long slender legs. Her clothes were simple orange neck-tied top and khaki colored shorts with red sandals, one large red bag next to her on the bench.

Something in her – something in this normal girl – ignited a spark deep within him and the young artist stared at her, wordless. Her beauty was extraordinary, different from anything he had seen before and from everything he was ever going to see and he knew it. The way her back curved from the neck to the little of her back, the way her slender legs crossed, the way her hair fell on perfect, impossible waves... She wasn't just beautiful or gorgeous, she was... Was what that weird word? Yeah, ethereal, like these fairies from his little sister's tales. She was ethereal.

After realizing his staring at the young woman would look... hmm... creepy from side view, Gajeel wondered if he had to walk to her and talk. C'mon, Redfox, grow balls! Go and talk with the girl! He tried to force his legs towards the bluenette, maybe to ask her if he can sit on the bench or something like that, but they didn't moved. He sighed to himself and instead walked to the closest bench to the one she was sitting on, no more interested in the large oak or the park around them. Before he knew what he was going, the sketchbook and the pencil were in his hands and he was drawing. Her. He was drawing that blue-haired stranger.

It was kind of weird how someone he knew nothing for was the one who gave him the desire to draw again, but he felt it like it was the most normal thing in the world. He tried to draw everything as it was, every curvy lock of her messy hair and every little detail, but after all... it would have been better. But at least he was trying! It was hard to draw someone from that away. But she was a good model – she didn't moved a lot, and when she did it, her movements were small, like turning the page of the book or leaning backwards against the wooden bench or brushing one lock behind her ear. The said lock didn't wanted to stay behind and always fell forward, so she finally gave up. Few times her glasses slid too much on her nose and she had to push them back. Few times – he supposed when something happened in the book – she bit down on her lower lip, her hands gripping the covers tighter.

Time passed and before he knew it, the sun was close to the west horizon. Gajeel lifted his head to look at the bluenette again, but was surprised to see her throwing her bag over her shoulder and walking away to the South Gates. He wondered if he had to follow her and ask her for her name. One part of his mind told him to be bold and to run after her, but the other held him on his place. The image of two chubby figures of him fighting with something that looked like sword-sized pencils and armors made from paper appeared in his mind. Finally, the part that wanted to follow the blue-haired beauty took over and he quickly collected his stuff. When he was ready, he stood and looked ahead...

Only to see how the woman who gave him back his ability to draw walking through the park gates and disappearing into the town.

The black-haired man thought about chasing her. Magnolia wasn't big city, but it was in the middle in the summer and a lot of people came to see the lake and the river. The bright color of her hair was easy to follow, but he knew a lot of bluenettes... And she was so frigging tiny! Gajeel sighed and face-palmed himself. It's going to be a hell of a month...

"Oh... What got into you, Metal face? You look... sad."

Not the best way to be welcomed, right? But that was all Gajeel got when he walked into the apartment he shared with his cousin and his girlfriend.

"You're a genius, Salamander, haven't I told you? Now move. I'm tired."

The pinkette sighed but moved and opened the door wider, letting him in the flat. The young artist walked and let his bag fall on the floor, then threw himself on the leather couch in the middle of the living room, his face buried on one of the soft pillows.

"You don't have to be that rude, Gajeel. What happened?" Natsu asked, this time in more serious tone.

As childish as he was the most time, Natsu Dragneel had a thing for emotions. Gajeel would never tell him, but from all 7 cousins he had, Natsu was his favorite one. They always fought and called each other names, but actually they were very close. Natsu was the one he would call his brother. They even went to live together, and that said a lot. The most time the pinkette was annoying, bothering, loud and childish, but he was also very kind and always ready to help you person, an optimist, someone who was able to bring smile to everyone's faces. His mother was baker – she had the best bakery in the whole town – and his father, aside from being the best uncle in the world, was firefighter. He was a bit of a pyromaniac too and once set the chemistry lab on fire. It was accident, Natsu would ever say, but no one actually believed him. Aside from that, he was a good cook too.

"Why do you care?" Gajeel asked, too tired to move, and his words came out muffled by the pillow.

"Because I'm your cousin, and friend, and I don't want to watch you sulking around the whole day?" The pinkette sighed and shook his head, sitting on the couch. "If your muse didn't came, don't worry–"

"It came" the artist answered and finally stood up. His hair looked like a nest, but he ignored it. "I drew few things, actually."

"Then... what happened?" Natsu looked at the bag on the floor and lifted it, placing in on the coffee table before them.

"I met a girl. A very, very beautiful girl" the black-haired man finally answered.

"Did you got her number?" Pair of dark green eyes focused on him.

"Nope."

"Did you got her name?"

"Nope."

"Did you at least talked with her?"

"Umm... No? You know, your Blondie wouldn't be very happy to hear that."

"What did you do?"

"I drew her."

Natsu went silent and starred at him, his jaw dropped.

"What?" Gajeel had to hold the urge to hit his thick head. "Stop starin' at me like that, Flamebrain!"

"She have to be really extraordinary beautiful to get you out of that art block, man."

"I know that, you idiot!"

Natsu grinned and then looked at the bag.

"Can I see what you drew?"

The black-haired man just grunted and his cousin took the sketchbook from the bag, curious to see who that mysterious girl was.

"Don't worry, man" the pinkette said after flipping few pages. "I'm sure you will find her soon."

So, here it is, my new project~!

I had the idea of that from a long time in my head. I'm pretty proud from the title - I just can't come with good titles the most time, and that is just perfect! As for the summary... Well, it isn't perfect.

Now, for the story itself. It's set in modern world - our world - and have everything we have. As for the question where is Fiore - in that story (and maybe all of my modern-set AUs) Fiore is a big island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, between Europe and Africa on the east and South and North America on the west. (If you read the story "Der Freischütz" by Armageddon Angel you can see it explained ways better than I can - read it, it's an amazing story, actually everything he writes is amazing) Magnolia itself in southeast Fiore.

You can read that and expect the next chapter in like month or something like that. I'm sorry if I'm making it too much for you, but school is standing in the way. Also I'm going to write an prequel for this story - still nameless - for the characters' parents. In it, I'll show you my even crazier ships and few OCs.

Until the next time!

From Ro, Bye!