#theres another piece of text also that kept shifting but i think that ones set now

[imabiscuitinthousandworlds]

okay but working at the theatre has some rly interesting side effects. such as "oh hey i notice if the actors are actually not quite on top of their game for once" or "i notice every change in speech or where they walk" and in this one case also "what the fuck are they even doing with that scene it changes every single time wtf"

[theolddarkmachine]

Kingdom- Chapter Ten

Gajeel has had the dream about dying for the blue haired girl for as long as he can remember. Which is weird, since he’s never met anyone with blue hair in his life.

Levy has always loved myths and legends. So much so, in fact, that she was currently getting her master’s in mythological studies.

What neither of them realized was that they were living a legend all their own.

AKA the one with a knight, a princess, and a curse that keeps bringing them together just to pull them apart.

PREVIOUS CHAPTERS

AO3

Weeeee another chapter! I’m gonna stop pretending I’m back on weekly updates now, because clearly, I am not XD I JUST KEEP ADDING THINGS TO THE TO-DO LIST WAH I’M SORRY. Anyway, so here’s a wild fun fact, we’re six chapters from the end of Kingdom. Can you believe?! Me either lol Another fun fact? This is the last chapter of questions. After this there are answers. Lots, and lots of answers. And possibly pain. (Read: Lots, and lots of pain.) So uh, enjoy the calm before the storm lol also hi yes also in case you missed it theres a gajevy vday fic coming which is partially why the delay in this update

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Why?

The single word had tinged his existence a darker shade of grey as Gajeel was haunted by the continuous replaying of his talk with Lily.

Why?

The story has changed so many times, I can’t be sure, but it is said that the queen was the one that did it.

But why?

If it’s true, she wanted Levy to feel the pain of loss, stretched across all her lifetimes.

Growling under his breath, Gajeel threw his weight into a particularly difficult spot that marred the top of his bar as he let his frustration bleed into the force he exerted. No matter how many times he’d asked, and no matter how many times Lily had replied, he still wasn’t any closer to a real answer.

All that Lily had known was nothing more than possibilities, the truth trapped within the binding of a single book that had been lost to time. Hypotheticals were the only tether to a past he’d only seen glimpses of, and wasn’t even quite sure he believed existed. Even with all the evidence, he still reeled against the possibilities of his impossible truth.

Days had passed since the discovery, and Gajeel wasn’t necessarily avoiding his problems. At least, that’s what he told himself as he’d put his phone on silent and taken on more shifts at the bar than he normally would have. No, he just needed time to work things out. To work out what exactly it meant to be cursed to die for a woman he hardly knew.

What it meant to know, and not be able to do anything about it.

Worst of all, what it meant to know that he would die, and not even care.

Because when it came down to it, Gajeel would die for her. Hell, he’d already thrown himself in front of a truck for her. His problem wasn’t with the situation at all, so much as the realization of his own feelings. Being a reincarnated knight, he could figure out.

The way his stomach dropped each time he checked his phone and didn’t see Levy’s name on the screen, he could not.

With a sigh, he pulled away from the mark, its dark stain stubborn as it stared back at him with all its smudged glory, lit only by the dimmed lights of the bar. It had been days since Levy had walked out of his apartment, leaving him alone with the memory of her blue hair as she disappeared through his doorway.

They’d exchanged numbers, and aside from a quick text that she had made it home in one piece, he hadn’t heard from her since. Something about the hollowness that bled out over his chest felt wrong, leaving behind the biting tang of unease. The only thing that kept it from wholly consuming him was the small voice that reminded him that she wasn’t his.

Yet, he bit back.

Gajeel’s black shirt vibrated against his skin with the force of the bass that danced around his body. It felt ominous in its own right, its growling coming louder and closer than it ever had, wrapping itself around him like a beast behind the bar where he stood.

Ironside itself felt animalistic.

Standing at its entrance had felt like standing in front of a monster and staring down its gaping jaw without any form of defense. It had been enough to make his skin prickle with foreboding as bile worked itself upwards towards the top of his throat with its burning bitterness. Everything about the bar felt wrong.

Almost as if it too, was in on the plot to end his life.

“Hello, handsome,” a voice purred, curling around the edges in a sharpened caress as a taloned hand ran over the stained spot that had held his attention. Ripping his thoughts away from death, Levy and the stubborn mark, Gajeel let his eyes slip up from the wood until he found his crimson gaze caught by one made of amethyst.

The woman that stood before him looked completely misplaced against the backdrop of the bar behind her. Dressed in a black dress cut more for business instead of pleasure, she stood straight with her chin raised high. On anyone else, it would look snobbish. As if she was looking down at those beneath her. In her, however, it gave her a sense of regality. It suited her, and if Gajeel hadn’t known better, he would think her something closer to a queen than someone looking to spend her night at the bar.

With the red lighting that drenched everything along his countertop crimson gracing the sharp points of her face, she carried all the beauty of a wild tiger. Stunning, but dangerous. 

Her lips pulled back over her teeth in a blood colored impersonation of a smile as she dragged the purple of her stare up and down his body. Heart seizing in his chest as if frozen by the sudden grip of fear, Gajeel tried to breath around the feel of sudden panic burning through him.

“What can I get ya?” He pushed through the fear as it coated the back of his tongue with its acrid sting. Everything in him was telling him to run from the hard cut jewel stare. They stood in silence, the thrum of the music falling away from him as they looked each other over. She didn’t make any move to answer, instead opting to run her pointed nails back over the bar.

After allowing the moment to stretch uncomfortably long, Gajeel opened his mouth to ask his question again, sure she hadn’t heard.

“You never change, do you?” She finally spoke, voice lower, and darker. Almost as if it had been mired in shadows. Another pang of something like dread heaved itself against the walls of his gut.

“Have we met before?” He asked, searching his thoughts for an recollection of the woman, only to find himself hitting a wall each time he felt himself get closer. The woman moved forward, settling herself onto a bar stool as her smile widened. Underneath the friendly exterior, he only saw frost. It was a look filled with the knowledge of something he was not privy to.

“My mistake, dear,” she soothed with all the same comfort of a venomous snake as she shook her head. “You just look like someone I knew a lifetime ago.”

Caught under the weight of her biting smile, Gajeel reached for a glass, mindlessly trying to place his attentions on something other than the way the glimmer of her teeth cut into him like sharpened knives.

“He must’ve made an impression,” he muttered, finally tearing his eyes away as he grabbed for a towel.

She probably just needs someone to talk to, he told himself as he started to wipe at the smudges on the cup. It wouldn’t be the first time someone had walked into Ironside looking for a cheaper and more enjoyable alternative to a therapist. Easing himself into the comfort of the barely veiled lie, he stole a quick glance of the woman just in time to see her mouth twitch downward.

“Quite,” she said sharply, her expression twisting with shadows cast from the ever moving lights of the bar.

“Didn’t end well, I take it?” Gajeel prodded, hand twisting the towel around the now pristine surface of the glass, if only to give himself something else to preoccupy his mind aside from that voice beating inside his mind. Pushing back against her words and the mad thump of the music, it kept on in its insistence that something was wrong.

“Not for either of us, I’m afraid.” The words were a hiss that cut into him. His hand stalled as they wrapped themselves around his throat, choking him of air.

“Bad breakup?” He managed around the tight grip that cut off his breathing.

It’s okay, he told himself as he dragged air down into his lungs, fighting back the sudden burn in his chest.

“I suppose you could call it that,” the woman’s voice dipped back into her earlier purr as she bore holes into him with her stare. Gajeel’s grip tightened around the glass, his knuckles turning a stark white, as he felt the sharp sting of a pointed claw dragging down the back of his neck.

A static moment stole his senses, dipping him into silence as he found himself held like a mouse staring up at a snake. In the distance, he could hear the strain of a voice calling his name as if he was caught underwater. That voice sounded so familiar. And it sounded like it was crying.

And then, it was gone. Air burst into his lungs as the sharpened sensation disappeared from around his throat. The music came roaring back to life, nearly deafening him as he set the the glass down onto the counter, using his newly freed hand to steady himself with the hard surface.

The woman, in turn, just smiled.

It’s okay, he repeated, ignoring the smaller voice that contradicted his own thought.

No, it’s not.

“Well, you’ve come to the right place to forget him for awhile,” Gajeel said, aware of the way his voice wavered as if he’d just run a marathon. All he needed to do was get their conversation back on track. If he got her her drink, she could leave, and then he could slip out to catch his breath. Her eyes glowed with the red light, her gaze becoming amethyst mired in blood as she replied.

“I hear you make a great cocktail.”

Another breath.

It’s okay.

No, it’s not.

“You’ve heard right,” he said with a smile, aware that it would probably look more like a grimace. If she noticed the way it hadn’t quite touched his eyes, she didn’t say anything.

“I’ll take a Blue Princess.” Flicking her hand through the air with the same flourish of the royalty she seemed to embody, she gave her order with feigned nonchalance. Even with the thick covering of indifference, he could still hear the hint of something else. Quickly fishing out the alcohol and mixers needed to create the drink, Gajeel filled her glass with the swirling blue liquid.

Setting it before her gently, he took the money she had set before him.

“Keep the change,” she soothed, licking across her bottom lip as she grabbed the drink. Running a finger across the rim, she regarded it with a strange fire in her eye before she brought it to her lips. With a quick flick of her wrist, and a tip of her head, she threw it back, nothing but ice clinking against the glass when she dropped it back on the counter.

It’s okay.

No, it’s not.

“It was good seeing you, Gajeel.” Carefully stepping down from the barstool, she fixed him with a final smile touched by razorblades and ice. Turning away, she started to make her way towards the crowd of swaying bodies, throwing her last words over her shoulder before she disappeared amongst them.

“Thank you for the drink.”

It wasn’t until much later, after he had disappeared into the supply closet under the pretense of needing more glasses, after settling the spinning feeling that had left him reeling, and after he’d returned home from the bar more exhausted than usual, that Gajeel realized something.

It was good seeing you, Gajeel.

The sound of the deadbolt sliding into place a loud click in the otherwise silent apartment.

He hadn’t told her his name.

Vibrations erupted from his pocket as his phone went off with a message alert, sending his heart up into his throat as he grabbed it. Across the screen, he saw Levy’s name, and accompanying it was a simple line of text.

Hey, can we meet up? I was hoping we could talk.

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