(BTW, I've decided that Renia Kousaka would be Gabbey's main face claims when it comes to GIFs. Good day.)

A few days later, Gabbey sat in front of Wendy as the two of them glanced through the book in between them. It was about the girls' dorm, Gabbey was helping the kid find a place to stay permanently. 

  "What about this room?" Wendy asked, pointing to an image that shown them what a room looked like. The description was to its left. Gabbey quickly scanned through it before shaking her head. 

  "That's all the way up to the highest floor - you wouldn't want to travel up and down the stairs that much," Gabbey reasoned.

   "Alright, what about this one?"

  "Nope."

  "Why?"

  "Erza lives next door."

  "Oh. . ."

   "How's it going? Have you settled in yet?" Lucy asked Wendy. 

  "Yep! Gabbey is actually helping me find a room in the girls' dorm!" 

Lucy rose an eyebrow as Gabbey threw out a peace sign - not bothering to turn around and face the blonde. 

  "I'm intrigued about the idea that there's a girls' dorm." Carla commented, sipping her cup of tea diligently. 

  "Speaking of which, Lucy-san, why aren't you part of the dorm?" Wendy asked curiously. 

  "I only just found out about that you know," Lucy whimpered at the thought of rent. "On top of that. . .The dorm's rent is like 100,000. . .even if I wanted to apply I wouldn't be able to pay it. . ."

  "There's trouble!!!" A mage yelled out as he rushed into the guild hall. Gabbriel's ear twitched at the sound of a bell going off, her eyes locking with her brothers'. They both showed their confusion through their bond. 

  "What's that?!" Lucy exclaimed, clearly not knowing what was going on as well. 

  "The sound if amazing!" Natsu cheered.

  "Aye!"

  "Right on!" Elfman grinned. 

  "It couldn't be!" Grey denied with a smile. 

  "You're secret admirer, Fro-zone?" Gabbey teased him, noting the slight flush to his cheeks. 

  "Shut it, Studs!"

  "Gildarts has come back!" Natsu hollered. 

  "Aye!"

   "Gildarts. . ." Gabbey muttered, watching as Wendy and Lucy stood by each other to talk. She slowly stood as well, making her way through the crowd to her twin. "That name sounds familiar."

   "Didn't you talk about this old geezer that bothered. . .you two on a mission?" Gajeel paused, choosing his words carefully. 

  "I mean. . .Yeah, but I don't think they would be the same person. . .That'd be too much of a coincidence." Gabbey snorted at the thought, not even bothered by the fact that the town had suddenly split into two halves. Apparently, not everyone could keep her cool.  

  "The town has been divided?!" Lucy screeched in shock. 

  "Gildarts uses a magic that smashes everything he touches into pieces. So, when he's not being careful, he walks through the town crashing private houses." Mira explained. 

  "How could he been so stupid?!" Lucy squeaked. "That's why they restructured the whole town?"

  "Isn't it amazing, Carla?!" Wendy chirped. 

  "Yeah. . .amazingly stupid."

It wasn't long before the famous guild member himself walked through the double doors with a heavy sigh. His ginger hair was long and tangled, a scruffy looking beard on his face as well.  Gabbey's mouth popped open in shock before she quickly snapped it shut. 

  "Gildarts!! Fight me!!" Natsu declared. 

  "The thing you say is that," Elfman scoffed. 

  "Of course it is!" Gabbey snorted. 

  "Welcome back," Mira greeted. 

  "This man is Gildarts." Lucy didn't seem to believe the 'strongest mage in Fairy tail' was this man in front of her. 

  "Mh," The man grunted. "MIss. I'm sure that a guild called Fairy tail was somewhere around here. . ."

  "That's right here!" Mira grinned. "And I'm Mirajane."

  "Mira?" Gildarts grumbled, before gawking at everyone and thing. "You look so different! Oh and so our guild has been renewed!!"

  "Gildarts!!!" Natsu roared, charging at the gingered hair man. Gabbey winced slightly, knowing what was coming next. 

  "Oh! Natsu! Long time no see."

  "I said fight me!!"

Not even breaking his stance, Gildarts swung his fist into Natsu's gut and sent him flying to the roof. "Maybe next time," He replied.

Gabbey snorted. Gajeel let out a chuckled, covering his mouth with his hand to hide the smile on his face. 

  "You haven't changed, old man." Grey commented. 

  "You're the real man!"

  "Well, there are some faces that I've never seen and this place has changed a lot." Gildarts noted, glancing around at the new guild hall and the new faces. His eyes skimmed over Gajeel and passed over Gabbriel before quickly snapping back to the younger twin. "Oh! I know you!"

With that short statement, all eyes were on Gabbey. She mentally stabbed the older man in the eyes, but replied in a monotone voice. "No, you don't."

  "Convincing," Gajeel snorted, making Levy sweatdrop in agreement. 

  "Yeah, that's not really convincing Gabbey. . ."

   "Gabbey. . .Ah! Gabbriel!" Gildarts grinned, making his way over to Gabbey. "I haven't seen you in, what, three years? I know last time I saw you, it was at the start of my mission." His eyes glanced around the guild hall. "Where's that girlfriend of yours, huh? I wouldn't be surprised if she followed you here - she would have followed you to the ends of this world. I bet you would have too,"

He continued to ramble, not noticing that Gabbey was clenching her fists. Gajeel quickly took one of her fists and held it tight as Gildarts continued. "Oh, what was her name? Akiru? No. . .A. . .Akem-!"

Gildarts was cut off from Gabbey's hand covering his mouth in a quick motion. Most of the guild stopped breathing, and Lucy even shrieked in shock. 

  "Can we not talk about her in front of everyone?" Gabbey whispered hoarsely, in the lowest whisper Gildarts could hear. "I'll tell you later, but, please. . ."

Gildart's happy expression dropped, getting the hint, and gently removed her hand from his mouth. "Visit me later, yeah?"

When Gabbey didn't reply, Gajeel tugged his twin into his arms and Gildarts turned towards Makarov. "Oh! Master! Long time no see!"

  "How was the mission?" Makarov asked, getting straight to the point.  Gildarts laughed, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. Makarov huffed. 

  "Nope." He finally admitted. "I'm not good enough for that."

The entire guild seem to act as one in a state of shock. "What?!"

  "It can't be!!"

  "Even Gildarts failed the quest??"

  "I see," Makarov replied evenly. "Even you couldn't do it. . ."

  "Sorry for leaving a stain on your name." Gildarts apologized. 

  "No. . .It's good enough that you came back unharmed. As far as I know, you're the first person who came back from this quest."

Not wanting to continue the conversation, Gildarts yawned. "I'm going home. I need a rest. I'm so tired!" Before he left, he looked up to Natsu. "Natsu, come to my place later. I've got something for you."

His eyes met Gabbey's for a moment, barely even a second, before he turned and walked through a wall. "Well, then, later."

  "Gildarts! Why don't you go out from the door!!" 

  "Don't," Erza started in a dark tone. "The 100 years quest is too early for you."

  "Huh? Did I look like I was excited?!" Lucy squeaked. Gabbriel leaned in close to Gajeel - closer than she already was, and murmured softly into his ear. 

  "I'll be back. I'm going on a walk."

  "Be safe," Gajeel murmured back, kissing her forehead when he thought no one was looking. "Brat."

  "Jerk," Gabbey sent him a smile before walking towards the wall. Looking around, she checked to make sure no one was watching, and blended into the metal. 

But, there was someone who watched the whole exchange with soft eyes, a small light blue haired girl that was clearly worrying about her favorite twins. 

🌹🌹🌹

Gabbey watched as Natsu marched out of Gildart's home with an irritated look on his face. She could probably guess what he was irritated from, as well. Before Gildarts left a long time ago, he told the two girls what his mission was. 

Gabbriel thought that was gonna be the last time she saw him. 

With a sigh, she started making her way up to the stone path into the house. Not bothering to knock, Gabbriel pushed the half-opened door and walked in. Gildarts was just putting his cloak back on with she walked in. She saw a flash of bandages before her eyes settled on his face. 

   "Gabbriel," Gildarts grinned, putting a hand on her shoulder. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

   "Three years," She admitted, "I thought that was the last time I was gonna see you."

   "I thought so too," Gildarts chuckled. 

   "Why didn't you tell me you where apart of Fairy tail?"

   "Never came up. Don't know how it didn't, but guilds weren't something we talked about." He let his hand dropped from her shoulder, and took a step back. "Come on, sit down. We've got a lot to catch up on."

   "No offense or anything," Gabbey quickly cut his offer off. "But I need to run some errands, and the store closes soon. I'd just like to answer any of your questions." 

  "O-Of course," Gildarts smile perked up a little bit. "You sure haven't changed."

   "Neither have you,"

   "Touche," He sighed, sitting down in his chair. "So. . .I would ask where Akemi is, but by the look on your face, she isn't around anymore. . .Did you two have a fallout?"

   "In a way," Gabbey admitted, staring holes into the ground. "U-Uh. . .We went on a dangerous mission about six months after you left Oak Town. It was like Fairy tail's S-class missions. Jose thought we could manage to pull the mission off  - and seeing as Jose was Akemi's guardian at the time - she wanted to go and prove herself." 

   "What was the mission?" Gildarts asked. 

   "Infiltration of the dark guild, Serpents," She replied. "We managed to get all their deep dark secrets, and just before we left. . ." Gabbey's red eyes dulled. "Long story short, she's dead. They killed her."

   "Gabbey," Gildarts moved to stand up, but Gabbey stopped him. 

   "No, I don't need your pity." She shook her head. "I'm doing fine now, Gildarts. It's been almost two years, and I'm getting better. I just. . ." The girl let out a sigh. "I just want to go get some cherries from the store and eat."

   "Okay," Gildarts said after a while. "Okay, yeah. Go, before the store closes. But, hey," He stopped the younger girl as she turned to leave. "I'm here for you. We're here for you, Fairy tail is here for you. We're family now, we're always be there for each other."

Gabbriel snorted, shaking her head. "Funny," She said bitterly, making her exit. "I told Akemi those words a day before she died."

So, while Gabbriel Redfox walked from store to store, gathering food and stuff for her shared apartment, she couldn't help but wonder. 

Has she really gotten over her mates death?