You were on your way back to Fairy Tail. It had been 3 year since you left and a lot had happened during those years. The reason you had been away for 3 years? You probably wouldn't take on a mission that lasts this long and you hadn't left for training purposes either. But then what was the reason? Truth was: You had left the guild. You had left it with no intention of ever returning.
You couldn't really remember how things had ended up that way. Somehow you and Gray had started arguing over a matter so simple that you had long forgotten what it was. Things had gotten out of hand and soon enough you had slapped him in the face, turned around and gone away with the words "Don't even think I'll be back. And I know the rules so don't bother with that either".
At first, you had wandered around aimlessly but eventually you had arrived at Sabertooth and decided to stay there. The time you spent there was great and you felt welcome every time you entered the guild. You got along with the members and god only knew how much time you spent with Yukino, Sting or Rogue. At least one of them was always with you if you weren't on a mission. Even when you were on a mission one of them would occasionally accompany you.
Back when you were still a new member of the guild, you also got told off by Sting sometimes but as time went on he had less and less reason to do so. Having been a member of Fairy Tail it was only natural that you could accidentally destroy your surroundings while on a job so you had to get rid of that habit which took quite some time considering that holding back wasn't exactly one of your strong points.
Anyway, while you sure had lots of fun in Sabertooth, there were also days when you felt something was missing. There were days when you had to pretend to be fine just to not worry anyone. Days when all you wanted to do was to cry. Days when you felt alone to the point where it was unbearable. You had written more letters than you could count yet none of them had ever been sent. You had never even wanted to send them, you just wrote them because you didn't know where to vent all the feelings.
Without your friends in Sabertooth you probably wouldn't be on you way back to Fairy Tail. They knew the reason you had left your former guild. Yukino had started to tell you, you should clear your mind and sort your feelings a while ago but you didn't bother listening and kept telling her you were okay. At some point Sting and Rogue started trying to talk you into going back and at least saying a proper goodbye to the guild you had used to call your family. They kept telling you it was obvious that you held back a lot of bad feelings and that you missed your former comrades but you kept smiling and told them you were fine with how things were now. To be honest you hadn't realized just how obvious it really was until a few days ago.
It had been one of those days when your friends tried to get you to admit that you missed the people at Fairy Tail and as always you told them that you were perfectly fine with not seeing them anymore. What happened next surprised you though. "Fro doesn't think so" Frosch had said. You liked the Exceed but you knew it was rare for him to disagree with someone. From what you had experienced, Frosch usually didn't notice how you felt either so him disagreeing probably meant that it was a whole lot more obvious than you had thought. That made you think and you decided to at least listen to what Yukino, Sting and Rogue had to tell you. Lector also commented on some things but it was mostly those three who talked.
Somehow it ended with you getting ready to leave Sabertooth.
Meanwhile in Fairy Tail a certain black haired Ice-mage tried his best to ignore the blue haired girl that wanted him to go on a mission with her. How she hadn't given up on him was a mystery to nearly everyone.
"Give up on it for today okay Juvia?" Mirajane asked the Water-mage. "But Juvia wants to go on that mission with Gray-sama!" The white haired woman sighed. Juvia hadn't picked the best day to try and get Gray out on a mission. "I know but it's one of those days again so it would be better to try again tomorrow." Juvia had to admit she would have better chances at going on a mission with Gray when it wasn't one of those days so she reluctantly gave up. What they meant with 'one of those days'? For him, just as it had been for you, there were days when he wished you would be back at the guild. Days when he wasn't his usual self because he missed you and wished he could turn back time to stop you from leaving.
"Juvia still thinks Gray-sama should just give up on [YN]." How often had he been told that he should forget you? How often had they told him you wouldn't come back? Except for Juvia they all had given up on telling him. "She will come back." The same answer as always.
A year ago Mira had tried one last time to tell him to give up on you and got the same answer. She had told him that he should know you wouldn't go back on what you said which meant you wouldn't return to Fairy Tail. Gray didn't care though, he had just told her he'd wait. No matter how long he'd have to wait, he would wait for you to return and he would continue believing you would return one day.
He didn't admit it but he needed you. Without you there was something missing. Something very important.
Some time later you arrived in Magnolia and soon found your way to the guild. Would it really be okay to just walk in? Was there even a place for you in the guild? How would everyone react? How would Gray react? Would he even care? You stood in front of the guild debating over whether to walk in or not.
"I can't do this!" you decided and turned around to walk away again. "I can't go back after all! I just can't open that door!" While you were talking to yourself you started walking not noticing who was walking to your direction. "Doesn't that voice belong to [YN]?" you heard a voice ask. Shocked to encounter someone who knew you, you looked up only to find Lucy and Natsu seemingly returning from a mission. "Oh? Hey [YN]!! Long time not seen!" Natsu shouted and waved at you. Of course Natsu would know who you are. If it wasn't for your voice then he would notice from your smell. "[YN], you came to visit the guild? That's great! Most of us gave up on seeing you again but Gray kept saying you'd come back!" Lucy told you while running towards you and grabbing your wrist to drag you to the guild. "Lucy, I-" you tried to resist but neither did she listen to you nor did she let go of your wrist. And even if you had tried to run Natsu didn't look like he'd let you run away again when you had just returned. He too, was happy to see you again.
Honestly, you were scared to enter the guild hall but since your former comrades didn't listen to you at all, you got dragged in anyway. "Guys! Look who came to visit us!" Natsu shouted as soon as you were inside. Everyone was staring at you. Most of the guild's members were surprised and some were clearly happy to see you. There was one person you couldn't bring yourself to look at though. Gray.
You hardly had any time to react before you were surrounded by the guild members, who asked you all kinds of questions. How you had been. Where you had been. Why you had decided to visit them. All those kinds of questions. Wendy was even hugging you. Unsure what to do you just stood there trying to process what was happening. Slowly you got down a little to return the hug the Sky Dragon Slayer was giving you.
This was how it should be. You felt completely at ease for the first time in a while and what was more, you finally felt home again. Only now did you notice how much you had missed the guild. Being overwhelmed by all those feelings you started crying. All the tears you had held back during the last three years were now running down your cheeks. "I'm home. I'm sorry for running away. I missed you guys so much" You had spoken those words before you noticed you were even talking but that was just how true they were.
After you had explained what you had been doing after you had gone away and had begged the master to be allowed to join the guild again everyone calmed down a little. You looked around and noticed that while some minor things had changed most things had stayed as you remembered them. You also noticed Gray staring at you in disbelief. Lucy had told you he had said he'd wait for you no matter how long it took but even so you could guess to him the fact that you were really standing there right now didn't seem real.
There was something you had to tell him so you went up to him. "Hey Gray. It's been a while" you said looking at him a bit scared of what would come now. "I, uhm ... Lucy said you believed that I would return and said you would wait for me. Thank you for that and ... I'm sorry. I'm sorry I ran away. I'm sorry I said I wouldn't return. I'm sorry it took me so long to come back. Can we maybe ... Can we maybe start anew? Go back to the start and try our best again?" You stood there holding the tears back again and being incredibly scared of what his answer would be.
It took Gray a little until he realized what was happening. You were back, standing right in front of him. He didn't know what had made you come back, he hadn't been listening to what you told the others. But there you were asking him if you could be friends again. The last time the Ice-mage had been this happy was when you had still been a Fairy Tail mage before running away. He could hardly believe he would get another chance. He started smiling at you. "Of course we can."
You were relieved. You would be able to be by his side again. No words could describe how you felt right now. Tears started to roll down your cheeks again as you hugged Gray. You were sure Juvia didn't like seeing you hug the boy but you couldn't care less about it. During the past few days you had thought of him a lot and you came to realize some things. You had missed him more than anyone or anything else. You wanted to be near him, wanted to be able to embrace him. He was the one person for whom you would do everything just to not lose him.
"I missed you. I missed you so much Gray. More than anyone else" you cried. "I missed you too. Welcome home [YN]." You felt him return your embrace.
Fairy Tail had been celebrating your return and you had been told a lot of stories of what had happened during the last three years. You could clearly tell all those stories belonged to this guild. They just had 'Fairy Tail' written all over them.
At the moment you sat at the bar and watched Natsu and Gray starting one of their usual fights. "This guild is my family after all" you started laughing. "I just need this guild. Without it my life isn't half as good." Catching a chair and throwing it back to wherever it had come from you watched how the small fight between your two best friends escalated into a fight which at least half the guild took part in. "But the thing you love most about this guild is that Gray is here isn't it?" Mira asked, smiling her usual innocent smile. "Well it's second to the general family atmosphere but yeah it's one of the biggest reasons." You answered without paying attention to what exactly you were saying. A second later you wished you had paid attention to it though. "You lllliiiikee him~" Happy said. The blue Exceed had been listening to your conversation with Mira and he wouldn't be Happy if he hadn't said that exact sentence. "I-I just ... I don't ... It's hard to explain." There wasn't anything you could think of that would get you out of this situation now. Mirajane of course wanted to hear your explanation anyway because, that was also something you were told earlier, she had planned on trying to get you and Gray to go out with each other before you had ran away. "Fine. Let's say if life was a puzzle then everyone has his own pieces he needs to complete his puzzle. I feel like I'm missing a very important piece and without it I would never be able to complete my puzzle no matter how many pieces I collect." You slightly blushed as you tried to explain it. "And that piece is Gray" the white-haired woman concluded. You nodded. "I don't get it." Shocked you turned around to see Natsu and some of the others, including Gray. With that your blush got a taint redder. When had they stopped fighting anyway?
"It means that [YN] loves Gray, you idiot." Thanks to Laxus you wouldn't be surprised if your face was as red as a tomato by now. You noticed he was annoyed, probably at all the fuss they made since you had returned. Well, there was no way he would be able to properly listen to his music with all the noise everyone made and you could bet he just wanted to get this shit over with. The situation wasn't exactly what you liked either though and if you didn't imagine it you even heard Juvia from somewhere calling you her 'love-rival' which didn't make the situation any better at all. At least it didn't make the situation worse because Juvia was ignored. "You do?" As Gray asked this, you could hear the sound of Juvia dying in the background. Not that she really died but she would probably need some time to recover from that shock.
You didn't expect this so the only thing you could do was nod. "I uhm ..." You looked at the Ice-mage in confusion. On the one hand you wondered what he was going to say and hoped he wouldn't turn you down. On the other hand though you were confused about the reason he hesitated to say what he wanted to say. It seemed like he didn't exactly know how to say it but you had never experienced this before. While thinking about it you noticed a faint blush on his cheeks.
"Be a man and tell her!" You heard Elfman shout. Now that was a way to ruin the mood but you were thankful for it because all the tension had vanished thanks to it. Gray complained at first but he seemed to be a bit more relaxed too. "[YN], I-" he started again but then was pushed towards you by Natsu, who seemed to have decided this was taking too long. Well, either that or it was an accident and the Fire Dragon Slayer only wanted to have the stick with fire on it that Mira, who was still standing behind you, was holding probably only because she knew it would somehow lead to this outcome. It, of course, ended with Grays lips landing on yours. You never expected the most cliché scenario to ever happen to you but you wouldn't say you weren't happy about it. Sure your face was probably as red as it could possibly get right now but you were kissing Gray. Somehow at least. Said guy was shocked too but he didn't seem to hate it either.
He broke the somewhat-kiss and wanted to shout at Natsu probably for ruining it but you had a different plan. You got up from your seat and hugged the black-haired Mage. You needed all your courage to do this but even so you had decided to do this now. "I love you, Gray. So ... What's your answer?" you whispered. Your face was still bright red and you already started regretting what you had just done. What would you do if he turned you down now? Just when you wanted to pull away you felt strong arms wrapping around you and keeping you close to Gray. "I love you too, [YN]. That's why I kept waiting for you to return." His voice wasn't more than a whisper but it was loud enough for you to understand him.
He pulled away just enough to kiss you properly this time. And you returned the kiss. You heard some cheers from around you but that was completely unimportant right now. The only thing that mattered to you was that you were kissing the boy you had fallen for and that he loved you back. Right now you were the happiest person in the whole world and you had just gotten yourself the best boyfriend you could ever imagine.
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There's probably no character that's in-character but whoop I tried
=3
hope you like it anyway ^.^