~~~
"Man you guys are so cool, fighting dark guilds and stuff" you laughed, sitting with Meredy, "not cool! It's such a hard job" Meredy giggled, playing with the ends of her hair, "Jellal won't let me join and it's so not fair" you complained, crossing your arms, "Meredy!", a voice echoed throughout the room, "WHAT?!" she screeched, "stop bringing non-guild members here" the black and white haired mage said, entering the room. "Oh come on, (y/n)'s not doing anything wrong" Meredy defended you, "Meredy you know the rules" he said, "it's ok Meredy I can go, sorry" you apologized, "this is why no one likes you" Meredy huffed in annoyance at the man, "come on (y/n) lets go somewhere cooler than this guild hall" she said offendedly and the two of you got up, leaving the guild.
"What's his problem?" Meredy scoffed, "it's ok, he was just looking out for the guild" you assured her, "he's just got a stick up his butt, he also doesn't like new people" she said, "but don't let him bother you, he's just a big dork, also if I told Jellal that he bothered you he'd probably be in big trouble" she smiled as you walked around, when nighttime rolled around she offered to let you stay over, which was a nice offer, but you declined since you could practice your magic at night. After bidding Meredy goodnight, you left your friend and headed to an open field near the town that you could use to practice your magic, your magic is known as Bullet Magic, a lost type of magic that you don't know how you learned. You found it out the hard way when you pretended to do finger guns at Meredy when you were saying goodbye and accidentally shot her, from then on you became best friends and she was always willing to help you practice.
You were practicing your aim at some trees, firing to hit the center of the trunk, when a voice came out from inside the trees, "why are you always everywhere I go", you saw the man from earlier at the guild hall, "it's just fate" you teased, "go practice somewhere else" he said and turned his head, "I always practice here, it's not gonna kill you to share the area" you explained to him. "No wonder you get along with Meredy so well" he scoffed, rolling his eyes as he sat down and leaned against one of the trees, "what does that mean?" you asked curiously, "you're both so happy and giddy and sassy, you're just worse" he mumbled, "how is that worse?" you asked, genuinely confused, "you also have lots of questions" he sighed.
"Well nothing you're saying is making sense!" You scrunched up your nose, moving on, you aimed at the trunk and fired again to keep practicing, "seriously you're so stubborn, geez" he snapped, getting off the grass, "come on what did I do?!" you asked, confused at what you did, but he left without saying anything else, the next day, almost like deja vu, you found yourself practicing at the field and sure enough, he was there. "I'm gonna call you Mister Grumpy, it fits you well" you smiled, aiming both of your hands at different trees and firing, practicing your separate aim, "just stop bothering me" he mumbled, his eyes closed as he leaned his head back against the trunk, "and don't call me Mister Grumpy, I have a name" he added, "well until you tell me your name I'm just gonna have to call you that" you teased him.
"Yeah well it's really anno—" he was saying until he heard you fire your magic, but he didn't notice the sound of the bullet hitting a tree like he usually did, he turned his head to see what you shot at and saw someone trying to grab you, "hey!" he got up yelling, he held out his hand and binded the mage that grabbed you and the mage was pulled together, arms wrapped to his sides and legs together. He got ready to finish off the mage until you stopped him, "wait! Just turn him in don't kill him" you told Mister Grumpy, "you don't know his intentions and you'd rather just turn him in, what if he killed you?!" he asked you, "he didn't!" you defended, as much as he hated it, you had a heart of gold, which was why Meredy was so protective of you.
Listening to you, turning in the mage and turning in for the night to rest up, the next day, you went back to that spot, only to see he wasn't there, you looked around curiously, "it's almost as if you wanted me to be here", you turned your head and smiled, "Mister Grumpy!" you laughed, "stop calling me that!" he yelled in annoyance, "I thought you left, whatever would I do had you not saved me yesterday?" you asked, half teasing, half serious, "your cousin (Jellal) and Meredy would kill me if she knew I knew you were out here and something happened to you" he sighed, he was sitting in a branch now, talking to you from the top.
"Well I appreciate your kindness Mister Grumpy" you smiled, "hey, I can skip practice today, wanna get something to eat?" you asked him, "honestly that's so much more walking than I wanna do" he complained and you huffed, "I'll pay" you offered, after dragging him out of the tree you went and bought some snacks, you guys went back to your signature spot, "let me show you something cool" he said, leading you further into the forest. "Are you gonna kill me back here?" you joked lightly, "just shush and walk" he said and led you in, you walked for awhile when you came upon a beautiful patch of the forest that was just beautifully lit by the moonlight.
"WOW ITS SO PRETTY!" you squealed in excitement, running to the middle where there was a large tree, the moonlight shining above causing the gaps in between the leaves to leave shadows on the grass, "wow it's so beautiful" you said in awe, walking around in circles around the tree, "you're so easily amused" he said, the two of you climbed the tree and sat on the top branch, the moon in front of you. "It's like I can touch it" you smiled, reaching out with your right hand as you ate with your left, "you're so childish" he said, "that's never been a bad thing" you said happily, kicking your feet off the branch as you sighed, "this town is always so beautiful at night" you laughed.
"Not just the town..." he mumbled, "hm?" you hummed, unaware of what he said, "I said just the town" he quickly covered himself making you laugh, "why are you always out here anyway, you were there before me the other day" you asked, "it's just peaceful over here, nice place to take a break and relax" he said, "oh... I bet my shooting didn't help that, sorry" you apologized, "no actually, I'm glad you did come that night" he said, "and why is that Mister Grumpy?" you let a small giggle slip out of your lips. He turned to face you, not wasting a second before tucking a piece of your hair behind your ear, smiling slightly at how your face flushed at the small action, "where's your happy go lucky attitude now hm?" he asked, contemplating whether he should just kiss you then and there.
"Jellal's gonna kill you."
"It's worth it."
~~~
A/N: another request from @RedPandaOtaku that i actually almost got too carried away writing, but i felt so bad about this ending, i usually keep my stories around the 1k word range and i didn't know how to end this without making it super long, but i really hope you like this, thank you for requesting (: