A/N: Hello again! I'm kinda in a roll since I have a bit of time before the semester starts and I must say that this prompt wrote itself super easily haha Thank you so much ranunculus-fox for betaing, babe ❤ And as always I hope you enjoy this fic :)

Prompt: Children

Words: 1.6k

Summary: kid!Gajeel meets kid!Levy at Fairy Tail's playground - Modern!AU

She was a tiny thing, he had decided. Though as a 7-years-old brat, Gajeel wasn't much bigger than her. But she was still some inches shorter than him and she was definitely the shortest kid in the playground.

He had never seen her before. And he would have noticed her with that bright blue hair of hers. He assumed she was new at school, and well, Fairy Tail's backyard wasn't that big so every class ended up sharing the same space, something about the school being a big family or some mushy shit like that.

He concluded that this definitely had to be her first day since no one in their sane mind would sit down next to the court where Salamander and Ice Princess were playing soccer. Well, more like running around and kicking the ball as hard as they could to see how far it would go. They didn't even try to aim their shots to the stupid goal. So, everyone in school knew that it was a death wish to sit on the bench nearby.

And she was holding… a book? What kind of kid goes out to the playground with a book? And sits down next to the soccer court to read it?

Before he became aware of it, Gajeel had started walking towards the soccer court. Cobra called after him, yelling something about it being unfair for him to bail out of their race against Sawyer and Midnight, but Gajeel didn't pay much mind to it. He was completely focused on dragging the short girl out of the danger zone before she was hit by one of Natsu's fire kicks.

He stopped right next to her. A rude remark about her being stupid rested on the tip of his tongue when his eyes caught the cute yellow ribbon that adorned her hair and matched her pretty dress. His mouth snapped shut at the weird fluttering feeling he had in his belly.

She hadn't noticed him yet, so Gajeel tried again just to find his voice failing him. The longer he looked at her, the harder it was to say anything. He felt stupid to be standing next to her without uttering any word at all. His hands felt sweaty for some odd reason and his face started to heat up. Dafuq was happening?

Gajeel finally looked to the side and tried to control something, as he had no idea on what was wrong with him. His attention was drawn by the soccer ball bouncing off the fence of the playground and rattling the metal mesh. If that had hit Shorty…

Right. Now he remembered why he was here in the first place.

He looked back at the girl who was still lost within the pages of her book.

"Oi."

No answer.

"Oi!"

She flipped the page and Gajeel was irked beyond belief.

"OI!" he yelled close to her ear and a startled squeak escaped her lips.

She wiped her head around, snapping her book closed and hugging it tightly to her chest. When her eyes landed on him, Gajeel felt his irritation dwindle a bit.

Her brown eyes met his gaze. No, that wasn't right. Her gaze wasn't as dark. The coffee his old man drank every day was brown. But the colour of her eyes was lighter, sweeter like the chocolate milk Gajeel had every morning. Yeah, it was more like chocolate milk. He was sure there was a name for that colour, but for now, he would have to settle with chocolate milk.

"Oh. Hello." Her voice was small but it was enough to startled Gajeel out of his musings about the colour wheel.

"What are ya doing?" His question came out as annoyed rather than curious but she didn't flinch at his gruff tone.

"Oh! I'm just reading. I'm new here." She stood up from the bench, flattening her skirt and extending her hand forward for Gajeel to take. "I'm Levy!" She smiled.

"No, I mean… what are ya doing here?" He pointed to the bench and the soccer court to emphasize his point.

Gajeel noted how friendly she was acting with him but hid his surprise. Usually, the new kids would scurry away from him. With his red eyes and pierced eyebrows and nose, it was more often than not that Gajeel was feared in the playground, even if he did nothing to the other kids but get into friendly fights with Salamander and Ice Princess.

"Uhm, what do you mean?" Levy tilted her head to the side and retreated her hand. Embarrassment made her voice quake slightly. Had she sat on this kid's bench or something? She really didn't know if they had certain rules in Fairy Tail's playground that she wasn't aware of.

"Are ya dumb or something?" He quirked his eyebrow and crossed his arms over his tiny chest.

Gajeel had never been someone of nice words and his remarks would get him in trouble from time to time. He knew the way to the principal's office by memory now, but it was just the way he talked and how the other kids couldn't take any harsh comments before running to the teacher snitching on him. So, when the words left his mouth, a tiny part of him flinched as he could clearly picture the girl tearing up and telling on him with one of the teachers about him being an ass.

He clearly didn't expect how she reacted though.

"Hey! That's rude!" She took a step forward, poking him in the chest with her delicate finger. "You shouldn't be saying such mean things! Apologize. Now." Her face was pulled down in a frown but her chocolate milk eyes blazed with something Gajeel couldn't understand.

He uncrossed his arms and took a step back. What was it with this girl? She puffed out her cheeks and placed her hands on her tiny hips, with her book laying on the bench next to her. Though she was shorter than Gajeel, he felt somehow intimidated by her.

What da-?! Who is this shrimp?!

The fence rattled once again by a stray shot. The noise was enough to bring back Gajeel from his confusion and… admiration? He shook his head and a frown returned to his face.

"Reading here, really? Next to the two worst soccer players in the world?" Gajeel pointedly ignored Natsu's offended remark Hey! I heard that Metalface! and continued to stare down at Levy. "Yer just asking for yer death here."

Realization dawned on her as she looked from the soccer court and then back to Gajeel. "Oh." She wrung her hands in nervousness, her voice coming out small. "Oh, I had no- "

"HEY! WATCH OUT!"

Her sentence was cut short by Natsu's loud yell and she turned around in time to see a soccer ball coming her way at full speed. She instinctively brought her hands up to cover her face but before the ball could hit her, Gajeel's quick reflexes kicked in and he punched the ball off course. It bounced off a nearby tree and finally stopped a few feet from the soccer court.

Levy opened her eyes slowly and lowered her hands. Gajeel stood there with his arm extended, looking intently at the ball as if making sure it wasn't going to come after them again. When his red eyes met hers, she noticed he was breathing heavily, agitated by the whole ordeal.

"You okay?" His voice was low, as if he feared he would scare her more. Levy nodded. "See?! I told you it was dumb to be here!" His voice rose a bit but though his remark was reprimanding, she could sense his concern for her.

"I-I didn't know." She squeaked and hurriedly grabbed her book. She pointedly looked to the ground, escaping his gaze as embarrassment made her cheeks turn pink.

Gajeel sighed, releasing the tension in his small body. "Come on." He grabbed her hand and quickly pulled her after him and away from the soccer court. She made no effort to resist him until they were halfway through the playground.

"W-wait." She stopped her walking and though Gajeel could have still pulled her to keep moving, he complied with her demand and released her. He turned to her, noticing how she held her book tightly to her chest again.

"What?"

"Uhm." She tugged her hair behind her ear before meeting his gaze with a sheepish smile. "I don't know your name yet."

Oh, right. He had forgotten about that.

"I'm Gajeel." He offered and to his confusion she seemed to perk up at this.

"It's nice to meet you, Gajeel!" she chirped. "Ah, and thank you for saving me. I… I hope we can become great friends!" And then she smiled, all white teeth and rosy cheeks.

"A-ah." Gajeel nodded and quickly grabbed her hand to keep moving to the other side of the playground. She faintly noticed the redness on the tip of his ears but thought it was because of the sunny weather.

Gajeel pointedly ignored the tingling sensation of his hand holding tightly to hers. But he made a note in his mind to ask his old man about the fluttering in his tummy and the rapid beating of his heart. Maybe he caught something and was getting sick?

Before the ring of the bell announced the end of playtime, Gajeel also noted to ask his father about the colour of Levy's eyes. Because now that he paid close attention to her, he could see golden sprinkles in her gaze. And Gajeel was pretty sure chocolate milk didn't look as nice and sweet as her eyes did.

A/N: Wasn't this the sweetest? Squeeee! I loved to write them as kids! Gajeel is too cute for this world, even when he acts all tough and strong. I hope you enjoyed this fic! Let me know your thoughts on it :D

WTF (Where's The Food?)