۩۞۩

She's there and she's standing with all of her glory. Her hands are folded behind her and she's having a stern look on her face. "Erza?" My voice is so raspy.

She taps her foot impatiently. "Well?" She says. I can see the sweat on her forehead.

There are a million things going on in my mind, a million things that I want to tell her. But I fail to. "Forget about it. You should go home it's getting dark and cold." I tell her instead and sniff. I bet my rose is red like her hairs. My eyes must be glassy too and my cheeks must have tear stains.

"I'm here for answers, Jellal." She replies.

"I'm not worth it. Go." I exclaim, making no eye contact with her.

"If you wouldn't have been worth it then I wouldn't be here." She argues.

"What do you want from me? What do you expect me to say? I'm sorry but if it's some sappy I-love-you-speech then you'll be disappointed." I snap.

She leans her back on the lamppost and has a mocking smile on her face. "Don't worry it wouldn't be the first time you'd be disappointing me." She sneers.

Ouch. Can't say that didn't hurt.

I turn away and bite my lip. I can't and don't want to face her. "I just wanted to apologise okay?" I spit out.

"Well then, I'm waiting for your apology." She says.

"I'm sorry." I sigh. "From the depth of my heart, I'm sorry. I'm sorry to have come into your life. I'm sorry to have you carry false hopes in your head. I'm sorry that I couldn't live up to your expectations. I'm sorry, for my existence." I say.

I can't help my tears. I just can't. My eyes feel so stingy, my throat feels like a drain that's been clogged and my nose is red. I don't want to cry, I hate people who cry but I can't help it.

Don't cry. Don't cry.

She took a deep breath. "How long have you been sitting on this same bench?" She asks.

"Well, I came here after running away from you and I don't know what the time is right now." I replied.

"It's ten. I guess that makes it two hours. Did you eat anything?".

"Nope." I reply after a while.

She lifts up her arm and hands me a small brown paper bag. I raise my eyebrow at her but she puts it on my lap. "What's this?" I ask her.

"A slice of strawberry cake. It was one of the leftovers so I thought I'd take it with me, but I guess you need it more than I do." She smiles. I wipe my nose with my sleeves and peer inside the bag. A slice of strawberry cake is wrapped up in a plastic wrap and it's looks delicious.

"How'd you find me?" I ask her what's important.

"Well I followed my instincts I guess? Actually I thought that you must've gone home or something. I was walking down this path and I spotted your blue hair. I don't know how I even did that considering it's so dark here." She nervously chuckles.

I nod. She wasn't searching for me, why would she? "You know, when you first entered the coffee shop I was startled. You made such an entry and you dashed towards me with such speed it took me some time to process everything. It seemed as if you were trying to attack me or something. I ended up fumbling and stumbling, that must've looked so crappy right?" She admits.

"Yeah right." I scoff. "From what you're saying I'm the one who must've been acting crappy.".

"Oh Jellal." She says and looks me in the eye. The next thing I know, her right hand rests on my right cheek and my eyeballs nearly fall out from their sockets. Am I dreaming? Am I hallucinating? This can't be real.

"Erza-" before I can even complete my sentence, I get slapped on my right cheek by Erza. It felt as if a wrecking ball collided with my face. My face turned to the side from the impact. I placed a hand on my injured cheek and looked towards her.

Wrong move, Jellal. The next thing I know, my left cheek is hit with yet another slap with just as much force, if not more. These cheekbones that can cut through the core of this earth, this jawline that can slice coconuts, they're probably crushed in the matter of seconds. I think I'm seeing stars.

"Yeah you're right, you really were acting crappy. Been wanting to do that for a while." She calmly exhales.

"I-I suppose I can't blame you." I answer. I feel like crying all over again. My dignity and machoism is flushed down the drain.

"I forgive you. I forgive you for all that you've done. You and I are both on equal terms now." She states.

"I-I'm very thankful f-for that." I stumble on my words. I'm still recovering from her slaps to be honest.

"We've come a long way haven't we?" She looks down at her feet. "I mean, if we could tell our twenty-two year old selves that this would be our situation now, they would've laughed at our face." She scoffs.

"Things change, and so do people." I slowly breathe out.

"Did I ever cross your mind?" She asks me in a faint whisper. I smile, trying to think about the one moment that I didn't think about her.

"All day, all night." I answer.

"So what now, Jellal?" She asks as she glances towards me.

"Huh?" I blurt out.

"You said you wanted to apologise to me, you did that. I forgave you. What's next? What do we do now?" She states.

What do we do now? What's gonna happen next? It seems as if I'm out of answers. It's not like life goes my way anyway. Am I supposed to say something romantic now? Can I even say something romantic now? This whole situation is so fragile.

"I guess, I can't make promises to you anymore, I can't blurt out words that hold no meaning. I'm more than sure that we're over the point where everything could return to the way it was years ago. All that's left of us is the fact that I'll always respect you and your choices. No matter what'll happen, I'll be there for you, as a friend, as a shoulder to cry on, or if you need help to beat someone up. I'll be there. You are and always will be, a very important person for me. You deserve the best in life." I grin at her.

There we go again, I'm bawling my eyes out.

She smiles at me, her smiles are so beautiful I'd pay a million just to stare at her all day. She comes closer towards me and gives me a hug. Her arms wrap around my neck, I do the same and she's pressed against me. I can smell her sweet scent and oh my god.

I've missed this so fucking much, can this please last forever? In that moment, I felt complete. I feel peace and tranquility coursing through my veins. Feeling the sensation of her body against mine is the one thing I exist for.

"Thank you so much. Your words mean more to me than you think." She says as I release her from my grip.

There's this moment of silence, but it's not awkward. It's a sweet, sweet silence.

"It's pretty late, want me to walk you home?" I ask her.

"Why do you wanna walk me home?" She questions. I'm baffled. "What I mean to say is, don't you have a car?" She chuckles.

"Oh. Would it be weird if I said that I wanted to spend more time with you?" I say as I scratch the back of my head.

"Not at all." She replies as she gets up and lends me her hand, I gladly take it, dust off my clothes and grab the cake.

"Let's get going shall we?" I say. She nods.

I don't know if this will be my last time with Erza or the beginning of everything. I don't know if I'm supposed to dread what's happening right now, or supposed to treasure it. I don't know if this is the end of us. Then again, I don't and won't ever know what's coming next. We may never go back to how we were, I'll miss her kisses and dread her goodbyes, I'll want to hold her hand at every step of life, but for some reason I feel satisfied. All I know right now is that is moment feels so beautiful that I can't help but smile.

THE END