Phoenix

Emi Reveals Her Past

"I'm sorry. Not here."

Sting sighed before turning back to his pie.

"It's not that I don't want to. It's just...do you want to go to your apartment?"

"Huh?"

"Would you like to go back to your apartment or would you like to come to mine and Kira's?"

Sting's face turned scarlet as he choked on his pie. He stumbled over his words before asking her to clarify.

"I would like to tell you something, but I wish to do it in private. Nobody can hear this."

Sting sighed in relief before paying for their desserts and leading her back to his apartment. Emi's face twisted in disgust.

"Your apartment is filthy again."

"No it's not."

"You have clothes all over the floor again."

"I haven't had the—"

"Time? You had three days off."

Sting grumbled before he was handed a trash bag by his girlfriend. He rolled his eyes and began to sort through his clothes as she sat down on the couch. He would look towards her every now and then to see that she had started to read a book.

"What are you reading now?"

"Garden magic."

Sting had stopped sorting and sat beside Emi on the couch, looking at the book over her shoulder. He watched as she flipped through the pages.

"So does garden magic just get you to tend to plants?"

"It lets you create and grow plants that can serve a variety of purposes. It's kind of like the gas magic Yame uses. This magic allows the caster to manipulate the earth like flowers and trees."

"Would knowing all these different plants help make the magic stronger?"

"It's possible. Now get back to work."

Sting groaned before picking the bag of clothes back up and continuing to sort his clothes.

"This is supposed to be a date, ya know."

"We can continue the date once your apartment is livable again."

Sting quickly worked to finish sorting his clothes and threw the bags in the corner of his room.

"There!" Sting exclaimed, puffing up his chest.

The dragon slayer was met with silence. He looked over to the couch to see that Emi was so focused on her book that she hadn't heard anything that he had said. Sting decided to flop on the couch next to her to try to gain her attention, but ended up getting sucked into the book as well.

"Who knew that you knew how to read," Rogue commented.

"I don't insult you when looking at memories!"

Everyone looked at Sting unimpressed, noting that nobody sees each other's memories.

"Did you finish sorting?" Emi said suddenly.

Sting motioned to his clean apartment before turning to Emi and shutting her book. Emi raised an eyebrow at the dragon slayer before Sting reminded her that she had something that she wanted to tell him. Emi let out a soft "oh" before crossing her legs and facing him on the couch.