"We totally scared the shit out of that guy, Emi. You're totally a badass. Who knew that a guy could piss himself just by you looking at him."
"You think I'm scary?"
"Oh come on," Sting reminded, "you pinned me against a wall with ice spears because I made you drop your ice cream."
"That wasn't why! You were following me all around the city! What did you want me to do? A random guy comes in everyday and watches me while I eat, follows me into a dark alleyway and then somehow finds me again on the other side of town to ask me to walk me home."
"Who knew you could be that big of an idiot," Kira scolded as she stood with her hands crossed.
Sting sulked as he watched the memory. Lector started laughing until he heard a scolding voice.
"And you, Lector, are just as bad."
"What? I was the one telling him to leave and he wouldn't listen. He wanted to talk to her."
"Either way," Ayame interrupted, "we all have an offer for you."
Emi looked at the group as they stopped walking and had big smiles on their faces. Kira looked at her and held her hand out.
"Would you like to join our guild?"
Emi stood there in complete silence. They all stood there for a moment, waiting for any type of response from her.
"Hey, uh Emi? Did we--"
"I can't."
Emi held her hands in tight fists as she began to walk away. Tears started to drip on her cloak.
"Emi where are you--"
Emi kept walking until she had disappeared in the forest, not looking back.
"Emi!"
Emi had sprinted through the forest and boarded the train back to Crocus. She sat in the back and tugged at her cloak as she waited for the train to stop. Tears continued to stream, causing an ache to pulse through her head.
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It had been a month since the incident in the forest, and the group had not seen or heard from Emi at all. Kira and Ayame had been asking around to the townspeople asking if they had seen anyone in a cloak, but she couldn't get any solid answers. Sting would go out everyday and try to pick up on her scent, but he couldn't smell her anywhere.
Emi was staying at a rundown inn at the edge of the town of Era. She had left Crocus days after the incident and had been hiding since. She was lying low in order to not attract any attention, especially from the Magic Council. Emi heard a cough and looked up to see another cloaked figure.
"No way!" Natsu yelled.
"Well, it seems that it is really a small world," Erza observed.
"Mystogan, it's been a long time."
The cloaked figure had sat down next to Emi and watched the stars with her.
"What are you doing in Era?"
Emi laughed before turning her head to the stars.
"I could ask you the same thing. Shouldn't you be staying away from Jellal and not stay in the same city?"
He had stated that he was searching for the Anima and that there were a couple surrounding Era.
"Are you going to go back?" Mystogan suddenly inquired.
"What?"
"You're running away again."
Emi held her arms around her knees.
"I'm not going to."
"It seems you will be faced with the decision soon. And I've noticed that you've made no move to further hide yourself. I know you can sense that they're going to arrive here soon."
"I can't put them in harm's way, but I just don't want to be alone anymore," Emi croaked.
"So protect them."
"I'm not strong enough."
"Then get stronger."
Emi looked at Mystogan before taking off her hood to reveal her smiling face.
"You took off your hood for him and not us?!"
"Easy, Lector," Sting reasoned.
The two gave each other a quick hug and went their separate ways. Emi quickly put her hood back on before disappearing into the night.
----------------------------------------------------
"Do you really think she's here?"
"I could smell her from the train station. She's definitely here."
"Finding her should be easy enough," Ayame stated. "She'll be the only one in a cloak."
"What if she's not wearing it? We've only seen her face once."
"I can find her," Sting added, rather seriously.
"Sting, why are you getting so worked up about this?"
"We scared her. She ran away because she was scared. She said she was running from something and we pushed her too far."
Someone whistled, making the group stop their conversation. There stood a cloaked Emi standing in the middle of an empty road. Kira had run up to her and pulled her into a tight hug. Once she pulled away, she smacked Emi on the head, causing the girl to whimper.
"You had us scared to death. We've been looking for you for a month!"
Emi gave a lopsided grin and laughed.
"I'm sorry guys. I just--"
Emi was cut off by all four of them squeezing her until she could feel the air escape from her lungs. She giggled at the four of them before prying herself out of the hug.
"So...does the offer still stand?"
They all laughed at her before dragging her back to the train station.
------------------------------------------------
"Master Rue! We have a new member."
"Welcome back, children. Where is this new member?"
Emi stepped from behind the group and slowly waved. Kira then briefed the master on Emi's magic and her strength that she had witnessed. Master Rue smiled as he ushered Emi to go get her guild mark.
Everyone looked at the guild mark in confusion.
"What guild is that? I've never seen that crest before."
Makarov looked at the crest, slightly afraid.
"Don't tell that's the crest of--"
"Welcome to Phoenix Wing, Emi!"
-------------------------------------
"So let's introduce you to everyone, 'kay?"
All the members of Phoenix Wing stood around her.
"I'm Rin. I use Gravity magic."
"My name is Yuuki and I use Glass magic, which means I can basically turn smooth surfaces into glass."
"Hi! My name is Ursa and I use Animal Taming magic."
"The name's Zack. I use Hypnosis type magic."
"And I'm Mich. I work over at the bar, but I use Explosion magic."
"And this is Master Rue," Kira explained. "He's a master at Space magic and Poison magic."
"So," Emi questioned, "the whole guild is eight people plus Master Rue?"
"Well now it's nine people!"
"We might be small," Mich started, "but we're a fully fledged guild in Fiore."
Emi nodded and smiled as she introduced herself to everyone.
-------------------------------------
"Lady Emiko! We have a surprise for you."
Emi looked over to Sting and Lector and waited for them to catch up to her. They ran to her side and held out a box.
"We got you a present. It's a cool gadget thing. We, uh, didn't know what to get you."
Emi laughed and thanked them for the present.
"So uh, can I maybe spend the day with you? Lector doesn't feel that well so he can't come."
Emi glanced over and saw that Sting's ears were a little red. Emi agreed to his company and brought him to her favorite bakeshop. Sting laughed at the familiar shop.
"I didn't know you still came here."
"Of course I do. They have the best pies and they also have something else that's the best I've ever had."
They sat down at the corner table and waited for someone to come over to them. Sting ordered a piece of apple pie and Emi ordered apple ice cream. She had a childlike smile on her face as she waited for the ice cream to be served.
"Apple ice cream? I didn't even know that existed."
"Apples are my favorite, so I couldn't wait when I heard that they came out with apple flavored ice cream. It's actually really good."
Sting chuckled at her enthusiasm and smiled when she happily thanked the waiter and began to eat. Emi noticed that Sting was staring at her and decided to address what she thought was the issue.
"Did you want to try some? I can give you a little, but you have to let me have a piece of pie."
Emi smiled at the familiar actions, recalling how their "first" date began the same way a couple days ago. Lucy, Erza, Mira, Rogue, Lector and Frosch all looked on at the scene and looked at the smiling Emi and Sting.
"Sure."
Emi gave Sting a spoon of her ice cream and smiled brightly. Sting choked on the ice cream as he tried to eat it.
"Wow. That's certainly a flavor."
"Do you not like it?"
Sting continued to cough as he tried to drown the taste with the water he had ordered. Emi looked down in defeat. Sting watched her saddened face and smiled softly.
"No. It's uh, good."
"Well here. Why don't you have some more?" Emi asked as she held out another spoon.
"I'm uh...full."
"But you barely ate anything."
"I had a big lunch."
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"They're just so annoying sometimes!"
Emi and Kira were sitting in Kira's apartment as she ranted about her parents.
"Like I know that they love and that they think they know what's best, but ever since my brother died they've been awful! They think they can control my life and always want to know where I am. I just wish they would--"
Emi was sitting on Kira's bed with a downcast look as she listened to her friend's speech.
"Emi I'm so sorry. I didn't realize."
"Oh no, it's fine! I was just taken back."
Emi and Kira had told each other everything, so the purple haired wizard knew about her parents and how Delorca had destroyed her village.
"Don't worry about it. I had a couple of fights with my teacher growing up, so I can understand."
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"So I was thinking and I think I need to show you something."
Emi and Sting were sitting at a corner table in the bakeshop as they ate their usual. Emi asked him to elaborate, and Sting said that he thought they should go to the flower gardens at the palace. Emi gasped and quickly pulled the dragon slayer up and started to run to the gardens. Once they arrived, the guards said that they could not enter, as the gardens were closed. Sting went up to the guards and whispered something before slowly retreating to Emi's side. The guard looked around and nodded before stepping aside.
"You have thirty minutes."
"Thanks man!" Sting exclaimed as he fist bumped the guard. "I knew you'd understand."
"What did you say to him that made him change his mind like that?"
"Oh it was nothing," Sting waved it off.
Emi ran into the gardens and immediately started looking at all the different flowers. She gasped at the sights and turned to Sting.
"This is absolutely amazing! Sting, look at them all!"
Sting laughed as he followed her around the gardens.
"You see this one?" Emi asked as she pointed to an orange and yellow flower patch. "These are called a Coleus flower."
Sting looked at the flowers and listened to her ramble about each one.
"I think my favorite is catmint because of the color. I mean, look at them! Aren't they beautiful?"
Sting couldn't stop looking at her and he decided to try to ask what he's been looking forward to all day. He turned to Emi and tugged her cloak so she turned to him. They looked at each other for a minute before Sting opened his mouth.
"Emi, I was wondering if you wanted to maybe go--"
"Alright kids. Times up! Now get out before I get in trouble."
Emi whined as she slowly exited the flower gardens. Sting glared at the guard as they left.
"Yikes. Talk about bad luck."
"Shut up."