#ararieru

time made her wary. she knew deeply of the unfortunate results of too much time passing. how time often ended with crippled hearts and fatal wounds. time was the only thing she knew of that all living beings were unable to escape. magic aside, all life plays with time — wondering or, perhaps, yearning for the day time decides to carry on without them.

she hated what beauty was taken from the world. in such natural chaos,  it was the small things she grew to cherish. despite all that time has taken from her, it gives back as well.

tiny foundlings of life and growth.  she, herself,  took inspiration from the flowers. she relates to them. like people, they need the proper environment to thrive — living boundlessly to spread their roots. juvia would know a thing or two about roots. how they thirst for water. how leaves stretch for light. an entire being begins in one tiny seed, fighting to break free of its fibrous shell.

meredy relates to flowers. more than she ever did. more so — after she crossed paths with juvia. the hardwired need for survival was the least of their similarities.

“ you're right, ”  she says, a smile beaming.  “ time isn't all they need. a little rain helps too. ”

her voice is soft, with a hint of playfulness. meredy brushes the dirt from her knees before rising. she looks fondly at the fresh bed of earth at their feet. hope has blossomed here — a hope for a mended future. one filled with flowers. given time, those seeds too will blossom.

hands outstretched while she marvels at the plot, she passes an eager glance at juvia.  “ all done. well — except for one thing. care to do the honors, miss rain woman ? ”

‘ ‘ ohoh~  that’s beautifully malicious. ’ ’ arania laughed as she rolled onto her side and reached for the popcorn bowl that was sitting on the picnic blanket between them.  she was very much on team kill ‘em with kindness but for the love of god,  kill ‘em and she was always open for other people’s strategies to get somewhere with those who simply refused to get a clue.  ‘ ‘ remind me to use it the next time that one chick is being her dreadful self. ’ ’

so here was the thing  ---  gray was no stranger to midnight snacks.  or,  well,  10 pm snacks.  his dad was a snack fiend,  especially when he was grading something,  and his mother was even worse.  in the fullbuster household, the one rule when it came to snacks was this:  be fast.  be fast or else someone will have eaten all the chocolate.  gray was not always fast enough,  much to his dismay;  especially he had gotten slower since coming to fu.  still,  he had not expected to find someone else looking for snacks in the little kitchen on the second floor when he had opened the door and almost,  he would have gotten a heart attack because who was lurking in the halfdark?  well,  to be fair:  obviously someone smart enough to know that excessive light would only attract more competitors.

he could admire that in someone else.  nevertheless,  he was in a bit of a hurry and thus,  he quickly started his own search for whatever their dorm’s designated mum friend,  arania,  had left in her wake during her last stress-fuelled baking-slash-cooking blackout.  ‘ ‘ there are chocolate muffins in the freezer,  if you’re looking for something sweet  . . . and you may want to avoid the hallway on the third floor.  people are being weird there. the quinns’ cat is mia? ’ ’  he shrugged.  if he would not have an 8 am class,  he might have volunteered to help the others look for it,  but he was looking for whatever still edible and not yet sentient food was in the fridge  ( hopefully something that would not require him to use the microwave ) before he would head to bed.  ‘ ‘ take care and  . . .  good luck on your hunt? ’ ’

‘ ‘ oh, no no no,  young lady. ’ ’  arania shook her head as she swatted at the other with her spatula.  a modern day treasure chest the cookie jar might be,  but it was not undefended.  especially not ten minutes before dinner was ready.  at some point,  she mused,  she must have turned into her mother without quite realising it.  it was almost hilarious to her.  ‘ ‘ no cookies before dinner.  but if you set the table,  you can have the entire jar afterwards. ’ ’

as long as she would bring it back once it was empty;  arania was running low on jars that size  ---  sometimes it felt as if they were disappearing the moment she took her eyes of them.