#aucteritum

             songbirds & butterflies aglow with grace beneath the sun as seraphic hymns resound unto the bustling streets of magnolia. the town in which the fairies fortress resides would have another splendor filled day in store (burgeoning valleys of magic & mystery, BURSTING at the seams). lighthearted laughter & mundane conversations were heard all throughout the marketplace. such simple everyday occurrences served silent comfort to the mage; for it is this town, & it is these people, he vows to protect.

             ❛  yeah, s’ about time we get to unwind a little.  ❜   hushed & honeyed words escaped betwixt a boys gentle mirth. he who harbors hoarfrost winter nights in his bones would leisurely close in on an all too familiar abode with an unmissable grin worn plainly for all to discern.  ❛  wasn’t at the guild so... she outta be around.  ❜ opting to take the door, as opposed to his go-to window infiltration, the ice-make mage shuffled a few steps unto the young maidens doorstep & gave three fast paced knocks with one hand, while encompassing a silky rose-coloured furoshiki adorned with floral patterns in the other.

                                                             ❛  yo! delivery~  ❜

He was going to kill her.

Well, that was until she pulled out the chocolate syrup anyway. She knew his weakness for chocolate, damn it.

He shifted his hold on the laptop in order to take the treat, a sigh heavy on his lips as he stared at her with narrowed eyes. How many times had he fixed her cursed laptop now? He’d lost count. Yes, it was his job and he was getting paid for it but, he certainly felt like he deserved a pay rise for dealing with this repeated ( and frustrating ) situation. They could call it the Lina Bonus™ or something.

“Evangeline.” He used her full name like a punishment and let the moment drag for an uncomfortably long time. Then, finally – “One day I’m not going to be able to fix this relic, you know.”

That day was far off, he knew, but she didn’t, and so he hoped she would at least make more of an effort to be careful.

‘‘ ---excuse me, ’’ she said as she cut into the conversation between the blonde princess and one of the most unappealing ‘gentlemen’ she had ever encountered, ‘‘ but her highness and i have been meaning to converse all evening. i hope this is all right by you? ’’

as nice as it was that lucy was trying to lighten the mood, sherry was having a hard time allowing herself to laugh. this was nothing new; sherry had not felt like laughing for the past few weeks now. alas, as the poets said --- the show must go on. appearances had to be kept up, too, because otherwise, there would be questions she did not want to answer. she was not supposed to be as unhappy as she was --- she was a pretty young woman, engaged to be married so what could she possibly want more? many would wonder.

if she had the patience, she would tell the world that it took more to be happy, but she was tired. so very, very tired. still. her lips curled upwards slowly, the smile that came to exist looked genuine enough even if it did not reach beyond the tip of her nose. 

‘‘ oh, ’’ she said slowly, waiting for bubbles of silver laughter to rise within her chest. ‘‘ i don't think i ever heard that one before? ’’

‘ ‘ lucy, ’ ’ aion said as he stared at the offered garment, unsure of what else to say. he was entirely speechless, and this did not happen often. then, it also did not happen often that he mentioned that he had forgotten his jacket  ( mostly because he usually remembered such things )  and was promptly offered someone else’s clothes. this was … new territory, and he neither knew how to chart it nor how to tread on it without risking to offend someone he had come to think of as a friend.

still, as things stood, he was … well, there was no way he could fit into lucy’s clothes. at least not unless she never wanted to wear them again, he supposed. ‘ ‘ um, ’ ’ he muttered, shifting his weight, ‘ ‘ thank you, i guess? but we’re almost there, and i’m certain that laxus’ grandmother will offer us tea. ’ ’

sometimes, leo understood very well what revati meant when she said that it was easy to forget. it was easy because it was difficult to keep count of how many times he had offered a handkerchief to a summoner, how many times he had sighed and wiped blood off their faces himself because they had been staring ahead blankly, not really seeing his outstretched hand.

had it been a hundred times or a thousand? it was hard to pinpoint singular occasions when, for the most part, this was part of a routine, of a sequence of events that were repeated over and over.

‘ ‘ lucy, ’ ’ he said calmly as he lowered his hand, no suaveness left in his voice as he carefully observed her face, waiting for a flicker of something on it. stars, he hated it went usually quite expressive faces went blank, even though he probably should be used to it by now. ‘ ‘ lucy, i can’t stay much longer, my apologies — rejoin your friends, please … i think i saw cana down that hill, earlier. ’ ’

↘    “Isn’t that lovely?”

once more, sherry was reminded how little lucy understood about her. they might just as well come from two entirely separate worlds; at least that would explain why the blonde was so out of touch with sherry's reality. under different circumstances, the marionette mage would have snarked at the other already --- but she had promised that she would be nice before she had known just how, hm, difficult that might become.

( it served her right, she should have known better than to make promises before she knew the details. )

↘    ❝  you had not expected this.  ❞

‘‘ admittedly --- in retrospective, it seems to have been folly on my part to have expected common sense. ’’

sherry was annoyed, and this showed. it showed in the way she held herself --- her posture too straight, too stiff, her jaw was clenched despite the sickly sweet smile on her lips. she should not be surprised by any of this, but lucy was right: she had clung to a sliver of misplaced hope, had not expected that anyone could be so stupid. once more, the world howled with laughter as it pointed at her, proving her wrong.