A few minutes

She often wondered if he had forgotten that she even existed, if he had forgotten all the moments they had had. Sometimes she even wondered if he still knew that she had loved him, once, before he had become so obsessed with power that she hadn't been able to recognise him in the end. She also wondered if he regretted – if he remembered – that he had ever stood up for her … or the love he had claimed to feel for her a long time ago.

It wouldn't make a difference.

He had left her with the task to forget about them.

She sometimes mused where they went wrong and when they had allowed fate to break them apart … but she only came to realise that she still couldn't understand what had happened. Once, they had been so strong together and he hadn't been obsessed with the idea of taking over the guild. Once, they had shared sweet kisses in the shadows of the stairs of the guild while Mira had been singing. And yet, she had come to the conclusion that their love had been – at least to her – like a song that was stuck in her head and now she was forced to hear it over and over again.

He looked at her and hoped that she didn't see the pain in his eyes. He hoped that she didn't knew how much it hurt him to know that they had gone from lovers to mere acquaintances or worse than that: strangers. He hated where they stood now but he had had his chance and he had wasted it. He sometimes wondered if she regretted the day she had grabbed his hand while they had been on a mission because she had been afraid that their cover (a happy and loving couple) might be recognised as a bad attempt of tricking a criminal if she didn't because this had been the moment their former relationship had taken a turn to the romantic side.

Never again, he would fall for anyone and even though he knew that it was selfish, he hoped that she would never forget about them and what they could have been if he hadn't been so obsessed with power. A few years ago, they had had it all. They had fallen for each other and they had been so happy that Evergreen had been grumpier than usually. And just when they had been falling even more in love than before, his obsession with power had kicked in and everything had fallen apart.

He wasn't the kind of guy who regretted many things but he regretted that their old love had left them and that everything that reminded him of happier times was the song in his head – the song that Mira was singing again tonight, ironically. And so he couldn't forget about them.

She was staring at the drink in front of her and tried to ignore the music. At least she had burned all the pictures of them right after he had been thrown out of the guild after his pathetic attempt to take over the guild. Maybe she had been a coward and hadn't want any reminders of what used to be – and maybe she had burned the pictures to prevent herself from the realisation that she was merely upset with him for hurting her and her friends instead of hating him the way some of the others did. Even the Thundergod Tribe was angrier than she was – and none of them had been petrified or betrayed the way she had been betrayed.

In the end, she had learned her lesson even though it hadn't been the lesson she had wanted to learn. She was terrible disappointed with him because he had abandoned her again even though he had known that she was slightly afraid of being left alone again.

And yet, in spite of everything, she felt his eyes on her back and slowly, the realisation that she was still hopelessly in love with him crept into her mind and made her nearly scream in frustration with herself because she just didn't want to be hurt all over again.

As the music played and the alcohol raised his spirits, he stared to toy with the idea of sitting down next to her – just like in old times – and before he had really finished the thought, he had to realise that he had already gotten up and walked over before he sat down next to her where he was exposed to her intoxicating scent and her amazing beauty. A part of him wondered why the hell he had done this and another part of him replied that it was to punish himself because there was no way in hell that she would agree to go out with him again.

He had always compared her to a spring day in his mind. Her eyes had embodied the sunrise because she had been a child of love and light. She had been the shining star to his night and her heart had burned with love and loyalty for the guild they both belonged to. She had melted the ice around his heart and after everything, he was still grateful for this.

In her eyes, he had always been like an autumn evening because his eyes had often reminded her of the frozen sky of an October night. His past had been the darkest cloud on this sky, his anger about the fact that most people only saw him as his grandfather's grandson had made an angry storm out of him but she had also seen his tears, the rain from his heart. His cruel smirk, however, which happened to be the only thing she truly hated about him had been the cold and distant moon and somehow, that had always terrified her.

And yet she had allowed his darkness and depressed aura to draw her to him like she had been magnetised. In a way, it had sobered up her idealistic worldview and made her more mature.

To the eyes of most people, they were completely different and had as much alike as hate and love. Even though they were in the same guild, it had often seemed as if they were worlds apart and yet, their love – fated or fatal, who cared? – had been poison for both of them.

Right from the start, she had been the light to his inner darkness and even though they had been always separated by whole worlds and even though he had known that he might regret it, he had allowed himself to love her because he had known that there would never be another chance.

As mages of Fairy Tail, they were fighters. She fought with her cards (and sometimes Fairy Glitter) and he used lightening. In the past, they had been a great team and he often missed this. They had always been weapons in a way, tools. For the greater good or the sake of their comrades, both of them would have sacrificed their lives.

And now, after everything, they were like an incomplete masterpiece of a great artist and he longed to hold her again even though this touch would probably be fatal for him. But he would take this final thrill because their love had been made to kill him one day anyway since it would never be complete because she had turned away from him and started to hate him which wasn't even so hard to understand because he had betrayed her after all.

For a moment, she forgot to breathe as his hand touched hers and she caught herself hoping that he might be bold enough to grab her hand the way he used to. But after a second, his hand was gone and the hand he had touched suddenly felt colder than ice.

She had given up on her dream to be with him again a long time ago because she had realised that there was no sense in deceiving herself all the time. It had been hard and she was shocked how a simple touch could make her question everything again. She was supposed to be over him! She had sworn after his excommunication that she would forget about everything and even though she had quickly realised that she couldn't do this, she had at least thought that she had fallen out of love with him. Well, maybe she had but now she had fallen for him all over again.

Despite his oath that he would never touch her again, he felt how she tensed up – right after he had thought about touching her hand. Maybe she could feel his intention now and maybe she was mad at him for even thinking about it and wanted to Fairy Glitter the living hell out of him. Still, even though he wasn't talking with her and even though he was thousand years from touching her hand, he felt more comfortable than ever since he had been thrown out and even though it was late, he didn't feel like going home now.

Somehow, her scent was everywhere around them and since he was a dragon slayer he had enhanced senses which were driving him crazy in his current situation. And even though it was borderline-torture for him, he wouldn't turn away this time because it would be over soon enough and there was no chance in hell that he would miss out the chance to spend time around her because that was all he could do: spending time around her instead with her.

And while she wondered if she should be bold and grab his hand, she hoped that no one else was paying attention to them which wasn't likely since Levy and Gajeel had just announced that they were dating and now, the whole attention was focused on them and no one cared for the duo on the bar. She was quite happy with the current arrangement because she didn't think that one of them might understand the relationship between him and her. No one would ever understand that in a world where everything was created to be destroyed one day, she needed someone who knew her the way she was without any veils or makeup.

She didn't want anyone to judge her. She wanted someone who accepted her without any questions – and once, he had done this. She hadn't even had to ask him. He had known right after looking at her. This had been the reason why he had known that she had joined Fairy Tail to find her father and he had known about the trouble she had faced when she had tried to tell her father that she was his flesh and blood.

Somehow, he realised, there was no chance to fight the tears that weren't even coming. He felt like crying – not that it was manly as Elfman would instantly comment – as he came to accept that there had been always truth in the sentences he had forced himself to consider as lies. He had been in love just one time in his whole life and he had lost her because of his own foolishness and for a moment, he seriously thought about jumping out of a window to kill himself before he realised that he would only end up paralysed for the rest of his life because luck had always ignored him while it had bluntly favoured people like Natsu …

His fingertips carefully traced the scar and he remembered the expression of shock on her face when she had realised that he had took the spell for her. Back then, he had felt the blood running down his face and still, he had accepted it as a reminder of his mortality and the fact that he was still alive after jumping straight into a spell that would have killed her right on the spot.

She watched how his fingers traced the scar and before she knew what she was doing, she had grabbed the hand that had been touching the scar she had always hated because it had been her fault that he had jumped into that damned spell because she hadn't paid enough attention.

For a second, their eyes met.

A silent question was asked – on both sides. He didn't know why she had taken his hand again and she wondered about the same thing.

"Why?"

A short moment of realisation passed.

"Because we cannot be without each other – and we both tried long enough."

Fingers were laced through each other.

"We were both fools to hurt each other like this."

Arms were wrapped around each other.

"Let's stop hurting each other, alright?"

And once again, lips met.

"I love you, Laxus."

"I love you as well, Cana."

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.