My mind was reeling as I watched the scene play out. After being gone for three weeks on a mission the welcoming I get is of my two best friends fighting. I never liked fighting, ironic because I'm a mage but that was different. As I walked over to them, stopping, I looked to the ground and tugged at my skirt, my long white hair covered my ice blue eyes and I couldn't help but feel weird just standing here.

I lifted my head and was about to say something but my words got caught in my throat. A hand was placed on my head and I turned to see Sting, my ultimate crush. He smiled down at me, despite his mean exterior once you cracked his hard shell he was quite nice.

No one really understood that but me.

"Hey Emi." He smiled at me causing a blush to creep to my cheeks. I got embarrassed to easily. "They've been like this for a while. Fighting over whether or not they should let us be friends." He looked down at me with a frown and I wore the same expression, "you shouldn't let them control you like that, Emi."

I looked down playing with the hem of my skirt, I always let them control me and neither Sting nor Hibiki (he was like a brother to me) liked it. Sting would always complain while Hibiki would just frown upon it. "Do you want to go to the new ice cream shop? I didn't get to try it before I left." I smiled up at him and he grinned down at me, the hand that was still in my hair moving to mess with my white locks.

"Of course." I took his hand and we started walking deeper into town. I liked Sting mostly because he made me feel like I didn't have to hide or be shy around him. A comfortable silence was between us until I heard THOSE words.

"Aw, aren't those two a cute couple." I saw they were pointing at us and a blush spread from Through my whole body. I hid my face in Sting's arm trying to hide my tomato colored cheeks. A laugh erupted from his throat as he looked down at me.

"Embarrassed at the comments being thrown our way?" I nodded, my face still snuggled into his arm. he wrapped an arm around my shoulders tucking my face into his chest. "There you go! You should be more comfortable now!" I looked up at him with a small smile that had shown itself. Despite looking even more like a couple I was happy as can be.

When we got to the ice cream shop I got vanilla bean while Sting got a large sundae. As we were having a small conversation and joking around a thought came to kind that I accidentally said out loud, "why aren't you like this with the others?" He looked at me confused.

"What?"

"N-nothing," I stuttered out, a pink flush reached my face, I always blush when I lie!

"You're lying you said something about why I don't act the same way with others." I looked down slightly ashamed at my prying.

"Yeah you're always nice to me and to others your always so angry or flirty. It's like you have multiple personality disorder." A deep laugh erupted from his throat. I looked up at him confused at his sudden action.

He looked down at me with a smile, not a grin or a smirk, a SMILE! "Emi, you're not like the others. I was mean to you, flirted with you and acted as though you were an object, despite ALL that, and the fact you were shy you looked at me and told me, 'I won't give up trying to be your friend.' You didn't label me as a jerk or a pervert, you saw through that and found the nice guy in it all. I'm not mean to you, Emi, because your not just another person, you're EMI!"

I smiled wide at him when I saw his blushing cheeks. "Look who's blushing now!" I giggled as he glared at me.

"Shut up..." He muttered and I giggled again. If only I knew. If only I knew that everything was going to change. That these nice little moments would be all gone, that everything I loved would be stolen from me. If only I knew...