These three just kill me. I want them to be happy. Also, I feel like we were cheated in the manga when we didn't get an Element Four plus Gajeel reunion scene. We deserve that.

Fingers stained red with ink raked through strands of black and white hair, their owner releasing a soft sigh. A dull ache in his wrists, Totomaru decided he'd had quite enough of marking for the moment. His eyes were weary, and he suspected were spider-webbed with crimson to mirror his hands. Pushing his chair away from his desk, he slumped down, his form slowly slipping down the piece of furniture until his lower half was once more underneath the desk and his upper half supported only by the arms of the chair lodged under his armpits. This abhorrent posture was one he would scold his students for, but he had to hand it to them – it was a surprisingly comfortable position.

The teacher's eyes drooped. Maybe a short rest was in order, so he could take a fresh look at the tests again. As it was, continuing in his current exhaustion wouldn't do him or the students any favors. Not when he was having difficulty differentiating between the words on the papers.

However… making it all the way to his bed for a nap seemed like a tall order. It was on the other side of his one-room apartment and he wasn't certain his energy would hold out until he reached it-

BANG!

Startled by the loud sound, Totomaru let out an undignified squawk as he fell onto his floor, now wide-awake.

"Dammit, you pneumonia-inducing-witch!" a man's voice shouted, the bearer stomping into Totomaru's apartment. "I'm gonna rust!"

"Oh calm down, Gajeel-kun! You're making a mess and we only just got here!" A soft gasp arose. "Gajeel-kun, did you just break Totomaru-kun's door?!"

"…Maybe. What of it?"

"You can't just…"

Totomaru hauled himself to his feet, and stared in dumbfounded amazement at the two interlopers in his apartment. A dark-haired man wearing his weight in piercing, and a woman with long, flowing blue robes that matched her tresses stood in his doorway, arguing with each other. Their two faces keenly familiar to him – faces untouched by the passage of time.

This wasn't possible. They were dead. Killed by a dragon, seven years past.

His chest tightened, squeezing the air from his lungs.

They noticed him at the same moment, turning in unison towards him.

A shy smile spread across the woman's face. "Totomaru-kun…? Wow… you've changed so much. Juvia hardly recognizes you!"

"Who cares?!" the man retorted. "Listen, Toto – this moron decided to douse me in seawater, do you think you could help me dry out? Just like old times."

Old times…? Yes, Totomaru recalled something similar happening often – stomping, steel-heeled boots making their way to his door, cutting demands falling from a studded mouth, the scent of freshwater wafting over him, calm words like water flowing into his ears. Warmth at their presence seeping through him – a heat to which no fire could hope to aspire.

It was as if they'd stepped straight out of his memories.

And so he concluded that they were.

He turned away and headed straight for his bed.

The man so reminiscent of his old friend sputtered at the slight. "What the hell, Toto?! Is that how you treat someone you haven't seen in years?!"

"You are a hallucination brought on by overwork," Totomaru intoned, lifting up his covers and sliding beneath them. "I am going to bed now."

"I'm what now?!"

"Gajeel-kun, calm down." The woman watched him carefully, confusion and hurt plain on her face. "Totomaru-kun, I assure you – we're not hallucinations. We're here. We're really here."

Though he knew it would do him no good to engage with the illusions, Totomaru was just so… weary; tired from the day's work and seven years of waiting for people who weren't coming back. "Sounds like something a hallucination would say." If they weren't, they would be older, like him. They wouldn't be exactly the same, because he himself had not remained the same. Their faces, so keenly, painfully familiar, could have only been born from his memories, brought to life by an exhausted mind and a suffering heart.

His friends were long gone. The people he'd loved most were long since dead.

"Don't try any tricks," he warned the false people. "I teach mage children for a living – nothing you say or do will convince me you're real."

They didn't seem to know what to say to that.

Turning onto his side, Totomaru closed his eyes. A click sounded behind him, and light no longer shone against his closed eyelids. Hallucinations could turn off lights now? That was handy. More likely he was already dreaming, he decided. Wouldn't be the first time he'd fallen asleep without realizing it.

The bed sank slightly behind him, and a cool hand pressed against his forehead.

"You get your rest. We'll be here when you wake up," the soft, melodic voice promised, hand running through his bangs.

Totomaru grunted in response, though he didn't open his eyes. "You hallucinations always say that, but you never are."

Even if it was false, it was nice to be lulled to sleep by the sound of Gajeel's low grumbling about rust, and the feel of Juvia's hand stroking his hair.

"We're sorry," the woman whispered, and a cold droplet fell on his cheek. "That we weren't able to stay before."

"But we'll be here this time," the man finished. "Promise."

And this time, they were.