Theme #2: News; Letter
"To end off the letter you could put 'Yours Sincerely' or 'Kind Regards' or even 'Love from' depending on what sort of letter you're writing," Lucy explained to the rapt redhead beside her.
Erza greedily absorbed this newfound information, making note of it in her memory bank as she eagerly awaited for more. Writing a letter seemed so fascinating to her. She had never really written that many, and those that she had written were apology letters formally addressed to the Magic Council.
This particular letter however, was far more personal and much more meaningful. She wished it to appear as more than just words on a piece of paper and instead as a window of her heart and a messenger for her soul.
"So Lucy, say that if you were to end off the letter with 'Love from' would you write something else apart from your name?" She posed this question carefully, trying to make it seem more hypothetical.
Lucy tapped a finger to her chin in thought, carefully thinking through her question. "Well most people I've seen to use that method of signing off usually put 'XOXO' after their names."
Erza raised a delicate eyebrow in curiosity. "XOXO? What does that mean?"
"X stands for a kiss, and O stands for a hug. So XOXO would mean 'kiss, hug, kiss, hug'."
The requip mage took this information in her stride, noting that this would be a must have in her letter. Hopefully he would be able to understand it.
"But this is all just hypothetical, right Erza? It's not as if you're the one writing a love letter to someone right? You did say that this was for the Council," Lucy added, looking a bit sheepish.
Erza nodded in affirmation. "Yes. This is all hypothetical Lucy."
Later that day, Gray Fullbuster received a strange letter in his mailbox. Placed in a scarlet red envelope which reminded him a of a certain someone, the letter was written on some fanciful paper which he swore he remembered seeing at Lucy's place.
Opening up the letter, he was impressed to see that the handwriting was especially neat and easily comprehensible, unlike the loopy writing he'd often seen in Juvia's letters addressed to him. This gave him a feeling of comfort, reassuring him that this was not written by the water mage but someone else.
Briefly skimming through the letter to jump to the sender's signing off, he frowned when he noticed that there was no name, only three X's.
"XXX? What the hell does that even mean?"