A/N: I've got just a few more short stories I'll be posting here, and then I'm working on something else, though I might update this collection once a while as well. Uh, this one's older as well, but I hope you'll like it. :)
Title: The word he hates the most
Summary: Words are like weapons sometimes.
Word count: 593
If you asked him which word is the one he loves the most, the answer would be clear. Scarlet.
Like the color of her hair.
Like the name he had given her long ago.
Like the bond they share through thick and thin, no matter what. The string that keeps them connected. Inseparable.
Yes, scarlet is his favorite word.
Then what about his least favorite? Surely, if he has a favorite word, then he must have the least favorite one, too. A word he doesn't like. Maybe even hates. A word like that exists, right?
There are many words he isn't fond of. "Possession" being one of them. "Hate". "Murder" or "murderer". "Sinner" and "saint". "Tower" and "heaven". They all remind him of his "past", a painful existence, something that always haunts him, stalks him and never lets him go. They creep up to his spine, and he lets them, because he believes that they, too, are just another form of his "punishment". So he never fights them.
But there is one word, one form of combined letters that he hates.
Almost.
It's the word almost.
Because, when he was a little boy, he almost had a happy childhood. And when he was taken away, he almost never lost faith. And when he was in that "tower", he almost escaped, along with his friends and his dearest scarlet.
Almost.
He once almost freed himself of the "possession". He once almost released his friends from the golden cage they were in. He almost won. He almost won.
But then, the almost stopped coming, just when he needed it the most.
He didn't almost finish the "tower". He didn't almost put his friends in danger. He didn't almost lie to his scarlet. Didn't almost hurt her. Didn't almost break her heart.
He didn't almost kill his friend.
But he almost killed her.
Then he almost died.
Though he was resurrected by a girl that almost knew him. And he lost all of his memories. Almost all of them. "Erza". Another word he loves and thinks of so dearly. His "light" and "courage". His sanity. His everything.
He almost succeeded in destroying the Nirvana. But then he was interrupted by a man that could have almost been his mentor. He was helped though, by her friends. By the ones he could have killed. By the ones who could have been his friends too.
He was almost free and he almost heard his most important one tell him something. But he wasn't. But he didn't. And now, he realizes, those two will forever stay that: the chances he almost got. Almost free. Almost happy.
The one who broke him out of jail was the one he almost hated. He couldn't hate her completely - she was almost like him. With her was a small girl, a child that might have been happy, could have been happy, like the both of them. So they formed a guild for those who repent themselves. Who could never reach light, but refuse to stay in the darkness.
When he heard she disappeared along with her friends, his world almost shattered. But the connection was still there, so he knew she was alive somehow, and he waited for her.
They almost kissed.
Almost.
He almost let his feelings burst out, and she almost accepted them, but he couldn't let her. He must never let her. Because he can't have her.
He will always be hers.
But she will always only almost be his.
Almost. Almost. Almost.
It really is a horrible word.