Clover fiddled with the lock on her door in frustration, having, unfortunately, lost her key somewhere during the day. The hairpin in her hand was doing little to actually fix things, so she eventually gave up and circled around back to the window in her bedroom.

Sticking her tongue out of her mouth in concentration, she held out a hand and carefully slid a tendril of shadow underneath the window, trying to unhook the little lock she had installed upon buying the house. Finally, after a moment of feeling around with the dark substance, she felt a little click and let out a little cheer of triumph. Clover dispersed the shadow after opening the window, and climbed over and into her room with little effort.

She slumped against the wall, exhausted. Her heart was still pounding in her ears from what had transpired at the guild hall, and she didn't know what to do with her life. Slowly, she got back up and locked the window again, heading to the front room to discard her winter attire.

After lighting a little fire in her fireplace, she collapsed on the bed, curling up and trying not to think about how much she had just fucked up.

She'd been doing so well, too. Pretending that they were just friends, pretending she didn't have such strong feelings that it made her want to run up and hug him whenever she heard his voice. Or that she wanted to be the one to make him laugh, and she wanted to be the first person that he came to for help even though she knew Kinana had known him longer and it made sense but it just wasn't fair-

Clover let out a deep breath and sat up, moving to the kitchen to figure out what to have for dinner. Anything to keep her mind off of him. But as she poured the ingredients into the pan, she couldn't help but let her mind drift off to what happened.

It was such a small slip up. She'd always been careful not to ever think about how much she felt for him when around him, or pretty much anywhere but her house. He could read minds- or souls, whatever. It took a lot of self control, and a lot of shoving every thought she'd ever had about him to the very, very far corners of her mind. Clover was almost sure she could disguise it forever.

But then she'd seen him shirtless from across the room and my god it was like a tsunami of thoughts came rushing from those far corners of her mind into the front of her mind. Her heart had stopped when his own gaze met hers across the room, surprise flitting across his face for a millisecond. Or maybe the shock had been there longer, she didn't know, because the first thing she'd done was throw down some money on the counter to Mirajane and bolt.

Everyone had been worried about her, Lucy most of all considering they were mid-conversation, but she ignored them all and left to go home.

Somehow, she'd managed to get herself lost in the city even though she'd been living there for quite some time, but made it back home soon enough.

She couldn't get the look of surprise on his face, complete shock and oh my god my life is over I can't believe that just happened someonesavemefrometernaldoom-

Clover put a hand to her chest and took a deep breath. No need to panic, Clover. It probably isn't that bad, she reassured herself, not believing a word of it, I'm sure you can just move away for the next fifty years and come back and everyone will have forgotten about it!

Perfect plan. She'll move tomorrow.

Ah, who is she kidding. The only person she needs to worry about is Cobra. The others will be confused, but she can lie her way out of that easily enough. But him.

Clover groaned and put her head in her hands, but before she could scream in frustration she heard a sizzling. Peeking out of a gap between her fingers revealed… a very burnt meal. Shit.

Clover sighed in mourning, looking down at the garbage can wistfully. I was really hungry, too…

She was about to head in for the night, but her head kept thinking of how much she had fucked up and she was smart enough to realize that if she did try to sleep, she would not be able to rest. So with some resignation, she went back out to the door and after pulling on her winter clothes, headed out into the cold night.

It had been a few hours since the incident, and everybody was already in bed so she could probably search the snow for her keys. Clover knew she had grabbed them before running out of the building, it was the second thing she'd made sure of after throwing down the money to Mirajane. So it must have fallen out of her pocket after she'd gotten lost in the city. But where?

Clover tried to retrace her steps but that proved to be futile in the cold, dark night. So she eventually just took to kneeling on the ground and moving her gloved hands around in the snow to find her keys. Luckily, nobody in this area had a pet dog.

She'd gotten through the first street when she finally groaned and sat back on her legs in frustration. "I'm never going to find them at this point," she muttered.

"Looking for something?" a lisped voice said behind her and she stiffened, back straightening as she turned around and hoped beyond hope that it wasn't who she thought it was and no no no- "Hoping ain't gonna do much against the truth, Clo."

She bolted. Again. But this time, a hand caught her hood and pulled her back. "Don't be like that. I just want to talk. Here're your keys." He dropped the key ring in her pocket and set her down.

Clover turned around to face him, but never really faced him as she was staring in great interest at her fiddling thumbs, pretty much doing anything but facing him. "Wh-what do you want to talk about?"

"Cupcakes." She was so startled she actually looked up at him, to find a smirk on his face, "What do you think I want to talk about?" She looked down again, but he put his finger under her chin and forced her head up, "You got something to say to me?"

Clover immediately started stuttering out apologies, "Sorry! I'm sorry Cobra! I know I shouldn't have lied to you and that was rude and I shouldn't have done it and I know that I shouldn't like you because you're with Kinana and-"

"Erik," he interrupted, and she paused in confusion.

"Uh, what?"

"Call me Erik. And I'm not with Kinana, where'd you get that idea?"

She blinked before rearing back, "But you two are always together and, I mean, you're kinda… touchy?"

He rolled his eyes, "She's been my best friend for years and I thought she was a snake, it'd be pretty weird if we started dating. And I'm touchy because in all the time we knew each other she was always curled around my arm or something. We're used to it."

Clover gaped. She had thought this entire time that they were together and that was a big reason as to why she never spoke to him about her feelings. Well, she wouldn't have spoken to him about it otherwise either because he'd never like her but-

"Why don't you think so?" her train of thought was brought to a halt and she blinked up stupidly at him.

"Huh?"

"Why are you so sure I'd never like you?" he elaborated.

Clover flushed, realizing that he could hear her thoughts- soul - but answered anyway, "Well, you're… you, and I'm… um, me?"

He raised an eyebrow, "That's why you've been trying to hide it? I thought you were just shy."

"Well that too, but- wait," she paused, thinking on his words. He was talking like… "You knew?!"

"Well, yeah," he said as if it was obvious, "You were pretty good at shoving your thoughts away, but you still thought them. I was just waiting for you to say something. Kinda surprised I didn't pick up on the Kinana thing though…" he muttered the last part to himself.

She spluttered, "But- I- Cobra, why-" He put a finger to her lips in a shushing motion and her face went bright red.

"Erik. Call me Erik."

"But, only Kinana calls you that," she says hesitantly.

"Only people close to me call me that," he corrected.

She blushed again at the implications, "So, uh, wait, what does this mea-"

He rolled his eyes, "I like you too, dumbass. I thought that was implied."

...aaaand she was red again. "But- I- Why- How- When-" She was so confused. Here she was, thinking that she was stuck in some kind of love-crush thing, to be forever wishing to be able to actually hug him and actually kiss him and actually have feelings be reciprocated and she just realized he could hear all of this and her face turned crimson.

"Well, if you insist," he said smugly, and before Clover could question what he meant his lips were on hers. She froze up, feeling as if her brain short-circuited, and he pulled away with a smirk on his face and her gaping up at him, staring into space. His smirk dissolved into a smile and he wrapped his arms around her smaller frame.

She was suddenly aware of how cold it was outside and how warm his hug was. "Sorry for the misunderstanding, Clo," he murmured in her ear, and she smiled into his chest, wrapping her arms around him in turn.

"Sorry for waiting so long," she breathed back, a smile on her face. And just as she was about to pull away and head home-

Her stomach growled.

She had forgotten she hadn't eaten dinner.

Cobra- no, Erik- snorted and pulled away, walking in the direction of his house. "C'mon, we can go to my place for food."

"Eh- what? Why?!"

"Because I said so. And I took your keys back," he called over his shoulder, holding up the key ring to glint in the moonlight.

"I- Hey! Give those back!" And she ran after him.

And they lived happily ever after.