I can't believe how emotional I'm getting writing this T_T. Just recalling when I posted the last chapter older and then going to work out and then coming back and seeing reviews on the story. I'm getting so teary - you can't imagine how happy and appreciated I felt. (Given I also had successfully completed a really hard workout but yes, you have the power to make me cry happy fountains of joy through reviews.)

It doesn't mean much to you behind the screen, but I'm really really grateful and happy. :') Thank you all for supporting this story and encouraging me to continue writing even though it has nothing to do with my intended career.

Anyway—onwards! This story hasn't been updated in the longest time, and I have plenty of potential headcanons to share.

seven years as friends

"Do you ever miss him?" Jellal asked suddenly.

Ultear felt her stomach drop and she hugged her knees. She hesitated for an eternity, or at least a moment that even she, the Time Witch, was unfamiliar with.

She knew precisely who he was talking about, and it upset her even more to realize that he had known that she would have been able to figure it out.

"Yes," she replied, carefully yet casually, making sure to not let the ultramarine read her face behind a curtain of raven black hair. "We did everything together. We planned the Tower of Heaven. We conspired in the Magic Council. We committed many crimes together."

She felt him shuffle uncomfortably, and so she stopped listing the very items she knew the man was still attempting to resolve in his head.

"We did what we thought was right at the time."

A dark silence lingered above them. She could feel him suffering under a self-imposed mental weight on his broad shoulders and she was almost about to offer him a wise lesson about accepting a horrid past and grabbing hold of a brighter future—but then she remembered it took her almost accepting death to be able to get to the point where she was able to accept life.

It hurt her that she was the one that spun his life completely around, and yet, he was the one that was still beating himself up about what he had done and reopening all the scars.

Then again, he was still younger than her, and maybe he hadn't fully realized that the light and dark came hand in hand on the same coin and that even then it was more difficult to tell which side of the coin was which.

She hoped to pass that wisdom to him soon—so that he could rid his mind of the monsters in his head.

"Was he your friend?" he asked her.

It was a question she didn't expect, but it wasn't one that she couldn't answer.

"Yes," she replied.

She wasn't sure if the small and tense smile that crept up on her lips was right for her to have.

Tainted and terrible as her past was, she still remembered that the first time someone else asked her how her day had gone—and actually cared enough to wait to hear her answer—was in this same past.

"Yes," she repeated. "He was my best friend. He knew everything about me, and he knew me better than I knew myself."

He suddenly placed his hands over his face, leaning forward in his sitting position and resting his elbows on his knees.

"I don't remember anything," he admitted.

She looked at him through a side glance, her thin eyebrows slightly furrowing with a deep concern.

"You aren't him," she reminded him. "You weren't him. You're completely different from him."

She said this, but even she wasn't completely sure she bought into her own words. She just hoped that at least he did.

"Do you hate me then?" he continued. "Because he's gone and I'm here?"

She couldn't help but get a little angry at what he was suggesting, or even what he might have been suggesting.

"Of course not," she replied, sternly.

He sat quietly for another minute.

She tried to pass some comforting thoughts in his direction. Most of these thoughts were wordless and were understood better in silence.

"Am I your friend?" he asked suddenly.

This was also a question she didn't expect, but it wasn't one that she couldn't answer.

"Yes," she said, confidently. "You're my best friend."

Hmmm…didn't expect that to happen honestly, xD. And actually I want to explore this Ultear and Jellal's relationship a lot more—especially from Ultear's end. I don't know if I did it enough justice in this piece…

Well anyway, much love, and let me know what you think!

thir13enth