May almost didn't notice the envelope shoved between the papers lying strewed across her desk before it was too late.
After moving across the country into a small apartment she now shared with Sherry's younger cousin Chelia, her desk became a landmine with no parental supervision to guide her into proper furnishing arrangements. Even after Sherry's weekly visits, the desk always managed to make a mess out of itself.
Frankly, May had given up that battle a long time ago.
Which probably would've explained how she was only noticing now the pristeen envelope squeeshed between old job requests and the random bills she was too lazy to put away.
She would be an idiot if she didn't recognize the handwriting right away. After all, only she was capable of a's that beautiful.
The thought that a neater version of her handwriting spent who knows how long squished between steeples of her own idleness was almost funny to her if it weren't for the fact she hadn't had the time to write anything that neatly in a long time hadn't crossed her mind.
Trying to figure out when the last time she still had the mental cognitive ability to actively seek out paper and write herself a drunken note during her last escapade with Team Lyon wasn't the only thing to cross her mind when Sherry's head came poking in from the doorway.
"Hurry it up, May. We're going to late," Sherry prodded. Looking all the more unimpressed when she was met with the sight of her best friend loitering around her desk instead of getting ready for their trip to Crocus in a few days. May stumbled, throwing the rather thick envelope into the open pocket protruding out her suitcase.
"I'm done! I'm done!" She called out distractedly, shooing the girl out of the way as she began zipping up her luggage. All the while, ignoring all her complaints about the five seconds Sherry managed to peak in on her very 'meager wardrobe'. "We're only gone for a week. No one will notice if I wear the same shorts three days in a row!"
It was an age old argument, one that Sherry was beginning to grow tired of, but the girl gave no further thought into it as May quickly latched herself onto her arm. With sparkling eyes and a giggle already placed on her tongue, she dragged the Doll Mage out of her room and into the world beyond.
So the days passed.
She completely forgot anything that had everything to do with the letter until the day the Great Magic Games was to begin.
May, having arrived with Sherry, was given a short reprieve in the form of Lyon dragging her away to do god knows what.
It was the boredom that led her into finding the envelope.
In a big room by herself, there was only so much a nineteen year old girl could do before she resorted to fiddling with her own suitcase for entertainment.
At first, she thought it was all just some kind of weird prank.
To Miss May Collier,
To the me who is in her nineteenth year, have you been well?
I am writing this to you from seven years in the future. If you're wondering why I'm writing to you at this very exact moment of time, it's because I have something very important that no matter what I need to ask of you.
What you will read from this point forth I hope you will keep secret. In this letter and the ones following, I will write the events that have yet to unfold and whatever happens, I hope you stay true to the path set before you. I hope with all my heart that you do not make the same mistakes as I have.
Contrary to what most people would have done- and that was to question the whole 'future me is writing to me me'- May read on. Not yet grasping what the contents asked of her but not yet entirely missing the point either.
The one thing that did cycle through her head, however, was how much the handwriting really did resemble the best version of her own.
«June 30 x791»
After arriving at Crocus, you and Sherry set about arranging your stay so that technically you and Sherry were sharing a room when in actuality, she was going to stay with Ren across town.
"How'd they find out..." the urge to fling the bundle of paper almost consumed her. A sharp shiver ran down her spine, she wasn't even half way finished reading the thing and already she felt incredibly criminalized.
May wasn't exactly sure what truth sounded better: that Toby and Yura found a knack in the art of tattle-tailing or that Future May was quite literally blackmailing herself.
The sound of a door opening and closing completely escaped her notice as her eyes locked onto the next bullet point.
Sherry comes back from her talk with Lyon after about an hour. She tips over the container of cookies you snagged from the nice lady who owns the flower shop. She's upset, but she won't say she is.
"May, are you still here?" a parched voice called out from the doorway, and then she hears the telltale sound of things clattering to the ground. May listened in shocked silence as the older woman let out a loud squawk in surprise. Steel slapped against the laminent floor. Silence enveloped the room before a long and exasperated breath traveled down the hall.
Quickly scanning over the rest of the letter, the girl got up from her spot on the bed and padded into the main room. A heavy feeling settled into the pits of her stomach as she recounted the words carefully- hoping that it was all just some kind of coincidence.
Sherry will ask if you want to go and find pre-Game entertainment outside.
"Want to go out for a while?" Were the first words Sherry says when she finally spots the younger mage. Dropping her hands from her forehead before slapping them onto her pale cheeks. May feels the sting both on her face and in the dread collecting quickly inside her system. "Find some pre-Game fun?"
She even does that eyebrow wriggle that suggests she means something entirely different but the cheeky smile doesn't exactly complete the look for once.
If anything, Sherry looks like she's seconds away from tears. Subtly closing her fists tight from behind the couch while May went to go clean up. But people are complex creatures and while Sherry does sport the look, she's also seconds away from dragging May away to play out however she wanted today to play out before Lyon ruined it.
A part of her wants to sit and talk to her best friend. Another part of her knows that Sherry was stubborn beyond her years and would completely shut her out if she named Lyon as the source of her distress.
The third part of her says that Sherry is also a stickler to routines and the question wasn't even a question but a practiced statement that they echoed back to one another during the years Crocus hosted the Magic Games.
The dread only grows when she grabs onto her hand and gives it a tight squeeze.
The words 'this is all just a really weird and stalkery-analyzed coincidence' flashes through her head multiple times.
But the parts where the letter said 'tomorrow, Sherry will tell you that Lyon wanted to talk about their relationship as it stood today' and 'ever since her engagement with Ren, Lyon's been acting differently around Sherry. I wish I had seen it sooner' kept coming back to her. The words almost haunting her as it drowned out all manner of mindless chatter with the woman in question who equally had a lot to think about.
There was no way a stranger would know these things.
Out of the enigma that was what was sometimes jokingly called Team Lyon, Sherry and Lyon's relationship was the most complex. While they both put on airs around one another- both exhibiting various quirks and attitudes towards one another that they wouldn't have shown around other people- it was a familiar sight that hadn't emerged in a long time. Those two loved, above all else, appearances. Sometimes she'd hear tales from Yura about the days they spent as a pseudo-cult and how Lyon acted and how Sherry dressed and how they were today. The need for something constant in their lives became a love for the outer perception and that love proved to be a fault.
It was a topic that she knew Yura and Toby would never breach despite the fact that the two knew them the longest. Chelia was a strong possibility that ran through her head but May quickly discarded that thought when she remembered that the teenager looked to the world with rose tinted glasses.
It all made May feel more like a terrible friend for falling for that prettily constructed facade.
By the way they acted on principle- you'd think that there wasn't any problem between the two.
The girl who loved to dress up and the boy who manipulated ice like it was an artform.
She definitely thought that and Future May definitely was beating herself up for it too.
Which was also a weird thought to have.
Wrapping an arm tighter against the older girl's, May let loose a low hum that she hopefully conveyed how much she actually cared for her friend.
Sherry made a loose whispering noise in return, pushing aside stragglers as they continued into a near fight circle. A warm expression crossed her face at the younger girl hanging off her arm.
"You're awfully quiet today," she noted cryptically as her eyes examined the fight happening before them. Her lips twitched slightly at the sight. May's eyes were still concentrated on the ground and her mind so far away that she didn't notice her friend's scheming look. Sherry didn't mind- it just meant that May's reaction when she realized who's fight they stumbled upon was going to be that much more funnier.
Sherry was no stranger to secrets but she had good money riding on May's confession about one Rogue Cheney and she'd be damned to not take this chance to tease her about it.
If it proved to be a welcome distraction then that was fine too. Anything to steer her head away from the heavy weight crushing down on her heart.
"May..." Sherry purred into her ear, a Cheshire grin making its way through her lips. The smirk was bordering shameless when the younger girl's head snapped up at her with a child's curious look in her eyes. "About Rogue Cheney..."
The words came in a mockery of May's tone whenever she tried to discreetly inquire into the rumor mill surrounding Sabertooth's dragon slayers.
May's confused expression and the less tense grip on her arm was almost too funny.
"What about Rogue Cheney...?" She even said it the same way a person would echo back bad news. Like an observation that she still chose to question despite it physically being in front of her. Sherry let out a loud laugh before pointing to the fight.
Honestly, however weird it may have sounded- it's important to note first that watching street brawls the day before the Games was very much an actual tradition for them. Something that started first as a shy avoidance of Babasaama spiraled into a fun event for the both of them as they watched mages and nonmagic citizens duke it out in the streets. At first, the others had joined them as well, but being the confrontational testosterone filled beings that they were, the boys always ended up being pulled into those very same fights. Soon, it just became a thing for Sherry and May to wander off and exchange small comments to one another about what they were seeing before them. Keeping an eye out for the other guilds and spectating without actually being personally involved.
It was ritualistic and almost therapeutic.
May liked the gradual feel of being part of a growing crowd. The pull that came with spectators building up excitement was something like a drug to her. She gravitated towards it like a lost satellite. There was something about forcing yourself to scream for hours on end and watching in agony as your guild mates duked it out in the stadium that drained her senseless. She found that watching these fights and making random and obscene comments with Sherry actually helped settle her nerves for the next five days to come.
She really wish she could say the same thing this year.
You and Sherry end up watching the Twin Dragon Slayers beat up some very weird looking shady people. In typical Sabertooth fashion.
If Sherry was expecting for May to immediately meet Rogue's disinterested stare; she was about to be severely disappointed when she learns that she actually stared down one of the Exceeds first.
A small sound quickly escaped her. Whether it was out of awe or shock wasn't clear even to her but she knew that however it came out, Sherry caught onto it like a fish to water.
"You're gross," May immediately scoffed, shoving playfully into her shoulder after Sherry wriggled her eyebrows at her in a very impressively suggestive manner.
"I didn't even say a word," Sherry snorted back, knowing full well that she won that battle. If the smile wiped off her face the second May turned back to focus on the fight, then May was obviously not going to say a thing about it.
She wasn't going to push anything- the letter be damned. There was still a chance that Lyon and Sherry's relationship was actually just fine and that Lyon pulled her out because he actually just wanted advice on how to court one of the newly returned Fairy Tail members.
Lord knows how many times the man sprouted poetry on the subject of one former Element Four mage.
When Natsu and Lucy pop out of the crowd, you ask Sherry if you should step in. She says no. But I hope before all else, that you keep looking in that direction.
May was watching Frosch tunnel a tree branch through some poor man's nose when Sherry reclaimed her attention.
"May, look over there."
She let out a quiet squawk as the girl forcefully grabbed her cheeks, yanking her head so it was looking towards a curious pink head from under a row of feet.
No way. No way. No way.
"Is that...?"
The girl narrowed her eyes, too scared to finish her question as she watched in growing horror as the two Fairy Tail mages emerged from the crowd. She didn't know Natsu Dragneel and Lucy Heartfilia personally, but Sherry had enough tales about the blond to fill an entire missing person's report. The two mages looked utterly distraught at the sight before them, shocking the Twin Dragon Slayers into stopping their fight. Not that there was much of a fight to finish.
May couldn't exactly hear what they were saying but judging by the loud shout bursting out from the Fire Dragon Slayer and the shocked look embellishing the face of the celestial spirit summoner, she had a good idea on what it was.
Even though it was a secret she was glad to keep years ago- she knew it was common knowledge amongst most mages today.
Sabertooth, she learned over the years, weren't exactly modest after all.
They flaunted anything and everything like it was nobody's business.
The whole Third Generation Dragon Slayer business was no exception.
"Should I stop them?" The words tumbled out of her before she could even stop them. She shook it off as some kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. A good insight into her psyche. Anyone who grew up the same way she grew up would've stepped in, probably, at the sight of the growing disdain between the Fairy Tail and Sabertooth mages.
Like the letter foretold, Sherry stopped her.
"Just let it be, it's not really our business." She said it like it was the simplest thing in the world. The older woman made to drag her away, maybe off with the rest of the crowd but May remained bolted in place. Eyes trained to the scene before her.
May never really had trouble reconciling the memory she had of Ryos with Rogue Cheney. It wasn't that she felt obligated to combine the pictures into one but more of the way she compartmentalized the whole affair. She remembered staying up at the dorms whenever her other guild mates had her over and flipping through pages upon pages of the latest issue of Sorcerer's Weekly. She remembered all her ambassador trips with random guild mates. She remembered all the times they walked past each other when the Games brought their guilds together.
It wasn't that she had a hard time accepting Rogue Cheney was Ryos. Because she didn't. She knew that they were one and the same.
The difficulty was more along the lines that she no longer had the right to encroach upon Rogue Cheney's life like she had over Ryos.
Because he was wholly his own person now. He had come into his own identity as she had come into hers.
They grew up.
They grew apart.
She figured that it was a similar feeling to how Lyon must have felt with the way Sherry's life was beginning to drift separate of his own.
If the letter really was something to go by... that is.
"May, we should go." Sherry tried once again, tugging a little bit harder. The crowd was dissipating faster by the second now. Even the ones who made the commotion in the first place looked ready to leave after their lengthy confrontation. "I'm starving and I know you are too."
"Sherry, just..." May muttered. The words from the letter becoming more and more pronounced in her mind's eye.
Just keep looking. Please just keep looking.
She squinted, not caring if people were pausing to watch how this puzzling event will unfold. She knew Sherry was growing more and more red by the second but the way the letter had phrased the request to her really gave her pause and set her on guard.
Was something about to jump out at them? Was she supposed to look for something? Did someone lose a lottery card? Maybe someone wanted to immortalize the two witches in a stunning painting that over glamorized their appearances...
It was really started to bug her. There was nothing important in that direction! Just people who loitered around during the fight, wanting to talk to the missing Fairy Tail mages after the Twin Dragon Slayers left. There was a flowerpot that drastically needed watering and a fancy looking cafe but that was really about it.
She might've not been able to see that far and pick out the details but to her knowledge, she didn't recognize anyone amongst those loiterers either.
Though that guy in the suit was slightly curiously familiar.
"May, I swear! What are you looking at?!" Sherry's frustrated growl sounded from beside her. Dropping her hand in a loud petulant huff before she turned to figure out whatever May was staring at.
In five seconds flat, Sherry found what May missed.
"Ren!" She called out in excitement, sounding happier than the entire hour and a half she had spent with her following her return from her talk with Lyon. She jumped in place, squealing like a kid on Christmas Day before bolting for the suited tanned man like she hadn't seen her lover in years.
May watched in stunned silence as the man immediately picked her up best friend and spun her around. The sound of their combined laughter echoing through the entire square. Some people even stopped and cooed at the sight when the lovebirds finally settled down into a long kiss.
If it weren't for the fact that she had been the one ordered by Babasaama to chauffeur their date last week then she would've believed the whole 'hadn't seen each other in years' thing too.
As it stood, all May could think about was the next bullet point in the letter.
And what it meant when dinner didn't happen the same way the letter ordained it to.