At dinner, Sherry and I spot Ren from the restaurant window. He goes on to say that he saw us during the 'uncivilized gathering of heathens unfit to be in the presence of roses such as his Gorgeous Fiancée and Friend' but by the time the crowd gave way, we'd already left.
It's really funny how things always work out in the end.
After witnessing what had to be the longest cavity-inducing kiss in the world, Ren went on to describe the crowd as just that. The display sent enough of a chill down her spine that she had to excuse herself before she got dragged into something weird again.
Of course, Sherry was happy with that arrangement because it meant she got to spend that much more time with her fiance before the Midnight Deadline.
When the two waltzed off deeper into the depths of Crocus, May realized with great disbelief that while things had worked out exactly like the letter had said it would- the whole event was missing one fatal detail...
'Please keep looking' the letter had begged. A request that her curiosity had fulfilled unintentionally. A circumstance that had only happened because she had the forewarning to do so in the first place.
May swallowed nervously. It all had to be a coincidence. Or some kind of well-thought out con. Maybe Yura teamed up with Jura for purposes she would rather not think about...
Nonetheless, she couldn't ignore the bubble of energy Sherry exerted out when she left with her fiancé. She never saw her feel more relaxed in her life- so happy and so relieved to see someone.
A pang rang through her chest.
Maybe the letter really was trying to get somewhere with her.
'Seven years in the future,' claimed the letter Future May had wrote. The amount of magic it
The amount of magic it must've took to sent an object back in time must have been enormous.
While May was slightly familiar with the rules celestial spirit summoners and their spirits followed- she was positive that time travel ran on an entirely separate basis. She once read that time in the celestial realm ran differently than it did on Earthland. But the summons always worked in a linear pattern- never had they been called for by different time frames at once. Their contracts dictated that they appear whenever their contractor called upon them. One contractor. One summons.
Time travel meant that someone already lived her present. The letter had asked her to notice things she hadn't noticed the first time around. Which meant changing a future and completely destroying the chances of something happening from even happening.
What if she actually did follow the requests? Wouldn't changing the future mean changing a reality where she wrote those letters.
What if she woke up one day and they werent there anymore?
There was a reason why Arc of Time was a lost magic after all. Even with all the reading May did as a child, she knew enough not to play with a force as grand as time itself. The only magic she knew revolving around time travel and it was a magic that the Magic Council actively kept out of public knowledge.
The fact she only knew of it through working with Jura- one of Fiore's ten Saints- was enough to warrant caution around the whole topic.
Thinking of those letters now... Knowing the amount of magic it must've taken to sent them if they really weren't just a joke... Being the granter of those wishes to prevent the May seven years in the future from having to send a letter seven years into the past...
She didn't want to think about it.
Maybe it was just a really bad prank by Yura and Toby. Only Toby would dare think that breaching forbidden magic taboos would be funny.
She took a huge chug out of the mug set before her.
Occam's razor. Just go for the easier and less complicated explanation. Simplify it and don't bring in new variables.
Eyes shut, fingers clunched tighter around the ceramic mug. The heat stirring up until it felt like she had cupped fire between her fingers.
"It's the Lamia Scale girl!" A high pitched squeal immediately sent her jumping in her seat, the noise from the restaurant now filling her ears and spilling hot coffee all over her fingers and the table. Two sets of paws immediately flew down onto her table amidst the commotion of her rapidly beating heart.
The girl felt her soul leave her body.
"Lector, it's May!" Frosch pointed out cutely to the red haired Exceed. One paw pointing at her and the other mopping up the mess she made with a spare napkin. "Hi May!"
"Hi Fro..." The words barely made it out of her mouth before she robotically realized that she was going to cause a scene if she continued to let the Exceeds clean her mess.
Namely her death if Fro's frogsuit got even a hint of a stain.
Thank the lord for black cardigans and her habit of absentmindedly doing things that required a person's full attention.
"Move over, we're going to sit here too!" Lector ordered once the table was spotless.
May, too used to Lector's childlike attitude, immediately slid down the seat with the exasperation of a tired parent. It wasn't until Frosch tried to steamroll her plate to her new spot did she really take in Lector's words.
"Wait, who's we?"
Too bad it was too late.
Dread settled deeper into her stomach when an entire row of plates filled the table.
Sting Eucliffe's haughty smirk was what she saw next as he slammed down into the seat across from her.
Whatever he said never made it into her ears because the words 'after dinner, Sherry and I' rolled through her head like an endless ball of string. The letter and its events suddenly became the forefront of her mind. The fear pitched fire.
It changed. It changed. This wasnt in the letter. Her mind practically chanted. Not even a warning.
No amount of planning could've lead to this. Yura might've been smart but even she knew he didn't have the guts to pull something like this and there was no way he could've guessed the timing so perfectly to pull the strings behind this occurrence.
A body settled beside her. May was too scared to even move a muscle.
"The restaurant is sooo full!" Fro was saying cutely. The two cats were now settled on top of the black clump that was her cardigan-turned-mop in the corner. A fork was waving something around in front of the Exceeds. May didn't want to look at the man that arm was attached to.
Lector must've interpretted her shocked silence differently because the magical cat rounded on her immediately when their eyes met.
"You should be honored that the Great Sting-sama deemed you worthy to share his feast with!" May was positive those weren't the actual words that left Lector's mouth but it sure did felt like it. "Out of all tables here, we chose yours to grace!"
"You mean mine was the emptiest booth." She almost retorted back. The sane-attentive part of her wanted to point out how she was probably the only one the two Exceeds knew in the entire buffet restaurant.
While she never talked to the Twin Dragon Slayers during her trips over to Sabertooth, their exceeds made great companions on her way in and out of the guild hall. Them joining her during her dissociative dinner experience shouldn't have been that shocking.
Them dragging along their partners was a completely different story.
"Cool," was what she ended up saying out loud. Impulse control helped sort out the many questions and possible responses in her head. 'What the hell' and 'isn't Sabertooth staying in that huge Bed and Breakfast place, why are you eating here and not there' were just one of the many that would've got her murdered.
One giant spoonful of soup was the only escape she could think of to keep herself from embarrassing herself even further.
If it weren't for Frosch and Lector's mindless chatter, May would've wholly believed that she was in a fever dream.
From what she knew- which was really just snippets of old interviews she read over Chelia's shoulder- Sting Eucliffe and Rogue Cheney both loved and hated being the center of attention. While she was familiar with the way the two always attracted straying eyes whenever one or both of them entered the room, she could see it in Rogue's composure whenever the attention became unwanted.
The two of them- to her knowledge at least- loved being the commanders of attention. They did things just to be in control. Being a leader was almost like a drug to them.
May figured taking away the chance for someone other than the Exceeds to speak up would put her further up their hitlists, so she didn't say anything at all.
Besides what was she supposed to say?
Not for the first time, May wished that she read further into the letter.
"So, you competing this year?" Sting cut in suddenly, a spoon lifted in the air in a show of provocative curiosity. Until this day, May didn't even think that was possible.
Honestly, he looked like he was going to start shitting on her entire life so it wasn't her fault if she reacted in a way she thought was appropriate.
"Are you challenging me?" The knife in her hand shook with every syllable. Beside her, a distinct male form let out a loud snort.
Sting almost looked shocked for a time longer than a millisecond before his telltale trademark snide expression melted into his features.
A loud roar of laughter followed soon after, one that had him tipping to his side before turning back to her in a motion that was too quick for her to follow.
"Should I be?" His smirk seemed to be growing bigger by the second. The spoon tapped her nose each time a laugh bubbled up his spine.
May never felt so offended in her entire life.
All the self restraint she preached of only a few minutes ago vanished into thin air as she made a move to flick the wet spoon away.
What did this man even think of her? She never talked to him in her life and here he was trying to instigate a fight.
She was debating dumping her entire plate on him when a voice cut in, effectively taking the spoon and her knife out of anyone's reach.
"Enough. Sting jsut eat your food." The spoon was flung. Hitting the blond on the cheek before disappearing under the table. May almost laughed out loud if it weren't for the fear that Rogue's next course of action was to stab her free hand with the butter knife he took from her.
She hoped that the dragon slayers weren't able to hear heartbeats because her's definitely would've sounded something akin to the wings of a hummingbird's first flight.
A second felt like a year.
When it finally occurred to her that Rogue was holding the knife out to her at an angle for her to take, she felt all the blood rush up her face.
There was no way she was going to make it out of this dinner alive.
"Heyy!" Sting's disgruntled shout immediately had her turning back to him. The sight of the man stuffing his face with chicken and pointing a meaty drumstick at his friend seemed almost too surreal to be true. "Cut it out with the sour face!"
"Don't talk with your mouth full. "May and Rogue chorused in disgust. The she turned to stare at him in shock. Sting almost choked on his food.
Between them, Lector and Fro were occupying themselves with a game of how much food can we take from the neighbors plate before they notice.
Déjà vu was a funny feeling.
One that May definitely didn't want to entertain at the moment.
"You should eat more." The words fell out of her mouth immediately almost robotically. She had to force herself to tear her eyes away from his shocked and slightly flushed expression.
A finger pointed at his plate, staring at it in scrutiny.
If she looked up in that second, she wouldve caught the long frown stretched over his lips.
Maybe then all of this wouldn't have happened.
Instead, the dinner continued on. The Exceeds lending them incentives to speak to one another and prodding them along into a conversation that wasn't rearing into another fight. While May still didn't like Sting's attitude, there wasn't much she could do about it. She figured it was the kind of thing that couldn't be helped.
There were moments he would say something and immediately regret it. She had never noticed him before but during one such occurrence, he made a very harsh comment about her performance at last year's game and seemed to cringe inwards into himself. Sure, there was a curious loud thump that came from somewhere close to them but it made her think back to the time she wasn't able to be an ambassador to Sabertooth and a guild mate had to go in her place.
That was when she caught a terrible cold, one that kept her inside and in a drug-induced state of disability. Sherry all but chained her down to her bed and shooed the poor man off just so he had enough time to make it to the train station before May apparated out after him. In her dazed state, she remembered promising that Sabertooth wasn't as bad as everyone said they were and that they were always polite whenever she went. Her exact words were 'awkward'. His words were 'absolute fucking hell'.
She wondered if this was just one of those times.
A thought that was quickly scrapped after Sting finished his meal, stood up and declared Sabertooth was going to "pummel Lamia Scale into the ground again" before leaving with Lector.
In a weird way, the whole affair made her feel sort of used.
Which was funny to think about because he very much did use her just to get a table to rest his monstrous meal on.
Suddenly her attention drifted back to the man still sitting beside her. A few minutes had passed since Sting had left and still Rogue didn't seem to notice that there was an empty seat across from her. Instead he seemed almost content staying where he was.
If Sting's words were anything to go by tonight, then Rogue's 'let me just die now' expression translated something similiar to 'I enjoy torturing people I used to know and trapping them in the corner of a buffet table'.
Even throughout the entire dinner, May and Rogue still had yet to speak to one another. Both using Sting as a conduit for both dinner entertainment and active conversation. Now that he was gone, May was scared that things between would only grow worse without a proper mediator.
Try as you might, exceeds weren't middlemen and they were never meant to be middlemen.
"May." the sound of her very own name passing out his mouth made her freeze. It had to be the first words he said to her all night. A soon to be conversation that she didn't know she wanted. An odd excitement rushed through her.
"R-"
And suddenly it died as quickly as it started.
May had no idea what to call him. She knew he preferred Rogue now. That the safest answer was probably to call him Rogue. But there was something in his eyes that begged for something new or something old and familiar. It was a look that made her hesitate and wonder if he wanted her to kickstart it all.
Like he wanted her to acknowledge their past in the way a predator wanted to play with their prey.
What was he going to do when she called out his name this time?
What was going to happen this time after the name Ryos slips out of her dried lips?
She didn't have the answer. Was too scared of the answer. Too disorientated to answer.
It wasn't like he even let her answer anyways.
"I can walk you back," he whispered after she turned to him. The sound of his protest almost whistling against his ears. He lifted Fro's sleeping body into his arms, a quick thumbs up from the waiter told them that Sting footed the bill before he left.
May shifted awkwardly, not too sure how to react or even if anythign that was currently happening to her was actually real.
He left just as abruptly, leaving May to gather all her stuff before he disappeared out of the restaurant.
When she finally caught up, she noticed that he slowed his pace to match hers.
He didn't say anything the entire way back to her hotel.
Neither did she.