Weak To Fire

15

"Y/N, you have a massive crush on me. Admit it, I already know."

Mereoleona wanted to die. She couldn't believe that she had just said that out loud. She had been over this situation about a million times in her head and she had thoroughly thought out every possible outcome imaginable (some of them more than once), but it still felt like she had just said something completely cringey to Y/N and as if Y/N was going to hate her for the rest of her life now.

She really hoped that Y/N wasn't going to hate her for the rest of her life, but it was a risk she was willing to take. She just couldn't spend the rest of her holidays without knowing what the hell this thing between them was. Mereo had to know and she was pretty sure that she was right, anyway. Plus, in the end it would be better for all of them if they knew what was going on.

Mereo was sure that Y/N dying to know what was going on just as much as she was. And this could go two ways - either she felt the same and they would have a fun few days, before Mereo would have to go back to the capital or she didn't feel the same and Mereo would get back home a little earlier and spend a few more days in the hospital with Fueggy, hoping that he'd wake up soon, so she could tell him all about how a water spirit had rejected her brutally or something like that. Mereo wasn't sure how she was going to spin the tale yet. Maybe she should just keep it to herself. Fueggy would definitely have something really boring to say about it.

When she looked back at Y/N, she seemed to be completely frozen in shock. Eyes wide and surprised, mouth open... she looked like a deer in headlights. Oh God. This wasn't going to go well, was it? Mereoleona had told herself that she was prepared for the worst, but she wasn't so sure anymore. Was she really prepared to be rejected? She had invested a lot of emotions into this whole thing already. It would honestly be a bit of a bummer, if she were to get rejected now.

"I... what? I don't think I heard you properly..." Y/N mumbled, quite unconvincingly. Mereoleona rolled her eyes again.

"I know you have a crush on me. Admit it and then we can talk about it. It's not that hard, Y/N." she repeated herself. Y/N gulped and looked around her nervously. Fuck. Maybe Mereo had been too forward with all this. Maybe she hadn't really been ready yet. Why the fuck had she said anything?

"Why would you think that I have a crush on you?" Y/N asked. Her voice sounded as if it was some sort of standard thing to say while her brain was still processing the fact that she had been found out. Mereoleona wasn't even sure how to answer that question. Sure, there were several pointers, but... in the end it was just a gut feeling she had. And she only had that gut feeling because she herself had a crush on Y/N. Otherwise she'd be completely oblivious to it.

"Well, you've been watching me train all this time. You hated me when we first met, but you calmed down pretty quickly and you've been hanging around me ever since. So obviously you like to spend time around me... and when you've watched me train... I mean, you've not been very subtle with your staring. Then... how upset you got when I left. I figured that you'd only get this upset if there were some... feelings involved. And also just... just the way you act around me in general. It was pretty obvious, to be fair." Mereoleona explained. She wasn't sure how much detail Y/N wanted.

Either way, it looked like that was already too much detail, because she buried her face in her arms and shook her head wildly. That meant that Mereo was either very, very right or very, very wrong. And whichever one it was, Y/N seemed to be somewhat upset over it all. Shit. This wasn't good. This meant Mereo would have to deal with feelings and as a general rule Mereoleona didn't do feelings. She wasn't sure how often she had to remind herself of that now.

"Uhm... are you okay?" she asked and inched a little closer to Y/N. Y/N lifted her head, her eyes looking glassy as if she was about to cry. Oh God. Mereoleona had fucked it up, hadn't she?

"I can't believe that it was so obvious that entire time... oh God, I'm so sorry, Mereo." she replied. Mereoleona blinked in surprise. Why was she sorry? And... she had just admitted that she had a crush on her, right? Somehow those two things didn't seem to compute in Mereo's brain. They didn't make sense, no matter how she put them together. Why was all of this so complicated?

"Why... why are you sorry?" Mereoleona asked quietly. Hell, she wasn't even sure whether that was the right question to ask. This conversation was another minefield that Mereo barely managed to manoeuvre. She just hoped that she was going to make it through this without doing too much damage. Y/N still looked pretty distraught and that was what worried Mereoleona. Why was she so distraught? Everything was fine, wasn't it? She had a crush on Mereo, Mereo had a crush on her - that was a good thing, right? That was how it was supposed to work... right?

"I'm sorry if I've been really weird about this. I didn't think it was this obvious, but... sorry, I... it's okay if you don't feel the same way, honestly, I just... sorry if I was being too clingy or anything." Y/N mumbled. The poor thing, she looked like she was close to tears. Did she actually believe that Mereo wasn't feeling the same? Honestly, if Mereo didn't have feelings for this girl, she would never have returned to apologise for leaving so abruptly. She wouldn't just do that for anyone and usually everyone was aware that getting an apology like that from Mereo was a privilege.

"What the hell are you talking about? Of course I feel the same. I've been crushing on you since you beat me in that fight. What, did you actually think that I might hate you or something?" Mereoleona asked and laughed. It was just such a ridiculous thing to think. If she had hated her, she would have known about it. Mereoleona wasn't shy when it came to telling people that she disliked them. Her committing every faux pas possible was one of Fueggy's worst nightmares anytime she was in the capital. Everyone who knew her was aware of that.

"You... wait, what? You actually feel the same? So... you're crushing on me, too?" Y/N asked. She seemed to be just as confused as Mereoleona, just about something completely different.

"Yeah. Of course I am. Hugely so. You're cute as hell, you're strong, you're pretty and you're good company. I honestly don't know why I wouldn't be crushing on you the moment I met you." Mereoleona said. Y/N laughed and wiped away a stray tear that had escaped her eyes. She sighed a shaky sigh of relief.

"Okay... Okay, that's... wow. I don't know, why, I just... I hadn't really thought that you might..." Y/N replied and laughed a little more, leaning forward a bit closer to Mereoleona. If Mereo was honest, she hadn't really thought much beyond this and she was at a bit of a loss as to how to continue this.

"Y/N, I'd be fucking stupid if I didn't crush on you. You're gorgeous, do you think I'm blind or something?" Mereoleona answered, leaning in a little more herself. Their faces were mere inches from each other now and Mereo had just been thinking how cheesy and cliche that would be, but right now there was nothing she wanted more than to kiss Y/N for hours, days, weeks.

"So, uhm... what do we do now?" Y/N asked, her voice barely louder than a whisper. Mereo could feel her breath on her lips.

"I don't know... what do you wanna do?" she replied. Mereoleona couldn't even think straight anymore, all she could focus on were Y/N's lips so close to her own and then she felt Y/N's hand in her hair, pulling her in closer and her lips crashing onto hers, as she almost melted against Mereo's body.