Phoenix

Date (Part 2)

"Lector, you've been pacing for an hour. You're making me worry. I told Sting I'd look after you."

"Fro thinks so, too!"

"We should go spy on them," Lector said seriously.

"Fro thinks so, too!"

"Frosch! Lector, we should let them have their space."

"Please, Rogue. Just for a little bit. Then I promise to leave them alone."

Rogue let out a defeated sigh.

---------------------------------

"But we just had ice cream."

"That was apple ice cream. This is vanilla ice cream."

Emi laughed at the dragon slayer's childish nature before agreeing to an ice cream cone. The couple had been casually walking around Crocus before bumping into an ice cream stand, causing Sting to tug on Emi's hand and drag her over.

Emi looked down at their interlocked hands before blushing. She didn't even know when they started holding hands. It surely couldn't have been this whole time, right? She thought that it seemed so natural. Sting looked at Emi and noticed that she wasn't eating her ice cream and asked if something was wrong. Emi's ears heated up before convincing the dragon slayer that she was just thinking about the Games. Sting hummed in response. The two finished their ice cream as they traveled towards the center of the city. Sting quickly jumped behind Emi and covered her eyes with his hands.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Emi asked, startled by the blond's sudden actions.

Sting laughed and guided her to their destination. When Sting uncovered her eyes, Emi blinked a couple times to adjust to the light. She looked around and saw that she was surrounded by flowers. Emi spun around, realizing that she was in a garden, and a big one at that.

"Are we in..."

"Yep! We're in the royal flower gardens!"

"How on earth are we here? I thought the palace shut down the gardens for the Magic Games."

Sting pulled her to the center fountain as he simply said, "I know a guy."

Emi looked around in wonder, trying desperately to process all the different flowers. This garden was so much different than the gardens in Hargeon. There were so many more flowers, so many more colors, so many more smells. Her eyes twinkled as she looked in different directions. Sting looked over at her, his eyes filled with adoration. He smiled to himself, taking in the sight of Emi smiling and laughing as she ran to all the different flower patches. Sting tapped on the woman's shoulder to gain her attention. When she looked behind her, she saw that he was motioning for her to follow him.

"If I remember right, you like these ones the best."

Sting pointed to a patch of flowers that held a lavender color.

"Sting! Look at these!"

Sting looked up and followed Emi's gaze. He raised his eyebrow to ask her to elaborate.

"They're called catmint. Aren't they beautiful?"

Sting stood up and stretched before wandered over to the woman, clearly interested in whatever drew her attention so much.

"Let me see."

Emi sidestepped while squatting and motioned for the dragon slayer to bend down and join her. He quickly did so and started to touch the catmint. He smiled and picked up a flower from the patch.