Phoenix

Flower Garden Days

"What the hell are you doing here?" Kira barked.

Sting grinned as he opened the window and jumped inside. He stretched once he got inside and looked around.

"Where's Emi?"

"She's sleeping. Go away."

"I came to pick her up. She said she wanted to go to the gardens and they're open today, so I figured I'd take her there."

"Oh!" Kira happily exclaimed, opening Emi's door and yelling inside. "Get up, Emi! Your date is here."

Sting blushed and panicked, "No it's not a da--"

"Sting? What're you doing here?" Emi quietly yawned.

"He came to take you on a date," Kira slyly remarked.

"Where are we going?"

"Um, the royal gardens are open today."

Emi's eyes twinkled and she sprinted back into her room to get her cloak. She waved goodbye to Kira and dragged Sting outside.

"I can't believe the gardens are open! I checked with them yesterday and they said that they would be closed for a while. This is great!"

Sting laughed at the wide smile on her face and brought them to the entrance of the gardens. The guards stood there and looked at the two. Emi walked so that she was standing under their noses and smiled brightly.

"I've come to see the flowers!"

"Go ahead in," the guard grunted.

"Sting, hurry up! I see some Goatsbeard!"

Sting followed Emi through the gardens and laughed as she jumped from patch to patch of all the different flowers.

"Look at this one. It's a Polka Dot Plant. Did you know that this plant usually has dark green leaves, but can have colorful dots on it? It's also deer resistant. This plant can grow up to two feet and--"

Sting squatted down to Emi's level to look at the flowers more closely. He took in the sight of the wide smile that graced her face as he allowed her to move his hand so he could touch the flowers.

"You sure know a lot about flowers."

"Sorry, should I stop talking so much about it? I know some people can get really bored with--"

"Tell me more about this one," Sting interrupted as he pointed to a patch of pink flowers.

Emi blinked a couple of times to process his words before tears started forming in her eyes. Sting looked up to ask her again when he saw her wet eyes. He began to panic and quickly stood up and asked her what was wrong.

"It's just," Emi choked, "everyone always ignores me or tells me to stop talking about it so much. People always just push it off and wait for me to stop."

"Emi, I never realized you felt that way about flowers," Levy commented.

Laxus looked over at Emi with a sad look on his face.

"Sorry, brat."

Emi giggled, "I didn't mind. Besides, it's not really in your personality to like looking at anything."

His nose crinkled before he took one of her hands.

"I don't know what they're thinking, but I think it's actually pretty cool that you know all this stuff."

"Really?"

"I never would've pinned you for a flower enthusiast when we first met. I was thinking more--"

"Cold hearted, emotionless, intimidating, scary, mean, vicious--"

"Serious and reserved," Sting corrected. "I wouldn't have thought that you could smile this wide as soon as you saw flowers."

"When did that fountain get here?" Emi asked suddenly.

Sting chuckled at how fast she was distracted and told her that it had always been there. She looked at him incredulously before walking over to it.

"Why are there so many coins in there?"

"It's for wishes. You toss a coin in and make a wish."

Emi hummed before reaching into her pocket and pulling out a coin.

"I wish--"

"You can't say the wish out loud, Emi. It won't come true that way."

Emi gasped and quickly closed her mouth. She looked at the coin again and closed her eyes before tossing the coin in. She turned to Sting and handed him a coin.

"Aren't you going to make a wish?"

Sting smiled and tossed the coin into the fountain.

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

"Took you two long enough. Were you at the gardens the whole time or did you get distracted?"

Emi's mouth curved into a smile as she recounted their time at the royal gardens. She told Kira all about the different flowers and how she had even made a wish in the fountain. Her smile never left her face as she explained her day.

"Lady Emiko, can you take me to the gardens next time?"

Emi and Sting looked down to see Lector tugging at her cloak. Emi gave a childlike grin and fist bumped the exceed. 

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A/N: Another short chapter, but I just wanted to get in a little character development. I'll be posting longer chapters soon. Hope you're enjoying!