Phoenix

Three Years

Emi took in the apartment that Sting and Lector lived in. It was way bigger than the one that they had in Crocus. The kitchen was huge, which she didn't understand since neither of them really knew how to cook. It had two full bathrooms and a big living room that fit two couches.

"You guys really scaled up from last time."

"Being part of the strongest guild in Fiore has its perks. One of them being a lot of requests which means a lot of rewards."

"Lady Emiko!" Lector shouted as he ran over to meet them at the front door. "My room is all clean now, yes."

"I can't wait for a tour."

Lector excitedly grabbed her hand with his paw and tugged her over to his room. She was led into a room that was covered in cat towers and ropes. Awe ran through her whole body, increasing when she was pulled over to his bed that had steps up to a huge indoor tree house that hung from the ceiling.

"Lector, this is amazing," she breathed.

"I like it a lot, yes. And it's clean now!"

Emi turned to Sting and quipped, "So do you have a cool room like this too?"

He gave a lopsided grin and motioned for her to follow him. They reached his room and she got a quick tour. His room was plain, but it still had a lot of stuff. He had a gigantic bed and a long place to keep all his pictures. Emi's eyes wandered over to his dresser and smiled sadly when she saw the small picture of Phoenix Wing. Another picture of the three of them was placed next to it.

"Am I allowed to stay in your room, Sting?" She joked.

"No."

Emi furrowed her eyebrows and went to say something, but Lector cut her off.

"You can see your room now, Lady Emiko! It's very nice, yes."

"My room?"

Sting gently pushed her down the hall to a door and opened it. The three of them stepped in and Emi didn't know where to look. There was an entire wall of bookcases, completely filled from floor to ceiling. The other wall donned a child's (or, more likely, an exceed's) drawings of flowers.

"You guys...you did all this?"

"I would go to the bookstore and buy a book after every request," Sting stated, a small smile on his face. "It got to the point that I could barely find one I didn't already buy."

"I drew a picture of every new flower I learned about. I knew that you would like to see them!"

"Why would you both do all this?"

"We did it so that you would have a great room for when we found you again, yes."

"You guys did this for three years?"

"We couldn't do it as much before we joined Sabertooth and got the money, but we always have been yeah."

Emi's nose tingled and seconds later she collapsed onto the floor. Sting started to freak out and dropped to the floor to check on her when he saw that she was crying hysterically.

"Em, are you--"

"I just...how did you keep this up? Why didn't you give up and move on?"

"Move on?" Sting laughed as he rubbed her cheek. "There was no moving on, Em. No way."

"We knew we would find you again, Lady Emiko. We never gave up hope. And it worked!"

Her tears wouldn't stop, so Sting leaned back and waved Lector to join them on the floor. The exceed readily did so and soon the two of them started to squeeze Emi into a tight hug. Her sobs soon subsided to sniffles as she tightly gripped Sting's chest. She could feel his fingers running through her hair and Lector's paw rubbing her back comfortingly.

"You guys sure are something else," she finally choked out. "Very stubborn that's for sure."

Sting gave a childish grin and started to laugh.

"We love you, Em. We never gave up hope."

"I love you very much, yes!"

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It had been about six months, and everyone had started to settle. Emi wandered into the guildhall and darted over to the master's chair with a smug smile on her face. This had become somewhat of a competition to her and Sting. They would race to the chair every time they came in, as it had, for some reason, completely fascinated the white haired wizard. She had won this time, and she sat on her knees as Sting ran in after her.

"That's not fair, Em."

"Not my fault you're slow."

"You tripped me!"

"Miss Emi," Yukino spoke up as she tried to contain her laughter, "do you want to go on a request with me later?"

Emi's eyes lit up and everyone groaned. You see, ever since Emi had started taking requests, there had been...complaints from the clients. She had a habit of going overboard, and the council had spoken to them a few times about it.

"Absolutely not," Sting cut down. "She has to accompany me on a master's request."

"Boooooo!"

Sting gave a side eye to his mate and made his way over to the chair that she was sitting on. He casually picked her up and sat down on the seat himself before placing her on his lap. Emi seemed to have no problem with it, and the guild members had gotten kind of used to the scene by that point.

"Lector, are you coming?"

"Of course I am, Lady Emiko. I like going on master requests, yes."

"Let me guess...another meeting?"

"You'll be able to see Makarov," he casually mentioned.

He heard a small gasp and saw that she had a bright smile on her face.

"Master Grampa!"

She hopped off his lap and darted back to the apartment to get ready.

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A/N: One more chapter until the end!