notes— Written to Work Song by Hozier and inspired by 'One Hundred Ways To Say I Love You'. If all goes to plan, this fic should be 102 chapters with a new chapter every day (more or less). It is undoubtedly two parts plot, eight parts self-indulgence. Still, I hope you enjoy reading it.

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x ; where it did not begin

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Given the chance, she'd fall again.

Erza fingers the the frayed edge of the folded tissue. It's the last thing he gave her, a left-over promise; don't open this until after. And tacked on as an afterthought, open it in front of me.

It's just a ratty tissue, she hadn't said. It doesn't mean anything.

Maybe he's written something on it. Maybe something's hidden inside. She doesn't know and she didn't want to find out. Jellal has always been exemplary at saying goodbye, and the last thing Erza wants is a reminder of that — the last thing she wants, and probably the only thing she needs.

It is quiet in the corridor. Like the world's paused for him; like it, too, doesn't want to go on, doesn't know if it can, without—

She folds in on herself, tucking her head against her knees and pressing the soft tissue against her forehead like she's praying. The tears come unbidden and the way her mouth twists, her shoulders tense, her teeth grit — it all hurts, it all hurts, it all hurts. Quiet hiccups that she can't quite hold back, and a bittersweet longing, a purely bitter loneliness, filling up her lungs like water.

The only thought that stands clear in her mind, free and proud and heartbreaking, is that she would live it over regardless; she'd bear the pain, all of it, over and over and over, if it meant— She grips the tissue tighter.

The most important thing she's learned from him is that there are a lot of different ways to say 'I love you'.

Not sorry. Not sorry. Not sorry. The defiance, even in her mind, overtakes all the senses and burns into her bones.

"I'd do it all again," she whispers to no-one. "Every time."