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19 ; like rain on mars

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For all her rushing over in the rain, Erza actually manages to be five minutes early for her first lecture. She lets out all her breath in one shallow huff, a little irritated but mostly relieved, and shakes the water from her hair.

Sendai is a beautiful city, that much is for sure, but living on the pacific coast sure leaves her with a lot of freak weather to contend with. She wonders idly if the sudden shower will carry into the weekend, and whether her plans with Natsu and Lucy to go hiking in the nearby mountains will be able to survive the downpour.

It's this thought that has her caught up in her own head and blind to what's happening around her, and it's this thought — this traitorous thought, this blessed thought — that is to blame for her being taken by surprise.

"Erza?"

When she first hears him, she swears it's a mistake. Because it has to be, there's no way he's here, there's absolutely no way... But sure as anything, when she looks to her left there he stands, high-rimmed glasses perched on his nose, hair as scruffy as ever, a laptop case resting against his hip.

"J-Jellal..." she says stupidly. Before she can stop herself the words tumble out, falsely accusatory: "What are you doing here?"

He's going to class, of course, her mind supplies too late, but the question still stands. The last time she saw him, he was... Well, he was on a downward spiral. How else can she describe it? He was falling apart. He had fallen apart; Erza has the shrapnel scars to prove it.

"I go to university here," he says, shuffling awkwardly on his feet but seemingly unable to tear his eyes from her.

"How did you—" Again, her thoughts escape without a filter, but she catches herself just in time. "I-I didn't know—" she tries instead, but it sounds just as bad. He's like the rain, she can't help but think. Out of nowhere; disrupting her plans like a flood; soaking everything in it's transparent colours.

Like a sudden downpour, but stranger; like a sudden downpour on Mars.

Jellal smiles ruefully, finally breaking eye contact to look at the ground instead. "That I graduated? Yeah, I wasn't... They weren't gonna let me, not after that last year, but I, uh..." He clears his throat. "I took some supplementary classes in the summer, sat my exams, got accepted, and— uh, well, here I am." His laugh sounds pained.

"Here you are," she echoes. He was one track for Tokyo. He was supposed to be the brightest kid in their year, graduating at the top of the class. "What are you studying?"

"Astrophysics. Just like I..."

"Like you always wanted." She nods. "Right."

"Basically," he coughs out another little embarrassed laugh, "I got my shit together. About time I did, so. Yeah. I had no idea you'd be here, too, though. This is— such a surprise, wow."

"It... sure is that," Erza says hollowly.

They stand in awkward silence for a moment; Jellal unreadable, Erza reeling. It's too much for her to take, too much of a shock, too sudden. The black hole where she'd tried (failed) to banish all thoughts of him is open and growing, and all her words seem to have fallen in.

"I'm sorry to ask this so suddenly," Jellal breaks the silence, "and this is way off topic, but... is that my hoodie?"

"Huh?" She looks down to affirm and is promptly mortified because yes, it definitely is his old NASA hoodie. "Oh my God. I- I'm sorry, I— I didn't have a chance to return it, I just— s-sometimes wear it, you know, just—" Her laugh is so strained it even makes her cringe.

"No, no, please!" Jellal has the gall — the bravery, a traitorous smitten nostalgic part of her supplies — to laugh. "I was just noticing. I'm happy." He gives her his token smile and it does strange things to a knot inside her ribcage. "Keep it, please. It looks good on you."

The doors to her lecture hall opens and students from the previous class filter out. Erza takes the opportunity to duck out of view and rushes into the class, diving into the first vacant seat and unpacking her bag with false fervour.

When her classmate asks her why she's red, if she's feeling okay, and suggests she might have a cold from the weather, Erza laughs her off with an altogether too manufactured smile. "The rain doesn't get to me so easily," she lies.