A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Astrid continued to yell as she attacked. "If you'd just been a little more thoughtful, I might not have attacked right away!" she yelled while throwing a right hook, which Erik deftly caught and redirected.

At the same time, he raised an eyebrow and responded without losing his grin, "What did you expect me to do? Cry and hug you? Neither of us has ever been very good with emotional stuff."

Fueled by frustration and anger, Astrid threw a powerful left cross aiming directly at Erik's cheek. "Fuck you! I nearly took your damn head off! Some reunion that would have been!"

Erik leaned back, barely dodging her punch, while Astrid continued in a mocking imitation of his voice, "'Hey, Astrid, look, I'm alive! Yay!'"

Grabbing her extended arm, Erik used her momentum to make her stumble past him, but that didn't stop Astrid's tirade, "Then bam! You end up dead for real because I killed you, and then how am I gonna feel, huh?!"

Despite Astrid's agitated emotions and continued rant, Erik couldn't stop grinning. He loved this. "Come now, Astrid. You couldn't beat me in the past, what makes you think you can do so now? A little sunburn isn't gonna do me in." he said, making Astrid even more furious.

He may not have held romantic love for her, or even been a particularly good friend, in the past, but he did care for her, and he knew how she worked.

The angrier she got, the easier it was for her to work through her complicated feelings. She needed a cathartic release.

Recovering from her stumble, Astrid turned around and glared at him. "How do you even know about my affinity?! Have you been keeping tabs on me these past years without letting me know you were alive?!"

Naturally, it was Elora who had detected Astrid's sun affinity, if a little late.

That thought seemed to spur her on even more as she roared with anger, betrayal, and disappointment before launching into a series of rapid jab punches filled with a mixture of aggression and depression.

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Seeing she was finally asking real questions rather than just hurtling accusations and venting her anger, Erik began parrying her jabs one by one, even as his grin changed into a warm smile.

Or at least, that was the idea, but his currently morphed werewolf face didn't really allow for nuanced expression, causing his smile to be more terrifying than anything else.

Luckily, Astrid was used to his werewolf form and could still pick up the small differences in his changed face, even after all these years.

"I wouldn't do that to you, Astrid." He said while continuing to parry her strikes. "Seven years ago I survived by the skin of my teeth through a combination of luck and striking a deal with someone."

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Naturally, that deal had now turned into something far more, but this was not yet the time for that conversation.

In a lightning-fast move, he suddenly caught both of Astrid's arms, forcing her to stay still as he looked into her turbulent, crimson eyes with a genuine and serious expression. "Ever since then, I've been far away from here and was only recently able to come back. I promise you, had I been able to let you know I survived, I would have."

Although not exactly false, he wasn't being entirely truthful either.

After all, the truth was that, over the past seven years, all memories of Astrid had become haunted by the ghost that was Edda's betrayal, causing him to barely think about her at all.

Yet, admitting this, and revealing the extent of his neglect, was not a burden he wished to place on Astrid's shoulders. Not now, at the moment of their reunion. Not only did she deserve better than that, but he was also ashamed of having forgotten about her for so long.

So, when Astrid attempted to rip herself free, he didn't resist.

She took a step backward and growled, "Am I supposed to believe that?!" before taking an aggressive stance again. "I know you never cared about me! Not as much as you did about that bitch Edda!" she nearly screeched her last words as she attacked with a high kick.

Over the last seven years, Astrid had had a lot of time to think about her past relationship with Erik and Edda. These memories had subconsciously begun to be influenced by her newly formed hatred of Edda, causing some resentment to arise towards Erik for never realizing Edda's true face.

Naturally, neither did she, but sometimes logic can be hard to find in the face of anger and depression.

A hint of pain and guilt passed through Erik's eyes as he caught her foot with both hands, accompanied by a grunt of effort. The force of her kick nearly forced the wind out of him again, despite being able to catch it.

Astrid had seen the pain and guilt in his eyes and felt a sting at thinking she had hurt Erik. Perhaps a strange thought considering her repeated attempts to beat him up, but the irony was lost on Astrid.

Regardless, seeing those emotions calmed her down a little, so instead of attempting to free herself, she easily kept her hands up and her balance steady as she glared angrily at Erik holding her foot, waiting for his response.

Seeing her look, Erik sighed as he knew he needed to do something he had done very rarely in the past seven years. He needed to apologize.

First, he changed back into human form, then, he looked into her eyes and said, "I'm sorry, Astrid. You deserved better than the person I was back then. Any man would have been overjoyed to get your attention, but I was just an idiot boy, two years younger than you, and all I could see was Edda. I should have realized your feelings for me.

I should have realized you are ten times the person Edda ever could be!"

Finally, he sighed and made her a promise, "If you'll let me, I'd love to make it up to you from here on out."

That was something he had been building up in his head from the moment he laid eyes on the ghoulified Astrid back in the forest, and it felt like a relief to finally say the words.

As for Astrid, her eyes went wide and she began to tremble because she suddenly heard the very words she had heard him say in her head perhaps a thousand times. The words she had always wished he would say.

Well, not exactly, but close enough for now.

The fury drained from her face, pushed aside by all the loneliness and despair from the last seven years that suddenly came flooding back.

Her body trembled as the previously dried-up tears began flowing again.