Dylan and Sherry stared blankly at each other, taking in all the changes in temperament, appearance and finding everything that was still the same. Sherry flashed a dazzling smile, her eyes narrowed in joyful narrow slits, little dimples highlighting her kind smile. Dazed, the silly knight stood frozen in place like a lovestruck fool.
"Ice cream!" The children paid no mind to the pair of love birds and unintentionally broke the ambiguous mood in the air. The especially eager ones ran up to Sherry and got her to give them the plastic bag that she placed the goodies in.
"Long time no see." Dylan muttered in a low nasally voice. He had still not broken out from the spell and found that his eyes could not leave hers.
"I thought I'll never get to see you again." Sherry buried her face in his broad chest, rubbing it and taking in the sense of security that it brought. Dylan pat her back and stroke her long smooth hair. He hugged her back and pulled her in his tight embrace. This moment made the two of them fill like everything was going to be alright, as if nothing bad will happen and they will never be separated again.
Fweoh, fweoh, Diana teasingly whistled. Sherry immediately pushed herself out of Dylan's embrace, causing him to just smile wryly to himself.
Sherry had her head down and her ears were dyed red. They do that a lot, Dylan noticed. When they were walking together downtown, when he saved her from a monster and when he bought her a flower pin, her ears had gone red on all occasions. Maybe they just go red easily, Dylan thought to himself.
"L-let's go eat some 'ice cream'. I'm sure you will like it." She proposed in an attempt to change the weird mood between them.
Dylan tilted his head. "What's 'ice cream'?" He asked.
"Oh, that's right. They don't have ice cream back in Diva. Silly me. Its a frozen treat made of milk. I'm sure you'll love it." Her face blossomed into a beautiful smile full of joy as she pulled Dylan's arm and dragged him closer to the children. Dylan obediently complied. He was still loss in thoughts. Sherry was a women with a hundred faces. It was always changing. One second there will be a frown on her face and then the next she will be smiling like a child. It was always interesting to observe her when she was deep in thought.
Sherry received two cones from the children who had already started to snack on the frozen sweets. She gave one to Dylan and kept one for herself. "This part is paper so you have to get rid of it like this." She demonstrated to him how to open to wrapping and proudly showed of to him. She rarely had the chance to teach Dylan things as he was able to absorb information like a sponge and was more like her teacher back in Diva.
Dylan copied Sherry's actions and peeled the wrapping. Underneath the thin paper was something white like snow but milkier. It was cold to the touch and had small cut up nuts sprinkled on top with a mysterious hard brown thing covering parts of the surface.
"This is white thing is ice cream. It is made of milk and other things but I'm not too sure. Other flavours have different colours but vanilla is white and the most popular(?) I guess." Sherry explained and licked the ice cream to show that it was safe to eat. Little dimples appeared on her face again as she showed a small smile.
"It's delicious." Dylan licked the ice cream and expressed.
"Hehe, Earth may not have magic but we do have a lot of tools to make things for us. Thanks to that, we can eat a lot of sweets that are not widely available in Diva." Sherry bragged as she ate. A bit of ice cream got on the corner of her lips so Dylan approached her and helped her to wipe it off. His tough and callused finger was rough to the touch but it was warm and gentle. Once again, Sherry's ears were dyed red.
"You eat messier than a child." Dylan laughed and cast a basic cleaning spell on his finger. "You haven't changed at all, Sherry."
"Why would I change? It's only been a little more than a month since I came back." She pouted and cooled her cheeks down with her hand.
"A month?" Dylan repeated. Sherry nodded and started eating again. "Its been a year for me." He nonchalantly revealed as he too indulged in the ice cream.
"So that's why you look more mature- wait, what? A year???" She was now the very picture of confusion. Her eyes might've even had question marks radiating from them.
"Mhm, I'm older than you now. By a whole year." Dylan proudly announced. His young age had actually been bothering him because Sherry had been treating him like a younger brother thus far. So he thought that maybe now that he was older, she would see him more as a man.
"No, that's not fair. Even if I travelled back to two years ago, I'm still mentally 22. So I'm still the older one." Sherry protested.
"I'm 21 now and you are 20. Even if you say you are 22, you are still 20. So I am the older one." Dylan reasoned and didn't back off.
"I don't care what you say, I'm still the older one!" Sherry argued. No matter what, she still felt that she was the older one.
"See, you're arguing like a little child right now. That's why, you are the younger one." Dylan bickered back. As they went back and forth in this manner, the two suddenly looked at each other and burst into laughter.
"It's as if nothing ever happened." Sherry commented.
Dylan nodded. The hurt and pain that Diva brought him as well as the burdens and responsibilities, he felt as if he had been liberated from them. Nothing from that world mattered anymore. He was in Earth now.