As requested, the sequel to A Study in Scarlet. Haha finally this took so long. Thanks to all who reviewed, including DiamondAnime, FadingNoctis and my mysterious guest reviewer! :)
Royal Blue
Whap!
"Ow..."
Whack!
"Ouch! Ultear, you didn't have to-"
"Yes, I did!" she fumed, smacking him upside the head again. "What were you thinking, you idiot! You could have gotten yourself exposed! Gotten us all killed!"
Meredy flinched.
"He probably knows by now, Ul... You've been doing this for fifteen minutes already."
"I don't care!"
Smack!
"Men! Such obstinate creatures! Jellal, you knew, and even after I told you-"
This time, Jellal kept his head down, taking the beating in silence. Despite what his protesting dignity told him, she was right. He had indeed risked the lives of his comrades by sneaking out into a town in broad daylight like that, even going as far as to seek out the people who had, though unwillingly, landed him in jail. There were still a few people who had been at the Tower of Heaven that still reckoned he was the Devil's best buddy.
And he was, he told himself, heart sinking to his knees. So many things he'd done... Erza... Erza... Had told him to live. To struggle, and carry on with what he was meant to do.
And he couldn't do that if he were dead, could he?
"I'm sorry," he mumbled abruptly, forcing the apology out between his parched lips, shame wrapping him in a dark shroud. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? I was... I was selfish, all right? I just... wanted to see Erza. That's all."
His voice faded into a whisper as he looked down, a darkening blush tinting his cheeks.
It's been seven years, Erza... Would you still forgive me?
Ultear suddenly stopped smacking him. Jellal looked up hesitantly, only to see a smile spreading across Ultear's face. She lowered her hand, sighing.
"You must really like her, then."
Jellal started.
"That's not what I- oh, Ultear-"
"Say, when are you two getting married?" cut in Meredy, her lips twisting into a smirk.
"Oh, wait," Ultear sniggered, her voice adopting false pity, "He still has that fiancee of his to worry about, doesn't he, Meredy?"
"You two- it's not what it- gah!" Jellal smacked his forehead in exasperation.
The two women giggled as Jellal's hands dropped to his sides in defeat, their laughter fading into the night of the forest.
...
The Daimatou Enbu. An annual event where the guilds of Fiore fought it out to determine who would be the most powerful of them all, the top dog in the pack.
And Erza Scarlet was caught up in the middle of it all. The ragtag patched-together cacophony of voices, smells and colours blended together into the tapestry of Crocus, where the cheery voices of roadside vendors clamored for their goods to be bought. She looked to her left, where an errant Natsu and Happy had run off to look at all the merchandise, and were now pulling out their money with excited looks on their faces, like little children.
Erza sighed, her eyes fluttering shut, a smile on her face. She had never remembered anything like that since she'd been five, and she'd taken her best friend to the village fair.
"What's that all-knowing look for, Erza?" Gray asked as he fell into step beside her. She glanced at him. "Nothing," she said, though her heart soared with the memory. She looked up again at the sound of Natsu and Happy's voices.
"Oi, Erza! Check this out!" Happy yelled gleefully, as he and Natsu each took a bite of their Lacr-eam Lollies, as advertised on a nearby lacrima lamp-post, "GUARANTEED TO FREEZE YOUR BRAIN! TRY IT NOW!"
Erza took one glance at the Lollies, then waved her hand dismissively. "I'll pass."
Natsu looked at Happy, then Erza, then Happy again, and they both shrugged. "Your loss!" they whooped in unison as they ran off ahead to look at more interesting things, some with more than thirteen legs.
After making sure that the two of them were more than half of the street ahead, Gray caught up with her again. "You okay? You haven't been looking up since Romeo suggested that we could enter the Grand Magic Games."
"'M fine," she said shortly.
"You're not eating."
"Am too."
"No, you're not." Gray said, pulling at her arm to make her stop. The creak of wheels as her giant cart carrying all her baggage trundled to a halt sounded behind her. She looked testily at Gray, sighing, and turned to face him properly. "What?"
"I said, you're not eating."
"Since when?"
"Since when? Natsu just offered you something, and you refused. If that isn't not eating, then I don't know what is!"
When Erza didn't answer, Gray pushed further.
"Look, is this about Jellal? I know you two haven't seen each other in seven years and all until the night we got our Second Origins- " Erza's heart lurched painfully. He kissed me. Kissed me, and told me he had a fiancee. Gray glared at her pointedly, and she hurriedly tuned back into what he was saying. "... know you miss him, but -"
"It's not," she replied perfectly calmly, cutting him off, though she was a screaming wreck inside, and started walking again, amidst the protesting of the wheels on her severely overloaded cart. "If you think that, Gray, then you're a bigger idiot then I thought you were. I've already seen him once. That's enough for me. And as for not eating, I think I'm as wise as you on the subject of cheap, suspicious street food."
They passed Natsu and Happy, who were standing there, frozen in the middle of the road, frost spreading across their bodies, heads completely encased in blocks of ice, with only their eyes free to slide like goldfish in a bowl to stare at Gray and Erza passing them with boundless envy.
Erza raised her eyebrows at Gray.
"All right, all right," Gray muttered, his eyes sliding away from her gaze, putting his hands up between them and leaning back as far as his flexibility would allow, and he walked off, shaking his head.
Erza gave herself a mental pat on the back. Phew. Dodged a bullet there. However, her stomach was still turmoiled.
Gray's right. What am I doing?
Her personal rain clouds had gathered over her head, raining all over her baggage. She looked up from the moss-lined paving stones of the road, and realised that everyone was giving her a wide berth. She ignored that - that often happed when she went out, but even in full-to-bursting Crocus, the whole street had parted for her, the people staring and whispering as though she couldn't hear them.
...
Honey Bone. A small inn, it perched on the corner of two streets on a hill quite close to the river, and she was barely able to fit her cart into the street in which it was on, let alone all her bags into the inn. At first, the innkeeper had protested, but with a little persuasion from one of Erza's sharper pikes, he relented.
As he should, she thought.
She let out a sigh as she unlocked the door of the room they were sharing and walked in, then locked the door behind her again. Stretching, her hands above her head, she sat down on the bed closest to the window, and looked out. The sky was still a pale white, not yet sunset, and she had nothing else to do, so she set down her bag on the bed, claiming it as hers, and walked into the bathroom. It was small and simple, and she undressed and stepped into the shower, turning the water on. It cascaded down her back and shoulders. She exhaled, then inhaled, then exhaled again.
...
"Come on! It's the village fair today!" Erza grabbed her friend's hand. She grinned. "You don't wan't to miss this, do you? Your brother's gonna be performing at the fair today. You do want to see him, right?" The little girl nodded, and she clung onto Erza. Erza started the short walk down the hill to the little dip in the landscape where the village fair was going to be.
Balloons filled the air, a myriad of colours, and Erza stopped to reach unto her tiptoes and snag a passing stray, cast adrift by the wind, limping sideways instead of rising straight up into the air like its companions.
She passed it to her younger companion, whose dark eyes were alight with undisguised joy.
"You may be like this balloon, drifting on a path unlike the others." Erza pointed to the sky, where the other balloons were rising further and further away.
"But maybe only then will you reach your true goal, your destiny. Remember that."
The little girl nodded, her dark eyes serious.
Music began to play, a merry tune, floating in the air all around them, and the two walked through the colours to reach a stage where a dark-haired clown, his face stark-white with the aid of powder, danced on stilts to the uplifting tune. He bent over and grinned at them, showing teeth as white as his makeup.
The little girl giggled in delight.
The clown on stilts circled them for a while, and then bounced off, lost amongst the crowd. Ezra's hand was tugged by her friend. "There's cotton candy, onee-san!" Something leapt in Erza's heart. The little girl saw Erza as an elder sister. Erza, with no family to speak of, no family to hope for. She smiled.
"Okay, coming."
Five minutes later, they each held a stick of cotton candy and wandered towards the voice of the announcer, who was calling through a battered lacrima loudspeaker.
"Come one, come all to the village fair, where lots of games are everywhere! We have everything under the sun, so grab your friends and have some fun!"
He swept his hands outwards, and as if on cue, a burst of trumpets erupted forth from nowhere, and confetti followed, raining from the sky; red, white, blue, yellow, green, pink and purple.
The performers came then, dressed in their bright costumes. Erza had seen the women sitting out on their porches in the evenings, chatting; hands weaving through the air, up and down, up and down, stitching colorful threads through the fabric while she watched in awe, head resting on her palms.
She also knew that Aunty Mag had spent three months eating nothing but bread and drinking naught but the water from the village well before she'd had a chance to buy the cloth that went into her son's costume.
They were poor, but if anything, they didn't show it.
"Aaaand... Here they come!" The announcer's voice rose to a loud cry, at the end of which his lacrima loudspeaker, probably from all the strain of having to magnify his intermittent shouting, gave up on him, turning the last few syllables into an undignified squeak. He grimaced, slapped a hand over the mouth of his loudspeaker, and disappeared behind the crowd of tall, tall beings, magnificent on stilts, the sun glinting off the sequins and fabric -a fairy folk so high they were out of reach. Erza craned her neck upwards, her eyes glittering with joy. Hopefully they'd be able to see her friend's brother. Aunty Mag would be so proud of him.
Erza felt her hand being tugged at again. "Onee-san, I can't see!" Erza lifted her friend up onto her shoulders, and the little girl pointed, shouting. "Onii-chan! Onii-chan! There he is! Can you see him, Onee-san?" Erza attempted an affirmative noise, even though her shoulders felt like they were breaking under the strain of her younger friend, and the crowd surged around her, threatening to knock her over.
"Onii-chan!" Erza's friend waved, and Erza wobbled from the motion. She staggered sideways, blind in the turgid, turbulent swamp of legs, trying desperately to regain her balance.
Time froze. The crowd roared its approval.
And then they came.
Fireballs struck first, one hitting the stage and exploding in a shower of sparks and a wave of roaring heat. Erza collapsed amidst the screaming of the crowd as it lurched sideways, away from the barrage of attacks. People ran past her, over her, around her, trampling her, covering their heads, their faces masks of terrified expressions.
A woman carrying her child was bayoneted by a soldier, who grabbed her screaming infant and tossed it unceremoniously to his companion. The woman's blank look met Erza's and she knew the woman was dead. But she couldn't do anything to help. She had to play dead, or she knew they would find her, and what next? She wouldn't be able to find her friend.
When they had passed, Erza sat up with great difficulty and looked around, but her friend was nowhere to be seen, lost in the confusion.
When she looked up again, a dragon made of clouds reared in the sky, its smoking mouth a wreath of trailing white lit from inside by the sunset, which matched the red flames sprouting up all around her. Pretty soon, Rosemary Village was in flames.
The soldiers poured in next, a wave of angry red ants, and they grabbed screaming children off the streets, dragging them away.
Erza knew she had to find her friend.
She stumbled into an alleyway, not knowing the name of her friend, but only who she was. It wouldn't help her, she thought, her mind a field of red and black, and she wandered around, lurching back occasionally from a new tongue of flame that would, as if trying to devour her, spurt out from a wall or a lane.
There! Right in the middle of a road, tears streaking down her dusty cheeks, calling pitifully for her brother, was her friend.
Frozen, glued to the spot by a wall of flame that rose to waist-height in front of her, Erza looked round and saw soldiers, dragging someone away by the arms. She was a distance off, but there was no mistaking that unruly mop of jet-black hair, streaked red by the light of the flame, or those stilts, or the costume that Aunty Mag had starved for three months to make.
As she watched, the figure struggled, but the soldier grabbed his sleeve, tearing the fabric with a rip that Erza felt even from where she was - a rip that tore her heart out along with it.
And then he vanished, gone, swallowed by the shadows and the flames.
The little girl collapsed to her knees, a heart-wrenching cry ripping from her throat.
"SIMON!"
...
It was the loudest scream she'd ever heard in her life.
...
Erza opened her eyes, breathing hard. The water continued to run off her body, splashing away and spiraling down the drain into oblivion. She shook her head, flinging droplets of water everywhere, then pushed the memory out of her head, but she could still feel it keening outside the boundaries of her mind like a lost dog, scratching and whining and begging to be let back in.
She promptly ignored it, turning off the water, stepping out of the shower stall, toweling herself down and walking out. There was plenty to do, and besides, she hadn't heard the others come back yet.
She tried polishing her armour to keep her mind off things. That worked, at first, but after a while she had run out of weapons to shine, and she simply couldn't make that katana any more spotless than it already was.
Hours dragged on, and soon it was eight at night and no one was back yet. She sighed, got up, and opened the door, finally deciding to venture out into the streets of Crocus. She figured it wouldn't hurt - she still had hours till midnight, and anyway, since she'd been spending most of the day in her room, she might as well go out and see the city.
Her stomach growled as she turned down the hill Honey Bone was atop, walking by the canal that wound through the city. The water glittered in the moonlight, shards of broken glass floating on black water. She found the first inn she could, ducking in. Nobody inside even bothered to look - she saw tattoos hidden under shirt sleeves, where applicable - most weren't wearing more than trousers - and knives concealed in belts. Definitely not the place for a romantic dinner, but Erza had had her fair share of shady inns and bars on her missions that most would want to avoid. She sat at the bar, her armor clinking. Nobody glanced up.
"I'd like your best beer, please. And a steak, medium rare. Also, do you serve any strawberry cake? With cream, preferably." The bartender, a large man that had to hunch over to keep his head from banging against the ceiling, sneered at her. "Hah. Strawberry cake? you must be kiddin', lil' girlie. Also, I'll wanna get a look at the money first. Unless you're one of those wh-"
Half a second later, he was lying flat on his back in the middle of the inn, with a black eye that a panda would've envied, and a large lump on his head.
Erza sat back down, shooting a glare towards the assistant bartender, who by comparison was much skinnier than the bartender.
"Well?"
Five minutes later, Erza was digging into her cake with fervour. She was just about to finish the last bite when suddenly, a shadow spilled over her like dark whiskey from an upset glass. That smell...
She resisted the urge to turn around, to make sure her senses weren't fooling her, that she'd guessed the newcomer's identity from the outline of the sharp, plated shoulder plates splattered onto the wall like dried blood...
"Bacchus."
"Well, if it isn't Titania," that all-too-familiar voice sneered, and she caught another whiff of liquor as the other mage leaned onto the bar, a wild grin decorating his face.
"What brings you here?"
"Whatever brings most people to eat at a bar."
"No- no, to Crocus, I mean." He let out a mock gasp. "Don't tell me - after being out of the ring for seven years, the Fairy Queen has finally decided to show her face again? Is this your guild's last ditch effort to go digging for scraps of pride? So, Titania - are you competing in the Grand Magic Games? "
"No," she snapped, finally losing it, stuffing the last bite of cake into her mouth and swiveling around on her bar stool to glare at him. "No, I'm not. I just happened to be in this city, so far away from my hometown, at a time where all of the mages in the country have gathered to fight it out here, and I just happened to be around by coincidence! Does that satisfy you, Bacchus?"
"Ah," he said, taking a swig of liquor. "So I see. That means you're just here for dinner, eh?"
"You're drunk," she spat, disgusted.
"Far from it," he replied. "Well then - see you later. In the arena - if you even manage to make it there." He blew her a kiss; staggered away, but Erza didn't even stay to watch him leave. She paid, slamming the money down onto the bar counter, behind which the terrified assistant bartender cowered, took careful care to accidentally tread on the face of the still-downed bartender, and left the shop, the shrill squeak of the rusty door chasing her like a dog down the street.
She didn't make it far. They were already waiting. Several drunkards, fresh out of the pubs, one of them still trying to drink from an empty bottle in his hand, walked towards her. Her hand was already on the hilt of her blade.
"Aww, look," said the one at the front - he had an extremely dirty sleeve, which he wiped his nose on as he spoke - "There's a lost girlie here! Where yer momma, wench?"
Erza's eyes glittered in the moonlight, but she said nothing, keeping perfectly still. The men behind Dirty Sleeve roared with obnoxious laughter. "We ain't had any fun in ages!" laughed a man from somewhere behind Dirty Sleeve - she could only see his shadow; it was that dark - "Not since Quattro stole our ranking three years ago! We used to be the 5th in Crocus. Now we're nothing!"
"Calm down, Bvin," snapped Dirty Sleeve, wiping his nose on his shirt again. "Think they... tha' they're so... so high n' mighty, heh? Jus' 'cause they have that 'ere S-Class, huh? That Bacchus?"
Bacchus? Had he somehow managed to elevate his guild into the top 5 since she'd been gone? She knew he was powerful, but... In the space of just seven years...
"... Anyway, enough talk. We want ourselves a girl."
They lunged.
She drew her sword.
They were clumsy drunkards, but in numbers they were superior. It was nothing, though. Not for Erza, who'd managed to bring down entire dark guilds of people far stronger and with far more sense not to approach someone like her unless they were ready for it. She whirled, ready to strike down Dirty Sleeve, who was the only one who remained. He still showed no fear whatsoever, despite the fact that his comrades were all downed - he was either really brave or really stupid.
He came at her with a small knife which she didn't see, not until a blast of bright light knocked Dirty Sleeve straight into a wall. The small weapon fell from his hand, where it shattered into a million pieces. Erza removed her arm from where she'd been using it to shield her eyes from the light.
"That's probably the most inconspicuous thing I have ever seen. Congratulations."
Jellal Fernandes shrugged, half-emerging from a side alley such that the moonlight caught half of him in bright, fuzzy detail - the shock of tousled blue hair, those familiar features, features she longed to reach her hand out and - stop! Stop this nonsense right now, Erza Scarlet. She forced a straight face over her own features.
"He was getting troublesome."
"So," said Erza, walking into the alley in front of Jellal, her heart pounding, "Why are you here?"
"We will meet again soon. I promise." Well, he'd done that the night they got their Second Origins, hadn't he? So what was he here for?
"You must be bored waiting for your guildmates to return to your inn." She tensed. How did he...?
"Wouldn't you want to... go somewhere?" Jellal continued. Seeing Erza's incredulous expression, he hastily added, "Somewhere where we won't be seen, of course. I know this city well enough." She consented hesitantly, and he grinned. She saw it, a flash of the boyish expression he'd used to wear back in their gaol, that dark, damp place where his smile was the only thing that contained light.
...
They were sitting, a while later, on the top of a hill, just outside the city, on the brink of a forest where she supposed his guild must have taken refuge for the night. The stars sparkled, fading in and out in time to the pulsating beat of the sparking city that laid just below it, blurry lacrima glow kissing the edge of the night sky. It was beautiful.
"Do you... Do this often? With your guild?" It was she who spoke first, and she surprised both of them with her question.
"No," he answered, after a moment's pause, and then he laid back slowly, the tails of his coat brushing the edges of her armour. She laid down, too, after a moment's hesitation, and his hand reached out beside him to brush a lock of her hair behind her ear. She was grateful for the darkness.
...The instant their lips touch she is on fire, alight like an inferno.
"So, er..." she managed to force out, surprised at the ability of her voice to stay as calm as it was, "You're like a family, right? You care for and spend time with one another." She wasn't exactly sure where she was getting with this sentence, but at least it distracted her from her thoughts.
Her heart pounds wildly, blood rushing, even in this dream.
To her surprise, he laughed, the sound clear and lifting. "Damned if we'll ever be. Those two... They're just..." he calmed down long enough to talk, "They're more like two grandmothers than anything. Well, I guess three is better than none."
He's intoxicating, slowly poisoning her from the inside out.
"Yeah," she found herself saying. "Yeah, that's right. With our guild - well, those two troublemakers are forever going at each other. Then there's Elfman, and the Raijinshuu, and Loke, and Lucy, and Happy, and Wendy, and-" she caught herself.
"Sorry, I'm just-" she tried again. "Well, I-"
"You should come visit someday," she finished lamely, before she realised her mistake. He smiled; she could catch the curve of his lips in the moonlight, and he put his arms behind his head, turning slightly so she couldn't read his expression. She felt so awkward. It was true they hadn't said much to each other, he who'd nearly succeeded in murdering her, and then been separated from her for seven years - well - she couldn't exactly be discussing things that happened seven years ago on lacrima-vision with him, could she?
He is twenty six, with enough power to rule the world.
He sensed her discomfort, sitting up, and moving closer to her. "I understand if you... don't want to associate yourself with me. We're not exactly the most legitimate guild in Fiore, you know."
His fingers edged into her hair again, and she let him, just to see if he would. His hand left her hair after a minute, sliding to her cheek, where he placed the tips of his cool fingers against her face, leaned over, and kissed her.
Again. It wasn't like the dream she had, nor like the night where they'd met, for the first time in seven years, when they'd been hurried, and unsure. It was long, thoughtful, calm. He was gentle.
"I... have a fiancee."
You liar.
He let go of her, turned towards her, and she clearly caught the smile on his face.
"It's been a long while, Erza." Her heart skipped at the sound of her name, the lilting way he said it, almost like notes of a song. He still had that power over her, the power he'd had over her ever since they were kids, the one that forced her to stop, and think, and listen.
Listen to him.
"We will see each other again. I promise."
...
"...Yeah, it has."
-END-
Yesss... Finally this is finished... *Retreats to cave*