The man's deranged laughter echoed through the underground dungeon hidden deep beneath the old castle. His interrogator lifted a single thin eyebrow at the unexpected response to the abuse he had just put the man through. A sigh escaped his lips and with a wave of his hand he signalled for one of the guards that had been standing watch to take the man to his cell.

Another sigh escaped Hughes' lips, this man was proving to be exceedingly hard to crack. None of the usual interrogation methods were giving any results. He was thoroughly displeased since he would have prefered not to have to consult Erza about how to proceed, but there was unfortunately no choice.

Many floors above the dungeon the redheaded woman in question burst through the doors to the king's makeshift study. Jellal gave a surprised yelp as the door banged harshly against the wall and he hastily scrambled to right his inkpot before it's contents spilled all over the letters he had spent the past several hours writing. Once he was sure that the disaster had been properly averted he gave her a reproachful scowl. Her only response to his non-verbal scolding was a dismissive shrug as she walked over and planted herself comfortably on his desk. His eyes widened in alarm, fearing that she would disrupt all his tidy paperwork but upon seeing that she had carefully placed herself where she wouldn't jeopardize any of his work he decided it would be best to shut up and humor her.

"You know you only ever sit on my desk like this when you want to force me to pay attention to you?" he asked pushing his fringe out of his eyes. "It's damn irritating."

"It works, doesn't it?" she smirked down at him.

"Hmm." He had to admit that she knew how to forcefully divert his attention towards her, in more ways than one. "What is it this time, Erza?"

"I'm just curious as to why this is the first time you've authorized us to torture your would-be assassins for information." she asked, flicking her hair behind her shoulder before taking his quill from his hand and placing it in the inkpot. Jellal raised an eyebrow.

"I did no such thing." He answered curtly. Erza scoffed and leaned in closer to him, trying to threaten him into submission.

"Please, Jellal. You put me in charge of their interrogation, knowing full-well that I am a very sadistic woman. You knew that these men would be much harder to crack than the others." She cocked her head to the side. "You also knew that no matter how far you would be willing to go that I would always be able to come with even crueller and far more effective torture." Jellal sighed. She was right, of course. Even now the sadistic glee in her eyes, both from the power he had given her over the prisoner and from the fact that she was cornering him in their little discussion, was present for anyone who cared to look to see.

"You know why I did it, you were there." he said. "I don't want any innocent civilians caught up in their lust for terror." Erza gave a low, dangerous laugh.

"You're not half as soft as the idiots on the council think you are." He frowned at that and she laughed some more. "Don't worry," she purred. Once again the thought that this woman was dangerous crossed Jellal's mind. "I decided to humor you a bit, so I instructed Hughes and Sugarboy to use your usual methods before going for anything else."Jellal sighed.

"I'll admit that is a weight off my mind."

Their conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Come in."

As soon as Jellal saw Hughes and Sugarboy walk in he felt a sinking feeling in his stomach.

"My lord, I am sorry to say that we could get nothing out of the prisoner through the usual methods."

Erza smirked at him. "You were saying?" He scowled.

AN:/ This is gonna be a short three-shot so I can have a bit of fun with these four. Tell me what you think!