A/N: So, the other day I was re-reading the Tower of Heaven Arc and got myself mourning the fact that our favorite little dorks got torn apart so badly in their childhood. And so, the plot bunny was born. What if they hadn't been torn apart like that? Cue Bella completely ignoring her responsibilities to work on an AU.
Fact list:
Changes that led to this AU:
- Little Ultear didn't walk away from Ur when she saw her with Gray and Lyon after her escape. She went to her mother and rescued herself. For protection against Hades, who was after Ultear, the Ice Family came to Fairy Tail for help. Eventually, Ur, Ultear and Gray joined while Lyon ran off to Lamia, set on surpassing Ur and feeling like her presence would hinder his efforts – although he's stubbornly trying to stay away until the time comes to defeat her, Ur still remains in contact with him, dropping in for visits and mailing him letters like a concerned mother;
- Deliora is still walking around, although he's been active on the neighboring country of Seven rather than Fiore and Gray is still set on defeating it one day – he's just physically unable to cross the boarders without a guardian signing him off for it (which obviously no one will do, knowing his plans);
- Without Ultear to brainwash him, Jellal was rescued by Erza at the Tower and all the slaves escaped. They joined Fairy Tail with their friends afterwards
Ages:
Erza and Jellal – 11
Ultear – 14
Gray – 10
Also: French Braid = Caelan Braid here (after the Earthland country of Caelum since there's no France in the Fairy Tail world).
Apologies if this sounds OOC for anyone. The events of the tower of Heaven were very defining for Erza and Jellal and, given the change on the outcome, they'd be a little… different.
x776
Ultear had been bored out of her mind. She'd overslept that morning and, upon arriving at the guild, the request board was completely empty save for a handful of jobs so easy she couldn't bring herself to take them away from the younger kids. Why were there no harder jobs? Because it was the end of November and everybody wanted to impress the Master so he would select them for that year's S-Class trials. Being her third year at the guild, that routine was pretty much set in stone in her brain.
And as if it wasn't bad enough that there were no jobs for her, her mother had been off on a job with Gildarts since last Tuesday and Gray had inexplicably decided to forego his incessant demon-slaying training (oh, how she regretted leaving her lost magic books lying around – as he if his Deliora obsession hadn't been bad enough before he'd discovered there was a type of magic specifically meant to slay demons) to instead go help Cana with some sort of request from the orphanage, which meant she couldn't even pass the time by trying to force the little brat to experience things normal kids usually did, such as the unconditional sisterly love that came with annoying the living hell out of weird little brothers.
So, with all the boredom afflicting her, it wasn't surprising that, upon noticing two of the newest members of the guild heading out on their own, she found herself suddenly interested.
She hadn't interacted much with them yet even though they'd been at the guild for months. They'd come in a big group of kids rescued from a slavery ring or something. She didn't have a habit of paying attention to the news but she knew the slavery scandal had been on the headlines a lot because her mother had been pretty upset by it, likely because kids being stolen away from their parents hit close to home to her. In the end, Master had gone and taken in something like ten of those rescued kids and those two had come along in the group.
The redhead, Erza, she recalled, was an intense one. Up until a few weeks before, she'd worn an eye-patch all the time, which made her look kind of intimidating for her age. Still, she wasn't particularly rude or a loner or anything, just shy towards new people. Ultear was pretty sure she was friends with Gray or at least friendly enough that he would on occasion take a break from his demon-vendetta to hang out and spar. Aside from that, the youngest kids of the group Erza had joined the guild with seemed to adore her, calling her their sister and everything. One of the older ones, a boy named Simon, who was often away with older members of the guild in search for a missing sister of his, tended to shoot her a series of longing looks when he was at the guild and she wasn't paying attention. Poor kid. It obvious that he had a crush and even more obvious that he didn't stand a chance in hell.
Why not? Because red came in a set with blue. And blue was not Simon but instead yet another little kid by the name of Jellal Fernandes.
That one wasn't hard to figure out: bookish, cheerful and smart but not in an overly-nerdish sort of way; outgoing; Erza's counterpart in what came to being the big brother of their group and also pretty much her shadow or vice-versa.
It was rare to see those two not walking around in a pair but not quite in the way one would see two best friends hanging out. Blushes, stolen glances, occasional stuttering… Ultear liked to think of herself as a perceptive sort of girl and she knew a crush when she saw one. And seeing those two tiptoe around each other was just too adorable. It made her feel all girly and romantic… though, of course, not as much as it made her feel devious.
Up until then, she'd been happy with watching it develop from a distance like some sort of wildlife documentary. However, now that she didn't have anything better to do… well, she couldn't help but want to break the golden rule of no interference. It was just too tempting and, for that, she needed to worm her way into their plans.
"Hey, you two! Erza, Jellal," Ultear called from her table, causing the eleven-year-olds to look at her in surprise because she'd never felt the need to address them in particular before. "You wouldn't happen to be off to do a job or something, would you?"
"Hmm… not really," Jellal replied. "Erza was just going to practice her magic a little."
"Oh. Requip, right?" Ultear asked, turning to the girl in question. "Armor and weaponry."
"Yes," Erza replied shyly.
The older girl scratched her chin. She could work with that. "Well, I'm a bit bored now. What do you say we have a little one-on-one? I hear you're getting pretty good. At least enough to knock Gray on his ass when he's been using magic way longer than you have. And I've never fought a requip mage, so…"
"You want to fight me?!" Erza asked in disbelief.
"Just a little friendly spar," the older girl told her. "You pick the rules."
Erza seemed a little unsure. "Your magic is the Arc of Time, right?" she asked, having heard it around. Lost Magic.
Ultear nodded. "I know the name doesn't sound too battle-oriented but I manage just fine. Besides, I can use Ice-Make too."
Erza gulped, mildly nervous. It sounded like she didn't stand a chance. Ultear was, after all, publicly referred to as one of the most precociously talented mages of Fairy Tail. She'd even heard rumors that the older girl had been stolen from her mother at an early age because of her tremendous amount of power, only to later on escape and run back into Ur's arms, eventually coming to Fairy Tail for protection when her kidnappers came for her. People at the guild barely spoke of the ultimate face-off with them, both kids and adults – later, she would come to learn that it was because they were ashamed… ashamed that the man behind it all, the man that they had to take down for Ultear's sake, had once upon a time been not only their guild's master but also one of its founders.
But back to Ultear's challenge, Erza was torn. On one hand, sparring with the older girl seemed like a rather interesting prospect, especially since she'd never seen lost magic in person. On the other, she knew she didn't stand a chance. And it wasn't that she thought herself weak – six months ago, before she'd had her magic awakening, before Grandpa Rob had sacrificed himself for her, she would have thought so but now she was mightily aware that she couldn't afford to be weak. If she was, Grandpa Rob's death would have been in vain and she wouldn't be able to protect her friends, who were her only family, which she desperately needed to do because thus far she was the only one who could do magic out of their group. So, she'd pushed herself to be strong by practicing her magic and sword skills every day. She could tell it was working, which made all the pain and exhaustion worth it but at the end of the day she was still a kid just getting started, which wasn't the case for Ultear. And it was all the effort she'd put herself through that made the prospect of walking into a fight that she was very likely going to lose, even if it was against a superior mage, sting a little bit.
"You should do it," Jellal said by her side. "I think you could win."
Jellal Fernandes: positivity with legs. Sometimes too much so, even. She raised an eyebrow at him, silently asking if he was serious. He caught the message and nodded.
"I mean it! And even if you don't win the battle itself, learning something from it will still be a victory."
"Your boyfriend's got a point," Ultear agreed.
Of course, said agreement was the least important thing in her mind. "My… no! No, he's not…! We're not…!" Erza stuttered.
"We're just friends!" Jellal nearly shouted. "Best friends!"
"Oh, is that a fact?" Ultear said, trying to sound sorry despite the fact that she was positively delighted by their embarrassment. "I must've misread something." As if… "In any case," she went on to say, trying to change the direction of the conversation, "as your friend was saying, you might win, you might lose – it hardly matters because this is just a friendly match and you'll probably learn something either way. Mavis knows I learned more about Ice-Make when my mother was knocking me on my butt than when I was spending day after day practicing."
Erza scratched her chin. Both of them were making a good point – it wasn't a life-or-death match and win or lose she would gain experience. "Okay. We'll fight."
"Alright!" Ultear said, satisfied. She got to her feet. "Lead the way, kids."
Erza lost. And the surprising part about it was how well she held herself against someone who was definitely a shoe-in for S-class (once she was old enough to be selected) before ultimately being defeated.
Erza was strong. Jellal had known that since the beginning, even when fear would make her tear up all the time. Erza Scarlet had always been strong. But now… now everybody could see it. Maybe even herself. He couldn't possibly be prouder about it.
Grandpa Rob's sacrifice has changed her. Not in a way that they couldn't recognize her anymore, of course. She was still Erza: shy, cute Erza… the only member of their little group that Jellal simply couldn't classify in his mind as a foster sibling for reasons he found too embarrassing to acknowledge. But after they had left the tower, she stood taller than ever, determined to protect her friends, determined to be strong.
So, for months, after Fairy Tail took them in, Jellal watched it as she trained herself. Hard. So hard he couldn't stay away, fearing she might accidentally injure herself if he turned his back for a second in her wish to grow stronger. Initially, he had been her sparring partner even with his very limited sword-wielding skills but once it became obvious that she could take him down in seconds, trees and training dummies proved to be sturdier opponents than he was. Because of that, he found himself having to sit by as she trained, pretending to read when he was actually watching her every move, prepared to act if she hurt herself, which happened increasingly rarely. He was hoping that once he got a better hang of his own magic, he'd be able to rejoin her as a sparring partner but for now he was stuck on the sidelines.
The Master had told him he had plenty of promise when it came to wielding magic, almost to the point of prodigy, but he simply needed to find the right type of magic to get started at. Once he did and learned how to let it flow properly, everything would fall into place.
Of course, that was yet to happen.
Several members of the guild had taken the time to check if their own types of magic were indicated to him in any way but none had felt right. It was not as if he couldn't learn them in time but Master had stressed how important it was that he found the type that felt right to him before starting to expand his horizons. A matter of 'gaining sensibility' and 'awakening his true potential', he had called it, pointing out how Ultear herself had struggled with her mother's Ice-Make before she had stumbled into an old book about lost magic and the Arc of Time had caught her attention, urging her to develop it herself – afterwards, once she was able to use time magic with ease, adding Ice-Make to her list of magical skills had been much, much easier.
So after hearing that story, Jellal had immediately rushed to the library and started checking out books about different types of magic, studying them all through the night in hopes that the same would happen to him. Thus far, he hadn't found anything too exciting but he was first on the library's waiting list to get his hands on an overdue book concerning astronomical types of magic – he had no idea when the idiot who had checked it out and failed to return it would bring it back but he had high hopes for it, given his own fascination for all things astral.
… which brought things back to the sparring session in question.
They decided to make it a first blood sort of thing.
"And let's aim for scratches, not, say, gaping wounds," Ultear pointed out as the three of them stood in the clearing the match was to take place on. It was Erza's usual training spot in the forest. "The Master would have our heads."
That was easily agreed upon and, after taking a couple of minutes to get ready, Erza tying up her growing hair in a messy bun to keep it out of her face and Ultear just hanging her winter coat on a nearby tree branch, they stood face to face in the center of the clearing.
It was Jellal who gave the starting signal… and, from there, everything was a rush to him.
They were ridiculously fast – that was his first impression. Ice, glass orbs and metal flashed all over the makeshift battle ring at an unbelievable speed. He could only stare as they tore at each other viciously and yet one never quite damaging one another. Erza would have probably been in trouble, weren't it for the armor she requipped on two seconds into the fight – the fact that she favored the physical swordplay while Ultear favored hands-free magic would have put her at a disadvantage without the armor because while she had to fend off the attacks with her own body, Ultear managed to stay at a distance while conjuring weaponry and aiming glass orbs. Jellal had certainly lost count of the blows the metal had received two minutes in.
The showdown lasted like that for about ten minutes. It might have lasted longer, hadn't it been for the massive windstorm they suddenly found themselves in the middle of, not brought by anyone's powers but instead by the unpredictable winter weather.
Ultear's twin tails flapped in the wind as they fought but the distance her tactic allowed didn't make that too much of a hindrance. It did, however, help her devise a whole new strategy in her mind.
Much to Erza's surprise, the glass orbs' onslaught ended momentarily even though the ice-weaponry one didn't. She needed her Arc of Time to something else. As she wondered if Ultear had ran out of power to feed two different types of magic at once, the redhead didn't notice the fact that the hair tie securing her bun was ageing, withering until finally… it snapped. In an instant, her red locks were unbound and flapping in the wind, right against her face, blocking her vision.
And so, that first moment of confusion that brought her guard down was all Ultear needed to send an ice-dagger flying towards a stretch of exposed skin where her arm bent at the elbow. It nicked her just at the surface, not deep enough to cause concern but just enough to draw a tiny drop of blood.
Once Jellal saw it, he called for the fight to end. It was over.
"Phew, I was starting to think this would never end," Ultear declared, wiping her brow.
"Are you okay?" Jellal asked, rushing over to the spot where Erza stood, glaring at her bleeding elbow.
"I didn't cut too deep, did I?" Ultear asked, approaching as well.
"No," Erza mumbled. "It just feels weird losing over such a tiny cut."
"Well, those were the rules," Ultear pointed out. "Though, if it's any consolation, it feels stupid to win like that too. But let's do this again – maybe make it more interesting next time around." She stretched her hand, as if to shake on it.
Erza hesitated for less than a second before taking it, a little smile gracing her face as they shook hands. "I think I may have to cut my hair short before that happens again, though," she said in agreement.
Jellal's eyes immediately widened. "Wait, what?! No!" he said in a tone of utter despair. "You can't cut your hair!"
Erza looked at him with a frown. "Why not? It's just hair. And I used to wear it shorter before," she pointed out. It was already reaching an inch past her shoulders and not having it cut had been an oversight.
"But… but it's so…" Perfect, magnificent, silky… stroke-able. Sometimes, I have to actively stop myself from trying to touch it because it's so tempting. "It's just so…"
Ultear couldn't help smirking as he hesitated again, blushing. Well, weren't things developing interestingly? She cleared her throat. "I think that what he's trying to say is that it would be a pity for you to chop it off now when it looks so cute the way it is," she filled in. "Isn't that right, Jellal?"
"I… she… er… I don't… I mean, it is…" He blushed. So hard he might burn upon touch. Mavis, how he wished he was proficient in Earth magic – if he was, he would make a sinkhole appear under his feet, swallow him and smother him to death as it filled back in.
"And I bet it will look even cuter once it's longer," Ultear went further, following the steps of the plan she'd just formed in her mind. "You could wear it on a braid once it's long enough. Braids are great for keeping your hair away from your face. Mom always braids my hair when we go on jobs together."
"B-braids?" Erza said, a little unsure.
The older girl nodded. "Do you know how to make them?" Erza shook her head. Perfect. "Okay, I'll show you!" Did she sound too perky? She probably did. But the plan required a certain amount of bounciness and girly-ness to hide the devious intentions behind it all – she guessed a little exaggeration wouldn't hurt too much.
The wind was still blowing hard, making strands of hair flap like flags, so, to seclude them from it, she conjured three large intercepting walls of ice, forming a triangle within which they stood.
"There. That's better. Now, I'll start by showing you the basic technique on my own hair," Ultear explained, grabbing one of her twin tails. "You divide the hair into three sections…" she exemplified with her own dark locks "… and then, you start by moving one of the side sections over the middle section so that the side section becomes the new middle section." And she did just that herself. "Then, you do the same with the section on the opposite side of the one you started with and you've got a new middle section. You go on like that until you're done." She promptly braided her twin tail down until reaching the bottom of it. "At the end, you tie it up. Now you try with your own hair. It doesn't have to be all of it at once. Just pick a strand and do it in front of your face so you can see it."
Erza did so and, after quite a bit of fumbling, she managed a marginally decent little braid.
"There. Doing it on the back of your head is harder but you get there with practice," Ultear explained. "I don't think your hair is long enough for you to manage a regular braid, though – you'd just get tons of loose strands. There are more complicated ones that might work but…" she paused and then, without a warning, placed her hands on Erza's shoulders, turning her around. "Here, face away from me. Let me take a look."
Although she did so, Erza couldn't help blushing, not used to being the center of attention. She blushed even harder when she felt her hair being tugged.
"Yes, a Caelan Braid would definitely work. Too bad it's even harder to do it on yourself… maybe after you have more practice… but in the meantime…" She smirked evilly, knowing no one could see her. Time to shoot for the goal. "Jellal, come here."
"Me?" he asked, jumping in alarm at the mention of his name.
"Who else?" she replied. "Come on. You're going to help Erza with her braid."
"What?!" he asked in utter disbelief, Erza having the same reaction, turning around with wide eyes
"Hurry up. The sky is darkening – it might rain." It wasn't and it didn't – she just knew they were too goddamn shocked to realize it. "Just come over here and let me teach you. Erza won't mind. Will you, Erza?"
But her embarrassment appeared to have driven her into a stupor-like state and the closest thing to speaking that she seemed able to do was a series of untranslatable grumbles.
"Go on, then," Ultear said, moving to stand behind him. She physically lifted the younger boy's arms and thrust them forwards so he was touching Erza's hair.
Immediately, he went pale. Very pale. If Ultear's calculations were right, there was a 50% chance he would faint… 1% that he would outright drop dead. Thankfully, he didn't. He just shook like a leaf, which she guessed was more than Erza – or her incredibly life-like statue – was able to do…
Weren't those two just too cute to live?
A year before, Jellal would have had no qualms about messing around with Erza's hair even if it made her look all flustered. He had, after all, been enslaved since age six and the cult members who were his captors couldn't care less about teaching their slaves about social norms such as personal space. But when, upon arriving at Fairy Tail, the Master had noticed members of their group doing strange things like Millianna eating with her hands or Shou being absolutely clueless about what the point of a toilet was, he had taken then time to give them all a crash course on how to live in society – it was only then that he had realized why Erza blushed so hard when he got too close (a whole new notion for him, in fact).
So, as the older girl gave her instructions, he prayed to any god above that a bolt of lightning would fall on him and kill him instantly – anything to spare him from a slow death resulting from embarrassment. There was no way to escape. Not only was Ultear standing right behind Jellal, trapping him between herself and Erza (who was stiff as a brick wall), she had also surrounded them with a seemingly inescapable barrier of ice.
He had to wonder if such an action had been premeditated. Was Ultear, by any chance… setting something up? Thus far, she had been nothing if not friendly to them. But still, he had a feeling. A strange feeling that there might be something utterly… scary about her under the surface. Which was not to say she was faking friendliness – something more like… a friendly (but still definitely hazardous) wolf walking around in sheep's clothing.
If that was the case, he didn't know if he should thank her (because Erza's hair was just so silky and wonderful and he'd missed touching it) or curse her (since he didn't think he'd be able to face his best friend ever again after that).
"My, aren't you a natural?" Ultear complimented the braid after he was done (reciting to himself that the sooner he was done, the sooner it would be over all the way through). "It could be a little tighter and a bit straighter but it's damn impressive for a first-timer. I bet if we undo this one and try again…"
"No!" Erza spoke up for the first time. Jellal couldn't help breathing in relief.
There was a very pronounced blush on her face, to the point that it was hard to tell it apart from her hair. She took a step forward, away from Jellal, and turned around while looking sideways to avert their eyes.
"I'm sorry, Ultear-san," she went on to say. "It was very nice of you to help me with my hair but we need to return to the guild and help Shou and Millianna with their school things. Maybe we can continue at another time."
Although it was an excuse, it wasn't technically a lie. Shou and Millianna were doing pretty badly at school, so they were forced to attend it full time, unlike most guild mages under age 16, who often chose a special homeschooling system that would allow them to focus more on jobs and their own magic. It wasn't rare for him and Erza to be found helping their young friends with their homework on a daily basis, trying to get them to improve their grades.
So, although Ultear was a bit disappointed that the embarrassing hairdressing session didn't go on a little longer, she recognized that the day's fun had come to an end. Oh, well, those two were just what? Eleven? Twelve? There would be plenty of time to torture them in the future. And wouldn't it be so much more enjoyable once they hit puberty and hormones started flying around?
"Alright, another time, then," she agreed, gesturing with her hand towards the ice walls and making them crack and explode into pieces. Not at all by coincidence, no shrapnel flew their way, instead moving away from them. "And please, just Ultear. No need for formalities."
Erza nodded, taking another step away from them. "I'll just… er… lead the way. In case… hmm, the path is blocked. By things the wind blew, I mean."
The older girl raised an eyebrow at the blatant excuse but let the redhead go, instead walking a few yards behind her with a bewildered Jellal by her side, looking down at the floor as he moved.
"You're welcome," Ultear told him, certain that Erza wasn't within earshot.
Jellal looked up with a confused look on his face. "Welcome?"
"Oh, come on. It was obvious you wanted to play around with her hair," she said. "The way you acted when you said she might cut it… one would think she was suggesting to throw acid on her face. You like her hair. I think it's cute – a little hair fetish."
Jellal's breath caught. "W-what?"
"You don't need to be embarrassed. Little dorks in love is probably the most adorable thing on the face of the planet."
That was too much for him to take. Next thing Ultear knew, the blue-haired boy tripped on his own feet and fell flat on his face with a yelp. Erza, who was already several meters ahead, heard it and came running back.
"Jellal! What happened? Are you okay?" the redhead asked as she helped her little boyfriend scrape himself off the floor. Any sign of her embarrassment from two minutes before was gone, replaced with concern.
"I'm fine. I just tripped."
"Your knee is bleeding!"
He honestly hadn't noticed until then. "Oh… I must've fallen on it."
"I'm taking you to the forest lady," Erza declared, referring to Porlyusica.
"What? No! You know she hates to be bothered. She'll probably amputate my leg out of spite if I show up there with an injury this small!" he replied, trying to get up.
Erza took his hand and gave him a boost. She didn't let go once he was up and it wouldn't be until later, once the 'Erza is concerned mode' had slipped out, that it would occur to her how… mortifying that should have been. "Don't be silly, Jellal. We're going." She turned to Ultear. "Thank you for the spar. And the… hair advice. It was very helpful." There was a bit of a blush on her face as she said so.
"You're welcome. It was no trouble." Then, she faced Jellal. "You'd better hold close to your friend. We wouldn't want that knee to give in and for you to fall again, would we?"
Jellal shot her a look of utter betrayal. "I… I think I'm steady enough."
"No, she has a point," Erza insisted, slipping her arm around him and pulling him close. And because her strength had increased by the tenfold in the past few months, what felt like a little pull to her was actually a merciless tug to him, which nearly knocked him out of balance again, causing him to slump straight against her side, his face dangerously close to her neck.
Jellal blushed furiously and, for a moment, Ultear fully believed it was finally the time for him to faint.
But it wasn't and they were actually able to be off on their way after telling her they'd see her later.
With nothing better to do, Ultear was off on her way, heading home to the apartment she shared with her mother and Gray at the center of town.
On the way, she spotted several of her younger guild mates busy with small, easy jobs… and older ones acting like they were the kids instead, namely Macao and Wakaba, who were fighting over a request slip. It was unclear who had 'dibs' on it: Wakaba, who had spotted it first, or Macao, who had reached it before him. She felt very, very tempted to just knock their heads together and settle the matter by snatching the job from them since they seemed too busy bickering to actually get to it. However, she stopped herself upon recalling that Macao's wife was pregnant and Wakaba had a little girl, so they could probably use the money for themselves and their families. In the end, she settled with calling the grown men on how pitiful they looked while squabbling like kids and suggesting they just share it, since 300 thousand jewel was a perfectly respectable payday even when split in half. They bickered a little more and complained about her bossing them around ('jeez, kid, you're as bad as your mom!') but walked away together in the end, leaving her feeling rather fulfilled.
My, my: confronting two lovebirds with their crushes and setting idiots straight all in one day – aren't I generous with two good deeds in one day? she thought.
It was around that time, after taking the last corner before reaching the building her home was located at, that she saw her mother coming from the opposite direction, dragging a skivvies-clad Gray behind her, practically fuming.
"Goddamn it, Gray! Do you think I have nothing better to do than collecting your entire wardrobe from every corner of this town twice a week?!" Ur was saying as she pulled the boy along. "One of these days I'll start chaining you to your clothes!"
"I don't want to hear that from you! I only got like this because of your weird training!"
"I went through that very same training from my master and I don't go around stripping every chance I get!"
"No, you only do it when Gildarts… ouch!" he complained when she whacked him across the back of the head. "You didn't have to hit so hard!"
"Don't be a smartass with me," Ur replied.
Gray groaned, rubbing the back of his head. It was only then that he noticed Ultear approaching. He took a step back. "Ugh… she's got that face on again. Creepy."
Ultear immediately frowned. "What did you just say, brat? And what 'face' are you talking about? I only have one face." Actually, that wasn't entirely true since she was starting to dabble with transformation magic.
Ur just chuckled. "No squabbling, you two. Gray, get upstairs, take a bath and get dressed," Ur told him, handing him her keys since his were obviously lost along with his pants. "Then, we're hunting your clothes down and if the ones you change into after your bath don't last until the end of the search, I will glue the first outfit I can find to your skin! And I'll start looking in Ultear's room!"
"That's child abuse!" Gray protested, horrified at the thought of being glued to girly clothing.
"Let any social worker spend a week with you and they'll be tempted to do the same," Ur replied, unfazed. "Now hurry, kid. I'm getting in that tub in twenty minutes either you're done or not," she bluffed.
"Ugh! Gross!" the boy complained, rushing into the building.
"Mouthy little brat," Ultear mumbled under her breath.
Her mother walked over to her. "To think that when you were little you were always asking me for a little sibling…"
"I was aiming for a cute little girl I could play dress up with, not two weird boys, one of whom spends his days thinking of demons and another who ran off to another guild while obsessing about beating you!"
"They'll grow out of it," Ur said even though she feared she might be wrong.
Lyon was genuinely just being pigheaded but Gray… his fixation with beating Deliora gave her more than her share of sleepless nights. Nurturing and family could only fix some of the darkness within him. The rest, she feared, would one day make him snap and do something stupid. The solution would be to end Deliora but she couldn't think of a way to do it that wouldn't involve her giving away her entire life, which she couldn't afford with three kids to look after. Maybe if she dragged Fairy Tail into it… but she couldn't bear to consider making her guild risk itself like that for her family again… not after they had already suffered so much to save Ultear. In theory, it should be the council to do something but they weren't worth the dirt they walked on, so she could only hope to find a better solution before Gray snapped… or that when he did snap, the demon-slaying magic he was studying would do the job, which she wasn't too reassured by.
Mavis… it made her feel like a horrible mother, balancing her protégé's life on a long-shot. But for now, it was all she could do.
"I doubt they won't still be idiot boys when they're old and wrinkly," Ultear stated.
Ur forced herself to smile. "I'm afraid that just can't be helped. Still, Gray did have a point about one thing before: you are looking especially happy with yourself today. And in a devious sort of way too. I wonder if I should expect to hear something worrisome from the master about your activities in my absence…" she prompted.
Ultear scowled. "Mom! Don't go around assuming I do nothing but trouble every time you turn your back!" she demanded in an accusing manner.
"I can't help but know the daughter I have," her mother said, patting her head unapologetically.
"Well, I'll have you know, then, that I was smiling because I have done my good deed of the month," Ultear informed her mother. "In fact, I did two good deeds today but I'll only count the first one as the monthly one."
"Really?"
"Yes. I have just decided to take a match made in heaven under my wing," she announced. "From now on, I will be their fairy godmother. Literally, actually," she declared, pointing behind her own back, where her guild mark was hidden under layers of clothing.
Ur's lips curled further. Knowing her daughter's shamelessly determined ways, she wasn't sure if she should feel happy or sorry for the aforementioned 'match made in heaven'. She had no doubt that having her for a 'fairy godmother' (likely unwillingly) would be nothing short of a challenge. Still, considering Ultear tended to get what she wanted when she was serious about something, even if through unorthodox ways, it might just be worth it for them if they were, indeed, a match made in heaven.
Chuckling, the ice mage placed her arm over her daughter's shoulders and guided her into the building. "My little Ultear, the matchmaker. I never thought I'd see the day," she told her, amused.
"Well, it helps a little that they're so adorably mortified by their own feelings," her daughter admitted.
"Of course," she said, unsurprised. Then, she leaned in to whisper in Ultear's ear. "That's half the fun, isn't it?"
Ultear nodded with a chuckle. That was, after all, why she was just getting started.
The following morning
Jellal couldn't help feeling a little guilty about how thankful he'd been that Millianna ended up having the sniffles the previous day, prompting Erza to drag her back to Fairy Hills and remain there looking after her for the rest of the day rather than hanging out at the guild.
Although their trip to Porlyusica's home (and subsequent broom-whacking) had made them feel a little more at ease with one another after the humiliation Ultear had made them experience, there had still been some awkwardness there, which made the separation for the rest of the day a welcome experience.
Not that it solved anything, he had to add, because when, upon leaving the boy's dorm, he found Erza standing outside, waiting for him, he nearly let out a yelp and ran back inside. Nearly.
"Hi," she mumbled.
"Good morning," he replied, his voice trembling a little. "Did you come here looking for me?"
"I… o-of course not," she stuttered. Lies! "I wanted to see if Shou had caught Millia's cold," she further made up, since she'd already seen the boy come out, in Wally and Richard's company, before. "He's fine, by the way."
"Yes, I know," Jellal confirmed. Honestly, he could have told her that. "So, do you want to go to the guild?"
She nodded, joining him on his way towards Fairy Tail's headquarters. Unlike Fairy Hills, which was relatively close to the Guild Hall, the boy's dorm was on the opposite end of town, meaning they had to walk quite a bit to get there. For a while, they moved silently, awkwardly… that was, until they found themselves right in the middle of a Gildarts shift, which left them stuck alone in a sudden dead end for several minutes.
"So, how is Millia doing?" Jellal found himself asking as they stood on the edge of the moat-like corridor that had formed in the middle of town.
"She's fine. Just really stuffed up. She's staying in for the day and Hilda-san is looking after her. She put a vaporizer in her room – it reeks of camphor now but apparently that's supposed to help."
Jellal nodded understandingly, getting the picture. They were silent for another minute, waving at Gildarts when they saw him walk by, down in the moat, with Cana by his side, probably headed for a small father-daughter job.
"Ultear was right yesterday," he heard Erza stating by his side.
Jellal's eyes widened. Right about what? Had she heard what Ultear had said about his 'hair fetish'? Not that he had one! He hadn't even been sure what the word 'fetish' meant until he'd looked it up in a dictionary the previous night… and he hadn't liked the meaning.
"The braid was really useful at keeping my hair from my face," she continued, looking away as she blushed. "It held firmly for a long time too."
"Oh," he mumbled, unsure of how to respond. "That's nice."
"Yeah…" she muttered, her face going even redder for some reason. "I was planning to ask Hilda-san to make me one this morning but she was busy helping Millianna. Plus, her hands have been hurting her a lot lately because of the weather…"
His mouth hung half-open. She wasn't… she couldn't be suggesting… she… "You want me to make you another one?" he asked without thinking.
Her face took yet another shade of red he hadn't previous thought achievable by the human body. Next up, she might blow smoke out of her ears. "If… if you don't mind," she said in a tiny little voice, now completely facing away from him, unable to let him see her face. "I-it's just hair. It only has to be embarrassing if we make it embarrassing."
He gaped for about ten seconds before his expression started to shift into a smile as he felt the awkwardness from before simply melt away. She had a point. It was only embarrassing if they made it so. "Okay. I'll do it for you. But I don't have Ultear here to tell me what to do like yesterday, so the braid may end up looking a bit weird."
"It's okay," she said, turning her face towards him a little, just enough that he could see it was still red but not inhumanely so. "You can always try again if that happens."
Fireworks exploded somewhere in his mind. "Okay, then," he happily agreed.
He made a mental note to thank the devious time mage sometime.
A/N: I *may* expand this Alternative Universe in the future. No promises when. Real Life (in theory) has to trump writing every once in a while.