And Your Hand?
Written for Jerza week, prompt 'Diamonds.'
He'd later admit to the comrades who saw him, that yes, he was hunting for a ring. Things had been getting better for everyone lately and he'd been able to start a relationship with Erza three years ago. With the new council realizing that he wasn't in fact evil, and wasn't actually completely responsible for the whole incident at the Tower of Heaven, he'd been gradually accepted back into the community and was no longer treated as a criminal, the acceptance from everybody else allowed him to feel just a little bit better, and eventually that horrible feeling he'd had about his sins went away.
Erza had been the one that truly made him feel okay again though, her kindness and strength took him away from all of his darkness and he wouldn't ever deserve her in a thousand years. But he was glad that they were together, he loved being able to see her smile so much and, case in point, see her.
After entering a rather large jewellery shop, his eyes flickered from stone to stone and gold to silver, not really finding anything that jumped up at him as a gift for the Queen of the Fairies. He didn't worry if she rejected him, if she did – he deserved it – he would move on and could think that heartbreak were to aid his repentance. Only if Erza accepted, he wasn't sure he'd ever be able to stop smiling.
Someone came up to help him and he explained what he was planning, not completely sure of the look in the employee's eyes at the prospect of earning a lot of money from a seemingly gullible and naïve customer, these people were all the same.
"I'm looking for something that stands out. Can you handle that?" The brief flash of fury that streaked through the other's eyes was incredibly satisfying, and saved time on pointless chatter. He maybe felt a little bad that he was using a person like this, but he had an hour to get back or he was going to be in a lot of trouble with his guild and Erza's.
In the shop, there were many beautiful rings and usually he would have been happy to purchase any one of them, but something felt off about each of them. One that was nearly what he wanted was incredibly expensive, was a combination of a thin silver gold and a silver band looping around each other with a delicate clear diamond set in the centre with streaks of sapphire blue running through it. A beautiful piece, but still not 'the one' he was searching for.
The merchant seemed to be giving up hope that he'd get his customer to actually buy something, and any enthusiasm he'd had before drained out of his voice before Jellal had a fast intake of breath.
Directly ahead of them on a stand was a collection of brightly coloured rings but two stood out above the rest. While others were faint pink, or yellow, and some green, in the middle of the showing case there was a dark blue and deep red set. They complemented each other perfectly and contrasted just as well. The blue ring had a thin silver band for the finger and the stone was larger than most others but still small enough that it wasn't tacky. The red diamond was set in a silver hold and placed on a slightly thicker band of gold.
They were both still delicate and before he could stop himself from pondering on the feeling of 'right, these are right,' he was asking how much they were.
The merchant barked a laugh and told him before giving a warning of sorts. "You probably don't want those, apart from being expensive they are completely untraditional. Everyone else has agreed that they're just not right for getting engaged. I'm sure you'd prefer one of the others over here…" He tried to pull Jellal away to other cases with pretty but bland in comparison rings, only to find that his customer wouldn't move.
"I'd like those two; I'm willing to pay the price." He smiled at the other man who appeared baffled at what he'd just heard before the smile was dropped a little and on came a glare. When the merchant went off to get them packed up for him to pay for, the smile came back and he looked at the set fondly, thinking about what the merchant said and comparing it to his relationship with Erza.
'Not traditional huh? Well that fits just perfectly.'
