Hey guys, welcome to my new story, New and Old. Also known as "The Second Fic Where Jerza Shippers Bitch At Me For Pairing Jellal and Erza With Other People!" Yay!
...Good God, am I jaded!
I chose to pair Jellal with Midnight/Macbeth because I came up with the idea for Erza and Jellal to meet up and think each was the other's lover (Mira for Erza, and Midnight for Jellal) because of an overuse of their magic in terms of trolling their partner, and I thought seeing their reactions to their new relationships would be funny (spoiler alert - it turned out more serious than I thought it would). Besides which, Midnight's probably the only Oracion Seis member I could possibly see Jellal with (unless we get a sudden influx of JellalxSorano), and Midnight's magic works best for this scenario).
All right, enough ramblings. Let's get the Jerza bitching out of the way.
I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters, Hiro Mashima does.
The Strongest Team was currently having a picnic in the East Forest. Natsu had invited Lisanna, and upon Erza's suggestion, Gray had invited Juvia. Lucy had summoned Loke for the occasion, and Natsu had invited Romeo to join Wendy, although neither was an actual couple and both were formed upon Mira's suggestion, who happened to be Erza's date for the occasion.
The pair had been dating in secret since bringing Master Makarov back to Magnolia. Though Erza had every confidence the guild would accept them, Mira had wanted to ease herself out of the closet in baby steps - plant the seed and let it take root naturally, so to speak. Erza didn't see the point, since there was no way a person's sexual orientation should influence how the world perceives them.
Currently, Erza was mildly ticked off at Mira - Natsu had disappeared to do certain business, and she used the opportunity to kiss her while transformed into him. Naturally, she had blamed Natsu for kissing her, so when the real Salamander rejoined them, she wasted no time in pummeling him for his transgression, only to be reminded by Happy that he had been preoccupied when the kiss had happened.
This wasn't the first time Mira had used her transformation skills to mess with her. It was mostly harmless, but Erza could only come home to "Ichiya" or "Bacchus" so many times before she snapped, which thankfully hadn't happened yet. The fact that she needlessly beat up Natsu was bringing her close to that point, though.
Suddenly, she ran into a certain blue-haired man. If that was who she thought it was, then Mira was going too far. "Mira, if that's you, I swear to God we're done," she said angrily.
"Mira" replied with the following: "Macbeth, this had better not be another damn illusion."
"Oh, so you're mocking me now, huh?" said Erza, now clearly annoyed. "Very funny, I get it. Now cut it out!"
"Whatever it is I did does not justify taking your revenge this far," said "Mira" sternly.
"You know what you did, you ass!" yelled Erza.
"No, I don't!" "Mira" yelled back. "Now drop the illusion and explain it to me or you're sleeping alone tonight!"
"That tears it!" yelled Erza. She Requipped a sword and charged at her girlfriend, though intending to strike with the blunt side. However, "Mira" proved she wasn't really Mira by blocking her strike with a blast of yellow light.
As Erza was forced back, she gaped at the man in front of her. "Jellal?"
"Erza? Is that you?" Jellal questioned.
"It is you!" cried Erza.
"What you said earlier... are you dating Mira?" asked Jellal.
Erza realized the significance of Jellal's last comment before she attacked. "You're dating Macbeth!" she accused.
Jellal blushed, and so did Erza. "Well... this is awkward," he said.
"Since when was this a thing?!" Erza demanded.
"While you and Gray were infiltrating Avatar," said Jellal. "I... had a little bit of a stalker problem. Claiming Meredy was my lover didn't convince her, so I needed a male to pose as my lover, and Macbeth was the only one who could take it seriously enough. In the end, we liked our false relationship enough to start dating for real."
"But since when were you... you know... into men?" asked Erza.
"I came away from fighting Zero with a... more-than-minor crush on Natsu," said Jellal. "But ever since I recruited the former Oracion Seis, the more time I spent around Macbeth, the more I realized, 'Dammit, I really am bisexual, aren't I?'"
"...Well... are you happy in the relationship?" asked Erza.
"Other than Macbeth being obnoxious with his illusions? Yes, I would say I am," said Jellal.
Erza breathed a sig
h of relief. "Well, that's good to hear, at least," she said."
Jellal nodded. "I'm guessing Mira is just as obnoxious in the way she transforms?" he asked.
"Unfortunately," replied Erza. "Though she's just as earnest as when she first asked me out, and she's only grown sweeter with time, just like a good chesecake."
"You mean a fine wine," said Jellal.
"I know what I'm all about, son," said Erza dangerously.
"...Fine. Fine," said Jellal.
Erza looked up at the sky. "You know," she said. "It wasn't that long ago when we came so close to our first kiss... and then you gave me that line about having a fiance."
"Ehehe... So you never bought that, huh?"
"Not unless you and Ultear were suddenly engaged," said Erza. "The important thing, however, is that you can say that now and it'll be the truth."
"Our romance is still young!" protested Jellal. Erza's only reply was a girlish giggle.
"I do understand why you lied about that, though," said Erza. "After all, our love was never worth the lives of our friends."
"It was always my hope that if not me, you would find someone you could walk in the light with," said Jellal. "Ironically, I found someone to share the darkness with. Someday, I hope we can all be free of that darkness."
"You will be," said Erza. "It won't be easy, but as long as you can find comfort in Macbeth, that's a damn good start."
"Then we have your blessing?" asked Jellal.
"Of course," said Erza. "That doesn't mean I won't cut him up if he wrongs you. Seriously, say the word and he's got two-hundred swords a-coming."
"Not with his magic he doesn't," said Jellal. "Anyway, the reason I came all this way to find you..."
As Jellal explained about the dark guild he wanted Erza and the others to take down, she couldn't help but feel a little jealous of Macbeth. Not that she could talk - she had long ago grabbed happiness rather than wait to find it with Jellal in sorrow, and she was happy he could do the same. In this way, they could truly walk together in the light.
Though she couldn't help but wonder how much of it was that stupid punishment rule of his.
All right, if you've gotten this far, either you've given the idea of Mirza and Jelbeth (as I've dubbed it) a fighting chance, or you actually want to be thorough in your bashing of me for not writing Erza and Jellal as a couple. Either way, I may write a little epilogue for each of these pairings, because I realize there was almost no focus on the pairings themselves. But at least I'm willing to admit I didn't think this idea all the way through, so... yay?
Anyway, this is probably gonna be my last fic as Nightlingbolt. Once I get everything squared away, I'll be rebranding myself as AcnoLugia (Acnologia for Fairy Tail, and Lugia for Pokemon (even though I played HeartGold first because Lugia's wings looked way too much like hands for my liking on the SoulSilver box art, but never mind that!). So, I hope to see you all again under that name (and no, I'm not doing this to avoid the Jerza shippers bashing me for this story!)
