"AW HECK NO I'M NOT WEARING THAT!"
-3 months ago-
"Where did they go…?" Jellal muttered quietly as he lay down in a small clearing hidden by trees, listening to the sound of the leaves in the wind. They've been gone the whole day! he thought to himself as the sky became dimmer. His guild members, Ultear and Meredy, had left early in the morning, leaving only an incomprehensible note on the ground.
"I should go look for them." Jellal announced as he rose from his rest, put on his hood, and started walking towards Onibus, where the girls said they would be in the note had left the note. Just as he was walking out of the forest, he encountered a force strong enough to feel like 20 bulls, and was knocked to the ground. To his dismay, Meredy also stomped on his face.
"Ah! Jellal, what are you doing? I almost stepped on you!" Meredy jumped back in surprise.
"You did." He grumbled as he stood to wipe the debris from his clothes. "Besides, I could ask you two the same thing. Where have you been and what's with the rush?" He sighed, rolling hi eyes. "Did you steal something or whatever?" Jellal asked, suddenly suspicious when they did not respond.
"Well..."
"Did you actually-"
"No!" Meredy proclaimed, the girls' expressions immediately changing to a 'we-want-to-ask-you-something' look that spread evenly across both of their faces. "We were investigating!" she began, but Ultear cut her off when Jellal raised his brow.
"We heard about the "Band Battle" and went to go check out the details. There was a meeting about it today. Meredy wrote it down in the note." She pointed at the piece of scribbled mess, "Oh..."
"Well I would have known if the note was readable…" Jellal sighed, "Well, what about it? Don't tell me you want to…" His voice trailed off as he looked both of them dead in the eye and slowly stated, "No. Way. We are NOT joining the battle."
"Why not?" The two girls whined in unison.
"You know why! We are WANTED fugitives, we can't show our faces!" Jellal proclaimed.
"We've got that covered!" Meredy pleaded, "All we need from you is to join and sing! We'll even write the song!"
"Please Jellal!" The girls pleaded. Jellal listened to their whines and soon, his left eye began to twitch.
"No, and that's final," he said firmly, and briskly walked away without looking back.
"Tch." Ultear and Meredy looked at each other with slightly annoyed and sad looks. Ultear suddenly, however, raised her brows as if there was a light bulb in her head, and whispered something to Meredy, who gave a devilish grin.
Jellal marched through the forest back to their camp. What are they thinking, they're going to get us caught! he thought to himself. Eventually, he arrived back at their makeshift camp and lied down on his 'bed'. "Hope I didn't seem too demeaning. But we can't risk showing ourselves in public." He brushed off the matter and soon fell victim to the relaxing sounds of the trees swaying in the wind, and let himself fall asleep.
The next morning Jellal awoke to the sound of a Fog horn being blasted in his ear. He promptly reached up and swatted it out of Meredy's hand. She giggled. "Wakey wakey Jellal! Time for us to pester you more!"
All throughout the next couple of days, Meredy and Ultear would torture Jellal in various ways. Ultear would tie Meredy down and tickle her all over and watch as Jellal withered on the ground through Sensory Link. For lunch, Ultear would also make disgusting food and then force them down Meredy's throat and watch both of them throw up. Ultear's favorite torture, though, was making Meredy eat a variety of extremely spicy food, and watching Jellal (not to mention Meredy as well) literately breath fire out of his mouth, searching frantically for water.
-One week later-
"I'm going to die…" Jellal groaned as he lay face-down to the grass, with Ultear and Meredy plotting their next scheme behind him. How are they not tired of this yet!?
"Just give up already, Jellal," Meredy pleaded. She also looked half dead, but not as bad as Jellal.
"Come on, Jellal. We can do this for as long as we I want, you know." Ultear giggled as her words earned her an alarmed look from Jellal.
"Even if it kills me!" Meredy proclaimed.
He sighed. "I give in," Jellal muttered. "Do what you want." Upon hearing his surrender, the girls exploded into cheers as they danced around the half-dead mage in excitement. "So do I have to sign a form or something?" Jellal asked, slightly tilting his head to look at them.
The girls looked back in surprise and Ultear said, "Oh, we already signed us up!" Jellal's eyes widened.
"We only needed you to agree so we wouldn't be dropped out." Meredy smiled wickedly. "Sorry Jellal!"
Jellal let his face plop back into the ground and let out a long sigh. What did I get myself into…? He thought in despair as the girls giggled behind him.
-Next Day-
Meredy and Ultear left for town again to go to figure out a band name for the battle. They had already tried several names, but none seemed to fit. Meredy sighed and rested her head on the table they were currently sitting at. Barker Troubles? Pink Wizards? Double Rockies!? she plopped her head down on the table again and again as she tried to come up with a good band name.
"I give up," she whined and looked up at Ultear with pleading eyes, "Can we go and eat ice cream?" she asked.
"Sure." Ultear sighed and rose form the table. Meredy's eyes lit up as she excitedly followed Ultear over to the ice cream parlor. As they were waiting in line, Ultear noticed a costume shop. She stepped out of her place in line, and began to walk toward it.
"What are you doing?" Meredy called, looking back and forth between the moving line and Ultear. I don't have money!
"If we are signing up for this thing, we got to have costumes, right?" Ultear called back. Meredy nodded rather reluctantly and took one last glance back at the ice cream parlor. She cringed but stepped out of the line and ran after Ultear into the shop.
My ice cream...she thought sadly, but immediately brightened up like a child inside a candy shop once she saw all the different costumes. Meredy excitedly pointed at a ballroom dress with a matching mask. "Can we wear this one? It's so pretty!" she announced, but Ultear briskly dismissed it.
"We can't wear that! Our theme is punk, remember? And besides, Jellal would never agree to that!" she reasoned with the pink-haired mage as Meredy pouted, who then reluctantly began to look at the other costumes.
She hummed a little tune in her head as she walked along. "What can we wear…?" As she muttered to herself, her eyes fell upon a glamorous costume. THIS WILL WORK PERFECTLY! She excitedly called for Ultear who came over quickly with a slightly hesitant look.
"Uhh...are you sure? I mean...it's reasonably priced, but it'll need A LOT of extra work." Ultear looked at the younger girl who very quickly, and excitedly, noted all the interesting points out to Ultear.
"Well, I guess it's pretty substantial." Ultear proclaimed as Meredy squealed in joy, earning a glare from the other customers. She quickly lowered her head and turned back to Ultear as she continued talking. "It's just a few fix ups here and there! Nothing to worry about!" She finished, and Ultear nodded in agreement.
"We could also decorate it, too," Meredy mused and suddenly gasped, "I know exactly what we could do!" The two girls started to discuss in-depth about the costume. Soon they became so loud that the shopkeeper had to tell them to pipe down. Ultear and Meredy apologized and quietly bought the costume and left.
Buying costume, check! Meredy grinned as she ticked of an imaginary to-do list in her head.
"So we have the costume now, where do you want do go?" Ultear asked as she grabbed the bags from the counter after paying.
"Can we go and buy some ice cream now?" Meredy complained as she looked up at Ultear expectantly. Ultear nodded; earning another squeal from the pink-haired mage. Ice cream, ice cream! Meredy thought happily. After they bought the ice cream, they went to the outside area and sat at one of the tables.
"Now all we have to do is come up with a band name," Ultear broke the comfortable silence. Meredy nodded slowly. Silence enveloped them as the two mages thought hard about their band name.
"I know!" Meredy suddenly jumped up, almost knocking the table over. Ultear choked on her ice cream and coughed loudly. Meredy patted her back, apologizing. After the situation had calmed, Meredy continued what she was saying. "Cats Jangle! The band name should be Cats Jangle." Ultear raised an eyebrow.
"Why?"
"Well, cats because of that," Ultear nodded as she saw what Meredy was pointing at, "and, well, jangle...since punk sounds like jangles*," Meredy stated her reasons and Ultear nodded slowly, contemplating the suggestion.
"All right." Ultear announced as Meredy cheered. "But what about our 'guild' name?" Ultear asked.
Right...that... Meredy slumped back into her seat and sighed.
"I have no idea."
-Meanwhile...-
Jellal sat with a bothered expression impatiently awaiting the girls' return.
Why are they so slow! Jellal thought, feeling his eye twitching again. "I'm not sure if all this time their taking is a good or bad thing..." grumbled the blue haired mage to himself. This Battle of the Bands event would be a serious drag on their path to redeeming all of their dark pasts and sins. He let out a long sigh.
He suddenly felt the urge to eat ice cream and rolled his eyes. "Oh god, is Sensory link still on!?" he exclaimed, truly shaken, after thinking for a bit. That being said, the girls were most certainly brewing trouble in town. They better not do anything stupid.
After a couple more hours of deep thought, Jellal came to two conclusions. The first was the fact that they would need an escape plan in the event of any troubles. The second was that he thought way too much. Finding a notepad from a rucksack buried under the girl's belongings, Jellal began to etch out a plan that would cover his guild mates if something were to go wrong during the festival. He could only make a generic plan prior to knowing the details, which was quite to his frustration, but it was a step ahead of Ultear, who was only focused on the competition itself.
He looked out at the reddening sky, if they don't hurry up, I'm not giving them dinner.
-Later that night-
"Jeeelllllaaaaaaaal!" squealed Meredy as she raced through the trees at the edge of the clearing. Skidding on the grass and stopping abruptly next to him, panting like a dog in the summer. They were soon joined by Ultear, who possessed a much clearer composure.
"Where have you been?" Jellal asked promptly, "Any later I would just have eaten dinner myself."
"Wow what a meanie." Ultear said sarcastically, "Too bad we already ate. We were doing some crucial shopping. You wanted disguises, remember?"
"Jelly, you're just going to loooooove our costumes!" Meredy drawled out with an evil grin, still panting and heaving. Jellal rolled his eyes and simply stretched.
"So, who's doing what?" His cool and in-control demeanor applying he was ready for minimal embarrassment. "I can sing and play a little bit of guitar..." despite his resolve to be level headed, he lowered his voice a little bit in embarrassment.
"That's good enough!" chirped Meredy, only just now recovered from her racing about like a rabbit.
"Y-yeah." he stuttered as he brushed off some of her sweat that had been flung on to his face.
"Did you just stutter?" Ultear asked arching an eyebrow, "Is Erza here!?" she said, as her demeanor switched from curious to teasing, in a second.
"Shut it. It's thanks to her that I can sing and play." he mumbled. He started to become reserved among his guild members. Never thought that spending those countless hours playing guitar during my depression phase would come in handy...
"Ohhh, tell us tell us!" Ultear snickered.
"I had a...downer phase let's just say...soitriedtolearnhowtoplayguitartowinerzashear tback," he muttered quickly, "BUT ANYWAYS, I can play half-decent. I might be a bit rusty." he cleared his throat.
"Do you think you could play for us?" Ultear asked.
"Sure, I guess." he smiled a little bit, but it was really more a 'eh' look than a smile.
"Here," Meredy handed him a rusty guitar, which Jellal quickly decided not to ask where they got it from. "Play this, it's our song but I haven't written the lyrics yet." she told him, sounding fairly proud.
"Okay, but you have got to tune this guitar..." Jella strummed the guitar, and a horrible noise came out.
"That shouldn't be a problem. I'll use time arc on it." smiled Ultear helpfully. She took the guitar and quickly fixed it to look brand new and handed it back to Jellal.
"Thanks." Jellal began to play, examining and reading the sheet music on the spot. With each strum he began to feel more excited and elated. By the time he stroke the final cord, both of the girls were grinning from head to toe.
"That. Was. Amazing!" exclaimed Meredy as Jellal put his guitar down.
"Although, we will need to get you an electric guitar for the competition." Ultear droned more to herself than Jellal, "And I'll need a drum set..."
"Ul! Let's go work on the lyrics!" piped up Meredy, excitedly dragging Ultear off by the hood of her Crime Sorceire cloak.
"Meredy you're choking me! Work on your parts Jellal!" she cried out before Meredy dragged her into their 'house'. Jellal sighed but chuckled a little bit. After all, he had, although reluctantly, joined the bandwagon and was in for the haul.
"I guess that's time to work.", Jellal muttered not believing the situation that his two teammates put him in, and went back to familiarizing himself with the song.
He picked up the guitar and started to play a part of the song. But something wasn't right, the melody sounded...off. He changed the melody but it was still not working. He even changed the chords to see if the tune sounded good, but without luck.
"Maybe I'm rusty after all." he sighed, looking at the sky. He closed his eyes and all he saw was the time when he was with Erza, Milianna and the others. He remembered the time when he tried so hard to perfect his skills, all for one girl.
I wonder how you are...he smiled slightly and looked again to the guitar that was on the floor. Then he suddenly remembered something. I still haven't played you the song yet...
He picked up again the guitar and a harmonious melody drifted out. It was like his fingers were alive as they slipped through the strings. It was like he had been playing for his entire life. He let himself be taken in by the melodious sound and hummed his song quietly in the wind.
Ultear and Meredy, who were working on the lyrics, immediately stopped and popped their heads out of the cave to hear the beautiful tune. They were hypnotized by his masterpiece.
"So beautiful." Meredy whispered to Ultear, not wanting to disturb the blue haired mage.
"This is his song…I can't believe he can play this good." Ultear nodded in agreement.
"We're so gonna win this. I guess this tune is perfect for the lyrics that we came up with.", Meredy gleamed as Ultear agreed with a smile.
Finally, Jellal strummed the last chord. That's what it was missing. The feelings. My feelings. He settled the guitar down and only then realized he was being observed by his two friends. His ears immediately turned hot. He turned around slowly after he felt that his face had stopped blushing, an gave a little awkward smile, "Hi there..."
"Jellal, that was perfect!" Meredy shouted jumping on to him.
"Please, it's not that good." Jellal said twitching by Meredy's hug. And please let go.
"I hate to tell you this, but you've got talent.", Ultear smiled as she walked over to him.
"We're gonna use that song. Now we have to practice with the lyrics.", Meredy's eyes were sparkling from the excitement.
"Uhhhhh...well I'm not against it, but, are you finished with the lyrics yet?", the blue haired wizard asked. It's only been four minutes! They never get things done in just four minutes!
"Yup. Do you want to know what it is about?" Ultear pridely asked.
"...Shoot me." He nodded, slightly reluctant.
"It's about a cat that lives lonely without the humans affection." Meredy stated looking Jellal with a serious face.
"A cat." Jellal looked at them dead in the eyes. "A cat."
"Well I mean, everyone likes cats!" Meredy retorted.
"Not people who are allergic to them. And why a sad cat!?"
"But, but, this way we are gonna have much more votes, right?" Meredy asked a bit surprised.
"I don't think so…" Jellal muttered twitching his eyebrow. Meredy sighed and looked extremely sad. Jellal couldn't help but feel slightly guilty, after all, it was hard to get Meredy to do anything, and yet she wrote the lyrics in only four minutes. Four freaking minutes.
"You know what, maybe you're right. Maybe they'll sympathize with our poor kitty." Jellal smiled at her.
"You really think so?" Meredy questioned him, pouting.
"Yes." He nodded, chuckling a bit.
-Present day-
It's finally here...the big day. Jellal thought to himself as they packed everything, getting ready to leave for the battle. "Hurry up you two! We're going to be late!" He yelled. I told them not to sleep late, and what do they do? Sleep late. He face palmed while letting out a long sigh.
They had practiced everyday, stopping only to eat, and sleep in preparation for the event. All three of them were tired, but nevertheless, excited. "Let's win this!", a cheered up Meredy shouted as she ran our from the cave, followed by Ultear, who held three large bags.
"So where's this brilliant disguise of yours? Fake noses? Wigs?" Jellal asked, not really expecting anything.
"About that…"
The blue haired mage felt some grins from his friends and twisted an eyebrow. Why are they looking at me like that. He asked after a long slence, "Why are you looking at me like that."
"TA-DAAAA!" Ultear and Meredy said in unison as they took out the horrible looking costumes from the bags.
"WHAT. IS. THAT." Jellal asked in disbelief.
"Our costumes! Aren't they great! See how this fits with our band!?" Meredy exclaimed, her smile stretching from eye to eye.
"..."
"He's so happy he's speechless!" Ultear said happily.
"Here's yours!" Meredy said as she started to hand it over. However Jellal backed up promptly with a horrified look on his face.
"AW HECK NO I'M NOT WEARING THAT!" Jellal roared and took of in light speed.
"W-wait, Jellal!" Meredy yelled after him. She looked at Ultear, about to ask what to do. Only to recieve a devilish smile from her friend. "Ul...what are you doing...put that fork down...no...no, NOO!" Meredy yelled and began to run, but was stopped as Ultear tripped her, and flipped her on her back, pinning her down.
"Open wide Meredy~ Here comes the spicy train!"
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
-FIN-
If you like and want to check out the other entries go on deviant art to:
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I have to thank my awesome teamies: Maka-Phoenixflare, Fabituh13, Fairytail0913, and Soniasky! Check 'em out on Deviantart if you can!