A/N: LOL I had to check what the rating was while I was writing this chapter. I couldn't remember if it was T or not. Good thing it is. I would have to change it if it was lower. This chapter is longer than the first one.
"Jellal's twin, right?"
"Jellal's twin, right?"
"Jellal's twin, right?"
Erza Scarlett's grey eyes flew open, and she felt herself clawing at her sheets in a desperate sort of manner. She quickly calmed herself down, breathing deeply through her nose and looking around her room. From the look of the light streaming in through her curtains, it was early in the morning.
Sitting up in her bed, Erza held her head in her hands and tried to remove the incessant repetition of that phrase that was ringing again and again. It all seemed so wrong. She thought she'd known Jellal for a long time, and then all of a sudden his identical twin shows up?! Even worse, he's the vigilante that the Defense Force was looking hard for? It was unbelievable. But she chose to believe it. She had to trust Natsu, of course.
There was a little section, deep in the back of Erza's mind, that commented on how odd it was. How convenient that when she had caught the vigilante, he turned out to be Jellal's twin brother? Maybe he was - she abandoned the thought that was forming half-way. There was absolutely no way in hell that was it.
To admit the truth, Erza would agree to the fact that she was hurt. She and Jellal were very close. She had difficulties exactly drawing the line to where they were at the moment. Right between 'friends', and 'lovers', she decided. The thought made her blush.
She decided to call him and ask him.
Humming as she held the cell phone to her ear, Erza could hear the ringing. It rang. And rang. And rang.
Raising a brow in confusion when it went to his voicemail, Erza dialed his number again. It went to voicemail again. She grit her teeth in frustration and clenched her fist. Didn't the guy have the decency to pick up in the morning?! Perhaps for her own benefit, she dialed his number one last time and pressed 'call'.
This time, there was an answer.
"Hello?" said a voice. Erza's eyebrows lowered and her face darkened. This certainly didn't sound like Jellal.
"Jellal?" she asked, pretending she was oblivious. It was one of her tactics to get information out of people. She prayed it would work this time.
"This isn't Jellal Fernandez here." the voice said. Erza's breath hitched in her throat. She did her best to swallow, then asked the male in a calm voice, "Where is he, then?"
"Well, he's right here, alright," assured the man, chuckling darkly for a moment, "Close to death."
"What?!"
'Yeah," he sneered, then called away from the phone, "Hey, Jellal, your girlfriend's on the line."
A groan. Erza covered her mouth, horrified. "Jellal?!" she called. Maybe... Maybe he could hear her through the phone.
"Erza..." Oh. My. God, she thought, panic seizing her. It was unmistakably Jellal's voice.
"Jellal! Where are you? What happened!"
"Whoah, whoah, whoah," said the man, holding the phone back to his ear, "None of that. If you're smart, you've already read the clues, and you know exactly where I am. Where he is. And if you don't come quickly, he'll really be where he needs to be. Oh, and don't bother calling the police, or your boyfriend dies."
He hung up.
Erza sat with the phone still by her ear, for the first time in her life, helpless. No, she thought to herself, I'm not helpless. I still have... others I can rely on.
She turned to her phone, which she had let fall limply to her side, along with her arm. Her eyes widened in realization as she figured out where he was located. When she had asked where Jellal was, the man had answered strangely. He'd said... here, close to death. So was he implying that he was close to death also? That made no sense. His location wasn't him being close to death... It hit her.
A cemetery.
Her hand with the phone flew to her ear as she grasped it with both hands. She removed it from her ear long enough to dial in Natsu's number, and press the call button.
"Hmmmm?"
"Get the hell up. Right now!"
"No 'good morning'?" the Pinky groaned.
"No. Just get the hell over here or I will come and kill you."
"No!" Natsu pleaded, "Don't come over! I'll come over!"
Erza rolled her eyes. Natsu always fell for that sort of stuff.
"Put it on speaker."
He did. "Why do you need it on spea-"
She cut him off. "Hi, Lucy. How are you?"
Erza heard Natsu's muttered profanity. Lucy's squeal could be heard through the phone line as well. Usually, she would be smiling, but her situation was dire and she needed someone to move his butt.
"I-it's not what it seems like!" claimed Natsu, probably sweating bullets.
"Both of you just get your clothes on and get over here."
"I'M IN MY CLOTHES!"
"No. You're in your Pjs. Now please come."
"NEVERMIND!"
Erza hung up. She furrowed her brow and stood up. She grabbed a random outfit out of her dressing drawer and put it on. The outfit was a red t-shirt and black skinny jeans. She slipped her switch-blade into her pocket. Next she put on her black combat boots and tied her hair up in a pony tail.
Now to wait for Natsu and Lucy.
The room was dark and dank. The air smelled like mildew and tickled Jellal's nose. He sniffed, then sneezed. He heard an angry grunt from the next room over.
Jellal's head felt like it was going to explode and pound out of his skull. The left side of his face still felt like it was on fire from earlier when he had gotten kicked there. His hands were tied behind his back, but his mouth was left ungagged. He wasn't going to yell, not even if they hurt him more. He could barely recall what was told to him before the man had kicked him in the stomach the first time.
"We've got snipers around her. If you make a noise bigger than a mouse, unless I tell you otherwise, she's as good as dead."
He grit his teeth. Pretty soon, another one of those goons would come around and beat him up some more. His sneeze had probably cost him another good five minutes of sleep.
No, Jellal couldn't sleep. The fact that Erza was confirmed to be coming made him stay awake. He hadn't slept all night, but he was not going to be asleep and useless when she showed up. Inwardly, he was hoping that she wouldn't find out the riddle, and would stay... safe.
She always seemed to avoid doing that.
Then again, she would probably call Natsu, and he would help her. Maybe he would convince Erza to stay while he went and saved Jellal. But that would probably never happen. Jellal knew Erza better than that. He prayed that she brought her switch-blade.
One of the goons, the one with the really ugly face, blocked the meager light that was coming through the door from the lamp in there. He grinned, like he always did when he saw Jellal's state. Well, he couldn't blame him. Having his face smashed into the floor several times, on top of being tied up and thrown on the floor, didn't make him look that great.
"'Sup, pretty?" he grunted, attempting to lift his face off of the floor.
Not a second later it was smashed down again. He muffled the groan that was trying to come out of his throat.
"Don't mock me, asshole!" he roared. A muffled 'shut up' was heard from the other room. Ugly knit his dark brows together and ran his hand through his non-existent hair. He was bald and dumb. No more to it.
"Can I still kick him?"
"Yeah. Just don't laugh to yourself, stupid."
"Okay, okay..."
Jellal felt a foot connect with the side of his head, sending him sailing across the small room and into a wall. A low moan erupted from his throat, even though he tried to muffle it. He was losing consciousness quickly, but he managed to utter something before everything went completely black.
"Erza..."
Natsu and Lucy stood outside Erza's doorstep, looking like they had just gotten out of bed. The couple had gotten together recently, something that made Erza smile, but hadn't announced it formally.
"I thought I knocked," she heard Natsu mutter, "But I'm so damn tired I'm not certain."
Lucy giggled. "No, you didn't. Just bang on the door and she'll open."
He obliged, rapping smartly on the door. Erza opened as soon as his fist hit the door. Natsu and Lucy both saw immediately that something was very wrong. Erza was pale. She was never pale.
"What's wrong, Erza?!"
She told them once they were inside. They both looked grave.
"Here, we'll go with you," insisted Lucy. Natsu's featured scrunched up.
"No, Erza and I will go. You'll stay and keep in contact."
Lucy looked very reluctant, but she consented. She knew Natsu didn't want her to get hurt. She didn't feel like arguing with him at the moment.
"Fine."
Natsu noticed her tight features, and frowned.
Half an hour later they were walking toward the city cemetery. Erza was shaking on the inside, but on the outside she was confident, commanding, and quite kick-ass. She had added dark gloves to her outfit, and Natsu had taken another switch-blade from her inventory.
"We'll both knock at the office. They're most likely keeping him in the basement, from the sound effects that I heard when they called," she whispered to him, keeping a straight face. He nodded ever so slightly. It was obvious that they were being watched.
Jellal opened his dark green eyes, trying to see what was around him. Bright light was filtering through a large hole in the ceiling and the remnants of a large banging sound came in waves through the air. Damn. It was morning. The left side of his face felt numb, as did several other sections on his body. He groaned as he struggled to lift himself off of the floor.
"Why the hell would you do something like this?!"
Jellal's arms shook as he heard Erza's voice ring throughout the chamber. His eyes were wide. No. This wasn't supposed to happen! She was in danger!
"Erza..." he croaked, trying to reach where she was with his voice. But he was so weak it barely made a sound. He swore, collapsing onto the cold wet ground from sheer exhaustion.
"Jellal?! Jellal, was that you?!"
He groaned in response, hopefully loud enough for her to hear him. His mind was too clouded for him to realize that if she did respond, she would come to save him. That would be bad. Very bad.
He lost consciousness once again.
The next time Jellal decided to wake up, it was much brighter. It was like the sun was shining right in his eyes on purpose.
"Jellal!" a voice cried. The sun was blocked out and he began to see again. Ah. It was Erza. A strange sentimental feeling spread through him. It felt warm, but guarded.
"Erza," he began/croaked, "You..."
"Natsu helped. He left a little while ago."
"And the snipers?"
She grinned. "All taken care of."
"You shouldn't have done something dangerous like that..."
Jellal cringed as he saw Erza's features tighten. She grimaced and turned her face away from him. She had been leaning over him, but straightened and let the sunshine back in his face. This was not appreciated.
Erza's eyebrows scrunched up when she saw his struggle. She shifted over him again and blocked out the sun.
"Neither should you," she stated matter-of-factly. He cocked an eyebrow at her. No, his right eyebrow. He still couldn't feel his left one.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
She sighed. "Why didn't you just tell me?"
He froze. "Tell you... what?"
"That you were doing all that freaky vigilante stuff. You aren't a superhero, you know!"
"Yeah... But I had to."
"Why?"
Jellal's eyes widened. Erza's voice was shaking. Sh really was worried about him.
"Erza," he started, raising up an arm to her face, "I'm sorry. Maybe I can tell you.. later."
He flinched at the hurt look on her face. He quickly grunted and sat up, giving himself a better view of both Erza and the grassy green area they were sitting in. Momentarily distracted, he suddenly realized that they were by the cemetery. Police cars were lined up at the street, and some paramedics were jumping out of an ambulance. His face scrunched up in pain, and Erza tried pushing him back down.
"No," Jellal muttered. Erza gave him a determined look that told him she wasn't taking no for an answer. Well, he had the perfect response. He smiled lightly before leaning forward and pecking her perfect lips.
She made a cute little squeaking noise as he kissed her, then she began kissing him back, her cheeks practically on fire. He tilted his head into the kiss and smiled a little when he realized that Erza was breathing through her nose. She pulled his face closer to hers, like it was the most important thing in the world that they were as close as possible.
Their first kiss was interrupted, probably due to the terrible state Jellal's body was in. The paramedics were forevermore on his bad side.
So there's my first Jerza 2-shot! Thank you for reading!
