"Don't look so ashamed to be seen with me Mon chérie," Jellal said to a nervous Erza. She was ducking her head and trying desperately to avoid the eyes of passer byes.

"I won't be seen as one of those loose women who go out with men like you."

"What, you mean silver tongued and devilishly handsome?"

"No, arrogant and morally bankrupt."

"Be careful of what you say, Mon chérie, for if I was truly as bad as you say, I would kiss you right here," Jellal leaned closer to Erza almost touching her lips, "and I think you would actually enjoy it," he finished with his breath tickling her lips. He lifted his face away from hers satisfied to see that her face was as red as her hair. His own heart was beating like a drum at an Iron Maiden concert. No matter how he mentally prepared himself he could not prevent the stirring of passion that the closeness of Era brought, the one fact that had not changed since seven years ago.

"I suppose," she conceded breathlessly, "that you are not as bad as I am making you out to be."

Jellal smiled as found another thing about Erza that had not changed her tendency to acknowledge when she was being unfair to somebody. It had been the trait he most loved about her.

"I hope that by the end of your stay, you will find me more than bearable, and indeed, perhaps a true friend."

Erza then asked him, "What I don't understand though, is why you chose me. You must have thousands of women who would be willing to play my part."

"Mon chérie, you are the first woman to stand at my side as my lady luck."

"I find that hard to believe."

"It is not so much a matter of willing participants, as that most of the women I meet would rather take my money than make me money."

This made Erza laugh and Jellal felt himself floored by the sound, a deep throated seductive laugh that made him feel like a horny teenager again. Calm yourself, he thought, or else you'll scare her away.

He managed to lead Erza to the last stop of the night during their conversation. It was at the very back of the casino, far away from the blinding strobe lights and extravaganza half hidden by the shadows in the corner. It was a plain wooden door that read Manager's Office: Ultear.

Jellal knocked on the door and a beautiful violet haired woman came out wearing a revealing scarlet dress.

"Hello Jellal," she said, "are you done with gambling for the night?"

"Yes, Ultear, and before you ask, here are the five hundred dollars I started out with, and here are the ten percent of my winnings."

"Only thirty dollars? But I see fifty thousand dollars of chips in your hand?"

"I decided to bring extra cash along because I had a feeling I would need it. And indeed it helped me win the greatest prize of all."

The violet hair woman accepted the chips than noticed Erza and leaned closer to her to ask, "Who is this beauty?"

Erza then got annoyed and snapped at the woman, "I am Erza."

She had been marginalized the entire night and she would have her voice heard.

"Ooh, you're a feisty one, I like you. You'll help keep Jellal's ego in check."

That was when Erza realized that there was something strange between those two and she wondered if that woman was Jellal's girlfriend. Probably not considering how Ultear did not seem to be jealous but something was there. After a bit of small talk and chatter Jellal left the casino with Erza in tow.

"What was all of that about," asked Erza who did not have a clue. She had been thrust into a strange new world whose rules were alien to her.

"That was mon caïd Ultear. You see, this casino is the only one in the world that does not charge a rake, a kind of tax on the pot which is the only way that casinos make money off of poker. Instead what this one does is hire card sharks. We are professionals who have above average skills with poker. The casino offers us five hundred dollars each night to play as many games as we can and earn our keep. At the end of the night we have to return the five hundred dollars plus ten percent of what we earned. This method draws in more customers and is at no risk to the casino because even if we have bad nights and end up with less than five hundred dollars we can still make up the money to the casino from our savings."

"But the relationship between you and your boss seems too casual to simply be one of employee and manager."

"Oh, are you jealous?"

"No, but I'd rather know if you have a girlfriend because she might misunderstand the relationship between us."

"Ultear and I aren't like that. We have a complicated and sometimes antagonistic relationship, but if I had to sum it up in one word, we are parents."

"In what sense of the word," Erza asked, because generally two people who are parents are in a romantic relationship.

"Five years ago, a girl named Meredy, covered in mud and blood and Dieu saitce qui,stumbled upon our doorstep. Only Ultear and I wanted to get involved with her. We rushed into the hospital, visited her every day, fought for the right to adopt her and spent so much time around one another that we probably drove each other half insane."

Jellal did not mention the part where they had a lapse of judgement and slept with each other. It had been a combination of loneliness and a feeling of shared experiences. But afterwards they realized it wouldn't work out. In Jellal the flame of Erza still lit his heart and Ultear still kept in her heart the ghost of Gray, her boyfriend who had died many years ago protecting her from an attack by his stalker.

"Oh and do you know where Hotel Lancaster is, my husband and I rented a room there," Erza informed him as she got into his car an expensive black Mercedes with heated seat cushions. Jellal was not considered the uncrowned poker king of cercle de gaillon for nothing.

"I am not taking you there," Jellal said, "You'll be staying at my place."

"But I thought you said nothing was going to happen," Erza stuttered.

Jellal once again suppressed the urge to grin at how cute Erza was when she was embarrassed and told her, "I do have two bedrooms. Ultear and I take turns hosting Meredy and this week is Ultear's turn. Soyou can have her bedroom. As for pajama's, I'll see if Ultear has some that would fit. You two seem to be around the same size."

"Why do you want me in your house so bad. Do you think you will get some kind of reward for housing me? Are you planning on peeping on me?"

"Non, non mon chérie, I do not hope for some kind of reward from you, it is simply that every house is brightened with a beautiful woman inside. And are you not irritated with your useless husband? What better way is there to get back at him than make him worry and then let him know you were here with me? His mind will endlessly loop around the possibilities and he will be eaten with envy."

Another half truth. Jellal was not sure whether he should be happy at how good with them he was getting. For he did want something from Erza just nothing physical. He wanted her love. He had basked in its glow seven years ago and when she had left him, it left his soul cold and frigid. And though love and poker was different, even Jellal inept with love as he was, understood that the odds of someone falling in love with you increased exponentially with how much time you spent with them.

"My husband is not useless he is…" Era rose to defended Simon but she could not recall the good qualities of the man she had married and ended lamely with, "nice."

"He is nice because most of the time he has no backbone to get in your way or anyone else's not nice because there is a genuine shred of kindness in him," Jellal refuted.

"You speak ill of a man you know little about."

"But it is true isn't it? You wanted Simon to defend you with something stronger than I'll play for double or nothing, you wanted him to make a clear statement that he loved you and that he wasn't just trying to salvage his ego," Jellal retorted.

Erza had nothing to say to that so Jellal took her silence as permission to drive her to his house.

In the car he whispered so quietly that she couldn't hear, "Had it been me, I would have sold my soul to keep you."

One day with Erza back, and the depths of Jellal's feelings for her were already scaring him.

A/N: Don't hate me for #A# killing Gray and #B# having Juvia do it. I love Juvia and have no problem with her in Fairy Tail, but in the real world stalkers are serious shit, and can mess up a person's mental state and social life to a great extent. Whimpers in the corner and closes eyes, expecting to be cast in the fires of hell by angry Juvia fans. Or possibly angry Gray fans. Or maybe both. If you haven't guessed by now, personal reasons aside, the fact that this is taking place in France really only serves the plot in one fashion, it gives Jellal a sexy French accent. So if I get something wrong I apologize. It is casinos and pokers in general I looked into, not anything French specific. The only thing I know about the casino I chose is it's name and location in Paris. Once again I am not cheap enough to make Simon the bad guy, though I am cheap enough to beg for reviews. * Author gets on knees and makes puppy dog eyes while wagging tongue, then gets up, brushes coat and pretends he never sacrificed his last shred of dignity for approval from strangers.*