"Anonymous asked: Hi! College Jerza au where Jellal and Erza get drunk at a party together and things get steamy from there on out and for the rest of the night! Once over, confused Jellal wakes up to an empty bed..."
The prompt given to me originally via tumblr instant message was much longer and based on something the user read on Whisper. I don't actually think it's in-character for either Jellal or Erza to do something like this and it took me a while to work out a believable situation in my head. I kind of think everyone but Mirajane is a little OOC here. I hope it's at least close to what was discussed!
The Tell-Tale Panties
It was the breeze from the open window that woke him. The morning air touched parts of his body that would've been more alarming if his state of mind wasn't so fuzzy. His mouth tasted like something sour and vaguely fruity. Jellal sat up on the very edge of what appeared to be a love seat in a room that definitely wasn't his.
Silence hung in the house like thick smoke and Jellal's toes nudged a number of tiny plastic cups that still had jello remnants stuck to the insides. Their presence explained the disgusting residual of fruit flavor in his mouth. His pants were bunched at his ankles and the breeze reminded him that he was mostly naked. The crooked way his boxers sat on his hips was confusing. He didn't remember trying to remove clothing.
With an annoyed huff Jellal batted at the curtains that brushed against his back and when he turned on the love seat he saw a lonely pair of panties. They were black, lacy, and scandalously tiny. He hooked one finger through the waist string to lift them into the air and glanced around. The bed was still made and besides the clutter of small plastic cups at his feet the room was still clean and mostly undisturbed.
Had he been with someone the night before? Everything was an embarrassing blur. He'd had far too much to drink and proved himself, yet again, to be a lightweight. Jellal didn't drink often but when he did the habit of overshooting his tolerance level never failed to leave him feeling horrible in the morning.
Jellal stood and nearly stumbled over the jeans still shackled around his ankles. He straightened his boxer shorts, pulled up his pants, and grabbed his shirt from the arm of the love seat. Not quite knowing what else to do with them, he stuffed the mystery panties into his pocket. His t-shirt smelled of booze and he was loath to wear it but his sweater was nowhere to be found. He peeked behind the love seat, out the window to the fire escape, and under the bed but still no sweater.
An insistent vibration in his pocket drew his attention and Jellal dug out his phone. Lucy had texted him five times in the last hour. She was not happy. As he began to type out an apology she interrupted with a call. He sighed and tapped the green circle.
"Lucy, I'm so sorry –"
"Where are you? I've been waiting for a half hour at the library! Do you have any idea what kind of sacrifice it is for me to be out of bed this early on a weekend?" Lucy's voice teetered on the razor sharp edge of annoyed and totally pissed.
"I do, I swear I understand. I went to a party last night and –"
"A... party? You?" Lucy paused and sighed loudly in exasperation. "That's the most ridiculous excuse I've ever heard, Jellal. Please just get down to the library. I've got a stack of reserved books and a pair of grad students side-eyeing me from another table."
Jellal swept his eyes over the empty room once more for his sweater before giving up. "Right. I'll be there in twenty minutes, okay?"
"Twenty minutes?! Did you just roll out of bed or something? Hurry up!" Lucy ended the call before he could lamely offer the party excuse again. Of course she didn't believe him. His social life was mostly a barren wasteland since taking on extra courses this semester.
Jellal slid the phone into his back pocket and peeked down the hallway. The house was still quiet and it took him a moment of reorientation to find his way to the front door. Even though he'd woken nearly naked and completely devoid of recollections of how he got that way, he supposed it could've been worse. Someone could've found him on that love seat with his pants down and feet partially covered in jello shot cups. Not much could be worse than that.
"What's up with you lately?" Lucy tapped her pen on the edge of her laptop and eyed him from over the screen. "It's been a week since your wild night out and you can't possibly still be hung over."
"I'm just distracted."
"Why?" Lucy's eyes fell back down to her laptop screen. "You went out to take the edge off. I'm surprised you have any edges left after a rager like that."
"It wasn't a rager." Jellal muttered carding through the pages of the thick book in front of him.
"Mira said it was."
"How would she know?"
"She was there with a friend of hers. Stop changing the subject." She glanced up at him again and frowned. "Seriously, Jellal. You've been off all week. I wouldn't call you a basket of daisies on your best day but you're more moody than usual."
Jellal glared down at the words on the page – the same words he'd been trying to take in for the last half hour. "I think I hooked up with someone."
"You think?"
I don't remember for sure but there's evidence suggesting that I did."
Lucy sighed and went back to clicking away on the keys of her laptop. "And what evidence is that?"
"I woke up mostly naked with my pants around my ankles, surrounded by tiny cups crusted with jello, and –" Jellal stopped abruptly and shifted in his seat uncomfortably. "It doesn't matter. Let's just get back to work."
"No." Lucy closed her laptop and crossed her arms on his dining table. "I demand to know what this is all about. Tell me about the girl. It's obviously bothering you."
Jellal sighed dramatically. "I don't remember much, okay? She had red hair and reminded me of someone I knew a long time ago. I know we were having some drinks outside but it was loud and we went upstairs."
"Tell me about the jello shots. Those can be deceptively intoxicating. Even more so than Natsu's nasty trashcan punch."
"Do I want to know what that is?"
"Trust me, you don't. Do you remember anything about her other than hair color?"
"No and to be honest I can't even recall how I ended up on the love seat and alone with no sweater and a pair of panties next to me."
"I'm sorry, did you just say panties?" Lucy's face brightened into a slow grin.
"Yeah they were just sitting there."
"What did they look like?" she asked leaning forward.
"Standard black lace thong, I guess? I brought them home with me."
Lucy's mouth dropped open. "You took the panties with you? Jellal!"
"What? I couldn't just leave them there!"
"Listen, I'm your friend okay? But that's creepy."
"Well someone took my sweater, too," he said indignantly.
"So that warrants panty theft?"
"I didn't steal panties! They were just... there. I was groggy and not thinking." He stood from his chair abruptly and turned his back to Lucy to get a glass of water. Somehow the conversation had spiraled.
"Can I see them?" Jellal choked on his water.
"What?" He whirled around to see her grinning at him from the table. "You just accused me of lifting women's underwear and now you want to see them? Absolutely not."
"Aw, come on. It's not like you know her or anything! I want to see your prize."
"Jesus, Lucy. They're not a prize. I don't even know why I took them."
"I'm not leaving until you let me see." Lucy leaned back in her chair stubbornly. She didn't break eye contact even as Jellal finished his glass of water.
"Fine." Jellal stalked past Lucy and into his bedroom. The panties had been stored at the bottom of his sock drawer. He supposed it was a little weird. What would be have said to her if he ever saw her again? Hi there, remember me? We may or may not have had sex, and I have your underwear. On top of that he didn't know that he'd recognize her anyway. Something like hair color wasn't much to go on.
"What's taking so long?" Lucy's voice startled him and he shut the sock drawer with more force than necessary. Jellal turned around and held out a plastic baggie. "Why are they in this bag?"
"Because it felt weird to have a strange woman's thong just casually hanging out with my socks."
"That's where you drew the line?" She raised an eyebrow and opened the baggie.
"What are you doing?!" Jellal said with alarm. "You can't just –"
"Says the guy who stole random panties from a party!" Lucy shoved the empty plastic bag at his chest and held up the black lace thong for inspection. "Wow. These are impressive. An odd choice for a wild party, though. Was she in a skirt?" Jellal slumped against his dresser and shook his head.
"I don't know, Lucy. Can we put the underwear away now?" Lucy eyed the lingerie for a moment longer before tossing the thong at him. He fumbled them awkwardly before stuffing the black lace back into the baggie and into his sock drawer.
"Your mystery girl has excellent taste in panties, Jellal. Those are not only expensive but shockingly well made for what they are." Lucy returned to the table to gather her things. "I may have to invest in a few pairs myself."
"Didn't need to know that, thanks," he muttered.
"I hope you're in a better mood tomorrow." She ducked under the strap of her bag and opened the front door. "Don't forget to do the reading. This project is due in three weeks and I don't want to be stuck rushing at the last minute."
"Yeah, yeah. I'll do my part."
"No more parties," Lucy said with a wink as she left his apartment.
"Goodnight, Lucy." Jellal replied with finality as he shut the door.
Jellal thought for sure he was losing his mind. The ambiguous sex he still wasn't sure he had was one thing, but the panties and lapse in judgement they presented were an even bigger problem. They seemed to call to him from his sock drawer where he'd hidden them away in an attempt to forget. Who did they belong to? Why had he taken them to begin with and why was he so fixated on them? It seemed ridiculous. Plenty of people had drunken hookups with partners they couldn't clearly remember... right?
And it wasn't just the panties. The woman's hair stalked him in his dreams. In the back of his mind he knew it wasn't really Party Girl's hair but Erza's. He hadn't thought of her in years. If he closed his eyes and concentrated he could almost recall the face of the mystery redhead but her features always ended up twisting into Erza. Exactly how normal was it to still be hung up on a girl he hadn't seen in a very long time? Jellal wasn't sure but he didn't think it could be healthy.
He could tell Lucy was beginning to lose patience with him. Annoying her wasn't his intent but sometimes his thoughts would drift back to the party and other times even further back than that. Erza had been his first real friend, first love, first... everything. The day he watched her parents' moving truck disappear around the corner from his dad's front porch was something he hadn't quite gotten over even seven years down the road.
It wasn't until he'd met the girl with the red hair at a party that the mental dam broke and everything he'd locked away came spilling over. If he revealed to Lucy the reasoning behind his psychological fixation on red hair she'd probably tease him less, but the whole story felt far fetched even to himself.
"Happy Birthday!" Lucy said taking the seat at the otherwise empty table. She pushed a wrapped gift toward him and opened her bag of pretzels. "I know birthdays aren't really your thing but I saw that and thought of you right away."
"I'm almost afraid to open it." Jellal set his sandwich aside and stared at the package.
"Oh, don't be that way! I promise it's perfectly appropriate." Lucy smiled expectantly and with some reservation he peeled back the red paper. It was a book. He recognized the title instantly and flushed with embarrassment.
"Lucy," he groaned. "Really?" She laughed and pulled a bottle of juice from her bag.
"The Tell-Tale Heart is a perfect read for you right now. You're welcome!"
"Thanks," he muttered. "I regret telling you about those panties, by the way."
"You've got to cheer up, Jellal. I can't take all this brooding. Between you and Natsu I'm going to go grey by the time I'm twenty-five."
"You're over-exaggerating."
"No, I'm not. I've spent more time with you than my boyfriend in the last week because somebody didn't do their part of an important project that's one-third of our grade this semester. And the reason their part didn't get done is because they're distracted –"
"Lucy..."
"And why is this person distracted? Because they think a pair of panties is singing a siren song from their sock drawer and they can't get over a hook up that may or may not have actually happened."
"If you're comparing me to the crazy narrator in that book then... then –"
Lucy rolled her eyes. "Then, what, Jellal? Has this been a wake up call for you? Because, yes, I think you're acting crazy. Get over her. You don't even know her name or anything about her!"
"I can't help it." Jellal sighed. Lucy was right. He was acting like a madman.
"I'm worried about you."
"Worried or annoyed?"
"To be honest? A little of both."
"I'm sorry about slacking off, and I appreciate the way you sacrificed your personal time to help me finish my parts, Lucy. I mean it." He smiled at her but it felt half-assed.
"That's the saddest smile I've ever seen, Jellal."
"Thank you for the book. It was nice of you to think of me. Even if it was in a bad context." Lucy smiled at him and opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by her phone. She sighed and typed out a text message.
"I gotta go, okay? I'll see you in class tomorrow. Happy birthday, again."
Mirajane wiped the bar counter off with a rag that smelled strongly of lemon Lysol. The handful of hours just after lunch and before sunset were the dullest and she enjoyed the small amount of time the restaurant and bar would be clean and tidy. In one more year she'd have her master's degree in business and the whole place would be hers.
With a satisfied huff, she rinsed the rag out in the sink and ran her hand over the polished wood of the bar. Her mother would've been proud of how hard she'd worked to keep it open. The place had been a second chance at life for both her parents when Lisanna died, and Mirajane stepped right into the role of running it when they'd passed on themselves. The curling pattern of the grain reminded her fondly of her father's hands and she smiled at the thought. The bell over the front door startled her from old memories.
"Lucy! That was fast!" Mira smiled at her friend who weaved through the tables toward the bar.
"Yeah, I was just over in the park. I had to drop off a birthday present."
"Is it Natsu's birthday? I didn't think that was this month." Mirajane scooped ice into a glass and poured Lucy some tea.
"Oh, no. It's my lab partner, Jellal. He's been really broody lately and I thought the gift would make him smile for once."
"Did it?"
"Kind of. He's hung up on something stupid and it's really starting to drag him down."
Mira leaned forward over the bar and sighed. "Maybe it's contagious. A friend of mine, I don't know if you've met her or not but she works weekends, has been really spacey recently. Last night she burned an entire basket of fries. The kitchen smelled terrible for hours." Lucy wrinkled her nose.
"Did she say what her deal is?"
"No, but she's been in a bad mood since that party I dragged her to last month, which I can't understand. She didn't even stay very long."
"Maybe your friend and Jellal got the same batch of depressing jello shots? He keeps going on about some girl he thinks he may have hooked up with but doesn't remember anything about her other than her red hair. How crazy is that?" Lucy said jokingly. Mirajane's lips curved into the slow mischievous smile Lucy knew all to well. "What? What are you planning?" she asked carefully.
"So he likes redheads, huh? How would this Jellal feel about a blind date?"
"I'm sure he'd protest but he could probably be persuaded. Why?"
"Because I have an idea."
"I do not have a type." Jellal said irritably. He switched his phone to speaker and pawed through the mound of clean clothes on his bed.
"You do too, Jellal. Red hair is obviously a thing for you!" Lucy's voice scolded.
"Why can't you just leave this alone? I don't want to go on a blind date!"
"Well, I don't want a lab partner who's broodier than a fictional vampire. Mirajane is an expert matchmaker and I think this'll be good for you."
Jellal ground his teeth and frustratedly shoved the clothes back into a pile. His other green sock was nowhere to be found and now he had the added anxiety of Lucy hassling him about dates. Could nothing go right this month? He grabbed his phone and deposited it on top of his dresser and yanked open the sock drawer.
"What I need is..." His fingers brushed against a plastic baggie on the bottom of the drawer and it brought all his thoughts to a screeching halt. "I just..."
"Jellal? Are you there?" Jellal held up the baggie containing the black thong and sighed loudly. He needed to get rid of the panties. Their presence and the drunken memories of a girl who reminded him of lost things were too much.
"Okay, fine," he said walking into the kitchen. Jellal tossed the baggie into the garbage. "I'll go on the date. You win."
Jellal nervously drummed his fingers on the tabletop. He'd opted for soda instead of anything alcoholic. His date hadn't arrived yet and despite his misgivings he hoped he wouldn't be stood up. Those fears were dashed when a woman slid into the seat across from him. His heart skipped several beats. She smiled sheepishly and folded her hands in her lap.
"Hello, Jellal," said a voice from a mouth attached to a face he hadn't thought he'd ever see again.
"Erza!" He blinked stupidly at her while scrambling for something better to say. "I don't... are you..."
"Your date? I'm afraid so. Mirajane is pretty nosy." Jellal continued to stare while gaping like a fish. The improbability of the situation rendered him unable to articulate any intelligent thought.
"So you're Mirajane's friend? But that means –"
"I haven't been a student here for long. I only transferred last year."
"Did you know you were meeting me tonight? Because I had no idea what was happening until you sat down just now."
"Mira told me your name and it's not exactly common. I hoped it was you. I wanted a chance to explain myself after everything that happened."
Jellal's thoughts felt very much like a tin of puzzle pieces. It felt like he was missing a larger picture and he took an embarrassing amount of time to figure things out.
"It was you. At the party. Wasn't it?" Erza's face reddened even in the dim lighting of the restaurant. "I didn't even recognize you."
"I know," she replied quietly. "I kept hoping you would but –"
"Erza, I was very drunk that night. Uncharacteristically drunk." He tried to smile but it came off as lopsided. "I remembered your hair though. I'm pretty sure Lucy thinks I'm going crazy. I'm sorry I didn't remember you."
"I knew you were pretty out of it but I was so happy to see you," Erza admitted. Finally the shame of that night came back to him.
"Um, listen, I need to apologize... what happened that night... well... I gotta ask. Did we..." Jellal's face felt hot and he poked at the edges of his napkin. Erza finally laughed and broke the tension.
"We didn't. I couldn't go through with it and you were passed out cold when I came back from the bathroom. I wanted to stay until morning but I guess I chickened out. I didn't want that to be how we ran into each other again." She smiled again in the same sheepish way as before. "I've been putting off hunting you down in the science wing for weeks."
"I found your panties," he blurted and Erza's eyebrows flew up. "I kind of kept them in my sock drawer as proof that I hadn't imagined you but then I thought they were driving me insane so I threw them away two days ago. I'm sorry." Jellal wasn't sure if he was apologizing for trashing her underwear or for admitting he took them in the first place. Either way he wished he'd just kept his mouth shut.
"I took your sweater." It was Jellal's turn to be surprised. "I didn't throw it away, though. I'm sorry, too. It was a stupid thing to do. I was kind of overwhelmed that night." Erza's blush darkened. "You still smelled the same."
"I wish I hadn't had so much to drink. I wish I could remember everything."
"Even completely wrecked you were still the same Jellal I remembered." Erza sighed. "I don't know why I followed you up to that bedroom and let things go as far as I did. I wasn't nearly as drunk as you."
"Drunk enough to leave your panties on a strange couch... or was that intentional?" Jellal grinned at her in an attempt to lighten the mood.
"No it wasn't intentional," she said with a laugh. "I guess I realized that I didn't want to be something you regretted or didn't even remember. So I just took your sweater and left."
"Let's start over then." Erza smiled and Jellal couldn't help but return the expression. "And you can keep the sweater. I'm sure it looks better on you than it ever did me."
"You'll have to verify that in person." She sipped her water and winked at him. "And I promise to protect you from any evil panties, although, I have to say they were probably just upset with you for shoving them in a sock drawer. Those were pretty fancy and unused to such a harsh environment."
"Are you... making fun of me?"
"Only a little." Erza laughed again and smirked. "Before Mirajane said your name and I guessed who you were, she said you had a type."
"I do but not in the way she meant. I don't have a thing for redheads, just you."
"So you could say you're Erza-sexual?"
Jellal grimaced. "Your sense of humor hasn't changed a bit, Erza."
"Good to know."
The first time she left a pair of panties at his apartment Jellal debated whether or not to stuff them away in a drawer. Lucy's gift had admittedly freaked him out a little. Even though he and Erza were as official as two people in a relationship could be... he still debated.
In the end the panties were folded neatly and left in the smaller top drawer he saved for his nicer ties and dress socks. Erza would tease him for it but he'd rather be safe than sorry. Sentient panties were a terrifying thing.
