Raking leaves was a monotonous movement that Jellal enjoyed. Repeating the motion of dragging leaves across the ground was claming, and helped him clear his mind which was not an easy thing to do.
Raking leaves is what Jellal Fernandes was doing at this moment. The lawn around the Crime Sorcière building (which was the building Fairy Tail occupied during the seven years its strongest members were missing) was beautifully decorated with leaves ranging from red to yellow, and orange to brown. It was very pretty and should have been considered a work of art, but still it needed to be cleaned up so that grass didn't die beneath the layer of leaves.
"You've already started," Erza brought Jellal back to his senses by alerting him to her presence.
"Uh, yeah," Jellal looked behind him and discovered that he had already done a third of the yard. "Sorry. I should have waited for you."
"Its fine," Erza replied before picking up an extra rake, and walking over to Jellal to give him a kiss on the cheek. "You work too hard sometimes."
"Says you," Jellal replied with a smirk. "But anyway, thanks for coming."
"It's no problem," Erza replied. She looked around the yard, "I thought the rest of Crime Sorcière was supposed to show up."
"They were. They didn't," Jellal replied.
"Are you angry?" Erza asked.
"No, I have very low expectations. It's better that way when you're surrounded by former convicts," Jellal explained which made Erza laughed. "Now I'm not saying I don't trust them, which I do, but their work ethnic is almost non-existent when it comes to menial tasks such as raking leaves."
"I wasn't doubting your trust in them," Erza replied. "It's just that you have such low expectations for a group of extraordinary wizards."
"I did say that they were former convicts," Jellal replied. "And they are extraordinary. They're just lazy."
They continued on with playful banter until the whole yard was done. The crowning achievement of their combined work effort was the giant pile of leaves in the center of the yard, which they observed from a distance.
"I don't think I've ever seen that many leaves in a pile in my life," Erza stated before she noticed Jellal's smirk. "What?"
"You know you want to," Jellal said.
"Want to do what?" Erza asked.
"We just raked a large pile of leaves," Jellal pointed out.
"Yes, we spent three hours raking leaves. I'm not going to wreck it."
"C'mon."
"No."
"You want to."
"I don't."
"You do."
"Fine, I do," Erza admitted.
"Do it," Jellal dared her.
"We spent-"
"Do it anyway," Jellal cut Erza off. "It's worth it."
Erza noticed the childish side of Jellal coming out, so Erza decided she should let hers out too.
Before Jellal could say anything else, Erza ran towards the leaves and jumped into the pile, causing an explosion of leaves. The leaves that blew up into the air slowly floated back down, scattering in the surrounding yard.
Erza laughed as she made herself comfortable in the pile, wondering when she had last jumped into a pile of leaves like that. She picked a leaf out of her hair when she heard the cry, "INCOMING!"
Jellal jumped into the pile of leaves, right in front of Erza's face, headfirst. This caused another explosion of leaves, and when Jellal stuck his head out of the pile, he had leaves in his hair and mouth. He sputtered the leaves out, which left a goofy grin.
"Jellal!" Erza scolded him as he laughed. "Wait until I get out of the pile!"
"I wasn't going to jump on you!" Jellal protested as he sat up straight.
"You also could have hit your head on the ground!" Erza argued.
"I think the leaves in my hair disprove your claim," Jellal answered and he picked one orange leaf out of his blue hair. He blew on it, which carried it out of the vicinity of the wrecked pile.
"Still!" Erza supported her argument by grabbing a fistful of leaves and throwing it at Jellal's face.
Jellal had to spit out another leaf as the thrown leaves settled down around him. Erza laughed as Jellal retaliated with his own handful of leaves.
"Oh, you did not just do that," Erza replied as she pulled one of the many leaves out that had suddenly found their way into her hair by Jellal's hand.
"I did," Jellal lived up to his act. They both smiled at each other, and there was no need for telepathic communication as they both scrambled out of the carcass of the leaf pile, both with a handfuls of leaves.
They spent 30 minutes running around the Crime Sorcière yard, pelting each other with leaves and undoing the work they had done. When they were done, they collapsed in the remnants of the leaf pile, both covered with leaves and slightly out of breath from laughing and running at the same time.
"Did we really just undo three hours of work?" Erza asked.
"Yeah," Jellal turned on his side to face Erza. "But it was fun."
"Right," Erza agreed with a smile. Jellal was about to lean in for a kiss, when Cobra interrupted them.
"The fuck happened here?" Cobra looked around the yard at the man-made mess.
"Cobra, don't swear," Jellal sat up and informed the dragon slayer.
"Fuck you," Cobra replied the usual way.
"Well," Jellal stood up. "It's good that you're here."
"What?" Cobra asked as Erza stood up as well, and Jellal grabbed one of the rakes that were haphazardly thrown on the ground. "Why do you two look like you were attacked by tees?"
"That's not important," Jellal replied, before he removed a leaf from his hair that was dangling in front of his face. "Take the rake."
"Why?" Cobra asked.
"Take it. Firmly grasp it."
"Okay," Cobra took the rake.
"Have fun."
"What."
"Have fun raking."
"What."
"Bye!"
"I don't wanna do it."
"Bye Cobra!"
"Don't leave me."
"BYE COBRA!"
"Should we trust him?" Erza asked as she hooked her arm around Jellal's and they walked away, leaving behind a very confused Cobra.
"No. As I said earlier, I have very low expectations for my guild when it comes to menial labor, but I'm curious to see what he'll do," Jellal answered.
"So now what should we do?" Erza asked.
"What do you want to do?" Jellal replied.
"Let's go back to my place," Erza decided.
"Lead the way."
Later . . .
"Cobra. The heck."
"What? I raked everything like you said!"