Please share your thoughts on the Fairy Tail conclusion, I need to blah about it with someone. xD

I'm not particularly happy with it; there was too much Nalu and Gruvia for me and Laxus got shipped with both Cana and Lisanana (Whaaaa?) Hell to the no, he's with Mira.

On the bright side, Gajeel got Levy pregnant, and Cobra and Kinana are daitng!

But what really killed me is Erza and Jellal's relationship. Jellal got released, Erza heard but they don't meet- What. The. Hell…

Share your thoughts!

As Erza pondered Jellal's invitation, the rest of the guild finished rearranging the hall's benches into a rough circle, due to the Master's call for an impromptu meeting. Most of them took their spots quickly. Excluding Natsu and Gray, who stood, glaring furiously from opposite sides of the room.

They had been rudely interrupted from their fight, where Natsu had to be pulled off of the ice wizard's face. Coincidentally, Erza now sat a row behind Natsu, and Gray, leaning against the bar's counter was shadowed by Mira.

Makarov quieted everyone down with a loud shout, then proceeded to drown his worries in his fifth beer. Gray was one to present a question to the master, "So, Gramps, what do you think about all this?"

"The defeat of Nightfrost is quite an achievement but I've never known Crime Sorciere to be so… reckless." Makarov started on his sixth cup. He was foolishly hoping the drinks would incinerate his memory and allow him to ignore the damage his brats would cause, at least until the party was over.

I'm sure Jellal wouldn't intentionally put either of our guilds into danger. He tried to reason with himself. I just can't see what he's thinking- Oh.

Makarov chuckled lightly. Of course, he covered his mouth in an attempt to hide his snorting but the effort was halfhearted. Of course there's an ulterior motive. He cast his gaze to that certain person, but her innocent obliviousness drew out a guwaffing, pwhaaa!

It was so obvious now-

Erza.

Mira watched the master with an arched eyebrow, but made no effort to help. He was rolling across the table, still hooting like a maniac. "Sending invitations alone is dangerous enough." She chewed her lip. "But hosting a whole party?"

"Pfff, who cares?" Cana took a swig from her bottle, clearly unperturbed by the live example of drinking effects. "'s long as there's company, food and free booze, I'm in."

Natsu pumped his fist into the air. "Yeah! As long as there's someone new to fight against, I'm in too!" He grinned like a kid who'd gotten everything on his wish list for Christmas and crowed, "I'm going to fight Cobra, and this time I'm going to win so easily! I'll throw him into the ground so hard there's gonna be a permanent imprint-"

Lisanna smacked Natsu upside the head, to which he let out a complaining, "Hey! What was that for?"

"Don't be stupid." Even as she tried to make herself serious enough to reprimand him, her blue eyes danced with laughing affection. "The party's gonna have to be low key and I know you! If you and this 'Cobra' guy start a fight, you'll set a new record in Fairytail for trouble."

"'n that'd be sayin' somethin'," Laxus muttered with his eyes casually closed, hands folded behind his head, feet on the table.

Her hands on her hips, Mirajane stalked over to him with mock curiosity. "What was that Laxus?"

He opened his eyes but didn't turn to face her, vying to nonchalantly cock his head to the side instead. "Nothing."

"Are you sure? I thought I heard-"

"Well maybe you heard wrong."

"Oh, did I-"

Over Mira's retort, Gray let out a disgruntled growl. "Back to the point. Gramps, what are we doing?"

Now upright, Makarov hiccupped. "If we're careful enough, I think we'll be fine. So I guess we can all go, as long as you're all on your best behavior. Although traveling together in one group… Mirajane, what do you think?"

Hearing her name, she stopped picking on Laxus and retreated to behind the bar, picking up a small scrap of paper that lay on the counter. "Let's see who's going… Erza. Natsu. Gray. Wendy. Lucy."

"Did I mention I'm coming?" Some of the guild startled as Loke popped out of thin air, slinging an arm over his celestial mage. "I won't make any trouble."

Lucy shrugged his arm off, exasperatedly huffing, "Loke, I can't just let you party! What about the other spirits?"

"That's the only problem?" Gray snickered quietly.

Loke shot him a sly wink before he returned to feigning clueless innocence. "They can party in their world?"

"Don't you say 'their' like you're not a part of them!"

"Well, as the leader and the most powerful spirt, I could've said 'my world' instead. Or would that make me sound too egotistic?" He caught Gray's eye and his trademark smirk flashed. "Though, a friend of mine once told me you like you guys that way." Even as large as his grin already was, it could still widen. "Matter of fact, I remember reading an interesting excerpt from a novel, involving the female protagonist commenting on 'Leon' and his arrogance. Strangely, she seemed to be approving- I'd even call it, 'appreciating'."

Lucy spluttered protests that didn't reach the spirit's ears while he took the opportunity to slide over to the bar, leaning against the counter. "Mira, I promise you, I'll have Lucy's agreement by the end of the night."

His owner fumbled for her keys on her belt, found them and fiercely swiped it through the air, yelling, "Shut your mouth!"

"Mmmm,'s little better than your regular farewells." Loke laughed good-naturedly as he faded away. "See you guys soon!"

Mira's hand flew to her mouth as she giggled, her usual cheerful self again. "Doesn't sound like he's planning on changing his mind."

Lucy muttered something darkly that sounded like, "Kill. Smug. Bastard.", and Mira stifled another laugh. "Alright, so Loke. Me. Elfman. Lisanana…"

She pretended to be busy with refilling Makarov's drink so she wouldn't have to look at his grandson. "Well, mighty thunder god?" Sarcasm accompanied her words. "Will you be gracing us with your presence?"

"Yes." Remaining in his position, Laxus simply switched his crossed legs on the table, and didn't even glance in her direction.

She picked up an unopened bottle of wine with a strangling grip that was worrying enough for Natsu to silently slide onto a neighboring bench.

Equally blunt, Mira snapped, "The Raijinshū?"

"No."

"Fine."

Silence enveloped the hall.

The rest of them watched with uneasy wariness, some holding their breaths for a good couple of seconds until they deemed it safe to exhale. Silently.

Surprisingly, the first to dare to act was Levy. She timidly raised a hand, trembling slightly. "Um, I'd like to go. And uh, Gajeel- and Juvia are out on a mission so they probably won't make it."

"Of course!" Suddenly Mira's dangerously aggressive anger was gone, as if it had never been there. "Macao and Wakaba kindly volunteered to tend the bar-"

"Oh I bet they did." Romeo mumbled under his breath. "Dad, I'm going without you okay?"

"-we are if they come back early." Mira clapped her hands together. "This is going to be great!"

The prickling in Erza's stomach begged to differ.

"Fuck man, it's gonna be so goddamn awkward out there!"

Exasperation flitted through Jellal's features before he shook it away. He leaned back into his chair, swiping at a spiky bang of blue. "Erik, please. Just deal with them."

"Just deal with them." Cobra mimicked, ducking through the low doorway of the cabin, frowning at the hastily decorated interior. "You're a hypocritical bastard- If you'd gotten your ass whipped not once, but twice by the same people, you wouldn't be saying crap like that."

"Three things, smartass. First, I fought lost to Natsu too." Most of him shied away with the shame and guilt as thinking about the past always did- but a childish part of him sparked a pout. It hadn't been a fair fight-

Nun-uh.

And if we fought now, I'd easily win.

"That doesn't mean anything now. Two, I'd never thought you'd refer to your loss as an 'ass whipping'. If I ever heard Natsu use those terms, I'd use this meeting as an excuse to beat the shit out of him."

In fact, he would do just that.

Later.

Stomping down his impatience, the heavenly body mage eyed Cobra. "I don't know why you wouldn't do the same... Have you gone soft?" He'd barely finished the last words before Cobra whirled around, fiercely hissing, "Never. I'll bury him six feet under."

Jellal tried not to smile. "Just don't kill him will you? And be friendly to the rest of our other guests."

Cobra's signature smirk was back. "Anyone in particular Jellal? It's cool if I'm an ass to anyone who isn't a redhead right?"

Jellal forced himself to relax and sink back into his chair with a sly smile of his own. "I forgot to mention thing number three. Miss Straus sent me a list of the guest names as I requested, and I noticed one I'd never seen before. "

Cobra's smirk faltered and his shoulders tensed cautiously.

"The name Kinana ring a bell?"

"Have you forgotten?" Cobra snarled. "I can hear your thoughts! Anything you think, I hear, way before you've even opened your mouth."

Irritated eh? "Sorry, must've slipped my mind." Jellal's smirk widened. "Either way, you might want to rethink who you're gonna be an ass to today."

"I know who's at the top of my list."

"You know people might like you, if you were nicer." Jellal said mildly.

"Oh and you would really know about being nice, right?" He scoffed. "Yeah, I'll take Kinana down to a deserted beach-"

"Shut up Cobra, shut up."

"-oh, and then, I'll push her away and make some bullshit excuse." Cobra spat. "You still think you're nice?"

"Look," Jellal exhaled difficulty, roughly threaded a hand through his hair, welcoming the soft, mellow pain with each tug. "Okay, maybe I messed up, so what? If you think you're much better, go out there and show me how it's done."

Silence. Cobra looked expressionlessly unresponsive, staring at the ground hard like he was trying to memorize it.

Then, "She doesn't remember who I am." he mumbled hollowly, voice dull. Jellal was taken back by the unusually quiet, lifeless tone. "She has no memory of who she was, before Fairytail. She's only talked to me once, and that was right before I was captured by the magic council." Turning his back on Jellal, he laughed dark and humorlessly. "Wasn't the impression I wanted to give, but I guess it's too late now."

"Shut up and go talk to her." The vehement words easily slid out of Jellal's mouth like he'd practiced saying them, although he was unsure where the sudden, unexplainable conviction that overwhelmed his senses was coming from. "Look, this might be your only opportunity for a while, you need to take your chances and talk to her."

You might not know how she feels about you, but you don't know when you'll see her again.

"Help her create new memories- you have to make the most of your time together…"

Before you realize you've made a mistake, and you'd give anything to spend just one more minute with her, before you realize you know it will- it can never happen.

Jellal flinched as Cobra whirled around furiously`. "I could throw those words- or those thoughts- right back at you, but they would never reach your ears." Jellal stiffened as Cobra stalked up, now shouting, "You know why? Because you do too much thinking! You love her and she loves you, why isn't that enough to get together instead of just thinking nothing will happen?"

"Cobra!" Jellal grit his teeth. "It's not like that."

His guildmate snorted. "Yeah yeah, it's different alright, real different!"

"Let's get back to the point." Jellal's voice was tight and bed. "This is about you, not me. Kinana needs to know more and you're the only one who can tell her. Go make things right. Talk."

There was a fair pause that made Jellal wonder whether he should be preparing for a physical, and likely, violent fight.

Then Cobra abruptly asked, "Are you?"

"What?"

"Are you going to talk to your girl?"

There was a bold and possessive part of him that tightened, liking those words: My girl. Before Jellal mentally berated himself for even thinking like that and shook it off. "Do I have a choice?"

"No."

Expecting as much, Jellal exited the cabin. "Okay then."

The pleasantries were awkward. But they were made, Jellal reminded himself, pressing himself to walk harder. Cobra's soft footsteps grew loud enough for Jellal to finally hear them. That's one thing done.

Surprisingly, things were going smoothly. Well, not any thanks to him, of course.

He sat down. Overlooked by a bar of trees, the small, grassy hill made it easy to observe the main festivities from afar without being noticed.

Jellal and Cobra made their selves helpful by avoiding attention while Ultear and Meredy voluntarily made up. Judging by the time, Jellal estimated they had already finished their welcoming speech, following with a breakdown of the planned activities, perhaps, even finished the contests?

"No, they've barely started them but Racer… Racer lost to some guy named Jet?" Cobra shook his head, half-disbelievingly, half delighted glee. "I'm gonna have to tease him for this you know."

"I won't stop you." Jellal shrugged. "What else can you hear?"

"Hmmm… Laxus won strength… The blond bimbo with the big boobs won archery, thanks to her spirit. Green haired lady won marksmanship... Oh, and weapons tournament is about to start. But I think we both know who's going to win that."

"Is that so?" Jellal brushed off the dirt that stained his cloak. "Who do you-"

"Don't play dumb!" Cobra told him. "Did I not mention earlier, I can hear your thoughts?"

"Fine, fine!"

"Well are you going to watch?"

"No."

"Liar."

"No, I'm not going to watch."

Cobra snorted. "Bullshit! You can't hear yourself through your own thick skull, can you?"

"Erik, I'm serious."

"So am I!"

"You can hear my thoughts but you can't hear what I'm saying? I'm not going to watch!"

"I don't need to hear your thoughts to know-" Cobra abruptly broke off. He sat up and looked behind him. Jellal's gaze followed.

She was walking up the hill in a simple black dress, chewing her lip, looking uncertain and nervously excited at the same time. She offered him a small smile that made his heart jolt.

Jellal's eyes were instantly drawn to her beautiful, rich, scarlet red hair, gently flowing over her left shoulder. The longing to run a hand through it hit him hard like an electric shock, but at the same time, it softened him and wore away all of his worry, doubt for… everything. All Jellal wanted to do now was spend time with her-

"Can I call bullshit now?" Cobra rolled his eyes.

Jellal's gaze snapped to him, turning into a dirty glare. Erza startled a little, back stepping.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Cobra mockingly raised his hands and got up. He cast one last look at Jellal before walking, casually calling, "Remember to be nice."

Jellal bit back a retort that slid down his throat when she found a spot next to him and softly said, "Hey."

"Uh… Hey?"

Erza seemed to be waiting for something else but after several seconds, she looked away from him and anxiously ran a hand through her hair. Jellal couldn't help but watch.

"Are you enjoying yourself?"

Erza kept fidgeting with her hair, now braiding a couple of the fine strands together. "Yeah. I am."

"You know, there's a weapons contest right now." He cocked his head to the side. "You should uh, go and compete." He hurriedly continued on. "But I know- I mean I think- I'm uh, sure you're going to win." He lamely added. "For sure."

"Th-thanks."

"Jellal!" The man's head snapped towards the sound of his name. Cobra was standing at the foot of the hill, looking highly annoyed. "She wants to know if that's all you have! Be a man and grow a pair, okay?"

Erza shrank, red faced but Jellal's eyes narrowed and he silently mouthed something. A second later, Cobra yelled as he was sent flying upwards, then sharply yanked backwards.

Erza blinked, open mouthed, surprise overcoming her embarrassment. "Your telekinesis- it's gotten stronger."

"I guess." Jellal had never felt so awkward in his life. "So… are you going to compete?"

"Depends." She recomposed herself and tilted her head to the side. "Will you be competing too?"

"Me?" Jellal leaned away to put some space between them. He couldn't pinpoint the reason as to why he was so uncomfortable. "No."

"Why not?"

"I'm not any good with weapons."

"I disagree." Erza murmured. Her warm brown eyes met his. "You rescued-"She stumbled over her words. "You rescued me when we were kids. You had a sword then. And you were good."

It was confusing. Jellal was sure he should've been freezing up with fear, guilt, shame- something, at the mention of their past. She knew how painful every reminder was. They both did.

But strangely, only more worry died away. He almost smiled. "No, they were just bad."

"Either way." She was smiling now. Shyly. "Do you want to go compete with me?"

"You mean against you?" The corners of his mouth rose into a smile. "No thank you, I think I'll surrender now."

Erza laughed gently and Jellal's smile widened without his permission.

He really couldn't help it; he really, really liked that sound. He liked hearing her happy.

She's happy with- when she's with me.

"Will you at least come watch me?" Erza played with her hair again. He was astonished to see she was blushing a little. "It would mean a lot. If you did."

"Okay." He got up and hesitated for a single second before instinct made him reach down. Erza had the same second of hesitation before she accepted his hand.

The moment they made contact, Jellal nearly let go. How the hell were her fingers so soft?

He self-consciously glared at his free hand. Mine are all calloused…

His thumb folded over the back of her hand and he thought her breath hitched a little. Maybe Erza was trying to play it off; she began leading him away.

He gladly followed.

Cobra, if you're still listening, stop.

And… thanks.