Sorry I took so long. I discovered a week before everything was due that all my important due dates were in the same week. I spent the whole time doing 5 online quizzes, on online exam, finding the minimum info needed for a speech outline, writing a micro essay for my Coms class, and finishing a large essay for English. This in addition to the weekly write-ups for Bio and my math homework/mid term. Math is easy though. I got a 5 on the AP test, but I decided to take Calc 1 again anyway just so I'd have a better grasp of it. Still, after all that, if nothing else, I'm going to get better about spreading those online quizzes out.
ScarletKnightmare - Ah! A lot of reviews at once! Okay, here I go... 1: Yeah, actually, the summary gives one a pretty good idea of what comes in this chapter. 2: I know! Could you imagine just sitting in a court room that long? 3: Actually... I sort of... kinda... maybe... disagree. Just a little. 4: Ah... I never try to make it look like Gray/Erza. I mean, I guess I'm happy it looks like that but... 5: Ahaha. Yeah, I tried to make her seem fun. I usually find her sort of boring in the manga. 6: Thanks. It's probably the most effort I've ever put into an action scene before. 7: Yes! No one else commented on that joke. 8: It was deffinitly not a date. It was just to people who maybe liked each other going out for a nice evening event. Just the two of them. Not on a date. 9: Eh... more on this one at the end of the chapter. 10 (finally): It was funny, it's just now I won't be able to take him seriously anymore. It's be like if Jellal turned out to have Loke's womanizer habits. It just clashed too much with his role, imo.
Yuki Kusanagi - Don't worry about it. I like Gray. He's not my favorite by a long shot, but his mix of emotion and rationality makes him really easy to work with. He seemed like a good person for this role... actually, his personality makes it easy for me to pair him with anyone too. I've pretty much drawn up ideas shipping him with everyone but Juvia.
Beta5200 - I didn't make that one up. She wears that bikini in an omake. And actually, Natsu's a pretty peripheral character in this fic. I didn't have any good roles for him. If he turns up again, I'm sorry to say it'll likely be in mention.
Forced closure wasn't working. Stupid Loke. Lucy sat down and resigned herself to a headache inducing argument over 'us.'
"There's no reason not to." Loke was saying. "Erza's dating a spirit, and that one isn't even alive."
"I'm against that relationship." Lucy reminded him. "In fact, the only reason I haven't tracked that ghost down and told him to let her be with the living is-"
Lucy never finished that sentence, but Loke imagined that the ending would've gone something along the lines of 'because Erza would kill me,' since Lucy stopped talking when she spotted Erza walking up to them.
"I'm finally back to working." Erza announced, taking a seat between Lucy and Loke. "Master approved of the job I'm taking. I'm leaving in a few minutes."
"Without us?"
Erza winced and forced an apologetic smile. "The job specifically says it's to be done solo. I'm sorry Lucy. The Council requested me special for it, and given our relations with them I don't think it's a good idea to turn them down." More like given that they controlled if she saw Jellal, but Lucy didn't mention that.
"It would also be a good idea not to break anything while you're working. How long is it supposed to be?"
Erza shrugged. "About a week. I don't know many of the details though. I'm supposed to get the full assignment in Era."
"Well, that should be enough time for Juvia to calm down after Gray tells her you two are living together." Lucy joked. "Good luck."
"Thanks. We'll have to find work together when I get back." Erza waved as she left.
"Juvia did realize…" Lucy yelped, having not notice the rain woman sneak up behind her. "She was so busy keeping on threat in check, someone else has snuck up to steal Gray."
"Angel-san?" Erza whispered once the train had started. She felt a light pressure on her arm. "Hey. I'm glad you came. I can act more confidently if I don't have to worry so much about what will happen if I mess up. I… I'm sort of hoping they'll let me see Jellal again."
Though touched, Jellal had been afraid of that.
"I… I like him." Erza confessed. "I tried to tell him once, but I was interrupted." What? When? "Actually, he told me once but… given the situation… I think he was just trying to hurt me by saying so." Never! "Um… Angel-san, you're squeezing my arm really tightly."
Oops. Jellal released her arm, opting to rest his head on her shoulder instead. Her armor would probably have been too cold and stiff for this if he could actually feel it.
Erza felt the slight shift on her armor, and reached up hesitantly to try and feel her Guardian Angel's face. Not a bad head shape, there was a nose, possibly hair. Jellal endured her hands on his face and torso, but as she moved further down he hastily made said lower half intangible. His legs slipped through the train seat, leaving him in an awkward spot. Thank God Erza was too busy wondering where his lower half went to notice where his head was. Slowly, carefully, he extracted his face between her legs and pulled himself back up.
He could almost feel himself blushing.
The meeting was in an unusual place. In the underbelly of the city. The sort of place Jellal would remember sneaking to with Ultear to watch rowdy mages like the ones in Fairy Tail go nuts taking out criminals with no restraint, where he able to recall such events.
"I'm probably going to be working here." Erza sighed. "I have to not wear makeup on this job. People might decide I'm a hooker."
"That's the point."
Erza spun to see one of the Council's endless supply of toads come out from an alley.
"What?"
"The locals have reported a prostitution ring in the area. We'd like to send one of our own men to find it, but we do need to deal with rumors about the Rune Knights' behavior. Fairy Tail already has quite a reputation, and a girl with your looks to get a job easy. You probably won't feel out of place at all, given you so closely associate yourself with such vile scum." The toad pulled the letter Erza had sent requesting to see Jellal from under his coat and waved it in her face.
"You want me to… sell myself?" Erza was too stunned, so Jellal clenched his fist in rage for her.
"Is that a problem?"
"Yes!"
"If we can't trust you with a job, we certainly can't trust you with the criminal."
Erza opened her mouth to protest, but no sound came out. They wouldn't let her see Jellal unless she went undercover as a prostitute?
"Of course, if word it gets out, saying you were spying for us can only undo so much of the damage that it will do to your reputation Titania."
They didn't care. They probably already knew who all was involved. This is just a chance to drag her name-Fairy Tail's name-through the mud, and Jellal was the bait.
Jellal…
"…Alright."
The toad grinned. "Excellent. Let's get you all dressed up."
Erza had picked a lousy time not to bring a writing utensil. After searching the dressing room and coming up with nothing other than writing on the wall with lipstick, which Erza had forbidden, Jellal was trying to trace his words out, letter by letter, on Erza's hand.
"…P…I…D…" Erza repeated slowly. "It's stupid. I know. But I can't leave Jellal alone! I promised him I'd visit months ago."
Jellal almost wasted time arguing that two months wasn't long, but just a week had felt like eternity in that cell, and he had been looking forward to that visit. Besides, he had to dissuade her before that ugly wart came back.
"J…E…L…L…A…L, Jellal, W…O…U…L…D…N…T... wouldn't?" He gave her an affirmative pat on the hand, and went on "…want…u…2…give…up..…oh." she flushed. "Well… I suppose… Yes, I do care. I've never… before… but he… that is… he doesn't need to know what I'm doing."
Jellal started to write his threat, but gave up after two letters and grabbed the lipstick. Erza, also growing tired of the slow communication, let it slide.
I will make sure Jellal knows if you do this.
You don't even know they'll let you see him.
Don't take the job.
"I can handle this." Erza hissed.
Growling in frustration, Jellal sprung at Erza and pinned her to the floor. One hand held her arm up while the other held her mouth shut to stifle her scream as he crawled on top of her. Ignoring her alarmed protests, he began to peel off the thin, racy top the toad had given her.
Erza was about to try screaming again when the motion stopped, her captured arm was released, and the pressure on her chest tightened as a similar sensation appeared on her cheek, tracing out the words: can you?
"It's a shame, but perhaps we'll get more work for you in the future."
"Yes…"
"Just don't count on it." The toad smirked as the train doors shut. Erza watched him from the window until the station was no longer in view, then found the nearest seat.
Jellal sat next to her and poked her arm.
"Hey… Angel…" Erza muttered. "I'm not mad… I promise."
So why wouldn't she look up? Jellal poked her again-it was his only current form of communication. At least while she was too distracted for tracing.
"Please don't." Erza whispered. "I just… give me a moment."
No. Another poke.
"Stop that." Erza hissed, turning to glare at Jellal and, for once, getting his location right. For all the effort she was putting into looking furious, she couldn't hide that she was crying.
Jellal stopped poking her, and she slumped back down. "I really wanted to see him." Erza choked on a sob, and waited a moment before adding "This isn't fair. I've been nothing but sensitive to the Council ever since his arrest, and all reports that he's been a model prisoner. They… I…"
Jellal patted her shoulder, but now that she was back in her armor he doubted she could feel it.
"…thanks…" Erza took a deep breath and spoke in a firmer tone. "I feel worse for Jellal. He's going to be alone because a chickened out of this. I don't think they've even been letting him read my letters, because he stopped responding."
Jellal took Erza's hand and began to trace.
"I… can….. really? ..…Oh, yeah." She giggled. "I guess he can go through walls, can't you, Angel-san? You can really sneak letters back and forth for me?"
Why not? How hard could forging his own handwriting be?
STA: My wasting precious time reading smutty Vocaloid slash rather than working on this or school work may have effected the chapter a teensy bit. But about that chapter... I mean... holy crap that was a big time skip. I'd rather Makarov die then have the character that much older. Oh... and poor Jellal probably spent that whole time in prison too.
Becasue I finally remembered why, I figured I'd talk a little about the origin of this story. Basically, my iPod was playing possum on me, so I was using my old CD player, and I had Taylor Swift in, and the song Haunted came on. I started imagining it as one of those movie promos, for a film where a girl gets into a relationship with a ghost. The idea was that the girl loved him like Bella, while he would be rational about how he was dead and she'd be happier with a live guy, and eventully she'd become so obsesed that she tried to remedy that little barrier the traditional way, so he let it go and decided that even if it was a strange life, at least he'd make sure she lived, so he stayed with her. Weird, huh? Well, that's not the plot of this fic. I didn't have the time to work out a whole story, so I did the reverse of my normal method, I turned my original story into a fanfic, and adapted it acordingly, this time with the ghost and the girl being for the realtionship, but the ghost moreso, and the friends beinging aware of, and in some cases vocal about their dating.
Also I got hooked on this anime with a really redundant title. "The Legend of the Legendary Heroes" Actually, I started watching it just cuzz the title made me laugh. On a scale of 1 to Code Geass, I give it a 7.