Chapter 12

The trouble really first started when everyone was down in the kitchen. After a little debate over the affects of too much caffeine, Erza had decided to make one last pot of coffee for the road, Jellal was scrambling eggs for breakfast, something that could be done with only one good arm, and Lucy was in the kitchen making sure things were non-violent.

Erza peeked at Jellal, bothered that she had to share her house with a fiend. Albeit a fiend who had once been her best friend and wasn't too bad looking.

Too bad looking?

"You know, Jellal" Erza turned to face him completely, Jellal looked up at her too "You actually grew up to be quite a looker-though you were pretty cute as a kid too." Jellal looked back down at his eggs to hide the fact that he'd blushed under this complement. Erza thought he was cute. Did she- "It's too bad you'll be fat in a few months" Erza was hit in the face by a hot frying pan full of half-cooked egg.

By the time Erza had gotten all the egg goop out of her eyes she was the only one left in the kitchen, Jellal having stormed out feeling annoyed, disappointed, and embarrassed, and Lucy having fled fearing for her life.

Erza grumbled to herself and picked up her coffee, resolving to take a long job by herself to cool off and taking a sip, unaware of the fact that, before storming out, Jellal had slipped laxatives into the drink.

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"Look who finally decided to show up again" Urtear hummed as Siegrain stepped into the hall "I was starting to think you'd died"

"I just thought he'd lost interest" Beluno said

"I was busy" Siegrain said, leaving it at that and taking a seat in his usual place. Now that he/Jellal knew why his magic had been failing him, he'd made a point not to take any food or drinks offered to him so that his powers could return "What did I miss?"

"Why don't you tell us what you've been up to?"

"Because I actually need to know what's going on to work where as you don't really need insight into my personal life" Sieg replied "If it really concerns you that much you could… no, wait… that's illegal…"

In Magnolia, Jellal thanked the gods that he wasn't forced to tell the truth as Sieg.

Rage sighed "I'd rather not know what you do on your own time, but it had better have been important for you to vanish for a week like that"

"This council meets too often" Siegrain sighed

"Quiet, cretin" Another member hissed at him "Now that everyone's actually here again" he cast an accusing glance at Siegrain, who was playing with a pen "let's being. Our first issue is a report that Fairy Tail has-"

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"-So in order to appease the council after that horrible mishap Natsu is forbidden from going on jobs until further notice." Makarov, having finished his speech, looked around the guild. To his disappointment, Natsu seemed to be focusing all his attention on Erza's 'boyfriend'

"Jellal, do you really need to be here?"

"Erza's still out of town. I don't know when she's getting back" Jellal said "This is my only chance to see the guild without having to fight her, since Lucy's been dragging me to every other point in town up until now."

"Can you pay attention to my announcements then? Or at least not distract the others?"

Jellal swatted Natsu away as he got to close "The issue ran through the council two weeks ago. I already heard about it from Sieg"

"That's right. Your brother is in the council, isn't he" Makarov said "I wonder if the others members heard about your condition" Jellal flinched "I should probably send them a letter, just to be safe. They do like to have background info on their members, after all…" he looked at the depressed look on Jellal's face "They do know you exist, right? I thought you'd seen them in action"

"They… don't know Siegrain even has a brother" technically not a lie. They didn't 'know' he did. Knowing or not knowing something didn't make it a fact. After two weeks of having truth serum in his system (thankfully it had worn off enough to not force him to speak anymore) he'd gotten good at stretching the truth.

"How'd you manage that" Jellal opted not to respond "You did have permission to be all those places you went because of Siegrain's position, didn't you?"

"Of course I did"

"Well, I should definitely tell them then"

This would have been the perfect opportunity to say 'have fun' or' knock yourself out' but the serum wouldn't let Jellal give sarcastic orders. Just answers. Instead, Jellal just gave him a nice, false, sweet smile that covered up murderous intent. Forcing him to be in close quarters with Erza and telling the council about him. He wasn't sure how much info they had on the Tower of Paradise. Maybe they didn't know he was behind it yet, but if they did…

"I joined with the intent of finding a way to stop my brother. I didn't mention him before so as to not cast suspicion on myself" something like that would probably work. His psychic projection wasn't being forced into honestly, and Jellal was a pretty good liar. It would work. It would have too.

He hoped.

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Rune Caster: That's all for now.