Sorry for such a late update! I've been busy!
Chapter 13: Scene in Vegas
When the six mages finally reached the edge of California, the sun has already risen. Lucy couldn't sleep because it seemed like every single mile they covered; there was a huge bump or some kind of hole. So she just decided on playing with her phone with her shins against the dashboard while Erza blasted some random music she adores called, Kpop, on the car's stereo.
You and Natsu are dating! Gray's voice suddenly rang in her mind.
No we're not, she argued, knowing that it was a pointless argument.
Erza took a quick glimpse at her blonde teammate next to her. Lucy's eyes seem to be distant as she started at the blank screen of her phone.
Afraid that somehow, that virus Lu might be back in her body, Erza asked, "Lu's not back is she, Lucy?"
Lucy blinked before looking at her friend, "Of course not. Your boyfriend already took care of her, remember?"
"He's not my boyfriend," Erza replied.
Juvia poked her head between the two girls, "That's not what Juvia heard. Juvia heard that Jellal had Stephine text him and ask him to the formal. But he rejected because he wanted to take Erza instead."
"He did what?" Lucy, surprised turned to the water mage, "No way."
Titania panicked, "Who told you?"
"Gray did," Juvia said, scrolling through her phone. "Jellal asked him to check for some kind of update but Gray accidentally hit the message box and his conversation popped up."
Erza gripped the steering wheel a little harder as they passed a sign that said Las Vegas was only about 38 miles away.
"Come on, Erza," Lucy gently punched her elbow. "It's alright for our mighty Titania to have a lover."
"Who said I was his lover?" Erza barked at her friends. "Well, not yet at least."
"But soon," Juvia giggled. "So how many babies? Thirty-three?"
"I'll slap you each that many times if you don't shut the hell up?!" Erza snapped but that only caused Juvia and Lucy to burst out laughing.
Suddenly, the music stopped and her Bluetooth rang. Erza hit the answer button on her steering wheel and hissed a hello.
"I knew you were tired but I didn't know you were mad," Jellal's voice filled the car. "What the heck is going on over there? Why does it sound like there are dying parrots in there?"
"There are no dead parrots in there," replied the scarlet, "At least not yet. Why did you call?"
Suddenly, Natsu's voice took over, "Are we gonna stop in Vegas? We should really stop in Vegas for at least a night."
"You sound pretty well, Natsu," Juvia asked.
Natsu laughed, "I feel good, too. I had some ginger packed in my bag and Gray stuffed some down my throat. It's been helping me"
"That's good to hear," Erza said. "Fine, we'll stop in Vegas for the night."
"Shouldn't you girls call and reserve ahead of time?" Gray asked.
"I'll do that, you guys can stop worrying," Lucy yelled into the speaker.
Jellal seemed like he smiled, "Alright, cool. With the power we have left, we should be able to make it without a problem. We'll see you girls in a bit." And he hung up.
…..
It was only noon by the time they reached the beautiful but cold and windy downtown Las Vegas. The girls decided to stay at a place called 'Excalibur' and managed to score two rooms.
As Erza drove through the valet a man in his twenties rushed up to the car as she scrolled down her dimmed window.
Juvia and Lucy exchanged a mental note saying, 'He's cute!'
"Hey there, ladies and welcome to Excalibur. May I park your car today?" he said, smiling widely when he saw a car full of hot girls.
Erza nodded with her normal smile, "Please do find a spot where you can charge it. Oh and the blue car behind us as well."
"No problem, just leave your keys to me," he opened the door for her to get out.
"Oh, we have a gentleman," Erza happily got out.
Lucy and Juvia made their way to also open their doors but he stopped them, "Let me get the door ladies."
He opened them both and helped the ladies out.
I like Vegas, Lucy thought as she grabbed her small backpack.
Erza handed him the keys and he got in. As he scrolled up the window, Lucy felt small familiar paws on her shoulder.
"What is it, Happy?" she asked.
"I'm going to follow him and see if he's really a worker or some kind of thief," he whispered. "Jellal told me to look out for your cars."
"Okay, careful."
"Aye, sir," with that the blue cat silently flew off.
….
"Thank you, sir," Erza accepted the cards as she and Jellal made their way back towards the little hill by Tower II.
Jellal asked, "So how are we paying for all of this?"
"Master told us to use this credit card," Erza pulled out an American Express card. "Money is easy to come by if you know magic. You can't duplicate jewels so easily but American money, he's already having the Thunder Legion working on it as we're speaking."
Jellal gave her a weak smile but his sweat drop still fell, "The FBI and CIA would be really happy to get their hands on us, wouldn't they?"
"Too happy," Erza agreed with a smile. "But normal humans can't get us even if they had guns."
"Why's that?"
"Because we have Fairy Tail and our own strengths to depend on," Erza smiled. "Only Alzack's and Bisca's magical bullets can cause a dent in my armor. Otherwise, normal bullets will only bounce off."
Jellal smiled, "That's why you're Erza Titania and I'm glad she one of my best friends."
Erza blushed as she felt his body moving closer to hers. His bigger hand wrapped around hers. He leaned over and this time, instead of briefly brushing his lips against her cheek, he kissed it for a longer time. This caused gasps from nearby random gamblers. A card dealer dropped his cards as he found the scene way more entertaining than his job.
Erza only felt herself shaking uncontrollably as she felt her heart exploding in her unarmored chest.
"That was not for show," was all the mage said for the rest of the walk.
"Hey the clothes they're wearing, did they used go to West High?" somebody, a man, asked.
His friend answered, "I heard that two Japanese transfer students are gonna lead them to win the Nationals this year and I hope they win! I've been rooting them for like, ever."
As they made their way out of the casino to the start of the hill. Erza and Jellal exchange looks as they saw a group of people surrounding the bottom, even the security guard.
"That's not good," Jellal and Erza rushed down and managed to nudge some people over. Jellal's jaw fell in annoyance when Erza's face scorned up in annoyance.
Natsu had on sunglasses. His mouth smirked with his right hand dug into the pocket of his orange sweats with 'West Basketball'. His other arm was wrapped around Lucy's hip.
Lucy looked like she's not interested in Natsu and pretended she was also bored with her phone instead, but her body was leaned against his broad chest.
The blue haired mage saw Gray and Juvia laughing behind their hands in the opposite end of the crowd.
What the hell is going on here? He thought as he snuck over to them.
He smacked Gray on the shoulder and the ice mage tried to subdue his laughter.
"What's going on?"
Gray took two breaths before calming down. However he just continued laughing like a drunken hyena.
Juvia recovered before her crush, "Lucy tripped on something but Natsu caught her on time. He was messing with Gray's sunglasses so he slipped them on as he pulled her up. There was already a crowd so they just decided to play cool and that's the position they're in now."
"I think the crowd's here because of the clothes we have on," Gray said with only a smirk. "The school's logo is written all over."
"You've recovered," Jellal released another sweat drop. "I guess we're kind of spreading the word that we're fans but they might all be friends. Why would they be so worked up?"
"Because Natsu looks like player number ten, 'Natsu Dragneel'. And Lucy looks like the top hottest cheerleader in the nation, 'Lucy Heartfilla'."
"Then shouldn't you be accused to look like player number sixteen, 'Gray Fullblaster'?" Jellal imitated Gray's air quotes.
"He's too busy laughing like some drunkard to be a look alike of the all mighty number sixteen," Juvia playfully punched Gray's chest. "So we're really working while on break?"
"I suppose so," before they knew what happened the crowd's eyes shifted towards the elevator to the right.
Erza walked ahead with Natsu and Lucy, whose fingers were locked.
The security guard disbanded the crowd however some still followed. Jellal and the rest of mages dashed and weaved through the crowd of twenty or so and managed to jump into the elevator after their teammates. Erza closed the elevator doors before anybody else could leak inside.
As the elevator started moving, Natsu removed the sunglasses with his free hand, "That was weird."
"We're like travelling celebrities," Lucy added.
Erza crossed her arms, "But I think it's best we don't draw too much attention to ourselves. Say one of those people actually stayed near the school or even in our apartment, they might actually report us to the cops for being here underage."
"But we did raise some popularity for the school," the dragon boy pointed out.
Titania nodded, "That's the only good outcome for this." She glanced at Gray and said through gritted teeth, "Shirt, Gray."
Gray looked down and panicked. He found his shirt on the floor of the elevator and quickly tossed it over his head. Even in school, he sometimes finds himself roaming the halls with no shirt. Girls screamed from miles around and the staff took that as a good sign so they usually turn a blind eye on him. Only Erza would yell at him for stripping during the middle of the day.
"So what should we do?" Jellal asked.
Erza smiled, "We relax, remember. It's our break so we don't really try. If people still flock over us then fine. But we don't try anything, agreed?"
"Agreed," Erza's team nodded as the elevator dinged at the signal of a stop on the 20th floor.