Chapter 25

"Missing?" Lucy nodded "Are you sure?"

"I went into the changing room real quick and heard a bit of commotion and when I came out a minute later he was gone." Lucy said "I searched the whole store and asked all around town but no one had seen him."

Asking around town was a legitimate way to locate Jellal. Having unintentionally made a name for himself as the pregnant man all of Magnolia recognized him instantly. If no one in town had seen him there was a big deal. Even if he ran away or had just gone home he should have been spotted.

"This is… a problem." Makarov said "Erza, did the two of you have another fight?"

"No. I've been careful not to upset him like that again" Erza said "I mean, I've actually tried to keep him happy. And that's a big deal because a large part of me still wants to smother him in my sleep." Part of her had changed her mind when he said 'I love you'.

An odd silence followed her confession.

"Because of the tower?" Mira asked "you want to smother him because of something that happened at the tower"

"Jellal ruined my childhood!" Erza snapped suddenly "He destroyed my dreams and innocence and left me in constant fear for eight years! He shattered my beliefs that stories can have happy ending! How could I not hate someone like that!" She took a deep breath when she finished. Her face had gone blue from lack of air. Once her lungs were full again she reflected that it felt really good to get that out, but she'd probably only gotten Jellal into more trouble. He as the one she should have screamed at. Stupid Jellal, running away again.

"Jellal was brainwashed then" Simon said softly. Only Lucy heard him.

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"Nn…" Jellal's eyes fluttered open. He immediately recognized his surroundings. It was his room, back at the tower. His hands and legs were free, but one of Miria's strings was still wrapped around his arm to prevent the use of magic. Jellal eyed it with distaste. When the baby kicked he imagined that it was agreeing with him.

When it kicked a second time he imagined it was just trying to annoy him.

"You're awake?" Jellal flinched and turned around. Ikaruga smiled at him "You've been up to a lot since you ran away."

"I was kidnapped."

"Kidnapped?"

"Kidnapped" Jellal repeated

"My, my. How'd that happen?"

Jellal scowled at her and decided that telling the truth was better than making her think he was always weak "I hadn't been eating much because I was so sick"

"And you were so sick because you were expecting" he felt his cheeks burn with embarrassment "Oh, so you were even pregnant then? Vithaldas is fuming about it, but I think it's cute" she told him.

"Smashing. That makes me like this situation that much less"

"Is the baby okay? No one could feel it moving"

Baby gave a good, hard, timely kick "It's fine" Jellal snapped "I'm capable of keeping a baby alive"

"Oh. Then I can-" Jellal slapped her hand away as she reached for her stomach. She just frown at him "Fine. Have it your way-but I will get to feel the baby move before it's out, no matter what I have to do to you"

"That might just be the lamest thing anyone's ever threatened me for" Jellal informed her, then pointed to his door "Now get out!"

Ikagura eyed him flatly and walked out of the room. Jellal wasted no time locking the door once she was gone. Now all alone he looked around for something he could use to escape. A framed photo, a bed, a dresser, a nightstand and a rug made up everything noteworthy in his room. All sharp objects had been removed to he'd be unable to cut the rope.

He sighed, feeling more than a little tired of having his magic sealed by this point. With nothing better to do he sat down on his bed and wondered idly what Ezra was doing now. If she knew where he was, she would murder him. If she found out (before she killed him) that he was only there because he was kidnapped she probably wouldn't come anyway, he wouldn't blame her. If she didn't have any clue… well… he had to wonder if she even cared.

Slightly depressed by this thought, Jellal rolled himself up in a large mass of pitch black sheets and let himself fall back asleep.

OXXXXXO

Rune Caster: I'm gonna see how many weeks I can stretch this over. Ideally, he'll be due when he finally gets rescued. I have a couple ideas for how that'll happen. The problem is, there's the idea I like, and the idea that solves several issues that have come up. Hm… which to go with…