The phones arrived in identical boxes and Siegrain was the last to activate his. Mystogan was ever meticulous with his settings and went to great lengths to make sure he lost nothing in the change. Jellal had a complex system of cloud backups. Siegrain suspected this was because he had a treasure trove of nudes from Erza. His own system - if it could even be called that - was a haphazard sync with iCloud and his Google account. He turned the new phone on and hoped for the best.

Siegrain never utilized the high tech safety features available on his phones. Yes, he was aware of the fingerprint scanners and the retinal scanners on the iPhone but he just couldn't be bothered to mess with any of it. He had nothing to hide anyway… and he'd lost total interest once he found out identical twins and triplets shared neither the same fingerprints or retinal scans. The iPhone X, however, had facial recognition. This was new. Interesting. According to twitter a set of identical twins managed to hack each other's phones with the feature already despite the phone only being available for a handful of weeks. Siegrain figured it was worth a shot.

Predictably Jellal's lock screen was a completely wholesome picture of Erza kissing his cheek. Siegrain rolled his eyes but pressed on. The work of navigating a feature he wasn't familiar with would make the whole effort worth it. He figured he had about twenty minutes while Jellal showered. A wicked grin spread across Siegrain's face when the phone unlocked. He quickly checked the obvious places: photos, iCloud, dropbox, google drive. Nothing. Not a single scandalous picture of Erza. Siegrain decided to go directly to the source.

He'd simply ask.

'Hey, you.' He tried to adopt Jellal's sappy romantic tone from the long thread of texts.

'Hey! How was practice?' Her reply came right away.

'Boring.' Siegrain didn't want to waste time chatting away about basketball. 'I was thinking of you in the shower.'

'Yeah? And how did that turn out?'

'You could help me finish the job. What are you wearing?'

'Something you'd like.'

'I like you in everything… and nothing. Why don't you show me the nothing?' Siegrain glanced at Jellal's open bedroom door and listened for the shower spray. He didn't have much time.

'That's a bold request.'

'Is it?'

'You want to see me with nothing but my sheets?'

'How about just nothing?'

'Give me a sec.'

Siegrain's lips curled into an excited grin. He bounced his foot impatiently. She was taking too long. When the photo finally popped up he sighed deeply and groaned. Erza was wrapped in her winter coat with a scarf covering half her face. She flipped him the bird and had scrawled Nice try over the image.

'A guy can't get away with nothin''

'How tragic.'

Siegrain set Jellal's phone aside and slipped out of his brother's bedroom before he could be caught red handed. He didn't bother to delete the thread because Erza would no doubt tell him what happened anyway.


Erza slid the pastry box across the picnic table in the school courtyard and smiled sweetly at him. Siegrain glanced around curiously before opening the box. Inside was a perfectly frosted cupcake dusted with edible glitter and a Happy Birthday! topper.

"Uh, thanks," he muttered, dipping his finger into the swirl of icing.

"You're welcome!" Erza's smile was sweeter than the icing and Siegrain's stomach flipped over uncomfortably. "I just wanted to make sure you had a personal birthday gift from me before this weekend."

Siegrain wiped his finger on a tissue from his backpack and closed the box. "Uh, listen. About the texts -"

Erza laughed. "Don't worry about it, I don't hold a grudge." She stood and smoothed her skirt. Before turning to go she leaned over the table. Her smile was now the picture of vicious cunning. Siegrain hadn't ever seen her look more like her mother. "By the way, Jellal never asks me for nudes. He doesn't have to. I make sure he's got plenty of finishing material."

Siegrain made an inhuman noise in the back of his throat. He wasn't sure if he was terrified of her in that moment or…

"Enjoy your cupcake," Erza chirped, suddenly returning to the charming grin she'd had only seconds before.

Siegrain did not enjoy the cupcake.