Chapter One Hundred and Three - Family
Kinana appeared in front of me out of nowhere. "Elle, we have a problem!"
I tried to hide the jump I made and sighed at her. "What is it?"
"Erza's jealous!"
I froze, my veins turning to ice. "Shit."
"It's not as bad as you think," she told me as she led the way. "She's not really mad, more really sad. Heartbroken."
"What happened?" I asked.
"Well, it's a bit of a long story," Kinana said breathlessly, having trouble keeping up to me; she was still adjusting to her legs. "It turns out Jellal and Levy are related-"
"What?" I asked in shock, stopping.
She ignored me and continued talking. "-and they wanted to get to know each other so they're spending time together. Erza saw them together and got jealous. And then she ran off before I could say anything."
I pinched my forehead and sighed. Fuck.
"You know where she is now?" I asked Kinana.
She nodded.
"Then lead the way," I said, gesturing ahead of me.
Erik was bored.
Kinana had run off (probably to find Elle) after Erza had seen Jellal and Levy together, and there was nothing really interesting happening in the guild hall; or at least, nothing interesting where he could see.
Or hear.
Freed had put up borders between each room, which helped Erik overall so he wasn't overwhelmed, but made it harder to find something interesting when he was bored out of his fucking mind.
Looking around, he noticed that both Lucy and Gajeel were still gone, but Natsu was sitting slumped over at a table.
Erik smirked; maybe there was something interesting going on after all.
When Erza saw Jellal and Levy together, she ran off, not even talking to them or listening in on their conversation.
She's always been fit, but running now, she could barely breathe; it felt like her heart was tearing itself in half.
Now she was sitting by the river, curled up around her knees and trying to stop her tears.
She was supposed to be strong now. That's why she wore her armor.
But she was still crying.
"Erza!" someone shouted.
She looked up and saw Elle running towards her, Kinana behind her and very out of breath.
Elle would know what to do. Her sister always did.
Elle turned to Kinana and said some things, before Kinana went off in another direction – she should really stop running, her legs muscles still weren't that strong – and Elle approached.
She walked close and was silent, looking down at Erza.
Erza felt a wave of shame. Had she disappointed her sister?
But Elle didn't look disappointed. Instead, she sat down next to Erza, leaning back on her arms as she slightly laid out on the grass and looked at the river.
Silence lay between them, and the two of them both looked at the running water, reflecting the sun above.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Elle asked.
"No," Erza answered.
There was some more silence before Elle nodded. "Then I will."
Erza looked up in shock, before turning to face her sister, who still wasn't looking at her.
"It's okay to be jealous," Elle said, turning and smiling at Erza. "After all, have you met Laxus?" and then under her breath, "Stupid possessive tsundere".
Erza smiled a bit, and tried to hide it.
"So, anyway, you ran off because you were jealous," Elle continued, and Erza blushed as she realized that she hadn't denied it.
It wouldn't matter. Elle knew the future anyway. So she had to know how Erza felt about Jellal.
"Next time, though," Elle said, bringing Erza's attention back to her sister. "I want you do something else; find out what's going on, first. Listen, observe; hell, confront them."
"Why?" Erza asked, still sad.
"Because Jellal and Levy just found out they're related, and want to get to know each other."
Erza perked up a bit. "Really?"
Elle nodded.
Erza felt another wave of shame for assuming, but it was soon overcome with happiness. "So…does Jellal…like me?"
Elle laughed. "I think Jellal goes a bit beyond 'like', when it comes to you, Erza."
Erza smiled and leaned into Elle, who changed their positions so they were comfortable, and her arm was over Erza's shoulder, bringing her in for an embrace.
She smiled and snuggled closer.
"What the fuck?"
Lucy and Gajeel looked up from the floor, Gajeel blushing and Lucy brightening as they held each other's arms.
"Shut up, Cobra," Gajeel said, reaching an Erza-level shade of red.
"Make me."
Gajeel lunged for the older slayer (who dodged), and the younger boy ended up flying out the door and hitting the wall opposite in the hallway.
"You know you can't hit me, Gajeel," Erik said, dodging again as Gajeel launched himself off of the ground.
"Shut up and stay still, you damn snake!" Gajeel yelled, trying to attack him again. Even without Erik's help, Gajeel was a bit off-balance and wobbly.
He missed again, because Erik stepped to the side and swiveled on his foot, his other foot coming back up and hitting Gajeel squarely in the chest, throwing him back.
Erik's hands were in his pocket the whole time.
He had practiced that for weeks, and it finally paid off.
Okay, so maybe Elle had a point when she said it would be good for Loke to teach them ballet.
"STOP FIGHTING!" Lucy yelled.
They both froze.
If one wanted to survive in Fairy Tail, it was always a good idea to listen to women if they're angry. While every girl was scary in some way or another (such as Wendy and Yukino's manipulation through cuteness), there are several girls whose wrath you don't want to feel.
Elle. Erza. Lucy.
In some way, these three are the scariest. But there's also Brandish, who will shrink you and play with you like a doll, or Evergreen who will turn you to stone. And while it's not exactly clear what it is that Sorano and Ultear will do, in the end, they'll always get their revenge.
"You're not supposed to fight!" Lucy yelled at them. "You're brothers!"
The two boys froze and exchanged glances. "What the hell are you talking about, Bunny Girl?"
She glared at them, with her hands on her hips. "Elle said that you're brothers!"
Erik sighed. "Elle is wrong. We're not brothers."
"Yes, you are," Lucy said stubbornly. "You're slayers!"
"That doesn't mean we're related!" Gajeel yelled.
"Yes, it does!"
"No, it doesn't!"
"Yeah-huh!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Yeah-huh!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Yeah-huh!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"ENOUGH!" Erik yelled, holding his hand to this head. "Why are you so insistent that we're brothers?"
"BECAUSE YOU ARE!" Lucy yelled, stomping her foot. "You're both Ellie-nee's brothers, and since I'm her little sister that means you're both my brothers too! So you can't say you're not brothers!"
Silence.
All three stared at each other, and Lucy's eyes started to water.
Fuck.
Erik sighed. "Fine, Lucy. We're brothers."
"We are?!" Gajeel shouted.
Erik punched him.
"I mean, we are!" Gajeel said, rubbing his arm.
"Yay!" Lucy said excitedly, hugging the two of them, before pulling back, her smile turning feral. "Lets go back to dancing."
"I'll just be leaving now," Erik said, but before he could move, Lucy had grabbed the back of his jacket.
"Not so fast!" she said.
Erik stared at her. He hadn't heard her thoughts about moving, or seen or heard her move, either.
"Why?" he asked, trying not to sound scared of a girl five years younger than him.
"I'm gonna teach you how to dance, too!" Lucy said.
"Why?"
"Well, Gajeel is doing it to impress Levy," the boy choked a few feet away, "so you can do it to impress Kinana!"
There was no fighting her.
It was impossible to escape.
Her grin lit up her face again, and Erik put it up there on his list of 'Top 5 Scariest Faces Made by Members in the Guild'; a list he had made strictly for survival, and when to run.
But he couldn't run now.
"Now," she said. "Let's get started. First, we need to fix your form..."
"Do you remember what I asked you?" I asked the girl curled into my side.
Erza looked at me. "Huh?"
"About the singing?" I asked. "You know I can switch it."
She shook her head. "Thank you for the offer, but I don't need it."
I smiled at her. "If you're sure."
She smiled back. "I'm sure."
"Then why don't you go get your man."
She blushed and ran off.
Mission accomplished.
"Jellal! Levy!"
The two blunettes raised their heads, paling at the thought of Erza's wrath.
But rather than attack them (either of them) she sat down next to Jellal and brought his head to her chestplate.
Levy sighed. Even though Elle had previously told Erza to requip out of her chestplate if she was going to hug someone, Erza still tended to forget.
Maybe she could use Gajeel to threaten Erza? Like...if Erza doesn't start taking it off when she's hugging, Gajeel is going to start eating her armor?
"Congratulations on your newfound relation!" Erza declared, finally settling down next to Jellal. Levy was only glad that she didn't get her own chestplate to the head. "What are we discussing?"
Levy giggled at the way that Erza just burst in (probably solely because of Jellal's involvement), and Jellal turned a bit red upon understanding his cousin's laughter.
"It's magical theory," Jellal told her. "On why Levy wasn't hit by that beam. Remember, it when we were escaping the Tower of Heaven?"
Erza blinked. "Do you have any ideas?"
They both shook their heads.
"Oh! A mystery!" she shouted, standing up and requipping a sword. She held it to the sky, declaring, "We must solve it!" before running off.
The two cousins sweatdropped.
"Do you think she knows there's nothing we can beat information out of?" Levy asked.
Jellal shrugged. "She'll figure it out eventually."
On the last day of September, Freed decided to make things difficult.
"Ella-sama!" he declared. "I have decided to make a team."
I blinked, feeling a sense of dread. "A team?"
Currently, most people would still go on at least one mission a week. Since we all liked to train together and spend time during the week with one another, we would usually end up taking a job on Monday through Wednesday, and spend the rest of the week doing whatever. And Fantasia was coming up, and most people in Fantasia would be busy practicing and stuff until the actual parade, so a bunch of us took a lot of jobs for the people who had to pay rent.
We didn't really have 'teams'. Yes, some people would do jobs with certain people more than others (for instance, Lucy, Cana and Brandish tend to go together, as do Laxus and I, with Erik sometimes tagging along if Macbeth is doing a mission with Erigor). Generally, though, people rotate their teams. There are no 'official' teams among the kids.
"A team!" Freed declared, drawing his sword and pointing it in front of him, slightly raised, as if to declare a fight. "I HAVE DECIDED TO BUILD A TEAM FOR MY BIRTHDAY!"
By now, everyone was paying attention to the now thirteen-year-old.
"And this team?" I asked him.
"I've already asked their permission!" Freed announced. "Bickslow, Evergreen and I shall form a team, and protect you, Ella-sama. We shall be known as the League of Chaos!"
My hand went to my forehead.
No. Just no.
"What?" Juvia protested. "I want to be in the League of Chaos to help protect Onee-sama, too!"
"Me too!" Lucy yelled.
"ENOUGH!" I yelled.
Everyone quieted down and I took a deep breath. "One, you can't call yourselves the League of Chaos."
"Why not?" Freed whined.
"Because we already break enough copywrite laws. And I'm pretty sure it's something else," I said, rolling my eyes and thinking about what I think was a video game. Or a movie?...I don't even really care. "But no. You're not going to do it. Instead, the three of you are going to follow around Laxus," I gestured to Laxus, "and call yourself the Raijinshuu."
"Do I get a say in this?" Laxus asked.
"No," I said.
They three looked back and forth between Laxus and me.
"Why?" Evergreen asked.
"Because I said so," I said. "You're protecting him."
"I don't need protection," Laxus said, rolling his eyes.
"And I do?" I hissed.
"N-No!" He stammered.
"That's not a good enough reason, Elle," Evergreen huffed. "You can't just say 'because I said so'. We're not going to listen just because of that."
"I shall do as Ella-sama asks," Freed said, kneeling at Laxus's feet.
"Freed!"
"But what about the League of Chaos?" Juvia asked.
I sighed and messed with her hair. "How about this. Since so many of you want to, ANYONE can be a…" I hesitated, thinking of a word, "MINION of Chaos. Alright? It's separate to your team missions, though."
"Can we have a symbol?" Jet asked. "Like a secret club?"
"No."
Leave it to Freed to overcomplicate things.
And then we worked on making our floats, and Loke had a fun time bossing people around and making us learn things that made our bodies hate him (in addition to our minds).
Oddly enough, Gajeel and Erik didn't hate training with Loke anymore; in fact, they looked relieved when they heard he was in charge of choreography.
We did end up taking a break, once Porlyusica declared Ultear as healthy; her Magical Overload was gone, at the age of twelve. So this lead to a celebration!
Unfortunately, this also lead to a lot of destruction, and we had to rebuild an entire float (luckily, the other ones were easily fixed).
The adults watched us out of the corner of their eyes; Silver and Ur taking care of the twins and Enno and Mari helping out with snacks. The two ice wizards weren't worried about their twins because of how strong the couple was magically (anyone who hurt they kids would die) and because we put down a new set of runes in the guild that would protect kids; something which brought Maggie and Rex back to the guild a lot more. As we built the floats, Maggie was playing with Maxie, who was nearing the 22nd month mark; she'd be two on the first of December. Maggie and Rex had also kept her away from the guild until she could walk on her own, but now Maxie ran around like a little rocket when she could get away with it.
And no, she does not have Speed Magic. Trust me.
We checked.
Right now, of course, Maggie was keeping a careful eye on her.
And then, it was time for a parade.
Sorry this took so long, guys. I meant to upload this on Friday but Fanfiction was down, and I kinda (might've) slept the weekend away. Oops.
And yes, I will still be taking at least a two week break after the Fantasia chapter is up. Sorry.
Elle actually does need protection...from herself. XD She gets into too much trouble if left alone for too long.
Anyone want to guess on the Stellar light that happened during the Tower of Heaven attack (as a result of Ivan), and why it didn't affect Levy? It'll be a few chapters before you guys get the answer.
But I'm sure some of you will have it figured out... :)
Next chapter: Fantasia!