Please forgive me, I do not know how lawyering works.

Also, I couldn't decide if the ship name should be StingJel or Stall. StingJel is more distinct, but Stall is more accurate to the dynamic, lmao.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.


Title: Stalled Appeal

Pairing: Sting x Jellal

Requester: sassyhazelowl

Prompt: appeal


"Hey, there!"

Jellal stared in mild horror at the young, blonde man in a suit grinning at him on the other side of the table. This was not who he had been expecting to see. Where was his lawyer? Who was this? Why was he greeting Jellal - a notorious criminal - as if he knew him?

"I'm Sting Eucliffe!" the stranger introduced himself when Jellal remained silent. "Sorry for the suddenness, but your previous lawyer had to take a medical leave of absence. We're not sure how long he'll be out for, so in the meantime, I've taken over handling your case. But don't worry - I know what I'm doing, and my predecessor coached me thoroughly on the particulars."

Oh stars above. No. Jellal did not want this. Every cell in his body was rebelling against this. This… person in front of him didn't look nearly old enough to have gone through law school.

The lawyer - Sting - rifled through the attache he'd brought along, spreading out several documents in front of them, humming a cheery tune under his breath as he did so.

Sting smiled brightly at Jellal. "You're a bit shy around new people, I take it. Well, no matter, my best friend is a man of few words himself, so I'll just do all the talking and you let me know if you're against anything." Without waiting to see if Jellal was truly on board with him or not, Sting immediately launched into discussion on the details. "Now, normally I would have said that we'd have a decent shot, but your prison break a while back reeeeeally isn't helping your image or reputation. This appeal, in all likelihood, isn't going to be smooth sailing. But if we can argue down the original offense, it might be possible to get you time served on that…"

Despair blossomed inside of Jellal as Sting continued to talk, and talk, and talk.

He and his appeal were royally screwed.