Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima!

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Chapter 7: Interest

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Erza felt her head heavy as soon as she tried opening her eyes. She blinked a few times to adjust them to the soft light beside her bed.

Lucy stared at her scarlet haired friend carefully not to scare her, she waited before her eyes were fully opened and staring back at her to finally say. "Hey, welcome back."

Erza tried to sit but her head hurt like hell so she just stayed down.

"Lucy, what happened? Why am I in my room?" She asked her friend, confused.

Erza recalled for sure she was at the council office last time, or was she going crazy?

"You overworked as always so here you are." Lucy was annoyed at her friend but tried her best to smile. "You were out for 2 hours only though, it's 8pm, you should eat something and then go back to sleep. Your fever isn't gone yet."

Erza was seen lost in thought, maybe pondering about something. "But, I have to finish some…"

"Don't worry about your 'duties'." Lucy interrupted her idiot friend's thinking. "I asked everyone at the council to help out with it, everyone is going to distribute a part of what you were doing so they can finish it faster."

Erza slightly frowned at this, she didn't want for others to have more work because of her fever.

"I… I am going to do it." She said getting up slowly, even though Lucy tried to stop her.

"Erza, you really should rest, I told you, everyone is helping!" Lucy scolded.

"I know but I am the president, I can't really just leave everything to everyone like that." Erza tried to make her friend understand, she didn't want to trouble others. "I'm going to the living room downstairs and do some of the paperwork, don't worry I promise I won't leave the dorms for the rest of the night and I will take on the medication." She added, knowing this would at least reassure her friend a little more.

Lucy frowned at her stubborn friend but let her go, she couldn't convince her to stay anyway.

"You know, you should at least try to rely on your friends once." She mumbled not looking at Erza who was already at the door, she was still upset with her friend's actions. "Also, Ultear's blue haired friend carried you here all the way from the student council, I think I should let you know that, you were lucky he found you there." She said louder now, may as well tell her how she got here before he would.

Erza's eyes widened a little bit - so she wasn't dreaming and she was at the office before this - but knowing that a guy carried her all the way here, and more… That guy… she sweat dropped at the thought, usually people would just leave her alone to her doings, at least people who weren't Lucy or her other small group of friends. So why did he do it? And it was so embarrassing to think about how people could've actually seen it, and the worst part... she didn't even remember anything about it.

Erza blushed, shaking a little at the thought while whispering a 'thanks' to Lucy, she started to go down the stairs after leaving her dorm room and went to the living room as planned.

The living room was a huge room at the Fairy Hills dorm, this is where everyone could gather and talk after or before school, since the living room was the first thing you crossed when entering the dorms. It consisted of a coffee machine as well as snacks vending machine as well as some couches and tables for comfort and study.

Erza sat down at one of the couches after taking a chocolate bar from the vending machine and started to work.

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One hour passed and Erza could feel her fever returning, she felt hot and her head hurt, she would have to pause eventually to take some of her medicine, but she wanted to at least finish this one list she was doing before that.

"Oi, what are you doing here?"

Erza jumped at the question, she was so focused on her papers she didn't notice someone else was there, it was night time so she supposed everyone would be at their rooms. She glanced up and was shocked to see the blue haired boy there, staring at her with a calm studying face, a cup of milk on his right hand.

It was Ultear's friend, Jellal… Erza sweat dropped, recalling he was the one who carried her before.

She tried to forget about it shaking her head, then she glanced down again to her list and quietly stated. "I am working."

Jellal sat down beside the scarlet haired girl, he noticed her shlightly red cheeks and could tell her fever wasn't gone completely. He frowned and quietly took a sip of his milk, thinking about what to say without shouting at this stupid stubborn girl, after all the trouble he had with carrying her around.

"Wasn't your friend with you? I didn't think she would let you leave like that." He simply said, looking at his milk cup.

Erza flinched when she felt he had sat down next to her, she would have liked for him to just leave, she was tired and didn't want to deal with him… or anyone at all.

"Lucy? She actually didn't want me to leave the room but I have to finish these today." Erza explained, she thought he at least deserved an explanation after carrying her all the way here, even though she didn't know why he would bother asking.

Jellal could see she was tired, her fever was getting worse and she probably didn't even eat aside from maybe something from the vending machine. He assumed Lucy couldn't convince her to stay and she as always was overworking herself again, even though her friend would've been worried about her.

"So… You really are stubborn uh…" Jellal commented bluntly, now looking at her.

Erza flinched at the comment and glanced up at him slightly confused.

"What do you mean?" The red haired asked, feeling annoyed somehow.

"You think about doing everything by yourself without asking for any help, deciding it's the best since you won't bother anyone with your problems. But the thing is, your friends try to help you because they care about you, not because they think you are a bother and need help."

Jellal could see the scarlet president girl confused at his 'friendship' explanation, he sighed and tried to simplify. "What I mean is, you left your friend Lucy worried back at the room only because you want to finish these, even though you have a fever. This won't help your friends, it will only burden them with worrying about you." Jellal said, he could see Erza's eyes widening slowly while taking in all he was saying. "Just think about being it the opposite, think about Lucy being sick and leave the room turning her back on you and then get worse later on, even though you tried to stop her. That is being stubborn."

Erza frowned at the thought, she wouldn't like that to happen, Lucy usually listened to her when she said for her to rest, if not she would be worried and probably hit her and put her to sleep. Her jaw went slack at the realisation of what he just implied. Lucy was probably feeling the same, feeling useless and worrying about Erza. What an idiot I am.

"If you don't want to worry your friends, then at least show them you can take care of yourself… I-d-i-o-t." He finished, smirking.

Erza blushed annoyed at his last word, but mostly because she was embarrassed someone could just lecture her like that and worse, he was completely right about it and she knew it.

The red haired girl got up from her seat and annoyed, she said. "I… I understand so please stop being rude." She clenched her fists, less confident now, feeling his teasing eyes on her. "I have to do something, I'll be back in 5 to 10 minutes, please wait for me since I still have something to say to you." She quickly left walking towards the stairs, she hoped for him to be there when she returned, she wanted to thank him properly but first, she needed to get back to her friend, and also take some medicine.

Jellal stared at her amused while she quickly disappeared at the stairs. He sighed in relief, he felt proud of himself knowing that she really understood what he said and took it seriously. She was most surely going to apologize to her friend, then comeback to probably thank him, though he would prefer if she didn't, the stubborn girl needed to rest. He glanced down at all the papers and sighed again, she would probably finish these before resting though.

He seized the list she was doing before and tried to understand what the girl was doing with it. He noticed it was quite pretty easy, it only took time to do so.

He grasped the pencil she was using and started to continue her work, out of boredom.

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Lucy was surprised when her red haired friend stepped into their dorm room. She was already in her pajamas and ready to sleep. "Uh… did you forget something?" She asked confused.

Erza felt like a knife went through her heart seeing her friend looking at her like that, she knew she did wrong and felt bad for it… Erza took some steps forward after her friend's question and suddenly hugged her friend.

Lucy jumped at her action and tried to think the reason behind it. Was it her fever?

"Sorry Lucy." Erza said, feeling her friend's confused and worried eyes on her. "I'm sorry I made you worry, I promise I will be more careful and hear you out from now on, or at least try to."

Lucy could feel her eyes watering, she hugged her friend back and started crying softly, she was so glad her friend finally understood, or so it seemed that way at least. "Promise?" She asked, sobbing.

"Yes." Erza replied firmly, feeling guilty and also stupid for not realizing this sooner, at least for the sake of her best friend.

They broke apart from their hug after a moment and smiled at each other.

"So… what happened?" Lucy was still curious at her sudden change of mind.

"N…Nothing happened, I just realized I was being a little stubborn." She replied, blushing.

Lucy smiled, she knew her friend was probably lying but that was okay, she got to see one of Erza's cute side, which was rare.

"I'm going to take some medicine, take dinner and go down to the living room again, and don't worry I won't stay long, I almost finished it anyway, I promise I will sleep early." Erza was thinking about eat something, take her medicine right away and then go down and talk to Jellal, before finishing her work and coming to rest.

She left the room, leaving Lucy mumbling to herself something about 'cute Erza' and went to heat dinner that Lucy made before, she was feeling better just thinking about how happy her friend was right now.

The red haired girl ate dinner as fast as she could, probably not chewing it correctly and took on the medicine, she did this before going down because she was sure she would probably faint if she didn't.

15 minutes had passed since she came back to the dorm,the president was late.

Erza left her dorm and walked quickly, going down the stairs. She finally got down to the living room only to find it empty, she sighed realizing it was too late and probably he thought she wouldn't return soon, so he went to sleep. The tired girl sat down at the same couch as before and grabbed her list, she wanted to finish this fast and go rest, her head was still hurting.

When she reached the point where she left from, the girl realized her list was somehow different and her eyebrows quirked up.

"What the…" The red haired student whispered, now frowning. Her list was completed, the hand writing was different some lines below, she surely remembered she didn't finish it too. Erza quickly grabbed the other papers and saw in shock how they were all completed. She spotted a small note laying at the table and also took it.

"I knew idiot president would force herself to finish these so while I was bored waiting for a stubborn late president I finished them. Rest well."

She clenched the paper, a vein popping out on her forehead. Jellal did this!

She was starting to think he was there only to annoy her from the start. Screw the thanking.

She glanced to the note again and started laughing softly.

I will deal with that guy later, I need to rest now, before Lucy gets worried again.

She thought, smiling down at the note, it wasn't that bad he had finished it for her, still, the girl now had like the feeling she owed him twice. The scarlet head took a deep breath while taking all her belongings and returned to her dorm.

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Jellal entered his dorm only to find naked Gray playing with a noisy Natsu.

Gray glanced over his shoulder after he heard the door closing and asked the blue haired boy. "Hey, why did you take so long?"

Natsu who was still playing, suddenly jumped and gushed: "Ah, take that Ice princess, I killed you!"

"Oi that's not fair fire brain, I wasn't even looking." Gray rebuked, annoyed.

"That is your problem!" The pink haired insinuated.

"Just stop shouting!" Jellal interrupted. "If you wanna fight, go fight at another dorm."

"Ah, sorry about that Jellal. This idiot is too loud." Gray sneered, pointing with his hand at Natsu.

"Uh, what did you say, pervert? What about you put some clothes on?" Natsu retorted, crossing his arms.

Jellal face palmed, they were still at it, he just left to his room and tried getting some sleep, but before he could, his phone started ringing.

It's Ultear… He noticed, glancing to his phone.

"Hello, Ultear? What's up?" He asked as soon as he replied the call.

"Jellal, sorry to call you at this hour... I just wanted to ask you something." A bit of insecure on her voice. "How's Erza going? I tried to call her and Lucy but none replied to me." Ultear asked suddenly, a little bit of annoyance and worry on her voice.

"Why do you ask me?!" He replied unsure - how did she even know she was sick?

He could hear Ultear giggling, maybe mocking him. "I called Erza earlier to ask her if she got the papers I gave you, Lucy was the one that replied and she told me everything. But when we ended our call Erza was still sleeping with a fever, so I wanted to ask if you know something more."

Tsk, he should've known the blonde girl would say something to someone, but why Ultear of all people?

"Oh… yeah I carried her to her dorm after going to the office…" He heard Ultear chuckle and sighed, she was definitely teasing him… "Last time I saw her she still had a fever. That was… 15 min ago I think. But she seemed better, don't worry. Now go to sleep." He explained, he thought about not hiding his earlier encounter with the scarlet haired girl because if Ultear found out later she could overthink and assume he was afraid telling her, or something worse.

"I'm happy she is feeling better." He could heard her sighing, probably feeling relieved with the news. "Oh... and thank you for bringing her to her dorm, you are so sweet." Ultear teased. She knew Jellal wasn't the type to help others unless he had an interest about them, either being friendship or just common interest for something else. She wondered if something happened before.

"Is that all? I'm going to hung up." Jellal muttered, a vein popping out in his forehead.

"By the way, what do you mean 15min ago? What were you two d…"

Before Ultear could finish her 'mocking', he hung up the phone and went to take a shower, somehow he didn't want to sleep anymore.

While taking it, he thought about how Ultear would probably pester him all day tomorrow, maybe Meredy too. But Jellal knew that was their annoying way of showing their interest on the matter... wanting to know what he thinks about the mighty scarlet haired girl, he knew Ultear wasn't as dumb as to think he would help someone only because he or she had a fever.

"It's only because she is an idiot, yes… I helped her because she is an idiot!" He murmured, trying to convince and assure himself that was the reason.

He heard his phone ringing again after his shower was done and checked his phone once again, identifying the caller… his father.

He sighed annoyed, he was going to answer and tell him he got nothing yet for his case, for the thousand time.

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AN: hahahaha Natsu and Gray being at it again, I miss these two idiots :D

I hope you like this chapter and leave a review if you want :)