Italic = narrating
"Speak"
- Thought
"CAPS LOCK" = SCREAMING
Disclaimer: not owning Fairy Tail nor the original fairy tales
Jellal and the armor clad princess
A break for our heroes and their siblings has come. The fights however continue.
"Cana-chan", Mirajane stood before her friend once again.
"You're here to bet?" Cana asked her way too cheerfully due to the beer in her hand but Mirajane only shook her head as answer, not mentioning anything about her friend being tipsy.
"Elfman´s next… I´m a bit worried…"
Cana seemed to sober up. "Mira, he´ll be fine. Elfman´s strong and besides the rules…"
Mirajane nodded. "I know… it´s just, it´s enough having Lisanna home ill… I´m scared what would happen if Elfman got hurt…"
Cana placed a hand on her friend´s shoulder and squeezed gently. "Don´t worry. I´m sure he´ll be fine. And you know that if anything ever would happen to any of you, the Raijinshuu family would be over in a heart-beat. Laxus´ orders."
Mirajane smiled faintly. "You´re right. I´m being silly."
As the women were speaking the men entered the field. One tall and muscular, one slender with the strangest walk seen so far in the tournament.
Elfman had always been strong and he was very aware of that. Compared to the man before him, Bacchus, he weight at least 15 kilograms more only muscles. Perhaps more.
Because of that, Elfman knew that if they got into a close combat he could win only by muscle-power.
"Alright, let´s keep it clean", the referee, a green-haired man said. "I don´t want any rule-breaking."
Elfman wondered why Gildarts or Laxus wasn´t referring this match, he recognized the green-haired´s voice as the referee from the match before. Could it be because they knew him? It seemed a bit silly, but maybe someone feared they wouldn´t be just.
"Let the fight begin", the referee said.
Elfman went straight to attack, aiming for the sword to knock it out of the man´s hand. In the last second, the man toppled over as if drunk and Elfman´s sword cut through air. Elfman turned to the man who was standing up again, flashing a cocky grin behind the helmet. He then proceeded to attack Elfman, looking as if he would fall over when he moved forward. Elfman blocked the sword but it had only been a diversion, the real hit came from Bacchus kick to his hip. Elfman budged a bit, but as he had expected, Bacchus didn´t have much muscle power.
Elfman faked a kick to the right and smashed his palm into Bacchus chest. His opponent stumbled backwards and Elfman aimed to hit the sword, but a memory of seeing Bacchus around town made him hesitate.
Elfman had never seen Bacchus with someone. Only when ordering a drink at the bar he´d seen Bacchus say something to anyone.
While Elfman had so many. He had his sisters, the Raijinshuu siblings, Cana and Gildarts, the regulars at the bar Mira and he worked at… He was a happy man and had no need to win the tournament – he didn't even want to.
"I don't need your pity", Bacchus spat when seeing Elfman's hesitation.
The kick that hit Elfman this time was harder, en-raged. Elfman took a step back to catch his balance.
As a man, Elfman had a certain pride, honor really. And as a man, he couldn´t just give the win away – both for the sake of his own pride and for the sake of Bacchus´ pride. So Elfman had to lose, but do it in a way that made it seem as if Bacchus had been the stronger one.
The fight went on for a long time. Almost not blocking any of the hits Bacchus sent him, Elfman´s leg started to ache. He got some nice hits onto Bacchus too but he held back when he struck. After some more minutes, Elfman could barely stand on the leg.
- Why won´t he try to un-arm me?
Elfman, wanting to see an end to the fight already, aimed for Bacchus sword. Bacchus blocked Elfman´s hit with his own sword and as they were standing sword to sword, Bacchus did a risky move by kicking Elfman´s sword-hand. Normally, Elfman probably wouldn´t have dropped the sword from a kick like that, but this time he did on purpose. The referee called an end to the match and Elfman could finally leave.
Heading to the infirmary Elfman made sure that his leg would be fine and then he limped out from the tournament grounds.
"Idiot."
He turned to the voice.
"What?"
She was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. "I saw the match, Elfman."
"And your point is?"
"Why did you give up?"
Elfman looked away, over the trees and kept silent.
"Why did you lose on purpose?" she stood up and walked over to him as she talked. "I saw the match and you could easily beat that drunk! Why did you give up?" she stopped two steps from him.
"Why? That's simple", Elfman answered and looked at her. "He wanted to win more."
"You didn't want to win, you mean?"
"Ever, why do you care so much?"
"My name's Evergreen, only my brother's call me Ever, so stop."
"I'm not suited to be king anyway. I would have looked ridiculous."
"Yes, you would", Evergreen said and Elfman gave her a tired look.
"I'm not in the mood for hearing your insults today."
Elfman turned around and left, but Evergreen followed him.
"You´d look stupid next to any girl that´s not me", she said and at his sudden stop she bumped into his back.
He quickly turned around and there was only an inch of air between their bodies. "That´s probably the first time you made sense, woman."
She rolled her eyes, trying to hide her smile. He didn´t, and taking her hand he gently kissed it.
"I won´t stop criticize you. Ever."
"I know", Elfman only answered.
"This doesn´t change anything."
"It changes everything, Ever."
"Don´t call me Ever! I told you, it won´t change any…"
He silenced her with a kiss.
Evergreen bit her lip when Elfman moved away from her.
"Maybe you´re a man after all", she muttered, blushing slightly.
"I´ve always loved you, ever since I can remember. Even when you started to criticize me all those years back."
"I was only mean to you because I had a crush on you", Evergreen muttered blushing.
"So you still have a crush on me?"
She punched him in the chest. "Isn´t it quite obvious how I feel?" Elfman looked at her in silence. "I love you too, idiot", she mumbled quietly.
I'm so sorry guys! I should have updated this long ago, I'm so sorry you had to wait T-T
It's just that I prefer to begin following chapter before I post the finished one, but I couldn't figure next one out AND I haven't had any time (which is a really poor excuse because I had a break...).
Anyway, I hope you liked this little side-track here :) I certainly enjoyed it at least ^-^ Hey, have you guys seen the episode 413 Days? I think Evergreen's feelings just got confirmed... :3
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Anonymous 13: I'm so sorry for making you wait! I hope you haven't gotten crazy yet... but Elfman and Elfever got together as you wished ^-^
Anonymous: Well, I suppose you are right - I do always notice it's you :P And if Mavis and Zeref got together after he die... I will fangirl. I will.
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Thank you all for reading, and I hope I won't wait too long with the next episode, please be patient my lovely readers!
