Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail and Naruto. They belong to their respective owner.
A/N: Thank you to JDarcy, Yours truly - Pride, fictionlover1993, nikkitheprincess, narutouzumaki6497, sasukefan95, Sydney, fizirazak, anarochev, DragonSlayer, Erzashipper4ever, and Angelica for reviewing the previous chapter and those who favorite and follow this story.
Sorry in advance for any mistake.
CHAPTER 5
Sasuke walked along with the group miserably while nursing his abused head, all the while, glaring daggers at the one who cause it. He was cursing the red haired in his mind for her abusive and violent trait. As if reading his mind, Erza turned her gaze towards the famous model with an innocent look on her face. "Something's wrong Sasuke?" She inquired.
Sasuke frowned at her. "No. Nothing at all, except for my throbbing head that a certain someone punched earlier," he said sarcastically.
She snorted in an unladylike manner and retorted. "You deserve it," she huffed before she tore her gaze away and walked ahead of him.
He watched as Erza stopped beside Natsu and walked step by step with him in silence.
Soon, they arrived at the arcade and all of them were ecstatic for being there. They changed their money for the token and went on their separate way towards the game they wanted to play. Sasuke changed his money for some token and gave some of them to Erza.
Seeing as Erza stared dumbly at the token in her hand that he gave her, Sasuke let out a heavy sigh as he felt responsible for dragging her here. He didn't know why he was trying so hard to let her loosen up. He never did this kind of thing for any girl before. Not that he knew many girls outside of his work, and the girls he met mostly turn up to be an annoying fangirl who wouldn't stop screaming his name. But Erza proved to not be a fan of him, which he clearly was grateful for that. But she also turned up to be one emotionless girl who distanced herself and close her heart to everyone.
It's true that he just met her and he barely knew her but from the stories he heard from his two best friends, she was once a cheery, kind hearted girl who was adored by her friends. But tragedy changed her. She had been through hardship of losing her parents, and Sasuke couldn't help but feel that there was something else happening that no one knew. Not even Gray, Lucy, Natsu or Naruto. It's been tough on her since she was living alone.
Now that he thought about, he wondered how she supported herself through school and everything. But remembering that she came from a wealthy family, he thought that money had never been a problem to her. All of the money from their parents would go to her the moment they died. Or she probably working part time to support herself, so he felt that she deserved to have fun and have a semblance of normalcy in life like any other teenager their age.
"It's token you know," Sasuke said as Erza raised her eyes to his level, holding his gaze. Sasuke pointed towards the circular, coin-like shaped metal in her hand. "You have to get it in the slot to play the game," he explained.
He saw as her eyebrow rose elegantly. "I know what this is, Uchiha," she said with disdain. "Did you just insinuate that I didn't know what token was?" She asked incredulously.
"Well, you were staring blankly at it back then. I just assumed that you didn't know what it was," he said.
"Assumed nothing about me Uchiha. I was just wondering why you would me give tokens when I don't have any intention to play," she said sharply. "And it's not like it was my first time to arcade," she said in a defensive tone that had him raise his own eyebrow in doubt.
"Really….?" He muttered, more like mocking her. He clearly didn't believe what she said but seeing the murderous intent from her, he chose to lighten the mood by challenging her to duel with him at the game. "Let's duel," he said before he grabbed her hand and dragged her towards the game console, ignoring the protest from the redhead.
He chose to play the desk soccer first. He explained the rules to her and purposely ignoring the glare sent his way.
"Okay, who scored the highest before the time is up win," he said with a smirk. Seeing no reaction from the redhead aside from the death glare on her beautiful face, he coaxed her further with something he would surely regret later.
"Oh come on, I'll even let you to strike first," he said with an award winning smile.
He saw Erza's face softened as she let out a heavy sigh. "I'm never getting out of this am I?" She said tiredly.
"Nope," came his short reply.
"Fine!" She said exasperatedly.
"Don't worry. I'll go easy on you," he taunted with a sexy smirk.
"Puh..lease….You'll regret this later Uchiha," she warned him with a glint in her eyes.
"Hn. Bring it on Scarlet," he replied confidently.
And that was how the game started.
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Erza smirked smugly at Sasuke's gaping face. How dare he assume that she never set foot in a place like this. Contrary to what everyone believed, she did have her fun although it was seldom. She did go to places like this but only ever with a person that she cared most in this world. She knew how to have fun thanks to a certain someone.
Seeing the defeated look on Sasuke's face wiped out all the irritation that she first felt towards the boy for dragging her to duel against him. He definitely didn't think that she's going to win. After the desk soccer, Sasuke scoffed at her win saying that she was just lucky. Then, to prove him wrong, she casually proposed another game and yet once again she won playing House of the Dead with the new high scores. In the middle of their game, they didn't notice that they had gathered the attention of their friends and they quickly circled around them with interest.
The third game they played had been pinball and of course she didn't give him a chance to win the classic arcade game.
"Wow Erza. I didn't know you were so good with arcade games," Natsu muttered with a raised eyebrow. The others nodded in agreement.
Erza shrugged nonchalantly. "I frequent this place," she said. The shocked look on their faces didn't go unnoticed by Erza. She wondered why they were surprised. Did they think just because she no longer hangs out with them, she won't have any fun?
"You come alone?" Lucy timidly asked.
Erza looked towards her blonde cousin. "No," she simply said.
"Who did you come-"
"Are you guys done yet?" Erza cut off whatever it was Naruto was going to ask as she glanced at her watch. "It's already 5 pm, I have to go home soon. And it's always raining lately. I hate to get stuck in the rain on the way home."
"Well, we're done here," Gray said. "We're just going to the coffee house before going home."
"Coffee sounds good," Erza nodded in agreement, totally in a better mood since this morning.
"Yeah, coffee sounds good," Sasuke agreed with a sigh. Erza noticed the look on his face and thought that maybe he can finally drilled the fact that he lose to her in his thick skull. That only brought a smirk on her face.
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Sasuke found himself silently cursing the scarlet haired student council president a lot today. He peered at the said girl walking beside him from the corner of his eye. She walked confidently with her head held high. Her beautiful brown eyes stared dead ahead her. He wondered what she was thinking at the moment.
Then, the beautiful eyes suddenly turned towards him with a questioning look. Sasuke was flustered at being caught staring, but he played it cool.
"What?" He heard her questioned him.
"Nothing," he replied with a shake of his head.
"If it's nothing then why are you staring at me?" She inquired. Her voice was calm but he noticed the annoyance in her tone.
He wouldn't dare admit to her that he was staring at her because he found her eyes were beautiful, her confidence was admiring. He would certainly suffer another trauma to the head if he admitted it. No, he would have a concussion if this carried on any longer. So he opted for other thing to talk about.
"I wonder whom do you go to arcade with? Experience like that won't come with once or twice of practice," he voiced out his observation.
She looked suspiciously at him but answered him nonetheless with a short reply. "A friend."
"Anyone I know?"
"No," she answered. "What is it to you? And it's none of your business anyway," the annoyance was back in her voice.
"No," he agreed. "But I was just curious," he calmly said.
"Don't be. There's nothing interesting in my private life- umph"
Sasuke didn't know what happened. But he heard her gasp and saw the bag she carried fell to the floor with a loud thump and Erza herself was tumbling towards him unsteadily. Automatically, he wrapped his arms around her waist and supported her weight with his body as she fell against him with her face buried in his chest and her hands fisting the material of his expensive shirt. Out of the corner of his eyes, Sasuke saw a handsome blue haired boy with a stunned look on his face. Apparently he had bumped into Erza.
But what shocked Sasuke and others was the word of recognition that fell from his lips.
"Erza," the blue haired boy whispered, his eyes never leaving Erza's figure in his arm.
Sasuke felt Erza stiffened in his embrace. She slowly turned her head towards the newcomer and her eyes widened.
"Jellal," she uttered.
Sasuke unconsciously glared at the blue haired boy with a red tattoo on his face as he released Erza from his arms. He didn't know why he felt slight hostility towards this Jellal guy, even if they didn't know each other. Sasuke looked towards the rest of his friends and from the look of confusion on their face, he assumed that none of the Fairy Tail high school students knew the boy except for Erza.
"What are you doing here?" Erza inquired as she picked her bag from the floor, although her tone didn't sound friendly. But Jellal's face lit up nonetheless when she talked to him.
"Just lazy around," he replied. Sasuke saw as Jellal swept his eyes around to quickly assess the others until their eyes met. They held each other's stare and Sasuke could see Jellal's eyes narrowed slightly at him as if to say the feeling was mutual.
"It's a bit far from home for just lazy-ing around don't you think?" Erza broke their staring contest and Sasuke saw that Jellal's eye gaze softened when he looked at her. "And it's not exactly your type of place," Erza pointed out accusingly.
Jellal let out a chuckle. "It's true. But sometimes I need a break from the usual places. All those protocol and formality is kinda boring," he said with a shrug. Erza didn't reply to that much to Sasuke's delight. In fact, she looked like she wanted to be anywhere but here. Obviously these two had a history together.
"So… I see you've found another boyfriend," Jellal's once again muttered. His voice sounded calm and casual but there was also an unmistakable accusation in his tone.
"What?" Erza gasped. She looked angrily at Jellal. "It's none of your business if I've found myself a boyfriend or not, but for your information Sasuke and I are not together."
"Jellal?" A new voice called out and everyone's attention moved towards the newcomer where a rather attractive girl swaying towards the bluenette with a smile on her face. However, her smile quickly disappeared when she saw Erza.
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Jellal sighed audibly. "Ultear," he acknowledged her and the girl smiled sweetly at him, too sweet for his taste. Things somehow became much more complicated. He never thought that he would bump into Erza when he came here. It's true that he had his hope to see the scarlet haired girl again after they broke up a year ago, but certainly not at a place like this. An ordinary mundane mall with no obvious attraction to someone who frequented high class places like him, and certainly not when Ultear was with him. Ultear knew about his and Erza past relationship and the clingy girl would certainly rub it on Erza's face that they were together now. Not that he really liked Ultear, they only got together because their parents thought they looked good as a couple.
"Erza," Ultear muttered as she linked her arms tight with his in an intimate gesture. Jellal could already feel the headache that would be coming his way. "Long time no see," she said with the fake cheery tone. Jellal knew how much Ultear hated Erza because he chose Erza over her once.
"Ultear," Erza nodded curtly. Her voice was calm and her face was unreadable. Jellal wondered when she became so good in masking her emotion. Sure Erza Scarlet was not the most cheerful person in the world. She rarely smiled and her face was always passive, but her eyes were always full of emotion once. That's how he remembered Erza. That's how he always knew what she was thinking and how to handle her, by looking into her eyes. But the person standing in front of him today was like a different person. It was like he didn't know her at all. "I see you've got what you always wanted then," she said in a bored tone.
"Back off Scarlet, Jellal's mine now," Ultear barked out as she tightened her hold on Jellal.
Erza scoffed at her antic. "Really Ultear. You're that insecure?" She said with a roll of her eyes. "You've got nothing to worry about then. I don't want any ties with Jellal Fernandez anymore. He's all yours," Erza said with finality before she spun on her heels and walked away from them. For a moment, Jellal was stunned. He never thought that his heart would suffer a pain like this when she vocally said that she didn't want him in her life anymore. Somehow the thought of Erza not in his life made his heart clenched painfully in his chest.
Unconsciously, Jellal took a step towards Erza but a tug on his hand made him stop. He turned towards Ultear and saw the scowl on her face.
There was nothing he could do now. Erza and he were no longer together and he was with Ultear. It was not fair for Ultear if he went to Erza and he was sure that Erza didn't welcome his presence. So he had to let Erza go for now. Somehow, he would find a way to get back on her good side and worm his way into her heart once more.
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Sasuke saw Erza spun on her heels and walked away from them without any glance. Being a spectator, he could see that Jellal tried to go to her but was stopped by Ultear.
Sasuke turned away from those two and faced his friends who looked uncomfortable with what had just happened.
"Sasuke…," Natsu called out. "Erza…" he trailed off looking towards the red head who was getting far from them.
"Don't worry about her," Sasuke assured him. "You guys go to the coffee house first. I'll go get Erza," he said. He saw them sighed in relief. Clearly they were worried but too afraid to go after her.
"Alright, see you soon then," Naruto said and lead the others to their original destination.
Sasuke let out a heavy sigh and turned towards where Erza had disappeared to.
To be continued…
A/N: It's been a while since I update. Life's busy but I managed to steal some time to write this chapter. And the story is going to get more serious from this chapter onwards. Enjoy and review.