Chapter Two
Modern!AU
Jellal woke up to the loud beeping of a truck outside. Checking the time, he groaned, and flopped back onto his bed. Who in their right mind is up at 5:30 AM? He pulled a curtain back lazily with one hand, and peered outside. A moving truck, huh? So someone's finally moving into the Strauss' house. The loud sound of boxes unloading droned on, and Jellal dragged himself out of bed. No use in sleeping now, with all that noise outside. Guess I'll go check it out. He pulled on a sweatshirt and pants and headed outside.
There was a small group of moving men, hauling boxes out of the truck. This new person has a whole lot of boxes. They finally unloaded the boxes, and one received a phone call. Jellal headed closer, curious about what was going on.
"…right now? Okay, fine. I'm sorry Miss Scarlet, but there is something urgent we have to attend to. We'll come back as fast as we can, sorry for the inconvenience." A tall red-haired woman, who Jellal assumed was Miss Scarlet, came out from behind the truck carrying a large stack of boxes.
"That's fine. I can handle myself." she said in an authoritative voice. She took the stack of boxes inside the house as the truck left. I should help her, instead of just standing here like a weirdo, thought Jellal.
"Excuse me, um, Miss Scarlet? I noticed that you had a lot of boxes, and was wondering if you would like help. I'm Jellal by the way, I live next door." Miss Scarlet walked outside of the house, and extended a hand to him.
"My name is Erza. Thank you for offering to help, but I will be fine," she replied. Erza picked up another stack of boxes and turned to head inside.
"Even though you can carry all of these boxes, it'll take a lot less time if we work together." Jellal insisted. He took a stack of surprisingly heavy boxes, and followed in after her. She opened her mouth to protest, but slowly closed it.
"That is a good point," she admitted. It took them a while to move all the boxes inside, and even longer to open all of them to sort all the stuff out.
"I don't want to sound rude, but why do you have all this weaponry?" Jellal asked.
"I teach self defense nearby." she responded, gently moving a bundle of wooden practice swords. "The kids frequently break or lose the equipment, so I store a lot in my house."
"That sounds amazing!" Jellal said, hanging a painting in place.
"You could come by sometimes, we do have adult classes." Erza responded.
"That would be- woah!" Jellal suddenly lost control of the desk he was setting down, the front of it tilting forward precariously. Erza quickly rushed over and grabbed the wobbly end, steadying it. They set the desk down, and Jellal smiled sheepishly. "Thanks for helping me there, Erza."
"No problem." Erza glanced at the time. "You've been here for a while, you must be starving. Why don't we go get some lunch, my treat? Although I don't know any good restaurants around here…" she trailed off.
"I'd love to, Erza."