disclaimer: i don't own fairy tail
title: regular old catastrophes
summary: the world's coming down, and it's all on you
dedication: to Friday the 13th, aka today did you know its also a full moon like seriously, did you know its pretty cool. have any of you seen the fault in our stars and maleficent? i just saw them both yesterday and wow, pm me for opinions.
notes: all my chapters up to this point have been 1745 words exactly with author note shit. however, today i'm going up to 2200…hopefully i'll have the motivation. i had extreme writers block…everything was getting stuttered out by my hands…but suddenly i just started writing, and before i knew it, in like ten minutes, i finished around 1300 words. it was strange. but i'm glad, since i really don't feel like writing…i don't even know where all this plot is going haha – hope you guys enjoy this chapter…shit's really hitting the fan…
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It was the next day already, and despite her father's warnings not to get into trouble while he was at his string of meetings, Juvia was already scheming about how to get out of the castle. The sun was barely up, and as her father was at his first meeting of the day, Juvia shrugged on her peacoat and decided to go search for Gray.
She headed for the main family room on the first floor to find her maidservant polishing the furniture. "Kagura, could you get the carriage ready?"
"Where are you going, milady?" Kagura asked, putting down her tablecloth.
"The shoe shop from yesterday," Juvia said, striding out the door. Kagura followed but split off to one side to prepare the carriages, while Juvia took the long path through the garden. By the time she reached the carriage storage, Kagura had the carriage prepared.
Juvia stepped into it, and soon, the familiar rocky gait of the horses lulled her to a gentle peacefulness.
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The sudden halt of the rhythm in which the horses had been trotting brought Juvia to understand that they had finally arrived at the shoe shop. Juvia had specifically ordered that Kagura tell no one, and that she was to go alone, with no servants.
While a regular servant would have been obligated to report everything had Lord Lockser asked, Kagura was Juvia's personal maid, and listened first and foremost to Juvia.
In addition, Kagura had a deep sense of honor and came from a powerful ancient family that used to serve the king as samurais. The samurais were all female.
Kagura therefore also served Juvia as a bodyguard.
As Juvia stepped off of the carriage and sent it away with orders to return an hour later, she looked around and smiled at the sign. It was not a maleficent smile, nor was it altogether happy…it was conniving, yet filled with the most hope ever seen in just one smile. It was the smile of a wild Juvia in love, living in her natural habitat.
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Once in the shop, she met with the fresh face of a white haired man. He was handsome, yet not as handsome as Gray. He obviously heard the bell jingle from beside the door and waved his hand towards the front, not bothering to look up. "Ultear'll be will you soon!" he said roughly. Right as he said so, Ultear hurried out from the back.
"Miss Lockser!" she cried, confused. "Are your shoes not fitting yet again?"
"Oh, no," Juvia said, even as Lyon looked up and his face became pink in an instant. "It's just-" she wondered how to phrase it.
In that moment of hesitation, Lyon had sprung forward. "Miss Lockser," he said, voice suddenly smooth as a well cut diamond. "It's a pleasure to meet you." He took her hand and kissed it. Juvia blushed, unused to such affections from a stranger. Hastily, she pulled her hand away.
Not knowing what else to do, she ignored the strange man in front of her and asked, "Does you know where Gray is? Juvia is looking for Gray." Now it was Ultear's turn to gape in shock. No one had ever come in asking for Gray. "Is he taken by the draft?"
"N-no," Ultear stammered out. "Gray and Lyon here are but sixteen." Juvia sighed in relief. Just as she closed her eyes, they snapped open as she heard a familiar voice.
Her heart beat faster, and her eyes stayed closed. The heat in her face made it clear that she was blushing a bright red.
"She's back?" Gray said sullenly, and Juvia's heart skipped a beat. She heard his feet step lightly over the wooden floor, and her heart skipped another beat. Suddenly, she could not take it any longer.
"GRAY~" she yelled, and flung herself at him. Gray found himself with a lovestruck girl in his arms. Meanwhile, Lyon was stewing by himself all in the corner.
"W-What?" Gray asked, confused.
Ultear only smiled.
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Gajeel could have sworn he saw Juvia walk into the little shoe shop next door when he entered the colossal library just next door. Ignoring the flash of blue curls, he entered. A cool draft hit him as he pulled the doors open, and he sighed in relief. It was summer after all, even if summer in Faera was rather mild.
"Shrimp!" he called into the drafty inside air of the library.
A small figure dashed in front of him and whispered, "Sh! This is a library, Gajeel."
"Oops," Gajeel said, shrugging. He'd always been terrible at keeping his voice down. He picked up his girlfriend and gave her a kiss on the lips. As he set her down, he vaguely registered her voice scolding him with the usual. ["…this is a library…kiss…not allowed…any public…affection…Gajeel! GAJEEL..."]
At his name, he looked up to find Levy with her small hands on her hips. He waved his hand to dismiss her nagging, and she merely huffed, used to it, and dragged him into the back room.
Eyebrow raised, he dropped himself onto a trembling chair.
Levy stood up to make it seem like they were around the same height even as he was sitting down. "Down to business! How to get rid of this engagement."
Gajeel yawned. "I don't see how it matters. I get engaged to the water woman, and we can keep on doin' this, right under my old man's nose. He ain't gotta know."
Levy sputtered, "T-T-That's not right! That's like cheating!"
"Like I said, ain't no one gotta know."
"Gajeel, be serious here. If someone finds out, everyone who's involved in this will have their reputation tarnished!" Levy protested.
"What does tarnished mean, eh?"
"Ruined! Blackened! Hurt!" Levy rattled off. "No, Gajeel, let's think of something better."
At this, Gajeel got serious. "Levy, ya gotta understand this. I don't know what ya think of how nobles think, but there ain't no way proud Metalicana Redfox is gonna let his son marry someone not of noble blood."
Levy stood stunned, faced with this harsh truth. They'd both known it all along…Gajeel more so than Levy, but they'd risked this. Levy turned her face downwards and looked at the ground. "We were prepared to lose it all, weren't we?" she asked, voice small. "When we began this, we knew it wouldn't…"
"…last?" Gajeel finished. "No, Levy, we're gonna last…we just gotta find a way to get around this."
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"Well, you got yourself a noble admirer, don't you there, Gray?" Ultear asked him for the umpteenth time, as the four of them sat around in the back room, trying to extricate Juvia from Gray.
"Juvia is so happy that Gray is not over eighteen!" Juvia squealed exultantly. Lyon sulked harder.
"What about me?" Lyon asked, hopeful. Although he used to make fun of the girl, now that he'd truly seen her, he was enchanted by her beauty and naivety.
"Who are you?"
"…nevermindme," Lyon mumbled back, disheartened. Ultear laughed, a high clear laugh.
She patted Lyon on the back. "Oh, Lyon, you'll find a girl who'll actually love you someday," she reassured. He didn't look convinced.
In the past, Lyon had pursued another girl, who'd eventually left him for Gray. What was so good about Gray anyways? He'd never figure it out. And here he was losing who he was sure was the love of his life to Gray. Again.
Meanwhile, Gray himself was certainly not enjoying this. He didn't particularly like girls hanging onto him, although he acknowledged his own good looks. He often spoke his sentiments about his charm aloud to Lyon specifically to make fun of him, although what he'd never say was that Lyon himself was quite handsome as well.
Gray was just handsomer. ("Gray is so handsome!" Juvia squealed. Gray winced.)
And there was no possible way to fix that.
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Erza and Jellal arrived in front of the king Makarov.
"You two have done well," Makarov said, voice joyful. "We have pushed back the Skyrrgian forces to past the half way line again. If this continues, we could win the war!"
The two bowed. "Yes, Your Majesty," they spoke in unison. "We will serve you with our utmost power."
Makarov dismissed them, and they exited the throne room. Once in the hall, they looked at each other and communicated without talking, then wandered off to their respective rooms.
Erza changed out of her armor and sat down on her bed to think. What was the point of this war? It was both pointless and meaningful…but Makarov seemed to think that the meaningful outweighed the pointlessness. She couldn't say she agreed.
However, what she did agree with Makarov on was that Silver was a force that needed to be stopped. Given the chance, Silver would happily raze over any land that lied in his way, even allies. It wasn't that easy though…
Near midnight that day, as she exited Jellal's room hastily dressed, she saw a shadow moving along the walls.
With a battle cry and no fear for her own safety, she ran towards it and threw her right fist forward with all the power she could muster. While the mysterious person was stalled, she ran back into Jellal's room and roused him. He donned his armor and ran out, but by that time, the person was gone.
No doubt that figure was sent to assassinate Jellal, as his room was the only one down this hallway. And if Jellal was being targeted like that, it meant that the assassin knew exactly who Jellal was.
There was one more thing: it was highly likely that Erza was also a target then, and even more likely that the mastermind behind this puppet also knew the identity of herself.
And if this mastermind knew these identities…then he or she must have either worked in the king's palace as a close advisor in the past, or was working as one right this moment.
All of this led to only one conclusion: they weren't safe behind their walls anymore. Not a single one of them.
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Upon further contemplation, Erza realized something that made the situation even worse than it already was.
If Erza had been seen by this figure exiting Jellal's room, he or she would certainly expect them to be in some relationship. Up until now, their relationship had been completely secret.
If it were to be exposed that two strictly work related people were in a relationship, and who these two people were…the citizens and workers would lose their faith in the two.
It was dangerous that the mastermind knew both their identities and their relationship. If both got out, Erza could only think of the worst that could happen. Of course, there may be better situations, but this still could not be allowed to happen; if it did happen, the most horrifying outcome could equal a huge chance for Skyrrgia and Silver.
The collapse of Faera and peoples' trust in the court.
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notes2: okay so yes, it was implied that jellal and erza had sex, which they did, and erza is on birth control don't worry guys i'm not planning on pregnancies messing anything up and basically what i'm trying to say is no, i don't write lemons nor am i planning to because i'm still way too young to even attempt that (actually i have a shitload of reasons like: i don't really read lemons, i don't even know how to write one, i don't want to write one, i'm too young like i said, and i would be destroyed by my parental units if they found out, and ew i'm still a young not so innocent child [i'm not breaking any rules if you wanted to know])
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