Warning: Typos galore!
In A Heartbeat
—because if he could, he would. And he'd do it in a heartbeat. AU
Switching Escapade
"You like him don't you?" a playful tone pulled a certain someone out of reverie. A choked sound reverberated inside the crowded room full of tailors and a snort followed immediately.
"What?"
Lisanna smiled devilishly, liking the reaction she got from the redhead. It was the middle of a fair day when the two captives of war decided to lighten things up a bit by starting off a conversation.
"The tattooed blue-haired officer." she gave Erza a little nudge to emphasize her point and the unaffected female prisoner just scoffed.
"I don't, in fact—wait, how do you know I know him?" she arched an eyebrow as she waited for a reply.
"I see you secretly meeting him somewhere around the back of the compound." she honestly answered and bronze eyes stared owlishly at the young female captive. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me." the wink and the tone of her voice was an assurance of security and secrecy. Even though Erza had just known the young lady in less than a week, she knew Lisanna was the type of person who could be trusted.
"So?"
"So what?"
"You really like him don't you?" she giggled and the redhead, instead of thinking of a proper response just wandered her sight to the numbers etched on the silver-haired girl's left forearm.
19326.
So she's been here longer than me huh?
Erza found this fact to be the spark that lit up the determination within her. A subtle trigger of her will to survive.
If she's this young and she's managed to survive til now, why can't I?
"Erza?"
"I'm sorry where were we?"
Lisanna smiled.
"Major Fernandes."
The redhead rolled her eyes at this. "I told you, Jellal and I aren't like that."
"But you guys are on a first name basis! There must be something! Anything!"
Erza narrowed her sienna orbs at this.
"Just how much of our conversation did you hear exactly?"
The young lady just scratched her nape and laughed off weakly. Erza sighed in defeat and started to narrate everything that had happened between them so far. She told her about the time he spared her during the selection, told her the time when he saved her from being tortured although ironically he was the one who did pass the hurt on her by faking it, told her how he bandaged her wounds and dressed and fed her, told her how he would always give her a freshly baked bread. All these Erza told her in hopes that she would somehow realize that their situation and any hopes of being together was blown to smithereens.
"I'm sorry." Lisanna softly said as she lowered her head in the process.
"What for?"
Blue eyes meekly met her confused hazelnut orbs, guilt and remorse coating her gentle gaze.
"I was the one who dug the hole. If I didn't—hadn't—"
"Ssh. It's alright," the redhead offered a warm smile. "You weren't the idiot who got caught. Besides, if it wasn't for that hole, I wouldn't have had the chance to meet him once again." Erza placed her hand on the soft spot of her head and whispered ever so softly. "Thank you."
It was a simple act of gratitude but to Lisanna it meant a lot more than that. It meant friendship and trust and a start of a beautiful bond. She hugged the redhead and Erza was suddenly taken aback by surprise. Partially healed arms wrapped around the smaller frame of the fragile woman and the silver-haired girl whispered words that struck the older captive's heart.
"You love him don't you? And he feels the same?"
They remained locked in each others' arms and both of them weighed the question that was raised. It was Erza who spoke and the younger lady heard the melancholy latched in her voice.
"What I feel—what he feels—what we feel, is not meant to be."
Lisanna softly looked her in the eyes, a smile uplifting her tired facial features.
"Still, what you both have and share is beautiful. And I'd do anything to keep that alive."
Erza pressed her chin on top of her head and warned the innocent girl.
"Today—"
The girl wrapped in her arms merely nodded as she apparently knew how the drill went.
"I won't get picked." her resolve came out strong and Erza wanted to believe every word that came out of her pretty little mouth. But judging from the female's appearance—cracked and trembling lips, bloodshot eyes, and wobbly stature—the redhead prayed to whoever God that was watching them to keep both of them safe.
Cold and steel-hard fingers reached for the crusher cap as the apparel was laid softly on top of snowy flowing locks.
"Where are you going old man?" a relaxed figure leaning on the door asked lazily.
Hazy eyes promised and spelled trouble. The yellow-haired demon pressed his lips into a thin line.
Major Zancrow of the Schutzstaffel was amused. Today was actually the day where he could get to see another group of souls that would soon suffer the inferno of hell when they get picked and when they enter the gates.
"Mind if I join you at the selection old man Zero?"
The surgeon just sneered at him and packed slipped on his military jacket, completing all the needed preparations for his departure to the labor camp.
"I'm afraid not. This one, I shall fully enjoy."
The trip from the base camp all the way to Monowitz was a shorter trip than expected. The moment the old officer set foot on the entrance of the labor camp, men and women were all gathered—naked—and line up in neat and proper columns and rows. Everyone was trembling if not from the cold, from fear. Zero was the surgeon notorious for having weird tastes in choosing his victims for his so-called 'experiments'. He was especially fond of twins that he would dissect them alive and then sew them back together as one. He was also notable for injecting his 'medications' to healthy subjects and plucking out their eyes. No one really wanted to meet him in person or even want to see him at all for that matter.
But he was here now in the ground that spilled sweat and blood. Erza and Lisanna were located at the female's section and were stark naked. They weren't really feeling any shame crawling up their skin because they were too busy thinking of ways on how to not get picked and somehow survive the incoming onslaught.
Erza remembered clearly the words that the ultramarine left her and she decided to pass them off to Lisanna who was shaking like a snapped branch hanging loosely from the trunk.
"Show them the best you've got so they won't pick you, and whatever you do, don't show them your number."
The silver-haired lady slowly nodded, taking her time for the words to register in mind.
A sharp whistle caught all of the prisoners attention as the sound very well signaled the start of the run. A run with no particular laps or time that they have to accomplish in order to be saved from the 'showers' in Birkneau. It started off as a sloppy mark for the rest of the female and as the redhead had observed, the eyes of the old officer never missed anything. From a simple trip to a hard fall, Zero caught them all and he ordered his men to jut down all the numbers of the prisoners that had fallen to the ground.
The selection was about to finish when they all reached the starting point for the seventeenth time, but by this time, Lisanna was already out of breath—her eyes getting cloudy from exhaustion and her lungs felt like they were on fire. The only thing that was keeping her from hitting the ground were the sharp bronze eyes that bore from her back telling her to endure everything. And she did, by that time, Erza lost her focus on the last minute and that was the time when her knees caved in. From this she already knew she was going to get picked.
She pulled off her last trick and prevented prying eyes to get her number. She smirked, feeling satisfied as the rest of the soldiers frowned when they failed to register her number. The stampeding prisoners were also preventing them from seeing her all too delicate frame against the dust and rubble. The surgeon smirked while shaking his head off, eyeing her intently as she tauntingly teased him with her middle finger.
She did it.
She has survived the selection.
Only a few prisoners got selected as usual. Monowitz had the lowest rate of captives who were chosen to be killed in Birkneau because almost all of them were capable and useful. Jellal knew this and he knew that the moment he finished all necessary work in the ghetto, he immediately went back to camp with a new set of prisoners.
He ordered all his soldiers to take care of the remaining procedures as he was dying to see someone he had awfully missed.
Prisoner 19826.
He stealthily made his way to the place where they usually meet in order to discuss matters concerning survival methods. But this time, Jellal had finally decided to teach her something more than surviving. He wanted to teach her life and dreams and love.
The ultramarine was ready to voice all of his thoughts out. Ready to see the all too familiar sight of her lovely and rich scarlet hair when his breath got stuck in his throat.
From the place where he believed she would be stood a lady with silver hair and puffy, pleading blue eyes.
The woman who was now begging beneath him was not Prisoner 19826.
It was not Erza Scarlet.
A/N: Well, was that predictable? :) Hope this one made up for the crappy chapter last week even though short. :P I'm sorry this one only had a little Jellal screen time but that wasn't so bad now was it?
Some things you might want to know:
*prisoners in birkneau were given towels and soaps for them not to freak out when they enter the 'shower rooms' where they were poisoned to death by solid pellets of zyklon-b.
*dr. josef mengel—zero's personification—was the most notorious and brutal of all the physicians in the camp. His experiments included placing subjects in pressure chambers, testing drugs on them, freezing them, attempting to change eye color by injecting chemicals into children's eyes, and various amputations and other surgeries.
*ghetto was a place where all the Jews to be transferred to the camps were kept for the meantime.
LOL, anyway I hope you guys enjoyed this! Two or three more chapters left! Don't miss it!
P.S. Will post the second chapter of CEAPR in a few days :D