Chapter 2: A Naive Idea

Those hands who've tasted fresh blood whose life holds no redemption for their sin, have yet to find their reason for living.

Miss Erza, or now known as Erza Scarlet unofficially, was simply put, a tough girl. Anyone who knew her well enough would tell you that. Anyone who knew her well enough would also inform you of the impossibilities of Erza ever working in a cafe. The red head would have also agreed that the idea was simply impracticable, that was, before a week ago.

Erza finally skidded to a halt in front of a corner cafe with the words Fairy Cafe in block letters hanging in front. The inside was decorated in glowing pinks and soft pastels. Small glass top tables and matching chairs scattered across ceramic tiled floors. The red head rushed inside and behind the counter to meet with her co-workers. Only some greeted her, while others ignored her.

To her, it was too surreal to be working in a feminie place such as fairy cafe, or as her new manager would put it, a place that was fluffy and cute. Erza had been set up in many jobs, but all ending up in some calamity. Finally she met with the manager of this corner cafe and decided to settle for a change. It had been a week since she was hired and working, but she realised that working in a cafe wasn't as hazardous as working in other venues. Her blunders were forgiven by the scarily kind manager. Her reasons for staying were the very excellent pay, her secret obsession for dressing up and her not so secret obsession for the sweets that lay in the cafe's frosted glass displays.

"Oh Erza, you're such a main attraction!" Mirajane was standing in the door way of the small kitchen of the cafe.

Erza grumbled to herself, embarrassed but words fail to escape her as she loaded two piles of plates into the dishwasher.

"Heavens knows why you're always in here."

As much as Erza loved dressing up, she disliked those pig males that always made advances on her even more.

She shrugged at Mirajane. "If you permit violence against harassment, then I might consider going out there once in a while."

"But Erza! Our customers have been dropping ever since you've been hiding yourself away here."

"But-"

She turned to retaliate but paused mid sentence, staring into Mirajane's teary eyed face.

She threw up her arms in defeat and went to fetch her apron.

"Thank you Erza-chan~ I'll give you a raise." The white haired beauty sang and popped on a pair of pink bunny ears.

The scarlet haired young lady walked outside attracting many stares. Males hooted and howled for her attention and she rolled her eyes. Pigs. Weren't there any decent males out there? She asked herself as she forced a smile.

At that moment a certain a blue haired male flashed through her mind.

Erza urged it away and brought out a pen and paper from her apron pocket. Her eyes examined her fellow work mates flaunting every assets they had to their customers and she adjusted her bunny ears.

Using part of Mirajane's quote from earlier, Heavens knew why he showed up in her mind.

He was barely decent.

Jellal stared at his blood stained hands by the time he had calmed down. The first stars of the approaching night were only just appearing, and the sunset fading into black. The dark alley way was shone with dim lights in the shadey neighbourbood and trails of blood coloured the cement.

He face palmed himself despite his eyes twinkling in dark humour.

"Not again." He muttered.

He wondered if a certain Miss Erza Scarlet would forgive him if she were to see him now.

"Probably not."

The thought of her disapproving eyes managed to hurt more than the recent knife wounds situated on his arm. Compared to this pain the thought of her hating him was excruciating. Why he wondered why that was so. He had only met her twice.

"I should really stop..."

It was their fault in the first place. After kind Miss Erza had left them with only a few scratches, they actually had the gall to gather up more people to get revenge. He didn't understand humans. They should be smart enough to know when someone outranks them in both power and intelligence.

A groan brought him out of his thoughts and from the corners of his eyes he spied one of the men attempting to get up and escape. The burly man spotted his Jellal burning holes into him with his glare and began to struggle out of the narrow alley way.

"Please- Stop, i'm sorry we tried to hurt you." He whimpered as a dark shadow was cast over him.

Jellal rolled his eyes. Really, it was always the same thing every time. People were so terribly boring and predictable. It was just plain depressing. They do some wrong, pick a fight, and then beg for forgiveness after they've realised they're caught up in a losing battle.

The larger man began to heave himself across the floor to try and flee. Luckily he managed to break a few bones so that he prevented any possibly of escape.

"Please, i'm sorry... Spare me!" He's eyes were filled with tears, a very unsightly image for one who was as muscular as he.

"The boy you hurt earlier for a bit of pocket change had three broken bones and may probably be unable to walk ever again..." Jellal half growled, eyes glinting with his malice. "Nothing you could possibly do can compensate for his despair."

It was too late to stop midway he reasoned with himself.

It... was... too late...

"STOP! YOU... YOU MONSTER!"

He's futile scream soon became a choking gurgle, coughing up blood and then silence. Jellal stared at his victims with impassive aqua depths.

Yes, what would Miss Erza Scarlet think of him if she were here?

Jellal slipped the knife in his belt and took off with the bodies.

She would think he was a monster no less.

Like everyone else.

He smiled forbiddingly, shadow hiding half his face. There was no chance of redemption now...

...but there wasn't any chance in the very beginning.

After taking off her apron, Erza glanced up at the clock hanging on the wall. Its second hand ticked echoing around the now empty cafe. She walked out of the staff room and back into the kitchen, glancing around.

"Mira, I'm done with the dishes..." She called out. When she received no answer Erza peered from the kitchen into the cafe to try and find her. Erza frown she didn't find her snow white hair flittering around the cafe. Erza walked into the cafe and then moved the curtains to the side and peered through the windows.

She spied Mirajane surrounded by a group of men being a little bit too forceful. Erza narrowed her eyes and brought a kitchen knife with her as she went to confront the thugs. The cafe bell chimed as she exited and she strolled up to them swiftly.

"Excuse me, can you not see she doesn't like your advances?"

They turned their attention on her with threatening glares, but after they had assessed her voluptuous body and pretty face, their intimidation had disappeared.

"Would you like to join us?" One of the men smirked.

"No."

"Aw, come on, it'll be fun."

Erza gave them a warning glower. They backed off momentarily, but then stood their ground.

"Look lady just come with us and we'll promise you a great time."

Erza crossed her arms and then walked up to Mirajane. "If you'll excuse as we'll be leaving."

The red head found herself backed into a wall and cornered with Mirajane behind her. She narrowed her eyes and waited for them to make the first move, reaching for the knife stashed in her back pocket.

"Uwahh, Erza I'm scared!" Mirajane cried out and flailed her arms. The slight monotone in her voice and her fake arm movements were too obvious. Erza also noticed her mouth slightly curved upwards. She knew well that Mirajane was fully capable of defending herself.

"Mira, you're a terrible actor."

"Oh, how do you act like a damsel in distress?"

Erza's eyes sparkled slightly. "I happen to be an expert in acting! Well. First-"

She felt hands on her shoulders and immediately Erza sprung into action and grabbed the hand that had intruded her personal space. She turned around and gave the man a glare as he snatched his hand back.

"Look lady, we can either do this the hard way, or the fun way."

"I chose the fun way."

"I knew you'd say-" The man didn't have time to finish his sentence as Erza palmed his face and sent him flying.

"See. This is pretty fun." She had a devious smile on her face.

The remaining two men lunged at her and Mira knew to step out of the way. She continued smiling as the men were sent flying, one after the other.

Erza made sure to add in extra kicks for good measure and left them in a heap near the dump. Mirajane had followed her smile never leaving her face.

"Erza~" She cooed sweetly. "You're never going to find a boyfriend like that~"

Erza blushed and huffed away muttering how she didn't need a man to tie her down. She was not going to think of any blue haired males while saying this either!

"Oh and Erza-chan."

"What?" She asked harsher than she intended.

"Don't eat all my left over cake~" Mirajane sang and threw her keys to the cafe.

"I... won't..." She answered, but the spark of mischief hadn't gone unnoticed by the white haired cafe owner.

It was the third time she had run into him, and Erza began to wonder how small of a town Magnolia really was. He was sat a few meters from her cafe when he looked up and spied her racing out of the small eatery. She had just finished locking up the cafe when she spotted him.

"Miss Erza Scarlet?" He asked very surprised at this encounter, but his grim face told her something had happened.

Erza couldn't help notice the raw dried up blood on his hands and immediately frowned.

"Again?" She asked in disapproval and inched closer to the man sitting on the curb. He noticeably flinched and her auburn eyes gazed at him in curious bewilderment.

"I... couldn't help it..." he confessed and he had his eyes set on the ground. She noticed him playing him his fingers, tapping them with his opposite hand.

For some reason she couldn't question Jellal's motives so she uttered a single ghostly' who?' instead. He sighed.

"The little boy made it to the hospital." his eyes darkened. 'But not without any permanent injuries."

Erza fell into silence. She could already guess what happened. But even so, she knew the taking someone's life was not the answer. Once lost, a life can never be retrieved again. She knew... but where should she draw this line? But surely some people deserve it? She questioned herself.

"Jellal Fernandes, you shouldn't murder people."

"...So you've told me." He smiled half-heartedly, still not looking her in the face.

She furrowed her brows in half irritation and half question. For once she had thought that her face had something wrong with it. The young woman had never felt so conscious about her appearance before. She but her lips and forced the blush away. With a burning resolve she placed her bags down and crouched down until her face was at his level and she was now opposite him. Erza used her hands to grab both of his cheeks and pull them up until he was facing her with surprised blue eyes.

"Jellal Fernandes, I don't know your reason, but I know you're a better person than that." She ignored the fact that his cheeks slightly squished between her hands was endearing. "You have to realise that when you kill someone, they will not come back and fix their mistakes and receive proper punishment."

She wished she worded her explaination slightly better.

She noticed his eyes softened. He slowly brought his hands on top of hers, prying them away from his face with light feather-like touches and held them as if they were the most delicate of china ceramics. Erza couldn't help but blush at his strange gentleness.

"Miss Erza... Scarlet..." Her name seemed to roll of his tongue as gently as his hold on her. "You are too generous to trifle with me. But generosity should have limits. Your naivety will soon get the best of you."

He sighed deeply.

His eyes were hard with experience and contained a rare sincerity that she's never seen in a pair of eyes. This had her trust every word that left his mouth. "And I would curse the world a thousand times if it were to hurt you."

Erza snatched her hands away while blushing cutely which Jellal couldn't help but smile warmly at. "T-t-thank you for y-y-your concern, but I'll be fine!" He was too smooth for his own good.

"I must be on my way now!" She got up quickly and let out a cough. "I hope you begin to realise the importance of someone's life,"

Jellal dismissed her order with a wave of his hands.

Erza frowned and then dug into her bag. She presented a small white box with the words fairy cafe written across the top with detailed cursive. Once again she swooped down to his level and placed it in his hands and bounded up standing again.

"See you again, Jellal Fernandes." She gave him a slight nod of her head. "Hopefully you will learn to appreciate the smaller, yet more important things in life."

The red head took her leave and left him sitting by himself on that gutter. He opened up at the small box and chuckled to himself when he found the small strawberry shortcake and small spoon that lay in the space.

Was this her definition of smaller and important things in life? She continued to surprise him and she was such an honest good girl.

He watched her scarlet hair disappear around the corner and then looked up at the clutter of small glowing specks in the sky. He spooned some of the sponge dessert into his mouth while staring wistfully at the night sky.

Why should I need to appreciate this sweet piece of cake, when I have you?

:P The result of my procrastinating for my assignments. This needs to be submitted. Oh dear... so very tired I am. Jeez! I'll update everything that's not on hiatus soon. Just need to finish my assignments xD Please enjoy this chapter of cheesiness xDD
-Shiawase-usagichan