31st: Lust

Summary: They desired each other, they wanted to be with no one but the other one but fate was hardly kind and lust was a sin.

Lust … it was the desire that haunted her dreams and daydreams because she knew just too that it was forbidden for her to long for him. In a way, this was love – but love turned dark and twisted. And she also knew that lust would ever be the seducer's undoing. And so she tried to resist which was hard because some fool back at the guild had sent her along with Natsu, Gray, Juvia and Happy to an exclusive guild meeting – and because of some dumbass, she was forced to share a room with the one she desired.

And even though there were many miles between them and even though she hadn't such a good hearing, she could hear Levy laughing about her because the blue-haired mage had predicted that something like this would happen with Ultear planning everything.

And so she sat on a couch with her arms crossed, ignoring her roommate and actually listening to Juvia's rant about how Lucy was snoring and about how both Virgo and Leo had barged in eight times last evening.

"…and so Juvia told her to get her spirits to behave or Juvia would trade rooms with Natsu-san because he might not feel that bothered by this as Juvia does," the water mage finally ended her rant. "Juvia likes Lucy-san but she also likes her sleep – and she likes her sleep more than she likes Lucy-san's annoying spirits."

"Did I hear right?" Gray asked as he appeared basically out of nowhere. "You want to get rid of your roommate? I want to get rid of my roommate as well because his cat kept walking all over my face this night. Happy sleepwalks or so it seems."

Erza's jaw dropped. First of all: this was the first time anyone mentioned that Happy was sleepwalking and they had been sharing rooms for a very long time. And secondly: Gray had shown a first sign of flirting with Juvia as well. Up to now, this had been a pretty one-sided issue and now, something actually happened between them. This meant progress.

"Of course we can share a room, Gray-sama," Juvia muttered weakly before she fainted.

"Oi, Fullbuster, pick your girlfriend up from the floor before I trip over her," Ultear grinned as she dragged Jellal in her death grip over to their table. "Look there, Jellal-kun," she said amused as her eyes gleamed devilishly. "Erza-san is still here as well – and you will keep sharing a room with her, am I understood?"

And suddenly Erza decided that even Mira wasn't a match for Ultear when it came to scaring other people into compliance. Ultear had her guild under her control and while they were more like a family with a mother, an uncle and a daughter, she was the one who pulled the strings in the background.

"O-of course, Ultear," Jellal muttered as he showed greatest interest into the floor.

"Oh dear," the dark-haired woman said before she shook him. "Grab Erza and go for a walk before I throw the both of you out of this inn – your sexual tension is ruining my mood." She threw an equally annoyed glare at Gray and Juvia. "And you two please go on and make out in the shadow of the stairs as well … hell, if I had known that this is the chemistry between you Fairy Tail mages, I wouldn't have invited you!"

"Chill out, Ultear, and take a drink," Lyon said as he handed her a drink before he raised an eyebrow at Gray. "So, you and Juvia, huh? Took you quite a time to make a move on her…"

Needless to say, the spot around the both older ice mages was vacated seconds later.

The walk was silent and awkward and she hated every moment of it but when the alternative was to face Ultear's wrath, she rather took a long, long walk with the person she had been trying ignore as much as possible for the last two days.

"Am I snoring as well?" he suddenly asked and she froze.

"What do you mean?" she asked as she looked at him over her shoulder.

"Juvia-san ranted for hours about how Lucy snored all night long and well, Gray complained about Happy walking over his face," the blue-haired man sighed. "And so I was wondering if I have bad habits like this as well. Meredy said that Ultear sneaked out around midnight and Jura-kun said that Lyon was missing too…"

"If you had snored, I would have thrown something at you," she replied. That's what confuses me a little bit – we never had such problems before."

He nodded slowly as he wondered where they came from and where they would go from this place. The past few hours, the most prominent thought on his mind had been 'damn you, Erza, for wearing those clothes' because for once, she wore a knee-long blue dress that showed of quite a bit of her assets. A part of him wanted to know if she was torturing him or if she only wanted to get a tan and enjoy the breeze from the ocean which was Ultear's excuse for prancing around in short clothes. He longed to know quite a few things and sometimes, there were strange ideas inside his mind – and feelings which he didn't understand. He disliked things he couldn't understand. He had come to terms with the fact that he loved Erza but now, he was confused all over again.

"How's your fiancée, by the way?" she asked with a thin smile.

He froze before he turned his head in her direction. "We both know that there isn't a fiancée," he sighed. "You knew that I've been lying the moment I said it. I am still kind of surprised that you didn't call me on it on that beach."

"Maybe I was shocked that I nearly kissed a man who had a fiancée," she said. "I won't deny that my first thought was 'is it Ultear or is it Meredy?' before I realised the lie."

"Just for the record – I am not cool enough for Ultear as she always reminds me and I am a little bit too old for Meredy. And to stay on topic, I prefer redheads any day."

"Are you flirting with me, Jellal?" she asked as she stopped. "Are you flirting with me so that you can break my heart all over again?"

"I never intended to break your heart and … if it worked out like this, I am very sorry," he replied with a sigh. "And yes, I am flirting with you."

Little did they know that Meredy was watching them from afar with Hibiki and Eve right behind her. "I swear, if he doesn't confess like now, I will use a Sense Link and eat hot peppers again," the pink-haired woman threatened. "This guy is such a hopeless case…"

"It might be fair of you to warn him before you take those measures," Hibiki remarked. He was deadly afraid of flirting with the younger woman for two reasons: a) she was Eve's girlfriend and b) her foster mother was one scary lady.

"I wanted to thank you for the support during the Grand Magic Games," Erza said as she tried to ignore that he had just admitted that he was flirting with her.

"Nah, don't mention it," he said as he sighed inwardly at her stubbornness. "I wasn't much of a help anyway. I lost against Jura-kun and had to hide when the council member was there. And I nearly got caught. You should have recruited Gildarts for that job, not me."

"Gildarts was on a job to finish of the monster that killed his late wife … and knowing him, he might have ended up ruining the whole town," Erza shrugged. "Ah well, there is no use in dwelling over the past anyway, is there?"

"Yes," he said as he stared at the ocean. "Did you … did you already hear the news?"

"Don't tell me that they increased the bounty on you and the others again," she sighed.

"Nothing like this," he sighed. "I heard from Ultear who heard from Jura-kun that the council considers making us a legal guild and stopping the chase after us – this would mean that Meredy would be able to have a amazing wedding, all in white with hundreds of guests and a real band instead of only Lucy-san's celestial spirit Lyra."

"While this would be quite nice, I am wondering why you bring this up now," she sighed. "Jellal, I appreciate your attempt to talk with me like there never was anything … but I kinda wonder why you are even trying to distract me."

"Ultear said that she would kill me if I would pull another stunt like the one just after your return," he admitted. "And you really don't want to mess with her when she is grumpy."

"You wouldn't want to mess with me when I am in a bad mood either," she shrugged.

"But no matter how hard you try – you will never be as scary as Ultear when someone ate her chocolate," he replied. "I wanted to ask you if you want to go out with me sometimes, by the way. Sure, I won't be able to take you to some fancy restaurant as Laxus does with Cana all the time but … I cook quite well and according to Meredy, I cook even better than Ultear – and she cooks better than anyone I know…"

"Like a date?" she asked as she wondered why fate was tempting her like this.

"Y-yeah," he muttered. "I actually like you a lot, Erza, and so I was wondering…"

She was wondering why fate was tempting her like this because she knew that – if she played by the rules – she wasn't allowed to date him while he was still considered a criminal but she had grown tired of waiting for a miracle to happen. She wanted him. She wanted to love him and she wanted to be loved by him. And if the council had a problem with this, hell, screw the council. She wouldn't allow those old men to keep her away from her happiness forever.