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But onwards to more Jerza fluff! And a surprise guest!
the dairy
When Erza set out of the guild the next day, she stopped to look around, expecting a familiar face and dark blue hair to come up around the corner.
Except that he wasn't there, as he had been the day before, sitting outside and waiting for her.
In the case that he was late—or maybe, was on his way—she even waited for a full two minutes, before she started questioning why she was waiting on him in the first place. The scarlet-haired girl shook herself out of the mood and headed over to the train station herself.
She had to obtain the most perfect strawberry shortcake after all. There wasn't any other objective in life.
However, the S-Class Mage found herself giving her rediscovered friend another chance, and after she got to the train station and seated herself onto the train, the first thing she asked the conductor was if he had come across anyone that seemed remotely like Jellal.
"Oh, your boyfriend, you mean? No, I haven't seen him, Erza-san."
"He's not my boyfriend," she corrected quickly, with a light flush, and she pulled out her wallet to pay for her ticket.
"That won't be necessary," the conductor told her. "Your boyfriend paid quite a bit last time—the least I can do is pass you a free ride, right?"
Erza didn't argue this time, sighing, and putting away the coins back into her purse.
Boyfriend, huh? Even if the two of them had been friends up until now, she wouldn't be so sure that that kind of a relationship would have started between the two of them. Sure, he had been very nice and helpful to her since they had last met, and sure, he had been relatively touchy with her from the start…
She thought about the word for a moment, but when a mental image of Jellal and her started to develop in her head—and maybe a quick reminder that she had let him sleep on her shoulder—she quickly tossed aside the whole concept.
What a ridiculous idea.
Erza was quickly distracted by some commotion was going on outside of her booth. Someone seemed to have lost something and was searching desperately for it.
"Are you sure you haven't seen my neko-neko?!"
"That's what I'm telling you! I haven't seen any furry anything here!"
"But I could have sworn my neko-neko ran into your booth!"
Neko-neko? There was only one person that Erza knew that said anything about cats like that.
But she hadn't seen her in—
"Hi, sorry!" the cat woman exclaimed, popping her head into Erza's booth. "Have you seen my—"
The woman's eyes widened, and Erza could tell that for a full second, the woman completely forgot about finding her cat.
"Erza?!"
Indeed, it was her friend back from the foster home! "Millianna!"
"Erza-chan!" With the redhead's confirmation that she was indeed the cat woman's old friend, Millianna pounced into Erza's booth and gave her a large embrace. Erza returned the hug, and the two women immediately got to catching up on each other's lives.
"I thought I would never see you again after you left for Fairy Tail!" Millianna exclaimed, small happy tears in her eyes.
"I see you still love cats," Erza observed, with a wide smile.
Nothing had changed too much about Millianna—she still had golden brown hair, and although it was a bit longer, feline-like ears still popped out from her head—a hairstyle that Erza had never seen the girl without. Millianna still donned the scarlet-colored whisker-like markings on her face.
Although—and Erza caught herself looking there—Millianna had developed quite a bit, and she wasn't shy about showing it, practically wearing just a bra and something that looked like stockings and lingerie for her legs. Around her neck was a dark cape—heaven forbid she needed some coverage one day.
"You haven't changed at all either, Erza!" Millianna remarked. "Your hair is longer—and now you wear armor, but you're still the same as I saw you before you left! Why didn't you come visit us? Too busy with your guild jobs and having fun with your guild friends?"
"I guess," Erza admitted.
"You remember Jellal?"
The redhead still wasn't used to his name, and when the brunette mentioned it, Erza almost stuttered and gave herself away. Why did he have to show up in every conversation that she had had today?
"…Yeah, what about him?"
Then the feline-loving girl leaned closer to her, whispering into her ear. "He was really upset about you leaving, you know. Especially because you didn't say bye to him before you left."
"Oh," Erza said, and then turned her eyes away from Millianna's huge observing ones. "Well, I was mad at him then."
"I know, I know," Millianna said, waving her friend's comment off. "But I just wanted to let you know since he left the foster home a few days after you left. We all thought that he went looking for you or something."
Erza didn't try to connect the dots, but the thought that Jellal might have been looking for her the entire ten-something years they had been separated slightly embarrassed her.
"Well that's ridiculous," she said, off the top of her head. "If he had actually been looking for me, he probably should have just come to Fairy Tail."
"Oh, so you haven't seen him yet at all, Erza-chan?"
"No," the warrrioress lied, trying not to look flustered.
Why was she lying?
"Ah, well, none of us have seen him since he left the foster home—I was starting to worry that maybe something happened to him!" Millianna mused. "But Jellal is strong, right? Jellal can probably take care of himself."
"Yeah…" Erza agreed. She attempted to change the subject. "But Millianna—what are you doing here?"
"I'm going to the Cait Shelter!" Millianna exclaimed, throwing her hands—rather, paws—up into the air. "I hear there's a guild full of cats just north of Clover Town!"
Of course, and Erza couldn't help but smile.
"I lost my neko-neko earlier though! She just slipped out of my hands—I have to find her before I have to get off!"
"I'm getting off at the Clover Town stop, too," Erza said. "I'll help you look for her."
"Really?!" Millianna didn't seem like she could be any more pleased. "Thank you, Erza-chan!"
"In fact, I have just the armor for this," the requip warrior said, and then with a quick use of her specialty magic she emerged back into the world, wearing her Cat Armor—a periwinkle-and-plum striped one piece, complete with white cat ears on her head and white paw gloves over her hands.
Millianna made a sound that could only be described as a mewl."Erza-chan! You look fantastic!"
"I do?" and Erza posed, jutting the right side of her hip out and dramatically leaning her head against her paw. "Well, thank you."
And the two feline women thusly stepped out into the train, harassing everyone on the entire train about a cat.
at Clover Town
"Thank you so much for helping me finally locate Keiko-chan!" Millianna thanked Erza again, rubbing the tabby cat's fur against her cheek. The orange-furred cat returned a purr to her owner, before the two of them rushed off the train, heading towards their next ride to Cait Shelter.
Erza stepped off the train as well, breathing in the fresh air of the country side. Then she noticed a familiar cloaked figure standing off to the right, seeming to have been waiting for the train.
"Jellal?!" Millianna exclaimed first, before Erza, and the cat-lover quickly rushed over to give the dark-blue haired man a big embrace, which the man returned.
Millianna looked back at Erza. "Look, Erza-chan! It's Jellal!"
The redhead stared for a moment, wide-eyed. What the hell was he doing here? Had he known that she was going to come here and waited for her here?
She obligingly glided over, stepping to the right of Millianna.
"Millianna," Jellal greeted back. "I haven't seen you in a long time."
"Erza-chan and I were just talking about you!"
"Oh yeah?" he said, and he looked up at Erza, giving her a discreet wink.
Erza subsequently turned red all over.
"Yeah—it's so funny to see you here! What are you doing here? Where did you go after all this time? Why didn't you come back to visit the shelter?" Millianna continued, pestering him with more questions.
Jellal gave a soft laugh. "I can't answer all your questions at once, Millianna."
"Well then, what are you doing here?" the brunette demanded, and the cat in her hands added a meow in the same tone.
He smiled. "To see Erza, of course," he replied.
To this, Millianna looked back at Erza, questioning.
But Erza was caught unprepared.
What did he think he was doing?! How was she going to explain to Millianna how Jellal just happened to meet up with her if she apparently hadn't seen him since she left the foster home?!
"U-uh. I…" she stuttered.
Millianna's eyes suddenly relaxed, seeming to completely understand what the entire situation—although Erza wasn't sure exactly what Millianna was understanding, because Erza had no idea what was going on herself.
"Sou ka," Millianna said, with bright eyes, nodding. "I get it."
And she pulled away from her embrace with Jellal and stepped off in the direction of her next ride to Cait Shelter. She turned and waved goodbye to them. "Well, I'll see you later then? Thanks for helping me find Keiko-chan, Erza!"
Erza could only sheepishly wave back.
With that, the feline-o-phile bounced off, leaving just the two of them standing together.
When Erza was certain that Milliana was out of hearing range, she turned toward Jellal.
"What are you doing here?" she asked him, immediately and sternly. She was not happy about whatever conclusions Millianna had made about the two of them, because no matter what conclusion the cat lover came to, Jellal and Erza were definitely not that.
"We're getting the milk, butter, and heavy cream you need for your strawberry shortcake today, right?" he asked her, and when she didn't correct him, he continued, "I knew you would only get the best ingredients for your shortcake, and Clover Town is most known for their dairy farms."
The redhead didn't admit that he was spot on in predicting her actions, although the fact that the two of them were on the same wavelength gave her a warm stir in her heart. She resorted to swiveling on her heel and heading in the direction of the farm that she had previously scouted out while doing her research in the guild. He followed after her, and she made sure that she was always at least one step in front of him.
That was, until someone pulled her tail—or at least, the tail on her Cat Armor.
Erza gasped, looking behind her, and upon seeing twinkle in Jellal's eyes, realized that the man had been playing around with the backend of her Cat Armor. She grabbed her tail away from him, tucking it behind herself, and scolded him.
"Hey!" she said.
He gave her a broad smile. "You look cute, Erza," he said, simple and straightforward.
And just like how he had made her blush when he winked at her earlier, his compliment was causing heat to rise in her cheeks. Again, she was hyper-aware that she wasn't wearing very much beyond the small furry pieces of clothing.
But she wasn't just about to requip right now. She didn't want to make it seem like she was requipping just because she was embarrassed by him noticing her Cat Armor either!
Erza cursed at herself for forgetting to change back into her casual armor gear after they had found Millianna's cat. They had just found Keiko-chan once they got to the station, though, and Erza didn't have much more time after that before Millianna noticed Jellal standing at the corner of the station.
"T-Thank you," she said, slightly flustered and frustrated that she was caught in this kind of a situation again.
The two of them then walked out of the station, starting down the path toward the farm.
Erza, of course, made sure that she was the one leading, but at some point, her curiosity got the better of her and she stopped to let him catch up to her. He looked up at her.
"Millianna told me that you left the foster home," she told him.
"Yeah," he confirmed. "I left just after you, actually."
She nodded, not giving him the hint that her friend had already told her that information. "Where'd you go?" she asked, instead.
"Around," he replied. "I didn't really have any place to go or any place to be." He paused before realizing that he probably wasn't answering her question comprehensively. "I went to learn magic."
He smiled. "I thought that if Erza was going to learn to be stronger, then I should grow stronger as well."
at the farm
Erza and Jellal arrived at the farm that she had pointed out earlier. This was the farm, she had attested, having eye-assessed the grazing cows and the green pastures.
The farmer in front of them, however, didn't seem too excited about doing business with a woman in a cat suit and a man with an unorthodox tattoo over his left eye.
"Da. Ka. Ra," the farmer enunciated, stressing every single syllable. "The cows have already been milked today—you can't just walk in and decide that you want to milk my cows."
The Fairy Queen was not going to let up so easily. "I came early this morning just to do that!"
"Well, it looks like I woke up earlier than you," the farmer shot back, gripping his pitchfork a little bit more tightly and more vigorously chewing on a piece of long grass.
Erza wasn't going to take no for an answer. "Well—I'll just come back tomorrow then—earlier!"
It seemed that her opponent wasn't quitting easily. "Oh yeah? Well I'll just wake up even earlier!"
The redhead was not pleased about this obstacle to obtaining the key dairy ingredients for her most perfect strawberry shortcake.
"We'll just purchase the milk, heavy cream, and butter from you then," Jellal suddenly said.
"Jellal!" Erza exclaimed. She was furious that he would even make a concession like that! If she was making the most perfect strawberry shortcake, then she was going to see it to the end that she got the most perfect ingredients from start to finish.
She felt him take her to the side to have a quick private conversation. She still wasn't happy with the stupid decision he had just made and she made it known to him that she didn't appreciate him taking over the conversation.
"What are you doing?" she asked him, angrily. He was ruining all the plans!
"Trust me, Erza," he said. "You don't want to wait one extra day to get these three ingredients—and the cows are going to be the same cows. The products are all going to be the same quality, probably better if the farmer did it because he's experienced." He looked at her unforgiving face. "Also I hear churning butter takes a lot of time," he added.
However, if anything, Erza was more up to take the challenge to achieve better quality than the farmer, at whatever cost and effort it took. It was her most perfect strawberry shortcake and she had succeeded so far in getting the strawberries and sugar necessary.
"Here, I'll buy it then—and we'll try it out later today, okay?" he suggested. "And if you're not happy with it, we'll wake up extra early to come and milk the cows, churn the butter—everything!—ourselves, okay?"
The scarlet-haired warrioress still wasn't happy about the proposal—mostly because Jellal was taking the reins of her mission to make the most perfect strawberry shortcake. It wasn't even his mission or anything! And she never asked for his help in the first place! Who was he to go around making decisions for her regarding her most perfect strawberry shortcake?!
Her face showed her thoughts precisely.
"I'll get it for you, okay, Erza? If you're not happy with it, it's my fault, okay?"
She didn't uncross her arms or give him any sign that she was consenting to the actions, but he went ahead and made the transaction anyway, handing the farmer a couple of gold coins.
"Only your best milk, butter, and heavy cream, please," Jellal said, politely.
Seeing the gold coins in his hands, the farmer suddenly seemed very pleased at the whole situation and very happily went to go get the ingredients requested.
Jellal turned back to the still fuming Erza, giving her a crooked smile. "You're still mad?"
Seeing the good intention written all over his face, Erza found that she couldn't stay mad at him for very long. Her arms remained crossed together, but her eyebrows leveled out.
She also couldn't help but lift the corners of her mouth into a smile when she saw the ingredients that the farmer had fetched for them—as much as she would have preferred doing everything from scratch, there was just something about realizing that she was now halfway done with her ingredient gathering for her most perfect strawberry shortcake—that is, if she accepted the ingredients as they were.
Jellal took the crate that the farmer had prepared for them into his arms. "Thank you, sir," he told the farmer, who spit on the floor in response. The blue-haired man turned toward Erza. "Let's go back and try these ingredients, yeah?"
Erza nodded, deciding that Jellal's idea might not have been bad after all. She grew slightly embarrassed that she had made a whole fuss about everything to start with. The redhead reached her arms out, silently offering to take the load off the man's arms, but he refused to give her the weight of the dairy products.
At least we got the things we need… she thought to herself.
Wait—where were they going to 'go back and try these ingredients'? And…since when did Erza start thinking in terms of 'we' and not in terms of herself?
She looked back at Jellal, who seemed to read her face exactly.
"Back to your guild, right? Back to Fairy Tail?"
She hesitated, before realizing that there wasn't really any other place to put her ingredient anyway, and didn't argue about the location.
She did, however, start to worry about how her nakama would react when they saw her bring home a handsome young man that looked suspiciously like the Jellal that everyone teased her about.
It was already bad enough that Millianna was suspecting something.
To Erza, the worst thing that could happen was all of Fairy Tail even remotely knowing.
back at Fairy Tail
Erza made sure that they entered the guild from the back entrance, where surely no one would notice that she was bringing an extra person into the building that day. Ultimately her choice made a lot more sense too, since the kitchen was much closer from behind than from the main gates of Fairy Tail.
Please don't let anyone see us, she prayed in her head, scurrying from one side of the hall to the next.
"Come," she whispered, telling him to follow as inconspicuously as possible. She rounded a few corners, making sure to check if anyone was there before waving Jellal over to signal that the coast was clear.
He didn't seem to care though—taking his time walking over from one point to another, with the large crate full of dairy products still in his arms—which frustrated her quite a bit. It didn't help that she was already frustrated that she wasn't able to obtain the most perfect dairy products from the cows herself.
When they finally reached the kitchen, Erza instructed Jellal to place the products into the refrigerator as soon as possible. He did as she said, but left two glasses of heavy cream out on the counter. When she asked him what he was thinking, he answered straightforward and in a matter-of-fact way.
"We're trying out the heavy cream."
Her lips twisted. She had agreed to purchasing the farmer's products and then returning to Fairy Tail to do just that. As much as she was sure that these ingredients weren't going to eventually make it into her most perfect strawberry shortcake, she couldn't argue against trying them…
"How are we going to do that?" she challenged him.
But the answer was very obvious to him. "Make a strawberry parfait," he told her.
She blinked. She had to admit that sounded very appetizing at the moment…
"Where are we going to get the strawberries?"
"Oh, I bought some along with the other stuff while we were in Clover Town," and Jellal produced a carton of strawberries from the crate that she hadn't previously noticed.
She stared at the strawberries and the heavy cream for a moment. Indeed, having a parfait did sound very good right now. She couldn't quite argue with that—perhaps coming back to Fairy Tail to try out the heavy cream wasn't a bad idea at all.
"Okay," he told her, clapping and rubbing his hands together. "Hajimemashou ka? Let's start."
"Mmm," she agreed, nodding her head vigorously.
She waited for him to give her instruction. They locked eyes for a few seconds.
Confused, she blinked again. "So…what do we do?"
He looked at her weirdly for another second, before realization flashed in his eyes.
"You don't know how to make a parfait, do you?" he asked her.
She looked down shyly and then shook her head, embarrassed. She didn't want to admit it to him, but although she very much loved food in general, she had no idea left or right in the kitchen.
He laughed softly. "Do you know how to make a strawberry shortcake?"
Erza made a face. "No…" she admitted, under her breath.
She could do many other things—defeat 100 monsters, intimidate Gray and Natsu, requip twice in a second—but cooking was not one of her many talents.
Jellal smiled, not taking the opportunity to mock her about how she was going to figure out how to make her most perfect strawberry shortcake without knowledge whatsoever about baking.
"Okay, why don't we start by looking a little more ready?"
Ah, indeed. He was right—she was scantily clad in her Cat Armor still and he was practically ready to go out in the battlefield. Erza thought of requipping her casual Heart Kreuz armor but she decided that maybe she should requip into something that would allow her to focus on more domestic things.
She thusly requipped into her Apron Armor—which was essentially just her standard clothing with a Heart Kreuz apron over it. This was her first time using the armor, and to be honest, she still wasn't sure what the offensive or defensive advantages to this particular armor were yet, although she predicted that perhaps she would have double the slicing and triple the stirring ability.
Her blue-haired friend removed his armor by hand, first taking off his thick cloak. She walked over to help him remove the armor from his chest, and when she reached up to pull off the warm metal, she felt some heat rise to her cheeks.
Something about the mundane action of taking off his armor made her feel very flushed. She couldn't pinpoint the reason why, but she guessed it had to do something with the fact that the metal of his armor was warm, probably as warm as the surface of his skin.
"I-I'll put it down h-here," she told him, setting the chest plate on the floor, leaning against the counter.
He nodded, placing his cloak in the same pile. He turned fully towards her and she avoided the temptation to stare at his unarmored body—wearing a very complimenting form-fitting black short-sleeved bodysuit tucked into heavyweight black cargo pants—so that she wouldn't blush any more than she felt she was already.
"Let's wash the strawberries and slice them up," he said, and unfortunately for her, when she looked up to hear what he had to say, she couldn't handle his intense gaze either.
"Y-yeah," the redhead said, nodding. She located a big bowl from the top counter of the kitchen and tossed all the strawberries into it, running them all under water soon after.
"You look ready," he said, and although he was talking from behind her, she could hear the smile in his voice. "Nice apron."
Upon hearing his words, she almost dropped a ton of strawberries into the sink.
Don't react to his words like that, she reminded herself.
She shook the nervousness out of herself and just finished washing all the fruit, bringing the rinsed berries to the counter. She looked at him to see what he thought, and caught him still looking at her. He pretended that he hadn't been staring at her, and she swore she saw a light blush on his cheeks.
"What?" she asked, as sternly as she could, but she felt her voice quaver and her own cheeks heat up.
Had he been watching her the entire time?
"N-nothing," he said, avoiding her eyes. "You just…look nice."
Erza's face was burning, and she looked down at the strawberries, which probably matched the color of her cheeks. What was he trying to get at by saying that?
"So…we slice them now right?" she asked, quickly changing the subject. "In quarters?"
He nodded, taking a couple of strawberries in one hand and then laying them on the chopping board before he did just that. Titania probably could have requipped her blades and chopped all the strawberries with her magic in just a second, but she was a bit mesmerized by how quickly he was cutting that she decided she would just watch him as he sliced off the strawberry greens and subsequently quartered the fruit.
She sneakily picked up one of the strawberry butts that he had tossed off to the side of the chopping board and nibbled at the red around the core.
"Hey," he said, in an irritated way, except the smile on his face gave away his true feelings on the matter.
She took another strawberry butt and stuck her tongue out at him, before eating it.
Erza wasn't quite sure what possessed her at the time, but she thought the best way to remove the fake pout off his face was by letting him taste one of these strawberry butts so that he knew he wasn't missing out on anything. She lifted another strawberry butt from the chopping board by its leaves and raised it up to his lips.
He stared at the strawberry that she was offering, cross-eyed for a moment, and then cautiously took a bite from the fruit she put in front of his lips. After swallowing the little morsel, he held the remainder of the strawberry butt between his teeth, taking it from her fingers, and continued to cut the rest of the strawberries left. She felt a smile lifting on her lips, seeing him suck on the strawberry piece.
Cute, she thought, before she scolded herself for the thought. Wait, stop thinking that about him.
He left a few strawberries whole, and when she questioned him about it, he pulled the strawberry butt out of his mouth with his strawberry-juice stained hands before answering.
"For decoration," he said.
She smiled, lightly biting her lip.
He walked over to the sink to wash off his hands. She snuck a look at his figure from behind.
"Do you know how to make whipped cream, Erza?"
"No…" she admitted, forcing herself to turn her body around so that she wouldn't look at him.
He brought two bowls back to the counter, each with whisks in them. After popping open both bottles of heavy cream, he poured one of each into the bowls, then tossed a bit of sugar into them.
"So you whip the cream until it turns into stiff peaks," he told her, showing her a couple of stirs with his whisk.
Erza looked down at her bowl of heavy cream and whisk. She picked up the whisk with her right hand and started mimicking his actions.
After about a minute, the heavy cream looked like it was still quite liquidy.
"It'll take a while," he told her, as if he had read her mind.
So she set her eyes back on the heavy cream and channeled her energy into the whisk, beating the heavy cream hyperspeed, until she started to feel it thickening and changing its state.
"Stiff peaks!" she exclaimed, as if she was trying to prove that she was actually capable of something in an environment where she honestly had no idea what she was doing.
He looked to see her bowl of freshly whipped cream and poked at one of her peaks.
"Ah," he said, pulling away his finger from the whipped cream.
Did her whipped cream just prick him?
"That's a really stiff peak," he agreed, with a wry smile. "Maybe too stiff."
Erza huffed, disappointed that she hadn't done it right the first time. Who knew that baking was actually difficult? Judging by the way that she had to concentrate while whipping the cream, she figured that actually baking the most perfect strawberry shortcake would probably take as much effort as did winning the Grand Magic Games.
He smiled. "You always go above and beyond," he said, simply.
The redhead frowned, looking at her bowl. She picked her bowl of cream up and compared it with that of which Jellal had created, which looked a lot more cloud-like and much more recognizable as whipped cream.
She stuck her finger in it, feeling the airy softness of the cream. She licked it off her finger and was very surprised at what she was tasting.
This may have been the most perfect whipped cream for her most perfect strawberry shortcake.
She guessed he could be right about some things.
At least about whipped cream.
"Good?" he asked her.
She nodded vigorously, getting excited to assemble the whole parfait and eat it.
He grabbed two glass cups and spoons, handing her a set. They quickly got to layering the whipped cream over the strawberries and the strawberries over the whipped cream until reaching the brim of the cup.
Erza added an extra two scoops of whipped cream on top of her own and dug in, spooning out a heavenly scoop of strawberries and whipped cream.
"Wait, wait," Jellal said, then reached behind him and plopped a whole strawberry on top of her concoction but she didn't wait much longer after that to eat a bite of the parfait.
Her eyes almost rolled back to the back of her head as the components of the dessert just melted in her mouth. How could something this simple taste so good?
"Good enough for your strawberry shortcake?" he asked her, after taking a bite himself.
She made a face that told him that she wasn't ready to make a decision on that yet, but that she was thoroughly happy with what they had made in the kitchen that day. There was a dot of whipped cream on his lip, and she giggled when pointing it out with her spoon.
I just giggled, she thought to herself. What?
His face turned shy and he immediately rose the back of his hand to his mouth to wipe off the clumsy evidence. She laughed softly before returning back to the dessert, which quite frankly was very delightful.
The dessert almost made her forget where she was and what she was doing, but then the door to the kitchen opened.
Her eyes shot to the door and her muscles tensed, on edge and ready to strike. But then she remembered that she was in Fairy Tail and that the person behind the door was probably one of her comrades, so she couldn't fight them. But she wouldn't want whoever was behind the door to know that she was in the kitchen with a non-Fairy Tail person that happened to look like the mysterious Jellal person that Mira probably told everyone about the day before. She had to hide Jellal, but she didn't want to kick him or shove him under the counter and hurt him, but she couldn't just leave him there either because then everyone would know—
All these thoughts raced through her head, confusing her muscles, and at the end of her mental debates, she was left, just frozen, wide-eyed, staring at the door.
"Hm?" a sleepy blond Dragon Slayer yawned, as he casually swung the door open.
His glazy blue eyes tiredly grazed over the sight of Erza and Jellal, and by the looks of it, he was not processing anything that he was seeing at the moment.
"Laxus!" Erza gasped, but noticed that her fellow S-Class Mage paid no attention and probably couldn't hear her over the rock and roll blasting over his headphones.
The lightning mage went straight for the refrigerator, ignoring everything else on the shelves except for the cans of iced coffee along the sides. He popped it open with one hand and started chugging the caffeine down, all while walking out of the kitchen again.
Jellal was the first to break the silence after the kitchen door slammed shut.
"Almost caught, huh?" he commented.
"Y-yeah," she said, with a nervous laugh. Seemed like Laxus was so tired that he didn't even notice that anyone was in the kitchen—much less, who was in the kitchen. She breathed a mental sigh of relief before turning back to the cluttered counter. "L-let's clean up now, shall we?"
He agreed, quickly finishing up the last of his parfait and starting to throw things into the sink.
"Are you done for the day, Erza?" he asked her.
She glanced over at the clock on the wall. It was barely past noon.
"No," she said. "It's just enough time to get some salt!"
Haha, longer chapter than usual, but hopefully this was good!
I sorta took the fluffiness of the story to the next level, which I admit I'm not particularly good at. Fluff is not my genre—I'm more of an angst/dark kind of a person. Plus I hope the baking details didn't tire anyone out. :P. I'm a little bit sweet-obsessed myself.
Would love to hear from you, but until next time,
thir13enth