I'm going to apologize for not getting back into this story for more than a month! Had lots of one-shots to write in the meantime, but it's also very exciting for me to realize that this story is going to come to a close as well. :D
Love to all the reviewers and readers and followers. You all deserve so much the conclusion of this story and I can at least give that to you!
Anyway, this is by far the longest chapter so far. (My fault for separating chapters by ingredients rather than by sequence). There's some more of the AU stuff pops up in this chapter, so bear with me as I rewrite the world a tad bit!
the flour
After washing the salt out of their hair and off their skin, Erza and Jellal planned out their next destination.
"Thanks for letting me use your shower," he said, rubbing his blue hair into one of her towels.
"You can leave the towel on the chair over there," she replied, trying to ignore the fact that yes, she had let someone that she had only re-met three days ago strip naked and take a shower in her bathroom.
Erza sat on the far other end of the room, her legs crossed and ready to go. She watched Jellal wrap his cloak around his body before leaving the towel, as instructed over the chair. He then strolled over to her, and she caught a whiff of freshness from his still-damp hair.
"Are we sneaking around again to get out?" he asked her.
Titania nodded, picking herself up and turning around to face the window. She gracefully lifted the heavy glass without a struggle and motioned for him to go before her. He looked out, not even hesitating at the height from the ground from her three-story room, and stepped off and over the windowsill. She watched him land with a soft thud onto the ground, his cloak fanning out around him.
He looked back up, extending his arms. "Trust fall, Erza," he said, smiling up at her.
Was she going to let herself fall into his arms? That just seemed a bit too romantic for comfort, but there was a cubic inch of her heart that wanted to feel his safe arms around her waist.
Oh, what the hell, she thought to herself, as she climbed out of her window. Regardless of whether or not he eventually caught her, she was coming down to the ground anyway. She lifted her foot and fell into the sky, feeling a rush of air blow through her hair. She prepped herself for a landing, bracing her core.
Then, she was thoroughly surprised to never touch the ground. She looked down, seeing that he had caught her just about a foot before she would touch the ground. His arms were secured around her, and his face, which was at her waist's level, smiled up at her to acknowledge that he indeed did catch her.
"Th-thank you," she told him, hiding the fact that she was impressed by how smoothly that had gone down. She wrapped her arms around his neck, supporting herself by his shoulders, and helped herself down to the ground as he let her go.
"So where are we off to next?"
She answered, still a little bit breathless. "To get some flour!"
after some brief traveling
In a small town near Mt. Hakobe, just outside of Magnolia, there was a cozy and small cottage with a large sill, surrounding by oceans of bronze and gold rows of wheat. The impending sunset seemed to cast a halo over the crops, and the command of the wind bowed the tall stalks down toward the ground—all in all, a beautiful and serene farmland scene.
The two of them had taken a magic-powered car out of Magnolia and although it wasn't far of a distance, the drive still took a while through the rural and nature-conserving roads. When they final reached the cottage, a couple of hours had passed, and even Erza had doubts of whether or not they would be able to finish milling the flour they needed before the day ended.
Erza parked the car at the front of the cottage, and the two of them cautiously approached the home, hoping that the farmers inside wouldn't be completely astounded with strangers at their door.
She knocked twice, firmly.
And when the door opened, a look of shock struck each and every one of their faces.
The large man behind the door spoke first. "Erza?!"
"Simon!" the redhead exclaimed, not expecting yet another former foster home friend.
Simon swung the door open wider. "C-come in!" He looked back at the slim, strong-built dark-haired woman behind him. "Kagura—it's Erza! She was one of my best friends from foster home!"
Erza took it as a cue to welcome herself in, and Jellal followed after her. She sat herself down at the humble wooden table that was straight across from the door. Simon and Kagura pulled in chairs from another part of the room, sitting directly across from them, Simon in front of Erza, and his younger sister in front of Jellal.
She barely recognized the siblings. They had grown out of their young and skinny figures into well-tanned and lean farmers, something that Erza could only assume they had been doing since leaving the foster home. Despite this, their natures still seemed about equal—Simon seemed as cheerful and outgoing as ever, and Kagura was as calm and stoic as she last remembered.
"So…what are you doing here?" the brother asked them.
The scarlet-haired woman suddenly remembered that she actually had another purpose coming aside from accidentally bumping into yet another one of her childhood friends.
"Oh," she said, startling herself. "I—" and realized she almost forgot about Jellal, "—we—wanted to mill some flour, and I heard that this farm was the place where we could get the best wheat in all of Fiore. I didn't expect for you to be here, but this is a surprise indeed!"
Simon gave her a broad smile and then put his bulky arm around his sister's shoulders, bringing her in for a sibling side hug. "Well, I'm glad that you heard our wheat is the best! Kagura and I have been working hard on our farm since we left the foster home ten years ago."
"Well it seems that you're doing very well, indeed," Erza agreed, clasping her hands together and resting them on the table. She looked around briefly, seeing the simple and well-lived state of the home.
"It's so good to see you again, though!" Simon exclaimed. "I can't believe that our paths have crossed again." He reached his hands out to cup over her hands—which she immediately noticed were much much larger than hers and at least three times warmer. "What a chance—it's been a very long time! You went to a guild—Fairy Tail, right? Are you still doing jobs with them?"
She nodded. "Yes, and I love my guild very much."
Simon looked over to Erza's right, where Jellal was quietly sitting, avoiding the obvious glare from Simon's younger sister. Some kind of quiet and subtle exchange must have happened between the two men, because Simon suddenly and immediately tucked his hands back into his lap, releasing Erza's hands from under his. Kagura must have taken this as a cue, as she unwillingly joined the conversation.
"Where did you come from?" Kagura asked Jellal, almost in a hiss.
Erza didn't remember if there was tension between Simon, Kagura, and Jellal back when they were foster kids. Kagura was much too young for any amount of the bitterness that she seemed to carry for the man right now. She wondered briefly if something had developed between the two of them since Erza had left the foster home.
"He's with me," Erza defended, saving Jellal the trouble of answering. "He's helping me on this job."
Kagura's hazel eyes slightly narrowed and shifted to glare at Erza. "He's with you?" she asked, heavy disdain in her voice.
Simon decided to break the tension that started to shadow over the table, laughing nervously. "Why don't you join us for dinner? We just finished cooking some stew and were about to eat dinner."
His younger sister shot him a look.
"Of course, we'll show you around the mill and let you get your flour afterwards," he added, with a nervous smile. "But we haven't seen you in a while so let us treat you like guests!"
"Sure," Erza said, not wanting to refuse such a kind request in case it elevated the situation.
Perhaps having food in their stomachs would help ease out the stress in the air.
dinner time
Except that it didn't. Dinner was even more tense, simmering over the quiet table.
"This is really good!" Erza tried, slurping the thick beef stew as loudly as she could. "I didn't know that you could cook, Simon."
"It was really Kagura," Simon said, smiling and looking over at his younger sibling, as if he was encouraging her to come into the conversation.
However, the raven-haired girl was intent on keeping the cloud over her head visible. Her eyes were only down at her soup and spoon, every now and then looking up to glare at the blue-haired man sitting in front of her. Erza could tell that Jellal was sitting uncomfortably in Kagura's gaze, trying not to make any mess of himself and eating as slowly and as carefully as possible.
Simon gave up on his sister and looked back at Erza, with a small smile. "She's a master in the kitchen," he added.
Erza tried to meet Kagura's eyes and give her a smile. She was pretty sure Kagura noticed this through the corner of her eyes, but Kagura didn't seem interested in responding to Erza's friendliness.
"So, why did you decide to grow wheat?" Erza asked, turning her attention back to Simon.
Simon nodded, fully intending to continue the conversation despite the lack of support from the other side of the table
"Our parents grew wheat before the accident," he explained. "When I turned 15, I realized that I wanted to honor our parents' work and try to live the life that they had led. So I asked Kagura to join me and we left the foster home. Eventually we stopped here and decided to build everything from the ground up. It's been a long and difficult time, but we've got to this point, and the business is going well. I feel like we're doing good work, and that we're paying our respects to our parents. The success of our business is making them proud. Right, Kagura?"
His sister was nonresponsive. Jellal didn't say a word either, although Erza could tell that he felt if he opened his mouth, nothing good would come out of the dinnertime conversation.
Eventually, after a couple more spoonfuls, Erza finished her bowl. She didn't want to ask for seconds and prolong the tense dinner, so she stood up from the table, holding her bowl.
"Oh, you can leave that in the sink," Simon told her, also standing up with his empty bowl. "We'll take care of it."
Erza noticed Jellal pushing the rim of the bowl up to his mouth and swallowing the rest of the lukewarm contents down, quickly standing up to join the two of them.
"This was great," he said, the first three words that had come out of his mouth that evening. "Thank you for inviting us for dinner."
"It wasn't really an invitation," Kagura immediately replied. She still sat at the table, committed to the remaining half of her soup.
The three of them pretended to not hear her sharp words, lining up to place their bowls into the sink. Jellal wordlessly fought his way to cleaning the dishes, a responsibility that Simon and Erza didn't want to take away from him. By the time all three of their dishes were cleaned and put away, Kagura was still sitting at the table, determined to not get up until the three of them left the kitchen.
"I'll show you around the mill then," Simon told them, giving them a stiff smile.
The two travelers didn't say it, but they were relieved to get out of the situation and move onto the next one, following Simon out the door.
The soft early evening dusk had settled over the fields, slowly giving the wheat a lavender sheen. The cool wind of the coming night grazed the stalks, rustling through the fields with a soothing static sound.
Simon pointed up toward the sill, pausing to look at the massive establishment that seemed to touch the sky. "We keep all our wheat kernels stocked in there throughout the year, and we mill it continuously through the year," he explained.
"That's amazing," Erza complimented. This must have taken a lot of time and dedication, and Erza admired the siblings for their hard work.
"Here, come. I'll grab you a sack of kernels," he told them. "How many do you need?"
"Just enough to make a cake," Erza told him. "Honestly, I don't know how much that would be."
Simon laughed. "I'll just grab you a pound of kernels," he determined. "Wait here." And the man headed out to do just that.
Once Simon was out of earshot, Erza quickly turned to Jellal. "What was that all about?" she demanded.
"I don't know," her companion replied, an obvious irritation at the edge of his voice.
"You have to know," she retorted, not believing him.
Jellal's eyebrows furrowed together, and Erza decided not to test him any further, since it didn't seem like an easy topic for him.
Simon jogged back to them, a small sack of wheat kernels in his hand. "This should be enough. I'll take you over to the mill."
He led them over to a small attachment of their cottage and turned on the lights. In the center were two large and wide cylinders of stone—one stacked on top of the other—over a wooden trough that had a thin dusty layer of flour over it. This was probably where Simon and Kagura spent the majority of their days—milling flour by the bushel.
"Are you sure that you want to do this? It's not that fascinating or stimulating of work," Simon admitted, looking back at Erza, who adamantly nodded. "I'm surprised that you want to make the flour starting all the way from this process," he said.
Simon poured some kernels of wheat into an opening in the middle of the two large stone cylinders, then walked over to a half-body sized crank on the side. He rotated the crank once, showing them how to use the mill. The cylinder on the top rotated, making a pleasing crunching sound from what Erza presumed were the kernels grinding against the stone.
"Once you've ground the kernels small enough, the flour should fall out there," he explained, pointing to the trough. "If you want it any finer than what this gives you though, you can always run it through the mill again—though I admit that even just milling one pound of kernels might take you a while."
Erza was not turned away by the challenge, crossing her arms and looking confidently at the crank.
"Well, let me know if you run into any issues," Simon said. "I'll be inside."
They both nodded, and the older brother left them to their work, stepping outside of the milling room. Before he completely walked through the door frame however, he turned back to the two of them.
"I'm sorry about Kagura, by the way," he apologized, suddenly.
The redhead took this as an opportunity to ask Simon what had happened. "Why was she upset? Did Jellal do something?"
Simon gave her a crooked smile. "To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. I've never seen her this upset before…" He looked over to Jellal, who remained quiet. "I don't think Jellal did anything—maybe my sister wasn't expecting visitors today. Jellal didn't do anything," he reassured her.
Erza wasn't convinced by Simon's answer, but she decided that if it was Kagura that had tension with Jellal, she was better off asking the younger sister.
"Thanks so much, Simon," she told him. "Dinner was great, and I really appreciate you letting us use your mill. How much do you want for this?"
The burly man waved off her question. "It's on me. I can't ask any money from you. We're practically family," he said, leaving the room before she could protest.
"I'll probably leave him something anyway," Erza told Jellal, turning toward him. "Maybe leave some coins on top of the mill so they can't refuse."
Jellal quietly removed his cloak and headed over to the crank to continue milling.
She watched him for a little while before opening her mouth.
"You should apologize," she said.
"I don't know what I'd be apologizing for."
"It doesn't matter—there's obviously something going on."
"How can I apologize when I don't know what I'm apologizing for?" A little frustrated, Jellal stopped cranking the mill and stood to look up at her, challenging her request.
"Well just start by apologizing and figure it out from there!"
"She doesn't seem receptive to that," he murmured under his breath, turning his attention back to milling.
A little angered, Erza stood with her hands on her hips across from Jellal, putting her foot on the crank between them so that he had to stop. "Well, make sure that you resolve that all before we leave tonight."
"Yes, Erza," he sighed, exasperated. He looked up at her so that she could see the promise in his eyes.
Satisfied, she removed her foot from the crank, and the two of them started milling.
Because whether or not Jellal's issues were going to be resolved or not, Erza was going to get her most perfect flour for her most perfect strawberry shortcake.
after a long while
Exhausted, Erza scooped the last of the flour they had ground into the sack. She was impressed at how much work was required to make just the sack of flour that she had in her hand.
Granted, she had insisted that they run the flour through the mill three times so that she could have the finest flour for her cake, so it took perhaps a little bit longer than a normal sack of flour would have, but even the always enthusiastic Fairy Queen had to admit that she was a little dulled out, especially after a day of gathering both the dairy ingredients and the salt beforehand. She did also appreciate that Jellal had helped out for more than half of the flour run—having him around was quite convenient.
She watched him reach side to side, stretching his back. Jellal rolled around his head, trying to relieve the tension at his neck and shoulders. Erza imagined his back muscles—which she knew he had, after earlier in the day on the beach—rippling just under his warm skin, lightly glistening with sweat, but after a moment, she realized it was a little inappropriate for the circumstances and blinked the image out of her mind.
Erza dropped a couple coins onto the mill and then motioned for them to head back into the house to bid the sister and brother farewell…and Jellal could hopefully smooth out the tension between him and Simon's younger sister.
The door was cracked slightly open, as if the siblings were waiting for them to come in for the night.
"Hey," she called, as she pushed the door all the way.
Simon looked up from the paperwork that he was organizing on the table. He smiled. "That was quick. How was it?"
"A lot more work than I expected," Erza told him. "I'm surprised that you can wake up every day and do this."
The raven-haired man gave them a soft smile, accessing their weary eyes. "You both look tired, and it's a bit late," he said. "I was going to ask you to stay the night."
Surprised at the generosity, the Fairy Tail mage shook her head. "No, no, no, you're doing too much for us."
"Kagura's already cleaning out the extra room that we have," Simon said. "It's really not that safe to travel back when you can't see anything. And the roads aren't completely obvious—I'm sure you saw them when you were coming in."
Although Erza was not the type to back down, she noticed a displeased Kagura coming out of another room, carrying a couple of sheets and blankets in her arms. The sister joined her older brother in the room in front of the two of them, her eyes turning to narrow slits again when seeing Jellal.
"So stay for the night, okay?" Simon asked again. "We've already gone through all the trouble."
"I can't believe you're letting them stay," Kagura suddenly said, intentionally out loud.
"I'm sorry," Jellal suddenly said.
"Huh?" Kagura's ears visibly perked up.
"I'm sorry," Jellal repeated, a little more irritated.
Contradictory to Erza's expectations, Kagura's face darkened. "You think just two words are going to pay back for what you did?" she snarled.
"And what did I do?" an unamused Jellal asked.
Kagura stepped forward to confront Jellal, pushing him backwards a couple of feet. Erza's hands whipped out to help Jellal break the impact. Simon quickly tried to restrain his sister, but his sister forced him aside as well, grabbing Jellal by his collar and pushing him up against a wall.
"It's what you did, it's what you are," Kagura snarled. "Of course you don't know what you did—you're just an asshole."
"Kagura—" Simon interrupted, but his sister took back the attention.
"Simon, don't try to defend him," she told her brother, not taking her eyes off Jellal. Her voice turned into a low rumble as her fist tightened around his cloak. "You don't remember bullying my brother?" she asked him.
Jellal kept his eyes trained on her, silent.
"You don't remember that one day when my brother was going to give a girl that he liked a present for her birthday? And you don't remember seeing it and making fun of my brother for it?" she continued, her voice like a winding snake. "You don't remember telling my brother that the girl wasn't going to like him even if he got her the gift anyway?"
"Kagura, it's okay. I've forgiven him," her brother assured her, trying to stop his sister's confrontation.
"Well, I haven't forgiven him," she scowled, eyes pointing like daggers at Jellal. "And do you remember what you did right after that? You went ahead and gave a present to that same girl. As if you had any chance with her, either!"
The blue-haired man gritted his teeth. "I'm sorry, Simon. I'm not going to deny that I've been an asshole in the past."
"That's not even the worst of what you did!" Kagura snapped. "After that, my brother lost his self-confidence and thought no one liked him. After that, my brother didn't think he was good enough—ever! He didn't think that he would ever be as cool as Jellal." She said his name like it poisoned her to speak his name from her lips. "It's been a long time since then, but as tall and handsome as my brother is, he is still haunted by the thought that he isn't good enough. And you know whose fault that is, don't you?"
The raven-haired girl slammed Jellal against the wall one last time before letting go of his collar and stepping back.
"I can't even look at you without wanting to strangle you," she spat.
When the room fell quiet, Erza found herself first to break the silence.
"Jellal…is this true?" she asked him.
But Jellal wouldn't meet her eyes. He walked past Kagura to Simon and stuck his hand out.
Simon put both hands out in front of him, waving no. "Jellal, it's okay. That was a long time ago, and I doubt this has everything to do with you."
Jellal was unwavering. "No," he said. "I need to apologize."
After a moment, the older brother took Jellal's handshake.
"I'm sorry about bullying you," Jellal said. "And I hope you know that you're worth a lot more than you think you are."
Simon nodded, and the men shook on that. Kagura looked a little more pleased. Erza still wasn't sure what to think about the whole exchange.
"I-it's getting late," Simon insisted, trying to move on from all that had just gone down. "Why don't I take you to the room we set up? I hope you don't mind that one of you has to take the floor—" He grabbed the sheets and blankets from Kagura's hands. "—but that's why we got out an extra set of bedding so you can place it over the tatami mat."
Erza took the bedding materials from Simon's arms, not wanting to create any more discussion. "Thank you, Simon," she said. "A lot."
And the two pairs broke off.
The redhead waited for her companion to come into the room before closing it firmly behind them.
"See, Jellal?" she told him, with a proud smile on her face. "You resolved it."
Jellal turned away from her and rolled out the tatami mat that was lying in the corner of the room. He didn't still didn't seem comfortable, and something was obviously still bothering him.
"Jellal?"
"I'll sleep on the floor, okay?" he told her, as if he hadn't heard her. He took the bedsheets and blankets that she was carrying in her hands and dropped it onto the tatami mat. He then proceeded to remove his cloak and his armor, putting it aside in another part of the room.
"It's not all your fault, Jellal," Erza said. "I think Kagura was being protective of her brother, and you just happened to be someone that she knew that she could blame."
The blue-haired man turned back around to her, looking at her straight in the eye for a moment before continuing to mind his own business, setting up his bed for the night.
"I've done my share of asshole-y things," he said, finally. "You don't have to try to make me feel better about it."
"You're not a terrible person," she blurted.
Jellal paused for a second. "Just go to sleep, Erza. You need to wake up early tomorrow morning, don't you?"
But the strawberry shortcake was probably the last thing on her mind right now.
Erza frowned to herself, watching Jellal smooth out the sheets over the tatami mat. Jellal didn't honestly think that he was the source of all of Simon's problems, did he? He certainly hadn't been nice to Simon when he was a kid on that day—but was Kagura's grudge reasonable? It seemed like even Simon had forgotten about the whole thing until Kagura brought it back up again.
Jellal had probably become the scapegoat in Kagura's mind, and it wasn't as if Jellal had continually bullied or beat up Simon when he was a kid. Jellal had changed since then. Even if Simon was affected so much by that to the point that his self-confidence was forever damaged, Jellal had apologized and done what he could to fix it for now. He couldn't go back in time and fix everything.
She watched him crawl into his bed, face in his pillow, setting himself to sleep. After staring at his lying body for a moment, she requipped into more comfortable sleeping clothes, turning the lights, and lay down in bed.
She decided to let the matter go and to stop worrying about the man—maybe Jellal would feel better in the morning tomorrow.
She tried for a while to get herself to sleep, but found she had many things on her mind—for one, she was still worried that Jellal was very clearly upset with all that had happened that day; for two, she couldn't believe that she had run into Simon and Kagura today, even if it was a bit of a tense meeting; and for three, she was sleeping in the same room as Jellal.
All these thoughts spiraled in Erza's head and eventually kept her awake for much longer than she would have liked. And the longer she was awake while Jellal was asleep in the same room, the worse it was for her to try to get sleep since it grew more awkward for her to think about how she wasn't asleep yet even though he had no trouble going to bed at all—what did it mean for her to think it was awkward and for him to not?
Erza recalled some of the earlier discussion that had happened that day. Simon and Jellal had been smitten by the same girl when they were young, huh? It almost bemused her to think that at such a young age, all this drama had happened.
She couldn't imagine who they both might have liked—
A realization settled heavily in Erza's stomach, and as soon as it came to her, all the pieces started forming together. From the way that Simon had rested his hand over hers and then took it back, to the way that Jellal couldn't meet her in the eyes after Kagura confronted him…
It was her, wasn't it?
An uncomfortable twist formed in her heart and she became extremely uneasy. She rolled over to the other side of the bed, staring into the light trickling in from the other side of the door.
Simon might still be awake, she thought.
She hesitated for a second before deciding to get up from bed and talking to him. She needed to talk to someone. She opened the door and followed the soft light toward the kitchen table.
To her surprise, it wasn't Simon—but his sister.
When Erza came into the room, the girl became startled. "Erza," she said, looking up from the book that she was reading.
"I thought Simon might have been awake," Erza told her.
Kagura shook her head. "Simon would never stay up this late."
Erza looked at the empty chair across from her. "I can't sleep. Do you mind if I join you here?"
The younger girl didn't say a word, which Erza took as an approval of her taking the seat.
"I'm sorry about earlier," Kagura suddenly said.
The redhead looked up at her, questioning her apology. "About what?"
"I was being a little immature earlier," she confessed. "I didn't mean to make a big fuss out of it. I just…I just wanted to protect my brother."
"That's no reason to apologize," Erza assured her. "I think Simon deserved the apology. Jellal did seem like he was very mean to Simon."
"That didn't call for my behavior the entire night," Kagura replied. "I could have easily found a more civil way to bring up the topic." She sighed. "I guess I just felt so…angry because Simon has been feeling really lonely lately, and he's a good guy, and I know that he can just ask and someone would want to date him. And I remember the one day—the only day that I've seen my brother really upset—and that was the day that Jellal had mocked him…so I couldn't help it when I saw…him."
"It's good you're looking out for your brother like that," Erza agreed.
"I'm sorry, Erza," she repeated. "My brother was good friends with you, and I know that seeing you was the best surprise we've had all month—and I had to ruin it by acting up because Jellal happened to be traveling with you."
A bit of silence settled between the two girls.
"Kagura," Erza started, softly and hesitant. "Do you know who Simon wanted to…give the birthday present to?"
The raven-haired girl shook her head. "He never wanted to talk about it. He only told me what happened."
A longer stretch of silence passed between them before Erza finally decided to say what had been on her mind.
"I think it might have been me," Erza confessed. "I think I was the girl that they both…liked."
Kagura's eyes widened.
"It was you?" Kagura asked, in disbelief. She started to slowly stand up, out of her chair. "You were the one that my brother broke his heart over?" She pursed her lips before continuing. "I can't believe you. No wonder my brother was acting so nice to you—and even now, you still dare to show your face here…with him."
After a beat, she dismissed herself from the table, walking away, and passing Erza.
"You've grown to be a strong woman, Kagura," Erza said, quietly, without looking back.
Erza's comment stopped Kagura in the middle of her tracks. The younger girl turned around. "What?"
"I remember when you were timid and were scared of fighting the older boys in the foster home that wanted to take your allowance," the redhead continued. "I remember one day when the boys demanded that you give them the new doll that you had saved up your money for, and you were about to give it to them because you didn't think you had the strength to fight yourself. I remember feeling bad for you, and then telling the boys to stop bullying you. And then I fought all three of them and got put in time-out for the rest of the week."
Erza smiled, suppressing a small laugh, and then turned around to face Kagura, who was still standing frozen mid-step behind her.
Kagura didn't say a word, but Erza could tell by the flash in her hazel eyes that Kagura had suddenly remembered who she was.
"You were that girl," Kagura said, softly. "You taught me to always stand up for myself—and I've never backed down ever since." She slowly started to walk back toward the kitchen table, back toward Erza. "Simon said that the girl that he liked back in the foster home was strong and independent, and that's what he liked the most about her." She stood in front of Erza, her expression having changed from seeing Erza with disgust to seeing Erza with another realization. "It was you, all along, wasn't it?"
The Fairy Tail mage didn't say a word.
Kagura blinked and then suddenly reached out to give Erza a hug. "Thank you," she said.
Erza sighed, smiling. "I'm sorry that I was part of the reason why Simon doesn't think fully of himself," Erza said, returning Kagura's embrace. "But I think that you have done a lot to remind him that he is worthy."
Erza felt Kagura nod her head, before the two of them pulled away from their embrace.
"I'm sorry," the younger girl apologized. "I almost acted up again."
"It's normal to be protective of the people you care about, Kagura. I know that if someone hurt the feelings of my Fairy Tail nakama, I would beat them into pulp."
Kagura gave Erza a rare smile. "I joined a guild, too."
"Oh yeah?"
"Mermaid Heel."
The redhead smiled warmly. "And I'm sure that they would get mad at the people that make you upset, too."
Kagura nodded. "You taught me to be strong, Erza. I joined a guild of strong women because I thought that eventually I would be able to meet the person that had taught me to be that way…I heard that you had joined a guild…But I didn't realize that you would be standing right in front of me."
"I'm sorry that I caused your brother pain in the past."
Kagura shook her head. "No—you were one of my brother's best friends. He said so himself…And Jellal…we were all young at some point. I forgive him."
Curiosity suddenly struck Kagura's hazel eyes, and the mood in the air very swiftly changed from serious discussion to a little bit more gossipy. "So…that means that you were the girl that Jellal liked."
Erza was surprised at the turn of the conversation. She laughed nervously, catching herself. "I guess so."
She hadn't completely gotten comfortable with that realization yet.
"Are you traveling…together?" Kagura asked.
The older girl blinked. "Yes, but just for this one mission. We're not together, you know?"
Kagura nodded, and a smile broke across her face. "So Jellal's not too different from Simon, after all, huh? He hasn't said a word to you."
Jellal liked me, Erza repeated to herself, having heard it implicitly from Kagura.
Even just thinking about the fact made her blush.
Kagura caught the older girl staring off into space. "You like him, too, don't you?"
"Wh-what? No, no, no," Erza corrected Kagura, becoming flustered. "I just thought it was strange, since I was in the middle of the whole thing today and I didn't realize it until now, and I'm pretty sure both of them knew that you were talking about me, even though you didn't know it either, and I just thought it was funny!"
The younger girl gave her a suspicious smile. "I wouldn't take it against you."
Erza smiled back. "Jellal is a close friend," she admitted. "But that's it."
The younger girl crossed her arms. "Whatever you say," she said, with a clear tone that she didn't believe Erza.
Erza's smile broadened. The two of them have seemed to have reached an understanding.
"We can be friends, now, right?" the redhead offered.
She was surprised to see Kagura hesitate with a small frown, eventually shaking her head.
"I decline."
But before Erza could question it, Kagura looked down to the ground, shy.
"I was hoping…that you would become more like…an older sister."
The request took Erza by surprise, but Erza eventually returned a warm smile to the younger girl. "Well…who knew that behind all the tough girl-ness, you were so cute." She stretched her arms around Kagura and brought the girl's face close to her chest.
Kagura immediately turned embarrassed. "I-it—this doesn't mean anything. I-I just have always looked up to you, and just didn't know it was you. A-and—"
"You're so cute. Of course, I'll be your older sister," Erza declared again, squeezing the girl even closer to her despite her newly declared younger sister's protest.
after some sisterly bonding
Erza returned to bed that night with warm feelings in her heart. She had, after all, just gotten a new younger sister, and as embarrassing as it was for her to admit, she had always wanted to have a little sister. Being an only child and not knowing of any other family members in her life, she had always wanted to have some kind of a blood relation to someone else—even if it was just fake.
To think that such a beautiful and hardworking girl would want her as an older sister…how precious!
The Fairy Tail mage slowly opened the door to the guest bedroom, reminding herself that she wasn't the only person in the room. She quickly closed the door and shut herself into the nightly embrace of the moonlight trickling in from the window, which softly shined down on a sleeping and peaceful Jellal.
She made her way to the bed, but as she put her knee on the mattress, she felt a little curiosity stir within her. She wasn't entirely sure what possessed her, but a split second later, she found herself crouching down by the tatami mat where her companion lay.
He was sleeping cutely, like the way she had observed that he did on almost all train rides. He was sleeping on his side, facing the window. Blue floppy hair covered the entire top part of his face, spreading across the pillow. His mouth was closed in a passive smile, and his entire body was curled up into a half-fetal position. The thin blanket had started falling to the ground, partly exposing his shirtless body, which rose up and down to the rhythm of his breathing.
After watching him for a full five breaths in and out, Erza decided that she could spend quite a while just watching the sleeping man. She lay on her side, facing him, making sure that she wasn't touching the tatami mat at all, in case that her movements would awaken him.
She reached her hand over to softly graze the ends of the hair falling over his face, making sure not to move them too roughly so that he would feel them. Eventually she dared herself to lift his bangs up from his face so that she could see his closed eyes.
She did that just that and was surprised to see his eyes were wide open.
Erza snapped back her hand and saw his mouth curl into a full smile. His hand moved up to his face, pushing the hair out of his eyes so that he could see her with both eyes.
"Can't sleep?" he asked her, his voice a little husky from his past couple of hours of sleep.
"No," she replied, and looking at his eyes and hearing his question reminded her of why she was awake in the first place.
"I know it was me," Erza said suddenly.
His eyebrows furrowed. "What?"
"I remember that you gave me a handful of flowers that you collected from a field somewhere on my birthday."
He took a deep sigh in and out before turning around to face the other direction, giving her his back.
She frowned. "Jellal," she said, touching his back. "Look at me."
He was nonresponsive for a few seconds—and for a moment, she thought to give up on talking to him about the whole matter—but then he turned onto his back and turned his face toward her.
"Kagura forgives you," she said.
"That doesn't take away the fact that I didn't treat Simon well."
"It's okay, Jellal. You were young, and I don't think anyone really knew what they were doing when they were kids."
"I'm not giving myself that excuse," he told her.
Erza was dissatisfied with his negative attitude. She skootched herself closer to him, putting the side of her face onto the edge of the pillow and letting herself lay on a small slice of his tatami mat. "Listen," she told him. "Everyone makes mistakes, and these mistakes don't govern their entire life."
"It wasn't just Simon, Erza," Jellal sighed, pulling his face up to stare at the ceiling. "I was just a terrible kid all around back then. Kagura reminded me of a lot of the other things that I did when I was in the foster home."
"But don't you remember inspiring all the kids when you stood up for us?" she asked him. "When you told the house managers that the kids should have more time to educate ourselves? Because if we didn't learn anything about the world, the world wasn't going to accept us and treat us fairly? That the world wasn't ever going to accept us as kids without a home and without a family so we have to stand up for ourselves?"
She smiled. "You've done good things, too, Jellal. And…you were the first one who inspired me to do something for myself, too."
He continued to stare at the ceiling. "I've wronged you, too," he finally said.
Her eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean?"
He turned his face back to her. "I ruined that same birthday for you, remember?"
She didn't reply, waiting to hear what he would say.
"Right before you were about to blow out the candles, I grabbed the cake and ran away with it," he recalled. "I remember everyone chasing after me—especially you—and then when I couldn't run any further and I was cornered by some of the older kids and you, I just threw the entire cake in your face."
Erza remained quiet.
"I just wanted attention," he said. "And I did stupid, terrible things to my friends because I wanted to feel special."
After taking a moment to gather her thoughts, Erza opened her mouth. "I mean, I definitely remembered you did that," she started, and when he saw his eyes grow sad, she quickly continued. "But…you didn't ruin everything, and if anything you made my birthday really special that year."
To be honest, she hadn't remembered that this had happened at all. She knew that Jellal was mean to her every now and then, but she had never hated him for all the trouble that he had given her—even when he had fun of her for leaving the foster home the day before she left for Fairy Tail. She always just thought that Jellal was bad at telling her that he considered her a close friend.
"You cried so much that day," he said. "It was your favorite kind of cake—strawberry shortcake—and I ruined it for you. I can't forgive myself for doing that to you."
"That's ridiculous, Jellal," she said. "It was just a birthday."
He turned his eyes back to her. "It was your birthday. I ruined the birthday of the person I cared about the most. I can't believe that I did that to you."
He liked you, she suddenly reminded herself.
"That was what I remembered the most," he said. "But Kagura reminded me that I had bullied a lot of other people too—like Simon—and I often got away with it too. I didn't even remember all these terrible things that I did—like I wasn't even conscious that I was bullying others or being mean to others. And I just did it all for personal gain, because I wanted other people to think I was cool. I don't know what I was thinking back then—I don't know what possessed me then."
He took a deep breath.
"That's why I decided to help you make your strawberry shortcake," he finally confessed. "But I don't know if this will ever make up for me being so mean to you in the past. And I affected all those other kids that I was mean too as well. I'm the reason why they aren't living to their fullest—I wasn't a good influence to anyone. I don't think I can make it up to anyone."
"Jellal," she began, after listening to his words. "The purpose of your life isn't to make up for the mistakes that you've made in the past and to punish yourself every day for the things that you did. We've all done our share of good and bad things, and we just have to move forward and keeping trying our best to be our best."
She couldn't read his eyes, but she could feel that her words weren't convincing him.
"I forgive you, Jellal," she told him. "And the reason why you're helping me make the most perfect strawberry shortcake isn't because you're paying for what you did to my cake on my birthday in the past. It's because you want to help me make my cake—and you're helping a lot.
"I don't care about that birthday—that was a long time ago, and what's more important to me is that I've gotten to see you again," she continued. "After I left the foster home, I thought I would never see you again."
She felt a blush grow over her checks, and she was extremely glad that the darkness of the night would cover her embarrassment. Where were all these sentimental words coming from?
"I'm really glad that you're with me right now," she concluded.
His eyes seemed to widen a little bit. "….really?"
"Yes," she affirmed, giving him a nod.
He seemed to feel much better about that, and she reached a hand over to him to smooth back some hair that had fallen over his face.
To her surprise, his hand suddenly took the wrist of the hand that she was using to brush his hair back. He drew the back of her hand close to his face and then pressed his lips to the back of her hand, kissing it before hugging her hand against his chest, closing his eyes and cuddling into her hand.
He still liked her, she realized.
And this time, she let the warmth that settled over her cheeks fall into her heart.
I'm curious to know what you think of this trainwreck of a chapter, haha. Hopefully this was entertaining for you to read and I agree that some parts of it are a little ridiculous, lol. Would love to hear your thoughts!
With love and I hope you're spending the last days of 2015 well,
thir13enth