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Poetry In Motion
the final downpour of metaphors
Chapter Five: As The Reels Turn
Lucy was busy tidying up her unit as she sighed wearily. Truthfully, even though being the only daughter of one of the richest men in the country had its perks, the blonde could safely say that it also had its disadvantages. Like for example, the huge unit her father bought for her at a shy rate of a million yen that she was currently staying at, boasting with a spacious living room decorated with luxurious furniture and appliances, a complete set of cooking utensils adorning the vast space of the dining hall and kitchen, two grand bedrooms—a unit like that was challenge enough to be cleaned. The rooms also seemed empty, with her being the only occupant. She actually didn't want this kind of setup, but this was the only way to make her father agree to her terms of living freely and independently. It was the better side of the deal if she was to weigh the other option which was travelling to school via helicopter and being escorted by a dozen guards. Lucy hated the attention, and the hypocritical act that'll go with it. She wanted to make friends yes, but she wasn't desperate to settle for the fake commitments. In fact, the blonde tried her hardest to cover her popular identity and somehow managed to stay on low profile by introducing herself as just Lucy. The girl who loved football games and hanging out with her friends. The girl who found a way to finally fit in. The girl who was finally having a go at real life.
"Lucy!" the blonde jumped at the sudden mention of her name.
"Natsu! What are you doing here?" she propped the broom beside the sofa and sat down to take a break.
"Figured out that maybe I can help you with chores?" Lucy snickered and pulled her hair tie to let her golden locks loose.
She shook them slightly before tying them up once again into a neat bun.
"What did you do to Natsu?" she laughed heartily as her pink-headed friend frowned, faking a hurt and offended emotion. "As you can see, I'm practically done. Thanks for the offer though."
Natsu inspected the area, and seeing how spic and span it was just shrugged and strode inside her living room.
"Where's Gray by the way?"
"He's taking care of business with Juvia." he lazily replied.
"Oh, so they're official now?"
Natsu crossed his arms behind his head and slouched.
"Nah, Droopy-Eyes still has no balls to return her feelings and accept the damn fact that he feels the same."
Lucy sighed before muttering something inaudible, "You're one to talk..."
"Hah?"
She stood up and lazily stretched, disregarding his previous attempt to make her repeat what she had just said and followed it up with a bright and happy disposition.
"You want to have lunch?"
The rosette's face lit up immediately.
"Have I ever turned that kind of offer down Luce?" he smirked, and all the blonde saw was how gorgeous his pearly whites complemented his tanned skin.
She snorted.
"Well of course not, because it's always my treat."
Natsu slung his arm over the blonde's shoulder much to her surprise. "Nah, I'm paying this time Luce!"
She didn't know why, but she felt light and giddy all of a sudden. All she could recall at that very moment was his summer scent and her heart beating erratically.
"This weekend?" asked a deep but gentle voice.
Erza simply nodded.
The redhead deemed this as the perfect chance to ask her manager for the weekend off.
Gildarts Clive was the manager of the convenience store that Erza was working at, apart from that, he was also Cana's father and that was apparently the reason why the redhead was spending most of her time with the brunette. Gildarts was a muscular middle aged man with orange hair, slicked back neatly and a stubbly beard. Unlike normal people, he had been living his life out on prosthetic limbs—he lost his left arm and leg on an accident. Despite his intimidating, stern and grumpy persona, he was actually a soft, laid-back and sensitive type of man. Erza had proven this over the long run when she was constantly working with him during her shifts.
"Alright. I'll be asking Laki to take your place for the meantime."
Erza smiled then followed the gesture with a bow. She was about to take her leave right after that when her manager called out to her. Gildarts threw an item into the air, and the redhead caught it perfectly with one hand.
It was a box of scotch mints—her favorite.
"Have a blast kiddo."
She smiled.
This is going to be a great weekend after all...
Erza was nearly halfway to opening the door, when a sudden push forced her to slightly tumble back. The familiar dark shades of hair and eyes immediately caught Erza's attention.
"Gray." she managed to call out, and the guy clad in a blue hoodie and cargo pants acknowledged her presence.
"Oh, Erza."
"What are you doing here?" she asked out of curiosity.
"Going to buy some snacks for later. You?"
The redhead pointed out to Gildarts who was busy arranging merchandises on an empty shelf. "Asked for the weekend off."
"Oh. So you wanna help me pick some stuff up?"
Erza knew this was an opportunity she could not pass up. Especially when Gray provided her necessary means of escape. Her perfect excuse of a man to escape her sexually frustrated and perverted offender of a roommate. And since she was already done preparing the things needed for later, she figured she had the time to spare as well. She checked her watch and smiled all to herself.
"Sure. Be sure to take all the time that you need."
Erza got home at around seven-thirty in the evening. As expected, Jellal was bound by his own rules and she was glad that the lights were off. Silence welcomed her the moment she entered the living area. The television was off, and no one seemed to be home. There were also no lights coming from the ultramarine's room.
Huh, must be a boy's night out.
Erza couldn't care less. He was out of her hair and that was all that mattered to her; the guy was becoming difficult to handle, and if it was safe to say, he was being much more aggressive which was making her very uncomfortable. She wanted to sue him. She can do that, knowing the laws by heart and how her rights work, she could definitely sue him; but Erza wanted to avoid lesser confrontations and bothersome issues so she just decided to let his innuendos pass and hopefully with time, she'll learn to get used to them and someday ignore them completely.
She quickly grabbed her things, wasting no time and headed to the elevator.
The redhead recalled that Lucy hadn't given her the time when she's supposed to come, but since it was already dark, she decided it was probably the best moment to head up.
She pressed the button marked with the number twenty-five and arrived a minute later. Erza searched for the numbers that marked her friend's unit.
"Thirteen...thirteen...ah, here it is." she stopped at the end of the hall and knocked.
There was no response.
She knocked again, harder this time.
Erza heard the lock coming undone and then the door opened, revealing a spiky mop of blue hair, a cocky wide grin, a distracting red tattoo and an arrogant stance leaning against the door frame.
Jellal was right in front of her.
The redhead's eyes were wide as saucers and her mouth was hanging open like a door with rusty hinges.
The ultramarine was about to speak when Erza suddenly interrupted him, raising a hand and frowning in the process.
"I'm sorry, wrong room." her tone held a little contempt as she slowly closed the door.
She heard a soft thud and she tried calming herself down.
Keep it together Scarlet. You've apparently got the wrong room.
She slowly walked away and began searching once again for Lucy's unit.
"Room thirteen." she was back to square one, footsteps making the most of the quiet night and soft whispers counting off one to thirteen. She was brought back by her feet to the same room and she inhaled.
You were simply hallucinating Scarlet. He was nothing but just a figment of your imagination.
The redhead knocked once more and the door was opened once again.
"Erza you made it!" squealed a high-pitched tone that obviously didn't belong to any man.
"Lucy," she sighed in relief. "Thank goodness."
The blonde raised a brow in confusion but eventually shrugged it off.
"What took you so long? Natsu and Gray headed out and they're not yet back." she offered a glass of juice and Erza heartily gulped down the fruity beverage.
"Where did they go?"
"I asked them to go buy popcorn at the convenience store and it's been an hour already."
"Do you want me to go look for them?"
"No need. I'll do the looking. Help yourselves in and make yourselves comfortable."
Yourselves?
Erza hadn't had the chance to ask her why use the plural term when she was apparently all alone inside her unit. Dusting this one off, she strolled inside the spacious room that was Lucy's residence. She set the glass down at a table and browsed the mountain of CDs piled up for their weekend getaway fun.
"These are all good." she muttered.
"I agree, but I think it would be better to watch something different. Something like risqué movies, don't you think so too, Erza?"
She jumped at the clarity of the deep voice and was caught off guard that someone else was with her in there. She spun around and came face to face with the guy she'd been trying to avoid all day.
"What the hell are you doing here Jellal?" she seethed, backing away immediately and distancing herself from him.
"Don't ask me, I was merely invited by a friend."
"Don't give me that as a pathetic excuse you—"
The door blasted open showing off a rather enthusiastic trio.
"Yo Erza!" both Gray and Natsu welcomed in unison.
"I met them both at the elevator so have—"
"Did you just invite this guy in?" Erza roared and Lucy nearly turned to puddle at the tenacity of her voice. Natsu, Gray and Jellal however, were already busy stuffing the table with food and picking the movie line up.
"W-Well, I actually passed by your dorm earlier but no one was there except for upperclassman Jellal. I asked him where you were and he told me he didn't know and he asked why I was looking for you, which I practically had to answer. And then it ended up with me being manipulated to asking him out to join us tonight." she lamely finished.
Erza couldn't just believe what she had heard. She wasted precious time with Gray and spent the remaining hours wasted alone to get out of the ultramarine's peripheral view, but she just ended up right at the palm of his hand!
"I'm leaving."
"What?"
"I've changed my mind. I'm not in the mood to watch a movie anymore."
"Oi, you wanna get your asses here or are we gonna start the movie without you guys?" Natsu popped a potato chip into his mouth while Gray killed the lights off. And Jellal, oh Jellal was just sitting on the floor with a rather amused face, his gaze glued on the redhead.
It irritated her. That smug and that sinfully alluring tattoo of his.
She hated him.
"Erza it's just one night! Plus we've already planned this out!" Lucy whined, trying her best to knock some sense back to her friend.
"Come on, we're starting off with Erza's favorite!" Gray yelled as he settled to join the rest of the guys who were already happily munching away the food.
Clearly trapped in a hopeless situation, Erza dropped her stuff unceremoniously to the floor and rolled her eyes much to the blonde's delight.
"So this is Erza's favorite huh? Interesting." Jellal snickered as the rest of the gang finally huddled closer to watch.
They were going to indeed watch Erza's favorite.
The movie was called Frozen.
Starting from an animated film, they moved on to a few more known titles—Titanic, as suggested by Lucy, Battle Royale coming from Natsu and Edward Scissorhands from Gray. It was during the credits of the last movie that everyone—except Erza—turned to face the only one who has yet to pick a movie.
"It's your turn now Jellal." Gray said, shoving a mouthful of popcorn into his mouth.
"Hurry up man." Natsu yawned while rubbing his eyes.
It was already five in the morning and they have yet to get a shuteye.
Lucy looked at his upperclassman expectantly and Jellal sighed.
"Then let's go watch this."
He inserted the disc and they all prepared for what kind of movie the mysterious and handsome Jellal Fernandes had in store for them.
It was only about fifteen minutes when the movie started that everyone fell asleep.
Natsu was already snoring away, his head resting on the lap of Lucy who was now dozing off in a sitting position, and Gray who was wasted on the floor with hardly any clothes on.
Everyone was asleep except for Jellal and surprisingly Erza.
Erza who was so engrossed with the film, was barely noticing the ultramarine's presence at all.
There were times that she frowned, parts where she cried and shrieked and laughed and Jellal quietly indulged all of her genuine reactions.
When the movie finally finished Erza lazily stretched.
Jellal was about to stand up and fix everything up when the redhead's voice called out to him.
"Hey,"
That's a first.
He faced her to tell her that she had his undivided attention.
"Would you have held on safely to the past or risk finding the future?"
Jellal was quiet for a moment, and when he finally found his answer, he spoke softly.
"Neither. I'm picking the present. The present determines the past and molds the future."
With that being said, his eyes felt heavy and he silently yawned. Jellal's head swayed for a bit before falling into the mercy of gravity, his locks draping over the redhead's shoulder. On normal occasions, Erza would usually push him off or get rid of him for good, but his answer made the redhead stir up her brain cells as sleep itself slowly played its soft notes on her face.
When she entered dreamworld, Erza realized that for once, she wasn't dreaming of Elsa or Anna or Kristoff or Olaf or how their lives turned out to be perfect.
Because for the first time, she dreamed she was Tiffany, and Jellal was Pat.
A/N: Sorry for any grammatical errors. I haven't cleaned this one up. Lol, I hoped you loved the movies mentioned and they do not belong to me. (obviously) I'm just a fan :P If any of you are wondering what that last movie was, it's entitled SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. Trust me it's a GREAT movie. It's AWESOME. Heavy dialogue yeah, but that was the thing that made this EPIC. If you haven't watched this, of forgod'ssakedownloadapiratedcopyorbuyone! And for those who have, let's watch it overandover again!
Leave out your love people! :3