notes— Blue by Troye Sivan is another song which fits perfectly (although not for this chapter in particular hahaha...). I'm thinking about putting together an 8tracks playlist for this fic bc I'm pretty much building a soundtrack at this point. Would any of you be interested in that?
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7 ; magic
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She falls against the ground with a dramatic moan, swooping her hair around her in a halo of red. "It's too late for me, I fear! I am too aff— affli— affilted—"
"Affilced," he corrects.
"Afflitted," she amends.
"You're too sick," he acquiesces.
"I'm too sick! Woe is me!" Erza raises a hand to her forehead, closing her eyes in feigned pain. "Please, go on without me. T-Tell the Grand King I'm sorry—"
"No!" Jellal cries, falling to his knees at her side with agonised expression. "I can't leave you like this! It's my fault you're sick, if only you hadn't taken the evil wizard's bonus attack spell for me—!"
"B-But the antidote, it is too far, I will not survive the journey!" Erza gasps out.
He looks stricken for a second before a heavy-set determination steals over his features. "I am not the greatest mage in the land for nothing. I shall fashion you a new antidote."
"You'll brew the potion here, great mage?"
"Yes!" He clambers back to his feet, knees and palms grubby with dirt, and glances around. Tearing a raggedy leaf from a nearby bush, he crumples it in his palm and sprinkles it across her face — Erza, of course, closes her eyes and lets him comb it into her hair, as a proper patient ought to do. "This should keep you alive until I return. Wait here! I shall go make it!" he pronounces, before rushing off inside the school building at a sprint.
Erza waits until he's out of sight before breaking character, pushing herself up with her hands and grinning. She pats at her head, making sure the crumpled leaf hasn't all fallen out, and glances around the playground. Most kids are grouped around the sandpit or the jungle gym, but she can see Lucy and Juvia talking animatedly in a patch of daisies, weaving crowns for each other, and Natsu, Gray, and Gajeel haphazardly sprint around the grass near her, playing some violent form of tag.
Jellal is soon back running across the playground, something clutched in his hand, and Erza falls back to the soft grass readily.
When he's in earshot, she groans, "I don't have long... I think I can see the light."
"Don't go into the light!" he cries just like they saw in a movie in class. "I have the antidote! Drink this, you'll feel better."
She reaches out blindly for what she's guessing will be an empty cup, or maybe a glass of water — what she gets instead is a small rectangular carton. Erza blinks and brings it up to examine; when she realises what he's handed her, she can't help but sit up abruptly and stare at him in alarm.
"Jellal, I can't drink your grape juice, it's your favourite, your mum packed this specially for you!"
He frowns, troubled. "I am not Jellal, I am the Great Wizard Saint. Don't stop the game, Erza, we're at the best part..."
She shakes her head. "But I can't—"
"You must!" he proclaims. "Or you will die. You are the greatest warrior in the land, and the Grand King's bravest knight. The kingdom cannot live without its Titania!" He places his hands on his hips and steadies her with a stern look. "Drink the antidote, my partner. So we can journey to the Tower of Heaven and you can take your place by the Grand King as Queen of the Fairies!"
"I—" She purses her lips in a last moment of hesitation, taken in by his speech, before determinedly grabbing at the straw and stabbing it through the carton. "Cheers!" she cries, and starts to sip at the straw.
Jellal grins at her. "Cheers!" He glances behind at Natsu playing tag with a ferocious vengeance, and turns back with a glint in his eye. "And onward we travel, to the land of the dragons!"