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21 ; sweet tooth

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"Hey, Erza!"

She ignores the call of her name for a moment, keeping her eyes locked to the shelf of biscuits she's currently perusing. Grocery shopping with Jellal always goes like this — she keeps the list, and he wanders off to find other items they 'need'. By which, of course, she means he hunts for weird new things for them to try while she ensures that they remain fed throughout the week.

A moment later, though, he calls her again from a nearby aisle. "Erza, can come here for a second, love?"

The big choice is between getting chocolate biscuits, the ones Jellal really loves to dip in tea and munch on in the morning when he's too sleepy to paymattention to his sugar intake — or, she could get the plain sugared wafers, which she likes much more than the chocolate ones, and that Jellal is moderately fond of.

"Erza~!" This time the whine in his voice is unmistakable. Her lips quirk up as she quickly tosses the chocolate pack in the trolley and pushes it towards his voice.

When she turns the corner into the aisle, Erza can't help herself — she laughs.

Jellal is standing in the centre, staring with sharp scrutiny at the products in front of him. Littered at his feet are a whole host of products, different brightly-coloured boxes with various pictures of desserts on them. A glance up confirms her expectations: he has attacked and conquered the Home Baking section.

"Hey!" He brightens when he sees her, and scrambles around through the boxes scattered around his feet for one in particular. As she draws closer, he presents it with a flourish. "Look what I found! You might like this." Jellal grins soft and easy. "Thoughts?"

"Your sweet tooth will be the death of you," she laughs, shaking her head at him and taking a look at the box he's holding out. "Victoria sponge? We can easily buy that ready-made in the bakery section."

"Why would we do that?" He says it like it's some sort of outrage.

"It'll taste better than anything we try to make, I can promise you that much..."

"Ah, but the baked-at-home kind is the best kind." He winks at her, leaning forward to drop it into the trolley and unabashedly invading her personal space while he does so. "It's all about the experience, Erza."

So he's standing close to her, that's fine. No big deal. They've been dating for good a few months now, after all; some exchanged breaths are hardly noteworthy... is what Erza wants to will herself to believe.

She can tell the exact moment Jellal realises just how narrow the proximity of his face is to hers is — he pauses, eyes widening imperceptibly and, almost like he's unaware he's even doing it, glances down at her lips as his tongue darts out and wets his own.

"U-Um—" Erza leans back and his body follows her, an irresistible magnetism in his growing smirk. "Jellal, not here—"

"What not here?" He laughs under his breath, tone teasing, eyes even more so.

"Don't," she warns, trying to look serious. "We're in public."

His eyes glint mischievously. "So?"

Frustration and fondness grow in equal measure. "So, what if someone sees? We can't just—"

But before she can get the words out, Jellal leans down all the way, his lips warm as they brush against hers. S-Soft, her brain stutters, and before she can help it she's pressing back against the sweet pressure, his satisfied exhale warm against her mouth—

Someone clears her throat loudly behind Erza and they jump apart guiltily.

The rude old lady passes them by with agonising slowness, throwing them both tremendously disapproving glares as she does, and Jellal snickers when he catches Erza's glower, his own ears burning red even worse than her cheeks. She lightly smacks her boyfriend's arm, trying in vain not to laugh as well when it just makes him even wider.

"Ridiculous," she mutters, turning away as if to push the trolley away. Then, with a quick glance ahead to make sure the old lady is out of range, Erza rises to her tip-toes and steals a quick peck from Jellal. Nothing's ever quite as satisfying as tricking the master, she thinks with a satisfied smirk, turning away and trying to slow down the racing beat in her chest.