CH19: Shopping Letdowns

Zancrow made his way back to the top courtyard of the castle where dozens of guards now stood. He looked towards a small group of soldiers that had the dark guild member named Nullpudding in irons.

"What took you so long?" Erza asked smugly.

"Tch." Zancrow plopped Flare onto a stone bench and watched as the royal guards put her in restraints as well. He looked over Erza and saw many scratches on her. Some were on her face, others near her waist and stomach. "Looks like you had a rough time."

"I actually took the time to pry him of information. It seems that they are both with the dark guild known as Raven Tail and were sent here by their master to loot the vault."

"What were they trying to take from there?"

Erza stared in disappointment at the floor. "My interrogation techniques seemed to have knocked Nullpudding out before he could give me an answer."

"Wow, way to go. You need to watch yourself. You know you're in a league of your own and can easily harm anyone who is not on your level."

Erza looked at the God Slayer and smiled weakly at the small compliment he just gave him. She them felt a surge of pain in her side and started to collapse, until he caught her.

"Looks like he did a number on you. Let's get your wounds fixed up." Zancrow then carried Erza back to their room and broke out the medical equipment that was provided to them by his majesty. "I'll go get a female soldier to look you over." As he walked towards the door, a gentle hand on his own stopped him.

"No, Fairy Tail takes care of their own." Erza responded. Zancrow turned a little pink but understood the situation. This was a medical treatment, not a time to get horny. He applied the healing lotion to his hand and was about to put it on Erza when he was stunned to see her remove her armor, followed by her shirt. She was now before him in a skirt and bra. Normally he would have loved the situation he was in. But as he looked over Erza's cleavage, he was disappointed to see so many scratches on them.

"He really hurt you didn't he?"

"You forget that he is the one currently knocked out." She smirked.

Zancrow couldn't help but laugh. Even in the face of adversity Erza always managed to see the upside of things. The God Slayer then began to apply the healing lotion on the scarlet wizard's sides, stomach, and finally her breasts.

"I hate to do this…" Zancrow reached around Erza until he found the clasp on her bra. He undid it and let it fall to Erza's lap. The only thing covering her top now was her hands on her breasts. He then rubbed the lotion onto her exposed cleavage and watched as the wounds began to close. He then walked behind her and applied the lotion to her injured back. Now that she was topless, it was that much easier to apply.

"All done." He walked over to the sink and washed his hands as Erza got dressed again.

"Thank you." Erza was now back in her Heart Kreuz armor and she was blushing madly.

Zancrow smiled. "Yea well, hopefully you would have done the same for me." He said confidently. "Come on, let's go get our reward."

…

One…Million…Jewel. That's how much the reward was. Erza immediately started imagining the shopping spree she would go on as soon as they got back to Magnolia. After all, master instructed the God Slayer to split the reward with her. Zancrow on the other hand thought he would add another wing to his house, or perhaps a swimming pool. They both said their goodbyes to his majesty and took the next train back to Magnolia. Upon arriving the first thing Erza did was check her bags to be taken to her apartment. Zancrow merely started carrying his suitcase home until he was stopped by Erza.

"Where do you think you are going?"

"I THINK I'm going to go home. It's been a long day." Erza snatched his one suitcase out of his hands and paid for it to be shipped to his house.

"What do you think you are doing?" The God Slayer asked furiously.

"I THINK I'm going to take you shopping with me." The giddy female wizard retorted with a smirk.

"Woman if you think I'm gonna…" Zancrow was dragged off mid-sentence as the shopping spree of Erza Scarlet began.

…

Zancrow must have visited every shopping mall in Fiore. The only thing he found more puzzling than Erza's sudden mood shifts, was how she could fit so much merchandise into her shopping bags. She literally cleared out most of the dresses in one store, and bought so much jewelry at the next one they were stopped by police. Apparently, they thought she was robbing the place. Erza merely slapped the receipt to the cop's face and he sheepishly apologized for the "inconvenience."

Zancrow had had enough. He was tired of giving his opinion on how good she looked in every short dress she bought, as well as carrying her bags for her while she was as light as a feather prancing around the mall looking for more shit to buy. If he was going to be her chauffer and bagboy for the day, she was going to make it up to him later.

After much convincing he managed to convince her to go out to a very late dinner with him. They had wasted most of their day shopping that it hadn't occurred to them that it was getting late. They found a small bar in which they made themselves comfortable in and after ordering their food, Erza sparked conversation.

"So…shopping was fun." She quirked.

Zancrow just death glared her. "Eight, hours. That's how long your little 'shopping spree' lasted."

"But on the bright side, look at how many cute dresses I bought."

"…"

"And you were a very useful bag boy."

"EXCUSE me?"

"If you hadn't tagged along, I would have had to find another helpless male to carry my haul of merchandise."

Zancrow couldn't believe Erza's audacity.

"First of all, I didn't 'tag along.' You dragged me against my will. And secondly, this 'helpless male' decided to be nice and help you out of the goodness of his heart, not because you forced me to."

"You would have done it either way. After all, don't you fear me?" Erza mocked.

"You scare everyone. But when it comes to sheer terror, I think Mira has you beat."

That remark took down Erza a couple of notches. She hated to be compared to the Demon Queen. "Humph, at least I'm not all bad. Unlike you who puts out good vibes only to lure your helpless prey in so that you may violate them later."

"Huh?"

"Let me spell it out for you. You took care of my wounds so that I would owe you a favor, didn't you? And you were planning on getting me drunk tonight to collect on that favor weren't you!" Erza declared.

At this point Zancrow was pissed. He got up from his spot and glared daggers at the scarlet witch. "I was the one who said that I would have brought you a female guard to take care of you. You said 'no'.
And you don't owe me anything besides an apology after all the bullshit you made me go through today. I took you out tonight to get to know you better, not to be insulted. I can handle your abuse, I can handle eight hours of shopping, what I can't handle is you calling me a molester!"

Erza was taken aback by his response. He simply turned around and left the bar.

'To think that I actually thought she was wife material. That bitch.' The God Slayer made his way down the sidewalk towards his home.

Erza stayed seated and downed the rest of her alcoholic drink. She didn't mean to jump the conclusions, but she had to be careful. After all, she did suspect that the God Slayer had an infatuation with her. One that was probably extinguished after her accusations. "Too bad, he was kind of attractive."

It was now midnight and the bar was closing. Erza grabbed her belonging, all thirty-two bags full, and started going towards her apartment. It was stupid. Worrying over a former dark guild member who once threatened to kill her entire "family." But she did have to admit, he had come far and improved his own image since he joined Fairy Tail.

Suddenly, she saw two men walking towards her from the dark alley she was passing by. They were dressed in business suits and looked dangerous. Lucky for her she was no ordinary woman, she was a wizard. She set her belongings down and drew her sword.

"State your business." She demanded.

The men just laughed, as more of their people came up behind Erza. Now she was surrounded by seven men. Then to follow up, a carriage pulled up alongside the henchmen and out came four more men with their boss exiting last. He smirked evilly as he waved his hand in a signaling motion. Erza reequipped into her Heaven's Wheel armor and generated a sword, one for each man who was there. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain at the back of her neck. She pulled out what she could only tell was a dart.

"Poisoned…" She said. As she slashed at the assailants closest to her, she missed terribly and her eyesight started to fail her. She then collapsed onto the ground as the last thing she saw before she blacked out were two of the men approaching her with a body bag.