"It's all your fault"
"How and why do I have to bear the entire blame? You were equally guilty"
"..."
"Am I expecting a response, Scarlet?"
"Next time, just keep your pants on, Fernandes!"
"They WERE on until a certain someone yanked it off"
"J...Just say no next time you moron!"
"No"
The random quarrel was brought to a halt when Jellal blurted out the final phrase, and a Requip mage blushed to such an extent it would have taken someone a solid couple of seconds to differentiate her face from her hair.
"At least...I won't say no until I'm not willing to..."
It was a pitiful compromise, but it was more than enough to elate Erza who latched herself onto his arm, rubbing her cheek against his shoulder and mumbling incoherently.
"We are not that late. We can probably avoid the matter and shift the blame elsewhere", she offered with beaming eyes and it almost hurt Jellal physically, to strike the idea down without remorse.
"The news was on the evening paper, Erza. We probably have to come clean"
"Come on...don't say that. I will hide it from them, don't worry. If they knew that the first thing we did after the mission was try to find a place to fuck, they will never let me hear the end of it"
Erza stopped in her tracks and stared at Jellal for a moment before gulping.
"But for the love of God, don't even try to lie. You are so easy to read"
Jellal wanted to come up with a strong retort, but even he knew how much of a miserable liar he was.
With a victorious grin, she wrapped her arm around his waist and jerked her thumb towards herself.
"Just leave it to me!"
A Few Hours Later
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"I...I...CAN'T!"
"WHAT WERE YOU ACTUALLY THINKING?"
"Stop it..."
Mirajane, Cana, Levy, and Lucy were in absolute hysterics as Erza buried half of her face inside the water.
"Do you actually want us to believe those are mosquito bites? And you have the gall to mock Jellal for being a bad liar!", Mirajane accused through her tears as she held on to her chest, doing her best to catch in a few breaths through the torrents of laughter heard in the room.
"Fine! I tried and it failed. Just ignore it"
Erza's grumbling was far too precious for the rest of them to ignore. On a normal day, she would grow violent with zero hesitation in such circumstances, but she appeared far too embarrassed to do anything else, and this was the perfect opportunity for the rest of the girls who had to face Erza's random mood swings.
"You have hickeys all over you, you dumb woman. What else did you expect?"
"I didn't know Erza-san was so protective of her relationship. It's very cute!"
"How good is Jellal in bed?"
Absolute silence rang in the air as three pairs of eyes hovered around the black-haired woman who was busy guzzling a bottle of her favourite liquor.
"What? Come on, don't leave me hanging. Tell me!", she continued with a victorious smirk and Erza stared at the woman with an icy expression.
"You don't need to know that. That's private. He's good enough for me and that's all that matters. I don't know and don't want to know how you would rate him"
Erza's sudden outburst made her forget about her own modesty as she shot straight up, waiting for one more excuse to charge at Cana.
The drunk latter lazily turned towards the scarlet-haired woman and stared at her for a solid couple of seconds before howling in laughter.
"W...Was that why you hid yourself?"
Erza put two and two together as she looked down before her brain began to overheat.
"And here I was thinking that it was just a couple of hickeys. What the hell is all of that?", Mirajane asked scrunching her eyebrows at the various marks on her body.
"Look at all of those hickeys on you! Woman, I know you like it rough but how obvious are you going to make it?", Mirajane rebuked her as she spotted the obvious red spots on her neck, her shoulders, the inside of her arm, her armpits, bite marks covering her breasts and thighs, and the obvious imprint of hands on the flesh of her buttocks.
"That is why I tried to hide it, genius"
"This is along the lines of trying to steal from a shop by stuffing half of it inside your pockets and hoping nobody finds it suspicious, you coconut!"
"Who are you calling a coconut, you oaf?"
"Erza, is...is that a slave branding?", Levy asked as she scooted over near Erza, effectively breaking the two of them from splitting into another physical fight.
"...Perhaps..."
"You should get it removed, Erza. It-"
"I trust Jellal. I know he won't misuse it!"
Mirajane rolled her eyes on hearing the tone and Levy cleared her throat.
"Erza... Jellal isn't the one we are worried about here. I have lent thousands of books to you. I know things even a close friend is not supposed to know"
The Requip mage avoided the eyes of her friends. Lucy and Levy stared at her in sheer shock, Mirajane stared at her with a similar expression, slightly coated with disgust and Cana was too drunk to hear the rest.
"And what's with the mark on...what...is...is that a womb tattoo?"
Erza frowned at Levy's accusation before staring down at her lower abdomen where the mark was present - as bright as day, and as vibrant as her hair.
With no hesitation, she started to rub it, thinking of it as a temporary mark and was undeniably unsuccessful in her futile attempt.
"This...this wasn't there yesterday!", she exclaimed and looked towards her upper arm which had a similar blood-red pattern going from her shoulder to the centre of her forearm, in a shape similar to that of a dragon.
"What is this? Am I poisoned? Is it Dark Magic? But.."
"It's not that", Levy interrupted her with a smile before staring at her with a knowing expression.
"It's something you might appreciate"
"I don't appreciate this. I look like a bench in a school's detention room", Erza complained, which resulted in Mirajane and Cana howling in laughter, which irked the woman yet again.
"Really? Because I do recall reading something about a now fallen tribe that would unconsciously mark their partners as their mate - similar to dragons"
Erza's eyes comically shot up before she dropped into the water, coming to terms with the information.
Levy stifled her laughter as she saw Erza twiddling her thumbs with a rampant blush on her face.
"If...If that's what it means...I don't mind it. To be fair, Jellal was a bit...stronger yesterday. I could sense his magic a lot, so..maybe it is true"
The fire of doubt was quickly extinguished and Cana got up, walking towards the nearby wall, running her hand over it. It looked as if she was searching for something important.
"Where is it?"
"What are you doing? That's a wall, you drunk halfwit"
"HERE!"
Cana interrupted Erza and peeled out a layer from the bathhouse wall, before eerily smiling at the rest of the girls in the room.
"Is...Is that a peeking hole?", Lucy asked in horror as Cana leered into it with no hint of remorse or embarrassment.
"Of course it is. Is it a rule that only men should peep? Why shouldn't we? Especially when there are S-class men on the other side. Who should -"
"You peek, and I will fucking blind you, Alberona"
Erza pulled no punches as she stared at Cana with a face warning her to move forward.
The drunk woman smirked before taking another swig.
"That hits the spot! Plus...it isn't like I'm going after them. You lot run around naked as well. Don't start logic with me, Erza. Both of us are too stupid for it", she waved her off and peeked inside before laughing.
"Look at Natsu and Gray fighting again. 'I am the bigger one. No, I am bigger now'. Those two are really funny"
Hearing that from across the other side, Lucy buried her face inside the water and audibly screamed, resulting in a bubbly incoherent outburst.
"Is nobody else there inside? Should I go in and beat the shit out of them again?"
"Ehh, then what's the difference between the two of us, you closet pervert? I'm an open pervert and you act all high and mighty"
Gritting her teeth, Erza hopped out of the water and charged toward Cana with a tightened fist.
She swung with a generous amount of force and the tipsy Cana barely dodged it with a giggle.
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. They're like little brothers to you - you've been around them even before their balls dropped, but I'm this lusty woman going around trying to look at dicks - well, you're not wrong, but I'm not a sex offender.
Look at those two. Are they going to joust like knights? That will be fun"
Lucy could be heard screaming underwater yet again, and even Cana felt a slight tinge of pity toward the blonde.
"Oh, Gajeel is - oh, that's...aww, Gajeel's is so cute. He's trying to stop and yeah... they're bullying him, now"
"STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP!", Levy screeched as she bit her lip, baring her fangs at the dark-haired beauty who had no intentions of stopping.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP, YOU LITTLE PRICKS!"
A loud voice echoed, tearing past the barrier between the two baths. The slight scent of ozone and electricity passed through the wall and Mirajane shot up, glaring towards Cana.
"Cana, that's enough for today"
"Nah, nah. Let her do it - it's only fair you and Erza suffer just like Lucy and me. We're a family, right? And families bear burdens together. We're all in this together.
Cana, don't hold back. I'll even bring you some liquor if you need it"
Erza and Mirajane glared at Levy with unadulterated looks of betrayal as the smaller mage enabled Cana.
"Why is it so steamy? Don't hide the important parts, you stupid steam"
The Takeover mage turned towards her closest friend who was internally praying for Jellal to stay away from the bathhouse.
"Oh, Jellal's here too! Ah, it's been a while since I've looked at that handsome face - oh, what are all those scars? Look at his chest - Erza, it's just like yours, filled with hickeys.
He's so unapologetic about it, what the hell?"
Erza grabbed Cana's hair, trying her best to prevent Cana from seeing Jellal naked.
While she was shameless, Jellal was not. Cana would not hesitate to ask him about it in person and Erza yanked her hair, pulling her away from the peephole. But she shivered as she heard the woman let out an audible gasp.
Cana stared at Erza and Mirajane for a couple of seconds before stretching her arm out.
"It's around half the size of my arm, what the hell?", she scoffed as she altered looks between the two women.
Mirajane was unfazed and had an overly sweet smile on her face while it took every bit of Erza's willpower not to strangle the woman on the spot.
"Erza-san, you sure are lucky, aren't you? Jellal-san sure is kind to you and based on what I'm looking, he isn't clueless at sex. Ah, I'm pretty jealous of you", Lucy giggled and her smile faded as she spotted Erza's mind jump to some acrobatic conclusions.
"Jealous...list...husband material...homewrecker..."
Lucy put her hands up in surrender even before Erza's mind could go elsewhere.
"I already have a boyfriend and as much of an annoying idiot he is, I love him to bits and pieces. You don't have to worry about it from my end. I respect Jellal-san like how you would look at an idol - the ones who sing and dance"
"Not every female wants to get inside your boyfriend's pants, you lunatic!", Mirajane chided as she slapped the back of Erza's head.
"Mira.."
"Ah!", Cana interrupted the building fight as she snapped her finger and pointed it towards Erza.
"Ah, so that's why you would come up limping. 'A monster got my foot', was the excuse was it not?", Cana asked with an accusing smile.
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! DO YOU WANT TO DIE? I WILL CUT YOUR TONGUE OUT AND STUFF IT INSIDE YOUR THROAT!"
On the Other Side
"Man, the girls are pretty loud today"
"Isn't Fairy Tail always loud, guildmaster?", Jellal asked his best friend in a cocky tone and the man responded by electrocuting the water.
"Touche, Dreyar"
