Thank you all so much for your reviews! I apologise in advance if updates might take longer from now on.
Mitzy, hehe, it was a raspberry, otherwise of course the strawberry would have won over chocolate xD Thank you so much for leaving me a review! I loved to read what you liked and thought!
Somnolent Sushi Roll, such a treat to have received your review so early! Yeh, she likes showing off :D And suuuch a long review, I can't express just how happy it makes me to read your words, thank you so much! I'm really grateful! Also messy is fine; it's the fangirl life...
Mikasa-Chan, thank you so much for your review! Such enthusiasm; makes me really giddy with happiness! About the wedding... I have literally no ideas regarding how that would unfold, no matter how much I try... perhaps you have some ideas? (Anyone who does, don't hesitate to let me know - you guys always inspire me!)
Guest, thank you so much for so many capital letters :D So glad you liked it!
Frangellica, thank you so much for such a loong review! I appreciate it so much! So kind to have left another review when the limit said 'no' last time and this review made me smile so much as well! Thank you so much for the complement; I try my best to keep them in character! And I can imagine your idea perfectly as well! I just don't know if I'll dare to go that far - there would be so much to keep in mind with so many characters... (Love your 'cheerio' btw)
Isanien, just made it into the comment :D Thank you SO much for such a long and detailed and wonderfully kind review! So many things you mentioned; thank youuuuu! I'm so very happy to know how my words reach you and what you liked and why! I appreciate your effort of writing me a review so much! Very glad to have read your review just now - I just had to thank you!
Author-San continues to swoon in your benevolence! I hope you'll enjoy this little change of perspective! (Remember that I do .,.,. for POV change without timeskip ;D)
Gray rolled his eyes at his guildmate. His gaze followed Natsu up the stairs until the latter crouched at the very top in order not to be seen, being veiled from the downstairs as well. Whatever could be so interesting about Erza and Jellal doing accounts for Fairy Tail, he wondered. Curiosity got the better of him, though, and soon enough, he found his feet to be nonchalantly following up to second floor of the guild hall. Quietly.
He spotted Natsu, hidden behind the wall, peeking up through the wooden laths of the railing. Sighing helplessly to himself, Gray snuck up when one of the Dragon Slayer's hands waved at him to get down. Doing as he was told – denying the faint blush on his face – Gray bent his knees to only be revealing the upper half of his face, gazing across the wood towards the back.
At the last table, together on a bench, Erza read her beloved a bunch of numbers. He scribbled them down in time, his tongue pressing onto his lower lip in concentration.
"45.000, 43.300, 5.600, 11.000, 4…" she blinked at her sheet.
"Four what?" Jellal lifted his fixed gaze off his notes. With a heavy sigh, she put hers down, hands coming down onto the table to push herself up.
"Just four," she informed, stepping out from the bench. Panic bolted through Gray's veins and he scrambled past Natsu who was already halfway down the stairs again. Stupidly, he leaned against the wall next to the request board, seeing not a minute later that hiding beneath the balcony of the second floor like Natsu would have been smarter.
"Nab!" Erza called down, hands gripping the railing. Nab winced, reluctantly turning in slow motion. "Pick a job." She commanded. Her gaze shifted from the shivering comrade to the next. "Gray," she made him wince, too, "go help him on the quest – choose one if you have to," she instructed, then disappeared again. Gray groaned in annoyance. His interest perked, however, when Natsu crept right after the Requip Mage again and he noiselessly went along, too.
Nab exhaled in relief as he was not pressured by Gray in any way, indecisively scanning the board over and over again.
"Done?" Erza asked, sinking back down. Jellal's hand came up, his finger shushing her gently while his mouth moved in whispers to himself, numbers flying through his head. Gray stared unbelievingly at what he interpreted to be rather bossy when it came to Erza, but she did not mind in the slightest. She watched his hand sink as his elbow came to rest on the table, his quill in the other hand scratching as he calculated.
"Seven, fifteen, twenty… twenty-two, carry the one," he muttered. Erza waited patiently, her gaze falling onto her lover's hand. Lifting her own, she enclosed his hovering palm in both of hers. Her lips came down and brushed the tip of his still outstretched finger in a loving peck. The corners of his mouth edged up into a smile while he murmured the last numbers.
"Alright," Jellal straightened his back, giving her a most charming smile. Shushing her, having her wait and then making the mightily hot-tempered Titania melt with a single smile – the world was a strange place, Gray thought. Judging from Natsu's expression, he was not the only one with that opinion.
Jellal slid his hand out of her grasp, winding the arm around her waist, giving a playful tug. His smile turned into a smirk and he leaned over, nosing his way past her scarlet tresses. Erza giggled when he whispered into her ear, making both of the boys' eyes pop.
"She… giggled…" Gray could not help but utter under his breath.
"Like a girl," Natsu added, flabbergasted. Erza frowned, turning her head at the failed low voice. The two jumped, ducking, frantically jostling back down the stairs when hearing her rise from her seat again. This time, Gray voted for the hidden place, too, pressing to the wall with his back, shoulder to shoulder with Natsu and now Nab.
They only dared exhaling when steps went away again above them.
Natsu, a look on his face as serious as it was curious, crossed the guildhall. He scooted into the bench were Lucy sat, effectively interrupting her conversation with Levy.
"Natsu," she frowned at him, shaking her head. Scooting away. He pursued. Gray raised his brows in anticipation for what he was assuming would happen next. Namely: disaster. "And they say he's already working on the sequel," she continued, facing Levy again. Then she shrieked as an arm twined its way around her side.
Levy's eyes grew in size and she stared with what could not decide between scowling and laughing.
"Natsu!" Lucy complained, her face boiling with a fierce blush when he leaned in towards her ear. Gray frowned his lips in discomfort for the Celestial Mage.
"Three hundred two thousand and eight," Natsu said with what did not quite count as a whisper anymore, earning himself another scream and a slap along the cheek. Gray facepalmed, full of understanding for Lucy, who changed seats to be protected by Levy. Cana laughed like a maniac, making sure that everyone around who had not understood was in the picture.
What an idiot, Gray thought to himself. He watched with a grimace while the Dragon Slayer asked his flustered friend why she was not laughing yet – what had not worked about his plan. Cringing on Lucy's behalf, Gray propped his foot against the wall he leaned on. There was simply not an ounce of romantic intuition in that boy, though, he realised, he was still better off than Gray himself.
Gray might not have been very experienced but he could take a hint, believe it or not. Most of the time, he merely decided not to take it. And as much as he pitied his guildmate for such insolent attempts at something that could never work without the proper context and relationship, he knew Natsu to be at a different advantage – guts.
Because when it came to actually doing what would be considered appropriate or flirty or anything in that direction, Gray was at a loss. He could read that language – if not always correctly – and he could translate it, but how did one answer? And even if he did dare to be as bold as Jellal or as insensitive as Natsu… then what? Where was the golden thread?
Sighing to himself, he knew there was only one way to find out.
On second thought, there were two and he chose the – if only a hairbreadth – less humiliating option. And so, he made his way up the stairs once more, quietly sinking down on the uppermost steps.
The couple was sitting back where they had started, her voice directing his quill, eyes focused on downsizing stacks of paper. But, and Gray took note of that, despite having gotten up, Erza was now in the exact position as before with his arm around her waist, even slightly leaning on him. His thumb stroked up and down and the random patterns Jellal's index finger drew only stopped whenever his mind had to shift its full attention to adding up a subtotal.
"So cute, right?" A voice spooked him as it came right next to his ear. Gray's heart jolted into his throat but he managed to keep his body from following suit, sinking down behind the wall when it was Jellal who leaned back this time to catch a glimpse of their newest stalker.
"Meredy," he scolded from where he sat, glaring at her. The pink-haired mage propped her chin up on the wooden flooring, squishing the middle of her face between the laths with the broadest of grins.
"Uhuh," she beamed without an ounce of regret. Gray blinked at her, confused as to why she was not giving him away, sending silent prayers of gratefulness.
"You shouldn't be walking around," her guildmate went on with berating her. As easygoing as ever, she rose from her hiding spot, sauntering over. Gray ventured to peek again when her steps had reached the couple's table.
"Why not? I'm fine," she argued.
"You're not," Jellal retorted. "You should be resting."
"I can rest standing up," she said, though she planted herself down on the opposite bench not a moment later. Jellal exhaled sharply through his nose.
"I'll get you back to the infirmary," he declared and Gray took note of how the former convict placed an apologetic hand on his beloved's knee at the same time.
"But I'm so bored there," Meredy drawled. She dramatically threw her head back, the dorsum of one hand covering her eyes. "Oh, I know," her features brightened and there was a trace of mischief coming through. "What would really calm me down to stay in bed would be a Fairy Tale," she grinned at him. Jellal gave her a look.
"Meredy, I'm not playing theatre for you anymore; those times are long over," he said, but before he had completely finished, Erza spun around to him.
"Theatre?" She asked excitedly. Jellal pulled a face, realising too late to have said too much. "I love theatre," she continued, blissfully unaware of his horror, "we can play together! We can write a play and go on tour! You have to show me!" Her eyes sparkled at him enthusiastically.
Gray noticed to be watched. He met the smuggest expression he had ever seen. Meredy smirked in his direction, arms crossed and leaning back with impish triumph. He followed her gaze as it flashed back to their source of entertainment – or education in his case.
"But it would be so much fun," Erza bargained after Jellal refused for probably the tenth time. "Slipping into different characters, re-enacting whatever story you desire," she switched gears like the tactician she was on the battlefield, lowering eyelids and everything. "Practising together…" she trailed, purring her way up his neck and Gray felt his face radiate when whatever she might have still intended to be for the theatre was starting to sound like some kinky roleplaying. Not that he thought her incapable of such things, he admitted.
The notebook in his head was turning pages by the minute and he knew he could not just out-of-context barge into any situation like Natsu had, but if he only recreated something similar…
"Come on," Jellal had somehow wriggled his way out of Erza's seduction, now pulling on his guildmate's wrist to lead her back to the infirmary. Gray winced, quickly hustling down the stairs when Erza rose after a deep sigh and a dreamy expression after her beloved.
On the ground-floor, Gray grabbed the first request poster he saw, then Nab and spurted out the front gate with him in tow.
.,.,.
"Erza!" Levy waved her comrade over. Climbing the last steps, Erza crossed the hall to their table, nodding gratefully at Mira who offered something to drink. She sank down in the bench opposite of the Solid Script Mage and Lucy, who was still spooked from whatever commotion Natsu had caused this time – his name had been written all over that screech of hers earlier.
He was sulking now, over at another table, eyeing his target with his thoughts far away but it creeped her out anyway.
"Thank you so much for overtaking all of my paperwork," Levy said and Erza smiled.
"Of course, it was our pleasure,"
"Don't tell me you're already done!"
"It only needs to be filed," Erza reported, and her guildmate beamed at her.
"Oh, Erza," Lucy chimed in, "I've been meaning to ask you," she began, ignoring the Dragon Slayer's empty stare. "Did you find out what caused you to feel so sick?" She asked. Nodding, Erza gave hum.
"Well, we tested a few things and it appears that I have developed some sort of seafood allergy – the smell of it alone makes me nauseous," she explained. Levy nodded in understanding but Lucy frowned.
"That's funny, because Happy is right there, eating fish," the blonde noted, glancing to the side. Their gazes all fell onto the cat, sitting on his behind at the end of their table, tail twitching complacently.
"Natsu made a move on Lucy and it failed completely," the blue Exceed snickered to himself.
"Did not!" Lucy complained. "I mean it did, but he didn't do that!" She yelled at the tittering cat. Levy had to laugh at the blush that rose as vehemently as her voice and Erza raised an amused brow.
"Here," Mira came from behind the girls, placing Erza's water down. "You know, if you can't find out what was making you sick, perhaps you should see Porlyusica about it," she suggested, having overheard. "Doesn't one feel nauseous in the first trimester?" Mira blinked friendlily at Levy and Lucy's lips curled up into a pointed 'o' at the suggestion, eyes widening.
Erza gave her childhood rival a deadly glare beneath a veil of serenity and the latter returned one of her innocent signature smiles. The spark of ambition in her eyes did not go unnoticed by the Queen of the Fairies, however.
"Oh, I didn't feel anything at all to be honest; I was never sick like they say." Levy announced. "It's different for everyone."
"And anyway, that's impossible," Erza firmly said, eyes still on Mirajane's. Another sweet smile, overly friendly to tone down just how little she bought any of what she was being assured.
"Is it?" She tilted her head in a pretended understanding. Erza knew better but she let it go, knowing that arguing was hardly of use when it came to Mirajane.
.,.,.
"I can't believe you did that."
"What? I just mentioned a way of performing arts – don't you like the theatre?" Meredy gave him her puzzled doe eyes. Jellal sighed sharply.
"You know exactly what I mean – and what's in store for me now…" he lamented, pacing the room.
"Wild sex with a nurse?"
"Meredy!" He fumed, flustered.
"Or any other costume she-"
"I can't believe you just said that! Don't ever say it again!"
"Sex?"
"Stop," he said between gritted teeth, his face flaming with deep blush all the way up from his neck to his ears. She laughed.
"Why?"
"You're not allowed to say that yet," he scolded and she rolled her eyes with another, drier laugh.
"Oh, come on," Meredy shook her head, unbelievingly. "Just because I don't do it doesn't mean I can't say it. I'm not eating spaghetti and I can say that!" She crossed her arms.
"But you're still-"
"Spaghetti, spaghetti, spaghetti!"
"Meredy!" Jellal tensed his hands into claws, letting them sink again. He paced back and forth, to the window and back, then to the window again. He muttered and she pushed out her lips in annoyance. Sitting was admittedly better than standing, but she would never tell him that. Out of being upset with him, she threw herself into the pillows, so she told herself, not exhaustion. A deep sigh escaped her.
"Ul was my mom but that doesn't make you my father – because you're not," she nagged. His shoulders fell with a sigh of his own.
"I never said that,"
"Then stop acting like it,"
"I'm not-"
"You are! No one asked you to," Meredy huffed, turning away, finding it very inconvenient and not really comfortable to lay on her side with her arms crossed but it supported her words so she stayed that way. His steps creaked over the wooden flooring and she refused to meet his eyes when he came into view.
"I never said I wanted to be," Jellal gave back. She did not answer, lifting her chin the slightest bit. "But tricking me into saying things that affect my relationship is overstepping the line," he said. Carefully, he shoved her legs further onto the mattress without sitting down, having noticed her to be sliding off due to stubbornness. She pretended not to care. He sighed again, softer this time.
"I asked Warren for a new lacrima since yours was broken," Jellal informed. "He'll come by sometime later. If they let you go you can always come home, okay?" His voice was gentle, though still a tad strained. Her lower lip shoved out further into a pout. He should not be nice to her in a fight – she would have to admit to have been wrong then.
"I'll pay for that," Meredy quietly said in a sullen tone.
"Alright," Jellal agreed, his own voice still gentle. "Call if you need anything," he offered, then stepped away from her bed. He took the plate and fork on which they had brought her some homemade nibbles that morning – empty now, of course – bringing it with him as he collected Erza to go home. And she was more than happy to.