I'm really behind; I don't have much more pre-written and I'll be busy with studies, starting on Monday, so I'm really sorry to say it but I cannot promise to update as regularly or at least as frequently as before.
pilikali, thank you so much for your review! Your dedication to read my story despite the language posing obstacles never ceases to amaze me!
CheesyDelphox, hehe yeah the mistletoe was waiting for ya and I hope I did it justice. Thank you so much for your review! And thank you so much for so many praises; I'm very happy to know you like the way I write interactions; never easy! I haven't planned on including a reveal of Gruvia kissing or not... would you like me try to include it? Again, the compliments, thank you so much! Makes my day :)
Mitzy123, uuh Jerza art, don't want to keep you! Thank you for taking the time to review anyway! Hehe, I'm so happy you commented on the moment they thought Jellal's comment on women so absurd, that was a lot of fun to write xD Haha, nah, he was just kidding with the disgusting food, always seeking ways to tease her.
foxydame, lighting up my days, thank you so much for such a loong review! So many things you mentioned - my smile grows wider with each and every one of them! Such praises; thank you so much! I love how you acknowledge those details I sprinkle in here and there; makes my feel very appreciated! And I made you laugh, yaay! Best compliment is always stirring emotion and laughter is one of the hardest to achieve so I'm very happy now :D Wow, my writing is being picked over food... now I feel truly honoured! xD
Camila Cabello, thanks so much for taking the time to leave me a review! I try to update every three days, so the next one would come on Sunday but as I said above, I unfortunately cannot promise to be on time, meaning every three days at least ;)
Somnolent Sushi Roll, haha choking counts as a emotion to stir in readers! xD So a compliment to me (I'll just try to take it as such :p)! Thank you so much for letting me know; I'm glad to know you liked it!
Hope you'll enjoy the chapter!
Darkness. That was the first thing he remembered. Darkness and cold and the stench of blood.
Weeks and months, they had worked tirelessly on the new weapons. Perfectly balanced, not too heavy for a newcomer like him and still powerful enough to behead any man, woman or child within an instant. The very peak of advancement; a firearm so strong it would be able to turn the tides once and for all. And it was only the smallest of them.
Had been.
Behind the murky veil of grey clouds, dawn had finally come, the sun crawling up the horizon with a weak winter's beam.
And then she had come. Like a one-person battalion and with the confidence of an all-defying dragon, she had crushed down into their fortress. Only having waited for the outside signal – having waited for naught – the troop had been ready for battle, armed to the teeth, right in the very heart of ammunition, mercilessly firing with all they had.
Not a single one left standing.
Clad in a garb of white and silver, shining wings of steel spreading from her back, she had stood her ground like an angel of death, letting hell rain onto the earth. Her eyes had shown no fear and not one of her movements had been wasted. With a razor-sharp accuracy, she had parried every bullet, every shot and every shell, deflecting them with an unparallel precision, leaving not one soldier unharmed and most strikingly, without ever taking the life of a single man. A medieval sword of all things, battering down the entire operation within the span of minutes.
Like the blood that seeped into the freshly-fallen snow, her hair glowed in the morning sun. A bright, unmistakable scarlet. The scarlet of the one and only Titania.
"That's some police report," Lucy marvelled at the express letter they had received earlier that morning.
"Yeah, the guy's a poet," Meredy commented where she leaned over the bar with her arms crossed. From the inside. She looked like the proper barmaid already, though she had not given out a single drink – it was not yet lunch anyway. She was merely holding the fort for Mirajane who was out running errands, stocking up food and drinks alike for Christmas.
"Shouldn't they be back by now?" Lucy asked, handing the report over to Levy. She eagerly dived into the letter, studying it in hyper-speed. Gray was the first of the boys to turn up, most of the guild night owls and therefore not arriving before sun high. Spotting them, he slid onto the stool next to the Solid-Script Mage, peeking over after having greeted and then complimented her on her looks. Nothing unusual by now – everyone was excited and happy about the growing mound that was her stomach.
"She called a while ago, saying they had to investigate something else,"
"With the police already back to headquarters and mailing out a report?" Levy frowned, giving the letter to Gray. Meredy shrugged.
"Something was too fishy to him so he opted not to tell the cops," she disclosed. "Said it's close, though, so they shouldn't take too long for the way back,"
"Yeah, someone in town coming from the outskirts mentioned to have heard shots," Gray absently retold, having had to walk through the marketplace to reach the guild.
"I can always check," Meredy grinned. She lifted her wrist, wigging it for her sleeve to drop to her elbow. Then it glowed, a magical bracelet of pink light forming around it. Her face fell the second the spell's counterpart came into place. "Oh, oh…"
All four of them winced, half of Magnolia alongside them when there was a massive explosion. The ground shook, a gust of wind sweeping the streets from the west side of Fairy Tail's building.
Earlier…
"This should be the last one," Jellal said where he cornered a boy, not older than fifteen, he presumed. What a sick organisation, dragging children into it. It reminded too much of the Tower of Heaven.
"Very well," Erza's iron steps came to a halt next to him. Her walk was a stride and her gaze a hairline cross. She was nothing short of gorgeous on the battlefield. With a twist of her wrist, she flung her blade around between her fingers, splitting the wooden floor where she rammed it down between the boy's knees. "Then he shall join his comrades in prison," she loomed over him threateningly.
"You…" the young man managed shakily, "you're Erza Scarlet," he gaped. Staring up at her, his body quivered in fear, sweat pooling on his skin. She smiled, almost sweetly.
"How keen of you to notice," she praised, sarcasm thickly dripping from her tone.
"Y-you brought down the Balam Alliance! You fought against Zeref!" He pointed, obviously unable to make sense of the flawlessly glistening and completely intact armour and body with the image of the hail of bullets from before still clouding his mind. "You… destroyed our plans! Our factory!"
"Factory?" A scarlet brow rose, intrigued. Jellal's eyes sparked up at the same time. He could practically read the inward curses off the boy's forehead.
"Now this sounds interesting. Pray, tell my more," Erza crouched down, propping her elbow up on her knee, resting her head in her palm with an inviting smile. Jellal frowned, amusement sneaking its way into disbelieve.
"What's with legal guilds and having a natter with enemies?" He gave her a questioning glance. He felt the boy's eyes on him, burning into the mark on his face, studying it in the hopes of equal recognition as he had with the Queen of the Fairies.
"He just revealed vital information to us," she argued back.
"Then what are we waiting for? We already listened to that entire life story of the guy with the peg leg," he gestured but she only crossed her arms, getting to her feet. The sword in the ground dissolved into nothing, leaving their captive in more awe than already, probably not understanding how the tool that had brought down almost a hundred men without brushing one of them simply disappeared into thin air.
"Or so we would have had you not interrupted him," Erza returned her beloved's pursed lips.
"Unfair life, best friend betrayed him, yada yada yada, I heard him the first time,"
"Still, you could have waited for him to finish. We were going to lock him up anyway; you could have left him that bit of satisfaction," she put a hand on her hip.
"That from the woman who smashed their entire side wall?" Jellal dared to flash her a grin.
"The window,"
"That must have been some window then…" he shook his head. There was no reproach in either of their voices, not a hint of anger, rather sounding like the bickering of a married couple, adding profusely to the confusion of the fifteen-year-old.
"You…" they turned at the interruption, looking far too unconcerned for the boy's taste, "you dare make light of us, Titania?" He hollered. Tears gushed from his eyes, heart still racing in panicked fear but he seemed to be too brainwashed by his superiors to keep to himself. Another aspect too similar to the Tower of Heaven to Jellal's liking. "You mock us, bringing backup only to hold a chat?"
"Am I not allowed to bring a date?" Erza tilted her head with the cutest of pretended puzzlement.
"Erza," Jellal sighed, a chuckle undermining his scold. Oh, they were mocking alright. They could afford it after all, having brought down the entire operation within the span of half a morning.
"Now then, I'm guessing this to be what he mentioned," Erza said as they thoughtfully roamed the machinery around them half an hour later. Authorities sure took their time to arrive, having to be called instead of reacting autonomously when hearing shots in the distance.
For looking rundown and musty, the building was almost as if polished on the inside. The ceilings towered high above, entry gates nearly reaching up just as tall. Engines cluttered the enormous hall, creating a maze of walkways, blueprints and tools lying around everywhere.
Erza hissed when accidentally stubbing her knee on a handle.
"You know…" Jellal's said, listening to her steps coming down the corridor of machines to where he was. "We might have to burn this entire thing down after all." Catching up with him, she found him hunching over a stack of papers. They showed circles, lines and other forms, instructions pointing at different attributes of the depicted inventions. Weapons, he knew. Explosives.
"We already alarmed the authorities; they can clean this up when they come back for the rest of the delinquents," she said, not quite understanding what he found too dangerous for even the police to see.
"These are weapons, Erza." Jellal lifted his head, eyes dead serious. "Fire weapons; explosives of immense calibre," he explained his findings. "I know this should be reported and I'm a fool for not bringing these to the Council – maybe even a traitor – but if there's even a single corrupt thought amongst anyone seeing these… things…" he frowned back at the sketches. Letting her shoulders sink, she straightened at the harshness in his tone.
"Then I guess there's only one thing left to do," her armour glowed, trading for another set. Eyes widening, Jellal instantly recognised what he had once seen on a handful of secret nights – nights of hard training and everlasting temptation. The flutter from back then returned to his stomach, now a peaceful, warm buzz as realisation of the future – now the present – hit. There was no need for remorse of those days – she was his and he was hers. And man did he love the sight of her, now even more than in those past times.
Standing there in the revealing blue garb she called the Celestial Armour, her hair pulled up with the matching accessories, Erza gave a confident smile. A smirk of his own tugged up the corner of his mouth.
"Easy on the desserts," he prodded the slight bulge of her stomach. Yelping, Erza angrily slapped his arm, making him laugh at the blush that rose to her cheeks.
"We only just had breakfast! And you're the one always stuffing me with those treats!" She protested, being met with more laughter.
"Alright, alright, sorry," he chuckled, sighing vocally in slowly abating amusement. She pouted, puffing her cheeks. Taking her hand into his own, he turned on the heel, leading the way outside. Finding a nice clear spot out in the in the morning sun glistening snow, they turned to fix their eyes on their target. "You still know how to do this?" He grinned at her from the side, receiving a smug smirk in return.
"How could I forget?" She took hold of his opposite shoulder while he wound his arm around her waist. Pulling her closer, both widened their stance, foot to foot, directed at the factory. The sky parted at the sheer volition of his mind, clouds giving way to stars, a pattern glowing blindingly up above, marking its aims.
"May the seven stars bring judgment upon you!" Jellal called, thrusting out his hand, fingers outstretched. Joining with two of her own, Erza struck down onto his palm, their voices uniting in a spirited howl.
"Grand Chariot!"
Meredy looked up when Mira returned from town. She went around the bar to help, picking up the bags of groceries and ingredients for the upcoming festivities. It was a hustle and bustle in the streets, almost more than inside the guild where it was never not noisy. Today was even more of a commotion, but by now, all of Magnolia was informed about the destruction of an old factory and with it, half the mountainside and dozens of hectares of land.
The couple had returned, one overly-satisfied, the other sheepish. With laughter and cheering, their guildmates had greeted them, congratulating Jellal on his first demolition, calling him a true member. Oh, she was jealous of that, hardly able to wait for her own joining of the ranks of the complete berserks forming the strongest guild in Fiore.
"Did they have everything?" Meredy asked while heaving up the countless bags, wondering how the S-Class Mage had managed to carry the entirety back on her own.
"Yeah, I think we'll be nicely stocked for tomorrow," Mira smiled, picking up the remaining abundance of bags with ease. Meredy told herself that she had chosen all of the heavy ones to feel better about herself. She was not weak only… Mira apparently was as much of a brute as Erza. "Did anything happen while I was out?"
"Everything's fine," Meredy casually waved a hand, ducking from a flying chair, "just the usual – Elfman and Evergreen denying their feelings through nagging," she reported and Mirajane giggled. She threw a glance across the hall, spotting her brother at a table, yelling what she could bet was the word 'man'. "Lucy and Levy are discussing a novel, Natsu and Gray are at each other's throats, Erza and Jellal are in each other's throats-"
"Where?!" Mira burst. Her eyes darted around, trying to locate her targets.
"No, Mira, bad girl," Meredy scolded mildly, leaning onto the bar.
"Oh," the She-Devil wagged, "just a teeny tiny peek," she pleaded, the mischievous spark in her eyes not going unnoticed. Meredy smiled to herself but she was not going to sell them out, no matter how much she shared the glee about her friends' embarrassment.
"Better not," she emphasised when Mira was already starting to guess in the right direction, her gaze flashing up to the second floor, to the storage's and waiting room's doors. "We shouldn't interrupt precious baby-making time,"
"Are they?!" Mira squealed, an excitedly bashful blush spreading across her cheeks.
"Nah, just making out I think," Meredy soothed as best as she could, receiving a pout.
It was not two minutes later when the door to the storage opened, two figures making their way back downstairs. Mira's eyes widened, a grin stretching across her lips while Meredy grimaced, shaking her head with a hopelessly clandestine smile of her own. Erza's clothes were straight, not a hair out of place as she descended the stairs – hardly anyone took notice, as rowdy as ever. But Requip Magic could not cover everything up, Meredy clearly saw by the still flushed cheeks and slightly swollen lips. Not to mention Jellal, who did not have the advantage of magicking a new set of clothes, a mess despite his efforts of smoothing everything back down, lips shiny with what appeared to be lip balm.
"Did you find the honey?" Meredy propped her chin up on her hands, elbows on the bar. Slyly, she watched the blushes deepen.
"Yes," Erza nodded, "I mean no," she corrected, looking even more flustered. "There was none." She caught herself at the smirk from Mira, narrowing her eyes in wordless threats.
"Oh, and someone came for you, Erza," Meredy informed. Erza's face lit up and she quickly looked around, finding her team's table within a second by the brawling boys standing on top.
"Perfect, thanks," she said, noting the unsuspicious nod Meredy gave to the front balcony of the second floor. The Queen of the Fairies grabbed her dishevelled beloved's hand, leading him over to the table and sitting him down like one would with a dog in front of a grocery shop. Once he was parked – not least confused – she stalked up the stairs where Jason was waiting. Giggling to themselves, Meredy left Mira to handle the bar again, scooting into the bench next to her best friend.
"Don't look so sad; it's a surprise," she tilted her head at his puzzlement. Meeting her eyes, he sighed, weakly smiling back.
"Christmas presents, huh?"
"Most likely," Meredy shrugged. He sighed again, deeply this time. "You know you don't have to get her anything big," she tried to assure him. He shot her a look, knowing where the hint was going, refusing to spill the beans on whether he had plans for a ring to be involved anytime soon. Meredy understood Erza's impatience perfectly – they all knew it was going to happen, he was only keeping them in suspense as to when he would finally pop the question.
Instead of harping on about it – they had only just buried their argument of whether or not Meredy had been the cause of Grand Chariot's overload by using Maguilty Sense to track him, neither needing the topic to resurface – she reached for the Sorcerer Weekly on the table.
"Why not do something like this?" She leafed through until finding the appropriate pages.
"Date ideas?" Jellal frowned at the headline, though not without interest.
"Oh, these are so good!" Levy shuffled closer to them on his right, only just having finished her own conversation. Lucy wanted to follow suit, Natsu's presence next to her seeming to change her mind, an uneasy pink tinging her cheeks. He uncompromisingly grabbed her sides, pulling her to uncomfortably squeeze onto his lap, keeping her trapped with clueless determination in his eyes. Must have been from breakfast after their sleepover, Meredy pondered, remembering the curiosity from the Dragon Slayer at how Erza and Jellal had shared a chair.
Grumbling unhappily, Lucy pouted at his lack of words, ceasing to resist with a more prominent blush. Gray tsked from the side. The two squabblers had stopped their flying fists and insults the second Erza had turned up at their table, now resorting to snidely glares.
"Look, they have a quiz on your preferences that will result in the perfect date," Levy explained. She seemed wholly taken with the lovey-dovey stuff, and most of them blamed it on her hormones. Not that it was not lovely to watch.
"I bet yours will be stargazing," Lucy swooned, smitten with the idea as well. She and Levy squealed quietly. Gray rolled his eyes, though, so Meredy noticed, listened intently.
"We've done that," Jellal nonchalantly said, "but it's a nice idea to repeat sometime," he nodded appreciatively. The girls grinned at one another when he began to skim the article. Always the workaholic, he took out a pen, taking notes on the inside of his arm. Levy giggled at that, commenting with a loving roll of her eyes how Gajeel should take a page from the Heavenly Body Mage's book sometimes.
"You know, I've known Erza for quite some time now and I can honestly picture you more than her when it comes to these romantic things," she grinned at him.
"She can be romantic," Jellal said and Meredy knew to be the only one noticing his tone to be merely pretendedly casual.
"Romantic or erotic?" Gray lowly asked, more to himself.
"Gray!" Lucy scolded.
"Both," Meredy nodded matter-of-factly.
"Meredy!" Jellal growled and she had to laugh.
"What? Am I wrong?" She wiggled her brows and he huffed, shoving her away, though not far enough to make her fall off the bench.
"Who invited you to this conversation?" He grumbled but she only laughed more, Levy joining in while Lucy blushed a hue darker.
Their chat went on until Erza appeared atop the balcony. He got up almost instantly, shoulders sinking when she turned back for a moment, talking to someone he could not see. Meredy sat back down where she had had to make space for him to get out, finding the poster girl double page while he waited – again like a puppy in front of a store.
"Of course Jenny made it in this week's edition again," she said while her eyes trailed the skimpy Christmas attire and saucy pose.
"I bet that's just because she needs enough attention so she won't quit – I heard Mira was asked for the Christmas special," Levy whispered and Lucy nodded eagerly.
"Isn't it tiring to be fighting for something this dull?" Meredy shoved the magazine back into the middle of the table.
"It's really neat actually," Lucy put a finger to her chin. "Jason's a nice guy; he lets you pick out themes and outfits if you want and he's cool with pretty much everything," she retold.
"Yeah, cool describes it," Meredy grinned and the girls all giggled.
"Why don't you try, too?" Macao suddenly appeared from the next table, his head poking between Meredy's and Levy's, spooking them. It should not have; they had the poster girl pages open after all, a bait too alluring for the middle-aged man to miss.
"It's lots of fun and I hear he pays well," Wakaba joined enthusiastically.
"We can help with the outfit picking if you like,"
"We know a lot of popular outfits to…" both faded out at the growing darkness over their heads. Looming over them with murderously glinting eyes, Jellal glared, making them both shrink with squeaks of hurried apologies. Shaking her head, Meredy grinned to herself, amused despite the cringe he made her feel with that overprotectiveness.
"Eh, Erza…?" Macao bleeped where he was cowering beneath the table now, the danger far from over. "Erza," he tried again, raising his voice by a decibel, "can you, uh," he winced at the threatening growl from above, "can you take care of your boyfriend? Please? Erza…?" He whimpered where she was finally coming over to their table. Frowning at the scene, unable to see the two trembling figures in their hiding place, she blinked in confusion at the high-pitched chirp from below. "Help…"