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No one can deny the fact that while it was expected, it wasn’t quite that expected. So Lucy, Gray, and Natsu were in for quite the surprise when Happy flew in behind them and proceeded to explain and reenact the ‘almost-kiss’ between Erza and Jellal.
“WHAT!” was the first word to be said.
Then - “I’M GONNA KILL HIM FOR REJECTING ERZA!” and “Is she okay?” and “He has a fiancee?”
Erza walked in later and no one mentioned it.
-
“Which absolute DUMBASS decided to tell Mirajane!” whispered Gray, who could already see the cogs in Mirajane’s matchmaking-mind turning.
“Erza’s going to kill us! Everyone knows now!” muttered Lucy.
“What are you two talking about?” asked Erza, who just happened to show up at that time.
The guild quieted down and stared at her.
“Is there a problem?” she said, a dark aura surrounding her immediately. (Oh fuck, thought Gray.)
“Of course not,” Mirajane answered sweetly. “I was just wondering if we could invite Jellal over to our guild for the holidays. After all, you two see rather close now.”
Erza’s dark aura lessened a little. “Yes, I suppose we could invite everyone in Crime Sorciere. I’ll have to ask Master.”
Everyone went back to their lives. Lucy let out a deep breath in relief.
Mirajane nodded. “Remember to remind Jellal to bring his fiancee! I can’t wait to meet her.”
Everyone froze again. (Oh FUCK, thought Gray.)
But Erza was already making her way out the door. “Me too.”
-
“Yeah, we can probably make it for the holidays,” Ultear replied, to Makarov’s request.
“Yay!” Meredy yelled, pulling on Jellal. “You can see your precious Erza again!”
Makarov grinned. “That reminds me, Mirajane’s put in a request to meet your fiancee, Jellal. You should bring her.”
Jellal nodded. “Yeah… I’ll… do that.”
Makarov started to walk back to Fairy Tail. He could hear laughs - probably Ultear and Meredy - for twenty minutes straight.
-
“Oh is this your fiancee?” Mirajane asked innocently, pointing to Ultear.
“Oh, no, uh, my fiancee isn’t here.”
“And why is that, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Oh, no, it’s perfectly fine. She, uh, has the flu.”
“Oh I see. What a shame. Maybe she’ll be able to make it for New Year’s?”
“Right, yes, sure. Uh, if you excuse me, I think I need some water.”
-
Her red hair swirls around her like a swift fire. Her body curves inward as she punches Natsu and Gray simultaneously for accidentally knocking down the christmas tree. She’s passionate, frenzied, yelling. Her dress - a warm shade of orange - does not match his blue tie and hair at all.
He yearns and he yearns and he never learns.
-
“Christmas, huh?” her voice is strong, but soft as she gazes upon Wendy talking to Cana, who surprisingly does not have a drink in hand, and Gray, who is dragging around a drunk Lucy.
“Yeah,” he says. “Christmas.”
-
Makarov gathers everyone and they have a tradition here at Fairy Tail to open presents at midnight and now they are placed in a circle and Jellal is squished between Levy and Juvia, both of which do not seem quite comfortable with him.
Juvia is crying and Jellal does not know why, and she keeps mentioning Gray, and again, Jellal does not know why. There is so much he does not know about this guild that Erza does and there is so much about Erza he probably does not know but the guild does.
People go around the tree and take presents with their name. Jellal receives five parcels. He knows three of them - Ultear, Meredy, and Makarov - and he figures (hopes) one of them is from Erza.
Erza’s pile is remarkably bigger than his. He waits for her to open them all - three suits of armour, another sword, a book called ‘How to Control Your Anger’ from an anonymous source (that is probably Natsu), a copy of a book written by Lucy. Jellal’s present for her is nothing special, in fact it’s incredibly lame, and not something heartwarming at all. It’s just a ticket to Fiore’s top Cake-Buffet, and honestly, Erza could probably afford a ticket herself.
He walks over to explain. “I wasn’t really sure what to get you…”
But Erza just smiles. “This is great, thank you.” And if she sounds disappointed, well, Jellal can’t tell.
She urges him to open her gift, and he does. It’s a picture of them together and he smiles.
He eyes his other packages and decides to open them.
He has a new cloak from the Master, which is no surprise, as Makarov buys clothes for everyone in the guild (besides Gray). From Ultear, he has a note, and it simply says “Just Wait. Open the purple present LAST”
From Meredy he has a wedding picture. His face is badly taped to the groom, and the bride has a question mark on the head, with the caption - Jellal and his never-before-seen Fiance.
The last present, he looks at questioningly, for it’s the purple one, and knowing Ultear, he might regret opening it anyway.
He opens it.
A video suddenly appears on the ceiling. It’s of him, at the Grand Magic Games, against Jura, the one where he fainted from laughing.
Jellal sighs as people stare at him, but Ultear’s laughing so hard tears are forming, and he hasn’t seen her like this for a pretty long time - maybe never - so he forgives her and sheepishly looks at the ground.
-
Jellal is saying goodbye to Erza - frankly it’s getting late, and almost everyone is drunk at this point - when Mirajane steps in.
“Merry Christmas!” she says, and then she pushes Jellal so that he trips onto Erza and they fall to the ground. Her chest is right next to his face - god, how many times had this happened - and he feels himself grow red, and now he’s quickly moving off, and saying quiet “sorry”s and Erza’s waving her arms, laughing a bit awkwardly.
He says goodbye for real this time and they promise to talk more at the New Year’s party.
“Don’t forget to bring your fiancee!” reminds Mirajane.
-
“No fiancee again?” Mirajane asks, and Jellal starts to realize she might just be the devil.
He decides maybe it’s time to end this. “Yeah, uh, we broke up yesterday.”
“Oh, how sad!” Mirajane cries and she turns towards the rest of the guild. “Guys! Jellal broke up with his fiancee!”
Natsu and Gray are laughing over this, and then they’re fighting each other over whose laugh sounds better, and Juvia’s crying again because Gray’s spending more time fighting than with her, and Erza’s breaking them up again, and Jellal realizes that he could’ve had so much if he hadn’t messed up and committed all those crimes and he hurts and he wants to leave.
-
He hovers near the door, undecided when Lucy approaches him.
This is strange, really, they’ve never talked, but Jellal knows she’s friends with Erza, and was there for the Tower of Heaven, and he can’t blame her if she hates him.
But instead she looks shy, and holds out a ticket. For Fiore’s number one Cake-Buffet.
“Uh,” she starts out and plays with the bracelet on her wrist. “I got this for Erza, but then I saw that you got one for her too, and I thought, you know, I don’t really like cake that much anyway and it might be awkward if we go, and it might not be as awkward if you go, if you want to go that is, well actually it might be awkward, I don’t know, because of like you know, the kinda kiss and that and all of the - actually nevermind sorry for bringing that up, yeah, the whole guild kind of knows about that, someone told Mirajane, I’m going on a tangent aren’t I? But yeah, do you want this? And don’t say no. Or say no if you like. I mean, obviously I wouldn’t force you to go that would be not ok, but it would be nice. If you went, that is.”
She talking much too fast and he can tell she’s nervous, but he understands the point, and it’s rather sweet of her, really.
So he says, “Uh, thanks?” and goes to tell Erza that he’ll be accompanying her.
-
Midnight reaches nearer and people are counting down and he’s talking about the qualities of hair (weird) to Erza, and now people are kissing and the nearness of Erza is getting to him.
He’s probably completely red, but everyone else is too focused on something else, and for that, he’s thankful.
She goes even nearer, but it’s just to touch his hair, and now she’s running her fingers through it.
A new year starts and they don’t kiss and he leaves after.
-
Maybe, he thinks, in another life, she’ll be the same, and he will too, except for the small fact that he isn’t a fucking trashdick.
“Oh my fucking god,” yells Cobra, who has joined Crime Sorciere now. “Make a fucking move already.”
-
Three New Year’s pass and Jellal is away for one, and Erza is hurt for another, and Gajeel, mistaking him for Levy somehow, kisses him in the other.
Three years and Jellal kisses only once and it’s Gajeel, out of everyone.
-
Then, seven years are going by. Natsu is gone, and Lucy is sad, and Gray keeps telling everyone he ‘doesn’t like Juvia’. He and Erza continue to meet up and they talk. He feels at ease around her. She’s a fresh breath of air, and he feels like a leech, sucking on her happiness.
He tells that to Drunk Lucy one night, Lucy of which he has begin to talk to a little more, and she is thoughtful and smart, but that night all she does is laugh and say, “I bet she wants to suck you too”.
-
He kisses her for the first time on New Years. Twelve years later from their first one with each other. She is like strawberries and soap and everything scarlet.
He thinks he must be like the dark, like dirt, like the bitter taste of medicine. But he is not. He is like the sky, and the sea, and the land in between them.
-
Lucy cheers, Natsu grins, Gray seems happy for Erza, Mirajane is gleeful with her successful matchmaking.
-
Somewhere in the afterlife, Ultear smiles.