Erza POV
We were walking with Natsu and Gajeel the next morning, telling them of Phantom Lord’s layout from the inside when the guards called down to open the gates. Simon wanted Jose to believe that he could have the Fairy Tail so we could attack Phantom Lord. If war came, they were ready for that, too. Years of having to hold back, of not being able to invite full-on war, was about to end. Fury and greed could have their full sway.
And it all hinged on the crazy arrival of four girls from the twenty-first century. Go figure.
We all paused and watched as an old, hunched-over man came limping into the courtyard, pulling a mule, which in turn pulled a cart loaded with hay. Two guards moved in on the old man to search his robes, but as soon as the gates screeched closed behind him, he lifted his hood and straightened and someone else rose from underneath the hay cursing and shaking hay out of his hair. The guards took a step back and laughed.
It took a sec, but then I knew.
It was Jellal and Gray in disguise.
Jellal grinned at the knights while Gray annoyedly pulled hay from his hair while saying something I couldn’t quite hear. Natsu laughed loudly while pointing at Gray, clearly trying to taunt him. Gajeel rolled his eyes but approached his siblings nonetheless.
Jellal's father and Simon entered the courtyard from the Great Hall.
I tapped Juvia's hand twice and she nodded. Simultaneously, we turned on our heels and fled in opposite directions.
I thought I was ready to see Jellal. I wasn’t.
Also, Jellal's father would totally freak if we didn’t stay as far apart as possible. It was also best Juvia stay away from him too, his dad could think she’s trying to get us together. Simon had tried to tell him of what was to come, of a potential attack, of reinforcements … that it was all because us, really, and it seemed to send the old man over the edge. He had become more serious and calculating.
I heard Jellal call out my name- I all but screeched in terror- but I continued my escape. I would see him later. When I got myself together. After he’s had the chance to say hello to his siblings and Simon. Or maybe I wouldn’t have to. Maybe I’d do my part, They’d do theirs, and Juvia, Lucy, Levy, and I could just get to the tomb and get the heck out of here.
“Erza,” he called, sounding exasperated, still coming after me.
I paused and slowly turned.
We were alone in a corridor.
He ran a hand through his blue hair, and it flopped right back into place. His hand fidgeted with the hilt of his sword as he moved toward me, unsure of himself- had I ever seen him unsure of himself?
“Is everything alright, Jellal?” I asked, and I immediately felt like slapping myself.
“Everything is fine,” he said eagerly, taking my words as welcome, still approaching. “A false rumor of an attack has been spread. The town soldiers moved out this morning. Jose will think it’s a sign that this is the night to attack. He’ll think the town’s soldiers are distracted, not waiting less than half an hour away to come to our aid.”
I really wasn’t concentrating on what he was saying. All I could think about was him, here, so close. In his enthusiasm and excitement, he had moved but a foot from me. I continued to retreat until my back bumped up against the end wall. I looked back in surprise and then to my door, then to him. He stared down at me, as if recognizing, for the first time, how he affected me.
“Jellal, Jose will have spies out, in all directions. If he catches word that there are reinforcements…” I said, my panic rising.
“No,” he said soothingly, face alight. “Jose will only hear what we want him to hear.”
“If he catches your messenger…” I swallowed hard. “Jellal, he has my sisters down in his dungeon. He threatened to do horrible things to them.”
The muscles in his jaw tensed, and all trace of anticipated glory disappeared in his concern over my sisters. I couldn’t look into his warm eyes any longer. They were covering me, pulling me in. I looked down. I felt the heat of a deep blush climb my neck as I try to steady my breathing.
Jellal reached out and took my face in the curve of his warm hand. He waited until I looked back up to him. “So the warrior is not made of stone.”
Stone? Stone? He thought I was made of stone?
He lifted his hand to brush my bangs out of my eyes and leaned down to look into my them. “You are courageous, Erza. And clever. And strong. Both you and your sister. Remember that, in the thick of battle. You can use all three. And Fairy Tail will see to it that neither Jose nor Mard Geer ever has the opportunity to harm either you or your sisters.”
They were brave words. But only words.
And yet I wanted to believe them then. I needed to believe them.
But we were much too…close.
“All right,” I said. “Thank you.”
Hands off me, buddy. Remember, your heart belongs to someone else. And my heart is apparently… stone. -w-.
(A/N: I kid you not, I almost passed out when I made the following scene so beware.)
I was starting to squirm out of his magnetic pull when he moved an arm around me and tugged me closer. “Erza,” he said lowly, raising his hand again, this time to cup my face and brush his thumb softly on my cheek. A million thoughts raced through my mind as I failed to comprehend what the hell was going on. “There is something I must know,” he said, “something I’ve been wondering about for days.”
“Well, I suggest you talk to Levy, she can most likely help you on whatever you need. She’s read ton of books on all sorts of stuff and could probably help you get a head start on indoor plum-”
He leaned down then and kissed me, effectively silencing me in my rant. It started softly at first, then deeper, searching. I knew I should stop him, push him away, but at the moment I couldn't even remember how to breathe! His lips were so soft and warm I forgot everything else. When he stepped back he looked as dazed as I felt. He rubbed his lower lip with the pad of his thumb, still staring at me intently, as if reliving our kiss and then his eyes sharpened again with a glimmer of victory. He nodded at me. “I was right.”
I put a hand to my forehead and shook my head, frowning more as his smile grew. “No, Jellal. This, this can’t happen.”
“Yes, yes, it can,” he said, grinning, pacing in his excitement.
“Jellal-“
“No, we'll talk tomorrow. When we conquer Phantom Lord and free your sisters. You’ll see, everything will be fine.”
“But Carmen-”
“We are friends, but there is nothing between us. She will understand.” He interrupted.
He looked at me like he totally saw the total opposite end of the spectrum between us. No, no, no, this can’t be happening. Not here. Not now. He couldn’t break up with Carmen for me! Just when I was about to disappear. He would be crushed when I went home.
“So Carmen will recover. But what of the alliance? Fairy Tail is vulnerable out here, on the border. You need her family behind you, Jellal. Remember?” I shook my head. This was crazy. He’d gotten totally off track because of…me?
He shook his head too, slowly. “We just find another way to strengthen Fairy tail. Capturing Phantom Lord will solve many problems.”
I blew out my cheeks. He’d really thought this through. And he was making this so much harder… “Jellal, there is a lot come. Let’s see if we both survive and then we can talk about if it is wise-“
“Wise?” he asked, taking a coil of my hair in his hand and running his fingers down it. “No, this is most definitely unwise,” he said, leaning in until my back was against the wall again. “But sometimes the heart tells us to go where the mind fears to.” He leaned down and kissed my forehead. “I’ll see you in an hour. I need to talk to Simon and my father. Unless you want to join me.”
I shuddered, thinking of Jellal's father. “No,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t think your father would appreciate seeing us together. I’ll stay here.”
He nodded, waiting for me to look at him fully in the eye. “My father will come to see this as I do, Erza.”
“You don’t understand,” I said in exasperation. “This is all happening so fast and right before when all hell breaks loose.”
He smiled and kissed me again, then was off, striding down the hall. “It is happening at just the right time. All of it,” he said, lifting out his arms in exuberance. “You’ll see. You’ll see!”
He lifted the latch and pushed the door outward, letting in a brief burst of sunshine before it banged shut behind him, leaving me in the relative darkness.
“Great,” I muttered to myself “Just great, Erza.” I leaned against the wall, trying to get my head around what had just happened.
How had everything been in perfect just a half hour before?
Because right now, our grand scheme seemed to be in shambles.
I was at my bedroom door, trying to focus enough to open it and lie down for a few minutes, when the courtyard door banged open and Juvia appeared at the end of the hall. “Erza! Erza, come quickly!”
I frowned and rushed down the hall. “What is it?”
“It’s Simon,” she said, almost in tears. “He’s collapsed.”
We ran to the courtyard together. Three Fairy Tail knights were carrying Simon toward us. He was in the midst of a full-scale asthma attack, each breath a horrific seal-like bark. “Take him to his sitting room,” I said.
Juvia looked around for servants, then instructed, “Boiling water, buckets of it. Fresh, lightweight cloth, never used. Lemon, mint, caraway, fistfuls of it. As fast as you can!”
I glanced at Jellal's father, who looked like he was going to have a heart attack now. I called out to Jellal. “Your father get him to his quarters, we’ll send him word.”
Jellal followed my gaze, nodded once, and was off. We raced to follow the men and soon as they had Simon laid out on the wooden settee, I told them to take off his shirt. The muscles between his ribs contracted with each breath. The poor man was working as hard as he could just to inhale one more time.
I took his right hand with my left, and leaned down so he could see my face. “We will help you, Simon. Hold on. Just concentrate on each breath. Do not give in to the fear. Slow it down. Slow it down.” I took a breath with him, staring into his eyes, willing him to match my pace. “You can do this. One breath at a time. In… and out…”
I felt more than saw Natsu move into the room. I took comfort in his presence. But I continued to concentrate on Simon. “Do not give up, Simon. You have come so far. You simply overtaxed yourself. It will be all right, I promise. One breath at a time. There you go.”
I turned to see the three knights, staring at me with wide eyes, and others in the doorway. “Find out where that water is!” I yelled. “We need the boiling water and cloth now!”
The three closest scurried to do as I bid, breaking up the crowd in the hallway. But then the servants were there with the water.
“Tell me what I can do,” Gray said lowly, at Simon’s head, trying not to interrupt our process. There was fear in his eyes, the first I’d ever seen in him.
“Boiling water, two buckets on each side of him. Use the cloth to make a tent above us. Try and seal us in, as best you can. And have them fetch more boiling water. We need steam. Constant steam.” Juvia said.
Gray rose and barked orders.
A maid arrived with the herbs Juvia had asked for.
“Quick as you can, everyone tear all that into piles.” Juvia said while showing them how.
Simon was mouthing words, trying to tell me something. I shook my head furiously. “No. It can wait. Do not try to speak right now. Do you hear me? You breathe, and that’s it. In… and out.” I was about as tender as a drill sergeant. But he was seriously freaking me out. People still died of asthma attacks in the twenty first century. How much harder was it to keep them alive in this dimension?
In two minutes, Natsu, Gray, and Gajeel had the cloth spread above us and water inside. It didn’t take long for sweat to drip down my scalp and back, but we weren’t leaving Simon. Not that I could. The man gripped my hand, so hard it scared me all the more. As weak as he was, if he held me like that, he was afraid, deathly-literally-afraid.
Gray was there, on the other side of our makeshift tent. “The herbs are torn, Juvia. Now what?”
“Mix them with olive oil, into a thick paste. Quickly.”
I watched in horror as Simon’s eyes began to roll back. “Simon!”
They slowly rolled back to focus on me.
“Stay with me, Simon. Stay with me.”
His eyes remained locked on mine.
Jellal came under the tent, staring at my flushed, sweaty face, then at his cousin’s, which was almost blue from lack of oxygen. New buckets of water were slid under the tent, the cooling water removed.
“Go over there,” I said to Jellal, nodding to the other side.
I looked back at Simon. “Jellal is here. Juvia and I need to pack your chest. Jellal will hold your hand.”
Jellal gently took his cousins hand from mine, moving it to his side. Simon’s eyes shifted to his cousin, as hungry for encouragement from him as he was from me.
None of us wanted to be alone when we died. A chill ran down my back at the thought, even though it was hotter than hell in there.
“Simon,” I said, helping Juvia apply bunch of the herbal slop- heavy with mint, caraway and lemon- over his chest. “Just focus on breathing. Breathe!” What were we doing? We were guessing at an old recipe of our guardian, hoping we had remembered it right. Hadn’t Levy had a major asthma attack? And hadn’t she put this on her?
I studied him as we placed handful after handful of the stuff on his skin.
We might finish him off if he’s allergic to any of this stuff, but we were desperate. There was nothing left for us to do. We couldn’t just sit there and watch him die.
It took about ten minutes for Simon’ grip to loosen a bit and his face relaxed a teeny bit. Juvia and I all but fainted with relief. I squeezed Juvia's hand when I heard her sniffle and we leaned on each other for support. Simon’s cousins visibly relaxed when they saw our expressions of relief.
“Go get some fresh air, you look like you’re going to faint.” Gray said to us. “We’ll stay with him.”
We nodded and I pulled Juvia from under the edge of the cloth and looked around the room, to a sea of waiting faces. “It has receded a bit,” I said, sinking to a chair beside Juvia. “But keep the boiling water coming. Constantly.” Three set off to do as I asked. Another brought us a cup of cold water, and we gulped it down. Then when we felt more calm we returned under the edge of the tent.
“I think he’s breathing a bit easier,” Natsu said.
I studied the side of Simon’s ribs, where herbs and oil streamed down, and watched the muscles. Just a tiny bit less desperate and lurching. He still sounded like a sick seal, gasping for every bit of air he could take in, but any improvement was a small victory. I into Simon’s eyes. He didn’t look quite so close to giving up, but he was still working so hard… and he was again trying to form words. He looked at Jellal this time.
Jellal rose and leaned closer to him, closing his eyes as if to concentrate on deciphering what Simon was trying to say.
“Jellal,” Juvia complained in a whisper, “he shouldn’t try to speak.”
Jellal held up a finger. After several long minutes, he said something back and lifted his face.
“What’d he say?” I asked.
“He said to carry on with the attack. To leave him with a sword in hand, in case they breach this corridor.”
The knights in the room, clearly hearing Jellal’s words, all cheered.
I put a hand to my forehead. How could we leave Simon struggling like this?
“There is no choice,” Natsu said, reading the question in my eyes. “The plan is already in motion. Your sisters are counting on us to rescue them in a few hours.”
I dragged miserable eyes to Simon and then back to Natsu again.
We might save Levy and Lucy- I really hoped we would save them- but if the Phantom Lord breached this corridor, we would lose Simon.
🍜🍚🍘🍙🍥🍣🍱🍤🍛🍝🍖🍗🍟🍔
*Dead from fangirl overload*
Looks like im taking over now huehuehue...
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