Juvia POV
“WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!!?” I sobbed hysterically after Erza told me what happened. Lucy and Levy had left the room to go get me some more water. Erza walked over to the window and leaned on the frame while staring out.
“I thought it was the good thing, the right thing to do.”
I stopped sobbing and pinched the bridge of my nose in irritation. “You do realize that you asked him to continue his marriage with a spoiled girl that has no problem setting other people in danger, just to save her reputation?”
Erza stayed silent.
I threw my hands up in the air in exasperation.
“Unbelievable! The one time our mighty Titania actually likes a guy that likes her back she goes and tells him to marry another girl- don’t look at Juvia like that! Juvia knows it wasn’t like that but that's basically what you did!” I wail while pointing an accusatory finger at her.
“What’s all the yelling about?” Levy asks as she opened the door for Lucy who was holding a pitcher of water.
They looked from Erza, to me, then back to Erza with confused expressions. Trying to avoid their gaze Erza turns to look out the window, but she immediately pales and steps back from the window, as if trying to hide. Frowning, Lucy puts the pitcher of water down and approaches the window with Levy. They gasp when they see Jellal with Carmen together.
“Is that her?!” Lucy shrieks as they lean out of the window a bit to get a better look at her. “Well, she’s not ugly…”
Juvia snorts. “You'll think otherwise when you actually meet her.” she mumbles.
Lucy and Levy frown as they glance from me, to the window, then back to Erza. Their eyes widen when they piece together what happened. They stay silent for a few moments before Lucy speaks up.
“All right, I think I’m ready. How bad is it?”
Erza look avoids eye contact and takes her time to answer. “Bad.”
She closed her eyes as if pained, and Levy shook her head in disbelief. “No,” she said, pinching the bridge of her nose. “No, I can’t believe it. I thought it was a crush! You never said you were in love!”
Erza blushed heavily and mumbled “I wouldn’t go as far as to call it love-” but Levy interrupted.
“We should go, now,” she said, leaning toward me.
“Go?” I said, gaping at her. I hadn’t even been out of bed for more than twenty minutes and now she wanted me to make the journey to the tombs, more than a mile away? And under what pretense? By the looks of it, all of Fairy Tail and the town were coming to see us. What were we gonna do? Ride by them all, with a smile and a cheerful wave?
‘Hey there, how are ya? We’re the She-Wolves of Bellum, just on our way back back in time to the place we came from… don’t mind us!’
“We knew you had feelings for him,” Levy said, one hand out. “But we didn’t know you had feeling-feelings for him.”
“Is there a difference?” I asked tiredly.
“I guess not,” she said, plopping down beside me on the bed. “I didn’t know,” she said, talking to herself so lowly I almost missed it. “I mean we knew, but I didn’t know.”
I leaned back against the headboard and willed myself to find the strength for what was ahead. More people were already arriving. The castle would be filled, every room of it. Additional tents had been pitched outside, more than a hundred, Mira said, to house the others.
“Let’s go, guys.” Lucy said, wringing her hands in nervousness. “Before this all gets much worse. While we still can. We’ll find a couple of horses, and we’ll get out of here, back to our time. We’ll be able to get Juvia to a hospital!”
“No.”
Erza looked at me in surprise. I looked past her, to Jellal. Carmen had gone inside, but he was looking across the courtyard up at her, a curious, daring look in his eye.
“Please, I need you to give this a chance.” I pleaded with them. “To explore it with us. Please. Don’t rush Juvia. Juvia is afraid to leave. Because of her wound. Because of Erza. Juvia is afraid that if we leave, so much will be lost.”
Their brown eyes stared into mine for a long time.
“How long?” they asked at last.
“Through the feast,” I said. “Juvia thinks that by then, you can pull out her stitches and we can make it to the tombs.”
“Why through the feast?” Lucy pressed. She stepped closer. “Why not now?”
My eyes trailed from her to Erza, who was staring down at the courtyard again. Jellal was no longer there. “Maybe not all the way through the feast,” I whispered. “Juvia just knows that today is not the day. All right?”
"All right,” they whispered after a moment, fighting back a slight smile as they lean on me a bit. Given how close we where we’d have no problem pulling off the whole sister story.
We hid away that afternoon in the bedroom, skipping lunch, talking and playing with each other’s hair. It would have been a great slumber party had it not been for the fact that by the evening, a good third of the guests had arrived, all wanting to meet the ladies of Bellum, the warriors, the “she-wolves,” Fairy Tail’s “saviors,” and we were roused.
Fairy Tail didn’t seem to be able to tell them no. We weren’t able to tell them no. So we walked across the courtyard and into the Great Hall. When we entered, the entire room rose. I mean, every one of them came to their feet. And the place was packed. They cheered, clapped, smiled. Levy, Erza, And Lucy were doing a great job at being gracious and smiling, but I’m pretty sure I looked awkward as heck. Erza was doing a good job at not looking in Jellal and Carmen’s direction so I let my eyes wander around and accidentally met Ava’s gaze. Carmen had no doubt told her about the whole ‘getting sent away because my sister was attracted to her man’ story and was probably gonna keep an even closer eye on me just in case I tried going after her guy.
‘Well, she needn’t worry. Unlike Erza, Juvia was never a threat to their relationship.’
Erza and I groaned softly when we realized they both Carmen and Ava were headed our way. I pause to gather myself, and force a smile to my lips. “Ava, Carmen,” I said, as kindly as I could.
“We are indebted to you and your sisters, as is all of the town.”
Erza shook my head. “We did only what we could. I’m sure you would've done the same, in the moment.”
It was Carmen shook her head. “I don't think so,” she said, raising one brow and smiling. “You and your sisters are indeed uncommon.”
We made the introductions then, between them and our ‘sisters’. To their credit, Lucy and Levy managed to hold their own, smiling sweetly and nodding with respect.
“We’ll be leaving as soon as we can, Ava,” I said. If we wanted to get away without arousing suspicion I was gonna need to get this girl and her friend off mine and Erza’s back. “Juvia only needs a few more days to heal, and then Juvia thinks she can endure the ride back to Bellum.”
She nodded, staring ahead, as if weighing my words, deciding if she believed them. “We heard you were most severely injured.”
“Yes,” I said with a nod, unconsciously placing a hand over the lower right side of my stomach.
“Juvia, Erza, my father believes he has a credible witness-that a close relative of yours is known to have been in the south-western part of Caellum.” Carmen suddenly said.
We froze and tried to keep our faces devoid of any emotion. Relatives, here? Clearly the girl did not get the hint that we were orphans raised by a guardian who disappeared years ago. I tried to pull up the map that had been up on the tomb wall the last time I was there. If I recall correctly we’d have to take a ship to get to Caellum and the portion she speaks of is the farthest away from Fiore. No, it was more likely that they want to get us out of the way as soon as possible.
“Truly?” I said, with fake hope glancing at the other sharply to play along. “Oh, It must be uncle Gildarts! He's an old family friend! This is good news. We’d be off today if it weren’t for Juvia’s wound.” I gestured down to my side.
“No,” she said, “You mustn’t endanger yourself. You have already suffered much. But my father has already sent four men on the journey there. They should return soon with news.”
“That is more than kind,” Erza said. “You don’t know what it would mean, to be reunited.” We stared at them, hard. “And then we can be off. Back to Bellum.”
Their eyes studied ours, and finding some sort of confidence there, they reached over and squeezed our hands. “I bid you goodnight, Miss Lockser and Miss Scarlet. I’m sure you’re very tired.”
'You have no idea.'
“Yes, and we should be getting back to our fiances or they’ll begin to wonder where we’ve wandered off to.” Carmen said with a soft smile.
I forced another smile and fought back the urge to strangle her for Erza sake.
“Ha! Talk about a she-wolf,” Lucy said when we arrived back to the room, leaning back on the door. Levy came over to me and, seeing the exhaustion in my face, helped me lay down to check my wound.
“Those girls have their claws out. They’re just hidden under gloves.” Lucy glanced over at us. “You sure know how to pick’em.”
“Yes,” I said in irritation, tugging down my shirt when Levy gave a satisfactory nod, deeming my stitches intact. I glanced worriedly at Erza, who was standing beside the window again staring out of it. She had been silent throughout our walk back to our room. She suddenly slumped against the window frame and her shoulders began to tremble.
“Erza!?” We cried out, alarmed.
“Gah! This was a bad idea! I knew you shouldn’t have come and seen Jellal and that girl togeth-” Levy stopped talking when she approached Erza close enough to realize that Erza wasn’t crying, she was laughing!
“What the hell!?” Lucy yelled, even more freaked out than before. “That’s it! She officially lost it. Titania has officially snapped. All hope is lost.”
Erza couldn't even breathe from how hard she was laughing, but she managed to form a sentence in between gasps of air. “....UN..CLE…..GI...LD….A-ART..SSSS AHAHAHAHAHA.”
I frowned in confusion before it clicked in my brain and my face burned a bright red. “D-don’t judge me! It was the first thing that came to mind!” I sputtered, shaking arms up and down when Levy and Lucy joined in on the laughter. They didn’t calm down for another ten minutes. I was pouting and staring at the wall in annoyance, even though I was fighting back a smile myself.
“So,” Levy said breathlessly. “She says our ‘relative’ has been seen. In Caelum.”
I shook my head. “They really want us gone, out from between them and their guys.”
Lucy grunted. “Clever.”
“Clever doesn’t begin to cover it,” Erza said.
Gently, I eased myself down again to my good side and lay down as Lucy pulls the covers over me. “These people have been planning on this union since Jellal and his brothers were children.”
“Seriously?” Levy asked with raised brows.
“Seriously.”
Erza looked at me and asked me a silent question. I frowned and gave her a look and she nodded. I sighed and looked away, but nodded nonetheless.
“In two days we’ll go home.”
Lucy and Levy looked up at us in alarm. “But Juvia said-“
“Forget what Juvia said.” I interrupted. “Tomorrow, you pull the stitches from Juvia’s side and we’ll be on our way the following day.”
Levy’s eyes became as cloudy as she shook her head. “I don’t think I can pull them out,” she said forlornly.
“Then I’ll get Gajeel or Simon or someone else,” I said with a sigh. “But we’re going home soon.”
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