With Open Eyes

{1}

"Move faster!" The hair red as the dawn soared through the air. A smirk written on her face as the poor subjects struggled to keep with her rapid movements.

Her sister sighed. "Erza.. How long can she keep this up?" The youngest navy wings fluttered in a delicate and overwhelming beautiful way that made men swoon.

"Maybe she'll get over it soon Juvia." A raven haired elf smiled kindly at the girl.

"Juv-.. I hope so.. It's been a year.." She frowned and the male grabbed her hand. "Thank you Gray.." She giggled hugging him. "You always know how to make me feel better.."

The helpless elf chuckled though his cheeks were pink and he was miserable but happy in the princess's arms.

Suddenly a pink primrose petal fell near them making them jump apart. "A primrose petal..?.."

Erza charged after a beast. "Come back here!" She pinned down the beast while her sister stared in horror.

"You two. You're too close to the Dark Forest. Do you want to get killed?" She raised an eyebrow, brown eyes filled with anger.

"Ah.. We hadn't noticed.. Sorry Erza.." The two mumbled and continued to get scolded by the eldest, little to their knowledge, they were all being watched closely from the other dark side.

~~~~~~~~~

"Mystogan!" The name vibrated through the castle of the Dark Forest. The minion raced towards his master with a clumsy hurry in his manner. The man did not like to be kept waiting and everyone within his realm knew it.

"Yes, my lord?" The cloaked minion bowed respectfully as the king sighed in annoyance. "Has there been any strange activity in my land?" The king's voice as cold as ice. The second minion, Hughes, shivered glancing at Mystogan, as if in a secret battle to see who would inform him of the sighting.

"Well.." They both started before blundering out an apology to one another.

"Silence!"

The submissives winced and held their breath before Mystogan started up again.

"Some faries were near our territory. They didn't touch anything but they noticed the..." He cleared his throat as if to brace himself for his master's reaction, "The.. Um.. Primroses.."

The king frowned smashing his feet heavily onto the ground. "Can't they destroy those.. Those.. Lies fast enough?" His voice boomed as the minions listened.

"They cause not but trouble and are a complete waste of time. That damn fairy is to blame for all this trouble. She's lucky I let her live in fact.." He smirked darkly. "Bring her to me. I want to make sure she has no schemes planned."

The minions nodded and went to go search the prison room especially made for the sugar plum fairy.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Erza!" The Fairy King called for his oldest only to be faced with someone he could not recognize.
Her red hair tied back with bandages tied tightly around her chest and long baggy pants. He couldn't find the once, gentle and smiling girl and it worried him deeply.

"Yes Father?" She smirked as her sword whirled down and collied spliting a rose down the middle. "Aren't you going to get ready for the ball?" He asked with a gentle smile only to receive a frown in response.

"Oh that? Let Juvia go. I'm busy." Erza yanked her sword out of the tree and reaching for another.

"Simon will be there. It's about time you made some kind of amends. He is miserable without you."

The red haired girl glared down at her swords before tearing back into her targets. "Oh really? I'm not going. Let him suffer. I know I did.."

"At least go for your sister.. You know how fickle her heart is." The king shook his red locks that had flashes of silver in them.

Erza chuckled at her sister's naive belief in love. Sometimes it frightened her too. For her sister to believe so clearly that love was this great thing of beauty when indeed, Erza knew for herself, that all love did was set up gross hopes and then send you spiraling back down to reality.

"Fine. But just for Juvia." The girl mumbled bitterly.

As soon as they made their way into the castle for the prize spring ball of the year, there he was in all his disgusting glory.

Erza kept her head held high and her fist clenched tightly at her side. The outfit she wore was far from what her father expected but at least she showed up. With black sleeveless cuffs on each wrist, a comfortable purple blouse with black pants and slip on black shoes. It was so dark compared to her former style, one year ago.

"Is that her..?.." The commoners whispered about her and the princess snapped her head to glare at them and they back pedaled.

Her sister was dancing with every young nearby noble in sight and Erza gave a slight laugh at that before he so happily approached the royal.

"Erza.. You look gorgeous." Simon grinned with that smile that use to make her heart jump out of her chest.

Used to.

Erza bit her lip trying to civilized. Was he seriously playing with his hair as he talked to her. How could she never have noticed how truly obnoxious he was?

Love really is blind.

She took a deep breath and rolled her eyes.

"Yes.." she gritted her teeth with a sigh. " Thank you.. Simon..."