From Rags to Royalty [Jellal x Erza]

A Trip to the U.K.

Jellal sighs as he hangs up the phone. His mind drifts back to Erza. This will all be over soon. He says to himself, making a tight fist around his cell phone. He grits his teeth and inhalas a sharp breath before turning around to face the bed and the blonde headed girl lying face down on it.

Calming himself, he walks toward the large bed, placing his phone on the nightstand, and climbs on the mattress.

He crawls toward Lucy and then moves to straddle her, one knee on each side of her waist. He proceeds to reach his arms forward, his hands latching onto Lucy's shoulders.

"One massage, right?" Jellal asks as he begins massaging the girl's shoulders. "That's all it will take to make you return home and confess everything?"

Lucy grunts at first before speaking, "Well, a massage isn't exactly what I had in mind, but you said no to all of my other suggestions."

"You wanted me to feed you." The male reminded her of one of her earlier demands, cringing at the thought.

"There's nothing wrong with that!" Lucy defends herself, "Plus, it would have only been one meal."

"One meal too many." Jellal grumbles, looking off to the side.

The bedroom fills with a comfortable silence as Jellal gives Lucy a massage.

And why exactly is he massaging her?

One Hour Earlier . . .

While Erza was still passed out, Jellal decided to spend his time hunting down Lucy Heartfilia. He wanted to make Lucy end things once and for all.

And he wanted to do it by himself.

He had taken the liberty of pulling out a map and looking over all of the places where Lucy could have gone.

He ruled out Japan, China, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil, any region in Africa, and obviously not Antarctica.

Lucy was a girly-girl, first and foremost, but she didn't know, in the slightest, how to speak another language other than her native English.

She never bothered to learn another language because "she could hire someone to speak it for her."

So, Lucy had to be in a prominently English-speaking country.

Out of all the places that she's familiar with, only the United Kingdom (UK) stood out.

And, since they grew up together, Jellal knew that Lucy's favorite country within the U.K. is . . .

England.

As soon as Jellal made the discovery, he had a private jet prepared immediately.

And off he went to the UK.

Once he arrived, he had no idea where to look. There were several places where she could be.

Stores.

Restaurants.

Site seeing.

The hotel.

Attempting to make his search quicker, Jellal simply asked citizens on the street for help, describing the girl that he was looking for.

After several failed conversations, an old woman finally answered his prayers.

"I just saw her in the hallway at that hotel." The woman said, pointing to the large and tall building.

"Thank you." And with that, Jellal took off.

The next ten or twenty minutes were spent trying to convince the lady at the front desk to let him (1) know Lucy's room number and (2) go see her.

Sighing in relief, Jellal finally stood in front of Lucy's room door.

Present Time . . .

And that's how he ended up here.

He asked Lucy for a deal: he'd fulfill a request from her and in exchange, she'd spill the beans about the scandal.

It didn't take long for her to agree to the terms, at first. However, she didn't expect him to have a say in what he did for her.

He flatly rejected the first ten demands that came to mind - one of them including the request to feed her.

Her eleventh request, a back massage, didn't seem that bad to Jellal, so he agreed.

And that's why he's currently with Lucy, giving her a massage.

It's for Erza. He says over and over in his head, trying to remind himself of why's he's here. It's all for Erza.

Meanwhile . . .

Erza gasps for breath as she clutches her chest. Shifting too much weight to the right, she loses her balance and falls off of the bed.

A 'THUD' was heard and Natsu, who was still standing outside of Erza's bedroom door, begins to panic.

"Erza?" He calls, knocking on the door. "A-Are you okay?" When he hears no response, he takes a deep breath and opens the door quickly.

And there she is. Erza's curled up into the fetal position on the cold wooden floor, and she's clutching her chest as if she's in pain.

Her cheeks are wet with tears, even though she has no idea when she started crying.

"Erza," Natsu runs toward the redhead and kneels beside her. "what's wrong?"

Her form shakes and shaky breathes leave her body.

"I-I-It hur-hurts." She says.

"What hurts?" The pink haired boy looks around rapidly, scanning her body, trying to figure out which body part could be causing her this much pain.

"My heart."

Natsu notices the female's current state - the tears in her eyes and on her cheeks, the trembling of her body, and the gripping of her heart.

She's deeply, emotionally hurt.

Natsu bites his bottom lip and squeezes his eyes shut, not wanting to look at Erza in such a vulnerable state.

Jellal, what have you done?