To Any Cost

Chapter 5: Decorations

Hello again!!!  I thought Erza deserved a little more screen time ;) so here you go!!!

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   She sat in her normal spot, quiet and calm as usual, until something interrupted her. Her first piece of the day sat on the polished wooden table, mocking her. Carefully slicing a bit off with her fork, she brought the piece to her lips and opened her mouth to-

   "DO YOU WANT SOME OF THIS, POPSICLE?" a familiure, pink haired, dense, idiotic someone bumped into her table causing her beloved piece of cake fly off into the wall.

   "WANT SOME OF WHAT? I DON'T SEE ANYTHING HERE THAT SUITS MY TASTES, FLAME-BRAIN!" the ice mage shouted from across the room.

   "My... cake," she stood up in fury, "Is RUINED!"

   The whole guild quit talking as she stomped over to the two bickering mages.

   "Oh look, now you've done it," someone grumbled.

   "Oh h-hey, Erza!" Natsu and Gray squeaked.

   "MY CAKE IS RUINED!" she shouted, "AND DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHO RUINED IT?"

   "U-uh..."

   "YOU TWO!" she snapped, causing them to wince in fear, "IF I DON'T GET ANOTHER PIECE OF CAKE IN LESS THAN A MINUTE, YOUR FATE IS GOING TO BE WORSE THAN DEATH, YOU HEAR?" 

   "Y-yes ma'am!" the two managed to get out as they scrambled towards the kitchen.

   "Jeez, she is really strung up today," someone mumbled.

   "Yeah, I wonder what's wrong."

   "You'd think that she would have gone easier on them, I mean, it's just a piece of cake after all..."

   Shaking her head, Erza sat back down in her seat. 'Honestly, can those two get any more immature?' she thought bitterly, 'The auction is in three days time and they just can't get a grip, can th-'

   "Hey, Erza!" a voice giggled behind her.

   "Oh, hello, Mira," she answered in a mellow tone.

   "I was wondering if you would want to help me decorate the guild hall for the auction," she smiled sweetly, "You know, make it look presentable."

   Straightening up, she gave a small smile, "I would be honored."

   "Great!" Mira turned to walk away, "I know you have a lot of... possesions, so try and find some that would work as decorations!"

   "I'll get onto it," Erza shot to her feet and headed towards the door.

   "Meet out back in a hour!" Mira shouted after her.

   "Will do!" and she was gone.

   Just then, Natsu and Gray burst through the door with the largest piece of cake anybody had seen. "Erza!" they shouted, "We got your- hey! Where'd she go?"

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    'Not that... not this... no that wouldn't work...' Erza dug through the piles of items she had collected over the years. Some people might suggest that she was a hoarder, but that didn't faze her in her collecting. "This would be perfect!" she jumped to her feet, holding up a string of fairy lights that if you laid them out, would strech for a mile. 

   Smiling intently to herself, she dumped streamers, balloons, lights, a microphone and amp, tinsel, and anything else ever thought of being used to decorate a party onto her cart she usually used for pulling her luggage in. The people in Magnolia had gotten used to her and her cart, but that didn't stop them from staring at her. At first, she used to shout at them from giving her odd stares, but eventually gave up as time went on. Somethings never change.

   Remembering to go around the back, Erza navigated herself around the run down guild hall. More times than she could count, one of the wheeles of her cart would catch onto a tree root, forcing her to stop and free it. By the time she had reached the destination, an hour and a half had already passed.

   "You're late," Mira stood in front of her with her arms crossed.

   "I'm sorry that there are s many trees in the way," Erza retorted hotly.

   "No matter," the white haired mage began searching through the pile of stuff Erza had brought, "By the way, I invited the rest of your team, as well as Romeo, Juvia, Levy, and Gajeel to help out with the decorating!"

   "I just hope those dimwits don't start fighting again," Erza mumbled, thinking about Natsu and Gray.

   "Oh, they won't be a problem!" Mira smiled.

   'Man, she has sharp ears...' Erza thought smiling.

   "Yes, I do," Mira agreed, "Anyways, I paired them up so they shouldn't be fighting each other the whole time!"

   "With who though?" Erza asked skeptically.

   "Oh, you'll see!" Mira replied with a wink as she opened the back door of the guild for as her as she dragged her cart inside.

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   "Who ya callin' flamebrain, ice princess?" Natsu yelled as Gray shouted insults at him.

   "You, ya dummy!"

   "Hey, stop talking about yourself!"

   "I'm not the idiot here, flame-brain!"

   "Stripper!"

   "Squinty eyes!"

   "Ice princess-"

   "OI! SHUT UP, THE LOT OF YOU!" Erza burst though the door while Mira had to turn away from laughing too hard.

   "Yes ma'am!" they squeaked in unison.

   "Now then, Mira, do your thing," the red haired mage pushed her forward.

   "Alright!" Mira said cheerfully, "I'm going to pair you all up with each other and assign jobs before we get started!"

   "Juvia doesn't want to be with Gray-s," the water mage caught herself, quietly cursing, "Juvia doesn't want to be with Gray."

   "Can I be with Lu-chan?" Levy pleaded.

   "Yeah, I want to be with Levy!" Lucy agreed.

   "Shut up!" Mira turned into Satan Soul, watching them all cower in front of her, "Wendy and Romeo are on balloon duty-"

   "Haha! She said duty!" Natsu burst out laughing.

   Lucy quickly kicked him in the shins, "Hush! Do you want to get killed?"

   "As I was saying," Mira continued unfazed, "Romeo and Wendy are on balloon duty, Lucy and Natsu are in charge of the lights, the exceeds are in charge of the streamers, Gray and Juvia are in charge of making the ice sculptures and ice chandeliers and... you know what? I'll just hand you guys the list. Levy and Gajeel are incharge of the setup, while Erza and I are in charge of the food," she paused to turn back into her regular self, "Now, any objections?"

   "U-uh..."

   "Good!" she smiled triumphantly, "Now let's get to work!"

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   "Are you sure it was a good idea to pair them up with people they didn't want to be with?" Erza asked, eyebrows raised.

   Mira smiled devilishly, "No one gets in they of my ships. No one at all."

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I wanted to make this a bit longer, but I think the next part would be a great chapter!!! ;) Until next time...