Just Add Water

Chapter 31

 Just as Anna had deduced, Erza did go to Tendrou Island. She didn't know why but she just felt the urge to go there. Upon arriving the poor read head started to have an emotional break down which led to almost anything that came near her to catch on fire. She tried to put it out but she only made it worse by causing the flames to rise. And to make matters worse who should be riding a motor boat out in the waters of this island during this hour? But Jellal. He had another argument with his father and decided to go investigate about the creature that saved him at the last place he saw it. As expected he couldn't help but notice the fire coming from within the island.

"What in the world?" He steered his boat toward the shore, got out of it, and went toward the source of the smoke. He found Erza sitting alone between some burning trees, in position he had never seen her in. Normally when she saw her she was either very confident, annoyed, or mischievous but right now she appeared vulnerable, scared, and even a little sad.

"Erza." He said calmly approaching her. "Are you okay?"

"Go away." She said meekly.

"What's going on? What's with all the fire? Are you hurt?"

"So what if I am? Why do you care?" 

"Hey I may like to cause a little trouble for some people but I'm not heartless."  When she didn't move away after he came closer to her, he sat down next to her. "Why are you hurting? What's the matter?"

"I...I don't want to talk about it okay? Why are you even here anyway?"

"I had a fight with my dad about that whole creature thing I saw and I thought maybe if I found something here where it saved me I could make him eat his words. Get him to stop being a jerk."

"You shouldn't be so hateful toward your father."

"I'm not hateful toward him and for the record he can be a jerk. He never listens to me and he always puts down my ideas. It's like nothing I ever do is good enough for him."

"But at least he's there!" She cried. Now she had tears in her eyes which took Jellal completely by surprise. "At least he didn't take off and leave you and your mom!"

She looked away from him and buried her face in her knees while in a fetal position. At first Jellal wasn't sure how to react. He wasn't used to seeing someone sad. At least not sad like this. A sadness that comes from a deep rooted pain that the person does everything they can to keep hidden away. The only other person he knew was like that was himself. 

"Erza I...I've never seen you cry before." He said. 

"Yeah? So? I can't help it if I'm crying okay?! I just can't do this anymore!"

"Do what anymore?"

"This! Everything! It's all getting too hard and no one understands! No one really hears me! No one really sees me! I'm just alone!"

"I know how that feels." He said feeling empathetic to her situation. "You try to tell everyone how you really feel or how you really think and it's like you have no voice. You wouldn't think it but I deal with that a lot."

She looked at him her faltering brown eyes. In that moment she suddenly felt drawn to him. Like she could feel a connection with him and it just kept pulling her and pulling her, no matter how hard she tried to resist she just couldn't stop herself from being pulled. Then she did something that caused Jellal to reach a whole new level of being surprised.

She leaned over and kissed him right on his lips. At first he didn't respond because he just couldn't believe she was doing this to him. As far as he knew, she hated his guts. But he couldn't deny that the kiss did feel nice. A lot nicer than he thought a kiss from her would feel. Unfortunately that nice feeling didn't last long. Next thing he knew he felt his insides were boiling. His mouth was on fire, his skin broke out in seething sweat, and his face was red all over. It was too hot. It became too much for him to bear and he passed out.