I'M ALIVE! yay. Eh, didn't keep my promise. Well, as some of you may have guessed, I had a horrible writer's block (and unfortunately, I still do.) and even thinking of writing anything made me sick. But because it's Christmas, I pushed myself to write the chapter. AND I'M SORRY ABOUT THE GRAMMAR MISTAKES I'm just too lazy to read this so.. precisely.
merry christmas to everyone! :) hopefully you all can enjoy the holidays.

The girl who leapt through time
Updated — 12/24/13
Disclaimer — Fairy tail with all it contains belongs to Hiro Mashima.

Chapter five — The Game

I

Midday, Saturday, Ultear's place

The woman under a big pile of her sheets started to stir and yawn. She frowned and started slowly opening her eyes only to see her phone, what let out a small beep. Erza reached for her phone on the nightstand, and almost dropped it onto the floor from sleepiness.

Somehow Erza wasn't so surprised to see that she received a message from Lucy. Her friend had told her how she was so going to drag her out to have fun since it was the last Saturday before the clubs started.

Lucy Heartfilia: You and me to Shibuya 109 today, in hour.

Erza stared at the message blankly since it took a while for her mind to register everything.

Oh.

Mornings had seemed to become to her just as bad as to the other teenagers. Seriously, who would've ever though a simply blanket could weigh so much? Maybe she was just getting used to the rhythm of the everyday life.

Yeah, everyday life. Erza's mind got pretty dark at the though of her amnesia. Frustrated, her brows knit together and she grabbed a handful of her scarlet hair. She let out a frustrated sigh, falling back on her bottom right on her bed. Lying there, hair matted, in her pajamas, Erza threw her left arm over her eyes to shadow them.

In though, she didn't realize someone coming in.

"You saw a flashback, didn't you?" Ultear asked. The redhead rose her arm a bit, only enough for her to see the elder woman from the corner of her eyes.
Even though for them not knowing each other for a long time, Ultear seemed to be able to read her mind better than Erza herself did.

"Why do you always know everything?" the younger mumbled almost quietly enough Ultear to miss her words. Not many people would've heard her, but Ultear seemed to also have a hearing of a dog.

"It's not that hard for me to guess it from your face. Want to talk about it?"

"No, or not yet. I want to think about it first. And I have to go to the mall with Lucy."

Ultear laughed.

"Then you must hurry, the clock is ticking and you just woke up", the said woman stated, before leaving Erza's room.

Erza rubbed her eyes, before rising up from her bed. Then she remembered how she had only her pajamas on, and she would still have to navigate her way to the mall Lucy had mentioned before.

II

In the mall, around an hour later

"EEERRZAAA-AAAAAH!" the redhead finally saw her blonde friend, with Levy and Juvia on her sides. Lucy kept waving at her like crazy (say whatever you want, but in Erza's opinion, Lucy had been too much around Natsu) as if she hadn't already seen them.

Levy was dressed nicely in such a .. short white-and-orange dress. The short bluenette was wearing her reading glasses, and was now rising her gaze from the book. Giving a smile to Levy, the redhead had to wonder other hand if Juvia was feeling cold, since when Levy was just wearing a thin dress, the other bluenette had a long coat on her.

The bluenettes rose up, Levy putting her book back into her bag. Lucy ran to hug Erza, grinning mischievously.

"We're going shopping!" Erza furrowed briefly, why did she make it sound so.. bad. Maybe this was something new for her again.

"LET'SSS GO!" Lucy jumped at the lead, and looked very ridiculous how she waved her hands like she was marching. Juvia smiled, walking over the blonde, while Levy tugged at Erza's hand and looked at the taller girl apologetically.

"Sorry, beforehand. She .. well, she is always like that. You'll .. or you might get used to it. She just goes a little .. passionate when it comes to things like.. this."

Erza rose her brows at the younger girl's stuttering, but before she could say anything soothing, she walked into Juvia's back.

"Oh, sorry-" Erza started, but Juvia waved her off.

"Juvia doesn't mind, but look. There we are!"

It was a huge, very well (too well, if you ask Erza) illuminated store. And the number of people there... Erza dislikes. But it was too late, Lucy had already grabbed her wrist and she was pulling her into the crowd.

"I'll go for the make-ups!" Juvia exclaimed, turning around. Levy had her own direction too, not-too-surprisingly to the book shop.

Great, Erza thought, they left me there with the shopaholic. Fantastic. Interrupting her friend's thoughs, Lucy had found something for her to try on.

"Come, let's try this! .. Oh! This too, would you like the green or blue more?"

Blue.

"Uh, maybe the green one.." Erza said with a wary smile. Lucy grabbed them both, examining them against the redhead. The taller one rose her brow, again, but Lucy's expression said enough for her to keep it quiet.

"Yeah.. the blue would look good too, but this is too bright against your red hair. The green just makes your unique hair pop out, so that's it."
Inwardly, Erza sighed thankfully. She didn't need any reminder of her weird dream, or flashback, as Ultear had told her.

Erza got pushed into a fitting room, to try on all the clothes Lucy had chosen for her. Putting all the clothes to hang on the wall to look at them close, Erza had to listen to the horrible noise coming from the shop's stereos.

There was one dress, three shirts, one skirt and one blazer.

First she got on the dress. It fit her well, but Erza disliked the yellow colour of it... Not to mention the laces. And she granted she was more of a shirt girl, than dress.

And honestly, she would pop out in the crowd more than necessary with colorful clothes, and the redhead couldn't say she liked the attention on the streets. So, definitely no.

The next was the shirts. One t-shirt, with puffed sleeves. It was pretty nice, but too small. Second was a black blouse, and she accepted it, as well as the green shirt. The skirt was red-and-black pleated. She accepted it too, and also the red blazer.

"They look good. You seem to like black and red", Lucy noticed.

"Um, yes. They feel .. safe colours enough."

Lucy smiled, grabbing the clothes and pulling her to pay them. .. Well, actually, she did the paying.

"You're my friend, and I have more money than I'll ever need. My parent's are very rich", the blonde explained.

III

"Let's go to find the others!" Lucy took the lead again, showing the way through the crowd. Levy found quickly, carrying two bags of new books. Erza decided to carry the other bag, so the smaller girl wouldn't get buried under the books.

Juvia was already looking for them too, so after their reunion, Lucy theatrically took her phone out of her pocked, and texted someone something.

"Juvia is wondering what Lucy is doing", Juvia noted, trying to stretch enough to see what she was doing.

"Tshihi, we're going to go playing!" Levy rose her head from another book. The bluenette looked a little bit sceptical.

"We're going to play what?"

"Baseball! I asked if Gray and Natsu would come too, they said yes."

That made Levy sigh.

"Them? Of all of our friends? Seriously, I bet they can't do anything else but fight."

".. You're right, but let's just put them into different teams, then it might not be a problem! What do you think, Juvia, Erza?"

Juvia and Erza looked at each other and then turning back to face Lucy, they both just shrugged.

IV

On their way to the baseball field, which was close to their schoolgrounds, they chatted, giving Erza good picture of their social life.

"Juvia used to be drooling after Gray. Yeah, used. A long, long time. But then, after Gray continually rejected her, she gave his adoptive brother a chance, and now they're going out", Lucy informated Erza.

Juvia blushed furiously, denying it and even forgetting to adress herself in the third person:
"I didn't drool!"

"Well, actually, Juvia, you did. At least in the cabin, in the math's class, during history classes, during physical education and-"

"Juvia is very embarrassed right now", the bluenette said, with a blush, holding her both hands on her cheeks.

Erza smiled, patting her shoulder.

"And Levy has a crush on Gajeel, the gangster from the streets-"

"FORMER!"

"-who also beat her up once -"

"He was sorry and very nice to me after that! And it didn't hurt so badly!"

"And now he's failing his class an-"

"I'm helping him, so he can continue on the next class! Lucy, please!"

Erza started to laugh at their conversation, Juvia soon joining her.

"What a lovestory of the century!" Erza said between her laughs, grinning.
"Hah, Juvia thinks so too!"

"Heey, what about Lucy? First she was head over heels in looooo-oove with Natsu, but now it seems that you liiiiii-ike that Sting more?" Levy striked back, with a evil grin, making Lucy blush.

"Ah, I don't know!"

Juvia started humming, looking up to the blue sky with a few white clouds.

"Juvia thinks she the Sticy -ship more."

Erza had no idea what ships had to do with Lucy, but she didn't dare to ask.

"I think Natsu is much better than Sting! I don't even understand what you see in him, he's so arrogant, mean and so full of himself! And you don't even know him, but you've been friends with Natsu like forever!"

"A few years is not forever, Levy.."

"But you got the point! At least you know Natsu, and Sting.. ugh, I don't want to talk about him, he just gets my blood boil!"

Lucy sighed.
"Let's just get to the field, right?"

What a difficult thing the relationships were.

V

The field

"How long it can take for you to walk here?" asked Gray with a bored expression. Natsu had been so bored that he started to throw the ball far away and run after it. Like a dog, Erza noted.

"Well, I'm sorry, but we had lots of bags to carry! If you would've been a gentleman, you would've come to carry these for us!"

Gray rolled his eyes.

"Seriously, who does that nowadays? And why should I carry them only because I'm a man?"

Lucy was about to say something back, but before that, Juvia interrupted them.

"What if we would just make the teams and play?"

They agreed on that, and Natsu had also finally ran back to them. They deciced that they wouldn't play with the actual game rules, but just throw the ball and run and hit it. Gray and Natsu made the teams - Gray taking Juvia and Levy with him, Natsu chosing Lucy and Erza.

Then their game could finally start.

IV

"LUCY, MAKE IT SURE IT HITS GRAY!"

"NATSU, I'M NOT GOING TO HURT MY FRIENDS! AND STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT THAT!"

Their game was going perfectly.
When the others were listening to Natsu and Lucy's fight, they started to grow pretty bored.

"Do they fight really often?" Erza asked Levy, who was the only one of the other team in the hearing range. The bluenette smiled apologetically.

"Not always, but very often... Like a married couple, right?"

Erza couldn't be so sure about that, but whatever. If they just could continue the game..

Gray caught the ball from flight and he threw it to the base one.

Too bad, Juvia missed it and started to chase for it.

"Juvia doesn't get this game, it's too difficult for her!" The bluenette whined, bowing to take the ball from the grass.

"Just catch the ball, that's the idea", Gray rolled his eyes, rubbing his temples.

Throwing the ball back at Natsu, who was in charge of hitting. He hit the ball in the first, and made it go far - not even Gray could catch it.

"What the fuck is your problem, flameass?!" Gray exclaimed angrily, making Natsu almost lose his head when Erza tried to hit him with the baseball bat.

"Play nice!" Erza said with a smile.

That smile made Natsu almost die inside.

Next turn was Erza's and she hit the ball perfectly on the spot, making it go almost over their field. Levy ran after it, throwing it back to the base.

The next few rounds went the same way, Lucy never hitting the ball or hitting it too well into someone's hands, Natsu and Erza scoring.

"Eeh, let's just stop it already, Juvia's legs can't carry her anymore!" the said girl wailed, stumbling on the ground. Lying on the ground, the other's gave up on playing too, and gathered around Juvia.

"Mmh, I didn't even get to play well", Gray tsked, resting his arms under his head.

"Nor did I, Natsu was distracting me!" Lucy exclaimed with a furious expression, which only made the others laugh.

"You just can't play well, live with it", Gray laughed.

"But Erza, have you played in some team before, since you're so good?" Levy asked with curiosity. The redhead just smiled, but shook her head.

"No, I'm just good at sports."

Natsu started to joke about Lucy, who put her tsundere-mood on and refused to talk to him for a while. Juvia fell asleep, and Gray took a nap too. Levy started reading her book, leaving Erza alone with her thoughs.

what a boringly written chapter XDD ok live with that. In the next chapter, we'll focus more on Gray and Erza's friendship, as well as take a small skip to the summer holidays. Looking how I have been planning the chapters, it seems that this fic will be around 12 chapters long :D not very long, eh?

btw, just .. just don't say anything about the baseball scene :DD I .. just can't. really. not even in my own language, god...