Important: I had trouble uploading this one, and the notification hasn’t come through just yet either. Hopefully it goes out soon, otherwise I’ll be having to post a temporary chapter to let everyone know that Chapter 6 was, in fact, posted. 

Anyway, this little story is almost complete. Only one or two more chapters to go, and a possible epilogue. 

@feelin-good-in-the-inc, @jellu, @jaydie13, @lady-atlantis, @pocketzeller, @pain-is-just-a-compromise, @redbearduk, @zosotrooper, @bloodytea, @mollypop46

Oh, my God, I thought you were going to die. Please don’t ever scare me like that again. lucy jellal brotp or another paiting

Brotp? Otp? I don’t even know. Make of it what you will.

He was busy prying dented pieces of his armor off his torso when the blonde hurricane hit.

They had raided a dark guild that morning, and the mages there had been a bit more formidable than they had been led to believe from the initial scouting reports. It was always a crapshoot, Jellal knew, and this time the odds had been against them. Still, a victory was a victory, especially when there were no losses on their side.

“Oh my God!” Lucy hissed, dropping onto the ground next to him, seeming to almost spark with fury. “I thought you were going to die!”

Pausing in the extraction of the armor from his body, Jellal shifted to look at the blonde. “I knew my armor would block it,” he said simply, gesturing to the metal, which had buckled and dented, but prevented any serious wounds. “It was a calculated move. You would have been hurt much more severely if you had been hit.”

“I would have gotten out of the way!” she screeched.

“But only by a hair,” he reminded her, remembering how his blood had gone cold when he saw the attack being aimed at the blonde as she took down several ranking members of the dark guild. “It was less risky this way.”

“Less risky?” the blonde repeated softly, and then once again, louder, for good measure. “Less risky? You can’t just play the odds with your life like that Jellal!”

All of the sudden, her entire demeanor changed, Lucy seeming to crumple in on herself. Pulling her knees up to her chest, she wrapped her arms around them. “Please, don’t ever scare me like that again. I’ve…lost too many people I care about.”

Suddenly, he felt ashamed.

“I promise not to think of myself as expendable,” he said softly, finally managing to get the bulk of his armor off. “Don’t worry, I’ll be more careful from now on.”