Erza's POV - SUNDAY

When I woke up, I smelt pancakes.

Even though I was still half asleep, I managed to drag myself out of bed and towards the source of the smell. I slipped on a pair of socks and continued to make my way through the manor towards the beautiful pancakes.

Eventually, I arrived at the entrance to the kitchen and almost fell forwards. It wasn't just pancakes anymore, oh no. There were strawberries too.

"Morning, I see you've slept well."

"Oh this smells so-," I snapped out of my little trance and twisted my head to look at whoever was talking to me. "You're...?"

"Wow, we met last night and you've already forgotten me. I'm hurt Scarlet." He hid his face and sighed. "And I even made you breakfast, guess I'm eating alone."

"No, I'll eat this... Natsu?"

"That's me." I spun around to see the salmon haired boy from last night sitting on top of the kitchen counter drinking from a blood donor packet. "Yo."

"Hey."

"You're acting much cooler than last night. Must have been tired huh?" Natsu asked.

"Seems like it."

"Ahem, have you forgotten who is making you breakfast?"

Blue hair, blue hair, blue hair...

"Jellal!" I exclaimed after I finally recalled his name.

"Thank you." He handed me a plate. "Here you go, remember that if it's so good and you feel like falling, you can fall right into my arms." He winked at me and smirked.

"If I can remember correctly, falling into your arms is a death sentence." I pointed out.

"I was hoping you'd forget that sweetheart." Jellal said, then he pulled out a chair from the little table and motioned for me to take the seat. I did so and he then placed the plate of delicious looking pancakes in front of me, covered in sugar and with a bowl of strawberries beside them.

"How do you know I like strawberries?"

"They were in the fridge, I just used what was there." He shrugged and placed his hand on my shoulder, I flinched slightly at the sudden interaction but braved through it and continued to eat my meal. "How do you like it?"

"Eh." I said, but inside I was melting from how good it tasted.

"Oh come on," His breath tickled the back of my neck. "It can't just be 'eh'."

Stop, stop, stop, stop. My face flushed bright red, luckily Jellal was standing behind me so he couldn't see my face. Unluckily, Natsu could.

"Scarlet's turning scarlet!" He laughed at his own joke, wiping tears from his eyes.

"Ha ha Pinkie." I retorted.

"P-Pinkie?! Who are you callin' Pinkie?!" He screeched before falling to the floor with a thud. I couldn't help but laugh and forget Jellal behind me. Wolfing down the remaining food on my plate, I closed my eyes and smiled as I savoured the flavour.

"Where are we today Erza?" Jellal asked me. "Are we unpacking clothes? Exploring the house... Exploring each other?"

"Woah Mr Vampire. Let's not get perverted now."

"Who are you calling perverted? I call it, seductive."

"I call it, creepy."

Whilst he was thinking of some sort of comeback, I wormed out of the kitchen and ran for my room. I didn't hear anyone follow me, but they were vampires; who knew how they got around. Maybe they turned into bats, maybe they took the bus... who knows.

When I burst into my room, I was relieved to see that I was alone. My suitcase had been unpacked which concerned me slightly, but what did I have to hide? All I had was my clothing. My towels were still in the bag though, so I took them out and went into the en suite to have a quick shower.

If the perverted vampires weren't in the manor, then I might have sang but I thought otherwise and remained silent. When I got out of the shower, I dried myself off and dried my hair as quickly as I could; I wanted to explore the manor a bit and check out the lake.

I wore my navy blue skirt and my white blouse with a blue bow, as well as my boots. I let my red hair roam free and didn't tie it back. Once I was happy with how I looked, I bounced out of my room and headed in a random direction. It was alright if I got lost, I could just find my way back by smelling the faint smell of pancakes...

"Is this the way to the spare bedrooms?" I almost jumped out of my skin when I heard his voice. Jellal appeared beside me and yawned. "I haven't had a good days sleep yet, and I need all of my energy to seduce you later Scarlet."

"As if."

"It's true."

I pointed in a random direction. "That way."

He bowed and strolled away in the direction I had pointed to. Keeping in my giggles was easy, hiding the smirk on my face was not. What made my smirk even bigger was the fact that Jellal was too tired to realise that I was lying to him and had just pointed him in a random direction.

"I hope that way leads outside." I mumbled, recalling the fact that vampires burn in the sunlight. Unless they're from twilight, which I certainly hope is not real.

Shaking off that thought, I continued to stroll down the unfamiliar hallways, turning at corners, examining the walls and doors. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a hidden doorway or something somewhere in the manor, it excited me just thinking about it. It was an adventure.

Soon enough, I'd come to a door which was different from the rest. It was a light brown wood door with strange carvings all across it, there was also a large padlock made of what looked like copper covered in chains. An obvious sign saying not to open the door.

That just made me want to open it more.

I made a mental note to find the key and open the door later on, I wanted to continue exploring.

From that point, I turned left and found what looked like a small child's room. I would have dismissed it if not for the familiar looking pictures hanging on the walls and sitting on top of the small dresser.

One of the pictures just had a baby wrapped in a white towel being held by a man who was smiling at the camera, another had the same man and baby but with a woman. For some reason, the pictures brought me to the brink of tears; I wiped my eyes before I started crying. The people in the pictures looked like me, like they could be my parents.

Another picture, the one sat upon the dresser, featured the same baby but with a different man. I immediately recognised him as a younger version of my late uncle.

Suddenly there was a thud from behind me and as I turned I saw that it was a picture frame which had fallen from its place on the wall. Placing down the picture which was currently in my hands, I wandered over to this one and gasped and the glass shattered. I pulled out the picture making sure not to cut myself and smiled as I saw who was. It was the baby, my parents and my uncle.

I turned the picture over and read the small writing on the back.

'Erza's birth'

My suspicions were true then, they were my parents... The people in the picture. And that chubby cheeked baby was me.

"That wasn't the direction to any bedroom. You lie Miss Scarlet."

I didn't want to look at Jellal, not just because I didn't want to lose this bet but because I couldn't stop the train of tears. I held the picture close to me and with my other hand I covered my eyes.

"What's wrong Erza? Scared that I'll win this bet now? I said in the bet that-," As he got closer he realised that I was crying. "You're crying."

"Yeah, no shit."

"No need for swear words."

"No need for this bet either, you should just leave." I said, trying to keep my mind off of the fact that I now had a part of my life I never thought I'd have, a memory of my parents and my uncle.

"Bets are what keep me on my toes, what keep me entertained. What will I do without you?"

"Get a sun tan."

"But then I'd- Oh. Very funny."

He tapped me on the shoulder and waited for me to turn around. When I did I noticed that he had a tattoo on the right side of his face, it seemed stupid really, the tattoo was big and it was a surprise that I didn't see it sooner.

"What's wrong? You're crying."

"I know, I just got something in my eye. This room hasn't been touched for a while it seems, I was looking at stuff then I guess some dust got in my eye." I covered up the truth because I didn't want him to make me feel like crying more.

"...Fine. If that's your reasoning then I won't question you further." Jellal huffed. "But what I do want to know is, do you really have any idea where there is a nice place I can sleep? I mean, hello? Nocturnal being right here?"

His comment made me chuckle slightly and I shrugged. "In all honesty, I have no clue. I literally arrived yesterday... If you'd like, you guys can rest in my room for a bit."

"Thanks."

"But didn't you visit here all the time? What was the bet you made with my uncle?"

"Eh? Oh that silly old thing? We met him at a bar, there we made the bet and then we followed him. He never invited us inside so, we couldn't come in." He explained as if it was nothing, but to me it meant something.

"My uncle was a betting man?"

"Yes."

"How come you were already in the house when I lived there?"

"We entered hours before you came, the only room we were in was the kitchen, Natsu was hungry so we raided the cupboards and fridge. Since you didn't live there, we didn't need to be invited in."

"Oh, okay." I hid the picture behind my back and I let out a sigh of relief as Jellal turned around at the exact same time.

"I'm going to sleep. Enjoy the rest of your day, and stay up late tonight. I want to treat you," he must have been smirking, there was no way he would have said that without smirking.

"I'll make sure to go to bed early."

"Oh are you that eager?"

"What?"

"Well, I'll make sure that tonight is wild."

"PERVERT!"

Then he disappeared.

*~*~*

The lake was sparkling in the sunlight, I could see some fish swimming about. There was a slight breeze but no major winds, so my hair was blown out of my face at a nice gentle speed. The sun was shining brightly which made me happy, that meant that the vampires couldn't annoy me. Plus, Jellal said that they were tired and that they were nocturnal beings, so they couldn't come outside at midday.

I need to go inside for some lunch though. That means I'll probably run into one of them, Natsu most likely. I thought to myself. After coming up with multiple battle plans, I stood up and marched to the manor to get to the kitchen.

All of my battle strategies were for nothing. There was no one in there.

I made myself some rice and chicken and ate in silence, but the silence was interrupted by the house phone ringing.

Thinking that it must have been one of my uncles former colleagues, I picked up the phone ready to explain that he was no longer with us when,

"So Erza? Is this your new house number?"

"Lucy?" I said in shock.

"Hee hee! Yep! That's me!!"

"How did you get this number? How do you know this number?" The questions were out of my mouth before I realised what I was asking.

"I found this thing called a phone book, Levy showed it to me." She said in a 'duh!' tone.

"Right, sorry I've been on edge for the past 24 hours."

"Why? Is the place haunted?"

"Kind of. Nothing you need to worry about though, just relax." I tried changing the topic. "So, how are you?"

"I'm good... Listen is everything okay? I mean, it must've hit you hard when he passed on."

"Sadly I didn't know the guy, but I hope to learn more about him so I can say that I miss him. He was my last blood relative left too, so yeah. I'm recovering."

"That's nice to hear, the recovery part I mean! Not the fact that you're still hurting!!" Lucy rushed the last sentence, trying to clear up what she said.

"It's fine Lucy, calm down!"

"Okay, by the way... Your uncle in the phone book was under the name o-," Suddenly the line was cut off and a beep deafened my ear.

"Agh! Lucy? Lucy are you still there?" I sighed as there was no response. "What the hell happened?"

"We should mention, no phone calls for help." An annoying voice announced from behind.

"Natsu." I turned around and glared at him. "That. Was. My. Friend. Calling. To. Say. Hi."

Natsu gulped.

"You've made a big mistake." I grabbed the nearest object to me which was a candle holder and threw it at the pink haired idiot. "Get back here!" He ran off, screaming for mercy. "No mercy!"

After about two hours, I'd hit Natsu 48 times and he had bruises to prove it.

"This is abuse!"

"This is payback." I corrected him.

"It hurts."

"You're babyish."

"Shut up Erza!"

"Listen Mr Pink Hair," I towered over him and gave him my deathly glare. "If you so much as annoy me one more time, if you do anything which makes me even the tiniest bit agitated... Then say hello to my dead uncle for me."

"How? He's dead and I'm- Ohhhhh."

I face palmed and left him. "I swear, you two are idiotic." It was mid-afternoon and I decided to do some more exploring.

*~*~*

Since Pinkie had cut the main phone cable, I had to order pizza from my mobile.

"Can I have a medium sized pizza, just margarita please. Oh with cookies and chicken as sides please. How much does that... Alright. Thank you." I waited a moment before responding to their question. "I live at Lakeside Manor, yeah. So it'll be here in 20? Thanks again. Bye."

Once I ended the call, my phone was taken out of my hands.

"Your old man didn't have a phone like this."

"Flipping heck Jellal." I spun round and grabbed my phone back. "That's probably because this is the latest Kiwi phone."

"What else can it do than call and send messages?"

"I thought you'd know this."

"When you've been scaring someone for 10 years you kind of lose touch with the outside world."

"You've been here for 10 years?!" Is what I wanted to say, instead I said this:

"Abuwauh?"

Why did I say that? Well, eye contact with a vampire who can use some weird sort of mind control can kind of ruin your speech.

"Hm? Oh, sorry." He blinked and snapped his fingers, then I was able to talk freely again.

"How, what... You said you wouldn't!"

"Sorry, I can't always control it."

"You can't control- You're a vampire, you should be able to control whatever ability thing that was!"

"I'm tired. I couldn't get much sleep last day."

"So basically tonight I have to avoid you as much as possible?"

"Oh no, you're welcome to fall into my arms anytime." Jellal smirked then asked, "what time would you class as night time?"

"Around seven. So you can't use your abilities until then." I took a quick glance at the clock and grimaced to see that it said 6:35, the pizza was due at 6:55. "Hey Jellal?"

"Yes?"

"Want to play a game?"

*~*~*

"Pizza!" The delivery guy yelled out.

"Coming!" I called back, opening the door. "Sorry for the delay, here's your money and thank you. Keep the change."

I took the pizza and side dishes off of him and waved goodbye. I didn't want him staying too long and getting caught up with the vampires.

"O-Okay... Thanks Miss." He strolled away, counting the money I'd given him.

Once I'd made sure that the pizza was just plain cheese, I ran to my bedroom and ate it in there.

The game Jellal and I were playing was a pleasant game which Jellal was eager to play. Hide and seek, the Erza version where you don't actually look for the hider.

And guess who was hiding.

"I hope Jellal gets lost and I can't find him." I laughed.

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Nothing much happened in this chapter, sorry for that but hey.

You learnt a bit about Erza's uncle, and that Jellal likes to play hide and seek.