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Erza Scarlet is not a normal girl, not by any stretch of the imagination. She hasn’t been for the longest time, and that is if she ever was at all.
Normal girls are not orphans. They are not runaway slaves, and they are not the youngest S–class mages of their guilds. They are not even mages to begin with.
Normal girls don’t have artificial eyes that don’t shed tears. Normal girls cry, but they are also bubbly, cheerful. They’re happy. They spread joy wherever they go. People do not fear them.
Normal girls don’t wear plate armor during the day, and chainmail in their sleep. They don’t have to because they always feel safe. Erza never feels safe, not even at Fairy Tail.
What normal girls do instead is wear wedding dresses when they get married.
Special clothing can be armor too, Erza learns from the owner of the bridal shop near the guild. Beauty can be armor. Long, spotless white gowns are what is fashionable in Fiore. When she’s not out on a job, Erza spends an embarrassingly long time in the shop, admiring the wedding dresses on display. She is grateful that the owner allows her this indulgence when there are no clients in sight.
Erza would like to wear a wedding dress someday. She would like to feel beautiful, normal, someday.
The only problem is that normal girls marry boys. Who could Erza marry? Natsu? Gray? No. Any boy that she might have wanted to marry, who might have wanted to marry her, exists only in her memories now, and even those are fading.
Erza wants her past to fade away. Does that make her a bad person?
Normal girls also have normal friendships. They do not enjoy physical combat. Not against boys, and especially not against other girls.
The way that Erza’s heart pounds when she is around Mirajane Strauss, when she fights with Mirajane Strauss, is not normal. The traitorous thing has never done that for anyone else.
The look of vicious delight on Mirajane’s face whenever the two of them are locked onto each other haunts Erza’s nightmares. She is almost certain that Mirajane sees the same expression on her.
Mirajane has long and glossy white hair. She has eyes that are the color of sapphires. Her skin is smooth and radiant, and she’s not afraid to show it off. Mirajane is not a normal girl either, but she is beautiful, and she knows it.
Erza is jealous of Mirajane. She has to be. She does not want to think of the alternative.