A/N- Okay, so this time I've tried writing in a different sort of style. This fic was inspired by Emily Dickinson's poem 'Because I Could Not Stop for Death'. It's about how the poet couldn't be with her beloved due to some reasons so she decided that she would pretend that Death was her beloved and when she would die, she would welcome Death with open arms.

DISCLAIMER- I do not own Fairy Tail or the poem 'Because I Could Not Stop for Death'. They belong to Hiro Mashima and Emily Dickinson respectively.

Because I Could Not Stop for Death

The world stopped spinning for a moment.

Just for a moment. Then it started again.

But no one, no one in the entire universe realized that except for one red headed knight.

And no one, no one in the entire universe heard her anguished sob.

And no one saw her as she leaned over the blue haired man in front of her, the man who had just protected her by acting as a human shield.

She knew now that they could never be together, however deep their love was. It cut her up to see how fear instantly flashed on people's faces when his name was mentioned, when she knew that he would rather die than harm any of them. It cut her up when she saw how hated he was everywhere. It cut her up when she realized that nothing could be done to revert this, to wipe the slate clean.

And yet he would always smile at her. But she was afraid. Afraid that she would die without spending time with him.

So she made up her mind. She wouldn't be frightened. Of death or of the fact that they couldn't be together. If she couldn't be with him in this life, then she would be with him in the next. And when death would come, she would pretend that it was him, taking her to a place where they could be together forever.

But she hadn't suspected her death to occur so soon.

The next day, Erza Scarlet was proclaimed dead.

She hadn't taken the full damage of the spell which had been directed at her by the enemy dark mage as Jellal had jumped in front of her, but a few wisps of the dark poison imbued in the spell had been absorbed by her skin, and while Jellal had died instantly because he had taken the full hit, the poison had taken a few hours to circulate in her body, and by the time they had arrived at the hospital, it had been too late.

That's what the doctors said.

But all Fairy Tail knew was that they had lost their most powerful mage, their friend, their big sister and, most importantly, a part of their wonderful family.

Lucy howled, Mirajane wept, everyone wept and even Gray couldn't hold in his tears. Natsu yelled at the sky and punched the guild walls. Juvia flooded the guild halls. Cana didn't drink for an entire month. Makarov was unusually silent.

Everything was a shade of grey. A dull, listless shade of grey.

Because I could not stop for Death,

He kindly stopped for me;

And the carriage held but just ourselves

And Immortality.

Erza was alone when she awoke.

When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was the whitewashed ceiling. She slowly turned her head towards the left. There was a large French window there. Outside, it was late afternoon and the sky was a warm shade of auburn, like the falling leaves of autumn.

She turned her head towards the right, then, and was mildly surprised with what she saw.

There was a small machine next to her bed, with various tubes jutting out of it. But none of the tubes were attached to her body.

Not that she needed them. She felt…good. Better than what she had felt in a long time, actually. Which was quite surprising considering that she had been throwing up every few minutes a few hours ago. Had the doctors given her something? She was just wondering about what kind of herb the doctors might have given her when her thoughts fell upon Jellal.

She had expected the despair and pain to come in great waves and slam into her, but she just felt empty. Hollow.

She then fell to brooding about his death-not in a grieving manner- but in a very analytical one. What could she have done to stop it? Had he meant to die like that? What if she had re-equipped into her Purgatory armour instead? Would he be alive now?

After a while she got to her feet, amazed by the sense of well being that pervaded her. She also felt oddly light, and she bounced across the room, her hips swaying slightly as she felt a warm feeling rush through her veins. It wasn't happiness, but something more subtle.

It was calm acceptance.

She went out of the room and literally floated down the staircase. No one seemed to notice her as she drifted through the hospital corridors. She stepped out of the small hospital and then saw a sight that caused her to gasp a little.

There was a carriage parked right in front of the hospital gate. But it wasn't the carriage that had surprised her. It was the person sitting inside.

It was Jellal.

She bounded up to him, her eyes wide and mouth slightly agape. Tentatively, she poked his cheek, testing whether he was a hallucination or really there.

He wasn't a hallucination. He was really there. And he was smiling at her.

"Jellal!" she burst out. "You're alive?!"

His grin widened and he shook his head. "No."

She frowned, puzzled. "Then how is it that I can touch you?"

Now his grin had a hint of slyness in it. "That's for you to figure out."

She glowered at him. "You have to be alive! I'm alive and I can touch you!"

He smiled again and now it was a sad smile. Instead of answering, he moved along the seat of the carriage, giving Erza place to sit.

"Sit," he said, and she followed suit.

As soon as she sat down, the carriage began to move. She craned her neck to see who was driving it. When that person didn't come into her field of vision, she turned to Jellal and asked, "Who's driving this thing?"

"Immortality."

She opened her mouth, and then closed it again. Suspicion niggled her at the back of her mind, but she forced that thought out of her head and concentrated on Jellal. Whether he was dead or alive, or somewhere in between, she wasn't about to let this opportunity slip out of her grasp. He was here and so she was going to spend some time with him.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,

And I had put away

My labour, and my leisure too,

For his civility.

She tried to make a pun about it.

"Well, whoever it is, he's driving really slowly," she joked. "It's as if this is a funeral march."

Jellal did not smile. A shadow seemed to flit across his face, but then he grinned, rather uncertainly though, and replied, "Well, if we drive too fast then we'll miss out on the scenery. Who knows when we might get to see it again?"

She frowned. "What are you talking about? Of course we'll get to see it again!"

But the look on her beloved's face was peculiar- a mixture of reproach, imploration and something else that she couldn't identify. So she turned her head, albeit reluctantly, and looked out of the window.

We passed the school, where children played

At recess, in the ring;

We passed the fields of gazing grain,

We passed the setting sun.

Bright voices. Playful laughter. Mirthful singing.

The tiny children fluttered about in the playground, laughing happily, scrabbling in the sand pit, gliding down the slides and doing strange acrobatics on the monkey bars. They didn't pay any attention to Erza and Jellal or to the passing carriage.

It reminded her of the times she and Jellal had pretended to play in a playground, all those years ago, back at the Tower. Her throat tightened as she remembered the innocence they had contained back then, before Jellal had been possessed.

As she ruminated and reminisced about those days, the carriage turned around another corner and a small field bearing golden wheat crops came into their view. It seemed as if the plants were staring expressionlessly at her. So impassive, so indifferent, so unemotional….it was a little disturbing and the red head shuddered slightly.

Jellal clasped her hand lovingly, but his face was still grave.

She squinted as the amber rays of the descending sun hit her eyes as the carriage passed by the sunset. But there was something wrong. She had an unsettling feeling. There was something profoundly wrong about the sun's movement.

She gasped as she realized what was wrong.

Or rather, he passed us;

The dews grew quivering and chill,

For only gossamer my gown,

My tippet- only tulle.

They hadn't passed the sun. The sun had passed them.

The sun had passed them because they couldn't move. They were dead.

Her heart fluttered a little at the thought of being dead, but it wasn't as bad as she had thought it would be. She felt pretty much alive, except for that strange floating feeling.

She suddenly shivered, chilled, as an icy draught swept past her. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and rubbed her forearms.

And that's when she saw what she was wearing.

She was dressed in a soft, thin gown made of shimmering gossamer, the folds of which rippled down her torso and legs. A light, velvety scarf was wound around her neck.

Her breath caught in her throat. Her gown was made of gossamer. Her scarf was made of tulle.

In Fiore, it was a tradition to dress dead people in clothes made of thin materials like gossamer and tulle before they were buried. And if she was wearing clothes made of gossamer and tulle….

….it meant that she was really and truly dead.

We paused before a house that seemed

A swelling of the ground;

The roof was scarcely visible,

The cornice- in the ground.

It was a grave, she realized.

Her grave.

A throng of people surrounded it.

Her nakama.

A lump formed in her throat as she watched her friends weep and cry. She wanted to meet them, show herself to them and tell them that even though she was dead, she was okay.

A hand on her shoulder reminded her that Jellal was next to her. And immediately, her anguish melted away.

She was away from her friends. But she was with Jellal.

They would join her sooner or later anyway. So what was the point of lamenting about leaving her friends behind? If there was one thing that Fairy Tail had taught her, it was to live in the present. And right now, he was her present.

"Are you okay?" he asked, squeezing her hand.

She smiled at him and kissed him. "Don't worry. I'm fine."

Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each,

Feels shorter than the day.

I first surmised the horses' heads,

Were toward eternity.

It has been decades since then. Master had joined them a few years after the two of them had arrived at Eternity. Now Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Gajeel, Levy, everyone is with them. Everyone is together.

And the funny thing is it doesn't even feel as if so many years have passed. Her time with Jellal had been so content that before she knew it the entire guild had arrived. They watch the Fairy Tail from above now, as the new generation takes over and starts moving on.

The circle is complete.

Because I Could Not Stop for Death…

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