*A/N- Okay so there's this new ship I've never heard of before called Zerza, (Zeref and Erza) and as Far as I know it was created by tumblr user zereffangirl and it's so cute, and as son as I heard about it I sold it my multi-shipping soul. As far as I know there is no fanfiction for this ship either? Being the first or at least one of the first to write for a ship makes me feel kinda cool. Anyway, me, (the multi-shipping trash I am) heard about a new ship and immediately had to write a fic for it. So here you go!

(All characters are owned by Hiro Mashima)

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Smack!

The sound resounded through the clearing as flesh met flesh. Zeref's head snapped to the side and stayed there as Erza's chest heaved with emotion. His mind, which had been racing only moments before, had gone completely blank. Slowly, as if his brain were filled with molasses, thoughts began to filter back in, the first one being: what just happened. In all his four hundred years he couldn't recall this ever happening before. No one, ever, had dared to slap him across the face. Oh, he'd been punched, and often, but never slapped, open palmed, like a teenage boy whose girlfriend had caught him with another girl.

There was something about that action, something so normal that almost made him want her to hit him again. His life was sorely lacking in normal. He didn't doubt he could provoke her into hitting him again, but he decided against it as his cheek began to throb painfully. There were more comfortable ways of achieving some sense of normality.

Slowly, he turned his head back to face her, her eyes still blazing mad, and her arm still held straight out next to her where her swing had ended. Her other hand rested on her hip, and her legs stood in a battle ready position. He wasn't sure if she stood this way out of habit or if she was planning on attacking him after what he'd said. Both were plausible, although he hoped for the former. As he had just discovered, Erza packed quite a punch, or slap.

"How dare you say that!" She cried, seeming to gain control over her emotions enough to speak.

"It's the truth!" Zeref protested weakly. Erza's hands shot out, and he flinched, expecting another slap to the face. Instead, he stumbled when Erza yanked him to his feet.

"What good do you serve dead?" She shouted, her nose mere inches from his. Zeref blinked a few times in an attempt to focus on her face, which had gotten so very close to his in such a short amount of time. "Dying will do no good for anyone except yourself! Death is the easy choice! You do not deserve to die and leave behind the mess you made for the people who love you to clean up! Have courage, and fight your own battles!"

"I've been fighting my own battles for four hundred years!" Zeref said, his voice somewhere between agony and utter exhaustion.

"Then you should spend at least as long trying to remedy the evils you've committed. You do not get to abandon the world you nearly destroyed because you regret your actions!"

"No one would accept help from me!" Zeref said, the pain in his voice becoming more prominent. "No one would accept help from the Black Mage." His voice fell with the second sentence, becoming dull and lifeless, devoid of all hope. His eyes dropped from hers and he turned his face away slightly in shame. Erza shook him roughly, her next words coming out as little more than a growl.

"Then kill the Black Mage. Become someone else, someone different!" Zeref tried to interrupt, but Erza raised her voice to cut him off. "I'm not saying it will be easy, and it shouldn't, but it's the right way to do things and I'll be damned if I let you cower away from it."

"But I'm tired," Zeref said, his voice cracking, but he shed no tears. He'd long since run out of them. "I'm tired of being alone and hated."

"Are you really arrogant enough to believe yourself alone and despised by all when someone who loves you is standing right in front of you?" Zeref's eyes snapped to hers, his shock evident on his face. Her words rattled around in his brain, knocking out everything else.

Someone who loves you. Someone. Loves you. Someone. Love.

He searched her face desperately for any signs of deception. Was she lying? Was she merely telling him what he wanted to hear in order to convince him he needed to live? After several moments he was forced to accept the reality that she was telling the truth. She loved him. His chest began to swell with an emotion he had not experienced in many years, and he was finding it hard to believe.

Unconsciously, he leaned closer to her, seeking out the warmth and safety of her presence. She noticed this, as well as the fact that he seemed unaware of it himself. She allowed her features to soften when she saw his expression. Erza released her death grip on Zeref's collar and instead placed her hands gently on either side of his face, pulling him in closer. His breathing hitched, and she saw fear spark in his eyes alongside the pain. She knew why, she'd heard the story of what had happened the last time Zeref had kissed a girl, and she didn't care.

His body had gone completely still now, as if he were terrified that any movement at all would spell her end. His eyes were opened wide and staring into her, a mass of emotions stirring behind them. Erza let her own eyelids drift closed as her lips brushed against his. She allowed her lips to linger on his for only a few seconds before pulling away, and when she opened her eyes again she saw that his were still closed, and a few tears had escaped from under his eyelids. Apparently he'd had some left after all. She waited for a few seconds, and when he didn't open his eyes again she knew what he was afraid of seeing.

"Zeref," she whispered. "It's okay. I'm still alive." Zeref opened his eyes, his breathing unsteady, and looked into the face of the woman he loved, unable to believe it. She was alive, and still right there in front of him.

Relief spread across his features, and when Erza pulled him in for another kiss, he relaxed into her, and returned her embrace eagerly.