Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does.

Heaven

Jellal never truly understood the meaning of "Heaven".

"Heaven" was a place where you would be enslaved to work until you died when he was a child. If you ever had any will to resist, any thought of escape or any dream for freedom, all of them would quickly crumble due to the repeated inhuman treatments you received every day.

It was a place full of tortures, screams, tears, blood, pain, fear and hate. But somehow, he also see hope in life in such hopeless conditions in the "Heaven".

It was all because he had Grandpa Rob who was always caring and would give him guidance. He also had friends like Miliana, Sho, Wally and Simon who needed his support and encouragement. And lastly, he had Erza whose simply presence could magically warm and light him up when he felt down.

He wanted to believe that someday, one day, he, Grandpa Rob, his friends and Erza could all escape from the "Heaven" and find freedom.

But the meaning of "Heaven" changed for him one day. It became a place where he could make his wildest dream to bring true freedom to the world come true during his teenage time.

In this new "Heaven" of his, he didn't rule by oppressing others with tortures. Instead, he skillfully cheated his friends and all the people to stay in the "Heaven" and to work for his dream voluntarily. He banished Erza from the "Heaven" and threatened her to remind silence with the safety of her friends because she was disloyal to him by refusing his offer to share his dream with her. He deceived the Magic Council, Erza and practically everyone with his thought projection "Siegrain" while his true self was monitoring everything in the "Heaven". He then tricked Erza to give up her attack on him when they finally met again in the "Heaven" so that he could make her as the final sacrifice in achieving his goal.

He truly believed that he was bringing a brand new hope to the world and all the betrayals were necessary and worthy.

However, he failed. Or more accurately, he gave up everything when he realized that the dream was actually a nightmare.

"Heaven" no longer existed in his life from that moment on.

He went into coma. Then he was revived followed by amnesia. He was put in jail and recovered all the lost memory. He was sentenced to death but was broken out by Ultear and Meredy who wanted to atone for their sins.

He stepped on the path to redemption with the company of the two former members of Grimoire Heart. He no longer cared what "Heaven" was. He only knew that he would not return to his old "Heavens" again, yet it was hopeless for him to enter "Heaven" after death if it really existed, because it would be a place only for good people to go in afterlife.

Until now. For the first time in his life, he discovered what "Heaven" truly meant to him.

He knew he didn't deserve to have Erza. He hurt her too deep and too many times. But one look at the sadness and emptiness in her eyes when he bid her farewell, he suddenly realized that he owed her too much and the only way he could repay her was to stay by her side to love her with his whole heart, just liked how she always loved him with her life.

He finally confessed to her.

It was the reason why Erza was now sleeping beside him, head resting on his right arm and hands lightly pressed against his chest, while his left arm wrapped around her waist, trying to pull her closer to him without awakening her.

Erza looked so beautiful and peaceful. If there was angle, she must be one who came down to earth from "Heaven" then went through hell only to save this human who had once became demon that was him, he thought to himself. He was able to regain the hope for a better tomorrow out of his despairing and guilty life because of her love and forgiveness. He never felt so relieved, satisfied and completed in his life before. He believed that the feelings of living in "Heaven" should be no different, and any place with Erza by his side could be "Heaven".

And he just wished that he could stay in Erza's "Heaven" till death tore them part.

A/N: The idea of "What is heaven to Jellal?" in this one-shot came to me when I was captured by the lyrics "I tell you all the time heaven is the place on earth with you" in the song "Video Game" by Lane Del Rey. I tried to add some element of "hope" in it so that it could fit the 1st day of Jerza week, and hoped that you didn't feel it done too awkwardly.