A/N: This was originally intended to be a one-shot and then it turned into more because I'm way too in love with my OTP. Please help me I have an addiction.

This chapter occurs during Girl Talk chapter 9.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail

For Real This Time

Jellal was one of the few deemed badly injured enough to get an actual cot as opposed to a table. Porlyusica was busy attending to the less injured and those that had healed enough through magical means, so a couple of the doctors from the local hospital had been brought in to deal with the more seriously injured. Although Wendy had healed him the best she could with her limited supply of remaining magic – saving him a lengthy hospital stay – his ribs were still broken. The doctors had splinted his entire torso, told him to limit all activity for the next few weeks, and gave him a rather large amount of pain medication.

He had been shifting in and out of consciousness all evening. As soon as he woke up and asked to leave the guildhall (he had to get a head start on the Rune Knights), they gave him another dose of the pain medication and sedatives. At times he swore he could see Erza checking in on him and directing them to keep him from leaving.

Finally he was allowed to wake up. He tried to sit up, but his torso was far too sore to do so. He turned his head to find Erza sitting next to the bed. That gave him the extra push to sit up.

"Are the doctors gone?" He asked.

"Yes," Erza told him. "As are most of the guild members. It's late. You need to sleep."

"I need to leave," Jellal replied, painfully swinging his legs to the side of the cot. He grabbed for the pile of clothes at the bottom of his bed. "The Rune Knights will be here soon."

"You are not leaving," Erza ordered him. "The Rune Knights are not coming. Not after that battle. You, though. You are coming with me."

Erza helped Jellal put his shirt and coat on. He was too tired and drugged up to protest as she helped him hobble his way to Fairy Hills. Inside, he didn't even question the lack of women wandering around despite the fact that he knew most of the female mages were staying there that night.

Erza's room looked exactly as expected – covered in elaborate armors and weapons she'd amassed over the years. At the end of the long hallway of rooms she had him sit in a chair in her bedroom. He helped her to slip his jacket, shirt, and boots off.

He sat on the chair staring at the wall until she returned to the room (he hadn't even noticed she'd left) with a luminescent blush on her face and a soapy towel in her hand. She began to give him a sponge bath. He groaned as she scrubbed his torso a bit too roughly, but he doubted Erza knew how to scrub any more gently. She then used other washcloths to rinse and dry him off. Erza ran her fingers through his hair after spraying dry shampoo into it. He felt as clean as he could given the circumstances, but wished he could sit in a warm bath to soothe his sore muscles.

"L- let me get you something to wear," Erza said, still flustered from her efforts.

Jellal watched as she went to a dresser and pulled out a pair of sweatpants. He looked at his pants, realizing how dirty they were.

"T- these should work," Erza told him, placing them next to him on a small side table. "I- I'll leave while you change."

He watched Erza leave the room before grabbing the sweatpants. He wondered why Erza would have a pair of men's sweatpants, but had no energy to be jealous with. (Later, Erza would explain that Mira had told her that her boyfriends' pajamas were very comfortable enough that she stole them – prompting Erza to buy some Jellal-sized sweatpants to sleep in. She had also bought shirts, but apparently found it unnecessary to give Jellal one.) Painfully, he took off his pants and boxers and pulled on the sweat pants. He threw his dirty clothes into a pile with his shirt and jacket.

"Erza? You can come in," he said. Erza came in and helped the now-shirtless Jellal to her bed. She helped him lay down and began to rub his forehead.

"It's okay to sleep, Jellal," Erza told him, surprisingly calm. "You're safe here. Men are forbidden – they won't look here for you even if they come."

Against his better judgement, Jellal allowed himself to drift off to sleep.

Jellal's eyes cracked open as he felt something shift on top of him. In the haze of awakening, he could only see a scarlet head of hair in front of his eyes. He could feel his arms restrained above his head and immediately started struggling – worried that he had been captured.

"-looks like!" He heard Erza say.

He tried to sit up so that he could see who Erza was talking to, but he couldn't.

"Then what is this?" A voice asked – he thought it was the barmaid, but he couldn't remember her name in his state. He heard her walk towards them and saw a very pale arm reach over towards his restraints. He was so focused on getting his wrists free that he hardly paid attention to Erza's explanation for why he was restrained – something about him trying to leave. He rubbed his sore muscles and looked over to see what had been restraining him – fuzzy handcuffs. And not only that, if Erza was to be believes, they were anti-magic fuzzy handcuffs. Another pang of jealousy hit him as he wondered why she even had them.

Mira turned directly towards him and looked Jellal in the eyes. Her gaze was absolutely terrifying – truly befitting of her name. The smile on her face was even scarier. "I understand that it's important for you to leave for your safety, but I also understand that the Rune Knights have had their forces severely depleted and therefore are focused on protecting the capital and Hargeon as it is rebuilt. You should be good for at least another couple of days so Wendy can heal you."

Jellal could do nothing but stare. He hated that she not only agreed with Erza, but had also come up with a good explanation for why he couldn't leave just yet. "Fine. We'll stay until Wendy can heal me, and then we will go. However, you must keep me up to date on Rune Knight sightings in the case that we may need to evacuate sooner."

Mira's face turned less dangerous as she turned to Erza. "That was settled more easily than I thought! Now, what can I get you for breakfast?"

Erza ordered breakfast for them. Jellal noted that she had gotten him an incredibly healthy mix of protein-packed foods while she had gotten herself strawberry pancakes. It was just like her.

Erza went to her nightstand and picked up the discarded pair of fuzzy handcuffs. She looked at them carefully. "You know, Mira forced me to buy these. She said they would come in handy. I assume she meant that in a more sexual way, but they certainly were helpful last night."

"You didn't need to use them," Jellal said. "I would have stayed."

"No, no you wouldn't," Erza replied sadly.

"I know," Jellal told her. "I would have left if I had the capacity to do so, but I was far too tired. By the time you put those on I was out for the night."

Erza reached out as if she wanted to hug him, but pulled her arms back as if she was afraid to do so. "But you'll stay?"

"I'll stay until I'm healed," Jellal assured her, reaching a hand out to grab one of her own. "I promise you that."

Erza nodded before walking away to bring his clothes to the laundry room.

Jellal was grateful that Erza had visited him all day. He had felt too sore to get out of bed, so in between trips to help rebuild the guild hall and look after the other members she had brought him books from the library of Fairy Hills. The books kept him entertained in between naps and meals.

At the end of the day a freshly bathed Erza curled up on the bed next to him. She was asleep before she could even wish him good night. He stared at her face, wanting badly to brush her bangs off of her forehead. Even more than that, he wanted to snuggle up next to her and cuddle. But he couldn't – even though he'd achieved his goal, he as still a wanted man. So he lay there, content just to sleep next to her for one more night.

In the morning Jellal felt warmer than he expected. He wondered if Erza was sleeping on top of him like she had the night before. That left his ribs hurting for the day (one of the reasons he agreed to stay in bed). He could already feel that there was no drool pooling on his chest, which was a good sign.

He turned his head towards where he felt the warmth only to find a very, very naked Erza cuddled up to his side. It certainly wasn't what he expected. If anything, it was something he never expected to find in his entire life. He looked to see where one of her legs had draped over his own. As he slowly maneuvered out of the bed, he found that there was a wet patch on the sweats where Erza's crotch had been lined up with his pants. Just what had she been doing? At the thought he felt blood rushing to his groin, telling him that he should continue whatever Erza had presumably started last night.

Jellal knew he needed a cold shower. He didn't care how tired he was or how much his body hurt – he needed to get to the shower. He looked down to see that the sweatpants were not hiding his growing erection well enough, so he grabbed his now-clean pants, shirt, and coat and began to throw them on as best he could. Erza's moans as she woke up weren't helping his condition. He couldn't help staring at her as he tried to dress.

It would be a race to get to the shower. Erza, still naked as the day she was born, was now sitting on the edge of the bed.

He slammed open the door as he ran out of her bedroom and to the bathroom. He didn't even care that Kagura and Milliana saw him. Due to his sore muscles Erza caught up to him quite easily and leaned onto him. He tried desperately not to look at her, sweating with effort. "I- I need to go to the bathroom," he excused himself. He was surprised when Erza let him go into the bathroom.

As soon as he'd closed the door behind him, he turned the shower on and began to strip. He climbed into the shower stall and leaned against the wall, trying deep breathing to calm himself down. Nothing could get the image of a naked Erza entangled in his sheets out of his head.

The door opened and Kagura called his name. He responded in turn, but instantly got nervous. This wasn't Erza, this was Kagura – someone that absolutely terrified him (and not in a good way). Not because she posed an actual threat – that had been cured through conversation – but because she had lots of leverage against him. He still felt guilty about killing Simon. He knew he always would be. Not only that, but she had saved his life. Now he owed that to her as well.

Now she was leveraging the later against him. "I didn't do mouth-to-mouth on you to fuck this up a few days later! I did it because I knew Erza would be devastated if I didn't."

He slid down the wall so he could sit on the shower floor. He tried not to think about it, but she was right: he didn't deserve to have his life saved. But Erza deserved to have who she wanted, even if he didn't deserve her. There was no good way to respond to what she'd said. Now his brain was full of self-loathing and doubts.

Leave Kagura to bring him out of that state with her incredibly blunt words and great love for Erza. At least she'd given him time to stew in his thoughts first. "So if Erza being naked gives you a boner, don't get scared. Because I'm sure Erza would want to help you with that problem. And you should let her help."

Jellal choked on his own spit out of surprise at her words. He simply couldn't comprehend what he was saying. He was willing to acknowledge that Erza truly did love him, but he refused to acknowledge that he should actually allow her to show that affection.

Slowly he stood up and began to towel off. He took time to dress, making sure he looked acceptable for Erza. He placed a towel around his neck so that his hair wouldn't drip all over his clothes in case Erza wanted to go outside to talk to him – in fact, that was probably safer.

After leaving the bathroom, he made a point of asking where Erza went even though he could see her door was closed. He was happy to hear that she was getting dressed (he didn't know if he could handle a second dose of naked Erza that morning), but made a point to knock loudly on the door to ensure she was actually dressed.

Erza opened the door, revealing that she was now dressed.

"Can we talk about this?" Jellal asked her.

"Of course," Erza said. "But first we should bid farewell to our guests."

He watched as Erza gave them tearful hugs and loving words – something they'd always been too awkward to give to eachother. Not wanting to offend Kagura or Milliana with his presence any further, he gave them a cursory farewell before following Erza out the front door of her apartment.

They walked in silence to the guild hall, close enough for their hands to brush as they walked but unwilling to hold hands.

Jellal knew this would be his last night at Erza's for a while. The members of his guild were eager to get on the road, being just as paranoid has him about getting caught. Today had also been the day that Wendy felt well enough to heal him. While Erza gave him a sad look as Wendy healed him, it was obvious she knew it was time for him to go. To appease her, he agreed that they would stay one last night and leave in the morning.

They walked over to Fairy Hills in silence. While Erza went to soak in the bath he took a shower. He put on a fresh pair of sweatpants and one of the t-shirts he assumed Erza had gotten for him and crawled into bed. Somehow, he didn't feel too out of place doing so.

Erza walked down into the room, now in her pajamas, and slipped into bed next to him.

"It's weird that it doesn't feel weird," Erza said, leaving what should feel weird unsaid.

Jellal looked her. "Meredy said that you made sure Gray would give Juvia an answer after the war."

Erza looked at him.

Jellal swallowed, suddenly nervous. "So I felt I should give you an answer." He cautiously reached a hand out to touch her hand, hoping she wouldn't pull her hand away. He sighed in relief when she didn't.

Erza looked increasingly nervous as she stared at him. To calm her nerves she began to rub her thumb along the back of his hand. Although it should have been obvious that his answer would be good by the fact that he was sitting in bed with her, she couldn't help but worry. In the past he'd given her good signals only to turn her away.

Jellal looked down at his lap, trying to steel himself. "The truth is," he paused, unable to spit it out. "The truth is… I love you. I do. I know you know that."

He wondered if he should look at Erza. She squeezed his hand reassuringly.

"I just… I don't know if I'm worthy of you," he said.

"You are," Erza said. "You've saved my ass so many times. If not for you…"

"But you've done so many more amazing things on your own, without my help," Jellal said.

"But-"

"Please let me finish, Erza," Jellal interrupted her. Somehow her objections had given him the courage he needed. "I would like to be with you, but I want to be able to give myself to you at my best, not while I'm still feeling guilty and unworthy."

"How long will I have to wait?" Erza asked, tears forming in her eyes.

"I don't know," Jellal admitted. "But I'm willing to try for you, more than ever before."

Tears were now streaming down Erza's cheeks, a small smile forming on her face.

"I should at least give you this, since I denied you on the beach," Jellal said. He awkwardly leaned towards her, but as Erza understood what he was doing, she leaned towards him.

The kiss was chaste, but both parties were thoroughly amazed at how wonderful it was. After they pulled back, both were blushing. Erza brought a hand up to touch her lips. While it was adorable, Jellal couldn't bring himself to look her in the eye – it was too cute.

"I know you're leaving tomorrow," Erza said, breaking the silence. "When will I see you again."

"I don't know," Jellal answered. "But I know you can get through it. You know you can always reach me on my communication lacrima."

Erza nodded.

"Maybe we should go to bed now," Erza suggested awkwardly. "Since you need to get up early."

"That would be a good idea," Jellal said. "Good night, Erza."

Erza quickly stole a peck on his lips before ducking under the covers to hide her deep blush. "Good night, Jellal."

And what a good night it was.

A/N: So this is kinda a prologue but kinda not? I don't really know? It was intended to be a prologue but ended up getting longer and longer and longer…

The next chapter will come out at some point, but I'm going to be pretty busy so who knows exactly when. So I have left you with some fluff.