"Miss Scarlet!"

Erza was about to open the door to the building in which she was currently living when she heard a familiar female voice calling her. Turning her head, she smiled at the woman who owned the florist's shop on the other side of the street.

"Good evening Mrs. Dubois. What can I do for you?"

"Oh it's nothing." Mrs. Dubois waved her hand and smiled back. "But we have blue roses today. I think you may want to get some?"

Erza's eyes lit up with pleasant surprise. "Yes, I'd love to. Thanks for telling me."

As a result, Erza had a dozen of blue roses together with some baby's-breath in her hands when she steadily climbed up the stairs leading to the apartment on the 3rd floor which had become her home since five months ago, after the disbandment of Fairy Tail.

Erza didn't have too much problem of adapting to her new life, living on her own and alone. But she did often miss her disbanded guild and her friends who went separated ways in fighting for the goal they wished to attain in their lives. And recently, she also found herself having spent more time than before on thinking about certain personal issue, namely, her relationship with the infamous fugitive and the master of the independent guild Crime Sorciere, Jellal Fernandes.

She had heard rumors that the new Magic Council was considering pardoning Jellal and Meredy in recognition of their effort in obliterating dark guilds and also granting ex-members of Oracion Seis release on parole for them to continue helping Jellal.

A soft sigh left Erza's month as she mindlessly wondered once again if Jellal was free, if they meet each other again, whether they would finally be able to develop a romantic relationship like how ordinary people did.

But she certainly had never thought that when she reached the 3rd floor, she would find Jellal standing in front of her apartment, without wearing his cloak and holding a bouquet of red roses in his hands.

She blinked her eyes several times, but she could still see Jellal standing a few steps away from her, which meant that he wasn't her hallucination.

"Jellal!" Erza addressed the man in a tone of surprise as she quickly approached him, being puzzled by his sudden appearance but also feeling glad to see him.

"It's nice to see you again, Erza." Jellal smiled. However, his smile wasn't a natural happy one, Erza noticed, but a little nervous one.

"Why are you here, Jellal?" Erza asked, looking into Jellal's eyes. Both her voice and gaze were now full of concern.

There was a moment of silence before Jellal answered.

"Could we talk inside your home? That is if you don't mind, of course."

"No, of course not. Come in."

Erza opened the door with key and entered her home. Jellal followed her into the apartment and closed the door behind him.

After putting down the flowers in her hands on the table, Erza asked Jellal to take a seat on the couch with her.

"Don't you want to put down the flowers, Jellal?" Seeing Jellal still holding the bouquet of red roses in his hands even after sitting down beside her, Erza was tempted to ask him if the flowers were for her. But such question sounded too shameless that she finally decided against asking it.

Jellal stared at Erza for a moment before averting his gaze from her.

"These roses are for you." He handed out the roses to Erza; a light shade of pink tinted his cheeks. "I hope you like them."

"I-it's very nice of you! T-thank you!" Erza suppressed a yelp from leaving her throat and tried not to sound too excited as she took the flowers from Jellal. And the look in her eyes softened as she appreciated the tender and lovely roses which shared the same color of her hair. "They are beautiful. I love them."

Jellal took a glance at Erza with a ghost of a smile on his lips before his gaze drifted from her face to the flowers on the table.

"What about…those blue roses? They are rather uncommon to see. Do you love them too?" He paused and swallowed nervously. "From an admirer of yours, I guess?"

For a moment, Erza just stared at Jellal with widen eyes and opened mouth, bewildered by the questions he asked her. Then, she burst into giggles.

"Yes I love blue roses too. But they are not from an admirer or anyone else. I am the one who bought them. I always do whenever the florist has them because…" She stopped mid-sentence being not sure if it would embarrass herself by telling Jellal the reasons. But on second thought, those reasons weren't really anything shameful to share and she was sure that Jellal would understand. "The color. It reminds me of the color of your hair."

Jellal turned to face Erza once again after hearing her explanation; the tensed expression on his face softened into a relieved smile.

"Whenever I saw things which had the shade of red similar to the color of your hair, be it roses or sunset, I thought about you too."

It warmed Erza's heart to know that she and Jellal were the same, that they both always had each other on their mind. However, Erza also felt heavy at heart to think that despite their mutual feelings, whether there would be a day for them to be together as a couple was still something unknown to them.

"Jellal, do you know the meanings of blue roses?"

Jellal titled his head while trying to figure out something about blue roses before he finally shook his head. "What are they?"

Erza turned her head to the side to avoid looking directly at Jellal. "I-I heard from the florist that blue roses symbolize the mystery, the impossible and the unattainable." Raising her hands holding the red roses, Erza hid her reddened face behind the flowers as she spoke in a small voice. "And I often feel that you are like the most unattainable blue rose in the world I desire the most."

She felt the heaviness in the air as silence enveloped her and Jellal after she revealed to Jellal what he meant to her, making it hard for her to breathe. And she wondered how Jellal felt about her words.

What if she hurt him?

"I'm sorry." They spoke up at the same time

Jellal immediately raised up a hand to stop Erza from saying anything further. "Listen to me first, Erza."

So she did.

"I know how you feel. It pained me whenever I thought that you were someone whom I couldn't have in my life. And you are certainly not the one who holds responsibility for these feelings we have. It's me. We have to separate from each other because I'm a fugitive and because I don't think that I deserve you."

"It's not true, what you said about you not deserving me." Erza protested.

Jellal smiled fondly at Erza. "I still don't think that I'm your best option at the moment. But I will work hard to become a better man to make myself truly worthy of you. My circumstances are changing that I think it's really time for me to leave the past behind and open the door to a new future."

"What circumstances?" Erza asked before something clicked in her mind. "No, wait. You couldn't mean that that rumors about the Magic Council…"

Jellal nodded, grinning. "I'm a free man now, Erza. I want to tell you this news in person before you hear the official announcement from the Magic Council tomorrow. That's why I come to see you."

Tears welled up in Erza's eyes. Putting the red roses aside, she threw herself at Jellal, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"I feel so happy for you!"

Hesitantly, Jellal encircled Erza's waist with his arms to pull her into an embrace. "Thank you so much, Erza."

"We can finally meet whenever and wherever we want without worrying you being caught, Jellal. I don't think I'd need to buy blue roses anymore."

"Then I think I should start sending you red roses every day instead. Do you know the meanings of red roses?"

"Of course I know." Chuckling, Erza answered happily and proudly.