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

Bound by Your Name

"It's you who named Erza 'Scarlet'?"

Jellal felt a bit uncomfortable at how Ultear rolled her eyes unbelievably and looked at him like he was an idiot after she had found out the secret of Erza's last name.

"You surely treated Erza as if she was your possession."

"No! I never meant that!"

Really, his intention was all pure and innocent when he suggested "Scarlet" as Erza's last name based on the color of her hair. He simply thought that it was too lonely for Erza to not have a last name when everyone did. Wally did somehow query him for giving a last name to another person too causally, but he didn't care how Wally thought of his act. He only cared for Erza's reaction. When Erza accepted "Scarlet" as her last name with a smile on her face, he felt happy to see her being happy.

"What was your original intention didn't matter at all." Ultear waved her hand at him as if she was trying to get rid of an annoying fly. "Don't you know that naming is like an act of declaring your ownership over something? It was like you were declaring to Erza that 'You belong to me' when you named her."

"Erza was not, is not and will not be, mine."

"Well, I think it is clear that Erza feels otherwise."

Jellal didn't want to admit what Ultear said was true. But deep inside his heart, he knew that Erza did strongly bind herself to him because she was always keeping "Scarlet" as her last name no matter how many hard times he had put her through.

Sometimes, he couldn't help but think that it might actually be a curse he put on Erza when he gave her the last name "Scarlet". A curse which bound Erza to him regardless of who he became, what he did and how he treated her.

That would explain a lot of Erza's unreasonable actions when dealing with him. Like why she couldn't kill him when she had the best chance but would want to die with him when facing the Etherion. Like why she didn't allow him to kill himself and rejected the freedom he offered even he had killed Simon, hurt her and her friends and had already forgotten about her. Like why she would still care about his safety and feelings although he pushed her away before their lips touched and even refused her by lying about having a fiancée.

He just hoped that his curse could be broken one day, so that Erza would no longer suffer from any harm, pain and heartbreak caused by him.

"I will do anything to make sure Erza is freed from me."

"Really? How? Like asking Erza to marry any other man besides you so that she will have a new last name which has nothing to do with you?" Ultear questioned Jellal with a sneer. But that was not the end of her attack. She crossed her arms and looked at him with an accusing expression. "You actually want to get away from the burden your Erza put on you when you said you would free her from you, don't you? You want your own freedom, not Erza's."

"Wait, Ultear! That's not…"

"You are such an irresponsible man, Jellal." Ultear shook her head at him disapprovingly before walking away, leaving him alone in the cave, speechless.

After a moment, Jellal sighed. Ultear might be right to a certain extend.

Might be he simply want to be freed from any responsibility for whatever happened to Erza in the future by releasing the binding he created between him and Erza from the moment he gave her "Scarlet" as last name. He already had had enough to be the cause of many unfortunate events happened to Erza in the past. He never wanted the burden of guilt from hurting Erza be increased further more, which would definitely crash him one day.

But he felt that it was unfair for Ultear to call him irresponsible, for he knew that even he had become nobody in Erza's eyes, he would still be willing to even give up his life to save Erza if needed.

He guessed that he just couldn't be a free person, after all. Not because he was a fugitive, but because he was never the true owner of his heart.

Jellal wondered how things would be different if he never did the naming for Erza in the first place. Would they walk their road of life freed from other's influence because there would be no more sense of belonging or responsibility to bind them together? He was certain that without his presence, Erza would have lived a better life. But would there be any value for him to live a free life if there was no Erza in it?