A/N: Thanks to my awesome reviewers and to everyone who has continued to read this far. Please look forward to the rest!

I do not own Fairy Tail

Chapter Six – Space & Time

"Morning, how are you today?"

"I'm fine. How are you?"

There it was again. That word I'd slowly come to hate over the last month. 'Fine'. It had become Erza's go to response about everything. But it was a lie. She wasn't fine. She wasn't anywhere close to fine. And I suspected it was my fault. Correction. I knew it was my fault.

The drive back from the party at Mira's college had been quiet. We were all tired and hung-over, some of us more than others. Erza had sat on my lap but I'd been careful to keep my hands to myself. Monday morning I'd shown up at the girls dorm and she'd been there, waiting for me, like we were back to being friends. But our conversation had been subdued, a little awkward. I figured it would be, at least for a while. She'd all but offered her virginity to me on a silver platter and I'd turned her down. That wasn't the kind of situation a friendship just bounced back from. A bit of space, a little time and we'd be back on track or so I thought.

That hadn't been the case. She spoke to me. We revised for our exams together. Sparred at the dojo. But something was off. She wasn't exactly depressed. I'd seen her smile and sometimes even laugh when she was with the girls. Around me though, it was like a black cloud loomed over our every interaction. At least for her. I was having a problem of a completely different kind.

I was dreaming about her. The kind of dreams I hadn't experienced since I was thirteen and my raging hormones had a crash collision with the serious crush I had on our pretty student teacher. I woke up every morning feeling like I would die from wanting her. It was that bad. I noticed every little thing she did. Ordinary things, like the way she tapped the end of her pen against her lips when she was trying to think, were suddenly incredibly erotic. The way she walked, hips swaying gently, had me hanging back slightly to watch the sweet curve of her ass whenever we went somewhere together. If she crossed her legs during class I was instantly distracted. I caught myself staring at her breasts, wanting to unbutton that white school shirt and find out what kind of lingerie she was wearing before ravaging her on the desk in the student council room. The way I felt I half expected sparks to fly every time she brushed up against me. It was the sweetest form of torture but a whole month of near constant hard ons was taking its toll. Some days I flat out avoided her just to give my body a rest. If we kept going like this I felt sure I was going to end up with some kind of injury. To my wrist at least, if nowhere else. Thing was, I'd ruined my one chance with her in the worse way possible. There was no way I was getting to hit that. There was no way I could. That friends with benefits shit only worked in the movies. All I could do was watch and dream and pray that space and time would work their magic on me too.

He was staring at me again. I pretend not to notice as we make our way to Magnolia Town Hall. The student council and a virtual army of volunteers were meeting up to decorate the place for prom. Just a little more time I couldn't help but think. Being around Jellal had become nearly unbearable. I don't even know how I made it through each day without bursting into tears. I mean, he'd seen me naked. Kissed me. Put his hands on my body. He'd even run his tongue over my... Ugh. Don't think about it Erza, just don't. Mortified didn't even begin to cover how I felt. Yet I still had to carry on like nothing had happened. Like we were normal friends. Like I hadn't completely humiliated myself. Like he wasn't staring at me as if I'd morphed into some kind of hideous monster. Thankfully, there were only two more weeks left before graduation. I could come up with some excuse for not seeing him too much over summer and then we'd be in college. Granted, the same college but studying different things. I hoped our schedules were incompatible. The more space between us the better.

We walked along the quiet, tree lined streets. It was early afternoon so it felt a bit weird. Our final exams were finished, leaving the graduating seniors with a kind of extended summer break. We had the odd club meetings, mostly to hand over the reins to the juniors, or last minute extracurriculars to attend for that little bit of extra credit but normal high school life was all but done for us. It was a little sad to be honest. One last summer together and then friends we'd known since we were children would disappear off to find their own way in the world. At least most of my close friends would be at the same college. Then again college seemed like the perfect place to get over my infatuation with Erza's body. Surely there would be loads of pretty girls there to help distract me. My eyes wandered over Erza's hourglass figure. Those college girls had a pretty tough act to follow.

I yanked myself away from those thoughts as a woman with a child in a pushchair came towards us. We automatically shifted to one side to let her by, our new path forcing us to pass between a large old oak tree that grew right out of the concrete and the wrought iron fence that separated the sidewalk from the neighboring houses. It was only a small gap so I let Erza go first but she stopped suddenly halfway. Her ass pressed against my groin as I walked right into her. Fuck. Did this girl have it in for me or what?

Evidently not, judging by the way she jumped away from me. My desire for her cooled nearly as quickly as it had appeared. Erza was always flinching away from me. We were miles away from the easy comfortableness we'd once shared. It sucked big time. What I wouldn't give to be able to touch her again, not even in a sexual way. Just normally like I used to. A simple hug, a casual motion to brush her hair out of her eyes, any of the little gestures of affection that were a hallmark of our friendship.

"Are you okay?" I asked when she didn't start walking again.

"No." I was trying extremely hard not to freak out. I could terrify probably every member of the student body without even trying but there was one thing I just couldn't deal with - spiders. I wasn't exactly scared. Fear was an emotion I'd learned to control years ago. I just had an extremely strong dislike of anything that fell within the category of a 'creepy crawly'. For me, spiders topped that list and I'd just walked straight into a one of their webs. I squeezed my eyes shut and stood very still.

"Jell, please get it off me." I hated the way my voice wavered. It was a testament of how well we knew each other that he didn't need to ask anymore questions.

The irony of this situation did not escape me. Here I was wishing to touch her and Mother Nature had stepped in with a perfect excuse. I spotted the spider immediately. This tiny little thing that was probably more afraid of Erza than she was of it. I flicked it off her, opened my mouth to tell her it was gone and had a change of heart. It was a terrible thing to take advantage of a woman but that was exactly what I was going to do. God could strike me down later.

"I'm gonna have a quick look for it and I'll take off the web too."

I started with her face. Light touches over her cheeks, her nose, her chin. Found a few strands of sticky web but really I was looking at her long eyelashes, admiring her pink lips. She was a beautiful girl. I was glad she didn't coat herself in makeup like so many other girls I knew. She didn't need it. My fingers moved into her hair, the scarlet locks slipping through my hands like silk. I loved her hair. Always had. Even more so now that she'd let it grow so long. I wondered how it would look fanned out on my pillows at home. Yet another pointless thought.

"Do you see it?" Her voice was tense and I felt a little guilty but I wasn't ready to stop.

"Hold on. I'm looking."

I allowed myself the luxury of firm, determined strokes along her neck, across her shoulders, up and down her arms. I wanted to pull her close and hold her but I figured that would be pushing it. Then again, this was the first time in weeks that she'd let me get this close to her. I ran my hands down her shoulder blades, and along the contours of her spine with enough pressure to force her up against my chest. I felt wicked but I'd missed being this way with her. At the small of her back I hesitated then thought Fuck it, and followed the curve of her ass, the back of her thighs till my hands ran out of skirt and met warm skin instead. I should have felt like lifting her up, wrapping her legs around my waist and making love to her against this oak tree. In broad daylight. In the middle of the street. Yeah, it was twisted but that's how I felt a lot of the time around Erza. Except that wasn't how I felt now. That feeling was definitely still there but I felt something else much more keenly. This bizarre desire to take care of her. Protect her. As if the great Titania needed it. I must be going crazy.

Hands back on the relatively safe territory of her shoulders, I reminded myself that we were in public and stepped back just enough to barely skim my hands over her breasts and waist. Made a big show of dusting down her skirt to make the whole process believable then announced, "It's gone."

I let out a soft sigh and reluctantly opened my eyes. For a moment there I'd felt something between us, something that shouldn't have been there. It was like... I don't know. Like he was feeling me up or something. What a stupid thought. Jellal had made it abundantly clear that he wasn't interested in me that way. Why was I torturing myself with these silly imaginations of things that would never be. Eyes open, I realized I was mere inches from Jellal's broad chest. He was standing so close to me. Too close. I had to tilt my head right back to look at him. I remember that summer when he'd shot up about four inches seemingly overnight. He'd been so awkward, all elbows and knees, constantly bumping into things. Just another memory of the years we'd spent together. I found the idea cute now. He'd changed a lot since then. Filled out into his height, exchanged awkwardness for confidence. His dark brown eyes gazed down at me. My heart rate went up straight away. I loved this boy so much. It was almost a physical pain in my chest. I blushed and mumbled an apology. Everything was always so awkward between us nowadays. Which was undoubtedly my fault. I needed to get a hold of myself.

"It's okay. Hey, can I try something?"

I raised an eyebrow, "What?"

"You seem kind of tense." He reached for me and I automatically took a step back. Jellal's hand stayed suspended in the air between us. An emotion I couldn't name flickered across his face. That had been happening a lot lately. I used to be able to tell exactly what he was thinking. I also used to let him touch me without a thought. Yeah, well, everything had changed.

"I just wanted to... Never mind. Forget it." He said and looked away from me. His hand dropped and formed a fist at his side. The moment of intimate closeness was gone.

I felt like kicking myself. There was no point in pretending everything was fine one moment then being all weird the next. It's fine, it's fine, I told myself over and over. But it wasn't. It really wasn't. But… it had to be. I tried to get my emotions under control and stuck a bright smile on my face.

"We'll be late if we don't hurry."

"Mmm," was all I heard from Jellal as he walked away from me. I trailed behind him, trying not to remember the last time I'd watched his back as he walked away. What we had before the events of that night had been perfect. Why did I have to go and fuck it all up?

She was completely in her element. Ordering everyone around. Pointing out locations for tables and lights and streamers. Of course the lower half of my body found bossy Erza extremely sexy despite all the weird tension between us. The temporary truce my body had enjoyed for those brief minutes under the oak tree was well and truly gone so I confined myself to a table to blow up balloons, at least until I calmed down a little. Natsu was across the table from me making an absolute mess of curling the silver and white ribbons.

"Are you an idiot or something?" Cana asked him. "For the millionth time hold the ribbon in your left hand and the scissors in your right. Glide the scissors along and the ribbon will curl. It's not difficult for anyone of normal intelligence."

"Why don't you do it then? I'll take my below average intelligence and go help lift something heavy," Natsu replied and stropped off.

"Go ahead and sulk like a little girl!" Cana yelled after him. She plopped into his vacated seat and started producing perfectly curled ribbons like a pro. It was probably a girl thing.

I had my fingers crossed that she wouldn't talk to me and for a few minutes she didn't. I blew up a balloon, tied a knot and pushed it across the table. She added the ribbon. A nice simple production line. But of course Cana was a woman. They never shut up for long.

"So…" she said and I knew where this was going. Apparently I wasn't the only one Erza had been blowing off using the word 'fine'. I'd managed to evade the girls' most pressing questions but it was about time one of them caught up with me.

"So what happened?"

"What are you talking about?" She gave me The Look. Damn, were women born knowing how to do these things? Was there some kind of club they attended or manual they read? I resisted the urge to sigh. If she wanted answers she was going to have to force them out of me because the way I saw it, if Erza hadn't told them what happened that night then who was I to go running my mouth?

"I'm talking about when you guys went to Mira's party. Erza's been really down since then. I mean we kind of got the basic gist that it didn't work out because if things went the way we all thought they would, she would have been really happy…"

Now, that was news to me. Thinking about it, of course they knew what Erza was going to try that night. Girls hunt in packs. They probably helped her pick out those shorts. Ah, damn it Jellal. Do not think about the shorts. I shifted uncomfortably on the chair. Tried and failed to force the image from my mind. Which inevitably lead to me thinking about Erza wearing my varsity jacket and nothing else. Fuck. I needed to calm the hell down.

"Nothing happened," I managed to say and it was the truth. The wholly regrettable truth. Hindsight was a bitch. If I'd known then what I knew now I would have fucked her six ways to Sunday. She might have still ended up being weird with me but at least I'd have gotten laid. Now, that was a Gray thought if I'd ever had one. Maybe I was spending too much time around him. Or too much time fantasizing about Erza.

"Something must have happened. I mean, I know what she planned on doing so if she did even half of that then something definitely happened," Cana's eyes bored into mine searching for some kind of clue.

I merely shrugged and picked up the next balloon.

"Come on, Jellal. We're worried about her. At least tell me what you said to her. It's a given that you turned her down, for whatever crazy reason, but did you say it nicely?"

Of all the girls, Cana was the pushiest. And since I was effectively trapped at this table by my stupid, uncooperative body I had to tell her something. "All I said was that she wasn't the type of girl I could be with and that I'd only end up wanting something more. I was nice."

"Erza, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Natsu. Move this star a little to the left."

"That's all you ever say these days. 'Fine'. I miss old Erza."

"Old me?"

"Yeah, the you who used to beat Gray and me senseless several times a week."

I faked a laugh and punched him lightly on the shoulder. "You miss me beating you up?"

"Not exactly. I miss you being all fierce and kick ass. A sad face doesn't belong on a girl as pretty as you."

Natsu really knew how to get right to the heart of things. "It's really sweet of you to say that but really I'm fine."

"Bullshit."

"Excuse me?" He looked annoyed.

"I said bullshit. This is about Jellal isn't it?"

"No-"

"Yes, it is. Everyone thinks I'm an idiot but I notice things. Like the way you look at him."

"And how exactly do I look at him?" I tried to put a little bit of threat into my voice to get him to shut up but my heart wasn't in it and he ploughed on, undeterred.

"Like you love him."

I might have actually stopped breathing. It couldn't possibly be that obvious. Natsu was staring at me, point blank, daring me to deny it. I tried a little laugh but it sounded strangled even to me. I had to contradict him now. The longer this silence stretched on the more it would seem like a confirmation. I opened my mouth - I don't love him – No good. The words wouldn't come out. Natsu grabbed my hand and pulled me down a quiet corridor.

"That day. Those shorts. You wore them for him didn't you?"

I nodded and tried desperately to fight back the tears that threatened to spill over.

"So what happened?"

All my girlfriends had been plying me with the same question for weeks and I'd managed to deflect them away from the truth. When Jellal and I hadn't strolled out of Mira's bedroom hand in hand that Sunday morning it must have be instantly apparent that something had gone terribly wrong. I hadn't really needed to explain. Natsu didn't know what they knew. His normally chilled, carefree expression was replaced by a serious mask of concern. He was so worried about me. His eyes pleaded with me to tell him. To confess and let him take care of me. Something in me snapped.

"He didn't want me! I put myself out there like a fool and he turned me down."

"What? That's impossible."

"Believe me. It fucking happened. I was standing there, practically naked, and he walked away from me."

"Erza. No man in his right mind would walk away from you regardless if you were wearing nothing, those shorts or a brown paper bag. Trust me. Even I didn't know where to look."

"No, you trust me. He wasn't interested."

Natsu frowned, "But he couldn't keep his hands off you that day and ever since then he's been practically obsessed. He's got it bad for you."

I had to laugh at that, "He told me straight up that I wasn't good enough to be his girlfriend. I know he's been staring at me but he's only waiting for me to flip and go back to acting normal. But I can't Natsu, I just can't." Huge, fat tears started making their way down my face. I dashed at them angrily. I never cried. Or at least I had rarely cried before about five weeks ago when this whole fiasco kicked off. In true man fashion, Natsu physically stepped back from my emotional outburst.

"Wait here. I'll go get him."

"No!" I grabbed his arms, "No, Natsu please. I only need some time. I'll get over it."

He looked doubtful but pulled me into the circle of his arms. "You can cry on me if you want to."

I sniffed and buried my face into his chest. Time. All I needed was a little time.

"You said what to her?"

I would have repeated myself but Cana's expression was already telling me I'd fucked up big time.

"Oh. My. God. You bastard," She hissed across the table. I was infinitely grateful that we were in public. I strongly suspected that she wanted to slap me. Or perhaps, stab me with the scissors.

"What was I supposed to say?"

"A simple no would have sufficed. You didn't have to go and tear down her self-confidence. What breaking her heart wasn't enough for you?"

"I didn't break her heart and Erza has more self-confidence than any woman I've ever met. I might have dented her ego a bit but-"

"Shut up. Just shut the fuck up. I can't even deal with this. Her ego? Are you insane? You have no idea how much she tortured herself over you. And you're not even worth it. Bastard. You don't fucking deserve her."

"You think I don't know that? Why do you think I turned her down? Would you rather I just made her my fuck buddy? Would that make you or her happy? Mavis, I can't please any of you no matter what I do."

We glared at each other, neither willing to back down.

"I hope that when you realize how important she is to you, it's too late. I hope she's moved on. I hope you feel every ounce of pain that you've put her through only ten times worse. Give it time. You're going to regret taking her for granted. I guarantee it." Cana smacked the scissors down on the table and marched away.

I sighed. Time to regret. I already had plenty of that.