vi.
—
"Luxus came and told me himself."
Erza's flustered, incredulous face stares over at Jellal's, hot broccoli soup steam teasing under her nostrils. Her fingers squeeze around her spoon, Ursa's suckling at her bottle the only sound to accompany this new piece of information.
"…You mean, he came to you a while ago and…explained why I was helping him…"
"I mean he came to me and made me give him my word," he mutters warm as firelight, "that in his absence, I would make sure you felt safe with the baby."
Erza's spatial plane tips sharply, she and Jellal suddenly pop up illustrations in a book she imagines Luxus scrawling over with a quill and tender words, large hands touching every dried loop so it knows how special it is in the grand scheme. It blows her mind, it makes her feverish, it pipes sweet icing around the finished image of her senior.
He is a good man. She already knows this. Now Jellal is sitting here with a satisfied smile, probably thinking the exact same thing.
"I told him he could count on me."
Her smile is plump and relaxed, hand pulling the bottle away from Ursa so she can burp her.
"He picked a good man for the job."
The blue mark over her companion's eye shifts with his easy grin; his arms push his empty bowl away and fold so he can sit back to admire her acquired skills.
"It was a bit of a surprise to see you like that, all bundled and completely aware of your surroundings. If picking me as a guardian was a good choice, I'd say the best one was putting his faith in you."
"I've never been so paranoid," she admits, patting Ursa's back gently. "I'm not very graceful…not like real mothers…"
"I doubt he cares about that," he assures her. "Luxus isn't a graceful man himself."
He takes his coat from the back of his chair and stands over her. She blinks in innocent surprise when he leans over to kiss her forehead.
"I heard about the job he took," he says before opening the door. "It was the most difficult one on the board. Natsu's ranting tipped me, anyway."
Erza pushes some red hair from her eyelashes, blushing.
"He told me he wants to pay for my apartment too, the fool. He'll get himself killed. I told him I'd take my turn soon enough."
Jellal chuckles and says on his way out, "Don't deny a man his chance to take care of something important to him."
The click of the deadbolt becomes the memory of intense eyes as they turn their back on her with a final command.
"Wait for me."
Erza sits in her chair staring down the door handle until Ursa falls asleep in her arms.
—