As the summer slowly crawled to a close Jellal spent more of his afternoons at the school trying to prepare for the upcoming fall semester; he liked his classroom to have variations between sessions and it took some effort. Erza dropped a bit of a bomb on him the night before and he still wasn't sure how to handle it. Time alone doing menial tasks like counting and diving markers, and labeling cubby baskets would help him think things through.
"Knock, knock!" Ultear popped her head into his classroom. "Wow. You're already so much more further along than me." She glanced around before making herself comfortable in his desk chair.
"Don't you think if you're behind you should be handling that instead of lounging in my chair?" Jellal teased.
"Nah, this is more interesting. How are things with Erza? I saw you two at the food truck event in the park with her son but I didn't get a chance to say anything."
"Things are fine."
"Fine?" She quirked an eyebrow. "That's not really a word commonly used to describe a blissfully new relationship."
Jellal sighed and rolled his eyes. He should've known better than to drop his guard around Ultear. "I'm just distracted. Things are great."
"Great, huh?" She prodded him silently and he didn't even have to look in her direction to know she was doing it.
"You're so nosey, Ultear."
"Why do these things still surprise you?" She let him gather his thoughts. Jellal always needed time to compose himself before dumping information.
"Rogue's paternal grandmother is coming to Magnolia for a week before school starts again and Erza is really stressed out about it."
"Is she an unpleasant woman or something?"
"According to Erza she's pretty bitter about her son's death and there's a lot of blame she likes to throw around. Moving away from Crocus and separating her from Rogue is still a huge area of contention between them." Jellal carefully stacked the boxes of crayons on a shelf and turned around. "This kind of family discord isn't new to me but it's been a very long time since I've had to deal with it."
"Is she asking you to stay away while the woman is in town?"
"I offered to keep a distance during the visit just so things would go smoother but I think Erza hated that idea even more than the prospect of her hating me outwardly."
"How does the kid feel about it?"
"I think he's indifferent. I guess it's just Erza she takes issue with."
"Wow. That sounds like a hornet's nest of a problem. I bet you didn't think you'd be faced with Meet the Family drama three months in."
"I know. I don't want to interfere at all. Erza and I haven't been together very long so I don't even feel like this is something I'm entitled to have an opinion on."
"But she's telling you how she feels and has asked for your presence and support so it must be a big deal for her."
Jellal sighed. "It is. I can tell it's quite a big deal."
"New topic." Ultear's control of their conversations sometimes gave him whiplash. "Besides all this family drama, are you happy with her?"
"I am." Jellal smiled wistfully.
"Well, I'm glad to see you've finally relieved your tension."
His face turned red and he frowned. "Good grief, Ultear." She laughed for a moment before cutting off abruptly at his discomfort.
"Oh, my god!" she gasped. "You haven't! Jellal! How can you date for almost the entire summer and not sleep with her yet?!"
"Because! There's… reasons!"
"I'm very curious about these reasons."
"Well, for one thing Rogue is always around and I'm not sure I'm okay with… things progressing… in a room down the hall from where he sleeps." He stumbled over his words and Ultear giggled with embarrassing delight.
"You do realize that couples who live together and have more than one child copulate within walking distance of the already existing children, right?"
"Of course I know that!"
"Then what on earth is the problem?"
"Well I can't leave Milliana overnight either and –"
"Jellal. I swear to god if you bring up your cat one more time in a conversation about love and relationships I'll have to knock some sense into you myself."
"Okay, okay. The truth is I don't want sex with Erza to just be a quick bang in the bed where I have to leave afterwards because of…" Ultear glared at him in a warning. "Outside responsibilities… and I don't know how Erza feels about Rogue going to sleep with me there and waking up seeing I'm still around."
"And you haven't even discussed it?"
"We have… a little. I just…" Ultear laughed loudly and shook her head.
"I'm teasing you, and I'm sorry. It's obvious that you're such a romantic at heart that you have this idea that your first time with her should be special, and that's fine! But I think you know that life doesn't always leave room for rose petals and romance. I can't believe you'd leave a lady hanging all summer. That's shameful. Erza is probably wondering what she's doing wrong."
"I've made a mess of things, haven't I?" Ultear stood from his chair and grinned.
"No, not totally. When does the old lady come in?"
"Tonight, I think."
"Well, by the time she leaves I'm sure Erza will be so wound up it won't take much to get her going."
"Thanks for using small words so I can understand them, Ultear," Jellal said dryly. She only laughed as she walked out of his classroom.
He'd been advised to call her Doctor Falcon; only Rogue was granted special privilege to use grandma. Erza informed him that the woman had been a pianist in her day and liked to tout her experience playing for many a royal ear across the globe. By the time Bacchus and Erza had begun dating she'd already retired and tutored only the wealthiest young girls in Crocus from her home - as even a position at the royal academy had been beneath her. Jellal thought she had to be exaggerating – no one person could possibly be so insufferably elitist.
Doctor Falcon's train turned out to be several hours late and under duress, that she apologized for several times, Erza asked if Jellal minded looking after Rogue while she went to collect the elderly woman from the station. The night was half over and the boy was already asleep and she didn't want to wake him just for the quick trip. He assured her that it wasn't a problem and kissed her on the forehead before she left.
When he heard Erza's keys in the front door upon her return his heart leapt into his throat and he unconsciously straightened his shirt. He hadn't planned on being present for the older woman's arrival and his pants probably had traces of Milliana on them. Hopefully the Doctor Falcon wasn't allergic to cats. A cantankerous voice carried from the entryway.
"I just don't see what the problem would've been in bringing the boy with you instead of leaving him with a stranger!"
"Jellal isn't a stranger, Doctor Falcon."
"He may as well be. I'll reserve my own judgment but what would Bacchus say if he knew you left his son with a strange man?"
Jellal cringed. Erza hadn't been exaggerating at all. Doctor Falcon was a nightmare and she hadn't even been in the house for more than five minutes.
"He was Rogue's teacher this last school year and I trust him completely. Besides, I stopped caring abo –"
"You're back!" Jellal slipped into the hallway just in time to keep Erza from finishing her sentence. She grimaced at him and he wanted to embrace her in a sympathetic gesture.
"So you're the stranger looking after my grandson?" Doctor Falcon wasn't at all what he'd pictured. She was tall and slender with a graceful mane of solid grey hair that looked perfectly coiffed despite the hour and a lengthy train experience. He tried to tell himself that Porlyusica was much more terrifying but this woman's eyes seemed to slice right through him.
"Jellal," Erza spoke up. "This is Doctor Falcon, Rogue's grandmother. Doctor Falcon, this is Jellal Fernandes."
"Fernandes, hm?" She inspected the tattoo on his face unapologetically with narrowed eyes. "I met your father once; you look just like him in his youth. Dreadful man. Don't think you can inflict your family's barbarous ways on Rogue. If you even think of marking him –"
"Doctor Falcon!" Erza exclaimed in horror.
"I assure you that is the farthest thing from my mind," Jellal interjected smoothly. "My father was exactly as dreadful as you say, though."
"Hm," she muttered. "What on Earthland are you doing all the way over here? Shouldn't you be across the sea sitting in the government house?"
He laughed lightly and shoved his hands into his pockets. "Probably, but I had a bit of a rebellious stage, I guess. I decided I'd let my sisters handle all of that and run off to teach instead."
"What do you suppose your old goat of a father would say if he knew?"
"Oh, if he were still alive he'd probably call me a bitter disappointment." He grinned charmingly. "But between you and me, it certainly wouldn't be the first time he said such a thing."
Doctor Falcon eyed him shrewdly for a several long seconds before sweeping past. "Erza, I'd like some tea before bed. I'll wait in the kitchen while you say goodbye to your guest."
"Jellal!" Erza whispered. "You've got some serious nerve! I've never seen anyone speak to her that way and not be flayed in return!"
"I've got a lot of experience with grouchy people, I guess." He shrugged and wrapped his arms around her. "I honestly thought you were exaggerating when you described her to me."
"Ugh, I wish."
"I better go before she has a fit about waiting. Call me tomorrow?"
She smiled up at him. "I will. You may need to talk me off a ledge."
"Anything for you." He kissed her goodbye and left her to handle Doctor Falcon on her own.
To Erza's continued surprise the week passed smoothly. Doctor Falcon kept her barbs under control and didn't complain when Jellal joined them for dinner several times. Despite how she treated adults, the woman never had anything but sweet words for her grandson. She exclaimed generously at his dragon collection and had no complaints against listening to him talk her ear off about his fascinations.
On the night before her final day in Magnolia she played the piano for them – though, only after a complaint that Erza's piano was an upright and not the grand she was used to. Erza melted into Jellal's side on the couch as Rogue leaned his head against his grandmother's shoulder as she played. The music ebbed and swelled, filling the house with its intoxicating presence. Jellal wasn't sure if the piece was meant to be a lullaby but Rogue drifted off to sleep all the same. Erza collected him in her arms and excused herself to put him in bed.
"I'm not going to mince words with you, Jellal Fernandes. I don't throw around useless compliments, but I'm glad she has you." Doctor Falcon spoke to him from her place on the piano bench. He arched an eyebrow in surprise, and decided not to mince words with her either.
"You realize, though, that Erza doesn't need me. She and Rogue were doing quite well before I ever came into the picture."
"Oh, I don't deny that. Erza has always been a well put together young woman. I know she… well she tried with my son but –" The older woman sighed heavily and brought the cover down over the keys. "Bacchus was always his father's child - wild and unkempt. In the end it was that incorrigible nature that killed him."
"I'm sorry for your loss, Doctor Falcon."
"And I am sorry for yours." She looked over at him with those deadly eyes of hers and he understood her to mean his entire family. "I'd tell you to take good care of my family here but, as we've just concluded, it's unnecessary as Erza can handle herself and –" She stood and prepared to take her leave. "I know that you will."
Doctor Falcon left him alone in the living room and he thought that despite all her spines and stings, she wasn't a bad person.