"Good night, Lucy."

"Good night, Erza."

"I love you."

"I love you too."

The two women shared a quick kiss before pulling the covers up and closing their eyes. It had been a long day, but finally, they had finished moving in all of their stuff, where they would live together, and hopefully forever, as wife and wife. This was their first night in their very first home. Lucy wrapped her fingers around Erza's underneath the covers; she was so excited to see what tomorrow would bring for them.

A few hours later, Lucy felt a rather painful jab to her side.

"Gah!"

She shot up, almost leaping out of bed, but she looked over and saw that it had been Erza's foot. The red-haired woman seemed to be fussing about, although her eyes were still shut tight. Lucy stared at her for a few more seconds, witnessing the girl throw her arms around and her head thrashing back and forth. She seemed to be experiencing some sort of bad dream, or maybe she was in a state similar to sleep-walking, except for her it was 'sleep-fighting'.

Lucy reached out to her. "Erza-"

She was smacked across the face for her trouble. Unfortunately for Lucy, Erza's unnatural strength was in full force here, and she lost two teeth as well as a few ounces of blood from being slapped. Lucy staggered back. She couldn't believe Erza had just hit her that hard, no matter if she was asleep; could that be counted as domestic abuse? Lucy brushed her cheek; it was throbbing, tender to the touch. Her jaw was so numb she didn't even feel the pain, or notice the blood trickling from her lip. She was hesitant to try and shake Erza awake. So instead, she used her voice.

"Erza...Erza...come on, Erza, stop fooling around...open your eyes..."

Erza swung again. Lucy barely avoided it, being able to see it coming more clearly this time. She shouted Erza's name. Still no answer. Lucy dodged another strike at her face, but she wasn't lucky for long. The bottom of Erza's foot connected with Lucy's stomach. Lucy doubled over. As if somehow sensing that the blonde was wide open, Erza grabbed Lucy's left arm and snapped it, shattering the bone inside. She then reached over, grabbed Lucy by her hair, and tossed her off the bed like a doll. Lucy smacked into the ground, her back hitting the wooden paneling with a scream and a thud. Erza still did not wake up despite such a commotion she was causing.

"Ooh...Erza..." Lucy groaned, before finally, she slipped out of consciousness.

That next afternoon (since they had spent the morning at the local hospital)...

"I'm so...so...SO sorry, Lucy." Erza sobbed, repeating the phrase for the umpteenth time as she slipped a spoonful of soup through Lucy's lips. The poor woman could not eat anything except liquids or soft foods until her mouth healed. Lucy's stomach and back were wrapped up in gauze, a patch had been applied to the bruised cheek, and a cast kept her left arm concealed. Lucy sighed; she was not angry at Erza, believe it or not. She had forgiven the redhead for the most part, but she wanted to know the reasoning behind the unintentional assault, and if it was possible to stop from happening again. Lucy did not want to end up being sent to ER next time because of her wife's bizarre sleeping behavior.

"Erza...you keep apologizing, but I want to know what caused this. I mean, we've been in the same bedroom before, and I've been around you sleeping, and you've never done something like this before."

Erza blushed, lowering her head. "W-Well...it's happened before, mainly when I slept alone. I sometimes have...err, nightmares, I guess you can call them, about my childhood...the Tower of Heaven, and Jellal trying to kill me...I...I just immediately get the urge to fight back with all my might, to save myself, but...but I was kinda surprised that I ended up destroying my room in the process sometimes."

"Then...when you were around the others, or me...?"

"It's because I felt safe with you all. I knew I didn't have to worry about suffering like that again, because you are all my nakama, you're my family, and you would all protect me with your lives. I've learned this pretty well."

"But then, why last night? I mean, you have me there to keep you company, right?"

"It's because..." Erza sniffled, "I had a nightmare that they were trying to take you away from me."

Lucy couldn't help but smile. "Aww..."

"Although now I'm starting to wonder if I should just let them take you...they probably wouldn't beat you up as much as I have..." Erza sighed. It wasn't hard to tell that it would take a few days, maybe weeks, before she could forgive herself for basically beating her wife into submission. The doctors had been very skeptical of what happened until Lucy made up the excuse of 'tripping down the stairs'.

"I...I think we just need to work at it, really," Lucy grinned sheepishly. She would have given her wife a pat of encouragement if she could have used her hand at the moment. If there was any way she could have put a positive spin on this scenario, it meant Erza refused to ever let her go for anything.