Jellal tugged at the collar buttoned snugly at his neck. He desperately wanted to unbutton it but Anna's words stuck with him.

"You only get one chance to make a first impression, Jellal. You can handle a collar for an hour or two." He wanted to impress Erza's mother so he stuffed his hands into his pockets to keep them off his neck. Erza's front door swung open and her smile chased away his irritation.

"You made it!" She reached for his hand.

"Did you think I wouldn't?" Jellal leaned in and kissed her cheek.

"Well, my mom -" Erza paused and bit her lip before smiling once more. "It doesn't matter, you're here." She pulled him into the house and shut the door behind them.

Siegrain grinned and mashed the buttons on the controller as fast as he could. The television screen exploded in a mess of gunfire, smoke, and blood.

"Yes!" he howled, jumping to his feet. "I told you guys -" Siegrain lept back when his bedroom door flew open and Anna rushed inside, her mouth already moving at light speed. "Wait, what?" He peeled the headphones off his ears and tried to catch up.

"Jellal is in the hospital!" she cried. "We have to go now!"

"Hospital? What?"

"He's there and we have to go and I can't find any of the pens!"

"Mom, I can't understand you! What's happening?"

Anna froze and grasped his shoulders painfully tight. "Your brother is in the hospital and we have to leave now." She threw open his closet and pressed a pair of flip flops into his chest before disappearing around the corner.

Siegrain stood in the middle of his room staring after her before finally switching off the Xbox and following his mother down the hallway and stairs.

"Where's dad and Mystogan?"

"They were up at your brother's school for something, whatever, I don't know, but now they're on their way. We'll meet there. Have you got -" Anna spun around and Siegrain felt all the questions melt right off his tongue. He'd never seen his mother so frantic. "We need pens," she whispered.

"For Jellal? Mom, he's already at the hospital. They have that stuff there. Let's go." Siegrain pried the car keys from her hands and led the way to the garage. She didn't question whether or not he'd be okay to drive. Anna wordlessly slid into the passenger seat and wrung her hands all the way to the hospital.

XXX

The lights in the ER were bright and Anna flew straight into the waiting arms of Acnologia. He smoothed her hair but her tears wouldn't be calmed. Mystogan's face was placid but Siegrain wasn't fooled.

"What happened?" he whispered, taking a chair beside his brother.

"I dunno. We got a frantic call from mom and here we are. Something about Jellal and dinner with Erza."

"Do you think her mom tried to eat him?" Siegrain muttered, letting his head fall back against the wall. Mystogan pursed his lips.

"Is now really the time for cannibalism jokes?"

"Well," Siegrain said with a lopsided grin. "I don't think it's ever really the time for cannibalism jokes."

"Mister Fernandes?" a nurse asked softly.

"Yes." Acnologia stood and Anna popped up next to him, still clutching at his arm.

"You all can come back now. We've stabilized him."

"Can you tell us what happened?" Anna breathed.

"Your son ingested some peanut sauce according to his girlfriend. He actually chewed and swallowed a forkful of chicken with the sauce on it." The nurse paused and glanced over the chart in her hands. "It might seem silly of me to ask but he does know he has a moderate to severe peanut allergy, right?"

"He knows," Acnologia said dryly. "We will get to the bottom of this."

"Right. Well, if you'll all just follow me." The nurse led them down a hallway lined with beds separated by curtains and into a private room. Jellal's previously tidy dress shirt hung open to his mid-chest and he waved awkwardly as his family filed into the room. Erza's face was red and puffy, and Eileen brooded from the corner.

"Oh, Jellal," Anna said, overflowing with tears again. "Why?"

"Hey, mom," he said awkwardly accepting her with as much embarrassed grace as possible. "I'm fine."

"Your mother didn't ask you if you were fine," Acnologia said in a steady voice. "Why did you knowingly ingest a thing you are allergic to?"

"It's not his fault," Erza said with a sadness that Siegrain felt in the marrow of his bones. Even though her face was swollen with tears she struck him as the most beautiful thing on Earth. "It's mine."

"Yours?" Acnologia asked, quirking an eyebrow disbelievingly. Eileen sighed loudly from her corner.

"These children are both incredibly foolish. The fault lies with me. I unknowingly served the chicken and peanut sauce. I should've asked if the boy had allergies before preparing dinner."

"Jellal knows of his allergy," Acnologia said cautiously. "He knows what peanut products look and smell like. Surely the sauce wasn't that unrecognizable?"

"It wasn't," Jellal muttered almost inaudibly. The entire room fell silent. "I mean, I knew it was peanut sauce."

Anna stood back and glared. "Excuse me? Jellal, do you have a death wish?"

"No," he whispered. "I knew it was peanut and I ate it anyway." Jellal glanced over his shoulder at Eileen who's eyes were a terrifying golden color. "I'm sorry for the trouble I caused at dinner. I didn't want you to think I didn't like the food."

"So you ate a thing deadly to you in order to impress me?" She asked slowly.

"I did."

Eileen shook her head slowly and opened her mouth to reply but the nurse poked her head inside of the room and cleared her throat.

"I'm sorry to interrupt. We just need some signatures on the record and discharge." All of the adults followed her out of the room and Siegrain inched closer to Mystogan as Eileen walked past. He could feel the anger radiating off her. When the door clicked shut again, Erza's face darkened.

"How could you, Jellal?" she hissed angrily. "You scared me to death! You almost died! And for what? Some… some peanut sauce? Why didn't you tell me you had a peanut allergy?" Erza's voice rose with every word and Siegrain couldn't entirely mask his delight.

"I wanted to impress your mom and I thought I'd make her mad at me if I didn't eat her food," Jellal muttered, looking completely shamed.

"I don't even know what to say to you right now." Erza stood and smoothed her clothing. She headed for the door but stopped before she pulled it open. "I just can't believe you didn't tell me you had an important allergy all for the sake of dinner with my mother. I don't know how I can even trust you now."

Erza left Jellal and Mystogan gaping but Siegrain grinned as the door shut behind her.

"Wow she's pretty pissed," he said turning back around to face a truly dismayed Jellal and an incredulous Mystogan. "I guess you'll break up now?"

"Breakup?" Jellal whispered. "Do you think she was breaking up with me?" He slid off the edge of the bed and moved toward the door but immediately swayed and groaned. Mystogan grasped Jellal's arm and helped him back onto the bed.

"You know better than to lurch around after an epi-pen, Jellal. You can't chase her now. Give her a chance to cool off."

"I could talk to her!" Siegrain offered helpfully. Selfishly.

"I don't -" Mystogan started.

"Would you?" Jellal finished. "I'm really sorry and I'll tell her whatever she wants to know now even the size of my socks if she wants!"

"I'll see what I can do." Siegrain grinned and left his brothers behind in the room. At the end of the hall he could see Eileen and his parents still at the nurses station. He peeked out into the waiting room and his eyes snagged on a head of red hair near the far wall. Erza was hunched over and sobbing into her hands. All his plans of swooping into Jellal's place fizzled. He sighed and crossed the waiting room to the chair beside her. "Hey, are you alright?"

"No," she sobbed. "My stupid boyfriend ate something poisonous because he wanted to impress my mom. Of course I'm not alright!"

"Yeah," Siegrain murmured, running a hand through his hair. "Look, Erza, he didn't mean to upset you. Jellal is just really -" Stupid? "Intense sometimes."

"Why did he do this?" She wiped her face with the palms of her hands and Siegrain reached over to snatch a handful of tissues from a box sitting on top of a stack of magazines. Erza took the tissues and dried her cheeks but her eyes were still leaking. Siegrain sighed and glared down at his shoes.

"Because he loves you. Jellal did a stupid thing but you gotta forgive him, Erza. He's not gonna work right without you, okay?"

"Sieg -"

"Please? If you want to make him sweat it out for a day or two, I'll keep it under my hat but don't cut him off just because of this one stupid thing."

"Do you really think this'll be the only stupid thing he ever does?" she asked drly.

"No," Siegrain laughed, finally meeting her eyes. "He's gonna keep being stupid about you. Probably forever."

Erza sighed and picked apart her handfuls of tissue. "Tell him -"

"Erza," Eileen called softly from the middle of the room. She nodded toward the exit. "We should get going. Jellal needs rest and his poor mother needs a stiff drink."

"Okay, I'm coming." Erza stood and tossed the mess of tissue into a wastebasket and turned back to Siegrain. "Tell him I'll consider talking to him no earlier than Sunday. He needs to rest and recover his brains."

"I'll pass that on," Siegrain said, still grinning. Erza smiled and he felt the horrible but beautiful ache in his chest flare.

"And thank you," she whispered before turning to follow her mother outside. Siegrain watched the two of them go through the windows and cursed himself for using the small moments he had alone with Erza to fix what Jellal had fucked up.