©Fairy Tail and all of it's characters belong to Hiro Mashima.

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HEREAFTER ARC – PART 9

SHIPPER WARNINGS: Jerza. JERZA! Why brain. Why.
ALSO A WARNING: This chapter got fuckin' weird on me.

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CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE – RED ALL OVER

Rogue waited patiently after he told his best friend the story of what had happened with Lisanna. Once he made it back home to Sabertooth, Rogue was prepared for the onslaught of torture that would be thrown at him, knowing it would be followed by friendly advice and a pick-me-up, Sting style.

The dramatic, loud, teasing retort didn't come. Instead, Sting just stood there in front of him, completely expressionless.

"Oh fuck. Nothing? You're not even going to laugh at me? I knew it was bad but... Sting! You're scaring me! I NEED YOU MAN!"

Sting placed his hands on Rogue's shoulders, looked him in right in the eyes, and opened his mouth.

Then, he shut his mouth, shook his head, and pulled his distraught friend in for a giant hug.

"NO! For the love of god please Sting! Tell me how much of an idiot I am! Laugh in my face! Anything but this! Oh fuck. This time I really am going to need to change my name, aren't I."

It wasn't really a question, but Sting replied into Rogue's shoulder anyways.

"Brother. You're going to need to do a whole lot more than that if you want to live this one down."

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The guild went silent. Everyone watched as Erza walked slowly over to where Jellal was standing in the doorway. All eyes were on the two of them.

"Jellal."
"Erza Scarlet."

Erza stopped just barely a foot from the man and held his gaze for a second that seemed to last weeks for the held breaths of the celebrating members of Fairy Tail.

Then they said each other's names again, this time with a joyful shout, and she lept into his arms for an embrace that would surely make up for every second he had been away from her.

The guild let out their collective breath, Laxus' seeming especially relieved, and this time the whole lot of them cheered for his return. Jellal set Erza down at his side, her blushing only slightly less than he, and they moved to congratulate Levy and Gajeel together.

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"And so what? Just because I'm your partner you own me or something?!"
"HEY! I never said that! I'm just trying to protect you Lucy!"
"From what!? Who are you? My dad or something?"
"Gross!"
"What the hell?!"
"NO! I don't mean your dad is gross!"

This hadn't stopped since they left the guild.

Happy noticed Natsu and Lucy leaving and decided to follow them. He thought maybe they would stop at the cafe, but they walked right past, too focused on yelling at each other to even notice Happy trailing them. When they got close to Lucy's house, he was certain they would stop there and eat her food, but they turned early and kept on shouting at each other. Finally, Natsu and Happy's house came into view. Still Lucy and Natsu were too focused on their nonsense argument to notice their stalker.

Happy didn't think they even noticed where they had walked to.

"And on top of that! You always-"
"Oh don't even try and start that one again!"

*Slam!*

When the door slammed shut in Happy's face, and he could hear Natsu and Lucy still yelling inside, he was sure of it. So Happy devised a plan.

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They stayed for another hour before heading to the home they had bought together. Jellal and Erza knew when they bought the house it was too big. Too big for all the nights Erza would have to spend alone in it, so she kept her place in Fairy Hills for when he was gone, and used the home for storage. As it turned out, the big house wasn't too big after all.

When they were there together, the days he could be with her, only two rooms were needed anyways- the kitchen, and the bedroom.

Time out.

Where is Loke when an omniscient narrator needs him? Although I suppose he wasn't actually there for chapter four anyways... I'm getting sidetracked. If you remember the chapter UP TOO LATE, Erza had herself an interesting night with Cana and Laxus that resulted in a... oh, never mind. Even I am getting OOC at this point. I'll just let Erza explain it.

"I've missed you with every fibre of my being Jellal."
"And I you. Deeply. Nearly every night in fact."

They both blushed at the thought of what Jellal had implied.

"I as well. Although there was one night..."
"A story for me Erza? It couldn't be more exciting than your last one... could it?"

Erza did not blush, she winked.

"Now that I think about it, I recall a certain very large guild member having an interesting reaction to my return... my interest is piqued."
"You don't know the half of it."
"Then I suggest we make our way to the bedroom."

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"And don't even get me started on the time you-"
"We agreed we wouldn't talk about that ever again!"

"WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP?!"

At the sound of Happy's voice, Natsu and Lucy seemed to finally realize where they were... where they had absentmindedly walked too during their argument.

"What the heck?"
"I knew you were a pervert Natsu! What are we doing in your room?!"
"I don't know! I was following you!"
"What!? I was following you-"

"THATS IT! You two are going on... on... A TIME OUT! I'm not getting tortured by Erza! So you two better work this out!"

"A time out? What are you talking about Happy?"
"What do you mean not getting tortur-"

Before Lucy could finish, Happy slammed the door to Natsu's room shut and locked the screaming idiots in.

"Sorry guys. I promise I'll come back and let you out once you stop being so mean to each other."

"What do you mean come back! Don't leave us here you stupid cat!"
"Why does my door even lock from the outside?!"

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Jellal laid down on the gigantic bed in he and Erza's bedroom. She tended to him, removing his boots, his jacket, everything he had on aside from his underwear, then climbed on top of their bed, and on top of him.

"Don't you have something to share with me, Scarlet?"
"Well... you remember Laxus, don't you Jellal? Big, muscular guy, sexy lighting bolt scar... blonde?"
"I do. I've been waiting for a story about that one."
"Oh I'm not done."

Erza felt Jellal hardening beneath her when she said that.

"Now I know you would never forget Cana."
"Only my favourite recurring character."

As she began to tell the story of her night of fun shared with Laxus and Cana, Erza stroked Jellal and ran her fingers across his chest.

That's right. It was not kept hidden her adventures during his absence. Erza told him every dirty detail. And he was not angry, quite the contrary. He loved it.

Because Jellal, is a total fucking cuck.

It was not that he didn't satisfy her, or had doubts in his own sexual prowess, far from it in fact. He just genuinely enjoyed and became heavily aroused by the idea of Erza getting fucked, licked and pleasured by other men and/or women. He loved to hear stories of her dirty adventures while he was away, he looked forward to it, encouraged them even. She came to feel he same way after a time.

More than any Fairy Tail relationship, Erza and Jellal's was not founded on or strengthened by their sex. Their physical attraction to each other was merely a link in the chain of love they had for each other. They spent what felt like lifetimes apart, hurting each other, hurting themselves, longing in ways few others could even come close to comprehending. Something as petty as jealousy in their relationship? Now that they finally had each other, the devil himself couldn't come between them.

How this particular kink came to be known is something to be unraveled another day. The important thing is that Erza was not technically cheating on her fiancé, her late night activities actually pleased him very much.

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"But we just got out of a cell! I really don't want to have to burn down my own house..."
"Maybe Happy is right. We shouldn't be fighting like this Natsu. I don't even know why we are anymore."
"You're right Luce. Good plan!"
"Yeah. Wait... what?"
"If we stay quiet enough Happy will think we aren't fighting anymore and come back and let us out!"

Lucy has a signature fighting move. What was that called again? Oh right!

"LUCY KICK!"
"Ahhh! Why!? I said it was a good plan!"
"I was trying to actually make up you idiot!"
"That's a way better idea. You should have gone with that plan the first time."

She likes me this way. I just want everything to go back to normal. I'll be goofy Natsu Lucy. I just want my best friend back. Locked in a room together again though? I've got to watch what I say this time! Uh oh... shit.

Natsu was pulled from his thoughts by Lucy's sigh as she laid down on his bed. He was sure he had never seen her there before, and something about her covering up in his sheets got to him, really got to him. At her house, everything smelled like her and he added to it, but having her here was something else.

Here in his room, his scent enveloped hers, and somehow it made him want to make her his even more. It was like his nose could suddenly see, and it saw him and Lucy, tangled up together on that bed. He wanted nothing more than to close his eyes to make that smell-vision the only thing that was real, but he kept them open and sat down beside her instead.

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"And then what did he do?"
"He asked me to crawl over to him, on top of the table beside Cana."
"Did you do as he asked?"
"I did. But I requipped first."
"What did you requip into?"
"This."

Erza now wore the tiny black lingerie set she had worn that night she was telling Jellal about. He smiled, and ran his hands along her thighs. She braced herself on his chest, and bent down to kiss him, and he let his fingers trace their way along her back.

"What did he do to you when you got onto the table Erza?"
"He pushed my panties to the side, and he slid two fingers inside me."
"Was he rough with you?"
"He was."
"And you liked how rough he was? Did he do it like this?"
"I did, I do. He did it just like that, and I moaned his name."
"What did that sound like?"

Jellal did as Erza described to him, and felt how wet she was. He had one hand on her hip, and two fingers from the other were sliding in and out of her. She sat up a bit so he could have more freedom to move his hand, and leaned back against his knees while letting him hear the way she moaned for Laxus.

"Sounds like you quite enjoyed that."
"Mmmm, I did. Cana did as well."
"He played with both of you at the same time? Courteous man."
"He was quite pleased with himself. He liked to hear us, mmmm, saying his name."
"Did you cum for him? On his fingers."
"Not his fingers."
"Mmmm, so what did he do then?"
"He asked which of us wanted him first."
"Who wanted him first Erza? Did you beg for him to fuck you?"
"We both wanted him. Ahhhh."
"Oh my, that must have been hard for him. How did he solve that problem?"

The two played with each other until the sun came up. She teased him and he teased answers out of her. It was fun for them, knowing any pleasure of hers belonged to both of them. They came together as she told her story to him, and again just staring into each other's eyes. They finally fell asleep wrapped around each other. They never talked about when he might have to leave next, because that took too much time away from their time together. They never had to say when will you be back, or I will miss you, because they already knew all of those answers and more.

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"No. Fucking. Way! I can't believe you still have this! Put it on. Right now. Hahaha!"

Lucy held out the outfit Natsu had gotten from the people at Cait Shelter. It only took about 30 minutes for them to apologize, because neither was capable of staying mad at the other. Especially, for some reason, when they were locked in a room together. By the time both of them were relaxed, Lucy loudly declared her boredom, and started rifling through Natsu's stuff, hence the old outfit she found.

"Hey! Quit goin' through my stuff!"
"Please. Your stuff is all over the floor Natsu, I'm going through your closet."
"Makes sense. What else is in there?"

For a good hour Lucy and Natsu laughed and reminisced over the random 'costume changes' he had been storing in his closet. The tattered outfit Virgo gave him, his Grand Magic Games uniform, Edo-Natsu's goggles for some reason.

Near the back of his closet, Lucy hit the jackpot.

"Oh. Yes."
"What is it?"
"Just please, put this on."
"Huh? But this isn't awesome, this is just an o-"
"Shhh! Just do it."

Lucy really had tried. Genuinely tried not to watch him changing from one thing to another, but it was a lost cause from the beginning. She saw him in his boxers plenty of times, but right now, locked in his room with him, what could she have done? His chest flexed when he pulled off his shirt, and again when he pulled down his pants and every time she thought how can I get him to just not put any of it back on.

Then she found that in his closet.

A perfectly shitty, ratty, old, white, baggy t-shirt. Beside that was a pair of equally shitty black sweatpants. You know the kind, the ones that guys wear and they show off everything because they hang so fucking perfectly. She watched him putting them on, and then he turned around to face her.

"Oh my fuck."

At first Natsu was confused by her reaction, but he could tell where her eyes were looking, and there was that smell thing from before, and he decided it might be a good idea to tease her.

"I don't get it Luce. Why did you want me to put this on?" Natsu lifted the baggy t-shirt up to the centre of his stomach, exposing the low-hanging waistband of his pants, and of course just the right amount of his abs to her.

"Ohhh, shit."

Her reaction only egged him on, and he took it further.

"These are way too baggy for me. I don't even know where I got them." He tugged at the waistband of his pants and stepped a little closer to her, knowing he was exposing just the right amount of pin-

"OH MY GOD I KNEW IT WOULD BE PINK! HAHAHAHA!"
"What!? What's pi-"
"THE CARPET MATCHES THE DRAPES NATSU! AHAHAHAHAHA!"
"HEY! WHY IS THAT FUNNY!? AND IT'S LIKE... lightish red."
"BAAAAA HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Natsu's plan hadn't quite worked out in his favor, and instead of Lucy blushing over him, he was now turning... lightish red, himself. When Lucy was finally don't laughing, she sat beside him on the bed and put her arm around his shoulders.

"You can't just laugh at a man like that Lucy."
"Whoa, cool it Elfman. It's cute."
"Ohhh great. Much better."
"Relax, all the girls will love it."
"Do you?"
"Huh?"

At this point, Natsu considered turning the conversation in another direction. That's a lie, he didn't. He couldn't have kept it in any longer even if he wanted to. As soon as they walked into that room together any hope of him not saying something like what he was about to say was lost. Not that he had planned it or anything, because if he had it most likely would have been much smoother.

"I said do you like it?"
"Are you literally asking me whether or not I like your pu-"

Natsu cut Lucy off and stood in front of her. You see the lead in to this next part was probably not smooth, but one could argue in favor of what he did next.

Natsu took off his shirt. And his pants. And everything else until he was down to just boxers, in front of Lucy, who was sitting on his bed, and he put his arms out and looked Lucy in the eye and asked her again whether or not she liked it.

When Lucy looked at him she knew he had not, in fact, been asking her whether or not she liked his pubes.

Natsu was asking her whether or not she liked his everything.

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Loke took one last look around Fairy Tail, trying to shake an odd feeling that the author of his grand story nearly forgot to put him in this chapter. He couldn't help but think a much more fitting end was occurring elsewhere simultaneously, but also previously. All of his thoughts were wrong however, because this seemingly pasted on paragraph of his adventure was actually planned from the beginning.

Loke left Fairy Tail, because he was running out of women to try and make his lifelong love, and he remembered something about another guild where running out of women would be all but impossible.

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Why did my brain do this?

It's blocking up. I'm about to take a break for a few days, but Ill be back soon, hopefully with a less stupid brain, and I hope someone enjoys until then.

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NEXT CHAPTER: HOLY GRAIL
My chapter outline for HOLY GRAIL is just one word repeated over and over again...