Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Title: Left Eye
Pairing: Cobra x Jellal
Requester: anonymous
Prompt: "I love your left eye"
It was strange, how it had never healed properly. He had injured both equally when he'd fought against the former Oracion Seis, so they should have healed the same, right? But here he was – his vision dark on one side and likely no way to repair the damage done. Not after so long, anyway. He supposed there was some sort of poetic justice in it. It was the same eye that Erza had lost, after all.
Learning to navigate and fight without his depth perception was difficult. As time went on, it became easier. Not just in that Jellal learned to adapt and to adjust for it, but also in the strange care the condition brought out in the former Oracion Seis members, particularly in Erik.
Honestly, Jellal hadn't expected any of them to stick around once his infirmity became known to them. A Jellal with no depth perception was a Jellal that could not hit them with any of his spells. It was a Jellal that could not reinforce or impose his will with power. He could not stop them from leaving if they really wanted to, and especially not if they resented him for his actions.
Instead, however… it seemed to cement something in their relationship. The vulnerability made him easier to trust, somehow. And he found that they would occasionally open up to him.
When he asked Erik about it, the man had grunted, and muttered something about understanding sacrifices.
After that, Erik had made a concentrated effort to help him out with his depth perception. Sometimes it was something small, like placing the object Jellal was trying to pick up into his hand. Other times, he'd coach him in how to adjust the target of his spells.
Eventually, Jellal grew to no longer need the assistance. But his closeness with Erik remained. To the point that Erik had once joked that, "Between the pair of us, we have a perfect set of eyes."
"What do you think, of my losing an eye?" Jellal hadn't known what possessed him to ask that, but he had all the same. "Tell me honestly, Erik."
The man had stared at him for a long moment, his gaze no less piercing for coming from one eye. "I love your left eye," he finally told him. "That you were willing to lose a part of yourself for us, was what allowed us to trust you."
That answer stuck with Jellal for a very long time.
