A/N: This was inspired by a post on Tumblr about Erza and Jellal kissing in the dawn after they had defeated Tartarus.
When Erza woke up from her unconscious state, she instantly felt being attacked by a serious headache which followed by immense pain shooting through her body. She kept her eyes closed and lying prostrate, waiting for the headache and the pain to lessen while trying to focus her mind to remember what had happened. As scattered memories of Fairy Tail and Crime Sorcière joining forces to fight against the demons from Zereef's books emerged, her eyes snap opened, clouded with fear.
Where are my comrades?
Where are Jellal and his guild members?
With some difficulties, Erza sat up from the ground with the help of her own hands. Looking around, she was disappointed and scared to find that she was all alone by herself. She tried to remember again how she was being separated from the others but failed this time as the ache in her head intensified.
I must find them!
Erza grabbed the sword laid beside her and used it as a crutch to support her to stand up. Having steadied herself, she considered for a moment which direction she should take before started walking to the north.
The night was not over yet. Erza had to rely on the light provided by the fire burning here and there in the ruins in order to move on under the dark sky. She shouted out a number of familiar names on her way to unknown destination, hoping to receive some responses, any response, from those names' masters.
"Erza!"
Erza's heart skipped a beat when she suddenly heard a small voice calling her name from afar. She stopped moving immediately and looked around, trying to spot the one who called her. But the light of the fire was not bright enough for her to do the searching with her eyes in long distance. So she waited, hoping to hear her name one more time so that she could locate where it came from.
"Erza!"
The second calling appeared after five seconds. This time, since that the voice sounded louder and closer and that Erza had prepared herself to catch it, she successfully figured out that the voice was coming from her left side.
"I'm here!" Erza shouted back and turned to walk to where the voice came from. Her heart was pounding hard in her chest as she was excited to find another survivor beside herself. She tried to speed up her walking pace to meet with this person who was looking for her but her injured legs refused to obey her will.
"Erza!"
"Here!"
They kept shouting back and forth to indicate their locations to each other. As the voice of the mysterious person became louder and clearer to hear, Erza also found it sound more familiar to her. Her eyes widened when the realization of who this person was hit her.
"Jellal! Is that you, Jellal?"
The dark covering the land had turned to light orange by this time, implying that the night had been pushed way by the rising sun. Erza's eyes kept searching for a blue-haired man in the dim light of the early dawn while she forced her legs to move faster until she finally saw a tall figure with a head of striking blue hair running quickly to her.
"Jellal!" Erza's voice was hoarse from shouting. She took one more step forwards before her legs finally gave in due to pain and exhaustion. The sword dropped as her grip on it loosened and her knees followed to hit the ground.
"Erza!"
The next thing Erza knew was that she was being trapped between Jellal's strong muscular arms and his bandaged broad chest.
"I found you. I found you finally." He whispered huskily into her ears while tightening his hold on her.
Hesitantly, Erza's hands came up to hold Jellal on both sides of his waist; her eyes filled with tears.
"You did, Jellal. Thank you. But what had happened exactly? I remembered Fairy Tail and Crime Sorcière fighting Tartarus but couldn't remember how I ended up here alone. Where is everyone?"
"Don't worry. Fairy Tail and Crime Sorcière has occupied Tartarus' Cube as our temporary command centre. Your friends are safe; although some were injured quite seriously, they are safe from dying. So do Crime Sorcière's members."
Erza let out a relieved sigh after hearing Jellal's confirmation on the safety of her comrades and his guild. She snuggled closer to Jellal to let his body warm envelope her whole being. It felt so comfortable, so secure, to be in his embrace; all the pains she felt seemed to die away.
"And why I was not with everyone in the Cube?" Erza asked Jellal again, hoping to find the last missing piece of her memory.
"You fought Minerva and your magic clashed with her curse which resulted in a large explosion. When the smoke from the explosion faded, she was found being knocked out by your attack but you had disappeared from the battlefield. For a moment, we were really devastated to think that you were erased completely from this world by Minerva."
Erza could feel Jellal's body shaking slightly when he recalled her disappearance.
"I'm here with you now." Stretching her arm a little bit, she patted him gently on his back to comfort him. "So what made you think I might not be dead?"
"I could still feel your presence in my heart even you had disappeared. It was the same feeling I had when you was locked in Tenrou Island and was considered being dead. So I strongly believed that you were still alive. My guess was that you might only be transported to somewhere else because Minerva's curse was the same as her magic which could manipulate space. After telling others my views, we decided that it was in fact too early to give up our hope and some of us including myself started a search for you. I was so grateful and so relieved that I not only founded you, but found you alive, Erza."
Jellal pulled back a little without releasing Erza from his hold. Erza raised her head to look at Jellal. Her eyes roamed from his chin, to his lips, then his nose, before they finally locked with his. She felt her heart melted as he gazed at her with intense emotions in his eyes.
"I don't think I can stand losing you one more time, Erza. It felt like my world had crumbled when I lost sight of you after the explosion. Part of me seemed to die as well followed your sudden disappearance. " Jellal's lips were now trembling. "I knew that giving up living is never an option for me as I've promised you that I'll live on no matter what happens. But a world without you would be living hell for me. In fact I have experienced it once and as much as I'm willing to punish myself, this is an experience I never want to have again. I love you so much, Erza, and I need you to always stay in my life!"
The tears swelled up in Erza's eyes finally fell down. Jellal's sudden confession was too much for her to handle.
"I love you too, Jellal!"
In a spit second, Jellal had leaned down to seal Erza's lips with his. Erza wrapped her hands around Jellal's neck while Jellal moved one of his hands to the back of her head to push her closer to deepen their kiss. They seemed to glow as the rays of red light radiating from the sun fell on them.
They broke the kiss when they felt the need to breathe but let their forehead touch instead; both wore a satisfying smile on their faces.
"Let's go back to our guilds now." Jellal said. "Don't make them worry about us anymore."
Erza nodded, before leaning in to kiss Jellal on the lips once again. When their lips parted, Jellal carried Erza bridal style and started walking to the west under the red morning sky which was just as beautiful as the color of Erza's hair.
A new day had just begun.