3rd POV

Many months later

(Temporary TS)

"How are you?" Jellal asked calmly. Erza stared at him from a few feet away, knowing that if they were to be any closer, it would cause all sorts of trouble. She sighed, sweat rolling down her temple as she flipped her blood red locks. She looked down at her dying out victim on the concrete road and then back at Jellal.

"I'm figuring things out." She said in a nearly irritated tone. "Y'know just doing my job. How about you? How's everything?" Jellal looked down at the cooling cement of an abandoned neighborhood. After the world spending hours in the scorching sun, everyone was in need of the cool haze of the moon. A full one, at that.

"It's... definitely different." Both paused, not wanting to look into each other's eyes out of the pure guilt and fear that ate out their hearts. "Erza..." he began again, a heavy pressure building on his broad shoulders. "I-... I think we should talk."

"More importantly..." she nearly cut him off, a lump catching in her sore throat. "Why are you speaking with me?"

"What do you mea-"

"You know what I mean, Jellal..." she practically seethed, refraining from yelling. Jellal scowled in her direction and squinted.

"We're just two sad, crappy people. I fucked you over. You fucked me over." He clenched his teeth. "It's funny how one night that shouldn't have happened can completely change your life.

"I hate you." She responded. Jellal glared at her, thousands of thoughts running through his empty head. His irises swam with frustration down at his former lover, he clenched a fist.

"You think I don't know that!? Because I don't think you understand the fact that I fucking hate you as well!!!" A few tears spilled from Erza's eyes. "I hate you so much that I can't fucking stand it!!! I hate seeing you cry when it was you who fucked up!!! I feel nauseous just thinking about how petty and audacious you are!!! I hate everything!!! How I was clueless for almost four years!!! The way you look at me!!! Even if you don't, your eyes scream that they patronize me!!! The fact that no one is on my side!!! But guess what???? I can't fucking do anything about it because I'm not in control of anything that happens around me anymore!!!! I can't even have you anymore and that's the most infuriating part!!!!" His voice seethed with low growls between sentences. Although he was unable to properly convey all of his thoughts, he was glad he said what he did. Because despite what he did believe; despite his morals, it was true. He did in fact miss her in every fathomable way.

Natsu paced through Phoenix's halls, a surge of an unfamiliar emotion flooding him. Anxiety. Heavy anxiety. Of course, he had experienced this before but it wasn't very often that he found he wanted to kill someone for such a long period of time. He furrowed his eyebrows and turned to the table at his side. He growled at his tea cup and glared at the calming liquid. His fist crashed through the wooden surface, voice yelling out in frustration. The tea fell off the side and landed on the hard wood below him, spilling everywhere. Wendy bursted through his door and squinted, vexed. At least it would be some form of entertainment for a while. After all, having your boss in a team was difficult when he had to work on things other than just murdering, spying and interrogating. He would spend a lot of his time thinking up plans to maybe launch a coup d'ètat, or making phone calls to people who knew about their organization and were interested in joining (if they met the requirements). Therefore, nowadays Wendy would seldom get the chance to do what others did. And although being with Natsu had its perks, she was also bored all day. So maybe some drama would help her out.

"What the hell happened, boss??? Why the hell are you losing your mind today!?!?" About a week had passed since the day Siegrein appeared. And he was still on the minds of too many. "Tell me what happened so I can hug you or something. No one really likes seeing you upset, it's fucking terrifying..." she grunted in agitation, slightly embarrassed of her statement.

"Siegrein." He inaudibly raged. "He's back.."

"Who the hell is this Siegrein guy?? Never heard of the clown." She rolled her brown eyes, knowing he would not notice her remark.

"Get Jerome. Right now." Wendy hesitated for a moment, staring at the intense look in her boss's eyes. She contemplated retorting or maybe asking why she should. But the fact he was completely serious, made her brain tell her to do what he said. And so she dashed through the halls, searching for Jellal frantically. Glancing in every room she could find, he was no where. She was muddled at the fact that for a long time she was unable to find him. The building was big. But it wasn't huge and there were only so many rooms. Until finally, she reached a door she had not yet entered. She slammed it open with one hand, the handle smashing against the wall and bouncing the door back and fourth. Her mind scattered in concern, her eyes completely ignored the sight of Erza on top of Jellal and the two eating each other's faces out. Both of them paused and looked up at the younger blue haired beauty.

"Uh..." Erza stuttered, her face blushing a deep red. Jellal glared at Wendy and roughly shoved Erza off of him, his colder demeanor returning. Wendy stared dumbfounded, sighing in annoyance once she caught herself.

"Right... so..." she began

"Speak a word of this to anyone and your dead, kid." Wendy shuddered in fear and took a step back.

"Yes, of course, Jellal. But umm-... Boss is really upset so... h-he told me to come get you." Jellal stood up, leaving Erza on the floor to figure herself out. He frowned, completely confused as to what was happening or why someone like Natsu would be upset to such a degree. Or more like what could make him upset.

"I'm being serious, Lima. Speak a word to Natsu and I'll choke you the fuck out." Wendy swallowed hard, seeing him tower over her.

"I heard you the first time, I get it. So go find boss before he yells at me for your mistakes." Her voice nearly whispered out. Jellal quickly stomped over to the other side of Phoenix, looking for his boss and hoping it wasn't something useless as it often was. Wendy turned to Erza, eyes softening at the woman in front of her. "Jesus, Erza. You make it so fucking obvious it's not even fun to ask about." Erza's cheeks flared and she looked down. "Anyways I've known for a while now so don't worry about me blabbing. Besides, the look on everyone else's faces when they find out will be priceless." Erza blinked rapidly and wiped her mouth swiftly.

"S-so... w-where did everyone go?" She answered, trying to avoid the topic that had come up expectedly between the two of them.

"They are all on missions right now. They should be back soon but of course I can't be sure." She looked down and sighed.

"What about Boss? Why is he upset?"

"How am I supposed to know? He just broke a table, yelled and started telling me that I should get Jellal because some guy named 'Siegrein' was back." Erza's breath hitched. She looked away from Wendy and her pupils dialated. "You seem to know him, too. So what's he about? Why does everyone hate him?" She spoke calmly, watching as a light sweat broke out on Erza forehead. The fear of the possibility of something from the past coming back to bite her in the ass was beyond her ability in words. Especially when it had something to do with Jellal. And even more so with the fact that this wasn't an if but a when. When would Jellal's brother come back to not only ruin her life, but Jellal's as well? And she knew this, however inescapable as it was. "Come on do you not trust me? It can't be that bad. What? Did he kill boss's family or something?"

"No, he..." she swallowed, tears brimming her hallow eyes and threatening to join the tired bags under them. "He just..." her voice cracked, she placed a hand over her mouth and sniffled.

"If Jellal finds out you made her cry, you won't live until tomorrow." A voice spoke from behind them. Wendy turned her head and found Gray, clothes bloody and eyes annoyed.

"I didn't do anything except ask a question. Stop being a cry baby, Erza, c'mon!" Erza wiped vicious tears and walked past the both of them, still beyond afraid of her past mistakes. She opened the doors to the back and sat down against the brick wall. The hard stones behind her nearly mimicked the feeling on her bed when she was not accompanied by her love. And she missed him. A lot. A gust of wind fleeted by and brushed her hair into the air.

"I don't want him to hate me." A few minutes passed before the door opened again and someone walked out. Erza didn't bother looking up, not giving enough craps about who it was and simply sniffling a few times. Juvia sat down beside her and glanced over at Erza's miserable presence.

"I don't want to fight with you anymore, Erza." She sighed in annoyance. "You were right. Even if you fucked up, it's not my place to go against you. You'll learn the fucking hard way if you want to screw everyone over. It's none of my business so I'm sorry for yelling at you." Juvia ran a hand through her hair and closed her eyes.

"No, it's okay. You were right, Emei. I shouldn't have but I did. And no matter how much I want to, I don't regret it." Juvia glanced at her friend and sighed, a faint blush forming on her cheeks.

"Erza, it's your life and your decisions. If it turns out you fuck your life up, then it's none of my business to judge you. Even if you destroy Jellal's life in the process of saving your own, I can't say anything. Everything from this point on is completely your responsibility... It's not like I'm much better than you anyways." Erza turned to Juvia and allowed her lids to fall halfway down her eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"I... also fucked up."

"Tell me about it if you need someone to talk to."

"Well... I guess I was also supposed to tell you a secret."

"Yeah, get on with it."

"Gray and I... we-... we were just talking like normal at his house because there was no extra work..." Erza frowned, already knowing what Juvia was to say. "And one of us got too close and then things escalated and then suddenly we were on the bed and then we got dangerously close to doing more than touching..." Juvia finished in one go, out of breath by the end of her statement. "And I don't know what to do around him." Tears gently gathered in her sockets before steaming down her cheeks. Erza immediately began to panic a bit, baffled as to why she was crying. Sure, it was upsetting but he don't expect someone as confident and conserved as Juvia to cry because of a guy.

"Woah, what's wrong!? Did he hurt you!??" She questioned the girl quickly. Juvia shook her head profusely, blue curls swaying about and blowing around in the light breeze.

"Erza...!" She began again, her heart nearly breaking with every fleeting second.

"Yes!? What!?"

"God damn it...!!! He said that...!!!" Her voice shook, the salty liquid pouring down her cheeks aggressively at this point. "He said he was sorry!!! He apologized!!! Why did he say he was sorry!?!?" Erza's eyes immediately softened. She stared at Juvia breaking down for a few moments before wrapping an arm around her shoulder and tightly pulling their bodies together in a warm embrace. The red head wasn't sure if she understood how Juvia felt. But she at least knew her experience was something similar. Her friend's expression screamed heartbreak and it pained Erza, being unable to do anything more than what she currently was. She was only able to imagine herself in the same situation. And how painful it would be.

"Oh, Emei, I'm so sorry." She whispered, the bags under her eyes ignoring the sleepiness that tugged at her consciousness. "There really isn't much I can say, but I want you to know that the only way to move forward it to look for the sun behind the clouds. Can you be strong for me?" Juvia sniffled and looked up at her friend.

"I'll try..." she squeaked out, deep navy eyes falling in to an ever deepening hole of solitude. "Fuck, Erza-" she whined, tightening her hold on the red head. "How is it possible to feel this way in such a short amount of time?" Her lids fell together, allowing the weight of everything so far to have an effect on her.