A/N: This is, by far, my least favorite chapter of the story. It just feels like it's missing something, not just because it's the shortest. Hope you'll like it, anyway

Next chapter is the last one, then the epilogue...

"How did this happen?" Jellal asked at some point… minutes, maybe hours after Erza announced that they had a baby on the way. He'd mostly lost his sense of time the moment she uttered the word 'pregnant'.

In usual circumstances, Erza would have called him on the dumb question and pointed out that it had happened the usual way. However, that time she didn't. "I believe Wendy had something to do with it."

He frowned. "Wendy? Wendy got you pregnant?"

She turned to him and that time he didn't escape the 'are you brain damaged?' look. "Considering Wendy is a girl, I assume you got me pregnant after she somehow damaged my birth control."

"Oh," he mumbled. "That makes more sense."

The next silence lasted little more than minute.

"How are you feeling?" he asked. "Do you have any… symptoms?"

She shook her head. "Nothing in particular. I wouldn't even know something might be going on, had Porlyusica not called me over."

He nodded. A baby… Children were something he hadn't dared hope for in a long time. If being with Erza still felt like something out of a dream, a family of their own felt so far out of the realm of possibility that he had no idea what to do with himself. "And… how do you feel about it?"

"Terrified," she confessed. She wasn't averse to the idea of children… she just hadn't been prepared for children to come now. She'd been thinking they'd come in the future – a distant, distant future when she would have progressed to a point of being absolutely ready to handle them. When would that be? Who knew? Maybe half a century away… surely by them humanity's longevity and technology would have progressed to that point. But half a century away had turned into 'right then and there' and she felt like someone had dropped her into a dark labyrinth and told her to fend for herself.

"Yeah," Jellal mumbled. "That makes two of us."

Somehow, hearing that made her feel a little less scared. Of course it did. His words reminded her that the labyrinth she felt like she'd been dropped into wasn't the sort she had to cross by herself but instead with Jellal by her side, even if he seemed as clueless as she felt about it. At least they were in the same boat.

As such, she was completely free to state just how massively freaked out she felt at the moment. "Oh my god, Jellal. We are having a child," she said, her tone positively horrified. "A living, breathing child."

"I know," he mumbled, equally flabbergasted.

"A baby. The only human baby I have ever interacted with was Romeo," she mumbled. "He got scared whenever he saw me and Mira because we were always fighting around him. He grew out of it but still… I scare small children! How can I be a mother when I scare small children?!"

"Well, let's not exaggerate," he had to argue. "You scared a small child when you were a child yourself. You do just fine with kids these days. Asuka likes you." He paused for a moment, suddenly not sure. "She does, doesn't she?"

"Why are you offering that as proof when you don't even know if it's a fact?!" she demanded.

"I'm almost certain it is! But it doesn't matter. At least you have been around babies before. As for me… I don't think I have ever been within ten feet of any living being younger than a year old," he informed her, sounding very, very… fearful? "And it was probably for the best. I mean, babies are so small when they're younger than that. And breakable. And they have that… that thing…"

Erza frowned. "What thing?"

"That spot on their heads. The one that's like a self-destruct button," he explained.

"What?!" she asked in alarm.

"I don't remember where I heard of it but I'm sure I have," he said. "If you press it, it could… you know!"

"Kill them?"

"Yes!"

She looked positively horrified. "That's preposterous! How do parents allow their babies go around without a helmet on, then?"

The fact that he found that a perfectly reasonable question should have made alarm bells concerning his current state of mind sound in Jellal's head.

"We can't be the first people to come up with that idea!" she said.

He looked thoughtful. "I guess that does give us an edge over everybody else…"

"We need to write that down," Erza announced. "'Get the baby a helmet'. Where's pen and paper?" She pushed a stack of books and magazines onto the floor in her search for writing supplies.

"I've got it," Jellal announced, having gotten up from the couch and gone to fetch a notebook and a pencil from the drawer where he usually kept them.

"Good. Baby helmet – write it down. We need to remember it!"

He did. Later, much later, he would come to look at that list they were about to devise and think them insane and their minds most likely the biggest danger their child would be exposed to in its infancy.

"What else should we write down?" he asked, looking at Erza. And just like that, without even noticing it, they had moved on from the 'panicking' phase to the 'planning' one

Erza looked around. "I don't know, there's so much to do…"

"Baby proofing?" he suggested. "Babies get everywhere, right? Who knows what trouble this one might get into if we don't sweep the house."

Erza nodded. "You're right. How long does it take for them to become mobile? A month? Two? Oh, who am I kidding – this is our child. It will be weeks at best!"

Never had her lack of knowledge concerning babies been more obvious. Even Jellal could see that. "I think it takes longer than tha…" But suddenly, he went quiet and his face went very, very blank.

"What is it?" Erza asked, noticing his paleness.

"This house is a death trap," he mumbled. "You have an entire arsenal in the basement. You leave weapons lying everywhere – I nearly stabbed myself with a dagger that had somehow slipped between the couch cushions last week."

"I told you that wasn't my fault! Someone knocked on the door while I was doing my weekly polishing and I must have dropped it there!" she stated, as if that made the incident any less dangerous. "It could happen to anybody. Aren't people always finding loose change in their sofas?"

He refrained himself from pointing out that there was a big difference between a fistful of coins and a cutting object that had nearly cost him his behind. "Still, Erza. We are using a trident as a coat hanger!" he added, gesturing to the spot by the door where, indeed, an old, mostly blunt trident-shaped weapon of Erza's was poking out of the umbrella stand, two coats and several scarves hanging from it. "You realize this has got to change, right? I've never been near a baby and even I can tell that small, fragile human being plus sharp, possibly deadly, weapon doesn't equal a positive result."

Erza pursed her lips but, after a few seconds, nodded, sounding equally concerned. "You have a point. I need to start paying better attention to this and keep all my weaponry in the basement."

"And to find a better lock for it too to keep those arms and armor out of reach," Jellal added, already writing it down. Suddenly, Erza gasped and, alarmed, Jellal looked up from the notebook. "What? What is it? Is it the baby?!"

Her lip trembled.

"Erza?!" he insisted, desperately needing an answer.

"I'm going to get fat," she muttered.

He blinked several times. What? She was just realizing that? But wait, no. That wasn't good – from the many, many years he'd spent travelling while outnumbered by women, he had come to learn that he should never, ever allow a woman to think herself 'fat'. That might just cost him his life (as he had come to learn from a near-miss with Ultear, when she had asked him if her new leotard made her look chubby and he'd replied with a non-commitant grunt, not at all interested in playing attention to the curves of someone who might as well be a sister to him – she had, unfortunately, taken his silence for a 'yes' and as a result he still bore the mental and physical scars).

"Of course you're not. You'll be pregnant – sure, that means the baby will… poke out a little…" (probably more than a little) "… but I wouldn't describe it as 'fat' like when you're out of shape. Just… bigger. In a flattering way!" he quickly added, half-expecting her to lash out at the word, which she didn't do. "I'm sure you'll still be beautiful – absolutely beautiful the way you always are. Maybe even more so," he reassured her in a sweet, yet cheesy manner.

But she was hardly even listening. Because it wasn't the possibility that she'd look more or less pretty due to her pregnancy that was concerning her. It was… "I won't fit into my armor anymore," she said, in a wide-eyed whisper.

Jellal paused. "What?"

"My armor. I can't fit in it with a pregnant belly… Well, maybe some of it like the Robe of Yuen or the Sea Empress Armor but almost everything else is slim fit. I can't even eat a big lunch before getting into the Giant Armor without it becoming terribly uncomfortable!"

Which he found ironic at the least. "Erza, calm down. Forget the armor," he told her. She looked at him as if he'd told her to chop off her own arm. That quickly changed his mind. "… armor's problem! I meant 'forget the armor's problem'! Because I'm sure you'll find a solution in no time! You're smart like that." Oh, god, that sounded just pitiful…Her expression became less intense and he sighed in relief. Whew…

"Your confidence is touching, Jellal, but most of my armor cannot be altered like that without being compromised," she stated. "I will have to go to Heart Kreuz as soon as possible and order new models."

Jellal frowned. "They make pregnancy armor at Heart Kreuz?" he asked in disbelief.

"If they don't, they will start now! I'm not going around unarmored with an absolutely defenseless child within me," she stated before getting up.

If it were anyone else saying that, he probably wouldn't have believed it, but being Erza… She was a steamroller. There was just no stopping her when she had her mind set on something without getting severely stomped on in the process.

"What are you waiting for?" his girlfriend's asked. When his mind stopped wandering, he noticed she wasn't sitting with him on the couch anymore, having instead moved to the front door of the house, which she was holding open.

"Wait, you want to go right now?" Jellal asked in disbelief.

She looked at him like he was demented. "Of course! Armor isn't anything like ready-to-wear clothing. It needs time and planning… and often it requires a lot of searching for special alloys and items. The earlier I order it, the better."

He gestured to the door. "But… but it's…"

"God, Jellal, just hurry up!" she said in exasperation before impatiently walking out. He simply sat there, staring at the door. He didn't even bother getting up because he knew for a fact she wouldn't go far. In fact, he could actually count down the seconds until she returned.

Three… two… one…

And she came back in. "It's dark outside. Heart Kreuz won't be open at this hour," she said, having just realized it.

"That's what I was trying to point out…" he informed her.

She looked away, a little embarrassed. "Well, you could have done it faster," she mumbled stubbornly.

He simply rolled his eyes. "I'll just add 'get new armor' to the list," he declared, writing it down.

"Yes. The list…" she muttered in a vacant tone.

He looked up from the notebook to find her still standing at the door, looking suddenly pensive. Concerned, he put it down and got up, making his way to her. "Erza…"

"We have a list," she said when he reached her. "Because we are having a baby." It still felt unreal, even though they'd been basically discussing the logistics of it for the past few minutes.

"Yes," he confirmed, standing mere inches away.

"We're really doing this. Even though we didn't plan it and we are nowhere near ready or prepared."

He was thinking of the very same thing. Still, he couldn't stand the look of fear in her eyes, therefore he reassured her, even though he was yet to be completely sure himself. "We have time to get ready until the baby comes… if you want to," he said tentatively.

"I want to." Mavis knew she did. She was still terrified, there was no denying, but she was Erza Scarlet and for her fear often came hand-in-hand with excitement. "We can do this, right?"

He wished he knew. "I hope so," he replied. "Like, I said, we still have a few months to prepare. In fact, do you know how far along you…?"

"I have no idea," she responded.

"We should probably have that looked at," he pointed out.

"Yes," she agreed.

They were quiet for a moment, just looking at each other. Then slowly, but surely, a smile started to grace Erza's face. First tentative, then bright… so, so bright. There was this thing about her smiles, her real, unrestrictedly happy smiles – they were like the sunrise. They shone and, before he knew it, his world had completely lit up, making him set every worry aside just for that moment and smile back.

She took a step forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. "We are having a baby."

He smiled at her and then reached forward, placing a kiss at the top of her head. "We are having a baby," he repeated.

He allowed himself to feel bliss like he had never felt before – bliss that guilt rarely ever allowed him to experience. But that didn't mean the guilt (that ever-present guilt over his past that he wouldn't escape until his death day) was gone. He had simply, subconsciously, told it to wait for tomorrow.

And it would be waiting. Oh, yes, it would.

To be continued...