Speculation

A/N: More Weekly Sorcerer magazine shenanigans. This takes place after Mira gets pregnant but before Erza is, so during the timeline of In Which Everyone is a Perv chapter 8.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

Speculation Part V

Meredy and Sorano had met up at a café while both were taking breaks from another one of their occasional Crime Sorciere special missions. Now requiring supervision when on missions as a term of their release, the guild members were staying at a small local guild who was thoroughly intimidated by them. Erik, Richard, and Midnight were all back at the guildhall, while Jellal was still gathering information for their mission from locals. The girls decided to go to a café away from their male counterparts and chatted, sharing news about their lives and the latest gossip from their new guilds.

"Mira's pregnant?" Sorano asked.

"Yeah! She's really excited about it," Meredy chirped. "Although everyone's scared about what her mood swings will be like."

"Who's the father?"

"Laxus," Meredy replied.

"That's surprising. Yukino had no idea they talked at all," Sorano said.

"Honestly, neither did most of Fairy Tail," Meredy informed her. "Some of us suspect she did it for the sole reason of having a baby to rival Erza and Jellal's."

"Erza's pregnant too?" Sorano asked, horrified with the possibility of a hormonal Erza.

"No," Meredy replied. "But she will be soon if she has anything to say about it. And you know she will."

Sorano stared, begging the question of how Meredy knew this.

"They accidentally got engaged, and Wendy's seen a certain Heavenly Body mage sneaking into Erza's room at night," Meredy explained.

Sorano raised her eyebrows. "Accidentally?"

"Yeah – he still felt too guilty to propose, so he got her a promise ring instead. She misinterpreted the meaning of it and he had to go along with it. It is Erza, after all," Meredy giggled.

"So that article wasn't just another one of The Weekly Sorcerer's gossipy bullshit," Sorano pondered.

"What article?" Meredy asked her. The pink haired mage didn't have time to pick up the magazine that week due to her late arrival at their base of operations for the mission.

Sorano pulled the aforementioned magazine out of her purse, slapping it on the table between them. On the cover was a picture of Sting, Rouge, and their exceeds. The cover story discussed the relationship between dragon slayers and exceeds. One of the smaller headlines on the cover read: "Has Titania Found her Oberon?"

Meredy's eyes widened. She flipped through the magazine, looking for the article. The text was sparse, but there were several pictures printed.

"Last week, Erza Scarlet of Fairy Tail – known by her nickname "Titania" – was spotted wearing a gorgeous ring on her ring finger. This follows a string of reports that a mysterious man has been buying her favorite cakes for her and even an expensive armor. She's also been caught having a picnic with this man outside of Magnolia.

Shortly after defeating the 100 demons of Pandemonium at the Grand Magic Games three years ago, she was seen at Ryuuzetsu land in Crocus with the same man. Based on this, it is believed her mystery man may be Mystogan. Others have suggested it is Jellal Fernandez, a childhood friend of hers.

Fernandez was a former wizard saint and council member before being implicated in serious crimes involving the Tower of Heaven. He was broken out of prison and later became a member of Crime Sorciere, a guild that became famous for defeating many dark guilds, fighting Tartarus, and assisting in the war against the Alvarez Empire. Due to their heroics they have been all but formally pardoned and are now living with official guilds. Fernandez has reportedly been working with Fairy Tail, the guild Scarlet belongs to. Members of their guild report the two are very close.

Even though Gray Fullbuster of Fairy Tail is dating Juvia, it has also been suggested that he is Erza's mysterious lover, hiding his identity in an attempt to hide his infidelity.

We guess we'll just have to wait for the wedding to find out!

The first picture was an undated paparazzi photo of Erza staring at a wedding dress in a shop window dreamily. She knew from her fellow guild members that Erza had been marriage crazy long before Jellal had re-entered her life, so Meredy suspected that was an editorialized photo. A second, smaller photo showed a close-up of the ring in question. A large ruby was set in the center framed by two sapphire stones. The last photo showed a cloaked figure leaned over the counter at a pastry shop.

"Why would he be hiding his identity though?" Meredy asked, although she knew the answer: he didn't want to tarnish Erza's reputation by being seen with her.

"He should stop feeling so guilty," Sorano sighed. "Even Kagura's forgiven him."

"At least he knows how to treat a girl, getting her such a nice ring and meaning to get her another," Meredy sighed. "It's too bad he won't let me have that."

"Because he's still an idiot," Sorano observed. She put the magazine back into her bag, and the duo packed up to leave.

Jellal sat sipping a beer and reading in the small guildhall. He supposed he shouldn't have been complaining about any conditions of his release, but it was certainly harder to carry out a covert strike on a dark guild when you were expected to stay with legal guilds who were so terrified of you that your presence in a given town was immediately noticeable.

This guild was no different. It was a small guild, far too small and powerless to defeat Crime Sorciere in the extremely unlikely event that they went rogue again. He almost missed the days that they had a chaperone from the council. That at least drew less attention to them.

It didn't make the missions any harder for their guild, but it made them much longer as the dark guilds tried to outrun their pursuers. That wouldn't have been an issue a year before, but now that he and Erza had finally entered a relationship he valued being able to return to her quickly. Any delays were annoying, but his guilt made him think he deserved it.

One thing that was different about the guild they were staying with on that day were the looks they were giving him. The looks were one of wary reverence and awe. When he caught the men in the guild stealing glances at him, he was slightly suspicious. As the day went on, more heads turned to look at him, if only for a second. They weren't looking at the other men of his guild, causing him to wonder what was prompting this.

Despite his guilt, he wasn't above using his well-earned fearsome reputation to get the information he wanted. Half the time he didn't even need to do anything other than show up to get what he wanted. So after a long day of curiosity, Jellal decided to go up to the guild hall's bar and ask them directly.

"Does your guild need anything from me?" He asked in a chillingly smooth tone.

"N- no! Certainly not," the bartender replied.

"Then do you have something to tell me?" Again, he played up the lingering villainous qualities of his voice.

"W- well," she stammered. "S- something came out… In the Weekly Sorcerer."

Jellal wondered what that could do with him. He hadn't been featured in any of their trashy gossip since he was on the council as Siegrain, and even then he paid no attention to it. "And what would that be?"

Suddenly an arm slapped him over the back. "Well, the magazine finally found out that you're fucking Erza," Erik's voice hit him.

"What?" Jellal yelped, suddenly flustered.

"Well, they wrote a whole piece on it," Erik said, "Or that's what everyone's been talking about. They're trying to nickname you 'Oberon' to go with Erza's nickname. I suppose if fits 'cause just like Titania, we all know Erza wears the pants in that relationship."

Jellal turned to Erik and attempted to compose himself, but couldn't come up with anything to say to that.

The guild members had been listening in, prompting Erik to run his mouth more. "They had so much unresolved sexual tension for so long I swear even Angel and Meredy were getting second-hand blue balls from him."

One meek mage tried but failed to stifle a laugh, releasing the tension in his guild. Soon, Erik's dramatic description of the relationship of Erza and Jellal was leaving the guild in tears laughing. While they were distracted, Jellal tried to sneak out, only to run into Meredy shoving a copy of Weekly Sorcerer towards him.

It was at that moment that, for the first time in years, he wondered why he had invited Oracion Seis into his guild in the first place. The sooner he could go onto his honeymoon with Erza in whatever remote location they would choose, the better.

At Fairy Tail's gift shop, the Weekly Sorcerer was a hot seller. It was one of the new products they'd brought into the store after the war with the Alvarez Empire due to the magazine's increased focus on the guild's members. Erza usually couldn't bother to read what she maintained was a trashy tabloid (unless she was featured in it), but other members were more inclined to read the magazine.

"Say, Erza," Mira said to her friend as the two sat at the bar that day, "have you seen the Weekly Sorcerer this week?"

"No, I don't read that trash," The girl in question replied.

"Not even now?" Mira questioned, sliding the article about Erza over the counter.

As soon as she saw it, Erza began to blush profusely. She took the magazine off the counter and threw it in the trash.

"W- where'd you get that?!" Erza asked.

"They sell them at the gift shop now," Mira explained with a smile on her face. On-looking members of the guild wondered if it was because she was happy to see her rival flustered, because she wanted Erza to destroy all the magazines, or if her mood swings had forced her to abandon all logic.

Before they knew it, Erza was bursting out of the guild hall. The crowd from the guild followed to see her viciously hacking at the magazine rack standing in front of the gift shop. It became the first of a string of incidents that led the gift shop to finally stop selling the magazine.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed! Please review. : )