Jellal's fingers drummed on his knee in a pattern contradictory to the music coming from the speakers. The parking lot was nearly empty with still no sign of Erza. She never took so long after a game – even when that game ended in embarrassing defeat. His fingers fell out of time and he glanced at the clock. With every passing minute the evening derailed further. He needed to take his second pill, that he'd already missed before the game even started, but wanted to wait until he could eat something. And he couldn't eat something until Erza finished changing.

"Something's wrong," he muttered, digging in the console for his phone. He sent her a text message but got no reply. Not even a read receipt. "Fuck this." Jellal stuffed his keys in his pocket and slid out of the driver's seat of his truck. He crossed the lot at a light jog and managed to grab the gym door just before it closed behind a janitor.

"You supposed to be in here?" the man asked with an uninterested glance over his shoulder.

"My girlfriend hasn't come out yet."

"Eh." He glanced at his wristwatch. "Game's been over for a while. You sure she didn't catch another ride?"

"I'm sure." Jellal knew Erza didn't have another ride. In fact, the only reason her mother didn't pitch a fit about volleyball was because she had him as a ride.

"Don't make a mess, kid. And hurry up."

"Right," Jellal said sheepishly, heading for the locker rooms. "I'll just be a minute."

The hallway was half dark and empty. Jellal found the door painted red for girls unlocked. He leaned beyond the doorframe, uncomfortable with being in an area he wasn't technically allowed, and called out.

"Erza?" He thought he heard a noise but wasn't completely sure. "Erza, are you still in here?"

A soft sniffle could definitely be heard. Jellal sighed and slipped through the door. The girls' locker room was almost exactly like the boys' and the mystique of gender-restricted areas immediately lost its shine.

"Erza?"

Jellal passed row after row of red lockers before reaching the tiled shower area. His relief at finding Erza on a bench opposite the curtained stalls was short lived. Her hair hung wet about her shoulders, and her socked feet had been stuffed into untied sneakers. She slumped against the wall and didn't react to his presence at all.

"Erza? What's the matter?" Jellal crossed the floor and took a seat beside her on the bench.

"Nothing."

"Is this about the game?" He gathered her wet hair over one shoulder. "You can't win them all. It was an off night. So what?"

Erza turned to face him and pursed her lips. "Why have you been forgetting condoms?"

Jellal blinked. "What?"

"Condoms, Jellal. They're important. You've never been so careless before. Why now?"

"I don't know." He tried to shrug casually but the movement felt forced. Her question threw him completely off guard. "I don't really have an excuse, I guess. Are you still mad about the other day?"

"When you came over this week you said you had one but you didn't."

Jellal's face fell into a frown and he sighed. "Erza, I'm gonna need you to give me a hint here. Did you make me come looking for you because I forgot condoms a few times? Because we could've had this discussion in the truck."

"Are you fucking Lisanna Strauss?"

His mouth dropped open. "What?"

"Never mind." Erza stood suddenly and grabbed her bag. She took three steps across the floor before nearly tripping on her untied shoelaces.

"No," Jellal blurted, grabbing her elbow. "No, you don't get to ask me some wild shit like that and then just walk away. What the fuck do you mean am I fucking Lisanna Strauss?"

Erza spun around and her cheeks were an angry pink but her eyes were wet. She dropped her bag and dug out her phone. After a moment of awkward fumbling she held it not two inches from his face.

"Explain this."

Jellal took the phone and glanced at her once more before inspecting the photo album. There were at least ten pictures of him and Lisanna. Some were in the library but most were of his truck parked in front of the Strauss residence. The last was of them both on the front porch late Tuesday afternoon. Lisanna had his laptop sitting on her thighs and he sat beside her while leaning in very close.

"What about it?" Jellal demanded. "What the fuck is all this?"

"Somebody sent these to me." Erza snatched her phone back. "Are you fucking her? Is this why you don't have any condoms now?"

"Are you crazy?" Jellal hissed. "She's Mirajane's little sister for fuck's sake!"

"Why are you at her house so much?" Erza demanded with considerably less, but still very angry, steam. "Why did you mention her when you were in my bed?"

"Because I'm tutoring her!" Jellal's words exploded from his mouth with utter disbelief. "She's in half my classes, Erza! You know this! Am I not allowed to talk about my life now?"

"But –"

"She's new, and behind, and younger than everybody else! She doesn't even need that much help, anyway, because she's way smarter than me!" Jellal huffed and grabbed Erza's bag from the floor. He adjusted the strap across his chest and glared at her. "Can we fucking go now?"

Jellal whirled around and took the corner out of the tiled area and walked past the rows of lockers at a pace he knew Erza couldn't match with her untied shoes. Outside the locker room the janitor was buffing the hallway. The machine was loud enough that he didn't hear whether or not Erza was following him. With a fair amount of guilt, he crossed the freshly buffed linoleum and entered the gym. Everything was tidy and clean – almost like there hadn't been a crowded volleyball game an hour before.

The sun lazed heavily on the horizon and painted everything in shades of crimson and purple. He made it halfway to his truck before Erza finally caught up.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly.

"Who sent you those pictures?"

"Does it matter?"

"It was Simon, Erza. I already know that. I just wanted you to confirm." Jellal tossed her bag into the bed of his truck and returned to the driver's seat. When she joined him, her expression was sheepish.

"You're right," she admitted. "It was Simon."

"He's a panting jackass, Erza. Why would you believe anything he says?" Jellal turned to her and pinned her with a glare.

"He cornered me yesterday morning and I tried to brush it off." Erza's gaze fell to her hands. She picked at the black fingernail polish that was already chipping. "Today he sent me those pictures and –"

"You snapped and threw the game?"

"Yeah." When she met his eyes again, her upset was clear. "I'm really sorry."

"Erza we've been together for long enough. Why didn't you just ask me?" He tried to push back his frustration but failed. "Jesus, did you really think I would cheat? On you?"

"I don't know, Jellal." She sighed and buckled her seatbelt. "I fucked up, I guess."

"Yeah, you did. It's really gross that he's following around fourteen year old girls and snapping pictures of them, too." Jellal murmured, fishing his keys from his pocket. "You know that right?"

"Yeah, I know." Erza wouldn't look at him.

The drive to her house was mostly silent. She kept her eyes on her window and Jellal focused on the road. This late in the day he always felt either bushed or jittery – sometimes a mind numbing combination of both. When he pulled close to the curb in front of Erza's house he almost turned the car off but decided on impulse not to give her the opportunity to talk him out of his foul mood. It was selfish but he felt selfish. He could hear her shifting in her seat.

"Are we going to be okay?" Her question was trepidatious.

"I need some space," Jellal's mouth said without permission of his heart.

"Space?" she whispered. The air in the cab was thick.

"I just can't believe you'd trust Simon over me." Jellal's eyes were glued to the world beyond his windshield. "I can't believe you, Erza."

"I'm sorry."

"Not only did you take his word for it, you sat on it. You didn't think it was important to tell me the guy who wants to fuck you was stalking me and Lisanna." He gripped the steering wheel so tight his palms hurt.

"Jellal –" He could hear the tears in her voice but he couldn't look. The part of him that wasn't quite under control had taken over. Somewhere in the very back of his mind he heard the ever-nagging whisper of common sense. He'd forgotten his afternoon meds and was riding an impulse high.

"I'm tired, Erza." His hand dropped to the controls on the armrest and he unlocked the doors. "Don't forget your bag."

She didn't leave right away. Instead she stared at him for a long, breathless moment before swinging the door open. He didn't watch her leave or close the door again or grab her bag or make the short walk from the curb to the front door. Jellal was lost in breath count. He counted fifteen breaths before easing back out into the road.

When two blocks were between himself and Erza, he reached across the passenger seat to the glove box. The orange pill bottle was easy to find but it was empty.

Oh, he remembered. Right.

Jellal hadn't forgotten to take his medication; he'd forgotten to remind his mother to call about a refill – days ago, apparently. He slowed to a stop at a red light and scrubbed over his face with his hands. Frustration simmered. Holding onto anger over Erza hurt. It hurt a lot. But it hurt him more that she'd even consider him cheating on her with anyone much less Lisanna. What kind of –

The traffic light turned green and his foot stomped on the gas pedal. He eased off when the truck jerked forward.

"It's fine," he whispered to himself. "This is fine. Just get home and talk to mom and it'll be fine."

Jellal ignored the darkened windows and the open garage door and his mother's crookedly parked Cadillac. He grabbed the pill bottle and – at the last minute – remembered his phone, too. Everything inside the house was dark except the kitchen. His mother stood beside the sink with an open bottle of white wine and something else. Something small and orange and familiar.

"Mom?" Jellal whispered, the jittery mess in his head falling to a low roar. Anna Heartfilia spun around and smiled – it was sloppy.

"You're home!" she said in a teetering voice. "I was just…" Anna's eyes flit from the wine bottle to the empty pill bottle and then to the small puddle of water on the counter where a handful of pills had turned to a powdery mess.

"Mom," he said with a long sigh. "What did you do?" Jellal crossed the kitchen and snatched the pill bottle. It was new. She'd remembered her own medications but not his. Of course. "You have to take these, mom."

"They make me feel fuzzy," she said with a slur. Anna grabbed her glass but never moved away from the sink. Jellal suspected she was trying to save a little face. He didn't need to check the garbage bins to know the bottle on the counter wasn't her first of the day.

"And this stuff doesn't?" Jellal let her keep the glass but emptied the bottle in the sink. Then he wiped up the mess of congealed anti-depressants and kept only the bottle. "We'll tell your doctor you left them in the car and they were stolen," he muttered. "Just put the new script on dad's card. He won't even notice."

"You're right," Anna said. "You're always right, Jellal. So sensible."

He didn't feel sensible. He felt in pieces. Part of him wanted to leave his mess of a mother in the half-lit kitchen and run all the way back to Erza's house and beg her to forgive his earlier words. He never wanted space from Erza. Why had he said that?

"I should go to bed." Anna polished off the wine in her glass and clumsily deposited it in the sink. Jellal wished she'd broken it.

"When you call about your prescription tomorrow, I need a refill."

"Okay," she whispered. "Remind me in the morning before school?"

"Yeah." Jellal spun around and left her alone. He knew he should be a better son and help her to bed but he didn't feel like it. None of this was his responsibility.

He didn't need any lights to find his bedroom. Jellal dumped his keys and phone and empty pill bottle on his desk and fell into bed. Blue and purple light from the aquarium his dad had delivered for his tenth birthday danced on the wall. Jellal didn't even like marine biology. Someone came once a month to clean the tank and all he had to do was remember to feed his small population of fish. All the things he needed to remember percolated in his head like the bubbles bouncing around in the aquarium pump.

His schedule. His keys. His meds. His grades. The extra work he had to do just to keep afloat in advanced placement classes. He needed to be the best. And on time. And agile. And fast. Three thousand calories a day during the off-season and at least forty five hundred from November to February. His phone so he could keep track of the calories. He needed to make sure his mom took her meds and didn't drink too much – and promise his father she wasn't drinking too much.

And then there was Erza. She made everything better. Erza made him feel like he wasn't drowning or snapping in half. She made him feel like his mind wasn't a wild ride of unfocused whirling. But he'd gone and fucked that up, hadn't he? Or had his meds fucked that up? Maybe his cracked attention deficit disordered brain? He felt broken.

Jellal rolled to his back and flung his arm over his pillows to the headboard cabinet where he kept anything he might need at night. The bottle of over the counter sleeping pills would leave him with a dry mouth in the morning but he needed something. His water hadn't been touched since that morning but he didn't care if it tasted stale.

The sound of the aquarium pump saw him safely to sleep.

Mirajane flushed away whatever was left of her dinner. Mornings were now her lease favorite part of the day. Everything made her sick once the sun came up. Everything swam.

She washed her face and slicked back her hair. Her eyes got stuck on her stomach. It was too soon to look any different but Mirajane eyed her body with a harsh lens. She turned to the side and lifted her fitted practice t-shirt up under her sports bra. Nothing had changed… yet.

"What are you doing?" Elfman's voice startled her so badly, Mirajane jumped. She awkwardly pulled her shirt back down and ran her hands over her still wet hair.

"Just getting ready for school," she said in a high-pitched voice.

"You were sick again this morning."

Mirajane shrugged. "I got up too fast. Probably too much dinner. If I keep eating like a heifer at night, I'll get as big as a house."

"You've never been sick like this. Not every morning." Mirajane's palms began to sweat when Elfman stepped into the bathroom and pushed the door almost to the jamb. "Are you pregnant?"

Elfman's question was so blunt, so point blank, that Mirajane flinched.

"What makes you think that?" she whispered.

"That wasn't a no, Mirajane." Elfman never used her full name. She backed up and fell to the toilet seat.

"Yes," she whispered. "I'm pregnant." Elfman's mouth pressed into the flat line that reminded her so much of their father. "I'm sorry I ruined everything."

His expression pinched. "Mira, you haven't ruined anything. We'll just need to reshuffle."

"I can't handle another reshuffle, Elf." She tried to swallow back her tears. "I can't. Lisanna can't. You can't. We need to stay the course."

"So you're driving into the big city for an abortion then?"

"Don't say that so loud," she hissed. "And no. We couldn't even afford the gas money for a drive like that."

"Laxus can."

"Laxus doesn't get a say!" Mirajane snapped. "He's done enough!"

"These things take two. Unless…" Elfman trailed off and his eyes burned into hers.

"No, it wasn't like that. Shit just happens, I guess."

"You should ask him for gas money. We can dip into the coffee can for the…" He gestured awkwardly toward her.

"The abortion?" Mirajane said with a smirk. "Did you get shy all the sudden?"

"What do you want?"

"I want mom and dad back," she blurted. "I want to not have to worry about any of this!" Her volume was rising but so was her anger and Mirajane hadn't ever been very good at controlling either one. "I want those crooked fucking cops to arrest someone!"

Elfman sighed and Mirajane reached over to turn the cold water back on. She wet her hand and smoothed her hair again.

"Look, whatever you choose, I'll help. I don't know what that looks like but you gotta make a choice. Soon."

"Yeah, I know."

"Talk to Laxus."

"Alright."

"I've got a meeting tonight with my recruiter. If we need to make a change of plans, then it'll need to be soon."

Mirajane bit her lip and felt sick again. "I'm sorry, Elf. I'm sorry I'm the problem."

"Let's just take things one day at a time." Elfman turned toward the mirror and straightened the collar of his shirt. "If I'm going to take the scholarship you'll still need to handle the custody of Lisanna by the end of January."

"This is my fault."

"No." He glanced down at her again. "None of anything is your fault. We'll reshuffle."

Elfman nodded at his own reflection – as if he'd just made an important decision for the both of them – and pulled the bathroom door open. Mirajane stared into the empty space and heaved a sigh. She smoothed her hair once more before flipping off the lights. When she stepped from the bathroom and turned toward her bedroom, Lisanna was there. The world seemed to stop spinning and churn to a halt in a messy jumble.

"Did you…" Mirajane trailed off when Lisanna shuffled back into her own room and shut the door with a softness that broke her heart.