A/N: In which Jellal awakes to a cold bed and must comfort Erza in light of her night terrors.
The first he noticed when he accidentally woke up in the middle of the night was that his Scarlet wasn't laying beside him. And apparently she hadn't been for quite some time, for the sheets and her pillow were cold. With a small frown, the ultramarine rose out of bed and went in search of his beloved.
He found her right away, the midnight coldness blowing across his face as he approached the balcony. She stood on the small platform, her back to him and her scarlet tresses billowing in the wind. She was beautiful, he absentmindedly noted to himself. The most obscure thoughts occurred to him at the oddest times.
"Couldn't sleep?" He asked softly, chuckling as she jumped, obviously startled by the sound of his voice. Erza glanced over her shoulder to blink rapidly at the man, forgetting the tears on her eye.
His reaction was immediate. A look of concern replaced the amusement and he strode over to where she stood. Embarrassed by the fact she had been caught whilst emotionally distraught, the redhead turned away in shame, only to gasp in surprise when Jellal's arms wrapped themselves around her waist from behind.
"What's wrong?" His voice was coaxing, caring…as it has always been. The protectiveness and concern in her lover's voice only served to further her pain, and a new set of tears fell down her cheeks. "Erza, love, why are you crying?"
"I had a nightmare," she mumbled, knowing she probably sounded childish. The mighty Titania, reduced to tears after a mere nightmare.
"About what?" His words stayed gentle, not even slightly teasing.
"You dying…you leaving me," she elaborated, her whispered words barely heard over the lull of the street below them. Despite the time, citizens were going to and fro, oblivious to the couple standing above them. "I probably sound-"
"I had nightmares about you dying, too," he interrupted her, staring straight ahead. Erza stilled in his arms, waiting for him to go on. And so he did. "You dying, you…you suffering. Fragments of truth from our time together at the tower, mixed with the horrors of my imagination. And they left me shaking and in pain every night."
He kissed her neck, his lips ghosting over the skin as he sought to comfort the woman. "But you know what? You came home. You made it off the island, and now you're here. With me. And all those nightmares have been proved wrong. They're now dead, a mere memory of what the heart can come up with in times of desperation."
"You have faith in my ability not to die?" She asked, finally beginning to smile. He smiled down at her as well, nodding, and the duo glance up at the sun beginning to rise on the horizon.
"I once believed that we could never be together," he mused, as a wayward answer to her question. "Yet here we are, in public and with each other. So, yes, my Scarlet, I believe in your ability to survive and endure. Because once…once I thought you wouldn't, and you proved me wrong. Now? Now I know better than to doubt your ability to come back to me every, single time."