A week had passed since the day they spent at the theme park.
Erza had been busy on a rather small quest and was returning back to Magnolia, but she could not stop checking her lacrima phone at least once every five minutes.
Jellal was acting suspicious yet again, and she knew it was up to her to knock some sense into that man's head before he headed off to perhaps outer space this time with one of his schemes.
It was pure radio silence from him for a couple of days before he finally responded to her. It was a short, curt response, but a response nonetheless.
The last time she spoke to him, his voice was completely devoid of emotion. It was a couple of days back, but his deadpan voice still haunted her sleep.
Plodding along the way, she made her way back to the guild, clutching her phone with all of her might. A third person may believe that in its past life, the phone had betrayed Erza with the tight grip with which she held it.
Lucy was near the bar, sipping on a rare non-alcoholic drink, and waved at Erza, patting the seat next to her and Mirajane slit her eyes on seeing the blank and worried expression on her eyes.
Erza noticed it and internally groaned, cursing her best friend for being so attentive to detail.
"Good work. That look on your face means that you want to chew our ears out"
Mirajane handed a glass of lemonade to Erza who clutched onto it. Lucy tapped her elbow against Erza's arm asking her to take a sip, and the scarlet-haired mage gathered the confidence to ask the dreaded question to her closest friends.
"Am I a clingy girlfriend?"
Lucy spat out her drink with no remorse and howled in laughter, clutching her stomach.
Mirajane bit her lip, trying her best to not be as explicit as the younger blonde in front of her, but the corners of her lips and the mocking countenance of her eyes gave it away.
"S...Stop laughing!", Erza retorted with a deep blush, that was slowly on its path to her very famous, or infamous rage.
She knew that the two of them would have a wonderful laugh, all to their hearts' content before giving her the answer, and at least one of them did.
Mirajane placed her hand on Erza's shoulder and managed a solitary nod before turning around to break out into another laughter session.
Having heard her answer, Erza turned to leave until Lucy grabbed her from behind, still shivering from the riot.
"I...I'm sorry, Erza-san. But...it was too much for me not to laugh at!"
"I agree. Girl, you cannot be more clingy than you already are"
Mirajane's observation shot through Erza's heart like a poisoned arrow as she visibly flinched and ran her hand through her sweaty hair.
"But he needs someone clingy, to remind him he is loved and that there is someone who will not hesitate to go through hell for him. So just be yourself. He doesn't want you to change yourself, so why should you?"
Lucy aggressively concurred as she hovered around Erza fearing she may have teased the older woman a bit too much.
Lucy and Mirajane knew that the conversation was not a random request for encouragement.
With how transparent Erza was with her relationship with Jellal, she was confident that the latter had no insecurities about her relationship, but there was definitely something that worried Erza.
"Okay, that was a stupid question. I know...I know. It's just...I think I know why Jellal is silent, but I guess I was trying to fool myself by looking for a non-existent reason"
"Non-existent is a far-fetched phrase. You really are annoying. I can't think of anyone else who would bother to hold a lasting relationship with you", Mirajane retaliated with her tongue in her cheek, waiting for Erza to shoot up with a glare and chuck the glass into the nearby wall, but she did not respond.
Erza twiddled her thumbs and sighed as she stared at the blank screen of her phone. Lucy and Mirajane knew things were not great with how silent Erza was.
"There...was something that happened. Something I know. I think Jellal knows it and...I think he doesn't know how to handle it"
Mirajane clicked her tongue in response. While Erza was objectively the best person to end up with Jellal, she was far too protective of the man.
Jellal was someone who needed his significant other to constantly remind him that he mattered to them and that he needed to take care of himself. He desperately needed someone like Erza to stay by his side or it would not take him more than a couple of weeks to spiral into another phase of self-depreciation and hate.
Lucy held Erza's hand as the latter bit her lip in frustration - at both, herself and her thick-headed boyfriend.
"Ultear", she managed to whisper through the tsunami of feelings and scenarios going inside her head.
The other two shared a puzzled look at each other before tending to the troubled woman.
"It has been some time since we saw her. Weren't you the last person to see her, Erza-san? Did Ultear...pass away?"
Mirajane stopped cleaning the bar and waited for Erza's response, and the scarlet-haired woman shook her head. But the grief in her eyes slowly morphed into anger.
"I hope she did...painfully"
Even at her worst, Erza would be disappointed in the other person in front of her. She was not someone to wish for the other's death.
But that was true until the safety of someone she loved was at stake. Fearing what Erza knew, Lucy gulped and rubbed the older woman's arm soothingly.
"What do you mean?", Mirajane asked and Erza narrated her dream to her best friends. The two of them could feel the unadulterated mixture of anger and grief that settled in Erza's eyes, and honestly, all they could do was concur with her.
Ultear may have had her reasons. Whether it was genuine, or if this too was another lie, was unknown to any of them.
All that mattered was that she hid it from the person whose life was the worst affected by it. She saw him hurt himself, and blame himself for all the wrongdoings he had done under her influence, but she remained silent, letting him pull himself down.
Erza could not care if Ultear was remorseful about her actions. There was a significant difference between doing something by choice and doing things under the control of others.
When she would go on a date with Jellal, she would still see some people scoff at Jellal and mutter things under their breath. Jellal would feign ignorance, but him being the horrible liar he was, she could see the pain clearly written on his eyes.
"I...I didn't know. Do you think Jellal found out..."
Lucy began with her question, but on seeing Erza's face, she decided against it. The other woman put up a weak smile and shrugged her shoulders.
"This is something he must do alone. If he calls me, I will go there with no hesitation. But until he calls me for help, all I can do is wait, and I hate this with a fiery passion"
Before Mirajane could say anything else, Erza's phone lit up and buzzed. She picked it up at a speed that rivaled her boyfriend's and gulped visibly before checking the message.
Her eyes spoke before her tongue. It was from Jellal and she helplessly stared at Mirajane.
"He wants to meet me - at a place where we would often go on a date. What should I do?"
"If there is a reason he wants to meet you after he possibly learned of Ultear, it just means that he needs you. Jellal is weak right now and the only one he can possibly trust is you.
Dress up nicely, Erza. It may not do much, but sometimes, seeing your significant other in a pretty or dashing outfit might alleviate the pain. If there is even something little you can do to help him, you should do it, don't you think?"
Mirajane hit the nail as Lucy rummaged through her bag, picking out a small photo album. She began to point out some of Erza's clothes before she combed her hair.
Before she knew it, Erza was dressed up to the nines. Mirajane let out a low whistle and Lucy clapped with a wink as Erza stared at the mirror.
She nodded in appreciation as she saw herself in a cream-coloured sleeveless dress with a matching hairpin resembling a flower and heels.
Grabbing onto her handbag, she tucked a few strands of her hair behind her ear and Mirajane smiled.
"You almost look like you are twenty. I can't believe I'm looking at someone who is almost thirty now"
Silence followed and the three women grabbed onto something nearby.
"Please don't do that. I am yet to come to terms with that. I cannot handle that shock again", Erza sighed and looked towards Lucy who was stuffing her hair inside her mouth mumbling something to herself.
Leaving the two of them to their imagination, Erza left the guild building as she walked towards their secret place.
It was nothing spectacularly special. It was a secluded place in the middle of the woods. It had a big tree where they would often lie around or have a small picnic when they could afford to do so.
There was no wonderful view, but the memories she held of the place were far too much to look for another spot.
Jellal was right there in their spot. She could sense his magic from the back of her head, and its potency was not exactly along the lines of stealthy.
As she made her way to the spot, she cursed herself for choosing to wear high heels knowing well that she would have to climb up a small hill, and finally made her way to the spot.
He was sitting there with a blank expression on his face. He turned towards her the moment she entered the frame and flashed her a watery smile.
Erza flinched when she saw the blood covering his clothes, his hands, and some parts of his face.
He pointed a bloody finger toward her dress.
"Is that dress.. difficult to clean?"
Wondering what he meant by that, she moved towards him before she realised his words.
"Jellal...", she sighed before shooting forward and wrapping herself around him.
A part of her wanted to chew the hell out of him for being worried about the dress.
He buried his face into the crook of his neck and began to sob. His fingers buried themselves into her skin as he clung to her in desperation, and all Erza could do at the moment was whisper words of comfort into his ear.
"Was this what you meant that day, Erza? About Ultear?"
She flinched as she heard the name again and hummed in response.
"You were right, you know? It hurts...it hurts far too much"
Erza was more worried about the blood on his body. Whose blood was it? Did she really want to know the answer? Even if Jellal was legitimately angry at her, and even if it was completely justified, Jellal was not someone to murder a person he knew by choice.
"Where is Ultear?"
Erza already knew the answer to her own question. But a part of her - a very, very small part wanted to hear it from the man himself. It was the only way she could make peace with herself.
"Because of the time magic she used on Fairy Tail, the after-effects began to take over her. She could no longer differentiate between timelines. She could not know who the person in front of her was - was it a real person, or were they just a figment of her imagination?
That was the price she had to pay for the magic she had used that day"
It was understandable. Magical prowess always comes at a price. Erza had her fair share of difficulties, and anyone knowing Jellal's story could say the same. The man went through so much, but the pain never stopped.
"I did what I had to do, to save her from becoming insane and wreaking havoc. Before that, she told me everything and spared no details"
Jellal explained everything to her, the same way Ultear had done so in her dream. Erza inched closer, waiting for the conclusion.
"I hold it against her, and I probably will do so until the end, but I hope to forgive her one day. I hope one day, I can recall her as the friend I loved as an older sister and the one who sacrificed herself for the woman I love"
As she wiped the blood from her face, Jellal stared at her eyes.
"To save us, and to save her from herself...I killed Ultear, Erza.
No matter what I wanted to do, every choice of mine ended with the same outcome. All I recall are her last words - Live well. Live the life I took from you"
The place was naturally a silent one. At times, one can hear the sounds of a few animals, while at certain times, one can hear the soft banter and love of two mages who could not live without each other. But that night was the first time one could hear the most anguished cry of pain, and the sound of teardrops splashing down on the fresh grass.
