3 Months Later

The past quarter year had been rather hectic for Jellal and Erza. They had to literally speedrun their wedding, decide on a good place for a honeymoon, and buy a proper house within a good budget, all within the span of a month.

It was almost a miracle that they managed to complete it. But there was nothing a good boost of caffeine and cutting back on sleep couldn't achieve.

Jellal recalled fondly how the two of them literally had no energy to roam around and be 'active' during their honeymoon. It was akin to a vacation taken by a geriatric couple.

"You should head back to Miss Wifey", a certain pinkette teased him. Rolling his eyes, Jellal turned towards Meredy who was stifling her laughter.

"You ought to, guildmaster. When women are pregnant, they tend to be...how can I make this sound more pleasant?"

Angel tried hard to think of the proper adjective to describe Erza. Knowing how her irritability would have tripled due to her pregnancy, she knew that Jellal would be bearing the majority of the mental brunt.

"Well, it's okay!", Midnight chirped in with a rare smile. What was that man planning? It was exceptionally rare to see that man smile, and it was more of a teasing smirk than a smile.

"Anyways if you consider the worst-case scenario you have to deal with this fourteen more times, so cheer up big man!"

Jellal's eye twitched and he squatted down on the ground burying his face in his hands. A couple of weeks after their marriage, Erza dragged him out on a date. To their luck, a theme park had opened up recently and Erza spotted the same clairvoyant woman, who buried Jellal's budgeting plans six feet under the ground. Apparently, she had read their futures incorrectly and Erza was to bear fifteen children. FIFTEEN CHILDREN!

"I know we mocked you for planning to raise a baseball team on your own, but I didn't know you had plans to raise a bullpen, a pinch hitter, and a pinch runner! I admit, I am mightily impressed by your dedication to the creation of an entire squad!", Angel teased her guildmaster, and the rest of the guild followed suit, not holding back their laughter and their sly remarks.

It was at that point did he recall the ring on his finger, and it brought a small smile back to his face.

Erza S. Fernandes

That was how she wanted to be called. She was adamant about taking his name, but in a way, Jellal was against it. After all, Scarlet was the name he had given her. It had a greater connection to him than his own surname. Using Scarlet as her middle name was the common ground they arrived at after countless arguments and debates. The answer was literally in front of their eyes, but with two headstrong people, it was obvious that neither would back down.

Nothing had changed even after the wedding. Perhaps it was a simple misconception from his side. Erza was still the same Erza. Sure, she blushed a bit more and was significantly more handsy, and she would never drop the chance to teasingly call him 'dear'.

By the heavens didn't he hate that word! Even then, deep inside his heart, it was soothing and sent chills down his spine.

As he buried himself in his thoughts, the buzzing of his lacrima phone broke him out of his reverie. It was a text message and the exceptionally bright profile picture was a dead giveaway.

COEM GET YUOR WEIF, YUO IDOTI!

The lightning mage was probably more drunk than an aging alcoholic, and with a smile on his face, Jellal bolted towards the guild to pacify or in the worst-case scenario, drag his wife back home.

If Fairy Tail wasn't already noisy and boisterous enough, throw in two dangerous pregnant women into the fold, and just observe the raw chaos.

Yes, Mirajane was pregnant as well. But she had just found out about it, and Laxus had already begun to dowse himself in liquor looking at Erza being rowdy ninety percent of the time. Laxus was many things, but a patient man was not one of them.

Jellal dropped to the ground from the momentary flight towards the guild and approached the door, only to see a wooden mug being viciously chucked towards the door, narrowly missing him by a hair's breadth. Warily, he stepped inside the guild only for his jaw to drop.

Lucy was tied to the wall and scantily clad. She had a ball gag in her mouth and stared at Erza with a blank stare. Levy and Wendy were sitting under a table hugging their knees. The lifeless glaze in their eyes spoke miles regarding whatever his wife had done to them.

Evergreen was smoking two cigars at the same time mumbling something under her breath. Did she even smoke? What was going on with the guild?

With an audible gulp, he turned towards the other side and saw Cana in a similar state as Lucy, but the woman had a sleazy grin that was visible even though her mouth was gagged, and she was additionally blindfolded.

Ignoring the dark-haired woman, Jellal stared forward gazing upon the comically large cauldron lying smack in the middle of the guildhall.

Jellal had already given up on expecting anything sane and stared above the cauldron to see Natsu and Gajeel each with a bell pepper stuffed inside their mouth, hoisted and tied to a large skewer that spun around. Where was Gray? Was Jellal too late to save the man?

Standing right next to the counter was the love of his life and behind it was the resident barmaid. Right next to the woman, he gazed upon the sight of Laxus passing out with at least a dozen empty jugs of beer.

Erza and Mirajane were yelling at each other, which was nothing to write home about. The two women could bicker about almost anything and Jellal was almost in a mind to run away from the spot, ignoring her.

As Erza randomly turned to the side, she spotted Jellal. Her face started to glow as she quickly made her way towards him, holding her mildly protruding stomach protectively. With no hesitation, Jellal rushed forward and caught her, being the overprotective worry-wart he was.

"What were you arguing about?", he asked her in a soft tone before pecking her forehead. The glowing smile on her face quickly descended into the exact opposite reaction. Her face positively sunk, her eyes grew watery and her lips began to quiver.

Jellal cupped her cheeks and pulled her into a longing kiss, hoping that it would lighten her mood. Not much to his surprise, it did not. Erza returned the kiss with equal vigour, but pulled back in a few seconds a pointed her finger at the entire guild in an accusatory manner.

"Darling! They...They are all bullying me!"

The Meteor mage had to muster every bit of his self-control to prevent himself from bursting into laughter.

"I see...", he mumbled as he had one final gaze at the havoc his better half had caused in the already chaotic guild.

"Lucy and Cana were being mean to me, so I tied them against the wall. I did it JUST like how you taught me to do it"

She clapped her hands merrily like a child as Lucy screamed through her gag, pleading Jellal with her eyes to take Erza away.

"Evergreen wanted some help on wooing Elfman, so I told her everything we did and mmfff"

Evergreen smoking two cigars was very much understandable at the moment. Even if she had one for each slit between her fingers, Jellal would not be surprised or worried.

"And Natsu and Gajeel won't help me"

But why were they being cooked in a comically impractical way?

"I just wanted some of their scales!"

What scales? What had happened to his wife in the past couple of hours he was away?

"Because I wanted to try a new recipe - stir-fried dragon scales coated with strawberry sauce"

"Why does that exist?", Jellal deadpanned as he grabbed his wife's arms. Erza's whims never made sense, but this was without a doubt the absolute winner of her insane experiments.

"I don't know", she mumbled and buried her face in the crook of his neck as she hummed a tone.

Mirajane stared at her best friend with her jaw wide open and she stared at Laxus. She violently woke him up and cupped his face with the sweetest smile on her face.

"L...Laxus, I know I have my troublesome moments, but...but I'm not as bad as that thing, am I?"

Laxus stared at her with an expressionless face before pointing at her, as he burst into laughter. Without an answer, he poured himself another drink and collapsed the very next moment.

Jellal's fight or flight response started to shoot up as he saw Mirajane's face crumble. There was no way in hell he could handle two of them, especially when his best friend gave up without bothering to lift a finger.

"Don't bully my wife! Isn't she having a hard time? Don't make it harder for her!"

Jellal admonished the guild. His eyes and mouth screamed out an apology, and before Erza could make it worse, he dragged her out.

"But...but what about my stir-fried dragon scales?", she pouted. How could he say no to that face?

"On my way here, I came across a new bakery. The strawberry cheesecake smelled divine, and looked to be in limited quantity"

Strawberry cheesecake - two words were more than enough to make the scarlet-haired woman salivate like a child awaiting their favourite meal.

"But if you still wanted to -"

"NO!"

With newfound energy, one hand grabbed onto her husband's wrist and the other protectively around her stomach as she confidently strode in the wrong direction.

As Jellal led her to the store, Erza darted forward, right next to the counter, and ran her eyes all over the mouthwatering pictures of pastries and biscuits.

A middle-aged woman, probably the manager of the shop, stifled her laughter as she saw Erza viciously glare at the menu before making a surprise decision - strawberry cheesecake.

As they waited for the cheesecake to be prepared, Jellal could do the only thing he wanted to do - gaze at her beauty.

How was it that the same woman who was busy raising enough ruckus to start a civil war a few minutes back, had the most ethereal glow of a mother at the moment? The soft smile on her face, as she stared outside the window, was almost picturesque as Jellal buried the memory into his brain.

"Sit next to me", she pouted as she tapped the empty seat to her right side. Jellal complied, and the second he took his seat, Erza turned away burying her face in her hands, and kicked her feet like a teenager in love.

"So...has he been troubling you?", Jellal asked as he ran his hand over her stomach. It was a boy, and the Scarlet mage was overjoyed to have a Mama's boy all for herself, pointing the same dozens of times to her husband with an exceptionally smug tone.

"He kicked! He kicked!"

Erza grabbed his wrist and patiently waited for another one and cooed at the child inside her.

"You can't feel a child's movement at this stage, love. You're just imagining things"

Erza swatted his forearm and rubbed her stomach protectively before giving another smug grin.

"Maybe he kicks more when I touch because he's a Mama's boy"

It was a losing battle. There was no way in hell that Erza would see reason when she had already made up her mind, and Jellal was in no mood to fight yet another losing battle.

"What are you going to do if he likes me more?", he asked in amusement and Erza shot towards him at lightning speed. He didn't care for the glare on her face, but more for her neck.

"No! He's mine! He's MY little boy. Okay...he is ours, but mostly mine!"

As the woman juxtaposed herself again and again in a futile battle against an invisible enemy, Jellal could no longer hold his laughter.

"Do you want to bet?"

"What should we bet on? A bowl of stir-fried dragon scales coated with strawberry sauce?"

Blood rose to Erza's cheeks as she punched his chest in embarrassment before whining and mumbling like a child.

"You are SO funny, aren't you?"

Jellal put out a cheesy smirk before yawning. Fate had not been overly kind to him for the past few months as the man could not catch a solid four-hour nap.

Erza saw this and her pout vanished, replacing itself with a face filled with worry and guilt that crushed her husband.

"Am I making it too hard for you?", she whispered as she hugged his arm.

"You have it worse than me, dummy. This is the only way I can make it easier for you", Jellal smiled before kissing the top of her head.

The man listened with rapt attention and of slight amusement, as he heard his wife ramble on about the past couple of days. Whatever she was doing for these days, things were going to be BAD the moment the little tyke popped out of her womb. Jellal could almost sense the majority of the women in the guild inching to take their well-deserved revenge against the scarlet-haired woman.

"Jellal? In your past lives...was there ever one where we did not..."

Why did she ask such a question at a time? Jellal looked down at the magazine she was reading, and on the front cover was the image of two childhood sweethearts going through an exceptionally nasty divorce. With that, he understood her doubts. What if something like that had happened before, and if it had happened before, what are the chances that it may not happen in this life?

"I don't need to tell you how many lives I have led. Heck, even I can't keep up with the various things that happened each time. But almost always, there was one thing in common - you never let go of me. I never saw another woman the way I looked at you, but I was... or I still am, a difficult person to be with"

Jellal placed his finger on her lips the moment her mouth opened to fire up protests.

"Denying it won't make it a false statement, love. I know the countless mistakes I have made before, and I promise you this - I am not going to repeat them. I will be the man -"

This time it was she who placed her hand over his lips. He did not need to give any kind of explanation as he was already putting it out. Erza didn't know and didn't need to know what caused him to flip out and propose in front of the crowd. From that day on, he didn't shy away from expressing his affection for her in front of others. Of course, he would still hesitate, but would often put out instead of vehemently denying like before.

Whatever had happened, she didn't need to know. The man in front of her deserved to love himself just as much as she loved him. If that was not possible, he should have been able to give himself at least a quarter of her affection.

Erza broke out of her thoughts as the corner of her eye spotted the middle-aged woman trying to hold her laughter.

Before she could point it out to Jellal, the man removed her hand from his mouth and pulled her into a kiss.

Once again, the customers stared at the two of them in a mixture of surprise and amusement. Usually, it would be Erza who would do something shamelessly, while Jellal would be the one to complain.

She stared with a blank stare as Jellal broke the kiss and started to play with her hair.

A sudden grimace covered his face as Jellal held his back. The man was not getting enough rest and had already punched into his thirties, and going on a crusade against dark guilds should have been the finishing blow.

"Have you gotten old, darling?", Erza teasingly cooed as she rubbed his back and Jellal raised his eyebrow.

"You are almost a quarter of a year older than me, Scarlet"

The Meteor mage winced the moment the words slipped out of his mouth. It was almost like a reflex, and the last thing he had to do at the moment had to be souring the mood.

He stared at Erza, whose eyes started to widen as each second passed. The pregnant woman was not ready for a reality check and grabbed his hands.

"But...but...I am mentally twenty...twenty three right? That must count, right? Right?"

Jellal ruffled her hair and gave her a soft smile. Well, whatever helped to improve her mood was good enough for him. Fear ran through her as Erza slapped her own cheeks in a pernicious fashion.

"I AM AN OLD HAG!"

The customers tried their best to remain civil and masked their laughter with fake coughs or by stuffing their faces with food.

As she calmed down, she stared at Jellal with sheer rancour, and the hapless man could only give her an apologetic kiss in return.

As Erza completed the rest of her cake in silence, Jellal stared outside the window.

"Do you want or head out for a walk?", he asked and Erza complied with no hesitation.

The husband and wife left the place with the same panache they had entered with, and the manager failed to hide her smile for the third time that hour as she saw the two thirty-year-olds behave like teenagers in love.

It was not just the bakery, but even the streets had eyes focused on them. Irrespective of their wishes, Jellal and Erza were the cynosure of attention, which the Meteor mage loathed with every bit of his heart.

Erza stopped and grabbed onto Jellal's wrist with vicious strength as she spotted a singular, unattended tree.

"Found a spot!"

The man gave up with a smile as he followed her sweet little whims. Whatever energy Erza had vanished into thin air once she rested her back against the tree as she comically slid down, and if it was not for her husband's lightning-fast reflexes, the aggressive little tyke in her womb would have responded with a fusillade of kicks, at least according to his imaginative wife.

With no words spoken, Jellal placed her legs on his lap and began to press them, relieving all kinds of knots.

"Next time, I want twins! Or triplets too! Won't they be cute? What should we do about names? Mira and I were having a small discussion on this, but we could not arrive at an answer"

"Your son is still inside your stomach and you are already playing favourites for kids that don't even exist. Yet, you believe that he's going to be a Mama's boy. Don't you -"

"I LOVE ALL MY CHILDREN THE SAME!"

What children? The woman had already begun building castles in the sky and Jellal tried his best, not to burst out in a fit of laughter.

All Jellal could do was shut up and listen in peace as his wife rambled on and on about the books she read about pregnancy, some music she heard, and all the things she spoke to their son.

"I bought three more pregnancy books!"

Her husband could only raise his eyebrows at the statement. What was the point of that? Erza would have read every pregnancy-related book in the entirety of Fiore, and now she had her sights on external empires.

"All of them have the same focal point, Erza. They just use different words, different pictures and beat around the same bush as they write the same points"

The woman was NOT pleased. Erza puffed her cheeks and turned away like a child after a small admonishing from a parent.

The soothing purr of her voice was the complete opposite of that of her expression, as Jellal's hands worked magic yet again.

"If it matters that much to you, I'll read it for you"

"Am I a child wanting to listen to a bedtime story? I'll read it WITH you"

Erza's eyes widened in realisation and winced the very moment the words rolled out of her tongue. For the past couple of months, the both of them did try to read together, but Erza would always remember sitting on the sofa cuddling against Jellal, the first three or four pages of the book she was supposed to read, and then she would suddenly wake up on the bed with a blanket over her.

Jellal was definitely not someone to let go of such an opportunity, and she could see that teasing, domineering smirk on his face. She buried her face in her hands and screamed out loud before she felt a comforting hand ruffle her hair.

The man in front of her was fighting every bit of his self-control to avoid bursting out into laughter.

"Don't you dare"

One of the worst things to say to someone holding back their tears is to ask them not to cry or if they are fine. Asking someone not to laugh is along the same lines, and Jellal burst out into laughter the very next moment.

The woman wanted to yell at him, asking him to shut up, but seeing those eyes filled with mirth, and the sheer joy that radiated from his words each time he spoke, Erza decided against it.

For such a long time, she would see him with a frown on his face, his eyes buried with grief and guilt, and a rare smile that he would give out of pity. The man that would tend to hate and curse himself for the most irrelevant set of reasons, was finally giving a go at a moderately positive outlook on life.

She will not deny his pain this time, especially not after the time she painted it to be something minuscule as to what it truly was, but felt pride in knowing that her man had made peace with it.

Jellal scooted over to her side and grabbed her hand, softly kissing the back of her fingers.

She puffed her cheeks like a child and yanked her hand from his grasp, still not forgiving him for that merciless laughter.

"You know I love that cute side of you", he purred and nibbled on her ear.

Fifteen children

That was how many she was to bear, and her thoughts drove back to Jellal. How many would be like her husband? It would surely be a gift she would treasure for the entirety of her life, but what if they shared his melancholic tendencies?

There was the off chance that at least one of them would take the entire world's problems on their shoulders, sinking further into the ground as they would blame themselves for the most remotely related issues. Heaven forbid if the child had Erza's temper.

It was bad enough that she had to deal with herself, and she couldn't fathom throwing another miniature version of herself towards Jellal. The man already had enough problems in his corner and didn't need any more.

Erza looked down and stared at the two rings on her finger - her engagement ring on her middle finger and her wedding ring on her ring finger.

Her mind immediately wandered to Ichiya and Kagura, and her face visibly shrunk at the thought of the former.

The man was a crying mess, sobbing about losing 'his honey' to 'an unstoppable beast'. Needless to say, her fists were almost about to turn into an unstoppable beast dipped in honey, until Meredy appeared out of nowhere and dropkicked him with pinpoint accuracy.

Honestly, she was impressed by the sheer force of the weight thrown into the kick. The other highlight was Kagura, who had a sour look on her face the entire time as she saw the smile on Jellal's face.

Erza was internally debating on whether to give her a piece of her own mind or ignore her belligerent glare. But Kagura's anger was justified in a way, according to her own logic.

Even if Jellal was just the puppet dancing to Ultear's tunes, it was by his hand that Simon lost his life. Kagura being his sister, would hold that grudge until her death and Erza knew it.

She was on pins and needles the entire time. Jellal had just gotten out of his self-loathing funk, and if Kagura were to say something, all of his progress would vanish in thin air.

As much as she wanted to hate her, she could not. Kagura knew it as well - Jellal was not at fault, but her conscience could not forgive him, especially when she knew that her brother had died by his hand.

She recalled Kagura's glare being replaced by a look of fear and instantly avoided the eyes of the bride and groom, leaving the ceremony halfway. Erza glanced to her side, only to see a vicious smile on her maid of honour's face.

Honestly, as much as she loved/hated Mirajane, life would be difficult without her... peaceful for sure, but difficult.

"What are you thinking about?"

Erza broke out of her train of thought when Jellal tucked some strands of her hair behind her ear. She blushed like a bride at the sight of his angelic face inches away from her own and turned away bashfully. For goodness' sake, how long was she going to act like a teenager on her first date?

"How I am going to be an AMAZING housewife", she replied with a smug grin, causing Jellal to roll his eyes.

"You wouldn't last a day, love"

The azure-haired mage knew for a fact that Erza and housewife did not belong in the same sentence together.

"What? Don't you think an apron would look good on me? When you come back from hunting dark guilds, I will wear nothing but my apron and ask you the new wife's question. Do you think you can say no, darling?"

"That is a fantasy. For all I care, you could literally do the same thing when you have a holiday, if doing that is your only aim at being a housewife.

Do you genuinely think you can stick around inside our house with the kids running around screaming, crying, fighting, and before you can diffuse the fight, the food on the stove will start burning, the milk will have boiled and run down the saucepan and down onto the stove, the phone will randomly start ringing, some nut will ring the doorbell and -"

"I give up!"

Her 'dream' of being a housewife didn't last thirty seconds, and Jellal bit his lip as he saw her reddening cheeks.

"Do you wanna fight?"

"Maybe a few weeks after you have given birth"

Teasing a pregnant Erza was definitely not on Jellal's bucket list, but it was definitely worth it. This was a good payback for the countless times she had done the same to him.

"Remember the last time you underestimated me?", she gloated and Jellal shrugged in response.

"It was the only time I did so, and to be fair to me, I had no idea what was going on in my mind"

"Still...you lost to me so easily and..."

"Have I lost to you after that?"

SMACK

Oh, this man could test her limits to the best of his ability, and he leaned back, bathing victoriously in his own bombastic glory, completely ignoring the throbbing pain striking the back of his head.

Erza got up with a pout and childishly turned her face away, puffing her cheeks. With another smile, Jellal got up and wrapped his arm around her waist as he kissed her temple, mumbling an apology into her ear.

"Two more!"

"As milady wishes"

The pout on her face did not fade instantly and she grabbed onto his arm with a slight huff.

"I want to go home now. I am tired!"

Was she genuinely tired? Her voice said the opposite as it beamed with energy, but Jellal would not dare ask her that lest he had a death wish, and the man had just begun to appreciate life.

The duo made their way back home with Erza possessively hugging Jellal's arm with a big smile on her face. It had been quite some time, but the stares he received never seemed to die down.

The only progress he could discern was the difference in the expressions of the stare over time. Initially, it was fear, and as time passed it turned to disgust and as of late, annoyance.

How did a man of his stature ever land up with such a woman? That was probably the question every disappointed stare asked him in unison.

Over time, Jellal had learned to ignore the stares and had accepted it to be a part of his life. But the Requip mage was an entirely different story.

For how long did her husband have to take the wrath of society? Even if it was not his fault, he had paid his dues to society to appease his own sense of guilt. He had also taken further steps by razing dark guilds almost at the cost of his own life at times! What more was he supposed to give to a society that would never admit his innocence?

She sighed in a mixture of disbelief and grief, throwing those thoughts away and the very next second, Jellal stopped abruptly, almost causing Erza to trip.

Before the scarlet-haired woman could express her anger in fear for her unborn child, the man lifted her chin and captured her lips.

It was not a shy peck or the usual half-hearted response he would give her when she would teasingly kiss him in front of others. The passion he poured into the kiss was something they would almost always share in their privacy and during a few steamy nights.

But how forward was it of him to claim Erza for himself in front of such hostility? Especially when each glare and whisper would hurt him and he would suffer in silence?

"I won't say that I'm immune to the stares and those accusatory glares. But I felt I would rather think about my wife who would turn the world upside down to see a small smile on my face, rather than worrying about people who won't bat an eye even if I were to save the world"

Countless thoughts fought one another inside Erza's brain at the sight of the angelic man in front of her.

When did it start? Was it the first time she had met him? Was that annoying, naughty little boy the same man standing in front of her? What about her past lives and those of her other world counterparts? What specific factor did they find so damn loveable in this man?

But she couldn't care less. She had come across countless men in her life, out of which quite a few were in the same leagues as him, but why him? Why Jellal Fernandes? Was it his valour? His undying loyalty? Or was it his unconditional love for her? What was so specific in that man that in every life they had spent on the same Earth, they had ended up together?

She couldn't care! The only thing that mattered was the inexplicable love she had for him and the way he looked at her like she was the most precious thing in the universe.

She had lost count of the number of times he had made her speechless. A plethora of words fought inside her brain as they all tried to form one coherent sentence, but only word emerged as the victor.

"Again!"

It was definitely shameless, but she couldn't care less as she grabbed his collar and smashed her lips against his. She could feel her man smile through the kiss as he held her closer to his body.

The past, the present, or the future - in all of the lives, she was his and he was hers. There was no doubt about that.

"Satisfied?"

Falling in love with this annoying, troublesome, and overprotective man? Best decision of her life!

"Again!"

Fin

A/N: Thank you so much for sticking with this until the end. I hope you enjoyed it.