Just me waiting for the upcoming chapter... Still shuddering from the Ichiya filler... Very happy about Jellal tagging along although the nature of the quest forbids it - ever the criminal, huh?
Anyway, enjoy some Jerza while we wait for canon material!
Fairy Tail 100 Year Quest: Chapter 153.5
The woods were alive with rustling and chirping. Tiny paws scurried through the undergrowth, seeking shelter from the descending night. An owl hooted. It sounded just like in Ishgar, save for the gurgling and giggling of the little jelly fish creatures that jumped in your mouth and swarmed your feet.
Luckily, they didn't venture deep into the forest.
"Alright." Erza stopped. The rumbling of her enormous cart came to a halt. "This is where we make camp."
"Here?"
"But I'm all fired up! Let's punch Ignia in his stupid face now!" Natsu hit his fist into his palm, his eyes slits of anger.
"We discussed this, Natsu." A dark aura emitted from Erza. Natsu's hands unlocked, trembling. A meek 'aye' made it past his lips. Gray tutted. He paled when her glare flashed to him. "We got our tactics figured out, we selected our teams." She placed a hand on Wendy's head. Wendy nodded seriously. A shine remained in her eyes, a beaming light at the opportunity to fight with and protect Erza. Erza had no doubts the young Dragon Slayer would outperform herself.
"Erza's right," Lucy sighed. "We should get some sleep while we can." She reached for the silver key at her belt. "Open, Gate of the Clock: Horologium!"
Erza listened absently as Natsu complained about Lucy storing her backpack in her Celestial Spirits – he wanted his carried too! She was glad that Gray was keeping out of it. He had shown much progress when it came to acting more maturely. Natsu still irked him, but he had himself under control like someone their age should.
(She blinded out the countless instances where she had gotten carried away, beaten someone to a pulp or showed little intellect in the face of simple logic.)
When after setting up camp, dinner and more than yet another hour, Natsu and Lucy were still debating – strategy, Celestial Spirits, her rent money – Erza commended Gray more than ever for his restraint. She herself wasn't brimming with it.
"Uhm, Erza." Wendy plucked at Erza's sleeve. It blanked out the squabble for a moment. Wendy held a special place in Erza's heart. Her cuteness was only adding to that, warmth blossoming on Erza's features. Wendy noticed the change in demeanour, beaming back. "Now I forgot what I wanted to say," she giggled.
The reminder came flying in the form of fire. It rolled across camp, catching on the girls' tent.
"Natsu!" Lucy shrieked. Before she could summon anyone, Erza had sliced the blazing part off. The remaining poles collapsed, the leftovers of the tent crumpling up as they fell into drying mud. "Hey! Now where are we supposed to sleep?"
"Don't distract, Lucy. Tell me who you think would win – Laxus or Jellal?"
Jellal winced where he was more or less hiding from the commotion. Tagging along to protect Erza and her friends was one thing, but he didn't need to know that they talked about him. It felt too much like seven years of Meredy-Ultear gossip. They had prepared him for the worst.
"I don't know and I don't care. Oh…" Lucy gingerly picked up what was left of her pillow. Singed, it spilled downs and ashes. "Look what you've done."
"I need to know, Lucy!" Natsu hauled the pillow's remains aside. "So that I can fight the winner!"
"That's enough!" Erza's voice boomed. Birds scattered from the trees, fleeing into the darkness. Natsu yelped. Gray copied Jellal in the art of becoming one with a tree. Erza planted herself right in front of Natsu, shaking the ground. "Since you obviously can't behave, I'm separating you two for the night."
"What did I do?" Lucy whined.
"Natsu, you will be giving your tent up for the girls since you destroyed theirs. Gray, I expect you to keep an eye on him."
"Oi!" Gray marched over. "Why am I being punished for his stupidity? I don't wanna sleep outside just cause—"
"You have problem with sleeping outside?" She turned slowly, mechanically.
Gray shrunk to half his size. "No, ma'am…"
"Uh," Lucy piped up, "I hope you don't have a problem with sleeping outside either, 'cause the boys' tent is only for two…" she faded out, realising her mistake. No, Erza wouldn't kick her out, not after she had made a point of separating Natsu and Lucy. And surely, she wouldn't force Wendy to sleep outside.
Coming to the same conclusions, Erza looked on a little stupefied. "Well…" She wasn't very keen on overhearing any more of Natsu's babbling or his snoring. Gray would learn from the experience – teach Natsu a lesson in temper by keeping his cool.
Jellal cleared his throat for no other reason than awkwardness. "You can sleep in my tent." He offered with a gesture. It was Meredy and Ultear's, later his and Meredy's. He had been used to sleeping in a hammock (something that couldn't be outdone in discomfort on a rainy night), but with Meredy not hating his guts anymore post prison break and having become attached to him after Ultear's disappearance, he had been allowed to share the tent with her. Compelled even.
Only he hadn't brought his hammock now. Just the tent.
"Ah, no, I—" Erza stammered. "I wouldn't want to force you to, you know…"
Gray rolled his eyes. Lucy snickered. She zoomed away and into the boys' tent when Erza shot her an icy glare. It wasn't too effective, given that she was blushing madly.
"I'm sure we can… share," Erza managed. Wendy's head adapted a similar redness when Jellal agreed.
They went to the creak without a word to one another. He was already back at camp when Erza, Wendy and Lucy went to refill their water bottles and rinse their mouths off toothpaste foam. Erza washed her face, let the water chill her cheeks to a tolerable extent.
"Are you okay with sleeping in a tent with Jellal?" Lucy dared to ask. She and Wendy weren't hiding their curious glances at his point. A flustered Erza was a rare occurrence.
"Of course, yes, it's no trouble," Erza quickly said. She repeated it to herself like a mantra, ignoring Lucy's suggestive comments. Requipping into her pyjamas, fumbling with one of her countless suitcases, Erza played for time. She was being ridiculous, really. It was just one night. A couple of hours. Sleeping was all they'd do, separately.
In close proximity.
She smacked her palms against her temples. The heat wouldn't leave though, not entirely.
So what if she was sleeping beside Jellal with none of the others seeing? She had preached for them all to get rest anyway, not chat or cuddle— and where was the cuddling part coming from?
Taking a deep breath, Erza crawled into the tent. It occurred to her only then that she should have knocked – no, not knocked, it was a tent with tent walls, fabric walls and no door, so said something, yes, she should have said something, something cool and nonchalant and honestly, why was she blushing so much? She had seen Jellal without a shirt. In the church, he hadn't even worn pants.
That particular memory wasn't making things better.
"I-I, uhm," Erza stammered.
Jellal looked up, cheeks ruddy. "Sorry." He shuffled to lie down, putting his lacrima aside. He looked like a child, pulling the blanket up to his chin. Erza would have laughed had she not been busy looking very busy and not at all aflutter. "I guess I should get myself proper sleeping clothes like you, now that I can show my face in a shop." He offered a grin.
The tightness of her stomach loosened. "You don't have a change of clothes with you?"
"I do, but not for sleeping. We got used to carrying as little as possible."
"I see…" She climbed into her sleeping bag. Jellal must have fluffed up the pillow while she was gone – it was puffy and welcomed her warmly as she sank down. "What about winter? You didn't sleep without a shirt in winter, right?"
"Only a few hours." He sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "We would sleep in our warmest clothes and then wash them, leaving them out to freeze dry in the early morning hours. The girls had the tent though and each other to keep warm."
"And you didn't."
"I think I would have died a slow, agonising death had I tried to cosy up to either of them," he laughed. "And it wasn't exactly on my wish list either…"
Erza frowned. How unbearable it must have been, and for seven long years!
She wasn't surprised that she felt no sting of envy whatsoever when he talked about the original Crime Sorcière – it was like her, Natsu and Gray sharing a bath in the old days. Only Jellal was a most annoying older brother according to Meredy. Overprotective, unreasonably stubborn, reckless. Typically Jellal, Erza thought with a smile.
He smiled when she did. He didn't even know why, and oh, it made him all the more adorable.
Erza bit her tongue in order to focus. Focus on something other than the heat trickling through her insides, lighting her eyes up with bewitched fondness. How could anyone have made this man a criminal? His smile was still that of a boy, vibrant and intelligent and exuding trust.
"Here, this is what I get for my sacrifice." He presented his lacrima.
Erza blinked at the garish screen. Out of reflex, she pushed it away by a few centimetres, realising only then that she was shoving his hand rather than the device. If he noticed, he didn't let it on. She could see his face through the screen, but he must have been cringing at what was there to see, so she let go of her embarrassment.
She didn't let go of his wrist though, not yet. It was… nice to feel his skin. Not soft like hers but warm. His pulse was steady, at least more so in comparison to hers. Most strikingly, here were no shackles binding painful memories. He was free. Free to love freely, it echoed in her mind.
Whatever you do, don't mention your 'fiancée'. The message read. Erza hadn't known that miniature communication lacrimas could send messages by text. She didn't have to look for Meredy's name atop the chat when a new message came in. I get second-hand embarrassment just thinking about it. Also make sure you sleep far enough away – you still say her name in your slee—
The lacrima vanished, Jellal fumbling to turn it off, plunging them into darkness.
Erza giggled. "You talk in your sleep?"
"No," he muttered, "not anymore. She's just saying that to taunt me. She would have complained to me about it otherwise. She's become skilled at kicking you out of a tent without having it come down."
There it was again, that dorkiness. Cute wasn't something Erza had ever pictured when imagining her dream partner, but then again, Jellal was the only partner she dreamed of and who was she to deny him for such a trait? She was quite willed, in fact, to humour it. Enjoy it.
Fiancée. She kept seeing the word in front of her mind's eye. Never mind Meredy knowing about his poor lie, not letting him live it down (that much was to be expected anyway). But then there was the fact that he was reminding Erza. He was forgiving himself for having been an idiot, going as far as making himself the centre of the joke to prove a point.
He trusted her – even more than she knew.
Jumpy but determined, Erza scooted closer. The darkness helped, hiding her scarlet face and ears and neck when she boldly took his arm. He smelled good. Rich and earthy, but also uniquely of something she couldn't call anything but magic. Like a bulb of ginger, plucked from the dew-moist ground, spicy, minty in a soothing way.
Jellal flinched. It made Erza hold on more tightly.
"I don't like the hardships you had to go through on top of everything else," she mumbled against him. Moving her lips, grazing his biceps with them, it was electrifying. "But I like it when you tell me about it. Hearing your voice, knowing it's over. The girls meant well."
"They didn't always make that very evident," he chuckled nervously. She wasn't sure whether because of Meredy and Ultear or because Erza was snuggling his arm, but she wouldn't let go either way. This was even better than holding his hand across the table.
Now that was a recent memory she had great joy in revisiting. "We should get ice cream more often together. My treat."
"That's not how dates work…"
"Dates?" Erza's eyes lit up so brightly, they could have outshone the moon.
"I— well, I thought," Jellal turned his head away, "I mean, I wasn't thinking anything, just that it…" He quieted. She waited. His chest expanded against her in a mute inhale, seeking to absorb whatever sudden courage she was emitting. Finally, he spoke, his voice grazing a whisper. "It felt… like a date."
"Me too."
"You too?"
"I mean to me too." She hid her face, squashing it against his shoulder. "It felt like a date to me too. And I don't care who pays. I'll happily pay if it means we can go out more often. Else I'd eat you out of house and home."
He laughed at that, and she allowed herself a grin. Still against his biceps, still inhaling that delicious scent. It had given her peace of mind, she remembered, in the prison cells of the Tower of Heaven.
Never realising how she was breaking her own rules of going to sleep right away, neither about a Dragon Slayer's sensitive ears, Erza shuffled closer, docking against Jellal with the entirety of her body. He let it happen, stiff but not pulling away. He hadn't given her an answer to her plea for going on dates or commented on her phrasing of going out. An answer to her offer for him and Meredy to join Fairy Tail was long in coming too. She wondered, for a moment, if he had told Meredy. If she could spy out a message on his lacrima about it, or a longer call hinting at a more heartfelt talk.
Either way, Erza wouldn't complain. Not with her face squished against him and her knees touching his hip through her sleeping bag. He might have had a habit of sleep talking, but Lucy used to complain about Erza sneaking into her bed in the wee hours. This was a precaution – an anticipatory action. No need to climb under his blanket if she was already nestling into his side, right?
Jellal let out a long breath. His pillow rustled loudly in her ear when he turned on his side. His arm came around her, sending her heart into her throat. It hammered, unsteady, unbelieving, unable to mask just how thrilled she was.
"You've always been the braver one of us." His lips descended upon the crown of her head, just for an instant. Erza smiled wildly. He had definitely sniffed her hair. He had kissed her hair. He was holding her and she was holding him and now how was she supposed to sleep – to ever sleep with her heart racing off like an unbroken horse?
Forehead against his chest, she could feel his heart rapping just as quickly, as if it wanted to break a rib or two.
"Fear is not the absence of courage. It's the source."
"Are you saying I have reason to fear you?" His voice was slurring, his jaw moving above her head.
Her lower arm was falling asleep, burning with its blood flow cut off, but it wouldn't keep her from holding on. Her knees were stacked, bone to bone, but she wouldn't rearrange them. She had never been more comfortable; never keener to stay just the way she was.
"If Gray and Natsu are any indication…"
A strong exhale, amusement. It vented warmly through her hair.
Her muscles slackened. He hummed in reply, the deep vibration lulling her senses to sleep.
What a clumsy man she had chosen. A coward, perhaps, but one with a heart of gold.
Erza fell asleep with a smile on her face. She didn't hear her friends giggling and teasing the next morning, and she didn't wake from Jellal's attempts of sneaking away or at least relieving himself until hours later. No, Erza was content right where she was. She was home.