Wow, thank you SO much, Goku275, for such an incredible review! I'm swooning over here, I'm so happy with it! (heart) Don't know who your other favourite pairings are, but if they're of 'big four' (dunno if people actually call 'em that, I do :D) then I hope you're enjoying the bits and pieces I'm sewing here and there. Gruvia and Gajevy are definitely going to have some scenes. Again, thank you so much for your unbelievably kind review and just so you know, I'm more than happy to deliver!
Enjoy!
Erza awoke to the sun warming her back. The sun might have been up, but it was not easy to tell the time by that alone anymore, seeing as Caelum's advancing spring stretched the days from earlier mornings to later evenings. With the sun's warmth however, she had hardly noticed her husband's absence.
Blinking repeatedly, eyes much rather staying shut, she in- and exhaled deeply. Rubbing her eyes, she took her sweet time with waking up. There was no rush after all – days and now weeks of honeymoon had certainly taught the self-disciplined Queen of the Fairies how to relax. She refused to blame it on hormones, as Jellal would label it.
Turning to grope for her lacrima on the nightstand behind her, she peered at the time through squinted lids. Not yet nine. His rhythm was rubbing off on her.
Just then, the front door's lock clicked, a key clinking where Jellal returned from who-knew-where. He beamed once he spotted her to still be in bed. Small, with sleep sticky eyes and a squeaking yawn only broadened his smile. Had it not been that comfortable and still smelling of him, Erza would have already greeted him as excitedly as a dog, seeing as he had come up with new ways of waking her up almost every day. From hair combing to storytelling over massages and desserts, he left nothing untried.
"Good morning, my love," he greeted mellowly, careful not to disturb her until now quiet world. There was a shine in his eyes. It made her heart skip a beat. She could not wait to see what he had in store.
Sitting up, rubbing her eyes, Erza missed the way he unsuspiciously dropped his bag on the ground where the high mattress hid it from her sight. She hummed complacently when his thumbs joined hers, stroking over her eyes and cheeks in an affectionate wake-up welcome. She only blinked into the light again after his lips had left her forehead.
"Remember how we're both enjoying the warm weather?" He spoke up again. Arching her back, Erza tilted her head.
"You say that as if we stopped," she returned with a teasing spark in her gaze.
"Just play along,"
"Oh, okay," she sat up straighter, drawing her knees under herself to kneel. Collecting her hands in her lap, Erza nodded. But he waited, seeming expectant. It took her a second, but then she quickly resumed. "Ah- I mean, yes, we do, my dear husband. Why do you bring it up all of a sudden?" She could not help the smile where it crept onto her lips.
Clearing his throat, Jellal continued as if there had been no intervention whatsoever.
"And do you know what also comes with spring when it gets warmer?" His smile stretched into a smug smirk. "I'll give you a hin-"
"Strawberry season!" Erza burst, fully awake now. Having crawled until the edge of the bed, causing it to wobble strongly – not that she cared, her determination too great for her to lose her balance – Erza's eyes sparkled at him in anticipation. Jellal stared at her where she was suddenly so close. Then he smiled, bending down to reach into his bag.
"Strawberry season," he confirmed, revealing the parcel of freshly harvested strawberries. Erza whooped, throwing her arms around him for just an instant before turning her attention to the much-appreciated gift. Snatching the batch away, she gobbled up the top ones. Melting with the sweet, sun-ripened taste, sighing vocally with bliss, her eyes fluttered closed. They were so tender, she could squish them with her tongue against the roof of her mouth.
"You know how to treat a girl," came her muffled praise while she did not cease to nibble on more and more.
"Bold of you to assume you're part of that category," Jellal raised an amused brow at the way she had already wolfed half of them down, plopping the next into her mouth before the previous one was fully gone. He frowned when she kept eating instead of defending herself with a feisty reply. "You're supposed to insult me back," he sat down next to her.
"Tease me all you want, I'm happy," Erza's by fruit dulled voice came, munching on delightedly. The floor of a small box was already visible.
Smiling adoringly, Jellal watched her for another moment. Scooting closer, he enclosed her opposite arm to pull her against him for a moment, kissing the side of her head.
"Then so am I."
Erza smiled at her newborn child in her arms. The hours of pain had been worth it in the end, even though she could not remember a single one of them.
"Thank goodness, it doesn't have a mark," Millianna said where she leaned over the hospital bed, the stethoscope around her neck dangling. Her tail swished from side to side from beneath her nurse's skirt. "It doesn't look like him one bit,"
"Of course it does," Erza argued steadfastly. She gasped when Kagura took the child away, holding it up with its little legs dangling. None of them noticed how it was already a toddler now.
"No, she's right," she breathed in relief, "it doesn't have his evil eyes,"
"They're not evil," Erza grabbed back her child, holding it closely to her chest. She rocked up and down where she now stood, whispering soothingly to it. But the little girl was already busy with comparing their hair, lifting scarlet to scarlet as if trying to enter their discussion.
"It doesn't look anything alike Papa's," she declared. Erza frowned unhappily. Waiting to have the girl meet her eyes, she nearly dropped it when the face staring back at her was the spitting image of her creepily grinning mother Irene.
She spooked when the horn of the train sounded behind them. Turning, she could see the steam rise from its funnel. They were going to miss it!
The destination not even crossing her mind, Erza hurried over to the station's small kiosk. She clutched her child to her, lest she break free and transform into a dragon. But the girl held still, not detaching her face once while Erza addressed the man behind the counter.
"Jellal, come on," she called. He blinked at her in puzzlement. "We're going to miss the train," she urged.
"Erza, I can't," he shook his head. "I still have all of these breads to sell," he gestured at the kiosk's goods. She wanted to screech when the train's horn rushed her once more.
"No, you don't. You don't work here," she retorted, patience thinning out. "You already sold enough bread, remember? We work together now for our child," she reminded, rucking the five-year-old up in her arm. "And the Council,"
"Of course I work here," Jellal shook his head. "This is where you became pregnant," he pointed at a sack of potatoes in the corner. She stared at it, bewildered. Not because she did not believe him, but because they were going to miss their train for some stupid reminiscence of years ago.
"It doesn't matter," she puffed, "she's still your daughter," she said, not exactly knowing why. Again, he only shook his head.
"No, that is," he pointed at her suddenly nine-months pregnant belly. Then whose was…? She wondered, staring at the child in her arms, wondering for the first time if the scarlet-haired boy was her own to begin with.
She did not get to ask when her stomach suddenly cramped, waves of panic surging through her. The baby…!
Erza awoke with a thin coat of sweat on her forehead. Her eyes had sprung open, staring at the front door across from her side of the bed. The sun was already bathing it in warm light, the late morning explaining her confusing set of images – morning dreams were always the strangest.
Exhaling as deeply as she could without being too obvious, she relaxed into the pillow once more. Her hand was on her belly already, just like every morning. What a completely useless dream, she pondered, not sure how to feel about it. It could not be classified as a nightmare, but pleasant did not exactly qualify either. A slight twist weaved through her insides, not yet uncomfortable but trying to say… something. Hunger, she determined, seeing as the morning was late.
Carrots would be nice, she thought. Carrots and cucumbers and mustard. With salt.
She felt Jellal's back to her own, rising and falling steadily – something that almost made her hold her breath. Only that would wake him. Anything unusual, she knew, astonished how her waking up had not roused him yet. So she stretched her legs as noiselessly as possible, grabbing the sheets to herself where he would not be disturbed. Retracting her leg, however, caused the slightest of stirs from her husband, the combination of a creak from the kitchen door that never properly closed proving nearly deadly.
Wincing, Erza stared blankly at the hexagonal shapes above her. It took her a moment to react. She reached out a hand, palm coming flat against the solid barrier of magic. Glancing over her shoulder, she found Jellal propped up on one arm, the other outstretched. Sleepy, confused eyes fixated the kitchen door with a blazing gaze, his mind needing another minute to catch up with reality.
Erza felt her lips curve into a smile. What a useful reflex he had developed, she thought to herself, at the same time wishing his sleep would be deeper.
Slowly, reality dawned on him. With the knowledge of the door always creaking, Jellal flopped back down into the mattress. It wobbled as a response, unfailingly making her smile. Said smile widened when he turned, coming to cuddle her to his chest. She lifted her torso when his arm tried to dig beneath her, both of them enclosing her securely. A sharp sigh below her ear let her know about his tiredness.
"You're up early," Jellal mumbled, rubbing his face into her shoulder. It stayed there, nose squished and pressing his every exhale down her back. "How come?" He asked. The word 'nightmare' practically rang in those two words.
She shook her head, knowing what he meant.
"It's alright, it was merely… odd," Erza admitted. Stroking down his arms, she found his hands, gladly taking the invitation of his fingers straddling to intertwine her own. She was not sure she still felt as weird as when she had woken up, half of the dream forgotten already. One thing returned briefly, and she narrowed her eyes, trying to remember whether she had brought an apron. Jellal in an apron was definitely something her subconscious had conjured up for a reason – she loved him in an apron.
The selling bread thing remained a mystery though.
"How are you feeling now?" He insisted instead, voice still muffled against her nape. She took a moment to think about that. The twist in her stomach was gone, a warmth replacing it thanks to his protective habit. Not to mention cuddle.
"Strange, but not in a bad way," she concluded.
"Do you want to talk about it?" He referred to her dream. Humming vaguely, she indirectly declined. A kiss landed on her nape, and when the offer of distraction left his mouth, her first idea was that he wanted to make out. Not that she complained.
"I just remembered an embarrassing story I'd be ready to share," Jellal bravely confessed. All of her senses pushed away any lingering lust, trained on his suggestion. She struggled with herself as not to turn, leaving it up to him to decide whether he wanted eyes on his face or not.
"And I thought waking up to strawberries could not be topped," she grinned, earning herself an amused exhale down her neck. She waited patiently for him to start, frowning with an equal amusement when he started nibbling on her shoulder, simply out of boredom. Her heart skipped a beat, a fuzzy heat pooling in her chest. Sleepy Jellal was even cuter than shy Jellal, she decided, allowing him to gently bite as a replacement action.
"Well," he mumbled into her soft skin, "since it's an embarrassing story, you can probably guess who's involved," he grumbled drowsily. Her smile only broadened with every noise and every movement of his.
"I'm going to go with Meredy," she played along. When he only huffed, she extended her assumption to Crime Sorcière, hitting the bull's eye. Meredy had once told her about the boys pressuring him into proposing, a word or two about them having teased Jellal with it since their joining slipping her tongue.
"They once got hold of a Sorcerer Weekly," stole, she knew, leaving the implication unsaid, "staring at the girl photos for hours, then pretended not to care, handing it down to Meredy and Solano.
"They also pretended not to listen while the girls gossiped about the articles, but I know they did," Jellal smiled to himself. As did she, most likely guessing correctly with the thought of Jellal just as secretly attentive. "It was really sweet actually, those two," he went on. "They would lie on their fronts with their hands holding their heads and legs doing this cliché kicking in the air," his smile softened into her back. She could imagine them perfectly, her mind convincing her of a flower-strewn field instead of a dark forest. "The most stereotypical thing you can imagine.
"And they'd read the double pages, waiting for the other to finish before turning over, but never waiting to rant about whatever caught their attention in the middle of reading," he retold. His face heated up slightly, another mellow bite on her shoulder blade telling her how he was trying to overplay a blush. "That first edition they got was incidentally one where you had done a double page photoshoot, so I was naturally its next and last owner – of the double pages, not the magazine.
"I just couldn't bring myself to throw it away, even if I knew it was just a photo and that it existed a hundred times more. So I folded it and hid it in my coat – I wanted to hide it somewhere they wouldn't find it even if they searched my stuff, like the waistband of my trousers or under my shirt. But Eric would've heard, and I wasn't exactly thrilled for that conversation – him finding you in my boxers, that is," he sheepishly disclosed. Erza could not help a giggle.
Giving a squeeze to his hand above her belly, she smiled gladly when he returned it. And if she was honest with herself, she had to confess that this really was surpassing strawberries in bed by light years. There was not a single aspect of her life that Jellal could not improve, she merrily assessed. Even those that did not need improvement.
"That's also why the newest photos of the album the guild gave me for our wedding didn't come as a surprise – the girls had bought every edition with you in it from then on, excusing their want for something solely meant for entertainment and not bare necessities with me needing your picture."
"And you kept those too?"
"I did," he replied without hesitation, "until my clothes caught fire in an accident and the remains of what could have been saved of your photos got soaked in the river I tried to extinguish myself in – or was thrown into to be exact…"
"Is that where the burn scar on your ribs comes from?"
"No, but this one does," he lifted their joint hands, displaying a different, fainter scar on the inside of his lower arm. She raised their hands in order to reach, kissing the scarred tissue.
"Did you get new photos?" She asked, enticing a laugh.
"No, I couldn't have with my guildmates around," he grinned against her uppermost thoracic vertebra. "Also, I didn't dare because I felt terrible about having ruined them..." he mentioned his usual guilt trip. The same second, he kissed her shoulder, then again, reassuring her not to be feeling that way anymore. At least not over something that trivial. "And they had had their fun," he added, "so we agreed that having paper on us was both too dangerous an information for enemies to discover, as well as very flammable," he grinned when she chuckled.
"I see..." Erza sighed. She felt a lot better than before, the awkwardness of her own dream nearly vanished. Nearly. Somehow, he seemed to feel what she was hardly able to distinguish herself.
"There was never any hiding from Eric except for when he slept," Jellal continued, lifting her momentarily dropping mood, "so I waited until everyone was asleep – at least I thought they were, foolish as I am," he exhaled sharply, and she smiled with amusement. "And I looked at your photos in the dead of the night." He kissed her shoulder again. "Meredy ended my private-dream sessions most times, because she started laughing like a madman, having noticed, of course," he rolled his eyes, planting another kiss near her neck. "It set the others off, too, and I became the laughingstock for the next 24 hours,"
"They never let you off the hook,"
"Never," he confirmed, sealing it with a kiss to her nape. Reading her flawlessly, Jellal picked up on the sigh she gave not yet being a fully relaxed one. "It didn't stop me from trying again almost every night though," he added.
Silent for another moment, Erza pondered. Her dream was almost gone completely, but different images – real, past memories – flooded her mind when he mentioned the times of their longing. Of his longing and grief while she had been thought to be dead. She had to remind herself that Crime Sorcière had only added new members after Fairy Tail's reappearance.
"… what was it that you thought when you looked at them?" She finally asked. It was his turn to sigh. His arms tightened carefully.
"A bunch of inappropriate things, of course," he admitted, making her giggle. "Things I'd make myself feel guilty about and that would make Eric want to strangle me to death," he shrugged. His voice was more awake now, sleepy nibbles turning into consciously comforting kisses.
Smiling, Erza brought their hands to her ribs – what little of them was still accessible – in order to have him hold her even closer.
"But I would also imagine you there, at the photoshoot," Jellal trailed in recollection. "I would picture myself behind the scenes, and we would talk about the job and sometimes ridiculous sets. Often times, it would be just you talking, telling me or anyone else about what was going on in your life, the guild, a new cafe, ordinary things; anything really," he said. "And I would just sit there and watch you, finally able to see you without having to close my eyes to do so – though that was of course exactly what I was doing," he grinned. But his tale had softened all amusement from her features.
Turning to face him, Erza cupped his face in both hands.
"I should have probably been the one to tell you a story," she said, a tad ruefully. He had awoken in shock after all – a fear of potentially imminent death of his wife and unborn child. She had only been left with a fuzz of her insides.
"You didn't like it?"
"Of course I did," Erza quickly reaffirmed. She had loved him telling her of the past with all her heart – he needed to know that.
"Then I don't see why you would make that face," he lightly teased, a finger peeling off the small of her back to prod between her eyes in an attempt to smooth out the frown. His lips followed, gently but firmly pressing to the spot. Eyes falling shut, Erza relaxed not only her brows. "Remember you have to encourage me when it comes to opening up,"
"Right," she smiled at him voicing his self-reflection so honestly.
"What would you say about a story and strawberries on the same morning," he flashed her a charming smile. She returned it warmly, stretching to meet his lips in a sweet kiss. How could she say 'no' to that? And right afterwards, she could start begging for carrots and mustard. She doubted they had any, seeing as she had never actually liked mustard. "Good morning by the way," Jellal pecked her lips once more. Opening her mouth to reply, the words got stuck when he shuffled away.
Shuffled downwards.
"Good morning to you, too," he kissed her exposed belly. She almost suffocated him in an ecstatic hug.