Merci beaucoup, Miss Panda! C'est toujours difficile à écrire une multitude de charactères; alors merci d'en parler :)

"Her fingers twitched?" Lucy called up to the balcony. Wendy nodded heftily. She was so immersed in her task and the unexpected movement of her patient, she had not even noticed Jellal in his human form yet.

Mirajane and Elfman were already on their way up the stairs.

"There was some kind of light, like a flash but it floated and entered her," Wendy excitedly retold.

"The cat Animal Soul," Lucy assessed. Jellal nodded when she sought his eyes. "Was the symbol only for the cat or all others, too?" She asked. He stepped out of the circle, but left his hand on Erza's back when she did not retreat from him for even half a centimetre. His thumb drew mellow patterns up and down to reassure her.

"The cat," he confirmed. For not having known a thing about his alchemical rune amalgamations, she was picking them up quite fast. "Let's not keep her waiting any longer, now that we know how," he declared. Cana took the Mermaid Heel girls with her to get Jet from outside. Elfman was already on his way down again, Lisanna still unconscious in his arms, and with Mira and Wendy on his heels.

Lucy nodded, then went to help Asuka lead Natsu over. Juvia seized her chance while Freed was busy studying the symbol arrays, and shoved Gray's huge tank maze over. Jellal meanwhile crouched over the last character he had drawn. He wiped it away with his hand, then picked up the chalk with the same one to scrape the next one down. His other hand was occupied by Erza's.

She did not focus much on what he was doing, but he felt both the relieved pressure of having him back, as well as the leftover agitation should she have to pull him away and save them another dilemma. He finished quickly, stepping out and to her side. Letting go of her hand, he slung the arm around her waist again. She leaned in immediately, much like a calf latching on to its mother's udder.

To him, touch was not what had been amiss. Jellal was of course just as glad as her about returning to his true body – if not more – yet what he had missed most was rest. Sleep. Deep and undisturbed slumber that was no hovering, fleeting apparition, interrupted constantly by the faintest whiff of scent or quietest hint of noise, perhaps just imagined. The prickling of his fur whenever his instincts had told him… something.

"Alright, who's next?" Lucy came over. She was positively glowing with excitement. How much they must have burdened her, he thought to himself. He was more than glad to take the weight off her shoulders – and his own off his wife's. Literally.

"Fish," he pointed at the symbol. As if it would be all clear then, he realised; she was not familiar with them after all.

Juvia hastily shoved the tank closer, her heart hammering so obviously Jellal did not need animal senses anymore to perceive it. He held up his hand, chalk fixated with his thumb to his palm. She stopped, pressing her lips together.

"We'd better not get the circle all wet," he advised. She nodded briskly, then dipped her hands into the tank Gray was swimming in. He hesitated, then went to where she would lift him out. She did so quickly, wiping the underside of her cupped palms on her skirt as not to drip too much. Then she let Gray slide out of the shallow pool and onto the floor. Jellal did not waste another second, activating the spell.

Light burst from the ground. He had to close his eyes, moving back in order to shield Erza from the updraft the runes created in their reaction to the offered Animal Soul. Each one would trigger a different variation of colours, yet the force was the same every time.

Juvia screeched before the beam had faded completely. She nearly interrupted the last bit of the spell, but Lisanna's body being present saved her from possession only just so.

"Gray my darling!" She exclaimed, falling around his neck with enough force to smack him flat to the floor. Not quite covering him as Erza had done with Jellal, as not to say she provided no cover at all. It made Kagura and Milliana turn on the heel where they entered with Jet and Droy in tow.

"Lisanna!" Mira called. Heads turned, everyone holding their breaths when the tips of Lisanna's fingers curled up. Hopefully, gratefully, Mira spun to smile at Jellal. He nodded, tightening his grip on the chalk.

"You're next," he told Freed whose eyes sparkled. Juvia needed another nudge and reminder back to earth. She hurried out of the way, clinging to Gray as if he was still a helpless fish out of the water. It occurred to neither that he should get dressed. Their 'fight' of jealousy was forgotten entirely.

Lucy crouched in front of the circle when Jellal stepped in to renew the symbol in the middle.

"It's amazing how much I still don't know about enchantments," she said. She was bearing a smile, the tension visibly lifted. "It's a blessing you do though," she grinned. "And all of these different animals," she added. He did not raise his eyes off his drawing, curved lines crossing and meeting.

"We're lucky the Harpy decided to stay with Lisanna, because I don't know that one by heart," he remarked. He did not want to comment on how her condition would have been by far more critical had she not had any Animal Souls left.

"But the penguin you know?"

"Self-evidently," he coolly replied. Her baffled expression was easily felt, right until she noticed the playful smirk on his lips. She giggled, then retreated from the circle when he did. He had to smile at the way she absently placed a hand on Natsu's flank, wordlessly telling him to be patient. Fortunately, he was too enraptured by the whole drama to become impatient.

When Freed returned to his human body, Lisanna's eyelids fluttered. Laxus surrendered his cape, earning himself blushing cheeks and a smile too broad for his friend's face. After Jet's transformation, Lisanna gave a faint moan. With Natsu's return, her whole body stirred. For Meredy, Jellal made sure to bring down infirmary curtains beforehand, and Erza lent her clothes that were gladly accepted.

At last, Lisanna's eyes opened. Mira clasped her hands in front of her mouth, tears standing in her eyes. Surprisingly, Lisanna raised her head almost immediately, looking around curiously.

"What happened?" She asked. Mira sighed, her eyes softening. She hugged her sister tightly when Elfman let her down. She was steady on her feet, but admitted to feeling slightly dizzy. Apart from that, she practically surged with energy, her Animal Souls seemingly as happy as her about their reunion.

She did not ask for the sleep Jellal yearned – and from the looks of it, the others, too – but asked for something to soothe her dry throat with. Mira cupped her sister's face, and pressed a kiss to her forehead. On her way to retrieve drinks for everyone, not least to celebrate, she took both of Jellal's hands in her own, squeezing them, thanking him from the bottom of her heart. Lucy was not spared the gladness either.

The latter called Levy as soon as all the transformation victims had settled down. Jellal had Meredy reassure him several times to be fine before he felt at ease with leaving. Not for a single step home did Erza cease to lean into him, snuggling against him. He did not notice the way his eyes closed a few times on the way, but Erza made sure he did not fall.

They collapsed into bed the moment they arrived at home – and had gotten rid of their shoes in the entrance. Again, Erza did wait a second longer to cuddle up again. He opened his eyes when feeling her watch him, unaware of how he had nodded off for a couple of minutes. She was smiling, regarding him tenderly. He returned the smile. A light blush crept to his cheeks – not one of embarrassment, but of warmth and cosiness.

Her eyes closed with purpose, and he promptly met the lips inviting him.

"You know," Erza shoved one arm beneath the pillow her head rested on, "when you turned back, just before I saw you, I felt as they say you do when dying – your life passing you by," she said. He frowned, if slightly. Keeping his eyes opened took more effort than previously assumed. "I recalled that time when I accidentally shot a hole through the wall," her smile widened playfully when his did. "The way you repaired it and our sparring match on the beach.

"I also saw that time of the attack; when they came to our house just until everything went black for me. Finding you in that mansion, your head on my lap all the way back," her voice softened. "The day I told you…" she glanced away briefly, but her eyes shone like the North Star, "and you took me on that date which was a mess. How I was crying and freezing on that rock and then so happy when you suddenly proposed," she grinned. There were tears coating her lashes even now.

"That really was a mess – I was," Jellal mirrored her expression. She shook her head into the cushions.

"I feel like…" her other hand still enclosed him, drawing circles into his back, "I feel like any of those escapades are so far away, even this last one," she grazed his whisker-less cheek with the back of her fingers. "Everything is relative, and once it's over, I'm back where I want to be – I feel ignorant, somehow, carefreely enjoying our time together and being your wife. Any former nuisance turns into nothing but a mild inconvenience,"

"That's not a bad thing," Jellal leaned in. She met him halfway. Not being enough, he kissed her again, then again, ending with a peck to her nose.

"I suppose it's better for the baby," she laid a hand over her belly. His joined right away. Perhaps she had finally learnt to depend on others every once in a while, or perhaps it was renewed faith in herself that the household skills brought with them. Perhaps she was really just growing up; becoming the placid, mature example she wanted to be for the child.

She did not seem to remember how he was still not wearing a shirt, especially not when the word 'bride' fell from his lips and she found herself in his arms, swaying gently in time with an imagined tune.

He nearly nodded off in the bathtub, her caresses to his back and hair the only thing keeping him awake. He gladly cooked them an early dinner after another break in bed, and Erza in turn gladly yielded the role to him. Neither gave washing a thought, no matter the piles of bedsheets and clothes across the bathroom tiles.

It was hardly half to nine in the evening when Jellal fell asleep again. She did not wake him this time. Nuzzled in close to him, she relished the way his arms wound around her of their own accord. His human arms, of her human husband – with a baby human on the way.

Meredy hesitated. The key hovered over the lock, indecisive, while her ears were eager to pick up on any betraying sounds. She chewed on her lower lip.

Finally, she dared to let herself in. She remembered the way he had nervously spilled the beans too exactly – how with their reunion after both his and Meredy's kidnapping, the couple had been so overwhelmed with the other near and safe, they were now unintendedly having a baby. Had unintendedly made a baby.

Nothing Meredy was fond of witnessing. Hence, the breath-holding and key-hovering.

She harked as she snuck into the hall. Waiting there for another heartbeat, she left the door decently ajar but the doorknob in hand. When there was nothing, she ventured closing the front door behind her. Another moment of listening. She toed off her shoes. Heeled shoes. He had promised to be less controlling after all, yet she felt a tinge of excitement, leaving them in plain sight.

No noise from the kitchen could only mean bed. Bed or bath, but even there, Erza was a chatterbox and would have been audible by now. She was never as talkative at the Onsen or even in Fairy Hills from what Meredy had been told. Erza was the stoic, composed knight everyone knew her to be – everyone apart from her husband.

Right at that moment, she was a sight to behold. Everything but the strong, independent, steal-hearted warrioress Fiore was accustomed to.

Though stout-hearted she was.

Holding on with her arms around his back and her legs smuggled in between his, Erza was rather hogging her husband than hugging him. How she was able to breathe comfortably enough to sleep was a mystery, seeing as her face was squished into his chest. Happily so, Meredy judged by the smile that stretched Titania's lips even in her sleep.

Jellal looked as exhausted as Meredy still felt, perhaps more. One of his hands was beneath the pillow his head rested on, the other hung down Erza's back, wrist resting on her waist. They were such a fondly entwined bundle, Meredy was starting to feel bad for merely the thought of waking them.

She did not, grabbing her communication lacrima instead. He had not heard the door, but when she rustled and fumbled close to the bed, Jellal stirred. She managed to snap two pictures just before his eyes opened. They met hers weakly, crusted and small with sleep. Usually, he would have been awake before her, but this was not any other morning. That, and he was with his beloved. Awake and gotten up now spanned hours apart.

Scarcely had Meredy imagined there to exist a force powerful enough to contain him; to chain and keep him in bed when his early bird's rhythm would not let him. When he himself would not. She would not have believed it had she not been an eyewitness herself, but Erza Scarlet was not only capable of making him stay, she had him do so willingly.

That, and she tired him out both mentally as well as physically. Truly a force to be reckoned with.

Meredy slid the lacrima back into her pocket. Jellal watched her as if trying to find out which species she belonged to. Not that their previous predicament had not made the question arise. He thought for a moment, then another, the gears of his brain turning only slowly. Then he lifted his arm off Erza, prompting her to faintly moan and grasp him faster to her.

Meredy blinked in brief puzzlement when he outstretched his hand. Welcomingly. Pushed-away exhaustion soon won over reason, the last thing crossing her mind before she flopped down behind him being that she had indeed taken off her shoes. The clothes she had intended to return crumpled against her chest.

Neither woke again until an hour later. Erza was nowhere close to it.

When Meredy roused around eleven, she needed another minute to figure out where she was. She received a hint in the form of a whisper, followed by what she deemed a kiss to the crown of Erza's head. Did he truly think her to be asleep and unable to hear his soppy rambling and sweet promises? And he was being sweet, Meredy had to admit, but the urge to tease him sat too deeply as not to give a tiny snort.

Jellal fell silent at once. Without being able to see his face, Meredy could tell his embarrassment by the colour change of his neck.

"Tell me, why did I invite you again?" He croaked. There was amusement in his tone; amusement and relief. She must have sounded just the same.

"For old time's sake," Meredy countered, "you want to suffer,"

"Right," he audibly rolled his eyes.

"Ultear would be proud,"

"Ultear would kick me into dust for worrying my pregnant wife for even a second," he returned. She could hear his smile. "I can picture that," he continued, making her smile grow, "Ultear being hot and cold when it comes to the baby – pretending she doesn't care and becoming overprotective in equal shares."

"And the kicking you into dust thing," Meredy added. "Especially for saying such things about her,"

"How dare I arrogate such insolence," he nodded. Meredy giggled. She could not help but scoot closer, pressing her face to his back as Erza did to his chest, though only shortly. Talking about Ultear – really talking about her, the way she had acted and thought – it was something reserved solely for the two of them and at the right time.

Erza stirred at the noise. Meredy could not shake the feeling it was because someone was nearing her beloved too closely for her taste. She had Jellal-sensors for sure. He certainly had Erza-sensors, that much was established. They could be worse than Juvia.

"Jellal?" She cawed. She had not yet fully opened one eye when his lips landed on her forehead. It made her sink back into the cushions, at ease.

"I'm here," he quietly assured. Meredy waited alongside Jellal until the Queen of the Fairies decided to properly rouse.

They had a hearty brunch, seeing as breakfast hardly made sense anymore. Meredy returned Erza's clothes that she had been lent post-transformation, and she watched Jellal make the bed while Erza was in the bathroom.

"Are you alright?" He asked, seemingly out of nowhere. Still, she knew exactly what he was talking about. Nodding, she then realised he was not facing her.

"I'm good," she folded her hands behind her back, "you?" She gave back. He finished smoothing out the duvet, then turned. Their gazes met, neither revealing anything insightful. As if they were still the eyes of animals, trying without success to understand a person's language.

"Fine," he said. Silence stretched for precisely two heartbeats. Then both erupted into laughter. Laughter at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. Laughter to overplay any feathery or furry follow-up questions. Laughter that was nothing but relief and gladness.

Erza frowned with amusement at their abating chuckles. She did not ask, either able to guess or merely too caught up in her own circumstances, because she heaved a sigh as she sank down on the newly made bed.

"Don't become pregnant," she told Meredy. Of course, Jellal nodded along without missing a beat, regardless of how clueless he was where his wife was taking the argument. "It's as if there is something constantly pressing down on my bladder," she complained with mild irritation. The upwards-curving of the corners of her mouth while she stroked her belly told a different story.

Jellal smiled, coming to sit down next to her.

"That's probably because there is," he supplied. His hand joined hers, something that made Meredy feel all warm with pride and joy for him. "I'd reckon Baby Fernandes has a say in the matter; perhaps you should direct your complaint at him," he raised a brow. She returned the playfulness with just as much of it as with love. Her eyes were shining like beacons.

'Baby Fernandes' out of Jellal's mouth almost struck Meredy more than the way they gazed at each other – like one winged angels finding their other half.

"Speaking of which," she piped up. "I will have you know that there won't be a word of 'Auntie Gremlin' – I have read countless Fairy Tales and pre-school books that will make me number three. At least!" She proclaimed. Erza raised an amused brow while Jellal shook his head.

"You're the only one bringing that up time and again," he chuckled. "Though I cannot say I'm uninterested in those books,"

"No way, you'll catch up in no time and then where's my advantage?" Meredy folded her arms.

"Didn't you say countless?" He retorted.

"Yeah, but you'll go substituting food and sleep with reading and bam! You're done," she threw her hands up. "If I don't surpass you in some way to be favour, how else will I make it value my opinion more and bestow Ul's teaching upon it? I'd have to get myself into this house permanently once the baby's here,"

"That can be arranged," Erza supplied. Jellal sucked in a hiss, then slumped his shoulders.

"I believe you will, no matter what we do," he said to Meredy whose eyes had lit up at Erza's comment. "In any case, I'll make us a snack,"

"Can we make Ambrose's recipe?" Erza asked. Full well knowing that it was neither as healthy as he had in mind, nor did it count as a snack anymore.

"If you can wait that long," Jellal agreed. He sauntered past Meredy, not bothering with a shirt until at least the dough was done. Meredy watched with a smile, then turned to Erza.

"Doesn't he have to work?"

"Shh!" Erza hissed but it was too late. One unintended, impulsive curse and a handful of thundering steps later, his head flashed around the corner.

"Erza!"

"You can work after eating," she innocently pleaded. He disappeared up the attic in a heartbeat, stumbling back down to grab his briefcase from the corner they had deposited it in during her cleaning rampage, only to hurry back upstairs. Meredy could not help but laugh. Exchanging an amused glance with a sulking Erza, she went to prepare a less-fancy-than-previously-anticipated meal for all three of them.

Right after, she went to pick up those books.