Thank you so much User312308102004, ImUnknown321 and TheMultiShipper28 for your reviews!

Badass couple, as you put it, User312308102004, will continue to be baddass. But first, enjoy a chapter that's some 90 percent Erza hitting on her husband. xD

It was hot. It was hotter than the hottest day with the summer sun beating down mercilessly and not a single tree for shade in sight. The heat felt trapped, staunching up around him. A sleeping bag?

Make your mother proud and conjure up some ice, Jellal wanted to tell Ultear. He couldn't, not with Meredy around. Perhaps she had glued his sleeping bag shut. One of these days, she was going to run a knife from his navel all the way up under his chin. She wasn't a murderer, but she hated him enough to become one.

Jellal groaned. Sweltering, unable to escape his prison despite the weak attempts of pushing the covers away, he gave up. Erza…

Oh, how she must have hated him. Treacherous as they were, his regained memories told him a different story. Because of course she forgave him. Of course she defended him from evil, accepted him with or without amnesia, lamented his arrest. And now she was gone, wiped off the face of the earth by a Acnologia.

He groaned again. Let the girls make fun of him. Jellal found himself very deserving of his own self‑pity.

His pained frown relaxed unexpectedly. Something cool was being draped across his forehead. The hellish heat lifted with the blanket. His shirt was next, another cooling cloth tempering his body's inner furnace where it slid up to his chest and back down over his stomach.

If he teased her now, she would Arc-of-Time his butt. Or leave him to suffer.

He peeked one eye open.

Heat was the understatement of the century. Jellal's face was aflame, every last drop of sweat sizzling off his skin.

"E-Erza." His tongue twisted. Eyes the size of manhole covers, he stared at her.

Her! Not Ultear, Erza. Erza Scarlet. His once best friend and true love, his biggest weakness and his reason to live. Washing his naked torso with a wet rag.

"You're awake." She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. Her smile was so kind. Jellal felt his lids grow heavy with the need to close and burn the image of her onto their inside. And her hair…! He wanted to swim in it. Tangle his hands in it, never to be released again. "I brought you some yoghurt and fruit. I thought you wouldn't want soup right now." She knew. She had to with her knuckles brushing his burning skin.

More parts of his body burned and in different ways, but Jellal couldn't muster the capacity to contemplate them.

"You don't have to do that," he stuttered. Erza tilted her head. She looked from his blushing face to his exposed chest and back.

"Do what?"

"You know…" He glanced aside, flustered.

She sighed. "You're still delirious."

Delirious? Jellal dared to look at her. Was this a new trick Ultear had mastered? Illusions? Was it her transformation magic? The masked weirdo on Garuna Island had been somewhat amusing but this was nothing but cruel.

"Jellal." Erza's palms landed on his chest, sending his heart into his throat. "It's X794. You were pardoned. You joined Fairy Tail."

"I—" He didn't have the words. Not with her so close. She smelled amazing.

She noticed the flashing of his eyes, felt the pounding of his heart. "Oh, this?" She leant back. Breath returned to him, but not for long. Erza grabbed the hem of her blouse and pulled it up. Her bra got caught too, she would be—!

Jellal's brain imploded. He wasn't sure whether a vein had popped or if he had maybe passed out for a second. All he knew what that his eyes wouldn't open if you used an alligator wrench on them, not until she covered herself. He wasn't worthy—

"You are. You worked hard to deserve everything you think you don't deserve."

He ventured opening one eye. The other opened on its own, grew exponentially.

A baby with scarlet-red hair. Erza held the child closer, that little chubby bundle of superhumanly cuteness. Jellal didn't know much about babies but he had never been more drawn to a stranger, never believed in love at first sight until now.

"She has your eyes, look." Erza kissed her baby's head. His baby's head. Their—

White and black flickered before him.

"Jellal." Erza sounded concerned.

Erza… If this was heaven then Jellal was considering a lie or two on his life's resumé. Anything to stay for a while longer.

He awoke feeling a little less empty and a little less on fire. The room was plunged into darkness. He didn't remember eating, but he tasted banana. The blanket came off more easily this time. His arms obeyed. He wasn't prepared for his legs not quite rendering him the same courtesy.

Pain flared through his legs when he stood. His right knee bent, forward, sideways, and he staggered, clawed for the bed behind him. Arms searching for purchase in the wrong places, his face met the floor.

"Thanks…" Jellal spat under his breath. The floor was freezing, and not at all in a pleasant way anymore. He shivered. His chest hurt with every breath. His lungs felt sticky and brittle, and the hard floor chafed against bruises and crusted wounds. He would've appreciated the high-quality hardwood floor had he not been feeling like shit.

He lied there for a moment. Locating his arms. At least he was inside. There might even be a bathroom to look forward too. Another shiver shook him. Why was it so cold?

A hand touched his nape, wonderfully warm and soft. She helped him up, carried him more than she let him walk, oversaw his every bashful second in the bathroom, tucked him in. Jellal wasn't afraid to die anymore when she lied her head on his pillow and her palm over the side of his neck.

"It's just a fever." She read his mind again. Soft, warm. His ears tingled gladly with every hushed word she uttered. "I wonder if Draculos damaged you internally while I was planning the ambush. He doesn't remember. None of them do.

"Queen Hisui is in Era. Ambrose says his Majesty of the Pergrande Kingdom is coming to Fiore. Minstrel is sending a prince, and delegates from Seven and Bosco are already on their way. They wouldn't start without you." She kissed his cheek. She kissed his cheek. "So don't rush yourself."

"Erza, I love you. I always have."

She smiled. Feeling the curve of her lips sent a shiver down his spine.

"I know." The sheets rustled. She propped herself up on her elbows. The most beautiful hair fell around his face like silk curtains. It had been dark before, but now he couldn't see his own nose anymore. His ears crackled like fire in the darkness, drinking in the sound of her voice. "It's a good thing we got married then, isn't it?" She kissed his lips. Jellal gave himself a mental pat on the back for not fainting this time. His eyes drooped shut though, his body electrified and sagging at the same time.

How exhilarating she was, how draining. That little smack of her releasing his lips left him shuddering, gave an uncalled-for twitch in his groin. He didn't dare hold her, didn't dare risk agency. What if it woke him up?

Eyes shut, Jellal allowed a defeated sigh. The Magic Council… Of course they wouldn't start without him. He was the reason they were convening. What he hadn't expected was Erza of all people ratting him out and bringing him before the Council for whatever misconduct he had committed this time.

Then again, this dream was too good to be true. A nice way to go; an additional torture for his sins to be paraded all the things he would never have… Erza, a baby with her.

One morning, he heard them speak behind the door out in the hall. Lucy was worried, but the boys were in high spirits. State visits excited them. Jellal wasn't sure how to feel about Fiore's exclusive guests yet.

He pondered on Erza's speculation. Vampire Magic was rare and hardly explored. A fever could fool with his head for a few days but his inner aches should have vanished alongside his delirium.

His questions moved to the background when she entered. He had to smile. Erza beamed when seeing him do so.

"How are you feeling?" She sat down on his side of the bed.

He held out his hand and she didn't hesitate to take it. "A lot better."

"Mh, so I see." She shuffled to lean down, devouring his freshly recovered self with an open-mouthed kiss so demanding, so overwhelming, it forced his lips apart. Her tongue allowed itself entry, finding his, swirling around it before refocusing on his lips. She captured them between her own, between her teeth, suckling, kissing him. Her hearty swallow of traded saliva made his head buzz.

He slid his fingers into her hair. Erza gave a sound of approval. She gathered his lips with hers once more, then again, trailed down his jaw to the crook of his neck where she kissed, nipped like a cat in heat and licked over the pulsing spot.

"I take it our reinforcements are gone?"

"No," she purred. Jellal should have been shocked, but all he could do was chuckle at the way she kept on rubbing her nose to his neck. "I'm just happy your fever broke. You had a few seizures and your memory wasn't all there."

"I remember. Sorry I had you worried."

"I can still hear your voice calling out Heavenly Body Magic," she was back to snuffing his neck, "casting spells… It gives me chills when you do that."

Jellal lowered his voice with purpose and murmured, "Like this?"

"Mmh." Erza shuddered. He laughed softly, and she bit him again, half reprimand, half lust. "I'll send them out to eat in town." She raised her head, but her body wouldn't quite obey. He hadn't noticed her hand sneaking under the sheets until now, playing with the bandages on his torso, wandering dangerously low. "Or I'll just hang up a sign at the door."

"Erza," he scolded. "Dragon Slayer ears? Think of poor Wendy."

"Wendy is still with the Council. She said that with enough healing sessions, Warrod was able to recall their mania. I'm sure they're all reluctant to remember, but they have to – we need to know who drugged them."

Every dinner guest apart from Jellal and Ambrose was apparently rotting in custody over the weekend. Ambrose had offered himself too, but the Council trusted him. They didn't dare say a single word to or about Jellal, neither about Erza.

Jellal gave a pressed breath when she went back to busying herself with his neck. Her voice was husky, muffled against his skin. "I've been wanting to do this for days… But it would have been mean with your befuddled state of mind."

"You started stripping. I nearly died of sudden cardiac failure."

She laughed and he scoffed but then laughed too. Enclosing her head, stroking her hair, he enjoyed the way their breaths mingled. The tip of her nose brushed his cheek. She hummed, content, soaked up his presence and scent, entangled in his hair in response.

"I know I decided to spoil you instead of the other way around, but Jellal, this was the best gift you could have given me. Minus your injuries. Fighting by your side is my therapy. It also turns me on to no end."

"You just have an unhealthy addiction of beating people up."

"I'm with Fairy Tail."

"So am I, yet I thrash people within reason." She gave him a look. "I said people, not buildings. The conference hall should be intact, and the ballroom. Did they say when the official reception of the royal guests is?"

Erza shrugged. "I'm assuming sometime this week. The Council can't hide from this forever."

"They didn't mention my employment, did they?"

"I think your employment is the least of their concerns. They'll be lucky to keep theirs."

"Then mine teeters on the brink as well. And it wasn't their fault. Maybe I should prepare for a trial; witness their innocence."

She slapped his good arm and he grinned. Twice, he had tried to hobble-sneak into the office two doors down. Erza had caught him once, and the other time, Laxus had sat at the desk as if expecting him ages ago. While hiding his attempt to work from Erza, Jellal had sat quietly against the door, sharing opinions with Laxus.

The sun was nearing its summit, yet Erza seemed to think it a good idea to lie down. Not bothering to climb over him, she made herself comfortable at the very edge of the mattress, nestled under his bandaged arm. "You were adorable without your memory."

"I can only imagine how history would have gone down if you'd always been this bold. I would have become your concubine right there on the beach."

Erza laughed out loud. She held in her breath when there was a cry in the hall. Her chest kept on vibrating. Growling something suggestively affirmative into his side, she pushed herself back up with a grunt.

Lucy knocked urgently. Rosemary must have heard Erza, squirming out of her delighted grandfather's arms. She feigned hunger, fussy until arrived in Erza's arms, suckling half-heartedly, spotting her father, changing her mind. Still not at all in consensus with Ambrose's wise words, Jellal never said 'no' to his daughter's pleas.

"Oh, Jellal," Erza plucked Rosemary from his arm, "look at this!" She said, turning away. He frowned. Lucy pulled a face, a mixture of amusement and second-hand embarrassment coming his way. "If at some point we'll have to leave her with someone else during a battle again…" Erza's voice swelled dramatically. Requip glowed, her hands tinkering with whatever she was preparing.

"I'd rather we don't—"

"Ta-da!" She presented Rosemary. Rosemary, a baby of three months, dressed up in shiny armour. Tiny shoulder pads, a tiny breastplate, miniature gauntlets and greaves. Erza had had the bright idea of commissioning a skirt like her she wore with her armour, the diaper poking out. At least she hadn't gone for the usual counterproductive open cleavage.

"No."

"It suits her."

"She can't move. It's too heavy."

"It's not too heavy."

Un, Rosemary said. Both of her parents nodded, feeling endorsed. Lucy rolled her eyes.

Jellal glanced towards the window. Up on the cornice, pigeon returned his gaze almost knowingly – knowing that it had barely escaped the same fate of Erza's armour frenzy.

Holding Rosemary while Erza removed the armour with a big pout, Jellal was quite proud of his tough girl. Because the armour was heavy, pressing down on his wounds, making him slightly short of breath. Still, Rosemary didn't complain. Attention was her greatest asset. Held by her father, his index finger trailing her spine, and with her mother focused solely on her, she kept quiet.

"Could you…?" Jellal lifted Rosemary slightly off him, his face scrunching up.

Erza took her a moment before he convulsed with coughs. She pressed Rosemary's head into her chest when the bandages around his torso turned red. Handing her to Lucy, Erza scooted forward to hand Jellal a cooled cup of tea from the nightstand. It eased the itch in his throat, but he needed another minute to compose himself and get up.

"Let's get that cleaned up." Stabilising him, Erza made for the bathroom. Rosemary complained but only a little once back in Master's eager arms. Indecisive, Lucy hovered by the door of the kitchen. She wanted to help. When she heard the shower run upstairs, she sat down though, joining Makarov and Laxus for tea.

The lukewarm water running down Erza's arms made her shiver. She rolled her sleeves up further.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't apologise." She had dropped the sullied bandages on the floor of the bathtub, now carefully dabbing large lacerations and yellowing bruises on his chest. Jellal began unravelling the gauze of his arm with his good hand, but she denied him the sponge. "This reminds me of the time some overgrown lizard had bitten my leg. You brought a chair into the tub."

"You scared me when you accepted pain killers."

Erza gasped. "I didn't even ask if you wanted any." She threw the sponge down at her feet. It splashed water and blood against the white ceramic. Mixing with the residue at the bottom of the tub, more blood trickled towards the drain, from the sponge, from his body.

Jellal took her shoulders. Tired from balancing on the rim of the tub, he sat next to the sponge, pulling her with him. Erza didn't resist. Bare feet and shins touched the water, her skirt soaking at the hem. He heard the echo of her pronouncing 'therapy' earlier. A subconscious appeal for help.

"I have a mouth with which I can request such things. I might have been feverish, but I did remember what pain killers are and I would have asked if I had wanted them."

"I'm a horrible wife."

"You are a marvellous, considerate, invigorating wife." He squeezed her arms. The tips of his fingers happened upon strands of hair, stroking them a second nature to him. "You're the one I chose and will always choose. How you could come up with even a single thing to treat me goes beyond my wildest expectations."

"You never have expectations. And I didn't do anything." She wouldn't look at him as she mumbled, "Only talked…"

"Which is what I wanted."

"Which is nothing."

"It's everything to me." Jellal shook her lightly, rocked her into him and she readily fell into his chest. He gritted his teeth. She didn't notice, arms slithering around him. Jaw set, Jellal closed his eyes and pressed her to him in a long hug. "You're everything to me. I can't tell you enough how glad I am that you weren't badly injured."

"It's strange though." She leant back. Her speech got stuck when she realised her actions. Ignoring the stains on her blouse, Erza picked up the showerhead and sponge, setting to work once more. "I was disarmed by Draculos as well and I feel fine." She dropped the sponge to trace a deeper wound, its crust blistering and bulging erratically. "An infection…"

"Wendy was essential to the Council's recovery. I can handle a fever," Jellal brushed off. "And with such a lovely nurse." He wound scarlet tresses around his finger. "Almost makes me wish to stay out of order for a while longer."

"Erza?" A knock on the bedroom door. Erza called out for Lucy to wait. Towelling Jellal off as tenderly as she could, Erza helped him into a comfortable set of trousers and back to bed. He hadn't fully sunken into the pillows when Lucy knocked again. "You have a guest. Let me know if— oh!" She was covering her mouth a little bashfully when Warrod – never having cared much for privacy – granted himself entry.

He froze. Erza stood. Spying out blue hair behind him, she started for the doorway. Wendy felt the same kind of urgency, hurrying to meet Erza in a hug.

Erza smiled. "You've been so hard at work."

"I'm sorry I only come for eating and sleeping." Wendy squished herself against Erza. She choked a bit when Erza returned the favour. "I wanted to spend time with you."

"And heal Jellal…" Lucy muttered.

Wendy gasped. "Oh, no, Jellal!" She wriggled out of Erza's embrace but halted. From the side, she glanced up at Warrod. Erza followed her gaze.

He was quaking.

Eyes shut – squeezed shut – wrinkles formed like knotholes. Unclenching his fists, he kept them at his sides, ramrod straight. And bowed. Jellal's eyes widened. Warrod was bowing so low, Lucy could see over his back and treetop hair, count the scatter of swelling bruises and nasty scars on Jellal's torso.

"I heard your voice, Erza." Warrod's words were a breeze in the wind, raucous and feeble. "I heard Mavis speak with your voice. Fairy Tail," he sobbed, "is my home." Hands tightening, creaking like a branch about to snap, he raised his head. Jellal met eyes hardened with sorrow. "I'm ashamed that I injured one of my family this way."

Lucy let out a small sound. Wendy traded a sympathetic smile with her.

Midday sun shone in through the window. It caught in unshed tears.

Jellal reflected the girls' smiles. "Does that mean I'll still get a pension?"

Warrod chuckled, relieved. "You honour your guild. Unfortunately, I cannot promise anything." His smile fell. He looked between Jellal and Erza. "I've come to warn you. There is someone testifying against you. He is incriminating you for the destruction of Era – you alone."

"Erza?" Lucy wondered out loud.

"No, Jellal."

"What?" Erza's eyes gained a wild spark. Jellal had shot up straight, but his wounds flared up and he flinched, scooting backwards to sit against the headboard more slowly. "That's absurd. I am witness to his innocence—"

"Not when it comes to demolishing the city."

"It was to protect Era and its people!"

"There are no grounds to believe otherwise, not with the Council remembering it." Jellal went into legal consultancy mode.

"That's another problem…" Warrod let his head hang. "The Council… the others are fearing instability of the country should the truth come to light. They have so far pleaded no contest. Her Majesty the Queen has sent for you, Jellal, to be taken to the courtroom. The guards will be here any moment."