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“So?” Erza leaned her shoulder against a wooden pillar.
Jellal wordlessly lifted his cloth up, showing off the symbol now magically woven into the fabric. He didn’t look at her and was biting the underside of his lip like he did when he was nervous. Erza forced herself not to laugh at how much like a teenager he looked right now. Better not make him self conscious now: Who knew if he would turn around and change his mind again.
“It looks wonderful,” Erza said instead with a smile. “It was high time you were carrying it, don’t you think?”
He blushed a little more than before. “Yeah, I -, you know-” He stammered nonsense and this time she really had to concentrate not to laugh.
“Let’s go for a walk.” Erza pulled Jellal a little at the cloth he had just presented to her, brushing her finger over the stitched symbol. She felt a warmth at her core. Only with her touch did it sink in that this was in fact real.
They walked out of the guild hall. She could not stop smiling. “I can’t believe you finally made it here,” she said with a sigh. “It’s like a dream to be able to see you more often now.”
Jellal choked on his spit, coughed out and cleared his throat. “Well, you asked often enough. It was rude at this point to deny your request.” She looked up and saw that he too was smiling.
The first time Erza had brought it to Jellal that he should join her guild was when her guild didn’t even exist and she had temporarily joined his. He had looked at her with this look of bewilderment, as if she had just quite literally suggested going back to being a slave with him. “I don’t think I am suited,” he had said diplomatically, and “Besides, isn’t Fairy Tail currently disbanded?” It was a practical excuse, though he knew as well as she did that the guild was going to come back sooner or later.
She let it slide back then, because other things took priority, but it was always on the back of her mind. The way Jellal had built his Crime Sorciere was amiable, and she knew he was a born leader, but she did not see a reason for them to have to be apart after everything that had happened. His guild should just be absorbed into Fairy Tail, that was what she believed in.
They stopped at the bakery for strawberry cake and Erza stuffed her mouth as they kept walking, feeling Jellal’s blue eyes following her every move. She silently hoped that she looked as cool and content as she felt.
“Did Master say anything?” she asked and quickly wiped away some crumbs from her mouth. “When you asked to join?”
“Why I didn’t come earlier,” Jellal chuckled a little and then imitated Master Makarov's voice: “You should have been a member ever since you acted as one during the Grand Magic Games already, but then definitely after the council let you go officially.”
Erza lightly pushed her elbow into his side: “He is so right.”
Two years after they had talked about it, when he had been pardoned of his crimes and let go as a free man, she asked him again. Standing side by side watching a new sunrise in his life. He squirmed a little away from the question, as if he too had not forgotten that she had offered as much years ago. “I still have things I have to take care of,” he had said then. “And you will be off on your quest soon.” Excuses. It was obvious, but she allowed him, because the quest to forgive himself was his own.
Erza had promised herself to be patient then, to wait until he would bring it up by his own choice, but as she was busy clearing the 100 Years Quest they had left, it never happened. Several times they ran into each other, each time he just used more excuses when she asked him about the situation. It grew frustrating. She wanted him closer, she wanted to see him more, be with him more, and she always felt that he wanted that too, but still he would not move a little bit towards her.
“I thought it would never happen,” Erza said, honestly. “I thought you just wouldn’t want to come home to me at all.”
She knew that he didn’t like himself very much. She knew that he felt that he offered nothing of worth to her or anyone. Despite caring for Meldy, for the others in his guild - despite his help in the final confrontation with Zeref, he felt like none of this outweighed the sins of what he had done. He was trying to repent and she always felt a little like he was trying to repent to her alone.
But she had long forgiven him. Didn’t he understand that?
The answer to that question drove her crazy.
Jellal stopped. “Why do you think I wouldn’t want to come back to you?” His voice sounded serious.
She turned to him. “I don’t know, Jellal, because you kept running to the furthest places of the continent and beyond and I could only see you by chance. I’m not even sure you stepped foot into the guildhall before this.”
“ I did !” He pouted like a teenager again.
Erza chuckled: “Fine, you did.”
They reached a park in silence and almost automatically they both walked towards a bench to sit down. It was a warm evening with the sun's orange beams still falling through the leaves of the trees. Autumn was already in full swing, but the last remnants of summer were still fighting for dominance.
“I will continue to travel, even under Fairy Tail,” Jellal said suddenly. “I didn’t know that would be an issue for you.”
“It is not.” Erza turned to him and put her hand on his. They had started doing that together, just layering their hands over each other. At first this very loving touch had embarrassed her and made her nervous, but now she had gotten used to it to the point that it was no longer enough. She wanted to be even closer and wondered if it was just her.
“I don’t mind if you travel,” Erza said, her fingers curling over his. “You will probably still do jobs with Meldy, as you should, and I will stay with my team. But now that you are part of Fairy Tail you will have a place where I know I can see you, a place to return to where I am too.”
His eyes widened a little, but then he grabbed her hand tighter. “I always had a place to return to, with or without this symbol.”
“What do you mean?” When she had been with Crime Sorciere there had been no solid headquarters, because Jellal was still hunted by the council and they had moved around a lot. Maybe they had developed a place afterwards?
“ You.”
Jellal pushed a hair behind her ear. Erza’s face was hot. “Me?” she stammered.
“Yes you,” he curled another strand of her hair around his finger. “You were always my place to return to.”
Oh dear, Erza thought, she was definitely going to throw up. But before she could pass out, something behind Jellal’s eyes started spinning and he let go of her hair. “I mean, i-if I would get back to Magnolia I could see you and that was n-nice, you know?” He was biting his lower lip again.
“My, my you are so adorable,” she laughed and Jellal’s eyes hot back at her, his cheeks now in deep red.
“I’m no-”
“No arguments!” Erza leaned forward to snip her fingers against his nose. “You can be so pathetic sometimes, that's part of the reason why I love you.”
Jellal swallowed again and she too could feel her heart pounding in her ears. But really, what else was there to talk about? She had been in love with Jellal forever, even when he had brought her grief she had loved him desperately, and now they were free and together, so if not now, what time then? There was really no reason to beat around the bush.
“I don’t think you should love someone like-” Jellal stammered, but Erza cut him off: “Even if that were true - and it is not- who cares what I should and should not do?” She stopped and took a deep breath: “Do you not love me?”
It was a ridiculous question of course, she could see through the light in his eyes that he did. Still, she wanted him to say it out loud, admit it to not only her but to himself too.
“Of course I do,” he said, decidedly.
They were both red now, eyes fixed on each other. And though there was turmoil in her heart, Erza felt happier than she had ever felt before. Not only did her wish get granted and Jellal was going to be around all the time now, she also finally crossed the threshold that he had built. There was no way he could go back now to arguing that dating was a bad idea.
She took a deep breath: “Let’s go out.”
He bit his lower lip. “Yes. Let’s.” Though he still seemed insecure, Erza counted his acceptance as a big win. She could always later help him love himself – she already loved him enough for the both of them.
Their foreheads bumped into each other. Hair tickling each other's skin, noses touching, lips meeting. There were fireworks going off in her head.
Jellal suddenly chuckled into the kiss. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he said when Erza made a questioning face. “I’m sorry, I just remembered something else Makarov - uh- Master , said.”
“You think about Master when we are kissing.” Erza made a sour face.
“No, listen,” he waved his arms defensively. “He told me:” and he once again imitated the Master’s voice, “ ‘Besides, you will get all sorts of advantages in the future, so it is better if you start as a guild member now. People will treat you different then.’’ When I asked what he meant with that, he said -” Jellal chuckled again and went over his face with his hand.
Erza snipped her finger against his nose once more: “What?”
“As the Master’s husband, of course.”