Erza's P.O.V

We hastily made it to the mountains after I threatened Jellal numerous times. We started running through the rocky drops and rises of the terrain.

"ERZAAAA PLEASE I LOVE YOU- AHHHH!" Jellal yelled/screamed as I caught up to him and pulled him by his hood. Meredy was too dizzy from the running we'd just done to function properly, so she calmly sat on the ground at our feet. I spun Jellal around and then began to hold him by his front collar.

"Where are we going?" I asked coldly, still wanting him to be afraid of me.

"I told you, you have to trust me for now, so you can't kill me yet!"

I held his face closer to my own, with a look of complete darkness.

"E-Erza," Jellal started as sweat formed on his face nervously.

I dropped my expression and looked at the road ahead, Jellal still in hand. I'd hate to push him too far, I still want him to think I'm cute! I'll be able to put him in his place, but I also like pillow forts and eating Pocky. Besides, I want to be alone with him sometime today so we can talk some more and...

"Erza" He said coyly, getting my attention. I brought my eyes back to him again to see his hand on top of mine. On top of it all, he had his famously charming smirk on as well. I raised an eyebrow in confusion of what he was trying.

"You should separate your thoughts from your telepathy," He said flirtatiously, "It's sloppy, isn't it?"

My eyes widened as a blush slowly made it's way through my skin.

"Jellal-" I began angrily,

"Shhh," He said, pressing a finger against my lips softly. "We'll have lots of time to talk about it later, I promise."

My heart was pounding against the ribs that caged it. I hope he didn't think I meant-- What if he does think I meant..? I don't want him to think that! Do I? Come on, Erza! Get yourself together!

'Somebody's a little impatient for talking, isn't she?' Jellal's voice intruded my thoughts once again.

'Get out of my head! Use your own for once!' I sharply replied back.

'Do you really want me to get out, though?'

'Yes! No! YES!' I shook my head full of muddled thoughts.

'You sound a little confused there, Erz.'

'Well I'm not!'

'So where do you want me to go?'

I didn't answer. Jellal narrowed his eyes to correspond with his unique devilish smile, knowing that I wouldn't answer. A long pause took hold over the silent conversation. Jellal then took my hand out of it's now loose grip on his collar, and put it at my side. He started walking away from me, the fabric of his clothes swaying freely as he did so.

"Follow me, girls. There's a lake house just a couple miles away now."

"And I just remembered," He paused, and turned on his heel to look back at us, "We're out of the council's sight now. I can use meteor. The run there and back should take no more than a couple minutes. Since I can only carry one of you at a time, the other will have to hide while I come back for them. So which one of you is gonna come first?"

I felt a push behind me, causing me to stumble forward a bit, "Erza should go first!" Meredy said happily.

Jellal peaked an eyebrow at this with a smile, "But Meredy, you love being carried around when I do my meteor spell. I figured you'd be dying to go again,"

"Yea, well..." She looked down as if doubting her words. It was obvious she wanted to go. "Erza's never been, has she? I should give her a chance!"

I turned my back to Jellal as I looked at Meredy, my disoriented expression strongly showing.

"Very generous." He laughed from behind me as I felt him pick me up bridal style.

"J-J- Jellal!" I stuttered nervously.

"Run in the direction I do, Meldy. Get as far as you can in a minute or so before finding a place to hide. When you see me coming for you, shoot some of your magic into the air and I'll come running. Sound good?" He said before Meredy nodded cheerily. "And why are you so nervous, Erz?" He asked concerned while inspecting my reddened face, "I used to hold you like this all the time during the plays when we were kids."

He's right. I'd nearly forgotten the acts we'd preformed at the tower of heaven when we were prisoners. This made my blush subside as respectively warm feelings for the past filled me with a reassuring comfort. Me, being a princess who needed saving, and him, the honorable knight who always carried me off happily into the sunset. Jellal began to walk in the direction he was previously going, then started to jog. Meredy then trotted right behind him.

'Get ready, Erza. Hold on to me close.' Jellal whispered to me through telepathy once again. I looked up at him to see he was already smiling gently down on me. With my smile back, he shouted "Heavenly Body Magic: Meteor!"

A bright golden light surrounded us, as sound itself couldn't keep up. The only thing I could hear, was the beating of Jellal's heart in his chest. It's the only thing I've been able to hear, no matter what. That constant beating had always sang to me. My hands clenched the fabric of his clothes, remembering what it was like when that beating had stopped. Its rhythm becoming a memory as Jellal died...

"I'm not going anywhere, you know," He said aloud into the golden rays of his magic. "So don't you dare cry, Erza Scarlet. It's not like you." He said smiling profoundly without looking down. How can he keep hearing my thoughts? Although, I don't think it bothered me that time. I'm glad he could hear it. I'm glad I'm not thinking about something that dark alone.

Maybe he's always heard me, but never mentioned it unless it was necessary. When I was on Tenrou, I nearly gave up. I was beaten and battered beyond hope. It was in the moment I was ready to give in, that I heard Jellal's voice bringing me words of encouragement. The encouragement I needed to run faster, shout louder, jump higher, and more importantly, fight harder. I'd never thought into it before but... How long had he been listening to my thoughts before then? How long had he read my mind, and felt what I felt?

'Too long,' his voice came in once again, 'the answer you're looking for is too long.'

I watched his face carefully as sadness filled his dark-colored eyes. His feet slowed and then stopped as we stood in front of a small lake with calm waters. A squared little wooden cottage stood next to us, as we looked out onto the water. Jellal held me for a moment, watching the scenery with me, before setting my feet carefully to the ground. We now stood side-by-side, listening to the chirps and ribbits of nearby animals. "So you heard everything on my mind before Tenrou?"

"...Most of it. Whenever I missed you... I checked in on you, in a way. And... I guess I missed you a lot..." He said quietly, whispering the last few words.

"What did you hear?" I asked anxiously, because I had some thoughts about Jellal that were embarrassing to think of.

He chuckled and looked at the ground.

"You have an active imagination, Erza," He smiled, turning a light shade of pink. At this point, my hands were covering my mouth as I became a dark red. "You also have beautiful dreams." he said, giving me a look of appreciation.

"You... Could hear my dreams too?"

"I could see them, sometimes. Do you remember any of the dreams you had with me in them?"

"You could see them? And I remember almost all of them- wait. Don't tell me that was actually you!"

"It was, Erza. And, those dreams of sunset beaches, where you could've sworn someone was there with you, I was. The dreams you had of picnics and sunshine were also some of my favorites,"

"That's a little too personal, Jellal!"

"I'm sorry," He whispered to me as he pulled me into a hug, "Those dreams were the only happiness I've ever truly known in this life."

"It's... Okay," I said as my fingers ran through his hair to ease us both.

"And Erza?" Jellal said over my shoulder calmly,

"Yes?"

"You have some freaky dreams as well."

My eyes widened before kicking him and sending him flying. He was laughing all the way until he hit the ground. That idiot. "STAY OUT OF MY HEAD!" I shouted in frustration.

"Haha, I'll try! I gotta go get Meldy anyways," He said getting up and brushing the dirt off his clothes, "Be back in a few, love," He said with a wink before casting meteor and running off. What am I going to do with that dimwit? I hugged myself and turned back to the lake. Where are we?

I paced over to the stairs, which lead to a tiny patio that had the cottage's front door on it. Reaching the door, I turned the handle, which was locked. I sighed lazily. "Requipt!" I shouted before my bag of lock picking tools appeared into my hands. I guess you never know when these might come in handy. Within thirty seconds, I had picked the lock and gotten rid of my tools. I opened the door slowly, almost afraid of where Jellal had brought us.

When I stepped inside, it looked absolutely massive. There was a living room with two couches, and a large fire place in the middle of the wall. On the other side of the cottage, there was a full kitchen and a dinning table with three cushioned chairs. I walked further into the building, seeing everything was covered in a thick layer of dust. I didn't know a lot about this place, but I did know that it hadn't been touched in a long time. That, and it was apparently bigger on the inside. Someone must have used powerful architecture magic on this home, so that the spell would be permanent and the cottage would stay this big on the inside, while appearing wimpy and tiny on the outside. I stopped walking and deducing the place when I realized a picture frame sitting on a nightstand next to one of the couches. I picked it up, brushing the dust off with my hands.

I gasped and nearly dropped the frame on the ground.