— sieg '

To get myself back into the mood of writing to continue the next upcoming arc of my Jellal-centric series, here is a small collection of Jerza headcanons mainly based on their time at the Tower of Zeref and how it shaped their bond.

📌 Note: The reason I call the Tower of Heaven the Tower of Zeref when they are children is because

1. I have a headcanon surrounding this, and

2. It makes it easier for me to refer to the individual arcs.

The headcanons written below are drawn from my writing timeline (mainly AU). While not fully canon-compliant, they stay close where possible — especially in the emotional and narrative gaps the series left open.

So without further ado,

Here is some headcanons born from writer’s block and Jerza brain rot 🤍

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❤️ Soft/Wholesome HCs: ❤️

🍰 “Bittersweet Beginnings”

Jellal doesn’t have a sweet tooth.

Whether due to his upbringing as a slave or simply due to lack of exposure, his palate just never developed a taste for desserts.

When Erza learns this, she makes it her mission to introduce him to the world of sweets!

She wants to start with strawberry (her favourite of course), but ends up giving him something simple like a blueberry tart or a vanilla cream puff to start with—so he isn’t overwhelmed when he eventually has that oh so yummy strawberry goodness!

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💍 “When we leave the tower, do you want to get married?”

We all know that Erza has the strong desire to get married and be a bride, but let’s wonder for a bit where it could have come from?

In this HC, as children, Jellal was the one to naively ask Erza the question, not understanding the full implications at all.

He was raised in a system—traditional and all, that taught early marriage as a way to keep the people you love. When he asked her the question, he asked with the hope that to keep their bond/their friendship close and forever, and Erza has cherished those words ever since.

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🐈 “Kitty Cat”

Jellal and Erza made the plan to adopt a cat as children, one of the dreams to look forward to when they would leave the tower. One because Jellal had been very close to cats whilst growing up, two because Erza hadn’t really ever known cats well and Milliana’s interest in them got her curious too.

However, when trying to think of names of their imagined eventual cat, Jellal (god bless him), kept thinking of the most basic names. Trying to name the cat after it’s appearance. “Stripe.” “Darkie.” “Spots.”

It became clear to Erza that naming things by their appearance is a pattern to him (Autistic coded Jellal much-) and his silliness made her laugh.

She found out that he already did the same for his previous cat friends from his home country. (Hazel, Domino, Cocoa…)

For everyone’s sake and their future cat, Erza proposed that she would name the cat, since Jellal already gave her a name.

It’s would only be fair~

💙 Childhood bonding + TOZ emotional intimacy HCs: 💙

🏠 “Mommy and Daddy”

As we all know, something kids love doing is playing house.

Their friend group was not the exception.

The roles were assigned between them; Sho and Wally the brothers, Milliana the little sister, Simon the older brother.

With that logic Jellal and Erza should have also fallen into the protective older siblings bracket but…

…With how Jellal was pretty much the breadwinner of the group (taking extra duties of the tower/the jobs of the younger ones because he was more capable) and then Erza was the one who they all looked up to for comfort whilst also having a not so subtle dynamic with Jellal…Someone (Milliana) made the comment about how Jellal and Erza were like the mommy and daddy of the group and it stuck since.

Btw Simon hated this.

Jellal and Erza would get flustered and deny it, but the label stuck and made the others happy so they don't fight it as much after. Because if they didn’t have their own family now, making one with them wasn’t too bad.

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📖 “Teacher Jellal”

As Jellal was basically the unofficial leader/dad of the group, he didn’t just fulfil duties related to the tower, but also to help the others get their mind off the doom and gloom around them.

He would do things like teaching them games he knew from his childhood (e.g Xs and Os which they could play in the dirt, stone throw etc) and even go as far as teaching them some basic functioning skills.

Jellal wasn’t fully literate by any means, but he was the strongest out of them with a natural desire to learn and practice. A scholar (or nerd) at heart, and this would show by teaching the youngsters how to do small things like reading, writing their names in the dirt (even if badly) and even doing things like small drawings and making stories together to distract from the torment of their lives.

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🥘 “Imagine something really cool to eat”

It’s no mystery that the slaves of the tower would go hungry, and the bare rations they were given were probably either stale, bland or eaten up in a blink of an eye. When the hunger pangs and cruelty heightened, the kids would imagine foods together.

Didn’t matter if it was real or not, they just had to imagine something they wanted to eat. Asking themselves “if I could have anything right now, what would it be?”

It was a bittersweet dream, however it gave them some hope and something else to focus on other than the pain even though it only cased the pain in something sweeter.

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♥️ “Giving back”

Since Jellal was the usual breadwinner between their group, this meant he was also usually the latest to arrive from his duties.

Rations would be given out and he would be lucky to just about get some or have his food lukewarm.

The others would be starving and grateful for Jellal’s extra efforts, but Erza’s heart sank a bit each time they would dine, and a space remained unfilled beside them.

At some point Erza made it her initiative to wait for Jellal to come back before eating, to which the boy was surprised and hesitant about.

Because all he was doing was so they would eat well.

But to her, what did it mean to eat well if they couldn’t do it with him?

Jellal didn’t let it happen all the time, but for the moments he allowed himself to not be the ‘dad’/’teacher’/’leader’ and just was Jellal, he sat with Erza and ate slowly.

Sometimes she would even feed him because he would be too weak and tired, for which he would be ever grateful for.

But of course he couldn’t relax for too long and would give back by feeding her lovingly.

Even if his fingers shook, he would lift the rusted spoon filled with whatever watered down meal that had been earned for the day and held her chin as he took care of her too.

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🩹 “Stretched too thin”

For all that Jellal would take on, eventually he would reach his limit. He didn’t get sick often, but when he did, it was alarming.

He didn’t want to stress the others about him, for which he would make the note to be quieter and more distant about his suffering.

Erza of course, noticed. And when she would ask, he would lie through his teeth and his ears would flush.

“I’m fine.”

“Don’t worry about me.”

He would try and convince her with that same toothy grin and those kind eyes, yet she’d see his skin paling and sweat blistering on his forehead and wouldn’t take the bait.

Even if he didn’t want her to, and even if the others and Grandpa Rob warned her against it, Erza would stay up all night beside him, wiping his sweat and talking to him to keep him grounded.

Staying there with him, because she couldn’t help but worry that one minute he could be there, but what if the next…he wasn’t?

It wasn’t uncommon for people to die as slaves. Excessive labour was the main cause. Sickness and infection was the next. Then followed by accidents.

And with Jellal facing two of those three risks, she didn’t want to take her chances and be obedient.

She let herself be selfish with him, because there was no guarantee there would be the chance the next morning.

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👥 “So you’re still there”

Though Erza would become especially attentive when Jellal was asleep, even in normal moments there was a sense of intimacy threaded between them.

Though this was more of a group thing, before they would sleep: Erza and Jellal would flank the youngsters from the side and go to sleep cuddling them, whilst possibly holding hands.

This was sometimes just to preserve warmth when the tower got more chilly and the stone beneath got too cool. Or sometimes it was just to make sure the other was still there— alive and breathing the next day.

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🌒 “It gets to him too”

Erza has never seen Jellal cry, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t seen him feel.

That doesn’t mean she hasn’t seen it get to him.

The horror. The darkness. The screams.

He won’t show it when he’s awake, but at the beginning she caught him shaking and sweating through his nightmares. Whispering to himself in his sleep, afraid to break into a scream or a cry, she’d never know.

His voice wouldn’t leave his throat even then.

But what she did see told her enough.

She saw him unsettled.

Twisting and turning. Face scrunching. Head shaking.

And that’s when she would hold him.

Trying to ground him back to earth. Away from what haunted him. Unknown if it was because of the tower or before it.

And when he would stop moving.

And when he would awake.

The first thing he would see after the darkness,

Was her face.

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🌌 “Watch the stars with me”

If they weren’t playing games or doing some learning or going wild with their imagination, Jellal would find himself lying down beneath the stars on the sand of the island.

In the brief breaks he would be allowed, he would just detach and look at the stars like they were a form of guidance/hope.

Erza one day caught him and lay down beside him, watching the stars and asking him what he saw in them.

He told her about the significance of stars, both what he learned from his culture and general worldly relevance (ie. constellations) and she would just listen to him like he was telling her the world until they would be stolen away from their retreat, and forced back to live reality again.

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👤 “He who never tells”

Despite the little tidbits that Jellal would allow of his past, he never would tell the full story.

Erza and the others would try and press him, but Jellal? He just didn’t ever want to say.

No one knew what the boy with the tattoo held behind the shining smile, and if they did they’d be astonished as to how he could even do so.

But, even if Jellal didn’t tell about himself, he always wanted to hear about others. Especially Erza.

And he found comfort in hearing her story.

But he wouldn’t tell her that.

As he didn’t want her to know he felt less alone since they both never had a place in the world.

Yet.

Despite the truth being so cruel, something about it made him feel closer to her than anyone else.

💔 Darker/Trauma-Rooted & NSFW-Adjacent HCs: 💔

(CW: self hatred/self harm, exploitation themes etc - if uncomfortable please skip to next section)