#multi chapters

When Jellal gradually regained his conscious from his sleep but still wasn't awaken enough to open his eyes, there were several things he could sense. Bright rays from the morning sun were kissing his eyelids through the curtainless windows. The short strands of his hair was wavering ever so lightly when chill breeze blew past him. Chirps from different birds he wouldn't know the names were hitting his eardrum, some louder and closer while some quieter and farther, waking him up further.

He inhaled deeply, feeling a weight that wasn't exactly heavy but neither light enough for him to ignore completely resting firmly on his chest. He wanted to rub his eyes, but his fingers were tangled up in something soft and smooth and felt like home that they refused to move.

Jellal blinked lazily for a few times before finally opened his eyes fully, finding focus. The greeneries outside the windows came into his sight first, before something red drew his attention away. Gazing downward, he saw the top of a red head, and realized that the weight on his chest came from Erza pillowing her head on him. He raised his head a little to get a better look at their sleeping poses. Somehow along the night, Erza had given up on clutching onto his arm in favor of draping her arm over his waist. His hands, without him remembering moving them, one had ran into Erza's hair while the other had found a place to rest on her upper arm.

Reasoning with himself that he was only afraid that moving his hands away would wake Erza up accidently but not wanting to enjoy the contact longer, Jellal allowed his hands to stay where they were as he tilted his head a little to the side to look at Erza's sleeping face. He wondered what she was dreaming that made her draw her brows together, and wished that he could smooth the faint wrinkles appeared on her forehead.

Jellal laid his head back down on the folded cloak he used as his pillow when his neck felt tired, but kept his gaze gulp to Erza and watched the way her head resting on his chest rose when he inhaled and fell when he exhaled. He remembered how he had dreamed of being hugged by Erza and falling asleep on her breasts for more than a few times. Who would have thought that there would come this day when it was Erza who got the opportunity to sleep on his breasts? It was another unusual thing he experienced since he had been turned into a woman. But this one was not anything unpleasant.

With Erza by his side, it was peace that Jellal found. The pathetic state he was currently in only became more tolerable because Erza was here to support him. He was too stubborn at the beginning to turn down Meredy's suggestion of asking Erza to come to accompany him. If he had been left alone while waiting for Meredy to get the antidote, he could only imagine that a day would have felt like a year long, as he tried frustratingly and helplessly to live normally with his new body while imagining the worst scenarios to make himself more miserable. He owed Meredy a thank you and also an apology.

Jellal closed his eyes again, not really had the intention to go back into dreamland, but was only hoping to relax and relish the rare closeness Erza and he shared while he waited for her to wake up naturally. He wanted Erza to get all the rest she needed after all the travelling she did to come to him and taking care of him. He willed his body to loosen up and to not move to not disturb Erza in her sleep, except that he couldn't stop his fingers from swirling the end of Erza's strands around them.

But it was not like Erza could feel Jellal's fingers playing her hair anyway; his gesture too small and too gentle for her to notice in her sleep. She was also completely oblivious to the touches of his hands on her skin, or the way she cuddled him and slept on his chest. She was too occupied in her dream. In her head, she was trying to buy a slice of strawberry cheesecake from her favorite bakery but to her dismay, it had been sold out. She went to a different shop, but encountered the same result. She ran around in Magnolia, visiting every bakery shop she knew to exist, but none of them had any strawberry cheesecake left. She was angry, disappointed, and unable to understand why all the bakery in the town had conspired against her.

Erza balled her fist, grumbled lowly, and breathed in deeply before she woke up from her unpleasant dream. Her eyelids still felt heavy and her brain was still slow in processing the reality. For a moment, she thought that she was at Fairy Hills, having a sleepover in Juvia's room and cuddling up to the water mage in her bed. But then she thought the bed she was sleeping in now was too hard to be Juvia's. No, she had been sleeping on floor board last night. And with Jellal by her side.

Her eyes opened wide. Not knowing if Jellal had waken up or not, Erza pushed herself up with the slightest motion. Her hair formed a curtain at her side blocking Jellal's face from her view, while her gaze fell on Jellal's breasts and her arm across his waist. She had never been shy with physical contact with friends, no matter boys or girls. But there were always exceptions when it came to Jellal. Even though cuddling with Jellal in bed was something Erza had dreamed of, she suddenly felt embarrassed that she had actually treated him as her body pillow and on top taken advantage of his breasts which were a problem he was facing now.

Tucking a strand of hair behind her hair, she slowly turned to the side to look at Jellal. Jellal was looking at her too, and wearing a faint smile on his lips. "Morning, Erza."

"M-morning." Erza raised to a sitting position and shifted back a little bit to leave some space between Jellal and herself. "I'm sorry. I have no idea how I ended up sleeping on you. I hope I didn't ruin your sleep."

"You didn't." Jellal smiled. "And you need not feel sorry about sleeping on me." He got up and turned his face away from Erza as he picked up his cloak from the floor, before adding in a whisper. "I don't mind."

Erza could still hear Jellal's words. Her face felt warm. She couldn't help but wonder if Jellal meant he actually liked her sleeping on him or he just wasn't bothered by it at all when he said "I don't mind". And she wasn't sure what was appropriate to say in response to his statement. Or it might not be necessary for her to say anything back.

"You are fine with not putting on the cloak?" She asked with concern when seeing that Jellal had placed the cloak on the bed, and took the chance to change the topic of their conversation.

Jellal stiffened, before turning around to face Erza. "Do you think I should?"

"If it makes you feel safer, then yes. I know the change is uneasy to deal with. But just know that it doesn't make your body a shame that needs to be hid from your own eyes or from mine."

Jellal's stance softened. "I know you won't see me with judging eyes. I'm trying to be rational. With the cloak or not my body won't change back until I have the antidote. And it isn't exactly comfortable or convenient to wear it all day long."

Erza nodded approvingly, feeling glad that Jellal had displayed more positivity than the day before. "Anything you feel comfortable with doing."

Erza rose to her feet and called her magic to get change into her daily armour. Before Jellal could consider looking away from her naked form in her process of change, she had already finished changing. With a smile that spoke of his admiration for her magical ability, Jellal opened the door for Erza to go into the living room before following her steps.

"Do you have any plan for today?" Erza asked Jellal while she was munching the mixed berries muffin she bought from her shopping trip yesterday. Strawberry cheesecake would be her number one choice but without a proper refrigerator she had to accept the second best she could find. She remembered her dream and thought it was no coincidence

"Not really." Jellal answered as he took another bite of the chocolate muffin, before smiling a little bitterly. "The reason Meredy and I are here is that we heard that an escaped former dark-guild leader is trying to recruit new members in this area. We've planned to do a search to verify the rumours. But with my current state I don't think it's a good idea for me to do the search now as originally planned."

"It's not." Erza agreed. She could see that trying to stay positive and to adjust to the changes of his body until the antidote arrived had already exhausted Jellal. It would be dangerous for him to continue his dark-mage-searching job when he couldn't focus his mind. "But not that you can't go out at all."

She didn't want him to stay inside the house all day doing nothing but to worry about what if he could never change back.

"I plan to do my routine morning jogging. You can join me. Exercise helps releasing stress."

Jellal wasn't sure if he would really feel relax to do exercise with a body he wasn't familiar with anymore. But Erza invited him with good intention. And did he really want to pass any chance of spending time with Erza before she left his side unavoidably?

"What's your concern, Jellal?" Erza asked when noticing his hesitancy in answering her.

"Nothing in particular."Jellal smiled a little. "I just wonder how it would feel to do exercise with this body."

"So will you join me?" Erza sounded hopeful, but there was a tenseness in her voice that Jellal picked up easily.

"I will." Jellal said firmly.

Erza sighed in relief visibly. "Good. Then let's go after finishing these muffins."

Jellal didn't know if Erza was impatience or hungry or simply loved muffins as he watched her devouring her three muffins in a minute or two. What he knew was that she looked very satisfied like kids who had just tasted their favorite candies. He gave a small chuckle before picking up his last muffin.

"What made you laugh?"

Jellal met Erza's curious gaze and swallowed "You are adorable" with the muffin in his mouth, before his gaze was drawn to her mouth. He touched the left corners of his lips with his index finger and told Erza, "There are some remainings on your lips here."

"Oh." Erza wiped her lips with her thumb and Jellal hoped that it was his finger which did the task for her. "It's clean now?"

"Yes."

"Thanks." Erza smiled timidly; her soft expression made Jellal's heart skip a beat and reminded him the little shy girl she once was when he first met her in the Tower.

"Do I…...still have other things on my face?"

Realizing that he had been staring at her, Jellal teared his gaze away. "No. Your face look perfect."

"This…..this is good to hear." Erza laughed awkwardly and looked away from Jellal too with her face turning into the color pink. She felt stupid to feel giddy simply because Jellal had said something sounding like a compliment to her look.

But Jellal wasn't aware of Erza's reaction. He was stuffing the muffin into his mouth and avoiding eye contact with Erza, not wanting to make her feel uncomfortable. Only after the muffin had filled his stomach then he looked back at her.

"Anytime you want to go, I'm ready to too."

Erza turned to meet Jellal's eyes and nodded with an approving smile, having calmed down already. "Now is as good as any I guess. Let's go."

They jogged along the stream which separated the village from the woods at the north side. As Jellal had expected, something as simple as running now became unnatural for him to do after his body changed its' shape dramatically. He was hyper aware of the hollowness at his crotch not feeling the occasional rubbing of his sensitive body part against his inner thighs anymore, and also of the extra weight on his chest as his new breasts bounced following every step he took. And he wasn't as muscular as he used to be in his female form now that his move felt less powerful.

The only thing that helped to distract him from all the wrong things about his body was Erza. He let her lead and took glances at her as he ran a few steps away and behind her. She had changed into her running clothes - a pair of capri pants and a sport bra - using requip. The tight outfit showed off her perfect shape, from her ample breasts to her slim waist and from her round buttock to her long legs. He must admit while he found his own female body a lot unformatable to live with, Erza's body was absolutely a fine one to be admired. She had also tired her hair up into two low pigtails. It was a look of her he saw for the first time and he decided that he liked how adorable she looked in such hairstyle.

When Erza changed her pace and ran beside him, Jellal raised a brow and felt a little worried if she had felt him watching her and didn't like it.

"Does jogging make you feel sick or pain anywhere?" Erza asked Jellal. She was only remembering his concern when she asked him to join her. "If you are not feeling well, you must tell me and we will stop."

"I'm not feeling unwell anywhere." Jellal softly said with a small smile on his lips. "Just that I need to pay some extra attention at my running pose because my sense of balance isn't the same as before in this different body. But I have no problem in running more."

"You are not forcing yourself to not worry me, right?"

"I'm not. You can tell if I lie because I'm a bad liar, right?"

Erza couldn't help but chuckle. "Right."

They kept running for another thirty minutes, until the stream led them to a pond under a waterfall and Erza suggested that they should take a break before returning.

They sat down by the ponside, and Erza took off her shoes and dipped her feet into the water. "This feels good." She sighed in delight before looking at Jellal. "You should do this too!"

Seeing no reason why he couldn't, Jellal nodded and copied what Erza did. His tensed feet felt relaxed under the cool water and his sweating body was cooling down slowly thanking to the fresh air around the waterfall. He felt peace taking over agitation in his heart, being embraced by nature's tranquility and having released some of his stress through exercising.

"I want to swim."

Erza's sudden proclamation broke the silence between them and made Jellal quirked a questioning eyebrow at her.

"This pond looks good for swimming and I want to feel the water on my skin." Erza explained with an expectant look in her eyes.

Without waiting for Jellal's further response, she stood up with her body glowing in white light. The light faded in a blink of an eye, and she had changed into a set of white bikini. Her exposed skin seemed to gleam under the sunlight, being covered in beads of sweat.

Jellal swallowed as his gaze moved up from Erza's legs to her torso. Memories of their encounter at a certain waterpark surfaced in his head again, including the feel of Erza's soft breasts against his palms. His mouth suddenly felt dry; his heart skipped a beat when Erza turned to look down at him.

She smirked, before jumping into the pond.

A smile crept onto Jellal's face as he watched Erza enjoying herself, swimming around lazily and occasionally underwater. And he wondered if Erza had always been this spontaneous. He felt kind of envy of her that she could follow her heart and act on impulse to do what came to her mind. He, on the other hand, could never make a move without first considering the possible consequences of his actions. Meredy had said that sometimes he was thinking too much over something simple. But after how he got changed into a woman simply because he hadn't asked if he could drink the liquid in a cup, he guess it was never too much to be cautious.

He sighed, feeling his heart getting heavy again at the thought of the possibility of his body not changing back to normal.

"Jellal! Would you like to join me? It feels great swimming down here!" Erza cheerful voice called out to Jellal, pulling him out from the dark corner of his mind.

"I…" Jellal gazed down at what he wore before looking at Erza. "I'll pass. I can't requip in a swimsuit like you." And he certainly didn't own a piece of woman's swimsuit which he could wear now even he knew requip. He gave Erza an easy smile, not minding to just stay at the pondside to watch her swimming. "I'm fine taking a rest here."

"I wasn't thinking things through before asking you." Erza smiled sheepishly. "Stupid me."

"You aren't stupid. It's not a big deal. Enjoy swimming all you want to; don't mind me."

Being urged by Jellal's words, Erza nodded and turned to swim underwater again.

She mused if it was her friends from Fairy Tail, they probably would jump in the pond simply wearing nothing if they wanted to swim but didn't bring any swimsuit. Clearly Jellal wasn't as carefree as them. On top of that, he wouldn't want to expose his body to others' eyes in his current state, which she understood. Yet, she wondered what it would be like to have Jellal swim naked in his natural-born figure alongside her. It wasn't like she hadn't seen nude men before…...

She re-surfaced above the water when her imagination went wide from innocent swimming to some naughty things couple did she learned from her erotic novels.

She glanced at Jellal, and found him idly looking up at the sky. But he soon became aware of her gaze directing at him and turned his gaze to her too and waved at her. She decided that she didn't want to keep him waiting for her alone anymore.

"You've done swimming?" Jellal asked; his eyes followed Erza's movement as she got out from the pond and sat down beside him. He didn't want to stare but couldn't take his eyes off her. The way her damp hair framed her figure and hung onto her wet skin, and how its bright scarlet color contrasted to her white bikini, had made her look extra sexy in his view.

"Yes. I think it's around time for us to go back." Erza answered, turning her head to face Jellal with a concerned look in her eyes. "Did you get bored waiting for me?"

"No." Jellal didn't think he could get bored when he was around Erza, even he was doing nothing but simply watching her. "I quite enjoyed the tranquility here."

"Good."

Erza smiled, to which Jellal responded with the same expression. No words formed between them as they simply had their gaze fixated on each other.

Erza could feel that she was still being physically attracted to Jellal as she studied his face, even he now looked like a woman instead of a man. He was simply pretty as a woman the same way he was handsome as a man, with his well-defined facial features and beautiful and soulful eyes. And she wondered if his face had gotten closer and closer to hers or if it was only an illusion.

Only when her shoulder touched Jellal's, Erza realized that they had truly been leaning forward to each other, slowly closing the distance between their faces. She jerked backward leaning away from him, being stuck by the sudden fear that she was going to do something stupid and embarrassing.

Jellal only stared at Erza with wide eyes like he was startled by her reaction. But it took him merely a second to realize what they had just tried to do to each other.

"Erza." He could feel his face warming up. "I-I didn't -"

"A-are we leaving yet?" Erza simply wished to move on to any topic other than what had almost happened between them. It was an irrational act driven by desire, and it brought back a bittersweet memory of a similar situation. Without waiting for an answer further, she stood up and changed back to her jogging outfit.

Jellal watched Erza carefully for a moment. Getting that she didn't want to hear any apology or explanation from him, he got up too.