A/N: Hiiiii, this is Sara, and the story of this fic is just too awkward. I conceived first as a one shot for angst week (the prompt was scars), however, my inspiration was vanished so I wasn't able to give it a proper ending. Then I just let it stand by. Butl fluff week arrived (It's Fluffo Time!) and the muses visited me again and… the story is finished, but in fluffy mode! Hope you enjoy it! ^^

Of course, I'd like to thank my lovelies Marta, Sandra and Silvia for beta reading me and Sixx AM for creating one of my favorite songs, "Skin", which was the inspiration for this fic! *-*

Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Mashima-sensei.

The silver glint walks across the woods until the forest becomes so dense that the shining is vanished and darkness is the only thing to be seen around. The shadows hide the tremor of her hands, but silence betrays her heavy breathing. A single word occupying her thoughts, "Jellal." She steps into the obscurity, where she would never belong.

"A mere trick," she thought as she felt the roughness of the bark of the trees in her soft hands. "Only a weak skin attempting to look harsh to hide the mellowness inside, the real self."

Erza continued walking through the undergrowth, not knowing well where her steps were driving her but knowing she would find him. She always did. And he would always let himself be found. Their own and personal hide and seek.

At some unspecified point of the woods and at an unknown time, scarlet met blue. He laid almost peacefully over a root staring at a nearby river. His dark cape blending with the shadows that surrounded them and yet, he didn't go unnoticed in Erza's eyes. How could he? Not when their souls had always been meant to find each other, no matter the time or the place. It was a stupid game the one they were playing, specially since their hearts only hid themselves in the innermost place of their chests at each other's presence. But once the distance struck them, they would beat harder performing a painful noise as a call to the other, hoping they would meet again.

Erza's heart stirred, overwhelmed by the view and proximity. Her insides troubled while the storm burst in her mind, violent and with no further warning. She felt the pain and the pleasure of finding him again mixing together in her soul. His very presence opening a crack in the wall she had scarcely built to protect her heart. A rift that spread to break her whole being but, at the same time, appeased the sorrow in a heart that was able to full beat again.

"Jellal," she whispered in the dark.

"I wasn't sure if you would come."

"I always do."

"I know."

Silence fell upon them as a heavy torment. So many things to be said. The words catched and chained in their hearts, struggling to come out, but their stubborn mouths not letting them to.

"I need your help. But it's too dangerous this time."

"When did that keep me away?" Erza Scarlet approached the root where Jellal was.

"I always forget how strong you are."

Silence again.

"Evil lurks. We've heard about a big threat," he said.

"Is that the reason why Crime Sorciere has been dormant lately?"

"Yes. We lost track on Zeref and the data we receive is nothing but vague and imprecise, except for this one. This cult, Avatar, is growing strong and gaining more followers in order to invoke their lord."

"Zeref," she remarked. "And what about that demon of his, E.N.D? Any news about him?"

Jellal sighed when he noticed Erza's presence right in his back. "Nothing for sure yet." He stood up, still giving her his back, not daring to turn around and face the woman. "I'll contact you again to settle the next step." He began walking away.

Erza closed her eyes and made the hardest move she had to do in a long time, placing a hesitating hand on his shoulder, anticipating to his imminent runaway. A strong grip that linked their bodies and made them hold their breath in synchrony. After a brief instant, they wheezed as an answer to their lungs, begging for some air. Oxygen entered her body as turbulent as the battle happening in her insides. The heart aching in her chest, not knowing what to feel; the brain begging her to let him go, appealing to her sanity; the body asking for more, demanding what had been denied for a long time and the soul… her long tormented soul lying in the depths of her being, not caring about anything or taking sides in the dispute, only crying for the pain to disappear.

She was so lost in her inner struggle that she couldn't explain how that had happened. All she knew was that now her arms were surrounding Jellal's chest, imprisoning him against her body. Erza realized how her hands caressed him, feeling his raced heart against the skin of her left. Both their chests fighting, one against the other, for some space to bring more air into their greedy lungs as their bodies unconsciously moved closer. A hug of one that was burning them alive. Then, Jellal moved his hand towards Erza's but stopped just a few centimeters away, scared of the contact and let it fall again, as she rested her forehead against his back, feeling his warmth. Right there, in the middle of the trees and the darkness, Erza found the calmness.

All of her begged Erza to talk, to do something, to end the tension oppressing them, but for the first time since the fight with the dragons, she was scared. Scared of doing something that would allow Jellal to escape from her once again. Scared of openly show her feelings. Scared of facing a negative from him. But above all Erza was terribly afraid of doing nothing and allow their volatile condition to remain.

"You haven't changed at all," she whispered. "Why do you keep running away, Jellal?"

He stood speechless, wanting to say everything and nothing at all at the same time. Still not sure of how to react to her proximity.

"When you called, I thought that everything had changed. That you had finally allowed yourself to…"

Erza bit her lip and began butting against his back. Jellal reacted and turned to see her, holding her face between his hands.

"All I can allow myself to is amending my sins."

"When will you stop hiding behind that façade of yours, Jellal? When will you stop blaming yourself?"

"My crimes are unforgivable," he said while slipping his hands through her neck, straight to her shoulders, separating their bodies a bit.

"You're the only one that can't forgive," she rustled. However, her words sounded like a proper yell in the middle of the night. "You're so determined to be lost in the shadows that you can't even realize that no one blames you anymore, Jellal. You can't even see that there's no need to feel ashamed."

"My actions are deeply carved in my skin, Erza. As if they were invisible scars that remind me everyday that I need to keep going and give the others what I took away to so many in the tower," he said, his hands still in her shoulders.

"You are not your skin, Jellal! All you can see is those old scars you worship so much. But there is so much more buried deep within," she lifted her head to look at him in the eye. "Jellal, allow yourself to know what lies beyond. Forget about your skin and let me show you what you really are," words bursting out of Erza's mouth as the tears did of her eyes, "listen to your heart, trust it, listen to it. Find the real you, Jellal."

Tears slid through Erza's cheeks, illuminated by the moonlight. The pain restarted the conflict inside of her and she convulsed as her soul did, harmed once again. As he had done before so many times in their lives, Jellal wiped them with his fingers, rubbing her face delicately trying to ease the pain he had caused once again. He felt the need to hug her and so he did, feeling the tears travel free through her face onto his neck.

"Jellal, you need to stop this. Your soul, your mind, your bones are asking for it. Please, stop doing this to yourself." She hugged him tighter as she put her mouth against the skin of the crook of his neck. "Please," she whispered, her lips causing chills in his spine. Erza's lips travelled through his neck, finally reaching his jaw. "Jellal," she begged against the corner of his mouth.

The man answered dropping his face, pressing his lips against hers. A soft kiss against her skin, that was all he was ready to do, but Erza wasn't. Desire and anguish devoured her, so she opened her mouth and started playing with his lips, as she placed her left hand in Jellal's cheeks and the right in his neck. The warm tears of joy dissipated the soreness and the storm came to an end as her soul throbbed. A kiss long feared and awaited, a kiss that calmed the pain of her wounds.

Their mouths fitted neatly, their lips bounded in a never rehearsed dance that was executed to perfection. Both trembling, shaken by the rough waves of feelings that had escaped from their hearts, now free to meet. Their hands moving on their own, touching the other, learning the path of their skin, fondling each other's scars.

And as easy as it had started, it ended.

"Erza."

"Jellal," she cried.

"I-, I can't," he said while breaking the contact between their bodies.

Erza knew she had lost that battle. She always did until he decided to let her win, and he would never let her have that pleasure. Once again she found herself with a heart that had always been broken regardless of how many rivets she had put. Broken since that day. The day Jellal thrown her out of the Tower of Heaven. The very same day he exiled them from his heart for the first time. There would never be a them anymore while he was still blinded by the past.

"You can, Jellal. You always did and always will."

"I am a son of the darkness and I shall remain like that. You are pure light, Erza," he whispered, stepping back. "And even though your mere presence makes my day outshine, it's a waste of your brightness that you try to illuminate my shadows."

"It should be me the one that decides," Erza said while approaching his body again. She wouldn't let him go anymore. "I have seen your light hidden for more than enough time. It was never extinguished, Jellal. Only weakened but never dead. You just bury yourself in the shadows because of your fright to see that there's still goodness in you. But you do and both of us know that, even though you don't want to face it."

"Erza, that light would only be a reflection of your own," he said, trying to make her stop.

"No, Jellal. Don't try to deny it again. You showed me so many times how perfectly you fit in the darkness. At least let me show you once that you belong with the bright side too. Let me be the light that guides the way towards your own inner fire."

"What if it doesn't exist after all?"

"It does, and I'll revive it. You always forget how strong I am, you said so."

"Should I ask you, then? Should I call for your strength to guide the way? Would you show me the way, Erza?" he asked in despair, still reluctant to yield to his own feelings. "Would you show me how to chase your light? You know I'll never do that."

"My light has always been yours, Jellal, but it was your choice not to use it. This time I won't let you do so, because now I'm the one who decides." Erza stood right in front of him, determined. She raised her hand and touched his face there where the red paintings crossed his skin. Afterwards she got even closer, the skin of their faces was only separated by millimeters, and then, she said, "I will show you the way to your own light. To your own life. To our future."

The black coat walks across the woods until the forest becomes so clear that its darkness is highlighted and the bright colours of the sunrise is the only thing to be seen around. The light betrays the tremor of his hands but the sluggish twitters of the birds help him hide his heavy breathing. A single word occupying his thoughts, "Erza." He tries to run away from the light, where he thought he would never belong, but where there would always be a place for him. Erza has always been there, waiting for him to find his place, right there, with her.