based on the prompt "we're strangers but i absolutely hate your music taste and i feel the need to tell you this on a cowded subway AU" AU that i found on tumblr because jerza am i right

Erza is livid. And that is saying something since she never gets angry on a Friday night – especially when she's just returned from work. Friday nights are sacred - therefore she has a ritual she must follow every night of this particular part of the week.

She gets home from work on Friday, preferably at 8 PM, because that is when the Subway isn't too crowded with exhausted office workers; and then she sits in the very corner with lots of space to put her bag and her precious, precious strawberry shortcake she buys especially for this routine; jams her ears with earphones that is perpetually on repeat to her favourite rock band; and finally, the most sacred part of the practice – the joy of looking forward to a nice weekend. That's the nice thing about being a teacher – you get Saturdays and Sundays off, like all her students.

But as she stands by the rails, waiting for her subway train to arrive, she realizes this is the first time this has ever happened to her.

People crowd on every side, pushing and jostling as they hurry for home for their trains. An elbow pokes her at the side and she moves, only to be prodded by a briefcase to her chest.

"Uh, sorry," murmurs the portly man whose briefcase belonged to, when she had let out a small squeal.

"You'd better," she mutters back, her patience already running out. Frustrated, she glances at her watch and recognizes the ten minutes past the appointed arrival time of her train. What the actual fuck? Someone thrusts their sharp shopping bags at her face as she adjusts her watch, thinking it broken – and another digs their knee at her back, almost causing her carefully boxed strawberry shortcake to fall victim.

She clenches her teeth and decides to move away from the ever-growing crowd, and finds a nearly empty spot by the curved subway walls – quite a distance away from the tracks. But she didn't care. Her precious cake nearly fell!

Okay, I'm just going to wait here until this crowd disperses, she thinks to herself as she carefully sets down her cake and her bag to rub on the bruised spots she had received while making her way to the rather secluded location. Her stomach rumbles, and she forces herself to wait until she is on the train – finally devoid of people- to devour the pink thing in the striped pink bakery box.

Erza reaches for her phone and is about to jam her ears with something relieving when she hears something that was about to absolutely test her patience.

Is that…fucking…Uptown Funk?!

Bewildered, she whips her head to the right and finds the offending opening notes to the famous top-charter song that has been blasting from every radio ever for the last few months - coming from a guy's phone who was leaning on the wall. Half her mouth open and growing ever much irritated, the person remains oblivious to her flagrant stare and instead increases the volume of the song.

Erza twitches. Okay, no, just hold it right there, Erza. This guy's just one of those typical people who think blasting mainstream music in the middle of the Subway is cool. She glances at her offender, and pretending not to note how slender and firm his body is that is duly observed by the fitting t-shirt, she edges a couple of steps away from him – far enough to not catch the tunes.

She glances at her watch. 8:30 PM, and she's still stuck miles from her home. Wearily noting that the subway's not going to be empty any sooner, she decides to just eat her cake there and then. She puts back her phone and bends to retrieve the bakery box. Trying her hardest not to salivate, she opens it…and her ears catches the opening tunes to Taylor Swift's Blank Space.

Her fingers twitch. It seems closer than before. Sucking in a breath, she turns sharply to her right and finds him standing right next to her. He seems unperturbed; but Erza is not having any of this.

Finally running out of patience, she stands straight, replaces her precious box on the ground and proceeds to tap him on the shoulder.

The person, who had been wearing a beanie up to his ears and forehead, pulls it up as he turns to her.

Blue hair tumbles from under the beanie and Erza finds a red symbol tattooed on his right side of the face as he focuses in on her.

"Yes?" he pleasantly asks, his voice barely above the blaring music (that was apparently not bothering anyone but her, but then again, Erza's ritual had been rudely interrupted), and the red-haired woman is almost stupefied into silence as her eyes rave over his rather handsomely sculpted face. Almost. Until she realizes that he has got earphones wedged into his ears.

Livid, Erza reaches in and pulls out the offending white wires. "Are you crazy?" she says above the chorus of Blank Space.

Surprise passes across his face for a second before an amused look tugs on his mouth. "Well, that depends."

Astonished at this behavior, she thrusts the earphones in his face. "Your earphones aren't even connected to the phone!"

He takes the earphones from her hands, gently brushing against hers and stuffs it back into his pocket, shrugging. "Yes, they don't work."

Spluttering, she tries not to imagine this guy's face bashed in, she pointed at her phone. "Is that why your phone is currently blasting Taylor Swift's Blank damning Space? "

He raises his eyebrows. "You got anything against blank space in general or what?" he asks, stepping closer and leaning on the wall with an outstretched hand, his body twisting to face hers fully.

Gulping, she takes a step back. "I've got everything against your music taste," she murmurs softly, internally horrified at her timidity.

"What's that?" he innocently asks, cupping his ears.

Furious at being played around like this, Erza takes another big step back and shouts at the top of her voice, "I absolutely hate your taste in music!" and at the same time…her foot makes contact into her cake.

squelch

Gasping, she looks down and found her cake…ruined.

"Oh, well, why didn't you say so? I hate my music taste too," he says, trying not to laugh, quite oblivious to her distraught and horror.

The red-haired snaps at attention at him, her veins already popping at her foreheads. "You! You ruined my cake!" she shouts. "All! All because of your stupid music taste, my cake – my weekend – ruined!"

Her voice sails high above the din of the crowd, and for a second, the subway goes quiet for a few seconds.

Then,

"The name's Jellal,"

and the good-looking man smirks.

/sobs/

i suck at writing so much but even then... you will give me reviews...right?

i've got several more prompts coming up. look forward to it maybe?

PS: JELLAL IN A BEANIE THO

PPS: because i can totally see jellal listening to that kind of music XDD BLANK SPACE BABY YOU SHOULD BE ON BLANK SPACE MY DEAR JELLY