Bet you didn't know that I'm a sucker for manga/anime/Japanese stuff in general! XD I know the pairing's called Jerza, but I like Jelza better. OFFICER, TAKE ME AWAY. So here's a sweet little Jelza fic (Jellal/Erza) for you all. Enjoy!
Oh, and another thing. I'm currently trying to start a Revolution, and so far. . .I have around 3 people in it - my goal is around 12. So please, check out the AN - please read! section of my other stories.
Jellal frowned slightly and pulled his black winter coat tighter around him. Bright, glittering snow lined the streets of Magnolia, crunching under his feet. He sighed and looked up at the sky, which was thankfully clear, dotted with a few fluffy clouds. His eyes narrowed further as a sudden gust of biting wind blew and he buttoned up his coat, pulling the hood over his head.
Damn, it was cold.
There was no one around that day – only a couple children laughing and throwing snowballs at each other, running past the former fugitive. He opened the door to a jewelry store for no particular reason, then closed it, bells tinkling.
What the hell am I doing? Jellal sighed and continued on his way through the street, thoughts running through his head. She's going to be home soon and I still haven't found anything. He checked his watch and scowled as he found that Erza would be arriving in three hours. Shit.
He sighed, an icy breath escaping his mouth, as people gradually began to trickle out onto the street and the talking commenced. Shopping really wasn't Jellal's thing – shifting through scantily clad Magnolian girls may have appealed to Natsu, but Jellal could do without.
Jellal definitely wasn't a people person, but underneath his facade, he would do anything to make his girlfriend smile – especially when that girlfriend was Erza. She had done so many things for him, and getting her a special gift was something he had his heart set on. Erza would be back tonight from a job, and he still hadn't spotted anything that caught his eye. He had to get something no one else would have, or at least something that she would remember.
Maybe such a thing didn't exist, because Jellal was going out of his mind. And this time, Zeref wasn't the culprit.
He growled and ran back in the direction that he came, back to Fairy Tail. Hopefully, Mira could give him some advice.
The white-haired barmaid looked up at him with a happy smile on her face. "Jellal! Hello! Did you get anything for Erza? She's coming back tonight, you know – and it's her birthday."
Jellal blinked. "How did you know?"
She winked at him. "I have my ways."
The hint of a smile appeared on Jellal's face. "Then I won't question them. And no, I haven't got one. I was hoping that you would have some ideas."
She looked up thoughtfully, then turned to him. "Well, do you know what she likes?"
Jellal flushed. "N-not really," he stammered. "That's the trouble. The only thing I know that she likes is strawberry shortcake, cheesecake and soufflé, but – "
Mirajane squealed, jumping over the counter and hugging him. "That's perfect!"
"Wha-what?" Jellal said, confused.
"Bake Erza her favorite foods! She'd love it!"
"But I don't know how to cook," Jellal murmured.
"That's okay!" she replied enthusiastically. "I'll teach you. But first, you need supplies! Who would be able to go out in weather like this. . .Gray!"
The raven-haired boy walked up to Mira. "Hey there – what do you need?"
"Jellal's baking a cake and a soufflé for Erza," Mira said quickly, ignoring Jellal's hurried stammer of "B-but – I'm not. . .".
"So we need supplies – the ingredients. We need. . ." She reeled off a very impressive list.
Gray's eyes widened as he desperately tried to memorize the flow of words coming from his friend's mouth at a million miles a second. "Okay, okay. . .I got it." He rushed off into the cold outdoors.
"Gray, your clothes!"
"What?. . .Aw, shit!"
"I'm. . .back. . ." Gray wheezed, collapsing on the floor at the entrance of Fairy Tail with a huge bundle of baking ingredients in his arms. He frowned and looked at Jellal and Mira, who were arguing.
"There's no such thing as a freaking strawberry cheesecake soufflé! What would we call it – a strawcheeseflé?" Jellal said angrily.
"That may be true, but it doesn't mean that we can't try!" Mira objected, pouting.
Jellal sighed and ran his hand through his blue hair. "Fine. We'll make one."
"Great!" Mira smiled, and handed him a pink, frilly apron covered with lace and hearts. "Here's the costume."
The expression on Jellal's face was priceless as he took in the apron. His eloquent response was an incoherent splutter. After he finally regained his composure, he managed to say, "You want me. To wear that excuse of an apron."
"No, no, no!" Mirajane waved him off. Jellal breathed a sigh of relief, before. . ."You have to put on the entire costume!" She handed him a chef's hat.
By this point, Gray was rolling on the ground in helpless laughter, tears streaming down his face. Seeing the confused, embarrassed and flustered look on the normally stoic Jellal's face was just too much for him.
"Oh, Gray, you're back!" Mira said cheerfully, walking over to the boy. "Good. . .good. . .good! You got everything! Here." She handed him 1000 jewel.
Gray grinned. "Thanks, Mira." He tucked the money away in his pocked and looked at Jellal, who was still staring at the apron and hat in his hand helplessly.
"Oi, Jelly-man, you okay over there?"
". . .JELLY-MAN?!"
"A strawberry cheesecake soufflé, and you want to name it a strawcheeseflé ?" Cana, who had just came into the Fairy Tail kitchen, frowned thoughtfully. "I've never heard of that before."
"Neither have I," Jellal sighed, preheating the lacrima oven.
Cana surveyed Jellal's outfit, drinking a barrel of alcohol. "Nice outfit."
"Shut up!" he growled. "It's Mira's fault." Mirajane smiled sweetly, pouring some oil slowly into a bowl.
Elfman growled. "Mira-nee, you pour the oil too slowly. This is how a real man pours!" He grabbed the oil bottle and dumped its entire contents into the bowl.
". . .Oops," he said sheepishly. "Did I pour too much?"
After a short bout of fighting (involving many colorful words exchanged), Elfman was banished from the kitchen.
Mira sighed and took some flour from the counter. Unfortunately, her hands were still slippery from the oil and she dropped the bag on the floor. The flour sack burst open, releasing white powder everywhere.
The members in the kitchen began to cough wildly, waving the white powder from their faces and sneezing uncontrollably. "Mirajane!" Cana yelled.
"Sorry!" she squealed, blue eyes worried.
Jellal was beginning to get frustrated, stumbling over to the counter through the white haze. Suddenly, he slipped on some spilled oil on the floor and fell to the ground in an ungraceful heap.
Lucy came in, wondering what all of the noise was about, and giggled, seeing Jellal. On the floor, covered in white flour, wearing a chef's hat and a hot pink, frilly apron. "Jellal-sama! What happened to you?"
"Shut up, Lucy!" he yelled, trying in vain to brush the flour out of his clothes and hair.
"Maybe I can help," she said, concerned. She then saw the bowl full of yellow oil and paled. ". . .what is that?"
"Oh, that?" Gray said. "It's – "
"Ewww!" Lucy shrieked suddenly. "Is that pee?!"
"No, no, it's just – "
"Augh, you guys are disgusting!" she screamed, running out of the door.
"I blame Elfman," Cana said, and the other members chorused their agreement. She looked at the recipe again. "Okay, now we have to crack two eggs." She looked at Jellal. "You do it."
"Eh?" he said, shocked. "I've never cracked eggs before!"
"It'd be nice if you do it now," she retorted, shoving two eggs into his hands. "I've gotta go – I need more alcohol." She ran out the door and into the main hall.
"Okay," he said uncertainly. "So you just tap it against the side of the bowl?"
"Yes," Mira replied. "But just a tap – don't do it too hard, or – "
At that exact moment, Jellal smashed the egg against the table, making the runny liquid spill all over his hands and the yolk to fall to the floor against the flour. He cursed.
"Or that will happened," she finished lamely. Jellal shot a glare in her direction. "I'll need someone to clean this up. . .Natsu! Gray!" she called.
Jellal's eyes widened. "Mira, what are you thinking?! Natsu and Gray are the ones who make the messes, not clean them up!"
Mira smiled, scratching her head in embarrassment. ". . .Eh he he. Oops."
Just then, a terrific crash came from just outside the door and Jellal whipped around in alarm.
"I was here first!" Natsu yelled, trying to squeeze through the door.
"No, you idiot, I clearly made it here first!" Gray snarled, gritting his teeth and trying to enter the kitchen.
"Who you calling an idiot!"
"I'm calling you an idiot, idiot! Flame-brain!"
"Freezy-face!"
"YAAAH!" they shouted, trying to punch each other.
"Guys, be quiet!" Mira said, desperately trying to restore peace. Actually. . .there was no peace in the first place.
"All right then, both of you! Who was here first?" Natsu hollered, flames spewing from his mouth.
"Me."
"Gray."
"Gray."
"NO ONE ASKED YOU!" he yelled, enraged.
". . .Actually, you kind of did," Mira said, sweat-dropping.
Jellal sighed and put his head in his hands, then yelped. "Aw, fuck, now my face is covered with flour!"
"Juvia, that's enough water," Gray said, stirring the batter. "Thanks so much."
Juvia froze. "Gray-sama thanked me. . ." Her eyes became starry and a bright red blush started to make its way across her cheeks.
Gray looked at her nervously. "Um, right. Juvia, I think you should go and clean up. . .you're covered with sugar."
"The sugar itself is not as sweet as my beautiful Gray-sama. . ." she murmured dreamily.
"Okay, that's it," he said, exasperated. "Let's go." He pushed her out the doorway, none to gently.
After the whole scenario was over, Jellal made a face, looking down at the cake batter with more than faint distaste. ". . .You're sure that this will turn into a strawberry cheesecake soufflé?"
"Nope!" Natsu said cheerfully. Jellal groaned at his guildmate's behavior.
Gray smacked him on the head. "Of course it's going to work. Here, let me put the batter in the oven."
"Psh! Who needs the oven?" Natsu scoffed. "If you want to heat something up, I'll do it!" He took a deep breath and shouted, "Fire Dragon's – "
"Natsu, no!" three voices shouted simultaneously.
"ROAR!"
A large jet of fire flew out of his mouth, aiming directly for the batter in Gray's hand. He yelped and placed it on the counter, leaping back just in time.
There was a crash, and a terrible smell rose up in the air, followed by a huge billow of black smoke.
"Oops," Natsu said nonchalantly, shrugging.
Gray looked at Jellal. "Permission to kill?"
"Permission granted," Jellal said through gritted teeth.
"No!" Mirajane said. "We can't let them make more of a mess in the kitchen!"
"Ice Make: Lance!"
"OW! WHAT THE HELL, CHILLY-BRAIN!"
With much difficulty, Jellal managed to push the two arguing teenagers out of the narrow kitchen door, looking at the mess that they had made.
Flour covered the floor and the walls and sugar stained the countertops and the oven door, while an enormous quantity of oil dripped from the ceiling – don't even ask how that got there. Egg yolks were splattered on the walls, while the white flour on the floor was dotted with squashed red strawberries.
Of course, that wasn't the only calamity. A large amount of the ingredients were on the chefs themselves, Jellal being the main victim.
He glared at Mira. "The apron will prevent me from getting dirty, she said. It'll protect you, she said."
Mira laughed. "I'm sorry. But you really are a spectacle."
He hmphed, glad that there wasn't a mirror nearby. What Mirajane said was definitely the truth, and actually was an understatement. He was covered from head to toe in flour – one would think that his hair was white with blue streaks. Powdered sugar and salt covered his face, heavy cream and strawberry juice stained his shoes, and his apron was damp with water. The chef's hat that he wore was still intact (miraculously), with only a small tear in the paper – it hadn't been frozen, burned, soaked, or torn to shreds.
Yet.
Since his hands were caked with flour and sugar, he did the best that he could to wipe his hair, but to no avail. Mirajane giggled at his predicament – she wasn't as dirty as he was, and her hair was already white in the first place.
Jellal sighed, wondering how he had got himself into this mess – literally and figuratively. All he wanted was to make Erza happy, not throw an entire party!
"Oh, that's such a great idea!" Mirajane gushed, and, too late, Jellal realized that he had spoken aloud. "Okay then, I'll go organize the guild! The strawberry cheesecake soufflé is baking, so you don't have to touch it – I'll be right back!"
"No, Mira – " he tried to say, but the white-haired mage was already out the door, leaving a trail of white footprints behind. He facepalmed, feeling a headache coming on. Jellal waited for it to pass, and then, taking a deep breath, he walked into the main hall.
Happy was using his Aera magic and was flying around, hanging streamers on the ceiling, while Mirajane was helping Lucy pass out the plates. Cana and Laxus were blowing up balloons, and Natsu and Gray were painting a "Welcome Home – Happy Birthday!" sign. Currently, they were arguing whether to paint it red or blue. Elfman waited for them to finish so that he could hang it up.
Jellal frowned as a horrible screeching noise reached his ears, and he whipped around, sure that it was coming from Natsu and Gray's direction. However, he finally zoned in on the culprit – Gajeel was tuning his guitar. Badly.
He checked his watch and his eyes widened. "Mira! We only have an hour!"
"It's alright," she reassured him. "We've got it all under control – "
As if on cue, Gajeel's guitar string snapped, the paper that Natsu and Gray were working on ripped in two, and Happy somehow got tangled in the streamers.
Jellal stomped back into the kitchen, frowning as his nose met a peculiar, unpleasant smell. It smelled like smoke. . .
He nearly yelled in shock when he realized that the smoke was coming from the oven. The dessert was burning! Jellal threw open the door to the oven, gagging when the burnt smell reached his nose.
The mage prayed that no one else would notice the smell. He looked around wildly for the recipe – Mira must have left it somewhere!
He finally spotted the little white piece of paper and hurriedly threw all of the ingredients in a bowl carelessly. Jellal turned the mixer on to max, scowling when the batter splashed onto his apron yet again.
Close enough! He slipped on a pair of oven mitts, took the smoking lump out, and tossed them off somewhere. The flustered mage poured the batter into a random bowl, threw it into the oven, set the timer, closed the door with a bang, and leaned against it, panting and sweating.
Forget about fighting Dark Guilds, he inwardly wheezed. This is much harder.
He glanced ruefully at the lump of charcoal that was an excuse for dessert.
DAMN, that was fun to write XD BTW. . .Fanfiction doesn't recognize "mage" as a word. WHAT THE FUCK. DX
Review, and join the Revolution!