Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, or NaLu and Jerza would be canon. *sighs* I wish...
"She's not cutting her hair." Mirajane scowled, crossing her arms over her (extremely) short black tank top.
On the table next to her, her little sister swung her feet with a smile on her face. "Is there something wrong with not getting a regular haircut, nee-san?"
"She's copying me," clarified Mirajane, grinding her teeth together. "It's annoying. I'm going to go over there and fix it right now."
"But nee-san-"
It was too late. Mirajane was already stomping over to the girl on the other side of the room who was yelling at two cowering boys.
"Hey, Erza! Quit copying me and cut your hair!" she shouted loudly.
Erza whipped around, her shoulder-length scarlet hair flying and her eyes narrowing dangerously. There was a moment of silence, and when she spoke, her voice was eerily quiet and cold.
"I'm not copying you."
Instantly, Natsu and Gray scrambled backwards, cowering behind each other and screaming, "Sumimasen, Erza!" But Mirajane threw her head back and laughed (a little evilly).
"Like I believe that crap," she snorted, shocking everyone in the guild with her cussing. ("At such a young age, too," Macao said, half-proud, half-lamenting.) "Everyone knows you're copying me, so give it up! Unless you wanna fight me?" she challenged, a smirk lifting a corner of her lips.
But Erza's expression hardened even further. "Don't flatter yourself. You'll never be important enough to influence my decisions," she said. She spoke quietly, but somehow her words were powerful, rippling through the guild's silence like a thrown pebble.
Taken aback, Mirajane backed up a step before clenching her fists. "What's that supposed to mean?" she hissed, but as she stepped forward, Lisanna ran up and tugged at her arm.
"Mira-nee, maybe we should leave Erza alone?" she suggested brightly, waiting until her sister relented, fuming. Chatter around the guild resumed, and Natsu and Gray made a hasty retreat to the river outside to continue their fight.
Alone again, Erza curled up at a table in the corner of the room and tugged at her vivid red hair.
Erza screamed, tears welling up in her eyes as the demon-serpent clawed for her, catching her by her long red hair and yanking her back.
"Erza!" screamed Cana, reaching for her cards. But Erza was already tugging her hair free, wincing as some of the bright strands were torn from her head. Jumping back, the air shimmered around her hand as she summoned a sword and swung the gleaming blade. Within a matter of moments, the battle was over.
Cana ran back over, dropping her cards back in her satchel. "Are you okay, Erza?" she asked, worried.
"I'm fine," said Erza softly, rubbing her scalp where her hair had been ripped out. Cana winced.
"Are you sure you wanna keep your hair that long?"
Erza lowered her eyes to the ground, her hand dropping to hang limply at her side. "Yeah," she mumbled. Her eyes filled with resolve. "I'll braid it," she announced. "That'll help."
Cana opened her mouth to reply, but Erza was already gone in a blur of eye-catching scarlet.
"Erza?"
Brown eyes opened suddenly as Erza woke, startled, and shot to her feet, her hands instinctively reaching for the sword hanging at her side. Seeing no immediate danger, she relaxed, and smiled a somewhat friendly smile at the pink-haired boy in front of her. (At least, she thought it was friendly.)
"You scared me," she said bluntly to Natsu, who immediately shrunk under her gaze.
"You-you were crying," he stammered, shocked.
Erza's eyes widened, suddenly feeling the tears on her cheeks. Frowning, she wiped them away. Of course, she had been crying. She should've guessed it from the nightmare. How weak. "That's of little consequence. Why are you here?"
Recovering quickly, Natsu's face grew determined as he balled his fists. "I'm here to challenge you to another fight!" he announced. "And I'm going to win this time!"
Erza almost let her face melt into a smile of affection. But she caught herself, keeping her face impassive. "I accept your challenge. Give me a moment to wake up; I'll be down in two minutes," she listed with a sharp nod.
Natsu nodded back at her and raced out of the room, yelling to the guild, "I'm gonna fight Erza!"
Smiling, Erza turned to wipe her face of the remaining tears. Instinctively, she reached for her distinctive hair, separating it into three sections and beginning to weave them. She had braided her hair so many times now that she didn't even need to concentrate. Over, under. Over, under. Her hair was really long now, long enough to make a flaming braid down to her waist. Over, under. Over, under.
Suddenly, she froze. Her hands fell from her hair to her sides. She clenched them into fists. Glaring at her reflection in a nearby mirror, she undid her braid, shaking out her red hair, and turned to walk out of her room with her hair in a long, red curtain.
She didn't need her hair in a braid anymore. He would've liked it better down, anyways. Not that she cared what he thought. He had hurt her too much for her to care.
She was much older now, much wiser. She was confident and sure of her actions. So why did this keep happening?
The nightmares plagued her every night. At least she didn't cry anymore…
She gripped the edge of the table, focusing on her breathing. In, out. In, out.
Her breathing became less labored, more even. In, out. Inhale, exhale. She let go of the table, her hands reaching for her hair. In, out. In, out. Separate it into three sections. In, out. In, out. Over, under. Up, down.
She reeled backwards, hyperventilating.
"Up, down. We lay the stones down so we can build up!"
She dropped the sections of hair she held. Requip, requip, requip, her mind screamed frantically, like it did whenever she panicked. Her regular armor shimmered into existence over her body. It didn't protect her from her memories, but it shielded her in battle. And that was all she had. Feeling the comforting weight, she slid back into the bed with the metal still on and squeezed her eyes shut, only to have bright, bright hair invade her dreams again.
"I remember now… That's the color of your hair."
Her breath caught, her eyes widening too big to be possible. She watched his back as he walked, tattered coat swinging with his steady steps and his blue hair too bright to be vanishing into the blackness of the van. After defeating Nirvana, after being handcuffed like a lowly criminal and being shoved roughly away, that was what he had to say.
"That's the color of your hair." So he'll never forget her name. Like when she saw him standing there, staring impassively at intertwining black and white tendrils of power, and he turned to drop the bombshell of his amnesia, claiming to only remember one thing – Erza.
That's the color of your hair. Six words.
It only took six words for her world to come crashing down.
The van left, taking him away.
Erza Scarlet. Scarlet as in her aggressively red hair.
It had been so many years; she'd almost forgotten the reason her hair was so precious to her, why it hung to her waist instead of being cropped short, as would be actually practical.
Because he liked her hair. Because he let it slip through his fingers, tried to braid the cropped ends when she was scared and huddled in a corner of the dirty prison cell. Because no matter what he did, she was so weak when it came to him. Because she would always love him.
She cried for hours. When the sun rose, it colored the sky a brilliant red.
Later, Lucy would tell her it was too bad she wasn't looking. She would say it was the color of her hair and ramble on about hope or something-or-the-other.
But the thing was, Erza had looked. It just hadn't meant the same thing to her.
Scarlet red wasn't for something as beautiful and hope-filled as the sunrise.
It was for bloodshed, for pain and hardship, for him so far away. It was for Erza Scarlet, who suffered and cried wound her hands through her long, too-red hair, wasting her life away on too-impossible hopes with nothing but a too-big, too-guarded, and entirely too-broken heart.