A/N: This was written for my dear friend Mags Duranb on tumblr for her birthday. Jerza is the main pairing, of course, but there is also slightly Miraxus. Also you will find Jellal x Laxus x Erza x Mirajane friendship. But my apology if you find Laxus or Mirajane being too OOC...I wasn't very used to write them.

"Laxus."

Waving a paper in his hand, Jellal glared at the Master of Fairy Tail as he addressed him with an accusing tone. "So nothing written in this letter was true, I suppose?"

He was asked in the letter to visit Fairy Tail to discuss how to take down a newly risen dark guild whom Fairy Tail had recently encountered. But when he arrived at the guild, he was greeted by the warm and happy smiling faces of Fairy Tail members who were clearly not in their fight mode. The next things he noticed were that the guild hall was decorated with many colorful balloons, lanterns, tinsels and garlands and also tables of food were lined up at two sides of the hall. Naturally, he glanced around to look for the one who wrote him the letter to demand an explanation on what was happening. When he found out that the blonde man whom he was searching for was talking to his silver-haired fiancée on the stage, he also saw the banner hanging high above the stage with "Happy Birthday to Erza!" written on it. Needless to say, he understood instantly the reason why he was being cheated to go to Fairy Tail and his eyes immediately scanned the hall to see where the birthday girl was but didn't find her. He then walked straight to where the Fairy Tail's master was.

But Laxus paid no mind to Jellal's discontent and showed no intention to apologize to his friend for deceiving him when being questioned. He let out a chuckle and wrapped an arm around the blue-haired man's shoulders in a friendly manner. "Don't grumble like an old man. Just join the celebration and be happy about the fact that there's actually no new dark guild threatening the peace of Fiore."

"And please don't blame Laxus, Jellal. The letter was my idea." Mirajane, who was standing beside Laxus, took a step forward and turned to meet Jellal with an apologetic smile on her face. "I knew that Erza would love to see you today even though she had said that she didn't want to bother you with trivial things like her birthday party. So I wanted to invite you to come to give Erza a surprise. But I was afraid that you would not accept my invitation if I told you that the occasion was for celebrating Erza's birthday."

Jellal averted his gaze from Mirajane, admitting silently that she was right about her prediction that he would decline the invitation to Erza's birthday party if she had ever sent one to him.

Erza had taken the initiative to approach him more often ever since he had been acquainted from his charges and set free. He knew that she wished to take their friendship to next step, seeing the glint in her eyes when she talked about her comrades' love life. However, he still didn't feel that he deserved her love and tried to keep a distance between them.

And he pondered if the real reason behind Erza's decision to not invite him to her birthday party was that she had picked up the hint.

Laxus snorted lightly seeing Jellal's act of avoidance, while Mirajane just pretended to not notice his uneasiness and continued her explanation. "So I asked a favor from Laxus to send you a letter with some other excuses. Please, forgive me for not telling you the truth and for making you worry."

"Mira was only trying to make Erza happy." Laxus said with a gentle tone as he stole a glance at his fiancée. "You won't be so mean to not accept her apology and to blaming us for maneuvering you to come, will you, Jellal?"

Crossing his arms, Jellal sighed in defeat. He didn't find it in himself to complain them further when they said that it was for Erza's happiness that they decided to lie to him to get him to attend her birthday party. "You are a valuable friend to Erza, Mira. Let's forget that this letter has ever existed." He looked back at Mirajane smiling gently at her as he burned the letter into ashes with some fire magic. "Now, there's no reason for you to apologize, and no need for me to forgive you."

"A noble act as expected from you." Laxus remarked; his lips curved into a satisfied smile. "That's why I like you."

"Thank you. But I have no intention to become Mira's love rival." Jellal flatly replied as he smoothly slipped away from under Laxus's arm.

Laxus rolled his eyes. "You wish."

Jellal chuckled and waved a hand at Laxus as he turned to leave the stage. "See you later."

"Thanks for not getting angry at us, Jellal." Mirajane said sweetly as she left Laxus behind and followed Jellal to walk down the stage. "Just to make sure, you are not leaving but will stay to join the party, right?"

"I will stay. But I don't have any present prepared because…..well, you know, I hadn't expected to join a birthday party when I left Crime Sorciere this morning. So I think I may go to buy something for Erza real quick."

"It's okay. Your presence alone is the best birthday present you could give her. Besides, she will arrive any time soon."

Jellal briefly considered Mirajane's words and decided that he did in fact not want to rush about picking a present for Erza. He needed time to think about what was truly good for her.

"I think I'll buy her a present later then." Jellal then took a pause, thinking deeply for a moment. "In fact, I never knew that today is Erza's birthday."

Erza was an orphan, which was something the redhead told him when they were enslaved in the cursed Tower of Heaven. She was found in front of the door of the orphanage when she was only a few days old with a note with "Her name's Erza." written on it. It was the reason why she didn't have a last name and although she knew the year when she was born, she had no idea when her birthday was exactly. He therefore wondered what the origin of this "Erza's birthday" celebrated by Fairy Tail was.

"Really?" Mirajane sounded a bit surprised about the fact that Jellal hadn't heard of Erza's birthday, before she giggled and recalled some old memories. "It was Master Makarov who suggested today as Erza's birthday and I was the reason why he did so."

"You were the reason?"

"Yes. When I was celebrating my birthday at Fairy Tail for the first time, Erza refused to join. I thought that she was jealous of me and teased her for never having the chance to hold a birthday party like I did because she didn't know her birthday." Mira smiled sheepishly at Jellal. "You know, we were rivals at that time and we could be quite naïve when we were little."

Jellal simply smiled and nodded understandably.

"We then started a fight which was only put to a stop when Master Makarov interfered. After scolding both of us for being inconsiderate of the feelings or our comrades, he declared that the day Erza joined Fairy Tail would also serve as her birthday from that moment on."

Jellal widened his eyes in surprise at the revelation. "I see." He murmured. "So we are actually celebrating the anniversary of Erza being a Fairy Tail member."

He couldn't agree more with Master Makarov's choice of Erza's birthday. Erza had certainly reborn at the moment she joined Fairy Tail, after being crushed into despair by his own hands. He would be forever grateful that she had found Fairy Tail after being exiled from the Tower by him. But his heart inevitably ached as he recalled again what his evil self had done to her.

"Jellal, is there anything wrong?" Mirajane asked with a concerned tone, seeing Jellal frowning in concentration all of a sudden.

Jellal shook his head and opened his month to tell Mirajane nothing was wrong. But no word came out as a roar of laugher burst into the air distracting him.

His eyes flicked across the hall, noticing that many members had gathered at the door, and his gaze quickly landed on the new comer who had a head of unique scarlet tresses and was being circled by her comrades.

"Good, Erza has finally arrived!" Mirajane happily said, clasping her hands. "Jellal, is it okay for me to leave you here? I need to go to get the birthday cake readY."

"Please go. I'll be fine by myself." Jellal said in return. After Mirajane had excused herself from accompanying him, he continued to observe Erza from a distance. A small smile found its way to his lips as he felt happy to see how much Erza was loved by her comrades.

As if feeling Jellal's intense gaze on her, Erza raised her head and directed her gaze to his direction.

Jellal could clearly see the surprise on Erza's face as they locked eyes with each other. He waved a hand at her, giving her a soft smile. Her facial expression softened in an instant; and she waved back at him and returned him a wide smile.

Lights in the hall went off; except for the ones on the stage where a giant strawberry birthday cake of seven layers had now been placed at its centre. Laxus and Mirajane were standing side by side on the stage too, guarding the birthday cake. The members who were surrounding Erza scattered and lined up on her right and left sides, leaving a passage for the birthday star to walk towards the stage. Jellal immediately hid himself among the members as well so as to not block Erza's way. Music echoed in the hall when a spotlight shone on Erza and Fairy Tail members started singing happy birthday to her. But Jellal reminded silence feeling the sudden dryness in his throat, and chose to sing the song to the birthday girl in his heart.

"Happy birthday, Erza." Laxus said with a sincere smile. The spotlight started moving, and Erza followed its guidance to walk to the stage, smiling gratefully to the members she passed by on her way.

The music and the singing both came to a stop when Erza reached the stage. The members were now gathering in front of the stage too.

Erza's eyes went wide in excitement when she finally met her strawberry birthday cake face to face. "This is…marvelous." She said in an amazed tone and looked at Laxus and Mirajane with twinkles in her eyes. "Thanks for making this cake and for arranging this party for me."

"Anything for you, Erza. Happy birthday!" Mirajane replied sweetly and gave Erza a hug. "I wish you all your favorite things on your lucky day."

"Thank you, Mira."

Mira gave Erza a squeeze before releasing Erza from her arms, and turned to face the members instead.

"Today's Erza's birthday, which is also the day when Erza became a part of Fairy Tail's family. To celebrate this special occasion, we have invited a special guest to join this party." Mirajane's eyes searched among the members until they found the blue-haired guest. "May I invite Jellal, Erza's childhood friend, to come on the stage?"

Everyone looked for Jellal when they heard of Mirajane's speech, and some of them were even whistling and shouting "Go Jellal go!".

If Jellal was given a choice, he would prefer keeping a low profile and spending some private moments with Erza without the attention of the whole Fairy Tail. But he wasn't because he couldn't allow himself to embarrass Erza on her birthday by declining Mirajane's invitation to meet her on the stage. Consciously, he adjusted the collar of his shirt before stepping out from his hiding place to go to the stage.

"Hi." He greeted Erza, a little bit awkwardly, when he finally stood by her side on the stage, between Laxus and Mirajane.

"Hi." She greeted him back in the same simple way, seemingly not knowing what more to say to him when being watched by all her comrades.

"Jellal, anything you would like to say to Erza on her birthday?" Mirajane asked gently when noticing that silence had fallen between Erza and Jellal.

Jellal cleared his throat, suddenly feeling nervous. Although he was only going to say his birthday wishes to Erza in front of some friends, it almost felt like he was preparing to openly express his affection to her in the public.

"I'm grateful that I can be here today to share your special day with you, Erza. I wish you another year filled with joy and peace so that you will always shine with the beautiful smile on your face." He chose to keep his wishes precise for fearing that he would really accidentally spill out his love for her if he said too much. But he said every word with upmost sincerity.

He smiled timidly and stretched a hand out intending to congratulate Erza one more time with a friendly handshake and to end his birthday message with the last phase "Happy Birthday to you, Erza". However, instead of taking his hand, Erza opened her arms to him expecting him to give her a hug like how Mirajane did a moment ago.

Jellal and Erza stared at each other with their hands froze in midair as they realized the misunderstanding.

Erza was the first one between the two to move again, putting her hands down and crossing her fingers behind her before averting her gaze from Jellal. "T-thanks a lot." She stuttered a little; her face turning red as she mentally scolded herself for stupidly taking the wrong hint and trying to hug Jellal.

"Y-you are welcomed." Jellal whispered and also put down his hand, cursing himself for not reacting quick enough to just go giving Erza the hug she wanted to save them from facing the awkward situation they were currently in.

The Fairy Tail members chose to remain absolute silence after witnessing the embarrassing moment happening between their Titania and her not so secret admirer; even though they found it quite amusing to see the two of the most powerful mages in Fiore acting like some innocent and helpless youngsters who had just made a fool of themselves in front of their secret crush but didn't know how to save the day. They didn't know Jellal very well, but they had known Erza long and well enough to know that if they were dare to tease or laugh at her to embarrass her further, the pressure might cause her to snap and no one in Fairy Tail would survive to see tomorrow's sunrise.

Laxus and Mirajane exchanged a look, having the same thought that something needed to be done to break the ice. Laxus let out a sign after Mirajane gave him a smile that was too sweet which said "I'm counting on you, my dear".

"Instead of shaking hands or hugging, how about Jellal giving Erza a kiss…"

"Laxus!" "Master!" Jellal and Erza cried out in unison in disbelief.

And many Fairy Tail members had their eyes popped out from their sockets hearing the bold suggestion from their fearless Master. But some girls who were closed to Erza couldn't help but let out a small squeak feeling kind of excited to see their red-headed friend being kissed by the man she clearly loved.

Erza, however, wasn't as excited as her friends were and was all tensed up as she recalled the last time Jellal declined her kiss. Trembling, she pointed an accusing finger at Laxus. "H-how can you s-suggest s-something like this!" The color of her face was now totally undistinguishable from that of her hair.

"You can't decide something like this for others without their consent." One hand on his waist, Jellal said defensively with a deep frown on his face.

Laxus crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at the duo with his usual cool expression. "I hope you realized that I haven't finished my sentence before you two interrupted me. I was suggesting Jellal giving Erza a kiss on the cheek only. I don't see why you two have to overreact over something pretty normal to do between close friends when they greet or congratulate each other."

Jellal sighed in relief internally hearing Laxus' clarification. He had pushed Erza away once when their lips were about to meet. He couldn't bear to hurt her feelings again by rejecting kissing her on the lips the second time. But it would be too embarrassed for them to share a lip kiss in the public. They weren't a couple or even dating! Yet, if the kiss was only given on Erza's cheek, he could deal with it. Gathering up his courage, he decided to do as Laxus suggested convincing himself that it was also for making up for Erza for their failed hand shake and hugging.

"My fault for interrupting you." Jellal mumbled his apology to Laxus before turning to look at Erza who was now covering her cheeks with her hands and looking back at him with uncertainty in her eyes. "I think Laxus' idea actually isn't a bad one. Of course, that is if you don't mind."

Erza's eyes widened in delight at Jellal's words and quickly shook her head. "No. No. I don't mind at all." And she put down her hands exposing her reddened cheeks to Jellal.

With a gentle smile, Jellal swiftly leaned forward to kiss Erza on her left cheek. Their eyes flutter closed when his lips lightly pressed against the skin of her face; they both enjoying the blissful moment. The close distance between Erza and him allowed Jellal to take in the complicated smells of Erza. She was a mixture of sweet and spicy and freshness, which matched her kind, fierce and generous personality perfectly in his opinion. She was intoxicating to him, that he couldn't help but let his lips linger over her cheek longer than it should.

"Happy birthday to you, Erza." Jellal whispered to Erza lovingly when he finally broke the cheek kiss.

"Thanks a lot, Jellal."

Warmth washed over Jellal when he saw the heartfelt and joyous smile on Erza's face. Fairy Tail members were all happily clasping hands, laughing or whistling too as they felt Erza's happiness radiating from the stage.

"Now, Erza, please make your birthday wishes!" Mirajane had taken the time to light up the candles on the cake when the whole guild was having their attention on the "kiss". "And may every one of them come true!"

Erza nodded thankfully to the silver-haired woman, then closed her eyes and clasped her hands to make her wishes. When done, she opened her eyes again and effortlessly blew out the candles.

"It's time for the cake now!" She said excitedly, looking at Mirajane expectantly.

"Yes." Mirajane smiled knowingly at Erza before glancing at the Fairy Tail members surrounding the stage. "And it's now party time!"

A roar of cheers echoed in the hall.