Violets Are Blue

Second prompt for day one of Jerza week; 'Strawberries'. This is sort of the Jellal counterpart to the first chapter… I hope.

I may be in a bit of a mess. My guild had been so busy, while on the trail of some dark guild and I hadn't had time to prepare for Erza's birthday in the slightest. I could swear that I just wanted to be swallowed up right now and left as bones for the vultures to feast on. Of one of the few things I still have in this world that are precious to me, she's the most important and here I am moping to myself. This is one day I cannot let slip by, as I do with the rest of my life, celebrating the day she came into this world is too important to mess up.

I had nothing though, no way of getting to her, no gift, not even a note for her.

If our positions were reversed and I were Erza – *blush* – I'd hate Jellal, well more than I already do. Before I could get into a bigger fit of self-loathing somebody had slapped me upside the head and I was suddenly too preoccupied with glaring at the attacker.

"You can't mope around forever like this Jellal. There's still time for you to do something for Erza's special day, which you had better not be ignoring." A lock of bright pink hair falling in her eyes as she huffed, Meredy stood before me with her hands on her hips and a glare on her face. I would have sighed if I felt like getting beaten up.

"No I'm not ignoring it; I just don't really have anything for her." Now, I did sigh and instantly regretted it. Meredy stepping on my toes while wearing high heels saw to that. I yelped and then felt bad about that too when she smirked and commented at 'how childish' I was being.

Then I glared.

"Seriously Jellal, you don't need to get her anything. It's a big guild; she'll be getting lots of stuff from people she loves." I rubbed my hands over my face, hoping that she'd buy that it was friction causing my red face and not a fierce blush. I looked her in the eyes to see and knew that my hopes were fruitless.

"And anyway, you're going to see her aren't you? That alone will make her day." A scowl came to both of our faces, mine from the idea of going to her, seeing her, leaving and then hurting her. Meredy at being able to tell exactly what I was thinking after all the time she'd spent with me.

She hit me again.

"You have to go! If you miss your girlfriend's birthday then you might as well break up and you know that the both of you don't want that!"

"…I hate when you're right." I also hated how much she was smirking at me today.

"No wonder you always seem to be irritated at me all the time!" She was being cheeky and it was nice to have her helping me get back on my feet. None of us were really the same after Ultear left.

Meredy seemed to know exactly what I was thinking, a trait she no doubt had picked up from her dear foster mother, and went to hit me again.

This time I grabbed her wrist and pulled her down to where I saw sitting to envelop her in a hug. She appeared shocked, and for a moment so was I, before I started talking.

I didn't even pay attention to what I was saying then; I just knew I was saying things and Meredy seemed to relax against me. "So why are you really so interested in having me ready for seeing Erza? It's more than you just being in a matchmaking mood." I felt her nod. "So spill." I think I felt her smirk again – smaller this time, but a smirk all the same.

Her breath was warm on me and I stayed relaxed so she could open up more. "It's just that since Ultear's gone, you're really all I have now and I always wanted Ultear to be happy, so now since I can't do that for her anymore, I really want to make you happy. It's just that-" I cut her off when the tears started coming to her eyes.

"Hush now, I get it." I started stroking the top of her head, and she shook from side to side before whispering out 'no.'

"No, it's just that I really do like matchmaking and you and Erza are adorable together." She sniffled in her attempt to giggle and I couldn't help but also chuckle with her. This gave me an idea, which when discussed with my younger guild mate was instantly approved of.

*/*\*

Meredy had run out to the store to get me inspiration for what I was planning while I sat in place, tapping a notebook on my knee and rolling the lid of a pen between my teeth, the writing instrument itself had rolled away at least ten minutes ago. I was coming up blank, after saying everything to Meredy earlier I couldn't think up anything I wanted to put down on paper for the woman I loved more than anything.

This sucked.

The door slammed open and I tensed for a moment, worried it might be the Rune Knights, and thankful when it turned out to be Meredy with her arms full of shopping bags and sporting a bright red face, panting from exhaustion. She must have run in such an awkward situation and I thought on that before the clock caught my eye. My eyes widened to a size where I thought they'd roll out of my head when I saw how late it had gotten, there were only really two hours left until the end of the day and I panicked, the pen lid falling out of my mouth.

I heard the rustle of the bags being put down as a pack of fresh pens were shoved into my lap, forcing me to stop playing with the notebook. She hesitated near me for a while before seemingly deciding on something, and thrusting a pack of red strawberries onto the table next to me.

'Red… Strawberries…'

I was enveloped so deeply in my thoughts before I even knew what was happening.

We'd all taken another beating from the slave cultists again, Sho was curled up in a corner crying and Wally and Milliana were comforting him while Simon and the other children were gathered around Grandpa Rob as he told them stories about his adventures as a wizard. The corner of my mouth twitched up in a small smile at the awed looks on their faces, pleased that even in this horrible place, happiness could be found. There was a certain someone missing from the circle around the old man and I frowned, Erza had had a particularly hard beating today and I was worried about her.

It turns out I hadn't needed to be, she was huddling up next to the bars of the cell, rocking back and forth with her arms wrapped safely around her knees. The newly dubbed Erza Scarlet was looking out with a, longing? look on her face at one of the prison guards. I walked over to her, only slightly seeing the jealous look thrown my way from Simon as I sat down next to her.

"Hey." She nodded at me in acknowledgement and I was glad that she wasn't really looking at me to see my blush. Damn this crush was embarrassing!

"What are you looking at?" She glanced at me from the side briefly before letting go of one of her knees and pointing out of the cell bars at a guard snaking on something. It was white and creamy cake with a red fruit on top that I personally hadn't seen before. "That guy's snack? What about it?" I hated having to scold myself for being jealous of the guard and his treat.

"I've had that fruit before, they're called strawberries and I think they're delicious!" Her smile and blush was infectious. 'Just what I need, more blushing.' "I've never had them with cake and cream before though, I bet that it would be really yummy then too. They're one of my favourite things ever!"

I got a really great idea that swiftly drove out the lingering sadness in her eyes, "Well when we get out of here, I'll get you some and you can have all that you want." She seemed to sparkle at me and I was very glad that she didn't seem at all sad anymore…

When I snapped myself out of it, the fruits were gone, likely taken by Meredy, and I had a new inspiration for putting pen to paper as I torn open the packet. I was never very good with poetry so I only managed to do two lines of that before giving up and deciding to write purely what I thought and felt – she always had appreciated honesty like that. After using some simple but clever word magic I was finished and was going to head off to magnolia via my meteor spell when Meredy tsked behind me. When I spun to look at her, she was holding out a bouquet of gorgeous red roses and snatched the paper from my hand to tie around one of the long stems, before everything was shoved back into my hands.

I turned a light shade of pink at how bad I was with all this stuff and thanked her profusely before running out, missing Meredy looking out the window, box of small red fruit in hand with a smug smile on her face.

I was so incredibly grateful to my guildmate; I'd be lost without her.

'I'm coming to you Erza, on what I hope has been the happiest of birthdays.'

This time when I smiled to myself, there was no pity in it, and I didn't feel so sad.