Double digits! :)

Jellal was dead. Finals drained so much out of him. For nearly a week, he had stayed up all night, studying everything in the textbook. By the time finals were over, his head was crammed with unnecessary vocabulary words, useless historical facts, and math formulas that he would never use outside of school.

Now that that was over, it was time for his date with Erza.

"What do you want?" was his greeting to Sting's call.

"Hello to you, too. Wear something warm. I don't wanna be sued if you get hypothermia."

"'K. Anything else?"

"My house, 6 PM."

"Bye."

The call ended and Jellal tossed his phone onto his bed. He went over to his closet. What does one wear to a date with a demon?

He ended up wearing a hoodie and a pair of jeans. Considering his wardrobe was made up of hoodies, jeans, and shorts, he thought he looked pretty good. He boarded the bus and tapped his fingers on his thigh anxiously.

After fifteen minutes, he arrived at the nearest bus top. The bus screeched to halt and he hopped off. Then, he set off on foot.

"Hey! Anyone home?" he shouted after no one answered the doorbell.

Faint footsteps. The door cracked open to reveal Gray's face.

"What are you doing here?" Jellal asked. He stepped inside the house and shut the door behind him.

"Setting up for your date," Gray replied. He stretched and sighed. "You have no idea how much work we put into this."

"Things you do for free lunch."

"Yeah, yeah. Get to the backyard before Flamebrain ruins it all."

Jellal walked through the house and slid open the screen door that lead outside with Gray right behind him. He stepped out into the backyard and turned to ask Gray where he was supposed to go.

"Why'd you lock me out?!" he growled. He tried sliding the door with no avail.

"You're not allowed to come back inside till your date's over," Gray smirked. "Date ends at 9, I think."

"What?!"

"Go. Erza's been waiting for awhile now. She'll be on the top of the hill. See ya!"

Before Jellal could protest, his wonderful friend flashed him another smirk and sauntered off. He halfheartedly tried the door again. Then, he started the the walk the hill.

Why was Sting's backyard so big? Right, his dad was the CEO of the electricity company. Unfortunately, the hill where his date was taking place was on the other side of the property. He arrived after five minutes and saw Erza sitting on the top with what looked like a picnic spread around her.

"Hey," he said, a bit out of breath. "Is this dinner?"

"Yeah. Hello to you as well," she replied. "Do you want to eat right now? Or later?"

"Right now's good," he answered. He scanned through the food selection. Sandwiches, a salad, and a six inch cake. He took a sandwich while Erza served herself some salad.

"No cake?" he teased.

"Later. Mira's salad is really good. And it's expensive, too."

"I'll eat all of it before you do." He finished off his sandwich and wondered why it was so small. "Mira made this?"

"Levy told her" -she blushed here- "and she volunteered to make the food. You better not eat all of the cake."

"No promises. What are we supposed to do for three hours?"

She shrugged and cut a slice of cake. "Here." She handed him the plate of cake.

"Seriously? Never thought you would be willing to share," he mused. "Thanks."

"In case you haven't realized it, I'm not heartless."

"Could've fooled me." He glanced her way to see her reaction.

"If there wasn't any cake here, you would be dead. By the way, the rest of it's for me."

"Hey!"

An hour later, there was no more food. Erza, true to her word, ate the rest of the strawberry cake. Guess who ate everything else?

"Now what?" he said. "Wanna play a game?"

"The way you said the last sentence made you sound like a child," she smiled.

He rolled his eyes. "Anyways, we ask each other questions. I know nothing about you."

"But you still asked me out?"

Damn my tongue!

"W-well... I know that you're... um... a girl! And-and that you're smart and... uh... you have red hair..." He could practically feel her grinning at his discomfort.

"Mhm... Any other reasons?"

What do I do now? Argh, damn it!

"You seemed pretty cool and stuff. And Yukino thought we had stuff in common," he lied. "Anyways, favorite Disney movie?"

"They're all really good..." She seemed to have forgotten the other topic, which was good. "Either Mulan or Frozen, I guess. My turn. Favorite color?"

"Scarlet," he blurted out. "It's a... nice color. It has nothing to do with your hair!"

"My surname then?"

"No! Your favorite color?"

"Blue. Not because of your hair either," she quickly added. "Favorite cake flavor?"

"Chocolate. Wendy's chocolate cake is the best."

She raised an eyebrow at his answer. "Strawberry cake is the best."

"Chocolate."

"Strawberry." She tilted her chin up, daring him to disagree. And he did.

"Chocolate." Before she could open her mouth, he suggested they stargaze. "Whoever finds the most constellations wins."

In the end, Jellal won since he had taken an astronomy class and therefore knew a lot about the stars.

"That's not fair!" Erza exclaimed when he admitted that to her.

He only shrugged and continued staring at the star speckled night sky.

"It's beautiful..." he heard her softly mumble.

"You've never seen it like this? Or you just don't go outside much?" he questioned.

"First time stargazing in a couple of years. In middle school, Lucy and I had to do a project about the stars. I forgot how nice it looked," she wistfully replied.

He sat up and looked down at the girl laying down next to him. "You should really get out more. You're not as tense as you were when we met."

"Mhm. What time is it right now?"

"Don't you have your phone with you?"

"Right." She sat up and combed her disheveled hair. Then, she slid her phone out from her pocket and switched it on. "It's a little past 8."

"'K. What are you gonna do for Christmas?"

"Nothing special. Open gifts, watch Christmas movies, shovel snow, if we get any. Why?"

"No reason."

Should I get her something? I'm not her boyfriend, but... I do need some more attraction points... Why the hell not?

"You're a terrible liar."

"Are you counting down on New Years Eve?" he frantically asked.

"Don't avoid the question. Or implied question, in this case. And yes. Sting invited Yukino to Natsu's and she invited the rest of us."

"Oh, cool. Are you cold?" He noticed that she was shivering a bit.

"No! Your answer? To my implied question?"

"What were you implying? Just kidding!" he quickly said when he got a glare from her. "You want to come over for Christmas? Grandeeney's gonna make an awful lot of food."

"Gildarts and Cana need me. I left them alone one Christmas and the fire department came to the house."

He chuckled at the thought of the legendary marine burning down his own house. All of a sudden, something cold landed on his nose. He glanced up to see white specks falling down from the sky.

"Let's go. It's snowing," Erza calmly remarked.

"Gray locked the door. He told me that we'll get in at 9," Jellal countered. Nevertheless, he followed her down the hill.

"They'll let us in; don't worry," she replied. "Walk faster, will you?"

He responded by jogging to catch up to her. It was beginning to snow harder and he decided to run. He flew past Erza, who was still speed walking. He was seriously considering to pick her up and run at this point.

"First one back to the house wins!" he shouted.

Next chapter: New Years Eve countdown party thing! Thanks for reading!