Summary: Inspired by an episode of Some Girls, Modern AU! Erza has a secret admirer but freaks out when the possibility of it being a girl arises….
Pairings: Erza/Lucy/Levy/Cana/Juvia/Mira friendship, implied Gray/Juvia, implied one-sided Kagura/Erza, and Erza/Jellal.
YouTube Prompt: Fairy Tail tribute to 'I'm like a Bird' by Nelly Furtado.
Erza had been glowing with pride for the last day or so.
Ever since she discovered a love note in her locker telling her that someone thought she was 'really, really, really lovely and pretty', she couldn't help but brag about it.
Unfortunately most of her friends really didn't care as they were boys who were more interested in having armpit farting competitions than listening to Erza try and figure out who might think she was 'really, really, really lovely and pretty'.
("Are you sure that note wasn't intended for Lucy?" Gray asked obnoxiously. "After all her locker is next to yours and she's someone more likely to be considered really, really, real – ARGH!"
Erza had no problem sticking her fork into Gray's hand, it was, after all, only plastic and Gray should stop being such a big baby about it.)
Fortunately for Erza by the time her second love note - in the same day - had come, she remembered that she actually had friends that were girls and happily joined them in a café after school, prepared to brag about this amazing and wonderful love note.
"I got another one today!" she bragged excitedly. "And this time my secret admirer has made me an origami heart, and written all the lyrics from Love Is a Losing Game by Amy Winehouse, and drawn birds and flowers all over it. Isn't that nice?" she gushed oblivious to the silent stares her friends were all giving her. "A boy who knows origami, is a Amy Winehouse fan, and draws birds and flowers,"
Lucy smiled awkwardly, "Great," she said in what was definitely a weird tone.
"Yep," Cana smirked.
"That's….lovely, Erza," Levy said nervously.
Erza glanced round the table, and both Cana and Mira looked incredibly amused, Lucy and Levy looked nervous, wide-eyed, and exchanging the weirdest looks that spoke volumes, while Juvia avoided all eye-contact and stirred her milkshake with her straw.
Erza's eyes narrowed. "Why are you all being weird?" she demanded to know.
"So not being weird," Cana smirked, "are we, ladies?"
"No!" The other girls all chorused in unison. Lucy, Levy, and Juvia sounded panicked while Mira was equally amused as Cana looked.
Erza didn't believe them for a second.
"What is it? Why are you looking at me like that?" She demanded to know. Lucy, Levy, and Juvia all looked away awkwardly while Mira and Cana gave Erza a pointed look. "What are you think….you think it's a girl," she said slowly, realisation taking hold, "don't you?!" she glowered at the lot of them.
"Yep!" Cana grinned.
"A girl makes more sense," Lucy mumbled. "No boy makes origami hearts."
"Juvia agrees though she wishes Gray-sama would be so thoughtful and considerate."
"Face it Erza," Mira said shortly, "It's a girl."
"You don't know that!" Erza protested. "It could be a boy!"
"Yeah," Cana agreed, "a girly boy."
Erza paused, and she could not think of a boy that fitted that description. Most of the boys at Fairy Tail were all bulging biceps and stinky sweat, there was nothing girly about them at all.
….it had to be a girl.
"Oh God," Erza groaned into her hands, "what am I going to do?!"
From then on the idea of Erza's secret admirer being a girl wouldn't leave her.
It bothered her the whole walk home, it niggled in her mind all night and made it difficult to sleep, and when she did sleep it haunted her in her sleep, and then once again she was unable to focus on anything as it continued to pop up in her mind during the most inconvenient times.
And that's why she was hiding behind a pillar spying on her locker.
Not very well though…..many people noticed her bottom sticking out and had pointed at her and laughed, until she shot them a deadly glare and they suddenly screamed and ran away, leaving her to spy on her locker in peace.
After scaring Natsu off (it took her worst glare, and her growling his name in her most dangerous tone before he turned round and sped through the corridor to escape her), she caught sight of a pretty, black-haired, girl slip in a note in her locker before she marched down the corridor, her head held up proudly, and her katana swinging by her side.
Quickly, Erza scrambled to her locker, fumbled with the lock, and yanked the door open. The slip of paper fluttered onto the floor before she snatched it up and hastily read it.
It was once again covered in flowers and birds hastily drawn round a little ditty requesting her to meet with her admirer on the school roof….today.
"You were right!" she thrusted the note in Cana's face at lunch time. "It was a girl. I just saw Kagura slip this in my locker!"
"Kagura Mikazuchi?" Cana said. Erza nodded in reply, unable to form the words as it felt like her throat was closing in on itself. "Nice!" Cana whistled appreciatively. "She's hot."
"It doesn't matter if she's hot or not!" Erza squawked, her face bright red. "What matters is that she's a girl and I'm not into girls!"
"That's okay, Erza," Lucy said soothingly as she glared at Cana, "you don't have to return Kagura's feelings, you just have to let her down gently and all will be well."
"Or," Cana piped up, "Since you're never going to get laid with any guys, what with the way you keep scaring them, you can try lesbianism for a spin."
"Cana!" Lucy screeched. "That's not helping!"
"Yeah," Levy agreed, "if you think trying lesbianism 'for a spin' is such a good and fun idea," she shot Cana a disgusted look at that, obviously disagreeing that something like this could be taken so lightly, "then you can meet Kagura on the roof instead of Erza."
"Nah," Cana wrinkled her nose, "Kagura doesn't do it for me. She's too quiet, and serious, and boring."
"…I think you should go for it, Erza," Mira said brightly after a few seconds of awkward silence. "And then," her eyes twinkled wickedly as she clasped her hands to her chest, "I could plan your legal, gay, marriage and help you pick out the prettiest little children to adopt, who will call me Auntie Mira and think I am much cooler than you!"
"Juvia agrees," Juvia said solemnly, "but only because that would mean two less Love Rivals for Juvia to deal with."
Everyone sweat-dropped at that. Well, everyone but Erza, who was sitting there quietly as she picked at her cake (sacrilege in the world of Erza!), she then groaned, dropped her fork, and clutched at her head. "I don't know what to do!" she moaned. "I'm not a lesbian, at least I don't think I am, but Kagura put so much effort in the notes, and they're really nice, and she is really pretty." She paused for a moment and stared blankly at a wall. "Really, really pretty."
Everyone agreed to that, but then, in all fairness, it always seemed impossible to find an ugly girl in Fairy Academy.
Sort of makes you wonder of the Headmaster did that on purpose.
"Yes, she is," Lucy said, "but do you like her like her?"
"I think she is beautiful objectively," Erza said slowly, "and I admire her for her swordsmanship and think her highly intelligent, serious, and worthy of the greatest respect," Cana and Mira rolled their eyes at Erza's flowery speech, "but no," Erza shook her head, "I don't like her like her, and I don't think I ever will."
"Then you are going to have to tell her," Levy said firmly, "and not lead her on."
"But I don't know how to reject a person!" Erza cried out. "I never had this problem before! Can't you guys come and help me?!"
The girls all took one look at Erza's unnaturally wide, sweet, and pleading eyes….and instantly found themselves on the roof after school. The sombre, awkward, cheerleaders for a rejection (apart from Cana who seemed to think this was her entertainment for the afternoon as she pulled out a beer and settled down to watch).
"Where is she?" Erza snapped. "It's after school, we're on the roof, and she isn't here! How am I going to reject her if she isn't here?"
"Erza," Lucy said soothingly, "it's only literally just after school. You dragged us out just before the bell rang, Kagura is probably still in class. Just be patient."
Erza growled, and Lucy shivered and instantly went behind Juvia. "Your turn," she mumbled to the blue-haired girl.
"Juvia cannot!" Juvia cried out fearfully. "Juvia wants to live to see Gray-sama tomorrow morning. Levy-san can deal with scary Erza."
"No, thank you," Levy said behind her book.
Before the argument of who can soothe Erza really begin, the door opened. They all turned round as ti slowly creaked open to reveal….
…..Jellal.
"Jellal?!" Erza breathed. "What are you doing here?"
"I….I….I….I…" Jellal stammered, he then cleared his throat, and met Erza's eye bravely before – "What are you doing here?!" he squeaked, cheeks bright red.
"I have come to tell Kagura that while I admire her greatly as a fellow woman and swordsman," Erza said with a calmness that was a blatant lie considering how much she had been freaking out for the last day or so, "I am not interested in her romantically."
"Erm…..that's nice to know," Jellal mumbled, "but why would you come up here to tell Kagura that when you can just tell her in class?"
"Because she asked me to come up here today after class."
"No, she didn't," Jellal contradicted her quietly.
"Erm, yes, she did."
"No, she didn't!"
"Yes, she did!"
"No, she didn't!"
"Yes, she did!"
"No, she didn't!"
"Yes, she did!"
"No, she didn't!" Jellal snapped, "Because I did!"
"…" Erza's breath caught in her throat and she tried to speak but nothing came out as her mouth moved soundlessly. She closed it, aware that she must have looked like a gormless fish (because Cana whispered that loudly to Lucy as the girls were still there in the background…..Erza had forgotten she asked them to come). "I….you did?"
"Yes," Jellal's face was bright red and his eyes were fixed on the floor. "I really like you Erza and I think you're really lovely and really pretty, and I feel completely stupid because I can't think of a better description for anything other than really."
"But….but….the flowers and the birds?"
"I thought you'd like them."
"The Amy Winehouse song?"
"I heard you hum it once."
"I…..I thought it was Kagura, I mean," she coughed awkwardly, she didn't quite want to tell him how sh had been convinced it was a girl because his love note was so girly, "I thought I saw her slip in the last note in my locker."
"Yes, I….well….saw you and was too shy to do it myself," Jellal admitted bashfully, and Erza's face burned as she recalled how Natsu laughed about her bum sticking out from behind the pillar. Jellal had seen that! Oh God! "Kagura said she would do it for me as long as I promised to be her sparring partner for the next week," a shiver ran down his spine as a slightly gloomy look took hold of his handsome face, "I'm starting to regret agreeing to it, Kagura keeps looking at me murderously and I'm sure I heard her mutter something about disembowelment."
Erza would have felt pity for her newfound love, after all Kagura had it in for Jellal since he defeated her brother Simon in the most humiliating way possible in a fencing competition, but a new feeling took over as the relief of it not being Kagura washed away and Erza felt a fury building up.
She would have thought her secret admirer was a girl, and then worry about it for the last day, if it hadn't been for her friends putting the idea in her head.
Erza glowered murderously at her so called friends.
"What?" Cana said completely and utterly unashamed. "I said it could be a girly boy."
Cana still didn't understand why Erza was so cross with her, after all she's dating Jellal now and didn't have to go through an awkward rejection.
Though it might have something to do with the fact Erza was still unable to look at Kagura in the eye.