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Bridgetteo0: Jerza is actually my fourth favorite ship of FT, I honestly didn't expect to write so many fics about them during this, but I literally cannot help but ship them. The way they look at each other packs so much tension, it feels like my heart might explode.

But I wouldn't say that Mashima hates his characters, in fact, since Jellal is basically Sieg from Rave Master (design wise at least, I remember basically nothing about Sieg's personality now) I've always assumed he was one of Mashima's favorite, since he liked him enough to not want to let him go once Rave had ended. Putting characters through pain and dragging them through the dirt, so they can stand back up again, is important for character development. When Jellal can forgive himself, he'll come back and get Erza for sure u.0 But Mashima has stated many times that Fairy Tail is not about romance, and sometimes he makes that point by dangling cute pairings in front of our face and then breaks our hearts and chews them up and spits them out and steps on them and throws them down a sewer and then laughs.

If you get that reference I hope you sang along. Anyway, time for the SECOND TO LAST FIC!

Series: Fairy Tail

Pairing: Elfman Strauss/Evergreen

Title: The Welcome Home

Prompt: Doing something sweet

Rating: E for Everyone

Word Count: 1085

AN: More like Strauss family love with a little bit of ElfEver sprinkled in.

Sweat ran down Elfman's cheek, as he trudged away from the Magnolia train station. The mission he was coming back from had been more stressful than he had imagined. A bodyguard position was nothing new for the man, but the client had forgotten to mention that a gang of thieves, numbering in the hundreds, had their eyes on the fortune that the family he was protecting carried. Elfman had spent the last 3 days on the back of a carriage without sleep, bashing in heads and kicking off bandits that tried to crawl aboard.

His muscles felt strained and his feet hurt, but mostly, his eyes could hardly stay open. His walk back home would be the hardest part of the journey.

Elfman's eyes stayed on the ground as he trekked through the city, his mind on autopilot as his legs carried him back home. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a head of white hair run past, and his gaze turned up to explore his surroundings, expecting to see one of his darling sisters around him, yet found only strangers. He sighed; his tired mind must have been playing tricks on him.

Elfman thought about going to the guild first, in case Lisanna and Mirajane were still present there, to let them know he had arrived back safely, but the red skies told him the sun was going down, and his sisters would arrive home shortly after him, so he decided to save himself the extra trip.

As dirt paths became paved sidewalks, Elfman knew he was nearing home, and his spirits lifted. If he could just get inside, he could collapse on the couch and take a well-deserved nap. He reached his front door and exhaled with exhaustion, but when he reached for the doorknob, he found it already open. Were his sisters already home?

Slowly, the man pushed open the door, to see the only light in the house was leaking out from the kitchen, and from the same room he could hear Lisanna's voice crying.

"Hurry, Ever, hurry! I saw him coming from the station! He'll be here soon!"

"Shush, little girl." Evergreen's voice retorted, "You can't rush art." And then she hissed, "And who said you could call me 'Ever?'"

Elfman's muddled mind slowly processed the hushed words, and he opened his mouth to announce his presence, when a short body bumped into his back.

"Oof!" He heard a feminine voice squeak.

Elfman glanced behind him to see Mirajane rubbing her head, before looking up to her brother and a line of sweat running down her forehead.

"Oh! Elfman! You're back!" She squealed.

"What?! He's here?" The youngest sister cried from the kitchen. "Forget it, Ever! It's fine!"

"Stop calling me, Ever! Why am I even part of this?" The fairy queen shouted. "Fine! It's done. Get on with this."

Lisanna's footsteps tapped into the living room, before the sound of a light switch flicking on hit Elfman's ears, and he flinched as all the light in the room illuminated at once.

As the tanned man's vision cleared, he found the living room decorated in streamers and balloons. He looked around curiously, and then watched as Mirajane ran from behind him to join her sister at the entrance of the room, before they both shouted.

"Welcome home, Brother!"

Elfman was completely taken aback by their surprise, but then his eyes shot to the kitchen exit, as Evergreen strolled out with a two-tier cake balanced on a plate on her left hand. She spoke not a word, and placed the cake down on the coffee table in the middle of the living room. The top of the white iced cake was decorated in cream swirls topped with cherries, and in green icing "Welcome Home Elf!" was written.

"Ever, you're…" He started, but the young woman cut him off.

"Yes, welcome back." Evergreen finally spoke up, "I don't know why your sister's insisted I helped, I've seen them make plenty cakes on their own." The young woman's cheeks were red, as she glanced away from the young man in front of her.

"Isn't that obvious though?" Lisanna asked, and skipped up next to Evergreen.

"Yes," Mirajane started, walking up to join her sister, "there was some report that the east was getting a serious storm of bandits, and since we knew Elfman's mission was in that direction, we thought he might be a little worn out when he got back."

Evergreen's eyes wandered up the straggled man, who scratched the back of his head knowingly. "Yeah. You were right about that much." The brunette observed.

"So we wanted to throw him a part when he got back!" Lisanna cheered, "And it wouldn't have been the same without Ever here."

"And why is that?" Evergreen's face burned red, "And why do you keep calling me Ever?!"

Mirajane and Lisanna stared at the woman with puzzled expressions, before snickering a bit.

"Isn't it obvious?" Mirajane asked, "Both answers are the same."

"Yeah. It's because Big Brother Elf calls you Ever all the time nowadays. And you don't correct him anymore." The youngest sister grinned at Evergreen, whose eyes widened as her face burned hotter.

"That's because—I mean I…" She searched for an excuse, and turned her crimson face to Elfman, who was laughing softly. "This is you're fault, you big dolt!" She screeched.

Elfman continued to laughed, and stepped towards the three ladies, wrapping him arms around all three of them and lifting them off the ground as he hugged them. "Thanks, you three." He chortled.

"Anything for you, Big Brother." Lisanna giggled.

"Put me down this instant!" Evergreen protested, and then screeched as Elfman's tower of a body lost balance and tumbled onto the floor. The three women escaped his grasp and sat up, to find the man snoring on the carpeted floor.

"Poor Elf." Lisanna said with a soft smile.

"Yes, he must have been really exhausted." Mirajane said, leaning over her little brother.

"Idiot." Evergreen sat up straight and hugged onto her knees, puffing up her red cheeks. "I worked hard on that cake. He better eat it when he wakes up."

The Strauss sisters exchanged glances and giggled to each other, than looked to the third woman.

"Why not stay until he wakes up so you can make sure he does?" Mirajane suggested.

Evergreen glanced at the white haired woman, and then back to Elfman. "I suppose he has forced me to." She grinned.

End