Hey everyone! Hope that you all are gearing up for the upcoming holiday seasons!

(I most certainly am not, and instead am dreading the extra amount of work that I've piled on myself from past procrastination. No regrets, I tell myself, as I drink bitter tears and sweat.)

Anyway, please do enjoy!

the salt

Erza was being dead serious about her strawberry shortcake, and even if she only needed the tiniest teaspoon of salt—she was only going to get the most perfect teaspoon of salt.

"Akane Resort?"

"Yes," the redhead affirmed. "The beach right by it has the clearest waters in all of Fiore—it would be the perfect place to gather salt."

Without letting him question her further about her decisions, she dragged him onto the train headed in the direction of Akane Beach. She was in a great mood, having gotten all the dairy ingredients from Clover Town this morning, taking a break and making dessert just around noon, and now she was on her way of getting the next ingredient for her most perfect strawberry shortcake.

Her mission would be complete in no time. Victory was close. She could almost taste it.

Once the train arrived at the Akane Beach station, she popped out of the cabin as soon as the wheels stopped turning and ran out, following the gradual increase of sand along the trail leading to the beach. If she were to be done in the next few hours, she would be able to go ahead and get the next ingredient before nightfall. Erza hummed to herself—all in a day's work.

Erza being Erza, she was very prepared for the few hours she would spend on the beach, and upon finding the perfect spot of white sand, she requipped into her Legendary Swimsuit and lay a towel over the sand, posting a large umbrella into the ground right next to it.

Jellal finally caught up with her enthusiasm by then, arriving to the spot of sand that she had claimed for them. His eyes widened when he saw the golden, very revealing swimsuit that his companion donned.

"You're wearing…that?" he asked her.

She turned to fully face him. "Of course!" she announced. "I must be at my best when I'm collecting the most perfect salt for my most perfect strawberry shortcake!"

She saw him gulp, not thinking too much of it, but little did she know that he was remembering a special day when they were younger—a day when a group of the foster kids had gone to Ryuzetsu Land. The kids had dared each other to go onto the "adult" LoveLoveSlider and tested each other's bravery. Of course, Erza had decided that she was going to conquer the LoveLoveSlider and chose Jellal to accompany her on the slide, as much as he had protested that he didn't want to go. Granted, she had been wearing another swimsuit when she was little but he still remembered how strongly she had clutched onto him all the way down the ride, her warm skin pressed right up against him.

The queen of Fairies pointed at him in return. "And you're wearing that?" she asked him, in the same mocking voice, motioning toward his heavy clothing, armor, and cloak.

He looked down at himself and shrugged, taking a seat in the shade. "We'll only be here for a little bit, right? I can take the heat for now."

Titania wasn't going to take that as an answer.

"It's too hot for what you're wearing. And you'll attract a lot of attention because you're dressed weird," she told him, but didn't want to waste time arguing with him. She requipped a jar and started heading to the ocean, turning her head back to yell at him. "Well, you better be changed by the time that I'm done!"

He didn't look like he was going to do that, instead electing to sit there with all his armor on, miserable in the hot glory of the sun.

She shook her head to herself, deeming him just a bit crazy, and continued on her way to the ocean. She tested the temperature by putting her big toe into the water, but the tide washed up water all the way up to her ankles. She shivered at the surprise but was happy to feel that the water was perfect—much cooler than the air, but not cold enough that she couldn't just hop in.

Keeping her jar in her hand, Erza walked a little further off the shore, until the beach dropped off and she was standing in waist-deep water. She wiggled around her feet in the soft sand underneath her, appreciating that there weren't any rocks jabbing at her bare feet. Finally, she ducked under the crystal blue waters and let the cool ocean envelop here.

Arising from the water's surface, she blinked away the salt from her eyes and looked down at the beautiful horizon, thinking about everything that had happened in the last couple of days.

She was really grateful that she was able to bump into two of her foster home friends—it was almost like they had timed seeing each other perfectly. First, Jellal on Mt. Jasmine and then Millianna on her way to Clover Town. Seeing people from her past began to make her feel complete again—as though she did have a history before coming to Fairy Tail.

Natsu had Igneel, Gray had Ul, and Lucy had her family, but sometimes she felt that everyone forgot that Erza was anything except being a Fairy Tail mage. Erza didn't have much to say because as time passed, she slowly forgot everything that she had experienced before coming to the guild too.

But since stumbling upon Jellal, memories were starting to come back to her. Names and faces were beginning to develop meaning again, and she finally felt a growing sense of closure with her life, as if she hadn't just dropped everything from when she was a child.

Of course, it wasn't all perfect, and it seemed like Jellal was still a big mystery to her, but the past few days proved to her that the two of them still shared a bond that outlasted time. There were still some kinks to work out—she wasn't sure if he had forgiven her yet for just leaving the foster home without saying goodbye, and she was still wrestling with the whole idea of feeling close to someone that she hadn't seen in almost ten years.

Erza was still surprised herself at how close Jellal and her had become—or re-become—since the day before yesterday. In fact, she had to admit that she appreciated the support that she was getting from him to make the most perfect strawberry shortcake, from keeping her company on the train to making strawberry parfaits in their free time.

She smiled to herself before rinsing the jar with a bit of ocean water and then scooping some fresh seawater into the jar. She looked at the water and hummed in amusement, seeing its clarity. She would filter this later, and let it boil and dry out, but for now, the water was looking very good already.

Erza placed the lid on her jar and started wadding her way back to the sand, back to the sandy spot that she had claimed.

When seeing that Jellal had tossed aside his armor and was wearing a pair of swim trunks, she was surprised that he had eventually listened to her command.

But she was even more surprised that even though his attire was no longer "weird," he had still garnered a lot of attention. In fact, that of five women.

He was standing laidback, arms crossed, and chatting away with the group of five, who were standing a little bit too close to him for Erza's comfort. Jellal exchanged some words with them, and then all the women laughed, with her hands covering their mouths.

What was so funny? She could hear their giggling from where she stood in the water. Erza scowled and slowed her ascent up the sand, allowing herself to observe Jellal and the women a little bit longer.

A blond girl, in dark blue bikini, smiled up at him with doe eyes. She nodded her head to whatever he was saying, before discreetly feeling up his arm. Upon doing so, she gasped and pulled him in closer to the circle of women, pointing at his muscle. The women subsequently went and touched his supposed biceps before turning back to him and remarking about his strength.

At least, that's what Erza could guess was happening, based on what she was seeing from afar.

Why he so cool that everyone just wanted to get to know him? Was he so attractive that no one could resist talking to him? What made him so special?

After a moment, Erza realized that she was standing still and just rudely staring at their interactions, so she decided that it was best for her to just drag him out of the situation. So she approached, silently at first, but her steps grew more fierce and hurried as she began to be able to hear the women's high-pitched flirting with Jellal.

Jellal noticed her when she was a couple of feet away.

"Oh Erza—"

She grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the circle of women, walking him back to their spot of sand.

"You got your saltwater, Erza?" he asked, a little stilted, noticing her light fury.

Without a word, she showed him the ocean water that she had gathered in her jar.

"Erza, are you mad?"

She crossed her arms. "No," she said. "Who were those people?"

"Oh, them?" he asked, and he looked up to the side at the women before waving goodbye with a big smile on his face. His face turned back to face her. "They let me have these swim trunks. One of them had an older brother and they got an extra from him."

Jellal looked at her jar. "Is that all the saltwater you're going to get?"

Her eyebrow twitched, and the next thing she knew, she had dumped all the contents of the jar onto his head.

He waited for the water to run down his head before opening a single eye to look at her, with a foolish grin on his face. "Hey! What was that for?"

She wasn't amused. She turned on her heel and quickly walked back to the water, intending to refill her now-empty jar with more ocean water. She heard him follow after her, asking her why she was mad.

He was still asking her why she was upset, even by the time they got to waist-deep water.

"I'm not upset!" she retorted, angrily.

She turned around to look at him, seeing a goofy but confused smile on his face.

"I'm sorry, Erza. What did I do?" he asked, with a really concerned look in his eyes.

Yeah, what did he do? she asked herself, reminding herself that the man had been only been socializing. Why was she suddenly so upset about that?

She wasn't…jealous, was she?

That would have been quite petty. And jealous? Of course, she wasn't jealous—it wasn't like Jellal was her boyfriend or anything…

"Nothing," she said, trying to mollify herself.

But then she thought—how petty was it for her to be very clearly mad but then deny that she was mad? After some quick mulling over the whole topic, she decided that she would just come clean with him and tell him that she was mad that he was talking to so many other people and not her—be truthful and just tell him.

She turned around. "I was just—"

And received a big splash of salty water in her face. She tasted the bitter salt on her tongue and slowly opened her eyes, confirming that Jellal was indeed the person that had splashed her.

Oh, now she was upset.

Erza reached down and pushed a wave of water at him, getting him completely soaked. She scooped up another round of ocean water in her jar and then tossed at him once he had recovered from her previous attack—just for extra measure. She laughed, seeing his hair wet and splayed all over his face.

Jellal slicked his hair back over his head, a mischievous glint in his eyes. Before she was able to scoop another jar of water at him, he pushed her into the water. She attempted to stand tall but her knees buckled and she went completely under the surface. Immediately she got back onto her feet and shook the ocean off her face, then took the entire length of her hair and flicked water from it back at him, continuously.

He guarded his face with his hands. "Okay, okay, I surrender," he said.

She flicked him a couple more times for fun, and after she calmed down from the playful scuffle, she refilled her jar with ocean water, this time, tightly screwing the lid back in place.

When she turned around, she didn't expect him to be right behind her, and she lightly blushed at the closeness, noting that she was getting a very good view of his well-developed body. His warm hand was on her shoulder and he was looking directly into her eyes.

"Remember when we went to Ryuzetsu Land?" he asked her.

Honestly, Erza would have never remembered it at all if he hadn't reminded her. A certain water ride came to mind—the LoveLoveSlider—and she flushed upon remembering that the two of them had ridden that one together.

"Yeah…" she answered. His hand began to grow very warm on her shoulder.

"We had fun that day, huh?" he said.

She nodded. Feeling immensely awkward, she did the first thing that she could think to do—lifted her hand up to his head and messed around with his hair, as if she was petting him.

He looked very confused by her actions. "Are you still mad at me?"

Erza was feeling ever more awkward. This time she did the second thing that she could think to do—and pushed him into the water.

"Hey!" he yelped, stumbling backwards.

She quickly backed up and started running out of the water, laughing as he chased after her.

Aw, more fluff. Short chapter, but hopefully y'all enjoyed it! Also totally worrying about the OOC-ness of the characters (or at least, I feel that way). Let me know what y'all think! Would love to know what's going on in those minds of yours. :P

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