Champagne, on the Rocks

The series of events that led to her current situation can all be linked back to one thing. Erza Scarlet, being a typical broke college student, was sleep deprived. Although she'd much rather being hitting the books to study for her upcoming midterms or catching up on some much needed sleep, because of the aforementioned lack of funds, she was stuck at her waitressing job at Mavis University at Fiore's one and only decent restaurant.

The redhead's thoughts were the following: cake, midterms, cake, sleep, more cake, that cutie from the astrophysics course, cake and sleep. All she needed to be happy was a slice of that amazing strawberry cake she saw in the kitchen, more hours in a day for sleep, the abolition of midterms and that handsome bluenette she's been secretly crushing on.

Now, she knew she was being absurd. Midterms would always exist to haunt college students for millennia to come, that strawberry cake probably cost more than her rent, 24 seemed to be the fix amount of hours in a day and that guy would never notice her. She felt pretty dumb even including him in her thoughts considering she didn't even know the man's name.

After taking her twentieth order of the night, Erza carried some empty dishes into the kitchen, pushing the swing door open with her behind. She quickly sidestepped to avoid knocking over any of the plates and orchestrated her way to the centre of the kitchen where she called out her latest order.

"Hey, Erza?" Lucy, her best friend who also doubled as the head pastry chef, "Can you put that engagement ring in those flutes of champagne? Some lucky girl is gonna get asked today. I mean, did you see that ROCK?!" She laughed incredulously as she shook her head at someone else's luck while they were stuck working ridiculous hours just to make rent.

Erza just smirked and silently fangirled as she placed the massive diamond ring in a flute filled with rosé. She carried out the two crystal glasses, making sure to keep track on the one with the ring in it. It said the order was for the fourteenth table so the young criminology major navigated her way through the busy restaurant to get to the table as quickly as she could. She too was eager to see the proposal.

When she reached the table, though, her excitement completely vanished.

Because, seated at table fourteen, was the cute guy she had her eye on. And seated across from him, was a gorgeous pinkette who was smiling and laughing at every joke he made.

The redhead tried desperately to keep her emotions at bay, and succeeded long enough to carefully place their drinks in front of them. The pair stopped for a moment to thank the waitress.

"How may I help you two today," she said, plastering the fakes the smile ever on her face. "I recommend the seared tuna if you're looking for a meal to share."

"Hi, Erza," the man said, his deep voice making the girl melt in spite of herself. Her eyes widen as she registered her name being said by the virtual stranger. The woman seated across from him giggled a little and winked at him. He started blushing and Erza felt a bit disgusted with their constant flirting. Then again, he was going to propose so….

"Hello," Erza responded, attempting to clear her head long enough to remember his name. "Jellal?"

"Yes," he answered with a small smile on his face while his partner continued giggling, albeit a bit creepy.

"I think we will have the seared tuna," the pinkette interrupted. The waitress tried not to scrunch her nose when she said "we". She always found it annoying when people ordered for their partners as well as themselves. Did their mate not have a mind of their own? Instead of voicing her opinion, the redhead simply nodded and turned on her heel to head back to the kitchen.

Once she entered, she was immediately rushed by Lucy. The petite blond may be significantly smaller than Lucy, but when it came down to it, she was vicious.

"So?" She immediately inquired. "What did Mira say?"

"Mira?" Erza asked, raising her eyebrows, confused.

"Did Professor Geer not propose yet? The ring was put in her drink, right?" Lucy pressed on, wanting details and wanting them that instant.

Ezra's eyes widened.

Oh fucknutggets.

Oh fuck fucks.

She had given the ring to the wrong couple.

She raced back into the restaurant, running towards table fourteen, nothing for the first time an anxious Professor Geer seated across from a bubbly and oblivious Mirajane seated at table fifteen, right next to Jellal and his demonic pinkette girlfriend.

But, she was too late.

"Jellal, is this some sort of weird joke?" the girl said, leaning forward over their table waving the ring in the poor man's face. She looked like she was ready to break out in laughter, as if finding the idea of her boyfriend proposing absurd.

"Meredy, calm yourself please. It's clearly a mistake. We're not even dating, and you know I only see you as a sister and nothing more. Please try to control yourself, we're in public." he attempted to reason with her. At his words, Erza's heart skipped a beat.

So he wasn't off the market after all…

Remembering her mission and mess-up, she continued moving forward until she finally reached the odd pair, still bickering.

"Listen," she started, leaning over to gently pull the ring from Meredy's hands. "I made a mistake with the tables. This was actually meant for the couple over there," she said, indicating the teacher and young woman with a tilt of her head. "My sincerest apologies, but I have some champagne to deliver."

After some more apologies and explanations, she finally turned around and carefully slipped the ring into the proper flute before handing it to the right couple this time.

Thirty minutes and one proposal later, Erza was clearing table fourteen after a still giggling Meredy and an exhausted Jellal had finished their meal. As she did so, though, she noticed a plaid scarf lying in the booth where the bluenette had been seated.

Grabbing the scarf, the redhead turned to rush outside to intercept him in time. Even though it seemed they ran into each other everywhere, she wasn't sure the next time she'd have the chance to see him and she was eager to get it to him as soon as possible.

When she turned though, she was shocked to see someone standing right behind her. So close, in fact, that the two knocked their heads. After a moment of catching themselves, Erza realized with a start that it was the man she had been looking for.

"I'm so sorry, oh God." she said, instinctively raising her hand to touch his forehead. Realizing her actions, she let her hand fall just short of his face, hoping the flub had gone unnoticed by her companion.

Of course, it hadn't.

He followed her small hand with his eyes as she let it fall by her side. For a few seconds, there was silence before he finally spoke up.

"M-my scarf?" he stuttered, barely getting the words out regardless of how hard he tried to keep his voice levelled.

"H-here." she handed him his plaid scarf and looked back down at her feet, wanting to continue talking to him but feeling desperately uncomfortable and nervous.

Sensing her discomfort, he thanked her with a silent nod of his head before slowly backing away and turning to leave.

The girl, not wanting to watch him walk away from what was probably their first and last interactions, quickly turned back around, trying to ignore the tears that stung and started forming in her eyes.

A tap on her shoulders scared her so much, she screeched a little.

Jellal, now looking horrified for scaring Erza, stood a little further than he had a few moments before.

"I'm sorry but this is going to be the most pathetic rant of my life, so please bear with me." he started, rambling. "Ever since the first time I saw you, I couldn't get you out of my head. At first, it started with nothing more than a small attraction but then we started running into each other more and more. It got to the point where I would purposely wait in places I knew you liked in hopes of seeing you.

"It wasn't just that I found you beautiful, which I do, but it's more than that. Every time I see you, you always look so happy and your aura is contagious. All I want to do is see you. You make me smile and all I want to do is see that smile every day and maybe, one day, be the cause of that smile."

Hearing those words, Erza started blushing madly and a small smile covered her face.

"Oh, look. It seems it has started," Jellal said, losing all his filters as he waved his hand at her face. Erza started to wonder if maybe Meredy has put some truth serum or something in his drink to make the normally tame man act this way. "Even tonight, Meredy convinced me to meet her here instead of the diner because that demonic thing heard about you. It seems everything I do ends up being because of you.

"So, will you do me the honour of going on an extremely awkward and probably weird date with me?"

Incapable of saying anything after such a cute speech, all Erza could do was grin and nod her head at his offer.

In the end, it seems that Jellal proposed after all. Maybe not the way Professor Geer had, but in his own adorkable way.