One shot- Jellal X Erza

I had actually wanted to post this as soon as my account had been activated but I couldn't because of some stupid two day wait to reduce spam. Anyways, this is my first Fairy Tail fanfic so I'd really appreciate it if you could just drop in a review after reading this. And any constructive criticism would be really appreciated, such OOCness of characters, grammatical errors, typos or suggestions that will make my future fics better. Thanks :)

Birthday(s)

Summary- Forgetting your own birthday! That's impossible, right? But apparently not for a certain red head and bluenette.

-X-

A warm breeze blew into the room, rousing Erza from her sleep. No sooner had her eyes opened than she gasped, rather dramatically, as she remembered an extremely essential thing.

Today was Jellal's birthday.

Twenty years ago, or twenty-seven, as it may be, courtesy of Mavis's time-stopping, life-saving spell- a baby with turquoise hair had been born. Actually, she didn't know if this was true, because none of them had known their birth dates and Sho hadn't even know what 'birthday' had meant. So all of them had spectaculated about their birthdays, and naturally, made up new ones.

She smiled as she remembered that day when they all had badgered Grandpa Rob to tell them about the dates that were important and significant in the 'outside world' as they all had called it, like it was an alien planet, out of their reach, which, she supposed, it had been.

Grandpa Rob had told them about Christmas, Easter, New Year's Eve, Thanksgiving, Halloween and other dates that free people celebrated every year.

Sho had immediately claimed New Year's Eve to be the 'lucky day', in his words, Wally had taken 29th of Febuary ("My birthday is so dandy and unique!") and had taken a lot of pleasure in it until Grandpa Rob had gently told him that the said date only came once in four years and on the other years he would have to either celebrate it on 28th Febuary or 1st March, much to his chagrin, so he had ended up choosing Thanksgiving Day. Millianna, who had nurtured a fetish for cats even back then, had tearfully chosen Easter after discovering that there was no such thing as an 'International Cats' Day', and Simon (Erza remembered with a slight pang) had taken Halloween.

Jellal, after everyone had finished choosing their birth dates, upon enquiry, had calmly said that he wanted to celebrate his birthday on the first day of autumn.

When questioned, he had explained, "Autumn is when all the leaves turn orange, right? And orange is my favourite colour."

"I thought it was red," she had retorted accusingly.

He had grinned, "Yeah, it is, but I don't think that there's any season that is related to red. And orange is the closest to red." This had turned her cheeks red.

She mentally wished Jellal a very Happy Birthday as she got out of bed, as a mental image of his handsome, kind face rose up in her head, wondering what he would be doing now. Would he have told Ultear and Meredy that today was his birthday? Probably not. He was still trying to receive atonement for his past actions, and, she figured, celebrating one's birthday wasn't exactly 'punishment'.

He and his guild mates should come and spend a day with Fairy Tail, she thought as she stepped into the shower. Everyone here acts as if it's their birthday every day!

After she was done showering, she re-equipped into her ordinary clothes- her body covered in armour until her torso and a blue skirt. She stepped out of her room and walked along the corridor. There was something strange about Fairy Hills today. Usually, at this time in the morning, the air would be filled with a cacophony of sounds as girls would groan at their alarm clocks for jolting them awake, which, after a few minutes and a lot of grumbling (none of them were the morning types), would be accompanied by the sound of splashing water as they dragged themselves into the shower, with the underlying sound of singing (something that most girls absolutely loved do to in the shower).

And every day she would meet at least one girl who would greet her with a jaunty 'good morning!' and would accompany her to the guild.

Today, it was silent.

Erza was struck with an unfamiliar notion that she had forgotten something, something that was a trivial matter to her, but a huge issue for her comrades. She racked her brains for something that she could have forgotten, but try as she might, she couldn't remember anything.

Either they're all oversleeping for some strange reason, Erza said to herself, or something's really wrong.

It was probably the first one, since the Fairy Hills campus was woven with several protective spells, but there had been no party yesterday, no reason for all of them to oversleep. She calmed herself down with many arguments, but she still equipped herself with a sword, just in case.

When she reached the doors of her beloved guild, she stopped abruptly. There was no sound coming from the other side of the wood, no swearing or laughing or fighting or teasing. Just the sound of her steady breath and, behind her, the citizens of Magnolia going about with their daily business.

Her brain instantly went off into panic mode and she burst into the hall of the guild, instantly re-equipping into one of her suits of armour, with a sword clasped in each hand, ready to beat the living daylights out of the people who had dared harm her comrades.
The room was dark, and she could hear the soft breathing of a lot of people, people who were so obviously trying to conceal their presence. She was about to let a fierce war cry tear from her lips when suddenly the bulbs on the ceiling burst into light and several people simultaneously shouted:

"Happy Birthday Erza!"

She blinked.
The people around her weren't the mages from some dark guild, they were the mages from her own guild. Lucy was the first one to reach and hug her, and then Mirajane and Wendy and Levy and Cana and then the other girls, while Natsu, Gray and the other guys circled around the hugging girls, beaming. Master was wearing an enormous grin on his face, and a huge gold banner with the words HAPPY BIRTHDAY TITANIA was draped on the wall and there were balloons everywhere.

She looked around, confused. "Today's my birthday?" she asked. Everyone was silent for a split second when Mirajane replied, "Well, it's just like you to forget your own birthday." Then the noise resumed as people guffawed at Erza's mistake of not even remembering her own birthday, at least, until she silenced them all with a glare.

So this was what she had been forgetting. And then she remembered how, all those years ago, her birth date had been chosen.

"I thought it was red!"

"Yeah, it is, but I don't think that there's any season that is related to red. And orange is the closest to red."
Her cheeks turned as red as her fiery hair.

After a moment he asked, "So, did you decide when your birthday is going to be?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I want to know my real birth date! Besides, the others have already taken the good dates, and the only one that's now left is Christmas, and I don't want that. What's the fun of being born on the same date as someone else?"

"Well, if you're born on the same day as someone else, then it helps you remember that person's birthday."

Silence. Then:
"Hey, Jellal?"

"Hm?"

"What do you do when it's someone's birthday?"

"You wish them. And, if possible, you give them a present."

"But to do that I'll have to remember everyone's birthday! How am I going to do that?"

"When we escape, I'll buy you a calendar so that you can keep track of all of our birthdays. But they're easy to remember, since all of them are important dates. So that means the guards will talk about them. That's how we'll know when they're near. And there's Grandpa Rob too. I'm sure he'll be able to tell us when someone's birthday is approaching."

"Yeah, but what about you? There's no specific date for the beginning of autumn! I'll never forgive myself if I forget your birthday!"

There was silence as the blue-haired boy tried to find out a solution for this seemingly hopeless quagmire. Then:
"I know! Everyone remembers their own birthday no matter what, so your birthday can be one the same day as mine. That way you'll never forget my birthday and I'll never forget yours!"

"So my birthday is on…..the first day of autumn, the same as you?"

"Yup." He grinned at her, and, after a moment, she returned the smile.

-X-

A few hundred miles away from Magnolia…

The first thought that came to his mind the moment he opened his eyes was:

It's Erza's birthday!

He rolled upright and smiled, wishing her happy birthday in his mind, and picturing her warm and kind face, red hair blowing.

He looked across their campsite to the other side of the remains of their last night's fire and saw his two comrades eating breakfast.

"Good morning," said Meredy, noticing that he had awakened, and, after a few moments, Ultear followed suit.

"Morning," he replied." Do you know that it's Erza's birthday today?"

Meredy nodded, much to his surprise. "It's all over the Weekly Sorcerer."

Ultear snorted with amusement," It's your birthday as well, moron."

She was rewarded with a blink of his green eyes and the formation of a confused frown on his brow.

"Really? I'd totally forgotten!"

-X-

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