A/N- Okay, so this one shot is for the Lucy Harem Fanfic Challenge by Fiamatta Montague and Hachibukai. It's a challenge in which you choose any one of the prompt categories and write fics for them. You can write for any pairing of your choice but the female has to be Lucy. It can be the usual Natsu x Lucy or Gray x Lucy or can even be the crack ones like Sting/Rogue x Lucy. It's your call.

For more info, go to either one of their profiles or just PM either one of them. The link is also on my profile.

Okay, enough talk. Read on.


15 Foods for the Heart.

Prompt- Strawberry Cake

Title- All Things Sweet

Summary- Of cake- destroying, a death threat, strawberry cream and kisses.


Splat!

His eyes widened in shock. His body began to tremble in fear. His breath came out in short, harsh pants and a cold sweat broke out on his brow as he beheld the scene in front of him in terror.

There it was; lying there as it breathed in its last breath, the tiny strawberries crushed, the icing splattered everywhere and the jam oozing out, staining the floor like blood.

There was only one thought whirling around in his head: HOLY CRAP SHE'S GOING TO MURDER ME!

Everyone in the guild froze, and then sighed, as if to mourn the passing of this poor slice of strawberry cake from our world to the void, and to silently acknowledge the fact that the salmon haired man in front of it would soon follow suit.

For the Titania's special four o'clock sweet treat would not be trifled with.

He needed help- NOW!

And the first person who came to his mind was none other than his blonde- and- sometimes- a- bit- weird best friend.


He burst into her apartment via the window, as usual, and cried frantically, "Lucy! I need your help!"

And Lucy, at that moment, had been changing, but Natsu didn't bat an eyelid at what he saw (although his cheeks coloured slightly), nor at the things she screeched at him. All the same, at the back of his mind, it did occur to him that maybe sometimes Lucy deliberately changed whenever he entered just so that she could yell at him.

"Natsu!" she bawled. "Why do you always come in while I'm changing?!"

He crossed his arms over his chest. "Why do you always change when I come in?"

She frowned, and then relented. "Even so, you should come in by the door."

He ignored this piece of advice and continued his tirade, "I need your help! I- what are you cooking?" he asked, distracted as Lucy put on an apron on top of her t-shirt.

The blonde celestial wizard huffed and said, "Strawberry cake."

The dragon slayer clapped his hands gleefully, like a three year old watching a magic show, and said, "Awesome! Make some for Erza as well!"

When Lucy's eyebrows met in a confused frown, he explained further, describing how Erza's afternoon cake had met its demise. Her face paled for a moment as she imagined Erza's wrath.

When Natsu had finished his tale, she sighed and said, "Fine. But only on some conditions."

"Whatever you say, ma'am!"

The blonde blushed slightly and then stated in a dignified manner, "First, you must do whatever I say. I do not want my kitchen to end up demolished."

"Yes ma'am!"

"You will not use your fire magic. You will use the stove and the oven."

"Yes ma'am!"

"And you will not eat the ingredients, understand?"

"Yes ma'am!"

"Okay then," she said, rolling up her sleeves. "Take the extra apron and come to the kitchen."


Amused, Lucy watched as Natsu stirred the flour and milk mixture ever so slowly, as if it was an atomic bomb that could explode any moment. She had never seen the hyperactive dragon slayer so calm and full of concentration before.

While he whisked the flour and milk, she took the opportunity to study him with an openness and intensity that would have been embarrassing and offensive otherwise. She looked at his handsome face, scrunched up due to excessive concentration, his flexed forearms, his muscled chest and his broad shoulders.

Then she mentally shook her head and told herself to snap out of it and began to work on the strawberry cream. In the meantime, Natsu had added the eggs to the bowl.

She glanced at him. "You know, you can stir that a little faster. We'll be finished by Christmas if you keep this speed up." Then she looked at him sternly as a mischievous grin lit up his face and added, "But not too fast, okay? Remember what I had said?"

They worked in silence; not because they didn't have anything to say, but because nothing had to be said. They knew each other better than they knew themselves, and working together as a team had been their forte right from the start.


Thirty-five minutes later the cake was in the oven. Lucy was piling the dishes into the sink and Natsu was staring at the cake through the transparent oven window, occasionally muttering something.

Lucy snorted when his whispering reached her ears.

"Don't you dare burn or get messed up, alright?" he said to the oven in a low, dangerous voice. "Otherwise I swear I'll kick your butt!"

She washed her hands and smoothed back her hair. "Let me have a look at that cake, Natsu. And the cake isn't your pet; it won't come out perfectly just because you've told it to. Although it should come out well."

She crouched in front of the oven and peered at the cake. The crust was rising gradually and had a golden sheen to it. It looked amazing. A few more minutes and it would be done. "Hey, that looks delicious," Lucy said, looking up at Natsu, only to find him eyeing her with a hungry glint in his eyes, like a hawk observing its prey.

She immediately turned a dark crimson, but after a moment it dawned on her that he wasn't ogling her, but the bowl of strawberry cream in her hands. She shook her head and snatched the bowl away at once. Natsu reached out for it and she stood up, raising it away from his arms' reach.

And subsequently began a cat- and- mouse chase between the two friends, in which Natsu was trying to get his hands on the bowl of cream while Lucy was denying him the pleasure of it.

At last they reached a stalemate; Natsu too exhausted to chase and Lucy too exhausted to run. But she still kept a firm grip on the bowl.

Her grip tightened and her knuckles turned white as Natsu approached her again. She was just about to snap at him and tell him to leave her and the strawberry cream alone when he put his hands on her waist and kissed her.

Her mind turned blank and blood rushed to her cheeks as she fumbled in embarrassment. He continued kissing her, and after the initial shock was over, she began kissing him back.

They drifted away after several moments. Lucy was dazed. Only Natsu's grinning face in front of her own red one jolted her out of her reverie. Then she noticed that she was no longer holding the bowl of strawberry cream. Her eyes widened when she realized what had happened.

"Why you little…." She cursed, watching as Natsu stuck a finger into the bowl and pulled out a great big blob of cream, and stuck it into his mouth. "You took it when you were kissing me!"

"Well, I had to distract you," he smirked as he helped himself to more cream.

"I can't believe it!" she fumed, angry at Natsu for pulling such a prank on her and angry on herself for falling into his trap and kissing him back. "I can't believe that I was tricked by you!"

Natsu looked a little miffed, "Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

"It means," Lucy hissed, "that you should never do something like that to a girl! Especially if you're such a bad kisser!"

She was angry. Furious actually. Furious at herself for actually believing that this was some sort of confession. Furious that she had raised her hopes. Furious that the man she had fallen in love with was such a dense and senseless idiot.

Natsu looked troubled now. "I'm a bad kisser?" he asked.

She nodded bitterly. He hadn't been that bad, but she was irritated.

"Well then, can you teach me?"

Her head snapped up in shock and surprise. "W-what?"

He said it slowly this time, "Can. You. Teach. Me?"

Her anger was replaced by a warm blush. She tried to hold onto her resentment. "Who do you want to impress?" she asked scornfully.

His answer made her knees weak and her heart hammer: "You."

Saying this, he crashed his lips into hers, wrapping one arm around her waist and the other at the back of her head.

She spent the entire afternoon teaching him how to kiss.

An hour later…

"Hey Natsu, what about Erza's cake?"

….

….

….

"OH CRAP I TOTALLY FORGOT! SHE'S GOING TO KILL ME!"


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