A/N: Hey I've been reading fan fictions for about 7-8 years, and my imagination has always urged me to write a story. However, my laziness has almost always been my downfall. This is my first attempt at writing a story, so constructive criticism would help greatly. I plan on making this about 3-4 chapter's at most since I'm just testing the waters right now. I'm a math major, so my English and grammar is not the best. I think for the most part I got the rules down, but let me know where my mistakes are and I will try to remedy them immediately. This story takes place a few days after the Tower of Heaven incident, with light NaZa, and implied Jellal/Erza (mostly her trying to get over it). Anyways, tell me what you think and I will be posting the next chapter once I have time.

A/N2: I wasn't really sure what genre to classify this as, so for now I will label it as a romance/drama.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail it belongs to its rightful Hiro Mashima

Bold: Magic being used

italicized: internal thoughts

Strawberry Cake

Chapter 1: First layer

It was a standard day at the Fairy Tail guild, as every member was engaged in the classic fairy tail brawl. Tables, chairs, cutlery, and various other objects were flying all over the place as the saner member's attempted to take cover from the ensuing chaos. Lucy was one of these people as she hid behind the bar with Mirajane, chanting a spell that would hopefully make her invisible to everyone. Unfortunately for her it was not working and tears started to fall down her cheek as she began to accept her inevitable fate of being caught up in the brawl.

"Isn't this wonderful Lucy?" Mirajane happily said turning to face Lucy who was still in the fetal position behind the bar.

"HOW IS THIS WONDERFUL!?" Lucy screamed while trying to slowly inch her way toward the door that led to the basement.

"I mean just look at how much energy everyone has! Things seemed down in the dumps before but now everything is rig-" Mirajane never got to finish her sentence as a table flew from the side and smashed her on the side of the head.

"Mirajane!" Lucy cried as Mirajane fell to the ground with swirls in her eyes.

Now desperate Lucy wrapped her arms around Mirajanes stomach trying to quickly walk towards the basement door which was the only salvation left from the fighting which was slowly beginning to include every member of the guild.

'Just a bit further, a bit further and I'm home free,' Lucy excitedly thought whilst continuing to drag Mirajane.

Lucy reached the basement door and reached for the doorknob, but just before she got to it, the door was ripped off its hinges and flew across the guild hall taking out several members in the process. Natsu stood behind the now non-existent door with flames on his fists and a scowl etched on his face.

"Oi!? The classic Fairy Tail brawl and no one bothered to invite me?!" Natsu shouted towards the guild hall.

"There's no invitation to fight just come over here so I can kick your sorry ass!" yelled Gray.

"Yosh! I'm all fired up!" Natsu slammed his flaming fists together and flames began to cover his body. Just as he was about to rush off to join the fray he noticed Lucy trying to sneak away behind him with Mirajane in tow. With a curious expression on his face he turned around and faced them.

"Hey Lucy, where are you going? The fun's this way" Natsu asked while pointing towards the brawl.

"Uhh… hey Natsu, you know how it is? I have to uh…. write my story." Lucy stated trying to hide her obvious discomfort.

"Oh okay" Natsu said.

Lucy sighed in relief and began to walk towards the basement with Mirajane still being dragged by her.

"In the basement? I was just down there, because I was looking for some fire I could eat. The lights were out though, so how would you be able to see?"

"I can see in the dark" Lucy blurted out while beginning to sweat.

"Oh wow really!? That's so cool; teach me how to do that!"

"Uhh… well only Celestial wizards can do that, so I can't really teach you…" by this point Lucy was beginning to sweat quite profusely.

"Aww man! I really wanted to have that power; it would make beating gray up so much easier. Oh well…. By the way Lucy, why are you sweating so much? It's not that hot in here."

"Well you see…" Lucy began before Natsu pounded his fist in his hand and said

"I got it! You were so pumped up from watching the fight you decided you had to go down in the basement and write about it."

"Ha Ha, right you are Natsu always the clever one weren't you? My story is a romance though so no fighting whatsoever is in it…" Lucy silently sent a prayer of thank you to whatever entity was watching over her.

"But Lucy…. there's something you're forgetting. Something that Igneel always told me to do." Natsu said very dramatically while moving closer toward Lucy.

"o-oh? And what was that Natsu?" Lucy nervously asked while setting Mirajane down on the ground as she was beginning to recover from her head trauma.

"It was… If you're going to write about something you should experience it fist hand!" Natsu passionately yelled and very quickly he picked up Lucy bridal style.

"Natsu! There is no way Igneel told you that" Lucy screamed angrily while struggling to break free from the fire mages grip.

"I know, I just made it up" Natsu said mischievously.

Lucy opened her mouth in shock and quickly tried to come up with something that would make Natsu put her down. Feeling very desperate she decided to try her famous sex appeal attack.

"Oh Natsu, if you put me down right now there may be something….nice, in store for you later." Lucy said very sultrily while slowly running her hand on his chin and showing an ample amount of cleavage.

"Eh, I'm good" Natsu said, and without warning he tossed Lucy into the brawl.

"God damnit, Natsuuu!" Lucy screamed while crying as her sexy appeal attack failed once more.

"Don't worry Lucy, this will help your story a lot!" Natsu shouted while grinning and giving her a thumbs up.

"My story doesn't even have a fight scene in it!" Lucy screamed while being thrown across the hall by a random guild member.

"Well why didn't you just say so?" Natsu asked.

"…." Lucy's jaw dropped to an all time low at the stupidity of her comrade.

"Man Lucy you should really tell people important stuff like that" Natsu said while shaking his head at his companion's unwillingness to tell him such an important detail.

"That's it! Open: Gate of the Golden Bull, Taurus!" Lucy said while swinging her golden key down. Taurus materialized nearly instantly his desire to preserve Lucy's breasts powering his fighting spirit.

"MOOOOOO! Lucy-san! Your figure and breasts are as fine as ever!" Taurus excitedly said while drool dripped from his mouth.

"You can admire me later Taurus, right now…. Attack Natsu with all you've got"

"MOOOO! Whatever you say Lucy-san" Taurus said and he charged Natsu while swinging his double sided axe. The air rippled as the axe was swung at a high velocity towards Natsu, who casually bent backwards the axe missing him by mere inches and ruffling his pink hair slightly. Natsu grinned before kicking Taurus in the face and sending him flying into Elfman as he screamed about manly men.

"Man, now we're talking! See Lucy I knew you would see it my way." Natsu said happily. Lucy did not hear him as she was too busy kicking and punching guild members her anger at Natsu being conveyed in her attacks. Natsu was still laughing at successfully being able to get Lucy to join the fight. His happiness was short lived however, as Gray smashed his fist into his face sending him flying into one of the support beams of the guild.

"HA! Got you good flame trash, you should know to never let your guard down against your betters'"

"GRAY! You ice pop bastard!" Natsu quickly stood up from the blow and smashed his fist into the support beam as hard as he could. The massive wooden beam splintered and fell down in two very uneven pieces. The guild hall shuddered just a bit from one of its structural supports being taken down. Natsu heaved the longer wooden beam in both his hands and while roaring threw it as hard as he could at Gray. Gray's eyes widened at the wooden beam now flying towards him and quickly put both his hands together while shouting.

"Ice make Wall!" A giant wall of ice materialized in front of gray and the wooden beam hit it exploding into millions of splinters. Gray breathed a sigh of relief and smirked.

"Nice try, flame shit, but you're going to hav-"the second piece of the wooden beam smacked into Gray and sent him tumbling across the floor.

"HA! Now the finisher" Natsu began to inhale a massive amount of air as his stomach began to expand.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!"Natsu closed his fists over his mouth and exhaled a giant flame similar to a dragon breathing fire. The flame flew towards Gray igniting him on fire instantly. Natsu laughed while Gray ran around in circles making ice blocks and smashing them over several parts of his body trying to put the fire out. Once the fire was successfully put out, Gray growled in annoyance and put both his hands together channeling his magic. When he had sufficient power gathered he jumped high into the air and brought his hands down towards Natsu while screaming,

"Ice Make: Giant Hammer!" A giant hammer made of ice crashed down on top of Natsu making his entire body go through the guild floor. Once the smoke cleared a giant crater was left in its place with Natsu lying in the middle of it. Natsu groaned a bit and slowly got back up igniting his hands once more and glaring at Gray.

"God damnit Gray, look what you did to the guild floor!"

"What the hell!? How are you any better? You're the one who threw a support beam at me!"

"That's different that beam was already broken!"

Several guild members' sweatdropped at Natsu's comment, not even bothering to say that the beam was cracked and Natsu was the one who destroyed it completely. Natsu and Gray stared each other down, before Natsu smirked a bit an idea coming to mind. He gathered his magic energy near his hands creating a massive fireball. Gray started to get worried, because he knew if that fireball hit him it would do some serious damage. As the fireball grew to a size that he could contain it in both his arms, Natsu took his hands and pushed them as hard as he could against the fireball on both sides causing the sphere of fire to shrink in size until it was the size of a tennis ball. By this point Gray was smirking, thinking that something so small could not possibly do any damage to him.

"Ha! That small piece of shit won't be able to do anything to me" Gray cockily stated, despite this though he put both his hands together in preparation to block the attack.

"Whatever you say, ice pop. I don't have a name for this yet, but here you go." Natsu said as he reared up like a pitcher, and threw the fireball as hard as he could at Gray. Seeing the fireball hurtling towards him, Gray put his hands together and created a bat made of ice and shouted

"Batter up!" Gray swung the bat towards the incoming fireball and sent it flying away from him.

"Shit…" Natsu muttered under his breath, but his eyes widened comically as he realized where the fireball was heading. Gray started to sweat as he recognized just how screwed they might be. Erza Scarlet was sitting away from the fight enjoying her strawberry cake in silence. Although today was a famous day, one where even the sweet taste of her strawberry cake did nothing to help ease the pain in her heart. She noted the people fighting in the Guild and while normally she would have stopped them with an iron fist, today Erza simply wanted to be left alone.

'It's only been a few days since the tower of heaven incident, but I can't get it out of my mind' Erza thought sadly, placing a piece of strawberry cake in her mouth.

She could never forget that day; memories flashed through her mind of Simon her deceased friend and Jellal's betrayal. No matter how many times she tried going over it in her mind, she could not come to terms over the fact that Jellal had explicitly used her feelings of love towards him against her.

'I was a fool to think he had changed, a fool who still can't seem to get over the fact that he's dead. I guess at the end of the day I still have feelings for him, but damnit I want to move on!', Erza slammed her hand on the table, not knowing the force of it caused it to crack in half.

She glanced around the guild hall and her brown eyes happened to land on Natsu who was staring very wide eyed at her. Erza now confused as to why Natsu was staring at her was about to voice her question when she felt something vibrate in the hand that was holding her plate of strawberry cake. Erza had time to look down at her cake before it exploded consuming her and everything within a 10 foot radius in flames. Natsu and Gray paled and once the smoke cleared, Erza stood there with her basic armor set unharmed, but covered in soot. She looked at Natsu and he instantly started whistling with both his hands behind his head and gestured towards Grey. She looked at Grey who adamantly shook his head back and forth as fast as possible to avoid her wrath. She pulled out her sword while looking back and forth between Natsu and Grey, but then sighed very heavily and unequipped her sword while muttering under her breath,

"I'm going home." Erza then proceeded to walk past Natsu and Grey, not even paying mind to the continuing fight or destruction that was being caused to the guild while the master was away. Natsu and Grey looked at each other very confused, this was the first time Erza had done nothing not only when the guild was fighting, but also when her strawberry cake was destroyed. It worried Natsu and he quickly ran up to Erza. Grey was about to follow, but then figured if it was Natsu he should be able to hopefully mend the situation. After all, he had saved her from the tower, so he would cut the guy some slack this once.

'You'd better not let me down Natsu' Grey thought before being tackled by an ecstatic Juvia.

Erza briskly continued to briskly walk towards the entrance of the guild, Natsu was able to quickly catch up to her and noticing her sour demeanor and didn't speak immediately. Natsu was an impatient person though, so he decided to strike up a conversation with his scarlet haired guild mate.

"So Erza….sorry about that cake, it was a mistake I plan on fixing. I mean how should I have known that bastard Grey would deflect my attack towards you. It was an honest mistake!" Natsu stated while swinging his arms up and down trying to convey his point. Erza was silent to his attempts though, as she continued to walk scarlet hair covering her face so Natsu couldn't make out an expression. Natsu scowled at the way Erza completely blew him off and said

"Well jeez Erza, I mean I said I was sorr-"

"Please just stop Natsu; I am not in the mood today for your childish antics nor do I care that you destroyed my strawberry cake. Just leave me alone" Erza started walking faster in attempts to get away from Natsu, but he grabbed her arm firmly.

"Let me go Natsu…" Erza coldly stated.

"No." Natsu simply said.

"Natsu, I won't ask you again, let me go!" Erza angrily said, her attempts to contain her anger beginning to waver.

"And I said no, not until you tell me what the hell is wrong with you? The entire guild is fighting and I destroyed your strawberry cake. Those two things don't mix without you getting pissed off." Natsu said starting to get annoyed.

"I don't feel like telling you Natsu." Erza said while attempting to break free from Natsu's grip, but he just gripped her arm tighter.

"Come on Erza, we're friends aren't we? Friends are supposed to tell each other what's wrong, so we can help." Natsu said trying to reason with Erza.

"Yeah? Well you haven't had a friend die have you Natsu?!" Erza practically screamed at him, and with renewed vigor wrenched her arm free from Natsu's grasp. Natsu beginning to realize what was bothering Erza tried one more time to talk to her and hopefully get her back to her usual self.

"Is that what this is about? Damnit Erza, you should know that Simon would never want to see you like this-"

"Just Shut up Natsu" Erza yelled and spun around facing Natsu.

"Stop trying to reason with me and leave me alone. I don't want your sympathy right now; I want to be left alone. So leave me alone!" Erza growled and shoved Natsu. Natsu however, had enough of her bullshit, ignited his fist and swung it at Erza while screaming

"If you're going to be like that, then fight me!"

Erza put out her palm and stopped Natsu's punch dead in its track. However, the force of his punch caused the air to ripple and explode outwards causing several tables to go flying. Natsu wasn't holding back this time, he needed to show Erza that she was not weak and should not be upset over something that wasn't her fault. Erza spoke her next words very quietly, and without his enhanced hearing he would have missed it.

"Please Natsu just stop, I don't want to fight you right now. I just want to be left alone; please as a friend can you respect that?" Erza looked at him a single tear falling down her cheek.

Natsu dropped his arm after seeing Erza shed a tear, he promised he would never let her cry again and what did he do? He made her cry barely 2 days after promising he wouldn't. Natsu frowned and was about to say something else before Gray grabbed Natsu by the back of his scarf and tugged,

"Come on, Natsu you heard the woman. Let's give her some space" Natsu stared at Erza with a serious look on his face and didn't even protest as he was dragged away.

Erza sighed in relief, turned around and walked out of the guild.