Prompt: Cooking
Sorry it's so late.
All credit goes to Hiro Mashima, I own nothing.
Levy woke to sunlight streaming in through the window in her bedroom. Wait, she thought, not my bedroom, but our bedroom. She blushed slightly at the thought. They had been dating for a few months, much to everyone's excitement, especially Lucy's. After four months of dating, Gajeel had asked her to move in with him. Between having to watch out for Erza in Fairy Hills and Gajeel's overprotectiveness, Levy agreed that it would be a good idea for her to join him in his apartment. So when Levy's lease ran out, she moved out of her tiny, but comfortable apartment into Gajeel's slightly larger one.
The adjustment was interesting for both of them. Two people who led solitary home lives for a long portion of their adult life now living in the same apartment, sharing a bathroom, and a bedroom. Granted, both of them had slept at each other's places before, but this was different. Now they permanently shared a residence. The first few days were a little weird figuring things out, but after a week they fell into a routine. They were learning, as all couples do no matter how long they are together. They had an agreement about things. Gajeel was on cooking duty and Levy would do dishes, though he would never allow her to do all the dishes herself. Levy was in charge of laundry, especially after Gajeel accidentally colored one of Levy's light colored shirts by washing one of his black muscle with it. There were some interesting moments, but they now had their pattern down and things were sailing smoothly.
Levy stretched and climbed out of bed carefully, doing her best not to wake Gajeel who was still snoring away. She quickly gathered her things to shower and quietly made her way to the bathroom. Thankfully, Gajeel was a heavy sleeper so the sound of water running wouldn't wake him. After her shower, Levy dressed and went into the kitchen. Normally, Levy would wait until Gajeel was up and let him do the cooking, but today was different. It was their six month anniversary and she wanted to do something special for him. She was determined to make a cake. She's cooked before without issues in her apartment, why would it be any different here.
Gajeel stretched in his sleep. The bed felt cooler than usual. Huh, I must have moved away from Levy, he thought. He rolled over and reached out to pull her closer to him when all he grasped was air. Gajeel's eyes shot opened. Where is she, he panicked. That's when he could smell it. It was the smell of a chocolate cake and by the scent, it was still in the oven. Gajeel got up and threw on a t-shirt. He snuck into the living room and peaked his head in the kitchen. Levy was at the kitchen counter with a gallon of milk, a bowl, the beater, powdered sugar, and coco powder working on icing. The timer pinged and Levy went over to the oven. She turned the cake and restarted the timer so it could bake the rest of the way.
Gajeel grinned when he saw her turn to his direction. She had splatters of chocolate icing on her face. The apron she was wearing was one of his and was too long for her short frame. Apparently she had a bit of a fight with the flour because her apron was covered in a mix of flour and cake batter. Levy turned back to the icing and began using the electric beater to mix the icing. At least, Gajeel was pretty sure she was using the electric beater by the way small icing splatters were flying onto the counter top and towards Levy's face. Gajeel chuckled and crept up behind Levy.
"Good morning." Gajeel said lowly while wrapping his arms around Levy from behind.
Levy yelped and jumped, causing icing to fly again. She quickly shut off the beater and turned on him.
"Gajeel!" She squeaked. "Was it really necessary to scare the hell out of me?"
"Yes." He grinned. "It looked like you were having so much fun that I wanted to join you. The icing looks good. D'you mind if I try some?" He swiped his finger on side of the bowl and put his finger in his mouth.
"Mmmmm." He sighed. "It's really good, but it seems like there is more icing outside of the bowl than in."
"I didn't mean to make a mess." Levy blushed. "Everything was going great until I got to the icing part. That's normally where things get a bit tricky when I make cakes."
"Do you mind if I help you with it then?"
"I wanted to make this and surprise you, but it doesn't look like it worked out."
"You did surprise me. I didn't realize how cute you'd look cooking, especially in my apron." He smiled, causing Levy to blush again. "Here if you want to be the one to make it, I'll just guide you through making the icing. Grab another bowl and I'll help you."
Levy reached up into the cabinet and brought down another bowl.
"Put the ingredients together and I'll help you mix, ok?"
Levy put a stick of butter into the bowl and added a cup and a half of powdered sugar along with some coco powder. She was just about to pour the milk when Gajeel stopped her.
"Mix what you have first and if it's too thick, then add the milk."
"Thanks, Gajeel." She smiled up at him.
Levy put the beaters into the bowl and started the mixer. Powdered sugar flew into the air causing each breath to taste sweet. Gajeel put his arms around her and guided her hands so that the beaters caused less of a mess. Once the mix was in a creamy form, Gajeel let her go and told her to shut off the beaters.
"Now, you can see that the icings is a little on the thicker side." Gajeel pointed out. "Add a little splash of milk and then mix it again, on low. Then our icing should be ready."
Levy followed his instructions and began mixing again. Soon the icing was at perfect consistency, so she shut off the beaters and set the bowl aside. Levy popped the beaters out of the electric mixer and gave one of them to Gajeel. Once again, he swiped his finger along the beater and tasted the icing.
"Perfect, well done Levy." He said softly. "Let's get cleaned up."
Gajeel took a rag out of the towel drawer, ran it under some warm water, and began wiping up the counter with Levy following his lead. Soon the only thing left to clean was Levy's face.
"Here, let me get the chocolate off your face." Gajeel offered.
Levy stepped into him. He took a clean part of the rag and gently began wiping off her forehead and cheek. After each part of her face was cleaned, Gajeel would kiss that part of her face. By the time he was done wiping her face of, she was blushing fire engine red.
"Thank you." Levy said quietly.
"You're welcome." Gajeel replied just as quietly. He turned to the sink to clean off the rag.
Suddenly, it looked like a light bulb went off in her head and she began to grin mischievously. While Gajeel's back was turned, Levy grabbed the abandoned bowl of icing that caused the first mess and put a little bit of icing on her forehead and on her other cheek.
"Hey Gajeel. I think you missed a spot." Levy said as innocently as possible.
"Huh?" Gajeel turned back to her while ringing the rag out in my sink. "Oh, I see, on your forehead. I'll get that for you."
Once again he wiped off the smudge of icing and kissed her forehead.
"There, any more icing?" Gajeel asked.
"On my other cheek." Levy replied.
"Gotcha." He quickly cleaned up her cheek and kissed her again. He inspected her face closely. "I think that's everything. I'll be back in a few minutes. I'm going to go change. Keep an eye on the timer."
"I will." She smiled sweetly at him as he walked out of the room. From habit, she knew Gajeel would be back in about five minutes and that the timer would be going off in six minutes. She was going to make that last minute work in her favor. She quickly put icing on both cheeks and on the back of her hand and waited for Gajeel to return.
Just as expected, Gajeel was back before the timer went off. He took one look at her and laughed.
"Levy, what the hell are ya doing? How'd you get covered in icing again?" He grabbed the rag and cleaned up her face.
"I don't know. I guess I wasn't paying attention when I was cleaning just now." Levy said innocently.
"Sure Shrimp. If I didn't know any better, I'd think that you were just messing with me." Gajeel grumbled.
"Oh no, I wouldn't do that." Levy looked away and blushed. Thankfully the timer went off at that moment distracting Gajeel from the converstation. This is my last chance, she thought, I'm going for it.
"Hey Shrimp, this cake looks amazing!" Gajeel exclaimed while setting the cake on a cooling rack. "You out did….Shrimp! What is that on your face?"
"What do you mean?" Levy did her best to hide her smile.
"You know exactly what I mean." Gajeel crossed his arms over his chest. "Why do you have a smudge of icing on your lips?"
"I just wanted to taste it the icing." Levy tried the innocent act again.
"Uh-huh." Gajeel grunted. He wasn't buying it. He shook his head. "I can't believe you would misuse the culinary excellence that is the icing we made to exploit my kisses." He was doing his best to hide a grin. "I always thought better of you." He shook his head again.
"Ok Gajeel, cut the act." Levy said shortly. "I can see that you are smiling, knock it off."
"I'm not smiling." Gajeel said gruffly. "This is just my face." His mouth trembled in effort to keep a serious and straight face.
Levy burst out laughing, causing Gajeel to struggle all the more. Finally, he couldn't contain it anymore and he too started laughing along with Levy.
"Fine. You win." Gajeel laughed. "I still can't believe that you'd come up with such a scheme. Lucy would be proud of you."
"Oh be quiet and kiss me already." Levy teased him.
Gajeel reached out and pulled Levy towards him. He looked down at her and smiled.
"With pleasure." And he kissed her.
Author's Note: I hoped you guys like it. This was a lot of fun to write.