So Fluffy!

Please excuse the title.

It was raining just like it always seemed to on bad days and that one definitely seemed to qualify for Lucy. Looking back on everything, she supposed it wasn't so bad… if you compared it to a volcanic eruption.

One thing she wasn't going to do was relive it, thinking about how crap things had been made her cringe, Lucy's stomach turning at how she just knew she'd have to go back to work the next day and face her co-workers. No, she wasn't going to think about it, instead all that was on her agenda for the rest of the day was going home, working on a chapter for her novel and relaxing onto her warm comforting bed, she was just going to sink into the pillows … as her eyes flooded with tears and she ended up curling into a ball.

How awful that the idea sounded good.

*/*\*

In the end Lucy didn't cry in her bedroom, didn't get to work on her novel and didn't go to her apartment in general, instead ending up at the front door to her boyfriend's home. She wasn't entirely sure how that happened but she wasn't complaining, not one bit, there was always something Jackal could do that solitude couldn't.

So without a moment's hesitation the doorbell was rung and Lucy could hear a clattering noise, quick footsteps and a small click before the door swung open and a hunched over Jackal was in front of her, panting for breath.

"Lucy? You got off from work early?" No. Don't. Don't even go there. "You should have called me, I would've come to pick you up." …In retrospect, that negativity might have been more effective if she'd actually spoken.

Either way, the dam broke and the tears started to fall, running like waterfalls within seconds leaving Jackal in a momentary shocked state in front of her.

"Oi! Lucy?" She fell forward, her forehead hitting his chest and dropping her body completely against him. "Lucy?" Her arms shot up, aiming straight in front of her and resting beside his torso.

"Hug me." He was making a face, she just knew it! But he still held her, picking her up and cradling her to his chest as he closed the door with his foot, bringing them into his living room. His living room where Lucy's, ever so loving, boyfriend promptly dumped her on the sofa. "Jackal that wasn't hugging."

"Bear with me a second."

"But cuddles."

Lucy found that she was completely ignored; terrific, she might need to Lucy-kick him for this, that's the first thing she'd try to do if she had any energy. The clanging sound she heard earlier was back again and Lucy could easily assume Jackal was in the kitchen, though she was surprised to hear a few more voices moving towards her and quickly out the door. What the- people had been here? Well now she felt horrible.

Until her boyfriend ran back into the room and leaped onto the sofa, head automatically settling down and resting on her stomach, she heard calls and hoots from outside. Now those were just too familiar … Jackal's co-workers!

Well that was just fantastic, five stars. Lucy felt Jackal shift before he was off of her and at the window, flinging it open and yelling at his partners. "Go away and don't come back! If you do I'll kick all of your asses!" Now that made her smile, it was just Lucy, her typical boyfriend with his typical antics and his typical way of resting on her chest. It was rare she got to run her fingers through his hair, so she took the chance. It was soft, Jackal always hated that, trying to seem tough and hard-core all the time but his hair was always undeniably soft.

"Hmm, fluffy." Lucy felt a warm irritated breath on her stomach and felt her shirt ride up her stomach as Jackal shifted, his elbow digging into her sides as payback. She couldn't believe she'd just said that, honestly if his next move was to attack her in any way then she wouldn't be surprised.

"What the hell are you calling fluffy?!"

"Well not your attitude, that's for sure." He was grumbling more, how cute. Yes, how cute it would be if there wasn't a threat in the background he might get more payback on her at any moment for the comment.

And then Lucy felt something brushing her sides, tracing over her skin lightly and making her shake, dammit that tickled! "Hey, Jackal? Cut it out."

"Not likely after that."

"Hey, all I did was say you were fluffy!"

"That's the problem!" His fingers moved faster, sometimes rushing down to her knee, tickling underneath where she was sensitive, sometimes surging up to her shoulder blades where Lucy was incredibly ticklish.

Her laughter was uncontrollable, ringing around the room and in her ears as her eyes closed, happy tears in her eyes; but not before she'd seen the smirk on Jackal's face, he enjoyed doing these things to her far too much. Gold star. Perfect boyfriend award right there.

"You know, earlier you may have been upset," No! She wasn't ready to talk about this yet! "And I know you might not want to talk about it yet," …was she being sarcastic with the 'perfect boyfriend' comment a second ago, because she took it back. Jackal was sometimes so in tune with her it was scary. "But you came at a pretty great time Lucy." It took everything in her to breathe out an 'Oh?' through her giggling and Lucy was pretty sure she saw him smirk wider at how meek that must have sounded. Though he stopped tickling her, and gave her a chance to compose herself.

Just not a very big one seeing as after that Jackal had Lucy over his shoulder, carrying her out of the living room.

"Hey Jackal?!" He didn't answer her, just kept making his way through his home and ignoring any protests she made about being slung over his shoulder like a backpack.

*/*\*

The clanging sound from earlier made more sense to Lucy when Jackal put her down on the kitchen counter and she saw all sorts of baking tools lying around. It was normally a habit of hers to come round every two days and clean his place because he was messy, but the current state of the room ranked at 'monstrosity'. If it turned out to be her that had to tidy things up again… blood would be spilt.

"What were you doing in here?" Jackal didn't answer, apart from pulling open the oven door and taking out a cake tin. It looked like a regular sponge cake, something most people could have whipped up quickly, except Lucy knew for a fact that Jackal was terrible in the kitchen; she guessed that's what his friends must have been round for.

"You can probably tell I had a bit of help." Oh was that so?

"Only a bit?"

"…So you can probably tell I had a lot of help." Yeah, that sounded closer to the mark. "I wasn't expecting you back so soon, which I'm not complaining about at all, so I didn't get a chance to put any icing on it. It should just need a couple of minutes to cool, would you like to do the icing with me?" During all the time he'd been talking, Jackal had gotten the cake out of the tin and put it on a cooling rack before leaning back against a cupboard and looking at her.

"Yeah, I'd love to." He grinned like an idiot, she grinned like an idiot and during the time they'd worked together they'd had a childish 'icing fight', having to make a quick mix of their own seeing as most of the old had gotten on them. Making new icing was a pain, and in the future Lucy knew she'd stick to buying it, but the important thing was that her bad mood had just completely gone away.

At the time she didn't say it, saving her words for later, but she absolutely loved this guy.

*/*\*

"Whoa! It looks so good!" The cake was cool, decorated and looked mouth-watering; both of them were practically drooling over it and Lucy got dibs on the first slice as Jackal watched, gauging her reaction and wondering whether it was going to be worth trying his own piece later.

Lucy had only put a small bit in her mouth, even with help Jackal's kitchen skills were not to be trusted, and was sure she could see her boyfriend sweating nervously before he snapped.

"I tried okay, I haven't actually made cake before and if this one isn't poisonous then it'll at least be better than other stuff I've tried to make!"

Upon swallowing, her reaction was clear. "Jackal…" Yes he was definitely sweating. "This is…" It might have been a bit mean of her to keep him in suspense. "Amazing!" But she wasn't that mean to keep him waiting for too long.

"I'm sorry I messed- wait, its good?"

"You have singlehandedly introduced me to why Erza's so fond of her strawberry cakes." It was light, fluffy and hit points with all the right taste buds, but it might not have been that good though; nobody would ever know what went through the redhead's mind when it came to cake, but the way Jackal's face lit up was adorable, so she wouldn't tell him that.

This mostly turned into a self-competition of 'how many types of fluff can I fit into one fic?' and I managed about three… Also this is my first time working with Jackal's character so I hope it was okay?