prompt6: hot
summary: This cake tastes best served HOT.
thoughts: I'll let the 20th reviewer pick the next prompt — but wouldn't it be embarrassing if I didn't even get to 20 before the next chapter?

iii.

Lucy doesn't bother to hide the fact that yes, she is indeed staring at him. He grins at her from across the table and rests his chin on his hand. Between the two, sitting cold and neglected on the tabletop, is a single slice of strawberry cake, laced with white trims of frosting and a dainty strawberry to top it off. She glances at the piece of dessert for a fraction of a second and then she's back to scrutinizing his every move with a skeptical look in her eyes.

She finally breaks the silence by interrogating him, "When you so kindly asked me to eat lunch with you—"

(More like demanded.)

"—did you mean to say 'eat lunch in front of me while I watch with a creepy smile'?"

She wonders how he even got her to go in the first place.

He merely shrugs and either doesn't notice or doesn't mind that she just called him creepy. "It's not exactly lunch. I just wanted to buy it for you to celebrate our newly-established friendship."

"It's drugged, isn't it," she concludes.

Natsu blinks in surprise. As if it's a surprise — he so knew. "What."

"You put some sort of date rape drug in there. I can feel it." She continues to accuse him shamelessly, prodding the slice with a fork.

Lucy scowls when she hears strangled sounds as he (attempts and pretty much fails to) stifle his laughter at her (perfectly reasonable) assumption. "Stop being such a weirdo, Luce. It's just cake."

He's a quick one, she notes, scowling slightly at the nickname he so naturally decided on. Who was he to give her a nickname? How dare he be so familiar with her despite only knowing her for three days. Three days. How dare he—!

"You try it first," she suggests, pushing the plate closer to him.

Natsu's pink eyebrow rises. "If I do, then will you eat it?"

"I'll think about it."

So he grudgingly lifts a forkful of strawberry cake to his mouth, and Lucy watches closely — and unknowingly leans in — as he licks his lips and smiles. And—and is it getting hot in here or is it just her?

Her thoughts are completely terminated as he shoves another forkful haphazardly before her own lips, saying, "Your turn!"

Lucy freezes because she realizes two things:

1. He just used that fork.
2. That would be like, indirectly kissing.

(And the third thought had to do with her slight attraction to him for that split second, but of course, she chose to ignore that one.)

"No," she weakly pushes his hand away. "That fork has, like, your spit on it and stuff."

He has the audacity to roll his eyes at her. "Who cares. You won't even taste it."

"That's not the po—"

Natsu, being the deviously tenacious fellow he is, takes this opportunity as her mouth is open (and busy whining) to plunge the fork in, effectively force-feeding her the cake. She glares at him but bites down anyway — because if she were to remove the offensive fork, full of cake and all, it would be covered in her saliva and that would be gross. So yeah. She eats it.

It's fluffy and soft and sweet and—and damn it, she won't admit it, but it's probably the best cake she's ever had. But, she realizes, there's no need to admit anything because from the way Natsu is grinning at her, she knows that he can so tell that it was like eating a piece of heaven.

(And she swears the temperature of the room just rose twelve degrees.)

"Erza's cakes are the best," he comments, waving at the redhead at the counter. She smiles at him warmly and continues to sharpen her knives. "So what do think?"

Lucy doesn't meet his gaze and instead picks up the fork, guiding another piece of cake to her lips. Someone has to finish the cake, right? And it's not like she didn't like eating it or anything and—and ohmygod, why does she have to be such a messy eater 'cause she just got frosting on her face.

(Someone do her a favor and murder her. Like, right now.)

Natsu laughs at out loud, bringing a hand up to quickly swipe away the (stupidstupidstupid) frosting, his fingers very slightly brushing against her lips.

"I'll—I'll treat you next time," she stammers, trying hard to ignore her self-inflicted humiliation.

Natsu's grin brightens tenfold, and he asks, "Sometime soon?"

Lucy allows herself to return the smile. "Sometime soon."

,

,

,

(But, god, why is it so hot in here?)

ending notes: Must. Not. Reach. 1000 words—!