Prompt 1 - Cooking!
Enjoy! Beware that I'm no cook so this might be slightly inaccurate.
The water in the stream was cold and refreshing, and Levy couldn't help but sigh as she sunk into its depths. It slowly washed away the dirt and sweat, eased the ache in her bones, and even energized her a little bit, even after the hard sparring session. Plus, there was just something cool about bathing in the wild. Aside from the mud between her toes, the young woman practically felt like a water fairy.
It was a few days since they've arrived at the mountainside with Gajeel and Lily - taking two weeks of vacation from the guild to go on a 'grinding trip', as the Steel Dragon Slayer had called it. It involved a crazy mix of day-to-day sparring, exploring and surviving in the northern part of Fiore - and so far, it was completely and utterly exhausting. It seemed the man believed more in her abilities than she herself did, and trained her according to those beliefs.
She dipped into the water once again, wishing that she could stay in it forever. By the time she would come back, he would probably want to fight her again. He hadn't even gotten warmed up yet. The delicate brush of the water was much more preferable.
That's it, until she caught that smell.
It was like someone had thrown her into a five star restaurant after a week of starving. Her nose twitched, her eyes opened, and the next thing she knew, she was hopping around on the shore, drying herself off quickly and tugging on her clothes to see what was going on. She followed the warm aroma of roasting meat, various plants and mushrooms right into the heart of their camp, and openly gawked at what she saw there.
Gajeel was covered in sweat, bending above a metal pot of huge proportions, filled to the brim with bubbling liquid. He was staring at it intently as he peeled the skin off some fruit, before turning his fingers into small blades - cutting it up and letting the pieces fall into the pot. Then he stirred it. The large container was already filled with all sorts of herbs and vegetables, and a lot of cooked meat, and the smell was driving her insane.
Close by, Lily was in his larger form, dutifully roasting a boar-like creature above another fire, sprinkling it with handfuls of salt and spice. It was the other big source of the heavenly smell - crispy but juicy, and shining from the oils that were previously rubbed into its body.
Before she could decide which dish had her mouth watering more, Gajeel pulled away from his work and straightened, his spine cracking slightly. Honestly, he might've as well been the third dish with how he looked right then. With the thin sheen of sweat on his skin, the muscles and piercings and clever red eyes, he was a truly spicy concoction. Huffing slightly from the heat and rubbing at the messy bun at the back of his head? Oh my.
When he noticed her, his pierced eyebrow rose slightly, and she quickly averted her eyes, preparing for him to snicker and embarrass her for staring.
"Oi, Shorty. Come here."
But instead, there was a whoosh, and the next thing she knew, a rough cloth plopped down on top of her head.
"Huh?"
Quickly pulling it off - it appeared to be an apron similar to theirs - she noticed the Dragon Slayer motion at her to move closer, and followed him to the small mound of bags in the centre of the clearing, where he kneeled and started ruffling around for something.
Ignoring the rippling muscles of his back, Levy moved closer to see what he was doing, trying not to sound too distracted when she voiced her curiosity out loud.
"I'm giving you the recipe." Gajeel huffed out, wrestling with the box briefly - before plopping, of all things, a cooking book into her waiting hands. "Should be somewhere around here… You're making dessert."
"Such as?…" Levy murmured, fascinated, and touched the hard cover before looking back at him.
He raised an eyebrow at her, and she blushed.
"Cake. Or cupcakes." He snorted. "And a certain someone was asking for a special flavor."
Pantherlily's ear twitched in their direction, not leaving his work out of sight for even a second. "It's not like I've had much of a choice. You were voting for iron cake. I was voting for something we could all eat without dying."
"Well, the taste could have a little more variety." The Dragon Slayer groaned, heading back to his dish and patting her roughly on the back for good luck. Levy was carefully handling the tome as she browsed through its contents, and she'd almost dropped it.
She eventually found the recipe Gajeel was talking about - a simple guide scribbled on a piece of old paper and neatly tucked in between the pages - and quietly counted the needed ingredients, figuring what she'd have to conjure up with her magic, such as the kiwi fruits.
It wasn't a hassle at all, considering that for the past days, all she did was conjure up all sorts of things. In the end, she just got a little sweaty. With the graceful moves of her hand, a small rune prison and ingredients appeared practically out of thin air - a twist of her wrist and the latter were mixing up, heating, growing and shaping inside of the former. The word shaped kiwi that zapped away from her other hand was peeled and cut, with some other berries added for - as Gajeel had called it - variety, then there was a dash of sugar and spice, and the filling flew in a playful arc to fill the forms, just as they begun baking.
After a meager half of an hour, like a kitchen pixie, Levy headed for the two imposing males as they put out the food on the dining site, the warm cupcakes floating behind her as they followed - before she chose a large, unoccupied plate at the side of the site and waved at them to settle down.
From where he was ripping the boar open, Lily noticed her antics and whistled in amazement, with Gajeel grinning toothily as he offered her a bowl of stew.
"That looks good." He purred as he sniffed at the cupcake plate.
"Same goes for you." Levy hummed, looking at the curious roots and herbs inside of the bowl. She could feel her mouth watering. She was more than ready to dig in. "Thanks for the meal, and excuse me while I'll stuff my face full of it."
The chuckle that followed after her exclamation was lost as she took the first spoonful into her mouth. After a day of hard work, training, and hunting, an explosion of delicate flavors assaulted her tongue, all syncing up create a spicy harmony that made her melt. The chewy pieces were more intense, so Gajeel had balanced them out with mild roots and some sort of potatoes. It was heaven.
The crunchy bread roll that accompanied the soup was there when she needed a nibble of something more dry… at least until she got to the boar. The dry, crunchy outside, sprinkled with salt and spice, or the juicy, boiled inside, probably filled with some oil mix before it evaporated - she couldn't quite decide which was better. And the baked vegetables, half buried in the ashes, once peeled from their charred skins made her sigh.
By the time she got to the cupcakes, she had calmed down somewhat from her flavor-induced high, although she couldn't deny they were incredibly good as well. She chose the ingredients well, some cinnamon and wild berries filling the gaps left in the taste of the usual kiwi. And the perks of her magic included precise control of the warming process, therefore they weren't charred at all.
She wasn't biologically capable of eating as much as Gajeel and Lily could - they were literally swallowing everything that was on their plates, before taking more - but right now, she wished she could. She wasn't sure if it was the atmosphere, or the skill of the cooks, or her hunger and tiredness during the days of hardcore survival - this was the best meal she ever had.
It seemed that the boys shared her enthusiasm, as soon after, there was nothing left. Lily stretched, like a cat, and then discreetly licked at the rest of the cupcake filling on his paw, while Gajeel looked at her and winked, looking incredibly satisfied. Levy winked back at him.
Keep feeding me like that, and I'll follow you onto another one of those hellish training sessions. The thought made her laugh.
Hope the ending isn't too sudden.
C-D
