A/N: It's week 2 of NaNoWriMo! My chapters have been getting shorter as of late, but I tried to make sure you guys at least get a little something from me for everything before I took my break to work on my novel.
Novel update: I'm 17k into this bad boy, and only on the third chapter... I've also already killed at least 30 people O.O
I think you'll enjoy this chapter though, so let's get to it!
This is War
For the first time since joining Fairy Tail, Lucy couldn't blame the destruction of her apartment on her team. Just that morning over breakfast, she'd joked with Gajeel about hoping her apartment had made it through the past few days intact, since she'd been away with Cobra.
Sadly, the blonde opened the door to find gallons of water rushing out past her feet and soaking into her boots. A peek inside, just a wary glance that she really hadn't wanted to to give, showed her that the wooden floor she'd had enchanted to protect it from being damaged by fire was warped and bowing up from the nails that had been holding it down.
"I was wondering if you were coming back soon."
With a quivering lower lip, Lucy turned and looked down to find her landlady glaring up at her from behind her wing-tipped glasses. "I-I didn't… I…"
The older woman's lips pursed while looking into the tidy apartment. "The empty apartment next to yours had a leaky pipe," she said. "It burst last night and flooded my entire building."
It really wasn't Lucy's fault, then. Sadly, she already knew what the woman was going to say.
"I'm not paying to have your floor replaced. The pipes will be handled later today. Find someone to deal with your apartment."
The blonde could only nod before the older woman turned and walked away, the familiar sandals on her feet that Lucy knew had once been hers squishing with each step as she carefully descended the stairs.
With a heavy sigh, Lucy made her way inside. She winced while struggling to pull the door closed. It seemed the wooden frame had finally taken a deep breath and swelled to the point of being nearly nonfunctional. With each slow step through her apartment, Lucy found more and more damage.
Her desk was ruined, the manuscript she'd been working on not having been saved from the water that had ripped one of her walls to shreds. She could see into the next apartment. The tiles in her kitchen were royally fucked.
And the worst part about it all was that, even though she had enough money to pay her rent a couple days early for a change - which reminded her, she needed to go and give the money to the landlady - Lucy had absolutely no way to pay for a new floor, wall, and furniture.
She was totally screwed on this one. So, all she could do was grab the sheet that had been hanging off of her bed, that already had the beginnings of that gross mildew smell wafting from it, and hang it on the wall to cover the huge hole, then go to the bathroom and take a nice hot shower.
Well, that had been the plan. Except there was no water in the building, apparently. Standing naked in the shower, Lucy dropped her head to the tiled wall and just let herself cry at the unfairness of it all.
After spending the whole day scouring every repairman's shop, looking for the best deal she could, Lucy was running out of options. No one wanted to start the job with only a portion of their payment. Not with a mage from Fairy Tail, at least. And when she told them just how much damage there really was, and everything that needed to get handled, the amount of money that she would need to fork out was about an entire month's worth of her rent. Right there. Down the drain.
She couldn't even think of what the hell she was going to do now, though. And there was no way she could stay in her apartment.
Gajeel was the first option, because he'd let her crash at his place while getting repairs done at her own several times before, and then other times when she just really needed to hide from her team and get some peace and quiet.
The only problem was that Gajeel and Pantherlily had left on a mission just that morning; the same one she had been invited to join before she'd taken a job with Cobra.
Then there was her team.
Natsu and Happy… Their house was a pig sty, and there was no way in hell she was cleaning that monstrosity. Never again.
Gray was instantly off-limits. Juvia would creep on her so fast, maybe drown her, if she even entertained the thought of sleeping in his studio apartment.
Erza and Wendy were both a no-go. Because of a certain someone setting the bushes on fire and blaming it on Lucy, she was no longer allowed on the premises of Fairy Hills. Sometimes she really wanted to punch her partner in the nuts. Still, it had been a day worth remembering when Natsu gotten so excited about a new buffet that he just had to tell Erza about, and he'd accidentally set the bushes on fire while waiting for her to come downstairs.
Which left a whole lot of no options for the Celestial mage as she walked into the guild just before dinner. Nothing aside from figuring out how much money it would cost for her to stay in a hotel until her apartment was fixed up. Well, after she had the money needed to get the place fixed and then get the work done.
Her gaze trailed over the guild's inhabitants. Mira and the Strauss siblings had a full house as it was. No way was she asking Bickslow to sleep on his couch; fucking was one thing, and they were friends, but not that close.
Cana. Just no.
One person after another was checked off her list as someone she really just couldn't ask a favor of. The Connell family, while they were total sweethearts, had enough on their plates. No one in the guild was really made of money, not that she was looking to ask anyone for a loan.
Then there was Cobra.
Lucy's lips turned down and her eyes narrowed while watching him sit at a table off in the corner, the same table Gajeel always sat at. 'No. No way.' She couldn't ask a favor of the Poison Slayer. He'd made it painfully clear that there was just nothing she could do to make him even remotely nice.
Still, Lucy was completely out of options, and she was just desperate enough to make a fool of herself.
The worst that could happen was Cobra making fun of her. Again.
Lucy finally realized that she was just standing at the doors of the guild, and made her way through the hall, around the tables and skirting the brawl that Natsu and Gray had started, to sit down in front of Cobra.
He didn't look up from playing with Monty though, and then she had yet one more reason to just not ask him for a favor. If she tried to stay the night at Cobra's even just a single night, Monty would be there. Slithering all over the place. She just couldn't picture the Poison Slayer putting his new serpentine friend in a cage of any sort.
And maybe it would be longer than a night that she'd need to stay. At least until Gajeel came back, and then she could sleep at the Iron Slayer's house. And he could help her with the repairs for her apartment. Gajeel had built his own house, and he'd been working on remodeling his bathroom - because he'd discovered the gloriousness that was taking a bath after a long, hard mission. Which meant he really wouldn't have the time to help her out in the first place. Not without putting his own home improvements on hold.
Monty's head turned toward the blonde for a moment before his attention was drawn back to Cobra from the Slayer's fingers fluttering under its jaw.
Maybe it wouldn't be too horrible sleeping on Cobra's couch. He was relatively quiet and Lucy would try to make sure she didn't get in his personal bubble, or bother him, as much as humanly possible. She'd only be over long enough to get some sleep, maybe make a meal or two for them if he didn't feel like cooking. They would need to take a job soon anyway, even though they'd just gotten back, so she could start saving up to get the repairs done. Which meant that would be even fewer days of her taking up the space on his couch. Just a few nights. Maybe only two. One at the very least.
Or she could just swallow her tongue and sleep on a damn park bench and hope she made it through the night un-raped.
Cobra looked up from the snake in his hands to the blonde as she tried to glare a hole through the table. Her head lifted and their eyes met, and just when her lips parted, he nodded. "Sure, as long as you need."
He went right back to playing with Monty, and all the pep-talking Lucy had been giving herself to just get up the nerve and ask him to stay the night, went right out the window. Her shoulders visibly slumped in relief. That had been a whole lot easier than she'd anticipated.
Cobra's single eye never left the little albino snake. "I didn't think you'd even consider asking," he whispered.
"I wasn't planning on it, but… desperate times, right?" She cringed a moment later. Sure, Cobra wasn't exactly the nicest guy in the world, but he did have his moments. There was a nice guy somewhere under all the crusty, grumpy bullshit. And even though he'd upset her the night before at the guild, he wasn't totally heartless.
Most likely.
"You can use my washer and dryer, by the way," he said.
"Thanks, Cobra," she smiled.
Still, the Poison Slayer didn't look up from the snake he was holding. His face was completely blank. "You'd let me sleep at your apartment if I didn't have anywhere to go, so…"
He did have a point. If the tables were turned, Lucy wouldn't just let him stay out on the street. She just really hadn't pictured Cobra being the same way.
It wasn't until hours later when she was lying down on the couch with a blanket around her and listening to the steady hum of his washing machine, that Lucy remembered her decision to keep some distance from him.
Well, that was most definitely in the shitter.
Lucy was pulled from her dreams of Jewels going up in flames and enchanted floorboards cackling at her misfortune, by the soft hum of a fan and an odd metallic scratching sound. She tucked the blanket around herself just a little tighter and burrowed further into the couch. Still, she knew it was pointless to try and sleep any longer. Even though she was exhausted, there was just no way she could actually get a good night's rest while trying to figure out just what she could do about her apartment.
Lucy rolled over and opened her bleary eyes to find the apartment still bathed in darkness, save for a single bright red cherry of light that hovered over what she knew was Cobra's dining table. A gust of wind fluttered inside. The little orange-red light lifted higher, brightened, then lowered to its original position.
She didn't even question just what was going on, and instead slowly sat up. The light lifted again, and when it brightened she caught a glimpse of Cobra's face, mostly shadowed, highlighted with orange. His single eye was distant, unseeing as though he was looking into an entirely different dimension.
Lucy wrapped the blanket around herself a little tighter as she stood and silently walked over to the table. Once she was seated across from the silent Poison Slayer, she could see the little fan propped up in the open window, pointing out toward the sleeping city. The little ceramic bowl on the table next to his hand, holding small specks of grey ash. Long fingers gingerly holding a black cigarette between them. A small black cardboard box holding the rest of the cigarettes, and a little purple lighter perched on top.
Cobra took another drag of his cigarette, breathing the toxic air in deeply before blowing the smoke into the fan. He silently slid the pack across the table to the blonde, then flicked the ashes from the tip into the little ceramic dish.
Lucy let out a slow breath while pulling one from the pack and lighting it. She hadn't smoked in a while, and the only reason she'd picked it up in the first place was to piss her dad off and try to get his attention. As a mage, and with the sheer amount of running she had to do on a regular basis, it really wasn't the best idea to start up again.
Still, as she took a long pull and inhaled, feeling the thickness of the smoke she wasn't used to, Lucy felt just a little more at ease for a change. 'Black cherry cloves…'
"No wonder you smell so goo… Uh…"
Cobra snorted and stared down at his hands. "Sure," he whispered. "We'll go with that."
Lucy took another drag, still looking at the Poison Slayer. While it was a horrible habit for her or any other normal person, this was a buffet for him. All the toxins in a cigarette were just another meal for the Poison Slayer.
"At least it's not cigars," she finally whispered.
"Don't like the shitty smell?"
"No, I don't have any blue dresses."
Cobra well and truly choked on the puff of smoke that he'd just pulled in. It wasn't often that he choked while smoking, but he was too busy hacking up a damn lung from the surprise bullshit she'd just pulled on him.
"Buy me a blue dress, and you can call me Monica," Lucy laughed while tapping her cigarette on the ash tray.
"Y-You're… fucking evil," he rasped. Since when had the blonde decided to let out the damn sass? Not that he was complaining a whole lot about it, since it was hilarious to listen to when it was just in her soul. But that was beyond what he'd ever expected to get past her filters.
Lucy, for her part, figured it was time she stopped trying to be a good little girl all the damn time. If there was anyone who would understand that her head wasn't always a little ball of sunshine, it was the guy who could hear her soul.
"We'd have to substitute Makarov's office for the oval one," Cobra chuckled.
"It's a deal."
The pair sat in silence for a short while, with Cobra lighting his fresh cigarette with the last, then crushing the filter in the ash tray.
"You're welcome to more," he said.
Lucy shook her head while resting it on one hand. "These take longer," she whispered. "I'm not really a smoker anyway."
"So, your apartment, huh?"
Lucy winced. "Yeah… It looks like the team's gonna be getting together for a mission soon. I can't pay anyone to fix it up yet, and the lowest quote for the repairs nearly had me in tears."
"Did you ask anyone in the guild?"
"Like who?" she muttered. Lucy scowled when he blew a puff of smoke in her face to get her to look at him.
"You've got wood floors," Cobra pointed out. "What's-her-face… Glasses, closet sadist… Talks like her tongue got caught in a poet's snatch..."
"Laki?"
"Right, she's a Wood-Make mage. Why don't you ask her to make you some floorboards, and you can pay her for the wood?"
"I'd still have to install it," Lucy said. "And one of my walls is fucked. Then there's my furniture..."
"You don't know how to fix a wall?"
Lucy frowned and shook her head. Without thinking, she lit another cigarette, completely missing the small smile ticking up the corners of Cobra's lips. "Gajeel knows, but he's on a job right now. And he's got his own stuff to do. Even with Laki making the wood, I'd still have to pay a repairman to do the labor. And that alone is almost forty-thousand Jewels."
The blonde blinked in surprise when Cobra's free hand gently settled on top of hers.
"That rustbucket isn't the only one who knows how to lay a few boards down," he chuckled. "I was born and raised doing hard labor, so…"
"S-So, you…"
"I'd be willing to help you get it done," he said softly. "It'll get you off my couch and out of my fucking house a whole lot faster."
Lucy blushed brilliantly, but she completely ignored the snarky comment in favor of what he'd said before. "I-I can pay you," she said. "You don't need to do this for free…"
"Never said it was happening for free."
"How much do you want me to pay?" she asked.
Cobra smirked and leaned forward slightly. "Oh, I don't want your money."
"Then what…"
"I want a trade," Cobra said. "I show you how to do this, and help you get it all done. And you do something for me in return."
Lucy really didn't like the sound of that, but she still took his hand and shook it. When his smile widened, she got the distinct feeling that this was a huge fucking mistake.
"Finish that smoke and we'll get started," he said while lighting his third cigarette of the night.
"This isn't what I'd pictured," Lucy said slowly.
"You said I needed a hobby."
"This… is not the hobby I had in mind!"
Cobra frowned over at the blonde where she sat on the counter in his kitchen, just next to the sink already filled with dishes. "Would you rather I get a more evil hobby?" he asked. "I could take up taxidermy, but I'd need corpses to practice on. Lots of corpses."
Lucy rolled her eyes and swiped a finger over rim of the large bowl sitting in her lap, then popped it into her mouth. "Okay, fine," she mumbled. "This is better than going on killing sprees, but still…"
"Shut up," he said. "Now, what's next?"
"Why don't you read it for yourself?"
"Because I'm focusing on this. I don't read these things normally."
"They're your notes," she shot back. "From watching the lacrimavision."
"So?"
"Cobra," Lucy laughed. "This is insane."
"Do you want me to help fix your fucking apartment, or not?!"
"... Fine… One and a half teaspoons of vanilla. Good, now one tablespoon of milk."
"I thought it said two of milk," he frowned.
"You add the rest later," Lucy said. "Mix it all up, and then add the rest of the milk, a little at a time, until it's smooth." She leaned over slightly while swiping her finger in the mostly empty batter bowl in her lap again. "Little more milk."
"What's it supposed to look like?" He paused when Lucy's hand closed over his on the spoon. This was the same thing she'd done when he started putting the dry ingredients together for the cake batter. She'd had to show him how to properly stir so he didn't tire his damn arm out, since he hadn't gone out to buy an electric mixer just yet.
The spoon scraped along the edge of the glass bowl, catching some of the powdered sugar he'd missed, then Lucy directed his hand up and away from the frosting to create little peaks that melted back into the frosting a moment later.
"It'll probably be fine, but let's taste it," Lucy said softly.
He didn't think twice about dipping his finger into the mixture and holding it up to her lips. It didn't even occur to him, or to the blonde, that it was a little on the odd side for her lips to wrap around the offered digit.
It wasn't until Cobra felt the gentle suction, her teeth lightly scraping over the tip of his finger to get the extra frosting off, her tongue drawing small, tight circles, that he realized just what the hell was going on. Lucy, for her part, still hadn't caught on. She was just tasting the frosting, licking his finger just like she did with her own when she was trying to get something off of them.
If this was what she did naturally, how thoroughly she was suckling that lucky digit, then Cobra could only imagine just what the blonde was capable of when it was a dick in her mouth. He took a shaky breath as Lucy pulled away, meeting her gaze steadily.
"It needs more confectioner's sugar," Lucy whispered. "It's buttercream, but all I'm tasting is the butter."
Cobra frowned down at the bowl, then looked toward Lucy again when she swiped a finger through the frosting. With a playful smirk, the Poison Slayer leaned forward and wrapped his lips around her frosting-coated digit. The only problem with licking her was that he wanted a whole lot more than just her damn finger. Roses burst across his tastebuds, but Cobra had to force himself to focus on the flavor of the icing.
If he was going to learn how to bake, to make things like this from scratch, he needed to know whether it was too sweet. Too much sugar was something he was perfectly fine with, but she was right. The butter was overpowering. He might as well have just put a stick of it in his damn mouth.
"More sugar," Lucy whispered. She watched as her finger slipped from between Cobra's lips before he turned back toward the frosting and started slowly adding more sugar.
"Those baking shows are fucking evil," Cobra said.
"Why's that? Paula Deen giving you nightmares?" she laughed.
"No," he chuckled. "Every time I see one, it makes me hungry. Then I wanna make the shit, and since I don't know how, I'm just… Pissed at the screen."
"You're gonna get a fat ass if you make everything you see," Lucy giggled. Her eyes widened when he stuck his tongue out at her and shoved his frosting coated finger into her mouth. But then, she just couldn't care about a whole lot of anything. The blonde was lost in the decadent taste of perfectly blended buttercream dancing over her tongue.
"How's that?"
'Oh my god, I can't tell if it's his finger or the icing that tastes better…'
Cobra went to pull his hand away, then scowled as Lucy gently bit down on his finger. "Let go."
"Tathes good," she said with a teasing smile.
He rolled his eye and tried to pull away again, then just gave the hell up when she bit him again. Instead, he took one of her fingers and dipped it in the icing then brought it to his lips. "I guess I should taste this then. Right?"
Lucy nodded, her gaze honing in on his parted lips. His tongue slipped out to run over the pad of her finger, and her own jaw dropped in shock and whole buckets of arousal. She had to have been losing her mind though, because it was almost as though the Poison Slayer was in the process of showing her just what his toxic tongue was capable of. More than just ripping into someone and bringing them to tears.
No, this was a skill that would bring the happiest of tears to a woman's eyes. All she could picture was his face nestled between her legs, his tongue circling her sensitive bundle in quick, tight circles. Those thin lips puckering on her slick flesh.
Cobra carefully withdrew his finger from between her lips just when the timer on the oven went off. Lucy drew back in surprise a moment later, pulling her hands to her lap.
"Cakes cool in the pans for ten minutes, right?"
"Y-Yeah," she whispered.
Cobra turned and set the circular cake pans on the stove then turned off the oven, glancing at the dazed blonde over his shoulder. "You sure about that?"
"Uh-huh…"
"Or do you just wanna suck on my fingers a little more?" he smirked.
"Definitely," Lucy breathed.
Cobra slowed in closing the oven door, then silently turned to look at the Celestial mage. "You wanna repeat that?" he whispered.
"Definitely…"
'Oh my god… the things he could do. I shouldn't have let him do that, but man… if I could just feel him doing that a little more…'
He could practically feel her eyes as they trailed over his body, from the thermal shirt he was wearing to the grey plaid sleep pants, down to his dark grey socks. Slower on the trek back up to focus on his lips, his scar, his ears. Back to his lips.
Cobra reached forward and steadied the empty batter bowl just before it could slip from Lucy's grasp, then set it off to the side as he came to stand in front of her.
"I think baking a cake at four in the morning has made you unreliable and delirious," he whispered.
"Probably," Lucy said, a small smile on her lips. He was a whole lot closer than was healthy. She was mentally incapable of handling the Poison Slayer like this, that was for sure. "But you looked like you wanted more than just me sucking on your fingers."
"A blowjob would be preferable," he chuckled.
Lucy leaned closer until she could feel Cobra's breath feathering across her lips. God, what she wouldn't give to just taste him, really taste him. That small brush of an accidental kiss two nights before hadn't been nearly enough, but she usually had issues with the things her drunken brain did.
"I bet it would, you little hussy," Lucy laughed.
"Says the one itching to blow me."
"Across the country with a bazooka, maybe," Lucy said.
"God, you're just a ball of fucking sweetness, aren't you?" Cobra laughed as Lucy sat back and gave him a cheeky grin. Moment, totally fucking ruined. Damn her soul and its logical bullshit. Still, he couldn't really complain all that much about the blonde being a little more open with him. It was funny, even if all it did was give him more of a reason to tease her right back.
"Precious cupcakes ain't got shit on all of this," Lucy said. The fact that Cobra burst out laughing had her tipping over the deep end into hysterics right along with him. Maybe it had been a bad idea to bake a cake when neither of them had slept all that much, and she was most likely going to pass out again in a little while to catch up on what she lost.
Of course, that wouldn't happen until after Cobra had iced the cake - once it had cooled completely - and they each got to try a bite.
"I'll take the dishes," Lucy said softly once they'd calmed down. "Unless you wanna do them."
"In a little bit," he shrugged. "C'mon, we've got some time to kill, and Cupcake Wars is about to come on."
"Do you just have the tv guide memorized?" Lucy asked while hopping down from the counter and following the Poison Slayer into the living room. The two sat on the couch and she didn't even question it when he draped the blanket she'd been using over their legs.
"Kinda," he said while flipping through the channels. "Hand me a smoke?"
The blonde chuckled and reached over to the coffee table where he'd set a fresh pack of cigarettes just before they started baking. It really was a horrible habit, and she couldn't believe that she hadn't noticed before just how much he did it.
"Just on shitty nights," Cobra said. He glanced at the blonde while she hit the pack against her palm and pulled the plastic wrapping off as though she'd been chain-smoking for years. Lucy put a cigarette between her lips and flicked the lighter. The flame danced over the blackened tip for only a moment before she set everything down and took a long, full drag from the little deathstick.
"And tonight's a shitty night?" she asked while handing him the cigarette and gently blowing out the smoke.
"Sort of." He wasn't going to admit that he'd had another nightmare, worse than the last time she was in his apartment, about the things Brain had done to him. Barbed wire as a whip was just the beginning of that horrible memory, and he really hadn't wanted to remember anything else.
"You know, you really shouldn't smoke inside. I'm pretty sure your landlord is gonna flip shit if he smells it."
Cobra shrugged as Lucy set the ashtray on his leg. "It's cold as fuck outside. I'm not gonna freeze my ass off just to get a damn snack." He rolled his eye and held the cloven cigarette up to her lips, watching as they wrapped around the filter so delicately. It just wasn't fucking fair to see her like this. "Just take one."
"... the battle for cupcake supremacy…"
"I've had enough tonight," Lucy laughed. "I shouldn't even be doing it in the first place. We can't all just absorb nicotine for a pick-me-up."
"And yet you keep coming back for more."
"Because you're a bad influence on my better judgment," Lucy giggled.
"... and Florian Bellanger, owner of Mad-Mac Chefs…"
"Your show's starting," she said softly.
"Tell me something first," he whispered while setting the ashtray on the end table. "How much of a bad influence am I on that better judgment of yours?"
"I'd say a relatively bad influence," she answered. She pulled Cobra's fingers to her lips again and took a full drag of the clove cigarette, then lightly touched his chin and brought her lips closer. So close she could almost feel his lips on hers, only a hair away.
Cobra's eye closed as Lucy breathed into his mouth, instantly sucking in the smoke she let out. Secondhand. Not nearly as bad as getting it right from the source, but the cherry flavoring mixing with the cloves, and all of that blending so perfectly with Lucy herself…
The blonde sucked in a sharp breath when she felt Cobra's tongue flick across her lips. "A very bad influence," she rasped.
"You taste like fucking roses," Cobra growled. He reached back and crushed the half-finished smoke in the ashtray, just as Lucy moved in a little closer. Close enough for him to feel her lips tremble against his, how they parted to let her tongue slip out and brush over his lower lip.
"Is that so?" she whispered.
"Yeah…"
She whimpered as he nipped at her lips. His hand wound around the back of her neck to draw her into his web, and Lucy just couldn't find the will to pull away. Not when he was so different than how she would have assumed Cobra would be while kissing someone. It wasn't rough and demanding, but gentle. Exploring. Not quite timid, but still searching for something that she was more than happy to give.
Her hands shakily ghosted up the column of his throat, just behind his ears, and sifted through the soft spikes of his hair. A rumbling purr shot straight from his lips down to her core. 'Good god… I'm dead. Or this is a perfect dream…'
And if he could have said a thing, Cobra would have completely agreed with her assessment. Soft lips that he'd barely had the time to enjoy before were his for the taking right there on his couch. The position was a little awkward, since they'd been sitting side by side and only their heads were turned. But then Lucy shifted. One hand left his hair and trailed down to brush her fingers over his collarbone just as she turned to fully face him.
Just as his tongue slipped between her parted lips to tease the blonde into a mindless stupor.
"... topping it with a Kumquat Swiss Meringue Buttercream…"
Lucy's breath stalled in her lungs when Cobra's hand moved lower, but instead of getting to feel his strong fingers skittering across her chest or even between her legs, all he did was gently circle around to her lower back. Beneath her baggy shirt, but nothing more.
And damnit, she was desperate for more. She wanted him pouncing on her, treating her body like a rag doll and sating his every wicked desire. Something. Anything. Even a little brush of his thumb over her pebbled, and oh-so-ready to be touched, nipples.
Cobra intentionally slowed the kiss even more. He wanted the same thing as Lucy, but there was a very real difference between him and the other idiots she'd been with in any capacity. He enjoyed taking his time.
Was it manipulative? Sure. But he wanted Lucy to have just a taste, just enough to keep her thinking about what he'd done, wondering what he still could do. That way, she was the one coming to him and not the other way around. Because if he approached the blonde, it would be his head on a platter and his dick on a string around Erza's neck. Of course, Lucy couldn't just make it easy to pull back. Especially not when her slender fingers danced over the tip of his ear. Just that small brush of attention had him fighting to keep his control intact. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, his ears were more sensitive than almost any other part of him.
Desire coiled deep in his gut and had Cobra bringing her just a little closer. Just enough so he could free his other arm from being pinned between his body and the back of the couch.
Lucy whimpered with need as he gently sucked on her lower lip, following the Poison Slayer as his head gently drifted back. Her eyes slid open to find him watching her, his single eye a hazy lavender.
"Delirious and unreliable," he chuckled.
"Why did you stop?" Lucy felt her cheeks flaring to life as he brushed her hair away from her eyes. She hadn't thought about what she must look like when she'd woken up in the middle of the night to find Cobra at the table. Her hair had been pulled up into a bun when she went to sleep, but it was almost always falling apart with stray strands everywhere by the time morning rolled around. 'Oh man, I must look like a train wreck…'
"... filled with a chocolate chipotle truffle and topped with chocolate buttercream, and…"
Cobra let out a short, huffing laugh. "I thought you knew there were birds nesting in your hair."
"... Ass."
He didn't say anything in response, because really… What was there to say? That he didn't mind the sleepy look on the blonde? No, he was keeping that to himself. Or perhaps that he was enjoying how comfortable she felt, and that she hadn't even considered trying to make herself "presentable" because he was going to be around? Hell no.
"We should get those cakes on the cooling racks," Cobra whispered.
"Has it been ten minutes already?"
"... winner of Cupcake Wars is…"
"I'd say more than ten minutes. The show's over."
"Then, um… W-Well…" She knew for a fact that this show in particular was an hour long. So, how in the hell had that much time passed? Unless she'd completely lost track of time while Cobra's lips had been on hers. Good god, if that was the case, then Lucy just didn't know how she was supposed to handle it. What would it be like if they'd done anything more than simply kissing?
Besides, she really didn't need to be kissing the Poison Slayer in the first place. Her plan to stay away from him had backfired in a major way, much more than simply sleeping on his couch. And he wasn't making it any easier to do what she'd originally set out to do with his fingers dancing along her scalp. Or his chest beneath her fingers.
And still, he wasn't moving away from her. Just sitting in the same spot, watching as her mind reeled with the realization of just how long they'd been like that.
"Unless they can sit in the pan for a little bit longer."
"They won't be ruined if they do," she whispered.
"Then what are you waiting for?"
"Huh?" She took a quivering breath as a small smile turned up his lips.
"... tonight on Cupcake Wars…"
"Better hurry, because I really want another smoke now. So - mmph!" Cobra's grip on the blonde tightened and he turned so his back was resting against the arm of the couch, with Lucy kneeling between his spread legs as her lips moved over his.
Later on, he would have to deal with her trying to sort herself out. Lucy wasn't going to let something like this go so easily, he was sure. But that could be dealt with when the time came. For the time being, Cobra was just going to let himself enjoy how it felt to have a woman in his arms, soft lips moving over his, a wicked tongue curling around his own.
"... topped with marshmallow fondant…"
The episodes of Cupcake Wars referenced in this chapter are "Weird Al" and "Cupcake Love Story". For anyone interested, there are recipes available on the Food Network website from Cupcake Wars; only the winners, but still...
