Summary: Inspired by an episode of RWBY. Lucy owns an interesting apron….
Pairings: Lucy/Cana friendship, Lucy/Mira friendship, Lucy/Levy friendship, Lucy/Gajeel friendship, Wendy/Charle friendship, Erza/Cake, some implied Natsu/Lucy, crack implied Gajeel/Natsu, implied Gajeel/Levy, and other friendship feels.
YouTube Prompt: Juvia tribute to 'Bubbles' by Biffy Clyro.
It was an afternoon for the girls at Lucy's apartment. Which meant a lot of cake and tea and gossiping as Cana rummaged through Lucy's underwear drawer, Levy skimmed Lucy's latest story, and everyone else were cautiously curious as Lucy tried to keep her temper. Thankfully not all the girls were here what with Juvia stalking Gray, Evergreen out on a job with her boys, Bisca and Asuka having some family time with Alzack, and Lisanna being dragged out for some fishing with Happy and Natsu, otherwise Lucy would have seriously run out of room in her apartment. She had only invited Erza, Wendy, and Charle for tea and suddenly everyone had invited themselves over.
(Seriously, what was with everyone and her apartment?)
"Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucy!" Cana whined as she threw her arms round Lucy and nuzzled into her shoulder. "I'm hungry! Cook me something."
"There's cake," Lucy pointed out stiffly. "Four different types."
"Erza ate it all!"
Everyone turned to look at Erza who flushed sheepishly. There was no hiding the cake crumbs round her mouth or scattered down her shirt or all over the table….to be honest Lucy was surprised there was crumbs left.
"Oh fine," she sighed, "I'll cook everyone dinner."
"Yay!"
"Huzzah!"
"Free food!"
"Thank you Lucy," Mira giggled, "it's so nice to not be the one cooking."
"Yeah, yeah," Lucy grumbled as she headed into the kitchen. She put on her apron and nosed through her cupboards and fridge there wasn't much left to offer thanks to a certain pink-haired Dragon Slayer and his bottomless pit of a cat. "Hey," she wandered back into the main room, "Is pasta all right, with you guys?"
No one answered her as they all stared at her wide-eyed and mouths dropped open. Lucy stared down at her front wondering if she somehow managed to spill something on herself without realising but only saw the clean, pink, frills of her apron. She looked back up to see the surprised expressions on her friends face.
"Guys?" she prompted. "Hello? Pasta?"
"Huh?" Cana blinked. "Yeah. Pasta is fine."
"Is there something wrong with me?" Lucy asked bemused. "You all seem to be staring."
"Your apron!" Erza blurted out.
"My apron?" Lucy repeated. "What's wrong with my apron?"
She admit it was a little unusual while at the first glance it was a typical bright pink frilly apron it didn't change the fact that the black, bold, embroidered letters on her chest read: Do Nothing to the Cook.
"That's erm….a very interesting apron," Levy said diplomatically, "Lu-Chan."
"Certainly original," Wendy agreed.
"Rather unusual," Erza added.
"I really don't see what the big deal is," Charle said calmly, "an apron is an apron."
"Is there a reason why you need to tell us not to do anything to you?" Cana drawled out suggestively as she wiggled her eyebrows. "Something you're not telling us, Lucy?"
"Well you see," Lucy said nervously, "you know how Natsu takes everything literally?"
The girls all exchanged knowing looks at that. They have all lost count how often Natsu would hear a phrase or a metaphor and believe people to mean it literally. Mira and Cana then exchanged suggestively knowing looks before they leaned in with lewd expressions. "Uhuh," they grinned in unison.
Lucy's eye twitched slightly at that but she decided, for now, the best policy was just to ignore them. Otherwise their teasing would just get worse.
"To the point I think he does it on purpose to annoy us," Erza said coolly, "Go on."
"Well I used to have a Kiss the Cook apron….." Lucy trailed off as she remembered her embarrassment when Mira had presented her with the apron for her birthday present and then what happened afterwards. "…the kitchen ended up in utter carnage," she managed to choke out mournfully.
Oh the repair bills! She was still paying that off!
Cana's eyes bugged out at that. "Whoa!" she cried out.
"Lu-Chan!" Levy gasped.
"You destroyed the kitchen?!" Erza squeaked out. Her cheeks as red as her hair. "I didn't think you were that sort of girl!"
"Really?" Cana grinned. "I think the accurate assessment is that I didn't know that Natsu knew where to put it."
"Do you mind?!" Charle huffed as she covered Wendy's ears in a desperate attempt to preserve her charge's innocence. "Some of us are too young to hear the details of your sex life!"
"What?!" Lucy choked. "No!" she squawked. "There is no sex life! I have no sex life!" she shook her head rapidly and felt her cheeks heat up in humiliation. "I wasn't the one that was wearing the apron at the time!"
"You weren't?" Mira said disappointedly. "Then who was Natsu lip-locking in such a passionate embrace in your kitchen?"
"…..Gajeel."
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"….gihihihihihihihihihihihihihi," Cana chortled evilly. "Pfft!" she snorted. "Oh God!" she cackled. "That's priceless!"
And then she fell out of her seat laughing hysterically.
She was the only one. Erza, Mira, Wendy, and Charle all looked speechlessly as they were trying to work their brains round that one while Levy looked as if her soul had abandoned her body forever.
"Gajeel was borrowing my kitchen you see," Lucy babbled nervously in an attempt to fill the deadly silence, "he wanted to make a dinner for Levy-Chan and then Natsu came in and saw the apron and, well, kissed him. Because the apron told him too, and well….Gajeel didn't take to kindly to that."
"When you say that your kitchen ended up in utter carnage," Erza said shrewdly, "you mean Gajeel punched Natsu and Natsu fought back."
"It was a war zone!" Lucy wailed. "Fire everywhere and what Gajeel didn't destroy he ate to power himself up!"
"….so if you knew that Natsu would kiss you if you wear the Kiss the Cook apron," Mira spoke up with a strange gleam in her eyes that looked suspiciously like disappointment and tears, "then why didn't you wear it again?"
"It died an untimely death in the battle for Gajeel's virtue," Lucy said with mock solemnness, "this was actually an apology gift from Gajeel…..he said it was best to have this branded on so, and I quote, Salamander doesn't get any funny ideas."
"Gajeel brought you an apron?"
"Gajeel was trying to cook for me?"
"Did Natsu apologise as well?"
"Is that why Gajeel and Natsu aren't talking right now?"
"Forget all that," Cana waved a dismissive question, "the real question is, because I've seen Lucy's Kiss the Cook apron, how the hell did Gajeel fit in such a tiny, pink, frilly thing?"
And with that the mental image of Gajeel wearing the tiniest, pinkest, frilliest, apron entered everyone's mind and they all suddenly started giggling.
It will be ours before anyone could form a coherent sentence again.