Series: Fairy Tail

Pairing: Elfman Strauss/Evergreen

Title: It's a Piece of Cake to Bake a Pretty Cake

Prompt: Baking

Rating: E for Everyone

Word Count: 1841

AN: Today's fic is an Elfever prompt requested by CheshiresWordIsNonsense (aka Raijin-shuu atm.) Hope everyone enjoys it! (I apologize profusely for the Lazytown reference)

"You know, Ever. When you invited me over to 'bake a cake,' I kind of thought I would just end up licking the spoon." Elfman murmured, as he held a handful of eggs in one hand and a bag of flour in the other.

The young woman in the kitchen with him glared at him past her glasses, holding still the bowl of spices that she was mixing together. "Does that really sound like something I would let happen?"

Elfman frowned. It really didn't, but a man could dream. "I guess not."

"Right, not pass me the eggs." The brunette put her hand out towards the tanned man. Elfman reached over and placed one egg in her smaller palm. She cracked in against the counter, emptied the contents into an empty bowl, and then lifted her hand again to repeat the procedure.

Elfman obeyed her requests silently, but his brow furrowed as he watched her silently beating the eggs together.

While Evergreen heated butter on the stove, she turned her gaze to the take over mage at her side. "What is it? You're awfully quiet."

Elfman scrunched his nose up, he had hoped she wouldn't catch him lost in thought, but she always found a quiet Elfman suspicious. He sighed. "This is for Laxus, right?"

"Of course. His birthday is soon." She said with a smile, and then turned a serious eye to him. "But he is not to know that you're helping with this. He does not like the date of his birth getting around."

Elfman clamped his mouth shut and nodded. He didn't really understand what the big deal was, but he could definitely go without dealing with an angry Laxus.

Ever poured the melted butter over top of her eggs and began to mix them together. "Is that all?" She asked.

Elfman opened his mouth, and then shut it once again without saying anything. He thought over his words, it was important to phrase his questions carefully with Evergreen. He didn't want to seem needy, but…

"Do you need the flour yet?" He chose to change the subject.

Evergreen rolled her eyes. "Sure. I'll take it." She held her hand out and waited until she felt the weight of the bag in her mitt before bringing it to the counter in front of her and scooping into it with a measuring cup. "Find me the sugar too." She requested of her partner.

Elfman bowed down and opened up the cupboard to Evergreen's right. He shuffled around in them a bit, before standing back up with a blue paper bag marked "sugar" in Evergreen's handwriting. He held it up to her, but she passed him the measuring cup instead of taking the bag from him.

Elfman grimaced, but took it from her without arguing.
"Just add two cups to the flour." She told him, as she turned and poured milk into her egg mixture. "And then add the spices and mix them together. And stop pouting; this is the easiest part."

The young man's features turned up, as he saw she had her back to him. She couldn't have seen his expression, so how did he even know? He chuckled softly, and followed her instructions one by one.

The sugar was packed tightly inside the bag, as wasn't as pliable as he imagined, so when he tried to just scoop it out as Ever had done with the flour, he just found himself scraping the surface. His face scrunched up again, as he realized he had no choice but to pour the sugar grains into the cup.

Elfman turned up the bag and watched as it slowly poured into the cup—too slowly. The take over mage glared and then gave the bag a squeeze, only to watch the sugar explode out of the bag and scatter all over the table.

"Elfman!" Evergreen growled, spinning around. She held a fiery stare at the mess he had made, and him trying to sweep the sugar back into the bag with his hand, but managing to get most of it on the floor.

"I'm sorry, I just—"

"Stop." Evergreen took a deep breath, "It's fine. You're doing fine." She knew he had trouble controlling his strength sometimes, being as big a guy as he was. It was his impatience that was the problem. She poured the overloaded cup of sugar into her dry mixture and decided that it was more than enough, and then added the spices to the ingredients as she had earlier instructed Elfman to.

"I'm going to get a broom." She told him, and poured her mix of butter, eggs and milk into the bowl on top of her dry ingredients. "You just mix these together."

Elfman looked up at her from his mess, a little surprised she was allowing him a second chance, and jumped when the young lady gripped onto his right bicep and looked him straight in the eye.

"Mix it slowly." She said carefully to him. He nodded in understanding, and then watched her saunter out of the kitchen.

The white haired man lifted a wooden spoon and put it into the mixture. This wasn't so bad. He stirred the ingredients together, but once the moisture had been absorbed and the mixture had darkened, he found it harder and harder to turn the spoon through the dough. The young man gripped onto the wooden utensil tightly, and held the bowl with his other hand, and then gave a fierce stroke.

When Evergreen returned to the kitchen, broom and dustpan in tow, she found Elfman whimpering and yanking splinters from his palm.

She sighed. "Did you break the spoon?"

Elfman looked to her with a guilty frown. "Sorry, Ever."

She rolled her eyes, and walked over to sweep up the discarded sugar from his last mess. "At long as you didn't get any splinters into the cake mix, it's fine." She wasn't going to ask if he'd hurt himself; that would be practically asking for a rant about how 'A man would never be hurt by splinters!'

Elfman watched Evergreen find a new spoon, and continue to stir her ingredients together, until she was pleased, and then glanced to the top of her cupboard. "Would you get that down for me?"

Elfman followed her stare to a bunt pan on top of the shelves, just about at his eye level. He picked it up and handed it to her. Evergreen placed the pan down to her left, and then lifted her cake mix and poured it into the pan, scraping the thick liquid out with a spoon, until it was no longer any help. She held the spoon out towards Elfman, who gave her a puzzled stare.

"It's what you can here for, right?" She raised a teasing eyebrow at him.

Elfman puffed up a cheek, but exhaled and took the spoon from her before putting it in his mouth like a popsicle.

"This is all Mira even has me do when she bakes." He spoke through his teeth, and then crinkled his nose in response to the taste. "This is really sweet, are you sure Laxus is even going to like this?"

The fairy queen glared at him as she pushed the rest of the mix into her pan with a silicone spatula. "And whose fault will it be if it's too sugary?"

"Oh. Yeah. It uh… tastes great." Elfman looked the other direction, trying to forget his earlier mistake.

Evergreen chuckled, and turned to her oven. Elfman bent down and opened it for the young lady so she could push the pan into it. Evergreen did so, and pushed shut the door, and then turned a kitchen timer to 40 minutes and placed it atop the stove. She turned the Elfman and yanked the wooden spoon from his mouth.

"Hey! I wasn't done." He grunted, and sent a pout in Ever's direction.

"I don't trust you not to try to eat the whole spoon. I don't need to lost two in one day." She joked with a sly smile, and then dropped the spoon into her sink. "Now tell me what's really on your mind."

Elfman was rubbing his jaw from the spoon being so abruptly yanked from it, and looked at her with a wondering gaze. "What?" He asked.

"You're still too quiet." The brunette said slowly, and stepped closer to the young man. Elfman saw a look in her eye—that look. The look she gave him when she wanted an answer, and wouldn't take no for an answer. But she wasn't going to use violence or a sharp tongue. No, she had a much more powerful weapon; her feminine wiles.

The tanned man took a step back, but Evergreen stepped closer still. He stumbled backwards until he bumped into the counter, and Evergreen stepped in between his feet and leaned in closer.

"Won't you tell me what you're thinking, Elf?" She curled her lips into a smile, and her hand wandered up his chest, "I worry about you when you're quiet."

Elfman felt his cheeks grown red and even his ears burnt. "I, it's just… you were—" The young man took a deep breath to gather his thoughts, and stared down at Evergreen who grinned back up at him, enjoying the fit she was pushing him through.

"Are you…" He started, and stopped again, biting his tongue. No, he was phrasing it wrong again. "What if I want a cake on my birthday too?"

Evergreen raised an eyebrow at him, "Well, I basically just showed you how to—"

"No." Elfman finally spoke without stuttering, and gave the woman a serious stare. "I want a cake from Ever too."

The brunette stared at him with widened eyes, and then her cheeks puffed up and her brows knotted together, before she stepped backwards and let out an obnoxious cackle. "Hahahaha! Is that what this is all about? You're jealous of Laxus's cake? That's rich!" She bent over with laughter, holding her stomach as she gasped for air.

"I mean it, Ever." Elfman grunted, "It's not fair that Laxus gets all the special treatment. I love you too."

Evergreen's laughter instantly ceased and she stood up straight, looking at the man in front of her with rosy cheeks.
"I mean, I do." Elfman scratched the back of his head, "Differently from Laxus, of course. That would be awkward." He shifted his eyes around the room as he observed the incredible silence, "This has become awkward."

Evergreen clamped her mouth shut, and turned around, trying to shake off her embarrassment. "Whatever, yeah. I guess I could make you one too. Whenever your birthday is."

Though she acted tough, Elfman could see even from behind how red her ears were. It brought a grin to the man's face and he chuckled.

"Thanks Ever." The young man took a great step forward and wrapped his arms around an unexpecting Evergreen. He ignored her objections and continued beaming. "I'll look forward to it."

END