Characters: Lucy Heartfilia, Natsu Dragneel
Genre: Romance, fluff
Rating: K+
Summary:A fun time cooking together with Natsu leads to Lucy having some rather unexpected thoughts.
Request: 'After reading your last drabble about Lucy being sick, I can't help but think about what she and Natsu cooked at the end of it. :D So how about Nalu + cooking time + tons of fluff?'
Notes: 50+ favourites and 100+ follows? Whaaaa? You guys are such amazing folks! x)
Natsu was excited - most things did that to him, let alone surprise birthday parties.
Especially Team Natsu ones.
Not that he'd admit it though, considering whose it was.
Natsu hoisted the bag of party decorations he was detailed to get (not missing the chance to bring along a ton of fire based ones) and hummed a joyful tune, wondering how Happy, Wendy and Carla were doing with the first batch he dropped off with him at the picnic spot in the park.
He knew Erza wouldn't be a concern, cakes were her thing after all. 'As long as she doesn't finish 'em all before the ice princess shows.'
He decided to take a detour, wanting to check up on how Lucy was doing with the dinner she volunteered to get ready for everyone.
Hopping into her room via the window with practiced ease, he was surprised when he couldn't hear Lucy's exuberant cooking.
No really, she was really noisy when she worked in the kitchen.
He could smell some evidence of kitchen activity having taken place, but no delicious dishes as proof of the same, and the lack of any noise whatsoever stood out like a sore thumb.
Walking into the kitchen, Natsu found Lucy sitting in front of the oven, pouting deeply.
It would have been cute, had she not looked so sad.
"What's wrong Lucy?"
Lucy started at the sound of his voice, standing abruptly, seemingly trying to block his view of something behind her.
Forgetting how that was a fruitless endeavour considering, well, his nose.
"And why are you hiding jackfruit behind you?"
Lucy groaned, before slapping a palm to her face and sinking back onto the floor. She then looked at Natsu for a couple of moments before sighing and relenting. "It's his favourite and Gray mentioned not having had good jackfruit since he came to Magnolia, and I thought it'd be the perfect gift. I managed to find someone across town who sold them but didn't realise how hard it be to work with it, let alone actually cook it! The landlady was being cranky and I can't summon Crux Ji-chan today, so I tried...something on my own but my arms hurt now and I wasted half the jackfruit in those failures so now I don't have a proper gift for Gray," she said in a rush before dropping her face into her hands again.
Natsu thought of reminding her how frosty-face wouldn't mind that she didn't have a gift on top of the surprise party, but then decided to do things a different way.
He took off his shirt.
"Come on," he said, walking up to her and offering her his hand. "Let's get your gift ready then!"
Lucy watched him sceptically before accepting the offer. "How...and what happened to your shirt?!"
"Like I want any stains to let the numbnuts know I had any part in hisgift," Natsu mumbled, pulling her up. "Alright! Get me your sharpest knife, let's break this bad boy down. Also, set aside one pot for cooking. We have one and a half hours so we may just be able to make something tasty!"
Natsu was all business-mode now – only fighting and food did that to him – and Lucy only nodded, hope flooding back into her system.
She did as she was told and set the pot aside, before washing her best knife and handing it to Natsu. She watched in slight awe as he began chopping down the jackfruit, neatly separating the little pods from the tough exterior.
She would be lying through her teeth if she said that the way Natsu was just then wasn't an appealing sight, what with how all his exposed muscles were rolling and flexing with his every move.
Clearing her throat, she brought herself back to the task at hand. "W-what are we making?"
"Curry," said Natsu, not taking his eyes off his task.
His answer seemed to spark an idea, and Lucy scurried off, returning just as quickly with a red apron which she offered to Natsu.
'Keep Calm and Curry On'
"B-because clean up would be easier," she explained, secretly hoping for those tan abs to be covered as soon as possible. Out of sight, out of mind and she really did not need to be thinking of Natsu that way.
"I like it!" Natsu declared happily, nearly jumping into the apron, posing for Lucy to see.
Lucy laughed at his enthusiasm, before going back to cleaning her countertop for the new round of cooking that was to ensue.
"Alright," said Natsu bringing a chopping board full of sliced up jackfruit flesh, "let's get cooking!"
What Lucy assumed would be a fun, happy mess in the kitchen, turned out to be just that – with the surprise addition of some very systematic teamwork on their part. Natsu relayed instructions and covered most of the tough parts, while Lucy did as she was told, bringing ingredients and doing any secondary chopping, mixing or stirring.
At some point Lucy noted how elaborate the recipe was, and while they took a break while letting the pot simmer, she voiced her query. "How do you know how to cook jackfruit? It isn't quite common here."
Natsu, now leaning on the counter opposite Lucy, smiled as he recounted the memory. "Happy and I took a mission to help this old lady in her farm, and she paid us with some of her awesome produce. We told her how we wouldn't know what to do with it, so she taught us how to turn it into curry. I've used the recipe for other stuff, but it feels good to go back to jackfruit," explained Natsu, smiling fondly at the thought of the kind old lady.
Lucy's heart warmed at the sight, and her determination to help do this right only grew further. "Alright, that's ten minutes it's been simmering, now what?"
"Awesome," said Natsu, moving to take off the lid and inspect the curry. He grabbed a teaspoon and scooped up some curry, tasting some of it and thinking.
"What's wrong?"
Natsu turned, shoving the spoon into Lucy's mouth, getting her to taste it as well. "You tell me?"
Lucy ignored the teenage-romance reference section of her brain screaming "indirect kiss", in favour of - and somehow managing to - focus on the taste.
"Needs more...tomato puree? Salt?" she guessed.
Natsu nodded. "Both. And maybe some more water too. And let's also get the rice on the boil now."
They added the ingredients, before stirring the broth and putting it to simmer one last time, rice bubbling away minutes away from being done.
Natsu then surprised Lucy further, by beginning to help clear out the mess that was created as a result of the cooking. Lucy was happy to join, all the while looking forward to seeing Gray's expression when he got to try it.
Natsu continued to share some more stories about having to cook on the go with Happy and even Gray, and Lucy listened on to the stories in happy nostalgia – a small part of her wishing not for the first time, that she had been there back then.
"No wonder you're such a good cook," Lucy thought out loud.
Natsu beamed at the compliment. "You've gotten even better too!"
"Better?"
"Yeah. Like when you first began, you used to do simple stuff and take quite some time too. Now you're picking up jackfruits and taking on meals for the entire team!"
Lucy smiled in automatic response to the proud grin being aimed at her. Of course he would notice little things like that. It hadn't been easy learning to cook for herself, even with her on-and-off lessons with Spetto-san, and to get validation for her improvement felt good.
All the more so considering who it was coming from.
"Thanks Natsu," she said earnestly.
"No problem!"
"No," said Lucy shaking her head. "Thank you for helping today. You always do, you're always helping me out of pinches and I feel I don't thank you enough."
Natsu looked blankly at her before responding with a seriousness she wasn't expecting. "Wouldn't you do the same for me, Luce?"
Lucy let that sink in before nodding happily in response.
"Alright, final taste test!" said Lucy in newfound enthusiasm, taking a small serving of the curry onto a little plate and trying it out.
"How is it?" asked Natsu expectantly.
Lucy made a show of really thinking about it, before scooping some onto her spoon and offering some to Natsu. "Why don't you tell me, Mr Chef?" she asked mirthfully, secretly excited for his response to her payback indirect kiss.
None came to her flustered disappointment, as Natsu happily 'nom'ed onto the spoon, taking his time tasting it. "Yup! All done, and super delicious! All it needs is some garnish. You can start putting the rice and curry into whatever we're taking them in."
Lucy nodded, grabbing the dishes out of their cupboard and pouring the curry in. She was suddenly distracted though, at the sight of Natsu finely chopping the cilantro for the garnish.
It was only then that it occurred to her, how domestic all of this was.
How natural it seemed to be cooking with Natsu in her home.
It wasn't hard to imagine doing this more often in the years to come - maybe in a bigger house, with matching rings decorating their fingers or little children running around whining about being hungry.
It seemed so well within reach, that kind of life with Natsu.
Being married to Natsu.
Lucy's heart suddenly picked up a frantic pace she desperately hoped Natsu couldn't hear, and she turned back to her task, praying to every deity in existence that the warmth she could now feel on her cheeks wasn't the dark flush it obviously was.
What made things worse wasn't just how easy it was to think of Natsu that way (especially when how he was so deliciously only in his pants and an apron) but how she seemed to want it.
Yearn for it.
She turned away, focusing on packing the rice into its casserole and so hadn't realised when Natsu had moved to her, causing her to startle when she heard his voice far too close for comfort.
Which of course, earned a very loud squeak from her, causing her to let go the casserole of rice she was holding.
"Woah, there!" Natsu launched to catch it, right before it hit the kitchen floor.
The neatly pulled stunt did no favours for Lucy's hammering heart or her sudden appreciation of his physique.
"What's gotten into you?" he asked, worry now seeping into his voice.
Lucy was now internally panicking, and decided to go with something that would hopefully distract the both of them.
"Marriage," she blurted instead, and it took her every effort to not stomp on her own foot.
Especially when Natsu's eyes visibly widened.
"I uh...I was just thinking what you thought of marriage," she tried explaining, wishing she could crawl under a rock.
Natsu took a moment, before setting the dish onto the counter. "Sure I do," he said easily.
"You do?" wondered Lucy, unable to keep the surprise from her voice.
Natsu didn't seem to mind though, moving to collect the finely chopped cilantro and sprinkle it onto the curry. "Yeah, I'd like to settle down with someone awesome some day. Have kids running around turning the place upside down too. Seems fun!"
"You do realise having a family isn't all fun and games? It's a lot of responsibility too," Lucy warned, though quite pleased with his response.
"Yeah I know. And I know I'll do my best to be a great Dad too."
Lucy smiled at that. Seeing Natsu in her kitchen, in an apron, focusing so much on the cooking, and with what she already knew about the cute dork, it seemed obvious enough to her. 'You'd make a great Dad, Natsu.'
"Thanks Luce! You'd make a pretty great Mom too!" he replied in earnest enthusiasm.
Lucy had not realised that she'd said it aloud, and so she hadn't expected the response either.
The heat creeping up her cheek getting a bit much for her, she quickly mumbled a thanks and excused herself to "go get ready", hoping Natsu hadn't noticed. She glanced back once only to see him shrug dismissively and go back to sealing the casseroles.
Sighing in relief, she grabbed her outfit and hopped into the shower.
Natsu on the other hand, finally allowed his rather smug grin to show, now that she wasn't there to see.
He hadn't been entirely truthful, if lying by omission counted. Because while he did see himself getting married and having kids, the only person he could see himself doing so with was Lucy.
'Someday,' Natsu mused, with conviction.
I've never personally cooked with jackfruit before but have seen how making it goes. The finished stuff looks more like pulled meat than a large green fruit to be honest. To me it's tastier ripe and raw. :D
Special thanks to aoutre, tero0102 (yay!*high fives back*), NaluhasNashi (aww, no need to apologise! I hope the glitch is sorted. Happy to have you back! ^^), DarkShiningLight (thank you! *lessthanthree*) and Juliastes for your lovely reviews and to everyone who favourited and followed! :D